Frosstbyte

See, here's the problem. I went to UPenn, which is in the middle of West Philadelphia. It's a bad neighborhood. If you're stupid or unlucky, it's a dangerous neighborhood. You spend a lot of time dealing with people begging for money, with groups of people staring you down while you walk down the street, with local employees all but refusing to serve your scrawny-white-entitled-ass but GOD FORBID you respond to any of that, because then you're a racist. Ever been walking to class when a pack of thirteen year olds tear down the sidewalks on their bikes shouting epithets, catcalling and blasting music? Each of them doing their best to play chicken with every pedestrian so that someone can run into someone else and they can start trouble?

Town and gown is a tough dynamic even under "ideal" circumstances. It's a lot tougher when there are racial differences and economic differences to exacerbate that. It's not fun to have a neighborhood look at you like YOU personally are the man who is keeping them from succeeding. And, as these poor bastards found out, there's not a damn thing you can do about it without people screaming "ENTITLED, INSENSITIVE RACISTS!"

Sure, they didn't have a My Little Ponies party. They picked a theme that had something of an edge to it, probably because it's something that they encounter and think about every day, so they thought, on a night when everyone's dressing up and doing crazy stuff, they'd play on it and dress up and do crazy stuff. My fraternity had a hotel party where we had a room what was themed "Wiggers" to make fun of white kids who act all ghetto and we wore baggy clothes and drank malt liquor. Does that make us racist or culturally insensitive?

The "victims of discrimination" can make people feel pretty victimized, too. My family, in its entirety, came to the United States after slavery ended. They were peasants in their countries of origin; some more distant relatives were serfs. They worked hard. They learned English. Their descendants are all professionals or are in academia. Why do I deserve to face daily hatred and scorn from the people around my school's community because of the simple fact that I'm white and academically successful? It's frustrating and, over four years (as you can tell), you can develop some pretty strong feelings about it. This party was an outlet for that feeling. Being suspended over it is absurd. The black student union of course has a right to protest if they're offended, but for the school president to feel "deeply distrubed" is stupid, as are any administartive and/or legal consequences.