Campus police have released footage of the person suspected in a racially charged hate crime at American University in Washington, D.C.
According to the New York Times, the F.B.I. is reportedly helping school officials in the investigation.
Officials believe the suspect hung at least three bananas in nooses on campus Monday between 3:45 a.m. and 4:10 a.m. and have issued a $1,000 reward for information.
On Monday morning, photos began circulating on social media, showing bananas hanging from strings in the shape of nooses.
According to the school, the bananas were found in three different places on campus — many marked with the letters AKA (the letters of a predominantly African-American sorority, Alpha Kappa Alpha). The crime follows the university's first appointment of a black woman, also a member of AKA, as student government association president.
"These racist, hateful messages have no place in our community. The safety of our students is paramount. The American University Department of Public Safety is investigating," the university shared in a memo about the incident.
» On the Red Line: A daily racial transformation on MARTA
University President Neil Kerwin also condemned the hate crime in a separate memo, calling it a “cowardly, despicable act.”
“Know that American University remains committed to principles of diversity, inclusion, common courtesy, and human dignity, and acts of bigotry only strengthen our resolve. Anyone who does not feel similarly does not belong here,” he wrote.
The Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority also called on the university and law enforcement officials to conduct a rigorous investigation and strengthen campus security measures to keep its SGA president, other AKA members and African Americans safe.
In response to the hate crime, the university hosted a town hall where more than a hundred students marched to the financial aid office to request withdrawal forms as an act of protest, The Eagle, the university newspaper, reported.
The D.C. university has recently dealt with multiple racially-charged incidents targeting both black and Muslim students on campus.
In September, a rotten banana was reportedly thrown at a black student, and another rotting banana reportedly left on the doorstep of their dorm, Huffington Post reported.
And according to Mic, anti-black racist messages were posted on the university's Yik Yak channel in October 2015, some messages blaming black students for Ebola.
» RE: RACE Project: Talking race in Georgia
In 2015, racist epithets were also written on dorms belong to black students on campus.
"Later in the fall, the President's Council on Diversity and Inclusion, with the help of senior administration, will consider a complete rewrite of our discrimination and discriminatory harassment policies," Kerwin told The Eagle. "Those policies have been in place now for decades. They have developed over time in an incremental manner and they need a complete redo."
About the Author
