UCSD ‘serves’ raw racism

As Black History Month, the nation’s official month for observing the contributions and role of African-Americans in American society, comes to an end, the specter of racism is still looming in an unsuspecting part of America — San Diego, California.

In one of our most culturally and ethnically diverse states, protests rage, on the University of California San Diego’s campus, over a racially-themed fraternity party, racist comments aired on the campus’ news station and a noose that was hung at a UCSD library.

The “Compton Cookout” party hosted by members of UCSD’s Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity (also known as “Pikes”) on Feb. 15 was the first in a string of racist incidents that have awakened students’ spirits to openly denounce racism. The Pikes’ party, which was sarcastically advertised for on Facebook.com as “an honor to Black History Month,” invited guests to a night that would immaturely reproduce “life in the ghetto.” According to the Los Angeles Times, the fraternity “urged women to dress as ‘ghetto chicks’ who ‘usually have gold teeth, start fights and drama, and wear cheap clothes.’” The party’s host also informed guests that they would provide a menu of chicken and watermelon.

As controversy ensued over the insensitive actions of the fraternity, UCSD’s campus was soon consumed by student outcries of racism and other students defending the Pikes under the guard of free speech. This led the editor in chief of the Koala, UCSD’s humor-based student paper, to appear on his organization’s broadcast program using the N-word to describe the “ungrateful” protesters.

Furthermore, other signs of racism were found around campus in the days that followed, including a poster board that read “Compton lynching.”

The UCSD administration has responded to the events by holding teach-ins to discuss racial awareness, suspending the students’ responsible for the actions and reminding the public that the party was held off-campus.

The events that have unfolded since the “Compton Cookout” party show us that racism is still present in our society. Although institutional segregation and racist policies were abolished decades ago, the institution of racism still exists in a more subtle, adapted form. While today’s youth are growing up in the most diverse, “raceless” America to date, there is still much progress to be made — especially when college educated people think nothing of making overtly racist comments and holding racial groups to stereotypes.

Racism is often seen as a thing of the past by many — something our parent’s and grandparent’s generations dealt with. However, although it is easy for entertainers and comedians to poke fun at race, and although a diverse group of friends may find it permissible to tease each other about their race or ethnicities, we cannot afford to allow outwardly racist acts, such as those at UCSD, to clutter our culture’s idea of “fun.”

We find troubling the fact that the Pikes and the Koala news program thought it was fine to throw such a party and use racial slurs toward blacks (or anyone else). Using free speech as defense is not enough. While everyone is free to speak their minds, free speech should also be thought of as the kind of language that reinforces freedom and democracy — not the kind that threatens it by spreading hate and ignorance.

Furthermore, we would like to urge UT students to always be thoughtful when they plan events and parties — whether they be off-campus or on-campus — and to veer away from using potentially sensitive topics as the themes to their events. After all, respect can be shown through what you do as well as what you don’t do. As the future leaders of our country, student’s should recognize that racism still exists in more subtle forms that can be found cultural institutions and institutions of higher learning. And although something may exist in our culture, it does not make it right.