Franklin and Marshall College (F&M) students and faculty are protesting the school’s alleged lack of action after photographs of student athletes wearing culturally insensitive costumes were brought to light, reports ABC 27 News.
The Pennsylvania students are shown partaking in Asian and Mexican stereotypes in the photos. Two students donned sombreros with fake mustaches and the words “Jose” and “Cuervo” on their shirts; another student wore a pointed hat and made a slanted eye gesture with soy sauce packets hung around their neck; another student wore a dashiki, a traditional African garment.
“The student made chinky-slanted eyes,” said junior Vi Bui. “My question is: how many games are these players being benched for?”
School administrators sent out an email to students about what happened.
Vice President and Dean of Student Affairs Margaret Hazlett claimed the involved students are going through the school’s judicial process, and that the school will be hiring staff to handle incidents like these in the future.
A rally yesterday involved protestors chanting “Hey, hey, ho, ho, racism has got to go.”
“If you think about Halloween and the connotation of Halloween, when you put on a costume, it’s meant to induce some type of entertainment,” said Folusha Olawole, a sophomore from Nigeria. “The fact that it was used as some type of joke on Halloween is disrespectful to other cultures.
“We’re so marginalized in society already. When I come to campus I want to feel safe, I want to feel heard.”
F&M men’s soccer coach Dan Wagner said the three athletes on his team that were involved have received death threats.
“I know these guys and they’re good people,” said Wagner.
Two basketball players were also involved in the costume scandal. A Friday men’s basketball game was postponed due to protestors staging a sit-in, according to PennLive.
“Our identities are something that they [the athletes] can put on and take off, but for us, we have to wake up in these identities every day,” said Ariana Felix. “We want to make F&M a safer place for people who look like us and come from the same places as us.”
Earlier this fall, someone scratched a racial slur targeting Asians onto a dorm room door at F&M, according to Lancaster Online.
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