A white student harassed black classmates at Columbia University on Sunday, shouting “white people are the best thing that happened to the world,” according to the Columbia Daily Spectator.

Witnesses told the student newspaper that Julian von Abele was harassing a group outside the Butler Library and then followed them to a campus dining spot while using racist language.

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The incident was captured on video and has been viewed more than 1 million times as of Monday morning. The university denounced the “racially charged incident.”

The student said in the video that white people “built modern civilization” and “did everything.”

“I don’t hate other people, I just love white men,” he said.

Deans at the university addressed the situation by issuing a statement Sunday and inviting students to publicly discuss the incident on Monday evening.

One student who was harassed said they wished the university would do more.

“I really hope that Columbia takes further action," Kwolanne Felix told the Spectator. "They should definitely try to talk to the students that were affected by that and ensure everyone’s OK because that’s really hard to internalize."

Von Abele later said in a statement to The Associated Press he was "theatrically and sarcastically demonstrating that whites are not allowed to embrace their cultural achievements."

"I regret that I subsequently engaged in an exchange that was admittedly overzealous and was not the right venue to discuss the value of identity politics," he added.

--This report was updated on Dec. 13 at 9:55 a.m.