Politically Incorrect Party Busted

[Val_1]

By Mary Jane Smetanka, Star Tribune

Last update: February 10, 2007 – 12:02 AM

Macalester College student Paul Maitland-McKinley couldn't believe what he was hearing.

A friend was telling him about a party in a campus house that was built around the theme "politically incorrect."

One student came dressed as a Ku Klux Klan member, accompanied by another student who was in blackface and wore a fake noose around the neck.

"My initial reaction was shock," Maitland-McKinley said. "I thought, this can't really happen on my campus. ... There is no getting past that many people were killed that way."

Macalester is just the latest in a string of colleges nationwide to investigate student parties and incidents this year that have involved racial overtones.

Officials are checking to see exactly what happened at the party, and Macalester will have a campuswide discussion on issues of stereotyping on Tuesday.

"We hope to take the teachable moment and engage our campus community a little bit more deeply," said Jim Hoppe, Macalester's associate dean of students. "We hope we can start a deeper dialogue on ... why these types of activities hurt people and why they get the kind of response they do."

News about the party, held at a campus house on Jan. 16 when few students were around, spread to Maitland-McKinley and other members of the student cultural group Black Liberation Affairs Committee (BLAC) last week.

Their adviser told them college administrators needed to know.

President Brian Rosenberg sent a statement to students and faculty and staff members condemning the offensive costumes and party theme.

Negative stereotypes

"Several of the attendees allegedly wore costumes depicting negative stereotypes of race, religion and gender," he wrote. "It is important to understand that the college condemns and will not tolerate activities of this type. It is deeply disappointing that Macalester students would be so insensitive and demonstrate such a lack of understanding of the college's values and mission."

Earlier this school year, two other very selective colleges -- Trinity College in Connecticut and Whitman College in Washington state -- had parties where students showed up in racially offensive costumes or blackface.

At Texas A&M University, students made a racist video that apparently was intended as satire. A fraternity at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore was suspended after a "Halloween in the Hood" party displayed a fake skeleton hanging from a noose.

College is still investigating

Macalester has a reputation as a liberal campus. In a story about the party in the student newspaper, the Mac Weekly, a student who attended the party indicated that it was meant to be a satiric comment on "things that would be considered taboo in most situations."

Hoppe said Macalester is still investigating, and he would not comment on specifics except to say the party was not a large gathering and took place a week before spring classes started.

Today's Macalester students were born in the 1980s, long after the heyday of the civil rights movement. Their parents may remember the events of the 1950s and 1960s, but to students it can seem like ancient history.

"I've heard that a lot," Hoppe said. "Students today are in a different place, and the whole concept of what's appropriate and what's not is being challenged."

Lary May, a professor of American studies and history at the University of Minnesota, is interested in youth culture. He calls the Macalester party a "carnivalesque" activity where students mock the official, sanctioned values of society.

Surveys show that in their attitudes toward race and sex, today's college students are the most tolerant generation in American history, May said.

Yet, he said, the same generation revels in the cynicism and coarse humor of TV shows such as "South Park," where nothing is sacred.

"There is incredible ambivalence about the values of their parents," May said. "They're going to shed the sanctimonious side of things."

Knowing the type of student Macalester draws, May said, "they didn't do it on the public green at Mac. They thought it would be in a group environment and no one would ever know about it."

Support for campus meeting

But Maitland-McKinley, who described his heritage as Afro-Caribbean, said that even on a tolerant campus like Macalester, race is a sensitive subject.

While some students say the party was meant to be satire, he said, "that's looking at history in an uninformed way."

Members of Macalester's student government have rallied behind the campus meeting as a way to talk about stereotyping and other issues.

Maitland-McKinley said that many people think race doesn't matter, but that it does, and that it can be hard to talk about even with people you know well.

"People are caught up in the bubble here," he said. "They say there is no problem here. ... I think it's good that this came out. I just wanted Mac to recognize it. A step needed to be taken."

http://www.startribune.com/1592/story/993494.html

(begin sarcasm) It's a good thing this was caught. Otherwise, who knows the types of things these students might have been satirizing!(end sarcasm)

At least these kids recognize that stereotypes are something to be mocked. Maitland-McKinley is talking about it like he discovered a secret Klan meeting. I certainly hope no action is taken. The kids holding the party are the least likely to be causing problems later on.

This part is great, too.

a "Halloween in the Hood" party displayed a fake skeleton

A Halloween party displaying a fake skeleton!!! My God, man. Why are kids allowed to act out in this outlandish way!

[ngdawg]

"It is important to understand that the college condemns and will not tolerate activities of this type. It is deeply disappointing that Macalester students would be so insensitive and demonstrate such a lack of understanding of the college's values and mission."

Uh...wasn't the theme 'Politically Incorrect'? As in, satire? While I'd agree with the notion that kids now in college don't have the sentiment of being in the midst of the civil rights movement and the aftermath in the early 70's, generally speaking, there's a hell of a lot more 'acceptance' and nonchalance about racial and cultural differences. Seems to me they were slapping bigotry around a bit...

[SecretMethod70]

It's important to understand...Macalester is super-ultra-mega-uber-liberal. If *any* college is going to get upset about such a party, I'd expect Macalester would. (This based on my discussions with a friend who went there.)

[Hektore]

My college has one of these parties every year also, the point is mockery of how sensitive people are and a chance to blow off some steam when you don't have to worry about committing the ultimate crime on many of today's colleges: offending someone.

I find myself about half a dozen times a year having to explain to someone in the 'academic bubble', as I have commonly heard it referred to, that you can't actually be arrested just for being a racist. Any disciplinary action taken in this case will just be another big FU to free speech.

People need to realize, it's not about being racist or bigoted, it's about bucking the system. It's a not-so-subtle "We're tired of having to be nice to everyone all the time and this is what we think of your forced politically correct bullshit." Kudos to them for not being afraid to exercise a right.

[MSD]

If they saw my group of friends on a daily basis, they'd have heart attacks. The best part of this is that I now know what the theme for my next party will be.

[ASU2003]

http://southpark.grooky.com/extraits...manhitler3.jpg

On one hand, I understand why it would suck being a member of the minority that was opressed at some point in history. But making fun of past hardships and getting away from political correctness isn't the end of the world. I would rather these people dress up as KKK members than actually being KKK members because they feel that they are being controlled by the minority and what they can do in their life.

That being said, I wouldn't go to this party. It isn't very respectful.

[analog]

One student came dressed as a Ku Klux Klan member, accompanied by another student who was in blackface and wore a fake noose around the neck.

~~~

"Several of the attendees allegedly wore costumes depicting negative stereotypes of race, religion and gender," he wrote.

Now, before anyone jumps on it, I am not saying they must be allowed to have any sort of party they wish. They are college organizations on college property or sponsorship (frats, etc)... that being said...

So if you have a party where the theme is "anything offensive" (politically incorrect)... does that make any individual costume racist? No. I selected the above sections to show that they're fully aware that in addition to the one KKK guy and guy in blackface with a noose around his neck, there were also people doing stereotypes of religions, OTHER races, and gender.

So... if you make fun of everything equally, and in the spirit of being intentionally "politically incorrect", not serious... how is it a racist thing? If the theme was "everyone white dress as KKK guys and bring a black friend", that would be one thing... but where you've got people making fun of multiple races and religions, and gender, exactly what part of that is racist?

Insensitive? Sure. But... let's say someone wore a burqa and strapped fake dynamite to their chest? How about dressing as an indian and talking in a mock indian accent, asking if people want a slurpee? Dressing femme, adopting a french accent and running around in a mock panic, waving a white flag? I could go on, and I'm sure what i've come up with in the last 2 seconds pales in comparison to what people actually did.

The point is, someone is calling "racist" on this, and that's nonsense. And if you want to call it insensitive, then I'd point out it's a group of college students at a party- which has likely never been a bastion of sensitivity, anywhere, ever.

What are people supposed to do BUT mock stereotypes? I have to assume they don't want people SUPPORTING stereotypes- and ignoring stereotypes solves nothing, ever.

[djtestudo]

For the record, the Hopkins party actually had a "pirate" hanging from a noose, which based on the colors and the party theme was interpreted by many in Baltimore as a black lynching victim.

Not that there wasn't a base overreaction, but it wasn't as clear-cut as the article made it seem.

As for this party, I think we need a LOT more information, because it sounds very bad with what was reported.

Of course, college is supposed to be a place for learning and thinking, and give new ideas a try. Maybe satirizing stereotypes can help in removing them from our consciousness?

[Elphaba]

This is just my personal opinion based upon my own experience from long ago. I was a young adult when the civil rights workers disappeared, the little girls were blown up in a church, and many other instances, including hangings, that were in the news at that time. Even though or *because* the likely culprits where known KKK members, they escaped justice at that time.

I would like to think that this party wished a humorous view of the "politically incorrect" views of today, and some creativity in approach. A black student giving a KKK member the perp walk with a noose around his (KKK) neck would make great satire of the politically incorrect.

I think there is a difference between "politically incorrect" as a form of satire, and revisiting recent history in a crude and possibly ignorant attempt to shock for the purpose of humor.

Like I already said, my reaction was a wince given my "history." It is likely that the students performing this stunt had no personal association to the former actions of the KKK, but they can't excuse an ignorance of blacks being nearly beaten to death, sodomized with a broom handle, or shot multiple times on the way to his wedding, all by police officers.

Things have not changed that much to remain detached or ignorant.

[filtherton]

When i think of satire i tend to presume that it is employed with a certain amount of awareness of the subject to be satirized. Doing something specifically because others find it offensive doesn't seem like exceptionally brilliant satire to me. If it were, i suppose the flock fred phelps might be considered brilliant satirists if they weren't so earnest about their cause.

This party sounds more like something teenagers would do to feel like they're cool, like putting an anarchy button on your backpack.

"Look at us, we're really on the cutting edge of society's expectations."
Except for the part where they're college kids having theme parties.

I bet none of these kids would be too eager to bring their little party a few miles to the southwest, where white people are a minority. I imagine the significance of their bold statement would be lost on most of the people whose stereotypes they find provocative.