No, we're not talking about the pandering the press does to the sitting president compared to his predecessor. There's little new to say on that one.
I'm referring to the kind of prejudicial battering that was supposed to pass for a 15-minute "interview" this week, as executed by a woman named Bianna Golodryga, who does some weekend work at ABC, and whose online title is "Yahoo News and Finance Editor." Miss Golodryga was supposed to be interviewing Brandon Weghorst, the Associate Executive Director of Communications for the Sigma Alpha Epsilon national fraternity, known familiarly as SAE.
You're doubtlessly aware that members of the University of Oklahoma chapter of SAE were shown this week in a video on a bus, singing a verse or two to a song that, to be polite, suggested that there would not be a black member of SAE, and included an allusion to lynching. It was a particularly unpleasant thing to see and hear on many levels.
Here's my disclaimer. I am a member of the Phi Delta Theta fraternity, MIT chapter, and have been for 45 years. The SAE chapter there were rivals of ours, and I sort of grew up detesting SAE institutionally, as young men will do, though with grudging respect. Of course I had many good friends there, and met and/or knew other SAE members -- including the late Marcellus Anderson '69, who was one of the first black initiates of SAE anywhere. Regardless, I still feel a bit of guilty schadenfreude when something bad happens to SAE. But I am a strong proponent of the fraternity system.
I certainly won't diminish the stupidity of the actions of the OU SAEs. But let's see what happened immediately afterwards. The national SAE organization yanked the charter of the local chapter in no time, and the University promptly kicked its members off campus and closed the house, and has since expelled at least two of the identified students.
I should add that one of the unintended consequences of all that is that the house's black cook, Howard Dixon, is now out of a job that he served for 15 years. Baby, meet bathwater.
But back to Bianna Golodryga and her interview of Brandon Weghorst. I would have to ask what the purpose of talking to him was. Her first question, which was essentially what he thought of the video, got the expected response -- Mr. Weghorst described it as "... shocking, disgusting and unacceptable", which it certainly was, as in enough to disgust the national organization into pulling the charter of the chapter immediately. Pretty much "game over" at that point.
Having an agenda, though, Miss Golodryga did not want to end there. She pointed out three instances in the past few years of issues at different SAE chapters -- one of dressing up like gang members, one other of racial slurs, one of members assaulting members of a Jewish fraternity. With 15,000 undergraduate members, 18-22 years old, across the country, there are bound to be collective acts of stupidity. I get it. But it's not, as Mr. Weghorst pointedly noted, what SAE is about.
We subsequently got questions from Miss Golodryga like:
"You seem to be reactive and not proactive in these situations" ... OK, that wasn't a question, but Mr. Weghorst had not said a word at that point about member education, nor been asked, so there was no reason at all to presume they had not been proactive -- in fact, as he later noted, they are very proactive in educating and continuing to educate chapter leaders and members on behavior. It doesn't always take.
"Can you tell me how many African American and minority members are there" ... the "Yahoo News and Finance Editor" was clearly not tolerant of the fact that SAE does not actually count its members by race, and that Mr. Weghorst could only answer that, in general, the diversity of the chapters reflected the diversity of the campuses where they exist.
"What are you doing to attract minority members?" ... "Can you understand why people in 2015 [don't understand why you don't have such racial composition statistics]?" My answer would have been "We are an integrated organization. Unlike Yahoo, we as an organization look at the content of people's character and don't feel there is anything to be gained by counting our members by race. There is nothing positive in doing so." I doubt Mr. Weghorst could have gotten away with that, though he probably would loved to have said it.
Referencing the fact that SAE was founded at the University of Alabama, "... there was a dark chapter in our history as well [referencing the War Between the States] ... do you think your fraternity does enough to accurately portray both sides of the story?" ... OK, wait, what? Because SAE was founded 150 years ago at a college in Alabama, they have an obligation to portray some kind of a story that fits a contemporary narrative? How dumb do they think college kids are today? Even the idiots in the video came to OU knowing there was a war. SAE has no more obligation than any other organization to teach ... whatever it is that Miss Golodryga thought they should teach; I have no idea what she meant. Just saying.
"What are the discussions that are going to happen at chapters [of SAE] across the country tonight?" ... OK, I put that in because she asked a perfectly good question. Even a blind squirrel finds a nut. And Mr. Weghorst nailed the answer, as he did the other agenda-driven questions shot at him.
"Given that these incidents have been going on for a few years ... do you think that your [national] president, Bradley Cohen, has to resign?" ... No, seriously, she asked this. An adult president of an organization with 200 college chapters or so, and many alumni clubs, with 15,000 undergraduate members who are -- let's remember -- college students -- should step down because he is unable personally to prevent idiots, who joined one of its chapters and ignored fraternity standards, from doing stupid things?
Is that what we have come to, that the wolves need blood before they move on to the next victim? Here's a thought, Bianna -- the black unemployment rate is over 10% -- probably over 15% when you count those no longer looking for work -- and Barack Obama hasn't fixed it in six years. He's got more control over that than the president of SAE does over a bunch of 19-year-olds. How about you ask him to resign?
"Do you think maybe that fraternities are antiquated as a system on the whole?" ... Perfect. Here is what she wanted to get to all along; not understanding the value that a positive fraternity experience brings because never once did she ask what the good is that fraternities do. Had she once asked the question, one could have deemed this a reasonably balanced discussion. But if you infer that she detests the institution because it has the gall to decide who its own members are, every single question makes sense for her.
My own fraternity's alumni include Lou Gehrig and, for that reason, Phi Delta Theta has adopted the ALS Association as our charity of choice, as it has been for decades. You might have seen the whole dumping-ice-on-the-head thing to raise money for ALS research. Take a look and see how much of the momentum of that was associated with undergraduate Phi Delt chapters and alumni clubs nationwide. Then look at what was raised (hint -- well over $5 million).
I give Mr. Weghorst a lot of credit. He answered the questions calmly, intelligently, reasonably and without confrontation. Some members of the society he helps lead did stupid things, and his leadership acted to remove them swiftly. He never defended the students, and presented his case as to what SAE is doing to prevent such things, has done and will do.
I doubt he will be taken as seriously in his job as the interviewer with the hatchet will be, though on reflection, he clearly did a better turn at it.
Copyright 2015 by Robert Sutton
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