Homerton students were warned not to black up for a bop over the weekend.
Homerton Union of Students President Ben Wheawell told his college that “turning up in ‘blackface’ will not be permitted.”
“…please, please be respectful… HUS would like to emphasise that this is a chance to have a bit of fun, not to be ethnically or religiously offensive!”
The Homerton Union of Students was forced to send an email to undergrads after they received a complaint from one student who was concerned with the inappropriate possibilities of Saturday’s Stereotypes Bop.
Were students actually going to go in racist fancy-dress?
The Bop was advertised on Facebook with the theme of “Stereotypes (any).” But not all Homertonians were happy with the idea.
Second year English and Education student Rosie Keep told The Tab “I think it’s really important that the JCR reconsider the theme – if it offends anyone it’s surely not in the spirit of a bop.”
HUS committee members declined to comment in phone conversations with The Tab.
In response to emailed questions, HUS issued a statement saying “We received a valid complaint from one student. The student, along with senior college officials, was entirely happy with our response.
“We trust Homerton students to make use of the theme in the good-natured way it was intended…”
Still, fresher George Newman said “I’m really disappointed. It has dashed my plans to go as a Victorian chimney sweep.”
Homerton students have been warned. Last year Emmanuel had the same problem and had to change their “Fire in the Red Light District” theme after allegations of glamourising prostitution.
this is just trivial shite. Let me do a feature on Donegal, thats the real news.
since there is a pretty obvious racist stereotype of a black man and a chinese woman in the poster, i think they started it.
not to mention the Jewish guy and the Arab. Really good way to get rid of Cambridge's own stereotype…
The poster was edited to remove the dodgy bits, as far as I saw. Don't see the big deal when Tit Hall had a Bad Taste Viva that went completely unnoticed.
ha i mean japanese. maybe racism's in the water here.
also i can spot a hasidic jew, a native american, a 'zulu', and a bloke in middle eastern dress thinking of a bomb.
6/10 blunder
There appears to be what looks like a Japanese woman, 70s black man, Native American and Arab Sheikh-a-like in the poster… I'd have to say HUS has brought this on themselves just a little. -_-
he's thinking of a BOMB
Brought *what* upon themselves though? As the article explains, just one student complained, and the HUS dealt with it pretty fairly. Within college, that's where the story ended, and the bop was great (inoffensive) fun. The only body now spreading the potentially inflammatory images and exacerbating the whole thing is the Tab.
You really do wonder whether the news editors on here think about what they're doing before they jizz all over 'a scoop'…
TAB IN 'MAKING NEWS OUT OF NOTHING' SHOCKER.
Mate give me a hand.
That's a bit sexist, honey.
The bop was yesterday so you could have said what actually happened. Did they actually go in racist fancy dress? Anyway it seems to me that it was a stupid idea from the start. Getting people to dress up as racist stereotypes was always going to cause controversy.
As far as I'm aware there were no racist stereotypes at the bop?
The theme was 'stereotypes'… that leaves quite a wide array of other possible dress up ideas.
That's the point though, they weren't getting people to dress up as racist stereotypes, it was more intended as an opportunity for students to take the piss out of themselves. Students came as a variety of innocuous stereotypes, including desperate scousewives, french peoplein berets, irishmen and a lot of chavs.
Oh yeah okay privileged cambridge students dressing up as chavs PRETTY INNOCUOUS.
You seem to be implying that:
1. All cambridge students are privileged; and
2. That all chavs are poor.
Both of which are false.
1. Well, yes, they are. Not only does Cambridge *in itself* confer privilege, most students here are – in other important ways – privileged.
2. No, I implied that 'chav' is a pretty class-based thing; are you really going to deny that?
The point is though that these are STEREOTYPES as defined by the title. I would hope that students would recognise that these are generalisations not based on the whole public. Why is it ok to laugh about stereotypes of French or Irish men but not about other stereotypes? Because essentially most people recognise that the French garlic-eating, beret-wearing stereotype is essentially ridiculous. However the ones that people get scared about are the ones that they don't feel comfortable with in real life. There's no arguing that 'chav' has a value-laden class judgement attached to it, however over recent years it has become more representative or a general portion of the population as a whole, alongside goth, emo, scene-kid, geek etc. Also I know many middleclass chavs.
Given that i went to school with a large amount of chavs with considerably more money than myself, yes, i am going to deny that.
money doesn't equal class. just look at Gordon Brown.
did anyone dress in racist fancy dress? No, no they did not
Seems to have nothing better to report on
We've got some great new articles about our perfectly symmetrical haircuts coming up!
how is this even news?
The committee sent out an email requesting people not to be racist so caught the problem before it even started.
Is this just a case of the tab not having a news article online since 16th Feb?
Who gives a fuck?
I give lots of fucks- this is a serious issue.
You do, enough to post useless comments
the president is a sabbatical, he gets paid, i think this is a scandal.
you're a moron, why is this so scandalous? do you honestly think that ben deliberately picked the theme to get people to go in racist costumes? why do you think that he sent the email round advising otherwise?
Accidentally clicked thumbs down. Completely agree with this comment, this whole issue is absolutely bizarre. Yes, obviously a big error with the poster, but to then heap the blame on to the president who then makes a huge effort to make sure it doesn't turn out bad is pretty poor. And was anyone racist? No, of course not.
The only mistake here is the poster. Don't pick the first picture that comes up on google next time homerton.
thieves as well as racists. well journalised my friend.
more George Newman
The tagline on the original version of that poster (row 3 on google images) is "look beyond the stereotypes", which is quite the opposite of "dress up as stereotypes"
i went as a stereotype fukn LEGEND
an unfortunate mistake. The theme (and the bop itself) was fine but the poster wasn't. They probably feel silly now but it was never meant to offend anyone. Plus, once the mistake was pointed out they took the appropriate steps & apologised to everyone's satisfaction. I'm sure there's no need to make such a fuss.
Good work guys, now savour the warm glow that accompanies the prevention of casual racism or offense to ethnic minorities, it really doesn't get any better than this.
massively overblown nonsense, rosie keep just trying to stir up trouble as usual
I once went to a bop dressed as myself, I'm sure everyone there found it exceedingly ironic.
*kicks poor person* etc etc.
We didn't care. The theme was overshadowed by the bouncy castle. Best bop of the year.
Shame it was at Homerton
journalism.. this is the most non-informative, desperate article ever.
There's a word for that: "uninformative".
THE BOP WAS REALLY FUN THERE WAS A BOUNCY CASTLE AND NO ONE GOT HURT ON IT BECAUSE WE ALL TOOK OUR SHOES OFF. NO ONE GOT OFFENDED BECAUSE NO ONE IS DULL OR PEDANTIC ENOUGH TO TAKE THEMSELVES TOO SERIOUSLY.
WE LOVE OUR BOPS, BRUNCH, LIONEL THE PORTER AND EVEN THE HUS ALTHOUGH SOMETIMES THEY MAKE BAD CHOICES LIKE PIE AND MASH FRIDAY INSTEAD OF FAST FOOD FRIDAY. WE HAVE HARRY POTTER FORMALS WITH OWLS AND THERE IS A SQUIRREL WHO STEALS BAGUETTES FROM THE BUTTERY. THE HUS GIVES US FREE JELLY BABIES AND SOMETIMES FREE BISCUITS. WE LOVE CYCLING 2 MILES TO LECTURES BECAUSE IT MAKES OUR LEGS STRONG SO WE CAN BOUNCE ON THE BOUNCY CASTLE FOR LONGER AND WE FORGIVE THE DEAN FOR BUYING A PAINTING INSTEAD OF A SWIMMING POOL BECAUSE IT'S SO SHIT WE CAN LAUGH AT IT DURING BRUNCH AND LAUGHTER MAKES US HAPPY.
this is a work of art
go homerton
couldnt agree more with this! as captain of the university challenge team i am proud to represent homerton
WE LOVE GRINYER!
I really love that squirrel.
Pie and Mash Friday was not a bad choice!
And it didn't replace Fast Food Friday – it replaced Moussaka and Ocean Pie Friday!
I am the worst.
I was too busy at U21s training to go. Did anyone go as me?
because you're a douchebag
Isn't it quite likely that not a single black student actually attends Homerton?
Racist, much?
kwame?
Um, no.
Waynewrong.
for when Tele finds you
She has.
Im so up for anything. Check me out on fb.
FORWARD HOMERTON!!!
is so much better. We have Stereotype Pav EVERY YEAR and it never causes any controversy. Why can't everyone just chill out a bit?
And neither did the Homerton one until this pointless article showed up!
HUS, is that you?
That is all
you're a journalist, harry
but seriously..
Yer gonna go to cambridge, yer gonna do essays, you get a gown, you get a fucking degree wi' a free MA, DEAL WI' IT. there's no need for yer shitey articles wi' no point te' it.
I'll put mah DICK in the gown.
What a poor article, obviously a mistake was made with the poster, but there is nothing wrong with Ben sending that email – if anything, the email was an attempt to rectify the mistake; the HUS had already gone round to edit the posters. This is really making something out of nothing; sensationalist rubbish even by Tab standards.
Lighten the bugger up…Jeez. It's not like it was a "stereotypes about black people" theme – stereotypes exist for every group and can be funny. Hipsters? Black people? Jews? Muslims? Chinese? White people, for that matter? Christians? They can all be taken the piss out of. So much ado about nothing, just for the sake of a few people who can laugh at anything except if it happens to make light of something about them?
OK, so I understand the historical connotation of blackfacing, but many other stereotypes have similar connotations. And I say this belonging to one of the groups I mention above. Lighten the f*ck up.
Thank God the children weren't on board to see this.
I'm going to make a stand and go against stereotypes and dress up as an average to well-performing Cambridge student.
The bop was three days ago.
You can satisfy some of the people all the time, or you can satisfy all of the people some of the time, but you cannot satisfy all of the people all of the time.
Surely if the racism is casual and isn't meant in a derogatory manner it's not a big deal. I'm scottish and get ripped into (in a casual manner) every day because of it and I don't care… I could easily jump up and down but I'm not wound like a spring… People need to calm down.
'it's ok officer, i was only murdering casually'
I had a great time to be honest.