Black Students Lead Klan Parody at Christian School and All Heck Breaks Out

Written by Dennis Robaugh

A group of Wheaton College football players, led by two African-American students, donned Klan robes and hoods and marched with Confederate flags for a team-building exercise, embarrassing the Christian school and distressing the college president.

Twenty student athletes — including several black players — dressed in KKK garb for a parody skit of a Will Smith and Martin Lawrence movie, Bad Boys II. The incident took place on the Wheaton College campus on Saturday, Feb. 28. The students shouted “white power” before two threw off their Klan robes and shouted, “Blue power! Miami PD!” in a nod to the film, according to the Daily Herald.

Wheaton College was founded in 1860 by a staunch abolitionist, pastor Jonathan Blanchard, and the school was a stop on the Underground Railroad. Last year, Forbes ranked the school as one of the nation’s top 100 colleges.

The team captain who led the skit, Josh Aldrin, met with the president, Philip Ryken, and other staff members on Sunday, March 1, at 1 in the morning and explained the skit was intended to undercut racism, not promote it, through parody.

Still, Aldrin admitted he and others, including fellow student Wes Cannonier, erred, according to the school.

“The team captain acknowledged his poor judgment in failing to consider the inherently hurtful meanings these symbols carry, though it was clear the skit was not motivated by racial hostility. The coaches accepted responsibility for their failure to provide appropriate guidance,” the school said in a statement released March 6. “All recognized that, regardless of the group’s intent, the skit was inappropriate, and apologized in an e-mail to the campus community sent out around noon on Sunday. College officials took immediate steps to preserve a copy of footage of the incident.

“Given the inherently hurtful and shocking nature of any images of the event, and the complexities of their context, College leaders asked that they not be disseminated.”

A scene from Bad Boys II

Aldrin emailed fellow students and college employees asking for forgiveness.

“We made a mistake,” he wrote in the email. “As a black male, a team captain, and the leader of the group that performed the skit, I should have understood that (the) KKK and Confederate symbols are not funny in any context.

“We hope the campus community will forgive us for our actions.”

Of wearing the Klan robes and hoods, Aldrin wrote, “we did not fully consider the hurtful meanings these symbols carry and the terrible evil that has been carried out under them.”

Assistant coaches were present at the event, including Josiah Sears and Jordan Langs, but the head football coach, Mike Swider, was not.

The coaches also apologized.

“We failed the team and campus in our responsibility of ensuring that members of the football team were living up to the standard of moral behavior that is expected of us as Christians, campus leaders, and mentors of students on this campus,” the two coaches wrote.

Wheaton College is a four-year liberal arts school recently ranked 15th among liberal arts colleges for its undergraduate teaching. The Klan incident comes on the heels of two other embarrassing episodes.

A student was recently arrested, and expelled, after a woman discovered a video camera hidden in her shower. The camera was set up so the student could secretly peep, police said. On Feb. 23, during a question-and-answer session with the college president, one student threw an apple at another student who raised questions about the college’s position on gay and lesbian students.

“I’m not surprised that something like this happened, but I’m surprised it happened here, where I’m in close proximity to it,” freshman Charissa Fort told the Chicago Tribune regarding the Klan skit.

In response to these incidents, more than 700 students gathered in Pierce Chapel to pray, the Tribune reports, while school officials met with groups of African-American students.

“Wheaton College is far from perfect,” Ryken said in a statement to the Tribune. “Recent incidents have shown us how issues of prejudice and sexual misconduct damage trust and disturb the peace. Sadly, this is a campus where we have sins to confess and people to forgive every day.”