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Nancy Gordeuk, principal and founder of TNT Academy in Lilburn, Georgia,  made statements so outlandish and racist at the school’s graduation ceremony that it caused the majority of people in attendance to walk out.

Gordeuk ended the graduation ceremony by accident without first allowing the valedictorian to speak. Once she realized her error, she attempted to stop people from leaving, going so far as to tell someone to close the doors of the First Baptist Church of Lilburn where the ceremony took place. She then said that the audience was the “rudest people I’ve ever seen in my life.”

Once it became apparent that it would be difficult to get people to return to the ceremony, Gordeuk completely lost it.

Gordeuk first called a Black man who allegedly went to the front of the audience to take pictures or record something with his iPad a “goober” and a “little coward.” Then she went in, starting with the most stereotypical characterization of Black people that racist White people make:

You people are being so rude to not listen to this speech,” Gordeuk said. “It was my fault that we missed it in the program. Look who’s leaving, all the Black people.”

At that point, the crowd erupted. Most attendees, both Black and White, appear shocked by her statements and most of the Black people in attendance immediately got up and began to walk out. They were followed by some White people who appeared to be escaping the conflict.


Watch NewsOne Now guest host Mo Ivory and the NewsOne Now Straight Talk panel discuss Nancy Gordeuk’s offensive comments.


“She named only Black people. She didn’t say, ‘Oh look at the Caucasians leaving, look at the Indians leaving,’ she said Blacks,” Brooklyn Jacobs said.

Gordeuk apparently forgot to mention that the first people to leave were White.

Jessica Jaglois, a reporter with Georgia’s Channel 2, tracked down Gordeuk who offered a tepid non-apology for her statements.

“So I introduced him, he started speaking, then a man, he was Black, had came across carrying his tablet back and forth filming the students in front,” Gordeuk said. “…Who I saw leaving were Black people so that’s where the statement came from, ‘look who’s leaving, all the Black people.”

I’m sorry it happened, so sorry. But God has forgiven me and we’ll just go forward from there. It was not a statement of racism. It was just my frustration.”

Gordeuk’s White tears have already started because she claims she’s received death threats because of her racist statements.

“I haven’t slept any,” Gordeuk said. “I haven’t eaten.”

Cue the smallest violin available.

It seems really difficult for some White people to understand that intentions do not decide what is racist. Just because she was “frustrated” does not excuse her. More importantly, students have reportedly been complaining about her bigotry for quite some time and feel validated that she was finally caught on tape.

Perhaps, a “Whites Only” policy for her school would have saved her all of this trouble, since that seems to be her preference. It’ll be interesting to see if she’s fired from the school she founded. If they were smart, she’d be fired already.

Watch Gordeuk’s non-apology below.