Donors Have Given Nearly $100K To Ole Miss ‘Monkey Noises’ Student – On One Condition

Last week, two women were caught on a Ring camera making monkey noises outside an apartment shared by three black Ole Miss students. One apologized – and is no longer a student. The other one has not apologized, and instead has a GiveSendGo page about to bust through $100,000 – which its organizer says he’ll pull the moment she says sorry.

“Stand with Lauren,” launched Tuesday by Tom Hennessey for Lauren Mayfield, who has been identified online and in news reports as the second woman in the clip, stood at $98,709 Friday morning. It started with a $20,000 goal and sat at about $19,300 on Wednesday. The goal has since been bumped to $50,000, then $100,000, and donors are now about $1,300 short.

“She did nothing wrong. She did not assault anyone. She did not break any law. She made noises in a public walkway,” the page reads, calling the backlash a “campus bureaucracy and online mob treating a juvenile stunt as a hate crime because the residents were black.” It says the money will “cover lost income or opportunities, and anything else required so she does not have to fold.”

The page is just as clear that this is about more than Mayfield: “Donate so the next girl (or guy) who gets the same treatment has a reason not to issue the scripted statement.” And there’s a catch: “I reserve the right to cancel this fundraiser if Lauren disavows our support and bends the knee.”

Mayfield hasn’t said anything publicly, including whether she wants the money. The university hasn’t named any of the students, saying conduct records and any discipline are protected by federal privacy law.

The 13-second clip, timestamped 8:37 p.m. on Friday, Nov. 6, was posted to TikTok by Ole Miss student Jakiyra Metcalf with the caption “What do we have to say about this??” Three white women walk past her door; two of them turn to the camera and make monkey noises, one beating her chest, while the third keeps walking. Metcalf later said the women live upstairs. The video had been viewed more than 12 million times by Monday, according to ABC News.

Metcalf and her two roommates told CBS News they went outside to confront the women. By their account, Alaina Kunes apologized and told them the group had done the same thing at four doors, adding, “We didn’t mean any harm.” The roommates said they never saw the women go to any other doors, and that one of the others kept making the noises after the confrontation.

Kunes, an 18-year-old freshman, apologized publicly Tuesday in a statement through her attorneys, calling her actions “insensitive, inappropriate, and deeply harmful.” She said she’d never met the residents and was unaware of their race, and that she and her family have received death threats. The university has since confirmed to Memphis’ Action News 5 that she’s no longer a student, and a source close to her told NBC News she withdrew. Hennessey’s page calls her statement “the standard groveling apology.”

Online sleuths also tied Kunes to Kunes Auto Group, a Wisconsin dealership chain. Her attorneys say her father, Scott Kunes, “is not a part of Kunes Auto Group,” and the company says she has “no employment, ownership, or professional affiliation” with it.

Ole Miss’ Alpha Phi chapter issued a statement saying the women named online “are not members of Alpha Phi and have never been affiliated with our organization,” after posters apparently confused them with members who have similar names. The university warned that “sharing unverified information can cause additional harm to people who had nothing to do with what occurred.”

Vice Chancellor Shawnboda Mead called the behavior in the video “deeply troubling, hurtful, and unacceptable” and said the incident is “being actively investigated by the appropriate university offices.” The complex is off campus, but the university leases student housing there. The ACLU of Mississippi told TMZ it is reviewing complaints, though it hasn’t determined whether any laws were broken.

In May 2024, a white Ole Miss student was filmed making monkey noises at a black protester during a pro-Palestinian demonstration on campus. His fraternity, Phi Delta Theta, expelled him, and the university opened a conduct investigation.

On the Mayfield page, donors are leaving notes like “You didn’t do anything wrong” and “Chin up beautiful. College is a scam anyway.” Some argue the women were making noises at several doorbell cameras rather than singling out black residents; critics have asked whether the three residents have gotten anything comparable, and how the money will actually be used.

In May 2025, Minnesota mom Shiloh Hendrix was filmed calling a 5-year-old black boy the n-word at a Rochester playground. She said she was justified, launched a GiveSendGo with a $50,000 goal and cleared $600,000 within days. “The latest race-baiting story followed the cancel culture script right up until the twist ending. Shiloh Hendrix didn’t apologize,” the Daily Wire’s Matt Walsh wrote at the time, while civil rights groups called the fundraiser a reward for bigotry.

Hendrix was found guilty this summer and sentenced to probation, a $1,000 fine and 200 hours of community service. She plans to appeal, and her page has since passed $920,000, according to Newsweek. A separate fundraiser for the boy’s family raised $341,594 before it was closed at the family’s request.