Since the first day of April is set aside for the celebration of all things joking, I have decided to tell you a joke: What student organization puts on a skit where a white student (in black-face) performing as Barack Obama gets a lap dance, while two students dressed as cowboys pretend to have sex in the background, and then rip up an Obama poster? A student organization called the North Dakota State University Saddle and Sirloin Club.
OK, so it's a bad joke that sounded more like a question from Jeopardy, but hey, I'm no Alex Trebek. The point is, this actually happened.
Since the skit on Friday, the NDSU administration has been debating how to deal with the offensive piece and its audacious players. Should they suspend them or just give them a verbal warning, citing what is acceptable behavior for a NDSU student? What I would like to see happen is, well, nothing.
Now, this may seem odd for someone to say, especially considering how disrespectful and ignorant these actions were — and no, Scotty did not beam these kids down from 1952 — but I would assume that most people's first reactions would be to punish these students for their racist, homophobic and sexist gesture that has caused considerable outrage among people within their university community.
However, no matter how appalling and immoral, these students are well within their rights. Until recently, the term "free speech" has been used rather loosely with anything anti-American, or rather, anti-government to not only be censored, but nearly wiped out with names like treason or terrorist.
These students' demonstration should be met with boos and jeers, not fear of punishment from the university's administration.
College campuses have been a haven for protests and demonstrations for the past 100 years, and even though these actions could be seen as the most anti-American of all, these students have the right to express their opinions all the same.
Having said that, I now choose to exercise my own form of free speech. Since the beginning of his campaign, Obama has been met with little racist commentary from even his worst rivals, which shows an extreme amount of growth in our country over the last 50 years. And the fact that we are now closer than ever to having an African-American president is both joyous and exciting.
This is why I am absolutely ecstatic that these supposedly educated young men who are the future of our great nation could be so ignorant and blatantly hateful. These people may have been well within their rights to perform a skit straight from the "Best of the Klu Klux Klan" DVD collection, but this reflects poorly not only on the young men, but also on the parents and administrators of NDSU who are the main social influences on these their lives.
It is very frightening to know that such hatred still exists in our country, even after the years and years of effort put forth to combat racism within the United States.
North Dakota State University should not do anything to punish these students for their ridiculous behavior, but they should certainly consider how to punish themselves for allowing their system of education to produce such ignorant and odious conduct out of even the smallest group of its students.
It may seem unimportant, but stories like these illustrate how even in 2008, hatred and intolerance are still present within our country, and still need to be fought against. And whether we can win that fight … well, to quote Senator Obama himself, "Yes we can."
Tell Sarah what you think. Send her an e-mail at: sarah.maschoff@asu.edu.
