Like a frontier sheriff who gives the gun-toting lawbreaker until sundown to get out of town, University of Oklahoma president David Boren reacted with commendable forcefulness upon learning that members of a fraternity had been filmed participating in a shockingly racist chant that included a reference to lynching.
“I direct that the house be closed and that members will remove their personal belongings from the house by midnight tomorrow,” Boren decreed on Monday regarding Sigma Alpha Epsilon.
“I have a message for you,” Boren said. “You are disgraceful. You have violated all that we stand for. You should not have the privilege of calling yourselves ‘Sooners.’ “
Ironically, the ugly chant occurred, on the same day that thousands of people, including President Obama and former President George W. Bush, were in Selma, Ala., honoring the historic civil rights march of 50 years before.
As the president aptly noted, “this nation’s racial history still casts its long shadow upon us.”
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