- Earlier this week, a video circulated across social media showing a woman using racial slurs and making anti-Black threats.
- The woman has been identified as a University of Wisconsin-Madison student.
Over 50,000 people have signed a petition urging officials of the University of Wisconsin-Madison to expel a student who was captured in a video using racist slurs and threatening the Black community.
The video began to circulate across social media platforms as early as Monday, according to the university's student paper The Daily Cardinal. In the clip, a woman who has been identified as Audrey Godlewski, a sophomore at the school, is heard liberally using the N-word and making several anti-Black threats, including references to slavery and a disturbing wish for her victims to "pick cotton all day long 'til they die.")
It's unclear when and where the video was first posted, but several screen recordings have been re-shared on Snapchat, Twitter, and TikTok this week. (Content warning: The depicted remarks are racist and violent in nature.)
—ash ˚ * ✹✧ * saw enha!! (@ashash202003) May 1, 2023
On Monday, the university released a statement saying it was aware of the video and condemned its language. However, school officials stated that it can't "take action against posts that are not unlawful," as it "can't limit what students and employees post to their personal social media accounts."
There has been a tremendous outcry on UW-Madison campus since the video proliferated. Students have begun tagging the school online to demand Godlewski's expulsion. On Wednesday, the university's Blk Pwr Coalition organized an in-person demonstration and rally at the school where more than 200 students reportedly marched to the administration's office and presented Chancellor Jennifer Mnookin with a list of demands that included immediate expulsion and an official apology.
—Tyler Katzenberger (@tk_kutz) May 4, 2023
According to The Daily Cardinal, Mnookin told students at the rally that she would read their list of demands "carefully."
"Given your demands, I hear your pain," she said. "Let me take [the demands], let me read them carefully, let me think about what we can do as next steps and I will be getting back to you."
On Thursday, Mnookin wrote a public letter addressing the Blk Pwr Coalition, saying she and her leadership team "strongly and unequivocally condemn racism, including the blatantly racist slurs and sentiments expressed in the video." She also apologized for the pain that it imposed on its Black student body.
Mnookin did not name the student in the video and disclaimed that there are "numerous legal constraints" to what the school can say and do, "even though the video is both hateful and harmful," she wrote.
"I know that is not what you want to hear, but we are also bound to obey the law," she added.
As frustrations grew on campus, fellow UW-Madison student Darius Lassiter launched a Change.org petition on Monday titled "The Expulsion of Audrey Godlewski." With a goal of 75,000 signatures, the petition has gained over 51,000 names in support as of Friday.
"We will not stand for this nor condone this behavior and we need to take a stand," Lassiter wrote. "We need to set an example for the future students to come and for the students who have done the same, but have not been caught."
Insider has reached out to Lassiter for comment. The University of Wisconsin-Madison did not immediately respond to a request for comment.