224 Comments
WKCR Sports
In light of yesterday’s news that sophomore Chad Washington was charged with a hate crime and the allegations that more people were involved in the incident, many were intrigued by the CU Football team’s impressively unprotected Twitter accounts. An hour ago, WKCR Sports tweeted a link to an Imgur album with a good number of screencaps.
Taking it a step further than sending links to each other with a “Holy shit people like this exist?,” we’ve compiled a smattering of astoundingly horrible, offensive, and just plain awful things your classmates on the football team (your classmates!) have tweeted. There are racist, sexist, and homophobic tweets—see for yourself.
Here are four ones that are racist against Asians.
- Sean Brackett, captain (@SBreezy_10): Idk which has more Asians…nail salons or Columbia U??
- Chad Washington (nine_duce): This asian dude can barely speak though…
- Thomas Callahan (@thomaspcallahan): Asian is such a fucked up language #BANGBANG
- Thomas Callahan (@thomaspcallahan): 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?” [Callahan has since deleted his Twitter, but you can read his whole stream here]
Also noteworthy: as WKCR Sports mentioned, the Athletics Department knew about these accounts—several have been mentioned by the official football Twitter account and many are followed by coach Pete Mangurian.
On another note: the Office of Multicultural Affairs has met with the Asian American Alliance. Student leaders David Fine, Wilfred Chan, Tim Qin, and Abdul Hanif have also met with the Dean of OMA, with the conclusion that: “We urged strong condemnation of alleged acts without drawing judgment on the person who allegedly committed the hate crime.” They also mentioned an emphasis on protecting the victim and his identity. There should be a longer statement coming along soon.
Logo with WKCRSports’s Twitter
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224 Comments
@Anonymous I guess he just wasn’t getting enough respect.
So who wants to tell him it’s time “to hang up your helmet and pads and go home”?
http://www.columbiaspectator.com/2013/03/12/athletes-deserve-respect
@Anonymous @Anonymous: You assume that this is the only meeting. I know a number of students and groups have met with her. If you emailed her, she would probably meet with you too.
@Troll Master Everyone needs to chillthefuckout. This is being blown way out of proportion, and you all know it.
To the statement Columbia’s AAA put out: just how many times would you like to refer to this so-called “systematic” hatred. If, indeed, it is so rampant and causing you “deep concern,” why have you only now chosen to make a statement concerning “the environment maintained on our campus,” of which you apparently so disapprove? The simple answer being: because it happened to you. You’re entirely reminiscent of petty Hollywood actors who suddenly start a charity for some rare disease that their child has. Now there is nothing wrong with this, but don’t pretend like you’ve cared about this for a long time when in fact you only recently started caring because it affected you. Experience is a bitch, and there are no such things as altruistic acts…or statements, in this case.
On Whether Athletes Are Inherently Stupider Than Non-Athletes:
Recall the amount of hideously dumb people you know that aren’t athletes. In addition, if you woke up at 5 or 6 in the morning every day to work out, your grades would surely suffer. We would not be down for that shit.
“The football team hangs out in cliques”…that’s cool. So do asians, definitely. Separatists we once described it. So do blacks. So do whites. So do hispanics. So do indians. So does every other race. So does every other sports team. And at this school. All these groups bond on their similarities, but hey at least the sports cliques often include different races.
Again, this entire thing has been blown way out of proportion and for the great cynicals, the amount of asian jokes that have since been stated in passing (and in private) as a way to mitigate this situation has risen astoundingly. #irony
The “in private” part is key. everyone is secretly a racist. And that’s just it, most people keep it a secret, while others…post it on twitter.
To wrap up, we’ll just say what everyone already thinks: athletes are dumb, asians are smart, but they’re also separatists and they probably talk about you in their language that you most likely don’t undertand. Everyone at Columbia is “elitist”. Well HYFR!! (hell yeah fucking right) that elitist title is the least we deserve considering some shell out $70k for this P.O.S. school comprised of 50% of teachers who can’t speak english. (I know what you’re thinking, but we didn’t say those teachers were asian, you “racist”).
However, in no way do we condone the actions allegedly committed by Mr. Washington. But neither do any of us know the full story, which is important. We almost feel like alcohol had to be involved in this. It seems like it fits the story. Now, as so many Bwog posts do, let’s go on a severe tangent! Let’s talk about how alcohol is legal, whereas if either of the two parties were high, this would’ve never happened!
To Columbia: You’re all tools. Especially the administration that released those toolish statements. Absurd.
Sincerely,
Troll Master
@....... @Anonymous: I wasn’t aware that’s how siting and plagiarism works. Good to know “it’s just a blog” is reason enough for not dropping sources.
@Anonymous http://imgur.com/a/kfemI#0
@Senior i guess if you cant beat anyone on the football field, atleast you can win fights with kids half your size. keep acting like a bunch of hardos columbia football, it suits your 1-8 record.
@Senior 3-7* my bad
@CC' 14 http://talkmag.org/post/50035597448/columbias-asian-american-alliance-sends-out-dope
The kind of rhetoric that should be used by the administration as well…
@lets talk about useful rhetoric a must watch
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b0Ti-gkJiXc
@Anonymous http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fcja4WFFzDw
@Guy's a bigot but he could pass that football, like nothing you have ever seen!
@Anonymous Wonderful Town!
@Anonymous And the pussification of America continues…
@Resident Lesbian Pussification? sounds delicious…
@anon @Anonymous: @Anonymous: right, because religious persecution and discrimination has never been a problem…
@Student Athlete '14 With all of this unfolding I can’t help but think of a member of the football team who was closeted during his time on the roster, and how it must have been to share a locker room with these young men everyday. Chad, his friends, and the whole program need to be held accountable for their words and actions . Sad to see another disgraceful/ painful story about Columbia Athletics (after the death of a former student athlete and numerous hazing scandals) but this has to be done.
@Michael, CC '13 People are right, you can’t fairly generalize about the football team based on the comments of these guys specifically.
We also can’t fairly expect Columbia to expel these guys for tweeting what they want on their own Twitter feeds, however awful.
Here’s what the football team could do though: kick them off the team. Kick every single one of these players off the team. If the football team is serious about showing the community that it doesn’t condone this kind of hate, that all athletes aren’t like these guys, kick them off the team. Send a clear message that the rest of the athletes here aren’t like this, and don’t want to be associated with anyone who is. Football team, if you send a clear message that you care more about the character of the guys you share a locker room with than the w/l record (which, let’s be real, isn’t exactly stellar as it is), then you might win back some of my respect. Otherwise, I’m probably never coming to another homecoming.
@Typical NOW racism is a big deal at Columbia. Hilarious. Hate crimes against black students happened all the time when I was there, but now it’s a crisis because a big ole mean black guy said dumb stuff on Twitter. Give me a break. Typical Columbia faux-activists who only care about issues that conform to their pre-existing stereotypes. So glad to be out of that cesspool.
@Haha Of COURSE this was downvoted. Columbia children can’t handle the truth.
@Anonymous He didn’t cite a single incident, and we are just supposed to believe it? Considering how PC this school is, I think you’re full of shit.
@Lion Fan I am a big fan of the Columbia Football team, but I am heartbroken by the facts that have come out and very disappointed in the members who engaged in this kind of behavior. I would ask that we wait for the process to occur, and not “rush to judgement” on this particular student, or the entire team. I find that if the actions as stated are proven true, then this act of hateful words and the physical attack are unacceptable, and I have sympathy for the victim and his friends.
When I first became a parent, and basically did not know what to do – I read if your child does something wrong, you don’t tell him or her they are stupid but that they did a stupid thing.
I think these transgressions are general to our population (leaving aside the physical aspect of this confrontation, which I condemn). I was at a high school sporting event recently my son was a part of. In the bleachers I overheard some of the students verbally sparring with each other, using various racist and homophobic taunts. I considered asking them to stop – but was hoping a parent or teacher with them would do so. Later they were doing more of the same in front of the snack bar and a teacher spoke up at them and said “Gentlemen, your language is inappropriate.”
I am aware of the distance between academics and athletics, and I was not an athlete in any way, but I do believe that the endeavor of athletics can be a force for good, and can lift up students, some of whom may not have the financial capital to attend any college, let alone Columbia.
Again, I am dismayed by the actions of some on the team, but will not be party to a condemnation of the team, or any other athletic team, overall.
A. Peck
Columbia Grad
@Beyonce Pad Thai Coach Taylor really wouldn’t have let THIS happen.
@Anonymous Clear eyes, full hearts, can’t lose.
@he speaks so well
@Anonymous There are few things more deplorable than bigotry. I, and every person, every athlete and every non-athlete, every Columbian, every New Yorker, every Resident and every non-Resident, every homosexual, every heterosexual, every bisexual, every transgender and every artist, every musician, every poet, every rapper and every singer, every friend, every politician and every immigrant, every emigrant, and every Hispanic, and every Latino, every Asian, every Canadian, every black person and every white person, every voter and every vegetarian should stand wholeheartedly against it.
I do believe that these football players deserve the collective disappointment coming from the Columbia community, their friends, their families, and themselves. I do believe that they deserve to be punished and I do believe that they should suffer the consequences of their actions.
What needs to be addressed here, however, is not exclusive to the football team. It is not exclusive to athletes and it is not only about what gets published on the internet.
THIS university, OUR university. US. ALL OF US. WE. This is not an issue of THEM. WE have created a community where we thrive off of declaring ourselves more intelligent, more deserving, more EVERYTHING than everyone else. WE are deserving of OUR spot here but THEY aren’t. I belong but YOU don’t. What comes out of our mouths and what flows from our fingers is hatred. Being a human rights major does not mean that you don’t walk down the street and say that kids that go to state schools are stupider than you are. Being a gender studies major doesn’t mean that you don’t laugh at the way someone dresses or the shoes that they wear. Being SMART does not mean you don’t call people STUPID. I have heard you talk about the South and call people that live there backwards; I have heard you laugh about how terrible that girl in university writing is at writing an essay and laugh “God how did she get into Columbia?” ; I have heard you call that girl wearing a short skirt on a cold day a slut; I have heard you laugh at the Christian kids singing in front of the gates. More importantly, you have heard you. I’ve done it. You’ve done it. WE need to step back and observe ourselves before condemning others.
These men deserve to be punished. They did something wrong. It is not ‘unfortunate’ that their words were made public. THAT is not the biggest problem I see.
WE have got to stop looking at others and telling ourselves that they don’t belong. Have these football players very seriously hurt this University? Yes. But it is about time someone saw what goes on here. We need to look very starkly upon ourselves and the way we think, the way we call people ‘others’ and clump together in one ball: a singular entity, a self-proclaimed brilliant, beautiful, deserving, innocent, kind, generous, helpful, forward-thinking, and guiltless fucking tumor.
We need to change the culture we bask in, and we need to stop deriving our self-worth from the assault of others.
I make fun of really religious people, and I’m going to stop.
You should disprove of these men. I do.
But also, you should look at yourself. Stop calling THEM dumb, stop calling THEM slutty, stop calling THEM undeserving and stop calling THEM anything at all. Maybe then WE will all be a bit less hypocritical.
@amen so many snaps
@Anonymous You seem to be missing the problem: racist, homophobic, antisemitic, rape-insensitive jokes are endemic to and are higher in concentration in the football crowd. We’ve got direct, irrefutable evidence against 12 of them. There are 100 people on the team. One in ten is openly racist, homophobic, antisemitic, and/or rape-insensitive. And that’s with the twitter accounts we COULD access publicly. Athletics officials, as well as other disciplinary officials have been notified of this rampant racism, so perhaps they will be unable to unearth more incriminating tweets.
This normally wouldn’t be that big a problem if kept quiet (sadly), but (A) these guys directly represent the Columbia community by virtue of their being advertised by Columbia athletics, the columbia community had directly promoted some of the twitter account in question, and columbia faculty (e.g. the head football coach) follow the 12 bigots (that’s precisely how some of them were found after the tip re: Tom Callahan) and (B) they made their comments open to the whole world.
While yes, these comments are pervasive in the Columbia community, let us not be diverted from our course: The CU football team has a higher density of openly racist, homophobic, sexist, antisemitic students; the CU football team is promoted by Columbia.
@Anonymous I can tell you that at least 10 of the 20 people in my CC class openly mocked religion. One person I can clearly remember exclaiming: “I don’t understand how anyone could believe religion? You have to be so stupid…” If that’s not bigotry, I don’t know what is.
And I’ve experienced from many many more Colombians. Yes the football players are the issue, but OP is saying we’re hypocritical, we’re condemning these peers while we do it ourselves. I think it’s time we use this as a platform for acceptance of our peers, fellow citizens, countrymen, and all people in the world.
@Anonymous Religion is stupid. And you’re a moron for lumping it with race and gender discrimination. Nobody has a say over their gender, sexuality, or race. People do have a say over religion… And race, gender, sexuality doesn’t oppress people, religion does.
@Anonymous @Anonymous: right, because religious persecution and discrimination has never been a problem…
@Anonymous Sounds like some collectivist bullshit
@CC '13 Saying that it’s okay to lower admissions standards for athletes because their athletic talent compensates for their lack of academic talent or because it’s just a “different kind” of talent and they should get credit for that too is like saying that I deserve to be admitted to the New York State Bar because I’m a really good doctor. Columbia is many things to many people, and while we may not want to admit it, it is still at its core an academic institution whose admissions policies should be based on academic ability. Does that suck for people who maybe don’t have the academic qualifications? Absolutely. But the cutoff needs to be drawn somewhere and I can think of no fairer way to do it than along academic lines.
@Let's take a second I think it’s important when looking at this situation to not immediately attack not only the football team, but the entire Columbia athletics department. To group so many people as being bigots due to the actions of about 10 members only would further the hatred that already occurred. We claim to be accepting of each other but immediately prejudice athletes without any consideration of them as an individual. We condemn stereotyping only to do it to our peers. As a non-athlete, I’m upset that people would begin antagonizing fellow students simply because they are athletes. They not only consist of a large part of our student body, but contribute in so many ways more than athletics. I hate to sound like a NCAA commercial, but many of these athletes will go pro in something other than sports.
In addition, I think it’s just wrong to bring out into light people who had nothing to do with the criminal issue. If we all looked back on a transcript of things we said I’m sure you’d eventually find something you’d regret. Yes they should not have tweeted those comments, yes they should have at least kept those comments on a closed account, but do we really need to shine a spotlight on them? To me, it’s just as bad as taste as it was to say those things. To take something said in jest, like most tweets are, and scrutinize them as motivated, racist comments is a bit absurd. We can’t simply judge people on a couple tweets.
@Penn 17 Are you serious!?! I was rejected from Columbia to make room for racist football players like this jerk.
@Anonymous Go away.
@Anonymous Why are you here? Transfer apps aren’t due until March of next year!
@Umm The coach followed these Twitter accounts?! He should be fired. This is *definitely* a problem with the Columbia Football Team and not just with the individuals that sent the tweets.
@Anonymous @Umm: what makes you think the coach had time to watch 100 twitter accounts and try to turn an entire program around?? The few individuals who have been named for their horrible tweets were either
A: recruited before coach Mangurian was hired
B: deliberately did not follow the rules and hid their twitters from all administrative eyes. AKA when told to give their social media information to the athletic department they failed to do so
The point of a person such as coach Mangurian to have a twitter is to tweet- not follow what others are saying, it is used as a PR tool to help escalate the reputation of the program.
With this being said punishing this program as a whole is not necessary in my opinion. These were moments of bad judgement by young college students- and lets be honest we’ve all done stupid things that we regret. I think that this is a learning experience for the entire student body.
@Anonymous This would have precedence.
http://www.wistv.com/story/20360975/una-football-player-kicked-off-team-for-racist-tweet
@Nice twit pic Tommy A photo from Thomas Callahan’s Twitter feed: http://pbs.twimg.com/media/BD546j-CUAAmrIW.jpg:thumb
Caption:”I didn’t choose the Thug life. The Thug life chose me.”
Guess he chose the bigoted, homophobic, and anti-Semitic life instead…
(Here are all the pics:http://topsy.com/twitter/thomaspcallahan?nohidden=1&page=1&type=image)
@smh Yeah Facepalm. Your spreadsheets are so much better than what Corey Booker has done for Newark. *eye roll*I also appreciate all of your ad hominems. So mature.
I understand that financial services plays a vital role in the US economy. However, I believe that certain reforms have to made, and that starts with ensuring that most employees are qualified to be there.
@Um Let’s cut this shit, but just to respond:
I never said that, and are you seriously trying to argue that politics is motivated by morality? For real yo? And my ad hominems? Weren’t you the one who began by calling me “kid” and telling me to believe whatever helped me sleep at night?
I can’t even. Now I’m smh. Read a book.
@Ughh And to think KevSho was shitting bricks over that stupid band poster when this was going on…
@anonymous is the pot calling the kettle black here?
some of these comments are just as bigoted as the tweets they’re commenting on.
stop blaming the whole football team or all ncaa athletes (or all students who are accepted to a college even though they have a lower gpa but are really good at one specific thing) for the fault of 10 or so jerks.
@Anonymous Is the post calling the kettle black?
Actually, I believe the preferred term is “African-American.”
@Anonymous Gay use to mean happy, maybe they never got that memo
@Anonymous I’m curious as to how isolated the football team is from the rest of the community. Reply if you’re a non-athlete and have ever lived in a double or a suite with an active football player.
@Disgusted As bad as these tweets are, can we pretend for a second that we are all not better than these football players. There are plenty of non-football players and non-athletes who say things just as bad, they just happen to not be in the spotlight. And can we stop assuming that these athletes are “dumb” or not as intelligent. Many of them turned down other schools where they could get full-ride scholarships to get the Columbia education like yourself. Your value to society isn’t higher because you play the cello as opposed to being able to catch a ball. I understand the nature of this crime and these tweets, but don’t take this unfortunate moment to jump on the anti-athlete train. Your hatred towards athletes are deep rooted in self-esteem issues.
And to all the people who said that they know people who should have gotten in over these “dumb athletes” give me a break. Just be happy that you got in. Nobody “deserves” to get in. It’s simply an honor to be accepted by Columbia. Don’t use your time here to compare and degrade other people. Columbia accepted you because they believed that you were better than that. If you want to do anything, check privilege and power. That is all.
@Not an athlete Only dude on this whole thread makin some sense.
@Disgusted I’m a “dudette” but thanks lol
@i am a non-athlete i am also not a racist.
i know, did i just blow your mind or what.
@Anthony Villamagna My name is Anthony Villamagna, and I am a Columbia football player who will be graduating on May 22, 2013 with many of you. In light of the recent events involving a member of football team, I would like to submit my own perspective on some of the issues surrounding the football team that have arisen in the subsequent days.
I would like to start off by saying that my views are not reflective of the football team, the coaching staff, the athletics department, or any of my teammates. My views are my own and should not be treated as those of any group or organization on campus. Furthermore, I will not comment directly on Chad Washington’s arrest or the circumstances surrounding it. I reaffirm the stance taken by the Asian American Alliance and many others in the Administration and across campus that hate crimes, physical and verbal abuse have absolutely no place at Columbia. Every person has the right to be protected from these acts. I will not make a judgment on the events of this past weekend until the process of the law has run its course.
I would like to make very clear that the opinions of a number of people within a group should not, and does not, necessitate the entire group’s complicity with those opinions. The football team is made up of roughly 100 individuals with widely diverse personal backgrounds. Our political ideologies, extracurricular interests, and personal philosophies differ from person to person. We are not a homogenous group, but rather a collection of individuals from across the nation that love to play the sport of football. It has been very upsetting and disturbing to see a number of the tweets written by teammates of mine because, having known many of them for a number of years, I do not feel as if they accurately reflect their beliefs. Regardless, the tweets were tweeted and there is no denying what was said. They were, in my opinion, moments of incredibly poor judgment by people who do know much better than that. However, they did occur and should be held accountable for what they put out there. I do not share any homophobic or racist views found within, nor do I believe they are shared by the overwhelming majority of Columbia football players. They are not acceptable within a society like Columbia and should not be tolerated.
Much has been made over the years about the “divide” between regular students and student-athletes at Columbia. I will only comment as to my personal experience with this. As a football player, my time for most of my days were scheduled around football and classes. The overwhelming majority of my time was spent with my teammates. I came to school along with the rest of my teammates before every other student and were having our “Camp”, or pre-season practices, for about 14 hours a day every day for two weeks before school started. While other students were bonding with each other at NSOP, I was bonding with my teammates through our mutual suffering. I don’t believe I had my first meaningful interaction with a non-football player until after our season ended around Thanksgiving time. This is mostly my fault as I should have made a greater effort to reach out to many of the great people that populated my classes. I cannot put the blame entirely on my schedule. Since then, I have always tried to interact with people outside of my “insular” football group and I believe that I have made some good friends who are not associated with football or athletics in any way.
I recognize that the stereotype exists about football players. I recognize that wearing my grey sweatshirt emblazoned with “COLUMBIA FOOTBALL”, it will automatically garner a prejudice against me. It is disheartening to hear a professor, upon hearing that I’m a football player on the last day of class, tell me that “You hide it well.” There is animosity on both sides, from athletes and from non-athletes, some deserved, but most of it not. I cannot help but think that a small number of athletes and a small number of students widen the divide for the entire community. I truly believe that I am both a Columbia student and a Columbia football player. The two need not be mutually exclusive.
In short, some of the public views of a minority of my teammates are utterly shocking to me. I have been with these guys for many hours and I do not believe them to be as bigoted as they seem to be through their comments. That being said, their words are rightfully being condemned across the community and they are being held accountable for what was said. I would hope to impress upon the Columbia Community at large that I believe these views are not common in an overwhelming majority of the football team. This is an eye opening moment that does warrant considerable soul searching. I hope that it may serve as a teachable moment to remind us that everyone is responsible for what they say and that we as a united Columbia community will move forward with greater awareness and greater understanding.
Anthony Villamagna, CC ’13
@Non-athlete Thank you for this eloquent comment, Anthony. Individuals will be held accountable for what they have said, as they should – no matter their intentions, the outcomes of their actions were hurtful and should not be ignored. I truly hope the football team will stand strong through the furthering of stereotypes and extrapolations placed against them (often by the same people who consider themselves victims of such stereotypes) by the actions of these few individuals.
I’ve seen too many great people who are getting hurt by this process who have done absolutely nothing to deserve it, except perhaps condoning the behavior of this small group of players. But do they even hold responsibility for others, as members a football team assembled from no other common characteristics but a passion for the sport? I don’t think so. Just like I think (and Columbia thought) the IRC residents were not responsible for the drug dealer who lived in their house, and thus shouldn’t get punished for it. Going forward, after holding individuals accountable, I think we have two options:
1) Decide the football team must be held accountable for individual members’ actions (which I think is unreasonable and would suggest double standards on Columbia’s behalf, given the aforementioned IRC situation) and establish some sort of accountability network through which more reasonable guys can feel more comfortable to turn to their team mates and say “dude, that’s not okay”;
2) Decide that is not the team’s responsibility, and instead work through ways of lessening the “athletics divide” through practical measures that would ease the interactions between athletes and non-athletes, thus breaking stereotypes coming from both ways (by, for example, mixing them up in the housing lottery).
Either way, the bottom line is: don’t forget that a lot of great guys are getting shit for this that they arguably don’t deserve. So before you say *football players* are this or that (instead of *these individuals* are this or that), think of the ones who are not and how much you’re HURTING them by saying that.
@Anonymous “Thank you for this eloquent comment, Anthony”
Way to patronize him in the exact kind of way he was just discussing…
@CC '13 Very well put. I will add simply this: I think it’s true that identifying oneself as a football player produces a certain stigma on this campus among certain people, but it’s not with out reason. It’s precisely because of crap like this, and other off-putting, offensive, or anti-intellectual behavior that groups like the football team have the reputation that they do. And while they shouldn’t all be lumped together in one group, the fact that they spend all their time in cliques that are isolated from the rest of the student body (as you so rightly point out) makes it hard to separate the actions of the individual from the actions of the group. In short, if there’s anybody who should be pissed off about this whole nonsense, it’s people like you, Anthony, because the actions and behaviors of a few assholes ruin it for the rest of you. When you get used to observing certain behaviors from people wearing Columbia football t-shirts, it’s easy to expect anybody wearing one of those shirts to behave in the same way
@15 @Anthony Villamagna: Anthony, when was the last time you actually played?
@Anthony Villamagna @15: I injured my neck my Junior year and was told I can’t play football anymore, but I was with the team for every practice and every game this year helping the team in whatever way I could.
@Anthony is actually who I think of when I try and find redemption in the football team. Took a class with him once. Thoughtful, eloquent, and always knew his shit. He’s an awesome dude.
@anonymous Just to be very clear, Anthony Villamagna was a manager on the football team who played for 2 years and was always sitting out with injuries. He truly does not know the football team that well and really has no insight. He cannot say and talk about the football struggles and cultures because he never went through them.
@Anonymous Sorry. I’m not one of the assholes.
@lazy college senior …yo some of these are actually kinda funny. Yall need to lighten up
@Okay... …Tell me which ones are funny? Even the relatively less offensive tweets of the bunch are not funny…they are just idiotic.
@Logic I hope you realize that you’re bashing these guys for their stereotyping while stereotyping the whole football team.
@Anonymous @WKCR:
Hey Bwog, you want to maybe highlight this comment or acknowledge it in any way because WKCR Sports is the one that actually did all the reporting, put their necks on the line publishing this stuff and actually will have commentary about it?
I mean if not, it’s cool. You did just take their entire story, but that’s fine.
@Anonymous @Anonymous: Dude, it’s called a blog. They aggregate things. WKCR is more than happy Bwog publicized the news they broke. Learn how online media works before you blindly slam it.
@mike some athletes’ “dont give a shit” attitude to classes just make classes disintegrate. I am sure professors are upset by this, so am i.
@Perspective So only football players at Columbia use derogatory slurs for homosexuals and asians? What they said was terrible, but let’s not pretend that this is an issue that can be scapegoated to 50 members of our community.
@cc15 i’m not a huge football fan, but for the past two homecomings my friends and i went up to baker field for the sake of “school spirit” and “camaraderie,” knowing that our team would most likely lose.
but you know what? it has become very clear that columbia football (i’m saying football here, not athletics) is clearly not in line with the spirit of columbia as a whole. if you want something to rally around, something that embodies columbia pride and spirit, then you can attend the varsity show every year, or tamasha, or genderfuck, or whatever it is that makes you feel connected and welcome and a part of this vibrant community. if you still believe that you can get that feeling from columbia football games, then i won’t criticize you for going. i just want you to recognize that football games are not the only means for a school to show its spirit, especially when so many football players have publicly demonstrated their disdain and disrespect for other students.
@Anonymous In other words, athletes are motivated, hard-working, and have good common sense. I can very much admire that.
@That guy from GTA3 Funny, some of these tweets are wittier and better written than the faux-journalism that makes it onto this site and the Spec.
@Anonymous At least athletes at Columbia are getting all that extra attention they wanted now!
@Anonymous Im really interested on why everyone keeps down voting the Kathy Boudin comments. It is obvious that Columbia wants to give people 2nd chances and forgiveness for past wrongs. These football players deserve a 2nd chance just as much as Kathy Boudin.
@because... YOU DON’T EVEN GO HERE
@I wish we Could all get along like we used to in middle school…I wish I could bake a cake filled with rainbows and smiles and everyone would eat and be happy…
@Anonymous @I wish we: OK BUTTERS
@Anonymous We can forgive Kathy Boudin but can’t forgive someone who tweeted something wrong when they were in high school? Yes, some of these are recent but some of the tweets by a couple of players date back to high school when they were 16 or 17 years old!
@False analogy Kathy Boudin paid for her crime by spending 22 years in prison and then devoting her life to good works. A lot of these players aren’t even 22 years old.
So yes, everyone deserves a second chance, but they’ve done nothing yet to earn one.
@WKCR WKCR Sports is on the air at 9pm with more on Columbia Football. Tune in at wkcr.org or 89.9 FM NY!
@PROTESTTTT!!! Outside dodge, tomorrow, 5pm?
@Anonymous ain’t nobody got time fa dat
@Anonymous Here’s the reality that many don’t want to accept: the actions of one single individual are enough to destroy the reputation of an entire organization. It’s just the way this world works. If you don’t want to take the heat for stupid things like this, take the initiative as an individual in your organization to step up and say that certain things are unacceptable. If you are complicit in a culture that tolerates stupidity and bigotry, you’re eventually going to have to pay the piper.
@Anonymous I know everyone is busy with finals. but we should really protest outside dodge to get an answer from columbia instead of playing the waiting game.
@anon I am so ready to protest. Also, I think it makes sense if we also protest Kathy Boudin. Her being allowed to teach at this school is also unacceptable.
@Well then I am sure the Football Team appreciates all of this publicity. I mean, if you can’t win a single game to save you life, might as well take what you can get.
Additionally, i would not generalize all athletes. Many of them are not as dumb and insensitive as the football team. Many the fact that they they win removes the necessity for deplorable actions.
Moreover, this isn’t bad decisions. This is an inherent problem in that team’s culture. Sorry to generalize the members of the team, but by not reprimanding your fellow teammates, you’re just as bad.
@Well then I saw a typo i made. If any football player calls me out on it, my response is to catch a ball.
@13 Don’t worry, they didn’t see the typo. They can’t even figure out how to make their tweets private.
@regarding one of the tweets “I hate #DudesThatSayNoHomo…” and I think, great! Not everyone on the football team is homophobic! “…to things that are always gay no matter how many times you say ‘no homo'”
[facepalm]
@CC'14 oh man. Some of these are actually really bad.
@this generation This is absolutely horrendous behavior especially on the part of the assaulter. I don’t know how fair it is to bring the whole team down with him. Honestly people are so lax with what they tweet, post and comment about. Haven’t people realized by now that the things you put on the internet haunt and follow you forever?
@This Demands Action I’ll be damned if this is just another thing the administration tries to sweep under the rug. Bureaucratic apathy, a comprehensively lacking psychological and emotional support system, and now this? Where does it end? I didn’t work my ass off to get here, to work my ass off some more, to put up with shit like this.
We should boycott homecoming next year. The football team should be sanctioned. I have never been so disgusted to call myself a Columbian.
@really fucked up but I snickered when someone that one player retweeted called Justin Bieber a little gay fuck
and I severely condemn everything else.
@Honest Abe Good luck getting me at football games now. Haha!
@15 Disappointed in you small Tom. What the actual fuck
@Anonymus I think the most disgusting part is that none of you have thick skin, you’ve all been nurtured since your youth in a protected safe environment, its sad that you all take everything so personally, not only that but that you preach to be a diverse university but shun a being for having athletic ability and wanting to get a degree from your prestigious university by using it. Sad that people so soft exist. I actually couldn’t fathom people that are so mentally weak existed. You actually say “While we understand that not everyone on the football team is awful, according to this evidence, these individuals are.” Funny you speak of not stereotyping or prejudging yet your entire article is based on calling a certain group of people terrible based on a string of less than 140 character comments. Also its funny that you people all have this contempt for athletes as they aren’t properly admitted into the school and yatta yatta yatta. Well these students come to your school most often having less intelligence than any of you sit through the same classes, work extremely hard and earn the same degree just like you except they don’t have the God given intelligence you do they just work harder than you. They’re the people that are gonna get jobs some day because playing a sport requires certain values and attributes that none of you have. You honestly should look at athletes and say wow they are doing the same thing I’m doing, (passing these classes), with less God given ability, than they practice 5 days a week, (in football’s case every week), which you have actual idea how challenging that can be. and than after you realize that these people who do more than you with less and will get a better job than you because they have a diligence, a work ethic, and a discipline that can be admired, you should look at yourself and say “I wish I had the courage to do all that while attending a school where every regular student hates me, for no reason that I can control”
@Anonymous I don’t think racism and bigotry are qualifications that are valued by employers.
But yes, you’re right, a lot of student athletes work really hard academically while balancing sports and deserve to be acknowledged for that. However, I think that the few people that have been singled out here have every right to be judged harshly since they chose to post racist and homophobic comments on a public forum. This is not about having thick skin, it’s about confronting (rather than ignoring) the problems that still exist in our society. To fix them, we must first acknowledge that they exist.
@anon The fact that they are a part of this community means that they should respect the others in it, as well. Hate breeds hate. If the football team wants respect from their community, maybe they should be more mindful of the public persona they present in “a string of less than 140 character comments.” If they were a group of friendly, hardworking guys instead of a group of hardworking guys that wrote these tweets, one of which was just charged with a hate crime, these attitudes and perceptions you talk about wouldn’t be as prevalent as you seem to think they are.
@Anonymous So everyone on the football team should be held accountable for the actions of a few of its members? Cool.
@copy editor @Anonymus: ugh your punctuation is atrocious
@Anonymous @Anonymus: First:
I don’t think anyone at this school shuns anyone based just on athletic ability.
Second:
Making people feel sorry for athletes doesn’t make your argument valid. Everyone at this school has had at one time felt alone or inadequate, yet they persevere. People at Columbia(athlete or not) have to overcome obstacles all the time. This is not just an athletic problem.
Third:
If people are making racist comments on a public sphere, not only does that look bad on them but all of us as a University. Look at the tweets. I’ll say that everyone is entitled to their own opinons, but these are representatives of our university and have to be held liable. As my mother always said, if you have nothing good to say, don’t say it. They wrote these tweets on the INTERNET. Anyone can look at this and now they must live with the consequences.
@"god given ability" There’s no God, dumdum.
Also if you want “regular people” to give you credit for you being able to count to potato, then OK, good job. Now will you and all your friends stop being the real-life/Columbia version of Biff Tannen?
@procrastinator I think that you do yourself and athletes a disservice by saying that they have less inherent intelligence. I’m sure you didn’t mean to convey this, but, if what I read is correct, your statement disparages stereotyping while simultaneously calling the pool of athletes at Columbia less intelligent and less able.
In your words: “Well these students come to your school most often having less intelligence than any of you sit through the same classes, work extremely hard and earn the same degree just like you except they don’t have the God given intelligence you do they just work harder than you.”
But I’m sure you didn’t mean to say that and I’m not being facetious when I say that.
While I am not a fan of sports myself, I do have a lot of respect and admiration for athletes. They have rigorous schedules in addition to their normal class-loads, and I have had classes with many intelligent and well-spoken athletes. When I have free time, they are practicing and playing. They still got admitted in based on a distinct set of merits. And I was too. They participated in sports while I did music and theater. I think it’s immature and wrong to say that athletes are inherently stupid because of how they chose spend their time at Columbia.
Individual nastiness aside (which can range anywhere from the alleged actions of Chad above to academic dishonesty, etc., etc.), there is a lot of hard work that goes into maintaining their schedules. Hard work and diligence come to mind, for sure.
Now I am not advocating for or against Chad (whose whole story has yet to be reported by the media, which it will be inevitably) when I say that everyone has a bad side–the intensity and composition of nastiness varies from person to person and we all have a lot of work to do to improve ourselves.
All this being said, I do have to offer the following. As a homosexual and a senior, I have experienced what I would call the typical load of homophobia in high school and college. And most of it has disproportionately come from football players for whatever reason. Maybe it’s because others talk behind my back or that some people (who happen to be active student-athletes) are just more upfront about it, but athletes did contribute to a lot of my personal doubt and anxiety.
But a lot of ridicule was displayed in this comment thread by non-athletes as well, just read any of the tirades above. They also used the same strategy of stereotyping and generalization to describe the mental and moral capacities of athletes. I’m sure that there are people who aren’t athletes who have thought badly of me because of my orientation, but just didn’t display it or care to say it to my face.
I think it’s because we, as perhaps the most media-dependent and obsessed age group in history, are ensnared by the JOCKS VS. ARTS/WIMPS mindset; because of this, we approach the other with our own sets of prejudices and rely on harmful and two-dimensional stereotypes and labels to address the other like MEATHEAD or FAGGOT.
I think that’s what lies at the bottom of prejudice–the lack of knowledge of another individual and our own prejudice obfuscating the humanity and individuality of the other.
@CC '13 ugh I really just don’t know where to begin here so I’m going to throw my hands up and have enough faith in this community to believe that other commenters will say it for me. I will say, however, that the idea that you are discriminated against because you have athletic talent is the most absurd thing i’ve ever heard.
@This guy is my personal hero. While the rest of us were trolling bwog comments to procrastinate for finals, he was both writing a Spec op-ed AND talking to the administration. Both notoriously thankless tasks. Also, he is a senior, so he’s giving fucks purely out of the goodness of his heart. do work Wilfred.
@and …that was meant to be a response to his comment above… mehhhbwog
@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.
@Anonymous Dozens of racist and homophobic tweets made by the same group of people on twitter with their actual names attached (http://imgur.com/a/iMGQm#0) — and you think those are all just “bad decisions”? No. They are indicative of a culture of bigotry that is accepted and condoned within the football team. They knew exactly what they were doing.
I can’t even believe that you’re excusing their bigotry with what is essentially a “boys will be boys” argument.
@Student Athlete so everyone who ever calls something “gay” or “retarded” is automatically an awful person? People say things all the time without actually meaning what they say. This is an example of an incredible lapse in judgement and foresight. I do not know any of these players so I do not know how they actually feel regarding the issues of race, gender, sexual orientation, religion, etc. I do not think these tweets necessarily imply true racist or anti-gay feelings. It is very possible that these students were just trying to be “funny.” I don’t condone their behavior, what they did was incredibly stupid and hurtful, but to say they are awful people on the basis of these tweets is premature.
This is not a “boys will be boys” argument – they should be reprimanded for their actions, but people frequently say things that are interpreted in a manner in which they did not originally intend.
@CC 08 Pretty hard to misinterpret multiple iterations of “fagget” and the racist sentiment inherent in “I don’t even like Asians.” Not a lot of room for interpretation there, really.
@Student. Yea this shouldn’t be an athletes vs. non-athletes fight, it should be between students against racism and those who committed it. non-athletes shouldn’t go accusing all athletes of being racist and homophobic, and athletes shouldn’t feel the need to relate themselves with these football players because theyre also athletes. instead, students, athletes and non, should stand up for what they believe is right. it’s easy for students to use these players as representatives for all athletes, but that just means that athletes who dont support this behavior will just have to work harder to prove them wrong and focus on condemning the behavior of those players against another fellow student instead of focusing on defending themselves.
@CC 08 Pretty hard to misinterpret multiple iterations of “fagget” and the racist sentiment inherent in “I don’t even like Asians.” Not a lot of room for interpretation there, really.
@CC 08 Sorry, hit the wrong reply button.
@Marcellus Wallace But the real question is… does he look like a bitch?!
@nope DON’T CARE GONNA GO AHEAD AND THINK THEY’RE AWFUL BC THEY ARE
@molly It’s one thing to trade intellectual ability for athletic talent.. but when was the last time these assholes even won anything? honestly they’re not contributing anything, just get them the fuck out.
@Anonymous @molly: You are a hell of a drug.
@Concerned Columbian To any oppressed person at this school,
This will not be forgotten. Next year if anyone wants to join me during homecoming and publicly protest this absurd hatred. Do it, make signs and show our alumni we don’t support this type of rhetoric. Let’s make an example to our community that we won’t stay quiet.
CC 14
@Ughh Im ready to take over Hamilton tomorrow.
@Zach Though I agree this behavior and language should be condemned, protesting may only serve to deepen the rift between student-athletes and the rest of the student body.
@Anonymous Let’s deepen the rift until we find ourselves a long way apart. There is no connection between athletics and academics and this country has been forcing them together for far too long. I plan to conduct my graduate studies in Europe.
@Anonymous “Forgiveness does not mean ignoring what has been done or putting a false label on an evil act. It means, rather, that the evil act no longer remains as a barrier to the relationship. Forgiveness is a catalyst creating the atmosphere necessary for a fresh start and a new beginning.” MLK
@so i think athletes are good or bad
@Anonymous football =/= all athletics. this is football culture at every level and every school. don’t lump in the rest of the teams with em. all very very different communities.
@Anonymous Okay, we got it. The Bwog editor got it. In fact, the post title explicitly says these are FOOTBALL players’ tweets.
Now stop being a coward and start actively condemning these tweets, because they should make ANYONE’S jaw drop.
Football team or not, organizations (READ: COLUMBIA ATHLETICS) better carefully reflect on how they’ve presented themselves. I’m not conflating CU Football with CU Athletics, and I hope every other team can truthfully distance themselves from this culture.
That being said, don’t just distance yourselves from these football players’ actions: speak up, please.
@CS Major *ahem* != *ahem*
@Mexican CC'14 Dude Ok so that was hilarious. Good job.
@Wilfred Chan 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 as 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. -wwc2109
@Perfect! A nice, toothless bureaucratic form-letter is exactly the response that’s needed.
@Anonymous @Perfect!: Tim Qin blocks a university-wide honor code in terrified, overreacted fear through claiming it is a useless statement. Then he goes to Dean Aquino imploring her to release an even more useless statement with the grand claim that racism is wrong. Cool.
@CC'15 so let me get this straight: Tim Qin freaks out and blocks a university-wide honor code in fear of it being a useless statement, but then implores admins to release a statement with the grand purpose of discouraging racism?!
@Mexican CC'14 Dude Hey it’s the quintessential ‘That Guy,’ Wilfred Chan! Glad to know you’re on the case… I guess.
How do you get your posts to have nice, blue brackets? They certainly don’t have as much likes as other posts on this thread has, so what gives?
Are you special Wilfred?
@Anonymous “If you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say it at all.” …Right?
It probably got blue brackets because it contained some new info, and not because of the number of likes.
@Mexican CC'14 Dude LOL, chill out. I wanted to poke fun at the fact that the comment seemed to have gotten blue brackets as a result of Wilfred being such an ubiquitous figure on campus, despite seeming oddly disconnected from the student population at large (hence ‘That Guy’). This last observation is a sentiment many share, as can be seen in the comment above my own talking about ‘toothless bureaucratic form-letters.’
I’m certain Wilfred is a nice/great guy, but you get the sense that his (what should I call it?) press release above seems like all show and no substance. Yet another iteration of what turns people off about student groups on campus: there’s a ton of task forces that don’t get anything done, and CCSC/ESC boards that try and pass themselves off as the in-crowd/student leadership when all they really do is ask for your vote when they run uncontested.
To my understanding, Bwog gives notable comments brackets when they make poignant/funny observations, or when they have relatively important news to share. As much as I’m sure we’d want to believe otherwise, Wilfred’s message does neither.
@Anonymous What I’m curious about is how and why you four arranged that meeting. Were there any student-athletes represented? Aquino should know about the eruption of vitriol directed at student-athletes, particularly the football team. Even if admins don’t have more than a superficial interest to save their behinds, their PR instincts should tell them to tread lightly around Athletics.
@Anonymous Great job Wilf! Have you added that to your resume yet?
@Dude Chill out, it’s one meeting. And probably beats you sitting on your ass.
@Anonymous There’s a difference between “generalizing” and identifying systems that embody, condone, or promote a culture of unchecked and unabashed ignorance and hatred.
@Oh dear These tweets read like bad middle school flashbacks.
@Anonymous The University needs to respond to this, quickly and harshly. Unfortunately, Columbia Football is such a money-making machine (as funny as that sounds), the program itself will not be seriously punished. They should consider kicking these individuals off the team, however. Maybe take the Sig Chi house away from football.
This incident gives all of Columbia Athletics an undeserved bad rep. A harsh response will show that Columbia is serious about condemning this type of behavior.
@Anonymous Give the Sig Chi House to AEPi!!!!
@Anonymous Give the house to academically-oriented people as this is an academic institution. Drug dealers can live under a bridge.
@Anonymous That statement that it’s a “money-maker” gets thrown around a lot, but is it really true? I don’t mean that rhetorically, if anyone has any data on the actual correlation between having a football team and alumni donations, I’d be really interested to see it. My sense is that alumni who are donating to the school based on the football team are targeting their money towards athletic programs with very little bleedthrough to the academic institution as a whole. But like I said, I’d be interested in the data.
@Anonymous I’m sorry, but if the fucking captain is posting this shit publicly, then I think it is pretty representative of Columbia football.
@Thomas Callahan Guys, athletes are every bit as smart as merit-based admits! We’re just bad test-takers and math hurts our heads. But that doesn’t make us dumb. If Tiger Woods never had won a tournament, he’d still be tiger woods. That’s why we don’t even need to try – we’re already legends. And for the record, I think Asian is a really good language. In fact, I had like four asian friends who spoke all that ching-chong nonsense at my prep school. They helped me take the SAT and ironically, they didn’t even get in here lol. Jessica Marinara prolly knew all that studying for APs made their biceps weak!! HAHA nerds! Yeah, admissions people don’t want a class full of small-armed toothpicks LOL. that’s not what college is for – books won’t help you throw a rager and fuck biddies with big titties.
Now that we’ve cleared up the whole dumb athlete thing, I wanna clear up the other steriotypes too. We’re not even racist either. I’m eating asian people food right now. not sure if my food just meowed. kidding, see that was a joke.. just like this whole thing which is way overblown. Similar to how doing badly in academics doesn’t make you dumb, saying mean things toward asians (“Chris Connors: sat next to a sexy asian chick on the plane. and I don’t even like asians”), gays (“@thatguybruce: you show me a n1gga that takes a bath and I’ll show you a fagg0t”), sikhs / muslims (avon barksdale: “should be in the bahamas – damn you terrorists with the towels and need for harsher airline security”) and those annoying people with the little hats and big noses ( “New York’s jewish population is growing again? #fckkk”) doesn’t make you a racist. Just misunderstood. And for that, we forgive you.
Stop being so gay,
– Big T “Wolfman” Callahan & Columbia Football
@Cool Runnings this is legendary.
@Anonymous These people are terrible. But not all of the football players are ignorant or unintelligent. And many non-athletes at this school are racist, or homophobic, or generally not that bright. Let’s not generalize either group.
@Blunts in Butler Just took a big hit.
I’m going to be honest here. Why not just stop recruiting athletes? Maybe everyone should be subject to the same admissions process. Maybe people who truly have a desire to play a sport can try out for teams after they are admitted based on their academic credentials. I know. We might not have enough people to fill the teams. But honestly, who gives a fuck? I would rather have a higher academic standard than fund dozens of teams that no one actually follows.
@For your next story Someone investigate the illegal (per NCAA) signing bonuses that football players receive at Columbia. Athletics Department are thugs #BANGBANG
@Can. Not. Wait. … to hear the band next season…. Wow, I have never been this excited to go to a college football game in my life… and I LOVE college football.
hey football team… “no balls, you won’t take the field next season..”
@Anonymous Woah… those are much worse than I thought they were going to be. Ew. These people are disgusting.
@Honestly can’t we just cut the football team already? It seems the only things they’re capable of are embarrassing our school on the field and being douchebags to people who actually deserve to be here.
@Q $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$
@Crawlb4bawl In the midst of the football team’s dismal season last year, I have argued both privately with friends and in public arenas that regardless of what appears on the scoreboard, the football program is an intricate part of Columbia athletics and athletics is undeniably a lynchpin of campus unity, cohesion, the little bit of glue that keeps us Columbians together as a hundred million distractions outside the gates relentlessly pull us apart.
Columbia’s 0-69 loss to Harvard? I was there. 6-33 loss to Princeton? Yep, there. I was one of the few who looked pass the fumbled passes, the shoddy defense, the lack of talent, one of the few who condemned, albeit secretly, the thrashing of the team at the mercy of the marching band.
Unity. The sense of belonging and community I felt standing in the Columbia section of the crowd made it all worth it.
As an Asian-Canadian-American who has desperately followed Columbia Athletics longing for that elusive feeling of inclusiveness, I can say to you with affirmation, Columbia Football, you have forever lost one of your biggest, most die-hard fans on the bleachers.
@Anonymous Columbia Football has fans on the bleachers? I just assumed they were all there for the Student Rewards Program.
@CC'14 There is a rewards program?
@Because it needs to be said Thank you for trying so hard to support an element of our community that has, to be fair, been comprehensively derided for years. Your commitment to attending games shows a school spirit that I think we could all benefit from.
That you would be so maligned by a team you’ve been so committed to is heart breaking. Please know that someone out there appreciates your dedication, and that the comments of these individuals in no way undermine your status as a valued member of the Columbia community.
@46 Asshole Tweets from Associated Football players http://imgur.com/a/iMGQm#0
@Anonymous Fucking athletes. I spent FOUR YEARS in high school working hard to write racist tweets but they get all the recognition.
@Anonymous did you guys see this? http://twitter.com/CU_DENCH
@Anonymous Parody accounts must die.
@Unfortunately Except when they aren’t parody accounts.
@Some of my favorites... Chris Connors: “@joeyfingaz45 as of right now i cant see the picture but i imagine its rather gay”
Sean Brackett: “@JimmyY70 shut up fagasaurus rex”
Avon Barksdale: “Honestly yolo is the fucking gayest saying…drake is a fagget and whoever says yolo is a fagget”
Avon Barksdale: “almost got thrown out of the SAT room for calling a kid a homo when he was wearing capri jeans…what is wrong with our society”
When will people stop using “gay,” “fag,” etc. as meaningless insults? IT DOESN’T MAKE SENSE. YOU SOUND LIKE A DUMBASS AND AN ASSHOLE. I don’t try to hate on athletics, but one thing that can’t be denied is that in certain sports that are considered more “masculine,” the level of homophobia is just absurd.
And all the tweets against Asians…jeeezzz these guys are complete boneheads:
Chad Washington: “When Asian ppl fall asleep in class the teachers can’t tell! Lol”
@Woopsss “Avon Barksdale” is actually Mike Gerst. Used a fake name for his twitter account.
@JJ11 4 Lyfe DAM how u gonna expect sum1 who goes by da name AVON BARKSDALE 2 be a decent person aint y’all seen the wire smh
@Macklemore If I was gay, I would think football hates me
Have you read the players’ tweets lately?
“Man, that’s gay” gets dropped on the daily
We become so numb to what we’re saying
A culture founded from oppression
Yet we don’t have acceptance for ’em
Call each other faggots behind the keys of a message board
A word rooted in hate, yet our genre still ignores it
Gay is synonymous with the lesser
It’s the same hate that’s caused wars from religion
Gender to skin color, the complexion of your pigment
The same fight that led people to walk outs and sit ins
It’s human rights for everybody, there is no difference!
– “Same Love”
@Eyebrows raised They’re using the word “faggot” and can’t even spell it………………
@the fact that some of these kids have a higher GPA than me completely invalidates the meaningfulness of GPA
@dude no offense, but like, you must have a horrible GPA for that to be true… in his own op-ed, Chad claimed to be proud of his 3.03
@SEAS '13 *cries*
@SEAS '15 MY EXACT REACTION PREACH PREACH
@Meanie Wow. These ppl suck on the field and in real life. Smh.
@Anonymous BILL CAMPBELL. Please do something about this.
@CC'14 I’ve very rarely been at a loss for words, all I can come up with is: What the Fuck?
Expel these clowns and give actual intelligent kids a chance.
@Anonymous This gets much more disturbing for me when I think of the people I know who have been rejected. Intelligent, thoughtful, intellectual students who are currently withering away to normalcy at their unchallenging colleges. What they might have been if they had been given these places instead!
@eh... while I share your main point, I think we should be more careful than generalizing other schools as “unchallenging”. plenty of reason to make your argument without needlessly shitting on other schools.
@studying for finals I think my IQ dropped 40 pts from getting in to Columbia. I swear I knew how to prepare for and take a test before…
@not sure but I’m pretty sure your IQ doesn’t spontaneously drop 40 points if you don’t get in to Columbia. Can’t say for sure since I got in but I have some other friends that I think are doing all right
@Anonymous I don’t disagree. And, ideally, a person should be able to academically challenge himself and grow intellectually in situations far more depraved than any university. But there still exists a certain type of person whose brain is ruled by its biological social tendencies despite natural intelligence. I think of a high school friend who used to spend his time learning and discussing (with great competence), had some bad luck in college admissions, and now cheats at his apathetic college to make more time for cigarettes and short-lived girlfriends.
@wait his girlfriends are dying???
@This is a low blow, but... They most likely would have been less self-confident and a lot more stressed out. Columbia’s academic rigor comes at a high cost, and I’m very happy that I’m here for graduate rather than undergraduate studies. The undergrads have it too hard.
@CC '13 Tell that to the B-school…
@Bwog I call you gay!
@Anonymous Don’t overgeneralize this to the entire football team. It seems like the idiocy of at most 10 guys… just bc people play sports doesn’t mean they’re bigots. but yes, these are terrible
@I hope you realize this is practically the entire football team. They hang out in one giant clique, roving the campus and spewing nastiness at all of us who are so privileged to be in their presence. You can’t say this is representative of only a select few individuals because, as we can see from the at least 10 distinct Twitter accounts pictured in the album above, these hateful, disgusting posts are truly a systemic problem
@Anonymous Okay even if this is not the entire columbia football team, it just means that the rest of them stood idly by while these 10 students publicly made racist and homophobic statements.
@I totally have a friend who's a football player and he's really nice I swear True, when even a minority says asinine, bigoted shit on a public forum it reflects poorly on ‘Columbia Football’ as a collective entity. It’s clearly indicative of a more pervasive shittiness that isn’t limited to one player, one incident, or a bunch of tweets. However, this is no excuse to condemn or implicate every guy on the team as an individual.
@Anonymous In response to those saying, “Oh, it’s only ten players. It’s not the whole team. Don’t make gross generalizations.”
Only ten players are posting racist, anti-semitic, sexist, and homophobic tweets because only ten football players know how to use a computer.
@Anonymous Damn I’m embarrassed. Why does Columbia persist in the ridiculous admission policies that let these creeps in?
@Anonymous The joys of diversity!
@Van Owen Emergency meeting in Sigma Chi. Need to talk about our feelings.
@cc'14 copy edit, please. come on bwog.
@Yeah... … this post is terribly written. c’mon Bwog
@Anonymous But they’re goddamn IVY LEAGUERS, so they *must* be intellectual, brilliant, and articulate, right?!?
@Anonymous Dear Jessica Marinaccio,
How am I supposed to sit in my CC class and discuss Du Bois and Woolf with these fucking people?
Love,
CC’15
@In all seriousness though Even though all of us were fortunate enough to be accepted to Columbia, think back to your high school and think about how many of your close friends and peers would have killed for a spot here. Think about how many incredibly intelligent, talented, hard-working people you knew who ended up with a rejection letter, not just from Columbia but from any number of other schools of this caliber. Frankly, that’s what makes me sick about this.
I’m tired of the argument that we should remember that the Ivy League was originally founded as a football league. I’m tired of the argument that there are lower admissions standards for athletes because that’s the way it’s always been done, or because they’re bringing a unique talent or perspective that other students don’t have. There’s no special exception for music, or visual art, or any of the other non-academic talents that students bring with them to Columbia.
No one’s arguing that we put athletes on a pedestal in the social scene here. But they do get put on an institutional pedestal from day one, a pedestal that has given these football players a feeling of impunity from the standards expected of a student at this university.
People like this do not deserve a place at the table. But more importantly, we should ask ourselves why they got one in the first place.
@UW “Getting In; A Critic at Large” by Malcolm Gladwell
> “In the 2001 book “The Game of Life,” James L. Shulman and William Bowen (a former president of Princeton) conducted an enormous statistical analysis on an issue that has become one of the most contentious in admissions: the special preferences given to recruited athletes at selective universities. Athletes, Shulman and Bowen demonstrate, have a large and growing advantage in admission over everyone else. At the same time, they have markedly lower G.P.A.s and S.A.T. scores than their peers. Over the past twenty years, their class rankings have steadily dropped, and they tend to segregate themselves in an “athletic culture” different from the culture of the rest of the college. Shulman and Bowen think the preference given to athletes by the Ivy League is shameful. Halfway through the book, however, Shulman and Bowen present what they call a “surprising” finding. Male athletes, despite their lower S.A.T. scores and grades, and despite the fact that many of them are members of minorities and come from lower socioeconomic backgrounds than other students, turn out to earn a lot more than their peers. Apparently, athletes are far more likely to go into the high-paying financial-services sector, where they succeed because of their personality and psychological makeup.”
…
> “The Ivy League is perfectly happy to accept, among others, the kind of student who makes a lot of money after graduation. As the old saying goes, the definition of a well-rounded Yale graduate is someone who can roll all the way from New Haven to Wall Street.”
@UW Also, I know it’s anecdotal, but half of the students in my UWriting section were athletes. The few athletes that actually did the reading really liked this part of the essay, but it was sad seeing them struggle to verbalize it.
@Smh Damn. Getting these idiots out of finance should be a significant part of wall street reform.
@IB Summer Analyst '13 (CC'14) Just saying, none of the students working at “my” firm from Columbia this summer are like this. Every single one is an accomplished student and an engaged member of the community. Doesn’t mean there isn’t a problem to be addressed, though.
@Anonymous Agreed. IB Summer Analyst 13, keep on dreaming kid.
@IB SA @Anonymous:
There is no dreaming here. Given that I can count all of the summer analysts from CU on fewer than two hands, and have met all of them and already called quite a few my friends, I can tell you: 1). none of them are athletic-recruits (not that that inherently detracts from their intelligence or career aptitude), and; 2). A number of them hold very senior (read: top) positions in the very committees and organizations responsible for resolving problems like these because they genuinely care about their fellow students.
I worked hard to get my job and I’ll be working even harder to do well at it, and it’s a bit frustrating to have surprisingly uninformed accusations tossed around and assumptions made regularly.
Yes, Wall Street has a lot of issues to resolve, but it’s time we stopped acting like everyone who works there is some sort of amoral meathead.
@smh Yeah. Explain that to the millions of people around the world who are still recovering from the financial crisis of 2008. I’m sorry but you can’t make the case for morality on Wall Street.
@SA I don’t understand he condescension or the anger. I don’t mean to detract from the point of this article, but if we’re operating on assumptions here your arrogance is entirely unmerited. I doubt you actually know that much about what happens on “wall street” in the first place.
If you can afford to pay the bills in moral self-righteousness, kudos to you. I’ve actually worked in non-profits, and with loans to pay and ailing parents to support it wasn’t going to work any longer. When I told colleagues about changing paths none of them gave me shit because most of them had been there.
And even if for some odd reason you feel comfortable moralizing the entirety of the financial services profession (which includes managing NGOs, non-profits, charitable foundations, etc…) what logical basis do you have for projecting this onto the millions of employees? Chelsea Clinton worked on Wall St., and now she’s addressing globs health issues. Is she ammoral?
TL;DR take the dick out of your mouth.
@smh Whatever helps you sleep at night. I’m not judging you for paying off your student loans. Do what you know how to do best. Obviously, people go into finance for various reason and one can find certain individuals who are genuinely moral. However, that does not negate the fact that money not morality influences most of the decision making on Wall Street.
@Facepalm Yes, thank you for the news flash. Please point me to the nearest career “driven by morality.” Hint: doesn’t exist. Even when I thought that’s what I was doing, it wasn’t. Wait and see. And frankly my potential to spur industries and create jobs, capital and progress is far greater in finance than in anything else I’ve done.
I’d like to tell you how basic you’re being, but I have a feeling puberty will reveal this.
@@Facepalm “And frankly my potential to spur industries and create jobs, capital and progress is far greater in finance than in anything else I’ve done.”
LOL NO IT ISN’T.
@Statistics @UW:
“The Ivy League is perfectly happy to accept, among others, the kind of student who makes a lot of money after graduation.”
I don’t think this is true at all. Going back to AP Stat in HS on this one, but I would argue that there is a confounding variable. Intelligence…
As in The Ivy League generally accepts the most intelligent students and that intelligent people tend to make a lot of money after graduation.
@Statistics “Male athletes, despite their lower S.A.T. scores and grades, and despite the fact that many of them are members of minorities and come from lower socioeconomic backgrounds than other students, turn out to earn a lot more than their peers. Apparently, athletes are far more likely to go into the high-paying financial-services sector, where they succeed because of their personality and psychological makeup.”
I think this is great though. Mobility has been declining and the gaps between classes widening. If accepting athletes means accepting minorities from lower socioeconomic backgrounds that end up advancing themselves and earn more money then their peers, I think that is great.
@CC '13 I want to upvote this over and over and over again. And then I want to make sweet sweet love to the beautiful individual that just stole the words right out of my mouth.
@Katie Kornman I understand your frustration, but you are simply wrong if you think that musicians and artists of a comparable caliber to D1 athletes do not receive special consideration in their application. Yes, athletic recruitment does seem to lower the admissions bar to a greater extent than any other extra-curricular distinction, but we all know that a significant number of Columbia students are accepted every year for reasons other than or in addition to their GPA and SAT scores. Personally, I think that makes for a much better community.
What makes the athletic “exception” in fact exceptional is that it follows students through their time at Columbia in a way that other extra-curricular distinctions usually do not. The most talented musicians and dancers and artists do not live in the same Carmen suites freshman year, their schedules don’t encourage them to take the same classes, and they don’t spend innumerable hours every week practicing together and away from everyone else. The insular quality of university athletics, while understandable from a practical standpoint, is what makes it more difficult for these students to benefit from and contribute to the diversity of Columbia’s campus.
Columbia’s statement of principles reads that “as members of the University with different experiences and ideas, we actively engage each other to understand, appreciate and accept our various identities.” There is no excuse for the language and sentiment expressed in these tweets. Individuals must take responsibility for their actions and the harm they have inflicted. But, if a meaningful number of our athletes are making it to sophomore and junior year with these feelings of bias, I have to wonder if Columbia isn’t also failing them.
@TBB Major props to everyone who’s been working to compile this trash.
@Sean Brackett, captain You’re welcome! Our squad has been working hard to write it.
@Anonymous everyone at columbia, including myself, is an asshole. doesn’t matter if you are on a sports team or not. if you attend this school, you are probably racist – likely – sexist – very likely – elitist – most likely – or discriminatory in another sense – elitist (it bears repeating).
@Anonymous Granted, but some of us recognize that these urges are primitive vestiges and suppress them. Surely that makes us worthy of more respect than these athletes.
@Anonymous fucking truer words have never been said. if you’re downvoting this, you fucking need to check yourself right now.
@Anonymous Speak for yourself, some of us are lifelong members of the underclass majoring in human rights #BANGBANG
@Anonymous Nice try, Chad…
@Anonymous We’ve got the piss video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=j2qOpdJH1fA&noredirect=1
@Anon How dumb are you to think that he is actually drinking piss
@Anonymous For those of you wondering where the album of hateful tweets has been compiled, here it is. Let’s expose these fucks for what they truly are.
http://imgur.com/a/iMGQm/all
@Anonymous holy shit, 36000 views?
@SEAS '15 167k right now. Jeez. Spreading like wildfire…
@why is it that juicy stuff like this always happens during finals?
@Anonymous This will make national news. IVYGATE will pick this up, followed by GAWKER which is a direct feed to the NYTimes. In the wake of the Washington assault the CU football team destroyed its brand!
@nah c’mon, they were way too late to destroy “the brand”. everyone knows the 2014 class sweatshirt did it first.