On the ‘elasticity’ of whiteness
In 1790, Congress passed a naturalization statute limiting citizenship to “free white persons.” After the Civil War, the 13th amendment passed, officially prohibiting involuntary servitude followed by the 14th amendment which formally extended citizenship to all persons born in or naturalized in the U.S. Despite their general language, these amendments were formulated to guarantee the civil rights of people of African descent, not their political rights. To settle any future ambiguity, on July 14, 1870 an Act amending the naturalization laws passed—stating, simply, “That the naturalization laws are hereby extended to aliens of African nativity and to persons of African descent.” From this moment, theoretically, people of African nativity or descent could become naturalized citizens but in practice, in the one and only documented case in which this was attempted the applicant was turned down because he was only one-quarter African.1
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File sharing policies
As many know by now, near the beginning of the school year, Grinnell College decided to block on-campus clients from using the school’s network to trade files with the outside world. In a previous article in this paper, the college explained that this action was in response to a student hosting a well-known game on his computer. This action allowed for others to download and play the game without paying for it. This one instance was enough to force those in charge to re-evaluate the purpose of the network. As a result, the administration decided that the best way to reduce the college’s liability would be to block all access to file-sharing programs and everything else that must rely upon much of the same technology. This action has served to frustrate many users who have come to rely upon the technologies in question. While I will be the first to admit that a vast majority of the traffic was in fact, transfers of copyrighted music and other such digital media, there are other ways of dealing with the problem that would continue to allow for legitimate uses for this technology.
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One day I’ll fly away
1) First, it will be necessary to realize that your flight leaves at such a time that it will be completely impossible for you to catch the shuttle to the airport. In an effort to arrange a ride, call Security, who will transfer you to Student Affairs, who will transfer you to Facilities Management, who will transfer you to a gnome that lives in an ARH heating duct, who will inform you that there are no more cars. Promise him that you will give him your first born child, and he will spin straw into gold for you. Take the gold to Facilities Management, and they will arrange a car. Or you could buy your own car with the gold, except you don’t have a license, so don’t try it. Ten minutes before the car arrives, decide that it is time to pack.
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Resolution
Well, a new year is coming, and that means a chance to start over, a moment to turn over a new leaf, or, more likely, to re-turn over the same leaf that you turned over last year for about two weeks, before you went back to your old leaf, crying like a little baby.
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