MLK Day party and White Liberal Guilt

http://www.breitbart.com/news/2007/01/25/D8MS8LV01.html

Deepbreaths around the room.

Let's start with: "Authorities at Tarleton State University said they plan to investigate a Martin Luther King Jr. Day party that mocked black stereotypes by featuring fried chicken, malt liquor and faux gang apparel."

Why? Why does the University have to investigate a party? White kids show up in in the most stereotypical costumes in outfits possible, they drink and then they arrive hungover in class the next day. That was the extent of it. I bet it was a fun party.

"I feel like there is no excuse for this type of ignorance," said Donald Ray Elder, president of the Stephenville school's chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.

There is PLENTY of excuse for this "type of ignorance" it is called "having fun" and not taking yourself too seriously. Does anyone for one nanosecond think that the kids that showed up were in those costumes actually think that is uniformly representative of Black culture?

The party had as much to do with Martin Luther King as the average St Patrick's Day party has to do with Sainthood. Every one of those parties will feature people getting plastered on Guiness, Irish songs, leprachauns, Irish stew and the like. It isn't offensive to St. Patrick.

Do Mexicans really drink Corona with limes, eat plates full of tacos, ride on burros, smash pinatas and sing in Mariachi bands to kill time between bullfights? No of course not, but on Cinco de Mayo we embrace all that goofiness, while people from Mexico barely take notice of their "independence day".

University President Dennis P. McCabe said the photographs were reprehensible.

"I am personally insulted by these photographs and am disappointed that Tarleton students have demonstrated such insensitivity," he said.

College kids doing stupid things? Noooo. My world is becoming undone. Like those parties after Katrina where they served hurricanes?

The outrage is not only misplaced but counterproductive as it reveals the softer maternalistic predjudice of liberal thought: These people are like this and need us to protect them.

--Joey

First update of 2007

2006 was quite a year.

So far 2007 has been pretty good. I took my first graduate EE course the other day (Power Substation Design) and it looks reasonably interesting.

Things to do in 2007

1.) Pass the class
2.) Go skiing
3.) Learn a little Chinese and Japanese
4.) Lose 30 pounds on my backpacker's diet.
5.) Update my blog more frequently

Well number 5 is already falling apart...

--Joey