Fallout from sorority racial slur video remains unclear

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Gallery • 2 Photos
The Alpha Xi Delta house on Chestnut Street.

Jack Dobbs and Laurel Deppen
October 1, 2019

Editor’s note: This story contains the embedded video of WKU students using a racial slur. The video contains explicit language.

WKU will not pursue any disciplinary action after a video posted to Twitter showed members of Alpha Xi Delta singing the lyrics of a song containing a racial slur, Director of Media Relations Bob Skipper said.

Any sort of discipline for the Epsilon Kappa chapter would be handled by the national organization, Skipper said.

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“We used it as a teachable moment to educate the students that their behavior may not be perceived as they intended,” Skipper said.

{{tncms-inline account=”Rose” html=”<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">This DEFINITELY ain’t it <a href="https://twitter.com/wku?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@wku</a> <a href="https://t.co/4Vwgt6tBxD">pic.twitter.com/4Vwgt6tBxD</a></p>— Rose (@Rmsj12) <a href="https://twitter.com/Rmsj12/status/1167513321651748865?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 30, 2019</a></blockquote>” id=”https://twitter.com/Rmsj12/status/1167513321651748865″ type=”twitter”}}

As of Friday, Skipper said he did not know what steps the national organization would take.

The video, which was posted to Twitter on Aug. 30, shows several people, including some members of the sorority, singing along to Saweetie’s “My Type.”

Skipper said he learned about the video when Charley Pride, WKU director of Student Activities, sent him a notice outlining the incident. At first, Skipper said the university had difficulty determining if the people in the video were members of the WKU chapter.

“After talking with some people who were able to identify some of the people in the video, they were able to confirm that it was our [sorority],” Skipper said.

A meeting was held with Alpha Xi Delta leadership about the incident and the national organization was notified, Skipper said.

Lauren Felts, director of communication and marketing for the national Alpha Xi Delta organization, issued a statement on the incident in a Sept. 16 email.

“We are working with the chapter to investigate this incident,” Felts said in the statement. “This type of behavior does not reflect Alpha Xi Delta’s values and principles.”

Rose Mary Jackson, a student at Lindsey Wilson College, posted the video to Twitter.

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“I happened to come across the video watching it on this girl’s story that I used to go to high school with,” Jackson said in a Twitter direct message.

Jackson said the word is inappropriate and offensive.

Since being posted to Twitter, the video has over 41,000 views, 290 retweets and over 730 likes.

Andrew Rash, WKU Greek affairs coordinator, said he was unaware of any incidents like this happening in the past.

The president of WKU’s Alpha Xi Delta chapter, Mariah Morgan, said only the national chapter could comment on the issue.

Reporter Jack Dobbs can be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter at @jackrdobbs.

Print Managing Editor Laurel Deppen can be reached at laurel.deppen774@ topper.wku.edu. Follow her on Twitter at @laurel_deppen.