On March 8th the college fraternity Sigma Alpha Epsilon chapter at the University of Oklahoma has just been closed down after this video was posted on the internet for the world to see.
Naturally, this has already gone viral & is currently getting attention from both local media in the state & formats from national media platforms like NBC to Huffington post. The video hadn’t been online for more than 24 hours and Armageddon had ensued. Protests & “Silent Demonstrations” have already taken place & the students involved in the video have apparently already been suspended.
Much like the incidents involving former Clippers owner Donald Sterling & Riley Cooper, we have seen these situations play out before. White person (Or in this case persons) says a racial epithet or some type of bigoted declaration, incident is recorded & posted online, emotions run high on social media, White organization associated with said individual punishes them, story ends. Sound about right? These type of stories are making of farce of what racism truly means in America today. The average person will look at this video & immediately jump to “Racism!!” but unfortunately people are only accepting the common narrative of what they believe to be racism and don’t fully understand it’s context in American culture. Racism is generally viewed as the simple hatred of another group of people hence the reason why racism is associated with the situation. But the reality is that this video has nothing to do with racism at all. It’s just a bunch of ignorant college students using poor judgment & being recorded while doing so. But this doesn’t qualify as racism. Stupidity? Yes. Ignorance? Sure. Disrespectful? Absolutely……but not racist. Americans usually attribute racism with emotional hatred which may be part true but we never choose to look at racism as a system of power. In other words, in order for an individual to TRULY be a racist, they must have some type of power over a group of people. These college students do not qualify under that criteria. They may after graduating & becoming part of institutions that at times can promote racism (Judicial System or Public Education are prime examples.) but as college students at a predominately white institution they have little to no power over anyone. Donald Sterling on the other hand, is a prime example of someone who promotes White Supremacy; which in the American context is synonymous to racism. This is a man that over the years has systematically shown prejudice & unfairness towards non-white people (mostly African) by housing discrimination, and becoming a billionaire in the process. That is true racism, a man with the power to single handedly prevent a black family from finding a place to live is true racism. These now former members of Sigma Alpha Epsilon are nothing more than a group of misguided individuals who more than likely were taught hatred towards black people since they were nurtured as infants. It’s time that African people stop giving attention to pointless issues that distract us from the REAL PROBLEMS that affect millions of black people around the US. This small ten second video does nothing for black people but cause a distraction. It isn’t destroying lives, it’s not causing gentrification in poverty stricken communities & it’s certainly not responsible for incarcerating black people at disproportionate rates. Which bring up the perfect segue to this nifty chart below.
Oklahoma as recently as 2012 was ranked in top five in the entire country for prison population, and guess what group of people made up the majority of inmates…
People of America, this is true racism. A group of people that make up only 7% of the population in the state of Oklahoma somehow make up a quarter of the prison inmates. This should be a major topic of discussion when students go out & protest on OU’s campus, not this petty video with racial slurs (A racial slur that is used frequently by black people) by the way.) Protesting over a couple of students that pissed off black people at Oklahoma University may get a suspension from their organization, it may even get those students expelled from the University altogether. But ultimately that isn’t to solve the problems of racism of this country. This situation is similar to the current email controversy from the Ferguson Police Department. A strong reminder to White people that if they are not discreet about their disrespect towards non-white people…..particularly African people; there will be punishment involved. Even if it’s just a suspension from membership of a “Social Organization.” Make no mistake, these students involved in the video are wrong on many levels, and they deserve whatever punishment that comes their way, if nothing else for just being really stupid & ignorant enough to post that online for everyone to see. However, they are not in any way shape or form representing true racism. This isn’t to say that black people shouldn’t be protesting all over OU’s campus, it’s just reminder to keep things in proper perspective, & know who & what the true enemy is for African people.
JRC
Product Of Society 