Why only $8.20/hr? $8.20/hr is not a living wage. They should be demanding $15/hr.
What food is American? Not much of it. It has been appropriated from all cultures. Even within this country you will find stark differences in potato salad, macaroni salad, BLT’s and you name it. And traveling overseas bacon in England is not American bacon and in Sweden maple syrup is nonexistent rather it is lingenberries. It is to be expected. And when it comes to institutional food for the most part it is dreadful and overpriced and has been for years.
<but it’s="" silly="" to="" go="" another="" country="" and="" expect="" things="" be="" like="" they="" are="" at="" home.=""> If it is sold as a burrito, it has to look , at least approximately, like a burrito.
Why do you think Blacks can complain about Black cuisine from Oberlin, but Chinese can’t? Because they are second-class foreigners?
Everyone, including tourists and foreigners. Foreign students living in your state pay sales taxes. Where is a tuition rebate for them? Many are coming from low income families.
<
We DEMAND that Black student leaders be provided a $8.20/hr stipend for their continuous organizing efforts around the well being of Black people on Oberlin’s campus, city and beyond.>
Why only $8.20/hr? $8.20/hr is not a living wage. They should be demanding $15/hr.>
Minimum of $50/h. $15 is for unskilled workers. You are paying Princeton students, top minds in the country!
“Some people associated with Oberlin have pointed out that’s it’s the equivalent of going to a baseball game and ordering a hot dog and getting a slice of wonder bread with a piece of spam on top, which I think helps put it in terms most Americans can understand better.”
Which would be unfortunate, or disappointing, or head scratch worthy. But it wouldn’t be a wrong, an insult, or a microaggression. Not everything that doesn’t go our way is a Big Deal.
Tbe problem w college food nowadays is level of expectation.
One has very different expectations when a menu touts dishes w familiar names like “General Tso’s Chicken” and “Chicken Cordon Bleu”, as compared to “avian protein option#1” and “avian protein option#2”.
But what kind of burrito? The Mexican burrito, sold only in parts of Northern Mexico, which is pretty flat and contains only one or two ingredients, or the stuffed-with-everything Tex-Mex version, which my Mexican husband doesn’t recognize as Mexican food at all?
I haven’t said anything about whether black students can complain. And I certainly never said that foreigners were second class.
If anything, suggesting that students who are going to college “for free” have less right to complain is suggesting that sone people are second class.
All in all, I think most of these food issues seem blown out of porpotion. Seems to me that a lot of students from all over have unrealistic expectations.
Re #47 and #48
Some of those languages are offered at US schools, not necessarily just HB ones.
There may not be many students of such at a school as small as Oberlin, though.
That seems one of the more digestible comments in this thread, 1or2.
Some people have trouble understanding the difference between having social graces and having a constitutional right.
When I’m a paying customer at Chez Expensive Bistro, I have no compunction about sending a steak back to the kitchen if it is well-done when I ordered it rare.
If I’m a dinner guest at friend’s home, I don’t present a list of demands of how I want the food cooked, nor do I order my host to take back his/her overcooked pot roast.
Once you allow one racial/ethnic group to complain, all other groups are allowed to complain as well.
I don’t think these students have any clue what it takes to recruit a strong candidate to rural Ohio, and that goes quadruple for a black candidate.
Major difference is that as a guest in a friend’s home, there’s not an assumed expectation you or another third party of some sort are paying for the dinner in that home as with the case of college students and/or their families or the entities providing the FA/scholarships are paying for the dining hall meals in the form of boarding fees.
It is worse when as in the case of Oberlin and some other residential colleges like it, the students are effectively a captive market due to college rules that with few exceptions students must dorm and be on some form of a meal plan* for all 4 years.
Saying they don’t have a right to complain and should just “put up with it” is effectively saying that agencies within colleges such as dining halls should be completely free from any form of accountability.
It also shows one isn’t exactly intellectually honest about support for “free speech” as one key purpose of exercising free speech is for the express purpose of HOLDING INSTITUTIONS ACCOUNTABLE TO THEIR CONSTITUENTS. Especially if there hasn’t been much or any response to more polite prior requests.
IMO…that purpose is far more important to the well-being and well-functioning democratic republic than advocating it merely for one’s right to be a outright jerk towards marginalized groups as some including some posters on CC have implicitly argued.
- This includes students on dining co-ops who must pay for at least one dining hall meal each week. Thus, even they end up being part of the captive market even as they attempt to escape it by joining a dining co-op.
If you’re going to argue who are the constituents, seems to me that the full pay parents / students are the constituents. Their money is being used to subsidize the “demands” for Xhosa language class and paying protesters and all the other things these students want.
I don’t think this way, but be careful of your argument. People who pay ARE the backbone. People who donate money that goes towards scholarships ARE the backbone.
“IMO…that purpose is far more important to the well-being and well-functioning democratic republic than advocating it merely for one’s right to be a outright jerk towards marginalized groups as some including some posters on CC have implicitly argued.”
Plenty of folks, yourself included, have no problem being a what-you-said towards mainstream society. Remind me again about stealing food from people, that you thought was so ha ha funny?
Demand: people that don’t want to take African dance classes be forced to take African dance classes
followed by
Demand: Jazz musicians should not have to take classical music classes.
///
why do they need financial issues explained to them by a black person? Money is money.
///
this list is ridiculous.
I have a good friendly who is CURRENTLY (not decades ago) a post-doc at Oberlin. He would label himself as a radical liberal, a person of color, and an immigrant. I asked him about this (both the food and the demands) and he said he’s heard mumblings about it on campus but it doesn’t seem to be making too many waves.
So, at least from his perspective, it’s another media over-reaction. A few students did something and it gets picked up and blown out of proportion.
shrug
@romanigypsyeyes, that doesn’t surprise me at all.