About 200 students responded with a protest to the University’s Chancellor’s office.
Advertisement
The “Kanye Western” party, in which a few attendees patted their rear-ends to resemble rapper Kanye West’s wife Kim Kardashian while others wore do-rags, set off a campus demonstration Thursday and was discussed on Twitter bound by the #BlackBruinsMatter hash tag. “But pictures we saw – blackface without the paint”, said Janay Williams, chair of the African Student Union, in an interview with KNBC.
Other photos showed a group of female students with charcoal on their faces – in possible reference to Kanye West’s song “Gold Digger”. Sigma Phi Epsilon’s national chapter said the fraternity has also suspended activities at its UCLA chapter.
“Building diverse and inclusive communities is core to our identity as an organization, and we have zero tolerance for racist behavior”.
The school has already implicitly sided with the protesters, releasing a statement saying that while it’s investigating, students shouldn’t celebrate pop culture in ways that “can cause harm and pain” to others in the community, the Times said.
In the primary Facebook statement circulated by the crowd of individuals outraged by the incident, Kelsee Thomas, a UCLA student, stated “everyone keep in mind that simply because I go to one of the top ranked institutions in the country, doesn’t mean I’m any farther away from ignorance and racism as anyone else”.
UCLA has found itself in the middle of several racially fueled controversies in recent years. However, there haven’t been any direct punishments handed to the students who were involved.
“We deal with [racism] on a daily basis”, Devon Murphy, a 22-year-old political science major at UCLA and, told Mic. “But I want to underscore as an individual first, that black Bruins matter”. “UCLA is a microcosm of the real world”.
The university says it is investigating the matter and notes that students have a right to express themselves and comment on popular culture, but should be mindful of the effects their actions have on their peers.
Advertisement
One would think that a college education might clue students in to the fact that using dark makeup to make yourself appear Black is offensive and never okay.
