Officials at a private school in California are investigating a video that students shared on social media that features offensive language, and the incident has hit close to home for former MLB slugger Barry Bonds.
Bonds, whose daughter attends Brentwood School, sent a tweet on Tuesday condemning the racist language used by a group of students:
I am sad that i had to see this at my daughters school. #Racism #Fixit #Suspension https://t.co/NK1HpvQvEg
— Barry L Bonds (@BarryBonds) May 17, 2016
The 26-second clip shows several students singing along to the rap song “Dump Dump” by A$AP Ferg. The lyrics contain explicit phrases that include the N-word. You can watch the video below, but beware that it contains profanity:
As NBC 4 in Southern California notes, a petition was started on the website change.org urging school officials to take action. The group that started the petition calls itself BWS Students Against Racism. One anonymous student spoke out against the use of the N-word but said there is a difference between racism and reciting lyrics to a rap song.
“It’s a small segment of the school that is making a big fuss over nothing,” the student said. “Some of the extreme activists on campus are calling singing along to a rap song a ‘hate crime’ or ‘hate speech’ but that is a load of hogwash.
“Brentwood goes out of its way to create a comfortable and safe space for all of its students. The stink that these few individuals made is attention seeking behavior at its worst.”
Brentwood sent a letter home to parents on Monday assuring them that the matter is being addressed.
