I get it. It’s Mifflin.

I’ve heard about this hallowed party long before I stepped foot on this campus in late August. It’s a party so infamous it even has its own Wikipedia article. But there is something this year that just gets at me. It’s not the obscene amount of drinking; I could go on about that, but that would be way too much of a rant.

Sadly, it’s what a lot of the hullabaloo has been about, the penned name of Mifflin this year: “Cinco de Mifflin.” I, being a typical Caucasian female from a nice suburb out of Milwaukee wasn’t fazed by the name at all. “Cinco de Mifflin,” my first reaction was “Hmm nice play on words,” and I kept on with my day. Yep, I’m the clueless kid from the ‘burbs lacking a “political-correctness” radar. For all who are currently judging me, please hold for just a moment, I’m no longer as clueless as you assume.

I, a gringa, am in a Latina club on campus and am currently the only Caucasian in the whole bunch. In one of our meetings a week or two ago, we started talking about Mifflin and I thought I would hear the same plans I’ve heard in my dorm, “heck yeah I’m going; it’s going to be insane!” I was quite mistaken; it was actually the opposite of that. As I listened to their perspectives, I realized I had been absolutely dense.

They didn’t care about why people were going to Mifflin; some of them were planning on going before they heard the theme. They expressed they were absolutely dumbfounded that at a university of this rank and esteem so many students would be clueless of how truly offensive the name “Cinco de Mifflin” was. The idea that a group of students was associating a central Mexican Holiday – and no, it’s not their independence day; Google it – with a bunch of wasted college students was beyond them.

An aspect that really insulted these women was the t-shirt designs, many of which have a typical sombrero and some even defacing the Mexican flag. To them it was as if we were extending the characteristics of the drunken college students onto the Mexican culture and people as well.

After all that I heard from these women, I was floored. I realized how absolutely clueless I had been and that I hadn’t even questioned the name of Mifflin this year. I had finally figured out that “Cinco de Mifflin” was no longer a play on words, but something that was truly offensive. As most of you now realize, many people aren’t okay with the theme, but why should you care?

You just want to have a good time, right? You don’t mean to be offensive. But sadly it seems I may be the bearer of bad news. This column was not written by another person who feels the world ought to be 100 percent politically correct. But by attending Mifflin, you’ll be stating that you’re okay with the theme, even if you don’t wear the shirt. When you go to that party, you’ll be saying that it’s okay to offend someone else’s holiday, one that is personal to many.

Though many may have not understood how offensive this theme is, your ignorance to the topic is now gone, and there is no excuse for such disrespectful behaviors. Though this topic may seem trivial to most, to put it boldly, if you can’t stand up for the small things, then will you be able to stand up for the large? Will you respect and honor a beautiful culture from which your fellow peers and friends come? It’s up to you. You’re now informed.

So when you wake up and go to Mifflin, just think about it. But I’ll be at Wunk Sheek’s Pow Wow; I heard it’s supposed to be insane.

Anna Stamborski ([email protected]) is a freshman majoring in elementary education and Spanish.