How Hate Starts On College Campuses
When I was involved in the University of Pittsburgh's Hillel, it was always made very clear that we were to comport ourselves professionally. Prominent religious organizations on college campuses represent more than their signed-up members: they represent the students of that religion to the school and to the community. So the way that a religious organization handles itself tells you a lot about the sentiments and sensibilities of their students - to the extent that you know that they're trying to act in a way that they percieve to be professional, you can get a good idea of what they consider to be appropriate and inappropriate. This, then, is the full text of an email that the USC Muslim Student Association sent to its members earlier this week:
Salam, There will be an MSU board meeting on Monday (tomorrow) after maghrib insha’Allah (~5pm). If you are interested in attending and may not be on the board, you are more than welcome to attend. We’ll be going over MSA West, Last Week’s Event, Next Semester, and MSU Board Structure insha’Allah. If you’re interested in helping out with stuff next semester, being on the board next year, or just interested in the inner-workings of MSU, please do come.
What: MSU Board Meeting
Time: 5:15pm sharp
Location: Parkside Lounge
Wassalam,
[name suppressed]
--
On a side note, here’s a funny joke..
This may be insensitive (to Israelis at least), and if you are easily offended, do not read it. But it sure is funny:
If an Insect Falls in Your Cup of Coffee, what would you do?
Here is one analysis:
1. The Englishman: Throws the cup away and walks out of the cafe.
2. The American: Takes the insect out and drinks the coffee.
3. The Chinese: Eats the insect and throws the coffee away.
4. The Besieged Palestinian: Drinks the coffee and eats the
insect.
5. The Israeli: Sells the coffee to the American and the insect to the Chinese. Screams that his security is in peril.
- Accuses the Palestinians of throwing the insect in his coffee.
- Alleges that Hezbollah, the Syrians and the Iranians advocate attacks with weapons of mass insects.
- Relates this vicious attack to Islamic Terrorism, Attacks on Human Rights, Anti-Semitism, the Holocaust, the Diaspora, the Discrimination against Noah's Ark.
- Commands Arafat to immediately stop insects from flying in the air or landing in coffee cups.
- Re-occupies the West Bank and Gaza, raids houses, cuts off water and electricity, humiliates and terrorizes civilians, kills or maims anyone in his way.
- Imposes more military aid on the Americans.
- Demands a 100-year, billion-dollar, loan from America to buy another cup of coffee.
- Claims life-time free coffee from the cafe as compensation.
There are obviously some problems with this joke - I don't think the word "impose" means what he thinks it means, for instance. Also, it's not really all that funny (then again, maybe I'm just "too Israeli" to appreciate humor). But that's not the point.
Imagine yourself in an official capacity. Now imagine that you think it's OK to send out a joke mocking the Holocaust, making two seperate references to how Israelis extort money from the United States, and finally implying that Jews are cheap. I'm not even sure that any of these jokes really cross the line (although the over-arching focus on selling and money flirts with open impropriety).
The point is that leaders of the Muslim Student Association apparently believe that part of their official job is to mock Israelis and Jews. Keep in mind that this is a University funded organizations. Keep in mind that the University isn't exactly doing its best to distance itself from anti-Semitism. Seemingly innocent jokes are the first step toward creating a culture of desensitization and degradation, which ultimately culminates in open attacks on students. Of course, no one ever thinks that's how things'll end up - that's how they start in the first place.
I'm not saying that jokes are off-limits: quite the opposite, I think that (funny) potentially offensive jokes can help people cross lines and form friendships by showing that those people don't take religious or gender differences seriously. But there is a difference between the emails of those charged with speaking in an official capacity and the exchanges that happen between individuals. When organizations give up on propriety, it's a dangerous sign that underneath their true sentiments are trully ugly.
Of course, the real problem is that joke is neither particularly clever nor at all funny. "The Israeli complains about the hummus and builds a wall to protect himself from future flies" might have been funnier, but I think the fundamental problem is that it's really hard to extract funny out of a "fly in coffee cup" setup.
Salam, There will be an MSU board meeting on Monday (tomorrow) after maghrib insha’Allah (~5pm). If you are interested in attending and may not be on the board, you are more than welcome to attend. We’ll be going over MSA West, Last Week’s Event, Next Semester, and MSU Board Structure insha’Allah. If you’re interested in helping out with stuff next semester, being on the board next year, or just interested in the inner-workings of MSU, please do come.
What: MSU Board Meeting
Time: 5:15pm sharp
Location: Parkside Lounge
Wassalam,
[name suppressed]
--
On a side note, here’s a funny joke..
This may be insensitive (to Israelis at least), and if you are easily offended, do not read it. But it sure is funny:
If an Insect Falls in Your Cup of Coffee, what would you do?
Here is one analysis:
1. The Englishman: Throws the cup away and walks out of the cafe.
2. The American: Takes the insect out and drinks the coffee.
3. The Chinese: Eats the insect and throws the coffee away.
4. The Besieged Palestinian: Drinks the coffee and eats the
insect.
5. The Israeli: Sells the coffee to the American and the insect to the Chinese. Screams that his security is in peril.
- Accuses the Palestinians of throwing the insect in his coffee.
- Alleges that Hezbollah, the Syrians and the Iranians advocate attacks with weapons of mass insects.
- Relates this vicious attack to Islamic Terrorism, Attacks on Human Rights, Anti-Semitism, the Holocaust, the Diaspora, the Discrimination against Noah's Ark.
- Commands Arafat to immediately stop insects from flying in the air or landing in coffee cups.
- Re-occupies the West Bank and Gaza, raids houses, cuts off water and electricity, humiliates and terrorizes civilians, kills or maims anyone in his way.
- Imposes more military aid on the Americans.
- Demands a 100-year, billion-dollar, loan from America to buy another cup of coffee.
- Claims life-time free coffee from the cafe as compensation.
There are obviously some problems with this joke - I don't think the word "impose" means what he thinks it means, for instance. Also, it's not really all that funny (then again, maybe I'm just "too Israeli" to appreciate humor). But that's not the point.
Imagine yourself in an official capacity. Now imagine that you think it's OK to send out a joke mocking the Holocaust, making two seperate references to how Israelis extort money from the United States, and finally implying that Jews are cheap. I'm not even sure that any of these jokes really cross the line (although the over-arching focus on selling and money flirts with open impropriety).
The point is that leaders of the Muslim Student Association apparently believe that part of their official job is to mock Israelis and Jews. Keep in mind that this is a University funded organizations. Keep in mind that the University isn't exactly doing its best to distance itself from anti-Semitism. Seemingly innocent jokes are the first step toward creating a culture of desensitization and degradation, which ultimately culminates in open attacks on students. Of course, no one ever thinks that's how things'll end up - that's how they start in the first place.
I'm not saying that jokes are off-limits: quite the opposite, I think that (funny) potentially offensive jokes can help people cross lines and form friendships by showing that those people don't take religious or gender differences seriously. But there is a difference between the emails of those charged with speaking in an official capacity and the exchanges that happen between individuals. When organizations give up on propriety, it's a dangerous sign that underneath their true sentiments are trully ugly.
Of course, the real problem is that joke is neither particularly clever nor at all funny. "The Israeli complains about the hummus and builds a wall to protect himself from future flies" might have been funnier, but I think the fundamental problem is that it's really hard to extract funny out of a "fly in coffee cup" setup.
