@boolaHi, its good for young people to grapple with societal issues. It is not good when young people decide their issues are so grave, and their own analysis of the issues is so remarkably correct, that anyone who questions their methods of highlighting their issues is both hurting them, and necessarily wrong, and therefore out of order.
If young people think they will convince others of the righteousness of their position by shutting everyone else down on the basis that their pain trumps everyone else’s arguments and experience, they are deeply and sadly mistaken.
That’s what gets me about the concept of privilege - as if someone who is white and middle/upper middle class has never had any kind of burden to bear. Just because they aren’t the same burdens doesn’t mean they aren’t burdens. We all have our hopes and fears and dashed dreams and things that hurt us deeply. The white upper middle class kid isn’t immune to those things. Unless you see him only as white and upper middle class and not as a person.
Do you think if a Yale student dressed up like this, she’d be the most popular gal on campus? Of course not. People would (charitably) think this student was tasteless, a weirdo, and she’d become a social pariah. No need to give her more attention if this happened by protesting against her.
Whose holiday/religion decorates a gingerbread house? Not mine. So we are supposed to accept that some feel the country is becoming more secular so we should not worry about the minority religions and how that might make them feel. But we are supposed to be outraged at a Disney costume. I see.
Gingerbread houses have no religious symbolism or meaning in Christianity. They are made at Christmastime but like Santa Claus, reindeer and elves, they are not Christian symbols. Many devout Christians object to the secularization of Christmas in fact so it is likely that the generic holiday party could be offensive to some but not all Christians. Really, if you want to be offended, it is easy to find something to get upset about. Ask any mother in law.
Just copied and pasted this post from Yale parents thread. Interesting that Columbia admissions is taking advantage of the situation at Yale to make itself stand out:
"Below is the email my son received a day ago from Columbia. Seems like a very clear and fairly aggressive attempt to entice potential applicants who might suddenly have second thoughts about Yale. Interesting marketing tactic.
What Defines a Columbian?
thought∙ful dis∙course
n. intentional discussions that respect the identities and beliefs of oneself and one’s peers
All Columbians pledge to uphold an honor code in a student-initiated commitment to academic integrity and the intellectual community.
Students can also participate in Sundaes on Mondays, which are weekly gatherings that explore participants’ similarities and differences. The ice cream-fueled series is hosted by ROOTEd, a group devoted to facilitating discussions on diversity and privilege.
From Pan-African House to Casa Latin@ to Jazz House, Columbia’s 15 Special Interest Communities provide dedicated residential spaces for students to plan events—or just have spontaneous conversations—about a shared passion or identity.
We encourage you to explore more about what defines Columbians’ experiences by visiting our website.
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Tperry1982
Yesterday at 5:38 pm
And I encourage any applicant that wants to go to school in New York to apply to Columbia. I don’t the events of the last few days are going to sway many people. If it does, it can only help those who decide to apply because it reduces the pool (said somewhat tongue in cheek)."
Doesn’t matter whether they have specific religious significance, gettingschooled, they are associated with xmas. Similar would be true if they were hosting a spring fling and Making chocolate bunny rabbits or maybe dying eggs.
boolah,
you point is proven that you want it both ways. You are fine with declaring that religious seasons are now more secular, so who cares if its insensitive to other religions. But you want to insist that halloween costumes, etc be acutely sensitive to others. Well guess what. Some people DO care. Not everyone is comfortable going to a “holiday” party that, from what was described above, might have mostly xmas season leanings (gingerbread house, maybe egg nog). So you only want people to be sensitive when its something you think they should be sensitive about. I see…
Hmmn, problem to your vantage, whole institutions favor my perspective–as it is already playing out. Instead of say, oops, my bad, did not realize there is so much bad taste out there, you defend yourself and don’t reflect to what you originally posit.
Take your blinders off, boolah. You can’t have it both ways. If you want to promote sensitivity, then promote it for ALL. Not just for some. I might be uncomfortable at an evfent presented as a “holiday” party that may in fact have a predominantly christian focus, if it was presented as a seasonal celebration but in fact was carried out with holly, green and red decor, and mistletoe decorations. But I would either choose to attend, or not. But as pg said, I wouldn’t start a protest march about it.
And, the few links I checked to find such a completely tasteless costume seem to be dead/bad links or articles about the inappropriateness of such a thing.
Tell me the country/s largest city? The city with by far the largest Jewish population. These are mere binary demographically numbers. If I said banning school prayer in the south has been controversial as it has the highest density of southern baptist and evangelicals, is not an inappropriate comment, but both statically and factually correct.
