Oklahoma Frat Members Learned Racist Chant During Cruise: School - East Idaho News
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Oklahoma Frat Members Learned Racist Chant During Cruise: School

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032515 LeviPetit?  SQUARESPACE CACHEVERSION=1427483096697ABC News(NORMAN, Okla.) — The University of Oklahoma fraternity members who were recorded singing a racist chant on a bus learned the song during a leadership cruise held by the Sigma Alpha Epsilon’s national organization four years ago, university officials announced on Friday.

The University of Oklahoma’s chapter of SAE was closed earlier this month after the recording was released online. Two students were subsequently expelled from the school.

The university launched an investigation into the use of the chant, and school president David Boren announced on Friday that school officials had found that the 2011 cruise was the first known contact that their students had with the song.

It was then brought back to the school’s chapter where it was shared with members and pledges for the past four years.

Boren says there is no evidence this was a nationally sanctioned chant, but that it appears to have been widely known by SAE members from around the country at that leadership cruise.

In a statement, the SAE national organization confirmed that members of its University of Oklahoma chapter “likely learned a racist chant while attending a national Leadership School about four years ago,” but that there was no evidence the chant is widespread among its 237 chapters.

“We remain committed to identifying and rooting out racist behavior from SAE,” the organization’s Executive Director Blaine Ayers said in a statement, “but our investigation shows no evidence the song was widely shared across the broader organization.” SAE says it invites hundreds of leaders to an annual six-day leadership retreat that includes classes, seminars and social gatherings. Ayers speculated that it was during such a social gathering that “some members shared the racist song that was recorded on video at the University of Oklahoma and shared through social media earlier this month,” the organization’s statement read.

“The song is horrific and does not at all reflect our values as an organization,” Ayers said. “If we find any other examples of this kind of behavior currently occurring, we will hold our members accountable, just as we’ve done in Oklahoma.”

No further details about the cruise have been released, including where it sailed and how many members were involved.


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