Posted on 03/09/2015 5:25:21 AM PDT by ilovesarah2012
Sigma Alpha Epsilon's national headquarters closed its chapter at the University of Oklahoma Sunday after a video emerged purportedly showing members of the chapter singing a racist chant.
The video quickly gained visibility online. It was obtained and posted to Twitter by Unheard, which describes itself as "an alliance of Black students organized for change within campus administration and atmosphere," shows young men on a bus chanting "There will never be a n----r at SAE."
The tweet, directed at OU president David Boren, says "Racism is alive at The University of Oklahoma."
Students at the university plan to demonstrate on the Norman, Oklahoma campus at 7:30 a.m. local time. A prayer vigil was held Sunday night.
Chelsea Davis, one of two co-directors of Unheard, said the video was recorded during the weekend. Unheard was begun at the beginning of the semester to demand change, especially relating to diversity issues, Davis said.
"Clearly in that video, that is nothing new. That is nothing that just sparks up overnight. That is a chant that was well known, well versed, and seemed to be okay with everybody that was involved," said Davis, a junior at the university.
(Excerpt) Read more at abcnews.go.com ...
Not sure what "ties" the University has with the Sigma Alpha Epsilon chapter, but if it turns out to be something retaliatory to the individual students, I would regard it as ominous.
Not you particularly, it’s just the PC police in conservative clothing that I abhor.
Yes, get after those young white males but be darned sure you leave alone every protected person, class and group. From the President all the way down through that ethnicity and this sex and these groups to the newest border jumper. Those people you shall not disparage or even make jokes about.
I wouldn't go that far. I would check and see if any applicants had been unfairly rejected before I would start arguing that there was racial discrimination. It could be that no black people wanted to join that fraternity because they wanted to join a different one. That fraternity may not have been regarded as "cool" enough. I don't know.
The chant is evidence that they need to be scrutinized, but it doesn't necessarily prove anything in and of itself. I don't know how many members they have, but I don't think I seem more than ten or so in that video.
Surely the other people in that fraternity should not be painted with such a broad brush just because of the actions of those few?
But yeah, they need to be looked at.
Which is very much actionable by the University, at both the organizational and individual level. And has been well established as such within US law and legal precedent since the 1960s Civil Rights Acts.
If it can be demonstrated that they were violating Federal law in their practices then the University can probably take some sort of official retaliatory action.
But I have some concerns about this philosophy/principle of forced association. It is another form of "You don't have a right to believe that."
They are starting to apply it to queers, transgenders, and other mental cases.
Whenever I disagree with the President, I am eventually called a racist. It’s par for the course. Thankfully, even some of my most liberal friends are beginning to tire of that act and have defended me.
If the school expels them, then yes, I believe that is too far.
Oh but in their mind they think it is perfectly acceptable.
Whee, no free speech allowed.
Sure, they can get the crap beat out of them for being morons, but free speech, dammit.
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What the hell are you talking about?
Are any of these idiots in jail, strung up, or anything like that? Of course not.
They were free to utter whatever idiotic crap they wanted to, and are now facing the consequences of the organizations they represent for chanting what they did.
Are you really under the impression that in order for speech to be free, there must be no consequences for that speech? That the organizations represented by these cretins must sit on their hands and allow their reputations to be smeared by a bunch of idiots? That they can take no action on their own behalf?
They are being justifiably humiliated for their behavior, which is a perfectly acceptable approach for their application of their right to free speech.
If college and “service organizations” were about education instead of partying, they wouldn’t have time to get into trouble and might be less in debt at the end.
I understand that. But it’s a good thing anti-Semitism doesn’t have the same Power To Close An Institution that racism has... otherwise the list of university closings would be very long.
That's rather a trailing indicator, isn't it? Government(s) can (and do) regulate, ban or criminalize any activity or perceived activity at will and at the behest of various petitioning groups, classes or of their own accord.
These bans and regulations whittle away the general freedom. So as I see it, "First Amendment" concerns should and must rightly begin well before the governmental prohibition or statute is enacted.
Right.....freedoms of free assembly & association be damned!
To my mind these rights demand that private individuals and groups can freely assemble & associate with and without whom they please.
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The university is not closing.
They should simply require the fraternity brothers to visit the Sooner Football locker room and spend some quality time with members of the Defensive and Offensive Lines, a Running Back or two and a few Sooner Defensive Backs.
There would likely be an attitude adjustment.
Exactly. Fraternities and sororities are basically for organizing drunken parties. Kids have died because of them. I am surprised they still exist.
That would work.
Never mind. If you don’t understand my point...
It’s rhetorical anyway...
Too bad, though... I hope you are better at grasping points in your other spheres of endeavor.
Good luck.
Campus branches of Kappa Alpha Psi and Alpha Phi Alpha could not be reached for comment on exclusionary admittance practices based solely on race.
“But it’s a good thing anti-Semitism doesn’t have the same Power To Close An Institution that racism has... otherwise the list of university closings would be very long.”
You do see what you said, right?
Perhaps you meant to make some other point but this is what you said.
I hope you are better at saying what you mean in your other spheres of endeavor.
Good luck.
Your views are personal, and in no way conservative. You are reacting to your own experience, but conservatism takes each as an individual and makes a decision on each individaul by their behavior, not the percieved behavior of the group they are in.
Same with this fraternity. The individuals involved in this outrageous behavior are slime, not necessarily everyone in this fraternity.
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