The white PVAMU soccer player who posted an Insensitive Snapchat in blackface is no longer on campus at the black college. On Monday, Prairie View A&M University President George C. Wright met with more than 400 students and faculty in a forum that he called as a response to the viral post, according to ABC13.
Wright announced that Brooke Merino is back home with her family in California, at least temporarily. He also read a letter from Merino to the student body in which she says that she had no idea what the term blackface meant before her post went viral, apologizing several times. She says she meant her post as a joke:
“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.“
Merino described being “ignorant” but “not racist” in the letter read by Wright:
“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.”
“I’m not condoning her actions, but none of you were there when the picture went viral, and she was shaking in fear and anxiety because she had realized what she’d done,” said teammate Braelah McGinnis, who spoke to a packed room during Monday’s forum.
“She disrespected the community. She disrespected our team. And she disrespected Prairie View A&M University,” said McGinnis.
