I looked at the photos on the TSG…it’s weird; if I didn’t already know they were supposed to be parodying blacks, I wouldn’t have guessed that’s what they were doing. And I’ve been to plenty of parties where cheap beer and KFC were served…what’s so black about that?
Anyway, what a stupid bunch of gits. Stupid, racist gits.
Agreed. Maybe I have outrage fatigue, but frankly they’re just stupid kids trying to be shocking. National humiliation is more than enough.
A code of conduct is not exempt from the strictures of the First Amendment at a public school. If there is a code, it must prohibit behavior in non-speech based manners. So you can ban all parties, all parties with alcohol, all parties with alcohol where there are underage kids, etc. but you cannot ban parties where a particular kind of speech, however abhorrent, is practiced.
A private school could of course have such a policy. However if they have created a reasonable expectation that they will protect First Amendment rights, even a private school may have such a code struck if they attempt to enforce it in a speech-discriminatory fashion.
However, a lot of public schools do have these forms of speech codes, and they don’t get challenged often. What they can get away with doing and what is constitutional are two different things. Hence it is absolutely possible that your experience in the education system may have exposed you to hate-speech codes even in public schools.
Make another tic in the ‘meh’ column for me.
As tasteless as it may have seemed, nobody who expresses whatever righteous indignation they will at this milquetoast group of mush-headed college kids, is being real with themselves.
Racial stereotypes exist. They exist because there are people that act the way that those mocking are, well, mocking. Black people drink 40oz’s of malt liquor. Black people dig fried chicken. White people drink fussy wine. White people put mayonnaise on everything. Mexicans eat beans. Mexicans sneak across the border.
Point is, not ALL black, white or mexicans do these things, but it doesn’t hurt anything AT ALL to poke fun what’s really funny about the cultures. Dave Chappelle and Carlos Mencia are making a killing telling the truth. This shit happens, and no amount of hand-wringing PC posturing is going to change that.
These kids made some tasteless jokes at a party. They attend a college, because they attend a college, it somehow makes it that much more of an issue… “Why, these are college students, they should know better, by God, we’re in academia, we set the standard for everyone else to aspire to, we’re better because we’re academia”
I say…
Whoop-de-fuck.
This doesn’t even rise to the level of actual racism. It’s stupid, tasteless and not really all that funny.
I think their parents should all be notified, on official letterhead, mind you, that the admission of their progeny is under review and may be retracted as it may have been awarded in error.
Test scores notwithstanding serious questions have been raised as to the actual intelligence of the persons who hosted, participated, attended, publicized, photographed, posted said photos onto the internet. On a campus with a 20 - 1 ratio this is not an affair the university takes lightly. The light they have shone on our institution offends every student and teacher in our facility. Failure to act, on the univerisity’s part could put federal funding in jeopardy. A situation that would penalize all of the students at this fine institution and unacceptable to the school administration. We would rather make an example of the few, than see the rest of our student body suffer.
We will notify you of whatever action the board should decide on, however, we felt you should be aware of both the actions and the reactions caused by your childs behaviour.
They should send it and let the parents stew. I think the parents will act, swiftly and with force to correct this situation.
Additionally, and at the very least, the university should notify them that while they are free to complete their year, they will not be welcomed back next year and should begin to look for another school to transfer to. Also the university should say that they recognize this may have been youthful foolishness, and so, will not prejudice any transfer applications by spreading the details of why. If the students protest this action the school will feel free to widely publicize why they have been requested not to return.
Those photos didn’t seem to indicate any racism to me. I see white kids dressed like that all the time at parties, at malls, everywhere. It looked like a normal party to me, except it wasn’t because the stupid people decided to actually call it something racist.
Sorry, 'bows, but the nature of parents nowadays is not to be intimidated by letters from the school. What they’d likely do is retain counsel and make a very ugly scene about how the radicial leftist university is squelching free speech; little Gordon is actually an Eagle Scout and has 31.5 Black friends; and Bill O’Reilly and Rush Limbaugh are broadcasting on location a week later.
I would go for a stern rebuke (face-to-face, with parents present) from the president, making it clear that they have embarrassed the university and themselves. Maybe these dunderheads can do some work using their case as an example, talking to their peers about how their bad decisions created a real mess. (I’d personally keep them away from students of color. Maybe an editorial?) The president and administration then have to go into repudiate and separate mode, which judging from his statements in the linked article, has already happened. Beyond that, it’s pretty unsatisfying to me.
Yawn…
“But, it was a blackface party”! Yeah, except for the complete and utter lack of blackface.
“But, they were dressed all ghetto”! Yeah, just like a million other while college boys across the country.
“But, but, they were drinking 40’s”! Yeah, just like my friends and I did at 22.
If it weren’t held on MLK Day, this wouldn’t even raise a blip. Was it a good idea? No, of course not. Is it worth any amount of outrage? Perhaps I’m getting a bit worn down in the offenseisensitivity department, but no, I can’t get worked up over this one.
They’re more stupid than racist, IMO. Besides, they were drinking Natural Light. That’s punishment enough!
Maybe a whole country of people looking at their stupidity will wake a few of them up. Maybe.
Where was the watermelon?
Do these kids know nothing about holding themed parties?!
There was a similar party a couple of blocks away from me a few months ago. One of the fraternities at Johns Hopkins decided to hold a “Halloween in the Hood” party, encouraging the wearing of “bling” and referring to Baltimore as a “ghetto”, “the 'hood,” and “an HIV pit.” Apparently, some of the party-goers were dressed as pimps, prostitutes, and slaves.
The Sigma Chi frat was suspended by the university, and by its national organization. Apparently, the university’s director of Greek Life had found out about the party a week or so before it happened, and directed the frat to cease circulation of the invitations, which contained racist stereotypes. The invitations were changed slightly, but still included such things, and were still distributed. The national fraternity ended up expelling the author of the invitation.
I agree that banning or criminalizing this type of speech is not the answer. It’s the sort of thing that is best left to public ridicule.
But in some communities, that doesn’t really happen. It was amazing, in the weeks following the party, how many of the Hopkins undergraduate community thought the whole thing was “no big deal,” and had been blown out of proportion by a bunch of oversensitive black students and their supporters. Some frat members and their friends even tried to portray the fraternity as the victim of political correctness gone mad.
I agree that the timing of the party is dubious. But from what I saw in the pitcures, I just don’t see much of anything beyond “meh.”*
What can’t white college kids do?
Eat fried chicken or wings or watermelon – (I love fried chicken – I had a fried pork chop for lunch).
Drink 40’s – when money’s tight, I’ve been known to buy one or two, short of a keg, it’s one of the cheapest ways to get beer.
Pretend to be “gangsta” – most of those kids bore more of a resemblence to Eminem than say Martin Luther King, Jr. Is it racist to pretend to be “gangsta,” seriously? So is the “Damn it Feels Good to be a Gangsta” scene from Office Space racist? What about David Herman’s character Michael, after all he’ll “make your monkey ass drop.” And what about the scene were they celebrate the *Superman II * heist? “Coming at your ass with the reseurection.” Hell, I spent lots of time in college blaring hip hop, and rapping along. My favorite movie my sohpmore year was Menace II Society.
So what behavoir is “racist”? Is it doing it all at once? Take this off of MLK Day, and do we have the same issues? I have by no way made up my mind on this, but I am trying to see this as more than just stupid, immature, insensitive behavoir.
Sure doing this on MLK Day was immature and disrespectful. You kick kids out of school for that and you’ll have some lame-ass empty colleges.
True racism exists, like say, unfair hiring and promotion practices, but this ain’t it.
the racist invites, the “slaves”, yeach! terribly offensive. but pimps and hos? no more pimps and hos parties? My dog had a pimp halloween costume this year, is he in trouble (aside from the toruble that comes from having an owner that would dress you in a costume on halloween)? Is there a probelm with the use of the word “'hood” or “ghetto”? I really just don’t get this.
Focus on the intent and not the actions themselves, for Pete’s sake.
The intent was to mock black people on MLK day. The intent WAS NOT to have a good ole country gathering with Southern cruisine and spirits and colorfully decorated friends. It was to lampoon blacks on a day which has been set aside for a famous Black leader.
I don’t think the students are evil bastards (even though they very well might be, for all I know), but to pretend that these students are being unfairly condemned for simply eating chicken is ludicrous.
and
I must say, i’m a little perplexed by the notion that it’s only racism if it’s accompanied by violence, or discriminatory hiring practices.
Racism is an attitude, it’s a set of beliefs and ideas. It can sometimes manifest itself as violence or discriminatory hiring practices, but it need not do so.
I don’t think we should be trying to criminalize racist thought or speech, but that doesn’t mean that they’re not racist.
IMO, no. There’s nothing inherently racist about KFC and malt liquor. BUT “dressing black” + malt liquor + fried chicken + Aunt Jemima + “MLK Day Party” = racism, IMO. Is it the Worst. Thing. Evah? No. Should they be expelled? No. But some sensitivity training as to why their behavior was inappropriate would not go amiss.
I do agree with MaddMaxx, though. The gal dressed as Aunt Jemima was hot! Stupid as a pile of bricks, but hot.
Whoa, HIV pits are a black stereotype? OK, I don’t know exactly what an HIV pit is, but gangstas all have HIV now? I’m falling seriously behind in keeping up with this stuff.
Excuse me YWTF, but how exactly do you know this? :dubious:
You know, this is the same kind of national outrage we got when the Wayans brothers did the movie White Chicks, or when Eddie Murphy had a role as an old white Jewish guy in Coming To America.
Wait, no it isn’t. I was thinking of the movie Soul Man.
I forgot: it’s only racist when white people do it.