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A confrontation over race at Yale

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philz

Member
I know US race relations are a prominent point of discussion on PolitiGAF and this topic caught my attention.

Original article: A confrontation over race at Yale: Hundreds of students demand answers from the school’s first black dean

Cliff's Notes of the situation:
  • Associate master of Silliman College (one of 12 Yale residential communities) sends a blast email addressing Halloween costumes basically saying that you shouldn't tell an 8-year-old white girl she can't dress up as Mulan for Halloween. Also says that her husband would tell you that if a costume offends you, you should basically deal with it (look away or talk to the person about your issue). Link
  • Dipshit SAE frat boy(s) apparently institutes a "white girls" only policy at a party.
  • Associate Master's husband (who also happens to be the college master and is the Nicholas mentioned in the quote below) is publicly confronted by an angry Yale student and the interaction is caught on video. Link
  • Yale's first black dean comes under the spotlight for not doing enough and being vocal enough about addressing racism on campus.
Highlight from the article
“I don’t, actually, trust myself to foist my Halloweenish standards and motives on others. I can’t defend them anymore than you could defend yours,” wrote Christakis, a lecturer at the Yale Child Study Center and the wife of Nicholas Christakis, a sociologist and physician and the master of Silliman College. “Nicholas says, if you don’t like a costume someone is wearing, look away, or tell them you are offended. Talk to each other. Free speech and the ability to tolerate offence are the hallmarks of a free and open society.”
 

FelixOrion

Poet Centuriate
Lol SAE, the same dipshit organization whose University of Oklahoma chapter got shitcanned for racist chants.
 

Damerman

Member
Yo... Some people have absolutely no sense of professionalism. What gives you the right to yell at someone like that with all those profanities? What a fucking brat.
 

UFO

Banned
I don't get it.

I don't understand what the fratboys did has to do with what the associate master said, and I don't get why the girl was so angry at the guy in video for what basically boils down to accepting free speech.
 

wenis

Registered for GAF on September 11, 2001.
What the hell is going on. I understand diddly squat about what's going on.
 

Surface of Me

I'm not an NPC. And neither are we.
I don't get it.

I don't understand what the fratboys did has to do with what the associate master said, and I don't get why the girl was so angry at the guy in video for what basically boils down to accepting free speech.

Yeah this whole thing seems weird.
 

tbm24

Member
Would love to know what compelled that girl enough to think she has a right to yell at a grown man you're seemingly seeking answers from to be quiet.
 
Would love to know what compelled that girl enough to think she has a right to yell at a grown man you're seemingly seeking answers from to be quiet.
Because people think their feelings matter.

I used to want there to be some limits on free speech but after seeing all this whiny bullshit I don't.
 
The article says it's about race but it really seems to be a speech debate. Well, actually, the frat thing is super racist, but judging by the comments most people only really care about the speech thing.
 

Guileless

Temp Banned for Remedial Purposes
For all I know this frat is as racist as Bull Conner, but the allegation is based on a Facebook post which was based on a text that a friend of the Facebook poster got. So anonymous person sends text to another anonymous person, who tells Ms. Githere who is now on the record with The Daily Beast, and she posts about it on Facebook. And it is national news. If I were a pragmatic racist, I would be heartened that the nation's future ruling class is so easily distracted by trivialities.

But from speaking with Githere on Monday morning, before her post led to a series of national news stories, The Daily Beast heard an account that complicates the “white girls only” version of the Halloween party.


The Daily Beast asked Githere, who was not at the Halloween party, how she heard the “white girls only” allegation. Githere said she was with a group of friends—specifically, she noted, women of color. One of her friends had received a text about the party. According to Githere, a friend of hers then turned to her to remind her they experienced the same reaction from SAE.


“My friend said that had completely happened to us. I remembered and realized the same thing happened to us,” Githere said.




Githere explained that she had forgotten until then that a similarly racist incident occurred at an SAE party a year earlier when she was a freshman.


“Early in our freshman year, me, my friend, and two other people were attempting to go into the party. We heard someone say there were already too many black girls in the crowd,” Githere said, and added that “a lot of my memory is blurred because I was drunk.”
 
I don't get the Mulan part. Was someone telling an 8 year old girl to not be Mulan? Or were they saying she could be Mulan?

Who the fuck would get angry over an 8 year old girl wearing a Mulan costume?
 

jurgen

Member
"It is not about creating an intellectual space! It is not! Do you understand that? It’s about creating a home here! You are not doing that. You’re going against that.”

That was the quote that did me in. What's the point of college?
 
As far as I see it the people that tell a white girl not to dress up as Mulan are basically telling that girl "Don't idolize people of colour because you are only allowed to admire white people".
21st century "progressives" have a backwards way of viewing reality and realizing the positive change they supposedly preach.
 

Stet

Banned
As far as I see it the people that tell a white girl not to dress up as Mulan are basically telling that girl "Don't idolize people of colour because you are only allowed to admire white people".
21st century "progressives" have a backwards way of viewing reality and realizing the positive change they supposedly preach.

Who's telling an 8-year-old white girl she can't be Mulan?
 
Who's telling an 8-year-old white girl she can't be Mulan?

Political correctness? There's nothing wrong with dressing up as Mulan but there is a problem with dressing up as a Chinese woman. I guess some people can't separate the two though.

I personally feel that there's nothing wrong with dressing up as anybody for Halloween as long as it isn't uncomfortable for others. It should be a celebration of pop culture but not necessarily culture in general.

EDIT: Jesus, that girl in the video. Nobody's making progress when you're yelling at people who are considerate of your cause. Outrage is such a waste of energy.
 
As far as I see it the people that tell a white girl not to dress up as Mulan are basically telling that girl "Don't idolize people of colour because you are only allowed to admire white people".
21st century "progressives" have a backwards way of viewing reality and realizing the positive change they supposedly preach.

Just like how there's a long history of whites going blackface, there's a long history of yellowface. Not to mention cultural appropriation. So yeah, context kinda matters.
 

Zoe

Member
Just like how there's a long history of whites going blackface, there's a long history of yellowface. Not to mention cultural appropriation. So yeah, context kinda matters.

Guess Disney shouldn't bother making any costumes for Moana then.
 
That letter was TL;DR but from a rudimentary skim of it, it basically says 'aww you're offended? Piss off.'
Then that lady wanted to play victim to get attention over something that really has nothing to do with her as she wasn't dressed up as mulan.
And the Dean is black, as if that somehow matters?

That's what I got out of all of this, and my conclusion?

University fees are too cheap if they let in riff raff like that who shout and swear at somebody not doing anything.
 
"It is not about creating an intellectual space! It is not! Do you understand that? It’s about creating a home here! You are not doing that. You’re going against that.”
I don't think she understand what the point of college is.
 
I don't think she understand what the point of college is.

Contemporary racial and gender studies seem to have come somewhat to the conclusion that the only way in which college can be a "truly" intellectually challenging environment is if they actively work to make them safe spaces for women and minorities, because women and minorities are the ones that need the increased legitimacy a college can provide, women and minorities are the ones proselytizing politics that challenge the status quo and don't need to be challenged in the same way because their very life is a challenge, and absolute free speech favors those who already have power and prevents non-powerful voices from gaining any ground.

Note that I despise the "safe space" movement, but those are the main points that I have seen consistently made.
 
I'm sorry but the OP is confusing me. It's just awkwardly written. Can somebody give me a good rundown what is going on?


edit: so to get the picture, white girl dressed up as Mulan, it's offensive, people demand yale's black dean does a push over racism?

Was she wearing 'yellow face' as others have pointed here? Or did she only wear the oufit?

Mulan's a kick ass movie.
 

spwolf

Member
As far as I see it the people that tell a white girl not to dress up as Mulan are basically telling that girl "Don't idolize people of colour because you are only allowed to admire white people".
21st century "progressives" have a backwards way of viewing reality and realizing the positive change they supposedly preach.

indeed... i am a bit confused about all of this. Also about students asking dean why do they call heads of college "master"? Is that racist?

Another student, Dianne Lake, tied anger over the Halloween e-mail to recent debate about the title “master” used for the heads of the school’s residential colleges, asking: “Why do Yale students call these administrators master? The world is watching.”
 
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