U of Georgia Students in ‘Pick My Cotton’ Video Expelled from Fraternity

Four University of Georgia students were expelled from their fraternity over the weekend in response to a racist video in which they conducted a “mock whipping” with slavery overtones.

In the video, one student whips a sleeping student and shouts “pick my cotton.” Towards the end of the clip, a student observer encourages the student with the whip to use a racial slur. The student complies and pretends to whip the sleeping student again.

The Tau Kappa Epsilon published a statement on Twitter claiming that the four students in the video were immediately removed from the fraternity. They called the video “racist,” “discriminatory,” and “offensive.”

Tau Kappa Epsilon is disgusted, appalled and angered by the remarks shown in a video of four expelled members. TKE will not tolerate any actions such as these that would be defined as racist, discriminatory and/or offensive.

After being alerted to the incident yesterday, Tau Kappa Epsilon Professional Staff and members of the Xi-Lambda chapter at University of Georgia immediately began a thorough investigation into the actions of these four men. Our investigation showed this was a non-TKE function and did not take place on any chapter premises. These four individuals acted outside the expectations of our membership and their chapter and therefore were removed from both.

One black student at the University of Georgia told the Times that expulsion from the fraternity is not a sufficient punishment. He expressed that the students were comfortable filming and posting the video online.

“They were suspended from the fraternity but they were not reprimanded by the school, so it was a slap on the wrist,” the student said. “We think colleges are moving to a more liberal state and being more progressive, but just the fact that you would record it and post it is extremely ridiculous.”

The Tau Kappa Epsilon fraternity was also suspended from campus over the weekend.

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