As with every SAE chapter, I had high expectations for OU’s SAE chapter, a chapter that according to one source has not had a single African-American member in the last decade.
Every SAE chapter is a family. The OU SAE was a family whose only black member was its hired chef. I expect these young men to take the values of their SAE family out into the world. On March 9, I was disappointed.
The things that my brothers chanted on that bus were inexcusable, particularly in a post-racial society where African Americans are completely free to attend whatever fraternity they want to, unpressured by feelings of fear or alienation.
That so few of them chose SAE was simply a statistical fluke.
I expected these young men to live by the ideas set forth in SAE’s creed, “The True Gentleman.” This snobbish, dated and gendered piece of writing should surely have given these young men the guidance they need to navigate today’s society.
But instead of letting the WASP origins of their beloved fraternity guide them, these young white men abandoned themselves to racism. And that has no place in SAE.
Sincerely,
Brad Cohen
SAE National President
