Love-Hate Mail
A picture is worth a thousand words
Surely I’m not the only one who was surprised by the tone of “The Bitch Ho Problem” (April 5). Evidently, the problem is that young black women are popularly stereotyped as either bitches or ho’s. Despite the cover, which shows a pair of young black breasts, the article turned out to be sympathetic. (Oh, and the photo that introduces the story is of a young black ass.) When the music industry treats women like objects, the Scene interviews authors who deplore it, then uses the same images to move their papers. Nice one.
RACHAEL MURPHY
rachael.anne.m@gmail.com
(Nashville)
Russell rehash
I was touched by the story written by Walter Jowers (“Leon Russell Redux,” March 29). I think it is truly daunting to meet up with your idol, especially unexpectedly like that. I think it is funny that Walter sang the line to Leon hoping for a sung response. I know I would never have had the nerve to do that. I thought Leon’s response was quite clever and pleasant.
That said, I must comment on the letter written by Kim Davis (Love/Hate Mail, April 5). Kim, how would you feel if strangers approached you while you were shopping—or eating, or doing any other personal errand—and asked you to appraise or sell their home free of charge, on the spot, immediately, regardless of what personal things you were trying to do? Would you be pleased? Would you stop what you were doing to accommodate them? Bear in mind that this sort of thing must happen to Leon—and other people in the public eye—frequently. It sounds as though Leon was very polite but chose to continue on in his private endeavor. So, because he chose not to burst into song with your friend, he is therefore a “has-been”? Kinda harsh, don’t you think? It is not his responsibility to entertain us when he is shopping, eating or doing whatever during his time off. Go see him in concert if you want to hear him sing. If you check his website you will see that he tours constantly, so that means he is performing a majority of the year. I felt Walter was pleased with the exchange that he had with Leon. I think it is tiresome when people assume that those who perform for our enjoyment should then be required to do so at our whim because they chose this path in life. I think it might be a good idea if people would put themselves in the other person’s shoes before they criticize their actions. Now, if you will just drop everything and come appraise my house right now, I would be ever so grateful. What’s that you say? Not without being paid? Oh well, you certainly must be a “has-been” then.
MAUREEN JOHNSON
mairin88@yahoo.com (Albany, N.Y.)
School ties
I am an MLK sophomore—a student voice that has thus far been ignored (“Dressed to Shill,” March 15). My day plays out like so: I wake up at maybe 5:30 a.m. and get dressed. If it is a special occasion, it takes me a bit longer to get ready, but seldom longer than seven minutes. Sometimes I eat breakfast, sometimes not. I am usually tired at school, so my focus falters. Sometimes I’m hungry, or I have some sort of pain, or something has happened to me and I keep thinking about that. But I can safely say, having experienced it firsthand, that I have never been distracted at school by my or anyone else’s clothing.
Basketball players wear formal attire on game days, but a lot of them still act up or sleep. Wearing a suit jacket and tie doesn’t change them. If a librarian was told that she had to wear a clown suit to work, she’d still be a librarian. She wouldn’t act like a clown. If a member of the school board wore sagging jeans and a do-rag to work, that wouldn’t mean they would feel or act like a “gangsta.” Chances are, they’d just feel foolish.
I don’t know why they assume that teenagers are going to magically transform into little office workers as soon as they step into a pair of khakis. I’m sorry, but it just doesn’t work that way. They treat people under 30 like an entirely different species that shouldn’t be heard, paid attention to, taken seriously or trusted to make good decisions on their own. I have heard primary sources say that uniforms do nothing to help problems like bullying, teasing, cliques and bad behavior. But still they insist over and over that it does.
There is nothing to back up the notion that uniforms do anything for students. Even if it did, why the whole district? My school (MLK) doesn’t need it—we just need to enforce the old dress code better (same for Hume Fogg, NSA and a number of other schools). If how we dress is so important to learning, then why should we take kids that don’t have their shirts tucked in out of the classroom? It isn’t fair, and it only adds to the problem by deterring our attention away from what we’re supposed to do at school: you know, all that learning and such. If you want to help us focus, give us more options, more funding, stop treating us like criminals and start treating us like students. We need motivation, and for most of us, that’s already far gone by high school. And for Pete’s sake, people, stop lying to us, thinking we’ll stay blissfully unaware of what you’re trying to do. We’re going to find out sooner or later, and we’re going to fight it to the death.
TYLER WHITAKER
tylerw_original@yahoo.com
(Nashville)
Divided we fall
Our Metro Community is angry and divided, and the best interests of our children are not being served (“Dressed to Shill,” March 15). Metro conduct and dress code policies were in place at the beginning of the 2006-2007 school year, and there was no uproar from the community, no daily articles in the printed or live news media. Most students were optimistic about the upcoming challenges presented by moving upward and into their future.
This changed March 15, 2007, with the newly mandated Garcia policies and the impending decision on SSA. Bring harmony and unison back to the community. Re-instate the original 2006-2007 policies and give accountability back to the individual schools. And for next year, begin school with reasonable policies but give principals and teachers the power to enforce perpetrators. Leave the student majority to concentrate on education. Punish only those who violate policies. This would allow parents who wish to send their children to school in polo’s and khakis to do so, yet allow those who wish to teach their children appropriate dress to do follow that course. And if the idea of polos and khakis were to eventually become accepted throughout the student body, it would have been accomplished through leadership by example.
GERALD A. TAYLOR
tucktaylor@comcast.net (Nashville)