speak the word

I’ve been a fan of spoken word for a few years now. For the uninitiated, this is the definition of a spoken word artist:

A spoken word artist is a person who stands on a stage with nothing but his clothes and speaks musically. You do not have to be a specific race. You do not have to change your accent or dress a certain way. You do not have to talk about the same things other spoken word artists talk about. You only need to have something to say, a musical way of saying it, and your precious guts, to be a spoken word artist.

It is a cross between rap and rhyme, lyric and poetry–elements of all, but belonging to neither. To me, spoken word is powerful because of its simplicity and theatricism. There are elements of hip hop in its socially conscious subject matter, but spoken word can be silly, raunchy, heartfelt, or all of the above. And there is the performance element: without a speaker with charisma and presence to breathe life into the language, spoken word is no different from any verse written on a page.

Def Poetry Jam is definitely one of the premier places for spoken word, and it is where the truly gifted perform. Here are two of my most favorite pieces of all time, by the supremely talented Amir Suleiman and Rafael Casal respectively.

Legacy Admissions = Affirmative Action for White People.

So I’m a little angrier than usual about this. And that’s saying a lot (well, read the title of the blog, folks.)

I’m a student at a private college in the Northeast. I grew up on the West Coast, graduated from public grade school and a public university. Needless to say, the two institutions are like night and day. I go to school now with people who I never had any contact with before: the WASPy, overprivileged, polo-and-kate spade wearing upper class types who don’t really give a shit about other human beings. And one wonders: how did these people make it into med school in the first place? After all, isn’t this a meritocracy? Didn’t we get rid of that affirmative action bullshit a long time ago?

WRONG!

It still exists. We DO have affirmative action! except now….it is reserved exclusively for rich white people!

That’s right: hundreds of universities around the country are helping privileged WASPs everywhere with a little leg up over the competition- by giving them MORE PRIVILEGE!

But wait…isn’t this giving a handout to the these white people? Aren’t they going to feel inferior because they didn’t get into school on their own merit? Aren’t other deserving people being denied seats in exclusive professional and private schools because we’re ::gasp:: giving them an unfair advantage?

These are all arguments used (in breathtakingly hypocritical fashion) by opponents of affirmative action for underrepresented minorities, who apparently don’t give a shit about legacy admissions (which are not only practically the same thing, but worse as it compounds inequality and rewards white privilege?)

I find the whole idea of legacy privileges exceedingly vile. Not only does it expose the glaring hypocrisy of colleges that deny minority affirmative action, which is justified on the basis of remedying past discrmination, while simultaneously supporting and perpetuating pro-white affirmative action.  Case in point: somewhere around 20% of Harvard’s undergrad admits were sons and daughters of  (White) alumni!

What bothers me even more than all of the above is the idea that this racist/discriminatory/white privilege rewarding system is not going anywhere soon. Why, ladies and gents? Well, because millions of dollars are poured into endowments by those alumni parents who would love to buy little Jennifer and Michael their college seat. So to put it straight: our universities are essentially being bribed.

Meritocracy, my a**.