Another Reason to Hate Fraternities

If you live in Baltimore, it's pretty much impossible to have missed the news of a party at a Johns Hopkins fraternity (Sigma Chi) that had pretty offensive racial stereotypes. Apparently JHU has suspended the fraternity now.

Today a coworker asked me about my opinion on the issue because JHU is my alma mater. Here's what I told him:

It doesn't surprise me a bit that something like this could happen at Hopkins. It's not that the students are bad people, it's that they have absolutely no communication with the local community in general. Why? They're all middle to upper-middle class kids from the suburbs thrust into a lower-middle class to low class neighborhood. Then you add to it that Baltimore is an incredibly dangerous city and these kids have never lived in a city before…students are very wary of any part of town that is at all working-class or poor. So you have a situation where the prevailing local culture is very different from the culture that the students grew up in. So occasionally someone will suggest having a party themed after local culture. The problem is that Baltimore (and the area near Hopkins) is predominantly African-American. So when they set out to lampoon local culture, it ends up having very racial overtones.

Rereading it now, I still think that it's the best description I've come up with yet to describe the interaction between JHU and Baltimore. I can't say that it's the first time I've heard of a "ghetto" themed party at JHU. I had some friends once propose such a party, but when I thought about it I told them "Hey, I know you don't mean it, but that party could come off with a pretty racist vibe." They thought about it, then changed the party theme to "crazy hat" party.

My argument is that sometimes the students don't realize the harm they might be doing. Now, please note that I do not believe that this fraternity made an innocent mistake. I am describing the subtly racist attitude that I have noticed among many JHU undergraduates and where I believe it originates.

It really blows my mind that you had a bunch of students plan this party and no one stepped up and said "Hey guys, this might be a bad idea." Although, it's not all that surprising when you consider that this was a fraternity party. Fraternities act as positive feedback mechanisms for insensitivity. Which is probably why that party went from accidentally having racial overtones to being nothing but negative stereotypes of African Americans.

So what do I think about having the university ban this fraternity? Go for it. However, I would much prefer that JHU (and other universities) revise their policies of supporting Greek life. Fraternities and, to a lesser extent, sororities simply do not add value to the collegiate experience. Modern fraternities exist to promote underage drinking and promulgate misogynistic behavior. Ban them all and watch your community relations improve.