After seeing the OU SAE video, many people around the nation were shocked that such blatant racism could still exist in American Greek life today. However if we are honest with ourselves, this new proof of racial hostility being a reality is not some strange enigma relegated only to the OU campus or even to the South as a region. Prejudice is something that is prevalent in our day-to-day lives. We see it on our TVs, in our social demographics, and in the racial makeup of our universities.
Consider the fact that segregation officially ended in 1964 with the passing of the Civil Rights Act. As is often the case, passing a law and fully realizing that law's intended ideals are two entirely different things. For example, the population of Texas is 12.4% black, but the state's flagship university does not come close to mirroring this demographic. Rather, the University of Texas at Austin registers a mere 4% of the student body as black.
Additionally, at UT there are 27 IFC fraternities with 2,323 members and 14 University Pan-Hellenic Council sororities with 2,888 members. The vast majority of members in these houses are white. Conversely, there are separate institutions with Asian and Latino Greek Pan-Hellenic Councils. These councils are filled largely with minorities only and hold together 14 chapters with 504 members. These facts seem to suggest that concealed segregation through limited racial association has become the normal practice for our society.
Thanks to civil rights leaders of the 1950s and 1960s, minorities are no longer separated by laws that overtly discriminate; however, one must acknowledge that even today in 2015, they can still be marginalized by economic divides, social stigmas, and simple ignorance that can serve as barriers to full integration. In Texas, 8% of whites are below the poverty line compared to 23% of blacks, which exacerbates the problem of perception. Many people joke about poor black stereotypes, and some people simply don't know any black people to counteract these caricatures… which is not a hard accomplishment at a school that's 4% black.
This does not mean that most Americans secretly nurse the pernicious sort of racism so clearly displayed on a party bus at OU or that our society has not made a great deal of progress in the last half century. What it does mean is that the conditions for this sort of racism to grow have not been eliminated.
This is not a simple problem with an easy answer. Rather, it is a complex national problem that affects all races in our country. I don't profess to know the magical solution to racism and bigotry in our country, but in this student's opinion, the way forward is to stop denying that there is a problem and start to talk about it openly.
