Opinion

In a shocking display of racism and ugly stereotyping last week, members of the Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity at the University of California, San Diego hosted a party dubbed the “Compton Cookout.”

Editor’s note: The following letter is in response to Zamir Thind’s letter to the editor that ran on Thursday’s opinion page. Miller taught at UC Davis from 1968 to 1971. He has lived in Contra Costa County since 2002.

The following is my reply to Zamir Thind’s response to Uri Fishelson’s letter. While this exchange might be seen as a lot of responding, I believe this is pivotal in having a civil, academic debate.

For somebody like myself, it goes without saying that I’ve been obsessed with Chatroulette ever since I heard about it on the blogo-wiki-interweb-twatter-sphere. I spent the better part of Sunday splayed across my bed – in my underwear, with a full neck beard and my nuked leftover enchiladas from On the Border™ – chatting it up with freshmen across the U.S. who are pent up in bomb shelter rooms they call dorms.

Ah, good ol’ ignorance. Still finding its way into every last niche of today’s society.

On Sept. 24, we began the year by walking out of our classes and workplaces in solidarity. Students, faculty, workers and staff who faced furloughs, layoffs, pay cuts and tuition hikes all left their buildings, classes and jobs to rally and march together against the privatization of education.

And I’m still bitter about it.

I’m a jerk.

“Do something stupid over the next few days so you can blame it on being a teen,” my friend, Slava, jokes days before I turn 20.

The first thing Bob asked me when she walked in the door was, “Am I supposed to be the token Indian bisexual girl?”

The funny thing about mistakes is you should be able to learn from them. You know, to avoid making the same mistakes again. I figure that’s a pretty obvious fortune-cookie lesson in the world today. But then again, there’s Mike Tyson.

Every year, a frickload of Americans stock up on a lot of beer. They drink a lot of it while yelling at their TVs. This is the Super Bowl and they are men, dammit.