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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: 1) by Arik on Wednesday March 11 2015, @09:15PM
Racism is the belief that there are multiple modern human races.
It's a mistaken belief (all modern humans are the same race, the last time 'interracial' was actually a thing was tens of thousands of years ago before the neanderthals all died out) but it's not, in and of itself, has to do any damage. Lots of people believe lots of silly things and as long as they mind their own business and dont cause harm to others we do not and should not care.
Obviously, there are dangerous violent racists - they do exist - but the vast majority of racists are harmless.
If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?
(Score: 2) by FatPhil on Wednesday March 11 2015, @10:42PM
> Racism is the belief that there are multiple modern human races.
Nope. None of the useful modern definitions of racism make the presumption that the old-fashioned physical anthropological concept of human races is in any way useful or meaningful. There are some useless modern definitions (used by govenment, in the context of censuses), which cling to some older concepts, but their existance does not support your assertion - governments have never been any good at defining anything, let alone something as complex and touchy as race and racism.
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 2) by JNCF on Thursday March 12 2015, @02:42AM
Race has a biological definition [wikipedia.org] and a cultural definition, [wikipedia.org] the latter of which is reserved for humans. By the biological definiton I believe most anthropologists would actually call Neanderthals a subspecies, not a race, but that's a pretty mushy line.
Cultural race correlates to genetic markers, but only in the context of a specific place and time. In the USA, a child born to one "black" parent and one "white" parent is called black, even though it is genetically equally similar to both parents. If said child moves to South Africa its will suddenly be called "mixed" instead. Different cultures have different definitions of different races. "Hutus" and "Tutsis" are both black in America.
(Score: 1) by Arik on Thursday March 12 2015, @02:08PM
Actually, in the US today, he will be called 'mixed' as well, until and unless he is perceived to have 'made it' at which point he becomes black. See e.g. Barack Obama 'the mixed candidate' became 'the black president.'
What you are saying was true in the US a few decades ago though. This cultural perception of race can be extremely fluid.
But I think my point stands. This cultural perception of race is quite simply incorrect, and the flexibility and cultural relativity of the categories should demonstrate that pretty clearly. The word 'race' attributes an objective biological reality to these cultural categories that does not exist in any case.
If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?
(Score: 2) by JNCF on Saturday March 14 2015, @05:18PM
Eh, we're getting into definitions of words now. People certainly use the word "race" in the way I described (or something close to it). They also use it in the sense that you mean. It's confusing, but hey, that's human language for you. You can not like a definition that a word has, but it doesn't stop it form having that definition.