‘Say it!’: The ‘bizarre’ internal politics of slurs in fraternities

This article is featured in the 2025 Freshman Special Issue. 

“Say it!” members of the crowd taunted. A beer pong player looked around, slightly pained. 

On Aug. 17, more than 100 Dartmouth students gathered in the basement of a fraternity for a game of beer pong. The match was part of this year’s “Masters” — an annual summer tournament where the best players from each Greek house compete against each other in the College’s signature drinking game. 

The setup was not unusual: Observers stood shoulder to shoulder and slicked with sweat, some repainting Greek letters on chests as they dripped away. Students who couldn’t fit in the room watched on the livestream upstairs. However, in this game, each team’s jeering — known as “chirping” — devolved into one side accusing the other of racist, homophobic and sexist offenses. In one of the more outlandish chants, students encouraged a competitor who is known for allegedly using the N-word to say it in front of an audience. 

This booze-addled power struggle capped off a term of contentious conversations about the use of derogatory language in Greek spaces, according to four student Greek life executives who spoke to The Dartmouth. Sources requested anonymity out of fear of social retribution. 

The culture of using slurs in some fraternities pits students who accept and use derogatory language against those who are willing to combat it. Some Greek club members said that use of this language is widespread in fraternities — and sometimes it leads to an intense bureaucratic process to punish an offender. 

The Dartmouth has chosen not to divulge the names of specific fraternities or individuals. Certain fraternity members have been given the pseudonyms Simon and Peter for clarity.

One incident at the beginning of the summer underscored growing unease over the use of racist and homophobic slurs, according to four Greek life executives with knowledge of the situation. Fraternity member Peter was put on social probation at his house for using the F-slur and the N-word on different occasions. This means that he was not allowed to attend social events at his own fraternity.

One of the incidents that sparked conversation in Peter’s community occurred in sorority Kappa Delta Epsilon. Peter used the F-slur in the house in front of their diversity, equity and inclusion chair, according to a KDE sorority executive member and a fraternity executive. 

KDE “blacklisted” Peter after the incident. This means that Peter is not welcome in the sorority house.  

Peter “came into our space, in the basement after an on-night, and was just really throwing it around,” the KDE executive described. An “on-night” refers to a Wednesday, Friday or Saturday when Greek houses typically host parties.  

When they asked him to stop, he “didn’t care,” she said. 

After this incident in KDE, the executives of Peter’s fraternity met to discuss how to sanction him, according to one fraternity executive with knowledge of the situation. The process for internally punishing a member of a Greek house for this sort of behavior varies — and this summer, Peter’s fraternity updated the process to make it more democratic among members. 

First, “everyone who felt impacted” was able to come forward to the fraternity executives and give a testimony. Fraternities “try to be very judicial” about these hearings, the executive said. 

“It’s kind of modeled after a real proceeding,” he said.  

Gay members of the fraternity shared “very personal stories” about how this language “really impacts their feeling of being accepted in the social space.” 

Peter gave his own testimony to the executives of the house in which he “admitted” to using both the N-word and the F-slur, according to the fraternity executive. Peter also spoke privately with gay fraternity members, the executive said. 

Peter “sort of owned up to it and was like, ‘I really apologize,’” the executive said. 

Then, all fraternity members were able to come forward and lay out what punishment they thought Peter should receive. The fraternity members went through a process of “ranked choice” voting to decide what should happen to Peter — with options ranging from removing him from the house to not punishing him at all. 

At the end of it, the fraternity decided to put Peter on social probation until the end of the summer. They allowed him to come to the fraternity’s formal at the end of the term and represent the house at the Masters beer pong tournament.

“He was really wanting to play Masters, and so that was kind of held over his head,” he said. Peter “was allowed to play in Masters, but only if he followed every rule and was not caught doing anything. It was sort of like he was on a final strike.” 

Although Peter made it to the end of the summer without any more infractions, he didn’t show up to the formal at the end of the term. 

“Being gone for half the summer, he doesn’t feel like he’s included in the space,” the executive said. “And, he’s not, quite frankly.”

Still, any efforts at reform won’t change the systemic problems of Greek life, according to women’s, gender and sexuality studies professor Mingwei Huang. 

The Greek system “is founded to be exclusionary and elitist and racist and sexist,” Huang said. “You can’t make it better. You can’t do it.” 

An executive at Sigma Delta sorority said that the executive board of her sorority had a conversation about homophobic slurs in Greek life this summer after hearing about Peter’s probation. Although the sorority didn’t take the steps to add Peter to the blacklist, she said it was “implied that he wasn’t really welcome.” 

She added that Sigma Delta is “self-protecting” because it has a reputation of being a queer sorority. 

“I don’t think that someone who’s super homophobic is going to show up to our space,” she said. “If you’re super homophobic, why would you want to be in a really queer space?” 

Although much of this is kept from the College, the new director of the Office of Greek Life and Student Societies Hunter Carlheim said that there are many avenues for students to seek support if they are the victim of discrimination. 

“We definitely encourage the use of different offices on campus to seek how to create a safe environment, how to create safe spaces,” he said. 

The jeering at that contentious Masters game revolved around allegations that the beer pong player says the N-word with frequency. Alongside encouraging him to say the N-word, the fraternity opposite also chanted “hard r,” in reference to the allegation that he says the N-word in its entirety, as opposed to with the abbreviation of an “a” at the end. The team also chanted the word “quota,” referring to one fraternity’s alleged cap on the number of gay members it will accept annually. 

The “indirect” peer pressure of perceived homogeneity can cultivate this “harmful behavior,” sociology professor Janice McCabe said. 

“It takes a lot to be able to step outside of what you perceive everyone else in the group as doing — even if your internal beliefs are different,” she said. 

According to McCabe, fraternities and sororities particularly encourage students to conform to the norm for a few reasons. First, students in college are likely to be impacted by one another culturally because they are surrounded by people of the same age. Second, homosocial environments — consisting of people of one sex — are particularly conducive to uniformity. 

The shared living space can also suppress individuality, she said. 

“If you’re living in a fraternity house or a sorority house — so, you’re literally surrounded by the same people — it makes it harder to step outside of what feels like the dominant culture of the group,” she said. 

One of the chants at Masters made reference to an incident in a past term, when a member voluntarily stepped down from the fraternity because of his use of the F-slur and the N-word — after facing internal pressure. 

“Here’s to brother [Simon], brother [Simon], brother [Simon], here’s to brother [Simon], we miss you we do,” they sang. “We miss you asshole; we miss you asshole. Here’s to brother [Simon], we miss you we do.” 

“It was bizarre,” one Greek life executive said. 

Similar to Peter’s infractions, the story of Simon’s offenses swept across campus. These incidents were confirmed by a member with knowledge of the situation. 

Although the stories of Peter and Simon became well-known, Greek life executives said that these incidents are indicative of a much larger culture around slur usage. They also said that most incidents are not handled with this bureaucratic care. 

A Greek life member said that Simon’s story was an example of how the culture around slurs could change for the better. He emphasized that Simon took accountability for his actions by stepping down from the fraternity. 

“We are going in a positive trend, so long as people do not get tired and keep punishing those who do the wrong thing,” the fraternity member said. 

Of Peter’s social probation, another fraternity executive said that he thought the response of the house was “admirable.” 

“It has been the most inclusive way that I have heard of any Greek space punishing people like this,” he said. 

One gay fraternity member who has been called the F-slur derogatorily said that gay Dartmouth students can facilitate social punishment for offenders in less official ways, as well. 

“Gay men on this campus do have power and social abilities” by virtue of their friendships, one gay fraternity member said. If a straight man uses a slur, gay men can rely on getting their female friends in sororities to add them to the blacklist, for example. 

“What do you want us to do — find six other gay people and curb stomp them?,” he said. “No, so what we’re going to do is make sure that the thing that they value — access to spaces they’re terrorizing — is limited.” 

He agreed that the current might be changing for the better for gay men in fraternities — especially because many social chairs are gay. He offered a warning for the members who like to throw this language around. 

“Watch what happens to you if you think you just get to say that and still get to benefit from our presence and who we bring to the space,” he said. 

The KDE executive said that this was not the first time that she had heard a guest use the F-slur in the sorority. These are just examples of incidents that were punished and well-known. 

“Frats are protecting their brothers who are using” slurs, the KDE executive said. 

If you have a story or opinion to share about racism or homophobia in Dartmouth Greek clubs, please email editor@thedartmouth.com. 

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