"Texas A&M Cancels Blackface Party"

Organizers deny blackface event is racist
By RON NISSIMOV
Copyright 2003 Houston Chronicle

Texas A&M University officials are embarrassed over a blackface party that some students had planned for Martin Luther King Jr. Day.

After meeting with angry university officials this week, student organizers apologized and canceled the "Think Ghetto" party they have held for several years without the knowledge of school officials. Paid student residential advisers at the 300-resident Walton Hall dormitory have helped organize the parties, which have been in a home in nearby Bryan.

According to an anonymous letter that alerted university officials Wednesday about the parties, "the participants dress either in black face or other negative stereotypes of African-Americans (i.e. gangsters, rappers, etc.)"

"I have never thought this was a good thing to do and was sending the wrong message from what I believed that A&M stood for," said the letter, which was addressed to Mark Taplette, a university official who is black.

The revelations came to light as 1,000 university black student leaders descended on the College Station campus to attend its 15th annual Southwestern Black Leadership Conference.

University officials are investigating the nature of the parties and what role the staff of residential advisers have played in organizing them.

And, once again, officials are scrambling to dispel long-held perceptions that the 85 percent white school isn't hospitable to minorities.

"Such incidents show a lack of respect for others, are destructive to the residence hall community, and are a disgrace and embarrassment to Texas A&M University," said a letter issued to Walton Hall residents Thursday by Ron Sasse, A&M's director of residence life. "The mission of Texas A&M University states that the `University campus must encourage a climate that values and nurtures collegiality, diversity, pluralism, and the uniqueness of each person.' "

"A&M is known for its friendliness," Sasse said Friday. "When something like this happens, naturally it makes it more difficult to change negative perceptions. We're looking at how we can make this a positive event, at how we can make things better. If life gives you a lemon, you make a lemonade."

He said university officials met Wednesday with a full-time director of Walton Hall and 11 students who comprise the staff of residential advisers. The party was advertised in Walton Hall on a list of activities recommended by student staffers, Sasse said.

The director, Shannon Ensom, has publicly said she didn't know about the event. But all 11 students, one of whom is black, told officials they knew about the parties. The students asked, "What's the problem?" Sasse said.

Sasse said some black students have attended the parties in "ghetto" costume.

"We're having a hard time understanding how anyone could see a party of this kind and not understand it's a problem," Sasse said.

He said future A&M residential staffers will be required to undergo more stringent diversity sensitivity training. He said it is too early to tell if any students will be disciplined.

The students who organized the party issued a letter denying their actions were racist.

"We want to apologize for organizing a party with a ghetto theme," the letter said. "We never intended to offend anyone. After talking to our African-American friends, we promised the event will be canceled permanently. ... We have a saying in Walton: It doesn't matter where you're from; you're always welcome in our family."

In recent years, disclosures of similar parties at other universities have generated outcries and even suspensions of fraternities. Most of these parties have been at Southern universities, including Auburn University, the University of Mississippi, the University of Louisville and the University of Alabama at Birmingham. But such parties have been in other areas as well, including a 1998 party at Ivy-League Dartmouth College that drew heated protests.

Texas A&M, with its rich traditions that stem from its past as an all-male, overwhelmingly white school that provided military training to rural youths, is often regarded as inhospitable to minorities.

University officials were similarly embarrassed last year after the student newspaper published several editorial cartoons that were offensive to various ethnic groups. Student demonstrators had what was described as the largest rally over race relations in the school's 126-year history.

A&M President Robert Gates has repeatedly said since taking over in August that increasing diversity would be one of his top priorities. He recently created the position of vice president for diversity, which has not yet been filled.

A&M senior Odin Clack of Galveston, an organizer of the Black Student Leadership conference, said the revelations of the parties have not generated much discussion among the black student leaders. He said such parties are not necessarily offensive, adding that he did not know enough about the A&M parties to make a judgment.

Unbelievable. What is wrong with these people? I can't even begin to understand how they might have thought such an event was acceptable.

I like the fact that the student letter mentions their "African American friends". Just reminds me of that "blackpeopleloveus.com" website...

ian said:

You'd be surprised. And many times in these instances people "know" its unacceptable.

Race is still the Hardest Issue for People in this COuntry too deal with&be up front about.same ole same.