Nov. 11, 2026
Ole Miss College Student Apologizes For Racist RIng cam But DENIES She Knew Neighbors Were Black?
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RSS Feed 18-year-old college freshman Alaina Kunes has released an apology statement after she was recorded along with another young woman making monkey/ape gestures and noises in front of the door of three black students who lived below their apartment. Kunes says she has personally apologized to the women and recognizes her actions were deeply harmful, but claims she was unaware of their race and had “never met the women.” However, one of the black students who lives inside the targeted apartment offers a much different account. Bethany Joy posted to social media there have been several interactions with their upstairs neighbors, including one where there was a noise complaint.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
00:00:02
Speaker 1: Hey there, folks. It is Wednesday, November 11th, and one of the girls in that now viral ring cam video at Ole Miss, well, one of those girls has apologized. That apology is immediately problematic. And with that, welcome to this episode of Amy and TJ. Hope this story continues. Plenty of twists and turns. I don't have to explain this too much to A lot of folks at this point. But, Robes, this is significant, is it not? The young lady apologized.
00:00:35
Speaker 2: Yes. And we'll read the apology for you. Oh, yeah. And the apology itself is incredibly well-worded. She says everything just right. She just absolutely says what she did was wrong. And the only thing that stood out has now been refuted. Her big defense, and look... a lot of apologies. We say a perfect apology shouldn't involve a defense or any sort of deflection, but look, she's just explaining in her apology that she had no idea. She had no issue, had never met the neighbors before. She didn't know they were black. That's what she says, but she understands now that she knows they're black, why her actions would be considered reprehensible.
00:01:25
Speaker 1: Okay. Um, that, Is a problem. Another problem, and I'm sure it's probably true, Robes, is that she rounds this thing up by explaining that she and her family are suffering from threats.
00:01:41
Speaker 2: Death threats.
00:01:41
Speaker 1: Which is wrong. That is completely, completely wrong. Tonally, in this apology, it might have been the wrong time as well. But we can debate about that. Agreed.
00:01:54
Speaker 2: She could have let someone else say that, let authorities say that.
00:01:57
Speaker 1: Let her lawyer.
00:01:58
Speaker 2: She could have left that out.
00:02:00
Speaker 1: Could have let the lawyer, because the lawyer was the one they put this statement out through. So, I mean, everybody's caught up at this point, right, about what this story is. Happened last Thursday. Ring cam at an off-campus but near-campus apartment at Ole Miss. Three young white women, it appears... two of them walking past this door where three black students live, start making ape monkey sounds, beating on their chests, into the ring camp.
00:02:32
Speaker 2: Into the ring camp.
00:02:33
Speaker 1: So not being, they stop and put on a performance for whoever lives there. So it was intentional.
00:02:38
Speaker 2: Absolutely.
00:02:39
Speaker 1: Move forward, the university launches an investigation. I move forward after, of course, Robes, this thing has gone gangbusters. I haven't seen the latest update, but tens of millions of views of this thing after the mother of one of the young ladies that lives at that apartment posted the video. That gets us all caught up. Are we caught up now before we can do the apology, Robes?
00:02:59
Speaker 2: Yes, yes.
00:02:59
Speaker 1: Anything else I need to get in there?
00:03:01
Speaker 2: No, and look, both of these girls identified themselves by putting their faces directly into this camera that they had to assume was recording whatever happened. gestures they were making. But this woman, this 18 year old. step forward and put her name to her face. And so she identified herself saying, you know, she's Alina Kunes. She's 18 years old.
00:03:25
Speaker 1: Kunes, am I saying it right?
00:03:26
Speaker 2: Kunes, I believe. K-U-N-E-S, Alina Kunes. She's 18 years old. She's a freshman. I mean, they looked young. I actually thought they weren't freshmen because they were living on off-campus housing, but every university has different rules.
00:03:38
Speaker 1: That's funny. You made that assumption based on what you know about colleges. I just looked, they look like children.
00:03:43
Speaker 2: They look young. They all look young to me now, though, at a certain point, right? We go back to Annalise, she's a junior, and they all look like babies to me, and most of them are in drinking age at this point, but they still look like babies.
00:03:55
Speaker 1: Grad students at this point look like babies to us.
00:03:57
Speaker 2: Yes, yes, absolutely. So she is a freshman, 18 years old, and by the way, she has withdrawn from the university, and they made it known. She wasn't removed. She wasn't kicked out. There has been no official disciplinary action, but she has withdrawn. And you even predicted this. You even said, how could they possibly, everyone knows who they are. How could they feel safe? How could certainly black students feel comfortable around them? It just creates almost an untenable situation.
00:04:28
Speaker 1: If they withdraw, though, I wonder, I'm just pitting this out because I had the thought, does the university still need to issue some kind of discipline to make sure you have to be suspended for a year. Even if you tried to come back, you couldn't do it. They have to do something because right now, this girl at least has saved the university from having to do anything.
00:04:47
Speaker 2: She's removed herself from getting punished perhaps officially, but, or I guess removed from campus. But look, yes, they could do something about her credits or they could do something about, yes, she can't return to campus for a year or she's banned for life. I mean, who knows? But yes.
00:05:05
Speaker 1: Oh my God, babe, that sucks. It's almost Thanksgiving. It's a freshman. She's just starting her college career.
00:05:11
Speaker 2: She just started college.
00:05:11
Speaker 1: That sucks. She can get a fresh start somewhere else. Maybe that's an upside for her, but that, uh, Yeah, I mean, no matter what, I'm a dad. I don't wish this upon anybody, no matter how atrocious I believe what she did was.
00:05:24
Speaker 2: Yes, and what she did was atrocious, but I agree with you. At 18 years old, you should get a do-over or you should be able to learn from your mistakes. However, you need to fully admit your mistakes And we'll get into why it doesn't appear she has done so.
00:05:38
Speaker 1: Okay, you got to help me with this.
00:05:40
Speaker 2: Yes.
00:05:40
Speaker 1: This apology, baby.
00:05:41
Speaker 2: And this is a problem because on the face of it, as we pointed out, and we'll read it to you, it does seem like a pretty damn good apology. But when you hear the response from the women who lived in that apartment who were being harassed, it's a tough apology. It's a really tough apology. So here it is. To the women I offended and to the Ole Miss community, I sincerely apologize. Before the incident on November 6th, I never met the women involved and was unaware of their race. However, I recognize my actions were insensitive, inappropriate, and deeply harmful. I would have never intentionally made those noises... or gestures towards a person of color. I have apologized to the women and I pray they will forgive me. I can never truly understand the pain I have caused them and it was never my intention. These girls deserve to feel seen and understood and what I did is not a reflection of who I am trying to become. What do you make of just that?
00:06:55
Speaker 1: My eyebrow went up when you say you have no idea who lives in this home. Had no idea they were people of color in that home. Again, that's just hard to believe. Robes, okay, yes, they've lived there three, four months together, passing by and seeing each other. Maybe.
00:07:14
Speaker 2: It just so happens they decided of all animal noises to make, they decide to do ape and monkey noises. And it just so happens that that is the home of of three black students, and what is the black population on Ole Miss campus? I mean, I'm just saying from a, I'm literally looking at it from a mathematics standpoint.
00:07:38
Speaker 1: That is funny.
00:07:39
Speaker 2: What's the percentage, what's the likelihood that you would just so happen to make monkey and ape noises in the ring cam where three black students live on Ole Miss campus?
00:07:52
Speaker 1: Based on numbers, less than one in 10.
00:07:53
Speaker 2: Okay.
00:07:55
Speaker 1: Based on the numbers, there's less than one in ten chance, which means it's still possible. I'm trying to, I wrote, you know, I'm sitting here as a black man trying to give this young white woman some grace. But this is a little problematic.
00:08:07
Speaker 2: It's hard to believe.
00:08:08
Speaker 1: It's hard to believe. And we see the ring cam and we don't see this happening at any other door. Why this door? Why that noise? Why?
00:08:19
Speaker 2: Why?
00:08:20
Speaker 1: It's just a tall, you're asking us to believe, and I'm trying, baby, I'm trying, I'm trying, I'm trying.
00:08:25
Speaker 2: All right, well, she goes on, and this is the part where, yes, we believe it would have been best had she let someone else say this, but she goes on to say, over the past several days, my family and I have received death threats and harassment. I am grateful for the authorities working to ensure our safety. As I intend to cooperate fully with the university's investigation, I ask for privacy for my family. I understand the seriousness of the situation. and remain committed to taking responsibility and learning from this embarrassing ordeal, taking responsibility and learning. Okay. But that would require you to at least admit the full scope of what happened and the actual facts of what led up to what happened. And I'm not sure that she's done that.
00:09:15
Speaker 1: Now I'm having a difficulty with, uh, with grace. It's just so unlikely, babe. It's just, it's a high bar. You actually want me to believe you randomly made ape, funky noises and gestures to the one door you were walking past on your way home. Just to the one. And you didn't know who lived there. We just happened to be making those noises at the time to that door to be funny. And you want me to believe you just happened to do that at the black student's door on the campus of Ole Miss University.
00:10:00
Speaker 2: And to that, I would say, is it possible? Yes. Is it probable? No.
00:10:06
Speaker 1: It's just. Babe, who does? I mean, maybe silly kids going through the neighborhood.
00:10:12
Speaker 2: Okay, then you'd see them doing it to all the other doors as they were making their way because you can see on this ring camera other doors and they're not doing it to the other doors. Now, if they are able to provide ring camera footage from other doors from that night or even other nights, previous nights where they've done it to other people's apartments, then I am absolutely willing to consider what she's saying. But short of that, I find it almost impossible to believe her scenario.
00:10:45
Speaker 1: And then we hear from one of the women that lives in that actual apartment. And Robes, we got to take this. This was posted on Instagram in response to the video. But this is Bethany Joy is the name. According to all accounts, she does live there, Robes. And she put this statement out. It flat out, she doesn't say the girl is a liar, but somebody is 100% lying in public. If you read this, these two stories don't go together.
00:11:15
Speaker 2: Yes. So Bethany Joy writes about the girls who... made the gestures and the noises to her ring camera. These girls are my upstairs neighbors. We've addressed them being loud one time before and they apologized, then turned around and stomped again when we returned to our apartment. Unfortunately, we did not document this. When this happened, I was sitting on my couch while my roommate and best friend were in her room. We heard them making the noises from inside the house. Once we saw the footage, we came outside and asked them if they did it, told them it was disrespectful, etc. While we were doing this, the monkey sounds continued. We returned inside. My roommate came in to contact them with them again. and was brushed off. Later on in the night, the first and last girls came and apologized after the video had been uploaded. They claimed that they were stimming and were making animal noises in people's ring cameras. As you can see in the video, there is another ring camera across the hall that remained untouched. After they apologized, one of the first things that was asked was about if the video was going to be deleted or not. They saw us and made eye contact with us. We have had conversations with them before, and none of them were hostile or anything. My friends and I are extremely polite to anyone who comes near our apartment, and all of our neighbors can attest to that. We have contacted our property management as well as Ole Miss officials. We did not make this post to have anyone bashed nor harassed. We just deserve to feel safe in our home just as much as anyone else does.
00:13:09
Speaker 1: Now what are we supposed to do? Now what are we supposed to do? So you're telling me the apology, or at least this roommate is telling me directly that the apology is a lie. What are we supposed to do? Who are we supposed to believe? What do you do with this story, baby?
00:13:27
Speaker 2: I don't... You have to believe what the video shows you, and you have to rely on your common sense.
00:13:33
Speaker 1: I'm looking at the video once again. I don't know. I can't see. I see two other doors. I don't know, baby. I don't see them doing this to anywhere else. I don't know, baby. I wrote the apology that you want to give this 18 year old space and grace to grow. You're telling me that she is she lying when she says I never met the women involved and was unaware of their race.
00:14:01
Speaker 2: It's hard to believe.
00:14:02
Speaker 1: It's tough.
00:14:03
Speaker 2: It's hard to believe.
00:14:04
Speaker 1: That's all I can say. These are the sounds I picked. This is the thing I decided to do to disturb, to make fun, to make light, to do a joke. Somebody pissed me off. Even if we're having a beef between us and a neighbor, we're going to go past their door. What are you going to do? You might bang on it. You might what, baby? What might you do? Make a noise of what? Who goes to ape?
00:14:30
Speaker 2: A racist. That's the only way I can answer that. Okay.
00:14:36
Speaker 1: Well, stay here, folks. This story, some kind of way, gets weirder based on the family connection to the young lady who just issued an apology. Stay here.
00:14:57
Speaker 2: Welcome back everyone to Amy and TJ. So we have an apology. We have a statement, the two of which do not jibe. It's really one word against another in terms of the backstory, but the video itself speaks volumes. And it's very hard to imagine that that was just a coincidence that these girls chose to make monkey and ape noises and gestures to a random apartment that just happened to be filled with three black students.
00:15:33
Speaker 1: You know, she has the line in her apology, I have apologized to the women.
00:15:39
Speaker 2: She did well, according to even.
00:15:40
Speaker 1: Yes, is that some truth in there, right?
00:15:42
Speaker 2: Even according to Bethany Joy, they came downstairs and apologized because of the video, because they saw it had been posted and they knew they were in trouble. That is, those two things do actually connect. Now, there is another twist to this story. So we mentioned the young woman who has withdrawn from the university, who has apologized, and who named herself 18-year-old Alina Kunis. Well, her family... actually is a pretty, well, a prominent family where she comes from in Wisconsin, correct?
00:16:14
Speaker 1: Name-wise, the name is everywhere.
00:16:16
Speaker 2: Yes, her grandfather and her father, they are all a part of the Kunis Auto Group. Look, I think these types of family names become familiar to local communities because, yes, when you have a bank or an auto shop or a furniture store, family-owned and operated, you see the commercials. Yes, people know who you are. So the Kunis Auto... Auto Group released a statement and wow, we have questions. So this is how it reads. The individual in the video, they're referring to Alina, right? The individual in the video has no employment, ownership, or professional affiliation with Kune's Auto Group. We do not comment on private citizens unaffiliated with the company. Our organization is built on treating every person with dignity and respect, and we do our best to live out those values every day. That seems so random and strange that the family-owned business of Alina Kune's is immediately distancing themselves from her and are pointing out without acknowledging that she's a family member, that she has no professional affiliation with the group. But there's a reason why they felt the need. to put out this statement. Would you like to fill in the fine folks listening?
00:17:44
Speaker 1: Yeah, because they got their own racist problems. It turns out this auto group has been facing lawsuits from at least two women who claim that they have been subjected to racist behavior by that dealership group, including one instance in which a racial slur a woman said was written on her ticket when she went there to do service at one of the dealerships. Robes, what are the chances? High, apparently.
00:18:12
Speaker 2: Yes. I mean, I don't know if you can call this a coincidence. This is, look, this is glaring, I think would be the best way for me to put it. And look, they made a point to say that Elena Kunis, her father actually... resigned as COO of the company back in February of this year, don't know why, said that he has no ownership stake in the business. It's her grandfather, I believe, who owns the business or who was the founder of the business. But yes, the company had to previously put out a statement based on these lawsuits that these racist allegations or these racist incidents were isolated actions by employees who were fired. So by firing the employees, they're acknowledging that, yeah, apparently people were writing racist comments. And there was a comment on an oil chain sticker and then a text message involving a salesman that had racist derogatory statements in them.
00:19:17
Speaker 1: Maybe just a coincidence, all this.
00:19:20
Speaker 2: Hard to imagine.
00:19:21
Speaker 1: There's a lot of coincidences in this episode.
00:19:23
Speaker 2: Look, I do believe that it's one of those moments where both of these seem like, from the business and from Elena Kunis, it's one of those, I'm sorry I got caught. That's how it feels.
00:19:36
Speaker 1: She can't take the statement back now. This is the thing you were talking about the other day. Oh, yesterday. No one wants to be called, or by want to be labeled a racist. And by acknowledging that she did that because someone was black, you're period, point blank, a racist.
00:19:53
Speaker 2: Automatically.
00:19:54
Speaker 1: But then we can't, the healing can't move forward and she can't learn anything from this. Is she telling herself this? Is she telling herself today, I'm not really a racist. This was just something else. Then we're getting nowhere. And again, I don't know what's in this young lady's heart and I guess there is some percentage I have to leave for her being right and having no idea that black folks lived in the one apartment where she decided to bang on her chest and act like fucking Chud the Builder and tell somebody to chimp out. Come on, lady. Now I'm getting up. Now you're now you're insulting all of us. Babe, just a coincidence. I'm looking at a message here about this and it says effing inward and has a picture of a monkey. and watermelon next to him, getting on to us for this girl having to drop out of Ole Miss.
00:20:43
Speaker 2: Having to drop out? She chose to.
00:20:45
Speaker 1: No, no, no, no. She was forced to. Death threats, right? No, everybody she's forced to by the administration. Man, raise your hand if you're a victim today.
00:20:54
Speaker 2: You know, it's true, and it's interesting because I was even going back, thinking about some recent murder trials andâ and charges, it's, it's like you, you don't even mind, or some folks don't even mind being accused of murder or even admit to murder, but they won't admit to a racist motivation. They won't admit that race motivated them. It's just, it's this, it's this thing. It's It's so, so damaging when you don't. Because by not admitting it, to your point, no one can heal. No one can learn. No one can move on. For whatever reason, the motivation behind this, she's not denying it. She can't deny that she did it. But the only thing she can deny is.
00:21:40
Speaker 1: Why she did it. And that's the thing. And nobody's going to. And yes, everybody. If she were to admit this. Then what's going to come her way? Nobody's going to give her grace. Nobody's going to sit down and want to talk to her. It takes really, really big hearts and a lot of bravery to do a lot of this stuff. And we just very few seem to have it.
00:22:00
Speaker 2: How would it feel, though, if she had? How would it feel if she had if she had said, yeah, I went there, I did that and I'm ashamed? I leaned into something I heard because I knew it would hurt. And now I have to admit and acknowledge where that hate came from. Would that do anything in terms of healing?
00:22:20
Speaker 1: For me, but for I think the majority, no. And I understand that. They would immediately want to attack her. And I get it. Not, I just, I don't, babe. The first thing I want to do is sit down and talk to her at Starbucks about what she did and why she did it. Then I want to walk her through through Bankhead in Atlanta. Just walk through. Be around black folks.
00:22:47
Speaker 2: Right?
00:22:47
Speaker 1: She just hasn't been exposed. She's from Wisconsin, is she not?
00:22:49
Speaker 2: Yeah.
00:22:49
Speaker 1: Bro, she wouldn't feel this way. I'm sorry. I don't know what her high school was or anything, but you just aren't exposed to people. I think it's about LGBTQ +, whether it's race or whatever. If you haven't been exposed to them, you can't love them. You don't know them. They're foreign. And so all they are is caricatures of monkeys eating watermelon on X right now. That's all we are. That's what allows you to do that to somebody you're walking past their apartment. That's why. That sucks. So it just, it sucks. That was a moment. Yes, but I understand. Maybe she's going to get canceled even worse. If she would have come out and say, I don't know, but there was something in me and it did it and I need to figure out where it is. No, she's not going to do that.
00:23:32
Speaker 2: Yeah, and we haven't heard anything from this other young woman who has yet to speak out, say anything, or be publicly identified again.
00:23:40
Speaker 1: And the girl in the back.
00:23:42
Speaker 2: Yeah, she's like, thank God I chose wisely in that moment. Thank God, yes. Oh, my God. She, I mean, I cannot imagine what she is thinking and feeling right now.
00:23:56
Speaker 1: Oh, that's... People are even trying to get on her because it looked like she smirked or something or laughed or smiled.
00:24:01
Speaker 2: Beforehand, you can see she's smirking, but she puts her head down. Like she walked, I mean, and they have pixelated her face. I do think that's fair. But I'm sure there are plenty of unpixelated videos out there where people know exactly who this threesome is.
00:24:18
Speaker 1: So what's tomorrow going to bring in this dilemma? We shall see. But please, folks, be kind. Listen, try to Even if you don't completely understand, just respect, please, that somebody is possibly having a different experience than you are. And with that, we appreciate you spending time with us. I'm TJ for my dear Emmy Robach. We'll talk to you all soon.
Speaker 1: Hey there, folks. It is Wednesday, November 11th, and one of the girls in that now viral ring cam video at Ole Miss, well, one of those girls has apologized. That apology is immediately problematic. And with that, welcome to this episode of Amy and TJ. Hope this story continues. Plenty of twists and turns. I don't have to explain this too much to A lot of folks at this point. But, Robes, this is significant, is it not? The young lady apologized.
00:00:35
Speaker 2: Yes. And we'll read the apology for you. Oh, yeah. And the apology itself is incredibly well-worded. She says everything just right. She just absolutely says what she did was wrong. And the only thing that stood out has now been refuted. Her big defense, and look... a lot of apologies. We say a perfect apology shouldn't involve a defense or any sort of deflection, but look, she's just explaining in her apology that she had no idea. She had no issue, had never met the neighbors before. She didn't know they were black. That's what she says, but she understands now that she knows they're black, why her actions would be considered reprehensible.
00:01:25
Speaker 1: Okay. Um, that, Is a problem. Another problem, and I'm sure it's probably true, Robes, is that she rounds this thing up by explaining that she and her family are suffering from threats.
00:01:41
Speaker 2: Death threats.
00:01:41
Speaker 1: Which is wrong. That is completely, completely wrong. Tonally, in this apology, it might have been the wrong time as well. But we can debate about that. Agreed.
00:01:54
Speaker 2: She could have let someone else say that, let authorities say that.
00:01:57
Speaker 1: Let her lawyer.
00:01:58
Speaker 2: She could have left that out.
00:02:00
Speaker 1: Could have let the lawyer, because the lawyer was the one they put this statement out through. So, I mean, everybody's caught up at this point, right, about what this story is. Happened last Thursday. Ring cam at an off-campus but near-campus apartment at Ole Miss. Three young white women, it appears... two of them walking past this door where three black students live, start making ape monkey sounds, beating on their chests, into the ring camp.
00:02:32
Speaker 2: Into the ring camp.
00:02:33
Speaker 1: So not being, they stop and put on a performance for whoever lives there. So it was intentional.
00:02:38
Speaker 2: Absolutely.
00:02:39
Speaker 1: Move forward, the university launches an investigation. I move forward after, of course, Robes, this thing has gone gangbusters. I haven't seen the latest update, but tens of millions of views of this thing after the mother of one of the young ladies that lives at that apartment posted the video. That gets us all caught up. Are we caught up now before we can do the apology, Robes?
00:02:59
Speaker 2: Yes, yes.
00:02:59
Speaker 1: Anything else I need to get in there?
00:03:01
Speaker 2: No, and look, both of these girls identified themselves by putting their faces directly into this camera that they had to assume was recording whatever happened. gestures they were making. But this woman, this 18 year old. step forward and put her name to her face. And so she identified herself saying, you know, she's Alina Kunes. She's 18 years old.
00:03:25
Speaker 1: Kunes, am I saying it right?
00:03:26
Speaker 2: Kunes, I believe. K-U-N-E-S, Alina Kunes. She's 18 years old. She's a freshman. I mean, they looked young. I actually thought they weren't freshmen because they were living on off-campus housing, but every university has different rules.
00:03:38
Speaker 1: That's funny. You made that assumption based on what you know about colleges. I just looked, they look like children.
00:03:43
Speaker 2: They look young. They all look young to me now, though, at a certain point, right? We go back to Annalise, she's a junior, and they all look like babies to me, and most of them are in drinking age at this point, but they still look like babies.
00:03:55
Speaker 1: Grad students at this point look like babies to us.
00:03:57
Speaker 2: Yes, yes, absolutely. So she is a freshman, 18 years old, and by the way, she has withdrawn from the university, and they made it known. She wasn't removed. She wasn't kicked out. There has been no official disciplinary action, but she has withdrawn. And you even predicted this. You even said, how could they possibly, everyone knows who they are. How could they feel safe? How could certainly black students feel comfortable around them? It just creates almost an untenable situation.
00:04:28
Speaker 1: If they withdraw, though, I wonder, I'm just pitting this out because I had the thought, does the university still need to issue some kind of discipline to make sure you have to be suspended for a year. Even if you tried to come back, you couldn't do it. They have to do something because right now, this girl at least has saved the university from having to do anything.
00:04:47
Speaker 2: She's removed herself from getting punished perhaps officially, but, or I guess removed from campus. But look, yes, they could do something about her credits or they could do something about, yes, she can't return to campus for a year or she's banned for life. I mean, who knows? But yes.
00:05:05
Speaker 1: Oh my God, babe, that sucks. It's almost Thanksgiving. It's a freshman. She's just starting her college career.
00:05:11
Speaker 2: She just started college.
00:05:11
Speaker 1: That sucks. She can get a fresh start somewhere else. Maybe that's an upside for her, but that, uh, Yeah, I mean, no matter what, I'm a dad. I don't wish this upon anybody, no matter how atrocious I believe what she did was.
00:05:24
Speaker 2: Yes, and what she did was atrocious, but I agree with you. At 18 years old, you should get a do-over or you should be able to learn from your mistakes. However, you need to fully admit your mistakes And we'll get into why it doesn't appear she has done so.
00:05:38
Speaker 1: Okay, you got to help me with this.
00:05:40
Speaker 2: Yes.
00:05:40
Speaker 1: This apology, baby.
00:05:41
Speaker 2: And this is a problem because on the face of it, as we pointed out, and we'll read it to you, it does seem like a pretty damn good apology. But when you hear the response from the women who lived in that apartment who were being harassed, it's a tough apology. It's a really tough apology. So here it is. To the women I offended and to the Ole Miss community, I sincerely apologize. Before the incident on November 6th, I never met the women involved and was unaware of their race. However, I recognize my actions were insensitive, inappropriate, and deeply harmful. I would have never intentionally made those noises... or gestures towards a person of color. I have apologized to the women and I pray they will forgive me. I can never truly understand the pain I have caused them and it was never my intention. These girls deserve to feel seen and understood and what I did is not a reflection of who I am trying to become. What do you make of just that?
00:06:55
Speaker 1: My eyebrow went up when you say you have no idea who lives in this home. Had no idea they were people of color in that home. Again, that's just hard to believe. Robes, okay, yes, they've lived there three, four months together, passing by and seeing each other. Maybe.
00:07:14
Speaker 2: It just so happens they decided of all animal noises to make, they decide to do ape and monkey noises. And it just so happens that that is the home of of three black students, and what is the black population on Ole Miss campus? I mean, I'm just saying from a, I'm literally looking at it from a mathematics standpoint.
00:07:38
Speaker 1: That is funny.
00:07:39
Speaker 2: What's the percentage, what's the likelihood that you would just so happen to make monkey and ape noises in the ring cam where three black students live on Ole Miss campus?
00:07:52
Speaker 1: Based on numbers, less than one in 10.
00:07:53
Speaker 2: Okay.
00:07:55
Speaker 1: Based on the numbers, there's less than one in ten chance, which means it's still possible. I'm trying to, I wrote, you know, I'm sitting here as a black man trying to give this young white woman some grace. But this is a little problematic.
00:08:07
Speaker 2: It's hard to believe.
00:08:08
Speaker 1: It's hard to believe. And we see the ring cam and we don't see this happening at any other door. Why this door? Why that noise? Why?
00:08:19
Speaker 2: Why?
00:08:20
Speaker 1: It's just a tall, you're asking us to believe, and I'm trying, baby, I'm trying, I'm trying, I'm trying.
00:08:25
Speaker 2: All right, well, she goes on, and this is the part where, yes, we believe it would have been best had she let someone else say this, but she goes on to say, over the past several days, my family and I have received death threats and harassment. I am grateful for the authorities working to ensure our safety. As I intend to cooperate fully with the university's investigation, I ask for privacy for my family. I understand the seriousness of the situation. and remain committed to taking responsibility and learning from this embarrassing ordeal, taking responsibility and learning. Okay. But that would require you to at least admit the full scope of what happened and the actual facts of what led up to what happened. And I'm not sure that she's done that.
00:09:15
Speaker 1: Now I'm having a difficulty with, uh, with grace. It's just so unlikely, babe. It's just, it's a high bar. You actually want me to believe you randomly made ape, funky noises and gestures to the one door you were walking past on your way home. Just to the one. And you didn't know who lived there. We just happened to be making those noises at the time to that door to be funny. And you want me to believe you just happened to do that at the black student's door on the campus of Ole Miss University.
00:10:00
Speaker 2: And to that, I would say, is it possible? Yes. Is it probable? No.
00:10:06
Speaker 1: It's just. Babe, who does? I mean, maybe silly kids going through the neighborhood.
00:10:12
Speaker 2: Okay, then you'd see them doing it to all the other doors as they were making their way because you can see on this ring camera other doors and they're not doing it to the other doors. Now, if they are able to provide ring camera footage from other doors from that night or even other nights, previous nights where they've done it to other people's apartments, then I am absolutely willing to consider what she's saying. But short of that, I find it almost impossible to believe her scenario.
00:10:45
Speaker 1: And then we hear from one of the women that lives in that actual apartment. And Robes, we got to take this. This was posted on Instagram in response to the video. But this is Bethany Joy is the name. According to all accounts, she does live there, Robes. And she put this statement out. It flat out, she doesn't say the girl is a liar, but somebody is 100% lying in public. If you read this, these two stories don't go together.
00:11:15
Speaker 2: Yes. So Bethany Joy writes about the girls who... made the gestures and the noises to her ring camera. These girls are my upstairs neighbors. We've addressed them being loud one time before and they apologized, then turned around and stomped again when we returned to our apartment. Unfortunately, we did not document this. When this happened, I was sitting on my couch while my roommate and best friend were in her room. We heard them making the noises from inside the house. Once we saw the footage, we came outside and asked them if they did it, told them it was disrespectful, etc. While we were doing this, the monkey sounds continued. We returned inside. My roommate came in to contact them with them again. and was brushed off. Later on in the night, the first and last girls came and apologized after the video had been uploaded. They claimed that they were stimming and were making animal noises in people's ring cameras. As you can see in the video, there is another ring camera across the hall that remained untouched. After they apologized, one of the first things that was asked was about if the video was going to be deleted or not. They saw us and made eye contact with us. We have had conversations with them before, and none of them were hostile or anything. My friends and I are extremely polite to anyone who comes near our apartment, and all of our neighbors can attest to that. We have contacted our property management as well as Ole Miss officials. We did not make this post to have anyone bashed nor harassed. We just deserve to feel safe in our home just as much as anyone else does.
00:13:09
Speaker 1: Now what are we supposed to do? Now what are we supposed to do? So you're telling me the apology, or at least this roommate is telling me directly that the apology is a lie. What are we supposed to do? Who are we supposed to believe? What do you do with this story, baby?
00:13:27
Speaker 2: I don't... You have to believe what the video shows you, and you have to rely on your common sense.
00:13:33
Speaker 1: I'm looking at the video once again. I don't know. I can't see. I see two other doors. I don't know, baby. I don't see them doing this to anywhere else. I don't know, baby. I wrote the apology that you want to give this 18 year old space and grace to grow. You're telling me that she is she lying when she says I never met the women involved and was unaware of their race.
00:14:01
Speaker 2: It's hard to believe.
00:14:02
Speaker 1: It's tough.
00:14:03
Speaker 2: It's hard to believe.
00:14:04
Speaker 1: That's all I can say. These are the sounds I picked. This is the thing I decided to do to disturb, to make fun, to make light, to do a joke. Somebody pissed me off. Even if we're having a beef between us and a neighbor, we're going to go past their door. What are you going to do? You might bang on it. You might what, baby? What might you do? Make a noise of what? Who goes to ape?
00:14:30
Speaker 2: A racist. That's the only way I can answer that. Okay.
00:14:36
Speaker 1: Well, stay here, folks. This story, some kind of way, gets weirder based on the family connection to the young lady who just issued an apology. Stay here.
00:14:57
Speaker 2: Welcome back everyone to Amy and TJ. So we have an apology. We have a statement, the two of which do not jibe. It's really one word against another in terms of the backstory, but the video itself speaks volumes. And it's very hard to imagine that that was just a coincidence that these girls chose to make monkey and ape noises and gestures to a random apartment that just happened to be filled with three black students.
00:15:33
Speaker 1: You know, she has the line in her apology, I have apologized to the women.
00:15:39
Speaker 2: She did well, according to even.
00:15:40
Speaker 1: Yes, is that some truth in there, right?
00:15:42
Speaker 2: Even according to Bethany Joy, they came downstairs and apologized because of the video, because they saw it had been posted and they knew they were in trouble. That is, those two things do actually connect. Now, there is another twist to this story. So we mentioned the young woman who has withdrawn from the university, who has apologized, and who named herself 18-year-old Alina Kunis. Well, her family... actually is a pretty, well, a prominent family where she comes from in Wisconsin, correct?
00:16:14
Speaker 1: Name-wise, the name is everywhere.
00:16:16
Speaker 2: Yes, her grandfather and her father, they are all a part of the Kunis Auto Group. Look, I think these types of family names become familiar to local communities because, yes, when you have a bank or an auto shop or a furniture store, family-owned and operated, you see the commercials. Yes, people know who you are. So the Kunis Auto... Auto Group released a statement and wow, we have questions. So this is how it reads. The individual in the video, they're referring to Alina, right? The individual in the video has no employment, ownership, or professional affiliation with Kune's Auto Group. We do not comment on private citizens unaffiliated with the company. Our organization is built on treating every person with dignity and respect, and we do our best to live out those values every day. That seems so random and strange that the family-owned business of Alina Kune's is immediately distancing themselves from her and are pointing out without acknowledging that she's a family member, that she has no professional affiliation with the group. But there's a reason why they felt the need. to put out this statement. Would you like to fill in the fine folks listening?
00:17:44
Speaker 1: Yeah, because they got their own racist problems. It turns out this auto group has been facing lawsuits from at least two women who claim that they have been subjected to racist behavior by that dealership group, including one instance in which a racial slur a woman said was written on her ticket when she went there to do service at one of the dealerships. Robes, what are the chances? High, apparently.
00:18:12
Speaker 2: Yes. I mean, I don't know if you can call this a coincidence. This is, look, this is glaring, I think would be the best way for me to put it. And look, they made a point to say that Elena Kunis, her father actually... resigned as COO of the company back in February of this year, don't know why, said that he has no ownership stake in the business. It's her grandfather, I believe, who owns the business or who was the founder of the business. But yes, the company had to previously put out a statement based on these lawsuits that these racist allegations or these racist incidents were isolated actions by employees who were fired. So by firing the employees, they're acknowledging that, yeah, apparently people were writing racist comments. And there was a comment on an oil chain sticker and then a text message involving a salesman that had racist derogatory statements in them.
00:19:17
Speaker 1: Maybe just a coincidence, all this.
00:19:20
Speaker 2: Hard to imagine.
00:19:21
Speaker 1: There's a lot of coincidences in this episode.
00:19:23
Speaker 2: Look, I do believe that it's one of those moments where both of these seem like, from the business and from Elena Kunis, it's one of those, I'm sorry I got caught. That's how it feels.
00:19:36
Speaker 1: She can't take the statement back now. This is the thing you were talking about the other day. Oh, yesterday. No one wants to be called, or by want to be labeled a racist. And by acknowledging that she did that because someone was black, you're period, point blank, a racist.
00:19:53
Speaker 2: Automatically.
00:19:54
Speaker 1: But then we can't, the healing can't move forward and she can't learn anything from this. Is she telling herself this? Is she telling herself today, I'm not really a racist. This was just something else. Then we're getting nowhere. And again, I don't know what's in this young lady's heart and I guess there is some percentage I have to leave for her being right and having no idea that black folks lived in the one apartment where she decided to bang on her chest and act like fucking Chud the Builder and tell somebody to chimp out. Come on, lady. Now I'm getting up. Now you're now you're insulting all of us. Babe, just a coincidence. I'm looking at a message here about this and it says effing inward and has a picture of a monkey. and watermelon next to him, getting on to us for this girl having to drop out of Ole Miss.
00:20:43
Speaker 2: Having to drop out? She chose to.
00:20:45
Speaker 1: No, no, no, no. She was forced to. Death threats, right? No, everybody she's forced to by the administration. Man, raise your hand if you're a victim today.
00:20:54
Speaker 2: You know, it's true, and it's interesting because I was even going back, thinking about some recent murder trials andâ and charges, it's, it's like you, you don't even mind, or some folks don't even mind being accused of murder or even admit to murder, but they won't admit to a racist motivation. They won't admit that race motivated them. It's just, it's this, it's this thing. It's It's so, so damaging when you don't. Because by not admitting it, to your point, no one can heal. No one can learn. No one can move on. For whatever reason, the motivation behind this, she's not denying it. She can't deny that she did it. But the only thing she can deny is.
00:21:40
Speaker 1: Why she did it. And that's the thing. And nobody's going to. And yes, everybody. If she were to admit this. Then what's going to come her way? Nobody's going to give her grace. Nobody's going to sit down and want to talk to her. It takes really, really big hearts and a lot of bravery to do a lot of this stuff. And we just very few seem to have it.
00:22:00
Speaker 2: How would it feel, though, if she had? How would it feel if she had if she had said, yeah, I went there, I did that and I'm ashamed? I leaned into something I heard because I knew it would hurt. And now I have to admit and acknowledge where that hate came from. Would that do anything in terms of healing?
00:22:20
Speaker 1: For me, but for I think the majority, no. And I understand that. They would immediately want to attack her. And I get it. Not, I just, I don't, babe. The first thing I want to do is sit down and talk to her at Starbucks about what she did and why she did it. Then I want to walk her through through Bankhead in Atlanta. Just walk through. Be around black folks.
00:22:47
Speaker 2: Right?
00:22:47
Speaker 1: She just hasn't been exposed. She's from Wisconsin, is she not?
00:22:49
Speaker 2: Yeah.
00:22:49
Speaker 1: Bro, she wouldn't feel this way. I'm sorry. I don't know what her high school was or anything, but you just aren't exposed to people. I think it's about LGBTQ +, whether it's race or whatever. If you haven't been exposed to them, you can't love them. You don't know them. They're foreign. And so all they are is caricatures of monkeys eating watermelon on X right now. That's all we are. That's what allows you to do that to somebody you're walking past their apartment. That's why. That sucks. So it just, it sucks. That was a moment. Yes, but I understand. Maybe she's going to get canceled even worse. If she would have come out and say, I don't know, but there was something in me and it did it and I need to figure out where it is. No, she's not going to do that.
00:23:32
Speaker 2: Yeah, and we haven't heard anything from this other young woman who has yet to speak out, say anything, or be publicly identified again.
00:23:40
Speaker 1: And the girl in the back.
00:23:42
Speaker 2: Yeah, she's like, thank God I chose wisely in that moment. Thank God, yes. Oh, my God. She, I mean, I cannot imagine what she is thinking and feeling right now.
00:23:56
Speaker 1: Oh, that's... People are even trying to get on her because it looked like she smirked or something or laughed or smiled.
00:24:01
Speaker 2: Beforehand, you can see she's smirking, but she puts her head down. Like she walked, I mean, and they have pixelated her face. I do think that's fair. But I'm sure there are plenty of unpixelated videos out there where people know exactly who this threesome is.
00:24:18
Speaker 1: So what's tomorrow going to bring in this dilemma? We shall see. But please, folks, be kind. Listen, try to Even if you don't completely understand, just respect, please, that somebody is possibly having a different experience than you are. And with that, we appreciate you spending time with us. I'm TJ for my dear Emmy Robach. We'll talk to you all soon.