Students Create Blackface Video For Justin Timberlake's 'Suit & Tie'

[NelsonG]

By Sowmya Krishnamurthy

An Asian fraternity at UC Irvine has sparked controversy by creating its own "Suit & Tie" music video which finds students wearing blackface. The LAist shares that several members of Lambda Theta Delta, UC Irvine's reportedly first and largest Asian Greek organization, created a karaoke video to Justin Timberlake and Jay-Z's "Suit & Tie." At one point in the video, a student donning blackface appears to perform Jay-Z's verse.

The frat posted "No racism intended" when sharing the video on Facebook. Regardless, The Asian Pacific Student Association at UC Irvine quickly blasted the fraternity for the video, calling it " blatantly ignorant."

The frat apologized, "for the extremely racist content" of the video and shared that it was not an official production, but rather individual members created the videos themselves. The added, "The use of black face in the video is incredibly offensive as well as insensitive. This behavior is simply unacceptable and the individuals responsible for the video have already been reprimanded."

Finally, "Regardless of the circumstances, the video proves the existence of racism and ignorance today. Lambda Theta Delta in no way promotes these values nor perpetuates them. The ignorance and bigotry of the content is intolerable. We extend our deepest and most sincere apologies to the community for the extremely insensitive transgression."

[url=http://rapfix.mtv.com/2013/04/26/students-create-blackface-video-for-justin-timberlakes-suit-tie/]View the full article[/url]