A Good Ol' Fraternity Lynching

When I was in college, I wanted to be a lawyer. I wanted to become a defense attorney, because I believed that everybody is entitled to a defense. I have an instinct to defend the indefensible. This humanist desire surfaced early in founder John Adams' life, when he represented the British soldiers involved in the Boston Massacre.

Today I feel of kindred spirit with the members of Oklahoma University's Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity. They were videotaped chanting a racist declaration on a bus trip, using the wording, "There will never be a nigger SAE. You can hang him from a tree, but he can never sign with me."

The community has reacted with customary anguish. Students rallied against the fraternity. Many students taped their mouths shut and wrote the message "UNHEARD" on the tape. I don't know what that means. Maybe it means that they don't want to hear that someone doesn't like them. I wonder if any of them appreciate the irony of demonstrating against offensive speech by taping their mouths shut.

The national chapter of SAE suspended the Oklahoma chapter. I think that is appropriate. But it won't end there. The President of Oklahoma University has given the chapter until midnight tonight to pack their bags and leave the house. That seems a bit harsh. A landlord may give a tenant a Three-Day Notice to Perform Covenant or Quit premises if the tenant is causing damage or creating a nuisance. The short notice seems to be a gross violation of due process.

The nuisance created seems to be coming from the student body. Their threatening behavior has prompted the university to park police squad cars in front of the fraternity house. The campus group Unheard has planned "peaceful" protests on campus. Funny how those "peaceful" protests always culminate in civil disobedience, property damage and mass arrests.

But it won't end there. University President David Boren wants the students involved to be expelled. "I don't have much sympathy for them," he said. This incident is surely embarrassing to the students involved. The tape is going to follow them around everywhere, for the rest of their lives.

Some might argue that the shame of the tape's widespread distribution is punishment enough. It won't be. The entire pan-Hellenic community at Oklahoma has been summoned for diversity and sensitivity training at the request of David Boren.

In the South, lynching was often performed not just as extra-judicial punishment, but to send a warning. The message to black men was: know your place. Seems to me that this is figuratively happening to the SAE fraternity. Wikipedia says that lynching is done to "intimidate a minority group" and that it is "an extreme form of informal group social control."

I feel bad for those fraternity members involved. Their stupidity is going to be a millstone hung about their necks for the rest of their lives. The allegation of racism is enough for perpetual damnation. And there will be no trial, just punishment.