A “Jail ‘N’ Bail” Event put on by a sorority at Northwestern was canceled because a few students complained about it “making light of mass incarceration.”

Jeanne Kuang at The Daily Northwestern reports:

Kappa ‘Jail N’ Bail’ philanthropy event canceled after criticism

Organizers canceled a philanthropy event featuring a mock jail hosted by Kappa Kappa Gamma and Zeta Beta Tau after criticism of the event surfaced online.
Members of both organizations confirmed Sunday night the event will not be held. Kappa apologized to the Northwestern community in a statement Monday.

The page advertised “Jail N’ Bail,” an event where Kappa members planned to “arrest” volunteers who would raise “bail” money to benefit Reading is Fundamental, a children’s literacy nonprofit. A photo promoting the event showed women in the sorority quad posing in orange jumpsuits.

Comments on the philanthropy’s public Facebook page criticized the event for being insensitive to systemic issues surrounding mass incarceration in the United States. Kappa has held the “Jail N’ Bail” in previous years.

“You’re employing aspects, the orange jumpsuits, of an oppressive system that operates as a massive encumbrance to the lives and literacy rates of black and brown children in these ‘underprivileged’ areas,” Weinberg sophomore Alejandro Banuelos wrote in a comment.

“All of them should be ashamed,” SESP junior Maria Marquez wrote in a public Facebook post about the event.