A former Sigma Alpha Epsilon member at George Mason University told BuzzFeed News that in 2011 the brothers denied acceptance to at least nine black students – taking in one who “sounded like he knew English.” And another pledge said a “secret” whites-only sect existed at the California State University, Northridge in the 1980s.
A former Sigma Alpha Epsilon member at George Mason University in Virginia told BuzzFeed News that he witnessed some of the chapter's brothers racially profile potential pledges during the 2011 bidding process for acceptance into the fraternity.
Austin Nicol, who left the mostly-white fraternity in 2011, said that while there wasn't overt racism at the George Mason chapter, the members heavily scrutinized the race of the people they accepted.
Allegations of racism at several nationwide chapters of fraternity, founded in the antebellum South, have recently come to light at Louisiana Tech and University of Texas at Austin. The allegations came after some members at the University of Oklahoma were caught singing a chant filled with racial slurs on video last week, leading to the expulsion of two students and the chapter's forced closure.
Most of the recent allegations have focused on the use of the racist chant – which that some members said was "taught" – that mentions lynchings and how SAE won't accept black pledges. (The fraternity said the chant is not an official part of its tradition.)
Nicol's comments to BuzzFeed News expand the allegations to possible racial discrimination by the active members during the bidding process, in which the brothers decide who becomes pledges in the fraternity.
"That [bidding] process was just a few meet and greets with the brothers and then afterwards everyone would pretty much go into a room and Facebook stalk all the potential brothers and see what they looked like and what they were up to," said Nicol, now a social media manager in California.
He said that some of the members who rejected bids from black potential pledges would say things like, "is this guy going to steal from us?"
About 10 black students were in the pledge class in 2011, Nicol said, and that year the members "let one in" because "they said he sounded like he actually knew English."
He added that the members were judging most black potential pledges based on whether they were using "African American vernacular English versus 'white sounding' English."
Every SAE member had to memorize the creed and say it at the end of every meeting, according to Nicol. Part of the creed is: "The True Gentleman is the man who...does not make the poor man conscious of his poverty, the obscure man of his obscurity, or any man of his inferiority or deformity."
"We're supposed to live by this creed down to the last word," he said. "Almost everyday I saw that being broken."
A spokesman for the national organization said Saturday that he has no comment on the alleged incidents at George Mason.
In response to increasing concerns about the lack of racial diversity in the fraternity, a statement on the SAE website now reads, "Based on data gathered since 2013, approximately 20 percent of our members self-identify as a minority or non-Caucasian." The national organization has also said "discrimination and racial bias of any kind has no place in our organization and will not be tolerated."
George Mason University didn't immediately return requests for comment.
from BuzzFeed - USNews http://ift.tt/1MBk7vO
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