Two of the three University of South Carolina frat boys who got licker’d up and made racist, sexist remarks in Borat are suing, claiming that they were conned into participating by being plied with booze, and by assurances that were made to them that the movie wouldn’t be shown in the U.S. (Isn't that like thinking it's okay to tell a Jewish joke if you don't think there are any Jews in the room?)
Well, it seems now that, as a result of their Mel Gibson-esque indiscretions, one of the fellows has had a permanent job offer rescinded, and the other has lost out on a “prestigious internship.”
According to the one frat boy not suing:
"He brought us to a bar, and he told us. … 'Yeah guys, I hope you have really good stories. … Don't let me down, just typical frat-guy talk,'" [the non-litigious frat boy] said. "He kind of challenged us to shock him."
Sure, they got suckered, and I'm sure they were trying to be outrageous, but I can understand an employer not wanting to take a chance on hiring someone who says, "We wish" when asked whether Americans had slaves. (It was hard to follow the drunken "banter", but I think the guy who said "we wish" about slavery was referring to having women for slaves, which makes it more frat fantasy misogyny than racism.) Or on the one who said that "minorities have more power...Jews, anybody against the mainstream..." Interestingly, the guy who's not suing is the one who - at least in the clip I saw - was not part of the racist merriment, but was just spewing imbecilic, booze-soaked nonsense about "f-in' hos" that sounded like the yearning testosterone of someone who can't find a girlfriend.
The national wing of the fraternity that these lunkheads were/are members of has weighed in, decrying the comments, because Chi Psi's "values include commitment to the growth of individual members by nurturing integrity, dignity, and maturity." (Integrity, dignity, and maturity. Those are sure words that come to my mind when someone says "fraternity.")
In any event, Career Planning 101 has got to start including cautionary training for students that anything you say - and do – that ends up in MySpace, on TV, in the blogosphere, on YouTube, let alone on the big screen in a mega-popular movie – can and will be held against you.
I don't want to overlook the casual racism, sexism, and anti-Semitism that's thrown a curve into the career plans of these kids. I really hope they take something positive away from this situation - a bit of mirror-looking and attitude adjustment.
But maybe we need to have a statute of limitations on how much weight we give this type of “evidence”. Juvenile records get expunged, don’t they? Why not all these perpetually available bits that demonstrate stupendous errors in judgment but may not, in truth, indicate that the person is fundamentally terrible and incapable of change. Borat-ic frat boys. trying to one-up each other, thinking they're getting one over on a dumb foreginer. Girls gone wild. Mindless, self-dramatizing bloggers. YouTube “stars” barfing into wastebaskets. These are just kids. (One of the South Carolina “men ” was quoted as saying “What if my mom finds out?” What “grown up” would make a statement like that? THESE ARE JUST KIDS.)
Rash, immature, thoughtless, stupid, reckless, nasty, swinish, should have known better, glad I didn't hire them, glad they’re not my kids…
But still kids.
Not that these kids shouldn’t be called on their behavior. And not that we should ignore behavior that is violent and sociopathic. But when it’s really just stupid kid tricks, drunken frat boy braggadocio imbecility, someone needs to point out to them why it’s wrong. (And, no, it’s not wrong just because you got caught or because a potential employer may not like it.) Sometimes the old bromides get it right: learning from your mistakes is part of growing up.
Who among us except for the goodiest of two shoes doesn’t have a few skeletons in our college closets that we now regret. Maybe they didn't entail boozy racist, sexist, and anit-Semitic rants, but there's probably a few things there that still makes us cringe. Somethings that we're just as happy that mom never found out. Ours just weren’t caught on camera.
1 comment:
I've often said I could never run for public office - I had way too much fun in college (from what I can remember.)
So, I agree with you - they're kids and should be corrected but there should be a (very) short life for their public flogging. (At least here in the U.S. we don't cane 'em.)
The public outcry/outrage would be better spent on larger and truly lethal cases of racism and misogyny. Africa. Afghanistan. Our own inner cities.
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