Political Correctness Devours yet Another College, Fighting Over Mini-Sombreros

The thing that really drives me nuts about the PC movement is that it infantilizes and stereotypes the very groups and cultures it purports to protect, robbing them of their own voices and self-agency. It latches onto a cardboard cutout of a stereotype for a culture and uses it to browbeat others into acceptance of the activist&#x27;s interpretation of that culture and what may or may not be offensive to it.<p>Empathy is a good trait, and one that societies should encourage. But there&#x27;s a significant difference between having empathy for others and using it to justify forcing your own interpretation of that empathy on others. In so many ways, the movement is just another manifestation the so-called &quot;white man&#x27;s burden.&quot; The sheer gall and hypocrisy is overwhelming.

I usually like to give political correctness the benefit of the doubt in these situations, because sometimes its hard to fully understand how or why something might be offenseive.<p>But COME ON. The severity of reprisals and administrations actions on this one is completely out of proportion. I&#x27;m not faulting anyone getting offended. But I am questioning the administration&#x27;s response to all of this. Especially given:<p>&quot;The school’s reaction seems especially arbitrary when you learn that — on the very same night of the “tequila party,” just across campus — Bowdoin held its annual, administration-sanctioned “Cold War” party. Students arrived dressed in fur hats and coats to represent Soviet culture; one referred to herself as “Stalin,” making light of a particularly painful era in Slavic history.&quot;

In European colleges, it&#x27;s common for students to have &quot;USA&quot; themed parties.<p>Coca-cola is served, hot dogs are made, basketball jersey are worn, red solo cups are used, and fat costumes (an XXXXL tee shirt with a few pillows stuffed underneath) are plenty. Oh yeah people bring fake guns too.<p><a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.buzzfeed.com&#x2F;mjs538&#x2F;this-is-what-american-parties-look-like-around-the-world#.km5YDrDVe" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.buzzfeed.com&#x2F;mjs538&#x2F;this-is-what-american-parties...</a><p>I wonder if &quot;PC student newspaper editor&quot; and &quot;overzealous administrator&quot; will become popular costumes soon.

IMHO, the rise of SJWs of all kinds is caused by rising gender equality in the US and Europe. Now that women and men are quite equal in our societies (though e.g. the pay gap and a gap in leadership positions remains, although the latter is most likely caused by the fact that there are not many people who want 80+h work weeks to begin with), all those who dedicated their entire personal life and their careers to advancing feminism need something to continue to work in their area.<p>And if you can&#x27;t find a real job, just look for another &quot;minority&quot; to &quot;support&quot; at all costs.<p>Edit: or well, find a real minority with real problems - like PoC who are being shot by police apparently for sports or Latinos who are in the line of fire of Trump and friends. &quot;But... wait... there&#x27;s powerful opposition there (cops, Trump fans), too dangerous, let&#x27;s mob against people who party in sombreros&quot; I hear the SJWs scream...

I&#x27;m curious to know what other HN readers think about this topic. I was born and raised on the left side of the spectrum, and continue to be so. I can empathize with my fellow millenial&#x27;s struggle to push for a true egalitarian and respectful culture in the name of liberalism. I&#x27;m torn though. I see some of these actions moving the left to eventually begin embracing seemingly-fascist policies and aesthetics. What could be more equal than having everyone dress and act in a way prescribed by the same philosophical system?<p>There seems to be a crack in this generation&#x27;s perception of what the West promises. We, the left, strive for social liberalism, civil equality, freedom of speech, protection of the individual by institutions, etc. but as many of us see in the news every week, the reality is that our system continues failing on all these fronts. This is basically a symptom of the historical tug-o-war between the left and right, entrenched biases, and the unexpected results of a complex civilization.<p>I was influenced greatly by anarchist philosophers, but managed to tear away from their commitment to dissolving the state. I see the role of government as necessary, especially in a free market system. I don&#x27;t know what role social norms should play in this. Should we try to live inoffensively? Should we speak and move lightly, lest we offend some minority group? My line is the blatant racism of people like Donald Trump, no need to mention his support from the KKK. This article seems like we&#x27;re wasting energy focusing on perceived microaggressions, when there are truly violent people around the corner targeting the same minority groups with truly malevolent intentions.

There&#x27;s an update to this story.<p>Bowdoin update: On Facebook, school flaunted photos of alumni, students in school-provided sombreros<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.washingtonpost.com&#x2F;news&#x2F;rampage&#x2F;wp&#x2F;2016&#x2F;03&#x2F;04&#x2F;bowdoin-update-on-facebook-school-flaunted-photos-of-alumni-students-in-school-provided-sombreros&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.washingtonpost.com&#x2F;news&#x2F;rampage&#x2F;wp&#x2F;2016&#x2F;03&#x2F;04&#x2F;bo...</a>

So does it mean that people from a Chinese background celebrating St Patrick and dressing in green would be culturally insensitive because that&#x27;s not their culture ? Or are white people practicing judo and wearing a kimono racist toward Japanese people ? Or that a latino female cannot teach yoga because it&#x27;s cultural appropriation and disrespectful toward Indians ? So did that college ban all these stuff already because PC ? where does it stop ? everybody sticks to their culture and we enable global separation by race, sex, gender, country of origin in College so nobody get outraged at something somebody different than him might do ?

My question is: what the fuck is &quot;social probation&quot;? And how in the world does throwing a party with silly hats get people kicked out of their dorms? This would never have happened when I was in school[1].<p>[1] The people getting kicked out of dorms business, not the party (unless it was really rowdy and there were injuries or property destruction or something).

If there&#x27;s an issue, it&#x27;s that university administrations are fundamentally authoritarian bureaucratic institutions.<p>But being outraged about political correctness is more emotionally satisfying than wondering whether university power structures could be rethought in order to be more democratic, i guess. free speech is not threatened by people with opinions you disagree with; free speech is threatened by power. people buy into authoritarianism so much that it&#x27;s almost invisible. when a university administration crushes somebody, why is it the fault of political correctness and not the fault of the power structure? perhaps the students overreact, but overreacting people are harmless unless they are attached to power.<p>considering students authoritarian is either absurd or irrelevant. students aren&#x27;t the ones abusing power.

Meanwhile, no punishment for the Black student who tweets &quot;7000 retweets and I&#x27;ll smash this b<i></i>*&#x27;s computer&quot;, with a photo of a woman with a laptop with a Trump sticker in a computer lab.<p><a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.nydailynews.com&#x2F;new-york&#x2F;queens&#x2F;student-threatens-smash-woman-laptop-trump-sticker-article-1.2527304" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.nydailynews.com&#x2F;new-york&#x2F;queens&#x2F;student-threatens...</a>

Imagine there&#x27;s a vending machine, and a group of young people learn that if you it hit in a certain way, a soda pops out... so they stand around hitting that vending machine...popping out sodas...<p>&#x27;Offendedness&#x27; is that way you punch that machine.

Is the goal that nobody feel bad or offended at what someone else does?<p>If that&#x27;s the case then just close everything down.

Meh, liberal arts college does stupid stuff, has stupid faculty. I wonder if Mr. Ripley will add it to the next edition of his book.

The deep and abiding irony of &quot;cultural appropriation&quot; is that nothing will reinforce Anglo-American culture more than people being scared of borrowing elements of other cultures. If you&#x27;re worried that Anglo-American culture is being diluted by outside influences, well these Bowdoin students are coming to your rescue.

The whole PC&#x2F;&quot;hurt feelings&quot; trend is downright dangerous. It goes as much against plain common sense as it does against pluralism and free speech. And the fact that millennials seem to uphold it is particularly troubling.

Many here are debating the school&#x27;s arguments as if they had been advanced in good faith.<p>Consider instead: perhaps the overwrought response is an exercise of power for its own sake.

Someone needs to put some mature, level-headed adults in charge of these schools. There needs to be someone to remind students when they&#x27;re being unreasonable and foolish, and then put a stop to it if needed.

I&#x27;m curious, who was actually offended? Did any Latin Americans complain? Or was it some white folk thinking some one might be offended? Most of the Mexicans I know would have been helping to hand out the Sombreros and having a good time. As a person of Irish decent am I supposed to be offended in a couple of weeks?

How long does it take to read this article and then express a hateful opinion about Bowdoin College&#x27;s administration?<p>About two minutes would you say?

Without passing judgment on whether both are right or wrong, how is this any different from a &quot;Chinese people&quot;-themed party featuring slanty eye costumes? I have a feeling HN commenters (and most Americans) would view that much less charitably. I&#x27;m genuinely curious: why?

This reminds me of an incident where a fraternity and a sorority at my alma mater were crucified for holding a Cinco de Mayo party, named Phiesta, when the organizations had the letter phi in their names.<p>Idiocy.

&gt; The statement deemed the party an act of “cultural appropriation,” one that “creates an environment where students of color, particularly Latino, and especially Mexican, students feel unsafe.” The effort to purge the two representatives who attended the party, via impeachment, soon followed.<p>&gt; The school’s reaction seems especially arbitrary when you learn that — on the very same night of the “tequila party,” just across campus — Bowdoin held its annual, administration-sanctioned “Cold War” party. Students arrived dressed in fur hats and coats to represent Soviet culture; one referred to herself as “Stalin,” making light of a particularly painful era in Slavic history.<p>The fuck kind of hypocritical bullshit is this?

I am sorry, perhaps I am being obtuse. Why do you need to party with sombreros? When you wear a sombrero, what is that supposed to mean? why is it funny or amusing?