Speeches at school suck anyway... I don't need 'em.

For those of you that think that racism is a thing of the past- I dare you to google "Beta Theta Pi Auburn".
I want to say that I believed it too. But I always knew that there were still crazy people in the world that just didn't get it. They didn't get that we are equals. Everyone. All equal. I guess it never sunk in. But this is just going a tad overboard. Wearing black face and simulating a lynching (all while wearing KKK garb)? Really? You couldn't be more subtle?
This is against most peoples personal values, but it's also agaisnt the law. As I'm sure we've all noticed at some point or another, the rules they make us follow in school can and will contradict those we are given in the real world (like free speech). And at this particular college, they made a rule forbidng "any form of discrimination or harassment related to a student's race." And they made sure it would be damn hard to find a loophole adding that harassment and discrimination can include: "slurs, jokes or other graphic or physical conduct related to a student's race". Now, when they graduate from that college- there will be no such rule. It may be a folkway to break, but there is no formal sanction. But, at school your rights don't necassarily match up with those given by the government. I'm not saying I agree with this, but in a situation like this you have to be a little happy that this exsits. Now they won't get away with it.
Although restrictited speech at school can be a good thing (^), there are times when it's just too much. With the organizatin FIRE you can look up certain schools and track the rights they allow pertaining to free speech. I looked up Syracuse University (being a hopeful) and was slightly dissappointed when I saw they were given a red light. Which means that they have at least one rule that is "clearly and substantially restrict[ing] freedom of speech". On FIRE they also give examples of things the media are saying and cases that have passed through the school, I was excited when I saw "On-Campus free speech slowly improving" but brought back down again when I read that they were listed on the "Top 12 worst colleges for free speech" list. One of the cases at Syracuse was about Holloween cosumes. Now, this is something I've delt with since I entered school so, I think I'll be okay for another 4 years. But it just upsets me that such a quailty school would even try to restrict something as fun as holloween costumes, I mean what counts as offensive? At my school, my friend got in trouble for cross-dressing when she was Clark Kent- is that offensive? Not to me, not to her, not to anyone who walked by her in the hallway, Clark Kent maybe? Now, or course these rules infringe on the freedom of speech- but they're allowed to. Freedom of expression and freedom of any kind of speech aren't necasarily things you get to keep when you walk into school.
Now, imagine if you will, if the party mentioned above happened at Syracuse University. They would have none of it. It would be shut-down in a second. They wouldn't even be allowed to think about it. No sir- no how.
But, I can't say I wouldn't do the same.