Racist MLK party. Nice...

[Goofball]

A couple of groups of university students threw MLK Parties at which they wore fake gold teeth, dressed in Aunt Jemima costumes and shirts that read "I Love Chicken," drank malt liquor out of bottles wrapped in brown paper bags, and ate K-Fry.

Nice.

I'm sure MLK would have been proud.

http://video.msn.com/v/us/msnbc.htm?g=f8c329b1-b2e9-4716-a41a-66fef6728961&f=00&fg=copy

On the surface, I would normally write it off to "really stupid things university students do," but I have a bit of a harder time with it in this case because the video states that one group of students were in law school. Yikes...

[Crazed Rabbit]

It seems they're making fun of gangsters. But I guess that makes them 'racist' :rolleyes:

I thought it funny how the announcer said they had a racist party "where students drank malt liquor and ate fried chicken" - is it just me, or does that say something about what the announcer assumes about certain people?

CR

[Goofball]

It seems they're making fun of gangsters. But I guess that makes them 'racist' :rolleyes:

Really? I wasn't aware that Al Capone was reported to be a lover of K-Fry, or that Sammy "The Bull" Gravano liked malt liquor.

Honestly CR, if you can't even acknowledge that these kids were blatantly making fun of black American stereotypes, then you truly have your head in the sand.


I thought it funny how the announcer said they had a racist party "where students drank malt liquor and ate fried chicken" - is it just me, or does that say something about what the announcer assumes about certain people?

As stated, those are common stereotypes that almost all Americans are aware of. And parties such as these just aggravate the situation.

[Crazed Rabbit]

Well sorry I didn't specify modern gangsters instead of 1930s mobsters. :rolleyes: They were making fun of black gangster stereotypes.


As stated, those are common stereotypes that almost all Americans are aware of. And parties such as these just aggravate the situation.

Aren't they more aggravated by assuming when someone not of the stereotyped race fulfills one of the stereotypes, they're being racist?

CR

[Strike For The South]

I have a cousin at Tarleton!

[Watchman]

Aren't they more aggravated by assuming when someone not of the stereotyped race fulfills one of the stereotypes, they're being racist?Blacks are allowed to address each other as "niggas" if they so wish. Whites aren't allowed to address Blacks as such.
Live with it.

[IrishArmenian]

Crazed Rabbit, it was one MLK day. Now, who else would they be making fun of? MLK did not campaign for civil rights for "gangsters" so that claim looses what sway it had.

[Crazed Rabbit]

Blacks are allowed to address each other as "niggas" if they so wish. Whites aren't allowed to address Blacks as such.
Live with it.

Um...where did I say I had a problem with that?

CR

[Goofball]

Well sorry I didn't specify modern gangsters instead of 1930s mobsters. :rolleyes: They were making fun of black gangster stereotypes.



Aren't they more aggravated by assuming when someone not of the stereotyped race fulfills one of the stereotypes, they're being racist?

CR

Whatever, man.

Wearing a t-shirt that says "I love chicken" and a sideways ballcap while drinking malt liquor out of a paper bag is not making fun of black stereotypes.

You're right.

It was insensitive and racist of me to suggest it.

Have a good weekend...

[Strike For The South]

Blacks are allowed to address each other as "niggas" if they so wish. Whites aren't allowed to address Blacks as such.
Live with it.

"Niggas" isnt offensive "N****r" is. Besisdes I use it all the time with my black friends its not the term its how its said that is the problem. I fund the parties quite funny and so would many people I know. There making fun of ganagstas not blacks if you find the two synonomus you have the problem not them.

[Watchman]

Um...where did I say I had a problem with that?

CRPretty much in the bit I quoted.

[Mooks]

Who cares if they offend these "gangsters" ?The population I live around is 50% black, and alot of them "gangsters". Of course, gangsters is just another word for inept, stupid, ignorant morons who will achieve nothing with their life. Offend away...

[Goofball]

"Niggas" isnt offensive "N****r" is. Besisdes I use it all the time with my black friends its not the term its how its said that is the problem. I fund the parties quite funny and so would many people I know. There making fun of ganagstas not blacks if you find the two synonomus you have the problem not them.

Really? So Aunt Jemima has a well known penchant for "bustin' caps" in people?

Think about it SFTS, they took every black stereotype they could think of and combined it all into one big ball of stupidity, on MLK day of all days.

Do you really want to defend this to the death?

[Watchman]

"Niggas" isnt offensive "N****r" is. Besisdes I use it all the time with my black friends its not the term its how its said that is the problem.I express my regrets on not being quite up to date on American racial slurs. :shame:

[Scurvy]

gangsters is just another word for inept, stupid, ignorant morons who will achieve nothing with their life. Offend away...

evidently.

[Hosakawa Tito]

Drunken college students, students of law notwithstanding, acting out stupid racially insensitive pantomimes doesn't exactly shock me. Some people just can't help but learn lifes lessons the hard way. Doing dumb stuff like this, on film no less, has a tendency to come back and haunt you later.

Wait till Columbus Day, then they can portray abusing Native Americans. Mustn't be prejudiced now.

[Major Robert Dump]

That wasn't a real party, they weren't even in blackface

[Strike For The South]

Really? So Aunt Jemima has a well known penchant for "bustin' caps" in people?

Think about it SFTS, they took every black stereotype they could think of and combined it all into one big ball of stupidity, on MLK day of all days.

Do you really want to defend this to the death?

Not really but I would like to point out while this may be insensitve Im willing to bet 99.9% of these kids aernt racist. Some of the older patrons here seem to be making race a bigger issue than it really is. I go to school everyday and hear things that if quoted here would cuase yall to have a heart attack (from whites blacks and mexicans) but at the end of the day were still freinds and we dont mean nothing by it. You sir are making a mountain out of a mole hill

[Goofball]

Not really but I would like to point out while this may be insensitve Im willing to bet 99.9% of these kids aernt racist. Some of the older patrons here seem to be making race a bigger issue than it really is. I go to school everyday and hear things that if quoted here would cuase yall to have a heart attack (from whites blacks and mexicans) but at the end of the day were still freinds and we dont mean nothing by it. You sir are making a mountain out of a mole hill

Perhaps that was the impression that I was giving.

I certainly agree with you that these kids are most likely not a bunch of rabid KKK supportes who attend lynchings on the weekend. And I also agree with you that it is easy for people who don't think of themselves as racist, and have a fairly healthy outlook on the unimportance of skin color to still do stupid things without thinking them through.

My point is that this appears to be a case of extremely stupid groupthink taking over and ending up with very offensive results that now may damage these kids' academic careers.

And to what end?

It's a shame.

[Strike For The South]

Perhaps that was the impression that I was giving.

I certainly agree with you that these kids are most likely not a bunch of rabid KKK supportes who attend lynchings on the weekend. And I also agree with you that it is easy for people who don't think of themselves as racist, and have a fairly healthy outlook on the unimportance of skin color to still do stupid things without thinking them through.

My point is that this appears to be a case of extremely stupid groupthink taking over and ending up with very offensive results that now may damage these kids' academic careers.

And to what end?

It's a shame.

True

[drone]

http://www.khou.com/topstories/stories/khou070125_cd_nword10.1d2cc855.html
:rolleyes2:

[Hosakawa Tito]

My point is that this appears to be a case of extremely stupid groupthink taking over

I believe you have nailed it, Goofball. "None of us is as dumb as all of us".
These type things happen when there's a competition amongst the peer group to be/do the most outrageous of them all.

[Strike For The South]

Pfft He shouldve knwon better to mess with A Texans 1st amnedment that you know is the 2nd most important one. As for the word use it sound funny or stupid or smart its just a word stop putting the damn thing on a pedastool

[Kanamori]

People like to do outlandish things...

If I use ghetto lingo, I'm not necessarily being racist... Many times, using stereotypes in a manner like that is just making fun of the fact that the stereotypes exist, not actual people.

Frankly, I think that most black people do have different perspectives than the normal one, and I think they're often more interesting and down to earth because of it...:2cents:

I've only seen beggars or people wanting to be funny drinking out of brown paper bags... and so what if they do drink out of brown paper bags.

Anyway, there's no way we'd be able to know they're real intentions anyway.

People waste away their lives being way more sensitive than they should be. The fact that they are hurt by things like this alone shows that they're mostly just looking to be offended.:balloon2:

[Watchman]

As for the word use it sound funny or stupid or smart its just a word stop putting the damn thing on a pedastool"Tribunes with their tongues sentence men to their deaths." IIRC that's Shakespeare.

Don't underestimate words. Over human history people have died and killed over surprisingly few and seemingly minor ones.

[Navaros]

MLK was not what he represented himself to be. Therefore I don't see anything wrong with students throwing a party in his honor and likewise representing themselves to be something they are not.

Based on the original post I don't see anything racist about what they did and when I click on the video link I get:
This product requires Microsoft© Internet Explorer 6, Microsoft© Media Player 10, and Macromedia Flash 6. To download these free software applications, click the links below and follow the on-screen instructions.... and I don't wanna install any of that crap on my system. Hence this post is based solely on text in the OP.

[Philippus Flavius Homovallumus]

No offence guys, but I feel it's a little sad you are discussing this and making it an issue, when you could just ignore a bunch of stupid teenagers.

[Sasaki Kojiro]

They're not racist, that's what's so insane about this.

[Samurai Waki]

living here has really opened my eyes to racial thinking and group mentality. The oddest thing that I've found out so far is that black people aren't generally so much offended when a white person imitates the 'gangsta stereotypes' but they are offended when a member of their own race/culture feeds into that stereotype. The minority neighborhoods have really suffered a lot here in the last twenty years, and I believe that they want to establish an identity of their own, and quite separate from that of White Culture. Not only that, they want to be recognized that they aren't violent, pimping, drug abusers... so when an outsider mocks that behavior it cuts them fairly deep, which leads to animosity. I think for the most part the Blacks and the Whites co-exist fairly peaceably, compared to the Mexicans and the Blacks, the old 'hoods where Black Familys had their gangsta rivalries back in the day, have cleaned up quite nicely, but now they are threatened by another group to be tossed into the wind once again. A culture on the cusp of understanding, now exploited by the media, and the bedrock removed. I don't feel particularly sad for Black Society, but it angers me when they have been given opportunity, even more equal than my own opportunity, and yet we still consistantly emerge on top. The gangsta's live in this fantasy world where they believe they are at war, and in the end it's only lead to mockery, and disaster.

[Del Arroyo]

You know what? I say more power to 'em. We've lived under the ominous shadow of PC-think for too long.

I mean, was the party offensive? Hell yes. It was downright blasphemous. It was a low, degrading mockery of Martin Luther King Jr and everything that he stood for. But you know what else? It's about time we got over MLK. Because our sacred cows sure as hell ain't doing us any good.

[scooter_the_shooter]

Blacks are allowed to address each other as "niggas" if they so wish. Whites aren't allowed to address Blacks as such.
Live with it

I can and I have.




As for the whole party thing. It's freedom of speech people, get over it! Do people get angry when the "white boy" in a movie is a sissy with all sorts of pansy white stereotypes? No they don't...you know why? Because it's a joke same as this party.

[doc_bean]

SFTS wins. these are just people acting stupid, as people usually do, but when it gets out in public we're suddenly all shocked, give me a break.

This is the age of camera phones, it's time we started acting a little less hypocritical about ourselves.

[KukriKhan]

You know what? I say more power to 'em. We've lived under the ominous shadow of PC-think for too long.

I mean, was the party offensive? Hell yes. It was downright blasphemous. It was a low, degrading mockery of Martin Luther King Jr and everything that he stood for. But you know what else? It's about time we got over MLK. Because our sacred cows sure as hell ain't doing us any good.

I dunno Del Arroyo, here's a snippet of King in '63:


...I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.

I have a dream today!

I have a dream that one day,... little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers...

I'd say the party, irreverent and tasteless as most frat parties are, demonstrates that we're a bit closer to the day when fun can be poked at stereotypes, and no one gets their head bashed in , or lynched, or dragged, chained to a pickup truck.

We've almost achieved a state of equal opportunity to be a dumbass. Surely equal opportunity to succeed in business, politics, and culture, isn't too far behind.

A Word of Caution: The n-word has been bandied about in this thread, and we've allowed it so far, because it was used academically to demonstrate a point that could not have been made without its use. However, the point having been so made, it is no longer necessary to re-quote, or use it again - lest staff become suspicious that the poster has some agenda other than enlightenment, in mind.

A word, to the wise, is sufficient.

Please, be wise. :bow:

[Sir Moody]

Am I the only one who feels that some people in this thread are taking this at face value? it shouldnt be it looks like a case of black satire here - they were mocking the racial stereotypes that sadly still exist in our societies today despite the teachings of Martin Luther... I really think theres a serious knee jerk reaction when it comes to racism people dont stop and think about WHY the students would be doing this.