Duke University’s Kappa Sigma Fraternity has been suspended
by its parent organization over an Asian-themed party held Feb. 1st which
was initially called “Asia Prime” but changed to “International Relations” due
to a warning from the Office of Fraternity and Sorority Life; However, the
party still was rife with conical hats, geisha and sumo outfits, and the
invitations stereotypically said “Herro Nice Duke Peopre. We look forward to
having Mi, Yu, You and Yo Friends over for some Sake. … Chank You.”
The Asian Student Association protested the party, posting
pictures of it across the campus and on Facebook, labeling it
“#RacistRager.” More than 700 people attended a demonstration organized by the
Asian American Alliance on Wednesday at a campus bus stop and the Asian Student
Association hosted an open discussion on the controversy later that evening.
Kappa Sigma president Luke Keohane is deeply regretful,
issuing an apology in the Duke Chronicle that stated “we should have completely
canceled the aforementioned party.” Katherine Zhang, co-president of the Asian
American Alliance with Tong Xiang, remains skeptical, claiming “Every year
something like this happens. The frats apologize and then the next weekend it
happens again…I hope that this time people can…try to come up with a lasting
solution to racism and sexism here.”
Sources say Duke has also seen Native American, Mexican, and
other race themed fraternity parties. The fraternity had also held “Asia Prime”
parties in previous years when it operated off campus. And of course, other
colleges have seen these kind of parties as well, making it a national concern.
Larry Moneta, VP for student affairs said Wednesday “the
event was thoughtless and offensive but we’re not sure if it actually broke any
rules.” No punishment is planned for the fraternity as Moneta asserts it will
not help solve persistent racial stereotyping at Duke. An investigation into the fraternity will be done, however.
Do you believe the fraternity should be punished/did they "actually [break] any rules"? Are race-themed
parties completely impermissible or can they be likened to Halloween parties in
which people nonoffensively dress up as certain characters? Is this a national matter worth looking into?
4 comments:
Race-themed parties are very insensitive and inappropriate if they intentionally mock another race or races. If there were an internationally themed party and you were asked to represent a culture of your choice, then it would not be offensive in my opinion because you would not be making fun of a particular race but representing it and possibly informing others about it. The invitations for the party at Duke were highly stereotypical of Asian language, so they were offensive. I think that it is okay to have a geisha or sumo wrestler Halloween costume as long as it is not being used to make fun of the Asian race.
I don’t think that punishing everyone involved with the party would benefit any student organizations because parties could be held off campus and nothing would change. In order to address the issue, the student ethnicity organizations such as the ASA or BSA should make more of an effort to enforce a school-wide tolerance and mutual respect policy if there is one in place already.
First of all, LOL. Okay, now that that's over with, this "#RacistRager" has gone overboard. Racism is a common theme in humor, but this frat party took it too far and garnered some media attention. This attention can be seen as good and bad. It's good because the issue can be addressed in the public eye which means there is more pressure on the frat to change its ways, but it is also bad because it shows how out of hand racist humor can get. it's obvious that this party is blatantly racist and hurtful towards Asians, but the unfortunate truth is that a lot of people find racism funny (except the victims of course). In no way am I saying racism should be okay just because people think it's funny, but I am saying that a war on racism will probably be like our little war on terrorism. I believe the issue of racist humor certainly has a large and subjective "gray-area" in society. It's a political no-no, but racist jokes still come up every now and then among our personal circle of friends. It can be a funny subject, but just don't let it get out of hand because in the end, it's still morally wrong.
I am glad that this party got some national attention because like the post mentioned, racist parties and perpetuated stereotypes are not uncommon. There was recently another controversy about stereotypes with the "Make Me Asian App."(http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/12/27/make-me-asian-google-app-racist-offensive_n_2372573.html) And for the record, Halloween costumes are not as harmless as people choose to see them as just because they only come out of the closet one day a year. For years, activists have been pushing back against slutty Native American costumes etc. I'm glad that the students and school is recognizing that these parties are absolutely not ok.
Rather like Sam, I'm glad that this event has garnered media attention. Racial stereotyping is still remarkably common, in all sorts of ordinary events like frat parties. I think that in this case race made fun of in a joking way, but people seem to not be able to comprehend that this too is offensive. I really think that the administration can't really penalize the frat, since penalizing this sort of thing might spiral out of control. That is, when you penalize one group, someone will yell out that this group deserves to be punished too because they had a racial-themed somethingaruther, and it just might get nutty.
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