Penn State Republican pics in poor taste

Oh, Penn State! You almost make it too easy to mock you, with your cows and your scandals… Oh, Penn State! You almost make it too easy to mock you, with your cows and your scandals concerning campus political leaders. Almost.

After photographs surfaced from Penn State’s College Republican chairman’s Halloween party – which featured such racially sensitive costumes as a man impersonating the Undergraduate Student Government Vice President Takkeem Morgan by wearing blackface, and another dressed as a Ku Klux Klan member – the Penn State Black Caucus called for his resignation.

Brian Battaglia, said chairman, posted pictures on his Web site – www.botag.net – according to the Dec. 4 Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

Even better than the pictures, though, are the captions, particularly the one concerning the KKKer, which read, “He took a break from cross burning to drink a cold one.” The one under the man in blackface referenced Morgan pleading guilty to criminal mischief charges by saying “Apparently Takeem was released … we thank the local police department.”

Now that seems like the type of thing someone with a future in politics wants to post on their Web site.

He clearly has a future in the Republican Party, especially since Trent Lott stepped down as Senate majority leader for making much more oblique statements. Such comments obviously dispel the notion that the GOP has moved away from its segregationist past and toward the racial kumbaya of the 21st century. Or, you know, not.

What’s more, as the representative and public face of Penn State’s chapter, Battaglia should have known better. He’s a public figure on his campus, and should undergo the scrutiny that all public figures go through, the meticulous examination of their personal lives.

That he did not have the good sense to exclude these pictures, or, at the least, not host such captions, indicates a first-class kind of stupidity – well, because he goes to Penn State, a second-class sort. See, it’s almost too easy.

We at The Pitt News fully support making fun of campus leaders, but donning blackface is all offense and no humor, even if it is a Halloween party and, ostensibly, all fun and games. And captioning pictures such pictures and giving them Web space adds insult to offense.

The Halloween photos were removed yesterday, but Battaglia should be feeling their repercussions for a long time – they may have cost him his future within the GOP.