Here’s something you already knew: some fraternity guys at the University of Mississippi are total assholes who don’t respect women.
Here’s something you probably didn’t know: they are dumb enough to display their anti-woman feeling in public while thousands look on.
During the annual Ole Miss Derby Days event last week, two Sigma Chi members serving as emcees and who combined have the comedic ability of two damp rags, asked various sorority members competing for Derby Day Queen a series of gross questions.
Which Sigma Chi would they “go down on?”
What type of sausage would they prefer: “linked or Sigma Chi?”
One of the question sessions was caught on video tape:
“So you’re telling me your nickname’s not BJ?” one of the emcees asks. “I’ll give you an easier question. What’s your fondest memory of the Sigma Chi basement?”
When the woman answers, “Getting rowdy in neon,” the second emcee butts in.
“We’re gonna go ahead and go with her nickname is BJ.”
HAHAHA.
We think it’s funny to force women to have oral sex with us. HAHAHA.
Not everyone thought it was funny.
Abby Michelle Bruce, an Ole Miss student and current sorority member blasted the event on Facebook in a post that quickly went viral.
“Tonight, my eyes watered up as I watched women be humiliated in the name of “philanthropy,” Bruce wrote in the post. “I attended the event, not out of support for the way Sigma Chi runs their philanthropy event, but to cheer on friends who had put lots of time and effort into the dances (some, not out of choice, but of requirement by their respective sororities) only to be mortified and completely ashamed that I am even remotely associated with such an event.”
Abby Michelle Bruce during an interview with NewsWatch Ole Miss, a campus TV station. Photo Credit: NewsWatch Ole Miss.
“I think the question all Panhellenic women at Ole Miss (and women everywhere, greek or not) should be asking here is “why?,” Bruce wrote in the post. “Why do we pay money to participate in these events to be humiliated? Why have we allowed ourselves to be objectified? Women’s fraternities were started as an empowerment movement – what happened?”
The president of the Ole Miss Sigma Chi chapter Clay Wooley called leaders from each of the sororities involved with Derby Days in order to apologize for what took place.
But in an interview with campus TV station NewsWatch Ole Miss, Wooley didn’t seem to fully grasp the implications of what happened.
When asked whether he thought the incident was emblematic of campus rape culture, Wooley spit up all over himself.
“You know, putting it into the category of rape culture though, that is extreme,” Wooley said. “It’s supposed to be done out of innuendo and fun and it got carried away too far this year and shouldn’t have taken place.”
Hold up a minute frat chief.
So you mean to tell us that the event is “supposed” to be done out of innuendo?
First off, innuendo is tough to pull off. You probably should have your smarter guys do it. If you have any.
And secondly, wasn’t this whole thing meant to raise money for charity or some shit like that? I forgot because of all the sexism and untalented people.
Nah bro, you better keep thinking about all of this.
Ole Miss has launched a Title IX investigation into the matter.
Perhaps most disturbingly, some Ole Miss sororities have cracked down on their members in an effort to limit public damage and save face with the fraternities.
According to NewsWatch Ole Miss, one sorority member was forced out in recent days for posting about the subject on social media. She has refused to speak publicly due to perceived retaliation against her.
Another current sorority member agreed to talk to NewsWatch Ole Miss, but only if her face was blurred and her voice modified.
And the campus TV station also obtained text messages showing that at least five sororities have issued a gag order on their members from talking to media.
“It has been so encouraging to hear and see since the event ended that I am not the only one,” Wooley said in her Facebook post. “So, I am putting this all out here so that other women might see that they are not alone either. We deserve better than to be dehumanized. We have rights, and we have the power and authority to demand they be met. Let’s give ’em hell, rebs.”
If you have a tip about this story, email [email protected]
WATCH: NewsWatch Ole Miss report on Derby Days clusterfuck
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Cover Photo Credit: NewsWatch Ole Miss/ Youtube (Screengrab)
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Could Gay Rights Rip Apart Netanyahu’s Conservative Government?
On Dec. 28th, 2015, the first openly gay member of the ruling Likud party, and the third ever in Israel, was sworn into the Knesset (Israeli Parliament).
Amir Ohana took office, following former Member of Knesset (MK) Silvan Shalom’s resignation after Shalom, the then Interior Minister faced a barrage of sexual harassment complaints.
Ohana will take over as Interior Minister, replacing Shalom.
Noticeably absent from the 120 member parliament were 13 members of Israel’s right wing coalition, of which Likud chairs. All of the absentees were from the Shas and the United Torah Judaism (UTJ) parties.
UTJ admits that Ohana’s potential advocacy for the LGBT community led to their boycott of his swearing in, while Shas claimed ignorance of the event altogether.
Regardless of whether Shas is feigning ignorance to save face, this demonstrates one of the peculiar cleavages in the Likud led Israeli coalition.
Regardless of whether Shas is feigning ignorance to save face, this demonstrates one of the peculiar cleavages in the Likud led Israeli coalition.
Both Shas and UTJ are Orthodox Jewish parties, and thus inclined to hold more socially conservative positions than the secular Likud party.
Navigating between the secular and religious movements in the Israeli Right presents a strong problem for the coalition.
One such instance includes UTJ leaving the 1999 coalition due to a turbine delivery on the Sabbath.
Israeli Knesset Building. Photo Credit: Chris Yunker/ Flickr (CC By 2.0)
These cleavages further present themselves in discussion of the Palestinian residents of Israel, and Palestinian Administered regions.
While UTJ trends against expansion of the Israeli state to encompass the West Bank and Gaza, Naftali Bennett of the Jewish Home Party (another right wing partner in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition government) and the current minister of Education and Diaspora Affairs has inserted himself in several controversies related to the Palestinian question, including claiming there is “no problem” with killing Arabs, and banning a book from school curriculums about a pair of lovers separated by the Israel Palestine conflict.
This new exposure brought about by the swearing in of Ohana of these cleavages only reveal longstanding issues between various religious and Zionist flavors in the conservative coalition.
While this show of disrespect to the Likud party may be an isolated incident, Netanyahu ought to take care not to allow these instances, or growing instability in the PA, to break up his narrow majority in Knesset.
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Cover Photo Credit: Nadav Shushu Siman Tov/Facebook
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Bakari Sellers: From Political Wunderkind To CNN Star
By Courtney Anderson
When South Carolina native Bakari Sellers was elected to the state’s General Assembly in 2006, he made history.
He was the one of the youngest people and the youngest black person to ever be elected to the position.
Sellers was 22, only a year or so out of Morehouse College.
Sellers was in elected office from 2006-2014.
And during those years, Sellers worked with the Obama campaign in 2008 and earned a law degree from the University of South Carolina.
Impressive, huh?
It is a career path many politicians would hope to reach by the time they hit their 40s and 50s, and it is one that got Sellers a spot in TIME’s “40 under 40” a few years back.
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Now Sellers is no longer in the South Carolina General Assembly. In 2014, he ran for the Lieutenant Governor office, a race he alluded to in that same TIME article.
“I do love our lieutenant governor’s office. That would be a good window to look out of,” Sellers said in 2010. “And the governor has a nice house. But we’ll see.”
Then State Rep. Bakari Sellers speaking in 2010. Photo Credit: Bakari Sellers/ Facebook.
Sellers lost the race for lieutenant governor, a rare setback for one of the leading progressive voices in South Carolina.
Sellers again demonstrates how he’s different than many politicians: a loss like this would throw a wrench in most political plans.
But not for Sellers.
“I lost up, actually,” Sellers said in an interview with RISE NEWS.
Sellers still doesn’t have a particularly strict five-year or 10-year career path. He is all about using his career and positions to stand up for people he feels aren’t being heard.
“I think I have options,” Sellers said. “Right now, I’ve been able to give a voice to the voiceless.”
Standing up for the voiceless is in Sellers’s blood. His father, Cleveland Sellers, was a civil rights activist who is still dedicated to social justice. He is the younger Sellers’s inspiration.
“My father would say ‘History isn’t changed unless you push it,’” Sellers said. “And I rely on those life lessons every day.”
Photo Credit: Bakari Sellers/ Facebook.
Family, Sellers said, is the one thing that has managed to stay consistent throughout his changing career.
His wife, Ellen Rucker Sellers, and their 11-year-old daughter, Kai Michelle, are always by his side.
Sellers and Rucker got married in the summer of 2015.
“They’ve always given me the courage to keep going,” Sellers said.
And Sellers has to keep going. He doesn’t have any time to waste.
He is an attorney at Strom Law Firm, and a member of the Democratic National Convention rules committee.
He recently argued for equal protection for unmarried same-sex couples under South Carolina’s criminal domestic violence laws. Sellers is also urging people to pay attention to criminal justice reform and issues of wealth distribution of black families in America.
When he is not dealing with all of the responsibilities of being an attorney, he is trying to keep up with the rapid twists and turns of the 2016 election.
“I have to keep up with the 24/7 news cycle because I’m a part of it now,” Sellers said.
Sellers is a commentator on CNN, which he is said is one of his most fun jobs. It has also put him in the national spotlight, next to luminaries like David Axelrod and Donna Brazile.
“That’s my family,” Sellers said. “That’s my daily.”
CNN isn’t the only place Sellers has visited. He has also appeared on the Steve Harvey Show and The Nightly Show with Larry Wilmore.
Photo Credit: Bakari Sellers/ Twitter
He has even given an interview on The Breakfast Club national radio program, paying his good friend Charlamagne Tha God a visit. Not exactly the most common place to find a CNN contributor.
“We’re both trying to change the world in different veins,” Sellers said of Charlamagne. “We’re hoping to inspire someone to dream big, with their eyes open.”
So far so good for the 31 year old Sellers on that front.
RISE NEWS is a grassroots journalism news organization that is working to change the way young people become informed and engaged in public affairs. You can write for us.
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What Are The Panama Papers And Why Should Young People Care?
You’ve probably been hearing a lot about something called the Panama Papers in recent days.
That’s because on Sunday morning The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists and other media organizations announced the largest data leak in the history of journalism.
The leak contained 2.6 terabytes of information with over 11.5 million files that identified corruption amongst some of the top political figures in the world. It’s larger than the Wikileaks leak in 2010 or what Edward Snowden brought to light in 2013.
Now, what is in the leak exactly?
Mossack Fonseca is a law firm which specializes in the creation of shell companies and offshore accounts. It’s where the rich stash their ill-gotten or legally obtained earnings from their governments. These accounts are completely legal and can be used to protect their assets from raids or simply for inheritance reasons and estate planning.
However, there are other common reasons for stashing money in a offshore company, such as money laundering, dodging sanctions, and avoiding taxes.
The firm is based out of Panama but runs a worldwide operation.
On their website they claim to have a global network with 600 people working in 42 countries. It has franchises around the world.
It operates in tax havens including Switzerland, Cyprus, the British Virgin Islands, Guernsey, Jersey and the Isle of Man.
Mossack Fonseca has their fingers dipped in many questionable pies. From Africa’s diamond trade, the international art market, to dealing with Middle Eastern royals and Russian oligarchs.
Data. It will get ya bro. Photo Credit: www.cwcs.co.uk/ Flickr (CC By 2.0)
The firm rejects that it has ever been involved with dirty money.
“Recent media reports have portrayed an inaccurate view of the services that we provide and, despite our efforts to correct the record, misrepresented the nature of our work and its role in global financial markets,” a statement on the Mossack Fonseca reads. “These reports rely on supposition and stereotypes, and play on the public’s lack of familiarity with the work of firms like ours.”
FIFA:
FIFA, the international football association, an organization often connected to corruption and scandal, is also featured.
The leaked documents allegedly show that FIFA ethics committee member Juan Pedro Damiani, a Uruguayan lawyer, had business links with three men who have been indicted by U.S. officials on corruption charges: former FIFA vice president Eugenio Figueredo and father and son Hugo and Mariano Jinkis.
The latter two were convicted of paying bribes to obtain broadcast rights for soccer matches in South America. Documents show that Damiani’s law firm represented a company registered to Jinkis and seven others registered to Figueredo in a tax haven.
World Leaders:
Interestingly, the British government has been especially vocal against offshore companies in recent years, but Prime Minister David Cameron hasn’t come out of this squeaky clean. His late father is one of the names revealed in the leak.
It is not yet clear, if Cameron himself has financially gained from off shore accounts.
According to some of the reporting in the aftermath of the leak, Mossack Fonseca has helped Russian President Vladimir Putin hide $2 billion, setting up offshore banks under the name of two of his close acquaintances.
Iceland’s Prime Minister Sigmundur Davíð Gunnlaugsson resigned Tuesday after a large public outcry after he was named in the Panama Papers. Photo Credit: Control Arms/ Flickr (CC By 2.0)
The now former Prime Minister of Iceland, Sigmundur Davíð Gunnlaugsson, has also been implicated and was facing calls for his resignation as the public’s confidence in his leadership had been shattered.
He resigned on Tuesday, and is the first political casualty. Also listed are Iceland’s minister of finance, Bjarni Benediktsson, and Iceland’s Interior Minister, Olof Nordal.
China’s leaders have relatives who are named in the leak, propelling the government to limit local access to western media coverage of the leak and accusing them of being biased.
In a further twist, documents show Mossack Fonseca’s links to Rami Makhlouf, a cousin of the Syrian president, even though Washington imposed sanctions Makhlouf in 2008.
Though the firm is under no obligation to comply with US sanctions, it was legally bound to react to EU measures in 2011. It took until September of that year for the firm to finally resign from Makhlouf’s companies. By that time, Syria was in the middle of a genocidal civil war.
Other world leaders in the leak include Nawaz Sharif, Pakistan’s prime minister; Ayad Allawi, ex-interim prime minister and former vice-president of Iraq; Petro Poroshenko, president of Ukraine; and Alaa Mubarak, son of Egypt’s former president, just to name a few.
The list of questionable characters goes on, although it gets worse. It includes Ponzi schemers, drug kingpins, tax evaders, dictators and at least one jailed sex offender.
And that’s when it becomes unbearable. The sex offender was a U.S. businessman traveling to Russia to have sex with underage orphans. He signed papers for an offshore company while he was serving his prison sentence in New Jersey.
It’s notable that Mossack Fonseca is the fourth biggest provider of offshore services, meaning that if this much information is coming from this company, larger law firms with these same services must have shocking anonymous beneficiaries.
In reply to ICIJ questions about their methods, Mossack Fonseca said that backdating of documents “is a well-founded and accepted practice” that is “common in our industry and its aim is not to cover up or hide unlawful acts.” The company is extremely protective of their clients’ privacy.
Honestly, should we be surprised by this leak?
The exposé once again emphasizes the need for world financial reform. It shows that not only is the global tax system broken, but with so many world leaders involved, global governance itself is fractured too.
Due to this leak the ability of the super rich to hide their money may be made more difficult. But if government officials themselves are doing this, how are we meant to expect them to do anything about tax havens?
The storm may be about to arrive in the United States as well.
A reporter from the German newspaper Suddeutsche Zeitung responded to tweets about the lack of names from the United States, by saying “Just wait for what’s coming.”
RISE NEWS is a grassroots journalism news organization that is working to change the way young people become informed and engaged in public affairs. You can write for us!
Cover Photo Credit: Jon Gosier/ Flickr (CC By 2.0)
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