Maybe this is what Bill Maher was talking about ,we have become too politically correct

[MADem]

66. Well, there's a learning curve for sensitivity towards the Mexican - American community, too.

And they've been here a long-ass time; hell, they NAMED California, Colorado, Montana, Texas and Nevada, for starters...you'd think they could get a little respect. MANY Mexican people have been in the US way longer than most what the wingnuts would call "Americans" (those white Europeans that used to be the paradigm back in the day). In many cases, when it came to a lot of Mexicans, the only thing that moved was the border.

And if you're not insulted by regional characterizations, why did you spend so much time crying about it to me? Why create a "poor me" strawman? Is your argument now "Well, it doesn't bother ME, ergo it should not bother THEM?" Sorry, it doesn't work that way.

You can't copyright a culture, but people who think you are mocking them can speak up, say bull SHIT, and demand that idiots doing the insulting cease and desist. If those "motifs" of which you speak create a hostile environment toward the people whose culture is being commodified, they may be in an actionable circumstance.

I don't know what the "other side" did, but there's absolutely zero evidence that the young woman who wrote that email "demanded" anything. She just said she was first, offended, and second, not surprised. Yet she's being "blamed" for "spoiling the fun" by people who feel that their right to mock and deride has been infringed somehow.

But getting back to "copyrighting a culture," did you ever ask yourself why we don't see a lot of blackface any more? After all, that was part and parcel of minstrel culture, and blackface was employed by both blacks and whites-- and it even found its way into films...but then, one day...poof! It fell out of fashion. Why? Because people decided that they weren't going to put up with what used to be a hurtful and insulting "cultural norm" anymore.

As for wondering how to stop students from behaving badly, I think that the leadership at Dartmouth effectively stopped a bunch of undergrads from being obnoxious in this particular instance.

And that's a good thing.