Spring Break
Fighting ignorance through diversity
Editorial
Issue date: 2/15/07 Section: Opinion
Originally published: 2/15/07 at 12:34 AM PSTLast update: 2/15/07 at 1:24 AM PST
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Education regarding racism and discrimination for our generation perpetuates a great myth: that an act must be intentional or malicious in order to be perceived as offensive.
But this is false. And as the controversy that has surrounded our campus for the past week or so shows, it is also dangerous.
A group of students, including numerous student-athletes, decided to have a "South of the Border" party, where attendees came dressed in various outfits that caricatured people of Latino heritage.
One female Santa Clara student even came dressed as a janitor and proudly posed for pictures sporting liberally applied black lipstick, a sponge attached to her belt, cleaning gloves covering her fingers and a mop in her hands.
To make matters worse, students later put pictures from the night up on Facebook, making them available for all to see.
The photos and outfits students wore to the party were more than just in bad taste or "crossing the line." They were hurtful, offensive and wrong.
And it's not just the Latino community that should be offended. Anyone who knows what it's like to be discriminated against, whether it be based on ethnicity, gender or sexual identity, should be outraged that something like this could happen here.
And all of us with parents or family members who do custodial work should see that there is nothing funny about carrying around a mop at a party.
But to focus too much on condemning these students for the mistakes they made would be to miss the far greater and more important point: Whether or not we would like to recognize or admit it, we have a problem with discrimination at Santa Clara.
These theme parties are nothing new, and many Santa Clara students have attended them, dressed up or not. The people depicted in the pictures of this specific party were just the ones that got caught. Whether it be a "South of the Border," "Ghetto" or "Fresh off the Boat" party, feeding into ethnic stereotypes at parties has become a pastime of predominately white, upper-class students at colleges nationwide.
But this is false. And as the controversy that has surrounded our campus for the past week or so shows, it is also dangerous.
A group of students, including numerous student-athletes, decided to have a "South of the Border" party, where attendees came dressed in various outfits that caricatured people of Latino heritage.
One female Santa Clara student even came dressed as a janitor and proudly posed for pictures sporting liberally applied black lipstick, a sponge attached to her belt, cleaning gloves covering her fingers and a mop in her hands.
To make matters worse, students later put pictures from the night up on Facebook, making them available for all to see.
The photos and outfits students wore to the party were more than just in bad taste or "crossing the line." They were hurtful, offensive and wrong.
And it's not just the Latino community that should be offended. Anyone who knows what it's like to be discriminated against, whether it be based on ethnicity, gender or sexual identity, should be outraged that something like this could happen here.
And all of us with parents or family members who do custodial work should see that there is nothing funny about carrying around a mop at a party.
But to focus too much on condemning these students for the mistakes they made would be to miss the far greater and more important point: Whether or not we would like to recognize or admit it, we have a problem with discrimination at Santa Clara.
These theme parties are nothing new, and many Santa Clara students have attended them, dressed up or not. The people depicted in the pictures of this specific party were just the ones that got caught. Whether it be a "South of the Border," "Ghetto" or "Fresh off the Boat" party, feeding into ethnic stereotypes at parties has become a pastime of predominately white, upper-class students at colleges nationwide.
Viewing Comments 1 - 2 of 2
Gemma
posted 2/21/07 @ 2:57 PM PST
This article touches on a lot of existing issues at SCU, but for some reason ignored. Regarding Immersion Trips and Arrupe Placements, I believe in order to maximize benefits, both the students AND the faculty should understand what participation entails and its ramifications on everyone afterwards. (Continued…)
Jesse
posted 2/27/07 @ 7:28 AM PST
I would say that this blatant satire is the complete opposite of ignorance and to not see it is the true ignorance.
Why should we brainwash our students because they see things the way they are?
Besides, its called freedom of speech. (Continued…)
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