Greek Life at University of Chicago Targets Muslims, Blacks, Hispanics: Student Gov.

CHICAGO, IL - The arrest of a black student for being “too loud” in a public place, the placing of a Confederate flag near the Office of Multicultural Student Affairs and a pledging event involving members mowing the lawn wearing a sombrero and listening to Latin music are just some of the specific instances of cultural insensitivity taken part by members of the Greek Life at the University of Chicago according to a letter the student government sent to school officials this week.

A resolution created by the Muslim Students Association, Organization of Black Students and Students for Justice in Palestine passed Monday night and was submitted early Tuesday to the University President detailing specific incidents of “toxic and hateful culture in Greek Life” one week after racist emails from the fraternity Alpha Epsilon Pi were leaked to BuzzFeed News.

While the emails showed members of the AEPi fraternity targeting African-Americans, Muslims and women, the student government also took issue with the Delta Upsilon Fraternity, who are accused of the Confederate flag incident and the Alpha Delta Phi Fraternity, who according to the resolution obtained by BuzzFeed News, “held a pledging event involving “first-­year pledges performing a racial caricature, mowing the lawn in front of the fraternity house wearing oversized sombreros while Latin music played from a stereo” and hosted a party titled “DU Presents: Conquistadors and Aztec Hoes [sic],” which encouraged attendees to bring “an unlimited need to conquer, spread disease, and enslave natives.”

Other students involved with Greek Life in 2014 were accused of wearing a ‘cholo’ (a derogatory term for Mexican American men) as a costume for Halloween. One of those students posed for a picture with his hands behind his back while a white student wearing a police costume pretended to beat him.

The student government’s resolution demands disciplinary action against Alpha Epsilon Pi, whose leaked emails included a plan to celebrate Martin Luther King Jr. Day by eating at a fried chicken restaurant and drinking alcohol throughout the day and the description of a Muslim activist on campus as a “terrorist.”

They also want an apology from AEPi to be addressed to the Muslims Students Association and Palestinian and African American students.

The frat whose emails were leaked has issued a general apology, BuzzFeed reported.

“We are sorry,” the fraternity said in a statement to students at the university. “We are sorry that our fraternity was ever a safe haven for the kind of vitriol you have now all seen, and we are sorry for the fact that when it was, none of us did enough to stop it.”

The chapter is planning a series of steps to address the behavior.

more via BuzzFeed News