[1494] in Discussion of MIT-community interests
Re: What We May All Have Missed
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Jen Selby)
Wed Oct 8 17:20:44 2003
Date: Wed, 8 Oct 2003 15:36:27 -0400
From: Jen Selby <jenselby@MIT.EDU>
To: MIT-Talk@MIT.EDU
In-Reply-To: Your message of "Wed, 08 Oct 2003 08:17:10 -0000."
<KHEOLPFBOLHMGOODAKKJOEIPDCAA.jbelcher@ceci.mit.edu>
> Just a note to explain why my generation reacts so strongly
> to this issue. I am not trying to convince you of anything,
> I just want to give you some perspective.
In a similar vein, why people of my generation might react less
strongly:
I went to elementary school and junior high in a district that was
mostly middle class, children of blue-collar workers, though there were
some moderatley rich and very poor people as well. My school's racial
makeup was, as far as I can remember, such that the white kids were
only somewhat in majority. There were a lot of African Americans, a
decent amount of Latinos, and some Asians. There were often
interracial couples at the school, and, in fact, when someone made
derogatory comments about this, they received on the order of 50 death
threats. Which is not to say that it was an idyllic picture of race
relations, but there was certainly plenty of mixing of people of
various races. That non-white people should have the same rights as
white people wasn't even a question (though I will admit that, sadly,
there were people that thought that perhaps other races of people
weren't as good as white people -- but these people were almost
exclusively adults; very few people my age held any such beliefs).
To be cool at that time, you had to do, well, some of the things that
were mentioned or hinted at in that invitation -- speak poorly, dress
like a slob, disrespect any authority at the school, get into trouble.
We had people that would do all manner of stupid things to make
themselves look cool. This was not a one-race or one-class thing.
This was something that almost everybody at my school did (including
me, to some extent). So when I read that party invitation, I did not
think that they were making fun of black people. I did not think that
they were making fun of poor people. I thought, ha ha, yeah, I
remember how stupid I was in Junior High, trying to fit in. To me,
they were making fun of stereotypes that have been portrayed
incorrectly in the media and copied by confused adolescents,
stereotypes which, while they may be more associated with a particular
culture or class, are certainly not limited to them nor
all-encompassing of them.
I have no idea what the party organizers were thinking when they wrote
the invitation, though, knowing some of them, I imagine it was
something along the lines of "MTV stereotypes are funny". Possibly
some of them were trying to make fun of themselves.
I think the important thing is context. When my friends make fun using
derogatory stereotypes about groups that I am a part of, I think it's
funny because I know that they don't actually believe any of the things
that they're saying. I thought the party invitation was funny because
I personally know some of the people involved and know that they are
not racists. On the other hand, when MIT offered special programs for
women that seemed to suggest I couldn't get by on my own *because I was
a woman*, I was offended. If someone I didn't know were to send me an
AA flier because I'm Irish, I'd be offended. I don't know these
people, so I can only assume that they actually think that I fit those
stereotypes. I can therefore imagine why people that did not know the
authors of the party invitation might find it horribly offensive.
I'm not sure what the "right" thing to do now is, but I wanted to offer
a little bit of a reasoning as to why people wouldn't have seen this as
wrong in the first place.
Jen
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