Students claim Yale fraternity hosted ‘white girls only’ party
An African-American freshman at Columbia University claims she was denied entrance to a Halloween party hosted by Yale's Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity on Friday, because the party was for "white girls only," the Huffington Post reports.
On Facebook, Yale student Neema Githere, who did not try to attend the party this year, recounted the alleged experience one of her acquaintances had at the off-campus party. In the post, Githere added that she had been turned away from SAE's party last year for the same reason.
Although her memory of being turned away from last year's party is "fuzzy," she clearly recalls feeling "demeaned and worthless after hearing a [fraternity] brother mention race to [her] and her friends," she told the Huffington Post.
Another Columbia student who witnessed the ordeal, Sofia Petros-Gouin, said the Sigma Alpha Epsilon brothers repeatedly said "white girls only [and] a group of Hispanic and black women were turned away. A group of exclusively white girls from the bottom of the stairs were brought in and the [brothers said] 'yes, this is what we're looking for."
In her own Facebook post, Petros-Gouin wrote, "This weekend I was privy to both explicitly racist and absolutely abhorrent behavior at Yale's chapter of the SAE fraternity. It's about time we take a seriously critical look at Greek life in this country in general and the way girls of color are treated at elite universities. As a girl of color myself it's an absolute shame that I and other girls consistently find ourselves at the margins, discriminated against (both explicitly and implicitly) and without a sense of belonging from the larger community."
Another student, a freshman at Yale who asked to remain anonymous, because "fraternity members are influential in many of the organizations on campus," told the Washington Post he and three friends tried to enter the party after midnight. "When I first came to the door they said, 'who the [expletive] do you think you are — you’re clearly gay,” he said.
According to the student, after several attempts to get into the party, because "he was worried about friends, who he believed had, had too much to drink," he finally made it inside where he say a few African-American men, "but other than that, it was older white men and lots and lots of white blond girls. A few Asian girls had got in but I did not see one black girl at the party," he said.
On Githere's original post, a number of other women commented with similar experiences. One commenter wrote that she wasn't allowed entrance to the party unless members of the fraternity could touch her afro.
One member of the fraternity told the Huffington Post, "We at SAE are a very open fraternity, in that, if we have room, the only thing preventing someone from entering our house is not having a Yale ID. The Yale Police requires us to ask for Yale IDs."
According to the Yale Daily News, SAE typically allows any student who attends Yale to enter their parties until they reach capacity. At which point, members of the fraternity have to personally let in any more students.
The President of Sigma Alpha Epsilon immediately reached out to Yale's Dean of Student Affairs for more information. Dean Burgwell Howard then contacted Githere for more information.
The Huffington Post reports that Sigma Alpha Epsilon has said their members will attend a forum at Yale's Afro-American Cultural Center and they will discuss the weekend's events in hopes of dostering an inclusive campus atmosphere.
Contact Caitlin Lilly at clilly@reviewjournal.com. Find her on Twitter: @caitiesmith
