'Song Of The South' Showing By Rutgers Student Prompts Demand For Apology

[knight_shadow]

The graduate community at a New Jersey college is asking university officials to step in and publicly confront a racist occurrence on campus. Students at Rutgers University are outraged by an email, sent by a fellow peer, inviting them to a screening of a racist movie and the administration's lack of response, Jezebel reports.

Members of the "Race, Ethnicity and Inequality in Education," class in the Graduate School of Education received an email from a student hosting a viewing party of "Song of the South," the 1946 movie produced by Walt Disney that has been criticized for it's portrayal of blacks during the Reconstruction Era. It was the student's message and not the movie, however, that deeply disturbed the community.

According to a student letter published in The Daily Targum, the school's newspaper, in the email the student invited "her fellow non-racist racists" to a private, guilt-free screening of the film in her home. She characterized herself as a "ragtime/minstrel loving fool," and encouraged recipients to bring spirits, saying "if you do come, hooch is most welcome, as are strawhats and other Darkeyisms. I might even buy a watermillyum if I get enough interest." She also advised guests to be aware of bringing friends along because "I might yell racist things at the TV."

link

------------

Thoughts?

I don't know why they are expecting an apology from the school, as this email was initiated by an individual student showing the film on her own time.