Blackface Photo: North Dakota State University

By Lindsay Pytel

See our full article about the 11 blackface selfies and videos posted this fall.

Two groups of students at North Dakota University posted separate racially charged photographs on Snapchat just days of each other — one incident including blackface.

The first Snapchat post was a selfie of three white female students smiling, one holding a peace sign. The caption read, “Locked the black b**** out.” The students took the black student’s phone, locked her out of the room and posted the photo to her Snapchat story, according to Star Tribune.

The university president, Mark Kennedy, released a statement on the university’s Instagram condemning the student’s actions on Sept. 21.

“I want to make clear that whatever the intent, the message included in the photo is not consistent with UND’s values, “ Kennedy wrote. “I am personally shocked that anyone would be so naïve as to think that this could in any way be considered a joke.”

About 48 hours later, a selfie of three white female students and one white male emerged on Snapchat, according to another statement by Kennedy. The group wore black face masks and the caption read, “Black Lives Matter.”

Kennedy made a statement on Oct. 5, saying that there will be no punishment for these students. The university claimed that punishment to these students would be a violation of their First Amendment rights.

“As part of the conversation with student leaders, we talked about the concept of Zero Tolerance. While I appreciate the desire for such a policy, it is unachievable under the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. The challenge we all face is to find the balance between wanting to eliminate expressions of racism and bigotry and supporting the free speech guaranteed by the First Amendment,” Kennedy wrote.

“If we value freedom of speech, we must acknowledge that some may find the expressions of others unwelcome, painful, or even, offensive.”