Earlier this month a video was uploaded online of the University of Oklahoma Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity (SAE) reciting a very racist chant targeted at black people.

The chant heard around the country was atrocious and so very offensive to people of African descent. The lyrics of the chant heard in the video are, “There will never be a n***** in SAE. There will never be a n***** in SAE. You can hang him from a tree, but he can never sign with me. There will never be a n***** in SAE.”

The thing that went through my mind after seeing the video is why do things have to be this way in the world? Why can we not move past the ignorance of the past that still plagues us today?

It is unbelievable how stupid people can be in the age of social media. To think that this video would go unnoticed in the public eye shows just how much this Oklahoma fraternity thinks public perception does not apply to them.

Every person on that bus chanting is a coward. They should be labeled as the scum of the earth, but the worst part about the situation is they will still be observed by society as upstanding citizens.

This incident had huge repercussions for the University of Oklahoma (OU), the fraternity and the community.

OU President David Boren rightly vacated the SAE fraternity from their on-campus house, while also having two students expelled for the offensive gesture. The national headquarters for SAE has since disbanded the chapter. The incident has also persuaded an OU recruit to rescinded his commitment to the program.

Jean Delance, an offensive tackle, announced on Twitter he has reopened his recruitment. His announcement comes one day after the video surfaced. In an interview with a CBS affiliate in Dallas featuring Delance, he had this to say about the video. “Very uneducated people,” he said. “I wouldn’t want my son or child to go there or to anywhere like that. It was just very disturbing to me. I didn’t like it.”

The SAE fraternity was justifiably punished and it could not have happened to worse human beings. A simple apology is not enough from this so-called “brotherhood” they call a fraternity. What they did was rude and disturbing.

I hope OU never has another SAE chapter on its campus again.

If this is what fraternity life is all about, I’m glad I never joined one. This atrocious act is not branded on all fraternities but I would be surprised if something like this does not happen behind closed doors.

A troubling part of this entire discriminatory act is, Beauton Gilbow, the fraternity mom from the University of Oklahoma’s now-banned Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity, was seen reciting lyrics from Trinidad James’ “All Gold Everything.” According to the video, the lyrics to the song are “Don’t believe me, just watch n***a, n***a, n***a, n***a, n***a, n***a, n***a.”

People may say this is an old woman just reciting rap lyrics, no more no less, but what those people do not realize is that it is ignorant. There is no justification for using a word that has so much history that comes along with it.

The behavior she showed is most likely what gave the SAE fraternity the idea that a racial chant against black people joining the fraternity was OK. OK, not only to chant multiple times but also post it online.

I believe their chant did do what it was supposed to they won’t have to worry about a person of African descent joining their fraternity anytime soon.

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