![]() The racist character of the "Greek" fraternity system has a long history in Alabama, and fits with the discrimination against Black students, faculty, and staff that is part and parcel of "higher education" in the state. We want to make sure that this kind of threat doesn't happen at UAB again." ![]() "The BSU's purpose is to uplift Black culture with education and unity. "We're going to start a petition demanding that the UAB administration handle this threat in a prompt and serious manner, so in the future we will not have this problem," said Takara Swoopes, president of the BSU. In addition to protesting the Auburn events, BSU leaders wanted to make known that they had received a threatening e-mail from a Klan-minded individual. Auburn Student Government Association president Brandon Riddick Seals, who is Black, told the Birmingham News that while he had considered his election a positive step for Auburn, he now questioned what progress had really been made after seeing the Halloween photos.Ī November 9 meeting of the BSU at the University of Alabama/Birmingham (UAB) drew nearly 50 students, including some who are white. An antiracist rally was held on the Auburn campus November 8, which drew Black and white students. Many Black students on campus are calling on the university to severely punish the fraternities and students involved. The Black Student Union (BSU) at Auburn held a packed meeting on November 5. Auburn University is the largest school in the state university system, but it has the lowest percentage of Black students at only 7 percent. Interim Auburn University president William Walker described them as "shocking and outrageous." Both fraternities have been suspended by the university and by their national offices, pending investigations. The immediate response of the Auburn University administration was to denounce the fraternity members' actions. The newspapers and TV reports have also quoted some white students trivializing the actions. Today, Black students are trying to figure out why such overt racist acts are still happening, and why they continue to face big obstacles in their fight for equality, despite the gains won by the civil rights movement. Much of the public reaction has been to condemn the fraternity members-not the response that would have occurred a few decades ago, when such racist displays wouldn't have caused much of a stir. Since then, a widespread discussion has broken out on campuses throughout the state university system, in the media, and more broadly among working people. Members of Omega Psi Phi discovered the pictures and reported them to the university administration. Frat members' girlfriends also appeared in the photos, smiling and evidently enjoying themselves. The two white fraternities had arranged to have a professional photographer take pictures of the events, and the pictures were posted on the World Wide Web. At a neighboring fraternity party, Beta Theta Pi members also came in blackface, sporting exaggerated Afro wigs, and wearing the T-shirts of Omega Psi Phi, a traditionally Black fraternity. A large Confederate flag provided the backdrop. He and another student-both holding rifles-flanked a third student in blackface, who had a noose around his neck. On October 27 a Delta Sigma Phi member attended the fraternity's Halloween party dressed in a hooded Ku Klux Klan sheet. Alabama students protest racist depiction of BlacksīIRMINGHAM, Alabama-Halloween parties held by two all-white fraternities at Auburn University in Auburn, Alabama, have sparked widespread discussion across the state among college students and others over the state's segregationist past and how to defend the rights and dignity of Black students.
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