The city’s Mifflin full-court press has dealt dismay to the hearts of thousands who pine for gluttonous amounts of racist neon tanktops and a spectrum of liquor in spring jubilation. Granted, in a world where social media reigns supreme, the people weren’t pleased and didn’t hesitate to respond. People are pissed at the fact their grandiose spectacle has been revoked from them. It’s not Badger-like, it’s not fair and it’s unnecessary.
And in all of this hoopla, I feel like the only person on campus who doesn’t give a fuck Mifflin got the axe.
Allow me to address the majority now by admitting the following: No, I am not of drinking age. Yes, I choose not to drink at all despite what the culture of this city expects of me. Yes, I am performing at Revelry this weekend. No, I do not think it is proper the way the city is handling the situation in a tyrannical method from a situation they exacerbated themselves. And no, I do not care what you as a human choose to do with your leisure or splendor time as long as you are not harming others or yourself.
With these opinions public, I’m not going to reiterate the diatribes of past columns I’ve seen on this issue. What we must do now is meditate on what this all truly means, and why it is a saddening reflection on us as a collective entity of a student body.
First and foremost, I went to the watered-down Mifflin last year as a freshman. (You might have seen my anti-racist tee amidst the sombreros on the backs of others.) In my brief immersion in the party culture here, all I heard about was how amazing a spectacle Mifflin is and how it makes him, her and them proud to be Badgers, exercising their liberties while contributing to the “work hard, play hard” mythos.
Frankly, it was some ol’ bullshit. It was one of the most sickening displays of collective white privilege I’ve ever seen, and when you combine that with the horrific experience of being sober in a horde of people who aren’t, and don’t give a single damn for your regard whilst in the state they’re in, so many feelings set in at once. I had to distance myself. I couldn’t deal with the lengths people go to, and who was at expense in the process.
With that experience in pocket, it’s time to address the line of thinking we need to begin questioning as students and as a social culture.
There is absolutely no doubt we bring in money for the university with the social life as a primary aspect, but is that merely enough to endorse and embody the ignorance and reckless abandon we reinforce by allowing rape culture, white privilege and a history of violent behaviors to continue? And I don’t just mean the two stabbings from years previous, I mean the trend of unaccounted incidents involving racial slurs, sexual assaults, street fights and so forth. I’ve never been called a nigger until I came here. My friends have ended up in fights with drunken people and statistically, chances are we all know someone who has been sexually assaulted.
Furthermore, I’m tired of hearing Mifflin embodies the spirit of what we are as Badgers. That is a sickening lie. If this is the case, to outsiders, it seems as if 40,000 people are privileged drunkards with little-to-no cultural competency who will sleep with whomever they desire at whatever cost. Obviously this is not true. You know it, I know it.
In fact, Mifflin, in its current iteration, is the absolute opposite of what we supposedly stand for. And this isn’t based on university expectation of students; I’m speaking on the mythos we love to uphold when it’s convenient. Everyone knows this originated as a protest of the Vietnam War. And look at what we stand for now. But when the city is forced to act upon us, some take the bold initiative to attempt to cause another revolution via Facebook, as if Mifflin is worth saving and a priority to move for. We are not characterized by the bastardized shitshow we place upon a pedestal. If we are, then what have we become?
We did not create these problems. Hedonistic desire is inherently embedded in American identity as a whole. College drinking culture is a product of this as well. But if we as Badgers, who take so much pride in ourselves and will defend our name to the grave, continue to reinforce these principles, then our prestige is diluted to nothing.
If Mifflin is what makes us Badgers, then it is damn well time to rethink what being a Badger means.
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