A fraternity chapter at Arizona State University has been suspended after throwing an offensive Martin Luther King Day Party.
Members of the Tau Kappa Epsilon fraternity threw an “MLK Black Party” on Sunday night, complete with members dressed in distasteful costumes and expressing racist stereotypes. About 80-100 partygoers were in attendance and were asked to “dress like black people.” Pictures were uploaded to Instagram with hashtags, such as “#blackoutformlk”, but the accounts have since then been taken down.
This incident may not come as a surprise to ASU students. Arizona State fraternities have already made national headline news in the past, most notably for the death of Sigma Alpha Epsilon member, Jack Culolias in December 2012 and in August 2013 after the City of Tempe TASK Force made over 1,000 arrests within the first three weekends of the ASU school year.
“The worst part in this entire escapade was the fact that they trivialized Dr. King’s movement,” said sophomore Animal Behavior and Physiology major, Melissa Schodt.
This wasn’t TKE’s first offense either. The chapter was already on social probation since 2012, which prohibited it from throwing parties. Last weekend’s party, however, was not held on campus nor was it a university-sanctioned event.
The university released an official statement that said it had suspended the chapter and will take “additional action against the individuals involved,” but the problem at hand may be more than just a bad reputation for ASU.
At a press conference held Tuesday afternoon outside of ASU’s Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication in downtown Phoenix, local civil rights leaders threatened a boycott of ASU’s athletic department. This boycott could potentially halt the fundraising efforts to rebuild Sun Devil stadium, unless the university permanently expels the fraternity as well as the students involved in the organization of the party.
Rev. Jarrett Maupin, local civil rights activist, said the boycott could also potentially discourage future student athletes from attending the university.
Schodt does not believe the students should be expelled.
“They need to be educated. What they did was stupid, but to ruin their future by expelling them is harsh.”