Monday, March 09, 2015

Are There Blacks in the SAE?

Sigma Alpha Epsilon troglodytes in Oklahoma got caught singing "There will never be a n****r in SAE." That begs the question, are there African-Americans in Sigma Alpha Epsilon? So I did a little digging, checking out bulletin boards and websites.

SAE was founded in pre-Civil War Alabama. Most of its members fought for the Confederacy, 74 died defending slavery.  Some chapters still celebrate that heritage. In 1992, Esquire magazine published an article exposing the racist culture of Southern fraternities.

According to the bulletin boards, diversity is more of a thing for the northern chapters. In the Deep South, "diversity" might mean allowing in a Lutheran or (gasp!) a Catholic. As an example I offer the Southern Methodist University chapter of the SAE. I picked the SMU chapter for a reason. It has a deserved reputation for the two R's - rape and racism. They also have a very convenient website where I could test the question, are there n****rs in the SAE?
SAE at SMU. I've seen more diversity at a Klan rally.

There are many photos of the fraternity's 2014 winter party. The only black visible is in the band. The 2014 spring initiation shows who they are inviting into the chapter. I've never seen a pastier collection of douchebags in my life. One guy appears to have a bit of a tan but most look like they haven't crawled out from under their rocks since puberty.

There may be a few token blacks in northern chapters although at least one northern chapter admitted a black to the fraternity only to kidnap him and leave him to die as part of a hazing ritual. Since boys will be boys and the victim was only a n****r, the killers were only charged with a misdemeanor. So, officially, no murder or homicide even happened.

The SAE is still as racist as it was in 1858. As for that song the OU freaks got caught singing? I strongly doubt it's an outlier, they learned it somewhere. I suspect it is a common refrain especially in the Land of Dixie. OU's problem is that they accidentally allowed in a pledge with a moral compass. The SAE fraternity won't make that mistake again.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

It's so hard for me to believe that people - especially young people - still do this kind of thing! It's like they are living every stereotype people have of rich white frat guys...