The University of Oklahoma’s Sigma Alpha Epsilon chapter is essentially all but a memory after being kicked off campus on Monday because of a video of frat members singing a racist chant surfaced.
However, as Talking Points Memo reports, there is one casualty who not only has to come to the realization that his “family” contains racists but also is now out of a job after 15 years of service.
Howard Dixon, who is black, was the frat’s chef. He worked at SAE’s house for the last 15 years and told CBS that they were his “family.” Needless to say, he finds their behavior “stupid.”
“I think that was kind of stupid and selfish for them to do something like that,” Dixon told CBS News. “And knowing this is an organization, and knowing this is an organization that’s supposed to be about brotherhood. That wasn't no brotherhood.”
Dixon’s loss has prompted SAE alum Blake Burkhart to start a fundraising campaign to ease the former chef’s financial burden while he is on the hunt for a new job.
“Those of you who lived in the house, undoubtedly came to love Howard and his infectious smile (if not his chili dogs). He was always there to chat with you and more importantly, to take care of Mom B,” Burkhart wrote in the Indiegogo description. “Well, that man is going to walk up to the SAE house tomorrow morning and hear that he no longer has a job. He is going to learn who has been working for. And through some cruel twist of fate, he has to lose the job that he has held for over a decade. He is going to lose his job because of a bus full of racist kids.”
As of Tuesday at 12:15 p.m. EDT, more than $39,000 of the $50,000 goal has been raised, with 29 days left in the campaign.
Read more at Talking Points Memo and CBS News.