201: Them
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It's in us versus them situation. To Felicia Blum, a freshman at Glenbrook South High School, it could not be more clear. There are fundamental differences between her school and its rival, Glenbrook North. The differences are basically the fact that the people at GBN are a little more snabby. Like people have to fit a certain mold that people here don't have to do. And describe the mold, what is the mold that they're fitting into. Like, um, skinny, pretty, you know, you don't necessarily have to be the nicest person. Like good clothes, expensive clothes, expensive everything. Buffalo, jeans, Michael Stars, Kate Spade, purses, backpacks, pencil bags. Go there, the kids at South Tommy. You'll see. Ever half the girls at Glenbrook North will have Kate Spade or Prada handbags. So I go. It's not far. Just a few minutes across the Chicago suburbs. Now traditionally, this point in any story on public radio, or any after school special for teenagers for that matter, what should happen next is that I should arrive at Glenbrook North and find out that no, of course, kids in both schools are the same, kids are kids, they're always the same. But it turns out that there are a lot of kids at Glenbrook North, GBN, who agree that they are snobbier. GBN is more like, you have to have this, and do you hear, and do your makeup, everything is- I think GBS is more comfortable with themselves as people than we are. I know. Exactly. We follow the crowd. Exactly. And if you're not in the end crowd, then it's like you're nothing and everyone will think of you as just a big loser and like it's hard. I was told that most of the girls at this school would be carrying either Kate Spade or Prada bags. I have a prada on right now, actually. Yeah. It's true. I hate kids' big shoes. That's true. Yeah. But you know, laying it all out like this here on the radio exaggerates just how competitive the two schools are. Most kids didn't seem to care one way or the other about the subject. It was the kids who were the most invested in the idea of school spirit, who feel the strongest that there's a difference between the schools, like that first girl, Felicia Blum, for instance. Yeah, I have a lot of spirit, so I'm on Poms, which is like dancing at the halftime show, so I guess I'm a little, "Hi, spirit, what can I say?" It's hard for there to be such a thing as us if you don't have a them, and some people by disposition need a good them. Other people tend to see them of all sorts as more like us, which is the subject of today's radio show.
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