Blog Man On Campus: I am not my Hair
In the second installment of Blog Man on Campus, our occasional Ivy bloviation spotlight, our correspondent finds yet more worthwhile scrawlings somewhere outside Boston ...
Kameron Collins '09 is a Harvard student, and black, and his blog I am not my Hair deals in part with those issues. But his blog isn't about what it's like to be black and at Harvard -- it's about what it's like to be lots of things. What it's like to be anybody at Harvard. What it's like to miss dating but be scared of it. What it's like to smile when you see a white person get pulled over and wonder if it makes you a bad person.
So, yes, he's just another self-aware, sexually frustrated denizen of Cambridge. So why is his standard this-is-my-life-and-these-are-my-frustrations format so addictive?
Maybe because it's so quotable: "Of course ugly people are bitter. Ugly people at Harvard are, I think, even worse - because not only are they bitter, they're passionate about it." To which the only thing I can think to add is: Seriously!
This is not to say that Harvardhair is all Kameron all the time. The blog is particularly strong where it deals with race, especially since it's so difficult for anybody to talk about it on campus. Kameron avoids abstractions and delves right into uncomfortable particulars. Why, he wonders, does the stereotype of the "average nice white guy" have no hispanic or African counterpart? The closest one he can identify is the Upstanding Black Gentleman, who isn't average at all. Also, you gotta hand it to anyone ballsy enough to post poetry on his blog.
Kameron, may the ladies boys swarm to your blog. And if not that, to your inevitable book deal.
UPDATE 1:55 p.m.: Whoops! A friend of Kameron's emails us to correct that last line.
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December 14th, 2006 at 12:15 pm
Why do I get the feeling that calling this website “HarvardGate” rather than “IvyGate” would be more appropriate? Seriously, branch out a bit more. The other ivies are more exciting as it is.
December 14th, 2006 at 2:47 pm
Umm, yeah, I agree with the above post. and the heteronormativity is none too fresh either. So, what’s happening at Yale?
December 14th, 2006 at 4:13 pm
And what about Princeton? You guys never cover them!
December 14th, 2006 at 4:49 pm
“and the heteronormativity is none too fresh either”
yawn
December 14th, 2006 at 4:59 pm
Maybe it’s because the rest of the world doesn’t give a crap about the other seven Ivy League schools. They care about Harvard.
December 14th, 2006 at 5:38 pm
Most of the “rest of the world” doesn’t read this blog, genius.
December 14th, 2006 at 6:45 pm
Of course they do, Franz. Though the rest of the world may not know specifically who they’re hating, the abstract notion of the Ivy League is a well-established figure for collective envy/disdain in pop culture. That said, IvyGate’s readership is narrowly focused amongst Ivy Leaguers, all of whom generally know their sibling institutions. You guys should shake it up more. You never even covered things like the Columbia j-school scandal, and yet today’s major news is some Harvard dude’s inane ramblings? “Also, you gotta hand it to anyone ballsy enough to post poetry on his blog.” *Makes jerk-off motion with hand* Give me a fucking break! My fourteen year-old cousin routinely posts poetry on her Xanga. I wouldn’t call it ballsy so much as trite and indulgent. Posts like this aren’t just Harvard-centric, they’re downright ignorant to your target demographic. We want snarky gossip and witty coverage of Ivy scandals, not some dude’s glorified livejournal.
December 14th, 2006 at 8:24 pm
….and a story about fucking naked donuts
December 14th, 2006 at 10:24 pm
“Also, you gotta hand it to anyone ballsy enough to post poetry on his blog.”
Does anyone else find this funny? If they knew he was gay beforehand, I wonder if IvyGate would have used a different adjective….
December 15th, 2006 at 2:43 am
Was this written by Lena?
December 15th, 2006 at 3:03 am
this guy’s blog is cocky and self-indulgent.
December 15th, 2006 at 9:41 am
Re Lena: Nope. But she’s the friend in the update.
December 15th, 2006 at 12:02 pm
You guys bitch and moan about how ivygate doesnt cover stuff? Then fucking tell them things that happen!! They rely on students to tell them the best scandals and gossip, it’s the way this blog is set up. If you’re not going to contribute then shut up and go away.
December 15th, 2006 at 2:14 pm
His blog sucks…but at least he’s not on the downlow??
December 15th, 2006 at 3:34 pm
Well, Mike, the Columbia j-school scandal was covered on that batshit insane home school blog that’s currently edging IvyGate out by thousands of votes in the awards. Not to mention it was all over the national print and television media as it involved a famous NYTimes columnist and cheating in his journalistic ethics class. Perhaps IvyGate couldn’t find an angle to tell a joke about that? Because, y’know, it’s not like an ironic story or anything. But anyway, I don’t come here to contribute (Unless you want to give me a job, IvyGate, in which case you guys are awesome! Keep up the good work!), I come here to read about news, gossip, sex, sports, and more at Ivy League schools. Which is kinda-sorta the WHOLE FUCKING POINT of IvyGate and blogs in general, no?
December 15th, 2006 at 4:55 pm
The comments on this post are a pretty good reason to hate Ive Leaguers, especially undergrads. And I say that as a Harvard grad.
December 15th, 2006 at 8:44 pm
i GO TO COLUMBIA and i dont know anything about any scandal, it’s all news to me.
you dont want to contribute tho? what then gives you the high and mighty power of judgment you claim to have? we can put it like this: if you pull your weight, then you can have a voice in what happens. if you don’t then you just have to live on handouts.
December 16th, 2006 at 10:03 pm
Heteronormativity IS a little unfresh, as is the presumption that the homosexual analogy of ‘ladies’ is ‘boys’.
January 29th, 2008 at 6:27 am
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