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Thursday, July 16, 2020
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
MICHIGAN IN COLOR
The Asian Greek life community’s role in rape
culture and misogyny
CW: Sexual assault, rape, emo-
tional manipulation.
**
Over the past few weeks, stories
of sexual assault, manipulation and
rape have surged my Instagram
homepage. In this second wave of
the #MeToo movement, much of
what has been circulating around
is coming from my Asian-Ameri-
can community. This time, it feels
more surreal as I hear from victims
and perpetrators with whom I am
acquainted. Both groups consist
of people who have walked down
the same hallways I walked, been
to the same events and fraternity
parties my friends have been to and
currently live in the same neigh-
borhood my friends and I live in.
The prevalence and proximity of
these stories are frightening, and
it’s concerning to think about the
many more left untold.
These
survivors
have
held
months or years of emotional bag-
gage and are using this movement
as an opportunity to release their
built-up torment. However, in an
attempt to speak up against their
perpetrators and empower others
who may have gone through a simi-
lar experience, some victims are
met with backlash and criticism.
Linh Mai, University of North
Carolina at Charlotte student and
JENNY CHONG
MiC Staff Writer
Read more at michigandaily.com
Stop saying the G word
Read more at michigandaily.com
Design by Hibah Chughtai
You slip on your coin skirt,
your vibrant colored scarf and
you declare yourself a “gypsy” for
Halloweekend. Your most grave
concern is what color lipstick will
best suit your costume. You take no
second thought about the struggle
for liberation, the painful hate
crimes and systemic oppression
of the “gypsy” you are dressed as
endures.
The idea of a “gypsy,” which
you believe to be an exotic Hal-
loween costume, is rather a racial
slur assigned to the Roma people
(Romanis) intended to subside
their value and isolate them in
society. Romanis are a group of
people originally from the Pun-
jab region of northern India. They
SHAY SZABO
MiC Staff Writer
are known as travelers because of
their historic migration through
the Middle East — some through
northern Africa — into Europe;
they are now the largest minority
group in Europe. However, even
with 12 million Romanis residing
in the European Union and 1 mil-
lion in the United States, there is no
political power or representation
for their ethnic group in govern-
ment.
For centuries, Roma people have
been victims of chattel slavery in
Eastern Europe which only ended
in 1860. Today, the Romani are still
victims of institutionalized racism;
they are not provided adequate
healthcare, lack sufficient access to
education and have segregated liv-
ing conditions. At least 90 percent
of the Roma people live below the
poverty line in Europe. Even the
Design by Hibah Chughtai
Alpha Kappa Delta Phi Sorority sis-
ter, recently shared a post on social
media (which has since been taken
down) of her alleged experience of
having consensual sex with a fra-
ternity brother and later discover-
ing she was involuntarily filmed
doing so by her ex-boyfriend, a
UNCC Pi Alpha Pi Fraternity
brother. This brother allegedly sent
this video to a Snapchat group chat
consisting of his pledge brothers
and slut-shamed her for “hitting
up all his pbros on the East Coast,”
which Mai denied. This post has
been taken down but a screenshot
of it is below. After sharing her
story on Instagram, members of
the Pi Alpha Phi Fraternity across
several universities on the East
Coast began to condemn her in a
Facebook Messenger group chat
–– a chat that @ktlyndng posted
screenshots of. Many commented
on her appearance, calling her
“ugly” and “fat,” and implied she
and other victims are only speaking
out now for attention. One member
even said he had already seen about
15 posts about rape and joked that
he should make one about “how
[he] was raped by bros.”
As a result of these messages sur-
facing on social media, Pi Alpha Phi
National Fraternity addressed the
situation along with its other sex-
ual misconduct, assault and exploi-
tation allegations through a public
statement. According to the state-
ment, all fraternity activities across
all chapters were indefinitely sus-
pended as of July 4. They hired a
law firm to investigate the allega-
tions of sexual misconduct and
asked for an independent investi-
gator to investigate the institution
and third party firm to review the
organization. The National Board
of Directors also asserted to hold
their brothers accountable and to
rebuild the foundational culture of
their fraternity in the meantime.
However, many commenters on
the Instagram post expressed out-
rage at their response and are skep-
tical of the fraternity’s plans to rid
their organization of rape culture
and misogyny. They criticize the
board’s decision to reach out to law
enforcement, as many women do
not report sexual violence for fear
of reprisal, or the belief the police
will not help or that further harm
might be brought to them. Com-
menters are also doubtful of how
rebuilding the fraternity would
lead to change as “fraternity cul-
ture was founded on misogynis-
tic principles” and “enable toxic
masculinity,” @kathytrinh com-
mented. Some are demanding
more actions to be taken, such as
de-lettering the members in the
aforementioned group chat and
even disbanding the entire frater-
nity. The fraternity has not further
responded since the statement.
Pi Alpha Phi is only one of the
many organizations in the Asian
Greek life community with sexual
assault and misconduct allega-
tions. Its sister sorority, Alpha
Kappa Delta Phi, has also allegedly
enabled rape and sexual assault.
University of Buffalo student, Ami,
recounts the night her friend and
at-the-time fraternity pledge —
under the pseudonym, Z — alleged-
ly raped her in an instagram post.
Ami allegedly told their friend,
and at-the time a aKDPhi pledge,
what Z had done to her. Even so,
their friend kept her ties to him for
Greek life connections and put Ami
in more situations which allowed
Z to continue sexually violating
and traumatizing her. Ami claims
the sisters of aKDPhi have used
her story to take action against the
brothers of Z’s fraternity but are
not seeking repercussions for their
friend’s involvement.
The chapter has responded with
a public statement to show their
support with survivors and con-
demn acts of sexual assault. Ami
feels the chapter is hypocritical as
she reached out to them for help a
while back and was told the situa-
tion was a personal matter, yet the
sisters were quick to post an apol-
ogy three days after Ami publicly
shared her story.
So far, 37 chapters across eight
Asian-interest fraternities alleg-
edly have at least one sexual assault
allegation made against at least one
of their brothers — including Uni-
versity of Michigan’s chapter of
Lambda Phi Epsilon.
Roma individuals who found suc-
cess in their communities are reluc-
tant to claim their identity, affected
by society-imposed shame.
As sinister as this systemic dis-
crimination is, some European
officials do not bother to hide the
cruelty directed towards the Roma
people. In 2013, Hungarian politi-
cal figure Zsolt Bayer claimed: “A
significant part of the Roma are
unfit for coexistence. They are
not fit to live among people. These
Roma are animals, and they behave
like animals.” This perpetuates a
social stigma and normalizes the
abuse for the Roma community.
Hence, it does not come as a sur-
prise to hear governments have
coerced sterilization upon the
Roma women with intersectional
intentions: racism and eugenics.