UPDATE: A student at a Virginia high school is apologizing for accidentally playing a racist song at a football game on Friday.
Najee Lawrence of Glen Allen High School, who is black, said he downloaded what he thought was a clean version of a Kanye West song from YouTube without listening to it.
It turned out to be a racist parody of the "DuckTales" theme that was deliberately mislabelled as a prank, according to the Richmond Times-Dispatch.
"I am deeply sorry to those whom I have offended," Lawrence, who is on the school's football team, said in a statement released by the Henrico County Public Schools. "It was never my intention to hurt or offend anyone."
Principal Gwen Miller called Lawrence a "fine young man" who hopes to play football in college and major in biomedical engineering.
Previously:
A football team from a largely African-American high school was given a shocking reception at a mostly white high school in Virginia on Friday when a racist song was played over the PA system before the game.
The song, a parody of the "DuckTales" theme with explicit and hate-filled lyrics, was broadcast by someone at Glen Allen High School prior to the team's homecoming game against Marshall High School in nearby Richmond.
The Richmond Times-Dispatch reports that John Marshall's student body is 93 percent black, compared to 19 percent at Glen Allen.
But if the song was an attempt to intimidate, it didn't work: John Marshall easily beat Glen Allen by a score of 44-21.
"Really, that just ignited us," Lucas Harris, a former John Marshall football player who attended the game, told local NBC station WWBT. "Gave us motivation to go out there and win, and we played our best game of the year. We really came together as a family. Everybody played their best game of the year."
School and district officials quickly apologized and said the student responsible would be disciplined.
"We are a diverse and inclusive community and are appalled that the instigator of this event has sent a message contrary to our beliefs and practices," Glen Allen principal Gwen E. Miller wrote in a letter of apology, which was posted online by WWBT.
John Marshall officials praised their team for playing well despite the distraction.
"It was a shock,” coach Damon “Redd” Thompson told the Times-Dispatch. "We got (the team) together and informed them what was going on... It was a class act out there."
Aileen Coles Davis, a member of the John Marshall Alumni Association, called the incident an "eye-opener" for the students.
"Just keep your head up, keep going," Davis told CBS 6. "There's ignorance everywhere and it's something you may continue to have to deal with."
(h/t Raw Story)
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