<p>John Waters liked to offend everyone be it ethnic stereotypes or white bread stereotypes such as casting the uber blue blooded Patty Hearst in his decidedly low-life films. At least she has a sense of humor about it.</p>
<p>It doesn’t sound like I’d enjoy Waters’ films. I like people who don’t go out of their way to be offensive.</p>
<p>I fail to see the point. The Santa Clara students intended (from what I know) to get drunk and have “fun”, not to offer their version (however strange) of social commentary to a waiting world. They are now the objects of commentary, not the commentators.</p>
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<p>The root of the problem is racism and ethnocentrism. Hostility toward minorities isn’t some new, trendy backlash to social justice; this is remnants of what used to be the norm.</p>
<p>I suppose we should be grateful that these kids are channelling their hostility to minorities into non-violence, unlike their peers of say 50 years ago–at least it’s some progress. But it would be better if they could move away from hostility altogether.</p>
<p>But I guess if some of these kids are coming from homes where their parents are encouraging them to feel “put upon” if society expects them to show respect to minorities, it’s not too surprising this kind of thing happens.</p>
<p>I just can’t agree. My generation had no “diversity” training, and yet we (boomers) are the ones who are giving ourselves constant credit (ad nauseum) for civil rights, racial enlightenment of our children, gender equality, sexual diversity, etc. etc. How did that happen? We were just the annointed generation? Please. Give kids a chance not to be racists, sexists, homophobes, rapists and religious bigots and maybe they’ll rise to the expectation.</p>
<p>Especially since they’ve already endured pc education since first grade.</p>
<p>I’m just relating this from the kids I know (quite a few). They’ve had it up to here with this. (As have many adults I know who have to endure this at their places of employment.) And yet the answer from our generation appears to be more diversity training. Maybe we’ve outstayed our welcome. #59 and #64 are sounding almost retro. Time for us to move on.</p>
<p>I guess I must have missed that pc education. All I see are increasingly segregated schools, in segregated neighborhoods, and segregated churches. (and the data paint the same picture).</p>
<p>Don’t get me wrong: I think pc education would be wonderful! (but I’ve barely seen any). (You can’t have “diversity training” in a segregated school.)</p>
<p>What’s your point, HH? </p>
<p>Would you like to go back to prePC times, before civil rights and efforts at equal rights under the law?</p>
<p>Would you like your sons to grow up in that mileau instead?</p>
<p>Yes you did miss it. So how did you turn out so non-racist, non-sexist, non-misogynistic, non-homophobic, non-bigoted? As did all the other boomers on this board?</p>
<p>These kids have had it; they more than get it by now. If you want to stir up race, class and gender divisions in this country (could that be true?) continue down the pc road.</p>
<p>No point, time for dinner.</p>
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<p>Right, because racism never existed in our society before the Civil Rights movement created it. Everyone was given the opportunity not to be a racist, so no one set dogs on children trying to go to school, put bombs in churches, or hung voter’s registration workers.</p>
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<p>Sorry, not buying it.</p>
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<p>Not with parents and pundits who tell them the opposite all the time.</p>
<p>For me? Simple. I grew up in New York City.</p>
<p>“These kids have had it; they more than get it by now.”</p>
<p>Then let 'em show it. If not, let 'em know I’m not hiring. I’ll choose someone more qualified. Then they’ll have lots to complain about.</p>
<p>Ah, the outrage.</p>
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<p>Just read this line in one of the links Xiggi provided (to the Santa Clara student newspaper.) Maybe this doesn’t excuse the insensitivity and poor judgment of the costumed party goers. But maybe, since the host was half Mexican and presumably had something to say about the party theme, those who were attending believed they would not be offending anyone by dressing up to fit the theme. Since it was a birthday party held off campus, I’ll assume the party goers were friends with the half-Mexican host. As Seinfeld might have said, “If I like your race, how can I be a racist?” Or something like that. Just a thought.</p>
<p>“Ah, the outrage.”</p>
<p>In my career, I have helped deep-six career opportunities for two of my employees, with outside organizations, not because of what they felt in their hearts (which I don’t know the least about, and frankly don’t care), but because of how the expressed themselves and acted. One wanted to be a border patrol agent; the other, a public health administrator. </p>
<p>A little pc and diversity training would have gone a long, long way. Too bad they missed it. There were “more qualified” applicants.</p>
<p>Students do sometimes exercise poor judgment. They also don’t learn from the experience unless they pay for it.</p>
<p>A door closes another opens. They are probably better off than having to toady to some ultra-pc nazi.</p>
<p>I can’t make sense of big problems with gross generalizations. I just think about how someone else might feel, and I’m surprised that the kids at the party didn’t think that way. I’m not going to change public policy or racism or the general incivility that seems so mainstream. But I could never do something that would hurt someone I know – I think that’s mini’s point. It’s not always about “PC” world or politics. It should be more about the golden rule – and that’s easier to follow if you know kids from different backgrounds.</p>
<p>I’m also surprised at this party because I know my own kids would take umbrage on behalf of their friends – older son’s college roommate comes from a very different background and many of other son’s friends are from south Asia. I’m not trying to suggest that they are little angels, but they wouldn’t have to look far to think of a friend who was Hispanic or Asian or Black. I don’t believe that “diversity education” works – just put kids together with a common task and they’ll work things out.</p>
<p>“A door closes another opens. They are probably better off than having to toady to some ultra-pc nazi.”</p>
<p>It’s a free country. You can hire 'em if you like. Let 'em hip-hop in your office, and invite your clients to join 'em. (To be honest, though, one of them, the one nixed by the border patrol, was actually a Nazi, and so different in kind from a bunch of ignorant students out to have fun.)</p>
<p>Would you like me to forward their resumes?</p>
<p>Ooooh! An “ultraPC Nazi”! How very unPC of you, Barrons!</p>
<p>Well, they hired me sooooo… How are they with numbers and writing and analyzing imperfect information? Working under tight deadlines with multi-million dollar deals in the balance?</p>
<p>I just have to shake my head at the suggestion that because white students are just “fed up” with political correctness, they are “logically rebelling”. It merely shows how little tolerance they have had to develop for discomfort when it comes to matters of race and class. </p>
<p>If most minorities (whom these white students are just soooo very tired of having to consider with sensitivity, respect, or compassion—the poor beleaguered babies) were to express their frustration with the daily barrage of messages (both subtle and overt) that they receive daily as to their inferiority/unsuitability/otherness commensurate with their frustration, I question whether the Un-PC apologists would be so understanding. Those “party-goes” don’t know from “frustration”. They don’t know from “fed up”!</p>