Northwestern Universityβs hazing scandal continues as new allegations have come to light. This time, two of the schoolβs former football players have alleged that Black athletes were forced to compete in watermelon-eating contests as part of a sadistic hazing culture.
βThis is a clear promotion of the indisputably racist watermelon stereotype and anti-black racist trope,β both lawsuits state. βThis behavior is especially despicable coming from a coach who recruited kids and teenagers out of their homes and living rooms, promising parents that their children, many of whom would be leaving home for the first time, were going to be taken care of while at Northwestern.β
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The anonymous players who filed the suit were on Northwesternβs football team during the 2004/2005 seasons and also claim that former head coach Pat Fitzgeraldβwho was fired from his position last monthββknew and encouraged this behavior to happen to these very young and impressionable men.β
Though officials at the school have stated there is a clear anti-hazing policy, several of the lawsuits filedβwhich claim players were physically and sexually abusedβsay that coaches and trainers either saw acts of hazing or ignored the players when they brought the hazing incidents to their attention.
Several of the lawsuits claim athletes were forced to engage in acts called βrunning,β where upperclassmen would hold down freshmen players in the locker room and would βdry-humpβ them. In addition, freshmen were allegedly forced to participate in a βcar wash,β in which naked upperclassmen would force underclassmen to rub against them as they went to the showers.
βUnderclassmen, specifically freshmen on the football team, were forced to engage in horrific, despicable, and sexually explicit forms of hazing,β the lawsuits explain. Both of these lawsuits are the first to name former Northwestern athletic director Mark Murphy as a defendant.
Murphy is being accused of negligence for failing to stop the hazing. Murphy currently works for the Green Bay Packers as president and CEO.
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