please tell me i am missing something. if anyone knows...was the skeleton that offensive? is it the fact that white people were dressed up as ghetto? and what is the deal with the guy who wants to pursue legal action? there was no crime. maybe he will start suing rappers next....or maybe he can sue paul wall since he is white. http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061031/ap_on_re_us/hopkins_halloween_party Frat suspended over 'Hood' party BALTIMORE - Johns Hopkins University has suspended the Sigma Chi fraternity because of a "Halloween in the Hood" party that drew protests by black students. The invitation to the party, posted on the Web site Facebook, encouraged guests to wear "regional clothing from our locale" with jewelry including "bling bling ice ice, grills" and "hoochie hoops." The party, held Saturday night at the fraternity house, featured a skeleton pirate hanging on a noose. Black Student Union members protested the party on Monday, saying the appearance of the image and the language on the invitation highlighted racial tensions at Hopkins and the strained relations between the university and the surrounding community. Protesters held signs showing a historical lynching next to a picture of the fraternity's skeleton. "We need to educate the student body because apparently some people weren't given much of a proper lesson in the history of our country," said Yasmene Mumby, 20, a junior and BSU member. University officials suspended all the fraternity's activities pending a full investigation. President William Brody said in a statement that he was "personally offended" and called the matter "deeply disturbing." Sigma Chi's international headquarters on Monday also ordered the chapter's operations suspended for 45 days and said a full investigation was under way. It said further disciplinary action was possible. "We are naturally very concerned about these allegations, and are committed to holding every one of our members accountable to our fraternity's values of friendship, justice and learning," Mark Anderson, executive secretary of Sigma Chi, said on the fraternity's Web site. More than 100 students attended a campus forum Monday night before a panel of top administrators. Three men who identified themselves as Sigma Chi members stood up during the meeting and apologized for the actions of the author of the invitation, calling it shameful. Marvin "Doc" Cheatham, president of the Baltimore branch of the NAACP, said he intends to explore legal action against both the fraternity and the university.
Were the greeks offended by the toga parties? And skeletons hanging by a noose? Hello - it's halloween. I like to think I'm sensitive but I just don't see it. {Ready to repent from those that see what I don't.}
A toga's a toga, no big deal. A prop of a lynching with a "hood" connatation brings up a brutal history of Black injustice in the not too distant past of this country.
I always wonder with these types of stories how many of the students that were offended knew of it beforehand and if they attempted to discuss their problems with those hosting the party or just wished to let it happen so they could get press for it later. I have a similar problem with the recent 'ghetto fab' party held at UT Law.
that's what i thought at first...but if you re-read it you will see the prop of the lynching was held up by people protesting the frat.
I knew an African-American woman at Sam Houston State that dressed up for a Halloween contest at 17th Street Bar as a KKK member, white hood and all. I was walking around listening to some of the white guys go man that dude has balls for wearing that. Then when she took off the hood they were like "holy ****".
Just as long as it was the prophet Mohammad. We don't need video of that hitting YouTube and setting the world into riot mode.
I know, these guys were thinking too hard. They should stick to jumping off apartment roofs into pools, throwing pool balls at each others testicles and trying to get young co-eds drunk so they can have sex with them.
But no so far from Dartmouth. Intelligence and common sense do not go hand in hand, as evidenced in this forum .....
As a Hopkins grad, I can tell you that the atmosphere on that campus is probably one of the more liberal ones you'll find in the United States. Even the supposed 'white' frats, where one might expect to find prejudice/ignorance lurking under the surface, are suprisingly open to people of different backgrounds. Hell, everyone at Hopkins is either Jewish, Asian, or somewhere in between. Obviously the 'ghetto' party or whatever was in bad taste but there's nothing racial about a pirate skeleton on a noose.
I think you missed something: The protestors probably showed it on the signs next to a lynching to point out the historical implication.
Oh and BTW, the "lynched pirate skeleton"? Sigma Chi's frat 'symbol' is a skull and crossbones. So much for that. And AFAIK, Hopkins was offered membership into the Ivy's but declined due to the cost of bringing most of its sports programs up to par. Aside from Lacrosse, most of Hopkins sports teams are clubs or DIII. And most Hopkins students could have easily gotten into many Ivy schools due to their stats but chose Hopkins anyways.
Just to clear this up again, liberal does not equal not racist. Some of the most racist people I've known were the most liberal out there as well. Both sides have people who are so strikingly racist it's pretty sickening. Again, though, I don't see a problem with this party.
