I'm Embarrassed For My School: Racism At The University of Oklahoma

When you hear the words The University of Oklahoma, your first thought is football. Not anymore.

By now you should be familiar with the sickening events that happened over the weekend. I'm not going to rehash those. I will tell you about my time in Oklahoma and compare.

I attended OU in the 1970's. It was one of the best experiences of my life. My closest long term friends are from there. I feel I grew up at OU.

I cherish my time there and I love the place.

That's why I'm heartsick at the events of the past weekend.

I'm not sure a lot has changed in the 45 years since I was a Freshman. What's scary is things are now worse. Back then the racism and exclusionism was somewhat hidden and subtle. It's obviously blatant and out in the open now.

In the 70's, Oklahoma had one of the largest Greek systems in the nation. Land was cheap so the houses were huge. Competition to get into the "better" houses was intense.

On the first night of rush week, I went with some of the residents of my dorm. Hey, can't beat free beer when you're 18.

We end up at the Lambda house and we're having a good time. The guys were cool, pretty girls were hanging out and there was plenty of beer. It really was a scene out of Animal House.

I was walking up the stairs and dropped a beer. You could see the liquid flying down two stories.

One of my friends said not to worry about it. I wasn't getting in anyway.

No Jews Allowed.

A couple of years later, I met a girl who belonged to Kappa Alpha Theta. It had the biggest house and the most members of any sorority in the country.

I teased her for months for being a member and finally she had enough and asked me to dinner there. It was me and 100 girls. All white. No minorities.

A few hours ago, a former classmate reminded me of a convenience store just off campus. Everyone called it Super-jew. I thought it was funny when I was 18. It's not so funny today.

OU was not exactly the home of diversity in the 1970's. I don't think there was one person of color on my dorm floor. I can only remember a few in the entire building of twelve floors.

So while the events of the weekend , in Norman, were shocking they didn't surprise me. Racism and antisemitism is at an all-time high worldwide. Just last year there was this incident at The University of Mississippi. I guess campus racism just moved a few states to the west.

A few good things happened because of this incident.

The campus community has bonded together and quickly.

OU President David Boren immediately kicked the SAE fraternity off campus. All residents have until midnight to leave the fraternity house.

I was down on Boren after an incident at the OU Art Museum last year but he's redeemed himself. Boren has accomplished some great things at OU and once again he shows that he's a special leader. I'm proud he's President of my school.

Oklahoma Football coach Bob Stoops was out protesting with some of his players. He's been under fire for the results of his last team. Yesterday Stoops showed his human side. He cancelled football practice. Today I'm proud Bob Stoops is the head coach of my football team.

The school newspaper, The Oklahoma Daily, has done some great work in covering this event. Their continual live online updates have been phenomenal. A superb job and the students should be very proud.

Sadly the good will soon be forgotten. The images from the weekend will be all that is remembered.

OU 1970 to OU 2015. The more things change, the more they stay the same.

If you liked this piece on OU, I'm sad to say you might like this one, too. Nazi's Art & The University of Oklahoma.

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