{"id":195,"date":"2002-03-21T19:50:18","date_gmt":"2002-03-21T23:50:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nomes.malcolm-x.org\/?p=195"},"modified":"2002-03-21T19:50:18","modified_gmt":"2002-03-21T23:50:18","slug":"195","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nomes.malcolm-x.org\/?p=195","title":{"rendered":""},"content":{"rendered":"

here’s the full story of the morning assembly and what happened after:
\nwe were told there would be an assembly today (thursday) about racism [or at least, that was the implication and virtually everyone thought that — including the teachers]
\nso we go to this assembly, and they’ve invited chioma<\/a> to give the talk (more like paid her $800 — believe it or not)
\nand so we go in the auditorium, and the second thing i noticed (after i noticed the blue screen, :P) was a sign that essentially said: “respect, restraint, responsibility … sponsored by office place<\/b>”
\nnow i have a thing against corporations sponsoring moral principles (i’m anti-capitalism)
\nand this whole game just seemed like a thing to promote chioma and officeplace (there were little officeplace leaflet type things on each seat — EACH seat, will you believe that disgusting display of advertising — so the school pays THEM $800 so THEY can advertise? gimme a break)
\nat any rate, chioma starts talking about her life story (not TOO bad, tho a reading of malcolm x’s life would be MUCH more interesting, i’m sure)
\n[a lot of people felt it was boring]
\nand she continues talking about her life story
\nand now, even i’m thinking, where the jehennum is this going?
\nand over half the audience is thinking, what the hell does this have to do with racism?
\none hour passes, she’s still — incredibly — talking about her life story, and it wasn’t incredible, at this point it’s just boring
\nhalf an hour later, she’s still talking about her life story, but now she finally turns her attention to the students
\nand starts talking about the double cohort (that ontario students have to deal with — present grade 11s and present grade 12s will graduate from high school at the same time)
\nand so she’s taking comments from the audience
\nand i’m twitching in my seat, i can’t take this anymore
\neach person in the audience who makes a comment gets a grab-bag from office place
\neugh, more disgusting marketing
\nand i’m twitching
\nmy friends encouraged me to go on
\nand finally i could take it no longer
\ni went up, and my good friend jackie had just finished asking his question (and had grabbed his loot-bag… heh) and finishing his comment about the double cohort (that got a great response from the audience, too)
\nso i’m behind jackie, and he goes and sits down
\nand chioma gives me the mic
\nand asks my name
\n“my name is no’man, better known as nomes”
\nwhat’s my question?
\n“i actually have two questions:
\ni) what, if anything, does this have to do with racism?
\nii) why is a corporation sponsoring moral principles?”
\nwhoosh
\nhalf of the audience likes the questions
\nthe other half hates it
\nheh, and all the time i barely look at chioma, because i generally lower my gaze, \ud83d\ude1b
\nanyway, chioma starts talking (more like yelling) about how she’s a minority person, and how black university graduates have an 18% unemployment rate, and yet white highschool dropouts have a 17% unemployment rate — and that this is an example of racism (not exaclty, i could’ve refuted that)
\nand then i said “well, you have a valid point — i’m just saying, what does this whole shabang have to do with racism”
\n(that offended a lot of people, heh, a lot thought that was rude)
\nand she then responded, but in the meanwhile some girl came up to me and said “just sit down, you look like an idiot”
\ni didn’t say anything, tho i felt like kicking her face — she was short enough, too (i’ve never seen her before in the school, either — weird)
\nand then chioma starts responding to my second question
\nto sum up her response: office place is one of those rare corporations that actually cares about education, essentially because they sell\/give away calculators (and back-to-school products)
\nbwa ha ha ha
\nsorry, i just found that funny
\nanyway
\ni got my point across, so i went and sat down
\ntho i could’ve grabbed the mic from her and told her off, heh, her attitude wasn’t that great (if they say i’m rude, ask them what her response to me was? polite?)
\nbeh
\nsome of the crowd cheered for me
\nand some of the crowd cheered for her (louder, too ….)
\nanyway, after the show — that’s what it was, the chioma and office place show
\na student came up to me and said “i must give you respect for that” and actually shook my hand
\nheh
\nand a few other students told me they liked what i said, too — a lot of people congratulating me
\nand also a lot of people saying “noaman, you got TOLD!”
\nso then i go to math class
\nand my teacher was talking about the show
\ni said “i still don’t get what it had to do with racism”
\nand she said that’s exactly what the teachers were saying
\nnow it’s lunch time,
\nand even more kids when i was walking in the halls, and during lunch came up and tell me they liked my comments
\nin particular more hand-shaking, heh
\nbut then henry, andrew mcK, and i decide to go and complain to the vice principal about it
\nso we go to the office, and we’re waiting in the office
\nbut it’s taking forever, and andrew had some work to do for the aac (athletic council) and henry was too hungry (his atheist stomach couldn’t take the hunger, as compared to my disciplined muslim stomach, heh) so he went to grab something to eat
\nand i’m waiting in the office for mr. carijuana (i dunno how to spell it, but since it sounds like marijuana starting with a “k” that’s how i’m spelling it — i know it starts with a “c” tho)
\n[and all these people think i’m in trouble]
\nand look who comes out with mr. carijuana (after long waiting)
\nif it ain’t chioma herself
\nthey were carrying some of the equipment, so i offered to help them out with it
\nand they accepted
\nand then chioma said “hey, i know your face from somewhere”
\n“yes, heh, i’m the dissenter”
\n“huh? you’re … naam?”
\n“nomes, the dissenter”
\n“right — but i LOVED your questions”
\nokay, so i have to carry this thing to the staff room, and once again everyone thinks i’m in trouble
\n(the staff room is located precariously close to the cafeteria, outside which many kids sit during lunch)
\nwhile we’re walking
\nchioma tells me “i love your questions, they were different, very brazen, added some fire to the juice”
\ni says “heh, well, we thought that the assembly was going to be about racism, mainly about racism”
\n“what?”
\n“well, we were told it was going to be about racism”
\nshe turns to mr. carijuana (and this is when they’re entering the staff room) and asks him
\nhe says “no, it wasn’t about racism, it was broader than that”
\ni says “no, you said it was gonna be about racism”
\nbut then they went into the staff room — keep-away students!
\nso i go back to the office to get my bag and stuff
\nso it wasn’t chioma’s fault — the administration didn’t tell her that they told us the talk was going to be about racism
\nbeh
\nsecond and concluding part of the story shall come soon<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

here’s the full story of the morning assembly and what happened after: we were told there would be an assembly today (thursday) about racism [or at least, that was the implication and virtually everyone thought that — including the teachers] so we go to this assembly, and they’ve invited chioma to give the talk (more […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-195","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nomes.malcolm-x.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/195","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nomes.malcolm-x.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nomes.malcolm-x.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nomes.malcolm-x.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nomes.malcolm-x.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=195"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nomes.malcolm-x.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/195\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nomes.malcolm-x.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=195"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nomes.malcolm-x.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=195"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nomes.malcolm-x.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=195"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}