Quote:
Originally Posted by DeltaBetaBaby
A staff member sent out an email saying not to do racist costumes. The professor responded that the staff member's request was PC gone amok and racist costumes are cool.
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This is a flippant misrepresentation of what was actually written. Whether or not you disagree with the sentiment of the e-mail (and I can see where there are many people who would disagree with what was
actually said), this is incorrect.
Her thesis was more or less summed up here:
"And the censure and prohibition [referring to the school administrator's mandate of what is appropriate and what is not] come from above, not from yourselves! Are we all okay with this transfer of power? Have we lost faith in young people’s capacity – in your capacity – to exercise self-censure, through social norming, and also in your capacity to ignore or reject things that trouble you?"
Essentially she was voicing her concerns that a) this was a "top down" demand from the institution, not a grass roots movement among the students themselves, and b) that in doing such, the administration was negating young people's abilities to determine for themselves what was appropriate, as well as have an intelligent discussion within their own community about what was troubling them (on either side of the spectrum).
In addition, she seemed to be trying to start a discourse on the specific holiday, and at what point the "fantasy" element starts to blur into appropriation. From reading this article, I got the impression that this woman would not tolerate, say, blackface, but is trying to grapple with the issue of intent for a costume (for example, mentioning if a student wanted to dress up as a character from a different race, in this case Mulan or Tiana, why do we accept that from children but not from young adults?).
I'm not sure I agree with everything she had to say, but calling for a resignation for this woman and her husband for simply articulating her viewpoint on a matter?
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