The University’s chapter of Delta Kappa Epsilon boasts an illustrious history of insulting the opposing football team via banner each weekend, and this time around, they chose to bring up the Kent State shootings of 1970.
Remember that school shooting where the National Guard shot and killed four unarmed students and wounded nine others as they either watched or protested against intervention in eastern Cambodia?
DKE probably chose the insult because nothing’s happened at the school since, and it’s a joke that would get a response, like the fraternity aims to do every week.
Take a second to think about every weekend you’ve tailgated. The DKE banner was probably a topic of a two-minute discussion, some laughter and groaning, then moving on.
That’s how it should work. DKE’s traditional banner serves to amuse and anger tailgaters of all ages.
Last week’s banner read “LSU vs. UAB, it’s gonna be a gas. Syriasly.” Don’t tell me that doesn’t warrant WAFB reporters asking for student reaction on campus.
Maybe they should’ve found out how the Middle Eastern students felt. It would be a simple way to bring international news closer to home.
But they didn’t. Instead, that’s what happened on campus regarding the Kent St. banner Monday, because a 43-year-old shooting matters more than the current gassing of citizens in a country embroiled in civil war.
Every news outlet in town has picked up the story because WDSU sniffed out police cars in front of a fraternity house Saturday, and instead of finding someone passed out after funneling too much beer, they discovered a non-story.
Following the media pickup, we’ve got an official response from local and national chapters of DKE and LSU.
They each apologized and made it clear that the sign doesn’t reflect any larger group and was a mistake.
Fine. That’s somewhat expected. Stop the flow of negative energy before it reflects poorly on your institution.
Then you have Total Frat Move — a website dedicated to the study of being a Greek asshole — deliver a column dedicated to condemning DKE for its tasteless actions.
Go ahead, jump on the bandwagon! But first you might want to check out recent news stories on TSM in which the author calls people put off by racist theme parties those who are “actively trying to get offended.”
Oh, and the one where the same author slams news outlets for latching on to the story about a lack of non-white students in the University of Alabama’s sororities because racism isn’t worth a story.
We live in a positively colorblind world, remember?
I imagine this kind of media coverage could be appropriate for every other banner they’ve hung over the past couple of years, but no one picked up on those.
The story should be over. The DKE brothers pulled the banner down as soon as LSUPD asked and replaced it the next day with an apology.
Everyone is over it. We can choose not to get swept up in the hype and join everyone in condemning a situation that should already be resolved.
The news about this issue wrapped up Sunday with the official apology, and now we have a choice.
Like most of the students I spoke with on the Quad on Monday, you can offer blanket statements about how mean DKE is, how much you disagree with their thoughts and proceed to redact your own statement by talking about free speech.
Or you can form your own opinion.
Don’t fall in line with the media scandalizing the banner and urging you to condemn this chapter for their choice of criticism. Make up your own mind about whether or not this is wrong, and figure out if this is something worth your time and energy.
I can tell you already: it’s not.
Megan Dunbar is a 20-year-old English senior from Greenville, S.C.