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The NYT reports that after a video was posted on YouTube that appeared to show members of the fraternity Sigma Alpha Epsilon at University of Oklahoma singing a racist chant, the organization’s board decided “with no mental reservation whatsoever that this chapter needed to be closed immediately.” The video shows a group of young white people in formal wear riding a bus and singing a chant laden with antiblack slurs and at least one reference to lynching. A grinning young man wearing a tuxedo and standing in the aisle of the bus pumps his fist in the air as he chants, while a young woman seated nearby claps. The chant vows that African-Americans will “never” be allowed to join the campus chapter.
The nine-second video was uploaded to YouTube on Sunday by a student group, the Unheard Movement, that first identified the people in it as members of Sigma Alpha Epsilon, although the group did not indicate how it obtained the video or when it was filmed. University president, David Boren, said in an emailed statement that the administration was also investigating the video. “I have just been informed of the video, which purports to show students to show students engaging in a racist chant. We are investigating to determine if the video involved OU students. If O.U. students are involved, this behavior will not be tolerated and will be addressed very quickly,” said Boren. “This behavior is reprehensible and contrary to all of our values.” Students marched on the campus of the University of Oklahoma on Monday to protest the video.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 11 2015, @05:47PM
It is about power. Race in america is a proxy for power. There are obviously exceptions to the rule, like Obama. But to cite Obama as proof that power is racially egalitarian in the US would be like citing Benazir Bhutto [wikipedia.org] as proof that Pakistan doesn't have a problem with repressing women.
The day power isn't concentrated by race in the US is the day the whites-only power clubs won't be a problem. Then we'll just have rich-only power clubs. Progress!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 11 2015, @05:59PM
As an outsider, I don't see how what you just wrote holds true in this case. Is it not the whites who have had their group terminated, while similar groups for blacks are deemed acceptable? How were the whites anything but completely powerless in this case? A group with power would not have been terminated, no?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 11 2015, @06:02PM
Power is not binary.
The power of one tiny but blatantly racist white group is less than the power of the entire university, or really the nation at large since this is such a big media event.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 11 2015, @09:20PM
The idea that a group's racism is okay simply because the group was oppressed and therefore lacks power is simply insane. Racism is bad regardless of who does it.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 11 2015, @10:49PM
Yes, racism is bad but it is worse when there is more power behind it. A racist judge/cop/boss has a lot more influence over people's lives than a racist janitor.