By Madeline Fuerstenberg, Rebecca Mennecke and Bridget Kelley, for The Spectator
One of the football players suspected of involvement in a racially charged Snapchat exchange among members of the Blugold football team is accused of allegedly donning blackface in high school and participating in conversations about “dressing black” for Halloween this fall.
NOTE: A statement from Chancellor Jim Schmidt, to the UW-EC community on Thursday, Nov. 21, can be found here
Kendall McGinnis, Leeshaun Evans and Lewis Balom, former Blugold football players who are members of UW-Eau Claire’s Black Male Empowerment (BME) organization, shared a photograph depicting one of their former teammates appearing to be wearing blackface in high school.
McGinnis identified the player as Bryson Wilkins, a third-year student and a defensive lineman on the Blugold football team.
The Spectator reached out to Wilkins via email on Wednesday afternoon. He declined to comment at this time.
Evans, a fifth-year sports management student, said the photo resurfaced among the football players around Halloween, when different members of the team allegedly talked about “dressing black” for the holiday.
McGinnis said the images of the Snapchat conversation were brought to him by one of the players. McGinnis then shared the images with other members of BME who, in turn, shared the images across social media platforms. The images have since gone viral.
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The home page photo, which was submitted to The Spectator, is alleged to be a photo of Bryson Wilkins (center) wearing blackface as a high school student.
Note: Madeline Fuerstenberg is editor-in-chief of The Spectator and is also the CVPost‘s community reporter. Rebecca Mennecke is the student paper’s managing editor and Bridget Kelley is the news editor.