Don’t blame microagressions for everything done in their name.
A letter from two RAs at the University of Massachusetts is making the rounds. Apparently they took offense to a “dicks out for Harambe” joke written on a whiteboard on their floor. If you are not familiar with the “dicks out for Harambe” meme, or Harambe jokes generally, congratulations: you are living a good life.
All you need to know is that Harambe jokes are a thing. Like all things, some people use the thing appropriately (I’m using that word loosely), while others abuse the memory of a noble gorilla who gave his life that we might be free.
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Anyway, the RAs were pissy about the meme on a whiteboard which… okay. My RAs got pissy when I used to smoke in the bathroom. Times change.
Their response to the situation was to issue a blanket prohibition on Harambe jokes. From Campus Reform, via Reason.com:
In the statement, which was leaked to Twitter Monday, Resident Assistants calling themselves Ryan and Colleen inform students that “any negative remarks regarding ‘Harambe’ will be seen as a direct attack to our campus’s African-American community,” and warn them to “be careful of what gets written on your whiteboards, as well as what you write on them.”
The RAs also warned that writing the meme could be a Title IX violation. I’m no Title IX expert, but I’m pretty sure that walking around with exposed genitalia would violate a lot more than Title IX, while making jokes is just how we cope with the loss of that which was carrying us on the beach when we thought we were walking alone.
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In fairness, UMass is in a trickier situation than most colleges and universities. According to the RAs letter, which you can read here, UMass offers “Defined Residential Communities,” offering community living arrangements for people with shared cultural heritages. What hole that “progressive” idea crawled out of can be the subject of another post. The important thing is that one of those communities, for people with African heritage, is called “Harambe.”
It wouldn’t shock me if some of the Harambe “jokes” at UMass are racially directed at that residential community, because some of the Harambe memes are, overtly, racist anyway. Handing white America a gorilla meme is like handing a director an unlimited CGI budget. Mistakes will be made, innocents will be needlessly annoyed, not everybody can use it responsibly.
But a blanket ban is the laziest possible response to the issue. Not every Harambe joke is racist, or sexist. Responsible people should be able to tell the difference, that’s part of being a freaking adult. Making a blanket prohibition, on a type of joke, is a weak attempt to avoid thinking too hard about what is appropriate in a community environment. The prohibition is more juvenile than the actual meme.
It is hard to define what is appropriate, and what is not. But shaping the next generation’s understanding of appropriate behavior is pretty much exactly what we are paying colleges and universities to do. A TED talk and some well-picked books on tape can give you a decent understanding of “The Legend of Tommy,” or whatever the hell UMass teaches for freshman history. But these issues of when to invoke the powerful memory of a beatific primate is precisely what students need to learn.
Maybe “dicks out” is too far. That’s a discussion worth having. But let’s not kill Harambe AGAIN, just because we are once again too lazy to figure out a less draconian solution. There is nuance here. UMass RAs should be trying to find it instead of trying to break students open like a gorilla who doesn’t know the difference between a child and a coconut.
UMass-Amherst: Harambe Jokes Are Racist Microaggressions, Violate Title IX [Reason]
Earlier: If We Are Going To Have Zoos, They HAD TO Shoot That Gorilla
Elie Mystal is an editor of Above the Law and the Legal Editor for More Perfect. He can be reached @ElieNYC on Twitter, or at [email protected]. If heaven exists, Cecil and Harambe are there, living as friends, forever free.