7 min read
The woman at the center of the Ole Miss racist video has a name now, and she is gone from the school.
Alaina Kunes, 18, identified herself on Tuesday and apologized for the monkey noises and gestures caught outside a Black students apartment.
The University of Mississippi confirmed the same day that Kunes is no longer a student at the school.
The university did not say whether she withdrew on her own or whether the school removed her.
For the three Black women who live behind that door, the news answers one question and leaves the biggest ones open.
Major Takeaways
- Alaina Kunes, 18, said she was the first woman in the video and apologized to the women she offended.
- Kunes said she never met the women before and did not know their race, a claim many readers are rejecting.
- Ole Miss confirmed Kunes is no longer enrolled and did not say whether she withdrew or was removed.
- The campus investigation continues, and the second woman in the video has still not been publicly identified.
1. A Name, an Apology and an Exit From Ole Miss
Kunes released her statement through her attorney, Thomas G. Gardiner, four days after the video was recorded.
She opened with a direct apology to the women in the apartment and to the wider Ole Miss community.
She wrote that her actions were insensitive, inappropriate and deeply harmful, and she said she prays the women will forgive her.
She also wrote that she can never truly understand the pain she caused and that causing pain was never her intention.
Kunes said the women deserve to feel seen and understood, and that what she did is not who she is trying to become.
She said she will cooperate fully with the university investigation and asked for privacy for her family.
Kunes also said she and her family have received death threats and harassment over the past several days.
She closed by saying she understands the seriousness of the moment and will take responsibility and learn from the ordeal.
The most disputed line in the statement is her claim about intent and knowledge on the night itself.
Kunes said she had never met the women before November 6 and was unaware of their race that night.
She said she would never intentionally make those noises or gestures toward a person of color.
That claim is drawing sharp pushback because the women were not strangers from across campus that night.
Jakiyra Metcalf, who posted the video, said the women in it turned out to be their upstairs neighbors.
2. What the Camera Caught on November 6
The Ring footage is timestamped 8:37 p.m. on Friday, November 6, outside an apartment in Oxford.
Metcalf shares the apartment with two other Black students, and all three women live there together.
The clip runs 13 seconds and shows three white women walking up to the apartment door.
One woman beats her chest and makes monkey noises straight at the camera by the door.
A second woman steps closer to the camera and repeats the sounds and the gestures.
The third woman keeps walking and does not appear to take part in the act.
Metcalf posted the clip that night with a short caption asking what Ole Miss had to say about it.
The video has since passed 12 million views, and the search for names online caused harm of its own.
University leaders warned that at least one student was wrongly identified as being in the video.
A sorority chapter also said none of its members were involved, after people confused names online.
Our first report on the Ole Miss investigation covered the video and the campus response as both unfolded on Sunday.
What changed on Tuesday is simple and major at once. One woman stepped forward, and one enrollment ended.
The second woman who made the noises has not been publicly identified and has not spoken out.
3. Black Students Say Home Has to Feel Safe
For Black students at Ole Miss, this was never only about a video on a phone screen.
It happened at a front door, at night, in the place where three young women live and sleep.
Student Kori Jeffries put the feeling plainly in one short line. It makes us feel unsafe, she said.
Kayla Amos leads the campus chapter of the NAACP and reached out to Metcalf right after the video spread.
Amos said she came first as a fellow Black woman and a fellow student, to make sure Metcalf felt supported.
The Black Student Union condemned the behavior without qualification in its own statement this week.
Union president Demetrick M. Stringer Jr. said comparisons of this kind carry a long and painful history.
He said directing them at a student where she lives leaves her and many members feeling unwelcome and unsafe.
The union called for a full investigation and discipline that fits the serious nature of race based harassment.
That demand matters because an apology, however worded, is not the same thing as accountability.
4. An Investigation That Still Has No Public Ending
Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs Shawnboda Mead condemned the behavior in a campus letter on Sunday, November 8.
Mead called what the video shows deeply troubling, hurtful and unacceptable, and she condemned it in full.
She said two campus offices are investigating, covering student conduct and equal opportunity and regulatory compliance.
Mead said staff reached out to the students who were targeted to offer information, resources and support.
She also said the matter is being taken seriously and will follow established campus processes in full.
At the same time, the university says student privacy law limits what the public will ever learn here.
If discipline is imposed on any student, the university has said it will not share that discipline publicly.
That is why the confirmation about Kunes carries so much weight in this story right now.
It is the only concrete consequence the public can see, even without the reason behind it stated.
No arrest, charge or court date has been reported in this case. It remains a campus conduct matter.
5. A Painful History Ole Miss Cannot Outrun
This is not the first time Ole Miss has faced this exact kind of shame on camera.
In May 2024, a white student was filmed making monkey noises and gestures at a Black graduate student, Jaylin Smith.
That filming happened during a campus protest, his fraternity removed him, and the university opened an investigation.
Black families sending students to Oxford carry that history with them every single semester they enroll.
They are asked to trust that home on campus will be safe, and then a doorbell camera tests that trust.
Mississippi is living a week of tests at once, as Mississippi voters are still waiting for a Senate result built on ballots Black voters fought to cast.
In both stories, Black Mississippians are asking the same basic thing. Count us fully, and treat us fully human.
Kunes said she wants forgiveness. The women behind that door get to decide what forgiveness requires from her.
What the university does next, in public and in private, will tell Black students whether belonging is real.
Follow the continuing coverage at Urban City Podcast as the investigation moves and the campus answers.
