Jim Crow of Fraternity Row

After reading this article about some of the actions made by the students in different fraternities with racist remarks towards the black community I thought this was completely inappropriate and that there needs to be an end to it. When the Civil Rights Movement ended it was seen as if racism around the world had been eliminated, but these discriminatory acts are still active today and are nearly as powerful as the racist remarks made years ago. This behavior on these campuses should definitely be outlawed and banned on these campuses because when the African-American students are being abused through the students making fun of them by dressing up as a stereotypical black student when throwing "ghetto parties", they are being emotionally damaged and this can alter the ways they go about their studies at the schools. I believe the fraternities such as Beta Theta Pi should be erased from all universities because the discriminatory acts made have taken it way too far and a simple apology is not enough and a statement should be made by the university so that this stops immediately. As Auburn's Vice President of student affairs stated,  "there is no acceptable explanation for the appearance of students in Ku Klux Klan robes or blackface" makes the statement that the students have taken it way too far and that changes must be made in the university.

Indiana University Speech Codes

When reviewing the speech codes of Indiana University I found that they do a good job of protecting the students from being discriminated against as the policy of "fighting words" is enforced in their efforts to protect everyone from harassment. They have an area called Dunn Meadow where all students may excercise their freedoms of speech which allows everyone a chance to be able to express themselves. These speech codes do not change my opinions on this school because I believe that these policies by the administration are greate and they have created a great way to protect all students from discriminatory actions by others. I believe that these restrictions on their speech codes are legal because as they allow fighting words it may infringe on the First Amendment of freedom of speech, but it is one of the legal ways allowed to alter the freedom of speech and they are not fully taking away the freedom of expression or speech, they are just limiting it to an appropriate rate.

If a party such as the ones described in the article previously that occurred at the University of Auburn where present at an Indiana fraternity I believe disciplinary actions would be made immediatley. I think that they would suspend the students taking action in these harrasments and possibly eliminate the fraternity from being active on the campus. I would definitely agree with these actions because if the students are taking the discriminatory actions too far then changes should be made and a statement should be visible so that these events never occur again.

When exploring FIRE's website more I found that I agree with many of their perspectives when they express their meanings of the freedom of speech and the limitations allowed in the different universities.  The restrictions of the codes protect the students because when things such as fighting words are enforced in the speech codes it is protecting the students from being discriminated against and follows the policies of the speech code.