Last Black Member of OU's 'Racist' SAE Fraternity Says 'I Had a Real Hard Time Looking in The Mirror Last Night'
As the University of Oklahoma continues to reel from the fallout of a racist video of members of the now suspended local arm of the Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity singing that there will never be a black fraternity brother, the second and last black member of the fraternity group says the video has left him grieving.
"At first I felt I should have known better. ... I put a lot of faith and trust in an idea and knowing that that could come back and bite me some time and just hoping it never would, and then feeling that that faith and trust was misplaced was my initial reaction," said William Bruce James II, who told KFOR that he was the last black SAE member at OU 14 years ago.
It appears, however, that the SAE fraternity brothers who were singing the derogatory chant to the tune of a popular children's song 'If Your Happy and You Know It' in the now viral video posted to YouTube on Sunday, were unaware that they had black SAE brothers.
Get Our Latest News for FREE
"There will never be a n***er SAE. There will never be a n***er SAE. … You can hang them from a tree but they'll never sign with me. There will never be a n***er SAE," they chanted with glee in the video that had been viewed more than 2 million times and voted down more than 4,000 times as of Tuesday morning.
James, who is still trying to come to terms with the behavior of his fraternity members, said the first thing that came to his mind was "shock and disbelief."
"That's not the house I joined. Those aren't men I know or respect today. I had a real hard time looking at myself in the mirror last night dealing with wearing those letters for so long and seeing that video with people who were supposed to be living by the same ideals and belief system I was taught in that house. Saying what they were saying, with complete disregard for anyone ever hearing that, and the fact that it could be insensitive to many people let alone specifically their supposed brother," he said.
"I've talked to a lot of my (white) brothers from back in the day and they are helping me be less angry about it because I don't want to be angry. But I can't help but feel grieved. I feel like I've lost a family member. There is a thing I had yesterday, this group of people that supposedly I could go anywhere and just because I knew a phrase or a handshake or salute I'd feel welcome, and I don't feel that anymore. … I'm grieving the loss of that. And I still have my friends that I've always had, they'll always be my friends. But the feeling that pure bond of brotherhood, I don't know I'll ever get it back," he ended.
Since the story broke the Greek letters have been removed from the SAE fraternity house and the football team protested instead of practicing, according to USA Today.
The university's president, David Boren, cut ties with the fraternity and promised a thorough investigation which could also result in some students being expelled from the school. He said the university's legal staff is looking at whether the students who started and promoted that chant may have violated Title VI of the Civil Rights Act, which prohibits racial discrimination.
"We are also going to look at any individual perpetrators, particularly those that we think took a lead in this kind of activity," said Boren.
The fraternity's national organization, which has 15,000 members nationwide, condemned the video and said the SAE chapter of the school had been closed and the members had been suspended from the national organization.
"We are disgusted that any member would act in such a way," the statement said. "Furthermore, we are embarrassed by this video and offer our empathy not only to anyone outside the organization who is offended but also to our brothers who come from a wide range of backgrounds, cultures and ethnicities."
Oklahoma University is a state school that has 30,000 studens, two-thirds of whom are white. About 5 percent of the student body is black, while the remainder comes from other minority groups.
