About That Video...

by J. Brown

Without rehashing what's already been discussed, debated and pontificated upon ad nauseum, here are a few other things I've been thinking about regarding the OU Sigma Alpha Epsilon video:

• The fact that the chant was to the tune of "If You're Happy And You Know It" forces me to believe that this isn't something that they just made up last week. This chant has probably been around for years, and has probably been repeated within the frat at multiple campuses for decades. OU's chapter just so happened to be the ones that got caught. Tough luck.

• What makes SAE - or any other white fraternity - believe that we would want to be in their frat, anyway? We already knew that you'd rather hang us from trees; that's a large part of the reason we started our own organizations. Not to mention, SAE is the only national frat that was founded in the antebellum South, and they had members that fought for the Confederate Army. No thanks.

• With that said, should we really be surprised?

• The expulsion of the two guys in the video seems drastic, especially considering that the video was posted TWO DAYS AGO. There was clearly no investigation (although, if there's video evidence, I guess you don't really need one). The chant was messed up, but to me, this feels very reactionary. There's a bus full of guys chanting, but the school president decided to kick two of them out of school. They're like the definition of the word "scapegoat" at this point. The chant is offensive, but getting kicked out of school for a racial slur seems unfair. I know as a Black person I'm not supposed to say that, but I'm fairly certain that all this accomplishes is that it provides racists with the cognizance to ask everyone to put their phones away next time.

• On the same token, I'm a little sick of the way that people in positions of power react to public outrage and expect us to believe that they care as much as we do. It's obvious to me that their expulsion had more to do with the public reaction to the video (whoever said there was no such thing as bad press?) than it had to do with the university's "code of ethics" or "zero tolerance policy" or whatever else they've decided to call it. Furthermore, it's bothersome that it takes the public's yelling and screaming for people to recognize that something is immoral, as opposed to them just deciding it on their own. Do you honestly think they would have moved this quickly if the video was sent straight to the university president and wasn't posted on YouTube? I'm not that optimistic.  

• Shout out to Boston College for using this incident as a teachable moment. I appreciate their efforts to be proactive instead of reactive. Campuses across the country should be taking BC's lead and using these opportunities to create constructive dialogue, instead of only pretending to care after something happens.

• Does every SAE brother on campus view the girl who recorded the video as a snitch now? They have to, right? I figure that frats are a lot like other fraternal groups (military branches, police, etc.) who often feel that loyalty to the group is more important than the right thing. It's the same reason clean cops don't file reports on dirty cops; the alliance they have as fellow officers trumps any moral high ground. I'm sure there were guys on that bus who thought, "Hey, this is kinda messed up," but they weren't gonna do anything about it, though. Furthermore, if she's a part of their sister sorority (if they even have one of those), do her sisters all hate her now? Diane Sawyer needs to get on that, I need answers.

• Despite all of repercussions, a part of me feels like these two kids probably still don't see why this is a big deal. If you're casually throwing around the word "nigger" with your buddies during a night on the town, I'm willing to bet it's been ingrained deep enough into your psyche that you don't even see the wrong in it anymore. Maybe they still don't get it, and maybe they never will.