If Fred and Jim notice another male student wearing a shirt with "15 reasons why beer is better than women" and are offended, what should they do?

Last night, about 40 people gathered in 301 HUB to discuss what they would do if in a similar situation.

During the program, a part of Ebony and Ivory week, some said Fred and Jim should rip the shirt off the student's back while others said they should explain the shirt's offensiveness.

"You have a perfect right to object to what people say," said Terrell Jones, special assistant to the provost for underrepresented groups. "Now they have a right to tell you to jump in a lake. But at least you've made that intervention."

Tim Spain (sophomore-political science) recently confronted a racist comment. While he was talking to a woman, she referred to him as a "nig..."

Rather than storm out of the room, Spain said he confronted her and asked, "What were you about to say?" The woman ran out of the room.

"I felt better," Spain said. "I'm quite sure she felt less than a person."

Showing someone that their comment makes them sound like a bigot may be the toughest part of confronting someone's ignorance, Jones said.

Jennifer Tebera (senior-economics) said she tried to explain to one of her professors that a class joke-off was offensive to women and other minority groups.

Each day when she went to the mostly male real estate class, she was bombarded by sexist and racist jokes.

As a part of a joke-off organized by the professor, students would rattle off jokes that depicted women as promiscuous and spreading sexually transmitted diseases. When she complained to the professor, he explained he had no control over the student's jokes.

Another student, Richard Lim (graduate-electrical engineering) learned that ignoring the situation does not help solve the problem.

While in Boston visiting a friend, Lim was confronted by two men who called him a "chinc." Lim said he was so surprised he stood in awe as the two men walked away.

However, he said he has learned to confront those situations. Now when he hears someone making sexist or racist remarks he confronts them and asks them why they think that way. Lim said that the program confirmed strategies that he would use.