Should Racist Oklahoma Frat Boys Be Expelled From a State School? No.

We have a thing in the United States that is called "freedom of speech".  The Nazis are allowed to march through Skokie.  You can wear a shirt that says "fuck the government."  You can burn an American flag (if it is your flag and you burn it safely on your own property).

What did these OK idiots do?  They sang a song about how their fraternity hates black people, wants to see one lynched, and will never allow one to be a member of the fraternity.  WHUUUUUH!?!?!  You mean to tell me that the fraternity system at the University of Oklahoma (the state that voted 60%+ against Obama despite being a very poor state - I believe every county in the state voted against Obama.....twice) isn't loaded with liberals who want to improve diversity?  A state that votes 2/3 GOP isn't big in favor of inclusion of blacks into the already exclusive frat boy system?  Let's see, my daddy spends every Republican party meeting talking about ways to suppress minority voting and ways to fuck over the 47%, but I am now an OU frat boy.  I will be very open minded and not hate minorities at all.

Stunner.

But, that said, can a state run school expel kids for disclosing how much they hate black people?  No.  The cases are pretty uniform that a "speech code" of this sort is unenforceable as being against the First Amendment.  The exception is when the racism becomes so prevalent that the ability of minority students to attend school and seek educational opportunities is significantly endangered.  Do these morons endanger anyone's chance to get an education when they get drunk on a bus and sing racist songs?  No.  I mean, ask yourself this -- if someone just SAID "Hey, these assholes are singing racist songs" any action taken?  Nope.  But it was caught on video.  Just like Ray Rice's case -- "I hit my fiancée and there she is laid out cold."  2 games, team supports him.  Video goes public -- indefinite suspension, may never play again.   Why?  Because people are chicken shit and fold to public pressure.

Now, that said, there are times when you take a stand knowing it won't stick and hoping the perpetrator will just accept his punishment.   Person you retain an independent contractor who does his job well, but then you learn he sells alcohol to minors from your driveway.  Maybe you don't pay him.  If he hires an attorney, maybe you eventually have to pay him, but do you want to be the person known for paying the guy who sells liquor to kids?  Probably not.  Let him sue you.  So OU kicks out a couple ring leaders - probably not legal.  But they might go somewhere else.  They might just fade into the woodwork.  They might not have enough time or money to spend suing you.  And you can tell all of your African-American athletes (who you need to keep up your school's name in the nation at large) that you did something.  If it gets overturned?  Well, effing courts - what could I do?

On frats in general -- frats are generally designed as a means of building an "exclusive" club feel which discourages people without money or connections from joining.  It is generally a system that encourages underage drinking and illegal drug use. I'd say it encourages sex, but the guys I know who were in frats - I don't see them getting a whole lot under any circumstances.  So, yeah, not a big fan of frats. 

On the South -- I lived three years in the South.  It is pretty.  It is warm.  You can play sports outside most of the year.  The general attitude of whites in the South toward blacks is almost unchanged since Brown v. Board was decided in 1954.  In 1971, the Supreme Court finally had to tell the South that integrating schools "with all deliberate speed" meant less than 17 years.   In 1986-89, blacks shopped in my neighborhood at a certain time (late at night) they went to the movies at a certain time, they went to the library at a certain time.  People regularly came up to me and used the N word.  My sister applied for a job with a black supervisor who said, "I think what you will learn down here is that we keep our niggers in place better than you Yankees."  Jesus.  Really?  I know folks who make $45,000 a year in the South and send their 4 kids to private school because the public schools are "not where white kids go."    That is the South.

So, you have a heavy Republican state with a college frat that is located in the South.  Do you expect that these people will have a liberal and diverse view of the world?  I do not.  Yet, we need to protect them.  Why?  Because there is no end to the restriction of free speech.  If you can keep them from being racist, can you keep them from being anti-Obama or pro-GOP?  I mean, 15-25% of the hatred of Obama is purely because he is black.  So, if a student cannot identify a good policy reason for hating Obama -- kicked out of school?  Similarly, in the next 12 months we will almost certainly have nationwide gay marriage.  Can someone say that being gay is a sin and they oppose the right to marry?  Isn't that hate speech?  You hate them for being gay?    Flip side -- a young gay black man says, "You motherfucker Republicans should all burn in hell for opposing gay marriage!"  Is he anti-white?  Anti-religion?  Does he serve at the pleasure of whomever decides who the college "wants" to hear and doesn't want to hear?

Let the bigots be bigots.  Let them expose themselves.  Let it be known that the University of Oklahoma is their headquarters.  People who want to join them will come down/over.  People who don't, won't..  If the University cannot recruit black football player and basketball players, something will be done.  After all, money talks, and it never gets silenced.