Ole Miss Greek Life Retreat Canceled After Banana Peel Found in Tree

Breitbart ^ | 31 Aug 2017 | TOM CICCOTTA

[Kozy]

Bet you a banana she is a women studies major.

[Kozy]

Bet you a banana she is a women studies major with minor in African studies

[Enchante]

or vice versa

[Enchante]

Sociology.... and also “Integrated Marketing Communications” she has a double-major)

But Womyn’s Studies and Afro-Am was a very good guess!

[Ezekiel]

Sounds lovely.

I’d never noticed banana peels in trees until I started seeing them in my own yard. Toss and go, makes sense. They don’t all make it as far as the tosser intends. I think it’s funny.

Some people have no sense of humor about the most innocent of human activities.

[Enchante]

Here is the "official" explanation of the hysteria from the originator of the panic, Ms. Makala McNeil. She published this in the campus paper at Ole Miss yesterday:

=====================================================

Letter to the editor: Makala McNeil Posted on Aug 31 2017 - 8:03am by Makala McNeil

My sorority sister was the first to see it. We – myself, my sister and another NPHC member – were heading back to our cabins after our large group session was dismissed. As we approached the cabin, she abruptly stopped. Her eyes widened. Her jaw dropped. She frantically pointed at a tree, exclaiming, “Look! Look! In the tree!” It was a banana, dangling from a limb.

My heart dropped instantly. I began to scan the area around us to see if we were in any immediate harm. Once we realized we were alone, questions started flying: “Was this here this morning?” “There’s no coincidence that this happened right after we just got done talking about race, right?” “Why would someone put it in a tree? There’s a trashcan a few feet away.”

My sister took a picture of the banana and sent it to other NPHC members, most of whom responded with immediate urgency. For most black participants, the image of the banana in the tree was jarring, an overt sign that we weren’t welcome.

Yesterday, The Daily Mississippian released a news article reporting on a racially charged incident that occurred at Camp Hopewell during an IMPACT retreat this past weekend. NPHC organizations were certain the incident would become public, and, as a collective, we understood the potential pitfalls of allowing white journalists to write our story.

Mainstream news organizations have long prioritized white, conservative perspectives above the voices of black people. We were concerned that our student newspaper couldn’t contextualize the fear that the incident inspired. We were right.

Shortly after the banana was found, IMPACT retreat leaders convened a camp-wide meeting. NPHC members used the space as an opportunity to discuss the racial realities of our university community with our white peers. Some white students seemed receptive. Others appeared apathetic. Many NPHC members denounced the disunity between white and black fraternities and sororities. Black students gave testimony, bearing witness to the subtle racism that pervades our campus.

Bananas have historically been used by white people as derogatory to dehumanize and denigrate black people; a symbol that makes us fearful of our racist past and present. Scientific racism permitted biological stereotypes surrounding the “apelike” qualities of black people to bleed into popular understandings of blackness.

White supremacy categorized Africans and African-Americans as savages, primal and subhuman. According to Professor James Bradley, associating black folk with bananas and monkeys has always been about the “way Europeans have differentiated themselves, biologically and culturally, in an effort to maintain superiority over other people.”

Even today, bananas remain an intimidation tactic, intended to instill fear in black communities. This year, American University elected Taylor Dumpson, a member of my sorority, as the school’s first black female student body president. Opposers responded by hanging bananas from nooses around campus with racial epithets written on them.

Regardless whether last weekend’s incident was an honest mistake or a malicious threat, our response as black Greeks at the University of Mississippi was valid and authentic, especially given the present state of race relations in our country and at our university.

Our community must recognize an uncomfortable reality: that this incident is indicative of a broader campus culture. Since the article’s publication, critics have claimed that NPHC members fabricated or exaggerated the impact caused by a banana.

Yet, what they so easily overlook is that within the past four years, students placed a noose on James Meredith’s statue, klansmen marched on our campus and a community member alluded to lynching black people in online comments.

It is no exaggeration to say that black students often feel as though they are under attack. We must confront a culture that dismisses black experiences, supporting the notion that constructive dialogue can actually foster a level of cultural understanding amongst different races.

Makala McNeil is a senior integrated marketing communications and sociology major from Grenada.

[Red Badger]

They make great fertilizer and mulch...................

[ladyjane]

This maroon is a communications major? She needs to work on her writing skills.

And how could she ever join a Greek society? Is she so poorly educated that she’s not aware that Greeks owned slaves? There were more slaves in ancient Greece than there were free Greeks.

[mosesdapoet]

The facts behind this seem to be known to the media was that someone present perhaps attending this event broke his fast by eating a bananna. Threw the peelings away dumbfounded when they landed in a branch of a tree. A black activist passing through the area where this person was saw those peelings and claimed they were deliberately placed there as a racial comment. And because it fits the medias victim agenda are perpeptuating the myth.

This is like using the expression “Boy” in a comment to someone who happens to be dark skinned as in; “Boy! It’s really hot today” and be accused of using a racial slur.

If this was backed up with a sign or a number of peelings obviously placed there there might be validity to the accusation.

u

[fella]

What are these kids going to do when they have to go out into the real world and make it on their own?

[Ezekiel]

It’s a natural win-win.

Somehow banana peels have slipped through the cracks. How dare anyone return them to nature directly. Shouldn’t there be a middleman or three to approve of proper disposal sites?

As we can see, a peel haphazardly tossed into a tree could cause the world to burn down.

[Red Badger]

We obviously need Banana Peel Control Laws........

Perhaps a Three Day Waiting Period to buy a banana.......................

[editor-surveyor]

.
Send them packing!

There’s nothing but stale farts between their ears.
.

[G Larry]

Shouldn’t all Greek sororities and fraternities be shut down?

Was there any point in the Greek culture they celebrate where Greeks weren’t slave holders.

[catnipman]

snowflakes petrified of racist banana peels. it figures.

I think I see a new meme: banana peels hanging out of trees ...

[sipow]

It is true.

Unless whites finally realize what is going on and band together to crush the thugs and mongrels that are trying to drag us down, we are doomed.

[ThePatriotsFlag]

Well, they should get rid if the monkeys in the zoos instead if inanimate concrete and brass statues. I guess cucumbers for cats are like bananas for blacks. (Watch the cat/cucumber vids on YouTube)

[Cold Heart]

I am going to guess he will get another ribbon. He just made a sarcastic joke or dry joke that made Un laugh. Whether the others thought it was funny or not they know if Un of them laughs they all laugh. I am going to further guess that’s how he got most of his ribbons.