<p>Goldenpooch, really? Cannon fodder, as we used to say in the 60s, the last time there was a draft? Should we start a war so they can suffer?</p>
<p>Signs my family members could hold up that represent obnoxious comments from others that are in a similar vein to those in the links:</p>
<p>college athlete D: “No, HYPS didn’t have to lower their admissions standards for me.” (She’s a URM, so is this also racist?)</p>
<p>busty D, in response to the flat-chested girls on her track team: “No, it doesn’t hurt when I run!” (If she were African instead of Hispanic, would this be racist?)</p>
<p>son, who works in investment banking: “No, I didn’t steal anyone’s pension fund.” “No, I don’t know Bernie Madoff.” (If he were Jewish, would this be anti-Semitic?)</p>
<p>H to people remarking on what they know of his country of origin: “No, they don’t still shrink heads there.” (Yup, racist to be sure, lol.)</p>
<p>me, a SAHM: “I’ve never eaten a bon-bon in my life, and just because I don’t go to a job doesn’t mean I don’t work all day.” (If I were a wealthy, would this comment be classist?)</p>
<p>^ I think you should start your own Tumblr with those :D</p>
<p>The whole point of these projects from Harvard and Fordham is to raise awareness so that people who see this presentations will no longer have ignorance as an excuse. </p>
<p>It doesn’t matter where the statements fall on the spectrum of careless to ignorant to racist – they are statements that are commonly made and are routinely interpreted as insulting, disrespectful or hurtful by the person who hears them. </p>
<p>Well, yes, calmom. It surprises me, though I suppose it shouldn’t, the number of people think it’s a sign of victimhood, or weakness, or the inability to cope with negative things to simply point out that these things are being said by people who should know better. And mocking the comments is even worse. I grew up a white girl in a mostly all-white state with white friends and white…everything. But even I could see, long before moving here and meeting H and having our daughter that some things are better left unsaid. And I DID speak up. I would never tell someone to just suck it up, or worse, mock them, for having to hear it.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>I recommended this March 5 comment by accident and would like to retract my "like’ but do not know how. This is a sensitive issue but I do not want to participate in ad hominem attacks. </p>
<p>NJSue, I’m not sure I agree that that’s an ad hominem attack. When it comes to racial slights at a primarily white institution, I think it’s relevant to consider whether people without firsthand experience are in a position to tell people WITH firsthand experience how they ought to feel.</p>
<p>Actually, that’s true when it comes to most topics. I’ve never given birth, so I wouldn’t tell women in labor that they’re overreacting, much less that if I were in their position, I’d never make such a fuss about it. I don’t think that kind of thing comes across well.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Haven’t seen it in person, but have seen some pictures. Looks good. :)</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>[Puts on Politics minor hat]/*
Folks advocating a return to the draft in response for voicing opinions they find disagreeable may find themselves more at home in militaristic dictatorships with Fascist/Communist characteristics than a Republic run along democratic lines. [*/Takes off Politics minor hat]</p>
<p>I say this as someone who put in much time studying authoritarian and totalitarian regimes as part of my academic studies and as someone from a family which fought against/fled from them. :)</p>
<p>I don’t see more than one comment on this thread that is mocking, nor much that falls into the other categories described above by sseamom. It seems to me that if we are going to hold Harvard students to a higher standard of “knowing better,” than we should hold all of them to a higher standard of intelligence and maturity. One characteristic of adult smarts is perspective. The longer you live the more you realize that ignorant people are equal opportunity offenders! They say stupid, thoughtless and insensitive things on a regular basis to people of every stripe. They usually aren’t just out to get you. It is not healthy to stew over every mild offense or slight.</p>
<p>We are ALL stereotyped and judged based on silly, superficial things. For example, folks in my affluent suburb have implied to me that they consider people who live in townhomes (which I do) to be undesirable transients who bring down the district’s test scores. Should I get up in arms and create a video to defend townhome residents? I could, and some would sympathize with it, but is that a wise use of time and energy? Furthermore, students need to have the perspective to not see every single thing through a lens of racism. Re the link: If there really were a school play that included the character of Dora the Explorer (seems far-fetched…was it a skit maybe?), wouldn’t it make sense to cast someone in the role who is fluent in Spanish? Is that really racist??? Racism seems like a strong label in this case. Mightn’t Hispanics be more offended if they chose some gringo who mangled the Spanish dialogue? </p>
<p>@Hanna - “When it comes to racial slights at a primarily white institution, I think it’s relevant to consider whether people without firsthand experience are in a position to tell people WITH firsthand experience how they ought to feel.”</p>
<p>The last time I looked, the white/caucasian population at Harvard University was about 48.7%. So, I would not classify it is a “primarily white” institution. They do an excellent job at creating a diverse culture.</p>
<p>Sigh.
See how it exists? Some seem to be saying it’s really ok to blurt out unfiltered comments to others- because, after all, it does happen. That’ doesn’t make these sorts of things ok. That’s acknowledging it, then finding reasons to accept it, allowing it to perpetuate. Most of us on this thread think we’re smarter than that. So it’s worth thinking about. </p>
<p>From the Crimson article, “Meet the Class of 2017”: “Respondents were evenly split by gender. Sixty-two percent reported that they were white, 25 percent said they were Asian, and Latino and African-American students accounted for 11 and 10 percent of the class, respectively…” That’s predominantly white. </p>
<p>And townhouse owners being compared to a population that’s been on the receiving end of prejudice and racism for centuries? Sigh.Because townhouse owners have always had to justify their jobs, their place in college, their living on certain streets, their place on the freaking sidewalks. Pointing out ignorant and unthinking comments isn’t seeing “every single thing” as racism. It’s pointing out the need for some more sensitivity and thought, as lookingforward says. I guess it’s easier to mock these students as being overly sensitive and too stupid to know how to deal with ignorance than to acknowledge that they have some merit to what they’re saying.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Of course, those percentages add up to 108% (not including others and internationals), so how “predominantly” white it is depends on how you count students who chose more than one race and how many others and internationals there are.</p>
<p>The most predominantly white campuses are likely those with mainly local appeal and attendance in predominantly white areas. Public universities in Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont are likely candidates, some of which are over 95% white. More surprising is Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, which is around 70% white despite being an engineering-heavy school in California. While its local area is about 70% white, the school does appear to have statewide (39% white) appeal.</p>
<p>It doesn’t mater what the percentages are. When it happens, it happens- and it does happen.</p>
<p>Of course, it can happen in non-predominantly-white environments as well. Also, Asian, Latino, and black people can be ignorantly insensitive or racist against each other, so no white people are needed for that to exist.</p>
<p>ucb, the point some of us are making is that saying it happens to other groups or that a target group can be just as insensitive, doesn’t wash away any of this problem that does exist in this country. In fact, imo, trying to be just offhand about this, dismissing it, one way or another, is evidence we’re not where we need to be. </p>
<p>The reason why I raised the issue of the draft is because most of the military are mainly kids from lower income families who are serving their country, while very few of these snotty, spoiled kids at Harvard will ever come near a military base. I did mention the option of volunteering in the community for a worthwhile cause rather than bellyaching about minor perceived slights. It is unbecoming to behave like spoiled brats while their contemporaries are risking their lives in foreign lands. If these self-absorbed kids think they have problems, they should get out of their stuffy ivy-tower and see what real people have to endure.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Who said she was fluent in Spanish? Why did you make that assumption from her appearance? And so it goes.</p>
<p>The point is not that racism isn’t bad and doesn’t exist, it’s that most of these idiotic comments are not evidence of racism and do not result in rights being infringed upon nor opportunities denied. They are just stupid and insensitive and are the same sort of thing that get said BY ALL KINDS OF PEOPLE TO ALL KINDS OF PEOPLE. Many of us have gotten unkind comments about our hair or other bodily characteristic. I have, my D’s and H also have. Most of us have been judged by some stereotype or other. My town is primarily Asian, and it has been made clear to my children that Americans kids are considered by them to be dumb and academically lazy, and the girls are thought loose. A Chinese girl told my S that her parents have taught her that even the worst Chinese person is better than a non-Chinese person. My Chinese friend was the taught the same growing up. And at my D’s EC at which she was the only non-African American, I heard stereotypical comments about white people all the time. Some parents cheered “Beat that white girl.”</p>
<p>Being insensitive and rude is what people do to other people and have done since creation, not just what white people do to black people at Harvard. No one is denying that racism hasn’t been far worse for blacks than for other groups, and naturally that impacts current perceptions. But perhaps it impacts too much, such that every rude comment is labeled racism. Snide remarks about an African-American’s qualifications to be at H, are just like what gets said to recruited athletes, perceived legacy admits, and other URM’s like Native Americans. It get said because people think they have a preferred status for admission, not because they’re black. </p>
<p>If the effect of racial preferences in admission at Harvard is so small anyway, it would be better to abolish any such preferences and adopt a completely race-blind policy. Then the snide remarks about who is qualified and who isn’t should drop dramatically.</p>