2 expelled over anti-black chant

Frat pair led song caught on video, Oklahoma college says

Two men load a couch from the closed University of Oklahoma’s Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity house into a truck Tuesday in Norman, Okla. The fallout continued to reverberate Tuesday over a racially biased chant captured on video during a fraternity event.
Two men load a couch from the closed University of Oklahoma’s Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity house into a truck Tuesday in Norman, Okla. The fallout continued to reverberate Tuesday over a racially biased chant captured on video during a fraternity event.

NORMAN, Okla. -- Officials with the University of Oklahoma on Tuesday expelled two students they had identified as playing a leading role in singing a racially biased chant on a bus over the weekend.

The university's president, David Boren, a former Oklahoma governor, expelled the two students but did not identify them, saying in a statement that they had "created a hostile learning environment for others."

Boren said the university was continuing its investigation of all the students involved in singing the chant and that once the identities of other students had been confirmed, "they will be subject to appropriate disciplinary action."

The expulsion letter to the students states that the action takes effect immediately and that they can contact the university's equal opportunity officer to contest the decision.

The campus has been reeling since members of Sigma Alpha Epsilon were shown in two videos chanting a song with lyrics that included racial slurs, boasted there would never be a black member and referred to lynching, with the words, "you can hang 'em from a tree."

The university's president as well as the fraternity's national headquarters in Illinois shut the chapter after the first video was released Sunday, and university officials severed all ties to it Monday. The fraternity's house was ordered closed by midnight Tuesday, and the national fraternity suspended all of the members.

The video has also left the national chapter of Sigma Alpha Epsilon defending itself against claims that the song has been used for years, not just at Oklahoma but on other campuses as well.

Former fraternity members in other states have claimed on social media that the same chant was used at their colleges, and University of Oklahoma officials who are investigating said they do not believe the song originated on their campus.

"I'm not sure that it's strictly local," Boren said.

One Oklahoma student told NBC News that she heard fraternity members chant the same song two years ago while on a bus to a fraternity party. "I would definitely say this is not an isolated incident," said the senior, who had asked not to be identified.

The Sigma Alpha Epsilon chapter at Oklahoma has had black members, but very few and none recently, according to alumni. William Blake James II wrote on his blog that when he joined in 2001, he was only the second black member, "and there still hasn't been a third black man," and some of his former fraternity brothers, writing on Facebook, supported that account.

In a statement, the fraternity's national headquarters said it was investigating several other incidents involving other chapters and members, but did not elaborate.

"Some reports have alleged that the racist chant in the video is part of a Sigma Alpha Epsilon tradition, which is completely false," the fraternity said in the statement. "The fraternity has a number of songs that have been in existence for more than a century, but the chant is in no way endorsed by the organization nor part of any education whatsoever."

The fallout continued to reverberate Tuesday. A sought-after high school football player, Jean Delance of Mesquite, Texas, who is black, withdrew his previous commitment to play for Oklahoma, citing the videos.

The videos were recorded Saturday night as members of Sigma Alpha Epsilon and their dates rode on a bus to a formal event celebrating the national fraternity's Founders Day. The fraternity was founded on March 9, 1856, in Tuscaloosa, Ala. It celebrates its Southern heritage in its online magazine, The Record, describing a recent initiative "to bring Sigma Alpha Epsilon closer to its antebellum roots, closer to the original experience and goals shared by the Founding Fathers."

In its statement, the national Sigma Alpha Epsilon denied that it was in any way a racist organization.

"This type of racist behavior will not be tolerated and is not consistent with the values and morals of our fraternity," the statement read, referring to the Oklahoma chant. "We have more than 15,000 collegiate members across the nation, and this incident should not reflect on other brothers because this type of hateful action is not what Sigma Alpha Epsilon stands for. This is absolutely not who we are."

But the song is not the first time a Sigma Alpha Epsilon chapter has been involved in a racially charged episode.

The fraternity's chapters at universities across the country have faced sanctions or have been forced to participate in cultural awareness programs over their members' use of racial slurs and their roles in theatrics deemed offensive to blacks. Since the 1980s, there have been at least 10 such episodes.

A Section on 03/11/2015

Upcoming Events