Chicago Frat In Deep Trouble For Emails That Are Admittedly Pretty Racist

A fraternity at the University of Chicago is in deep, deep trouble after Buzzfeed published a treasure trove of its internal emails showing members ridiculing Muslims and planning to celebrate Martin Luther King Jr. Day by going to a fried chicken restaurant.

The leaked emails show exchanges between members of Alpha Epsilon Pi (AEPi), a predominantly Jewish fraternity, and span the years 2011 to 2015. The emails were leaked by a current member of the frat (who has remained anonymous), and have a recurring theme of making fun of Islam. In one email, a member composes a mock invite to UChicago’s Muslim Students Association, “inviting” them to participate in the Latke-Hamantash debate, an annual event where students humorously debate the respective merits of Latke and Hamantash, “two staples of Jewish culture.”

“In an effort to foster better relations between Jewish and Muslim students, I would like to offer you the chance to participate in this year’s event by debating two long-held fixtures of your culture! Please let me know if you plan to attend the C4-Dynamite Debates.”

In another series of emails, frat members label an abandoned lot near their apartment building “Palestine.” In yet another email exchange, a student traveling in Israel gave an update on his situation after Israel launched its 2014 Operation Protective Edge operation. The email’s blunt subject line was “Towel Heads.”

Muslims aren’t the only subject to be ridiculed in the emails. In many exchanges frat members describe people as “community members,” which is apparently a euphemism for black people. For example, one email with the subject “Loiterers” reads “Three young female community members loitering outside yelling. Weird.” In another exchange, a member suggests changing the nickname for new members from NIBs (newly initiated brothers) to NIGs.

Yet another email plots out frat members’ plans for celebrating Martin Luther King Day.

“Reverend Marathon Luther King Jr. did more for our civil rights than any other leader during the civil rights era,” the email says, deliberately botching King’s name. “Following the horrors of prohibition, the puritanical powers in control of the United States successfully stigmatized day drinking. This travesty flavored American life in many ways, leading to increases in domestic abuse, legitimate rape and worst of all oppression. MLK took a stand. He had a dream. He led a million man march on Washington in order to make his dream a reality.”

The email then says members will honor King’s memory by drinking heavily, eating at a fried chicken restaurant, and watching the parody blaxploitation film “Black Dynamite.”

Besides their rather racist email exchanges, the member who leaked everything to Buzzfeed also turned over a “Floor Three Constitution” which outlined “rules” for interacting with women. The first rule: “No fatties.”

In an effort to head off the scandal, current AEPi president Josh Benadiva quickly posted an apology on Facebook, and tried to argue the leaked emails didn’t reflect the fraternity’s current values.

“We are disgusted by the emails sent to the fraternity listhost in past years, and regret that such hate was ever a part of the discourse in AEPi. The current Executive Board is doing everything in its power to investigate and confront the individuals of the fraternity who sent these emails. We whole-heartedly condemn this behavior and reaffirm that there is no place for these hateful and bigoted sentiments in our fraternity.”

The new scandal is very similar to those that rocked frats at schools around the country last year. At Oklahoma, the school’s chapter of Sigma Alpha Epsilon was almost immediately shut down after a video surfaced of members singing a racist song, while at the University of Maryland a single four-line email managed to get a member of Kappa Sigma suspended from school.

Unlike those and other fraternities, though, AEPi has the advantage that it isn’t a school-recognized fraternity. Instead, it exists off-campus as an independent organization, meaning UChicago administrators cannot easily punish it. The school did, however, release a statement describing the emails as “offensive” and inconsistent with “ensuring that people with diverse backgrounds and perspectives can thrive on our campus.”

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