Written by S. Rainsford
Fraternity brothers at UNC-Chapel Hill have found themselves the subject of national controversy after enduring a fitful standoff with pro-Palestinian protestors this past Tuesday. On April 30th, at 5:30 AM a task force between UNC Police, the State Highway Patrol, and the Orange County Sheriff’s Office descended upon Polk Place, arresting six protestors and tearing down the encampment that had been erected over the previous week.
Later that day the protest resurged, this time with the bolstered efforts of students finishing their last day of class. They began congregating around the flagpole centered in the middle of the green. Thus began the first removal of the American flag, to which University Chancellor Lee Roberts responded with police presence to reinstate the stars and stripes.
Shortly after 2:30 PM, the protestors attempted to pull down the flag a second time, but were met with a coalition of fraternity members, who held the flag from touching the ground in a bitter standoff which lasted until the protest was dispersed at around 4:30 PM.
As of Wednesday morning, images of the encounter had gone viral, leading X user John Noonan to set up a GoFundMe for the fraternity men, titling it “Pi Kappa Phi Men Defended their Flag. Throw ’em a Rager”.
He describes the campaign as such:
Commie losers across the country have invaded college campuses to make dumb demands of weak University Administrators.
But amidst the chaos, the screaming, the anti-semitism, the hatred of faith and flag, stood a platoon of American heroes. Armored in Vineyard Vines and Patagonia, fueled by Zyn and White Claws, these triumphant Brohemians protected Old Glory from the unwashed Marxist horde — laughing at their shrieks and wails and shielding the Stars & Stripes from Soviet missiles.
These boys… no, men, of the UNC Chapel Hill Pi Kappa Phi, gave the best to America and now they deserve the best.
Help us raise funds to throw this frat the party they deserve, a party worth of the boat-shoed Broleteriat who did their country proud.
Bill Ackman, billionaire founder of Pershing Square Capital Management, voiced his support on X by reposting statements from Florida Senator Marco Rubio and author Aviva Klompas.
Ackman is no stranger to controversy. He found himself at the center of the Claudine Gay debacle after criticizing her highly polarizing statements in front of the Congressional House Committee on Education and the Workforce. The former President of Harvard University came under fire after testifying that calling for the genocide of Jews did not violate the Harvard student code of conduct. Gay resigned after an investigation found significant plagiarism in her previous academic work, in no small part due to the mounting pressure put on by Bill Ackman and other prominent Harvard graduates. From donation records available through GoFundMe, someone calling themself William Ackman donated $10k to the fraternity’s fund.
Alex Jones, one of the Pi Kappa Phi brothers involved in the counter-protest, shared his thoughts on Linkedin:
I recognize the pain and suffering experienced by both sides of that conflict. But my decision yesterday to protect the flag of the United States was not about any other nation. It was simply about the importance of our country and the values we believe in…
…I owe everything to the hard work of my parents and this great nation, and I am proud to be among those who stood up for it yesterday.
I am proud to be an American.
As of publishing time, the fund has raised over $500,000 dollars for Pi Kappa Psi and other fraternities who aided in the counter-protest. You can donate on their GoFundMe through the below link: https://www.gofundme.com/f/pi-kappa-phi-men-defended-their-flag-throw-em-a-rager