A recent email on this university’s Tau Epsilon Phi fraternity chapter Listserv leaked to the public and expressed racist comments from one of the members. In the email, a fraternity member encourages his brothers to go out on the night of Martin Luther King Jr. Day, stating that “Black girls are 78.45% easier on this holiday it’s a proven fact. If that doesn’t excite you there are a lot of white people here as well, either way it’s gonna be a good time.”
The fraternity is already taking a great deal of backlash over the recent email, and this comes less than a year after a similar email surfaced from a Kappa Sigma fraternity Listserv. With all the stereotypes, media attention and negative connotations surrounding Greek life, one would think that fraternities would be much more careful about the things they say, whether it is intended to go public or not. Obviously, the ideal situation would be for fraternities and sororities to not say things like these at all, but evidently some people do hold these racist ideals.
I am a proud member of Greek life here at this university, and it bothers me greatly when people within the same community as me hold these ideas and share them. I’ve heard a lot about chapters getting in trouble throughout the country for saying things like this, and I have always wondered why these incidents continue to occur. And although I do not believe that the beliefs and quotes of one brother reflect the entire chapter’s viewpoint, the fact of the matter is that such generalization is inevitable. If his actions were simply brushed under the rug and not responded to in the Listserv, that is not a sufficient reaction to such abysmal remarks.
This is an incredibly diverse campus, and despite many misconceptions, Greek life here is very diverse as well. Not only is this person offending an entire race of people, but he is also offending his peers. As a member of Greek life, I for one am upset not only because of what he said, but also because what he said could impact people’s perceptions of me and others. Fraternities and sororities are meant to be organizations that instill certain values into their members to make them better people, but the individual who wrote this email clearly isn’t representing the values of his organization.
Right now, the fate of the chapter or this particular member should not be the concern. The concern should be what can be done to prevent not only these racist emails from being sent, but also what can be done to stop people who hold these beliefs from bringing them into the university and into Greek life in the first place. This email is hopefully the last of its kind for the time being, though based on emails released in several years, there is no evidence to believe that events like this won’t continue in the near future.
Kyle Campbell is a sophomore government major. He can be reached at kcampbelldbk@gmail.com.
