Is Smart the New Gangsta?
My daughter has left the nest and been safely delivered to University. Modern communication technology makes this parting not as difficult as it might have been even 5 years ago. Thanks to smart phones we can Facetime any time we want (make that any time she wants) which means we can have more frequent conversations than my mother and I had when I was away at school. More frequent conversations means I can hear more of the little details of what is happening at school. That’s probably why she shared this story with me. To her it was just a funny little anecdote about her day. To me it was an insight into the thinking at our institutions of higher education.
At the induction ceremony for honors students, they presented with a little video that opened with the statement “Smart is the new gangsta.” I am happy to hear, via my daughter, that this remark earned a groan from the entire student audience. I’m sure the kids that were there who worked hard to get mostly A’s in school and score a 31 or better on their ACT’s were not pleased to be equated with the thugs who refer to themselves as gansta.
Ironically, the urban dictionary defines a gansta as, “A sociopathic member of the inner-city underclass, known primarily for being antisocial and uneducated.” So now being smart is the same as being uneducated??
The video then went on to prove their point, which apparently was that it is now hip to be smart, by citing popular media figures who are smart, whose tv shows have good ratings thus proving that Is Smart the New Gangsta? | Missouri Education Watchdog: