Employee calls campus police on black woman eating lunch

Friday, August 3, 2018
NORTHAMPTON, Massachusetts (WABC) -- A woman from New York City is speaking out after she said she was racially profiled while eating lunch at work.

Oumou Kanoute is a summer teaching assistant at Smith College, but on Tuesday, an employee called campus police to investigate her as someone who seemed out of place at a school building.

Kanoute took video of the interaction.
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When asked why she was there she says she was in the summer program and was just relaxing.

"If you see the video, I was calm, but I wasn't calm, I was terrified," Kanoute says.

She was terrified that the police were called simply because she is black.
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Smith College is apologizing saying "it does not tolerate race or gender-based discrimination in any form."



The school is also launching an investigation.

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