Another former Sigma Alpha Epsilon pledge at Louisiana Tech told BuzzFeed News that he heard the “underground” chant a dozen times in a year.
Another former Sigma Alpha Epsilon pledge at Louisiana Tech University told BuzzFeed News that he witnessed a racist chant at the university at least a dozen times from 2010 to 2011.
BuzzFeed News recently reported that a former pledge, Dylan Merriman, heard the chant — which got two Sigma Alpha Epsilon members expelled from the University of Oklahoma (OU) this week and led to the chapter's shuttering — at Louisiana Tech in 2010.
The former pledge, who did not wish to be identified because he thought doing so would hurt his career, told BuzzFeed News that while the chant wasn't an official SAE song, "it exists in the fraternity."
"The chant was never taught to us during our official pledge education," he said. "It was taught in private."
Parker Rice, one of the expelled OU students, had said that "the song was taught to us."
SAE, however, has said in statements that "the national fraternity does not teach such a racist, hateful chant, and this chant is not part of any education or training. Our investigation has found very likely that the [University of Oklahoma] men learned the song from fellow chapter members, which reiterates why Sigma Alpha Epsilon did not hesitate to close the chapter completely because of the culture that may have been fostered in the group."
The former pledge at Lousiana Tech who heard the song more than a dozen times — he left the fraternity in 2011 — said it was an "underground chant" that was prevalent among other SAE chapters. "La. Tech didn't make up the chant. It's been going on for quite a while," he said.
He said he heard some of the SAE active members chant the song at parties and after football games.
After BuzzFeed News reported that the song was chanted at a 2010 SAE rush party at Louisiana Tech, the university issued a statement saying it was unaware of the incident and did not have any report of it taking place in 2010.
"This type of reprehensible and destructive behavior is not tolerated from anyone attending or associated with our institution," the statement said.
When contacted on Thursday, the university reserved comment on the new allegations and stood by its previous statement.
The latest pledge to come forward said he was at the same rush party as Merriman, when a drunk active member chanted the song at the rush party.
He said the drunk member began singing the same chant that the University of Oklahoma students sang on the bus and that a few other members also joined in the singing.
The drunk member then began pointing at the fraternity composites on the wall and listed all the years saying, "There was never a n-word in this chapter and there never will be," according to the former pledge.
Several people at the party were disgusted but "no one really stood up and did anything," he said.
When the fraternity president was made aware of the incident, "he was not happy with the situation." but there were no repercussions for those involved in the chanting, he said.
The former pledge said he also heard that chant being sung at a fall 2010 SAE party called "Hookers and Hoodlums," which some of the members called "the n-word and Hoes" party where the men dressed up as gangsters.
"During that party — one of the biggest parties of the fraternity — the chant was sung a few times during and after the party ended," he said.
from BuzzFeed - USNews http://ift.tt/1B8ucHX
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