The University of Richmond suspended one of its fraternities, Kappa Sigma, after a video surfaced showing members singing a racist song, NBC12 reports.
In the video, students can be heard singing "The South will rise again" and "I want to be a slave owner."
“The behavior recorded in the video is shameful and despicable. I am appalled by what I have seen and heard,” University president Kevin Hallock said. “This is not who we are, nor who we aspire to be.”
But a student and member of the Black Student Coalition at the University of Richmond isn't buying Hallock's words.
“To say that this is not who we are is a lie, and I think we just wanted to call that out really clearly,” Shira Greer said.
“Just seeing them display that so comfortably and openly in that video is always somewhat disturbing,” Greer said. “It’s not surprising because I think we know these sentiments exist among many members of our campus community.”
“We are also continuing to push for the other demands as well for Black students, which include a multicultural house on campus and an endowed chair for Africana Studies that is upcoming,” Greer said.
According to the university's Student Government Association, racial incidents like the video isn't confined to one fraternity.
“The student governments are thoroughly disappointed and wanted to, again, denounce these actions on our campus community,” the SGA said. “This is not an instance limited to Kappa Sigma, as is evident by the past few months.”
“We want to make it clear that we are against the systems that continue to show themselves as perpetual agents in the normative culture of racism and other forms of hatred that have been apparent in the past few years. This video is just the latest in a series of abhorrent and unacceptable actions by members of our community,” the SGA said.