Hofstra English Society & Campus Feminist Collective
issue #1 spring 2017
ISSUE #1
Natasha Rappazzo
Growl is a collaborative magazine from the Campus Feminist Collective and the Hofstra English Society featuring student writing, art, and photography focused on social justice.
CONTENT WARNING: Pieces featured in Growl may be upsetting to some readers
Lola Solis
SPRING 2017
Instruction leaflet for megaphones and allies Sarah Gerwens
When you raise your voice, raise it so that no one else has to lower theirs. Never speak as if your speech is the solution to someone else’s silence or an alternative to it. It is not. Your speech is just the beginning. Because in the beginning, there was the word, and while the Bible says it was with God, I think it has always been with the people. So, the word belongs to all of us and so does the truth. You are not the only one who is right. You might not be right at all. But people might believe you nonetheless, because your voice is privilege, so speak as if serving. Know that words are worlds within letters, so be careful not to conquer and claim worlds that aren’t yours. Be careful that your words don’t map out the experiences of others like the colonizers did with the continents. Listen instead. Growing up does not only mean learning how to speak, it means learning what words mean. So, let words define themselves, otherwise our definitions might deny the existence of the people we claim to speak about. With careless sentences we sentence them to silence once again. Instead, respect self-definition, the daily declarations of independence that sometimes just mean stating one’s name. Instead, refuse labels. Because labels are what we should put on products, not people. Instead, expand your “we” until it encompasses all people. Because “they” is the most dangerous weapon we have. Because wars are fought over the definitions of “us” and “the other.” Instead, listen. Let the people who lived the stories speak, not those who heard them. And learn.
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Emilie Beck & Natasha Rappazzo
SPRING 2017
When life gives you lemons, bleach your skin (written from the perspective of an Asian American Woman)
Tess Griffin
Let’s get it straight, colorism exists everywhere. People of color aspire to be light skinned and yt people aspire to be tan. It is only aesthetically pleasing for yt people to be brown. Yt people tan is actually different from people who are naturally born brown and those who get farmers tans. Yt people tans are superior to the tan/brown skin people of color have, which is a real WTF moment. As a light-brown mixed Asian woman who tans easily, I was introduced to the skin brightening/whitening craze in middle school. Aside from worrying about my body hair and body odor I noticed the people who were intended to represent me in the media were all East Asian (aka light-skinned). They would brag about how pale their skin was and how they looked like porcelain dolls. And whenever there was a brown Asian in the media they were always the comedy relief because they OBVIOUSLY just came back from working in the sunny fields all day.
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What could a 14-year-old brown girl do? She didn’t have access to those fancy body washes full of chemicals designed to whiten your skin and could never convince her parents to get whitening injections. So, when she didn’t find any professional way out she resorted to DIY methods. Wikihow was a good resource, detailing how you could just exfoliate your skin constantly to peel the top layer of your skin to expose the fresh skin underneath or how the acidity of lemon juice could somehow disintegrate your brown skin off. Surprise ending, nothing worked. My brown skin stayed brown and somehow I just had to suck it up and accept what I was. I don’t have an answer for people to help them better appreciate who they are. There’s no happy ending because even though I overcame my own internalized racism (only part of it) my culture’s beauty standards still pressure me to be light. People still ask my friends if they work in the fields when they go back to their country in East Asia. What can I say, other than beauty standards are a social construct and that the shade of your skin does not dictate your value. Tl;dr fuck the snapchat filters that whiten your skin, and those “funny” Asian photo apps that make you “kawaii” and whatever because those apps would actually contribute to my self-hate for my brown skin.
SPRING 2017
“No Women, No Rape”
(inspired by Kalki Koechlin’s and Juhi Pandey’s “Rape? It’s Your Fault Women” and “India’s Daughter”)
Jaipreet Ghuman
It’s my fault. I walked home alone one night. It’s my fault I have no place in this society. It’s my fault I wore a dress, a short skirt. You condemn me for having a life, for wanting human rights. The patriarchy is not to blame, it’s my fault. I’m only human. If you cut me, I bleed too. But Shakespeare is for men alone. Bride burnings and dowry, that’s my fault too. I provoked you. You’re my husband, so it’s not rape. Mobiles and movies; the leading causes of rape. This is a plague, a disease. You lay a hand on me, not once did you hesitate. How can I get this insanity to cease?
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Emilie Beck
SPRING 2017
Emilie Beck & Natasha Rappazzo
Emilie Beck
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Untitled
Kirstin Kochie We are conditioned from birth to hate ourselves To not be happy in our own skin In our impressionable youth we are molded to think only of our inadequacies As we are lured by the shining, unattainable perfection that will “fix” them We are guided by this notion along a slippery slope of scattered crumbs to be collected Things we must do to be beautiful, and happy (If you’re pretty, boys will like you, and that will make you happy, because it will make them happy) And each new crumb, Every product, piece of clothing or idea we surrender to Is a feather in a hat that sits daintily on the flatironed, straight hair we are told to have And matches our bright, lacquered nails and bright empty eyes My own head of wild curls is too much for such a hat But it is just right for the crown I was once so afraid to hold my head high and wear I followed the slope, head bowed looking for the secret clues to someone else’s idea of beauty, So afraid of the fall that I did not realize that On my own, I could fly
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“WE SUPPORT OUR TROOPS” Rose Sheppard
war declared in 1971 they built prisons white walls to hold black and brown bodies (no bail, no future, no hope) they fill up quick shot in streets a black man first, a cop second watches his partner shoot a boy for possession goes home and cries for his young son (no trial, no redemption, no resurrection) i’m tired of the war metaphors i just want our boys home from the front lines
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Sarah Puckett
SPRING 2017
QTPOCC Makes Hofstra University History Interview conducted by Jessica Zagacki On Sunday April 2nd, 2017, I sat down with student activist Ja’Loni Amor Owens to discuss the foundation of her newly established student organization—the Queer and Trans People of Color Coalition. Meetings will most likely take place on Thursdays from 8-9 pm and are scheduled to start as soon as possible, either towards the end of this month or this coming fall once they go through Event Management. Jessica Zagacki: Good afternoon, Ja’Loni. Thank you for taking the time to meet with me. I’m very excited to discuss the new organization you founded on campus. What is the QTPOCC? Ja’Loni Owens: The QTPOCC is an extension of The Pride Network, which is somewhat of the GSA on campus, except this organization focuses more on the intersections between race and queer identities. Our focus is really just to bring the two worlds together so to speak and to promote intersectional discussions about race and queerness and how that impacts how we navigate in society. JZ: Previously, there was only a QTPOC Affinity Space with The Pride Network, right? JO: Yeah, the Affinity Space has been going on for two
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semesters now. We’re going to keep doing the Affinity Space, which is every other Wednesday during common hour in [the] Intercultural Engagement and & Inclusion [office], but the QTPOCC is going to meet weekly. Both discussions are going to be revolving around the same kind of thing, just the Affinity Spaces serve more as safe spaces to talk about the daily happenings or current events, whereas the actual club is going to be doing a whole variation of things: a lot of education, a lot of social things, so the two are going to complement each other I think. JZ: What was the defining moment for you that you realized that this could turn into an activist organization on campus? JO: The QTPOCC became such when Chad [Atkinson] and Gillian [Freeman] in IEI happened to both be present during one of the meetings. A couple days later, I believe it was a Friday, Gillian and Chad spoke with me saying that they heard some of the discussion and said there was so much potential here for there to be an actual student organization and not just a space that meets every other week. Gillian was saying that it could be a bridge so to speak between The Pride Network and the multicultural organizations, and it could be that first step to mak-
ing intersectional conversations at the forefront of the Hofstra activism scene. It would complement the race center really well, and it would be a great time to have something like this. So after that conversation, I started going through the process to get everything done and getting approval. JZ: Following up on that, what was the approval process like to form the QTPOCC as a recognized group on campus? JO: I’ve only gone through the initial approval process; I haven’t done the SGA process yet. But what I did was there was a link to an application you fill out, which is just what is your organization, who’s going to be a part of it, you need 15 student signatures I believe, and basically a working guideline. So I said we want to have a queer and trans people of color coalition and talk about intersectional discussions. From that you start formulating a club constitution with some bylaws saying this is how elections will work, here’s what our core values are, what we hope to do for the Hofstra community. You submit that and in two or so days you’ll get approval based on your initial application and you have to come present for a couple members of SGA, OSLE. That presentation is five to ten minutes long. Nothing super extensive, and it’s just really reiterating what your club is,
what makes you different from other clubs on campus. I had to explain how QTPOCC will be different from The Pride Network and TGIF and some potential events [we] could host. You just kind of say how is this going to make Hofstra better, what it is going to actually be. I’m working on going for SGA approval, either the end of this semester or next semester so hopefully I’ll get that all going soon. JZ: Why do you feel that there is a strong need and interest for the QTPOCC on campus? JO: Like the conversation I had with Gillian when she had first brought the idea to me, the issues of gender issues, race issues, issues pertaining to the LGBT community, are not separate. For me, I am a black Latina, I’m female, and I identify as queer, and I can’t hide any of those identities. I don’t just shrug them off whenever I feel like it. A lot of how I exist in this world is a combination of all of them, and when I walk into certain spaces I wear certain identities on my sleeve and others I don’t. But at the end of the day, how I navigate is dependent on all of the parts of me and all of my identities. So having an organization that talks about all of them together and how all of them impact how we navigate, it’s very valuable. Especially in the political climate that we’re in. We are all in this togeth-
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er, so I think having an organization [whose] sole purpose is to have proactive, intersectional discussions about not only just race and queerness but race, queerness, and gender [and] race, queerness, and class and so on and so forth. I think having something like this right now is going to be very beneficial, not only for people of color, not only for the queer community, but for all of us to become better activists. JZ: What are some of your organization’s goals and things that you hope to achieve? JO: In its most basic, simple form [our goal] is to promote intersectional discussions and to educate intersectionality. Something that ends up happening I think a lot is everyone has an issue that’s most personal to them, whether it be an issue related to their own identity, or just an issue that’s loomed over their lives thus far, so we want to make sure that every issue has a spotlight so to speak so that we’re talking about everything, we’re talking about things together, and not making people feel so they have to hide certain parts of their identities in conversations or venues. We’re going to do that through the means of education, definitely. You can’t help if you don’t know. Also, we want a heavy social piece, a lot of networking with people of color and with
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the LGBT community and so on and so forth. We want to definitely work with our sibling organizations and other organizations on campus that have similar goals for justice and equality events. We had talked about potentially doing a self-care series linking up with the Campus Feminist Collective, the NAACP, and other organizations talking about how to take care of yourself as an activist and how to take care of yourself as a queer person when you see things in the media about your rights or as a black person when you see things in the media about your rights and from the Trump administration. So our goals are really to build a coalition, to build a network of people not just socially but also for activism purposes. JZ: Who is welcome to be a member of the QTPOCC? JO: Everybody can be a member of the QTPOCC. It is not only for queer and trans people of color, but it’s also for allies from any background, whether that be a person of color who cares about their queer brothers and sisters or if it’s members of The Pride Network who want to educate themselves on how to help their QTPOCC siblings, so just everybody. If you’re interested in learning or if you want to learn about things you never thought of before, if you want to make sure that everything you do is intersectional and inclu-
sive and doesn’t exclude anybody, if you’re willing to learn then you’re more than welcome. JZ: When will you be hosting your meetings? JO: We’re still working on an official meeting date. I have a poll on the Facebook page, and it looks like the meetings are going to be Thursdays from 8-9 pm. Once I have a definitive date and time I’m going to go to Event Management and get a space. Once I do know that, I’ll let you know. It will probably be posted in those weekly emails we get about things going on [around] campus, so look out for those.
tice and equality and educating intersectionality. JZ: Thank you so much for your time, Ja’Loni. Best of luck to your organization. It really is an important one, and you should be really proud of yourself for founding it and getting it approved. I look forward to seeing all of the QTPOCC’s accomplishments and advancements. JO: Aww, that’s so precious. Thank you so much. I really appreciate that.
JZ: Is there anything else you would like people to know about the QTPOCC? JO: We definitely don’t want people to have this misconception that it’s the anti-Pride Network or that it’s us saying that we’re just a conglomerated entity that’s just like everything but we’re all together at the same time. The focus is of course QTPOC, but it’s also about coalition building. As I said earlier, we want to work with The Pride Network, we want to work with TGIF, we want to work with the NAACP, we want to work with the Campus Feminist Collective. It’s an entity that’s of course focused on issues that impact QTPOC but we also want to work with our sibling organizations and have this whole one vision of jus-
SPRING 2017
Asian-Americans need to do better for the Black community (written by a non-Black Asian American woman)
Tess Griffin
*People of color are not exempt from racism* Asian-Americans have generally been participating in the same prejudiced and racist behaviors as White people. Just recently we have seen store owner, Sung Ho Lim, assaulting/choking an African-American woman when he falsely accused her of stealing. The artist Rich Chigga is of Chinese descent and grew up in Indonesia. Not only is his stage name obviously intended to be a reference to a slur, but his free use of the N-word in his song “Dat $tick” is problematic (aka offensive and insensitive). And one of the most notable modern Asian-Americans who has commit crimes against the Black community is Daniel Holtzclaw. He used his position of authority as a police officer to sexually assault at least 13 Black women. He was found guilty of 18 counts out of 36; this is a display of how not all bad Police officers are white, and Asian-Americans need to own up to that. Asia appropriates much of Black culture in their music, promotes racist ideas regarding the Black community, discriminates against Black people, and of course makes jokes about the lives of Black people. For some reason, Asian-Americans turn a blind eye when in the presence of racism/prejudice/discrimination committed by their own families and communities. I believe it is due to this notion that other non-Black people of color’s actions can never be perceived as racist because they have also experienced oppression. WRONG. Asian-Americans need to hold their communities accountable for their actions the same way we demand white people to hold their community accountable. Time and time again when Asian-Americans speak of activism and feminism, Black people are excluded from the discussion. How can we demand our voices be taken seriously when we do not make room or listen to Black voices?
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I know it is difficult, awkward, and scary to confront your relatives and friends about their blatant racism. However, it needs to be done and your relatives will be more open to you explaining their racist behavior than someone else. If you consider yourself as an advocate for people of color, YOU NEED TO INCLUDE BLACK PEOPLE IN YOUR ACTIVISM. There are many resources and people who can help you confront your relatives and friends. Here is a resource that has a several translations explaining anti-Blackness to older generations of Asian immigrants who may not speak English. It isn’t perfect, but it’s still a good resource. goo.gl/Svfx2B We must collaborate and work with the Black community to deconstruct white supremacy and we cannot accomplish that when there is internal racism within the people of color community. Do not allow violence against Black people to go unnoticed, get angry (stay angry), march for BlackLivesMatter, LISTEN and work WITH BLM because we as NON-BLACK Asian-Americans can’t dictate what the Black community needs or wants.
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Sarah Puckett
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Alanis Alvarez
SPRING 2017
An Essay Concerning Feminism and Equality Kirstin Kochie
There are few causes to which I would commit myself as wholly as I do to equality. I believe firmly in equal treatment of all people. The treatment of people of color, women, and anyone belonging to the LGBTQIAP+ community is blatantly unequal and, quite frankly, appalling. People are refused jobs, paid less in the ones they can get, cast out of homes, and attacked without reason for belonging to any one or more of the aforementioned groups. No one should have to suffer such injustice for being different, especially for being different in ways that they have no control over. Let me begin with the concept of women’s rights; I absolutely abhor the fact that the word feminist has come to have such a negative connotation in our society and that “feminazi” is a phrase that even exists. The year is 2017 and in many fields, men still make more money than women for the same work. Why? There is no definitive answer, save that sexism still exists. While I am on the subject of sexism, let’s talk about how women across this nation are terrified to walk the streets at night for fear of being assaulted. No? Let’s talk about how apparently “No” is not the end of the discussion but the beginning of a debate. Let’s talk about how when “No” does not work, women will claim to have a boyfriend in order to get men to stop hitting on them, because they respect other men more than any woman. Let’s talk about how when I try to have a conversation about any of the aforementioned issues, or any other women’s rights issues, I am called an angry feminist or a social justice warrior…. Or be brushed off and asked if I’m on my period. Despite the revolutionary Supreme Court ruling two summers ago that legalized same-sex marriage in all fifty states, prejudices against the LGBTQIAP+ community are still very much present in society. Yes, I know that whole acronym and no, I did not have to look it up. But even more importantly, I know what it stands for, what the whole community stands for. I was overjoyed to hear about the ruling, but what I never understood was why the issue had to go all the way to
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the Supreme Court for our voices to be heard. Why is it anyone else’s business if a man loves another man, or a woman another woman, or anyone in the LGBTQIAP+ community loves anyone else? What gives anyone the right to restrict anyone’s rights, freedom, and happiness based on a personal disagreement with their lifestyle? Some will argue the idea that it is against their religion. I have some shocking news for them. This country divided church and state in the seventeenth century, before America was even a nation of its own. And ever since then, people have been using religion to defend their hateful views of those who do not adhere to their warped perception of the status quo. So perhaps I am a bit of a “social justice warrior,” but I cannot bring myself to view it as something I should be ashamed of or something I should be shamed for. I believe in the apparently radical idea that we are all human beings regardless of gender, race, sexual orientation, gender identity, or sex, and that we all deserve to be treated as such. And if nothing else, the warrior aspect of that moniker is true. If nothing else, one can be sure that I will fight for what I believe in. And I certainly believe in this.
Emilie Beck & Natasha Rappazzo
SPRING 2017
Hannah Aronowitz
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Hannah Aronowitz
SPRING 2017
Untitled
Kirstin Kochie I chewed half a pack of gum today Trying to find these words Some will call it strange; and I will tell myself I don’t care Until I don’t My body tells a story One my mouth will never be able to They told me never to be satisfied with it; my body But I never really listened I suppose some will say that’s a problem too Oh, but I heard And it hurt But I am stronger than the critics “Your shoulders are too broad for a girl.” I have carried the weight of worlds on these shoulders The crushing criticism of doing what you love Archery, jiu jitsu, both supposedly men’s sports, but mine nonetheless The weight of every product they convince me I need to be beautiful That I never end up buying “Your eyes are so beautiful, but strange. I’ve never seen anything like them” Gracía-I mean, thank you My aunt, my father and a few other relatives have the same eyes They are windows; doors to my soul Their earthy color tells a story One of a girl who played in vast grassy fields And trees that matched her eyes And highlighted her bright, adventurous spirit That spirit almost broke As society told her she shouldn’t be happy In her (too pale) skin, her broader shoulders and her beautifully strange eyes
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They tell the tale of a young woman Learning to love the idiosyncrasies That color her eyes and her skin “Curly hair is so frizzy! Why don’t you ever straighten it?” ¡Ai que linda! dice mi abuela sobre mi pelo Tengo pelo rizado como mi mamá y mis tías Y mi abuela Y problamente sus madres y abuelas Antes de todo de nosotros Sí, estoy hablando español ¡Soy latina! And they liked to pick on that too “Oh you’re Spanish? You don’t look Spanish at all!” Yes, I am Hispanic! Soy puertorriqueña And despite the fact that people will say that we’re in America And I should be speaking English You all understood what that meant I’m sorry I don’t look like your stereotypes Actually, no I’m not. And I shouldn’t have to be Mis hombros y mis ojos y mi pelo tienen una historía Una historía que necesita estar escuchado No solamente para mi Para los otros que están sufriendo en silencio My body tells a story My story One my words will never be able to Because actions speak louder anyway
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The Night I Said No, Hannah Aronowitz
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THANK YOU TO OUR CONTRIBUTORS: LOLA SOLIS KIRSTIN KOCHIE TESS GRIFFIN NATASHA RAPPAZZO EMILIE BECK HANNAH ARONOWITZ JESSICA ZAGACKI JA’LONI OWENS JAIPREET GHUMAN SARAH GERWENS SARAH PUCKETT ALANIS ALVAREZ KENNEDY SWIFT
STAFF: NATASHA RAPPAZZO HANNAH ARONOWITZ SARAH ROBBINS JESSICA ZAGACKI NICK RIZZUTI REGINA VOLPE