A group of football players at a Christian college in Illinois donned Ku Klux Klan robes and hoods for a skit that was part of a team-building activity, the Chicago Tribune reported on Friday.
The incident occurred on Feb. 28 as part of an off-season activity in the Wheaton College campus gym, the Tribune reported. The players were split into groups and reportedly parodied several movies. The group who dressed as Klansmen were part of a group of 20 players, some of whom were black.
The skit was reportedly intended as a comic reenactment of a scene from “Bad Boys II,” which mocks the KKK, the Tribune reported. Despite the intent of the players who created the skit, the campus community was angered by the racist skit and Wheaton College President Philip Ryken issued a statement to the Tribune in which he condemned the racist skit.
Wheaton College is far from perfect. … I was shocked when I first heard that symbols with a history of racist violence had been used on our campus. Although I was somewhat relieved to learn — almost immediately — that the skit was intended to subvert racism, not promote it, I also knew that when students heard what had happened, it would understandably cause a lot of distress. Recent incidents have shown us how issues of prejudice and sexual misconduct damage trust and disturb the peace. Sadly, this is a campus where we have sins to confess and people to forgive every day.
Ryken and other staff members reportedly met with one of the organizers of the skit at 1 a.m. on March 1, just hours after it was performed, the Tribune reported.
Team captain, Josh Aldrin, was one of the skit’s organizers and one of the black players who participated in the skit. He apologized on Sunday in a letter to the college community.
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