While extremely disturbing the pervasiveness and virulence is still present among some of the supposedly best and brightest, it’s also good to hear that a minority of more conscientious frat members are fighting back against this.
http://gawker.com/university-of-chicago-frat-bros-leaked-emails-are-super-1756912678
Rampant campus anti-semitism can result in young men who are the targets of said antisemitism responding in kind, among themselves.
Shocking.
While I find the comments totally abhorrent and shameful, it’s ironic how many of the commentators use this article as an excuse to bash Jews in general. Ironic given the context.
Read the article in the ‘Jewish Forward’ on this matter.
Why don’t you link to it, then.
I think the comment about calling the empty lot Palestine is funny, and not racist at all.
@Joblue , please
From The Chicago Maroon:
“This e-mail release was the most recent in a string of racial bias incidents on campus. In 2015 several students’ Halloween costumes set off a chain of events which included a petition with over 2,500 signatures calling on the University to address the campus climate on racial issues, which resulted in the promise for a campus climate survey to address racial issues to be administered this spring. In spring 2012 two fraternities faced bias claims, and in spring 2013 a Facebook page entitled “Politically Incorrect Maroon Confessions” launched, featuring discriminatory content.”
http://chicagomaroon.com/2016/02/05/campus-reacts-to-leak-of-racist-islamophobic-aepi-emails/
I think the Halloween incident occurred in 2014.
Really? There is no room at all, anywhere, to say anything politically incorrect?
And I still don’t understand the call-out on Palestine. I can easily envision a bunch of guys coming up with that nickname in that situation and it’s actually reasonably amusing. If there were evidence they were spitting at actual Palestinian students or something, you’d have a point.
U of Chicago holds a Lascivious Ball as part of a Sec Week (of course, many colleges do something similar).
From the Maroon - "The week begins with the Lascivious Ball on Friday, during which students and faculty are encouraged to come together to celebrate freedom of sexual identity through expressive costumes.
The week will continue through Sunday, January 31 with events such as Taste of Kink, The Magical World of Porn, Sex & Human Rights, A Consumer’s Guide to Sex Toys, and Dating While Trans."
It would be politically incorrect to suggest that this is all a bit much, that no one needs their neighbor’s kinks paraded on the street, that you should go buy your sex toys discreetly, etc. Could that be voiced or would there be a Gestapo after you?
As offensive emails go, on a scale of one to 10, those rate about a 3, except that they were made in private, intra-fraternity communications, which reduces them to a 1. Anyone who wants to whine and complain about this has way too much time on their hands.
I think it’s good that this email came out. It’s racist and embarrassing and these people should know better, especially if they are Jewish. I don’t like calling the lot Palestine.
There really ought to be no place for racism in 2016. Punish the frat moderately. I just wouldn’t go overboard. There ought to be a price to pay for being a schmuck.
Just saw this:
Phi Delta Theta Charter Suspended
http://chicagomaroon.com/2016/02/05/phi-delta-theta-charter-suspended-2/
This kind of thing - letting current members graduate then recolonizing - goes on all the time. Phi Delta Theta has a national reputation of being wild / aggressive, without devolving too much into stereotype, let’s just say A E Pi’s national reputation is kind of the antithesis of rowdy and violent. If anything, these are likely nerdy Jewish boys who can’t do much harm.
I grew up with and have seen plenty of nerdy Jewish people who can be plenty racist. I don’t think there needs to be a double standard. I told my father when the kids were little that our kids weren’t going to learn racism and I didn’t want it in my house.
I think this gets into the age-old what-you-say-in-your-house (dorm, room, whatever) and what-you-say-publicly. That’s the crux of a lot of these discussions, like the SAE / Oklahoma chant discussion. In this era when intended-to-be-private emails can, with one click, go viral, and intended-to-be-private activities can, with the wonder of smartphones, be shared with the world, how does that change the game?
After all, I can say “nerdy Jewish boys” because I am Jewish, married a nerdy Jewish boy and gave birth to another. Could a WASPy frat say that about A E Pi members and would they get the same censure?
Regarding emails and privacy, they aren’t very private in practice due to the underlying technology unless both the sender and receiver use encryption such as PGP.
Without encryption, an email is effectively no different than a postcard sent through the mail as like a postcard, non-encrypted email can be intercepted and easily read on its way to the recipient.
Another thing to keep in mind is that if one’s choice of words/behavior is such that one’s character may be called into serious question such as making blatant racist comments…especially if others within the same “in-group” have questioned and asked that/those individual(s) to reconsider and stop, one shouldn’t be too surprised if those words/behavior…even said in private eventually manifest itself publicly to the point of haunting that individual(s).
Especially considering those who feel comfortable saying such things in private tend to eventually slip up and say them in public and then try downplaying it by saying among other things he/she was trying to be “un-PC”.
One example of this happened just a few days ago on my HS’s online forum where there was a heated discussion about anti-Black racist incidents at Brooklyn Tech and two older White alums…including one Jewish alum who graduated sometime in the '60s made similar type comments which immediately got them called out vociferously not only by younger alums, but also older alums including a few older Jewish alums who were his classmates who expressed extreme disappointment in his attitude considering how much discrimination they themselves suffered back then.
Who said someone couldn’t call people out for offensive statements? The question is here is whether the university could or should “punish” them and what form such punishment would take.
My vote:
yes
chapter suspension