A doorbell camera at a University of Mississippi student’s apartment recorded women making monkey noises outside her door, and the clip has been viewed about 9.5 million times on TikTok. The student, Jakiyra Metcalf, is Black. She says the women live upstairs.
Metcalf posted the footage with a single line: “What do we have to say about this ?? #olemiss @Ole Miss”. In the comments she later wrote: “We just found out they are our upstairs neighbors.” She added that she would “give [an] update when we get something.” Reports differ on how many women appear: Atlanta Black Star describes three, one of whom beat her chest and one who imitated the sounds while a third walked away, and the International Business Times describes two. Neither the date nor the time has been given by more than one outlet.
Monkey noises aimed at Black people are a racist taunt with a long history on American campuses, and Ole Miss has been here before. In May 2024, a video showed a white student making ape noises and gestures at Jaylin Smith, a Black graduate student, during a protest. His fraternity, Phi Delta Theta, removed him within days. That time the university opened an investigation. This time, as of Sunday, the International Business Times reported it had yet to comment on the footage.
The women have not been identified by any official source. Names have circulated online, and the sorority Alpha Phi’s Ole Miss chapter says some of them are wrong. In a statement, the chapter said: “Our members are not involved in any way,” that the mix-up has caused “real distress” to members and families, and that “We condemn racist language and conduct of any kind.” The chapter says it is working with the university’s Fraternity and Sorority Life office. Posting a stranger’s name over a video is how the wrong person gets harassed, and it does nothing for the student who was targeted. We are not running any of the names.
What the footage does establish is that a Black student was taunted at her own front door, by people she lives beneath, and chose to make it public because she did not trust it would be handled quietly. Former NFL linebacker Emmanuel Acho condemned the incident and pointed to the 2024 case.
The university owes Metcalf a statement and a process: whether it has opened an investigation, whether housing or conduct rules apply, and what protection she has while she lives in the same building as the people in the video. Metcalf has said she will post an update when she has one.
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