Back in May, there was an incident at the Cincinnati zoo that went viral online. A child fell into the gorilla enclosure, and the gorilla, Harambe, ended up being killed. The gorilla wasn’t doing anything dangerous, but they took him down anyway.
Since the incident, jokes and memes about Harambe have been spread all over the place. The hashtag #Harambe has been trending since.
Students at the University of Massachusetts Amherst were decorating their dorms and hallways with Harambe jokes. Now, they have received emails saying that these Harambe jokes are racist, and the resident advisors (RAs) said that any statements about Harambe are racist.
The emails said:
“We offer a DRP focusing on African-American heritage, and it’s called the ‘Harambe’ floor. ‘Harambe’ is actually a Swahili word, which stands for ‘the point where people pull together.’ It has very positive connotations, but current social media has been misrepresenting it. The floor has been in existence for many years, so any negative remarks regarding ‘Harambe’ will be seen as a direct attack to our campus’s African American community.”
https://twitter.com/JarodSasdi13/status/772878725515997184
Some Twitter users had a field day with that letter:
https://twitter.com/realkingrobbo/status/773243890648297473
https://twitter.com/kat_blaque/status/774186131919282176
Take a shot for me…I took one for you. #Harambe pic.twitter.com/eornXvCljU
— Harambe (@HarambesSpirit) September 1, 2016
Are People Really That Offended Over Harambe?
A spokesman for the University said:
“It was really sort of an educational moment that they were trying to share, that’s all. There was no censorship involved. It was a matter of hey, there is a group that’s been for her for a long time that’s our fellow students, and there can be misunderstandings.”
The RAs thought that it might be offensive because one of the Black clubs on campus is named Harambe. The existence of the Harambe African Heritage Student Community caused the school to overreact and ban the jokes.
How Harambe became the perfect meme https://t.co/x9eTGs0c0P pic.twitter.com/4DwVdflALw
— The Atlantic (@TheAtlantic) September 7, 2016
This is just ridiculous because everyone really loves Harambe. They talk about how Harambe shouldn’t have been killed; how the zoo did not have to kill the gorilla, and the internet seems to have latched on to it.
The zoo is also offended by the Harambe jokes:
https://youtu.be/m6Rpg_KDQvU
Featured image via Twitter.
