No one was killed. No one was arrested. This was a different kind of injustice.
Two weeks ago, a much more subtle line was crossed when students wore blackface to a “Kanye Western” themed party, hosted by members of UCLA’s Omicron chapter of Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity in affiliation with Alpha Phi sorority, Beta Delta chapter.
The Los Angeles Times reported that partygoers, along with charcoal smeared on their faces, were seen clad in do-rags, padded bottoms imitating the Kardashians (West and Kim Kardashian are married) and other representations of the black stereotype.
While these students had the right to wear a costume to a themed party, in no way was it OK to appropriate black culture for the sake of a good time.
Our campus’s minority activist groups and the entire campus community should stand in solidarity with the #BlackBruinsMatter movement led by UCLA’s Afrikan Student Union, a body equivalent to UNC’s Black Student Movement. Furthermore, the Interfraternity and Panhellenic councils ought to train members on ethics and inclusivity to prevent racist and discriminatory party themes from appearing on our campus. These issues do not just happen on the West Coast.
Two years ago, UNC’s chapter of DKE hosted a “Vietnam cocktail,” according to social media photo captions, where attendees dressed in straw hats, Army camouflage and similar garb representative of the Vietnam War. The fraternity publicized it as a “1960s and 1970s party,” but the costumes suggested otherwise. The people who chose to humorize the theme offended both people of the Vietnamese culture and descendants of U.S. soldiers who died in the war.
Surely, students intelligent enough to get into UNC ought to be able to discern when party themes and costumes — not to mention UNC’s history of Halloween costumes — are offensive, racist and unwise to wear.
As UCLA’s public statement put it, “Just because you can do something, does not mean you should.” That’s basic home training.
In response to the DKE party, the IFC said it could not punish fraternities for their party themes. But if cultural and social ignorance has already proven a problem on campus, a training on ethical responsibility is necessary for Greek organizations on campus to realize the impact their choices have on the campus community.
