@daddycaddy
Contrary to your opinions, to me, the quotes you listed by David Hogg are rather mature, honest, and very sincere! They might be a bit extreme, (but sometimes expletives are necessary to express one’s emotions, in this case, emotions of witnessing young/“immature” life being extinguished by senseless bullets righty in your face).
I do think we as a society could do a better job of consistently condemning the use of racial slurs. I never heard them growing up in the 60s and 70s, and due to my musical tastes, wasn’t really exposed to much rap music until the last decade or so. At the risk of sounding like an old lady, I was appalled.
@makemsmart - that wasn’t my opinion, but that of the Nancy Morris in the comments section in The Harvard Crimson article
Regardless of whether you agree with Hogg politically, he is immature, displays arguably questionable moral character, and is definitely not academically qualified for Harvard
False equivalence
@roycroftmom
I bet those racial slurs were used widely in the 60s and 70s and 80s of USA, by adults, by politicians, by parents…
I don’t know how we as a society could censor it though, I am more afraid of the slippery slope such censorship would lead to, such as banning “huckleberry Finn”.
In your opinion, since you did not read his application.
Oh I am sure they were, but I was far more surprised to hear them on the radio by young musicians recently. I wish we would condemn that too.
I say he wasn’t academically qualified based on his initial rejection by Harvard (before he became politically active), as well as rejections from UCLA, UC Santa Barbara, UC San Diego, and UC Irvine. He got a 1270 on the SAT and had a weighted 4.2 GPA. Those academic stats probably put him in the bottom 5% of Harvard undergrads (even including recruited athletes for “helmet” sports).
@makemesmart I have a son who listens to rap music and is wise enough to know the difference between listening to lyrics in a song and using them himself in messages, text or conversation. A 16 year old is old enough to know the difference. I also personally have never heard any rap songs with the words “kill the Jews”.
This actually went a lot longer than I thought it would before “why can black people say it but we can’t” came up.
Mistakes:
Mistake of the kid was covering his politically incorrect views in his application. Certainly not unusual. But, was he sorry? It sounds that he apologized not because he changed, because he couldn’t to go to Harvard. Would he bother with this apology if that college he got admitted was not one of the top schools?
Harvard’s mistake is still one of arrogance. They admit, not one, three of Parkland survivors, despite better qualified candidates. They have a soft heart for them, no problem. However, this was at the expense of more deserving students. Despite all the publicity about the unfairness of their admission policies, Harvard still remains arrogant enough to keep making them more unfair.
Rescinding admission is not a mistake by Harvard. They have an ethics bar, at least when it does not involve huge amounts of money.
I wonder what if this kid’s application essay topic was one of redemption, seeing how he saw his words hurt other people. Wonder what if he said all that, and it was a lie. What are the chances that there are admissions like that based on lies?
Yes, I would expect your son to know the difference, @collegemom9,but I am still baffled by our societal silence toward such artists, and indeed, the continued playing of such lyrics in public venues. Why isn’t there more outrage about that? There should be, in my opinion. Slurs are never ok, regardless of speaker. But a digression into contemporary music is probably off topic. No one is trying to excuse the behavior. I just wish there was more, not less, condemnation of it, @petramc.
@collegemom9
I agree with you, many 16-yo are wise and mature. But I also know there are 16-, 17-, 25-, or 26-yo who would say crazy things just to get the shock values, esp. in private group chats that they might “egg” each other on. Neuroscience has shown that our brains don’t fully mature at 16 (or 26 for that matter!)
Should he have said these things privately? Of course not. But does these words make him a racist/anti-Semite (self-hating Jew)? I don’t think so.
@makemesmart I think we don’t know enough about him to say whether he’s a racist or anti-semite based on his rants or later, his apologies. The only thing we do know for sure is that he said what he said and that was bad enough to get his acceptance rescinded. Everything else is speculation.
He was accepted to UCI and AFAIK there is no indication he applied to Harvard the first time around. Just because Laura Ingraham says something does not make it true. Yes, if had posted his stats on a Chance Me thread, people would have suggested he apply elsewhere. But that’s the danger in making judgments without seeing the whole picture and why I generally avoid chance threads. 
@collegemom9
This I totally agree with you!
I believe Hogg also said that he was going to study hard for the SAT and re-take it, since he hadn’t really studied for it. So we have no idea what his SAT score was when he applied to Harvard.
I don’t know exactly what Laura Ingraham said, but it was widely reported in multiple news sources at the time that he was rejected by those four UC schools. If they all reported inaccurately, then shame on them, and I stand corrected.
However there is no question that his 1270/4.2 wgpa probably put him near the bottom of the incoming freshman class.
If a kid slacked and got bad grades in his first two years of high school, and then matured and became a star student, he can go on to have a nice career, but still doesn’t have the qualifications for Harvard. I don’t see why this should be different for moral qualities.
Oh, man. A few here will understand what’s wrong with an “apology” that says, “…my comments, which were made two years ago in private among equally immature high school students.”
And a few here seem not to understand one whit what Harvard and other tippy tops want in candidates, what the fuller “qualifications” are. (Please don’t knee-jerk respond with snark about wealthy, connections, and the usual.)
In the admissions scheme, Kyle should not be faulted for his pro-gun stance (that part is his right.) It’s the way his unfiltered comments show little thought behind his actions. It’s a problem for a tippy top when any kid blurts hateful things.
Huge difference between that and advocating for a boycott. Joining a boycott is others’ free-will decision and right, based on Ingraham’s actions, not based on her race or religion. A boycott or any protest are, like it or not, are among the foundations of our democracy.