University of Oklahoma Fraternity's Racist Chant

This article discusses a recent incident that occurred at the University of Oklahoma. A group of students from the fraternity Sigma Alpha Epsilon were involved in a racist chant on a bus. Although the video is only nine seconds long it has received plenty of backlash and has created many different conversations. In the video it is seen that several students lead the chant as the members chant about how there will never be a black Sigma Alpha Epsilon member and they also discuss lynching of African-Americans. As soon as the video was anonymously sent to the university’s newspaper. Immediately after receiving the video the school newspaper publicized it, and when the school viewed the video they decided to shut down the fraternity chapter. The president of the university, David Boren has since made a statement saying that racism is not tolerated on campus and that the school is finished with the fraternity and will be closing the chapter. The fraternity’s national president, Brad Cohen  has also released a statement which says that he is disappointed and disgusted by the outright racism showed in the video. Upon further research it has been found that this might not be the only incident at a university that involves this fraternity. There have been several other incidents over the years similar to this. This video has started a chain of outrage as to the act displayed, because of this video a football recruit to the university has decided to de-commit from the school. So far only Parker Rice who is said to be the leader of the chant has been expelled from the university, he is one of the two people that have been expelled since the video surfaced.

In this article it discusses the rules and decisions that are left to the school. Also in the article it is says that if the university had not responded to the incident then the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division would have had to step in because the incident violated Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. According to the Justice Department it "prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, and national origin in programs and activities receiving federal financial assistance", which this video seems to go against. This seems to show how we as citizens and groups such as this have a voice and can have an impact on issues in our country with the help of the law.

In my opinion incidents like this should not be handled lightly and I am glad that this issue has been handled seriously. The way this issue has been handled has really sent a strong message to the public about acts such as this. Reading this article and watching the video caused me to think, why? Why did they believe that the chant was appropriate? And another question that I would want to ask them is, do you think that it was worth? It is a shame that people continue to judge by the color of a person’s skin and not by the content of their character. This incident has taught me that America is not finished growing and that Martin Luther King Jr.’s dream has yet to be accomplished.         

http://www.cnn.com/2015/03/10/us/oklahoma-racist-chant/index.html