The woman begs on her knees, “Please, Massa! I’s sorry! I promise I won’t do it again!” Massa spins Carol Ann around and pretends to whip her as the other “slaves” shriek dramatically in fear. Carol Ann screams with such pain you’d think she was actually being hit. Her cries are deeply disturbing and make me wonder how the ancestors survived it.

After the whipping, Carol Ann gets up and addresses the shocked crowd of onlookers. “What if your ancestors were treated like this for centuries? Would you think they deserved some kind of penance? At least an apology? The United States government should pay for its evil sins.” She returns to her knees, back in scene, and screams at the top of her lungs, “No more, Massa! No more!”

When the play finishes, all of the actors stand and bow to a totally quiet and unmoving audience, which is definitely not a Hypnotist Jerry illusion. We look at each other with wide, blinking eyes as the entire scene disbands. “Welcome to college,” says someone standing next to me who must know I’m a freshman. “One antic after another for four years straight,” he concludes before walking away in disgust.

The slave play is followed by a Mexican-themed frat party where several white people paint their skin brown, wear sombreros, and drink margaritas. Salsa music rings out as drunk people shout random phrases with offensive mock accents, none of which have anything to do with Mexican culture: “Arrivederci!” “Say hello to my little friend!” “Show me the money, Carlos!”

The college administration suspends the frat for several months, barring it from holding any social gatherings at the risk of being permanently closed. The Dartmouth Beacon, the most conservative newspaper on campus, writes a scathing editorial asking why the Party for Reparations, “whose egregious slave play, which was equally shameful and appalling, didn’t receive the same punishment.” The op-ed was published three days ago. College officials are yet to respond. If and when they do, I will be sure to grab a bag of popcorn to watch the Racism Olympics unfold.

I didn’t expect Dartmouth to be so racially charged, but everywhere I turn, there seems to be another hot-button debate or event bubbling to the surface. Affirmative action, which is being contested around the nation, seems to be the most divisive issue of all. I’ve watched people’s eyes bulge with rage, their tongues spewing impassioned, angry arguments for why “anything other than a merit-based system is cruel and unfair.” I wonder if the people now arguing for blind admissions, absent racial considerations, would have wanted the same thing when the government was enacting Jim Crow laws or when it was giving advantages to only white soldiers returning from war in the GI Bill. Did they argue for a merit-based system then? The hypocrisy of it all.