Texas college expels 2 students for posing in blackface on social media

Abilene Christian University (ACU) in West Texas has expelled two students who were linked to a Snapchat video that showed a young woman wearing a blackface makeup.

The student in the video was heard declaring "I am a strong black woman" before she puts on fake oversized red lips. Laughter can be heard in the background of the seven-second video which had the caption "this is why black lives matter exists," Dallas Morning News reported.

The footage, which was posted on Twitter by a student on Monday morning, has been retweeted over 100 times. Later that day, ACU president Phil Schubert released a statement condemning the video.

"Harassment of any kind is not tolerated at our university, and action is being taken to minimize the spread of this senseless attempt to make fun of others," said Schubert.

He linked to the university's anti-harassment policy and stated that the incident has been brought to the attention of the deputy anti-harassment coordinator and dean of students. He added that the students involved in the video have been expelled from the university.

"I cannot emphasize strongly enough that this kind of hurtful behavior has no place on our campus or on behalf of ACU. Whether on social media or in person, we must hold ourselves to high standards of accountability for what we publish or say," he continued.

Schubert stated that he was offended by the video and he apologized to others who were also offended.

The university has been dragged in a racial incident once before. In 2014, several students were outraged after they found fake parking tickets with racially offensive language on a black student's car, according to KTXS.

"The offense says, 'black people don't drive nice cars' and that's really a very close minded and, to me, a racist thing to say," said a student named Sheppard, who found a version of the tickets on his car.

Police said that incidents of racial discrimination are uncommon in ACU's campus but some students disagree.

T'Neise Ragland, president of the Black Students' Association, said that she had witnessed multiple incidents of racism in her four years at the campus.