We would like to commend President Michael Holick '02 and other brothers of Psi Upsilon fraternity for their quick and heartfelt response to the incident that occurred at their house on Friday night. At about 9 p.m. several brothers chanted and yelled "WAHOO-WAH! SCALP THOSE BITCHES!" from their balcony at a passing woman. After she published her account over blitz on Wednesday, campus reaction was swift, sympathetic, outraged and many were poised for action. There was also a decisive split between students who were quick to blame just the individual brothers versus those who held the entire house accountable. We believe and commend the apologies and actions of the Psi U brothers who regret that this incident ever occurred; however we would like to take this opportunity to emphasize that this incident is symptomatic of prevailing attitudes on this campus.
An inherent fault of fraternities is that they provide explicitly gendered spaces enabling their members to insulate themselves from the rest of campus, and the implications of their words and actions. As a result, even though the entire house did not yell "SCALP THOSE BITCHES," it is the structure of the house, and their safety in numbers that permitted these Dartmouth students to act as they did. Behind the security of their ice rink, the strong arms of their brothers, on their throne of a balcony, they ARE representing the actions of the house. We are not blind to the fact that racism and misogyny exist independently of the fraternity system; however, many of the individuals who feel this way would not be empowered to act on their views without the school-sanctioned structure of the fraternity behind them.
In his apology to the Dartmouth community, Holick states that "Psi U in no way condones racist or misogynistic behavior. By no means is the 'WaHooWa' song a part of the lore of our house." Perhaps the racist chanting of "Wa-Hoo-Wah" is not a daily activity within Psi U fraternity life, but the fact that Psi U recently reordered the Dartmouth Indian jackets contradicts their appeal for immunity and condemnation of racism amongst their brotherhood.
Some Dartmouth students feel that these coats and chants are innocuous forms of self-expression and school spirit. However, to the Native American community and other concerned students the figure on these coats is as offensive as if one wore a swastika to a synagogue. Though many people would balk at this analogy as exaggerated and melodramatic, that hesitation is a result of what we have all been taught -- or rather what we have not been taught. Having always been taught about the atrocities of the Holocaust, and very rarely about the genocidal and assimilatory treatment of Native Americans by the US government and institutions like Dartmouth, we know that the swastika symbolizes hatred and racism, whereas we are blind to the derogatory implications of the Indian mascot.
As Ivy League students, many of us perhaps feel that we are above committing any acts of racism or misogyny. By attributing this type of reprehensible behavior to uneducated "society," it is as if a top-notch education exempts us from perpetuating these violent acts. In the same way some people delusionally believe that an education acquits us from bigotry, the fraternities mask the awful truth from their own members. Membership in this system allows them to act in unacceptably prejudiced ways.
Many students expressed their disgust for the anonymity of the writer. In a word, she was scared. While "SCALP THOSE BITCHES" was never going to be followed through on, the violence of the words and the tone, and the fact that they were being yelled by at least seven brothers was enough to warrant her fear. She used her anonymity to protect herself in the same way that the brothers used their numbers and their house. There is a difference: her anonymity is not hurting anybody. It is not marginalizing, denigrating or perpetuating hatred. Their behavior is. Would these men have felt secure to yell these same statements on the porch of Collis, in Food Court, on the stairs of the Native Americans at Dartmouth house, on the stairs of the African American Society, in the Women's Studies department?
Members of Psi U fraternity and the Dartmouth campus have outlined what they feel are suitable consequences for the actions of these brothers. The men who yelled these words are facing sanctions by the house, including: "the stripping of members' officerships, banishment from meetings, the formal, and the performance of extra community service hours." However, in contrast to the assertion of Holick who says that only two men were involved, the woman knows that at least seven men were there. While not all of these brothers may not have been actively participating, due to their apathetic presence and lack of response they are complicit in the actions. If you are not part of the solution you are part of the problem.
The Dartmouth community has been openly ambivalent about the problematic status of the Greek system since the 1999 Initiative. Many students, a large portion of which are members of the system themselves, feel that an alternative social structure would be better. However, the reality is that the Greek system is right here, right now. If we can't get rid of it, we need to proactively improve what exists. Therefore, while we commend Psi U for taking steps in the right direction to punish some of the offenders, we are calling for the derecognition of all guilty parties. Not only the seven or so men yelling "SCALP THOSE BITCHES," but also the men apathetically standing by and watching. Their silence is a tacit approval.
The fact that the anonymous woman's recounting of the incident was never questioned by the guilty parties, Psi U, or the Dartmouth community is revealing. It exposes the communities tacit expectation of this sort of behavior by fraternity brothers. When did we stop caring about how we treat each other? Why do we continue to support a system that so loudly perpetuates the violent denigration of the majority of this campus?
