Tuesday, December 12, 2006

BUSH YOUTH

Still struggling to deal with the fact that nonwhite people exist:

MEDFORD, Mass. -- An editor at a Tufts University conservative journal has apologized for publishing a satirical Christmas carol that ridiculed black students and campus affirmative action policies.

The controversial carol, entitled, "O Come All Ye Black Folk," was published in the most recent edition of the Primary Source, which bills itself as "the journal of conservative thought at Tufts University."

The parody of "O Come All Ye Faithful" calls black people "boisterous" and proclaims, "Born into the ghetto. O Jesus! We need you now to fill our racial quotas."

The lyrics also say, "No matter what your grades are, F's, D's or G's, give them all privileged status." ...


The carol has been removed from the Primary Source site, but I gather that this is it. Besides being racist, the damn thing doesn't even scan:

O Come All Ye Black Folk
Boisterous yet Desirable
O come ye, O come ye to our University
Come and we will admit you,
Born in to oppression;
O come let us accept them,
O come let us accept them,
O come let us accept them,
Fifty-two black freshman....


(There are two more verses -- see the link.)

The editor who oversaw this issued the usual non-apology apology:

Alison Hoover, the fall semester's editor-in-chief of the Primary Source, first issued an apology for the wording of the poem.

...The song intended to criticize affirmative action by adopting the perspective of an admissions officer, Hoover said. "However, many people interpret this carol as having crossed the line from making fun of a harmful institution to making fun of the black race."

"This was not my intention; it is not the opinion of The Primary Source that there are no qualified black students at Tufts University or that any of the other generalizations in the song are true. I apologize that this carol did not accurately reflect the views of The Primary Source, and I take full responsibility for failing to edit it to ensure that it did."


(Translation: We're sorry that anyone interpreted this the way it was intended to be interpreted.)

But shed no tears for Ms. Hoover -- she's already contributing articles and blog posts on a regular basis to The Washington Times. Hey, maybe it's even a good career move -- after all, isn't overseeing the publication of racist parodies at a right-wing college publication how Dinesh D'Souza got his start?

****

UPDATE: "non-apology apology" link fixed.

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