Methodist University in North Carolina has suspended a sorority after a member delivered a racist presentation critiquing the appearan...
Methodist University in North Carolina has suspended a sorority after a member delivered a racist presentation critiquing the appearance of black football players.
The small private university outside Fayetteville suspended the Alpha Delta Pi sorority on Tuesday over the presentation, after photos of the offensive event went viral on social media.
During the presentation, a white sorority member showed slides of black players on the school's football team, critiquing them for 'large nostrils,' big lips and dreadlocked hairstyles, while praising white players, according to the Fayetteville Observer.
University President Stanley T. Wearden and Quincy Malloy, chief diversity officer, announced in a statement that the Alpha Delta Pi sorority had been suspended indefinitely, pending an investigation.
Methodist University in North Carolina has suspended a sorority after a member delivered a racist presentation critiquing the appearance of black football players
Methodist University (above), a small private university outside Fayetteville, suspended the Alpha Delta Pi sorority on Tuesday over the presentation
'We abhor racism in any form on our campus, and we immediately investigate all possible incidents of racism and act on them appropriately, as warranted by the facts,' the statement reads.
'We believe in action and we are taking action. Last week we immediately launched a thorough investigation of a reported incident. This week, the hearing process is already underway. We will complete the hearing process as soon as we can while also following our established protocols,' the officials added.
Ja-Quez Harrell, a Methodist fifth-year senior and former member of the football team, said that if the mocking slides were supposed to be humorous, they missed the mark.
'I don't see why something along the lines of this is funny. I don't see how it's funny,' Harrell, told WRAL-TV.
'With everybody that was there, how come nobody stopped it?' Harrell asked.
A screenshot also circulating on social media purports to show an apology that the white student made to one of the black players featured in her presentation.
'I did not mean for any of this to be targeted towards individuals and certainly did not mean any of this in a malicious way,' she said in the direct message. 'It was not targeted at African Americans in any way, I can promise that.'
One student shared this apology sent by the offending student to one of the players depicted
The national Alpha Delta Pi organization, based in Atlanta, said on Friday it had suspended the membership of the student in question and suspended the Theta Epsilon chapter of the sorority at Methodist.
'Alpha Delta Pi was outraged and deeply saddened to learn of the racist behavior of a member of our Theta Epsilon chapter at Methodist University,' a spokeswoman for the sorority told the Observer. 'Her actions directly contradict the values of Alpha Delta Pi ... '
'Racism has no place in our sisterhood, and we will continue to work for inclusive spaces and restorative justice in our chapters, on our campuses, and in our communities.'
Methodist is a private university with about 2,000 students. Officials say 42.4 percent of the student body is white, 20 percent is black, and 10 percent are international.
University President Stanley T. Wearden and Quincy Malloy, chief diversity officer, announced in a statement that the Alpha Delta Pi sorority had been suspended
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