Ole Miss Investigates After Ring Camera Catches Racist Monkey Gestures Outside Black Students' Door
A Ring camera outside an Oxford, Mississippi apartment caught two women making monkey noises and gestures at the Black students who live there. Ole Miss says it is investigating — but no one has been charged, and no names have been released.
Case at a glance
- Jakiyra Metcalf — Ole Miss freshman who posted the Ring video, victim
- Shawnboda Mead — Ole Miss Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs, official
Next: The university has not set or announced a timeline for concluding its investigation. The Office of Conflict Resolution and Student Conduct and the Office of Equal Opportunity and Regulatory Compliance are still working the case, and because any findings or discipline are shielded by federal student-privacy law, the public may never get a formal update on who was identified or what, if anything, happens to them. The open questions right now are whether the university will name the women internally even if it never says so publicly, and whether Metcalf's roommates or their families pursue anything beyond the campus process.
What the Ring camera recorded
The footage is thirteen seconds long. A Ring doorbell camera mounted on an Oxford apartment door caught three white women walking past around 8:37 p.m. on November 6, according to Morning Honey's timestamp on the clip. Two of the women looked directly at the camera and made monkey-like noises and gestures; one beat her chest. A third woman walked past and glanced toward the door but did not take part, per People and Morning Honey's description of the clip.
The apartment belongs to University of Mississippi freshman Jakiyra Metcalf, who shares it with two Black roommates, CBS News reported, citing affiliate WREG. Metcalf posted the clip to TikTok with the caption "What do we have to say about this??" according to Morning Honey.
Outlets disagree on exactly when she posted it. People reports Metcalf shared the video on TikTok on "Friday, Nov. 6" — the same day it was recorded. Morning Honey and the Black Information Network both say the footage was recorded November 6 and posted the next day, which they identify as Saturday, November 7.
Whichever date is right, the clip did not stay small. People and Morning Honey both report Metcalf's original post drew more than 11 million views and nearly a million likes within days.
Who's involved
Jakiyra Metcalf is the Ole Miss freshman who posted the video and lives in the apartment with two Black roommates, neither of whom has been named in the coverage reviewed here.
Tasha Bolton is the mother of one of Metcalf's roommates. She separately posted the same Ring footage to Facebook, demanding the university act, according to People and the Black Information Network.
The three women seen on camera have not been identified by the university. Vice Chancellor Shawnboda Mead said publicly that at least one student has already been incorrectly identified online, and that no members of the university's sorority community were involved. The Alpha Phi sorority went further, posting on Instagram that the women in the video "have never been affiliated with our organization" and that social media users had "confused them with members who have similar names," per People.
Demetrick M. Stringer Jr. is the executive president of Ole Miss's Black Student Union. He posted a statement on Instagram addressing the roommates' reaction to the footage.
"And let me be clear: If you watch this video and genuinely don't see anything wrong with this type of behavior, please delete me. We clearly don't share the same values," — Tasha Bolton, mother of one of the targeted students, via Morning Honey.
No charges, a closed-door process
No one has been arrested or criminally charged over the video. What's underway instead is a university student-conduct investigation, run jointly by the Office of Conflict Resolution and Student Conduct and the Office of Equal Opportunity and Regulatory Compliance, according to People, CBS News and the Oxford Eagle.
A university spokesperson told CBS News that "It's important to note that student conduct cases, records and any potential disciplinary action are protected by the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA)." That means even if the women are identified and disciplined, the university is not obligated to say so publicly, and likely won't.
Mead said staff have reached out directly to the students targeted by the video to offer support and resources, and that the matter is "being taken seriously," per People.
Online rumors outran the facts
Within days of the video going viral, social media users began naming and attempting to identify the women in the clip — and got it wrong at least once, according to Mead. "Sharing unverified information can cause additional harm to people who had nothing to do with what occurred," she said, per the Black Information Network.
Mead also moved to kill a specific rumor circulating online: that the women belonged to one of the university's sororities. She said no sorority members were involved, a point Alpha Phi reinforced directly when it clarified the women in the video had never been affiliated with the organization, per People.
What each side has said
The university's first public statement, given to multiple outlets including the Oxford Eagle, read: "The university is aware of a video depicting offensive, hurtful, and unacceptable behaviors that conflict with our university values and we condemn them." It added, "The university has reached out to those targeted by the actions to share information, resources, and support."
Mead followed with a letter to the campus community. "The behavior depicted in this video is deeply troubling, hurtful, and unacceptable," she wrote, adding, "We condemn the behavior as it does not reflect our university's values or the kind of community we strive to be every day," according to People and CBS News.
Bolton, the mother who posted the footage to Facebook, wrote: "The video has been shared with university administration, and we want answers. Specifically, what steps will be taken to address this behavior and ensure accountability?" She didn't leave room for ambiguity about where she stood: "And let me be clear: If you watch this video and genuinely don't see anything wrong with this type of behavior, please delete me. We clearly don't share the same values," per Morning Honey.
Stringer, from the Black Student Union, wrote on Instagram that the gestures carried weight beyond the thirteen seconds of footage: "Comparisons of this kind carry a long and painful history, and directing them at a student where she lives has left her, and many of our members, feeling unwelcome and unsafe," per People. He asked that any students found responsible "receive disciplinary measures consistent with the M Book and proportionate to the very serious nature of race-based harassment."
What happens next
The university has not set or announced a timeline for concluding its investigation. The Office of Conflict Resolution and Student Conduct and the Office of Equal Opportunity and Regulatory Compliance are still working the case, and because any findings or discipline are shielded by federal student-privacy law, the public may never get a formal update on who was identified or what, if anything, happens to them. The open questions right now are whether the university will name the women internally even if it never says so publicly, and whether Metcalf's roommates or their families pursue anything beyond the campus process.
How this plays in court
As a matter of criminal law, this almost certainly never reaches a courtroom. Mississippi doesn't have a statute that turns racist gestures or sounds, standing alone, into a crime — a prosecutor would need something closer to a true threat, a pattern rising to stalking or harassment under state law, or a hate-crime enhancement attached to some other underlying offense. Nothing in the coverage describes conduct that crosses that line.
Inside the university's own process, though, the evidence is about as clean as it gets: a time-stamped Ring recording that no one quoted in the coverage disputes, showing exactly the conduct the university itself has already condemned. The live question for the conduct office isn't whether it happened — it's who is actually in frame, which is precisely why Mead kept having to publicly correct wrong guesses online.
A defense inside that conduct process would likely focus on two things: positive identification, since a few seconds of grainy doorbell footage is a different evidentiary bar than a courtroom but still has to tie specific students to specific acts; and scope, arguing that a brief incident — however offensive — needs to meet the university code's definition of targeted harassment rather than just general bad behavior. Stringer's public request that any discipline be "proportionate" under the M Book signals the Black Student Union expects the university to treat this as more than a minor violation, and that gap between a conduct-code technicality and a lived experience of being targeted at your own front door is exactly what the hearing officers will have to weigh.
Because FERPA locks the outcome behind closed doors, the public's only real window into how this resolves will be whatever the university, Metcalf, Bolton, or the Black Student Union choose to say voluntarily — not a published ruling.
- CBS News: Ole Miss Investigates After Ring Camera Catches Racist Monkey Gestures Outside Black Students' Door
- People.com: Ole Miss Investigates Racist Acts Outside Black Students’ Apartment
- BIN: Black Information Network: Ole Miss Investigates Racist Viral Video Black Students Caught On Camera
- Morning Honey: Ole Miss investigates video of women making racist noises
- The Oxford Eagle: Ole Miss investigating video showing racist behavior