<p>ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) - An off-campus 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.”</p>
<p>Who honestly cares. If people want to hold a private party, who is anyone to judge or care what the theme is. Some people are just really too ate up and sensitive. Lighten the hell up tightwads, must every time someone wears a Klan hood at a party as a joke, does it need to be made into an international incident?</p>
<p>Joev, you are correct, most people, even in the year 2007, do not REALLY care about diversity or equality or racism. Especially with respect to behavior that does not actually “harm” anyone (ie, physically or economically). From an evolutionary standpoint, our pysches are just not evolved enough to truly understand the concept of ideas such as “equality”, and true application of those concepts in our everyday lives is still lightyears away. And government, schools, large organizations typically take a PC stand because there are often legal consequences if not social outcry by certain groups if they do not—not because they are any more enlightened than the rest of us. Hmmm…I wonder which really comes first, a change in attitude or changes in actions as dictated by laws? </p>
<p>OK, I recognize that I am part of a very small minority here trying to envision some sort of unattainable utopia where all live in harmony etc etc, but personally, I think we can do better than this as a society and even if most do not agree, I also believe that this FIRST requires changing even the most benign of racist attitudes – how we think about others – because attitudes perpetuate racism just as much, if not more, than actions.</p>
<p>…come dressed as “politically incorrect.”
Hmmm…now why would kids do this? Because they are hateful and bad?
No, imo it’s because they are sick to death of having had diversity enlightenment crammed down their throats their entire educational lives, and the fact that they are assumed to be racist bigots before they even set foot on campus. And the university’s answer to this is more diversity training? Good luck!</p>
<p>I am sorryy but a NOOSE AROUND THE NECK AND IN BLACK FACE</p>
<p>why not just have them get really into it and dress like concentration camp victims, or rape victim, </p>
<p>And yeah, anyone who think making fun of lynchings shouldn’t be in college or in civiized company</p>
<p>guess you wnat your kid to walk around in black face and a rope around their neck pretending the KKK grabbed and tortured them…hey, that’s good for a laugh</p>
<p>bet you moms here that say its okay would be darn proud of your kid for doing that</p>
<p>good for you</p>
<p>Or why not go around as kids who were molested, hey, yeah, that is fun</p>
<p>Or why not dressed as Nazi’s for the kick</p>
<p>Or why not a gay person who was drug behind a car and killed</p>
<p>No wait, how about a grandma who was mugged</p>
<p>Yes, PC parties, they show real enlightenment and a world view that should make all their parents so proud</p>
<p>It is swell that you all think making fun of African Americans who were murdered throughtout our history is a laudible thing</p>
<p>Nice work</p>
<p>I think you should be able to make fun of whomever you want, even the little girl with the sad face who is oh-so-adorable, but what a shame she has a mental disorder, or the African American who was beaten and shipped over while his loved ones died in various ways. Or of the Jew who was pushed into a “shower” so Zyclon-B could work its magic spell.</p>
<p>It’s your god-darn right. It’s also your right to stand up and shout “I am an idiot.”</p>
<p>This is an off-campus party, and, since the college involved is a private institution, it has the right to do whatever it wants. Were it a public institution, however, or if it receives public dollars, then back off. Get out of people’s private spaces and back to eating your McDonalds, you brain-fat PC legislators.</p>
<p>And if you think it PC to think that the KKK and lynchings are bad, what can I say about that</p>
<p>So, are you saying the KKK shouldn’t be judged, nor hated? WOW…how disappointed am I in you posters, and how sad it makes me that you think that it is okay to make fun of peope that were lynched…pathetic at its very core</p>
<p>To me anyone who thinks making fun of Lynching victms is a racist…no matter what they may say, it is a very racist thing to do, and as a parent I would be ashamed of my child for doing that</p>
<p>But, hey, guess its oky if your kids would do…woohoo party time</p>
<p>I think there is a big difference between reacting appropriately to overdone “diversity enlightenment” (if there is such a thing) and displaying racist attitudes and behaviors. Who can best judge what is racist? Certainly NOT the privileged white students who seem to have little regard or respect for the perspectives or rights or history of other groups? This goes beyond freedom of speech rights. I’m not sure we are yet at a point as a society where we can all sit back and have a good laugh over the racial stereotypes that have been directed at different groups–and yes, often in very hateful ways. </p>
<p>I’m also not sure how much confidence I have in future leaders of our country with such “South Park” mentality.</p>
<p>Or why not treat them as fully formed tolerant young adults upon entry into the university instead of warped-in-need-of deprogramming criminals? I know that’s how my son felt when required to undergo “diversity training” as a freshman. He’s a sweet, live-and-let-live kid, but by the end of his various “training” he often expressed downright belligerence toward the constant in-your-face tolerance indoctrination. I have often wondered if the powers-that-be on college campuses know exactly what they are doing by pushing this–or are they really just that stupid? I’m telling you, the kids are sick to death of it and perspectives like #9 are just more blah, blah, blah to them (no offense, scansmom).</p>
<p>For example, in high school, my son was called into an assembly on Date-Rape. He was assumed to be a potential rapist, in other words. He was extremely upset by this. Likewise, diversity training assumes these kids are or will be racists/bigots/homophobes/gay-haters. It is insulting and unnecessary, in addition to being a waste of my money.</p>
<p>The above post by scansmom (#9) sickens me to the nth degree.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>If there is such a thing, IF THERE IS SUCH A THING? Ok replace “negro” “black” or “colored” with “white” in any of the following statements, EVEN JOKINGLY, and you are considered a racist:</p>
<p>United Negro College Fund
National Association for the Advancement of Colored People
Black History Month
Black Entertainment Television</p>
<p>Also the million man march, Martin Luther King day, Kwanzaa, Juneteenth, constantly being reminded about slavery, calling great American heroes such as Washington or Jefferson bad people because they owned slaves, people (5 generations or more removed) talking about money for something THAT DID EVEN HAPPEN IN OUR GRANDPARENTS LIFETIME!!! Yeah its not rammed down our throats constantly.</p>
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<p>Isn’t it funny how socialists such as scansmom and citygirlsmom are all for freedom of speech until it effects something they believe in? Do these parties hurt minorities in any way? No. Are minorities physical threatened by these parties? No. Are minorities mental threatened by these parties? No. IS ANYONE AT ALL HARMED BY THESE PARTIES? um NO (save for a few soccer mom’s who feel sorry that the white man did anything ever.)</p>
<p>The holy grail of statements:
</p>
<p>So if I tell a child molestation joke that makes me a pedophile? If I tell a lawyer joke that makes me a criminal? If I tell a soccer mom joke that makes me a rapist? You sure like to make extreme leaps! I am going to take a nap now, so that makes we Rip Van Winkle. Later when I eat a hot dog, that makes me Kobayashi. Next year when I take one class you can call me Johnny Lechner. You people sicken me. Piece.</p>
<p>I’m with Citygirlsmom and Scansmom on this one. </p>
<p>Hereshoping, your argument on post 10 made no sense to me. So if there was an assembly on bullying at your son’s school, and he had never bullied anyone, would he be offended? Would he feel like they were assuming that he was a bully?</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>You tell child molestation jokes?</p>
<p>No, it was to make a point.</p>
<p>Yes. I think it’s time the education establishment got out of the psychology/social engineering business and back into the education business: it’s not doing a particularly great job at that at the present time.</p>
<p>joev:</p>
<p>Could you please send me your name and address so I can be sure my children don’t come near you?</p>
<p>Thanks.</p>
<p>(Actually, I only have one that’s still young enough to worry about, but that counts)</p>
<p>(CGM, I love your passionate writing style, but I don’t always love what you say.)</p>
<p>Everyone here is right, IMHO. This is America, where we get to make complete idiots of ourselves thanks to the 1st Amendment and free speech. Look at the ACLU, which supports the Nazi party’s and KKK’s rights to parade through the streets!</p>
<p>I say, bring on the politically-incorrect clowns, and the rest of us will fry them up for dinner!</p>
<p>My son and I were just talking about PC today in response to a news story about some RAs that made a spoof film about a rubber ducky that was taken hostage by terrorists. Think they attended Long Island University? These students lost their RA positions and had some other consequences from the U. The students’ response was that the message they were getting(from the school) was that it was okay for terrorist to behead people and fly plane into buildings, but the students had better not do anything that might hurt the sensibilities of terrorists.</p>
<p>My son also said that he is so tired of hearing all the PC stuff. </p>
<p>In an aside. We come from the “redneck” south and no one seems to be concerned about stopping all the redneck jokes;).</p>
<p>Sorry for intruding parents but…</p>
<p>I come from a society that is very laissez faire about political correctness. Some of the things we say are probably very offensive to those who are not from here…but I never think of them as being “racist” or not PC. IMO, political incorrectness can only be offensive if that person’s intention is to be hurtful.</p>
<p>Seems like in today’s world, just breathing air constitutes being a racist. Makes a person uncomfortable. I think those kids were just rebelling.</p>