Parker Rice, one of two students expelled from the University of Oklahoma after being caught singing a racist chant, apologized. In his apology he both lied and also appeared to plead for pity. In part of a longer apology he sent to the Dallas Morning News, Rice wrote: “On Monday, I withdrew from the university, and sadly, at this moment our family is not able to be in our home because of threatening calls as well as frightening talk on social media.”
Characterizing Rice’s departure from OU as “withdrawing” misrepresents the facts: Rice was expelled from the University of Oklahoma by President David Boren. Even if a technicality allows him to use the term “withdrew,” that usage displays a classic reluctance to own what happened. Rice also wants the public to know his family has experienced some inconvenience due to the incident–forced temporarily from their home. But the most “frightening talk”–to use his phrase–on social media this week was hardly directed at Rice’s family (ferocious as it is). For “threatening” and “frightening” nothing beats Rice’s own chant, which talked of “hanging n–gg–ers from a tree.”
