It’s Not About The Chant

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So I feel obligated to chime in… even though I swear I was going to stay out of it.

People the issue isn’t the chant… stop being distracted. If the issue is the chant, then SAE did the right thing by canning the chapter.

The real problem is racial issues in this country continue to be side stepped. We continue to ignore the past, pretend things are better than they are, and when we have a flare up like this we act like punishing the person(s) responsible makes it all better. Wash, rinse, repeat.

We have to stop acting like this outward expression of extreme racism is the problem.

The real problem is that we aren’t addressing race issues in Fraternities and Sororities. We swept the whole racist recruitment thing at Alabama a couple years ago as… “well its Alabama, I mean the machine, come on”. The noose at Ol’ Miss… “well they kicked the pledges out who did it, and I mean its Mississippi”. Campus after campus an excuse is made about why these things keep happening.

Is SAE the problem? No. Let me do a quick positive post on them, I still remember when I crossed in SLB and attended my first IFC Meeting at WMU. It was Ryan Weirs, then IFC President and a member of SAE, that welcomed me with open arms. He is the reason SLB joined IFC, and he is a large part of the reason why I ended up being an IFC Officer (which lead to my career in Higher Ed). After that, man my fellow IFC Officers John and Wally both SAEs were stellar, MGCA, Greek Week, great times… remember DJ White Shadow, and those crazy diverse parties at the house? Good times fellas… but I guess ya, that was Michigan. So? Why can’t it be like that everywhere?

Interestingly I have been working on a post about how policies don’t solve societal issues, I will post that soon but for now lets see how this plays out. Will we tackle the real issue of race relations and the history of fraternities or sororities? Or will we just ban racist chants? One way only creates rules for hide the racism…