Issue 12 Summer 2020

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July 8, 2020 VOLUME XL, ISSUE 12 Online-Only Edition

Students ‘Want More Concrete Actions’ to Address Racism

By JOE KOTTKE News Editor

In the wake of George Floyd’s murder and Black Lives Matter protests across the country, communities are demanding that higher education institutions do better in supporting their students of color, specifically their Black students.

Petitions have circulated through the Fordham community throughout June, demanding the university to take actions like

cutting ties with the New York Police Department and removing Dean Christopher Rodgers from his position, among others.

Student organizations have released statements, such as Rose Hill’s Black Student Alliance, ASILI, which published an Instagram post outlining their 11 demands for Fordham on June 22.

On June 29, President Rev. Joseph M. McShane, S.J., announced the university’s action plan on “addressing racism and

educating for justice.” The plan outlined several actions to develop admissions strategies to recruit more students of color, create a more diverse faculty and amplify education for justice.

In response to the university’s action plan, ASILI republished their demands, checking off those of which were addressed in the email. Only three out of their 11 demands were met, including the promises to create a safe space for students of color, an employ-

ee bias training program and a written statement to combat anti-Blackness.

According to McShane, the plan was drafted in response to reading “many emails, petitions, and Instagram posts that have come from the University community,” Two such Instagram accounts which have obtained significant digital influence in the Fordham community, @blackatfordham and @letstalkaboutitfordham, emerged in June to provide a platform for students, faculty and alumni to

anonymously tell their stories of prejudice at Fordham.

The accounts mirror student-run pages at other schools such as Manhattan College.

They serve the purpose of pressuring the administration to take action; on each post, members of the Fordham community often tag the university’s official Instagram. Each account now has hundreds of posts and thousands of followers. see ACTION PLAN page 7

Supreme Court Ruling Demands Inclusion at Fordham

By SAMANTHA MATTHEWS and NICOLE PERKINS Features Editors

For the first time this fall, Fordham will be offering gender-neutral housing. The ability to have this right — along with gender-neutral bathrooms and use of chosen names on official documents — was a long time coming. Transgender and gender non-conforming (TGNC) activists and allies having been fighting for these options on Fordham’s campuses for years.

Also this year — on Monday, June 15 — the Supreme Court ruled that it is illegal to discriminate against a person’s sexual orientation or gender status due to Title XII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

The intersection of Pride month, national attacks on trans

rights and a surge of online activism in the university community has brought the conversation about the treatment of LGBTQ+ students at Fordham to the forefront.

Fordham’s complex history supporting its TGNC students only makes the ruling more relevant on campus. In 2018, Aria Lozano, a transgender woman, was forced to live with men during her time at Fordham. She stated of her experience, “I am so uncomfortable with my living situation that I can’t even come out to him (my roommate), and for the entire first semester, I felt the need to hide anything that seemed ‘feminine’ out of fear, anxiety and shame.”

Every aspect of life at Fordham is influenced by restrictive gender and sex policies and see LGBTQ+ RIGHTS page 6

Delayed Fall Decision Stirs Unease About Returning

By KATRINA LAMBERT, MICHELLE AGARON and ALLIE STOFER News Editor and Asst. News Editors

FLASH Releases ‘Expressions of the Unseen’ Page 16 COURTESY OF LO THOMAS VIA FLASH

After a summer of uncertainty about whether Fordham students would be allowed back on campus in the fall, the Office of the President released an email on June 30 detailing Fordham’s fall 2020 reopening plan.

“Fordham Forward,” as the reopening plan is referred to, explicitly states, “The Fall Semester will begin on time, and on-ground instruction will begin as scheduled on 26 August.” According to the email, Fordham is planning to instate on-campus instruction and housing using a “measured, phased approach.”

The decision to do so comes after over a month of waiting for a definite plan on instruction in the

fall. On May 28, the Office of the President released an email promising to outline the “framework for planning the reopening of the University.” However, the email did not contain any concrete decisions or preparations for the fall semester.

The university said they were waiting for guidance from New York state for how to proceed before making any decisions.

Even without having a clear view of what classes and housing in the fall would look like, the Office of Residential Life at Lincoln Center sent an email on May 29 listing the housing withdrawal deadlines.

Some students reacted to the withdrawal deadlines email with frustration, specifically the part see REOPENING page 5

ADRIANA BALSAMO-GALLINA/THE OBSERVER

News

Sports & Health

Opinions

Features

Arts & Culture

Instagram video demands more diversity on Board of Trustees

Student-athletes of color call for real change

Fordham needs to further investigate racism

A new publication that renounces the constraints of perfection

How a Fordham alumnus is using rap music to win his district

#LookUpStepDown Page 3

‘Where’s the Action?’

Page 9

Justice on Campus Page 13

grain of salt Mag Page 15

The Student Voice of Fordham Lincoln Center

Political Raps Page 16

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News

July 8, 2020 THE OBSERVER

Fordham to Recognize Juneteenth

www.fordhamobserver.com

The day slaves in Texas finally learned of their emancipation will be a paid holiday at Fordham and in New York state

By SOPHIE PARTRIDGE-HICKS Editor-in-Chief

Juneteenth, a holiday commemorating the end of slavery in the United States, has been recognized in this country since the late 1800s.

However, now, in light of the recent deaths of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor and many others, as well as the growing scale of the #BlackLivesMatter movement and protests across the country, there has been increased pressure to recognize the date as an official national holiday.

On June 17, University President Rev. Joseph M. McShane, S.J., announced that Fordham will celebrate Juneteenth as an annual paid holiday for the first time in the university’s history. The community-wide email came shortly after Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s executive order to recognize the date as a state holiday in New York.

The Juneteenth holiday serves

to commemorate the day that the news of emancipation finally reached Galveston, Texas. Union Gen. Gordon Granger delivered the news to enslaved African Americans, enacting the Emancipation Proclamation which was signed

by President Abraham Lincoln two years earlier.

Granger read, “The people of Texas are informed that in accordance with a Proclamation from the Executive of the United States, all slaves are free. This involves an absolute equality of rights and rights of property between former masters and slaves, and the connection heretofore existing between them becomes that between employer and hired laborer.”

Juneteenth.com, an organization dedicated to promoting unity and freedom through organizing Juneteenth celebrations, offers an extensive history of the holiday.

The holiday, sometimes referred to as Emancipation Day or

Freedom Day, was celebrated by African Americans throughout the late 1800s but lost popularity in the early 20th century due to a shifting cultural and economic landscape.

The Great Depression forced more people into cities looking for work, and employers denied workers paid leave to celebrate the date.

Simultaneously, more children began attending schools in favor of at-home or family learning, and educational materials failed to include information about enslaved people’s experiences. Emphasis was placed on the 1865 Emancipation Proclamation and included little-to-no detail about the impact of Granger’s arrival in Texas.

In 2020, New York is the 47th state to recognize the holiday. At a press conference, Cuomo said, “Friday is Juneteenth — a day to commemorate the end of slavery in the United States — and it’s a day that is especially relevant in this moment in history.

ANDREW DRESSNER/THE OBSERVER

Fordham will now recognize June 19, or Juneteenth, as an annual paid holiday.

“I'll propose legislation next year to make it an official state holiday so New Yorkers can use this day to reflect on all the changes we still need to make to create a more fair, just and equal society," he continued.

“ This is the time to

have conversations with Black students, faculty and administrators about what those next steps should be. ”

Mark Naison, Professor of African and African American studies and founder and director of the Bronx African American History Project

National tensions regarding race and policing are not absent at Fordham, as students have petitioned for the university to issue a statement on George Floyd’s death, cut ties with food provider Aramark and stop hiring former NYPD officers. Many students have also reported their disappointment with the university administration and cite its failure to support Black students.

“In many ways this new Fordham holiday is a symbolic measure, and I will be announcing more concrete actions by the University soon. But symbols matter.

Symbols inspire, symbols console, symbols define what—and whom—we care about,” McShane wrote in his email.

Mark Naison, a professor of African and African American studies and the founder and director of the Bronx African American History Project, referred to

McShane’s decision as an “important gesture of recognition and respect on the part of the Fordham administration towards Fordham's Black community.”

However, he also noted that the United States in general, including Fordham, is not doing enough anti-racist work.

Naison had a list of suggestions, such as offering required courses for all entering students which deal with race in U.S. history. “This is the time to have conversations with Black students, faculty and administrators about what those next steps should be,” he said.

ASILI, the Black Student Alliance at Fordham College Rose Hill, announced in an Instagram post that they will be sending a list of demands to Fordham’s Board of Trustees to eradicate racism on campus. “We ask organizations and individuals to apply pressure on the university and stand in solidarity with us,” read the Instagram post.

On the morning of June 19, the Office of Mission Integration and Planning sent a community-wide email announcing a list of programming to commemorate the day.

The Office of Campus Ministry and the Center for Community Engaged Learning created a virtual prayer service for Racial Justice, Solidarity, and Healing that is available on-demand for members of the Fordham community.

The announcement was also posted on Fordham University’s Instagram account, and Fordham College at Lincoln Center (FCLC) United Student Government President Loreen Ruiz, FCLC ’21, commented her thoughts. “I appreciate the service but thoughts and prayers cannot undo systemic injustice,” she said.

ASILI Demands Fordham Address Anti-Blackness on Campus

By MICHELLE AGARON Asst. News Editor

ASILI, the Black Student Alliance at Rose Hill, released an Instagram post featuring a list of demands concerning anti-Blackness at Fordham on June 22. The post included a call to action encouraging students to email administrators using a pre-written email linked on their page.

The list, which consists of 11 demands, was mainly curated by ASILI secretary Alex Shaw, Fordham College at Rose Hill (FCRH) ’21, in collaboration with a group of Black Fordham alumni who were involved in ASILI during their time at Fordham.

Included in the demands are calls for Fordham to cut ties with Aramark, appoint more Black and queer people to administrative positions, develop psychological services for marginalized students and reconsider Public Safety’s ties to the New York Police Department.

The undergraduate admissions page on Fordham’s website states that the Class of 2023 is the “most geographically diverse in our history.” There is no direct statement about racial diversity; the statistics show that African American students consisted of only 4% of the entire freshman population, as opposed to 13% for Asian students, 16% for Hispanic and Latino students and 55% for white students.

According to Pew Research Center, 52% of Generation Z in the U.S. (6- to 21-year-olds) is White, 25% is Hispanic or Latino, 14% is Black and 4% is Asian.

Gerald De La Cruz, FCRH ’22 and ASILI social media coordinator, also emphasized the need for more racial and gender diversity within Fordham’s staff, particular-

ly the Board of Trustees. According to a report created by Randy Dumalig, FCRH ’22, out of the 90 currently appointed members on the Board of Trustees, 24 are women and only six are people of color.

“ I fear that,

generationally, Fordham’s access policy has created a harmful narrative in the heads of students that their lives are in danger beyond the gates. ”

Gerald De La Cruz, FCRH ’22

When asked if there were any other demands De La Cruz would have added to the list, he spoke about the restrictive access policy at the Rose Hill campus. Currently, a student or faculty remember is required to show their ID card when entering the campus grounds. De La Cruz’s conviction that this policy was unnecessary and detrimental only intensified after reaching out to friends at other New York City schools.

He discovered that students and faculty members at universities such as Manhattan College, Columbia University and St. John’s University were only required to use their ID cards when entering buildings and facilities, not when entering campus.

“Fordham goes on and on about how much they care about the Bronx community they are a part of, yet works overtime to vet everyone coming to campus. I fear

that, generationally, Fordham’s access policy has created a harmful narrative in the heads of students that their lives are in danger beyond the gates,” Cruz said.

In October 2019, the first Lincoln Center campus-specific public safety alert since January 30, 2018 was issued. Within the same time period, the Fordham community received 17 Rose Hill and two Bronx public safety alert emails. These statistics imply that not only does Public Safety fail to address Lincoln Center-specific public safety issues, but also reports more often on the Bronx area than it does on the surrounding Manhattan area.

Another student, Teresa Jacob, FCRH ’23, stated that diversity on Fordham’s campus is incredibly important to her as a woman of color. After witnessing what she described as the “ongoing systems of racial and gender disparities on campus,” she felt compelled to increase her involvement in the Diversity Action Coalition and run for the Class of 2023 Senate.

“I love Fordham, but its lack of improving racial diversity amongst students, professors, and administrators can feel frankly disheartening a lot of the time,” she said.

“Fulfilling ASILI’s demands is a necessary step in acknowledging and addressing the ongoing systems of racism against Black and Brown people on our campus.”

Newly elected as a senator for the Class of 2023, Jacob hopes to amplify the voices of women of color on campus who feel systematically silenced by the administration.

Although the administration has yet to formally address ASILI’s list of demands, Lisa Betty, a Ph.D. candidate in history and a

COURTESY OF ASILI

The Black Student Alliance at Rose Hill created an Instagram and email campaign with a list of demands for university administration.

course instructor at Fordham, has publicly stated her support of the demands and listed three of her own recommendations in a report-turned-article on Medium.

These recommendations include strategically reallocating diversity funds to directly impact students, implementing diversity, equity and anti-racism training for the entire Fordham community, and developing academic curricula that explain in detail Fordham’s mission of diversity, inclusion and equity. Each recommendation is accompanied by best practice models from comparable university systems.

Betty’s experience writing the report for a Fordham administrator in 2018 was marked by what she describes as gaslighting and belittlement, as well as a general feeling of hopelessness surrounding her personal experiences in the roles of faculty, graduate student and staff at the university. However, she remains proud of her report and the efforts of Fordham students during the Black Lives Matter movement.

“I am very impressed by the students who work every day to transform Fordham into the place it should be — you all are inspiring.

Keep stating your truths and keep making demands,” she wrote.

www.fordhamobserver.com

THE OBSERVER July 8, 2020

News

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Late Absentee Ballots Leave New York Voters Disenfranchised

COVID-19 led to a surge of New Yorkers requesting absentee ballots to comply with social distancing regulations

By KATRINA LAMBERT News Editor

The decision by a federal court to reinstate the New York Democratic presidential primary after it previously was canceled due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) concerns had the intention of restoring voters’ democratic rights to exercise their freedom to vote. However, with a record number of New York voters choosing to vote through the mail, many voters reported not receiving their ballots in time for the June 23 deadline.

In Executive Order 202.15, Gov. Andrew Cuomo of New York granted permission for absentee ballots to be applicable to all New Yorkers under the condition “temporary illness,” as a way to increase voter participation without the necessity for in-person voting.

“ NY’s COVID-19 cases

have gone down, so I guess the in-person ballot option was a good and safe back-up for delayed absentee ones, but I thought it was still prudent to use the absentee ones just to be safe. ”

Maia Nunez, FCLC ’22

The order led to a surge in absentee ballot requests for the New York State Board of Elections (BOE) as more than 1.7 million voters requested absentee ballots, compared to just 157,885 in the previous 2016 presidential primary.

As of June 17, only 95% of the requested ballots were issued to voters in New York City, less

than a week before the required postmark deadline.

One Fordham student from Queens, Alleyah Ally, Fordham College at Lincoln Center (FCLC) ’23, applied for an absentee ballot at the same time as her family members. Her family members received their ballots on June 18; Ally received hers on June 20.

“I barely made the June 23rd deadline and I still don't know if the Board of Elections got mine on time,” she said. “It’s so frustrating.”

This was Ally’s second time voting, as she previously voted in the NYC 2019 city elections.

She said her first time voting wasn’t simple either. She was misdirected to the wrong polling site twice and then given the wrong ballot to fill out, making it more convenient to give up on voting despite the investment she already made to vote.

“I fought to vote, I stepped on toes, and while I was completely civil, I was so angry,” she said.

Ally wasn’t the only Fordham student affected by the late absentee ballots. Staten Island resident Maia Nunez, FCLC ’22, said she and her mother both applied for absentee ballots and didn’t receive them until the day before the primary.

“Mailing it would be complicated because it supposedly has to be postmarked by the end of that day,” she said. Ultimately, Nunez and her mom ended up walking to their nearest polling site and handing in their ballots.

“NY’s COVID-19 cases have gone down, so I guess the in-person ballot option was a good and safe back-up for delayed absentee ones, but I thought it was still prudent to use the absentee ones just to be safe,” she said.

Nunez said that, at first, she was unaware that someone who requested an absentee ballot could vote in-person instead, so she imagined there would be many voters who didn’t vote at all since their ballots came too late.

“Primaries are important and this particular presidential race is monumental, so it’s disappointing to not be able to partake,” Nunez said.

ESMÉ BLEECKER-ADAMS/THE OBSERVER

More than 1.7 million voters in New York State, compared to the 157,885 in 2016, requested to vote by mail in the primary on June 23.

According to the New York Times, the New York state attorney general’s voting hotline received an overwhelming number of calls leading up to the primary from voters who hadn’t received their absentee ballots yet.

Nearing two weeks after the primary, Twitter continues to be flooded with complaints at the New York City BOE regarding late ballots.

“My absentee ballot just arrived — 6 days late. Would have been great if my vote could have counted,” Jeramie Orton tweeted at New York State BOE account.

The New York City BOE Executive Director Michael Ryan announced on June 30 that New York City absentee ballots won’t be counted until next week, with Staten Island beginning on July

6 and the rest of the boroughs starting on July 8. Traditionally, under New York state election law, absentee ballots are not counted until a week after the election. With the surge in mail-in ballots, Ryan hopes that delaying the counting of absentee ballots will allow for a more accurate election.

It is unclear whether ballots postmarked after the deadline will be accepted, even if they were delivered after the primary.

As the 2020 general election looms, many New York voters expressed their concerns about not being able to vote in the general election, considering the situation from the primary.

Early voting in the general election takes place from Oct. 24

to Nov. 1; the last day to register for mail-in voting or in-person voting in New York is Oct. 9.

As the COVID-19 situation improves in New York, with New York City expected to move into Phase Three on July 6, the use of absentee ballots may not be needed for the majority of residents in the state during the 2020 general election.

However, it is too early to predict what the state of the virus will be in November. When Fordham students and others living and studying in New York state move back into the city for their fall semesters, and other parts of the country start to open up fully, there may be a resurgence of COVID-19 cases throughout all parts of the country.

Student Says #LookUpStepDown to a Predominately White Board of Trustees

By SAMI UMANI Copy Editor Emerita

When Randy Dumalig, Fordham College at Rose Hill (FCRH) ’22, noticed the lack of diversity on Fordham University’s Board

of Trustees, he created an Instagram video that he called #LookUpStepDown. Since the video was first uploaded on June 25, it has amassed over 18,000 views and numerous comments from students in support.

RANDY DUMALIG VIA INSTAGRAM

Dumalig's #LookUpStepDown video highlights the discrepancy between the diversity of the university trustees and that of the student body that they serve. "Imagine what you and your friends can do in a week," he said in response to the support that the video has received.

Dumalig’s 90-second video explained administration representation in contrast to the student body that they represent.

“People of color make up 68% of the City’s population, 90% of the Bronx, and 48% of your tuition-paying student body,” he said.

According to Dumalig’s research, he claims that out of the 92 people chosen to oversee the institution on the Board of Trustees, trustees emeriti and trustees fellows only six are people of color, one of which is the only woman of color.

The current Board of Trustees is made up of 40 individuals, the remaining 50 are trustees emeriti and trustees fellows, “but they don’t technically get a vote,” Dumalig said. “That said, they are invited to the meetings, they are invited to events, their voices are heard.” Currently, the six people of color included in Dumalig’s research are sitting on the Board of Trustees.

The Board of Trustees, as noted on Fordham’s website, helps manage all university business and affairs and is the “final authority over all other matters involving the University.”

Dumalig became inspired to create his video after viewing other social media accounts, such as @blackatfordham, which are using their platform to

spread information and awareness about student experiences, and learning how impactful social media is to continue these discussions.

With the help of some of his friends, Dumalig founded the account @synchesis on Instagram, which is a community organization that brings race, justice and identity into the conversation and interacts with multiple Fordham student organizations.

Following Dumalig’s #LookUpStepDown video, the FCRH Dean’s Council Instagram page, a subsection of the United Student Government, posted statements from anonymous students directed toward deans at Fordham with the hashtag #LookUpStepDown. Among them, many students point to a lack of representation among the administration for people of color.

“If you’re asking yourself why the students of color are so dissatisfied, we want you to look inward and upward to those overseeing the university — what do you notice?” one student wrote.

Dumalig admitted that he did not expect the amount of attention or support that the video received from both students and alumni. He acknowledged that he’s not the most well-informed involving campus issues, but he believes that someone needed to start the conversation. He hopes

that other students will continue to be critical of the university: “imagine what you and your friends can do in a week,” he said.

Dumalig hopes that this starts a larger conversation about who represents the student body. As well as how the Fordham community can expect wealthy donors to accurately understand the experience of low- to middle-class Fordham students, and then make decisions on behalf of those students.

One thing he doesn’t want people to see this as is advocating for a single identifier. “We don’t live single-issue lives,” Dumalig stated. Intersectionality is another large factor in determining how the board can reflect the student body.

The #LookUpStepDown social media hashtag is just the latest of a string of online efforts to make Fordham University a more inclusive and respectful community for its students of color. Following the rise of accounts like @blackatfordham and @letstalkaboutitfordham, students and faculty alike have been anonymously voicing their concerns about racism at the university.

The Observer reached out to the university for comment on Dumalig’s video but did not receive a response at the time of publication.

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July 8, 2020 THE OBSERVER

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Graduate School Welcomes New Dean to an Empty Campus

By KATRINA LAMBERT News Editor

After nearly a year of searching, and with setbacks from the pandemic, Fordham will welcome Tyler Stovall, Ph.D., as the new dean of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences (GSAS) in July 2020.

In January 2019, the previous dean of GSAS, Eve Badowska, resigned from her role to become the Associate Vice President of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, and Melissa Labonte stepped in to serve as the interim dean.

The following school year, the university organized a search committee headed by University Vice Provost Jonathan Crystal to guide the search for a new dean who will be committed to the university’s mission, as well as be innovative in improving the graduate school’s curriculum.

“What was really important is someone who is student-centered, someone who would put graduate students at the forefront,” Crystal said. “It’s not like what it (graduate school) used to be where you just train people to be professors, so we wanted someone who could think creatively about what the purpose of graduate education is, and what it can do.”

Stovall comes to Fordham from the University of California (UC) Santa Cruz. At UC Santa Cruz, he was the dean of the humanities division and a professor of history. He also served as the president of the American Historical Association, the largest organization of professional historians in the world.

His achievements as a scholar and administrator are what initially appealed to the search committee. Crystal said that he models the balance of scholar, teacher and administrator that the GSAS is looking for to represent the college.

Furthermore, it was Stovall’s dedication to students that showed the search committee he

would be a valuable member to the university.

At the beginning of 2020, while Stovall was an administrator at UC Santa Cruz, graduate student workers at the university went on strike for a $1,412-permonth cost of living adjustment after struggling to pay rent, a product of California’s housing crisis.

Stovall aims to highlight Fordham’s mission of education for social justice and advancing the bounds of knowledge as the new dean.

The search committee highlighted Stovall’s ability to articulate an understanding of the needs of the students striking as an example of his student-centered approach.

“The way that he balanced concern for the graduate students and an ability to think creatively about solutions and see that big picture, balancing the interest of (the) institution, but also the legitimate concerns that graduates students have, I think we really saw in him a strong judgment of character and commitment to social justice,” Crystal said.

Amid the coronavirus pandemic, the graduate student workers at Fordham’s GSAS are dealing with similar issues, such as inadequate payment compensation for the online course transition and having to abandon their own research and work extensively as instructors.

“Those of us who were approaching the end of our doctoral studies now face unemployment due to a non-existent academic job market and a shattered economy,” the graduate student workers stated in a

circulating petition addressed to Fordham administrators.

In response to these concerns of graduate students, Stovall said he wants to meet with these students when he assumes the role to better understand their grievances and hear their ideas for solutions.

“This is something I have a lot of experience with, both as a faculty member and as a graduate student,” he said. Stovall said that when he was a graduate student at the University of Wisconsin, he had experience working as the lead teaching assistant, which has given him an insight into the struggles of graduate student workers, even without the added difficulties of the pandemic.

“I am looking forward to working with graduate students in the administration to find the best solutions possible,” he said.

During the latter half of the interview process, candidates usually visit campus and meet committee members in person.

Stovall’s visit was scheduled for late March, but the outbreak of the coronavirus meant that his interview was conducted entirely online.

“It was unusual,” Crystal said. “We’ve never hired a high level university administrator who hasn’t come to campus or met people in person.”

Stovall had a slight advantage, however, having already been to the Rose Hill campus in the past. Crystal said that the overall process was an adjustment for everyone, but that the committee feels confident in their decision with Stovall.

As the dean of the GSAS, Stovall believes his role is to make sure that students have the best job opportunities when they graduate, whether that be in academia or any other field.

During the coronavirus pandemic, when many job opportunities have become limited, this role becomes even more important.

Additionally, he aims to high-

COURTESY OF TYLER STOVALL

After serving as a dean at UC Santa Cruz and as president of the American Historical Association, Stovall assumed his new position at Fordham on July 1.

light Fordham’s mission of education for social justice and advancing the bounds of knowledge as the new dean.

Members of the search committee were seeking someone who could “enhance the resources coming to the university,” Crystal said. “To do that, you need to be able to provide a compelling vision so that donors are attracted and they want to contribute and be involved in the future of education at Fordham.”

Stovall showed that he would be capable of presenting a compelling vision of the university.

He expressed that one of his goals as the dean is to “make

visible what Fordham does as a leader in graduate education, both to the rest of the campus and to the world as a whole.”

When the new dean assumes his position on July 1, he will be welcomed by an empty campus.

Stovall said that he wishes he could invite students to stop by so he could meet everyone, but for now, he encourages Fordham students to continue sending him emails and reaching out with any concerns.

“I am really looking forward to seeing the place in person — it is such a lovely campus — and I really look forward to meeting all the people that I will come in touch with,” he said.

Gabelli Students and Faculty Discuss Racial Solidarity

By ALLIE STOFER Asst. News Editor

Amid protests occurring around the world, Fordham’s Gabelli School of Business (GSB) came together to address the changes that the institution plans to implement going forward. The Zoom town hall held on June 15 discussed the history of racism, racial solidarity and student resources.

The event was moderated by Dean of GSB Donna Rapaccioli. She was joined by Professor Clarence Ball and Chief Diversity Officer Rafael Zapata.

Students on the call wanted to know how Fordham plans to welcome and include students of color in the future. All of the questions were asked anonymously, and one student asked, “As a largely white school, students of color and their families may feel marginalized or unwelcome. What is planned to change this?”

Zapata replied, “It’s pretty simple. We need to identify and attract and retain and support the success of more Black and Latinx students, faculty and staff.” For the Class of 2023, the ethnic breakdown of students was 55% white and only 4% Black and 16% Latinx.

Throughout the call, current and former students took part in the discussion by telling personal stories and giving students resources. Co-President of the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) Board Daurys Gonell, Gabelli School of Business at Rose Hill (GSBRH) ’21, explained the program they have

ZOOM

Clarence Ball, Rafael Zapata and Daurys Gonell (pictured left to right) were among the speakers at the Gabelli event on June 15, which focused on discussing diversity initiatives and resources for Fordham.

put in place through the Center for Community of Engaged Learning (CCEL).

CCEL seeks to inspire students to learn from their local communities. In the program Gonell highlighted, Fordham students visit Aquinas High School and Cardinal Hayes High School and encourage students to attend a university, even if it is not Fordham, Gonell explained.

“We then funnel them into the DEI mentorship program ... and that is where we focus on making students, especially incoming students into the Gabelli school, feel more comfortable, at home,” Gonell

said. “We match them with a mentor who can give them all of the right resources and also give them a voice with administration.”

Another anonymous student asked what Fordham is doing to increase staff diversity. Zapata stated that he, along with Rapaccioli, is looking to expand the diversity of candidate pools by expanding the time in which they conduct searches. According to Zapata, this has already successfully been done in the College of Arts and Sciences.

Ball explained that Fordham has partnered with many Fortune 500 companies in order to make sure they then successfully retain

faculty and staff. Some initiatives include a workshop with Ernst and Young, and PricewaterhouseCoopers donated $10,000 to ensure that faculty has diverse examples for assignments, according to Ball.

President of ASILI Diontay Santiago, GSBRH ’21, explained the ways that ASILI plans to create resources for students. Santiago stated that their “main mission is to create spaces for minority students and resources for them to be able to refer to other people on campus.”

Zapata informed students who are trying to educate themselves that there is a Google Doc of educational resources for students to use

and add to if they wish. He added that there may be a reading group this summer.

The call ended with a reference to how white allies can help and avoid “performative allyship,” or surface-level activism. Gonell emphasized the importance of amplifying the voices of people of color and Santiago explained the necessity to be actively anti-racist.

“To be an ideal ally, it is about taking yourself out of your own comfort zone and being able to place yourself in the shoes of somebody else and working toward getting rid of their own issues,” Santiago said.

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THE OBSERVER July 8, 2020

News

5

Fordham’s Reopening Plan is ‘Too Little, Too Late’ REOPENING from page 1

that outlined penalties for late withdrawal,as many wanted to wait for a clearer view of Fordham’s plan for the fall before making the decision to return.

“At this point everything is sort of stuck in the air,” an international student from Myanmar, Wendy Myat, Fordham College at Lincoln Center (FCLC) ’23, said. “Fordham wants us to deposit our housing, health insurance and tuition, but nothing is given for us to be able to decide.”

On June 24, Gov. Andrew Cuomo of New York issued guidelines for higher-educational institutions to follow as the upcoming school year approaches.

Included in the guidelines are mandatory protective equipment, routine cleaning, a comprehensive system for testing and screening, recommendations for physical distancing, and other preventive measures.

“Fordham Forward,” a 35-page document, details procedures that conform very closely to the guidance issued by the governor.

Many concerns students have about returning to campus revolve around the tight hallways, packed elevators and high density of the Lincoln Center campus. Spanning 349,000 square feet and 361 rooms, the Lincoln Center campus lacks the space that other universities have to utilize for proper social distancing.

New York University (NYU), for example, has over five million square feet of interior space in its New York, Washington Square campus.

“What is the plan for use of the elevators in Lowenstein Center at the Lincoln Center campus?” James Groenier, Gabelli School of Business at Lincoln Center ’23, asked.

“Before (COVID-19), they were already notorious for having long wait times and being extremely crowded. How will that be solved?”

“ How can you say you care about the Bronx community and then actively endanger them by bringing students back? ”

Mariana Beltran Hernandez, FCRH ’22

In the Fordham Forward plan, the university intends to reduce seating capacity within classrooms to one-third of their original value, increase the time between courses to 20 minutes instead of 15 and schedule more courses on lower floors to reduce elevator and stair traffic.

“I believe the university’s current reopening plan feels inadequate, as, in my opinion, there aren’t drastic enough changes to

operations for the campuses to be safe,” Groenier said.

After Cuomo issued guidance to colleges and universities to allow for partial face-to-face operations and classes in the fall, other New York universities, such as NYU, Cornell University, Pace University and The New School, proposed their own reopening plans that are unique to each university and its needs.

In May, NYU informed incoming freshmen that students and faculty would be reconvening in person at all campuses for the fall 2020 semester. The university plans to create a flexible and safe environment, meaning classes will be conducted in a “mixed mode” of online and face-to-face instruction.

Pace University is approaching the semester with similar guidelines, while The New School diverted from the typical path and chose to conduct all classes online in the fall.

Although Cornell University resides outside of the New York City area, the university’s reopening plan is in line with the aforementioned colleges. According to a CNBC article, however, Cornell is set to spend $3 million to $5 million to implement a semester-long coronavirus tracing and testing plan for students and faculty.

Even with Fordham’s Bronx campus, Rose Hill, which contains over three million square feet of open green space, some Fordham students are worried about the effect that bringing students from other parts of the country back to campus will have on the Bronx community.

“How can you say you care about the Bronx community and then actively endanger them by bringing students back?” Mariana Beltran Hernandez, Fordham College at Rose Hill (FCRH) ’22, said in a comment on Fordham University’s Instagram post announcing its reopening in the fall.

The novel coronavirus (COVID-19) has had disproportionate effects on the different boroughs in NYC. Manhattan residents, on average, have higher incomes and better access to healthcare. Meanwhile, the Bronx faces scarcity in good-quality food, income inequality, public housing inefficiencies and less access to proper healthcare.

Despite Manhattan having a higher population than the Bronx, the total number of COVID-19 cases in the Bronx (as of June 6) is 47,300, whereas in Manhattan, the total number of cases is 25,788.

“One of their (Fordham’s) big selling points is that they bring the students and community together.

By bringing students back, it is actively endangering the Bronx,” Beltran Hernandez said.

On May 28, Fordham announced that the university will be embracing a “flexible” style of learning for the fall. Also referred to as “hybrid courses,” this will allow the university to offer education to students in-person as well as online and enables a quick switch

away from face-to-face instruction if the health situation changes.

This style of learning is particularly appealing to international students and high-risk individuals who either cannot get back into the country because of their situation or who do not feel comfortable returning to campus.

“At this point, I have accepted and come to terms with the fact that it is unfeasible for me to travel back to New York and attend the Fall 2020 semester due to the health hazards posed by the pandemic,” international student from the Philippines Jonathan Ng, FCRH ’23, said.

“In lieu of attending in person, I will have to enroll as an online student and take my classes over Zoom — that is if professors and Fordham will be able to effectively and efficiently use technology to support international students,” Ng continued.

International students have further obstacles trying to return to campus. On July 6, ICE announced that international students are at risk of losing their student visa licenses if they are unable to take in-person classes.

Due to Fordham’s delayed and vague decision-making, “it’s very difficult for me to gauge whether or not I will be able to (fulfill) the parameters to simply maintain the viability of my F1 visa,” Ng said.

According to Ng, Fordham has not communicated with international students regarding their situations beyond informing them of the U.S. government rulings.

“There has been a noticeable lack of information regarding policies for international students who cannot attend the Fall semester in

GRAPHS BY MADDIE SANDHOLM/THE OBSERVER

person, how Fordham can support such students, and protocols for returning international students who wish to attend in person,” Ng said.

Currently, there is no pathway for students to declare their courses fully online. Although, according to Dean of FCLC Laura Auricchio, they are currently in the process of developing a system for students to declare their classes online. In an email to the Fordham community issued July 1, the university provided further information regarding courses in the fall — the “first of a series that will be sent throughout the summer,” Auricchio said.

Neither the email nor the Fordham Forward document have discussed whether declaring online courses will cause disruption for students’ current schedules.

“I seriously doubt that they’ll be super accommodating to students who decide not to return for these reasons, amongst others,” Beltran

Hernandez said. “It’s pretty evident that students who decide to do all classes virtually will be at a disadvantage academically.”

Without the ability to declare their courses online however, Fordham students are still required to make payments for all expenses by the quickly approaching due date, July 8. Under these circumstances, Fordham announced on June 22 that they will not be charging fees for a late payment.

“I would like to commend Fordham for persevering to prepare the campus and academic situations for such an unprecedented crisis,” Ng said, acknowledging the measures Fordham has taken thus far to deal with the unpredictability of pandemic.

However, “if I were to summarize Fordham’s response and decision making, in a nutshell, I would simply condense it to the phrase, ‘too little, too late,’” he added.

6

News

July 8, 2020 THE OBSERVER

www.fordhamobserver.com

Changing the Culture at Fordham for LGBTQ+ Students

LGBTQ+ RIGHTS from page 1

transphobic culture: TGNC even have to graduate with their dead names. Seeking to uplift TNGC and LGBTQ+ students, a Lavender Graduation was organized in 2019 where students could graduate with their chosen names.

J. Patrick Hornbeck, chair of the theology department, was selected to be the master of ceremonies at the event. He said that the event “gives them a chance to celebrate in a space where they can be fully themselves ... What I’ve understood of their experience is that there have been moments of overt bias that they have experienced. So I think for them to have a moment at the end of their time at Fordham to celebrate specifically as LGBTQ+ students is incredibly important.”

Being a private Jesuit university, Fordham sits at the intersection of religious values and modern education. Hornbeck explained it as, “A lot of us have have done our best over the last few years to change that rhetoric to say that, in fact, we are welcoming to LGBTQ members of the community, in part because of certain commitments we have as a Jesuit Catholic institution, even if the Institutional Catholic Church isn't there yet.”

Fordham has an official non-discrimiation policy that is in compliance with the New York State Sexual Orientation Non-Discrimination Act, which has been in effect since 2003. The act made it unlawful for a person to be discriminated against for their sexual orientation.

Yet, up until 2009, it excluded protections for TGNC individuals and discrimination on the basis of gender identity.

Fordham’s non-discrimination policy states that the “University is an academic institution that ... does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, creed, religion, age, sex, gender, national origin, marital or parental status, sexual orientation, citizenship status, veteran status, disability, genetic predisposition or carrier status, gender identity or gender characteristics, or any other basis prohibited by law.”

However, it is important to note that this policy also states

MADDIE SANDHOLM/THE OBSERVER

The Supreme Court recently ruled it illegal to discriminate based on sexual orientation or gender identity. New York state has prohibited such discrimination since 2009, and Fordham is officially compliant with the law, but there is still work to be done to make the campus climate one that is welcoming and supportive to all of its students.

that “Fordham University does not knowingly support or patronize any organization that engages in unlawful discrimination.” At the same time, Fordham supports the Catholic Church, and the Vatican has openly condemned TGNC persons in 2019 in a document titled “Male and Female He Created Them.”

There is no denying that Fordham has made progressive administrative decisions, but many students claim that there is still more work to be done. For example, student and employee health insurance does not cover any transition-related medical expenses, and there are a sparse number of gender-neutral bathrooms located throughout the Fordham Lincoln Center campus.

Many community members feel as though policies are simply not enough — for they claim it is the climate at Fordham that needs to be changed.

Lu Aubin, Fordham College at

Lincoln Center (FCLC) ’23, wrote, “I believe Fordham as well as my home in New England should make a point to cultivate a space which is not just safe but empowering for queer folx. It is a community effort, but things like introducing yourself with pronouns at every opportunity is really important even though it may not seem like it.”

Fordham has not undertaken much of these efforts in the past. An anonymous student who identifies as nonbinary explained that before their freshman year they attempted to live with a transgender woman and were met with backlash.

After some discussion with administration they were told that it was not going to be possible and that their friend, who identifies as a woman, must live with men. “It’s really upsetting to see this behavior from a school that prides itself on being in the center of nyc - somewhere that’s known for being a place where lgbt+ people can be themselves,” they wrote.

Matt Kozakowski, FCLC ’21, believes that “the issues with Fordham are within the culture of the school.” He claims that the culture at Rose Hill makes him fear for his safety as a bisexual man. “If I go up to the Bronx, I make an effort to ‘dress straight,’ deepen my voice, ‘walk straight,’ ‘talk straight,’ ‘dance straight’: I do everything I can to make myself outwardly appear more straight. I do it because I feel safer that way.”

Kozakowski thinks that new practices will implement change.

However, this issue is intersectional — “We can’t discuss how Fordham can be better for LGBTQ+ students without also acknowledging how Fordham needs to be better for all other minorities,” he said.

Hornbeck seconded this, saying, “for students who identify both as Black, indigenous or (people) of color and as members of the LGBTQ community, those are not just separate forms of bias that they endure, but in fact, those forms of

bias can overlap and therefore become worse.

“It's not enough just to say, oh, we're doing these things for our LGBTQ students and these things for students of color. We need to be attentive to the ways in which those things all overlap in real people's experiences.”

Rafael Zapata, chief diversity officer, said that he is constantly working to improve the climate at Fordham in order to ensure that each member of the Fordham community can be the best they can be. He noted that Fordham has a “robust bias response system,” but also acknowledged that for some, “I think the challenge of it is that a lot of the incidents that people experience around discrimination, around micro aggressions may not rise to the level of an actual violation of a code of conduct. But nevertheless it causes harm.”

He believes that some people at Fordham may benefit from a restorative justice practice, which brings people together to have a facilitated conversation in order to learn and change. “That is when we will create the kind of culture in which the community will respond in a way that people understand these are our expectations.”

Fordham frequently advertises its Jesuit mission to potential students — care for the whole person is not just a saying, but a daily task.

When asked why they wanted to teach at the university in the first place, Zein Murib, a professor in the political science and women and gender studies departments, wrote, “What attracted me to Fordham was the Jesuit tradition's deep value for social justice. Each year, across the country, transgender people -- especially Black and Latinx transgender people -- are murdered or violently assaulted for simply existing.”

They continued, “Transgender people are denied access to safe housing, effective healthcare, and reliable employment. Transgender children are bullied in school and are now denied opportunities to participate in sports teams across the country. If that's not a social justice issue that is ripe for taking up, then I don't know what is.”

Bronx Community Scammed by Fordham Road GoFundMe

By ALLIE STOFER Asst. News Editor

After protesting and looting occurred along Fordham Road on June 1, the Bronx community was quick to clean up the mess left behind. Nearly a month after multiple GoFundMe pages were created to financially support the destruction of the neighborhood, a GoFundMe created by Amin Razzaque is suspected to have been a scam.

The fundraiser was created with the idea to help local small businesses that had been damaged by the looting. It managed to raise $47,477 before Razzaque stopped allowing donations.

According to Razzaque’s business partner, Kevin Zatizabal, during the cleaning of Fordham Road, Razzaque made a connection with a man from the Fordham Business Improvement District (BID). The Fordham BID is a nonprofit organization that focuses on growing local businesses. Zatizabal stated that it was then that Razzaque mentioned creating The Bronx United.

The Bronx United was created to “educate the community and provide the resources needed to move towards success,” according to The Bronx United Twitter. Their core values include racial equity, building a united community, and education and empowerment.

GOFUNDME

This GoFundMe page was intended to raise money for local businesses that suffered from looting along Fordham Road. It is suspected to have been a scam, and the money has not been distributed to the community as of yet.

In a Twitter thread, Zatizabal explained that he was brought on to be CEO of the company, while Razzaque would be COO. Zatizabal stated that as time progressed, he noticed that his coworkers were not actually working.

“I realized that I was doing all of the work, as you were able to see I was the one doing most of the talking during the inter-

views,” Zatizabal tweeted. “I started assigning work and deadlines for everyone accordingly.

No one did what they were supposed to be doing. They showed up late to every meeting.”

Zatizabal said that he started to feel like the GoFundMe was a scam when receiving documents started to take longer than usual. He stated that his experience as a former banker allowed him to know what

a standard amount of time was.

After accusations of it being a scam began, Razzaque became angry with Zatizabal for not defending him, according to Zatizabal. This then led to Razzaque holding a meeting on “the future of The Bronx United,” meant to remove Zatizabal as CEO. Zatizabal decided to remove himself before a vote was held.

“Fortunately, with the suspi-

cions that I had I made sure that Amin did not receive a business debit card, and I made sure that the checks were sent to my address. I will make sure that every single penny is given back to the community, which (was) my intention from the beginning,” Zatizabal tweeted.

In response to the scam allegations, Razzaque tweeted a four-page-long explanation, saying that the money is still in the GoFundMe because he needed proof that they were a nonprofit organization.

“I did not choose the personal option because I wanted the money to be strictly for charity and not to have to transfer the funds to my personal account,” Razzaque tweeted.

The Bronx United tweeted a statement from the Fordham BID about their partnership. The statement illustrated that the Fordham BID is helping to distribute funds.

“Our goal is to ensure those funds are given to those businesses most affected with absolute transparency. We are working on a date in the near future (hopefully within the next week) where together, we can present business owners with the funds in hand,” the tweet from June 22 stated.

As of July 6, all of the money is still in the GoFundMe.

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THE OBSERVER July 8, 2020

News

Faculty Spotlight: The Rev. Paul Mariani, S.J.

7

A scholar in Christianity in China from Mao to the present day served as Fordham’s Loyola Scholar for Spring 2020

By LEO BERNABEI Staff Writer

“You really just have to jump right in,” the Rev. Paul Mariani, S.J., tells me about learning Mandarin — a language that may seem daunting for many English speakers.

A scholar of Christianity in China, Mariani spent the spring 2020 semester as Fordham’s St. Ignatius Loyola Chair, a position reserved for a Jesuit from the United States or around

the world to serve as “a distinguished professor who would contribute to and enhance the Catholic and Jesuit tradition of Fordham University.” Mariani focuses his research on the modern history of China and its Christian communities since China’s communist revolution in 1949. He recalls that he became interested in the topic when he was a teenager and Deng Xiaoping was the leader of China.

Deng, who took control shortly after the death of Mao Zedong,

spearheaded major social, economic and political reforms in the Far East country.

A Bicoastal Student and Educator Mariani’s education and research history are immense. Hailing from New York and growing up in Massachusetts, Mariani attended Harvard University where he majored in biology and subsequently traveled to Taiwan where he studied Mandarin for nearly two years.

After entering the Society of Jesus in 1991 in California, he returned to New York to get his master’s degree in philosophical resources at Fordham in 1996. He also earned a Master of Divinity from the Jesuit School of Theology in Berkeley in 2002 and was ordained a priest in that year.

Ultimately, Mariani received his Ph.D. in history from the University of Chicago in 2007.

While he is now an associate professor of history at Santa Clara University in California, he spent this past semester with the Fordham community. In his capacity as Loyola Chair, he taught a fully enrolled course on Christianity in China and was planning to deliver a lecture on the subject open to all Fordham students and faculty before the coronavirus outbreak hit New York.

Mariani’s Research

COURTESY OF PAUL MARIANI, S.J.

Enthralled by the subject as a teenager, Mariani focuses his research on the modern history of Catholic life and resistance in communist China.

As a student who took his course, I never found a dull moment. The subject matter spanned from the earliest Christians to arrive in China during the seventh century to the present day under the rule of China’s current president, Xi Jinping.

The main focus of Mariani’s research has been on Catholic life and resistance in communist China. His book, “Church Militant: Bishop Kung and Catholic Resistance in Communist Shanghai,” published by Harvard, details the true story of Bishop Ignatius Kung Pinmei. Pinmei served as the Catholic Bishop of Shanghai from 1950 until his death in 2000 and spent decades in prison for opposing the ruling Communist Party. The book highlights the oppressive Chinese regime which Pinmei and other Catholics in Shanghai tirelessly resisted until their arrests in 1955 and the means by which the state divided, manipulated and exerted control over both Catholic and Protestant churches during the 1950s.

Because China guaranteed freedom of religion for its citizens, the Communist Party had to get creative when charging church leaders and parishioners with crimes. They claimed that the Church’s leaders were engaged in counterrevolutionary activity and supported by imperialists, charges that evoked a patriotic resistance to the memory of colonial powers in China.

After the death of Mao and the rise of Deng, Mariani notes that China did begin to open itself to the outside world and religion, but this period of liberalization has since receded. Since the rise of Xi, Christianity and other religions have faced stringent new guidelines and are kept under the watchful eye of the state.

Mariani’s Thoughts on the Current Situation in China During his most recent trip to China in 2018, Mariani recalls that security cameras are now

ubiquitous throughout the nation’s cities, including in front of churches. While these cameras may be used to assist law enforcement, there is a growing international concern that they are also used to closely monitor religious communities.

When asked how he acquired the information used in “Church Militant” given the reliance on primary sources from China, Mariani noted that the government’s archives were not as restricted as one might have believed. But he notes that putting together his sources was like making “a huge mosaic” between missionary letters, memoirs, interviews and the official government documents.

Mariani believes that the current coronavirus pandemic may exacerbate matters for Christians, putting individuals and churches under a state showing an increasing disregard for personal privacy under the pretext of curbing the spread of the novel virus. While he hasn’t been to China since 2018, he says that he wouldn’t be surprised if the government’s archives are “now more secretive.”

For his next project, Mariani hopes to formulate somewhat of a continuation of “Church Militant,” detailing the life of some of the book’s main figures and the growth of religion in China in the 1980s.

Mariani referenced a quote of hope from “Church Militant” and said that even after the Communist Party wreaked havoc upon the Church and jailed its leaders, “the party was unable to destroy the church. Although some Catholics renounced their faith, others did not. The faith lived on in their hearts. And with renewed — albeit limited — religious freedom, these believers rapidly reestablished themselves as a church.”

After Surge of Online Activism, University Responds to Racial Injustice ACTION PLAN from page 1

“We’ve received many submissions detailing Fordham’s mishandling of Title IX cases, the dissolution of the Dorothy Day Center for Justice, Counseling and Psychological Services’ failure to adequately help students, complaints about Residential Hall Association, commuter alienation, the toxicity in the Fordham Athletics department, complaints about Public Safety, unacceptable and unprofessional behavior from individual professors, and also a decent number of complaints regarding the Theology department in particular,” the creators of @letstalkaboutitfordham said.

“ Their action plan

contains small victories. Fordham needs to do more. ”

Persons name, their title or relevance

The creators said they have been receiving 20 to 30 submissions a day, and currently have almost 100 pending submissions.

“We feel like it’s a good start,” the creators of @blackatfordham said in response to Fordham’s action plan. “We appreciate Fordham trying to take steps forward.

However, we were disappointed to see no acknowledgment of Ar-

amark, public safety complaints, or any of the professors and deans that have been called out by the student body for racist and problematic behavior.”

“Their action plan fails to address the larger issues Black, Indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC) at Fordham have been expressing on our account that actively and systemically promotes a racist and anti-black environment on campus,” the creators of @letstalkaboutitfordham said. “Their action plan contains small victories. Fordham needs to do more.”

In addition to bringing awareness to these accounts, members of the Fordham community also turned to the comments section on Fordham’s official Instagram page. When the university issued a written response to the Black Lives Matter movement and recognized Juneteenth as a holiday, students flooded the posts with comments. The comments span from demands to cut ties with Aramark to holding individual, named faculty members accountable — such as Rodgers.

Fordham students’ calls for concrete action are not isolated incidents; ASILI cites a University of Minnesota decision to cut ties with the Minneapolis Police Department as an example for Fordham to follow. University President Joan Gabel made the decision in May following student protests.

In 2019, student backlash against New York University’s administration led to the removal of Aramark as their dining provider after a racist Black History

BLACKATFORDHAM VIA INSTAGRAM

The @blackatfordham account currently has over 160 posts and over 4,600 followers. The creators of the account have said that Fordham's action plan "fails to address the larger issues Black, Indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC) at Fordham have been expressing" in their submissions.

Month incident. There is currently another petition circulating calling on Fordham to remove Aramark as well.

“All of their responses so far have been completely ignorant of what students need and have repeatedly demanded,” Olive Zoda, Fordham College at Lincoln Center ’23, said. “With the number of people speaking out about their

experiences at Fordham and organizing to demand specific tangible changes from the administration, you’d think Fordham would have done more than announce a prayer for Juneteenth.”

“To Fordham Administration: We want more concrete actions,” the @letstalkaboutitfordham creators said. “We want concrete consequences for students and profes-

sors or administrators who display racist behavior.”

When asked about student organizations’ demands, the circulation of petitions and the future of Fordham’s role in social justice, Bob Howe, assistant vice president for communications and special adviser to the president, said, “We think Father’s letter and the action plan speak for themselves.”

Sports & Health

Sports & Health Editors Aiza Bhuiyan - ebhuiyan@fordham.edu Patrick Moquin - pmoquin@fordham.edu July 8, 2020

THE OBSERVER

New York Has Slowed the Coronavirus, but Can Other States Follow Suit?

COVID-19 cases spike nationwide, prompting fears of a resurgence

By GUS DUPREE Asst. Sports & Health Editor

After months of social distancing, states across the nation are beginning to ease the guidelines set up to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

But with cases continuing to spike nationwide, many across the nation are forced to reckon with the fact that the battle with coronavirus may drag on longer than previously hoped.

The White House is currently advising states to reopen only after a decline of cases over a 14-day period. However, states such as Florida, Georgia, Missouri and Arizona, to name a few, are relaxing or outright ending their social distancing policies — regardless of the fact that many states, including those previously mentioned, are still reporting a surge in cases.

“Until recently, the New York metro area was the eastern epicenter of infection,” said Robert Madden, Ph.D., a natural sciences professor at Fordham University. Since the outbreak began in New York, Madden has been tracking infection rates in Westchester County, situated just north of the Bronx within the Hudson Valley.

However, the epicenter of the virus in the United States is now shifting to other states. The continued rise in cases in certain states has already detrimentally affected their testing and hospitalization capabilities; Arizona has been overwhelmed with exponentially increasing cases, as well as a shortage of testing kits.

In Texas, another state experiencing a rapid rise in cases, Gov. Greg Abbott has paused his state’s reopening process entirely.

Many of these states feel pressured to reopen in order to recover from the economic downturn spurred by the pandemic, which has had particularly detrimental effects on states that rely on the service in-

dustry during the summer months.

One such state, Florida, entered its Phase 2 on June 5, despite seeing a surge in new cases. Florida Gov. Rob DeSantis has still refused to implement or reinstate any more restrictions and has even been accused of coercing scientists to downplay the reported surge of cases within the state.

With this dramatic resurgence, despite months of social distancing measures nationwide, scientists, officials and citizens alike are now concerned about a “second wave” or a resurgence of the coronavirus on par with the initial outbreak.

Many states are using a multistage process to slowly and safely reopen. New York state, which was the original epicenter of COVID-19 in the United States, has experienced a steady decline in its rates of infection, prompting Gov. Andrew Cuomo to begin reopening the state.

New York City entered Phase Two of its reopening process on June 22. Other regions of New York state have already been in Phase Three since mid-June.

However, the coronavirus has affected no place more than nursing homes. Even New York has struggled to prevent the disease from ravaging nursing homes and long-term care facilities, with Gov. Cuomo being accused of forcing long-term care facilities to take in patients recovering from the coronavirus, further spreading the risk of transmission among an already-vulnerable population.

According to Madden, New York’s relative success handling the virus has now been mitigated by the surge in cases in other parts of the country. “The NY metro area, and the northeast in general have had considerable success in reducing their rates of infection through social distancing and other measures, while other areas of the country are experiencing sharp increases,

so now the concern has to be more about travel from these areas, such as Texas and Florida to New York,” Madden said.

One important factor contributing to this rise, according to Madden, is the easing of the restrictions put in place to slow the coronavirus spread in the first place. “The understandable desire to return to a more normal life means that social distancing is being relaxed. As people come into greater contact with each other, the virus has new opportunities to spread,” he said.

To Madden, fears of a second wave are very much warranted. The level of infectiousness of the coronavirus that epidemiologists use, called an R0 score, is estimated to be around 2.5, according to Madden. “As a comparison, for example, a typical flu has an R0 of about 1.3,” he continued, demonstrating the increased infectivity of COVID-19.

One factor that has made containment of the outbreak difficult is the coronavirus’s infectiousness even when symptoms aren’t necessarily present. “We are learning that an individual can be infected, and asymptomatic or minimally symptomatic, and yet be able to spread the virus,” Madden said. This only increases the virus’s infectiousness, making it all the harder to contain.

However, curbing the coronavirus can still be done adequately.

According to Madden, states should invest more in contact tracing, increasing the number of available testing kits and successfully isolating infected individuals. “The idea is to catch infected individuals as soon as possible, to locate the individuals they came in contact with and who therefore might themselves be infected, and to isolate these people ... so they don’t further spread the virus,” he said.

Unfortunately, there have been many failings on the part of both local and federal governments to

PHOTOS BY ANDREW DRESSNER AND ESMÉ BLEECKER-ADAMS; PHOTO ILLUSTRATION BY ESMÉ BLEECKER-ADAMS/THE OBSERVER

While some states are experiencing slowed rates of new cases, others are experiencing spikes as they begin to reopen.

ensure that these criteria are met.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency recently began investigating a $10 million contract it signed with a Texan manufacturing company after the millions of testing kits it produced were found to be made of plastic containers meant for soda bottles rather than the standard glass vials.

For New York, the resurgence of the virus across the nation has prompted the state to enact travel restrictions against people coming from any states with a 10% or higher test positivity rate, meaning that at least 10 out of a given state’s 100,000 residents have tested positive for the virus. New Jersey and Connecticut have also followed suit and are implementing similar restrictions.

Regardless, New York state continues to slowly reopen. Already, several regions within the state

have entered Phase 3. Madden said that New York state will keep some restrictions in place in order to safely reopen while preventing a second wave from overwhelming the state.

“The main efforts being taken by both the city and state to prevent a second wave are to maintain social distancing to the extent possible consistent with allowing at least certain activities to resume,” he said. Such activities that are slowly being reopened include offices, retail stores, restaurants and schools.

For Madden, at least local travel within the tri-state area is much safer now than it was in the spring. “In general, the northeast region of the US has been experiencing declining infection rates, so I wouldn’t expect travel from nearby states, particularly commuting from New Jersey and Connecticut, to pose a threat to us,” Madden said.

How to Keep Your COVID-19 Guard Up While Enjoying Summer

By LUKE OSBORN Sports & Health Editor Emeritus

As members of the Fordham community spread out across the country, the decision of whether it’s safe to go out will vary from state to state and person to person. Referring to local protocols and the information provided by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) are the best ways to make an informed decision about what summer activities are safe.

First and foremost, if you have COVID-19 or symptoms consistent with COVID-19, the CDC recommends staying home as much as possible. The same is true for those who may have been exposed to the virus through close contact with a positive individual.

If the above criteria does not describe you, here’s what to consider next. Generally speaking, “the more closely you interact with others and the longer that interaction, the higher the risk of COVID-19 spread,” according to the CDC. An important question to consider is how many people you will come in contact with when engaging in an activity. The more people present, the more chances there are of one of those individuals harboring the virus. Therefore, small groups or oneon-one interactions are preferable to large groups of people.

It’s also important to consider whether or not it’s possible to maintain 6 feet of distance between you and everyone else. Indoor activities

ESMÉ BLEECKER-ADAMS/THE OBSERVER

The risk of COVID-19 transmission is reduced outdoors in comparison to enclosed spaces. Those spending time outside this summer should still be sure to adhere to proper precautions, including social distancing and wearing masks.

are less conducive to this social distancing measure, especially since space to spread out might be limited and poor ventilation may keep the virus in the air. Wearing a mask, especially while in a relatively crowded indoor environment, is tantamount to preventing COVID-19 spread.

Though some activities may meet these guidelines, extra caution should be taken if you are in an area where COVID-19 cases are increasing, currently in Florida, Texas and Oklahoma, to name a few.

While this information may seem like a lot to consider, additional precautions need to be taken when engaging in certain activ-

ities like visiting a restaurant that has reopened.

Each state is phasing out restrictions on business differently. For instance, restaurants in New York City are allowed to serve patrons outdoors as of June 22, whereas Florida restaurants have been able to serve up to 50% of their indoor capacity since June 5.

The CDC recommends checking up on any eatery via their social media or website to see how they are handling COVID-19 safety. The CDC specifically advises individuals to ask ahead as to whether the restaurant workers are wearing masks.

Though indoor seating is allowed in Florida, the CDC still recommends spending as little time as possible

in indoor spaces without a mask, so make sure to prefer outdoor seating and be cognizant of keeping 6 feet of space between you and patrons who are not part of your household.

Some other important points to consider include avoiding self-serve food, when possible. Lastly, wash your hands for at least 20 seconds with soap and water or cleanse them with 60% alcohol-based hand sanitizer when you enter and leave the establishment.

If keeping track of all these precautions seems arduous, electing to spend your summer leisure time outside at parks or beaches may seem less so.

There are two factors that reduce the risk of COVID-19 transmission

outdoors. First, if someone were sick while being outdoors, environmental factors like the wind would cause the droplets the person expels to quickly disperse into smaller quantities. This may seem like the virus may have a better chance of getting to you, but the viral load, the amount of virus someone needs to come in contact with in order to get sick, is greatly reduced.

A Chinese study of 318 outbreaks demonstrates the level of risk spending time outdoors entails. Only one outbreak occurred outdoors in this study, and the instance involved transmission while an infected individual had a conversation with another person who subsequently became exposed.

Though the risk of transmission is lower outdoors, it’s not impossible to become infected while engaging in outdoor activities. Wearing a mask when maintaining 6 feet of distance is not possible and limiting extended interactions with individuals outside of your home are ways to prevent catching COVID-19.

After spending a large portion of the last three months indoors, it’s only natural to feel the urge to return to the normalcy of dining at a restaurant or sunbathing at the beach. Nevertheless, the best ways of preventing COVID-19 spread still involve personal hygiene measures and social distancing, so it’s important to allow yourself to enjoy the fun and freedom of the outdoors while also remaining aware of how to do those activities safely.

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THE OBSERVER July 8, 2020

Sports & Health

Athletics Department Committed to Addressing Racism, Student-Athletes Say Words Aren’t Enough

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By PATRICK MOQUIN and MAGGIE MCNAMARA Sports & Health Editor and Asst. Sports & Health Editor

A national movement confronting systemic racism and anti-Blackness has challenged the status quo at Fordham — and the athletic department is at the forefront of the conversation.

On June 18, Fordham Athletics was one of the first departments to announce a plan addressing racism in the community, with the intention of creating “an inclusive space that has zero tolerance for intolerance.” However, according to student-athletes, this issue is far more complicated than a few bullet points and long-term promises.

The department’s statement included several concrete steps, such as “organizing bias education and racial justice training for all Fordham Athletics coaches and staff” and “implementing a protocol for reporting racist and prejudice acts in our community.” Other items on the list are more vague calls for cultural change, such as “prioritizing representation as part of our hiring process” and “aiding students in creating a space to connect and engage in conversation.”

Fordham’s total undergraduate enrollment for fall 2019 across all campuses identified 4.3% of students as “Black or African American.” However, athletic teams often have far higher levels of diversity. Around 20% of the women’s basketball team and around 34% of the football team is Black.

Regardless, these statistics do not always translate to the legislative bodies that guide the athletic programming. Black members only make up around 7% of the 2019-20 roster for Fordham’s Student-Athlete Advisory Council (SAAC), which includes representatives from several athletic teams and oftentimes serves as a liaison to the Athletic Department regarding student-athlete welfare.

“ If nothing’s done,

if there’s no action, I’m going to sit in the middle of the court till there’s action. But it’s sad that it has to come to that.”

Bre Cavanaugh, FCRH ’21

In response to the statement, women’s basketball player Bre Cavanaugh, Fordham College at Rose Hill (FCRH) ’21, said, “I just want to see action. I’m tired of the whole ‘we see you, we hear you.’ Like, that’s great, but where’s the action? It can’t just be all words.”

Part of Fordham Athletics’ initiative is to bring student-athletes of color into more direct contact with the administration.

Since June 17, Cavanaugh has been contributing to a task force formed by the athletic department dedicated to developing anti-racism initiatives through discussion with athletes. The group meets several times a week and communicates directly with athletic department admin, providing their perspectives and ideas as Fordham moves forward

COURTESY OF FORDHAM ATHLETICS

Fordham’s athletics department released a plan to address racism within the sports program which they posted to their social media platforms. Students say that the department needs to act rather than simply make promises.

with their intentions to promote tolerance and diversity on campus.

Cavanaugh sees these meetings, which take up a significant amount of her time, as helpful for student-athletes of color, but also expressed concerns that the group’s suggestions and efforts won’t end up being enacted by Fordham.

At one point during the interview, Cavanaugh’s concerns boiled over to frustration when she said, “If nothing’s done, if there’s no action, I’m going to sit in the middle of the court till there’s action. But it’s sad that it has to come to that. It shouldn’t have to come to that.”

The women’s basketball coach Stephanie Gaitley supported her player, saying that she was “confident that our team and department as a whole can make a true impact as we address racism.”

Gaitley added that the department is hopeful for a return to campus so that discussions can continue in person, at which point she expects an agreement about a tangible plan and timeline for implementation to be reached.

To explain what she meant by “action over words,” Cavanaugh repeatedly referred to a list of demands submitted to Fordham administration from ASILI, the Black Student Alliance at Fordham. The list called for actions the organization deems necessary for Fordham to effectively cultivate a tolerant and diverse environment. In a list of 11 demands, ASILI has found that Fordham is only addressing three of them, even after University President Rev. Joseph M. McShane, S.J., unveiled the school’s “Action Plan to Address Racism.”

Cavanaugh said that she had not personally experienced racism first hand at Fordham, which she attributed to her status as

a high-profile athlete. However, she is a member of a larger student body that has grown increasingly aware of such experiences in recent weeks, most noticeably on social media.

Since June 18, an Instagram account, @blackatfordham, anonymously created by two Fordham athletes, has been publishing stories of racism in the community. Stories are submitted to the page directly by students and alumni of color to share their experiences at Fordham.

The account was founded by a current Fordham student who then asked a friend and recent Fordham graduate to help maintain the page. Both compete or have previously competed for Fordham athletics, and both agreed to speak anonymously with The Observer.

At first, the founder was uncertain about creating such an account but did so after deeming Fordham administration’s response to the national movement inadequate. They said, “Seeing that the university was going about their day like nothing was happening, I decided to make it. It was mind-blowing to me.”

The two page-runners only began accepting submissions three weeks ago, but in that time, hundreds have poured in.

The graduate described this experience as “mentally exhausting,” given the frequency of the messages and the content within each.

They also said, “There’s definitely this overwhelming feeling of responsibility for these stories. The whole purpose of it at all is to elevate these voices,” referring to students of color specifically.

The stories posted on the account range from acts of ignorance carried out in passing to allegations of outright racism

and bigotry. Although most of the submissions are anonymous, several of the individuals identify themselves as athletes and tell stories directly involving their negative treatment on various teams at Fordham. All of these stories can be found on the account.

As athletes, the creators both noted that these specific stories had the most impact on them personally, with the founder saying, “literally nothing was done.

(The athletes) definitely brought it to administration so that’s why I’m confused.”

As student-athletes themselves, the two creators expressed how the experience of a student-athlete of color is different from any other at Fordham.

The founder sometimes wished they didn’t play a sport because they suspected that they’d be treated much differently, saying, “It’s a shame that I’m almost an exception just because I’m a student athlete.”

Meanwhile, the graduate shared a different perspective.

They first pointed out how being an athlete could help a Fordham student of color, explaining that, “Being on a team and playing a sport, and knowing that I have a place on that team, gives me a different feeling versus people who don’t have that, and are at Fordham and don’t feel like Fordham supports them or has a place for them.”

That being said, the graduate repeatedly stressed that the experience was different, not better. Feelings of “debilitating loneliness” or “of just not belonging” occasionally persisted in the graduate’s personal experience at Fordham, despite the fact that they had a place to go to for support.

In addition, the graduate has also heard — and published — many stories of how quickly the aforementioned refuge a team

provides to a student athlete of color could be taken away by hateful actions or words perpetrated by a coach or program leader.

The graduate explained that such a relationship could be particularly damaging, saying, “When that’s someone you have to see every single day, you have to answer to every single day, you still have to somewhat respect, it’s a different kind of psychological effect.”

Both creators agreed that something had to be done to specifically help student athletes of color, as their experiences are different from those of the larger student body. Both creators echoed Cavanaugh when noting that ASILI’s list of demands was not being met, but on the whole, agreed that the individual statements made by Fordham administration and the athletic department were a step in the right direction. They were not, however, cause for celebration for them.

After receiving since-deleted hate comments on the page calling students “ungrateful rats” for demanding further change, the graduate felt pressure to accept what the university has done thus far. After pointing out that decades-old graduates have been sending them the same kinds of stories that current students of color are submitting, they could only be hesitantly optimistic about the plans currently in place.

The graduate said, “I definitely appreciate where they’re going. But again, I think that something the university may not understand ... is that you have people that have been begging you for years to do this, and it took this huge public situation, people dying, for you to wake up.

As grateful as people are ... it’s also bittersweet. You could have had this solved for years now.”

Opinions Editors Emily Ellis - eellis14@fordham.edu Haley Smullen - hsmullen@fordham.edu

Opinions

FORDHAM’S ANTI-RACISM INITIATIVES ARE INSUFFICIENT:

O

THE ADMINISTRATION STILL HAS A LOT TO ANSWER FOR garded these voices in its statement.

Until Fordham holds itself accountable for the safety and security of its Black students, its claims to be anti-racist are mere lip service — efforts to increase diversity and inclusion on campus are meaningless without proactive initiatives to respond to all reports of harassment and hate. That means committing to swift and thorough investigations of faculty, staff and even students who have been accused of being anti-Black, as well as sanctions against those credibly found to be racist, including termination.

When it comes to the professors and administrators who are charged with helping students build their futures, tenure should not be a free pass for prejudice.

In order to build an anti-racist environment, Fordham needs to listen to the voices of its students who have direct experience with racial injustices and seek to change accordingly.

Between the remainder of ASILI’s demands, the incidents shared on @blackatfordham and @letstalkaboutitfordham, and the #LookUpStepDown campaign calling for white Board of Trustees members to step down in order to open up spots for more people of color, Fordham still has a lot of work to do. It is up to the university’s leaders to engage in conversations about campus culture and discrimination — conversations which students have been trying to initiate for years now.

We acknowledge that Fordham has taken a step forward in terms of racial awareness and advocacy, and that three of 11 demands fulfilled are better than

Observer the

STAFF EDITORIAL

n June 22, ASILI, the Black Student Alliance at Rose Hill, released a list of 11 anti-racist demands that was shared widely by many cultural clubs and individuals, propelling a coordinated student-led campaign to hold Fordham accountable. A week later, Fordham released a statement that promised to address these concerns — however, it only revealed their unwillingness to truly engage with the issues and actually start a dialogue with students.

Despite claiming to “have read the many emails, petitions, and Instagram posts that have come from the University community,” Fordham only met three of these widely shared demands, and six were left completely unaddressed, prompting immediate criticism from students. Among the concerns Fordham deemed too unimportant to confront were its ties to organizations that have a history of racism, like Aramark and the NYPD. ASILI represents but one focal point of a larger student movement calling for these changes; for Fordham to ignore students’ voices on these topics while claiming to hear them is simply disrespectful.

Multiple personal testimonies have made it clear that any attempt to “create a more welcoming and affirming campus” will be useless if it does not tackle the serious issues with Fordham’s handling of reports of injustice on campus. Fordham’s failings to address these issues have led to a lack of trust within a student body that is hesitant to report and often ignored when they do. Through accounts like @blackatfordham and @letstalkaboutitfordham, many students and alumni have come forward with allegations of professors using the N-word, administrators not taking sexual assault reports seriously and university faculty creating a hostile environment where Black students have faced serious obstacles to learning — yet Fordham completely disre-

July 8, 2020 THE OBSERVER

none. Mandatory anti-racist training, the growth of both the Black and Latinx student population, and the creation of a designated multicultural center are all necessary and long-awaited initiatives that the university has promised to implement. It is clear, however, that Fordham still has a long way to go, and the proposed action plan should only be the beginning of a much, much larger dialogue with students on racial issues at Fordham.

In order to build an anti-racist environment, Fordham needs to listen to the voices of its students who have direct experience with racial injustices and seek to change accordingly. Flatout ignoring the majority of students’ concerns in favor of the easiest changes and refusing to even open a dialogue on multiple serious issues gives the impression that Fordham is more concerned about smoothing over unrest than actually addressing its own systemic problems.

In most staff editorials, we include a call to action for students to get involved with the issue being discussed. In this case, we won’t, because The Observer believes students have already done more than enough. ASILI held meetings and formulated demands that were — and are — widely backed by the student body, individual students emailed administrators, and current students and alumni shared countless experiences on social media, tagging the university and demanding to be acknowledged. Black students in particular have devoted time, effort and emotional energy to the cause, even reliving past traumas, in order to educate their own educators.

Now, we call on the Fordham administration to take notice and step up. Will you continue to ignore the concerns of the student body and pursue your own, more convenient interests? Or will you sit at the table with us and hear our voice?

Editor-in-Chief Sophie Partridge-Hicks Managing Editor Marielle Sarmiento Business Manager Owen Roche Online Editors Andrew Beecher Gillian Russo Layout Editors Lara Foley Maddie Sandholm Asst. Layout Editors Pamela Pajares Olivia Stern News Editors Joe Kottke Katrina Lambert Asst. News Editors Michelle Agaron Allie Stofer Opinions Editors Emily Ellis Haley Smullen Asst. Opinions Editor Polina Uzornikova

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Opinions

11

Republicans Are Losing the Coronavirus Battle LEO BERNABEI Staff Writer

FIVE GUYS New York City Politics CORBIN GREGG Retrospect Host

As COVID-19 cases continue to remain flat in New York and the city begins to reopen, other areas of the United States are falling apart. Their governors, mostly Republicans, have fumbled their responses to the virus, leading to a spike in daily new cases across the country.

Following months of lockdown and sacrifice to attempt to bring down case counts, failed reopening plans have led to the highest daily new case counts seen thus far.

States like Texas had mostly flat daily rates of infection until recently. By June 12, Gov. Greg Abbott had allowed restaurants and bars to reopen at 75% capacity, promising amusement parks would open within the next week. He fought with local officials weary of increased spread of the coronavirus, banning them from issuing mask orders and stating that “governments cannot require individuals to wear masks.”

Following record-high cases in Texas, Abbott himself issued a mandatory mask order for most of the state, shut bars and decreased capacity for indoor dining.

Once seen as the plague of liberal cities, the tide of the coronavirus has now turned.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo, together with Gov. Phil Murphy and Gov. Ned Lamont, announced that the tri-state area will require visitors from a number of states with increasing cases to quarantine for 14 days when traveling to New

GRAPH BY OLIVIA STERN/THE OBSERVER

York, New Jersey and Connecticut. Travelers from New York were met with similar orders early on in the pandemic from states now experiencing surges. The nature of the pandemic has changed surprisingly fast, shifting from states with Democratic governors to those run by Republicans.

Ultimately, the coming weeks will be a test of leadership for Republican leaders who have thus far followed President Trump’s early lack of care for the pandemic. In March, Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick was criticized for his comments implying he and other senior citizens were willing to die in order to salvage the economy for younger generations. Republican leaders have ignored and minimized calls to preserve the public’s well being throughout the pandemic, and now their states are paying the price.

For all Cuomo’s faults, he has successfully lowered the daily new infection rate in New York

and massively decreased hospitalizations. In order to do this, he had to manage an unprecedented shutdown of normal life.

In comparison to Abbott’s speedy reopening of Texas, Cuomo’s reopening of New York is slow but safe. Cuomo split the state into 10 regions, all to be brought out of lockdown at their own pace through four phases meant to encourage a gradual transition to a reopened economy. The first phase was extremely limited, allowing some retail locations to reopen but focusing on allowing construction and manufacturing to resume.

By Phase Three, indoor seating at restaurants was meant to reopen with limited capacity. New York City itself entered Phase Three on July 6, but last-minute fears over indoor dining causing other spikes elsewhere in the United States prevented restaurants from reopening their indoor spaces.

Cuomo took swift action and was flexible in his reopening in order

to prioritize public safety. To prevent the recent spike in cases, Republican leaders in states like Texas and Florida should have done the same.

That’s not to say Cuomo and other Democrats have created some sort of panacea to this crisis. Perhaps the worst mistake by any public official was Cuomo’s order that nursing homes accept recovering COVID-19 patients from hospitals. Moreover, he and the state’s health commissioner, Howard Zucker, barred nursing homes from testing those coronavirus patients discharged to them.

The result? Over 6,000 people — about 6% of the state’s nursing home population — died from the virus. There were four other governors, all Democrats, who issued similar orders requiring the discharge of coronavirus patients from hospitals back to their nursing homes: Phil Murphy of New Jersey, Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan, Gavin Newsom of California and Tom Wolf of Pennsyl-

vania. While many of the current cases in Republican-led states are new and have had little time to progress, it seems highly unlikely that states like Texas or Florida, despite an explosion in new cases, will approach the death tolls of many of those states.

These Republican governors have already indicated that they aren’t considering forcing coronavirus-positive patients back into nursing homes.

And while much of the blame for the recent skyrocketing of cases falls on Republican governors, individual actions cannot be removed from the equation.

As Dr. Anthony Fauci and other public health officials have commented, young people are largely the cause of new clusters across the country. Despite the fact that most young Americans hold an unfavorable opinion of Trump’s handling of the coronavirus crisis, that same group now seems to be ignoring the very messaging that they wish Trump would promote: wearing a mask, practicing social distancing and abstaining from congregating indoors at places like bars. Let’s not kid ourselves; posting on Instagram about how everyone needs to wear a mask does little good if you aren’t changing your own behavior and are still socializing with all of your friends.

However, we need to recognize that individuals, although all should practice social distancing and mask-wearing, can only do so much. Governors like Greg Abbott shouldn’t be allowed to scapegoat young people when they failed to serve the best interests of their states at a time when strong leadership was needed the most.

In times of crisis and impending failure, leaders can either prove their resilience and work to make things better, or they can run away from their problems and blame others for their mistakes. If the recently-leaked White House messaging on the pandemic is a warning of what’s to come from other Republicans, they may be on a path to just giving up.

Latin America: The New Epicenter of COVID-19 PATRICK RIZZI Staff Writer

As the novel coronavirus pandemic wanes in some previously hard-hit areas like New York City and New Orleans, Latin America is becoming the new epicenter of this deadly pandemic. The density, inequality and economic concerns of the region make it especially vulnerable to devastating effects from this virus. As of June 25, four countries in Latin America have over 190,000 people infected: Brazil, Peru, Chile and Mexico.

Governments in Latin America have responded to the pandemic in a variety of ways, with countries like Chile instituting lockdowns in (mostly urban) regions of the country, while Brazil forwent a nationwide institution of social distancing measures due to President Jair Bolsonaro’s dismissal of the virus as a threat. Brazil now has over 1.1 million cases and is the second-most-affected country in the world after the United States.

Many cities in Latin America are extremely dense. Mexico City and São Paulo are some of the most overcrowded cities in the world, and residents rely heavily on public transportation. Sadly, health care system

capacity in cities like these is lower than those of health systems in wealthier countries.

Most countries in Latin America do not have sufficient access to ventilators, which can be used to save the lives of those with severe cases of COVID-19 who may require intensive care.

Poorer neighborhoods in these cities are often even denser than in other cities, which makes social distancing physically impossible for people as they try to earn a basic living.

There is a clear link between social marginalization — such as poverty — and the more detrimental side effects of COVID-19.

For example, those living in poverty may be more likely to have health problems that could make them even more vulnerable to the disease than wealthier residents. They also are less likely to have access to sufficient health care should they need to seek treatment for a severe case of the virus.

In Latin American countries, inequality may be even starker than in many American and European cities. For example, Chile is one of the most economically and socially unequal countries in the world, even though it is also one of the wealthiest countries in Latin America.

A variety of relief and humanitarian agencies are

working to assist people on the ground during this extremely difficult time. A coordinated regional approach to mitigate

the damaging economic impact while working to provide humanitarian relief for the most vulnerable citizens would be

the best way to quell the spread of COVID-19 and its societally damaging effects in Latin America.

JESUIT REFUGEE SERVICE INTERNATIONAL VIA FLICKR

Workers with the Jesuit Refugee Service distribute supplies in Soacha, Colombia. Quarantine measures necessary to control the spread of the virus have placed economic strain on many families.

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Opinions

July 8, 2020 THE OBSERVER

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Black Lives Matter Protests Are Not at Fault for the Rising COVID-19 Cases EMILY ELLIS Opinions Editor

My sunburn was tingling under my sweatshirt as I lay down on my best friend’s couch.

On the TV, Fox News was blaring about the incredible stupidity of “libtards,” and I was doing my best to not roll my eyes.

It is difficult to have hard political conversations with the people you love.

As I conversed with my best friend’s family, I found myself entering into an argument that I couldn’t easily answer. “If COVID-19 really exists, why haven’t all the protesters gotten sick?”

Now, I knew that the coronavirus existed, and I had spent countless hours researching and educating myself about Black Lives Matter protests, so I considered myself informed on both subjects. However, I struggled to answer her question. It seemed ridiculous and downright offensive to doubt the existence of a global pandemic that had taken countless lives, but it also made sense that people marching in close proximity would be in danger.

Since then, I have learned that protest leaders usually encourage all members to wear masks and properly socially distance. Also, most protests began to occur when states initiated reopening plans, meaning that COVID-19 levels had dropped significantly due to earlier social distancing.

The fact that protests commonly occur outside also helped prevent the spread of the virus, and the relatively young age of

protesters keep them safe in the midst of the pandemic. Studies have shown that younger people, while still at risk of contracting the virus, are less likely to experience severe symptoms.

That is not to say that COVID-19 cases are not currently rising. Most states across America are seeing a concerning spike in coronavirus cases, and new policies are being announced in order to further protect people from a second wave. It is impossible to know if the rising number of COVID-19 cases is coming from protests or state reopenings,

but like all things, the answer is most likely somewhere in the middle.

COVID-19 may be killing Americans, but our police system is killing Americans, too. It is time for Americans, especially young students, to take a stance against the oppression that Black Americans have been experiencing throughout history. The recent protests might seem like an unnecessary risk, but they are initiating the social change that America needs in order to protect all citizens equally under the law.

Every citizen has a duty to protect themselves and others by wearing masks, limiting social contact and washing their hands frequently. COVID-19 is an incredibly serious pandemic, and all Americans have a responsibility to ensure that they are following guidelines in order to keep themselves and others safe.

However, protestors also have the right to organize and march in honor of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery and the countless other Black Americans who have lost their lives due to racial discrimination.

Right now we are living through a deadly period of time, especially for Black Americans. With everything from COVID-19 to the Black Lives Matter protests, 2020 has proven itself to be a historic year of danger and social awareness.

Now is not the time to turn against each other and blame one another for deaths outside of our control. Now is the time to unite against discrimination and work as a national community in order to protect all members of society — whether we are protecting them from the coronavirus, police brutality or murder hornets.

GRAPHIC ILLUSTRATION BY PAMELA PAJARES/THE OBSERVER

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THE OBSERVER July 8, 2020

Opinions

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The Death of Local Journalism Makes Deaths by COVID-19 Seem More Painful GABRIEL GARCIA Staff Writer

In the United States Pledge of Allegiance, America claims to be one nation under God. However, it would currently be more accurate to say that we are two nations under the coronavirus.

This difference has been hidden by the loss of local journalism in the United States.

At the moment, the United States is seeing a resurgence in coronavirus cases. This increase cannot be considered a “second wave” due to the fact that the first wave never ended nationally. However, there are places in the country where coronavirus cases have stabilized, and two of such places are critical to how we receive the news: New York City and the DMV, short for Washington, D.C., Maryland and Virginia.

The coronavirus outbreak in New York City is a complicated matter. The city was the global epicenter of the outbreak when it was at its peak, and still is for the highest death toll of any state, although the Navajo Nation and New Jersey have higher death rates per capita. While the delays in leadership at the federal, state and local levels were fatal for thousands, New York’s state and local governments have since been and continue to be persistent in controlling the spread of this virus. It is quite ironic that other states were issuing travel

warnings to those who came from New York back in March, since now New York is mandating quarantines for people coming from other states, showing how much this crisis has changed geographically.

The DMV’s handling of coronavirus cases is far less climatic.

A combination of a lower population density and competent leadership has meant that cases in the DMV have stabilized. While that is subject to change as their reopenings progress and residents act irresponsibly, the DMV has controlled the virus much like the Northeastern states and other industrialized nations.

Of course, many other states are not in such fortunate situations. From Florida to California, states are seeing massive spikes in coronavirus cases due to hasty reopenings of the economy and a lack of concern among the states’ populations. Though lack of planning to safely reopen the economy and reckless individuals are common explanations for the spike in coronavirus cases, there is another factor that certainly is not helping anyone: the death of local journalism.

For the past few years, towns across America have lost their local newspapers as they have been unable to adjust to modern economic developments.

Meanwhile, journalists have disproportionately been concentrated in major cities; a 2019 Pew Research report found that

GRAPHIC ILLUSTRATION BY OLIVIA STERN/THE OBSERVER

24% of news reporters live in the Northeast, despite only 18% of the U.S. workforce living in the region. The increasing concentration of media into urban areas reveals the continued weakening of small communities that have already been hit hard by globalization.

This pandemic has made the media’s concentration in New York a clear notion; such concentration is the reason why Gov. Cuomo became a national sensation, even though governors on

the West Coast also had a good grip on the virus at the time. As the virus began to wane in New York, states across the country thought this would be a good time to reopen, not realizing that, unlike New York, their first wave had yet to begin.

The major outlet of mourning in national media is the obituary The New York Times made when the United States hit the grim milestone of 100,000 COVID-19 deaths. Even at the time, I felt that so much death was present

all I could feel was numb to it.

I think that it would have been much more powerful if you could simply know the deaths of those in your state or county, or even just a small community, to know the fate of your neighbors in not just an abstract sense, but a real sense as well.

The loss of community began long before COVID-19 hit America. Unless there is desire to do otherwise, this loss will continue just like the virus that’s exacerbating such loss.

A Higher Standard of Justice Fordham administration needs to commit to enforcing accountability ESMÉ BLEECKER-ADAMS Fun & Games Editor and Asst.

Photo Editor

Recently, an opportunity to anonymously discuss experiences of racism, discrimination and harassment on campus has resulted in over 400 posts and counting between two Instagram accounts. They detail a relentless stream of exclusive syllabi, racial profiling and racist slurs, sexual assault, and much more, reminding us that for the white majority of Fordham students and staff, a good look in the mirror is long overdue.

The administration is usually quick to condemn acts of blatant prejudice such as hate symbols posted on campus over the years and always affirms that these incidents do not represent the views of the wider community.

However, members of the community continue to demonstrate hatred and prejudice, highlighting the lack of adequate repercussions to deter this behavior.

Enforcing such repercussions is something that was curiously absent from the university’s recent statement about addressing racism at Fordham. The pervasiveness of these events also shows that Fordham’s campus culture fails to prevent and discourage hateful beliefs.

People who report incidents are often dismissed or are told that they have overreacted. When someone has the courage to share a traumatic experience, at the very least, they are entitled to be heard and acknowledged.

Being invalidated by the people in power discourages someone from ever coming forward again, which erodes trust in the university. In order for the university to address a problem, students must

be willing to report that problem, but how can they be comfortable doing so if they anticipate that they will not be taken seriously?

When it comes to building trust and credibility, tangible changes to the workings of the system go hand- in- hand with adjusting the mindset of its architects.

For starters, students need more options for reporting bias-related incidents and hate crimes. The instructions on Fordham’s website are to contact the dean of students and/or Public Safety, both of which have a history of violations themselves.

For example, Christopher Rodgers, dean of students at Fordham

College at Rose Hill, has been identified by multiple people for alleged racist, biased and insensitive behavior. He was investigated in 2017 for a presentation he gave on Campus Assault and Relationship Education (CARE) and Bias and found by a third party to have done nothing “purposefully insensitive.” However, many students felt offended by the presentation, which framed rape on college campuses as a political issue with two sides to it, rather than an undeniable and atrocious reality of the college experience for far too many people.

No matter the conclusions of an outside law firm, students shared at the time, and have

continued to share in hindsight, the fact that they were hurt by Rodgers’ words and actions in that particular case and in others.

That has to count for something, regardless of his perceived intentions, and herein lies the crux of the matter. How can Fordham claim to investigate instances of bias and harassment reported by students when they do not take the input of those students to heart?

Listening to students is the first step, but it is not enough. It amounts to nothing if students’ experiences and concerns are not then taken into account and translated into actions, including punishing people, regardless of

JESS LUSZCZYK/THE OBSERVER

Dean Eldredge and Director of Residential Life Jenifer Campbell give a Campus Assault and Relationship Education (CARE) presentation at Lincoln Center. While Fordham does have policies and procedures in place for reporting assault and harassment, students say the process has failed to serve them and has left them feeling unsupported.

their role in the university, when necessary.

One thing we need is more people for students to report to.

The deans and public safety officers should of course be trained in sensitivity and anti-racism and be held accountable for their actions and how they impact students, but in addition, we need separate staff members who are dedicated explicitly to serving the needs of and advocating for the wellbeing of students.

In the case of Title IX violations at Fordham, there is already an office dedicated to the subject, but the Title IX office has still left students feeling unsupported while supposedly working at “enhancing a respectful, diverse, and inclusive work and learning environment.” The office needs to commit to hiring a diverse staff, building a continuous process of training and reflection in what it means to believe and support survivors and seeking input from a wide range of students on how to improve the services that they offer.

Above all, the people whom students are expected to report to should actively show that they value students’ safety and happiness and are dedicated to holding everyone in the university directly accountable for their actions.

While it is true that individual people do not reflect the opinions of the whole school, at a certain point, this refrain becomes an excuse for inaction. What does reflect on the school is whether or not its administration is willing to put in the work to enforce a system that cares about all of its constituents.

Leaders of Fordham: If you love this institution, hold it to a higher standard of justice.

Arts & Culture

Arts & Culture Editor Ethan Coughlin - ecoughlin7@fordham.edu

July 8, 2020

THE OBSERVER

FLASH Magazine Recognizes Artists of Color in Special Summer Issue

COURTESY OF NINA TAUBES VIA FLASH

By OLIVIA STERN Asst. Layout Editor

After over a month of global protests against police brutality and the systemic oppression of Black people, the editorial board of Fordham’s FLASH Magazine came together to create a special summer issue. Released on July 4, this issue honors and uplifts the voices of Black people and people of color.

“In what everybody is experiencing, I just felt like nothing I was doing was hard-hitting enough,” Editor-in-Chief Nishita Naga, Gabelli School of Business at Lincoln Center ’21, said. After asking for a second opinion from creative director Bawila Idris, Fordham College at Lincoln Center (FCLC) ’21, the rest of the editorial board was in full support of a special issue.

Their vision was to publish a smaller summer issue in order to amplify the voices of Black, Indigenous and people of color (BIPOC), specifically but not limited to those in the beauty and fashion industry.

“Everybody was behind it; (Idris) and I had a vision for this issue, and it turned out to be so much better than I originally envisioned it to be,” Naga said. Idris stressed that they really wanted to create a separate issue for this topic rather than putting it toward their work for the fall semester so they could put the attention on it that they felt it deserved. Idris said, “I’m really grateful that we were able to work on this and to create something that speaks volumes about these issues.”

While most of FLASH’s issues focus on trends in the fashion and beauty industry along with some more personal topics like gender identity and sexuality, this issue allowed for more depth and the sharing of vulnerable experiences. “We’re already a pretty diverse board to begin with from all different walks of life, and since we all have that common understanding of feeling oppressed or put down in society, that’s what motivated all of us to make this,” said Social Media Editor for FLASH Magazine and Assistant Arts and Culture Editor for The Observer Vicky Carmenate, FCLC ’23.

The social media editors posted on FLASH’s Instagram page on June 4 calling for anyone from the Fordham community and beyond to submit their content ideas to the magazine. Many people reached out initially, but not as many people followed through with submit-

“ Black artists are still overlooked in the industry, more so than we ever thought.”

Shaylah Lloyd, FLASH Fashion editor and FCLC ’21

COURTESY OF VIVIAN CHAN VIA FLASH

COURTESY OF BECCA KIM VIA FLASH

The special summer issue of FLASH magazine, created to amplify BIPOC voices, contains long and short-form writing and many types of artwork, some of which are pictured here. The proceeds from the issue will be donated to Black Trans Femmes in the Arts and Black Girl Magik.

COURTESY OF AHJA HENRY VIA FLASH

ting work. Naga and Carmenate said this was probably due to the fact that submitting content can be more work than people anticipate, and, also, sharing possibly vulnerable experiences can be intimidating for people they have never worked with before.

Naga and Culture Editor Marina Vergara, FCLC ’22, described the content-acquiring process as organic. People from Instagram and the editors were encouraged to submit work wherever and whenever they felt inspired. Vergara said that even people from her high school were able to submit work.

The special issue is composed of long-form and short-form writing and all different types of art. Vergara wrote her first piece for the magazine with the help of Assistant Culture Editor Jaclyn Skrela, FCLC

’23. Vergara said, “It was really cool to provide history and do the research myself. I learned a lot in the process of writing.” Many of the editors pointed out that they loved the “absolutely beautiful” poem written by Danielle Davis, FCLC ’22, and they are hoping to delve into more literary content in future issues.

Fashion editor Shaylah Lloyd, FCLC ’21, wrote her second article for the magazine. “Even as a person of color, I didn’t know that there were such disparities in the industry; it was such a learning experience. It was helpful for me, and it felt good to let other people know about it,” she said. “Black artists are still overlooked in the industry, more so than we ever thought.”

The board chose to publish on Independence Day because they

wanted to draw attention away from the holiday and send the message that “it’s not Independence Day for everyone,” in reference to the fact that enslaved Africans weren’t emancipated until almost 100 years after the Declaration of Independence.

They thought it was an apt time to show their support for Black and brown artists in order to lift them up in majority-white spaces so they can reach a wider audience. With the submissions alone, Opinions Editor Alana Ramsammy, FCLC ’22, said she has been able to connect to “people (who) have contributed from all across the world.”

After the magazine was published on MagCloud, all of the editors promoted the release on the magazine’s and their personal social media pages. Naga asked the Fordham administration to send out an email to spread the word as well. A digital copy costs $14.29, and a print copy is $26.80. All of the proceeds from buying a copy of the issue and donations will go to Black Trans Femmes in the

Arts and Black Girl Magik. Skrela thought this was an “amazing way to use (their) platform.”

The board emphasized that their work was not finished after the issue was published, and Carmenate encouraged their audience to “keep this same energy in the future once this movement dies down. I hope that people still show out for Black and brown art and that they still donate to organizations that really need our money,” she said. “As a school that is mostly affluent white people, we have a lot of privilege that we can be using.”

Social Media Editor Chloë Felopulos, FCLC ’21, is looking forward to how this issue will influence FLASH in the future. She said, “I think this issue showed all of us how important these messages, stories, and people are and how it should not take a popular movement for us to have this focus.”

Vergara seconded that it is easy to support these artists. She said, “By buying the magazine and reading it, you’re learning. You’re already doing part of the work.”

www.fordhamobserver.com

THE OBSERVER July 8, 2020

Forget Perfection: How 5 Fordham Students Redefined Magazine Writing

By ALYSSA MACALUSO Copy Editor

“be loud. be bold. be unashamed. because it’s all taken with a grain of salt anyway.”

This is the final line of the mission statement from grain of salt, a magazine created by five Fordham juniors. And from the start, the magazine has not skirted any of those promises.

Sometimes through snarky satire, and other times with starkly naked vulnerability, the writers and creators of this magazine open readers up to “unapologetically sloppy takes on the world.”

“ I feel like the

population as a whole doesn’t get enough takes from women and nonbinary people that are unfiltered and that are encouraged to be as edgy as we would like them to be.”

Kayla Otero,

grain of salt Co-Editor-in-Chief and FCLC ’22

When Kayla Otero, Ritamarie Pepe, Faith Terrill, Melanie Riehl and Isa De Leon, all Fordham College at Lincoln Center ’22, first became close friends, they didn’t imagine that they would spend the summer of 2020 creating a magazine.

However, toward the end of the spring 2020 semester, Otero approached her longtime best friend, Pepe, with the idea for grain of salt. Within days, Otero and Pepe, who are co-editorsin-chief, brought three of their friends on board and embarked

on this “long-term group project.”

From the beginning, grain of salt set out to court a community that few people hear from: women and nonbinary individuals, specifically those between the ages of 16 and 25. “Their voices get pushed down in society,” Terrill, the submissions editor for grain of salt, explained. “If we can create a platform where these people are encouraged to literally blab their mouths about anything and they’ll know that there will be people who want to read it and will engage with it and respond to their content and art, I think that was a community we wanted to cultivate and grow as much as we can.”

“I feel like the population as a whole doesn’t get enough takes from women and nonbinary people that are unfiltered and that are encouraged to be as edgy as we would like them to be,” Otero added. “Diverse identities (are) what we want — identities that need to think a lot before they speak most of the time because they’re not even taken seriously in the first place. That’s kind of where grain of salt comes from: If my work is going to be taken with a grain of salt as a writer, then so be it, I’ll wear that as a badge.”

In particular, the idea of creating a platform where these groups felt they didn’t have to shoulder the burden of perfection was important. De Leon, the social media editor, described how “We really were passionate about ... wanting to create a space where there was no pressure to be perfect. We always talk about how language (even down to how people type in text conversations) and just the thought of writing something to be published can sometimes be super intimidating to people our age.

What does freedom from the pressure of perfection look

like? In some ways, it’s loosening traditional English guidelines. Italics, bold lettering, slang, swear words and at-will capitalization are invited and encouraged, especially to emphasize thoughts and ideas.

In their social media posts, traditional capitalization at the beginning of sentences is disregarded and all of the lettering is lowercase, except for a few choice words.

The relaxed writing style not only places less stress on writers to have polished or academic-sounding arguments, but it also allows writers to convey their thoughts in more conversational pieces that clearly showcase their voices, personalities and writing styles.

For Riehl, a copy editor at The Observer who doubles as the copy editor for grain of salt, the relaxed rules have given her an opportunity for deeper insight into and appreciation for style’s impact on conveying ideas. “That’s the beauty of this,” Riehl said. “I think it’s great that, on one hand, I can work in a very professional context with The Observer, but, on the other hand, I have the ability to do what I want and change copy as I see fit (with grain of salt). I like it because it gives me freedom to think about the implications and power that copy has when delivering a message.”

Aside from redefining language norms, the magazine has cultivated an impressive following and an even more inspiring community. Since its inception in late May, the 53 posts written

by Fordham and non-Fordham students alike have been viewed almost 4,500 times. A recent TikTok made by the board members reached over 18,800 views

and almost 5,500 likes.

With the influx of attention from a base far larger than the Fordham student body, they have received submissions from young people in the U.S. and abroad, creating a truly global community.

For many of the editorial board members, the way the magazine has grown and has brought people together both within and beyond Fordham is nothing short of inspiring.

Not only has the experience of writing and pitching ideas for articles led to meaningful interactions between Fordham students that may not have happened otherwise, but it also has introduced many of the editors’ high school and college friends to each other.

“It is so strange,” Pepe said.

“Having your worlds collide — high school and college — is the weirdest thing ... it’s also really cool because (all of our friends are) able to connect about these

Arts & Culture

15

issues we bring to the table. People connect over these same struggles and these same ideas and support each other when they don’t know each other from a hole in the wall. It’s so cool ... just seeing people connect over these issues and wanting to learn and grow together.”

Though a website filled with art and articles, an Instagram, a TikTok, a Twitter and a Spotify make up the bare bones of this magazine, it’s almost better described as a movement. By defying the conventional and remaking it into something they can use best to their advantage, Otero, Pepe, Terrill, Riehl and De Leon have turned this summer project into a platform for an audience not typically heard from — or invited to speak at all — to be vulnerable and share their experiences. Despite a worldwide pandemic, these five women have fostered a community and sparked conversations about topics that deserve attention.

PHOTO AND GRAPHIC COURTESY OF GRAIN OF SALT

The founders of grain of salt magazine, all Fordham College at Lincoln Center ’22, pictured here, have created a platform for the voices of women and nonbinary individuals to write pieces “that are unfiltered and that are encouraged to be as edgy as we would like them to be,” according to Kayla Otero.

16

Arts & Culture

July 8, 2020 THE OBSERVER

The Role of Art During the Revolution

By VICKY CARMENATE Asst. Arts & Culture Editor

Art and artists play a fundamental role in the advancement of a revolution. Whether it be visual art, spoken word or music, art gives us an outlook on how we felt during this time. It is a timestamp in our lives of the moments and movements that have been happening on the daily.

There is a lot that we can be learning from books, documentaries, podcasts and TV shows, but art takes this knowledge a step further. By viewing and supporting Black, Indigenous and people of color (BIPOC) and nonBlack people of color’s (POC) art, the knowledge learned from academia is then put into real-world situations. Not only that, but there is a new wave of emotion that we can all learn from that we don’t necessarily get in academia.

“ For the artists to

realize that their talents could be used to appeal to an audience that, as sad as it is, wouldn’t donate otherwise is extremely important.”

Lucy Murray, FCLC ’23

Now, considering the social and political climate, it’s important to be supporting Black artists by not only viewing their work but also providing monetary support. Fordham students have played a role in viewing this art as well as in organizing group efforts to collect funds for different projects and organizations.

FLASH Magazine released a special edition issue that highlighted BIPOC and POC voices at Fordham and across the country.

The issue included visual art, poetry, written essays and photography. The publication can be purchased online, and all of the proceeds will be donated to Black Trans Femmes in the Arts and Black Girl Magik.

The support from the Fordham community doesn’t stop there. Fordham students paired up with other students and friends across the country to start a Black Lives Matter Art Auction. While any artist could submit, Black and non-Black, all funds from the auction were donated to the Black Visions Collective. The auction brought in a total of $1,200 that will go toward helping fund community-led projects.

Lucy Murray, Fordham College at Lincoln Center (FCLC) ’23, was one of the main organizers of the auction, alongside Katie Heaton, FCLC ’23. Lu Aubin, FCLC ’23, and other Fordham artists contributed their own work to be sold as well.

Murray and her friend Michael O’Neil from her hometown were the two that started the account.

“Michael has an art Instagram account where he asked his own friends (to contribute),” she said, and “I asked mine if they wanted to participate or if they knew anyone else that would like to.”

Using Instagram as a platform to organize monetary support, the idea took off, and soon enough Fordham students from across the country were participating in contributing their own art or even buying some.

When coming up with the idea and looking at their own Instagram followers, the question of who would buy the art arose.

Heaton, who was responsible for marketing, addressed the fact that many older white folks have the funds to buy the art that they were making. “For the artists to realize that their talents could be used to appeal to an audience that, as sad as it is, wouldn’t donate otherwise is extremely important,” Murray said.

COURTESY OF ELLA VARR

Word spread fast about the art auction, and soon enough artists from across the country started to participate. Artists used their talents to contribute to an art auction that directly benefited The Black Vision’s Collective.

Murray hopes that in the future the account can be used to amplify Black artists and give them space where their art can be bought, considering that the majority of their followers are interested in purchasing pieces already.

Support doesn’t always have to be monetary, though. Social media is a platform where careers and opportunities can open up for many. By just sharing someone’s artwork, they can be exposed to a whole new audience of people. Instagram has been a huge proponent for change during the Black Lives Matter movement. Artists and audiences have been using their

own platforms to elevate BIPOC art.

Fordham Theatre professor Clint Ramos has used his own Instagram for the same reasons — to step up and support artists in his own industry. He has been consistently posting about the Black Lives Matter movement, as well as amplifying creatives within the industry like costume designers and performers. “It really was empowering to see Clint be such a loud voice in the movement, and he has started these conversations before this all started too,” said Jayla Pollock, FCLC ’22 and a theatre major.

“Ever since he got to Fordham he has been a faculty member that

www.fordhamobserver.com

actually follows through with plans to support students of color — he’s called people out on the daily.”

He and many other Fordham students have been using their platforms on social media to highlight the #WeSeeYou campaign. The campaign shares the heartbreaking stories of the disparities for BIPOC in the theater industry and demands that the industry makes space for them.

For both Amara McNeil, FCLC ’23, and Pollock, both of their future careers rely on the theatre industry making changes.

“I want to open my own theater, and being in other theaters, I know that all of the upper management are just white men,” said Pollock. “Before, I had to understand how to maneuver around that, but now I feel more comfortable knowing that I can demand to be in these spaces too.”

McNeil believes that this movement can transfer to Fordham’s own theatre department.

“I think that the theatre department often wants to do a particular project or have a particular conversation or put on a particular play above how that affects the students who are involved in it,” she said. “(Fordham) needs to dump more resources to make sure that we are in the right space to do the work that we need to do and that we want to do, as opposed to them just using us as proxies to do what they want to do.”

So, while posting infographics and petitions is extremely important within itself, taking the time to support our peers and the artwork that they have been doing is important, too. BIPOC artists face many barriers when trying to make it in their field, barriers that prohibit job opportunities and growth within the industry time and time again. It is our responsibility, as peers and audience members, to continue to show up even after the hype of this movement dies down.

Marching to the Beat of a New Drum

How a Fordham alumnus has reinvented campaigning on his road to the New York State Assembly

COURTESY OF MAHFUZUL FOR DISTRICT 24

As a part of his campaign for New York State Assembly, Mahfuzul Islam, FCRH ‘13, commissioned a rap song titled “District 24” by New Jersey rapper Zo Morese.

By ETHAN COUGHLIN Arts & Culture Editor

How do you beat an incumbent of 10 years for a seat in the New York State Assembly? You’ve got to think outside the box and on the beat.

Mahfuzul Islam, Fordham College at Rose Hill ’13, is running for the District 24 seat in the New York State Assembly, a district that primarily encompasses the Queens

Village neighborhood in Queens.

“I decided to run for office as a result of seeing how much the demographics have changed,” Mahfuzul, a lifelong resident of District 24, said. Since 1971, the populations of both the working class and South Asian demographics have increased, a change not reflected in the district’s representation.

Mahfuzul is running a grassroots campaign completely funded

by the public and has proved to be the biggest competition to David Weprin, who has held the seat for 10 years.

Weprin has run virtually unopposed every term. Before David Weprin, his brother Mark Weprin was the assemblyman for the district, and before that, their father Saul Weprin held the seat. Mahfuzul is using novel ideas and unique tactics to try and remove the old dynasty from office.

Mahfuzul was proud to add that much of his campaign team is not from the traditional political background, like himself. “The benefit of that is that the team brought new and interesting ideas,” Mahfuzul said, “and always try to push the boundaries in different ways.”

One of those new and interesting ideas was the campaign rap song “District 24.”

The idea of the song was to “harken back to how elections work in other parts of the world,” Mahfuzul said, “where when, during times of election, you would have music playing on the streets (when an) election is coming, have a repeating of either music or actual drums or a parade. It has a signaling that the elections are coming, and so we wanted to kind of replicate that in our own way here, and maybe a song would be a great idea.”

That’s where New Jersey rapper

Alonso Dennis, better known as Zo Morese, came in. Zo Morese’s manager and personal trainer was doing a training session with one of Mahfuzul’s campaign staffers when he heard they were looking for some music for the campaign.

“ There’s a bigger

purpose than just making music and being on a radio ... your voice is so powerful that you can create change.

”

Zo Morese, “District 24” rapper

While Zo Morese says he takes inspiration from a number of rappers and motivational speakers, it’s his parents whom he cited as his biggest influences overall.

“They just keep me grounded and they keep me humble. And just remind me that what I’m doing is very important. And there’s a bigger purpose than just, you know, making music and being on a radio ... your voice is so powerful that you can create change. And that’s

one thing that stays with me,” Zo Morese said. “So when Mahfuzul contacted me to make this song, I didn’t think about the money or the opportunity for views, I was more concerned about maybe I could create some type of reaction for District 24, for a positive reaction, especially with everything that’s going on in the world right now.”

Zo Morese was only given a week to make the track, but Mahfuzul’s campaign liked his work so much that they flew him to New York from Orlando where he had been working on his album so that he could shoot the music video for “District 24.”

The music video was shot entirely in District 24 and includes many streets, restaurants and other places that Mahfuzul said locals should recognize, including the childhood home of President Trump.

On June 22, Mahfuzul ran the 8-mile length of his district followed by a car playing the song the entire way. “We had ideas where we wanted to play the music as a way to bring the town hall to the people,” Mahfuzul said, since they can’t have town halls in an enclosed space due to the novel coronavirus.

“District 24” can be streamed on all major streaming services, and the music video is accessible on YouTube.

www.fordhamobserver.com

THE OBSERVER July 8, 2020

Arts & Culture

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Reclaiming Magic: ‘Harry Potter’ Fans Advocate for Trans Rights

By MARIELLE SARMIENTO Managing Editor

Nearly 13 years after “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows” was published, fans are burning their Harry Potter books.

Since its publication, “Harry Potter” (HP) surpassed popular book series into an international cultural phenomenon. The HP fanbase, or “fandom,” includes all generations, all nationalities and all identities. Besides the book series, Tony-award-winning play, two movie franchises and two theme parks, HP has inspired hundreds of blogs and podcasts, conventions, parody productions and a community of HP superfan influencers — all thanks to The Boy Who Lived from the mind of J.K. Rowling.

Prior to June, the acclaimed author had a history of transphobic social media behavior that was just subtle enough — liking tweets and following certain people — for her PR team to brush it as “middle-aged moments.” However, on June 10, Rowling made her stance clear when she published a blog post captioned “TERF Wars’’ on her Twitter account — deemed the “transphobic manifesto.” “TERF” stands for transexclusionary radical feminist.

The fandom exploded. Overnight, fans posted articles, Twitter threads, blog posts and podcast episodes about why they were renouncing Rowling, or even HP completely, as well as refuting all the scientific inaccuracies, dated language and lack of citations in her manifesto.

The HP community drastically changed from the safe, grounding space known to Sophie Kozub, Fordham College at Lincoln Center ’19 and lifelong Potterhead. “‘Harry Potter’ was such a big part of my childhood and young adulthood. I went to the movie premieres and the midnight book releases with my whole family.

We even all have red hair like the Weasleys,” Kozub said. As a trans woman, Rowling’s statements affected Kozub on a much more personal level. “How do you reckon with this? When the author of your favorite book thinks that your identity is a societal evil, it’s pretty awful.”

Harmful Impact “It’s even more worrisome because of how prominent of a person she is,” Kozub said. “She’s used her platform that she’s built up over decades and using her books with messages of love and empowerment to push forward negative and hateful beliefs.” With over 500 million copies of HP sold and Rowling’s 14.3 million Twitter followers, her message goes far and wide.

Shelby Isaac, co-host of the Potter-canon podcast “Hold My Butterbeer” (HMB), said it’s the “hero worship” and “nostalgic idolization” of Rowling that makes her message so dangerous.

After a year of Twitter silence, the timing of Rowling’s messages were anything but coincidental.

Her transphobic tweet supporting Maya Forstater, who did not have her work contract renewed after refusing to acknowledge transgender employees’ pronouns, coincided with the reform of the Gender Recognition Act of 2004, which allowed “trans people (to) gain legal recognition of their lived gender” in Scotland, where Rowling resides.

She published her manifesto at the beginning of Pride Month.

Days later, Republican Oklahoma Sen. James Lankford blocked the Equality Act vote while quoting Rowling’s post. Savannah Czarnik, another co-host of HMB, said, “When you have a global platform that so many people follow you, you don’t get to say harmful things to a marginalized group of people

MARIELLE SARMIENTO/THE OBSERVER

J.K. Rowling’s open transphobia has disappointed and outraged many fans of the Harry Potter franchise, and some have distanced themselves completely.

coming and overlapped with the LGBT community; we don’t need to feel beholden to (Rowling). No need for her anymore,” Vitale said.

“The community has almost improved the books by making it a more inclusive space.”

Hogwarts School of Allyship MARIELLE SARMIENTO/THE OBSERVER

In the wake of her transphobic manifesto, Harry Potter fans created a new TikTok trend by painting over J.K. Rowling’s name on the books and replacing it with beloved characters or members of the Potter-community like Emma Watson and Team StarKid.

and think that’s okay. People are influenced by her opinion.”

Since HP is a children’s book series, concerns also arose on MuggleCast about Rowling’s influence over youth populations. MuggleCast is a renowned HP commentary podcast that formed in 2005. Trans activism writer and HP superfan Rori Porter guest-hosted on the podcast to discuss the Rowling controversy.

“I read ‘Harry Potter’ at age 10, and if I had any sense of my gender, that would have been absolutely horrible, I probably would have internalized that ... it would have been devastating,” Porter, who identifies as transfemme, said.

Dumbledore’s Army Fights On “Whenever a moment of crisis comes up, I never need to panic because I have this community of wizard activists who will tackle it with me,” Marie Vitale, organizer of New York Dumbledore’s Army (NYDA), The Harry Potter Alliance (HPA) chapter in New York City, said.

The HPA is a nonprofit organization that “use(s) the power of story and popular culture to make activism accessible and sustainable.”

With 123 chapters all over the world, the organization plans social activism campaigns using the enthusiasm of HP. In 2016, the HPA established the Protego! campaign aimed at empowering and supporting the trans community and aiding better allyship. “Protego” is a protective shield spell in HP, just as Protego! aims to create a safe space for transgender Potterheads.

NYDA was already in the midst of trans, racial and anti-police brutality activism campaigns in support of the Black Lives Matter movement when Rowling published her manifesto. “Of course she did this during a civil rights movement,” Vitale said.

Their recent campaigns have included a House Cup, where social-justice actions win participants house points and dollar-matching donations to NYC charities. Prior to

the manifesto, the Magical Roaring ’20s fundraiser in January benefited the NY Transgender Advocacy Group. “We’ve worked on trans activism before, and we are committed. It’s not a one-time action,” Vitale said.

Separating Art From Artist “Separating the art from the artist” became a buzz phrase among HP fans who had to acknowledge Rowling’s flagrant statements.

“There’s been this question of ‘Am I still allowed to love this thing that’s been made by a problematic person?’” Czarnik said on an episode of HMB. “You can still read the books and if you want to, do it — books should not be off-limits because of the author that wrote them. But when you read them, think critically about what you’re reading and who wrote them,” Kozub said. It’s not so much separating the two as much as acknowledging where a work comes from.

“Just don’t elevate her. Don’t praise her,” Kozub said.

Vitale said, “Separating the books from the author only goes so far; you have to recognize the bias that goes into the books.”

While acknowledging her part in the creation of the books, most major HP organizations have distanced themselves from Rowling, including Mugglenet, “the #1 Wizarding World Resource since 1999.”

The Leaky Cauldron, a news and discussion fansite, also released statements renouncing itself and its content from Rowling in support of trans Potterheads.

Mugglenet, The Leaky Cauldron and HPA have no affiliation with Rowling and are not licensed by the Wizarding World franchise, yet they are arguably just as prominent parts of the community. The HP community is “bigger than her; it’s easy to divorce it and to make it our own,” Kozub said.

Although brought together by the books, NYDA is “part of a community that’s extraordinarily wel-

Separating the art from the artist is not enough, just as renouncing J.K. Rowling is not enough. Here are concrete ways to continue to love Harry Potter and be a better trans ally.

1. Validating Experiences “How do I enjoy this world that’s so fantastical and feels so empowering if the person who wrote them didn’t write them for people like me? I struggle with that,” Kozub said about her thought process on moving forward as a fan of the series.

An episode of HMB discussed ways to be a trans ally while still being a Potterhead. Co-host, wizarding cosplayer and licensed college counselor Michael Burson said, “The number one thing you can do for transgender, nonbinary, gender-nonconforming, intersex — anybody — is affirm their gender.

It’s that simple. It’s the number one protective factor for mental health problems and suicidal thoughts and suicide attempts.”

In her 3,700-word manifesto, Rowling did not once affirm that trans women are women or that trans men are men. The rejection of trans identities was enough for some fans to distance themselves from HP completely.

“A lot of people caught on way earlier and said, ‘I’m done.’ And that’s a completely valid choice,” Burson said.

“You should not ever tell someone that they should reconsider because that’s not fair to them. If they’ve come to this conclusion, that’s up to them,” Isaac said in response.

2. Ethical Consumption Continuous book sales, visits to the theme parks, tickets to the play and merchandise sales all still financially support Rowling. Porter reminded fans, “As consumers of this media and this franchise, we’re at a constant dialogue with this. We are consciously choosing to pay and invest in it.”

HMB suggests ways of offsetting the cost of HP products like matching the movie or admissions ticket with a charitable donation.

New readers of HP are encouraged to consider buying the books and movies secondhand or borrowing from a library. For wizard merchandise like wands or Hogwarts House memorabilia, consider buying from small independent businesses on

Etsy or secondhand from eBay. Other activities like streaming Team StarKid’s “A Very Potter Musical,” listening to Wizard Rock, attending LeakyCon or signing up for Major League Quidditch enrich the Potter community and have nothing to do with Rowling.

3. Diversify Your Media “Transphobes creating influential media is nothing new,” Kozub said. “People reference Harry Potter a lot in pop culture. Just read another book. Reference something else.”

Kozub discussed the positive side of the Rowling controversy — the community is spotlighting other non-transphobic creators like Rick Riordan, author of the Percy Jackson series. His young adult and children’s series include queer and nonbinary characters. “What books and content can I read that is affirming to me?” Kozub said on discovering new books to read.

Tessa Netting, popular HP YouTuber and actress, said in a video condemning Rowling that trans people “deserve authors who see them, and include them, and value them, and celebrate them.”

4. Educate Yourself Burson urges fans to continue to discover new ways to love HP and be an ally. “Do the work. Don’t expect your trans friends to do all the labor for you. The resources are out there.”

HP taught lessons of love, friendship and fighting for what’s right. The fans took the story and turned into something greater than a book series. “I think there’s something beautiful about how the whole series is about standing up against bigots and entrenched evil powers and then using it to stand up against them like, ‘Hey, you’re a bigot,’” Kozub said.

Many die-hard Potterheads painted over Rowling’s name on their book covers or destroyed their books altogether on TikTok. However, it was not only the fans who spoke out against Rowling online.

Daniel Radcliffe, who played Harry Potter in the eight films, published an article on The Trevor Project’s website, an organization that provides crisis intervention and suicide intervention for LGBTQ+ youth, in support of transgender people despite his relationship with Rowling.

He wrote, “If you found anything in these stories that resonate with you and helped you at any time in your life — then that is between you and the book that you read, and it is sacred.”

Vitale quoted author John Green when asked on how NYDA will move forward with HP: “‘Books belong to their readers.’ Hogwarts is our home, and she might have created it, but it’s not solely hers.”

18

Arts & Culture

July 8, 2020 THE OBSERVER

www.fordhamobserver.com

Ram Jams: Summer Sounds So Far A selection of some of the best albums and singles for a soundtrack to this strange summer

By ETHAN COUGHLIN Arts & Culture Editor

ALBUMS:

Back in January, if you had asked me what I would be doing this July, I would have optimistically told you I’d be Rollerblading through Prospect Park with the sound of a new Kendrick Lamar album playing through my earbuds. However, it is now July and I do not have my Rollerblades, I am not in Prospect Park and I am not listening to a new Kendrick Lamar album.

Usually, summer is a premier time for new music as artists battle it out to have the “song of the summer” and drive up their album’s exposure before Grammy voting in the fall. Summer 2020 is a little different, though. While many artists still released music and saw quarantine as a great time to create, others, like Kendrick Lamar, delayed their album releases due to the novel virus or in an effort not to take attention away from the Black Lives Matter movement. That being said, some great music has still dropped this summer, and I have selected a few albums and singles that I believe stand above the rest.

“EVERYTHING”

by KOTA the Friend If you miss New York City as much as I do, then this is the album for you. KOTA the Friend is an independent rapper from the Clinton Hill neighborhood in Brooklyn, and, though it is hard to explain, his music just sounds like Brooklyn. Like his previous two projects, this album is entirely written and produced by KOTA himself, which gives it a very personal and genuine feel. The beats and raps are simple, but that’s not an insult; it makes it the type of album that you can listen to all the way through over and over again and it always satisfies you.

Songs like “Long Beach” and “BQE,” the latter of which employs the help of fellow New York MCs (short for mic controllers) Joey Bada$$ and Bas, are the perfect upbeat, summer songs to blast out of your car while you’re “going 90 on the BQE.” However, KOTA gets more personal with tracks like “Summerhouse” and “Everything,”

“EVERYTHING”

talking about raising his son and how that fuels his decision to turn down high-paying record labels and stay independent. My biggest complaint with this album is that it has a little too much talking.

At just 27 minutes, it has two long, spoken interludes and a few more long, spoken outros. While the words of Lupita Nyong’o and Lakeith Steinfeld on “Lupita’s Interlude” and “Lakeith’s Interlude” are strong, they disrupt the overall fluidity of the album for me.

“Punisher”

by Phoebe Bridgers When this album initially dropped, I did not listen to it because I just assumed it wasn’t for me. Once I decided to write this article, I figured it got too much attention not to at least consider, so I gave it a listen, and here we are now. This album is wonderful and somehow one of my favorites of the year. It is clever, atmospheric, hauntingly beautiful and just so nice on the ears.

To me, each song on this album sounds like Bridgers sat down and wrote every word that came into

her head whenever she got a moment alone. Every song flows perfectly into the one following it and she balances absolutely devastating lyrics in songs like “Graceland Too” with more playful lines in songs like “Kyoto.” The track that sticks out to me the most, though, has got to be “Savior Complex.”

While it hits me like an emotional bus from the first strum of her guitar, it’s so charismatic that you can’t help but cling every single one of the 242 seconds of it. If by some off chance you’re reading this, Phoebe, I won’t hurt you like they did; give me a chance.

“Shoot for the Stars Aim for the Moon”

by Pop Smoke At just 20 years old, Pop Smoke was pioneering a new sound in hip hop and on the verge of absolute superstardom with a feature on Travis Scott’s “JACKBOYS” project when his life was tragically taken from him. The Brooklyn rapper revolutionized New York drill by rapping over drill beats imported from the U.K., exploding onto the scene with songs like “Welcome to

the Party” and “Dior.”

“Shoot for the Stars Aim for the Moon” shows a versatility that many fans did not know Pop Smoke had, with more R&B focused tracks like “Yea Yea.” Songs like “Something Special” and “What You Know Bout Love” call back to the slower, sexier rap of the ’90s. Filled with strong features like Lil Tjay, Quavo, Swae Lee, Roddy Rich and the album’s executive producer 50 Cent, it only further cements how many artists had wanted to work with the Brooklyn rapper. Like just about every posthumous album, though, the project is more commercial than true to the artist and includes almost none of the drill music that Pop Smoke was famous for, instead making room for more Billboard-type singles.

Other Albums to Check Out: “Women in Music Pt. III”

by Haim “IDK & Friends 2”

by IDK “How I’m Feeling Now”

by Charlie XCX

GENIUS

DEAD OCEANS

“Punisher”

808MELO

“Shoot for the Stars Aim for the Moon”

GRAPHIC ILLUSTRATION BY LARA FOLEY/THE OBSERVER

SINGLES: “Rose Rouge”

by Jorja Smith London-based singer Jorja Smith continues to impress fans across the world with her absolutely angelic voice. Lyrically, “Rose Rouge” is very simple, but that allows Smith’s voice to almost work as an instrument accompanying the jazz band behind her. The song opens with a powerful vocal run

by Smith and then goes into about six minutes of what sounds like improvisational jazz. While the lyrics sit at the front of the track, additional singing by Smith plays out as if it is far away, echoing through the atmosphere. If you and your smooth-jazz father are going to find common ground on any song this summer, I think it will be this one.

“You’re Too Precious”

by James Blake Staying across the pond, James Blake continues to blend his electronic roots with his famous piano melodies on his latest song “You’re Too Precious.”

Blake does so much with so few words, and while lyrics like “I’d take the calls you don’t want to, / I’d take the hair in your food” would usually be almost laughable, when he sings them they sound so incredibly genuine, like a man who loves someone so much, he wishes he could free her from everything that upsets her, no matter how minute it may be. The song really feels like it was the only way that Blake could convey how he feels as his emotions flow through the music.

“Song 33”

by Noname Noname only needed one minute and nine seconds to beat J. Cole in their quick beef, if you could even call it that. After J. Cole randomly dropped a strange track calling out Noname for, I guess, being too woke (I’m honestly not sure), few expected Noname to even bother responding, but oh, respond she did. She grabbed legendary producer Madlib for the beat to accompany her poetic lyrics questioning why J. Cole tried to initiate beef in a time like this. She cleverly digs at J. Cole while still highlighting the far more important things they both should be more concerned about, using lyrics that would be just as strong if delivered via spoken-word poetry.

“Wonderful”

by Burna Boy Nigerian singer-rapper Burna Boy returns with “Wonderful,” the lead single off his fourth studio album “Twice as Tall,” expected later this summer. Sang in a mix of English and Yoruba, the lyrics may not be understandable to the average American fan, but the optimistic idea of the song easily is. Like most of his work, “Wonderful” employs a beat that is a blend of modern production and the traditional music of his African region to create a sound that is perfect for the summer. If it were safe to do so right now, the track would be blasting in clubs and at beaches alike.

“Lil Scammer that Could”

by Guapdad 4000 (feat. Denzel Curry) Both Guapdad 4000 and Denzel Curry have been on an absolute tear these last few years, pumping out music and never missing. Two of the most clever MCs working right now on a track together about essentially nothing gives you great lines like “I’m flexin’, I flexed on ’em, rub it in like ointment” and “Dodgin’ ham, pig, oink-oink with the body cam.”

It’s scam rap: It doesn’t really matter what you’re saying as long as the beat is hard and the bars on it are, too. After just a few listens, you’ll realize that you’re singing every lyric along with them.