This is an archived blog from when I ran Conscious Public Relations Inc. from 2008-2018. Excuse the potential outdated-ness!
Another ignorant and insulting Frosh week chant from UBC is in the news lately (see CBC story).
I feel affected by this just a little bit more because I am a UBC alumnus. I tried to remember back to my first day at UBC in 2000. I do not remember chanting at all, only that there was a group of us that walked campus together with an Arts flag so that we wouldn’t get lost as we filed into War Memorial to have a giant assembly. It really was a forgettable memory when compared to my overall University experience.
Which is why it baffles me to think that UBC students would go the extra mile to create a chant, have students recite it, and no one in the group would think to stop it before it became widely known that it was happening. I may not have had as strong ethics as I do now when I was 18, but it’s hard to believe that entire groups of people do not know whether a chant feels right or wrong in their bodies. Perhaps it is the case of knowing but not voicing concern out of fear that one may be undermining authority or breaking rules.
Have you ever done something you knew was wrong but were afraid to do otherwise?
