Video footage of a Georgia track and field coach known for helping get students into top colleges has gone viral with the coach filmed using extremely racist and despicable language, and for people who are much like most of the students he trains.
on social media, Mark TaylorThe one who is white and leads Speed Edge Sports in Macon,”[Georgia High School Association] Coach of the Year for the track 6 years in a row, and a former University of Georgia defensive side who has won more than 60 athletes in D1 schools and 16 in the NFL. Many of Taylor’s social media posts show her training Black student-athletes, some of whom go into professional sports.
Clips of the trainer were shared on April 10 by self-proclaimed civil rights activist Lauren Angelica Law on Facebook. It’s unclear how Law obtained the videos or when they were filmed.
In his post, he wrote, “RACIAL Mark Taylor, Warner Robins Ga, speed training instructor/coach for high school athletes, has leaked video showing rude racial behavior in Atlanta Ga.” “Lethal threats against people of the same race he is coaching. Most of his clients are the color he hates. Share this everywhere.”
In the first clip, a man who looks like Taylor says he was driving through downtown Atlanta at night. “I have never seen a white person in sight. Homeless on the street. Every restaurant facing here is Black. Every car next to me is Black. They can take Atlanta. It used to be a fun place to come here,” he says, before criticizing a billboard that allegedly depicts Obama “and everyone there.”
He talks about people going to Atlanta “to hunt” before turning the camera around to show his face. “There’s no one else here but Blacks,” he says. That is all. Atlanta sunk, man. Just go.”
In a second clip, a person appears Taylor films a Black woman driving a white car as she says, “Look at that nigga, he’s trying to film it right here in front of me.”
“See that tree over there?” HE he says, pointing the camera at a tree in the street. “Ro will hang you from that tree. Yes!”
In a third clip, Taylor films a nightstand with a clock, gun, and phone on it, then picks up the phone and turns the camera on herself as she plays the “Room Service” joke.
“I need all of you to get me some chicken wings and two bitches. A red bone and a white girl.” Using a term that might be derogatory for a fair-skinned Black woman with red undertones, she continues, “Yeah, I want the white girl. Ro wants to try redbone…. Ro. …he probably threw her out the window when he was done with her.”
“Atlanta, Atlanta,” continues Taylor. “N—– town.”
It’s unclear who Taylor is referring to with “Ro”.
Two of the videos were later shared by social media activist Shaun King, who claimed that major football and track and field programs at Clemson, the University of Alabama, the University of Georgia, and the University of Florida were working with Taylor.
Ross Taylor, Assistant Athletic Director of Football Communications at Clemson, told The Daily Beast that Taylor is always brought to campus. as a guest with the student candidate, but said the university has no formal relationship with Taylor.
“Not employed by us, not employed by us. Obviously, he was here as a loud guest. Potentially future schoolchildren [to Clemson]”said the assistant athletic director. “So, we really have no relationship with him.”
The Georgia High School Association told The Daily Beast that Taylor had no affiliation with the organization or any of its member schools.
“As far as I understand it [a] private trainer. It was not and has never been employed by the GHSA,” said managing director Dr. Robin Hines.
Other universities tagged in King’s post did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Karen Buckman, a white mother who trained under her son Taylor, told CBS Macon that the coach “shouldn’t be around the kids.”
“Our parents need to know what they’re getting into,” he told the news source. “You don’t have to be a parent of a Black child or any other person of color to be appalled or think it’s terrible.”
Curtis Harris, a Black man coached by his son Taylor, told local agency WGXA News that he would do his best to talk about how Taylor helps Black children.
“If you have to start saying what you do for others, you’re not doing it for the right reasons,” Harris said.
According to CBS Macon, Taylor was previously accused of abusing her ex-fiancee, fired from teaching and coaching at Houston County Schools, pleaded guilty to influencing a witness, and exiled The outlet also reports that Taylor has rented a place at private school Central Fellowship Christian Academy to train students.
Central Fellowship Christian Academy said on Monday that the videos were “shocked”.
“However, people associated Mark Taylor with our ministry, and that’s a mistake,” the organization said. “He is neither an employee of the Central Fellowship Christian Academy nor a member of the Central Fellowship Baptist Church. He hired part of our facility to train athletes, who typically come from schools in our area.”
The Academy said it terminated its relationship with Taylor “with immediate effect”.
Taylor was unable to respond to The Daily Beast’s numerous requests for comment via phone and email.