ST. PAUL, Minn. - A party that asked students to come dressed “politically incorrect” has prompted an investigation by Macalester College officials who learned one student was costumed as a Ku Klux Klan member and another wore blackface with a noose around his neck.
Students at the private school told administrators about the Jan. 16 party on campus.
“My initial reaction was shock,” said Paul Maitland-McKinley, a member of the Black Liberation Affairs Committee, a student group. “I thought, this can’t really happen on my campus.”
A campus-wide discussion is planned for Tuesday.
“We hope we can start a deeper dialogue on ... why these types of activities hurt people and why they get the kind of response they do,” said Jim Hoppe, the school’s associate dean of students.
The student newspaper, The Mac Weekly, quoted senior David Nifoussi, who attended the party, as saying it was meant to be a satiric comment on “things that would be considered taboo in most situations” at the liberal school.
Macalester is the latest in a series of colleges to investigate student parties and incidents that have involved racial overtones.
Earlier this school year, Trinity College and Whitman College had parties where students showed up in racially offensive costumes or blackface. At Texas A&M University, students made a racist video that apparently was intended as satire, and a fraternity at Johns Hopkins University was suspended after a “Halloween in the Hood” party displayed a fake skeleton hanging from a noose.
The Macalester party was held a week before spring classes started and did not draw a large crowd, Hoppe said.
Macalester President Brian Rosenberg sent a statement to students, faculty and staff members condemning the offensive costumes and party theme.
“It is important to understand that the college condemns and will not tolerate activities of this type,” he wrote. “It is deeply disappointing that Macalester students would be so insensitive and demonstrate such a lack of understanding of the college’s values and mission.”
" I thought this can't really happen on my campus"
Well that's your first problem Paul, it's not your f****ng campus! And the sooner black folks like you stop buying into that bull sh** the sooner you will realize that there is nothing to be surprised about when a bunch of your white college peers make fun of your ass.
Folks, let me apologize for yet another cut and paste job on my post. But hey, sometimes real life comes in the way of blogging and the field just has been way too busy to post the way I want to lately.
But I have to address yet another politically incorrect bash at one of our fine institutions of higher learning: Like what the f**k? Frankly, the field just cannot understand this phenomenon, and in order to get to the bottom of it, he went straight to the source. That's right, the field sought out one of his "white friends" to explain just what is the fascination with all things black and ghetto with these seemingly normal college age white kids.
[Real Conversation]
"Hi white friend" (Not his real name)
"Hi field"
"Hey man, I gotta ask you, you went to college right?"
"Ahh yeah field, the last time I checked, you need a college degree before you get a law degree."
"Yeah that's right. So tell me, when you went to college, did you guys have these politically incorrect parties where you would make fun of black people and black culture?"
"Field, since you are my friend, I think I can level with you; we had them all the f*****g time!
I mean you wouldn't believe some of the sh*# we did and said. No offense field, but we just didn't really understand the black sensitivity back then if you know what I mean."
"Yeah I hear you. So how come all of a sudden we are hearing so much more about this stuff?"
"Hey, it's the times we live in man. White kids dime out other white kids to college administration. They think they are being Gandhi or some sh** by doing that, and the next thing you know, the press gets a hold of it, and you have a national fu****g story."
"Ahhhh, I hear you white friend. Look man, thanks for the scoop, I kinda suspected this kind of stuff goes on all the time, but I just wasn't sure."
"Yo field, we are still cool right?"
"Hell yeah white friend, we cool."
Students at the private school told administrators about the Jan. 16 party on campus.
“My initial reaction was shock,” said Paul Maitland-McKinley, a member of the Black Liberation Affairs Committee, a student group. “I thought, this can’t really happen on my campus.”
A campus-wide discussion is planned for Tuesday.
“We hope we can start a deeper dialogue on ... why these types of activities hurt people and why they get the kind of response they do,” said Jim Hoppe, the school’s associate dean of students.
The student newspaper, The Mac Weekly, quoted senior David Nifoussi, who attended the party, as saying it was meant to be a satiric comment on “things that would be considered taboo in most situations” at the liberal school.
Macalester is the latest in a series of colleges to investigate student parties and incidents that have involved racial overtones.
Earlier this school year, Trinity College and Whitman College had parties where students showed up in racially offensive costumes or blackface. At Texas A&M University, students made a racist video that apparently was intended as satire, and a fraternity at Johns Hopkins University was suspended after a “Halloween in the Hood” party displayed a fake skeleton hanging from a noose.
The Macalester party was held a week before spring classes started and did not draw a large crowd, Hoppe said.
Macalester President Brian Rosenberg sent a statement to students, faculty and staff members condemning the offensive costumes and party theme.
“It is important to understand that the college condemns and will not tolerate activities of this type,” he wrote. “It is deeply disappointing that Macalester students would be so insensitive and demonstrate such a lack of understanding of the college’s values and mission.”
" I thought this can't really happen on my campus"
Well that's your first problem Paul, it's not your f****ng campus! And the sooner black folks like you stop buying into that bull sh** the sooner you will realize that there is nothing to be surprised about when a bunch of your white college peers make fun of your ass.
Folks, let me apologize for yet another cut and paste job on my post. But hey, sometimes real life comes in the way of blogging and the field just has been way too busy to post the way I want to lately.
But I have to address yet another politically incorrect bash at one of our fine institutions of higher learning: Like what the f**k? Frankly, the field just cannot understand this phenomenon, and in order to get to the bottom of it, he went straight to the source. That's right, the field sought out one of his "white friends" to explain just what is the fascination with all things black and ghetto with these seemingly normal college age white kids.
[Real Conversation]
"Hi white friend" (Not his real name)
"Hi field"
"Hey man, I gotta ask you, you went to college right?"
"Ahh yeah field, the last time I checked, you need a college degree before you get a law degree."
"Yeah that's right. So tell me, when you went to college, did you guys have these politically incorrect parties where you would make fun of black people and black culture?"
"Field, since you are my friend, I think I can level with you; we had them all the f*****g time!
I mean you wouldn't believe some of the sh*# we did and said. No offense field, but we just didn't really understand the black sensitivity back then if you know what I mean."
"Yeah I hear you. So how come all of a sudden we are hearing so much more about this stuff?"
"Hey, it's the times we live in man. White kids dime out other white kids to college administration. They think they are being Gandhi or some sh** by doing that, and the next thing you know, the press gets a hold of it, and you have a national fu****g story."
"Ahhhh, I hear you white friend. Look man, thanks for the scoop, I kinda suspected this kind of stuff goes on all the time, but I just wasn't sure."
"Yo field, we are still cool right?"
"Hell yeah white friend, we cool."
Oh wait, I can't finish this post before commenting on a pair of shootings that took place in the home of the brave and the land of the not so free over night. One tragedy took place in a city that has come to know this type of random violence only too well. (Heck, just a few years ago we had seven people shot to death execution style in a drug house) But the other tragedy, took place in the very pale, very Mormon, slice of paradise known as Utah. "He looked like an average Joe" Yeah I am sure he did, how about that? Even an"average Joe" can do not so average things.
The Philly shooter was an "average Joe" too. At least to us here in Philly he was. But then, what's an "average Joe" to Philly ain't an "average Joe to Utah I guess.
Oh well, I guess the NRA spin people will be out in full force now. "Guns don't kill people, people kill people" Mmmmmm, even if it's just an "average Joe"?
First, I suggest that the usual "pimps and ho's" parties are decidedly different than a bunch of white kids wearing blackface and white sheets. The former is nothing more than a costume party, the latter is, well, blatantly dickish.
ReplyDeleteI think that the fascination with the ghetto is the superficial ridiculousness of it. Not the actual ghetto and the bad shit that goes on, mind you, but what we see on television and music videos. That's the ghetto to suburban and rural white kids -- what they hear in rap lyrics and see on MTV.
you are right -- why should this student be surprised that his classmates would behave in such a foul manner?
ReplyDeletewhen is pbs going to do that documentary:
What Happened Here: The Inescapable Insanity of White Folks?
It's not a fascination with the ghetto that makes them do it. It's the wanting to believe that people like Thurgood Marshall, Paul Robeson, Josephine Baker, Madame CJ Walker never existed.
It's as if these kids go to college and believe that black people started to exist when Yo! MTV Raps hit the airwaves.
If I was a parent, I'd ask for my money back from the college.
I don't know, I didn't go to these kind of parties when I was in college. To each his own I guess.
ReplyDeleteI dunno what the hell is going on. I just didn't see this mess when I was going to college, and I didn't exactly go to a liberal bastion.
ReplyDeleteI think the culture of a ghetto/pimp/ho frat party bears some study. We may have to "bame ourselves" for that mess, b/c we kick out and glorify these images in entertainment/music, so why should we then be shocked when white kids who've grown up with zero critical thinking skills mimmick and mock us? As for the noose and sheet, yep, that shows a much more f'd up pathology.
ReplyDeleteIt's the wanting to believe that people like Thurgood Marshall, Paul Robeson, Josephine Baker, Madame CJ Walker never existed.
ReplyDeleteOh, I don't think that's true at all. It's a pop culture world, like it or not. When white kids dress up for a pimp/ho party, they're not mocking black culture. Not intentionally, at least.
Dressing up as Aunt Jemima and planning a party of "things that would be considered taboo in most situations"? Much different.
Even if the theme is truly "politically incorrect" (you know, like someone shows up dressed as an aborted fetus or something), someone's always going to let their racist tendencies come out. So even if it's not a racist party, per se, someone's bound to be a racist asshole.
Unfortunately, these parties get started when they're YOUNG. I went to a predominately white private school for my K-12 education, and I remember seeing pictures from a few parties in high school with kids in "ghetto clothes" and one kid in blackface. No one said anything, because their parents were the DAs and Judges, so it was always "Not my kid..."
ReplyDeleteA lot of these kids have no concept of black people outside of what they see on TV. Some of it has to do with us making fools of ourselves with a lot of the joke hip-hop (chicken noodle soup and ms. peachez come to mind), etc. They see that and figure that if we don't take ourselves seriously, then they shouldn't either. Some probably figure that the figures we celebrate during Black History Month are the exceptions to the norm.
But their racism is learned, so what about all their parents, administrators, etc who don't see these incidents as a big issue? Are they being questioned??
And your white friend is cool for actually admitting to attending those types of parties.
It hurts me I have so much hope for humanity in general. That one day we can live in harmony and live above the racial divisions and respect one another. Why can't are we constantly degraded, put down and shamed simply for being different. I am not just talking about Black people, but Arabs, Asians, Hispanics, and yes even white people (to a much less degree). Why do we embrace these sterotypes and mock not only ourselves, but our fellow human beings?
ReplyDeleteCan't we just all get alone...
ReplyDeleterun up the score...
ReplyDeletedon't make excuses for these lazy culturally myopic college students.
It is an active choice to choose the lowest common denominator as a representation of a people and it's an active choice to pretend shock when someone with a heart and pulse calls SHENANIGANS on the bs.
Give me a break.
They are in college, not pre-school.
this is absolutely disgusting but not shocking. you have to wonder where the ideal of multiculturalism went with this STILL happening!
ReplyDeleteI'm having a hard time understanding the fascination with these parties. Is it just hatred that's driving these kid's to act in this manner, or is there a larger message that's being conveyed--but missed by all of us? I don't want to excuse away the racist element that exsist with such behavior, because it wrong. But I would like to understand what's driving this phenomenon. There's something more to these parties then Yo MTV Rap!
ReplyDeletePersonally, I'd really like to see the flip side of this -- a bunch of Delaware State students dressing up as white suburban kids and drinking wine coolers, or some other stupid shit like that. I'd just like to see the reactions in media and society, for shits and giggles.
ReplyDeleteThere was a fad in the 80's going around in the suburbs around my area. Faded booty choker dinems with unlaced tim's, and a pack of smokes stuffed into a shortsleeve T-shirt. Oh, and let's not forget the mullet. I never understood the craze, but every white guy from coney island to philly was sport'n that look.
ReplyDelete