<p>Mizzbee, see those people you mention choose to be like they are for self serving reasons</p>
<p>Very different then making fun of people in wheelchairs, or race or the like</p>
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<p>Me too. I was disappointed when a pair of good friends sold their trailer and moved into an apartment. Their semi-annual Trailer Trash parties were lots of fun.</p>
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<p>In the case of the lawn mowers, it is only offensive to somebody who feels there is something embarrassing or demeaning in wearing a sombrero or being a gardener. I can’t say what was in these kids’ heads but just reflecting stereotypes in an attempt at humor is not racist, imo.</p>
<p>This reminds me of the incident with the photo of the Spanish Olympics team slanting their eyes in Beijing. This, of course, was not representing a stereotype but rather a perfectly beautiful physical attribute of the people hosting the games. The team members were unaware they would be offending people. The Chinese in China were reportedly not bothered by the symbolic gesture and laughed it off. It was Americans (and some in other places) that were most offended by it—Is having Asian-shaped eyes, somehow an insult? </p>
<p>I’m sure many here think the photo terribly disrespectful or offensive, but that’s why I believe Americans, in general, are over-sensitized to this stuff and not honest with themselves about why.</p>
<p>Well said, wildwood.</p>
<p>Anyone remember Tacky parties? People would wear tacky clothes (eg orange polyester jactets with polka dot linings), show up early, serve Hostess sno-balls on toothpicks, etc. I think anyone here who is tacky should be outraged!
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<p>No one here is tacky, right?</p>
<p>Out with the old slogan “Where Funs Comes to Die” in with the new slogan for UChicago…“Where Fun Comes to Live”.</p>
<p>We may see application goes up big time!!!</p>
<p>I am personally outraged by the ugly christmas sweater parties. As I am not christian, I feel this is discriminatory, as I do not own one. I am outraged!!
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<p>I’m not Christian either, but I have several sweaters just for these parties ;)</p>
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The “hoes” bit is actually a pretty common tag for themed college parties. One common example is “Golf Bros and Tennis Hoes.”* Is that offensive to rich white people? Hell, I seriously hope so. But the “hoes” thing just makes it rather sexist, like college culture in general, not particularly magnifying the race issue (the Conquistadors were all men, so they had to make the Aztecs the “hoes”).</p>
<p>I laughed when I read the party title/description. Was it offensive? Yep. Would I have named a party that? Nope. But I think we can all take a moment and laugh before condemning it.</p>
<p>(*Is it hoes or hos? Neither seems to look right for this meaning…)</p>
<p>To be fair, [url=<a href=“Bro Rape: A Newsline Investigative Report - YouTube”>Bro Rape: A Newsline Investigative Report - YouTube]bro[/url</a>] is not exactly a complementary term to most guys out there.</p>
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<p>Not counting the thousands of lawsuits and judicial decisions over the last 45+ years on the subject? I guess you don’t know about any of that?</p>
<p>I don’t know if it is “hoes” or “hos” I’ve seen it both ways ;)</p>
<p>One would assume that the golf bros and tennis hos in question have chosen to be together and I can think of some couples I know who might actually fall into that category (women who look good for a living) although I wouldn’t have picked that terminology. Even if I accept for the moment the bro and ho formulation, though, the whole conquer, enslave and spread disease thing is either way in bad taste or a satirical misfire.</p>
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<p>Rigorous analysis indeed! This is a convenient and typical excuse anytime anyone is caught engaging in any kind of racially insensitive or flagrantly misogynist conduct. “We didn’t mean to offend anyone by wearing blackface at that party! It was a joke! Lighten up! You’re too sensitive!” And so on. News bulletin: intent isn’t magic, and has absolutely nothing whatosever to do with the effect on the targets of that kind of “humor.” Another news bulletin: pointing to the friend someone always conveniently has in the target group, who allegedly finds that kind of humor entertaining (at least when they’re around!) is an equally classic excuse, and is equally preposterous: “I have a Jewish friend who thinks it’s funny when I make jokes about Jews picking up pennies off the street, so it’s OK!” "I have a trans friend who thinks the word “t***<em>y</em> is hilarious, so it’s OK if I use it, too!” “I have a Latino friend who can’t stop laughing every time I draw an association between Latino people or Latino music and hired manual labor, and gardening, and landscaping, and servants!” Any given person who belongs to a marginalized group has the right to say they’re not offended by so-called humor directed at that group. What they don’t have the right to do is give blanket absolution to that kind of humor, or give overall permission to use it to anyone not a member of that group, or decide for anyone else that it isn’t offensive.</p>
<p>I though we lived in a free country which includes the freedom to be offensive so long as you are not directly inciting violence towards others. That said I think this video is funny but some might not. Some R-rated words.</p>
<p>[Nassau</a> (County) State of Mind - YouTube](<a href=“Nassau (County) State of Mind - YouTube”>Nassau (County) State of Mind - YouTube)</p>
<p>Do you think you have the freedom to be offensive to others at, say, your workplace? </p>
<p>I do understand that college students have First Amendment rights, but the University of Chicago is not the government, and although it isn’t remotely my area of law, I don’t believe that a private university is held to quite the same standards as the government in terms of regulating speech and expressive conduct by students, especially on campus.</p>
<p>Also, even to the extent someone does have the “right” to be offensive, they certainly don’t have the right to be exempt from criticism for it. Everyone else has an equal right to call them out on it.</p>
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<p>Of course they don’t. Nor does any one person who takes offense to something have the right to claim it is an insult to all members of their group or decide that it must be banned. </p>
<p>barrons, I agree the video is funny.</p>
<p>I think that the location of Alpha Delt has a lot to do with the behavior. I have many friends who are members of that fraternity and they’re all nice, bright guys who are not a bit racist. They do tend to behave in more visibly outrageous ways than other fraternities, though, simply due to their prime spot on the entry way to the quads. </p>
<p>Knowing that a large percentage of the student body will pass by the house combined with their practice of opening a morning keg in warm weather, incites those guys to do stunts and pranks that other fraternities would never think of.</p>
<p>Back in my day, Alpha Delt got into some hot water by using large, poster board sized numbers to “score” women as they walked past to go to classes. It caused a huge blowback against all the fraternities at the time, but only Alpha Delt could have pulled off that specific stunt because of the location of the house and the long, low front porch they have.</p>
<p>A captive audience, mixed with beer and a bunch of extroverted guys, makes for a perfect “Jack Ass” storm.</p>
<p>Sorry, I don’t find any of this that offensive. In poor taste, perhaps, but funny. Why are comedians the only ones in society with the license for any humor that isn’t 100% straightlaced nowadays?</p>
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<p>Spoken like someone who is completely clueless to the racist bullying Asian-Americans who were born or raised in the US and had to put up with tauntings such as what those Spanish Olympians did in that photo…and it is often accompanied by beatings. </p>
<p>Worse, many non-Asian-Americans and even Asians who grew up in their respective Asian countries and thus…did NOT experience life as an easily targeted minority are completely oblivious to this and insensitive to this because THEY NEVER EXPERIENCED IT AND WOULD NEVER HAVE SUCH AN EXPERIENCE because they grew up as part of the majority in their respective societies. As a result, many teachers not only don’t know how to help…but sometimes encourage such behaviors as many Asian-American/non-White college classmates recounted…especially those from rural Southern/Midwestern towns. </p>
<p>I myself had some brutal experiences with this in first and second grade and again in Junior High school. </p>
<p>It was only after I entered an urban public magnet that was slightly more than half-Asian/Asian-American that this BS stopped…only for it to start up again during undergrad as my experience with some ne’er do well racist rural Midwest townies indicated whether they’re loutish “English only” idiots who attempted to intimidate me for the “crime” of speaking Mandarin with classmates or passing drivers yelling racist epithets and sometimes even threatening violence. </p>
<p>An older Asian-American former supervisor/now friend had a shotgun pulled on him at a rural Georgia gas station in the '90s who mentioned something about “Chinese food” and “not liking furriners”. Fortunately, he had enough time to quickly drive off to the nearest payphone to report that. As far as he knows…the local cops didn’t seem particularly interested and nothing ever came of that report.</p>
<p>In short…this is a big part of why this is more of an issue among Asian-Americans than Asians who grew up in their respective Asian countries. </p>
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<p>Last I checked, no one is being arrested or being sent to prison by the government. </p>
<p>However, free speech doesn’t mean speech free from consequences as so many conservatives/libertarians I’ve known are fond of repeating. </p>
<p>Others have the right to judge those who are offensive in their speech or actions and act accordingly…especially private institutions such as UChicago or employers concerned about professionalism/productivity/liability issues.</p>
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<p>tons of frat parties are named like this… if the girls on campus were offended, don’t you think they would not attend? Instead they are happy to dress up in as little as possible and get drunk. Obviously they don’t have any issues with the situation.</p>
<p>^^ Wow, I was reading this thread, somewhat annoyed, but still not ready to comment until I read the above --tons of frat parties are named like this… if the girls on campus were offended, don’t you think they would not attend? Instead they are happy to dress up in as little as possible and get drunk. Obviously they don’t have any issues with the situation. – REALLY? And do you also believe that the women that get raped were asking for it, and secretly enjoyed it?</p>
<p>I am actually super shocked about how so many people are up in arms about the Mexican comment, calling it racist etc., but do not care whether the female population of a college is being called whores, whatever the spelling.
Guess what, in Chicago area, a majority of outdoor laborers are Mexican. Nothing wrong whatsoever in honest manual labor. And if frats cant distinguish a Mexican man from a Guatemalan, too bad for them. Shows their lack of geo-political understanding. I do understand where some people would be offended by that, and believe that that kind of stereotyping should not take place.</p>
<p>However, having parties with females always being portrayed in a very demeaning way is completely unacceptable in our society. And shame on you, some of the long time posters on CC that have glossed over this much more serious issue, in favor of making comments about the other one.</p>