Officials at Clemson University have apologized for serving a lot of Mexican food at a couple dining halls because two students found it offensive.
Clemson’s food-themed “Maximum Mexican” night, a student favorite, occurred on Wednesday night.
The two complaining students used the hashtag “#CUlturallyInsensitive,” reports Campus Reform.
One of the two students complained about the ongoing cafeteria fiesta by tweeting an image of cafeteria workers wearing sombreros. The caption of the tweet — which now appears to have disappeared — was: “Our culture isn’t a costume and we will not be mocked!”
Administrators at the taxpayer-funded public school in South Carolina reacted with a swift and abject apology for serving Mexican food.
Doug Hallenbeck, Clemson’s senior associate vice president of student affairs, explained that the choice to cook and serve food from Mexico “displayed a flattened cultural view of Mexican culture.”
“In the future, University Housing & Dining welcomes the opportunity to work with Hispanic and Latino campus groups as well as community members, staff and faculty to better celebrate the food and culture of this region and better educate the Clemson community,” the letter beginning “Dear Clemson Family” said.
“It is the mission of University Housing & Dining to create supportive and challenging environments that enrich and nourish lives. We failed to live out our mission yesterday,” Hallenbeck’s letter added about the Mexican food.
Clemson published similar-sounding apologies on Facebook and Twitter.
Some students on the Clemson campus disagreed with the students who were offended and the school’s response.
“This is something that Clemson Dining has done for years without any sort of backlash. People love the cultural nights in the dining halls,” senior Austin Pendergist told Campus Reform. “What’s next? Are they going to take away all potato based food as to not offend students from Irish decent? Remove the stir fry station so Asian-American students don’t feel as if they are being misrepresented? When does it end?”
Pendergist noted that the extent of “Maximum Mexican” night was “a couple balloons, sombreros, and some tacos.” He also recalled that the school’s cafeterias have a series of culturally-themed events throughout the year.
America’s college campuses have seen mucho kerfuffles about tacos and other Mexican food.
At Dartmouth College, America’s most hopelessly and disturbingly fragile Ivy League school, problems arose in spring 2014 because a single student, junior Daniela Hernandez, was offended by a “Phiesta” fundraiser for cardiac care sponsored by two Greek organizations. (RELATED: It’s Official: At Dartmouth, The Word ‘Fiesta’ Is Racist And White People Can’t Use It)
In 2013, Northwestern University sent a campus-wide letter advising students not to celebrate Cinco de Mayo by engaging in racially-offensive activities, such as eating tacos and drinking tequila. (RELATED: Latino Student Group Says Eating Tacos Is Offensive To Mexicans)
In May, a Mexican student who attends a college in Boston instructed Americans in USA Today not to celebrate by engaging in racially-offensive activities, such as shortening the word guacamole and purchasing ponchos. (RELATED: Latina Student: Shortening The Word Guacamole Is Offensive To Mexicans)
Clemson is also facing quite a bit of politically-correct craziness on campus these days.
Last academic year, a radical student group at Clemson demanded that administrators “prosecute defamatory speech” to fix a “pattern of social injustice.” Other demands from the group, called See the Stripes, included more public cash for minority groups and the construction of a multicultural center which minority members can use as a “safe space.” (RELATED: Radical Minority Group At Clemson Seeks SUSPENSION OF FIRST AMENDMENT)
This summer, Clemson’s board of trustees for student affairs approved a list of recommendations designed to curb fun which included a ban on drinking games at all social events. (RELATED: Clemson Bans Frats, Sororities From Buying Booze, Playing Drinking Games)
However, there is also real science happening at Clemson. In 2013, for example, a group of student researchers tested several ping-pong balls used in various beer pong games around campus — before the frat ban. The students found a swarm of dodgy bacteria on those balls. This vital research was part of a Clemson program called Creative Inquiry, which allows students to consider weighty questions — such as exactly how disgusting beer pong is — and answer those questions via scientific inquiry. (RELATED: Science At Clemson: Beer Pong Balls Are Crawling With Nasty Bacteria)
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