Sorority pulls offensive photo from Web site

crazygirl · #1 09-03-2002, 05:24 PM

Zeta Tau Alpha asked to remove racist Halloween photo

Victoria HealyStaff Writer
September 03, 2002

The Gamma Phi chapter of Zeta Tau Alpha removed from its Web site this past August a picture of one of its members standing with a man with his face painted black at a Halloween party at the request of the Student Ethnic Enrichment Center, the NAACP and the administration.
This came as a disappointment to the members of many black organizations after the January suspension of the Kappa Alpha fraternity for five years and eviction from their two-story Welch street house.

“I just couldn’t believe it, especially with the KA incident having just happened,” Cheylon Brown said, acting director for the Student Ethnic Center.

The picture was removed from the sorority Web site with in 24 hours of the request and an apology letter was issued to several campus organizations within three days.

All offended parties were pleased with the way the situation was handled by the sorority, but expressed disappointment that it occurred, Brown said.

Dennis Lanham, Dallas junior, president and founding member of the Social Culture of Arts and Talents, said he was not surprised by the event because of what he has seen as a member of the NAACP.

The letter described the photograph, it read: “The offensive photo that was posted on our Web site was not that of a Zeta Tau Alpha, nor was it taken at a Zeta Tau Alpha event. Zeta Tau Alpha would never allow any of our members to dress in such a way that would be insulting or offensive to any person or group of people.”

“I thought the letter was sincere,” Lanham said.

The picture included two people, male and female. The woman was dressed in a princess costume with a tiara on her head.

The man was dressed in a white T-shirt with overalls on and black make-up on his face down to his neck.

James · #2 09-03-2002, 05:51 PM

IF men dressed up in slutty female outfits and as women in a kind of reverse pimps and ho's would that be considered sexist?

Were the pics in this case from the same party? I think that it maybe only in the light of the prior events that this pic raised eyebrows. Although I freely admit I didn't see the pic.

FuzzieAlum · #3 09-03-2002, 06:07 PM

I'm confused ...

The article says, "The Gamma Phi chapter of Zeta Tau Alpha removed from its Web site this past August a picture of one of its members standing with a man with his face painted black at a Halloween party."

But it also quotes the sorority as saying, "The offensive photo that was posted on our Web site was not that of a Zeta Tau Alpha."

So was the woman in the photo a ZTA or not, and if she wasn't, why would it have been on their page?

James, the "reverse pimps and hos" thing was discussed in another thread, and the lack-of-a-consensus consensus was that some people had no problems with an event like that and others felt it was sexist (and in some cases racist as well). In fact, the chapter we're talking about here still has a page of Halloween photos, and it looks like one of the people shown is in fact a man dressed quite "fabulously" in a lot of makeup and a feather boa.

nyrdrms · #4 09-03-2002, 06:32 PM

Just to clarify, the article said that it was not at a Zeta Tau Alpha event. Meaning that it could have been taken anywhere. My guess would be that the woman in the picture was either a sister or a new member, but the sorority wanted to point out that the man was not a member of the sorority and the sorority did not let him in dressed that way to THEIR event.

SATX*APhi · #5 09-03-2002, 06:33 PM

I was wondering the same thing as FuzzieAlum. Is she a ZTA or not? And if not, why was she on their web page? I can understand what nyrdrms is saying, but the way it is worded, I understand it to mean she is not a sister and the photo was not taken at a ZTA event.

justamom · #6 09-04-2002, 06:50 AM

One explanation could be, the function was not STRICTLY a ZTA function. For example, on bid day at LSU, the first few pages have a couple of pictures of DGs with KDs or DZ. Some boyfriends of who knows who are in the background. Sometimes a fraternity will have an open exchange. Many possibilities...

Optimist Prime · #7 09-04-2002, 07:49 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by James
IF men dressed up in slutty female outfits and as women in a kind of reverse pimps and ho's would that be considered sexist?

No James. That would be considered gay. There is nothing wrong with homosexuality, and being a trasvestite does not necesarlily preclude homosexuality, they are usually, if sometimes incorrectly corelated in the minds of most compterary young adults.

librasoul22 · #8 09-04-2002, 12:36 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Optimist Prime

No James. That would be considered gay. There is nothing wrong with homosexuality, and being a trasvestite does not necesarlily preclude homosexuality, they are usually, if sometimes incorrectly corelated in the minds of most compterary young adults.

Not to nit pick, but I read somewhere that 70% of men who dress in women's clothing are actually straight. I cannot remember for the life of me where I read that, but if I do remember I will post the link. Now, the validity of the survey or experiment or whatever is questionable. Did they do self-reports? Who knows!

Oh...there is a thread?

texas*princess · #9 09-04-2002, 04:17 PM

That article was in our school paper, crazygirl.. do you go to NT?

Dianne · #10 09-04-2002, 06:31 PM

OK, on the whole "is she a ZTA?" question...
The letter said the person dressed offensively was not a ZTA. The person dressed offensively was the guy. He obviously is not a ZTA. The girl (who I would assume is a ZTA) was dressed like a princess. The letter also said it was not a ZTA function. It could have been one of several Halloween parties at that school, and since the pic had a ZTA in it, I guess they decided to put it on the website. I hope this clears everything up. Go re-read the original post for clarification...

FuzzieAlum · #11 09-05-2002, 11:42 AM

Hm.

If they realized the costume was offensive and would never allow a sister to dress like that, and would never allow that costume at their own event ... how come it was OK to put on the web page? A web page represents a sorority as much as any event does, so to put it up there was to give the impression they had no problem with the costume.

DeltaSig · #12 09-05-2002, 12:20 PM

my reply is this............I was at our UNT chapter this past year but didn't affiliate in spring, but our chapter did greekweek with the girls of ZTA know enough of them to know this is blown way out of proportion and also know enough to realize their is a growing anti-greek setiment at UNT and many of the other non"IFC" and "PHC" groups have been targeting anything to try and discredit the names of many reputable groups on campus. IT all stems back to the KA incident in Jan of 2001. The campus greeks seem to be very segragated but it's not due in part to any racial overtones by IFC or PHC greeks. I was one of only 4 other minorities in my chapter there and it was never..I repeat never an issue. I just don't like how many IFC and PHC greeks have been repeated targets of specific groups looking for any loophole to spark controversy. THis reminds me of what happend to our DeltaSig chapter at Auburn this past fall...but thanks to the chapters "never say die" attitude, was reinstated back onto campus with all but involving members in the incident, put back into the greek system.

texas*princess · #13 09-05-2002, 01:08 PM

I have to agree with DeltaSig here - to a point. I can honestly say I am not involved with the "social" greeks here since I just recently moved to this school, but I think it was blown way out of proportion. There is no reason to put something like that in the school newspaper.. and on the FRONT page. Was it really that big of a deal? I thought important stuff goes on the front page. I this this incident was blown way out of proportion.

I would also like to agree with FuzzieAlum as well. What you do at your events or what you put out publicly (a website for example) *does* represent the organization. I am a firm believer in this, and some people might not understand or even agree with me. Some people might say "what I do on my time is my business"... well true to a point, but if the world knows you are an ABC or you put stuff like that up for the world to see it was part of the ABC chapter, it does kind of represent you and sometimes even the chapter.

crazygirl · #14 09-08-2002, 11:19 AM

This school's greek system is very segrated. Why else would the "multicultural" & historically "african american" greek systems exist? Because the OTHER greek system didn't want them because of their race.

This particular sorority also seems to put their racist undertones on their website and had no problem with it until organizations asked them to take the picture off. If it wasn't a member of that sorority, why else would they put the picture on their website?

nyrdrms · #15 09-08-2002, 04:34 PM

crazygirl---I'm not sure what the Greek system is like at that particular school, but I know that at my school we do have NPHC, or "African-American" GLOs and yet there are still African-American members of the NIC and NPC organizations as well. Just because the NPHC organizations exist on a particular campus does not necessarily mean that it's because of segregation.