I can still be surprised. I’m surprised by the student senate at the University of Alabama. Last week it voted to kill a resolution supporting racial integration of fraternities and sororities there.
The resolution cited damage to the reputation of the university, in Tuscaloosa, after it was revealed last year that all-white sororities were denying membership to black women based solely on race.
I did not know that.
Some student senators said they were concerned the language in the integration resolution would lead to an affirmative action-like Greek system. Some asked whether traditionally black or Latino fraternities would be required to admit white students.
Others talked about political correctness gone mad, others said there goes the neighborhood, others asked if you would want your daughter to marry one, others said freedom of choice is what makes this country great, and so the sun sets on another day in exotic Tuscaloosa.
Thank fucking gawd I’m Canadian.
IncredulousMark (#1) –
Being Canadian does not make one immune from stupidity. I speak from experience, from my own regrettable actions of my youth (no violence, but I was guilty of words aimed at certain people…), and from reading news and Crommunist’s posts on racism in Montreal, Halifax and elsewhere, and the history of slavery in Canada.
And let’s not forget the government’s institutionalized racism, the cultural imperialism of residential schools. Anybody is capable of such ugliness, though I hope you’re not.
… concerned the language in the integration resolution would lead to an affirmative action-like Greek system”
The phrase they want is, “Willfully racist and determined to stay so.”
Some asked whether traditionally black or Latino fraternities would be required to admit white students.
Presumably, yes: anti-discrimination goes both ways. Although, honest, I don’t see many of the racist bigots who struck down the resolution bothering to apply to traditionally black or Latino houses.
Universities routinely give special privileges to fraternities and sororities. At least the did when I was a student several decades ago when I was a student and I doubt that it has changed all that much. Universities also receive massive amounts of federal funding, whether it be in the form of grants to researchers, tax breaks, or simply student loans. Why the heck aren’t their federal funds being pulled?