<p>I am very concerned about being on a campus where this sort of ignorance is displayed. This is my first post but I want to see what others think about this, particularly minorities. I wonder how the administration will handle this. Considering I was thinking about attending Penn CAS, I am starting to have second thoughts...Luckily I didn't send in my deposit yet.</p>
<p>Im no stranger to racism. Being a minority, it comes with the territory. However, because of a recent experience, I cannot in good faith recommend that minorities come to Penn.</p>
<p>Not to downplay the experience nor the perspective of this writer but you’ll have to understand that this behavior can and does happen at every campus in the USA, probably every workplace in the USA, in your neighborhood, in your places of worship, and likely at each of our family gatherings.</p>
<p>Unless I perceive an active enviroment that tolerates racism, I’m unperturberd. I teach my kids the ways of the world so they’re aware and can handle themselves. Drunk kids, acting on their base bigotry. Why expect more? But to turn away from an institution like UPenn? Sorry I disagree. Also, I’d say, what nirvana then do you recommend that’s free of any aspects of racism?</p>
<p>No offense but incidents like this can be bases of editorials on every single campus in america, every single year. </p>
<p>How about victims who aren’t staff writers of college newspapers?</p>
<p>For what it’s worth, the fact that this column is being prominently featured in today’s Daily Pennyslvanian where the main staff editorial normally appears, says something. The kind of behavior described in the column is reprehensible and unexcusable. It is CERTAINLY not conduct that is condoned–or even tolerated, for that matter–by Penn’s administration, or by the Penn community at large. Again, the prominence with which this column is featured in the Daily Pennsylvanian attests to that.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, in a community of 20,000 undergraduate, graduate, and professional students, there are going to be a few insensitive–and even bigotted–idiots. Not to excuse this kind of conduct in ANY way, but I’m just not sure that there’s really any place of Penn’s size where this kind of thing doesn’t occasionally occur. For example, Penn has a rather large Jewish community (around 25% of undergrads), but I have no doubt that there are at least a few anti-Semites to be found in the Penn student body who may occasionally make similarly reprehensible remarks.</p>
<p>The point is: there is absolutely no excuse for this kind of behavior, and it should be margianlized and condemned wherever and whenever it occurs. But don’t assume that Penn is unique among top schools in having some of these kinds of idiots present in an otherwise enlightened, welcoming, and diversity-valuing environment. Penn very much values diversity and multiculturalism, and the stats reflect that–more than 43% of the students in the Class of 2014 are what Penn proudly descirbes as “multicultural” (Black, Hispanic, Asian, and American Indian):</p>
Not gonna lie, but I’m glad you don’t go to UPenn. Your kind of attitude is excaptly the reason why racism is still alive: acceptance of the condition and lack of actively advocating against racism. I guess if somebody is bullied to the point he/seh is going to commit suicide, you would just say that bullies exist everywhere and let the kid commit suicide. I guess you would be one of those people who just stand there are watch somebody murder another person, much like the bystander at the murder of Kitty Genovese.</p>
<p>Just because racism is at other schools doesn’t mean that Penn should have racism. There is a reason why there are leaders in the world, it is so that they can change what is wrong. Discrimination was “everywhere” during the 20th century but MLK actively fought for civil rights. Why should Penn be “just another school where racism exist”? Why can’t Penn students condemn and make campus a better place, why should they just accept racism? Penn is a school for leaders, not followers.</p>
<p>Also, many victims are not willing to public announce that they were victims, much like how sexual assaulted victims don’t public announce that they have been assaulted (Senator Scott Brown). The opinion writer has acted as a leader and help publicize the social issue, he should not be mocked by a parent for expressing his opinion.</p>
<p>After going to Upenn I can say that this notion probably results from the fact that the majority of minorities didnt get in based on their smarts. They are getting everything handed to them and this makes the real students a little upset. This is the way things are, get used to it</p>
<p>It’s really unfortunate that this column’s author experienced this! I am not a member of the minority group he wrote about so I cannot speak about what the black or latino experience at Penn is like, however I will say that the students I am friends and colleagues with would certainly never stand for this kind of racist behavior. This is really appalling! I think the University tries its hardest to make the campus accepting and to provide resources to all minority groups (such as the cultural centers), but I guess this shows that sometimes racism still rears its ugly despite administration’s efforts.</p>
<p>I will say the university and many of the students <em>I</em> know do support diversity and a welcoming environment, so the students who misbehaved in that article certainly do not represent my ideal and vision for Penn.</p>
<p>gunit: I’m sorry that you felt my comments in any way condoned or pardoned the experience of the column writer. The actions described are anathema to me. Period.</p>
<p>But my note was commentary about his conclusion to recommend students not attend UPenn. THAT to me is throwing out the baby with the bathwater. The discourse and environment that I experienced at schools like UPenn were, in my opinion, some of the best solutions to our nation’s long heritage of racial issues.</p>
<p>I disgree with the conclusion of the article writer where he seems to suggest that the rational action after a racist incident is to withdraw and not engage (not attend UPenn).</p>
<p>As I said, if UPenn or another institution had a prevalent attitude of tolerating racism, I can concur. I have not seen that at UPenn so my advice would be to stay in the fight and not withdraw. As I said, the battles will be everywhere and anywhere. The sol’n is to stay engaged.</p>
<p>Great response there!? By “real students” I assume you are implying that the minorities are fake or not real students who pay tuition? Your attitude says a lot about yourself – perhaps you were one of the culprits… Regardless of who you think should be at Penn, no one deserves to be mistreated or the victim of harrassment. You want to be a closeted bigot, be my guess. I do have problems when your racism plays a role in my ability to live my life with dignity as a human being…</p>
<p>Though I don’t think this behavior should be tolerated, I question the notion that minorities should give up and find another place to “belong.” If someone questions whether you “belong,” why not collectively make it a place where minorities belong? Sure, the first years will be tough but are you willing to feel a little discomfort so that future generations of minorities will feel more welcome? I’m reminded of third-grade school assemblies about bullying - don’t give them the reaction that they want or they’ll just continue. Obviously discomfort and giving up are the reactions they want so why satisfy their craving? </p>
<p>I understand that it’s difficult coming from a minority myself. I feel like I would feel more accomplished if I suffered discomfort for the sake of changing status quo.</p>
<p>Wow, you’re an *******. It’s a very dangerous mindset to have–to genuinely believe that the URMs at any university only got in because of their skin color. You only perpetuate the problem that the author addressed. This is very sad and I feel very bad for the author; I only hope that the university and those involved in the incident step up and try to improve the issue at hand.</p>
<p>Honestly, my first thought was that the racist people the guy mentioned specifically in the article don’t go to Penn…and I’m probably right. Tons of people come to Penn for Fling, and many do hail from colleges that unfortunately aren’t as diverse as Penn.
I’m not saying racism doesn’t exist on campus, because it unfortunately still exists everywhere to some extent, but this is the first I’ve heard of such outrageous behavior. I’m pretty sure that isn’t the norm. (Also, I’m pretty sure a Penn student wouldn’t ask some random person where to get fried chicken…)</p>
<p>And I may not be a minority so I can’t say whether or not I’ve experienced it, but literally a third of my hall this year was black (and I was a minority as a white, actually haha) and two of my three roommates last year were black, (and this is besides the random friends I met through other means) and they all seemed really happy, “to belong,” and generally unconcerned. Once again, I’m not saying racism doesn’t exist and they haven’t experienced it (because as I’m sure someone will point out, they wouldn’t necessarily talk to me about it if something minor happened), but I don’t think racism has colored their experiences at Penn like it did the writer of that article.</p>
<p>Also, I’m not sure how much weight this has, but the writer IS an LPS student, so he is not a traditional undergrad student who comes to campus, does NSO, lives in a hall filled with freshmen his first year, etc. I don’t know how much effort goes into getting LPS students involved on campus, because generally (though of course not always) they’re working adults, but I am sure it’s not as much as what is thrown at undergrads. So this may have something to do with what the writer says about how he feels he doesn’t belong–I am of course not trivializing his experience, because it was terrible and no one should have to deal with that, but I think it is necessary to throw out there if you are considering what he has said about his feel of the community.</p>
<p>Would just like to point out that from what I see, the poster of this comment does not attend penn. All his other posts are based off of being a student at Villanova. And if he actually was a student of penn, then he probably wouldn’t refer to it as ‘upenn.’ So please ignore his extremely ignorant comment.</p>
<p>Rasmith, I hope you give penn another chance. I spent three days there last week and absolutely loved it. I saw a lot of diversity, which was a selling point for me. My host there was a black female, and I had a long conversation with her about a lot of aspects of penn that scared me, including fitting in, finding friends, social life, balancing one’s agenda, etc. It was really reassuring for me, and I urge you to see if you can perhaps talk to a current student in CAS and see their take on this.</p>
<p>‘Orangehat’ is probably a white robe in disguise. I wouldn’t be suprised if he was rejected by Penn and now is hanging around campus harassing minorities that ‘took his spot’. </p>
<p>Based on comments from him and others on similiar threads, I have a feeling this is only the beginning of these types of incidents targeting URM’s and ORM’s alike…primarily Asians.</p>