Amid controversy over internet jokes and freedom of speech at University of Massachusetts, the fallen gorilla Harambe appears not to be a major topic of concern at the area’s private colleges.
Harambe was killed in May after a toddler got into its enclosure at the Cincinnati Zoo. The internet outrage that resulted included the popular phrase referring to male anatomy: “D—s out for Harambe.”
What began as genuine outrage over the loss of a member of an endangered species quickly became the source for tongue-in-cheek messages about mourning and advocating vengeance.
Most of the 22 students interviewed Wednesday at the private colleges said they were aware that Harambe had been killed and understood the controversy surrounding his death, but were only vaguely familiar with the images depicting Harambe as an angel at the gates of heaven or with Michael Jordan’s weeping face superimposed over the slain gorilla’s.
“I know about the meme,” said Emma Rybek, a first-year student at Smith College. “But the context never made sense to me.”
Fewer still were able to explain why, three months after the incident, jokes were still being made.
“The reason why it’s so big is that this is an unexplored field of humor,” explained Eli Schultz, a junior at Amherst. “It’s not acceptable to make fun of people dying.”
In lieu of being able to make tasteful jokes about human mortality, Harambe’s death gave social media users a sort of catharsis, and according to Schultz, “weird guys on the internet” are the ones still hanging on to the joke.
Resident assistants for Sycamore Hall at UMass sent an email during the weekend advising that jokes about Harambe’s death have racist undertones, and cautioned that Harambee, a community living option for African-American students in the college’s Coolidge Tower, has virtually the same name as the gorilla. “Harambe” is a Swahili word meaning “pulling together.”
Because some messages about Harambe have a sexual connotation, the resident assistants wrote that similar sexual sentiments could be seen as sexual offenses against the university’s African-American community and reported as a violation of federal law protecting against discrimination.
Some then took to social media claiming that UMass had forbidden students to participate in the cultural phenomenon. That prompted UMass officials to issue a statement Wednesday denying that was the case.
Med Diagne, a third-year student at Hampshire College, argued that the RAs’ email barely began to address hate speech at UMass, citing comments frequently posted on the anonymous social media app, Yik Yak.
“There are plenty of derogatory posts on the UMass Yik Yak,” said Diagne. “It’s kind of ironic that this is such a big deal.”
Lexie Salomone, a first-year student at Mount Holyoke College, said she was familiar with the Harambe meme and its potential to offend, but questioned whether or not the resident assistants who wrote the letter had talked to the students living on the Harambee floor at UMass.
“If (those students) feel like they’re uncomfortable with people making jokes,” Salomone said, “other people should respect that.”