It didn't highlight King's contributions to American society and human rights.
No, this gathering wasn't the sort of observance that we've come to associate with the holiday. This party in Stephenville, Texas focused on mocking African American stereotypes.
Last week, while the nation paused to remember the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., a group of students at a Texas college outside Fort Worth marked the day by throwing a party that featured black stereotype costumes — including a student dressed as Aunt Jemima — a main course of fried chicken and cases of malt liquor.
The insensitivity didn't end there. The students then brazenly posted their party photos on the popular Web site Facebook.com for all the world to see.
School administrators at Tarleton State University in Stephenville told FOXNews.com they are investigating an off-campus Martin Luther King Jr. Day student party held on Jan. 15 that the school's president called "reprehensible."
"I am personally insulted by these photographs and am disappointed that Tarleton students have demonstrated such insensitivity," university President Dennis P. McCabe wrote in a letter to students and faculty posted on the school's Web site Wednesday.
"I regret that any of our students have been hurt by the display of these photographs. The students involved have removed them and have expressed regret over offending their fellow students."
"I feel like there is no excuse for this type of ignorance," Donald Ray Elder, president of the school's chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, told the Associated Press.
Photographs posted on students' personal Facebook pages showed party attendees donning Afro-style wigs, fake gold jewelry, 40-ounce bottles of alcohol in brown paper bags and mock silver teeth. The photos have now made their way around the Web via TheSmokingGun.com.
In one picture, a student dressed as the character Aunt Jemima holds a bottle of maple syrup in one hand and a bottle in a brown paper bag that appeared to contain malt liquor.
These students are dunces.
Their insensitivity is shocking. It's also shocking that they slapped the photos up on Facebook.
The partygoers obviously had no shame about how they behaved, none whatsoever.
The faces are so clear and readily identifiable.
Their parents must be horrified, or not. Who knows?
The students should be humiliated.
Can you imagine one of the students pictured going to a job interview?
"You look familiar. Oh, now I remember. You dressed up like Aunt Jemima on MLK Day. I don't think you're right for our company."
These students aren't going to have the opportunity to do public apologies, like Michael Richards did after his outburst.
Will they go to therapy, like Grey's Anatomy star Isaiah Washington after his use of an anti-gay slur to another cast member?
I doubt it.
I think expressions of racism and the use of stereotypical slurs are inexcusable. It's not a matter of being politically correct or overly sensitive.
It's just inappropriate. Case closed.
I don't think it's amusing to degrade other human beings. I condemn all such behavior.
Whether its spouted by college students or celebrities, there's no place for it in a civilized society, ANYWHERE.
But that's not the case. Racism is accepted by some in certain instances. In fact, it's condoned and encouraged.
Some examples:
Wolf Blitzer
Artist: Billmon
(Image from NewsBusters and Hot Air )
Michael Steele -- "I's Simple Sambo and I's running for the Big House"
Artist and caption author: Steve Gilliard
"Joe Lieberman"
Artist: Jane Hamsher, posted on The Huffington Post
Why does the Left get a pass when it comes to these despicable depictions?
There are so many examples of the Left's glaring racism.
Here are a few more:
--USA Today doctors a photo of Condoleezza Rice.
--Condoleezza Rice is belittled on a math final at Bellevue Community College.
--Michael Steele is labeled an Uncle Tom and pelted with oreos.
--Former Milwaukee Alderman Michael McGee spews anti-Semitic remarks on the radio.
--Clarence Thomas is deemed "a black man who deserves an asterisk" by The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
--Trey Ellis plays shrink in a racist attack on Claude Allen.
--MoveOn.org hosts anti-Semitic remarks about Joe Lieberman.
--Chris Matthews repeatedly employs ethnic stereotypes to refer to Joe Lieberman.
The fact is a thinly-veiled bigotry routinely runs through the Left's commentary.
Leftists fail to condemn anti-Semites like Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton, and Louis Farrakhan.
They fail to condemn Howard Dean, Joe Biden, Robert Byrd, Hillary Clinton, etc., for their racial and ethnic slurs. Catholic-bashing is a favorite pastime for them.
This is unacceptable.
It's unacceptable from college students, from Kramer, from politicians and African American leaders.
I think the same outrage and disgust that people are directing at the Tarleton students should be applied to the libs, and anyone else, who feel free to engage in similar overt racism.
No excuses.
The students at that MLK Day party disgraced themselves, their parents, and their university.
Their "fun" is a sad reflection of the racism that exists in many corners of America, among the uneducated as well as the supposedly sophisticated and enlightened elite.
The time is long overdue to overcome.
___________________________
Read the letter from the university's president, Dennis P. McCabe.
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