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(01/30/18 11:00am)
On Jan. 28, the 60th annual Grammy Awards, held in New York City, continued the long and storied tradition of honoring the complete mediocrity that the Recording Academy strives for. Once again, the Grammys chose to elevate bland and predictable pop acts over cutting-edge hip-hop and rap artists. Bruno Mars’ milquetoast pop retread “24 Karat Magic” bested far more worthy contenders like Kendrick Lamar’s “DAMN.” and Childish Gambino’s “Awaken, My Love!” for album of the year, repeating the annual cycle of hip-hop being kept out of the top spot by any means necessary. Once again, the Grammys have marked themselves as the laughingstock of the award season, hopelessly out of touch with anything close to the cultural zeitgeist and seemingly clueless to music’s current form. Disturbingly, the Recording Academy seems to care less about artistic integrity or creativity and more about ensuring a basic standard of whiteness and complacency is maintained in its top honors. If the album of the year winner isn’t an accessible and inoffensive white pop album, it’s an oddball album from white industry veterans the Academy should have honored years ago, like Daft Punk’s “Random Access Memories” or Beck’s “Morning Phase.” The last album of the year that can be charitably described as anything close to a daring pick is Outkast’s 2004 LP “Speakerboxx/The Love Below,” a legitimately forward-thinking album that only won because of the runaway success of its lone traditional stab at pop songwriting, the smash hit single “Hey Ya.” Since then, no hip-hop album has ever won album of the year, despite the wealth of fantastic works in the genre and its meteoric rise as the dominant form of popular music. No matter the pick, the logic behind it is always the same. The Grammys are only capable of looking backward, clinging dearly to musical artifacts and outdated preconceptions. Mars’ “24 Karat Magic” is a hollow replica of classic R&B albums like Stevie Wonder’s “Songs in the Key of Life” and Janet Jackson’s “Control”, containing all their flair but none of their punch or immediacy. Traditionalist pop and rock acts always manage to find their way into the top spot, cultural relevance or critical acclaim be damned. Any remotely daring album put out by a Black artist is to be cast aside by the Grammys, regardless of artistic merit.
(01/30/18 11:00am)
There is a reason that fewer than 10 percent of Americans support Congress, as found in an Aug. 3, 2017 Quinnipiac University poll. They view the institution I visit nearly every day as ineffective, weak and lacking American interests. This summarizes the view by many as of late January, when the spineless Congress chose to vote to fund the deportation of 800,000 young Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals recipients such as myself who, since Sept. 5, have been unable to see their futures beyond six months. This lack of principle is not partisan, which is why GOP members such as Reps. Carlos Curbelo ,R-Fla., and Ileana Ros-Lehtinen ,R-Fla., and Democrats like Sen. Elizabeth Warren ,D-Mass., and Sen. Kamala Harris ,D-Calif., all voted against the ineffective short-term management of congressional funding, better known as “CRs.” Americans also view this institution as ineffective, because since 2001 they have failed to pass any solution for Dreamers, even though more than 80 percent of American constituents urgently want this to be solved, according to a Jan. 20 CBS News article.
(01/30/18 11:00am)
A Jan. 24 Washington Post article reported that the U.S. Census Department is considering adding the question “Are you a citizen?” to the 2020 Census. Supporters claim that this would provide more accurate data about the country's population and demographics, while detractors allege that this is an effort to suppress Hispanic voters and give the Republican Party an unfair advantage. Do you believe the U.S. Census Department should add citizenship to the 2020 census, and if so, what effects do you think such a decision would have?
(01/30/18 11:00am)
Muhammad Xhemali has joined the University’s Multifaith Chaplaincy as the new Muslim chaplain, Director of Religious and Spiritual Life Rabbi Elisabeth Stern and Chief Diversity Officer Mark Brimhall-Vargas wrote in an email to the University community. This board applauds the University on its appointment of Xhemali to the position, which marks a step toward a more inclusive Brandeis.
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According to a Friday email from East Quad Department of Community Living staff, an “incident with a sprinkler head” on the fifth floor of Hassenfeld Hall led to water rushing into up to 72 rooms — the number of rooms on the fourth and fifth floors of Hassenfeld — and two hallways on Thursday evening. According to the same email, University Police are still investigating the cause of the incident and asked students to offer any information that they had on the matter. This board applauds the University’s efforts to quickly defuse the situation but urges it to conduct a thorough investigation into the root cause of the flooding and find a way to prevent similar incidents in the future. It is also imperative that the University remain transparent and communicative throughout this process.
(01/23/18 11:00am)
On the first day of 2018, popular YouTube blogger Logan Paul uploaded a video showing close-up footage of a deceased man in Aokigahara, in Japan. In a Jan. 19 interview with Seventeen Magazine, actor Dylan Minnette revealed that season two of popular Netflix series “13 Reasons Why” will delve deeper into the life of the character whose suicide is the focus of the show. The very next day, Paramount Studios dropped the red band trailer for their TV anthology remake of cult classic film “Heathers,” which features teenagers finding posthumous adoration when their murders are staged as suicides.
(01/23/18 11:00am)
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Facebook will begin implementing user surveys to determine the validity of news sources in the era of “fake news,” according to a Jan. 19 BBC article. Founder Mark Zuckerberg chose this approach because allowing staff to decide what users see is “not something we're comfortable with,” according to the same article. While this is an admirable approach to tackling the issue of false information, it may not be the best method for doing so.
(01/23/18 11:00am)
In a powerful statement read in court on Jan. 18, 22-year-old McKayla Maroney shared the unfortunate story of her time with USA Gymnastics team. According to a Jan. 18 article in the Washington Post, Assistant Attorney General Angela Povilaitis read a statement on Maroney’s behalf, saying, “I had flown all day and night with the team to get to Tokyo. He had given me a sleeping pill for the flight, and the next thing I know I was all alone with him in his hotel room getting a ‘treatment.’ I thought I was going to die that night.”
(01/23/18 11:00am)
Bridging the partisan divide on global warming seems next to impossible at first glance — and understandably so. Global warming clearly ranks low on the U.S. government’s priority list, and the lack of any serious climate-related proposals from a Republican-controlled Congress speaks volumes. It is no secret that the U.S. has alienated the rest of the world by failing to act, and much of this is due to the bizarre politics surrounding climate change.
(01/23/18 11:00am)
Dorm bathrooms — especially in suites, where residents are charged with tidying up — can be less than clean, promoting the spread of unwanted germs. It certainly does not help that in many dorm bathrooms, the toilets do not have lids, and flushing can scatter bacteria across surfaces.
(01/23/18 11:00am)
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As a result of frequent delays and interruptions in BranVan service, this board urges the Escort Safety Service and the University to coordinate an effort to improve lines of communication between riders and the shuttle service operators, including the creation of a notification system that would allow students to be informed of any service changes.
(01/23/18 11:00am)
According to a Jan. 17 NPR article, Walmart plans on offering DisposeRx to all individuals prescribed opioid drugs. The free product, when mixed with warm water and an opioid drug, creates a biodegradable gel that can safely be disposed of. Critics argue that while DisposeRx is useful, it will have little impact on the number of opioid-related deaths. What do you think of Walmart's decision, and do you believe this could help mitigate prescription opioid abuse?
(01/16/18 11:00am)
The health care debate is not a new one for Americans. This perennial thorn in the nation’s political side has been around since the introduction of Medicare and Medicaid during President Lyndon B. Johnson’s administration in the 1960s. While Medicare and Medicaid have done a lot of work in ensuring access to health coverage for many of the most vulnerable Americans, they have not gone far enough toward giving every American access to health insurance.
(01/16/18 11:00am)
Divestment is the act of selling company shares, bonds or investment funds for a political or social reason. An investor may publicly and intentionally divest — rather than sell a stock because it is not performing well — in order to reprimand unethical or morally ambiguous corporations. Divestment movements are not only effective in ending fossil fuel sponsorship, but also for generating awareness for social issues at large. In the past, divestment movements have successfully publicized crises like the apartheid in South Africa, genocide in Sudan and repression in Burma. Removing investments from firms that do business with oppressive or apartheid regimes does not eradicate these regimes. However, it sends a strong message to companies that it is unacceptable to enable governments to infringe on human rights.
