OU's Blackface Incident (2019)

You read the title. I’m sure your first witty response will be “Which one, considering there were two in one month.” And yes, there were two blackface incidents, and yes there was eventually Neo-Nazi vandalism which fueled racial slurs and hatred later this semester, but I don’t want to talk about what specifically happened, because I’m sure you know. I want to talk about the responses from the community, and my own personal experiences after the blackface incident in particular.
After the blackface video was posted to Twitter and I saw it for the first time, I felt shocked, disgusted, and repulsed that there were two young women who believed this was a good idea, or that they wouldn’t get in trouble or found out. Growing up in the Chicago area, my parents taught me very quickly that not everyone will look like me, but that’s okay. I was taught to embrace the fact that I grew up with diversity around me, because a lot of children in America don’t see this amount of diversity. I didn’t think that it was odd for my close friends to be colored or biracial. I actually thought it was one of the coolest things because I was able to get exposed to different cultures and histories that I otherwise wouldn’t have known about. Of course, I knew racism still occurred places, but seeing that it happened at a place that feels like my second home made me sick and angry. Moreover, I’m a member of the Alpha Gamma Delta Women’s Fraternity, a National Panhellenic Chapter like Delta Delta Delta, where one of the young women was a member. I felt even more upset that one of my Panhellenic sisters would be okay with her friend acting in this derogatory and disgusting manner. But, like I said, this is supposed to be about the community’s response. In particular, I’d like to talk about OU’s Panhellenic response.

Shortly after the video was released, there was a Greek Council that took place in the Molly Shi Boren Ballroom of the Union. There, multiple women from each Panhellenic Chapter came and discussed how OU Panhellenic could become more inclusive. I have never heard so many progressive and hopeful ideas thrown out into the air, and I was so happy to have heard so many ideas. These women weren’t only talking about how to be more racially inclusive,  but they also proposed ideas that would create less exclusivity towards women who couldn’t financially support being involved in Panhellenic. These ideas and responses gave me hope and made me happy to see women engaging in their community to strengthen it, as well as partake in civil discourse about ideas. Every woman who spoke was given respect and full attention, allowing her to express her thoughts without being ridiculed or discredited. It created a safe-space for each woman to bring forth proposals to better the Panhellenic community. It was a night full of equal opportunities, respect, inclusivity, and community building. In my eyes, it was a night of citizenship.

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