If you think that the world is literally going to end because people are moving away from making jokes that are offensive, I think you REALLY underestimate human intelligence. We have come a long way since caveman days and even since our grandparents time. We are capable of having productive and open dialogue with each other without people getting blindly offended at everything. If you don’t already know that, then I’m sorry about the people that you have interacted with. It is possible to tell jokes and stories without offending others. The way that the world may really end is by taking away someone’s right to feel an emotion. If someone says you have offended or hurt them, you don’t get to decide that you didn’t.
Veronica, I think you have a valid point, but I think that there are some things that are inexcusable even if you didn’t do it on purpose. Using an extremely offensive word like the n-word repeatedly and dressing up like a “thug” on MLK day are not just “careless” as you have suggested, they are blatantly offensive. The reason I don’t appreciate your article is because you focus all on how Ashley “put her sisters on blast” which isn’t cool. That’s not really the point. The point is that this group of girls made their sister feel SO uncomfortable that she gave up her letters. That is inexcusable. Whether or not Ashley behaved immaturely in the aftermath is not really the issue here.
I am so disappointed by how much this article misses the point regarding race and Greek life. As an African American member of a Panhellenic Greek organization, I hear the n word thrown around way too much and the instances reported by Ashley from tridelta are troubling to me. The reason that I think this article entirely misses the point is because it focuses on Ashley’s actions following leaving her organization. The author says she shouldn’t have “put her sisters on blast”, as though the author has the right to tell someone else how they should respond to what is very clearly insensitivity regarding race from people she is close to. Why? Part of a sisterhood is holding each other accountable for their actions. The author also assumes that the members of tridelta who made racist or insensitive remarks never acted maliciously, how do you know? There is an extremely important and maybe uncomfortable conversation to be had about race and Greek life, and this is not the way to have it. Too often, members of the Greek community are too quick to defend Greek members like this who use racial slurs, make insensitive comments, and make sisters of other races feel uncomfortable. The only way for us Greek members to overcome the stereotype that we are racially insensitive is not by writing articles like this, it’s by having meaningful discussions and allowing people who have been affected, like Ashley, to be heard and not shut down.
If you think that the world is literally going to end because people are moving away from making jokes that are offensive, I think you REALLY underestimate human intelligence. We have come a long way since caveman days and even since our grandparents time. We are capable of having productive and open dialogue with each other without people getting blindly offended at everything. If you don’t already know that, then I’m sorry about the people that you have interacted with. It is possible to tell jokes and stories without offending others. The way that the world may really end is by taking away someone’s right to feel an emotion. If someone says you have offended or hurt them, you don’t get to decide that you didn’t.
Veronica, I think you have a valid point, but I think that there are some things that are inexcusable even if you didn’t do it on purpose. Using an extremely offensive word like the n-word repeatedly and dressing up like a “thug” on MLK day are not just “careless” as you have suggested, they are blatantly offensive. The reason I don’t appreciate your article is because you focus all on how Ashley “put her sisters on blast” which isn’t cool. That’s not really the point. The point is that this group of girls made their sister feel SO uncomfortable that she gave up her letters. That is inexcusable. Whether or not Ashley behaved immaturely in the aftermath is not really the issue here.
I am so disappointed by how much this article misses the point regarding race and Greek life. As an African American member of a Panhellenic Greek organization, I hear the n word thrown around way too much and the instances reported by Ashley from tridelta are troubling to me. The reason that I think this article entirely misses the point is because it focuses on Ashley’s actions following leaving her organization. The author says she shouldn’t have “put her sisters on blast”, as though the author has the right to tell someone else how they should respond to what is very clearly insensitivity regarding race from people she is close to. Why? Part of a sisterhood is holding each other accountable for their actions. The author also assumes that the members of tridelta who made racist or insensitive remarks never acted maliciously, how do you know? There is an extremely important and maybe uncomfortable conversation to be had about race and Greek life, and this is not the way to have it. Too often, members of the Greek community are too quick to defend Greek members like this who use racial slurs, make insensitive comments, and make sisters of other races feel uncomfortable. The only way for us Greek members to overcome the stereotype that we are racially insensitive is not by writing articles like this, it’s by having meaningful discussions and allowing people who have been affected, like Ashley, to be heard and not shut down.