Social media users widely condemned a South Carolina high school student who pretended to whip George Floyd and lip-synced a racist slur in a since-deleted TikTok.
The teen, identified on social media as Lauren Swist, is a high school junior and cheerleader at Socastee High School in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. Swist initially posted the video on her TikTok, but she has since deleted her account.
The video shows a picture of Floyd with the caption “george floyd: ‘hey can i borrow a dollar.’” It then cuts to a shot of former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin kneeling on Floyd’s neck, which ultimately led to Floyd’s death.
Swist is superimposed over the second image pretending to whip Floyd. She is mouthing the lyrics to Klondike Blonde’s 2018 single “Drip”: “I got sauce on my wrist / Don’t touch me, n***a / You do not exist.”
Floyd’s death at the hands of Minneapolis police led to nationwide protests and calls to defund the police and redistribute the funds to other community social services.
Swist seems to understand what she’s done and has already apologized for the video. But many aren’t buying her highly specific apology.
“I sent it to one person who I trusted and they took it too far by sending it to someone they knew would share it out of spite for being angry at me and wanting to hurt me,” Swist wrote.
She also said the video was “taken out of context” and added, “If you know me personally I am not racist although it blatently [sic] sounds that way and I would never want to hurt people like this.”
Twitter users began tagging Swist’s high school to bring the video to their attention.
“@SocasteeHS why is your student Lauren Swist posting racially offensive content online?” @channax95 asked. “Does this reflect the culture and values of your school? What consequences will she face?”
“To the babes who are sympathizers for lauren swist and are pleading with me to take her ‘mental health’ into consideration… ummm what about george floyd’s family’s mental health,” @SockTea added. “you know he has a little daughter right?”
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