Five college students were stripped of residence hall jobs and are facing campus hearings over a video that mimics a terrorist hostage taking.
In the video, five figures in ski masks speak in crude Middle Eastern accents as they threaten a mock captive -- a rubber duck that serves as the mascot of a residence hall at the C.W. Post Campus of Long Island University, Newsday reported Thursday. The video was posted on the Web sites Google and YouTube, the newspaper said, but it has since been removed...
"I think the tape was an insult to the victims and families involved in hostage situations," Shenker said. Student employees are expected to serve as role models, and "we expect them to be instructing our students on being sensitive regarding all groups."
That's crap. These students, in their roles as RAs, could be considered representatives of the university, and it's reasonable to expect different behavior from them than you would an ordinary student. But, is the university truly upset about this because it might make "the victims and families involved in hostage situations" feel bad, or is there some other concern involved?
This reeks of political correctness run amok. From what I've read, which is nothing more than what's at the link above, I don't see this movie as any great travesty. Would it have been ok if the students hadn't spoken in "crude Middle Eastern accents"? Would there have been any action taken if the students making the film hadn't been RAs?
Do you know any "victims and families involved in hostage situations"? I don't know anyone in that category. If you do, are you scarred knowing that a rubber duckie movie is out there?
Silliness.
2 comments:
I was under the impression that it was supposed to be sensitive and correct to allow young people to express their emotions about current events in arts and media.
Huh, guess not.
I can promise you though, there's an RA over there presenting all Americans as goose-stepping Nazis in their art/media class and nothing at all will happen to them.
What I find appalling is that if those same students under the banner of making a protest video had done so for a film course, they would have been lauded as long as it took an anti-American stance. There is one point though, RA's in most schools are considered employees of the university and as such do have limits to use and abuse of public property. If they had been just students, it probably wouldn't have even made the light of day.
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