Last Saturday, three days before Mexican Independence Day, Sigma Chi fraternity held a "Viva Mexico" party. The party featured a border control station, fliers with a expired green cards marked "Issued by Sigma Chi" and advertising displaying fat Mexican men with sombreros and alcohol bottles. This vile and racist act makes us embarrassed to be part of the so-called Duke Community.
Equating Mexicans with drunkenness, deportation and illegal immigration objectifies an entire people, culture, history and language. The issues of deportation and border control mean life and death for many people. It is degrading to think about Duke students walking around offending so many members of our community. This is supposed to be a community where people come together as equals. This type of event destroys that environment of trust. Sigma Chi owes an apology not only to the student body, but also to the staff, employees, faculty and everyone else that is part of the Duke Community.
On a campus that specifically recruits minority students, including Latinos, this is a disgrace. It's a disgrace for Sigma Chi that they don't think their actions are offensive, and it's a disgrace to an administration that claims to support acceptance-yet approved this party. Why can groups such as Sigma Chi expect to throw this kind of party without expectation of retribution from the administration and fellow students?-because such events have occurred in the past.
We did not come to Duke University to be degraded and dehumanized. This is not a problem that is limited to the ignorance of the student body. The fact that this party went through the residential system and received approval is a stain on the administration as well as the students. These actions were racist, and yet no warning flags went up in the administration because there is no system in place to prevent this kind of occurrence.
It's time for the administration to confront blatantly prejudiced acts towards already marginalized minorities on campus. Although it is an essential first step, changing event registration policy is not enough. We demand that the University tackle the overarching issues: the lack of minority faculty, the lack of support for minority students and the pervasive ignorance on campus. Racism is not merely a black and white issue. It is time for Duke to recognize the fallacy of this dichotomy.
Mi Gente,
LPC Sorority, Inc,
LUL Fraternity, Inc.
And an additional 4 groups and 10 individuals (full list available online)
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