St. John's University has fired its fencing coach, Boris Vaksman, after a video showing Vaksman on a racist tirade surfaced online.
"The most trouble coming from where? From black people because they don’t want to work," Vaksman says. "They steal, they kill, they drugs, everything comes from them. The majority, the majority.
“I think, what’s his name, Lincoln, made a mistake,” he added, likely referencing the Emancipation Proclamation.
The video was taken from a Zoom call recorded on June 3, during a youth coaching session for Fencer’s Club, a private fencing club in Manhattan, according to The New York Daily News.
The school quickly responded by firing Vaksman and posting a statement from Director of Athletics Mike Cragg on the university's Twitter account: “As soon as the recording was brought to our attention the matter was immediately investigated and the individual was terminated by the University. The racist comments expressed are completely unacceptable and a rejection of everything that the University stands for."
USA Fencing also responded to the video saying, "We are disgusted by these statements, which are racist, offensive and have no place in the USA Fencing community or in society as a whole. USA Fencing stands with our black athletes and all underrepresented minorities within the fencing family and will conduct an immediate investigation."
Vaksman began coaching at St. John's University in 2006.
[Via]