BS: Sumo Wrestling banned at Queens

Subject: BS: Sumo Wrestling banned at Queens
From: 3refs
Date: 30 Mar 10 - 10:07 AM

Canada has been referred to, by many, as one of the most culturally diverse countries on the planet. Personally I think it's turning into a cesspool of "don't do that, you might offend someone"! I sometimes wish the rest of the Provinces would take Quebec's lead!

http://www.nationalpost.com/news/canada/story.html?id=2740807

Subject: RE: BS: Sumo Wrestling banned at Queens
From: pdq
Date: 30 Mar 10 - 10:30 AM

Sumo suits instruments of 'oppression': Queen's student government

Joseph Brean, National Post  Published: Monday, March 29, 2010

Queen's Alma Mater Society on Monday published a two-page apology letter, and cancelled a food-bank fundraiser scheduled for Tuesday, which was to feature two sumo suits such as the ones shown in this ...

Sumo suits, the plastic novelties that can transform a skinny sports fan into a comically unstable sphere for the delight of a stadium audience, are racist and dehumanizing instruments of oppression, according to the student government of Queen's University.

They "appropriate an aspect of Japanese culture," turn a racial identity into a "costume," and "devalue an ancient and respected Japanese sport, which is rich in history and cultural tradition." They also "fail to capture the deeply embedded histories of violent and subversive oppression that a group has faced."

The Alma Mater Society on Monday published a two-page apology letter, and cancelled a foodbank fundraiser scheduled for Tuesday, which was to feature two sumo suits. The letter scolds the student government's own executive for "marginalizing members of the Queen's community" and failing to "critically consider the racist meaning behind [the fundraiser.]"

It also vows to discourage other campus groups from using the suits, owned by the school's athletic department.

"We recognize racism as the systemic oppression, both intentional and unintentional, of individuals and groups based on racial or ethnic identities," the letter reads.

Given the quick apology, which came in response to complaints registered on a Facebook page promoting the event, the racism of the Queen's "SUMO Showdown" seems to have been unintentional, and not an effort to belittle Japanese people.

Brandon Sloan, communications officer for the Alma Mater Society, suggested "white privilege" had blinded the student government, which is largely but not entirely white, to the seriousness of the issue.

Likewise, the owners of the two suits have never imagined they could be considered offensive.

"It's the first time we've heard of [the racist aspects]," Mike Grobe, a spokesman for Queen's Athletics, which uses the suits at football and basketball games for half-time shows, when people run obstacle courses in them. "They're just big puffy suits. They're pink... No one's complained."

They come with a helmet shaped like a head with a bun of hair, like a sumo wrestler, but nothing overtly stereotypical. They are new this academic year, and are often loaned out to student groups. They were even loaned out to the Ontario Hockey League for its all-star hockey game.

In the past, professional sumo wrestling in Japan itself has been accused of racism for excluding foreign-born wrestlers, although non-Japanese wrestlers have had notable successes, even rising to highest rank of Yokozuna.

For its part, Queen's has a proud tradition of inclusivity. It was the first school in Canada to graduate a black man, Robert Sutherland, who became a prominent lawyer. Its student pub, Alfie's, is named for the son of a runaway slave who became a football mascot. And it continues to receive generous donations of art and real estate from chemist-turned-philanthropist Alfred Bader, a refugee from the Nazis who was turned away from McGill because its Jewish quota was filled.

But Queen's today has an awkward relationship with political correctness, exacerbated by its reputation for drawing its student body from the privileged neighbourhoods of Toronto and Ottawa.

In a report last week on racism in Ontario universities by the Canadian Federation of Students, one Queen's student reported that "white privilege" permeates the "walls, books, classrooms and everything that makes Queen's what it is."

That aspect of the controversy is mentioned in the apology letter, which says "some of us [AMS leaders] ... do not have the lived experience of someone who is oppressed due to their race. We recognize our privilege in this circumstance." It then vows "a series of discussions" about oppression.

"We would never want to host an event that would offend some members," Mr. Sloan said.

Last year, in a story that made national headlines, the Queen's administration appointed six "dialogue facilitators" to promote discussion of social justice, partly by intervening in conversations when they overhear offensive speech. The resulting scandal led to the appointment of an expert panel, including a former head of the Ontario Human Rights Commission, which cancelled the program as "incompatible with the atmosphere required for free speech."

The student government was to meet last night to discuss another fun activity as a replacement for the sumo suits, Mr. Sloan said.

Also on Monday, the nomination period closed for the government's Anti-Oppression Award, given for exceptional achievement in counteracting oppression both in and out of the classroom.

National Post

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Subject: RE: BS: Sumo Wrestling banned at Queens
From: Jack the Sailor
Date: 30 Mar 10 - 11:02 AM

Isn't this worse than the Sumo thing?

>>Its student pub, Alfie's, is named for the son of a runaway slave who became a football mascot.

A mascot? Really?

Like Uga the bulldog for The University of Georgia Bulldogs?

What was their team called?   I shudder to think of it.

Subject: RE: BS: Sumo Wrestling banned at Queens
From: bobad
Date: 30 Mar 10 - 11:04 AM

I think that queens should take offense at the appropriation of their sexual orientation for the name of the university.

Subject: RE: BS: Sumo Wrestling banned at Queens
From: pdq
Date: 30 Mar 10 - 11:19 AM

Well, if it said "Queens Banned at Sumo Wrestling", somebody might have the right to complain.

Subject: RE: BS: Sumo Wrestling banned at Queens
From: Riginslinger
Date: 30 Mar 10 - 11:27 AM

Of course, there would have been no banning if it had been real Sumo Wrestling.

Subject: RE: BS: Sumo Wrestling banned at Queens
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 30 Mar 10 - 07:33 PM

"...not an effort to belittle Japanese people."

I can't see "belittle" as quite the appropriate word to use in regard to anything to do with Sumo...

Subject: RE: BS: Sumo Wrestling banned at Queens
From: Jack the Sailor
Date: 30 Mar 10 - 08:37 PM

Should it be

"berittre"?

Subject: RE: BS: Sumo Wrestling banned at Queens
From: Ebbie
Date: 30 Mar 10 - 08:39 PM

Now, that is belittling.

Subject: RE: BS: Sumo Wrestling banned at Queens
From: katlaughing
Date: 31 Mar 10 - 12:02 AM

They come with a helmet shaped like a head with a bun of hair, like a sumo wrestler, but nothing overtly stereotypical

How can that not be "overtly stereotypical?"

Subject: RE: BS: Sumo Wrestling banned at Queens
From: Jack the Sailor
Date: 31 Mar 10 - 01:08 AM

I know. I am so ashamed.

Subject: RE: BS: Sumo Wrestling banned at Queens
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 31 Mar 10 - 03:57 AM

Maybe ritual suicide, Jack?

Subject: RE: BS: Sumo Wrestling banned at Queens
From: Seayaker
Date: 31 Mar 10 - 04:42 AM

Get a calendar.

April 1st. is tomorrow.

Subject: RE: BS: Sumo Wrestling banned at Queens
From: Jack the Sailor
Date: 31 Mar 10 - 02:04 PM

>>Maybe ritual suicide, Jack?

Now THAT'S belittling!!

Subject: RE: BS: Sumo Wrestling banned at Queens
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 31 Mar 10 - 02:08 PM

"The first principle is that nobody should be ashamed of thinking a thing funny because it is foreign; the second is that he should be ashamed of thinking it wrong because it is funny."

GK Chesterton from "What I Saw in America". Seems to me those are pretty sensible principles.

Subject: RE: BS: Sumo Wrestling banned at Queens
From: Charmion
Date: 31 Mar 10 - 03:07 PM

Okay. As an alumna of Queen's, I am perhaps a wee bit over-sensitive to nonsense from that quarter, but ... !

Alas, it seems only too likely.

Subject: RE: BS: Sumo Wrestling banned at Queens
From: Richard Bridge
Date: 01 Apr 10 - 07:02 AM

To think something funny merely because it is foreign is something that any thinking person should be deeply ashamed of.

Subject: RE: BS: Sumo Wrestling banned at Queens
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 01 Apr 10 - 07:05 PM

The point Chesterton was making was that we shouldn't feel that just because something is foriegn we ought to be ashamed to admit that we find it funny. Not quite the same as finding siomething funny just because it is foreign.

If, for example, a French vistor finds Morris dancing funny, is that more shameful than if an English native thinks it funny? Or if a Morris dancer actually glories in its being funny?

Most people are funny much of the time, and the things they do are funny much of the time. Sometimes familiarity takes off the edge, so we don't recognise how funny they are. The effect is that it can be easier to recognise the absurdity of life when it is mediated through things that are unfamiliar, for example, foreign.

The crucial thing is that just because we find something funny, that is not a reason for thinking it wrong or despising it.