White Chicago High School Students Kneel During Spanish-Language Song At Homecoming

elizabethpacheco93/Instagram

October 14, 2021, 8:00 am

White high school students in Chicago were captured on video kneeling to protest a Spanish-language song playing during their homecoming dance, and people are appalled.

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Elizabeth Pacheco pulled out her phone to record the scene after she realized a large group of white students were kneeling on the dance floor.

“People immediately started booing and kneeling, and everyone knows from the National Anthem that kneeling means protesting — they were against the song,” she told Patch. “They started saying really disrespectful things about Mexicans and that’s when I started to record.”

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The video itself shows the group blocking off an area, getting in others’ way as they continue trying to dance, and jeering at the song.

As Pacheco’s post made the rounds on social media, people condemned the students’ behavior.

Yes. They don’t even understand how to protest or what it means.

— No seditious traitors in congress! Accountability (@2017_itstime) October 12, 2021

WOW the Latino kids can’t get one song played without protest? Really???

Yeah and these are the same brats that will order tacos on Tuesday. https://t.co/jw1zqaLZmf

— Cliff W (@CliffW08950229) October 14, 2021

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All I see are people who don’t know how to have a good time unless part of it includes ruining the good time of other people.

— Jimbo2011 (@jimbojones2011) October 12, 2021

That’s not even scratching the surface! So many ‘American’ pop stars, rockstars etc come from Latinx backgrounds if they are suddenly gone you’d basically be left with The Osmonds and only half of Slayer

— Jason Spacin’ Out Six Feet At Least (@Jack_B_Nimble) October 12, 2021

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Marist High School, a Roman Catholic private school, claimed they investigated after the incident went viral and decided there was no racist motivation behind the students kneeling and booing at a Spanish-language song.

According to staff and chaperones, students kneeled when they wanted a song changed, and didn’t do so for every Spanish-language song, nor were those the only times they kneeled.

However, that doesn’t account for the racist remarks. And Pacheco and other Mexican students at the school say this far from the only time they’ve felt singled out by their peers at the school based on race.

“I’ve been here for four years, and we are constantly getting mocked, and I’m tired,” another student, Jaelyn Crawford, told NBC Chicago.

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*First Published: October 14, 2021, 8:00 am