By Amanda Grannis
This week, video footage surfaced of fraternity members of Sigma Alpha Epsilon (SAE) at the University of Oklahoma singing a racist chant on a bus. The university responded by closing the SAE chapter and expelling two students. Another recent video shows the fraternity’s housemother saying repeated racial slurs at a fraternity party. The footage offers a dark glimpse into the intersection of fraternity culture and racism behind closed doors.
An overwhelming majority of commentators have condemned the fraternity for its hate speech, but some have spoken up to defend the student’s conduct. On the MSNBC show Morning Joe, Guest Bill Kristol stated that rap culture was responsible for inspiring the students’ racist chants. Kristol stated that “popular culture becomes a cesspool. A lot of corporations profit off of it, and then people are surprised that some drunk 19-year-old kids repeat what they’ve been hearing.” Joe Scarborough added that hip-hop artists have “a white audience,” and that it should not be shocking to hear white youths repeat the N-word after hearing it in everyday music. Others have raised First Amendment protection as a defense for this type of speech.
Yet many have criticized the overarching message expressed on Morning Joe, pointing out that the chant referenced the deeply rooted and painful history of lynching, which long pre-dates hip hop. Journalist Kia Makarechi pointed to logical fallacies in the arguments of the Morning Joe pundits. Makarechi stated that the pundits “drew a very problematic parallel between a predominantly black form of music and a clear example of white racism…rest[ing]on the assumption there are no white antecedents for the type of racism the students displayed.” Makarechi concluded that this assumption was not a “sound” one, given U.S. history of “actual lynchings” and the fact the large proportion of S.A.E. that fought in the Confederate Army during the Civil War.
The SAE video is just one link in a longer chain of incidents involving racism and hate speech that have recently occurred. In fact, the fraternity in and of itself has a history that is peppered with repeated racist incidents. With evidence of this larger social problem continuing to emerge, perhaps it would be more helpful to attempt to heal open wounds rather than try to place blame.
Sources for this Article
http://www.cnn.com/2015/03/11/us/oklahoma-fraternity-house-mom/
http://www.cbsnews.com/videos/ou-frats-house-mother-seen-in-new-racist-video/
http://gawker.com/morning-joe-hosts-blame-rappers-for-sae-frats-racist-ch-1690754211
http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-oklahoma-fraternity-explainer-20150310-story.html#page=1
http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2015/03/the-limits-of-free-speech/387718/
http://www.vanityfair.com/news/2015/03/morning-joe-sae-frat-racism-rap-music
