Black Face, University Space
HEC & A Lesson in Race Relations
__thumb_900_675_90.jpg)
The group of white Hautes Études Commerciales students that were caught on camera last week donning blackface—in the name of ‘school spirit’—displayed mindboggling ignorance by claiming that they ‘did not want to offend anyone.’
Obviously, this profound lack of cultural knowledge, as well as racial insensitivity has indeed offended—swiftly causing a sensation across the Internet, where comment boards are being lit up by people who are absolutely stupefied that this event could be condoned, in Canada, on a university campus, in 2011.
This incident in particular was so brazenly outlandish it’s hard not to wonder how the hell no one in that faux-Jamaican entourage didn’t think, you know, they might be pushing it, that they should reconsider their school-spirit strategy and they should wipe that shit off.
Curiously, an argument is circulating from some francophone quarters that blackface does not carry the same cultural connotations in Quebec as in the US—that they’re outside of the “patrimoine canadien” and were simply inconsiderate because they’re from small, all-white towns—and that the kids just didn’t “know any better.”
Even if these froshies didn’t have explicitly racist intentions—which they probably didn’t—and even if they were attempting to glorify Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt—which they almost definitely were—they simply should have known better. And if they didn’t, they need to get educated. Pronto. They are in university, after all.
While HEC issued an apology—several days after the story broke—and has stated they will organize an “inter-cultural relations session” for the students involved, there are precious few details surrounding its implementation and content as of yet.
Though Quebec certainly has a unique history of race-relations, this incident is just unacceptable. More importantly, though, is that there is a real opportunity for HEC to take a hard look at its students’ cultural competencies and have a conversation about their values as an institution of higher learning.
As Anthony Morgan, the McGill student who taped the HEC blackface incident and posted it on the Internet, demanded in The Gazette, “What kind of message does it send to your black students [and the community at large] when you don’t stand up for them?”
But perhaps what’s most disturbing about this entire ignorant event in particular is that it surely isn’t an isolated incident—it’s just a blatant moment that’s been exposed to the worldwide web.
Across North American campuses every September, as drunken, 18-year-old newcomers with little real-world experience and humility are initiated into student life and new cities, how many instances of racism—perhaps more subtle than total blackface—go under the radar because it’s not egregious enough to be posted on YouTube? How many racist—or sexist and homophobic, for that matter—incidents happen on these university spaces without a second thought?
Before the 24-hour news cycle distracts us with yet another scandal to harp on, we should begin to think critically about our university spaces and, in particular, the more “traditional” frosh and orientation events, and take a hard look at what’s happening and the culture it’s creating—or excluding.
It’s too bad we even have to spill ink in an opinions piece over blackface on campus in this day and age, but as institutions of higher learning, clearly a lesson or two has been left out of the curriculum.
To watch the video, click here
