Step show prize to be shared after Internet stir
By KATE BRUMBACK and DIONNE WALKER, Associated Press
Feb 25, 2010 5:26 PM CST

After days of controversy over a white group's win in a step competition, sponsor Coca-Cola says the second-place team will share top honors.

Coca-Cola said in a statement Thursday that a review of the scoring from Saturday's national contest revealed a "scoring discrepancy" that it declined to explain. This is the first year of the Sprite Step Off competition, but step contests are typically dominated by black sororities.

Step is a historically black art form of rhythmic stepping and clapping. A YouTube video of the winning performance by a group of white Zeta Tau Alphas from the University of Arkansas generated hundreds of comments, some of them inflammatory.

Coca-Cola said Thursday the Alpha Kappa Alpha team from Indiana University, whose members are black, would share first place.