The Pros And Cons Of Racism In Dartmouth College

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A huge dispute aroused after members of the Alpha Delta fraternity, at Dartmouth College, hosted a "Bloods and Crips" theme party. Members of this fraternity, which are majorily white, dressed up as gang members of two gangs from the South Central Los Angeles area. Aside from dressing up, the members of this party also engaged in racialized language and speech, turning the environment of the themed party into a “ghetto” scene. Although many members of the administration at Dartmouth College condemned this incident as morally wrong, no further action was taken. Even though the members of the fraternity apologized for their wrong acts, students who felt attacked requested others to report this incident as a biased act. However, besides the student’s request to see this as a racist act, we should also determine whether this incident is to be labeled as racist using Blum’s definition of the word “racist.” …show more content…

He argued that just because something is racial, it is rarely the case that the act is racist. In order for something to be racist there has to be inferiorization as well as antipathy (Blum, 8). But, there is such a time where an act can be racist with only one of the two required characteristics of racism. Morover, he argues that there are levels to racism which are social, institutional, and personal (Blum, 9). Using these claims of Blum of what racism is, we will indicate and conclude whether the incident at Dartmouth College is racist or