Student Party Correctness

Today, political correctness is known as the life blood of sensitivity to every ethnic, religious, and geopolitical group across the spectrum. Any persons that do not follow the supposed saint of "diversity" are considered to be ignorant, lacking respect or even racist.

The over-regulated rules of what's appropriate and what's not is being challenged by students who feel society has become too engrossed with it. They could be the most tolerant generation in years, and they are basically telling the rest of us to "lighten up."

It is true that some things are definitely inappropriate, but do we blame them for being racist, ignorant, or just doing a stupid thing? Over the last several months, there has been outrage at student parties and incidents across the nation that have involved racial overtones.

At Trinity College and Whitman College, there were parties where students showed up in racially offensive costumes or blackface. At Texas A&M University, students made a racist video portraying three students demonstrating crude racial slurs, including slave-to-master relationships while wearing blackface makeup. A fraternity at Johns Hopkins University was suspended after a "Halloween in the Hood" party displayed a fake pirate skeleton hanging from a noose. At Tarleton State University, Clemson University, and the University of Connecticut held "gangsta" parties. At Macalester College, students held a "politically incorrect" party where one student was costumed as a Ku Klux Klan member and another wore blackface with a noose around his neck.

So where do you draw the line? What's funny and what's wrong? What's entertaining and what's offensive?

Fraternities hold parties with themes like "golf pros and tennis hoes" or sex reversal parties where guys dress up as girls and vice versa. Go to a halloween party hosted by a downtown nightclub, and you will see people dressed up as gangstas, but girls dressed up as slutty cheerleaders, or guys dressed as a penis? Is that just very crude humor?

How can these be different from what we see in the media? Steven Colbert routinely mocks politics and religion. Some of Saturday Night Live's "funniest" skits make fun of homosexuals, ethnic and religious groups. Is there a national boycott for the film "Borat" for its horribly politically incorrect ways? It got an Oscar nomination for Best Adapted Screenplay instead. Or Family Guy's making fun of Osama bin Laden's terrorist speech to America?

Most were perplexed when Grey's Anatomy star Isaiah Washington got criticised by the press and sent to counseling after supposedly uttered a slur about a cast member's sexuality. Now you got Tim Hardaway saying he hates gay people. I guess he's off to counseling too.

Obviously, wearing blackface or a KKK outfit is really offensive, but is it likely that the person was being racist about it or trying to act stupid? But complaining about people wearing "gangsta" outfits? Could it be possible a person wearing a "Al Capone" costume may be trying to make fun of blacks? Or a person wearing a kung-fu outfit is offensive to Asians? I guess costume stores would need to remove "Aunt Jemima" from their catalog list too. Maybe we can get really serious and prevent students from dressing up as pilot or a soldier, it could offend our war veterans out there.

I also find it unfortunate that certain people out there would declare that racism is abundant and widespread at the school where the incident takes place. It is very amusing when after one or two costumes are found to be insensitive and offensive, the accusers would start saying it is a sign of racism and it has been happening on campus for years, and administrators and student leaders have been ignoring it. It's all a coverup, they cried! They see a pirate skeleton hanging from a rope, and to them, it's a lynching. Perhaps we should ban Pirates of the Caribbean.

So people want to speak up and complain, hold your forums and meetings. Go and share your feelings and explain your viewpoints and misconceptions. Then we can move on more smoothly.