Hey, Maybe Frats Are Learning How to Not Throw Racist Parties
There is a controversy brewing on the campus of UCLA, it appears, after the school’s Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity and Alpha Phi sorority threw a party with the theme “Kanye Western,” which sounds like it must have been racist as hell.
That is the story being told, anyway. From the Daily Bruin, UCLA’s campus paper, which first wrote about the party:
Several UCLA student groups are asking the university to respond after the Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity and Alpha Phi sorority held a “Kanye Western” themed raid Tuesday night, for which guests dressed in baggy clothes, plumped lips and padded bottoms, or as “Kardashians.”
Kelsee Thomas, a third-year fine arts student and member of the Afrikan Student Union, said other ASU members said they saw partygoers with those costumes. Photos from the raid also show attendees with their foreheads covered in charcoal.
The Bruin also posted photos from the party that were on Instagram before they were deleted:
Well! We have one girl who looks like an American Apparel model; a dude who obviously didn’t care about the party, a girl doing rap hands with a goatee drawn on her face, and another girl wearing a burlap sack; a bunch of girls dressed as “gold diggers,” complete with “coal” on their faces; a girl dressed like half the people walking in SoHo a year and a half ago and a girl dressed like Taylor Swift; a girl in a dress and another with a flannel tied around her waist; and a girl wearing a shirt that says “Yeezus,” another wearing black and a third with a bad fake butt.
As far as racist frat parties goes, this one seems almost consciously non-racist. Based on these photos, the attendees appeared to have been so aware of the potential for overt racism that they barely even adhered to the theme of the party. If you saw any of these people walking down the street in L.A., would you even think twice about where they were going or why they were dressed as they are?
This is almost a feel good story? Racist frat shaming might actually be working! I look forward to no frat ever doing anything racist ever again.
[images via Daily Bruin via Instagram]
