A University of Wisconsin fan who made a racist gesture directed at Asian-American fans during the UW men’s basketball game against Northwestern on Tuesday has been banned from UW athletic events going forward.
The fan, seated near the court at Welsh-Ryan Fieldhouse in Evanston, Illinois, and wearing red, was captured on a viral TikTok video using his fingers to pull the skin around his eyes back, a racist gesture used to mock East and Southeast Asians. He directed that gesture and also raised his middle finger toward the Northwestern student section.
The video showed Northwestern security personnel approaching the fan and escorting him out of the seating bowl, during which the unidentified man repeated the gestures.
UW athletic director Chris McIntosh and Chancellor Rebecca Blank — who also happens to be the future president at Northwestern — released a joint statement Thursday condemning the action and indicating the fan was neither a current student nor university employee.
“We also want to acknowledge that hateful behavior like this still happens far too often, on and off campus — towards members of our Asian, Pacific Islander and Desi American community as well as other marginalized communities. It inflicts pain and fear and causes students, staff and faculty to feel unwelcome and unsafe. Most of the time it is not captured on video and the perpetrators are not identified. In this case, we are grateful to the fans that documented and shared this incident.”
The University of Wisconsin’s official Twitter account applauded Northwestern for removing the fan in a statement and said the fan is no longer welcome at UW athletics events and is barred from buying tickets.
Wisconsin won the road test over Northwestern, 82-76.
JR Radcliffe can be reached at (262) 361-9141 or [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter at @JRRadcliffe.
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Wisconsin fan who made racist gesture banned from Badgers games
