Posted on 10/13/2004 2:47:00 AM PDT by Kastekniv
A proposal for a scandinavian club at my old High School was rejected by the student senate last year. When I probed my friend (the club's founder) for a reason why, he said that the student senate thought that a scandinavian club would create a rivalry, or "tension" with the already-existing Black Student Union. The club was not meant to counter the BSU in any way, unlike some recent cases, but to be a place where 20 or so scandinavian and non-scandinavian students could experience the culture.
Yeah, you know, those darn crazy Swedes and Norwegians and Danes, always oppressin' the brothas. They get some lutefisk in 'em and next thing ya know, they're burning a Viking longship on some black family's lawn.
Sheesh. That school's being way too hypersensitive. But sadly, a lot of schools (and a lot of their BSUs) are that way.
}:-)4
oofta!!
That's too bad. Have you exhausted all your options in dealing with this situation? You're not excluding anyone, but it sounds like the BSU is acting like a bully (which may or may not be true). How do they know that this would create conflict? The Scandanavian club is for discussion of a specific culture, a specific ethnicity so exactly what does that have to do with the BSU?
The funny thing is that the BSU has had nothing to do with the situation. Personally, I don't think they'd care. I just think the people on the student senate were being overly cautious. There's a Latino Student Union as well. Another part to this is that unlike the LSU and the BSU, the Scandinavian club was not based on having a meetingplace for people of a certain race, but of a geographic heritage, and culture of that area.
We have not done everything possible yet, the next thing to do is to create a stronger club petition for the spring and heavily contest a denial if that is the result. I told him I'd help him with the application next semester. Unfortunately he told me about all this after the fact, and I told him I'd bring the smackdown next time (I'm the political one of the group, lawyer's son, etc.).
I would definately bring the can of whoopass next time. It sounds so ridiculous. There's a lot of great Scandanavian literature to read for instance.
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