4 CULTURE
5 ARTS
Behind the Scenes of Quarantine Confessions
In Memoriam: The Grammys 6 OPINION
Hate Crimes Against Asian Americans Deserve Better Media Coverage VOLUME LVI | ISSUE 3
MONDAY, MARCH 22, 2021
Rallies in New York City Call Attention to Anti-Asian Violence In recent rallies, New Yorkers have called for action and solidarity in response to anti-Asian hate crimes. By ROSHNI RAJ and SUHAIL GHARAIBEH Deputy News Editor and Staff Writer Multiple rallies in New York City this weekend brought awareness to anti-Asian violence, which spiked in tandem with the COVID-19 pandemic last spring and has surged again in recent months. The rallies also sought to contextualize this uptick in violence within enduring histories of xenophobia and racism. Following a vigil for victims of the Atlanta shootings held at Union Square on Friday, March 19, the Black & Asian Solidarity 5K Run and Walk met at Union Square on Sunday, March 21. The rally, organized by Running to Protest, proceeded to the Lower East Side, where many protesters joined the AAPI Rally Against Hate 2021 at Columbus Park. Running to Protest, co-founded by f ilmmaker and runner Coffey, uses 5Ks to unite communities and raise awareness of social injustice. In the wake of the Atlanta shootings, Coffey organized the run to mend cultural gaps, discuss anti-Asian racism and acknowledge the power of representation. “In the midst of rising xenophobia and anti-Asian racism, old wounds have resurfaced between the two communities,” Coffey wrote in an Instagram post. “In an effort to combat reactionary nationalism and rebuild cross-cultural allegiance we must push to identify our common struggles, and have an open dialogue around the history of our tensions and how to move forward together.” Coffey said he has been a runner in New York for 15 years and has trained thousands of people for marathons. He decided to combine running and protesting because he believed the running community, as well as many others, needed to be educated on social injustices and how to stop them. “I like being different,” Coffey told WSN. “I like being healthy … We are runners, and last year after what happened to Mr. George Floyd, Mr. Ahmaud Arbery, and Ms. Breonna Taylor, and all the other countless victims, I decided to allow my voice to protest.” CONTINUED ON PAGE 2
SUHAIL GHARAIBEH
Protestors hold up bright signs to spread awareness about anti-Asian violence.
Graduate Workers Announce Strike Vote as Contract Deadlock Continues By ARNAV BINAYKIA Deputy News Editor Members of the Graduate Student Organizing Committee will start voting tomorrow on whether to authorize a strike after nine months of bargaining with NYU have failed to produce a new contract for the over 2,000 graduate student workers represented by the union. The strike authorization vote was announced in an email sent to GSOC members last week by the GSOC bargaining
committee, stewards and organizing committee co-chairs. “We were eager to see what NYU would bring to the table after our last session, where we presented a petition signed by 1200 graduate workers in support of our demands,” Arundhati Velamur, a member of GSOC’s bargaining committee, wrote in a statement shared with WSN. “But after yet another disappointing meeting with NYU, we’re coming together to take action … Our workers refuse the lack of response by NYU and
are ready to strike if necessary.” Two-thirds of GSOC’s membership must vote in favor of a strike to authorize the action. GSOC last approved a strike during contract negotiations in 2015, when 95% of the over 1,100 participating union members supported the authorization. The planned four-day strike was averted after the university and the union tentatively agreed upon a contract the night before the strike was scheduled to begin. The previous contract, which ex-
pired in August 2020, secured graduate workers an increase in wages from $10 an hour to $20 an hour as well as better healthcare access and other compensation improvements. GSOC argues that the cost of living in New York has risen in the f ive years since the previous contract was negotiated, making the old agreement inadequate. Among GSOC’s primary demands for the new contract are an increase in wages to at least $40 an hour with a guaranteed annual incremen-
tal raise, a severance of ties between NYU and the New York Police Department, and free healthcare including dental care. GSOC’s demands also include lower-cost access to immigration lawyers and tax accountants, f ixed subsidies for childcare expenditures, paid vacation and leave, transit subsidies and housing stipends and an end to warrantless campus access for Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Patrol agents. CONTINUED ON PAGE 2
Washington Square News
2
MONDAY, MARCH 22, 2021
NEWS
NEWS@NYUNEWS.COM
Edited by TRACE MILLER
Rallies in New York City Call Attention to Anti-Asian Violence CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1
The first running protest Coffey organized occured on June 14, 2020. It started at the East River Park Amphitheater in the Lower East Side and was attended by more than 1,500 people. Coffey wants to educate people on social injustices because he believes schools do not sufficiently educate students on the Black and Asian American communities and the issues facing them. He argued that cross-cultural allegiance is a path forward. Yilin Li, who works in marketing for a finance company in the city, also attended the event. Li said that the Black & Asian Solidarity 5K was the first protest she ever attended. After recent events, she said, she had enough. She decided to attend for women, for Asians and for all New Yorkers. “It’s really emotional for us because I’ve been followed from the subway station last week, and my friend was attacked by some random guy on the street,” Li said. “I moved to the states in 2013, and I think I’m part of the city — and all of a sudden people are calling it the ‘Chinese virus,’ and you know, it’s just a virus. I just feel really sad.” Harumi H. was holding a sign reading “Love Us Like You Love to Appropriate our Culture, Media, Fashion.” “It’s just so common for people to say, ‘Oh, I love Asian culture, I love anime, I loveJapanese or Chinese food,” Harumi, a medical student who asked to keep her surname and school private, said. “Supporting us or protecting us — that
doesn’t seem to be the same kind of energy, so that’s why I made this,” she continued, referring to her sign. “The hate crime that happened in Atlanta was something that affected me as an Asian American woman. As two groups who have been marginalized in different ways, I think it can only help both of our causes to work together.” Harumi said many Asian Americans realized how dangerous former President Donald Trump’s rhetoric is. She believes that Black and Asian Americans should work together on the conversations concerning racial justice. Many who participated in the Black & Asian Solidarity 5K made their way to Columbus Park in Manhattan’s Chinatown for an afternoon rally, where hundreds gathered to condemn anti-Asian violence and show solidarity with New York City’s Asian American and Pacific Islander communities. Cousins Gaosong Heu and Nicholas Vang were among those who attended the 5K and the Rally Against Hate. They had arrived early and held signs reading “Stop Asian Hate” and “Protect, Respect, Support our Elders.” Originally from a Hmong refugee community in Minnesota, the two now count themselves among New York City’s 1.18 million Asian residents. “Why wouldn’t you join this protest?” Heu said. “It can be very scary to speak up on these things but, truthfully, until we speak up on it, people are not going to know … [that] we do experience this pain. Being an Asian woman myself, I think it’s so import-
ant to say, ‘We are worthy of life, and my body and my voice are not here for your fetish. It’s not here for your entertainment, or to be consumed by capitalism.’” The AAPI Rally Against Hate was organized by activists Jack Liang and Ben Wei. Coffey and Li delivered speeches, as did Sen. Chuck Schumer, New York City mayoral candidate Andrew Yang, and New York state Sens. John Liu, Brian Kavanagh and Kevin Parker. The rally began with a moment of silence called for by Schumer. “I’d like us to take a moment of silence for the eight who were lost in Atlanta and the families who mourn them,” Schumer said. “And then another moment of silence for, unfortunately, the so many Asians, Asian Americans who have suffered violence and bigotry in so many ways that have accelerated in this last year.” Chinese American rapper MC Jin then took the stage next to speak and perform. “It’s been an emotionally exhausting past week, past few months, past year, and, honestly, decades upon decades upon decades of being silenced, unheard, unacknowledged,” Jin said. “And I feel like today is much needed … We are under attack, I swear.” John Liu, the first Asian American elected to citywide office in New York City and the first of two Asian New York state senators, criticized the rise in anti-Asian rhetoric amid the COVID-19 pandemic and expressed horror at the Atlanta shootings and the local authorities’ reaction to them.
“The sheriff says, ‘He had a bad day, we’re not sure that it was a hate crime,” Liu recounted. “And to make it even worse, to say that this guy has some kind of sex addiction, further marginalizing and objectifying Asian sisters.” Coffey spoke about solidarity between the Black and AAPI communities. “What happened in Georgia on Tuesday should have never happened,” he said. “We feel for you guys because it happened to us … They did the same thing in [Charleston] when they killed nine African Americans in a church … It’s white supremacists against all of us.” Former presidential candidate Yang and his wife Evelyn Yang also took the stage. “When you look at the Atlanta mass murderer, who targeted Asian women, he regarded them as nothing more than sexual objects, a stain on society that he was trying to eradicate,” Evelyn Yang said. “As an Asian woman, racism and misogyny is a two-headed beast.” Andrew Yang spoke about his mayoral vision for New York City, saying that he saw policing as a solution to anti-Asian hate crimes. “One of the first things I’m going to do is fully fund the Asian Hate Crime Task Force in the police,” he said. “This is not an issue that you can have volunteers addressing. If crime against a community goes up 900%, you don’t say, ‘Oh, we’ll let volunteers take care of that.’ You dedicate resources until that problem feels like it is going down, not up.” As he started speaking about visiting Dr.
Martin Luther King Jr’s birthplace, he was interrupted by a chant of “defund the police.” “I know there are people that are very passionate about this, but the fact is if someone gets stabbed, you need the police to follow up,” Mr. Yang replied. Some protesters, activists and politicians argued that police should not be touted as a solution to anti-Asian violence. Niou, the first Asian American to represent Lower Manhattan’s 65th Assembly District in the State Assembly, said that more policing will do nothing. “We’re not asking for more police,” Niou said. “Until we have resources, I don’t want to see more police.” Protesters who spoke with WSN agreed. Vincent, who asked to keep their surname private but identified themself as being with the Act Now to Stop War and End Racism Coalition, described the New York Police Department as committing hate crimes against Black and brown people daily. Heu agreed that policing is not the answer to racism and violence. “Over-policing communities, statistically, I don’t think really works,” she said. “We’ve seen that in other communities — Black and brown communities, indigenous communities, communities with low socioeconomic statuses. What we need is better education … We need real, sustainable solutions to this.” Email Roshni Raj and Suhail Gharaibeh at news@nyunews.com.
Graduate Workers Announce Strike Vote as Contract Deadlock Continues
PHOTO COURTESY OF GSOC
Members of the Graduate Student Organizing Committee at NYU are starting voting tomorrow on whether to authorize a strike after NYU has failed to produce a new contract for graduate workers represented by the union and employed by the university. CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1
Anirban Karak, a doctoral candidate in the history department at the Graduate School of Arts and Science, said the university must also adopt a pluralistic approach to graduate worker compensation, considering that NYU’s graduate students come from a diverse range of backgrounds. “Some people have families and children,” Karak told WSN. “If they don’t get paid then they are in a worse situation than people who don’t have families or children … For somebody who has a partner, family or children to support, [the
current compensation] is not enough.” Karak, a graduate worker and international student from India, emphasized the university’s responsibility to alleviate issues predominantly faced by international students. Since income tax is deducted at the income source for international students from nations without U.S. tax treaties, Karak said that some of them pay more than $400 a month in income taxes in the United States — even as, in some cases, they must simultaneously continue to pay income tax in their home nations. International students also face diffi-
culties securing housing in New York, because they oftentimes do not have U.S. credit histories and receive limited support from the university. Since the previous contract expired, representatives from NYU and GSOC have held 13 bargaining sessions, but remain in a deadlock over demands and terms for the renegotiated contract. According to GSOC, the university has been stonewalling by refusing to agree to GSOC’s proposed contract or by making counter-proposals. According to the university, a point of contention during bargaining
meetings has been a proposal to introduce a third-party mediator to arbitrate negotiations. “We believe we should have made more progress than has been the case so far,” NYU spokesperson John Beckman wrote in an email statement to WSN. “That is why we have repeatedly suggested bringing in a mutually-agreed-upon mediator. In past negotiations with units represented by the UAW, a mediator has helped the bargaining process move along at a brisker pace, and has helped both sides come to agreement around a contract.” GSOC is an affiliate of the international United Auto Workers union. UAW provides organizational support and access to a strike fund, which will provide striking workers $275 in relief payments per week in the event of a prolonged strike. “Against this backdrop, the University is disappointed by GSOC’s threatened strike vote, especially since they haven’t been willing to give mediation a try,” Beckman wrote. According to GSOC, the university has rejected the majority of its proposals. The university made a counter-proposal to the union’s call for living wages of $40 an hour by offering a $1-an-hour increase in wages for graduate workers and an annual incremental raise. “The University is committed to negotiating a contract renewal with its graduate employees that results in a fair contract that properly recognizes their contributions to our community,” Beckman wrote. GSOC members aren’t satisfied with the university’s counter-proposal, which falls well below their demand. Graduate
workers currently receive a stipend as well as a wage of $20 per hour. They are limited to 20 hours per week, meaning they can earn up to $1,600 per month. The result is that some graduate workers’ total compensation — including stipend and wages — is $25,000 per year, according to GSOC. “That NYU is doubling down on its proposal for $1 raises is insulting and unacceptable.” said Mariko Whitenack, a member of the GSOC bargaining committee and a doctoral candidate in American Studies at GSAS. “Graduate workers deserve a living wage, and we know that NYU can afford it.” GSOC’s announcement of a strike authorization vote came less than a week after members of Graduate Workers of Columbia-United Auto Workers, Columbia University’s graduate student worker union, went on indefinite strike. GWC has been on strike since Monday, March 15, after two years of unsuccessful contract negotiations. “We believe both universities have to do the right thing and give their student workers the contracts we deserve,” GWCUAW wrote in a statement to the Columbia Daily Spectator, regarding its support for GSOC’s strike authorization vote. The voting period for GSOC’s strike authorization will begin on Tuesday, March 23. It will be accompanied by a socially distanced rally at Gould Plaza at noon and a simultaneous online rally via Zoom. Email Arnav Binaykia at news@nyunews.com.
Washington Square News | News
MONDAY, MARCH 22, 2021
3
Howard University and NYU form academic partnership By NINA HUANG Staff Writer NYU’s Rory Meyers College of Nursing, a predominantly white institution, has established an education and research partnership with Howard University’s College of Nursing and Allied Health Sciences, a historically Black college and university. The partnership aims to foster inter-university engagement between students and faculty in order to promote longterm health equity and combat systemic racism in healthcare and healthcare careers. A 2017 survey conducted by the National Council of State Boards of Nursing revealed that people from minority backgrounds constitute 19.2% of the registered nurse workforce while constituting nearly 30% of the U.S. population. The American Association of Colleges of Nursing has acknowledged the need to increase diversity in the medical f ield in light of these numbers. Discrimination and racism harms nurses from all minority backgrounds, but Black nurses have been disproportionately affected. Although the 2017 NCSBN survey found that while racial minorities on the whole were underrepresented in the nursing f ield, the difference was starkest for Black nurses. Asian American nurses, for example, were overrepresented at 7.5% of nurses but 15% of the U.S. population. Despite the U.S. population being 13.3% Black, however, only 6.2% of nurses were Black. Nursing and medical schools have for a long time recognized the systemically racist barriers to healthcare access and healthcare careers, according to Rory Meyers Dean Eileen Sullivan-Marx. The partnership between NYU and Howard University will work to address such issues in the health sciences and professions, Sullivan-Marx told WSN. “One of the many kinds of tactics and thoughts we have had to address those issues has been
partnerships with historic black colleges and universities,” Sullivan-Marx said. Gina S. Brown, dean of Howard University’s College of Nursing and Allied Health Sciences, agreed with Sullivan-Marx and added that enhancing equity and improving training for nurses will improve patient outcomes in the future. “We are really looking at equity in terms of research, in terms of matching faculty members together, in terms of us both looking at NYU Meyers from a PWI component and Howard from an HBCU component,” Brown said. “We both are looking at the wellbeing of all patients, regardless of their background — looking at the systemic racism and how that relates to the absence of disease and inf irmary … to try to f igure out how to make better nurses on both ends who can help everybody regardless of their background.” Audrey Lyndon, the assistant dean for clinical research at Rory Meyers, helped facilitate the partnership. While at the University of California at San Francisco, Lyndon worked with Brown to establish a collaborative relationship between Howard and UCSF. When Lyndon started working at NYU, she asked Brown if she was interested in a partnership between NYU and Howard. According to Lyndon, one of the ultimate goals of the partnership is to foster inclusivity in nursing and create positive work environments. “People always talk about recruitment, but recruitment doesn’t matter if you can’t retain people because it’s not a positive work environment,” Lyndon said. “We really need to establish a very strong mechanism for creating an environment where people are … not shut out of opportunities because of what they look like or what their background is. That happens too much in nursing, and it must stop.” Rory Meyers faculty have expressed support for the partnership. “I think there’s been a pretty high level of excitement at the col-
lege since this was announced,” Lloyd Goldsamt, a senior research scientist at Rory Meyers, told WSN. “Any chance we have to collaborate across institutions is fantastic, and this seems like a great opportunity.” One of the partnership’s f irst initiatives is writing accountability groups, which will encourage collaborative research proposals and papers between students. Howard students can also participate in a 10-week summer research program at NYU designed to engage students from underrepresented backgrounds in research training and career mentorship. “Not only can the Howard and Meyers undergraduate nursing students learn about research, but they can also learn it together and hear one another’s perspectives at the very beginning of a research career,” Sullivan-Marx said. According to Goldsamt, hearing others’ perspectives can create new areas for — and forms of — collaboration. “You can envision people at Meyers becoming familiar with the work at Howard and vice versa,” Goldsamt said. “I imagine as people in both institutions learn about the work that the others are doing, there will be natural areas of collaboration.” The partnership will also allow Howard and NYU students and faculty to work side by side and apply for grants and funds for new research projects. In turn, this will allow for a broader range of perspectives in research, according to Lyndon. “What we have the opportunity to do here is to model a different way of working together,” Lyndon said. “We’re going to create some new solutions that can then be implemented in other places as well … I think, unfortunately, there’s been more talk than action in a lot of situations. We have the opportunity to create some action, which is really exciting.” Email Nina Huang at news@nyunews.com.
We are telling big stories — the Bling Ring, Venmo fraud, drug donkeys — ones that expanded past our print-standard 500 words, ones that paint pictures with words. This magazine aims to be a platform where undergraduate and graduate students alike can mutter on about their love of the blue-seated MTA trains or put into words the flavor of their love of grandma’s dumplings.
nyunews.com/underthearch underthearch@nyunews.com
NYU and Howard University announced a medical partnership. Each University’s nursing schools are collaborating in efforts to systemic racism and lack of diversity in nursing.
Washington Square News
4
MONDAY, MARCH 22, 2021
CULTURE
CULTURE@NYUNEWS.COM
Edited by DANA SUN
Behind the Scenes of Quarantine Confessions By NATALIE MELENDEZ Staff Writer Any first-year student who found themselves quarantined in their NYU dorm room last fall surely remembers the rush of adrenaline that came from refreshing their Instagram feed and seeing a new batch of quarantine confessions from @nyuquarantineconf, a page where NYU students can submit anonymous confessions through a Google form. Gallatin first-year Sofia Lopez Arredondo created the account on the first day of the Fall 2020 semester quarantine. It grew out of a mixture of boredom, excitement and nervousness. “I had been talking to a lot of people before coming [to NYU].” Lopez said. “But I remember just feeling like, ‘Oh it’s too soon to tell some of these people what I’m thinking right now. I don’t want to burn those bridges just yet.’ So I was like, you know what would be kind of fun as a last quarantine project? Just starting a confessions page.” Within days, @nyuquarantineconf became a sensation among the class of 2024. Users would submit confessions about their experiences in quarantine, feud over which first-year residence hall they thought was best, voice insecurities and try to find love, among other more questionable confessions. According to Lopez, the account was only meant to last through that first 14-day quarantine — after which it took a hiatus. “We told the account and story that we just wanted it to be a quarantine thing,” Lopez said. “But then I was put in a second quarantine because one of my friends got COVID. I was bored to death. So … we revived [@nyuquarantineconf] again.” Since its revival, the account has only grown in popularity — at press time, it had over 1,600 followers and over 4,400 posted confessions. With an overwhelming amount of new confessions, Lopez scouted out new admins. That’s where Steinhardt first-year Maggie Sonenshine and Tisch first-year Jack Ventimilia came into the picture. With two more admins,the account began running at a more consistent pace. Admins now take turns posting screenshots of the submitted confessions in batches of 30 to 40 and adhere to social media safety guidelines in order to protect participants. “We don’t post confessions that could potentially be triggering for individuals,” Sonenshine said. “No solicitation. [For] confessions that call people out by
SUSAN BEHRENDS VALENZUELA | WSN
A first-year NYU student created an anonymous Instagram confessions page, @nyuquarantineconf, during the Fall 2020 semester quarantine. This confessions page has allowed NYU’s Class of 2024 to find a sense of community in an unlikely time.
name, we check with the [mentioned] person first. And if someone DMs us and says, ‘Hey this confession makes me uncomfortable’ or whatever we’ll take it down out of respect for them.” Regardless, the admins have just as much fun posting confessions as they do reading them. They each have their own signature emoji which they use to sign off their captions — most of which are just as hilarious as the confessions themselves. When followers see the distinct emojis, they immediately know which admin is on posting duty. “I chose the prawn,” Ventimilia said. “It’s really so not interesting, but I just thought it was a weird little guy. It looks super cute! There’s no hidden significance behind it...But it’s fun to be walking around campus sometimes and [have people say], ‘Oh you’re the prawn on the @nyuquarantineconf page!’” But perhaps the most exciting part of the account — for both admins and followers — is the confessions’ complete anonymity. It gives students a new sense of boldness and paves the way for amusingly uncensored thoughts. “People are drawn to saying ridiculous things on the account and seeing
Washington Square News
other people say ridiculous things,” Tisch first-year Matt Zhang, one of the newest additions to the admin team, said. “That’s part of the fun too. It’s almost like an elevated, characterized version of our community where the things that are funniest are the things that you probably don’t actually mean or say in real life.” Given the strange nature of the published confessions, it’s no surprise that the admins have encountered similarly bizarre situations behind the scenes. “People DMing us and offering to show us their tax returns to prove that they’re not rich, asking us to take down a confession [is one of the funniest things to happen], ” Lopez said with a laugh. “[Once] some guy sent us their phone number. We normally don’t post phone numbers and things like that, but that one slipped and we just posted it. A couple of weeks later he was like, ‘Oh yeah, thank you for posting my number. I hooked up with a guy through that.” The admins, who are currently backlogged by over a thousand confessions, also occasionally face criticism from impatient confessors. “People can be so annoying,” Ven-
@nyunews
timilia said jokingly. “They say, ‘You don’t post enough,’ or, ‘Lazy admins, you need more.’ And when you post too much they’re like, ‘You’re flooding my feed! What are you doing?’” Some critics have gone so far as to submit personal attacks against the admins, but they mostly just laugh it off. “We’re just college students running an Instagram confession page,” Sonenshine said in response to the criticism. “The stakes could be higher!” Now well into the second semester, the account continues to foster a strong sense of community for first-years. “I say this kind of jokingly but also kind of unironically: I think the account is one of those things that is holding NYU together,” Zhang said. “I think there is a certain sense of community that comes with being able to laugh at the same notoriously dumb or absurd [confessions].” This communal spirit is precisely what CAS first-year Karissa Chang — another new admin, making for a total of five — loves about helping run the account. “Being able to interact with everyone, whether it be in the comments or
in our story [is the best part],” Chang said. “We can really get a glimpse into all of these people’s lives, and it’s nuts! I don’t have to put much effort into doing so. Like I just post something on the story and all of these people will respond. And I don’t even know them, but they still give input into whatever we want to know from them. It’s pretty cool.” As we embark on the last half of the Spring 2021 semester, the future of the confessions account remains unclear. “Maybe after COVID ends I don’t know if we’re still going to have [the account] running, but I hope so,” Lopez said. “It would be really nice if at some point when we all graduate we can have some underclassmen take over and [start] letting other admins in from other classes. I know that we have quite a bit of [Class of] 2025 people starting to follow us, so that’s exciting.” Despite its uncertain future, the account’s nonsensical confessions and its contribution to a growing sense of unity are sure to stand the test of time. Email Natalie Melendez at culture@nyunews.com.
@nyunews
Washington Square News
MONDAY, MARCH 22, 2021
5
ARTS
ARTS@NYUNEWS.COM
Edited by SASHA COHEN and NICOLAS PEDRERO-SETZER
In Memoriam: The Grammys By VALENTINA ARRIETA Contributing Writer Watching the Grammy Awards this year, it became evident the Recording Academy is entirely disconnected from its audience and artists. After a year of tragic losses, I found myself frustrated with the Grammys’ In Memoriam (segment). While the honoring of such impactful names in the music industry like John Prine, Kenny Rogers and Little Richard was justified, I was struck by the Grammys’ preference for honoring established artists over young, innovative pioneers from marginalized groups. The first example that comes to mind after the outrage on social media in response to this year’s In Memoriam segment is the “Queen of Tejano” music, Selena. The Grammy Awards honored Selena this year with a Lifetime Achievement Grammy Award, something that is no small feat. However, instead of
paying tribute to Selena, they baited her fans with the promise of a greater In Memoriam feature in order to get more views, while Selena got nothing more than a picture on a screen. The Grammy Awards has a problematic history with the Latinx/Latine community in general, this year being the first year that the winner of a Latin category was announced on the live Grammys broadcast with Bad Bunny, who out-streamed every other person in the room in 2020. Just last year, the Grammy Awards disrespected the Latinx/ Latine community by misspelling Latin icon Camilo Sesto’s name as “Camile” in their In Memoriam segment. This year, it was saddening to see that Pop Smoke and SOPHIE only received a few seconds on the screen for the In Memoriam segment, given the impact their music had on the Black and LGBTQ+ communities. Their impact in music also goes beyond their communities in its importance as Pop Smoke is seen as
the face of Brooklyn drill and SOPHIE is considered one of the founders of the growing genre known as hyperpop. In a year where so many young Black people were murdered, Pop Smoke’s death devastated not only the New York community but the Black community more broadly. To see the Recording Academy undervalue Pop Smoke and SOPHIE’s contributions to music speaks to their disconnect from contemporary culture. As a Brooklyn native, Pop Smoke was able to catapult himself to legendary status within a short period of time, maintaining a death grip on radio plays with the longest running No. 1 on Top R&B/Hip Hop Albums Chart since 1990. Pop Smoke deserved more than a quick flash on the screen, especially since he was one of the most successful artists of 2020. SOPHIE’s loss hit the LGBTQ+ community just as hard. SOPHIE’s impressive oeuvre featured work with Madonna, Nicki Minaj, Vince Staples and
other superstars. Not to mention, she produced all of this work without ever presenting her face to the public. She only revealed her face in 2018 when she came out as a trans woman in the music video for her iconic “It’s Okay To Cry. It is especially gut-wrenching to think of how the loss of SOPHIE as an influential trans woman in the industry who had such vast commercial and critically acclaimed success, devastated so many young queer kids who finally had someone to look up to, including me. I have so many memories of driving to school late with my best friend, screaming SOPHIE – produced songs at the top of our lungs. I listened to her music so often that (when she died,) it almost felt like I had lost a friend.For her influence as a producer and solo artist on rising genres like PC music and hyperpop, she deserves to be revered at the same level as the pop icons whose works she was behind. Like Pop Smoke, SOPHIE got noth-
ing more than a trivial tribute from the Grammys. They deserved a remembrance that reflected their contributions to music. The Grammys’ uninspired tributes treat legendary young artists as forgettable, offering their memories just a few seconds of screen time and failing to recognize their monumental contributions to contemporary culture. The Grammy Awards could have cut out some of Trevor Noah’s monologue in order to properly honor such significant losses, especially during a year that has been witness to insurmountable loss around the world. While the Grammys preach diversity, they continue to make the same mistakes when it comes to the LGBTQ+ community and communities of color. At this point, we must ask ourselves, when do we put our foot down and say enough is enough? Email Valentina Arrieta at arts@nyunews.com.
CHANDLER LITTLEFORD
The Grammy Awards is presented by the Recording Academy to recognize achievement in the music industry. While the Grammy Awards preach diversity, they fail to recognize LGBTQ+ artists and artists of color.
INFORMING YOU FIRST
NYUNEWS.COM
Washington Square News
6
MONDAY, MARCH 22, 2021
OPINION
OPINION@NYUNEWS.COM
Edited by EMILY DAI and ASHLEY WU
STAFF EDITORIAL
Hate Crimes Against Asian Americans Deserve Better Media Coverage Earlier this week, eight people tragically lost their lives in an Atlanta-area massage business shooting rampage. Six of the victims were women of Asian descent and the killer was white. Although the gunman deliberately targeted businesses owned and operated by Asian-American individuals, he claimed that his actions were not racially motivated and rather the result of a sexual addiction. In the words of essayist Cathy Park Hong, the media is already “trying to whitewash this incident ... saying it’s not racially motivated.” This phenomenon has been evident throughout the coverage of the attacks. On Wednesday, Jay Baker, a captain with the Cherokee County Sheriff’s Office, assured reporters that there was no immediate reason to believe that the white shooter had any racist motivations. Baker described the gunman’s actions as the result of “a really bad day.” This type of sympathetic language is a luxury reserved only for white people. If the perpetrator wasn’t white, police would never describe the massacre as the natural consequence of a person at the end of their rope. As news outlets expanded their coverage over the course of the week, some focused on the fact that the shooter was an evangelical Christian who attended the Crabapple First Baptist Church, with some insinuating that shame about his desires prompted the killings. In a piece by the Washington Post, the suspect is described as “active in his Southern Baptist congregation,” emphasizing
the fact that he once spent his free time “stack[ing] chairs and clean[ing] floors.” Coverage also includes testaments by the people in the killer’s life who mention his nerdiness, innocence or faith. By creating an atmosphere where his faith and benevolence are highlighted, the media perpetuates the narrative that it is especially shocking and disruptive when white men commit such crimes. As a result, justice for the victims are lost and criminals are not held accountable. This rhetoric sets a dangerous precedent. The gunman’s sexual preferences and fetishes align with a long history of commodification of Asian women and their bodies. By hesitating to identify the incident as a hate crime, the media neglects the longstanding struggles of Asian American and Pacific Islander women in America. Asian American organizations have criticized the insufficient media coverage of the surge in Asian hate crimes since the beginning of the pandemic. Many only learn of such hate crimes through social media and petitions from Asian American civil rights leaders as a consequence of the silence from most mainstream media outlets on the topic. This silence is despite the 3,800 reported instances of discrimination against Asians in the past year. The alarming state of media coverage of anti-Asian discrimination can be partially explained by the unique history of Asian Americans. Beginning in the 1850s, following a large influx of Chinese immigrants, the racist trope of Asians coming to
steal white jobs was created. These racist sentiments were first codified into law with People v. Hall, which ruled that Asian people could not testify against a white person in court. Infamously, in 1882, Congress passed the Chinese Exclusion Act, which restricted Chinese immigration for the next 60 years. Anti- Chinese sentiment and discrimination was so effective that Chinese immigration declined from 39,500 in 1882 to only 10 in 1887. By 1924, with the exception of Filipino nationals, all Asian immigrants were denied citizenship and prevented from marrying Caucasians or owning land. In 1942, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066 into law, authorizing the incarceration of suspected enemies. The vast majority of those incarcerated were individuals of Japanese descent. However, following the Second World War, the narrative around Asians shifted. “During World War II, the media created the idea that the Japanese were rising up out of the ashes [after being held in incarceration camps] and proving that they had the right cultural stuff,” described Claire Jean Kim, a professor at the University of California, Irvine. “And it was immediately a reflection on Black people: Now why weren’t Black people making it, but Asians were?” Asians were not seen as the threatening “yellow peril” but rather a “law-abiding, peace-loving, courteous” group that has successfully assimilated. This model minority myth
— which has created a perception of success among Asians — is commonly used to downplay the effects of racism in the struggles of other minority groups, particularly for Black people. The model minority myth contributes to this crisis in reporting. Cayden Mak, the executive director of an Asian American organizing group caled 18 Million Rising, pointed to the model minority myth as a reason that anti-Asian discrimination has been underreported, saying that it helped keep the story “from being a big deal” prior to the Atlanta shooting. It ignores the fact that Asian Americans have the highest level of intraracial income inequality and are more likely to work in low-wage industries, leaving them more vulnerable to the pandemic. Reporting the spike in anti-Asian hate crimes or framing mass shootings against Asians as racist acts would undermine the model minority myth. Given the recent tragedy in Atlanta, it is clear that America cannot use the model minority myth to diminish racialized violence against Asian Americans. Journalists must assume accountability for overlooking the struggles of a marginalized group whose suffering has consistently been erased. The uptick in hate crimes may have brought the issue to the forefront of many reputable publications, but we must resolve to no longer offer empathy to criminals whose actions promote white supremacy. We must not allow shallow media coverage to continue.
Email the Editorial Board at editboard@nyunews.com. CHAIR Emily Dai, Ashley Wu CO-CHAIR Diya Jain, Kevin Kurian, Asha Ramachandran CHAIR EX OFFICIO Alexandria Johnson, Paul Kim, Kaylee DeFreitas, Mina Mohammadi
Submitting to
SEND MAIL TO: 75 THIRD AVE. #SB07, NEW YORK, N.Y. 10003 OR EMAIL: OPINION@NYUNEWS.COM WSN welcomes letters to the editor, opinion pieces and articles relevant to the NYU community, or in response to articles. Letters should be less than 450 words. All submissions must be typed or emailed and must include the author’s name, address and phone number. Members of the NYU community must include a year and school or job title. WSN does not print unsigned letters or editorials. WSN reserves the right to reject any submission and edit accepted submissions in any and all ways. With the exception of the staff editorial, opinions expressed on the editorial pages are not necessarily those of WSN, and our publication of opinions is not an endorsement of them.
Washington Square News Staff Opinion Page
Editor-in-Chief
Alexandria Johnson
EDITOR Emily Dai, Ashley DEPUTY Diya Jain,
Managing Editor
Paul Kim DEPUTY Kaylee DeFreitas, Mina Mohammadi
Kevin Kurian, Asha Ramachandran
Under the Arch Caitlin Hsu, Vaishnavi Naidu SENIOR EDITOR Ivy Zhu DEPUTY Sydney Barragan MULTIMEDIA Brooklyn Nguyen VOICES Mariam Khan, Abbey Whelan EXPOSURES Ryan Walker MANAGING EDITOR
Creative Director
Deborah Alalade, Susan Behrends Valenzuela Copy Chiefs
Nicole Chiarella, Alex Tey Multimedia
Alexandra Chan PHOTO Jake Capriotti DEPUTY Manasa Gudavalli, Alex Tran
Mel Bautista Director of Sales
Yejin Chang
Senior Staff NEWS Trace Miller CULTURE Dana Sun ARTS Sasha Cohen, Nicolas Pedrero-Setzer
Customer Specialist
Jennifer Ren VIDEO GAME Nathan Chizen BEAUTY & STYLE Sam Brinton DINING Gabby Lozano
NYUNEWS.COM
Advertising
Social Media
Deputy Staff NEWS Arnav Binaykia, Roshni Raj FILM JP Pak MUSIC Ana Cubas
INFORMING YOU FIRST
Business Manager
Maria Gracia Santillana
PERFORMING ARTS
Wu
Catherine Chen Advising
Director of Operations
Nanci Healy
ABOUT WSN: Washington Square News (ISSN 15499389) is the student newspaper of New York University. WSN is published in print on Mondays and throughout the week online during NYU’s academic year, except for university holidays, vacations and exam periods. CORRECTIONS: WSN is committed to accurate reporting. When we make errors, we do our best to correct them as quickly as possible. If you believe we have erred, contact the managing editors at managing@nyunews.com.
Washington Square News
@nyunews
We are telling big stories — the Bling Ring, Venmo fraud, drug donkeys — ones that expanded past our printstandard 500 words, ones that paint pictures with words. This magazine aims to be a platform where undergraduate and graduate students alike can mutter on about their love of the blue-seated MTA trains or put into words the flavor of their love of grandma’s dumplings.
nyunews.com/underthearch underthearch@nyunews.com
@nyunews