Ole Miss J-School donor’s racially charged Facebook post drives school to drop his name
Ed Meek, who has given millions to the journalism school at the University of Mississippi is now distanced from it after comments he made about two students
The University of Mississippi has distanced itself from a donor whose offensive Facebook rant, featuring photos of two black students, went viral and called for his name to be removed from its journalism school building, the Daily Mail reports.
Ed Meek’s name was etched on the Meek School of Journalism and New Media building but the trustees of the state College Board voted unanimously Thursday to remove it after the outcry about the social media post. Meek donated $5.3 million in 2009. It will now be named the School of Journalism and New Media.
The 77-year-old Meek concurred and even asked that his name be scratched from the building after his social media post last year highlighting two black women in short dresses and suggesting that the Oxford college town was taking a downward spiral because of the type of people that have come to populate it. Many believe it suggests that black people are the problem.
“I hesitated until now to publish these pictures but think it is important that our community see what the camera is seeing at 2 a.m., after a ballgame,” he wrote in the since deleted post.
“I hear there were 180 police working the weekend but of all the pictures late night, the fights and scenes, I have seen no police presence.
“Enough, Oxford and Ole Miss leaders, get on top of this before it is too late. A three per cent decline in enrollment is nothing compared to what we will see if this continues…and real estate values will plummet as will tax revenue,” he wrote.
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He ended by urging the city of Oxford and the university to “protect the values that we hold dear.”
The women, a computer science major named Mahoghany Jordan and her friend Kiyona Crawford, hit back at Meeks.
“The post reeks of racist ideology as well as misogyny and is not representative of who either of us are,” Jordan wrote in an open letter published by the student newspaper, The Daily Mississippian, in late September.
After the post, the Meek School of Journalism called the post “highly offensive” and condemned Meek.
“This post is in no way associated with or represents our school, our students or our faculty. We are embarrassed by his actions,” the school said.
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