A statement from Byron Hurt about Caleb Wilson

The film features the voices of hazing victims, family members of victims, perpetrators, and scholars, providing historical context with the film’s thematic framework: that hazing is a widespread, far-reaching system fueled by tradition, secrecy, groupthink, power and control, and the desire to belong. 

A statement from Byron Hurt

“As a human being, and as a member of Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, Incorporated, I am deeply saddened by the death of Caleb Wilson, the 20 year-old mechanical engineering student and band member at Southern University. Caleb’s death is reportedly the result of a hazing ritual while he was pledging my fraternity.

I have done anti-violence prevention and education work since I was a college student. For many years, I was the associate director of the Mentors in Violence Prevention Program, a bystander intervention program designed to educate and inspire boys and men to speak out against all forms of gender-based violence, and redefine masculinity. As an extension of that work, I have researched the issue of hazing for more than 10 years. I have spoken with surviving parents and the loved ones of hazing victims, as well as those who lived to bravely tell their stories. I have spoken with hazing researchers, scholars, and anti-hazing advocates who work in Fraternity and Sorority Life departments on college campuses. I directed the documentary film, HAZING, which premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival in 2022 and later aired nationally on the award-winning PBS series Independent Lens.

There is no escaping my first-hand experience with hazing, and my expertise on this subject. My affiliation to my fraternity, and my anti-violence activism are intertwined. This is who I am.

I can no longer remain silent on the death of Caleb Wilson. As I say in HAZING, “After speaking to so many parents who have lost their children — and to other victims of hazing — I realize now that it’s our silence that’s an act of betrayal.”

No family should drop off their child at school and pick them up in a body bag because members of an organization, marching band, team, club, or an exclusive fraternity or sorority hazed them. No one should die while seeking membership into any of the aforementioned groups.

I stand in opposition to those who participate in hazing and those who endorse or support any form of hazing. As a man who is a member of a fraternity, I am clear that the culture of hazing that currently exists in many fraternities is a result of many factors including: internalized oppression, internalized victimization, hypermasculine performance, group think, an inflated value placed on tradition, and the lack of visionary male leadership on violence and hazing prevention.

Men in fraternities, Divine Nine fraternities included, need to be courageous, and stand up and speak out against all forms of hazing, regardless of the backlash we face in doing so. If not, to put it bluntly, we are a part of the problem, and there will be more deaths.

I ask my fraternity brothers and members of other fraternities to stand with me in condemning the tragic hazing death of Caleb Wilson.

My deepest, heartfelt condolences to the Wilson family, the Southern University community, and to every person who knew and loved Caleb Wilson. His family, friends, and community are experiencing a hole in their hearts that can never be filled.”

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HAZING Film Information and & Companion Resources

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