Officials at Clemson University in South Carolina this week put the school’s Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity on probation for two years after the group held a “Cripmas” party last December that had students dressed like gang members.
The fraternity’s national organization was reportedly outraged by the Christmas-themed party that had fraternity members and some students wear red and blue bandanas—colors of South Los Angeles-based street gangs—throwing up gang hand symbols and wearing T-shirts with the image of the late rapper Tupac Shakur. About two dozen students were suspended and the leaders of the local chapter of Sigma Alpha Epsilon, whose operations are controlled by alumni advisers, were removed.
“The decision of a few brothers to hold the type of social event they organized is inexcusable and completely inappropriate, and the entire group was sanctioned,” the national Sigma Alpha Epsilon organization said in a statement. “Furthermore, their behavior in no way reflects the values and creed of the fraternity, and we apologize to the campus and the local community for their actions, because we teach our brothers to be leaders, scholars and, most importantly, gentlemen.” The national headquarters said the Clemson chapter must complete an educational program about alcohol, social justice and street gangs.
Photos of the party were posted on social media, causing a backlash as students claimed the university does not do enough to promote racial tolerance. About six percent of Clemson’s students are Black. The gathering came shortly after protests at the university over a grand jury’s decision not to indict a police officer in Ferguson, Mo., in the shooting of a Black teenager that resulted in a number of anonymous racist postings circulating around campus on the social media outlet Yik Yak.
A Sigma Alpha Epsilon chapter at the University of Oklahoma was disbanded earlier this year after members were taped singing a racist song.
