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Coastal Carolina University's off-campus student housing complex slammed for racist post requiring 'White tenants'

CCU was quick to remove Coastal Club Apartments from its list of recommended places to stay after the racist post went viral

A racist post on the Instagram account of an off-campus apartment complex near Coastal Carolina University has put a spotlight on student housing communities in Conway, South Carolina and sent shockwaves in the student community. On Saturday, February 27, the Instagram account for the Coastal Club Apartments shared a black and white photo with a signboard that reads: "We want White tenants in our White community".

Soon after, a Black female resident who lived in the complex, tweeted about it saying: "Sooo my apartment complex posts this like 10 mins ago" with screenshots of the complex's Instagram page that identified the complex as the 'Coastal Club Student Living' at 630 Highway, 544, Conway, South Carolina. She followed this up with another tweet asking for help, saying: "I need help moving guys anything helps". 

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After the tweet about the racist Instagram post went viral, the apartment complex deleted the post on Sunday and replaced it with another post that said: "No Room for Racism" with a long apology caption that, among other things, stated that: "Early this morning we were made aware that our Instagram account had been surreptitiously taken over and consequently, a hateful post had been placed on our community feed. Upon seeing it there, our management team worked to remove the post, and said persons/peoples access from our account." The complex's management also sent an email to all its residents with the same words of apology according to another resident who posted the email on Twitter as well.  

However, not everyone within the university community was happy with the apology and action taken. One tweet replying to the original tweet about the racist post said: "It literally wasn’t hacked. In the post, it says they removed the person who had access to that profile as well as the post. Which means they know who has access and who could’ve posted it. They are knowingly employing racist people." Another said: "This is a Violation of SC Fair Housing Act. I urge y’all to call HUDs Fair Housing & Equal Opportunity department (404) 331-5140 or (800) 440-8091 and start an investigation. Or you can also call SC Human Affairs Commission".

But the racist post did not only get backlash on social media but also resulted in strong action from Coastal Carolina University (CCU) that reportedly removed the off-campus housing from its list of recommended places to stay. In its tweet about the situation from its official Twitter account, the university said: "In response to the racist image that was posted on the Instagram account of Coastal Club Apartments: The apartment complex is privately owned and not a CCU property. As of today, this property will be removed from http://offcampusliving.coastal.edu until further notice."

The post also sent shockwaves in the Black community of the college town. The CCU chapter of the NAACP met virtually to share its outrage over the post and the complex's actions thereafter. "It's not enough for a response, it's not enough to say, there was a post, we took it down, that's it. it's not enough to just apologize," said chapter President Euniqua Jones. 

Reportedly, a regional manager for the apartment complex, Krystal Hoover, also joined the virtual meeting and spoke up about the actions being taken. "We are definitely working behind the scenes trying to figure out what took place. Our first step was to apologize to our residents, to apologize to our followers because we don't know exactly what happened or who posted this," said Hoover. Her statement contradicted the apartment complex's earlier statement about removing the people who had access to the account and would be able to create and post the racist signboard photo. Hoover also said they were planning to discuss the matter further with their lawyers.