11723: Free—And Expelled—At Last.

From DiversityInc…

Frat Expelled After ‘MLK Black Party’

By Chris Hoenig

Arizona State University officials have expelled a popular fraternity after a racist and offensive party held on a weekend to celebrate the nation’s most revered civil-rights leader.

The school’s Tau Kappa Epsilon (TKE) chapter initially had its operations halted after pictures posted on social media showed partygoers at the frat’s “MLK Black Party” dressed in basketball jerseys, flashing gang signs and drinking from watermelon cups. School officials announced late Thursday that the fraternity had been expelled.

“I think this represents the ignorance that still exists today. This is just one example of the kind of things that occur here,” ASU senior Kaajal Koranteng told KPHO-TV in Phoenix.

“This isn’t appropriate at all and you really have no business dressing like this on a day that’s sort of revered for African-Americans,” senior Frank Hogan added after seeing some of the pictures.

The frat was already on probation after being reinstated in December from another suspension, and it was prohibited from throwing parties. “ASU has one of the most diverse student bodies of any major university in the country, and it is unfortunate that a few misguided individuals held an offensive party at a time when ASU, the state and the nation are celebrating Dr. King’s achievements and legacy. The university will not tolerate this kind of behavior,” read an official ASU statement announcing the indefinite suspension. The university added that the party was not sanctioned by the school and did not take place on school grounds.

“This incident is one of many that prove we still have a long way to go in solving problems of racism in America,” Phoenix-based civil-rights activist Reverend Jarrett Maupin said. He is demanding diversity and racial-sensitivity training at the school because of what he calls a “culture of bigotry within some white Greek organizations: at the university. “There should be a zero-tolerance policy for racism at ASU. Period,” Maupin added.

“We are aware of the situation. We have been contacted and we have been in contact with the local chapter and the university,” national TKE organization Director of Compliance & Housing Patrick Gleason said. He added that the national body had worked with the local ASU chapter to get it reinstated and back on campus last month after its suspension for inappropriate conduct, including a fight that left one student injured. Gleason said he planned to meet with school and chapter officials following this latest suspension.

The national TKE organization, based in Indianapolis, released a statement on the party and suspension:

“Tau Kappa Epsilon does not condone or support any actions by its members that would be defined as racist, discriminatory and/or offensive. Social events with ‘party themes’ that are defined as such have no place in our fraternity’s mission or purpose. It is with embarrassment and regret when a few individuals within our organization make decisions that do not align with the values and principles of Tau Kappa Epsilon.

“Since 1899, our fraternity has taken much pride in the diversity and uniqueness of our membership. Tau Kappa Epsilon has never had an exclusionary clause in our membership. Our founders believed, as we do today, in the personal worth and character of the individual, not his wealth, rank or honor. We take great pride in having members who were and are still advocates of civil-rights movements in the United States. We celebrate all men and women of all races, genders, creeds, orientations and beliefs who strive each day to make the world a better place.

“We apologize for any offensive actions that a few of our members might have participated in. We can assure all other parties that these actions do not represent Tau Kappa Epsilon and the beliefs of love, charity and esteem that we have stood by for 115 years. We will respond to these individuals while holding the utmost respect for our principles of being Better Men for a Better World.

“A member of the Tau Kappa Epsilon Fraternity professional staff is currently onsite at Arizona State University to begin an investigation. We have been working with university officials since we became aware of the alleged incident.”

But the meeting between the school and the national TKE organization does not sit well with Reverend Maupin. “To try and meet on this matter without engaging Black leaders is adding insult to injury,” he said. “We must be at the table.” He is also demanding that the school expel all students involved with the party.

11718: Freedom Of Stupidity.

From USA TODAY…

First Amendment debate rages over Ariz. frat’s behavior

By Anne Ryman, The Arizona Republic

Both sides argue whether MLK party was covered by free speech or racist.

PHOENIX — Just as social media played a big role in spreading images of partygoers at a controversial ASU fraternity event on Martin Luther King Jr. weekend, Twitter and Facebook have buzzed with debate over whether their behavior was racist and if it was free speech.

Many condemned the students’ actions at the Tau Kappa Epsilon fraternity party, which included partygoers wearing stereotypical hip-hop clothes and posing with hollowed-out watermelon cups, according to photos posted on the Internet.

As one person wrote Wednesday on Twitter: “ASU should revoke acceptance — expel them — for any students who thought it was ok to go to such a party.” The post ended with a hashtag that said: #sicktostomach.

Others felt Arizona State University officials would be going too far if they expelled students who went to the party, arguing that the behavior, although offensive, still fell under the umbrella of the First Amendment.

First Amendment experts have different views on whether the behavior was protected under the Constitution.”This is the United States of America, not the United States of I have a right to never be offended,” another person posted on Facebook. “The students are protected by the right of free speech.” The post went on to say the students’ behavior was “stupid,” but added, “It’s their God given right to do it.”

The Constitution prohibits government entities, including state universities such as ASU, from interfering with freedom of speech. But the U.S. Supreme Court has upheld exceptions, including speech that would incite reasonable people to immediate violence, harassment or threats or intimidation.

All the facts aren’t known, but the party incident raises questions about the intent of the speech, said Dan Pochoda, legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Arizona.

“It does appear it was a conscious attempt to degrade an entire race, and anyone taking part in such action would know it increases the difficulty of students of color to participate in the educational community,” he said.

Pochoda said the ACLU has not been asked to get involved in the case.

ASU officials put the Tau Kappa Epsilon fraternity on interim suspension Monday after receiving reports that fraternity members hosted an unregistered party on Sunday with racial overtones and underage drinking.

Local civil-rights leaders want the university to revoke the fraternity’s recognition, which means they couldn’t recruit members or hold meetings on campus.

They also want ASU to expel students who went to the party and take steps to create a “more accepting environment” at the university.

They threatened to boycott the university’s athletics and a fundraising campaign to rebuild Sun Devil Stadium unless their demands are met.

ASU is investigating the fraternity for four possible violations of the student code of conduct:

• Engaging in discriminatory activities.

• Off-campus conduct that may present a risk or danger.

• Violation of laws governing alcohol.

• Violation of earlier disciplinary sanction.

At the time of the party, the fraternity was on university probation for a fight in November 2012, when police reports say fraternity members confronted a rival fraternity member, an African-American, and beat him. He suffered a broken jaw, a concussion and cuts.

Experts aren’t certain whether the latest incident crossed a constitutional line.

Gene Policinski, chief operating officer of the Newseum Institute in Washington, D.C., believes the Constitution protects the students’ right to dress in the manner they did as well as their offensive comments.

The Newseum is a nonprofit media education organization that includes the First Amendment Center.

But he said the students may not be in the clear if they violated other university rules such as underage consumption of alcohol.

The fraternity also may have a contract with the university that outlined expectations, which would be a separate issue from free speech.

Parties with controversial themes pop up every year, according to a national organization that tracks free-speech issues on campuses. Last year, the Kappa Sigma Fraternity at Duke University in Durham, N.C., found itself under scrutiny after hosting an Asian-themed party with conical hats and geisha clothing. The national chapter suspended the fraternity.

Robert Shibley, senior vice president for the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, said choosing a party theme is an expressive act, intended to communicate a message and is therefore protected by the Constitution.

“If they have broken other rules, students or organizations may be punished for those infractions, but their punishment cannot be based on or enhanced by the college’s desire to condemn a certain viewpoint,” he said.

The Rev. Jarrett Maupin, a local civil-rights advocate, said he is “deeply troubled” by social-media posts that say the party behavior falls into the category of free speech.

“You have a right in America to do a lot of things, but it doesn’t make it right,” he said. “Are we now legitimizing or giving permission to or endorsing racist behavior?”

The national chapter of Tau Kappa Epsilon is investigating and sent a representative to Arizona. In a statement issued Tuesday, spokesman Alex Baker apologized for “any offensive actions that a few of our members might have participated in” and added that the national fraternity does not condone any actions that would be defined as racist, discriminatory or offensive.

“Social events with ‘party themes’ that are defined as such have no place in our fraternity’s mission or purpose,” Baker said in the statement.

First Amendment experts say the party incident is another cautionary tale for using social media wisely. Young people often have a sense that posting something on Facebook or Twitter isn’t serious and doesn’t count, the Newseum’s Policinski said.

“I think we’re finding out all over the place that’s absolutely not the case,” he said. “It’s speech.”

9594: Unconstitutional Policing In Arizona.

From The New York Times…

U.S. Finds Pervasive Bias Against Latinos by Arizona Sheriff

By Marc Lacey

PHOENIX — In a strongly worded critique of the country’s best-known sheriff, the Justice Department on Thursday accused Sheriff Joe Arpaio of engaging in “unconstitutional policing” by unfairly targeting Latinos for detention and arrest and retaliating against those who complain.

After an investigation that lasted more than three years, the civil rights division of the Justice Department said in a 22-page report that the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office, which Mr. Arpaio leads, had “a pervasive culture of discriminatory bias against Latinos” that “reaches the highest levels of the agency.” The department interfered with the inquiry, the government said, prompting a lawsuit that eventually led Sheriff Arpaio and his deputies to cooperate.

“We have peeled the onion to its core,” said Thomas E. Perez, the assistant attorney general for civil rights, noting during a conference call with reporters on Thursday morning that more than 400 inmates, deputies and others had been interviewed as part of the review, including Sheriff Arpaio and his command staff. Mr. Perez said the inquiry, which included jail visits and reviews of thousands of pages of internal documents, raised the question of whether Latinos were receiving “second-class policing services” in Maricopa County.

Mr. Perez said he hoped Sheriff Arpaio would cooperate with the federal government in turning the department around. Should he refuse to enter into a court-approved settlement agreement, Mr. Perez said, the government will file a lawsuit and the department could lose millions of dollars in federal money.

A separate federal grand jury investigation of Sheriff Arpaio’s office is continuing, focusing on accusations of abuse of power by the department’s public corruption squad.

Sheriff Arpaio was singled out for criticism in the report, which said that he had used racially charged letters he had received to justify raids and that he helped nurture the department’s “culture of bias.”

Asked at a news conference about Sheriff Arpaio’s role in the department’s problems, Mr. Perez said, “We have to do cultural change and culture change starts with people at the top.” Mr. Perez made a point of reaching out to Sheriff Arpaio’s underlings. “These findings are not meant to impugn your character,” he said to the department’s deputies.

Sheriff Arpaio, 79, who calls himself “America’s toughest sheriff,” brushed off the criticism in a news conference as politically motivated. He said he was particularly upset by an announcement by the homeland security secretary, Janet Napolitano, a former Arizona governor, that as a result of the findings of discrimination, the federal government would no longer allow sheriff’s deputies to check the immigration status of inmates in their custody.

“This is a sad day for America as a whole,” Sheriff Arpaio said, suggesting that the federal government’s action was tantamount to setting up a neon welcome sign for illegal immigrants. “We are proud of the work we have done to fight illegal immigration.”

Long a lightning rod for controversy, Sheriff Arpaio looms large over Arizona and beyond. His turf, Maricopa County, with 3.8 million residents, is one of the country’s largest counties in terms of both area and population. Republican candidates at all levels clamor for his backing, aware that he has become a potent symbol of the antipathy many Americans feel about illegal immigration.

Before he endorsed Gov. Rick Perry of Texas for president last month, Sheriff Arpaio was courted by much of the Republican field, including Representative Michele Bachmann, former Gov. Mitt Romney of Massachusetts and Herman Cain, a businessman who has since suspended his campaign.

The inquiry’s findings paint a picture of a department staffed by poorly trained deputies who target Latino drivers on the roadways and detain innocent Latinos in the community in their searches for illegal immigrants. The mistreatment, the government said, extends to the jails the department oversees, where Latino inmates who do not speak English are mistreated.

“The absence of clear policies and procedures to ensure effective and constitutional policing,” the report said, “along with the deviations from widely accepted policing and correctional practices, and the failure to implement meaningful oversight and accountability structures, have contributed to a chronic culture of disregard for basic legal and constitutional obligations.”

The report said Latino drivers were four to nine times more likely to be stopped in the sprawling county, which includes Phoenix and its environs, than non-Latino drivers. The expert who conducted the study called it the most egregious racial profiling he had ever seen in this country, said Mr. Perez, the prosecutor, without naming the expert.

The report said that roughly one-fifth of the traffic-related incident reports generated by the department’s human smuggling unit contained information indicating the stops may have been conducted in violation of the Fourth Amendment’s prohibition on unreasonable seizures.

The report also suggested that Sheriff Arpaio’s well-publicized raids aimed at arresting illegal immigrants were sometimes prompted by complaints that described no criminal activity but referred to people with “dark skin” or to Spanish speakers congregating in an area. “The use of these types of bias-infected indicators as a basis for conducting enforcement activity contributes to the high number of stops and detentions lacking in legal justification,” the report said.

Sheriff Arpaio has insisted that he is just enforcing the law and has mentioned in previous interviews that he has an adopted grandchild who is of Mexican descent. He has responded defiantly to past criticisms, with more raids. In the last three years, he has sent deputies into 56 Phoenix-area businesses, resulting in several hundred arrests for identity theft.

Asked at the news conference on Thursday whether he cared about the Latino community, the sheriff said, “I do have compassion, but enforcing the law overrides my compassion.”

As a result of the report, John Morton, director of immigration and customs enforcement, sent a letter Thursday to Maricopa County officials saying that the federal government would no longer provide the immigration status to deputies for anyone involved in a traffic stop, civil infraction or other minor offense.

The report is likely to increase calls for the resignation of Sheriff Arpaio, whose fifth term ends next year. He has vowed to run again. The sheriff, who has won election by wide margins even while frustrating his critics, has seen opposition to his leadership increase in recent months with reports that his department misspent county money and failed to adequately investigate more than 400 sexual-abuse cases, many involving illegal immigrants.

On Wednesday, Sheriff Arpaio’s critics took their case to the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors, which controls the sheriff office’s purse strings. The board heard a heavy dose of criticism of the sheriff, but also present were some of his backers, who praise his no-tolerance approach toward illegal immigrants. “Police officers make mistakes,” said Jerry Sheridan, Sheriff Arpaio’s chief deputy, in defense of the department.

The Justice Department report quotes from some people characterized as victims of the department’s overzealous ways. It cites the case of a Latino driver who won a $600,000 legal settlement after a deputy intentionally struck him with his patrol car during a traffic stop.

In another case, an inmate was not allowed to use another inmate as an interpreter to tell a detention officer that her sheets were soiled. She was told she had to make the request herself in English, even though she did not speak the language well.

After Sheriff Arpaio received a letter complaining that employees of a McDonald’s in Sun City, a retirement community, did not speak English, the sheriff forwarded the letter to a top aide, who mounted an immigration raid in the area.

Salvador Rodriguez contributed reporting.

8417: C’MON WHITE MAN! Episode 1.

(MultiCultClassics credits ESPN’s C’MON MAN! for sparking this new, semi-regular blog series.)

Advertising Creative Honcho Steffan Postaer wrote at his blog—Gods of Advertising—about the blurring line he perceives between “followers and haters” among us. It’s not exactly a unique or provocative perspective. And it’s barely coherent in certain sections. Yet what makes the post noteworthy is Postaer’s opening, which features gushing references to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. (The post was originally published on the 2011 MLK holiday.) Postaer salutes “Letters (sic) from a Birmingham Jail” and the “I Have a Dream” speech before reverently declaring, “Despite all evil in the world, we are better because Dr. King was in it.” The blogger then segues to the Tucson shooting and the uncivil “conversation” taking place in society, ultimately shifting to the venom and vitriol directed toward him at AgencySpy.

For starters, MultiCultClassics examined the phenomenon of online ad-boss bashing in 2007, contending that much of it was likely justified. Whatever. But for Postaer to place his personal tribulations in the same breath as the Tucson victims and MLK is pretty self-absorbed thinking. The man should consider letting the civil rights icon inspire efforts to bring diversity to the advertising industry. Hey, bet such a notion never crossed Postaer’s mind.

C’MON WHITE MAN!

7843: Butting In.

Behind in the news with a MultiCultClassics Monologue…

• Foxy Brown was arrested for allegedly mooning a neighbor. However, Brown offered a revealing defense to the accusations that the neighbor saw Brown’s underwear—the rapper insisted she wasn’t wearing underwear. If the panties don’t fit, you must acquit.

• Lady Gaga spoke out against Arizona’s new immigration law during a recent concert. “We have to be active. We have to protest. … I will yell and I will scream louder,” proclaimed Gaga. “I will hold you, and we will hold each other, and we will peaceably protest this state.” And if the protestors dress like the recording artist, they’ll all get arrested for indecent exposure.

7837: Cartoonish Commentary.

From The Times-Picayune…

7776: Animal Talk.

Monkeying around with a MultiCultClassics Monologue…

• According to LaToya Jackson, brother Michael spent thousands of dollars in an attempt to implant vocal chords in pet chimp Bubbles, hoping to get the animal to speak. However, the surgery was abandoned when Jacko learned it could prove fatal for his longtime companion. So Bubbles remains the only figure associated with the Jacksons who hasn’t received implants or reconstructive procedures.

• Dozens of brown pelican chicks affected by the BP oil spill disaster were treated and relocated to a sanctuary in Miami. It’s a good thing the birds weren’t sent to Arizona—otherwise, the brown pelicans might have been targets for racial profiling.