This video is disturbing not only for its content, but because it's even possible. Context surrounding the racist and homophobic outburst from Syracuse midfielder Hanna Strong hasn't come through yet, but let's piece together this clip: Originally posted on Instagram, the video features a black man with his hands up, a car that either looks like a taxi or a security/police vehicle, and Strong's mouth.
At the end of the video, when she realizes that she's just been filmed, her anger dissipates. The cowardly cries of someone who's been caught come out, and some pathetic pleading goes down. Strong sounds like a kid who gets caught stealing from the cookie jar and then begs their parents for forgiveness. Problem is, people aren't exactly merciful, and Instagram users who have just been called two of the worst slurs in the book aren't going to not post inflammatory videos for those likes.
You can learn a lot about a person by how they act in private, and quite frankly, this could've happened to any white college kid in the country. The difference between Hanna Strong and the bros you heard use the n-word rather freely at that frat party is that Strong lives in 2014, and in 2014, everything is recorded, received, and reacted to. Three seconds of deplorable language can have a lasting public impact thanks to smart camera phones. That wasn't a thing like five years ago. Strong may have "black friends" and may not be a racist or a homophobe, but if she has one thing, it's a lack of damn sense. (Most college kids don't have this.)
Why Strong felt that the situation/prior incident warranted the usage of the n-word and f-word is unknown at this point, but we do know one thing: Her ass has been indefinitely suspended from the team.
Said the university's athletic department: “We are aware of the offensive comments made last night by a member of the women’s soccer team. This type of intolerant and hurtful language, focused on both race and sexual orientation, is not part of the culture we seek to foster among our student-athletes and it has no place at Syracuse University. Earlier today, this student-athlete was indefinitely suspended from the team by Coach Phil Wheddon."
Strong had started all five of Syracuse's matches this season. She's a senior and was on the Dean's List last year after missing the entire season with a torn ACL.
