At the moment, the idiotic, disrespectful and humiliating actions that the Arizona State University fraternity chapter Tau Kappa Epsilon, also known as TKE, took part in on Martin Luther King Jr. Day are rattling my brain.

According to cnn.com, the ASU fraternity chapter reportedly threw an extremely racist MLK party that is even leaving anchor Anderson Cooper in awe. You are not the only one, Mr. Cooper.

The fraternity brothers and fellow partiers not only participated in this event, but documented plenty of it on social media, according to cnn.com. Pictures portraying male students — not wearing their fraternity letters, but most likely TKE brothers—were captured wearing baggy basketball shorts and jerseys with captions reading “happy MLK day homies…”

Another fellow partier, this time a female along with two TKE brothers, decided to grab a snapshot of themselves wearing the same attire but this time the female was drinking out of a watermelon. The picture, which was posted on Instagram, was accompanied by hash tags such as “black out for MLK,” and “I have a dream.”

The TKE chapter at ASU has been suspended by the university while it investigates the situation and is also looking into further disciplinary actions with the students involved, cnn.com reported.
I really do not have a problem with any sororities or fraternities. I am not here to bash these organizations, nor am I here to add more fuel to the fire. Some of my friends belong to these organizations.

All I am here for is to offer my opinion.

Many of my readers may remember the Twitter page Ship Confessions. If you viewed that page, you might have run into multiple submissions from fraternity and sorority members, as well as nonmembers, which continuously argued over Greek life’s standards and missions. Most “brothers” and “sisters” defended their organizations by explaining the positive roles Greek life has in the community. Claims of brotherhood, connections and community service were also thrown into the mix.

This all may be true for members of Greek life. Many of those members who posted on the twitter page seemed outraged that nonmembers had that mindset about sororities and fraternities. I was even shocked by some of the comments.

But it is times like this that I cannot help but wonder what this fraternity was thinking.
Martin Luther King Jr. had such an impact on the progression of African-Americans during the Civil Rights Movement and is someone I myself hope someday to be like: a man of words, courage and bravery. The fact that the members of TKE thought this was acceptable is beyond my comprehension.

But it is now apparent to me why many nonmembers of Greek life have these assumptions about these organizations.

I cannot speak for the Greek life members here at SU because they have done nothing wrong. What I can say, though, is at the least, members of Greek life should take the initiative and try to make a positive out of this situation — if that is at all possible.

Because for those that follow the news, such as myself, Greek life is lacking in the respect category.