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10 Feb, 13 tweets, 6 min read
NEW: University of Mississippi Police are pursuing a criminal investigation into Ole Miss Information, the anonymous whistleblowers who tipped @MSFreePress off about racist emails between UM officials and prospective wealthy donors. #UMEmails mississippifreepress.org/9134/um-pursui…
The emails revealed how, even as University of Mississippi officials condemned racism publicly, they privately catered to and coddled donors like the one who referred to Black students as "African hookers" or using ape emojis to describe Black women. mississippifreepress.org/9134/um-pursui…
Now, the UM Emails whistleblowers, who obtained the emails following an official and legal public records request, are facing a criminal investigation as officials and some faculty members accuse them of "creating a hostile work environment."mississippifreepress.org/9134/um-pursui…
The "hostile work environment" allegations came after the #UMEmails whistleblowers alleged administrators were engaging in improper pay and promotion schemes—including by continuing to pay exorbitant amount to an ex-dean implicated in the racist emails. mississippifreepress.org/9134/um-pursui…
University of Mississippi Ombudsman Paul J. Caffera is still fighting in court against efforts by officials to compel him to help in their efforts to unmask the identities of the whistleblowers. He was placed on administrative leave after filing suit. mississippifreepress.org/9134/um-pursui…
The university has tried to compel Caffera to cooperate even though the 2015 UM Ombuds Charter states, “The Ombudsperson shall not testify or provide records to be used in any other dispute resolution process, grievance process, or investigation."
mississippifreepress.org/9134/um-pursui…
Campus Police declined to answer questions or confirm the investigation exists, saying they had to direct me to UM's public relations office.

I called UMPR, whose automated voice message told me to email them my questions. I emailed asking them to call me.mississippifreepress.org/9134/um-pursui…
You can now view some of the shocking (or not, depending on your perspective) emails that informed our #UMEmails reporting and see how events unfolded here.

"From Racist Emails to Witch Hunts: A UM Emails Timeline." mississippifreepress.org/8357/um-emails…
Our first #UMEmails report dropped in August:

‘The Fabric Is Torn In Oxford’: UM Officials Decried Racism Publicly, Coddled It Privately
mississippifreepress.org/4876/the-fabri…
UM Emails, Part II: ‘The Ole Miss We Know’: Wealthy Alums Fight To Keep UM’s Past Alive
mississippifreepress.org/4950/the-ole-m…
UM Emails, Part III: UM’s ‘Culture Of Secrecy’: Dean Quit As Emails Disparaging To Gay Alum, Black Students Emerged
mississippifreepress.org/5004/ums-cultu…
After the UM Emails series dropped, @middleton380 broke the story on UM's firing of @garrett_felber, a historian who claimed in October that the school rejected a grant to study mass incarceration bc "this antiracist program threatens racist donor money." mississippifreepress.org/7518/um-fires-…
If you support our work to hold public institutions accountable and encourage all levels of Mississippi government more transparent, please support non-profit, paywall free journalism by following @MSFreePress and consider a one-time or recurring donation: mfp.ms/donate

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More from @ashtonpittman

Ashton Pittman Profile picture
9 Feb
Just help set 4 up with vaccine appointments. If you know anyone who needs them, esp if they don't have access to or skill to use technology or just might not know when appointments are available, give them a call NOW and help them set up an appointment: covidvaccine.umc.edu
Appointments are going QUICKLY and there likely won't be many if any left an hour from now, so get on it! covidvaccine.umc.edu
Remember, the more people you can help get COVID-19 vaccine appointments and get the shot in the arm, the closer we all will get to herd immunity and ending this pandemic.

So if you need a selfish motivator, there's that, too! covidvaccine.umc.edu
Read 5 tweets
Ashton Pittman Profile picture
8 Feb
When a politician's main talking points are some variation of:
-"I'm a true _______" (conservative/progressive)
or
-"I'm committed to _______ principles/ideas"

then they aren't looking for solutions to fit your problems; they're trying to make your problems fit their sortions.
And that can either be because they're an ideologue or because they believe the people who vote for them are ideologies and they're essentially "virtue signaling" to that crowd.

Either way, such people aren't about problem solving. They're about furthering their ideology.
Because if they were about problem solving, they wouldn't have to invoke ideology or promise to uphold it; they'd just craft the best solutions based on the problem, and hey, maybe one ideology fits the problem! Maybe it's a combination. Or no ideology. Who cares? Solve problems!
Read 4 tweets
Ashton Pittman Profile picture
6 Feb
I know Bill Maher is a bit of a one-trick pony, but it's not Christianity at the root of QAnon/MAGA—it's white supremacy.

Black Americans are more religiously devout (and Christian) overall than white Americans—but they aren't storming capitols or bombing abortion clinics.
White supremacy has long used Christianity as a public-facing cover (defending slavery, segregation, homophobia, etc), but it wasn't driving those things; it was used as a tool to defend privilege.

Religion was also used as a tool to support abolition, civil rights, et al.
Am I saying there are no good criticisms of religion? No. But don't say "Christianity" when you really just mean "white evangelical Christians," or when you really mean, "white supremacy."

Because Christianity ≠ conservative white evangelicals. You're erasing *a lot* of folks.
Read 14 tweets
Ashton Pittman Profile picture
5 Feb
NEW: More Mississippians have now died of COVID-19 than died in 1918 amid the Great Influenza pandemic—the deadliest in modern history.

Mississippi's excess death toll in 1918 was 7,312.

Mississippi's excess death toll in 2020 was 7,314.
mississippifreepress.org/8979/in-missis…
Mississippi's mortality rate reached a 102-year-high in 2020, dwarfed only by 1918, when the state's population was a third smaller and medical science was far less advanced (there was no flu vaccine until 1945).

Interactive chart here: mississippifreepress.org/8979/in-missis… Chart shows that Mississippi recorded more deaths in 2020 th
Mississippi's 2020 excess death toll of 7,314 likely means thousands more died of COVID-19 last year than officially reported; By year's end, the state had officially confirmed only 4,816 deaths.

Last year, Dr. Dobbs said "undercounting" was likely. mississippifreepress.org/8979/in-missis…
Read 17 tweets
Ashton Pittman Profile picture
4 Feb
NEW: A week after police shot a Black teenager multiple times near Hattiesburg High School, Mayor Toby Barker addressed the shooting today for the first time.

If an investigation finds misconduct, "there will be accountability," he said.mississippifreepress.org/8940/hattiesbu…
“In recent days, we have asked the Dept. of Public Safety, through MBI, to provide the public with an update, to assist in at least dispelling inaccurate information circulating on social media" about the shooting, but they have not done so, Barker said.mississippifreepress.org/8940/hattiesbu…
Black Lives Matter MS President Reginald Virgil:

“He did the right thing in putting something out to the people, but the thing the people want is transparency because the people are on edge. This is in the community—there are different stories coming up."mississippifreepress.org/8940/hattiesbu…
Read 6 tweets
Ashton Pittman Profile picture
3 Feb
Twice when I tried to ask Sen. Hyde-Smith questions during her 2018 campaign, she told me to walk over to her press secretary, Melissa, and tell her my question.

After I did, Melissa would walk over, whisper with Sen. Hyde-Smith, and then I could re-ask the senator my question.
Speaking of being "disrespectful" to members of the press, this is how Sen. Hyde-Smith's campaign celebrated her 2018 election night victory: By tagging me & other Mississippi reporters in the tweet below (I broke the story on her segregation academy).
This is how Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith answered four reporters the day after @LamarWhiteJr published her "public hanging" video.

"We put out a statement yesterday, and we stand by that statement."

"I put out a statement yesterday, and that's all I'm going to say about it." (cont)
Read 9 tweets

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