OPINION THE
FRIDAY, MAY 3, 2013
Racism affects perception
Maroon
PAGE 15
Feminism is still necessary CHACHA MURDICK In My Opinion
KATE WATSON It’s Elementary The most tragic part about tragedies is how eager people are to politicize them. Within hours of the Boston Marathon Bombing, xenophobes, racists and Islamophobes had taken to Twitter to blame the calamity on Islam and foreigners. Even national news outlets unintentionally jumped on the bandwagon. The Saudi national who was reported to be a suspect in custody turned out to be an innocent bystander severely injured in the blast. Other news reports made mention of the FBI seeking a “darkskinned male,” a description vague at best and racist at worst. These are the same journalists who erroneously declared twelve people to be dead when only three fatalities occurred, and then went on to wrongly report that an arrest had been made on April 17. While the bombs used are not unheard of in South Asian Talibaninfested countries, blowing up pressure cookers is not exclusive to Islamic extremism. In fact, all clues pointed to the Boston Marathon Bombing as being an incident of domestic terrorism because of the size of the bombs, the execution of the bombing and the fact that the Pakistani Taliban has denied participation. And even though the suspected masterminds, two Chechen brothers, were not born in America, what they are alleged to have committed is an example of domestic terrorism. They had lived here for over 10 years and the younger brother, Dzokhar Tsarnaev, had even become a naturalized U.S. citizen. Bigots want a justification for their xenophobia. However, they conveniently forget the terrorist attacks that have not involved Muslims or Arab/North African immigrants. Eric Rudolph, a white American, targeted a gay nightclub and an abortion clinic. An IrishAmerican group bombed The Los Angeles Times in 1910. There was the Unabomber, Timothy McVeigh, and Wade Michael Page, a white supremacist who shot up a Sikh temple because he, for his own ignorant reasons, had grouped Sikhs and Muslims together as a threat to his idea of what America should be. Bombers are extremists, murderers, criminals and cowards. They shall be remembered as such, while their victims and the firstresponders will be remembered as good, innocent people. What the country needs to remember is that a terroristic attack is only successful if it manages to incite the terror it had intended to create. If we do not let the fear mongering bring out the worst in us, the bad guys can’t win. Kate Watson can be reached at kmwatson@loyno.edu
“Feminism.” It’s an injustice that I even have to explain it, but I do. Feminism is simple for me: it means graduating from college. There are systems in place to distract me. These systems also affect men, but being a woman exacerbates the distraction. Poverty and environmental influences only make the cancer grow; it consumes. I was introduced to sexualbased violence at age four. My kidnapper informed me that I was his “bitch,” that he knew where I lived, and could kill me whenever he wanted. I grew up waiting. Nothing happened. Then I started having sex at thirteen, despite an abstinence-only education, because that’s what kids in my community did. And you know that one-in-four rape statistic? The number gets higher the further you go down the social strata. It certainly felt higher in the public schools I attended and among my own friends. For a woman without resources, the effects of sexual-abuse are only more devastating. For a woman without health insurance, seeking necessary medical treatment can feel like getting raped all over again. Anti-abortion laws similarly impact poor women. It’s not necessary that an abortion should take two days — one day for counseling/ultrasound and another for the procedure. There’s no reason it should cost upwards of five hundred dollars. Yet the government says such laws enable women to take the decision seriously. In practice, what they actually do is disadvantage the poor. For women with adequate
RICHARD O’BRIEN/THE MAROON
resources, two days is no big loss. It’s inconvenient, yes, but for a woman with nothing? Two days off work can mean unemployment. Then the check clears, and there goes your savings. The extra measures put in place to make me “really think about my decision” almost cost me my livelihood. You could say that I “deserve” it, because I’m immoral. But the truth remains that these measures hurt poor women significantly more than they hurt the rich. $500 is everything to me. For others, it’s a hiccup. Are you saying that we deserve to be punished — nearly ruined — and they don’t? Whatever the reasons behind anti-abortion legislation, the end result is a war on poor women. Do we really need one more thing stacked against us? The women I met in that clinic waiting room were more beautiful and real to me than any protestor chasing us to the door. Behind that door, we felt safe together. We were all ages. We’d all taken off work that day or called up a babysitter. We all had our reasons, and they were good. Too often
we’ve felt like we’re stuck in a cycle, little more than products of our environments, and no matter how far away we run from the trash we are expected to become, we somehow end up here. We close our ears and eyes to it, and we keep moving, never losing momentum, because we have goals that should come naturally but not to us. The South is stuck in its own cycle, and old values are difficult to change. Folks look us in the eye and say we’re wrong. We hold our tongues even if we’re just as smart as they are — or smarter — and that’s why we’re frustrated. We may not have the money or the power. We may lack healthy communities or family structures, but we’re just as smart as anybody. That’s what’s going to break it. That’s why I’m graduating from college, and that’s why I’m staying in The South. When I say The South will rise, I’m not talking about the confederacy. I’m talking about something we never thought was possible. I’m talking about more women from rough backgrounds
earning degrees, obtaining fulfilling employment and receiving the resources necessary to support families. This means government help, because you cannot condemn abortion and simultaneously shame single mothers. I believe in a pro-choice America where we can choose abortion freely or else receive support when we choose otherwise — never shamed as “welfare moms.” I’m talking about fewer babies crying, fewer kids born into a broken foster system. I’m talking about graduating by the skin of my teeth because I haven’t given myself any other choice. Because growing up I had teachers who believed in me, no matter how much I acted up. They believed I’d make it. That’s what I intend to do, and that is what feminism means to me. Chacha Murdick can be reached at gmmurdic@loyno.edu In My Opinion is a regular column open to all Loyola students. Those interested can contact letter@loyno. edu
Do not treat apathy as your enemy DANIEL QUICK In My Opinion Around this time of year, everyone’s feelings are split between desperation and apathy. Finals come due — major projects and papers and exams, all of which weigh heavily on whether you pass or fail or how well you do in passing. But people are also exhausted from a year’s worth of school, and have to fight the urge to give up. These last few weeks feel like a sudden mountain just before the end of a long race, and the urge can often be to sit down and refuse to climb. But apathy is not a bad thing, if
you learn how to use it. No one likes finals. As a culmination of everything you’ve learned in class they make a certain degree of sense, but sometimes they take the wrong form — an exam in a class structured towards discussion, or a presentation when the previous assignments have focused on writing. Sometimes even the finals that make sense seem unfair. And when this occurs, we are tempted to stop somewhere on the mountain and just sit for awhile. So do it. There’s nothing wrong with taking a break. There’s nothing wrong with deciding this moment you are too tired to continue. We often treat our apathy as if it’s an enemy to be staved off when it’s really more a sign of how tired we are and how much we need to rest. The trick is to set limits and to know yourself. A break that spirals into six hours of Facebook binging
is generally not constructive, but neither is a guilt-ridden, panicked fifteen minutes spent distracting yourself from an assignment. Know your tendencies and work to control them. Know your limits and skills and work to use them. How long does it take you to write a paper? How long does it take you to write a paper well? If you understand these facts about yourself, then perhaps you can afford an hour of reading or go out for a quick drink with friends before you return to complete that paper. Stepping away for a while can do wonders for your perspective. Apathy is only the enemy when it prevents you from finishing the race — when you choose to sit down on your path and refuse to stand up and get moving again. If you’re coming right up against the deadline, apathy is an obstacle, and one that needs to be overcome. But if you know yourself and what
you’re capable of, then apathy is just a tool. Can you write a decent paper in eight hours? Do you have two days? Then don’t punish yourself for taking some time to goof around with friends or drift aimlessly through the internet. Apathy, like all things in life, is only an enemy in excess. Understand what you’re capable of and how much rest you need (physically, mentally and emotionally), and you’ll be better able to conquer, not just finals, but the larger problems in life. The key to running a good race, after all, is pacing yourself, and sometimes that requires slowing to a crawl and luxuriating in your own lack of speed. Daniel Quick can be reached at dtquick@loyno.edu