The video of members of the now-shuttered chapter of Sigma Alpha Epsilon’s chapter at the University of Oklahoma declaring that they will never allow an “n-word” among them has outraged people of all shades from across the country. But few are nearly as outraged as a former black member of that chapter, William James II. In an emotional interview on CNN on Tuesday morning, James, a lawyer and 2005 graduate of OU, said that the guys in that video were not brothers of his as far as he was concerned.
Watch the full interview here.
When CNN’s Kate Bolduan asked him what he thought about hearing that chant from people who were supposed to be his brothers, James answered bluntly, “They are not my brothers. The guys in that video are not my brothers.” He said that he was “deeply offended as a black man” to see this. More importantly, he was stunned that this could happen at a house that had been his second home for four years, especially since he had put “my own blood, sweat, and tears” into building “a culture that would never do that.”
Co-anchor John Berman asked James if he’d heard the chant in that video before, amid numerous rumors that the song had been part of the culture at several SAE chapters throughout the country. James said that he never heard “an inkling” of anything like this, at least not when he was there from 2001 to 2005. During that time, “the second this song started, someone would have stopped it whether I was there or not.” Nonetheless, it was very hard for him to take since they wore the same letters, the same pin, and the same symbols that are still very much a part of him.
Earlier in the day, OU president David Boren announced that the chapter had been thrown off campus, and wouldn’t be back as long as he was in office. James wholeheartedly supported this action. To his mind, since the song was sung in unison and no one stood up to stop it, “that entire house has accepted the culture” that made it even remotely acceptable to sing that song. Part of being an SAE, he said, is standing up and shutting racist nonsense like this down right away. It’s part of what their motto, “Phi Alpha,” is supposed to be. It looks like the two people responsible for this outrageous stunt may be getting what “Phi Alpha” means–at least because they got caught. Late Monday, both of them apologized for their roles in the video.
James first came to attention when he posted on his personal blog about his initial reaction to the video. He was only the second black ever accepted into that chapter–and as far as he knows, there hasn’t been a third. He recalled that several of his brothers had honest questions about a culture that most of them hadn’t been exposed to before. It reminded me of my high school days. I had mostly white friends, and was usually one of–at most–four blacks in most of my classes. Most of my friends had many of the same questions that James’ brothers had. James went on to write that he sincerely believed SAE was different. However, after this video, he declared that can have “no association with this organization as a BLACK MAN.” As far as he was concerned, this was way, way beyond college kids being college kids. The kids in that video were “sons of men who failed them.” In the interview, he clarified his stance, saying he wanted nothing to do with that chapter–a sentiment shared by many of his former brothers.
Anyone who thinks that Boren was too harsh in saying that SAE would not return to OU as long as he was president should watch this video. Something went wrong in that house–bad wrong–in the decade since James graduated from OU. The only way to ensure that there is never a next time for whatever it was that went wrong is to not entertain any reinstatement of OU’s SAE chapter until 2019 at the earliest. By then, most of the members of that chapter will be gone, and the chances will be somewhere between slim and none that any of them will be part of any reorganized chapter. Nothing less would have been acceptable–and nothing less would have given the replacement chapter a chance of building something like the house James knew.
