Filed under “When race baiting goes horribly wrong.”
(Yahoo! News) — Internet humor crossed over into the realm of the real world, and immediately started causing trouble this weekend, after a group of high schoolers held up a giant sign reading “You mad bro?” during a football game in Painesville, Ohio, on Friday night.
For the uninitiated, the phrase “you mad bro?” is a meme used primarily to incite anger in someone who’s already red in the face. It’s a classic troll tactic that’s been around for ages, at least online.
According to Fox 8 News, a group of students “and parents” from Kirtland High School held up a large sign decorated, with the words “You mad bro?,” which was directed at the opposing team, Painesville Harvey, who, of course, had just lost the game. Because the sign said “bro,” and because the majority of the Painesville Harvey players are black, some believed the sign was a racist statement.
“At the conclusion of the game, some of their students and parents put up a sign that we believe was racial intimidation, ethnic intimidation,” said Roderick Coffee, president of the local NAACP chapter, who also attended the game.
The Kirkland High School principal even said that the school plans to conduct a thorough investigation into whether the sign had “mal-intent” toward the Painesville Harvey players.