Source: WWBT / WWBT
The University of Richmond has suspended one of its fraternities after a video surfaced on Monday of them chanting racist songs. Members of the Kappa Sigma house were taped singing lyrics such as “The South will rise again” and “I want to be a slave owner,” for which the university took the disciplinary measure. Kappa Sigma headquarters reportedly suspended its UofR chapter as well.
University president Kevin Hallock spoke to the student body and criticized the incident. “The behavior recorded in the video is shameful and despicable. I am appalled by what I have seen and heard,” he said in a recorded message to the student body. “This is not who we are, nor who we aspire to be.”
But according to Shira Greer, the video is actually a spot-on reflection of how the institution feels about its Black population. “To say that this is not who we are is a lie, and I think we just wanted to call that out really clearly,” she said, according to Richmond’s WWBT-DT.
Greer is a longtime member of the university’s Race & Racism Project and its Black Student Coalition, created earlier this year in response to UofR’s decision to keep the names of historically racist persons on its properties.
“Just seeing them display that so comfortably and openly in that video is always somewhat disturbing,” Greer added. “It’s not surprising because I think we know these sentiments exist among many members of our campus community.”
The university’s Student Government Association agrees with the coalition and feels the clip was just a peek into the school’s underbelly. “The student governments are thoroughly disappointed and wanted to, again, denounce these actions on our campus community,” the SGA said in a statement. “This is not an instance limited to Kappa Sigma, as is evident by the past few months… This video is just the latest in a series of abhorrent and unacceptable actions by members of our community.”
The university said it is launching further investigation into its Kap Sig chapter and the persons in the video. However, it hasn’t been clear as to what further action it will take against those individuals or towards mending the situation.
