Privilege & Fraud — Academia Is Still Important!

Academia is still a very important institution — it's a place where we: test ideas; gather & share knowledge; challenge each other; and give people the tools to navigate the complicated world around them. That is why the recent news about admissions fraud is even more disappointing. Those that value academia need not turn their back on it, but should be critical & honest about the ethical failures of these schools.

My parents worked multiple jobs and saved for years so that we could move to a nicer school district. In the end, I wasn't able to attend Wayzata High School because they re-did district borders (because you can't have the poorer part of Plymouth coming to such a pristine school). It all worked out for me because I met some of my best friends and had some of the best teachers at Osseo Senior High School. But this is why my professional career will be about breaking down barriers, giving people more access, and helping people to see privilege.

Donald Trump: A Catch 22

I really wanted to see Donald Trump succeed as president because we all thrive if he does a good job. I remained pretty quiet during the onset of his tenure because even Donald Trump deserves a chance. Also, it’s not like I have any real influence on a large, or even moderate, scale. However – minus Nazis, Klan members, and members of the alt-right – I think we have all seen an immense degradation in morality and ethics in the White House and the political space due to President Trump. This is to say I support and believe we need to strengthen the resistance against this failed experiment. But there is a catch 22 to keep in mind when correcting President Trump’s wrongs – even when we win, we lose.

Politics is often a game of optics. If we let President Trump and his team do what they want and we let them run this vehicle into a burning ditch then we get to point at the wreckage at the end of this and feel validated. Yes, we’ll have to put the fire out and clean the mess up, but at least we get to say, “I told you so.” We’ll have some cleaning up to do to a certain degree regardless – we have a lot of apologizing to do in the international space, marginalized groups domestically, and to the future generations of this country and world. However, if the resistance is successful and we are able to mitigate the damage this administration plans to enact history will be able to claim Trump’s efforts weren’t so bad. History will also be able to claim that the resistance overacted. Even if we win, we lose.

Hitler gets a lot of ink in your high school history book. What doesn’t get a lot of ink are the numerous alternative timelines that did not occur because a good group of people prevented a tyrannical leader from burning the house down. A negative occurrence – present & absent and not benevolent & malevolent – doesn’t get any ink because it’s a non-occurrence. You might prevent the ship from sinking, but you won’t get any credit for it because a floating ship looks like business as usual.

So should we prevent President Trump from enacting horrible ideas? Of course, but I wouldn’t expect a lot of praise for doing that work because most of it will be invisible. This notion will be disappointing to some, but it’s important to keep in mind. Cheers to a better tomorrow.

Millennials Need To Step The F Up

Fellow Millennials,
Like with any failed episode there ought to be a sound exit strategy in place. We are going to have to answer a lot of questions and do a lot of cleaning up after Trump. We better start planning how we are going to mend our relationships with the rest world, with marginalized groups, and how we are going to explain all this to our children. I doubt, "I thought grandma, grandpa, and my cranky neighbor knew what they were doing," is going to satisfy our children when they see the world they have inherited. Let us organize.

Growing Up Really Poor - Wage War Against Poverty

A little over a month ago I applied for the Krusell Fellowship. It's a program that helps people in developing communities with housing and other needs. In a portion of my application statement I shared a bit of my history growing up in South Minneapolis. I never felt poor growing up, but I learned later in life that my family was indeed very poor. My parents immigrated to America with almost nothing, and they could not find much traction here early on due to cultural and language barriers. There was virtually no way we could not have been poor during the early years of our family. Now that I am an adult, I better understand that we lived well under the poverty line, but I did not understand exactly how poor we were until recently.

There were only two occasions I ever felt poor growing up. I remember feeling poor after winter break would finish and all the kids would meet up at school and brag about their Christmas gifts. My friends would have a laundry list of gifts the received, but I hardly ever got more than one gift. The lack of Christmas gifts stopped bothering me when I entered junior high. I had to quickly overcome the envy because we moved to affluent Plymouth when I entered junior high. There was no possible way my parents could get us gifts that matched the gifts of my suburban friends. The only other time I remember feeling poor was when I was around second grade age. A friend of mine had me over for dinner one night. Milk and macaroni and cheese was served that night. That must have been the most, middle-of-no-where-Wisconsin-white-meal I have ever had up to that point. I thought it was delicious. I remember going home and bragging to my parents what was served for dinner at Kevin's house. It must have been a few weeks later that my parents weren't able to even put food on the table at home. I remember being especially hungry that night, and all we could afford was a slice of bread for dinner. I remember vocalizing my disappointment and frustration with my parents. I compared what we were having for dinner to what I had at Kevin's house only a few weeks prior. I know I can claim youthful ignorance, but it breaks my heart to think about how my parents must have felt in that situation as their first born child sat in the middle of the kitchen crying and complaining.

My father, mother, and 2 siblings shortly after we moved to Plymouth

My parents did a wonderful job shielding us from the a lot of the craziness that life throws at families (especially at families in need). They exposed us to the stressors of life in small doses to insure we weren't overburdened with concern while not missing out on important life lessons. I am forever grateful for their masterful balancing act. It is a bit strange researching your own family's history though. I asked my parents about programs we utilized to help us get to the place we are today. One of the greatest things to have come out way was a program my father had access to. It was a program that reimbursed his tuition at a technical college if he worked full time and kept his grades above a B average. It gave my father the economic mobility our family needed to pursue a decent standard of living and more educational opportunities. Our family used that program and food stamps to stay afloat, and I feel a bit of regret now as I feel as though I have not vocalized my defense for welfare enough after learning how food stamps helped my family tremendously. I have a lot of Republican friends (I did, after all, grow up in Plymouth) and I consistently see their anti-welfare posts on social media.

Why should people have access to an education if they can't afford it? Why should people get food stamps when they are just going to abuse the system?

I cannot say I have ever agreed with their sentiments and I do believe a social safety net is important (especially in a nation as wealthy and as "Christian" as ours). I am ashamed that I didn't defend the people who aren't that much different than my family more vehemently. To be negligent of their needs is to fail morally. Henceforth, when I see people bashing social programs that work and that saved families like mine, I will take it as a personal affront. To take these programs away from people in need is to create a vacuum is misery, and certainly you have a little more compassion than that.
Our application statements for the Krusell Fellowship were limited to two-pages. I dedicated a paragraph to my family's history. It took forever to write and it was heartbreaking. Imagine me in my dimly lit room hacking away at my keyboard with vision blurred from the tears running down my face. I have it exponentially good because of my parents, but also because there is a community and system that is willing to lend a hand. I cannot begin to summarize the level of malice some people must have to want to deny people access to these programs of mobility. There are families out there that are treading water and all they need is a little assistance to find solid ground and run inland. I am hoping to soon be in a position to search the sea for these people.

Oh, one last thing. I did not get the fellowship, but life goes on.

Racism Is Alive And Well

This video has been popping up in my feed a lot lately. I've been reading the comments and it's very apparent we approach racism the same way we approach illness. We're very adept at recognizing the symptoms and remedying them, but in our fervor the cause(s) often slithers by out of sight. I wrote an op-ed for a blogging site a few years back where I touched on how racism is much harder to clearly show to others these days. I described it as a "Veiled Racism". Racism in the form of physical and verbal harassment, relatively, aren't as prevalent these days. I believe racism has become more crafty, and it has found a cozy home within systemic racism. Mr. Pisone has failed to keep up with the evolution of racism, and now finds himself in hot water. What I find troublesome is when racism of Mr. Pisone's nature is documented, we can get everyone on board. But when evidence about systemic racism is presented, it is often written off as "Liberal Sympathy". Don't be distracted by how raucous the symptoms of racism are, but focus on the cause.