Columbia University Probes Student's Widely Viewed Racist Rant

MORNINGSIDE HEIGHTS, NY — Columbia University officials are investigating a student who was filmed harassing a group of students by shouting a white-supremacist rant captured in a widely viewed video.

A group of Columbia University students were walking on the school's Morningside Heights campus Sunday when a white student started to follow them and berate them with statements such as "white people are the best thing to ever happen to the world."

One of the students targeted by the rant posted a video to Twitter, which has more than 2 million views as of this writing. "Disappointed, but not surprised. Twitter, do your thing," the student tweeted with the minute-long video.

The ivy league institution announced Monday that "statements of white racial superiority conflict with the University’s core value of inclusivity" and that the student behind the "racially charged incident" is being investigated by the school's Office of Student Conduct and Community Standards.

The Columbia Spectator, a student publication at the university, identified the ranter as undergraduate student Julian von Abele. Von Abele allegedly followed the group of students from Butler Library to JJ's Place, a late-night dining facility.

Columbia's Black Student's Organization said in a statement that von Abele grabbed a woman in the group and asked her if Black women "liked to date white men." University public safety employees did not intervene as von Abele followed the group of students and continued to harass them.

This weekend's rant comes just a few weeks after a Jewish Columbia professor's office was vandalized with images of swastikas.

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