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Jacob Lovell wrote an article last week which generated a lot of attention. Most of the attention was from the vast Greek community. In the article, he satirically described what it is like to be in a fraternity. Through this satirical lense, Lovell accused them of date raping sorority girls, practicing hidden homosexuality, being nothing more than a violent social club with drunken habits and keying his car, among other things.
A brief look at some of the online comments to the West Georgian will show that many of the responses were irresponsible at best and grossly unintelligible at worst. Among the many responses there were some very sincerely compassionate responses that caught my attention. My aim is to show you briefly what claims were made on behalf of these responses.
One response claimed that social fraternities are committed to community service, but not just because it is a requisite. Indeed, this claim may at least be partly true. They do commit to helping the community around them through charitable acts and I have witnessed such work in the past. However, the other part of this claim that they do this merely as a requisite, would be difficult to prove. It would require one to understand the intentions of all Greek organizations from within. We might very well have to grant that they do it based on an actual compassion for their community.
Another response claimed that social fraternities are not the only ones to drink on Thursday nights and commit crimes against their neighbors. This claim is strictly an unsuccessful claim of hypocrisy. Assuming that fraternity members do assault their neighbors and this campus in general, the fact that others also do it is not enough to excuse such behavior. Moral obligations such as not disturbing or endangering the community do not change for fraternity members just because other college residents may do the same. This is a weak argument; however, I do recognize the message behind the rebuttal. Calling out the fraternities is probably unfair considering that other students are probably guilty, as well.
While defending Greek organizations, many attacks were launched at Advanced Academy Students simply on the basis that Jacob Lovell was an RA in Gunn Hall. This too is an arguement of hypocrisy and a weak defense. There is nothing unique to Advanced Academy students and the attacks make them more guilty of anything that they have been accused of.
Most of the argumentation was simply ad hominem attacks and straw man fallacies. I personally know the effects of being stereotyped and it can be a frustrating thing to deal with throughout the course of one's educational career; however, I think everyone needs to think critically before they open their mouths in the public forum. Hopycritical and irresponsible statements make the rest of the campus appear uneducated. We all need to move on and recognize that what has happened was nothing more than an incident involving inaccurate stereotypes.
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