A racist post shared on the Instagram account of an off-campus South Carolina apartment complex calling for "white tenants" has sparked outrage after the image went viral on social media. The apartment management later claimed the account was "hacked."
Coastal Club Student Living, a student housing complex near Coastal Carolina University in Conway, South Carolina, posted the photo on Saturday, Feb. 27.
'We Want White Tenants in Our White Community'
The black-and-white image contained a signboard that read, "We want White tenants in our White community." Shortly after the post went live, a Black female resident who lived in the complex tweeted out a screenshot of the complex's Instagram page, along with the caption, "Sooo my apartment complex posts this like 10 mins ago."
The tweet instantly went viral on the micro-blogging platform, garnering thousands of retweets and racking up hundreds of comments from users who expressed their anger over the student complex's now-deleted social media post.
Coastal Carolina University also released a statement noting that the apartment complex was owned privately and it had removed Coastal Club Student Living from its list of off-campus accommodations for students over the "racist" image.
Coastal Club Apartments Says Their Account was 'Hacked'
In the wake of the backlash, Coastal Club Student Living shared a post that said "no room for racism" on Sunday along with a statement condemning the earlier post.
"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," a part of the statement read.
The statement also noted that the complex's management removed the post and blocked the person who had access to their Instagram account. "We would like to extend our deepest apologies to any person that viewed the post on Instagram or any re-post thereafter," the statement said.
On Monday, the account posted another statement saying the account was hacked by an individual "still unknown," contradicting its earlier statement.
"The perpetrator of this cyber-attack posted hateful content that is abhorrent and does not reflect the views or opinions of Coastal Club and its Management Team," the statement read. "This cyber-attack has been reported to the authorities for investigation, and internally, we are taking all necessary steps to discover the identity of the individual that slandered our community.
"This attack on our character is of urgent concern, so please rest assured that we are doing everything we can to uncover who is behind it," the housing complex added. "Again, we sincerely apologize that this incident occurred and hope that this isolated attack does not negatively impact your opinion of our wonderful community."
