In a strange twist of events in this golden age of post-racism, a group of young, white racists dressed to the nines in Oklahoma—the same state that gave us the "Senator with the Snowball"—sang in gleeful unison about how, “There will never be a n---“ in their fraternity.
The national headquarters for Sigma Alpha Epsilon announced Sunday night it is closing its University of Oklahoma chapter after video footage anonymously uploaded to youtube reveals what appears to be members of OU’s SAE chapter chanting a racist hymn on a bus. According to the Huffington Post it was a “date night.” How romantic.
OU President David Boren said their chapter of SAE would be removed from campus if a pending investigation concludes those in the video were in fact, OU students.
Black student organization, OU Unheard has organized a Monday morning protest on twitter with the hashtag, #SAEHatesMe.
For their part, SAE does appear to be sufficiently remorseful in a statement announcing the suspension of all of the members, adding that those responsible may have their membership privileges revoked permanently.
“I was not only shocked and disappointed but disgusted by the outright display of racism displayed in the video,” said Brad Cohen, the fraternity’s national president. “SAE is a diverse organization, and we have zero tolerance for racism or any bad behavior. When we learned about this incident, I called an immediate board meeting, and we determined with no mental reservation whatsoever that this chapter needed to be closed immediately. I am proud of my fellow board members because we mean what we say.”
The statement goes on to express a hope that SAE may one day re-establish an OU chaper sometime in the future with a different group of men.
Presumably, the more different the better.
One has to wonder what on earth would spark a spontaneous groundswell of hate speech while en route to what appears to be some sort of classy event. No time like the present when it comes to participating in a joyous proclamation of hatred, I guess.
As for the grand-wizard-in-training so moved as to stand and pump his fist in celebration, well, perhaps this footage provided him with a clear mirror with which he can honestly reflect. Hopefully everyone on the bus o’ bigotry gets some help as a result of this. Whether they lent their voices with pride or simply to fit in. Some serious soul searching is in order. For their own sakes.
As for now, it appears the videographer remains anonymous. Kudos to them however, for having the courage to share the footage after having endured what was most assuredly a nauseatingly hellish night.
Sun Mar 08, 2015 at 10:56 PM PT: Graffiti reading "Tear It Down" could be seen on the OU SAE fraternity house later Sunday night.
Mon Mar 09, 2015 at 4:40 PM PT:
KOCO reported that "hundreds of students and faculty from the University of Oklahoma protested Sigma Alpha Epsilon on Monday morning," and that OU President David Boren said their chapter of SAE had until Tuesday at midnight to leave the campus.
http://youtu.be/...
4:47 PM PT: Instagram user SoonerDave25 posted a new video of the incident early Monday morning.
http://youtu.be/...