Example Of Racist Fraternity SAE Critical Thinking

Recent news showing video footage of a bus full of students from the University of Oklahoma fraternity Sigma Alpha Epsilon chanting a racist message was made public. The video shows the students dressed in formal clothes singing, “You can hang him from a tree, but he'll never sign with me. There will never be a nigger at SAE” (New, 2005, para. 6). Watching the footage for the first time, my jaw dropped. I was incredibly disgusted and shocked to hear this chant that was sung so enthusiastically by a group of individuals who are apparently educated.
I am not ignorant or oblivious of racism as a reality still, in America in 2015, but I think I was under the impression that younger generations are not adopting the older practice of racism as I saw in the video. It was disheartening to see that this frightening attitude is still strong in the culture of the young white citizens of the country. Sitting here forced to think of how I feel about the situation I realize that I feel outraged. If I could approach this group of people and say how I feel, it would be an unpleasant rage filled rant. How can people embrace that kind of hatred against another purely based on skin color is a concept that baffles me. The parents and families of these young folks should be ashamed of themselves.
As I googled the story for the paper, I found many articles from various organization big and small who reported on the issue. I read just a couple before I quickly came to find that this predominantly white fraternity, SAE, has a history of racially charged situations that have occurred by members of the fraternity. I learned of numerous other incidents even more offensive than the recently publicized video. The SAE fraternity has been guilty of misconduct in the most tasteless manner. One situation in 1982 by the SAE members at the University of Cincinnati was the organization of a racist party around Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday with flier promoting the party that displayed comments like, “bring such things as a canceled welfare check, ‘your father if you know who he is’ and ‘a radio bigger than your head’ ” (New, 2005, para. 10). Another is of a time in 2000 when members of the fraternity from Oglethorpe University threw bottles at black athletes while yelling racial slurs during a cross-country meet (New, 2005). These are only two examples of numerous other circumstances where this racist behavior was displayed by the SAE fraternity in universities throughout the United State.
Learning more about the Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity left me incredibly upset with the lack of humanity in this great nation where petty foolishness of this level is still rampant. There really is nothing more for me to say because I am just angry. Angry with my fellow man for continuation of this nonsense, which holds back the human race from evolving beyond these differences. I hope that my children’s children are living in a world where this no longer is a conversation to be had.

Works Cited

New, J. (2005, March 13). The Ugly, Racist, Deadly History of Sigma Alpha Epsilon. Inside
Higher Education. Retrieved from http://www.slate.com/articles/life/inside_higher_ed/2015/03/behind_the_chant_discrimination_at_oklahoma_s_sae_chapter_goes_deeper_than.html