Portland observer., March 11, 2015, Image 5

March 11, 2015
Page 5
George Henderson (left) professor emeritus, joins students Monday
at the University of Oklahoma to protest a fraternity’s racist chant,
captured on a video that was posted online. (AP photo)
Racist Chant Exposes Hate
Fraternity
shutdown after
online posting
(AP) — The University of
Oklahoma’s president expelled two
of its students Tuesday after he
said they were identified as leaders
of a racist chant captured on
video during a fraternity event.
University President David Boren
said in a statement the two students
were dismissed for creating a “hos-
tile learning environment for oth-
ers.”
The video, which was posted
online, shows several people on a
bus participating in a chant that
included a racial slur, referenced
lynching and indicated black stu-
dents would never be admitted to
OU’s chapter of Sigma Alpha Epsi-
lon.
A top high school recruit de-
committed from the university on
Monday after seeing the video. And
an online fundraiser has been
launched to help support an Afri-
can-American cook who worked at
the fraternity for about a decade.
The incident also had a profound
effect on many of the roughly 1,400
black students who attend the
university’s Norman campus.
“I was shocked they were just
doing it openly on the bus, like they
were proud of it,” said Jared
Scarborough, a junior in construc-
tion science who is African-Ameri-
can. “From the chant, you could tell
they had done it before. It wasn’t a
first-time thing. And it was every-
body. And the fist-pumping.”
The Greek letters were removed
Monday from the side of the sprawl-
ing, sand-colored brick house on a
street lined with fraternity and so-
rority houses just west of the center
of campus, and members were or-
dered to have their belongings re-
moved by midnight Tuesday.
The Oklahoma football team de-
cided to protest rather than practice
on Monday. At the team’s indoor
practice facility, coach Bob Stoops
led the way as players, joined by
athletic director Joe Castiglione,
walked arm-in-arm, wearing black.
Boren attended a pre-dawn rally
organized by students Monday
morning and lambasted those fra-
ternity members as “disgraceful”
and called their behavior “repre-
hensible.”
“This is not who we are,” Boren
said at a midday news conference.
“I’d be glad if they left. I might even
pay the bus fare for them.”
National leaders of Sigma Alpha
Epsilon said that its investigation
confirmed members took part in the
chant and announced it would close
the local chapter. The national group
said it was “embarrassed” by the
“unacceptable and racist” behav-
ior.
The fraternity also said in a state-
ment late Monday that the chant
was not a part of fraternity tradition.
It’s unclear who recorded the
video, when it was recorded and
who initially posted it online. Boren
suggested it was likely taken by
another student who didn’t agree
with what was being chanted.
OU Unheard, a black student
group on campus, posted a link to
the video after someone anony-
mously called it to the group’s at-
tention Sunday afternoon, commu-
nications director A”We immedi-
ately needed to share that with the
OU student body,” said Hall, a jun-
ior. “For students to say they’re
going to lynch an entire group of
people. ... It’s disgusting.”
The video appears to have been
taken on a charter bus, with at least
one of the chanting young men
wearing a tuxedo.
The University of Oklahoma, lo-
cated in the southern Oklahoma City
suburb of Norman, has about 27,000
students, about 5 percent of whom
are black. The Greek system is largely
segregated.