'Too many white people in here': Viral video from UVA captures racially charged rant

A video from the University of Virginia’s new Multicultural Center surfaced on Twitter Wednesday, showing a black woman shouting her about sharing the space with white people.

The clip was originally posted on social media by a fellow UVA student who has since deleted the video, but not before Young America’s Foundation reposted it. The video has since amassed 2.7 million views and over 12,000 comments on the tweet from YAF. 

[RELATED: UW fellow to students: ‘Don’t bring too many white students around’]


 


In the video, the woman, who has not yet been identified, is seen loudly declaring “Public service announcement, If y’all didn’t know, this is the MSC, and, frankly, there’s just too many white people in here.” She paced at the front of the room, directing her rant at an audience of students.

“And, this is a space for people of color, so, just be really cognizant of the space that you’re taking up because it does make some of us POCs uncomfortable when we see too many white people in here,” she continued.

“There’s a whole university for a lot of y’all to be at, and there’s very few spaces for us, so keep that in mind,” she added. The comments were met with excited applause from the students not visible in the video. 

[RELATED: CHA-CHING: UMich $10M multicultural center makes grand debut]

UVA’s multicultural center had only been open four days when the racially-charged incident occurred. Of course, it was met with plenty of criticism and backlash online. It even caught the attention of Republican Rep. Chip Roy of Texas, an alumnus of UVA. 

In a tweet posted Wednesday, he slammed the school for allowing this to happen and mentioned that he had withheld donations from them because of their promotion of segregation. 


 


UVA spokesman Brian Coy confirmed with The Washington Examiner that the school was aware of the incident displayed in the video. 

“I believe deeply that we need to build a community that is not just diverse, but also inclusive,” said Coy. He went on to expand on the intended purpose of the new multicultural center. According to the university, it’s a “student-centered, collaborative space that supports underrepresented and marginalized communities, while cultivating the holistic empowerment of all students.”

”This happened at UVA?!” self-identified UVA student Maya Lynn Carter wrote on Twitter.  ”It’s called the Multicultural Center. All inclusive. Not ‘anti-white.’ This outburst was uncalled for. Dictating what races should and shouldn’t be in an area is wrong. I said what I said,” she added.

Follow Olivia Rondeau on Twitter: @rondeaulivia