The College Fix

I’ve never heard of a “Jail ‘N Bail” fundraiser. It’s apparently an event where you “arrest” your friends and then other people “bail” them out to raise money for a cause.

A quick Facebook search shows future and past fundraisers for the Canadian Cancer Society, the United Way, the Alpha Xi Delta chapter at Southern Illinois University-Edwardsville (cause unclear) and the St. Jude children’s hospital in Memphis (by way of the State University of New York-New Paltz).

One place that won’t host a Jail ‘N Bail anymore, though, is Northwestern University.

The Kappa Kappa Gamma sorority, which has held Jail ‘N Bail in previous years, and Zeta Beta Tau fraternity canceled the event to benefit Reading is Fundamental, a “children’s literacy nonprofit,” after some people complained it was “insensitive,” the Daily Northwesterner reported.

Judging by the paper’s attributions, that would be four people:

“You’re employing aspects, the orange jumpsuits, of an oppressive system that operates as a massive encumbrance to the lives and literacy rates of black and brown children in these ‘underprivileged’ areas,” Weinberg sophomore Alejandro Banuelos wrote in a comment.

“All of them should be ashamed,” SESP junior Maria Marquez wrote in a public Facebook post about the event.

In a letter to the editor published Sunday night in The Daily, Weinberg sophomore Ajay Nadig said the event idea was offensive on both racial and socioeconomic grounds. [The letter claims that “racism and classism” are “ubiquitous” at Northwestern and Greek life is an “economic overclass” that is “overwhelmingly white.”]

Austin Romero, Associated Student Government vice president for diversity and inclusion, brought students’ concerns about the event to the organizers’ attention Sunday night.

The comments on the article are just as snarky as you would expect them to be.

In case you can’t read that last one, by Northwestern student Trey Douglas-Grant (a Chinese major!):

Being a minority with family members who have been incarcerated, and someone who has participated in the event in the past, I think those complaining need to find something better to do with their time. This has nothing to do with the politics of mass incarceration and those claiming it does should be ashamed.

I’d like to suggest that what these protesters see as an ignorant parody of the minority experience is actually … a common college experience for all groups.

The act of bailing someone out of jail crosses all races and socioeconomic groups. It’s almost a rite of passage for college students, especially when drinking or one-upsmanship are involved. And it doesn’t spare embarrassed adults.

Fans of the TV show 30 Rock may remember when NBC executive Jack Donaghy ends up in “night court” after his thrill-seeking hookup Claire, played by Jennifer Aniston, steals a cop’s gun, passes it to him and then sics the cops on him. Liz Lemon, Jack’s underling, comes down to bail him out after warning him to avoid her crazy friend Claire.

It sounds like a college experience too, right?

The fact that these Northwestern students think this canceled Greek life event somehow mimicked the underlying patterns in mass incarceration – namely, arrests for low-level drug possession and dealing in minority neighborhoods, leading to disproportionately severe prison terms – suggests to me they don’t actually know aggressive policing firsthand.

And that they have it pretty easy in Evanston.

Greg Piper is an assistant editor at The College Fix. (@GregPiper)