This past week, members of the University of Oklahoma's Sigma Alpha Epsilon were expelled and the fraternity disbanded after a video surfaced of members of the fraternity yelling a racial slur-filled chant on a bus. This incident has led to a new revival in the race debate -- should these students have gotten a 2nd chance? Did the college overreact? Or should they have reacted differently?
I read a very interesting article on the situation, one that brought up the double standards of the school. Apparently, 2 other students, both on the football team, had received minimal consequences after both physically and verbally attacking women. The school gave both of these students second chances, while they expelled two of the students without question after their racism. Now, I'm definitely not condoning racism or anything like that, but I would say that violence (whether they were sexist or just plain mean) is definitely up there with racism. And, as much as I hate to say it, it does seem a bit strange that students who said hurtful things would get punished more harshly than students who actually did hurtful things.
Now, rather than only suggesting easing up on the racist fraternity members or cracking down on the violent football athletes, I'd say do a little bit of each and meet somewhere in the middle. You have to always consider people's backgrounds before judging them for their beliefs -- for all we know, the fraternity members could have grown up in racist and bigoted households and just not have known any better. They need to be taught why using racial slurs and racism in general is bad, not just blindly punished for it. Sure, they might not say the n-word again, but who knows if they truly understand why it's such a hurtful and painful word for so many people? And instead of being so lenient on the athletes, the University of Oklahoma needs to rethink their decisions and consider giving harsher punishment to those who are violent towards others, whether that be violent towards women or just people in general.
This whole situation just shows how far we have left to go even with all the advancements we've made through and since the civil rights movement of the 20th century. We might be working towards equality, but there are still plenty of reminders every day of our painful past. America needs to change the root of the problem -- make people understand the pain that African Americans had to go through and not just punish them blindly for their mistakes.
I read a very interesting article on the situation, one that brought up the double standards of the school. Apparently, 2 other students, both on the football team, had received minimal consequences after both physically and verbally attacking women. The school gave both of these students second chances, while they expelled two of the students without question after their racism. Now, I'm definitely not condoning racism or anything like that, but I would say that violence (whether they were sexist or just plain mean) is definitely up there with racism. And, as much as I hate to say it, it does seem a bit strange that students who said hurtful things would get punished more harshly than students who actually did hurtful things.
Now, rather than only suggesting easing up on the racist fraternity members or cracking down on the violent football athletes, I'd say do a little bit of each and meet somewhere in the middle. You have to always consider people's backgrounds before judging them for their beliefs -- for all we know, the fraternity members could have grown up in racist and bigoted households and just not have known any better. They need to be taught why using racial slurs and racism in general is bad, not just blindly punished for it. Sure, they might not say the n-word again, but who knows if they truly understand why it's such a hurtful and painful word for so many people? And instead of being so lenient on the athletes, the University of Oklahoma needs to rethink their decisions and consider giving harsher punishment to those who are violent towards others, whether that be violent towards women or just people in general.
This whole situation just shows how far we have left to go even with all the advancements we've made through and since the civil rights movement of the 20th century. We might be working towards equality, but there are still plenty of reminders every day of our painful past. America needs to change the root of the problem -- make people understand the pain that African Americans had to go through and not just punish them blindly for their mistakes.