As Daily Bruin reports, a few newcomers to the school were horrified that this was their introduction to college life, questioning whether black students were actually welcome. Guests dressed in baggy clothes to emulate Kanye West or donned plumped lips and padded bottoms to look like the rapper’s wife, Kim Kardashian.
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CBS Los Angeles reported that the party, hosted by the Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity and Alphi Phi sorority on Tuesday night, has resulted in several student groups calling on the University to take action.
“My culture is not a costume”, one humanities undergraduate wrote on Twitter.
UCLA has one of the lowest percentages of black students on campus than any other school in the University of California’s vast educational system. “A frat decided it would be okay to have their members repeat a part of history that demoralized, mocked and dehumanized African Americans”.
Fourth-year political science student Jaimeson Cortez, who has seen multiple photos and tweets from the party, said he expected the fraternity to be conscious of existing issues with campus climate and refrain from dressing up in ways he said culturally appropriated a subset of the UCLA community.
Within minutes of the start of Thursday’s rally, members of the Afrikan Student Union chanted and marched up Bruin Walk, gathering over a hundred followers before stopping to speak in front of Kerckhoff Hall.
Sigma Phi Epsilon’s national leadership said in a statement that it’s asking the UCLA chapter to “temporarily suspend activities” while UCLA investigates. Put simply: “Just because you can do something, does not mean you should”, the statement continued. I do not want to suggest that even though I view myself fundamentally as a person of color that I understand the pain that you as an African American might be going through. As such, much of the UCLA community was outraged by the party, which prompted a protest and an apology from Sigma Phi Epsilon.
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“Building diverse and inclusive communities is core to our identity as an organization, and we have zero tolerance for racist behavior”, the organization’s spokesman, Beaux Carriere, said in a statement.
