286 Comments
Chad Washington
Chad Washington, CC ’15 and football defensive lineman, has been charged with a hate crime. According to NBC, he allegedly threatened, followed, and physically harassed an Asian student on Saturday night. A Public Safety office witnessed what happened, but ignored it because “he thought it was a group horsing around.” Washington “faces a felony charge of aggravated harassment as a hate crime.” He may have been with four other people, who are being investigated.
Washington recently wrote an op-ed for Spec titled “Athletes Deserve Respect.” From Washington’s Spec op-ed:
Most of my fellow students at Columbia feel so divided from athletes because, once again, sports have never been a part of their life. During Friday nights in high school, they were probably in the library and not at the football game. During the Homecoming pep rally, future Columbia students were most likely working on extra homework and problem sets.
Update: An informal statement from Wilfred Chan regarding the administrative response to the incident is below, taken from his comment on the recent post on certain football players’ racist Tweets. Apparently, the assault occurred earlier in the week, but was only reported by outside media recently.
Just an informal update: as reported above, Tim Qin, Abdul Rafay Hanif, David Fine, and I spoke to Dean Melinda Aquino of the Office of Multicultural Affairs this afternoon. We have learned that the victim was assaulted earlier in the week, not yesterday, but is under a lot of stress and initially declined a community-wide email notification, which administrators complied with to protect his privacy. The administration’s priority has been focused on caring for the victim and dealing with the alleged suspect.
The first University statement, released last night, was drafted by Columbia’s Communications office when they found out that the story had been reported on by outside media Wednesday. There is currently a second statement being drafted by administrators that is more directed towards the student community, and this is being collaboratively written by administrators from the Communications office to the President’s office to the Athletics dept to Student Affairs to the Office of Multicultural Affairs. Dean Aquino acknowledged that it is a difficult statement to craft because of the ongoing nature of the investigation. However, we urged her to make sure the statement includes – at the very least – a condemnation of racism, sexism, and associated acts of violence. We also urged her to make sure the statement does not gloss over the concerns of affected student communities, particularly the Asian and Asian Pacific American student community.
My sense is that Dean Aquino was receptive and that she will hopefully advocate for us. I don’t know when the statement will be released, though I hope it’s soon. Regardless of whether this statement ever materializes, I hope students of all colors will stand in solidarity behind anti-racism and anti-sexism. I also ask people to be mindful of what the victim is going through at this time.
Photo via GoColumbiaLions
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286 Comments
@honestly like What are the atheletes doing for this school? I come from a background where brilliant people are turned down all the time to Ivy Leagues- and every spot taken by a football player is one less for somebody who will come to Columbia, use its resources, and make something productive out of this education. I have always resented the “segregated” treatment of atheletes in admissions, academics, and social life like they do something great for all of us. The football team isn’t even good, it loses all the time, and now it appears we are wasting our resources, space, and money on racists and bigots. This is fucking embarrassing.
@Anonymous so what happened?
@Anonymoose Hate crime charges were dropped. Weird.
@Jaded Graduate Student @2013:
Idk why my comment should up here, but rowing is seriously the best. Wish I could have done that in undergrad.
@Jaded Graduate Student This kid sounds like an uneducated asshole, NOT that he IS an uneducated asshole. Immaturity and stupidity at its best. I hope he learns from this experience though.
@Mark Isn’t it weird how everyone on here is complaining about the generalizations made by a select few student athletes, while at the same time almost every single person on here is making generalizations about the entire student athlete population? haha and I thought non athletes were supposed to be smarter…
@Chad Washington yeah so what. i do what i want on this campus because im bigger, stronger, and smarter than anybody else here. little bitches cant lift for shit, so he got what was coming to him. this is MY CAMPUS
shit got what he deserved for trying to keep me from getting pussy. i get pussy ALL DAY ERRY DAY
@Angry Black Student As a black student who worked his ass off through high school and got in for a reason other than my ability to throw a ball and wrestle with men, I’d like to just iterate how fucking irate I am about this asshole has succeeded in perpetuating the hyper-masculine, disrespectful stereotype of black people.
I don’t give a shit about athletes. Some of them are cool. Some of them can go fuck themselves. This guy didn’t do this because he’s an athlete; he did it because he’s behind a few steps in evolution.
This is going to sound terrible, but you can tell when a person is intelligent enough to actually have the mental capacity to be civil. He looks like a monkey (seriously, look at his picture), acts like a monkey–I GUESS HE’S A MONKEY!
This is why affirmative action and athletic recruitment shouldn’t exist here or anywhere. I was admitted without disclosing my race on my application; were the guise of “LOL DIVERSITY IS IMPORTANT,” was done away with and admittance was through merit alone, this school would be a better place. “but there wouldn’t be as many cultural representations on campus ;'(” No, go fuck yourself. Trading in shining examples of “diversity” like Chad “muh dick” Washington for any of the many more qualified and more appreciative white applicants that had been rejected to make room for “diversity”would be doing a favor for all students on campus–white, black, purple, or fucking rainbow–that are actually here to learn.
Fuck.
@Angry Black Student Yeah, I made typos. Yeah, I’m mad.
@look dude relax.
you sound a little wound up so take a second to think clearly about what you just said, and whether or not you meant it.
It’s finals. incidents like this combined with a generous amount of self-imposed stress can make people say really silly things while remaining hidden behind the internet (many props to Millie for his post here)
@white applicants? many more qualified and more appreciative white applicants?
they’d probably be asian tbqh
@Dezmond There are so many things I want to say:
(1) To everyone defending the football players, being called racist, homophobic, sexist or (god-forbid) a jerk, is not the same as racism, homophobia, or sexism. One is discrimination grounded in literal centuries of both interpersonal and structural violence. The other is one person calling you a name you don’t like because you think you (or your friend) is a good person. Setting aside the fact that we are usually not be best judges for our own actions or those of our closest friends, I admit, being called racist, homophobic, sexist, etc. when you are “not” can be very uncomfortable. But they’ll get over it. They really will. They should use that discomfort to take a critical look at their own actions and complicity.
(2) It isn’t surprising that this discussion is centered around the two men, stereotypes of strength/power, racial stereotypes connected masculinity and criminality, hyper-sexuality, etc. And while this is all good and important and what not, I don’t think enough people are talking about the gendered racism that was directed at these two women. While I don’t think anyone on here condones said violence, the fact that no one is up in arms demonstrates how dealing with/talking about racism that affects women is often made secondary to or erased by dealing with/talking about racism that affects men. Has this sort of violence become so normalized that we accept it as mundane, and if so, what other sorts of gendered, racialized acts of violence are we not paying attention to? Furthermore, what are the origins of this violence and that are the complexities that produce the situation where, as someone crudely put it, “even black people can be racist”?
(3) I know too much not to understand that the black body (male or female) makes the perfect scapegoat. So I will always have my bias of skepticism, just as everyone else will have their bias of whatever the fuck. And not all biases are created equal (that was intentional). But even so, I would much rather see this lead to intra- and inter- group discussions of racism AND sexism AND homophobia AND how theses are not isolated phenomena. That’s all. But ain’t no body willing to make time for that so…
(4) Go to sleep y’all, it’s finals week.
@Anonymous this is ridiculous and should not be a hate crime. you should be allowed to say whatever you want. you liberals are idiots now-a-days
@Stranded Conservative A license for concealed carry could have cleared this all up.
No, seriously, this is ridiculous. The Asian kid should have ripped a kick into that animal’s nuts. He’s a disgrace to the school, the football team, and humanity.
@Stranded Conservative My apologies for the double post.
@Lone Conservative This is where licenses for concealed carry come in useful.
@ginger bunny cc'15 Down with the footballers! Can you stop embarrassing us and have a winning fucking season for once?
@bro use ur head @Anonymous: correlation is not causation, dumbass.
@Reminder As you read through these comments, just remember in your Chad Washington and crew bashing that not all athletes are racist dumb assholes. If you blindly charge athletes with being jerks I’d argue you’re not *that* much different from any bigot that assigns a value to a person based on arbitrary characteristics. It wasn’t the sport that changed their views. They alone should be accountable for their actions, not the whole athlete community. So if you see an athlete don’t turn your nose up at them and assume they’re a dick. Might sound silly but sometimes people forget that.
…bash appropriately my friends.
@just want to point out. . . . . Columbia is full of ill informed generalizing ________(insert word of choice. trying to keep it PG). They love to base the actions of just a few people tarnish the name of an entire group granted i do think that most of the football players are just tools but i have actually interacted with a bunch of them.
@anon and they said that the frats are racist scum bags
@Anonymous It wasn’t racially motivated. Fucking think people. We don’t know exactly what he said to the girls. How do we know the victim didn’t use racial slurs against Chad? We don’t have the full story at all and people are calling this a hate crime? Some football players say something to two girls, the kid mouthed off to the (probably drunk) football players and he said something back. No one was hurt. The kid could’ve walked away and never seen Chad again but he decided to be a typical liberal rat NARP and say something that could potentially ruin Chad’s career all because he hurt his feelings? GET THE FUCK OVER IT! Turn the other cheek. He didn’t hurt you. He was probably pissed he got embarassed in front of the two girls. Hmm how can I get payback? Accuse him of a hate crime! Please.
@thaddeus duffy Last I checked freedom of speech was legal in this country. Assault, on the other hand, is not.
That being said, it is hard to discern who the bigger imbeciles are in this case: people who come to this country, get educated, disregard America’s history and fundamental value of freedom of speech, then leave to go back to wherever they came from with their Ivy League degree, or those who assault them. In either case, they both get F’s, something that no one here seems to want, ever.
@Swan Song “To generalize is to be an idiot.” –William Blake
@Anonymous I read the comments on this story, and the NBC and ESPN coverage. Why is the fact that Chad plays football important? Why is the fact that the victim is Asian important?
@Kyle Stupi As a former Columbia football player and graduate, it makes me sick at some of the comments made by so many people generalizing football players and Columbia athletes in general. We are all a apart of the same Columbia family whether we play sports or music or lead club in campus or just hang out on the steps with our friends. At the end of our 4 years we all get the same exact diploma, athlete or not because we all out the work in for it. Sure there are some athletes that aren’t the best of characters, but for every one of them, there are 100 great human beings who deserve to be at Columbia who are great athletes, students, and characters. As a former teammate of Chad, it makes me sick that people generalize him and make comments when they don’t even know him. Did anyone mention that Chad has participated in our Toys for Tots program for 2 years or that he regularly attends our team prayer group? Or that to my knowledge he hasn’t missed any practices or meetings ever? Im not saying he did or didnt do anything, but don’t judge someone unless you know them and their story. We are all lions, we are all a community. Lts act like it
Kyle Stupi
CC12 football
@Um I think it’s incredibly noteworthy that your rallying cry is “we’re all #insertsportsmascothere.” We’re Columbians. Never have I heard anyone other than an athlete refer to our community as “lions.”
Again, not seeking to bash all athletes and I readily recognize how upsetting it must be to see so much anger rising against athletics on campus, but hopefully from this minor discrepancy you can begin to appreciate how deeply-rooted this divide actually is. And the fact that you have this semi-coddled existence from the get-go and STILL GET TO WALK OUT OF HERE WITH THE SAME DEGREE we put such a different kind of effort into is the very thing that bothers many people in the first place.
@wowwwwwww Just to be clear: I believe what Chad did was wrong and the appropriate measures should be taken. I just wanted to comment about this atmosphere created by this entire situation.
I do not understand what the big deal is if one person refers to himself as a “lion” or as a “Columbian” – either way, the fact that you see a difference between the two is what is maintaining the “divide” that many people cannot seem to get over. Kyle’s point is that the atmosphere people create when situations like this happen is unhealthy and hurtful to both sides – another reason why this “divide” cannot seem to heal (although I don’t completely agree with everything he says). I do believe that as a community, we should not tolerate racism/discrimination/bigotry of any kind – but assumptions made about the rest of the athletic community or the rest of the student body are unnecessary and detrimental to any type community building.
Also, the fact that athletes and non-athletes put very different efforts into their degrees does NOT mean that one person’s efforts are better than another’s. From what I can see, an athlete who says non-athletes have all the time in the world to make straight A+’s and anything less than a 4.0 is unacceptable and a non-athlete saying that athletes don’t deserve to be here because they’re dumb and can’t win (and are taking spots away from more deserving people) are both whining. Neither side is justified and making such assumptions – students who aren’t in athletics are usually involved in other extra curricular activities and students who are athletes actually have a pretty high average GPA…. (compared to the rest of the student body).
I understand that what happened is wrong (and in no way do I condone physical or verbal abuse) – all I ask is for everyone to respect the rest of the athletic community and not assume that all athletes act the same way. This can only be an eye opener – I can only hope that we can treat each other with respect (athlete or not) and not continue to create another atmosphere of hate and disrespect. Discriminating towards athletes is the same as discriminating for race, gender, sexual orientation – you make the victim FEEL BAD for who they are, which is in no way acceptable. Making someone who identifies as an athlete feel bad for playing a sport (that they are probably very passionate about – especially if they are still on the team at Columbia when they are not bounded to any contract and can quit anytime) is the SAME as making racist comments, or insulting someone for their sexual orientation.
So please, as Aretha Franklin says, all I’m asking for is “a little respect.” BAM.
-Just another CC 2015 student
@omg @Kyle Stupi: WOW he did toys for tots??? FOR TWO YEARS??? that totally makes up for his racist tweets, the way he sexually harasses women in mcbain (i am a female who lives here) and the hate crime! we never said that he hasn’t done anything good in his life – but he makes spaces unsafe for me and plenty of other students on campus on a day to day basis. Sorry, but that overrides a small amount of community service done over the holidays…
@Django Unchained Washington has a good jewish lawyer, so we know for damns sure he is going to get off.
@Cool Runnings Washington has a good jewish lawyer, so we know for damns sure he is going to get off.
@Not a whole lot will agree with me but Am I the only one who thinks this is getting blown out of proportion? It appears no one was seriously hurt, and some asshole said some bad things to two women and then said some mean things to another guy. I’m not saying what he did wasn’t wrong, but to throw him in jail? To possibly ruin his academic career? I think thats too much.
I wonder if this all would have happened if this was instead an altercation between an average-build white guy and an average-build asian guy. Did the fact Washington was a large black man play any part in all of this? I’m not saying it did, all I want to do is caution this community in making a bunch of assumptions before we know all the details of the case. Initially bwog reported Washington was charged with a felony, and now we hear its a misdemeanor. I hope we can moderate our reactions going forward; we don’t want another nutellagate on our hands
@Anonymous Are you seriously trying to compare racial aggression to stolen nutella??
@Anonymous Are you really going to play the race card in defense of Chad? He used physical force in a racially motivated attack against another student. In my opinion, there is no defense for him and he should be prosecuted to the full extent of the law for his hate crime.
@Anon Hate crimes are notoriously difficult to prove.A prosecutor would have to show that Washington’s reason for assaulting the victim was the victim’s race. Using racially charged speech does not necessarily constitute a hate crime. From what we know about the case, it seems unlikely to me that Washington was motivated by race, since what prompted his reaction was the victim’s alleged response to his comments about the two women the victim was with at the time. There is reasonable doubt here, thats all I’m saying.
@Are you... here Rich??
@Anonymous She had witnesses. Actual eyewitnesses. And reasonable doubt is less unassailable that it sounds.
@seriously??? @I would prefer: WHO DOWN VOTED THIS???
@you guys don't know shit Chad is a great guy and everyone posting this bullshit about him clearly doesn’t know him. He’s an intelligent athlete who has worked hard to where he is today. None of you witnessed the incident so shut the fuck up.
@Anonymous Barnard Student @Anon: I’d rather have a cheating scandal than a hate crime scandal. Just saying.
@Anonymous http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jYa1eI1hpDE
@Student Athlete Please do not generalize. For one not all student athletes are like this. Do not judge all athletes on the actions of a minority of athletes. There are 31 varsity teams here and around 700 student athletes, the actions of 10 or 20 or even 50 do not speak for the whole. Many athletes at Columbia are great kids who are extremely interesting in developing friendships outside the student athlete community. Some of my best friends are non-athletes. Second, though these people did awful things we should refrain from calling them awful people before all the facts come out. Awful people do exist in this world, but it is also the case that good people can make bad decisions.
@Student Athlete These ridiculous generalizations made by the non-athlete population make me really wonder if they’re as smart as they think they are…
@You are no better I’m not sure how all of the hate most of you commenting on here are exhibiting toward athletes makes you any better than them.
@More CU football player tweets http://imgur.com/a/iMGQm/all
@Anonymous The whole twitter argument is absolutely ridiculous. Who gives a shit if a kid drank another kids piss… how does that affect your life? Oh yeah, it doesn’t. And calling a kid a racist and anti-semite for jokingly tweeting about observations is also ridiculous. I’m 100% sure those tweets were not serious because if you were an intelligent person, which apparently none of you are, you would look at ALL of his tweets collectively. And they are in no means the tweets of a racist. And another thing, you have to accept twitter follower requests. So these “racist” tweets were seen by no more than 300 kids TOPS. He’s not a celebrity making a public statement against minorities, so stop trying to make it something more than it is. I guarantee nothing the kids on the football team did affected ANY of your lives in anyway, besides one kid getting “assaulted.” This seems like a classic case of kids who like to type on blogs getting all worked up about an issue they think they know about, when in reality they know NOTHING and make assumptions from stupid ass movies. You’re slandering these kids names from behind a computer screen without having any correct information. You’re a bunch of unintelligent, wanna-be hacks.
@Anonymous Oh I forgot that rule that says it’s not racist if you’re not a celebrity!
@Ughh You are actually completely inane. Please never tell anyone you attended Columbia University.
@Anonymous @Rich Medina CC ’13:
THANK YOU. Above all else, what really gets me about a lot of athletes (I don’t want to make a categorical judgement, some of y’all are good people and I try to judge based on a case-by-case basis) is that they come to Columbia, which after all is supposedly a prestigious ACADEMIC institution, and bring with them the same bullshit jocks vs. nerds worldview that a lot of us came to CU hoping to escape. If you don’t want to be called meathead idiots, then don’t use un-subtle fucking jabs like “extra homework and problem sets.” Jesus.
@Anonymous Wow http://imgur.com/a/iMGQm#0
@Anon Compilation of some CU football players’ racist and homophobic tweets: http://imgur[dot]com/a/iMGQm#0
@Anonymous Get a life
@Anonymous They sound like a bunch of idiots. I’m very embarrassed for this university… Does anyone know of a graduate school where I will not be associated with this sort of person? Oxford/Cambridge maybe?
@anon. We always lose lose lose;
by a lot and sometimes by a little;
we all were winners at the start;
but four years has taught us all the value of just giving up, cause we really suck; why are we even trying?;
we always lose lose lose;
but we take solace in our booze.
@Anonymous Gallery of Columbia football players and their offensive tweets, doesn’t seem to be just one person
http://imgur.com/a/iMGQm#0
@proudjerseychaser What is equally vile about all of this is the tremendous amount of hypocrisy and ignorance coming from the Columbia community. How can anyone sit there and make such sweeping generalizations about the football team or any other athletic team and not recognize the obvious… THAT YOU’RE STEREOTYPING ALL OF THE ATHLETES AT THIS SCHOOL. The poor decisions made by a few individuals do not define the rest of the athletes. As a nonathlete dating an athlete I have gotten to know some of the kindest people who have treated me with more respect than have many of the nonathletes at this school, and yet you choose to highlight the stupidity of two football players and call the whole team a bunch of ass holes and animals. It’s ignorant and unnecessary and only serves to perpetuate the divide between athletes and nonathletes. What Chad has done is disgusting, but it’s also pretty disgusting to denigrate the entire football team because of his actions. You can’t criticize someone for stereotyping, and then proceed to stereotype others. That’s just retarded.
@Anonymous please don’t use the word “retarded” in that context
@Anonymous why does that matter?
@TEAMCHAD I feel that the comments on this post are disgusting. This incident has been taken out of context and blown out of proportion. What happened was not properly recorded, and what is going on is being blatantly tilted away from Chad’s favor. This does not show how Columbia students should come together, instead is showing racism toward an African American student who happens to be a tall and fit man. I know him personally, and I know he is not racist and he does not discriminate. I will not excuse any physical force being used, but I will say that being charged with a felony after a misunderstanding is sad. There is no support for Chad or his side of the story. There is a disregard for getting the whole truth. Columbia, as an institution, has let this story become highly publicized. They have let Chad’s name and picture appear in the news and get slandered. I am appalled by the reaction of the campus and of students, who obviously do not know the whole situation or Chad as a person.
@Ewww Get out of here with this BS. Chad was not the victim of racism in this situation. He committed a hate crime, and should be charged accordingly. Chad harassed two innocent young women, and then proceeded to attack a young man who stood up for them. He is indefensible!
#teamchadisgross
@... Not tryna get into all of that, but this vine from Chad Washington is too perfect:
https://vine.co/v/bUhIwzABKqY
@A non-athlete I really don’t know the details of this situation, and it certainly does seem like there was wrongdoing here, but how can we consider ourselves such an intellectual institution when we are using this one situation as an excuse to criticize all football players and athletes. Are we not being incredibly hypocritical by performing the same sort of discrimination that this football player did? If every time someone in an organization you were a part of did something wrong, would you want to be judged for it? When we had drug dealers arrested on our campus, did all of us suddenly become druggies? I am in no way defending this students actions, nor racism which is obviously deplorable, but lets not discriminate against all student athletes because of this.
@I wouldn't even Keep lifting and patting yourself on the back for being a football player. You’ve probably blown a chance to work for the kid who you harassed. I’m sure he could’ve given you a good job man.
@Ewww How can you defend someone who is indefensible? Not only is he a racist, but he is a sexist as well.
I’m proud of that young Asian man for standing up against racism and sexism!
@Ewww I cannot believe people are defending this a**hole. Discrimination is wrong. Hurling racial slurs is wrong. Finally, harassing young women in the street is also wrong.
I glad this young man is being incarcerated. He is a disgrace to the Columbia community.
@Anonymous http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J3mwfISsvnI
@Anonymous if you think lifting weights puts you in the fifth circle of hell, then you are pathetic.
@TC @ColumbiaLionsFB offensive lineman @thomaspcallahan deleted his Twitter account.
feel the heat, MF!
@Anonymous this needs to spark a dialogue about the need to completely revamp columbia public safety
@Ewww I completely agree.
@Anonymous I checked google cache and came up with this:
“There’s an emoji for poop, but not one for black people…”
What a scumbag… I’ll put the image here, but add dots because bwog doesnt allow direct image links
imageshack [dot] us/a/img833/258/48476196 [dot] png
@Sing it, Spec http://eye.columbiaspectator.com/?q=article/2013/03/07/dodge-divide
Worth a read.
@Sing it, Spec http://eye.columbiaspectator.com/?q=article/2013/03/07/dodge-divide
@Public safety This is disgusting and yet another failure of the department. I love to see that my tuition money (gained by taking on massive debt) goes toward paying a ridiculously large number of these degenerates to keep us “safe.” Lee Bollinger, if anything ever happens to you, I hope you are lucky enough to have public safety there to “save” you.
@Anonymous Hearing this I must say this is extremely unlike Chad. And it’s controversy like this that makes me realize just how fucked up some people at Columbia are. Just look at all these comments about how athletes are dumb and don’t deserve to be here. That is just absurd. To everyone bashing athletes about being dumb, maybe you should think about how much they actually do and open your eyes to see that they have just as much stress as us, if not more. Between practice and classes their schedules are full and that is not including other extracurricular activities or jobs that some of these athletes have. Chad is not an idiot that doesn’t deserve to be here. I was not there to say what went on, but I can say that this is unlike Chad and I want to believe that SOMETHING must have been said to provoke this type of behavior. I cannot believe that chad would do this RANDOMLY without cause. For the time being, I hope that the investigation unlocks details that can give us insight into what actually occurred vs speculation. And if he is in fact guilty then may he face the consequences of his actions, but if not then maybe all the fuctards on here talking shit can recant their idiotic statements. That will be all.
@anonymous you’re completely right. He didn’t attack the victim randomly. He was provoked. How? Because the victim dared to call him out for verbally taunting his female friends. The victim challenged his domineering, physical intimidation of women, which provoked the attack. I’m sure if the victim didn’t stand up for his friends and do the right thing, this guy never would have made racial slurs against him. That doesn’t make it right and it doesn’t make it ok.
On a related note, its amazing to me that so many media outlets have neglected to mention that Washington was the aggressor in his verbal assault on two women. This dialogue about hate crimes should not discount hate and bias crimes against women, even if they are only verbal.
@Ewww You are actually an idiot. Provocation is not an excuse for racism. What is Chad’s excuse for harassing the young women who were leaving McBain?
Chad is a tool who deserves to be in jail. He is a racist, sexist piece of garbage that got put in his place.
@CC'14 We shouldn’t throw racist, sexist people in jail because almost all of America would be there. We should send them to programs to rehabilitate them to being a decent fucking human being.
@Just a comment I will say first that I think Chad’s actions are repugnant and deserve punishment. But my comment is directed at others on this board.
It’s amazing to see so many rail against the “anti-intellectualism” of the football team while, in the next cyber breath, shooting down those claiming innocence until proven guilty or maybe some patience before jumping to conclusions. Aren’t you being just as anti-intellectual as chad?
@does anyone know what is Columbia’s policy regarding punishment for hate crimes? I’ve tried finding this information, but all I can find is a website which urges victims to contact Public Safety first (!). They make no mention of the possible consequences of committing hate crimes such as suspension, expulsion, etc. If this person is found guilty, will he be expelled or will he continue to represent our school in a Columbia jersey?
@Anonymous There’s no official information partly because Columbia’s been able to quietly cover up scandals like these in the past, and partially because punishments are often doled out on a subjective basis.
I think that with a good lawyer (see: OIL) the hate crime charges, and possibly even the assault charges will be dropped. In the case of the student that was arrested in 2011, he was kicked off the football team but is still graduating this semester. The main difference is that this incident involves another student instead of a bunch of IDs, so he’ll probably get expelled, or at the least be forced to take a year off.
@Rich Medina CC '13 I’m so glad the football team is finally getting called on all their shit. Granted, this incident should in no way be used to make generalizations about all Columbia athletes, but there is a consistent pattern on this campus of some athletes (particularly football players) actively showing disdain toward their fellow students. Maybe if they feel like there’s a “divide” and they don’t get enough respect, they should start respecting what this school and its students stand for a little bit more. Comments suggesting that Columbia students spent friday nights in high school in the library and skipped pep rallies for “extra homework” (what does that even mean? who does that?!?) don’t help. This is exactly the kind of anti-intellectualism that most of us came to this school to escape. I will never forget my first interaction with a Columbia athlete on my very first night here. A (clearly stoned) football player walked into a room where a bunch of us on my floor were hanging out, getting to know each other, and said, “so, you guys are nerds, huh?” as though he had been placed in some sort of alien environment to observe us. It was the exact attitude that I saw all too often in high school, and all my hopes of escaping that by coming here were crushed. That interaction has, unfortunately, colored my perception of Columbia athletes throughout my four years here. I am one of the few people here that actually go to football games pretty regularly, and I have to say it would be a lot more fun to support our student athletes (even though they lose) knowing that they actually WANT to be here. (Case in point: the Columbia basketball team. You guys are ‘aight and I’d go to one of your games over a football game any day)
@anon Yeah the basketball team is cool everyone ive interacted with on the team has been awesome
@anon Bwog is irresponsible in allowing for comments on a news story on which they don’t have all the details. I mean, was there any type of provocation towards the athlete? Most respectable news sources do not allow for comments on big, developing stories, and for Bwog this is big news. Bwog is a disgraceful, cheap outlet, and it would be understandable if the university considered Bwog a huge, pain in the ass.
@Official PrezBo Memo “Don’t read BWOG”
@Anonymous To the victim: thank you for standing up for your friends, and thank you for having the courage to make this story known.
In the event that the allegations are true, I hope this shit ruins this guy’s football career and his academic career. Particularly at a campus as diverse as Columbia’s, hate crimes cannot be tolerated.
I also hope this results in a further investigation of the football team if there are actually other members participating in racist activities, even if they are as simple as things posted on Twitter.
@Anonymous Dear Asian victim, you deserve to recognized by name. This thread has forgotten your role in this crime. You are not a representative o the Asian culture although it was a hate crime, you are an individual and should be given the respect as an individual. I hope he an his accomplices issue a sincere apology and that the university make some changes, even if small, to suppress these kinda of events. I hope you are doing well and that this does not distract you from your finals preparations.
On a different note, based on my experiences, it seems that no matter what has happened, as long as a black person is involved, there is a frenzy about the injustices made to the black community.
@'14 Has it ever occurred to you that he may not want to be named?
@Anonymous Just because you don’t give a shit about Ivy League sports, doesn’t mean they are a joke or completely irrelevant. Alumni donate thousands of dollars to these programs and take a lot of pride in them.
@Well Done Public Safety Why is the public safety attendant not being charged as an accessory? The man holds a fiduciary position and directly contributed to the victim’s apprehension. Another instance of the failure of public safety. Do we really need them? When was the last time they did anything? Public safety employees do nothing more than call the NYPD, when they even bother to do that as demonstrated in this instance. The behavior of this CU employee is unacceptable and validates my complete lack of respect for the organization as well as the broader University. I hope Columbia gets taken to the cleaners on this one financially.
@Anonymous I think anyone who works at “public safety” is a scumbag by default. One time, I was bleeding out on the street on my way to St. Luke’s and several of them just stared; and many other times, they’ve prevented me from going into dorms.
But this is one case where I don’t think they did anything wrong. Would you have them break up every instance of loud noise on the street, like a hall monitor? Should they be preemptively spying on student interactions to determine that everything is okay? Obviously we don’t know how close to the situation PS was, but in general, expecting PS to keep a closer eye on this would set a bad precedent.
@Anonymous Yo dis foo’ be ignant
@Anonymous very surprising to me that people in these threads are treating anti-athletes sentiment as if it were worse than racism against asians
@CC'14 It’s not a competition. If you don’t address it any area of life, however small, there is no hope of tackling the bigger problem as a whole.
@i thot it wuz @CC15: birdz of a feathr flock 2gethr
@Alumnus “he thought it was a group horsing around”
A group horsing around, but only one charged? Yeah, right.
@Anonymous Kudos to the little Asian kid who stood up against the big black bully. That took guts.
@Anonymous kudos to the little Asian kid who stood up against the big black bully
…because reinforcing racial tropes isn’t cool.
@Anonymous kudos to the little kid who stood up against the big bully
…because reinforcing racial tropes isn’t cool.
@Anonymous kudos to the kid who stood up against the bully
…because being size-ist isn’t necessary
@Anonymous kudos to the ubiquity of kudos.
@Anonymous Not too conspicuous until you realize he has only posted maybe ten status updates the last two years (from Chad’s Facebook):
CJ Washington
Oct 19, 2011 ·
Never try to use a chinatown $3 umbrella in a NYC rainstorm
@ok but this is sound advice
@JJ11 4 Lyfe Yo Honestly it gets me heated as a mothafucka when peoples cant get along like this like yo we just gotta do us but stop cappin’ homies lmao just chillin in the cut
@On the bright side (if there is one), Orgo Night may just become a whole lot more interesting.
@Concerned The same guy keeps posting the victim’s name. Can something please be done about this?
@senior Dear future Columbians – Go out on Amsterdam, not Broadway
@CC'14 Great advice
@Anonymous “Columbia’s provides support to victims and rehabilitation and education based programs for victimizers in a way that enables both individuals to grow and learn from their experiences and become better people”
lol Columbia’s bureaucracy focuses more on covering up these investigations than helping out either parties.
@Anonymous This guy should change his name to Chad Ochocinco like that other douchebag.
@Disgusted this kind of stuff happens all the time and people get away with it..there was an RA in Carman who was harassed for 2 months by football players because they were mad she wrote up one of their parties. They fucking threatened her with gang rape. That shit is unacceptable. And it made me think twice before accepting an RA position for next year.
@CC '13 moral of the story: if you name your child “chad,” there’s a 99% chance he’ll turn out to be a douchebag.
@wtf? can bwog not remove this???
@Yolo Innocent until proven guilty. lets not jump to conclusions
@deadmau5 If this guy does get convicted and is looking for a job in the future, I heard they don’t do background checks for bouncer gigs..heard Mel’s was looking for a replacement
@anonymous there was probably a reason why the victim wasn’t named…
@Anonymous Hope Bwog removes this comment. Trying to further shame the victim by name is possibly the most vile, disgusting thing that we could be doing right now. Looks like Chad’s buddies are still out there
@Anonymous From his op-ed – “When I first decided to respond to the article “The Dodge Divide” in The Eye, I thought about making myself anonymous. I figured I could say whatever I pleased in this response—be as vulgar and angry as I wanted to be—and no one would be able to trace it back to me. ”
Looks like he got his chance to be angry and vulgar. Still got traced back to him though.
@Anon Loosen up.
@Anonymous If you want to see further evidence of racism in football teams, look at Tom Callahan’s twitter (@thomaspcallahan): It’s littered with comments like:
“Asian is such a fucked up language” on Jul 27
“Do Chinese people just call Chinese food ‘food?’ Is there a Chinese word for food, or is it just a bunch of weird noises like other words?” on 24 Nov
“Asian is such a fucked up language #BANGBANG”
“@nytimes: New York’s Jewish Population is Growing Again nyti.ms?KwZalh” #fuckkkkkk” pn 11 Jun
“I can tell I’m on a flight to Jew York by the amount of yamakas boarding the plane” on 24 Mar”
Then general stupidity:
“Getting anally raped would suck. #imadouche” on 16 Jul 11
There is also a lovely video available on his twitter of another Columbia football player drinking this guy’s urine. It’s time we have a serious conversion about the moral rectitude of these athletes. Sorry to say it, but you just don’t see this kind of activity in any other group on campus. Maybe it’s present, but these guys are so fucking stupid they cannot hide their blatant racism.
@ugh Yeah those tweets are ridiculous. They don’t seem real, but I went to his twitter and saw them… Crazy. However, that pee video was definitely fake- I think they drank green tea and said it was pee.
@Anonymous wow, shouldn’t the cu athletics media team be on this?
@Anon Some of these things can’t be called racism, it’s more a problem of mislabeling in for example “Asian is such a fucked up language”. He lumped together all Asian languages and made a judgment about them. The fact that he did not make a distinction between the languages reflects poorly on him whether it was deliberate or because of ignorance. If he had wanted to make a judgment about Mandarin, I think he’d have been in all his right to do so. He could have said something like “Mandarin is an ugly language” if he didn’t like the phonetics of it, and I don’t think that would be racist. Similarly I’ve heard people say things like “Spanish is a grating language, I don’t like it”. So what? People aren’t obliged to like or appreciate everything you consider part of your identity. People aren’t obliged to be culturally enlightened.
“Language X is the language of fucktards”, on the other hand, would be a more reprehensible, racist statement.
@lol I was never more thankful for the rejection hotline the night I met him haha
@Anonymous Yeah man, more money for athletics, that’s just what we need to give us a better feeling of school spirit…
@Anonymous *went to
@Anonymous I bet the university is freaking out the kid who was allegedly assaulted when to NYPD and didn’t try and handle it internally.
@Anonymous And the university deserves it. From the comments here, it sounds like something like this was a long time coming.
@anon I saw him eating chinese food once
@Blunts in Butler Isn’t he so fucking culturally aware?
@Blunts in Butler It looks like this guy needs to take a big toke and chill the fuck out. But actually. Who does shit like this?
@SWP Hello stoner-philosopher,
I believe that your “blunts in butler” lifestyle could be beneficial to the columbia community during this difficult time of the year. Perhaps a few tokes in butler could take the edge off the stress so many students seem to feel. At any rate, please contact us. We have an appealing proposition.
The Student Wellness Project
@Anonymous please tell me this is real. marijuana can be mobilized as a tool for mental health if treated in a mature, responsible manner.
@Anonymous this guy and his friends have been straight assholes every time I’ve seen them either from up close or afar. Drunkenly confrontational, loud, rude, etc, and this incident just seems too classic to write off. Him and his group of football player cohorts have a bullshit attitude that has single handedly led to all the (sometimes) unfair generalizations about athletes, and have made it undeniably hard to NOT form generalizations about the floor they dominate in McBain, where even doing laundry on a weekend night is likely to get you heckled. Not saying this has anything to do with the fact that they are athletes, but it has to do with the fact that they are just a group of dicks. which they are. and you can’t deny that if you want Columbia to respect its athletes, maybe they shouldn’t be PRICKS
@Anonymous @Anonymous: 100% agreed. I avoid the 4th floor like none other. Him and his friends have openly called me a fa*, and are generally incredibly disrespectful. It’s really no wonder why people associate negative opinions about athletes when they act in such a manner.
@Anonymous I completely agree. I avoid the 4th floor of McBain like none other. Him and his friends have openly called me a fa* while I was doing laundry on their floor, and are generally unpleasant to be around. It doesn’t take a genius to understand why people think negatively towards athletes in general – especially when they demand respect and act as the victims of demeaning ‘abuse’ when, in fact (i.e. Chad Washington), they’re the abusers.
@Blunts in Butler His crew scares me. And it’s not because of the shrooms. Why do they feel the need to scream at a nice quiet stoner minding his own business?
@CC'14 I’ve never experienced this at Columbia. I can’t believe I didn’t know about this prick. I feel like if people knew, they would have tore him a new one already.
@Anonymous ironically this fool was in my japanese civ class. so much for gaining a greater appreciation of an asian culture.
@The Chafed Hand hahahahaha! I was in that same class.
@this guy also stole an HDMI cable from my floor one time
but like, the hate crime is worse
@anon IDK HDMI cables are kind of important…
@CC'14 Maybe it was diamond coated
@Kanye-Diamonds (Remix) I don’t endorse the notion that he would be stealing, nor whatever racial stereotypes are playing into that. But this really made me think of these lyrics and I’m gonna drop ’em:
IT’S IN A BLACK PERSON’S SOUL/ TO ROCK THAT GOLD
@Millicent Olawale I dont know the full details of the story but I will say that it is anonymous cowards like the owners of some of the comments above that cause the divide between athletes and non athletes. You dont have to hang out with somebody to show them respect, and quite honestly if you havent figured out that college and the world in general is separated into many “cliques” then you are a little late my friends. Not all “cliques” are bad. The “cliques” that form amongst athletes is a byproduct of most athletes scheduling and the amount of time that they spend together practicing and working out. Being a former student athlete myself, I have been a victim of this undeserved hate and animosity from some non student athletes. I am not going to generalize and say that all non athletes were disrespectful and hateful but there were definitely enough to make me question how many other non athletes shared this irrational and general dislike for us. Anybody remember that article that was written in the Spec in 2006 or 2007 about how Student Athletes didnt belong at Columbia? Talk about not feeling wanted?!?!?! We all go to the same school, so I dont know why there needs to be an athletes vs. non athlete mentality. For every athlete you meet that is a jerk there are ten athletes that are great people and could care less if you played a sport or not.
Its really easy to act and talk recklessly when you cant be held accountable for your words. If you stand by the comments you are making then you should be able to put your name by it.
-Millicent Olawale
CC ’10
@Herm Edwards Put your name it.
@Arsene Wenger That was such a brave post do you play soccer by any chance? We could use some with your mental strength as a Defensive Midfielder for next season. Please respond.
@Anonymous I literally just died. Wenger feels that Ramsey and Arteta are D-mids. It’s really awk
@Anonymous u r so brave ;______;
-President Bollinger
@Neyo Wadsyaname
@Anonymous interested in how this turns out as racism against asians usually aren’t treated seriously
@The Chafed Hand Kind of like how racism against whites isn’t taken seriously?
@Anonymous except whites aren’t a minority
@Anonymous check your privilege
@The Chafed Hand Damn. You got me on a technicality.
@White person Go fuck yourself.
@My two cents, if anyone cares I think it’s easy to jump to the conclusion that he harassed the student (wrong in any case) because he is Asian per se. It’s no secret that Asians are really vocal in calling for higher admissions for their demographic to Ivy League schools, and there is a public perception that their vision of what is merit is restricted to GPA and booksmarts. As such, I think it would be easy for Asians to see student-athletes as undeserving of space in Ivy League institutions. Perhaps the student-athlete that has been charged chose to act after having singled out Asians as a symbol of this hostility. I think he might have chosen him scapegoat, and that it’s not so much a true racial issue.
@literally what in the fuck are you talking about
@To clarify, I think he might have responded aggressively to anyone who would vocally demeaned student-athletes, had that person been black, white, Hispanic. He might have associated academically diligent students with antipathy towards student-athletes, and from among these students he might have chosen Asians as representative of it, unfortunately. But at its core, it might not be a categorical hate against Asians themselves.
@Anonymous You know, there is such thing as the Track button.
@Anonymous He got all of that (academically diligent) by looking at the victim? So he feels the need to heckle those women? Or are you just saying that you think he thinks that Asians are so much more “academically diligent” that all Asians can just be assumed to be better academically than him?
Reevaluate what you just wrote and tell me that makes any sense.
@Anonymous @To clarify,: Just because you said it a second time doesn’t make it any more sensible
@Anonymous im sure the guy’s not really racist, but just an asshole. it doesn’t help asians aren’t intimidating physically and assholes like htis feel compelled to pick on.. regardless things like this should be treated the same way if its other way around
@14 He directed racial slurs at him. If that’s not the definition of being racist, I don’t know what is. I’m disgusted by the people defending him.
@what the fuck? Even if that were true, it would still be a super-racist assumption to make Asians the “symbol” of anti-athlete hostility. Just…..what?
@What is true racism? At a conference once, a Korean guy in the audience was talking about how his family business always placed the customer first. The story is they ran a funeral home and they had various black employees. They basically served the Korean community and whenever there was a funeral people would typically fly in straight from Korea. The managers had the custom of asking the black employees to stay out of sight while the visitors came in because they didn’t want them to be “scared” in their moment of grief as they were not used to seeing black people. I don’t know how he had the gall to say something like that and to maintain that it was justified, but the black people in the audience had to shrug it off; that is hurtful. A black guy in the audience was cool enough to pat him on the back and say: “come on man, you’d be afraid of me”?
Racism is those snap judgments and emotional reasoning based on superficial characteristics of a group of people which might lead to aversion and/or desire to demean that other especially if this is done repeatedly.
@halo we are scared of night by nature.
@14 Who are the idiots proliferating the dumbest comments regarding racism I’ve ever read in my life, and who are the idiots thumbing them up? SERIOUSLY.
@andrew rodriguez Why is the issue of athletics at this school even being mentioned here? If the accusations are true, this guy didn’t do this because he’s an athlete. He did because he’s a piece of shit. Those two things aren’t the same.
@pretending that the culture of athletics/athletes on this campus has nothing to do with this incident is pretty naive, especially considering that the other people involved in the assault were also athletes
@CC '13 but your implied argument (i.e. the argument that you can judge someone based on the group that he belongs to), is the same argument that was/is used to justify racial/religious/sex-based discrimination. in fact, discrimination, by definition, is “treatment or consideration of a person based on the group to which that person belongs rather than on individual merit.” using your logic, one could argue (wrongly) that washington committed this crime because he’s black. the flaws in that argument are obvious, and i want to suggest that the same flaws exist with your argument (i.e. the argument that washington committed this crime in part because he’s an athlete).
you’re probably thinking that it’s wrong to compare a racial group to a group of athletes, but the larger point is that you should never judge someone based on the group he belongs to. as group size increases, that point becomes more and more relevant.
@CC15 True, you can’t group all athletes in one category (obviously!). That said, there is an idiom that goes, “birds of a kind flock together.” Whether this flock is the entire football team or just this group of 5 is up for debate. Also, there is plenty of psychology and social science research supporting that the idiom above is pretty spot on.
@that picky asshole **birds of a feather
@^^ that.
@Anonymous False. It’s hard to get into Columbia. There are a lot of factors including your grades, “extracurriculars”, test scores, and character. But if a team wants you badly enough, Columbia will look the other way. Even if you aren’t such a great person.
@Anonymous Andrew Rodriguez, you sound like an even bigger piece of shit. Just because you’re an identified commenter it doesn’t exempt you from being a piece of shit. Do you feel superior to the footballer somehow? Also, why is there no mention of his accomplices in your comment? You sound like you just wanted to hack the this opportunity to espouse your “holier than thou” attitude under the cover of being a concerned student. It’s amazing how such a blatantly offensive comment could get so many up-votes, which says a lot about the people who read bwog. Andrew, you come off as somebody who’s more interested in having his prejudice/racism validated than as somebody who genuinely cares about the lives of any of the people involved in this unfortunate incident. It’s obvious that you commented just for the sake of commenting because there is nothing of substance to your comment to back up your insult. Take care, Rodriguez, you jaded jive turkey.
@Logan Pirkl Before you start throwing insults around why don’t you stop hiding behind your anonymous status you coward. Andrew’s comment is the most on point one in this whole section. This isn’t a question of athletics anymore than it’s a question of black students. This kind of shit doesn’t happen with most teams. To condemn all athletes based off of this is the same kind of prejudice that causes incidents like this in the first place.
@Wait It’s not a question of athletes OR of black students… it’s a question of this guy.
@spec is a shit “In order for the lifestyle at Columbia to change, Columbia must change.”
Tautology much?
@The Dark Hand wow the spec is bad again committing hate crimes we have to stop them!!!
@true i had a friend go through a shockingly similar experience last year and the university completely hushed it up. i have no idea how our athletics teams has so much administrative sway considering we are nowhere near being a sports school, but i have no doubt that stuff like this happens all the time.
idk. people can talk shit about how this is “ruining this kids life” or “giving columbia bad press” if they want to but i feel way safer on campus knowing that it’s being taken seriously
@CC'14 Damn, I’m really sorry to hear such a thing happened. I’m curious why people would not go to some of the campus media though. I think even the knowledge that this exists at Columbia is lacking, and we could stand to hear and correct it.
@Anonymous This is why Columbia should stop letting athletes into our school. Coming here is a privilege, and I did not work all of those hours in high school to have to sit next dumb ass athletes in class. Good riddance.
@Anonymous simmer down sonny. just because your bony ass can’t manage to run a few laps or get involved in community athletics doesn’t mean you’re the next hawking.
@Anonymous Nice comeback. How long did it take you to memorize it?
@"I didn't work all those hours in high school" lol. There will come a time in your life, sooner than you think, when it will embarrass you to have written that sentence, or ever to have complained about how much work you had to do in high school.
@Anonymous There will come a time in your life when you realized lifting weights and putting them down over and over again was like being in the fifth hell in the Inferno, except you thought you were incredibly cool doing it.
@CC '16 It’s silly to condemn all athletes because of the negative actions of this one. I know athletes who are just as smart as the next Columbia student, getting their work done on time on top of keeping up with games and practices. They also put in hours in high school you know, just because it’s not in the same academic realm that you did does not make it any less of a energy-draining effort. Maybe you got here because you put hours into schoolwork. They put hours into athletic training and practice while managing to keep at least a good academic standing at their schools, I mean they did get into Columbia.
@CC'14 I honestly don’t give two shits about how much training and practice athletes had to put in to get into Columbia. This is, first and foremost, an academic institution. Students with”at least a good academic standing at their high schools” is not what other Columbians came here for. I know a lot of Columbians love to shit on Barnard, but they’re not the problem — these arrogant, ungrateful, unintelligent athletes are.
@CC '16 This kind of attitude is exactly why I decided to de-commit to Brown for lacrosse. Just because an athlete is recruited doesn’t mean that athlete isn’t smart or worthy of getting into Columbia. Get off your high-horse, and think about what you’re saying. I spent 3 hours (at least) a day practicing lacrosse and still managed to get into Columbia based on academics. Don’t shit on an entire facet of Columbia University based on anecdotal experience.
@CC'14 If you were recruited to Columbia, you did not get accepted on the basis of your academics, as you claim to have been. There are completely different standards for athletes, and it is about time you learn to accept this. Obviously, there may have been some students who would have gotten in anyways, but this is what you would call an “outlier,” not the norm. To base your argument on an outlier makes it invalid.
Lastly, I am not shitting on an entire facet of the University; I am criticizing athletes who are obviously “arrogant, ungrateful, and unintelligent.”
@Your feat is admirable! Getting in is not that hard, really. You just have to apply the formula of privilege and/or resume padding, or being a narcissist ego-maniac of which there are many in this school.
@Anonymous Right on! Preach it. This is a UNIVERSITY, not party grounds for kids who throw balls around.
@Anonymous @Anonymous: student-athlete GPA is higher than college average.
@Let's be honest I’m not trying to bash athletes, but let’s make a distinction between individuals who are athletes and individuals who are athletic-recruits. There’s a valid argument to be had over the merit of the athletic recruiting process, and to cry foul over raising such issues is absurd. In any case, clearly there are intelligent and dedicated students among both groups, and it’s reductive to overlook this fact.
Now: you’re fooling no one with the claim that athlete GPA is higher in the abstract. Everybody is (or should be) aware of the leaps and bounds to which the administration goes to accommodate your needs: special tutors, special review sessions, extra help, the list goes on. Let’s not even begin to discuss the fraternal cheating among athletics teams; I know of at least a dozen football players who all take the same class, which other football players took last year and the year before that. Syllabuses, exams, assignments and other resources are shared in a way that is wantonly lacking academic integrity. Touting grades alone is deceitful and disingenuous, and the practice itself is shameful. Anyone who engages in such behavior and willingly took a spot away from a student who would invest more effort and seek to reap more from their education here should feel really, really bad about themselves.
@Anonymous Don’t worry. The dumbass athletes lower the curve, making it easier for people like us to get good grades.
@james franco Athletes have higher grades on average than non-athletes…
@Anonymous only because they take easier classes and majors and cheat
@steve perry you’re just making excuses. jeez non-athletes, fix your game would you??
@CC'14 75 upvotes? Fuck you entitled trash.
@hey most people overrate their intelligence. you’re probably not as smart as you think you are :)
@CC15 There are a bunch of hate crimes on campus every year. It’s just that most of the time the victim goes through the University, who, of course, keeps these incidents on the down low. It’d be interesting if more people went through the NYPD for such incidents – may be things would actually change then
@Personally Invested Citizen Do you really want more NYPD involvement in Columbia campus life? I don’t know about you but choosing an organization whose job is essentially to regularly feed fresh crops of barely culpable individuals to an obviously flawed if not entirely counterproductive prison system over Columbia’s plethora of organizations geared towards resolving conflicts between students in a way that both provides support to victims and rehabilitation and education based programs for victimizers in a way that enables both individuals to grow and learn from their experiences and become better people seems a little unreasonable.
@uh huh Like this instance? http://www.columbiaspectator.com/2010/05/02/failure-columbias-sexual-assault-policy
@Anonymous I disagree. if the NYPD had been involved, the individual would have needed to be proven guilty beyond reasonable doubt, not preponderance of evidence. The victim would have needed to prove she was assaulted and that the perpetrator knew he was assaulting her. In this case, it sounds like the perp would have gotten off scott free.
@Anonymous She claims she had multiple eyewitnesses. NYPD isn’t letting that slide.
@CC15 Not saying I think going to the NYPD is the best or only option. That said, I think peer pressure is the best way to change the culture on campus, and the only way peer pressure can happen is if shit like this ends up in Bwog or Spec where people can start talking about it. And guess what? It sure as hell isn’t going to end up on Bwog if the University handles it!
@dirty mike don’t just let those other shady guys off the hook. they probably had as much to do as this one.
@Schweppes Are we still the most liberal school?
@Anonymous They should move him to the offensive line so he could grab and hold up guys like that more often. Then maybe the team wouldn’t suck so much.
@Really... A FELONY?
@dude were you there? do you know what happened? literally who are you to say that this shouldnt be a felony charge?
@I would prefer if he answered figuratively who he is.
@Yeah send him to jail! ruin his life forever!! Get pitchforks and torches!!
Seriously?
I am thankful this did not escalate and am thankful the victim was not hurt. You can’t touch other people, and you can’t threaten other people. period. But, while there should be criminal proceedings, charging this kid with a felony is equivalent to swatting a fly with a Buick. Second degree aggravated assault- a class A misdemeanor would suffice. Probation, community service, court-ordered sensitivity training… etc. Unless this kid has a long rap sheet, I think the D.A. office is completely over stepping and surely should be checked next election cycle (which it won’t because people vote indiscriminately along party lines but that’s another issue).
@Ewww According to the New York State Penal Code, this type of sentencing is complicit with the Hate Crimes Act of 2000. People need to stop defending this guy. Smh. How would like it if a 250 lbs guy pinned you against the wall while hurling racial epithets at you? Moreover, how would you feel if you were a young woman who was being verbally harassed by such a large man?
#teamchadisgross
@Anonymous Your argument is feelings based and therefore not very relevant. As much as I disagree with the whole concept of hate crimes, in the NY penal code, of which you seemed so fond, second degree aggravated assault is covered as a “hate crime.” This is not felonious harrassment, this was not repetetive, there was no physical violence, and the accused does not have a prior record. Check yourself. Regardless of how much this hurts anybody’s feelings, it is important to deal with this in a fair way.
@CC'14 It would suck, but throwing him in jail for it is not going to fix the problem, while the sanctions and treatments listed above have a much higher chance of doing so.
@Ewww Oh snap nony. You missed the whole part where the penal code clearly states that the District Attorney may choose to bump up the offense one degree if the offense committed was based in hate.
All bets were off when Chad decided to put his hands on another person. He committed an aggravated harassment in the first degree against the victim. A person is guilty of harassment if he intentionally and repeatedly harasses another person by following such person in or about a public place. Since he approached the victim and stated multiple racial epithets he committed aggravated harassment in the first degree. Due to the fact that this offense was committed because of Chad’s racial bias, he committed a hate crime. Therefore, the DA has every right to bump up his charge to a felony.
So much for my feelings…
@Blunts in Butler Dude. This sounds like a felony to me. What if he did this shit to you?
@CC 14 Guess my extra homework and problem sets paid off since I am not being charged for a hate crime. Sorry not sorry.
@Anonymous Speak for yourself bro
@CC '13 snaps. all the snaps.
@i feel like its important to point out that the “friends” mentioned in the NBC article who were involved in the harassment were white guys (also athletes, if im not mistaken).
here’s hoping they see some form of disciplinary action, too; let’s not play “pin it on the black guy”
@Okay But if the black guy happened to be the one who pinned the victim up against a wall and grabbed him by his collar, that’s the only kind of pinning that matters. Agreed that there’s a very high likelihood Chad’s posse shares culpability, but if he’s the one who actually escalated the verbal and physical threats he deserves to be castigated all the more severely. It’s not a race thing in that case, and to call it such is reductive and loses focus.
@jarkko yo, commenters: innocent until proven guilty. cops lie, witnesses lie. christ.
@Anonymous Same person as above. The guys in my suite were openly admitting that it happened pretty much as the article says. As much as I wish that innocent until proven guilty applies, in this case the stereotypes hold.
@the track button tho
@Anonymous it was all caught on camera
@Anonymous Wonder if they realize it’s because of shit like this that people feel divided from athletes. Wonder if maybe it’s because it’s always the athletes who hang out in their little cliques and close themselves off from others that’s causing this divide. They’ve got nobody to blame but themselves.
@Anonymous As someone who lives with people on the football team (and was much more pro-athletics beforehand), I have to say that a good part of that isolation isn’t their fault. Early practices and weekends at away games aside, their schedules are basically designed to keep them away from non-team members as possible, which is why they spend so much time together. They get here earlier than any NSOP group, so by the time everyone else arrives, their friend groups are basically set, aside from any student groups they join (usually fraternities consisting mostly of other athletes). They’re assigned to the same suites in Carman, and are told by their coaches to live with other athletes their entire time at Columbia.
So the divide is pretty one-sided, where students that want to become friends with athletes are isolated from them due to pre-existing factors. It’s something worth changing that would improve relations on both sides.
@Anonymous This is why it’s a complete JOKE that for sports as low-level and entirely irrelevant as IVY LEAGUE ATHLETICS, they ask athletes to practice and train like six hours a day, every day.
IVY ATHLETICS ARE A JOKE. WHY ON EARTH DO THEY MAKE ATHLETES DEVOTE SO MUCH TIME?
@Anonymous maybe if the football team was actually any good and won any single games the racism would be acceptable…
(jk… really though, idk how they can practice so much and still suck so much…)
@Anonymous 15 football players (thus far) have disliked this comment.
@2013 @Anonymous: Not all ivy sports are “low level and entirely irrelevant”. The Ivy League is the most competitive by a long shot for sports like rowing, fencing, and archery. We also have nationally ranked wrestlers, sprinters, and swimmers. Try not to make sweeping generalizations.
Even if you were correct it’s not your place to decide how people want to spend their time. Participating in sports is about more than earning accolades.
@Jaded Graduate Student This kid sounds like an asshole, but that does NOT imply that he IS an asshole. However, I also do think there is a considerable amount of racism directed towards the Asian community that remains unaddressed in our society. Aside from that, being at an Ivy League or on a sports team aids nothing towards making intelligent or mature decisions. Clearly, Chad has some growing up to do. C’est le vie. Hopefully, he will learn from this experience.
@Anonymous I would like to point out that their “little cliques” are usually their teams, with whom they understandably spend a lot of time. That said, I think this sort of self-victimization on the part of athletes has become extremely tiring. Speaking for myself, I don’t feel divided from athletes on this campus nor do I harbor any sort of ill will toward them. I just frankly don’t really care.
@Anonymous This kind of behavior is not unique to Chad and is in fact rich in the Columbia football players. I direct youto Tom Callahan’s – a CU football player- twitter (@thomaspcallahan): It’s littered with horrendous comments like:
“Asian is such a fucked up language #BANGBANG” on Jul 27
“Do Chinese people just call Chinese food ‘food?’ Is there a Chinese word for food, or is it just a bunch of weird noises like other words?” on 24 Nov
There are also antisemitic comments and anal rape jokes on the same twitter feed.
There is also a video available on Tom’s twitter of another CU football player drinking Tom’s urine. It’s time we talk about the moral rectitude of these athletes. You just do not see this sort of behavior in other student groups on campus… Very sad, but the truth needs to come forward.
@Angry Jew From his Twitter Feed: “@nytimes: New York’s Jewish Population Is Growing Again http://nyti.ms/KwZalh ” #fuckkkkkk
https://twitter.com/thomaspcallahan/status/212367709437034496
wtf?
@Anonymous So…reverse racism?
@L Racism is racism.
@Anonymous Sideways racism.
@Anonymous This would be more of a shit storm if the perpetrator was white. No denying that. This incident at least shows that non-whites can be racist too.
@Anonymous I think it would have been a somewhat different shitstorm – more about race relations, less about athletes – but about the same degree.
@Anonymous Fuck this guy. Fuck athletes. QED.
@Anonymous Well, maybe the generalization to athletes is not completely warranted- I know some good guys that are on sports.
That being said, I’ve seen this guy and he is a total prick. He and his friends are always being jerks and loud and saying offensive things that nobody will stand up to because he surrounds himself with people who do the same. So really I’m not surprised.
@SEAS '13 I just hate how underclassmen on the football team look so much older than me :(
@lel It’s the extra testosterone. Don’t worry. They’ll get prostate cancer and die of heart disease within the next two decades.
youthful manlets
@Anon Oh boy. Here we go.
@Anonymous @Anon:
This kind of behavior is not unique to Chad and is in fact rich in the Columbia football players. I direct youto Tom Callahan’s – a CU football player- twitter (@thomaspcallahan): It’s littered with horrendous comments like:
“Asian is such a fucked up language #BANGBANG” on Jul 27
“Do Chinese people just call Chinese food ‘food?’ Is there a Chinese word for food, or is it just a bunch of weird noises like other words?” on 24 Nov
“@nytimes: New York’s Jewish Population is Growing Again nyti.ms?KwZalh” #fuckkkkkk” on 11 Jun
“I can tell I’m on a flight to Jew York by the amount of yamakas boarding the plane” on 24 Mar”
Then general stupidity:
“Getting anally raped would suck. #imadouche” on 16 Jul 11
There is also a video available on Tom’s twitter of another CU football player drinking Tom’s urine. It’s time we talk about the moral rectitude of these athletes. You just do not see this sort of behavior in other student groups on campus… Very sad, but the truth needs to come forward.
@Anonymous @Anon:
This kind of behavior is not unique to Chad and is in fact rich in the Columbia football players. I direct youto Tom Callahan’s – a CU football player- twitter (@thomaspcallahan): It’s littered with horrendous comments like:
“Asian is such a fucked up language #BANGBANG” on Jul 27
“Do Chinese people just call Chinese food ‘food?’ Is there a Chinese word for food, or is it just a bunch of weird noises like other words?” on 24 Nov
There are also antisemitic comments and anal rape jokes on the same twitter feed.
There is also a video available on Tom’s twitter of another CU football player drinking Tom’s urine. It’s time we talk about the moral rectitude of these athletes. You just do not see this sort of behavior in other student groups on campus… Very sad, but the truth needs to come forward.
@Anonymous I hope him and his fellow perpetrators, as well as anyone else expressing such open hate like that get persecuted to the full extent by the long dick of the law. It’s time the Columbia administration stop hiding this shit away and do something about it.
@lovveee sosssaaaa
@Anonymous Darn, the shit removed the posts from his twitter when I just checked. Anyone have screencaps saved? Its time this shit stopped being hidden.
@Anonymous UPDATE: THOMAS P. CALLAHAN HAS REMOVED HIS TWITTER
@Anonymous I checked google cache and came up with this:
http://imageshack.us/a/img833/258/48476196.png
“There’s an emoji for poop, but not one for black people…”
What a scumbag.
@Arsene Wenger “Puking in urinals, pissing in sinks, this is what life’s all about” was my personal favourite
@Anonymous Topsy caches tweets and a quick scrape grabs some history.
Original: http://topsy.com/twitter/thomaspcallahan
Scraped: http://f.cl.ly/items/3Y2i3I373z0q1y2d430N/@thomaspcallahan.txt
And for Chad…
Original: http://topsy.com/twitter/the_lionsmain
Scraped: http://f.cl.ly/items/0m1i1I0e013H1Y3o1o37/@the_lionsmain.txt
@Anonymous got evidence of tom callahan’s antisemitism
http://imgur.com/BK2cg2t
@Early bird gets the worm Yuh huh, figured he would do this, so I have his whole feed saved.
@curious can you post them??
@Anonymous I’m not “early bird gets the worm” but i managed to get this
I checked google cache and came up with this:
“There’s an emoji for poop, but not one for black people…”
What a scumbag… I’ll put the image here, but add dots because bwog doesnt allow direct image links
http://imageshack.us/a/img833/258/48476196.png
@Anonymous Oh crap, double post. Sorry!
@Morgan Owens In what universe is it okay to take the preliminary sensationalist media reporting on the drunken actions of a group of college students to start a hate campaign against an entire team of people you simply do not know? The fact that you have all immediately jumped on this bandwagon and joyfully accepted labeling a group of your peers as collectively racist, moronic, and undeserving of the college education they were rightfully granted is spineless, and doing so in anonymity even more so. I cannot believe that one of you took the effort to scroll through selected tweets as far back as 2010 in order to provide fodder for this explosion of “down with the football players” discourse, especially when you have such a wealth of bigotry right here on this thread. Example: “Public safety officer #92: THey were just Horsing around yooooo. FO SHO! I didn’t see nothin yo. what you talking baout”, that’s just about the most racist shit I’ve seen on a BWOG comment, which is truly saying something. Good job to the 31 of you assholes who liked it.
I regret that you feel like the scholar student who works a tiring 30+ hours a week cultivating a talent and camaraderie isn’t worthy to sit next to your privileged ass in a classroom, but I personally feel that anyone who is comfortable slandering people they don’t know based off carefully chosen social media ramblings and condemning someone to a living in a prison cell because of a situation we haven’t received full and unbiased reporting on is a fucking disgrace to this university. I promise you, the admissions officers know what they’re doing when selecting which students to admit into an Ivy League school- it’s just a shame they don’t have the means to detect moral depravity, because then we’d have a lot less of you fanatic egregious Bwog commenters.
@smh yes morgan because drunk black men are infallible.
@@Morgan Owens i don’t know who the fuck you are, but there are so many things wrong with your post that i can only conclude you are a dumbass.
e.g.:
– “I promise you, the admissions officers know what they’re doing when selecting which students to admit into an Ivy League school” — how can you possibly know?
– the idea that “carefully chosen social media ramblings” that are clearly racist/discriminatory can be exonerated the way you think
@Anonymous http://imgur.com/BK2cg2t
@tom callahan is a racist, an idiot, and an asshole tom Callahan is a racist, antisemitic, insensitive moron
“03/28/2013: In China, do they just call Chinatown “town”? ”
“01/18/2013: Why is there a urinal for midgets in every public bathroom? Like are there that many midgets out there? ”
http://f.cl.ly/items/3Y2i3I373z0q1y2d430N/@thomaspcallahan.txt
@CC'14 http://imgur.com/a/iMGQm#0
PLEASE look through this album. It is absolutely insane how pervasive these racist and homophobic attitudes are on the football team. I am so saddened and disappointed and pretty fcking horrified.
@Ladder Let’s remove the various identities and affiliations:
6’4 muscular guy hollers at two girls on the street. 5’7 scrawny guy steps up to defend them. 6’4 muscular guy shoves 5’7 scrawny guy into a wall and calls him names.
Perhaps the culture of some athletic teams fosters this sort of behavior, but the mere fact that someone is an athlete doesn’t automatically mean they are a rude, violent ape. The perpetrator should be denigrated on account of his actions as an individual; the fact that he belongs to some group – athletic or otherwise – is irrelevant.
This isn’t about race so much as it is about power. This incident didn’t happen because Chad Washington was looking around for an Asian to assault. It happened because Chad Washington wanted to get some and the victim cock-blocked him. What followed was simply what happens when people with no power stand up to people with power. They get dominated.
The victim mistakenly assumed that Chad’s identity as a Columbia student would force him to abide by the implied rules in such intellectual communities: you don’t use physical power to settle a dispute. Would the victim have spoken out similarly had Chad been a 6’4 muscular guy wearing a Blood or Crips hat? Probably not.
The victim’s assumption that rules would keep Chad in check failed in that immediate situation because there was no one present to enforce the rules. At least, no one with more power than Chad. Once removed from that immediate situation, however, poor ol’ Chad is at the mercy of those with more power than him, namely the NYPD.
My point is that it’s not about racism – that’s just the icing that Chad used to top off his cake of abuse. Those with power are not as sensitive to power differentials as those without power, so most of you may not be immediately conscious of the amount of implicit intimidation that occurs because someone is physically domineering. I, for one, am glad to see that someone who perpetrated this brand of physical intimidation will be punished for it, and can only hope that Chad will pay the steepest possible price.
TLDR: do you even lift, bro?
@Anonymous Let’s cut the bullshit. We live in the 21st century. How long has it been that physical attributes are still synonymous with “power” Washington’s nothing more than a racist and an asshole. Leave that power nonsense in fucking LitHum. Perceived power differences are racial stereotypes too. “Would the victim have spoken out similarly had Chad been a 6’4 muscular guy wearing a Blood or Crips hat?” He probably would have. The better question is, would Chad have tried to do anything if his victim was a 6’4 black man. Probably not, because what would be the fun in that right?
Also, heckling women is not “trying to get some”? Blacks are every bit as capable of racism as any other racial group. It’s pathetic that people are eager to associate crimes against blacks to be motivated by race (see Trayvon Martin) but it’s not ok to associate this sort of shit that blacks perpetuate with race? I refuse to accept the notion that we should treat him as an individual because if the situation was ever turned around, people would be clamoring to his support against the “racists”.
@Ladder “The better question is, would Chad have tried to do anything if his victim was a 6’4 black man. Probably not, because what would be the fun in that right?”
No, the question to ask is: “Would Chad have tried to do anything had his victim been a 6’4 muscular Asian man?” If not, then it wasn’t race that emboldened Chad to act, but the fact that his victim was physically weaker.
@Anonymous Racist but true: if he was a 5’7″ black male, he probably wouldn’t have said shit either.
@Anonrar Bullshit. If you’re bigger and stronger than I am, you will probably have more power than I do in a given situation whether we live in the 21st century or not. No matter what race either person is. I’m just as afraid of 6’6 black guy as I am a 6’6 white guy. And all of the things you and the commentator you are replying to are talking about are purely hypothetical so it’s impossible for you to dimiss those criticisms with such certainty. I however will speak from my experience and perspective, as a (fellow) Columbia student I would have felt a lot more comfortable confronting Chad than another person not affiliated with the University (Blood, Crip, or otherwise) and I think that makes sense. Approaching another Columbia student means that you expect to be able to hold that person accountable under the rules and regulations that govern our institution. I don’t think a single person said it was ok for anyone to be a racist or to perpetrate a hate crime simply because one is black or part of any other marginalized group in American society, I think that’s just you being bitter. You’re making too many assumptions. Please do better.
@david Does anyone have contact info or general info for Thomas P. Callahan? I want to make sure that every single employer in his future knows about his comment about Jews. I want him to suffer the consequences of his actions. I will put up a reward for any information about him.
@Ted Maybe these football players should stop harassing their fellow students and concentrate on WINNING FOOTBALL GAMES. They are an embarassment to Ivy League football and to my ALMA MATER.