The "Incident"

Recently, an event happened in Clemson that made headline news. When someone talks about "the incident" we all know what they are talking about. Just in case you are reading this and don't know what "incident" I'm talking about, here's the story:

A group of students hosted an off-campus “gangsta” party over the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday weekend. Pictures got posted on Facebook.com of a girl with padding to make her rear end look bigger and another person in "blackface."

I’ve talked about the party in almost all of my classes with my peers this past week, and I didn't find out about it until Tuesday night what had happened. I have a bunch of mixed feelings about the whole thing. First of all, I do not think that the students meant to upset or offend anyone, but they definitely did.

Secondly, I think theme parties are meant to display an extreme stereotype. For example, an extreme stereotype for computer scientists might be that they all wear big glasses, pants that are too short with high socks, and a pocket protector. Do you really think that they are like that? Of course not! My point is that no matter what you do, unless you are really careful, you are going to offend SOMEONE.

As for the incident, I do think that the whole thing got blown out of proportion, and I do think that it was extremely bad timing to be throwing a party of that nature. The media has had a field day with the incident. Not only did the incident hurt those that it offended, it hurt Clemson’s reputation even more. I am glad that the students came forward and made a formal apology to the public. Hopefully, this has taught us a lot about the issues we still face today.