University Bans Mexican Restaurant from Giving Its Students Sombreros Because Sombreros Are Racist

A Mexican restaurant was handing out free sombreros to college students at the University of East Anglia in Norwich, England — apparently not realizing that colleges are nuts now and sombreros are one of the 9 million things that are now considered racist on campus.

Pedro’s Tex-Mex Cantina was handing out the hats at the school’s Fresher’s Fair as a fun little form of advertising. Unfortunately for them, however, the promotion backfired bigtime when horrified university officials stepped in and demanded that that the restaurant stop doing something so racist. According to an article in The Telegraph, the officials also took the sombreros away from students who had managed to get their hands on one before the ban.

There’s no word yet on whether or not sombreros are allowed elsewhere on campus or whether or not school officials will conduct room searches to ensure that students are not smuggling the contraband hats onto campus from other sources.

Although this whole thing might (should) seem a little (very) ridiculous to any reasonable person, school officials maintain that the hats amount to “cultural appropriation” and are therefore a violation of the advertising policy sent to all stall-holders of the university fair at which the restaurant was doing the promotion, according to the Telegraph.

“Discriminatory or stereotypical language or imagery aimed towards any group or individual based on characteristics will not be permitted as part of our advertising,” the policy states.

#share#​The Telegraph reports that although many students were upset about the ban, Campaigns and Democracy officer Chris Jarvis insisted that it was for their own good. After all, he said, having sombreros at the student union would just be too big of a threat to students’ emotional safety:

“At the SU we want all members feel safe and accepted, so at all events we try to ensure that there is no behaviour, language or imagery which could be considered racist, sexist, homophobic, transphobic or ableist,” he said.