A UC Irvine fraternity is trying to distance itself from a member-produced video featuring a man in blackface, reports items in The Daily Pilot and the Chronicle of Higher Education today
But UCI’s Black Student Union says it’s an example of racial insensitivity that is common on campus, states The Pilot
“This month, members of Lambda Theta Delta, a historically Asian-American fraternity, filmed four students lip-syncing to the Justin Timberlake and Jay-Z song “Suit and Tie.”The fraternity member portraying Jay-Z wears blackface throughout. OC Weekly first reported on the incident. The video had been uploaded to the fraternity’s YouTube page, where UCI students pointed out this week there was a second video featuring blackface.
“First of all we’d like to point out that this blackface video isn’t the first, nor is it the last, example of racism that’s been shown on this campus,” said Ainaria Johnson, co-chairwoman of UCI’s Black Student Union. Johnson alleges members of her organization have had to move dorms after they were repeatedly subjected to racial slurs from other students. The campus’ student body of more than 27,000 is 2.6% African American, according to a UCI spokesman.Any incident of racism or insensitivity the administration knows about is investigated, said Thomas Parham, UCI’s vice chancellor for student affairs.”
More At: http://www.dailypilot.com/news/tn-dpt-0426-uci-fraternity-blackface-video-20130425,0,2100527.story