Beating up freshmen is something everyone wants to do, but in today’s world, violence and humiliation within organized groups has become a huge problem.
The definition of hazing is “the practice of rituals and other activities involving harassment, abuse or humiliation used as a way of initiating a person into a group”. People throughout the world suffer through various types of hazing that can emotionally or physically scar them, or the harassment could be brushed off as a mere joke.
Hazing is mostly found in groups such as high school or college sports teams, fraternities, sororities, and tightly organized clubs or societies.
Usually the purpose of the harassment is to initiate a newly recruited member into a group or force the person to prove that they are tough enough to be involved in the group. These victims suffer through humiliating and physically painful activities at the hands of veteran members of the group.
Traditional activities which have been seen in various groups are; paddling- the person getting repeatedly beaten by a paddle by several people at once, public humiliation- the person must engage in a degrading act in a public environment, and branding- the act of burning a certain symbol into the skin of the person.
In recent history, there have been several accounts of Hazing that have ended in fatalities throughout the United States. At the Florida A&M University, Drum Major Robert Champion died shortly after a hazing ritual that was carried out by 12 of his band mates; all 12 people involved were convicted of manslaughter.
A recent dispute between Miami Dolphin players Jonathan Martin and Richie Incognito has become the center of media attention. Martin dismissed himself from the team and released a statement claiming that his fellow offensive lineman constantly harassed him in the locker room and outside of the workplace. While charges have not been pressed, investigators still continue to find the facts about this potential hazing or “bullying” case.
The Martin case raises questions of whether hazing is truly appropriate for certain environments.
“Martin is a grown man that should be able to defend himself,” said senior Danny West.
Many people believe that hazing is only rarely harmful. Hazing can also be viewed as a fun, team bonding activity that harmlessly gives members something to laugh about.
Making a freshman fill up the water jugs, or having a new recruit say something embarrassing are still forms of hazing despite all of the words negative associations.
“Not all hazing is bad; it builds strong relationships throughout the team and gives everyone something to laugh about,” said senior Calvin Fryer.
With the growing controversy over Hazing in American society, people are working together to prevent these rituals from being harmful or fatal.
“Hopefully we can stop people from being hurt and degraded,” said senior Calvin Fryer.