University of Wisconsin-Madison officials are promising a review of Camp Randall policies, after a crowd member with a President Barack Obama mask on wore a noose at Saturday’s game.
The incident sparked a strong backlash on social media, after stadium officials asked the crowd member to remove the noose. The person was not ejected from the stadium, although they left voluntarily a short time later.
In a joint statement issued Tuesday, UW-Madison Chancellor Rebecca Blank and Athletic Director Barry Alvarez described the incident as “despicable,” noting that is has caused an “immense amount of pain” in the UW community. “And it should have, as a noose is a symbol of one of the vilest forms of racial hatred and intimidation in our country’s history,” they said.
“A noose displayed in this fashion has no place on campus. Together, the Athletics Department and the University’s Office of Legal Affairs are initiating a review of stadium policies with the goal of ensuring that symbols of this type are not displayed in our stadium again,” the statement reads.
At the @UWBadgers game and there is a man with a mask of President Obama and a noose. This is racism, why was this allowed into the stadium? pic.twitter.com/zKEqhdDYny
— ???? (@woahohkatie) October 29, 2016