“What do Nicholls + Palestine have in common? Getting Bombed” this awful message is what hung from the Delta Tau Delta Fraternity Inc. house earlier this month. Fraternities typically hang banners before home football games to taunt the visiting team, but this one is a new low.
The banner refers to the Palestinian genocide that has left over 40,000 people dead. Up to this point, the university has not taken direct action or even made a statement condemning the fraternity. On the surface, this is another case of racism on a college campus, but it’s so much deeper than that.
The LSU College Democrats wrote a statement that advocates, “We urge the related LSU departments to act swiftly and conduct a thorough investigation into these events to administer the appropriate punishment for this behavior.”
It’s sad that student organizations have acknowledged this horrific act before the university did. It truly demonstrates where the university’s priorities lie.
LSU’s silence is quite odd considering that they’ve held other Greek organizations accountable before. So far, the university has six suspended chapters and 13 closed chapters for various reasons like hazing and criminal activity. In fact, Delta Tau Delta was once on this suspension list in 2004.
Unfortunately, Interfraternity Council (IFC) life is associated with negativity like sexual assault, racism, etc. For some chapters, Greek life is exactly how it’s portrayed in movies, i.e. reckless parties, violence, hazing, etc. University administration in those films never condemn their fraternities, and this has spilled over into reality.
So, when a fraternity is caught spewing hatred, there’s not an echo of shock and outrage. Heinous behavior has been normalized for these organizations, so much so that consequences are sometimes an afterthought.
On a deeper level, this is a bigger discussion about racism toward brown people. Considering the age of the young men, unrest in the Middle East is what they’ve been exposed to their entire lives. Media constantly references “no peace in the Middle East,” and pop group, Black Eyed Peas, even sang, “and then drop bombs like we in the Middle East…” in their song “Hey Mama.”
These constant references aid in the normalization and erasure of racism against brown people. To be clear, this does not excuse the disgusting behavior of Delta Tau Delta, it’s simply an observation of why they may have felt justified in doing this.
Not only are Palestinians being killed in Gaza, but those within the diaspora are facing vicious hate crimes as well. Discrimination in the U.S. is up by 180%, according to the Times of Israel, after the Oct. 7 attack in Israel, including violent crimes, employment and education discrimination. The genocide is bleeding over into the western world and the effects can be felt.
A similar increase in hate crimes happened after 9/11. The FBI investigated over 800 cases against Muslims in relation to the terrorist attack. These included threats, assaults and even murders.
Haroon Moghul, a Jewish-Muslim activist, recalled, “So it is a very unique moment, to say the least, when you are a member of a community of one-and-a-half billion people who cannot escape the actions or the ideology of a minority among them, especially one that is sort of murderously set against them.”
Every year we mourn those lost in an attack, but we fail to mention the brown people that have also suffered as a result. Let alone those among the 2,977 victims of 9/11. Regardless of what side you’re on in the Palestinian genocide, spewing racism and hatred is never justifiable. Such a casual display of racism by Delta Tau Delta shows that we have more work to do in the fight against racism in the U.S.
Jemiah Clemons is a 20-year-old kinesiology junior from Miami, Florida.
