Ole Miss Student at Center of Viral Backlash Gets More Than $24K in Donations to Not Apologize

One of the Ole Miss students who appeared to be making racist noises and gestures outside the apartment of Black residents is being praised for not apologizing.

A GiveSendGo campaign for a woman named Lauren Mayfield, who has been identified as one of the people involved in the viral doorbell camera footage that launched an investigation by the University of Mississippi, has raised more than $24,000 as of Wednesday, November 11.

Titled “Stand with Lauren,” the fundraiser said that Mayfield has done “nothing wrong,” adding: “She did not assault anyone. She did not break any law. She made noises in a public walkway. The rest is a campus bureaucracy and online mob treating a juvenile stunt as a hate crime because the residents were black.”

“The same institutions that excuse actual violence, riots, and anti-White rhetoric when the identities flip are now treating this as grounds for expulsion, doxxing, death threats, and career destruction,” read the campaign, created by Tom Hennessey. “This is the pattern.”

The fundraiser, Hennessey said, is to “cover lost income or opportunities, and anything else required so she does not have to fold. No apologies. No ‘I didn’t know.’ No bending the knee.”

Hennessey added that he has the “right to cancel this fundraiser if Lauren disavows our support and bends the knee.”

As of publication, the fundraiser has raised more than $24,000 of its $50,000 goal, with many of the anonymous donors showing their support for the student.

“Never apologize to the mob. They get off on tearing people down,” wrote one person, while another said: “Don’t let them bully you, be strong!”

In a statement to Action News 5, Alaina Kunes identified herself as one of the students involved and admitted her behavior was “insensitive, inappropriate, and deeply harmful,” while telling ABC 24 that before the incident, she had “never met the women involved and was unaware of their race.”

Fellow student Jakiyra Metcalf posted a TikTok video last week that went viral. In the footage, three women are seen walking past the door, with two of them appearing to make monkey-like noises and gestures into the camera as they pass.

Metcalf, 18, and her roommates appeared on CBS Mornings on Wednesday, November 11, to speak out about the incident.

While the group explained how Kunes — who has since withdrawn from the university — apologized, they said the other woman in the video “continued to make the gestures after the girl was apologizing,” adding: “It was like a slap in the face.”