Columbia University decided to withdraw from a wrestling meet against Binghamton on Sunday after the release of group text messages by its varsity athletes. The text messages feature various racist, misogynistic and homophobic sentiments.
The university announced said it will have “zero tolerance in its athletics programs for the group messaging and texts sent by several members of the men’s varsity wrestling team,” and went on to describe the messages as “appalling.”
Screenshots of the text messages are available at bwog.com, but they contain some very graphic and mature content, so read at your own risk.
Harvard experienced a similar scandal recently when it was revealed that their men’s soccer team made inappropriate comments regarding the woman’s soccer team. Harvard decided to shut down the rest of the season in light of the messages, and Columbia will likely follow suit.
Harvard has already set a precedent to deal with this kind of behavior, and anything less would be seen as disrespectful or light handed.
Both scandals are disappointing and continue to raise questions about how far we have really come. Evidence continues to suggest that we aren’t as progressive as we thought, and are perhaps only pretending.
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