The Justice

Media Credit: Sara Brandenburg Gabe Gaskin '09

The Brandeis Orthodox Organization and the Brandeis Black Student Organization arranged a jam session last Tuesday in the Intercultural Center to promote solidarity between the black and Jewish communities on campus. As Jewish Orthodox black rapper Y-love said via a Facebook video that night, the event would "elevate and not tranquilize" the brotherhood, galvanized by the years of persecution suffered by both minority groups.

This was a garden variety ICC event. According to its mission statement, the center is meant to "create a haven of respect, education and celebration that aims to foster growth and awareness of the myriad cultures of Brandeis University." It provides a location for every diversity-preaching, awareness-raising, perspective-welcoming, culturally stimulating group or event that can be conjured up within the scope of any Brandeis student's imagination. What this means is that the ICC is essentially a central nervous system of nontraditional activities that desperately bring together an unlikely assortment of people in an attempt to rattle the minds of all those who have never carried on a full conversation with an individual of a different race. Simply put, the ICC is meant to be the chief foe of ignorance.

The jam session turned out to be a logistical success, with an audience of around 60 feasting on homemade food and good drink. But the only group that jammed that night was a hip-hop band featuring rapper/beat boxer Justin Zullo '09, who, over a variety of sampled beats from the DJ, pummeled the microphone with aggressive rhymes that explained his social views. His delivery was powerful and confident, and his vocal replications of turntable scratching were particularly entertaining and precise to a professional degree. Soon, however, he was joined by trombonist Gabe Gaskin '08, a.k.a. Habeus Corpus, and guitar player Binny Kagedan '08. The two stagnant bookends standing on either side of Zullo accomplished nothing outside of uttering frail, wincing noises that dissipated into the air. Between the trombone's feeble farts and the guitar's annoying bleeps, the musicians left something to be desired.

Their musicianship, however, was not the point of this session and to dwell on it any longer would be an irresponsible and an immature move. No, that night was about the message, the togetherness; a chance for two worlds to come together in peace and in good faith. These ideals are precisely what the featured slide show aimed to bring home. It consisted of black Brandeis students explaining to the camera all the misconceptions they had about Jews before they entered Brandeis. This is no joke, but, unfortunately, it soon became one. "I didn't think Jews smoked cigs," says one student, "but I came to Brandeis and I realized there are mad Jewish cats that smoke cigs … and then some." The laughter from the audience died down only to make room for the next interviewee's comment (referring to Jews): "Most of them are not just like the cats that wear black jackets."

Continued...

Page 1 of 2 next >

Article Tools