When I read the "Jim Crow on Fraternity Row" I was absolutely shocked. Seeing college age kids, who I will be in schools with in one year, acting the way they were in the age we are living in was a terrible thing to see.
I definitely think this behavior should be either outlawed or banned on campus because it is disgusting and immature and racist. It would be a problem though to ban it because it would lead into the question of what kind of themed parties can people have that will not offend others? The black stereotypes they are conveying are extremely harsh and it makes the students themselves look terrible. When I saw pictures on the slideshow of kids with their bodies painted black, smiling, and being hung by a white farmer, I almost threw up. This is no way any person should be allowed to act or reinact and especially on a campus where many races are present, such as Auburn, or Chicago, it is sad to see the way peers are depicting other peers. If the Universities allow this behavior to continue, it will foster a new generation of racist and careless Americans. also, when people are being mocked or threatened, they are not in a safe place. And the goal of campuses is to be a safe place for all the people attending.
I am applying to the University of Illinois as a freshman for their Fall semester in 2013. I looked them up to see their policies on speech codes and learned that they were a red light university which meant that they have one policy that clearly restricts freedom of speech. I read about a professor who taught CAtholic Thought and he was told that he would "not be rehired" because he supposedly sent an email that was hostile to gay people. I think its important that FIRE got involved and tried to preserve the academic values of free and open discourse. There were a few other policies about harassment and the rights of the students to be free from hate speech on campus because it could turn into more serious incidents. I Sexual harassment is also another one of the policies at U of I. I don't feel impacted by these speech codes as a prospective student because they are rules to keep us (the students) safe and the policies I have seen have been reasonable so far. The only speech code that I see that infringes on any rights to free speech would be the sexual harassment category where you cannot say anything with a derogatory term, insult, dirty jokes, etc. These are all words, yet you can be very very punished for using them.
The University would react in a huge way because one of the biggest policies it has is "Bias and Hate Speech" and these are in the yellow light category. If their students were engaged in this behavior, the University would show them a huge punishment which is also an example for other students who would have acted the same way. U of I has a reputation of being a wonderful school and to lose its reputation because of racist acts like that would be a shame.
FIRE's goal is to "defend and sustain individual rights at America's colleges" and this is something I agree with. FIRE is a smart way for students to get rights from the colleges they are attending who place so many restrictions on behavior now-a-days. Free Speech can be dangerous, but it can also be dangerous if we are not allowed to have it, so the FIRE organization should not be present all the time.
The best ways for people to learn about colleges is seeing how it treats its students and how the rights of the students affect how the students can learn/ grow in a university setting. I liked learning about the speech codes on campus because it showed me a new dimension towards thinking about bad behavior, hate speech and more relevant ideas on college campuses.
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