Issue 2, volume 1
april 14, 2017
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Lodge St. George’s Independent School 1880 Wolf River Blvd. Collierville, TN 38017
Photograph by Rachel Ducker
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S TA F F Co-Editors-in-Chief Miriam Brown ’17
Annie Vento ‘17
Advisor Dr. Margaret Robertson
Editorial Board Carolyn Lane ‘18 Annie Murff ‘18 Bayard Anderson ’17 Laura McDowell ‘17 Caroline Zummach ’18 Iona Yates ‘17 Merryn Ruthling ‘18 Katie Boyle ‘17
Dawson Smith ‘17
Designers Laura McDowell ‘17 Katie Boyle’17 Carolyn Lane ’18 Kaitlyn Bowman ’19 Katelyn Grisham ’18 Will Brown ’19 Faith Huff ‘17
Photographers Rachel Ducker ’17 Katelyn Grisham ’18
Faith Huff ’17 Matthew Blum ’17
Illustrator Elle Vaughn ’17
Reporters Regine Miller ’17 Lauren Purdy ’18 Emma Bennett ’19 Annika Conlee ’18 Bart Mueller ’18
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Featured Stories
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About Us
The Lodge is dedicated to serving as an authentic voice for the students of St. George’s Independent School. We at the Lodge strive to be an open forum for student expression, to act in the best interests of the student body and to embody the principles of journalistic excellence. The Lodge is affiliated with the Tennessee High School Press Association and the National Scholatic Press Association. The Lodge is funded by advertisers, donors and St. George’s Independent School and is published once every six weeks during the school year by schoolprinting.com. The Lodge prints and distributes 300 copies of each issue to 700 students and faculty on St. George’s upper school campus. Bylines indicate the primary writer(s) of each article. Additional contributors are indicated in the shirttail. The Lodge provides free advertising for student clubs, events and activities and paid advertisements for local businesses. The Lodge welcomes letters to the editor and article submissions. To submit a letter, article or request for advertising, email our staff at thelodge@sgis.org. St. George’s Independent School 1880 Wolf River Blvd. Collierville, TN 38017 Tel. 901-457-2000
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n the early days of the landmark equal rights legislation, Coach Mary Lou Johns was a champion for women’s athletics. Over the course of two decades as the first women’s basketball coach at Memphis State, she led the team to 377 victories and changed the face of Memphis sports. By Miriam Brown
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The year is 1972, and Coach Mary Lou Johns is seeing red. She is coaching the women’s basketball team at Memphis State (now the University of Memphis) and the lack of support for the team is obvious. The women ride in a van to away games, instead of flying like the men’s team does. The women practice in little side gyms that Coach Johns describes as tiny and cramped. The women have to fight the men’s teams for time on the court. “She didn’t complain much, but at first, they didn’t have anything,” Mr. Jimmy Johns, Coach Johns’ husband, said. That team was the first Memphis State women’s basketball team in its history, and it was a direct result of a new piece of legislation called Title IX. In 1972, Title IX, a federal civil rights law, was passed to prohibit sex discrimination in education, including sports programs. The law was small, with only a 37-word introduction in general terms, and often overlooked by the public, but it was designed to serve as a catalyst to bring more academic and athletic opportunities to women by requiring equal treatment in school programs and activities. Instead of putting all their money into men’s academic and athletic programs, schools had to fund women’s programs, too. Schools that violated the law could lose their federal funding. After Title IX passed, schools like Memphis State scrambled to find coaches for the new women’s programs. When a position opened for a women’s basketball coach at
Memphis State, Coach Johns, only 30 years old at the time, jumped at the chance. “I didn’t have any competition. They were almost begging someone to do it,” Coach Johns said. “I basically learned on the job.” She was given a small budget and six athletic scholarships, but she quickly realized that things wouldn’t be easy.
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celebrates with players
“She didn’t complain much, but at first, they didn’t have anything.”
Lacrosse practice takes Coach Johns onto the field. Before Title IX, schools were not required to offer equal athletic opportunities to women, photograph by Rachel Ducker.
Coach
Johns from her Memphis State team. Over the course of her career, she became the team’s all-time winningest coach, photograph: Coach Johns’ Personal archive; Coach Johns looks on during a St. George’s middle school basketball game. Title IX has increased opportuni-
“We didn’t have a lot of money,” Coach Johns said. “We had some, but I remember we didn’t have money for a lot of fancy uniforms.” The team took matters into their own hands and hosted a bake sale and car wash to raise money to buy their own uniforms. When they raised enough money, they didn’t choose the school’s colors of blue and gray, but red. “I did it out of spite, really,” Coach Johns said. “After that year, they decided that they’d buy us some blue ones.” Those blue uniforms were going to be a part of her life for the next 20 years, while
ties for young women to play sports in school, photo-
Rachel Ducker.
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Coach Johns brought the program to national prominence. She led the Lady Tigers to 15 winning seasons, three NCAA appearances and two Metro Conference championships, ultimately culminating in a career record of 377 wins and 231 losses. She still remains the team’s all-time winningest coach. Though it’s hard to tell from her stats, Coach Johns, who now coaches both the seventh- and eighth-grade girls’ teams for St. George’s, actually didn’t have a lot of experience with basketball when she took the job at Memphis State. In fact, her high school didn’t even have a women’s basketball team. “We played through club ball because it wasn’t sanctioned [at school],” she said. “Then when I went to college, it was pretty much the same thing. There wasn’t college basketball.” In the late 1950s and early 1960s, when Coach Johns was in school, women’s basketball didn’t have the best reputation. The
game was slow, with detailed rules to prevent women from acting “unwomanly.” Stealing the ball from an opponent, for example, was viewed as too rowdy and masculine for women and, thus, was banned. Competition was even thought to be bad for women’s health until the 1960s, when the American Medical Association started to say otherwise. Afterwards, more women’s sports were half-heartedly started in progressive schools. In college, Coach Johns played club basketball, tennis, volleyball and badminton, but the sport of basketball didn’t really capture her attention until she attended a Nashville convention. At the hotel of the conference she was attending, tall players in letter jackets filled the lobby, and huge trophies were displayed nearby. A passerby told her that the TSSAA basketball state championship was being held in Nashville at Lipscomb University that weekend. On a free night,
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Coach Johns grabbed two friends and hopped in a taxi to go watch the state championship game. “We went in the gym to see the girls’ game that day, and the gym was packed – seats, rafters, everywhere. We could hardly get a seat,” Coach Johns said. “I was just totally amazed at that many people coming to watch a girls’ basketball game.” After graduation, she got her first job teaching health at Hillcrest High School in Memphis. “They gave her two boys’ health classes when she was 21 years old,” Mr. Johns said. “There were about 45 boys in a class, and she had to be able to maintain disciple but hadn’t had years of experience. The boys were almost as tall as she was.” While at Hillcrest, she decided to start a basketball team of her own. She still did not have any coaching experience, so she became a student of the game with the help of her husband, who was already a coach at a nearby high school. “I’d go watch him [Mr. Johns] a lot. I’d watch games, but
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I’d mainly go to watch practices,” Coach Johns said. “But then it just really all fell in place. It was like somebody dropped a magical ball.” That magical ball dropped when Coach Johns formed a Hillcrest volleyball and basketball team through a club program. Then, the magic happened again when Memphis State hired her to be head coach of the women’s basketball team. Her first season, she focused her recruiting on local women
way. Rules and conditions for Title IX had never been specified, so people were arguing at schools across the country about whether or not sports were included in its protection. The answer came in the form of a 1973 ruling from Mr. Caspar Weinberger, Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare, who said that sports teams were covered under Title
“It just really all fell in place. It was like somebody dropped a magical ball.” who were overlooked by the more prominent schools. During that first 1972-1973 season, the team finished with a 17-6 record, and the next season, the team got even better, earning a 23-9 record and the first 20-win season in the history of the Lady Tiger program. Meanwhile, a national fight over Title IX was under-
IX. The next year, Mr. Weinberger announced the proposed rules for the law, and more schools began adding women’s teams to their athletic programs. “I didn’t really think much about it and didn’t know what was going to happen with women’s sports and Title IX,” Mr. Johns said. “[Title IX] was just extra work for her at first. Then after a year or so, she became a full-time coach. Then she got an assistant coach. Things happened quickly.”
During the 1974-1975 season, the Memphis State team improved to 29 wins. Two seasons later, from 1976-1977, the team was ranked among the top 20 teams nationally, barely losing to the eventual national champion, Delta State. Though Coach Johns and her teams were successful and had the records to prove it, there were a lot of people who still weren’t too keen on the program. “Most men’s coaches were opposed [to Title IX] because they thought it was going to take away from them,” Coach Johns said. “If you have a men’s basketball team, you have to have a women’s. So now, instead of having all the money going to them, you have to have something to counterbalance.” The men’s teams stayed on the court longer than they were supposed to, cutting into the women’s time, or would not share certain supplies with the women’s team. The men’s team would have games in the Coliseum arena, with crowds of more than 10,000. The women’s team would occasionally play afterwards, but according to Coach Johns, three-quarters of the stadium would leave. “I made a lot of enemies through the years with men because you had to be very aggressive and forceful,” Coach Johns said. “If you just sat
back, the men would just step all over you – that’s just a fact. You always have some people who are opposed to women having a fair share.” Eventually, people started to have more respect for the women’s team and what they were trying to do. “I think they realized we had to have certain things to exist, but it still left a bitter taste in some people’s mouths,” Coach Johns said. “As time went on, they’d come around to see how it is.” By the end of the 70s, the women’s team had a booster club, a women’s chapter of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes and a Lady Tiger Athletic Council. With increasing support from the athletic department, the Memphis State women’s basketball program entered a new era. WKNO-TV began televising some of their games. The team started to use airplanes to fly to away games. They hired an athletic trainer and full-time assistant coach. During the 1981-1982 season, the women advanced all the way to the Sweet 16 of the NCAA tournament. They even beat the Tennessee Volunteers, coached then by the late Coach Pat Summitt, who still holds the record as the all-time winningest coach in NCAA history – male or female. Mrs. Ruth Ann Dix, a 5-foot-8-inch guard
from Memphis, played under Coach Johns for all four years of college, from 1983 to 1987. Today, she serves as a middle school girls’ basketball coach at Briarcrest and coaches against Coach Johns. “She’s still as intense as she ever was,” Mrs. Dix said. That’s the word Mrs. Dix uses to describe Coach Johns: intense. Mrs. Dix remembers Coach Johns
the bus and go straight to the gym a few times.” But the work was not in vain, because over Mrs. Dix’s four years, the team had two appearances in the NCAA tournament. They were either champion or runner-up of the Metro-Conference for three
“You always have some people who are opposed to women having a fair share.” coming straight from her own workouts to lead practice with the team, and those practices were as intense as Coach Johns was. The team practiced a lot, and when they didn’t play well during a game, they practiced even harder. “I can remember coming back from a road trip where we didn’t play very well, and we went straight to the gym and ran,” Mrs. Dix said. “I remember our having to get off
of her four years. The team even ranked in the national top 20 a couple of times. “Looking back now, because I’m a coach, I understand a little bit more about why she was so competitive and pushed us so hard because that’s what it takes at that level,” Mrs. Dix said. “She personifies a very tough person, but she has a heart for her players.” Coach Johns won Memphis’ Coach of the Year three times before finally being replaced by Ms. Joye Lee-McNelis in 1991. Her years at Memphis State bring back mostly fond memories:
the trips to places like Aruba and Alaska, the moments of fleeting joy in a victory, the camaraderie with other coaches and close relationships with her players. “I don’t know what I would’ve done if I hadn’t coached,” she said. “All because of a little round object that you bounce around and shoot in a hoop.” As women’s sports continue to gain more equal opportunities and momentum, Coach Johns and her Lady Tigers have a lasting legacy, serving as examples of women who fought to better their circumstances. “The girls now, college players and high school players, don’t realize that it didn’t use to be this way. It’s like when Billie Jean King [a famous female tennis player] said, ‘Baby, we’ve come a long way,’” Coach Johns said. “Yes, baby, we have come a long way.”
Left photograph by Rachel Ducker Right photograph from Coach Johns’ personal archives
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Photograph by Rachel Ducker
Photograph by Bayard Anderson
Photograph by Bart Mueller
Photograph by Katelyn Grisham
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Photograph by Kaitlyn Bowman
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BASEBALL: Junior Griffin Gillam steps up to the plate against Houston High School. The team started the season with several big wins against Houston and Christian Brothers High School, among others. Against Millington Central High School, senior Graham Sisson pitched the first perfect game in school history. “The last few innings were pretty nerve-wracking,” Sisson said, “but all my pitches were working, and our field was great behind me.”
BOYS SOCCER: The boys soccer team is doing well this season, with wins over Cordova High School and Tipton Rosemark Academy under their belt. In their away game against Cordova High School, junior Lathan Spadafora scored four goals in the 5-4 victory. “It was good to get a win on hostile ground,” Spadafora said.
SOFTBALL: Senior Anna Darty works on throwing during practice. Softball is off to an enthusiastic start after winning 12-11 in a close game against St. Agnes Academy, which featured a grand slam from sophomore Lindsey Pepper during the sixth inning. They hope to keep the momentum going throughout the season. Senior Anna Darty said that the coaches have “been encouraging [them] to stay calm and make the right plays.”
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TRAP SHOOTING: Junior David Graber lines up a shot. The trap team is getting back on track and hoping to practice hard. “We’re looking to improve this season, get back to practicing on the regular and get everybody where they need to be for the competitions,” senior JD Hibner said. Current captain, junior Soren Jensen, is shooting well this season and is working hard to be the best shooter out there.
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TENNIS: Senior Hannah Kate McDowell serves during a match. The boys and girls tennis teams have had a solid beginning to their season, with strong performances in two competitions. The team travelled to Chattanooga on March 23 to participate in the DecoTurf Tennis Team Championships, where the boys and girls teams were awarded third and eighth place, respectively. “The Gryphons are ready to have a great season,” McDowell said. “Everybody in the upper and middle school needs to come support and watch our team because we won second in the state last year.”
BOYS LACROSSE: Senior John Carter Hawkins takes a shot during warmups. The boys lacrosse team is off to a stellar start with a strong win against Collierville High School, a Division I opponent. “I think we still have a lot to learn,” sophomore Cameron Head said, “but we are working as a team and that’s special because a team that is family goes a long way.”
WATER POLO: Junior Hudson Beaudry defends the ball during practice. The water polo team is doing well in their fifth season and is hoping to win a second straight state championship. “The season is going great,” senior Maggie Glosson said. “We’ve lost a couple of games, but that’s what happens every year, and we’ve been training the new people who are getting it pretty quickly.” TRACK: Senior Essence Davis stretches before a track meet. The track team is finishing up their preseason as they prepare for a strong outdoor track season. Senior Caroline Farrell said she is “looking forward to finishing [her] high school track career on a high note.” The track team is hoping to have a great season and finish strong. GIRLS LACROSSE: Junior Claire Murphy looks to score against rival Hutchison. Murphy attributes the team’s successful start to the fact that they only lost two seniors last year. “We have pretty much the same chemistry as last year, which has been great,” Murphy said. On March 2 to 5, the team travelled to Baltimore to get valuable game experience against quality competition. They are hoping to make another run at a state championship this year.
Photograph by Mr. Kirk Cotham
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For the second year in a row, the Tennessee High School Press Association has named the Gryphon Gazette (now the Lodge) the Best Overall Newspaper in the state of Tennessee. For the first time, our website has been named the Best Overall Website in the state of Tennessee. We couldn’t do it without you, and so...
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GR
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Agricultural projects on campus provide a real-world education for nature lovers
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By Annika Conlee
n the beginning, seniors (now alumni) Harrison Schutt and John Kutteh built a hoop house, and it was good. The sun shone. The birds sang. Seeds were planted. That was good, too. Well, except for one thing. “William McBride did accidently smash my phone with a sledge hammer,” Schutt said, “which I guess was the worst part, even though it was pretty funny.” Seasons passed, the plants grew and it came time for Schutt and Kutteh to graduate, but their good works were not destined to lie fallow.
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In the year that followed, seniors Anna Besh, Shane Horton and Channell Cole took charge. Besh continued the farm while Horton built a chicken coop, and Cole kept bees. Benjamin Stamps was in charge of the budget, the money they spent and the money they hoped to bring in. St. George’s saw and thought it was good. Little did they know, winter was coming, and it would be accompanied by a crash course in the realities of modern agriculture.
In the beginning
The original hoop house was designed, built and planted by Schutt and Kutteh in 2015.
Photographs by Annie Vento and Matthew Blum. Photographs taken during 20162017 document a year in the life of the agricultural projects at St. George’s. Students came face-to-face with the real-world challenges of running a smallscale farm.
Undertaking this was a challenge as neither Schutt or Kutteh had prior construction experience. This served as the culmination of their Senior Independent Study, commonly called SIS. SIS offers seniors an opportunity to demonstrate their skills while pursuing something of interest to them. Though SIS projects typically last only one year, Schutt wished to leave a more lasting legacy by connecting people to nature. “As long as people are getting out to that beautiful island and veggies are being grown to be eaten, I’ll be happy,” Schutt said. Wishing to continue and enhance Suburban Farms during their senior year, Horton and
Cole decided to raise chickens and bees to increase the connection of the school to the outdoors. “My dad has been taking care of chickens for a really long time, about six years. He inspired me,” Horton said. “After John and Harrison started the farm, I thought it would be really cool if I could also do something with that, so I brought chickens.” Those chickens were all given the last name of Peters in honor of Head of School Mr. Ross Peters and were given license to explore the farm and eat bugs. They were joined by a colony of bees under the supervision of Cole, and the project quickly became known as “the Birds and the Bees.” Looking forward to a future filled with healthy chickens, robust crops and busy bees, the students were excited as summer approached.
In the garden
Mr. Jamie Roszel, who oversees the SIS program at St. George’s, strongly supported this new project and viewed it as the embodiment of the SIS program. “[The Birds and the Bees is] actual experience. It’s not theoretical. It’s not hypothetical, and you are actually spending money, working to make money,” Mr. Roszel said. “It really is like an actual small business. If your interest at all is in local, organic, sustainable, contributing to the community, then this does all of those things, while actually teaching you real-world skills, which is really nice.” Those real world skills included mantaining an emotional distance from livestock. “We had one [chicken] die over the summer from dehydration,” Cole said. “That’s natural selection. If she chose not to drink water, then it’s her fault.” During the fall, the agricultural projects found their rhythm: the chickens were producing eggs, the bees were healthy and produce was being grown, including strawberries, onions and corn. Meanwhile, the Suburban Farms crew was learning about the care of chickens and bees, construction, farming and money management. “It’s just really cool to see how important each part of the ecosystem is,” Cole said. “They are these tiny little bees, and they have such a big impact on the word.” Horton, Besh and Cole were able to enjoy and share their accomplishments with the first fall festival in December. Students gathered to celebrate and eat a meal full of fresh produce from the farm. Prefect of the Outdoors Graham Sisson attended the fall festival along with roughly 30 others. “It was an awesome
opportunity to get a good group of students out there and experience all the resources we have,” Sisson said. “It was a really peaceful time and we had an awesome meal.”
Rough waters
As the cold settled in, however, struggles began to build. Deer broke into the hoop house and ate all the produce, and the chickens stopped producing eggs for the winter. With nothing to sell, the farmers, especially CFO Benjamin Stamps, came face-to-face with the economic realities of owning a small business. “Money can make people stressed out. How much we put in versus how much we got back is kind of hard for all of us right now,” Stamps said on Jan. 9. “But, it’s definitely an investment and a foundation for future St. George’s students.”
Let there be light
Over the past few months, there have been signs of new life out behind the baseball and softball fields. The projects have recovered as chickens have begun to produce eggs again and more crops have been planted. Cole even has hopes that someone will choose to buy a new bee colony and try the experiment again next year. “It’s so cool being a beekeeper. It is fun and you learn about the bees and how important they are to the environment.” Cole said. “The fact is that they are going extinct. It would be really awesome to have a consistent bee colony at school.” Besh, Cole and Horton are now looking for upcoming leadership for their agricultural projects for the years to come. Looking back, the girls created many lasting memories in the outdoors.
“Yes, I’m a beekeeper, a cheerleader, a senior in high school. I can be anything I want to be.” Then, just two days later, tragedy struck. “The bees, yesterday, died,” Cole said during an interview on Jan. 12. “All of them.” And with them, any hope of producing honey. Although bees often die in the winter, it was not clear why the St. George’s beehive did. On Instagram, two posts announced the loss of the bees, and, with a total of 235 likes and 20 comments, the St. George’s community mourned with Cole. Nonetheless, Mr. Roszel sees the project as a success. “My view on this project hasn’t changed. I thought it would be really hard, and it turns out it’s really hard.” Mr. Roszel said, “The SIS is for someone to take healthy risks. It is a sandbox that we can let you play in, essentially without the consequences of the real world.”
“The best moment was when we sold eggs in the fall or spring.” Horton said. “Actually, it was when we got our first egg! Then we started to get a ton after that.” This unique experience also helped them in unexpected ways. “You have awesome college essays. I swear it’s what got me into college,” Cole said, “All of essays were like, ‘Yes, I’m a beekeeper, a cheerleader, a senior in high school. I can be anything I want to be.’”
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Advocacy journalism
By Regine Miller
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t is Halloween night. Everyone is armed in their Halloween gear, ready to embark on adventures and parties galore. As boys scour stores for fake blood and masks in an attempt to dress as the newest “Purge” character, girls rip normal-fitting clothes into cat costumes that leave lit-
tle to the imagination. It’s a night of fun, sugar rushes and harmless pranks, meant to bring people together. And then, you see it. The perky blonde dressed as a scantily-clad Pocahontas or the frat guy who thought it was funny to paint his entire face black and sport a huge costume afro wig. Your response most likely depends on your knowledge of cultural exchange and how it works. Culture usually describes the shared set of values and practices amongst a particular group of people. Cultural exchange is necessary for growth and the trade of knowledge and new ideas. However, this exchange can be damaging when it strays from appreciation and is morphed and exaggerated to the point of caricature.
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This phenomenon, known widely as cultural appropriation, is defined loosely by The Huffington Post as what occurs “when borrowing turns into exploitation.” Most controversy surrounding cultural appropriation stems from the nature of culture itself as an aspect of human life that is always growing, changing and evolving. The merging of certain aspects of different cultures is virtually unavoidable, and similar trends inevitably appear across cultural, racial and national bounds. We see the positive effects of cultural exchange through cross-cultural foods, rockand-roll, modern language and mathematics. With that being said, this is not to suggest that people cannot like or enjoy the cultures of others. It only becomes a problem when said cultures are adopted without respect or monetized by those who did not create them, and when real identities are worn as costumes. In America, it is in Black culture that we see this phenomenon most frequently. American Black culture is something that is seen as accessible to everyone, simply because it has become almost synonymous to American pop culture. It is seen as cool and hip in all of its forms, whether it is music, style of dress, hairstyles or African-American vernacular. “Probably the most listened-to music among young people is rap music, which is mostly Black culture that has kind of spread into the mainstream of everything,” upper school art teacher Mr. Danny Broadway said. “In that regard, I think it’s a very important part of culture because it has such an influence.” Dillon Burrell, a senior at Overton High School in Memphis and aspiring musician, agrees that the influence of Black music is unavoidable.
“I feel that it shows how beautiful hip-hop is. It shows how it just doesn’t just pertain to Black people,” Burrell said. “It goes around the world, and it’s affecting everybody to a point that they don’t even know anymore because this music and lifestyle is just so compelling. I think that they can’t [avoid it] because it’s everywhere. They can’t, not in America.” Jas Marie, a senior at East High School in Memphis, agrees. “I think Black culture is the beginning of everything great,” Marie said. “Black people inspire so many things. We’re just fly naturally: in real life, on social media, in our art. What else is there? Black culture is the Alpha and the Omega.” The celebration and enjoyment of Black culture can easily become exploitation when it transforms into satirical emulation. In Japan, the love of Black American hiphop culture is so pervasive that people have started a subculture, often called “Burakku” or, literally, “Black.” People who participate in Burakku tan their skin, adorn their hair with braids and listen to what they consider to be traditionally Black music: Dancehall, Reggae, Hip Hop and Rap. This is also a popular phenomenon in Korea, where it is not uncommon for television actors, and artists such as K-Pop performers BEAST/B2ST, to don blackface for a cheap laugh. “It messes with people subconsciously. It affects them over time. It hurts,” said Marie. This type of appropriation is also present in the fashion industry, in which watered-down Afrocentric clothing and hairstyles are presented as “exotic,” “unique” or, worse yet, “tribal” looks, but often shown on white models.
Advocacy Journalism Senior Kai Taylor, a passionate follower of the fashion industry, laments the recent exploitation of Black culture and trends by nonblack designers. “We tell them it’s offensive, and they don’t even care,” Taylor said. The most recent example of this is Marc Jacobs’ use of rainbow locs on the mostly-white models in his runway show. Another example occurred when Valentino designers Maria Grazia Chiuri and Pierpaolo Piccioli showcased their 2016 summer collection earlier last year, describing it as “primitive, tribal, spiritual yet regal.” However, in their 90-model runway show, there were only eight models of color present. “There is already a lack of diversity in the fashion industry, and you have the nerve to snatch the culture of someone that you won’t even hire,” Taylor said. “It’s ugly, and it needs to stop.” This type of overt anti-black racism is detrimental in a few ways. Exotifying and condensing many complex cultures into something watered down and then proceeding to describe it as “primitive” dehumanizes the people behind those styles, as does suggesting that those styles are innately contradictory to regality. While it is true that all fashion is inspired by previous trends, it is another thing altogether to steal, dehumanize and oversimplify entire cultures for monetary gain. Marie is also bothered by practices in the fashion industry that seem to rob Blacks of the rights to their own culture. “It hurts Black businesses that started things. Or let’s talk about ‘hood culture,’ things that are deemed as ‘ghetto:’ cornrows, long acrylic nails, things like that. You see these on New York fashion runways. Black girls are told that they’re ghetto and that they’re dirty, and that they can’t have these styles because they’re just wrong,” Marie said. “Meanwhile, they see it on white women in magazines. So part of that effect is like, ‘Oh, either I can’t embrace my culture or I have to be lighter [skinned] to
do these things.’” Similarly, the same “slang” deemed unintelligent and unprofessional when used colloquially among African Americans has become the source of new marketing slogans when large companies realize that their young consumers think it’s cool. Seeing one’s culture become popular amongst the masses when they were criticized for exercising that same culture hurts. “It’s not only hard trying to tear down the current walls that are preventing you from loving yourself, but you also have to con- stantly fight against the bricks being thrown at you from other cultures who want to take what’s yours,” Davis said. “What about me is so hard to love, especially when these other women who are not of my culture do the same things and get praised?” It is easy to avoid exploitation when one gives the credits and the benefits of a cultural creation to its original creators, instead of crowding them out of their own markets, mocking their culture and damaging their livelihood. Supporting cultural businesses and participating in positive cultural exchange are good ways to celebrate a culture without appropriating it. Like many artists, Mr. Broadway feels as though authenticity is key. “Anytime someone takes something artistic and doesn’t give the person who makes it credit, it’s just a horrible thing,” Mr. Broadway said. “If someone does something that you do because they like what you do and they want to try to make something like what you made, as long as they give you credit for it, I think it’s okay. But if they try to take it and make it their own without saying where it came from originally, someone who knows it sees it, and they know it for what it is. It’s a fake.” Many claim that Black people are culprits of the same type of appropriation when they adorn straight hairstyles, speak “properly” or subscribe to aspects of white American culture. But in actuality, the pressure that Black people face on a daily basis to change themselves just to be taken seriously is an example of assimilation for the sake of their own professional, educational and emotional wellbeing. There is a very distinct difference between adopting the characteristics of the dominant culture for survival and adopting the characteristics of a minority group for fun.
When a dominant culture controls all of the markets in a particular place, this culture is seen as the default, which creates implicit biases about other cultures that are hard to detect, and even harder to eradicate. This is the reason Black skin is a costume for people to try on for size, why it is theirs to climb into and get a feel for, only to abandon when its repercussions knick at their heels. It is why Black aesthetic is uprooted, debased, copied, chewed up and spit out. To bastardize Black culture for sport, trend, entertainment or financial gain is not the same as appreciating it. Moreover, it is not the same as valuing it. “We built the world for y’all and y’all try to take us out of it,” Burrell said. “But you can’t. We’re the milk and honey.”
Illustration by Elle Vaughn
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“CHECK” IT OUT! o go t e d
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J.D. Hibner, Senior
On Promposals “I feel pressured to ask girls in a creative way... It’s not so much pressure. It’s more like I feel like I should, but I don’t feel like doing it at all.”
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Asia Gibson, Sophomore
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Anna Besh, Senior
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Mimi McCarroll, Senior
On Prom
On Dates
On Promposals
“I think about it as the girls are there in their cute dresses and their nice heels and the guys dressing up. I think about the cute promposals, and it is a fun night for everyone to be there. It is like another dance but in a nicer setting.”
“Go with someone you’re friends with because you’ll have way more fun. Go with someone you’re comfortable with because it’s not going to be fun if you’re kinda uncomfortable the whole time. Go with someone that’s going to treat you well, take good pictures, that kinda thing.”
“I’ve been asked through Starbucks both times I’ve been asked to prom. The first time I was asked he said, “I’ve been thinking about this a latte – prom?” Then the second time, he got me a Starbucks drink, and he said, “I would really like to go to prom with you,” and it was just really sweet. I would have to say that the understated, just from the heart is better than the whole ‘promposal’ thing.”
Prom is coming up, and you know what that means: a portion of upper school classes will be empty on April 21. Here is everything you could ever want to know about this year’s junior/senior prom. When: Friday, April 21 Where: 409 South Main Time: Doors will open at 8 p.m. and close at 9 p.m. Prom ends at 11:30 p.m. Tickets: $45 per person Illustration by Elle Vaughn
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Michael Doan, Junior
Kai Taylor, Senior
On Prom
On Prom Pressure
“I think Prom is more exclusive, so that makes it like a bigger deal that you go because it’s only available for juniors and seniors. It’s, like, you get this whole week. You get the spirit week right in front of it, and they had a half day or pep rally or something on it and it made it a big deal.”
“I’m just not a party person. I find reading or watching TV shows more entertaining than being in the midst of a whole bunch of bodies listening to music. It’s not about only just looking good for the guys but competing with the girls to look better than everyone else. You need to be doing things that you want to do not because you are trying to impress anyone. It’s just another example of people trying to conform to what everyone else wants.”
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By Merryn Ruthling, Caroline Zummach and Annie Murff
T
he half day before spring or fall break, school hallways can seem empty. At St. George’s, this can be explained by the large number of students who have left to enjoy their break at the beach. In fact, it can seem as if overnight many students have traded in school hallways for sandy beaches and three hours of homework for nights that are more exciting yet perhaps less legal. While not everyone has been to Seaside, the partying culture present at the Florida beach familar among Memphians, is something all high school students encounter, whether it be by first-hand experience or stories overheard in the lunchroom. In Seaside, “bare feet and sandy floors rule” and the average annual temperature is 67 degrees and sunny. For those unfamiliar with Seaside, it is the city featured in “The Truman Show,” the popular movie starring Jim Carrey. Picture kids riding
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Party culture beckons during s
around on pastel bikes, identical white beach houses lining wide bricked roads and crystalline blue water lapping against white sandy beaches. A typical day in Seaside includes tanning by the beach or pool while enjoying a snow cone. However, it is at nights that the town really comes alive. “It’s the party beach,” sophomore Ann Ragan Grissom said. “It’s kind of like Panama City Beach, but for younger people, high school people.”
loose, which can translate into drinking, especially for youth who are seeking a break from school stress. Social media can also encourage participating in party behaviors by highlighting the stigma of “spring break.” “I watch the Daily Mail snapchat stories, and you see huge stories posted about ‘spring breakers,’” senior Mimi McCarroll said. “That may be what encourages it.” According to the National Center for Biotechnology Information, lack of parental
College students may have a hard time finding people of their age group roaming the town, but it seems nearly impossible to leave your beach house without running into high school students from the Memphis area, some of them engaged in behavior that could be taken out of a typical “spring break” college movie. Spring break is generally thought of as a time to let
supervision on vacations with friends is another factor that can lead to elevated drinking levels present during spring break. Students who choose to stay at home or go on vacation with parents are at lower risk for increased alcohol use. This elevated drinking means that teens are drinking more than they would on a normal weekend. “I feel like it’s more of
“I feel like I should be holding a cup in my hand, but at the end of the day I know I don’t need to do that to fit in.”
‘hey it’s spring break or fall break.’ Everyone’s just going crazy,” freshman Landry Wirth said, “and I feel like it’s not like that all year at school.” There are a range of ways in which “spring break mentality” can translate into Seaside nightlife. Some may linger at their favorite restaurants well past the seldom enforced 10 p.m. curfew. Others meet on the beach, frequently with alcohol provided by college students or permissive parents. Still, others prefer to meet in the privacy of their beach houses, again, typically with the availability of alcohol. This behavior is not without risk. According to “Northwest Florida Daily News,” on March 24, 2017, 42 people were arrested for underage drinking in Walton and Okaloosa Counties, the counties where Seaside and other 30A beaches are located. In addition to the risk of arrest, there are other potential consequences in a society where most every aspect of life is recorded. “Everything now is videoed, and everything you do is being watched,” Reese said.
g spring break “People are always pointing their camera at you and waiting for you to do something stupid.” These videos have the potential to reach parents, the school or even the authorities, which can shape students reputations and how others view their character as a whole. “Other parents find out and that affects who they let their kids hang out with,” Murphy said. However, some students are not so quick to judge the actions of their peers while on spring break. “I’ve only seen the things that they have done that week,” Reese said, “so I can’t judge them as a person because I don’t know the rest of their life and their story and what they have had before or after that” While underage drinking during spring break remains a large part of high school culture, overall underage drinking has been declining and is currently at its lowest level since 1975. In a survey conducted by the Center for Disease Control in 2015, only 33 percent of high schoolers reported drinking in the past 30 days. This may be surprising considering the
ubiquity of underage drinking in popular television shows, such as “Friday Night Lights” or “Gossip Girl.” “In movies they make parties seem like a huge deal,” Grissom said, “but there really aren’t that many or when there is. There isn’t that huge a guest list.” Media is certainly an influential factor in underage drinking, but many students
participation, rather than upfront confrontation. “I feel like I should be holding a cup in my hand, but at the end of the day I know I don’t need to do that to fit in. I just need to be myself,” McCarroll said. Not all students drink, and some students believe that there is something to be said for a high school experience without drinking.
“I’ve only seen the things that they have done that week, so I can’t judge them as a person because I don’t know the rest of their life and their story and what they have had before or after that.” believe it is not the only factor. “It depends on how influenced you are by other people’s opinions,” sophomore Kate Murphy said. Teenagers constantly search for approval and acceptance, and, in some cases, it may feel that this approval can come from doing what everyone else is doing. Much of the pressure that teenagers experience comes from peer
Within one grade, there is a broad spectrum when it comes to teen drinking because every student has a different definition of “fun.” On any given weekend, you will find some students just hanging out with friends watching Netflix or going out to eat, while others can be found at a party where alcohol is present. The choice is left to students on how to shape their
high school experience. The choices one makes in high school don’t have to have a lasting effect on one’s future if they don’t let them. “I feel like it’s your choice,” McCarroll said. “I have loved my high school experience, and I haven’t had to drink in order to enjoy it. If you want to, okay, but if you don’t want to, it’s not going to take away anything.” If you or someone you know is struggling with drug or alcohol addiction, contact the following resources: The Alcohol Addiction Hotline at 1-877-546-2869 The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration Helpline at 1-800-662-4357 Daybreak Treatment Center at 901-753-4300 Lakeside Behavioral Health System at 901-377-4700 Elizabeth Bran, Upper School Director of Counseling and Guidance Phone: 901-457-2012 Email: ebran@sgis.org Amy Michalak, Middle School Director of Counseling and Guidance Phone: 901-457-2129 Email: amichalak@sgis.org
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CHEF JET TILA – world-renowned, five-
star gourmet chef, culinary ambassador to Thailand and frequent guest on “Chopped,” “Cutthroat Kitchen” and “Iron Chef” – autographs a picture for sixth-grader Mary Caroline Collier. Chef Tila visited St. George’s on Wednesday, March 29 to share his culinary expertise. He cooked pad thai and pineapple fried rice alongside students. At right: Chef Tila answers questions from a small group of middle and upper school students. Students watch on as Chef Tila makes fried rice for lunch. Sophomores Elizabeth Thomas and Mary Miller Goldberg share a picture and laugh with Chef Jet. Photographs by Sarah Thompson and Kylan Davis.
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Opinion
Brasileira in Tennessee Immigrants are not the enemy
P
By Fe Novoa
eople who don’t know me may not know I lived in Brazil for 11 years of my life. Despite easily assimilating to American culture, nothing about me is American. Portuguese is my first language, and my instinct is to greet someone by kissing them on the cheek. I refer to people using their first name, including authority figures like teachers and presidents. I eat pizza with a fork and knife, and I arrive at parties and social gatherings an hour after they begin. I am proud of who I am and where I am from. However, within the past few months, it has become increasingly difficult to be outspoken about my culture due to an increase in the number of hate crimes towards people of different backgrounds. According to the Southern Poverty Law Center, there were a total of 867 cases of “hateful harassment or intimidation” in the United States within the 10 days following the 2016 election. Although President Donald Trump told individuals who were
harassing minorities to “stop it,” hate crimes have still jumped six percent since the election. This number could be even higher since, according to a recent FBI report, many hate crimes go unreported. During this time, mosques have received threatening letters, swastikas and white supremacist phrases have appeared in public spaces and anti-immigrant chants have become more common in high schools. Some of this hate speech echoes the idea that immigrants are taking American jobs. My family and I are immigrants and, until recently, none of us had a green card. I still only have a visa. Nonetheless, my parents pay taxes to the U.S. government, my dad has a full-time job, and I work hard in school and give back to my community by volunteering. Unfortunately, families like mine are being blamed for America’s economic crisis. I understand that life has been difficult for many Americans and that finding jobs that both pay enough money and also provide
basic needs is challenging. Although it is easy to blame legal and illegal immigrants for this issue, we are not the problem. Technological advancements put more jobs in jeopardy, and the rate at which machines replace humans rises each year. Because of the increasing technological efficiency of factories and the rising use of robots, employers are in need of fewer workers. These breakthroughs endanger an estimated total of 47 percent of total employment in the United States, according to a study from the Oxford Martin School. Unfortunately, these facts do not protect my family from discrimination. My mother has a thick Brazilian accent when speaking English. Although she is not bothered by it, in certain circumstances, she has to repeat herself because some people have a difficult time understanding her, and there are many instances where she is not taken seriously by her American counterparts. It is difficult to come home and hear my parents share their experiences
with discrimination. And, sometimes while I am at school, I fear that an unkind person will cross their paths and I won’t be there to defend them against that stranger’s ignorant words. The truth is that immigrant families are not the cause of our country’s problems and generalizing about immigrants is not fair. How can we fix this? The solution starts with us. We need to avoid making jokes about building walls or kicking foreigners out of this country. We need to be more informed about the causes of unemployment and other issues that trouble of country rather than looking for a scapegoat. We need to treat others equally, no matter where they were born or what citizenship they have. No, I am not American, but we should learn to celebrate our differences rather than condemning them because I, along with other foreigners, am fully capable of positively contributing to American society.
OPINION POLICY: The opinion section of the Lodge is a venue for the free expression of student views at St. George’s Independent School. The opinions represented in this section are those of the authors alone and do not necessarily reflect those of the Lodge staff or of the St. George’s community at large. The Lodge strives to be an open forum for the thoughtful and deliberate exchange of comment and criticism, and therefore welcomes letter to the editor. Letters to the editor will be printed in the opinion section, should not exceed 300 words and must be signed and accompanied by a verifiable email address. These letters will not be printed if the content is judged obscene, violates the privacy of others or encourages the physical disruption of school activites.
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Opinion
Editorial: We are all Gryphons Staff editorials represent the opinion of the editorial board. The following count represents our editorial board’s stance on this editorial. As always, letters to the editor in response to the editorial are encouraged. The editorial board: Miriam Brown, Annie Vento, Laura McDowell, Carolyn Lane, Merryn Ruthling, Caroline Zummach, Bayard Anderson, Annie Murff, Iona Yates, Katie Boyle and Dawson Smith
Agree: 11/11 Abstain: 0/11 Disagree: 0/11
G
ryphon. That’s what you call both genders of the mythological creature. A female gryphon is not a “lady gryphon” or a “gryphoness.” Like other schools and colleges across the country, we include “lady” on some of our jerseys. Collierville High Schools calls their women’s teams the “Lady Dragons,” and Schilling Farms calls their women’s teams the “Lady Stallions,” even though a stallion by definition is a male. The word “Lady” before the mascot’s name that are listed across the front of some jerseys of women’s athletic uniforms may seem insignificant to some, but they are indicative of unequal treatment of boys’ and girls’ sports. In the sports announcements we hear in chapels and emails, women’s sports can feel like afterthoughts, even though a third of our team state championship and half of our individual state championships are women’s. Just two weeks ago, news of softball’s exciting first win
of the season and sophomore Lindsey Pepper’s grand slam was skimmed over in favor of announcing a baseball player’s injury in chapel. The arrival of the Bleacher Creatures organization has improved the promotion of both women’s and men’s sports significantly. Instead
we, as a school, are done fighting for equal support for male and female sports. On any given day, you will probably see more fans at a baseball game than a softball game, more fans at a boys’ basketball game than girls’ basketball game, and so on. We need to show out to
We need to show out to support our female athletes just as much as we do for our male athletes. of individual members in the school community sending out emails about their sports team’s games, a process that frequently left out women’s sports, the Bleacher Creatures have streamlined that process, sending out mass electronic announcements that give information about every athletic event, men’s and women’s, happening that week. But that doesn’t mean that
support our female athletes just as much as we do for our male athletes. We now have a chance to encourage that change. A group of seniors have created a school spirit app, Gryph Nation, which will be released late April, with the purpose of bringing school spirit to new heights while also giving more support and recognition to less popular sports and activities.
This app paves the way for equal support among sports, as one of the key aspects of the app will be giving students fewer points for attending more popular sports games, such as football or basketball, and more points for those with less support, including girls basketball and softball. These less popular sports are typically the female counterparts to their male equivalents, and we hope this app will slowly bring more equality to St. George’s school spirit. The journey to this equality is an uphill battle, and, so long as there are still differences in the way we support girls and boys in sports, even “Gryphons” versus “Lady Gryphons,” there will still be progress to be made. However, we applaud the upperclassmen who have launched these endeavors to make a change, and we encourage more students to continue to make a difference so we can one day treat all sports as one.
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