TJ Walker (host) discusses Levi Pettit, a former SAE fraternity member filmed using racist slurs on the SAE bus at the University of Oklahoma. Walker describes Pettit being expelled from school, visiting a Black church to apologize, and critiques both Pettit's motives and institutional responses. He argues against government punishment, favors marketplace-driven social consequences (e.g., difficulty finding professional employment), and supports public contempt as a deterrent.
Chapters
Levi Pettit, one of the SAE fraternity members caught on video using racist slurs, is on an apology tour. You may remember Levi Pettit. He was one of the guys caught on the bus, the SAE bus at University of Oklahoma. Singing prices for the N word prices, lynchings, blacks hanging from trees and never being able to be a member of sae. He was thrown out of the school. He's now apologizing. He is doing a few interesting things. He's gone to a black church in Oklahoma, surrounded himself with black members of that church and pastors to apologize. Personally, I give him some credit for that. That is certainly a step above just issuing a statement from a lawyer's office or no apology, however deep. And I don't know this person and I can't read minds and I'm not a psychologist. You still have to think that deep down this guy is just thinking. I wish no one had videotaped our bus and no one would have known. Everything would have been fine. I still think that's the main feeling in his heart, not somehow. Deep remorse could be wrong. So how should society deal with him now? I'll state up. I think that what David Boren did at the university president there at Oklahoma was smart politically kicking the guys out, but it's not going to pass constitutional muster. They certainly could sue and get back into school. The bigger issue is how should society treat someone like this? Should we just say, well, he forgave himself. Let's let bygones be bygones here. Young white man from a good fraternity, have a nice investment banking job and be on your way. Move along to the country club. Is that how this should be handled? That just doesn't seem to be fair in any larger cosmic sense. Now, again, I'm not suggesting that the government punish him. I'm certainly not suggesting he spend time in prison. I prefer a more conservative, free market approach. And what I wish would happen would be for the marketplace to decide, this guy's untouchable. We don't want to hire him any more than we want to hire someone who's publicly condemned the United States and hoped for ISIS to kill all Americans. You wouldn't give someone like that a nice cushy job at an investment bank or a real estate entrustment fund, would you? So what I'm hoping for is there is similar public contempt in the marketplace for these young men and that the only job they can get is washing dishes or scrubbing floors. Let's keep these men to minimum wage jobs. Again, not because of government laws, but just because of societal pressures. And I think that would send a good message to all the other people out there who think it's really cute to talk about having black people hang from trees.
