“It was a good opportunity,” said [a UW-Madison student who designed a Cinco de Mifflin T-shirt, "Mifflin" being the name of the location of an annual block party dating back to 1969.] "People have been calling it ‘Cinco de Drinko’ for the last four years and they’re very much relating it to a drinking holiday anyway.”Racism?!
Eunji Kang, another student and shirt designer, said that “it’s part of American culture” to drink alcohol while celebrating holidays.
Other students are disappointed by the misappropriation of Mexican culture. The organization Badgers Against Racism formed over ongoing conversations between students concerned with the lack of cultural sensitivity on campus.
“As members of the UW-Madison community we strive to create a learning environment that promotes social justice education, cultural awareness, and respect,” the group said in a statement obtained by The Daily Cardinal. “We should be able to participate in traditions like Mifflin without promoting stereotypes that dehumanize our peers.”What's the stereotype? The only stereotype I see is UW students as drinking and partying too much. And (other) UW students getting all censorious and political.
IN THE COMMENTS: Don't Tread 2012 said...
Acro-observation:I know. I noticed that too, and when I read your comment, I thought maybe it's a satire, and I took it seriously. I went back and reread the article. Is this really dry humor? But taking into account the context — Madison, Wisconsin — no, it's real. I'd love to be wrong!
Badgers
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In the spirit of race-baiting, the first round is on me.
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Every year I find myself explaining to Mexican friends and colleagues what Cinco de Mayo is all about.
The Irish were asked to comment, but were unavailable due to being face down drunk in their potato soup . . .
Is there a similar outcry over St. Patrick's Day among the UW community, I mean it paints a historically brutally oppressed people in a negative light.
Most of the Mexicans I meet, are admitted to the hospital for alcohol withdrawal and delirium tremens. I can see where the sensitivity to the issue comes from.
The 'concerned' response from 'Badgers Against Racism' is a predictable one. Their statement is a hysterical rebuke of what appears to be a good excuse for a drinking party.
Social justice? Dehumanizing peers?
Was this public promotion to join the drama club?
Being a liberal is such a bitch.
You're always miserable until you've made everyone else miserable. Then the self-righteousness is calmed while a new ethical straw target can be confabulated.
Where was the outrage over St. Patrick's Day being turned into a drinking party? And the witches and warlocks should be claiming religious insensitivity over what Halloween has turned into in Madison.
It just doesn't seem right for members of BAR to oppose any holiday that involves drinking.
I imagine that there would be a similar outrage if a group of Badgers chose to celebrate the Jewish holiday of Yom Kipur by fasting all day long.
Seriously, if you have a day of celebration over defeating France in battle you have major issues. I mean we are talking France here. Fucking France.
The last time the fucking French won in battle was the French Revolution...they had the good fortune of actually fighting France.
The Mifflin Block Party has more intense fighting than what's required to beat France. The Mexicans should just go with it and make it their own.
Acro-observation:
Badgers
Against
Racism
In the spirit of race-baiting, the first round is on me.
Where's the call for sustainable drinking. The greens are falling down.
"...to create a learning environment that promotes social justice education, cultural awareness, and respect..."
That's hilarious.
Mexicans are pretty good drinkers- you'd probably need to look pretty hard to find many who are offended by American Cinco de Mayo celebrations. It's not a real holiday in Mexico anyway.
The St. Pat's comparison is the obvious one. So we know that Badgers against Racism aren't just humorless gits- they're racist humorless gits.
I speak Spanish with near-native fluency and have spent a great deal of time in decidedly non-tourist areas of Mexico doing agricultural development work.
Nobody in Mexico pays much attention to Cinco de Mayo, which is pretty much an American invention. It commemorates a battle at Puebla in 1862: some 2000 Mexicans under Zaragosa defeated 6000 mostly French troops attempting to maintain Napoleon III's puppet king in power.
Ten days later the Mexicans got clobbered, so the victory was fleeting.
So include Cinco de Mayo along with St-Paddy's, Oktoberfest, or any other excuse to party in honor of assorted groups in the American soup.
They could always celebrate Texas Independence Day instead. Party like it's March 2. Texans won't mind.
This is where the appropriate response is STFU.
Why don't they ask the question of whether or not its offensive to ban the American Flag from clothing worn at an American school during Cinco De Mayo, as happened here in CA?
Cinco de Mifflin commemorates the Badgers For Racism's defeat of a larger invading police department army around the Mifflin neighborhood in the city of Madison in 1969 - a pivotal victory for Racist Badgers' alcohol dependence and insobriety.
Is it insensitive to call it Cinco de Cuatro, like Obama did?
The last vestiges of political correctness are going to die a hard, flailing death.
It's pretty common for people to get drunk and set of Fire crackers on the Fourth of July. Doing something similar on Cinco de Mayo just shows how egalitarian our society has become.
College students celebrate a holiday by drinking. What a revelation!
Tell me, how do Mexicans celebrate Cinco de Mayo? I bet there's drinking, what do you think? I think all these objectors should present a report on how 5/5 is celebrated in Mexico.
The people who join BAR would also be complaining if the other students ignored Cinco de Mayo.
How soul deadening it must be to live in Madison.
I will guess that the people complaining about drinking on Cinco de Mayo are not Mexican, but the class of students who are perpetually outraged.
The ones who think they are saving the world. Give them props for earnestness, but mein Gott they are insufferable.
The Daily Cardinal is miffed? Good! Somebody is doing it right!
Let's find Madison's one Mexican and ask him!
Hey, if the Protestants have the gall to get plastered on St Paddy's Day, the gringos can get soused on Cinco De Cuatro.
Bart Hall (Kansas, USA) said...
I speak Spanish with near-native fluency and have spent a great deal of time in decidedly non-tourist areas of Mexico doing agricultural development work.
Nobody in Mexico pays much attention to Cinco de Mayo, which is pretty much an American invention. It commemorates a battle at Puebla in 1862: some 2000 Mexicans under Zaragosa defeated 6000 mostly French troops attempting to maintain Napoleon III's puppet king in power.
Ten days later the Mexicans got clobbered, so the victory was fleeting.
Not really. It still took 2 years before Maximilian entered Mexico City.
It was, and is, a big deal because the French army was considered the best in the world at the time.
Of course, the Prussians blew that all to Hell 8 years later.
St. Patrick's Day is just small change. This Christmas thing is highly insulting to pagans.
Want to talk about insensitivity?
Our last company St. Patrick's Day event featured Corona, Margaritas (green?) and chips with (green?) guacamole.
As a friend of the Irish, I was deeply offended.
"Stop dehumanizing us!" said the badgers.
The standard is Americans should be submissive. That we should practice restraint when celebrating our events and recognizing our symbols -- in America -- in order to accommodate sensitivities of legal and illegal aliens, and citizens who are confused about their nationality.
Anyway, submission is a choice; however, I cannot identify any virtue in it. In fact, those claiming prejudice and bigotry do so explicitly because they desire a dominant position.
In 1861 the Mexicans had a shot at being French, and true to form they muffed it. Cinco de Mayo is the day Mexicans celebrate not being French. That's like celebrating the day your application to Harvard Law was turned down and you ended up at UW instead.
We just use it as an excuse to eat Mexican food an extra time that week. Mmmmmm.
Horst Mifflin originally achieved fame and distinction in the late 19th century for his work with the temperance movement and for his efforts to spread literacy among UW underclassmen. This is a poor way to honor his memory. The Mifflin Way on Mifflin's Day is to keep clean and sober.
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