Nobody has Belmont Stakes parties or Preakness parties. The Derby has an aesthetic tradition that distinguishes it from other horse races. The same is true of Ascot in the UK. I’ve been to many Derby parties myself.
Google “UVA Foxfield” to see some Southern college students raising this aesthetic to an art form.
How about that! I can’t link because the images are on a blog, but Vineyard Vines sends a pastel patchwork van down to Foxfield…
Protestable or not, it looks like a pretty boring, lame a$$ party in that video.
“I don’t even really think of Kentucky as the south…”
For my money, even the Ohio side of the Ohio River/Kentucky border is the south, but with a different zipcode.
@Hanna: Wow, that is very interesting about Kentucky.
http://history.ky.gov/landmark/kentuckys-neutrality-during-the-civil-war/
“What if they had changed the theme to “Downton Abbey?” Would there have been protests or not?”
That is a GREAT question, Hunt. I’m sure some descendants of servants are at these schools now.
It wouldn’t surprise me if some of those protesting the invitation aspect or the perceived socially elitism of pan-hellenic Greek organizations are those who feel student campus organizations/clubs with the possible exception of those who are selective by academic merit like Phi Beta Kappa should only be allowed to exist if their organizations/activities are open to all students who express an interest in joining/attending.
This was the reasoning behind why fraternities, sororities, and other socially exclusive/secret societies were banned in the 1870’s at Oberlin and why some other colleges with similar such policies.
Only after Confederate forces under Leonidas Polk violated their neutrality by moving into the state.
Initially, Kentucky was officially neutral in the Civil War partially because sympathies were deeply split and extended into the state government and state militia.
Only after the Polk violation of Kentucky neutrality did the official Kentucky state government went over to the Union.
Also, this split factored into the formulation of a Kentucky state “shadow government” which was pro-Confederate and accepted as the legitimate state government by the Confederacy despite some reservations by President Jefferson Davis at the irregular circumstances behind its founding.
I see we’ve cross-posted. 
I’ve never seen any evidence of recent “hoopskirt balls” at the University of Alabama, but I guess I’ll just have to take your word for it. Apparently you and PG spend a lot of time combing the websites of Alabama sororities.
Is 2009 recent enough? It is not a big secret among those familiar with Greek life that Kappa Alpha, a frat that has historical roots and is most prominent in the South, has had a long history of “Old South” balls with antebellum themes, displays of the Confederate flag, and so forth.
Whatever. Clearly you always have to have the last word. A story from 2009 with a photo of 2002. Brava.
If by “a lot of time” you mean “10 seconds on Google.”
https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/originals/ed/49/64/ed49644bcaaf81da5667ee8eaf403dbd.jpg
Photo from 2014; the 2016 event likely hasn’t happened yet.
watch Dear White People on Netflix…it is centered around Dartmouth and the house party some of the greeks throw.
I do think that some of the protests are aimed at Greek organizations at least in part because they are perceived by some as being inherently sexist and elitist, even if they are no longer overtly racist.
At my daughter’s college there was a fairly heated debate online about a sorority “date night” being held at a gay bar, which was seen as cultural appropriation, despite the fact that the party was planned by LGBT sisters in the sorority. And her former boyfriend’s fraternity was called to task for being “insensitive to systemic issues surrounding mass incarceration in the United States” a couple of years ago when they tried to cosponsor a jail-and-bail fundraiser with a sorority. Those kinds of relatively minor lapses of judgement on the part of organizations run by young adults do seem more apt to become fodder for college newspaper op-ed columns and heated internet exchanges when Greek organizations are involved.
Seems Dartmouth inspires a few movies of that type, like Animal House.
Yep. However, the discussion isn’t about whether D’s Greek system is Animal-House-y. It was about whether it was a reasonable assumption that a) a KY Derby party would conjure up hoop skirts and Old South (and hence be a closer leap to being offensive / racist), and b) that the girls involved would be uniformly rich white girls. Neither of which was true. So there you have it.
Seriously. I’ve been to a few Derby parties and those are KEY. Given the dry requirement, Woodstock makes a lot more sense.
They have a web site. They are basically white (in one large photo I think I see two who aren’t), family income level undetermined.
This Sorority is a safe space. Changing the theme of the party will not help them. Uninvited guests with a megaphone may still come to make the space unsafe.
Here’s my imagined transcript of a meeting at the sorority:
Sister A: “So, are we ready to plan Derby for this year?”
Sister B: “What about those protests last year, saying that it was racist?”
Sister C: “That’s silly, just because the Derby is in Kentucky doesn’t make it racist.”
Sister B: “I agree, but who needs the aggravation?”
Sister C: “But should we let the protestors tell us what to do?”
Sister B: “Let me ask it this way: is anybody really wedded to the idea of having the Derby theme every year forever?”
Everyone: Silence
Sister D: “How about a Woodstock theme?”
Everyone: “Yay!”
More like:
. . .
Sister B: Let me ask it this way: Does anyone think that a Kentucky Derby party makes any sense without mint juleps?
. . .
For those who insist on dredging up Animal House every time Dartmouth is mentioned, you might be interested to know that in the last year Dartmouth has derecognized two of the more prominent fraternities, AD and SAE. AD was President Phil Hanlon’s house as an undergrad, and reportedly that which inspired one of the writers of Animal House. SAE is reportedly the one that inspired the uptight white guy house in the movie. Due to local zoning laws, this means that no one can live in either of the houses, which means they forfeit all rental income. What the organizations will do about that remains to be seen. They can apply for recognition after some period of time: at least 4 years, I believe. When this happened to another house in the past, they rented their building to a sorority. This plus the hard alcohol ban seems to make it clear that Hanlon is serious about addressing the party scene.
Believe it or not, folks, Animal House was not a documentary about Dartmouth, which for one thing was not coed in 1962. 8->
From Wikipedia:
“The screenplay was adapted by Douglas Kenney, Chris Miller, and Harold Ramis from stories written by Miller and published in National Lampoon magazine. The stories were based on Ramis’s experience in the Zeta Beta Tau fraternity at Washington University in St. Louis, as well as Miller’s experience in the Alpha Delta Phi fraternity at Dartmouth College, and producer Ivan Reitman’s experiences at Delta Upsilon at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario.”
FYI, the tall black guy in a blue shirt who can be seen interacting with the protesters was the incoming student president–and I think a guest at the party-- and he was roundly criticized for yelling “I can’t breathe” back at one of them. THere were black members of the sorority and black guests, none of whom apparently felt that it was a racist event. Not a hoopskirt in sight. I’m usually very sympathetic to BLM, but in this case I think they were off base.
Also FYI, fraternities and other social groups at D are open to all comers almost all of the time, and many of them hold big public parties on the significant weekends (Winter Canrival, Green Key). They have a couple of invitation-only events per year. Hardly a crime, one would think.
I think all the hoopla (so punny) about the Kentucky Derby party is a tad silly but Dartmouth has had some issues with its greek life regardless of whether it is the basis for Animal House or not.
“Believe it or not, folks, Animal House was not a documentary about Dartmouth, which for one thing was not coed in 1962.”
Sigh. I wish there were an Emily Dickinson College.
