29 March, 2018
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Roses and Racial Bias: Exposing Institutional Racism in the Demonstration Policy
Photos by Elizabeth Willsmore
By Elizabeth Willsmore ‘20 Staff Writer
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alking across the lawn in front of the President’s House, the scene looked like any other you might find at Scripps during lunch. The air was filled with the soft, feminine trills of a hipster Spotify playlist, bunches of roses lay scattered across the pathway between Revelle House and Humanities, and Scrippsies in floral skirts mulled around the premise, eating lunch and enjoying each other’s company. In fact, it took most onlookers a few seconds to notice the yellow caution tape blocking off all entrances and exits to the pathway, the signs placed on the president’s lawn reading “More than just Bias” and “Demonstration Policy = Racism,” and the large chalk letters reading “End Discrimination Bias” framing the president’s driveway. Each element of this action, titled “Roses and Racial Bias,” was the same as one of the rules broken in the demonstration policy during the Heather MacDonald protests last April, after which Claremont McKenna College suspended five students for blocking pathways to the Athenaeum. In the wake of these suspensions, students across the 5Cs called out the demonstration policy’s racism in its implantation of punishment – a critique the
Inside This Issue:
“Roses and Racial Bias” action was organized to highlight. Their mission statement asserts that “the colleges disproportionately utilize the 7C demonstration policy in a way that is raced, classed, and ultimately aims to protect notions of ‘freedom of speech’ as neutral to protect their own philosophy. We, Scripps femmes, majority of whom are white, protest this.” This assertion speaks to a national issue surrounding students’ right to protest, and how colleges’ responses to direct action are often rooted in institutional racism. For instance, four of the five Claremont colleges have issued statements saying current high school seniors who protest school shootings will not be penalized in their admissions decisions, whereas no institution extended the same leniency to students protesting police brutality in the wake of the murders of Trayvon Martin and Michael Brown. Especially at institutions like Scripps, whose very founding was exclusively rooted in heteronormative white feminism, calling out institutional racism and bias is imperative to highlighting the explicit, physical ways in which colleges discriminate and denigrate student activism, especially around issues of race. To replicate the rules broken at the CMC protests last year, organizers of
Page 3 - CGU Housing
Priority housing for Scrippsies at CGU apartments
the “Roses and Racial Bias” action used yellow caution tape to block entrances to the pathway between Humanities and Revelle House, placed flowers around the roped off area to illustrate destruction of property, placed signs about institutional racism and bias on the president’s lawn, and wrote on the pathways in chalk in violation of the rule in “Guides to Student Life.” Ana Paz (SCR ’20) told the Voice that grounds staff helped the students set up by providing the caution tape and by not shutting it down, thereby standing in solidarity with the need for change in the demonstration policy. Other organizers of “Roses and Racial Bias” all stated that they didn’t expect any repercussions for this action. Paz commented that this expected lack of response by the Scripps administration was a goal of the demonstration as a “testament to how much leniency the institution actually has,” as well as to “see the limits of what institutions consider threatening or dangerous.” The swift decisiveness with which CMC suspended and punished students for protesting a talk that promoted anti-blackness illustrates the underlying racial bias in the 7C demonstration policy – and the lack of response by Scripps College to the “Roses and Racial Bias” action,
Page 6 & 7 - Opal Tometi The inspiring BLM co-founder speaks at Scripps
1030 Columbia Avenue | Claremont, CA 91711 | Box 839 email: scrippsvoice@gmail.com | Volume XXI | Issue 7
for which the same rules were broken, emphasizes that it is not direct-action colleges find fault with, but rather, what kind of direct action. One of the organizers, Sophie Peters (SCR ’20) said “as an organizer I point out the hypocrisy in the demonstration policy as it is right now.” The contrasting responses to these two protests emphasizes what many at the Claremont Colleges already know: that the 7C demonstration policy criminalizes protests surrounding Black Lives Matter and other race-based discrimination, while protecting those actions which are majority white. Essentially, the “Roses and Racial Bias” demonstration accomplished exactly what the organizers set out to do - by breaking the same rules as at the Heather MacDonald protest, but through a white, hyper feminized lens, organizers ensured that Scripps would not retaliate or punish those involved – thus exemplifying in an explicit manner the institutional racism in the 7C demonstration policy. The organizers stated that this demonstration is the first in a series that will be conducted at each of the 5Cs, which are meant to illustrate how exactly each college will utilize the policy to “dole out punishment to its own students.”
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Accessability for non-English speaking Scripps families
2 • News
Finding our Voice Again:
Letter from Editors Past and Present Editor-in-Chief Maureen Cowhey ’19
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he Scripps Voice receives a lot of emails everyday from random people asking us to promote their business or book or print their press release. Every once in a while a woman named Joan sends us emails through our website to inquire about when new issues will be posted. Otherwise, we just get a lot of spam. But last week, I woke up to an email in my inbox with the subject line: The True History of the Voice. This email was sent to me by the founder and first Editor-in-Chief of The Scripps Voice, Dara Pressley ‘93. In her email, Dara explained how the history of the paper had been lost and as a result the Voice had lost its way. The Scripps Voice had actually been founded in 1991, not 1996 as we had been lead to believe. Pressley, as a woman of color, and a group of students from all different margin-
alized identities, founded the paper because they did not feel as if they were being heard by their peers, the faculty, and the administration. They needed a place to voice their opinions and evoke change. They also found it ridiculous that a college founded by a prominent feminist journalist didn’t have its own newspaper. (Ironically, these were many of the same issues that I cited when I went before the Scripps Association of Students to argue to keep the paper funded.) Pressley was correct, the Voice had lost its history and strayed very far off path. In recent years, The Scripps Voice had become a place for neutrality in the face of racism and prejudice, and a place that did not give a voice to marginalized communities. Without even knowing this history, my goal as Editor-in-Chief has been to get the paper back to this original mission. Steps we have taken include: -Working closely with SCORE to give them space in the paper to cover their events and issues -Opening up space in every issue for guest contributors to voice their opinions or share their creative works
The Scripps Voice Founder and First Editor-in-Chief Comes Forward I
have been away from Scripps for a long time, having been off and consumed in my life as alums tend to do. On the occasion of registering for my 25th-year reunion, I decided to tour the website to see what has been going on in my absence. Initially, I was so excited to see The Voice online. But my excitement quickly cooled as I saw the established date was incorrect. And that error, in itself, shows that The Voice and Scripps have lost the history of how the paper came to be. And, therefore, lost the importance of why it exist and why it is The Voice. During the years that I was a student, it was a very difficult place to be a minority. My sisters and I found ourselves in a constant battle for equal rights to the education that we had paid for and to be treated as equals amongst our peers. We battled both our sorors, the faculty, and the administration. Then, one day I noticed that Scripps was the only Claremont college without a newspaper. This meant that any news or information about Scripps women was told by others. As a feminist, I couldn’t stand the thought of how we could be so silenced. That we had to rely on others to tell our stories rather than speak for ourselves. And I thought about how we, the bearers of the legacy left behind by Ellen Browning Scripps, a journalist in her own right, could allow ourselves to be in this state. And finally, I realized that I, a black Latina, could
never expect to find a voice for myself in an institution that was so silenced. So in the Spring of 1991, I gathered together a group of young women to create The Voice. We were made up of a diverse group of individuals-and mostly of minorities— women of color, woman of differing sexual orientation, diverse religions, and non-traditional age students. When I graduated in 1993, I gave the paper to the Dean of Students (then Barbara Bush) with the hope that the paper would continue on. I am proud to see that my legacy has continued to thrive and grow. Still, it is important to remember that it was the most voiceless in the Claremont community that gave Scripps its voice. So I write this letter to remember and thank those women that helped make it happen. Shalom Montgomery, Melissa Casanta, Graciela Vega, George Andrade, Kama Simonds, Lita Sandoval, Devanie Candelaria, Ayisha Owens, Happy Kush, Amy Christensen... And our amazing mentor Professor Sue Houchins. I’m also attaching a copy of the letter to Scripps written in the first issue.
“As a feminist, I couldn’t stand the thought of how we could be so silenced. That we had to rely on others to tell our stories rather than speak for ourselves.” -Dara Pressley ’93
Thank you, Dara Pressley Founder and 1st editor-in-chief of The Voice Class of 1993
-Introducing a new motto: “Uncompromising commitment to inclusivity and justice” -Launching a new website, scrippsvoice.com, that is more accessible and can reach a wider community -Working to secure a permanent work space for the paper so that we do not lose our history again I hope to do both the community and the founders justice in continuing to make The Scripps Voice more than a paper promoting neutrality and objectivity, but rather a platform for radical voices, creative perspectives, marginalized identities, and uncompromising activism. I also want to thank Pressley, and all the other brave and inspiring people that helped found the Voice, for speaking up and refusing to be silenced. Pressley’s email to me and her original letter to the Scripps in the first issue of the paper are printed here as well. Thank you, Maureen Cowhey ‘19
The Voice, The Pen This statement of intent was printed in the Scripps Voice in Spring of 1991
Nickki Giovanni, African-American poet and writer, once stated in her book Sacred Cows… And Other Edibles: “To secure all rights granted to us by either our religions or our laws, it is necessary to raise our voices. An idea inside our own head is, to our fellow humans, the same as no idea. It must be expressed if it is to have any power. And the voice, the pen, is far mightier than any sword, any jail, any attempt to silence.” It is this voice that woman of color and of diverse cultural backgrounds must express. Our voices have been silenced for far too long. It is time we are heard. It is the duty of every writer, every thinker, to share their opinions. This is why I call on you, my sisters, to bring your opinions forward in open dialogue that will work for the advancement of ourselves and our cultures. There is so much that you can do, can accomplish, with a good education. However, without learning about each other and the different peoples of the world, we might as well know nothing. With these tools, “the voice, the pen,” we possess the power to express and to learn. We possess the ability to take up the challenge that this college has given us. The challenge is, as The Guide to Student Life tells us, to “… speak up and organize, run events or make changes and accomplish [our] goals.” The goals of this newspaper are to create a forum, a tool, for us to speak up for ourselves. It allows us to let our needs be heard, rather than have them assumed by those who say they are concerned with filling our needs. As Nikki Giovanni said, “We write, because we believe that the human spirit cannot be tamed or trained.” I challenge you all of you to speak up. I challenge you to use The Voice and accomplish your goals.
29 March, 2018 • The Scripps Voice • Volume XXI • Issue Seven
Features • 3
Much Ado About Housing
The Scripps Voice Staff Editor-in-Chief Maureen Cowhey
Scripps Reslife configures the 2018-2019 housing options for current first-years living at CGU
Advisor Christopher Dennis Design Editors Ali Bush Becky Hoving Emilie Hu Sarah Wong Copy Editors Anna Gao Rena Patel Business Manager Anna Liss-Roy Webmaster Bergen Carloss Columnists & Staff Writers Leta Ames Ali Bush Priya Canzius Erin Delany Rose Gelfand Alicia Good-Allen Natalie Johnson Eve Kaufman Hanna Kim Elena Lev Luena Maillard Eve Milusich Ziz Murphy Sasha Rivera Ittai Sopher Hayley Van Allen Lizzie Willsmore Photographers Emilie Hu
Comments and letters can be submitted by emailing scrippsvoice@gmail.com or by visiting our website at www. thescrippsvoice.com. Please review our guidelines online before submitting feedback. The Scripps Voice is a student forum and is not responsible for the opinions expressed in it.
Photo coutresy of claremontcollegiateapartments.com
By Hayley Van Allen Queer Columnist
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ast summer, 40 incoming freshman were told only a couple weeks before arriving on campus that they would be living offcampus, separated from the rest of their classmates. These students were promised priority housing the following year as a way to make up for their off-campus apartments. To help combat the ambiguity surrounding the housing draw for next year, we spoke to a few freshman who are currently living at the CGU apartments. Since August of 2017, ResLife has been hesitant to give any concrete answers to how the process would work. Finally, in midFebruary the Director of Campus Life, Brenda Ice, met with the students living at CGU to answer questions about the upcoming housing draw. The meeting was held at the apartments and open to the 28 students still living off-campus at CGU. Throughout the semester, students have moved back on campus into rooms that were reserved for roommate issues and other housing issues, leaving only 28 first years in off-campus housing. Additionally, some rooms opened up second semester because students who were living on-campus studied abroad. Because ResLife had been unclear in the beginning of the year about how the housing process would work, many students didn’t know whether they would still be given access to priority housing after moving back on campus. In an email sent out out March 27, Ice confirmed that any student who had lived in the CGU apartments for at least 3 weeks would
be given priority housing. This means that somewhere between 35 and 38 students will be choosing their housing a day before the current seniors, but after those with housing accommodations. Within the group of “CGUers” given priority housing, the 28 students remaining will be given the first numbers for the housing lottery and those who moved will have lower numbers within the group. According to our sources, the CGU-ers who still remain in the apartments suggested placing those who left at the top of the draw for incoming sophomores. This would have ensured that they were given some priority, but didn’t take spots away from the upperclassmen. ResLife had initially been carefully monitoring the number of on-campus students that would be pulled into the higher priority housing draw. This changed after the email sent out on Tuesday when Brenda Ice told CGU-ers that they could pull whoever they wanted up with them. All that’s left for CGU-ers to find out is exactly what order they will choose their housing and whether their specific room choice will be available. Those with accomodations have not yet been assigned housing for the next year, so the exact rooms available are still unknown. Unfortunately, ResLife has not offered information on whether the CGU apartments will be utilized for Scripps students again next year. Many students have asked, but ResLife has declined to reveal their plans. A concern of many living at CGU seems to be that others first years will have to go through the same experience that they did: living off-campus, housed in forced doubles, taking a shuttle to and from campus. However, after a significant drop in the acceptance rate this year (9.0%), it seems that the administration may not need to use the off-campus apartments again. Hopefully, this is the last time this year’s unusual housing process is employed.
29 March, 2018 • The Scripps Voice • Volume XXI • Issue Seven
4 • News
Scripps Introduces New Writing and Rhetoric Major By Sasha Rivera ‘19 Staff Writer
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Photo courtesy of Scripps College
fter establishing a creative writing track a few years ago, Scripps is expanding the writing program by forming a new Writing and Rhetoric major that will focus on nonfiction and persuasive writing. With a requirement of eight classes and a senior thesis, this major, according to its description on the Scripps website, gives students the chance to study “persuasion in nonfiction prose genres, the study of which is crucial to communication across national, cultural, and ideological borders.” This includes examining personal essays, memoirs, speeches, journalistic articles, and argumentative works. Before the creative writing track was formed, students had to design their own writing major if they wanted to do a creative writing senior thesis, Associate Professor of Writing and Chair of the Writing Department, Kimberly Drake explained in an interview for Scripps. However, the creative writing track did not satisfy the needs of all the student who wanted to pursue writing on a broader scale. While there is some overlap between the Writing and Rhetoric major and the creative writing track of the English major, they each focus on unique areas of study. Drake explained that Writing and Rhetoric would fulfill the need for a focus on persuasive nonfiction writing and learning how to write for a general audience rather than an academic one. Moreover, this new major functions well as part of a dual or double major. Foundation courses in the major will include Introduction to Rhetoric, Creative Nonfiction, and Protest Writing and Rhetoric. Students will be required to take writing workshop courses
on Scripps and other Claremont campuses. The major also requires broader categories about writing studies such as Theories and Pedagogies of Writing, Writing about Justice, the Writing Process, Prose Style and the Sentence. Writing is a valuable skill to have in almost every industry and is often one of the top five abilities that employers look for in their employees. “A writing major could work for a nonprofit and do their grant writing; a writing major could work for a huge bank and do their social media,” said Drake. The Writing and Rhetoric major also coincides well with Scripps values because it is focused on working towards social change, and establishing a more just society. According to Drake, even in its earliest forms the essay has focused on establishing evidence-based
arguments, convincing readers of certain ideas, and encouraging these readers to think analytically and persuasively. The major focuses primarily on changing minds through argument and persuasion. “In this era it’s more important than ever for our students to know how to be convincing at any time, in any context, whether on paper or verbally, and to understand the ways that other people are trying to change their minds at any given time,” explained Drake. This major gives students the opportunity to engage with nonfiction written works with a focus on argument and persuasion. Not only will this give students a leg up in the job market, but also at Scripps where they can use their writing skills to better uphold the values of social justice.
Different Strokes from Claremont Colleges on Providing Equitable Pay saying that Scripps has “had as a goal to keep tenured/tenure track faculty salaries within the top one-third of our comparative colleges group.” While unlike Scripps, Pitzer College has n the face of national debate surrounding workload and pay for university professors, yet to move from a five-course system for Scripps Dean of Faculty, Amy Marcus- professors to a four-course system, however Newhall, appeared on an Association of Pitzer presents a reasonably equitable system. American Colleges and Universities panel on Pitzer Dean of Faculty, Nigel Boyle, describes Jan. 25 to discuss new initiatives related to the payment method as “essentially a seniority providing better time-management policies escalator with two ranks.” These two ranks are comprised of assistant for professors. According to a January professors and According to a January r e p o r t f r o m I n s i d e report from Inside Higher associate professors. Both of these ranks Higher Ed, Dean MarcusEd, Dean Marcus-Newhall’s start off with a baseline N e w h a l l ’s p o l i c i e s included a shift from a policies included a shift from salary and this salary is adjusted based on five-course requirement a five-course requirement seniority. for professors to a fourBoyle believes that course requirement. for professors to a fourP i t z e r ’s s y s t e m i s The same report from one that lines up well Inside Higher Ed said course requirement. with his own personal that these changes were philosophy. However, a response to data from the Collaborative on Academic Careers in Boyle was quick to acknowledge the limitations Higher Education which revealed “faculty which more equitable systems sometimes dissatisfaction with the college’s five-course present. For instance, recently when an associate recommended that Boyle hire load.” In a statement sent from Dean Marcus- a computer scientist, Boyle was forced to Newhall’s office, Associate Director of Media acknowledge the school’s economic restraints: and Public Relations, Karen Bergh, cited “we just can’t afford to hire one,” Boyle said. Amidst criticism from the Harvey Mudd the course-load decrease as an instance where Scripps has given “special attention to College faculty surrounding professor providing equitable pay for our faculty.” Later payment, treatment, and workload, Boyle By Ittai Sopher ‘19 Political Correspondent
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remains confident in Pitzer’s ability to succeed as egalitarian institution with a unique set of core-values. Claremont McKenna has a payment method which provides a contrasts to Pitzer’s senioritybased system, “it starts market-based.” Dean Peter Uvin believes that CMC’s system gives the college more leeway to give credit for professors who are doing extra conciliatory work: “there are margins to add bonuses or raises on top of that. Most of the other colleges don’t do that”. Uvin added that, “mentoring, advising, for example are harder to measure. And yet because it’s harder to measure, doesn’t make it less important.” The way colleges and universities address issues regarding equitable pay are crucial to bridging the wage gap between male and female professors, as well as white and non-white professors. In an article from The Chronicle, Kelly Ward, an expert in academic leadership, said “workplace policies, tenure and promotion processes, and the work-life balance pose challenges for women who want to work their way up the ladder.” Colleges and universities within the Claremont Colleges are conscious of this distinction and are working to defend and strengthen their systems. However, for actual changes to take hold nationally, systemic changes need to take place on a local level.
29 March, 2018 • The Scripps Voice • Volume XXI • Issue Seven
News • 5
The Russian Bots in your Backyard, Explained
Photos Courtesy of Newsweek
By Natalie Johnson ‘18 Political Correspondent
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witter sees an average of 500 million tweets per day and 6,000 tweets written per second. As one of the world’s leading social media platforms, the social media site facilitates the mass and constant exchange of information between users. Yet just last month, Twitter, Inc. notified 1.4 million users in the United States that certain accounts they engaged with during 2016 presidential election were not human. They were bots. Bots, or “internet trolls,” are automated social media accounts designed to prolifically post and share information in huge volumes. They gained attention last year when the United States intelligence community announced the Russian government deployed Twitter bots as part of an effort to interfere with the 2016 presidential election. “We identified and suspended a number of accounts that were potentially connected to a propaganda effort by a Russian government-linked organization known as the Internet Research Agency (IRA),” Twitter’s public policy blog said last month. The St. Petersburg-based agency began working in 2014 to propagate distrust toward political candidates and U.S. democracy through YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. The FBI’s special counsel Robert Mueller indicted 13 Russian operatives who helped carry out the agency’s disinformation campaign. The agency’s Twitter bots worked to undermine then-candidate Hillary Clinton and promote President Donald Trump, according to Wired. Bots spread hashtags such as #MAGA, #WarAgainstDemocrats,
#Trump2016, and #Hillary4Prison. The IRA’s built accounts posing as if they belonged to Americans, such as @TEN_ GOP, or “Tennessee GOP,” gained more than 100,000 followers. Content posted by the account was even retweeted by top Trump aides like Kellyanne Conway, Donald Trump Jr., and Gen. Michael Flynn. Russian bots retweeted Trump’s tweets 470,000 times from Sept. 1 to Nov. 15, 2016, Twitter said in a submission to Congress. In a memo to the Senate Judiciary Committee, the company identified 50,258 Russian-linked bots tweeting election content in the 10-week period. Automated accounts run by the IRA pose a similar problem for Facebook. Posing as American citizens, bots join and start fake interest groups and share political ads purchased by Russian operatives on the site. Yet, Twitter faces a unique vulnerability of its own making: the site does not prohibit the use of automated accounts. The policy protects the site’s mission to be a forum for public debate, Sean Edgett, general counsel for Twitter, told Congress. “The other rules like inflammatory ads content would take down most of these posts, but we don’t outright ban it,” he said. Twitter faces a distinct threat in the bots’ style of attack on the site as well. Researchers at FireEye, a cyber security firm, studied the strategy to dispatch handfuls of bots carrying identical messages within seconds of each other. “Warlists,” as researchers refer to them, sent out the hashtag #WarAgainstDemocrats more than 1,700 times on Election Day. Warlist tweets typically tag high-profile users
to gain their attention, such as news organizations, journalists, government agencies, and politicians — including @ realDonaldTrump. Twitter has terminated thousands of Russian-linked bots, but the threat of Russian meddling still persists heading into the 2018 elections. Bots promoted hashtags such as #BoycottNFL, #StandForourAnthem, and #TakeAKnee when black NFL players kneeled during the national anthem at football games to protest police brutality of blacks. Bots helped viralize #ReleaseTheMemo, which called in support for the release of a secret House republican memorandum. Most recently, suspected Russianlinked bots posted and shared hundreds of tweets related to the Parkland, Fla. school shooting that killed 17 people. “This is pretty typical for them, to hop on breaking news like this,” Jonathan Morgan, chief executive of cyber security firm New Knowledge, told The New York Times. Bots “focus on anything that is divisive for Americans. Almost systematically,” he said. Signs of Russian operatives continuing to work against the United States raise concerns for the midterm elections only months away. “I think that the continued use of trolls is likely, and that the impact of purging troll accounts has been minimal,” Adam Meyers, vice president at cyber intelligence company CrowdStrike said. Replacing banned accounts with new ones is fairly easy and bot-makers “appear to have many accounts in reserve to replenish ones that are banned,” Meyers said. Whether or not Twitter and Americans are prepared for Russia’s future interference is the next question.
29 March, 2018 • The Scripps Voice • Volume XXI • Issue Seven
8 • Issues
Non-English speaking Scripps families face additional hardships By Anna Gao ‘21 Copy Editor
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ransitioning from high school to college can be hard to navigate for both students and families. To aid with this change, Scripps posts documents on its website and hosts a myriad of events for families of students to engage and connect them with the lives of their Scripps students. But for some Scripps families, one obstacle stands in the way of being able to access these resources—the language barrier. Luci Diaz (SCR ‘21) recalls that after her parents could not find any sessions in Spanish during Admitted Students Day, they opted out of returning later for events such as New Students Orientation and Family Weekend. “When Family Weekend came around, it was not even really a question of whether or not they would come. I knew my parents wouldn’t because of the language barrier,” Diaz said. “They did not see a point in making the trip back here to sit and not understand anything.” Laura Le (SCR ‘21) also notes the inaccessibility of such events for her mother, whose native language is Vietnamese. She describes her mother’s English skills as conversational, but notes that her mother often struggles with reading and writing in English. “For a school that boasts inclusivity, my mom is unable to understand and participate in many events due to the inherent racism in our community and the lack of interpreters, the lack of important documents being available in different languages, and simply the lack of respect for families that do not have the same privilege of being able to communicate their needs,” Le said. Diaz points out the isolating effects on her and other Scripps students and their non-English speaking family members. “These events remind me that my background is not the norm here and there is not anything being done by Scripps to make me or my family feel included,” Diaz said. Feelings of exclusion are not the only struggle students and their non-English speaking family members face.
Photo courtesy of Scripps College
Diaz must translate everything from letters to important documents for her parents. “One of the bigger challenges is financial aid. This becomes difficult because I am not entirely familiar with the process, but it is something that I need to understand and get correct to ensure that I can afford my education,” Diaz said. Le also reported facing similar struggles with Financial Aid. “I am more than grateful for the support I am receiving from Scripps, yet it is extremely unfair to many families who are not able to understand the nuances of the financial aid system, especially in a language they cannot understand fully,” Le said. The President’s Advisory Committee on Diversity and Inclusion states on the Scripps website that it “seeks to attract a diverse student body and to build a diverse faculty and staff.” Diaz points out a flaw in the execution of this goal. “Scripps needs to consider the fact that if you attract diverse students, then there needs to be extra resources to support the different backgrounds.” Le agrees. “If we are going to require families to provide the same information, then it is essential to the mental well-being of students and to the economic situations of low-income families for the school to provide the resources that help families understand what they are getting themselves into,” she said. Scripps College staff members declined to interview, but issued a statement regarding the topic.
“Scripps College strives to meet the needs of its students, and that includes providing resources and tools to effectively communicate with non-English speaking parents and families,” they wrote. The statement mentions some resources available to non-English speaking parents and family members including Admission Office staff members, the Financial Aid assistant director and an associate director who are fluent in Spanish and English. According to the statement, Financial Aid also has access to a volunteer translator for Mandarin. It mentions that, “Certain documents posted on the College’s website are also provided in both English and Spanish.” Additionally, Scripps provides two programs that “support students and their families who many be non-English speaking.” These are the First-Generation @ Scripps and the Scripps College Academy programs. However, it should be noted that the Scripps College Academy is a pre-college program for high school students designed to help students who seek to become the first in their family to attend college, not a program for supporting current Scripps students. “If a school wants to increase family participation and wants to help students feel more welcome, providing language resources for families is a crucial step to achieving that,” Le said, “Scripps can do better.”
29 March, 2018 • The Scripps Voice • Volume XXI • Issue Seven
Features • 9
5C Roller Derby Team Victorious Against ASU First Ever Intercollegiate Derby Bout on the West Coast By Rena Patel ‘19 Copy Editor
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he Claremont Colleges roller derby team, The Scaremont Illuminaughty Hotties, hosted the first ever intercollegiate roller derby bout at the 5Cs on March 3 against Arizona State University’s Derby Devils. The Scaremont Illuminaughty Hotties emerged victorious with a final score of 233 to 111. The bout was relocated to Linde Activities Center at Harvey Mudd College due to rain. The team is the first ever roller derby team at the Claremont Colleges and the only collegiate roller derby team on the West coast. The team is “gender-inclusive and open to all skill levels,” according to its Facebook page. This year’s team consisted of players from all of the 5Cs excluding Claremont McKenna College. There are typically three practices a week: two with their coach, Alice Garcia, and one practice and weight lifting session led by the team’s captains, team member Jodie Horowitz (SCR ‘19) told The Voice. While the team had previously participated in a few local bouts, its match against ASU was the first intercollegiate bout. Playing against ASU was a monumental leap in collegiate roller derby history. Despite that fact that few universities across the United States currently have derby teams, the sport is quickly gaining traction. Team member Alyssa Rowshan (SCR ‘21) described the team community as incredibly infectious and engaging. “One of the first clubs I signed up for was roller derby and it’s honestly because of the people. It’s a really strong and supportive group of people. It’s a really close knit community and it’s really cool to be part of such an empowering athletic group of people,” Rowshan said. On the bout against ASU, team members Devon Frost (SCR ‘20) and Alyssa Rowshan (SCR ‘21) both said that the weeks leading up to the bout were exciting but scary as they had never gone against ASU and had no idea what the other team’s skill level would be like. “Some days I’d be so scared and other days I’d be like ‘Let’s go!’” Rowshan said. “Our practices definitely reflected that. They got much more intense the closer we got to the bout.” From the final score, it seems like the 5C derby team did not need to worry much about the outcome of the bout. Roller derby coach Alice Garcia told The Voice, “I’m very proud of my girls. A lot of the girls just started about six months ago and I was very impressed to see the amount of effort they’ve put in in such a short time.” As for the future of roller derby at the Claremont Colleges, Garcia hopes to interact more with the local leagues since there aren’t too many college teams in the area. Interest in derby in the 5C community has only seemed to grow more since the blowout bout. Rowshan credits the growing interest in derby to the community the sport nurtures. “It definitely serves as a space for marginalized genders. Roller derby, in the grand scheme of contact sports, is the only one that definitely isn’t dominated by men and it’s definitely providing that kind of space at the Claremont Colleges,” Rowshan said.
It’s a really close knit community and it’s really cool to be part of such an empowering athletic group of people,” -Alyssa Rowshan ’21
Photo courtesy Joey Moreno ’19
29 March, 2018 • The Scripps Voice • Volume XXI • Issue Seven
10 • Features
An Ode to Feminist Horror B-Movies By Zizzy Murphy ‘19 Media Analyst
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here’s debate to be had on what exactly a modern B-movie entails, but the best way to explain it in brief is that good B-movies seek the same entertainment value as Jay Versace vines, where the lack of budget is not only redeemed but valorized by the matching commitment to the narrative through line, no matter how niche or absurd. Instead of placing random items on one’s head to signify different characters as Versace commonly does, B-movies deal with having little to no funds by taking awful special effects, clichey scripts, and stale acting as stylistic choices. The freedom of the B-movie genre allows for overblown stories that would have to be cut down to size to chase larger budgets elsewhere in the industry to become fully-fleshed creatures as long as the creator is willing to take the process a bit less seriously. Horror and B-movies have gone hand-inhand for decades, Sharknado (2013) being the most recent example of the marriage’s potential for success. Feminism finds refuge within this microgenre for the same freedom that draws creators to it; the overblown imperfection and outright absurdity creates the perfect setting to explore the accepted absurdities inherent in gender, compulsory heterosexuality, patriarchy, and other oppressive structures. Feminist horror allows for what’s scary - one’s feelings about their body, their urges, and what the world is asking of them - to also be by turns hilarious and powerful. For those who are unfamiliar with this intersection, allow me to present a few of my favorites.
Ginger Snaps (2000)
Jennifer’s Body (2009)
Taking advantage of the metamorphic elements of lycanthropy, Ginger Snaps marries the seductive and the abhorrent as Brigitte (Emily Perkins) watches her sister Ginger (Katharine Isabelle) grotesquely transform after a mysterious animal attack on the eve of her first period. Isabelle is now a household name with regard to horror (see also: American Mary and seasons 2-3 of Hannibal), this being the film that brought her to the genre in a major way.
An anti-choice teen simultaneously discovers her sex drive and the fact that she has a fully-formed set of teeth in her vagina. It’s about as vile as you would expect it to be, and probably a little more thanks to some truly awful men, but absolutely worth it for Dawn’s (Jess Weixler) empowering and unusual self-awakening. Heavy warnings for depictions of sexual assault, though all of them end with the attacker losing at least one appendage.
Teeth (2007)
You could argue that Jennifer’s Body is too high budget for a B-movie. You would be wrong, largely owing to Diablo Cody’s choice dialogue (“Do you buy all your murder weapons at Home Depot? God, you’re butch.”) and Karyn Kusama’s direction. A botched virgin sacrifice leaves high school hottie Jennifer (Megan Fox) possessed by a man-eating demon, and it’s down to her nerdy bff Needy (Amanda Seyfried) to stop her from eating half the student body and becoming even more of a bitch. Though not nearly as successful as Diablo Cody’s better-known Juno, Jennifer hits all the same marks in terms of humor and explores the complexity of femalefemale friendships without casting blame on the women themselves.
All Cheerleaders Die (2013)
Why Calling Myself a Lesbian was Harder Than Coming Out By Hayley Van Allen Queer Columnist
A
Image courtesy of lydiaortiz.com
fter coming out to my friends and family as bisexual, it took me a year–and my first long-term relationship with a girl–to realize that I was gay. And yet, I didn’t feel comfortable describing myself as a lesbian for another year and a half. This isn’t an uncommon experience. Many women (and woman-aligned people) who are exclusively attracted to other woman (and woman-aligned people) still feel uncomfortable using the term “lesbian” to describe themselves. Before proceeding, it is important to address my use of the terms woman and woman-aligned. For the sake of convenience, when referring to woman and womanaligned people throughout this piece, I will simply use the terms woman, girl, etc.. For the purposes of this article, I am using the term “woman-aligned” to reference those who feel some sort of connection
to womanhood and women’s exper iences. Keeping t hese differences in identity in mind, any time I refer to “women” moving forward, it should be inferred that woman-aligned nonbinary people are also included. M y o w n re l a t i o n s h i p w i t h the terms I used to describe my sexuality and gender have fluctuated over the years and is something I am still figuring out. Part of reaching the point where I felt comfortable enough to call myself a lesbian was reflecting on exactly how and why the word made me feel so uneasy in the first place. Once I realized that I was gay– and could identify as a person not attracted to men–it felt incredibly freeing to refer to myself as a gay person. I embraced gay jokes as a part of my personality, covered my room in rainbow flags, and talked about it all the time. At the
same time, I avoided ever calling myself a lesbian and felt extremely uncomfortable whenever I was referred to as such. The word felt dirty and wrong to me. In our society, the lesbian label is surrounded by so much stigma that many people consider it a curse word, something you should never say around children. This is mostly due to the blatant sexualization of lesbians. It’s a word that has become synonymous with being dirty or pornographic or predatory. Women who love (wlw) have been called lesbian with disgust, like it is a terrible and wrong thing to be. Lesbian is now a porn category directed at straight, cis men. Straight women are told to fear lesbians because lesbians who “infiltrate” women-only spaces might prey on them. The term has so many negative connotations, some people won’t even write– much less say–the word, even
A true mess of a film that gleefully pits a homoerotic zombie cheer squad against the entitled football players who caused their untimely death. With no potential male audience in sight, it seems that the film was freed of the need for its same-sex scenes to titillate anyone aside from its core audience of gay and bi women. I have never seen a more tender depiction of love and sex between two women, which is somehow only amplified by the pulp of the narrative surrounding it. Holding men accountable should always be this vindicating. Images courtesy of IMDB
when writing or talking about lesbians. When I first began identifying as gay, I never felt comfortable calling myself a lesbian. I could only hear all the negative connotations. It took a while before I could refer to myself as a lesbian because of this. What helped me overcome that discomfort was to question why the word felt bad in the first place. Once I realized that there was nothing wrong with being a lesbian–that straight people had just twisted around the word to sound dirty and sexual–I was able to begin the process of personally reclaiming it. I still feel some discomfort when other people call me a lesbian, especially people I’m not close to, but using the identifier has gotten easier. I remind myself that the word “lesbian” originated from Lesbos because that’s where Sappho, the greek poet who wrote about loving women, is from. What a beautiful history to have for a word and to know that you are named after an artist who expressed herself through her art. I am slowly taking back the word so it can be a positive and beautiful thing once again for me. Being a lesbian is not bad or pornographic or wrong; it’s a beautiful identity that took overcoming many harmful internalizations. Coming to terms with being a lesbian has been one of the most freeing experiences of my life and I’m not going to let people diminish that by making it sound dirty.
29 March, 2018 • The Scripps Voice • Volume XXI • Issue Seven
Arts & Entertainment • 11
FICTION SPOTLIGHT ANYA COOPER The Wave: Susie’s Revelation
A Serial Story by Elizabeth Willsmore
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nya blinked in the briny light of the piece of green sea glass resting beside a trident. glass Anya had seen earlier. “Charlie Cooper, basement, her eyes widening and “You lost someone too,” she murmured, “you he knew what was coming, but when he tried narrowing as she tried to wrap her mind lost the person who raised you, like me, but to propose it, the companies shut him down, around Susie’s revelation. She glanced at Susie’s more than that you lost your home. That’s told him if he started construction and went face, noting how there, in the storage room, what big oil does, public, it’d cause a beside all the artifacts and talismans (that it takes, it destroys, panic. People in the A small, barely noticeable smile Anya now realized had been stolen from the a n d i t m a ke s u s most affected areas cave of her mother), Susie’s skin seemed to blame each other, or was subtly spreading across Susie’s already suspected a glisten with a luminescent, aquatic glow, but worse, ourselves, for building like the dome lips, the intensity of her dark eyes much more subdued than the scales on her something we can’t would be necessary casting an omniscient sparkle arm. Anya turned back around to face the control, for a system someday. As soon as room, taking in row upon row of objects, at the that’s been imposed I saw those plans in around the dimly lit room. appropriated artifacts the oil companies had on us for longer than storage, I knew Clark stolen, before she looked towards Susie, taking either of us has been I n d u s t r i e s wo u l d a slight step forward as she did so. alive.” come in like big oil had, displacing and killing “Thank you,” Anya began, her voice more Anya paused and blinked once, lips twitching other Mer-groups like they did my mother’s. level and calm than it had been in years. imperceptibly and she tried to get a read on So, I took the plans, secretly, and I hid them, “Thank you for telling me your story.” Here Susie’s reaction. A small, barely noticeable deciding I’d search for someone who could Anya took a deep breath in, nervous the words smile was subtly spreading across Susie’s lips, help me transform them into something that wouldn’t come out right.“What they did, well, the intensity of her dark eyes casting an would benefit my people as well. And that’s you aren’t the first to have been displaced by omniscient sparkle around the dimly lit room. how I found you: Anya, Charlie Cooper’s big oil.The U.S. government in particular has Slowly, she began to nod, and for the first time, granddaughter.” a long and disgusting history of invading and a gleam of mischief seemed to twinkle from Susie’s gaze burned into Anya’s as she colonizing nations for the sake of oil, of tearing her irises. subconsciously stepped a half inch closer. “I down forests, sending animals into extinction, “That’s why you asked me here today, isn’t knew you were one of the best, but that you’d and all for the sake of a fat wad of cash.” it?” Anya whispered, her voice dropping an lost someone too, and so would understand my Anya shook her head, sur pr ised and octave as the realization of what was happening pain, and my need for this Dome to be built.” revitalized as she felt an emotion creep into dawned on her like dew on a daffodil. “The Susie stopped and took a deep breath, her veins which she hadn’t been capable of plans my grandfather made, for the dome, squaring her shoulders imperceptibly and since before Gramps died. Her eyes narrowed, you sought me out because of them, right?” straightening her spine, before turning her emitting a kind of hot glow as she felt her Still smiling slightly, Susie gave the tiniest nod. gaze back to Anya, who stood still as stone, her chest begin to expand, her shoulders tensed to Anya walked the remaining steps forward expression unreadable. Gently, Susie reached the point of shaking. Susie took a step closer until she was eye to eye with Susie, a lock of out and took Anya’s hand, surprised by the to Anya in concern, the latter’s expression dark red hair falling gently across her cheek. heat radiating off her palm and onto Susie’s unreadable and dark. Suddenly, with an Susie’s nude pumps clicked as she shuffled, cool one. intensity neither knew she was capable of, glancing down at her toes momentarily before “I know Mer-culture,” Susie began, softly, Anya looked up looking back up at “and you’re an engineer, you know how to and stared directly Anya looked up and stared directly Anya, her eyes dark build. So yes, Anya, that is why I asked you into Susie’s eyes, the and intense, her face here. Because I need someone who I know is into Susie’s eyes, the former’s deep former’s deep brown serious. on my side, who I know will advocate for the brown irises smoldering with an ir ises smolder ing “ I n e e d e d t o Mer-people, and who knows the pain that will with an ear then earthen determination that burned find someone who be inflicted if she doesn’t.” Susie’s irises had determination that would feel their loss darkened to an earthen smolder, the heat of brighter than the dirty fluorescence of bur ned br ighter like I did,” Susie it traveling over and into Anya’s cheeks. than the dirty whispered hoarsely, “Clark Industries didn’t ask you here,Anya,” the basement. fluorescence of the her pupils burning Susie said, her voice gravely calm. “I did.” basement. with intensity. “When I first took this job, Gently, without so much as twitching a “It’s time I stopped feeling they asked me to clean out the old files in the muscle, Anya squeezed Susie’s hand once. sorry for myself,” Anya said, her intensity back – ones from during the Climate War The same fire she’d felt in her veins when softening slightly as she looked as Susie’s wary – and that’s how I found Charlie Cooper’s Susie mentioned big oil returned as she stared expression. She took one more glance around work.” Susie paused and looked past Anya’s directly into Susie’s eyes, and uttered three the room, her gaze coming to rest on a worn shoulder, fixating on the smooth green sea words. “Count me in.”
Check back next issue for the next installment! 29 March, 2018 • The Scripps Voice • Volume XXI • Issue Seven
12 • Arts & Entertainment
NEW MUSIC
for the Mid-Semester Slump By Ali Bush ‘19 Music Columnist
Jack White
Sunflower Bean For staying postitive these
dark
Photo courtesy of Pitchfork
in
If you’re feeling weird.
times!
S
unflower Bean has recently been Photo courtesy of Paste Magazine applauded for keeping rock ‘n’ roll alive in 2018. Their new album, Twentytwo in Blue, however is an approachable, dreamy, and Fleetwood Mac-inspired creation that lyrically covers everything from an oppressive government, to student debt, to young love. Songs like “Crisis Fest” and “Human for” reaffirm my belief that music can ignite political conversation and change. Other songs like “I Was A Fool” and “Twentytwo” are reminiscent of blissful teenagedom and the beauty in youth. The albums as a whole is a grungey-shoegazey antidote for feeling blue (and twenty two).
For
a
chill
Photo courtesy of Substream Magazine
Leon Bridges afternoon.
L
Soccer For
bedroom
Mommy
daydreaming/crying.
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wenty-year old Sophie Allison’s studio debut, Clean, is a millennial’s soundtrack that combines both slinky guitar and vivid lyrics with the punchiness of punk melodies. Her lyrics are poignant and gloomy, but her guitar playing is gnarly. As she tries to figure out who she is and wants to be, her lyrics shape her as a familiar, self-sabotaging stoner girl, a standout trope in the music industry. “Your Dog” is an cheeky and empowering reversal of The Stooge’s 1969, “I Wanna Be Your Dog,” as she sings about not wanting to be a boy’s dog. Photo courtesy of Bandcamp
Pun Column
eon Bridges’s has announced that his new album Good Thing will be released in May. Along with this news, he also released two new singles. They are both more modernfeeling than his silky smooth soul debut album Coming Home. “Bad Bad News” is a triumphal jazzy song that is irresistibly chill. With hints of jazz guitar and saxophone, I’d listen to this song on both an upbeat sunny afternoon and rainy Monday morning (if you get my drift). “Bet it Ain’t Worth the Hand” is a Childish Gabmino/Sam Cooke hybrid ballad about a toxic relationship. Both songs prove Bridges is expanding as an artist, and promise only more billboard success for his new album.
I
f you’re feeling a little more mentally stable and musically curious this week, Jack White’s solo album, Boarding House Reach, is bound to keep any music nerd engrossed. At first listen, the album is a messy hodgepodge of pseudo-raps, funk keyboards, and intense guitar solos, but after a close listen, it’s a highly orchestrated (and sometimes earsplitting) homage to creative freedom. It’s a no-holds-barred outpour of White’s hermetic weirdness, complete with a cover of a song penned by Al Capone and sounds created with children’s toys. Songs like, “Corporation” and “Over and Over and Over” are more accessible and catchy with the signature Jack White distortion and sing/ scream technique. The album is definitely more alienating than his past records, but it’s a glimpse into the wacky yet genius mind of one of our best modern musicians.
Original Puns by Elena Lev What do you call a naked piece of pasta? A nudle What’s another name for a drawing of a flying vehicle? 2-dimensional plane The Altoids factory is a reputable establishmint. By Elena Lev ‘21 Pun Columnist
29 March, 2018 • The Scripps Voice • Volume XXI • Issue Seven