My Opinion on the Latest Race Issue

By Mark Love ‘16

National uproar commenced when a video of Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity members at the University of Oklahoma singing racially charged lyrics on a bus went viral. I’m not going to post the actual words on here,but just know their chants were laced with the N-word and referenced noosing. The video was released three days ago, and has been shown on numerous news sources from Huffington Post to World Star Hip Hop.

While some people are enraged and shocked about this scandal, my heart remains pretty numb at this point. Believe me, the act shown in the video is despicable and deserves some form of repercussions. However, with the constant racial turmoil broadcasted in the media, I can’t help but just subdue my immediate feelings towards these circumstances. If I were hotheaded by every racial incident that I hear about, I would probably die of a heart attack at age 25.

Nevertheless, this incident stood out to me for a one reasons: these are college students. I know racism still prevails in America, but I was hoping at least the younger generation was more tolerable and less like its parents, grandparents, etc. Even worse, these were educated youngsters. It blew my mind to see people capable of receiving a degree shout barbaric, insensitive remarks like that. What’s even more terrifying is the bigotry that these members can possibly pass down to their posterity.  It’s people like the SAE members in the video who perpetuate racism for the next generation to feed from. I mean the saying is true: monkey see what monkey do.

At least the university administration took immediate action once the video made its way to America’s television and computer screens. The national headquarters for Sigma Alpha Epsilon closed its chapter at the University of Oklahoma, and all of the members have been suspended. On top of that, two SAE members, who was presumably the leaders of this fracas, has been expelled from the university altogether. It’s admirable that the university and fraternity leaders are taking this matter seriously, but the punishments are hardly a victory for minorities knowing that these same actions are probably going on within other college organizations behind closed doors.