Univ. of Houston volleyball players appear in video laughing about a 1935 lynching
At least two University of Houston volleyball players are in hot water after sharing a video of themselves on social media laughing and mocking an infamous 1935 lynching of two Black teenagers. According to the university newspaper, The Daily Cougar, the video appeared to have been filmed by Ryleigh Whitekettle, a freshman volleyball player, and shared on Snapchat. In it are volleyball players Isabel Theut and Abbie Jackson. The caption reads, “This is the hanging tree where we used to hang people.” The tree is in Columbus, Texas, which is Theut’s hometown. Within a day of being posted, the clip had been viewed more than 14,000 times and was shared on TikTok by a football player at the University of Miami, where it was viewed more than 54,000 times before being deleted. Other members of University if Houston’s athletic community condemned the video, commenting about it on Twitter. “Pretty disingenuous by these two,” tweeted UH football quarterback Ike Ogbogu, who also ...