Abolish? Revise? Preserve?
Investigating the Electoral College after the 2016 Election

“Debating the Electoral College”

At one point in time, there were at least three subjects that were considered inappropriate to talk about, at least in public: religion, sex (encompassing gender, gender identity, and orientation), and politics. In today’s evolving society, those conversational restrictions have become less and less prevalent as all three branches of the U.S. government attempt to adequately address those topics publicly on a regular basis. However, there still seems to be at least one topic that remains just as taboo now as it was before, and that topic is mental health and illness.

In July 2009, Nigerian born author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie delivered her TED Talk, “The Danger of a Single Story,to articulate to an educated audience how stereotypical judgments are dangerous because they are incomplete.  She bases her argument, that listening to only one perception of a group of people unfairly simplifies the reality of that group’s lives, using a series of anecdotes.

It is hard to imagine that college writing professors, experts in their field, could be at fault for leading their students towards writing, reading, and thinking in a less than exemplary manner.  Nonetheless, a chronic problem of acceptable, mediocre writing is sweeping college campuses worldwide. Students, with low expectations from their professors, are writing, reading, and thinking in a manner that is just barely “good enough.” Many professors have recognized this problem, but few have taken action to solve it. Lynn Z.

In her 2012 article “Bad Feminist,” published by VQR, Roxane Gay suggests that many of the tensions and negative connotations that accompany the term feminism can be attributed to a damaging, socially-constructed concept deemed essential feminism. Gay, an American essayist and commentator, describes essential feminism as “the notion that there are right and wrong ways to be a feminist,” leaving those who do not live up to societal expectations feeling unfit or inadequate to identify themselves as such (pg. 1).

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's "The Danger of a Single Story" Ted Talk, in July 2009, explores the negative influences that a “single story” can have and identifies the root of these stories. Adichie argues that single stories often originate from simple misunderstandings or one’s lack of knowledge of others, but that these stories can also have a malicious intent to suppress other groups of people due to prejudice (Adichie). People, especially in their childhood, are “impressionable and vulnerable” when it comes to single stories (Adichie 01:43).