BUFFALO, N.Y. — The President of SUNY Buffalo State College is having staff look into an incident regarding comments made by an instructor during class. The video, which was posted on Instagram Monday afternoon, shows a woman saying, "Ok so I'm gonna say, and this is like me speaking honestly and you guys have to respond to me honestly with how you feel about this."
She then pauses and finished the sentence with, "I'm sick of talking about Black Lives Matter."
Students who spoke with 2 On Your Side identified the woman as Erica Cope, who is listed as a lecturer on the college's website.
Jahnay Morehead, a first-year student at SUNY Buffalo State, told 2 On Your Side's Karys Belger she recorded the video during class and shared it to the @shadedailynews Instagram Page.
"She asked us to share an opinion that might be considered controversial and I guess that was her example."
"After she said that, she was kind of trying to change the topic very swiftly. A lot of students was like, 'Why? Why do you feel this way'? and she really didn't want to go into it."
Morehead said she recorded the video in the Fall, but did not report the incident or share it until recently because she was concerned about retaliation.
A statement that was posted on Twitter and Instagram, by Kate Conway-Turner, the president of SUNY Buffalo State College said in part,
"While we do not yet have the full context of the instructor’s comments, the reality is the sentiment she expressed lays bare an insensitivity to the historic and current lived experiences of all people of color."
This is a developing story and will be updated throughout the day.
