I agree.

In my opinion, if we want true equality, we should be blind to ALL races - that includes whites. There shouldn't be parties making fun of any race - even if the race isn't a minority. Those who are white aren't deserving of comments such as DeltaBetaBaby's.

There are lots of themes that can be done for parties without offending anyone.

I'll tell you and whether you listen is up to you. I think the Asian Student Association looks about as dumb as the Kappa Sigmas at this point.

THIS.

This is what always surprises me when stuff like this happens. One would think that if there is any slight chance of a group finding a theme offensive, they would go for another idea. There's got to be TONS of themes out there!

What I have learned with regard to these party themes and such is that those of us who have seen these sorts of incidents and their aftermath and the outrage these things can generate, most of your current active college students haven't the foggiest idea. Many of our organizations are cliquish and insular and in some places very racially segregated.

Those of us who advise have the institutional knowledge to understand why a "Border Crossing" party can go from a fun time being had by all to being the subject of a grand inquisition led by the University's chapter of La Raza. Our collegians don't have that knowledge or experience.

I was recently reviewing the paperwork required to register an organized social event with the University. It requires student orgs to answer whether this event has any kind of racial or cultural theme because what your group thinks is a harmless party where folks dress up in silly costumes might trigger a race war on your campus.

What exactly has the Asian Student Association done that's an over-reaction? So far as I can tell from the news reports, the sequence of events had been something like this:

• Eta Prime planned the party, which apparently it hosted for many years while it was an unrecognized local;
• The email invitation for "Asia Prime" went out;
• Other students saw the email, and the Center for Multicultural Affairs filed a bias complaint with the Duke Office of Fraternity and Sorority Life;
• As a result of that bias complaint, Duke officials encouraged Eta Prime to cancel the party, but the chapter instead sent out a new invitation which renamed the party "International Relations";
• After the party, pictures were posted on Facebook by various people;
• After seeing the pictures, a group of students -- both Asian and non-Asian, and including the president of the Asian Student Association -- posted fliers around campus condemning the party, which they labeled #RacistRanger;
• Eta Prime organized a group to go around campus and remove the fliers;
• The group of students, who said they were acting on their own and not on behalf of any organization, put up some new fliers and engaged in social media responses.
• Those same student announced a rally at 1:00 PM on Wednesday in a central location on campus;
• That same day, Kappa Sig HQ suspended the chapter;
• The Asian Student Association co-hosted an "open discussion" with Duke Student Government. It also forwarded some of the fliers to people on its listserve.

The flier campaign did indeed receive criticism because it included pictures of people who hadn't planned the party. From the ASA's statement:

Due to recent events surrounding the Kappa Sigma party, the executive board of the Asian Students Association believes it is necessary to re-iterate our stance and the actions we have undertaken in response to the party. In fact, the ASA was the first student group to react to Kappa Sigma’s party by sponsoring an open discussion event.

However, the ASA did not participate in the flyering of campus, nor did we host the rally that happened on Wednesday. Our president, Ting-Ting Zhou, was involved in the flyering and played a part in organizing the rally but did so as a concerned student and not in her capacity as president of the ASA. Indeed, these actions were taken by individual students who were outraged at the premise of the party, and they have demonstrated great courage and initiative in raising campus awareness. To attribute these actions to the ASA is not only false, but it also ignores the important role of student activists in bringing this discussion to the larger Duke community. . . .

As the Asian Students Association, our mission includes voicing the political, social and cultural interests of Asian students at Duke. While we do not presume to speak for all of the Asian students at Duke, we believe it is our duty as representatives to condemn acts of injustice like the party. If you believe that we have exceeded our capacity, or otherwise disagree, please feel free to voice your concerns. We welcome an open discussion, so please email any concerns to . . . .

Relevant to what DBB said above about context and other recent events at Duke, these quotes reported in The Chronicle, the campus newspaper, by students who did participate in posting the fliers and planning the rally seem relevant:

“This is not just about Asians, one party or one frat,” Tsai said. “This is a consistent thing happening. We want serious things to be done by the student body and the University so that this never happens again.”

. . .

“Every year something like this happens. The frats apologize and then the next weekend it happens again,” Zhang said. “I hope that this time people can really be thoughtful and honest and try to come up with a lasting solution to racism and sexism here.”

So I'm not sure why the ASA should look dumb at this point.


And I'll say again, as one fairly familiar with the campus culture at Duke, that any ignorance on the part of Eta Prime would almost have to be wilfull ignorance -- especially since they had discussions with Duke officials about it before the party.

They want action punished simply because they are offended--possibly placing the academic careers of some other students in jeopardy. They want the power to control others based on their belief that an apology is apparently not enough.

And yes, calling a party where people play dress up an "act of injustice," is IMHO, over the top.

Where has the Asian Student Association called for punishments that could affect any academic careers? I haven't seen reports of any calls for action from the ASA beyond calls for conversations with the goal of minimizing instances of racial insensitivity on campus. The most I have seen punishment-wise has been individual students suggesting that the chapter had placed its charter in jeopardy.

Maybe -- they're not words I would choose, because I don't think injustice is the right word. Again though, context matters. And part of the context is that I think what they were calling an "act of injustice" was not just "a party where people play dress up," but a party that the chapter was already on notice was perceived as racially insensitive. It's kind of hard to take an apology seriously that basically says "now that we know how this offended people, we're sorry," when they were told beforehand how people already were offended and went ahead anyway.

And speaking of context, if you're going to cite the "act of injustice" comment, you have to acknowledge that immediately after that comment, they said "If you believe that we have exceeded our capacity, or otherwise disagree, please feel free to voice your concerns. We welcome an open discussion."

From your quote:

Admittedly, this didn't come from the ASA, but rather some apparent pamphleteer. I did a little reading about the water buffalo incident at Duke. If you don't recall, I linked a wiki article above Apparently being racially insensitive is a very serious student conduct violation. There were also lawsuits based on retaliatory behavior by faculty against members of the LaCrosse team following that whole boondoggle.

Asking for "serious things" to happen doesn't require a lot of speculation to lead one to think they are suggesting the University seriously sanction anyone deemed to have offended someone else.

And if it was racially insensitive, so freaking what? Asians make up 22% of the undergrad student body at Duke. You can't tell me that they felt threatened or marginalized or anything of that nature. It boils down to the fact that some students didn't like what Kappa Sigma did. Kappa Sigma is free to do what it wants internally (I'll bet they're restored as soon as this blows over), but what I'm seeing here is a lot of overreaction and very poor crisis management by the fraternity--you never do yourself favors by removing flyers.

I think his statement is very well worded. It attempts to refute just about any criticism one could have of the ASA's actions. That they say they don't intend to speak on behalf of 22% of Duke's student body is fine, but folks aren't going to perceive it that way. Kappa Sigma didn't intend to represent Duke's Greek community when it threw its party, but folks aren't going to perceive it that way.

And I mean, very clearly, some folks' attitude about this is this is less than wanting an open discussion.

And here's a quote from the rally of several hundred people (not an overreaction?)

She may feel that way, but that's certainly not anyone but her fault. If that's how she wants to interpret and internalize some grown men and women dressing in adult diapers and bathrobes, that's fine.

My family's experience in coming here from Europe wasn't a lot different than her family from China. On my dad's side, they were Irish, it was the late 1880s and they homesteaded in Northwest Oklahoma after coming over the Atlantic with nothing more than they could carry. Not only did they relocate to a place where civilization was far away, they were also Irish, thus, except among their own kind, they were outcasts. Go ahead and throw a party somehow making fun of Irish immigrants, or do as many children in Oklahoma do--reenact the land run on '89er day (my family did participate in the land run of the Cherokee Outlet). Think I'd consider that offensive or be reasonable if I did?

Oy.

Oh, is this another thread where we pretend there is no such thing as white privilege? Sorry, sometimes I get confused and think people who are educated enough to be members of a GLO are also capable of some sort of self-reflection.

who said they get approval OVER other organizations? they chose to protest a cause they felt was just. just like any other organization. i have yet to insinuate that they speak for all asians. they speak for their organization. there may be a group such as "asians for whites dressing as gieshas" that may be completely cool about this party. if they are, they should come out and do a counter protest.

you can demand whatever you want, whether or not it occurs is a different matter. free speech works both ways. don't get mad for being called a bigot when you say or do something that makes you look like a bigot.

just because asians en masse don't have to worry about getting pulled over or getting denied a home loan, doesn't mean that it's cool to run around saying stuff like herro or dressing like a sumo wrestler.

Right, so it doesn't support what you keep saying about how the ASA is making itself look dumb. (And it is hardly specific about the action desired.) So, that quote isn't evidence of your allegations.

Read more carefully next time. The water buffalo incident was at Penn, not Duke. So again, no evidence of your allegations.

I'm very familiar with the Duke Lacrosse fiasco. It started when criminal charges (rape) were brought against the players by the DA. Comparing this incident to the lacrosse case is comparing apples to pumpkins. Citing it would only be relevant if faculty took similar actions against Eta Prime. Any evidence that ASA is advocating that? I sure haven't seen any.

Context Kevin, context. The statement is that they want serious things to be done by the student body and the University because things like this keep happening. Given that a student body has no power to discipline, and given the other quotes and statements calling for conversation and changes in attitude and understanding, it takes less speculation to read the "serious things" statements as a call for conversations that will change campus culture than it does to read them as calls for University sanctions.

Again, statements of one person =/= statements of an organization, and 700 students at a rally =/= do not equal actions of an organization that didn't plan or sponsor the rally. And while we're at it, one rally =/= "day after day" of protest.

(And to set the record straight, the only demand that I saw in the Chronicle report where anyone said an organization should be disbanded was where a freshman said the ASA should be disbanded.)


Good grief Kevin. If you want to think there's overreacting going on, fine. Certainly one can discuss whether other means of protest might have been more effective or appeared more (or less) reasonable. And we get that you want to characterize this as just college kids playing dress up, even though the reports, including the statement of the president of Eta Prime, all indicate that there is more to it than that.

But your efforts to castigate those who are offended by lumping them all together (as "the ASA") and accusing them of overreacting based on nothing more than your own assumptions and biases is transparently feckless. And frankly, your pronouncement that no one has any reason to be offended to begin with just comes off as jackassism.

This is funny...

If white people make fun of Asians, and Asians get upset, we say they're overreacting.

If white people make fun of Blacks, and Blacks get upset, we scream Racism!

I would love to know how people would react if they wore black face paint and ate chicken and watermelon.

It's okay to say the "C" word but don't ever say the "N" word.
Asians are so sensitive...geez...

I love how Kevin the moderator is telling a bunch of Asians to stop being so sensitive.

I love when a non-minority tells minorities to stop being so sensitive.

I think the next party should be a Mexican party with border patrol cops and maids.