MONROE, La. (AP) - The University of Louisiana Monroe has launched an investigation into social media posts made by two of its professors, including one accused of making a racist statement about former President Barack Obama.
“ULM condemns the stunningly bigoted and racist language in social media posts by select members of our faculty,” the school said in a statement on Facebook Sunday. “Our university demands tolerance and respect in the workplace and in the classroom.”
The school started investigating a second faculty member after screenshots of a comment made on a news article circulated this weekend, The News-Star reported. The university did not identify the subject of the probe, but the newspaper reports it surrounds statements made on Facebook about two months ago by Mary Holmes, a nursing professor at the university since 1991.
On a News-Star article posted early April titled, “Detriot rep says hydroxychloroquine, Trump helped save her life amid COVID-19 fight,” Holmes commented thanking President Donald Trump and referring to Obama with a racist slur.
Her comments resurfaced days after Dennis Bell, a biology professor at the school, wrote on Facebook that police brutality is a narrative used to “keep blacks on the democrat plantation,” The News-Star reported.
Bell has made other controversial social media posts, including one in 2015 that argued for his right to use a racist slur. He has since apologized on Facebook for other comments he made about kneeling during the national anthem.
Holmes and Bell did not immediately respond to emails from The Associated Press seeking comment.
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