Racial Issues at the University of Texas

An interesting Associated Press article:

Texas Law Students Chastised for Party
By LIZ AUSTIN PETERSON, Associated Press Writer
Thu Oct 12, 9:20 PM

AUSTIN, Texas - A group of first-year law students at the University of Texas at Austin has been chided by the dean for participating in a "Ghetto Fabulous"-themed costume party and posting pictures from it online.

The party is the latest racially insensitive incident to emerge from the university, which has struggled for years to boost minority enrollment and make students of color feel welcome.

"Among the many ways to happily party in Austin, this particular one was singularly heedless and odious," Dean Larry Sager said in an e-mail Friday to the law school's student body.

Nick Transier, a first-year student who attended the party in September and posted pictures on his Web site, said nobody meant to offend anyone of any race.

"We had no intention by any measure to choose a group or class of people and make fun of them," said Transier, 26, of Houston.

But the photos _ in which partygoers carried 40-ounce bottles of malt liquor and wore Afro wigs, necklaces with large medallions and name tags bearing traditionally black and Hispanic names _ upset some black law students, said Sophia Lecky, president of the Thurgood Marshall Legal Society.

"I just thought overall that it was kind of insensitive, that it was mocking a group of people or a class of people in just a real stereotypical or negative way," said Lecky, whose group aims to improve the academic and social climate for black UT law students.

Sager met with about 18 students who were at the party and said he is convinced they didn't think their actions would offend classmates. No disciplinary action was planned.

Transier said he and other partygoers have apologized to members of the Thurgood Marshall Legal Society.

About 70 of UT's roughly 1,300 law students are black, according to preliminary enrollment figures. There are about 800 white students, 225 Hispanic students, 75 Asian students, 55 foreign students and 75 whose ethnicities were unknown.

Former UT President Larry Faulkner ordered sweeping changes in curriculum and culture in 2004 after a series of incidents that included the egging of the Martin Luther King Jr. statue and fraternity parties where blacks were portrayed in Jim Crow racial stereotypes.
___

On the Net:

University of Texas School of Law, http://www.utexas.edu/law/

Copyright 2006 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.


Peace.

 

???

Mosiah, what does this have to do with bm/ww relationships? There are other places on the internet for this kind of discussion.

 

:?

 

ON TOPIC: It just goes to show ya, that we still have a long road ahead of us for actual acceptance as black people, within this American society.

 

It doesn't suprise me that they view black people and black culture as one big joke. So big that they all get together and have a party in celebration of mocking the culture because hey... IT was just a joke!! Right?! ...........................Wrong!!!!

 

Indeed, SoCal, indeed. But hey, pointin' it out in any way is simply the race card! :roll:

 

Re: ???

:shock: I think this is very much ON TOPIC because relations between BM & WW don't exist in some kind of vacuum sheltered from other issues racial or non racial that go on everyday.

 

And just think, if we didn't walk around acting all ghetto, they'd have nothing to make fun of.

 

:idea: If you think that's all there is to it then you're very wrong my friend!

 

Speak for yourself. Not all blacks act like that.

 

I know but unfortunately we are judged by our worst rather than our best.

 

Not surprising and nothing new.


In 2002 and 2003, there were several inflammatory blackface "incidents" where white college students donned blackface as part of possibly innocent, but insensitive, gags, or as part of an acknowledged climate of racism and intolerance on campus. [11]

In November 2005, controversy erupted when African American journalist Steve Gilliard posted a photograph on his blog. The image was of black Republican Maryland lieutenant governor Michael S. Steele, then a candidate for U.S. Senate. It had been doctored to include bushy, white eyebrows and big, red lips. The caption read, "I's simple Sambo and I's running for the big house." Steele has been criticized by other African Americans who consider him a "race traitor" due to his conservative politics. Gilliard defended the image, commenting that Steele has "refused to stand up for his people,"[12] and explained that he pulled the photograph only because he did not have permission to use the original image.[/quote]

 

I don't think it's anything worth getting upset over. The media is trying to sensationalize this and make a bigger deal out of it than it really is. I've gone to shitloads of Halloween parties just like the one they got busted for. Half the damn time it was Black folks throwin the party. Fun as hell too.

But yeah this doesn't belong in a place of interracial love, there's other places to post racially divisive crap.

 

:idea: We discuss numerous subjects as they pertain to race on this board.

 

*Agrees wholeheartedly with SG*