The University of California, San Diego has graced the pages and airwaves of national media outlets quite a bit the past week. The school was in the news last week when members of its Greek community sent out a Facebook invitation to a “Compton Cookout.”
The invitation asked attendees to dress ghetto in honor of Black History Month. According to NBC.com, the invitation read: “For those of you who are unfamiliar with ghetto chicks — Ghetto chicks usually have gold teeth, start fights and drama, and wear cheap clothes.”
But the drama doesn’t end there. The Associated Press reported the administration stopped funding the school’s 33 student media outlets after a student-run TV channel, The Koala, aired a segment making fun of black students’ reactions.
Likewise, the organization’s site says: “If history has shown us anything, you need more black people at your party to have enough black-on-black violence to actually justify the name ‘Compton.’ Shame on you. SHAME.”
An administrator said the school canceled the show and will reinstate funding when it “can be sure that such hateful content can never be aired again on [their] student funded TV station,” according to the AP article.
Now, we’re all for freedom of speech, but the school was right to step in and take a stance. It asked the remaining media outlets to be patient until it can create a new policy. This isn’t the first time The Koala has gotten into trouble either — the AP article reported in 2005 it aired a video of people having sex.
Although the fraternity men who planned the party were in the wrong, The Koala was even more wrong to poke fun at students’ feelings about a serious issue. Its good to see the school stand up for its students. If the Koala has a problem, it should become independent.
