teisipäev, märts 23, 2004
Addicted to Amar 2
You know, I have to agree with Amar on most of this. First of all, by way of background, a few years ago, Georgetown University was infested with what the black student leaders called "an epidemic of hate." Much of this epidemic consisted of one really drunk kid tackling a giant menorah in the middle of the night. There were also scattered incidents of racial slurs being written on dorm room doors and whatnot, but the students got to hold a bunch of rallies and pretend they were fighting something.
Fast forward. First, the black groups get this extremely vulgar and hateful email. Then, a group calling itself "The New Current" places racist flyers in copies of the campus minority magazine, The Fire This Time, a periodical best know for its "I Know That's Right!" campus opinion page and the "What's Up With That?" back page feature. This consisted of a series of gripes to which the reader would likely silently respond "What's up with that?" Then you get the more benign incidents. There was a joke about affirmative action made in a class. Some drunk guy called a black girl a nigger.
Now, I don't agree that we should assume those events never happened, but they certainly seem a lot less hateful if you get rid of the bigger ones. Personally, I support affirmative action, but I don't see anything wrong with jokes about the obvious fact that being a minority helps get you into colleges. One thing I have learned about Georgetown students, though, is that they love publicity. If they can get themselves on a TV camera, you better believe they will. So there is certainly something to be said for the argument that this has all been blown out of proportion by a handful of self-serving students.
I have chosen not to compare racism and love for the purposes of this entry. The less said about that, the better.
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You know, I have to agree with Amar on most of this. First of all, by way of background, a few years ago, Georgetown University was infested with what the black student leaders called "an epidemic of hate." Much of this epidemic consisted of one really drunk kid tackling a giant menorah in the middle of the night. There were also scattered incidents of racial slurs being written on dorm room doors and whatnot, but the students got to hold a bunch of rallies and pretend they were fighting something.
Fast forward. First, the black groups get this extremely vulgar and hateful email. Then, a group calling itself "The New Current" places racist flyers in copies of the campus minority magazine, The Fire This Time, a periodical best know for its "I Know That's Right!" campus opinion page and the "What's Up With That?" back page feature. This consisted of a series of gripes to which the reader would likely silently respond "What's up with that?" Then you get the more benign incidents. There was a joke about affirmative action made in a class. Some drunk guy called a black girl a nigger.
Now, I don't agree that we should assume those events never happened, but they certainly seem a lot less hateful if you get rid of the bigger ones. Personally, I support affirmative action, but I don't see anything wrong with jokes about the obvious fact that being a minority helps get you into colleges. One thing I have learned about Georgetown students, though, is that they love publicity. If they can get themselves on a TV camera, you better believe they will. So there is certainly something to be said for the argument that this has all been blown out of proportion by a handful of self-serving students.
I have chosen not to compare racism and love for the purposes of this entry. The less said about that, the better.
