Earlier this semester, the Columbia University Marching Band published a series of recruitment posters. One of them transposed a photo of Nicki Minaj’s album cover for Anaconda where she is crouched on the ground with her butt exposed in a thong. In its original form, the album cover is a statement about sex positivity and one woman’s control over the depiction of her body.
As an advertisement for CUMB, the image became a gross representation of white supremacy. The poster featured the enlarged photo of Nicki Minaj with a frog photoshopped over her face, along with two white men in black shorts hitting her butt cheeks on each side with a gong mallet. In one image, CUMB managed to completely disregard the history of slavery and the history of black women not having control over their own bodies (most frequently at the hands of white slave masters). They also disregarded how black women would feel seeing this image around campus, as CUMB essentially told them (just like American history has told them) that their bodies are not theirs.
This is just one example in a history of racist and sexist posters. Last spring, they distributed a poster making light of the Malaysia Airlines tragedy, using a picture of an airplane with the caption “FLY LIKE PAPER, GET LOST LIKE PLANES.” The punch line here is literally national tragedy and the deaths of hundreds of Malaysians. For students of color, this poster, like countless before it, was an awful reminder that this campus is not for us.
Every semester after Orgo Night, some students leave Butler feeling miserable and triggered and have to turn to one another for consolation while our peers celebrate. Those who protested Orgo Night in 2012 by putting tape over their mouths were met with hostility and left feeling even more traumatized, even more hopeless that the community would understand them. This happens year after year, and yet nothing changes. The marching band’s posters and “jokes” continue their violence, and the administration stays silent.
Yesterday, students met with deans in an open forum on how the administration has failed to support students of color in what has been an overwhelmingly distressing month. A recurring demand was that Orgo Night, a night on which students of color can expect to be traumatized, be canceled by the administration. The marching band has always known that their “jokes” are triggering for marginalized identities on campus, and they have been vocal about their pain. If the administration was listening, they would know this.
Columbia’s administration has failed students of color, time and time again. When black and brown students held a peaceful die-in at the Tree Lighting Ceremony last Thursday, half a dozen NYPD vans lined up on Broadway within the 15 minutes that we were on the ground. Columbia neither supported us through nor apologized for the NYPD’s unnecessary presence. The protest called attention to the recent decisions to not indict Darren Wilson and Daniel Pantaleo for the murders of Michael Brown and Eric Garner, but the protest also confirmed just how Columbia views its students of color. A large group of black and brown students congregated, and the NYPD turns up almost immediately. Nevermind that we were there peacefully protesting for justice—we were dangerous.
Yet, in the same vein, administrators simply asked CUMB members to consider canceling Orgo Night after students were adamant about it at an open forum the day before. Was it news to them that Orgo Night is alienating for some students? CUMB hosts this event every semester, and every semester students protest it. Yet their hate speech is sanctioned while students of color and their speech are literally policed. Administrators should not have asked CUMB to cancel Orgo Night. They should have canceled it outright. Our safety is not up for negotiation.
We asked administrators to listen to us, to acknowledge us, and to protect us. Their failure to do so is proof of what most students in attendance at the open forum already knew—that the administration does not care about its students of color, its queer students, or its trans students.
People of color, queer people, and trans people know better than anyone that comedy can be unifying and even liberating. We laugh at ourselves as a coping mechanism. We laugh at our oppressors because sometimes it’s all we can do. It’s not funny for white people, straight people, and cis people to laugh at us while still benefitting from their privilege, while they continue to ignore our pain, and without being our allies. These “jokes” allow them to position themselves yet again in positions of power over people who are forced to constantly doubt our presence and our value on this campus, in this city, and in this country. Equal opportunity comedy is bullshit. Just because the marching band makes fun of everyone does not excuse their racism, sexism, violence against queer people, or their violence against trans people.
A predominantly white group and a predominantly white administration cannot be the ones to determine what is acceptable, and what spaces are safe for students of color, queer students, or trans students. This is a campus where yellowface is a regular occurrence, where sororities caricature Mexican culture for fun, where the NYPD shows up when black students gather.
When students of color tell you that something is racist, you listen. When queer students tell you that something is homophobic, you listen. When trans students tell you that something is transphobic, you listen.
Many people have come to Orgo Night’s defense, claiming that it is a Columbia tradition that unifies the student body. But who is it a tradition for? Who does it unify? The unification of predominantly white students who think it’s okay to laugh at the trauma we feel on a daily basis is literally the creation of an unsafe space.
Orgo Night is an unsafe space, and it is an unsafe space that extends beyond Butler 209, because our classmates are there laughing and letting us know that they don’t want us to feel safe here. Orgo Night tells us that this campus will never be a place for us to feel safe or to feel supported.
This criticism extends to more than just whoever writes the marching band’s jokes, or to whoever reads them out. Those of you who attend, have a few laughs, feel a little uncomfortable about a rape joke—you are part of the problem. Attending, enjoying, and celebrating Orgo Night perpetuates the alienation and marginalization of students of color. Your participation is violence, and your laughter complacency.
Orgo Night has not been canceled, but that doesn’t mean you should go. Don’t go. Don’t go. Don’t go.
Dunni Oduyemi is a Columbia College junior majoring in ethnicity and race studies. She is former editor in chief of The Eye. She is also a member of Columbia Prison Divest. Tracey Wang is a Columbia College senior majoring in English and comparative literature. She is a member of the Multicultural Affairs Advisory Board and a former deputy news editor for Spectator.
To respond to this op-ed, or to submit an op-ed, contact opinion@columbiaspectator.com.
Note: Editorial Page Editor Mikhail Klimentov, CC ’16, recused himself from the editing of this piece because of his involvement in the Columbia University Marching Band.
Comments
"When students of color tell you that something is racist, you listen. When queer students tell you that something is homophobic, you listen. When trans students tell you that something is transphobic, you listen."
...when Jewish students tell you something is anti-Semitic, you viciously attack them for conflating Judaism and Zionism, pedantically explain to them that not ALL Jews are Zionist, and cry to anyone who'll listen that your free speech is being trampled upon.
This is not about Zionism-this is not about you and your self-centred, egomaniac, Likud/IDF/Apartheid-anti-Arab-Racist-state/GazaChildrenKillingMachine/WestBankOccupier funded propaganda yet I still don't agree that Orgo night should be called off.
you've imperssively proved the original post's point.
Here's a question to the Columbia "community": know the guy with the anti-semitic sign at the gates? If the sign was racist or homophobic, how long would that guy hang around before a swarm of students did something about it?
So yes, y'all are quite hypocritical when it comes to 'protecting' minorities. It isn't exactly your fault. The whole approach is misconceived.
Yes, I totally agree. Funny how they threw back to random signs from years past that are at best mildly offensive (i.e., the Malaysian thing -- obviously it is in terrible taste, but does that really alienate all people of color? you don't think they would have made the same sign if it were a Dutch plane?), yet they did not even mention the "Google It: Jews Control CUMB" sign. I wonder why.
one of their posters was literally someone holding up that sign:
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10205514822456796&set=a.1581312179570.2083738.1438668775&type=1&theater
Wanna try google again on that one? 370 went missing in March 2014. Also "Jews control CUMB" is a hell of a lot different than a poster of white men hitting a black woman.
Let's not quibble with words. You are clearly missing my point. The reason the authors bring up the signs is to illustrate that the humor is offensive and propagates bigotry. They actively ignored the one that relates to antisemitism even though it was by far the most recent and therefore the most relevant. What gives? You can argue that the men hitting a black woman is worse, and I would agree with you. But so what? My point is simply that they didn't allude to the "antisemitic" (not in actuality but by the same misconstruction) sign even though it should in theory bolster their point. So, obviously they think antisemitism is unrelated to other forms of bigotry, or perhaps not as important.
YOU'RE missing the point. this article is about the marginalization of people of color, so they gave examples of this. no one is saying anti-semitism is not an issue, it is just not the topic of the piece, don't conflate two different things
this article was also about queer and trans people. did you read it?
Considering that the "jews control the world/media/etc" theme, brought back into style most recently by the protocols of the elders of zion, and which in a large way precipitated the jew hating that fueled such events as pogroms and the holocaust and has lead to the death of millions, I don't really appreciate your scoffing at "Jews control cumb" as if its not equivalent. But oh wait, I forgot, your personal *trauma* only matters when you're the right kind of victim.
For the record I am totally pro-CUMB pro-org night.
That wasn't the poster at all...
Maybe you should organize your own swarm of students to do something about it? Most of the student activists have chosen specific causes because it would be impossible for any one student to fight every cause, hence why there are very specific activism groups (Student Worker Solidarity, No Red Tape, etc) that generally don't fight for other causes. I've never heard of a group on campus specifically for activism against antisemitism, so why don't you form that?
Lol. Jews aren't minorities
You're right, accounting for less than 0.2% of the world and about 2.6% of the United States doesn't make Jews a minority
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jewish_population_by_country
Not in the Upper West Side...
Columbia students need to stop making victims into heroes, real heroes are people who deal with their problems without public attention
Suggesting that the Jewish students on campus should organize "their own swarm" to deal with the anti-semitic sign guy runs afoul of your whole intersectionality bullshit.
If your protestors are one with the race issues and the lgbt issues and the campus sex assult issues and the litany of other issues, how dare you make an exception to a violent, triggering sign?
Honestly, your hypocrisy and selective treatment of traumatic experience is "disgusting".
btw, if i were israeli, i would vote labor, not likud, i'm obviously opposed to apartheid, i have nothing against muslims or arabs, but i AM against further settlement construction, and i believe in a negotiated two-state-settlement based on the 1967 lines with landswaps.
also i am--and will always be--against your poor dash usage.
also, fuck you.
MH, you're a disgrace to everyone who has ever known you.
Mate, just because I don't like Israel and it's obviously apartheid like actions, doesn't mean I am anti-Semitic. When I say, I don't like Israel, it doesn't mean I don't like Jews. I mean I hate the indiscriminate killing of thousands of innocent men just because Netenyahu has a beef with Hamas, I mean that Palestinians deserve the right to live in peace in a land they have occupied for longer than the 70 years Israel has been there, I mean that the Palestinian people shouldn't see an obviously racist and anti-Arab government take their homeland piece by piece. Nowhere in this argument have I said I don't like Jews or have a prejudice against Jews! That's what every Zionist fails to realize.
...every? you just keep digging yourself into a deeper hole of stupidity.
Yeah, every!
I didn't know people with down syndrome could use computers. Very impressive!
You're an ableist piece of trash. Step away from your computer and reevaluate your life choices.
I like how your answer to my lapse of standard was to lower yourself to my unfortunately low level. I am sorry, I used the term Zionist very loosely.
By the way you insult those that you disagree with instead of voicing your opinion, I can tell you are an individual so invested in your support for Israel, you will ignore the sad living conditions of millions of people.
Also, I appreciate your use of a serious disease many people are affected by as a way of insulting my intelligence. Not once did I insult you as a person, your views or beliefs and yet you felt the need to respond in a vitriolic manner.
It shows me you haven't moved past the high school mentality of petty insults. How do you know I don't have a sibling or a family member afflicted by down syndrome? How do you know that in this discussion, your comment hasn't caused my distress huh?!?
"How do you know that in this discussion, your comment hasn't caused my distress huh?!?"
How do you know that I give a fu*k about your distress? You assume too much.
When you imply that Israel's methods of protecting itself from terrorism and racism should be held to a higher degree of scrutiny that anybody else in the world and forget to condemn the Palestinian Authority for funding and inciting terrorism, you are being anti-semetic.
See (these are all very liberal sources, btw):
1) http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/frame_game/2014/07/gaza_civilian_casualties_while_hamas_targets_innocent_people_israel_tries.html
2)
http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/.premium-1.601269
3)
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/07/world/middleeast/israeli-official-points-to-incitements-by-palestinians.html
So you are telling me that you can kill civilians because there are terrorists around them. How is that not terrorism in it self. Again, I have a problem with Israel's actions, not specific Jewish individuals!
You should also read up on international treaties which protect UN facilities, aid workers and Red Cross employees and most importantly civilians. Under all these laws, the killing of civilians or other individuals is a war crime.
Hamas sunk to a low point of using civilians as a human shield, does that means Israel has to as well? And yes, the Israeli government is held to a higher standard because its army and intelligence services are among the best in the world! They surely could know that they were targeting facilities which are protected under international law.
There is also this thing called the Iron Dome which protects Israel civilians from a majority of the rockets and gives warning for all those that get through and all the Palestinian family gets is a 30 second warning, tell me how that's fair.
This is my first ever comment on a Columbia paper, but your ignorance and stupidity is honestly impressive. You are criticizing Israel for investing millions in protecting its civilians while Hamas--a terrorist organization as noted by the US, Canada, EU, and others--funnels its money to create tunnels with which they use to infiltrate into Israel and commit terror attacks. And, just to educate you a bit, the citizens living in the city of Sderot in southern Israel have only 15 seconds to find shelter. Oh, and where and when did Israel use human shields? I think you meant to write Hamas*. Cheers.
I completely agree that Hamas is a terrorist group. No civilian should ever live under constant threat of death. Both in Israel and Palestine. And you should educate yourself that 30 seconds means nothing when a high precision, high explosive bomb is falling on your house. There is no where to run! With a Al-Quassam rocket, there is a high probability it won't even hit a populated area and most likely it will be shot down at high altitude.
I meant Israel sunk to a low of killing 2000 civilians. And ignoring the fact that Hamas was using civilians to protect itself. You should know, if it wasn't for the US protecting Israel, Netenyahu, Tzipi Livni, Ariel Sharon and a long list of individuals would be at the International Criminal Court answering for their crimes. It will be the day where Khaled Meshal and other Hamas leaders would also be at the ICC.
Again, I am loving the condescending tone, real mature!
"With a Al-Quassam rocket, there is a high probability it won't even hit a populated area and most likely it will be shot down at high altitude."
You realize that you're implying that Israel should not feel the need to protect themselves because Hamas fires rockets that "probably" won't kill someone. I don't care how effective the Iron Dome is, no one should be under constant fire. Shitty weaponry is not an excuse to ease up on Hamas.. what a poor, poor point you have made.
1. If by "indiscriminate killing of thousands" you are referring to the war over the summer, see here: http://www.timesofisrael.com/top-us-general-israel-protected-civilian-lives-in-gaza/ Even if you disagree with particulars, you have to admit there is SOME legitimacy -- we can argue about the magnitude -- toward Israel defending itself from terror tunnels and rocket attacks. Again, we can argue about proportionality, but to characterize the war as one-sided and purely "indiscriminate" is egregiously incorrect.
2. "Netenyahu has a beef with Hamas" -- Seriously, have you ever read Hamas's charter? Hamas is a terrorist group and they literally wrote in their charter that they want to murder the Jews. Stop acting like Bibi is on some personal vendetta because that makes absolutely no sense in any context whatsoever, and it's extremely unhelpful toward attaining actual peace.
3. I don't understand why it's important that Israel as a state hasn't been around as long as the Palestinian people. Why compare a state to a people? Do you think that before Israel was created there were no Jews living in Mandatory Palestine, and when Israel was established they *poof* all appeared there?
In short, the reason people would call you anti-Semitic is because you denounce Israel while simultaneously ignoring any and all actions and accountability on the Palestinian side. What about the clear government-sponsored antisemitism and incitement on the Palestinian side? To you, no matter what happens the Jews will always be at fault even when it is the Palestinians shooting the rockets and digging tunnels, and many consider that is prejudice.
Problem is that Jews aren't Semites, except for in Zionist or Nazi mythologies.
First of all, Semitic is a term for language. Hebrew is a Semitic language. Jews speak a Semitic language, pray in it, learn in it, and hold it as an integral part of Jewish life. This makes Jews Semitic.
Second of all, not all Jews are white. Not all Jews are Ashkenazi, or even Sephardic. Mizrahi Jews (or Middle Eastern Jews, since you it's clear that you have no idea what you're talking about and probably could use some definitions) exist, and there are a lot of them. EVEN if you were to argue that you have to have immediate Middle Eastern descent to "count" as a Semite, JEWS WOULD STILL COUNT.
Third of all, there is an INCREDIBLE amount of research showing that Jews (including Sephardi and *gasp* white Ashkenazim) have genetic origins in the Middle East/Levant. If you actually feel like educating yourself a bit, here is a wikipedia page full of fun sources for you to learn about Jewish genetics: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genetic_studies_on_Jews If you wish to read something a little more succinct, here is a short and simple article for you: http://www.latimes.com/science/sciencenow/la-sci-sn-ashkenazi-jews-dna-diseases-20140909-story.html
Please actually do some reading before you make hurtful, ignorant, and inflammatory statements.
Wait your turn, Zionists!
If this is a dream believe me i don't wish to wake up,After 20years relationship with my lover Mohammed he just decided to have a divorce with me because he was having an affair with another lady and the lady told him to break up with me so she can come and take my position when Mohammed told me that he was no longer interested that he is tired of me i was like after 20years now you are tired of me so the next thing was a letter from the lawyer saying Mohammed said he needs a divorce when i saw the letter tears rushed out of my eye i composed my self and said wow this world has turned round against me.So i decided to try all my possible best until one day when i was listen to the radio where i saw people giving testimony on how there divorce was cancelled within 24 hours i was like this is same problem am having i just heard people testifying in the name of this great man called Dr Ogogodu for what he has done for them how he has helped them in bring back there lover i waited for the program to finish and they dropped Dr Ogogodu cell number and email,Immediately i gave dr Ogogodu a call and shared my problem with him he just told me not worry that he assures me that Mohammed will tell the lawyer to cancel the divorce within 24 hours really what Dr Ogogodu said came to past within the 24 hours was a call from Mohammed crying that he his just coming from the lawyers office that he does not need a divorce anymore that he wants me back home that he his sending that lady away so when he said that was so happy now Mohammed came home brought all document and told the lawyer that he his willing everything to me and that he wants me to be the right owner of everything he owns i was so happy,I bless the day i meant dr Ogogodu meeting him was never a regret please clean your tears dr Ogogodu is here to solve your problem you can contact him on ogogodutempleofsolution@gmail.com or cell number +2348078999655
Name: Mrs Mohammed Heidi Country:London My Email:HeidiMohammed333@hotmail.com
If this is a dream believe me i don't wish to wake up,After 20years relationship with my lover Mohammed he just decided to have a divorce with me because he was having an affair with another lady and the lady told him to break up with me so she can come and take my position when Mohammed told me that he was no longer interested that he is tired of me i was like after 20years now you are tired of me so the next thing was a letter from the lawyer saying Mohammed said he needs a divorce when i saw the letter tears rushed out of my eye i composed my self and said wow this world has turned round against me.So i decided to try all my possible best until one day when i was listen to the radio where i saw people giving testimony on how there divorce was cancelled within 24 hours i was like this is same problem am having i just heard people testifying in the name of this great man called Dr Ogogodu for what he has done for them how he has helped them in bring back there lover i waited for the program to finish and they dropped Dr Ogogodu cell number and email,Immediately i gave dr Ogogodu a call and shared my problem with him he just told me not worry that he assures me that Mohammed will tell the lawyer to cancel the divorce within 24 hours really what Dr Ogogodu said came to past within the 24 hours was a call from Mohammed crying that he his just coming from the lawyers office that he does not need a divorce anymore that he wants me back home that he his sending that lady away so when he said that was so happy now Mohammed came home brought all document and told the lawyer that he his willing everything to me and that he wants me to be the right owner of everything he owns i was so happy,I bless the day i meant dr Ogogodu meeting him was never a regret please clean your tears dr Ogogodu is
If this is a dream believe me i don't wish to wake up,After 20years relationship with my lover Mohammed he just decided to have a divorce with me because he was having an affair with another lady and the lady told him to break up with me so she can come and take my position when Mohammed told me that he was no longer interested that he is tired of me i was like after 20years now you are tired of me so the next thing was a letter from the lawyer saying Mohammed said he needs a divorce when i saw the letter tears rushed out of my eye i composed my self and said wow this world has turned round against me.So i decided to try all my possible best until one day when i was listen to the radio where i saw people giving testimony on how there divorce was cancelled within 24 hours i was like this is same problem am having i just heard people testifying in the name of this great man called Dr Ogogodu for what he has done for them how he has helped them in bring back there lover i waited for the program to finish and they dropped Dr Ogogodu cell number and email,Immediately i gave dr Ogogodu a call and shared my problem with him he just told me not worry that he assures me that Mohammed will tell the lawyer to cancel the divorce within 24 hours really what Dr Ogogodu said came to past within the 24 hours was a call from Mohammed crying that he his just coming from the lawyers office that he does not need a divorce anymore that he wants me back home that he his sending that lady away so when he said that was so happy now Mohammed came home brought all document and told the lawyer that he his willing everything to me and that he wants me to be the right owner of everything he owns i was so happy,I bless the day i meant dr Ogogodu meeting him was never a regret please clean your tears dr Ogogodu is here to solve your problem you can contact him on ogogodutempleofsolution@gmail.com or cell number +2348078999655
Name: Mrs Mohammed Heidi Country:London My Email:HeidiMohammed333@hotmail.com to solve your problem you can contact him on ogogodutempleofsolution@gmail.com or cell number +2348078999655
Name: Mrs Mohammed Heidi Country:London My Email:HeidiMohammed333@hotmail.com
If this is a dream believe me i don't wish to wake up,After 20years relationship with my lover Mohammed he just decided to have a divorce with me because he was having an affair with another lady and the lady told him to break up with me so she can come and take my position when Mohammed told me that he was no longer interested that he is tired of me i was like after 20years now you are tired of me so the next thing was a letter from the lawyer saying Mohammed said he needs a divorce when i saw the letter tears rushed out of my eye i composed my self and said wow this world has turned round against me.So i decided to try all my possible best until one day when i was listen to the radio where i saw people giving testimony on how there divorce was cancelled within 24 hours i was like this is same problem am having i just heard people testifying in the name of this great man called Dr Ogogodu for what he has done for them how he has helped them in bring back there lover i waited for the program to finish and they dropped Dr Ogogodu cell number and email,Immediately i gave dr Ogogodu a call and shared my problem with him he just told me not worry that he assures me that Mohammed will tell the lawyer to cancel the divorce within 24 hours really what Dr Ogogodu said came to past within the 24 hours was a call from Mohammed crying that he his just coming from the lawyers office that he does not need a divorce anymore that he wants me back home that he his sending that lady away so when he said that was so happy now Mohammed came home brought all document and told the lawyer that he his willing everything to me and that he wants me to be the right owner of everything he owns i was so happy,I bless the day i meant dr Ogogodu meeting him was never a regret please clean your tears dr Ogogodu is here to solve your problem you can contact him on ogogodutempleofsolution@gmail.com or cell number +2348078999655
Name: Mrs Mohammed Heidi Country:London My Email:HeidiMohammed333@hotmail.com
"Just because the marching band makes fun of everyone does not excuse their racism, sexism, violence against queer people, or their violence against trans people." <<<--- You are sooooooooo lame
"Good job guys, looks like the liberals are targeting themselves again"
"Many people have come to Orgo Night’s defense, claiming that it is a Columbia tradition that unifies the student body. But who is it a tradition for? Who does it unify? The unification of predominantly white students who think it’s okay to laugh at the trauma we feel on a daily basis is literally the creation of an unsafe space."
This article was so well written. This paragraph alone is perfect.
Everybody needs to lighten up, maybe that's the problem. Orgo night if anything was used to make fun of nerds and premeds studying organic chemistry, traditionally Columbia's most difficult course, to get them to de stress, sing, laugh, and joke for ten minutes and take a break from studying. It was a time when music, laughter, noise, food, god forbid was tolerated in a library for literally ten minutes. People really need to stop thinking everything is racist and sexist.
count the number of times you used "was" in that post
is getting your identity lampooned a release from stress?
Oh, pleeze. You are going to drown in the real world. You guys do not even know what work and struggle is.
this paragraph alone is lame as fuck
Stop blaming white males for all your problems. It's getting really old and it isn't true or fair for a number of reasons.
"if the people in power call it satire but the marginalized think it just sounds like more oppressive shit, chances are it's actually oppressive bullshit.
satire requires a skilled hand and a great deal of time and energy, and as someone who has read a great many scripts and witnessed the band's creative process plenty, we don't always put the amount of care or talent into jokes that they require to actually be effective satire.
when we do, it's fucking gold. when we don't, we need to own up to it. we should be the ones analyzing our comedy with a critical eye before it goes public. and, in particular, we should be listening to the voices of bandies who identify with a marginalized group, whether they're PoC, queer, trans, female, whatever, and make their opinions a bigger part of the comedy process. our writers are usually white, usually straight, frequently male. doesn't mean we don't have diverse input, but that needs to be something we actively seek out, and we need to edit with eyes turned specifically towards making our jokes super great at punching up! instead of lazily written enough that they can be interpreted as punching down."
band is talking internally right now about all of this.
sorry context is that this is a bandie talking in a FB thread in the Band group right now
That is not your words; it is disrespectful to take someone's else's quotes without their consent and post them here
I hope you realize that is not okay, especially because they were said within the contwxt of a closed group
yo i'm the one who posted this rant in the band group and i'm fine with my words being used here
I think it's pretty ridiculous to say that everyone who attends Orgo Night is part of "the problem."
1) I think that pretty much invalidates the rest of your argument.
2) Get off your high horses.
If you go, you're implying you support them. That makes you part of the problem. It's that simple.
You go to Columbia > Columbia is in America > America tortured people > you support torture
the fuck outta here
yeah wait a minute. why the hell are people arguing over this petty "damn you if you hurt my feelings" shit when we just found out that america has been shoving our own special brand of freedom up dudes' asses?
Can we all admit that CUMB's support of transgender rights at Barnard was not only heart-warming but also more effective than any self-righteous oped that only serves to shut people out and turn people away?
is this satire?
I am a student of color. Don't speak for "us." I don't want to give people the impression that all students of color are humorless hive-minded buzzkills despite all the important activism that goes on.
Having a sense of humor and being passionate about social justice are not mutually exclusive for everybody.
I am former secretary of state Hillary Clinton.
But really its so easy to claim to be someone you're not on an anonymous comment take everything with a grain of salt
Sup bae. Didn't know you trolled the comments in random Ivy League newspapers too.
;)
Shit I shouldn't be here right now huh?
Shit I shouldn't be here right now huh?
Forget her, let's go to HamDel ;)
awkward how your joke sucks
What happens when MANY black people don't take offense.
What happens when MANY queer people just find it funny.
What happens when MANY hispanic people think you're just a bunch of sensitive assholes.
Why the FUCK do you feel compelled to speak on behalf of everyone?
YES! this. I've been berated for being a woman of color in support of the band, which is hilariously hypocritical. Why is my body and mind being policed by people claiming to have social justice in mind?
YES i'm so tired of telling other poc MANY lives matter, not all. Activist poc need to stop speaking on my behalf.
Wait what? Whose life doesn't matter exactly? Need some specificity here to more thoroughly and effectively point out that you're a dumbass.
I was trolling to try to show how ridiculous these white sympathizers are/this internalization of white narrative of #notallpeople is/probably actually white people trying to give their argument legitimacy by saying they're poc or qwoc etc
Same thing happened to me...I'm a PoC that was called a white supremacist for being in the band. Looks like they only care about *some* PoC feeling triggered.
They've clearly just internalized the hate of the white cis-heteropatriarchy.
I can't tell if you're being serious or not, because I've only heard this said in a serious context
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poe%27s_law
"
Poe's law, in broader form, states:
Without a blatant display of humor, it is impossible to create a parody of extremism or fundamentalism that someone won't mistake for the real thing.
The core of Poe's law is that a parody of something extreme, by nature, becomes impossible to differentiate from sincere extremism. A corollary of Poe's law is the reverse phenomenon: sincere fundamentalist beliefs can be mistaken for a parody of those beliefs.
"
Thank you for bringing this up.
Thank you for writing this. Not that racists on this campus will listen but thank you.
As a woman of color, I never felt marginalized by Orgo Night. I enjoyed Orgo Night with a group of friends composed of white, black, brown, straight, gay, and trans friends. I think attacking Orgo Night is convenient and doesn't do anything to further inclusion at Columbia or the events that have lead to distress this month. Take your amazing, thoughtful, well-meaning energy and strive for bigger change instead of focusing on the minutia of a poster that you thought was offensive.
Thank you! You have succinctly expressed what I've been wanting to say for such a long time but haven't for the fear of being berated.
There is a community meeting scheduled tonight to discuss the orgo night boycott, being held at 11:59 pm in Butler 209. Please go. Please go. Please go.
"One of them transposed a photo of Nicki Minaj’s album cover for Anaconda where she is crouched on the ground with her butt exposed in a thong. In its original form, the album cover is a statement about sex positivity and one woman’s control over the depiction of her body."
She looks like she's about to drop a deuce.
Also, they gave her an anaconda face, not a frog face.
What a hilarious piece of satire. Educated adults would never have such thin skin, and would never categorically rule out humor as a tool for talking about real problems.
In no shape way or form does the marching band critically address any topic in a meaningful way.
"Administrators should not have asked CUMB to cancel Orgo Night. They should have cancelled it outright."
NO - fuck you two up every orifice.
That line is so damn ironic. The amount of self-righteousness is incredible. Imagine if this was told for any of their events.
That's a disgusting thing to say to a person.
Don't listen to any of these overly privileged, inconsiderate kids, I totally agree with you and the assertions made in your article! Thank you for giving the other pov and I'm sorry for all the crap you have to take for writing this.
complains about administration not protecting their right to protest, yet wants admins to nullify another group's freedom of expression
This is probably the worst thing I have ever seen written on this site in four years, and that's impressive.
I can appreciate that the sentiment behind this is one that speaks out of a desire to promote equity for minorities on this campus. There is value in that.
What I cannot appreciate, and have seen far too many times in my 3 years at Columbia is the dependence on ad hominem to make a point. If you are against social movement x, you are (racist, homophobic, transphobic, sexist, "part of the problem"). Saying someone or something is "part of the problem" is not an argument, it's a litany. Don't be surprised when it that message doesn't travel beyond your own echo chamber.
p.s. I'm going to Orgo Night. See you all there.
1) Nicki Minaj's initial album cover does more harm to women of all colors than making fun of it. That whole clip is the epitome of objectifying women. "My anaconda don't want none unless you got buns" — "My dick doesn't want you unless you have a booty". How the heck it that empowering for women of color?
2) Have some fucking sense of humour in your life. I'm Jewish and Jew jokes are among my favourite kind of jokes. Why? Because I can't take a step back and look at it the way these things are really meant — AS A JOKE. Orgo Night isn't part of a white male suprematists world conspiracy to enslave the black women of America while wearing sombreros at a Theta party and chanting "F*** the gays". It's part of our campus culture, a campus filled with incredibly smart people who, I hope, can understand humour. Because humour is the only thing that distinguishes human beings from other animals; if we can't laugh about everything, how are we to evolve as a species? Sulking and censoring every word anyone says is not an acceptable way to live.
3) For f***'s sake, are you really gonna say that the NYPD came because BLACK people were protesting? DID YOU SEE THE NUMBER OF WHITE PEOPLE THERE? ARE YOU BLIND? I haven't heard a single person at Columbia in favour of the grand jury decisions — the University is one of most liberal institutions in the world, that puts minorities' rights on the forefront of its concerns. White, pink, purple, yellow, black, brown, green-with-polka-dots students — every kind of student was at that protest. The NYPD came because of the delicate and explosive nature of the protest, because of the general sentiment and the issue at hand, to prevent any violence if something happened.
4) STOP GETTING OFFENDED BY EVERYTHING. LAUGH. TAKE EVERYTHING WITH A PINCH OF SALT. LAUGHTER MAKES YOUR LIFE LONGER AND MORE ENJOYABLE. Sulking and whining will make you die alone and sad.
Peace out, I've ranted enough.
*because I can take a step back
1) "How the heck it [sic] that empowering for women of color?"
It's what she does with that quote that's important. I literally googled "how anaconda nicki minaj is empowering" here's the first result:
http://www.autostraddle.com/nicki-minajs-feminism-isnt-about-your-comfort-zone-on-anaconda-and-respectability-politics-251866/
This is the strongest and most entertaining comment I've seen. ever.
Thank you, CC15
at what point did the "delicate and explosive nature" of that protest that involved students of color (because, in case you didn't notice, the protest organizers specifically called for students of color--black or brown but honestly any color--to lie down, the goal being to best capture IN THAT ASPECT OF THE DEMONSTRATION the population that feels most threatened by police and the criminal justice system in general. so YES THERE WERE AMAZING WHITE ALLIES THERE but they were not on the ground) being still on the concrete for ten minutes become threatening? you do realize that the ACTUAL ACTIONS we were exhibited during that protest were not in any way frightening. what was frightening was US as a group of MOSTLY BLACK AND BROWN people and the possibility of our anger. and that is the problem. it is cold, unconscious fear and prejudice (ahem, racism. yes, THAT oh lord THAT. you'll recover) that ignites on sight of black people that leads to police brutality against POC in the first place (see darren wilson's descriptions of mike brown that have him looking a lot more like a grizzly bear than a 18 yo man--fear, hatred, and disregard of black people can do a lot to the way one sees others, and to the way one reflects on the appearance of those others retrospectively), and it is that same prejudice, that same unease at the sight of black and brown people acting out of their own fear and anger (sentiments that, when expressed by persons occupying certain bodies, are internalized in ways that are used to compound and rationalize people's prejudice) that made you say "delicate and explosive" and that made Columbia call the NYPD. you don't have to agree, but i'd like you to see what i'm saying, if you will. just leave space for it, please.
Is it foolish for the administration to think that a protest they don't have details on around an extremely sensitive topic doesn't have the potential to turn violent? Why shouldn't they be taking precautions for the safety of hundreds of students on college walk at the time?
what proof do we have that a handful of vans full of NYPD officers is going to be safe for protesting students of color, regardless of how peaceful their protest is? of is their safety not what you had in mind?
So what? Speculating about the safety of the protestors is more important than speculating about the safety of hundreds of people who knew nothing about the protest?
I'M SO HAPPY this already got down voted. tell me, what specifically about what i said warranted your disapproval? i'm here.
You have serious mental issues. I feel bad for you.
This is a full of crap comment. As a white woman, you can sit there and laugh about Jewish jokes and what not when Jews HAVE the power on this campus and frankly in whatever position in the world that they are in. So people making jokes about you? Whatever. But people making jokes about a race or sexuality that is actively the lowest and most discriminated against in the country and the world, those jokes sound funny to you too? People need to stfu. The only people who enjoy org night are those privileged enough to not be related or care about any of their shit. But surprise surprise you privileged ass Columbians, there are people who do not have that privilege. It's a dumbs tradition, and if you need some laughs, then go watch a comedy show.
"Jews HAVE the power on this campus and frankly in whatever position in the world that they are in."
Stop trying to pretend that anti-Semitism is totally harmless. I was one of the only Jewish kids at my in elementary school the other kids on the school bus would draw Swastikas in the frost on the windows. When I was in high school someone spray painted a Swastika on a tree behind my family's house. Just because I'm straight and white doesn't mean I've never felt unsafe because of my identity. But if you think that Orgo Night is threatening, you clearly have never felt truly threatened in your life.
I went to Orgo Night and I am so grateful to CUMB for keeping this tradition alive.
"Jews HAVE the power on this campus and frankly in whatever position in the world that they are in"
Hmmm, this sort of logic sounds strangely familiar.... Hey, I heard that there's a guy around here who feels the same way! He likes to walk around the 116 and Broadway gates and has some pretty cool signs that really try to open people's eyes to this startling fact you've discovered. And he's not at all insane! I think you two would really hit it off and maybe you can pull some of your fellow social justice warriors in and start a new movement that seeks to spread awareness of how all-powerful the Jews are! I think you'll get lots of support – everyone loves an underdog.
Best wishes!
my problems with this article were:
1. orgo night isn't some columbia sanctioned event, and it's not one that you have to go to. you never really have to go to butler, and if going to orgo night is going to traumatize you, then just don't
2. everyone knows those marching band people are assholes. they are assholes to everyone. that's kind of the point.
3. why do people here take themselves so goddamn seriously. there is this weird culture of wanting to not offend anyone, so we shouldn't say anything that should step on anyone's toes.
my problem with your comment was:
If you're a Barnard senior you probably know that you don't have to go Butler to be "traumatized" or whatever they'll come to the quad for you and welcome you to orgo night by calling you a slut a lesbian etc
i, like a lot of other barnard seniors, don't live in the quad. and those that do don't have to go outside. you may be able to hear their instruments, but you can't hear anything they are saying from inside of your room. i know this from my time living in the quad. and regardless of where you are or if you are forced to listen to them, we don't have to listen to what they say or take them seriously. at the end of the day, it is a marching band making some (not necessarily good) jokes.
Lol those first years don't know what's coming.
POC who suffer from internalized racism, and would rather lick a white person's foot than dare critically examine their own beliefs, amirite?
Criticism: Most passengers on the Malaysian flight were Chinese. It is very insensitive and dehumanizing for you to fuck up their culture and confuse it with a society that IS COMPLETELY FUCKING DIFFERENT.
Compliment: You just gave a white controlled Spec and a white controlled CUMB so much publicity.
Comment: I am going to Orgo Night tonight and will be in the back masturbating at all the oppression. Have fun studying in your room because you can't take a joke.
FUCK YOU FOR GETTING SEXUALLY AROUSED TO MY OPPRESSION AS A BLACK WOMAN. YOU ATTENDANCE OPPRESSES ME AND YOU ARE A RACIST CIS MALE WHO SUPPORTS THE BAND'S OPPRESSION OF ME. OPPRESSION IS ALL CONNECTED AND YOU'RE AS BAD AS OPPRESSION EVERYWHERE. CHECK YOUR PRIVILEGE.
SHOUTY CAPITALS ARE THE BOMB BRO!!!.....you are clearly a dude
Good article. Orgo night is so lame. Their only way to be funny is by putting other people down and trying to shock. As a white person I will not partake in their annoying sense of humor. #boycott
don't use the l-word it's ableist
I won't go to Orgo Night - but that doesn't mean I, and many others, won't have a good laugh when CUMB posts the videos on their channel
Something just feels wrong about certain students asking the administration to censor student groups. The right that allows people to voice their opposition to Orgo Night also allows Orgo Night to go on in the first place. Do I agree with the "Jews Control Congress" guy? Nope. But do I agree with his right to stand on Broadway, spouting his bullshit? Certainly. For better or worse, free speech and student-organized events are cornerstones of this institution.
"Something just feels wrong about certain students asking the administration to censor student groups."
Didn't certain students ask the Barnard admin to censor student groups in SJP bannergate2014? If i recall correctly they did censor the group and they made it so no one could ever express their voice on Barnard Hall again...sounds like there's a precedent for admin to shut down a student group like CUMB...but that's none of my business
yeah guys. orgo is sexist and racist and completely discriminatory JUST LIKE colbert and how he is sooooo conservative and republican and bigoted! i mean, like, right?!
Yeah, only Colbert uses his platform to criticize those in power who make everyone's lives worse. Although he has admittedly dipped into hipster racism a couple times in misplaced attempts, but seriously, guys. CUMB is not fucking Colbert.
except at the end of the day Colbert makes it clear he's advocating for marginalized people. Unlike cumb
If you are traumatized by orgo night and consider it a threat to your safety, you have clearly never confronted real trauma or a threat to safety.
Most everything else in the comments speaks better than my words could, but as a gay person of color, I add myself to the list of people who thinks people just need to calm down. We all have personal tragedies. We've all suffered somehow, whether we be black, hispanic, white, Asian, gay, straight, and everything else in between. And I don't think that the views of some should silence others.
This is not to diminish the struggles of other people; everyone knows best what they themselves have been through. But we each have our stories, and we each have our choices to make. I think if you're offended by something, definitely speak out, and make your dissent known. But I don't think that has to also be accompanied by silencing others. Don't tape the mouths of the people who offend you, because hey, don't people use the taped mouth as a symbol of oppression in other protests in the first place? It seems ironic to me. Just my two cents.
UPVOTE THE FUCK OUT OF THIS COMMENT.
All of the yes. Let's be kind.
If you are traumatized by orgo night and consider it a threat to your safety, you have clearly never confronted real trauma or a threat to safety.
I'm all for standing up for the rights of minorities and the oppressed, but it's terrifying that people think that it's necessary to throw out fundamental civil liberties - free speech, innocent until guilty, and due process being the most commonly advocated to be kicked to the curb on this campus - in order to achieve those rights. Those who pose as liberals and progressives but can mindlessly advocate these things should reconsider their political alignment.
Just because you're offended doesn't mean your right.
You don't have the "right" to be comfortable. You don't have the "right" for everyone to agree with you. And you don't have the "right" to censor anyone, however awful their words might make you feel.
Ideally, we would all get along and live in a world of mutual respect. But the fact of the matter is that people are simply allowed to be racist. They are entitled to their opinions just like everyone else.
"I do not agree with what you have to say, but I'll defend to the death your right to say it."
I don't think that the band is spewing hate speech, personally. But even if they were, they should be allowed. That's what freedom of expression is. Unfortunately, we have to take the bad with the good. The KKK has the right to parade and protest in the same way that Martin Luther King Jr. did.
Enough with the overuse of the word "trigger." You're diluting it for you know, real triggering things. Orgo night pshhh
I don't understand why people take offense to the NYPD being present on the streets during the die-in. How is public safety and the school supposed to know that a protest will be peaceful if it is planned in secret, with potentially non-affiliated people attending? Why shouldn't they take measures to ensure the safety of hundreds of Columbia students at Tree-Lighting? As far as I know, NYPD didn't interrupt the protest or the march afterwards. Being unreasonable doesn't exactly garner support for the cause.
"garner"
These demonstrations are protesting misconduct by the police. When the police show up in numbers far beyond what is needed to maintain order, it's reasonable to conclude that their goal is intimidation.
I'm a Queer PoC and I love Orgo Night- If you are easily offended, just don't go... Simple as that.
I'm a Queer PoC and I love Orgo Night- If you are easily offended, just don't go... Simple as that.
This campus is long overdue for a rally standing up for due process and free speech.
Actually. Throwing out civil liberties isn't how you achieve equality. That's regressive, not progressive policy.
"The marching band’s posters and “jokes” continue their violence, and the administration stays silent."
"Just because the marching band makes fun of everyone does not excuse their racism, sexism, violence against queer people, or their violence against trans people."
"Your participation is violence and your laughter complacency."
I'm sorry, but any semblance of an argument in this piece went out the door when you equate jokes to "violence."
A) If you really believe that student attendance constitutes violence, you're in for a very long, "violent" life. Many people have shared on Facebook that if poc tell you that something is racist, you listen. I'll counter, if Columbia students by and large tell you something is overblown, maybe it's time to reevaluate whether or not your anger (which is very legitimate, btw) is being directed at the right place.
B) If you still feel that you'll be witness to this "violence" by taking part, avoid Butler tonight. It's a simple solution, and no need to cancel Orgo Night for the rest of us.
When the CUMB made a joke about the Korean cruise ship failing the swim test, I'm not gonna lie, I CHUCKLED. So does that make me "part of the problem" against my own country and ethnicity? Please stop taking yourself so seriously, or at least stop trying to speak on behalf of people you clearly don't know or understand. You offend me.
When the CUMB made a joke about the Korean cruise ship failing the swim test, I'm not gonna lie, I CHUCKLED. So does that make me "part of the problem" against my own country and ethnicity? Please stop taking yourself so seriously, or at least stop trying to speak on behalf of people you clearly don't know or understand. You offend me.
Yeah, you are part of the problem against your own country and ethnicity. Why are you chuckling at the deaths of innocent people? Jesus
I think that this op ed is actually a good thing, because it has proven that we've reached a tipping point.
For as long as I've been here, PoC groups and queer groups have made me feel excluded most, as a queer man. And here's why: they CONSTANTLY miss the point by getting so wrapped up in their highly academic, nightly "open door" discussions in "safe spaces." Most of these discussions, which I've attended, marginalize a slew of identities and are, inherently, homophobic and racist via removal from "the real world" and founding judgments based on academic writings.
Example 1, then: Spending hours arguing (read: agreeing with each other) that queerness is not defined exclusively by object choice in the Middle East, and that the international community has no right to intervene while IGNORING that sodomy is punishable by death or life imprisonment in virtually every Islamic state. People are dying and we're sitting at an Ivy League arguing over minutia.
Example 2, now: Calling Orgo Night "violent" and "unsafe," writing articles and calling for administrative intervention all while police violence and systemic racism plague our criminal justice system. People are dying and we're sitting at an Ivy League writing op eds, speaking on behalf of all PoC's, and arguing over what's funny and what's not.
This is the tipping point. Columbia's had it with a select group of hyper-sensitive students who feel they have access to speak on behalf of all PoC and queer people. Columbia's had it with people creating "safe spaces" that are exclusionary and hostile. Columbia's had it with students who consider cartoonish jokes "violence" while ignoring real life race-based violence happening right outside the gates they hide behind.
This is everything. Thank you. Why can't THIS be an op-ed?
It can. Please write it. Email spec opinion. It's not that hard.
"Columbia's had it with a select group of hyper-sensitive students who feel they have access to speak on behalf of all PoC and queer people."
This is so true. For example, as a POC, I feel extremely unsafe at BSO meetings. If I express an opinion that is unpopular, I feel unsafe and attacked. The quest for political correctness is now becoming destructive. Since when is censorship of free speech a solution?
The President of BSO thinks she speaks on behalf of all black students when in reality most black students don't go to BSO. It's so unfortunate this discussion has turned into a division discussion. Everyone should be coming together to fight injustices; however, certain hypersensitive individuals continue down to slippery slope of censorship and misdirected anger.
Yes a thousand times Yes!
Thank you for this, and yes definitely turn this into an op-ed!
It's finals. Go study or eat ice-cream!
NO! Just because something I say may be offensive to you, it doesn't mean I can't say it. Safe space isn't meant to shelter you and act as your protector every time someone says something you don't like.
It's just as racist and discriminatory to say a white people can't say something just because they are white. Yes, they may have been privileged but how does that affect their basic right to be able to voice they opinion?
This is what it wrong with Columbia, we have elevated race, sexual orientation, gender to levels where they are starting to stifle our basic rights like freedom of speech just so that a specific group on campus doesn't have their feelings hurt. One day we will all leave this sheltered campus and learn life doesn't work like that.
As "a student of color", I have been here 3 years now and I haven't felt discriminated against. I have never felt like Orgo Night has infringed on my rights. Even when the Gaza Strip incident happened, I felt offended as a believer in Palestinian freedom and statehood BUT I still appreciated the right people have to say whatever they want.
Easily one of the shittiest op-eds I have ever read. Unless it's satire—in that case, A+
A student here at Columbia made a beautiful tribute to a real, tangible, actual tragedy on this campus, and people are crying over Orgo Night. I can't.
I think the main problem here is that people don't know how to take a joke. In previous semesters' orgo nights, there were jokes that I was offended by, and others that were in poor taste in general, but those did not stop me from enjoying the event. I also think it is interesting that the groups who are made fun of the most (the athletes, fraternities, and administration) are not the ones who are protesting the event.
I think everyone just needs to smoke some weed
Im in recovery and this unsafe. Why you gotta be so violent!?
These people always claim that what they want is a real conversation on issues of race, sexuality, and identity. Yet, somehow, that "conversation" always seems more like them trying to shut up anyone else who disagrees with what they have to say. It's really not a conversation if it's one-sided, and everything anyone else may have to say is immediately shouted down.
... or immediately denounced as racist, sexist, homophobic, transphobic, etc.
Like "let's have a conversation, but only I can speak, and everything else you say is immediately disgraceful and wrong."
isn't that what both sides are doing in this comment section?
Beautifully articulated.
The problem with orgo night is it's just not good at being funny
What we need :https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ynYwTU7z6BI
None of this nonsense
Good job guys, looks the liberals are targeting themselves again
Only commenting about the article's position on queer jokes:
1) I am seriously interested in where you (the authors) get your authority to speak for the LGBT community and label the jokes as violent against queer people. Regardless of either of you are straight or queer, it doesn't give you the authority to turn our/my community into a monolithic voice that condemns Orgo Night.
2) Re: "When queer students tell you that something is homophobic, you listen." Ok, I agree with this, but in relation to Orgo night, I don't. A joke of poor taste does not mean it is homophobic, it just means the authors are stupid/senseless. What would make the joke homophobic is if it was grounded in fear, hatred, prejudice, or antipathy.
i know it's final and all, but you guys need to chill the fuck out
Whenever someone writes an article in similar fashion, please don't speak for all people of color. As one of them, it makes me slightly uncomfortable. You could refer to a group you represent or something along those lines instead...
Thanks to anyone who takes this comment seriously.
Dunni I love your hair, have you really been using "white tears to moisturize [it] since 1994"
https://twitter.com/thisisdunni
Oh my goodness this woman's twitter. Honestly what she says (and is public for everyone to see) can be offensive. It's not okay to think you're holier than thou. You're allowed to have your own opinions but you also have to be respectful to others.
This Dunni Oduyemi bitch is the racist one. Look at her social media accounts.
Big fan of the comment above that points out our tendency to jump to ad hominem arguments. I think I agree with you, but let's argue with the points she made instead of attacking the person.
She wrote an op-Ed criticizing the marching band's jokes she thinks are racist, but on her own public twitter account for the whole world to see writes disgusting anti-white racist sentiments. She needs to be called out on that. Remember last year when students were upset and some felt unsafe because several Columbia football players wrote racist statements about asians on their twitter accounts? They got called out on it. She needs to practice what she preaches.
Oh my God her twitter: https://twitter.com/thisisdunni/status/537336097203056640/photo/1
WHAT THE LITERAL FUCK?!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bq5dNcrHE8w
Ugh CUMB is just another campus music-maker (I'm looking at you Flaxo) appropriating black stereotypes for their patriarchic, mico-agressive othering of alienated sub-alterns
if you feel offended, that's fine. you're entitled. but not everybody has to cater to your exact sensitivity. if that were so, nobody could ever make a joke ever again. try being uncomfortable sometime and laughing if off, instead of pretending you speak for everybody and that every comment that a loud clearly crazy marching makes is going to "trigger" you 24/7.
I love how months ago, Nicki Minaj's cover was denigrating, offensive, and objectifying. Now, when it serves their points, it's empowering, feminist and everything that's right in this world.
This is almost believable hahaha - I've never seen a Spec op-ed troll this hard
I'm offended that Spectator has allowed comments disagreeing with this op-ed to be posted.
Yes because Spectator limiting freedom of speech is the press's job
This article is the most offensive joke I've seen all year.
Can they (or anyone else) actually point to a legitimate racist or sexist moment in this entire script? I'll link it: http://cumb.tumblr.com/post/69911299926/orgo-night-fall-2013-dec-12-2013
Please point me to anything that does anything to perpetuate the oppression of literally any of the groups you mentioned and I'll gladly admit that Orgo Night needs fixing.
Found a sexist one in the first dozen lines:
"Barnard students, please set your vibrators to phone. Let’s start the show!"
Fun game though!
The fact that the students of this campus are not infuriated by the ISIS poster is daunting. What if we started poking fun at the lives lost in the Holocaust? Suffocating in a gas chamber instead of having your head cut off??
What if we started poking fun at the deaths caused by 9/11? Jumping from a building?
If a poster was put up joking about the deaths caused by 9/11 or the holocuast PrezBo would be on the phone in a matter of 30 seconds.
Are white American civilian lives more valuable than lives of civilians taken by ISIS? Is that why its easier to simply laugh about them?
Our "alllivesmatter" hashtags mean jack shit when we accept such behavior in our community. Don't go to Orgo night.
Really? Prezbo actually defended the right for Nazis to March in the Skokie controversy of the '70's. http://www.jstor.org/stable/1288226. Check your facts next time. Free speech is free speech, no matter how much it hurts.
The fact that the students of this campus are not infuriated by the ISIS poster is daunting. What if we started poking fun at the lives lost in the Holocaust? Suffocating in a gas chamber instead of having your head cut off??
What if we started poking fun at the deaths caused by 9/11? Jumping from a building?
If a poster was put up joking about the deaths caused by 9/11 or the holocuast PrezBo would be on the phone in a matter of 30 seconds.
Are white American civilian lives more valuable than lives of civilians taken by ISIS? Is that why its easier to simply laugh about them?
Our "alllivesmatter" hashtags mean jack shit when we accept such behavior in our community. Don't go to Orgo night.
Uhhh
The ISIS poster was in reference to an American (white) (civilian) (well-educated) (male) journalist who was decapitated by ISIS.
So...?
It's kind of weird how the same people who are quick to jump to the highest possible vocabulary ("violence," "triggering" etc) are also the ones who seem to research the least (Malaysian Air flights aren't stocked exclusively with Malaysians, do they think Air France maintains 100% French membership at all times? And before you jump to any conclusions, the flight had 12 Malaysians on it, for a total of 5% Malaysian vs 80% Chinese. Stop conflating the two races, you insensitive triggering racist oppressor.)
In conclusion, there are so many institutions that perpetuate homophobia, sexism, and racism, and CUMB is at the absolute bottom of that list, if it's on it at all. Please leave Orgo Night alone and stay home if you're that traumatized by jokes mostly about Barnard girls and John Jay pizza.
*Barnard women.
IF YOU DONT LIKE MY LYRICS YOU CAN PRESS FAST FORWARD
Raise your hand if you've ever felt personally victimized by the Marching Band
As saddening as this op-ed was to read, these comments have been cathartic. I had started to lose faith in the school I had chosen, but you all have started to restore my faith in Columbia as a group of thinking people who respect the right to free speech.
I completely agree. I also hope the authors of this op-ed read every single one of these comments...
Cry me a river. As a person of color, i understand what is going on with race and everything, but orgo night is no more but a joke to me about real issues. Just like comedians joke around real issues that they shouldn't have, but that is humor. If the humor doesnt fit you alright, dont go. but dont ruin it for everyone else. people may joke around with me about race and my income background, and i laugh WITH them because there is an ounce of reality in the stereotype they may joke about, but like i said JOKE, not serious.
Umm, freedom of speech doesn't mean you can't say anything that offends someone else. That's not how freedom works. That's how dictatorships work.
It's simple really. If you don't like Orgo Night, then don't go to Orgo Night. Nobody is forcing you to go.
https://twitter.com/thisisdunni/status/540968519589175296
Because I'm assuming others are as lazy as me and won't actually click:
The link is Dunni tweeting "white people calling black/brown people their "brothers and sisters" can you not"
Relax guys. Life is short, enjoy it while you can.
It's like these guys were coddled and breast fed until the age of 16...
1. Nobody here is attempting to infringe on anybody else's constitutionally protected right to free speech. Only the government can do that. Columbia is not the government. The authors of this op-ed are not the government. Internet commenters are not the government.
2. Columbia, as a private university, has every right to infringe upon speech or activity it finds objectionable. For instance, for more than 40 years the university barred the Reserve Officers' Training Corps from campus, in part due to the military's policy of barring openly gay and lesbian soldiers from serving. I also don't think many people would object to Columbia refusing to recognize a student chapter of the KKK, or barring said chapter from holding an event in 209 Butler.
3. Barnard and Columbia administrators have been awfully inconsistent about where they'll attempt censorship and where they won't. Kevin Shollenberger asked the Band to take down its "Gaza Strip" poster last year, but allowed the Band to host that Orgo Night anyway, knowing it would certainly bring up Gaza in its script. Debora Spar had Students for Justice in Palestine's banner removed from Barnard Hall, but the group's dramatic and highly visible "Apartheid Week" goes on unimpeded every year. Columbia rebuffed ROTC because the military wouldn't accept openly gay and lesbian soldiers, but invited ROTC back even though the military continued to bar transgender soldiers. If there's a rhyme or reason to any of this, I don't see it.
4. Just because someone disagrees with the content of this op-ed doesn't necessarily make that person racist, sexist, homophobic, transphobic, or any combination thereof. This argument is the logical equivalent of Bush-era conservatives saying that liberals who didn't support the president's foreign policy agenda hated America. You have every right to believe that someone is bigoted simply by virtue of the fact that they disagree with you, but when you say so, repeatedly, in an effort to win an argument, you have to understand that you are crossing the line from dialogue into intimidation.
5. No two students can believably claim to speak for the thousands of students of color, queer students, and trans students on this campus.
1. People like to make your first point a lot when people say "First Amendment!" to non-government censorship (which I havn't even see anyone say.) It's not that it's wrong, as far it goes, but rather it only goes so far. "Freedom of speech" is a concept that isn't limited to the First Amendment; rather, the First Amendment realizes its importance (which is why people have been saying "freedom of speech".) If you liked reading J.S. Mill about freedom of speech, you probably hated this op-ed, without mistakenly believing the Constitution somehow factored in here.
2. Columbia might have the legal right to censor speech, but censorship is inconsistent with its mission as a university, a place where ideas are supposed to widely circulate. Again, almost no one is talking about legal rights here - instead, they're debating whether censorship is good or bad.
And I don't know - to be consistent you might have to be in favor of the KKK being allowed to form. Most arguments against would raise questions about other student groups that students disagree with and/or find abhorrent (SJP's battles with other organizations come to mind.) Regardless, that's not what is occurring here.
"People of color, queer people, and trans people know better than anyone that comedy can be unifying and even liberating"
And is what CUMB doing anything but a large joke? How does it pan out that those who are completely fine with their place in life, who may or may not be of color, who may or may not be gay, and who may or may not be transgendered, are forced to temper their speech because a small handful of students disagree?
"Columbia’s administration has failed students of color, time and time again. When black and brown students held a peaceful die-in at the tree lighting ceremony last Thursday, half a dozen NYPD vans lined up on Broadway within the 15 minutes that we were on the ground."
An unfortunate event, but also realize that the other "peaceful" protests by those against the Mike Brown and Eric Garner incidents ended with property destruction, fires, broken glass, fights, hate speech, and lots of fucking of the police. I do not blame them for having a ground force out, due to precedence.
"The marching band has always known that their “jokes” are triggering for marginalized identities on campus, and they have been vocal about their pain."
A vocal minority complaining about their own problems. You cannot speak for every single individual without stiffing someone, just as you accuse CUMB of doing.
Precedent*
I apologize for triggering you and your proper spelling ways. Maybe if you weren't such a grammarist, we wouldn't be coming to blows over a simple typo, during which I was only slightly drunk. Please don't turn me in, I swear I'm a good little boy.
To the authors of this piece,
Enough already.
I feel like all I've heard on campus the past few weeks is the constant whining and complaining about how this campus doesn't care, how this campus is racist, how all white people are privileged. Can you just take a step back and acknowledge that you're not the only ones who have ever had to face injustice? The semester is over, its the end of the year and a time for new beginnings. So please, stop trying to vomit your "I'm the victim" activist agenda all over Butler and switch schools if you're so unhappy.
All I read was "wahhhhhh Columbia admins please sanitize all content and prevent all people from saying things that might trigger me. i'm entitled to safe world full of rainbows"
so you're basically saying that I'm not entitled to feeling safe in "my world" (a.e., this university)?
nobody has any natural right to anything... you only have what the powerful group chooses to give you
it depends how you define safe. You have the right to be safe from physical harm or the reasonable threat of physical harm. You don't have the right to be safe from all risk. You have the right not to be physically intimidated or bullied. You also don't have the right to be safe from anything offending you. This isn't kindergarten. You are ill-prepared for the real world if you expect to be safe from everything. Life is risk.
for goodness sake, it's finals week.
just take a couple shots, go to orgo night and have fun.
for goodness sake, it's finals week.
just take a couple shots, go to orgo night and have fun.
I couldn't agree more with the author's sentiment, but...wtf is orgo night??? It would've been nice to include a short explanation to help this reach a wider audience.
The comments on this are so depressing... so this is the population that dominates at an Ivy League school and is going to enter the higher sectors of society. Depressing as hell.. thanks for the article. Well-written and powerful.
love one another.
If you don't like orgo night, don't go. Some people enjoy it. If that's not your kind of humor it's not in your place to shut it down.
Orgo night is in bad taste this year GIVEN THE CONTEXT OF WHAT'S BEEN GOING ON RECENTLY. If marginalized groups don't want another night of feeling beaten down after a week of protesting, then seriously just give them a break!! Even if they don't go, knowing it's going on is still bad enough.
Yeah, no, that's not quite how society works. Your argument boils down to "i've been offended, so you, potentially offensive person, should stop doing what you are doing to give me a break." This is incredibly naive, stupid, and shortsighted.
You go to an Ivy League school. Start acting like it and stop trying to make everything a cause. Trying to get Orgo Night cancelled because you feel oppressed truly shows you don't understand what it means to actually be oppressed.
I am in complete alliance with the authors of this article (as is literally everyone I have talked to at Columbia) in believing that the grand jury decisions were misguided, offensive, and downright wrong. However, given that Columbia is an international university, with a student body from all over the world, we should be thinking globally. Are you saying that this decision is more of a tragedy than anything that has occurred in any other year in which Orgo night has occurred and therefore this year should be an exception? Horrendous human rights violations have occurred somewhere in the world in every year that I have been at Columbia, and there are people from those countries who are valuable members of our university's community. Why should this injustice be singled out? That could easily be construed as diminishing anyone someone else's tragedy.
That being said, I believe that humor has even more of an important role in trying times, especially during these weeks which are already stressful for many members of this community. Satire is a coping mechanism for many people, myself included. And, even if you do not find it entertaining or helpful yourself, it is an issue of First Amendment rights, which I would hope anyone at this university would understand and value.
hi this is dumb kbye
Nope. YOU are part of the problem.
Nope. YOU are part of the problem.
Did you actually manage to crystalize 'PoC privilege' by demanding that another organization's event be cancelled because it culturally offends you? Do you realize the hysterical irony of that request? You are literally fighting against the rights you depend on to progress: freedom of speech and assembly.
Also, being a member of a race makes you the spokesperson for the entire race inasmuch as being an emo kid makes you a spokesperson for all of humanity. You may just be an overly sensitive person. As an alumni I can tell you that Columbia doesn't care about any of their students; race isn't a factor. They may care about you if your parents are extremely wealthy, but that would require Illuminati money and is really irrelevant.
Columbia is an extremely diverse place, with one of the more open and welcoming student bodies (or groups of persons) that you will ever encounter anywhere on the planet. I'm Asian, and my group of friends made the UN look like Alabama. If you have problems enjoying your life at Columbia, look inward.
"Illuminati money" 10/10
#TRUUUUUUUUUU
i don't get why some of us always seem to want the administration to get involved. aren't we capable of defining and creating our own community of students? the more we demand the administration get involved the more the administration will get involved, and for stuff like this, is that what we really want? it's like we're in the back seat fighting with our little brother and we want mommy and daddy to tell him to stay on his side of the car seat. personally i don't want the administration involved with things like this. fuck them. we're adults. we should try and work these things out ourselves, even if that process is imperfect.
They want the administration to get involved when it benefits their position, otherwise they want nothing to do with them in anyway because the administration is part of the problem, unless someone is offending them then the administration isn't part of the problem but the only solution. It's really quite simple. Try to keep up.
Ever consider that the NYPD was there for the safety of the protesters? Public demonstrations can bring crowds that might not be in favor of the protest.
Oh yeah...and I'm sure the officer who killed Eric Garner was just trying to hug him real tight to make him feel safe and warm
This is quite possibly one of the worst-written Op-Ed's in Spec's history. The authors may have a point about some jokes going to far, but that's often the point of comedy and then people come back off that line.
If you seriously think that you are somehow oppressed by the actions of CUMB, you really don't understand what oppression is. If you don't like a joke, how about you boo them or do something else that shows your displeasure rather than try to make this a much larger story about race, etc. when there is really extremely little evidence to support anything you have claimed.
Grow up and toughen up.
It's "too" not "to." It seems like if you're going to start your comment with the judgment that this is the worst-written Op-Ed piece ever, you might want to use spell check first.
"you might want to use spell check first".
Well, if you ever had used one, you might have noticed "to" is an actual word and spell-checks just fine.
I challenge the authors of this piece to honestly answer the following question: Who is more likely to be the butt of an Orgo Night joke--a person of color, or a virulent racist?
I feel as though as this discourse continues, me and my fellow white straight cis-males are increasingly being disenfranchised. What's the white privilege now, not being able to voice our opinion for fear of being verbally lynched by the protesters.
As a gay man of color:
1. You do not speak for me. You do NOT speak for me. I will not let my being and my experiences be reduced to my various identities to create this fake sense that we are all somehow the same, all for the sake of advancing rhetoric that I do not agree with. Do not claim to represent me when my voice and those of other moderate queer POC are also equally criticized in these so-called "safe spaces."
2. Before going around sanctimoniously telling all oppressors to listen, why not stop disparaging your fellow POC who take issue with your views. For starters, stop saying: A. "You must be suffering from internalized racism," B. "You probably worship white people," C. "Probably Republican," D. "You're not 'really' one of us." Talk about being selective with your principles.
3. You may be oppressed, but that does not give you the right to be so abrasive. Your opinions are just that—opinions. You can't expect people to listen to you when you're being self-righteous, just as you can't expect to win them over, either.
The people who are truly part of the problem are the POC and the other marginalized identities that remain anonymous and don't speak for themselves. Stand up and show these people you exist and that your identity should not be appropriated for their own purposes!
Just wanted to say - the courage to post non-anonymously, and attach your name to your opinions is commendable. I really wish there was more of an open dialogue possible about these issues without people having to put their necks out on a social guillotine. I think you're right in pinning a large part of the problem with this article not in the authors' expressing their opinions but in the preachy self-righteousness of it all - it seems like this kind of toxic approach is the very thing that discourages open dialogue between different groups and the multitudinous viewpoints within those groups (without hiding behind the mask of anonymity on a website comment section as 193 other people have thus far done).
Soooo...is anyone else getting really sick and tired of self-righteous whiny assholes like the author who feel entitled to lay claim to the voice of millions and level it against something trivial just so they can have their fifteen minutes of fame on the social justice soapbox?
Also go check out Ms. Oduyemi's social media (twitter, Facebook). Isn't it convenient that when cumb puts out a flier it's violence against pocs and lgbtqs, but when Oduyemi openly targets whites in her humor, of course there's nothing inconsistent going on?
Seriously, fuck this bullshit, hyper-sensitive tripe. If you remain silent in the face of this, you give idiots like Ms. Oduyemi license to play make-believe in the social justice echo chamber. The result is a hackneyed discourse where I hear the same tired shit being spewed by politically correct idiots every day. I am this close to deleting my Facebook because I am drowning in a river of race baity garbage on an hourly basis.
This needs to stop.
Violence - you keep using that word...........
Top Comment.
You won the internet.
"Columbia administration has failed students of color." That is an understatement if I have seen one. Columbia University has failed. All of its members, of whatever colors, talents, failings, and idiosyncracies fail also by association with Columbia University. Besides, many Columbia students are rapists. Columbia University president aids, abets, and protects those rapists.
Can we establish that whatever Orgo Night is or is not, racist is not one of those things. Perhaps I'm skimming over memories of past Orgos, but to my recollection, they have never said, suggested, implied or supported any statement close to 'We Hate Gays'/'We Hate Blacks.' The one criticism I'll accept is in that regard is that Asians sometimes get a lot of stick, and even that just didn't happen last night. In fact, last night was to me a perfect example of what Orgo Night should be. It was crude, tactless, upfront and highly offensive - to a number of groups that (more or less) deserve the stick they got.
For anyone who didn't go, those persons included, though were not limited to: PrezBo, the football team, NYPD, the football team, BWOG, and the football team.
CUMB stands up for exactly the same things as we, as a campus, believe in. Yesterday, they took a stand for the right of trans students to be at Barnard, disparaged the mockery of the multiple NYPD non-indictments, and spoke out against the way our administration deals with rape. They did this through hyperbole, inappropriate associations, puns, and generally exposing the absurdity of these issues. To most people, this is known as humour.
Columbia believes in these things. You, Oduyemi and Yang, believe in these things. And yet, because Orgo Night isn't politically correct enough for you, it in your eyes deserves to be shut down.
When it comes down to it, the people they most mock is us. Columbia University in the City of New York and how bloody seriously we take ourselves. All the time. So maybe let me rephrase that. The people they're mocking the most is you.
Can we all admit that CUMB's support of transgender rights at Barnard was not only heart-warming but also more effective than any self-righteous oped that only serves to shut people out and turn people away?
Much as I have zero interest in attending orgo night and in my 7 semesters have never attended, to forcibly cancel orgo night would be an intrusion on CUMB's right to free speech. Their jokes may be reprehensible and may cause Columbia to feel like less of a safe space, however, to stifle them would be to negate a fundamental principle that our country was founded on. A principle which allows for all opinions to be voiced, whether racist/sexist/etc., or enlightening and progressive. Columbia's administration does discriminate and in many ways does not support its minority populations, but the smothering of one group's voices through the forced canceling of orgo night is not the answer to this problem. The protesting and important education that happens in response relies on the same essential principles.
The face of a frog?! It was an anaconda's face. DUH.
This is the same kind of argument that is used to ban books from libraries and curriculum. A minority is offended and demands that the books be banned for the good of the community. It is certainly your right to bring up troubling aspects of ORGO night, but please lets keep a fun tradition and improve it.
One of the authors retweeted this: "white internet user here encouraging whites 2 stop with #icantbreathe because y'all can breathe fine! stop tweeting! listen 2 ur poc friends"
So whites are not allowed to show solidarity? But they are also are not allowed to do nothing? Nor allowed to laugh about it? But it's their fault if they don't do anything? It's interesting to see that those who feel excluded on a racial basis are those that exclude the most...on that same basis.
I don't get Columbia students. You go through an arduous and competitive application process, you're one of the privileged 5% who get in, you pay massive tuition fees and then you spend four years attacking and trashing the administration and the university and creating political turmoil over various grievances. It must be hell going to a school you hate.
The writer is spot on. This is the way elite and privileged Columbia students are perceived outside of the iron gates at 116th St. Why would anyone pay $51,000 a year to be oppressed?
Why is no one talking about free speech?
1) it's a private university. it's irrelevant.
2) it's the height of hypocrisy. welcome to college in America.
I find it interesting that this has blown up right around the time people are realizing they need to start studying for finals. While I definitely believe a lot of people are experiencing trauma -- and support the Law School's new exam policies and the general idea that accommodations are needed -- I can't help but feel like some people might be using this conversation as an excuse to procrastinate: it takes a lot less restraint to get on Facebook and yell than it does to study something rather mundane. So, before you start commenting/posting, just consider what your motives are for doing so. Because it really cheapens the cause and insults the people you claim to be advocating for if you're just using this as a way to rationalize mediocrity
and obviously that's not the primary reason the Orgo Night conversation is happening. but i think some of the circular conversations may owe to that
The point of Orgo Night is to make fun of yourself and the situation you find yourself in. The band makes a point of welcoming anyone who's interested, even if they can't play an instrument. Sure enough you can find people of every color, gender, and sexual orientation represented. The most important point here is that CUMB makes fun of EVERYONE--it is an all-inclusive, satirical event. I also think that Orgo Night, in particular, does a good job of communicating problems within our campus and within our society via humor. Think of how many people, regardless of who they are, come to listen and are receptive to what is said at Orgo Night.
Lastly:
"This is a campus where yellowface is a regular [occurrence], where sororities caricaturize Mexican culture for fun..."
Both of these events happened one time respectively, and both created such an uproar amongst the student body that they will never happen again. I am actually proud of the CU student body's reaction to these events--I don't think they fit into this article.
"A predominantly white group and a predominantly white administration cannot be the ones to determine what is acceptable, and what spaces are safe for students of color, queer students, or trans students."
Herein lies the problem. if you categorize everyone based on their skin or sexual identity and the deny those outside of a particular category the right to make decisions on that subject matter, you've gone round the bend. Should only men vote on male issues? Jews for Jewish issues? what about Jewish women? how do we split that baby? it would be nice if you stopped defining yourself by one particular characteristic, but it sure as shit would be great if you stopped defining others as NON-particular characteristic.
"In its original form, the album cover is a statement about sex positivity and one woman’s control over the depiction of her body" ... not sure what the basis is for this claim but I'm fairly certain that the statement being made is: buy this album - my bare bum is the only legitimate reason for you to do so because I am untalented and peaked in 2012.
don't go to butler on orgo night then...SIPA is open all night during reading week and you're not allowed to be racist of there
if i wanted to hear a bunch of unfounded assertions I would just reread Locke's an essay on human understanding
You can all spew your anti-Zionist bullshit all you want. After 8 wars with the Arabs, Israel has won and survived. Our people have seen everything, your claims are nothing new and are entirely uninteresting. Cry me a river. We will beat you at your own game, as we always have.
I managed to graduate from Columbia in 1996 and yet never heard of Orgo night. all i want to do now is go to it. it sounds great.
Satire - the use of humor, irony, exaggeration, or ridicule to expose and criticize vices, particularly in the context of contemporary politics and other topical issues.
Orgo Night is not an event that is set out to perpetuate injustice, nor it is created out of spite. This event highlights the various issues that crop up during each semester and reminds students of their relativity and importance. And while achieving this through satire is bound to stir up controversy, satire is just as effective in criticizing oppression and injustice as an open forum, a protest, or an online op-ed war.
http://columbiaspectator.com/opinion/2014/12/12/how-columbia-turned-conservative
Since when do college students get to decide if NYPD presence is "unnecessary"? Had that "peaceful die-in" gone sideways (let's remember that Columbia's campus is still in New York City), those same students would have claimed they were abandoned by the police because their lives don't matter.
offended that dunni thinks she understands the american black experience when she grew up far away from it, to the best of my knowledge
Well, here it is. The stupidest fucking thing I've read this year.
Anyone ever look at this girl's Twitter? It's disgusting.
Toughen up. Good luck in the real world. lol.
This is so melodramatic, i don't care about Orgo Night but this article makes me want to go. Stop complaining about trauma you're experiencing going to COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY you sound like a spoiled brat.
This is so melodramatic, i don't care about Orgo Night but this article makes me want to go. Stop complaining about trauma you're experiencing going to COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY you sound like a spoiled brat.
This is so melodramatic, i don't care about Orgo Night but this article makes me want to go. Stop complaining about trauma you're experiencing going to COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY you sound like a spoiled brat.
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
Solipsistic faux-activism for a generation dependent on tumblr flame wars for dopamine
the editor should probably retake uwriting...
Let's be clear. You are out of sync with the vast majority. You don't reflect our view. You are hapless, angry, humorless outliers. If it were up to you, you would ban books. Ban articles. Ban satire. And ban speech. We don't like what you say. And don't like your values. If you want to not attend orgo night -- which is an event full of fun and joy -- don't attend it. But don't you dare try to ban me and the vast vast majority of people who want to attend the event merely because YOU don't like it. If you have a problem with it, don't attend. Go away. You do your thing. And all of us will do our thing.
Through her comments and her tweets, I find Dunni's generalization and hatred of white people quite troubling...I am not denying the racism shown by many people who do happen to be white (people of all colors and shades can be racist) but I think she loses credibility by generalizing and making racist comments herself. This does not encourage white allies.
So true. As a black male myself, everything said and going on hits home. But I think with all the tensions and emotions flaring, many POC lose sight of the point that we're trying to encourage people to see our perspective, not shove it down their throats. The blatant injustice angers us, but we can't expect to bring people our side by slandering and vilifying people for their lack of awareness. Ignorant people become defensive when you tell them they are ignorant. That's why you have to show them.
Also what is with this fuck the police attitude. Just because they are not doing their jobs well doesn't mean we don't want them to do their jobs... Having police officers at a quiet protest is a safety precaution IN CASE things get out of hand for whatever reason. We can't let our anger toward them dismiss why they are there in the first place
PEOPLE WHO ARE NOT BEING OPPRESSED DAILY/SUFFER THROUGH SYSTEMATIC OPPRESSION SHOULD NOT EVEN BE ALLOWED TO COMMENT ON THE ISSUE OF ORGO NIGHT. IF A "TRADITION" MAKES A GROUP OF STUDENTS UNCOMFORTABLE, THEN IT SHOULD NOT BE ALLOWED ON THIS CAMPUS. SIMPLE AS THAT. JUST LIKE HOW THE "FREE GAZA" POSTERS WERE SWIFTLY ASKED TO BE TAKEN DOWN BECAUSE IT MADE A GROUP OF STUDENTS UNCOMFORTABLE, ORGO NIGHT SHOULD BE ELIMINATED AS WELL.
You might want to google 'oppression' and then kick yourself in the face. Being a colored person at an Ivy League school doesn't make you fucking oppressed; if anything it's quite the opposite.
ANY GROUP (WHICH PRESUMABLY MEANS 2 OR MORE PEOPLE) THAT FEELS OPPRESSED SHOULD DETERMINE WHO SAYS WHAT AND WHERE. BRILLIANT. JUST BRILLIANT. IF THAT'S THE CASE, EACH AND EVERY GROUP THAT DEMONSTRATES IN FAVOR OF ITS TWO-BIT CAUSE IN FRONT ON THE STEPS WILL BE SWEPT AWAY BY SECURITY BECAUSE TWO OR MORE PEOPLE OBJECT TO THEIR PRESENCE. BRILLIANT. IT IS NO SURPRISE THAT YOU WERE ADMITTED INTO THE IVY LEAGUE
Hahahahahahaha. Right. So you've been refused entry to a public place or business on the basis of your race or told to sit at the back of the bus or sprayed with a commercial fire hose? Oh wait, perhaps you've been threatened daily by physical violence or beaten to death because you are gay? No? Oh, then maybe you've been subjected to genital mutilation or are refused education?
Please, let us all sit cross-legged on the floor, eyes wide, and hear tales of the DAILY oppression you and/or your IVY LEAGUE colleagues suffer.
I am a black woman. One thing that's truly interesting for me, is to see how comedy and other forms of media relate to the actual images that people create of other cultures and races. I would love to say that watching and taking in comedic media is never harmful, but I don't think that is the case. Comedy is usually a very popular form that is easy for people to understand and absorb, and one that can be properly understood as just comedy by a certain segment of the population, but what about those who might not take it so lightly? One could say that the recent rash of homicides of black people by white police officers has something to do with the preconceived notions of African-Americans that bleed through a highly pervasive system of media, as inherently more threatening and dangerous than those of other races. This is a quote from an encyclopedia entry on Blackface Minstrel Shows. "Blackface minstrelsy was the first distinctly American theatrical form. In the 1830s and 1840s, it was at the core of the rise of an American music industry, and for several decades it provided the lens through which white America saw black America. On the one hand, it had strong racist aspects; on the other, it afforded white Americans a singular and broad awareness of what some whites considered significant aspects of black-American culture to be." So before we say that these jokes are harmless, and should be taken lightly, we should remember the history of comedy in this country, and how it has determined the current state of affairs. This is all to say that, yes, comedy CAN end up being violent and traumatizing.
I can't believe people can actually have this opinion yet still be so racist. If anything they fuel the divide between race, not bring it together.
I can't believe people can actually have this opinion yet still be so racist. If anything they fuel the divide between race, not bring it together.
At least they attached their names, better chance of their view being corrected down the road as a result.
This girl represents such a base understanding of interpersonal relations and race-based relations that it is astonishing. Washing your hair with white tears? Grow up.
the color of ones skin does not give that individual free license to label whatever they want "racism", it doesn't take colored skin to know what racism is. though i agree on with you on many fronts, you alienate a lot of people with the cavalier generalizations
Went to ORGO night and as a POC I saw a lot of white people staring at me as the jokes got increasingly offensive. This made me more uncomfortable than the jokes, although those weren't terribly funny either.
OH MY GOD GET OVER YOURSELVES AND STOP COMPLAINING AND WINING ABOUT EVERY LITTLE THING THAT MAKES YOU UNCOMFORTABLE. I KNOW IN 2015 EVERYTHING HAS TO BE GLOSSED OVER AND MUTED AND PEOPLE ARE SHELTERED FROM THE RAWNESS OF OTHERS, BUT HONESTLY, GET OVER YOURSELVES. CUMB'S POSTERS ARE FUNNY, THEY MAKE PEOPLE CHUCKLE. THINGS ARE OFFENSIVE AND WILL BE OFFENSIVE TO YOU. TAKE A CHILL PILL, DO YOUR STUDIES AND STOP RUINING EVERYBODY ELSES DAYS BECAUSE YOU DECIDE TO LET SOMEONE ELSE RUIN YOURS.
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Elizabeth Williams' comment above is the most rational and insightful of every previous post here. I suggest you all re-read what she has to say.
What self respecting musician joins a marching band in the first place. Such ensembles are for second rate players who need to hide their musical limitations by marching.
So a thong clad ass is a sex positive feminist expression? It seems like one of those subway advertisements that will inevitably end up with dicks and balls drawn all over it. Usually these are drawn because of the sexist, asking for a dick quality of the graphics. Of course Nicki Minaj's money maker is a sign of empowerment. I see!
The two authors of this piece, who valiantly carried on with writing despite feeling triggered, have won the Ivy League In Decline Society Award for using the word "trigger" (and it's conjugations) more times in an article of no substance than has ever yet been achieved.
Congratulations!
If this is a dream believe me i don't wish to wake up,After 20years relationship with my lover Mohammed he just decided to have a divorce with me because he was having an affair with another lady and the lady told him to break up with me so she can come and take my position when Mohammed told me that he was no longer interested that he is tired of me i was like after 20years now you are tired of me so the next thing was a letter from the lawyer saying Mohammed said he needs a divorce when i saw the letter tears rushed out of my eye i composed my self and said wow this world has turned round against me.So i decided to try all my possible best until one day when i was listen to the radio where i saw people giving testimony on how there divorce was cancelled within 24 hours i was like this is same problem am having i just heard people testifying in the name of this great man called Dr Ogogodu for what he has done for them how he has helped them in bring back there lover i waited for the program to finish and they dropped Dr Ogogodu cell number and email,Immediately i gave dr Ogogodu a call and shared my problem with him he just told me not worry that he assures me that Mohammed will tell the lawyer to cancel the divorce within 24 hours really what Dr Ogogodu said came to past within the 24 hours was a call from Mohammed crying that he his just coming from the lawyers office that he does not need a divorce anymore that he wants me back home that he his sending that lady away so when he said that was so happy now Mohammed came home brought all document and told the lawyer that he his willing everything to me and that he wants me to be the right owner of everything he owns i was so happy,I bless the day i meant dr Ogogodu meeting him was never a regret please clean your tears dr Ogogodu is here to solve your problem you can contact him on ogogodutempleofsolution@gmail.com or cell number +2348078999655
Name: Mrs Mohammed Heidi Country:London My Email:HeidiMohammed333@hotmail.com
Jeesuz, this articvle gave me cancer and developmental delay
Jeesuz, this article gave me cancer and developmental delay