Illustration by Josh Hagler

During the past two months, the news world has been captivated by the events surrounding and following Sept. 11. Nearly every segment of the evening news and every article in each morning's paper has been devoted to the attacks, Osama bin Laden's whereabouts and the air attacks waged by the United States against the Taliban. Nearly the only deviation in the news has been the recent jovial meetings between Vladamir Putin and George W. Bush, which is, admittedly, quite a historic event. However, there was a story buried deep in the news circuit found somewhere in section F, page 20 that should have received full coverage: a page-one blow out.

Not that the story should be sensationalized, but the facts should be heard and understood far and wide because the ramifications of the event demonstrate that racism is alive, acceptable and encouraged in the year 2001.

This story slams the mouths shut of those who say racism is a done deal. The story is not over; those who preach against racism are not whining about an old problem. This story should create pandemonium and demand for change.

On Oct.31, two fraternities at Auburn University in Alabama decided to throw a Halloween bash. It, of course, was a costume party, and some of the "brothers" (such an ironic word as we read further into the story) decided to come up with a creative theme. Some painted themselves in blackface, smearing black paint all over their faces as vaudevillian actors used to do. Then, others dressed themselves in Ku Klux Klan outfits. These were their costumes for the night. Like any traditional fraternity party, the beer came out and we can assume that the black-faced and Klan-dressed partiers began to get drunk. That's the benefit of the doubt one should give them. In fact, in order to spare their souls, one should hope that those individuals were plastered out of their minds on hard liquor, because they need some kind of pathetic excuse for what happened next.

In front of hundreds of partiers who came out that night to the frat house, the group decided it would be entertaining to stage a lynching. Those dressed in Klan outfits took an individual in blackface and performed a fake lynching.

This happened on a college campus 20 days ago.

Now here's where the frat boys go from evil to stupid. Having received a warm response from the partygoers, the guys took pictures of the outfits, the drinking and the fake lynching. And then they put it on the World Wide Web. Pure genius. Within a couple of weeks, the pictures had spread around until people who saw this behavior for what it truly was brought them to the public's attention. There was much embarrassment after that. The national chapters of Beta Theta Pi and Delta Sigma Phi were displeased, the university uncomfortable; 15 students were indefinitely suspended, and fittingly, both houses were disbanded.

We learn two lessons from what occurred. One, fraternities must take a stand. From the events happening in the wake of the motorcycle death at UA and allegations of violence and irresponsibility to the point of abuse, fraternities here at the UA have a taste of what it's like for the community to view them in a very negative light. This recent event in Alabama is the kind of gang-like behavior the greek community has been accused of. We know that greek men are not monsters, but nevertheless the institution must look inside itself at what its members are doing to the society around them and then take serious action.

Two, this is not entirely a greek issue. The partiers that night weren't necessarily all greek, and the university is not controlled by the greek system - or at least it sure as hell shouldn't be. The students that night who witnessed such outright, violent racism should have called the police and let them make the hate crime judgment. They should have reported it to the Dean's office Monday morning, and then they should have gone to the papers and leaked the story to let the country know what kind of behavior was deemed acceptable that night. But no one did because no one was sure that what had happened at the party was wrong.

This is because racism is alive and well and breathing down our necks this very moment. If you didn't already know that and you haven't joined the fight against it, then visit www.tolerance.org and see the pictures from the party yourself.