@Pizzagirl “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.”
I think this comment is insightful. It seems to me that there needs to be some action or statement that indicates an intent to demean people of a particular group. The lawn mowing definitely crosses that line.
Frat having a St. Patrick’s Day party and everyone wearing green seems fine. Forcing pledges to wear green, get really drunk and fight each other, is offensive.
What I still don’t understand is why the people who want something to be offended about aren’t out there protesting the Washington Redskins or Notre Dame Fighting Irish shirts, how are those less offensive than wearing a Sombrero?
I also see that Donald Trump is speaking at the University of Illinois–Chicago tonight.
Apparently, it is okay to speak on a college campus and say that Mexicans are “drug dealers,” “rapists” and “murderers”, and that “Islam hates us,” as long as there is no sombrero involved? Very strange.
What people do at a private party is their business as long as it’s legal. I think it’s absurd that the administration is getting involved. Let the students sort it out … if there really is anything to sort out.
If the atmosphere on campus is clearly generally un-supportive of or hostile to any ethnicity / religious group / nationality … then something should be done to raise awareness or even expel hostile individuals. For example, if a student or group of students were wearing sombreros around campus and doing / saying things that were clearly insulting to Hispanic Americans then the administration needs to step in and put a stop to that behavior.
Obviously, the atmosphere on campus should be supportive of all individuals.
But it’s really going too far to think that everyone who wears a sombrero is being disrespectful.
I view some symbols as unquestionably racist and insulting whenever used, such as the confederate flag, Hitler costumes and such. Just using them in public is an aggression. Nothing else need be done are said. In these cases, should individuals be expelled? Just cautioned?
I don’t view sombreros in this way. I’ve worn one to keep the sun off my head, out of my eyes. Perhaps I’m clueless.
I was glad to see that protesters managed to get the University of Illinois – Chicago event cancelled last night. What Trump is saying about various groups is a real issue.
Regrettably, anti-free speech forces silenced said political candidate, and that is not a better outcome for America no matter how much some people hate his ideas.
Back to the OP, amazingly coincidentally D happened to comment to me yesterday that her teacher really loved an animated graphic she had put into her presentation on globalization in Mexico. I asked what it was, and she told me it was a tortilla surrounded by shaking maracas. I almost died, imagining how that could have gone the other way. The article she was reporting on said that globalization had led to Mexico’s young people eating more like American youth–specifically tacos. D thought the graphic was cute and entertaining, which this teacher wants their presentations to be. BTW, the teacher is Hispanic, which I think complicates the situation further.
Now imagine if D goes off to Bowdoin next year and innocently makes a similar decision to include a graphic like that in a class report. She would have been trained and rewarded by trusted adults to do it, and yet might end up severely punished by other trusted adults for the exact same thing because they will see it as a racist stereotype. Who can navigate this kind of world?
Seriously, globalization of the world’s economies is going to make it very difficult to separate out what definitively belongs to what culture and therefore cannot be unoffensively appropriated.
“Regrettably, anti-free speech forces silenced said political candidate, and that is not a better outcome for America no matter how much some people hate his ideas.”
The fact that on a college campus, people stood up for respecting all people is to their credit.
Actually, Trump made the decision not to speak, and he has certainly not be silenced. He is getting free coverage on CNN every day, and he is already on TV again today.
He has the right to speak, but they have the right to be angry, protest and speak too. They did that. It did get tense, but Trump was the first person to advocate and encourage violence against protesters from the podium in the last few weeks. Viewing the protest as a free speech issue is like viewing America’s intervention in WWII as infringing on Hitler’s free speech rights. At his suggestion, Trump supporters have roughed up protesters and the protesters are responding. Whose fault is that?
There are two sides or more to every story, and more information has come out since last night that better clarifies what happened, who was involved, and why. As with the issue in the OP, everything is so muddled these days it’s hard to discern what’s what. That’s why I think it behooves people to be very careful before tossing around that r word.
No, because the issues are political and the thread will be shut down.
On another note, D’s Latin class is playing a game called “Kill Caesar.” They did this last year too. No one complained about the fact that kids are being asked to pretend they are killing a European. Hmmm. I wonder what would happen if they role-played a different political assassination, such as of a non-Caucasian?
I don’t know @GFG but as a parent I actually might complain about that - unless that are taking on the roles of Cassius or Brutus what is the point of this game?
It’s a video game. Or at least, it is a popular part of one. No idea why a Latin class would play it but thegfg school district is kind of nuts according to previous posts. And this has little to do with bowdoin.
