A handful of students caused a bit of a stir on the University of Mississippi campus last night, when their impromptu protest of President Obama's victory sparked rumors of post-election riots. Police were called to break up the crowd that was reportedly throwing rocks, burning Obama-Biden signs, and using racial slurs to denounce the election results. However, the worst of that behavior was mostly unconfirmed and even the Jackson Clarion-Ledger had to resort to putting riot in scary quotation marks.

Ole Miss, of course, doesn't exactly have the best track record when it comes to racial harmony, and that legacy no doubt fueled the idea of angry white kids revolting against a black president. However, judging by the raw video of the incident it seems more like a few drunk college students acting like idiots alongside even more kids who just wanted to see what all the fuss was about. Twitter user @BIGSMOOV012 posted a picture of a "riot breaking out," but it mostly just looks like a bunch of kids standing harmlessly on a street corner.

No one is going to pretend that racism doesn't exist at Ole Miss (as it does in many other places.) After all, this video of an Ole Miss frat boy shamelessly using slurs at a football tailgate is just three years old. But the mass destruction and chaos like the kind that was predicted in the wake of an Obama loss—which was its own brand of racism—just didn't come to pass. No matter how dumb college kids continue to act.

Want to add to this story? Let us know in comments or send an email to the author at dbennett at theatlantic dot com. You can share ideas for stories on the Open Wire.
Dashiell Bennett