The College Fix

An innocent joke can hurt our grades as students of color

Better not use old-timey expressions to joke around anywhere on campus. You may get accused of issuing a death threat and then preemptively resign from your position before you can get fired.

Binghamton University’s Jeremy Rosenberg learned this the hard way as a member of the student government committee that deals with student election procedures.

Campus Reform has the GroupMe screenshot that featured Rosenberg joke-answering a question about what penalties would be applied to a candidate slate that had started campaigning early:

Tar and feathering

Sorry I’m losing my mind

The screenshot made its way to the Facebook page of one of those to-be-penalized candidates, Raul Cepin, who not only claimed it was a “racialized threat” (while botching Rosenberg’s quote) but that the student government was tolerating that threat:

The historical legacy of the term has placed me in a place of fear and uncertainty regarding my safety on campus. When the threat was made the leadership Jesse Wong (Chair of the Committee) made no comment. There was no discussion about the problematic threat made in reference to my life. This is especially troubling due to the fact that Jesse Wong is currently a Residential Assistant. Residential Assistants are tasked with fostering a safe environment across our campus and the silence of Jesse Wong as Chair within this context indicates an alarming negligence with regards to cultural competency.

Cepin suggested he wouldn’t accept any negative findings against him precisely because of this “tar and feathering” joke:

I have yet to receive the decision regarding my alleged violation of PRE campaign rules; however I do not feel comfortable with any judgement being made by committee members who believe this rhetoric is appropriate.

“For educational purposes,” Cepin then wrote several paragraphs laying out “the historical context of this term.” He concluded:

Given the narrative supplied by Redpath (1859) and the larger structure of extra-legal violence, we can see that Jeremy Rosenberg’s use of “tar and feathering” was used in reference to a politically active Black student. In this situation, I metaphorically represent the ‘restless nigger’ (violating public space and the laws thereof). I see the comment by Jeremy as a death threat, which has been affirmed by the silence of the rest of PRE, specifically the chair of the PRE committee Jesse Wong who should have immediately reported it to the authorities and the appropriate channels within the Student Association Inc. …

I am very concerned for my safety and other students who come into contact with the harasser. There was a point in time when that joke was a reality for people that look like me. I do not take this lightly, I hope you do not either.

Binghamton’s Pipe Dream newspaper reported that two sentences that are not remotely threatening in context drew more than 200 students to the “normally brief” Student Congress meeting, which dragged on three hours.

Vice President for Multicultural Affairs Jermel McClure, Jr. said the joke could harm everyone’s grades:

“One of my jobs is to make sure that students on our campus feel safe, and when we have death threats and when we have hate speech on our campus, that prevents students from being able to do so which is very problematic,” McClure said. “Not only does it create divides within the cultural or social sphere of our campus, it can also impact students when it comes to their academics.”

Election procedures chair Wong apologized for the joke – Rosenberg had already resigned from student government – and apologized for the committee: “Myself and the current members of PRE do not condone this racism.”

Cepin and his supporters were not satisfied by Rosenberg’s public downfall for a joke. Cepin was especially angry that the student government “did not send out an email” about the joke until it learned Cepin had recruited a mob to show up at the meeting. The student government sent an email a week after the joke.

Cepin used Rosenberg’s unintentional faux pax for maximum advantage: