Hazing
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The hazing death of Southern University student Caleb Wilson earlier this year has stoked so many emotions, among them disappointment in the culture that surrounds fraternities. Comedian Rickey Smiley took aim at that during a recent appearance on the Spolitics podcast with Jemele Hill, speaking from his experience as a member of Omega Psi Phi, the same fraternity Wilson was pledging.“I don’t think Bishop Edgar A. Love would have punched anybody in the chest,” Smiley said. “Just, Love, Cooper and Coleman founded Omega Psi Phi at Howard University in 1911. A lot of these guys that started this culture, I don’t care if it started in the ’80s, I don’t care when it started. It is wrong. In 25 years in the frat, I have never put my hands on anybody.” Smiley has been a member of Omega Psi Phi since 2000, and has continually offered support to the Wilson family since 20-year-old Caleb’s death through his platform, relating to their grief due to the death of his own son in January 2023. But he found that the fraternity reportedly wasn’t as encouraging. “I called Caleb Wilson’s dad and offered my condolences because I’m a dad that also lost his son,” Smiley said to Hill. “You know what he said? You are the first member of your fraternity to call and offer your condolences.”
Wilson’s death, which led to the arrest of three men afterward, has sparked more conversation about Black Greek culture and the numerous hazing incidents it has dealt with in the past. Talledega College president and author of Black Greek 101 Walter Kimbrough wrote about the incident for MSNBC, focusing on the older individuals involved: “I call these individuals ‘extended adolescents,’ and they pose a particularly alarming risk to college campus safety.” He blasted the “gang-like mentality” that’s taken over in the fraternity in recent years. “I [joined] Omega Psi Phi Fraternity Inc, because of what it was founded on, not the culture that was created,” he explained. “Culture starts with cult. It’s gang activity…the last physical altercations that I’ve gotten into as a man was with Ques. Why?” Smiley did acknowledge that there are members who are working to break “the generational curse of hazing” and stated that he’d never give up on Omega Psi Phi.
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Former Black football players at Northwestern University have alleged racial hazing, including being forced into watermelon-eating contests in lawsuits.
According to reports, the two former players filed lawsuits against the university in Cook County Circuit Court, adding to the growing hazing scandal that has engulfed the Chicago-area college over the past few weeks. The lawsuits claim that Black players on the team were forced to compete in racist watermelon-eating contests. “‘This is a clear promotion of the indisputably racist watermelon stereotype and anti-black racist trope,’ the litigation documents state.
The two players, who remain anonymous, were on the team during the 2004 and 2005 seasons. Their lawsuits note that at that time, former head coach Pat Fitzgerald was the linebackers coach and recruiting coordinator and “knew and encouraged this behavior to happen to these very young and impressionable men.”
Further details from the lawsuits echo allegations from previously filed lawsuits, claiming that players were singled out for hazing. “Underclassmen, specifically freshmen on the football team, were forced to engage in horrific, despicable, and sexually explicit forms of hazing,” the documents state. There are more allegations of physical and sexual abuse and claims that the coaches not only knew about it but did nothing to stop it.
Fitzgerald, who maintains that he was unaware of the abuses, was fired by Northwestern last month after independent reporting from The Daily Northwestern exposed further details of the allegations. The university announced on Tuesday that former U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch will be leading an independent review of the athletic department. “Hazing has absolutely no place at Northwestern. Period,” Northwestern president Michael Schill said in a statement announcing the move. “I am determined that with the help of Attorney General Lynch, we will become a leader in combating the practice of hazing in intercollegiate athletics and a model for other universities.”
Attorney Ben Crump has also been retained by some of the players who have come forward alleging abuse. “This is the opportunity to eradicate hazing and abuse in college athletic programs from coast to coast,” he said in a statement. “That’s exactly what we intend to do, as this will undoubtedly be the MeToo movement of college athletics.”
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