Louisville President James Ramsey issued an apology today as students rallied outside of his office in protest of the recent Halloween picture of him and his staff dressed in stereotypical Mexican costumes. Past images like the Frito-Lay Frito Bandito, the cartoon mouse Speedy Gonzalez and the robber gang who said “We don’t need no stinkin’ badges” in the 1948 film “The Treasure of the Sierra Madre” fed the stereotype. “They aren’t costumes, they’re people”.
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A University spokesman noted the clothing was “considered offensive” to a few.
Karman said Ramsey was unavailable for an interview.
“My first reaction was shock”, Leonardo Salinas Chacon, a Freshman at UofL said.
Ramsey was criticized on social media as well. “Just like blackface isn’t OK, just like wearing indigenous garbs isn’t OK, just like making fun of Asian people isn’t OK”.
Both Nunez and Salinas said they hope the incident will push the university to invest in its relationship with its Hispanic students.
The picture was published by The Courier Journal on Wednesday. ” saying the photos and costumes she had seen students wearing on campus clearly showed they understood how to wear a costume that was fun, not offensive”.
The photo was posted online Wednesday as part of a slideshow accompanying the newspaper’s story about the use, and lack of use, of the mansion.
Administrators at the University of Louisville clearly just don’t get it… Ramsey is smiling in a brightly colored poncho and sombrero. The crowd is overwhelmingly white.
“I was appalled”, he said. “In fact, I’d say in a way it’s embracing the culture that garment represents”.
Meanwhile, other university leaders were mum, or downplayed the matter. “As the president of a university, I would expect more”.
Powell alleged in her book, “Breaking Cardinal Rules: Basketball and the Escort Queen”, that she was paid to help organize almost two dozen parties involving strippers and escorts.
Similar photos have sidelined and shamed other college fraternities and sororities. The students were participating in a supposed Olympic-themed mixer. Mr. Ramsey, however, was in North Carolina with the university’s football team, which was to play Wake Forest University that evening.
Ramsey’s Chief of Staff, Kathleen Smith, initially issued a statement on Thursday night, after outrage from the public. Smith herself is in the photo wearing black, holding a maraca and sporting a fake mustache on her upper lip.
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In a statement directed to the Hispanic and Latino faculty, staff and students, Ramsey’ office said the school will initiate diversity training immediately. We did not intend to cause harm or to be insensitive.
