I’m totally late to this party (yet again) but it seems we have an anonymous blogger in Agoura Hills. Interesting….
Although, it seems most of the most recent posts have been about TO and Westlake Village. Maybe it should have been the Conejo View Observer? Just a thought.
Just kidding.
It’s been a banner week for racists, joking and otherwise.
Turns out this Agoura Hills kid by the name of Clay Matthews is now playing football at USC, then decided to join Facebook and create a group called “White Nation” that advocated people to “arrest black babies before they become criminals.” Oh, but that’s not it – four of his teammates thought it would be funny to play along.
“This group is not for the faint of heart,” read the group’s description. “All members are athletes of Caucasion (sic) descent. DISCLAIMER: In no way are the following memebers (sic) intolerant of others, we are just doing our duty of protecting the Arian (sic) brotherhood.”
An athletic department source who wished to remain anonymous said the group was a joke and had no serious purpose.
The “joke” began when a black football player nicknamed some of his teammates “White Nation,” the source said.
Stefanie Gopaul, a freshman majoring in psychology, discovered the group through her Facebook friendship with Sartz and Cushing and sent private messages to both, expressing her concern.
“Dallas Sartz said that White Nation is a joke on the team and that he’s not like that,” Gopaul said. “I was still really upset about it.”
Gopaul created the Facebook group, ” Clay Matthews (USC football player) expresses anti-black sentiment,” and invited all of her Facebook friends to join.
“I honestly thought (Sartz and Cushing) were taking me as a joke,” Gopaul said. “I posted the group so that they would know that (the White Nation group) is inappropriate.”
The group received a strong response, at one time having as many as 90 members, and students expressed their outrage on the group message board and in personal messages to Gopaul.
“I received some very upset comments,” Gopaul said. “A high school student wrote to me and said he wanted to go to ‘SC next year and that he was glad I created the group and that it made him look at the school differently.”
I actually stumbled upon this story via a video I cut at work.
I suppose this kid could have set up the group on Facebook as a joke. I mean, he’s not going on any network news shows and saying that he hates them or anything. Plus, if he truly felt the way he did, he’s not smart going to a school like USC, surrounded by a longstanding black community.
But at the same time – dude. You were accepted to USC, act as if you were smart enough to get in. Because a move like that was just not smart.
Oaks Christian is in Westlake Village. It’s worlds away from Hollywood Boulevard, which is where I spotted this congratulatory billboard, at the northeast corner of Argyle. It was a bit of a surprise to me, and it makes me wonder why someone would pay for such a billboard in Hollywood, and who that someone might be.
My boss was asking me the other day how I was liking my new place, and how he couldn’t believe I drive out to Agoura Hills everyday. Well, this would be one reason why. You can’t beat a view that’s mostly green grass and trees from both your living room and bedroom patios.
I’m not music aficionado, by any means – I’m pretty easygoing on what’s in my CD changer, am happy having attended just one concert by my favorite bands Linkin Park and Incubus, and inexplicably have not yet bought RHCP’s latest album. But this article in the LAT was interesting to me – not because I did any of this stuff when I was underage, but simply because I’d had no clue this sort of stuff existed for the fake ID-less.
All-ages clubs — not empty warehouses or skating rinks or dumpy basements, but proper venues with snazzy sound systems and snack bars full of salty-sweet savories — are a relatively new phenomenon. They have cropped up mainly during the last decade and have since become uncannily accurate barometers of what is about to become hot in music. The reason is simple: They provide a safe, alcohol-free place for young people ages 10 to 20 to see the bands they love, something the jaded 21-and-older set takes for granted. This is approximately the same excitable demographic that, according to the Recording Industry Assn. of America, was responsible for more than 20% of all music sales in 2005. They are also the MySpace generation. Through them trends flow like white water.
Later on, the articles goes on to say that both Linkin Park and Hoobastank filtered through a Fullerton club on their way up, and it made me think – why in the world doesn’t Agoura Hills or Calabasas have such a club? Since members of both aforementioned bands came from Agoura Hills High. The closest alternative is the Canoga Hills club. Bleh. Whatever.