Erica Jackson
Erica Jackson, GS '06, was a Literature-Writing major and was active on GSSC. She makes frequent appearances on campus since her graduation, which confuses many, given her supposed anti-Columbia sentiment in person and on her blog. Her name often comes up in anti-GS flame wars on Bwog,[1] where commenters generally describe her as self-aggrandizing, overly harsh in her criticisms of fellow writing students, and especially hostile toward white men.
Contents
Excerpts from her blog
"A classmate who was accepted into Columbia'as[sic] MFA writing program told me last year, "I knew exactly what they wanted and I gave it to them." I found that chilling. If that's what an MFA program is about, why not just copy the same books over and over and over again and just change the author's name and title? What scares me is that this woman isn't a great writer and she never will be. She is a competant[sic] one, yes, but her lack of self-reliance and addiction to people pleasing mean she never will be much more. Oh, she'll make great connections there and she'll be published. But her work will never truly change anyone's life."
"Men in these situations often tell me I have no sense of humor, which amuses my friends to no end, since I'm most often described as one of the smartest, funniest and kindest people they know."
"And, should I lose weight and become remotely thin, and at all successful in my career, I know I will deeply resent the men and employers who suddenly acknowledge all I have to offer. I saw it everyday[sic] at Columbia -- semi-attractive women with barely a fraction of my talent and intellect, but people fell all over themselves trying to help them."
"One of the biggest lessons I learned at Columbia was that, because I have twice as many X chromosomes as the next guy, my sole value is in my appearance. It made the difference in whether or not people talked to me, listened to my ideas, how they graded me and in how I was perceived in every situation. Appearance is an accident of who screwed who[sic] for the past few thousand years, why does my entire future hinge on my DNA rather than my intellligence, talent and hard work?"
"Of the 5 I had this semester, the one A so far is the class that was the least work and most fun, yet I felt I learned and grew a lot as a writer. (OK, so maybe it was just because my teacher was totally hot!)"
Blog content deletion
On March 13, 2007, Erica deleted the contents of her entire blog, save for one article entitled "Ms. Understood" that explained the contents were removed "due to pending litigation and publication" and invited readers to visit her writing page, though she sarcastically warned that anyone who attended Columbia would lack the necessary reading ability to understand it. The deletion came days after Erica became aware of her blog excerpts being posted in this WikiCU article and responded to it on her talk page.
Post Columbia
Erica was accepted and plans to attend the MFA program at CalArts, after unsuccessfully applying to several Columbia graduate programs.
