A college soccer player's Snapchat photo has sparked a strong reaction from her teammates and throughout the school.
Brooke Merino, a student-athlete at historically black college Prairie View A&M University, has returned to her San Diego home amid the controversy surrounding a picture she posted that shows her face covered with black tape and the caption "When you just tryna fit in at your hbcu."
One of Merino's teammates said the blackface post "disrespected everything this university was built for, everything it stands for. Not just for Prairie View, but other HBCUs."
Another teammate added, "She disrespected the community. She disrespected our team. And she disrespected Prairie View A&M University."
While I want to understand the actions of this young lady for putting on blackface, I do know that what she did was inappropriate-Dr. Wright
— Prairie View A&M (@PVAMU) October 3, 2016
Merino has not yet decided if she will return to school.
Merino wrote a letter to her teammates which reads, in part: "Being here, I have felt what it is like to be a minority, and I have felt uncomfortable. I have felt out of place. But, I knew that was going to be part of this journey of going to an HBCU as a white Hispanic student … I will admit that I was ignorant in my post. I was stupid for posting it without thinking more clearly about the consequences. But I'm not racist."
Any disciplinary action against Merino will be decided by the university's Student Code of Conduct Board.
