On college campuses, resentment lingers long after the Halloween candy is gone.
Even though the fake cobwebs are packed away for another year, and stores have replaced the moaning skulls with Christmas lights, you would think we could move on to more important issues; like the lack of snowflakes on Starbucks® cups.
But not so fast. Apparently on certain college campuses, students were far too offended to “Let It Go”. (Which is somewhat ironic, considering the amount of candy I’ve handed out to Princess Elsa over the past two years.)
To a lot of people, it’s a joke that kids on college campuses today, are upset by Halloween costumes. Back in my day, you would have to go to extremes, if you wanted to create a costume that would make the girls shriek in horror. Now all you have to do is dress up like a feminist.
Unfortunately it’s being taken very seriously elsewhere. Over at Yale, an Administrator who had the gall to suggest, that Free Speech is more important than the right to not see a Caitlyn Jenner costume, is being harassed a full week beyond the actual Holiday. From the New York Times:
The debate over Halloween costumes began late last month when the university’s Intercultural Affairs Committee sent an email to the student body asking students to avoid wearing “culturally unaware and insensitive” costumes that could offend minority students. It specifically advised them to steer clear of outfits that included elements like feathered headdresses, turbans or blackface.
In response, Erika Christakis, a faculty member and an administrator at a student residence, wrote an email to students living in her residence hall on behalf of those she described as “frustrated” by the official advice on Halloween costumes. Students should be able to wear whatever they want, she wrote, even if they end up offending people…
Ms. Christakis’s email also led to at least one heated encounter on campus between her husband, Nicholas Christakis, a faculty member who works in the same residential college, and a large group of students who demanded that he apologize for the beliefs expressed by him and his wife, which they said failed to create a “safe space” for them.
So not only is is offensive to wear the wrong Halloween costume, it’s offensive to even suggest that free speech is more important than the right to remain unoffended. Even further, it’s offensive to be married to a woman who thinks that free speech is more important.
This would all be incredibly funny, if not for one important point: Since Yale is a prominent Ivy League School, these are our future leaders. What kind of America will we see in the future, when the will of the mob has more validity than the rights of our citizens?
The fad of political correctness that started on College Campuses twenty years ago is now pervasive throughout our culture. What kind of nonsense will this generation drag with them out into the real world? I guarantee that very few of these protesters would see anything wrong with municipal codes regulating appropriate Halloween costumes, or elevating Cultural Sensitivity to a cabinet level position.
Of course, as a comedian, I think the most effective tool is ridicule. So next Halloween, I’m going to dress up like a Social Justice Warrior.