Water Buffalo?

Case Type:

Exigence:

It is undisputed: Near midnight on January 13, 1993, a group of black women from the Delta Sigma Theta sorority were celebrating their Founder's Day on a main quad at the University of Pennsylvania. The celebration included loud singing. Residents of a nearby dorm yelled out their windows for the women to stop. Some of them used words like "nigger" and "bitch." The University police went to the dorm and asked who shouted. Only freshman Eden Jacobowitz stepped forward; he said that the noise had interfered with his studying and that he had shouted out the window "Shut up you water buffalo--if you want to party go to the zoo." The police then ask if anyone knew the race of the women. Again, only Jacobowitz volunteered; he said that he knew their race, but that had nothing to do with what he said. He just wanted them to stop making noise.

University policy makes "behavior that insults to demeans the person or persons to whom the behavior is directed . . . on the basis of his or her race, color, ethnicity or national origin" punishable by sanctions including expulsion.

The Judicial Inquiry Board brought charges of racial harassment against Jacobowitz.

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