California Polytech University's frat brothers pose in blackface, gangster costumes in college's latest racist dust-up
California Polytechnic State University has kicked up another racism dust storm with pictures of several of its fraternity members donning blackface and enacting other racist stereotypes started doing the rounds of social media.
This is not the first time the Cal Poly fraternity has come under fire for being.
A Phi Sigma Kappa fraternity chapter, in 2013, had a 'Colonial Bros and Nava-Hos' party, which resulted in a probe after several people complained that the theme was offensive to women and Native Americans.
The latest incident came to light after an Instagram account posted a picture of a white fraternity member with black paint of his face, posing as the racist stereotyped character 'blackface.'
The post sparked online outrage and the Instagram account which had posted the picture with "Cal Poly '21" and the Greek letters for Lambda Chi Alpha in the profile section has been deleted, according to reports.
Shortly after the incident, hundreds of students from the university held an emergency town hall meeting at the San Luis Obispo campus to denounce racism and intolerance in the college, according to reports.
"There needs to be punishment, not only to show the students that are here that they are with us and support us, but for the students who are to come, 10 years, 5 years from now that are going to change the culture on this campus," one student present at the town hall reportedly said, according to The Tribune.
"Step up. Let the ones leaving this campus be the last ones this happens to," another student added.
The students reportedly demanded instant action against the members of Lambda Chi Alpha fraternity.
The university authorities subsequently announced that they have placed the particular fraternity on interim suspension while it conducts a review of the situation.
The pictures of the fraternity members were reportedly taken at an event on Saturday.
Cal Poly Dean of Students, Kathleen McMahon, in a news release said that the university is focused on enhancing diversity on the campus and racism and hate are unwelcome
“Racism and hate are unwelcome here, in any form,” McMahon said. “Cal Poly is focused on enhancing the diversity of our campus and providing an environment that is welcoming to all who would study, work or visit here.”
The fraternity, in a statement to the school newspaper — the Mustang News — said that it was sorry and embarrassed "for failing to recognize the racial impacts this brought forth."
"We are extremely sorry and embarrassed for failing to recognize the racial impacts this brought forth. The representation depicted in the photograph was absolutely unacceptable by our standards as it had a negative influence on surrounding members of our community. Although it was not our intention to stir up racial tension, we understand the negative impact this picture had on our peers. We are currently working with our local community to amend the discrepancies this photo has caused."