Party pictures raise questions of racism

When junior Lauren Boroski received a Facebook party invitation to a Cinco de Mayo "South of the Border" party, she said the invitation was similar to other theme party invitations she had received in the past.

"It said to wear your sombrero," Boroski said. "It was my impression to dress up."

But when pictures of Boroski and fellow Phi Sigma Pi fraternity members Jacqui Croteau and Joseph Randall in gardening outfits and shirts with a Latino racial slur on the back surfaced on the Campus Alliance de La Raza Web site, the backlash began.

Boroski's pictures from the party were initially posted on Facebook, and by May 7, it was announced on the university's Web site that an investigation of the "South of the Border"-themed party was underway.

Several of the partygoers were in the honors fraternity Phi Sigma Pi and two were Blue Hen Ambassadors.

Campus Alliance de La Raza, a Latino organization on campus, posted the controversial pictures on its Web site on May 7.

Graduate student Craig de Mariana Aleman, member of the La Raza Alumni Association, said he first saw the photographs last Monday and wanted to take action. He said the pictures were suggestive and portrayed Latinos as drunks and sexual objects.

"I was outraged," Aleman said. "It took me a few minutes to calm down. I'm Mexican-American and I was very offended."

University President David P. Roselle issued a statement on the university's Web site, urging the campus community to join him in "decrying insensitive and thoughtless student behavior that can cause hurt to others."

In response to the offending students' actions, a forum was held at George Read Hall on May 9. More than 200 students, staff and faculty members were in attendance.

Aleman said La Raza encouraged members of the offending parties to attend the meeting.

"The goal of the forum was to identify ways to prevent these situations from happening again," he said. "We told them, 'We will not let people attack you or try to nail you to a cross.' We wanted to foster an educational environment."

Boroski was the only involved student who attended the town hall meeting. She publicly apologized for her actions at the party. She said she was not aware the words on her shirt were derogatory.

"I can only promote equality and acceptance," Boroski said. "It is important to be sensitive to other cultures and [know] that you shouldn't write something if you don't know what it means.

"I do not endorse racist views. I acted with no malice."

Boroski said no one at the party informed her the words written on her shirt, including a racial slur, were offensive.

Junior Oluwafemi "Femi" Adedoyin said students should learn from the reactions to racially charged parties at other universities.

"It seems like no one watches the news or anything," Adedoyin said. "Theme parties are going on at Clemson, UConn, which are really big schools, and you're still doing it here? Haven't you seen the repercussions of these kids and what they have to go through and you don't expect anything to happen to you?"

She said she thinks ignorance cannot be used as an excuse for adults at this stage in life.

"I understand that they are very apologetic for the actions they took, but for me, you wouldn't be too sorry if you didn't get caught," Adedoyin said. "I'm not saying I want to crucify you or something. But it is what it is."

Aleman said he respects Boroski for being the only person to come forward and attend the forum.

"She's trying to learn from this," he said. "She was caught in the act and the only one of the six to show up to Wednesday's forum. She was the only one who wanted to be front-and-center."

This past Friday, Roselle issued another statement online. He said the university will respect the students' First Amendment rights and not press charges through the university judicial system.

Senior Brian Brady, former president of Phi Sigma Pi, said he attended the party but left shortly after seeing the clothing of the individuals involved. The new executive board has decided to suspend the offending members from the fraternity for one year and will require them to undergo diversity training.

"The group has taken action that we thought appropriate to reprimand these individuals for the decisions that they made," Brady said. "They were clearly out of line with conduct that we look for in our members and the ideals we look for in our members to uphold."

He said it is unfortunate the acts of these individuals are reflecting on the fraternity because the event was not sponsored by the organization, even though fraternity members threw the party with non-fraternity members. The Phi Sigma Pi executive board is taking a pro-active approach in resolving this issue to prevent similar circumstances from occurring in the future.

"This is not what we stand for," Brady said. "We don't tolerate discrimination or racism. We do as much as we should and can to promote equality and acceptance."

Aleman said he would have liked to see the students receive a harsher punishment, but he is glad the fraternity has put actions behind its words.

"The fraternity should use this as an opportunity to evaluate where they stand on these issues," he said. "It is apparent that they are not doing enough internally to foster cultural sensitivity and diversity. They have to work on it more."

Brady said the fraternity is still investigating the "South of the Border" party.

"By no means is the case closed," he said. "We are working actively to prevent this from happening again."

Aleman said the media has played a key role in spreading awareness about the issue.

"Behavior like this cannot be tolerated," he said. "It has resulted in a lot of press and our allies in the media are helping to amplify this message. Our efforts have brought issues of social responsibility, cultural sensitivity and issues surrounding race to the nation's conscience."

Sophomore LaMar Gibson, a Blue Hen Ambassador, posted a Facebook note on May 7 regarding his reaction to the Cinco de Mayo party attendees. In the note, he asked two administrators to take action against the racist behavior.

"If these two BHAs are expelled from their fraternity, then they should also be expelled from the BHA program OR I will resign from the program," Gibson said.

He said the members' actions contradict the values of the BHA program and called on other BHA members to step down if the university did not take the proper response.

When he saw the pictures, Gibson said he recognized some of the individuals and felt uncomfortable about their actions.

"I believe it's hard to have a program where you have student representatives behaving like this," Gibson said. "These are the only faces prospective students have to connect to UD."

Gibson is meeting with BHA officials to determine where the organization stands on this issue. He said he is committed to his decision to quit if those members are not expelled from the association.

Junior Jordan Mebane said racial discrimination needs to be addressed on campus to increase awareness and diversity.

"It was wrong of those people to have that party," Mebane said. "But the fact is, people act racially and think racially all the time without even realizing it.

"Everyone commits that crime."

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