UCLA runner Chris Weiland has been dismissed from the track and field and cross-country teams after a video recording and text message exchange showing him using racist, homophobic and sexist language surfaced on social media, sparking widespread outrage.
The 4½-minute video, posted on an Instagram account called “ucla_is_racist” and shot inside a darkened car, appears to show Weiland talking about his girlfriend cheating on him with another man before he asks her to leave. Weiland, who is white, goes on to use a racial slur in a cellphone call that can be heard in the video, verified as Weiland by multiple people close to the program.
“When she says she doesn’t, you know, want to get back together, why do you think?” Weiland asks a woman in the call. “It’s because she wants to be with this f— f— who has no future. She’s going to be with a stupid n— who’s going to be in community college all his life.”
The woman speaking with Weiland tells him not to talk like that. He responds: “I don’t give a f—.”
Weiland, who is listed as a senior on UCLA’s 2021 track and field roster, spent two seasons at Mt. San Antonio College and another at Cal State San Marcos before transferring to UCLA.
He can be heard crying as the woman speaking with him tells him to move forward. Asked where the man involved with his girlfriend lived, Weiland says, “I don’t know, probably the …. ghetto.”
Toward the end of the video, as Weiland can be seen wearing a UCLA sweatshirt, the woman admonishes him for his own behavior after he has also acknowledged cheating.
“You’re just trying to justify her being a little s—,” Weiland says. “That’s all she is and that’s all she ever has been.”
Weiland was also alleged to have made offensive remarks in a text message exchange.
The Instagram account also posted a picture of Weiland in his UCLA uniform, noting in the caption that he remained on the team wearing a Black Lives Matter patch “after this racist behavior was brought to coaches and the athletic director months ago. … We will not remain silent. We must be anti-racist in a racist society.”
The alleged incidents occurred prior to Weiland enrolling at UCLA in the fall of 2019, according to a person close to the situation.
Attempts to reach Weiland for comment were not immediately successful.
UCLA track coach Avery Anderson said in a statement released by the school that he suspended Weiland indefinitely from the team upon learning of his remarks before allowing him to return earlier this year.
UCLA runner dismissed from team for using racist, sexist and homophobic language – Los Angeles Times (latimes.com)