Yet Another Costume Party Debacle - by Ingrid A Nelson (Paperback)

About the Book

"College parties far too often host racially themed parties, inviting students to dress us as stereotypes of racial groups: Indigenous people and white settlers for Columbus Day, for example, or in Black urban streetwear as "gangsters." These events occasionally lead to shocked stories in the national news, but despite all of the embarrassment, these parties persist. This new project from sociologist of education Ingrid A. Nelson explores: how do these parties come to be, and how do institutions respond? And what, if anything, do undergraduates learn about race and racism from these encounters? Yet Another Costume Party Debacle delves into three racist campus parties at Bowdoin College, a top-ranking liberal arts college in Maine. Nelson uncovers the important ways a university's history, policies, and structures persist in allowing racist parties to take place. By Nelson's account, three major factors shape a culture that allows these parties to continue: organizational structures, such as housing, that leave students siloed and segregated, the scripts students make use of to talk about race, and student behaviors. When conversations about race do arise, students wind up talking to people who already agree with them or share their worldview. The scripts for talking about race, too, lead students to prioritize maintaining their reputations over disrupting the status quo, striving above all "not to hurt anyone's feelings." While some might see this as an admirable aim, Nelson instead shows us that it's a missed opportunity for real change. The institutions, scripts, and behaviors that shape responses to racist parties show clearly why racially charged incidents persist on college campuses. To end them, we must take the charge of diversity seriously by changing the structures that bring students together and drive them apart"--

Book Synopsis

How the policies of elite colleges allow racially themed parties to continue by perpetuating the status quo.

On a cold February evening, a group of students at Bowdoin College, an elite and historically white liberal arts college in Maine, gathered to drink tequila at a party referred to as "not not a fiesta." By noon the next day, Instagram videos of students sporting miniature sombreros had spread like wildfire through campus. Over the next few weeks, national media outlets would broadcast the embarrassing fallout. But the frequency with which similar parties recur on campuses across the United States begs the question: what, if anything, do undergraduates learn about race and racism from these encounters?

Drawing on interviews and archival research, Yet Another Costume Party Debacle shows us how colleges both contest and reproduce racialized systems of power. Sociologist Ingrid A. Nelson juxtaposes how students and administrators discuss race with how they behave in the aftermath of racially charged campus controversies. Nelson spoke in-depth with students and other key players in several controversial parties--"Cracksgiving," a "gangster party," and the "not not a fiesta" tequila party--at Bowdoin. The college's administrative response failed to encourage productive dialogue or address larger questions about race on campus. Nelson shows how the underlying campus structures at elite liberal arts colleges foster an environment that is ripe for racially charged incidents; we shouldn't be surprised when we read about yet another costume party debacle. Nelson advises how we can take charge of diversity on our campuses by changing the systems that bring students together and drive them apart.

Review Quotes

"Yet Another Costume Party Debacle enters the conversation about race and elite, predominantly white educational institutions from a unique angle: considering how students understand and respond to racialized costume parties and ensuing scandals, and what they learn from the way institutional leaders and peers respond."--Sherry Deckman, author of Black Space: Negotiating Race, Diversity, and Belonging in the Ivory Tower

"All too often the coverage of these incidents tends to be relatively surface level, and when it does have analytical depth, it does not tend to explore the root causes of these events. By rooting the work in sociologically oriented race studies and organizational theory, this book offers exciting new terrain for research and practice. This is a very compelling work, and I hope its impacts will be far-reaching."--Nolan Cabrera, author of White Guys on Campus: Racism, White Immunity, and the Myth of "Post-Racial" Higher Education

About the Author

Ingrid A. Nelson is professor of sociology at Bowdoin College. She is the author of Why Afterschool Matters, published by Rutgers University Press.