Society's Child

Greek Life retreat cancelled after banana peel found in tree

Anthony Gockowski
Campus Reform
Thu, 31 Aug 2017 08:17 UTC

A Greek Life retreat at the University of Mississippi (Ole Miss) was promptly cancelled this weekend after a banana peel was found hanging in a tree.

"To be clear, many members of our community were hurt, frightened, and upset by what occurred at IMPACT," Interim Director of Fraternity and Sorority Life Alexa Lee Arndt remarked in an email between Greek leaders, according to The Daily Mississippian. "Because of the underlying reality many students of color endure on a daily basis, the conversation manifested into a larger conversation about race relations today at the University of Mississippi."

Apparently, student Ryan Swanson admitted to discarding the banana peel in a tree after he was unable to locate a garbage can, and it was later spotted by Alpha Kappa Alpha President Makala McNeil, who leads one of the campuses historically black sororities.

"The overall tone was heavy. I mean, we were talking about race in Mississippi and in the Greek community so there's a lot involved," McNeil recalled, later adding that she and her friend were "all just sort of paranoid for a second" after spotting the banana.

After word of the banana spread throughout the retreat, leaders decided to end the event early. Arndt explained that she "felt it was imperative to provide space immediately to students affected by this incident."

According to The DM, some students left the retreat in tears, with McNeil noting that they "didn't feel welcome" and "didn't feel safe."

Swanson apologized for the incident, writing in a statement that he wants to "sincerely apologize for the events that took place this past weekend."

"Although unintentional, there is no excuse for the pain that was caused to members of our community," he continued. "I have much to learn and look forward to doing such and encourage all members of our community to do the same."

While it is unclear how the university will proceed to handle the incident, Vice Chancellor for Diversity and Community Engagement Katrina Caldwell noted that she will be speaking with fellow leaders to decide "what makes the most sense."

"Right now, we're just talking to people on campus who have some experience working across diversity to help the students process what happened," she added.

Campus Reform reached out to both Swanson and the university for additional information regarding the incident, and is currently awaiting a response.

Comment: Just when you think you have seen it all, you haven't!

Reader Comments

Garrik0 · 2017-08-31T16:12:37Z

SJW have become a parody of themselves.

RoBoTech · 2017-08-31T17:10:16Z

Ban Bananas. It's the only sensible thing to do.

Lmao

LindaMay ·

RoBoTech

· 2017-09-01T13:10:39Z

Good Optics · 2017-09-01T01:07:03Z

Somebody has to be kidding . . .

No, wait, I get it ! !

In Snowflake Reality, and apparently there is such a place, it's actually April Fools Day.

Trouble is though, they don't get it, they all think it's late August . . . 2017 (just to nail it).

Good Optics · 2017-09-01T01:16:13Z

Good Optics There is however, a lesson in this:

"Don't Belittle Littering" . . . .

might hurt someone's fee -wings.

Note ye well note Ole Miss administrators.

(Did I just call someone a spinster, can't be too careful these days.

Yup, shit, I did and now I got broken egg on my feet, shoulda worn my silk Ninja sneaks for doin' all this walkin' on eggs.)

Rowan Cocoan · 2017-09-01T02:32:01Z

I too wonder(when I started reading this if this was satire, but which is so nonsensical and scattered as to not be funny; and it's really hard to do satire where it's not funny.

Well, I went to the source for and in the above article: "The DM Online" (Daily Mississippian?) and this non event made into scandal seems legitimate.* [Link]
It is there the lead story and states: "Ole Miss Greek life retreat ends abruptly with bias concerns"

Posted on Aug 30 2017 - 8:05am by Slade Rand and Rachel Ishee

Categorized as Featured Area; Featured Slider News 128 Tagged as banana banana peel banana peel in tree frat greek greek life Ole Miss panhellenic sorority tree

University of Mississippi Related Letter to the editor: Makala McNeil

This weekend, leaders from Ole Miss Greek life convened upon Camp Hopewell in Lafayette County for a three-day retreat designed to build leaders and bring campus closer together. The retreat was cut short Saturday night, however, after three black students found a banana peel in a tree in front of one of the camp’s cabins.

The sidebar article leads/links included these.

-Panel explores possible responses to racial violence

-Rebels look to keep momentum on the pitch against High Point and Southern Miss this weekend

So it IS legitimate which is scary/sad enough, and then I SAW: a legitimate rotating advertisement at the top of that link for Tide (legitimacy increase) but THEN the reality struck because the next ad there was for

"Oxford (late night) Urgent Care Center" that advertises "the only person who can make you feel better than us is your mom" (with an image of a guy with a wet napkin on his forehead).

It was legitimate. When I went to college, the last thing I wanted to do was 'go home to mommy.' but that's I guess what sells, sadly, even in the South! A Snowflake Avalanche, again, even in the South!

And they still call themselves "The Ole Miss Rebels!"

Maybe they're too stupid to realize that is a positive reference to both the Antebellum and Wartime South in the U.S. Civil War.

These folks surely couldn't have kept the North from successfully invading for four years, there are no Lees, Stonewall Jacksons, etc. among them. Sad.

R.C.

Aeneas · 2017-09-01T13:02:59Z

The guy who wrote the article says it isn't satire, sadly he says on twitter: [Link]

Aeneas · 2017-09-01T13:03:09Z

We should close America down as one big Safe space and use all the efforts to see how attacks of banana peels can be dealt with. Along with slow going container ships, this is equally a threat to national security for which the Pentagon has no response. Word has it that Secret Service agents have whisked the President and the whole administration into safe bunkers from where a strategy can be developed. There have from anonymous sources been rumours about sanctions againsts a whole host of countries including all banana republics apart from the usual suspects such as Russia, Iran, China, Venezuela, Syria,etc.

News just in: McCain and Lindsey Graham have been seen out the back yard digging a hole to retreat to. Fearful rumours from CNN has it that the Russians are aware of it and are looking at ways to cover the hole once McCain and L. Graham have disappeared into it.

HashAttack2 · 2017-09-02T22:44:54Z

I'm confused ...

Is the offence due to some people making a convoluted link, banana = gorilla = black people (as observed by sub-cretin football racists) ... surely a banana hanging in a tree was a direct reference to US foreign policy on Korea

I'll have to be more careful where I discard my choc ice wrappers