Photo: WENN
A California high school won a competition to win $10,000 and a visit from Macklemore and Ryan Lewis last week - and they turned it down. Now though, thanks to the powers of the internet, they've had a change of heart.
Students from Aliso Niguel High School registered on the textbook website Chegg in order to be entered into the contest, and discovered that they had won last Wednesday. Unfortunately, their excitement was short lived, thanks to a handful of curmudgeonly parents.
Principal Deni Christensen turned down the prize because "some parents said that Macklemore and Ryan Lewis support alcohol and drug use and misogyny in their music." This response is a little baffling, given how careful the rap duo are to represent progressive social attitudes in their music (even if their anti-homophobia anthem 'Same Love' did slightly irk much of the LGBT community).
Speaking a few years ago in fact, Macklemore said, "Misogyny and homophobia are the two acceptable means of oppression in hip-hop culture. It’s 2012. There needs to be some accountability. I think that as a society we’re evolving, and I think that hip-hop has always been a representation of what’s going on in the world right now."
Thankfully (or not, depending on whether you're a fan of Macklemore / $10,000) the school has now reconsidered, thanks to a petition that gained nearly 9,000 signatures.
