UCLA Fraternity Criticized For “Kanye Western” Blackface Party

The party took place at the University of California Los Angeles on Tuesday night and involved the Sigma Phi Eplison fraternity and Alphi Phi sorority, according to the student newspaper.

At the raid, which many students described as racist, partygoers dressed in baggy clothes, plumped lips and padded bottoms.

“My culture is not a costume”, one humanities undergraduate wrote on Twitter. There are many ways such an idea could go really poorly, and one of those, of course, is white students appropriating black stereotypes in culturally insensitive ways. “A frat decided it would be okay to have their members repeat a part of history that demoralized, mocked and dehumanized African Americans”.

The fraternity is now under investigation from their national office due to their actions as the event resulted in a protest by hundreds of students on campus on Thursday (Oct. 8), that made their concerns and frustrations well known through displaying statement signs that said “Black Bruins Matter” and “Our culture is not a costume”. The hashtag has been used to discuss race relations and Greek life leading up to a campus event on Thursday, October 8 hosted by the Afrikan Student Union to address these issues.

UCLA officials are “concerned” about the claims and are “gathering information about what happened”, school spokesman Ricardo Vázquez said in a statement.

“Put simply, just because you can do something does not mean you should”, it says in a statement.

Jerry Kang, vice chancellor for equity, diversity and inclusion at UCLA, was among those who spoke there. Kelsee Thomas, a member of UCLA’s Afrikan Student Union (ASU), told the L.A. Times that a few students confronted fraternity members at the party.

“Building diverse and inclusive communities is core to our identity as an organization, and we have zero tolerance for racist behavior”. “I’ll be like deep into my studies in political science theories, arguments and all that stuff, getting it all done and typing furiously, blah blah blah”, she said in the video, according to Color Lines, “and right when I’m about to reach like an epiphany, over here somewhere, ‘ooh ching chong ling tin tong ooh.’ Are you freaking kidding me?”