I was originally gonna let the season pass me by, but then I downloaded the WeTV app on my cell phone a few weeks ago and decided to check out "Marriage Boot Camp: Hip Hop Edition" during my daily work outs.
And I found that I really enjoy it!
One problem with "Marriage Boot Camp" is that it's been around for several seasons. As a result, it recycles many of the therapeutic activities. But the Hip Hop focus has allowed the therapists the ability to introduce new relationship exercises to the show. And the stars themselves are all really engaging and funny. So I'm really liking this season!
But I'm not actually hear to write about "Marriage Boot Camp: Hip Hop Edition" outside of giving me the opportunity to say, "I know this guy!" One of the show's stars performed last night in Cedar Falls, IA, brought here by the University of Northern Iowa Campus Activities Board. Waka Flocka Flame performed last night at a concert initially planned for both students and fans from the general public.
However, his concert became a public relations fiasco for the UNI administration after UNI President Mark A. Nook got worried about potential gang violence at the concert! Nook and the UNI administration unilaterally to change the location of the concert and to limit tickets to members of the student body. He justified this decision by stating that area police had solid evidence that rival gang members in the area were going to attend and disrupt the concert.
Unfortunately for Nook, the Waterloo and Cedar Falls Police Departments have all denied such assertions.
All of this called into question why there would be an assumption of gang violence when a black performer came to UNI, but such concerns are never acted on otherwise. It became a big enough spectacle in the news that even Waka himself commented on Twitter. Some of his fans encouraged him to cancel the UNI performance. Instead, he performed for his UNI fans and called out the administration, highlighting the racism that had circulated around this concert and shouting out to the students: "They live in the past, we live in the present, they are not our future!"
Anyway, the concert went on. And UNI was not besieged by gang violence.