Social Justice
Univ. of Oklahoma bans fraternity after racist video goes viral
The Univ. of Oklahoma has severed ties with the largest fraternity in the country and could expel some students because of a viral racist video.
The University of Oklahoma has banned the largest fraternity in the country and could expel some students because of a viral racist video.
University of Oklahoma Bans Fraternity
On Sunday, a video from the University of Oklahoma’s Sigma Alpha Epsilon chapter surfaced on the internet. In the video, members of the largest fraternity in North America, are singing a song called “There Will Never Be A N*gger In SAE” to the tune of “If You’re Happy And You Know It.”
The lyrics go as follows:
“There will never be a ni**** in SAE.
There will never be a ni**** in SAE.
You can hang him from a tree, but he can never sign with me
There will never be a ni**** in SAE.”
The national chapter has launched an investigation and decided to close the chapter immediately. All the members seen in the video were suspended and may be banned from the organization permanently.
President David Boren, who joined hundreds of students at the Norman campus in a predawn protest, called the students participating in the video “disgraceful” and promised a thorough investigation.
“To those who have misused their free speech in such a reprehensible way, I have a message for you. You are disgraceful,” Boren tweeted after the protest. “You have violated all that we stand for. You should not have the privilege of calling yourself ‘Sooners.'”
Boren added that the school will become “an example to the entire country of how to deal with this issue. There must be zero tolerance for racism everywhere in our nation.”
The video was posted online Sunday by Unheard, a black student group at OU. The fraternity’s national headquarters said Sunday night that an investigation confirmed that it was local SAE members on the video chanting racial slurs against blacks and indicating that blacks would never be admitted to the fraternity’s chapter in Norman. The chant also makes reference to lynching.
The President of the Univ. of Oklahoma released this statement:
We will not post the video as we deem it to be highly inappropriate and very disappointing.