Ole Miss Turns Scary Racial Incident Into Teachable Moment : Code Switch : NPR

Ole Miss Turns Scary Racial Incident Into Teachable Moment : Code Switch : NPR: At new-student orientation this summer, University of Mississippi students are learning about the usual: meal plans and financial aid. But they're also hearing something else: a seminar born out of an incident on election night last November.

On Nov. 6, right after President Obama won the election, a small group of students staged a Mitt Romney rally. But it soon turned racial. White students played "Dixie" on car stereos, chanted "the South will rise again" and burned Obama campaign signs. Black students felt threatened. And the crowd grew from 40 students to 400 curious onlookers.

"And that's when the tweets just started flying," says Adam Ganucheau, a senior and editor-in-chief of The Daily Mississippian, the university's student newspaper. "If you just refreshed your Twitter feed that night, you saw some of the craziest things, like cars being set on fire. Gunshots fired. People wounded."