Following Furor, Co-Winners Declared in Step Competition

After days of intense debate, much of it with racial overtones, over a recent step competition, Coca-Cola, the sponsor has declared co-winners, the Associated Press reported. Step has historically been associated with historically black fraternities and sororities, so many were surprised when a white sorority from the University of Arkansas won the Sprite Step Off on Saturday, and some observers charged that there must have been scoring irregularities. In the discussion on YouTube of the winning performance by the Zeta Tau Alphas, many of the comments reference that they are white. On Thursday, Coca-Cola announced that a review had uncovered a "scoring discrepancy" and that the scores between the first and second place teams were so close that they would share the prize money and the first place honor. The new co-winning team, whose members are black, is from Alpha Kappa Alpha at Indiana University.