I live in the ghetto, and even though many people ask “how can you live there?” I really enjoy living there. This poem is about that experience I love you West Oakland.I love this abandoned little park I am sitting in now with the wrappers tossed and grass overgrown everywhereI love how the activists put…
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I feel like over and over society tells me, “You can go after money and power, or you can try to change the world and serve your society and be a good person.” I have received this cultural message from friends, parents, teachers, coworkers, and the media.
Both the pro-life and pro-choice are idealistic movements fighting for goals that are far too small, and it makes me sad. As idealists, we should be fighting for the highest possible goal.
Harvard has an online tool called Project Implicit which can measure your unconscious prejudices. Malcolm Gladwell, a famous African-American author, took the test and it showed he had “a moderate automatic preference for whites.” His result is not unusual; according to Harvard, 70% of people of all races get this result.
Are men funnier than women? “Of course not!” you say. “That’s sexist!” Well, think about this. What’s the ratio of male to female comedians? In your friend group, how many women do you know who love telling jokes? How many men do you know who love telling jokes and tell them all the time?
One of the most common themes of children’s literature is the idea that your deformity, the quality that isolates you from the group and makes you a subject of mockery, is not a deformity but a blessing in disguise. Rudolph saves Christmas with his red nose. The Ugly Duckling is ugly because he is bursting…
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The most effective pleas to donate money to charity will seem like heart-felt petitions from someone who is a person just like you. Professional fundraisers work very hard to foster that illusion when they write their propaganda materials. The truth is, for all its appearance of being spontaneous & heartfelt, fundraising is a very sophisticated…
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Today a 17-year old came in saying his boss had asked him to do a crossword puzzle. I helped him find a crossword puzzle about football, and asked him what his job was. He said he went down to RIT on Saturdays and worked on “business challenges.” It was nice to meet a kid who…
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Why is the job market so bad? I know the standard explanation. Financial regulations were lax. Bankers gambled with our national assets. I don’t buy it. Oh sure, the regs could have been better. But saying the economy collapsed because of Wall Street is like saying the ten foot stack of plates you balanced on…
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“What is it you’re reading?” asked the lady next to me on the bus stop bench. Her face was pale like a mushroom and unkempt black hair straggled down her back. She was morbidly obese, wearing a gray sweatsuit, and had a walker wedged between her legs. But despite all this, her face was friendly…
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