horrible things

Messages Sent by Members of Columbia’s Wrestling Team Expose Culture of Misogyny and Racism

Photo: Barry Winiker/Getty Images

Turns out using dipping tobacco to drop weight classes isn’t the most disgusting habit college wrestlers are capable of. On Friday, Columbia’s student-run blog Bwog exposed private texts shared on the app GroupMe between members of the Columbia wrestling team. Messages went as far back as 2014, the same year the Ivy became the face of campus sexual assault after Emma Sulkowicz carried a mattress around school to protest her alleged rape.

Screenshots of the thread run the gamut of prejudice with offensive language toward Latinas, African-American women, feminists, and gay men. One member was particularly unhappy with a Daily Intelligencer post announcing Columbia’s decision to cancel an event to combat sexual assault and responded, “I hope someone actually gets sexually assaulted…”

The university took action immediately and canceled the team’s season-opening match against Binghamton. In a statement, Columbia said the messages were “appalling” and “at odds with the core values of the university, violate team guidelines and have no place in our community.”

Columbia Wrestling Team Texts Include Misogyny and Racism