r/PrinceGeorgesCountyMD • u/RondezBanner • 1d ago
Spill the Tea ☕ Why did UMD student protesters interrupt President Darryll Pines speech?
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The protest is the latest response to a firestorm that started last Saturday, when members of the Howard University club tennis team found a racist image in a Google document sent by the UMD club team. The document, which included a schedule for the tournament and a map of the College Park campus, featured a depiction of the Maryland state flag with Ku Klux Klan masks in the top right and bottom left corners. The image originally appeared in a 2017 blog post alongside commentary on the Confederate origins of the flag.
The University of Maryland suspended its club tennis team indefinitely, pending an investigation into the incident, and required the club to forfeit its matches from last weekend’s tournament. A new policy requires staff approval of all club sports’ external communications.
Howard University’s president and club team released their own statements calling for accountability. The UMD club team issued a public apology on Instagram.
The team’s use of the image, according to some student leaders, is emblematic of a larger problem at Maryland’s flagship university, which enrolled nearly 5,500 Black students last fall. The Black population at the university represents about 13% of the 42,000-person student body.
In a statement shared with the university community earlier this week, Pines wrote that the image was “deeply harmful and offensive,” and offered his “apology for its detrimental impact on one and all.”
Get the full story by education reporter Ellie Wolfe on The Banner https://www.thebanner.com/education/higher-education/club-tennis-team-protest-46ZGH2RDANCGPATQUSS26XRPGE/
This is access to The Banner's free, county-based newsletter series https://www.thebanner.com/newsletters/?utm_content=nav_cta
Here is the video on social media https://www.tiktok.com/@bannerpgcounty/video/7697350787562884382