A sorority at Colombia University is facing criticism after organizing
an Olympic-themed party in which members of the organization- Kappa Alpha Theta-
represented various racial groups by wearing racially stereotypical costumes. When
“representing” Mexico, members of the sorority dawned sombrous, fake mustaches,
sets of maracas, and in one case, a bottle of tequila. The party made headlines
after pictures of the event were posted on various social media outlets by the
partygoers themselves.
The party held by the Kappa Alpha Theta marks one of many
racially-themed parties held by predominantly upper-class Caucasians Greek life
organizations on US college campuses. While reading this story, a few questions
came to mind: What is the driving motivation behind hosting/attending a party that
seemingly has the sole purpose of offending a marginalized group of people? Do
the attendees post the pictures online in hopes that it will bring attention to
their organization based off of shock value? Also, would these kinds of stories
be news worthy headlines had the attendees not been predominantly Caucasian?
The latter question makes one think of the 2002 comedy film “How
High,” in which one of the supporting characters is an Asian exchange student
that befriends the two African American protagonists due to his liking for
hip-hop music, baggy wardrobe, and usage of Ebonics. The movie was a
nation-wide hit, yet many seemed to ignore that an Asian character used stereotypical
tropes in order to be accepted into the black culture. The simple reasoning to
this could be attributed to lack of political correctness being placed on a
comedy- but if so, why isn’t the same logic applied to the Caucasian students
in the Kappa Alpha Theta case? How High
has been syndicated on cable channels for over 10 years without having to be
edited for its racial insensitivity. Kappa Alpha Theta has released photos of
their racially-themed parties for less than a week and many are already calling
for the sorority to be suspended.
That’s one side of the argument. On the flip side, many can
note that Caucasians generally have had (and arguably still do) an upper hand
in the socioeconomic sense. Seeing privileged Caucasian college students at an Ivy
League school mock racial groups that face disadvantages in the United States
(with an addition to being historically oppressed by Caucasians) can be seen as
social insensitivity, rather than humorous.
As a minority, an incident such as this instinctively
irritates me. Not just from a racial standpoint, but also in terms of what
people find amusing. There’s been countless of incidents of racially-themed
parties that were intended to be funny. At this point, for me at least, it’s less
offensive and more just incidents of hacky humor. Perhaps certain critics
(including myself) would be less inclined to condemn these types of parties if
the means of portraying a group of people aren’t the exact same lackluster
renditions of played-out stereotypes that have been seen/done in incalculable
amount of times. Then again, if the party goers had the comedic wits to think
outside of the racial box, they probably wouldn’t be attending these parties to
begin with.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/02/24/columbia-sorority-party-offensive-olympics_n_4847827.html?utm_hp_ref=college
