America’s Finest?
Via Queerday again.
Take a look at what the fine young men of VMI has been up to lately. You can see more pictures at Richmond Indymedia and Greg’s So-Called Life.
Virginia Military Institute has asked a student governing body to investigate and recommend discipline against cadets who attended a Halloween party wearing costumes that parodied Nazis, Africans and homosexuals.
In a statement posted yesterday on VMI’s Web site, school officials said they were “disappointed” in the behavior and judgment of the cadets.
“Civility and respect for others is something VMI is trying to inculcate in the cadets,” said Stewart MacInnis, a spokesman for the state-supported school, which has about 1,300 students enrolled this year. “When I look at the pictures, I don’t see anything mean-spirited. What I see are college kids who are trying to use humor, and they missed. They really missed. It wasn’t the right thing to do.”
In one photo posted on a public Web site, three young men wearing black shirts pose as Nazis with their right arms extended in a stiff-armed salute. One appears to have a straight, stiff mustache resembling Adolf Hitler’s.
Another picture shows a man painted black from head to toe, his white skin visible at the edges of a loincloth.
Two photos mock homosexuals. In one, two men are dressed as fairies, complete with tiaras, wands, wings, pink briefs and T-shirts with the words “I [love] a man in uniform.” In another, a youth dressed in a sailor’s uniform is bent over to display a target taped to his buttocks, while a shirtless cadet sidles up behind him.
“Don’t see anything mean spirited”? Geez. I’m left wondering what would be mean spirited. If there’s a context in which the stuff in these pictures would not be offensive, I’m hard pressed to think of what it might be.
A VMI grad commented on Greg’s So-Called Life that the purpose of the costumes worn in the pictures is simply to “get some good laughs.” The rest of this post is my response to his comment.
Wow. Sorry, but I can’t help but be disturbed by these pictures. And I dont think it’s unreasonable to draw a connection bewteen them and incidents like Abu Ghraib. To the VMI graduate who said it was all about getting “some good laughs,” a few questions. What’s funny about starvation in Africa? What’s funny about dressing up like a Nazi? What’s funny about stereotyping gay people?
You speak of human suffering. As an African American gay man, let me tell you those pictures portray a cavalier attitude towards other human beings that is the very *root* of human suffering. Whether the cadets in the photos realize it or not, they have already dehumanized entire groups of people in their minds. That’s the first step towards treating people as less than human. It’s the seed that blossoms into the kinds of things that went on at Abu Ghraib and at other U.S. detention facilities in Iraq.
We live in an age when instutitions like VMI have few secrets left, thanks to digital cameras and the internet. it was inevitable that stuff like this would come to light, that the public would respond, and that VMI would have to take some sort of action.
January 31st, 2005 at 6:44 pm
The secrets of men always find themselves on our sleeves. Sometimes discovered with investigation, sometimes with blinding gleam, we always wear ourselves out.
February 1st, 2005 at 9:11 am
Hmmm, not mean spirited? Maybe if someone were to die then it would be considered “mean spirited.”
One thing I’ve always hated about military schools (academies, training, etc.) is that they build comraderie by ripping apart other groups of people that their instructors label as “inferior.” Women, gays, racial minorities, non-Christians. These people are labled as “inferior” to make it easier for the soldiers to shoot them. And this labeling sets the very foundation for war crimes like Abu Ghraib to occur. It’s a wonder, really, that there haven’t been more war crimes reported during our stay in Iraq.
February 3rd, 2005 at 10:40 am
Hi, Im a VMI grad - AND GAY - I know some of the cadets involved. There was certainly no “homophobia” those costumes were done by GAY cadets (closeted, sure) but I know every one of them - at a gay halloween party they would have won some prizes. The “Nazi thing” was a simple parody taken from The Producers now running on Broadway - Mel brooks attended VMI - and the black face in a loin cloth was done by an african-american cadet. geeez lighten up these are college kids in their “own house - no outsiders there - having a halloween partry with costumes!