Fraternity Is Shut Down at U. of Oklahoma After Racist Video Surfaces

[[Updated (3/9/2015, 2:25 p.m) with a full statement from President Boren.]

The Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity has disbanded its University of Oklahoma chapter after members were shown singing a racist chant in a video posted online. The video, sent anonymously to The Oklahoma Daily, the university’s student newspaper, shows members of the fraternity singing a song that includes a racial slur for African-Americans and a reference to lynching.

Students rallied on the campus Monday morning to protest the video. The university’s president, David L. Boren, posted a statement on his Twitter account in which he said of the men in the video: “You are disgraceful. You have violated all that we stand for. You should not have the privilege of calling yourselves ‘Sooners.’ Real Sooners are not racist. Real Sooners are not bigots.”

Updated statement attached - DBo pic.twitter.com/xxfiJwCh0P

— David Boren (@President_Boren) March 9, 2015

The Oklahoma Daily also reported that the fraternity house was vandalized on Sunday night after the release of the video, and that members on the scene told the newspaper they had received death threats.

For more, see this Chronicle article.