If someone makes fun of slavery, I'm not going to turn the other cheek. If an atheist makes fun of the Crusifiction, you think Christians are going to take it tongue and cheek. If someone makes fun of the Holocaust, will it be taken tongue and cheek by Jews. Maybe the frat wasn't making fun of slavery specifically, but don't tell me that I shouldn't be offended about a joke about slavery, unless someone is actually trying to enslave me, that's a stupid and insulting argument.
I agree slavery was terrible. However, let's get the facts straight. Most slaves were captured by other black tribes in Africa and sold to the whites. Also, at some point in history, everyone has been enslaved, whether it is ancient Egypt, Mongolia, or Germania, all people have been enslaved at some point. I agree slavery jokes are very tasteless, however, people have a right to be a$$holes in this country...black or white. Plus, slavery was over 137 years ago, and I don't know anyone that was a slave, or anyone that owned a slave. Except for me, who is a slave to my wife, but that is a whole other story..... DD
Just like everyone has a right to be an ******* in this country, everyone else has the right to call them out on it. Also, all of my bias (mostly gone now) against frats is directly related to the KKKA at SWT.
Look, I am not trying to bring slavery into this to make everyone's eyes watery. Somethings shouldn't be made fun of. As far as this ancient slavery argument, I know people who knew slaves, so it wasn't as long ago as some people like to say. Granite these people are well into their eighties are even nineties, the whole everyone has been enslaved argument is another ridiculous one because most people can't trace their ancesterory as far back as to the ancient Egypt time period. And as far as your argument about Africans selling their own people, does that justify the brutality of American slavery?
Pgabrial, Slavery happened. It was terrible, no doubt. However, it happened over 137 years ago. That is ancient history as much as the rest of them. It is time for us to move on. DD
I'm not saying its not time to move on, I said it shouldn't be made fun of. And its not ancient history like ancient Egypt. Slavery has reprecussions on today's society just as much as the American Revolution, the Declaration of Independence, any significant invention in the past two hundered years, etc. There are no reprecussions today from slavery in ancient Egypt 3000 years ago. Its a stupid argument.
well pgabriel will be happy to hear that the KA's are probably gonna get kicked off for this instance. it's unfortunate however because they are definately not the only fraternity to throw parties like this, in fact, i'd say most fraternities throw functions like this all the time. it has nothing to do w/ being racist, and everything to do with having a good time and dressing up like rap stars (and girls dressing up like hoochies ).
Look, not to keep this thred going, but A) The way it was reported in the Chronicle made it sound maybe worse than it was. I thought reading it, the whole chain and lock and Juneteenth shirt, made it sound like they were making fun of slavery. B) Even if it was in fun and jest, no one should paint their bodies black to mock any group of blacks, including rap stars. The painting of bodies has a lot of negative historical connotations attached to it that should be avoided ALL OF THE TIME. You want to make fun of rappers, I have no problem, but these guys still should have been smarter. I thought the average non-black person would know that painting yourself black is ALWAYS offensive if it is meant to portray a black person. So for you guys who didn't know, now you know, and knowing is half the battle.
Actually, I see the white comedians on BET do the same thing. There just aren't that many of them. Not saying it's right, just that it's done by everybody.
This thread is just a rehash of some of the same ignorance that robbie, yourself, and others have spouted before but your posts are still, whether intentionally or not, incredibly condescending. Let's get facts straight. If I kidnapped your kids and sold them to a foreigner to rape, murder, breed, and enslave does it really mean anything or lessen American slavery to say that Americans might have raped and enslaved them but Africans kidnapped them? Do you realize how stupid that sounds? Secondly, the focus on American slavery was much more so on skin color than other cases of slavery you're speaking of. In other societies it was possible to gain your freedom from slavery and rejoin society as an equal member. This was not the case in the United States and in fact even despite the abolishment of slavery we've spent the last 137 years trying to integrate blacks as equal members of American society. So when you talk about "at some point in time, everyone has been enslaved" you're really not understanding what made American slavery so much more cruel and problematic for the future of America. It's particularly annoying when I see you and others say time to move on when you really don't have a damn clue about what you're trying to move on from. 137 years later and we're here talking about fraternities dressing up in black face, MLK's statue being egged on his birthday, and Trent Lott talking about "all these problems" we could have avoided by electing a man running on a segragationist platform. Time to move on? What the hell ever.
Timing, We have been over this before. Slavery = Bad 137 years = Long Time Are people insensitive, you bet. Is it illegal, nope. People that do things to others based soley on skin color are ignorant. I think basing ANYTHING on skin color just compounds the problem, and this included Affirmative Action. Meritocracy is the only thing that truly works, IMHO. Whenever you forceably integrate or help one race, you invariably hurt another, and that is just not right. Race should be taken off of every single employee form in the world, it just doesn' t matter. DD
This doesn't surprise me one bit.. all the KA's I knew while I was at UT were truly racist. My frat house was right next to theirs and they have parties like this all the time. One party they even hired a black guy to dress like a slave a pick cotton.
I work with a bunch of KAs and they seem like OK guys. Sure, I can imagine them being pricks and I know that I'll never "party" with them, but that seems like a mutually understood thing. I frankly don't care. BTW, Jeb jr (half-Hispanic) is currently a KA at UT.
Yeah, Affirmative Action is as bad as slavery You know why people get so upset at your posts, they are typical blaming black people for all the racial problems in this country. If you want to argue about affirmative action on the merit of it being unconstitutional, I will engage that argument, but when you imply that blacks cause racial tension in this country, that's down right insulting. Just like this thread, I didn't tell these idiots to throw this party, its insulting to most blacks, it was reported in the chronicle, yet you imply its black people's fault that the party caused so much trouble. Don't tell me to move on, when I wasn't the idiot who through this party, that they should've known would be insulting. The fraternity is the group that needs to move on.
