The New York Times: "Amid a national accounting over entrenched and systemic racism after Mr. Floyd’s death in police custody on Memorial Day, at least a dozen schools have rescinded admissions offers to incoming students over instances of racism that circulated widely online, often after outraged students and university alumni demanded swift action. In this digital age, when social media posts can ricochet across the internet at furious speed, the message from those universities to the students caught posting racist sentiments online has been uncompromising: You are no longer welcome here."
"While private schools are not bound by the First Amendment and its protection of speech, public universities, as government institutions, must contend with the potential legal consequences of penalizing students for racist or sexist language ... But the First Amendment does not guarantee the right to be admitted to a state university with an admissions process that considers 'the whole person,' beyond just grades and test scores."
"In some cases, the revoked admissions offers are the results of concerted efforts by teenagers who have leveraged large social media followings and created Google spreadsheets to collect and document racist and offensive behavior with screenshots, videos and the names of those involved ... While the pushback from universities appears to have spiked in the weeks since Mr. Floyd’s killing, they are not limited to incoming freshmen. In early June, a student at Clemson University was included in an online spreadsheet that listed the personal information of young people who had reportedly posted racist content online."
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