The problem is that it has an impact, regardless of her intent.

"Confused white people" is extremely kind, considering.

Your restraint is admirable, but unnecessary.

It's just the same as the "SigEps" at Ole Miss (or where ever they were) putting a noose around the black statue. Sure, the chapter itself didn't do it, but the chapter has a social responsibility to squash racism, hate speech, homophobia, etc. and remove that shit from its ranks.

And haven't we all been given the age-old lesson, "you're always wearing your letters" ????

ETA: That doesn't make it any better... Sure, white people have heard it in supposedly "non-racist" ways (nope), but we blacks get to hear it in racist, degrading ways from the mouths of non-blacks countless times in our lives. SO, until that's done, can't no white people say, write, or think about the n-word.

I am sure that James Meredith would be so honored by your respectfulness.

The Sig Ep chapter threw out the members that pulled that vile stunt immediately. Their charter was pulled & the chapter closed for other reasons. The incident with the noose brought closer scrutiny to the activities that they were already on probation for.

"The SigEp chapter threw out the members that pulled the vile stunt immediately." That is my point. The fact that they lost their charter over other issues was not. The fact that it was specifically a statue of James Meredith was not my point.

I'm certain you knew what point I was trying to make, but you got caught up in making sure I understood why one of my chapters was shut down. Don't worry. I am an active and involved Sigma Phi Epsilon. I know.

And it could have been a statue of James Meredith, Malcolm X, or even Cletus Brown who lives on Fenkell & Linwood. Again, the point was, chapter members did something racist. Even if they weren't "being SigEps" when they did it, the chapter should absolutely be concerned. As should the DG chapter be concerned about this cake.

Don't derail the thread trying to police me.

We could cut her (and her friends that made this cake and took the picture) some slack if she was 8 years old and didn't understand the difference. She is not 8. She is, however, egregiously stupid.

If a man had the equivalent regarding female anatomy on his cake, would you cluck and say "why do men want to demean themselves so?"

It's part of a song and no doubt a silly inside joke. To them it's like - if I would have had the cat from the Paula Abdul video on my cake. It doesn't mean I want to have sex with a cartoon cat.

https://i.ytimg.com/vi/xTqcj1u4zv8/mqdefault.jpg

Sweet Jesus..... :eek:

Typo, obviously. :rolleyes: AGAIN:

Well, yes, I would. We need to hold these YOUNG ADULTS to the expectations that vulgar references to anatomy or sexual acts aren't "cool", they're disgusting, despite "celebrities" who demonstrate otherwise.

The way you stated it in your post makes it sound like you think the act itself is demeaning.

I'm of Italian descent.

When I was in college (in the dark ages), my father was helping me move out one year and a male friend was helping me carry some heavy items out to the car. He was Romanian and we called each other Wop and Gypsy.

He was carrying a box and he yelled to me (paraphrasing), "Wop, wtf is in this g-d thing?!? Did you pick up every effing rock from the yard and put the MF-er in here?"

The point being that almost every other word out of his mouth was an expletive, but my dad only heard one-Wop. I've only seen my father come unglued on a few occasions in my life and that was one.

While I knew the history of the word (same with dago), it didn't have the emotional resonance to my generation that it did to my father's. His end point, "He doesn't get to use that word. And you don't get to call him Gypsy. Neither of you have the right."

There are things that simply require belonging to the group in question in order to have the right to say them, no matter how innocuous the intent.

Amen.

In the fashion of Joanie on Happy Days, when we were 9 -10 years old we called cute boys "hunks." My mother came UNGLUED the first time she heard that. She thought we meant "hunky" which was a pejorative for people of Hungarian descent.

I'm not familiar with that term as used for Hungarians but I am very well acquainted with Joanie and Chachi.

Now I'm feeling some classic tv nostalgia. Off to Netflix!