Hypersensitive Halloween

The difference is this: Hitler caused real suffering to people. A terrorist caused real suffering to people. What suffering did the hypothetical nerd endure? What suffering has the filthy rich old man endured that is paramount to the suffering a terrorist, or a master of genocide caused? If you are offended by people dressing as WASPs, that is your prerogative. You may begin a campaign to stop people dressing as such. You cannot sit there, on your high horse, celebrate the winning of the French and Indian war, a war which the USA had no right to even participate in, as it was anyways Native American land, and tell us that you are offended by people dressing as WASPs. Shame on you.

LS, Sheffield, UK,

While there are certain elements of your commentary that I agree with, I think on the whole your commentary does come from a privileged background. You make the assertion that the reader imagining you as a wealthy WASP is stereotyping you. That is a valid point. Where I think it is fair to stereotype your viewpoint, however, is that you are white. Based on the campaign sites, which I just looked at, you really cannot overlook that fact. Why? Because you (and myself as well) are the race with the power, historically speaking. White people have racial privileges that members of other races do not have: as a white man, I don't feel that women think I'm going to attack them if we're on a dark street; when I walk into a store, it is not assumed that I am poor, rather, my socioeconomic class isn't a major factor. For people of color, however, it often is. So no, you and I would not be offended by somebody going ultra prep for Halloween. But you must also consider that the culture of white people surrounds us and is generally dominant in American culture. Whether or not it is ok to make fun of a subset of white culture is your call. As far as stereotypical representations of minorities go, however, it is a different story. Their culture and their stories are far less represented in mainstream American culture, so when you stereotype the culture, it feels degrading, because this less known and less common culture is being reduced to an often incorrect aspect of it. The stereotyping is done often without the effort by the person to get to know the culture and customs of another race. So the issue is, it can be offensive, and it also shows a person's unwillingness (or perhaps apathy) towards learning about the real background, and real essence, of another person.

I agree that tip toe-ing around issues doesn't solve anything, and I respect you for bringing up that point. It doesn't help us to have conversations that are necessary and to learn about things we do not know. But a campaign like this that is raising awareness about the issues of stereotyping, to me, does more good than bad, especially at a school like Boston College, where white culture is so pervasive. We should all take more steps to learn about another culture and not just reduce it to a costume and one or two customs we read about in a children's book long ago. I found your argument against this campaign disconnected from what you were trying to say. Yes, we need to ask questions without fear and seek to learn what we do not know. But your attack of this campaign says something very different--it essentially (and it seems you did not intend to do this, but this is the nature of attacking a campaign such as this) demeans and belittles cultural sensitivity. Cultural sensitivity is not a bad thing. It is a call for all of us to understand another culture better and not just make assumptions about something we don't know. We all know what happens when you assume...As you mature, I hope you continue to ask questions and not just make assumptions.

Also, I would highly recommend you (and the BC student body in general) read Tim Wise's "White Like Me". It's a life changer.

Kind Regards,

Matt Gelman
A&S 2010