Thursday, September 8, 2016

UMass: Harambe jokes are an 'attack' on African Americans


"An email sent to some students at UMass Amherst is drawing criticism after students were told not to make drawings about Harambe, the gorilla killed at the Cincinnati Zoo earlier this year."

11 comments:

Amartel said...

So at UMass, "gorilla" = "African American."

Good to know. Plan accordingly, college kidz and paying parentz!

edutcher said...

Yes, they all look like gorillas.

Or is it guerrillas?

Leland said...

I missed the connection between a gorilla and African American. I see the African part, but not the American, unless they mean that Harambe was in America but from Africa, thus African American. But I personally never associated gorillas by their continents. But here's thing, if UMass has to tell students that gorillas come from Africa; then perhaps they should raise their admission standards.

The Dude said...

Must not mention the 800 pound gorilla in the room.

ndspinelli said...

True story. When we were kids, the Spinelli family took a trip to the Bronx Zoo. All 4 of us kids were mesmerized by the gorillas. My parents could not pull us away. The next day my mom goes shopping and takes my kid brother. He was 3 or 4 @ the time. He's in the grocery cart @ the meat counter when a large, very black woman approached. My brother says in a loud voice, "MOM, LOOK @ THE GORILLA!" My mother was mortified. She tried to explain the background but it only got worse as she did. It took about a decade for my mom to be able to laugh @ this.

bagoh20 said...

Oh-oh. Somebody is a racist at UMass, so they assume everybody else is too.

In Astronomy 101 they try to avoid the subject of those gravitational monsters known among the educated as "holes of color".

Evi L. Bloggerlady said...

Stand for Harambe!

Chip Ahoy said...

Whoever shot the gorilla was racist. Didn't the zookeepers see Gorillas in the Mist?

Good lord, some of these college administrators are dumb as bricks and control freaks besides. A very bad mix with their known and proven racism.

Does anyone else sense they're digging their own graves? I sense soon universities will be irrelevant. And their passing cannot come too quickly. There are too many other ways to attain education and expertise and certification, and pastoral experience if that is what's needed, and even group experience, other spaces for maturity and growth. And all that without without any of the unnecessary weight.

We've placed a gigantic burden on young people. Too gigantic to bear. And so it must crumble by dint of its own weight. The requirement of education, and extraordinary additional and unnecessary administrative cost, combined with political indoctrination, that taken together is untenable. Colleges might not disappear entirely but they will change dramatically and I will live to see it. I'll force myself to live to see it. Now it's a project.

I know I can do it too. I already proved that. I stayed alive for the stupidest reason. Examining retrospectively. I told this to my brothers in seriousness and they both cracked up laughing. Bastards. I didn't think it was one bit funny. But they fell into mirth.

Finally I had my own apartment. Nobody else to account for. It was all mine, mine, mine, mine. I could have an aquarium without any arguments. I bought whatever I wished without consulting anybody. I bought furnishing on impulse. I did my own designing and all on my own. I can use the rooms as suits me. Made the repairs that I wanted. And my curtains hadn't arrived.

Goddamnit, I couldn't die then, I needed to see those curtains. It was focus to keep me going, day upon day. They took a long time.

How's that for sheer will, eh?

And now I'll see colleges change by necessity and to my satisfaction. It's something to live for.

I will see it.

There's way too many administrators living off the backs of our youth. Dumb fuck racist control freaks. (apologies if you're college administrator, not you, of course) Youthful energy is a beautiful thing to behold in action and these tired old fucks tap and drain it. They're treated as workhorses. And that will change. Oh glorious day. That day will come.

This is but one of a million similar examples. And that is no exaggeration either.

The Dude said...

It was nearly curtains for you. Then the curtains arrived.

Methadras said...

So the RMPC's tacitly equate Harambe jokes being akin to making racist comments towards blacks because they believe that a Gorilla equals black people. That's what they are basically saying.

MamaM said...

The How's that for sheer will, eh? was good too, especially if said curtains were sheers.

Does anyone even refer to sheers anymore, or is that language from my mother's day? Yup, looks like JCPenney still carries them, so something from the past is still present, even if traverse rods have pretty much gone out the window.