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Campus personalities present and past Rebecca C. Brown and Tommaso Sciortino tackle the issues. This week on a very special CalJunket: Rebecca learns not to chew with her mouth open and Tommaso finds out his best friend is addicted to no-doze. Site feed: caljunket.blogspot.com/atom.xml
AIM Rebecca:
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Wednesday, September 29, 2004
The great thing about Iraq and the reverse domino theory that justifies it (this week) is that it proved conservatives really understand the lessons of Vietnam: military interventionist distractions are difficult in humid weather. Find someplace dry. That is all. (0) comments Free speech is cool and all, but... Thursday, September 23, 2004
Word on the street has it that in the negotiations about the proposed Multicultural Center, some people are suggesting that the center should only be available to groups relating to underrepresented minorities on campus. Not even Chinese or Korean or general Asian groups would be part of this underrepresented distinction. There are so many things wrong with this idea. First, some background. About five years ago many of the etnic studies departments on campus went on strike, and in the negotiations, one of the concessions on behalf of the university was that one day the campus would have a Multicultural Center. The current proposition has the MC Center replacing Heller Lounge, on ASUC property. I admittedly don't know many of the details about the proposed center, but the idea of limiting access is very wrong (and dare I say offensive, if that's your game) for at least two big reasons. First, restricting the center to only underrepresented minorities (everybody but east Asian and non-ethnic student groups, I guess?) implies that the path to equality is paved with exclusion. Second, this proposition implies that non-ethnically underrepresented student groups are not capable of appreciating or supporting multiculturalism. Then of course there are plain old logistial problems with the logic of exclusion. Very saliently, what constitutes "underrepresented"? Is this based on campus representation versus state population? In that case, white people are underrepresented (30% of campus versus about 47% of California population.) Or is this based on a visceral reaction against whites and east Asians? I'd like to learn more about this proposition and the people behind it. More as I find it out. (0) comments Why I love Moby Dick Saturday, September 18, 2004
8:00pm at Blake's on Telegraph! Cheap drinks! Sorry. Not today. Tomorrow. Sunday. Whoopsies. Thanks to Cooper for the tip. Who needs and intern when I have you. (0) comments Remember when The Simpsons was poignant and clever instead of just absurd and loud? Tuesday, September 14, 2004
I'm an Interdisciplinary Studies Field major (ISF) here at Cal, which means I get to more or less make up my own course of study within some perameters. In my field of concentration, I have chosen to analyze mass media, consumerism, visual representation, and the like in what has proven to be a more intellectually stimulating series of classes than I had expected. I have taken courses in American Studies, Visual Studies, ISF, History of Art, Women's Studies, and now Mass Communications. In addition to learning volumes about consumer culture, advertising, and visual communication, this academic path has taught me another very important lesson: The Mass Communications department is for lazy students incapable of conducting critical and/or sub-superficial analyses of social issues! There, I said it. I swear to Baby Jesus, my Mass Comm discussion section is populated by consumer culture apologists who can't comprehend existence outside their own little personal spheres of affluence and complacency. One woman in my class went so far as to claim that, Hey, we're products of overkill 1980s Regean-era regulation-free advertising aimed specifically at unsuspecting children, and we turned out fine. NO! No we didn't! We're not fine! We all buy way more stuff than we need, we all inject identity into ourselves via commodities, we all thoughtlessly produces tons of garbage each year and waste water and waste paper and waste plastic, and only see a product for its consumptive value and not the productive process that preceeded our purchase of the product! Aggghh! I was under the erroneous notioimpression that Mass Comm is for people who are interested in critiquing mass communications; it turns out that it's full of Haas rejects who think this is their second chance at a career in advertising and television. So sad. In short, ISF rocks. People who go into ISF are there because they want to think for themselves. We're the rebels. We dance to our own beat. And we were most likely unpopular in high school. (0) comments Squelch DE-Cal! Sunday, September 12, 2004
Word on the street has it that comedic temptress Sarah Silverman thinks that "A University Guide to Speech Codes" (the nastly little Squelch article accused of disseminating racist discourse) is hilarious. A couple of my Squelchers went to see her at the Punchline on Firday, where both Sarah and Chris Hardwick (yes, of "Singled Out" fame) were performing. Both enjoyed our magazine. Sarah especially enjoyed "Speech Codes." Then again, she isn't renowned for being racially sensitive in public. (0) comments Squelch Bar Mitzvah! Brews and Jews! Monday, September 06, 2004
For whatever reason, Senator Fellarca has decided to withdraw the Squelch condemnation bill, at least for the time being. This disappoints me very much; I was looking forward to the debate. With any luck it will reemerge next week. (0) comments |
DAAP bullying crosses the line.
While Senator Yvette Fellarca's SB18 bill (the one that would have the ASUC officially condemn the Heuristic Squelch and demand an apology from us to a select few ethnic groups on campus) is in and of itself a bullying tactic, her recent attempt at "negotiations" with Senator Ben Narodick have proven too underhanded for me to support on any grounds. In short, Fellarca promised to withdraw SB18 if Narodick promised to sponsor two of her bills, one pertaining to the removal of regent Ward Connerly, the other in support of affirmative action. While tactics like these are perhaps commonplace in grown-up people government, and while Yvette most likely feels she is simply "politicing," this attempt at coercion is distasteful to me.
It indicates to me that SB18 wasn't penned in an attempt to ameliorate campus racism, but was instead written as leverage. That Fellarca was all too willing to withdraw a bill about which she had previously seemed so vehement in exchange for Ben's cooperation shows that she is not interesting in altering students' views of racism on prejudice on campus; instead, she would like to strong-arm students into seeing through her lenses. She doesn't care that Ben might not support her two other bills, nor does she care that any apology she could squeeze out of the Squelch would be insincere.
These tactics are an unfortunate route for Yvette to take. She and I both are women of strong convictions; though I may not always agree with her, I respect the fact that she is willing to fight to have her ideas expressed. We differ, however, in our choice of means of communication. Many of the official statements of DAAP, for example, offend me as a "non-racist white person," but I would never feel it was my right to stifle or condemn these statements; to repeat a popular if not over-used adage, this is America, and we can say what we want.
Though Yvette's attempt at coercion was unsuccessful (my Benjamin has convictions, after all), she has shown that she cares more about pushing a certain agenda than squelching (no pun intended) campus racism. I hope she and every ASUC official learns that, crass though we may be, the Squelch takes its rights very seriously, and we will not "negotiate" those rights away.
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Friday, September 03, 2004
Something I can tell my grandkids.
I found out recently that William Hung lived/lives in the Nash Hotel on University between Shattuck and Milvia. The connection to Rebecca C. Brown? The landlords of the apartment I lived in my sophomore year own and operate said hotel! Old Billy Hung and I paid rent to the same husband/wife team. Small world.
On a side note, I'm fairly convinced that the Nash Hotel is a brothel.
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I found out recently that William Hung lived/lives in the Nash Hotel on University between Shattuck and Milvia. The connection to Rebecca C. Brown? The landlords of the apartment I lived in my sophomore year own and operate said hotel! Old Billy Hung and I paid rent to the same husband/wife team. Small world.
On a side note, I'm fairly convinced that the Nash Hotel is a brothel.
(0) comments