After a black student at Duke University said she was taunted last weekend by one of a group of white men with the racist chant about the Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity, some students are demanding change from the school’s leadership.
This latest incident follows a viral video earlier this month of SAE brothers at the University of Oklahoma happily chanting racial slurs and a reference to lynching. That video prompted a swift response from the university and national fraternity leaders and sweeping changes for all SAE chapters intended to eliminate racist actions. The fraternity’s leaders have said the chant is not an SAE traditio, and that they are investigating each chapter and setting up a hotline for people to report troubling incidents to the national headquarters.
[Read more about the debate about SAE's chant]
At Duke, the incident was reported on a part of campus where freshmen live. University officials began investigating immediately, activated their “Bias Action Team” and are searching for witnesses, said spokesman Michael Schoenfeld. He said the “behavior that was reported is intolerable, and we deplore in the strongest way actions and statements that demean and threaten members of our community.”
The identity of the young man who allegedly sang the chant is not known.
The local SAE chapter did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The Chronicle, the student newspaper at Duke, quoted a statement from the chapter:
“Our chapter was shocked and appalled when the news broke about the racist chant at Oklahoma University,” the statement read. “Earlier this week, our chapter felt the same stomach-turning emotions when we heard that the hateful words from the OU video were repeated on our own campus.”
[Read more about SAE's national effort to eliminate racism in all chapters]
An anonymous group calling itself the People of Color Caucus posted a statement on Tumblr, widely shared on Facebook, that charged,”On Sunday, March 22, 2015, around 2:30 AM, a group of white male students targeted and taunted a young black female student with the racist Sigma Alpha Epsilon chant” and said the incident was not isolated but a symbol of ongoing racism and oppression on campus.
Duke’s president and provost responded with a letter to the campus community:
Reaction was buzzing on social media, with students using the hashtag #WhatWeNeedFromDuke to launch their campaign for change and posting screen shots from Yik Yak chatter about the debate.
The conversations went well beyond race relations, exploring tensions over money, class and sexual identity on campus. Some students suggested in anonymous posts on social media that the response to the incident was overblown.
Students and others also shared their thoughts outside the Black Student Alliance office the old-fashioned way: with pen and paper.
Susan Svrluga is a reporter for the Washington Post, covering higher education for the Grade Point blog.
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