The Winthrop University Spirit Squad was faced with criticism yesterday after posting an Instagram photoset of the squad’s Halloween costumes. The photos included two team members dressed as Native Americans.
The screenshot of the photo has since been removed from this post.
The photo was posted at some point on Oct. 31, but the first negative comment on the post was put up around 8:00 a.m. Nov. 1.
The discourse went to Facebook as well. The photo was shared by many and Gabriel Paxton, a Winthrop Alumnus, posted about his discontent with the photo.
Parker Quinlan, a graduate student in the Masters of Liberal Arts program with a concentration in political and civic engagement explains why he feels that this photo was an issue.
“Using an individual’s identity, in part or in whole, to create a costume, or to create a situation in which you can briefly resemble that person is troubling to many people. Using a person’s identity as a costume means you don’t have to accept any of the liability and malcontent that comes with it,” Quinlan said.
Winthrop is not the only school that had students dress in a costume deemed offensive by many this Halloween. At College of Charleston, there was a student who dressed as Freddie Gray, an African American man murdered by the police.
Quinlan said he feels situations like these should not be swiped aside, and that the Spirit Squad should apologize.
“The students responsible need to apologize, and so does the entire spirit squad. Also learn from the experience. You came to be educated at this university and while some lessons are uncomfortable and very public, they should take time and reflect on what’s happened.
The Instagram photo has since been taken down and the Spirit Squad has not made any public statement about it.
The Winthrop Spirit Squad has not responded to a request to comment.
As a Winthrop alumni and mass communication major I am highly disappointed by this article. It is very one sided and whether that side is right or not, as a journalist, we are to write unbiased and include opposing view points. While I know you couldn’t get a comment from the spirit squad, was there any attempt to speak to students on campus who thought differently? Even the article title is completely slanted toward a single opinion. Our job as journalists is not to present our own feelings or opinions or to try to move people to one side or another, but to present both sides of an argument or issue so that the reader can learn and decide for themselves.
When did we start taking offense to everything?
Hello to all,
As a Mexican-American, here legally I might add so I don’t suddenly offend someone, there is much that needs to be said about this topic. First, let’s take a step back from this gigantic social-media frenzy of hate comments and analyze what it is to be offended at something or what it is “to take offense.”
For starters being offended is subjective, what offends you may not offend me and it may not offend the person sitting across from you.
As indicated in the article “Winthrop is not the only school that had students dress in a costume deemed offensive.” KEYWORD: DEEMED. Yes, they are right; some people blatantly made fun of other people with their costumes and that is a direct form of ill-intended discrimination, and no one should have to stand for that. However, when we look at this picture no one is trying to offend anyone or make fun of them either for that matter and they are certainly not claiming to be something they are not, it is simply Halloween! You are meant to dress as something you are not! By adding the notion of cultural perspectives we are looking way to far into it! Think about how many people dressed up as other politicians, other races, and other people. You would be lying if you said you didn’t laugh at all this Halloween by seeing some of the costumes and I promise you more than one person took offense. However, if we have to worry about everything we can’t dress up as in order to not offend ANYBODY, our list of what we can dress up as gets really really small. We need to understand that no one is Pizza, therefore not everyone will like you and/or what you do, and of course someone will, undoubtedly, take offense.
Being offended is a choice and the even bigger choice is how you react to it. You can go on about your day when you hear/see something you found offensive or you can spend an hour writing a post about it, which may in turn upset the lives of other people that meant no harm in the first place. We live in the United States of America, the biggest tossed salad (or melting pot depending on your cultural views and theories you have studied) of cultures in the world! As such, we encounter people from all walks of life, we have different religious, political, financial and philosophical views, and that isn’t only okay it is absolutely AWESOME! You see, if there were one right way to go about it, we wouldn’t have room for any debate what so ever. There would be one party, one religion, and one specific way to do everything. Guess what guys? That isn’t the case!
To further illustrate my point regarding being offended and making choices allow me to give you some insight from a personal perspective. I love my country, my culture, and my heritage. And as a Mexican in the US I am no stranger to discrimination (as I write this I can hear someone yelling in the background “If you don’t like it leave!”) I have been on the awful end of using my first name on job applications and not getting a call back until I put my middle name instead. I have overheard jokes about Mexicans crossing the border illegally. I have heard the stereotype of being good gardeners, which to be fair many really are. I have had friends and acquaintances make generalizations about Mexicans and follow it up with “… but Nico, you aren’t, like, reeeally Mexican.” If I had to stop and take offense at everything I probably would have left a long time ago, or hid under a rock. I did on occasion tell the person if something was distasteful or told them that others may find it offensive – again this was on a personal note, not through social media. I guess we all do things differently. The truth is we grew up learning “sticks and stones…” yet we have somehow forgotten about that!
Perhaps it is just me, but I feel like a vast majority of members in our society are choosing to define themselves by things they are offended by rather than define themselves by what they love. We don’t have to be anti-everything, we can also be pro. Focus on the good rather than the bad! Next time you are offended by something and have to make a statement, may I suggest a personal message, or perhaps something not so public? After all we are taught that if we can change just one mind we will have made a difference. There is no need to publicly humiliate people when there was no original harm meant in any way shape or form. When as a society did we become so offended about everything? I am no longer referring to this post alone, I mean to everything as a whole. I must have missed the We-need-to-be-offended-by-everything-meeting and if someone would please do me the favor of giving me the cliff-notes that would be awesome. On second thought, never mind. I would rather focus on positive notes rather than negative ones.
All the best,
Nico