UA condemns racial slur on Penn newsgroup

A post on upenn.forsale, intended as a joke, caught the attention of the UA and the Latino community. A racist remark posted on a student newsgroup last weekend prompted the Undergraduate Assembly to question its own role in campus race relations. At Sunday's meeting, UA Secretary Olivia Troye, a College junior, informed the body that a "blatant racist remark" was made Friday on the upenn.forsale newsgroup. The message read: "Want To Buy: young mexican slave? I need someone to do my laundry, clean my room and bath room, wipe my ass, and make me breakfast, and perform various other acts." It was signed "Goat Grabber." Troye, who is also a member of the United Minorities Council, asked the UA to issue a formal comment encouraging the administration to take action on race issues. UA members argued over whether their next step should be to make a plea to the administration to act on the incident, to use the incident to address racism in general or to join minority groups in their efforts. "I don't know if it's our place as the UA to take a stand, although it may be a nice gesture," said UA member Charles Margosian, a Wharton senior. The body ultimately voted to issue a public statement: "We as a student government body believe the incident regarding offensive comments on news groups reveals underlying currents of racism. Therefore, we resolve to make race relations at Penn a top priority." The author of the newsgroup message, College junior Ernest McMeans, told The Daily Pennsylvanian yesterday that the whole incident was a joke that got out of hand. "It was meant to be just a joke between me and my friend," McMeans said. "He's a Mexican guy. We were just playing around." "A lot of people have been writing me harassing e-mails, and I totally deserve it," he added. "No one wants to be thought of this way." McMeans said he wrote an e-mail apology to a Latino friend of his and asked him to forward it to the listserv of his Latin-American group. "I know what it feels like to be on the other end of harassment," he explained. "And I just want to apologize." UA members at Sunday's meeting were also encouraged to attend student minority groups' meetings over the offensive posting.