(Apologies for the loss of proper formatting in the following two posts)
www.chicagotribune.com/news/columnists/chi-kass-13-nov13,0,2881384.column
chicagotribune.com
Tolerance
fails T-shirt test
Read Friday's follow-up to this John Kass column
John
Kass
November 13, 2008
As the media keeps gushing on about how America has
finally adopted tolerance as the great virtue, and that we're all united now,
let's consider the Brave Catherine Vogt Experiment.Catherine Vogt, 14, is an
Illinois 8th grader, the daughter of a liberal mom and a conservative dad. She
wanted to conduct an experiment in political tolerance and diversity of opinion
at her school in the liberal suburb of Oak Park.She noticed that fellow students
at Gwendolyn Brooks Middle School overwhelmingly supported Barack Obama for
president. His campaign kept preaching "inclusion," and she decided to see how
included she could be.So just before the election, Catherine consulted with her
history teacher, then bravely wore a unique T-shirt to school and recorded the
comments of teachers and students in her journal. The T-shirt bore the simple
yet quite subversive words drawn with a red marker:"McCain Girl.""I was just
really curious how they'd react to something that different, because a lot of
people at my school wore Obama shirts and they are big Obama supporters,"
Catherine told us. "I just really wanted to see what their reaction would
be."Immediately, Catherine learned she was stupid for wearing a shirt with
Republican John McCain's name. Not merely stupid. Very stupid."People were
upset. But they started saying things, calling me very stupid, telling me my
shirt was stupid and I shouldn't be wearing it," Catherine said.Then it got
worse."One person told me to go die. It was a lot of dying. A lot of comments
about how I should be killed," Catherine said, of the tolerance in Oak Park.But
students weren't the only ones surprised that she wore a shirt supporting
McCain."In one class, I had one teacher say she will not judge me for my choice,
but that she was surprised that I supported McCain," Catherine said.If Catherine
was shocked by such passive-aggressive threats from instructors, just wait until
she goes to college."Later, that teacher found out about the experiment and said
she was embarrassed because she knew I was writing down what she said,"
Catherine said.One student suggested that she be put up on a cross for her
political beliefs."He said, 'You should be crucifixed.' It was kind of funny
because, I was like, don't you mean 'crucified?' " Catherine said.Other entries
in her notebook involved suggestions by classmates that she be "burned with her
shirt on" for "being a filthy-rich Republican."Some said that because she
supported McCain, by extension she supported a plan by deranged skinheads to
kill Obama before the election. And I thought such politicized logic was
confined to American newsrooms. Yet Catherine refused to argue with her peers.
She didn't want to jeopardize her experiment."I couldn't show people really what
it was for. I really kind of wanted to laugh because they had no idea what I was
doing," she said.Only a few times did anyone say anything remotely positive
about her McCain shirt. One girl pulled her aside in a corner, out of earshot of
other students, and whispered, "I really like your shirt."That's when you know
America is truly supportive of diversity of opinion, when children must whisper
for fear of being ostracized, heckled and crucifixed.The next day, in part 2 of
The Brave Catherine Vogt Experiment, she wore another T-shirt, this one with
"Obama Girl" written in blue. And an amazing thing happened.Catherine wasn't
very stupid anymore. She grew brains."People liked my shirt. They said things
like my brain had come back, and I had put the right shirt on today," Catherine
said.Some students accused her of playing both sides."A lot of people liked it.
But some people told me I was a flip-flopper," she said. "They said, 'You can't
make up your mind. You can't wear a McCain shirt one day and an Obama shirt the
next day.' "But she sure did, and she turned her journal into a report for her
history teacher, earning Catherine extra credit. We asked the teacher, Norma
Cassin-Pountney, whether it was ironic that Catherine would be subject to such
intolerance from pro-Obama supporters in a community that prides itself on its
liberal outlook."That's what we discussed," Cassin-Pountney said about the
debate in the classroom when the experiment was revealed. "I said, here you are,
promoting this person [Obama] that believes we are all equal and included, and
look what you've done? The students were kind of like, 'Oh, yeah.' I think they
got it."Catherine never told us which candidate she would have voted for if she
weren't an 8th grader. But she said she learned what it was like to be in the
minority."Just being on the outside, how it felt, it was not fun at all," she
said.Don't ever feel as if you must conform, Catherine. Being on the outside
isn't so bad. Trust me.
And part 2:
www.chicagotribune.com/news/columnists/chi-kass-14-nov14,0,3405674.column
chicagotribune.com
Girl's
lesson: Bias, like shirts, picked out at home
Read yesterday's John Kass column on Catherine Vogt's t-shirt
experiment
John Kass
November 14, 2008
Catherine Vogt—the brave 8th
grader who used a T-shirt test to find out about political tolerance in
Obamaland—is something of a celebrity now, thanks to you readers of this
column.By the time you read this, she will have already finished a round of TV
and radio interviews, including a PBS spot for a Philadelphia station. It's all
somewhat unsettling for a 14-year-old girl who had important high school
entrance exams Thursday and a tryout for "The Music Man" at Gwendolyn Brooks
Middle School in Oak Park."Well, a lot of people came up to me and told me that
they saw me in the paper, and my teacher told me that a lot of people were
telling her 'Way to go, way to support your student' and everything," Catherine
told me Thursday. "It's been very exciting and hectic too."The Catherine Vogt
Experiment on Diversity of Thought took place before the presidential election.
She shared her idea secretly with her history teacher, Norma
Cassin-Pountney.Catherine wore a McCain shirt one day and secretly recorded the
comments of teachers and students in her journal. The next day, she wore an
Obama shirt and also recorded the comments.Her findings?When she wore the McCain
shirt, she was stupid and was told to go die. One kid said she should be
"crucifixed," which should prompt outrage from that student's grammar/lit
teacher. Crucifixed?One student whispered—perhaps like Winston Smith in
"1984"—"I really like your shirt." But she said it quietly so no one else would
hear and denounce her.And when Catherine wore the Obama shirt? Her brains grew
back and she was smart again and welcomed into polite society.Since many liberal
journalists live in Oak Park, I expect to receive many snarky reviews. My crime?
I dared to illustrate, through the actions of a brave 8th-grade girl, that even
high-minded liberal communities can be intolerant, no matter how many times
parents gush on about "diversity" at their cocktail parties.So much for the
audacity of hope.But it's also true that if Catherine lived in a beet-red
community and wore an Obama shirt, she'd get a similar negative, intolerant and
ugly reaction. And certainly some Republican children would outrage their
grammar/lit teachers by wanting her crucifixed as well.All such outrage is
predictable. Whether red or blue or right or left, many adults don't get it. But
Catherine Vogt sure gets it: Children learn their politics from their parents.A
kid doesn't learn to love Democrats or hate Republicans or vice versa by reading
editorials. You can't blame this one on bloggers or "Grand Theft Auto." You
can't even blame Fitty Cent or however he incorrectly spells his own stage
name.Many parents in Oak Park and elsewhere want their kids to figure out things
for themselves. Others only want a mirror for their own tribalism. Parents,
Catherine told me, "are actually a pretty big influence on kids. They take a lot
of what's home to school."At school Thursday in Ms. Cassin-Pountney's class,
they discussed Catherine's experiment and my column."The students were mostly
shocked because when they read it they kind of figured it out. They were like,
'Oh, I actually said that thing to her and now—I'm not mentioned—but I'm
actually in the paper for saying something mean?' "She said her classmates tried
to determine whether she cracked and gave up their names to me, but because
she's not a Chicago machine politician under federal indictment, she didn't have
to name names."They were all like, 'So who did you mention and what did you
say?' But I didn't give out any names," she said.There were some rough patches
on Thursday. The phone rang off the hook at home. She had her big tests and that
tryout. And her parents—liberal Democratic mom and conservative Republican
dad—had to run down to school to stave off an impromptu imposition of the
Fairness Doctrine."Some parents were upset that one teacher remarked about her
shirt. And other parents were upset that the experiment was conducted in the
first place, and didn't go through 'proper channels,' " said Catherine's mom,
Pamela Webster."So we rushed down to school to say we were backing the principal
and all the teachers and not to make a big thing of it," she said. "It was just
crazy. There was no crime committed here."Not even a thought crime?"No," she
said. "We support the principal and the school. Let this be a way for students
and teachers to discuss the issue. That's what we want in our home, not
indoctrination but discussion."Catherine still won't say whether she's a
Democrat or a Republican."I still have four years to pick a guy or a woman," she
said of the presidential election in 2012, which will be her first. "I've still
got four more years. Then I can decide."Catherine says she doesn't want to
become a lawyer, but perhaps a surgeon. Either way, this week, she was a great
teacher.Thank you, Catherine.
Could things be so fucked up the liberals are really the angry hate filled ones and conservatives really just want to be left alone? Nahhhhhhh!
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