Guy King
News Editor
“There will never be a nigger in SAE; there will never be a nigger in SAE. You can hang em’ from a tree, but he will never sign with me. There will never be a nigger in SAE.”
This controversial chant was heard last week in a video released on the Twitter account of University of Oklahoma’s black student alliance organization, Unheard.
The video was of the university’s chapter of Sigma Alpha Epsilon, a white fraternity, singing the racist chant. After the video went viral, David Boren, Oklahoma University President, David Boren, suspended the chapter from the campus and removed its letters from the house.
When I saw the video and Anderson Cooper’s report on it, I was not shocked. If anything I was rather amused, because this has been going on secretly for decades. I found it ironic that they actually exposed themselves on camera. Is this behavior so prevalent that they did not have any qualms about getting on video?
According to a CNN video, the correspondent asked the university’s last black SAE member, William Bruce James II, about a 2013 video of the house mother Beauton Gilbow saying the N-word seven times in a row to Trinidad James’s song “All Gold Everything.” James felt that the N-word should not have been used in any context but did say that the house mother does not have issues against black people, because she loved him and his family. I feel that William James should not be judged for defending his fraternity and Gilbow. What I have an issue with is that once again, why was there a video of her even saying the N-word?
The predominately white fraternity exposed themselves and their racist views to the world. I feel that discriminatory chants are prevalent in other fraternities as well. After all, blacks had to create their own Greek organizations because they were not accepted in others.
Perrymon Wright, a second year member of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc., felt that the racial chant was a total disgrace to the African-American culture and a misrepresentation of what a fraternity stands for.
The university expelled two of the members of the chapter from the school, but is that enough? Since the incident, the media has been using this story to bring up relevant questions. On March 17, CNN held a panel discussion with Trinidad James, two correspondents, and CNN commentator Marc Lamont Hill to address if the N-word should be used today.
The discussion got heated among the panel members when a white panelist said that the N-word should be illegal to say for everyone. Hill came back and stated that he could use the word N-word among people that are the same color as him. He felt that we as black people have something in common, because we are always discriminated against. He also felt that white people should not feel comfortable saying the word because it came from white supremacy.
Black people will always get worked-up over white people saying the N-word, and they should. The question is when will black people take a stand and say enough is enough? When will we fight to end discrimination and the disrespect from white people?
In his recent speech at the Selma March commemoration, President Barack Obama protesting worked in the past; it is time to fight to get results for the present and future.
The past seems to be repeating itself. When will you join the fight against racism?
