MISSED THIS ON FOX:
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http://www.latimes.com/nation/nationnow ... story.html
A video of white University of Oklahoma fraternity members engaging in a racist chant went viral after a tipster texted the video to members of a black campus activist group who shared it on Twitter, a representative for the group told the Los Angeles Times on Monday.
University and national fraternity officials almost immediately shut down the university’s Sigma Alpha Epsilon chapter after the video surfaced on social media on Sunday night. The university’s president on Monday, while announcing a separate investigation into individual fraternity members, vowed SAE would never return while he remained in charge.
Dozens of University of Oklahoma students gathered on campus Monday morning before dawn to protest, with some carrying placards decrying racism.
Monday morning’s protest was organized by a group named OU Unheard, which got almost 4,000 retweets after sharing the video on Twitter and tagging the university’s president early Sunday evening.
Chelsea Davis, a 20-year-old junior and co-director for the group, told The Times that the tipster who sent the video to the group Sunday was not the person who shot the video, and the sender wanted to remain anonymous.
"They should expel these students for what they have done," Davis said of the “hurtful” chant.
In the video, young men can be heard chanting "you can hang 'em from a tree" but “there will never be a ….. SAE” and clapping in unison, to the tune of "If You're Happy and You Know It." After the video went viral, protesters began using the offensive lyrics as a hashtag, along with #SAEHatesMe.
A separate video showing the chant, shot apparently by a different person on the bus where the fraternity members appeared to have gathered with dates in formal attire, has since emerged on Instagram.
Both the university and the national chapter of SAE condemned the chant and moved quickly Sunday to suspend the fraternity from the Norman, Okla., campus of 30,000.
On Monday morning, David Boren, president of the University of Oklahoma, ordered the SAE house closed. Members must clear out their belongings by midnight Tuesday.
"Whether it’s casual conversation or other activities, any time there are racists remarks made, we must speak up as regular Americans,” Boren said at a Monday morning news conference, arguing that there must be “zero tolerance” for racism not just at the campus but across the country. “As they pack their bags, I hope they think long and hard about what they’ve done. … The house will be closed. As far as I’m concerned it won’t be back, at least while I’m president of the university. It’s time we send messages that are very strong and very clear.”
Brad Cohen, president of the national chapter of SAE, said he was “disgusted and shocked” by the video and closed the chapter. In a statement, SAE said it was "embarrassed by this video" and apologized to "anyone outside the organization who is offended but also to our brothers who come from a wide range of backgrounds, cultures and ethnicities."
SAE was founded in 1856 in Tuscaloosa, Ala. Nationwide there are more than 200 chapters and 15,000 undergraduate members.
Some student activists and observers have raised questions about whether the SAE chant was common, given that many young men on the bus shown in the video appeared to know it. In February, a Reddit user posted a message that had lyrics for an SAE chant similar to those shown in the Oklahoma video, with the user adding that “a few buddies of mine told me [it was] their favorite song to sing.”
The Oklahoma video caused an instant uproar on campus. In some tweets posted late Sunday, the fraternity house was shown with a spray painted message, "tear it down," on its outside wall.
