Drought international
campus
national
HONG KONG’S FIGHT FOR DEMOCRACY
RECONSIDERING “A COLLEGE IN A GARDEN”
REFLECTING ON FERGUSON
6
10
8
staff + editor’s note
STEPHANIE STEINBRECHER
editor-in-chief
BEN HACKENBERGER
KRISTI SUN
campus editor
publisher
COPY EDITORS
EDITORS-IN-CHIEF EMERITUS DESIGN & ART STAFF
GISELLE GARCIA
national editor
KEVIN WU
international editor
APRIL XIAOYI XU, LAUREN BOLLINGER, LAUREN D’SOUZA, FEATHER FLORES, NIMRAH IMAM, JENNA HUSSEIN, NINA POSNER, BECCA MARX + RICHARD AHNE TIM REYNOLDS NIKOLE MCDUFFIE, ISAAC TUCKER-RASBURY, NOAH LEVINE + EMMALINE MEILLE JEWEL MENSAH (photographer)
Editorial: This is (Virtual) Water In 1993, a British geographer named John Anthony Allan invented the descriptor “virtual water.” After studying water shortages and food supply in the Middle East, Allan concluded that water consumption should be considered by the total amount of water used in production during exchanges. Virtual water is the sum of water, both visible and invisible, used to bring a product before you. And oftentimes, it goes unrecognized. A single almond has a water footprint of 1.1 gallons. A pound of coffee, 2,264 gallons. Beef production requires 11 times the average amount of water needed for other livestock. This virtual water, however, is usually invisible to consumers as they behold the meat refrigerator at the supermarket, therefore playing no influencing role in their decision to buy. The choices we make—food-related and otherwise— reflect the discrete ways we think about our world, and where we locate ourselves within it. Not acknowledging the virtual as well as the visible can be damaging. What do we lose when we don’t connect our own lives and decisions to larger collective narratives, or to others around us? (Turn to page 10 for one good answer.) Maybe it’s up to us to just be more conscious. In his 2005 Kenyon College commencement speech, David Foster Wallace suggested that learning to think—
ANDY WRIGHT FRANCES WANG web editor web editor
the purported essence of a liberal arts education—really means learning how to choose how and what to think. “It means being conscious and aware enough to choose what you pay attention to and to choose how you construct meaning from experience.” To show how we can think consciously, Wallace examined the supposed menace of supermarkets and their “dreary, annoying, seemingly meaningless routines.” Sterile supermarkets, with their insistence on expediency, whitewash the histories and economic conditions that bring certain goods to our shelves. Ecuadorian bananas are located an aisle away from Ethiopian coffee, plucked by shoppers who are usually only thinking mindlessly about tomorrow’s breakfast and beating people to the register. In a supermarket it’s easy not to be aware, and it’s easy not to have to choose. But to buy goods without giving proper thought to the impact of these choices, or to resign to the role of the intolerant and weary customer, is to act in a “natural default setting…operating on the automatic, unconscious belief that I am the center of the world.” When we blindly accept rather than exercise choice, we detach ourselves from a collective reality to which we fundamentally belong—the reality of the ways
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our world works, and how we fit into this larger narrative. And where does that leave us? “The really important kind of freedom involves attention and awareness and discipline, and being able truly to care about other people and to sacrifice for them over and over in myriad petty, unsexy ways every day,” said Wallace. We don’t always see the conditions that make things the way they are, as they immediately appear. But these virtual nuances do exist, and we should not feel exempt from modifying our own choices as a result. Rampant violence, tragic drought, and widespread suffering reflecting a human need for sympathy and attention. Perhaps today, then, we might consider avoiding our “default setting” of blind acceptance. Perhaps we should connect our choices—about what we buy, what we say, what we do–to how they affect the world that exists outside ourselves. To be aware, mindful, sensitive, and kind: this is how we can be conscious. To think. To recognize, perhaps, that this–what we’re all living in and of and from at this very moment–is water. Let this be our goal, as students of the liberal arts, human beings, and inhabitants of this planet.
editor@claremontportside.com
table of contents
the
compass campus 10 | DROUGHT ON CAMPUS will schumacher + tim reynolds 19 | STATE ASSEMBLY CANDIDATE michael choi 20 | GRADE INFLATION chrisi morrison
national
international
4 | GUN CONTROL & MARKSMANSHIP lauren d’souza 8 | FERGUSON eirik hansen + andy wright 12 | GAMING MISOGYNY nick browne 16 | MIDTERM ELECTIONS richard ahne 18 | MICHAEL SAM & THE MEDIA cori fukushima
6 | UNIVERSAL SUFFRAGE IN HONG KONG april xiaoyi xu 13 | EBOLA: WHOSE FIGHT IS IT? jenna hussein 14 | PROPAGANDA IN UKRAINE AND RUSSIA anna balderston 15 | SCOTTISH INDEPENDENCE ross steinberg
ABOUT US: The Claremont Port Side is dedicated to providing the Cla-
remont Colleges with contextualized, intelligent reports to advance debate among students and citizens. We are a progressive newsmagazine that offers pertinent information and thoughtful analysis on the issues confronting and challenging our world, our country, and our community. Each article in the Claremont Port Side reflects the opinion of its author(s) and does not represent the Claremont Port Side, its editors, its staff, or the Claremont Colleges.
Generation Progress works to help young people—advocates, activists, journalists, artists—make their voices heard on issues that matter. Learn more at genprogress.org.
[SINGLE COPIES ARE FREE. TO PURCHASE ADDITIONAL COPIES, PLEASE CONTACT PUBLISHER@CLAREMONTPORTSIDE.COM]
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national
Gun Control Revisited
Bringing the gun control issue to center stage yet again By Lauren D’Souza Copy Editor/Staff Writer, CM ‘18 One December 2006 morning in a suburb of North Carolina, the Dwyer family was going through their morning routine. Mr. Dwyer, the musical minister at the local parish, was away for the week; Mrs. Dwyer was preparing her two boys for school. According to a September 2013 article from The New York Times, Mrs. Dwyer had removed the family’s .25-caliber handgun from its usual place in the bureau the night before and set it on her bed; that morning, she forgot to put it back. Her 8-year-old found the gun. He cocked it and pulled the trigger, pointing it at the floor of the bathroom, but there was no bullet in the chamber. Continuing to believe it was not loaded, he aimed it at his five-yearold brother to scare him and pulled the trigger. This time, the gun fired, and the fiveyear-old was shot through the forehead. Stories like this have become shockingly commonplace in the United States. These killings usually affect children under 15 and are committed by other children under 15. Often, states are inconsistent when recording these deaths—medical examiners fluctuate between classifying them as accidents, homicides and negligence—so there is no definitive statistic on the number of accidental gun deaths. Whatever the statistic is, it is not likely to decrease any time soon. According to a June 2014 article from Slate, children are 17 times more likely to die because of firearms in the United States than in any other developed country. Furthermore, fewer than 20 states have laws that hold owners criminally liable for failing to safely store their guns.
Consequences of gun culture The widespread culture of gun ownership in the United States has unfortunately caused children to become overly familiar with weapons. When this paradigm, along with the culture of aggression and masculinity perpetrated by television, films and video games, is so persistent, violence begins to look like the best and only solution. This attitude is manifested in the myriad
mass shootings of the past five years. Most of the shooters have been white men under the age of 25, as was the case with the May 2014 UCSB shooting, the July 2012 Aurora shooting, and the January 2011 Tucson shooting. Whether mentally stable or unstable, the fact remains that these three men unleashed their rage by needlessly murdering innocent people. The cases of accidental gun deaths and mass shootings all over the United States are shocking and appalling, but ultimately have not been catalysts for change. The debate over gun control resurfaces with every tragedy, but fades away soon after. This cannot continue to happen. Every time the issue is tabled, it is another opportunity for weapons to be abused and innocent people to be killed.
Gun control gridlock In an April 2013 analysis of why proposed gun control legislation failed, New Yorker columnist Ryan Lizza commented that “almost every defect of our creaking political system” stopped the progress of reform that nearly 90 percent of the country supported. Furthermore, the National Rifle Association (NRA) is a hugely powerful congressional interest group that spends millions of dollars annually lobbying against proposed gun control bills. In 2013, according to the Center for Public Integrity, the NRA spent $3 million campaigning against bills such as H.R. 751 (the Protect America’s Schools Act), H.R. 274 (the Mental Health First Act) and S. 174 (the NICS/Gun Checks Reporting Improvement Act). One of the more common appeals antigun control activists make is to the Second Amendment protection of the “right to bear arms.” But how should this be considered in a modern context? “The Second Amendment was written with the understanding that there would be no permanent standing army and that military power would be in the hands [of] the individuals who made up the militia,” said Claremont McKenna Professor of History Ian Hopper. “Now that the United States has a permanent centrally-controlled military establishment, the check to governmental
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power presented by the now-theoretical militias imagined in the Second Amendment is a dead letter.”
The paradox of “better policy” When the all-too-common mass shootings in the United States become widelypublicized events that garner negative press from international commentators as well as domestic media, the US has an obligation to respond to criticism and implement gun control reform. But, this is complicated by the fact that statistics show no clear correlation between gun ownership and gun homicide rates. Laws and data vary from state to state— they are particularly inconsistent in a large state like California. So-called “good” and “bad” gun control laws are essentially unimportant in the manifestation of violence; California has some of the strictest laws but one of the highest gun homicide rates, while Maine has the loosest laws and a relatively low gun homicide rate. “Gun laws cannot account for these differences,” said Professor Hopper. He concluded that improved gun policies may have “a political purpose, [but] dubious ability to curb gun deaths.”
An example of effective policy According to a July 2012 article from The Atlantic, Japan has “virtually eliminated shooting deaths” with their stringent gun ownership policies. The article states that in 2008, the US had about 12,000 gunrelated deaths; Japan had 11. To start, handguns and small rifles are absolutely banned in Japan. The only types of guns allowed are shotguns and air rifles, and the process to obtain them is time-consuming and ongoing. Ammunition itself is difficult to buy and comes with specific regulations on how much a person can own and where they can store it. Even Japanese law states that “no person shall possess firearm(s) or sword(s)”—this directly contrasts with the American Constitutional provision that citizens have the right to bear arms. Though some may call it a “police state” in this regard, Japan boasts the secondlowest murder rate in the world. To those
national
who fear the same in the US, Pomona Professor of Sociology Professor Colin Beck has news: “The reality is that we already live in a police state.” Contrary to popular belief, “our communication with each other is surveilled, protest and assembly is tightly controlled and, as Ferguson showed, police forces are actually paramilitary instruments of repression,” said Professor Beck. “In fact, social control works so well in the US that we rarely see direct evidence of the police state.” Of course, the two countries are very historically and culturally different—it is highly unlikely that the United States would ever adopt gun laws as strict as Japan’s. In fact, as Professor Beck pointed out, these laws wouldn’t even succeed in America. “Americans own a lot of guns of a lot of types. So a comparison to Japan, Britain or any number of other countries that have stricter gun control laws is not quite apt.”
Where we are now The idea that the US needs some form of gun control reform is fairly popular among citizens today. “There’s this prevalent idea in our society that guns are necessary,” said Larissa Peltola CM ‘18. “The pro-gun view creates the idea that violence and retaliation in the name of self-defense are not only okay, but essential. Children are going to grow up and think they need to buy a gun to protect themselves and their family and perpetuate this detrimental culture of aggression even more.” Of course, the country comes together when gun-related tragedies occur, but actual progress in legislation is the key to change at this point. No matter what, it is clear that we need new methods of looking at and talking about gun violence as we move forward. How? In a June 2014 feature from The Daily Beast, contributor Dean Obeidallah suggests four new methods of “thinking big” on the issue of gun control: “Fund grassroots activism targeting corporations; use the tactics of antiabortion groups; repeal the 2005 Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act; or rewrite the Second Amendment.”
and the US,” as there is “a difference between the US and most of the rest of the developed world.” Gun control laws in many other industrialized countries resemble Japan’s—according to Professor Streich, “an American perspective might be inclined to label that a police state, but that’s just normality for other people around the world.” Perhaps with changes to the United States’ gun control policies, a less conservative mindset will become the new norm, just as it has over centuries of gun control in other countries.
Peltola remarked, “I think the sad part about the issue is that we’ve discussed everything there is to discuss—there should be no more compelling argument than the deaths of hundreds of innocent people yearly. It shouldn’t be a political issue; it should be an issue of common sense and human decency.”
HOW TO GET A GUN IN JAPAN: 1. a ttend a n a l l - da y cl a ss a nd p a ss a wri tten test 2 . menta l hea l th rev i ew a nd dru g test 3. ri g orou s ba ck g rou nd check 4. p ol i ce conti nu e to check g u ns yea rl y And remember to have the police inspect the gun once per year and to re-take the class and exam every three years.
Pomona Professor of Politics Philip Streich commented that there is not so much a “big difference between Japan
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Complications of the Hong Kong democracy dream “Mind The Gap, Please.”
It is another busy day. Commuters take the stairs up, line up, receive the expressionless nod from the immigration officers, and walk across the yellow line, indicating that they have crossed the border. Again. “Please mind the gap.” The broadcast echoes over and over again, first in English, followed closely by Cantonese and finally Mandarin Chinese. People hastily walk around the Mass Transit Railway station, carrying the latest copy of the South China Morning Post, which bears the headline “Beijing to 2017 Candidates: You Don’t Have to Love Us - But You Can’t Oppose Us.” The routine of the businessmen, schoolchildren, and other commuters from Shenzhen, China to Hong Kong seems mundane. According to statistics from China Opitx, more than 40.5 million mainlanders visited Hong Kong in 2013. Yet this yellow line separates two completely different places, marking the boundary between the “Two Systems” of “One Country.” Not only is it a boundary between two intangible systems of politics and legislature, it is a boundary between two radically different ways of living. Hong Kong’s geopolitics are fascinating. With a population of 7 million, a small but self-contained government, and no military of its own, Hong Kong is situated right next to Mainland China, an increasingly powerful economy with strong military aspirations for the surrounding region. If one stands right on this yellow line and steps to the right, into Hong Kong, he or she has access to information via The New York Times, Youtube, Facebook, Twitter, and Google. If he or she takes a step to the left, the Great Firewall of Mainland China blocks all that ac-
cess, and arguably, political rights. From this factor alone, not to mention the multitude of other differences between the “Two Systems” in “One Country,” we see much more freedom in the daily lives of the people of Hong Kong.
The Hong Kong Dream for Democracy It has been seventeen years since Hong Kong was released from British rule in July 1997, at which point it was returned as part of Mainland China. That year, the Basic Law of Hong Kong went into effect. It is governed by one fundamental principle: “One Country, Two Systems,” which was designed by former Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping, the man behind fundamental economic reforms in China. Under this principle, Hong Kong is granted a large degree of political autonomy, along with the right to maintain its capitalist economy. Meanwhile, Mainland China’s one-party government does not tolerate dissent in the mainland, and state corporations have significant involvement in the economy. According to Britannica, The Basic Law “vests executive authority in a chief executive, who is under the jurisdiction of the central government in Beijing and serves a five-year term.” Legislative authority rests with a Legislative Council (LegCo), whose 70 members serve a four-year term. The Elections Committee currently consists of more than 1,200 members who represent diverse business and professional sectors, but it is dominated by pro-Beijing citizens, ensuring a majority that is obedient to the Communist Party. “Hong Kong is a mixed picture with a limited level of democracy,” said Claremont McKenna Professor of Political Science Minxin Pei. “The judiciary remains independent, but the media is decreasingly independent since July 1997. Under the British, the media was much more free. The underground mafia attack on the editor of Ming Pao [a Chinese-language newspaper published in
Britain and China signed the Joint Declaration. Hong Kong will revert to Chinese rule in 1996 under the “One Country, Two Systems” formula. Hong Kong would retain its capitalist economic system under a partly democratic and partly communist-controlled political system.
1990
WHO CONTROLS HONG KONG?
Hong Kong] is very troubling.” Professor Pei is an expert on governance in the People’s Republic of China and U.S.-Asia Relations, serving also as Director of the Keck Center for International and Strategic Studies. When asked about his view on “One Country, Two Systems,” Professor Pei opined that the accurate phrasing should be “One Country, One System” because Beijing wants Hong Kong to adopt the mainland’s political system. “China once said that it cannot have democracy because it is too poor, the peasant population is too large, people are not well-educated and civilized enough… but these excuses certainly do not apply to Hong Kong,” he said. “I do not see any reason why Hong Kong cannot have democracy.” In 2007, Mainland China promised that the people of Hong Kong would be given the liberty to directly elect their executive in 2017 and their legislators by 2020. This summer, China’s National People’s Congress Standing Committee decided that the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) will be granted universal suffrage in the selection of its Chief Executive on the basis of nomination by a “broadly representative committee” similar in composition to the current Elections Committee. According to YaleGlobal, China is to have an election “with Chinese characteristics.” The Chinese Central Government will pre-screen candidates for the position and limit the number of final candidates to two or three. This decision has caused the people of Hong Kong to mourn their dream of democracy. Additionally, it has attracted great international attention on the credibility of China, the world’s second largest economy, that ambitiously wishes to balance capitalistic democracy and socialism “with Chinese characteristics.” However, the decision may not be purely outrageous. Fundamentally, the Basic Law leaves the final say to Beijing. Therefore, although the
1997
By April Xiaoyi Xu Copy Editor/Staff Writer, PO ’18
1984
international
Universal Suffrage in Hong Kong
Beijing formally ratified Hong Kong’s post-handover miniconstitution, the Basic Law.
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Authority over Hong Kong is given back to Chinese authorities after more than 150 years of British control.
On the other hand, we should consider another question: how would Hong Kong’s dream for democracy and its current struggles shape China, politically speaking? Although Hong Kong is not very politically influential on a global scale, an interviewee from Hong Kong who wishes to remain anonymous pointed out that Hong Kong’s democracy movement could potentially influence China, but maybe not at its current stage. After all, he stated, Sun Yat-Sen chose to come to Hong Kong to be educated, and Hong Kong was responsible for introducing the first batch of foreign direct investment and capital China decided to open up. Historical examples show that political influence for Hong Kong is possible.
Relevance in Claremont Although we do not have any events that are directly related to Hong Kong’s Universal Suffrage movements here in Claremont, we do have many students and faculty members alike who follow the news and study this topic in great depth. Professor Pei suggested that the issue of Universal Suffrage in Hong Kong is relevant in several ways. Apart from the interest of those members of our community who are from the regions involved in the news story, the US has a very strong interest in democracy, and the relationship between Beijing, Hong Kong, and London is definitely an issue that is under the international spotlight.
Clara thinks that the Occupy Central Movement (a proposed nonviolent protest for universal suffrage to paralyze the heart of Hong Kong’s business district, known as Central) is not very intelligent, for it aims in part to shut down the economic center of Hong Kong, which is a worrying means of effecting change to many. A five-day boycott of classes by university students protesting against Beijing’s proposal that started on September 22 led to the commencement of Occupy Central on September 28. Protesters clashed with riot police, with reports that the police used pepper spray and tear gas before backing down. The protesters, numbering in the tens of thousands, want chief executive CY Leung to step down and demand a greater say in their next chief executive. The New York Times has reported that the Hong Kong government intends to wait out the protests as they expect economic concerns and the loss of energy and momentum to kick in shortly.
“If I’m Not Chinese, Then…Who Am I?”: The Gap in Identity “Please mind the gap.” “Please mind the gap…” The broadcast continues echoing in three languages as the Hong Kongers hastily walk around the MTR station. As Hong Kong’s struggle for democracy continues, we may as well shift our attention from politics and law to the social and human aspects of the issue. Let us ponder for a minute the fundamental cultural identity
of those who live in Hong Kong: who are Hong Kongers? How do they see themselves? Isabelle Ng PZ ‘17’s father grew up in Hong Kong and her mother was raised in Indonesia and Singapore. “I lived in Hong Kong my whole life,” she said. She identifies herself as Chinese, Cantonese and Singaporean. Victor Chan CM ‘16, an economics and history double major and President of the Hong Kong Students’ Association, commented: “I identify as American-Chinese. Born in Hong Kong to a Chinese father and American mother, I wouldn’t consider myself fully Chinese. People from Hong Kong generally have the perception that they are different from their mainland counterparts.” A Hong Kong undergraduate student who does not wish to be named raised a thought-provoking point: “When I introduce myself, I say ‘I am from Hong Kong’, but I do identify myself as Chinese. Otherwise, what am I? Who am I? After all, Hong Kong is part of China.” His response indicates an established sentiment—that Hong Kong should be able to retain its unique identity while still being a part of China. “A significant number of people, however, won’t go so far as to strive for an independent Hong Kong. But at the same time, they don’t identify themselves as ‘Chinese’ as in a citizen of the P.R.C.,” he said. Some may label Hong Kong as a long-time colony: first a colony of the United Kingdom and now of China. Hong Kong is currently very divided on the issue of universal suffrage. The Hong Kong dream of universal suffrage—and therefore political democracy—is complicated by legal, political, and demographic factors. If the people of Hong Kong fundamentally hold fragmented views on their own cultural identity due to the “One Country, Two Systems” politics and law, there is certainly a gap between the mainlanders and the Hong Kongers themselves. We should cautiously mind the gap, then, in order to keep pursuing the dream of democracy.
2014
China rules that it has veto power over any changes to Hong Kong election laws, including moves toward direct elections for the territory’s chief executive.
2007
2004
Clara Engle PO ‘15 studies Politics and Asian Studies and lived in Hong Kong for four years. In summer 2013, she researched for Pomona College Trustee and alumnus Barnard Chan on Election Reforms in Hong Kong and wrote position papers on the topic.
From her research, Clara found that the people of Hong Kong do not directly elect their Chief. “Many of the representatives in the Committee were elected by businesses, such as the insurance companies and Chinese traditional medicine firms,” she said. During the period of working for Mr. Chan, Clara wrote a proposal that Hong Kong should keep the elections committee, but instead of focusing on business interests, the Committee should promote proportional local interests as well.
Beijing said it would allow the people of Hong Kong to directly elect their executive in 2017 and legislators by 2020.
Tens of thousands of protesters took part in what organisers say could be Hong Kong’s largest pro-democracy rally in a decade.
Source: BBC News
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international
Law itself does not place any direct constraints on achieving universal suffrage, Beijing may not desire it for Hong Kong.
national
Ferguson: A Retrospective
The more things change, the more they stay the same By Eirik Eidnes Hansen, Staff Writer, PZ ‘15 & Andy Wright, Web Editor, PZ ‘16 It was midday on August 9 when police officer Darren Wilson drove up to Michael Brown and Dorian Johnson in the 2900 block of Canfield Drive in Ferguson, Mo. Less than three minutes later, Brown was dead. There are many narratives about what exactly happened, but there are a few details that are consistent. Brown and Wilson were engaged physically through the window of Wilson’s police car, during which Wilson’s gun went off once. After the first shot, Brown and Johnson attempted to flee the scene, but Wilson pursued them on foot firing at least six shots, leaving Brown fatally wounded. Key discrepancies between multiple accounts of the incident include who initiated the fight through the window and whether or not Brown ran towards Wilson threateningly after initially fleeing. The incident sparked widespread unrest in Ferguson. The day after the shooting, a peaceful memorial turned violent as people began to loot businesses and vandalize cars. Protests, riots and civil disorder of this nature lasted for over two weeks, which the police attempted to counter with riot control tactics, such as tear gas and rubber bullets. Many see police militarization and racism at fault. “It’s pretty diverse in general,” said Pieter Derdeyn PO ’16, speaking of his home in St. Louis, just 40 minutes from Ferguson. “One thing that St. Louis [has] is not outright racism, just racism inherent in the way the community is divided. You really will have streets where one side is extremely wealthy, mainly white, upperclass and the other side is underdeveloped, broken down houses, mostly black.”
Sharing information through social media sites had a large impact on the awareness of the situation for those outside Ferguson. From Vice live-streams to daily on-the-ground roundups from journalists, the abundance of internet news sources almost made it impossible not to hear about the situation. “A lot of my friends were really active [through social media],” Derdeyn continued. “They were retweeting a lot, sending us pictures, stuff like that…People I knew were getting very involved and very opinionated on it.” Later, he mentioned the prominence of Vine as a social media platform, with six-second videos of “the tanks rolling in or tear gas being thrown” pervading his feed. Derdeyn also spoke on his local alderman being “thrown in jail for trying to report on [the riots.]” Antonio French (@AntonioFrench) continues to demonstrate in Ferguson, and has roughly 112,000 followers as of this writing. On top of media fallout from Twitter, the Ferguson police force has also received criticism for the way they handled the resulting riots. Senator Claire McCaskill (D-MO), believes that the “militarization of police escalated the protesters’ response.” News cameras caught footage of a police officer inciting protesters by shouting, “Bring it, you fucking animals, bring it.” The Justice Department has since made plans to investigate the Ferguson police department for misconduct and discrimination. Multiple journalists, who were not participating in the riots, were arrested. There have also been reports and videos of journalists being tear gassed and shot with rubber bullets, begging the question of whether Ferguson police
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are attempting to restrict their right to freedom of the press. “It’s surprising to me to be having this same conversation again all these years later,” Jim Newton of the Los Angeles Times told the Port Side. Newton was a reporter on the streets of Los Angeles during the 1992 Rodney King riots, events similarly attributed to civic unrest and police racism. “The magnitude of it was enormous, and the magnitude of the city was enormous. We ended up with...50, 55 wound up dead when it was all said and done, with to two or three billion dollars of property damage. So the scale of this was obviously much different.” Newton also saw similarities in the militarization of police between the riots in L.A. and Ferguson. “In [1992] LAPD... very much fancied itself a paramilitary organization,” he said. “The police ethic in those days was not to interact with the public. You drove in a car, responded to the radio calls, made arrests, dropped suspects off and went back on the streets. There was not a lot of schmoozing or trying to understand the public very well.” In the wake of the media spotlight on Ferguson, conservative groups have begun lashing back at the so-called ‘injustice’ of the focus. One particular article published in the Washington Times compared the murder of Michael Brown to another killing outside of South Salt Lake, Utah, calling the circumstances “nearly identical… two young, unarmed men with sketchy criminal pasts shot to death by police officers two days apart.” Dillon Taylor, the victim of the South Salt Lake murder, is described as “white and Hispanic” with warrants out for his arrest, while the officer that shot him was “not white.”
campus
“
The strained race relations, and race, clearly were important factors in understanding the antagonism between the police departments in both [the L.A. Riots and Ferguson] and their communities. And therefore, it is also obviously a part of the coverage, as it should be, because it is an essential fact of these stories. Los Angeles Times Reporter
Critics have been using Mr. Taylor’s case as a platform to question race bias in media, again through the platform of Twitter. As conservative radio-host Wayne Dupree tweeted recently, “#LiberalMedia can’t find [their] way to cover the story” of Taylor. There’s no clear answer here, especially given the highly charged situation. Both Brown and Taylor were undoubtedly the victims of police brutality, but Brown’s unfortunate story is emblematic of a much larger social and systemic problem. “There is no question that there are racial elements in a lot of things that news organizations and media cover,” said Newton. Later, Newton compared the similarities between 1992 L.A. and Ferguson. “[These were both] cases [that] touch an obvious sore point. The strained race relations, and race, clearly were important factors in understanding the antagonism between the police departments in both riots and their communities. And therefore, it is also obviously a part of the coverage, as it should be, because it is an essential fact of these stories.”” So if the media is right to highlight Ferguson, and the police have undoubtedly overreacted, why are protestors up in arms about race?
According to a study by the United States Department of Justice, between “6.6 and 7.5 percent of all black males ages 25 to 39 were imprisoned in 2011.” Comparatively, 3.2 percent of all US citizens are currently incarcerated according to the NAACP. In 2013 the Pew Research Center reported that black men were more than six times as likely as white men to become incarcerated in state and federal prisons. Even without the contextual evidence of abused institutions like New York’s Stop and Frisk, these statistics provide a glimpse at the unequal ways in which our justice system distributes justice across certain profiled communities. Perhaps crime rates, then, speak more to the culture doing the incarcerating rather than the people being incarcerated. Another Pew Research Center poll showed that “blacks are about twice as likely as whites to say that the shooting of Michael Brown ‘raises important issues about race that need to be discussed.’” A majority of the white people polled said that post-Ferguson, “race is getting more attention than it deserves.”
“
Jim Newton
tion stretch to the earliest days of American history. Why is the dominant American sentiment that race indicates a propensity for criminality? Even if this discussion only comes into vogue through the media every 25 years, or in flare-ups like the Michael Brown case, this story is not new. The tragic shooting of Michael Brown has been linked to the devastating deaths of Trayvon Martin, Oscar Grant, and Eric Garner at the hand of police brutality. And while these cases should not be conflated, they reveal that the practice of certain people being targeted—and the subsequent discussions about “race in America”—is persistent. In Ferguson, a police officer shot an unarmed black man, reportedly with his hands held up. This matters because it is a part of a larger American narrative; it is larger than just one black teen getting shot. Or, in the words of Senator Rand Paul: “Anyone who thinks race does not skew the application of criminal justice in this country is just not paying close enough attention.”
There are countless statistics that reveal racial bias in both the criminal justice system and the way Americans perceive it. The roots of this tradi-
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campus
the Aesthetics of Influence
In drought, the idea of “college in a garden” is at a crossroads By William Schumacher, Staff Writer, PO ‘18 & Tim Reynolds, Editor-in-Chief Emeritus, PO ‘15
Colleges afford the affluent aesthetic they have cultivated?
Ralph Cornell graduated from Pomona College a century ago, one of 70 members of the class of 1914. Five years later he returned to his alma mater, and went on to serve as the College’s landscape architect for more than 40 years. In that time, Cornell carved out a green oasis among sagebrush and chaparral, building a garden of vast lawns and ivied walls.
A Drying Garden
The Claremont Colleges’ founders crafted their institutions in the image of schools like Williams and Amherst. Yet, Claremont is a far cry from the verdant hills of New England. Near the western edge of what is sometimes called “the Great American Desert,” maintaining the idyllic pastures characteristic of college campuses is not easy.
The Claremont Colleges have made some efforts to adapt. The question is whether those methods will significantly reduce water usage.
Each day, the Claremont Colleges use an average of 740,000 gallons of water, and 58 percent of that goes toward landscaping—that is to say, toward upholding a hundred-year old aesthetic ideal. “We’re all looking backward, or eastward, across time and landscape aesthetics,” said Professor Char Miller PZ ’76, Director of Pomona’s Environmental Analysis Program. “The calculation was that you could make it so and, frankly, because water was cheap, imported from all over the western states, you could get away with it.” “I think too many people think that it’s ‘us versus them,’ as if we could improve our little world if we took the resources from other places,” said Sarah Lockwood SC ‘16 of the Colleges’ profligate water use. “The aesthetics of our campus, our complete separation of the Claremont community [from] the outside world, mirrors our ignorance.” As California endures a fourth year of extreme drought, and as water prices—set by for-profit utility companies—continue to rise, can the Claremont
Consecutive years of low rainfall statewide and minimal snowfall in the Sierra Nevada have left 82 percent of California in a state of extreme drought or worse, and almost 60 percent in a state of exceptional drought conditions—the most severe classification used by the National Drought Mitigation Center.
While students take shorter showers and turn off faucets, Facilities and Grounds staff at all 5Cs have identified under-utilized lawn spaces with plans to tear up the lawns in favor of drought-resistant or native plants. That much has happened on Platt Boulevard and the east end of Marston Quad, for example. Yet for Professor Miller, tearing up bits and pieces of turf is just “nibbling at the edges [of the problem].” He thinks that students must convince alumni and trustees of the need for a more sustainable approach to campus water usage. “We’re going to have to do a lot of educating across time to help them understand that the place they went to is not sustainable,” Professor Miller said. Professor Miller is not alone in this conviction. In 2007, Professor Richard Haskell, Director of Harvey Mudd’s Center for Environmental Studies, began working with a group of concerned students and faculty on a sustainability audit. “We realized right away that water was our biggest challenge. We were already using twice as much as we could sustainably,” Professor Haskell said. “Even
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though we can take shorter showers, and there’s a lot you can do in the dorms, you don’t really gain that much water. Most of the water we’re using goes to landscape irrigation.”
The True Cost of Green Grass
Like the rest of Southern California, the Claremont Colleges would not exist as they do today were it not for one of the most ambitious water transport projects in human history. Begun in 1960 under the guidance of Governor Pat Brown, the California State Water Project (SWP) stretches over 700 miles from the northeast corner of the Bay Area to Lake Perris, just outside Riverside. It includes the world’s longest aqueduct, waters the fields of the country’s biggest agricultural economies , and sustains the sprawling populations of the West Coast’s three largest cities—Los Angeles, San Diego, and San Jose. Yet this system of superlatives has met its match in California’s worst drought on record. In January, at the behest of Governor Jerry Brown (son of Pat Brown), the Department of Water Resources dropped the SWP allocation to zero for the first time since the elder Brown initiated the project 54 years ago. This means that, so long as dry conditions persist, the Department will opt to conserve what water it does have, leaving SWP customers—including farmers, utility companies, and municipalities—to make do through other means. About 40 percent of the Claremont Colleges’ water comes from the State Water Project, purchased via the for-profit Golden State Water Company. Golden State has historically sold water at relatively reasonable rates, but that has begun to change in recent years. Each year since 2005, Golden State has raised
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rates by at least 10 percent, increasing its shareholders’ dividends, and straining customers like the Colleges.
“You have fruit groves that are dying because we want green grass…The quads, those are important, but there are just spaces that people aren’t using.”
“It’s just not clear how high rates will go,” Professor Haskell said. “The Colorado River Supply is drying up, the State Water Project is significantly down in its production. Climate change predicts this area will become even drier than it is now. There’s just no positive side.”
Though the Consortium Board of Overseers and Council of Presidents commissioned a professional feasibility study that confirmed much of Professor Haskell and Zubke’s findings, they have yet to act on the proposal.
The Claremont Colleges now spend more than one million dollars on water each year. A conservative estimate of the cost in 2030 given recent rates is more than $6.5 million per year. Dwindling water reserves and rising water prices led Professor Haskell and his team to search for a long-term solution to Claremont’s water problems.
would color the campuses,if notions of sustainability better informed conceptions of beauty. “We’ve got a really interesting regional landscape that is its own garden,” Professor Miller said. “We can cultivate that garden, and do it beautifully.” Since Orly, Miller, Haskell, and Zubke are among many that believe the Colleges’ current water usage trends are unsustainable, future landscaping changes would hopefully be indicative of more than minor shifts in aesthetic preferences.
STUDENTS AND GROUNDSKEEPERS REPLANT PLATT BOULEVARD Photo by Jewel Mensah
Reclaiming Dirty Water
In Spring 2012, Dustin Zubke HM ‘13 presented a proposal for a water reclamation plant to the Claremont University Consortium Council of Presidents based on research conducted the previous summer with Professor Haskell. Their project calls for the treatment of sewage for the purpose of watering the Colleges’ landscaping. “We can produce an effluent from the recycling plant, which is called tertiary treated, disinfected water,” Professor Haskell said. According to state regulations, water treated to that standard can be used not only for watering lawns, but also for spraying onto food crops. “It’s really quite good, safe water.” Such a system would meet roughly 46 percent of the Colleges’ irrigation demand, which would reduce the Consortium’s potable water usage by 26 to 27 percent. It would cost roughly $8.1 million, yet would likely result in $10 million or more in total savings over its first two decades of use. “We are importing almost half of our water and using that and more just to water our lawns,” Zubke said.
A New Oasis
As his career progressed, Ralph Cornell came to appreciate the importance and beauty of native plants, crafting garden landscapes that embraced natural surroundings. Aidan Orly PO ’16, President of the Ralph Cornell Society (also known as the Native Plants Club), hopes the Claremont Colleges can further develop this vision . “We need to change what we mean by ‘garden,’” Orly said. That may not mean the end of sprawling quads, but it does mean rethinking the use of lawns to fill small, unused spaces. “Perhaps it means the garden isn’t something that’s green, but something that supports native ecosystems, full of native plants.” Professor Miller imagines that much of the Claremont Colleges might one day look more like the Bernard Field Station or the Wash, a 40-acre swath of native vegetation on Pomona’s campus. That means the Colleges would look like this region once did naturally, with less grass and more live oaks, sagebrush like manzanita, and flowering shrubs. More brown and less green
Even as she emphasized the importance of cutting back on individual water use, Pomona Sustainability Coordinator Ginny Routhe agreed that Pomona’s East Coast image is incompatible with its commitment to sustainability.
“We’re doing what we can within the limitations given by the trustees,” Routhe said. “I would hope that there would be a point in the future where students and alumni speak out about the landscaping and in support of being a bit more California-friendly.” In California, water is about more than just watering the lawns. The Claremont Colleges have the capacity to influence how the state uses its most precious resource. “The Colleges can demonstrate a model for cities, other institutions, other communities for being sustainable with their water use,” Zubke said, “It’s about being part of the solution to put the region as a whole on a more sustainable path long term.” “It takes risks to do something different, to do something new. But that’s what we need at this point. It really comes down to a question of leadership: Do the Colleges want to be a leader in Southern California and more sustainable water practices? Or not?” Unless otherwise noted, all data and figures for this article came from Dustin Zubke and Professor Richard Haskell’s proposal.
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Misogyny and death threats pervade internet gaming culture By Nick Browne Staff Writer, PO ‘15 Content warning: language and gender violence In August 2014, game developer Zoe Quinn and feminist blogger Anita Sarkeesian received harassing emails, which included death and rape threats. Sarkeesian sought refuge at her friend’s house after her address was leaked, while Quinn dealt with the release of private information and the hacking of her Twitter account. These attacks, hardly the first directed at women prominent in the gaming world, are at the center of #GamerGate. This controversy in video game culture began when Quinn’s former boyfriend, Eron Gjoni, attacked her via blog post for being unfaithful; it escalated when this post sparked rumors that Quinn had
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The fact that Anita Sarkeesian felt comfortable going to the police is not true for every person. The police are a resource for a select few. Natalie DaFoitis PO ‘15
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Gaming Misogyny
slept with a reviewer in order to gain positive reviews from gaming journalists.
Sarkeesian and Quinn were harassed because their work challenged the status quo in some regard. For instance, Sarkeesian via her YouTube series Tropes Vs. Women in Video Games, discusses stereotypical depictions of women in games, and Quinn produced the game Depression Quest, a piece of interactive non-fiction made to increase awareness of depression rather than necessarily “entertain.”
Similarly, other developers have been attacked for not making “real” games. Ed Key’s ambient Proteus, for example, received similar backlash. Yet in Quinn’s case, misogyny played a large role in the attacks. Even before the release of Gjoni’s blog post, Depression Quest received heated criticism and comments such as “all females are sluts and have no right to be depressed” were released on the internet. “The most visible gaming culture has historically been games cultured by men and that’s absolutely influenced the dynamic, because, whereas outsider male game developers are at least male, outside female game developers are double outsiders,” said an anonymous student PO ‘16 who considered the sexist dynamic within these attacks. Indeed, it is true that female gamers have struggled with those who view them as intruders. The “Gamergate” hashtag originated partly from users on 4chan, an online forum featuring a large gamer community where misogynistic rants are common. “A lot of this #GamerGate stuff [involves] people saying that there’s almost this ‘Illuminati,’ this secret society that is pulling all the strings. There’s an idea that these women are controlling the journalism about games… in an attempt to evict the 4chantype people,” said the anonymous student. Notably, nowhere did Gjoni accuse Quinn of trading sex for good reviews, and Nathan Grayson, the journalist in question, never actually reviewed Depression Quest. This points to the fact that Quinn was personally attacked for her sexuality and is another victim of misogynistic slut-shaming. It is also troubling that some have trivialized the attacks and argued that the threats have been exaggerated. The anonymous student argued that this stems from the culture of 4chan-like forums. “It’s a culture
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of ubiquitous hatred and harassment. For instance, on 4chan, if one wants to say that one disagrees with someone who started a post, one will say, ‘op is a fag.’ The culture of 4chan is such that these ways of speaking are totally normalized.” Such attacks are often conducted from fake accounts, and this has raised questions over whether online anonymity enables harassment. In Pitzer Professor of Media Studies Alexandra Juhasz’s, view, anonymity is often discussed in simplistic terms. She stressed that it is often also helpful for marginalized groups. “Many trans people, for example, believe that anonymity is really helpful for them on the Internet. It allows them to express things and [belong to] communities in ways that are not endangering.” Cisgendered women maintain a certain degree of privilege even within these online communities and anonymity allows trans people to stay involved. The discourse surrounding the attacks and internet anonymity also ignores important questions surrounding the intersections between class and race. “The fact that Anita Sarkeesian felt comfortable going to the police is not true for every person. The police are a resource for a select few,” said Natalie Dafoitis PO ‘15, a member of Pomona Advocates for Survivors of Sexual Assault. “That adds another layer of complexity. Say you’re a black or brown woman receiving these threats: would you feel comfortable going to the police with them?” Female participation in online communities is affected by the degree of otherness that trans folks and women of color may experience. Attacks on female gamers occur because the Internet lacks open, democratic discourse about the norms it needs. “In the real world, there are precautions that this civilized society has put in to say, ‘this is against the law’. We have not yet figured out how to do that on the Internet,” said Professor Juhasz.
Whose fight is it?
The Ebola crisis is an example of impoverished states delegating authority to outside actors in times of crisis. It is an indication of the limited ability these states may possess to address their citizens’ basic needs. The World Bank, The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, The World Health Organization, and the U.S. Agency for International Development are only a few of the organizations that have taken steps to fight the Ebola outbreak in West Africa. As of October 2, 2014, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention counted 7,157 reported Ebola cases and 3,330 related deaths. Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone have been most heavily affected by the outbreak, with 20 reported cases in Nigeria and one in Senegal. According to the CIA World Factbook, the percentage of the country’s population that lives under the poverty line is 47 percent in Guinea, 80 percent in Liberia and 70 percent in Sierra Leone. “Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone are all weak states that lack the capacity to take on large-scale public health ventures,” said Pomona Professor of African Politics and Development Pierre Englebert. “These countries do not even run simple health care programs like childhood immunizations—these are delegated to the international community.” With this in mind, it is understandable that these states are struggling to cope with a public health epidemic of this magnitude. Being a citizen changes the nature of one’s relationship with the state if he or she cannot count on the government, especially under dire circumstances. “There is a general lack of accountability between African states and their citizens – they are weak and immune from social pressure, autonomous from society, but not from the donors on which they rely,” said Professor Englebert. Although these countries are rich in natural resources, the wealth from
their exports is not transferred into the hands of the public and is rarely invested in social services. The priorities of the national budget are oftentimes elsewhere – be it in civil servant salaries, a focus on developing particular industries, or being lost through corruption. In the case of Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, the government does not prioritize public health and invests very little in related infrastructure. These countries are simply not prepared to deal with a medical emergency of this size. The international community has stepped in to assist, but by doing so, are they inadvertently undermining the state’s authority and responsibility? As Professor Englebert aptly pointed out, “There is a conundrum between providing humanitarian need and supporting long-term state building.” “It’s not just the responsibility of the affected nations to deal with the Ebola crisis. It should be considered as a global responsibility,” says Isabel Wade CM ‘16, who just completed a summer internship in Ghana and is now spending the semester studying abroad in Senegal. Wade points to the urgency and severity of the Ebola crisis as evidence for why the international community should step in and provide immediate assistance. An outbreak is much easier to contain when local facilities and staff are prepared to tackle the illness. There are preventative measures that can be taken to strengthen the infrastructure of a country’s medical system, such as investing in training doctors, building safe and accessible hospitals and equipping them with the necessary medical equipment. If international actors seem to be taking the majority of the responsibility in dealing with epidemics, the question arises of who should be responsible for initiating preventative measures and financially supporting them.
term state building, the international community could do two things simultaneously: offer immediate humanitarian assistance, but also engage in preventative efforts that could avert a future outbreak from escalating. Ideally, building infrastructure to prevent future outbreaks should be done in collaboration with local governments. Rather than undermining the state, international actors might serve as support structures
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It’s not just the responsibility of the affected nations to deal with the Ebola crisis. It should be considered as a global responsibility. Isabel Wade CM ‘16
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By Jenna Hussein Copy Editor, CM ‘15
and allow the state to take ownership of the initiative. In one scenario, international actors could provide monetary assistance and consultation services, and nation-states can be charged with following through and executing the plans. In order for nation-states and NGOs to work together effectively, the desire to have a better public health system must originate from both sides.
In order to resolve the conundrum between humanitarian assistance and long-
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The Battle With Ebola
The effects of propaganda in Ukraine and Russia By Anna Balderston Staff Writer, CM ‘18
Ukrainian people demanded a run-off and elected the nationalist Viktor Yushchenko.
Propaganda spread by corrupt governments is a crucial issue in the age of instantly accessible media. People are more exposed to false information, allowing the government to have a much greater impact on the people’s perception of current events. This can be extremely detrimental to any efforts to create peace between governments who convince their people of opposite truths.
In 2010, Ukraine elected the pro-Russian Yanukovych again, which was part of the cause of the current Ukrainian conflict. ProEuropean Ukrainians resisted his moves to become closer with Russia instead of joining the European Union. Last February he was ousted from the presidency.
A particularly relevant case study is unfolding right now in Ukraine and Russia, where there is a cultural and political division between pro-Russian (Eastern and Southern Ukrainians) and nationalist Ukrainians (Western and Northern Ukrainians). This is most evident in the fact that the two groups don’t even share a language: Ukrainian is dominant in the North
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“There are two different realities, and it’s been like that since the beginning of the conflict. Parallel reports on the same events seem as if they’re taking place on different planets.”
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Same Conflict, Different Worlds
Fast-forward to October 2014: Crimea, the geographically-Ukrainian peninsula, is under Russian control, and Ukraine is the center of conflict. Although it can seem like a simple Ukrainian independence issue, government-issued propaganda complicates it, and seriously affects the way both Russians and Ukrainians perceive the conflict. Noah Sneider, a Pomona College alumnus and freelance journalist currently on the ground in Ukraine, explains how different the Russian and Ukrainian news sources are: “There are two different realities, and it’s been like that since the beginning of the conflict. Parallel reports on the same events seem as if they’re taking place on different planets.” Indeed, the two sides have completely different perceptions of events; for example, the Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 crash was broadcast in Russia as a failed Ukrainian attempt to assassinate Putin, whereas pro-Ukrainian news sources and international media reported the cause of the crash as a missile strike by pro-Russian separatists.
and West, whereas Eastern and Southern Ukrainians speak Russian. These cultural differences have been part of the cause of tension in Ukraine since it separated from the Soviet Union.
Another example of conflicting reports is the Odessa Trade Unions building fire on May 2, in which 42 pro-Russian separatists perished. Russian media used this tragedy as an opportunity to prove the Ukrainian government’s inability to maintain peace in the country and to bolster support for Putin. Russia’s Foreign Ministry said that the incident was due to the “criminal irresponsibility” of the Kiev authorities who “indulge insolent radical nationalists” in their violence against proRussian Ukrainians.
Ukrainian turbulence reached its tipping point in the 2004 Orange Revolution, which was sparked by electoral fraud in the presidential race between a pro-Russian candidate and a pro-Ukrainian candidate. The pro-Russian originally won, but the
But, contrary to Russia’s claims, the fire started during clashes between both sides, and it is still unclear who initiated it. The incident is an example of how easy it is for both the Ukrainian and Russian governments to use tragic events to sway the
Leora Paradise PZ ‘14
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opinions of the public. Matthew Abrahamsen CM ’18, who was in Russia at the time of the Odessa fire, said the Russian media painted Ukrainians as “fascists” and “terrorists” to convince Russians that their role in the conflict was beneficial. “They would use aggressive language to sway public favor towards Russian intervention,” he said. “Russian students thought that Russia was bringing salvation to those who were ethnically Russian in Ukraine and Crimea, and they thought they were getting ‘brothers and sisters’ back.” This type of propaganda makes it nearly impossible to make progress towards peace, since each conflict is shown as onesided as possible. Russians only receive their news from government-backed, censored channels like “Channel One,” whose message is that the conflict in Ukraine is a civil war rather than a Russian intervention. Pro-European Ukrainians also have a skewed perspective on current events. “The Ukrainian media has engaged in its own manipulations and lies, and that has an effect on the people,” said Sneider. In other words, both sides of the conflict lack unbiased, unfiltered news sources, which only acts as a catalyst for more violence. Claremont McKenna Professor of Government Matthew Peterson noted how the media impacts conflicts like the situation in Ukraine. “Technology initially accomplishes the goal of bringing information to people for whom that would otherwise be impossible, but as time goes on, governments find ways to control the media.” Such is the case in both Russia and Ukraine, where people rely on inaccurate, government-sponsored media to inform them. It is in the power of individuals to decide how to react to the conflict; however, if the people themselves are misinformed, the conflict as a whole can never be fully resolved.
Scotland and the United Kingdom: what’s next? By Ross Steinberg Staff Writer, PO ‘18 On Thursday, September 18, Scotland voted. With a record 84.6 percent turnout of the eligible voting population, the Scottish people decided 55.3 percent to 44.7 percent that England and Scotland truly were “Better Together.” Although Scotland’s fate as a sovereign nation has been decided, questions about why Scotland voted the way it did and its future role in the UK are still in flux. Scotland merged with England when both nations’ parliaments, by choice, passed the Acts of Union 1707 over 300 years ago. This created the state of Great Britain and eventually formed today’s United Kingdom. Scotland has since maintained a discrete legal system. The UK Parliament passed the Scotland Act 1998, giving Scotland its own parliament and control of its healthcare, education, police, limited control of income taxes, and various other powers. Emlyn Foxen PO ‘16 is watching the next chapter of Scotland’s history unfold on her semester abroad. “Many outsiders’ ideas about Scottish identity and history are based largely on (often wildly romanticized and inaccurate) movies like Braveheart that tend to focus on antagonism between England and Scotland based on different ethnic identities,” she said. “While Scotland-England antagonism does exist, there are so many people in Scotland that identify as British, both Scottish and English.” Citing how symbiotic the relationship between Scotland and England has been since 1707, Foxen indicated her belief that the benefits of the union have outweighed the drawbacks. But as she mentioned, the English and the Scottish do disagree on some fundamental issues, such as English support of nuclear weapons. After the great recession hit, oil-rich Scotland also became restive and dissatisfied. In 2011, the Scottish Nation Party won a majority of seats in the Scottish parliament, setting the stage for September’s independence referendum. Although the No vote (against inde-
pendence) led consistently in the polls throughout the referendum campaign, towards the end the race got considerably closer. The Sunday Telegraph even predicted that Yes would win by 7 points. Some attribute the eventual 10.6 point runaway vote to the action of pro-Union advocates. Negative campaigning as the referendum drew closer argued that Scotland’s oil reserves were quickly depleting, that Scotland would have to leave the UK’s monetary unit (the pound), that Scottish companies and banks would reincorporate in the remaining UK, and pointing out that Scotland would not automatically become part of the EU after independence. Jiri Schneider, a Senior Fellow at the Prague Security Studies Institute, believes that “though these things were true,” the Scottish had always known these facts. In the end, the majority of voters knew that it would be “complicated to facilitate independence, and something [to be] afraid of.” “It certainly seems like there was not enough of a crisis of democratic principles to overhaul that concern over [economic] security, especially a security that has been reestablished so soon after the fiscal crisis of 2008,” said Foxen. With polls so close, UK Prime Minister David Cameron promised Scotland even more devolution than in 1998. This might include more local control of the income tax and housing benefits; some Scottish optimists even hope that Scotland will be given power over oil and corporate taxes. However, considering the current autonomy that Scotland maintains, most of this power will be symbolic. “People expect Westminster to follow through on their promises of devolution. If Westminster doesn’t... I expect that the Scottish people would become quite virulent in their objections,” said Foxen. “I think the expectation of further devolution is what is keeping things so calm right now.”
volution of power is “a mess that dates back to [former UK Prime Minister] Tony Blair.” David Cameron recently said that “just as Scotland will have more power over their affairs, it follows England, Wales and Northern Ireland must have a bigger say over theirs.” “The UK is a union of unequal parts, and as soon as you have English representatives only voting on English issues, the UK per se becomes a myth,” argued Professor Andrews. Could the UK be reduced to a loose confederation of states, and would that weaken the nation and the current levels of freedom it maintains? Of course, for other regions in the world, even a little autonomy would be a dream come true. People from regions such as Corsica and Catalonia looked to the Scottish as a potential model for independence. Senan Hogan Hennessy PO ’18, hailing from Northern Ireland, believes his homeland should have a referendum on independence. Although devolution might give Northern Ireland more power, he thinks that the Northern Irish should get a vote for independence just like the Scottish did. He thinks that “with media attention dying down,” independence in places like Northern Ireland will be a long way coming: perhaps there will be more of a movement to secede “if the economic situation improves.” For Scotland, for the UK, and for the world, the reverberations of this historic referendum will be felt for years to come; whether or not it will inspire other explicit independence movements remains to be seen.
Scripps College Professor of International Relations David Andrews is the director of the European Union Center in California. He believes that this de-
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How much “Better Together?”
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Midterm Madness Looking ahead to November By Richard Ahne Copy Editor, CM ‘15 With about a month to go until Election Day, the political situation in the United States could not be more different than it was two years ago. In 2012, the Democratic Party saw the decisive reelection of a Democratic President, the expansion of its Senate majority by four seats and the narrowing of its House minority by eight seats. Now, as the November 2014 midterm elections approach, there are no presidential candidates on the ballot. Meanwhile, the Democrats are in danger of losing their Senate majority as they try to defend twenty-one seats, six of which are in states that Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney carried in 2012. The Democrats will work towards winning back the House, and some commentators have been predicting losses. Alaska, Arkansas, Colorado, Georgia, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, and North Carolina are generally agreed to be the states to watch as Republicans vie to take over the Senate. Much like the NCAA, both parties have now solidified their draft picks of candidates through recruitment and the primaries. In 2012, the media and Democrats attacked Todd Akin for his pathetic attempt to defend his “legitimate rape” comment. This time around, Republicans seemed to have quashed candidates from the fringe extreme in favor of still ardently conservative yet more “electable” ones. Regardless of the matchups, the final outcomes are quite uncertain. The Political Stadium There are many factors that have contributed to the changes that we see today during midterm elections season. First off, while President Obama is no longer on the ballot, he still has a major impact on the race. His approval ratings have since taken a significant hit from a string of both domestic and foreign policy flare-ups. While the issues beleaguering the White House have, for the most part, are continuing to be
addressed, Obama’s poll numbers have not recovered. Sensing the president’s weakness, Republicans and their Super PAC allies, most prominently the billionaire Koch brothersfounded Americans for Prosperity, have already taken action against the Democrats. In an attempt to link Democrats across the country with a struggling Obama, they have carpet-bombed millions of dollars onto the airwaves and have significantly outspent their opponents in outside spending campaigns. Meanwhile, the electoral landscape during a midterm election is radically different from that of a presidential election. Voter turnout shrinks dramatically in midterm elections. A July Pew Research Center report notes that 57.1 percent of the eligible population voted for the 2008 presidential election, but only 36.9 percent voted in the midterm election two years later that gave Republicans the House majority. Traditionally, Democrats suffer at the hands of voter turnout rates more than Republicans. The Play-by-Play: The “Issues” Unlike previous elections, a single issue does not seem to be the most salient to potential voters. According to The Washington Post, there has not been a dominant theme that has emerged for the 2014 elections. Regardless, issues regarding economic security may continue to have an overcast over the tone of the elections, as they have historically. “It always ends up being about the economy though,” said Claremont McKenna’s Roy P. Crocker Professor of American Politics Jack Pitney. “It’s because people vote their pocketbooks.” Professor Pitney has focused on these economic trends during his recent talk hosted by the Marian Miner Cook Athenaeum. Meanwhile, different issues in different states across the country have risen in importance, playing integral roles among different racial backgrounds across the country. The “war on women,” the “war
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on coal,” the Affordable Care Act, and immigration are among the many concerns receiving attention from voters, the media, and the candidates themselves. “There are plenty of heated issues in the Udall-Gardner [US Senate] race that are important for Coloradans,” said Joseph Hinton CM ‘16, a native of Littleton, Colo. “The top ones would have to be the economy, new health care laws, immigration reform and legislation involving energy and the environment.” “I’d say in Kentucky at least, voters have the Affordable Care Act in mind,” said Leah Hughes SC ‘15, a native of Louisville, KY. “People in Kentucky benefited hugely from Governor [Steve] Beshear’s decision to set up a state-level exchange and to expand Medicaid. It just so happens that… one of the candidates continues to insist that we repeal the ACA all together and one is touting its efficacy.” Foreign policy and its national security implications is a growing issue that might emerge as important in the elections. This may especially become important as the operation against the terrorists of Islamic State (IS) continues on, as well as relations with Russia in regards to the Ukrainian crisis. “[Foreign policy] does come into play when American lives and interests are directly at stake...How that plays out this fall, I don’t know… but if they do, it might have some impact.” said Pitney. Meanwhile, candidates, outside groups, and political consultants have, as usual, made ad hominem attacks and “gotcha” moments the stuff of campaign fodder. Iowa Senate candidate Joni Ernst provides a rather illustrious example—the conservative Iraq veteran skyrocketed through the polls after advertisements depicting her “castrating hogs on a farm” and pelting bullets in a shooting range were released. Democrats have also focused on her opinions about gutting the Environmental Protection
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Agency and privatizing Social Security. Iowa’s contentious Senate race has drawn everyone from the Kochs to Ted Cruz to Mitt Romney to rally behind Ernst against her opponent, Democratic Rep. Bruce Braley.
The Soon-to-be Champions: A Republican Senate? Speculation about which party will be in the Senate majority after November 4 is still a hot dispute. With too-close-to-call polls, commentators have started to shift focus on to what kind of legislative agenda a would-be Republican-controlled Senate, and therefore a Republican-controlled Congress, would pursue. “Number One: finding some way to chip away at Obamacare,” said Pitney when asked about potential legislative priorities for a GOP-controlled Congress. Aside from their continuing efforts to undermine the Affordable Care Act, a GOP-controlled Senate and House would also look most likely to rein in the White House’s actions to halt climate
“Even if the Republicans manage to pass legislation in both chambers, Obama would veto it and that would be that,” said Pitney. Meanwhile, important issues confronting the country, from immigration reform, climate change, gun violence, investments for the future, war and peace and economic opportunity will be left ultimately unaddressed, if at all seriously. “It’s very unlikely that the next two years of Congress will produce any major domestic legislation, and that’s whether the Republicans or Democrats control the Senate,” said Pitney.
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immigration and climate change initiatives.
change. A GOP Senate is likely to make moves towards ending the delay placed on constructing the extraordinarily controversial Keystone XL pipeline and abolishing the EPA’s recent regulations against carbon emissions. “They are definitely going to push for more energy development,” said Pitney.
Who Really Wins the Trophy? A (Still) Divided Country Regardless of the outcomes of the midterm elections, one thing that is certain is that the polarized gridlock plaguing the country is unlikely to subside. Even sizable Republican control of both the Senate and the House may prove to be little more than a major annoyance for Obama during the last two years of his presidency, as he is likely to continue to use his veto pen in the face of political gridlock. As the outgoing President, he might especially use executive orders against any Republican attempts to gut or repeal his implementation of health care,
Although there is a small hope that divided government between Capitol Hill and the White House might get some things done during its lame-duck sessions, it seems unlikely, especially with the forthcoming 2016 presidential election. “Even if Obama’s numbers were better, the last two years of a presidency almost never produce any major domestic legislation,” concluded Pitney. In the face of increasing polarization among the American electorate and an unwillingness to compromise in Washington, party clashes and further gridlock seem almost inevitable. So for the disenchanted American voter, why even bother showing up to the polls, or mailing in that absentee ballot? Some common refrains heard in such depressing times include “the system is broken” and “both parties are the same.” In the face of political stagnation or, in some cases, regression, thinking progressively can be a challenge. But if gridlock and ideological polarization have taught us anything, it is that the voices of the electorate are needed now more than ever. It is well to remember the importance of midterms. The fate of Congress, and by extension the next few years of national politics, depend on it.
claremontportside.com | volume XII issue 1 | october 2014 | page 17
A commercial break from NFL athletes’ domestic violence By Cori Fukushima Staff Writer, SC ‘16
director of the Claremont Colleges’ Queer Resource Center.
Trigger warning: assault and violence against women.
Sam is now on the Dallas Cowboys’ practice squad, hoping to move up to the active roster. “Players picked in the first few rounds are pretty much guaranteed spots on the roster, but players drafted in the last two rounds are at a great risk of getting cut,” explained Spencer Drazovich CM ‘17 of the ClaremontMudd-Scripps football team.
Michael Sam, 6-foot-2 and 216-pound defensive end from the University of Missouri, entered the 2014 National Football League draft in May as a First Team All-American Southeastern Conference Defensive Player of the Year. As the media would not let anyone forget, he also entered the draft as an openly gay man. After being picked up in the seventh round by the Saint Louis Rams, Sam became one of the biggest sports stories of the summer as the first openly gay man drafted into the NFL.
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Perhaps what needs to change is not only the way the NFL handles what have become media outbursts, but the message that it and its players inject into the American cultural landscape.
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national
The Media-Driven Politics of Football
The media highlighted the kiss that Sam and his boyfriend, Vito Cammisano, shared the moment they heard Sam had been drafted. News segments reported on Sam’s childhood, his relationship with Cammisano, and Sam’s speech at the ESPY Awards show upon receiving the Arthur Ashe Courage Award.
In his acceptance speech, Sam shares a story of how he helped a girl come to terms with her homosexuality, a process of self-realization that prevented her from committing suicide. “He provides amazing role modeling. Folks can look at him… breaking all these boundaries,” said Dr. Adriana di Bartolo,
Sam’s wide acceptance throughout the sports world has almost eclipsed other negative criticism directed at the NFL. The league continues to receive flak for its loose policy on reprimanding players convicted of domestic violence and assault, as well as the high rate of serious injuries incurred by players. “It’s a run-around by the NFL,” said Pomona Professor of Media Studies Jonathan Hall. “They [the NFL] are under attack because of the reporting of the physical damage football does to the brain… and some political issues the NFL is slow to address. The media has decided it is okay for a gay player to come out.” After being lauded by fans for supposedly highlighting progressivism in the world of sports, Sam’s story has been followed closely by the media. Sam has served as a kind of media bandage—his “success story” has helped the NFL gloss over the stories it did not want in the headlines, the most recent being Baltimore Ravens’ Ray Rice’s indictment for third-degree aggravated assault. In February, footage surfaced that showed Rice pull his unconscious wife out of an elevator after striking her. He was suspended for only two games, prompting immense outcry. A second video was released this summer showing Rice punch his wife in the face, when she then was knocked unconscious. Rice was suspended indefinitely following the release of the second video, and the media attention the assault prompted has created a major backlash against the NFL. People returned Rice jerseys, fans accused NFL commissioner Roger
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Goodell of having prior knowledge of the tapes and a general lax attitude when handling player punishments, and more have called out to sponsors to hold the league accountable. Fans have made appeals to CoverGirl to drop the NFL particularly, in light of the assault cases on women. Estimates show that women constitute over 80 million NFL fans. The NFL’s publicity bandage is largely ripped off now, as Sam has lately avoided attention from the press. His focus on making the Cowboy’s active roster has given the media ample opportunity to focus on the revival of Rice’s assault. As America’s most popular sport and source of entertainment, professional football will remain in the news regardless of whether or not the NFL finds a way to responsibly handle this critical attention. Will the NFL take seriously and respond appropriately to this violence? Are fans demanding that the league take enough action against its players? The latest headlines on the NFL also call into question the culture of masculinity surrounding the sport; the kinds of messages the NFL’s actions send should be given some consideration, given how widely consumed football is across the country. “The same culture of homophobia that is not creating capacity for folks to be out is also the same thing that is supporting the assault and domestic violence seen in some NFL players,” said di Bartolo. Perhaps what needs to change is not only the way the NFL handles what have become media outbursts, but the message that it and its players inject into the American cultural landscape. The media has forced the NFL to take action rather than wait for a new story to change the tide back in their favor, as Sam’s did. After a series of mishandlings the NFL is facing more scrutiny and widespread public attention than ever, whether it likes it or not.
campus
Youth and Politics
From reading the news to running for office By Michael Choi Staff Writer, CM ‘18 Given the spirit of social-mindedness and innovation at the Claremont Colleges, it is no surprise that many graduates go on to seek careers in civic engagement. Today, however, one student is not even waiting for his degree before pursuing his aspirations to lead in the world of politics. At the age of 18, Nathan Tsai CM ‘17 became an official candidate on the California State Assembly ballot. Tsai just meets the minimum age required of members of the State Assembly and is one of the youngest individuals to run for state office in US history. Only a few years after first engaging in political discourse as a member of the San Marino High School Speech and Debate Team, Tsai now finds himself as a candidate to represent the 41st District of California. When Tsai learned that incumbent Assemblymember Chris Holden was running unopposed in the upcoming November election, he decided to enter the race. He officially became a write-in candidate as a member of the Republican Party on April 9. “Every decision made in politics will affect our generation,” Tsai told the Port Side. With education and public transportation as top priorities of his platform, he said he is focusing “100 percent of his campaign on the people of California.” Tsai emphasized that his interests involve serving what he believes to be the current needs of the people he hopes to represent. Every week he spends at least 30 hours on his campaign, in addition to serving in various campus leadership positions and training with the Army ROTC Program. Tsai provides a rather exceptional example of youth involvement in politics. And while elected office may not appeal to everyone, the local and national political processes should. In a conversation with the Port Side, Claremont McKenna Professor of Government Charles Kesler stressed that college students should familiarize themselves with the politics that inevitably will influence their futures.
Millennials have already had—and will continue to have—a profound effect on the national political landscape. “The college student age group (1830) basically elected Barack Obama with over 60 percent of their votes in 2008 and right at 60 percent in 2012,” said Claremont McKenna Professor of Government Frederick Lynch in an email. “Without their landslide vote, [President Obama] would have lost in 2008 and might have in 2012.” Today, political participation continues to be crucial. “Polarization and gridlock enhance the the importance of the individual voter. In close contests, every vote counts,” said Professor Lynch. The President’s two campaigns are illustrious examples of youth turning out and using their vote to have their voices heard. However, Professor Lynch noted that “the percentage of 18 to 30 year-old voters who turn out is usually lower than other age groups.” According to a July 7 report from Pew Research Center, 10 percent of Americans are “politically disengaged”—that is, they are not registered to vote and do not “follow government and public affairs most of the time (this compares with 48 percent of Americans overall).” And 38 percent of these “bystanders” are under the age of 30. Tsai’s website indicates that one of his emphases is the “get out the vote” campaign. This goal aims to increase registration rates and voter turnout among the 18-24 year-old demographic in order to “spread the importance of taking our future into our own hands.” While Claremont is an outstandingly active and vocal environment, the campuses themselves can be insulating. Students sometimes call this “the bubble” effect. But engaging in larger political dialogues outside the immediate campus community is critical to fully participate in a democratic society. This may be manifested in a number of ways, from showing up at the polls to showing up at demonstrations to showing up at campaign events. “Among their age peers, college students tend to be more politically aware and have the time and resources to engage in politics,” said Professor Lynch.
So what should 5Cers do? Study and research are what led Tsai to seriously consider local government and how he could take part in it. Independent edification is critical, according to both Professor Kesler and Professor Lynch, for people of all ages to learn about issues and policies that matter to them. Various news sources and the Internet, Professor Kesler said, can provide important information and perspectives on political systems. Academia can also feed into this important step of political engagement: “political science courses… will hugely enhance any direct off-campus involvement,” said Professor Lynch. Off-campus study opportunities also such as the Claremont McKenna Washington Program offer the unique chance to learn about national politics directly. The learning opportunities college provides are unparalleled, as are the opportunities to engage in meaningful conversations with fellow inquisitive, forward-thinking individuals. The world beyond Claremont beckons—and as individuals affected by the social, economic, and political conditions of our society, it is our responsibility to acquaint ourselves with the structures and systems that determine how these spheres operate. So where to go from here? Professor Lynch gives succinct advice: “as in life, so it is in getting into politics: half the task is accomplished by simply showing up.”
claremontportside.com | volume XII issue 1 | october 2014 | page 19
the Grade Inflation Reconsidered
Harvey Mudd takes on grade distribution By Chrisi Morrison Staff Writer, PO ‘16
The unique system of cross-enrollment at the 5Cs has convoluted the calculation of grade inflation at each institution. Harvey Mudd Registrar Mark Ashley said that in order to regulate grade distribution, students must take their core requirement classes at Mudd unless classes in a desired department are not offered. Each college takes a different approach in combating grade inflation, but a common sentiment is clear: the cultural cycle of grade inflation is hard to break once set into motion. “Grade inflation [is a] collective action problem,” said Pomona Professor of Politics John Seery. “If a single professor enacts a more severe grade scheme without everyone doing it, his/her students are penalized, if an entire school does, then you disadvantage students getting into graduate school.” Harvey Mudd has a collective action reputation for taking a stand against the pressures or grade inflation. “Graduate programs that know Harvey Mudd sometimes lower their minimum required GPA,”
S F ‘12 ‘12
S ‘13
F S ‘13 ‘14
11.857
11.750
11.933
11.750
CMC
11.857
Scripps College, Pitzer College, and Claremont McKenna College fare similar reputations. Harvey Mudd College students have historically averaged lower GPAs, with 19 percent of graduates last spring graduating with a 3.7 GPA or higher.
F ‘11
11.714
The 5Cs are no exception to this scrutiny. Among the grade distribution reported at comparable institutions, Pomona College has historically been among the highest. To be in the top 25 percent of the graduating class for spring 2014, a Pomona senior had to achieve a 11.875 (3.95) GPA.
S ‘11
11.750
As exemplified by Princeton’s failed grade deflation policy and Wellesley’s grade capping experiment, elite academic institutions have been weighing the topic of grade inflation, and what to do about it, for years.
ued, and “faculty face peer pressure to not give a lot of high grades.”
Pomona College Top 25% GPA Cutoff
Senior GPAs by Semester
Pomona College
said Ashley. “A student applied to a software internship years ago, where the minimum GPA requirement for many other colleges was 3.3, while a Harvey Mudd student needed a 2.7.” The collective grade culture at HMC extends to outside employers and graduate schools through a letter that accompanies each official transcript, which outlines the grading standards at the college. The Judging Performance Letter boasts that “over the 50-year plus history of the college, only seven students have earned straight A’s for all four years of Study.” The letter also outlines the factors in judging academic performance at HMC. It recognizes “some grade inflation has occurred” but “continues to lag as much as two tenths of a point behind many peer institutions.” To show how the rigor differs from peer intuitions, the letter also states HMC students earn half a grade point higher while studying abroad for the same types of courses they take on campus. Ashley states professors’ attitudes are a leading force in this collective action. In contrast to other elite institutions, variance between students is val-
While the selectivity of high grades could induce hostile competitiveness among students, HMC fosters a very collaborative environment. Kunal Menda, a 3-2 Economics-Engineering student who attended CMC for the first three years of his program but is now attending HMC said, “The work environment at HMC has been more collaborative than anywhere else I’ve seen. I’ve never felt that someone’s intentions were to get ahead of everyone else, rather everyone seems to want to work together to get through it.” Menda sees the honor code at HMC as not only the source of this collaborative environment, but essential in creating an environment less focused on grades and more on learning and academic integrity. Having studied at CMC for three years prior, he says this is not an attitude that spans across the 5Cs. “At Mudd, I’ve never seen someone give themselves more credit than they felt they deserved because there isn’t any pressure to get the A that everyone else is getting (which often existed at CMC), neither is there the deterrent of getting caught,” he said. “Since every punishment is on a self report basis, people seem to be more honest about their work, and grades seem to matter less than learning.” This focus on learning rather than grade preoccupation is inherent to the idea of a liberal arts education. Professor Seery emphasized this idea in his interview, though he noted that one potential benefit of grade inflation might be the peace of mind it creates for students, allowing them to focus less on grades and more on learning. However, in the midst of years of grade inflation debates, Professor Seery has grown weary of grades entirely. “Screw the [grade] system entirely,” he concluded. “Let’s go back to narrative evaluations.”