Hazing and fraternities go together like peanut butter and jelly, but as the public outside of these tight-knit circles becomes more aware of just how disgusting and dangerous hazing rituals can be, fraternities and the colleges that host them are facing increased backlash for the outlandish behavior they not only condone but seemingly mandate as part of the initiation process.


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Recently, videos showing a hazing ritual at the University of Miami went viral, and people are disgusted to say the least. According to a local NBC affiliate, one of the videos features a partially-dressed man sitting in a trash can while other men drink an unidentified liquid (it looks like milk) and spit it out onto his back. A university spokesperson confirmed the authenticity of the video and told reporters that a full investigation is underway, also revealing that the incident involved the Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity.


Hazing is banned on the University of Miami campus, and more largely, it’s illegal in the state of Florida following the death of University of Miami student Chad Meredith in 2001 — Meredith was drunk and tried swimming across a lake, dying in the process. The fraternity Kappa Sigma was ordered to pay his parents $12 million following a lawsuit.


NBC Miami spoke to several students on campus who expressed concerns about the potential for another tragedy, with junior Lucy Miller telling the station, “It is scary, but peer pressure is something that’s really powerful.” Fellow junior Nick Giannakopoulos said, “I think that’s a very extreme path to take to join a student organization.”


Redditors discussing the video commented that this behavior was “on par for SAE,” with one commenter joking that they aren’t called “Sexual Assault Expected” for nothing and another sharing a video to a news story from 2015 in which two members of an SAE chapter in Oklahoma were expelled after being recorded singing racist chants.


Others agreed that letting yourself be degraded in such a manner just to be part of an organization is strange, while someone else described it as essentially “paying for friends.” Maybe that’s how we get rid of fraternities once and for all — by convincing teenagers that it’s incredibly cringe to let people throw up on you so that they’ll hang out with you.