Hazing
The topic of hazing is a very serious/harmful and unbelievable act that marching bands take part in. We see how hazing is as a humiliating task that one would take part in to be initiated. Looking at an incident that happened in 2011, Robert Champion was drum major who needed to follow up on a ritual referred as “crossing the c”. Which means a member who wants to join or be apart of the drum section of the marching band, would have to walk from front to back of the bus while getting brutally beaten up. Within an hour or so, Champion died. He was beaten to death by his peers. This action of hazing is very dangerous and should have a stop to it.
Sadly, dangerous acts of hazing take place frequently, and another setting in which hazing is very common is among fraternities. Just last year, 19-year-old Penn State student Timothy Piazza died as a result of hazing rituals on the night he was to be initiated into Beta Theta Pi. A major part of what is so scary about hazing is the group mentality that enables it to exist and prevents people from taking action once the acts have clearly gone too far. In Piazza's case, members of the fraternity did not end the hazing even as Piazza, with a BAC of .28 to .36 percent, fell down the stairs. Despite clear signs that their peer was in serious danger, Piazza was left after his fall, struggling to barely stay alive, for 12 hours before anyone called 911. Over two dozen former fraternity brothers and pledges whose action, by taking part in the hazing, and inaction, as nobody called for help until it was too late, led to Piazza's death have been charged with counts such as involuntary manslaughter, hazing, aggravated assault, and tampering with evidence.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2017/11/a-death-at-penn-state/540657/
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2018/09/05/timothy-piazza-family-deceased-student-settles-suit-against-frat/1200155002/
https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2017/10/penn-state-fraternity-hazing-death
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FMhBHiFUWtM
Yes, this incident was very sad. At the time, the fraternity brothers did not have the intent to kill Champion, nor did they know that that is what would happen as a result of their actions. Their only motive for beating him up was to initiate him into the marching band, so that he would be go through the same experience as the other members of the marching band had gone through, so that he would be bonded to them. Hazing exists as a way of bonding people together through shared suffering. Fraternities and sororities are the main ones that haze people, but there are other organizations that do it as well, in ways that are perhaps more subtle. Team sports, for example, use conditioning as a way of bonding teammates together. Overall, hazing exists in many organizations and groups across the board. Maybe there is something people can do about it, but I'm not sure what that is yet.
ReplyDeleteyes i agree i think that hazing is very dangerous and needs to be stopped. In this incident they did not intend to kill him obviously but i think he hazing is a peer pressure where if they see that you don't want to do it you are not "tough enough".
ReplyDeleteI agree on the part where hazing is unneeded. In the marching band, there was no harm intended in the hazing. The band had the ritual to feel more connected with each other because they will know what the others did in order to get there, but I think they should have chosen a different method than beating up a new member in a bus. Hazing might give the person being hazed a sense of better relationship than if you simply just joined the marching band. If you survived the hazing, you would feel more connected to the other members of the band. I think hazing needs to be taken more lightly in action so people do not get seriously hurt or killed, but at the same time make the new member of the club feel more welcome
ReplyDeleteI think the examples with the marching bands are instances where the hazing is very violent but I think a big part of hazing is mental and not just the idea of earning respect. The acts that people are forced to commit are often incredibly embarrassing and they have to do them in front of all their peers and I believe that upperclassmen or whoever is in charge does this in order for the hazed to feel powerless. By doing this they make them depend on the other people for protection in the future and they thus gain their respect.
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