- A Florida State student is facing investigation after making a racially insensitive post on Snapchat.
- The university and its student NAACP chapter both condemned the comment.
- The NAACP called for campus-wide education on racial discrimination.
READ FSU NAACP’S FULL STATEMENT:
The Florida State University Chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) is deeply outraged by a recent Snapchat post made by undergraduate student, Owen Howard, that stated, “Chimps are going to chimp out. “The term “chimp” is particularly offensive due to its long history of being used to equate Black people to apes or other primates. This racist comparison has been a tool of white supremacy since the 1800s, intended to strip Black individuals of their humanity and portray them as inferior or less than human. These dehumanizing stereotypes were central to justifying slavery, segregation, and other forms of racial oppression.
Market Wednesday is a safe place for primarily Black Greek Letter Organizations and various student organizations to showcase their organization pride and history and contributions to our campus. This type of rhetoric, disguised as casual language, is profoundly damaging to the well-being of Black students at FSU. It contributes to a hostile environment where students feel unsafe, unwelcome, and devalued. The impact of such language goes beyond individual insult—it serves to uphold a larger system of racism that continues to harm Black communities on campus and beyond.