--- Begin Message ---
What's going on in St. Paul?
----- Forwarded message from [EMAIL PROTECTED] -----
Date: Fri, 9 Nov 2007 22:49:24 -0800
From: sonya winton <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Reply-To: sonya winton <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: WHITE COLLEGE KIDS IN BLACKFACE
White Kids in Blackface ... Not a 'Joke' or 'Funny'
Posted Nov 6th 2007 1:56AM by Cheryl
Thompson<http://blackvoices.aol.com/blogs/bloggers/cheryl-thompson>
Filed under: Casually
Obsessed<http://blackvoices.aol.com/blogs/category/casually-obsessed/>
I must've missed the memo that declared hanging nooses and white college
kids donning blackface cool and in vogue.
See, the funny thing is ... it's really not that funny ... at all. It's
actually quite racist, but members of the football team at a Minnesota
school decided to give it the old' college try anyway:
Hamline University has suspended six players from its football team for
donning blackface and body paint to dress up as African tribesmen for an
off-campus Halloween party, an incident that has sparked a discussion about
racial sensitivity at the St. Paul liberal arts college. [...] Two
cheerleaders who helped the players with their costumes and reportedly
posted photos of them on the Internet social-networking site Facebook with a
caption about "spooks" are also under
investigation.<http://www.startribune.com/scripts/setpass.php?goto=http://www.startribune.com/10242/story/1528428.html>
Once again, not that amusing. Dressing up like a slutty nurse, skanky cop or
dirty [enter noun] for Halloween will make a few people chuckle here and
there. Being an idiot who sports blackface then posts the pics on Facebook,
that's just a little sick. (Note: not funny.)
Like those who hung nooses in the Jena
Six<http://blackvoices.aol.com/blogs/2007/10/12/jena-six-teen-back-in-jail/#cont>case,
the Minnesota students in blackface defend their actions by saying
things such as it was only supposed to be a "joke" and that they're not
racist, but "misunderstood." (All while probably thinking, "I have a black
friend, I can't be racist.")
What's there to misunderstand? You went to a Halloween party sporting a
symbol of racism on your face. What? Did you also think 'Schindler's List
was funny?
Assuming *Dr. Dre* is a physician trained in the healing arts and licensed
to practice some type of medicine. Misunderstanding.
Wearing blackface or hanging up a noose as a "joke"? Dumb and racist.
In Minnesota and elsewhere, this isn't the first time students masquerading
as blacks have stirred up controversy.
Early this year, Macalester College in St. Paul condemned an incident where
a student in blackface wore a noose around his neck, accompanied by a
student dressed as a Ku Klux Klan member, at a campus house party. The
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign is investigating a case of four
white students who dressed in blackface the weekend before Halloween to
portray Jamaican bobsledders from the movie "Cool Runnings." Last month,
four Colorado College hockey players, including two from Minnesota, were
suspended after going to a golf outing in blackface to portray characters
from the TV show "Family
Matters."<http://www.startribune.com/scripts/setpass.php?goto=http://www.startribune.com/10242/story/1528428.html>
Perhaps the costume store was sold out of Hitler's Nazi uniform.
An investigation is currently underway looking into what the students'
intent was. If the investigation finds that a university policy was
violated, the students would go in front of a judicial board, where they
could get a warning or even a suspension from school.
----- End forwarded message -----
--
Shana L. Redmond
Ph.D. Candidate
African American Studies and American Studies
Yale University
Erskine A. Peters Dissertation Fellow, 2007-2008
University of Notre Dame
"Every time intellectuals have the chance to speak and do not speak,
they join the forces that train men [and women] not to be able to
think and imagine and feel in morally and politically adequate ways."
--C. Wright MillsWhite Kids in Blackface ... Not a 'Joke' or 'Funny'
Posted Nov 6th 2007 1:56AM by Cheryl Thompson
Filed under: Casually Obsessed
![]()
I must've missed the memo that declared hanging nooses and white college kids donning blackface cool and in vogue.
See,
the funny thing is ... it's really not that funny ... at all. It's
actually quite racist, but members of the football team at a Minnesota
school decided to give it the old' college try anyway:
Hamline
University has suspended six players from its football team for donning
blackface and body paint to dress up as African tribesmen for an
off-campus Halloween party, an incident that has sparked a discussion
about racial sensitivity at the St. Paul liberal arts college. [...]
Two cheerleaders who helped the players with their costumes and
reportedly posted photos of them on the Internet social-networking site
Facebook with a caption about "spooks" are also under investigation.
Once
again, not that amusing. Dressing up like a slutty nurse, skanky cop or
dirty [enter noun] for Halloween will make a few people chuckle here
and there. Being an idiot who sports blackface then posts the pics on
Facebook, that's just a little sick. (Note: not funny.)
Like those who hung nooses in the Jena Six
case, the Minnesota students in blackface defend their actions by
saying things such as it was only supposed to be a "joke" and that
they're not racist, but "misunderstood." (All while probably thinking,
"I have a black friend, I can't be racist.")
What's there to
misunderstand? You went to a Halloween party sporting a symbol of
racism on your face. What? Did you also think 'Schindler's List was funny?
Assuming Dr. Dre is a physician trained in the healing arts and licensed to practice some type of medicine. Misunderstanding.
Wearing blackface or hanging up a noose as a "joke"? Dumb and racist.
In Minnesota and elsewhere, this isn't the first time students masquerading as blacks have stirred up controversy.
Early
this year, Macalester College in St. Paul condemned an incident where a
student in blackface wore a noose around his neck, accompanied by a
student dressed as a Ku Klux Klan member, at a campus house party. The
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign is investigating a case of
four white students who dressed in blackface the weekend before
Halloween to portray Jamaican bobsledders from the movie "Cool
Runnings." Last month, four Colorado College hockey players, including
two from Minnesota, were suspended after going to a golf outing in
blackface to portray characters from the TV show "Family Matters."
Perhaps the costume store was sold out of Hitler's Nazi uniform.
An
investigation is currently underway looking into what the students'
intent was. If the investigation finds that a university policy was
violated, the students would go in front of a judicial board, where
they could get a warning or even a suspension from school.
--- End Message ---
_______________________________________________
Mellon Myers Undegraduate Fellowship Program at Macalester (http://macmmuf.org)
[email protected]
http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/maillist.html
http://macmmuf.org/mailman/listinfo/list_macmmuf.org
