Couple of months ago I was in a custom shop in San Francisco and a guy walks in and says that he's going to a "pimp and ho" party. The guy behind the counter's response: "Aisle 6".
-- adam
On 10/27/05, Doug Henwood <dhenwood at panix.com> wrote:
> <http://insidehighered.com/news/2005/10/27/race>
>
> Dumb and Dumber
>
> By mid-October, the leaves on campus are turning,
> homecoming games are being celebrated, and - at
> any number of colleges - bigotry in one form or
> another hurts some students deeply.
>
> The campuses and the incidents vary from year to
> year, but like clockwork, you can't reach this
> point in the academic year without flare-ups in
> which students have said or done things that left
> minority students (and many others) angry. In
> recent weeks:
>
> * A group of students at the University of
> Chicago held a "ghetto" party in which some
> students dressed in stereotypical clothing.
> Photos circulated on the Internet, and the
> university is now organizing a town hall meeting
> and other discussions about racial insensitivity.
>
> * At Colorado State University, a student
> group trying to protest a state referendum did so
> with an image of a lynching. After the use of
> lynching imagery angered minority students and
> led the president to send an e-mail to all
> students and faculty members, the group
> apologized.
>
> * At Syracuse University, a student-produced
> television show - since killed - offended many
> with jokes about rape and cruel comments about
> the bodies of members of various minority groups.
> The students behind the show said that they were
> just trying to be funny.
>
> * At Vanderbilt University, fraternity members
> left the head of a pig outside a Jewish student
> center. The fraternity said that the act was not
> anti-Semitic and that the intended target was the
> center's vegetarian café.
>
> And Monday is Halloween, a holiday that has in
> recent years sparked controversies at numerous
> campuses after white students attend parties
> dressed as illegal immigrants, in blackface, or
> in various other ways that offend.
>
> However sincere the apologies are from those
> responsible for these and many other incidents,
> they raise the question of why - year after year
> - students are so hurtful about race, and are
> then surprised when someone is hurt. Experts on
> student life and race relations offer a variety
> of explanations and views.
>
> Many say that the students who offend today
> aren't just younger versions of those who were
> doing racist things on campuses a decade ago or
> as some campuses first integrated. Rather, they
> say that today's students - and the ignorance
> many of them display - are the products of an
> unusual time in which minority culture is
> omnipresent, but more and more white high school
> students have no significant interaction with
> anyone of another race.
>
> "We all assume that more progress has been made
> than has really been made," says Beverly Tatum,
> president of Spelman College. A psychologist and
> the author of Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting
> Together in the Cafeteria and Other Conversations
> About Race, Tatum says: "While colleges and
> universities are more diverse today than they
> were 20 or 30 years ago, that isn't true for
> public schools, many of which are more
> segregated. So you have a lot of young people
> growing up in racially segregated schools and
> their only exposure to other groups comes from
> stereotypes in the media."
>
> Popular culture gives these students - many of
> whom are clueless about those who are different
> from themselves - a false sense of race
> relations, says Charles A. Gallagher, an
> associate professor of sociology at Georgia State
> University who studies white attitudes about race.
>
> "People who are 18 to 20 have been raised in a
> cultural environment with 'Cosby Show' re-runs,
> hip hop, identifying with black characters, they
> have gone through the multicultural training -
> for whatever it's worth - in school," he says.
> "They have the perception that they are not only
> not racist, but they share a kind of social space
> with non-whites through the media, so they think
> race doesn't matter anymore, which just isn't the
> case."
>
> "These pranks reflect the students' idea that we
> are in a post-race society and we can make fun of
> everyone, and make fun of everything," Gallagher
> says. "So they don't see the difference between a
> 'ghetto' party and a toga party."
>
> Not only are students unaware of the feelings of
> minority students, many have so little sense of
> history that they don't know instinctively that
> images like lynching aren't going to be looked at
> casually by black people. And for all the talk
> about how colleges these days focus on
> multiculturalism, experts points out that most
> white students never study minority history in a
> sophisticated way or have any sustained focus on
> race relations.
>
> "It's true that colleges do a lot more than they
> used to, and that's a good thing, but at most
> places, those efforts aren't as extensive as you
> might think," says Amanda Lewis, associate
> professor of African-American studies at the
> University of Illinois at Chicago and co-author
> of Challenging Racism in Higher Education:
> Promoting Justice. "Maybe they do something that
> first weekend during orientation. But for most
> students, they come in, go to the diversity
> session, and then move on with their lives."
>
> Even students who seek out information about
> minority groups know very little going in, she
> says. Lewis teaches a 200-level course on racial
> and ethnic history, and many students start with
> a "very superficial" knowledge of key events, she
> says. In elementary and high school, "they learn
> a little about slavery and a little about Martin
> Luther King," Lewis says, and their overall
> "historical amnesia" means that they don't
> understand why race matters.
>
> While Tatum, of Spelman, agrees that many
> students are ignorant, she also says that there
> are students who intentionally seek to hurt.
> "Certainly there is thoughtlessness," she says.
> "But we're also in a climate in our society that
> is supportive of harassing events. Listen to talk
> radio. We are at this moment in a time when
> people feel free to make these kinds of comments."
>
> Caryn McTighe Musil, vice president for
> diversity, equity and global initiatives at the
> Association of American Colleges and
> Universities, also sees societal changes playing
> a role in the campus climate. "We've gone through
> a political period in the country where we have
> drifted away from a focus on social conscience
> and social responsibility," she says. "We have
> been counseled from a variety of locations -
> political, corporate, elsewhere - to think about
> what I am and what I need, not about others. I
> think that feeds into it."
>
> Others point to other kinds of context in
> understanding these incidents. George Kuh
> constantly reviews data about student attitudes
> through his work with the National Survey of
> Student Engagement, which is conducted by the
> Indiana University Center for Postsecondary
> Research, which he directs. Survey results
> indicate that students become less comfortable as
> they enroll at colleges "where the racial
> complexity increases." While their comfort level
> increases over time, that's not the case
> initially, he says.
>
> In such an environment, some students spend their
> social time with people like themselves. Those
> who are most likely to start one of these
> incidents, he says, are male, are in their first
> two years of college, and are in fraternities or
> other groups where there is "peer pressure to act
> out on those who are different." Add alcohol, and
> these incidents aren't that surprising, he says.
> (Jon Williamson, executive vice president of the
> North American Interfraternity Conference, says
> he is "not aware of any studies or data" that
> show that these incidents are more likely to
> involve fraternity members and calls that
> suggestion "a stereotype.")
>
> Adds Kuh: "There are a lot of things colleges can
> control, but can you control what happens at 2:30
> in the morning? Not any more," he says.
>
> Kuh stresses that these demographic explanations
> in no way limit the moral responsibility of those
> who engage in racist acts. "These things are
> appalling," he says. "I'm not trying to be an
> apologist, but in understanding these events, you
> need to look at the circumstances," and many of
> these incidents involve "18 and 19 year old men
> who aren't in a position for reflective thought,
> who aren't very good at thinking about putting
> themselves in the shoes of the other."
>
> Another key thing to remember, Kuh says, is that
> colleges' student bodies are changing every year,
> so there is never a moment of success when
> administrators can feel that everyone understands
> all of these issues. "On a typical campus, about
> 35 percent of the people every year are brand
> new, and that is a lot of people to teach," he
> says. "Every fall you are going to bring in a
> bunch of people who are feeling their way in
> terms of how to interact in a strange environment
> with others who are different."
>
> Kuh and others say that colleges need to beef up
> their orientation activities and the curriculum
> as it relates to issues of diversity.
>
> Anne D. Neal, president of the American Council
> of Trustees and Alumni, is skeptical of dealing
> with these incidents by changing what students
> study. "How these incidents relate to the
> curriculum is not clear to me," she says. But
> Neal says that colleges do have a chance - when
> incidents like these happen - to have discussions
> about ideas of tolerance of different people and
> different ideas.
>
> With courts and public criticism limiting the use
> of speech codes - a trend Neal applauds -
> colleges can be constructive, she says. "When
> things are in bad taste and bad judgment, simply
> shutting them down without further discussion can
> potentially encourage more of these things,
> whereas taking the opportunity to talk with one
> another can be positive."
>
> The University of Chicago is trying to take such
> an approach. Stephen Klass, vice president and
> dean of students, says that one of the things
> that surprised him, when the "ghetto" party
> became known, was how common they are. (Someone
> suggested that he Google the term, and indeed a
> search indicates that the parties are everywhere,
> and offending people all over the place, too.)
> This suggests that lots of students don't
> understand, not just those who organized one
> poorly thought-out event.
>
> Klass says that the incident has led to broader
> discussions of issues of race, ethnicity and
> class in which minority students feel
> misunderstood. The university is planning a
> campuswide open meeting, to be followed by
> symposiums on relevant topics, and Klass says
> that he is proud Chicago is responding in a way
> that is consistent with its academic values.
>
> "You find young, inexperienced majority students
> who just don't understand," he says. "We're
> trying to help people understand."
>
> A broader focus - not just on those who engage in
> racist acts - makes sense, says Tatum. There are
> likely always going to be some students who might
> engage in these acts, and others who never would.
> Whether the acts take place or not may have a lot
> to do with the other people in the room when
> someone gets an idea to do something hurtful.
> Good college programs, she says, will let the
> student who is in the room know that there's an
> obligation to say "don't do that" or "that's
> wrong" instead of just thinking it.
>
> But Tatum says that such changes aren't happening
> fast enough, and asked if we'll continue to see
> racist incidents on campus, she says, "the sad
> answer is yes."
>
> "I am an optimistic person. I think there are
> lots of ways our society has improved and we can
> see opportunities for improvement," Tatum says,
> "But at a certain level, there are still lots of
> young people being exposed to stereotypes and
> unless we are really intentional about
> interrupting that, it's going go continue."
>
> She quotes the saying: "If you do what you always
> did, you get what you always got."
>
> - Scott Jaschik
>
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