Earlier this month, a group of Black students from the University of Pennsylvania reported attending an off-campus party where they had eggs thrown at them while racist and homophobic slurs were also being yelled.
According to The Daily Pennsylvanian, the incident took place during a Spring Fling weekend party, attended by an estimated 100 students at an off-campus location. The party was set to begin at 10 p.m. At around 11:15 p.m. students who were in a house next to the party’s location were heard screaming while eggs were thrown at them, bursting on their faces, hair, clothes, and bodies.
“Out of nowhere, eggs just dropped from an elevated angle –– and at first, we didn’t really know what it was, but it turned out that we saw cracked eggs all over the ground,” junior Houston Jarvis told the outlet. “One of my friends, her sweater [was] stained. It was on the back of my arm and on my shirt as well.”
Following the incident, school officials met with multiple University groups including UMOJA and the Black Student League, junior Tyler McCormick, who is also president of the BSL, told the outlet. Interim President Wendell Pritchett and Vice Provost of University Life Mamta Accapadi were in attendance, McCormick said.
The University is officially launching an investigation into the incident after getting in touch with the event’s organizers, who confirmed the egg-throwing and racist and homophobic slurs that were yelled at partygoers. Pritchett described what the students endured as “disgusting” and said he empathized with Black students’ struggles.
“He said that as a Black person, he understands that going through this world, you have to have a mask on sometimes,” McCormick said. “It’s really important, especially for Black students, to have space on campus because it feels like we have the biggest mask.”
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