letter from
THE EDITORS Dear thoughtful readers,
PRESIDENT Laken Sylvander
EDITOR - IN - CHIEF Alicia Yang
DESIGN CHIEF Miranda Hines
VISUAL EDITOR Edward Lim
SENIOR EDITORS Emma Laplante Mariel Ehrlich
The range of articles in this issue have a unifying theme in challenging established forms of power. We saw this reflected in our recent election, which has made clear that we are all re-thinking how power should look and how it should be used. We recognize that many of you who have picked up Issues Magazine hold identities that our President-Elect has disrespected, and we extend the sentiments in this issue to you in solidarity against this outburst of such normalized dehumanization. We are struck with disbelief and hurt. While these results may be a reflection of some of the darkest corners of the American psyche, this does not change our overwhelming belief that the most targeted aspects and intersections of our identities throughout this election cycle are powerful and make us human. The powerful work that members of our community are doing at grassroots levels to fix inequalities, discrimination, and violence has changed the lives of marginalized groups and individuals and will continue to do so, now more than ever. We are fueled by the power of hope, the power of change, the power of civic responsibility to be better than we have. As we move forward, while it is often easy to blame individuals for their voting choices, it is critical in this moment to address the systems underlying voting trends. Rather than attack individuals for systemic problems, we should turn our attention to social movements which affirm the individual. This is why we actively support Black Lives Matter for its socially disruptive, life-affirming objectives. This is why we celebrate artists & activists who highlight that power can be found in the most unlikely places. From tropes of architecture, to electricity, to literary themes, power in all its virtue and malice is omnipresent--and we’re doing something about it. If you’ve been waiting for a sign to make art, THIS IS YOUR SIGN. If you’ve been waiting for a sign to organize a protest, THIS IS YOUR SIGN. If you’ve been looking for a spring-board to take-up community organizing, THIS IS YOUR SIGN. If you’ve been looking for a sign to be audaciously honest, even in challenging your own ideas, THIS IS YOUR SIGN. Let us all come together in redefining what power means and what it is used for. You are valued, and you are loved. Alicia & Laken
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power is the ability to act or produce an effect
the possession of control over others
physical might
a source of energy
power is not inherently legitimate
Illustrated by Chelsea Lin Cover illustration by Ed Lim 3
in this p. 6 Harry Potter and the Black Lives Matter Movement by Emma Laplante p. 10 Secular Politics by Lauryn McSpadden p. 12 Floor to Ceiling: Presentations of Power at the 2016 Presidential Debate by Mariel Ehrlich p. 16 Where do you stay? by Mariel Ehrlich p. 17 Structures of Power by Alexis Vidaurreta p. 18 Got Coal? Fossil Fuel Companies and How They Power Wash U by Helen Jow p. 20 Is It Really a Fight for Equality? Webs of Hierarchies in the Feminist Movment by Swetha Nakshatri, Alicia Yang, and Laken Sylander p. 24 the Snake; a fictional portrayel of an observer of the Dakota Access Pipeline construction by Alicia Zhang p. 26 Mass Versus Individuality by Chenyu Zhang p. 30 the Influence of Mass Media on Politics and Public Perception by Anne Accardi p. 32 Sexism as Power in the Food Service Industry by Natasha Ceballos p. 34 Moving Beyond Access: The Power of the Education System by Rhea Khanna
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Issue number 9 November 2016 Washington University in St. Louis
issue
Photography by Miranda Hines 5
Harry Pot and the Black Lives Matter Movement Written by Emma LaPlante Illustrated by Caroline Dierksheide
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ter
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An orphan suffering from neglect, a boy from a poor family, and a girl with a stigmatized bloodline meet on the first day of school. You know how the rest of this story goes. J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter novels are unprecedented. Never in the history of children’s literature—maybe even of literature as a whole—has a narrative been so ubiquitously and lovingly absorbed by all corners of the world. In places like America and the United Kingdom, nearly any passerby on the street could identify a large number of the characters—not just Harry Potter and Hermione Granger, but also minor characters such as Hagrid, Neville Longbottom, and Professor McGonagall. A lightning boltshaped scar drawn on someone’s forehead makes for an instantly recognizable Halloween costume. The numerical value of 9.75 (read: 9 3/4) drips with nostalgia and whimsy. Round glasses will never be just round glasses. The power of Harry Potter hasn’t merely influenced our popular culture. It has redefined it. The cool thing, too, is that they aren’t just escapist stories about wizards and magic, although that’s certainly part of their appeal. Indulge me for a moment while I point out the books’ politics. The wizarding world, while fantastically alluring, is not unbroken. Throughout the books, wizards and witches experience grief, bureaucratic corruption, and anxiety about being discovered by non-magical folk (while children often read Harry Potter before they learn about Salem and other gruesome real-life witch hunts, this connection is not lost on adults). Moreover, some families, including the indomitable and much-loved Weasleys, abide in cyclical poverty. It turns out that magic, despite its healing and restorative properties, is not a cure for social ills. The society that Harry and his friends inhabit is not so different from our own. And much like in our world, the thing that threatens most forcefully to tear apart the wizarding community is prejudice. Under the leadersh ip of a truly wicked wizard who calls himself Lord Voldemort, bad people infiltrate the government, smuggling into the mainstream a platform of fear and anti-Muggle1 sentiment. By the seventh book, they have largely succeeded. (If you’re reminded of Donald J. Trump’s strategy of achieving electoral success by exploiting America’s deep-seated anxieties and encouraging xenophobia and intolerance, you aren’t wrong.)
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Harry Potter is not the first work of children’s literature to wrestle with prejudice and lofty ideals, but it transcends its genre because it does away with allegory. Whereas Aslan the lion (the moral center of The Chronicles of Narnia and himself a metaphor for Jesus) proselytizes about goodness and faith in coded phrases, Harry & Company literally found a subversive student group: Dumbledore’s Army, through which they protest their inadequate self-defense education by teaching the subject to each other (not exactly SNCC2 , but altruistic and revisionist nonetheless—the organization’s emphasis on the Disarming Charm and discouragement of the Unforgivable Curses call to mind SNCC’s policy of resistance through nonviolence). Although Dumbledore’s Army is short-lived, Harry, Ron, and Hermione soon join the ranks of benevolent adults in the Order of the Phoenix, an organization dedicated to protecting Muggles, and Muggle-born wizards, by stopping Voldemort and his followers. (Not to mention Hermione’s standing interest in the rights of house elves, for which she founds the Society for the Promotion of Elfish Welfare in the fourth book.) For reasons I could rhapsodize endlessly about (and I have), Harry Potter is just as much about activism as it is about magic. As I grew up with the series, I absorbed and internalized its lessons in active tolerance, justice, beneficence, and bravery. A whole generation did—in fact, a study published in the Journal of Applied Social Psychology found that when children read Harry Potter, they tend to display more empathy and compassion toward stigmatized groups, including LGBTQ* people, racial minorities, and refugees.3 The books’ brave, literary activism is why I am appealing to every would-be Hogwarts student to learn to say, “Black Lives Matter.”
Speak it. Sing it. Interpretatively dance it. Let its crisp syllables trip down your tongue and ring out in your God-given voice like a gong. Because if you do not see the parallels between the fight for justice in Harry Potter and the Black Lives Matter movement, you may want to reread the books. In Harry Potter, Muggles and Muggle-born wizards are targets of ridicule and occasional acts of violence, although the assaults are only state-sponsored toward the end of the series. Conversely, 204 Black people have been killed by police since the start of 2016 alone.4 You don’t have to be an expert on racism to empathize with Black activists’ sense of injustice and frustration stemming from lifetimes of being denied basic human dignity. If you feel you’re doing enough by simply treating people of color with respect, I urge you to do more. J.K. Rowling’s books do not merely advocate for tolerance, but also for actively seeking justice. The best characters in Harry Potter don’t content themselves with simply not discriminating against people with non-magical blood—they befriend them and defend them, branding themselves as allies of all types of people (as well as, in the case of house elves, magical creatures). Even if this message weren’t in Harry Potter, striving only for tolerance is the weak way out; it lets you feel good about yourself (“I’m not a racist…”) without actually grappling with the ways you are unintentionally perpetuating systems of abuse (“…but don’t Blue Lives Matter, too?”). Tolerance is for cowards. What America and the wizarding world both need is radical love.
In my ignorance, I felt implicated by a gnawing feeling that I was part of the problem. Unable to do nothing, I embarked on a conscious, long-term journey of unlearning the things I held to be true: namely, the falsehoods that systemic American racism was a relic of an earlier time, and that police shootings of people of color were too complicated and idiosyncratic to call the system broken. I joined a student group on race relations. I sought out classes (such as The AIDS Epidemic with Dr. Shanti Parikh) that taught about race and structural injustice. Ironically, it required me seeking out new perspectives and experiences to realize how little I understood about the issues I was coming to care deeply about. If I could give any advice to someone like me who’s trying for the first time to learn about issues of race, it would be to never stop listening to the brilliant and enlightening voices of experts and your peers of color. The more you learn, the more you realize that there will always be more to learn. These are the sorts of things we have to do if we ever want to achieve equity and real social peace. The breathtaking and yet-untapped power of a story like Harry Potter is that it gives us a common language, a narrative we can use to talk about these things. Not everyone is prepared to be an activist, but we can all start by saying the words that acknowledge the brutality and racial injustice within our country. In doing so, we respect and preserve the Black community’s very humanity. If you’re a true Harry Potter fan, you’ll know this to be true. If Hermione Granger existed in our world, you’d better believe she’d be knitting sweaters emblazoned with the words “Black Lives Matter.”
“J.K. Rowling’s books do not merely advocate for tolerance, but also for actively seeking justice.”
As Rowling herself unequivocally stated, “The Pottebooks in general are a prolonged argument for tolerance, a prolonged plea for an end to bigotry…it’s a very healthy message to pass on to younger people that you should question authority and you should not assume that the establishment…tells you all of the truth.” “The establishment” (be that your parents, your friends, or Fox News) may have conditioned you to stand against Black Lives Matter. In a way, I sympathize. When I arrived at school in the midst of the protests in Ferguson, Missouri, I was ill informed, confused, and, frankly, scared of the reports I saw on the news. As a young white woman, I did not initially get it. But as I continued living on campus that year—a year of protests, controversies, and tension—I realized that Michael Brown’s death was more than an isolated tragedy.
When I was little, I hoped that I would someday be brave enough to fight for righteousness the way Harry and his friends do. I imagine you probably did the same. This, the next wave of the Civil Rights Movement, is your chance.
1. In case you spent your formative years on some planet other than Earth, Muggle is the wizards’ term for a non-magical person: regrettably, you and me. 2. The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, through which students played a groundbreaking and pivotal role in the 1960s’ Civil Rights Movement. 3. https://psmag.com/harry-potter-and-the-battle-against-bigotryd5bb0d530152#.vajsvjx6i 4. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-interactive/2015/jun/01/ the-counted-police-killings-us-database
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SECULAR POLITICS Written by Lauryn McSpadden The First Amendment of the United States Constitution ensures that “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibit the free exercise thereof.” As a cornerstone of American tradition, religion has always played a dominant role throughout the history of national politics. Even before identifying freedom of speech, press, or the ability to “petition” the government, U.S. law protects religion. In the election of 1800, Thomas Jefferson was almost denied the presidency due to his incessant criticism of organized religion. In the entirety of American history, every president and vice president has been raised in a Christian family. Lastly, for decades, Republican presidential candidates could rely on the loyal vote of conservative evangelicals — as long as they saturated speeches with religious rhetoric and supported policies that upheld evangelical Christian beliefs. However, this current election exhibits the evolving nature of American politics and the dwindling role religion plays within it. While the most recent election has defied many precedents, one of the most glaring deviations from past patterns is the evangelical base’s avid support for a blatantly irreligious nominee. The rise of Donald Trump within the Republican Party is a surprising
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In the entirety of American history, every president and vice president has been raised in a Christian family.
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reality for many reasons; the billionaire businessman and reality TV host has called himself pro-choice when it comes to abortion, supported “single payer” government managed health care and agreed with the idea of a progressive tax. Each of these platforms distinctively differs from the primary platform of the Republican base which adamantly opposes abortion, federal control of health care, and the progressive tax. In addition to these political deviations, Trump’s past actions are a clear insult to the standards of the evangelical faith, the proponents of which comprise the most reliable voting bloc for Republican candidates. The Republican nominee
has had two very public divorces — one the result of a very public affair. He also claims to have never asked God for forgiveness. So how did Donald Trump, who has repeatedly violated Christian beliefs, easily gain the support of the South, nicknamed the Bible Belt for is religious fervor? How did he prattle his way through other Republican states, and quickly overcome the devout evangelical candidates who challenged him in the primary?
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So how did Donald Trump, who has repeatedly violated Christian beliefs, easily gain the support of the South, nicknamed the Bible Belt for is religious fervor?
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Perhaps Trump’s ascendancy within the Republican Party can be credited to religion’s wavering power within the party and what the New York Times cites as the “revival of a populism centered more on economic nationalism and white working class discontent.” Perhaps the United States is finally following the trend of losing its fierce religiosity, a shift which has been noticed in other “advanced nations” over the past few decades. As a matter of fact, according to the research of New York University’s Michael Hoult and University of California’s Claude Fisher, the prominence of religion has been wavering since the 1980s. In 2012, 1 in 5 American adults claimed no religious preference. This is nearly a 13 percent increase from the 1 in 14 American adults who claimed likewise in 1987. The first presidential debate of the 2016 election season, held at Hofstra University in Hempstead, New York, clearly demonstrated this social and political shift in the power of religion in national politics. The debate featured a set of candidates distinctly less religious than past presidents, and in the aftermath of this TrumpClinton face-off, a journalist from The Atlantic claimed “civil religion died on Monday.” Although the United States is a secular nation in terms of government, U.S. moral foundations are historically rooted deeply in JudeoChristian beliefs. Yet, throughout this election season, America has witnessed its presidential candidates shun integrity, eschew collaboration, neglect compassion, and discard forgiveness — all pillars on which America has stood for 240 years. With the decline of religious prominence has come the shedding of ideals that have long defined the nation, begging the question of how the America will choose to define itself in the future.
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Big entrance
Well funded, featuring the Anheuser-Busch Clydesdales
Floor to Ceiling:
Presentations of Power at the 2016 Presidential Debate
Photography by Mariel Ehrlich 12
The weight of young money
Movement and truths – on Mudd Field
Student voices
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Media on campus and national promises
Police presence
Do not enter – on Forsyth Boulevard
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Searching for something or someone
Closing the gates
Secret service above Seigle Hall
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Where do you stay? Written by Mariel Ehrlich
The Gull That Lost the Sea: a children’s book with a broken binding lies outside an abandoned church Spread thin over forgotten Bibles its hopeful end emerges from crumpled verses, exposed to the heavens in a Reverend’s gaping desk drawer Emptied of its photographs and keepsakes stories forced into the wind by the grasping hands of eminent domain1 Like when the wind grew stronger and pushed the gull from his warm nest home: seized by white crested waves the first part of a children’s tale told without a happy ending It’s a chapter of a longer story forgotten on the shores of North City settled on the tides of Pruitt-Igoe lives thrown out to sea A land of empty nests and broken twigs expands with a hungry current St. Louis Place, Where do you stay?
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1. The power of a government to take private property for public use
Structures of power Written & Illustrated by Alexis Vidaurreta
Neoclassicism is a Western architectural style characterized by its revival of Greek and Roman classical features. In the United States, Neoclassicism is basically the aesthetic of those big old government buildings you’re always forced to visit on class trips. As St. Louis’ own Louis Sullivan said, “Form follows function,” and there are a number of Neoclassical features that make it the perfect choice of form for the government (dys)function. Symmetry is key to American government buildings as it gives them a sense of balance that calls upon the Greek values of logic and reason. This symmetry governs the buildings’ characteristics on multiple scales and axes. East to west and north to south, our governments reside in a series of dualities clearly befitting their divided system. In recent years, superficial harmony (almost) compensates for the glaring lack of bipartisan cooperation, an ideal now deader than a Reagan worshipper’s dreams. On a basic level, scale is important to government buildings. Bigger is always better here in the US of A, a rule that holds true for everything from guns to sodas to architecture. High ceilings provide plenty of space to accommodate every ego (though maybe not every marginalized group) and long hallways support generations-worth of portraits of white men who Made America Great. Columns serve the dual function of holding up the sizable structure and holding up the principles of democracy, which are doing just fine, thank you very much. The feature that brings it all together is the dome. Domes were rife with divine symbolism for the Greeks, and the expansive, all-inclusive dome really goes a long way to make you feel like you’re a part of something greater— because you are. Right?
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Got Coal?
Power Plays, Both Literal and Figurative Written by Helen Jow Illustrated by Chenyu Zhang We all run on some kind of fuel. The sun derives its energy from nuclear fusion. A democracy runs on the power of the people. I, personally, run on Kayak’s coffee and the newly reinstated BD tater tots. But what powers WashU? What enables our school to run, both financially and literally? The answer lies in power. The power we get when we turn on our lamps to do late-night homework, or charge our laptops at the library, or wash our clothes in the laundry room. Fossil fuel companies such as Peabody Coal, Arch Coal, and Ameren hold great influence over the Washington University and St. Louis communities. Missouri’s past reflects a history of mining bituminous, high-sulfur coal in the late 1800’s.1 While today the state only produces 1% of the coal it consumes, Missouri utilizes more coal for power generation than forty-six other states, only beat out by Texas, Illinois, and Indiana. Part of the cause comes from coal companies’ deep roots and influence in Missouri, despite the fact that most of the actual coal production comes from Illinois and elsewhere in the Midwest. WashU itself is run by Ameren, a utilities company that promotes sustainable energy all while continuing to provide electricity and natural gas from coal-fired power plants. But the influence of these companies at WashU goes beyond internal wiring and power outlets. Ex-CEO of Peabody Energy, Gregory Boyce, serves as a current member of Washington University’s board of trustees. Peabody Energy has taken actions ranging from morally questionable to morally reprehensible, including funding denialists of human-caused climate change, fighting against greenhouse gas emissions restrictions, running strip mining operations on indigenous lands, and manipulating policies in local communities to benefit the company and increase its own profits.2 On top of that, WashU invests a certain sum of money every year to unsustainable energy companies. This amount remains undisclosed since the university does not release its endowment statement to the public. The lack of transparency is alarming at best, and at worst, downright manipulative. 18
1. “U.S. Energy Information Administration - EIA - Independent Statistics and Analysis.” U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) 2. Readfearn, Graham. “Bankrupt Coal Miner Peabody Energy Paid Climate Denialist to Write Greenhouse Gas Reports.” Truth Out. Truthout, 10 July 2016. Web.
Another way Peabody also asserts its political power over the school through the Consortium for Clean Coal Utilization, a research initiative designed to “advance technologies for clean utilization of coal as both a dependable, low cost source of energy and a reliable chemical feedstock”.3 Of the $12 million donated to WashU to fund the Consortium, Peabody dished out $5 million.4 But what exactly is “clean coal,” a term that can be both oxymoronic and misleading? Developing “clean coal” usually refers to research in carbon dioxide capture and storage, which would capture the carbon dioxide emitted from coal processing rather than releasing it into the atmosphere. While achieving this goal would reduce pollution, carbon capture remains an unproven and expensive method on a large scale accompanied by risks of leakages into drinking water aquifers.5 It’s the Holy Grail of rendering unsustainable energy sustainable, but so far, it remains a myth. With all the power to manipulate Washington University policies and sustainability initiatives, why has no one stopped the hold that fossil fuel companies have over WashU? The answer is that we have tried. Students Against Peabody staged a sit-in during April 2014 demanding the university to cut ties with the company. They urged Boyce to step down from WashU’s board of trustees along with the end of Peabody’s support of the Consortium for Clean Coal Utilization. However, the demonstrations failed to achieve these two goals. Similarly, grassroots initiative called Take Back St. Louis attempted to divert power from the fossil fuel companies to the local community. They called for these big businesses to stop receiving tax breaks from the city, so that the tax revenue could go towards improving public schools desperately in need of funding. This movement also ultimately failed to achieve its objective. The inability of these environmental justice campaigns to affect change speaks to the immense influence these
energy companies have over the St. Louis area. What does it mean for our university to align itself with large corporations, corporations that profit from unsustainable practices and the infringement on local autonomy? Can we blatantly ignore the way our school has sided with big business against the will of the student body? We are an institution that touts an Office of Sustainability promoting meatless Mondays and compostable waste, yet at the very core we refuse to sever ties with some of the least environmentally friendly businesses in the world. Tianqi Wang, a graduate of Washington University, wrote about the Students Against Peabody demonstration, calling Peabody a “bully to the powerless.”6 In the context of the upcoming presidential election, a major theme to keep in mind is fighting for the underdogs in society, empowering the powerless. Arbitrary power imbalances are never clearer until young students and grassroots organizations contend with large institutions and big businesses.
“We are an institution that touts an Office of Sustainability promoting meatless Mondays and compostable waste, yet at the very core we refuse to sever ties with some of the least environmentally friendly businesses in the world.”
We are what we eat; we are what fuels our system. The noxious fumes of coal emissions in our mouths are not only unsustainable – they’re dangerous. By ignoring the issue because we don’t think fossil fuel companies directly impact our lives or because we don’t think we can create change, we send a message that it’s okay for huge profit-driven organizations to dictate our policies and our environment. But by speaking out, by raising awareness, by petitioning, and by protesting, we can at least pressure administration to reconsider its hypocrisy and give back power to the people.
3. “Consortium for Clean Coal Utilization.” Consortium for Clean Coal Utilization. Washington University in St. Louis, n.d. Web. 4. Walsh, Joselyn. “The Conversation Has Started: Why Wash U Students Need to Be Talking about Peabody.” Washington University Political Review WUPR. N.p., 28 Apr. 2014. Web. 5. Schwartz, Ariel. “The Problem With Carbon Capture: CO2 Doesn’t Always Stay Captured.” Fast Company. N.p., 30 July 2012. Web. 6. Wang, Tianqi. “Anatomy Of A Protest.” Common Reader. N.p., 12 Sept. 2015. Web.
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Is It Really a Fight for Equality? Webs of Hierarchies in the Feminist Movement Written by Swetha Nakshatri, Alicia Yang, and Laken Sylander Illustrated by Ruby Rose
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“The leaders of the feminist movement overwhelmingly white,
straight, able-bodied females.
1851. The Women’s Convention in Akron, Ohio. After a tone of acceptance shifts to one of exclusion, African American abolitionist and activist Sojourner Truth gives a speech with no name. Only a pleading question: “Ain’t I a Woman?” 1974. The first meeting of the Combahee River Collective. Finding that they struggled with white women regarding race and black men regarding gender, a feminist coalition forms in recognition of the black woman’s struggle in both race and gender hierarchies. 2013. The modern Twitterverse. In a moment of self-described frustration, Mikki Kendall starts a hashtag that ends up trending in 61 US cities, with an estimated 7 million participants. #SolidarityIsForWhiteWomen 2016. Donald Trump is elected president of the United States of America. 53% of white women voted for Trump. There has recently been a controversy between black and Asian-American communities within Wash U that has been further complicated by the extremely different assumptions and expectations present in each group. The short version surrounds a Snapchat sent by two Korean-American girls wearing face masks as blackface within the context of a caption referencing the Zulu tribe. The focal point of POC discord relegated both the issues of
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whiteness and feminism to the background, despite the fact that a vast majority of the people criticizing and being criticized for the misuse of a beauty product were women. Implicit in the entire discussion was the harsh disillusionment of any form of solidarity among so-called women of color, much less feminists in general. The most pointed feminist criticisms called out Asian women’s tendency to pander to white expectations of feminine beauty, and the anti-blackness implicit in their “desperate” attempt to align themselves with whiteness. There was no true resolution to the dispute, but the racialized tension did highlight the complex relationship among Asian and black communities, between Asian and black communities, and between “POC” communities and white femininity, even when no white people were directly involved. However, it is abundantly clear that forced solidarity is not the answer, and people of different racial backgrounds have fundamentally different experiences that should not be collapsed into a singular objective goal. Feminism is, and cannot continue to be, an exclusive movement, with power struggles within the fight for equality almost definitively placing white women on top, uncontested. Progressive leaders often ignore the intersections of people within their movements, neglecting that identity politics is a result of racial divisiveness, gender inequality, classism, and
were and still are
With their conceived power, they set the feminist agenda.”
separatism. Doubly marginalized groups should not be forced to choose between their identities and forcibly assimilate to normative stereotypes of one group or the other. However, due to racial politics, feminism does not give women of color the opportunity to ultimately end their individual oppression and subsequently creates further divides. Feminism has been a bastion for remedying social inequality but within itself has established positions of clear leadership. While leadership in any organization is essential for efficacy, a problem with feminism surfaces with the basis for the assignment of leadership as well as the enormous amount of power that follows this unofficial “appointment.” The leaders of the feminist movement overwhelmingly were and still are white, straight, able-bodied females. With their conceived power, they set the feminist agenda. What results is a movement for equality whose focus does not necessarily reflect the goals of the entirety of the participants and whose progress is often dependent on the silencing or exploitation of minorities. This is evident in both historical and modern contexts and the lack of progress is evidence that female oppression cannot solely be analyzed through an exploration of gender constructs. One of the major goals of the feminist movement is abolishing the wage gap, or the systematic underpayment of women in similar roles as men, despite equal qualifications and performance.
However, in discussions of the wage gap, “white feminists” fail to recognize that economic inequality is derived from racism as well as sexism. According to McCrayer’s wage statistics,1 while a Caucasian woman makes 77 cents to every dollar that a Caucasian man makes, African American women make only 64 cents. Native American women make 60 cents and Hispanic women make 54 cents. Although some of this may be attributed to a lack of educational opportunity, research from the U.S. Census Bureau indicates that even for African American and Hispanic women with advanced degrees, median weekly income is significantly lower than that of white or Asian American women. White women also make more than African American, Hispanic, and Native American men, demonstrating that much of the power structure is based on whiteness, not gender. The lack of recognition surrounding this phenomenon is startling, echoing white feminists’ cry that men should recognize the overall wage gap in order to quantify the problem. In order to dismantle the inequality, feminists must acknowledge that, “inequality between women and men has decreased over the past four decades in the US, but wage inequality among groups of women has increased (Edwards, R., D. Evans, and A. Smith.)” By understanding the wage gap solely in terms of gender, mainstream feminism is missing the devastating impact of identities that intersect with woman-hood, , further proving the relevance of intersectional discussions within social justice movements.
1. Edwards, R., D. Evans, and A. Smith. (2006). Wage Negotiations in the Asia Pacific: Does Globalization Increase the Wage Gap? Asia Pacific Business Review. 12(1): 95-108. 23
The Snake Written by Alicia Zhang Illustrated by Rachel Roberts
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I remember the blazing Sun shooting its angry rays at my back as I ran through the Meadow of deep green blades of Grass. They brushed my toes and cushioned my heels, and occasionally I would be massaged by the smooth Pebbles that scattered among the Leaves. The Sun burned my back, leaving red welches that would fade away and darken my skin. Despite the annoyance, I ran on because I was almost to the Snake. When the Grass began to become less sparse and recede, like my father’s hairline, I took five steps and the Snake came slithering up around my ankles. The further I went, the farther up the Snake tangled around me, soothing my burns.
reflecting brilliant light into my eyes, blinding me as it twisted and turned just like a snake does as it moves. Except it was not fluid. Instead, its metallic luster writhed at sharp angles. Peering into the water, I could not see anything in the dirt and debris, not even my own reflection. I tried to look for the small bubbles that signaled the presence of blue catfish, but after nearly an hour I gave up. Across the river was the willow tree whose branches Takoda and I used to climb and then jump off, the water below cushioning our fall, and near where Takoda had found the fifty pound blue catfish. Takoda followed me to the city after he lost everything; his home, culture, dignity, respect, river, everything.
My father called it “Snake” years before I was born because, he told me, it winded and twisted and turned just like a snake does as it moves. We hunted and fished and were buried near the Snake, just like our fathers and mothers and their fathers and mothers.
He simply gave up, like all the others once they realized the fighting and protesting was futile; They would not listen, They would not understand. And because They did not even hear, what was left were the murky water and the metal pipes.
One humid summer day two years ago, my cousin Takoda caught a fifty-pound blue Catfish with his bare hands. We were both splashing around near the Willow when Takoda felt something brush by his leg. It felt slimy, he told my father, when he presented the Fish along with his story. But it was enormous, and he thought it was going to swallow him alive. My father and my uncle both patted him on the back, and we ate blue Catfish for two weeks straight to the point where I would gag at the slightest sight of it. I never ate Catfish again.
One of the construction workers stood on the other bank, watching the crane place a pipe in position, appending growth to Their snake. He waved to me as I turned to leave. I stared at him for a while, but did not wave back.
I remember the blazing Sun shooting its angry rays at my back as I stepped out of my truck. I had bought it from my neighbor, who sold it at a price too great for all the dents and scratches that adorned it. It took me four attempts to get it started, and then it would only go thirty miles per hour tops. But it got me to my destination; I went past a meadow where the last of the green sprouts poked through the crumbling, brown dried grass. I parked off the side of the paved road and got out and walked towards the pebbles that made up the bank of the river. I stopped right where the murky water tapped the land.
This story is a fictional portrayal of an observer to the construction of the Dakota Access pipeline. This 1, 172 mile oil pipeline extends from western of North Dakota to Patoka, Illinois. It is planned to bring 470, 000 barrels of crude oil per day, providing mostly temporary jobs and domestic fuel. The reservation of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe rests south of this pipeline’s path, yet the pipeline traverses across their sacred ancestral lands. Additionally, pipelines are no stranger to regular spills and ruptures (the Tesoro Logistics pipeline spilled 865, 000 gallons of oil onto a North Dakota farm in 2013) that could pollute the Sioux’s drinking water supply, the Missouri River, and the surrounding ecosystems. The United States was founded on the genocide of Native Americans, and the continued construction of the pipeline demonstrates that the theft of the Native people has not ceased.
My son called it “Snake” when he was old enough to speak because, as he explained later, it winded and
I returned to my beaten-down truck and drove back to my rigid, concrete house, leaving behind the meadow, my home, my Snake, and Their snake.
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Mass Versus Individuality In reality, we both experience being alone and feeling involved in a large crowd . These two opposite modes endow humanity with psychological and behavioral changes. Photography by Chenyu Zhang
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the influence of
Written by Anne Accardi Illustrated by Yena Juong
* Written before the 2016 election. As the 2016 election cycle begins to barrel down the home stretch, it can be occasionally difficult to identify the difference between the current political climate and, for instance, a Saturday Night Live skit. In fact, the similarities between 2016’s presidential debacle and your average modestly rated sitcom are abundant. Both include overdrawn, cartoonish characters that still linger on the screen just slightly after the humor has gone stale. Both can cause feverish—or cynical or mundane—water-cooler discussions among friends, family, and coworkers. And, importantly, both are the darlings of tabloids, news programs, and magazines across the world. Since 2016’s presidential election began, it has dominated mainstream news and media outlets almost constantly.
“This year maybe more than any other, mass media has had an enormous influence on public perception of political candidates, and possibly over the outcome of the election.”
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Mass Whether through tabloids proclaiming evidence of corruption, near-daily newspaper articles discussing the impact of each candidate’s ideology, or endless TV spots on the latest poll results, the praise, criticism, and circular analysis of Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump have been sung to America without interruption since they announced their candidacies. The reason for this perpetual news coverage is simple: news outlets aim to disseminate information over topics that their readers, viewers, or listeners are interested in. And clearly, maybe this year more than any other, the American people are interested in their political candidates. A report from the Harvard Kennedy School’s Shorenstein Center, published in July 2016, testifies to the “horse race reporting” that has characterized the presidential election season. The report discusses many unique aspects of the journalistic approach to the election, and focuses especially on why Trump received (and still receives) so much more media coverage than any other single candidate. A PBS article analyzing the same report synthesizes the reason: “reporters like a good story. It’s what their business is based on. And this year, Trump’s narrative seemed more novel than that of Clinton or Sanders.” Interestingly, 56% of all media coverage focused on what the report called the “competitive game” nature of the election—the latest poll updates, who was winning in which states, etc. Only 11% of the coverage focused on policy issues or platforms. This public interest is exemplified by the reaction to the first presidential debate, which took place on September 26, 2016 has participated—was the most-watched debate of all time, drawing in a total of viewership of 81.4 million, according to Nielsen. This statistic does not even include those who watched the debate at parties, bars, restaurants, or other public outlets, meaning the real total was even higher. The debate was also the most Tweeted in history, Twitter announced, breaking the 10.3 million message record previously held
media
on politics & public perception by the first presidential debate of 2012. The consequence of increased news coverage and increased public engagement? Simple. This year maybe more than any other, mass media has had an enormous influence on public perception of political candidates, and possibly over the outcome of the election itself. This is due in part to the unconventional nature of the 2016 election cycle. The Republican and Democratic candidates represent firsts —Hilary Clinton is the first female nominee, and Donald Trump is the first nominee who has never before held a public office. These historic precedents, coupled with the controversial, tabloid-worthy events of 2016 (Clinton’s email scandal, for instance, or Trump’s comments disparaging Mexican immigrants), has caused more and more politically engaged Americans to flock to mass media outlets for the latest updates on these endlessly entertaining political figures. This wider audience base, in turns, leads to the increasing influence of media outlets, regardless of the political biases inherent in almost all such outlets. This means that mass media,
even down to the shortest Fox News tweet, wields unprecedented power over the American people’s perception of t he election cycle and its candidates. The impact of this power could be complex. On the one hand, greater citizen engagement in the electoral process could lead to a higher voter turnout. This has already been hinted at in the 2016 primary elections, which had the second-highest voter turnout since the 1980s (the 2008 primary holds the record). On the other hand, there is always a danger that media coverage might distort or ignore the key political issues of the election cycle, focusing instead on only the most controversial or “newsworthy” topics. Given that the presidential election determines the individual who will hold a great deal of power over much of the world for the next four years, it is important for the American people to recognize that, instead of a sitcom, we are living through history. It is the right of citizens, not just reporters, to form clear and reasonable opinions about our political candidates and the future of our country. 31
Sexism aS Power in the Food ServicE Industry Written by Natasha Ceballos Illustrated by Shannon Levin My first month working at a restaurant I was emptying out the ‘dump sink’ i.e. where all un-drank drinks go to die. This required me to bend over to scoop out ice, straws, etc. I did it without self-consciousness, solely focused on getting my job done. Later, a female co-worker pulled me aside to let me know that all kitchen production had halted to watch me bend over and eyes were trained on my back the entire time. I started avoiding doing the ‘dump sink.’ A few months later, I wore shorts on a particularly hot day in the middle of the summer. Every ‘hello’ from a male co-worker was accompanied with a cursory glance up and down my body. I started wearing dresses and skirts instead, to keep attention away. One day, a manager pulled me aside and told me skirts were not appropriate for my work position because I had to stoop down so often; it didn’t matter than I always wore shorts underneath. It didn’t matter that I was afraid to wear shorts or jeans. Once, or twice, or a hundred times, a co-worker told a rape joke. People laughed. I got angry. I called them out. I did this once, twice, but not a third or a hundred times. I realized I was becoming the butt of a joke. A “oh don’t say that around Natasha or she’ll get all offended” kind of joke. I decided I would rather fit in and be liked than be ostracized for standing up for what I believed in. I used to walk home from work in the winter because I didn’t have a car. One night, outside of a bar, three drunk white men approached me. When I was unresponsive one of them swung a beer bottle. I ran home.
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My manager approached me, months after the last time I had made a complaint against the kitchen staff for rudestaring and pointed at my shorts. He said if I didn’t want attention, I should wear something else. In the winter, when I wore tights, I mentioned to a female co-worker that I didn’t think I’d ever be left alone by the kitchen staff. Later I walked in on my male co-workers saying I was asking for it by wearing clothes that contoured to every shape of my body.
“I walked out of that meeting knowing I could never again fight back if I valued my job.”
I started wearing baggier joggers to detract attention from my body. They were incredibly hot but surely they would give me some respite. Not so; I now knew there was nothing I could do or say that would stop the looks. A couple weeks ago the dishwasher squeezed my arm suggestively and I told him not to touch me, and to back off. Since then, I seem to be sprayed with the water hose more often than accidents would allow. Several months ago a male coworker was having a particularly bad shift. He decided I would be his scapegoat and screamed and cussed in my face. This co-worker had a history of yelling obscenities at other co-workers and had done it several times to the manager. I cussed back. That was not the end of that conversation. My manager called me later that day to get ‘my version’ of what happened. I later discovered that my co-worker had spun a story that involved me deliberately sabotaging his performance. Our GM was going to have to meet with us to discuss the ‘repercussions’ of our actions. What kind of message do you think it sends that the one time I stood up for and defended myself, I was punished for it? When the GM met with me he told me in no uncertain terms that I had to learn to meet my co-worker where he was at. Essentially the general manager of the restaurant chain told me I had to control myself in situations of injustice, to not be emotional, and learn to see things from the view of my oppressive co-worker. I swallowed every word without complaint. I walked out of that meeting knowing I could never again fight back if I valued my job. As the only female busser, other male co-workers ‘offer’ to do things for me they don’t think I can do myself, like take the trash out or carry out a massive food tray heavy with plates. They do this by taking these things out of my hands before I have the chance to prove that I can do it. I can do it. I will do it. I will always be able to do it. Some managers think I’m lazy since I never seem to be doing anything. I could go on, and on, and on. Little moments peppered throughout my year and a half as a young female in the restaurant business. Each one of these moments chips something away from you.
Chips and chips until you realize you are not someone you can recognize. You become quieter, and less combative. You learn not to stand up for yourself. You earn that no one would really notice if you did. You defer to someone else, always a male. You make room. You apologize when they get in your way. You pretend not to see the stares and the ogling when you dress less conservatively because it’s hot and you’ve decided you’d rather be comfortable and objectified than sweating and stared at anyway. You realize whatever power you think you had was imagined in WGSS classes at WashU. You realize the real world looks nothing like a classroom where everyone acts the same, and your voice is given credit and value. And then you realize you’ve gotten used to it, comfortable even. And that’s really when the power is gone; when it’s become more fiction than fact and you’ve forgotten the girl who stood up to the rape jokes. Who glared at the kitchen staff when they were caught staring. You replace yourself with a girl who is unbothered, who is quiet. And you catch yourself laughing every once in a while at a rape joke. And you try not to hate yourself. And when Trump is elected to be President you, as a woman, try to fold yourself into an idea of a person instead of an actual person. Because ideas can’t be hurt. And so I’ve learned how to keep my mouth shut. And I’ve learned how to take up as little space as possible. The crazy thing is, I love my job. I love my coworkers and I have found a community of love and empowerment at my job that I struggled to find at WashU. I am still a feminist. But when confronted with sexism from my higher-ups, and from my fellow co-workers, and from society in general, I felt I had no choice but to accept it. I want to stress how pervasive powerlessness in the service industry is for women. We have to smile at customers who make passes at us. The fight in us dies on our tongues when we consider what joblessness would look like. But there are small ways to take back power. There is no beautiful, insightful ending to this story. It’s just the way it is.
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Moving Beyond The Power of the Education Written by Rhea Khanna
Recently all around the world, there has been an increased buzz around the power education holds for communities and economies, the importance of expanding the number of schools – especially in marginalized areas–a surge in effort to provide free schooling…and mainly, the right to access. While large strides have been made in the spread of schooling and increase in enrollment rate since 1999, the progress has considerably slowed down since 2007, leaving around 121 million children and adolescents out of school globally, and close to 250 million children without basic reading & writing skills even after years of schooling. Despite heavy investment, even in primary schools supported by the World Bank, educational outcomes continue to be poor mainly due to the stress on expanding access, which has commonly and quite simply been tied to an increase in the number of schools and class size. What this does in turn, is neglect two powerful aspects to championing education for all – quality and the intermediaries that contribute to the experience of education globally – an issue that in no way can be solved in isolation. So what are the intermediaries that influence the realization of universal education? To bridge the gap between the different levels of educational outcomes, what we need is a shift in how we think about education – a shift in our understanding of access to encompass the actual experience of education. Education, and its lack thereof, isn’t just bound to the number of schools springing up, but also comprises of a number of geographic, social, cultural, economic and even health-related factors that also need to be addressed as educational concerns. Some of these intermediaries include: i. Sanitation and Menstrual Hygiene in Schools A lack of safe and clean sanitation and disposal facilities in or near schools for girls to manage menstruation markedly obstructs their right to education, as many can’t attend school for the week which leads them to fall behind in class, hinders their ability to focus in school when they can’t practice personal care, and even increases higher dropout rates among girls. And so, separate toilets, menstrual hygiene supplies, disposal facilities, sanitary provisions such as soap and clean running water, as well as awareness programs about thereproductive system and care, are important components in the experience of education and thus constitute large part of the education crisis. 34
ii. Local and Cultural Beliefs In many marginalized communities, child marriage is still widely practiced for various reasons including local tradition, financial reasons such as lower dowry, and even the belief that it protects the girl from sexual exploitation. Many girls are then married off and made to take care of the house and bear children rather than being sent to school to get an education, as family members or in-laws don’t allow them to continue school. Those who do choose to continue their education find it difficult to return to school because of discriminatory policies, lack of childcare, and lack of flexible school programs for married girls. In fact, many schools, such as those in Tanzania, choose to expel married or pregnant adolescent girls altogether. Another local practice tied into this culture involves pregnancy or “virginity testing” in schools, in which girls undergo humiliating, baseless, and invalid ‘testing’ by frisking and grasping girls’ stomachs to identify those who may be pregnant. Along with these practices, in many areas, parents generally tend to value and favor the education of their son in place of their daughter, who they’d much rather keep at home. In such situations, social interventions such as combating child marriage, awareness programs on the benefits of upholding girls’ rights to go to school, legal and political action toward increasing the legal age for marriage and ending compulsory school pregnancy testing could further break barriers to education. Community sensitization toward young mothers, as well as sex education programs, could also enhance educational outcomes for girls. iii. Bullying, Harassment, and Physical Abuse In many countries, physical abuse, including punishment and sexual abuse,remains unmonitored, unprosecuted, and unreported. The silence around sexual violence can be attributed to the affected family avoiding stigma or accepting financial compensation, leading to little or no investigation, suspension, or removal of the perpetrator. This violation of children’s rights subsequently acts as a barrier to learning. Even physical punishment affects students’ performance, trust in the system, as well as willingness to come to school. In the United States, beating children as a form of punishment is legal in 19 states. In addition to physical harassment, bullying and discrimination – especially against LGBTQ students and those with disabilities – severely influences students’ mental health, ability to learn, school attendance, and dropout rates. According to the Human
Access: Ecosystem Rights Watch, in the U.S., around two-thirds of LGBT students are bullied in school and an estimated one-third skip or drop out as a consequence. Another component of the education crisis, the problem of physical harassment requires a variety of approaches including: disciplinary and legal action against school officials who resort to abuse and/or discrimination, child protection resources for reporting and counselling, bystander intervention and sensitization trainings, and awareness and support programs that educate families and communities about non-violent disciplinary methods.
conditions, which involves providing textbook rental libraries to combat lack of materials, training in digital resources so communities can access and utilize them in a sustainable manner, as well as separating the development, printing, and distribution processes among various organizations working in tandem with one another, to reduce the costs without compromising quality. Teacher quality is of great importance in schools and requires appropriate training of teachers, including community members, and optimizing teacher utilization by deploying a certain amount of teachers per student. This ensures a sustainable and cost-effective approach to providing education that matches a certain international standard as well as incorporating local knowledge and skills. Relevant information which involves training students in issues relevant to their local communities such as sanitation awareness programs among children who live in unsanitary conditions etc. Flexible infrastructure which involves building schools in accordance with the local environment and economic conditions, such as adopting open-building structures and creating a number of class rooms of a particular size to accommodate a specific amount of students to avoid overcrowding. Involving community members and local resources help reduce costs, as well as involves the community in a sustainable effort to enhance local education.
“Education, and its lack thereof, isn’t just bound to the number of schools springing up, but also comprises of a number of geographic, social, cultural, economic and even health-related factors”
iv. Nutrition and Health Many communities in rural areas lack easily accessible water, often placing the burden of collecting water from far-off places on the children of the household and increasing exposure to water-borne diseases – both of which lead to the inability to go to school. Lack of proper health care or nutritional meals further add to the inaccessibility to education. This calls for public health interventions such as the provision of more water sources, filtration facilities, school-feeding programs, nutrition awareness, and health care and nutritional sources, such as the iron-fortified pills provided in rural China to combat anemia, which in turn have a positive influence on education accessibility.
What does quality entail? Besides providing spaces for schools in marginalized areas, a big factor that contributes to educational outcomes is the quality of resources and learning that takes place within these provided schools. This aspect of education has slowly gained importance, especially in 2015, thanks to the U.N. Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) for 2030, which modified the earlier Millennium Development Goal (2000) of “[achieving] universal primary education” to the 4th SDG, “providing quality education to all.” To provide cost-effective quality education, the main areas that require attention are: Textbooks and learning materials should be provided in accordance to local relevance as well as socio-economic
In addition to these, many other intermediaries and quality controls such as transportation facilities, safe housing programs, policies regarding immigrants etc. intersect in the larger picture of global education. They highlight the importance and power of treating education as an ecosystem consisting of seemingly unrelated, but interwoven arms, that have immense influence on universal education. Surely, this requires the $39 billion annual gap in funding to be addressed, but in addressing an ecosystem of systemic inequalities, it requires a similar ecosystem of organizations – multi-stakeholder platforms. Since the problem exceeds the capacity of any one organization, a platform must hone in on various talents and capacities and align them behind a particular agenda, to prevent fragmented, inefficient financial support while uniformly addressing a number of intersecting and distinct obstacles in the education crisis. This ushers in an inclusive education and aid system, which involves identifying and removing barriers to learning and reforming current school systems to respond to a diversity of learners – the silent influencers of a global goal. 35
meet our team Alexis Vidaurreta is a sophomore studying Architecture and Environmental Studies. You can contact her at avidaurreta@wustl.edu
Chelsea Lin is a senior majoring in French and Psychological in Brain Sciences with a minor in Art. This is her second time illustrating for Issues Magazine and she hopes she can contribute more illustrations next semester! Chelsea can be reached at chelsea.lin@wustl.edu.
Alicia Yang is the Editor-in-Chief of Issues Magazine. She is a junior majoring in English Literature and minorint in art. Contact Alicia at aliciayang@wustl.edu
Chenyu Zhang lives in Wenzhou, a small coastal city in southern China. She is a freshman, majoring in Architecture Design. Chenyu absolutely love geography, design, photography and films. She can be reached at chenyuzhang@wustl.edu.
Alicia Zhang is a freshmen intending to pursue a Psychology and Economics double major with a minor in Anthropology. She is fascinated by other human cultures and interactions within oneself, each other, society, and the environment. She can be reached at aliciazhang@wustl.edu. Anne Accardi is a freshman from Kansas City, Missouri. She plans to major in English and Marketing, and is a member of The Aristocats, WashU’s premier Disney acapella group. She can be reached at aaccardi@wustl.edu.
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Caroline Dierksheide is a senior studying Communication Design, with a minor in writing. She loves drawing, comics, Harry Potter, and cream puffs, and would be happy to hear from you at c.dierksheide@wustl.edu
Edward Lim is a junior and the Visual Editor for Issues Magazine. He is studying Communication Design. Contact him at edwardlim@wustl.edu
Emma LaPlante is a junior English and Creative Writing major and Anthropology minor, and she spends most of her time at abroad Oxford chasing wizards and witches. She is an Issues Magazine Senior Editor can be contacted at emmalaplante@wustl.edu Helene Jow is a sophomore studying International and Area Studies and French. She can be reached at helenejow@wustl.edu.
Laken Sylvander is a the President of Issues Magazine. She is a senior studying French and Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies. Contact her at lsylvander@wustl.edu
Rachel Roberts can be contacted at rachelroberts@wustl.edu
Rhea Khanna can be contacted at rheakhanna@wustl.edu Lauryn McSpadden is a freshman studying American Culture Studies and Entrepreneurship. Feel free to contact her at l.mcspadden@wustl.edu.
Mariel Ehrlich is a sophomore and Issues Magazine Senior Editor studying Sociology, Urban Studies, and Latin American studies. She is committed to building strong connections on campus and in St. Louis, and also has a passion for community development and exploring new places! Mariel can be reached at mehrlich@wustl.edu
Shannon Levin can be contacted at levin167@wustl.edu
Ruby Rose is a junior studying Communication Design with a minor in Urban Studies. She can be reached at ruby.rose@wustl.edu.
Miranda Hines is a senior and the Design Chief of Issues Magazine. She is double majoring in Political Science and English Literature. She can be reached at mirandahines@wustl.edu.
Swetha Nakshatri is a freshman interested in Biology and Anthropology. Feel free to reach out to her at snakshatri@wustl.edu
Natasha Ceballos can be reached at ndceballos@wustl.edu
Yena Jeong is a freshman in the Sam Fox School interested in studying Communication Design. She read science fiction novels and obsessively creates typography in her free time. She can be contacted at yenajeong@wustl.edu. 37
Our Mission: Issues Magazine seeks to raise awareness of the intrinsic link that exists between architecture, design, and social issues. The spaces we inhabit each day mold our experiences, both by fostering interaction and by building barriers. Using the city of St. Louis as our primary lens, Issues Magazine will draw connections between both tangible and intangible aspects of the social environment. With both a print and an online version of the publication, Issues Magazine will reach out to a diverse readership, including students of Washington University and residents of the St. Louis region. By utilizing a wide spectrum of media, Issues hopes to inspire action as well as awareness about the intersection of design and social justice.
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stay in touch with us read our articles online issuu.com/issuesmagazinewashu follow us on Facebook and Instagram www.facebook.com/issuesmagwashu issues.mag.washu contact us issues.mag.washu@ gmail.com
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