Kent politics group chat investigated by University over alleged racist messages

Thumbnail Image courtesy of: Marianne Martin

Alejandro Javierre 17 February 2021

The University of Kent has concluded an internal investigation into allegedly racist messages shared on a Politics and International Relations group chat early last month.

The messages, which included images which made light of the murder of George Floyd last year, were shared on the course group chat in the days following the January 6th Capitol Riots in the United States.

The conversation was started after the topic of the riots was mentioned in the chat, before quickly turning into an argument about the Black Lives Matter movement.

One Student who was on the group chat said: “I don’t want to say that people were trying to justify his murder, but it felt like it.”

“Some said he was murdered, but he was also high, so somebody had to show evidence as to why that was an exaggeration.”

Other messages joked about his past drug addiction, and others mentioned linking Mr Floyd’s death to the country of Israel.

One image labels the police officer who suffocated Mr Floyd as ‘breathtaking’.

A spokesperson for the University of Kent said: “Whilst this issue has been investigated by Student Complaints, our policy is not to provide details of the outcome of any investigations, or any actions taken.”

“However, we would like to remind students that if they have any concerns that they, or a fellow student, have been subjected to racism or discrimination, they can record the incident via the inform Kent (inK) reporting tool at ink.kent.ac.uk.”