The rumors about SAE are that there alumni will defund them if they let in a Black guy. After the Oklahoma scandal this is especially noteworthy. As a minority I’ve been to SAE parties and have never encountered problems. But I have noticed that the frat is almost all White (there is one token Indian guy). What are your thoughts on this?
First time I’ve heard of this rumor, but I wouldn’t be surprised at all if it was true. I’m getting the vibe that you’re a freshman; SAE is known throughout campus to be openly racist. Nobody is REALLY sure why, but I guess this rumor would explain it.
I mean there was that thing a while ago where an SAE member said to a black kid, “you can hang from a tree, but you can’t hang by us”. If you take that into account, this rumor seems quite reasonable.
That kind of sounds like a rumor that freshmen would spread just because SAE is the top “southern” frat. No offense to freshmen, but most 1st semester freshmen are more like high schoolers than college kids. This means that they have a propensity for huge exaggerations, ridiculous statements, and just being spazzes. I know because I remember the things that me and my friends said and thought as freshmen.
I put “southern” in parenthesis because SAE isn’t even southern. Half the kids in it are from New Trier high school in Chicago. For the most part it’s northern kids putting on boots, jeans, dad shirts and vaguely redneckish hats and pretending they’re from the south. That’s the thing about Vanderbilt frats; each has its own stereotype and you have to fit into it if you want a bid. It’s probably harder for minorities to pretend that they like packing a fat lip of copenhagen and taking their souped up lifted trucks out muddin’ on the weekends because there are not that many minorities who actually live that lifestyle. Therefore, less minorities seriously rush there and less minorities fit in/get bids.
Who knows though, maybe the alumni could be explicitly racist. I just kind of doubt that. This isn’t Ole Miss or Alabama; it’s just not that southern of a school.
The rumor is as true as the SAE is balding rumor
Also Oklahoma’s SAE has nothing to do with Vanderbilt’s SAE
@fdgjfg The fit thing seems more like a personality type fit. Not sure if you have a different experience (not necessarily just for SAE)?
You’re right, just a personality type. There are some really broad categories (if you are from NYC and like raging to EDM and wearing tank tops, that’s not really SAE’s scene so you probably won’t like it) but even within a frat there’s variance. Really, just the more specific personalities and mannerisms of the brothers is how you fit in. If you are naturally friendly with whatever specific people are in the younger upperclassmen classes, that is where you will fit in.
Let’s hope those rumors about the elephant walk aren’t true, either!
As for SAE racism, there were a couple of guys in SAE on my hall freshman year (both white) - but I don’t remember them being racists. That was 20ish yrs ago.
Of course, I guess no one really knows except the members themselves.