The University of California, San Diego has halted funding for student media after a TV segment ridiculed black students outraged by a party mocking Black History Month.
The head of the campus Associated Students froze funding for 33 media outlets after one outlet, The Koala, ran a student TV episode last week calling black students ungrateful and using a derogatory term for blacks.
Associated Students President Utsav Gupta says he wants a timeout until the campus can craft a new policy on student-funded media.
The Koala, which has a reputation for airing offensive material, made fun of reaction to an off-campus fraternity party this month. The “Compton Cookout” urged partygoers to dress as ghetto stereotypes to commemorate Black History Month.
Here’s What The Koala Said On Their Website
The Koala would like to condemn the organizers of the Compton Cookout. If history has shown us anything, you need more black people at your party to have enough black-on-black violence to actually justify the name “Compton.” Shame on you. SHAME.
Here’s a Koala Member’s Apology
“I offer my apologies,” said Wes Field, a second year student at UCSD and an editor with the Koala. “Like, I don’t stand behind statements that were made and I understand why the outrage. Like, I get it.”
Field is disgusted with the action’s of Kris Gregorian, the Koala’s editor.”We run a show,” Field explained to San Diego 6. “We do it every Thursday night and it’s basically just a talk show.”
But there was nothing basic about last Thursday’s edition. That’s when Field says Gregorian went in front of the camera and said, “You should be thankful you ungrateful n******.”
The NAACP Addressed The Issue
Earlier today, the NAACP joined a chorus of university officials, students and legislators who have condemned the party.
“This event was intended and did expose the true feeling of a group of people, who either are racist, who acted out their beliefs, or people who say they are not racist, but engaged in acts that were racist,” said Leon Jenkins, president of the Los Angeles branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.
The NAACP maintains that if the university does not sanction those involved, it will “send a less than clear message that such future reckless or intentional behavior will not be tolerated, which may embolden the perpetrators, and future perpetrators’ beliefs that they will not suffer any serious consequences concerning acts of discrimination and racism, which may cause such actors to act out their racist tendencies in the future.”
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