US Girl’s University Offer Withdrawn over Racial Slur Used at 15

An American high school cheerleader has had her offer withdrawn to join the reigning national champion team of the University of Tennessee after a former schoolmate released a video of her using a racial slur four years prior.

Mimi Groves was offered the University place in May, which was later withdrawn after a former schoolmate released a three-second video of her using a racial slur four years prior when she was 15.

The video, sent to a friend via Snapchat, shows her saying: ‘I can drive, n*****s’ whilst sitting in traffic in 2016. Jimmy Galligan had been in class a year ago when he was sent a text containing the 3-year-old clip of Groves using the racial slur. 

Galligan notified both teachers and administrators of the clip, but his complaints did not receive any attention. Frustrated with the inaction of his school, he decided to hold onto the clip for the ‘right time’ to release it publicly. He posted the video this June.

In a conversation with the New York Times, Galligan stated:

‘I wanted to get her where she would understand the severity of that word,’ 

‘If I never posted that video, nothing would have ever happened. I’m going to remind myself: you started something …  you taught someone a lesson.’

In June, as a response to the Memorial Day of the death of George Floyd, Groves posted to Instagram urging people to ‘protest, donate, sign a petition, rally and do something’. However, she quickly received messages from people she did not know saying things such as:

 ‘You have the audacity to post this after saying the N-word.’

Groves states that her confusion soon turned to panic as her friends told her about the outrage amassing on social media against her due to Galligan posting her four-year-old Snapchat video to Instagram.  

Within hours the three-second clip went viral on multiple social media platforms. As more and more people became outraged at the clip, many people demanded that the University of Tennessee revoke Groves’ offer. 

Groves subsequently hired a lawyer, who stated in an interview with Fox News that the University was making a “rush to judgement”, further elaborating:

‘Mimi was a kid when she did this,’ 

‘She’s appalled, and having said that, she’s not trying to excuse [her actions] in any way,’

“What she lost was her dream,”

“Like many athletes, she had worked most of her young adult life for a shot at going to a great school and being on their team. That was taken away from her in what can only be described as a rush to judgement.”

Groves has also publicly commented on the fallout of Galligan releasing the video in an interview with the Times:

‘At the time, I didn’t understand the severity of the word, or the history and context behind it because I was so young,’

‘It honestly disgusts me that those words would come out of my mouth… How can you convince somebody that has never met you and the only thing they’ve ever seen of you is that three-second clip?’

In response to the ongoing fallout, mathematician and author James Lindsay has reached out to multiple universities who have since offered Groves full-scholarships for her at other universities.