Race and gender offensive parties anger students
Students voiced their complaints to the Dean of Students Office after receiving invitations to an off-campus party with a theme considered to be offensive to women and those of Native American descent March 2.
The theme intended for the party is believed to have been “Frat Bros and Nava-hoes,” but DeAnn-Yocum Gaffney, assistant vice chancellor for student affairs, declined to confirm the information.
After members of the administration contacted the organizers of the event, the party was reportedly cancelled.
The incident came just weeks after Duke University made national headlines when members of its Kappa Sigma fraternity were suspended after throwing a theme party at which attendees dressed up in stereotypical Asian costumes.
Similar theme parties have taken place in the past at Chapman without the knowledge of the administration, Yocum-Gaffney said.
“As we continue to investigate this situation, we have had additional reports of similarly themed parties that may have previously been hosted by Chapman students,” Yocum-Gaffney said in an email to the Chapman community Tuesday. “The reports indicate the themes of some of these events may have denigrated a specific ethnicity, gender or socio-economic status.”
For Paul Apodaca, associate professor of anthropology and American studies, who is of Navajo descent, the reasoning behind the party theme was rather straightforward.
“These are the actions of racists and they are the only ones who don’t find it offensive,” Apodaca said. “Any attempt to make it more complicated is lessening the gravity of their simple, brutish actions.”
Lauren Chouinard, a senior public relations and advertising major who serves as Chapman Feminists public relations chair, doesn’t see an issue in having these parties, but rather the motivation behind them.
“What isn’t fine is using the theme of the party to purposefully put women in a weaker, more subordinated role, or in this particular instance using the theme to degrade a population of people who already have their own struggles with oppression to deal with,” she said.
Guillaume Beaudoin, a freshman business administration major who is from Paris, where theme parties were a common occurrence, found it difficult to understand the problem with dressing up for a party.
“In France I have gone to parties where we come dressed as Americans or British people, but it doesn’t mean that we’re racist,” Beaudoin said. “There is a big difference between having some fun and being a racist.”
Chapman’s student conduct code, under the category of student behavior, states discriminatory behavior as being “any occurrence intended to create emotional suffering, physical harm, property damage to a person because of their perceived or actual race, ethnic background, national origin, religious belief, gender, gender expression, sexual orientation, or physical or mental disability or other categories protected by law.”
In her email, Yocum-Gaffney stressed the importance of free speech while maintaining that one of the administration’s goals is to look after the welfare of the student body.
“To be clear, freedom of speech gives students the right to freely express their views, ideas, and perspectives, but the university will always take action to condemn incidents that are offensive and make sure they do not violate the rights of other students,” Yocum-Gaffney said. “Theme parties that denigrate historically underrepresented groups are simply unacceptable.”
The party was reportedly being planned by multiple Chapman students, all with Greek affiliation, but had no fraternity involvement otherwise.
“The fraternity to which these students belonged to was equally upset and responded appropriately once we alerted them of the party,” Yocum-Gaffney wrote in her email.