Hoya Madness is generally an event that Georgetown students look forward to - myself included. This year, however, students have reason to be worried.
Fabolous, Hoya Madness’ performer this year, was indicted on four domestic violence charges in 2018. The charges included one count of domestic violence with significant bodily injury, two counts of threatening to kill, and one count of possession of a weapon. These were all committed against his girlfriend, who has had two children with him. He incurred no jail sentence - in 2019, he took a plea deal that keeps him free as long as he stays out of trouble for a year and completes a pretrial intervention program. It’s important to note that he is not required to attend any anger management courses or similar counseling as a result of this deal.
After reading all of this, you might wonder - why did Georgetown hire him? It’s impossible to deny who he is - an abuser. We could assume that the school hired him out of ignorance if we wanted to, but a quick look at his Wikipedia page would let them know how problematic he is. We could also head towards the other side of the spectrum and suppose they knew full and well how his transgressions would affect the student body, but that doesn’t seem likely either. Perhaps they were just ignorant, and while that’s not acceptable, they can take steps to fix their mistakes.
Georgetown shouldn’t be hiring him to play a show. Frankly, it’s not a good look for them - it’s a reminder of all the abuse in Georgetown’s past. In addition, he doesn’t seem to be a glowing beacon of the cura personalis preached to us since freshman orientation.
Hoya Madness is supposed to be about celebrating Georgetown’s basketball teams, but students can’t do that when Athletics hires a person of dishonor to be the act of honor. I urge Georgetown Athletics to do something to let us know they care about this, and to take steps to fix their errors - to start, they should disinvite Fabolous from performing at Hoya Madness this Friday. After all, if they care about starting the season off right, they should know that this is a leap in the wrong direction.