[Peace-discuss] Ghetto Fab at U Tex + UI's Tequila and Taco = !

[David Green]

By the way, Robert Jensen will be on campus in early
December to disucss just these issues, sponsored by
the Center for Democracy in a Multicultural Society.
More details to come.

DG

--- Durango Mendoza <durangom at hotmail.com> wrote:

> Here is something that gives a different perspective
> on things like UI's 
> Tequila and Taco incident. DM
> 
> 
> "Ghetto Fabulous" Parties: the New Face of White
> Supremacy,
> Racism and Cheap Thrills at the University of Texas
> Law School
> By ROBERT JENSEN
> CounterPunch
> October 16, 2006
> 
> When one of the first-year University of Texas law
> students who participated 
> in a "ghetto fabulous" party posted pictures on the
> web, we saw the ugly 
> face of white privilege and the racism in which it
> is rooted. But the depth 
> of the problem of white supremacy at the university
> - and in mainstream 
> institutions more generally - is also evident in the
> polite way in which the 
> university administration chastised the students.
> 
> While the thoughtless actions of young adults acting
> out the racism of the 
> culture are disturbing, the thoughtful - but
> depoliticized - response from 
> the law school is distressing. The actions of both
> groups in this affair are 
> a painful reminder of the depth of white society's
> commitment to white 
> supremacy.
> 
> This controversy is not unique to UT. It seems that
> every year students at a 
> prestigious university - the University of Chicago
> last year, Cornell in 
> 2004, and Texas A&M in 2003 - hold one of these
> parties, in which white 
> students revel in what they believe to be the
> appearance and
> behavior of the black and brown people of the
> "ghetto."
> 
> The student from the UT party who posted the photos
> has taken them off the 
> web, but news reports describe a party in which the
> students "carried 
> 40-ounce bottles of malt liquor and wore Afro wigs,
> necklaces with large 
> medallions and name tags bearing historically black
> and Hispanic names." No 
> one involved has contested the characterization of
> the event.
> 
> The motivations and views of participants may vary,
> but these parties have 
> two consistent features:
> (1) white people mock African American and Latino
> people through stereotypes 
> of the residents of low-income urban areas, while at
> the same time enjoying 
> the feeling of temporarily adopting these looks and
> poses; and
> (2) the white folks typically do it without pausing
> to ponder what right 
> they have as members of a dominant racial class to
> poach in this fashion on 
> the lives of people of a subordinated racial class.
> 
> In other words, white people find pleasure in
> insulting non-white people 
> while at the same time safely "slumming" for cheap
> thrills in that non-white 
> world, all the time oblivious to the moral and
> political implications.
> 
> Also typical in these university controversies is a
> tepid reaction from 
> administrators, who tend to avoid the contentious
> race politics at the core 
> of the problem. At UT, the email that went out to
> all law students
> from Dean Larry Sager is revealing.
> 
> Let me be clear that this critique is not focused on
> the dean, or any other 
> administrator involved. Sager, who has a
> distinguished record as a teacher, 
> is a widely recognized constitutional scholar who
> has published important 
> work on civil liberties, especially freedom of
> religion. He consulted other 
> administrators and students before communicating to
> the entire student body, 
> and his commitment to equality and diversity is
> clear. Still, his 
> characterization of the incident is troubling.
> 
> The email to students doesn't use the terms "racism"
> or "white supremacy." 
> The only reference to the racial politics of "ghetto
> fabulous" is the 
> description of the party as being "named in a way
> that was easily understood 
> to have negative racial overtones" and a reminder
> that being "racially 
> insensitive" is inappropriate. While many of the
> students at the party may 
> not have thought they were being racist, it's
> essential that we name such 
> activities as rooted in white people's sense of
> privilege and
> entitlement, the result of historical and
> contemporary racism in a 
> white-supremacist culture.
> 
> This language is crucial. Even with the gains of the
> civil-rights movement, 
> U.S. society is still white supremacist in material
> terms (there are deep, 
> enduring racialized disparities in measures of
> wealth and well-being, some 
> of which haven't improved in the past four decades)
> and
> ideology (many white people continue to believe that
> the culture and 
> politics of Europe are inherently superior). To
> pretend that things such as 
> a ghetto party are not rooted in those racist
> realities is to ignore 
> fundamental moral and political issues in an unjust
> society. It's not about 
> "negative racial overtones" - it's about racism,
> whether conscious or not. 
> It's not about being "racially insensitive" - it's
> about support for white 
> supremacy, whether intended or not.
> 
> The dean's email to law students goes on to give
> three reasons the party was 
> "thoughtless."
> 
> First, Sager suggests that some students "might be
> seriously offended by the 
> party, and especially by the pictures taken at the
> event." No doubt many 
> people were offended, and we all should avoid
> unnecessary offense to
> others. But the key problem is not that such images
> are offensive but that 
> they are part of an oppressive system of white
> supremacy. In a pluralist 
> society, we all can expect to be offended by some
> things other people say 
> and do. Such offense becomes an important political
> issue when connected
> to the ways in which some people are systematically
> devalued and 
> discriminated against.
> 
> Racist, sexist, and heterosexist images and words
> are a problem not merely 
> because they offend but because they help keep
> non-white people, women, and 
> lesbians and gays in subordinated positions. Framing
> the problem of 
> oppressive systems as a question of offensiveness
> often leads people to 
> argue that the solution is for the targets of the
> offensive speech or 
> actions to be less sensitive, rather than changing
> the oppressive system. 
> Sager's email doesn't suggest that, but it could
> play into that common 
> feeling among people in the dominant classes. We
> live in a world in which 
> the legitimate concerns of non-white people about
> racist expression and 
> actions are often met by white people saying, "Stop
> whining - get over it." 
> In such a world, white people trying to resist
> racism should be careful not 
> to do anything that could contribute to that.
> 
> Second, the email suggests that the partygoers
> didn't consider "the 
> potential harm they were causing to UT Law" by doing
> something that could 
> make some people "feel uncomfortable simply because
> of who they are." Most 
> would agree that it's important at a public
> institution of higher
> Education for all people to feel accepted as part of
> the university 
> community, but the real harm is not to the
> institution but to the people who 
> are targeted. By highlighting the effect of this on
> "UT Law," Sager risks 
> elevating the institution above the principles
> involved and may well leave 
> people wondering if the university isn't worried
> most about its image.
> 
> Finally, and most important, the dean's message
> warns the partygoers that 
> they failed to consider "the extraordinary damage
> they could do to their own 
> careers" in a society in which those who employ
> lawyers might not want to 
> hire people who engage in such conduct. Sager warns
> that it is
> "genuinely foolhardy to engage in conduct (and even
> more foolhardy to 
> proudly disseminate proof that you have done so)
> that could jeopardize your 
> ability to practice law." That's certainly true,
> though it's also true there 
> are many places in Texas (and around the country)
> where the good old boys in 
> power would find no problem with this kind of
> "harmless fun." There are no 
> doubt lots of practicing attorneys who enjoy similar
> kinds of fun 
> themselves.
> 
> But whatever the case, should we be stressing to
> students that the reason 
> they should not be white supremacists is that it
> might hurt their careers? 
> What does such a message convey to students and to
> the community?
> 
> What's missing in this official response is a clear
> statement that these law 
> students - many of whom go on to join the ranks of
> the powerful who run 
> society - have engaged in behavior that is overtly
> racist. Whatever their 
> motivations in planning or attending the party, they
> have demonstrated that 
> they have internalized a white-supremacist ideology.
> When these students are 
> making future decisions in business, government, and
> education, how will 
> such white supremacy manifest itself? And who will
> be hurt
> by that?
> 
> Here's what we should say to students: The problem
> with a racist "ghetto 
> fabulous" party isn't that it offends some people or
> tarnishes the image of 
> UT or may hurt careers. The problem is that it's
> racist, and when you engage 
> in such behavior you are deepening the racism of a
> white-supremacist culture, and that's wrong. It
> violates the moral and 
> political principles that we all say we endorse. It
> supports and strengthens 
> an unjust social system that hurts people.
> 
> These incidents, and the universities' responses,
> also raise a fundamental 
> question about what we white people mean when we say
> we support "diversity." 
> Does that mean we are willing to invite some limited
> number of non-white 
> people into our space, but with the implicit
> understanding
> that it will remain a white-defined space? Or does
> it mean a commitment to 
> changing these institutions into truly multicultural
> places? If we're 
> serious about that, it has to mean not an occasional
> nod to other cultural 
> practices, but an end to white-supremacist
> practices. It has to mean not 
> only acknowledging other cultural practices but
> recognizing that the wealth 
> of the United States and Europe is rooted in the
> destruction of some of 
> those cultures over the past 500 years, and that we
> are living with the 
> consequences of that destruction.
> 
> We white people can't simply point to the ugliest
> racism of the KKK as the 
> problem and feel morally superior. We can't issue a
> polite warning to a few 
> law students about being thoughtless and think we've
> done our job. The 
> problem is that most of us white people - myself
> included – are comfortable 
> in white spaces, and we often are reflexively
> hesitant to surrender control 
> of that space. Real change - the process of truly
> incorporating a deep 
> multiculturalism into our schools, churches, and
> businesses - is a long 
> struggle. The more I make some progress in my own
> classes, for example, the 
> more I see how much I have left to do and the more
> aware of my mistakes I 
> become.
> 
> An easy place to start is by clearly marking racist
> actions for what they 
> are - expressions of white people's sense of
> entitlement and privilege that 
> are rooted in a white-supremacist system. We can
> start by saying - 
> unequivocally, in blunt language - that such racism
> is morally wrong, that 
> white supremacy is morally wrong, and that we white
> people have an 
> obligation to hold ourselves and each other
> accountable until we have 
> created a truly just multiracial society.
> 
> We'll know we are there not when white people have
> stopped throwing ghetto 
> parties, but when we have built a world in which
> there are no ghettos.
> 
> We have a long way to go.
> 
> Robert Jensen is a journalism professor at the
> University of Texas at Austin 
> and a member of the board of the Third Coast
> Activist Resource Center. He is 
> the author of The Heart of Whiteness: Race, Racism,
> and White Privilege and 
> Citizens of the Empire: The Struggle to Claim Our
> Humanity. He can be 
> reached at rjensen at uts.cc.utexas.edu
> 
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