She added, “My rookie teammates, including a few who also happened to be people of color, were asked to do this, and we complied with the request as we did not want to get in trouble with said veterans.”
Gabi reportedly included in her post “pictures and videos of some of my other rookie teammates who followed the same instructions.” She added, “I am sorry I need to pull my teammates into this, but I have no choice but to speak the truth about this situation since the lie has been spread across social media.”
One of Gabi’s friends, TT Barker, came to her defense, tweeting, “She is literally one of my best friends and she has not given me any racist vibes at all.”
The following day, Gabi wrote on Twitter, “For those saying I shouldn’t have participated, there is one simple reason why I didn’t refuse this request. I had never even heard of blackface and had no idea it was even a thing. If I had thought this request had anything to do with racism I would have absolutely refused.”
One user then wrote to her, “I’m sorry but there’s no way you didn’t know what blackface was at your age. Even if you didn’t how could you ever feel comfortable with the black covering your entire face and not feel like you were being disrespectful to black people. Most people would have.”
