Philadelphia 76ers Investigating Former Dancer’s Claims Of Racism and Abuse

A former dancer for the Philadelphia 76ers dance team shared a story to Instagram on Tuesday, alleging that she was bullied and “racially targeted” by her teammates. The 76ers are now investigating her claims, the PhillyVoice is reporting.

Yahne Coleman, who began dancing for the Sixers dance team in 2015, said that she went to her coaches, Lara Price, who is the Senior Vice President of Business for the Sixers, and others in the organization about the abuse and nothing was done.

Coleman posted a video showing one of her former teammates, Annie Weiss, threatening to “find you in whatever project you live in. I will slum it to the west side of Philly just to find your ass, beat the sh*t out of it, and get you blacklisted from whatever club you think you can get into.”

 

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A post shared by Yahné Coleman (@yahneofficial) on Jun 30, 2020 at 4:01pm PDT

She also included a screenshot of an email from Sixers COO Lara Price, received on September 1, 2016, promising to look into her allegations.

“Yahne – Thank you for bringing the issue to my/our attention. We will promptly look into this. Can you also send me the best contact number for you as our HR and Legal team will want to reach out to discuss with you. Because we are about to depart for Labor Day weekend, we will be reaching out next week at the earliest. If you need to know anything in the interim, please let me know. Thank you.”

After the post, the organization released its own statement to the PhillyVoice, saying they will be looking into the allegations.

“Tonight, we were made aware of social media posts involving former dance team members that contained insensitive, offensive, and unacceptable remarks, as well as allegations of bullying and racist behavior. The videos, which were filmed in 2016, featured derogatory comments from a former dance team member who left the organization in 2013,” the statement said.

” We take this situation very seriously. We intend to investigate this matter immediately and remain committed to fostering a culture of inclusion and equality.”