Snapchat
George Washington University in Washington D.C. has kicked the university’s Alpha Phi chapter off campus after a racist Snapchat photo went viral.
On Monday, February 5, GWU’s Student Association Senate unanimously passed a resolution approving Alpha Phi’s removal as well as a host of other new diversity initiatives.
The Snapchat, which went viral, on January 31, showed two Alpha Phi members posing with a banana peel and featured a caption reading ‘I’m 1/16th black’.
Snapchat
via The GW Hatchet:
University President Thomas LeBlanc said the incident was an “eye opener” for some officials and a reminder that “we’ve got a lot of work to do” to ensure students of color feel included on campus. He said the University plans to implement some form of diversity training by the beginning of next academic year and delve into whether Greek chapters have excluded parts of the student body in their recruitment processes.
In response to demands from the Student Association and GW’s NAACP chapter, LeBlanc said the University aims to implement diversity trainings by next fall, but the details – including when the sessions would be held – had not yet been determined.
The post, which featured two members of Alpha Phi and a racist caption, has sparked a fierce debate about campus inclusion and a lack of diversity in many Greek chapters. Since the post became public last week, GW’s Alpha Phi chapter said it would expel three members involved in the incident and the SA Senate called on the University to implement mandatory diversity training at freshman orientation, start a taskforce to examine discrimination in Greek life and expel GW’s Alpha Phi chapter in a resolution unanimously passed Monday night.
George Washington University Provost Forrest Maltzman said in a statement that the incident was “disturbing, hurtful and not reflective of who I know we are as a community.”
The university’s Alpha Phi chapter said in a statement that they will be terminating the memberships of the photographer and the two students shown in the picture.
The incident is the second racist incident involving Alpha Phi this year. In mid-January, former University of Alabama Alpha Phi sister Harley Barber was expelled from the school after she posted racist videos online. In the videos, Barber repeatedly used the n-word.
