<p>So if it’s less blatant at Auburn, UGA and other schools, then why are their systems now much less integrated than UA’s? Are they even integrated at all? Of course UA will get more attention, because it bears the state of Alabama’s name. But it shouldn’t be the only system getting so much attention. Understand my point?</p>
<p>Maybe it’s more of an issue at UA BECAUSE UA is more diverse. It would be nice if UA could get credit for something positive related to race.</p>
<p>TAKYUA, I am definitely NOT an apologist for racism. I won’t go into my bona fides here, but they are strong. I have traveled to every state in the US but one and have lived in the East, South and West. What I would suggest to you that was suggested before is that blatant racism is not just prevalent in the South. In my opinion, it is not much more prevalent in the South than other places I have lived. Do I know a lot of racists in the South? Heck, yeah. But do I know a lot of racists other places, too? Oh, you can’t even imagine how many. </p>
<p>I don’t want to start a tit-for-tat on the definition of racism, who is more racist, or which state has more racists than another. I’m telling you, though–racism is everywhere! I don’t take crap off ANYONE here in the West (or in the East, for that matter) when it comes to racism in the South. Talk about hypocrisy and denial! First, there is a very low AA population here. Most racism here is against Hispanics. (Of course, THAT’S not racism. That’s Americanism! Protectionism! Oh…shut. up. It’s racism. But I digress…) Here, where “nobody’s racist”, if you’re walking down the street and a mixed-race couple (AA and white) is in front of you, you can just watch people stare, then shake their heads. If there are children with them, even worse. You can hear them say, “Oh, those poor kids.” “Those poor kids don’t have a chance”. It’s as if they’ve just stepped into a freak show. But, they’re not racist, of course. Right.</p>
<p>Just because you’re rarely presented with “the problem” (in this case, there are very few AAs to discriminate against), does NOT mean you’re not racist. It just means that there are fewer targets and, therefore, fewer opportunities for one’s ire to be raised.</p>
<p>On the other coast, about 15 years ago, an AA friend and I were in Boston having an early dinner in an open air cafe around 5 PM in September. The streets were busy with people leaving work. All of a sudden, my friend said, “Am I the only black person in Boston today?” I, of course, hadn’t noticed. But I started looking. Sure enough, there were no AAs anywhere to be seen. It was the strangest thing! We were living in DC at the time, so the contrast was striking. Finally, we saw one AA woman dressed in what looked like a hotel maid’s uniform walking down the street. Never saw a single black man in the hour we were looking. We laughed really hard about it at the time, but I don’t listen to a word anyone from Boston has to say about racism. Given that we were in the business district at the time, it was pretty clear that AAs weren’t being hired en masse by the leading businesses in Boston. But, of course, there couldn’t be any discriminatory reason why that might be true. I’m sure “qualified applicants” simply didn’t apply. ;)</p>
<p>As for fraternities and sororities nationally, I don’t know about every chapter at every college in the US. I have, however, visited quite a few sorority and fraternity chapters at about a dozen schools across the South, East and West. I’m just sayin’…those composites are mighty white! I also live on the other end of Greek Row for our state flagship here, and have served as sub-House Mother for three chapters here. I have never seen an AA in a sorority or fraternity here. Doesn’t mean there haven’t been one or two in the decade plus I’ve lived here. But, if they are here, they are not front and center and in exceedingly small numbers. I know that a friend’s daughter is the only AA girl in her sorority at Cornell. I don’t see many/any AAs in the online pics for the sororities and fraternities at my son’s school. As I pull up websites for chapters at schools across the country, AAs are virtually non-existent in the pics.</p>
<p>Is there racism among sororities and fraternities at UA? Clearly, yes. But, do I see ANY differences in UA greek chapters, and those at other schools? Honestly, no. I’m sure there are schools where AAs are better represented than at most. But, if you added up all of the AAs in every NPC/IFCsorority and fraternity across the country and found the percentage of AAs in IFC and NFC chapters nationwide, I doubt it would even reach the 1% mark. If it did, it would be mainly a result of UAs new AA recruits skewing the numbers. 
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<p>Message just sent to all students and through UA Parent Programs to parents:</p>
<p>As many of you already know, one of our students posted a photo on Snap Chat on Saturday afternoon that included particularly offensive racial language. I immediately asked the Office of Student Conduct to conduct a full investigation and was assured by the national Chi Omega headquarters that they had already begun an investigation of their own. There will be appropriate University consequences once our investigation is completed. These consequences will be in addition to any sanctions Chi Omega’s national officers decide to impose. We are all extremely disappointed when any student uses language that is disrespectful or offensive to any segment of the UA community. We are especially sad that this incident occurred on a day that was an exciting and happy one for the young women who participated in fall recruitment. Behavior, actions and choices that disparage other students are particularly reprehensible and do not represent the values or meet the expectations of our University community. UA and the members of our Panhellenic sororities took great strides forward on bid day by pledging a diverse group of young women that included 21 African American members. The results of bid day and the dedication of hundreds of students, employees and alumni who worked extremely hard this past year to achieve the important and significant milestones UA reached on bid day cannot and should not be dismissed or minimized. I want to assure you that The University of Alabama will not allow this incident to interrupt our progress. We will continue to work diligently and with a renewed commitment to make sure that UA is a welcoming and inclusive campus every day of the week.</p>
<p>Judy BonnerPresident</p>
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<p>Clearly the school is committed to continuing their strides in inclusiveness this year. I am sure this will evolve into an argument about 1st Amendment rights and how students have the right to openly express their opinions in their own personal social media. No one said progress was easy.</p>
<p>This issue gets a lot of attention at Alabama because the university has been at the epicenter of many race-related issues for a long time. It may have plenty to be proud of in that respect in more recent years, but it has a lot of troublesome history. Thus, the attention. Rather than complaining about the attention, look at it as an opportunity for the university to show leadership.</p>
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<p>happykidsmom, I agree with you 100%. Many northern cities and states are far more racially segregated (and have more divisions along the poverty-wealth continuum) than in the south. It’s really easy for people to malign the south and feel superior when one is on the coasts or the upper midwest, but it’s completely hypocritical.</p>
<p>When UA is the only school getting the attention, despite other schools having less diversity and fewer minorities in their Greek systems, then we need to ask why it is being singled out. Does anyone know what she said that was so offensive? Did she use the n word? My guess is that she was saying “my ______” Many young people , Black and White, use that phrase. It’s stupid to use it, but it’s in the rap music they love. So was it really hate speech or stupidity?</p>
<p>I just read the story at Al.com, and in the comments section, I read that the girl is claiming that the offensive language was photoshopped into the picture. Supposedly, the pictures has words celebrating that her sorority did not admit any Black women, but in reality, it DID admit two young Black ladies, so, let’s try to withhold judgement about this young lady till the investigation is over. What person in their right mind would post a public pic of herself using a racial slur? A new student with so much to lose by doing so? The photoshop theory seems most plausible to me. I can easily see someone outside UA photo-shopping words that would make the university look bad. As if to say, “this is what they really think.” The national media can’t wait to reinforce stereotypes about the South, particularly Alabama.</p>
<p>I was searching for the news article about the Chi O member’s Snapchat and came across this article:</p>
<p><a href=“http://college.usatoday.com/2014/01/24/little-diversity-in-sorority-rush/”>http://college.usatoday.com/2014/01/24/little-diversity-in-sorority-rush/</a></p>
<p>I believe that, though there is still some racism at UA, it is not any more prevalent there than other campuses across the US. There is just more of a spotlight on Bama because, let’s face it, you either love Bama, or hate Bama. The “excuses” students at other schools give in the article for why there are few/no AAs in their GLOs would be transformed into outraged headlines across the world if a UA student gave the same excuses. But, I have heard nothing about outrage concerning other schools’ racial imbalances in GLO membership outside of this 8-month-old article. Blatant hypocrisy for those outside of UA to "cast the first (or 1000th) stone.</p>
<p>It also doesn’t help matters that UA is so successful, in athletics, especially. If they can’t beat us on the field, they’ll look for other excuses to tear us down. Where are all of the investigative journalists researching the composites at OTHER schools’ sororities and fraternities? Not making excuses, here. Just saying there needs to be a nationwide reality check on this issue.</p>
<p>Come on, people, there is and always will be a spotlight on Bama when it comes to race because that’s where George Wallace stood in the schoolhouse door. Having fraternity guys dress up in Confederate uniforms didn’t help, either. As I said above, rather than complaining that other people are worse, why not be a leader?</p>
<p>Um, the dressing up in Confederate gear is not racist. It’s not my cup of tea, but it’s about heritage. I know you have been brainwashed into thinking the South seceeded over slavery, but that wasn’t the reason. Did you know that slavery was still legal in New Jersey till 1865, the last year of the war? Did you know that Lincoln proposed making slavery forever legal in the South if it would not secede? Lincoln did not attack the CSA to end slavery.</p>
<p>And how is the university responsible for what a governor did?</p>
<p>Update! The guy who originally posted this photo, now says he thinks it was a photshop or an autocorrect issue. <a href=“http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache%3Ahttp%3A%2F%2Ftotalfratmove.com%2Falabama-sorority-girls-send-out-racist-snapchat-one-year-after-infamously-being-incredibly-racist%2F”>http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache%3Ahttp%3A%2F%2Ftotalfratmove.com%2Falabama-sorority-girls-send-out-racist-snapchat-one-year-after-infamously-being-incredibly-racist%2F</a> </p>
<p>Why did “Total Frat Move” pull the story completely from their website? The fact that it can only be found in cache form suggests that they want to completely erase all their “coverage” of the events, or that they’re not sure what’s what at this point. </p>
<p>And now yet ANOTHER take on the story from “Total Sorority Move” (TFM’s “sister” publication): </p>
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<p><a href=“Total Sorority Move | Alabama Sorority Girl’s Racist Snapchat Bragging “No Ni**gas!” Results In Removal”>http://totalsororitymove.com/alabama-sorority-girls-are-still-a-bunch-of-racists-proudly-boast-of-not-having-any-ngga-pledges/</a></p>
<p>But if you honestly believe these girls were framed somehow, which actually happened? Was the word “ninja” digitally auto-corrected to “ni**a” (What auto-correct tool DOES that? You’d have to be using the latter term a LOT for it to “correct” for that word!). Or was the original “ninja” image photo-shopped to make the girls and Chi Omega look bad? </p>
<p>Perhaps, however, those girls actually did use the (more) offensive term and others are trying to go back and help cover up the original actions. (“Sorority ninja” is a pejorative too, FWIW, but not as offensive as the other word.)</p>
<p>Alabama is NOT the only university to have its Greek organizations come under scrutiny for alleged racist behaviors, BTW. MANY schools have been called out for this type of thing in recent years, so I wouldn’t get overly paranoid about UA being the only school scrutinized heavily. We’re more cognizant of the allegations made about UA because of our personal ties to the university.</p>
<p>@Atlanta68 totalfratmove removed the article/blog about the photoshopping.
<a href=“Racist Photo Sent in Wake of Sorority Rush at University of Alabama”>http://www.elle.com/life-love/society-career/racist-photo-sent-sorority-rush-university-of-alabama</a></p>
<p>Please see sister sorority cite. The offending picture does not show any of the distortions in your now deleted post.</p>
<p><a href=“Total Sorority Move | Alabama Sorority Girl’s Racist Snapchat Bragging “No Ni**gas!” Results In Removal”>http://totalsororitymove.com/alabama-sorority-girls-are-still-a-bunch-of-racists-proudly-boast-of-not-having-any-ngga-pledges/</a></p>
<p>The Alabama chapter of Chi Omega has removed the sender of the offensive picture from its sorority, a move it would not have done if there was any issue as to who sent the offensive Snapchat. It isn’t difficult to discover the culprit since the evidence is on her telephone and there are the many who received the photo directly from the offender’s phone.</p>
<p>As to @Hunt comment on frat guys dressing up in Confederate uniforms not helping, well it doesn’t. Although you may believe that dressing up in Confederate gear is not racist, many do not see it that way. I don’t want to get into a history lesson about the Civil War but many see the war about slavery and racism, whether you believe it to be true or not. Wearing and promoting Confederate symbols are seen as racist by many. Much like there are many who saw the Snapchat photo who saw nothing racist about it, but a great majority who saw the photo would say it was offensive and wrong.</p>
<p>I am glad that UA and the Greek system has made it clear that racism is not tolerated and has taken action to combat it.</p>
<p>As to your comment about the South taking the brunt of racist outcries, not so, Penn State’s Chi Omega sorority took similar criticism about its Halloween photo disparaging Hispanics. Unlike UA, the Penn State Administration took little action. However, the national Chi Omega chapter took action and this year the sorority is now dissolved at Penn State just a one and half years from the posting of the offending picture. Penn State should have taken action like the UA administration. Penn State’s Administration should be ashamed for lacking leadership. </p>
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And you want to educate me about history? I’m a white guy from the South myself, and I understand perfectly well what symbols really mean.</p>
<p>@Hunt , I have not defended and will not defend any racially insensitive/discriminatory behavior, wherever it exists. I am a proud Southerner. But, like most Southerners, I don’t condone racial insensitivity mainly because (in addition to the obvious fact that it’s morally irreprehensible) it always takes the focus off of the real task at hand. It’s the same reason I don’t condone other forms of discrimination, especially in educational settings–it is a huge distraction from the focus on education. I am not in any way whining about what’s happening at UA. It’s long overdue. I’m simply saying nobody else should be pointing fingers. This is a NATIONAL problem. UA IS becoming the leader in addressing the issue. But, it’s ONE campus among hundreds where blatant racial discrimination has been left unaddressed. Where’s the leadership elsewhere? It’s hard to clean up your own house, if you’re standing in someone else’s doorway pointing out the problems. Folks need to head on back to their own houses and get busy. That’s all I’m sayin’… </p>
<p>I respect your views, happykidsmom. I just think they aren’t necessarily shared by people who want to defend Confederate uniforms.</p>
<p>Hunt, I never attended Old South (the one party of the year where that one fraternity’s members dressed in Confederate uniforms) as I generally spent weekends on the other end of Fraternity Row. I had a lot of friends in that fraternity, though, and I would not, even today, characterize most of them as racists. At all. There are also many, many Northerner’s who dress in Union uniforms most weekends to reenact scenes from the Civil War. In order to do a proper reenactment, this exercise generally precipitates that quite a few people don a confederate uniform. Is this something any of my family members have ever participated in? No. But we have attended reenactments in both the North and the South that precipitated lots of folks being willing to wear the Confederate uniforms. Confederate uniforms mean different things to different people, and the simple act of wearing one does not connote racism. </p>
<p>Closed minds are unappealing in on all sides of an issue. Lumping one group of people into a mindset of your own choosing simply because they choose to celebrate heritage and history differently than you do is in no way helpful to the conversation. Can wearing a confederate uniform be seen as insensitive by many people? Absolutely! But are there historically significant reasons that one might wear one that should not necessarily label the wearer as a racist? I would argue in the affirmative.</p>
<p>When I was at UA, I was not in a Frat and never wore Confederate gear. I never have worn it. But I don’t believe its racist to wear it. </p>