While venting about her day, a student criticized those in her class who felt triggered by a sexual assault discussion, claiming they should just focus on the text and not make it personal.
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Earlier in the semester, Robin Kelley gave a talk at Scripps in which the final question-asker at the end barked questions into the microphone about, essentially, why it is that black men are so violent. Further, he made the assertion that the reason they are filling our prisons is because they are so violent.
Earlier this semester, I was standing outside of a Dom's Lounge party after it had ended. I was standing with some African - American girlfriends of mine, and there were several athletes/football players standing around as well. Two came up behind our group, and we could hear them saying "Yeah, were about to smash, were gonna smash" etc. (which is a pretty violent statement in itself). One of them proceeded to say "Yea, we're about to smash, even one of these black bitches." After someone said something to him along the lines of 'go somewhere else if you're going to say that sort of thing,' he and his friend began to argue with us about there free speech rites, and how we were "dirty" for assuming smash to mean something sexual. Though this isn't an excuse for what was said at all, they were obviously drunk. No one but other girls of color came up to see what was wrong and defend us, though plenty of people were around and probably heard.
A couple days ago I was sitting in McConnell dining hall eating breakfast when I overheard a group of girls gossiping about a boy across the room. They were trying to decide whether or not the boy was cute. One of them, who was arguing that the boy wasn’t cute, used this sentence to “prove” or “ strengthen" her point: “lol, he just looks like Lil Wayne’s son or something”. Yes, some of you may wonder, “well, what if the boy really did look like Lil Wayne?” Well, I’ll answer that firstly by saying, because I was there, I was able to see that the only thing that indeed was similar between Lil Wayne and the boy was that they were both Black- other than that, they looked nothing alike. Secondly, I can address your question by telling you that, that girl, by saying “lol, he just looks like lil wayne’s son or something", was further perpetuating racial stereotyping by suggesting that most Black people look the same and can be associated with the same activities and likes: rap culture and being Black. On the most basic level, the girl suggesting that the ONLY or MOST important quality about the boy was that he was Black- this in itself is so problematic- people are more than just their skin. "Black is beautiful” as many, many people have said, but it is not the only thing that can be attributed to a person. A few weeks ago a group of friends and I decided we were hungry and were trying to figure out where we should eat. Eventually we decided on In N Out. On our way there one of the guys in the car started "playfully" (or what he refers to as playfully) making fun of one of the other individuals because he was Indian and could not eat red meat. He started talking in a Indian accent saying "Oh, what are you going to eat because you cannot eat cow but only pray to a cow". The individual who the comments were directed towards blew it off as if it was no big deal and said "ugh you're are so annoying" but I could tell that it really bothered him.
While sitting at dinner a few weeks ago, I was having a discussion with one of my good friends who I have actually been friends with since freshmen year. We were talking about Hollywood and the industry in general when she started explaining how the jews are ruining hollywood because they run everything and have no idea what they are doing and that can be seen through their cultural history. I didn't know exactly what to say because I am jewish and assumed that she knew this since we had been friends for years and have talked about my Bat Mitzvah and years of hebrew school. I thought about interrupting her and asking what she meant because I was jewish. Although before I could say anything she continued rambling about how awful jews are and how they are ruining the world.
This has been an intense week for students at the 5cs, all over the country and the world. The protests on campus have certainly been a topic of discussion in classes and outside of classes. While eating lunch at one of the dinning halls on our campuses I overheard a student explaining how she is jewish and her people have been persecuted time and time again and she isn't making a big deal of anything nor is she complaining. She explained how instead of whining the jews got their own country.
If you are a 5c student then you most likely have heard about how CMC dean of students, Dean Spellman wrote an email that ended with her bringing up the "CMC Mold". This statement is deeply upsetting as she explains that some students do not fit the CMC mold but the question is what is this CMC mold? Who made it and what does it mean? What does it mean to her? I then later heard a student describe how they felt her statement had been completely blown out of proportion and that she did not deserve to be pressured to resign because every 5c school has a mold. Excuse me? What is this mold that we all have?
On Wednesday November 11 2015 a student declared that she was going on a hunger strike until the CMC dean of students resigned. Shortly after a student in one of my classes was discussing this student and her article with another classmate and said that sure she can respect what she is doing but all that this is going to do is have the cmc deans commit her. Even though the student was stating that she was in support of the other students hunger strike by also saying that the student was going to be committed infers that she was most likely was not in support.
I was in the Scripps dining hall a few weeks ago and I overheard a guy say to his friends “Scripps girls only come to Claremont to find a CMC husband.” Through this statement he is implying women are not worthy of a Claremont Consortium education.
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