Bwog recently received screenshots of a Class of 2017 Wrestling Team GroupMe. The screenshots, which contain messages spanning from 2014 to a few days ago, are troubling—the men in the group message mock women’s appearances, make jokes about rape, use homophobic and racist slurs, and engage in other distasteful interactions. After requesting a statement from the University, we have learned that an investigation has since been launched, and that the Wrestling team will no longer be competing at their meet this weekend.
The messages show a lack of respect for women—even those with whom they interact regularly. In the screenshots we received, the wrestlers sent each other numerous photos of female Columbia students and mocked their appearances. One of the men said a female student looked like “a dude in a wig.” Another woman was referred to as “fish pussy.” The wrestlers in the GroupMe also mocked female students as a whole. In one message, a wrestler refers to female Columbia students as “ugly socially awkward cunts” who feel “entitled.” Just messages before, another member of the team expressed frustration over how their team would “run the town of any state school” where “every girl begs for the cock so hard.” It appears these team members don’t realize the irony in referring to women as “entitled” for wanting to control their own bodies.
Among the misogynistic messages is a shocking proliferation of racism and racist comments. Their comments about black women come across as especially distasteful and cruel. The wrestlers’ usage of the n-word is flippant, too, and they use it to refer to women with whom they’ve hooked up, workers at businesses around Columbia, and protesters in Ferguson, MO.
Athletics receives a large allotment of the university’s financial and personnel resources. As such, Athletics and the people under it represent the interests of the university perhaps better than even whole academic departments. On Giving Day, for example, Athletics received $2,651,323 in donations—the second largest amount received by any part of the school. These resources should not be used to support a team whose members participate in a culture of bigotry. Though we don’t know if similar sentiments are expressed by younger members of the Wrestling team, we find it particularly troubling that these sorts of attitudes and beliefs are being espoused (and have been since 2014) by the team’s current seniors, team members who are nominally our athletic leaders.
We chose to post the screenshots without names because we believe the messages that were sent are part of a greater issue. Just this past week, Harvard canceled their Men’s Soccer team’s season after it came to light that they consistently produced “reports” degrading the Women’s Soccer team. Our intention is not to defame any individuals, but to bring up a larger question of how this sort of culture has continued for so long among students who are supposed to represent the University. It is clear that this sort of “locker room banter” should not be blindly accepted at an institution of higher learning.
The University released a statement to us regarding the screenshots after we informed them of the situation. You can read the full statement from the University below:
Columbia University has zero tolerance in its athletics programs for the group messaging and texts sent by several members of the men’s varsity wrestling team. They are appalling, at odds with the core values of the University, violate team guidelines, and have no place in our community.
Upon learning yesterday of these messages, Columbia’s Department of Athletics and our office of Student Conduct and Community Standards initiated an investigation. The Department of Athletics has decided that, as the investigation proceeds, Columbia wrestlers will not compete in Binghamton University’s open meet this weekend.
You can see the screenshots from the GroupMe below:
346 Comments
@Hi So does freedom of speech not a thing anymore?
@Keen They all sound like trump supporters to me
@Herambe This makes me think of when we saw Clinton/Podesta’s emails and how corrupt Democrats are.
It’s weird that MSM and SJW’s are so hellbent on destroying innocent people’s lives but not mentioning politicians who pimp America for their own personal gain.
@Vadiraja It matters how these people think. Even if one dismisses these posts as satirical, they are satirical in a way that shows that they are the modern day misogynists and racists. If you want to see satire that is still funny but does not degrade woman or degrade people based on their genetics, see THE ONION.
@Dr.Benway Shut up. People like you will simply be ignored in the future or told to shut up and behave yourself.
We’re tired of having to deal with children who believe that every little thing is somehow a crime or something that we should waste out time being concerned about.
Grow up.And stay away from men because we don’t want another mattress girl on our hands.
@Carl Webb These texts are OVER TWO YEARS OLD.
Anyway who cares what they say in private. I say worse and will always do so to spite the Libtard SWs. Oh yeah and GO TRUMP,
@L If these messages were posted on a PUBLIC social media, then there is a problem. On the other hand, messages being hacked and screenshot by a member outside the Columbia Wrestling GroupMe is another thing and there should be consequences.
@roberts and …thomas jefferson and george washington used four letter words sometimes,
@Anonymous If you think this is about four-letter words, perhaps you should reread those texts.
@roberts men are men, cowboys are cowboys,…>!! get over it.
men talk like that all the time ..in the locker room, at work, or with their friends, ..
yes, it’s a little sickening sometime, i agree.
and very immature and ridiculous …. it’s a man thing, i guess.
@Asdf The discourse is awful and sad. It was also basically private. While revealing ugliness about how some people really think, punishing them for conversation sets an example. Imagine Donald Trump punishing the NYT for violating his standards… Erode Freedom to exchange private thoughts, even very ugly ones , and at some point your Freedom island will disappear into the sea.
@kelly One other thing, let’s call this what it is, open season on white males, which I am sure most of these guys are probably, given that it’s Columbia.
The one group the Leftist ENCOURAGE their mindless followers hate, ridicule, condemn, etc.
If I were a male at this horrible school, I would be out on transfer before Christmas, there are so many other fantastic schools, why waste that once in a lifetime experience with a bunch of whiny little PC nazis?
Seriously, take a look around and go somewhere where you are not hated, not to mention you will have 10 times more HOT women that actually LIKE white males. Why suffer such a backwards, hateful place as Columbia?
(that should be the new slogan for males considering Columbia).
Hatred and bigotry are alive and well at places like Columbia, how ironic.
You PC clones truly don’t get it, you are just programmed, and you never bother thinking. Very sad.
@Anonymous Wow, Kelly! So much anger and discontent! Tell me are you hot? Did your father think your mother was hot? Were you allowed to voice your opinion as a child? If you are not hot, do you deserve to be treated like a piece of S___T? Just curious, because quite frankly, I would not want my daughter hanging out with someone that does not think of themselves very highly. But hey, there is a place for everyone, and at the end of the day, these northeast liberals are the ones pulling the strings. I don’t get it Kelly, but hey, everyone deserves someone to mistreat, I’m sure your man appreciates you whole heartily.
@kelly Little mindless wanna-be liberals, we can blame the adults these little morons are imitating.
This is truly pathetic, Columbia is honestly a joke, and has been for twenty years. Very light academics, lots of PC drama, like this.
They think this makes them look like adult liberals, it’s funny, and sad.
Way to steal private texts, and publish them….
Thought Hillary, Pedestal, and the DNC said that was wrong?
Hahaha, so stupid. You kids better stay in the northeast, you will never make it in that real world, where men and women joke about sex, race, and all other adult topics.
@Anonymous For me, this is what it comes down to: the wrestling team competes in the name of Columbia. It says COLUMBIA on their uniforms. Columbia pours money into their athletic program, gives them special access to academic support, lets them register for classes early, transports them to matches, and maybe even gave them preference in admissions because of what they could contribute to the team and hence, the school and its reputation.
Columbia didn’t go rummaging around in their texts, but when they became public, it’s pretty hard to justify reacting to them with nothing but a shrug, because that would also send a message: “These people represent us and here’s what they stand for.”
The right to freedom of speech means they can’t be arrested for what they wrote or said. It doesn’t guarantee that there will be no consequences.
Whether or not campus media should have published those texts in the first place–that’s a whole other matter. And I have some sympathy with commenters who point out that plenty of people on the left seem to have no problem putting inflammatory labels on people.
@Stanley P. Kachowski Apparently, you need to be a holocaust denying war-monger for Columbia to defend your right to speech. I present you a verbatim excerpt from your Dean about supporting free speech of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. But here this isn’t even about free speech but more of a thought-police exercise.
“First, since 2003, the World Leaders Forum has advanced Columbia’s longstanding tradition of serving as a major forum for robust debate, especially on global issues. It should never be thought that merely to listen to ideas we deplore in any way implies our endorsement of those ideas, or the weakness of our resolve to resist those ideas or our naiveté about the very real dangers inherent in such ideas. It is a critical premise of freedom of speech that we do not honor the dishonorable when we open the public forum to their voices. To hold otherwise would make vigorous debate impossible.
Second, to those who believe that this event never should have happened, that it is inappropriate for the University to conduct such an event, I want to say that I understand your perspective and respect it as reasonable. The scope of free speech and academic freedom should itself always be open to further debate. As one of the more famous quotations about free speech goes, it is “an experiment, as all life is an experiment.” I want to say, however, as forcefully as I can, that this is the right thing to do and, indeed, it is required by existing norms of free speech, the American university, and Columbia itself.
Third, to those among us who experience hurt and pain as a result of this day, I say on behalf of all of us we are sorry and wish to do what we can to alleviate it.
Fourth, to be clear on another matter – this event has nothing whatsoever to do with any “rights” of the speaker but only with our rights to listen and speak. We do it for ourselves.
We do it in the great tradition of openness that has defined this nation for many decades now. We need to understand the world we live in, neither neglecting its glories nor shrinking from its threats and dangers. It is consistent with the idea that one should know thine enemies, to have the intellectual and emotional courage to confront the mind of evil and to prepare ourselves to act with the right temperament. In the moment, the arguments for free speech will never seem to match the power of the arguments against, but what we must remember is that this is precisely because free speech asks us to exercise extraordinary self- restraint against the very natural but often counter-productive impulses that lead us to retreat from engagement with ideas we dislike and fear. In this lies the genius of the American idea of free speech.
Lastly, in universities, we have a deep and almost single-minded commitment to pursue the truth. We do not have access to the levers of power. We cannot make war or peace. We can only make minds. And to do this we must have the most full freedom of inquiry. “
@CC Alumnus in California Weak. Columbia, stop coddling millennials with too many feelings. Political correctness has gone too far. Until Columbia stops meddling in private conversations of students (on a non-Columbia website!) I am suspending my alumni contributions. Will urge my fellow graduates to do the same. The wrestling team did nothing wrong.
@stacy and lets see some of the Girls text, As a cop I can tell you they are just as bad
@Anonymous Stacy what are the statistics of sexual assault by women vs men?
@CAP10 This is not really a confusing issue but the response seems confused. Break it down:
Question 1 – is this hate speech? (I think there is almost total agreement on this one)
q2 – how do I as a person react to hate speech?
q3 – Is my reaction affected by the fact that this was private speech?
@Dr.Benway Here’s how you should react,mind your own business and get a life.
@pete This is so far left PC it wreaks of the thought police. This is what free speech looks like. Dislike it all you want, it is constitutionally protected. Remember that document, the only real definition of who we are as a country?
But where are is all the hue and cry about civil rights here?! A few above get it, but far too few just don’t.
@DR There is plenty of “hate” to go around. More PC private speech control. If we only saw the private texts between the liberal students.
Why doesn’t Columbia suspend the students who are walking the streets in protest about a fair election, shouting expletives, stopping traffic (likely illegal) and making their own reverse intolerant comments?
@SaynotoPCBS The only culture of intolerance i see here is from the University that thinks that private banter amongst the lads is illegal or even something that is wrong.
What world have you been brought up in? Teenagers, adolescents and young men engage in this kind of shit talking between them self all the time, everywhere. They always have and they always will. Don’t pretend you haven’t heard your little or older brother talk shit with their friends like this.
Another thing is that even if they said the most horrible stuff someone could possibly imagine, or even if they held the worst of opinions, they are still allowed to hold those. Even if they are considered wrong they are views and thoughts and they are (still at least) legal to have and they should in no way be punished for having them.
@Danielle I don’t think anyone is saying (yet) that their speech is illegal. But many policies on a private campus are not necessarily backed by actual US laws. They are just campus policies. And I would imagine that the kind of rhetoric texted by some of the athletes on this team is in violation of some campus policies (or at least, should be in violation of a policy I would hope to exist).
It’s not a question of which world we have been brought up in- it’s a question of which world we should all strive to live in. Someone can think that speech like that is just speech, but it’s not. It’s not harmless, it is hurtful, and it does encourage a dangerous attitude towards difference that does influence others into normalizing racist, sexist, and homophobic thoughts that often then normalize hate crimes against the affected groups. And Universities should strive to discourage that kind of normalization- with all their students and certainly with students who represent them on an athletic team.
Also, I’ve never heard my brothers say those things and there are plenty of men who don’t speak like that. And men (since you seem to think this is about ‘lads’) certainly don’t have to think, text, or speak that way. They really don’t. It’s not a natural law or a matter of physics.
And again, no one is saying they aren’t ‘allowed’ to hold those beliefs. They are. But I, and many other demographics represented in those texts, don’t want to be on a university campus that doesn’t want to protect us by investigating those texts and practicing justice on our behalf. And school discipline is very different from actual legal consequences- the school absolutely has a right to discipline and educate those students who texted and, of course, those student can leave if they don’t want to subject themselves to any of that. I hope they won’t though. I’d rather them think about whether or not they should hold those views and be given the chance to consider who they could be instead. Be given support from those of us who say, “yes, embrace your athleticism, your masculinity, your ‘lad-ness’, but you don’t need to put down others or hold those views in order to demonstrate any of that.”
Best of luck to those who were hurt by those words (don’t lose hope that you are valuable and deserve respect) and best of luck to those who texted those words (feel free to join some of us who try to reflect, evolve, and help and respect others, despite our differences).
@Anonymous If anyone has access to the GroupMe, look at the messages with the red hearts and you can narrow down which account the screenshots came from.
@Sam Dennis For decades I was led to believe that it was the Conservative Republicans not the LIBERALS who were the racists and misogynists, yet there (Columbia U) in one of the Nation’s Prime Centers of Liberal Learning all of a sudden the facade is shattered. Who’d have thought?
@CAP10 Reading this is quite a window into the state of American consciousness. Putting aside the free speech and invasion of privacy issues, maybe it an admirable to goal to cleanse humanity of hate. But isn’t that quasi-religious? Hate, it’s been around pretty long, pretty long. But an activism that strives to overpower hate, can it be overpowered? If we grant that it can’t be simply overpowered, then where to? Again, certain religious ideas or the more enlightened humanities, where we find the advise to address our reactions to the world, rather than fight with the world.
@Art Awwww did your feelings get hurt? Oh, it did? Okay, what happened to you next? Were you able to survive :::gasp:::: being offended?
@Roger Is that it? Is that all their is?
Now the staff are becoming snowflakes?
Who said “tolerant speech” is the law? And who published private conversations? Why are you violating someones privacy?
You’ve become the Liberal PC Frankenstiens!
@GH Really CU? Try to not be foolish. First your kind get Trump elected by calling everyone racists and killing conversation, along with Hilly calling 25% of the country (Trumps’ take of registered voters (half reg’d voters did not vote)) “deplorable”. No undecided, or potential Trump voter had any chance to discuss their thoughts in a safe space in the last 8 years and longer, they get smacked down as “racists” and never move toward the middle and maybe a vote for Hiilly (I gave 4x financially to two other candidates who are not sold to wall street).
Now your backwards thinking is going to ensure many young people start to see politically correct speech as spawned by those quickest to kill the 1st amendment in addition to killing conversation and progress. Calling “racist,” and nigger and whatever, gets no one anywhere, ever. You can’t just go penalizing everyone who uses hate speech in private, swears or speaks some BS.
These young persons need safe space with their peers. If they go spray painting these messages on St. Paul’s, then it’s public and you have a problem. You are taking private conversations and exposing them… these guys were not running for office. Swimmers raping people is one thing, guys talking need a chance to mature without any penalty. If they choose to serve at a women’s shelter or otherwise assist in choosing a non-punishing way to grow and mature, that would be a good solution. The answer is interaction, communication and growth. Unless that is not what CU is about.
These are very hard working young men, frat members and wrestlers and are mentally average guys among a significant portion of their demographic. Planning frat parties, talking about the young women at the parties…. let this be a wake-up call to the drunk and drugged rape culture of frats and sororities, it’s ending. (Yours Truly-Degree holding Social Worker). It’s sad when politics of running a U and making a million dollar salary need a scapegoat of whom to make an example.
@Brown grad One tiny thing i would like to thank the Columbia rape culture for, that it let me know as a high school senior, to put my efforts elsewhere in my applications. Specifically, the recruiter who came to meet me and tell me why Columbia was so great, sounded just like these guys, and his best selling point was how many NYC girls would want to date me. Take home message, blame the parents, blame the admissions, blame your donors, quit your TV. Should I go on?
@Oscar If these were comments at an all black college or at a non-distinguished state school, would the people feeling sorry for these individuals still be feeling sorry for them?
@Ed Crunk Hahahah, love these guys!
@Ken Wilkie I don’t condone the things in those texts, but the texts were private texts between friends. What right does anyone have to steal private texts and post them online?
I hate to say it, but everyone on this planet probably says something offensive or makes jokes to their friends in private. You can’t force political correctness in peoples’ private time, and no matter how much you don’t like their conversations it’s totally unethical to steal their private texts and make them public.
@Reasoned Responder To the folks trying to equate this “leak” with DNC/Hillary emails published by Wikileaks… no. If you think wrestling on behalf of a university demands roughly the same amount of transparency, accountability and discretion as being the Secretary of State, you’ve completely lost control of your senses.
These texts/comments are offensive to some, but they weren’t published in a public forum. You can personally detest the people who made these comments, but that’s about it. Some people are like this. You’re probably not going to change their minds. However, if you are trying to use this as some sort of example or catalyst to push policy, law or some sort of social movement, you’re going to get reasonably people like myself to stand up in opposition against you. There should be some amount of privacy that everyone is entitled to, especially when it matters to no one but those involved in the exchange.
@Anonymous Of course we are all entitled to privacy and freedom of speech. That does mean that leaked private messages will not get you in trouble. The HRC emails represent the most recent example we are all acutely aware of. Yes, she was running for national office, and these guys are merely wrestling. But that is the way it works. Whether it is right or wrong, people are held socially accountable for some of the stuff they say privately.
@Reasoned Responder “f course we are all entitled to privacy and freedom of speech. That does mean that leaked private messages will not get you in trouble.”
So you’re starting with a contradiction… if we’re all entitled to privacy, there should be a consequence of leaking and publishing things like this. Freedom of speech does not absolve anyone of the consequences of their speech, but these exchanges were clearly not meant to be published publicly. So which is it? Do we respect privacy or are we ok with thought-crime witchhunts like this?
With regards to HRC, considering her position as Secretary of State and the office she was running for, her emails should have all been kept behind an encrypted firewall. It wasn’t. That was the first issue. The second was about the content of those emails and how she was making policy decisions, and how those with power to influence those decisions were interacting with her. Her policy decision would affect the lives of millions of people, so those millions of people are entitled to know who was influencing her policies and decisions.
With this wrestling team thing, no one’s feelings would have been hurt if this wasn’t published. The offense couldn’t have taken place had all of this just stayed private. I doubt any of these men will radically change their lives or thinking with the backlash or punishment coming their way. You can try, but I believe this outing of their private conversation will only galvanize their opinions expressed within these screenshots.
So what is the purpose of publishing this? What greater good will be served by this? The blog post tries to make a big deal about how these men represent the university and they need to act in a certain way so they do that properly. Before this blog published these screenshots, they were doing that publicly and had given no reason for the greater public to question their behavior. In that sense, this blog site is the only group responsible for anyone have a lesser opinion of Columbia because of this incident.
@Anonymous As said, “Whether it is right or wrong, people are held socially accountable for some of the stuff they say privately.” Whether you like it or not, what you say may come back to haunt you in the future. It it is ignorant to assume that things you write on GroupMe, texts, social media, etc will be kept private. No one has control over that. Leaks happen and when they look like this, they are liable to offend… this is the way the World works.
What are people supposed to do now that these have been leaked? Again, not stressing whether that exposure was right or wrong. Do you really think it is unreasonable for people to be offended by the content of those messages?
I absolutely agree with you that you can detest people who speak this way– and that is the limit of what you can do. Such is the way it should be, as they were speaking privately amongst friends. But the leak happened, and now they will be ridiculed for what they said. Again, it is how the World works.
@Anonymous I think we agree more than we disagree. I agree with you when you say “It it is ignorant to assume that things you write on GroupMe, texts, social media, etc will be kept private,” but I’d like to consider for a moment why that is and if that’s a good thing or a bad thing. What’s disturbing to me is that it seems more and more people only judge a personal invasion of privacy (not exposure of government conspiracy or institutional collusion) as a good or bad thing depending on the content of information exposed or the ultimate consequences of the leak. For example – icloud hack and celebrity nudes released = universally condemned as a bad thing, often called a digital “rape” of the victims. Leslie Jones hack and publishing of her personal photos, etc. = same deal. This fiasco = these bloggers and a good bit of the comments are framing it as a good thing.
It’s either an invasion of privacy, which is always a bad thing, or it’s not. It can’t be dependent on what is obtained by the invasion.
Now, as you say, there’s almost no such thing as digital privacy anymore, to me that is a serious issues and really bad thing that we collectively shouldn’t stand for or, in this case, celebrate just because it happens to burn some people we personally don’t like.
I also think this will eventually go much further than just ridicule though. We’ll see what ultimate punishment is levied, but if they lose their scholarships, or if the individuals are tied to their specific comments, etc. they could lose a whole lot more. Seems like the majority here think that’s all well and good, but to me that’s a dangerously short-sighted or myopic perspective.
@Anonymous does not mean*
@Anonymous “reasonable people like myself”
@Samamthe Just words, you have no right to post private messages.
Let he, who is without sin, cast the first stone.
Thought Police!
@Danielle This isn’t a matter of 1st Amendment rights- these athletes are legally ‘welcome’ to be racist, sexist, homophobic, and what-not not as much as they’d like in their private lives (short of any hate crimes). However, they cannot and should not be able to do so as a group or as individual students who are members of a university sanctioned and financed athletic team. And clearly, we need to discuss the meaning of ‘private’. These texts were not private. It’s a naive view of our world today to think something like ‘texts’ are or inherently deserve some level of privacy. Texts are not private conversation- it’s 2016. It’s hard to say if private conversation even exists anymore. Texting is a record that can easily and permanently be released into the world. I’m sorry if you wish it were otherwise, but practically, it’s not. And even so, I personally think we need to reevaluate this idea that if we say something in private, it somehow negates our moral responsibility to our neighbors and ourselves. Or it just didn’t ‘happen’ because it didn’t pop up on Facebook. That’s silly. If you say something racist in a forest and no one’s around to hear it, you’re still saying something racist.
Some, if not many, of these athletes are probably receiving scholarships and all these athletes put on uniforms that signal that they are a part of a university sponsored team. So yes, the school certainly has a right and even a moral obligation to suspend these students, suspend the season or the team, and to revoke scholarships. These students should also be put into mandated classes to address why their words are problematic. I don’t believe in discipline without education. These students have texted terrible, frightening things. But they are still human beings and members of Columbia’s University. We shouldn’t hate them in same the way that they seem to hate others.
@anonymous You cannot belong to a group, whether that be a sports team, university, fraternity, or corporation without taking the responsibility to represent it. Harvard Men’s Soccer team issued an apology. They misrepresented the team, and at least assumed some responsibility to remedy their actions.
Do I say things in private that I hope will be kept private? Absolutely. I am a woman, and I know we too say things about the opposite sex. It would be unfair to pretend otherwise. But these select guys have said exceedingly awful things that are harmful, whether that harm is tangible or not. Their statements are embarrassing, disgusting, and simply went too far. May I occasionally say something that does not represent my morals in the heat of a moment? Absolutely. But these texts were captured over the span of years. Clearly, there is an underlying sentiment of racism, sexism, and incredulity amongst these select boys.
In the real World, you will be held accountable for anything in writing. If this presidential election has proven anything, things said in private are liable to public scrutiny. You will be fired for what you say on social media. You will be sued, impeached, defamed, whatever. This does not mean the entire team should fall for their behavior. This does not mean that all white men are racist rapists. In fact, as these boys have incorrectly generalized women and people of color throughout their leaked messages, we cannot respond by hatefully generalizing all white men.
The senior team probably should be suspended for the remainder of the season, because their actions, and subsequent responses, are disgusting. Unfortunately, that is just the way things work when you represent a group. They have a privilege to attend a highly ranked institution, and should represent it accordingly. If you are a racist and sexist asshole on your own time– that is too bad for you. Good luck in the real World. But don’t try to act like you are the victim for having your privacy invaded. Don’t try to write this behavior off to a premature prefrontal cortex. Don’t try to pretend you are just kids. Your texts were captured from ages ~19-22. That is young enough to speak rudely, but a bit too old to be so ignorant. As the mothers have said, I myself did plenty of idiotic things between ages 19 and 22, but a key difference between the majority and these boys is that we are not, or were not, racist/sexist assholes. You got caught– accept it and move on. Sure, both men and women may speak about how attractive the opposite gender is, they may even speak inappropriately… but don’t condone sexual assault. Sure, maybe you feel our campus is too PC for your taste, but does this excuse a contemptuous and lewd reaction in response?
You are extremely wrong. But those extrapolating this behavior to all white males or athletes are in the wrong too. To the wrestling team, hopefully your mothers will stop defending you. Hopefully you will learn to be open to others. You can’t demand respect, or disdain the double standard, by perpetuating hate from the other side. It is simply hypocritical. Ask others for perspective. This article, and the comments, are so entrenched in “he said/she said” type rhetoric. Grow up, respect humans, and take the responsibility to represent what you belong to.
@SJW Waaa!! They said something to hurt my feelings! I’m gonna go crawl into my safespace where white males are not allowed!
@Anonymous Guys talk about pussy. Deal.
Girls talk about dick, too. Deal.
Babies. Babies. Babies.
@Gilbert Skidmore LMHC this is all private school learned behavior encouraged by privileged college
placement.
May I suggest an MMPI at application time or prior to acceptance. This will bring out the personality issues for the college to decide. much of this bullying can also be a potential for adult anti social tendencies.
@Ima “Sticks and stones ma…….”
Oh, never mind. Those whiny little snotflakes couldn’t grasp the meaning anyway.
@David Shaw The texts were crud, and childish. They may well reflect the adolecent thoughts of boys/men who are and will be pigs their entire life. Or not.
My question, what about free speech? THis was a private conversation. And as far as anyone knows, their opinions never actually did anyone any harm.
Is any of this anyone’s business? Did some ‘adult’ snowflake get their feelings hurt? Great, let’s create a new society where those in power get to decide what is and is not approved speech. Yea that sounds like a safe society. BTW Is anyone at Columbia familiar with history? And what happens in totalitarian societies?
@Anonymous Has anyone noticed that this new lewdness witchhunt trend only affects white males? The things that groups of women say about guys and other women can be just as awful (every sorority girl knows this). And what groups of blacks says about whites in their own privacy or LGBTQ members have said about conservative Christians can be just as bad. If we are now going to start persecuting everyone using things they’ve said in private conversations, then do it across the board. Scan every text communication produced by every group on campus, not just those done by white males. This is getting ridiculous.
@Anonymous Nobody went looking for these “private” messages. The question is what to do when they become public.
@debitor serf This is called ‘jock’ culture and is prevalent on every sports team, at every university, in every locker room, that has ever existed all throughout the history of mankind.
If you’re going to ban the wrestling team at CU, then you may as well ban all men’s sports teams at every university in the country, because they ALL act like this.
Does anyone think the major league sports teams locker-rooms are squeaky clean PC ‘safe places’?
My goodness, the Russians are going to steamroll over these snowflakes…
@James Morgan (alum) Let’s see the texts from members of the basketball team. A full 38% contain the phrase “muh dick”.
@MikeP So…I guess Orwell’s 1984 is now considered a guidebook, instead of a warning?
Punished for private speaking. Wonderful, Columbia, just wonderful. Let’s make sure the same standards are applied to group chats of Sororities, Ethnic groups, and any of the other non-white-male organizations on campus.
Because we all know their private communications are just as colorful.
@Neil I’m pretty sure a quick google search would show a number of rappers that the university has hosted that have said worse. Political correctness isn’t so much about banning WHAT can be said. It’s about banning WHO can say it.
@Deez Stereotyping is not racism. Anyway, thanks for the new Trumpocrats!
@amindofitsown Eh, not surprised. As ugly as it may be, this is human nature. This isn’t something that some cultural sensitivity classes or some rule will take care of, this is how people have been, are and always will be. Attitudes like this just don’t go away or “die”.
@Anonymous Am I allowed to listen to rap music at Columbia? Because from this event, the answer would be no.
@Deez As long as you don’t sing along, or print out any lyrics. 1984 much?
@Anonymous Rando from a Public School I wonder what all those people who are chiming in about “invasion of privacy” think of wikileaks dumping Hillary’s emails into the public domain. Were you calling for protection for her private emails then?
BTW, all those of you that say “send them to a state school” sound like a bunch of assholes. There is no school where talking like this is appropriate or welcome.
@anonymous k
@Ted Bundy the men in the text threads will be your boss someday
@M.H. Wait, one of the wrestlers wrote, “..we should went to state schools.” ??
How did he get into college?
@Anonymous wf? I hate men now!
@Deez Now?
@Barb I’m moderately amused that so many track team apologists fail to understand that the First Amendment applies to government regulation of speech, not Columbia University’s ability to regulate speech.
Columbia U. as a private institution is completely within its rights to expel, kick off the team, admonish or otherwise discipline team members who were involved in this or other violations of Columbia’s code of conduct. They can choose to have a wrestling team or drop it entirely. They can choose to do nothing. Under FERPA, they are restricted in what they can publicly disclose about students who were involved, but they absolutely can take action.
Civics, people, civics.
@In case you forgot... Just watch … people like Barb here want to have all trump supporters expelled!!! Thats the natural next step of her argument. Barb… youre in for a tough four years. Im celebrating all the times youll be triggered. Its going to be beautiful.
Im going to drink ALL your tears.
@Reframe Let’s reframe this to see how we are reacting:
It’s elementary school and the kids are all asked to draw something nice. Everyone grabs pink and blue and red crayons and begins to draw flowers, trees, and other delightful scenes. There is, however, one boy named Jimmy, who decides he doesn’t want to choose red or blue or draw nature. Instead, he decides to mix a bunch of colors and smear it across his paper, with a complete lack of thought for what it looks like to others. Now, another child sees Jimmy’s paper and is appalled. The image is NOT pretty to her, and actually is scary to her. So, she snatches up his paper, shows it to the rest of the class, and demands to the teacher that he be kicked out, instead of asking him why he chose to do what he did. He was expressing himself in a way that wasn’t appealing to others, but nobody tried to help him understand or change so he never did. Jimmy never got to show his classmates his love for animals, or his sense of humor, or even his crazy sick deck of baseball cards. There was more to Jimmy than the paper, but suddenly nothing else in his life meant anything.
The process of change shouldn’t begin with shaming them publicly. It should be our main concern to engage in discourse and show them why they shouldn’t speak or behave this way. Expulsion will not change them, nor will it help us in the future. If we take a step back and look at this situation, we will be harming ourselves in the effect that we cannot understand the minds of these people. Without this knowledge, we can’t hope to foster any change or growth, and we will be effectively locked in a safe space with very little experience in the art of discourse.
If you don’t like this post, hit reply. Show me where you disagree and we can discuss it.
@Anonymous The problem is that what little Jimmy drew wasn’t a smear of ugly colors that wasn’t like what the other kids did–he drew pictures of his little classmates and labeled them “N**” and “C***.” He may also love animals and have baseball cards, but is it surprising that at first glance nobody wants to talk about that?
@Kev Yes, I agree that the story is a crude analogy and the current issue much more severe than an elementary classroom setting, but the point remains; kicking him out of the shared space will be less constructive than a discussion. Shutting our doors due to being uncomfortable or even insulted is not a way to address any problem. Now, don’t misunderstand, I’m not telling you to sit back and just accept these issues, that’s not fair. I am trying to let you see that this whole thing, from the article to the comments, is not a solution and neither is expulsion.
And, for the record, it is surprising that nobody wants to talk about his love for animals or baseball cards. It sucks to be judged from an exterior point of view, as many people here have pointed out. Simply because now his image is reflected by this ugly exterior that has little reflection of the other aspects of his character. Granted there are terrible people here and there, but to discount someone before knowing them is the same discrimination that people have been fighting for years. If someone isn’t willing to consider all aspects of a person and/or be willing to be a constructive force in the issue, they are doing more harm than good by shaming the individual or group in question.
@Build a fucking wall Oh no are the wittwe wiberaws mad…
This is exactly the kind of pc bs that lost you all the election.
Feminists, environmentalists, multiculturalosts need not apply. Gonna be a beautiful 4 years. Get ready to eat shit.
@Obviously, -Anonymous A warning to users of the internet, those with thoughts not accepted by society, or any subset of society: You are not safe on the internet, nor are you safe outside of it either, but there is a safeguard, an ancient one: Anonymity, yours, everyone’s greatest tool in times when not your actions, but your thoughts are the crimes in which you shall be punished for.
There are people hellbent on punishing your thoughts, they have a title: Thought Police
Unfortunately, because of them, and because of the vindictiveness of society, your thoughts can never be your own, either they must be hidden in your person, so that no one may find them, or they must be the thoughts of someone else, a fake identity, one that isn’t connected to your real one, this has two names: Doublethink, and Anonymity.
Doublethink and Anonymity are your greatest tools, or tool I should say, for they are one and the same.
@Anonymous Anyone else wondering how/why GroupMe screenshots from 2014 are surfacing now? If it’s an active GroupMe, someone must have done some serious scrolling to reach messages from over two years ago. Anyway, I find these messages repulsive, but I fail to see what expelling these athletes will ultimately accomplish. Sure, it will send a message that Columbia doesn’t condone this kind of language, but I feel like in reality it will just have a negative effect on the school’s reputation. Many will see this as another example of PC culture at its most extreme and further incentivize them to support Trump and all he stands for (as has been suggested by several of the commenters above). Trump’s election sent a clear message that we unfortunately live in a country in which these kind of people exist. We can’t expel them from America, so instead we need to learn how to counter their bigotry and misogyny. I feel like a similar approach needs to be taken here.
@Let"s reflect over the events of last week Outside looking in, seems to me that for many there is an overwhelming bigotry and hate towards athletes at Columbia. The comments and names that have been thrown at wrestlers and athletes are just as inflammatory as those made in the chat group. The only difference is that theirs were meant to be shared in a private setting, while the comments made by the “intelligent students” have been voiced publicly. Apparently in one venue it is not ok and in the other it is acceptable. Is that the way our system works?
For a population that found is so terrible that Donald Trump was elected and the objectionable behaviors associated with his supporters so inflammatory, it has been so easy and effortless for many to yell the chant of “lock them up” in this situation.
Welcome to Trump World.
@Frosh Would you say that these meathead wrestlers are an anomaly or are most guys at Columbia like this? I thought this was a broadminded campus of intelligent people. I don’t want to be at a school where students think this is OK. The only way this culture, to the extent it exists, is going to change is if we the students confront them and call them on it when we see it because it is not OK.
@Anonymous This is the same CLS student who left the above comment. You know what I think isn’t okay: violating people’s privacy, putting their lives under a microscope, and using token messages in which people shoot their mouths off to subject them to institutional discipline. Lee C. Bollinger is a complete hypocrite if he allows administrators of the institution to mete out discipline under these circumstances–Jesus Chris, even if these students made these statements publicly, they would be protected by the 1st Amendment. How have we gone from the ACLU’s defending the rights of Neo-Nazis to march through Skokie, Illinois, to tarring and feathering students for comments made in private conversations?
Yeah, they made sexist and racist comments. But they have the RIGHT to say those things. You know, I’m honestly hoping that Republican politicians begin regulating private and public universities to protect students’ rights. The argument that Columbia is a “private” institution that can strip away fundamental American liberties is a total misnomer. When taxpayer dollars in the form of federal financial aid pay for the mortar between Columbia’s bricks, the institution isn’t a purely private anything. Congress seriously needs to exercise its Commerce Clause Power to bend little Lee C. Bollinger over its knee and smack the shit out of him. You think this is a victory for the students at Columbia? The only thing you’ve demonstrated to me is that you’re a bunch of little, weak social fascists. You’re worse than any Trump supporters I’ve ever met, and I know more than a few.
@Anonymous These guys need to lawyer up and sue the university if disciplinary action is taken against them. This is a complete and total invasion of privacy and the freedom of speech. These were private messages sent on a private messaging app. Now university administrators are in the habit of regulating our social lives? Really? What about Tinder? What about facebook messages? Does an administrator have the right to tell me if I’ve sexted “too hard”? This is ludicrous. Now we have to worry about the “liberal” getstapo.
This is an uncontroversial violation of individual rights. I attend Columbia, and I’m disgusted by this place. Lee C. Bollinger claims he is in favor of freedom of speech. What he ought to do in this situation is to instruct administrators that when students show up at their doors complaining about “racist” and “sexist” text messages, the response ought to be “Look, I’m not getting involved.” Unbelievable.
@iprazhm What’s the big deal here?!? How dare we set standards of decency and respect in the speech and ideas of young men and women or children, when the new president of the united states has been given a pass to use vulgar and even dangerous private ‘locker room banter’ in his conversation? How dare there be such hypocrites when the majority of voters gleefully excused the President Elect’s PUBLIC usage of such vulgar and dangerous speech? ‘AHhh’, but you say, “The Emperor’s new clothes look so much better on Trump, than they did on Obama!’
@Black Alum CC 15 As a liberal black alum, these students shouldn’t be expelled or punished. They were expressing their thoughts by means of their constitutional and human rights. Who are we to judge what they can and cannot say in the company of their friends? As a community, do we punish those who think differently? Do we enforce our standards of judgement in personal dialogue? Are we drawing a line where one shouldn’t be drawn?
That said, these students are sick and need help.
@Anonymous I was following you until you said they are sick and need help. There’s a saying called “shooting your mouth off”–now that’s become a mental illness? Give me a break.
@Anonymous Clearly their Columbia education isn’t doing these losers much good since they can’t even use proper grammar.. spelling the word “counties” as county’s and using “there” for they’re. What a bunch of pathetic punks.
@Anonymous These messages are just sickening.
@The Great Barzini phone autocorrect does stupid shit like that all the time. they probably just don’t proofread (if only they would have, Lord knows they might have thought better about spewing all this awful shit). that being said, I feel that I can agree with the general sentiment of derogation here.
@Anonymous You guys might want to check out the track teams messages
@Anonymous *Track team boys post tasteful memes and ask about practice time*
@Anonymous I would hope for better from the entire Columbia community. In this post -Trump atmosphere there is no room for tolerance regarding misogyny, racism, anti-semitism and homophobia as ignoring such will allow it to grow at a far greater rate than ever before in our nation’s history. But, at one of the top universities in the country, there does need to be room to educate and change attitudes and biases so all of you as future leaders can accept the humanity in each other and build a better future. Changing attitudes, biases and rape culture comments does not occur by shutting out and closing off the offenders. Doing such encourages the very activity that incurred in the Group Me conversation. So, the question to everyone is how are you going to change the attitudes, beliefs and biases without further entrenching intolerance?
@Anonymous “Post-Trump” atmosphere? Give me a break, as if that justifies administrative involvement.
“[T]here is no room for tolerance regarding misogny, racism, anti-semitism and homophobia as ignoring such will allow it to grow at a far greater rate than ever before in our nation’s history”–you’re kidding, right?
And evidently there is no tolerance for personal boundaries, privacy, or freedom of speech too. Dear snowflake: punishing a person for “shooting his mouth off” leads people to hate you. GET THAT THROUGH YOUR HEAD. You’re not encouraging dialogue. You’re punishing a person who made private (NOT PUBLIC) messages to friends. You make sensible people want to rip your throat out by disrespecting individual rights. That’s precisely the effect that you have on people with your little youtube/twitter/facebook lynch mobs. You’re only providing fuel for the Trump supporter fire.
@This is not okay So none of you have ever said via text anything bad about anyone or anything that could make you look bad if it were hacked and published? Wow, I go to school with a bunch of saints. This shit is almost turning me into a Trump supporter. I’m as liberal as they come, but shit like this turns me away from wanting to be associated with liberals. This is not okay.
@xyz I have to say that, no, I never have put anything in writing in any form that’s as vile as what I see in these texts. I don’t think you have to be a “saint” to avoid using the kind of language the members of the group used, the nastiest and most hurtful racist and misogynistic slurs in the English language.
That said, can anyone really know that vile texts from two years ago give the entire picture of who these students are? I am disturbed at commenters’ readiness to call for them to be expelled (on what grounds?) or labeled as “white supremacists” and shunned. People sometimes do really dumb things; that doesn’t negate their value as human beings, and it doesn’t mean they can’t learn or change. There’s enough hate out there without working ourselves into a condemnatory frenzy about these poor dumb kids, even if their words legitimately make you sick.
@Anonymous Student from the CLS here: I sat out this election, in part, because of this BS. “Liberals” violating constitutional rights and exercising social control over people’s private social lives: welcome to America! Enough is enough. These people wouldn’t know a true leftist if they were staring one in the face.
@Jane Disgusting invasion of privacy. I’m a flaming liberal Bernie Sanders supporter but this kind of thought policing is SO HYPOCRITICAL from liberals claiming to be open minded when you are anything but. I’m a Columbia student, and I’ve noticed my fellow students posting the pictures of these guys and trying to get other people to share the pictures and even expel the students. I don’t know any of these wrestlers since I’m a graduate student, but the people distributing these pictures are JUST AS BAD as these people who are claiming to be morally superior to. Policing people’s private conversations and thoughts? Do you really not see how fucked up that is? I keep reading comments like “well thoughts become actions!” By that logic we better not speak out in dissent against Trump because “thoughts become actions” and next thing you know you could become a terrorist or plot a presidential assassination.
@Anonymous Kathy Boudin Professor at Columbia University but the wrestling kids are the ones with the issues LMFAO
In 1981, Boudin and several former members of the Weather Underground and the Black Liberation Army robbed a Brink’s armored car at the Nanuet Mall, in Nanuet, New York. After Boudin dropped her infant son off at a babysitter’s, she took the wheel of the getaway vehicle, a U-Haul truck. She waited in a nearby parking lot as her heavily armed accomplices took another vehicle to a local mall where the Brink’s truck was making a pick-up. They confronted the guards and gunfire immediately broke out, severely wounding guard Joe Trombino and killing his partner, Peter Paige. The four then took $1.6 million in cash and rejoined Boudin.
An alert college student called the police after spotting the gang abandoning their vehicle and entering the U-Haul. Two policeman spotted and pulled over the U-Haul, but they were expecting black males, and could only see Boudin – a white female – in the driver’s seat. She got out of the cab, and raised her hands. Another police car with two officers quickly arrived on the scene.
The police officers who caught them testified that Boudin, feigning innocence, pleaded with them to put down their guns and got them to drop their guard; Boudin said she remained silent, that the officers relaxed spontaneously.
After the police lowered their guns, six men armed with automatic weapons emerged from the back of the truck, and began firing upon the four police officers, one of whom, Waverly Brown, was killed instantly. Officer Edward O’Grady lived long enough to empty his revolver, but as he reloaded, he was shot several times with an M16 rifle. Ninety minutes later, he died in the hospital. The other two officers escaped with minor injuries.
Boudin and Gilbert allegedly acted as decoys as well as getaway drivers.
The occupants of the U-Haul scattered, some climbing into another getaway car, others carjacking a nearby motorist while Boudin attempted to flee on foot. An off-duty corrections officer, Michael J. Koch, apprehended her shortly after the shootout. When she was arrested, Boudin gave her name as Barbara Edson.
Gilbert, Samuel Brown, and Judith Alice Clark crashed their car while making a sharp turn, and were arrested by police. Three Black Liberation Army members also failed to escape that day. Two days later, Samuel Smith and Nathaniel Burns were spotted in a car in New York. After a gunfight with police that left Smith dead, Burns was captured. Three more participants were arrested several months later.
The majority of the defendants received three consecutive sentences of 25-years-to-life, making them eligible for parole in the year 2058. Boudin hired Leonard Weinglass to defend her. Weinglass, a law partner of Boudin’s father, arranged for a plea bargain and Boudin pleaded guilty to one count of felony murder and robbery, in exchange for one 20-years-to-life sentence. By comparison, David Gilbert received 70-years-to-life and as of 2015, is still incarcerated. After the couple began their prison sentences, WU co-founder William Ayers and his wife Bernardine Dohrn adopted Chesa Boudin and raised him as their own son.
@Anonymous These were private texts that were hacked. Anyone could be hacked like this. That is a crime. Different than the Harvard’s team that was done on an official team recruiting website.
@sick Not everyone says stuff like this in private.
@Anonymous I am a parent of a wrestler at this University. I would like to apologize for any offensive behaviors or words that were done or said that were unkind, ignorant, or plain unethical. I am worried for the safety of the team members, the safety of my son. Greater awareness is followed by a broader understanding of the individual. It is the mission of Columbia to educate, to bring about societal change, to be the catalyst for changing narrow-mindedness. I cannot speak for the whole team, but I can speak from a parent’s perspective of an individual who began his true education by diligently working through the core curriculum of the 1st and 2nd year students. It was remarkable professors and being in an environment of positive, forward-thinking, open-minded Columbia students who value individual’s right to freely think, be, express, and protect others rights that created change in him. My son’s educational experience, the influence of professors (specifically his philosophy courses), the strong examples of integrity of his coaches, along with the rest of the student body transformed his belief structures. He is not the same kid who is looking for acceptance or to be cool with his buddies at other people’s expense. He has a strong sense of integrity, ability to show empathy, regrets his past behavior as an insecure young/early student, and tries to inspire others to look for the good in others and give people the benefit of the doubt. It was his education at Columbia that brought about that kind of change for him. He sees the world outside of the narrow belief system he was raised in. For this, I am profoundly grateful. There are not words to describe the way Columbia has changed his core beliefs. If you subscribe to the notion that these boys are bigots, rapists, racists, etc., you have deeply misunderstood the individual and have stereotyped an entire team because of immature, unthinking, locker-room banter that most kids grow out of as they learn the behaviors are wrong during emerging adulthood.
I know in our home, we foster kindness, acceptance, freedom of thought and expression, and forgiveness. Seeking excessive punishments doesn’t teach. Consequences of poor choices do not change belief structure or a person’s character. If you want to change character, you have to change the belief. Character follows focus…always. Before you consider chopping down an oak sapling just as it has begun to have solid roots, contemplate the positive aspects of the mature oak tree that provides beauty and shade for all people.
“To understand, is to transform what is.”-Krishnamurti
To the seniors: Be kind. When you know better, you behave better. Be the change the world needs.
To the student body: Hate breeds more hate. Keep my son and his team safe despite their failures. We all fall some point in life, its how we help others get up that changes both the person who fell and the one offering help.
@Lol sure but These boys are seniors. Clearly the education – the privilege – they had did little to change their perspective on respect, and four years later, they still subscribe to the same racist and misogynist notions they came with. They had opportunities to change and to grow, and yet they still stuck with their own sense of superiority to the point where they had to have public disgust to sense the gravity of their choices. They have abused their right as a student and used it to denigrate the student body, and fracture the community moreso than it was. The problems of our community – particularly the alarming increase in mental health disorder are real. They were part of the community. And they added to that culture. It’s disgusting. And the way they’re handling it now? Even more so. THIS ISN’T THE WORST THAT THEY’VE SAID. They clearly didn’t have any openness to change, and admissions should really think about letting in “state school” students before they fuck it up their own damn selves.
@anonymous The screenshots date back to his freshman and sophomore year. I know what he said was terrible. That was then, this is now. He did change. He isn’t the same person who laughed at other’s expense to fit in. He definitely is not a bigot or a racist. I have no idea about the other people in the thread. I think only one person mentioned a state school, no? Maybe that person was acting impulsively. You can hardly blanket an entire group based on bad behavior of a few.
The best predictor of future behavior is current behavior. I would think Columbia officials would investigate current behavior of the people in question. You can’t study Franz Fanon, Kantian theory, and Simone De Beauvoir (to list a few of the many) and not initiate change within.
@2015 alum Telling the community to keep people who mock and degrade them, who decide all their female classmates are entitled b’s safe is a mockery. We want to keep our community safe, they’re the ones who are making it unsafe for anyone not looking to be screwed by them or accept their spot as a racial lesser. I really don’t believe that 3 years on campus changed your son that much, more likely he’s sorry he is caught and trying to minimize the consequences. You’re enabling him.
@little dude I can tell your son and his peers have really taken in the life of the mind. Seriously though, I hope he was on a scholarship or something- that tuition money might’ve been a real bad investment after all.
@oooooh Guess we know who wrote his admissions essay.
@don'tjudgeme. Your assumptions are inaccurate. Blanket statements, stereotyping athletes (or anyone, really), or making assumptions based on prejudices is no different from what the athletes did. Your remark may have not been sexist or racist, but it was definitely coming from a place of intellectual elitism.
FYI my son never got a lower than an A- since preschool, his SAT’s and ACT’s reflected Columbia material, and he was at the top of his class taking every AP class made available to him. While we’re debunking offensive stereotypes, he’s also a concert violinist and pianist (probably unknown to his peers). Pretty sure he was a competitive candidate for any of the Ivy’s…even without athletics. I’m grateful he got into Columbia on his own backbone. Try not to be a skid mark on society by ignorantly spouting your polemic assumptions. Not everyone has to come from opulence to be at Columbia, not everyone has the privilege of a two-parent home.
@Skid Mark “Your assumptions are inaccurate.”
> My comment is not meant to be accurate. It is a quip on the contrast between the saccharine “forgive me” essay you wrote for your son and the grammatically-deficient (even for a groupme) team messages.
“Blanket statements, stereotyping athletes (or anyone, really), or making assumptions based on prejudices is no different from what the athletes did.”
> If you can’t see the profound difference between my comment and those from the team, you’re missing something.
“While we’re debunking offensive stereotypes…”
> You’re doing God’s work.
“Try not to be a skid mark on society by ignorantly spouting your polemic assumptions.”
> Better to be a skid mark than a vile dollop of shit.
@Haha Maybe Utah rationalizes “athlete prejudice” as the same as racism and sexism but the rest of the rational country doesn’t. Now we know where he gets this ignorance from
@Columbia student Amazed at the hysteria being perpetuated by SJW students and the complicit Columbia administration. These comments were written as jokes and occur in private conversation everywhere. Compared to the filthy goons at BLM and other likeminded organizations that incite looting and violence at anti-Trump protests and other places, these comments are tame. The double standard is absolutely astounding.
@Anonymous It is sad to hear that you are a Columbia student. I’ve always had great respect for the Ivy Leagues because I always thought that the cream of the crop were the ones chosen to go to these institutions. There is no double standard, whether you are on the right or the left, this type of thought is of concern because these are the “future leaders” of our society. If this is how they interact with one another on a personal basis, is the way they interact in public just a façade? Will they let their “jokes” interfere with actual policy or governing? If someone makes a “Joke” about a female colleague’s appearance, should that concern that person if they work in the same office? Is it acceptable to make a “joke in private” to other colleague’s as long as the person the joke is directed to does not hear it even though they work together and some decisions that are made are made as a team? Just because they occur everywhere does not mean we as a society should look away and disregard them. Obviously, whoever got hold of these text messages did not find them amusing, otherwise we would not be reading them. So, it is not hysteria, it is the society we live in and it takes us all to change this way of thinking about other human beings that differentiates us from lower forms of life.
@Concerned Student and Parent We are all born as innocent children with a clean slate. Where does such racist, sexist, disrespectful talk come from? Where is it learned? How is it reinforced into becoming acceptable behavior? I appreciate another commentator’s thoughts about having a moderated discussion with the wrestling team and some of the men and women mentioned in these group chats. Maybe each group making an attempt at humanizing the other group would help, and might spread. There are small, right in front of us, things that can be done, such as this moderated meeting, while everyone continues to put their heads together and figure out how to tackle the larger issue. Addressing the larger issue involves several, coordinated approaches, none of which are quick. I am heartbroken to see this. So many problems in the world, so many opportunities to help, and for whatever reasons, these young men think what they are doing isn’t just OK, but that it is the right thing to do at this stage of their lives. How can everyone feel they have a voice, while not feeling they have to be cruel and personal?
@Anon Alum The Harvard men’s soccer team had the dignity, intelligence, and class to write this http://www.thecrimson.com/article/2016/11/4/mens-soccer-apology/. Why can’t the Columbia men’s wrestling team take responsibility for themselves?
@CU Wrestling Alum Very disappointed. As members of a varsity athletics program you represent Columbia University, and behavior like this is not representative of the team and university that I know and love. The comments of several individuals tarnish the reputation of a program that decades of alumni worked hard to build. I’m sure these messages will be read by members of the CU athletics staff that work hard every day to support you, many of whom are minorities. Reflect on that, be better.
@Anonymous I guess this is how we deal with a Trump win, tighten our grip on what we control. Yeah, the wrestlers are wrong, but it was wrong before. I’m not defending it and I guess we should probably do something, probably, I guess? Just saying there’s a reason why texts from 2014 only appear today.
@Anonymous This is abhorrent, but just as capital punishment does not disincentivize murder, nor will expulsion disincentivize this type of behavior. Expulsion alone will only serve to engender bitterness, and make them more vigilant in not getting caught next time.
As with the election of Trump, this comes from a lack of empathy. If you asked the wrestlers point blank (in private so as to avoid social pressures), “Should African-Americans be treated equally before the law? Should women be paid the same as men for equal work?”, I imagine they would say yes. The issue is that they don’t understand the effect their words have on their intended targets. It would be far more instructive to have the victims (the UPS store workers, the women from Insta, etc…) confront them in-person, in an organized, moderated environment, and explain to the wrestlers exactly why their words cut to the bone. In doing so, the wrestlers would see first-hand the effect they’ve had on other people, and they would quickly have that sinking feeling of despair we call empathy. It’s unlikely they would engage in such behavior again.
At least let something constructive come of this. Afterwards if you want to expel them, go ahead, but know that the only purpose it will serve is vengeance.
@Anonymous Okay, even aside from the fact that these messages are horribly offensive (which should obviously be the main takeaway), can we just acknowledge how insecure these messages make the wrestlers seem – in their masculinity, their straightness, their interactions with women.
They sound like middle schoolers trying to act tough around each other. Like, I’ve heard Columbia students be offensive, but it’s rare to see members of our community sound so offensive *and* pathetic.
@Anon These kids are the fucking worst. I’ve seen the way they act. These comments don’t surprise me at all.
@anonymous They are precisely what you said… kids. Kids trying to grow up and find who they are and what they value and making idiotic impulsive mistakes. Much like all young college students…in every University across America. At 48, I’m glad I am not condemned and judged by who I was at 19 or 20! That would be a cruel and fatalistic punishment.
@Anonymous U don’t even go here lmao
@Anonymous This was talk done in private. This is exactly what Zuckerberg did with facebook. It was a site to rate and pick up women.
@Duh Fuq y’all thumbs come away from this thinking you just reinvented facebook?
@Dr.Benway Of course, and that was its purpose at Harvard.
@Fuck Athletics Yet the university STILL funnels money into athletics and not–you know–academics
@Anonymous That’s not that works
@Anonymous *how that works, sorry
@sign this - we need to hold people accountable. https://www.change.org/p/president-bollinger-petition-expel-cu-2017-wrestling-team
@Anonymous Oh Bwog comment section, how I’ve missed you.
@FemAnon Truly, the juice is sweet on this one.
@While we're at it Delta Sig drugs their drinks
@Anonymous Is this shit actually anonymous?
@Anonymous I don’t know how the crown works but I can’t imagine its that anonymous.
@FemAnon it’s if we’re on the CU wifi, I think.
@Actually Nah, it’s if you post with your CU email.
@SILENT MAJORITY I have read the article 3 times, and read all the comments twice. I have a son that is a 1st year student at Columbia University, and is also on the wrestling team. It seems like everybody wants to “CONVICT and HANG” these boys for making a mistake. These are young athletes, many on their own for the 1st time, and “YES” it was like LOCKER ROOM CHATTER, with 1 HUGE difference. They were in a PRIVATE GROUPME Chat, that only they were viewing. This was not on Facebook, or Twitter, or in a newspaper, it was in a PRIVATE CHAT that was between some wrestlers. While I do not think that this was done with any intent to hurt anybody, and some of what I read was very tasteless, once again people make mistakes. I read this, and people are comparing these boys to “President Elect Trump”. I guess a lot of people are still hurting over the election, and this is their avenue to vent. TRUMP WON the election for PRESIDENT of the US, regardless of what was said, PUBLICLY, not in a group chat. If you are not happy with the election results, then GET OUT OF THE USA. If you can`t be forgiving and think that all these athletes should HANG, well maybe you should take your child to another University. GROW UP…The Silent Majority has spoken
1st AMENDMENT / FREEDOM OF SPEECH : For all of you want to be POLITICIANS….
The First Amendment (Amendment I) to the United States Constitution prohibits the making of any law respecting an establishment of religion, ensuring that there is no prohibition on the free exercise of religion, abridging the freedom of speech, infringing on the freedom of the press, interfering with the right to …ETC
These boys are for the most part, VERY GOOD PEOPLE, hard working people, and the kind od people that are successful in achieving most of their goals. This was done in a PRIVATE CHAT ROOM, nobody got hurt, and there was nothing done that was against the law. GET OVER IT, and MOVE ON….
@Anonymous most of the people here are kids and generally just repeat what their teachers and peers say without any thought for genuine compassion, empathy, etc.
@In response to a dumb f**k If you think this is okay, you are a shit parent. Should have used a condom before bringing another rapist/racist to the world.
@Anonymous How is this not ok ?
Who was harmed?
Use your brain, you’re paying 50k a year to train it.
@Silent Majority's Son Mom,
Stop embarrassing me! I’m trying to make friends here and this isn’t helping!
Love,
Silent Majority 1st Year
P.S. I need more undies, can you please send some?
@SILENT MAJORITY Son,
Suck it up, pussy. Time to grow up and be a part of this America-loving, privacy-having, privilege-touting family once and for all. We’re not harming anyone by supporting these people. If you don’t love it, get out!
Love,
SILENT MAJORITY mom
@Silent Majority DAD Wife and Son,
I’m gonna whoop both of your asses. I didn’t bust my hump in finance for the last 20 years making high 6 figures so you could air our dirty laundry in public. I should smack both of you.
Love,
Dad
P.S. speaking of laundry, honey, next time you do my undies can you use extra bleach? That great Silent Majority Southwest Chili you made gave me the runs. Do that, or go to Wal-Mart and get me and our boy some brand new ones. I like the real tight white ones that make my willy look all bunched up ;-)
@FemAnon So, following from what you said, it would 100% ok for people to spew this sort of vile sh*t about any female or minority members of your family as long as the speakers don’t think they’ll ever get called on it?
Neat.
@OneLessPOS You are EVERYTHING WRONG with parenting and America. Congrats on the great job you have done raising another misogynistic, predatory, racist white male. I can only hope for your son’s sake that he doesn’t know you wrote this and would repudiate your comments if he did. Hopefully you will find out that that’s indeed the case so you can live the rest of your life as a lonely and miserable woman whose son won’t even let you see the grandkids because of your views and that the world is less one POS white male. These texts are not mistakes. They are indicative of a mentality that should be eradicated from any fair society. While on the surface they may seem harmless, the fact that millions of other young men think and behave this way is the issue. Shame on you and all the rest of the mothers who feel this way. You are a scourge to humanity.
@Thomas And you’re not a very smart person
@Anonymous Investigate KDR, this is absolutely disgusting.
@Anonymous You can’t legislate racism. Unfortunately the constitution does not prohibit it, it only protects us from discrimination.
@Anonymous Actually its very good it doesnt prevent racism\
t. 1984
@Anonymous there’s literally nothing wrong with a little racism
b@b anons back me up (boredatbutler.com)
@Anonymous I hope you’re joking, lmfao
@Anonymous no, we anons at b@b have had multiple polls and believe that there’s really nothing wrong with racism and that, if anything, helps our society progress from being bogged down and having to consider ever individual case, but use time wisely for more important things
vist b@b if you don’t believe
@b@ Fuck Man The belief among us at b@ isn’t that racism helps or anything, it’s just that Racism is good.
@CC '16 Talking about how they “should’ve gone to a state school instead” but these assholes still get the privilege of graduating from an Ivy League school? Come on, Columbia, gotta do something about this.
@Anonymous columbia should be selecting the most qualified people to graduate, if someone is racist, sexist, hateful and yet causes no harm to anyone at all, why would you deny them the education they apparently deserve?
anyone here who feels hurt by these messages i invite to avoid the people involved, but retribution? be an adult, or try to. i know many of you wont be capable.
@way to go bwog ... way to release the screenshots with the person’s own comments. the rest wrestling team could pretty easily find out who wrote those blue comments. way to turn 30 wrestlers on one kid.
in addition. the fact that the person’s own comments were screenshoted means that it’s an outsider that took these screenshots and submitted them to bwog…
@Anonymous kid deserves it, this is a major breach of trust
@Anon How about the people involved apologize and face consequences for their comments instead of directing their frustration on one person who clearly had nothing to do with it
@Op Did you not read the second part of my comment. I really hope no one is dumb enough to report screenshots that could lead to his exposure
@stalin this is why we need gulag
@TBD this is when we realize that apparently not all rapists coming from Mexico…..
@moral highground everyone jump out to judge and condemn others for being prejudice more so than we self reflect.
no one here seemed to be so “tolerant” when we called half of the nation hicks or rednecks.
It seems pretty self righteous to claim moral high grounds due to our “education” (which for the most part was handed to us by virtue of birth).
@Fuck off Spot the freshman who” never been to the backwoods of America to see that the majority of them are actual racist hicks and rednecks.
@Anonymous majority of blacks are criminals, congrats on legitimizing racism!
@Op Like you would’ve done better if you were raised in the same condition.why don’t we try to understand each other instead of calling names
@Anonymous Nice sweep statement
@Concerned Make no excuse for the outrageous behavior, but beware the “mob mentality” and the calls for “vigilante justice.” Making generalizations that the entire team is guilty and should be punished is as horrifying as the act itself. Some of the comments that have been made here show that we all have our (sometimes hateful) prejudices and biases. Have faith that judical process will prevail and the consequences will be just.
@alum To everyone saying this was an invasion of privacy: it is extremely likely that someone from within the wrestling team leaked these screenshots. Bwog did not hack their groupme, relax.
@Anonymous what if bwog didnt identify them as from the wrestling team? if youre going to publish private communications the least you can do is make a genuine attempt at providing anonymity
@Um what Their names weren’t published
@Anonymous and yet i was easily to find out who spoke from the comments here. not directly publishing them is a bad excuse
@CC '16 If people from the wrestling team know who said these comments, and didn’t CALL THEM OUT ON IT, then that’s on you (and them)
@Anonymous call them out on it? for what? they havent harmed anyone you delusional 4 year old
@Fuck off A shitbag gets exposed as a shitbag, call the wahmbulance
@Anonymous how is he a shitbag?
has he harmed ANYONE?
ANYONE?
@Just speculation, but it seems like he was hacked (I am not a part of the wrestling squad) I’m pretty sure someone either hacked them or snuck onto their phone and took screenshots. If you were in the group, it would be obvious who in the group leaked the messages based on the groupme hearts and blue notifications (you would only have to look at the comments that are blue or that have the red hearts next to them and look at who hearted them). If a wrestler leaked the screenshots, he must have been forgotten about this or felt morally compelled to release the screenshots despite implicating himself. I doubt the wrestler was morally compelled because he liked or said some of the most offensive stuff in the groupme chat.
Releasing the groupme snapshots would also be social suicide within the wrestling group and on top of that, would be an act of self-crucifixion to the public. There is no vindication for doing this as the wrestler, so I’m pretty sure someone illegally accessed his groupme conversation and leaked them to bwog.
@Person With Intelligence I am going to ask all the men on the Columbia Wrestling Team to stop being fucking pathetic and fucking stop commenting on this thread to defend yourselves. Ya’ll are all pissed that you guys got caught in the act and now are trying to act like you guys are the victims because your privacy was “invaded”. Whoever shared these screenshots should be THANKED for acknowledging this absolutely disgusting population that exists in our school and one people try to act doesn’t exist. The Wrestling Team should be ashamed of themselves, and if their season isn’t cancelled, I will be so disgusted with our administration. Everyone trying to defend their privacy can honestly fuck off, this language is so dangerous and it doesn’t fucking matter that it was in a group chat. Everyone stay woke and help call out these bigots.
@Anonymous trump will pardon these heros
@Thomas So dangerous ? Jesus you’re stupid
@CC-17 It is a privilege, not a right, to attend Columbia. These men have violated their privileges by spewing hateful rhetoric that denies people of their humanity and makes them fear for their lives. They will never understand the dread of being a marginalized person. They will never understand that fear of being a woman, the feeling of being forcefully finger fucked; the physical pain it causes, and the psychological struggles of victim shaming, and misinterpretation of a woman’s kindness and common human decency as “begging for the cock so hard.” I feel unsafe knowing that these men have been in my classes. I am in disbelief that these men have said hurtful and derogative comments about people I care for within the Columbia community, denying people of their identities by perpetuating the relentless cycle of “othering.” This is not the Columbia I know. Free speech is free speech insofar as it enables us to unite as a community who protect each other under our shared identity: “human.”
@IM LITERALLY DYING TRU REAL
@freedomthinker Free speech is free speech. Where was there a clause in the constitution that says, “…insofar as it enables us to unite as a community who protect each other under our shared identity,” ??????????????
Seriously, you just killed the meaning of the word freedom by adding your little clause.
So you feel unsafe because college age guys are being immature and thinking about sex? Oh wait, and talking trashy amongst themselves about sex and girls? Do you also feel unsafe on a regular basis because of what people could be thinking in the privacy of their minds? Maybe the guy or girl behind you is in class undressing you mentally or lays in bed at night thinking about you. As dumb as that sounds, it makes the point that you can’t force people to think certain ways so that you feel safe. You will never feel safe if you knew what was in everyone’s mind. That’s what privacy is for. Forcing people to make you feel safe is stealing free thought. Hey wait, last I checked wasn’t Columbia a liberal university?
@Thomas Get more hyperbolic and emotional tho.
@Lol if you want to know who said it there are like 7 wrestlers who are seniors, peep on columbia athletics website
@Anonymous http://www.gocolumbialions.com/SportSelect.dbml?&DB_OEM_ID=9600&SPID=3876&SPSID=43592
Choose for yourself who you wanna avoid.
@same as immediately above. *maybe avoid. since we don’t know full deets yet. my bad, but I stand by the sentiment of general awareness.
@lmao wut wait… but they’re all ugly though…
@TBH The only good thing that the wrestling team has done for Columbia is lower the curve. Anyway, someone from the group must’ve shared it in an attempt to act like a ‘whistleblower’, so please stop whining. These idiots are not worthy of representing our diverse university.
@Anonymous EXPEL THEM NOW
@Bernie Sanders You’re pathetic. You cannot severely punish people for private discourse. Go to North Korea.
@NOPE HOW DARE YOU USE SENATOR SANDERS’S NAME IN VAIN
@Anonymous not surprised someone who wants to expel students over private conversation loves bernie sanders
idealists are killing america
@expel them america got killed when your ancestors put their dirty Anglo-Saxon toes on the soil.
@non-non You can, in fact, punish people for private discourse when it’s appalling. They violated Columbia’s standards of behavior, which says “students are expected to uphold the highest standards of integrity, civility, and respect. Students are therefore expected to conduct themselves in an honest, civil, and respectful manner in all aspects of their lives. Students who violate these standards of behavior interfere with their ability, and the ability of others, to take advantage of the full complement of University life and are subject to Dean’s Discipline.” Bring on some discipline. This was not civil or respectful, and GroupMe falls under the banner of “all aspects” of their lives.
@Anonymous Oh are you following Orwell too? I love his guides, especially this one: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thoughtcrime
@Randy Thoughtcrime isnt saying disgusting things to your friends on a group chat. See how it has the word “thought” – that means you keep it to yourself. It’s unspoken, not shared with a bunch of other idiots.
@Dr.Benway Columbia is in the position of employee and cannot dictate to its employers, the students,on what to do or say in private or public.
@Anonymous How’s that safe space of yours?
@Ugly Columbia Bitch I hope KDR can find girls to mix with now that the entire female population knows about this.
@Bernie Sanders The seniors involved aren’t even in KDR…. moronic comment on your part.
@Wrong Lmao four of them are and two are on KDR’s board
@Anonymous You idiot, there are seniors on the wrestling team who are in KDR… and they also took KDR down with them by saying they had a meeting to talk about how ugly the girls at their party was…. so
@If I learned anything from these screenshots is that these wrestlers lack basic understanding of simple spelling and grammatical concepts
@anon it’s*
@=) im sure that’s what they really cared about speaking to their friends in a private chat ……. grow up
@Anonymous Go to state school, you dicks. These “Columbia bitches” don’t want you here either.
@Anonymous too bad only 1 person said that please continue generalizing though
@Ugly Socially Awkward C**t I am so sorry that these poor privileged males had their privacy violated. It must really suck to have your masculinity questioned on a daily basis by ugly socially awkward c**ts like me. I can understand the emotional trauma that brings and the need to vent to your teammates in a homophobic, racist, and misogynist way.
@Anonymous i bet $100 you are actually ugly and socially awkward
@Im a BITCH, get at me. I bet $100 that you have a small dick and fragile masculinity ^
@Anonymous That could very well be true but she is definitely physically ugly & socially awkward so someone needs to get her to a safe-space immediately to prevent her ear-holes from these words.
@If anything... She seemed perfectly able to handle “these words,” bro. She sees their fragile masculinity for what is and called it out. If anyone needed a safe space, it’s these pathetic boys who couldn’t handle an environment in which girls aren’t stroking their egos by *begging for the D*. If the women at these state schools they mention are really *all at least an 8*, and if we at Columbia really are all ugly, socially awkward c**ts, please explain to me–because it quite literally makes zero sense–why they would even want us begging for it, and why they would feel so affronted when we don’t? It’s insecurity at its best. It’s pointing a finger at everyone else BUT themselves for their ill-perceived shortcomings influenced by a culture that celebrates a toxic form of masculinity they feel they are not–but shouldn’t even–live up to.
@Anonymous So it’s okay for you to body shame men, but you cry foul when it happens to women? Your misandry is leaking.
@Dr.Benway It’s their nappy that’s leaking. Quick! Run to the all sex toilet for a change.
@Deez It was the russians! /s
@Macho Man Yep, you def an ugly bitch who doesn’t get the male attention you want. So you do the extreme by getting very fat, dye your hair 5 different colors, get kindergarten grade tats and start shouting nonsense in order to win a debate.
@Dr.Benway Don’t you ever get tired of those cliches?
@Disappointed alum “Watch your thoughts, they become words; watch your words, they become actions; watch your actions, they become habits; watch your habits, they become character; watch your character, for it becomes your destiny.”
This is not just private talk.
@Anonymous PC alert – calling all safe space operators, we’re gonna need more space.
@Dr.Benway Watch your arse because we are now in charge.
@Anonymous Total invasion of privacy. To post private group chat messages for a good “scoup” is really low, especially when you know its going to give a group of young men a bad rep. Everyone says shocking things behind closed doors, in one form or another. No on really cares. Go do something more productive like study.
@Anonymous do you mean “scoop”? also it’s “no one”, not no on
@Anonymous ok grammer nazi we get it u go to columbia
@Grammar police Grammar*
@Bruh Okay*, You*
@Anonymous what a mature reply
@nasty woman the fact that you are saying that this is an invasion of these “men’s” privacy is absolutely ridiculous, the only way that BWOG got these is by someone who was a part of this group message taking screenshots and sending them out. shame on them for having the conversation in the first place.
@Anonymous I hope no one is stupid enough to submit screenshots with their own blue comments in it
@CC '16 If these young men were worried about a bad rep, they should’ve refrained from making such awful and derogatory comments about the people they are *privileged* enough to share this school with.
And no, not everyone says things like this behind closed doors, and I would hope that most students at this institution would have the intellect and the guts to call this for what it is: hateful, racist, and mysogynist bs
@nice it’s*
these “young men” gave themselves a “bad rep”, not the post.
looks like you need to do some more studying (of basic 1st grade grammar)
@Anonymous words inspire action. you think this racist/sexist/homophobic/anti-semitic speech doesn’t turn into statistics??? suspend this piece of shit of a team. you all are shameful, and do not deserve to be at this university.
@Anonymous Because we don’t punish thoughtcrimes… see Minority Report and 1984 for reference
@Anonymous i wonder how the people in these comments got admitted to columbia, affirmative action?
@Lmao It’s better than getting in for being a dumbass athlete
@Anonymous at least dumbass athletes actually have a skill
@Anonymous @the comment below
http://media.thedailytouch.com/2014/06/Napoleon-Dynamite-skills-gif.gif
@Anonymous I hope kdr gets investigated as well, this is terrible
@Anonymous Shameful that they would say things when so many of the people they call “brothers” are black/african-american/latino.
@KDR This was not KDR. The seniors involved aren’t part of the fraternity.
@Anonymous Except the president of a KDR is a junior on the wrestling team and the messages here explicitly reference attending a KDR meeting?
You mean to say that these guys who explicitly referenced KDR in a private group chat and attended a meeting discussing a mixer were just doing it for shits and giggles, not because they were in KDR?
I get you’re trying to protect your organization, but come on….
@No thank you Again, what do you want the frat to be investigated for? …saying shitty things?
@Nate Investigated for what exactly?
@Anonymous maybe they SHOULD have gone to a state school lmao
if they can’t handle all these nasty women who just aren’t *begging* for the D…
@Yikes The rest of the wrestling team coming to their defense, are we surprised?
@Anonymous Not only the wrestling team came to their defense. The pc is out of hand, THIS IS WHY TRUMP WON. Whether you like it or not, he won.
@here come the trolls
most of whose real names are blacked out in the screenshots above
@Anonymous theres a reason our names are blacked out. pc culture has made it impossible for people to adequately express very real concerns without being socially prosecuted. Do you use the anonymity of my post to arbitrarily invalidate my opinion like half the country?
@Use the track button, I'm not ashamed. What “very real” concerns were you attempting to express (in the screenshots, as the wording of your comment implies)? That people tend to react poorly when they find out that you’re a racist bigot, regardless of how they find out?
@Anonymous And cue the 4chan storm … (Noticing the trend in non-crown, anti-PC culture comments here …)
@Anonymous Oh yeah, go ahead ignore my opinion just like you ignored the opinion of half the country the other night. Worked out real well for everyone. Why don’t you try to understand others instead of shouting down at them from your high horse.
@zzzzzzzz can you tell me what I’m supposed to understand from wrestlers calling black girls nigs?
@Anonymous were they talking to you, or even in earshot of you?
@Zzzzz you’re the one asking people to try to understand them. Well here you go buddy I’m trying. Gimme a nice long lesson on what I’m supposed to understand from people talking shit about women and throwing around nigger. I won’t even bother riding my high horse bro. I wanna hear this other half of Americas reasoning for this.
@Anon going against pc culture Is nobody disturbed by the invasion of these players privacy? What they say to each other in private is nobody’a business but their own.
Of course the ultra liberal, politically correct members of the Columbia community are quick to demonize and destroy the lives of these young men.
This whole act by bwog is truly disgusting and they should be ashamed.
@Anonymous i agree, a shameful post
remind me, what harm is done to you by these people disliking or even hating you? are you incapable of moving on with your life? i thought columbia students were supposed to be smart, but if youre so fragile that you crumble at the thought of someone disliking or hating you in their own privacy id not only call you an idiot but an embarrassment of a person.
The people intent on destroying these folks lives are doing actual, real harm. Grow up you babies.
@Hm What a harm it is to have your privileges taken away. It’s almost as if they were female, a person of color, or queer
@Anonymous Remind me of which privileges females, poc, queers are denied?
@Anonymous also while im here i find it hilarious that poc need to change their desired reference (african-american, black …) over and over and over again endlessly
its never going to get you the respect you want.
@Your ignorance is what's hilarious Not all poc are black people. And not all black people are African-American.
@Your ignorance is what's hilarious Not all poc are black. Not all black people are African-American.
@Anonymous Better not have any bad thoughts and also be an athlete I guess
@anon You on the team, bruh?
@Anonymous What exactly is the take away from this? Is it supposed to make me upset that people talk this way or that these people exist within our community? Because it doe neither. Everyone is acting like stuff like this is the problem and not a result of a greater problem. I doubt that these people are actually terrible people or that they are are awful racists. The problem is that everyone here is so toxically liberal to the point where dissenting opinions are beaten into submission and shoved under the rug. These things they are saying are terrible but its most likely because these people don’t feel safe speaking like this in public and probably don’t understand the actual impact this can have on people because its rare for anyone to actually have a substantial conversation about things like race or gender without an extreme liberal bias – not because they don’t want to but because you won’t let them and they don’t feel safe trying . To be clear what I am saying is that if people don’t really understand why what they are doing is wrong, they view it as a type of joke because of the culture they are surrounded by and those who think this way will never be able to learn otherwise because their wrongness is just “truth” or “how it should be,” which just makes people defensive. So its not really surprising that talk like this happens in private groups, in fact I’d bet that on pretty much every group me for a Columbia group there are some things like this. I know for a fact of at least a few others. Now I won’t argue that people should feel safe saying things like this but I will argue that the culture at this school is the actual issue. All it does is push issues into the shadows and demonizes differing opinions (and yes racism is an opinion, its a shitty opinion but its not objectively incorrect) to the point where they will rather choose to not engage in discussion to dealing with the uphill battle of trying to convince a violently liberal peer that there is some merit in whatever non-PC idea. It’s people like us who are responsible for Trump’s election because we managed to convince ourself that all other contrary opinions just didn’t exist and those are just bad uninformed people instead of engaging in meaningful discussion, its not the fault of the big bad racist in the midwest somewhere. All I’m saying is, if you really want to combat any of these issues instead of just feeling good about your moral superiority you need thicker skin cause y’all are acting like a bunch of closeminded pussies.
@lol didn’t read
@Anonymous you must be one of the ugly socially awkward ladies
@Anonymous this guy has a point, liberalism seems to becoming the new fascism. how can you simply ignore the opinions of a large part of the country. trump did win
@Anonymous you know you can track comments and see that you just replied to yourself? lol “this guy has a point”
@pff Hitler also won. Great argument there
@Top kek “Racism is an opinion, its a shitty opinion but its not objectively incorrect”
“These things they are saying are terrible but its most likely because these people don’t feel safe speaking like this in public ”
Got it, black people demanding respect just makes you call them n**gers. God, I can’t wait to see you get suspended. Bwog publish their names!
@Anonymous Don’t know what their names are re: the exact people in this GroupMe, but you can definitely see the names of all the male wrestlers (and what class they’re in) on the athletics roster website, so you can narrow it down to the 7-8 guys in the Class of 2017 on there.
@Anonymous what a mature thing to do
@Dr.Benway That sounds like a threat to me to harass students. You should be expelled.
@anon You on the team, bruh?
@Anonymous So when are the PC Police gonna install monitors in everyones devices so if they catch you disagreeing you’ll be dragged off to SJW re-education camps.
@PC Police If you’re being textbook racist, textbook homophobic, and textbook misogynistic you need to be dragged off to a SJW re-education camp
@Anonymous no you dont
@Anonymous Dude everyone can see that you’ve left like 10 comments…
@Anonymous why would i care?
@GH Ahhhahahahah That is too funny :)
@Anonymous I say things to my friends that outsiders would think horrible and disgusting all the time. Nothing you can do about it. Stop trying to incriminate thoughts between friends. I don’t give a fuck until they say or so something that isn’t private.
@CC 17 I love when people defend someone doing something fucked up by saying, no it’s not bad because I do it too!
@Anonymous they didnt do something fucked up mate
no one was even harmed
if you think this is fucked up you will not survive the real world
@pff The real world is fucked up. So are you.
@Cry more Doesn’t change the fact you won’t survive the world with your delicate sensibilities.
@Proof God exists I lived next to some of them sophomore year and they were awful, so I prayed they would get punished, and now I am basking in sweet vengeance.
@Couldn't agree more Same here! McBain? They were, quite literally, animals. Destruction of property, frightening outbursts of anger, absolutely disgusting what they have said.
@CU Athlete fuck these thumbs
@anon If anyone else has ever lived near any of the wrestlers like I have, it shouldn’t be shocking to see how terrible of human beings they are
@Anonymous These boys are assholes…but so is whoever invaded their privacy…
@Anonymous KAPPA DELTA RHO TOP HOUSE
@Anonymous They only said these things to each other? So it literally doesn’t affect anybody at all except them. You wanna punish them for what they say to themselves alone in their room too? Get outta here
@Fuck the wrestlers What difference would if make if someone heard it? These racists motherfuckers don’t have the moral backbone to represent or belong to this university.
@Anonymous Nice language there (pot said to the kettle).
@Anonymous It was a private GroupMe meant for the teammates’ eyes only.. This shouldnt have even been posted
@Nope It shouldn’t have ever been said
@Anonymous grow up you whiney little bitch
@Anonymous THIS IS INDOCTRINATED, BACKWARDS WHITE SUPREMACY. Why do you not see this as a problem, ESPECIALLY at one of the most progressive and prestigious academic institutions in the country???? IT’S NOT JUST TALK. NOTHING IS JUST TALK.
@CC 2015 We should probably attach a microphone to every student on campus and appropriately punish each one as seen fit
@Good idea Yes, let’s do that. You see, most of us don’t say shit like this.
@Anonymous Yes in fact we do. That’s quite right. The punishment is supposed to show the tons of other guys (as a guy I know of many) who speak like to each other this and think it is okay.
@Fuck Man I literally could not give less of a fuck about what some guys say to each other in their group message. Why would anybody care
@Anonymous While I am not condoning this language in any way, this article is a huge invasion of privacy.
@bb Literally, did you read the article??? It is TRYING to evaluate a underlying culture of racism, sexism, and bigotry on the part of individuals that represent this University.
“Our intention is not to defame any individuals, but to bring up a larger question of how this sort of culture has continued for so long among students who are supposed to represent the University.”
@Anonymous what a load of shit, you and the authors both know that this is a blatant violation of privacy and incredibly defamatory, your “”””””””good”””””” intentions are irrelevant and you should be ashamed of yourself
@ZzzzzzZ Good job sidestepping the real issue! how many more gold stars would you like for displaying your idiocy?
@Anonymous What issue did i sidestep?
The one where a bunch of PoC and neurotic liberals got their feelings hurt when they read a private conversation and now want to punish people for daring to speak in a way they dont approve of in the security of their privacy?
Youre a piece of shit.
@Dr.Benway Columbia needs to mind its own business. They are in the position of employee here and cannot dictate to its Adult employers how to behave provided they are violating no civil law in which case it would be a police matter.
@Anonymous This is a wrestler and you know it hahahaha
@Anonymous what about the 45 people who agreed with him?
all wrestlers?
youre more embarrassing to columbia than they are
@Will Expel them
@CC 2015 We should all release our text messages here on Bwog so that they can be judged. Then, together, decide who should stay at Columbia to make it a better place.
@Reasoned Responder I doubt there would be anyone left.
@Anonymous They need to be wrecked over those racist and rapey comments.
@Anonymous Insane. Absolutely insane. The wrestlers should be ashamed of themselves.
@Anonymous If Harvard suspended their entire soccer team for saying about a fraction of this and we don’t at the very least do the same for the wrestling team here, we’ve lost any last scrap of integrity I thought we had.
@Anonymous Harvard was an overreaction… Maybe Columbia can do better. Teach a lesson, do some good, and still allow these kids to compete.
@unsurprised And people wonder how a candidate like Trump could possibly be elected president.
@curious_alum To the wrestlers in these comments:
How did these get leaked? Did a girl get your phone passcode, go through your phone, screenshot them, and leak them?
@Tommy You mean like our former President Clinton who sexually harassed women in probably all 50 states.. Had to Pay $850,00 to Paula Jones for sexual harrasment!! Had sex in the oval office with an Intern (Sorry… Since that time our children in High School don’t consider “Oral” Sex as sex! AND IS STILL REVERED IN THE DEMOCRAT PARTY !!! LMAO… Why is it I get the feeling you would vote for him in a HEARTBEAT???? They said some brutal things but they were in a PRIVATE CHAT ROOM! They are KIDS!! Give us all a freakin break… You want make this a statement on our soon to be President… LOL….
@? are you an idiot, these are not “kids” these are grown ass men and as adults they should be held accountable for their behavior
@jwkc Legally, perhaps adults. Technically, not kids. Mentally not developed adults. Prefrontal cortex brain development isn’t fully functional as an adult mature brain until approximately age 25. This is the part of the brain responsible for decision-making ability, impulsivity, emotional response etc…basically what would be considered “grown-ass-man” maturity level. These are clearly not grown-ass men, particularly in 2014 when some of the wrestlers posted last). They were, at best, latent adolescent or emerging adults as far as neurobiological development. If they are currently still behaving badly, maybe the punishment ought to reflect a learning experience directed to target the root of the problem? Instead of punishing a whole team, instead of targeting even one person, consider something creative and use positive constructive tools to change the core belief of the boys. I think they need do some service for women’s shelters in need, single-parent families, projects to raise money for rape crisis centers across the country, etc. So much good can come from giving these young guys a chance to have a hands on service oriented experience that changes the lives of people in need. Suspending/expulsion does nothing to teach, it punishes a long list of people outside of the boys themselves and has lasting crippling effects into the future. Rather than cripple them, help them initiate change so they can become the kind of men that will make a positive difference in society. With the holidays approaching, there must be ample service to assign to them that reflects countering the racist, sexist, and totally immature remarks. I’m sure their parents taught them better!! Don’t give up on these guys just because they seem like insecure assholes. Columbia isn’t just for the elitist who has a perfect resume and a family with money. Columbia offers diversity of interests, cultures, sexuality, ethnicity, and socio-economic class. If Columbia expels on the basis of one’s failures or even beliefs, they have negated their mission of diversity as well as ignored some of the greatest influential people of all time, who also had failed moments regarding bad behavior during emerging adulthood. This is one of the best teaching moments of these senior’s lives, I hope Columbia and the athletic directors will use some creative disciplinary action that actually initiates change in these “not-so-grown-ass-men.”
@Anonymous excuses and butt holes
@Cindyloowho You need to repost this where someone with juice will see it. 👍
@Charley Those messages seem pretty mild when compared to the language Hillary Clinton promoted when she engaged JayZ as her star attraction for a concert to boost the moral of her voters. If Hillary promoted it, I’m surprised the CU admin would have any objection.
@Chad It’s just locker room talk bro!!
@Alfons Obviously these guys haven’t the moralic mature to be in any kind of leading position in the future.
@bb you say that, but this exact behavior has been exhibited repeatedly by our next President of the United States….
@Alfons so it seems the constitution is still not worth the paper it’s written on…
@Anonymous trump has violated the constitution? what a joke of a “”””””school””””” columbia is
@Anonymous It’s not written on paper. It’s written on parchment, so…
@Anonymous jada stevens is my favorite pornstar. swear to god she has a double-jointed ass. that shit jiggles in all the right ways.
@Anonymous Why is this downvoted? Y’all really need to watch her bang bus scene
@Why not I’ll give it a try
@Anonymous You’re an idiot. Most of this stuff is satirical, sarcastic, or people are just taking it out of context. Not speaking for myself, but this is guy talk. None of this shit is serious nor should it have even made it out of that group chat. This is an invasion of privacy. Back to “leadership” – I am positive %100 of male members who hold a position of power have and do talk like this amongst their friends. Have a sense of humor.
@Dr.Benway Could you write that in English?
@I'm a victim give me attention I’m gonna carry my mattress around campus until these wrestling bros get expelled.
@Boycott BWOG We should find out who published these messages without the victim’s sent. BWOG is harboring a journalistic rapist.
@Consent is sexy *consent
@Karita dos Santos Hi guys, emissary from the “real world” here. I am FASCINATED by this conversation and by how many CU students are trying to defend these cretins. You want to complain that CU is too politically correct and this is an invasion of privacy, right? After all, Donald Trump did it, right? Guess what: you guys are the “special snowflakes” on this thread. Invasion of privacy, my ass. If you don’t want anyone to see or read it, don’t put it in writing. And definitely don’t put it out there electronically. Anyone ever heard of Anthony Weiner? And I bet you’re not Hillary supporters and cheered on the release of her emails. Out here in the real world, shit like that gets published all the time. Oh, and if you work for a real company someday (doubtful–you all sound like a bunch of spoiled trust-fund babies to me–daddy will no doubt have to help you out), the company you work for will have these little policies against behaving like the wrestlers, even in private. See, they have an aversion to being sued. So they’d rather fire you than have a conversation about the invasion of your privacy. Geez. What a bunch of whiners.
@You're a dingus mate “I’m insecure so I’m going to ragepost on some obscure blog, telling everyone else that I’m better than them”
Feel better now?
@rkm I love your post and yes this social media conduct should be condemned by all in the civilized world.
@Anyone Anywhere It’s also called FREEEDOM OF SPEECH! Where is the left at protecting thier rights? OH but “FUCK TRUMP” “FUCK YOU RACIST TRUMP VOTERS” yeah that’s jussssttt fine!
@Yo Daddy You don’t understand what “Freedom of Speech” means. It means you can’t go to jail (most of the time)- it does NOT protect you from being fired or disliked by other people. You are free from prosecution, not from the consequences.
@Dr.Benway Columbia accepts government money and can be sued for a violation of the 1st amendment.
@Damn, son... Nope.
@Jam ooh, That’s good. Tell them.
@Buster_roo If we read all the texts from our deployed armed forces do you think we can cancel the rest of the wars?
@Giovanni I’m all in for cancelling the rest of the wars.