January 16, 2019

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Men’s basketball falls to Syracuse Page 11

T H E I N D E P E N D E N T D A I LY AT D U K E U N I V E R S I T Y

WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 16, 2019 DUKECHRONICLE.COM

ONE HUNDRED AND FOURTEENTH YEAR, ISSUE 33

MEN’S BASKETBALL

Tre Jones ‘out indefinitely’ with shoulder injury

Making delivery

By Mitchell Gladstone Associate Sports Editor

With Cam Reddish already sidelined by illness, Duke lost another piece of its star-studded freshman foursome Monday.

Starting point guard Tre Jones collided with Frank Howard in the opening minutes of the topranked Blue Devils’ 95-91 overtime loss to Syracuse, sending him to the locker room with what was initially diagnosed as a right shoulder sprain. Head coach Mike Krzyzewski said afterwards that both Jones’ shoulder and collarbone showed no signs of a break, but added that Jones was “in a lot of pain” and didn’t specify a return to action for the freshman.

Later Monday night, Duke officially announced in a statement that Jones’ injury is an AC joint separation. Jones will be out “indefinitely” and the Steadman Clinic lists a wide range for recovery time, with recovery time taking anywhere from “a few days to 12 weeks, depending on the severity.”

Leading the NCAA in assist-to-turnover ratio and one of Duke’s most important pieces on defense, Jones has been one of the most important pieces in Duke’s dominance thus far. The Apple Valley, Minn. native had averaged 30.8 minutes per game, 5.9 assists per game and 8.5 points per game entering Monday.

In less than 10 minutes against the Orange, Jones had already logged four steals to put the visiting team in an early double-digit hole.

UNC’s Folt resigns, removes Silent Sam base

By Ben Leonard Managing Editor

Just months after protesters toppled Silent Sam at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, UNC Chancellor Carol Folt announced that she will resign.

Folt—who previously faced protests for her and the Board of Trustees’ proposed plan to house the Confederate monument on campus in a $5.3 million facility—wrote in a university release that she will give up the post at the conclusion of the spring semester.

However, after the Board of Governors was taken by surprise by her announcement, they voted to push her resignation to be effective Jan. 31, according See FOLT on Page 6

‘dank’

Henry Haggart | Sports Photography Editor Ian Burris’ food delivery business—run through Instagram—is unconventional. It’s growing in popularity.

Flourishing in a food truck, Ian Burris and the Dankery rise together

A block down from Duke’s East Campus, a nondescript white food truck sits behind a bar. It’s nestled in the corner, almost hidden in a worn parking lot off of Main Street—and its owner is really, really excited about chicken tenders.

“I mean, you can’t beat a nicely breaded chicken tender,” says Ian Burris, owner of that food truck, the

By Jake Sheridan Dankery. “It has a good appearance, Staff Reporter and when you bite into it, it’s just like, wow.”

Burris pauses, then continues with reverent admiration. “I mean, the crunch and stuff, and the nice juicy on the inside.”

The Dankery and Burris are rising celebrities at Duke. Students who’ve had the food spread word about it like it’s gospel. Some plan their nights around ordering—if you don’t plan ahead, the Dankery might already be sold out.

On a Thursday night, Burris stands in the food truck’s doorway responding to orders on his phone. He has a hairnet on. Music blasts from a speaker at his feet. Two cooks bounce around the Henry Haggart | Sports Photography Editor kitchen, moving The Dankery’s Instagram has more than 11,000 followers. chicken to griddle, fries to fryer, food to Styrofoam box. Delivery drivers come and go, picking up a set of boxes and peeling away. It’s half past midnight, and

the Dankery’s chicken tenders are selling like hotcakes.

Burris does things differently For starters, he doesn’t do daytime. The Dankery usually opens at 9 p.m. and closes at 3 a.m.

“I make it work for me,” says 22-year-old Burris. “I’ve never been a morning person. Like when I was in high school, I might’ve been on time 10 days out of the year.”

The business’s online presence isn’t standard either.

Some restaurants are active on social media. The Dankery goes farther. Burris runs the Dankery through Instagram. The menu is listed on the food truck’s page (@shrimpandpastasdankery), and customers send messages there to order. Using Instagram makes sense, Burris says, because his demographic—18 to 24-yearolds—is there.

The Dankery’s Instagram has over 11,000 followers. The page features highlights of Burris’ food, menus and instructions for ordering. The main draw, however, is Burris’ constantly updated Instagram story, where he updates fans on his day and offers inspiration to his followers with pictures and videos.

One day, Burris’ page advertised an event the Dankery co-hosted at Durty Bull Brewing Co. Then, between close-up See DANK on Page 5

Spring Breakthrough opens to all years

Editorial: The notorious AOC

Recess: Spring Arts Preview

Now in its third year, the program has decided to let in upperclassmen.

PAGE 4

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s proposal on the marginal tax rate got a lot of pushback—not just because of the numbers.

PAGE 14

The arts and culture section catches you up on all the major happenings around campus for the Spring semester.

INSIDE — News 2 | Sports 4 | Crossword 9 | Opinion 10 | Serving the University since 1905 |

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‘China’s grown too big’: Expert discusses US strategy in Asia

By Jake Satisky University News Editor

The Cold War with the Soviet Union ended almost 30 years ago. According to one expert, however, we are now in the midst of another cold war with China.

Dan Blumenthal spoke at Duke Tuesday as part of the American Grand Strategy Speaker Series. Blumenthal, director of Asian Studies at the American Enterprise Institute, spoke about how America should approach foreign policy in Asia, especially with regard to China.

He argued that China is the greatest foreign threat facing the United States today, and the country needs to leverage its allies in the region and around the world to combat Chinese aggression.

“What’s changed more is a direct confrontational approach with China on trade issues and, frankly, it’s probably the most popular thing across party lines that President Trump has done, and there’s an amazing amount of support behind it,” Blumenthal said, referencing America’s recent approach to China, including Trump’s trade war with the country.

“That’s the real difference right now, is to say that China’s grown too big, too strong, too predatory and we’re not just going to work around the margins with them,” he said. “We’re going to directly confront them on these issues.”

In 2012, Blumenthal explained, current Chinese President Xi Jinping took power after a succession “crisis” that followed the 2008 global recession. He described how Xi has centralized power since, purging his political enemies, expanding China’s technological prowess and pursuing an aggressive foreign policy agenda.

The United States had been heavily active in Southeast Asia since World War II, because each succeeding president believed the region was too dynamic to stay away from.

However, Blumenthal said that America had underestimated China’s threat level.

Americans believed that if the United States cooperated with China economically, then the interdependence between the two nations would mitigate any aggression. Blumenthal argued that American politicians were wrong—he accused China of hacking, stealing intellectual property and growing its military.

“I think the competition with China will make the Cold War

Mary Helen Wood | Associate Photography Editor Dan Blumenthal spoke on campus Tuesday night about the challenges to an American strategy in Asia.

pale in its complexity,” he said.

Blumenthal stressed that, like the space race 50 years ago with the Soviet Union, the United States is in a technology race with China in areas like artificial intelligence and 5G capability. He said America needs to reboot its “science and industrial complex” to prepare for 21st century technology priorities.

The day before he came to speak at Duke, Blumenthal published an opinion piece in the New York Times with fellow American Enterprise Institute scholar Derek Scissors titled “China is a Dangerous Rival, and America Should Treat it Like One.” They wrote that the United States should “begin cutting some of its economic ties with China” to stop it from stealing America’s intellectual property, bending traditional rules of global markets and building up their military capabilities.

The two advocated for not doing business with and leveling sanctions against Chinese companies “receiving stolen or coerced intellectual property” or facing accusations of human rights abuses. Cutting off a swath of Chinese imports and exports would harm their economy more than America’s, they believe.

Blumenthal noted in his talk that many other countries in the region, such as Australia and Japan, are pro-American and willing to prevent China’s ascension to the world’s leading technological power. Nevertheless, China has proven to be aggressive when challenged, such as when it detained Canadian citizens, so Blumenthal said that America has to guarantee its support.

“Japan is with America as seeing China as the top political foe of the 21st century,” he said. “If you’re going to poke a bully, you better be sure the stronger guy will come as well.”

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WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 16, 2019 | 3

‘Everything is personal for [Trump]’: Chuck Todd talks media ethics “[President Trump] thinks we are the ‘opposition party,’” professional life.

Todd said, “No, he just wants us to be.”

“You try to be as dispassionate as you can,” Todd said, Todd recalled being with his children at a burger joint “But we’re all born with personal biases. You can’t take The press has reached a point when it can no longer ignore one evening when his daughter, your bias out of everything. With Trump, President Trump’s outrageous claim that the mainstream who was scrolling through social Yeah, that’s disconcerting it’s challenging because everything is personal for him.” press is the “enemy of the people,” said Chuck Todd—NBC media, exclaimed, “Hey Dad, the when your daughter has to News political director and host of “Meet the Press”—at a President attacked you!”

The professional code of conduct for talk Monday.

“Yeah, that’s disconcerting let you know the president the mainstream media should be to stick Todd’s talk, “Defending Journalism,” is the 2019 Ewing when your daughter has to let you called you a ‘son of a b****.’ to reporting the facts objectively, Todd Lecture on Ethics in Media and was hosted by the DeWitt know the president called you a explained. chuck todd Wallace Center for Media & Democracy. ‘son of a b****,’” Todd said with But the general public rewards news NBC NEWS POLITICAL DIRECTOR organizations that tilt to the right or left.

President Donald Trump has been engaged in a peculiar a laugh. pattern of publicly criticizing Todd, but has also repeatedly The television host added “The public wants an intensive amount called him on the phone for “off record” conversations. that he tries to compartmentalize his personal and of what they like,” Todd said.

Todd reasoned that if NBC News had both a blue channel and a red channel, the network would gain credibility in the long run by signaling to the public that they are not ignoring anyone.

What American people have is not a divided government—which can be positive and appreciated— but a polarized government that renders us ineffective, according to Todd.

Todd criticized media outlets that specialize not in “reporting” news, but in destroying the legitimacy of rival news organizations.

When one news correspondent makes a mistake, the media as a whole and every correspondent in the industry—whether they are from the same or a competing news organization—is undermined, the NBC host said.

“We all pay the price,” Todd noted.

The journalist stressed the importance of diligent and accurate reporting. He added that the media should be “more transparent, more upfront” in the future.

“It took 40 years to lose [the public’s trust]; it’s going to take 40 years to get back,” he said.

Many U.S. news organizations, which cannot afford running a bureau in so many cities, have lost touch with America’s rural areas, Todd said. The NBC News political director thus urged a change in the media.

“We can do a better job of being geographically diverse,” Ian Jaffe | Special Projects Photography Editor he said. “Culturally, we’ve fallen out of touch.”

Chuck Todd, NBC News political director, spoke at a Monday talk in Penn Pavilion.

By Lena Yannella

Contributing Reporter

IT’S SO CREAMY

Students interested in running for Editor of The Chronicle (2019-20 school year) should submit a resumé and a two-page essay on goals for the organization to the Board of Directors of the Duke Student Publishing Co., Inc. Applications should be submitted to: Bre Bradham Editor, The Chronicle breanna.bradham@duke.edu

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4 | WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 16, 2019

Spring Breakthrough opens to all years Banner about Greek rush removed from Brodhead Center

By Deepti Agnihotri

Health and Science News Editor

Bre Bradham

Editor-in-Chief

Spring Breakthrough has broken through to upperclassmen.

Previously restricted to first-years and sophomores, the four-day seminar courses offered during spring break will now be open to juniors and seniors for the first time.

The courses—covering topics ranging from puppies to screen printing—allow students to learn without the pressure of grades or exams.

“Our initial thinking was that first and second-year students would be most open to exploring different intellectual interests,” Gary Bennett, vice provost for undergraduate education, wrote in an email. “However, based on requests from students and professors, we

decided that this year we would give all students the option to participate. First years and sophomores are still given preference for selecting their favorite miniseminars.”

One class, “Presidential March Madness,” allows students to use brackets to evaluate presidents for their successes and failures.

Another, entitled “Hack Your Education: Design Sprint,” lets students develop and pitch ideas on how to change the Duke undergraduate experience to university leaders.

According to the Office of Undergraduate Education website, the purpose of Spring Breakthrough is to encourage students to explore an intellectual interest for the fun of it.

This semester’s rendition will mark the third year of See SPRING BREAKTHROUGH on Page 6

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A post in Duke Memes for Gothicc Teens Tuesday morning showed a large print banner featuring a rebranded Uncle Sam satirically recruiting for Greek life.

One was hung underneath a staircase in the Brodhead Center. The white banner depicts a colorful image of Uncle Sam pointing to his viewers with the caption “I want you to help perpetuate sexism and racism at Duke! #RushGreekToday.”

A different photo obtained by The Chronicle depicted what appeared to be a smaller fabric poster with the same image accompanied by a note, cropped mostly off in the photo, that appeared to say that the poster was an art piece.

Emilie Dye, director of student engagement for Fraternity and Sorority Life, wrote in an email that the posters had been removed. The banner had not been “through proper Duke [University Center Activities and Events] banner procedures to be approved [and] hung,” Dye wrote, so UCAE staff removed it.

“Since we do not know who made and posted them, there is not much more that we can do at this time,” Dye wrote Tuesday afternoon. “I’d certainly welcome conversations with the individuals that did [it], though, to learn more about their motives.”

Senior Matthew Conley, president of the Interfraternity Council, acknowledged that there are problematic aspects of Greek life in a message to The Chronicle.

“I encourage the folks who made the posters to reach out to us to discuss their ideas about Greek life,” he wrote. “We have acknowledged that problems exist in our community, and we’ve spent a lot of time this academic year meeting with professionals and students to discuss them.”

Although he did not speculate what effect this could have on recruitment, Conley added that he hopes the signs will lead students to “closely consider the ideals” of organizations they are rushing.

About 34 percent of Duke students are members of Greek life, according to the Duke Student Affairs website.

Duke’s Greek life recruitment process extends for approximately the first two weeks of the Spring semester.

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“Women’s Panhellenic Recruitment is comprised of four rounds where potential new members visit all the chapters,” the website says. “Through a process of mutual selection, students narrow their choices each round until they finally select a sorority following the last night.”

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WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 16, 2019 | 5

DANK

with him on a re-up. I hop in the passenger seat of the new Ford he just bought. He’s proud of it, another sign of his success. He posted a picture of it on the Dankery’s videos of sauce-drenched chicken tenders set to bass-heavy Instagram a few weeks earlier. The speaker that filled his rap, it offered a sneak peek of the new “Bull City steak- food truck with music is at my feet, still playing loudly. We n-queso fries” Burris is developing. Next, it reminded drive to Restaurant Depot. There, Burris thinks about how customers that pick-up is preferred to delivery. The last he and the Dankery rose together. picture showed off the haul from Burris’ latest grocery ‘I kind of just had to blindly jump’ store run—several boxes of chicken tenders and a giant sack of potatoes.

We walk through the restaurant superstore looking for Each ‘Dank tray’—the standard unit of the Dankery— tailless shrimp. They weren’t where they usually are, so comes with one entree item and fries. The menu features five Burris searches for them deep inside the freezer room. It’s entree items: Wings, chicken tenders, vegan tenders, tender cold. Burris, in a suede, navy Fila jumpsuit, is prepared.

As he cuts through aisles with purpose, Burris talks sandwich and fried shrimp sandwich. It’s simple.

And then there’s the flavoring. Any entree can be about his start in professional cooking. It came at Durham’s customized with one of twenty-something rubs and sauces. Riverside High School.

Think Cookout milkshake menu meets chicken. Flavors “In ninth grade, I would make cold cut sandwiches,” he range from classics like jerk and buffalo to the bold, like says. “The school lunch was so trash that everyone wanted cheerwine barbecue and cinnamon chipotle dry rub. It’s something else.” all part of Burris’ vision.

There’s a hint of regret in his voice when he says he sold “Some things are meant to be duplicated, like a buffalo the sandwiches for only $3. sauce,” says Burris. “But I’ll be like, the buffalo sounds fire, Burris gets serious as he talks about school, where he feels like he couldn’t thrive as he can now. let me mix ranch with it, or blue cheese.”

“It was like, what am I going to have to live for?”

Everything is fried and covered in sauce. It looks like a doctor’s worst nightmare and everybody else’s best dream. Burris says. “Going to school, waking up and going to The business is unconventional. It’s popular, too. class, and then not doing well, that had me feeling real With his staff of nine employees, Burris says he can cook bad about myself.”

As he walks beneath tall shelves of assorted containers, and deliver about 80 trays a night. It’s an upgrade from a year ago, when he cooked in his parents’ Burris shares his next chapter. He garage before moving his kitchen into I’m thrilled for Ian. I love played soccer at Cape Fear Community the food truck. It took him a while to College, and he was on track to get a save the money for the food truck— the food. I mean, it’s just bachelor’s degree in the spring of 2019. Then, he had a falling out with around $50,000. delicious.

But he can barely keep up with a coach. orders now.

“I really don’t like to have a boss, steve schewel and a coach is basically a boss,” he says.

Customers often order knowing MAYOR OF DURHAM they’ll wait an hour or two to get “I like to be my own boss.”

He withdrew from school and their food. That doesn’t stop them.

Everyone wants a bite. Most of Burris’ business comes stayed in Wilmington. On late nights after games and from North Carolina Central University and Duke, a parties, he started cooking for his friends. rare connection between the two schools. Former Duke “Everybody was hungry, nobody wanted to buy an $8 basketball players now in the NBA still order, Burris says. Uber to Cookout, and I was right there,” says Burris. “Might as well start cooking it up.”

Durhamites get trays, too.

“Me coming from Durham,” he says, “that definitely Burris had grown up helping his mother cook. His brings the whole Bull City behind me.” friends loved his food and started constantly begging him Even Durham mayor Steve Schewel is in on the Dankery. to cook. He sensed an opportunity. He went to Bed Bath & Schewel, whose son coached Burris in high school soccer Beyond and bought a fryer. Then he got to work.

Things weren’t great at first. He says he sold about one and who has been in a book club with Burris’ father for decades, appeared on Burris’ Instagram a few weeks ago. tray a night.

He was ordering.

“I had to literally beg people to come try my food,” “I’m thrilled for Ian,” Schewel said. “I love the food. I Burris says as he checks out. “My Instagram sat at 246 mean, it’s just delicious.” followers for a year. It was kind of discouraging because in Burris keeps things moving at the food truck all night. my head I was like, ‘yo, this about to be so great.’ Then it He’s calm and effortlessly cool, content and happy, but not was just dead and dormant for so long.” visibly excited. He claims he took 10 days off all of 2016 and He kept his head down, made some money and bought gets in bed around 6 a.m. on a typical day. another fryer. This wasn’t his first business: After cold cuts, “I put everything into it. I wake up and the move is re- he mowed lawns. Later, he sold jerseys online—his first ing up, or interviewing a new employee, or whatever it Instagram business.

Burris also ran what he calls a ‘dispensary.’ That startup takes to keep the money coming in,” Burris said. “I knew immediately it wouldn’t make me any money, but I knew got him in legal trouble, sending Burris to jail. one day it could.”

“It was definitely hard because I just felt rock bottom at Re-up is Burris’ word for a grocery store run. He re- that point,” Burris says. “Once I got slapped with the charges, ups often; storage space is low and demand is high. A few getting a job was dead, so it was kind of like I was all in.”

He got serious about the Dankery, but not everyone days after spending the night at Burris’ food truck, I go FROM PAGE 1

Henry Haggart | Sports Photography Editor

Ian Burris, the owner of the Dankery, is from Durham.

shared his vision.

“I would go visit family and I would tell them that I’m about to go all in on the food, I’m never going back to school, and it would just scare everybody,” Burris says.

He did it anyway. Burris moved back to Durham and set up his kitchen in his parents’ garage.

He hasn’t let his foot off the gas since.

Burris and the Bull City Burris almost never skips work, and tonight is no exception. The sun is starting to set. Opening time is getting closer. It rained earlier, and clouds still hang overhead.

“Tonight, business is probably gonna go crazy because of the storm,” Burris says.

We drive past downtown toward the food truck.

He sees himself as a bridge between historically divided Duke and Durham. He knows he’s young and hungry. He thinks Duke students identify with his ambition and respect him for his food. In the past, he recalls, Duke students would give him the cold shoulder at Durham bars upon realizing he wasn’t a student. But the Dankery wasn’t the Dankery then.

“Now the arms are more open,” he says. “So hopefully that same attitude that people have toward me now can go for the whole city. The one thing about good food is it can bring two people from completely different sides of the world together… I feel like it’s way bigger than anything I’ve got going on. The number of people I’ve been able to touch in a short amount of time, it’s not necessarily about me anymore. It could be way bigger.”

And he wants it to be bigger.

He’s parked back by the food truck, and he’s trying to figure out how he can make opening earlier work.

He’s experimenting with new food—lobster last week, cheesesteaks this week. He’s hunting for land he can build on in downtown Durham.

He has big dreams for the Dankery.

“Have I got to the level that I want to be on? No way,” says Burris. “No way. Not anywhere close.”

I ask him when he’ll be content.

“When the Dankery is in every college town in America,” he answers.

He stops and rethinks.

“It’ll feel like I made it when I open up the restaurant in Durham,” he decides.

Maybe he’ll do both. He has no intention of quitting any time soon.

“I done put so much into it already, there’s no going back,” he says. “It’s not like I’m ever going to stop at Henry Haggart | Sports Photography Editor this point.”

Re-up is Ian Burris’ word for going on a grocery run. Storage space is low and demand is high, so he re-ups often.

The sun is gone. It’s almost 9 p.m.

6 | WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 16, 2019

FOLT FROM PAGE 1 to the Daily Tar Heel.

“I’ve decided that this is the right time for me to pass the leadership of our outstanding university, with all its momentum, to the next chancellor, and look ahead for my own ‘new and next,’” wrote Folt, who has been Chancellor of the university since 2013.

After years of controversy, protesters toppled the Confederate monument on UNC’s campus in August, with police arresting several participants.

In December, Folt and the Board of Trustees proposed that monument be placed in an on-campus “free-standing building with state-of-the-art security” at a $5.3 million

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price tag. The Board of Governors shot that plan down a few days later for “public safety” reasons. Revised recommendations for what to do with the monument are due in March.

In the release, Folt also wrote that she had authorized the removal of the base of the monument and corresponding plaques, which remained where Silent Sam once stood before it was forcibly pulled down. By Tuesday morning, the statue’s base was gone.

“The presence of the remaining parts of the monument on campus poses a continuing threat both to the personal safety and well-being of our community and to our ability to provide a stable, productive educational environment,” Folt wrote. “No one learns at their best when they feel unsafe.”

Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons Special to the Chronicle

SPRING BREAKTHROUGH FROM PAGE 4

Jake Sheridan | Contributing Photographer

By Tuesday morning, the base of the Silent Sam statue had been removed completely..

the program. Bennett said that the first two years had about 100 participants each and that the number has increased this year.

The idea for Spring Breakthrough came from Provost Sally Kornbluth, who participated in a similar program as an undergraduate interested in political science at Williams College that sparked her interest in biology.

“The majority of students will be first years and sophomores,” Bennett explained. “We know, though, from other programs that are open to all classes, such as Winter Forum, that students often really enjoy interacting with peers from (different) class years.”

Participating students stay in their residence halls during the program and all costs—including meals—are covered.

There are no prerequisites to any of the courses and students do not receive grades or credit. Participation is indicated on students’ transcripts.

Students can apply online until the application closes Friday.

“Personally, it will be my first year participating and I’m very excited to see firsthand how it goes (last year I got giddy watching the videos and was eager to sneak into a few classes),” Bennett wrote.

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THE BLUE ZONE

WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 16, 2019 | 11

BEYOND THE ARC: DUKE FALLS AT HOME dukechronicle.com

WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 16, 2019

MEN’S BASKETBALL

FRESHLY SQUEEZED Unranked Orange knock off No. 1 Duke, which could not overcome poor shooting and injuries

By Conner McLeod Blue Zone Editor

All season long, Duke has relied on its starstudded freshman class. But missing two of the Blue Devils’ five-star underclassmen, glaring weaknesses in Duke’s game showed through.

Without both Tre Jones’ facilitation—after the freshman point guard went down with a shoulder injury in the ‘CUSE 96 first half—and Cam DUKE 91 Reddish due to an illness, Duke found it difficult to score against Syracuse’s zone. In a back-and-forth game that saw 18 ties and 13 lead changes, the Orange defeated Duke 9591 in overtime Monday evening at Cameron Indoor Stadium.

“You can assume that everything is always going to be great, but life happens,” head coach Mike Krzyzewski said. “Life happened to our team tonight and some unusual things.”

Freshman Zion Williamson had a chance to take the lead with 15 seconds left in regulation, but only made one of his free throws, tying the game at 85 and giving the Orange a chance to score and win the game. Syracuse’s leading scorer Tyus Battle pulled up for a 3-pointer, but missed, sending the game to an extra session.

Ian Jaffe | Special Projects Photography Editor

Tre Jones recorded four steals in the opening minutes before suffering a shoulder injury on a collision and was forced to leave the contest.

In overtime, sophomore Alex O’Connell took the lead for Duke (14-2, 3-1 in the ACC) with a triple of his own, but Battle answered with a pull-up jumper in response. O’Connell then delivered a lackadaisical pass that was intercepted by Frank Howard, resulting in a breakaway layup.

It was clear that the battle wore on the Blue

Devils, as they struggled to hit their shots and were slow to get back on defense. Syracuse (125, 3-1) took advantage and attacked the paint relentlessly to eventually secure the win. A 3-pointer by freshman R.J. Barrett brought Duke within two points with little more than a minute left to go, but it was not enough. The Orange answered once again with an alley-oop, the final

nail in the coffin on a nail-biting shootout.

The Orange struck first coming out of halftime with an alley-oop layup to take a one-point lead.

Williamson, who finished with 35 points and 10 rebounds, answered with a drive of his own, earning a trip to the free-throw line. After missing his second free throw, junior Jack White ignited a spark in the Blue Devils with an offensive rebound leading to a layup by Marques Bolden, increasing Duke’s lead to two. This energy was reciprocated by the rest of the team, as O’Connell had three near steals in a row and hit a 3-pointer to increase Duke’s lead to six.

The Orange would not go away, however, answering every Blue Devil make with one of their own. Battle continued to push the tempo, and his coast-to-coast dunk put Syracuse within three points. The Orange trailed for most of the second half, but never backed down to Duke. Syracuse hit 11 3-pointers as a team on 35-of-80 shooting from the field, which efficiently and effectively kept them in the game. Center Paschal Chukwu made a putback layup with three minutes left in the game to give Syracuse the lead for the first time since the beginning of the second half.

Battle, who finished with 32 points on 12of-28 shooting, played a big role in helping the See M. BASKETBALL on Page 13

MEN’S BASKETBALL

Blue Devils haunted by lack of Tre(y)s in defeat

By Andrew Donohue Associate Sports Editor

Saturday, Cam Reddish knocked down a lastsecond 3-pointer to lift the Blue Devils to victory against Florida State in Tallahassee, Fla. Monday, however, Reddish was ruled out just before game time with flu-like symptoms and Duke suffered beyond the arc against Syracuse.

The Blue Devils faced the Orange and coach Jim Boeheim’s vaunted 2-3 zone, designed to overwhelm opponents with long limbs and cut off driving lanes to the basket. Despite a few of Zion Williamson’s and R.J. Barrett’s bulldozing drives to the basket, Duke largely settled for outside shots and was unable to knock them down, finishing the game shooting just 20.9 percent from downtown.

“We couldn’t make shots,” Barrett said. “Zion put up 34 right in the middle of the zone. We can score against it, just messing up the shots.”

Syracuse has made it a staple of its defensive strategy to force teams out away from the basket, and this strategy is particularly effective against

the likes of Duke. The Blue Devils possess several players with elite athleticism but lack consistent outside shooting, ranking 235th nationally in 3-point percentage.

Duke generated numerous good looks but was simply unable to convert at crucial moments to keep the visiting team at bay, including missing several wide open triples down the stretch and in overtime. Barrett had a particularly difficult time from the 3-point line, going 4-for-17.

“We had open shots that were threes,” Krzyzewski said. “They were clogging the lane, so I don’t fault my guys for that. It’s not a game plan, it’s what’s there.”

The Blue Devils were forced out of their normal offensive rhythm early on when starting point guard Tre Jones was injured partway through the first half and left the game with a shoulder sprain. Jones has been a revelation this year, particularly defensively, but has also been instrumental in initiating Duke’s offense, as the Apple Valley, Minn., native leads the country in assist-to-turnover ratio.

“The game plan was to have Tre Jones and

Cam Reddish,” Krzyzewski said. “When you get two guys hurt and injured, there is no game plan anymore. It’s a period of adjustment and adaptability throughout, so you’re trying to figure out ways to win.”

The lack of offensive fluidity become particularly apparent in the second half and overtime, when the Blue Devils shot a combined 29 3-pointers, finishing the game with 43 attempts. With Reddish, one of Duke’s

best outside shooters, sidelined, the perimeter shooting burden fell on Duke’s role players.

Jack White, who made his first start as a Blue Devil in place of Reddish, finished 0-of-10 beyond the arc.

The lone bright spot on the night was Alex O’Connell, who played heavy minutes and was the one Duke player able to shoot effectively See TRIPLES on Page 13

David Xian | Staff Photographer

R.J. Barrett was an assist shy of a triple-double Monday, but struggled with his shot.

12 | WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 16, 2019

dukechronicle.com

The Chronicle

WOMEN’S BASKETBALL

A Duke starter, only 4 years in the making

By Spencer Levy Associate Sports Editor

When a brilliant 14-year-old steps onto a basketball court to play for the first time, anything can happen. She could quit after one day or she could start a rise to the top of the college basketball universe in a mere four years.

Freshman Onome Akinbode-James wound up the latter.

Now, her Ivy League-caliber mind and her ACC-level athleticism are succeeding on and off the Cameron Indoor Stadium floor.

Finding a sport Soccer was the most popular sport in Abeokuta, Nigeria, where Akinbode-James grew up. But she didn’t pick up that sport, or any other for that matter. Education, not athletics, reigned supreme in her household.

After a significant growth spurt during the summer after seventh grade, Akinbode-James’ life changed. With a newfound height advantage over her classmates, she was encouraged to try basketball, an up-and-coming sport in Nigeria.

“I literally picked it up because I was taller than everyone and they were like, ‘Do something with your height,’” Akinbode-James said.

It didn’t start well.

“The first day I actually left because I was really upset,” Akinbode-James said. “‘I’m never going back. It’s horrible.’ But my mom was like, ‘No, you’re not quitting the first day, so I went back

and here I am.’”

Akinbode-James quickly moved up the Nigerian youth basketball ranks. A phone call accelerated that climb as she earned a place representing Nigeria on the under-16—and later the under-17—team.

“A lot of times, we’ve gotten really lucky…. A lot of people had to go to tryouts [in Ogun State, where she lived,]” Akinbode-James said. “It was… my home. Someone called my mom and said, ‘Your kid just got invited up to the camp.’”

The camp of 25 players shrunk to 12, and the player who bypassed all of the tryouts sessions somehow made the team. But in time, AkinbodeJames’ options for playing basketball at home were limited.

Akinbode-James explained that her guardian runs a basketball camp in Nigeria every other year for 60 players. After the event, a few proven or developing stars are chosen and her guardian uses academic and athletic connections to help the players find spots in American schools.

At first, Akinbode-James’ mother, Tina Oghuvwu, a school principal, was not ready for her 16-year-old daughter to move to the other side of the world to pursue basketball. The Nigerian basketball star had never stepped foot in the United States before.

“She was like, ‘You’re so young. If something went wrong, I’m not just going to be able to come over. It’s a whole different country,’” AkinbodeJames said.

But her daughter had an answer: “Wait. Think

about it this way. When I go there…I’m going to get a great education. Can’t complain about that,” Akinbode-James told her mother.

That logic let Akinbode-James to take the journey across the Atlantic Ocean to enroll at Blair Academy in New Jersey.

‘Who was that?’

After she stepped foot on the college-like campus in Blairstown, N.J., a separate conversation brought the Blue Devils into the picture.

Blair Academy head coach Quint Clarke alerted Hernando Planells, Duke’s associate head coach and recruiting coordinator, to a few players on his team including one newcomer.

“She was very raw, moved okay,” Planells said of his December visit. “We were not sold on her right away. I told Q, ‘I’ll come watch you guys later on. Just let me know how she progresses.’”

When Planells went back a few months later, he saw a different player, one he didn’t recognize immediately, whose game was transcendent. “‘Who was that?’ Then I looked at the roster and it was Onome,” Planells said. “‘Wow. She has really catapulted herself into a tremendous player.’”

After that trip, Planells recommended Duke head coach Joanne P. McCallie to see AkinbodeJames play. Her reaction was similar.

“In terms of me seeing her and wanting her to be at Duke, it was instant. Not to mention her academic prowess,” McCallie said. “Her aggression, her passion, how hard she plays. Not

a hard decision.”

Suddenly, McCallie and Planells both wanted to land the eventual top-100 recruit.

‘The Broken Perception’ How do you capture Akinbode-James’ talents on and off the court?

Consider this: With her self-proclaimed nature to “swamp [herself] with work,” Akinbode-James took on the challenge of presenting a TEDx Talk during her demanding senior year of high school.

‘Africa, Country or Continent: The Broken Perception’ began with Akinbode-James describing an encounter she had with her American friend and her family at dinner. The friend’s mother asked how far of Akinbode-James had to walk from her “village” to school.

“I was so thrown aback by it because here I am at dinner, thinking we’re just having a good time, and she just pulls that out,” said Akinbode-James, who did not dwell in a village and rode a bus to school. “As much as it is shocking and I’ve gone along and had these experiences, I’ve just realized instead of getting mad about it or angry about it, it’s easier to just try to educate people on it. The more people know the better.”

In her talk, she also says a “single-story notion” concept of African countries produces a distorted view of a homogenous continent instead of one with 54 different countries encompassing more than 1.2 billion people speaking 2,000 languages.

See JAMES on Page 13

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dukechronicle.com

WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 16, 2019 | 13

M. BASKETBALL

TRIPLES

JAMES

FROM PAGE 11

FROM PAGE 11

FROM PAGE 12

Orange get back in the game. His constant attack in the open floor and willingness to let his teammates contribute left Duke’s defense in the dust.

Jones came out with a fire in his eyes on defense, earning back-to-back steals leading to easy fast-break points. He also kept the offense moving against Syracuse’s 2-3 zone defense. However, after diving for a steal and colliding with Howard, Jones left the game and never returned to the bench.

“They’re a really good team. I didn’t think we handled it as well as I would have wanted,” Krzyzewski said. “In the second half we fought like crazy, and we missed so many open shots.”

Without their true point guard’s lockdown backcourt defense and his playmaking against the zone, the Blue Devils allowed the Orange to get back into the game with an 11-4 run, decreasing Duke’s 12 point lead to just five. Duke could not consistently penetrate Syracuse’s zone, as it did not spread the floor well enough, shooting a putrid 9-of-43 from the 3-point line. Barrett finished one assist from a triple-double with 23 points and 16 rebounds, but shot just 8-of-30 from the floor and attempted 17 3-pointers.

“The fact is our kids fought like crazy and put themselves against a very veteran team,” Krzyzewski said. “One of the most veteran in the country, and well coached. We put ourselves in a position to win but we weren’t able to do it.”

The Blue Devils will face arguably their toughest matchup of the year against No. 4 Virginia Saturday at 6 p.m. at Cameron Indoor Stadium.

from the perimeter, going 4-for-8. He was able to find open looks and knock them down consistently, earning the respect of the zone defense and helping to generate shots for others. The sophomore finished as the Blue Devils’ third-leading scorer with 16 points.

“I saw it going in and started feeling confident and getting a little bit looser,” O’Connell said. “I was ready to step up because I knew Tre was hurt and Cam wasn’t feeling good. I had to make sure I could make the most of my play tonight.”

It is also likely that O’Connell will see an uptick in his playing time if Jones is forced to miss more games with his injury, which could bring another shooting threat to the floor.

While Duke still possesses two of the most devastating one-on-one scorers in the country with Williamson and Barrett, the road ahead may not be easy if the Blue Devils do not find some semblance of consistency.

Duke’s next game comes Saturday against No. 4 Virginia, another team built around an elite defense designed to cut off penetration and force teams into long shots. The Cavaliers have the second best defensive efficiency in the country and have allowed over 60 points just twice behind their pack-line defense. They will look to deny Williamson and Barrett easy lanes to the basket and instead force those two to beat them from the perimeter.

Reddish seems likely to return for Saturday’s matchup, which would give Duke another shooter. But Virginia poses a challenge for even the most perimeter-oriented teams, and the Cavaliers were the only team to win at Cameron Indoor Stadium last season.

The media have reinforced that story by focusing on only a few things in African nations, including poverty and disease.

While she understands that her lifestyle is not newsworthy, Akinbode-James believes it is “not non-existent.”

“It is imperative that we do not rely on just narratives but rather on the complete story to make an informed judgment,” she said.

In this match, Duke won. Harvard lost.

“It just came down to, ‘If I was there if something were to go wrong with basketball, would I want to be there?’”

Akinbode-James said.

Akinbode-James has played important minutes for Duke from day one this season.

If that wasn’t enough, she’s also studying engineering—something no other player in McCallie’s 12-year tenure at Duke has done.

“Before I started playing basketball, I found my identity by education and being successful in school…. When I picked up basketball, it was something to add onto,” Akinbode-James said. “I’ve always been interested in engineering.”

That interest solidified during her senior year at Blair Academy.

“I took a robotics class my senior year….

It really pushed me to say this is really what I want,” Akinbode-James said.

The class entailed building robots for the FIRST Robotics competition. Her classmates would compete against each other in class, but the after-school robotics team competed in tournaments. With her basketball commitment, Akinbode-James could not compete on both teams.

McCallie said Akinbode-James’ engineering path combined with her place on the basketball team can be challenging.

But she said that her player is balancing both to set herself up for a career in both basketball and engineering.

‘One of the bravest’ When it came time to decide where she’d play and learn after high school, access to an excellent education was a priority.

“She cut out a lot of schools super quick because academically, they didn’t hold for her. And that made her a lot of fun to recruit,” McCallie said.

In other words, Akinbode-James is an example of the student-athlete that an ambitious basketball program at a highly selective university like Duke likes to pursue.

“Onome is an old soul and has been on her own for a long time. She’s one of the bravest people I know relative to leaving home, being at Blair and raising herself,” said McCallie, who also spoke with the recruit’s mother in Nigeria, said. “She was very much the decision maker.”

But that doesn’t mean the commitment ‘Sky is the limit’ came quickly; many other schools came In the recruiting process, Planells saw a into the recruiting picture late. After player who could step in and contribute. narrowing her list down to only two schools, “We were very convinced that she could The New committed York Times to Syndication Akinbode-James Duke inSales Corporation 620ofEighth Avenue, New York, N.Y.Read 10018 the rest online at dukechronicle.com/sports early November her senior season.

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The notorious AOC

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n a recent 60 Minutes interview, newly swornin Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez suggested a controversial revision to America’s progressive tax code. The modification she proposed— raising the marginal tax rate to 70 percent for high earners on income over $10 million—was met with alarm from top-brass conservative lawmakers and media outlets. House Minority Leader Steve Scalise instigated a Twitter battle on the subject, labeling her proposal as a way to strong-arm Americans into funding “leftist fantasy programs.” Despite such a policy having broad support from Americans, leading economists like Paul Krugman and even conservative figures like Ann Coulter and Steve Bannon, Ocasio-Cortez was slammed as “batsh*t insane” and radical.

The controversy over Ocasio-Cortez’s policy— despite its historical precedence— is just the latest example of women of color being held to a different standard of judgement and ridicule. Race and gender undeniably influence how seriously a person is taken and how credible their expertise appears to others. Any verbal slip-up or serious policy pronouncement from OcasioCortez has been met with relentless beratement. Instead of being seen as an honest mistake, an out of context mistake she made while speaking on the three branches

onlinecomment “I know the author is just being funny, but pls understand that the chance of actually finding a venomous snake on campus - and especially in your dorm room - are absolutely minuscule. The only venomous snake you’re likely to see in this part of North Carolina is a copperhead, and they’re very easy to identify.”

—Emmy Mariner, responding to “My roommate, the snake,” via Facebook on Jan. 14, 2019

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of government was scandalized and an interpreted as an indictment of her capacity as a lawmaker. Meanwhile, President Trump’s frequent public lies, numerous speaking blunders and reliance on briefings from the hosts at Fox and Friends are regarded as business as usual. Moreover, Paul Ryan has been lauded as a policy wonk and “intellectual leader of the Republican party” despite his radically austere policy positions and the fact he bases his political ideology off of novels written by Ayn Rand—a woman who spent

Editorial Board

her final years collecting assistance from government programs she branded fit only for “parasites.”

Despite Ocasio-Cortez’s policy prescriptions having support from not only her constituents but also large swaths of Americans, she is already facing blowback from even Democratic colleagues. Senator Claire McCaskill and former-Senator Joe Lieberman have publicly called for her to fall in line and rein in her firebrand behavior.

This exemplifies yet another privilege that is not afforded to women of color. While John McCain was lauded for being a “maverick” despite constantly capitulating to establishment neoconservatives, mavericks who happen to be progressive women are deemed disorderly and radical. Another recent example of this in politics include Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib, who called Trump a “motherf*cker” and earned herself a top spot in cable news coverage. In fact, her remark was covered five times more than Steve King’s embrace of the term “white supremacy.”

Being a victim of gendered attacks and doubt is a

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phenomenon not exclusive to Ocasio-Cortez; rather, being held to a different evaluative criteria is something that marginalized people deal with on a daily basis in all types of settings. At Duke and other universities, people of color and women across racial backgrounds are constantly evaluated in a way that their white or male peers are not. For students, this manifests frequently in affirmative action complaints that argue white candidates are robbed of college acceptances by less-qualified applicants of color. For faculty and graduate students, this often manifests in evaluation discrepancies; numerous studies have consistently shown how non-white, nonmale professors received statistically worse performance reviews, regardless of their teaching ability.

The case of Ocasio-Cortez—along with countless other women who have faced similar scrutiny and undue and skepticism—illustrates the societal equation of logic and expertise to maleness and whiteness. White people— particularly white men—in their capacity as laborers, homemakers, leaders and so on are seen as espousing ideal qualities of objectivity and logical neutrality. White men have been constructed in American mythology as untouched by bias, the only true arbitrators of competence and aptitude. Ocasio-Cortez represents a clash with this mythos; her passion and policy agenda has been met with ire as a result. If her experience is any indicator, as more women of color continue to shake up the good-ol’-boys’ club in Washington, pushback from establishment types rooted in sexism and racism will only grow more prevalent.

This was written by The Chronicle’s Editorial Board, which is made up of student members from across the University and is independent of the editorial staff.

Why I choose to be politically correct

n the past few years, anti-politically correct (PC) movements have grown in popularity and vigor.

Groups of young college conservatives have criticized the liberal hold on universities and conservative activists have mocked censorship and “sensitivity” among young millennials. The sentiment that “people

Nathan Heffernan COLUMNIST get offended by anything these days” seems to be growing among the larger population. Scandals of comedians getting booted from gigs for racially insensitive remarks or being fired from hosting an awards ceremony due to old homophobic tweets have sparked discussion over whether PC culture has gone too far. Even at Duke, students and professors complain about the PC culture on campus.

Politically correct means non-offensive and noncontroversial. As racial minorities and niches of LGBT communities gain political clout, the amount of identity factors that we are exposed to increases. Some appreciate this diversity, while others see this diversity as more people they can’t offend. The anti-PC culture of arguing that “people get offended too easily” shifts blame on an individual’s surroundings, and away from the individual who was offensive or careless with their words. It makes political correctness seem like society’s flaw, and that the individual holds no responsibility for their words and how their words make people feel. I view political correctness as an opportunity to connect to a broader range of people. I do not see it as a restriction. My life experiences have not specifically taught me the struggles of other racial, sexual, and gender minorities. However, I do know respectful language, or PC terms, that members of certain communities ask outsiders to use. In an institution such as Duke, we are surrounded by an extremely diverse population. Through being politically correct, I can make my words accessible to and respectful of a larger amount of my peers at Duke, instead of solely people with similar life experiences to mine.

Being ignorant to different identities shuts out people from hearing your message, and it dwindles your audience.

A few weeks ago, Kevin Hart was dropped from his hosting gig at the Oscars due to a resurfacing of tweets using the word “f*g” as well as a joke about him beating his son up

with a dollhouse if he turned out to be gay. Many, including Ellen DeGeneres, defended the comedian, arguing that these were old jokes from years ago.

The issue was not that society had somehow decided to be offended by Kevin Hart. Rather, Kevin Hart decided in those years to exclude gay people from his audience by making them the target of those jokes. He lost that community as a potential fan base as a direct result of his choice to make homophobic comments.

When I was in middle school, I said plenty of offensive things. I pushed boundaries and ignored political correctness often. But then I grew up. I learned about the experiences of people different me. And I didn’t become politically correct because society or this “liberal university” pressured me, but because I gained more empathy for certain communities. I dropped about 10-12 words from vocabulary, including words like “retarded” and “ghetto.” I have not lost any ability to communicate my ideas or thoughts from my political correctness. I still make mistakes, but with good intentions I never feel like I have to worry.

I understand that it can be difficult to use the correct vocabulary in an academic environment focused on social justice. I also believe that criticisms of political correctness are borne out of a nostalgia for past eras where racist, sexist and homophobic comment were more commonplace. It is important for us to take ownership of our words, and understand that our message reaches the audiences we choose for it.

I don’t want people to monitor their language to fit within a societal rule book. Instead, I want us to understand the perspective of affinity groups and learn how our words impact their communities. This way, we can implement socially conscious language from a genuine desire to be more respectful, rather than an obligation to adhere to a set of rules.

Learning to be non-offensive takes patience. People will get angry at you for things you have been saying for your entire life. Instead of resorting to defensiveness, try to understand where their anger is coming from. For minority groups, this anger can come directly from life experiences. It takes a strong will to step back and realize that what you have said is truly hurtful, and it is easy to dismiss others’ anger as a societal flaw. But when you learn to re-evaluate your words in that way, you expand your own opportunities for knowledge.

Nathan Heffernan is a Trinity sophomore. His column runs on alternate Wednesdays.

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Duke must do more for Native students

uring my first week of college one student asked me, “you’re Native? I thought we killed all the Natives.” I took a deep breath, kindly told him he was wrong, and walked away. I wanted nothing more in that moment than to be around Native people, to talk about the many awkward situations I faced with someone who understood me. I was alone, and for four

Shandiin Herrera GUEST COLUMNIST years this has been my reality.

I have always loved Duke. I grew up two thousand miles away from campus in a rural community called Monument Valley, located on the Navajo Nation. When I left the reservation, I made myself one promise: I would return with a Duke degree. My dream slowly turned into a nightmare.

I quickly learned that there were no classes on Native American studies, no designated space for Native students on campus, no Native professors, and no Native advisors. Most of my professors admitted that I was the first Native student they had ever knowingly taught.

I struggled to fit in at a school that prides itself on diversity, yet had no support for me. I did not feel comfortable sharing my financial, academic, and overall Native struggles with a white counselor sitting across a desk trying to understand me. How could I expect someone who has never set foot on a reservation to understand my descriptions of it? Someone who could not possibly understand the

intergenerational trauma I learn to suppress every day sat across me advising me to just “work a little harder,” or worse, “take some time off.” All I wanted was someone who understood the obstacles I was facing, without questioning me. I wanted to not have to defend myself every day.

I felt like a ghost. I walked across campus dreading every step to class because I couldn’t focus on studying when I saw videos of men and women sprayed with mace at Standing Rock and images of dogs attacking women and children. I feared witnessing history repeat itself. I began to care less about school when I saw yet another post on Facebook about an Indigenous women missing. So, to my professors, I am sorry if

I am a little too distracted to raise my hand in class today.

As the only Native person in my classes, I am always held to an unfair standard.

Numerous times I was asked by my professor to teach, to do their job, because they did not want to do the work to implement Native history in their courses. I have seen my Native friends drop out of Duke because they did not have the support they needed. I tried to fill the void of teacher, advisor and mentor for others, all the while barely staying afloat myself. I always contemplated my three options: transfer, quit, or persevere. Every day I chose the last, but it became harder to love a school that did not love me back.

It wasn’t until I joined the Sanford School

Photo Courtesy of Shandiin Herrera

of Public Policy that I truly felt seen. They welcomed me, never othered me, and when they didn’t have the resources I needed as a Native student, they connected me with organizations that did and Native alumni who could offer me further guidance. They never made me explain myself or made me feel like I had to convince them I belonged there, because they were proud to have me. It is because of the faculty at Sanford that I am here today, a senior at my dream school.

Duke needs to realize that there are Native students who continue to struggle because of the lack of support. Duke prides itself on diversity and inclusion, yet Native students are left out of this conversation. There needs to be a Native faculty member, advisor, counselor, and designated space for Native students, because we cannot continue to do this alone. It has been disheartening to see my friends drop out of college or transfer to a different school knowing how much they loved Duke too.

I have tirelessly worked to create space and support for Native students through my role as an executive member of the Native American Student Alliance and as the Vice President of Alpha Pi Omega, the only two organizations dedicated to fostering the growth of Native students at Duke. I tell myself that perhaps one day another Navajo student will step onto campus, be welcomed by a Native community, and walk into a Native student center where she has resources available for her to succeed.

I pray one day she will not wake up every morning convincing herself that she belongs here, because she knows she does.

Shandiin Herrera is a Trinity senior.

You should take an ethnic studies course

O

n February 13th, 1969, tear gas hung thick in the air outside of the Allen Building. More than one hundred local police officers and National Guard troops had been called in to bring order to the protest; dozens of white students stood nearby to support their classmates.

Approximately sixty of Duke’s first Black students were inside the building in a struggle they hoped would change the University forever.

As early as Spring 1968, in the wake of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination, these students had attempted to work with Duke’s administration to address conditions for Black students on campus, issuing 13 demands. These demands included increased Black enrollment, the funding of the Black

Gino Nuzzolillo & Trey Walk COLUMNISTS Student Union, and better conditions for workers on campus.

Key among these demands was the creation of an Afro-American Studies Department—a recognition that lives and histories of African-Americans mattered, and were worthy of attention and scholarship. Ultimately, to demonstrate their resolve and catalyze such desperately needed change, the students held the first major takeover of a Southern university.

Though the protest would end in arrests, disciplinary action, and police turning chemical weapons on peaceful students, it would later be hailed by former Duke President Nannerl Keohane as seminal to the University’s moral development. In a letter commemorating 30 years of African-American students at Duke she wrote, “These events were a stimulus for many of the university’s most difficult, yet necessary, changes.” Dr. Brenda Armstrong, a physician who committed her life to improving the University, was one of the students involved in the Takeover.

She recalled the Takeover as “a stand that would change the course of Duke’s destiny and indelibly mark our place for all time in this institution’s history.” The impact of these students’ actions was rapid—the Takeover spurred the creation of a Black Studies department later that year. Their legacy, however, would endure as part of the growing national student movement demanding ethnic studies departments that provided a “critical and interdisciplinary study of race, ethnicity, and indigeneity”

from the perspectives of communities of color in the United States and abroad. These activists confronted higher education with key questions: whose knowledge is valuable? What questions are worth studying? Whose communities should we learn about in the classroom? And who controls the education students receive?

In the 1960s, as college students engaged in both the Civil Rights Movement and an emergent Black Power movement that sought to expand and challenge American democracy— through desegregation, voting rights and economic opportunity—they attempted to rewrite the answers to these fundamental assumptions of the academy. From May 1967 to March 1969, Black students at San Francisco State University and the University of California, Berkeley engaged in repeated protests and strikes for a Black Studies department—often in the face of violent resistance, not only from University administration but from the state’s deployment of local law enforcement and the National Guard. At SFSU, a coalition of Latinx, Filipino, and Black students formed the Third World Liberation Front to act in concert on their demands for ethnics studies programs, and a similar group formed at UC Berkeley soon after. They understood that solidarity across race was essential to their political project. Demanding universities take seriously the experiences of communities of color was an unprecedented shift—one that required tremendous energy from student activists and generated intense backlash from those in power.

Students at Duke, SFSU, and Berkeley advocated for these departments both to make universities more representative and as an ideological challenge to white supremacy.

Far from existing only as leisure or personal indulgence for racial and ethnic minorities, ethnic studies represented serious fields of study that transformed our collective knowledge by being decidedly non-Eurocentric. In other words, their efforts reflected an ongoing effort to affirm the long-erased existence and significance of communities of color. Mirroring the ideological challenge presented by the push for ethnic studies, women and LGBTQIA+ activists simultaneously advocated for the study of feminism, gender, and sexuality. From the creation of Black Studies at Duke in 1969, to the establishment of Latino/a Studies in the Global South in the 1990s, to the announcement of an Asian-American Studies Program just last year and many more, these struggles were clearly linked and, as alluded to by President Keohane, they transformed Duke.

Moreover, the students of the ‘60s saw their experiences as linked to the social and political upheaval happening in the world outside the ivory towers. People of color, environmentalists, young people, anti-war protesters, and others marched in the street and organized in their local communities, envisioning an America absent imperialism, white supremacy, and environmental degradation that disproportionately affected people of color. If their moment demanded the creation of ethnic studies, our moment demands a defense of them. We live on a campus where on a normal walk to dinner one might stumble upon white supremacist propaganda stickers; we live in a country where places of worship become sites of racist and anti-Semitic violence. Less palpable but equally pernicious is the reality that the very civil rights these students fought for are under threat today. We should not take these rights nor these classes for granted.

It is still Add-Drop period, and a brief scroll through DukeHub shows that there are still course openings in African and African American Studies, Asian and Middle Eastern Studies, Jewish Studies, Latin American Studies, Latino Studies and the Global South, Slavic and Eurasian Studies, and International Comparative Studies. Among the many course offerings, perhaps consider AAAS 102: Intro to AfricanAmerican Studies, AMES 225: Islam in the Age of Trump, or ICS 106: Intro to Latino/a Studies. I (Trey) waited too long to take courses exploring my identity as an African-American and those of other communities. As for me (Gino), my passion for American history and social movements is incomplete without deepened study of marginalized communities.

Moreover, these courses are our inheritance from the brave students who pushed Duke and other universities to create these departments.

This column is the first in a public conversation between two friends trying to make sense of Duke and beyond.

Throughout the semester, we will attempt to give historical context to our contemporary moment in hopes that this will help us think about things more clearly. Believing, as we do, that the world we have today is the product of history and people who came before, gives urgency to our task of deciding what kind of world we will make. To that end, start with us today: take an ethnic studies course at Duke.

Trey Walk is a Trinity senior and Gino Nuzzolillo is a Trinity junior. Their column usually runs on alternate Tuesdays.

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