Hey, look — my alma mater‘s in the news. Though not, perhaps, as it would like to be.
An e-mail from group leaders [of OAD, a quasi-fraternity] suggested that members snap “a photo with 10 or more Asians,” an ethnic group that makes up about 13 percent of students.
Rumors about the photo scavenger hunt, which also asked members to photograph themselves doing things like standing on a roof, mooning fellow students, or blocking traffic, soon passed from students angered by its racial overtones to college administrators.
Ann Quinley, the dean of students, sent an e-mail to all students denouncing the incident, quickly making it the buzz of Pomona College’s 1,500 students.
“The potential of having numerous students run around campus trying to snap photographs with 10 or more Asian or Asian American people is racist, offensive, and in violation of shared community values,” Quinley wrote on behalf of the Incident Response Team, a committee that responds to “bias-related incidents and hate crimes.
Um, at the sake of sounding insensitive, it sure sounds like the incident is being blown out of proportion. If instead of “Asians” the suggestion was “women” or “men” or “people wearing blue” or “blondes” or “atheletes,” I don’t think it would be garnering the sort of reaction it’s getting.
Not that the whole scavenger hunt idea isn’t goofy, but I’d be more worried about encouraging folks to block traffic …