The Fraternity Doth Protest

The sight of athletes and bros yelling at anti-war protesters is decades old, now.

In the ’60s, fraternities were all over these counterprotests. They didn’t show up wearing their letters, they didn’t show up as members of Sigma Chi; they showed up as members of patriotic campus organizations like Young Americans for Freedom. Or sometimes they come up with these ridiculous names, like Students for Americanism or Students for Freedom of South Vietnam or whatever, that gave them an affiliation that didn’t put their chapter on the line. Now, when you look at what happened at UNC recently, when you look at what happened at the University of Mississippi, they’re not talking about their fraternity, but you only have to scratch the surface a little bit to figure out that’s what they’re affiliated with.

Read the full interview with Molly Olmstead for Slate.