Who really IS to blame?

People ask me all the time if I want to go into politics when I'm older because I am now in the student government. The truth is, I really don't. The way I regard American politics is pretty negative. It's a dog eat dog world, and that's not something I want to be a part of.

But just to cross-examine my claim that politics are nasty I did some research and came upon an article by Jonah Goldberg from The Baltimore Sun called 'Who's to blame for America's nasty politics? Tom Brokaw.' In this article, the author blames a news anchor for the "terrible tone in American politics."

This changed my mind a bit. I realized that while politics itself might be a bit unfair, it's really the media that plays on the small indiscretions that come about during an election. America is a prime example of a Social Darwinism society where the politicians with the fewest amount of flaws excel and the ones with more than a few flaws fail. For noticing these flaws, we can thank the media. It is up to news anchors like Tom Brokaw to take a normal flaw and blow it up. Once he has blown it up, it is available to other news stations and other news castors to take it and run.

To be fair, the media is sometimes used as a medium through which political candidates send videos and pictures that demean their opponents. In this case, the actual politics are nasty. The media, however, is just as much at fault for showing these compromising videos and pictures.

So while I do partially agree with Goldberg, I also think that politics are to blame as well.
What do you think?  

Battle of the Genres

Foster the People: #1 on Alternative Top 10

This past week, my grandma from Nashville came up to celebrate Thanksgiving. One of her favorite things to do while she's in Chicago is indulge in our famous deep dish. On our way to pick up our order, I plugged my iPod into the car and immediately some quality Young the Giant emanated from the speakers. "What's the go music nowadays?" she asks innocently. Little does she know that the answer is not so simple.

LMFAO: #1 on iTunes Top 10

For ages there have been two major types of music genres: mainstream- the norm music of society- and alternative/indie- the norm music of college life. (For a comical look on mainstream and alternative music, click here.) But at the moment, I know as many alternative/indie listeners as I do mainstream. Hence the confusing answer to my grandmother's question.

Even more baffling is the thought that alternative music has now become a mainstream. The reason alternative music was dubbed "alternative" is because it was something other than what everyone else listened to. When you went to college you automatically got a more "refined" taste of music and preferred lyrics with a meaning rather than lyrics about drugs, sex, and alcohol. So how did high school kids start listening to Foster the People and Young the Giant?

Clash of the Races

The best part of our American Studies excursion this past Wednesday was going to the Steppenwolf Theater to watch Clybourne Park, a two-hour play about difference in societies; namely the difference between black and white societies. The first act shows the controversy that is sparked when a black family buys a house in a white neighborhood and the second act is about the controversy that is sparked 50 years later when a white family buys a house in the same neighborhood, which is now prominently black.

This play reminded me of my favorite books: the Noughts & Crosses trilogy by Malorie Blackman. In these books that take place in England, society's minority role is played by whites (noughts) and the majority role is played by blacks (crosses). Blackman portrays the ever-present racial discrimination and hardships through the story of a male nought and a female cross who are in love but are forced apart because of their background. You should really check them out.


In the back of the playbill for Clybourne Park, Rebecca Rugg notes that when the play was taken to London's West End, it won the Oliver for Best New Play. This makes me draw a parallel between England and America. Racial discrimination is not just in our society. Racial discrimination is everywhere. In a British article I found, I learned that while blacks make up only 2.2% of England's population, they also make up 14% of criminal court cases. A review on Black America that I read said that blacks make up 13% of our country's population and 50% of our prison population.

My question to you is how did it get like this? How can these statistics be true? America prides itself in being a tolerant nation while at the same time being racist against people who aren't white. Is this behavior something we learned from our motherland- England? If you look at the statistics I stated, the numbers are pretty proportional. We fought so hard separate ourselves from the Brits, but the way I see it in this respect, we're just like them.