Diaz-Machado: A Party theme gone awry

Excellent Edgar.

Im tired of self-righteous Latinos at Yale.

I agree with #2 and #4. I’m from Latin America born and raised, and I honestly had no idea that the word “colonialism” had such charged connotations of slavery and oppression in the USA. I’m pretty sure LASO and YEU didn’t either. To me, “colonialism” can mean many things, one of which is the transformation of cultures that resulted in the one I’m proud to call my own. Automatically assuming that LASO and YEU were making fun of slavery is drastic and unfair.Whether you want to call it “ignorance” or “cultural difference”, you have to accept that people have different points of reference.

http://www.yaledailynews.com/opinion/guest-columns/2010/04/05/gonzalez-mijares-bloemen-malm-medina-party-theme-g/

“Over my four years here, I’ve felt that LASO was disconnected from other groups under the La Casa umbrella.”

Play politics much Edgar?

Is anyone else concerned that Edgar demanded disciplinary action? For someone who is complaining about Censorship, are the rights to gather and the rights to say what you want even if its abhorrent to others not sacred too? You cannot demand the right to attack and yet deny others the right to offend, for free speech is only free when we allow the forms of it we find most objectionable along with its noblest aspects.

“while resorting to Yale administration demanding disciplinary action”- Sorry dear, I never asked them to do anything. I merely expressed my concern to the master and deans. I literally sent out the link to the event and the conversation went from there. I never called for a protest or for a cancellation. It was up to the master to decide if the party would take place in his college or not.
Also, I never incited violence towards anyone, nor did I see those posts on Facebook. I definitely do not condone that at all.

PS- @2010- The seders I was part of dealt heavily with those themes- it is Passover after all- and seders include 4 cups of wine.

Edgar, while you certainly mean well, you should realize that the internationals at LASO and YEU don’t necessarily see things the same way you do – and that probably also explains your observation that “LASO was disconnected from other groups under the La Casa umbrella.” If you think they are ignorant and insensitive, maybe you ought to reflect on yourself – have you considered how YEU and LASO, coming from different cultural/political backgrounds, may have interpreted the terms “colonizer,” “colonized,” “colonialism” differently? Why should they immediately abandon their interpretations of these terms in favor of yours?

Haha, I got a good laugh out of this. I can see the steam coming out of the author’s ears when he learned about the event (really just an innocuous mixer), and his blood pressure skyrocketing through the rough. Honestly, some people need to lighten up. If you go through life angry about things that happened in the past, you’ll never find peace. It’s important to learn from the past, but it’s unhealthy to dwell on it. One of the things wrong with the American media is that dwells on past injustices without looking to the future. Basing one’s identity on past injustices is no way to build a meaningful identity. I hail from a “colonized” country myself, but I harbor no ill will to the so-called “colonizers.” If we learn from the past and move on, life will be more pleasant, I promise.

Excellent work Edgar!

Looks like I’m spending all day on here!
“Much of the reason the event didn’t come to fruition was that the prospect of it infuriated me and other conscientious Yalies.” This is very poorly worded. It originally read “This event, had it come to fruition as it was originally posted, would have set a very dangerous precedent that Yale College does not need. I doubt I was the only one who immediately thought of “race parties” that have marred other college campuses across the country. The prospect of bringing this type of filth to Yale infuriates me and other conscientious Yalies.”

I can see how the published sentence would make it seem like those of us opposed to the party’s theme wanted to get it cancelled. Speaking personally, I did not push for that.

I have been in the middle of this ongoing conflict between La Casa and LASO, and to be honest I am tired of the aggressiveness and self-righteousness with which Mecha/Alianza approaches any issue that could be considered sensitive.

I understand that the theme was a bit inappropriate, but the fact that bad intent was never an issue should be enough for you to cut LASO and YEU some slack and accept their APOLOGY nobly. Yet, you choose to make it a battle, an “us against them” – that to be honest ends up reinforcing the divide you theoretically are trying to fight against.

La Casa is not the place for LASO. The Organization for International Students is. Let’s be honest – I respect all latinos at Yale, but I have less in common with you, than I do with international students from other cultural organizations. This is a product of our background, our experiences, and the experiences of our families. I respect all of you as people, but don’t particularly share the views you were born into, and believe in so strongly.

So Yale…stop trying to force a relationship between two groups that just don’t belong together. Latinos and Latin Americans should treat each other with respect, understanding, and friendship. Saying that we all belong under the “La Casa” umbrella is a different story.

As long as there is someone like Dean Garcia at La Casa, they will continue to jump at any chance they get to insult, fight, and make this a historical struggle. Relax guys, it was just a party. They apologized. End of story.

#10 – hahaha, wait, really? You’re trying to discredit this article by saying “He thinks he’s correct, just like European colonizers thought they were correct”? That’s… that’s… I don’t even know where to begin. What’s next, comparing Mr. Diaz-Machado’s article to Mein Kampf because he mentioned that history is written by the victors?

You’re trying to keep a pretty nimble position, Edgar.

On the one hand, you’re accusing a group of people of facilitating and rewarding a re-performance of one of the most reprehensible aspects of human history. Furthermore, by saying they would be setting a precedent, you’re claiming that any subsequent racist activity on campus would be partly on their hands because they opened the floodgates, and are thus responsible for what follows from them. You’ve called them “flagrant” and “ignorant,” and implicated anyone who didn’t react with outrage as being complicit in their ignorance. You claim the reason the event was cancelled was because people like you expressed their outrage, and you seem pretty pleased with that development

On the other hand, you say you were never trying to get the party cancelled. You were bringing it to the attention to higher ups for them to do what they will. Just sayin.

What pray tell did you think would come of your bring it to the attention of other students and administrators? It seems like your position is this:

I’m not saying you guys should cancel this, but if you go through with it then you’re terrible people, and the fact that the thought even crossed your mind indicates that you’re probably bankrupt in some ways. But no, I’m not telling you not to do it. I’m just sayin.’

I’m not sayin that I wanted the party cancelled, I’m just saying that the party was cancelled because people like me expressed their outrage.

It’s a fascinatingly subtle and acrobatic position you’re claiming for yourself. I want to believe you, but I can’t get past the disingenuousness of it. Even though the fact that you never called for it to be cancelled might be true in a trivial sense, your whole position seems like you’re pulling a fast one on us unless you tell us what you were trying to do by bringing it to the administration. The other thing that’s interesting is that even though you’re trying to make a subtle enough claim about your own position, you don’t seem to be recognizing that LASO and YEO could have a similarly subtle and nuanced position.

What’s the old Jon Stewart joke? I’m not saying your mother’s a whore, I’m just saying she has sex with people for money. I’m not saying I wanted the party to be cancelled, I’m just saying that the party was cancelled because of how I expressed my outrage about it.

Apologies for the previous comment… Rereading your comment #16 it seems clear that attributing the cancellation to your actions was not your intent. It wasn’t my intention to misrepresent you, and I hope it’ll be taken as an honest mistake. I disavow that particular claim.

However, I think my broader point still stands. On the one hand, the possibility of bringing filth is infuriating, but on the other hand, you’re not calling for its cancellation. You opposed it, but you didn’t want to get it cancelled? This is a fascinating position to take. Again, I can believe you never said “I call for this party to be cancelled,” but I can’t believe you were simply expressing your opinion without trying to accomplish something, and if you weren’t trying to accomplish the party’s cancellation (as you say), then what were you trying to accomplish?

Sometimes if you want your voice to be heard, you need to speak up. If we want to talk about being self-righteous, we should talk about how a majority of Yalies rarely find race or ethnicity a concern on campus. When we’ve had graffiti on colleges or swastikas on Old Campus, an outcry was met with a simple ‘So what?’ from most Yalies. Race apparently is a thing of the past to most, but unfortunately, as most people will recognize race is something that divides our society. Even without consciously recognizing it, perceptions on race, gender, etc pervade our thoughts and inform some of the most basic decisions we make on a daily basis. Sometimes the only way to get people to challenge these thoughts is to stir up a little dialogue. Whether it be in poor taste to some, I assure you that you wouldn’t have given it a second thought otherwise.

Do you email your dean and master items you find distasteful on a regular basis? Or just ones related to your particular racial areas of interest. If the latter is true, you have violated the free speech commitment by going to Big Brother before talking to your own brother yalie. Respect can’t be drilled in from on high, it must come from one another. If you want to engender it, dont alert the authorities to injustice in the hearts of your fellows, alert your fellows.

@#22–THANK YOU! I swear, if we could just speak the truth instead of beating around the bush, we wouldn’t be running around in circles like we are right now with most of the comments to this and YEU’s article. The effects of colonialism have in NO WAY disappeared in ANY part of the world, especially in Latin America, and therefore they shouldn’t be used as a joke in ANY FORM. But due to the economic and social class (re: heritage) of most Latin Americans at Yale, such awareness tends to be lacking. I do not blame them for their ignorance (bc let’s be honest, we’re all ignorant in some aspect or another in life)–but I do feel like it’s the duty of a place like Yale to foster open spaces where constructive dialogue of such feelings and perspectives can be expressed, so that people can truly understand HOW hurtful such “jokes” such as this can be.

These ER&M majors just wanna get on their high horses and preach to everyone. Mecha, Dispierto Boriqua, and Alianza are all self-segregating groups full of people who think they’ve suffered more than everyone else on campus. Get over yourselves. A mistake was made. A party had an insensitive name. They apologized and recognized the mistake. Now move on. Get off your soap box and start to realize there are bigger battles to be fought. You wanna fight the effects of colonialism today? Then do something. You’ve made your point about this party. Why not do something constructive rather than waste everyone’s time on this wall? But really, move past this party. It’s a jumping off point and hopefully not the premise of your whole attack.

The victors sure ain’t writing the history anymore… have you picked up a Latin American history book in the last thirty years?