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<p>When I was growing up, everyone ate watermelon, and there was no particular racial association (insulting or otherwise) associated with it.</p>
<p>On the other hand, in a fraternity party, it would not be surprising to find that a watermelon has been turned into a vodkamelon.</p>
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<p>Auburn does have a much greater presence of fraternities and sororities (21% in fraternities and 31% in sororities) than ASU (6% in fraternities and 7% in sororities). Presumably, fraternities and sororities are a much bigger part of campus life at Auburn, so any racism or other troubles in the fraternities and sororities there would have more influence over students in general there than at ASU, where it looks like the fraternity in question is just self-destructing.</p>
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<p>The probation terms resulting from the previous fight include “no parties”. That makes it an easy decision for the school to suspend it for such an obvious violation, without having to mess with the legal aspects of speech codes and the like (or potentially causing it to gain outside political support as “free speech martyrs” or some such). Wouldn’t be surprised if the school and the fraternity’s national agreed to terminate that chapter’s recognition permanently.</p>
<p>I, for one, have never understood the watermelon stereotype because I grew up in an integrated area and people of all stripes enjoyed watermelon in the summer. Why the racists designated watermelon as one of their favorite insults to Black folks, I can only guess. Experts on the history of cuisine and agriculture say that enslaved Africans brought seeds with them on the Middle Passage. I doubt if many racists are intellectually curious about the Middle Passage.</p>
<p>When the Jeffersons moved in next to the Bunkers, Archie said “The next thing you know, the watermelon rinds will come flying out the window.” This has been a racist stereotype for a long time.</p>
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<p>Google the word and read the entry from Urban Dictionary (no. 4 in the Google results when I did it just now).</p>
<p>All I see here is a whole lot of white privilege…</p>
<p>The frat brothers may not feel so privileged when their frat is shut down, and they get individually punished by ASU. The bad publicity makes that almost inevitable at this point.</p>
<p>Not just them but some of the people on this thread.</p>
<p>Whether actual punishment of individuals is warranted under whatever existing rules at the college is one thing. I don’t know whether such an act would be considered harassment, something which probably would merit individual punishment and be outside the umbrella of first ammendment rights… However, the school does not need any justification to disband fraternities or any other organization that they don’t feel benefits the school. Why colleges tolerate this sort of behavior from fraternities is something I don’t understand.</p>
<p>Well, people have freedom of speech as well as freedom of association. It’s a difficult question how much we want public authorities to be delving into private behavior. On the one hand, you don’t want to tolerate bad behavior, but on the other hand, we don’t want the Thought Police either. It’s cases like this, where the behavior is so offensive, that we have to be most careful not to erode rights–in my opinion, anyway.</p>
<p>Freedom of speech doesn’t mean freedom from consequences, and I think there should be consequences. This is a public institution.</p>
<p>For those of you that think too much is being made of this, all I can tell you, as a person of color, even though I’m a ‘good minority’ (as has been said to me in the past–I’m Chinese) is-- this kind of thing hurts. It hurts me as a person. It’s humiliating and it makes people feel awful. Don’t we want people in general not to feel awful? It just comes down to that.</p>
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<p>That’s a serious understatement. The origins of associating watermelon with insidious negative stereotypes against African-Americans goes back to at least the antebellum period in US history. That’s over 150+ years ago.</p>
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<p>Being a public institution means that more care needs to be taken when there are such things as “speech codes” involved. As it is, the school has enough to derecognize that fraternity without going anywhere near “speech codes”.</p>
<p>Be careful in that such “speech codes” can easily be used against unpopular minority groups, rather than protecting them.</p>
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<p>Maybe I am more thick-skinned about it (as a member of a visible minority), but the way I see this particular incident is that a relatively marginal group did something that puts itself up for ridicule and will likely lead to its own destruction. It would be much more of a concern if the fraternity were otherwise a well respected and powerful one on a campus where social life is dominated or heavily influenced by fraternities.</p>
<p>This school seems to have a lot of problems.
It reportedly is the largest campus in US, I expect that has alot to do with it.
[Freshman</a> Force-Fed Cat Food Shows Frats Thwart Hazing Warnings - Bloomberg](<a href=“Bloomberg - Are you a robot?”>Bloomberg - Are you a robot?)</p>
<p><a href=“http://english.clas.asu.edu/files/shared/printersdevil/2007-08/HalCohen.doc[/url]”>http://english.clas.asu.edu/files/shared/printersdevil/2007-08/HalCohen.doc</a></p>
<p>[Arrest</a> 857 People Arizona State University - Business Insider](<a href=“http://www.businessinsider.com/arrest-857-people-arizona-state-university-2013-9]Arrest”>Arrest 857 People Arizona State University)</p>
<p>Fraternities tend to be strongly associated with problems, usually with alcohol.</p>
<p>Perhaps schools that do have some official recognition of fraternities should strongly consider forcing them to go dry (some schools have already done this).</p>
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<p>That phrase is racist and should not be used.</p>
<p>Attending college is a privilege and not a right.</p>
<p>ASU has a student code of conduct for both individuals and groups. If you don’t agree with the code then don’t go to school there. It appears that double secret probation was ineffective for this zoo fraternity. What they did appears to violate the ASU code of conduct- it may be that enforcement of this code will violate their right to privacy and free speech but I doubt it. In any case the administration should be in frank discussion with the fraternity’s national organization about closing the ASU chapter.</p>
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<p>In this case, it looks pretty cut and dried that the fraternity is in violation of its probation terms (“no parties”), which gives the school plenty of cause to derecognize it, without going anywhere near the issue of “speech codes”.</p>
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<p>An LA Times article indicates that the TKE national organization has sent people to ASU.</p>
<p>They’ve now expelled the frat, which is really the only thing they could have done given that they weren’t allowed to host parties.</p>
<p>Here is the story of the expulsion / derecognition of the fraternity by the school:
<a href=“Help Center - The Arizona Republic”>Help Center - The Arizona Republic;
<p><a href=“Help Center - The Arizona Republic”>Help Center - The Arizona Republic; indicates that there were additional violations beyond the violation of its probation conditions, such as alcohol violations.</p>
<p>As far as what the school can do, it is at least theoretically possible that they can do more with respect to individual students. For example, the fraternity’s officers who planned the party may face disciplinary trouble due to the wilful violations that got the fraternity derecognized.</p>