White Students' Racist Rap Video Stuns Brooklyn Community
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- Blacks, women and Jews are all targeted in a disturbing rap video, made by four local teenagers.
On Wednesday new action was taken to punish those responsible, and make sure it doesn't happen again.
It's a case of "high school hate," and CBS 2's Pablo Guzman has the story.
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Four Stuyvesant High School students made the video and sent it around to some friends on the school's internal Facebook page. The lyrics are racist, anti-Semitic and anti-women.
Somebody sent the video to Breanna Celestin's inbox. She's a student at the school. The students who made the video are all white. The young woman is black. Her mother expressed her disgust on Wednesday afternoon.
"Up to this moment, I have not spoken about this publicly. But we feel that it is important to do so now. It has been a very difficult and traumatic time for Breanna and the family," Veronica Celestin said.
As every student at Stuyvesant now knows, Breanna showed the video to a former student, Alexis Marie Wint, who put the video on YouTube. What resulted was a firestorm. Guzman spoke with her via Skype on Wednesday afternoon.
"Having gone to the school, I've had personal experiences with that, so I knew nothing was really going to be done if it wasn't publicized," Wint said.
Also on Wednesday, other mothers of students joined Breanna's mother outside Stuyvesant. Vickie Davie's daughter is a senior.
"She's had several instances of racial incidents as well as being called 'the N word,'" Davie said.
The Department of Education has started a disciplinary proceeding that could result in suspensions and on Wednesday brought in the Anti-Defamation League to start the first of what will be three six-hour sessions at Stuyvesant.
"These are not just words. These are words that can hurt. And they do hurt. And they really affect the climate at the school," ADL New York Regional Director Ron Meier said.
The video is viral and the story has gone public. Now there's a school that has a lot of work to do.
The mothers also questioned why the enrollment of African-American students at Stuyvesant High School is less than 3 percent.
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