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http://www.dukechronicle.com/articles/2011/12/05/pi-kapp-party-fuels-anger

Pi Kapp party fuels anger

By Nicole Daniels | December 4, 2011


On Nov. 19, I was looking forward to attending a party that Pi Kappa Phi was hosting that night on Central Campus. That is, until my friend nonchalantly texted me that the event’s theme was “Pilgrims and Indians.”

The following is an excerpt from the fraternity’s email invitation: “In 1621 some crazy pilgrims had a pretty brutal harvest. Word on the street was they didn’t have enough food for half the bros in Plymouth. Then some hot natives came along with some extra food.… On Saturday, the brothers of Pi Kappa Phi will be honoring that party spirit. There will be a cornucopia of treats in our modern-day teepee. Tap into your inner pocahotness, wear a few feathers and party like you don’t care if you survive the winter.”

At first, I refused to attend an event that sounded so derogatory toward Native Americans. The fraternity took on a terrible history of colonialism and genocide and turned it into a sexy party theme. The language in their invitation (“hot natives” and “pocahotness”) sexualizes the Native American race. Having learned the theme just hours before the party, it was too late for me to try and stop it. I ultimately decided that if I was going to criticize this party, I had to see it for myself.

It was very disheartening to find my own friends there, dressed in outfits that epitomized an insensitive caricature of Native Americans. Hordes of my peers had faces covered in “war paint” and wore rainbow-colored feathers on their heads. The makeup and costumes I saw were both completely inaccurate and disrespectful. Headdresses and feathers have profound spiritual significance to Native Americans, and mimicking them is extremely offensive. A massive teepee stood outside the party, serving as a photo op for the obnoxiously dressed guests to pose with. Notably, teepees are specific to tribes in the Great Plains and never even existed in Plymouth, Mass. This incorrect and stereotypical dwelling endorsed the misconception that Native Americans have a monolithic culture. It undermined the reality that there are many tribes with diverse and intricate ways of life. If students want to celebrate “giving thanks” and unity, they should not mock and belittle an important part of our community.

This party was bigoted and racist, and such an event would never be tolerated if other races were involved. Would Duke students attend a “master and slave” themed party where guests were invited to wear blackface? How about a party where students dress up like Nazis and Jews? Surely these events would trigger student objection and national media attention, and rightfully so. Yet “Pilgrims and Indians” did not faze Duke University. Students dressed up for fun at the expense of Native Americans, a race that was exploited and exterminated for centuries. The only props missing from the party were smallpox-infected blankets.

Based on the costumes I saw, it seems that Duke students see Native Americans as characters rather than as human beings. Beyond insulting Native Americans, this mentality is problematic because it fuels continued discrimination and hate crimes against Native Americans today. This mindset is especially concerning because there are Native American students at Duke.

Amber Richardson, president of Duke’s Native American Student Alliance, offered this statement: “When I learned about the Pilgrims and Indians party hosted by Pi Kappa Phi, my first reaction was nothing short of pure outrage. It is not only offensive, but deeply saddening that some of my peers have so little respect for Native American culture and identity. Unfortunately, I and many other Native Americans must battle this type of ignorance and disrespect on a daily basis.

Because there are very few Natives on Duke’s campus, people may believe that there will be no consequences for these acts of insensitivity. I assure you that those who hold this belief are mistaken. The members of Duke’s chapter of Pi Kappa Phi fraternity should be held accountable for their actions. As president of the Native American Student Alliance, I will enlist the aid and support of the Native community and its allies in addressing this problem and preventing future incidents.”

The president of Pi Kappa Phi did not respond to my email regarding this column. I certainly don’t believe Pi Kapp intended to be malicious with this party, but this kind of ignorance is inexcusable. Everyone who attended this party should feel ashamed. We are students at a prestigious university, and we should know better. As Amber Richardson told me, “[Pi Kappa Phi] is not the first to do something like this, but we will work hard to make them the last.”

Nicole Daniels, Trinity ’14

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http://www.dartblog.com/

Breaking: Of Crips and Bloods and Memories of Ghetto Parties
BY JOSEPH ASCH '79 ON AUGUST 14, 2013

History repeats itself, first as tragedy and then as farce, or sometimes it just repeats itself. From the New York Times on November 30, 1998:


At Dartmouth College, white students at a ”ghetto party” dressed as gangsta rap artists, some sporting Afro wigs and carrying toy guns, prompted a protest…
The fraternity and sorority that sponsored the ghetto party, Chi Gamma Epsilon and Alpha Xi Delta, quickly apologized.

In the four weeks since the party, students have demonstrated and held meetings in which they discussed respect for others. Hundreds of Dartmouth’s 4,400 undergraduates have taken part.

Rahsaan Sales, 21, a black senior from Chicago who helped organize some of the events, said, ”Everyone came together to discuss an environment that could allow these things to happen, an environment where people sometimes don’t feel safe.”

James Wright, a history professor who became Dartmouth’s 16th president in September, said of the campus party: ”I was disappointed that this event happened. But I was immensely proud of the way students and the community came together.”

Well, it happened again, this time at a party sponsored by Alpha Delta fraternity and Tri-Delta sorority on July 26. At this decade’s version of a Ghetto Party, though it was formally named for the Crips and Bloods, students pretended that they were members of South Central LA’s two notorious African-American gangs.


What to say? Aside from being oblivious to the political firestorm that such an event is bound to ignite, what kind of student comes up with an idea for a party like this? Can we next expect events with caricatures of greedy Jews, each with a hawked nose and a bag of money? Or buck-toothed Japanese with thick glasses after the stereotype that was popular during WWII among many government artists (including guess who?)? After years of sensitivity training and work on cultural competence, is there no other way for students to have fun at Dartmouth College? We can certainly talk about shame here, but embarrassment is the more accurate emotion.

Addendum: The head of the campus chapter of the NAACP circulated the below e-mail:




Addendum: A member of RealTalk has written in with a comment:


I expect that there will be demands for President Hanlon to forcefully address this, particularly because he himself was a member of Alpha Delta fraternity. Maybe this will show him that things have changed since his days as an undergraduate; maybe this will show that things have stayed exactly the same.

Either way, this kind of event is unacceptable in organizations that the College wholeheartedly supports financially and verbally. Hardly a term goes by without Dean Johnson speaking about the benefits of Greek Life at the College and for undergraduates. If the College is going to aid Greek organizations by allowing these organizations to have physical plants on College land, and by providing them with help with billing and insurance, these kinds of parties can’t take place and thrive.

More importantly, the kind of mentality that would caricature Black culture, Black communities, and gang violence in America should not exist in Greek organizations at Dartmouth College. It’s not acceptable in an intellectual community, and not acceptable at a College that seeks to empower young students and future leaders. It’s not acceptable at a College that receives federal funding and one that is currently undergoing a wide-ranging federal investigation for gender, race, sex, and other forms of discrimination. This will be a test of President Hanlon’s leadership.

Addendum: I wrote to the brothers of Alpha Delta concerning the party. Here is their collective response:


Alpha Delta hosted a “Bloods and Crips Party” on the night of Friday, July 26th. The idea was never meant to be derogatory to any group, and was intended to introduce a costume theme to the party. While there was never any ill intent in the party’s theme, the brothers of Alpha Delta now realize that it was insensitive and thoughtless to make light of a very serious issue that affects many people nationwide, particularly young people. Gang violence is obviously an incredibly serious problem across America, and while we as a house failed to preemptively recognize the offensive nature of the party’s theme, the gravity of our oversight is now apparent to us.
Alpha Delta initially sought to deal with the problem internally. We have overhauled our internal management policy in regards to parties and themes, and we now have a much more rigorous process to approve party themes and ensure that no more insensitive parties get the go-ahead. We sat down with an individual who was originally offended by the party, and personally apologized for the event’s theme and our insensitivity to its gravity. The conversation gave us a greater understanding of the pain gang violence causes and how personal it is for so many people here at Dartmouth, and in the country at large. We have gained a greater appreciation for the very real effect gang violence has on members of the Dartmouth community, and the conversation has opened our eyes to a subject which we had never before fully comprehended.

However, we also realize that our event was not just offensive to a few people who attended the party, but that the party was objectively offensive. We want to issue a public apology for our oversight, insensitivity, and thoughtlessness. Alpha Delta will be meeting with OPAL and the GLC later this week to discuss what we can do moving forward to increase education and awareness, and to make sure something like this never happens again. We will also be spearheading policy reform in the fall to add to the GLC’s new member education. AD will be hosting and sponsoring programming in the fall about stereotypes on Dartmouth’s campus as well as in our society as a whole. While our actions that night were indefensible, AD is taking every possible measure to rectify our mistake.

This was clearly an instance of seriously bad judgment on our part, but we believe it will serve as an educational experience that will ultimately lead to better judgment in the future. As we grow and learn, we are becoming more self-critical about our actions and how they affect others around us.

The term “ghetto party” was never used, and was coined by administrators after the party took place. This is a patently false term that was attributed after the fact in emails within the administration.

We would also appreciate if you would redact the names of the social chairs, in the screenshot of the email invitation to the party, if you choose to publish it. The house takes responsibility as a whole for the oversight, and we don’t believe that two individuals should be publicly admonished for what was a collective failure in judgment.

Sincerely,

The Brothers of Alpha Delta