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Sigma Pi Wayne State: either hazing or racism?
OPINION_:_‘Racist’ is a dirty word for Sigma Pi (Wayne State)
Dec/1/2004
By Adam Steinberg
Managing Editor
Certain African-American radicals are crying ‘wolf’ at Sigma Pi fraternity members who they say disrupted a black youth leadership conference as an act of racism.
The problem, though, is there’s not a shred of proof that would even suggest that their action had anything to do with race.
To recap, last week The National Black Operation Business Association staged a rally called “Black Youth in the New Millennium Convention.”
During the presentation, five white fraternity members of Sigma Pi ran into the lobby of General Lectures (where the conference was held) and yelled in unison “Are there any biology classes in this building?”
That looks bad — five uniformly dressed white guys run into a black empowerment conference and yell something incoherent in unison right before running out.
No doubt, that was stupid.
No doubt, that was childish.
But there’s a significant doubt that the act was racially motivated.
Obviously, the group wasn’t looking for their frat brother, which is the story that the Sigma Pi guys are sticking to. My guess is they came up with that story to cover up what was really going on: An act of hazing.
Nowadays, the Dean of Students Office will bring the whip of justice upon a fraternity faster than one can swallow a goldfish if any signs of hazing is suspected at a frat.
But that’s what the ‘incident’ most likely was. Their assignment may have been to disrupt an on-campus event. Obviously they didn’t know what they were getting themselves into though.
The Dean of Students Office and WSU police came out saying they didn’t think the act was racially motivated.
The frat brothers yelled their piece, picked up their 15 minutes of fame, and were welcomed as if they were wearing white pointed hats and burning crosses.
Now they are being persecuted instead of being given a slap on the wrist and a heartfelt, “Grow up!” like they deserve.
A rally was held Tuesday on Gullen Mall called the “Anti-Discrimination Rally” in response to the frat boys’ disruption.
This is all based on the assumption that the group’s act was an act of racism, when there is no proof to suggest that.
Hopefully, a new dialog will open up between different ethnic groups on campus as a result of this fiasco. Still, radicals at the Anti-Discrimination rally like Mohammed Luwemba, last year’s student council president, hurt the healing process with comments like, “We will wipe out the influences and that which is counterproductive to equality.”
It’s sad that today race is still such a sensitive issue. It’s an issue that may never go away because the cold current of racism still chills the very backbone of our society.
Still though, lets not forget how damaging and hurtful it is to wrongly be called a racist, when really you should just be called a ‘dumb ass.’
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