Howard University and Presbyterian College officials reportedly have opened an investigation into racist slurs directed at the historically Black school’s lacrosse team before a game in South Carolina this month.
As Howard’s all-Black team made its way inside Presbyterian’s Bailey Memorial Stadium in Clinton, South Carolina, a group of White men verbally assaulted them.
“Our first steps onto the field, we were greeted with, ‘F— Howard! You’re not welcome here!’ They said, ‘We don’t want you here!’ They told us to go home,” Coach Karen Healy-Silcott told reporters.
Coach Healy-Scott said the group used several racial slurs and derogatory sexual terms and called out players by name.
“They shouted, ‘If it ain’t White, it ain’t right!’” Healy-Silcott said. “We were looking at each other, wondering if we were actually hearing this.”
Healy-Silcott told reporters that the team entered the locker room and decided to concentrate on the game.
“This has been an incredibly difficult experience for myself and the players,” Healy-Silcott said. “It’s not something they should have to face and not something they should ever have heard. It was a really terrible day. But they persevered and were able to play, and I’m really proud of the way we responded as a team.”
According to USA Lacrosse magazine, Howard and Delaware State University are the only historically Black colleges or universities with NCAA Division I women’s lacrosse teams.
