Three Ole Miss freshmen whose Ring camera recorded two white students making monkey gestures and sounds outside their apartment are speaking out for the first time. In an exclusive interview with CBS Mornings correspondent Jericka Duncan, Jakiyra Metcalf, Kaiyden Caldwell and Victoria Johnson said they are hurt, devastated and disheartened by what happened at their door.
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The roommates sat down with Duncan alongside Victoria’s mother, Chiquita Laó, to talk about how they found the footage and how they feel about the apology one of the women has since issued. Asked for one word to describe their first reaction to the video, Metcalf said “hurt” and Caldwell said “devastated.” On the apology, one of the students said, “I appreciate the apology, but I feel like it still doesn’t change what happened.”
The roommates said they went outside to confront the women right after it happened. One apologized on the spot. The other kept going. “She continued to make the gestures after the girl was apologizing,” Johnson told Duncan, calling it “a slap in the face.”
The video was recorded on Friday, Nov. 6, outside the off campus apartment the Ole Miss freshmen share in Oxford, Mississippi. It shows three young white women walking past the front door. Two of them mimic monkey movements and make monkey noises as they pass, and the third walks along with them. Metcalf posted the clip to TikTok, where it has passed 11.5 million views.
One of the women has been identified as Alaina Kunes, an 18 year old who has since withdrawn from Ole Miss. In a statement to WMC, Kunes called her actions “insensitive, inappropriate, and deeply harmful” and said she had apologized to the Ole Miss freshmen directly. She also claimed she had never met the women and did not know their race before that night.
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“I would have never intentionally made those noises or gestures toward a person of color,” Kunes said. “I have apologized to the women and I pray they will forgive me.”
Metcalf told CBS Mornings that Kunes told them the group “did that to like four doors,” though Metcalf said she believes their apartment was the only one targeted. During the interview, one of the mothers said she did not want Kunes to leave school because “that’s going to affect her, too” and “that’s somebody’s child.”
Kunes said she and her family have received death threats and harassment since the video spread. The second woman seen making the gestures has not been publicly identified.
The University of Mississippi does not own the complex, but it leases units there for student housing. In a statement released Sunday, the school called the behavior offensive, hurtful and unacceptable, said it had contacted the students who were targeted to offer resources and support, and confirmed it is investigating. The university said it cannot share details about any discipline because of the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, the federal law that keeps student records private. Tasha Bolton, the mother of one of the roommates, told WMC that the family has hired an attorney.
