A college student who allegedly sent a racist Tinder message to a classmate calling her an “ape” and the N-word is being investigated by the police and the university.
“He messaged me randomly and he said the ‘N’ word to me,” Elisabeth Philippe, 19, a student at Bridgewater State University in Massachusetts, told WHDH. “He went out of his way just to message me that. Like, swipe on me and say that. I asked him if he was joking and that’s when he unmatched me.”
On Christmas Eve, Elisabeth’s sister Myjorie Philippe tweeted a screenshot of the Tinder message, allegedly from a Bridgewater State University student named Frankie Walsh Jr. “Racism is alive and well people,” she tweeted. “Frankie Walsh Jr. sent my sister a sick message on tinder. Bridge State U, is this the type of people you accept into your school?”
“Listen here, you dirty a** monkey [N-word],” stated the message. “Go back to Africa where you belong. I don’t like your kind. I’m sorry we stole you ppl in the first place. I wish we never did, SMFH, you apes make this earth & MY country way much worse than it already is.”
A spokesperson for Bridgewater State University told Yahoo Lifestyle in an email, “Bridgewater State University initiated both student conduct and BSU Police Department investigations into the racist comments posted by one of our students on a private site as soon as the university was apprised of these comments on December 24, 2018. Bridgewater State University has been in contact with both the individual who apprised us of these comments and the BSU student who posted them.
“There is no tolerance at Bridgewater State University for acts of hatred. The comments are abhorrent and violate the official values statement of Bridgewater State University, as adopted by our Board of Trustees and undersigned by hundreds of employees and students. In that statement, BSU reaffirms “its own values of diversity, inclusion and equality” and rejects “all forms of bias, discrimination, xenophobia, and violence.”
