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In the aftermath of the "South of the Border" party, there's a lot to digest.
The basics seem clear - students living off-campus hosted a "South of the Border" theme party for Cinco de Mayo. Those in attendance were encouraged by a Facebook invitation to wear stereotypical Latino attire. Pictures of the party were posted on the Internet. The dress was offensive - students wearing gardener outfits, nametags were written with names like "Pedro" and "Jose" and a degrading Latino slur was written on the back of shirts.
The students photographed were smiling.
Simple enough, but there's a twist. A couple of the photographed students were Blue Hen Ambassadors. Some of the students were also members of the Honors fraternity Phi Sigma Pi. It certainly adds a dramatic flare, which explains why the story was covered not just by obvious outlets like The News Journal, but by local television stations Fox, CBS and ABC. With so much interest in a single incident, many may view this as nothing more than the media sensationalizing a story. Maybe so, but it does not change the fact there is a problem here.
Let's concede that the students involved were ignorant to the fact that their ill-conceived jokes were vile and hurtful. At first, this seemed hard to believe, as the students took the time to hand-write the derogatory slur on their outfits. However, after discussing the situation with one of the partygoers, her frank ignorance and dejected attitude made the argument seemingly genuine - which is truly the sad product of this fiasco. The real shocker is these students could have honestly just not realized what they were doing would offend anyone.
Yet there is some hope for optimism, judging by the campus reaction to the party. The Campus Alliance de La Raza, Phi Sigma Pi, President David P. Roselle, Lauren Boroski (the only student from the photographs to apologize in person) and the students who attended the town hall meeting last Wednesday should all be commended for their maturity in handling this difficult situation.
Although steps have been taken in the right direction (Phi Sigma Pi suspended the students in the pictures from the fraternity for a year), the race problem is not solved in the slightest, no matter how wonderful the university press releases sound. Students on this campus know better - parties like the "South of the Border" themed event happen here, and at other similar universities, all of the time.
At a university that is predominately Caucasian (according to the university Web site, the admitted Class of 2010 was 85 percent white), parties fueled by racial irony occur because those involved simply do not know any better. In an abundantly-white environment, the line between offensive and perceived humor is incredibly thin. The products of a middle class, suburban cul-de-sac community may not realize putting on blackface on Halloween to resemble rapper 50 Cent is overtly racist. They may not know the history of racist minstrel shows or that blackface symbolizes a caricature of black degradation and exploitation. For those students, the humor is in its absurdity and how could that hurt anyone?
But after this situation, it's clear racism hurts everyone, no matter how naive. Not only are the subjects of the jokes hurt, but the community's progression toward diversity is impeded as well. The "South of the Border" party is only an example of what occurs here, and now those involved are feeling the repercussions of unwanted martyrdom. But at least the kids throwing the "Bullets and Bubbly" party of pseudo-gang members wearing fake, gaudy chain necklaces can breathe easier. At least it wasn't them.
In the aftermath of the seemingly successful town hall meeting, both sides are calling for a healing process to begin. But for a college campus that was ranked in the top 5 in The Princeton Review for its apathy, it's conceivable to imagine this process taking place with a sweep under the rug. Suspending fraternity members is admirable and holding a town hall meeting displays maturity, but temporary solutions are merely reactions to a problem.
In order to start the healing, the university must take a more proactive stance in promoting diversity. A possible first step could include making another multicultural course mandatory - this one centralizing its subject on racism's history and effects.
Whether the university does this or not, this situation has made it apparent that more needs to be done, more eyes need to be opened and more understanding needs to be reached. And, sometimes, it takes the guidance of an institution to make it happen.
If not, then what we fear may come true - this experience could have been for nothing. Consider this: late last week, The Review received a flyer with the word "Hypocrites" across the top, and a picture from a La Raza Internet photo album was in the center. Two young women wearing sunglasses had their arms folded. The propaganda read "La Raza event mocks Black gangstas" - an obvious and futile attempt to spin the negativity to the Latino community. The flyer's author was anonymous, but the effect was clear - we all have an uphill climb ahead of us.
So let's start walking.
Wesley Case is the Editor in Chief for The Review. His viewpoints do not necessarily represent those of The Review staff. Please send comments to wescase@udel.edu.
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