IOWA STATE DAILY
Wednesday, April 27, 2016
OPINION
5 EDITORIAL
Emily Blobaum/Iowa State Daily
Iowa Board of Regents President Pro Tempore Katie Mulholland looks over notes during a presentation in the Memorial Union Feb. 25.
Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons
Blue Ivy Carter, the child of Jay-Z and Beyonce, has received attention on the internet due to her celebrity heritage. Columnist Beiwel discusses the public fascination with the children of celebrities, including the judgement of celebrity parents’ capability and the way children are treated by media.
Leave the children alone Celebrity children should be awarded more privacy By Maddy.Beiwel @iowastatedaily.com
C
elebrities are people too. They eat, sleep, get married and get divorced. Their lives, while they live them in the spotlight, are not entirely different than our own. They have their own struggles just like us. While I’m not pretending they’re average Joes, they’re certainly not aliens. Like normal people, celebrities have children. In some cases, such as Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie, celebrities have many children, some of whom are adopted. The public generally loves them. When an actress or singer gains a little weight, we flip our lids and wait with baited breath for the announcement that she is pregnant. We get so excited for her and her partner as if they’re our friends. But why? I understand that children are cute and we enjoy the faux familiarity that we feel with celebrities and their families. However, in reality, we don’t know these people and we certainly won’t know their children. Yet
we gawk over the mother and deny her the privacy that we have been denying celebrities for decades. Maybe we like that celebrities do what we do, but maybe we just like to meddle in other people’s affairs. Or maybe we want celebrities to do it wrong, to be bad parents or something, so we know they’re not perfect and we feel less guilty about our imperfections. Or we like to see people we have loved in movies live their lives off screen, in a well intentioned kind of way. After the children are born, though, it can get a little weird. Children are children, no matter how rich their parents are. They get dirty and gross and they cry at inopportune times. No parent can be faulted for getting a little bit (or a lot) wrong, especially at first. A petition involving Blue Ivy Carter, who is the adorable daughter of JayZ and Beyonce, made rounds on the internet in 2014. The petition, “Comb her hair,” claimed that Blue Ivy’s parents weren’t taking proper care of the baby’s hair. “As a woman who understands the importance of hair care, it’s disturbing to watch a child suffering from the lack of hair moisture,” Jasmine Tolliver wrote in the petition. “The parents of Blue Ivy, Sean Carter a.k.a Jay Z and Beyonce have failed at numerous attempts of doing Blue Ivy’s hair. This matter has escalated to the child developing matted dreads
and lint balls. Please let’s get the word out to properly care for Blue Ivy hair.” The petition prompted backlash and reminded me of how strange it is that many of us think that just because celebrities have made themselves more accessible to people, we believe the same accessibility stretches to their offspring. These are children, yet we treat them with the same scrutiny as adults because of who their parents are. We write articles about what they wear and do as if they’re presenting themselves to us as models. We criticize them and pretend that’s not a sick thing to do to a child. While children love attention, and while it might be fun for them to be treated special, growing up like a bug under a microscope doesn’t sound like a pleasant — or healthy — way to live. People make jokes about the pretentious nature and entitled attitude of some celebrity children, but that is a result of the excess interest in their lives. How can we expect them to become well-rounded, down-to-earth people if we follow them around, tell them they’re special and then criticize them when they don’t live up to the standards a world of strangers has set for them? It’s a lose-lose situation that can only be remedied by allowing the young to be young and by not acting like they are little cherubs that can be poked and prodded for the entertainment of the public eye.
LETTER TO THE EDITOR
Response: Let’s clear some things up By Deborah Asaolu Pre-professional health program open-option student In response to LUCHA’s “Check your white privilege” letter, I have to say I understand the cries of indignation that arose from many ISU students as an aftermath of its publication. Where were the sources to support the claims made? Why were all of Iowa State’s Caucasian students categorized as ignorant and hateful victims of this “disease”? These are some of the issues I’ve concluded upon observation that partly explain the backlash of the article. However, labelling the article as “ridiculous” or “trash” is not evidence enough that white privilege is just a figment of the minority’s imagination as I’ve seen countless people brush it off as. I’ve witnessed it being termed as an “excuse” of minorities for their own problems. In fact, more white Americans view themselves as being victims of reverse racism than acknowledge the continuing presence of racism against minorities (Boatright-Horowitz et al. 698), something I believe manifests white privilege in and of itself. You want facts? Here are a few: • “Research has shown that white men experience a performance-reward advantage in the allocation of performance bonuses. Castilla (2008) found white men received higher salary increases and bonuses compared to ethnic minorities (and women) and non-U.S.-born employees with the same performance evaluation scores, in the same job unit, with the same supervisor and the same human capital.” (Nkomo and Ariss) • “In a field experiment, Bertrand and Mullainathan (2004) illustrate participants’ preferences for individuals with
“white” names compared to those with “African-American” names. Those applicants with what was perceived to be “white” names received 50 percent more callbacks for interviews than those with “AfricanAmerican” names. Research indicates whites also have a racial advantage in terms of reemployment after job loss. Moore (2010) reported a large racial disparity in the chances of reemployment among workers with equivalent characteristics and experience.” (Nkomo and Ariss) • Upon the occurrence of a widely-covered tragedy at the hands of a white individual, questions often arise as to the whys of the incident, such as: was the perpetrator mentally ill? Were they bullied? Despite the answers to these questions, the actions of the white perpetrator are rarely ever adhered to the whole white population. This gravely contrasts to the event of a crime committed by a minority in which the perpetrator’s background is scarcely, if at all, investigated. Instead, their actions are associated with the majority of those of the same race, further breeding racial discrimination and stereotyping (Wenger). • Etc. (There are hundreds of additional sources out there that discuss issues like these, making it difficult to understand how anyone could deny that there’s still institutional and systematic prejudice in place). White privilege is a term used by all racial minorities, many of which are born into unfavorable/poverty-stricken circumstances, an obvious pattern that largely stems from the slavery and oppression of the past. I can already hear objections along the lines of “Stop bringing it up!,” “Stop making everything about race!” and the most outrageous, “What happened 200 years ago doesn’t affect you.”
It doesn’t? These dark patches in American history dug a rut for minorities (mostly AfricanAmericans) from which we still have been unable to escape from. So yes, many minorities have to work twice as hard to be successful due to poverty being all they’ve known for generations, something most Caucasians can’t relate to as a majority are born at least middle class. It’s not just about “working hard” as I’ve seen many ignorantly — or maybe it’s just naivety — suggest. It’s about breaking the generational cycle of broken families, bad influences and doing what is deemed necessary to merely survive and/or provide for one’s family, whether that be partaking in criminal activity or dropping out of school.That is white privilege. The term — at least when it’s spoken by most people — is not meant to ‘guilt’ white people, and please get over yourselves if that’s your belief. Some do use it as an excuse for their laziness but there are people who fit this description in all racial groups. For you to sit there as a Caucasian and claim that it isn’t reality baffles me. Who are you to say what people have experienced and whether such prejudices transpire anymore? How would you know? That’s the thing, you wouldn’t for reason that I don’t think needs to be restated. Now, on the other hand, I recognize that it is unfair to place blame and accusation on today’s generation. This was not your doing. Why should you be held responsible for the actions of your ancestors? Yes, there are plenty of poor white people too. No, white people don’t thrive solely because of their race. We are all victims of the same thing here; minorities just happen to always get the crappy end of the
stick as history proves. It doesn’t negate the fact that Caucasians, no matter how poor, still hold the unfair advantage and power in our society by merely being just that, white. “Well we can’t help our skin color any more than you can,” you say. Of course you can’t, We aren’t asking you to slow down for us. We aren’t asking for your sacrifice or pity. However, there are some things you can do. Please don’t dismiss or undermine our struggles, what we have fought for for years — sometimes in the wrong ways — and what we continue to fight for. Instead, stand with us. Why wouldn’t you if there is truly complete equality as so many of you (i.e. white students at ISU as well as nationwide) claim there is? I’m aware that many of you are “tired” of hearing about this issue and our apparent, constant pulling of the “race card.” Then help us eradicate the remaining seeds of racism and injustice. Learn to recognize and act on injustices around you and outside of your own racial bubble. In time, maybe, just maybe, true equality can exist in its full capacity. I leave you with this quote by Michael Wenger that I feel perfectly explains the recent influx of anger and protest by minorities, especially on campuses with a predominately white student body: “The effect of racism is insidious. It’s like a worm coursing through your body. Gradually, it creeps through every cell and pore of your body, eating away at your sense of control over your life. Each incident can make you more wary, more suspicious, more agitated. You can’t believe that white people are so oblivious to the indignities you endure, and it becomes difficult to view them as friends or allies.” Thank you for reading.
Regents’ hands tied, students suffer On the final day of its April meeting, the Iowa Board of Regents unanimously supported tuition increases for the public universities because funding allocated by the state legislature was much lower than requested. ISU faculty representative Rob Wallace pointed toward faculty’s need for pay increases as one of the reasons for needing a tuition increase. For Iowa State specifically, the regents requested an $8.2 million increase from the legislature to avoid tuition hikes and help pay for growing operational costs. However, Gov. Terry Branstad’s budget allocated $8 million total for the three universities in his budget recommendation. The legislature allocated even less — an increase of just over $2 million for Iowa State. Both Northern Iowa and Iowa also received millions less from the legislature than requested by the regents. Students, quite frankly, do not need another tuition increase. Higher education in our country is far too expensive already, especially here in Iowa, where students graduate from the three regent universities with an average of almost $27,000 in student debt, according to data from the Institute for College Access and Success. However, because the legislature and the governor do not seem to support higher education in our state during a time period when schools are growing, the regents’ hands seem to be tied. The board froze tuition for a total of two and a half consecutive academic years beginning in the fall of 2013. With that kind of recent track record, this board is obviously in support of keeping costs low for students. Therefore, it is unfortunate to see that the legislature forced the regents request the increase by its lack of monetary support. And because the regents had no other choice but to request the tuition increase, students and higher education as a whole in our state will suffer. To improve this in future years, this disconnect between the regents and the state legislature needs to be resolved. If our state legislature cannot take advice from our regents — the experts on higher education — about our three public universities, how can we expect the schools to be run in the most efficient way that is best for students? It is sad to see that not only our does our legislature lack value for higher education funding but also seems to have a disregard for the Board of Regents’ requests. Obviously if we want to achieve future tuition freezes, the cooperation between the two bodies needs to improve. As a student newspaper at a state university, tuition prices and student debt is a major concern for our community, perhaps much more so than other types of areas in our state. However, shouldn’t our legislature value well-educated and successful young citizens? An investment in education will only ever be a positive for our state.
Editorial Board
Danielle Ferguson, editor-in-chief Madison Ward, opinion editor Maddy Arnold, managing editor of engagement Michael Heckle, assistant opinion editor
Opinions expressed in columns and letters are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the Daily or organizations with which the author(s) are associated.
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