Football bigotry scandal 2013
Issues of bigotry on the football team arose late in spring 2013. On May 8, NBC broke the story that Chad Washington, CC '15 and defensive lineman, had been charged with aggravated harassment as a hate crime [1]. Allegedly, he and several football teammates shouted slurs at a 19-year-old Asian student and his friends, saying "You're an Asian pussy. Why don't you hit yourself you Asian pussy." When the Asian student protested, Washington said to him "You're an Asian pussy. Why don't you hit yourself you Asian pussy [2]. Alcohol was involved.
The day after NBC broke that news, WKCR compiled an Imgur album of 46 racist, sexist, and homophobic tweets by several members of the football team, including a captain[3]. The following day, WKCR released a second album proving that Athletics's official football Twitter account followed and interacted with the players' accounts, proving that they knew of their existence[4].
This prompted a news firestorm—nearly 1000 Bwog comments, and many on Spec, too. A lot of grown-up media picked up the story. Sam Tydings of WCKR talked to Yahoo Sports Radio and NBC New York about the story. Students expressed concerns about a culture of bigotry on the football team.
Athletics and Student Affairs were slow to released mealy-mouthed statements. Coach Pete Mangurian wrote a more substantive blog post about it [5]. In an email to Spectator, rising captains released a statement, too[6]. But since the news of the tweets (which had accrued over years) broke off-season and after spring training ended, Athletics did not have to take immediate action. The incident was quickly forgotten as finals arrived, and no more statements were released.
Given how tightly M. Diane Murphy keeps Athletics's image in line, it was surprising that she did not clamp down on the players' Twitter accounts.
Selected Football Tweets
Thomas Callahan, CC '15 and offensive lineman
References
- ↑ http://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/Columbia-Football-Player-Arrest-Asian-Harassment-206469211.html
- ↑ http://gothamist.com/2013/05/09/columbia_hate_crime_victim_allegedl.php
- ↑ http://imgur.com/a/iMGQm/all
- ↑ http://imgur.com/a/BDiza
- ↑ http://petemangurian.wordpress.com/2013/05/09/this-is-not-who-we-are/
- ↑ http://spectrum.columbiaspectator.com/sports/senior-football-captains-respond-to-last-weeks-events