A student reportedly from the University of Cambridge has appeared in a video showing a group of people making monkey noises in reference to a black former high school classmate currently studying at the University of Bristol.

The video, highlighted in a Tab report, was released online via the social media platform Snapchat on Thursday 22nd December at The Elms, a popular pub in Leigh-on-Sea, Essex. It shows two men being filmed using racial slurs.

Alongside noises imitating monkeys, the group can be heard saying, “he swings where he wants”.

The Cambridge student linked to the video reportedly deleted his Facebook after the video went viral.

Timi Ariyo, the victim in this incident, spoke about the video: “What he has done is horrible and shouldn’t be allowed in today’s society, but unfortunately he has been able to get away with it for years as no one talks about it.”

Timi spoke to Varsity about the nature of the comments: “They show a true hatred and pure racism, and the passion with which he is chanting shows the kind of person he is.

“They didn’t think it would come round to bite them. They’re like this all the time, they blocked us on everything but they slipped up.

“They posted it on Snapchat, publicly for everyone we know to see. This just shows that they’re not embarrassed.”

Timi stressed the importance of encouraging others who have had similar experiences to come forward: “The conversation needs to be started and people shouldn’t feel like they can do these things with no consequences.

“I hope it urges universities – especially Cambridge – to stand up and speak out against these kinds of things and show that they have a zero-tolerance policy for this kind of behaviour.”

The incident was reportedly unprovoked. Timi saw the video when a mutual friend who showed it to him.

According to Timi, however, this is not an isolated case. He claims that it is part of a string of other racist incidents reportedly attacking him and his friends on Facebook, Twitter and Whatsapp.

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On Twitter, Timi has been targeted with names including “Bubbles”, “BoBo” and “Shit-Flinger” after referring to the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement.

Timi responded in a Facebook post to the racial slurs he has received: “These are the same people that proclaim they are not racist, and when it comes to conversation about BLM they revert to racist slurs.

“If you keep bad company and do not reprimand their behaviour, you are just as bad as them. Tell yourself you are not racist or that ‘all lives matter’, if that makes you feel better.

“I am no longer going to tolerate or involve myself with the people who behave or are associated with those who behave like this.”

A friend of Timi, Tami Mercy Sotire, also studying at Bristol and who joined the same secondary school at the age of 16, has also experienced racial harassment on Facebook: “In April 2016, I made a post about a video that was sourced from ‘Let’s Talk: The Whiteness Project’.

“The video said that white Christian men are the most oppressed in America and contained other racist statements.

“The post I made attracted [the student] and his friends to troll and harass my Facebook page even though I wasn’t friends with them. The post got about 600 comments in the end before the video was deleted.”

Timi and Tami have both experienced racial harassment on different social media platforms over the course of several months.

The second-year psychology student told Varsity how these experiences have affected her: “I have depression, so it dramatically affected my social anxiety and the frequency of my panic attacks.”

Tami noted that instead of being taken seriously, she was seen as “just an angry black woman”.

She continued: “It’s funny that before I stood up and condemned racist behaviour I was seen as the girl who could take a joke and who you could ‘banter’ with. Now we’re here. It’s a shame but racists should not feel invincible and racism should not be tolerated.”

A spokesperson from the University of Cambridge said: “The collegiate University is committed to the welfare and safety of all its students, and expects all members of its community to treat others with respect and consideration at all times, and to act within the law.

“Any criminal behaviour should be reported to the police”