About
The University of Oklahoma Fraternity Racism Incident refers to the controversy surrounding a leaked video in which members of the University of Oklahoma’s (OU) Sigma Alpha Epsilon (SAE) fraternity are shown singing a racist chant, which surfaced online in early March 2015.
Background
On March 8th, 2015, The Oklahoma Daily[1] reported that the SAE fraternity at OU was being investigated after members of the fraternity were allegedly filmed singing a racist chant to the tune of the children’s song “If You’re Happy and You Know It” on a charter bus, which indicated that black students could not join the fraternity. The article included an embed of a YouTube video showing footage of the incident (shown below).Within eight days, the video received more than 770,000 views and 1,300 comments. The controversy erupted less than three weeks after a video surfaced in which Chelsea soccer fans were shown singing a racist chant to block a black man from boarding a metro train in Paris.
Notable Developments
Online Reaction
The same day, Instagram user soonerdave25 posted a video showing an alternate angle of the bus incident (shown below). Also on March 8th, 2015, Redditor rbutler89 submitted the original YouTube upload to the /r/videos[2] subreddit, where it gained over 4,700 votes (88% upvoted) in the first week.
A video posted by David Smith (@soonerdave25) on Mar 8, 2015 at 9:02pm PDT
Fraternity Suspension
That evening, the SAE parent organization suspended the members implicated in the video and the fraternity was ordered by OU to vacate campus by Tuesday the following week. On March 9th, Redditor g_mo821 submitted a photograph of SAE members packing their belongings into Uhaul trucks, garnering upwards of 5,100 votes (92% upvoted) in six days on the /r/pics[5] subreddit (shown below).
Chant Leader Identified
On March 10th, The Daily Mail[4] identified OU freshman Parker Rice as the SAE member leading the racist chant in the video, noting that Rice and another student had been expelled from OU due to their participation in the chant.
Beauton Gilbow Video
The same day, a Vine video showing the fraternity’s 79-year-old house mother Beauton Gilbow singing the lyric “nigga nigga nigga” from the 2012 Trinidad James rap song “All Gold Everything” began circulating online. The original Vine was subsequently removed but was mirrored on YouTube prior to its deletion (shown below).
Search Interest
External References
[1]OU Daily – OU Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity under investigation
[2]Reddit – University of Oklahoma fraternity Sigma Alpha Epsilon
[3]Oklahoma Daily – Another view of the racist Sigma Alpha Epsilon video that shut down an OU fraternity
[4]The Daily Mail – Former Catholic schoolboy named as Oklahoma fraternity brother who led racist chant
[5]Reddit – SAE Oklahoma Packing Up