Fast Times, Revisited
Can we save American youth?
First you have to figure out what we're saving them from. I think the biggest issue is the educational issue. Adults drink, adults sleep with each other-and we don't freak out about that. But what is a concern is the fact that a lot of people aren't learning. This is not a nation of overachievers.
You announced that you were actually a fake high school student on Fox TV. A lot of students at the school seem not too pleased to learn that.
It's about fifty-fifty-about half of them are like, "That's so badass, that's so funny." I still talk to a bunch of them. And then, you know, another half of them-mainly people who didn't really know me-you know, said what they wanted to say about that.
They said you betrayed them and you exaggerated the truth.
A lot of the people at the school were drinking, a lot of them were having sex. The parents came back and said, "What is the meaning of this?" Obviously, this is exactly what happened. You can open up the local newspaper and the police blotters.
Your book shows some really disturbing racism. Several kids even subscribe to "white pride" philosophies.
That was something I was really shocked by. The racism disturbed me, the homophobia disturbed me, a lot of the lack of knowledge about the outside world, and the simplistic black-and-white viewpoints disturbed me. You always see the sound bite, "Oh, the millennial generation is so diverse." But diverse doesn't necessarily mean that the diversity is well-integrated and harmonious. You can have people from a lot of different races put together, but that doesn't necessarily mean that it's pluralistic and joyful.
Were you able to integrate into the different racial groups? It seems as if you spent most of your time with the white, cool kids.
No, it would just be ridiculous. It just wouldn't even make sense within the social reality in that school.
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