 "Photo: Courtesy of YouTube")
UCSD students were enraged this week over a seemingly racist and sexist off-campus fraternity party.
Alleged members of Pi Kappa Alpha arranged a “Compton Cookout,” which encouraged non-black students to mockingly dress as racially offensive characters.
“We strongly condemn this event and the blatant disregard of our campus values,” said UCSD Chancellor Marye Anne Fox. “Although the party was not a UC San Diego student-organization sponsored event, participants did include UC San Diego students and that causes us great concern.”
According to Fox less than two percent of UCSD’s undergraduates are black.
“This event was intended and did expose the true feeling of a group of people, who either are racist, who acted out their beliefs, or people who say they are not racist, but engaged in acts that were racist,” said Leon Jenkins, president of the Los Angeles NAACP.
The event has also captured the attention of lawmakers in California.
“It seems as though every single year this situation happens,” said Assemblywoman Karen Boss, a Los Angeles Democrat. “I think that whether it is on one campus or another, what we have to do in the state of California is make sure on every level of higher education, whether it’s the UC, CSU or the community college, that a message needs to be sent that this is absolutely intolerable in the 21st Century.”
In a letter, Pi Kappa Alpha president Garron Engstrom denied the fraternity’s involvement with the party, but also promised repercussions.
The fraternity regrets the display of ignorance and error of judgment made by any individual members who may have attended or were associated via social media with the racially offensive party,” Engstrom wrote. “These actions are in direct violation of Pike’s code of conduct, and appropriate disciplinary actions will be taken with such members.”
UCSD'sstudent-run television station, SRTV, was shut down after a student allegedly used racially offensive words to condemn students who opposed the cookout.
A man who called himself Jiggaboo Jones said in a YouTube video he was responsible for the party. He claimed it was not a racist event.
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