Racism and Cheap Thrills at the University of Texas Law School

While the thoughtless actions of young adults acting out the racism of the culture are disturbing, the thoughtful -- but depoliticized -- response from the law school is distressing. The actions of both groups in this affair are a painful reminder of the depth of white society's commitment to white supremacy.

This controversy is not unique to UT. It seems that every year students at a prestigious university -- the University of Chicago last year, Cornell in 2004, and Texas A&M in 2003 -- hold one of these parties, in which white students revel in what they believe to be the appearance and behavior of the black and brown people of the "ghetto."

The student from the UT party who posted the photos has taken them off the web, but news reports describe a party in which the students "carried 40-ounce bottles of malt liquor and wore Afro wigs, necklaces with large medallions and name tags bearing historically black and Hispanic names." No one involved has contested the characterization of the event.

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