As you report (“Sombreros at Bowdoin ‘tequila party’ ignite controversy on campus and beyond,” March 4), a number of Bowdoin students wore sombreros (“tiny” sombreros according to one report) at a fiesta-themed party. This behavior has been called “racially offensive,” an instance of lack of “cultural inclusiveness,” and has been said to show “casual racial and ethnic stereotyping and cultural insensitivity.” According to the president, Clayton Rose, “our core mission is to have a deep and full intellectual discourse among all students.”

This incident is a good example of problems at other schools related to “trigger warnings” and “safe spaces.” Arthur C. Brooks, president of the American Enterprise Institute, has pointed out that these are cases of “victimhood culture,” in which one’s claim to worthiness is based on how hurt you are by “microaggressions” directed at you. (“Microaggressions,” by their very nature, are difficult for outside observers to detect.)

Students at Bowdoin and elsewhere may now be comfortable in their safe spaces, but the world at large will not be so obliging for long. Somini Sengupta has recently pointed out that there are 422 million residents of India between the ages of 15 and 34, about the same as the combined populations of this country, Canada, and Britain.

When those Indians get fast Internet access (as they are in the process of doing), they will begin competing with our students, who spend much of their time on social media and worry about racial insensitivity. The contest won’t even be close.

William Vaughan, Jr.

Chebeague Island