Race row at Yale sparks protest

After an email from a college administrator, telling them to “look away” if they were offended by racially insensitive Halloween costumes, Yale students have been protesting this week.

Shortly before Halloween, an initial email was sent to the whole student body from Yale’s ‘intercultural affairs committee’ which included representatives from the chaplaincy, athletics and various ethnic groups. After telling students that Yale “values free expression as well as inclusivity,” it went on to remind students to be aware that their costumes could be interpreted as offensive to marginalised groups.

A thousand Yale students took part in a ‘March of Resilience’

Four potentially problematic types of costume were named; ‘funny’, ‘historical’, ‘religious’ and ‘cultural’, with each followed by questions potential party-goers should ask themselves. Under the cultural banner, the administrative staff asked, “If this costume is meant to be historical, does it further misinformation or historical and cultural inaccuracies?”

While classic examples of distasteful and downright offensive costumes, like feathered headdresses and blackface, were named, the email generally advised students to consider whether their costume could potentially cause offense before they wore it.

In response, the Associate College Master of residence, Erika Christakis, sent out an email comparing dodgy costume-wearing students to toddlers playing dress-up, mourning the lack of free speech and questioning the validity of some points in the initial email asking for sensitivity when choosing Halloween costumes. She also quoted her husband on the matter, saying, “Nicholas says, if you don’t like a costume someone is wearing, look away, or tell them you are offended.”

In response, 740 students signed an open letter to Christakis, calling her email “offensive”, berating her comparisons between pre-schoolers and students, and for comparing cultural sensitivity with censorship.

A thousand students took part in a ‘March of Resilience’ on Monday, with hundreds missing lectures to show support.

In a heated exchange between Yale students, her husband, quoted in the email, was filmed by a passer-by.

After saying he didn’t think his wife’s email was making the college an unwelcome space for minorities, one particularly upset student was filmed screaming “why the fuck did you accept the position?” at the professor.

The last few weeks have been marred by accusations of racism at Yale, after a Halloween frat party allegedly refused several black students entry, on account of it being a “white girls only” event. Sigma Alpha Epsilon, a fraternity with branches at several American universities, is being investigated over the matter.

They have already been banned from conducting any activities on campus or using their name in association with Yale’s, after last year violating the university’s policy on sexual misconduct and then attempting to hinder the investigation that followed. Last year a video emerged of several members of the fraternity’s Oklahoma branch singing a racist song on a bus, implying that they would rather lynch African Americans than allow them to join, saw the chapter shut down and two students expelled.

The University of Missouri’s President and Chancellor stood down earlier this week after heightened racial tensions on their campus. Several incidents, including two students being caught scattering cotton balls outside the university’s Black Culture Centre, and the US equivalent of a union president describing common use of racial slurs on social media, lead to the university’s football team threatening to boycott their next match.

University-level football is big business in the US, and with the college standing to lose one million dollars over the missed match, both big names stood down.

Exerpt from the email from Associate College Master, Erika Christakis

American universities were once a safe space not only for maturation but also for a certain regressive, or even transgressive, experience; increasingly, it seems, they have become places of censure and prohibition. And the censure and prohibition come from above, not from yourselves! Are we all okay with this transfer of power? Have we lost faith in young people’s capacity – in your capacity – to exercise self-censure, through social norming, and also in your capacity to ignore or reject things that trouble you? We tend to view this shift from individual to institutional agency as a tradeoff between libertarian vs. liberal values (“liberal” in the American, not European sense of the word).

Nicholas says, if you don’t like a costume someone is wearing, look away, or tell them you are offended. Talk to each other. Free speech and the ability to tolerate offence are the hallmarks of a free and open society.

But – again, speaking as a child development specialist – I think there might be something missing in our discourse about the exercise of free speech (including how we dress ourselves) on campus, and it is this: What does this debate about Halloween costumes say about our view of young adults, of their strength and judgment?

In other words: Whose business is it to control the forms of costumes of young people? It’s not mine, I know that.