Ours is the generation of change— the generation of tolerance of progress of love of a humanity blind to superficial divisions such as race gender socioeconomic status and so on. The hatred and inequity of days gone by have lost their hold on us. We are a united people at last.
Sound vaguely familiar? Admittedly we do tend to extol the virtues of our forward-thinking generation and perhaps even rightly so. After all we have certainly reached a new height of tolerance and equality— a height that our grandparents’ generation would not have so much as dreamed possible. Yet recent events have forced us to take a step back and assess the grim reality of prejudice and injustice.
A few weeks ago members of the Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity at UC San Diego hosted an off-campus party that was at best a lewd off-color joke and at worst a shockingly offensive display of racism. The ghetto-themed “Compton Cookout” served watermelon and fried chicken as snacks and encouraged attendees to dress in the fashion of racist stereotypes (for example urging women to dress as “ghetto chicks” who “usually have gold teeth start fights and drama and wear cheap clothes”).
The party in itself was bad enough but it was just the beginning. A few days afterward the editor of the Koala a well-known campus publication appeared on the student-run TV station to defend the event. Not only did he stand up for the students responsible for the party but he even used hateful and derogatory racial slurs to tell off the offended black students. And in case there is doubt as to just how offensive the editor chose to be rest assured he did not allow such petty notions as societal correctness racial sensitivity and all-around human decency to censor him— the dreaded “n-word” was uttered.
And it doesn’t stop there. Soon afterward a noose was found hung from a light fixture in the campus’ main library having been left there by a student who later confessed responsibility.
Complete with angry student protests the resulting furor matched the scandal in terms of scale. But there are clearly deeper and more sedentary issues here that have only just been brought to light— issues to which Pepperdine as a university dedicated to the upholding of Christian ethics should respond accordingly.
More likely than not the offending students did not see their juvenile antics as malicious or hateful. They probably believed their actions were humorous and that surely everyone would recognize comedic gold when they saw it. On the surface they were probably just a bunch of normal kids. But the intent does not diminish the offense.
Racism is a force still very much alive in our society today and we would do well to remain aware of its destructive nature. Discrimination is not a thing of the past and we are not so evolved that we have truly joined in unity and put aside all preconceptions and bigotry.
So what exactly does this mean for us the students of Pepperdine? It means that we should be urged to further the cause of equality. We should remain ever conscious of the impacts of our words and deeds and should see that they express love and acceptance. We should not resort to derogatory humor. Remember that even if a few of our friends laugh others may be left hurt by our words.
The Graphic staff asks that we as a student body keep these in mind as we forge ahead into a new generation inevitably ragged with the deep cuts of age-old discrimination. For if we are ever to truly abolish racism we need to first raise the standards we set for ourselves.
