Jackson Jambalaya

Dude, what?

Definitely not a brilliant writer. An eternal malcontent with the "poor me" syndrome.

Blather.

Not even good enough to run in the JFP. The writer doesn't mention Melton or Kamikaze even once.

Sounds like someone with a bad attitude blaming everything on racism.

Okay, so a lot of this sounds like whiney bullshit. However, Millsaps kicking him out over a library book? That is lame.

well, he says near the end he's a liar. kind of gives it away with all the guns-to-his-chest routine.

and he teaches at vassar?!

Millsaps for about a 6 month period was a Higher Learning-lite. Kiese and his partner were definitely agitators but a few students played to the stereotype. He actively created the events that became his columns.

The school had put up the fence a year or two prior. A couple of sexual assaults led to that. Mill Street had cratered and the Mosquito or whatever bar at the end was just about done. CS's closed at night.

The bid day events were partially true, partially exaggerated. Luckily I was out of town that day so I can't confirm or deny his personal account, I just know it wasn't as bad as he makes it sound, but it sure didn't look good on WLBT.

How he got kicked out, I can't corroborate and I'm not sure how much anyone else knew.

Silly as it may seem, what made it more volatile was the school was slowly clamping down on greek social life, of which like 60-70% of the student body was greek. Kiese put two fraternities on social probation by himself in about 5 minutes. Of course, that first Thursday night off probation was a good time.

He was kicked out of Millsaps in 1994. I sort of remember there being a big stink about all the stuff he had been writing for the Millsaps newspaper. Anybody remember any details?

If you can't read this article and determine that this idiot was kicked out of Millsaps because he was a danger to the other students, your reading comprehension sucks.

I went to school at Millsaps with Kiese and witnessed most of this stuff first hand. Kiese's preferred m.o. was to pick fights with people (mostly white males, but not always) and when they responded as predicted, scream "racism" and play victim. He was in an environment where people were breaking their necks to help him, and he was so self absorbed he missed it.

Kiese, if you read things besides your own blog (which I doubt) and have stumbled across this website, please know this: People do not dislike you because you are black. People dislike you because you are an ass.

Given current demographic trends, he sounds like another community agitator destined to be President...

Most white kids in Madison County would love to be this guy, they should all get together to plan the next "Project LJ or Project X" throw-down in the parking lot next to Ridgeland!!!

Obviously , this young man is a brilliant writer who is not contented.

I wish his mother had told him that life isn't fair and that " the art of diplomacy is letting someone else have your way".

Or , perhaps, Millsap should have taught him that.

At any rate, George Harmon lived down to my expectations by catering to his donors and the parents rather than responding to a brilliant mind.

If Dr.Harmon thinks masturbation is a new concept to his students, he is out of touch with reality.

Before some of you comment, go read some of YOUR writings at this age. In fact, read some of your posts here.

GFY July 30, 2012 5:20 PM

some Marianne Williamson would certainly help.... that or testosterone.

This guy is a very talented writer. Reading his story, I can envision him being raised on the streets of Compton, running from the LAPD, slinging rock and livin the gangsta life just to survive.

But then, I remembered, he was at f--king Milsaps. Going to f--king Milsaps with a bunch of pansy white kids. Not ucla, not the U, not even UNLV. But at F--king Milsaps, the whitest, most un-thug school in the history of education.

Yeah, all this happened at f--king Milsaps.

This guy is full of shit.

In early 1970s, 2 J State students tossed flouresent bulbs out a dorm window onto Farish Street below(Pop!)-JPD arrived, then MHP, and pumped 5000-rounds into J-State Dorms, killing students. (see U.S. Comm'n on Violence-aka Koerner Comm'n). Millsaps kids learned of Kent State shootings at same time [from CSN&Y's "4 Dead In Ohio")- but most never heard of J-State killings. Heddermans did not report it- no one sang of it. Bullworth was right - we all will be in the ditch together until solve our 'race problems.' Until then, China races ahead of Mississippi - while we read at a 3rd World level - and continue to think like we did eons ago. (see, i.e., The Mind of The South; see U. Tex. Dr. Rogers' Study of 1920s Lynchings here as a extreme form of scapegoating - the rate of lynchings rose when cotton prices fell & lynchings declined when cotton prices rose. Times are hard, scapegoating abounds. The more things change - the more they remain the same.

This is another gender confused Fem-O-Crat....he isnt angry about race..he is angry because he is struggling with his confusion over his sexuality like all male Fem-o-crats...im sure if he would just put a dress on and some lipstick this angry young man can be the happy young woman he wishes he was!!!

7:28, you left out the part about the students turning over cars, setting fires, hurling rocks at passersby and firing on troopers and police. After all that, the cops were in no mood to discuss the situation further.

Apparently the officers' desire to improve race relations was overcome by their competing desire not to go home in a box. Please forgive them.

Too many Millsaps students were pansy St. Andrew's grads.

Oh, honey. Millsaps is a school for mediocre people. Kids from St. Andrew's are not interested in going to Millsaps.

Fem-ocrats...thats funny. U won't be saying that when ur Man-ublican, Romney, is defeated n November. The blog writer reveals a middle-aged yet troubled black professor who actually had it pretty easy for a black man n this state. He would be a better writer if he chose a topic not a personal myth.

What the hell you talkin' 'bout July 30, 2012 8:38 PM. 35+% of each St. Andrews graduating class goes on to Millshits.

I'm willing to bet a large sum of cash that this little dude will soon experience communal masturbation on
level that Sandusky couldn't have even wished for.

Little guy will probably be yelping for his Mama after he is relocated to the rebuilt showers in "POD 3" at Raymond.

St. Andrews has the lowest actual-accomplishment-to-economic-privilege ratio of any school in the southeast. Most of their grads are hothouse flowers who can't succeed without daddy's money and some limp-wristed teacher telling them how special and brilliant they are.

But if you want to prepare to get a comparative lit degree at some bullsh*t regional liberal arts college, then become a part-time barista/blogger, and you've got $12K a year to blow, then look no further.

8:58 Prove it. I have the graduation lists for the past few years and I can tell you the most damning thing about it is that a lot of them are taking scholarships at the Ole Miss honors college for financial reasons.

9:48 That chip on your shoulder must be so heavy. I'll be sure and tell my dad that Yale was a "bullshit regional liberal arts college."

9:59 -- Thanks for making my point, kiddo. Being a St. Andrews guy, you instinctively point to a degree from Yale, not what Daddy actually accomplished. (And let's not even get into the fact that you're pointing to Daddy, rather than yourself.)

I graduated from public high school and Harvard. I almost never mention the latter, because none of the people I do business with care.

A lot of poetic license that turns into "ho-hum". Let me guess what happens next.

I graduated from public high school and Harvard. I almost never mention the latter, because none of the people I do business with care.

You are correct sir. It only matters if you can carry water and how far.

I was there on bid day. I remember it well. Afro wigs brought from the drug store across from the Admiral. Face paint in all the colors of the mentioned fraternities. Red and green and white. Red and yellow and white. Black was mixed in there of course. I think he called several tv stations before one hung around. . The last thing on everyone's mind was confrontation with the Ton of Fun crew. Did someone yell slurs at him. Maybe. Sure. Who knows. He managed to bully and force his agenda on Millsaps.

I went to St Andrew's and Harvard, and Harvard was easier. I was relieved when high school was over. It was a lot of pressure. When I was younger that was my major criticism of SA. Now I'm not so sure that's not a good thing. Life is constant pressure.

10:17 is correct. No one gives a shit where anyone went to school. It only matters what you do with it in the end.

I don't know whether to laugh or cry.

Those of you who say you want charter schools turn around and trash schools with high academic standards.

You defend the rich when it comes to national economics but trash the rich when they try to attain the best for their children.

I guess if we got a great charter school and your child couldn't get in, you'd have to bash that too.

Do you want your children to be bright and well educated and be able to get a scholarship to a good with a high academic rating or not?

If your child could go to an Ivy League school, would you deny that child the opportunities for great entry level jobs that going to such a school would give?

Like my parents before me, I always wanted my children to go to the very best school they could attend as I know that opens windows of opportunity for them.

It is a strategy that has worked and continues to work as success comes earlier to each generation. Indeed, there was a time when that strategy was an ingrained part of our culture and benefitted a Nation.

As for this young man, I'm sorry if he has permanently joined the ranks of the insecure and angry who want to just pull others down to their level rather than raising himself and all those around him up. I hate to see a brilliant mind be destructive rather than constructive. It's such a waste and is, I would remind some of you, just as unattractive in white folks.

I see JJ's resident Pontificator has arrived @ July 31, 2012 9:02 AM to save the unwashed.

I'm not sure where 9:02AM is taking away we don't care about the Ivy League. I think what we are saying is, great you went to college, NOW, what did you do with it? Hmmmmm.

All right, now that you have had the St. Andrews Yale lovefest, can you go back to discussing the essay and his time at Millsaps?

Millsaps has a serious problem, in my opinion. It is in long-term decline. They can't compete with the low price of the honors college at Ole Miss, or the kids that are being recruited to the honors colleges of neighboring states (LSU, Alabama, etc). They can't compete with higher rated colleges. If I'm going to spend $35-$40k per year to send my kid to college, it's not going to be at Millsaps.
Now, onto the meat of this man's essay. It must be tough not to fit in. My question is: What on earth made him think he would fit in at Millsaps? Why was he so angry? He should have just accepted it for what it was, a middling school full of middling white kids, taken his (likely free) education and gotten out of there. Which, in the end, is what he did by moving to Oberlin.

From what I've heard, George Harmon was a petty tyrant on his best days. But who can fault him for finding a way to toss this Jonah overboard? Been awhile since I saw the great Joe Louis quote: "Some people, if they don't know, you can't tell them."

Millsaps doesn't cost any more than Ole Miss does. You (the taxpayer) are just paying the difference between what it actually costs to run the place and what it charges the students. If gov't support keeps pulling back from state universities (and it appears it will for the foreseeable future), private non-profits that didn't build rock walls and luxury dorms are going to start looking a lot better than their overbuilt brethren.

10:17 Who are you - Thurston Howell III? ("Egads - a YALE man"). Since reading comprehension is apparently skipped in Cambridge I'll explain - 9:59 was talking about explaining to his (i.e., 9:59's) father that he (i.e., 9:59 again) went to Yale, which you confuse with a "bullshit regional...." etc. His (i.e., 9:59's) father paid for him to attend SA, but did not attend himself.

Comprende?

FWIW the college you attended can help a lot in getting the first job; after that it's what you did on your last job....

Then why does DonnerKay mention so often her time @ Columbia?

Mr. Laymon is not being entirely accurate about the events that occurred at Millsaps. As for the rest of the narrative, I've no insight, but he's being at best misleading, and at worst, dishonest with what happened with regard to Millsaps. Rather odd that so many bad things happen to one very nice person, no?

5:12 Millsaps costs $42,000+ per year. Ole Miss will not come close to that in the foreseeable future.

I was there on bid day. Wigs were worn...hair band type wigs...lots of guys were fond of KISS...entire dorm cubes played pranks about such things...we were all kids when KISS was popular...goofy I know.

This guy sees racism in the air. Dont speak? Racist...never mind if you did not see or know him. He quite simply is delusional.

so the guy got kicked out for borrowing a book without checking it out and thinks it is because he is not white. sorry to burst the racist bubble, but my oldest brother was nearly expelled from Tulane in the 1970's for doing the same thing (he is white)

All of you who are characterizing this guy as a "brilliant writer" or some other such servile blather have rather low standards for excellence.

Either that, or you're effectively saying, "Oh, look! A Negro who can write his own sentences! How admirable!"

Under objective standards, his prose is on par with the liner notes to a gangsta rap CD.

Just remember that this brotha's girlfriend in high school was councilwoman Barrett's big booty (white) daughter. Ahh, stereotypes, the irony.

The only kids paying $42,000/yr at Millsaps are the ones that struggled academically in high school and have very wealthy parents. The rest (the ones who are responsible for Millsaps having the highest ACT scores in the state) are getting scholarship money.

"the soft bigotry of low expectations" - this guy makes W look prophetic....

If you're going to comment on the essay, PLEASE read it in full at the link provided. Don't base your comments on the abbbreviated and poorly pieced together version above. You'll likely have a very different opinion.

Millsaps '76 is right.

Indeed, Millsaps '76, read the entire essay. Then check a couple facts. If you live in Jackson, head to campus, go to the library and read all the issues of the Purple and White that year after it was "shut down" by Harmon.

And when you reread the poignant crux, where our hero tries to decide whether to take the gun to face the racist hordes of fraternity boys or not, do try to keep in mind the television cameras that were waiting to film the altercation. How did TV crews know, in advance that there would be an altercation between Mr. Laymon and the fraternity boys? Correlation may not be causation; anecdotes may not be data; but this was a Munchausen by Proxy Syndrome production of a Civil Rights Struggle.

Millsaps '96

There were three altercations that day. The Purple and White attest to this. There was one when he and his girlfriend were leaving. They then went back to get a bottle and a bat. Then there was another one. After that one, both him and his girlfriend admit that they called the TV station from work and met them back on campus. Do your homework.

@Millsaps '96:

"Correlation may not be causation as anecdotes may not be data but this was a Münchhausen by Proxy
Syndrome production of a Civil Rights Struggle."

Damn, that's good !

Faulkner is sip'n a toddy and smiling at Morris and Hannah after that one.

There were LOTS of altercations with this guy the entire time he was at Millsaps. He just settled on the KA's that particular day because a drunk 18 year old with a rebel flag is a pretty soft target, and it's easy to make into a news story if you're too lazy for actual journalism.

Kiese was the type of person that really enjoyed the sound of his own voice, but he knew no one was interested in what he had to say, so he came up with this re-branding campaign to make himself into a persecuted black youth (going, for free, to the most expensive school in the state; thug life, for sure). Once he did this, he knew he would have an audience because the black victim story ALWAYS gets traction in Jackson, MS (in fairness, because there are a lot of brave people around here who suffered actual injustice and persecution and are, rightly, sensitive to it).

What really got him going, ironically, was Millsaps itself. Not because it was a bastion of intolerance and racism, but because it was the exact opposite. The pendulum had swung so far the other way that he couldn't help but constantly hear how he had been wronged. If he didn't know it, his professors told him over and over again.

It was not fun being a white male at Millsaps in those days, because you, personally, were the reason every bad thing ever happened in the world, especially to African Americans and women. This was not an abstract notion. You were made to feel like the representative of your group and responsible for everything anyone had done. Similarly, if you were one of the "oppressed" (kids at Millsaps, for Christ's sake) you heard about your victimhood over and over and were pissed.

This environment, combined with the fact that he was a sociopath, created the Kiese show. He is as much a persecuted freedom fighter as Tom Cruise is a disabled Vietnam veteran, and his persona was no less crafted than Martha Stewart as the mild-mannered housewife, or Haley Barbour as the simple, country bumpkin. I suspect there are people at Vassar who know Kiese is full of shit, but I suspect they do not care because he so perfectly fills the part they need someone to play. For landing the role of, literally, a lifetime, I congratulate him. I just wish, with all of the ACTUAL injustice in the world, he would spend some time fighting that instead of the make believe villains in his black superhero comic strip.

The essay actually is about the injustice in the world. If you read the essay, he's not proud of what happened at all. He is actually saying that the terrible things in the essay like rape, murder, depression are things that we can confront. Strange that people here keep focusing on what happened with fraternities when the first part was about an undercover cop, the second was about black on black crime, the third was about getting kicked out for taking a book, the fourth was about disrespecting his mother, the fifth was about wanting to take his life, the sixth was about three black men raping a black woman and last was about the murder of a white woman. Either some of you are too sensitive or you simply can't read. This is not about how bad racism is; it's about trying to bring yourself back from the edge when you feel most vulnerable.

The last was about the murder of a BLACK woman by two black males, one from Mississippi, one from South Africa.

I read it. The Saps part was embellished and partially fabricated. The rest of it probably follows suit. His view of the world is suspect.

As I see it the great importance of this man's writings on Cold Drank is that he tells the story, gives details and names names. If others who were there did the same, we could have a picture of the whole elephant.
Think how much greater our city/county would be if Kingfish had the grants to buy enough equipment and hire enough cameramen and editors to record and show us ALL council, supervisors' meetings, committees, etc. What a dream.
Or think how it would have played out if there had been simple iphone records of the meetings in the Millsaps president's office - or the goings-on with the First Baptist Church in Crystal Springs.
Tell the Truth. Witness. Testify.

My thanks to those who have pointed me to the complete text.

I must say that as a woman in a male dominated major while at Millsaps, I laughed out loud at the guy who felt he was being held responsible for the evils of the world.

It was pretty obvious to me then and now that those males who were/are "held responsible" then and now still harbor stupid notions about blacks and women, " especially" and are compelled to express those notions.

I was a women who thought making such males feel foolish when they said foolish things would help them see they were acting the fool and embarrassing themselves.

I began to realize that those males who are threatened by competition from women and blacks are simply insecure and I was just adding to their insecurity.

So I decided to out perform such males and be more successful than they. That doesn't work either as such males blame their lack of success on others and ignore that they just didn't perform as well.

So, now I wonder if that those who are racist or chauvinistic just can't overcome their insecurities.

It may be genetic.

I can't help but suspect, since nothing brings enlightenment, that such insecurity has to do with being poorly endowed from birth. I base that on having dated only secure men who were above average in every way( and all of whom have been wildly successful in their careers). Since I only dated secure men, I married such a man , of course. Now, having a baby brother and sons whose diapers I changed and who grew up secure , I noticed a common physical attribute. My women friends' stories about the men in their lives reinforce my theory. But, I do worry that this theory is like the male chauvinist's theory about women with big boobs.

9:41 - If you have "only dated secure men," then how is it that you know that the unnamed "insecure" men that you mention are "poorly endowed from birth?"

Someone needs to post a pic of the "Liberal College Girl" meme, because she just posted here.

PS: it's "male-dominated," "outperform," and "be more successful them them." I hope your "male dominated" major wasn't English.

Your grammatical problems may be genetic.

12:01
Don't you just hate it when you try to correct someone's grammatical errors, fail to proofread prior to posting, then finally see "more successful them them"? Damn it.

8/1 11:08 pretty much hit the nail on the head.

8/2 12:07 - This is a Jackson blog. Naturally, comments will be focused on the parts about Millsaps. As a proud Millsaps alum, this article pissed me off.

"...but this was a Munchausen by Proxy Syndrome production of a Civil Rights Struggle."

Do they give Pulitzers for anonymous blog comments?

If you allow other bloggers to hijack your threads and shamelessly hijack your comments, my blog post on ACT scores and "first choice" colleges might be of interest. Not enough Mississippi students consider Millsaps to be their first choice of college for it to be listed separately by the ACT/College Board in its annual report. My rhetorical question is how does such a school stay in business?

http://colrebsez.blogspot.com/2012/06/students-who-pick-mississippi-college.html

Correction: I said it was a rhetorical question. That was in error, since rhetorical questions are ones to which the answer is obvious, and which is asked only for effect. In this case it's a real question. How can a school stay in business as a supposedly top school when virtually no one in Mississippi considers it their "first" choice?

Late to this comment, but a few easy answers to your question, Col. Reb Sez:

1. Millsaps is about 40 percent out of state, so there's that.

2. Your "first choice" isn't necessarily a realistic one. Millsaps was about my fourth choice. The first three were pipe dreams in terms of affordability. Millsaps wants ambitious students--the kind who apply to high-profile out-of-state schools.

3. The common refrain you will hear from Millsaps students: I was more interested in Rhodes or Sewanee, but Millsaps offered a better scholarship.

And I forgot the most obvious reason...

Millsaps is, by far, smaller than any other non-HBC college in the state. Undergrad enrollment is at 1,000 and again, about 40 percent are going to be non-Mississippians.

I look at the report, but where are they getting this information? I never recall ranking my college choices.

wow - it's so refreshing to see white people complain about how hard it is in the south.
it's so interesting to read white people's take on how someone should have acted in situations that they have never/will never experience.
if you have to use the media, tv, internet, etc, to expose racist behaviors, then use that medium. (he called tv stations! omg, that's like, the WORST and he LIKES THE SOUND OF HIS OWN VOICE (haha) and a SOCIOPATH - we are all sociopaths.
i can't wait for someone to read all you idiots.
this is the dumbest sentence ever: Munchausen by Proxy Syndrome production of a Civil Rights Struggle. don't use words to describe things you don't understand.
and: his prose is on par with the liner notes to a gangsta rap CD. oh, boy, you totally burned him.
i could go on, but i don't want to ruin the racist bubble y'all got goin.

Reading through these comments, is it safe to assume I am the only non- White person visiting this website?
Definitely the only visitor who voted for Obama. Deuces.

Who knew?

The answer to "Who knew?", "Kingfish", is people who read, also people who critically think about what they read and see. I was in Jackson and around Millsaps at the time in question and I saw this and other similar things happening. It is easy for white people to minimize these incidents (for obvious reasons that white people are good at overlooking because, yes, white privilege). Isn't it nice to mostly not have to worry about the things that affect black people daily? White people like to say they worry about violence (from black men, immigrants, and terrorists), but they mostly don't have to worry that some suburban white assholes are going to drive into their city and run them over with pickup trucks for fun or drag them behind pickup trucks through the woods for fun, etc. They don't have to try to ignore some privileged fuck yelling nasty things at them for fun or to blow off steam. And the privileged douche-bags who can idly take time out in the middle of the day to comment on your posts never have to worry about whether they can pay their bills or eat as do many poor Americans, of African descent and otherwise.

It's "Munchausen syndrome by proxy" not "Munchausen by Proxy Syndrome", more correctly known as "Factitious disorder imposed on another". The reason it is "Munchausen syndrome by proxy" is because the root "Munchausen syndrome" is a form of hypochondria where a person pretends to be sick for attention, kind of like white Americans acting persecuted.

I know that you think you get better and more interesting comments from allowing people to comment anonymously, but it seems that you mostly only get more obnoxious and uncritical thoughts from folks who generally probably wouldn't dare to say these shitty things out loud (or wouldn't have when they were written, i.e. before the current administration). I do realize how ironic it is that I am commenting anonymously (and taking time out in the middle of my day so to do).

I also wish that there was some way to agree with a comment other than commenting oneself. I wonder how many intelligent people pass up commenting because they would be repeating what might already have been said.

Are any of the people who commented in 2012 still following this blog? I'm curious to know if you still have the same close-minded, racist, ignorant thoughts today in 2020?