Who’s on the pro-discipline side? Not me.
Also:
When I look at what’s going on in this country, I don’t find arguments that it’s time to move on from discussions about racism to be very persuasive. I suppose it’s true that the rise of trivial complaints is a sign of progress. But there are still plenty of non-trivial complaints.
@Ohiodad51 What are the facts at hand? Do we, as Bowdoin outsiders, have them? Or do we just think we do based on some Breitbart generate-outrage articles?
The reaction of some people to those who dare to resist confessing their racist nature reminds me of some religious inquisition.
@hunt, no I think I understand your point to be that we should generally all do our best to be sensitive to others, but that this situation is an overreaction to a minor issue. I believe we are in agreement. Others, however, seem to have difficulty acknowledging that such is the case. That’s my point.
Here’s a pretty good article about it, including arguments from Bowdoin students both in favor of and against impeachment of the student leaders: http://bowdoinorient.com/article/11027
As I said above, I don’t agree with institutional punishment of students for behavior like this, because it’s just too much like punishing people for speech. Bowdoin is a private institution, and can punish students for speech if it wants to, but (in my opinion) it shouldn’t. The one piece of context that’s relevant, I think, is that this incident came after two other (in my opinion) much worse incidents. I think there must have been a sense that students–especially student leaders–should have been on notice to avoid further incidents of this kind. I still don’t think the punishments are appropriate, but I can relate to those who were annoyed that conversation and education didn’t seem to persuade people not to do this.
Somewhere along the way the social justice goal moved away from color blindness, acceptance, societal integration and a shared 21st century national identity, to a modern version of segregation. This new form of segregation entails the construction of safe spaces that are reserved for those of a particular race or identity and that exclude all others, and it erects social barriers based on different historical experiences. The cry used to be, “We’re all the same inside!” Now, it’s “Don’t ever forget you’re not the same as me!”
@ohiomomof2, one of my great objections to the current state of the culture wars is the utter refusal of people to acknowledge any fact reported or cataloged in a source that does not pass their own ideological purity test. I have never found it persuasive to dismiss an issue solely because it appeared on Fox or Breitbart on the one hand or the NYT or CBS on the other. I certainly do not find it persuasive to discount a report in Fox because of a sneering Snopes article. But if only ideologically liberal sources will do, here is the WaPo www.washingtonpost.com/news/rampage/wp/2016/03/04/why-write-about-tiny-sombreros. If you require ethnic purity as well as ideological, here is an article from the Orient http://bowdoinorient.com/article/10976.
While both articles (and the Fox piece cited in the Snopes article) all take different angles on the issue, they all agree on the core. No one but the Snopes author seems to stress the ominous and anonymous attacks. It therefore seems pretty obvious the issue is whether the throwing of a tequilla party with tiny sombreros is a sin of cultural appropriation justifying some response from the university. Me, I think that is silly. More, I think the intentional slicing and dicing of our culture into ever smaller interest groups is doing harm, and is ever so slowly changing what it means to be an American. I don’t like that. I find it troubling and a bit sad that the author of the Orient article, who apparently was born and bred in the United States, identifies as Mexican rather than American. Even more troubling, the author identifies regionally within Mexico.
And just to explain why I think this matters, the strains of tribalism are obvious for anyone to see in attitudes like this. Show me where tribalism has been a net positive in the oh, call it the last five hundred years. I’ll wait. One of the great strengths of this country was our ability to assimilate the majority of the immigrants to our shores. Not coincidentally, one of the two great exceptions to this trend led directly to the bloodiest conflict in our nation’s history, and decades of civil strife we see echoing down to today. Is the utter nonsense on display on campuses and in the ideological fever swamps in any way shape or form akin to slavery or even de jure segregation? Of course it isn’t. But just as a general rule, I oppose things that, on balance, tend to divide us along racial, sexual, religious, economic and ethnic lines because at the end of the day, I think people who see each other as more alike than different tend not to kill each other.
There is my argument why this is a silly thing illuminating a dangerous trend. I’d love to hear an argument as to why the students who attended the party should have been “punished by the administration” in the words of the on the ground Orient http://bowdoinorient.com/article/11027.
@pizzagirl - D wanted blue highlights and we said it would look weird. She is so into the microaggression theories that we should have just said it was offensive to the native people in Avatar that she would have probably not done it. 
Cultural reappropriation of Smurfs.
It would also be mockery of old ladies where I come from.
I don’t dismiss it for that reason, I dismiss it because it isn’t Bowdoin. I read the article you link in the Orient, in fact I’ve read every article about this (or the previous two incidents) in that paper in the course of this discussion. And most of the comments too. That’s the best source we as outsiders have, IMO. And still it’s not like we will have the understanding of these issues that members of that community have.
Bowdoin students do. https://students.bowdoin.edu/bsg/bsg/statement-of-solidarity-re-tequila-party/
That community has already said that it is a “sin of cultural appropriation”, more or less, in their statement issued after the last incident. You can think it’s silly and I can think it’s too much (which is what i think), but we didn’t write and sign such a document, but the two student government leaders did. So our opinion isn’t really relevant. Here’s that statement, from October 2015: https://students.bowdoin.edu/bsg/bsg/statement-of-solidarity-re-the-sailing-team-party/
Are you saying that prior to the civil war, the status quo kept the peace but the end of slavery and the social upheaval that came with it is the problem? It’s not clear from what you wrote. I’m interested in this, and whatever you are saing the other great exception was?
I think our society IS “sliced and diced”. Certainly many members of minority groups would say so. The way I see it, we can ignore it or we can bring it out in the open and discuss and deal with it. Why are Mexican-Americans offended by the lazy Mexican stereotype as exemplified by the napping dude in the poncho and sombrero, but Irish-Americans aren’t so much bothered by the drunken Irish stereotype exemplified in St. P’s day? Do Irish-Americans and Mexican-Americans have equal status in the US? Is a presidential candidate calling Irish rapists and suggesting a wall be built between us and them? Are the Irish being blamed for taking jobs and increasing crime in areas where there are a lot of them living? I’d say no, and that is the reason they can shrug off/laugh with/participate in St P’s day and Mexican-Americans don’t feel quite the same way about the stereotype of their ethnicity.
I don’t think an attempt to understand and respect the feelings of other ethnic groups divides. I think it unites. I think it makes us less likely to kill each other.
"That community has already said that it is a “sin of cultural appropriation”, more or less, in their statement issued after the last incident. "
Why is it not a “sin of cultural appropriation” for non-whites to study, oh say, Shakespeare?
The thing with cultural reappropriation is that it presumes certain cultures “own” things that no one else can ever eat / study / wear / enjoy / learn about. Why is tequila and tortilla chips ok but a sombrero isn’t? Who decides what things can be shared and which can’t?
Because dressing up is more like mockery (in my opinion).
Reasonable people holding a respectful conversation about the issue.
Well first of all, that is a question for Bowdoin’s student body really. What’s OK in other contexts may not be the same. Your office might have a party with sombreros and no one cares.
But if I were to answer it for myself, I’d say people are welcome and encouraged to eat/study/wear/enjoy/learn about cultures as long as it is done with respect.
Who I personally would defer to on what things can be shared inoffensively are the members of the group in question.
More to the point of the current events on Bowdoin’s campus, why was the Cold War Party in which people dressed in fur hats and called themselves Stalin not a problem for these same concerned students? I’ll give you a hint.
“Because dressing up is more like mockery (in my opinion).”
Taken to the extreme, this means that my then five-year-old twins shouldn’t have dressed as Pocahontas (and whoever was a male character) when they went to see the Disney Pocahontas movie premiere. I know you’re not saying that, but doesn’t there need to be some context of actual mocking? I just can’t put the sombrero at the tequila party in the same category as the frat pledges made to wear sombreros while mowing the lawn. I just really can’t equate the two.
“Who decides what things can be shared and which can’t?”
I think a guy in a Yale sweatshirt just raised his hand.
“But if I were to answer it for myself, I’d say people are welcome and encouraged to eat/study/wear/enjoy/learn about cultures as long as it is done with respect.”
So were the people who objected to the black chef preparing collard greens, etc on MLK day out of line, IYO? His intent was to share historically black foods, not “mock” anybody.
“Who I personally would defer to on what things can be shared inoffensively are the members of the group in question.”
But people who are of the group in question are not all of one hive / collective mind, and the assumption that all persons of X ethnicity/race/etc all hold opinion Y on topic Z is the definition of racist.
Because what normally happens in these matters is that a small % of people of that group believe they speak for all members of that group, or that they are entitled to, and other members of that group who don’t share that opinion are inauthentic, sell-outs, “whitewashed,” etc. Woe be to the student of Mexican heritage who says “eh, no big deal.” Extra woe be to him if he’s affluent since that’s not “real.”
I have this visceral sense that non-Mexican students probably should not wear sombreros to a tequila party, but my rational mind is struggling to understand it.
For those who are believe only Mexicans can wear sombreros, I have more questions:
I guess the bigger question is - if you are offended, aren’t you giving the offender too much power over you by claiming that it discombobulates you so much that you can’t sleep, eat, study, etc?
I can’t help but think of the young black students in the desegregation of Little Rock who had all kinds of evil and vile things shouted at them, were made to feel unwelcome, etc. Just awful. They held their heads high and refused to be dragged down. Those types of people are truly inspirational. How did we get from there to “I can’t sleep, eat or study because someone somewhere donned a sombrero at a tequila-themed party”?