Another story highlighting problems with fraternities has surfaced, this time from the University of Maryland, at College Park.
A member of the Kappa Sigma fraternity is being investigated after an email from January of 2014 surfaced. The email is filled with racial slurs against blacks, Asians, etc.
Look at the tweet here:
UMD students are outraged over a discriminatory email sent by member of Kappa Sigma. pic.twitter.com/GAEySqiPS3
— Jasmine Whittington (@JC_Whittington) March 13, 2015
University President Wallace Loh has condemned this email and has stated that the school’s Office of Civil Rights and Sexual Misconduct will lead this investigation. President Loh also hosted a “Twitter Chat” earlier today to create a discussion about email and sensitive subjects like race, sex, and more.
For those unfamiliar, “Rush Week” is a week on campuses where students pledge to join numerous fraternities and sororities. As a graduate of the University of Connecticut, I can say that this week is usually very crazy. And my fellow students at other universities believe the same thing. However, the absolutely abhorrent language and ideas perpetuated in this email should be cause for major concern.
First, the racial slurs are completely uncalled for and some I have never even heard of. Not only is it not okay to just throw around racial slurs, this email preaches a message?of exclusion for minorities — something we also saw in the now infamous racist video from SAE members at the University of Oklahoma. This frat member is also objectifying minorities, particularly women, as people who are unwanted unless they are “hot.”
But as a person of color, and as a woman, I can say that probably the most repugnant part of this email is the blatant promotion of rape. The author literally says “fuck consent.” This is a horrifying message for women on a college campus. Yes, men are victimized too, but I say women since the numbers are obviously higher for women. This degradation of women’s bodies, as tools for men’s pleasure, is a message that shouldn’t just be condemned, but punished.
Creating this atmosphere of promoting criminal behavior has NO place on a college campus, or anywhere else.
This email speaks to larger issues in our society. The ideas that many still hold about minorities and women are just absolutely outrageous. These people need to be held accountable but so does the United States as a whole. We have to do better as a nation to combat these views and promote the respect of people of color and women.
