University of Oklahoma students in fraternity Sigma Alpha Epsilon were videotaped on a bus clapping, pumping their fists and laughing as they chanted, “There will never be a ni**** SAE. You can hang him from a tree, but he can never sign with me. There will never be a ni**** SAE.”
Two students were expelled and the fraternity house has been closed.
We’re reminded that Donald Sterling lost his ownership of the Los Angels Clippers basketball team last year, also for racist speech that was spoken in “private” but caught on a recording. So the lesson may be that old attitudes toward racism are no longer to be tolerated.
For too long, we’ve treated shameful behavior as excusable. We excuse older people and young people, saying they don’t know better. It’s time to learn. There are still social settings – where the talk is presumably “off the record” – where one can hear that “N” word. At some point, most racists learn to at least muzzle their foul mouths when they are in public places. But perhaps now they will chose their words more carefully all of the time. In this day when many people carry smartphones, who knows when those words might be recorded?
Freedom of speech is not the issue in the OU case. The university was correct to act based on Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which “prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, and national origin in programs and activities receiving federal financial assistance.” That includes creating a hostile environment, which the OU students surely did.