Education

'Don't get deported': Message promoting frat party causes outrage among Duke student groups

The joke, promoting an off-campus party, said, "Need help crossing the border? Lucky for you ADPhi has a few too many Latinos who are extremely skilled at evading law enforcement. Join us in [Tabor City]. Just don't get deported."

Posted Updated

By
Monica Casey
, WRAL Durham reporter
DURHAM, N.C. — A group of students at Duke University are calling for change after a fraternity member made a racially insensitive joke about immigration in a private group chat.

The joke, promoting an off-campus party, said, “Need help crossing the border? Lucky for you ADPhi has a few too many Latinos who are extremely skilled at evading law enforcement. Join us in [Tabor City]. Just don’t get deported.”

The off-campus fraternity Alpha Delta Phi is not technically a Duke University fraternity but is made up of Duke students. Last year, a group of fraternities separated from Duke University's IFC, an organization governing fraternities, and formed their own governing council.

Anthony Salgado, president of Duke University's largest Latinx organization Mi Gente, said he was angry when he saw the message, wanting to understand how people could make such an insensitive comment about something as serious as deportation.

“My father was undocumented, and we struggled a lot with immigration for a long time. I think a lot of students here don’t understand how hard it is, how hard it is to just be here," he said.

"My father was taken by [U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement] and he was gone for like a year," he said.

A letter signed by a handful of university groups condemns the fraternity member's use of racially insensitive language to promote the party.

"It is both racist and classist to undermine and stereotype the experiences of Latinx students and their families. This statement criminalizes and dehumanizes Latin American immigrants whilst ignoring the hardships faced by them," the letter says.

A person with the GroupMe name Alex Van Lanshot sent the message, according to a screenshot obtained by WRAL News. A search of Duke University's student directory shows that there is a student with the same name who is a sophomore. When WRAL News reached out to Lanshot's student email, he referred us to ADPhi's national office.

A statement from Alpha Delta Phi said that the organization "does not condone racially insensitive language and does not tolerate discrimination of any kind. We encourage our members at Duke to take part in diversity, equity and inclusion educational programming to better understand how their words and actions can be hurtful to others."

The letter from more than 15 Duke organizations demands that the university establish more systems to allow for confidential peer reporting from both inside and outside Greek life. The group is also calling for a peer judicial board run by students to help hold Greek Life accountable.

"We’re not asking to abolish parties or fraternities, we’re asking they be more transparent and be more accountable for [their] actions," Salgado said.

The president of the Durham IFC, who is also a member of ADPhi, said he could not speak with WRAL News because he was out of the country and did not have a strong internet connection.​

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