Can Dartmouth Stand for Racism?

By Zachary Gottlieb | Tuesday, November 28, 2006

I was appalled to hear of the “Cowboys, Indians, and Farm Animals” party held at Fuel some weeks ago. This kind of institutionalized racism is appalling and will not stand. It denigrates a race of people whose modern culture cannot be reflected by historical perceptions of brazen and violent action. Modern cultural understanding is essential to our collective identity as Americans.

If one group of students wishes to mar the reputation of a whole group of people for the purposes of a party, then they hold their noses up at what this nation was founded upon. This dance party, simply by insisting upon “accurate” costumes, helped indoctrinate fellow students with a feeling of cultural superiority.

Ignorance of modern changes in cultural identities is not acceptable at an institution that claims to be at the forefront of diversity and tolerance. As an Ivy League institution, we must show the world that we hold ourselves above age-old stereotypes.

How long will this go on?

The symbol of the American Cowboy is an offensive and inaccurate representation of my contemporary American identity. Do I savagely round cattle and use a Smith and Wesson six-shooter? Do you see me, the modern American, herding domesticated animals and using the Pony Express instead of mail? How can people sleep at night when they shout “Howdy” as a salutation to friends? How dare they!

Sports mascots like the Dallas Cowboys continue to destroy our precious American identity. The New England Patriots misrepresent the entire American populace as those who try to “beat” other teams and wear three-cornered hats! How absurd and culturally intolerant!

As an American, the insensitivity of those who use the cowboy caricature for the purpose of fun is shocking. I don’t care if the party was meant to represent a historically accurate part of my nation’s history. I no longer want my people to be associated with anything in my nation’s past, because the modern Ivy-League educated student doesn’t have the capacity to understand that my culture has changed over the past 150 years. In fact, the average student probably doesn’t understand that cultures can change at all; he or she probably assumes that all Germans continue to be Nazis, all British people are imperialists, and all Russians are communists.

Citizens of Dartmouth, nay, Americans, will you stand to accept this? As an informed and tolerant student of this fine College on the Hill, I cannot.

Can Dartmouth Stand for Racism?

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