University of Wyoming virtual Black History Month event ‘Zoom bombed’ with racial slurs, pornographic images

University of Wyoming officials are investigating after a virtual Black History Month event was interrupted this week with racial slurs and pornographic images. 

The incident occurred during a Monday panel discussion about the film “Black Wall Street: Before they Die!” the Casper Star-Tribune reported.

About 30 minutes into the discussion, a pornographic image and a racial slur appeared on the screen of the event held over Zoom. 

A pornographic video was also seen, and a voice said “KFC and watermelon,” “porch monkey” and other slurs. 

Frederick Douglass Dixon, director of the University of Wyoming’s Black Studies Center, said as the incident was ongoing that “There is nothing like real-time.”

“If you understand what we have been doing at the Black Studies Center is dealing with this directly, we don’t back down,” he said during the incident.

“We’ve seen the worst of you,” he continued. “We deal with the worst of you every day. Including those who are employed at the University of Wyoming from the top of the bell tower.”

A video recording of the meeting remained on the Black Studies Center’s Facebook page Thursday. 

University of Wyoming officials condemned the incident in a Wednesday statement, and said the school “immediately began working with local law enforcement.” 

The statement said an investigation by the school’s information technology office “indicates that the offensive content came from computer servers in other countries and an East Coast state — and not from UW users.” 

“The First Amendment may allow expression that is reprehensible, but we have a responsibility to answer it,” read the Wednesday statement, signed by the university’s President Ed Seidel and the school’s Board of Trustees, vice presidents and deans and directors.

“Make no mistake, the words and images to which the Zoom discussion participants were subjected are unacceptable and absolutely contrary to the values of our university,” the statement continued.

So-called Zoom-bombings have made headlines over the last year as more events go online amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. Incidents have included graphic racist, anti-Semitic and sexist content.

The Hill has reached out to the University of Wyoming for comment.