White trick-or-treaters in blackface: C/D?

(Ally's post rather crushes mine.)

ANyway the best thing about the Randy Moss/Brandy Chastain thing was that the Mexican dude ran out and was like "THAT IS SO NOT MOSSOME!" and I was like wtf does that even mean? Real Randy Moss also squired an entire bottle of water all over Chastain. Really I'm not sure why people watch anything besides the shows that lead up to/immediately come after football games, because it's like there's no way anything that occurs in them makes sense.

that looks pretty great, written out: afro qua afro.

anyway it's like this one interview i read with kyp from tv on the radio where the interviewer (probably white) was all "how do you get your afro to look so good?" and kyp responded with something like "it's not an afro, it's a natural. next question."

Everybody knows that the dice are loaded
Everybody knows that the good guys lost
I like it,
I love it,
I can't get enough of it...

STOP THE MADNESS.

http://www.gothamist.com/archives/2004/08/26/kyp_malone_guitarist_tv_on_the_radio.php

Tell us about the afro.
I don?t have an afro. I wear my hair in a style called a natural. It?s what happens if you're black and you grow your hair long and don?t process it or braid it , I recommend it to anyone who has the genetic ability to rock it. It is a good barometer of who I need to take seriously in regards to their reaction towards it. It?s just fucking hair.

'I used to have to wash it every week,' she said. 'It was just too much.'

Second.... from the chicago tribune:

U. of C. gets rap for theme of party
White students' `thuggin' bash offends some blacks on campus and school is set to show why

By Jodi S. Cohen
Tribune higher education reporter
Published November 2, 2005

By all accounts, it was a boring party in a University of Chicago dorm, attended by fewer than 20 students who sat around listening to rap music and thinking they dressed the part.

But the gathering, called a "straight thuggin'" party, has sparked a campuswide debate about race relations on the Hyde Park campus, where about 4 percent of the undergraduate students are black.

The students at the party last month, none of whom were black, said their clothing--sideways baseball caps, gold chains and pants so low that their underwear showed--was not intended to mimic a particular race. One student wore handcuffs as he lifted a bottle wrapped in a brown paper bag. They listened to rap artists 50 Cent, Nelly and the Notorious B.I.G.

Yet fallout from the party has led U. of C. president Don Randel and other top administrators to call for an open meeting next week to discuss the campus atmosphere for minority students and staff and to ask faculty members to create programs about issues raised by the party. The president of the Hyde Park-Kenwood Community Conference plans to discuss the party's potential ramifications and the university's response at a meeting Thursday.

The fear, university officials and community members say, is that the party has reinforced the feelings of isolation that some African-American students said they already feel on a campus with relatively few black students. It also could undermine the progress that Randel has made in reaching out to largely poor and minority South Side communities that surround the university.

"The issues at stake ... are larger than this one distressing episode and raise questions about the campus climate for minority students, faculty and staff," Randel and other administrators wrote in a letter e-mailed to students last week.

`Ghetto' reference disputed

The party's theme, according to the letter, was offensive and "parodied racial stereotypes based on assumptions about economically disadvantaged members of society."

The Oct. 14 party, also referred to as a "ghetto" party, was held in a four-student suite in May House, a section of the Max Palevsky dorm. It began at about 10:30 p.m. and lasted an hour. Students talked and listened to music. Some drank beer, a violation of university policy.

The party--but not its theme--was registered with the resident heads of May House. If they had known about the theme, the party would not have been authorized, said Stephen Klass, a university vice president and dean of students.

The "straight thuggin'" gathering was the second in a series of theme parties at May House. The first party celebrated the '80s. The third, which never was held, would have focused on the '90s, said freshman Natasha Hodnett, one of the students who attended the party.

Katie Brookoff, one of the hosts, said the term "ghetto" wasn't used to describe the gathering.

But days before the party, as some freshmen were dressed in costume to take pictures to publicize the event, they stopped sophomore Eve Ewing, the only black student in May House.

"They said, `We are taking pictures for our ghetto party,'" Ewing said. "At that point, they were using the word ghetto. I don't know at what point the moniker changed. When they initially presented it, they did use that term."

After hearing about the party, about a half-dozen black students decided to check it out. They arrived too late, but ran into freshman Galen Simmons on their way to the suite. He said he told them that they "would have been the most thuggin' people there," and said he meant it as a compliment.

"It was meant to say that they had appropriate clothes for the theme of the party," said Simmons, of New York City. He said that "most of us were ignorant about how our comments or actions might be taken," and suggested that the university do a better job of teaching new students about racial tensions on campus and in the community.

Several black students said they were offended by the party and by pictures that temporarily were posted on a Web site.

`No bad intentions'

"I was just totally flabbergasted," said sophomore Kristiana Colon of Chicago, who graduated from Whitney Young High School in Chicago. "If that is what they think hip-hop looks like or black people look like, that is a serious problem."

Colon, one of the students who showed up late to the party, also found it offensive that a group of mostly whites would romanticize a "thug" culture.
Hodnett said "there were no bad intentions at all" and the party was intended to imitate pop culture, not objectify a group of people.

"In our opinions, be they ignorant or not, everyone thought that it was a cross-culture thing and it was more mocking MTV culture and dressing up in baggy clothes and listening to rap or hip-hop music," said Hodnett, of Palatine. "We are being used as guinea pigs and being used to make a statement about the racial dynamics on campus."

Klass, the dean of students, would not say whether any students faced disciplinary action, but Brookoff said they hadn't. He said the party has sparked a needed discussion, to be held Tuesday at Hutchinson Commons, about how to improve the campus climate for minorities.

There are relatively few black students at U. of C. compared to the nearby neighborhoods. Of the 4,667 students enrolled in the undergraduate college this fall, 4 percent, or 192 students, are African-American.

"The issues here are broader than the party.... The real issue here is what are the conditions that minority students and faculty face on a regular basis," Klass said. "This is a bit of an ah-ha moment. They are saying this is an example of the kinds of things that students of color have to face not just on campus but everywhere."

Community ties questioned

Faculty and residents of Hyde Park also said they wondered whether the party would affect campus-community relations. Randel has led efforts in recent years to improve relations with the South Side community, including opening a second charter school this fall and three more schools in coming years.

"The young people, if they are venturing out of campus, it is not to any of the communities that they were making fun of. They are not seeing any of the people who they think would be thugs," said Rolisa Tutwyler, who works at the university and lives in Hyde Park.

Amanda Lewis, a professor of sociology and African-American studies at the University of Illinois at Chicago, said parties like the one at U. of C. occur when people use cultural symbols and slang terms like "ghetto" and "thuggin'" without understanding the historical and societal significance.

"Universities have more work to do to make sure students have a realistic understanding of the world we live in," Lewis said.

Brookoff, who grew up in Memphis and had been a student at U. of C. for less than a month, said she has received a crash course on race relations.

"I know most of us are learning more about respect and being sensitive to other people," she said. "We want everyone to feel welcome around here."

it's seriously that low? that's fucking pathetic, esp. given its location.

this thread is all about hypothetical racism rather than actual racism.

NOT UNDERWEAR! DO THEY HAVE NO SHAME? Will no one think of the whale-tails?

what is this, the onion?

LOST AT BIRTH, RAISED BY THE DISCOMBOBULATED LEFT...

Students talked and listened to music. Some drank beer, a violation of university policy. in particular. but, also the concept of dressing up as a rape victim for halloween. not quite sure how that would be done. or, dressing up as a basketball player for...halloween! with ilx the way it is, sometimes i wonder if these threads are elaborate hoaxes

Things like that are a vicious cycle. Bright-eyed and bushy-tailed black prefrosh asks a current UC student what it's like. They say, "I like my classes, but there's all sorts of crap I have to deal with in other areas. If I had to choose again, I might go somewhere else." Prefrosh chooses somewhere else. Acceptance numbers fall. Etc.

xpost yeah, totally, although do you really think it's cause of lack of interest?

u of c ain't that liberal, but yeah, it is on the SOUTH SIDE.

"white boy" is a racial slur now?

xpost - not UIC, allyzay, U of C. i doubt UIC has such pitiful numbers.

yeah, it's certainly low compared to, say, Columbia, whose endowment isn't that much bigger than UoC's, but most or all of the Ivies have higher yields (and a greater range of undergrad programs), I believe

so?

OR, it's stupid and reductive, by and large.

xpost well, Ethan is a boy who is white and I think Dan's point was that it was "cute" he was telling a black guy how black people feel about things.