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The Southfield Jay / December 2006
‘Happ ‘Happy ‘Happ y holida holidays’ holida s’ is is oneone-
size-fits-mos
size-fits-most size-fits-mos t greeting
greeting
As the song Carol of the
Bells says, “One seems to
hear words of good cheer
from everywhere, filling the air.”
But should those words of good
cheer be “Merry Christmas” or
“Happy Holidays”?
As the holiday season wears on,
the date that is prevalent on the
minds of most is Dec. 25 – Christmas.
The day when billions of little
kids (and some adults) wake up to
see what Santa Claus has left under
the 6-foot evergreen tree for
them, the tree that if it’s left up
much longer, will keel over.
Custom and common courtesy
dictate that if a person says to you
“Merry Christmas” that you say the
same thing in kind to them. But isn’t
that a little presumptuous? To pre-
The Southfield Jay
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Jensen Allen
Rachel Cook
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Justin S. Johnson
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Makia Brooks
Kayla Hurst
Josh Polito
Justin S. Johnson
Tiara Hill
Mia Fleming
Tomeka Kolleh
Sahsha Daniel
Diane Hofsess
Staff writers: Sahsha Daniel, Personna
Hover and Amber Lucy
The Southfield Jay is a member of Quill
& Scroll and the Michigan Interscholastic
Press Association. The Jay is a 2004,
2005 and 2006 George H. Gallup Award
winner and a Spartan Award winner for
2004, 2005 and 2006.
We welcome your letters to the editor.
Letters may be edited for space reasons.
We do not print unsigned letters. Write to
us at The Southfield Jay, c/o Diane
Hofsess, Southfield High School, 24675
Lahser Road, Southfield, Mich., 48033.
Or phone us at (248) 746-8963.
sume that somebody celebrates
Christmas reeks of prejudice
against them.
There are millions of people
who celebrate Hanukkah or
Kwanzaa. They deserve to have
their own holiday, without having
“Merry Christmas” thrust upon
them.
Then there are the atheists who
don’t celebrate Christmas or Hanukkah
or Kwanzaa, for that matter.
Having a merry Christmas is
not an option to them because they
don’t celebrate Christmas.
Just as it is unacceptable to assume
that a person who holds the
door open for you will be celebrating
Christmas, you can’t assume
anything these days. It may seem
like a completely innocent and
Edit Editor Edit or orials or ials & & Opinions
Opinions
friendly gesture to say “Merry
Christmas,” but you never know
who you’re going to offend, and
you never know how the other person
will react to the assumption.
It’s too hard to ask everyone
which holidays they observe. So,
the safest thing to say to people
around the December holidays is
the generic “Happy holidays.” It
works. It’s simple, short, and nonspecific.
And yes, as cold and unfeeling
as it may seem, it’s better in this
case to go for the all-inclusive and
not the specific. Use “happy holidays,”
and unless the person you’re
greeting is a Scrooge, then they
can’t but smile at you and return the
favor.
- Justin S. Johnson
Letter to the editor
Santa, it’s too hard to
represent all the
holidays. Can’t we just
do Christmas?
Passage Passage of of Proposal Proposal 2 2 w wwas
w as a a shame
shame
On the Friday evening before the November
election, I watched a documentary
on the ABC news program, 20/20, entitled,
“Privilege in America: Who’s Shutting You
Out?”
O n e
segment,
“Education
and Privilege,”examined
the
question,
“Are educations
at
elite colleges
for
By Karen Melton
sale?” It
was re-
vealed that there are slots set aside at some
of America’s top colleges for those whose
families have money, influence, and
power—regardless of test scores or grade
point averages. A former president of
Duke University, Keith Brodie, admitted,
“I believe that it is the case that there are a
few slots in every entering class that are
basically for sale.”
Another segment, “Race and Privilege,”
involved a hidden camera experiment
where prospective employers were given
two resumes with the exact same credentials
and work experience—with one exception.
The names were different. One
Happy
Holidays
name appeared to be more ethnic, possibly
that of an African American, while the other
name appeared to be that of a Caucasian person.
Each time the experiment was repeated,
the resume appearing to be that of a Caucasian
was selected the by the employer. It was
the same resume in each case, so undoubtedly
the names had to be the deciding factor.
After viewing this documentary, I was especially
troubled. In just four days, Michigan
voters would be going to the polls to vote
for the future of Affirmative Action, better
known as Proposal Two. Sadly the proposal
passed. Those who were for the proposal feel
that race and gender should not be a deciding
factor as to who gets hired for certain jobs or
admitted to certain colleges. In a perfect
world, I would certainly agree, but as examples
of flawed selection processes such as
the ones presented by 20/20 and the myriad
of others that exist, continue to show preferences
for the privileged or reject qualified applicants
on names alone, we still need
Affirmative Action to balance these wrongs.
The really disturbing part about its passing
is that many people, black and white, do
not understand that Affirmative Action was
never meant for the undeserving or the unqualified.
Students who don’t work hard to
earn good grades and test scores were never
going to benefit even with Affirmative Action
in tact. Those who will be hurt most are the
students who meet the qualifications, but can
easily be pushed down on the list by a oneor
two- point deficit, which can come from
various factors, including the high school
one attends, from what region one comes,
whether the parents were alumni, or as in
the 20/20 story, how much one’s family can
pay for a slot.
There are those who would argue that
more African American students need to
step up, and I would certainly agree, because
those who don’t will seal their own
fates. While some African Americans enjoy
comfortable lifestyles, there are many
more who struggle every day to overcome
obstacles, dysfunction and hardships, yet
despite their struggles, they are smart, motivated
and driven students who still manage
to qualify for slots in good colleges and
universities. Raw scores alone do not tell
the story. They’ve had to deal with and
overcome much more in life while still
maintaining their educational focus. These
are the students who may be shut out because
of less publicized quotas that favor
where people live and how much financial
influence one’s family has. They are the
ones who benefit from Affirmative Action.
The 20/20 documentary just underscored
what African Americans have known all
along. Discriminatory practices in employment
and college acceptances still exist. regardless
of the applicant’s qualifications.
Melton teaches English at Southfield High.