Armchair Dialogues

...Weiss rants about the fact that she didn’t get into any good schools because she’s not a minority and she and her entire generation were 'lied to' because they were always told to 'just be yourself' and you’ll get into school. I’m not sure what the adults in Pittsburgh are smoking, but I’ve never heard of teachers or parents telling kids to 'just be yourself' to get into school. That’s the most horrible advice I’ve ever heard and I don’t believe that’s the refrain Weiss heard all throughout her life. I also didn’t believe that her real name was 'Suzy Lee Weiss' since that sounds about as real as 'Billy Jo Witherspoon,' but it turns out Weiss is real and that’s her name.

I know this with absolute certainty. On my acceptance letter from Harvard, your name had been crossed out and mine had been written above it.

And it’s moved beyond petitions. Y’all are in the Supreme Court now. I’m looking at you, Abigail Fischer, claiming that Affirmative Action and the need to meet federal quotas took your rightful spot at the University of Texas. Never mind the fact that you had an average GPA of 3.59, below average SAT scores of 1180, and weren’t in the top 10 percentile of your class. There’s nothing wrong with any of those numbers I just mentioned– plenty of people with those scores and grades are going to go onto college and very successful futures. They just may not be going to the University of Texas.

The case has also been hypersexualized. The media needs to know, is she a victim or vixen? Saint or slut? Whore or Whore-ible Murderer? We cannot seem to disassociate ourselves from the element of sex.

‘What we’re trying to do is explore what happens when two people have a dialogue,’ Paisley said. ‘The entire album Wheelhouse is meant to touch on some themes that I think aren’t normally touched on in music, and in the context of the album, the song makes a little more sense.’

When I say, 'If you don't judge my gold chains, I'll forget the iron chains,' I’m not lessening the weight and severity. I’m not trying to trivialize slavery, that would be horrifying. I might as well be a serial killer. But what I am saying is that, okay, those things happened, but instead of me walking around being bitter about the past, my thing is this: Don't run up on me about being a crack dealer or pull me over and illegally search me just based on my appearance. Judge me by the content of my character, not the color of my skin. Not my hoodie. Not my do-rag. That's how we find peace.