Auburn University Frats (2 of them)

[straightBOS]

Originally posted by lovelyivy84

WHY would they put together a conspiracy like this one, when they must have known that when it went public it would only hurt them on a personal level? IT's not as if they actually lynched anyone, or tried to physically assault anyone (as compared to the mental assault when I saw the pics...).

Let's not forget that THEY posted the pics on a party pics website. Unless you put a password on it, all websites are public. Even taking pictures and getting them developed exposes them to the public. I am of the opinion that they were not ashamed of their actions. And in fact, fully expected others--namely everyone with an internet connection- to see the pics, and be amused by them.

The fact that so many people (especially in the Greek Chat forum) were opposed to any long term sanctions against them seems to suggest their original assumption was indeed correct.

Thus, the idea that others from different campuses would conspire to participate is not that hard for me to believe.

[futurestar1]

No one has seemed to touch on this, but I am most appalled by the fact that other people (and some appear to be sorority members-an assumption based on the fact that they all chose to dress alike) decided that it was okay to pose with them. I am disgusted by the fact that those people were not enlightened enough to say "That's not a cool costume" and walk away.

[Ideal08]

Originally posted by futurestar1
No one has seemed to touch on this, but I am most appalled by the fact that other people (and some appear to be sorority members-an assumption based on the fact that they all chose to dress alike) decided that it was okay to pose with them. I am disgusted by the fact that those people were not enlightened enough to say "That's not a cool costume" and walk away.

Somebody touched on this somewhere, lol, in one of these threads. Not only did I trip off of these chicks taking pics with them, I'm tripping they continued with the party business as usual.

Now, CT4, correct me if I'm wrong. Witt had it's issues, but do you think this could have happened there? I mean, the party? Witt had some, um, pretty progressive (for lack of a better word) people. I can see people walking out on that mess, and I mean white people, with the quickness. Especially since we used to party with them. To think we thought we had so many issues there. I guess it could have been a lot worse.

Now that brings up an interesting poing that we'll never know the answer to. How many people actually did leave, I wonder?

[AKA2D '91]

Originally posted by Ideal08
What is rolling toilets? I don't think I saw that at Wittenberg.

If I didn't say it..I meant rolling their "houses" with toilet paper and chit. The front lawn was COVERED with toilet paper.

That is supposed to be funny! NOT!

[Soulful Soror]

When you get your Dec/Jan 2001 issue of Honey, read the "makes me wanna holler" article on page 76! It truly makes you think. Many of us (people of color) don't go around thinking it's hip to be gangsta, a thug, ghetto fab, & what have you....but, these so-called celebrities (hip hop, athletes, actors/actresses, singers, etc.) are putting us out there like we are these unruly, no scrupples having, addicted to drugs/alcohol, crass, bunch of idiots! The article mentions Trick Daddy's video "I'm a Thug". When I first saw that video I was like "okay, but why is being a thug something to brag about?". Even in Fabolous' newest video he says something to the effect that he's a good for nothing, low down type of brotha. Again, WHY is that something to brag about? Young impressionable kids are going to memorize & recite those words thinking it's aaaalllll goooood. And, I hate that arguement that "it's the parents that need to keep these kids from seeing these videos....well, guess what they show the videos in clothing stores, play the songs over speakers in the stores....a parent, mentor, guardian or whoever is not going to be able to be everywhere all of the time!

It makes you think what are/would all of the black entertainers from days gone by think of this crap! A lot of them did drugs to numb the pain of the outright racism & injustice they suffered. Now, entertainers/athletes take drugs 'cause "it's all good in HOLLYWOOD"....it sickens me!

The article made a good point, these people in the spotlight are making people around the globe see us in a negative & incorrect light! They need to "get it together, or leave it alone"!

[AKAtude]

Originally posted by Soulful Soror
When you get your Dec/Jan 2001 issue of Honey, read the "makes me wanna holler" article on page 76! It truly makes you think. Many of us (people of color) don't go around thinking it's hip to be gangsta, a thug, ghetto fab, & what have you....but, these so-called celebrities (hip hop, athletes, actors/actresses, singers, etc.) are putting us out there like we are these unruly, no scrupples having, addicted to drugs/alcohol, crass, bunch of idiots! The article mentions Trick Daddy's video "I'm a Thug". When I first saw that video I was like "okay, but why is being a thug something to brag about?". Even in Fabolous' newest video he says something to the effect that he's a good for nothing, low down type of brotha. Again, WHY is that something to brag about? Young impressionable kids are going to memorize & recite those words thinking it's aaaalllll goooood. And, I hate that arguement that "it's the parents that need to keep these kids from seeing these videos....well, guess what they show the videos in clothing stores, play the songs over speakers in the stores....a parent, mentor, guardian or whoever is not going to be able to be everywhere all of the time!

It makes you think what are/would all of the black entertainers from days gone by think of this crap! A lot of them did drugs to numb the pain of the outright racism & injustice they suffered. Now, entertainers/athletes take drugs 'cause "it's all good in HOLLYWOOD"....it sickens me!

The article made a good point, these people in the spotlight are making people around the globe see us in a negative & incorrect light! They need to "get it together, or leave it alone"!

So true, so true! My husband and I were just talking about this earlier today! I saw a young black male riding his bicycle with his pants dropped down exposing his underwear. I said why can't my young brothers move away from this style? It just disgusts me.

Why can't they start a new trend and rap about staying away from drugs, getting an education, getting jobs, treating women with respect, etc., and change their physical appearance for the better. Pull those pants up, tie those shoelaces, take those gold teeth out, get a haircut, take off those skull caps, and stop giving all that money to Tommy and Ralph (what have they done for us lately?).

[Steeltrap]

From another list, a commentary on the Auburn situation from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. The author's name is Tony Norman:

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
November 9, 2001

NO EXPIRATION DATE ON STUPIDITY AT ALA., MISS. COLLEGES


Forty years ago, Auburn University admitted its first black student. He was a brave soul who didn't mind being shadowed by 100 Alabama state troopers if that's what it took to get the education the American Dream said he had coming to him.

Twenty-three years later, one of the school's two dozen all-white
fraternities finally got around to admitting a black pledge who had a very high tolerance for humiliation. It was a historic moment that meant nothing. The times were in no hurry to go a-changin' in Alabama. Today, Auburn's all-white fraternities are determined to maintain the same sad percentage of blacks adopted in 1984 by admitting one guileless black pledge to their ranks per generation. After all, somebody has to be on the bottom.

Auburn's monochromatic fraternities have been able to maintain this quota to this day, though two recent Halloween "lynchin' parties" at the school may cause the one black pledge still hanging around the white frats to reconsider the company he keeps.

Last week, the good ol' boys of Beta Theta Pi and Delta Sigma Phi
threw Halloween parties on different nights with identical themes: Old-fashioned racial degradation as fun and games.

Judging by the photos posted on the Internet by a not-too-savvy photo service soliciting future business, the Halloween parties were a racist hoot.

The not-ready-for-prime-time Klan parties featured frat boys in
blackface wearing faux Afros and mugging for the cameras. They
flashed stereotypical gang signs and large pieces of fake jewelry and wore their hand-scrawled FUBU shirts proudly.

The less imaginative nitwits wore T-shirts bearing the legend of
Omega Psi Phi, Auburn's black fraternity. Two "ghetto-studs" posed with white sorority girls sporting Playboy bunny ears. They were supposed to be "hoochies," I suppose, but I've seen packs of stray dogs that were prettier.

But the photos that will stick with me forever were taken at Delta
Sigma Phi's party. Two men holding shotguns to the head of a grinning man in blackface, pose before a large Confederate flag, making the connection between that symbol of racial oppression and the kind of people who revere it.

A frat boy in a Klan outfit grips a noose around the grinning man's
neck, recreating a moment all too familiar in American history. Just
like the people in the lynching photographs now on display at the
Andy Warhol Museum, they are all smiles, oblivious to their moral
idiocy or the obscenity of their actions.

These pictures wouldn't be out of place in the Warhol's "Without
Sanctuary: Lynching Photography in America" exhibit because they provide contemporary analogies to those long-ago images of actual murder. If they were postcards, you'd expect to read "Guess what, Ma? I went to a mock lynchin' today," scribbled on them.

Auburn University is embarrassed by all of this, of course. Both
fraternities have been suspended pending investigation. Several
students in the photographs have already been suspended or expelled from their fraternities.

To his credit, the president of Delta Sigma Phi apologized to the
members of the university's Black Student Union for his chapter's
shenanigans. The BSU was so startled by the student's willingness to forgo the usual Alabama song-and-dance, they applauded him.

Meanwhile, Auburn's interim president has garnered rave reviews from the city's blacks for dealing swiftly with the fraternities. Everyone appears eager to use the insult as an opportunity for long-neglected dialogue across the racial divide.

This is a good thing because racist Halloween parties are catching on in the Deep South. One state over, at the University of Mississippi, two students were expelled from Alpha Tau Omega fraternity yesterday after a photo of their Halloween antics migrated to the Internet.

A professional photo service looking for business from fraternities
posted those pictures, too. If I didn't know better, I'd swear these companies were fronts for the Klan's chief nemesis.

The offending picture at Ole Miss featured a frat boy dressed as a
cop holding a gun to the head of a second idiot in blackface. If
all-white fraternities conducted just one party-planning session
sober, they'd avoid these embarrassing situations.

Now we're all wondering if the old cliche, especially about the
South, is truer than we'd like to admit: "The more things change, the more things stay the same."

[skywalker20_99]

Oddly enough, I visited the University of Louisville for homecoming this past weekend and NOT ONCE did anyone mention the incident with Tau Kappa Epsilon. I don't know if peope were unaware, or they were just too caught up in the festivities to thing about it. Anyway, the TKE president issued a letter of apology at this link (You can view the incident report by following another link).

http://www.louisville.edu/update/tkeapol.html

[ChaosDST]

Originally posted by futurestar1
No one has seemed to touch on this, but I am most appalled by the fact that other people (and some appear to be sorority members-an assumption based on the fact that they all chose to dress alike) decided that it was okay to pose with them. I am disgusted by the fact that those people were not enlightened enough to say "That's not a cool costume" and walk away.

That was one of my FIRST concerns. Who's the bigger bigot: the ones with the costumes, or the ones who laughed at them and/or posed with them? Hmmmmm. I would have choice words for the other folks IN the pics AND for the ones IN the costumes. At the same time, those would be the same people who rant and rave about how it's almost 2002 and there's no more racism.

[DoggyStyle82]

I don't know if it has been posted, but the frat that had the noose and confederate flag has been shut down and disbanded on the Auburn campus by its national office. Completely.

I must commend the Brothers of Sigma Delta chapter of Omega at Auburn. The initial reaction was almost unanimous to just go and wreck shop at the two houses and take no prisoners. However, because many of the Bruhs are active in the SGA and BSA, they had direct connections to the people who could most influence this situation in a more appropriate manner. Because they were empowered and a part of the overall university community, they did not have to resort to the last recourse of the powerless, violence.

The other fraternity will be dealt with shortly. The Grand Basileus along with upwards of 500 Omegas will be on Auburns campus on Nov 14th and the rednecks and racists will see the power of the intellect of the Black Man. We know they already fear us physically.

The Struggle Continues. If we've come so far, why are the billboards still the same? We thank all of Black Greekdom for their support.

[Steeltrap]

From the yahoogroups Fraternal News site.
Also, the Birmingham News reports that the Delta Sigma Phi fraternity's national board was scheduled. It said "Monday night," but I don't know if it was Nov. 12 or Nov. 19 -- ST.

The Associated Press
November 12, 2001

Beta Theta Pi disbands Auburn chapter after racial incident

AUBURN, Ala. -- The national board of trustees of Beta Theta Pi
fraternity has voted to disband the fraternity's chapter at Auburn
University.

Officials with the national fraternity said the Auburn chapter was
suspended and disbanded because of an Oct. 25 Halloween party in which some members painted their faces black and wore afro wigs. Also Monday, Auburn University withdrew its recognition of Beta Theta Pi.

The university previously temporarily suspended the Delta Sigma Phi fraternity after a party in which one member dressed up in a Ku Klux Klan costume at the Oct. 27 party, and another wore blackface and tied a noose around his neck. They were photographed in front of a Confederate flag.

"Fraternities have great potential for social and leadership
development of students, but when a fraternity abuses its privileges, Auburn University will show little tolerance," interim Auburn President William Walker said.

The Delta Sigma Phi national organization has also temporarily
suspended its Auburn chapter.

The Beta Theta Pi national fraternity earlier suspended 13 members of the Auburn chapter. Beta Theta Pi's General Secretary David Wright said while the 13 members were directly involved, others stood by and did not attempt to stop them.

"A culture that allows this type of thing to occur cannot be
permitted to continue," Wright said.

Meanwhile, Tolerance.org., a project of the Southern Poverty Law
Center, will conduct a three-hour seminar on campus Wednesday to teach people how to be more tolerant.

Walker said the seminar at 11 a.m. in the ballroom of the James E. Foy Student Union will launch a series of programs on diversity
training for students, faculty and staff.

(c) 2001 The Associated Press.