“Real World” Politics with Jose Tapia

Originally Published October 17, 2007

Many fans of MTV may recognize Jose’ Tapia, who visited the Cafeteria on September 4 as part of the Rock the Vote tour. For those unfamiliar with Current MTV programming, Tapia was part of the cast of the Networks longest running programs “The Real World”. After the show finished production in October of 2006, Tapia used his sudden notoriety among youth to talk to students on College campuses about voting education. Thanks to Activities staff Jeff Lee and Nicole Chilipkl, the Catonsville Campus was given the chance to speak with Tapia to discuss current issues involving themselves, their communities and the world beyond. To many who are unfamiliar with MTV’s current programming, Tapia was indistinguishable from any other student present in the Cafeteria that day. Equipped with PowerPoint, microphone, and voting recruiters Tapia attracted a few students and staff that chose to sit and listen. Excluding Tapia, and staff members Jeff, and Nicole, the table included roughly 7 to 8 people, while the rest of the cafeteria carried the usual 40 or more inattentive students and staff. If anything, those at the table and those elsewhere represented where the youth of CCBC, if not central Maryland, stand politically, socially, and consciously. Realizing that his audience would expand no further beyond the one table, Tapia turned off the microphone and joined this table for a more intimae discussion, as well as related stories from his tour. 


On the subject of immigrants, Tapia shared the account of an Apple farmer in the Midwest. This farmer did not want to hire illegal immigrants to pick work on his farm so he hired America citizens. However, the American citizens refused to work field labor for the $10 to $12 he originally proposed. In closing, this Apple farmer had to raise the fees for his crops to afford the salaries to pay his employees, resulting in $5 apples. Many at the table agreed the issue with Immigration rose from American’s pride.  From this, participants shared other details, from the government proposal to have Mexicans work and pay taxes in the US before returning home to Giuliani’s plan for inserting tracking chips in Mexican immigrant’s heads. Although the concerns appeared silly on the surface, Cody, one of the more vocal participants in the group, presented a very philosophical viewpoint of the world, for he explained the long term intentions that many countries had for the US and that the problems occurring in the world are part of human nature and will recur in different incarnations. Cody explained things many within the baby boom and silent generations fail to realize themselves, proving that age alone cannot guarantee maturity. 


Another issue brought to the table was the outmoded institution of Social security. Tapia started the discussion with another story, this time about a student from a previously visited school whose father paid into the SSI for 25 years. When the father became injured on the job, he could not use his SSI as he “was not of age.”  This was one of many problems concerning Social security, for a program meant to support depression-era farmers was never intended to supply retired middle class workers in the 21^st century. As to how the decline of SSI will affect Generation Y in middle age and if there are new concepts to replace it were up for debate. Tapia then closed the discussion with what he called his “Check Story”. According to this anecdote, Tapia knew a professor whom the majority of his class had voted for Bush in the 2004 election. When asked by this professor to explain their decision, the students mentioned Bush’s tax cut, adding that they received a $300 check in the mail afterwards. This story presents a concern: many young voters do not vote with their best interests in mind.


 At this point Cody had departed leaving Michael to take over as the vocal element of the group. Michael started off with an oft-overlooked point: Even among the young demographic there are voters who lack the access to voting or voting education due to other priorities, such as work or dependant children. Tapia offered what he could on the issue of voting education: “There are so many avenues you can go to, such as absentee ballots. You can send your ballot in before election. You can do a lot of different things.” Michael rebutted with a common point about voting locally: “New voters don’t know too much about voting as to what we *can* do. So there are millions of people lining up who don’t know how to vote.” However what both young men agreed on is what is basic or common knowledge to the CNN or Fox News aficionado is more difficult to obtain for those voters who need it most.  Tapia responded by suggesting. “I do think some more education should be put out there, but don’t use “I’m too busy” or “I have other things to do” as a cop-out if you want to go out there and vote.” If voting access is one thing, but voter apathy is another. 


After the discussion, Tapia took a detour from the topics to answer questions about his life plans. A student at Florida State University before joining the cast, Tapia recently moved to Los Angeles, with hopes to finish his final year at UCLA or USC. Majoring in Real Estate and finance, Tapia also owns an investment company, several properties in Florida and plans to enter the field of Development properties. As soon as talks about his life began however, Tapia quickly redirected back to voting education and voter’s responsibilities, further showing the reality star’s ability to focus on priorities. Although Tapia says that the presence of minorities on the presidential ticket (such as Obama and Clinton) represents a sign of Change, Participant Michael reminded the group that these were still politicians and just because the color or gender of government have changed does not mean the politics will. In addition, another participant, Jaleesa, expressed a common issue with young voters: clashing with an opinionated parent over political views. Many other young voters are still finding themselves tethered back and forth between parents, media cliques, and self-interest groups when it comes to making a decision. Michael raised the question as to if Politicians and celebrities take advantage of this limbo. According to Tapia, P. Diddy’s “Vote or Die” campaign among others was responsible for the youth voting turnout among young voters in the 2004 election. 


This year some candidates, most notably Barack Obama and opponent Hillary Clinton, have opened MySpace pages to attract the youth vote. Already understood by most of the participants, today’s politicians are beyond the financial, social, and personal concerns other Americans must deal with and cannot help most citizens with these issues. If one common theme recurred throughout the discussion it was that we could no longer depend on the government in matters our parents and older siblings had.  In other words, Citizens must produce individual, independent plans for our stability as individuals, communities and a nation. If that reality is to materialize, it has to start with someone.

For Voting Information:

http://www.rockthevote.com
http://www.cnn.com

You can visit José Tapia at: 

http://www.myspace.com/Rikansalja

“Decisions, Decisions: Rick and Anh’s Story”

Originally published in CCBC's Red & Black Newspaper on February 8, 2007

    During the Fall semester of 2006, I attended an interview held by the Head of Multicultural Department Gayona Beckford, Natalie Kimbrough (E-203), and Heather Woodland in the K building. The featured guests were Rick, a veteran of the Vietnam War, and Anh, a former Refugee from Saigon, South Vietnam.
     First up was Rick, a veteran of the war.  A native of Memphis, Tennessee, he was stationed around 1971 at age 21.  Rick was in college for a year when he lost his military deferment for partying and was later drafted. Politically, Rick leaned toward anti-war side, however influences from the past prevented him from evading military duties. Years ago, Rick’s father was dishonorably discharged for “desertion” in World War II and suffered socially ever since.  Rick tried to get as much insight into his decision wherever he could find it. However, the sources were either outdated (one Vietnamese immigrant neighbor who had not been in Vietnam since the 1950s), while others were biased (anti-war and pro-war advocates). After returning home, he was warned by friends not to wear his uniform in public or to mention that he was a veteran, for risk of harassment or worse.  Although he believed that the government did what was best because the issue was larger than any individual, he also admitted never wishing what he experienced on anyone else.
     Next to speak was Anh, a refugee from Saigon who left in 1978 at age 24 with her husband, daughter and siblings-in-law. Before the war, Anh was from a middle class family but economically and socially regressive policies enforced by the Viet Cong forced Anh and her family to make a drastic decision. Having left most of everything they had in their home and sold off the rest to Viet-cong soldiers for an exchange to leave, the family squeezed themselves into a 65-foot long boat with 300 other refugees. Later the deteriorating boat landed on an island off the coast of Malaysia, where the government offered asylum to the shipwrecked group. Anh, her family, and the others endured the next 18 months on the island refugee camp with rationed food or water shipped from the mainland. Once they were able to attain a legal immigration approval and a flight to the United States, Anh and family were flown to New York and later sent to Baltimore, where they were sponsored by the Baltimore Jewish Association. In 1991, Anh visited her native homeland after the government lifted its ban on allowing apostates in the country.
     It is well known a lot of people who attend CCBC did not grow up in a bowl of cherries, and yours truly is no exception. Some of us already have a good horror story under our belt and just want to achieve a better life than what we grew up with. As I’ve eventually learned so far from some of my own misfortunes, those miseries we experience in our lives sometimes turn out to be the very wicks that fire the cannons of determination. The decisions we make determines what kind of person we are, so how will we know unless we are not provoked into making one? Injustices drive the leader from within ourselves, while it forces the rest of us to simply build up the courage to make a decision that may seem like mistakes at the moment. Decisions are never easy, and never always good, but they shape us into the person we are meant to be.
     When it comes to deciding world priorities, nothing is absolute and every struggle needs someone to fight for it. In Rick’s time, Vietnam was not the only problem, as people were also fighting for Civil Rights. Today is no different, for not only is there terrorism, but genocide, poverty, AIDS, along with the problems in our own back yards. There are so many things to fight for but it’s hard to decide which struggle is more important. Decisions we make, even if they seem insignificant, still affect the world in subtle ways. Anh and Rick show us the complications of life: pushed into becoming the persons they were, all by doing what they could with what they were dealt. And by taking chances and enduring all challenges, they have become leaders in their own right.  Both Rick and Anh survived, literally, and spiritually, and used their advantages to speak up for a mostly voiceless demographic. Just think about it, two ordinary Marylanders made a change just by deciding to share their stories at a college interview.