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California Polytechnic State University Fraternity Suspended Over Blackface Photo

Hundreds of students filled a classroom on campus to denounce the photos.

By Gina Tron

A fraternity at a California university has been suspended and drawn the wrath of hundreds of students after photos from a party showed one member in blackface while others dressed as gangster stereotypes. 

The Lambda Chi Alpha chapter at California Polytechnic State University is suspended while the school investigates the two pics from a party on Saturday, according to The Tribune in San Luis Obispo. 

On Monday, hundreds of students filled a classroom on campus to denounce the photos. There were so many attendees that they spilled out of the entrance of the room.

"There needs to be punishment, not only to show the students that are here that they are with us and support us, but for the students who are to come, 10 years, five years from now that are going to change the culture on this campus," one student said, according to The Tribune.

After the meeting, students swarmed Lambda's house to express their outrage about the photos. A frat member slammed the door on the students, according to Mustang News, the school newspaper.

The Lambda Chi chapter apologized for the photo in a press release.

"We are extremely sorry and embarrassed for failing to recognize the racial impacts this brought forth," it said. "The representation depicted in the photograph was absolutely unacceptable by our standards as it had a negative influence on surrounding members of our community."

Oxygen is not identifying the member seen in blackface because he has not been charged with a crime.

On Monday night, police said four people in black hoodies threw paint filled balloons at the fraternity house. In response to that, the fraterity has hired a security guard, according to a Mustang News report.

[Photo: Facebook, Instagram]

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