Rep. Shelton tells OK House, the "real tragedy"

(Oklahoma City) “While one isolated incident of bigotry is tragic, the real tragedy is our community’s inability to …communicate with one another about our differences.”

That was the opinion state Rep. Mike Shelton expressed Wednesday night to his colleagues in the House of Representatives when discussing the weekend incident in which a University of Oklahoma fraternity was video-recorded “chanting derogatory and racially insensitive comments.” The Oklahoma City Democrat took personal privilege to convey his sentiments about the episode.

The behavior displayed in the video – 150 years after the end of the Civil War – was “troubling and appalling,” he said. A 10-second video “filled with ignorance and hate” has embarrassed the school, “our citizens and our state.”

Two students have been expelled from OU and members of the fraternity, Sigma Alpha Epsilon, were ejected from their on-campus house. Shelton commended students who “peacefully demonstrated” against the fraternity, as well as university officials, especially President David Boren, “for their decisiveness” in response to the incident.

However, Shelton continued, “I want to address the bigger implications arising out of the actions of a few ignorant individuals.”

For example, high-school seniors in this and other states “are having conversations with their parents about whether the University of Oklahoma is a right fit for their future studies,” or perhaps whether Oklahoma “is even a good fit at all.”

Racism and bigotry are not “an inherited trait” but rather “a learned behavior … born out of a lack of knowledge and understanding.”

Continuing, Shelton said he hopes and prays that Oklahomans will “take ugly moments like these and use them as an opportunity to come together, to love one another and to educate each other, especially our children, about our experiences, our differences and our commonalities.”

The things that unite us “will always be stronger than those things that divide us,” Shelton said. “I know that together we can overcome this unfortunate moment…”

The veteran legislator urged his fellow citizens “not to run from this conversation, but to engage in it; not to close our ears to our neighbors but to listen to one another; and not to close our eyes to our differences but to gaze upon them and celebrate our diversity.”

See Rep. Shelton’s speech to the Oklahoma House here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2MvAiiEzQx8

To contact Rep. Mike Shelton, call him at (405) 557-7367.

The Gayly – March 12, 2015 @ 4:25pm.