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Thread: MS-Ole Miss event canceled, general campus freak out, over banana peel hung on tree

  1. #1

    Exclamation MS-Ole Miss event canceled, general campus freak out, over banana peel hung on tree

    So, littering or trolling?



    Ole Miss Greek life retreat ends abruptly with bias concerns

    http://thedmonline.com/greek-life-re...bias-concerns/

    Posted on Aug 30 2017 - 8:05am by Slade Rand and Rachel Ishee



    This weekend, leaders from Ole Miss Greek life convened upon Camp Hopewell in Lafayette County for a three-day retreat designed to build leaders and bring campus closer together. The retreat was cut short Saturday night, however, after three black students found a banana peel in a tree in front of one of the camp’s cabins.

    The students shared what they found with National Pan-Hellenic Council leaders, sparking a day’s worth of camp-wide conversation surrounding symbolism, intended or not. In the midst of the open and sometimes heated discussion, senior accounting major Ryan Swanson said he put the banana peel in the tree when he could not find a trashcan nearby.

    Alexa Lee Arndt, interim director of Fraternity and Sorority Life, said she was one of the only university staff members acting in an administrative capacity at the weekend retreat. Monday afternoon, she sent a letter to all campus chapter presidents, council officers and chapter advisers, confirming the incident and outlining the university’s plans.

    “To be clear, many members of our community were hurt, frightened, and upset by what occurred at IMPACT … Because of the underlying reality many students of color endure on a daily basis, the conversation manifested into a larger conversation about race relations today at the University of Mississippi,” Arndt wrote in the letter acquired by The DM.

    Student members of Panhellenic Council, National Pan-Hellenic Council and Interfraternity Council were all present at the retreat, which was organized by Fraternity and Sorority Life and the national group IMPACT. IMPACT is a campus-based leadership institute designed to foster improved relationships among campus leaders through a retreat-type program.

    Makala McNeil, president of Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority, one of the nine historically African-American sororities and fraternities, said she saw the banana peel after leaving a group discussion that addressed race relations. Saturday morning, all of the retreat’s participants ate breakfast together, followed by a session where they shared their feelings on race relations at Ole Miss. The breakfast options included a fruit cart with bananas.

    “The overall tone was heavy,” McNeil, a senior integrated marketing communications and sociology major, said. “I mean, we were talking about race in Mississippi, at the University of Mississippi and in the Greek community, so there’s a lot involved.”

    This photo was circulated among students over the weekend in group messages and was provided to The Daily Mississippian.

    After the large discussion session, the students split into smaller conversation groups. McNeil said that around noon on Saturday, she was walking with friends to their group session across camp when one of her sorority sisters pointed at a tree 15 feet away. She said that about six feet up the tree’s trunk sat a lone, fresh-looking banana peel.

    “It was so strange and surreal to see it there,” McNeil said. “We were all just sort of paranoid for a second.”

    She said the image was especially disturbing in light of an incident on American University’s campus in May of this year. The morning Taylor Dumpson was to take over as the school’s first female black student government president, students found bananas hanging from nooses across campus. Some of the bananas were inscribed with references to Dumpson’s sorority, Alpha Kappa Alpha.

    “That, to me, was a slap in the face to see that banana hanging in a tree after talking about the personal truths of our campus,” McNeil said.
    McNeil said that by lunchtime, people throughout the camp knew about the incident. As lunch rolled into the afternoon discussion group, the banana peel dominated chatter. That afternoon’s group discussion session served as an open forum on the incident.

    “As the staff member responsible for the wellbeing of our community, I felt it was imperative to provide space immediately to students affected by this incident to allow them an opportunity to voice their pain and concern,” Arndt wrote in her statement.

    At the start of this session, McNeil said one black student stood up and asked that everyone there google the American University incident to understand the banana peel’s significance. She said he explained how bananas have historically been used to demean black people. McNeil said her sorority sister then raised her hand to simply ask who put the peel in the tree.

    She said Swanson stood up and came forward almost immediately after the question. He apologized and said he did not mean any harm by leaving the peel in the tree.

    “I want to sincerely apologize for the events that took place this past weekend,” Swanson said in a statement to The DM on Tuesday night. “Although unintentional, there is no excuse for the pain that was caused to members of our community.

    “I want to thank my friends in the NPHC for their candid and constructive conversations that we have continued to have. I have much to learn and look forward to doing such and encourage all members of our university community to do the same. We must all keep in mind how our actions affect those around us differently.”

    McNeil said that if the banana peel incident was an accident, people need to consider the effects of their actions versus their intent.

    “You see how much fear and how much anger you insight (sic) in black people just from an unintentional image,” she said.

    The conversation carried on, and tensions continued to rise. White and black members of the Ole Miss Greek community shared their views on the day’s events and race relations in general. McNeil said people had a lot to say, but the conversation began to move in an unhealthy direction.

    “There were a lot of emotions being showed and a lot of transparency,” McNeil said. “I just don’t feel as though it was being facilitated in a constructive way.”

    The massive discussion session wrapped up as more and more students stood and left the room – some in tears, some in frustration. NPHC members began texting friends to come and pick them up from the camp since no one had been allowed to drive his or her car up to the retreat. The remainder of the retreat was canceled later that night.

    “At that point, we didn’t feel welcome; we didn’t feel safe,” McNeil said. “If we didn’t feel wanted or safe at the camp, our best option was to leave.”
    Katrina Caldwell, vice chancellor for diversity and community engagement, said her office was asked to put a plan together to handle the weekend’s incident on campus.

    “Right now, we’re just talking to people on campus who have some experience working across diversity to help the students process what happened,” Caldwell said.

    Caldwell said she needs to talk with a couple more faculty members before deciding “what makes the most sense” for the campus.

    Arndt said it was important for the vice chancellor for diversity and community engagement to lead the response. Arndt reached out to Caldwell on Saturday night.

    “We want to be sensitive to already-scheduled events that are taking place but also do not want to delay having these important follow-up conversations,” Arndt’s statement said.
    Last edited by Anti Federalist; 08-31-2017 at 10:06 PM.
    Another mark of a tyrant is that he likes foreigners better than citizens, and lives with them and invites them to his table; for the one are enemies, but the Others enter into no rivalry with him. - Aristotle's Politics Book 5 Part 11



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  3. #2

  4. #3
    Quote Originally Posted by Raginfridus View Post

  5. #4
    One time I was walking down the street eating a banana. I was telling the person next to me that I could make the banana peel hang on the telephone wire. Sort of like shoes you sometimes see hanging on wires by their shoelaces. I tossed the peel in the air. I did not think it would actually stick, but I caught the wire just right. It turned brown the next day. I did not hear anyone complain, and that was that.

    Sorry safespacers; not everything you see in the world is somebody out to get you.
    Quote Originally Posted by TheCount View Post
    ...I believe that when the government is capable of doing a thing, it will.
    Quote Originally Posted by Influenza View Post
    which one of yall fuckers wrote the "ron paul" racist news letters
    Quote Originally Posted by Dforkus View Post
    Zippy's posts are a great contribution.




    Disrupt, Deny, Deflate. Read the RPF trolls' playbook here (post #3): http://www.ronpaulforums.com/showthr...eptive-members

  6. #5
    Please allow this fat little grandma to point out that these expletives are the same little expletives you all have given your hard-earned money to educate in a system that supposedly indoctrinated them not to do stuff like this. Have you ever thought about that? The system has failed educationally and in every. other. way.

    And you paid for it and will continue to pay for it. These little expletives are all on student loans they have no intention of repaying.

    Think about that.

    Maybe it's time to have taxpayer protests on college campuses around the country. Occupy Campus. Back-to-School Day.
    #NashvilleStrong

    “I’m a doctor. That’s a baby.”~~~Dr. Manny Sethi

  7. #6
    Snowflake logic: you are guilty of triggering my trauma, even if it is all in my head and was never intended.

    It's getting hard to tell who is the most paranoid, the neocons or the PC snowflake left?
    "Foreign aid is taking money from the poor people of a rich country, and giving it to the rich people of a poor country." - Ron Paul
    "Beware the Military-Industrial-Financial-Pharma-Corporate-Internet-Media-Government Complex." - B4L update of General Dwight D. Eisenhower
    "Debt is the drug, Wall St. Banksters are the dealers, and politicians are the addicts." - B4L
    "Totally free immigration? I've never taken that position. I believe in national sovereignty." - Ron Paul

    Proponent of real science.
    The views and opinions expressed here are solely my own, and do not represent this forum or any other entities or persons.

  8. #7
    Quote Originally Posted by Brian4Liberty View Post
    It's getting hard to tell who is the most paranoid, the neocons or the PC snowflake left?

  9. #8
    This is not from the onion?



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  11. #9
    Quote Originally Posted by parocks View Post
    This is not from the onion?
    I'm very afraid for The Onion. Every day we check the news and see something that makes us say, The Onion went too far this time, that's just too ridiculous to be funny. And then we discover it isn't The Onion, it's an actual news article, and we laugh.

    How can The Onion possibly survive in times like these?
    Quote Originally Posted by Swordsmyth View Post
    We believe our lying eyes...

  12. #10
    Quote Originally Posted by acptulsa View Post
    I'm very afraid for The Onion. Every day we check the news and see something that makes us say, The Onion went too far this time, that's just too ridiculous to be funny. And then we discover it isn't The Onion, it's an actual news article, and we laugh.

    How can The Onion possibly survive in times like these?
    flip the script and become a real news outlet?

  13. #11
    Actually The Onion is one of the few sources of real truth nowadays.

    http://www.theonion.com/article/trum...s-grandc-56730


    Trump Vows To Leave A Better Afghanistan For Nation’s Grandchildren To Fight In

    ARLINGTON, VA—Saying the United States owed nothing less to future generations, President Trump vowed during a televised speech Monday night to leave a better Afghanistan for the nation’s grandchildren to fight in. “All our efforts are focused on creating and preserving an Afghanistan that we can be proud to pass down to the men and women in uniform who’ve yet to be born,” said Trump, adding that the administration will work tirelessly to ensure that, decades from now, American troops will be fighting in a more sustainable conflict alongside a restored Afghan National Army. “Rest assured that you will be able to look into your children’s eyes and know that their children and their children’s children will be conducting military operations in a country that’s far more stable than it once was.” Trump went on to say that with the right forward-thinking policy, American soldiers could thrive in Afghanistan indefinitely.
    There is no spoon.

  14. #12
    This is not funny. My grandmother slipped and fell on a banana peel. Every time I see a banana it reminds me of dear old grandma. It triggers my trauma and creates a fearful environment. I demand that all bananas be removed from grocery stores. It is violence against me to display bananas.
    "Foreign aid is taking money from the poor people of a rich country, and giving it to the rich people of a poor country." - Ron Paul
    "Beware the Military-Industrial-Financial-Pharma-Corporate-Internet-Media-Government Complex." - B4L update of General Dwight D. Eisenhower
    "Debt is the drug, Wall St. Banksters are the dealers, and politicians are the addicts." - B4L
    "Totally free immigration? I've never taken that position. I believe in national sovereignty." - Ron Paul

    Proponent of real science.
    The views and opinions expressed here are solely my own, and do not represent this forum or any other entities or persons.

  15. #13
    Quote Originally Posted by Brian4Liberty View Post
    This is not funny. My grandmother slipped and fell on a banana peel. Every time I see a banana it reminds me of dear old grandma. It triggers my trauma and creates a fearful environment. I demand that all bananas be removed from grocery stores. It is violence against me to display bananas.
    Well, my grandma died of a lack of potassium. So whenever someone is triggered and calls for a ban of bananas, it triggers me!
    Quote Originally Posted by Swordsmyth View Post
    We believe our lying eyes...

  16. #14
    I'm glad my grandmothers did not live to see the crazy, messed up world we live in.
    #NashvilleStrong

    “I’m a doctor. That’s a baby.”~~~Dr. Manny Sethi

  17. #15
    Quote Originally Posted by acptulsa View Post
    Well, my grandma died of a lack of potassium. So whenever someone is triggered and calls for a ban of bananas, it triggers me!
    Standard rebuttal from a banana supremacist. Check your banana privilege.
    "Foreign aid is taking money from the poor people of a rich country, and giving it to the rich people of a poor country." - Ron Paul
    "Beware the Military-Industrial-Financial-Pharma-Corporate-Internet-Media-Government Complex." - B4L update of General Dwight D. Eisenhower
    "Debt is the drug, Wall St. Banksters are the dealers, and politicians are the addicts." - B4L
    "Totally free immigration? I've never taken that position. I believe in national sovereignty." - Ron Paul

    Proponent of real science.
    The views and opinions expressed here are solely my own, and do not represent this forum or any other entities or persons.

  18. #16
    Quote Originally Posted by Brian4Liberty View Post
    Standard rebuttal from a banana supremacist. Check your banana privilege.
    *zip*

    Yup, still there.

    *zip*
    Quote Originally Posted by Swordsmyth View Post
    We believe our lying eyes...



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  20. #17
    BAN THEM.
    FFS, IT'S ALREADY IN THE NAME.
    All modern revolutions have ended in a reinforcement of the power of the State.
    -Albert Camus

  21. #18
    senior accounting major Ryan Swanson said he put the banana peel in the tree when he could not find a trashcan nearby.
    That would've been my first guess - he conscientiously put the banana peel up on a tree so no one would step on it and fall.

  22. #19
    Quote Originally Posted by Brian4Liberty View Post
    This is not funny. My grandmother slipped and fell on a banana peel. Every time I see a banana it reminds me of dear old grandma. It triggers my trauma and creates a fearful environment. I demand that all bananas be removed from grocery stores. It is violence against me to display bananas.
    Quote Originally Posted by acptulsa View Post
    Well, my grandma died of a lack of potassium. So whenever someone is triggered and calls for a ban of bananas, it triggers me!
    This is why liberalism will destroy itself.
    Never attempt to teach a pig to sing; it wastes your time and annoys the pig.

    Robert Heinlein

    Give a man an inch and right away he thinks he's a ruler

    Groucho Marx

    I love mankind…it’s people I can’t stand.

    Linus, from the Peanuts comic

    You cannot have liberty without morality and morality without faith

    Alexis de Torqueville

    Those who fail to learn from the past are condemned to repeat it.
    Those who learn from the past are condemned to watch everybody else repeat it

    A Zero Hedge comment

  23. #20
    Quote Originally Posted by Brian4Liberty View Post
    This is not funny. My grandmother slipped and fell on a banana peel. Every time I see a banana it reminds me of dear old grandma. It triggers my trauma and creates a fearful environment. I demand that all bananas be removed from grocery stores. It is violence against me to display bananas.
    Quote Originally Posted by acptulsa View Post
    Well, my grandma died of a lack of potassium. So whenever someone is triggered and calls for a ban of bananas, it triggers me!
    I'm triggered by your triggering causing a hostile space.

  24. #21
    Quote Originally Posted by Anti Federalist View Post
    I'm triggered by your triggering causing a hostile space.
    <walks over, sucker punches AF>

    "I'm from Antiba! I'm allowed to hit anybody! Hold on bro, which side you on again? With all this punching going on, it gets confusing. Now step aside while I burn down a Whole Foods for displaying bananas!"
    "Foreign aid is taking money from the poor people of a rich country, and giving it to the rich people of a poor country." - Ron Paul
    "Beware the Military-Industrial-Financial-Pharma-Corporate-Internet-Media-Government Complex." - B4L update of General Dwight D. Eisenhower
    "Debt is the drug, Wall St. Banksters are the dealers, and politicians are the addicts." - B4L
    "Totally free immigration? I've never taken that position. I believe in national sovereignty." - Ron Paul

    Proponent of real science.
    The views and opinions expressed here are solely my own, and do not represent this forum or any other entities or persons.

  25. #22
    Chester Copperpot
    Member

    a banana peel shutdown an event on leadership... to inspire and create and educate new leaders...

    there wont be any leaders coming out of that event if they cant get over a banana peel.



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