Virginia Tech Lacrosse Apologizes for Racially Insensitive Video on Snapchat

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Virginia Tech lacrosse
Virginia Tech head coach John Sung and his women’s lacrosse team (Photo courtesy of Virginia Tech Athletics)

Virginia Tech lacrosse issued an apology on Monday after one of its players posted a video on social media of team members using racially insensitive language while singing a song.

“Following an away match on Saturday, March 24, a member of our squad posted a video to social media of the team singing along to a song that included derogatory lyrics,” head coach John Sung said in a written statement. “Members of the Virginia Tech athletics administration and coaches have met with the full team. We are engaged in conversations within the campus community to share our sincere apology.

“We have confidence that the team will learn from this mistake and understand that these actions reflect poorly on our program and do not represent the values of our program or the principles of the university.”

The video, originally posted to Snapchat, shows the team on a bus singing along to rapper Lil Dicky’s song “Freaky Friday”, featuring Chris Brown. The video showed several people on the bus singing the lyrics, including saying “n—-” multiple times. 

Virginia Tech lacrosse is 9-3 so far this season with a 2-0 record in the ACC, and the Hokies are ranked 17th in the country. Tech’s next match is on Wed., March 28 at 5 p.m. at North Carolina.

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48 Responses You are logged in as Test

  1. Oriental is offensive? Wow… I don’t recall it being offensive when I lived in the US back in the 90’s, or maybe I was being racist and never noticed. Allow me to throw a little criticism on american society on this matter, I think you guys (americans in general, not you in this forum) fixate too much on the words you use when it comes to racial issues, instead of judging the intention. I don’t think words are offensive, the intention to denigrate one’s race, family, way of life, beliefs… that is what in my opinion, should be offensive.

  2. I don’t know the song and don’t know the artist. I don’t know if anyone should truly be offended or not by the video. I seriously doubt there was the slightest desire of these girls to offend anyone (if they did). But what I do know is that the reaction was as predictable as the sun rising in the east. And hence it was bad form to sing the song and stunningly stupid to tape and post it. The team and AD are handling it the proper way.

  3. Use of the ‘n’ word under any circumstances is not acceptable, period!! The team should have apologized, and Whit should issue a statement reiterating an apology on behalf of the athletic department.

    1. Oh get yourself together. They were singing the lyrics to a popular song. No apologies necessary. I am so sick of this walking on eggshells mentality our society suffers from.

    2. I hear ya. So since it is unacceptable under any circumstances has the artist apologized yet? Has he been charged with a hate crime? Has this song been banned yet?

      If not, this is a double standard.

  4. This is so dumb. Another example of how ridiculous this country has become. “Freedom of speech” to the artist who has the word in their lyrics. “Freedom of speech” to sing along to the song as long as you’re the same race as the artist. Shame shame shame on anyone singing along to a song the artist made millions off of only if the listener/fan is not the same race as the artist.

    If you don’t like the word, then don’t put it in your damn song, and have a standard about who can say it. That, by definition, is racist.

    No apologies necessary, Hokies. I’m actually more offended at the apology and this whole exercise than I am for your singing a song.

    1. Does seem like a double standard. If people are offended by the team singing it then they should be offended by anyone singing it.

    2. Nothing about this situation has anything to do with Freedom of Speech. It’s usually a bad idea to use racial slurs and flat out moronic to film yourself doing it and post it on social media. Instead of making excuses or resorting to “What aboutism” we should recognize that this was a poor choice on multiple levels by people who are representing our university. An apology was certainly warranted.

  5. In the picture, I see an all-white team. My daughter plays lacrosse. In all the games I’ve seen her play in, I don’t recall ever seeing a black or colored or AfroAmerican or whatever other named non-white girl play. What’s up with that? I’ve also never seen a black (or oriental, for that matter) ice hockey player (although I don’t watch NHL except for hi-lights). I hate all the pc crap in society today, but if it offends people I do not condone it. Why intentionally offend and cause friction? So when a group of white girls sing a song with racial slurs, and are stupid enough to post it on social media, wth are they thinking? And then we wonder why America, once the greatest country on earth, is going to hell in a race car. Wake up, America! Unbelievable! I am not proud of my alma mater this day. I thought Hokienation was better than that.

    Btw, I’d like to point out that the most most famous black man to play lacrosse played football at Syracuse. He was Jim Brown. I bet if he or any other person of color had been on the bus with the Hokie lacrosse team there would not have been racial slurs. Integrity is doing the right thing even if no one else knows you’re doing it.

    1. Here are a few black hockey players, Smith-Pelly plays for the Caps. At a game in Chicago some fans told him to stick with basketball.
      Probably best not to post things that might be considered racial or offensive.

    2. Not passing judgment at all. Just recommend you don’t use “colored” or “oriental”. Those might get you sued or face a civil rights case in today’s PC culture.

      And please don’t defame Hokienation. I’m offended by that myself!

    3. Just an an FYI. Your use of the word “Oriental” is considered offensive. The Asian community anxiously awaits your apology. I thought you were better than that.

    4. With this, I agree. Even though O&M and I are probably proximate in age, I do not often agree with him. On this post, I absolutely do. Just amazingly stupid to have posted the video. Now, when singing those verses on the bus, where were the coaches to shut that down? And why? It is so easy to celebrate in appropriate ways.

  6. You all should watch the original video by Lil Dicky on youtube. It’s actually a pretty funny video, not that I am condoning the use of the word. Just for context.

  7. So its not “racially insensitive” when being performed for money in front of hundreds of thousands of people…but it is when a bunch of college girls sing it on a bus? Hypocrisy abounds.

      1. The difference is the girls were singing the lyrics to a song, not directed to at a person or group. Tough life lesson for the team

        1. Exactly; however, I was taught by African-American basketball teammates, sure I could sing along but just skip that word. I got along great with those guys

        2. Actually Mr. Coates addresses that point (“I’m just singing lyrics!”) directly in a popular recent YouTube video of a university Q&A. You should check it out.

      2. Tell that to the waitress at every third rate restaurant that you’ve ever visited, because odds are very good that she is going to call you “honey,” “sugar” or “dear” with every sentence she utters. It always makes me uncomfortable when I get that treatment, but instead of being offended, I try to look at from the other person’s point of view . . . she’s using those words in a sincere effort to be pleasant. Respectfully, the notion that “words don’t belong to everyone” is a notion that most people do not accept, nor should they. Better to look at the context and intent in which the words are used. And then, there are probably some words that ought not be used by anyone.

      3. He does a decent job explaining this, probably better than I have heard before. But at the end of the day if it is such an awful word…. no one should be using it.

        A lot of what he talks about is a double standard and frustrating to hear.

    1. Not really. It’s pretty easy to skip that word or here’s an awesome idea: If you’re going to say it don’t record it and post it on social media.

    2. Agreed. Sensitivity is a cancerous plague on modern college campuses.

      If you don’t like the word, don’t put it in your songs.

      If you put it in your songs, don’t complain when others sing along.

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