<p>“Think about it - privileged white kids (the vast majority of Greek students at most schools) playing at incarceration in light of very recent events that illustrate the hypocrisy of our judicial system? What if it was play lynching? Raise the money or they die.”</p>
<p>What if what? It wasn’t. </p>
<p>Pizza girl, I’ve no doubt your son’s frat had good intentions, but surely they recognized that this theme was at best tone deaf this week, thus their decision to cancel. And wouldn’t it be great if this triggered some discussion in the house about the disparate realities among many families, where for some jail is a theme for a fundraiser and for others it is the norm for adult men.</p>
<p>Considering the timing, the spectacle would seem to some to be akin to how many in the third estate during the ancien regime in France viewed aristocrats play-acting as peasant villagers like Marie Antoinette at Le Petit Trianon. </p>
<p>Now if they ended up mocking members of the rich and powerful who end up in jail…say Ivan Boesky or the Enron boys…maybe they could have avoided the controversy. </p>
<p>“Pizza girl, I’ve no doubt your son’s frat had good intentions, but surely they recognized that this theme was at best tone deaf this week, thus their decision to cancel. And wouldn’t it be great if this triggered some discussion in the house about the disparate realities among many families, where for some jail is a theme for a fundraiser and for others it is the norm for adult men.”</p>
<p>I didn’t say it was his fraternity; I just noted that it was a Greek organization.</p>
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THAT I would like to see!! Fundraiser AND social commentary - “You want out of jail? Only one way… BUY your way out!!”</p>
<p>i think your analogies (candy/diabetic) are not analogous to the jail situation. Especially in the very current climate. I agree, bad timing and the Orange jumpsuit may have contributed to sort of bad taste for an fundraising event. </p>
<p>I have had a family member spend a very short time in jail for a very unfortunate situation - let me tell you, I DO look upon jail jokes differently now. </p>
<p>Also, comparing a drowning to a dunk tank is IMO, bad taste. And, saying that those you can’t understand must have less than half a brain…</p>
<p>So basically, it’s ok to offend some people, but if other people get offended, the world must kowtow. This is “outrage culture.”</p>
<p>Not really. It’s just that “HA HA, YOU CAN’T DIGEST WHEAT!!” is not the same as “HA HA, PEOPLE WHO LIKE YOU DIE OR GO TO JAIL FOR LOOKING LIKE YOU!!”</p>
<p>Because there is offending someone and then there is offending someone. All wounds are not the same.</p>
<p>I want to know - is Orange is the New Black “offensive”? After all, you’ve got many fine actresses – including quite a few who trained at Juilliard - isn’t that the equivalent of “upper SES”? – who are “playacting” at being locked up in prison. And they’re actually DEPICTING prisoners and the prison experience, warts and all - unlike a philanthropy, which isn’t even remotely depicting anything that looks or feels like a prison experience.</p>
<p>How about Breaking Bad? Is that offensive too, to people who may have had loved ones who were on drugs? </p>
<p>And why does it matter the SES of the students?<br>
Are we saying that this philanthropy would have been just fine and dandy if the African American Student Association had chosen “jail and bail” as a fundraiser? Or a historically black fraternity / sorority?</p>
<p>My two family members who were in jail fully deserved their punishment - they did bad things. So I’m not sure why I should feel “offended” by this, any more than I should be “offended” that when I play Monopoly, I get a get-out-of-jail-free card. </p>
<p>"Also, comparing a drowning to a dunk tank is IMO, bad taste. "</p>
<p>I’m not comparing the two. A dunking in a dunk tank is clearly not an actual drowning. Likewise, a philanthropy where someone is bailed out by raising enough money is clearly not an actual prison setting. </p>
<p>The right to be offensive to others isn’t a right I am interested in exercising. </p>
<p>Why do you even want to debate this?</p>
<p>i fortunately don’t know anyone who drowned. But reading your comment the way it was written, seemed very heartless. You don’t have to understand that . And apparently you can’t. But it doesn’t diminish that the comparison is offensive to me. Same goes for the jail comment. </p>
<p>I’m not going to argue the topic the way you seem prepared to battle - because honestly you really don’t seem open to another thought other than your thoughts about it. That’s my opinion! That will leave more room for more posts to read that agree with you and less of those who don’t. </p>
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Trying to faithfully depict jail is not the same thing as making light of jail, in the same way that serious is not the same as silly.</p>
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Did you watch Breaking Bad and think either “heh, that’s a cool life!” or “pshaw, drugs are nothing.” or “good thing only [fill in demographic here] have to worry about this!”? Realistic depictions rarely offend anyone. Using something that is deadly serious to others as an element of light-hearted fun, that is where offending people occurs.</p>
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Because jail in America is a function largely of race and class/SES. The race and SES of the jokers will therefore always impact how the joke is received.</p>
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No… but (a) I haven’t seen that happen and (b) it would have been perhaps less problematic. I would really need to see how that was presented, but I think they would have done a very, very fundraiser.</p>
<p><<<
I dislike the new trend that “I’m offended” obligates everyone to bow down to it.</p>
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<p>I agree… Our kids’ high school had a “pay $3” and you got “free dress” on Friday (this is a Catholic high and the kids wear uniforms.) This was a senior fundraiser for their senior trip. One office-person tried to stop it because she said, “some kids can’t afford $3”. (not at this school…and even if that were true, there will always be fundraisers that some can’t afford to participate in!) So, that particular fundraiser was cancelled. Well, THAT offended many of us…but who cares that WE were offended. lol </p>
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<p>LOL</p>
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You shouldn’t feel offended by this. Your experience with jail was people getting what they deserved. That is not how many people’s experience with jail goes. In the case of the upper class, it is rehab, or house/mansion arrest, or at worst a few years in a low-security prison. In the case of the lower class, it can be years of jail time for offenses that (where you richer) might never have even seen the inside of a courtroom. Those are the people who should be (and usually are) offended - the people whose friends and family did NOT (they feel) fully deserve their punishment.</p>
<p>For you, the system is apparently working. For many people it isn’t, and those people are not going to appreciate jokes involving said system, money, and upper SES kids partying.</p>
<p>FWIW, my family members who were in jail are lower SES and not educated (if they graduated hs, it was by the skin of their teeth).</p>
<p>Abasket - I know tone is hard to convey online, but I really say these things with a very questioning, what-about-this-hypothetical tone in my voice, not a hands-on-hips / challenging tone. I wish there were an emoticon for this!</p>
<p>Cosmicfish - I am confused, though. Are you saying that the problem with this fundraiser - what made it offensive (whereas OITNB isn’t) - is that it wasn’t realistic <em>enough</em> in its portrayal of prison? That instead of ha-ha-a-cute-orange jumpsuit and faux-bars on the quad, they should bring their depiction of their “prisoners” closer to that of actual prisoners … and all would be ok? I don’t really believe you think that. </p>
<p>I didn’t really watch breaking bad after the pilot, but my impression was that it wasn’t offensive because it didn’t portray it in a positive light.
Same with Orange, although I did hear that Martha Stewart blasted the casting of Piper.</p>
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The issue remains that you yourself feel that the people in question received the appropriate punishment. </p>
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No, of course not. I am saying that a realistic interpretation in art (the comparison you made in bringing up OITNB) is not generally going to be offensive because it is attempting to be realistic, and (if that was not clear) because it treats those depicted and affected by the issue with respect. A fund-raiser sending people to mock jail, while common, does not. Especially now, where inequities in the justice system are producing riots and demonstrations across the country. Really, the only question is how inappropriate it will be.</p>
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I wouldn’t have run this either. If the fundraiser is successful (I suspect it would be - kids usually hate those uniforms) then the poor kids would stand out as being the only ones in uniform. Might as well force them to walk around all day wearing an “I’m so poor I can’t afford $3” sign around their neck.</p>
<p>Fundraisers work best when people with lots of money can spend/donate all they want, while people who lack money have a graceful and anonymous way of not donating. Singling out high earners is fine, but singling out the low earners (what this fundraiser would have done, with a $3 low bar) really isn’t.</p>