Jules --
I think that is a decent point and I know I'm as guilty of it as anyone in this thread. I think things got more heated than they needed to be.
BUT
In my opinion, this is not okay. If a group of people says, "Hey, this thing that you guys did really hurt us," and you say, "I don't really care how you feel about it, I'll do what I want to do, and by the way, you're overreacting so just stop whining and shut up about it" -- that is not okay. You can't do that and still claim that you're trying to live up to the ideals of your organization, because you're not. Hurting people and being selfish are not the ideals any of our GLOs were founded upon, and the thing that blows my mind is that this is something that would be so easy to fix! Just avoid mixers with derogatory ethnic themes and we'd all be fine. Is it really that hard to do a naughty schoolgirls mixer instead of pimps and hoes?
If this was another situation apart from race, would people have reacted this way? If a fraternity was promoting negative stereotypes about women, about religion, about whatever . . . and people were getting offended, we would have blasted the fraternity for being an insult to the Greek world. Why is it different with race?
I think race is such a touchy subject in the Greek world and especially on GC that BOTH sides tend to blow things out of proportion.
This is one of those things that looks horrible for the Greek system. Because even if you (general you, not you personally
) don't see it as being selfish, dismissive of other people's feelings and experiences, and hurtful -- there are many outside of the Greek system (and in it!) that do. And we can't continue to call ourselves the creme de la creme of the college crop if we do things that we know are hurtful. That's why so many anti-Greeks keep citing the hypocrisy of the Greek system.
Unfortunately, because of our history, we have to be exceptionally PC -- sometimes to the extreme -- and especially when it comes to race. It's no different than our hazing or drinking rules. It's just that race is a much touchier subject than hazing or drinking.
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