4/22/21 Full Edition

News: Inequality conference comes to Wake Forest Page 5

Opinion: Jason Shay shows courage in decision to protest Page 8

Sports: Offseason updates — Men's basketball Page 11

Life: Wayward Fashion presents Earth Day show Page 16

Old Gold&Black

WAKE FOREST’S STUDENT NEWSPAPER SINCE 1916 VOL. 107, NO. 24

T H U R S DAY, A P R I L 2 2 , 2 0 21 “Cover s the campus like the magnolias”

wfuogb.com

Vaccine will be required for Fall 2021 The university announced via email on Tuesday that it intends to require the COVID-19 vaccine

BY ALEXANDRA KARLINCHAK Editor-in-Chief karlae18@wfu.edu Once again, Wake Forest and Duke Universities are appearing side-by-side in news headlines. This time, however, the rival schools are not being celebrated for the kind of shots taken from behind the three-point line, but the ones that go in arms.

On April 9, Duke announced that all returning students will be required to get vaccinated before coming back to campus in the fall. This Tuesday, Wake Forest followed suit.

In an email sent on behalf of President Nathan O. Hatch, Provost Rogan Kersh and Vice President for Campus Life Penny Rue, the university stated that the school intends to require “all students (undergraduate, graduate and professional school) enrolled in classes or participating in in-person activities on any of our campuses and in study abroad/away [to] provide documentation of an FDA-authorized vaccination.”

Courtesy of NBC News

“I would say justice has been served,” SG President Miles Middleton said. “But there is still a lot of work to do within our legal and justice system in order to bring justice to other cases that we have witnessed since Floyd's murder.”

WFU students, faculty react to guilty verdict for Chauvin Chauvin's role in the death of George Floyd has put the trial at the center of national attention

BY AINE PIERRE News Editor pierav20@wfu.edu Fifty-three years and 23 days ago, famed civil rights activist Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. said this about "remaining awake during a great revolution": "The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.”

On Tuesday, April 20, after over a year of protests, activism and courtroom maneuvering, Derek Chauvin was found guilty of the murder of George Floyd. Chauvin fatally knelt

upon Floyd's neck for nine minutes and 29 seconds.

Reactions poured in from around the globe through Twitter, Facebook and Instagram, mostly hailing the verdict as a victory for justice — justice for George Floyd.

The Old Gold & Black reached out to students and monitored the web for reactions from community members to take a pulse after such a historic event. Many feel as King did, that this verdict tips the scales toward justice, but that the road to achieving this justice has been far too long.

Some feel the road ahead will be long as well — perhaps even longer than the road to this moment.

Wake Forest students’ reactions to Chauvin’s conviction have been mostly positive, with a f lood of In-

stagram stories praising the guilty verdict as a victory for justice. However, most students’ posts also recognized that the work of improving the justice system is not yet finished.

Student Body President Miles Middleton, who spoke with the Floyd family’s lawyer, Ben Crump, on Tuesday, echoed that sentiment.

“I would say justice has been served,” Middleton said. “But there is still a lot of work to do within our legal and justice system in order to bring justice to other cases that we have witnessed since Floyd's murder.”

Middleton encouraged students to regard this moment as a full victory and to worry about subsequent fights down the road.

See Verdict, Page 6

See Vaccine, Page 4

UCC sends errant email to hundreds The University Counseling Center sent out a mass email to all of its patients, raising privacy concerns

BY COOPER SULLIVAN Asst. News Editor sullcg20@wfu.edu Professional email etiquette has been preached over the last year as virtual learning and interactions have grown. Doublecheck the spelling, make sure it’s being sent from your university account and if the recipient list is encrypted, make sure it stays encrypted.

On the morning of April 14, the University Counseling Center sent out a feedback survey to 860 email addresses — some students, faculty, staff and 68 accounts unaffiliated with the university — in which the recipient list was unencrypted and visible to all who had access to the email.

About 10 minutes later, Interim Director Dr. Daniel Paredes sent out a subsequent email with the subject line “DELETE PREVIOUS E-MAIL WITHOUT OPENING."

See UCC, Page 5

OGB

“ Police reform remains a necessity This column represents the views of the Old Gold & Black Editorial Board.

On Tuesday, Derek Chauvin was found guilty of second-degree murder, third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter for the fatal arrest that took George Floyd’s life. Around the same time the verdict of that case was read, 16-year-old Ma’Khia Bryant was fatally shot by a police officer in Columbus, Ohio. Earlier this month, Daunte Wright was shot and killed by a police officer who mistook her gun for a taser. This list goes on and on.

According to a database compiled by The Washington Post, 274 individuals have been shot

The verdict that was read on Tuesday afternoon was not justice — it was accountability. Accountability for one man's actions." and killed by police officers in 2021 alone. We are just over halfway through April.

The deaths of thousands of Americans, a disproportionate number of whom are Black, are unacceptable. Yet, the deaths of Americans at the hands of onduty police officers have been occurring for centuries. So, when will true and lasting change arrive?

The verdict that was read on Tuesday afternoon was not justice — it was accountability.

Accountability for one man’s actions. But where is the accountability for the other police officers who have not faced jail time for their violent, senseless actions? Where is the extensive round of policy changes that so many Americans have been calling for?

Floyd’s death was not a “sacrifice.” Neither was Ahmaud Arbery’s, Breonna Taylor’s, Elijah McClain, Tamir Rice’s or anyone else’s. A precious life is not a pawn or a political talking point.

So let’s not simply rename streets and draft pages of history books. Let’s not allow these individuals to die in vain. There are so many names that are not nationally covered, so many people who will never see justice in the form that Floyd’s family did.

But we have a judicial system.

We have checks and balances in place to create a system of protection in which law enforcement officials do not abuse their power. We need to create a system that cultivates trust between citizens and police officers. The commitment to enact change is one we must all make.

Old Gold&Black THE STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF WAKE FOREST UNIVERSIT Y SINCE 1916 ALEXANDRA KARLINCHAK EDITOR-IN-CHIEF karlae18@wfu.edu

BEN CONROY

PRINT MANAGING EDITOR conrbd19@wfu.edu

>> NEWS Aine Pierre, pierav20@wfu.edu

Assts.

Julia Ochsenhirt, ochsja20@wfu.edu Cooper Sullivan, sullcg20@wfu.edu

>> OPINION

Connor Mcneely, mcnecb19@wfu.edu

>> SPORTS

Christina DeNovio, denoca20@wfu.edu Essex Thayer, thayse20@wfu.edu

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Jake Stuart, stuaja20@wfu.edu

>> LIFE

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Joe Cho, choyy19@wfu.edu

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>> POLICIES

The Old Gold & Black is published Thursdays during the school year, except during examinations, summer and holiday periods, by Triangle Printing of Durham. © 2014 WFU Media Board. All rights reserved. The views expressed in all editorials and advertisements contained within this publication do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the OGB. As part of our commitment to reporting news fairly and accurately, we will not remove any previously published content. If an error in either our online or print content is brought to our attention, we will revise the originally published article with an appended correction. In order to facilitate thoughtful and appropriate debate, profane, vulgar, or inflammatory comments on our website are not allowed and will be deleted. For more information on our commenting policy, please see our website. We reserve the right to reject advertisements deemed inappropriate. Our full policy, and how to advertise with the OGB, can be found on our website.

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The OGB welcomes submissions in the form of story tips, columns and letters to the editor. Letters to the editor should be fewer than 500 words, and columns should be around 500 words. Send yours via e-mail to karlae18@wfu.edu the Monday before publication. We reserve the right to edit all letters for length and clarity. No anonymous letters will be printed.

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Page 3 | Thursday, April 22, 2021

Old Gold & Black | News

Deacon Profile: Anna Price

huge community and we can collectively make decisions together. We’re never again going to be in a place where there are so many people thinking and making the same decisions we are. It’s a huge opportunity for us as a community in which we can choose to make these small changes that, altogether, would make a big difference on the world around us.

BY EMILY TORO Staff Writer toroer20@wfu.edu

Anna Price is a junior from Hendersonville, N.C. who is majoring in psychology and minoring in linguistics.

Price currently serves as the sustainable consumption intern in the Office of Sustainability. She works to increase social awareness regarding sustainable consumption through engagement with student organizations. Currently, Price is working with the Office to provide low waste toiletry products in the campus Pods.

Do you plan to incorporate this work in sustainability into your future career plans?

How did you obtain your position as the sustainable consumption intern?

I spent my freshman year in Denmark with the Copenhagen Global Awakenings Program, where I took a sustainability class. On a larger scale, Copenhagen is a very important city in making progress towards sustainable living. We had this class as an academic component, but there was also this huge cultural component of learning about sustainability just simply by living in Copenhagen.

When I came to the Office of Sustainability, there were several of us doing waste reduction and management. I created this new position that was about waste diversion on the front end, which is what I do now. Basically, you apply for an existing position or you can create one, and this is one I created with the Office.

What types of projects do you work on?

This is my third semester working with the Office. The first semester was a lot of talking to people, asking where they notice they are most wasteful in their life and finding out what really bothers them. If you build off of what people already have in mind, you’re going to get a lot further, especially when you're talking about behavioral changes.

Food waste is the biggest one people will talk about, but it’s kind of inaccessible, so we settled on toiletry items as the next most accessible thing. So that second semester — the COVID-19 semester — we started developing educational material. We started talking to people, but we weren't doing a lot of outreach, so it wasn’t working very well.

This spring, a lot of that changed and we started getting some traction, which was really nice. We matched up with all of these different student organizations and presented to them.

The second thing we did was a social media challenge, which was really fun.

It actually just ended. We had people post every day, mostly what items they are interested in and what items they already use, and just tried to increase so-

Photo courtesy of Anna Price

cial awareness, so that’s a good way to build community.

The third thing we did, which was the most applied and infrastructural project, involved working with Harvest Table and all the Pods on campus. Hopefully, in late April we will have sustainable or low-waste toiletry items in the Pod. How do you measure changes in people's behavior?

My whole job is behavioral change.

There are different stakeholders for every internship position that pays for them to be there. You have to validate how you are going to show progress. So, it has sort of changed. At first, it was simply engagement, because other than a selfreport survey, you couldn’t really measure behavioral change.

This semester, we had some more options. We could measure engagement but then also follow up three semesters later and ask people if they have actually changed anything. Have you changed the way you’re thinking or the way you are purchasing things? I have to wait until you have run out of something and encourage you to choose a more sustainable replacement for it, so that takes time. We are finally getting that data back, but it’s still hard because a lot of it is people sort of guessing.

What inspired you to begin this work?

Late in high school, I went to Costa Rica, which is a really big hotspot for environmental action. I was in Costa Rica learning about sustainable agriculture, and that’s sort of when I started thinking about the consumption side. 'What am I eating? What is the water footprint?

What is the gas footprint?'

Being sustainable is trending at the moment, which is very helpful. People want to have that conversation. In Copenhagen, there was a lot of conversation about where your clothes were coming from, and what produce was more seasonal. Inherently, you started thinking about sustainability a little bit more.

I think because I was in the sustainability class, I started reading news stories and podcasts about how the movement was coming into America and how that adjustment was going to look. I started reading about these companies in New York that were zero-waste stores. I thought, ‘what if we applied that at Wake Forest?’ If we prove there is enough of a demand, we could have an entire Pod that is stocked with low-waste products.

I hope so. I think as a junior, I can rationalize a lot. Ultimately, the answer is yes. There’s not a ton of people doing environmental psychology at Wake Forest, but it’s definitely something I’m interested in. I’m in a senior psychology class called Judgement and Decision Making (PSY 374) right now, and it’s all about why people are illogical. The class explores questions ranging from why people aren’t following COVID-19 guidelines, to why people aren't passionate about the environment, and why people aren’t doing something.

That’s very fascinating. It’s not something I have a ton of resources to build a resume in at the moment, but with graduate school, it could definitely be something I might pursue.

I think opportunities in sustainability should be for everyone. I think it’s very scary and very sad at the moment, the way it’s portrayed in the media, but there are a lot of solutions. There are a lot of new jobs, and there is a lot of need for more honest portrayals in the media. We need film majors and politics majors, too. Everyone should be excited about sustainability. It should not have to be your career.

What are some suggestions for people to be more sustainable in their lives?

What makes this work important?

Reducing waste is always the first one. Anything you can do to reduce anywhere is good. Buy less and as you’re buying stuff, do your homework. It takes some time, so what I tend to do is just pause. If I haven’t had the time to do the research on clothing, I’m not going to buy it right away. I’m going to wait until I’ve thought it through and had the time to actually do that homework. Secondhand clothing is not a perfect system and neither is recycling, but those are all improvements over the norm. Shop secondhand, recycle wherever you can and compost wherever you can. It’s not going to fix the whole problem, but as an individual, you can only do so much.

Student life is a really interesting opportunity for change because there is a

Editor's Note: This interview has been edited for brevity and clarity.

POLICE BEAT COVID-19 Violations/Underage Consumption/Drug Offenses

Miscellaneous

• Campus police assisted WSPD in responding to an off-campus party. The party's date was April 7, but the report was prepared for documentation on April 13 at 9:46 a.m.

• An offender consumed alcohol underage in South and was transported to Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center for further treatment. The report was filed on April 18 at 1:40 a.m.

• An offender consumed alcohol underage in Efird and was transported to Forsyth Medical Center for further treatment. The report was filed on April 18 at 3:08 a.m.

• An offender left a "belligerent" voicemail message on the answering machine in the mailroom. The report was filed at 10:30 a.m. on April 15.

• A bike in front of North Campus Appartments had the seat twisted around. The report was filed on April 16 at 5:48 p.m.

• A victim was involved in a vehicle accident at the Rainbow Laundry on Akron Dr. The other person involved reportedly assaulted the victim by shouldering them.

Campus Police assisted WSPD and the report was filed on April 16 at 4:41 a.m.

News | Old Gold & Black

Thursday, April 22, 2021| Page 4

Vaccine: University aims to require inoculation Continued from Page 1

This proof of vaccination needs to be submitted via the Student Health Service portal by July 1.

Vice President of University Advancement Mark Petersen expressed excitement about the opportunities for in-person community building that campus-wide vaccination will provide.

“Once you have everybody covered in the community, you have so much more flexibility,” Petersen said. “So, as we think about the fall and getting everybody back here and able to take advantage of a fully vaccinated community, we’ll have the ability to do so much more. That’s highly desirable for all of us.”

Petersen also shared that, according to SneezSafe data, roughly twothirds of the student population has already gotten at least their first dose of the vaccine, and around

three-fourths of faculty and staff have, as well.

With university campus gates returning to their regular, pre-COVID-19 operating status on May 1, visitor policies being relaxed and testing being scaled back from full-campus, mandatory testing to 1,500 random tests per week, the school continues to inch closer to functioning as it did pre-pandemic.

But there is still work that needs to be done.

Petersen explained that, while the expectation is that Wake Forest will return to Green operating status in the fall, many safety measures will need to remain in place.

Even with the entirety of the student body vaccinated, mask wearing will likely be enforced — at least for the first portion of the fall semester. Though with CDC guidance shifting daily, administrators will not know exactly which policies will be in place for months.

“Two months ago, we were still recovering from that big surge,” Petersen said. “We didn’t even know whether we’d be able to get half of our population vaccinated before the end of the semester. Now, we’re in a pretty good position.”

When asked her thoughts on the university requiring all students to be vaccinated before returning to campus, junior Grace Sullivan echoed Petersen’s sentiments.

“As a private university, Wake has every right to require the COVID-19 vaccine,” Sullivan said. “To be honest, I feel a lot more comfortable with a vaccine requirement. It’ll speed up the process of getting things back to normal, but I understand that it can be controversial for those who might not trust vaccines.”

In an attempt to minimize controversy, the university has made clear that requests for medical and religious exemptions will be reviewed.

However, these exemptions will not apply to students studying abroad or away from Reynolda Campus.

Students who have not yet received a vaccine are encouraged to get the shot as soon as possible. Currently, all individuals above the age of 16 are eligible to receive the vaccine in North Carolina, but this is not yet the case in other places. Vaccination opportunities are available through the Forsyth County Public Health Department, Wake Forest Baptist Health, Novant Health, Walgreens and CVS. The university also plans to assist international students who may have received a vaccine not authorized by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

“Walking around campus now, things seem brighter,” Sullivan said, optimism apparent in her voice. “There is hope in the air — people really hope that next year will be the Wake Forest we knew before COVID-19.”

Wake Forest hosts conference on inequality

In the first session, the three topThe conference will spotlight ics will be Law and Gender; Labor student research on inequality Markets and Their Inequities; and across many academic disciplines Immigration and Latinx ExperiBY AINE PIERRE News Editor pierav20@wfu.edu

Last semester, juniors Tal Feldman and Ashley Peake founded the Collegiate Association for Inequality Research (CAIR) at Wake Forest to address what they saw as a lack of organized support for students researching inequality. This semester, CAIR is moving up in the world and hosting an international — albeit virtual — conference.

The conference, which will occur on April 24, will feature speakers from universities as renowned as the Ivy League’s University of Pennsylvania and Columbia University, as well as from smaller state schools like the University of Wyoming, among others. The conference will run from 9:15 a.m. to 6:15 p.m, with a 30-minute lunch break.

According to Feldman, the idea for the conference sprung from the success of an earlier symposium put on by CAIR. “Students have a lot to say about [inequality],” Feldman said. “That is a big reason [as to] why we had a lot of abstract submissions to our conference.”

The conference will feature two 75-minute presentation sessions and one 45-minute presentation session. Each session will feature a choice of three or four presentations for attendees to choose from.

ences. The second session’s four topics are Criminal Justice, Politics and International Affairs; Housing: Poverty and Segregation ; and Gender, Sexuality and Technology. The third section’s topics are Addressing Racial Inequity, Science and Healthcare; and Understanding Inequality Through Art Narratives.

“The wide range of disciplines in which these students engaged and in which they were cognizant [was amazing],” Feldman said. “So we had abstracts that were in some of the disciplines you would expect, like anthropology, sociology, political science and economics, but also in the STEM fields.”

There will also be two 90-minute poster sessions, which will provide an opportunity for more students to share their research. The topics for the posters have not been released, but there will be 45 poster projects in all, according to CAIR’s website.

“Having two virtual poster sessions was not part of our original plan,” Peake said. “But to accommodate all of the projects we got, we wanted to accept and include more projects in a way that would still let us have the conference within a reasonable timeframe.”

Junior Elizabeth MacDonald, whose abstract was selected for presentation, shared her thoughts about presenting at the conference.

“I thought it would be a great way to practice public speaking on

Zoom — giving a recap of my personal summer work — and that it would be great to support this endeavor,” MacDonald said.

Senior Dylan Tynes will be copresenting a project on food inequality/insecurity alongside Peake.

“We are presenting a virtual poster on which we model food insecurity in Winston-Salem by analyzing driving and walking times to grocery stores and augmenting the results with information about income and population density in different areas of town,” Tynes said.

“The resulting map shows which areas in town are more food insecure compared to others.”

The conference will also feature a panel of Wake Forest faculty members, including Political Science & International Affairs Professor Sar-

ah Dahill-Brown, Communications Professor Alessandra Von Burg and Economics Professor Megan Regan.

Ultimately, Feldman and Peake hope that the conference will help center Wake Forest in further conversations about inequality in academic spheres.

“We found that … we can use the tools we have as researchers and as students to actually contribute to these conversations [about inequality] and to do research on these topics,” Peake said. “There’s not necessarily — especially on Wake Forest’s campus — a lot of emphasis on that kind of student research, and we wanted to create a space for interdisciplinary researchers to approach these topics.”

Registration for the conference is still open on CAIR’s website.

Grapic Courtesy of Dylan Tynes

Among the projects at the conference will be an analysis of food availability in Winston-Salem and its surroundings, presented by Dylan Tynes and Ashley Peake.

Page 5 | Thursday, April 22, 2021

Old Gold & Black | News

UCC: Email presents possible privacy issues Continued from Page 1

In that email, Paredes briefly explained that the “UCC Feedback request (1 of 3) [was] sent out in carbon copy rather than blind carbon copy. [Information Services] has been informed of the breach and is being asked to recall the e-mail from all inboxes. As I am able to provide information about the number of times the message sent publicly has been opened, I will follow-up.”

Paredes sent that update close to 11 p.m. on the same night in which he revealed that 860 emails were sent out, 401 of which were either deleted by IS or the recipients before being read and 391 of which were opened but were recalled by IS following approval from senior university administration. Sixty-eight messages’ status were unaccounted for as they were

sent to non-university accounts. IS had no ability to recall these emails.

“While student email addresses were visible to recipients, no personal information about the nature, if any, of a relationship with the UCC was disclosed,” said the email.

When asked if this information privacy breach is a violation of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA), Paredes said that the UCC does not have to adhere to HIPAA standards “because we do not accept insurance” and the law is not applicable to the UCC. “Counseling center privileges are articulated both by state law regarding mental health practice (our providers are licensed or work under the supervision of a licensee) and the U.S. Department of Education, which has delineated how our

records are independent of the academic record (which is covered by FERPA),” said Paredes.

FERPA, the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act of 1974, prevents educational institutions of all levels from releasing academic records or information without the permission of the student (or the student’s parent if they are under 18).

In other words, Paredes is arguing that the UCC falls under neither act’s jurisdiction because of the insurance requirement and because the mental health record of students is not the same as a transcript.

Some students, however, feel differently than Paredes.

“I think it’s just a mistake. Personally, I’m open about my struggles with mental health, so I don’t care much if people know,” said one student, who asked to remain anonymous. “Nonetheless, students

have a right to confidentiality. “They broke HIPAA guidelines and should be punished accordingly.”

Mark Hall, professor of law and public health at Wake Forest says that HIPAA is fairly technical in defining what it applies to.

“It does not cover health information generally, but only when that information is held by a ‘covered entity,’ which, generally speaking, is someone in the health care sector,” Hall said. “When health services [UCC] are more incidental to an organization’s primary function [Wake Forest education], I frankly don’t know enough about the technical regulations to say whether or not HIPAA applies.”

When asked why non-university emails were on the recipient list, how the recipient list was unencrypted or if reduced staffing inadvertently caused this mistake to fly under the radar, Paredes declined to comment.

SAFAR students work to help local refugees SAFAR has dedicated itself to helping refugees in and around Winston-Salem

BY SOPHIE GUYMON Contributing Writer guymsm20@wfu.edu

The Student Association for the Advancement of Refugees (SAFAR) at Wake Forest was founded in the fall of 2016. Their mission statement is “to support the dreams and initiatives of refugees in the Winston-Salem community, create a welcoming environment and set an example for Wake Forest students for inclusivity.”

Community outreach chair, senior Rebecca Benson, described SAFAR’s goals as “[providing] tutoring, allyship and fundraising when needed for the local refugee community.”

Benson has been involved with SAFAR since her freshman year and said she loves being on the executive board because “it has allowed her to become more involved in the refugee community in Winston-Salem.”

Serving on the board alongside Benson is her fellow Community Outreach Chair Alondra Janicek (‘22), President Yorjannys Gomez (‘21), Off-Campus Coordinators Savarni Sanka (‘21), Caroline Fatemi (‘21) and Mohamed Ahmidouch (‘21), Treasurer Brandon Hauser (‘22) and Event Coordinators Noah Meyer (‘21) and Conor Metzger (‘23).

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, SAFAR has had to adjust and hold primarily virtual events throughout this academic year. General meetings have been held on Sunday evenings over Zoom up to twice a month. Tutoring sessions that would ordinarily be held at families’ houses transitioned to Zoom as well. Members tutored in subjects ranging from third grade math to SAT prep and were also able to sign on to be paired with local refugees as “friendship partners.”

“Tutoring is a really great way to get to know the [refugee] families, who

are all so amazing and welcoming,” Benson said.

SAFAR hosted other creative events, some of which involved partnering with other local refugee advancement initiatives and members of the community. One such event was a virtual cooking class held in partnership with Every Campus a Refuge (ECAR). At that event, students were taught to make traditional MiddleEastern hummus. This event was led

by Sheereen Gomma, the founder of Delicious by Sheereen, a non profit catering company that supports the refugee community. Proceeds benefited a couple from the Democratic Republic of Congo, aiding them with covering the medical costs of a preterm birth.

Participants in the class were also encouraged to donate to a separate fundraiser started by a close friend of the family.

Another partnership with ECAR resulted in a fundraiser over the holiday season. This fundraiser supported a local family looking for a permanent home in the middle of a housing and employment shortage.

Both fundraising efforts achieved their goals.

As well as fundraising, students were able to expand their cultural horizons through opportunities such as a basic Arabic class taught by a native speaker from the community. All students were welcome, and no previous experience in the language was required.

SAFAR will continue to host meetings throughout the rest of the year and is beginning to transition back to in-person events. Students can stop by the lower quad next Wednesday at 4 p.m. to grab food from Delicious

by Shereen.

“Her food is amazing and so is her business. She hires many refugees to work for her catering company, mainly Syrian refugees,” Benson said. “This has allowed many women to find financial stability through cooking.”

SAFAR is currently in the process of electing their executive board for the 2021-2022 school year. Next year, they hope to be able to hold more inperson events as the university is predicting a relatively normal fall semester.

Photo Courtesy of Rebecca Benson

Old Gold & Black | News

Page 6 | Thursday, April 22, 2021

Verdict: Reactions abound as jury finds officer guilty Continued from Page 1

“I hope students — primarily students affected by this verdict and the killing of George Floyd — are able to take a moment and just have a sigh of relief and then get back out there and demand change,” Middleton said. “We should not let this moment be a time where we let up but rather continue to seek change locally and nationally.”

Student Body President-Elect Ally Swartzberg emphasized the importance of caring for marginalized communities in the wake of the verdict and in general.

“As a community, we need to be cognizant of the very real burden this trial (and the violence which prompted it) has placed on students of marginalized identities and of the continued racial violence that still exists,” Swartzberg said. “This verdict is one step toward justice, but it cannot be the last step.”

Swartzberg also shared her hopes for the future of the movement.

“I hope that months or years from now we will be able to look back at this trial as a distinctive turning point in the fight against systemic race-based brutality,” she said.

The Black Student Alliance is also planning an event to honor those lives lost to police brutality, according to the organization’s president, Jacob Thomas.

“I think it’s important to recognize individual cases,” Thomas said. “But I think it’s also important to realize how these individual cases are part of larger systems that may be broken.”

Key university officials also weighed in on the verdict. Tuesday night, students received an email sent on behalf of University President Nathan O. Hatch regarding the verdict.

“At Wake Forest, we are called to be people for humanity. For all humanity,” Hatch wrote in the email.

“That means that we honor the intrinsic value of each individual and show compassion and empathy toward one another. This is not a hollow charge to those who consider this community home nor should it be an empty promise to the communities we serve.”

Some students took exception to Hatch’s email, including freshman Deneaka Duncanson.

“When they send those emails, I don’t really enjoy them because I feel like they aren’t really genuine,” Duncanson said. “I’m not sure why they [send these emails], instead of just acknowledging what [Chauvin] did was wrong and how we can fix this.”

The Office of the Chaplain also released a statement, which has been spread widely on Instagram by Wake Forest students.

“So much has been said, can be said, and will be said about this verdict,” the statement reads. “But the simple fact remains that justice, peace, and reconciliation can never be fully realized in our society as long as white supremacy continues to render this verdict as rare it is.”

The statement continues: “Justice, peace, and reconciliation can never be fully realized in our society as long as the lives of Black people continue to be cut short, oppressed and terrorized by the state, and our state is not held to account for the violence and trauma it has and continues to unleash on Black people.”

The Office of the Chaplain also announced that Wait Chapel would be available Wednesday, April 21 for anyone who wanted to pray.

“Please remember to pray for the family of George Floyd. Though they go to bed tonight knowing that Mr. Floyd’s murderer was brought to justice, they will still wake up tomorrow without a brother, father and friend,” wrote Dean of the Divinity School Jonathan Lee Walton in a statement of his own. “Never underestimate the power of prayer.”

According to Hatch, Wake Forest will be providing more information about its commitment to racial justice.

“In the coming days, you will hear more about how this community is responding to and joining the effort to help address inequity, racism and the oppression of people of color,” Hatch wrote in the email. “I invite you to participate in the various opportunities that will be offered across the University.”

One event, the second iteration of a panel discussion on race and policing, will be held the night of Thursday, April 22.

“We will address the origins of racialized policing in the United States, which helps us understand the mass protests we saw this summer,” Vice Provost of the Law School Kami Chavis, a co-host of the event, said. “We will talk about concrete solutions for transforming police culture and what entities (local, federal state) are best suited to do that.”

The event’s other host, Vice President for Diversity and Inclusion Jose Villalba, had this to say about the event’s significance:

“Institutions of higher education must serve as facilitators for learning and reflection,” Villalba said. “In this regard, it is not only relevant, but expected that colleges and universities explore why Floyd was murdered, but also address factors that contributed to Chauvin’s actions, behaviors and decisions.”

Thomas, who will be a panelist at the event, said he hopes the conversation will spur the Wake Forest community into action.

“One of my main goals is for this event to spark discourse but also move beyond discourse into the realm of activism that can be operationalized and effect change in our community,” Thomas said.

Ultimately, though, for the Wake Forest community, no matter what happens, one thing is for sure: George Floyd should still be alive.

“At the end of the day, nothing can undo Chauvin’s violent act which unjustly ended George Floyd’s life,” Swartzberg said.

Photo Courtesy of the Winston-Salem Journal

Black Lives Matter protests took place across Winston-Salem following the murder of George Floyd. University officials and the Winston-Salem community celebrated Chauvin’s arrest and called for full racial justice.

SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY

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J&J vaccine distribution halted After six recipients among over seven million developed blood clots, the U.S. has pulled the vaccine

BY JULIA OCHSENHIRT Asst. News Editor ochsja20@wfu.edu The Food & Drug Administration (FDA) and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC) have recommended that states pause administration of the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine until at least this Friday after discovering potential ties to blood clotting complications.

“We are recommending this pause while we work together to fully understand these events, and also so we can get information out to health care providers and vaccine recipients,” FDA commissioner Dr. Janet Woodcock told NBC News.

CNN reported that six women of the 7.5 million Americans who have received the Johnson & Johnson vaccine developed the clotting issue. One woman died, two are in intensive care, one has been hospitalized and the other two were discharged from care. All six women were between the ages of 18 and 48.

According to the American Medical Association (AMA), the women’s condition is formally known as cerebral venous sinus thrombosis in combination with thrombocytopenia. In simple terms, the condition causes low levels of healthy blood clotting and increases the prevalence of adverse

clotting in the veins of the brain. Patients are vulnerable to spontaneous bleeding, dangerous levels of blood loss after minor injuries and brain hemorrhages.

The rare combination of brain clotting and low platelet counts means that physicians can not treat the patients with the blood thinner heparin, which is typically viewed as a cure for clotting issues. Instead, the FDA recommended that healthcare officials use non-heparin blood thinners and high-dose intravenous immune globulin (IVIG), according to NBC News.

In light of the CDC’s and FDA’s joint recommendation, all 50 states and the District of Columbia have paused administration of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine. The federal government has recommended that recipients of the vaccine seek medical attention if they experience a severe headache, shortness of breath, abdominal pain or leg pain within six to 13 days of receiving the Janssenvaccine.

Five of the six women initially sought medical treatment for a headache and later developed more severe symptoms related to the clots. However, headaches are also a typical side effect of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine and may not necessarily merit medical attention. According to the AMA, health officials suggest that patients consider the severity and timing of their headaches, as those associated with the blood clotting condition are severe and occur one-to-two weeks after vaccination, whereas most normal side effects of the vaccine disappear after 48 hours.

Per the AMA, Dr. Peter Marks, director of the FDA’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, advised physicians to ask patients, “Is this like headaches you’ve had before? Or is the quality of the headache something that you’ve never experienced before?”

Marks encouraged individuals to seek immediate treatment if they experience a combination of symptoms or speckles on their hands and shins. Speckles signify internal bleeding, which can be life-threatening.

FDA and CDC committees are meeting this week to consider how to best proceed, and they plan to release a statement on Friday. Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the

National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told New York Magazine that he anticipates the continued administration of the vaccine with warning labels conveying its benefits and risks.

Additionally, the pause is not likely to affect America’s vaccine rollout, per Vox. The ample supply of Pfizer and Moderna doses — neither of which have reported issues with clotting — and increasing vaccination rates mean the United States is on track to vaccinate all adults by mid-July.

“The supply is there,” Jen Kates, director of global health and HIV policy at the Kaiser Family Foundation, told Vox. “We’re still in a good position.”

Photo Courtesy of TechTalks

Due to concerns over blood clots, the FDA and CDC recommended that the Johnson & Johnson vaccine distribution be paused in all 50 states and in the District of Columbia.

Organization aims for equitable vaccination The Urban League seeks to help marginalized people in Forsyth County get vaccinated

BY IZZY MCMAHON Contributing Writer mcmaec17@wfu.edu On a bustling Monday morning outside the Winston-Salem Urban League’s office on N. Trade treet, volunteers sporting yellow vests greeted Winston Salem residents as they arrived for COVID-19 vaccines.

At this community vaccination event on March 29, the Urban League helped vaccinate over 330 city residents with the Pfizer vaccine, according to the Forsyth Department of Public Health. While a number of those vaccinated made appointments before arriving, others were invited 40 participants as they walked by the site that morning.

“I wanted to be safe and I wanted to show support for people around me that the vaccine is safe,” Joseph Laws, a middle-aged man who works in the downtown area who received the vaccine, said.

The Urban League — an organization that empowers communities of color — hosted this event with the primary goal to expand vaccine access within African Amer-

ican populations. To accomplish this, the Urban League promoted the event within its existing networks which can effectively reach a large African American audience, according to the organization’s Chief Operating Officer, Kenneth Pettigrew.

“Our whole mission is around advocating on behalf of African Americans and other marginalized groups through education, charity, civic engagement and other outlets,” Pettigrew said. “Our participation in the vaccine event was just that — it’s about making sure that the proper outreach and marketing happens so folks can get access to the vaccine.”

The Urban League’s effort to distribute the vaccine among traditionally marginalized groups falls within Forsyth County Department of Public Health’s campaign to broaden equitable vaccine access. This department has engaged in many vaccine equity initiatives by including hosting vaccine events with community partners like the Union Baptist Church, promoting vaccine education on social media and offering evening and weekend vaccine appointments.

This outreach campaign is uplifted, in part, by an additional 3,510 doses of the Pfizer vaccine that the Winston-Salem area will receive weekly until mid-May. The Forsyth County Department of Public Health, Novant Health and Wake Forest Baptist

Health all share these doses and dedicate them to different initiatives. The Forsyth County Department of Public Health is using their third of this allotment to supplement ongoing community outreach efforts.

These efforts seek to alleviate disproportionate vaccination rates across races. As of April 12, 70.8% of those fully vaccinated have been white, slightly higher than their 67.7% share of Forsyth County’s population, according to the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services.

This data also reveals that only 19.4% of those fully vaccinated have been African American, despite making up 28.5% of Forsyth County’s overall population.

Vaccine hesitancy within communities, however, may thwart attempts at equitable access. This hesitancy is often a byproduct of historically justified mistrust in the American health care system within a segment of the African American population, according to Chief of the Section on Infectious Diseases at the Wake Forest School of Medicine Dr. John Sanders. Motivating vaccine acceptance within community organizations’ social bases will be essential in overcoming inequities in vaccine distribution.

To expand vaccination rates, the Urban League and other community organizations are working to dispel misinformation around the vaccine through online educa-

tion campaigns and by informing communities of color about vaccine availability. The Urban League plans to continue this effort in partnership with other community organizations in the future.

“We already have so many health disparities in our community and in our country,” said Annamae Giles, a volunteer at the Urban League’s community vaccination event.

“We really need to work hard to make sure everyone has equitable access to the vaccines so that we can all get back to life, not just those of privilege.”

Photo Courtesy of Heard it Here

The Urban League helped vaccinate 335 people on March 29 at an event.

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Sports

Jason Shay demonstrates courage in decision to protest The firing of East Tennessee State coach Jason Shay illuminates the backwards nature of our nation

BY COOPER SULLIVAN Asst. News Editor sullcg20@wfu.edu

To all the people who proudly announced on Facebook that they will "never watch another damn sports game until these people learn how to respect the flag of our beautiful country,” boy, do I have some good news. You can come back! While I can’t guarantee peace among the pros, the college level just might fit your bill! No more silly kids pulling publicity stunts "to end systemic racism" or "fight for equal representation." Just the good ol’ exploited-teenagers-playing-some-game-without-compensation-or-guarantee-of-healthcarebut-at-least-they-are-getting-their-communication-degree entertainment for you and as many drunk sunburnt buddies as you can find.

I know it’s been a while since you last paid any attention to sports with the boycott and all, so I imagine that you need some new teams to root for. May I suggest two stellar Division 1 basketball programs? Make sure you grab your Wake Forest and East Tennessee State jerseys (no, that money won't go to the players — why should it?) before they sell out because I imagine everyone is clamoring for them right about now. Both schools were elite powerhouses before donors canceled funding, forced coaches to resign and drove players into the transfer portal and they’ll be elite powerhouses after.

If you are reading this piece, you probably read Essex Thayer’s article two weeks ago about donors forcing the Wake Forest women’s basketball team to stop kneeling during the national anthem.

Absolutely wild situation. Of course, the donors are not obligated whatsoever to fund the team or act in a way that pleases the program or students on campus. That’s the duality of “freedom.” But did these donors ever consider why the team was protesting? If they did, maybe Thayer's headline should have read “Wake Forest Donors Reaffirm Pro-Structural Racism Alignment”.

Don’t tell the donors about the single Black Lives Matter yard sign in front of Manchester or else the entire track team is going to be forced to enter the transfer portal.

What you may not be aware of is that a similar incident occurred at ETSU around the same time.

After weeks of backlash from donors, state senators and Johnson City residents, Head Basketball Coach Jason Shay resigned and at least six players expressed their desire to leave the mountain metropolis. I recommend reading senior guard Jordan Coffin’s op-ed published last week in The

Photo courtesy of Icon Sportswire via Getty Images

Six players from the East Tennessee State University basketball team have expressed their desire to leave the program amid the turmoil caused by Jason Shay's resignation.

Players’ Tribune entitled “Our Coach Should Still Be Our Coach”. Coffin said that he and many other players believe that Shay was forced to resign. Coffin also details how this protesting had ensued for months before those who sent hate mail caught wind of the situation in late February.

I have written about protesting in sports and during the national anthem in the past. I am all for it. There is absolutely no disrespect in peacefully protesting during an American ode that so proudly flaunts the best of the best while ignoring systemic societal shortcomings. It is probably one of the best and most impactful times to protest.

One of the things that I notice when I hear about people being up in arms about people kneeling — not the police brutality, legislation that explicitly targets minorities or any other reason for protest — is that many times, the protest goes unnoticed for a while. There could be two explanations for this. One, most people are in support of protesting and actually appreciate people using their voices and influence to promote change, or two, no one pays attention during the national anthem before a sporting event because it makes no sense and is inconsequential to the outcome of a game.

On Feb. 22, a week after the initial ETSU game that sent shockwaves through the South, a letter was sent from 27 state senators to the chancellors of Tennessee’s public universities “encourag[ing] each of the chancellors to adopt policies within their respective athletic departments to prohibit any such actions moving forward.” In other words, no more kneeling.

The senator's argument is that once an athlete dons their jersey, they are no longer autonomous

and allowed to act without forethought into how the state would like to be represented. And I get this argument. No one wants to be falsely categorized into something they are not, no matter the situation or scale. But student-athletes don’t represent states, lawmakers voted into power do.

And those more concerned with menial issues like basketball players, as opposed to legislation that will actually benefit society, are probably not great representatives anyways.

As Coffin wrote in his open letter, “One of the saddest things about all this, and something I’ll probably never be able to fully move past, is knowing that if it hadn’t been for us kneeling, Coach Shay would still have his job. If not for us trying to do something we believed in, trying to make a positive difference in the world, Coach would still be living his dream, getting his shot to show the world what he can do … I mean, if somebody lays their job down and puts their livelihood on the line for you, it really shows what type of man he is.”

Jason Shay should still be employed at ETSU. No Buccaneer, Demon Deacon or other student athlete across the country should feel scared or unwelcome to use their voice. Especially when that protest concerns their life.

There are far worse actions one can take towards something that symbolizes America than protesting during a song in front of a piece of cloth. Voting for a sexual predator to be sworn into American legal power is one notable example. Many could not tell which lawmaker I’m referring to. Blue team, red team — fight amongst yourselves, you’ll both lose.

Opinion| Old Gold & Black

Thursday, April 22, 2021 | Page 9

Supreme Court “ packing justified by preservation of neutrality American Politics

The Republican Party's manipulation of the Supreme Court warrants a shift towards impartiality

Maryum Khanum Staff Columnist khanmg20@wfu.edu

The confirmation of Associate Justice Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court of the United States in October of last year solidified the Court’s conservative majority. The court now consists of six conservatives and three liberals. The controversy following this confirmation was comprehensive, spanning from discussions regarding the record speed of this confirmation to Justice Barrett’s views on the Roe v. Wade decision.

With an upcoming general election in the same year, talks of packing the Supreme Court following a Democratic victory surfaced.

At the time, these were simply far-fetched potentialities. After all, the election was still looming and polls were split practically down the middle. However, with a Democrat heading the United States government's executive branch, the possibility of packing the Supreme Court is much more solid.

The Supreme Court is not a politicized body of government, its Justices are not considered officials of either political party."

So what exactly does packing the Supreme Court mean?

The idea first came from President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1937, following the Supreme Court’s consistent nullification of his proposed acts related to the New Deal program. In response to this, Roosevelt proposed adding six more justices to the Court in a bill which, if passed, would allow him to add a new justice to the Court every time an existing one reached the age of 70 and did not retire. This would have allowed Roosevelt to completely alter the makeup of the Court by appointing his choice of new justices, shifting the majority of the Court in his favor.

While Roosevelt’s Judicial Procedures Reform Bill ultimately failed, a potential proposal to pack the Court from President Biden today holds more promise, especially considering that the Democrats won a sweeping victory in the 2020 general election and subsequent senate runoff elections.

There is a high probability that, if proposed, the bill would pass through both houses of Congress and would be implemented. In addition to this, the idea has garnered wide-

spread support from Democrats, with 61% favoring or strongly favoring adding more Supreme Court justices (Marquette University). However, while we know Biden potentially could pack the Supreme Court, the far more prominent question is, should he?

One of the main arguments against packing the Court is based on preserving its legitimacy as a somewhat neutral third party.

The Supreme Court is not a politicized body of government, and its Justices are not considered officials of either political party. Its function is simply to deem whether proposed bills by the other two branches of government are constitutional or not.

However, the Supreme Court has already been politicized — and not by the Democratic Party. Upon the death of Justice Antonin Scalia in February of 2016, former President Barrack Obama nominated his choice to replace Justice Scalia: Merrick Garland. However, this nomination was quickly invalidated by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (Republican), who claimed that the nomination came too close to the upcoming presidential election, and that the vacancy left by Justice Scalia should be filled by whichever candidate won the presidency later that year.

McConnell proceeded to delay Garland’s confirmation process for a period of 293 days, making it the longest confirmation delay of a Supreme Court Justice nominee in

history. However, the basis of this delay was quickly forgotten in 2020 with the nomination of Amy Coney Barrett by former President Donald Trump following the death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

Barrett was nominated on Sep. 26, less than two months before the presidential election, and was confirmed exactly one month later, making her one of the fastest Supreme Court confirmations in history.

The Republican Party has already demonstrated its willingness to alter the makeup of the Supreme Court in their favor. With its current conservative majority, the court heavily reflects the views of the Republican Party. An imbalance like this can prove to be detrimental to the legislative goals of the Biden administration, just as it was to President Roosevelt’s goals in the late 1930s.

Moreover, the suppressive voter bills proposed by GOP lawmakers in the 2021 legislative session — as well as Justice Barrett’s implied disdain for the decision Roe v. Wade — indicate that this imbalance, if allowed to persist, may cause an infringement upon the rights of the people. This, surely, is an affront to the precedent of freedom embedded into America’s constitution.

Because this disparity had been manufactured by the Republican Party in an attempt to gain more influence over legislation, it is only fair for the Democratic Party to take steps towards correcting the situation.

for the best interest of the masses, but instead illustrates how capitalism can calculatedly use the masses to achieve its own aims (those aims typically being profit). Capitalism is a self-justifying structure — it has its own end. In the same regard, the purpose of fraternities is not rooted in a consideration “on the conscious and unconscious,” or the welfare of the people that participate in them, but rather in reproducing a form of subjectivity and sociology.

Capitalism inherently considers how it can use workers to achieve its own end.

Similarly, the purpose of a fraternity is not to nurture the individual members, but to use them to reproduce a certain social relation. Fraternities seek to reproduce a person in the image of the culture, rather than cultivating a culture which benefits its individual members.

This structural setup is precisely what Adorno theorized would result from the culture industry. While he emphasizes that “the expression ‘industry" is not to be taken literally, he also refers to the standardization of the thing itself — and to the rationalization of distribution techniques.

We can extend this idea to fraternities and note that fraternity culture has

been standardized; there are formulaic recruitment processes, hazing traditions and social codes and expectations which must be met in order to become an accepted member of the system.

Members are “manufactured more or less according to plan.” It is up to the individuals to nurture that standardization — the reproduction of that culture lies in the members' complicity to the norms and practices.

Thus, not only are we cogs in the capitalistic machine that envelops our society, but we are subject to microcosms of the culture industry. We experience reverberations and recreations of the same exploitative structure that the culture industry warns against in our daily life. Further, there is little room for debate that we are not subject to this framework. Rather, we are all almost seemingly passive participants in it.

While the culture industry may be one theory of how society is structured and its associated implications, we should be wary of discounting the theory and what it could mean for us on an individual level. After all, if we are cogs in a machine, wouldn’t we at least like to know that we are?

Fraternities“require sweeping social reforms Greek Life

"Culture Industry" seems to mirror the organizational structure of Greek Life Gaby Gonzalez

Staff Columnist gonzgc17@wfu.edu The culture industry — as discussed

by Theodor Adorno in his piece “Culture Industry Reconsidered” — makes it so that we want certain things and are predisposed to certain social behaviors through consumerism. There are different facets of society that are subject to, or perhaps mimic, the implications of the culture industry. I argue that one such example is the fraternity.

Fraternities are factories for producing specific modes of socialization. They are mass-produced in the sense that they are heavily invested in both property and members, and they are replicated so as to generate revenue in a systematic way.

While fraternities originated as organizations that prioritized intellectual

... the purpose of a fraternity is not to nurture the individual members, but to use them to reproduce a certain social relation." pursuits, they have rather aggressively veered off that course. While there are hints of what the fraternities once stood for, they are now masqueraded through the social practices of the present day.

Fraternities today follow a formulaic, mass-produced culture. The individuals that pass through any given fraternity are simply another “cog in the machine” This is partly what is so alarming about the implications of the culture industry itself.

"Although the culture industry undeniably speculates on the conscious and unconscious state of the millions towards which it is directed, the masses are not primary, but secondary. They are an object of calculation; an appendage of the machinery,” Adorno writes.

In context, this translates to how fraternities have become largely for-profit institutions that seek to recruit members in an exploitative and repetitive fashion.

The relationship that the culture industry implies is not that capitalism works

Opinion | Old Gold & Black

Thursday, April 22, 2021 | Page 10

“ communities offer superior housing options Residential engagement Residence Life & Housing

Junior Katie Fox details the benefits of residing within a residential engagement community Katie Fox

Staff Writer foxkg19@wfu.edu

In a period of uncertainty and everchanging circumstances, matters like registering for fall courses and planning where you’ll live next year can be confusing and stressful. The university makes it easy for incoming first-year students by placing them in residence halls, but the rest of us have to determine which of our friends would be the least annoying to live with and endure the hell that is housing selection.

As a rising junior, I have only had one experience with this process (any plans I had made before Spring Break 2020 were thrown to the wind when the pandemic changed everything).

I’m sure everyone has a housing story similar to mine: you finally find the perfect group to register with, and at the last minute, someone changes their

... my experience living in a Residential Engagement Community speaks to my firm belief that it is the best option in Wake Forest housing... ” mind and you’re left high and dry with no backups.

For a few weeks before housing selection this summer, I was stressed out of my mind, searching through my contacts from freshman year hoping someone would offer me a spot in their group. Just four days before rising seniors were scheduled to begin housing selection, I had resigned myself to the reality that I would have to be placed in a vacant bed by ResLife and that I would take what I could get. However, at the last minute (literally, less than 24 hours before rosters were due), I saw an Instagram story advertising for the Anthony Aston Players (AAP) Themed House. I swiped up to inquire, and just a few minutes later had negotiated a single and solved my housing problem.

Now, let it be known that I am not actually involved with the AAP organization and have little to no experience in theater. Last year, I went to see my friend perform in “The Crucible” with my parents, but we left at intermission because it was past my dad’s bedtime

(sorry, Chloe). And I’m not sure my role as Mary in a live nativity counts as acting, so I felt very unqualified to call myself a member of the Theatre House. Not to mention I only vaguely knew one of my housemates from OGB, and another as a mutual on Instagram, but hadn’t seriously spoken to anyone before exchanging ice-breaker answers with them, my 12 new living companions.

Even so, fast forward to the end of this semester and I am contracted to be the Themed Program Advisor for the house next year. How did that happen? Well, my experience living in a Residential Engagement Community speaks to my firm belief that it is the best option for Wake Forest housing, combining the convenience of a university-owned building with the independence of an off-campus residence and topping the whole thing off with a close-knit community of like-minded people.

During this past year, my housemates and I have bonded during house events such as karaoke night, mural-making, filming a lip-sync music video, exchanging tips from therapy and playing Crazy8s on GamePigeon. And, despite having 12 individuals to contact trace, we have miraculously had

zero COVID-19 cases since our August move-in, (and only three Q-hotel scares). Those are pretty good stats, if you ask me.

Aside from a few piercings, forgetting one birthday and a depressionbangs incident, you can promise your parents that you’ll stay safe and make good choices as a Theatre House resident. The best part is, if you hate us, you can just ignore us! There are no obligations to participate in house events, yet almost everyone does.

If you haven’t figured it out yet, this is an #ad. We have spaces open for three lucky people to apply to live here next year, and if you’re like me, a fam without a plan, consider a Residential Engagement Community (REC). In addition to the AAP house, there are communities focused on Social Justice, sustainability and more. These living options offer a reprieve from hall-style living and the opportunity to get involved with various campus organizations and groups of share interests.

As you consider where you’ll sleep each night next academic year, I would encourage you to look into RECs. I can genuinely say it was the best impulse decision I have made in college and I already can’t wait to move back in.

unthoughtful elimination of conflicting images. Instead, we must embrace pensive consideration when interacting with troubling aspects of the past in an effective and constructive manner in order to achieve true impartiality.

Now, to give credit where credit is due, cancel culture does reflect the positive aspect of humanity which seeks to better itself and eliminate that which it believes does not contribute to the greater good. Not to be extreme, but the old adage that “the road to hell is paved with good intentions” does seem to apply, at least in part, to this case. I am not saying that every person who may have partaken in cancel culture is going to hell. I’m sure the phrasing of that saying will get a rise out of somebody. Let’s just say that “the road to bad things is often paved with good intentions.”

So, what exactly is it about humanity that is reflected in cancel culture as portions of our society seek to expel that which is deemed bad from any and all attention from the public eye?

After considering why we might be inclined to do so, I came to the conclusion that this movement is a response to the exponentially increasing degree of complexity which has come to define the modern world.

We are flooded with more information now than people have been at any other time in preceding history.

Issues have more sides and arguments for and against them than ever before.

And, we have unlimited access to all of this knowledge. It can be very difficult to determine what is good and bad. Cancel culture is a reaction that seeks to ignore this unwieldy degree of complexity and place things into one of two categories: good or bad, worthy of keeping around or not.

The cause of cancel culture is understandable. We all want the world to be simple. We wish it were easy enough to simply point to one thing or another and state if it fits into one neat category. However, this approach is one which ignores the complexity that defines human existence. While one person may have said something that another finds abhorrent, we are taking a dangerous leap when we ignore a vast number of facets that comprise every person or entity in this world.

While it is tempting to take what I dare to say is a childishly simplistic view of existence, I would like to urge the reader to not be afraid to confront ambiguity in a constructive way. Cancel culture paints the world in far too few colors, and we must seek to be a society which is unafraid to confront historical and present difficulties in a new way — a society that does not just throw away someone or something because we are afraid to fully understand it or thinks it is bad on a surface level, as a toddler might do.

“ Society’s cancel culture mindset must be eradicated Cap’s Cabana

Our culture’s constantly shifting definition of right and wrong cannot be the arbiter of morality Cap McLiney

Assistant Opinion Editor mcnecb19@wfu.edu Over the weekend, a friend and I were discussing the nature of cancel culture as he needed to consider it for an assignment. The discussion went in an interesting direction as we both sought to define just what exactly culture is and what it reflects about the general human condition. The subsequent views are not necessarily my own but convey a thought exercise that is intended to prompt the reader to consider that which might not have been previously considered.

It seems that hardly a day passes where X, Y or Z isn’t in the headline as “CANCELLED.” We hear it nearly every day — yet have we taken the time to consider what it is, where it can lead and what positive as well as negative attributes of mankind it might reflect?

To begin an informed reflection on the matter, it might be a good idea to have a working definition of “cancel culture” that we can employ to flesh

Cancel culture is a reaction that seeks to ignore this unwieldy degree of complexity and place things into one of two categories ... ” out the matter. I am going to avoid using the somewhat clichéd approach of drawing from Webster’s dictionary to give a logical foundation for this article. I often find that doing so indicates an unintended degree of laziness.

In putting it into one’s own words, a more sound, original and authentic basis is established upon which the rest of the series of thoughts can be built.

In thinking about cancel culture, I came to define it as the social elimination of either a past or present person, thing or idea which is deemed to be “bad.” Now, this goal seems rather appealing on a surface level. Why wouldn’t we want to get rid of as many bad influences as possible within our society? Wouldn’t doing so result in a greater degree of harmony and general prosperity? The problem with this approach, however, is in the way in which the definition of “bad” fluctuates with nearly every passing day.

Also troubling is the often destructive way in which these social perceptions are then applied to the past.

Tearing down statues of figures which might hold reprehensible qualities (in today’s world) trends toward an

SPORTS

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Online at: www.wfuogb.com Twitter: @sports_ogb Editors: Essex Thayer, thayse20@wfu.edu Christina DeNovio, denoca20@wfu.edu

OLD GOLD & BLACK

Off-season update on men's basketball Wake Forest has had significant roster turnover, with nine players leaving the program

BY COOPER SULLIVAN Asst. News Editor sullcg20@wfu.edu

It’s been six weeks since Trey Wertz released his buzzer-beating threepointer and Prentiss Hubb unleashed his extended third finger to the crowd of Wake Forest students at the end of the first round of the ACC Tournament in Greensboro. While there was a lot of yelling in the mezzanine on the way to the parking lot, no one wanted to dwell too long on the heartbreaking end to Steve Forbes’ inaugural season and neither did he. That meant preparation for next season, immediately.

In comes the “Get Right” program: seven weeks of “intense” strength training and conditioning. Junior guard Daivien Williamson, freshman guard Carter Whitt, sophomore forward Ody Oguama, junior forward Isaiah Mucius and redshirt freshman forward Tariq Ingraham are all part of the offseason program that tracks and ranks each player’s effort and goal achievement.

“You better not be last,” Forbes said in a press conference on March 15.

Through four weeks Williamson has gained 11 lbs, Whitt has gained nine, Oguama seven, Mucius six. Ingraham has lost three pounds.

Forbes expressed his excitement about the progress he has seen with all five players in the program, especially Williamson and Ingraham.

“It is encouraging to me because Daivien has never really excelled in

the weight room, he’s excelled more on the court than he has in the weight room.," Forbes said. "I can tell a major difference in his body already. I challenged him the other day ‘can you play like that’ ... and from what I’ve seen in workouts, he can.”

“Tariq has been unbelievable," Forbes continued. "I mean as far as his conditioning, what he’s been through and where he’s at now ... the guy didn’t gain two pounds during the whole time he was out. That’s hard to do.

He didn’t get to do anything. Three months of inactivity but complete discipline to his diet and nutrition. That’s really hard for someone that young.

I’ve been very, very encouraged with what he has done coming off of [the Achilles injury].”

Expect these five players to contribute heavily next season as a wave of players are leaving the program, entering either the pros or the transfer portal. Of last year’s roster, nine players have announced that they will not be returning to the Demon Deacons, but that does not mean they cut ties from Forbes or the coaching staff.

“I’ve always maintained a relationship with the players that leave,” Forbes said. “I’m never going to turn my back on any young man that is not in this program anymore. They are good kids and they deserve our respect and they deserve [for] us to help them."

Jonah Antonio and Ian DuBose — who both joined the program this season as graduate transfers — have expressed their intent to play professionally. Antonio has signed with an agent, while DuBose has narrowed it down to three possible agents. Jalen Johnson, the third graduate transfer, will use his extra year of eligibility at a

different school. The 6’6" guard is currently still looking for a destination.

Junior guard and former Virginia Tech Hokie Isaiah Wilkins confirmed he would return to the state of Virginia by committing to Longwood University.

Freshman center Emmanuel Okpomo and freshman guard Quadry Adams will also be heading up north, joining Temple University and St. Bonaventure University, respectively. Sophomore forward Ismael Massoud will don purple and silver at Kansas State University. And recently, sophomore guard Jacobi Neath announced that he will be a Wisconsin Badger next season. Junior forward Blake Buchanan is still looking for somewhere to play after earning his Wake Forest degree this past May. In lieu of these departures, Forbes and staff searched this year’s transfer portal looking for two types of players — size and skill on the perimeter, and size and strength in the post — and that’s exactly what they got.

Jake LaRavia is a sophomore combo guard-forward from Indiana State University. Forbes would like to use the 6’9" 230 lb sophomore as an allaround player, citing his size, ball-handling and passing abilities. Dallas Walton, a senior center from the University of Colorado, was the second player to join the Demon Deacons. The sevenfooter has had knee problems in the past and sat out the previous season due to COVID-19 precautions, focusing on rehabilitation and strengthening his lower body. The final transfer for Coach Forbes is a familiar face from ETSU, reigning Southern Conference Freshman of the Year Damari Monsanto. Forbes initially recruited Monsanto prior to the 2019-2020 sea-

son in which he redshirted. The 6’6" forward has a “good feel," a “knack to rebound the ball” and according to his former coach, he has improved defensively. “[Originally], I had no intention of recruiting Damari because he wasn’t going to be available until the coaching change,” Forbes said. “And then when he entered the portal, I didn’t see any reason [for him] to go anywhere else.”

ETSU head coach Jason Shay resigned from his position on March 30, after facing backlash for allowing his players to protest during the national anthem. This move led to four players entering their name into the transfer portal, although, Monsanto was the only player that Forbes recruited to Wake Forest.

Transfer players will be able to come to campus once finals are taken and transcripts are cleared — which at the earliest would be May 24. Players can voluntarily work on strength and conditioning, but Forbes cannot organize official team activities until later.

When asked about the recent assistant coaching vacancy, Forbes said he hasn’t started the process of finding a replacement yet, and acknowledged that it takes a bit of time to find the right candidate for the job. He says it is “not a high priority” at the moment as he is more focused on recruiting and finding his former players new homes.

“I would like to have somebody on board before we start summer workouts in June," Forbes said. "Will it be before the end of school? That might be pushing it.”

All these changes aren’t enough to stop Forbes from looking ahead with eagerness. “I can’t wait to open that glass door in June and pop that whistle and get it going.”

Ivana Raca taken No. 28 overall in WNBA Draft After leading Wake Forest back to the NCAA Tournament, Raca was drafted in the third round

BY ESSEX THAYER Sports Editor thayse20@wfu.edu On April 15, Ivana Raca was selected No. 28 overall in the WNBA Draft, going in the third round to the Los Angeles Sparks. Raca is only the second player in Wake Forest history to be drafted into the WNBA. Raca is also the first Demon Deacon to be drafted since 2015, when San Antonio selected Dearica Hamby.

She is just the fifth Serbian and first Cyprus born player to be drafted.

Raca is recognized as one of the premier players in Wake Forest history. She is one

of only 28 members of the 1000-point club, easily surpassing that benchmark with 1482 career points. That total places her ninth in program history. Raca’s 715 career rebounds also slot her into 10th place. Her 18 double-doubles rank sixth in Wake Forest history.

Raca was a two-time All-ACC selection at Wake Forest, but this year she put her name on the map. Leading into the season, she was named to the Cheryl Miller Watch List as one of the best players in the country. She was also named a preseason ACC All-American.

Raca delivered on the hype, averaging 16.7 points and nine rebounds per game.

She started all 25 games and led the team in scoring 13 times. Raca also posted 10 double-double performances this past season.

Raca put together several show stopping performances during her final season. At Virginia Tech, she notched 17 points and grabbed a season-high 19 rebounds. In a win against Florida State, Raca dropped 24 points. Lastly, she tallied 21 points and 12 rebounds against UNC-Chapel Hill in the ACC Tournament.

Most notably, Raca became just the fourth Demon Deacon to be awarded first-team All-ACC honors and led the team back to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 1988.

Hopes are high for Raca to find success in the WNBA. With Candace Parker and Chelsea Gray leaving the Sparks in free agency, Raca will have an opportunity to earn significant playing time. If her performance at Wake Forest is indicative of her professional career, then the future looks bright.

Photo courtesy of Wake Forest Athletics

Raca posted 1482 points and 715 rebounds in her career at Wake Forest.

Old Gold & Black | Sports

Page 12| Thursday, April 22, 2021

Demon Deacons finish 2-2 rollercoaster week In the first two games, Wake Forest’s run differential was +23, it was -13 in their next two

swing the bat well — he’s had some timely hits and took advantage of some walks. Good all-around win that we needed.”

BY JAKE STUART Assistant Sports Editor stuaja20@wfu.edu

4/16: Wake Forest 11, Duke 0 In another offensive explosion and shutout, the Demon Deacons were victorious against Duke, 11-0.

After a gridlocked five innings to open the game, Costello scored the first run in the sixth inning for the Demon Deacons after an error from Blue Devils’ first baseman Chad Knight. Senior Shane Muntz continued the scoring when he launched a home run with two runners on base to extend the lead to 4-0. The catcher led all ACC hitters in OPS last season, and picked up his seventh home run this season.

The seventh inning was another big inning for Wake Forest when, following two hits and an intentional walk, the Demon Deacons struck paydirt. Seymour stepped up to the plate and hit yet another grand slam. The blast was his fourth home run in three games and his seventh of the season.

In the ninth inning, the Demon Deacons once again rallied and tacked three more runs onto the lead. Lanzilli doubled to left-field to bring home Wilken and score the first run of the inning. He finished with two hits and two RBIs in the contest. Tinsman grounded out but sent home another Wake Forest run.

Costello put one more run on the board with a single to bring home Muntz and make the score 11-0. The talented freshman from Miami, Fla., extended his hitting streak to 14 games, including six hits across the last two games.

In the win, six different Demon Deacon starters produced a hit, including a pair from Seymour, Lanzilli and Bennett. Costello had three of his own.

On the mound, junior Ryan Cusick pitched an absolute gem and picked up the win, allowing just four hits across seven scoreless innings of work. Additionally, the highly touted prospect threw 11 strikeouts. Junior Brennen Oxford and freshman Teddy McGraw pitched the final two innings without making any mistakes. For the Wake Forest pitching staff, the team pitched backto-back shutouts for the first time since April 12, 2018 versus Boston College.

Following another shutout victory, Wake Forest head coach Tom Walter was again impressed.

“Ryan Cusick was awesome tonight.

We knew from the first inning he was throwing his curveball for strikes, and he actually got his changeup going today,” Walter said. “Offensively, we didn’t do a whole lot early, but got big home runs from Shane Muntz and Bobby Seymour, so we did just enough. Always good to get a Friday win without burning your best bullpen pieces, it puts us in good shape for the rest of the series for sure.”

4/13: Wake Forest 12, App State 0 In a midweek out-of-conference matchup, the Wake Forest Demon Deacons crushed the Appalachian State Mountaineers in Boone, N.C., 12-0.

Following a 0-4 stretch that included losses against out of conference opponent Liberty and ACC foe No. 13 Virginia Tech, Wake Forest found itself in a must-win situation. The Deacons controlled the game against the Mountaineers from start to finish with both gloves and bats. In the second inning, senior first baseman Bobby Seymour hit a solo home run to center-field to open the scoring. The nation’s 2019 RBI leader hit two home runs in his previous game and continued on his tear against Appalachian State. One inning later, junior Brendan Tinsman hit another solo home run, this one to rightfield. It was one of two hits in the game for the junior, and his second home run since returning back from COVID-19 restrictions and injury. But, the Demon Deacons were nowhere near done.

In a fifth inning offensive explosion, Wake Forest added seven runs and further rattled the Appalachian State pitching staff. The Demon Deacons loaded the bases with one out and scored three runs via a trio of walks from junior Michael Turconi, freshman Brock Wilken and Seymour. Senior Chris Lanzilli then hit a grand slam to left-field and extended the Wake Forest lead to 9-0.

It was the outfielder’s sixth home run and first grand slam of the season. The grand slam was the 37th home run of his career. He now has the 10th-most in Demon Deacon history.

The seventh inning was big for Wake Forest, as three more runs were added to the blowout lead. Hits from Seymour and Freshman Lucas Costello, among others, brought the score to 12-0.

In the win, seven Wake Forest players had a hit and the Demon Deacons had a total of 17 baserunners. Freshman Jake Reinish picked up his first collegiate hit for Wake Forest, while Wilken extended his hitting streak to 11.

On the mound, the Demon Deacons pitched flawlessly, allowing just two hits. Sophomore Reed Mascolo got the start for Wake Forest and picked up his second win of the season, throwing five scoreless innings and allowing just two hits. The Seton Hall transfer has gone 2-1 with a 1.40 ERA this season.

The bullpen pitched four hitless innings of relief and combined to throw six strikeouts to close out the win. It was the second time all season that the Demon Deacons shut out their opponents.

Wake Forest Head Coach Tom Walter was thrilled with the all-around team performance in the win.

“Obviously a good team win there.

Reed Mascolo was really sharp, it was the best he’s thrown all year,” Walter said. “Bobby Seymour continues to

4/17: Wake Forest 2, Duke 11 In game two against ACC opponent Duke, the Wake Forest Demon Deacons could not match the offensive production they displayed in their previous two games.

In the first inning, Duke opened the scoring with a single from Michael

Rothenberg that brought home Joey Loperfido. One batter later, Chase Cheek doubled to extend the Blue Devil lead to 2-0. Duke added a pair of runs in the second inning off a double from Loperfido. He finished with four hits in the game.

Wake Forest scored a run of their own in the third inning via a single from Wilken that scored Tinsman and narrowed the gap to 4-1. The phenomenal freshman is ranked third in the ACC in home runs and No. 11 in the conference for runs batted in.

In the fourth inning, Duke extended their lead off a pair of explosive extra-base hits. RJ Schreck doubled and Rothenberg launched a three-run home run to right-field to extend the lead to 8-1. The catcher had a monster day with three hits, four RBIs and two runs scored.

In the seventh inning with the count full, senior Michael Turconi blasted a solo home run, his first of the season, to cut the deficit to 8-2.

A Blue Devil home run in the seventh inning made the final score 11-2.

On the mound, senior William Fleming had another tough outing for Wake Forest. He lasted just four innings and allowed eight runs on 13 hits. Fleming is in search of a spark after going 0-2 and allowing 20 earned runs and 32 hits in just 14 innings of work during his three April starts.

Coach Walter expressed his disappointment in the blowout loss.

“We gave up 10 runs today with two outs. We’re one pitch away from getting into the dugout several times along the way, and just weren’t able to make that pitch,” Walter said. “We’re right where they are in the standings and battling to get in the conference tournament, so tomorrow’s a must win game.”

4/18: Wake Forest 7, Duke 11 In a must-win game, Wake Forest lost a slugfest, despite yet another tremendous fifth-inning rally.

Duke opened the contest with momentum from the day prior. In the first inning, the Blue Devils mustered four runs through a pair of RBI singles and groundouts. One inning later, designated hitter Chad Knight hit a solo home run to left-field that extended the early lead to 5-0.

Wake Forest answered with a ferocious fifth inning. Costello singled to

bring home Broderick and the first Demon Deacon run. Wilken added one more run on a bases-loaded walk, and Seymour blasted a grand slam to rightfield.

The longshot provided Wake Forest a lead of 6-5. Seymour is ranked No. 9 in the ACC in RBIs this season. Furthermore, the talented first baseman is among the top-15 in the ACC with eight home runs.

A home run and several base hits gave Duke a lead of 7-6 in the bottom of the fifth inning. But, the Demon Deacons would not go away. In the sixth inning, a double from Cecere and a sacrifice fly from Costello tied the game back up at seven.

Despite the Wake Forest rally, a pair of two-run home runs in the seventh and eighth innings gave Duke a lead of 11-7.

The scoring ended there.

Three Demon Deacons finished with multiple hits in the game, including Turconi (3), Costello (2) and Cecere (2). In the loss, Tinsman extended his hitting streak to nine games.

On the mound, freshman Rhett Lowder earned the start for Wake Forest and had a tough day, allowing seven runs on 10 hits through 4.1 innings.

Freshmen Hunter Furtado and Camden Minacci combined to allow four runs on four hits in 3.1 innings of work.

“Needless to say, it was a must-win game, and we didn’t come through,” Walter commented. “I think we went 2-for-17 against their bullpen. We obviously didn’t make a couple of pitches we needed to and left a couple fastballs flat against hitters that have holes. If you make the pitches, you get them out. If you don’t, then bad things can happen.”

In both wins this week and in three of the four games total, Wake Forest did not commit any errors, a huge improvement from the eight errors in the previous series against Virginia Tech. The Demon Deacons have been hurt all season by their 0.965 fielding percentage (11th in the ACC).

After the 2-2 week, the Demon Deacons will stay on the road for four more games, including a midweek out of conference matchup against Western Carolina set for April 20. Another ACC weekend series will follow on April 2325 in South Carolina, as Wake Forest will square off against Clemson.

Photo courtesy of Wake Forest Athletics

On April 16, ace pitcher and junior Ryan Cusick threw seven scoreless innings and recorded 11 strikeouts, picking up his second win this season.

Thursday, April 22, 2021 | Page 13

Sports | Old Gold & Black

Deacon Spotlight: Reed Mascolo

BY CHRISTINA DENOVIO Sports Editor denoca20@wfu.edu

Hailing from Fairfield, Conn., Reed Mascolo is a pitcher on the Wake Forest baseball team. After attending the Brunswick School and earning three varsity letters throughout his time in high school, Mascolo spent the 2019-2020 school year at Seton Hall University, where he pitched in three games before the season was cut short due to the COVID-19 pandemic. He then transferred to Wake Forest. Mascolo is an academic sophomore but is considered a freshman baseball player for the Demon Deacons.

His older brother, Chase, also played baseball for the Deacs and graduated in 2020. Though this is Mascolo’s first year at Wake Forest, his previous college baseball experience makes him stand out from other freshmen.

Christina DeNovio: How did you first get involved with baseball? How old were you?

Reed Mascolo: I’ve been playing ever since I was in T-ball as a little kid. My best friend’s dad always coached us, and I guess that was a big reason why I stuck with it for so long. I really didn’t get serious with it until high school, and that’s when I decided I wanted to play in college. From then on, I’ve pursued it with great passion and I’ve loved it ever since.

CD: What drew you to pitching?

RM: I guess I was just always better at it. I wasn’t that good of a hitter, and I was always a better pitcher. They told me if I wanted to play at the next level, then I should be a pitcher, so I just stuck with that and focused more on that than hitting and whatnot.

CD: How did you end up at Wake Forest?

RM: I recently transferred here. My brother went here, and I always liked the school. I took a different path out of high school, and it ended up not really working out. I decided I wanted to leave, and it just so happened that a spot opened up here, so it’s been working out really well. I’m just super happy that I got the opportunity to play here.

CD: What was it like having a brother that not only played baseball, but also played for Wake Forest?

RM: It’s cool. He’s not playing this year, but he’s still here as a grad student. I still get to see him all the time, and going to school with him is cool. I got to play with him a little bit in high school. It would’ve been really great if he was still playing this year and we got to play together. Still, he was a really hard worker and kind of paved the path for me and made my role a little easier coming in.

CD: What do you like about being a part of the team here at Wake Forest?

RM: I think we’ve got a really good group of guys, we’re close-knit. We’ve got a lot of culture and team chemistry, and I think the energy lately has been a lot better. No matter if it’s a younger guy or an older guy, everyone’s pulling for each other, and everyone just does a great job of getting behind their players and working for each other. We get along really well.

Photo courtesy of Wake Forest Athletics

Mascolo has pitched in nine games this season, and Wake Forest has won four out of his five starts. He threw a season-high five strikeouts at Appalachian State.

CD: How does it feel to be part of such a young, up-and-coming team, especially as one of the several freshman pitchers?

RM: It’s good. This year’s been a little tough, too, because our team’s so young and the hardest jump to make is from high school to college baseball.

I think the COVID freshmen and true freshmen have all done a really good job of adapting to that change and stepping up into some big-time roles. I think, going forward, it’s going to be a really great group of guys and that there’s a lot of leaders on the team, including younger guys who have stepped up this year and haven’t acted like freshmen but more like upperclassmen. They’ve been really mature.

CD: You recently had a very successful outing against Appalachian State with five strikeouts, no walks and only two hits. How does that kind of game boost your confidence and belief in yourself going forward?

RM: At the beginning of the season I had a couple of rough outings, and I didn’t throw that well. It’s never fun not throwing well. I just stuck to what I was good at and kept focusing and working hard. When my next opportunity came around, I made sure I went out there and gave it everything I had. I’ve just been rolling since then, and I’ve been trying to keep that same energy every game. I’m trying to keep the same approach I’ve had in the past. The coaches have been great — [Assistant] Coach [John] Hendricks and [Head] Coach [Tom] Walter really helped me out this year, pitching-wise. They have helped me by boosting my confidence and getting me ready for the season. All the guys supporting me really helped. I’ve been learning from the coaches, I’ve

been learning from the guys. It’s just a great experience here, and it’s a great learning culture to get better and become a better player, on and off the field.

CD: What would you like to improve on during the rest of the season?

RM: I just want to keep throwing well, doing anything I can to get our team a shot at the ACC Tournament this year and potentially get a regional bid. That is tough with our record right now, but if we just keep working hard, we’re definitely capable of doing that. We have enough talent to do it.

CD: Have you set any personal goals for yourself for your remaining seasons at Wake Forest?

RM: It was a big step even getting here. The biggest thing was to just get on the field and help the team in any way I can. I found myself falling into a reliever role, and then eventually a starter role during the mid weeks. My big goal is just to try to help us win and throw well. Everything’s been working out well so far, and I want to continue going down that path, and be successful in any way I can.

CD: Do you know what you would like to pursue after baseball?

RM: I’m an Economics major. I’m not 100% sure of what I want to get into, but my dad does a lot of retail, so I’d probably like to do something along the lines of retail and sales.

Editors Note: This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity and brevity

Page 14| Thursday, April 22, 2021

Old Gold & Black | Sports

Julian Edelman retires after 12-year career Edelman was drafted by the New England Patriots in the seventh round of the 2009 NFL Draft

BY NICK BRIGGS Contributing Writer brigna18@wfu.edu

On Oct. 10, 2019, the defending Super Bowl Champion New England Patriots hosted the New York Giants in a Thursday night primetime game. The 5-0 Patriots had a red-hot defense that was setting the league on fire. With a fearsome front seven and a secondary which included the eventual 2019 Defensive Player of the Year Stephon Gilmore, the 2-3 Giants did not seem to be a true threat.

While I was confident that the Giants would not come away with a win that Thursday night, history has taught me that Giants-Patriots matchups are anything but predictable. The last time the Giants and Patriots has squared off in November 2015, the final score of the game came on a last-second 54yard field goal that resulted in a 27-26 win for the Patriots.

During that game, however, wide receiver Edelman suffered an injury to his foot that would force him to miss up to six weeks of action. Such would be problematic for an offense that revolved around Edelman’s ability to open up the middle of the field.

Fast forward four years to a beautiful, fall evening in Foxborough, Mass. in 2019 when Edelman was healthy and active for the matchup against the New York Giants. I was in attendance for this Thursday night matchup in Foxborough, and about three hours before kickoff, I decided to take a lap around Gillette Stadium before heading to my seat. As I wrapped around the side of the stadium — away from the tailgates and away from the stores in Patriot Place — I could hear the slight thud of what sounded like somebody setting a volleyball. Away from all of the activity bustling outside of the stadium, I walked toward the subtle noise.

To my surprise, I found an alley with one sole security guard, an athletic trainer and Patriots wide receiver Edelman working on his hand-eye coordination by throwing and catching tennis balls against the wall.

Edelman, wearing his Bose headphones as he warmed up, was locked in. I had never had any experiences being that close to a professional athlete, especially not one who was as famous as Edelman.

About half an hour later, I stood in line for an autograph from former Patriots receiver Deion Branch who was signing memorabilia for fans before kickoff. As I approached the table, I said to Deion, “I just saw Edelman catching tennis balls off the side of Gillette Stadium, did you ever do anything like that?” Deion Branch chuckled, looked back up at me, and said jokingly, “Nope.

That man Jules sure is a clown.”

Branch, just like myself and many other Patriots fans, knew that Edel-

man was the hardest working man in the building. His determination, grit and dedication allowed him to thrive and develop into an NFL legend.

Rewind a bit to opening day of the 2008 NFL season when Patriots star quarterback Tom Brady experienced a gruesome hit to the knee delivered

by Kansas City Chiefs defensive back Bernard Pollard. As a result of the hit, Brady tore both his MCL and ACL and would miss the rest of the 2008 NFL season.

The news was devastating for Patriots fans. Just months earlier they had suffered the heartbreak of an Eli Manning miracle that resulted in a Super Bowl loss and an uninspiring end to an undefeated season. Now, as the 2008 season began featuring a reloaded Patriots roster poised to dominate their schedule once more, the team would have to move forward without the player many now recognize as the greatest quarterback of all time.

Despite some offensive struggles, the Patriots’ weaponry still often proved too potent for many NFL defenses.

Further, the team’s defense ranked No. 8 overall in the NFL. With former 2005 seventh-round pick Matt Cassel leading the Patriots at quarterback, they were able to tough out an 11-win season. Historically, an 11-win season in the NFL would guarantee a playoff berth, but a loaded AFC meant that the Patriots were going to miss the playoffs for the first time since 2002.

While the Patriots paced the NFL with a league-best 39-9 record from 2006-2008, dual-threat quarterback Julian Edelman was busy trying to will the Mid-American Conference’s (MAC) Kent State Golden Flashes to a winning record. The five foot ten Redwood City, Calif. native never experienced a record over .500 while playing for the Golden Flashes. Despite the hardships the team faced, Edelman posted solid numbers as a quarterback, totaling 4,997 passing yards, 30 passing touchdowns, 31 interceptions, 2,483 rushing yards and 22 rushing touchdowns over 31 games played at Kent State. His big-play-ability caught the eye of Patriots Head Coach Bill Belichick prior to the 2009 NFL Draft.

During the seventh round of the draft, the Patriots selected Edelman with the No. 232 pick. Edelman began his career with New England primarily as a punt returner, concluding his days as a quarterback. Edelman impressed the Patriots coaching staff during the 2009 preseason as a returner, displaying his agility, acceleration and overall versatility. Until 2013, Edelman primarily served as a kick returner, special teamer and occasional defender, taking reps at defensive back during Super Bowl XLVI against the New York Giants.

With the departure of all-pro receiver Wes Welker during the offseason leading up to the 2013 season, the Patriots signed former St. Louis Ram kick returner and receiver Danny Amendola to a five-year, $28.5 million deal. Many assumed Amendola would serve as a direct Wes Welker replace-

ment, but what many did not account for was the arrival of Edelman as one of the NFL’s elite slot receivers.

The 2013 NFL season saw the emergence of Edelman as a premier threat in the Patriots’ offense. With the Patriots’ offense in dire straits (Amendola missed games due to injury, and allpro tight end Rob Gronkowski spent most of the season on the injured reserve list), Edelman quickly became one of Tom Brady’s most trusted targets, racking up his first 1,000-yard receiving season in the NFL. After a loss in the 2014 AFC Championship game to Peyton Manning and the Denver Broncos, the 2014-15 New England Patriots rolled through opponents. That season concluded with the Patriots ending their decade-long Super Bowl drought with a win over the Seattle Seahawks, and Edelman solidifying himself as one of Brady’s favorite targets.

Over the next few years, Edelman would develop into one of the greatest Patriots ever. The ultimate underdog, he began to gain a reputation as a locker room leader and fan favorite.

He would provide Patriots nation with larger-than-life moments and repeatedly proved just how clutch he was. In the 2015 AFC Championship game against the Baltimore Ravens, the Patriots trailed by 10 points on two separate occasions. One of the main plays that got them back in the game was when Edelman caught a swing pass and tossed a 51-yard touchdown pass to Amendola to tie the game. Also, who can forget his incredible catch — millimeters off the ground — after a deflection in a sea of people during Super Bowl LI? During the 2019 AFC Championship Game against Kansas City, no-

body could stop Edelman on third down, and he was borderline unguardable in the Super Bowl, totaling 141 receiving yards and winning Super Bowl MVP. Edelman’s reliability and consistent ability to get open and make crucial plays in meaningful moments are what separated him in the minds of Patriots fans from the likes of more statistically successful players like Wes Welker. Edelman’s regularseason numbers may not be enough to get him into the NFL Hall of Fame, but as suggested by his ranking as No. 2 all-time in postseason receptions and receiving yards behind only Jerry Rice, he more than earned his pay when the lights shined the brightest.

Monday, April 12, 2021, moments after reports that the Patriots had terminated Edelman’s contract due to a failed physical, he announced his retirement from the NFL. He had been battling chronic knee issues dating back to last season. Edelman left Patriots Nation with two final words: “Foxboro Forever.”

He was proud to retire a Patriot, and finished as their fourth all-time receiving yards leader (6,822), and second all-time in receptions (620).

It is hard to speculate how successful Edelman might have been had he become the Patriots’ go-to receiver earlier on in his career, or had he avoided injury, especially during the 2017 season. Regardless of his numbers, however, one cannot tell the story of the Patriots dynasty without mentioning his name. One of the toughest, most versatile receivers of all time, never scared to take on a block, never frightened by any big stage, and always stepping up to the plate when his number was called, —Edelman, thank you for a great career.

Photo courtesy of Getty Images

Edelman was the game MVP when the Patriots won Super Bowl XLIII against the Los Angeles Rams. He caught 10 passes for 141 yards.

Page 15| Thursday, April 22, 2021

Old Gold & Black | Sports

Women’s soccer season comes to a close Unexpected cancellation leads to a shortened season for Wake Forest’s women’s soccer team

BY DELANEY MCSWEENEY Staff Writer mcswdj19@wfu.edu

After a season full of ups and downs, the Wake Forest women’s soccer team finished their season with five wins, seven losses, and two draws. Their season ended abruptly when their final game on the road against Louisville was canceled shortly before play was set to begin. With a couple of COVID-19 shutdowns and a few wins under their belts, the Wake Forest women’s soccer team was proud of the season they put together amid these uncertain times.

Senior Hannah Betfort spoke on the team’s season and dealing with COVID-19 issues, saying, “COVID certainly had a major impact since we had to split our season, and it limited our off season preparation. However, I think we showed a lot of resilience and made the most of our season.”

“I learned a lot about being adaptable,” Belfort added. “From changing positions multiple times to being a captain and learning how to best approach

each individual. I can definitely handle change better than before I got here.”

Betfort will continue her career by playing professionally next year for the Portland Horns.

With this season now over, the Demon Deacons will shift their focus to next season. Kaitlyn Parks, a rising junior, is expected to continue to start as the goalie after receiving ACC Defensive Player of the Week multiple times over the course of this past season.

“Moving from an underclassman to an upperclassman position, I feel that I will begin to progress into a leadership position,” Parks said. “The success I had as a player this season and the awards I was given allowed me to feel as if I can now inspire my other teammates and incoming freshmen to set goals and strive for success.”

Striving for success is exactly what Wake Forest women’s soccer plans to do over these next years. The team had glimpses of success this year, most notably when the team shut out a ranked Notre Dame team on the Irish’s home field.

“I have never been a part of a more eager-minded program, Parks said.”

Entering next semester will bring more experience and success for our program, which will allow us to beat future

Photo courtesy of defector.com

Hannah Betfort, who first started playing soccer at Wake Forest as a walk-on, was drafted to the NWSL’s Portland Thorns FC in January.

ranked teams as we did to Notre Dame last fall.”

The Deacs will also look to their younger players to build the program and obtain a highly successful season next year. Rising sophomore Midfielder Sophie Faircloth will continue to lead the team as she received ACC honors in her freshman year.

Achieving sustained success in these next coming seasons, however, can-

not be done without the knowledge instilled in the team by the departing seniors this year: Betfort, Abby McNamara and Jasmin Hillard.

“For future players, the best piece of advice I can give is to be ready for anything,” Betford said. “Embrace new challenges head on because adversity is what made me into the player I am today. Take everything as a learning experience and grow from it.”

The rise and fall of the European Super League Radical decision by European clubs shock the global soccer community

BY RAFAEL LIMA Senior Writer limara17@wfu.edu

The announcement for what would be the start of the richest and most glittering league ever seen in the football (soccer) world was made rather dimly.

A little before midnight on Sunday — after the jam-packed schedule of football fixtures for the day was long over — a simple three-page press release announced the daring creation of a breakaway league that would drastically reshape football everywhere: Super League.

“We will help football at every level and take it to its rightful place in the

Photo courtesy Sam Navarro

Real Madrid was one major club looking to join the new league.

world, Real Madrid President Florentino Pérez said in the press release.

Football is the only global sport in the world with more than four billion fans and our responsibility as big clubs is to respond to their desires.”

The idea was to create a closed league with 15 fixed members that would showcase Europe’s biggest football clubs battling against each other on a weekly basis. The 12 founding clubs — Real Madrid, Liverpool, Manchester United, Juventus, Arsenal, Barcelona, Milan, Inter Milan, Atlético Madrid, Chelsea, Manchester City, and Tottenham — would break away from the UEFA Champions League, currently the biggest club competition in the world.

The consolidation was a clear attempt to seize control of the biggest stage in club football — along with its massive revenues — from UEFA, European football’s administrative body. They were the main attraction after all. People tune in to the Champions League every year to watch Liverpool vs. Real Madrid or Barcelona vs. Juventus, not Sevilla vs. Rennes.

How could UEFA, or anyone for that matter, stand in the way of the billionaire clubs that already dictated much of the global football business anyways? From a business standpoint, the plan made perfect sense.

“I was surprised that it hadn’t happened sooner,” said economy Professor Todd McFall, who teaches an Economics in Sports class at Wake Forest University. “The openness of bidding for players and the relegation system in European soccer makes the risk-shar-

ing between team and player weigh so much more heavily — in terms of bearing the risk — on the teams than the players.”

The idea was to tilt the equation heavily in favor of club owners, much like the model used in American sports leagues in which fiscal regulatory measures — such as a salary cap and a closed ecosystem of franchises — give team owners more control over money circulation. It is decidedly a more profitable system than spending hundreds of millions of dollars on players not even to be guaranteed a place in the Champions League every year.

Arsenal, Tottenham, and Milan, for example, didn’t qualify for the current edition.

Only one problem remained: it’s not football.

From its inception, football has been a sport based on meritocracy, where a club must earn its right to compete and win at the highest level. It is like that to this day across the European continent, where as many as 736 clubs participated in the English FA Cup in 2020-21.

No matter the size and funds that a football club might have, they all still have a shot at qualifying for and winning competitions from the local to the continental level, the Champions league included.

That’s the principle underpinning the entire promotion/relegation system present in all national leagues across Europe. That’s the tradition that runs through the centuries-old history of the sport, especially in the U.K. where the game was first played.

“Manchester United, Liverpool and Arsenal, they should know better.

The history and tradition that runs through those three clubs is absolutely enormous and I value it … But, I tell you what, they leave a lot to be desired at this moment in time,” said Manchester United legend and Sky Sports pundit Gary Neville on the creation of the Super League during a Sky Sports broadcast.

Fans, players, managers, and media members alike denounced in unison what was seen as an attack on the essence of the beautiful game in favor of sheer profit for the already powerful few.

The worldwide blowback against such a tone-deaf proposal continued to escalate as club supporters, mainly in the U.K., took to the streets to protest.

Less than 48 hours after the 12 founding clubs’ joint announcement, it all came to a head when Chelsea supporters took over Fulham Road in London to protest against the Super League before the team’s home fixture against Brighton. The size of the protest was such that the Chelsea team bus could not initially get to Stamford Bridge for its Premier League game.

Midway through the protest, news broke that Chelsea was preparing to withdraw from the Super League, pulling the first thread away from the ill-fated project. Manchester City soon followed, and one by one, all six English clubs signaled their departure.

By late Tuesday night, the league was suspended completely.

Thus, the most ambitious and onesided project in football history unraveled — similarly to its sneaky inception — before the stroke of midnight.

LIFE

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PAG E 16

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OLD GOLD & BLACK

& M i c a h P o r t e r, p o r t m j 1 9 @ w f u , e d u A S S I S TA N T E D I T O R : J o e C h o , c h o y y 1 9 @ w f u . e d u

Wayward Fashion presents Earth Day show Student-led organization Wayward Fashion presents a fully sustainable fashion show for the student body, illuminating the intersections between sustainability and clothing

BY TAYLOR SCHUTT Staff Writer schutl20@wfu.edu

Several student-led organizations are celebrating Earth Day on April 22 with informational events and exciting activities.

Among these groups is Wayward Fashion — a sustainable fashion page created by President Alyse Harris (‘24) and Vice President Virginia Wooten (‘23) to teach students about buying second-hand clothing and how doing so can benefit our planet.

The duo began Wayward Fashion in January to encourage students at Wake Forest to buy from small businesses, secondhand stores and local artists. Throughout the semester, Wayward Fashion has been posting student spotlights on their Instagram page to showcase students with bold and defiant styles. Additionally, the fashion page recognizes and promotes unique artwork and clothing from small artists at Wake Forest and around the globe.

Wayward Fashion strives to celebrate self-expression through individuality and creativity in a sustainable manner.

“The thing that makes Wayward unique is that this is one of the first student-run organizations highlighting creative expression in a sustainable manner,” Wooten said when asked about the club.

This Friday, Wayward Fashion will be holding their first fully sustainable Earth Day fashion show under the Breezeway of The Scales Fine Arts Buildings from 5 7 p.m. Capacity is limited to 50 people, but that won’t stop the crew from putting on a spectacular show. All 50 spots were

Photo courtesy of Judy Assaud

Wayward Fashion was formed with the intention to bridge the gap between sustainability and the fashion industry.

filled in just a couple of days through The Link.

The entire show is produced by Wake Forest students with support from several sponsors, both on and off-campus. Secondhand stores in Winston-Salem, such as The Snob Shop, Finders Keepers and Style Encore provided the thrift outfits for the models. The Office of Wellbeing and the Student Activity Fund assisted with organizing the event as well. All 15 models in the show are Wake Forest students who will be wearing fully sustainable clothing and jewelry.

While talking with Harris about Wayward Fashion’s message, she stated: “With this fashion show, we hope to show students at Wake Forest that it is both easy and accessible to shop sustainably and as a byproduct, express yourself fully.”

The show will also be live-streamed for students, staff and families who were unable to grab a spot in person.

The featured logo was created by Harris and her mother. She explained the significance of the images by saying, “I wanted to not only represent our fully female staff but to also show that sustainability can be fun. This design is primarily inspired by Earth Day and sustainability in fashion.”

The other members of Wayward Fashion include the incredible women Roxie Ray (‘23), Judy Assaad (‘24), Abby McCabe (‘24), Tatum Pike (‘24), MK Englehardt (‘24), Leanna Bernish (‘24) and myself.

The images featured to promote the fashion show were created by Wayward Fashion’s graphic designer, Judy Assaad. Ray helps out as Vice President, McCabe manages the social media page and small artist spotlights, Englehardt handles student outreach and Bernish is the event planner.

Lastly, Pike and I are caption and writing editors. Together, our female power group has acquired over 200 followers on Instagram and organized the unique fashion show.

Wayward Fashion intends to hold the fully sustainable Earth Day fashion show every year while the crew is at Wake Forest.

“We are showing students how to express themselves through fashion in a way that is ethical and better for the environment, while simultaneously allowing a new sense of creative freedom through sustainable fashion,” Wooten said.

By purchasing clothing, jewelry, and shoes from secondhand stores and small businesses, people are able to avoid sweatshops and other clothing brands solely motivated by the bottom line. The alternative options provide individuals the ability

Photo courtesy of Alyse Harris

The fashion show will be on April 23 and will celebrate Earth Day through the merging of sustainability and fashion. to save money, help small businesses and purchase clothing in an ethical way.

Wayward Fashion will continue to give shoutouts to small artists and businesses and post student spotlights on their Instagram account. If you or others know of any relevant small artists or businesses, send them to Wayward Fashion’s Instagram page @waywardfashion.wf. Students can also submit photos of themselves or others in secondhand clothing to be featured on the page.

Students can shop more ethically by avoiding businesses like Amazon and Shein for clothing, and instead shop at the local Goodwill or Uptown Cheapskate.

Another eco-friendly fashion trend: make your own clothes either out of old outfits or consider starting from scratch with a good old sewing machine! Wayward Fashion hopes to teach students and others to be aware of their clothing and where it comes from.

Similar to caring about what’s in your food and how it’s made, people are encouraged to care about what’s in their clothing and how it’s made. So, next time you want a new outfit, shoes or jewelry, do some research to find an ethical business or second-hand store in your area that provides affordable, creative and ecofriendly clothing.

Page 17 | Thursdsay, April 22, 2021

Old Gold & Black | Life

Music Review | “Real Love Baby”

Artist showcases Romanticism Misty utilizes Romantic aesthetics to express beauty and the truth of real love

BY ELLY HONAKER Staff Writer honaer18@wfu.edu

Something about Father John Misty’s song “Real Love Baby” grabs ahold of you when you listen. The song’s fuzziness envelops the listener, easing them into a kind of dreamscape that is part classic love song (by virtue of its chords) and part personal transcendence (through its simple lyrics). It’s the simplicity of the folk ballad that strikes me most. It has a rightness of order that makes the words resonate with singularity and truth. This rightness of its order feels like an appreciation for the American Romantics like Ralph Waldo Emerson and Emily Dickinson, whose prose inspired readers and elicited forms of truth.

Emerson expresses how the etymology of words feeds into the idea that the basis of our complex emotional expressions can be reduced to observable, nat-

ural phenomena. If this theory remains true, the strength of Father John Misty’s song stems from its reliance on endurable imagery.

Misty speaks about being a part of the “stars and sky” of an idea “much older than you and me.” These lines serve to shift his expressions into a place not grounded in the temporal world, but rather a part of an ever-enduring system — a concept of existence that extends far beyond him.

Misty begins with, “Our hearts are free, so tell me what’s wrong with the feeling?” This lyrical sentiment reminds me of the mindset that Dickinson so often expresses, the idea that “the brain is wider than the sky,” that the individual’s transcendence from their physical life may lend itself to poetic expression.

The song then expresses, “I’m a flower, you’re my bee.” which harkens to another Dickinson poem, “To make a prairie, it takes a clover and one bee.” Truly, the idea of reciprocal imaginative power is found in the most basic of natural processes, like a singular pollination that unravels into a world of interlinked existence. Father John Misty then exclaims, “There’s a world inside me,” which again

holds a profound similarity to the aforementioned Dickinson poem, which later expresses that making a prairie takes, “One clover and a bee, and revery. The revery alone will do if bees are few.”

This idea of internal imagination and the ability to make an expansive world inside oneself shows a kindred connection between the ideas of this song and much of what Dickinson wrote about.

Both allude to a kind of mimicry of nature that leads to a profound realization of connection.

Father John Misty seems to be celebrating the Romantic mindset in this ballad. He wears the colors of the spirit of nature and wrestles with how profound emotional depth causes a kind of explosion of self-realization. He then expresses that such a realization arrives “just if for a minute and gone.”

Thus, this song becomes an example of how intimacy with nature may lead to a momentary capturing of truth that quickly dissipates from the slightest grasp of his hand. The beauty of this song comes from the experience of grappling with an overwhelming cosmic idea of connectivity and faltering to make it last a lifetime.

Album Review | “ROADRUNNER: NEW LIGHT, NEW MACHINE”

Boy band evolves with new album

BROCKHAMPTON’s new album provides introspective and mature take BYISABELLA MASON Staff Writer masoif20@wfu.edu BROCKHAMPTON’s latest album, “ROADRUNNER: NEW LIGHT, NEW MACHINE”, offers a more mature perspective than the boy band has cultivated to date in their discography, with catchy tracks and a cohesive sound.

The album starts with a repetitive sample on “BUZZCUT”, not waiting long before the beat begins and Kevin Abstract raps about his family dynamics. “CHAIN ON” features a catchy riff and an exciting JPEGMAFIA appearance. “COUNT ON ME” is a different vibe, opening with a whistle riff and quickly dropping into a beat with a little more swagger than we’ve seen before. Oddly enough, Shawn Mendes is featured on this track. This surprising for me — it felt like a weird crossover episode that I didn’t ask for, but still found enjoyable.

“BANKROLL” is a little more aggressive than other tracks we’ve seen on this album so far — Merlyn Wood is the main vocalist on it, and his voice conveys that feeling of investment and passion. This is a classic BROCKHAMPTON piece and sounds like a more mature version of several tracks off of “iridescence”. I liked Merlyn’s reference in the last couple verses of “BANKROLL” to Jordan Peele’s “Get

Out”. At one point Merlyn says “Sunken place always comin’ in your dreams.”

These lyrics are a possible transition to the spoken-verse intro of the next song, “THE LIGHT”, in which Joba discusses his father’s suicide. This is new for BROCKHAMPTON — a meaningful, dark notion of death and loss, and this sense of maturity. This song, to me, symbolizes change, or transition at the very least. “Something’s missing’ deep inside / The light.”

After “THE LIGHT” comes to an end, we get “WINDOWS”, which is, to me, forgettable in the shadow of “THE LIGHT”. Still, this song serves as a good transition from seriousness to eventual joviality, with a deep beat and intimidating verses.

After “I’LL TAKE YOU ON” and “OLD NEWS”, we get my favorite track off the entire album. “WHAT’S THE OCCASION?”, which for some reason, absolutely does it for me. It’s got this nostalgic, falling, “Rick & Morty”-climaxtheme sort of attitude that I can’t shake. It just feels like something’s gone wrong and you’ve got feelings about it. I like songs that access emotion, and “THE LIGHT” and “WHAT’S THE OCCASION?” both do that, probably providing a rationale for why I’m so partial to both of these songs.

“WHEN I BALL” comes on and is, for me, probably the most forgettable track, not because it’s bad — it’s pretty good — but more so because it’s the song I want to end so I can get to the next one — “DON’T SHOOT UP THE PARTY”.

“All-American self-hatred runs deep / White boys all I see whenever I sleep / [expletive] think I think these thoughts on purpose / But I knew ‘bout NSYNC ‘fore cash could rule me.” These lyrics are of particular importance in light of current events, as Kevin addresses the Eurocentrism that plagues his self-esteem, and has from a young age. The title of the song gives away the message. Abstract will go on to note the effects of gun violence, asking for his party to not be shot up, making note of the horrifying homicide and suicide rates in the U.S. “What’s the issue? / Why you gotta grab that pistol? / Think about who gon’ miss you / Never know what I been through.”

The outro of “ROADRUNNER” is “THE LIGHT PT. II”, which features vocals from Joba and Abstract, just like “THE LIGHT”, The album ends on an introspective note, which symbolizes BROCKHAMPTON’s growth as a group and as individuals.

The largest difference between “ROADRUNNER” and previous BROCKHAMPTON albums, I’d say, would be the ease at which “ROADRUNNER” plays. By this, I mean that the album is meticulously engineered — it has a good flow and the songs run intuitively. I’m impressed by the growth that is so obvious in this album; it just feels more mature — the result of a collective group of voices not at war with each other. The cohesive nature of “ROADRUNNER” will make it one of BROCKHAMPTON’s best.

“The light is worth the wait,” reads the album’s promotional phrase, and it rings true throughout.

THE HOT LIST 1.

TOP TEN COOLEST BABY NAMES: Rutherfordton Phrank

3.

(Not) Will Zimmerman Baby

5.

MaKayleigh

$elinna

7.

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Flour (The Spice)

9.

*Laugh Track* Ben

LOCALE OF THE WEEK By: Joe Cho

Photo courtesy of nawabindiancuisinecom NAWAB Tired of the same basic, vanilla sandwiches and mundane meals? Want to spice up your gustatory game? Try Indian cuisine! Nawab is one of those restaurants where you will feel like you’re stepping into paradise. With its famous chicken tikka masala and basmati rice, the classic meal will fill you up. Nawab provides seafood and vegan options and various appetizers and deserts, too. They also make a mean New York-style cheesecake. Located on Stratford, Nawab is a site to visit.

Page 18 | Thursdsay, April 21, 2021

Old Gold & Black | Life

Satire | Coping

Building a friendship with the stress within A Wake Forest student’s perspective on how to deal with the pressures of the times

BY EMILY BEBENEK Staff Writer bebeek20@wfu.edu

It’s that time of year again, folks.

That time when you start to consider dropping out (your parents’ basement could be considered cozy from certain angles), giving up (we live on a giant ball of dirt floating through the cold vacuum of space, so why do I care about my astronomy exam anyway?) or just moving to Canada and forgetting everything you’ve ever loved (I’ve heard that they’re very nice up North and I just need that energy right now).

But fear not! I have some incredible tips and tricks to make sure that you make it to the end of the semester in one piece (physically, at least — I can’t promise anything else).

My first tip is a bit of a no-brainer: get some R&R! Can’t find time in

your busy schedule? Make time! You’ve been to that class countless times over the semester — you aren’t missing anything! The COVID test site is too far away? Skip it! You have at least two weeks until they notice (I know from experience). Don’t let all those haters get in the way of the hallmarks of a true college experience: an abysmal sleep schedule and excessive internet usage.

My second tip comes from years of experience: use escapism to create a world in which you’ve already graduated college, married rich and have nothing to do but spend money and look sexy. The real world might come calling, but give that bitch a good kick in the butt and go back to your imaginary yacht party with Lizzo.

You have better things to do.

If your fantasy world crumbles around you, take as long as you need to have your mental breakdown (just don’t smash anything too expensive — I know you can’t pay for it). Then, once you’ve properly grieved your gorgeous

spouse and perfect life, try giving back.

The world provides you with snacks and drinks, and it’s only fair to share what’s left with Mother Nature.

Carefully place your food wrappers on the ground to demonstrate your appreciation. And, when you see someone else’s offerings laying around, leave them there! It’s very rude to disturb a sacred site. You’ll find that the peace of mind you get from sharing your blessings with the world is a truly satisfying feeling.

Now, I know it may seem unorthodox, but I promise you this next one works wonders. Call up your relatives and scream at them. Unleash all the pent-up rage from years of their passive-aggressive behavior and social incompetence. You can’t be afraid to express yourself. Yes, you might get disowned by your parents, but just remember that expressing how you feel is never something to be ashamed of. In fact, try this with your friends too! This way, you can see their appreciation for your honesty firsthand.

And, even if you can’t find the time to take a break from academics, don’t strangle yourself with your fairy lights just yet! There are still ways to impress your teachers and reduce your stress.

Start speaking up in class, and don’t be shy about how much you resent the teacher and their grading system.

Your professors will appreciate the feedback! Also, make sure to drink and eat regularly, using candy and alcohol to sustain you through the long nights.

Gotta stay healthy!

My final tip is this: leave the country.

Take advantage of a Wake Forest study abroad program and run away before they can drag you back to the States.

Change your name, create a new identity and live your life as a somewhat content retail worker in Europe or Australia. Forget you ever knew this place. You’ll be much happier, I swear.

But, if you do choose to stick it out, know that we’re all in the same boat. If you ever want someone to scream into the void with, you know where to find me. Go Deacs!

Movie Review | “Jurassic Park”

“Jurassic Park” discusses moral & ethical consideration The 1990s film about a dinosaur theme park still remains a classic, years later

BY ALYSSA SOLTREN Contributing Writer soltac20@wfu.edu

I remember the muggy night in the summer of 2015 when my parents selected a movie that, until that year, I had been sheltered from because my parents thought its graphic imagery would upset my soft spirit.

Throughout the entirety of “Jurassic Park”, I was entranced.

I grew to adore the film so much that I saw “Jurassic World” in the theater later that summer. I found the original novel and read it in five days — later, I obtained and read the sequel as well. I raved to my friends to the point where one of them mentioned to me that this had become a sort of obsession. I’m not alone in feeling this way. The famous techno-thriller had a colossal effect on the film industry, American pop culture and generations of viewers. It packs a philosophical punch, as well.

Prior to “Jurassic Park”’s release, many artistic visions proved difficult to adapt into live-action films.

Initially, director Steven Spielberg had his creative department design animatronic dinosaurs, but when

he wasn’t satisfied with the results, a member of the team convinced Spielberg to let him try computergenerated imagery instead. The final product looked amazing. This ingenious decision propelled the creation of numerous spectacular films — including “The Lord of the Rings”, “Star Wars” and more — because it prompted directors to reconsider what was possible.

The general public felt the groundshaking impact of Jurassic Park as well. Thanks to legendary composer John Williams, many people can recognize the movie’s main theme almost instantly. It flawlessly suits the characters’ sheer sense of awe at seeing a gigantic, living dinosaur for the first time. Such miraculous wonders planted inspiration in the minds of countless young audience members, some of whom grew to become archaeologists, geologists and paleontologists and continue to make new discoveries today.

Iconic scenes and quotes from “Jurassic Park” have been adopted into meme culture, as typically happens to either very good or very bad films (this case is obviously the former).

Undoubtedly, “Jurassic Park” was well-deserving of its brief stint as the highest-grossing film of all time.

Although the source material is far more nitty-gritty, the movie cleverly adapts the novel’s technical and philosophical ideas. Modern tech-

nology is developing faster than ever, and this raises ethical concerns. The book’s author, Michael Crichton, utilized the character Ian Malcolm to voice his thoughts on humanity’s dilemma.

In the movie, Malcolm expresses concern regarding how the geneticists focus solely on how they could make dinosaurs without stopping to consider whether they should. The consequences of their creations become increasingly evident and were also foreshadowed by Malcolm’s ex-

planation of chaos theory and by Alan Grant tying together his mismatched seatbelt ends on the helicopter ride, which symbolized the all-female dinosaurs figuring out how to reproduce.

When Wake Forest’s Student Union held a watch party for this incredible film two weeks ago, of course I attended. Appreciating such an exceptional and poignant story is my duty as a fan, and I hope people continue to enjoy “Jurassic Park” as time progresses.

Photo courtesy of IMDB

The cover art for the film “Jurassic Park” depicts the leads protagonists narrowly escaping the clutches of the park’s most dangerous beast.

Life | Old Gold & Black

Thursday, April 22, 2021 | Page 19

Music | “Sticky Fingers”

Celebrating the profound rock of our past

The Rolling Stones’ most well-regarded album, “Sticky Fingers”, turns 50 this year

BY TAYLOR SCHUTT Staff Writer schutl20@wfu.edu On April 23, 1971, The Rolling Stones, released their iconic album “Sticky Fingers”.

Filled with sex, drugs and rock ‘n roll, The Stones’ ninth British studio album reached No. 1 on both U.K. and U.S. music charts.

With slow blues tunes like “Wild Horses” and “Sister Morphine” mixed in with the classic jam “Brown Sugar”, The Stones continued their streak of producing timeless projects. Fast forward 50 years later and the music is still being played on radio stations, speakers and headphones all around the world.

Most people know “Sticky Fingers” for its provocative album cover. The image is a photograph of model Joe Dallesandro’s pelvic area by the famous artist Andy Warhol. Due to The Stones’ sexy reputation — especially with their frontman, Mick Jagger — many fans believed this was Jagger’s body. Warhol and his team, The Factory, initially created the cover with a working zipper that revealed underwear. This was later removed in the updated version because the interactive zipper damaged the vinyl inside. Although Warhol did not take the photograph himself, his message behind the image is still insinuated with the title.

The album begins with Keith Richards strumming the groovy guitar riff of “Brown Sugar”, and Mick Jagger soon comes in with some highly controversial lyrics. The song describes a sexual, abusive and nonconsensual relationship between female slaves and their master in New Orleans.

Since then, Jagger and The Stones have clarified that their lyrics were not meant to be so insensitive and the group apologized for their actions.

Next up is “Sway” with strong drums and loud electric guitar solos. The song is mainly rock n’ roll but incorporates some strings towards the end to add a bit of flare.

Following “Sway” is “Wild Horses”, a slow and sorrowful song featuring both electric and acoustic guitar. The lyrics demonstrate a longing for an individual through beautiful background voices and harmonies. Many fans believe the song is about Jagger’s on-and-off relationship with Marianne Faithfull, but guitarist Keith Richardson says otherwise. Richardson clarified that he intended to write the song about missing his newborn son while on tour in 1969.

Following this story, the Stones return to their blues-rock with “Can’t You Hear Me Knocking?”, which sounds like a fun jam session. The song brings in trumpets for a jazz-like vibe as Jagger shouts rockin’ lyrics and Richardson shreds his guitar solos.

The final song on side A, “You Gotta Move”, keeps the blues-rock sound strong but includes a bit more country twang.

Personally, the song reminded me a bit

Photo courtesy of IMDB

The Rolling Stones communicate themes of abuse and drug misuse in their album “Sticky Fingers”, leaving fans wanting more fifty years later.

of a slower version of Geroge Thorogood & The Destroyers’ 1982 hit “Bad to the Bone”.

Flip the record to side B to start the groovy tune “Bitch”. Keeping in line to the vulgarity of the title, The Stones crank up the volume with lots of trumpets and electric guitar.

The energy switches again with the slow and painful song “I Got the Blues”. The trumpets, electric guitar and stellar organ solo produce a gospel feel.

Next, “Sister Morphine” slows your brain down to make you feel like you’re

floating. With slow piano and guitars, the song sounds trippy and describes all kinds of drugs.

Then, “Dead Flowers” begins with a folk sound and an exaggerated twang from Jagger. The tune keeps an upbeat feel and amplifies the blues-rock vibe of the entire album. Finally, The Stones end with an amazing crescendo song that slowly increases in volume. “Moonlight Mile” mixes delicate strings for a soft beginning, then proceeds into classic rock. Overall, this blues-rock album is great for a drive down the highway.

TV Show | “Invincible”

Amazon Prime delivers smashing new comic series “Walking Dead” director Robert Kirkman takes on the realm of superheroes

BY ERIC OMOROGIEVA Contributing Writer omorei17@wfu.edu

This year has delivered many entertaining comic book-inspired shows so far, and many more are on the way.

Shows like the MCU’s “Wandavision”, “Falcon” and the “Winter Soldier” as well as DC/CW’s “Superman and Lois” have kept fans excited and eager for each new episode.

While Disney+ typically dominates Fridays with their MCU releases, they have been met with quite the challenge recently. Amazon Prime Video’s “Invincible” has quickly become a hit in the last month, gaining more and more attention each week.

The animated show follows a very different yet familiar superhero universe created by Robert Kirkman, who already created the “Walking Dead”. The show is based on the comic of the same name written by Kirkman

and features an amazing cast led by Steven Yuen who plays the protagonist, Mark Grayson. Currently, the show is six episodes into its eight-episode first season.

The pilot episode of “Invincible” is an amazing diversion to what is at the core of the series. First, we get a superhero universe largely modeled after DC Comics’ where there is a main superhero team (similar to the Justice League) that saves the day whenever the world is in danger. At the head of this team is Mark’s father, Omni Man, a hero from a different planet who, since his arrival, has become Earth’s strongest protector. Mark is in his last stage of puberty, praying that his powers will finally arrive while simultaneously facing the challenges of a normal high school life.

The episode is built up to tell the standard family-friendly origin story, but it ends up being so much more.

“Invincible” is violent, gruesome and filled with countless creative twists and turns.

The cast for the show is star-studded as Kirkman makes sure not to hold his

punches in recruiting the best talent even if they only appear in one or two episodes. “Invincible” primarily stars Steven Yuen, J.K Simmons, Sandrah Oh and Zazie Beats, but also features big names like Mahershala Ali, Jon Hamm, Mark Hamill and Seth Rogen in various episodes. For better or worse, it’s often a secondary thought to note who is who because you’re so focused on the story and characters that bring life to these actors and actresses. Yuen and Simmons have great chemistry together as a father-son duo, and Beats does a good job playing Amber, who becomes closer with Mark in each episode.

The world-building of the show also deserves praise. Within just a couple of episodes, Kirkman depicts a whole world of diverse superhumans and villains to counter them. Bringing influence from another already well -established company in DC Comics allowed Kirkman to format a world that didn’t take much getting used to. Nonetheless, this world becomes something of its own soon after the first episode.

In “Invicible”, viewers constantly get introduced to new characters with unique abilities that aren’t limited to the typical tropes of super strength or speed.

Characters like Atom Eve (with her ability to alter reality) or Duplikate (who constantly makes duplicates of herself that die time and time again in battle) make for some very exciting action scenes.

These characters, along with the over the top violence, combine to form something many fans have not seen before. Only “The Boys”, another Amazon show, really rivals “Invincible” in its violence and world building. Both shows maintain a connection to superheroes and the government and explore the ramifications of trusting these individuals too much.

Overall, “Invincible” is definitely a worthwhile watch and asserts itself as something out of the ordinary. The stories are much different than the typical comic book-inspired show, but are exciting to watch nonetheless. It feels like a crime to make this season only eight episodes long, and hopefully, Kirkman is able to extend this story for as long as he can in the following seasons.

Page 20 | Thursday, April 22, 2021

Old Gold & Black | Life

L I F E : [Fall Bulletin] A PREVIEW OF THE UPCOMING CLASSES AVAILABLE IN THE FALL 2021 SEMESTER I know you all love flipping the newspaper to page 20 and reading everything that we have to offer. I mean, we are the most interesting part of the newspaper after all. That’s why we were tasked with sharing the news on the new classes that will be available for registration in the fall 2021 semester. I know that you all are extremely excited to see what is in store, and there are some interesting classes that we highly reccomend you consider taking advantage of. Please refer to the bulletin below to see what may suit your fancy. The ‘Life’ editors thanks you all for your continual support and engagement with our section, and we are excited to continue putting out even more hard hitting content for our amazing fanbase going forward.

COUNTING 111 Forget Accounting 111. The true course to prepare you for the real world and business world is Counting 111. This class teaches you how to count numbers above 1,000. There is a pre- requisite requirement of taking WRI 111. Use the useful skills of counting 111 in your daily life.

WHITE CLAW NUTRITION 205

food, nutrition and being a vegan.

The topic of veganism has been a point of contention in many different discourses and discussion surrounding it as of late. Veganism is more than a way of eating — it is a lifestyle. Life would not be the same without vegans. These topics and more will be discussed in this course.

STICK FIGURES 332 Stick figures 332 dives into the world of art. This class is a higher-level course for those interested in a career in studio art. The class will involve working with stick figures and mastering the art of designing stick figures. No experience is necessary, but it is reccomended that students have taken a course in stick figurology before.

This nutrition course is one that is absolutely necessary for those desiring to major in nutrition. Calling all nutritionists to learn about the health benefits of White Claws!

White Claws are a fundamental component of the food pyramid and integral to how our basic society functions. Learn all about nutrition through the lens of a White Claw in this course. No prerequi- E-SPORTS 220 sites required.

Sport management enthusiasts, ETHICS OF VEGANISM 104 this class is for you! The rise of electronic sports has broken the ceilThis course is a co-requisite for ing of the world of sports. For too those desiring to major in Poli- long, physical activity has barred tics and Int’l Affairs. The ethics of the struggles that gamers have veganism explores the dilemmas of faced. They may not be out in the

field, but they stll battle it out on the screen. Virtual competition is nothing to joke about and the daily battles that gamers face are truly inspiring.

WILL ZIMMERMAN 103 Have you ever wanted to take a course to gain knowledge on one of the most bizarre and unique individuals on this earth? This rare human being, commonly known as Will Zimmerman, is a puzzle to us all. Every interaction with this man will leave you questioning your sanity, judgment and sexuality. This class will dissect the brain of this individual so that we can understand the true complexities that reside within Will Zimmerman’s being and soul.

NATTY O.’s DIARY 114 This English course dives into the diary of President Nathan O. Hatch. The class will explore the writings of Hatch and analyze the meaning behind his words. This class has the prerequisite requirement of taking CHM 111 as well as HES 101, 102 and 103.

VISITING PROFESSORS

Jake Stuart Connor Mcneely Intro to A Bug’s Life. Professor Mc- Intermadiate Ballroom Dancing ProfesNeely will be offering a critical explora- sor stuart is a star on the ballroom floor, register today! tion into the popular film.

Essex Thayer White Claw Nutrition. Professor Thayer has a lot of experiences with White Claws and will bring that to class.