Parties Mocking Blacks Spark Outrage

[Piggybank Cop]

By BRUCE SMITH
Associated Press Writer
The Associated Press
Updated: 2:57 p.m. ET Jan 31, 2007

CHARLESTON, S.C. - White students at Tarleton State University in Texas hold a party in which they dress in gang gear and drink malt liquor from paper bags. A white Clemson University student attends a bash in black face over the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday weekend. A fraternity at Johns Hopkins University invites partygoers to wear "bling bling" grills, or shiny metal caps on their teeth.

From Connecticut to Colorado, "gangsta" theme parties thrown by whites are drawing the ire of college officials and heated complaints from black and white students who say the antics conjure the worst racial stereotypes.

At the same time, some black academics say they aren't surprised, given the popularity of rap music among inner-city blacks and well-to-do suburban whites alike.

The white students, they say, were mimicking the kind of outlaw posturing that blacks themselves engage in in rap videos. They suggest the white students ended up crossing the same line that says it is OK for blacks to call each other "nigger," but not all right for whites to do it.

Whites often don't realize their actions are offensive because they are imitating behavior celebrated in music and seen on television, said Venise Berry, an associate professor of journalism at the University of Iowa who has researched rap music and popular culture.

"The segment of rap music that is glamorized and popularized by the media is gangsta rap," said Berry, who is black. "It has become an image that is normalized in our society. That to me explains clearly why they don't see it as wrong."

At an off-campus "Bullets and Bubbly" party thrown by University of Connecticut School of Law students in January, pictures showed students wearing baggy jeans, puffy jackets and holding fake machine guns.

The University of Colorado's Ski and Snowboard Club advertised a "gangsta party" in September, with fliers featuring rappers and fake bullet holes. The theme was dropped after complaints, but some students, who didn't get the message, showed up in gangsta garb, hoping to win prizes.

Often such parties go unnoticed outside campuses until students post pictures on Facebook.com and other Web sites. That's how images of the Clemson party surfaced this week. One student wore blackface; another white student put padding in her pants to make her rear end look bigger.

Harold Hughes, a black fraternity member at Clemson whose frat brothers attended the party, said white students "see this on MTV and BET they think it's cool to portray hip hop culture." Hughes said he found it especially offensive that the party was held over a holiday created to honor the slain civil rights leader.

Many white Clemson students said they did not believe the party was held to intentionally offend blacks, and after news of the party reached beyond the campus, organizers issued an unsigned letter of apology.

Still, school officials are investigating, and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People said the party was not harmless fun.

"We once lynched African-Americans as good fun and humor," said Lonnie Randolph, president of the South Carolina chapter of the NAACP.

One hip hop insider, Chris Conners, programing director at Columbia radio station WHXT HOT 103.9, said he has no problem with whites imitating certain aspects of black culture _ driving cars with flashy rims, for example. But he said students who put on blackface or padded their rear ends crossed the line.

"They weren't really celebrating hip hop culture. They were making fun of African Americans, and that's what really concerns me," he said.'

James Johnson, a black psychology professor at the University of North Carolina-Wilmington who has researched racial attitudes and teaches a seminar on race and prejudice, said he is more discouraged by the rap performers who perpetuate stereotypes than by the "clueless kids" who imitate them.

"In the civil rights movement, you didn't have blacks who called themselves `niggers' and who called their women `bitches' and `whores' and who glorified being violent and being thugs," he said. "Now these white kids are kind of confused."

These incidents come at a time racial tolerance on college campuses is perceived to be steadily improving. But the truth may be more complicated.

A University of Dayton sociologist who analyzed journals kept by 626 white college students found the students behaved substantially differently when they were in the company of other whites than when they were with other races.

When the students, who were asked to record their interactions with other people, were alone with other white students, racial stereotypes and racist language were surprisingly common, researcher Leslie Picca found. One student reported hearing the "n-word" among white students 27 times in a single day.

The results suggest white students have little sense of shame about racial insults and stereotyping and treat them as simply a part of the culture.

"This is a new generation who grew up watching `The Cosby Show,'" Picca said. "They have the belief that racism isn't a problem anymore so the words they use and the jokes they tell aren't racist."

Picca said she found it "heartbreaking" to see so many well-educated students perpetuating the stereotypes.

[Standard Dave]

So white kids are copying the antics of rap music stars and this is racist.
When are they going to tell people to stop acting like these stereotypes as this just perpetuates the whole thing.

Also slightly as an aside (sorry) why do I always read about people being African american, Italian american, Irish american etc don't people consider themselves enough of a part of the US just to be American ? While I understand that most of the US is populated by the decendants of immigrants many arrived hundreds of years ago.

[Doc_Holliday]

Correct me if I am wrong, but isnt the object to be "colorblind"? So if it was a bunch of black kids doing it, nobody would care. but since its whitey on the block, NOW we have a problem. I grew up in southern california, I have been called "nigga" by friends on the basketball court, football field, hell even in the hallways! FYI I am pasty pale fish belly white....I was never insulted, nor where they when I replied with the same phrase back to them..MY NIGGA..the bottom line is, political correctness has gone freakin haywire. The NAALCP (nation association for the advancement of LIBERAL colored people)....comparing lynching to these parties is ridiculous...OH BY THE WAY....how can they call themselves colored, but if a white person was to refer to them as anything OTHER than "african american" its the headline news story?? I had a friend in high school...an AMERICAN whose skin just happened to be darker than mine, and we had a western civ teacher who asked "what would you like to be refered to as...black, african american or something else..?" My friend replied TYLER, because thats my name. The teacher persisted....why not african american?....Tyler replied.."because my grandparents were JAMAICAN"......

[Ducky]

Should I be pissed because Urkle was a nerd? I mean, come on, I thought white people had a corner on that market.

Signed, White and Nerdy.

[10-42Adam]

I think it's funny how so many people get all butt-hurt about this. If they're so offended by this behavior, why is it okay for rappers to do it everyday and on television?! When Dave Chappelle's show was on he portrayed a white man in almost every episode, acting dorky and proper as hell. I never recalled any white people getting angry over it - it was all in good fun.

Everything is racist when it comes to whites acting certain ways or doing certain things, but when it's everybody else doing it, it's all suddenly okay. This just screams bullshit...

[10-42Adam]

What happened to Freedom of speech/expressions, expecially in your own home.. We all know kids will be kids..Let them have a little fun. signed cracker

Exactly!

Hell, I'm going to log onto Facebook.com right now and find every picture of a black dude dressed more like a white guy and create an uproar about it. Do you think my story would be heard? HELL NO!

[tapout]

its funny, i graduated college in 2000, and from '96-'00 i was throwing and attending themed parties/mixers similar to these with my fraternity (we called them pimps and ho's or gangster parties). we had black members in the group, and they actually turned us on to the idea. everyone always had a good time, and we never heard anything about it ever offending anyone.

we also threw toga parties, boxer/lingerie parties, gangster parties of the mafia nature, costume parties, 70s, 80's, you name it, we did it. lighten up, its just a theme, something different then standing around in a dirty basement drinking keg beer and yelling at each other in order to talk over the music.

certain people need to just step back and realize that its not all about race, or racism, or stereotyping others...its about the social culture that dominates these kids lives today. blacks are not the only ones who join gangs, wear puffy jackets, baggy jeans, sideways hats, etc...its everyone. its the hip hop culture. im sure somewhere out there, a primarily black fraternity has thrown a party where everyone dresses "white" as steroetypically portrayed and it doesnt bother me in the least.

get over yourselves