When it comes to Halloween, there’s never a shortage of offensive costumes. And despite the amount of hate some kids get for dressing in blackface or as a gagged and bound Kim Kardashian, these insensitive mistakes are somehow repeated every single year. Enter Brock Denton, a white sophomore from University of Central Arkansas who was expelled from school and got his fraternity Sigma Tau Gamma suspended after dressing up as Bill Cosby for a Halloween party. After wearing blackface and posting a photo of it on Instagram with the caption “It was a bold night,” Denton now says he’s scared for his life.
InstagraAccording to The Echo, the school’s student newspaper, Denton wore the costume to his frat’s Halloween party Friday night. The photo quickly went viral and the university reacted immediately, expelling Denton and suspending the campus’ Sigma Tau Gamma chapter pending a more thorough investigation.
“This picture is highly offensive and repugnant, and this representation goes against all we, at UCA believe in and stand for,” university President Tom Courtway said in a statement. The national Sigma Tau Gamma organization also condemned the photo and plans to kick him out of the fraternity.
After getting a ton of hate from students, university officials and his own frat, Denton is now begging for forgivingness.
“I have been sent death threats, threats to burn my house down. I am scared for my life,” he wrote in a follow-up post. “I am the farthest thing from discrimination [sic], as a matter of fact I fight for equality everyday, I’ve been writing a book for the past two years on what it really means to be a good person.”
And like every college student who never takes responsibility for their poor choices and actions, he then went on to blame social media for creating a “corrupted society in regard to heated controversial topics such as this.” Perfect! What an apology!
He ended things with, “Please except [sic] my apology not because of me but because of the sake of this great nation.” Wow. Please stay in school. Denton has since deleted his Instagram page.
Here’s the full statement:
https://twitter.com/Melanology/status/792465554845999105
Naturally, Twitter had a lot to say and opinions varied from “everyone is so easily insulted these days” to “WTF was this idiot racist kid thinking?”
Brock Denton, a racist? That's about the last damn thing he is. Our generation is screwed with all the over sensitive and entitled brats.
— Stephen Bartolotta (@stephenbart24) October 30, 2016
Age old white supremacist tactic here–flip table from victimizer to victim. 'It's society's fault' 'Everyone has biases' #BrockDenton #UCA https://t.co/pdLx8HY3vY
— Blk naturalist (@SecularNature) October 30, 2016
1. This is #UCA student and suspected white supremacist Brock Denton. He is carrying on the racist tradition of Blackface for Halloween pic.twitter.com/XCDjODGzyV
— Tariq Nasheed 🇺🇸 (@tariqnasheed) October 29, 2016
Brock Denton and this stupid ass apology. This white boy talking about how social media is corrupt because he got called out for blackface.
— becca (@MJFinesseLover) October 29, 2016
For every white person trying to be culturally aware, there are 10 more who still "don't know" what black face is 🙄 #brockdenton
— Ariel (@littttlemermaid) October 31, 2016
https://twitter.com/becca_laine08/status/792566365676769280
I’m just baffled by how stupid this decision was. And then that apology? Please. You would’ve been better keeping your mouth shut. Don’t apologize for offending people, apologize for being a racially insensitive a**hole.
What do you think? Sound off in the comments below.
