Author: Noah Tesfaye

The second post I ever wrote for this blog was on affirmative action. Back in November, I wrote about my case for why the policies in place have the potential if followed through to increase representation of underrepresented minorities and poor students. I also spoke in particular about some of my fellow Asian friends who may have not gotten into some of top Ivy League-level schools they applied to. I felt and still feel frustrated for them since the majority of them do have nearly every single thing I could think matches the qualifications for the greatest schools in the world. Then, as I was stumbling around the r/Applyingtocollege subreddit, I read the news about the Harvard admissions info that was released.

Before I get into my general thoughts, I was stunned reading through the comments at the lack of knowledge about the benefits of diverse educational environments. Furthermore, I’d suggest reading the article in its entirety before coming to your own conclusions. With all that said, the first thing I did was message a Vietnamese friend in college to get his perspective. I didn’t know how to think about the fact that Asian-American applicants were being rated consistently lower than any other ethnic or racial group for traits like “positive personality,” courage, kindness, and more. He gave me two thoughts from his POV. First, he told me that we are still unclear on the specific ways Harvard measures all these attributes, and more importantly, how ACCURATE these ratings actually are. He told me that if the findings in Harvard’s research was thoroughly conducted, he could see how a strict Asian culture surrounding academics could play a role in these conclusions made by Harvard admissions officers. However, I agree with him 100% that if these conclusions are unfairly placed, being used to keep the Asian population around 20% and reject qualified Asian applicants, that is absolutely wrong.

I am going to be very honest : I’m terrified. I’m probably one of the most passionate advocates for affirmative action, mostly because it actually BENEFITS everyone to be in a diverse educational environment. That is a fact you can find that has been well-documented and researched. What scares me the most is the intentions of completely removing any subjective measures or intangible factors to college admissions is that it will inherently lead to a homogenous student body at all schools, both racially and socioeconomically. If you really, really, really wanted to, you could game the system, taking test prep courses and tutoring if you can afford it. You could go to a better private high school, or live in a better area to go to a better public high school. How can you assume that just on stats ALONE someone is passionate about learning and is challenging themselves out of their own interest? Speaking from my own experience, Ethiopian parents are notorious too for pushing their kids and making them pursue academics above all else, and I can see from experience how that pushes students in the wrong direction.

What I am concerned about is the potential chance that SFFA, Students for Fair Admission, headed by Edward Blum who worked on the the Fisher v. University of Texas case, is mounting a potential reversal of that decision and receiving support from people who may not understand these consequences. Affirmative action is at risk if it does return to the Supreme Court. Again, this is with the assumption that these analytics were conducted fairly and done so accurately without racially-biased intentions. But even if these comments on these applications were unfair, which there is a chance that they indeed are, this does not mean that we should all of a sudden call for the removal of subjective material in applications to top universities. College admissions are subjective by nature. Schools like Harvard and other Ivys know what they want in a certain class that can prepare the most well-rounded group of students possible in the best learning environment for those students. They can’t be 100% objective because in doing so they could never do their job effectively.

I want admissions to be fair and give everyone the chance to go to the schools of their dreams. My friend told me that perhaps the first step in this path towards more fair application odds for Asian students who are well-rounded, if indeed these findings are accurate or not, is to have universities continue to stress there is more to applying to a college than a perfect GPA and SAT scores and all the president roles. I feel for my friends who are Asian who may be pushed harshly by their parents. My parents for so long were the same way too. First generation kids know the pressure is so great because our parents want the best for us and for our families. But anyone, if they are pursuing their passions and dreams for themselves and not for others and are doing so at a high level, should be given an equal shot at applying and getting the chance to be considered fairly in the admissions process.

Again, I cannot stress to you how much of what I think about what is going on is contingent on the fact of whether we know for sure the evaluations of Asian students were justified. But if we are going to give everyone the best chance to have a great education at the greatest schools in the world, the answer is not completely removing subjective parts of the application; the answer is to include more people of diverse backgrounds in the admissions offices to uphold affirmative action fairly for students of all races and socioeconomic backgrounds and ensure applications are read with a students’ personal or cultural circumstances in consideration. An Asian admissions officer will understand the pressures of applying to top schools from their own culture’s standpoint that that a white or Hispanic admissions officer may not. This applies to all demographics. What I fear the most is that we are not only going to hurt poor and/or URM students in this fight to remove subjective applications, but that this battle will hurt ALL students in their academic pursuits, especially represented minorities and white students. Race and socioeconomic status are factors that, if seen as legitimate proof to help make a university’s class stronger, should be allowed for private institutions to have discretion over. Let’s not let SFFA fool everyone into thinking this is merely about students being picked for the wrong race. This is about a university subjectively choosing how they can build the best class for their school. If I or anyone else of any background happens to suffer from being a certain type of student a school may not be looking for at this particular time, then that is just how it will go, and I, along with everyone else, no matter how frustrating it may be, must accept that.

I don’t have to tell you, the reader, how much I love music. I’ve written about music a ton the past couple months, in part because it is something that is so vital to my existence. I play music when I drive, study, or just about do anything. But as of late, I’ve been thinking a lot about one single idea, one which has begun to plague and dilute my experience as a listener. I hate it every time I listen to it, and it fundamentally frustrates me every single time I hope a personal favorite artist thinks they can get away with this. What I am talking about is lazy music.

Lazy music isn’t just a genre, or a specific feeling in a type of music that makes you feel lazy. No. Lazy music is work done by an artist without any substantial effort devoted on their part to create music that is unique or pleasing to their audience. This idea is not something special to any time period either; it’s just that with the advent of social media and catalogues of music at our fingertips that we can better recognize when music is made with effort or when it is not.

I’ll give two recent examples from one of my favorite artists: Kanye West. Both of his recent projects, “Ye” and “KIDS SEE GHOSTS” with Kid Cudi are the epitome of this term “lazy music.” I don’t compare artists to other artists; I compare artists to themselves. These recent projects lack the sophistication, the grand instrumentation, and any lyrical content that at least I could try to understand from Kanye. I am not disappointed in the fact that this album is bad, which in many ways its not. I am disappointed because I would hope an artist with as much talent as Mr. West would actually create music that pushes the boundaries as he has in the past. What makes the music made by him as of late “lazy music” is the fact that Kanye himself recognizes and realizes that his music, no matter the effort he puts in, will be received by his fans as the second coming of MBDTF or “College Dropout” at the drop of the hat.

Maybe the complex of dealing with our favorite artists making music that does not actually demonstrate so-called “effort” or work is with us, the listeners. Maybe we are expressing our fandom as absolute, and as a result, conditioning artists to think that we will take everything they do as holy. This false sense of absolute satisfaction an artist may feel is on us. We stopped putting quality first and instead would put someone’s name and their past work ahead of great music. This system of supporting artists that we put on such a high pedestal can end if we truly wanted to promote and support great music that is created by artists working as hard as they can.

Unfortunately, I don’t think there will be anything that will stop artists from producing lazy music. There will always be fans that will unequivocally follow their favorite bands, rappers, and singers, and in that way, artists can continue to create lazy music. Call it whatever you want, but if we want our favorite artists to make more music that we can enjoy for decades to come, we can do our job in asking them to continue to make music with the passion they want, not to just merely appease fans.

With this year coming to a close, I’ve been thinking a lot about school and the experiences I’ve had. For me personally, the one big thing that stuck out for me personally is how much I’ve grown and changed. Specifically, the people that I’ve spent my time with at school has drastically changed over the years, and that has pretty much been what’s been on my mind all week.

When I got to school, I knew not a single person on campus. It was in that that I began to figure out who was friendly and who was out to get something personally from me. I made friends, I lost friends, and ultimately, I didn’t really know what would happen. But there were people who were always approachable, unique, and eager to discuss topics with one another. They were the people who would have no judgements, would never shy away from wanting to just focus on the relaxed parts of life.

But slowly, I began to see them less and less. I didn’t spend as much time with them. We started to no longer have the same classes. We were on different paths, charted by who knows what and why. But what truly frustrated me now in hindsight is that I didn’t do enough to preserve those relationships. I was never looking to actually ensure I could be a person to be there for these people that were so genuine.

But during school, your peers change and your friends change. That is merely just a part of life itself. I’ve learned to accept that at points there are people that can be beneficial to helping me in different facets of my life for different reasons. In that way, it is what allows me to learn about different kinds of people, to experience new things, and to be able to grow as a person.

Where am I going with all of this self-reflection? Well, I’m currently writing the single most important assignment of my life. I’ve been thinking about this single project for the whole year, and now that it is only a week away before it’s due, I thought it would be nice to just say thanks for reading. This blog, which is still only halfway to its one year anniversary, has helped me revisit and reflect what is going on in my life, which has enabled me to be a better writer, prepared for this moment. So with that, I’m going to go back to writing that, and I’ll see you all back here next week.

There are very few shows I get the chance to truly sit down and watch anymore. Aside from some Shondaland shows, I usually find some Netflix comedy specials to laugh to and that’s pretty much it. However, there has been one show that has truly caught my eye ever since it released its first season. Especially as I get prepared to head to college, season two of Dear White People made me think a lot about the fact that although nowhere near as dramatized, this could be my life in college one day.

Coming from a school that is 1.8% black, any university I will attend will absolutely have more people that look like me. Dear White People works as a show because the premise is simple: black students living on an Ivy League level university and having to explain who they are and what is culturally okay for people to do and not do. They have to deal with subvert and overt racism as they pursue education at the highest level. The show’s name comes from the main character, Sam(Logan Browning), who has a radio show entitled “Dear White People” where she feels the need to explain directly to the majority white population at Winchester University that they need to recognize their privilege and their racist actions. I see some of myself in her at times when I have to clear up statements about Africa or being black, things like “Do you say the N-word?” or “Where is Ethiopia?” It’s not that these questions bother me, because in many ways I truly believe they are something I just have to live with through the rest of my life.

What this show does so well is illustrate the very differences between groups of black students, almost perfectly resembling black student groups across American history. There’s the group that is very cautious and is always looking for ways to appeal to white people while plotting their plans to control the school. There’s a group that calls white people out on their BS, of which Sam is a part of. And there’s even a group of students who are extremely upset at the treatment of people like them on campus and want to take near-violent actions against the white police force who pointed a gun at one of their peers.

All of these groups join together into a powerful ensemble that makes me even more excited to go to college. Their discussions on how to take action against the school, deal with white students in a productive way, and just learn to coexist is a dynamic I have never seen in a show before. And that is something I want one day. That is something I want to be able to live one day. Having disputes with people like you on the state of your own people are conversations that are always some of the most enlightening conversations I have with my friends and family. We talk about Ethiopia and Eritrea, and we can disagree on how things could change or get better. But those discussions are needed in order to find new ways to progress, to become better.

For me, Dear White People is not just a great show. It has almost became kind of a weird dream. I would truly love to one day have the chance to live an experience like this. In many ways though I would say that I kind of live a life like depicted in this show, with far less drama and black people of course. So I would say if you’re looking for a break to watch a show and just have fun, or you’re looking for a show that could at least partially resemble the discussions that some black students deal with at the highest academic levels, watch Dear White People. You won’t be disappointed.

As per usual, I like to write about what I’m discussing at home and with my peers on the blog, and something I had not anticipated discussing so passionately with my mom was on Kanye. I know. It sounds kind of bizarre. As a honest fan of Kanye West’s music, his resurrection in society, with his antics on Twitter, have left me thinking so much about everything in politics, and more importantly, what it means to separate the art from the artist.

To be clear, I am writing this around 1 PM PDT on Saturday, April 28th, 2018, so in case anything else happens when I post this, I’m sorry. I’ve been following his feed all week, from the Trump hat to the Candace Owens tweet. But why? Why the hell am I watching his feed to hear everything he tweets? Well, for pure entertainment value. I think it’s hilarious that this is happening. The second reaction I have to this is that I’m bummed. I really wanted to believe that Kanye may have had different views after coming from the “George Bush doesn’t care about black people” to supporting a presidential candidate who said, “Look at my African American here” truly makes no sense. But the third and final phase of thought I go through when reading everything he’s said the past three weeks is that it just makes sense.

Kanye West has always been an elitist, self-centered, narcissistic person. This is something we all have known for two decades. Every time he says anything is to make himself look better or to get more attention. So when he comes to say comments like this, it just makes sense. Donald Trump in this way is almost exactly like Kanye. Both are eagerly looking for the approval of other people. Some people, mostly black people, are now upset with him because they believe he’s looking and has been looking for white approval his whole career. Tweeting for money from Mark Zuckerberg and asking for money, begging to get involved with high fashion, an industry almost exclusively owned by and purchased by wealthy people, often times white.

But there’s the flip side argument that I lean towards. It’s this idea that he is obsessed with being the best and does not care about anything else except power. He knows the fact that the majority of his fans today are not those young black people that fell in love with College Dropout but the young, wealthy white teenagers who are buying up all his YEEZY apparel and reselling his sneakers for thousands of dollars. Those kids have more influence and will take everything he says as a god’s word.

But I digress. Politically, I have no issue with the fact he leans more towards the right. In fact, I think that what Chance the Rapper said, “Black people don’t have to be democrats,” is something that I think is causing us to kind of really rethink politics. Maybe Kanye, even with this disagreement, can be the uniting force that Donald Trump has been. Maybe this reflection upon our circumstances as black people in this country is what we need. I disagree completely with the idea that we should just all of a sudden pretend that slavery and its children should be ignored. In fact, I think that maybe this reflection can allow us to truly get a better grasp on what is still affecting the black community today and how we could eventually overcome these issues.

Having this dialogue, however, cannot come without substantive and concrete decisions about what we should do in our pursuit of making our voices heard. I don’t know where this Kanye thing will go, but I hope that we can use this as a chance to take initiative and be vocal, ready to share our ideas any time necessary.

So what about Kanye? I’m still going to listen to his music. Will I purchase his music outright? Probably not. Will I continue to stream his music? Probably. Do I agree with almost anything he’s said? Absolutely not, but I ultimately believe that I can separate his beliefs from his discography, which is one of the greatest in music history. I’ll still be following his feed and I hope his album is good. I’ll see you all next week.

I’m going to be completely honest: STEM is something I can appreciate, but it is not for me per say. I can enjoy Calculus and Physics because they are truly interesting concepts and topics for me. I can appreciate C++ and Java. But it does not give me the satisfaction or joy that history or English give me. Reading about the Compromise of 1850 intrigues me far more than limits in math, and that does not mean that I don’t enjoy finding limits, but they’re not the same for me.

I love the different challenge humanities bring as opposed to STEM. For me, it’s fun to read something and the second you get it, that rush of excitement parallels nothing. Or, when I read an article in the news, then go and research what it is about, that sense of search and learning process give me the same excitement that my friends get when they run a program correctly for AP CS. The humanities let me put the world into perspective, engaging with the past and how it can change our present and future.

Silicon Valley is not exactly the best place to be, for obvious reasons, to be a humanities-focused student. I’m always bummed that there are, by comparison, far fewer chances for students like me to pursue our passions. We do not have options and opportunities to pursue the passions of our STEM-focused peers and it is definitely frustrating.

Furthermore, often times, schools may not provide that same opportunity. I wrote an article with my friend for my school paper talking about how we could double up on STEM courses but not humanities courses. You can take two math or two sciences at our school, but not double up on history or english. Our district’s goals for the next five years even includes advancements in achievement for students in STEM. It is not that the schools do not recognize that there are students who love the humanities, but it is the fact that we are in the area we are. Every couple days, I’ll see someone whom I recognize presenting at Apple’s WWDC or Google I/O, or I’ll see Sergey Brin riding one of those elliptical bikes.

So what can we do? I honestly do not know. I’ve worked hard to make the most of my opportunity on staff at my school paper. I’ve appreciated being a part of our Creative Writing Club. I’ve given my all to my humanities courses and writing here. But that is not enough.

Here’s the dream: a student network, whether it be a Facebook group or other medium, where students who love the reading, writing, history, and more, could come together and work together. We could publish our content on one central hub, building relationships with the writers in Silicon Valley, the historians at Stanford and Berkeley, fostering creation amongst each other. We could get feedback on pieces we’re working on, collaborate on research projects, and meet up at coffee shops to share our passion for politics, creative writing, or anything related to the humanities. My thinking behind this is that we, together, can be the center of our passion, and no longer feel as though we’re as isolated in this STEM-driven community, creating our own community of young philosophers, political theorists, and novelists.

Honestly, I do not know how this could work. But, I believe that it could and should exist. I guess the first place to start would be to join this Facebook group HERE. Share this with your friends, classmates, adults, writers, anyone! It does not start with me. It starts with you. If enough people want to join this, we can get that support system of feedback and have people to bounce ideas for pieces on with others. If this flops, that’s fine. But, there is a slight chance that this could work. And I’m willing take this zero consequences chance to create something that could become something. So share, spread the word, and I’ll see you there!

FACEBOOK GROUP