Students love free things, but (Thursday's) melee in the Carolina Student Union Auditorium was a disgrace.
As workers prepared to open the doors to a free screening of "8 Mile," a movie loosely based on rapper Eminem's life, students in the back bum-rushed the line, creating a frantic free-for-all.
Those in the front got pushed aside and elbowed, resulting in a girl's injury. As the auditorium filled, organizers had to turn people away, many of whom were originally at the beginning of the line. In the end, the mob won and the movie started as planned.
To anyone observing, this display was an embarrassment.
In retrospect, however, the scene that occurred in the Union was simply more than unruly college students vying for seats to a movie because they were too cheap to buy the tickets in theaters.
The buildup to the chaos and the cross-section of students in their GAP and Fubu jeans who waited three hours before the movie began reflected the rise that Eminem has made in the last two years.
In 2000, Eminem served as the poster boy for everything that was wrong with white America. He was white trash, a misogynist and a homophobe.
Today, people still do not know how to describe this young man.
He still harbors resentment at society, yet his music is frank, revealing and surprisingly personal.
