In 2014, a bunch of scholars at Bowdoin Faculty idea it will be amusing to decorate up as Pilgrims and Local American citizens for a Thanksgiving-themed birthday party. This isn’t the primary or closing tournament like this, neither is it distinctive to 1 faculty.
Attendees later informed me that, on the time, they didn’t perceive why others would possibly in finding the theme offensive. In any case, many had dressed as Local American citizens as youngsters. One pupil informed me he selected a Local American dress for the birthday party “because it was way cheaper and I didn’t have to wear a shirt.”
The school privately disciplined the scholars who dressed up as Local American citizens however selected to not self-discipline the entire partygoers.
My analysis displays that this selectivity despatched a message to different scholars: Bowdoin noticed racism as an issue affecting particular person scholars, now not a broader factor.
I’m a sociologist at Bowdoin and studied this and two different racially charged dress events on the faculty in 2015 and 2016. I wrote a guide about this matter in 2024. On every instance, scholars, most commonly white, dressed up the usage of damaging racial stereotypes.
As nationwide actions for racial justice amassed momentum a decade in the past, scholars on campuses had been additionally changing into extra conscious and outspoken about racial harms. At Bowdoin, too, scholars started to talk up after those events.
However an April 2026 file from the Yale Committee on Agree with in Upper Schooling cited a 2015 Halloween dress controversy there, noting, “At Yale as elsewhere, such events became identified with “cancel culture”: The concept one fallacious phrase or departure from campus orthodoxy may just yield outsize punishments and social sanctions.“
At Yale and in other places, previous questions on dress events are feeding new questions on accept as true with in upper training.
Faculties usually attempt to create respectful campus communities by which scholars really feel noticed and protected. However in addition they attempt to inspire open, reasoned debate.
Racially charged controversies, equivalent to dress events, generally tend to position the ones two objectives at odds with every different, leaving faculty directors to come to a decision whose pursuits to prioritize. And being at the entrance traces of debates about unfastened speech and racism places upper training in a focus.
An issue that assists in keeping taking place
Whilst racially charged occasions occur on campuses in some ways, dress events may also be a few of the maximum visual. It’s why, partially, I selected to review what came about at Bowdoin. However Bowdoin is infrequently by myself.
Many dress controversies got here prior to, and others adopted, together with at Brigham Younger College, the College of Central Arkansas and Franklin & Marshall Faculty, to call only some.
Fallout from Bowdoin’s events
In October 2015, three hundred and sixty five days after the Thanksgiving birthday party and concurrently the Yale Halloween controversy, any other racially charged pupil birthday party came about on Bowdoin’s campus.
This one featured stereotypical gangster apparel – dishevelled pants, jerseys, gold chains and a white pupil wearing cornrows.
In 2017 and 2018, as a part of analysis for my guide at the matter, I spoke with scholars who attended this and different events.
Scholars who attended the 2014 Thanksgiving-themed birthday party participated in an academic consultation with individuals of the Local American pupil crew to be told extra about why their costumes had been hurtful.
Some scholars informed me they “learned a lot” from that have and learned that offending a definite crew of other people “is not something to just be pushed aside.”
However scholars I spoke with who didn’t take part in those instructional periods remained puzzled, green with envy or oblivious to the hurt led to.
After the 2015 gangster-themed birthday party, the varsity requested the partygoers – all individuals of the varsity’s crusing group – to take a seat down and communicate with the Black pupil crew in a facilitated dialog.
The scholars who attended this birthday party apologized publicly and labored to modify their group’s tradition thru measures equivalent to speaking with new individuals in regards to the hurtful birthday party so they don’t repeat the similar errors.
Then again, every other scholars posted in nameless on-line apps equivalent to Yik Yak that they felt all of those measures had been doing away with their amusing and disposing of their proper to mention and do what they sought after.
My analysis displays that the weight of training the offending scholars fell nearly completely to scholars of colour. Those scholars arranged conferences, participated in conversations, wrote instructional columns and shared painful non-public tales – all whilst maintaining with their very own coursework.
A deepening divide
When but any other racially charged dress birthday party came about at Bowdoin within the iciness of 2016, this time a tequila-themed birthday party that featured sombreros, the temper was once other.
Many scholars felt just like the partygoers will have to have realized one thing from the prior events.
Mexican and Mexican American scholars mentioned they felt exhausted discussing the birthday party at duration.
However others felt this new set of partygoers had been being unjustly attacked. As one pupil mentioned to me, “I remember feeling like I couldn’t speak because I was a white female on this campus who wore a sombrero and exercised white privilege.”
Lots of the accused scholars I interviewed referred to as their folks, and a few consulted with legal professionals to take a look at to keep away from disciplinary motion by way of the varsity. Conservative and extra mainstream media shops picked up at the tale.
One white pupil referred to as for restorative justice thru training and reconciliation, whilst any other white pupil sought after to advertise uncomfortable conversations. And nonetheless any other driven again towards “disciplining ignorance.”
A sequence of racist dress events at Bowdoin Faculty gives perception into one of the crucial accept as true with problems plaguing upper training.
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As one partygoer informed me in 2018, “Everyone was afraid to step on each other’s toes, no one knew what was right and wrong, and everyone felt like a victim. … People on my side who attended the party or wore sombreros felt victimized by administration. Obviously, the Latinx community felt victimized by us.”
What’s proper or fallacious
What’s placing about those events isn’t that they stored taking place – they’ve been taking place for generations, and now not simply at Bowdoin – however what has came about within the decade since they stuck the general public eye.
My analysis means that Bowdoin, and elite faculties love it, can deal with racism like blight carried by way of a couple of unhealthy folks quite than a situation baked into the establishments themselves.
I imagine that is necessary, as a result of upper training can not construct accept as true with amongst all scholars with out acknowledging arduous truths that would possibly not also be glaring to leaders.
Elite faculties, in line with analysis, stay elite as a result of they serve elite pursuits. They have a tendency to confess the kids of alumni and donors at upper charges. They ceaselessly praise the types of extracurricular actions, equivalent to dear membership sports activities, that basically rich households can find the money for. They marketplace “diversity” however deal with social constructions that stay white scholars comfy and in keep watch over.
When racist incidents occur, faculties infrequently reply with instructional techniques that ask scholars of colour to mend white lack of awareness without spending a dime. In the meantime, rich scholars can decide out completely, the usage of their social and financial capital to protect themselves from penalties.
That’s now not a device designed to handle racism. That’s a device designed to control public members of the family whilst holding the established order.
