Ole Miss Student Confronts Woman Caught Making Racist Gestures On Camera

A doorbell camera catches the moment

On Friday, Nov. 6, at roughly 8:37 p.m., a Ring doorbell camera outside an off-campus apartment in Oxford, Mississippi recorded three women walking past the door. Two of them, who appear to be white, beat their chests and made ape-like noises directly at the camera; a third woman walked past without joining in, according to the footage.

The apartment belongs to three University of Mississippi freshmen — Jakiyra Metcalf, Kaiyden Caldwell and Victoria G. Johnson — all of whom are Black. Metcalf found the clip on her phone that night, and she and Johnson went outside to confront the women almost immediately, she told CBS Mornings.

One of the women — later identified as 18-year-old Alaina Kunes — apologized on the spot. She told the students she and her friends had "did that to like, four doors" that night and that "we didn't mean any harm," Johnson recounted to CBS News correspondent Jericka Duncan.

A second woman, who has not been publicly identified, did not stop. "She continued to make the gestures after the girl was apologizing," Johnson said. "It was like a slap in the face."

Metcalf posted the Ring footage to TikTok that same Friday, tagging the university directly. Within days it had drawn more than 11 million views and set off a wave of outrage on campus and online.

The people at the center of it

Jakiyra Metcalf, 18, is a psychology major and one of three residents of the apartment where the Ring camera recorded the video. Kaiyden Caldwell studies nursing and Victoria G. Johnson studies radiology; both told CBS Mornings they were left "devastated" by what the footage showed.

Alaina Kunes, 18, publicly identified herself as one of the women in the video on Tuesday, Nov. 10, and issued an apology. She has since withdrawn from the university after facing harassment, a source close to her told NBC News.

The second woman seen making the gestures has not been identified and has not commented publicly. Her enrollment status at Ole Miss has not been confirmed.

Shawnboda Mead, Ole Miss's vice chancellor for student affairs, has been the university's public voice throughout the investigation. Demetrick M. Stringer Jr., executive president of the university's Black Student Union, and Chiquita Lao, Johnson's mother, have also spoken publicly about the case.

"She continued to make the gestures after the girl was apologizing. It was like a slap in the face." — Victoria G. Johnson, to CBS Mornings

What the university's process actually covers

No criminal charges have been filed over the video, and nothing in the coverage indicates police involvement. What's underway is a university student-conduct investigation, not a court case.

Two offices are handling it: the Office of Conflict Resolution and Student Conduct and the Office of Equal Opportunity and Regulatory Compliance. Mead said in a letter to students, two days after the video surfaced, that administrators had reached out to the three apartment residents to offer support and resources.

The university has repeatedly said any resulting discipline will stay confidential. "Student conduct cases, records, and any potential disciplinary action are protected by the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act," the school said in a Nov. 9 statement — meaning the public may never learn whether, or how, anyone is punished.

The investigation also had to correct the record along the way: Mead said one student was wrongly identified online as a participant, and the Alpha Phi sorority said on Instagram that none of its members were involved, despite social media posts naming women with "similar names."

What each side has said

Kunes, in her Nov. 10 statement, called her actions "insensitive, inappropriate and deeply harmful" and said she had not known the women's race until the video drew national attention. "I would have never intentionally made those noises or gestures toward a person of color," she said. "I have apologized to the women and I pray they will forgive me."

Metcalf told CBS Mornings she has mixed feelings about that apology. "I feel like no matter who we are or if she knew our race or not, but the gestures and the noises, I feel like it's still very disrespectful," she said. Caldwell added, "I appreciate the apology, but I feel like it still doesn't change what has happened on that Friday because it's still hurtful and it's still devastating."

The university condemned the conduct before any of the three students spoke publicly. "The behavior depicted in this video is deeply troubling, hurtful, and unacceptable," Mead wrote. "We condemn the behavior as it does not reflect our university's values."

Stringer, of the Black Student Union, framed it in historical terms. "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," he wrote on Instagram, calling for discipline "proportionate to the very serious nature of race-based harassment."

An echo of a 2024 incident

This is not the first time Ole Miss has confronted monkey gestures caught on camera. In May 2024, a white student was filmed making the same gesture at Black graduate student Jaylin Smith during a campus demonstration over the war in Gaza. His fraternity, Phi Delta Theta, expelled him, and the university opened its own conduct case.

Ole Miss's history with race runs deeper still. James Meredith became the university's first Black student in 1962, enrolling amid violent resistance that required federal intervention — a history both students and administrators have invoked while discussing this case.

What happens next

The university's conduct investigation remains open, run jointly by the Office of Conflict Resolution and Student Conduct and the Office of Equal Opportunity and Regulatory Compliance. Kunes has already withdrawn on her own; the coverage does not say whether the second, still-unidentified woman faces any university action or remains enrolled. Because FERPA shields student conduct records, the public may not learn the investigation's outcome unless the university or the students involved choose to disclose it.