Another week. Another racial costume party. Students at Santa Clara University decided to have a “South of the Border Party.” Here is a quote:
Photographs taken at the private, off-campus party and splashed on Internet sites reveal a crude and narrow portrayal of Latino life. One student hammed it up before the camera with a stuffed balloon on her belly, under her blouse. Another posed for a close-up shot of her puckered mouth, thickly lipsticked and lined in black. One student wore a janitorial costume complete with the long, rubber gloves commonly used to clean bathrooms.
Once again the photos were posted on facebook.
This is not the first Latino themed party to draw scrutiny. Last year a Tri-Delta sorority and Zeta Beta Tau fraternity at University of Illinois hosted a “Tacos & Tequila” party, which lead to protests on campus and subsequent sanctions from the campus fraternity and sorority boards. The University of Illinois is also home to the facebook group “Students Against Racially Themed Parties.”
Both of these cases also reveal the patterns of racially themed parties. In the Santa Clara case there was another party labeled “Fresh Off The Boat,” and at Illinois there was party called “Big Booty Hoes & Ghetto Bros.”
The student newspaper at Santa Clara has been covering the story, and they have a few of the pictures from the party. The editors blurred the faces out of the pictures, with an “interesting” justification at the bottom of the article. In their defense the student paper gave an excellent editorial on racially themed parties. Here is a quote:
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.
What is it about our backgrounds and education that has made us think that racism is a form of entertainment?
It may be the way our generation has been raised on satire. From “The Simpsons” to “Family Guy” and “Chapelle’s Show,” manipulating ethnic stereotypes for humor is nothing new to us.
But the true issue at hand is that many white students are ignorant of race issues that minorities face on a daily basis, in some cases because of a lack of contact with people from minority ethnic groups or disadvantaged economic backgrounds.
And in that respect, Santa Clara is failing in its mission.Would the women at the party have chosen to dress the way that they did if they had done an Arrupe placement in a community where immigrants work long hours at custodial jobs just to pay the bills? Maybe not.
The paper makes a good point. Racism and poverty make great fun for those who are not the victims of it, and it is important that universities take a lead role in educating students about this. Unfortunately, many students are not getting an appropriate education on racism and its destructive effects from their primary school, their secondary schools, or their families.
Thanks to Bean for the heads up on this!!
Idiots. The partygoers, that is.
The editors blurred the faces out of the pictures, with an “interesting” justification at the bottom of the article.
I’m curious as to what the law is regarding this kind of thing. Presuming that they were not walking down the street or otherwise in a public forum but were on private property, would they need permission from the people in the pictures to print them with their faces unobscured? I don’t know.
Unfortunately, many students are not getting an appropriate education on racism and its destructive effects from their primary school, their secondary schools, or their families.
Bottom line – my emphasis. And, frankly, conditioning at home makes what’s taught at school, or church, or Scouting an uphill battle. Trust me; I’ve had kids come into my Troop with some amazing attitudes, and I have a hard time telling them different.
Rachel, can you find a place where the photos are out? I have a relative who attends this college and I’d like to see if she was involved …
Suzanne, they blurred out the faces, but you can click on the link to the school paper. They put the pictures on the right side.
Apparently, many of the young women in the pictures were on the volleyball team.
These are college students. At some point? It’s your responsibility to find out about these things. There are all sorts of gender/racial issues classes, anthropology classes to break your cultural bias (or at least point them out), sociology…general education polices for undergrad education (that I’m familiar with) requires at least one of these for graduation. (Santa Clara’s core curriculum) There are even these things called books.
I am an upper middle class white girl from a Nice Suburban Nieghborhood with the subtler, harder to spot racial/ethnic/gender attitudes. It’s not like someone spoon fed me realities about such attitudes. I took the time to find out and now spend most of any family party cringing in the corner as people get progressively drunker and less “pc” but that’s the price you pay I guess.
It’s like anything else, if you’re going to hold an opinion on it you should know the background info. I’m not going to give you a free pass because you’re young or lazy or busy or whatever. College students can hardly cry lack of resources.
I understand that family and culture and education and economics play a role but I don’t feel required to forgive or excuse trashy, hateful, hurtful acts especially in anyone old enough to know better.
Undergraduates are dummies.
Break out the war headlines.
“These are college students. At some point? It’s your responsibility to find out about these things. There are all sorts of gender/racial issues classes, anthropology classes to break your cultural bias (or at least point them out), sociology…general education polices for undergrad education (that I’m familiar with) requires at least one of these for graduation. (Santa Clara’s core curriculum) There are even these things called books. ”
Can I get an Amen?
Speaking of college students doing stupid, disgusting, racist things, have you seen this?
Would the women at the party have chosen to dress the way that they did if they had done an Arrupe placement in a community where immigrants work long hours at custodial jobs just to pay the bills? Maybe not.
Hell, just look around. At some point in your college career you’re going to spend some time in campus buildings either early or late. Look who’s cleaning up, who’s on the maintenance staff, the lab techs. Open your eyes and think.
I don’t think all this scrutiny is a good thing. Private party, who cares? Before the internet, no one would have known, or cared.
plunky: IMHO, it’s more the attitude that it demonstrates than the party per se that’s the problem. As you say, it’s a private party, they’re legally entitled to use any theme they like. However, the fact that they think that this sort of thing is amusing shows a deep level of racism. I wouldn’t argue, and I doubt that Rachel or anyone else posting her would argue, that such parties should be illegal. But they are immoral and we have the right to express disgust.
Sure Dianne, but don’t you think this is getting a bit out of control? Next week’s blog post might be “Guy picks nose” or “Random student makes racist joke — captured on cell phone”. BFD. These people have always existed.
The sad thing is that, contrary to the “undergrads are dummies”, these are the “best and the brightest”. Santa Clara University is an exclusive private Catholic liberal arts institution, not Cow College Party U where students major in drunkenness and minor in ralphing. But then, George W. Bush attended exclusive private schools too, and you see how sensitive it made him to the feelings of others, so maybe the whole point of these exclusive universities is to insulate the rich white preppy types from those unseemly “brown people” so they don’t, like, have to actually SEE any racism (because if you never see the unseemly mud people, you don’t have to think about them, right?).
– Badtux the Disgusted Penguin
On what planet is Santa Clara University “the best and the brightest”? It’s nowhere near the top in any USNews or similar rankings (not that those rankings are perfect, just saying). It’s private, Catholic and liberal arts. But it’s not Stanford or anything.
By the way, Badtux, you might be well advised to distinguish between “exclusive private schools that are just private” (like SCU) and “exclusive private schools that attract the best and the brightest.” Because the exclusive private schools that attract the best and the brightest also have the endowments to make sure that anyone who gets in can afford to do so. Check out how Harvard, Princeton, et al are now giving grants instead of loans, and you pay basically nothing if you have a low family income. Those places will have a lot more diversity than just your average private university without that endowment. SCU doesn’t have the endowment to ensure that every poor Latino (etc) who’s qualified can afford to go there. Harvard, Princeton, et al does.
I love how the idiot on their website is asking for remorse for the students because they made a “mistake”. No being racist is not a mistake. This was an example of pure racism at the deepest level, and that school should be very harsh on the students to set an example. Getting caught was a mistake, however their participation is just an extension of their racist beliefs and feelings. If you don’t understand how offensive and purely racist these pictures were, and how they weren’t a “mistake”, then you are part of the problem!