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‘Dehumanized Black people … created a hostile and hateful atmosphere’
Late last month, three University of Iowa students were the victims of a shooting at a local mall, the suspect of which is a 17-year-old black man who injured a total of five people during a melee.
A report from the university student paper The Daily Iowan notes that racist comments posted online following the incident have made black students at UI “uncomfortable.”
According to university and local “community leaders,” the remarks “blamed the shooting on Black culture,” “dehumanized Black people,” and “created a hostile and hateful atmosphere.”
UI senior Dominic Eastman, an “LGBTQ+ constituency senator” in the student government, said he was “horrified” by some of the comments and “wishes the university had handled the situation better.”
“I would have liked to see a swifter response,” Eastman said. “The comments started happening almost right away, so they can’t say they didn’t know it was happening. Anyone resorting to racism is weak. They have some serious psychological problems that need to be resolved.”
Eastman added racism “is a tool of deflection” as “crimes can be committed by anyone” and said UI students “endorsed” some of the online comments by “liking” them.
Five people were shot and injured at an Iowa City pedestrian mall near the University of Iowa campus overnight, police said Sunday. Three students from the university were among the injured, according to school officials. pic.twitter.com/Fd5lZXIybo
— Abhijit Pathak (@aajtakabhijit) April 19, 2026
UI Black Student Union President Tae’Shaun Presswood said “some action” needed to be taken against students who were “involved” in the racist comments, but added “unfortunately, in the political environment today, that is not likely to happen.”
Eastman and Presswood claim to have “witnessed” people posting racist remarks from “fake [online] accounts.”
Venise Berry (pictured), a UI professor of journalism and African American studies who according to her faculty page is “developing a theory called ‘racialism’ which involves the influence of the media on African American images and messages,” implicated the press in the portrayal of black men as “thugs” and “criminals.”
Berry said the social media comments can reinforce negative stereotypes of Black people elsewhere.
She used a hypothetical example of an older white lady who lives in a small rural town in Iowa, chosen to jury duty for a defendant who is a Black male. The White lady who may not have Black friends or isn’t around many Black people may ignorantly and automatically attach the stigma to the defendant, which can be harmful.
“Once that mentality is perpetuated and then accepted through the media, it ends up in our criminal justice system, housing, and the educational system, where Black students are treated differently,” she said.
Berry added that “racist rhetoric” comes from “the top down,” and is “influenced by the broader political environment that has made racial topics more severe.” She noted an example was the Iowa legislature’s “targeting” of DEI initiatives.
MORE: Nearly half of reported U. Iowa hate crimes are scribbles on a whiteboard
