Amid campus chaos, frat bros step up for American values
College fraternities often make the news for hazings gone wrong, raising the ire of neighbors for loud parties and general boozy shenanigans. But amid the vitriol in play on college campuses, some frat bros are stepping up for values in short supply.
After a video appearing to show a white student making monkey noises at a Black student during a pro-Palestinian protest at the University of Mississippi went viral last week, the Phi Delta Theta fraternity announced Sunday that the heckler had been kicked out of its organization.
As reported, the fraternity statement read: “Phi Delta Theta General Headquarters is aware of the video regarding the student protest at the University of Mississippi. The racist actions in the video were those of an individual and are antithetical to the values of Phi Delta Theta and the Mississippi Alpha chapter. The responsible individual was removed from membership on Friday, May 3.”
That’s how you do it. No bleats about “context,” no playing the victim, no tepid tsk-tsks about bad behavior while the perpetrator avoids consequence. The frat grasped the difference between free speech and racism, and was quick to take action.
If only college faculty and presidents had such backbone when it comes to antisemitism.
This comes on the heels of Pi Kappa Phi brothers protecting the American flag during a pro-Palestinian demonstration at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill earlier this month.
There, demonstrators had replaced the U.S. flag on the campus’ main quad with a Palestinian flag. Members of the UNC Chapel Hill chapter of the Pi Kappa Phi fraternity intervened to prevent the American flag from touching the ground, coming under both verbal and physical attacks as they held it up, as Newsweek reported. As with most events these days, it was caught on video, which went viral.
The student rebel cosplayers shouting “Death to America,” antisemitic slurs, and slogans from the far-left anti-Israel playbook have been burning American flags, not protecting them.
No wonder: A Gallup poll taken last summer found pride in being American is lowest among those 18-34. Only 18% of those aged 18-34 said they were “extremely proud” to be American.
We can see that on campuses across the country. It’s a sad and shameful statistic and bodes ill for our future. One bright note: another Gallup poll taken in February found that 18-to-29-year-old women are now 15 percentage points more likely to identify as liberal than men in the same group. That gap is five times larger than it was in 2000.
Mainstream media has been keen to paint conservatives, particularly Trump voters, as ill-educated rubes. That’s harder to do when conservative young men share the same campus with liberal, left-voting women.
The young frat brothers who called out racism among their members and acted quickly to weed out the offender, and those who saw the American flag as something to be protected and did something about it won’t solve the chaos sweeping our campuses.
But they do stand in stark contrast to the weak, ineffective responses we’ve seen to antisemitic, anti-Israel and anti-American words and actions.
Joe Biden would be wise to remember, these young people vote, too.
