TO THE EDITOR:

I walked into Vital Vittles Tuesday evening and quickly walked out. Upon entering, I heard the word “whore” repeated over and over again. Hearing “whore” and the N-word over the speakers was all I needed to terminate my shopping experience. I told the clerk how offended I was, and she said it was one of their “new” songs on the playlist. She tried to sympathize but ultimately seemed not to care. I find it overwhelmingly degrading that employees play this language in my campus grocery store, and I did not even finish buying what I wanted. Worst of all, at least 10 people were also shopping in the store, and I was the only one who said something.

After calming down, I recalled the words of Liberia President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf when visiting professor Callisto Madavo warned her about the risk of running for president. She said, “Someone has to do something. Someone has to stand up. I know they might kill me, but I must go. I cannot wait any longer.” I simply ask: When are we going to stand up for decency, acceptance and inclusion? When are we going to end this numbness and say something? When will it no longer be okay to play music calling women the H-word? Who will stand up? And why is it taking so long? Ironically enough, we celebrated the life of Martin Luther King, Jr. this week.

I went back to my room and googled the lyrics to find Ludacris’ “Ho.” The chorus uses the H-word eight times, repeating nine times. The grand total for the song is 104 times. And it employs the N-word four times, adding insult to injury.

I decline to call for bureaucratic censorship to Vittles. My point is that I walked into my campus grocery store and heard the words “nigger” and “whore.” Growing up in Lee County, Fla., my peers and adults called me the former more often than not. And I have been called the latter because of my sexual orientation. So for me to hear these words at Georgetown University disheartens me and concerns me about who attends school with me. How can student leaders on our campus feel fine playing this disgusting music? How can students feel comfortable listening to it? Are we too numb to hear this? Are we too insensitive to understand the pain and viciousness behind these words? And most importantly, how the hell do these people get into Georgetown? This incident concerns the most important members of our community — us. And I refuse to continue to feel neutral about it.

So will I still shop there, you may wonder? Maybe, maybe not. I guess I can go to Wisey’s, but it still fails to compensate for the huge insult I felt in my attempt to buy hummus.

Kory Kantenga (SFS ’10)
Jan. 22, 2008