Alleged racist comments under investigation at Duke University
DURHAM (WTVD) -- Alleged racist comments directed at an African American female student are the focus of an internal investigation at Duke University.
A campus spokesperson said a female passerby reported hearing a white male student in a group of people repeat the same controversial chant that went viral and ultimately disbanded the Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity at the University of Oklahoma.
The student reported the incident to campus police this week and now Duke University's Bias Action Team is working with students living on East Campus to locate any potential witnesses.
"In any case, the kind of behavior that was reported is intolerable, and we deplore in the strongest way actions and statements that demean and threaten members of our community," said Michael Schoenfeld, Vice President for Public Affairs and Government Relations.
Schoenfeld said the university is supporting a student-led effort to address race relations on campus called #WhatWeNeedFromDuke.
The campus' newspaper, Duke Chronicle, is reporting students are writing their fears and frustrations on sticky notes and then posting them on the glass window of the Black Student Allliance office on campus.
Another student group took to social media after the alleged incident demanding justice and pledging its support of the alleged victim.
The Duke People of Color Caucus released an anonymous statement.
"What happened to the young Black woman on Sunday, March 22, 2015, is intimately connected to the conditions that necessitated the takeover of the Allen Building on February 13, 1969, by Black students," the group wrote on the social website Tumblr, adding that there have been other questionable campus incidents.
"What happened to the young Black woman on Sunday, March 22, 2015, is intimately connected to the the Kappa Sigma Fraternity's Asia Prime / International Relations party in Spring 2013 that treated yellowface as an occasion of celebration," the group added.
President Richard Brodhead and Provost Sally Kornbluth have also joined the call for a united campus community. They sent a message to all Duke students condemning the alleged incident and reaffirming the seriousness of their investigation.
"Thinking in stereotypes is a failure of intelligence. Education begins the day we learn to pass beyond crude and distorting simplifications," they wrote in a campus wide email. "Further, a university is based on the premise that we are all here to learn from each other, which requires a broad measure of inclusion and openness to others' experience and points of view."
