Racist Chant from Oklahoma's SAE Chapter Appears at Duke University, Investigation Underway
ByThe infamous Sigma Alpha Epsilon (SAE) chant that got the fraternity's Kappa chapter kicked off the University of Oklahoma's campus has apparently cropped up at Duke University.
According to the Duke Chronicle, a group of white students drunkenly sang the chant to a black female student in public. At this time, it does not appear likely that Duke's chapter of the SAE fraternity was directly involved in the incident, which reportedly came to light from an anonymous post on Yik-Yak.
Larry Moneta, vice president for student affairs at Duke, told the Chronicle last week the school has opened an investigation into the incident.
"We care very much when any of our students express concerns with safety or any aspect of their Duke experience," he said. "We'll certainly reach out and offer any and all
support we can to help address these concerns."
The chant first became national news when a group of OU SAE students were caught on video singing it loud and emphatically on a bus en route to an official event. The chant references lynching and deems African-Americans unwelcome to the fraternity. OU reacted swiftly, kicking the chapter off campus and expelling two students who apparently lead the chant.
In their recently unveiled investigation, OU said their students learned the chant at a leadership event hosted at the SAE national office. The fraternity confirmed as much, but rejected the notion that the chant is ingrained in the fraternity's history.
"Our chapter was shocked and appalled when the news broke about the racist chant at Oklahoma University," Duke's Nu chapter of the SAE fraternity said in a statement. "Earlier this week, our chapter felt the same stomach-turning emotions when we heard that the hateful words from the OU video were repeated on our own campus."