Last week, I wrote a column about how greeks on this campus should stop writing letters to the CW affirming their lack of racism and instead focus on changing their institutions to end the historical racial divide that these organizations perpetrated on this campus.
For the most part, my piece was met with a positive response, even from quite a few greeks. Those who disagree seem to mostly have taken me to mean that all greeks are racist. That misinterpretation is not my fault. I was careful never to imply that and directly disavowed that view three times in less than 700 words. If a reader missed that, it’s on them.
I am afraid that the worst response was from anti-greek zealots. The parody website totalfratmove.com posted a satirical response to my column. The author went over the top in pillorying a stereotype of greek illiteracy and engaged in an absurdist version of straw-man arguments.
I don’t care how many times you were denied a bid, this level of stereotyping is crass. The site creates an awful caricature of the drunk, racist, misogynistic frat boy. Incendiary implications of sexism like the article “Rush Boobs From This Week (105 Photos)” are not productive in moving forward with a dialogue on campuses. The last person to snipe at greeks so peevishly was guided by Apollo.
Although I know that he was joking, the author, a man apparently called “Bacon,” did tag me with one mock charge which I feel that I must address; that of hypocrisy for not having challenged a frat guy who made racist comments. I think that I can be acquitted of that, since I did not tell anyone to take risks with this; the guy was too drunk to read my body language, was a lot bigger than I was, had already shoved another student hard enough to knock him down (and that in celebration), and having spent more than $100 on booze, could probably hire a better lawyer than I could if things had gone poorly.
I don’t make a habit of confronting big, drunk, aggressive racists. And I stand by the principle that you are associated with your friends more than with strangers, even if those strangers attend your school.
But the charge holds in another way which “Bacon” could not have anticipated, and thus the friendly fire stung deeply. Even on my own terms, I am a hypocrite on this thesis, because I am an unrepentant Eagle Scout. The Boy Scouts of America have a ban on gay scouts and on atheists. Early in my scouting career, I was unaware of the ban, and it was as I grew more political that I learned of it and it began to chafe.
Still, I continued until I earned the ultimate rank in the organization. I was proud of having worked up to that and justified my acceptance of the award with both a Concorde (sunk cost) fallacy and the hollow pledge that I could do more to change the organization from inside.
It has been five years, and I have done little, if anything, about it. The Boy Scouts recently announced that they might revisit the ban on gays but have insinuated that they will not force any units to “violate their consciences” by admitting them. The irony of that decision should not be lost on any of us, coming from an organization with a nationwide ban on gay scouts, which violates the consciences of many parents and scouts.
So I am a hypocrite on this issue, which I will rectify soon. The BSA gains its reputation from the work of its members. Its ban on gays and atheists and their simultaneous acceptance of state and federal funds violates the spirit of the establishment clause, whether the courts care or not.
If someone accused me of being lukewarm on gay rights for this, they would be right, and I could not expect a stranger to determine from the evidence that I am not a homophobe. When the BSA affirms that it will allow its members to continue to discriminate against gays and atheists, I will mail in my badge and cease to lend it my good name.
Brad Erthal is a doctorate student in economics. His column runs weekly.
Leading in today’s Crimson White:
England in 1819 to perform in Tuscaloosa for first time
