A deeper examination of the sheer joy of Oklahoma students chanting about hanging n*gg*rs from trees

This weekend, this video was released showing students, both men and women, excitedly chanting this:

“There will never be a n*gg*r in SAE.
There will never be a n*gg*r in SAE.
You can hang him from a tree, but he can never sign with me
There will never be a n*gg*r in SAE.”

....

In fact, 27 days ago, people on Reddit were talking about this exact same chant, and stating that it was a required chant to enter the SAE fraternity at the University of Texas.

List of Sigma Alpha Epsilon members


U.S. Senate

Max Baucus - U.S. Senator from Montana (D), Stanford University
J.C.W. Beckham - Former U.S. Senator from Kentucky (D); youngest Governor of Kentucky; namesake of Beckham County, Oklahoma, Centre College
Jim DeMint - U.S. Senator from South Carolina (R), University of Tennessee
Pete Domenici - Former U.S. Senator from New Mexico (R), University of New Mexico
Peter Fitzgerald - Former U.S. Senator from Illinois (R), Dartmouth College
John J. Hickey - Former Wyoming governor and U.S. Senator (D), University of Wyoming
Johnny Isakson - U.S. Senator from Georgia (R), University of Georgia
Connie Mack III - Former Florida U.S. Senator (R), University of Florida
Larry Pressler - Former South Dakota U.S. Senator (R), University of South Dakota
David Pryor - Former Arkansas Governor and U.S. Senator (D), University of Arkansas
Mark Pryor - U.S. Senator from Arkansas (D), University of Arkansas
George Smathers- Former U.S. Senator and Congressman from Florida (D), philanthropist, University of Florida
Dennis Chavez - Former U.S. Senator from New Mexico University of New Mexico
Richard Russell - Former US Senator from Georgia University of Georgia

U.S. House of Representatives

Bill Archer - Former U.S. Representative (R), Chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, University of Texas at Austin
Andy Barr (U.S. politician) - US Representative from Kentucky (R) University of Virginia
David E. Bonior - Former US Representative from Michigan (D), University of Iowa
Allen Boyd - Former US Representative from Florida (D), Florida State University
Jay Dickey - Former US Representative from Arkansas (R), University of Arkansas
David Dreier - US Representative from California (R), University of La Verne
Hamilton C. Jones - Former US Representative from North Carolina (D) UNC Chapel Hill
Thomas W. Ewing - Former US Representative from Illinois (R), Millikin University
Paul Gillmor - Former US Representative from Ohio (R), Ohio Wesleyan University
J. Alex McMillan - Former US Representative from North Carolina (R), UNC Chapel Hill
Ralph Regula - Former US Congressman from Ohio (R), Mount Union College
John Shadegg - Former US Congressman from Arizona (R), University of Arizona
Charles Walter "Charlie" Stenholm - Former US Congressman from Texas (D), Texas Tech University
Gilbert Brown Patterson - Former US Congressman from North Carolina (D) UNC Chapel Hill

Governors

Sherman Adams - Former Governor of New Hampshire (R); Representative from New Hampshire's 2nd District; White House Chief of Staff, Dartmouth College
Haley Barbour - Former Governor of Mississippi (R); former chairman of the Republican National Committee, University of Mississippi
Joe Foss - Former South Dakota Governor (R); Medal of Honor recipient; leading USMC ace pilot, 1st Commissioner of the AFL, former NRA President, University of South Dakota
William L. Guy - Former North Dakota Governor (D), North Dakota State University
Gary Johnson - Former Governor of New Mexico (L), University of New Mexico
Paul B. Johnson, Jr. - Former Governor of Mississippi (D), University of Mississippi
John Lynch - Former Governor of New Hampshire (D), University of New Hampshire
Sidney S. McMath - Former Governor of Arkansas (D), Marine General & Renowned Trial Lawyer, University of Arkansas
Robert D. Ray - Former Governor of Iowa (R), Drake University
Robert D. Blue - Former Governor of Iowa, Drake University
Brian Sandoval - Current Governor of Nevada University of Nevada


Other Notable Government Officials

Henry M. Paulson - Former U.S. Treasury Secretary, Former CEO of Goldman Sachs Group, Dartmouth College

Madison — In a highly unusual move, the state Supreme Court is considering holding all or part of its oral arguments in secret in a case focused on whether Gov. Scott Walker's campaign and conservative groups illegally worked together in recall elections.

In a five-page order issued late Wednesday, the court told attorneys involved in the case to file briefs next week spelling out whether they believe the public should be prohibited from attending all or part of the arguments on April 17 and 20. The court also wants the attorneys to weigh in on whether to allow live television coverage of the arguments, as has been happening for years for all of the high court's cases.

...

Much of the otherwise secret probe has become public through media reports and a wave of litigation that resulted in once-sealed documents being filed in state and federal courthouses. Among the information disclosed was the involvement of Walker's campaign in raising money for the conservative Wisconsin Club for Growth.

The Wisconsin Club for Growth has run ads over the years that have helped put or keep four justices on the Supreme Court. It is estimated to have spent $400,000 for Annette Ziegler in 2007; $507,000 for Michael Gableman in 2008; $520,000 for David Prosser in 2011; and $350,000 for Patience Roggensack in 2013. Special prosecutor Francis Schmitz has asked one or more of the justices to step aside from the John Doe cases, presumably because of that spending.

A colonized nation, on the other hand, exists to be exploited by the colonizer. A colonized nation has a low cost and submissive work force; a colonized nation is not in need of great universities but rather the briefest and most efficient work skills training; a colonized nation exploits its environment rather than protecting it because the colonizer is more interested in profits than sustainability. This more closely defines the Wisconsin of Governor Scott Walker. The rejection of the $810 million rail grant by Walker symbolizes this downward trend.

Clearly the Wisconsin of 2011-2015 is a colonized state. But nations or empires are no longer the colonizers. The new colonizers are multinational corporations. Follow the money and it will continually lead to the same set of corporations who fund puppet leaders such as Governor Walker, Senator Scott Fitzgerald and Representative Robin Vos. These corporations mold public opinion through think tanks like the Heritage Foundation, the Heartland Institute and the MacIver Institute. They create astro-turf organizations such as Americans for Prosperity and its brainchild the Tea Party, and they write legislation through ALEC. These are the “free-market solution” folks who are intent on treating Wisconsin in a fashion similar to the “free-market” corporate exploitation of Bangladesh, Cambodia, Vietnam, and the other emerging third world countries. Only, rather than emerging from the third world, Wisconsin is submerging into it.

...

Governor Walker can be considered a Colonial Governor. Just as any Colonial Governor owes his allegiance to the colonizer who has placed him in power, so does Walker owe his allegiance to the corporate interests who put him in power. When Governor Walker isn’t out of state raising money and getting his marching orders from corporations, he is in Wisconsin attending unannounced meetings with hand-picked friendly audiences in various corporate locations. He is nervous around the natives of Wisconsin and avoids them whenever possible. As with any colonial power, certain Wisconsinites find it to their benefit to fraternize with the colonizer out of fear or need for personal gain. The colonized who support the colonizer generally feel as though they are better off than the colonized who resist. This is the current state of Wisconsin Politics. As with any colonized country, the citizens are encouraged to bicker among themselves in order to distract from their actual exploitation.

...

A brief review of Governor Scott Walker’s biggest donors in defending his recall by the citizens of Wisconsin and in making a down payment on a Colonial Wisconsin is revealing:

Diane Hendricks (net worth $2.8 Billion) gave Walker a $500,000 retainer to deliver a “red state”.

Las Vegas Casio owner Sheldon Adelson (net worth $24.6 Billion) gave Walker $250,000 in 2012 and $650,000 in 2014 to break the unions in Wisconsin. Adelson, the CEO of the Las Vegas Sands Casino organization which includes the Venetian Casinos in Vegas and Macau has had a long history of problems with unions at his casinos. Breaking the unions in Wisconsin will help Adelson back in Vegas. Incidentally, in 2012 Adelson came under investigation by the FBI and the Securities and Exchange Commission for violating the Corrupt Practices Act by attempting to bribe a legislator in Macau with $700,000. In Macau it’s a bribe, in Wisconsin it’s a campaign contribution. The result is the same.

Interested in getting rich fast? Try Amway, the multi-level marketing scheme that asks you to make money by selling average products to your brother-in-law at a profit that you pass on to the person who invited you into this pyramid in the first place. It is entrepreneurship for the morally ungrounded. The grandfather of Amway and owner of the Orlando Magic, Richard DeVos (net worth $4.2 Billion), gave Scott Walker $250,000 in 2012 to keep Ponzi schemes, excuse me, pyramid schemes alive in Wisconsin.

The 600,000 citizens of Wisconsin who now depend upon, or who will depend upon, the State Retirement System in the future must be diligent because the colonizers would like a piece of the action. Private equity firms have been big donors to assure that Scott Walker would survive the recall. John W. Childs (net worth $1.2 Billion), CEO of the Boston equity firm of J.W. Childs Associates has invested $100,000 in Wisconsin via Walker’s campaign. A master at leveraged buyouts, he is not investing in Wisconsin without expecting a return.

Warren A Stephens (net worth $2.7 Billion) of Little Rock, Arkansas, who is the CEO of Stephens Financial Management, Louis M. Bacon (Net worth $1.4 Billion), a hedge fund manager from New York and Patrick G. Ryan (net worth $1.1 Billion), who is the CEO of Ryan Specialty Group, a Chicago Brokerage, are each investing $100,000 for a piece of Scott Walker’s soul.

“We are now literally dismantling the state government, and people need to think long and hard about what they want for a future in our state,”

“ It’s just, I think, sad when a political party — my political party — has so lost faith in its ideas that it’s pouring all of its energy into election mechanics. And again, I’m a guy who understands and appreciates what we should be doing in order to make sure every vote counts, every vote is legitimate. But that fact is, it ought to be abundantly clear to everybody in this state that there is no massive voter fraud. The only thing that we do have in this state is we have long lines of people who want to vote. And it seems to me that we should be doing everything we can to make it easier, to help these people get their votes counted. And that we should be pitching as political parties our ideas for improving things in the future, rather than mucking around in the mechanics and making it more confrontational at the voting sites and trying to suppress the vote. It is all predicated on some belief there is a massive fraud or irregularities, something my colleagues have been hot on the trail for three years and have failed miserably at demonstrating.”

“The K-12 system in the last few years has laid off 3,000 personnel, and it looks to me like that’s going to accelerate. Out my way, I would not be shocked if a huge percentage of school districts wind up going to referendum to have the privilege of raising their own property tax because the state has walked away from its principal responsibility of providing for a free, appropriate and near equal education for everybody.”

“Here’s how I see the enemy. The enemy is poverty in a country and a state that has no business having kids and families go to sleep hungry at night or in their cars. The enemy is those who encourage an undereducated citizenry. Education is the key to helping give people a hand up and a better future.”

On Saturday, my fellow members of the Congressional Black Caucus and I will travel to Selma, Ala., to commemorate the anniversary of Bloody Sunday. On that day 50 years ago, about 600 men, women and children attempted to march from Selma to Alabama's capital, Montgomery, in a peaceful protest of the flagrant disenfranchisement of African-American voters. The march ended abruptly on the Edmund Pettus Bridge, where police brutally attacked the demonstrators, beating them with nightsticks, choking them with tear gas and trampling them with horses. A few months later, repulsed by the images

...

The battle over the state's restrictive voter ID law illustrates why our great state continues to bear this harrowing distinction. Reminiscent of laws from the Jim Crow era that placed burdens on the right to vote, the measure makes it harder for Wisconsin's voters of color to cast their ballot. It's why the civil rights organizations Advancement Project, ACLU and the law firm of Arnold & Porter are challenging this restrictive requirement under the Voting Rights Act, recently petitioning the U.S. Supreme Court to take up the case, and why the caucus stands beside them in this call.

Regardless of what politicians, bent on manipulating the rules for partisan gain, may say, Wisconsin's restrictive voting law remains discriminatory. If our elections are to be free, fair and accessible for all voters, the Supreme Court must hear this case and overturn the law without delay.

Based on the state's own data, about 300,000 registered Wisconsin voters do not have the most common forms of ID required for voting: an unexpired driver's license or state-issued photo ID. Among those hundreds of thousands of registered voters, African-Americans and Latinos are significantly less likely to have these limited forms of identification. In most instances, obtaining the required photo ID involves presenting a certified birth certificate, which many voters also lack or cannot afford to pay for or track down.