Sorority pulls offensive photo from Web site
 

Zeta Tau Alpha asked to remove racist Halloween photo

Victoria HealyStaff Writer
September 03, 2002

The Gamma Phi chapter of Zeta Tau Alpha removed from its Web site this past August a picture of one of its members standing with a man with his face painted black at a Halloween party at the request of the Student Ethnic Enrichment Center, the NAACP and the administration.
This came as a disappointment to the members of many black organizations after the January suspension of the Kappa Alpha fraternity for five years and eviction from their two-story Welch street house.

“I just couldn’t believe it, especially with the KA incident having just happened,” Cheylon Brown said, acting director for the Student Ethnic Center.

The picture was removed from the sorority Web site with in 24 hours of the request and an apology letter was issued to several campus organizations within three days.

All offended parties were pleased with the way the situation was handled by the sorority, but expressed disappointment that it occurred, Brown said.

Dennis Lanham, Dallas junior, president and founding member of the Social Culture of Arts and Talents, said he was not surprised by the event because of what he has seen as a member of the NAACP.

The letter described the photograph, it read: “The offensive photo that was posted on our Web site was not that of a Zeta Tau Alpha, nor was it taken at a Zeta Tau Alpha event. Zeta Tau Alpha would never allow any of our members to dress in such a way that would be insulting or offensive to any person or group of people.”

“I thought the letter was sincere,” Lanham said.

The picture included two people, male and female. The woman was dressed in a princess costume with a tiara on her head.

The man was dressed in a white T-shirt with overalls on and black make-up on his face down to his neck.

IF men dressed up in slutty female outfits and as women in a kind of reverse pimps and ho's would that be considered sexist?

Were the pics in this case from the same party? I think that it maybe only in the light of the prior events that this pic raised eyebrows. Although I freely admit I didn't see the pic.

I'm confused ...

The article says, "The Gamma Phi chapter of Zeta Tau Alpha removed from its Web site this past August a picture of one of its members standing with a man with his face painted black at a Halloween party."

But it also quotes the sorority as saying, "The offensive photo that was posted on our Web site was not that of a Zeta Tau Alpha."

So was the woman in the photo a ZTA or not, and if she wasn't, why would it have been on their page?

James, the "reverse pimps and hos" thing was discussed in another thread, and the lack-of-a-consensus consensus was that some people had no problems with an event like that and others felt it was sexist (and in some cases racist as well). In fact, the chapter we're talking about here still has a page of Halloween photos, and it looks like one of the people shown is in fact a man dressed quite "fabulously" in a lot of makeup and a feather boa.

Just to clarify, the article said that it was not at a Zeta Tau Alpha event. Meaning that it could have been taken anywhere. My guess would be that the woman in the picture was either a sister or a new member, but the sorority wanted to point out that the man was not a member of the sorority and the sorority did not let him in dressed that way to THEIR event.

I was wondering the same thing as FuzzieAlum. Is she a ZTA or not? And if not, why was she on their web page? I can understand what nyrdrms is saying, but the way it is worded, I understand it to mean she is not a sister and the photo was not taken at a ZTA event. :confused:

One explanation could be, the function was not STRICTLY a ZTA function. For example, on bid day at LSU, the first few pages have a couple of pictures of DGs with KDs or DZ. Some boyfriends of who knows who are in the background. Sometimes a fraternity will have an open exchange. Many possibilities...

No James. That would be considered gay. There is nothing wrong with homosexuality, and being a trasvestite does not necesarlily preclude homosexuality, they are usually, if sometimes incorrectly corelated in the minds of most compterary young adults.

Not to nit pick, but I read somewhere that 70% of men who dress in women's clothing are actually straight. I cannot remember for the life of me where I read that, but if I do remember I will post the link. Now, the validity of the survey or experiment or whatever is questionable. Did they do self-reports? Who knows!

Oh...there is a thread?

That article was in our school paper, crazygirl.. do you go to NT?

OK, on the whole "is she a ZTA?" question...
The letter said the person dressed offensively was not a ZTA. The person dressed offensively was the guy. He obviously is not a ZTA. The girl (who I would assume is a ZTA) was dressed like a princess. The letter also said it was not a ZTA function. It could have been one of several Halloween parties at that school, and since the pic had a ZTA in it, I guess they decided to put it on the website. I hope this clears everything up. Go re-read the original post for clarification...

Hm.

If they realized the costume was offensive and would never allow a sister to dress like that, and would never allow that costume at their own event ... how come it was OK to put on the web page? A web page represents a sorority as much as any event does, so to put it up there was to give the impression they had no problem with the costume.

my reply is this............I was at our UNT chapter this past year but didn't affiliate in spring, but our chapter did greekweek with the girls of ZTA know enough of them to know this is blown way out of proportion and also know enough to realize their is a growing anti-greek setiment at UNT and many of the other non"IFC" and "PHC" groups have been targeting anything to try and discredit the names of many reputable groups on campus. IT all stems back to the KA incident in Jan of 2001. The campus greeks seem to be very segragated but it's not due in part to any racial overtones by IFC or PHC greeks. I was one of only 4 other minorities in my chapter there and it was never..I repeat never an issue. I just don't like how many IFC and PHC greeks have been repeated targets of specific groups looking for any loophole to spark controversy. THis reminds me of what happend to our DeltaSig chapter at Auburn this past fall...but thanks to the chapters "never say die" attitude, was reinstated back onto campus with all but involving members in the incident, put back into the greek system.

I have to agree with DeltaSig here - to a point. I can honestly say I am not involved with the "social" greeks here since I just recently moved to this school, but I think it was blown way out of proportion. There is no reason to put something like that in the school newspaper.. and on the FRONT page. Was it really that big of a deal? I thought important stuff goes on the front page. I this this incident was blown way out of proportion.

I would also like to agree with FuzzieAlum as well. What you do at your events or what you put out publicly (a website for example) *does* represent the organization. I am a firm believer in this, and some people might not understand or even agree with me. Some people might say "what I do on my time is my business"... well true to a point, but if the world knows you are an ABC or you put stuff like that up for the world to see it was part of the ABC chapter, it does kind of represent you and sometimes even the chapter.

Think what you want...
 

This school's greek system is very segrated. Why else would the "multicultural" & historically "african american" greek systems exist? Because the OTHER greek system didn't want them because of their race.

This particular sorority also seems to put their racist undertones on their website and had no problem with it until organizations asked them to take the picture off. If it wasn't a member of that sorority, why else would they put the picture on their website?

crazygirl---I'm not sure what the Greek system is like at that particular school, but I know that at my school we do have NPHC, or "African-American" GLOs and yet there are still African-American members of the NIC and NPC organizations as well. Just because the NPHC organizations exist on a particular campus does not necessarily mean that it's because of segregation.

We have black brothers.

Re: Think what you want...
 

So black fraternities/sororities exist only because "white" GLO's won't allow them in? Perhaps you should reconsider.

-Rudey
--You be crazy...real crazy.

Re: Re: Think what you want...
 

Well said Rudey. That seems a bit ridiculous. I have seen the greeks here @ NT and they are all very unified.

Ignorance cannot be excused. Even if you don't have bad intentions, you are at all times responsible for your actions. A kid who brings a gun to school to show off and ends up waving at someone to scare them, might not have intended to shoot and kill someone, but the scenario is very possible.

-Rudey
--There is no reason to take a class to understand what is offensive in the world.

To be perfectly honest some people may not realize what offends others and what may be inappropriate. Some people grow up in different environments where they may not experience much diversity in different cultures, but it doesn't necessarily mean that they are racist. They just need an experience to interact and mix with different people. Not everyone lives in a multicultural world. THe greeks are really open at UNT so I don't know what the whole deal is in the first place.....I have had a chance to talk to my friends back at UNT and the girls all feel a little angered by the accusations and hurt.

Do you need to stab yourself with a knife to know it would hurt? I don't see how you can take the ignorance argument far enough to justify their action.

-Rudey
--And if it wasn't their picture they were still legally responsible because it was on their web account. That is essentially the reason why Napster was able to be sued.

I understand what you meant Hootie. When people aren't exposed to things, how else can they learn about them? If your class was the first time you encountered that, you shouldn't be beat on the head just beacuse you didn't read the encylopedia as a child. There are many things that I wasn't aware of until I had classes pertaining to it, or until I got older.

Hootie, I know where you're coming from. We had a similar incident in college (not with a GLO though), and while I wasn't the one who caused the problem, I was the one who had to make the decision as to whether their behavior was ignorant or hateful. It was one of the hardest decisions I ever had to make.

I would like to think, though, that among the many sisters of this chapter, at least one of them was aware enough to realize the implications of the picture and to mention it to the webmaster, president, somebody. If the entire chapter is really that sheltered, some lessons in cultural sensitivity are in order. I think that perhaps now they may be receiving that lesson.

well, the article said one of the zta members was standing with a man who had a black painted face. so it wasn't one of their members who's face was painted, but a member who was with that person. probably it was a zta sister at a frat party and they thought it was a cute pic and put it up innocently. what the article doesn't address is if the person with the painted face was deliberately painting his face to look like an african american person or was it part of some sort of non racial constume? that's what i'm wondering. cuz if he was trying to do it just to be racist, then yes the steps taken were appropriate. otherwise i think it sounds blown way out of proportion. just a thought.

ZTA at UNT
 

I do not agree with the way the young man dressed up at the Halloween party, and again it was not a Zeta function, just a bunch of people at a halloween party at a club. But, yes it was posted on the ZTA website, which does represent us. We of course removed the pic right away when we noticed the attention it was getting. We did not intentionally put it up to seem racist or degrating of any race for that matter. Some of the Zeta ladies (many of whom had nothing to do with the incident, and a lot of whom were our new memebers) attended the weekly Diversity meeting on campus. It was an enlightening expericence for lack of a better word, and I would love to become more involved with this program. There is racisim every day, and I am saddened to think that ZTA was shown in such a negative light. If you have any questions or would just like to talk...feel free!

ZLAM
<><

Sorority website
 

I do have to say that I am disturbed by the fact that no one thinks the fact that they put it on the sorority's website is not a big deal. I am not a member of any organization, but I feel that it does represent the sorority because no one in the sorority thought that putting that pic up might be a bad idea. Regardless of who is who it was on the website, not a personal website. It represents the whole.



Ambition

in defense of the sorority, it was most likely only one person in charge of keeping up the website, which includes putting up pics. if you were a part of a glo you would probably know that. i have never heard of a chapter taking a vote or clearing everything they put up on their website with the entire chapter. they vote or appoint someone into place to make those decisions. granted it was a bad decision in this place, it was the decision of one person and most likely they weren't looking at the racial implications, unfortunately, but who was in the pic. it is a shame that it ended up representing the entire chapter and reflecting badly, however, i do think it was simply a mistake and they paid for it.

shelley j

yep.. i have to agree alphaiota

I just want to clarify a few things about the existence of BGLO'a. They were started in the early 1900's in part because we (African Americans) could not join fraternities/sororities b/c of our race. Just because there may be a few black members here and there in other fraternities does not change this fact. SO in a way, BGLO's did kind of form because of "segregation."

Also, it always amazes me how quick people are to say "what's the big deal?" Supposed black people would have said that when cartoons/pics were posted up around the town of black people being lynched? Suppose we always keep silent? Sorry people, because of the historical background of African Americans in this country, it's going to be a "big deal" when things like this happen.............especially when the government has refused to so much as apologize for the Institution of slavery. Doesen't anyone think minorities get tired of being the "butt" of everybody's jokes?

When it's not you that has been......and still to this day is discriminated against, it's easy to be INsensitive.

i think you underestimate how much non african american people know and empathize with being discriminated against. i'm overweight and i'm very discriminated against. the things that people say and do to overweight people wouldn't be tolerated today if it were towards a person of any race. i'm not saying that racism and discrimination don't exist and that there should be some compensation, but i am saying don't think that african american people are the only ones who feel the effects of discrimination. not only do i feel it for being overweight, but also for dating an african american man.
please don't take my last post to mean that i was belittling the situation, but i honestly don't think that it was deliberate and people shouldn't just be looking at the sorority for it, but also the guy who dressed that way. isn't he at more fault for consiously deciding to represent himself that way. i do feel it was a mistake, a big mistake on the part of zta, but how much more do they need to do to pay for their mistake?
i do apologize if anyone is offended by my stance, but if you look at it logistically i think you will see my point.