Vanderbilt University has launched an investigation after several students and faculty members received a racist email promoting white supremacy.
Monday night, students were sent an email asking them to subscribe to a white supremacist email list.
Vanderbilt officials said the email did not specially target any groups on campus but was a "scatter shot" email.
The N-word was used in the email and was followed by a sentence reading, "White Pride at Vanderbilt and Worldwide."
Around 1 a.m. Tuesday, Vanderbilt officials Tweeted about the incident, saying it was "absolutely unacceptable."
On the evening of July 30, some Vanderbilt students, faculty and staff received a deeply disturbing email that contained racist language and promoted white supremacy. It violates our fundamental commitment to fostering an inclusive community and is absolutely unacceptable.
— Vanderbilt University (@VanderbiltU) July 31, 2018
Vanderbilt police and the university's IT department have launched an investigation.
The president of the Vanderbilt chapter of the NAACP said students are getting used to racism.
"I think it's targeted against people of color. This isn't an isolated event. This isn't the first of its kind. I think a lot of people see nothing happens to people who do this. So, people just see it as an opportunity to continue to do it and to continue to target people of color who don't really have a voice on campus that much," said Sydney Banks.
One senior who got the email told the student newspaper that she believes this was done by someone who has access to the university’s email system.
Some students also said that a statement from the university does not go far enough to address the racist email.
