In 2016, American teenager Mimi Groves sent a snapchat to her friend where she said the "N-word".

In the video, Groves looks into the camera and said "I can drive" followed by the slur.

About 4 years later, in the aftermath of George Floyd's death and during the Black Lives Matter protests, Groves, now 19, put up an Instagram post asking her friends and followers to donate, or do something in aid of the movement.

According to a New York Times article, it was on this post that someone would comment the following:

"You have the audacity to post this, after saying the N-word,"

Groves said she did not know the person who commented that. However the private snapchat video she had taken in 2016 to send to her friends soon went viral.

The chain of events that would lead to her withdrawing from her university was soon set in motion.

Many alumni and students reportedly wrote in to express their displeasure at her acceptance into the school.

hi twitter idk if this will do anything but... this girl is going to MY COLLEGE to cheer but literally is racist and uses the n word HARD R on her private story. the school hasn’t said anything & i don’t want her on campus so.. pic.twitter.com/T3w2R7f6l5

— jay✨🦋❤️ (@ilomilojay) June 3, 2020

After the video started circulating on social media, the university she was originally slated to attend tweeted this out.

On Wednesday, following a racist video and photo surfacing on social media, Athletics made the decision not to allow a prospective student to join the Spirit Program. She will not be attending the university this fall. (3/4)

— UT Knoxville (@UTKnoxville) June 4, 2020

According to the NYT article, admissions officials had given her an ultimatum: "withdraw or the university would rescind her offer of admission".

That was in June. She withdrew.

The reckoning

The NYT article delved deeper into this incident.

They interviewed both Groves, and the person who had posted the video which eventually circulated everywhere, another teenager named Jimmy Galligan.

Both of them were friends from the same high school. Galligan had received the video in his final year, but had sat on it.

Galligan told NYT that he had waited till a time when "she would understand the severity of that word," to post it publicly. He posted the video after she had chosen a college.

Acocrding to NYT, Groves said she didn't understand the "severity of the word or the history and context behind it" at that time because of her age, but was now ashamed that she said it.

She also said the slur was in "all the songs she listened to", although she added that this was not an excuse.

Galligan has no regrets about posting the video, telling NYT that if he hadn't, "nothing would have ever happened".

“I’m going to remind myself, you started something,” he said with satisfaction. “You taught someone a lesson.”

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