A group of University of Kentucky students rallied Monday night following the racist attack of a Black student, per Lexington Herald Leader. The perpetrator, Sophia Rosing, has been arrested and charged. Though, her booking didn’t guarantee the end to racist chaos on UK’s campus.
The Mu Theta Chapter of Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity, Inc. organized a march in response to the viral video of the racist incident from this weekend. Rosing, a senior, was seen spitting racial slurs at Kylah Spring, a freshman, and assaulting her inside a residence hall lobby while heavily intoxicated. Spring stood in front of the crowd of students and her family who flew in from Memphis to address the incident.
“To Ms. Rosing, you will not break my spirit and you will be held accountable for your actions. I only pray that you open your heart to love and try to experience life differently and more positively after this,” Spring said with tears rolling down her face.
Per the report, students gathered, calling for unity and demanding the university address what happened, given this wasn’t the first racist incident students had to endure. ‘Speak up, UK!” they chanted while marching the campus grounds.
“I listened to my counterparts discussing today like, ‘Yo this is the first time I’ve seen something like. This is the first time that the University of Kentucky has dealt with something like this.’ This is the first time that it’s been recorded – but I promise you this is not the first time that we’ve had to deal with this,” said a senior in a speech, recorded via TikTok.
In 2020, the university banned a basketball fan from all future sports events after she shouted a racist slur — the same one Rosing used — at a supporter of a visiting team. The fan — Ashley Lyles, who apologized in a statement to NBC affiliate WLEX of Lexington — was not a student, a university spokesperson said.
In the past, some students also complained about a mural on campus, dating to 1934, that depicted what some said were enslaved Black people. The mural was covered for more than a year as officials debated how to handle it before it was unveiled again in 2017 with a plaque next to it providing context about its history, concerns that had been raised about it over the years and how the university was working to ensure a more inclusive environment.
In 2008, a University of Kentucky student and another man were arrested and accused of hanging a life-size likeness of President-elect Barack Obama from a tree on the campus, an act that university officials condemned. A grand jury declined to indict the pair.
Source: A Drunken Assault Wasn’t the First Racist Incident UK Students Have Seen
