# College gives sombreros to students, punishes students for wearing sombreros **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [March 5, 2016, 10:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/college-gives-sombreros-to-students-punishes-students-for-wearing-sombreros/748049 "2016-03-05T22:25:13Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![billfish678](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7bcc69/32.png) [@billfish678](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/billfish678)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2016, 7:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/college-gives-sombreros-to-students-punishes-students-for-wearing-sombreros/748049/21 "2016-03-06T19:38:39Z")
> [@mhendo](#): > > 😕 > > Believe me, if i intended some sort of apology, you’d know it. If you detected any sense of apology there, i submit that you don’t know what the hell you’re talking about. > > If a person makes a point that has some basic validity, but is dishonest or inaccurate or makes selective use of evidence in doing so, then it’s not an apology to agree with the valid point while also pointing out the problems. If you were previously incapable of comprehending that distinction, i am glad to have had the opportunity to educate you. I tip my hat to your superior intellect. And if you don’t get my nachos here post haste…well…NO TIP for you! ---
**Author:** ![mhendo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mhendo/32/3159_2.png) [@mhendo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mhendo)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2016, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/college-gives-sombreros-to-students-punishes-students-for-wearing-sombreros/748049/22 "2016-03-06T20:19:45Z")
> [@chappachula](#): > > HUH? > Sorry, **mhendo** , and **Snowboarder** but maybe you should lighten up a bit? The problem here is, i admit, one that goes beyond this thread, and so might not be immediately obvious to the casual observer. On the one hand, we should judge each individual case on its merits, and make a determination based on the specific of each incident. Even by those standards, however, there are problems with the OP, as pointed out by **Snowboarder Bo** and **Little Nemo**. Those problems might not completely negate the central concern of the OP regarding the sombrero issue, but they suggest a somewhat slanted take on the issue. And therein lies the bigger problem. If i read the OP without looking at the author, this thread might not even have pinged my radar as problematic. As i said, i think it’s a silly over-reaction by the school. But **ITR Champion** has a long history of offering misrepresentations and mischaracterizations and shitty analysis and unsophisticated generalizations about social and political and cultural issues, and just about all of them are specifically aimed at what might broadly be termed liberal or progressive politics. He has been a disingenuous debater on such issues on so many occasions that he has lost any real claim to the benefit of the doubt, at least from me. He might, as i suggested in my previous post, find a nut once in a while. I think he’s done it on this occasion. But far more he just finds turds left behind by a passing bull, and in the aggregate, that bullshit outweighs the acorns by a considerable margin. YMMV. ---
**Author:** ![ITR\_champion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/c67d28/32.png) [@ITR\_champion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ITR_champion)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2016, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/college-gives-sombreros-to-students-punishes-students-for-wearing-sombreros/748049/23 "2016-03-06T20:30:11Z")
> [@mhendo](#): > > So, **ITR Champion** , i guess you are going to carry on without addressing the various inaccuracies and misrepresentations that have been pointed out regarding your OP? Well, at least you’re predictable. What inaccuracies and misrepresentations? I only see semantic quibbles (e.g. “cancel” vs. “ban”) and equally trivial complaints about facts (Did the college give sombrero to students, or did the college give sombreros to alumni and they somehow wandered to the heads of students? Either way, the college was hypocritical.) ---
**Author:** ![Idle\_Thoughts](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/838e76/32.png) [@Idle\_Thoughts](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Idle_Thoughts)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2016, 9:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/college-gives-sombreros-to-students-punishes-students-for-wearing-sombreros/748049/24 "2016-03-06T21:09:37Z")
General note: Let’s stop harraging posters about past behavior or posts. Use the Pit if you want to go wild and bring up other instances or examples. ---
**Author:** ![mhendo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mhendo/32/3159_2.png) [@mhendo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mhendo)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2016, 9:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/college-gives-sombreros-to-students-punishes-students-for-wearing-sombreros/748049/25 "2016-03-06T21:20:48Z")
I’m not insulting anyone, so there’s no need for a Pit thread. I’m simply making clear that my evaluation of a particular poster’s arguments rests on an understanding of that person’s posting history that goes beyond this particular incident. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2016, 10:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/college-gives-sombreros-to-students-punishes-students-for-wearing-sombreros/748049/26 "2016-03-06T22:18:15Z")
Am I the only one who suspects that the problem was the tequila, not the sombreros? Most college students are still underaged to drink alcohol, and school administrations therefore tend to frown upon parties advertised as being themed around alcohol. This is especially true for students who are living in the on-campus dorms. ---
**Author:** ![billfish678](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7bcc69/32.png) [@billfish678](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/billfish678)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2016, 10:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/college-gives-sombreros-to-students-punishes-students-for-wearing-sombreros/748049/27 "2016-03-06T22:26:39Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Am I the only one who suspects that the problem was the tequila, not the sombreros? Most college students are still underaged to drink alcohol, and school administrations therefore tend to frown upon parties advertised as being themed around alcohol. This is especially true for students who are living in the on-campus dorms. Ahhhh tequila…the cause of and the solution to many of life’s problems… ---
**Author:** ![handsomeharry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e9c0ed/32.png) [@handsomeharry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/handsomeharry)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2016, 10:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/college-gives-sombreros-to-students-punishes-students-for-wearing-sombreros/748049/28 "2016-03-06T22:37:17Z")
> [@ITR\_champion](#): > > Last semester featured some memorable moments in Social Justice Warrior history at college campuses. There was the [great Oberlin fried chicken protest](http://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/22/us/oberlin-takes-culture-war-to-the-dining-hall.html?_r=0), and of course the yoga class that was banned because of [“cultural genocide”](https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2015/11/23/university-yoga-class-canceled-because-of-oppression-cultural-genocide/). Now a new semester has begun, and not surprisingly the race is on among college administrations to prove themselves the most progressive. The University of Wisconsin-Whitewater has [has sprinted out of the gate](http://mic.com/articles/135876/this-is-what-happens-when-a-university-mistakes-a-cosmetic-face-mask-for-blackface#.6brIdIASH): > > On Thursday morning, chancellor Beverly Kopper of the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater sent out a public message condemning two students for posting a picture of themselves on Snapchat wearing blackface. Thing is, the students were simply sharing their skincare ritual, which included a dark-colored face mask. > > Kopper’s misinterpretation was amplified by the passion of her condemnation: > > ``` > "Last night a disturbing racist post that was made to social media was brought to my attention. This post was hurtful and destructive to our campus community. While social media can certainly bring about positive change, it can also be a place that deeply hurts and harms others." > > ``` > > But Bowdoin College [isn’t going down without a fight](https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/party-culture/2016/03/03/fdb46cc4-e185-11e5-9c36-e1902f6b6571_story.html). > > Two weeks ago, some students threw a birthday party for a friend. The email invitation read: “the theme is tequila, so do with that what you may. We’re not saying it’s a fiesta, but we’re also not not saying that :).” The invitation — sent by a student of Colombian descent, which may or may not be relevant here — advertised games, music, cups and “other things that are conducive to a fun night.” > > Those “other things” included the miniature sombreros, several inches in diameter. And when photos of attendees wearing those mini-sombreros showed up on social media, students and administrators went ballistic. College administrators sent multiple schoolwide emails notifying the students about an “investigation” into a possible “act of ethnic stereotyping.” Partygoers ultimately were reprimanded or placed on “social probation,” and the hosts have been kicked out of their dorm, according to friends. > > So yes, the Bowdoin administration is working long and hard to tell students that they are not allowed to make their own choices about what to wear at parties, and is definitely not pointing out that anyone offended by a sombrero at a party can simply choose to not attend that party. > > [Then came this:](https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/rampage/wp/2016/03/04/bowdoin-update-on-facebook-school-flaunted-photos-of-alumni-students-in-school-provided-sombreros/) > > A Bowdoin alumna read my column today about Bowdoin undergraduates who’ve been disciplined for wearing sombreros, and she decided to email me about last year’s on-campus reunions. She said that the school provided a photo booth replete various hats, mustaches and other props conducive to taking silly celebratory photos. > > Guess what was among those items: sombreros! > > Not only did Bowdoin provide sombreros, but the school actually posted, on Facebook, pictures of people donning them for the photo booth. Here are a few embedded photos from Bowdoin’s public Facebook page. At least one of them appears to show undergraduates working at a reunion event and wearing the same school-provided sombreros. > > Wasn’t there once a time when people at elite academic institutions were expected to be smart? In one of my classes at the university, one Hispanic/Latina/Mexican girl did a report on Panch Villa, and, she actually wore a sombrero, fake moustache, and bandolero. I didn’t have the courage to chastise her for her racism. ---
**Author:** ![Idle\_Thoughts](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/838e76/32.png) [@Idle\_Thoughts](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Idle_Thoughts)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2016, 10:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/college-gives-sombreros-to-students-punishes-students-for-wearing-sombreros/748049/29 "2016-03-06T22:42:03Z")
> [@mhendo](#): > > I’m not insulting anyone, so there’s no need for a Pit thread. I’m simply making clear that my evaluation of a particular poster’s arguments rests on an understanding of that person’s posting history that goes beyond this particular incident. Well, the note was just a general one, it wasn’t directed at anyone specifically…however if any “evaluation” you make that includes bringing a poster’s past history into a thread that is not about it should be taken to the Pit rather than made in that thread. Any time a person has to say (any where in their post) “Blah blah has a history of doing this” or something similar, they are better off making a Pit thread instead of making that comment in the post. Please drop the discussion now beyond this point and if you have any questions, feel free to make an AMTB topic, PM me, or Pit a poster rather than bring up anything about their posting history. ---
**Author:** ![Spiderman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spiderman/32/230_2.png) [@Spiderman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spiderman)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2016, 1:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/college-gives-sombreros-to-students-punishes-students-for-wearing-sombreros/748049/30 "2016-03-07T01:29:41Z")
> [@mhendo](#): > > Is there a wearable form of tequila with which i was previously unfamiliar? Have you never done bodyshots? ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2016, 3:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/college-gives-sombreros-to-students-punishes-students-for-wearing-sombreros/748049/31 "2016-03-07T03:56:44Z")
> [@billfish678](#): > > And What The Ever Living Fuck is “Active Bystander Training”? It the Social Justice Warrior world, it is not even permitted to mind your own business any more. If you should happen to observe partiers wearing toy sombreros, do you [list=a][li] Intervene, snatching sombreros off people’s heads, throwing them to the floor, and stomping on them, all the while vociferously chastising those people for their disgraceful blatant racism?[/li][li] Quietly leave the party where such intolerable behavior is happening, and then write indignant Letters to Editors (with CC: to the college dean), resulting in everybody getting expelled?[/li][li] Just, y’know, pay no attention and mind your own business?[/list][/li]In “Active Bystander Training”, they indoctrinate you to understand that the correct answer is always (a), preferrably to be followed up by (b) afterward. If you choose option (c) so as to be “neither part of the problem nor part of the solution”, you are now part of the problem. ETA: The _intended_ idea, of course, is to teach students that if you are at a party and everybody is getting kinda drunk and you see a male (or several) raping a female, you should intervene rather than just mind your own business. But, apparently, this philosophy now even extends to requiring Active Bystander Training if you didn’t intervene when people were wearing toy sombreros. ---
**Author:** ![Fretful\_Porpentine](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fretful_porpentine/32/2873_2.png) [@Fretful\_Porpentine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fretful_Porpentine)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2016, 2:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/college-gives-sombreros-to-students-punishes-students-for-wearing-sombreros/748049/32 "2016-03-07T14:56:26Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Am I the only one who suspects that the problem was the tequila, not the sombreros? Most college students are still underaged to drink alcohol, and school administrations therefore tend to frown upon parties advertised as being themed around alcohol. This is especially true for students who are living in the on-campus dorms. I wondered about that, too, but for whatever reason, the administration doesn’t seem to be overly bothered by that. (As far as I can tell from [Bowdoin’s student newspaper](http://bowdoinorient.com/article/10990), the push to punish students for their involvement originally came from other students, not the administration.) ---
**Author:** ![Munch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/munch/32/5281_2.png) [@Munch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Munch)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2016, 4:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/college-gives-sombreros-to-students-punishes-students-for-wearing-sombreros/748049/33 "2016-03-07T16:15:05Z")
> [@ddsun](#): > > I stopped reading after the sombreros. I stopped after “Social Justice Warriors”. I’ve never read anything meaningful when that dog whistle is thrown in. ---
**Author:** ![billfish678](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7bcc69/32.png) [@billfish678](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/billfish678)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2016, 4:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/college-gives-sombreros-to-students-punishes-students-for-wearing-sombreros/748049/34 "2016-03-07T16:17:47Z")
I stop reading when the dog whistle accusation is made. ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2016, 4:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/college-gives-sombreros-to-students-punishes-students-for-wearing-sombreros/748049/35 "2016-03-07T16:27:52Z")
When, exactly, did college/university officials become even more stupid and gutless than elementary and high school administrators? The latter set a very low bar, but it seems as if the college honchos\* are doing a limbo to get below it. \*apologies if using this term is a form of cultural appropriation. ---
**Author:** ![billfish678](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7bcc69/32.png) [@billfish678](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/billfish678)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2016, 4:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/college-gives-sombreros-to-students-punishes-students-for-wearing-sombreros/748049/36 "2016-03-07T16:37:09Z")
There’s a Poncho Vitae joke in here somewhere. ---
**Author:** ![Rhiannon8404](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rhiannon8404/32/17929_2.png) [@Rhiannon8404](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rhiannon8404)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2016, 4:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/college-gives-sombreros-to-students-punishes-students-for-wearing-sombreros/748049/37 "2016-03-07T16:38:05Z")
> [@VinylTurnip](#): > > Why a sombrero, I ask? Why not the traditional hearwear of one of the… surely it must be dozens, at least… other countries around the world that are primary exporters of tequila? Tequila is literally only made in Mexico. It has denomination of origin protection. ---
**Author:** ![swampspruce](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/swampspruce/32/261_2.png) [@swampspruce](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/swampspruce)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2016, 3:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/college-gives-sombreros-to-students-punishes-students-for-wearing-sombreros/748049/38 "2016-03-08T15:06:21Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > For the record, the two other claims he made in the OP aren’t true either. > > The students at Oberlin were complaining about the new food services company and generally poor quality of the food it was serving. The students provided several examples of different meals they feel were poorly prepared but some internet sources chose to focus on fried chicken. You know, for no apparent reason. > > And the yoga class was cancelled. It wasn’t banned. As far as I know, nobody has the authority to ban a college class. It was “cancelled” by the Student Union after having been run since 2008. When you read the statement that was made as to why, it is pretty much equivalent to it having been banned… Here’s the [India Times](http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/World/Mad-Mad-World/Yoga-class-banned-over-cultural-appropriation-in-Canada/articleshow/49910798.cms) article and one from the [Ottawa Sun.](http://www.ottawasun.com/2015/11/20/free-ottawa-yoga-class-scrapped-over-cultural-issueshttp://) ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2016, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/college-gives-sombreros-to-students-punishes-students-for-wearing-sombreros/748049/39 "2016-03-08T15:25:53Z")
> [@ITR\_champion](#): > > What inaccuracies and misrepresentations? I only see semantic quibbles (e.g. “cancel” vs. “ban”) and equally trivial complaints about facts (Did the college give sombrero to students, or did the college give sombreros to alumni and they somehow wandered to the heads of students? Either way, the college was hypocritical.) I recall reading the other day that the college ‘supplied hats for a photo booth’. That sounds as if they supplied a variety of hats, which included sombreros. That’s different from the college passing out sombreros. ‘Cancel’ vs. ‘ban’. To put it in board terms, ‘cancel’ is like closing a thread. ‘Ban’ is prohibiting a thread (such as discussion of how to commit illegal activities) or banning a poster. ---
**Author:** ![Shodan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Shodan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shodan)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2016, 4:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/college-gives-sombreros-to-students-punishes-students-for-wearing-sombreros/748049/40 "2016-03-08T16:18:07Z")
> [@Little Nemo](#): > > And the yoga class was cancelled. It wasn’t banned. > [@](#): > > Yoga class banned over ‘cultural appropriation’ in Canada > [@](#): > > As far as I know, nobody has the authority to ban a college class. > [@](#): > > The decision to cancel the classes was made by the University of Ottawa’s Student Federation, the varsity’s independent student body. _:shrugs:_ Nitpick some more - it’ll help. Only, not. > [@](#): > > Scharf said she suggested a compromise by changing the name of the classes to suggest “mindful stretching”, but was rejected. Regards, Shodan [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/college-gives-sombreros-to-students-punishes-students-for-wearing-sombreros/748049.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/college-gives-sombreros-to-students-punishes-students-for-wearing-sombreros/748049.md?page=3)