No. 3: Our America by The Collective X Liberation

T he collective Liberation Fashion With Perspective

No. 3 our america Warning: May contain representation not often portrayed in modern media. Confront perceptions before reading.

content 4 counter culture 12 Corporate expression 22 asian fission 32 representation

From the board America was built on the backs of slaves. America is taught to us as a meritocracy, but we understand that this is a fallacy. The fact of the matter is that merit, in reality, is not a part of the American Dream. The inaccessibility of this ideal is reflective of the hypocrisy that exists within American society, as those whose ancestors built this nation are so clearly and potently erased. A quick google search of the word “America” brings up the current active shooter crisis, police brutality, and the darkness revolving around “Trump’s Nation.” Although a tangible shroud of shame and disbelief cloaks this country, we believe that there is light in the strength of a brewing resistance. During this current rise of political consciousness and action amongst groups normally excluded from the American narrative, we at Collective X feel that the histories of these groups made to feel invisible by white eurocentrism deserve space and accreditation for the inception and progression of this nation. With that being said, we recognize that all narrative experiences are different. The purpose of this publication is only to share and consider a few of them within the context of the workplace, the university, and the everyday life, as well as to consider how the intersections of race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, and other varying aspects of identity fashion one’s experience and authenticity as an American from the perspective of their own body. Make no mistake, the body is the political. #OURAMERICA

Counter culture Counter culture Counter culture ounter ulture 4

Counter culture Counter culture Counte culture Counte cultur 5

This ain’t your over-the-counter culture.

MCAT? To be a doctor...? Wow, congratulations, but you gotta take them things out your face. Doctors don’t Interviewer’s note: People have allook like you.” ways approached me and asked if my tattoos and piercings hurt. They only How do you feel in an environment hurt me for a moment, but it seems like Cornell with your appearance, as if they hurt others for a lifetime, considering your style is not the norm despite my choices having nothing to here? Empowered? Ostracized? do with them. The fact of the matter is, “being yourself” is much easier Betty: I feel a little awkward or shy in theory than in practice. Few prac- when I’m really indulging myself and tice what they preach -- I’m told to dressing the way I really like. But in be myself, and then shamed for doing the end, there’s a lot of positive feedso. You can’t help but stand out from back from my friends, so I feel really the crowd when who you are and grateful for how accepting my friend how others want you to present yourgroup is at Cornell. self are concepts that fail to overlap. I did not choose the body I am in, but Alex: I went to a high school where I will make the most of what I have, it was fairly common to have piercand I damn sure won’t let other peo- ings and dye your hair a different colple choose for me. Inspired by my or every other day. Cornell is a poown experiences with my body mod- larizing place and there is a lot more ifications and physical appearance, I conservatism concentrated here than conceived this piece to highlight sim- in Manhattan. I don’t necessarily feel ilar narratives. I didn’t do this for the ostracized or empowered, but curious culture. I did it for the counterculture. when people have such visceral reactions to slight changes in appearance. - Kemba Cooper People would ask me why I would dye my hair or want to change my What is the strangest comment you’ve look, and at times it would be frusreceived about your appearance? It trating to hear such silly questions. can be positive/negative. I’m an artist at heart with a passion for expression, creativity, and experiBetty: “Are you a man or woman?’’ mentation. I do things simply because I want to, because it’s fun/enjoyable/ Alex: “You’re here studying for the new/like a hobby. Not everyone has

a personal style or spends time on their makeup or hair in the morning for other individuals to notice them, but for their own personal satisfaction and comfort. In the morning, if I get up and spend time picking out an outfit, it’s because it helps fashion and prepare my mindset for all of the things I want to accomplish. Personal style is like going for a morning run or falling into a routine that’s unique to you. Beau: I definitely think it’s a weird environment to come into. When I’m at home [in San Diego], my appearance seems so normal. Nobody would really comment on my sleeve. But here, not only do I go to Cornell, I’m an engineer. So people definitely don’t [initially] think of me as a good partner, because they associate my tattoos with delinquency. What’s your favorite feature about your style and what advice would you give to someone whose style would also be considered nonconformist? Beau: I have a little frowny face tatted on my stomach, and it’s the first stick-and-poke [that] I gave myself. I think body modifications are such a beautiful way to reclaim your body. It belongs to you, you should be able to

do what you want with it. . .you can reclaim it from a society that’s always telling you what your body means. I think it’s important to people everywhere, because people have harmful ways of reclaiming their body. Modifications are so much more positive than that. Instead of self-harm, it’s like self-love. Betty: I really can’t imagine not having at least one pair of platform shoes or some sort of color in my outfit, like doing my hair, unless it’s a classy white and black outfit. I want to live my life in color in terms of what I’m wearing and where I go. Vibrancy is key for me, and I like that both my appearance and personality reflect that. If someone were in my position and felt scared to embrace themselves and what they considered their style, I’d say fuck everything. Life’s too short to be worrying about being embarrassing or weird because you’re going to be living as yourself, so why not be who you really are? Happiness is fleeting, and I plan on catching every little bit that comes my way. So as long as you aren’t offending others or hurting people, your style could be one of the easiest and more fun ways of representing yourself. Plus, shopping is always fun.

Corporate expression Written by Alex Hernandez

Doctors wear white coats, business executives adorn pricey black-tie suits, and prisoners are forced into the homogenizing orange jumpsuit - clothing carries symbolic meaning, a truth that has been proven by numerous social psychological research studies conveniently cited in a recent “Psychology Today” article2. The dehumanization of certain groups are implicitly written into our policies to erect boundaries of control. We are inculcated to associate certain colors, attire, and yes-even nifty fashion trends--with different forms of humanity and professionality. These notions are present in our everyday language and terminology: it’s as if “high fashion” were a paradoxical state to be attained, and yet unachievable in every sense of the word. Though not every business professional shows up to Wall Street in a tailored Armani suit, we are forced to consume these images throughout the majority of our lives, most ostensibly in professional workspaces. Popu-

lar culture reinforces these tropes of what we should look like, not only at work, but within the privacy of our own homes, funerals, weddings, and educational settings, all within a context dependent manner via mass media messaging.

Some may wonder what the point of questioning American workplace traditions are, as many people tend to hold common beliefs much like water is wet, the sky is blue, and at work, dress is “professional.” However, I would challenge you all to consider the implications of these beliefs if your own personal style and/or identity for that matter, did not conform to the standards set by the typical business professional conduct. All throughout our lives, we are taught with generality that it is “okay to be different,” but how does this cliche maxim translate when it comes to the workplace? Would our ability to work depreciate if every individual employee were allowed to adorn the clothing that made them feel more comfortable in their own skin? What would it be like to walk into an office where

some wore religious garbs, and others, fishnet stockings, glitter, and a wig. “Psychology Today” seems to think that this kind of environment is detrimental to an to focus, bringing up past studies that illustrate increased patient attentiveness when their physician put on a white coat versus casual wear2. Ultimately, these sorts of studies reinforce the idea that the problem is with the person and not with their peripheral members of society.

handsome, and “pretty.” It is an interesting point of discussion to consider the fact that individual authenticity, as human, is in essence questioned if one were to show up to work in “unprofessional attire.” In this world, what we wear extends beyond mere clothing, implying that for those of an atypical type to the white male cishet type, the look of one’s natural body comes into clear conflict with the workplace.

For the entirety of our lives we are conditioned into this sense of attentiveness for certain types of dress and mannerisms, an attentiveness that draws on the metalanguage of race, sex, and gender. We are taught to pay special attention to white, cishet, thin, tall,

Corporate dress code policies have been shown to explicitly discriminate against teen WoC, those of varying weights, sexual orientations, and other outward mannerisms/appearances which deviate from the norm1. Whatever happened to “Don’t judge a book

by its cover?” The way that we look, and/ or the body modifications that we may have chosen to dress ourselves with become an issue when they do not conform to the standard--that standard being unattainable at best. All in all, these spaces divulge our sense of selves and reconstruct us in the eye of the (white) professional. If the “professional” is a reproduction of every -ism from racism to sexism, then I for one choose to reject the pale corporate mask that attempts to cover up all those interlocking identities which sum to my unique personal experience by actively draw-

ing these normalized tropes into question, advocating for others, and beating to the rhythm of my own drum. Anderson, Septembre. “Oppressive Office Dress Codes Need to Go.” Vice, 7 July 2015, www.vice.com/en_us/ article/8gkgy4/its-time-to-rethink-eurocentric-officedress-codes. 2 Drexler, Peggy. “Why It Matters What We Wear.” Psychology Today, Sussex Publishers, www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/our-gender-ourselves/201407/whyit-matters-what-we-wear. ers, www.psychologytoday. com/us/blog/our-gender-ourselves/201407/why-it-matters-what-we-wear. 1

Fashion feature Name: Marie Gloria Sibomana Major: Government College: Arts & Sciences Inspiration: I find my inspiration from my friends mainly. Weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re constantly talking about evolving as people and being in tune with who we are. And right now I am someone who is constantly changing and exploring different things. As a result, my fashion sense is not homogenous it is always changing, to fit all the different versions of myself. Fashion is not for seasons or occasions but instead it is for moods. Who you are is constantly changing and so should your style.

Asi fiss

WRITT OLIVIA CH

ian sion

TEN BY HAUDHURY

As South Asian immigrants assimilate generationally into American society, we adopt cultural practices putting us at odds with our compatriots in our heritage countries. Enter a cultural subset: Asian American. Members of the Asian American diaspora cannot and should not erase the qualities of our American assimilation. To do so would be fraudulent and regressive: we cannot group ourselves into the same cultural identities of compatriots in our heritage nations because we have fundamental differences. These differences can be as simple as eating dinner between 5-7 pm (an American custom) versus eating at 10 pm or later (dinner time in South Asia), or as complex as choosing not to have an arranged marriage. Although certain cultural practices may fade into the melting pot of Americana, Asians Americans retain a strong cultural identity in other ways that set us apart from the standard American image. Continuing to speak native tongues, retaining a penchant for spices, or commitment to ancestral religions are factors that can create a sense of alienation in a monotonous landscape of concrete highways, dotted with the occasional Wal-Mart and McDonald’s. The cultural disjunction of the South Asian migrant is not a unique narrative in the history of foreign migration to the United States. Irish, Italian, Jewish, Polish and other historical migrant groups changed the spelling of their names (or had their names forcibly changed), limited public consumption of native cultural foods, or withheld their cultural practices in the name of American assimilation. As generations pass, culture loss to Americanization in any ethnic or religious group can create an inherent sense of displacement within the individual: I’m too American to be X, but I’m too X to be American. So...what am I? “Fusion” has been the dominant phrase in the literature of fashion to encapsulate the merging of cultures and styles. The term “fusion” implies a seamless convergence: two lighter elements combine to form a larger one. This narrative of convergence is at odds with the lived experience of migrant diasporas: a sense of alienation in both their heritage lands and the migrated-to nations. Switching the terminology to “fission” or the “splitting or breaking up into parts” visualizes the decay of one atom into two. This term portrays migrant subcultures more accurately as it encapsulates the inherent disjunction felt by such communities in both the United States and their heritage countries. There is a general perception of the United States as the land of ultimate liberty. However, Asian Americans discover that there are strongholds of freedom within their native cultures. Before encountering the gendered pronouns of English and many

European languages, we forget that Asian languages often do not contain such binaries. Most South Asian languages do not adopt binary pronouns, allowing a linguistic freedom of gender that English and other European languages lack. The non-binary or non-gendered pronouns in some Asian language provide ease and safety to those who are marginalized in the gender and sex binary system of the Western world. The models in our spread claim heritage from the Maldives, Tamil Nadu, Brazil and Mumbai, with Portuguese influence. These are regions with vast cultural, linguistic and religious differences in South Asia. This shoot was not styled: our models came forth with their definition of fission fashion. The “splitting” or “breaking” connotated by the term “fission” does not indicate depletion of culture. In fact, Asian Fission constructs an abstract home - a place in which none would refuse another for being “too American” or “too Asian”. Asian American culture borrows certain elements from that of Americanism and Asianism, yet adds new interpretation, thus pioneering a new perspective to approach either origin region.

Fashion fe Name: Raymond Liao Major: Operations Research College: Engineering

Raymond’s style is heavily influenced by music, since music and fashion go hand in hand. His main inspirations include A$AP Rocky and Kanye West. His sense of style first developed from sneaker culture. “I used to really be into sneakers, and that hobby lead me into fashion. Having good shoes doesn’t mean anything if you have on a bad outfit. People in the public eye who rocked fire shoes usually had on fire clothes,” he describes. Hoodies are Raymond’s go-to item; here, he sports a Champion hoodie with the word ‘Gucci’, with one C replaced by the Champion logo. Over the hoodie, he wears a shearling biker jacket. He accompanies the look with ripped jeans (from mnml.la) and New Republic Chelsea boots.

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The Collective X presents

THE POWER OF REPRESENTATIO A Piece by Leah Eshelman

When the E-Board first sat down to discuss this semester’s magazine, we brainstormed topics that would fall under the theme of “Our America”. Immediately, I thought about the representation of people of color in film and television. Not only is the vast majority of film and television comprised of primarily-White casts, but oftentimes Hollywood White washes characters who should be people of color, tokenizes POC characters in order to claim diversity, and/or diminishes the roles of POC characters to stereotypes based off of race. In film and television, White washing can be depicted in two ways:

White actor/actress fulfill the physical descriptions of a POC character.

A recent example of the first is Scarlett Johansson being cast as Major Motoko Kusanagi in the 2017 film adaption of Ghost in the Shell. Ghost in the Shell is a Japanese manga, originally published in 1989, which has since been adapted to several anime series. In order to avoid White washing, this role should have been portrayed by a Japanese actress. Since the Civil Rights Movement, the second form of White washing does not seem nearly as common, however, it still occurred a handful of times in the 21st Century. In 2007, Angelina Jolie was cast in a film called Mighty Heart in which 1. A character who was written to be POC she portrayed Mariane Pearl, a woman of is cast by a White actor/actress and mixed race (Dutch-Jewish and Afro-Chi2. Makeup and styling is used to make a nese-Cuban descent). Rather than find an

actress who could rightfully play this role, Jolie’s skin was darkened with makeup and her hair was texturized to give it a slight kink. In the past, Hollywood’s history of Whitewashing has been even more extreme, with White actors going so far as donning Blackface, a form of theatrical makeup popularized by 19th Century minstrel shows in which White actors painted their faces black. These actors would then perform in such a way that would perpetuate and encourage racial stereotypes about Black people. Despite minstrel shows falling out of popularity, Blackface continued to be used in films and only became highly criticized toward the latter half of the 20th Century, especially due to the Civil Rights Movement. From the 1970s onward, Blackface has been extremely criticized and has since “ended” with many identifying a film released in 1986 as the last example of Blackface in Hollywood. However, seeing Mighty Heart, this is obviously not the case. If Blackface is not accepted by Hollywood, then why was Angelina Jolie allowed to portray the role of a mixed Black woman? Yes, her skin did not mimic the dark portrayals of early Blackface, but it was still tinted to make her appear Black. By not casting a woman of color who meets the physical descriptions of Mariane Pearl, this film implies that women of color are not good enough to play themselves in film and television and that a White woman done up to look like them can do a better job. This not only limits true representation of people of color, but also encourages the idea of White superiority. That being said, sometimes characters of color are featured in film and television to

serve a specific purpose. They either illustrate stereotypes for comedic relief, are tokenized to create the false belief that television is diverse, or have their entire agency depicted in a manner that revolves around the fact that they are POC. These forms of representation are just as harmful as a lack of representation, especially when it comes to children, because ideas about the self are developed from what we see. If children grow up seeing false stereotypes portrayed by people who look like them, they will internalize these images, and may begin to conceive the mass media tokenization of Black and brown bodies as different from the White default...as “other.” Children in America cannot exist outside of the label of their race; when they look in the mirror, they will always see the color of their skin. In the case of Black people, Frantz Fanon wrote about the impacts of representation in his first book, Black Skin, White Masks. Colonialism has shaped both the identities of the colonizers and those who have been colonized. Those who have been colonized are labeled “other” due to breaking norms within the society of the colonizers, highlighting why Whiteness has become the default race and anything different is labeled as such. In his book, Fanon discusses cultural representations of Blackness, analyzing how the harmful impacts begin with children. He gives the example that in the United States, White characters are given the roles of superheroes whilst Black characters are often depicted as the villains. This results in a linkage between Whiteness equating to goodness and Blackness equating to evil. Misconceptions of Blackness enable society to associate Afrocentric features with criminality, implying that individuals without

these features or even lighter skinned Black people or Black people with less Afrocentric features are better. Most often when film and television shows feature people of color, they opt for lighter skinned people of color for the very reason that people have negative associations with dark skin. The idea behind this photoshoot was to recreate iconic films and television shows with people of color. In a study done at the University of Southern California, researchers found that between September 2014 and August 2015, only 7% of films had a cast who reflected the United States’ diversity. Over 50% of the film and television shows they analyzed had no Asian speaking characters. The study found that both onscreen and offscreen Hollywood productions severely lacked diversity. And again, after looking at the shows they reviewed (Fresh Off the Boat, Black-ish, et cetera), found that most depict the experience of being a specific race, rather than existing simply as a person of that race. While I do believe

these narratives are important, I also think it is equally as important to have shows and movies with people of color as the lead roles and secondary roles simply because they can execute the characters well, and not to fulfill a diversity quota. As Fanon pointed out, ideas of representation begin in childhood, if children see people who look like them existing as superheroes, they will not view themselves as villain or opposite the norm. This would work toward deconstructing the idea that White is the default. If we are to exist in this country and find true equality, it has to be reflected in media representation. I’m tired of every awards show being exceedingly White. I’m tired of seeing racial stereotypes as the line of a joke. I’m tired of seeing colored bodies tokenized and commodified to claim diversity. This is “Our America”, it’s about time we start seeing ourselves when we turn on the television.

Fashion fe

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Name: Marcella Imoisili Major: Info Science College: CALS Inspiration: When it comes to style I just wear what I feel comfortable in; I donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t really have any specific person as an inspiration.

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