RACISM/PREJUDICE AT GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY TRACK AND FIELD/XC

keep things "contained." I'm curious (without the slightest disrespect) what you mean by this? Something few consider is roster sizes, both genders, variety of events, all day competitions, year-round practice and weekend travel is BOUND to result in all kinds of conflicts! Not to mention unusual situations, disagreements, minor infractions, feelings being hurt, misunderstandings, miscommunication, weird circumstances, poor decisions, and on and on. As many a friend outside of coaching XC and track has said, "You guys are stupid for even trying to keep that circus act going." We have to be an ADs worst nightmare unless team leadership is exemplary and there are several layers of protection before this information gets to the head coach, or God forbid, the AD. It's all over once it reaches the point of investigations and public announcements. That falls on poor internal leadership for, one, letting things get out of hand, and two, letting outsiders in on seeing a families' dirty laundry.

The Washington Post article says : "Kurgatt described feeling marginalized as a sprinter (as opposed to distance runner) and as a minority"

except she was a middle distance runner, recruited to run at one of the best middle distance programs in the country......the whole "we dont have sprinters" argument is completely irrelevant here and it has nothing to do with race

Wow, after reading that Washington Post article, I would hate to be running for Georgetown right now - being babysat like children, treated like criminals, constant and excessive supervision.

Poor choice, Hoyas, poor choice. Hopefully they drop the program. This coaching staff is like Penn State in looking the other way with no damn leadership on the team.

I you miss the point of feeling marginalized. It doesn't matter if she or the team or the staff or even a newspaper reporter calls her a sprinter, a long-distance sprinter, or a middle-distance runner. The label is not important. What is important is the treatment of each and every member of a community. How a community treats 'the least of these' says a lot about its values and ethics. That said, sometimes there is just a bad egg or a bad 'fit'. But the problems mentioned here seem to be more systemic than that.

What part of the investigation do you think is more serious for Georgetown, the racial component or the innappropriate physical conduct component?

Or is it just the two investigations combined

You might wat to check this out before you say "Hoyas, poor choice." There is a blog that is adding athletes' posts daily in support of the coaching staff by sharing their overwelmingly positive experiences. That's a whole lot more than those coming out with their negative experiences.

mygeorgetownexperience.blogspot.com

Maybe the people with the negative experiences are keeping them to themselves instead of opening themselves up to a 2nd round of attacks, this time from complete strangers who have know idea what they actually went through but are tripping over themselves to invalidate the experiences of the person who went public.

Hey Washington Post, don't believe everything you read...Here is a particular one that should be seen. A post from a sprinter that was able to get the inside scoop.

"Enough about my story, here’s the reason for writing this post, and its painful to write this, because in doing so, I am calling out the actions of a couple of my former teammates. I’m trying to set the record straight on the coaching staff and the culture of the program relating to the alleged discrimination.

My perspective may be unique, because of my rather unique story. I wasn’t recruited by the coaching staff, and I’m not a decorated athlete. I have no interest in protecting anyone, don’t owe anybody anything, and no loyalties but to the truth as I saw it.

The only thing keeping my experience from being "perfect" was a small group of teammates who, for reasons I never was able to understand, seemed intent on making major changes in the program. Their complaints seemed odd to me- disappointed with the facilities, the workouts, and their personal track success. Much of the blame for these issues, it seemed, was placed on Coach Henner.

Increasingly, it seemed that their answer to the complaints about the facilities, the workouts, and the athletic struggles was to get the head coach fired through whatever means necessary. It was essentially explained to me as, “once we get a new coach, we’ll get new facilities and be a more sprinter-focused school.”

I’d hear jokes and occasionally serious conversations about fabricating or exaggerating stories about Coach Henner, about making lists of small things that seemed to be taken out of context to prove some sort of mal-intent. These individuals did not seem to understand the seriousness of accusing another individual of being racist or sexist. They seemed to justify a feeling of being “underappreciated and undervalued” as justification for sweeping false accusations.

They didn’t understand, or care, about the lives they were about to destroy. About the community they were about to break apart. And the friendships they would forever tarnish. They did not think that people would challenge their claims. That people like myself and so many others on the track team, who gave everything we had to Georgetown athletics and to our fellow teammates. We would not let them tear it all apart for their own personal gain. For social media approval, for that misplaced feeling of doing good, of being on the side of social justice, even when they were doing something malicious, and working in direct opposition to social justice.""

Trust me, there is more of this on the blog.

Thanks for asking my opinion. I too have some experience with all this although every college/university and problematic situation is different. The fact that Georgetown has a Diversity and Inclusiveness Review Board is VERY serious. It's hard to say which issue is "more" serious.

I would say the pattern of misbehavior stems from the expectations of the leadership. It starts with upperclassmen, captains, seniors, SAAC, then coaches, then other adults in the daily athletic milieu. Are there faculty mentors at Georgetown? It's a Jesuit institution. Where is the spiritual foundation on the team coming from?

Just raising questions...often there are more questions than answers with complicated situations like this. Maybe pushing 'reset' is in order as was suggested earlier? When you're EMOTIONALLY invested it's hard to see the forest through the trees--that much I am certain!

Well if you read the blogs it seems to say these people with the negative experiences never shared their feelings with those having the positive feelings and thus couldn't come to a resolution. Instead they ran to administration with a load of false and exxagerated claims just in hopes of destroying the program and getting the coaches fired.

Not the best way to handle all of this.

Wrong. It appears to me that the coaches are blameless in the racism, but that the white athletes have been making racial comments on numerous occasions, which comes as no surprise to viewers of this site. Active racists do not merely have implicit racial biases. They go out of their way to express racial stereotypes or say racist things. That is precisely what she accused the other athletes of and the university, having separated the two inquiries, seems to think there is something to this.

The upshot of that story is that the university has cracked down on the sexual hazing, meaning that they found the accusations true, helped by a video, etc., while the racial inquiry is ongoing.

Georgetown needs a lot of help with actually adhering to, following through on, and administering their own set of published values. The athletic experience at the D1 level should not only be published as a positive experience with academic balance, the school should see to it that it is. Hard work and tough training are to be expected. No D1 athlete goes into a sport not knowing this. Don't forget, these individuals have spent a great portion of their lives preparing for this. These athletes essentially are taking on a full-time job in addition to being responsible for a full time, rigorous academic program. Privilege? I think not. They work hard for this. But when you couple that with team culture who ostracize, discriminate, bully, sexually harass, single out individuals with full support of the staff for no other purpose but to force individuals to quit....this should not be tolerated. But it is tolerated and supported here. In competition it is expected that not all athletes will participate all the time. Athletes at this level understand this. It's a part of the deal. They have been competing for years before getting to Georgetown. Got news for you...this is occurring in more sports teams other than track at Georgetown. The leadership turns a blind eye and does nothing about it but cite excerpts from their set of values that they don't follow. As for all those positive blogs, that is exactly the point. This is not about you and your experiences. It's about the ones who brought it forward and many others who may be afraid to come forward for fear of retaliation and what might happen to them. Great culture. What is this? A cult? When will they bring out the purple juice???

Yeah, because everyone's experience of situations and people is always identical.

Those who have come forward have been called out by fellow "sprinters" on the team about how they were heard on several occasions plotting to exaggerate instances and even make up scenarios in which they were discriminated against to aid in getting the coaching staff fired. So in my eyes you lose a lot of credibility when you decide to cry wolf. Claiming that the coaching staff was racist/ discriminatory is fine. If that can be backed by proper evidence and legitimate circumstances that can prove it. But realizing that that stance was going no where and then having to flip the argument into a hazing, bullying and, sexual harassment affair makes no sense to me. If you truly want those things to stop then they will by the end of the investigation. (although many of the claims about the team are apparent on any mens team) But by stating that the that the staff has full support of this you seem like you are just using different ways to ultimately say the same thing. You want the coaching staff fired.

hoya team wrote:

Perhaps you have seen the scavenger hunt online. Let's say there are 70 "tasks" that a team member can complete. Let me fill you in on a little "secret" since you, as mentioned before, have no idea what you are talking about: of those 70 tasks, only a few are actually "completed", as team members are mature enough (and equipped with a decent enough sense of humor) to realize that the "snarky...juvenile" tasks are simply for a chuckle at face value...

Guys,

I really want to see this scavenger hunt. Actually, it is my RIGHT to see this scavenger hunt, because I have devoted my interest to this story. Please share. I can't find.

You seem like you're the type to cry racism at restaurants if your best friend finds an onion ring in her french fries and you don't.