At least one of the 15 or so Clemson University students who attended a recent off-campus party was wearing blackface. It was a "gansta" theme party, with white students imitating dress and culture associated with rap music and the image it has spawned. The party was held during the Martin Luther King weekend, compounding its offensive nature. Students later posted pictures from the party on the Internet.

Once the pictures went public, outraged fellow students, both black and white, immediately condemned the partygoers, saying they had mocked black stereotypes. The uproar resulted in a university-sponsored gathering in which each of the students who had attended the party stood one by one before a crowd of 200 fellow students and apologized.

The meeting was closed to the media, but those who attended said some exchanges were intense and emotional. In the end, students said they thought they had made progress in resolving their differences.

The university also held two forums last week. One was for students who may not have been directly involved, the other for faculty and staff to address underlying race and sensitivity issues.

All in all, we think, the university handled the situation well, turning an unpleasant and potentially volatile dispute into a learning experience. We suspect many students came away with a better understanding of how perpetrating stereotypes can be hurtful.

Clemson, of course, is not the only school to confront such conflicts. White students at Tarleton State University in Texas held a party in which they dressed in gang gear and drank malt liquor from paper bags. A fraternity at Johns Hopkins University invited partygoers to wear "bling bling" grills, or shiny metal caps on their teeth. And similar gansta-themed parties are common on campuses across the country.

In a way, this seems inevitable. Much of the so-called gangsta culture, especially the over-the-top outlaw posturing depicted in some music videos, practically invites derision. It certainly is legitimate to view a form of entertainment that often glorifies violence, misogyny and drug use with a critical eye.

But those aspects are not reflected in the all black culture or all black entertainment or even all rap music. And the danger of gangsta-themed parties is that they reinforce a false racial stereotype and the assumption that this stereotype applies to all African Americans.

But, as Clemson demonstrated, a thoughtful response can go a long way toward counteracting such stereotypes. That's one step forward.

IN SUMMARY

Clemson University's response to racially insensitive party turned it into learning experience.

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