Iowa student Holden Hughes still feels the negative effects of a viral post from five years ago in which he was accused of racism for wearing a dark-colored acne mask.
In a new interview with The Free Press, the Drake University graduate student said he was only 14 when the photo was taken and 17 when it went viral.
“I am not ashamed of anything that happened,” Holden said. “I have made a lot of mistakes in my life. I make them every single day, but doing an acne face mask in eighth grade was not one of them.”
Now 22, he said the results of the false racism accusations included expulsion from his Catholic high school, lost football scholarship opportunities, a move to a different state – and, more recently, dating troubles.