MANHATTAN, Kan (KSNT) – Early Friday morning a K-State student made a tweet that sparked outrage among the student body and led to numerous student athletes saying they would not play for the university if they did not take action against the student.
On Saturday morning K-State President Richard Myers released another statement to the student body.
Racism and statements that reflect it, whether stated on social media or elsewhere, are abhorrent, tasteless and ignorant. They are against K-State’s values. They are against my personal values. The campus leadership and I expect more of our students. I want our community members to show empathy and be allies for one another. Students who do not want to treat people with dignity and respect should consider whether K-State is the right place for them, because K-State will not waver in its efforts to build an empathetic, diverse and inclusive campus community.
We should and we will all work relentlessly to eliminate racism at K-State and to promote social justice.
Richard B. Myers
President of Kansas State University
The statement faced a strong reaction from several students. Many have voiced their opinions on Twitter asking the university to take action against the student who made the remarks. Other students have said that despite their dislike of his comments, he is allowed his right to speech.
In addition to the controversial tweets, the student involved has made numerous remarks on an online chat channel “Telegram”seemingly trying to encourage his online followers to join him in fighting back against the backlash he has received.
On Friday, McNeil posted about his new Twitter followers and boasted about getting K-State trending on Twitter. He also tweeted more remarks about George Floyd, responding to someone who called McNeil an “embarrassment to the K-State and Manhattan community”.
McNeil has not responded to multiple requests for direct comment from KSNT. Kansas State University has not made any public comment about any possible disciplinary actions against McNeil.