Red & Black
The Free
s t u d e n t n e w s pa p e r o f w a s h i n g t o n a n d j e f f e r s o n c o l l e g e w j r e da n d b l ac k . c o m W a s h i n g t o n , P e n n s y lva n i a 14 December 2021
WHAT’S IN THIS WEEK’S PAPER... CURRENT EVENTS “On Dec. 1, the Supreme Court will see the case of Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, which aims to uphold a Miss. state law that bans all abortion after 15 weeks of pregnancy.” - Lekhya Kollu
CAMPUS “Many students enjoy these times because they get to spend some time away from their books and with friends and loved ones while drinking some hot cocoa, eating s’mores, and singing Christmas carols.” - Emree Downey
DIVERSITY “DeFunis v. Odegaard is only one example of the racial biases that minorities and people of color face regularly.” - Emree Downey
Courtesy PrezPoint
SAB Hosts Music Trivia Night
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W&J Students Enjoy Christmas Tree Lighting Emree Downey Red & Black Staff Writer
It has become a custom for the W&J community to get their students and faculty into the holiday spirit noticeably early. Many students enjoy these times because they get to spend some time away from their books and with friends and loved ones while drinking some hot cocoa, eating s’mores, and singing Christmas carols. However, does everyone feel this way? Is it too early, or the perfect time? According to senior Isabella Sholtes. who highly favors this time of year, it is never too early. Sholtes says, “I love the tree lighting! It’s one of my favorite W&J traditions and never fails to make me happy. I love how the whole W&J community comes out and spends the evening together. I think it’s a great kickoff to the holiday season!” You’ve just got to the love the enthusiasm. Senior Resident Assistant Joel Winters, has a very similar opinion on the Tree Lighting Ceremony.
Winters says that “it was a great time with friends, get a free ornament and food, and get festive for the holidays.” It seems that some of our seniors want to bask in the glory and “last-time” celebrations of their last year. Another upperclassman, Alec Schambach, not only enjoys sharing this experience with friends, but also highly recommends the goodies offered by President John Knapp, as well as a few Fa La La’s. Schambach states that, “I really enjoyed going down and singing carols with everyone, it’s always great to see the campus come together. The tree looked great and the sugar cookies were delicious as always!” The President’s tree referenced by Schambach is not only ornately decorated with thousands of twinkly lights, but giant bulbs decorated by the students themselves at the annual Tree Lighting Ornament Signing the day prior to the lighting of the tree. As anyone could see, the week leading up to Thanksgiving Break is a time for the W&J community to connect with one another and share some fun-filled experiences while getting their fill of delicious holiday treats. Many students enjoy the early celebration and festivities, and according to them, there is no such thing as “too early to celebrate.”
Courtesy PrezPoint
W&J hosts the annual tree lighting.
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we Want to hear from you!
A Call For Letters To the Editor! Are you passionate towards a subject that you would enjoy speaking freely about? Do you have an opinion about the College you would like to express to Student Body? Are you looking for a platform to raise awareness for an issue?
You might consider writing a letter to the editor! Details:
Authors of published Letters to the Editor recieve $8. This would make an excellent portfolio piece! We can help you brainstorm, proofread, and write your letter if needed!
Contact:
If you are interested in writing an opinion piece for the Red & Black, please email redandblackstaff@washjeff.edu
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SAB Hosts Music Trivia Night Sierra Walker Red & Black Contributor
On Wednesday, Nov. 17, passersby of the Media Room heard the familiar jingle of Kahoot music. The Student Activities Board hosted an enjoyable afternoon of music trivia that was open to all Washington and Jefferson students. Student Activity Board members Kendle Haught and Debilea Chapel supervised the event and were welcoming in inviting students to attend. This was a much needed, entertaining stress releaser. The trivia night’s timing came as a perfect escape to the ending semester as finals, projects, and assignments increase in number and grade weight. Kendle Haught, the SAB host of this event, readily told the Red and Black that, “I really enjoyed the event, however there was a really low attendance. I’m sure it was due to conflicting events scheduled at the same time, but I hope for a bigger turnout next time.” Kendle put her own unique spin on a classic trivia night event by doing it as a Kahoot. For players, this form of a trivia night was more relaxed but equally enjoyable as a classic trivia challenge. Between the hours of seven and nine pm, students had the opportunity to test their music knowledge and reaction times in one of two trivia games. The first was a simpler and shorter assortment of thirty questions. The second was a more challenging game consisting of one hundred questions.
A banner reading Kahoot.
Participants enjoyed creating amusing names and some friendly competition with their friends to see who would place first on the podium. Winners received a gift card, so the prize was an exciting motivation to players. Winner of the challenging game, Freda N, reviewed the event as, “It was
Courtesy UIC
a lot of fun even if we did not know all the answers. It was a good time with friends. The questions were really difficult, but this made it more fun when we were right!” Questions were centered around music and artists of the 20th century with a few questions including more recent pop artists like
Britney Spears. The questions also included some facts about musical instruments like that piano keys are made of plastic. If the student body shows more participant interest, the Student Activity Board will host another event like this in the future.
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W&J Community Celebrates Thanksgiving Emree Downey Red & Black Staff Writer
Thanksgiving, a time of year to enjoy with family and friends while cozying up to a fireplace eating grandma’s homemade pumpkin pie. Many college students, especially those attending W&J, enjoy this time away from school to decompress and mentally prepare themselves for the dreaded Finals Week upon return. Though Thanksgiving is arguably the most popularly celebrated holiday for our students, many other might ditch the Turkey for some brisket or latkes while they celebrate Hanukkah. Whichever holiday(s) our students, faculty, and staff choose to celebrate, we all use this break to enjoy time away, celebrate, and express gratitude. One senior, Joel Winters, told us that he “went to North Carolina to celebrate Thanksgiving with [his] family.” What better time to travel to the warm south and escape the bittercold weather of WashPa? Joel is not the only one that got to sit around a dining room table with his loved ones whilst chowing down. Another anonymous senior says that she “spent quality time with her dogs and great aunts after stuffing [her] face with Mac & Cheese and stuffing.” Our anonymous soon-to-be
A table at Commsgiving 2021.
graduate also shared her favorite “get ready for Christmas” movie, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. Ah, yes, Christmastime. That time of year between the end of Fall semester and the beginning of Spring when students can genuinely relax and unwind. It is very easy to forget the “break” portion of Thanksgiving Break
Courtesy PrezPoint
when you are prepping for finals, presentations, etc. Many use this time to catch up or get ahead, either on sleep or schoolwork, or both! I know I do. It can be difficult to return to the final weeks of classes and “tough it out” or finish strong when all you want to do is go home and relax. We get it,
and that is why it is good to remember that you are in the homestretch and there is nothing wrong with shutting that book and watching some Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer with a buddy, but make sure you get a good night’s rest. Happy Holidays to you from all of us at the Red & Black!
Courtesy Washington & Jefferson College
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Current Events
Supreme Court Hears Dobbs v. Jackson Lawsuit Lekhya Kollu Red & Black Contributor
On Dec. 1, the Supreme Court will see the case of Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, which aims to uphold a Miss. state law that bans all abortion after 15 weeks of pregnancy. If the law is upheld, the Court will be overturning the precedent set by Roe v. Wade, which established the constitutional right to an abortion before fetal viability. With six conservative justices currently on the Supreme Court bench, the ruling could go either way. Abortion was not always the highly polarizing issue it is now. When the Roe decision first came out in 1973, both parties generally chose not to discuss the topic of abortion. It was only in the 1980s that Republicans began to use the issue of abortion to garner support from the religious right. What followed was the passing of a variety of state laws that aimed to place restrictions on abortions, testing the limits of Roe. The 1992 decision of Planned Parenthood v. Casey only helped increase these efforts. The ruling allowed for abortion regulations, as long as they didn’t pose an “undue
burden” for patients. The myriad of new regulations that followed this decision made it hard for abortion clinics to stay open- since 2004, the Jackson Woman’s Health Clinic has been Mississippi’s only abortion clinic. Across the nation, the number of abortion providers has dropped from 2,380 in 1992 to 1,587 in 2017. Diane Derzis, the majority owner of the JWHO, and owner of several clinics across the South, has been fighting to keep her clinics open for decades. In 2012, the Jackson clinic narrowly avoided closure due to another Miss. law; the law was blocked by a federal court on the day it was meant to go into effect, and eventually led to a nearly five-year-long legal battle. With the new case, the court’s decision won’t just affect the JWHO, but clinics across the country. If Roe is overturned, 12 states already have laws in place to ban all abortions almost immediately after the decision comes out. Even if Roe isn’t overturned outright, it could be substantially weakened. An important part of the Roe decision is the “viability standard”, which states can’t restrict abortion before a fetus can survive outside the womb. Even if just this standard was overturned, dozens of state laws currently being challenged could go into effect, severely limiting abortion access in dozens of states.
Courtesy Slate
The Supreme Court hears the case for Dobbs v. Jackson.
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diversity Affirmative Action Ensures Equal Opportunity Emree Downey Red & Black Staff Writer
Affirmative action is well-known as the practice or policy of favoring individuals belonging to groups known to have been discriminated against previously, coined by President John F. Kennedy. It is an active effort to improve opportunities for marginalized persons. Cases that involved this motion for equal opportunity were taken to the Supreme Court in the 1960s and 1970s. The first case was formally known as DeFunis v. Odegaard. Marco DeFunis Jr. was a white Jewish student of SpanishPortuguese descent who was denied admission to the University of Washington School of Law despite test scores that were higher than some of the minorities admitted. A judge of the Court eventually granted DeFunis to enroll, and because of this, the case was moot and eventually dismissed. DeFunis v. Odegaard is only one example of the racial biases that minorities and people of color face regularly, whether that be in the workplace or in pursuit of higher education, mainly. Many believe that affirmative actions simply “is not fair,” because they feel that this notion to create an equal environment for all people is potentially stripping them
of the same opportunities for certain positions. This simply is not true, and if it were, affirmative actions would be considered quite contradictory. Also, it is very well-known that non-peopleof-color are granted more, and often better, opportunities than their fellow competitors of a darker complexion. Another example of affirmative action is in the workplace. Many companies have implemented affirmative action policies, but again, some think that it is just reversed discrimination. Many private employers vote against initiating these policies because they simply do not want to put in the effort unless it is mandatory. They would rather not walk on eggshells around this voluntary legal matter. However, many believe that private employers should take affirmative action to provide transparency and a more peaceful, inclusive, and less hostile work environment. Though affirmative action is very helpful to many people of color, these same people may feel neutral about it. They appreciate the window of opportunity, but they also do not want to feel like anyone is obligated to help them out of pity and/or some law. Though it may be true that me and others like myself receive “special treatment,” we must not care about what others think or dim our own light to allow others’ to shine brighter.
Courtesy Michigan Radio
A woman protests in support of affirmative action.
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Equity Needs Prioritized in the Workplace Sofya Maxnide Red & Black Contributor
Many of us understand terms like diversity and equality as they are models of a successful business. Diversity related acronyms like DEI,
DIB, D&I, and JEDI are popping up on company bulletin boards and organizational websites everywhere, but there is a discreet word we should be on the lookout for – equity. A quick survey of a few workers in the X’prez’O café found them to be unfamiliar with the term, so let’s highlight the definition. The MerriamWebster dictionary states equity as “fairness or justice in the way people are treated,” but there’s a lot more to it, and as retail manager Zachary Schmidt from W&J’s dining services pointed out, there are many ways equity can be applied in the workplace towards race, gender, and orientation. Equity
A famous picture depicts equity verses equality.
can look very similar to equality as they both deal with fair, impartial, and unbiased treatment of employees, but while equality in the workplace is geared towards making sure every employee is provided with the proper training required to succeed, equity focuses on the individual. Equity provides each employee with the specific resources that they feel they need to succeed as an individual in the workplace. Schmidt sees equity as going beyond the business and into a more personal connection, stating that “meeting someone where they’re at” is the true motive behind the need for equity. He provided a small
example of purchasing a stepstool after seeing an employee struggling to reach the top shelf. So, while actively choosing to diversify the workplace environment is commendable, how a company maintains both equity and equality in their workplace will have their job applications flooded with talented, diverse individuals of all walks of life. An environment with these characteristics will have high employee engagement rates and excellent job performances, so look out for these words the next time you search for another job.
Courtesy Flexability
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Thanksgiving is Built on Native Abuse Emree Downey Red & Black Staff Writer
In many countries, Thanksgiving is celebrated as a national holiday where family and friends find time to reconnect and share good conversation while enjoying dinner and possibly a relaxing football game with their loved ones. However, many may not be enlightened on the true history behind this festivity. In the 1620s, Plymouth Pilgrim colonizers were exploring the land of what is known today as Cape Cod, Massachusetts, where they robbed the graves of several Wampanoag ancestors and stole their crops. After their first encounter with the Wampanoag people, an alliance was later formed between the Wampanoags and the Pilgrims, which mainly existed because the Wampanoags had been devastated by previous illness and other afflictions brought upon them by English colonizers and were only trying to survive. The “first Thanksgiving” that occurred in 1621
between the Plymouth Pilgrims and the Wampanoag people that many American students are taught about, has no strong evidence towards it; many present-day Wampanoag tribe members recollect that their ancestors were never even invited to the harvest. Following this supposed feast, many problems arose between the European colonizers and the Native Wampanoags and other Native tribes. The European colonizers seized land and resources from these Native people and punished them with imprisonment, enslavement, and even execution. Further Thanksgiving celebrations by European colonizers often involved brutal confrontations with Native American tribes, including the beheading of a Wampanoag leader in 1676. Though the history of this “holiday” is rather gruesome, many presentday Indigenous tribe members have utilized their platforms in ways to shed more light on the chronicles of their ancestors. Many have coined the term “Truthsgiving” to deconstruct the myths of this day in history that many of us are not taught about inside the classroom because it is often fabricated and/or glossed over. One Indigenous activist named Christine Nobiss says that “It’s past time to honor the Indigenous resistance, tell [their] story as it really happened, and undo romanticized notions of the holiday that have long suppressed [their] perspective.” So, remember our Native neighbors and their ancestors the next time you sit down for some turkey and stuffing on Nov. 25.
Courtesy Wampanoag Seaconke Tribe
Two Wampanoag women celebrate at a cultural festival.
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Microaggressions Apply Labels of Whiteness to Minorities Emree Downey Red & Black Staff Writer
Have you ever said something to a person of color that you thought was a compliment, but they found insulting? Did they give you a confused look or seem uncomfortable afterward? You may have, either
intentionally or unintentionally, stated a microaggression. Microaggressions are statements or actions regarded as an instance of indirect, subtle, or unintentional discrimination towards a marginalized person(s). They are used to further oppress people of color and make them feel inferior. The term microaggressions, or racial microaggressions, was first coined by Dr. Chester M. Pierce, an African-American Harvard University psychiatrist, in the 1970s, and since then has gotten a lot of buzz. Usually, microaggressions are targeted towards disenfranchised groups by white people or even other people of color (POC). They occur in the workplace, in
the medical field, and even in our own families. They may range from “You are so pretty for a black girl,” to “You must be smart since you are Asian.” Those who spew these comments that are deeply rooted in negative stereotypes, usually do not know any better, or have some type of racial/cultural bias that they may not even be aware of. Nonetheless, it is important that you do not sit idle to this bigotry, especially if you are the victim. Growing up in a predominately white community, I had experienced microaggressions before I even knew what they were. I will never forget when a white girl called me “the whitest black girl” she had ever met. Being only fifteen years old at the
time, I took it as a compliment, but that was only because I did not know what she meant by that. Now that I am older and much more knowledgeable, I think back to those times and realize that I was actually insulted. What this girl was really trying to say was “Black people are ghetto and white people are not, therefore although you are black, I consider your behavior to be on the white spectrum.” This was a bittersweet realization for me, and for many others whose experiences are similar, however, I am glad that I am now able to detect this type of commentary and further educate those who believe that suggestions like that are appropriate.
Courtesy Jaluch
A woman holds microaggressive questions often asked of minorities.