Football bigotry scandal 2013

Chad Washington

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 . 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 . Alcohol was involved.

The day after NBC broke that news, WKCR compiled an Imgur album of racist, sexist, and homophobic tweets by several members of the football team, including a captain. 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.

This prompted a news firestorm—nearly 1000 Bwog comments, and some Spec ones, 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 released mealy-mouthed statements. Coach Pete Mangurian wrote a more substantive blog post about it . In an email to Spectator, rising captains released a statement, too. But since the news of the tweets (which had been ongoing for 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.

External Links

• Bwog's post on Washington's alleged hate crime.
• Spec's article on Washington's alleged hate crime.
• Bwog on WKCR Sports's Twitter dump
• WKCR's show the night of the Twitter dump
• Yahoo Sports on the tweets
• Deadspin on the tweets
• ESPN on the story
• Chad Washington's Go Columbia Lions's page