DECEMBER 1 2017

OBERLIN’S STUDENT CULTURE MAGAZINE READ ONLINE AT THEOBERLINGRAPE.COM

Editors-in-Chief

EST. 1999 DECEMBER 1, 2017

Bad Habits Writing Team

Jake Berstein Luke Fortney Content Editors

Production Editors

Molly Bryson Ian Feather Isabel Klein Casey Redcay

Hannah Berk Ben Guterl Gabe Schneier Leora Swerdlow

Business Manager Eddy Tumbokon Web Editor Ezra Goss

Photo Editor Emma Webster

Julia Halm Zoe Jasper Isabelle Kenet Leon Pescador Copy Editors Juan-Manuel Pinzon Jack Rockwell Julie Schreiber Jackson Zinn-Rowthorn Olive Sherman Liam Russo Benjamin Silverman Sam Schuman Keerthi Sridharan

The State of American Democracy is (Still) Old, White, and Male A Letter from the Hotel at Oberlin Two weeks ago, I received an email from former Chief of Staff Jane Mathison inviting me to represent The Grape at The State of American Democracy conference. According to the email, the three-day conference had been organized by Professor of Environmental Studies David Orr with the intent of discussing “what can be done to ensure a strong, equitable, and reasoned plan for the future of our country.”

Included in the email were the names of notable attendees, including former TIME editor and Oberlin graduate from the class of 1980 Michael McDuffy; financial journalist and author of Dark Money, Jane Mayer; and J.D. Vance, author of Hillbilly Elegy. The list of panelists went on for three lines in ten-point font. It was, in short, an aspiring journalist’s wet dream.

When I entered the lobby of the Hotel at Oberlin on November 15, I saw what might best be described as a professional orgy: perhaps one hundred navy-blazered businessmen exchanging pleasantries and, on occasion, business cards. Over their hemming and hawing about “kids these days” and “the firm,” the hotel lobby’s receptionist called me over to check in for the conference. I was handed a laminated name tag that read Lucas Fortney: The Grape Newspaper.

My first thought was, How’d Professor Orr get all of these people to fly out to Oberlin, Ohio on a Wednesday afternoon? What’s more, they had paid to be here—and no small sum either.

(General admission tickets to the conference ran at $350 each, to say nothing of airfare and lodging.)

As an Oberlin College student in his senior year, I could skip my afternoon classes for three days and my ticket fee had been waived, but what of each of the event’s attendees? As those gathered in the lobby were ushered into the hotel’s upstairs conference room, I was left wondering who exactly these people were and how they managed to skip a week of work to get here.

The answer to that question probably should not have surprised me, but I admit that on the morning of November 15th it did.

Standing at the massive doors of the hotel’s conference room, I scanned the room with the hope of finding an open seat next to one of the journalists I had read would be in attendance.

Instead, I found a panorama of bespectacledfaces, wispy clouds of receding hair, and suit jackets draped over chairs. Truth be told, I have never seen so many elderly white men gathered in one place, which, considering I spent 18 years living in Orange County, California, is a strange achievement for the State of American

CORRECTIONS FROM NOV. 17, 2017 ISSUE

Democracy to have earned. And it was in that moment that I realized the state of American democracy is still old, white, and male.

In the week leading up to the conference, I hadn’t taken the time to study the line-up of guest speakers outside of those named in Mathison’s original email. When I finally did, I found that of the 32 panelists at the conference, 24 were male and 25 were white.

I expected that this would spell trouble for the Oberlin students and few people of color in attendance, but I couldn’t have imagined that New York Times columnist Tim Egan would stand on stage and take aim at the term “privileged” while presenting, or that one of the conference’s moderators, a white, middle-aged man, would ask those gathered, “Do any people of color have thoughts about this?”

Over the course of three days, the State of American Democracy conference was time and again hyped as the “first of its kind” and the first of four conferences in a series that would continue into Denver, Los Angeles, and Atlanta.

But what about those assembled qualified this as a “first?” I thought of other rooms of white intellectuals; I thought of the signing of the constitution; I thought of Donald Trump’s cabinet discussing Planned Parenthood; and then I thought of The Grape.

As long as I can remember, The Grape has primarily been written by and for white readers.

The labels may have changed over the years— from alternative to artistic to hipster elite—but the message is more or less the same: this paper doesn’t serve the Oberlin College student body as well as an organization funded twentythousand dollars a year should. It’s time, as moderator Dan Moulthrop did on day two of the State of American Democracy Conference, for the editors to deliver a long-overdue call out of The Grape.

If our content seems white-centric to you, I’ll be the first to say you’re not wrong. Thirteen of our current seventeen staff members are white; two are bi-racial but white-passing; and the two POC students on our staff were hired within the last semester. Though this is the result of generations of hiring at The Grape, its still a reality that we accept and enable every time we go to print.

If there’s any silver lining to being a student organization at Oberlin College, it’s that vision, leadership, and staff makeup are always in flux. The Grape is actively making internal changes to address the content we produce and the audiences we serve. Although I don’t expect this promise to be trusted in full, for lack of precedent, my hope is that readers are pleasantly surprised when it is delivered.

Contact Editor-In-Chief Luke Fortney at lfortney@oberlin.edu.

In Syd Garvis’ article “Izzy Rosenstein: Stick and Poke Star,” The Grape included a photo of a stick a poke not performed by Izzy Rosenstein and misatrributed the art to her.

FRONT AND BACK COVER BY RACHEL WEINSTEIN.

The Culture of Theft Student Shoplifting and Its Effects on the Community

BY JAKE BERSTEIN EDITOR-IN-CHIEF when students are typically away, point to the fact that its students who do most of the thefts.

To get a better idea about students’ role in shoplifting, The Grape anonymously interviewed students on the first floor of Mudd. We collected responses to the question, ‘have you ever taken anything from a store downtown without paying for it?’. “I totally have,” said one student, “I think I’ve stolen from Gibson’s twice. I

WHILE IT MAY BE TEMPTING TO THINK THAT THE OWNERS OF LOCAL STORES ARE POCKETING GREAT WEALTH, THIS SIMPLY ISN’T TRUE. EVERY DAY PRESENTS CHALLENGES FOR US. took a packet of those noodles that come in boxes,” the student continued. When we asked why they didn’t just pay for the noodles, the student responded, “It wasn’t expensive and I felt like it.” Adding, “I just preferred not paying for it, but I could have.” This is a testament that came up up a lot in these conversations: that students just felt like it.

Another student admitted that she had

stolen lots of things from Gibson’s and Ben Franklin’s. When we probed further, the student explained one of these instances: “I took a wine bottle. I had a large winter jacket and I put the bottle in the lining and I walked right out.” Later, the same student added that, “I took pens from Ben Franklin because individually the pens cost $4 and I thought it was a racket.” But how did she get away with it? To that, the student responded, “I got away with it because I’m a white woman.”

When we asked another student if they had ever stolen anything downtown, they said, “Probably but let me think about it…yeah, no, I do that all the time.” The student then went on to tell the story of how they lifted a hundred dollar bottle of wine from Gibson’s by having a friend slip it into their backpack.

Another student boasted a wide variety of thefts: “I have stolen from Gibson’s, Kim’s, IGA,” they explained, “I took some dumb stuff. From Gibson’s I took some steak knives for an avocado that I also stole. I was really drunk and that was really bad.”

Now, these are some of the more extreme stories we collected from students.

The majority of students who admitted to shoplifting explained that the items stolen were mostly minor ones like candy, and most commonly, pens. “I think I’ve taken candy and just small shit from Ben Franklin’s and the Oberlin Market,” said one student. Another student responded that they had taken, “a few pens from Ben Franklin over the years,” adding that,

“they’re hard to resist.” Another admitted that she hadn’t ever paid for chapstick in her four years at Oberlin. While these stories are anecdotal and don’t paint the full picture of shoplifting, one that may include theft-out-of-necessity, most of the thefts were out of convenience.

To these students, these are small items that couldn’t possibly make that much of a difference for a normal business. That is the justification we heard repeated — that shoplifting is just a normal cost of having a business. Some argued that the items were just too expensive and that the high price justified their taking them. Others acknowledged the fact that the prices were probably higher to account for the high levels of shoplifting.

The thing is, these occasional infractions from individuals are actually adding up for business owners in town.

What may feel like a minor occasional heist actually speaks to a culture among students that is having very real effects on both the businesses and the community’s relationship with the College. The Grape sat down with a couple of business owners in town to discuss the actual cost of shoplifting on their businesses and their unique strategies for dealing with shoplifters.

Krista Long, the owner of Ben Franklin’s, provided some startling figures. Looking through the store’s inventory for the past year and national industry standards, Krista estimated that she could be losing upwards of $10,000 a year from shoplifting. Krista explained that

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Allyn Gibson, the worker at Gibson’s Bakery who got into a physical confrontation with three Black Oberlin College students last November, after one of them was allegedly caught shoplifting, made a choice. His choice was motivated by his own racial biases (as all interpersonal choices are), but it was also motivated, in part, by an issue that all business owners deal with — shoplifting. How Gibson would have reacted if the students were white or trans or not students at all is an important question, but ultimately a question we will never know the answer to. Something that we can understand a little better, however, is how big of an issue shoplifting is for business owners in Oberlin, and how it can impact town-gown relations.

Let’s start with a basic fact: business owners in Oberlin have to confront shoplifting and shoplifters on a regular basis. As such, different stores have developed different strategies for dealing with these issues. For Gibson’s, their strategy has been made unfortunately clear in instances that go back much farther than just last November. But, other stores downtown have dealt with shoplifting differently.

The Grape set out to understand the nature and extent of this shoplifting issue, and explore the ways that other stores have chosen to deal with it less violently.

To start, we uncovered a sad truth: That the majority of shoplifting in Oberlin is carried out by students. It is widely understood by shop owners downtown that drops in shoplifitng in the summers,

Photo by Jake Berstein she finds empty packaging and inventory discrepancies that point to shoplifting on a regular basis.

Just recently, on the 19th of November, she posted a Facebook status with a picture of an empty lavender oil box. The caption read: “I saw you leaving the store in a roundabout way. You were bold enough to look me in the eye, and I knew. ‘She stole something,’ I said to Brandon and Nick. It was only a matter of time before I found the empty package. Don’t come back, I just might remember you and be bold enough to embarrass you.” For Krista, this is routine.

The loss of revenue hurts, but, to Krista, what hurts more is the lack of respect and decency that comes with shoplifting. One way that she has tried

to deal with the problem is by leaving notes on the shelves from which items were shoplifted. One such note reads: “While it may be tempting to think that the owners of local stores are pocketing great wealth, this simply isn’t true. Every day presents challenges for us: making income to meet expenses, balancing work and home, competing with big box and online retailers, supporting our families, and trying to put a little aside for college and retirement.” The note ends with an important message to those who have shoplifted before: “Theft is demoralizing to us, making us feel that we should suspect the very customers we want to serve…If you’ve stolen from us in the past, please stop. If you think you might, please don’t. If you can’t afford something you need, just ask. We’re reasonable and will work it out.” This approach stands in stark

contrast to the more aggressive measures observed at Gibson’s.

After speaking with Krista, we moved down the street to Ginko Gallery, owned

by Liz Burgess. Liz explained that before she started selling art supplies, she could only recall three instances of shoplifting in the ten years of owning the store. “Then we started carrying the art supplies,” explains Liz, “and, as an Oberlin alum I’m kind of embarrassed to say, it’s the Oberlin college students who would do most of the shoplifting.” For Liz, shoplifting hurts because some of the art supplies that she sells were purchased on loans from the bank. When those supplies are stolen, Liz has to pay out of pocket. But she has many ways that she deals with shoplifting: “I try to do as much as I can. I give all the art students discounts,” she says. But she also does something unique—offering people who can’t afford supplies to buy them on credit or to pay gradually as paychecks roll in, or even to help out in the store to work off the debt. With all this, “it’s still the Oberlin college students and that’s surprising to me and disappointing,” says Liz. While Gibson’s maintains that the incident last November was about shoplifitng, it was not on the minds of the students at the Gibson’s protest, and for good reason. Students were responding to their peers being racially profiled and assaulted, as well as racist policing. What came next were conversations about the students’ role in the community and town-gown relations in general. To fully understand this relationship, though, we need to understand how shoplifting has put a strain on the business owners that

we, as students, rely on. As we have seen, most stores downtown have to deal with shoplifting but have different strategies for doing so. For Ben Franklin’s, it’s posting notes and making displays of empty or stolen items. For Ginko Gallery, it’s recognizing that art supplies are expensive and inaccessible to many students and offering programs to work in the store to pay off art supplies. For Gibson’s, it’s, well, chasing students and physically assaulting and detaining them, or calling the police on what they perceive to be suspicious behavior.

I’ll close with a few facts that are important to think about going forward.

The first is that Oberlin is not a rich town; the people who run these stores downtown are not making out like bandits. Many of the business owners are struggling to compete with big box retailers like Walmart, and put in a lot of work to make sure that our needs, as students, are met.

The second thing is that shoplifting is not just a student problem--kids in town who look up to Oberlin College students see our behavior and replicate it. And the third is the admission that I myself have stolen from the very people I’ve interviewed for this story. I could have paid for the items easily, but I chose to steal them instead.

There’s no way to go back and undo what’s been done although Krista did tell me a story about occasionally getting checks in the mail from OC alums with notes apologizing for stealing during their time in Oberlin.

Contact Editor-in-chief Jake Berstein at jberstei@oberlin.edu

Oberlin Crushes

A Look Behind the Scenes of the Oberlin College Love Factory

BY IAN FEATHER FEATURES EDITOR Oberlin Crushes is perhaps the most familiar Facebook page to Oberlin College students, serving mainly as a place for students to anonymously submit short, affectionate notes about their peers, Oberlin professors, staff members, and even the various animals that inhabit Oberlin. These notes are then publicly posted by “Love Turtles”, fellow students who maintain Oberlin Crushes without compensation or even individual recognition, due to their anonymity. For being such a prominent component of the ‘Oberlin College social scene’, Oberlin

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Crushes remains very mysterious. In the hopes of demystifying what goes on behind the scenes of Oberlin Crushes, and to provide the Love Turtles with an opportunity to dispel some common misconceptions, I decided to reach out to them and see what they had to say.

In order to preserve the secret identities of the Love Turtles, questions were submitted in a Word Document via Facebook Messenger to the Oberlin Crushes page, where the Turtles then uploaded the file as a Google Document, answered the questions, and then returned

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what they had written as a redownloaded Word Document. Responses were not edited in any way.

How does one become a Love Turtle? Do Love Turtles tend to stick with the role for a while, or does there tend to be a lot of turnover?

Queen Turtle: I’ve been a love turtle since January 2016, which is the longest anyone has been a love turtle. When I started, I was the only love turtle running the show, and a few months later I hired

some other fab turtles, most of whom have been doing this for several months now.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle: I became a turtle when the page was looking for more PoC turtles. It was a little questionnaire, pretty easy and simple. I’ve only been turtling since April (?) last year, so I haven’t seen that much of a turnover myself.

Petty the turtle: I also became a luv turtle in April-ish 2017. The current turtles are all the same turtles that have been here

since I started. When i was first “hired”, I did some snooping and found out that some of my friends used to be luv turtles (shh!).

Tambourine the Turtle: I became a love turtle in December 2016. I messaged the page saying “how do I get a job here???” and they sent me a bunch of questions to answer. I think it was largely a matter of right place/right time.

How many of you are there? How do you split the responsibilities amongst yourselves? Do you ever have meetings in person?

Queen Turtle: There are 6 of us currently. I’ve backed off of posting crushes at this point and more handle the larger things that come up. We have secret love turtle meetings once or twice a semester. We generally pick up after each other in terms of posting and we have a love turtle chat for discussion.

and now I really focus on how the page is about spreading love. I secretly adore every self-love crush I see and get to post, because tbh loving on yourself is so important.

Tambourine the Turtle: I used to take the page really seriously and kind of assumed that if anyone had a crush on me they would submit it. But think about it! How many crushes do you have that you don’t submit? Personally, I have hundreds.

solely on those who submit crushes?

Petty the turtle: There are definitely a higher amount of crushes submitted about ~traditionally privileged~ identities. I would say that the majority of our crushes are for (and probably from) caucasians. The only thing we can really do is post less or stop posting crushing about people that fit traditional European standards of beauty, especially if they are ones receiving a lot of crushes.

It becomes a bit sticky when we decide

What role(s) would you say Oberlin Crushes play(s) within the student body, and how would you say this has changed over time?

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle: Hearing people talk about crushes makes me sad sometimes. I agree with Queen Turtle in that it’s totally a sickening hold.

I’ve definitely measured my own selfworth in crushes before, and becoming a turtle helped me view it a little differently,

Love turtles. Photo from Google Images

About how many crushes do you get on an average week? Are there certain points in the semester where this number seems to trend higher or lower?

Queen Turtle: On a good week in the crush economy we probably get about 500-600 crushes. On a slow week we might only get 200-300. There are more crushes in stressful times like finals when everyone is procrastinating. Definitely an uptick during cuffing season / when the fall fashion comes out. Once one person gets a crush, more will start cropping up.

Visible campus personalities get a lot of crushes. Sometimes people inadvertently go viral through the page. I’m thinking of people like Taiko Tori or Kirsten Mose’s fame after Heathers showed last week.

Oberlin truly goes nuts for love.

Some students have complained that a disproportionate amount of the crushes being submitted are about students of traditionally privileged/non-marginalized identities. Would you say this issue has improved at all? If so, is there anything you can do about this yourselves, or is this responsibility

who we post crushes about--I think there is a lot of power behind Oberlin crushes, and sometimes people feel weird about it, but so? We try to lift up individuals who don’t receive as many crushes by urging Obies to post less crushes about thin, white, able-bodied cis men. Sometimes we put a crush ban on people who are thin, white, able-bodied cis men to stop this sort of unhealthy glorification of a certain body/person type. But it can be hard, sometimes it feels like the only way we can change the disproportionate amount of crushes is by posting a bunch of crushes on ~underrepresented~ individuals ourselves.

Queen Turtle: Ya Petty, I agree. I think we also have to look critically at the makeup of this school: we are living in a bubble of extreme wealth and whiteness, and that’s bound to affect the crushes that are submitted. I think since posting the guidelines a year ago things have shifted somewhat, but it’s mainly in terms of people using more neutral pronouns to describe strangers (which still isn’t totally fixed but is on its way), which I think describes a lot of Oberlin politics in terms of being at least mildly cognizant of gender and sexuality and pretty egregiously oblivious to how whiteness operates on

One time, a crush I submitted about one of my friends was posted, but in a slightly modified, more ‘familyfriendly’/less risque version.

I noticed that one of the guidelines posted on the page say to “keep it PG-13”, but could you be a little more specific about what this means? What words or phrases are totally off-limits?

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle: Since the form is entirely anonymous, we don’t know who’s submitting crushes about what friends, and who’s comfortable with what. So, when I scan through crushes, I look to see if there’s any vague potential for someone being uncomfortable with it. The page is so popular, and I dislike the idea of a person being sexualized in a public forum without their consent or knowledge. It’s mostly on a case-by-case basis, but if something is blatantly sexual, it’s usually a no-go for me.

Queen Turtle: ^^agreed! Also, when people submit crushes using people’s full names, those will then show up on the first page of someone’s google search for that name. So I consider whether that’s something I personally would be comfortable with a potential employer seeing, and if I don’t want them thinking about my hot nipple piercings or whatever then i’ll edit it to be tamer. I totally get how that can be disappointing if you wanted to make a scandalous post for your friend, but u have to keep in mind that we don’t know who is submitting the crushes so

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Queen Turtle: Oberlin Crushes has a sickening hold over this school. It has definitely become more powerful since we’ve worked on it, I would call it a love empire at this point!! Since adding more turtles to the team, we’ve substantially upped our crush output so that has grown the page. It def controls how people see themselves which SUCKS! Also, it is so important for people to know that there are very few people who actually submit crushes, so it is not representative of all Oberlin desire! Often one person will submit 20 crushes at a time, and they end up swaying oberlin desirability for a day!

Also, just from looking at the page insights, we know that even if 4 people total “liked” your post and only 1 person commented, it still gets clicked on or viewed by sometimes over a thousand people. That’s a huge impact. Every post has a much larger reach than most people realize. The page has existed for 3 years now and has truly blossomed :,) I think we’re headed in a really positive direction, even though it’s hard to manage sometimes.

this campus. It’s also tricky cause it’s like, we can want to lift up POC, but sometimes that involves assuming people’s race and I’m definitely not comfortable “deciding” who is white or not. It’s messy, and we’ve definitely messed up before. But we’re trying to stop the serious harm that is caused by posting so many crushes on the same bodies, so it’s worth it to me even when it’s awkward or complicated. I also wanna say that we don’t post crushes on abusers, full stop. If someone asks the page not to post about a person who has abused/assaulted them, we go with that 100%. There have been people up in arms about this in our DMs (btw- how do yall have so much time to argue with LOVE TURTLES??

Like, do ur homework!! lmao) but tbh I don’t give a fuck! If you’re actively hurting ppl, u stand against everything we’re working for!

Gtfo! You don’t have a right to this platform! Go work on being a better person!!

we have to read them all as if they’re from someone the person being crushed on doesnt know.

Teaching Political Science at Oberlin

Do y’all have any plans to facilitate additional love-oriented activities in the future, like the matchmaking you did last year which seemed to be a huge hit?

Does the setting of left-leaning institution impact the quality of how it’s taught?

Queen Turtle: We don’t have anything planned right now. We have our hands full as it is dealing with all these mf trolls!!! The matchmaker thing has also been somewhat of a bust for some sad reasons. It makes me very sad to look at.

We’ve gotten very few matches from it.

What tends to happen is a wide variety of people submit to it, but only a select few “crushes” are named, all of whom are very stereotypically “hot” AKA thin, white, able-bodied, etc, and those people being named as crushes tend to have a lot of social capital and don’t necessarily submit their own crushes to the form. So you have a lot of people seeking love with a very small sub-sect of the Oberlin population and it stings to see how earnestly these people are wanted, without them putting in the energy reciprocally. Idk. I want to encourage people to talk to each other IRL instead of just vague-booking or subtweeting about it. Although I do understand the ease and appeal of “liking” a crush about someone and dropping a hint.

BY SAM SCHUMAN

Petty the turtle: We luv luv.

Queen Turtle: Stop submitting ur crushes as messages to the page! Use the google form! Just hit the “contact us” button on top of the page! Thank u! xoxoxo Tambourine the Turtle: Lol yeah Queen Turtle is right. We can’t see who you are UNLESS you submit it as a message and then… like… that’s way too much power. I think that people are under the impression that being a love turtle is glamorous and powerful but for the most part it’s just unpaid grunt work that we do just because we love crushes/crushing/ being crushed on. Pure intentions!

Contact Features Editor Ian Feather at ifeather@oberlinedu

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“Leftist.” “Left-leaning.” “Liberal.”

“Progressive.” Obies are accustomed to hearing these terms—and others with more negative connotations—used to describe their school and their peers. And it’s hard to make a case to the contrary. By all contemporary and historical metrics, Oberlin as an institution is pretty far leftof-center, with a student body to match.

It’s not always easy to find a classmate willing to champion conservative causes on campus.

At a college where it sometimes seems like students favor Karl Marx more than Hillary Clinton (to say nothing of Trump or moderate conservatism) how can students studying politics be sure that they’re getting the full picture? In other words, can we really get a comprehensive education in politics when our peers only represent one half of the ideological spectrum?

To learn more, I spoke via e-mail with David Forrest (he/him/his), an Assistant Professor of Politics since Fall 2016 who previously taught political science at Arizona State University. Of the views of students whom he was taught at Oberlin, Forrest told me “they often lean left, though by no means uniformly so.”

Forrest also described his own political views as “Social Democratic,” which for him denotes a strong belief in democracy and a dedication to social justice.

The following interview has been edited for length and clarity.

SCHUMAN: Do these viewpoints [of students as well as your personal views] have an impact on how you structure or teach your courses (subject matter, assigned reading, focus of class discussion, etc)?

FORREST: I think that there are some basic ways in which any person’s deepest political commitments—to democracy or anything else—will shape their approach to teaching about politics, culture, and society. The same is definitely true of me.

But let me first say what political commitments don’t affect about my or

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any other decent professor’s approach to teaching politics, culture, and society.

They don’t affect the high importance I place on using clear analytical reasoning and empirical evidence to evaluate arguments, especially those that people often accept as “common sense.”... And they don’t affect my focus on creating a respectful environment in which students can struggle to develop valid and useful answers to important questions. Every professor I have known supports these basic goals, whether they’re right, left, or anything else.

The main thing they do affect is the kinds of questions that I tend to find most exciting. So, for example, as a proponent of democracy, I tend to get very interested in questions about political developments that may threaten or undermine democracy in America. These are the kinds of questions I tend to ask in my research and, unsurprisingly, they are also the kinds of questions at the heart of most of my classes.

Is that a bad thing? Not really.

In fact, it’s usually a good thing. I’ve found that students typically learn more (and I usually teach better) when I am excited about the questions at the heart of my course. In the classroom, that excitement drives us to think as critically and as carefully as possible about these questions. To be sure, if a professor’s political commitments lead them to uncritically embrace a specific answer to a question, then the influence of those commitments can become problematic. But you usually just don’t see that. As teachers, we’re trained to do the exact opposite—to interrogate what we and others take for granted.

SCHUMAN: Many predominantly right-wing politicians criticize higher education for a perceived liberal bias in their instruction. Do you think that there is any element of truth to these claims?

FORREST: In short, no. However, I think we need to be clear about what talking heads on the right and other individuals mean when they accuse professors in the social sciences and humanities of “teaching liberalism,” as my grandmother would say. My general sense is that these folks mean to suggest that we are somehow using the classroom to disseminate left-wing propaganda and/ or promote specific left-wing movements rather than actually help students to learn.

I have simply never met a single professor, not one, who approaches teaching in that way. More importantly, research has consistently refuted the idea that this is what goes on in college classrooms. Of course, professors in the social sciences and humanities often

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Are there any assumptions that the student body has about you all that you’d like to dispel? Is there anything folks don’t know about you all that they should?

CONTRIBUTING WRITER

teach on politically-charged topics about which they and their students may have strong opinions. That is unavoidable and even good, as it means we’re covering important stuff. But the idea that professors sacrifice learning in order to indoctrinate students is hogwash.

SCHUMAN: Do you feel that students’ political views/biases affect the quality of discussion in your classes?

FORREST: In general, no. The fact that students have political views of any sort relating to a course topic usually bolsters rather than diminishes the quality of discussion. As with professors, the fact that they hold those views often means they’ll be more excited to engage with the course material in high-level and thoughtful ways.

I’ve found that students’ political views only become a problem when either they are so discordant with one another that people feel attacked or they are so concordant that people get complacent.

Either scenario can undermine the

learning process. But that’s partly why we have teachers. We’re there to help navigate or introduce tension into the discussion as necessary.

SCHUMAN: Is the way you teach politics here different from the way you taught politics at ASU? FORREST: No. Of course, just like all professors, I am always adjusting and adapting to new students. However, especially in regards to the kinds of questions you raised above, my fundamental approach to teaching politics has remained pretty consistent.

To get a student perspective on instruction in the Politics department, I spoke via phone to Kameron Dunbar (he/ him/his), a Politics major and Rhetoric and Composition minor who serves on the Student Senate and Student Union Board.

Like Professor Forrest, Dunbar thinks that while Oberlin students certainly have strong political views, this does not have a negative effect on the learning environment in politics classes. In fact,

Dunbar said that he found student’s viewpoints to be helpful in some cases: “What we believe is obviously going to affect how we talk about things. Students have been very good at figuring out the gaps in conversations. For example, I know many people who will bring women’s issues or LGBT issues up in conversations that may not have classical or historically involved those demographic groups.”

When asked if he thought that a lack of conservative students in many classes had a negative impact on class discussion, Dunbar, who identifies as a leftist democrat, was not convinced. “Not really…

We’re exposed to these [conservative] ideas every day. Conservatism isn’t new…

Oberlin’s congressman is [Freedom Caucus founder and co-chair] Jim Jordan.

I think we are exposed to these ideas every day. We are living in a country that has a conservative House and Senate, and a conservative executive. So I think we’re exposed to these ideas every day.

Do we have to engage [with] them in the classroom? Maybe not through direct expressions from peers, but definitely

content-wise.”

Far from issues of political bias, Dunbar was more concerned with racial representation in politics classes. “The real issue is why am I one of one or two black students in my politics classes. That’s a better question for me.” Dunbar attributes this problem to the historical whiteness of political science as a discipline, but also to the current demographics of politics classes on campuses. “There are a lot of white ‘politics bros’ in the department, so I’m thinking about ‘how does that shape the conversation?’ What narratives could be included that aren’t included because the people for whom those narratives exist…don’t have the space to share them?”

While it appears that accusations of political bias leading to an incomplete understanding of politics may be overstated, it is clear that, at least to some, there remain problems in the politics department to be addressed by faculty as well as students.

Contact Sam Schuman at sschuman@oberlin.edu

ARTICLE SUBMISSION DATE FOR NEXT ISSUE: THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 23 EMAIL articles and pitches to section editors FEATURES: Ian Feather, ifeather@oberlin.edu OPINIONS: Molly Bryson, mbryson@oberlin.edu ARTS & CULTURE: Casey Redcay, credcay@oberlin.edu BAD HABITS: Isabel Klein, iklein@oberlin.edu QUESTIONS OR CORRECTIONS? EMAIL THEGRAPE@OBERLIN.EDU. DECEMBER 1, 2017

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Space

The Last Profitable Frontier

BY BEN SILVERMAN COPY EDITOR Very ambitious statements have been made about the space industry lately. In October, Morgan Stanley was reported to project that space will become a $1 trillion dollar industry by 2040, growing three times its current size. Soon after, Bank of America projected that the space industry would grow to $3 trillion in the same time frame. For scale, that would make space an industry twice the size of the entirety of US telecommunications, and one of the world’s largest industries overall.

The recent public projections made by two of the biggest banks in the world potentially signals the coming realization of popular dreams of robust space travel and exploration. Since the 1960s, this future was always inevitable. However, the manner in which private companies choose to find profit in space will drive our contemporary exploratory efforts, and these pursuits may not always line up with our romantic dreams of space. The form that future human activity in space takes is important not only because it will determine the shape of the world economy during our lifetimes, but it will also have an immeasurable effect on our general culture, as the last Space Age did.

The plunge into space has historically promised a smorgasbord of technological and scientific advancements, often not related solely to the development of rockets that help people get to space better (which is basically the definition of “space industry”, if you were wondering).

Technology that became popular due to the US government’s investment in the Space Race include household smoke detectors, extra-nutritious baby food, and plastic lenses for our glasses that barely ever develop scratches.

Today, no government is spending money indiscriminately for the express development of rocket technology the way the US and Soviet Union did decades ago.

What this means is that the “side-effects” of space travel - the subsidiary technologies developed in and around space, or while trying to get into space - have become the main drivers of the space industry.

This entails that the most profitable of these tangentially-related-to-space technologies will end up determining the majority of actual activity that people will

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be doing in space in the near future. And unfortunately, only a small sliver of that future includes tourism.

Currently, one of the most significant areas of interest, from a scientific and investment standpoint, is satellite tech. Satellites and their development account for so much of the current space industry that “satellite industry” is also an acceptable name for the space industry.

Satellite business is estimated to account for roughly $250 billion of the $350 billion total of the current space industry.

This is because of their robust synergistic relationship with a range of profitable, subsidiary technology, the most prominent being internet, telecommunication, and “big data” collection, which have made frequent use of satellites historically.

Knowing this, one can also see that the significance of satellite technology among space industrialists is by no coincidence driven by the supreme modern influence of the internet, telecom, and data collection companies incentivising their development, namely Google, Facebook, Amazon, Apple, and Microsoft. Each of these names were at the top of Morgan Stanley’s list of stocks to buy if one were looking to invest in space.

There is another significant area of space exploration that has garnered attention, and it’s the mining of precious minerals and other valuable material from asteroids and the Moon. From an interview in a Financial Times article last month, Chris Lewicki, Chief Executive of Planetary Resources, a US asteroid mining company, related his confidence that his space-resource mining business would take shape soon. “In our lifetimes we will see commercial space, including resources, developing into a multi-trillion

THE GRAPE

dollar industry.” Despite it sounding kind of unreal, there is a well known surplus of precious metals within the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, and the Moon is valuable for its extractable ice near its poles. As rocket technology progresses, with more reliable reusable rockets and efficient fueling, the prospect of going back into space to farm resources becomes more and more realistic, as well as profitable. While eventually these

Of course, every bit of information in this piece should be handled with suspicion. Each mention of potential technological innovations were obtained from information gathered from companies that rely on people investing in space technology, or financial analysts who are merely speculating on possible returns of space technology, without having much technical expertise themselves. The initial evaluation by Morgan Stanley and Bank

resources would be mined and brought back to Earth, the purpose of mining in the near future would primarily be to support satellites. Ice is very valuable for spacecraft because it can be split into hydrogen and oxygen and used for fueling crafts. The precious metals from asteroids can be used for manufacturing while in space--often a more efficient process than manufacturing things on earth and then launching them into space.

And the groundwork has already been laid for space resources to be capitalized on in a major way. In 2015, President Obama signed the Space Resource Exploration and Utilisation Act, giving any US company rights over natural resources from outer space.

of America should especially be regarded carefully; these same banks have taken advantage of public misinformation on new and exciting industries to turn a profit on multiple occasions.

However, all this is very interesting to keep an eye on. Not just for the savvy investor, but anyone interested in the the state of the world, and culture in general.

Humanity’s ventures into space have usually defined the mood of the time, and the way in which we balance idealistic dreams of a future in space with the intent to dominate the new frontier promises to define ours.

Contact Copy Editor Ben Silverman at bsilverm@oberlin.edu

Speedy Ortiz @ the Sco

A Two-Part Review

BY WILL HAGEN & PJ MCCORMICK CONTRIBUTING WRITERS I. From Behind The Bar: Will Hagan I’ll admit that I was almost entirely unfamiliar with the music of Speedy Ortiz before I volunteered to take an extra shift as a ‘Sco attendant on the night of their show. I’d seen plenty of buzz about them, sure, and everything I’d heard about the self-described “frontdemon” Sadie Dupuis painted her as the epitome of indie-cool.

But I often saw the band mentioned alongside acts that weren’t exactly to my liking, so I had never given them much of a chance. To prepare for the show, though, I figured I should give them a spin, so I pulled up their debut album, Major Arcana, on my phone and hit play.

Dupuis briefly played in an all-female Pavement cover band, and their influence shows in Speedy Ortiz’s penchant for biting guitar lines and wry, clever

apart from any of their ‘90s era influences.

Knotty turns of phrase, like “We were the law school rejects/So we quarrelled at the bar instead” off of “The Graduates” from the group’s sophomore effort Foil Deer, beg equally to be unpacked and analyzed, but also sung at the top of your lungs with the song blasting through your car’s speakers. Needless to say, I was won over.

Dupuis and company were fresh off a 48-hour drive from the other side of the country, and we were the last stop on their lengthy tour. They would be playing for a small group of students ready to go home for Thanksgiving on a sleepy Tuesday night. On top of all that, they were also playing with a substitute bassist that none of the band members had played with before. If there was ever any excuse to put on a lazy show, they had it.

lyrics. But the songwriting on Speedy Ortiz’s tracks regularly reaches greater emotional depths than Stephen Malkmus’ slacker anthems ever do, and Dupuis’ geographically-unplaceable voice and unique delivery serves to set them far

Fortunately for the sixty or so people I wrisbanded at the door, that’s not the kind of show we got. Though I sat outside of the ‘Sco for the duration of student band Deer Scout’s opening set, I managed to hear a muffled version of the minimalist,

guitar-and-bass-only show reminiscent of quietly powerful contemporary indie acts like Yowler, Adult Mom, and Florist. The standout for me was a gorgeous cover of “Powerful Man” by (Sandy) Alex G off of his record from earlier this year, Rocket.

Right as my shift behind the bar started, Speedy Ortiz took the stage.

The band introduced themselves as “Mostly Speedy Ortiz” to account for the replacement bassist and jumped straight into the show. Opener “Taylor Swift,” an early single from 2012, was a dark postpunk number that featured lines like “I’ve got a boy in a hardcore band/I’ve got a boy who gets it on to Can” and “Blood shaking, clot-making viber that feeds on a mouse/Poaching the eggs of the snakes that I slayed in the South.” The song is sonically uncharacteristic for the band, but the dense lyricism set the stage for the rest of the songs to follow. Though the bandmates took a song or two to shake their exhaustion, they were soon ripping

through some of the highest-energy songs to Speedy Ortiz’s name. One highlight was “Raising the Skate,” which combines one of the best guitar riffs and one of the catchiest melodies in the group’s repertoire into an anthem of righteous anger: “I’m not bossy, I’m the boss/Shooter, not the shot/On the tip and fit to execute.”

The only product of their exhaustion was the directionless but charming stage banter. Dupuis at one point noted that she had almost transferred to Oberlin but ended up at Barnard. She also made sure to shout out the admissions officer who admitted her into MIT: Oberlin’s own Ben Jones, self-proclaimed Don Draper of the Office of Communications, who was sipping a Christmas Ale at the bar about three feet in front of me. The performance reached a climax when the opening notes to showstopper “No Below,” perhaps the band’s best-known song, rang out. The song is a deeply mournful but ultimately hopeful reflection on pain and catharsis,

DECEMBER 1, 2017

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Continued on next page.

THE SPEEDY ORTIZ CONCERT OFFERED THE AUDIENCE A MORE DIRECT, VISCERAL CONNECTION WITH THE MUSIC THAN A RECORDING CAN OFFER WHILE SHOWCASING THE RAW ENERGY OF A BAND WITH PLENTY OF POTENTIAL STILL TO TAP.

Speedy Ortiz performed at the Sco on November 21, 2017.

and translated best to a live setting. The sketch of the difficulties of adolescence evoked by the song manages to be both specific and universal, and Dupuis let herself drop her commanding stage presence for a moment, letting a powerful level of vulnerability slip through.

Towards the end of the show, I turned away to grab someone a drink, and by the time I turned back, an Oberlin student had switched places with Dupuis, playing guitar for a jam-y outro to closer “Dvrk Wvrld” while the frontwoman enjoyed the performance with the crowd.

Like the best live shows, the Speedy Ortiz concert offered the audience a more direct, visceral connection with the music than a recording can offer while showcasing the raw energy of a band with plenty of potential still to tap.

In the Crowd: PJ McCormick I’ve been a fan of Speedy Ortiz since I heard their badass kiss-off anthem “Raising the Skate” in high school, and was super excited about (ie: booked my flight around) going to this show! I spent the weeks and hours leading up to Speedy trying to convince my friends to change their flight plans or ditch that last goodbye to their hookup to come see the show with me – to minor success.

By Tuesday night, I had two definites and two maybes, which was good enough for me!

Luckily, you don’t really need friends as long as you have $1 Margaritas at Lupitas! Me and the other lastObies-standing headed over there at about 8:30 in order to ensure at least 5 rounds (which, for those counting, costs 5 dollars per person). By 10:00, we were ready for the Speedy Ortiz official pregame, which took place in my room! Each guest was treated to a Great Lakes brand Commodore Perry IPA, and, once drunk, we were on our way! Also, I took one extra in my pocket. Probably the best thing about wintertime is big coats. Look for me on campus and ask how many beers I have in my pocket.

Needless to say that I was in the perfect place to see Speedy Ortiz, who were so, so excellent. They were playing with Dylan Baldi (frontman of emo-group Cloud Nothings) as their replacement bassist, which was cool!

While he was at Oberlin he tweeted: “shoutout to the person who invented lids. i use them every day. i am thankful”. Please, please (!!) write into The Grape if you, or someone you know, inspired that tweet. That’s fodder for an entirely different article; so many questions. As far as I can remember, he didn’t mention anything about it on stage, but I twitter DM’d him for a follow-up. As of this article’s publication, I have not received a response.

Speedy Ortiz tore through a 40 minute set of songs from Major Arcana, Foil Deer, and a litany of EPs. It was awesome! I think my mouth was open for a lot of the show. I don’t know how much of it I totally remember, but when I woke up for my 6:30 AM flight the following morning, my ears were still ringing. I also posted at least one Instagram story, which I do very rarely, and is often a good indication that I’m having a great time (and also that I am probably drunk!).

Wowee! So: yes, I would recommend going to see Speedy Ortiz. They’re so great. So loud, and they play like they mean it.

Contact contributing writer Will Hagan at whagan@oberlin.edu and contributing writer PJ McCormick at pmccormi@oberlin.edu.

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THE GRAPE

Don’t You Know We’re Human Too? Carlos Yushimito’s Universal Human Experience

BY MARTIN RABOT COLUMNIST My first encounter with the Rio de Janeiro favela happened while playing “Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2.” It is a violent segment in a violent game, one that opened my mind to the flytrap nature of much of the world – beauty and culture abounds, but jumping in blind, literally or metaphorically, will give you more than you came for. Certainly the most recognizable in the world, Rio’s favela is notorious for gun violence, but is also a preserve of undiluted Brazilian culture. I remember, also, press about the favela before and during the Rio Olympics. Several basketball players from Team USA would stop at a court in one of the favelas and have a shootaround (I don’t think the irony was lost on anyone). It humanized Carmelo Anthony, a player who is characterized by his notorious egotism.

The young Brazilian kids who had a chance to play with NBA stars were props, for both the stars and for us, the distant viewer; in the eyes of American viewers, they were born that day and they died then, too. I haven’t thought about them since, and I am only thinking about them now because I’ve realized how long it has been.

It’s likely been some time for the young children of the Rio favela as well, where life expectancy is a meager 48 years, 20 less than the national average. Those kids were approaching a comparative middle age, and while some may live out the lives Yushimito hopes they will lead, there are some who have certainly seen more than a human should ever have to. Were one of those kids to pop up on my tv screen in a list of victims or criminals, I wonder if Carmelo would remember. Would he care? Would I? I wonder, then, what Yushimito, outsider to Brazil like myself, would remember about encountering the

favela. I wonder what allows him to see hope where we tell ourselves there is only despair.

Most every story in his new collection, Lessons for a Child Who Arrives Late, is set in Brazil, with a few being set in the favela itself. Much of his earlier work is also supposedly about these same locales (I’m not quite sure myself as this is the first collection of his to be translated into English).

Yushimito gives these people and places, these cultural specters, the backstories that we have long denied them, offering them vibrant and powerful identities.

There is art that is grand in its scope, that evokes a moment of greatness; think the Hudson School, whose paintings both depicted, and were themselves, larger than life scenes. And there is art that examines the quotidian, whose significance lies in exposing the little things, and putting them in new perspectives. But there is also art that makes of these little nothings something larger and more memorable. Lessons for a Child Who Arrives Late makes these normal days ones to remember. From gang enforcers, to tabloid reporters, to electronics salesmen, Yushimito’s characters display an admirable, Kafkaesque mental efficiency. Josef K was never inept, only stuck in a cycle of impossibilities. And where Kafka labors to find a tomorrow for his protagonists, Yushimito’s are all too content to live in the today.

“Life imagines us,” writes Yushimito, in a masterful story entitled The Island, “and suddenly any old day becomes today.” If we are trapped in the mundanity of our lives, let us find solace and beauty in those

routines that ensnare us, and relish those rare moments where we might break free and express ourselves more openly.

Yushimito takes many cues from Kafka. They both concern themselves in metaliterary ways with the deficiencies of human language.

One of Yushimito’s characters, a robot called TM (Tin Man), has trouble conveying the depth of even the most mundane emotions, as if they “hadn’t already been undermined by having to meekly defer their expression to the few words we possess.” Stepping back from the mundanity his characters usually endure, this robot’s story, titled “Oz,” allows Yushimito to present his most grand theory on the human condition, ironically enough.

Taking cues from Zweig and Douglas Adams’ work, this story explores human connection and isolation through AI and chess. Ultimately, Yushimito decides that we can be lonely in a crowd, and fulfilled with only ourselves to talk to. He insists on the connectivity and importance of the human experience: the essential nature of each, lived moment.

Contact columnist Martin Rabot at mrabot@oberlin.edu.

Drink Drank Drunk Sagittarius Sangria

BY SYD GARVIS COLUMNIST What you’ll need: Pitcher Ice Bottle of pinot grigio 1 cup caramel flavored vodka 6 cups apple cider 2 apples, sliced

Because we’re in full swing of Sagittarius season, I thought I’d share this autumnal sangria recipe. Remember, it isn’t actually winter until we’re in Capricorn’s spotlight on December 22nd.

If using your entire drink column to write your own horoscope isn’t the most Sagittarius thing you’ve heard, then I don’t know what is. This month, Sagittarii should be on the lookout for professors finally giving back papers (turned in so long ago that you don’t care about the grade anymore), along with assignments that pop up out of nowhere. In your love life, expect sex on your birthday, and romance the morning after, if that’s what you’re into. In the health realm of your life, Sagittarii this month will feel sick, mentally convince themselves they are not sick, but also use it as an excuse for class only once. Financially, you will not avoid checking your bank account, but instead loosely plan out how much money you can feasibly spend each week until the end of the semester, and hopefully find ten dollars on the sidewalk on, let’s say, December 12th.

You’ll notice that all of the celestial information in this horoscope is incredibly specific to my own life and circumstances. I did this because I wanted to tell you all — in the cheesiest way possible — that this month, you should write your own horoscope.

Sangria is by far better when you make it in large batches and let it sit overnight in the fridge to let the fruity flavors mix with the flavors of the wine. Core and slice your apples, then add to pitcher and pour in wine, vodka, and cider. Refrigerate overnight.

Recipe courtesy of thewholesomedish.com.

Letter of Recommendation

Befriending a Midwesterner

BY ANNA POLACEK COLUMNIST Despite its Midwestern location, Oberlin is amuk with coastal city kids. Don’t get me wrong, you East and West coasters bring much of the angst and bravado to Oberlin’s cultural table. Without you, I wouldn’t know the correct way to wear Dickies or how to be bitter about most everything. But there is something I feel is missing from our cultural climate, and that something is good ol’ Midwestern spirit.

As I write this, I am in anticipation of going back home to the great state of Minnesota for Thanksgiving. There, I’m sure to freshen up on all the things I’ve been missing while at school. Everyone will definitely smile at me on the street, all family disagreements will definitely avoid any and all confrontation, and my grandma will definitely say

a lot of “oh’s” and “yah’s” and “you betcha’s.”

Not to worry, friends: I have the solution to all that’s lacking in your sheltered, coastalcentric lives: all you have to do is go outside and befriend a midwesterner. If you’re wondering where to find one, just look for anyone who looks relatively friendly or calls carbonated drinks “pop.” We’re cute and nice and you betcha I’m looking for friends. Just give me a friendly holler.

Contact columnist Anna apolacek@oberlin.edu.

Polacek

at

DECEMBER 1, 2017

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ART BY SYD GARVIS (TOP) AND ANNA POLACEK (BOTTOM)

Drinking alcohol isn’t the only way to have fun. If you choose to indulge, please stay safe.

WOBC Spotlight DJ Wanda, DJ Tarp, and DJ Tennessee Ham

BY SYLVIE FLORMAN CONTRIBUTING WRITER

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Hanif Willis-Abdurraqib Melds Music Criticism and Poetry

BY EMORY MCCOOL CONTRIBUTING WRITER

very connected to this school as a place, and not just an institution.”

It’s also about community. They hold close to them the notion that cowgirls don’t fly solo. It’s important to note that part of being a cowgirl is “being dirty and not taking shit from anyone,” said DJ Tennessee Ham. Finally, modern cowgirling requires a little bit of mischief, which these DJs have taken to heart during their radio show.

Each radio show, they combine a little mischief and some witchcraft in a short hexing session, but is seems the show might be more powerful than the DJs! “One time we hexed someone who left a refrigerator in our garden shed,” DJ Tennessee Ham said, “and then the fridges in Keep stopped working... we aren’t very advanced hexers yet.” Though mediocre hexers now, as the semester ends, they foresee improvements in the practice.

By combining love, mischief, and some folk music, these three ladies have dedicated their Monday afternoon to bringing a little advice and some good tunes to the WOBC air. Tune in Mondays at 1 pm whether you’re feeling happy — or blue — for a little love-doctoring and some folk tunes. And remember, a final piece of advice from DJ Tarp, Tennessee Ham and Wandy, “if you wanna spend time with people, force them into weekly commitments” – like a radio show.

Contact contributing writer Sylvie Florman at sflorman@oberlin.edu.

THE GRAPE

Hanif Willis-Abdurraqib gathers his audience around him, encouraging them to hop on the low stage and sit in front of him in a circle. He sits on the edge of the stage, legs dangling off, microphone resting on its stand behind him. It’s the end of his hour-long reading at the Cat in the Cream on Monday, November 13th. Abdurraqib promises to read one last piece, something he describes as an

the essay is about neither Defiance, Ohio the band nor the town; it is rather about the ability music has to unite those in pain. In the final paragraph, Abdurraqib writes “I heard they played in some Indiana dive last spring & I heard the pit was wicked & later that week there was another drug bust in Defiance (town) & there are times when destruction is not as much of a choice as we think it is &

LIFE AS SPECTACLE IS MORE PROTECTED THAN LIFE AS A FULLY LIVED EXPERIENCE... AS IF GROWING UP ALL KINDS OF BLACK IN ALL KINDS OF WAYS DOESN’T CARRY ITS OWN UNIQUE AND VARIED WEIGHT. essay about music that reads like poetry. This particular piece, which falls about halfway through his recently published book, They Can’t Kill Us Until They Kill Us, is entitled “Defiance, Ohio is the Name of a Band.” As a text, the essay is non-stop; it is sparsely punctuated, and only halted by the writer’s frequent use of ampersands. It is initially rooted in the band, their style and shows: “Defiance, Ohio plays folk-punk which pretty much means that sometimes they let a banjo or a cello crawl into bed with the screaming & all of their shows feel like they were made just for you…”

As is the case with many of his essays, “Defiance, Ohio,” exists in a space that is simultaneously intensely personal and universal. From his description of the band, the author then pivots into stories of his youth spent in Ohio, and then to the heroin epidemic that seized the town of Defiance starting in the mid 2000s. The brilliance of this particular piece lies in the description of Defiance, the town. Abdurraqib writes: “Defiance, Ohio is a real town in Ohio & the band is not from there & anyone who is from there either leaves or dies.” The essay ends with the disappearance of Defiance, Ohio (the band) from the scene, whose last full record was released in 2010. Ultimately, however,

man, I barely made it out of 2006 alive.”

Using music and musical criticism as a gateway to greater cultural or political criticism is a device Abdurraqib employs frequently in They Can’t Kill Us. In another piece that he reads from on Monday, “Johnny Cash Never Shot a Man in Reno. Or, The Migos: Nice

Continued on next page.

DRAWING (LEFT) BY SYLVIE FLORMAN

In a warm corner of Keep Cottage over bowls of chickpeas and kale, I spoke with DJ Wanda, DJ Tarp, and DJ Tennessee Ham about their Monday afternoon radio show, Even Cowgirls Get The Blues. All fourth years, their show explores love, folk music, and what it means to be a modern day cowgirl.

The premise for the show came from a book of the same name by Tom Robbins, and though they might not recommend it as your next weekend read, DJ Wanda explained that”... we kinda just liked the sentiment: you can be a rough and tumble cowgirl, but you also get the blues.” As Oberlin students, I’m sure many of us can relate to that blues feeling that starts to come about this time of the year as the days get shorter and colder. And, as DJ Wanda mentioned, “it’s not hard to find angry folk songs.”

Their show tries to highlight mostly female musicians, who are also sad.

But, it’s not all depressing tunes.

Sometimes, these DJs use their music for moments when they have to “take a break from being sad” DJ Tarp told me.

In addition to music, DJs Wanda, Tarp, and Tennessee Ham try to promote audience engagement through a Q & A session. As selfproclaimed “relationship experts”, they talk about current, past, prospective romances and romantic conflict, but with a cowgirl twist.

For these DJs, being a cowgirl takes on a couple of meanings. A major part of it is a connection to the environment. As members of the Resource Conservation Team, “we see sides of Oberlin that not a lot of people see...”, DJ Wanda explained. “We’re always in the basement of someplace, and we pick up the compost... I feel

They Can’t Kill Us Until They Kill Us

Kids from the Suburbs,” he explores the extent to which we believe constructed narratives. This theme is a focus for Abdurraqib, and it was one he addressed in his workshop at the Cat late Monday afternoon. The workshop began with a discussion of two poems, “First Date”

by Sarah Benaim and “Origin Stories (Reprise)” by Safia Elhillo. After reading both, Abdurraqib asked which poet the group believed more, and why. He then asked them to write down two truths and one lie, and write a poem incorporating all three. It was an exercise in proving truth, or at least fact, to be relative and even unimportant to poetry. In “Johnny Cash” Abdurraqib examines mainstream society’s tendency to buy into certain myths, while discrediting others. He uses Johnny Cash’s mythology of prison time and crime as an example of falsehood that society is willing to believe. The Migos’s mythological backgrounds are, however, heavily criticized. Abdurraqib writes: “When people bring up the fact that Migos doesn’t hail from Atlanta proper, its signaling some larger criticism about the type of black people allowed to talk about certain types of things.” The essay goes on to examine how our treatment of Migos and other black rap artists reveals the way “life as spectacle is more protected than life as a fully lived experience... as if growing up all kinds of black in all kinds of ways doesn’t carry its own unique and varied weight.”

During the question and answer session, Abdurraqib was asked whether he considers his work “fan fiction.” He replied that he wasn’t really sure, but that he was once featured in a One Direction fan fiction. He proceeded to explain that he had once written a serious, if not wholly positive review, of a One Direction album, and that young fans were so appreciative of a “real” music critic taking their music seriously that someone included him in their fan fiction. Abdurraqib’s work champions music that few “serious” music-lovers would touch. His book includes essays about Carly Rae Jepsen and My Chemical Romance. These crossgenre reviews speak to something greater about Abdurraqib’s relationship to music – a belief that music should be made by, and for, everyone. This belief is essentially the thesis of They Can’t Kill Us Until They Kill Us, a collection which has the ability to speak beyond music criticism, and directly to the cultural experience of almost any reader.

Contact contributing writer Emory McCool at mmccool@oberlin.edu.

Greta Gerwig’s Masterful Lady Bird

BY NELL BECK CONTRIBUTING WRITER Christine McPherson wants you to call her “Lady Bird.”

It’s a name given “to myself by myself,” explains the red-haired protagonist of Greta Gerwig’s new movie, Lady Bird, which she both wrote and directed. The film focuses on Lady Bird’s senior year at a Catholic girls’ high school and the various coming-of-age situations she finds herself in. At the center of it all — though, underneath the college applications and the boys and the desire to actually be good at math — is the complicated and heartwarming relationship between Lady Bird and her mother.

The two butt heads on nearly everything. The tone of their fights ranges from humorous to cruel.

In one scene, an argument about Lady Bird’s feet-shuffling dissolves into the both of them gushing over how pretty a long pink dress in a thrift store is; in another, Lady Bird is berated by her mother for being ungrateful and she responds by screaming that one day she’ll never have to see her parents again.

But although they hurt each other, it’s clear that all of their disagreements come from a place of love that neither of them really knows how to express. Lady Bird is trying to become her own person, but also craves approval from her mother; meanwhile, her mother just wants to help her daughter have a better life than she has had.

A lot of tension between the two arises from Lady Bird’s desire to go to an east-coast college, one “like Yale, but not Yale because I probably couldn’t get in.” She, like so many teenagers on the verge of leaving for college, feels stifled by her hometown of Sacramento and wants to go as far away as possible (but again, even Lady Bird’s angst towards her hometown isn’t portrayed as blackand-white; there is love hidden there,

too). She dreams of New York, where she believes her creativity and talents will be able to flourish. Meanwhile, her mother outright opposes this desire, claiming that Lady Bird could never get into those schools anyway, and instead insists that she go to UC Davis, a school Lady Bird hates.

Gerwig has starred in a range of films, from those in the “mumblecore” subgenre, like Hannah Takes the Stairs (2007), to bigger hits like Frances Ha (2012) and Mistress America (2015). This is the first time she is entirely behind-the-scenes, and it is also the first time she is entirely

in control to craft her own story. Like many of the films Gerwig has acted in, Lady Bird is about female relationships, but this, unlike the others, is unencumbered by the male gaze; it’s a story told by a woman, about women.

Lady Bird holds romantic interests, but they don’t monopolize the entire plot of the movie. Rather, they are portrayed with importance and accuracy – these relationships are meaningful to Lady Bird and shape her own growth, but nothing about this story is centered on whether or not the girl will get the boy (something that happens too often with female protagonists in film). Instead, there are other, more important aspects of Lady Bird’s life that the movie chooses to focus on, which makes it so much more interesting and meaningful.

There are many well-known tropes in Lady Bird: the protagonist who neglects her sweet-but-insecure best friend, the pretentious bad boy who, on the night of a party, can be found sitting alone outside by the edge of the pool smoking cigarettes and annotating paperbacks, and the ever-disappointed mother. But Gerwig presents these familiar concepts in such a unique way that nothing about them feels even remotely cliche or insincere. She manages to make common themes feel refreshingly new and exciting rather than over-played, something that’s incredibly hard to pull off.

Lady Bird is full of great one-liners and dialogue that sounds like real-life conversations. This is common in many of Gerwig’s films, and always makes them feel that much more honest and relatable. The script is perfectly performed, as well, by the impressive cast of actors, from Saoirse Ronan to Laurie Metcalf to Tracy Letts. It’s also, I might add, beautifully shot, full of great colors and clothes and sets. It’s visually pleasing with writing that is funny and smart and insightful, making it an incredibly enjoyable hour and thirty-three minutes.

Basically, the movie is amazing. I might be slightly biased because of my deep and undying love for Greta Gerwig, but it has 100% on Rotten Tomatoes so I’m not just making stuff up here. It is an honest and complicated representation of a girl about to leave home, about a mother and daughter who love each other but can’t express it, about friendship, about trying to map out a future. I don’t think that the Apollo will be playing it any time soon, but the next time you’re around a movie theater that is, go in and spend your money on Lady Bird.

Contact contributing writer Nell Beck at nbeck@oberlin.edu.

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Missing Zimbabwe My Experience as an International Student

BY BLESSING BWITITI CONTRIBUTING WRITER DECISIONS THAT AREN’T CHOICES Going to college in the United States and being away from family is not easy.

We all get homesick and wish that we could be with the ones we love. We miss our parents, siblings, our pets, and the aroma of a home-cooked meal. While students from the U.S impatiently yearn for Fall Break or Thanksgiving so they can get a few days off to go back home and re-unite with loved ones every few weeks, we, as international students, don’t always have that choice. When home is over 8000 miles away, you don’t look at homesickness the same way as American students do; you realize that as much as you might miss your family, you don’t really have the option to go home as often as you might want to. You say goodbye and are prepared to miss birthdays, graduations and even funerals of loved ones. These are some of the tough (and incredibly brave) choices that international students make in deciding to come to Oberlin and the United States. I had been handling being away from home quite well throughout the semester until these past two weeks, when I went through phases of homesickness as my home-country Zimbabwe underwent extreme political turmoil, and took me on a roller-coaster of emotions.

THE RICHES THAT WEREN’T WEALTH As some of you may have heard, Zimbabwe recently experienced a significant

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and revolutionary political change which led to the ousting of our long-standing president Robert Mugabe. For the past 37 years, ever since we gained Independence from British colonial rule in 1980, Mugabe has been our sole ruler. The first decade of his rule saw imbabwe’s

pumped an incredible amount every day, yet families still didn’t have enough money to buy basic necessities. Farmers had land so rich it could bear blooming harvests, but no financial means of supporting their farming, resulting in meagre yields. Graduates had esteemed

TO THINK THAT ONLY A WEEK BEFORE, NOONE WOULD HAVE EVER IMAGINED CHANTING THE WORDS “MUGABE MUST GO” WITHOUT THE EXPECTATION OF BEING ARRESTED FOR IT. economy move in a prolific upward spiral. Zimbabwe was even nicknamed “the breadbasket of Africa,” as it was responsible for exporting agricultural produce to feed most countries in Africa and the rest of the world. We had (and still have) the highest literacy rate and the best education system in Africa. But fast-forward 20 years and millions of Zimbabweans live in extreme poverty, the country’s estimated unemployment rate is over the 90th percentile, and more than a quarter of its citizens have fled the country to look for better conditions abroad.

Zimbabwe also went through the well known inflation period; in 2008, rates rose over 70 billion percent. I vividly remember being in 6th grade and buying a small packet of chips for $6.8 billion Zimbabwean dollars (yes, billion). The banks

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degrees hanging on their walls, but close to zero chances of getting a job. Only in imbabwe could you find a University graduate selling chips and sweets for a living in the streets of Harare. This was the harsh reality that we were living in.

As they began to get fed up with the corruption and incompetence in the government, people began to protest — but never without being brutally silenced.

Protests against the government were deemed “illegal”. Violent outbursts resulted in the loss of many lives. Many people were left injured at the hands of police. It wasn’t so uncommon to walk into town and be choked by the smell of teargas or have to run away from rubber bullets and water cannons deployed by the police at protesters and ordinary passersby. All that the people wanted

was change, a better Zimbabwe for them and their children, but many were persecuted for it.

THE COUP THAT WASN’T A COUP Two weeks ago, due to a lot of internal friction in the main political party, a military coup ensued. Army tanks were noticed in the main capital and the news quickly circulated on social media.

When I saw the news online, my immediate fear was that it was going to be the usual disastrous, violent, and life-threatening situation that Zimbabwean protesters were so accustomed to. When the U.S and British Embassies both issued statements prompting citizens not to go to work and to find shelter due to “political uncertainty”, I had to quickly call home to ensure everyone was safe. After seizing control of the state broadcasting company, a stern army spokesperson, clad in his army fatigues and beret, announced the news. That’s when things started to get interesting, and the world started noticing. Despite the army’s reiteration that this was clearly not a coup, no one was buying it.

Two weeks prior to this incident, Zimbabwe Vice President Emmerson Mnangagwa was abruptly fired from the party. Most saw his departure as a way for Mugabe to pave way for his wife, First Lady Grace Mugabe, to become the next president. This is what mainly prompted the coup. The Zimbabwean population was in favor of the coup, as it appeared to be the beginning of the change that

they’d anticipated for years. People came together to march in solidarity with the army. It was an amazing sight: hundreds of thousands of people marching together without any regard to race, gender, or affiliation. It was a nation in one accord, simply asking for change and for the President to step down and surrender his power.

What made this coup (“that wasn’t a coup”) peculiar was the manner in which it was executed. When people hear about a coup, they usually picture bloodshed, public curfews, the president being tied up in chains, and violent altercations amongst citizens, the government, and the military. This was not the case with the Zimbabwean coup; people stopped to take selfies with soldiers and army veterans; others hopped onto the army vehicles to ride with them in the march against the president. Amidst these occurrences, the president himself made public appearances, announcements, and even capped University graduates at graduation ceremonies to instil the illusion of “normalcy.” It was liberating to see the people of Zimbabwe free to exercise their rights. It was liberating to see them finally airing their views and outrage without fear of deposition. To think that only a week before, no one would have ever imagined chanting the words “Mugabe must go” without the expectation of being arrested for it. This peaceful coup brought our Independence!

THE STEP-DOWN THAT WASN’T A RESIGNATION The huge pressure from all sides prompted Mugabe to resign. The ruling party had voted him out as leader, and

parliament was about to start the process of impeachment if he refused the official order to step down as president.

Mugabe, being the wise man he is (I still give him that!), decided not to publicly announce his resignation on live broadcast surrounded by military officials, as this would confirm that it was indeed a coup and that he was forcibly thrown out of power. But being impeached after a 37 year rule would also further tarnish his legacy, so Mugabe succumbed to all of this pressure by sending in a resignation letter to the Parliament, just as they were about to start the impeachment process.

The news that we had all been waiting to hear for over a decade was finally real; Mugabe was resigning, and with immediate effect! Only YouTube can testify to the excitement and exhilaration that the whole nation felt after hearing this. People took to the streets, honking their cars, walking around hugging each other, holding flags, and singing victory songs in celebration of the historic moment. As music flooded the towns and people danced and smiled, it was literally a national party. Not only was Mugabe going, but the dream for a brighter Zimbabwe was alive once again.

I guess being so far away really doesmake one more appreciative of home.

Home was so far, yet so near. I really could feel every emotion that the Zimbabweans felt as they marched out there in the streets; I wanted so badly to be out there with them, finally demanding my freedom and taking those selfies with the military. I wanted so badly to be a part of the momentous and historic moment that saw the liberation of Zimbabwe. I went through a rollercoast-

er of emotions: panic, fear, anger, sadness, loneliness, joy, anticipation, hope. All I could do was watch live feeds on my laptop as the news unfolded. I could barely sleep, I spent the entire night just smiling and staring at my laptop screen, my imbabwean flag wrapped around my neck. It was hard to complete working on my research paper about Sophia The Robot, while trying to stay in the loop on the story of Mugabe The Robert (pun intended). The songs o f freedom from home, sung in my language of Shona, suddenly started to make sense. I found myself chanting these songs while I went about the day.

I walked around campus holding my flag in solidarity with the whole nation. I had never felt so proud to be Zimbabwean.

Despite having no one here from my country to share the excitement with, I felt very happy with the support I got from people here at Oberlin. I was always surprised when people would walk up to me and say, “Yo, Blessing, have you heard about what’s going on in your country right now?” “How are you feeling?” Such acknowledgement made me more appreciative of this campus as a whole. My professors also showed that they understood what I was going through, expressing legitimate concern and offering deadline extensions. I realized that many people at Oberlin are engaged with world issues, and are not as ignorant as the rest of the world thinks Americans are. My roommate, Patrick,

This is one of the notes we used in 2008, with which you could only buy three loaves of bread. always eagerly asked for latest updates, and I was surprised at how Micaiah, my other roommate, even knew more about Emmerson Mnagwagwa (the new president) than I did; all I knew better than Micaiah was pronouncing Mnangagwa’s last name correctly! My friend Mike and I had a good laugh over one of the videos from the march. I really could feel that the support here was genuine, heartfelt and bona fide (no pun intended, to any Zimbabwean who might be reading this), As Nelson Mandela once said, “After climbing a great hill, one only finds that there are more hills to climb.” Zimbabwe clearly has a long way to go from here, but we are grateful that a new dawn has come. A brighter future is increasingly imminent, but right now, we let the news soak in and celebrate! Asante Sana!

Contract contributing writer Blessing Bwititi at bbwititi@oberlin.edu.

In Favor of Finstas:

A Closer Look at the Social Media Phenomenon

BY SARAH RIDLEY CONTRIBUTING WRITER An increasingly pervasive aspect of social media culture--with particular prevalence at Oberlin--has become the “finsta,” the fake Instagram account that people only let a select subset of friends follow. For those who don’t follow any finsta accounts, users are usually exclusive about followers because the platform functions as an unfiltered, unabridged, no-holds-barred alternate Instagram.

Skeptics or critics of finstas argue that

people often use it to vent about only the worst aspects of their lives--the unlucky, the failed tests, the illnesses, the injuries. Often times, people create posts that could be interpreted as glamorizing or making light of unhealthy coping mechanisms. And the oversharing, multiple posts a day, explicit captions, and poor quality photos can be a bit much if you’re not into that sort of thing. So are finstas all bad? Or are they a cutting edge platform for people to be their tru-

est selves on the internet? The debate becomes: should those who don’t like it just unfollow, or should the finsta owner compromise and try to be more conscientious of what followers actually want to see in their feed?

As someone in support of the finsta, I would argue that it is a liberating, more authentic form of self-expression on social media. Whether you follow finsta accounts, have one of your own, or both, you have to admit that you feel closer

to people through finsta culture. With the constant stream of self-deprecating, over-indulgent, honest, self-aware posts that blatantly ignore the etiquette of avoiding double posting, everyone’s world becomes a little smaller. Suddenly, the teammate I rarely interact with outside of practice feels like a close friend because I know every detail about her crush on her TA. I get to “like” all the blurry photos of my best friend’s dog she takes while home for break. Without the

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censorship of “real” Instagram accounts, the usually less than a hundred followers of finstas gain the privilege of peering into the most intimate and raw moments in people’s lives: every entertaining and/ or cringeworthy Tinder interaction caught in a screenshot, every incriminating video clip of a night out, every shitty meme —finsta followers see it all. The owner of the finsta account gains a little more autonomy over their social media presence: they can make it so their mom won’t be able to find it, and none of the people from high school they hate get to follow it. The finsta functions as a diary with a lock that people you trust have keys to. You don’t have to worry about how many likes you get, and you can avoid the humiliation that comes with the wrong person seeing certain posts.

Nudes are welcome; food pictures are

welcome; too-much-information is welcome, too.

The freedom and unabashed transparency of finsta posts do come with the risk of potentially triggering content.

People can experience emotional/psychological harm through viewing explicit photos and captions containing descriptions of specific symptoms of mental illnesses and unhealthy ways of dealing with problems. While those in favor of finstas being as open as possible may argue that anyone who doesn’t like their content shouldn’t follow, it is irresponsible and unkind to disregard the needs of those who are probably close friends (or close enough to have been allowed to follow in the first place).

There is a compromise, though: any caption that is triggering can and should have a content warning. And finsta own-

ers can bury triggering photos with the multiple photo posting option.

I use my own finsta as a documentation of my life. I can’t get myself to journal consistently, but I can post a quick photo of all of my best, worst, and in-between moments--with captions containing witty commentary, feelings, snippets of poetry, or meme references to fully encompass what those moments meant to me. If I ever write a memoir, my finsta will serve as the best reference. I love being brutally honest. I love posting about my inner, emotional conflicts (and conflict in real life, with other people, to be honest). I love posting about running, about small victories like turning in a paper on time, and about losses like pooping six times in one day.

When it comes to the debate about whether they should unfollow or we

should post less, I fall on the side of unfollow if you don’t like it — not because I don’t respect others’ preferences, but because the whole point of finsta is to provide a space for people to share who they are without filtering out the bad and the ugly. If you don’t like what I post, it means you don’t like me, and I don’t want you to follow my finsta anyway.

Contact contributing writer Sarah Ridley at sridley@oberlin.edu.

A Terry Tempest Williams Experience “Finding beauty in a broken world is creating beauty in the world we find”

BY GAYLA WOLCOTT CONTRIBUTING WRITER Last Thursday I met a woman who, in the course of about 27 hours, entered my life and altered it for good. Her name is Terry Tempest Williams — maybe you saw her on those posters around campus advertising her convocation. I interviewed her in what was supposed to be a media session, but quickly turned into an intimate conversation between just the two of us. We met in Wilder 115, a large room where couches abound. It’s an intimidating space in which to be alone with a famous person whom you admire. See, I’m not a very commanding person. I admitted that I was a huge fan of hers, and that I was nervous. She told me that she, too, was nervous, but that I didn’t need to be, and invited me to sit closer to her. This immediately calmed me down, and it became easy to ask her my questions.

I got to know Terry, not just as an inspiring author, but as an interesting and complex human being. I learned that some of her favorite authors in college included Ralph Waldo Emerson, Emily Dickinson, Edward Abbey, and Rachel Carson. She told me how, during her first semester in college, she was under so much stress,

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she rapidly came down with Hepatitis and Mono. Getting sick so quickly taught her a valuable lesson about listening to her body. Once she recovered, she started failing classes; “Because if I wanted to go climb mountains, I would skip a class. Or if I wanted to read Thoreau and I wasn’t done, I would just stay and read Thoreau.” She says she got over this streak by grad school.

Terry relayed to me a moment in which she lay down next to a prairie dog and together they watched the sunset.

She felt an indescribable connection to him, the kind that you don’t expect to find with a non-human. She said most people would think she’s crazy if they heard that story; I didn’t think she was crazy at all.

and loves and grieves on this planet.” She also learned this from Indigenous Americans, who “have always known that.” “I think we’re just beginning to remember,” she said. For Terry, some influential books on the topic were Animals and Why They Matter by Mary Midgley, which points out the problematic anthropomorphism in believing that humans are the only species that is capable of feeling, and Thinking Animals by Paul Shepard, which looks “at the contribution that animals have given to human thought, just by bearing their presence.”

In Williams’ book, Finding Beauty in a Broken World, poetry and science inter-

CAN WE LOVE LIFE ON THE PLANET ENOUGH TO CHANGE? This experience with the prairie dog, and all of her experiences with wild animals, instilled a deep empathy in Terry, adding to her understanding that humans aren’t the “only species that lives

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twine — despite their frequent separation in the academic world. Even today, when a liberal arts education encourages diversity of studies, I’ve been asked “Are you a humanities or a STEM person?” —

and rarely is there the option of “Both.”

Intrigued, I asked her about her inclusive perspective. She said “It’s how I see the world…. I’m both a writer and a naturalist. And I love the different lenses of both, because I think they illuminate both. So that you can look at a prairie dog and think: this is a keystone species, with 400 other species that are drawn to their community, but at the same time, you can also think about how they’re called ‘prayer dogs.’ Or how when I was observing them, at a half-hour before dawn or a half-hour before sunset, they would have their palms pressed together.

And that, to me, is poetry, or that, to me, is biology. You think about how the Navajos speak about them: that if you take away all the prairie dogs, there will be no one to cry for the rain. And is that poetry or is that science? Well, as we learned, when the government took away the prairie dogs, without them to aerate the soil, it became hardpan; no give to the sand, because the rain couldn’t percolate into the deeper recesses of the soil.”

Terry expressed that story is the most powerful method of persuasion we have, “because story bypasses rhetoric and pierces the heart.” She gave me a piece of advice that I will cherish as long as I am a writer: “I would just urge you to write. From [your heart] and [your head], because we’re told that you write out of your head, and I think that’s missing a big part of it. To write out of our whole bodies, especially as women. I think that’s what we’re hungry for. And I would love to know how you’re seeing the world right now. How do you write from the sense of what your own generation is having to cope with right now?

And to write fiercely from that place.”

“There’s an act of generosity in sharing your story. You’re told a story and you want to share your own. So that, by sharing your love of the earth, or where you come from, or a question you may have, then I think it invites people to ask that of themselves, too. And then a conversation begins on the page, and in the world.”

We got to talking about a poet by the name of Rainer Maria Rilke. If you’ve never read him, look up Letters to a Young Poet, where you will find this quote: “Be patient toward all that unsolved in your heart, and try to love the questions themselves, like locked rooms and like books that are written in a very foreign tongue. Do not now seek the answers, which cannot be given you, because you would not be able to live them.

And the point is, to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps you will then gradually, without noticing it, live along some distant day into the answer.”

As our short time together came to an end, Terry requested that I spend a few minutes that night writing her an email with all of the Rilke-esque questions that I held in my heart. When she asked if I wanted anything from her, I told her that I simply wanted her to answer my questions. The next day, at about 5:30, she sent me an email saying that my questions would be the focal point of the convocation, and that she had reserved a seat for me near the stage. The event began at 7:30, November 21st, and what

followed were the most astounding 1.5 hours of my young adult life.

The question whose answer I was most desperate to hear was this one: “Will we ever save this planet from our destruction? Are we all innately good

real” — and that’s exactly how it felt. She spewed about the nuclear residue that was killing her family, about being told that she had no voice except through the male authority in her life, and about how she had decided that she never wanted

EVEN TODAY, WHEN A LIBERAL ARTS EDUCATION ENCOURAGES DIVERSITY OF STUDIES, I’VE BEEN ASKED “ARE YOU A HUMANITIES OR STEM PERSON?” -AND RARELY IS THERE THE OPTION OF “BOTH.” enough to turn around on this path of harm we are walking down?” It’s the question of many sleepless nights, the one that supplies the most stress in my daily life. What Terry offered me was absolute and terrifying honesty: “I don’t know.” And I mean, how could she know whether or not the human race will step up to a task so monumental? No

to perpetuate that lie. She disclosed her and her husband’s decision not to have children. She lamented the reckless destruction of Indian lands that she’s tried so hard to save. “A story is never sentimental if you tell the truth”; Terry’s story is her truth.

Terry also discussed the meanings of activism. Describing Karen Armstrong’s

one could know that. To this, she added a query of her own: “Can we love life on the planet enough to change?” — a question far more valuable to the fight against climate change than “Will we ever do it?” because it gives us hope.

We cannot know whether we will leave behind a liveable planet, but we can try.

We must move forward with a love in our hearts stronger than the obstacles we will encounter.

I feel vulnerable publishing my thoughts on Terry’s speech, which affected me so deeply, but if she taught me anything, it’s that vulnerability and authenticity are some of the few things that can change the world. She shared with me (and the audience) a rant she’d written two nights earlier, introducing it by saying that it was “unedited, raw, and

philosophy of compassion, she said “We think compassion is emotion, but in fact, compassion is an act. If it were most closely aligned with an emotion, it would be discomfort, disturbance, disruption.”

We feel uncomfortable because of the oppression that others experience, and so we take action in our community.

Terry said that being an activist at this moment is subsequent to what it means to be alive at this moment. We must ask, “Where is our love, and where is our outrage?” It is our duty “to embrace our questions. To respond to one another, to listen to what is being said and what is not being said. To tell our stories. So that democracy can rise, from the first home, our hearts.” Terry finds the courage to overcome fear in “choosing a life that’s larger than yourself. Call it pur-

pose, call it vocation, call it passion. And ultimately I think that saves us from our own nerves, because you end up caring about something deeply that moves you beyond your own fears.”

I’ll close this article with a proposition that Terry offered her audience. She asked us to host a dinner party-- an intergenerational gathering of between 2 and 12 people around a table, including people you know and people you want to know better. It’s a picture of what society ought to look like, an opportunity to engage in conversation that embraces the questions we’re wondering, and receive both answers and returned questions from people who have lived different lives than yourself. And then, she says, ask your guests to host one of these dinners themselves. I think this is precisely what Terry did for me in her convocation. She and I found a community of two; she listened with utmost care to my questions, and she asked me a few as well. She said things I’ve needed to hear for a long time.

I think that the art of listening is one we tend to forget about in our daily lives, one that we rarely practice. In listening deeply to my questions, Terry saw the burdens weighing on my heart, and responded in a way that was meaningful for me. When was the last time that you asked someone a question and they didn’t turn the answer back around to their own worries? When was the last time you were vulnerable with someone you don’t know yet? Every person deserves to speak aloud the burdens they are carrying, and to be heard. Furthermore, Terry says “It’s in listening that we begin to understand what’s required of us or what’s necessary or what another point of view is... it deepens your own experience. Takes you someplace you could never have imagined.” Maybe you won’t find this sort of conversation in a dinner party, but in a poetry class, when you express how the poem you’re reading has touched you because of an experience you’ve had. Maybe you will find it when you ask someone about their day, and you follow up on it — in not just asking questions like “How’s it going?” but “How are you feeling today?” This sort of authentic conversation isn’t always possible in our bustling lives, but it’s so incredibly necessary to creating peace, and beauty, in this broken world. I hope that you will consider that dinner party, or that conversation, so that the people in your life can understand you more deeply, and so that you can do the same.

Contact contributing writer Gayla Wolcott at gwolcott@oberlin.edu.

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Representing Oberlin When it Doesn’t Represent You Being a Disabled Tour Guide at Oberlin

BY CHARLIE RINEHART-JONES CONTRIBUTING WRITER At least once or twice a week for nearly a year now, I have been shuttling students around campus and explaining some of the most important aspects of Oberlin College. As a tour guide, I am tasked not just with showing visiting families the facilities and programming that Oberlin has to offer, but also with pitching Oberlin as a valuable educational experience.

At the end of each of my tours, I give a spiel about why I chose Oberlin. It may seem like a small thing, but it gives me a chance to use my personal experience to talk about and promote the school. I usually talk about the lack of required classes, the various pre-professional programs that interest me, and perhaps most importantly, the financial aid and disability resources that allow me to attend a school like Oberlin. Lately, however, changes in both of these departments have made my pitch feel disingenuous. Although these resources have been there for me in the past, both of the departments have drastically different staff than they did during my first semester.

When I first visited Oberlin during my Junior year of high school, I got that tingly romantic feeling that people mention when they talk about setting foot on the campus of their dreams. I knew I loved Oberlin, but choosing the right college depended on a lot more than just

sources has during my time here, however, tuition hikes of nearly 3% in the last calendar year, a new Vice President and Dean of Admissions and Financial Aid, and changes to OSCA as a financial option for students leave many things up in the air.

FOR ME, IT HAS RAISED A UNIQUE QUESTION: HOW DO YOU REPRESENT AN INSTITUTION THAT YOU DON’T AGREE WITH? The other important logistical factor that I was looking for in a school was Disability Services. I have a severe form of Dysgraphia, which is a learning disability that manifests itself in poor handwriting and extreme difficulty with fine motor skills. While I was growing up, the public schools I attended simply didn’t have the resources to help me, and I fell behind. In High School, I got extra time on my tests and some assignments, and things got a bit better. But when I came to Oberlin, the bounty of resources that the school seemed to offer for someone like me made me excited to be the student I knew I could be. For my entire life I had felt like a “smart” person was locked inside of me, and Oberlin made

DISABILITY SERVICES IS VERY DIFFERENT FROM HOW IT WAS WHEN I GOT MY ACCOMMODATIONS APPROVED. whether or not I loved it. My parents do quite well, but they also weren’t afraid to admit that having three kids in college at once was going to be difficult. So, financial aid was going to be a really important factor in my decision. As much as I loved Oberlin, there were moments when it was hard to justify why I wasn’t going to state school. Oberlin’s Office of Financial Aid hasn’t changed nearly as drastically as its Office of Disability Re-

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ter at Oberlin working for the office as a videographer. Going into my second semester, I thought that having experience with the office might be useful experience for a tour guide. However, due to many different events happening in an unfortunate cacophony of disparate rea-

me feel like I could unlock my full potential.

So during my first semester, a five person, full-time staff at the Office of Disability Services helped me with everything I needed. They met with me many times and made it easy to transfer documentation of my disability to get full accommodations at Oberlin. I was proud of Oberlin for its disability services, and I even spent my first semes-

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son, the three Disability centered staffers who worked there — Jane Boomer, Joe Young, and Isabella Moreno — have since left the office. As bad as this part of the story is, the administration’s response was somehow worse. The people who had helped me, a learning disabled student at Oberlin, succeed, won’t be there for the students on my tours. And whether or not you think the new staff and changes to the office are adequate, they are certainly different and new.

The very nature of Disability Services is very different from how it was when I got my accommodations approved. Disability Services and it’s subjugation as a department not worthy of its own office in the eyes of the administration has arguably been the biggest campus topic of the semester. For me, it has raised a unique question; how do you represent an institution that you don’t agree with? I battle with it because I love my job as a tour guide, I love Oberlin, and I love talking about Oberlin. I think what makes for the most compelling tour guide is personality and unique anec-

dotes, but it is hard to represent a place so drastically different from the one that I fell in love with.

An increase in full-time staff is an obvious and important change. The administration has constantly undervalued the relationships that some disabled students have with their advocates on campus, and an increase in full-time staff will allow disabled students to begin to build those important bonds again.

Furthermore, Disability Services being demoted to a division of the Center for Student Success feels like downsizing.

Many disabled students on campus have articulated why this change is troubling.

However, one additional thing that may not be as obvious is the value in knowing that there is a space on campus for your needs. While the Center for Student Success serves a great purpose, it doesn’t necessarily reflect the specific challenges that disabled folks face at Oberlin.

I sincerely hope that the administration does better for disabled students on campus, because the failure to address these issues makes it difficult to authentically advocate for Oberlin.

Contact contributing writer Charlie Rinehart-Jones at crinehar@oberlin.edu.

Oberlin Office of Disabilities

Power, Politics, and Patriarchy Why We Need to Stop Making Excuses for Powerful (and Liberal) Men

BY NELL BECK CONTRIBUTING WRITER Ever since allegations against Harvey Weinstein came out in early October, there has been a flood of new public accusations against high-power men.

Seemingly every day news alerts pop up on my phone telling me that another familiar male face has been exposed for inappropriate sexual behavior around women (and sometimes men, as in the case of Kevin Spacey). The outpouring of accusations is at once a horrifying look at power dynamics in this country and an empowering moment for women who are finally being recognized and believed. It is forcing us to take a hard look at the way power in America is so greatly abused by men.

The allegations, which started in Hollywood, are now infiltrating Washington. This is not the first time that men in politics have been accused of sexual misconduct - let us not forget President Bill Clinton and, of course, our sitting president, whose hypocrisy never fails to stun. More recently, though, some of the most highly-reported incidents involve Republican candidate for U.S. Senate Roy Moore, and Democratic Senator Al Franken.

So far, Moore has been accused by nine women of sexual assault and unwanted advances. In one case, he attempted to rape a sixteen year old. In response to these allegations, Moore denies everything and refuses to end his campaign, despite urgings from many members of the GOP, including Senator Mitch McConnell.

The allegations against Franken began with Leeann Tweeden, a radio broadcaster who accused Franken of forcing himself on her, and also released a picture of him groping her as she slept.

Since then, three more women have come out to say that Franken inappropriately touched them. Franken has released apologies (which have been fairly watery) and agreed to an ethic investigation into his actions.

There are clear differences between these cases. The accusations against Franken, while entirely reprehensible,

were not on the same level as those against Moore. Franken’s response to the allegations was also much better than Moore’s, in that he acknowledged his harassment of these women, apologized and invited an investigation into himself, none of which Moore even came close to doing. But in the end, both have been accused of sexual misconduct by multiple women. Both men are sexual harassers, and must be held ac-

women’s rights and freedoms.”

Under our current political climate, that is an understandable position. Every day, the rights of women and people of color, the rights of immigrants, the rights of the poor, are all under attack.

We do need liberals who can stand up to the Trump administration.

But we must remember that sexual misconduct is never excusable. We cannot pick and choose which men are al-

IN A BROADER SENSE, ALL OF THESE ALLEGATIONS, FROM HOLLYWOOD TO WASHINGTON, HAVE LAID BARE WHAT HAS BEEN BUBBLING BENEATH THE SURFACE FOR A LONG TIME: THAT THERE IS A TREND OF MEN, SPECIFICALLY WHITE, CIS MEN, ABUSING POWER WHENEVER IT IS GIVEN TO THEM. countable. It is easy to pit Moore against Franken, as it is always easy to paint issues as black-and-white, Democrat vs.

Republican. Moore himself has claimed that the charges leveled against him are lies crafted by liberals to undermine his Senate campaign. Similarly, there are those who will defend Franken, claiming that we need all the liberal politicians we can get because they are the ones who will protect women’s rights, even if they don’t respect women in their day-to-day interactions with them.

This was the case that Kate Harding made in an article in the Washington Post, writing that “if we set this precedent in the interest of demonstrating our party’s solidarity with harassed and abused women, we’re only going to drain the swamp of people who, however flawed, still regularly vote to protect

lowed to harass women and which ones aren’t. If we do, we won’t see any viable change come from this moment in which men are finally being exposed and held accountable. Certainly, I can understand the blow that would come from losing a figure - possibly figures, plural, because who knows what revelations could still come out? - such as Franken, who champions liberal values and will challenge the current administration. But still, Franken should lose his job, just as Moore and Trump and every other man who has made the workplace hostile for women should.

In a broader sense, all of these allegations, from Hollywood to Washington, have laid bare what has been bubbling beneath the surface for a long time: that there is a trend of men, specifically white, cis men, abusing power whenever

it is given to them. Recently, The Atlantic published a very interesting article titled “Power Causes Brain Damage.”

According to the piece, people in high positions lose the ability to empathize and understand others. After receiving so much praise and admiration and acknowledgement, these people become more and more concerned with themselves, and less and less concerned with those around them. Essentially, it supports a sentiment that has been repeated throughout history: power corrupts.

This is only heightened when the person in power has already lived a life of luxury and privilege. Powerful figures who have also experienced periods of disadvantage or impairment are more likely to retain the ability to empathize and reflect on their actions. So, when white men —who are already supported and benefited by our patriarchal society —gain power, it is no surprise that our contemporary culture is completely dominated by accusations of sexual abuse and harassment.

In order to change that culture, we need to take advantage of the moment we are in right now. If we let men like Franken get away with sexual abuse simply because of their political views, we are making it okay for this to continue happening — not only in the public sphere, but also in the work environments that don’t receive news coverage but still permit and promote the abuse of power-dynamics. It’s important to hold men in the public accountable not only because they do not deserve to hold positions where they are a threat to their coworkers, but also because their dismantling will serve as an example to men in everyday workplaces that actions have consequences, that harassment is serious and unacceptable. We need to listen to and believe victims of sexual assault, and we also need to hold all abusers accountable, if we ever want to see real change come from this moment.

Contact contributing writer Nell Beck at nbeck@oberlin.edu.

DECEMBER 1, 2017

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Trending Stories: Freshman Devastatingly Self-Diagnoses with Trypophobia after Psych 100 Old Break Up Text Draft Looking Really Pathetic Sitting in IPhone Notes Now

Open Forum: How Long After We Have Sex Can I Tell That Story About My Dad? Laundry-doer Pulls Out that One Sock that Causes Everything Else to Fall Out

Art Rental Piece Writes Tell-All BREAKING: Massive Douche

BY JULIA HALM Writes Another Article BAD HABITS WRITER

After nearly fteen years of circulation in Oberlin s infamous art rental program, one painting is bra ely coming for ard to recount her e perience. e spo e ith eese in a hree ay ith Fi e pectators oil on can as, on the sub ects of life, loss, the things she s seen and the lessons she s learned.

It all started with Timmy. A suave little freshman, my first renter hung me up on the wall of his divided double to impress girls. Between me and Timmy’s sick frosted tips, any girl he brought up to his room was a goner (the year was 2002). I watched so many people lose their virginity so disappointingly (Timmy included); it really brings me down. Then again, who am I to judge? I’m just a painting of eight geese having sex.

Twelve people have come out to me, and four of them were coming out as straight. For some reason, people just feel comfortable baring their souls to me. I’ve witnessed a lot of cheating, too. I’ve been meaning to say this to you, Karen: you were right after all.

Mark is kind of a dick, and he de nitely wasn’t dj-ing for WOBC between 2 and 4am every Saturday of fall semester 2013 like he said he was.

BY JACK ROCKWELL BAD HABITS WRITER Oberlin, OH—Horrified sources across Oberlin have confirmed that yet another massive douche has written yet another article for he rape. The douche in question, a fourthyear Comparative Literature major, has reportedly written articles for this publication before and is probably going to write one again.

Eyewitnesses say that this douche wrote about some stupid book or movie that no one cares about. They were deeply divided as to which aspect of the review they found most appalling: the subject matter, the writing style, the self-congratulatory-yet-cursory mention of women’s issues, the lack of focus, cohesion or any noticeable organization, or the absolute failure to include a Marxist analysis.

The tired few who managed to get through it suggested that he used lots of big words and long sentences to make his uninteresting comments sound sophisticated and academic.

There have definitely been highs and lows of my career. Once, I watched a guy eat an orange like an apple alone in his room. It was devastating. So was the economic crisis of 2008. It didn’t really affect me that much, but I just kept hearing about it.

“He clearly has been going to Oberlin for four years, because he used the word ‘discourse’ three times in one paragraph,” said Jona Beliu, College fourth-year and Politics major.

“He didn’t say anything meaningful about it—he clearly just thought it sounds good.

The highlight was probably being mistaken for an early Van Gogh and being reblogged over fifteen thousand times on Tumblr.

“He had a real distinguishable voice coming through, but it was nasal and tepid.

Combined with the self-righteousness it was truly unbearable.”

In closing, I’m grateful that no one ever broke me, physically or emotionally. I’ve fallen on drunken party guests, I’ve been called a disgrace to the Impressionist Bestiality movement, but for all that, I am stronger.

Students have been taking to social media in recent weeks to complain about what they see as a rising trend of douches writing articles. “Since when did he rape become just another forum for Comp Lit students to jerk each other off? ” tweeted Amanda Palmer, a College third-year and Psychology major. It’s been confirmed that most of the

Continued on next page.

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THE GRAPE

Cough Drop, A Bunch of Change, Some Lint Left Atop Empire State Building From King Kong’s Pocket Years Ago

BY ISABEL KLEIN BAD HABITS EDITOR

350 5TH AVENUE, NEW YORK, NY— Years following the filming of Peter Jackson’s expansive 2005 remake of the 1933 classic “King Kong,” Empire State Building window washers found remnants of pocket paraphernalia atop the iconic building. Reports have come out that movie star and giant ape, King Kong, may have left behind such items.

The discovery shocked window washers. “Nothing was even ape sized or anything like I expected,” shared Michael Pallen, Empire State Building washer. “It was just some dimes and your typical cherry Luden.”

CAST Major Works On Dissolving Athlete/NonAthlete Divide By Taking One For The Team And Fucking A Lacrosse Player 132 WOODLAND STREET, OBERLIN OH -- Last Friday night, Elizabeth Weener, college senior and Comparative American Studies major, had enough with the intensity of the non-athlete/athlete divide when she saw her best friend, Laura Miller, faint upon immediately stepping onto North Quad.

“The blaring red of the numerous varsity jackets that suddenly clouded my vision was a personal offense to me.” Laura explained. “Suddenly I couldn’t take it anymore – I felt violated, unsafe.”

After Elizabeth took her friend directly to Mercy, where Laura received a blood transfusion and a kidney transplant due to the pure blow of seeing a muscular STEM major pass by on a penny board, Elizabeth thought more critically about the divide. “This divide has become too much to handle.

There’s only one way to solve this,” Elizabeth says, abruptly standing up and zombie-walking towards Woodland Street. “And I’m the one to do it.”

In an email update following her last sentiment, Elizabeth leaves a cryptic message that read, “Let’s just say, the deed is done. The divide has been dissolved.” Elizabeth reportedly was seen later that afternoon bounding away from Woodland Street as the clouds cleared, birds chirped, and the Dirty Dancing soundtrack blasted from an unknown speaker.

douches are dudes, and their writing reflects it, focusing on stuff made by dudes about only dudes that they somehow expect everyone, including non-dudes, to read. They’ve been known to include a brief mention of non-dude experiences in their articles before quickly patting themselves on the back and getting back to writing about weed or cars or whatever.

When asked about it, the editors of he rape didn’t seem terribly concerned. “The rape has been publishing douchey content for decades, and we don’t plan to stop now because of some Tweets.”

They spoke to a long-standing tradition of public relations campaigns waged to deal with this sort of thing. “We’ll probably just run a vaguely self-critical article or two and call it a day.”

Outsiders have speculated as to a self-sustaining economy of sorts in which douches write articles for douches that are read by the same douches. This pseudo-journalistic circle-jerk is subsidized by the entire student body through the SFC. The editors of he rape have agreed that if they were to receive more non-douchey submissions, they would love to run them, but there just aren’t enough. “We know douchey shit sucks, but we’ve got a paper to publish.” o hat are you aiting for thegrape@oberlin.edu

f you re not a douche,

rite an article

end it to

Word of the Day: Pride React! (noun) Using the short-lived rainbow flag reaction on Facebook in reference to other moments in real life.

Friend Dammit, he tried to stic it in my ass ou snaps claps D A

Smile and Thumbs Up Immediately Disappear After Snapchat is Taken and Sent TAPPAN SQUARE, OBERLIN, OH – Emma Cahalee was caught in the act of posing for a phony Snapchat selfie by passers-by in Tappan Square. “I watched this person take out her phone with the glummest look on her face, open the Snapchat app with a face that suggested she was opening a message from Adolf or Satan himself,” passer-by Jack Mellion reported. “Then somehow, from clearly some untouched part of her being, Emma’s face drastically changed into a deep smile, even accompanied by a silly thumbs up.”

Emma was responding to a Snapchat of her home friend drunk out of her mind at a Michigan football game, with a caption that read “Hashasaha I’m so srunk.”

“No, of course I wasn’t actually amused. But I had to throw her a thumbs up and a ‘lmaooo I’m literally crying u go’ caption…. Because I’m a good friend,” Emma explained.

DECEMBER 1, 2017

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Horoscopes

FOR THE WEEKS OF Dec. 1-15, 2017

BY LAUREL KIRTZ LOCAL ASTROLOGIST So, what the hell is this MERCURY RETROGRADE anyways? Well, its when Mercury, geocentrically speaking, appears to go backwards in the sky. Astrology IS principally geocentric. For when it was invented many moons ago, we didn’t have astronomy to tell us what was ACTUALLY going on. Astrology is based on human perception, and the correlations we perceived in the world around us to the activity above. In fact, for the longest time, personal astrology (birth/starcharts) didn’t even exist. Astrology began as the study of the cosmic activity, which I like to call “astrological weather”, and how “the weather” would affect us all. Which brings me back to Mercury Retrograde. Now, all the planets go retrograde at some point, because all the planets are in a delightful dance around the sun, and thus the positions of the planets at times in relation

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to Earth create the illusion that a planet is going “backwards”. And during retrograde periods, the realms of life which a planet governs go into backwards mode.

SO WHY THE BIG DEAL ABOUT MERCURY? As opposed to any of the other planets. Well, simply stated, it’s because we’re superficial.

If humans were deep, loving, spiritual, psychic beings, we would probably feel the effects of Venus or Neptune retrograde more. But we neglect those aspects of ourselves, for we are TOO BUSY DOING STUFF. And being busy doing stuff is what Mercury rules, and thus Mercury rules OUR MODERN WORLD. Humans these days primarily focus on work and interacting with one another, and thus thinking, communicating, and being active in the world is essential. (And personally I think the reason emotions ever get “out

THE GRAPE

of control” or “in the way” is because we don’t respect emotions enough these days.) But yeah so Mercury rules clothes, slang, pop music, driving, the internet (along with Uranus which rules technology), phones, money (it’s a form of communication), travel, ideas, clarity, the intellect, chatting, mail, email... yadda yadda yadda. And when Mercury goes retrograde, all of those things are affected.

So during Mercury Retro might end up not finding the thing you wanna wear, putting in data incorrectly, miss the point completely, miss the deadline completely, be heard all wrong, think of a great idea which actually isn’t and go for it, never get thru on the phone, lose your phone, get in a weird accident, delays, on down the line. The key to handling it, is to just Go With The Flow.

BUT MERCURY RETRO IS GREAT FOR!!! Sorting thru stuff and getting rid of it, sorting and organizing, finishing a lingering project, getting around to anything you’ve been meaning to do, introspection, finalizing ideas, banging your ex, hanging out with old friends, visiting old haunts, wearing old fave clothes, and surprisingly, some things you think wouldn’t go well with this energy actually do, such as computer maintenance or talking to your boss about something that’s been on your mind.

So, now that I’ve given you the best explanation of Mercury Retrograde I could possibly give, here’s your horoscope, WITH A SPECIAL MERCURY RETRO SPIN IN MIND. Aries: Fun will finally kick up this month!

You still gotta be on your toes, and rolling with punches, but as long as you STAY COOL, the end of the month should be a blast. Wear gold.

Taurus: Things have been intense, but its moving forward, don’t worry. IT’S ALL GOOD. In fact, it’s karmic. You’re marching down a path that has been laid before you, A PATH LAID BY YOU. Yep. Just keep mulling over that one.

Gemini: Hunker down Gemini, for that is where thine’s heart is. You need not wander nor seek nor desire, for in the quiet of your mind, what you want you will find. So try quieting your mind.

Cancer: Hey there Cancer. When did you last visit the doctor, or gyno? Get that done. Speaking of health, why not buy a new sex toy? You deserve it. Or just take a nice bath and/or listen to self-help hypnosis apps.

Leo: Live and learn is what they say. Just when you thought you knew something, no, there was more to learn. Right now, I suggest learning more about YOU. Meditation, your ancestry, journaling, revive an old interest, visit your elementary school.

Virgo: Hi Virgo! Screw everyone else, you’re getting on top of your game. AND HEY, for once, you’re not being that hard on yourself. 2018 is gonna kick ass, so just keep your head in it, and you’re winning!

Libra: If you’re feeling a little sad about your love life, remember, RELATIONSHIPS ARE ABOUT LEARNING, not about being happy.

Happiness comes with the learning. And the 20th might be intense.

Scorpio: This would be GREAT time for past life regression. You might find a key to releasing some karma. If that’s too far out, then just resolve a fight or lingering tension with someone.

Sagittarius: HAP B SAG. The full moon in your sign on the 18th is gonna be heavy, kinda deep, but emotional exploration will be easy. And that kinda goes for the whole month, so, hurray!

Capricorn: Keep an open mind. Don’t get too possessive. Spend time with your favorite people. Give into ancient noise.

Take a chance a brand new dance.

Aquarius: It won’t be as hard for you to get your point across right now, and you’re feeling pretty at ease with the powerful aspects of yourself. So I say, go for it, ask for something you want.

Pisces: Healing efforts are reaping results, so I say do a health update of your abode. Clean the bathrub, throw out old food, get some health food, maybe a pet fish, crystals here and there, an air purifier, stuff that helps create a healthy environ. Then invite pals over.

Astrologer, creati e life coach, and user of popular oracle tools such as tarot cards and the i ching. ou may ha e seen the Loracle around town dressed as Lucy from harlie ro n pro iding ad ice for a mere cents. he is no at he rape, translating the hispers of angels into typed copy for your bene t. mail uestions for hich you see ad ice to he rape at thegrape@oberlin.edu ith sub ect line O A .

Potty Mouths

Kohl Third Floor

BY PLUSHTOY666 BAD HABITS WRITER ast ee on otty ouths, magnolia oc too us on an ad enture to the ni erse s hittiest lanet. his ee , lushtoy is bac ith a thrilling story of their in estigation of Oberlin s most mysterious bathroom.

Oberlin, OH—Did you know Slow Train is open at 3:00 in the morning?

I didn’t either, but that’s when my contact Cody Edgerly told me to meet him. He sent me an email saying he had important information about a bathroom on campus that I wouldn’t believe.

It turns out Slow Train is in fact closed at 3:00 in the morning, but when I got to the door I was jumped by four large men. They threw a bag over my head and punched me in the stomach, and then bickered amongst themselves as they dragged me somewhere by my feet. They referred to one another by first name, revealing to me that their names were Cody, Jesse, Jona and Jack.

When I came to, they ripped the bag off my head and I could see that they had brought me to the Kohl Skybar.

Giving no explanation as to the violent sequestering, Cody grabbed me by the hands and insisted I investigate the third floor bathroom.

“There’s something in there man…

It’s not right. It’s not natural.”

“What are you talking about?”

“It’s like a different universe or something. There’s a man that lives in there, and he calls himself the King. He demanded a tribute!”

I can’t stress enough how deranged Cody’s countenance appeared while he held me by the wrists on the closed rooftop bar. Drool was slipping from his lips, and his eyes were blood red.

It looked like he hadn’t slept in days, perhaps weeks. Jesse, Jona and Jack were walking in rough circles, staying nearby but clearly uncomfortable with the setting. I shouted over Cody’s shoulder to them, asking, “did you guys see this?”

Jesse stopped moving, looked me dead in the eye, and came closer. “I seen it alright. I seen… it. I seen something.

I seen something I never saw before.

Something I never thought I’d saw.

Something. I seen it.”

He started breathing really heavily and joined the others tracing circles. I turned to Cody and said, “let me go. I’ll check it out.”

He stood up, took his hands off of me, and walked to the door — inexplicably unlocked — and opened it, ushering me in. As soon as I stepped through the doorway he closed it behind me.

He looked long and hard at me before turning away.

In the first episode of The Walking Dead, Rick Sanchez wakes up from a coma in an abandoned hospital after a zombie apocalypse. That’s how I felt walking through the halls of the third floor of Kohl at 3:30 in the morning, amongst the flickering lights, clean white corners, and mysterious atmospheric groans.

I reached the bathroom door. The metal handle was strangely warm and damp. The door was weirdly heavy, and I set my feet to really push. It finally gave and I lurched through, almost losing my footing, only for it to swing shut behind me with a dull click. For a moment, I was in complete darkness. Then, a dim light appeared in the distance.

Looking back at this moment, I ask

myself why I didn’t think it was strange that there was a light so far away, in a bathroom I understood to be no larger than one hundred square feet inside of a building that I knew was smaller than the space outstretched before me. I didn’t question it, however, but merely stumbled forward, content knowing that all around me was dark but I was moving towards the light.

After a journey outside of time, I came upon the source of the light, two torches burning on either side of an ornate iron door. This one opened before me without so much as a touch, and I entered the chamber, immediately accosted by the foul smell. On either side of me were people dressed in what looked like brown plate armor, holding pikes and shields emblazoned with the following sigil: A brown liquid burbled from petrified cherubs’ puckered lips, falling prettily into the fountains below with a splash. I approached the front of the room, where sat a man wearing no clothes, though upon further examination I saw he was completely covered in a thin layer of shit from his collarbone to his toes. Another man appeared from behind a pillar and said “Kneel, ye, before the Poop King!”

I took a knee.

“Rise,” ordered the King.

I did so and then then I asked, “What can I do for you, sire?”

He stood up and began to pace. “Long have been the years since the first shit was had in Oberlin, and since that first day I have been King of these lands.

Yours is a realm of flowers, sunshine and rain, your feces passed into toilets and washed away so you don’t have to see it, smell it, touch it or taste it. I do all of

these things, for mine is a realm of Shit!

Shit is really all I’ve got!

“When the Kohl building was constructed in 2008, an usurper rose within my kingdom and trapped me in here. Once all the shit of Oberlin was my kingdom, but now I subside from merely the shit in this building! It’s not enough.

I need more. You’re a poop journalist, right? Tell your readers to come here, so I can subside on their poop!

“Our treasury is shrinking fast. Soon it will be too small to pay our debts, and then we are all dead, for the dreaded Poor Emperor’s soldiers have no concept of mercy. If it gets much lower, we will have our revenge on your world! The poop we have stored is very little for us, but it will be great and terrible to you all when I cast it upon you!

“Now go, unless you have an offering for your King!”

I quickly dropped my pants and took a shit before the King, and then left the way I came. Cody and his friends were gone. It was beginning to rain. I walked home, and decided the best way to tell this story was to tell the whole, complete truth.

You heard it here first. I believe the Poop King. Go shit in the Kohl bathrooms so that he doesn’t cover us all in a brown rain of suffering! lushtoy is a blogger, poet, and freelance ournalist, and they re super interested in your feedbac ontact them ith any uestions, comments or bathrooms you d li e to see re ie ed. hey can be reached at plushtoy @ gmail.com.

COMIC BY TOM MORRISON

DECEMBER 1, 2017

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Evacuate the Dance Floor

I Just Tooted and It Was a Stanky One

BY ISABELLE KENET BAD HABITS WRITER Last night, as I was dancing the night away at The Feve, an anonymous individual — I may never know their name — decided it was an appropriate context in which to rip major ass. I couldn’t tell you if it was silent, but it was definitely deadly. Although I would have loved to move to a different area of the room that wasn’t contaminated with vaporized booty juice, I couldn’t get both my friends with whom I was dancing and my face-suck partner (A D my ex who was staring at me from across the room) ALL to exit the stank-zone, so I just dealt with it until it dissipated. Now that I think about it, it could have been anyone that I just mentioned, considering that the smell lingered around my face for what seemed like a really long time. But as I said, I will literally never know.

But who could blame the poor gas bag?

In some ways, parties are a great place to fart. Even if your fart is really noisy, it’s usually loud enough that no one will hear it. Even if the smell might make the carbon

monoxide alarms start beeping, it could have been anyone, so you never have to worry. And if some self-righteous, tightbuttholed shitlord tries to tell me they have never farted at a party SPECIFICALLY for these e act reasons, they might as well light their sulphurous pants on fire and let them explode into a mushroom cloud that will demolish the Earth, because they are a LIAR. So let’s just be real and acknowledge it. We’re all adults here.

Here’s what I’d like you do to. Wherever you are — th floor of Mudd, Dave’s Cosmic Subs, maybe even on the toilet — go ahead and say it with me now: I FART AT PARTIES. Now say it louder. I FART AT PARTIES. One more time with feeling.

I FART AT PARTIES!!!!!!!!!! Scream it at the top of your lungs until someone tells you to shut up, or approaches you in tears and kneels at your feet saying, “Me too, friend. Me too.”

I FART AT PARTIES! What a relief. Now that we have that out of the way, it’s time to establish some etiquette for tootin’ on the dance floor. Here are some basic ground rules, compiled by me and some people I interviewed, who, for some reason, wanted to remain anonymous.

IF YOU ARE THE FARTER: -Do a spin to move the air around -Go back to back (a.k.a. butt to butt) with someone so that the fart transfers to their butt area and then you are no longer to blame -If you are at some place with ass-level windows like The Feve or Above Subway then go stick your butt out the window. Remember to wait a few seconds so you don’t drag it back inside -Run to your enemy and fart near them so people suspect them -Run to your enemy and fart near them and say HA HA I FARTED ON

YOU SUCKER -Fart into your backpack or a paper bag and close it very quickly and only open it when you are safely outside -Take one for the team by bending down and sucking your fart into your own mouth so no one else has to smell it. You could even keep a plastic straw in your pocket for extra convenience!

IF SOMEONE FARTED NEAR YOU: -Scream “I WANT TO KNOW WHO THE FUCK JUST FARTED.” And then smash a liquor bottle on the side of a table and threaten suspects with it.

-Scream “JACK ROCKWELL FARTED,” even if he’s not in the room -Politely walk away -Stay where you are and deal with it -Stay where you are and enjoy it by taking extra-deep breaths and tonguing the air so you can get a taste. You can even use your pocket straw.

On The Issues:

Mr. Turner and Dinkleberg

BY SAM SCHUMAN BAD HABITS EDITOR Recently, the Grape decided to host our own academic guest panel. Our esteemed invitees included Third Eye Blind frontman Stephan Jenkins, M*A*S*H star Alan Alda and Flavortown founder and mayor Guy Fieri.

Unfortunately, all three turned down our request, so we subsequently reached out to Mr. Turner and his neighbor Sheldon Dinkleberg, actors noted for playing themselves on Nickelodeon’s long-running live-action sitcom Fairly OddParents. Here are their nuanced takes on a variety of current issues: What do you make of last year’s presidential election?

Dinkleberg: Well, I think that given the demographic makeup of— T: [grumbles inaudibly] Turner: [cutting off Dinkleberg] —Dinkleberg is the reason Trump won. Him and his kind. [Mr. Turner outlines a Star of David in the air and then turns to Dinkleberg and does that fucking stupid thing where you make a circle with your fingers below your waist and try to get someone to look at it] D: John, I’m not doing this again. For the last time, I’m not Jewish and I’m not looking at your fucking hand.

What’s your view of the current situation with North Korea?

D: Look, let’s be realistic. Kim Jong Un is— T: —It’s pretty clear to me at this point that North Korea is a puppet state run by Dinkleberg. That’s why they all have a copy of the Torah in every room!

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THE GRAPE

D: OK, at this point John I’m going to have to draw the line.

T: [turns to Dinkleberg and exposes to him his very large, very brown anus].

Do you have any thoughts on the debate sparked by NFL players kneeling during the national anthem?

D: It’s really a simple matter of freedom of— T: —If it were up to Dinkleberg, football players wouldn’t even have legs! [Mr. Turner takes a football from inside his jacket and aims it directly at Dinkleberg’s ample penis before being overcome by the overwhelming phallic beauty of it all. He sits back down].

SEX AND THE OC

BY ISABEL KLEIN BAD HABITS EDITOR A column that dissects uestions about hoo up culture for each issue. mail the riter ith your uestions or stories or hat the fuc , dude moments and e ll tal about it together, ery publicly.

In seven-and-a-half weeks, I’m being shipped off to the Middle East for the spring semester. I have just two weeks – three weekends – left in Oberlin before I’m separated from my friends for six falafel-filled months. A lot can happen in three weekends. The only question is what–or rather, who— do I want to do during them?

I woke up on Tuesday morning with the most intense feeling of both nihilism and “yolo” I’ve probably ever felt.

My two-week social life deadline hit harder than it ever has before–the kind of hard that my schoolwork deadline should probably have hit me instead. It was this morning that I realized that literally nothing I do in these two weeks at Oberlin matters. As long as I don’t shave my head, get a tattoo, or get myself pregnant, I can’t screw up my life too badly. Every rule or boundary I’ve ever set for myself flew out of my th floor Firelands penthouse window.

So, what did I do? I hit up all these random people – some of whom I thought I’d never talk to again. I considered trying anal and switching my hair part. For some reason, I followed every boy I’ve ever had a crush on in high school on Instagram? I texted a bunch of acquaintances asking to hang out. Since my Tuesday revelation, I’ve been extra blunt with people in class and I won’t even wait in the DeCafe smoothie line anymore. There just simply isn’t any time. I’m assuming this sensation is like what the seniors will feel in a few months.

In short, I feel very confused. I won’t say I don’t feel compelled to go to every party in booty shorts and drink every new drink in DeCafe and try all the drugs sold by a nerd in Hark. I must be causing a raucous either on my gut flora balance with a new flavor of kombucha or on my vagina with a new STD. However, this is a big job for one girl.

And, as someone who has written a sex column for the last 8 weeks, one part of me is convinced that I would be stupid to not gather the incredible content that would come from hooking up with all the seniors -- I will probably never see them again and this is the last time I will be in college with older boys :’( Even though I want to be mischievous, my pre-sex columnist self – one who had no front teeth from 1st grade to 5th grade because the teeth couldn’t break through my “tough gums,” and also wore perpetually askew glasses —is telling me a different story. This girl is telling me to forget the good old D and to just lock all my friends in one room and pet their sweet, soft faces all day since I am going to miss them

so much. Every morning in Oberlin, within three seconds of opening my crusty eyeballs, I check Find My Friends to see which coffee shop my friends are at that morning so I can meet them, or rather, which foreign street their location “dot” is at, so I can try to figure out who they slept with the night before. Will my janky Israeli phone be able to handle the obscenely large number of banal texts I get and send every day as my friends and I share some niche observation about an irrelevant person with each other?

It’s not that I’m obsessed with Oberlin – God no. It’s just that it took me until my fifth semester for me to have friends whom I adore and for me to not think about how fun it would be to go to NYU all the time.

Which is why this is going to be my last installment of “Sex and the OC” for this semester. Instead of focusing on contracting STDs or having mediocre sex with mediocre seniors and then writing about it, my no-front-teeth-loseralter-ego is going to make all my friends sit in my room so I can play with them. We are going to eat entire sleeves of Ritz crackers and watch “Curb Your Enthusiasm.” I am going to do my homework very diligently in a cubicle and not just sit typing somewhere very publicly so I can see and be seen. I would say that I will try out not wearing mascara, but that will literally never happen. My friends and I will go to Solarity but we will dance in a circle together and wear turtlenecks and industrial strength cargo pants and no one is allowed to touch us except each other. Of course, I haven’t told any of them about this, but they must agree.

But okay my dudes, I do figure that with all this wholesome friend-love-joy I may still have an hour or two free here and there for some shenanigans. Who are we kidding?

Feel free to hit me up, but I may have to catch ya after I eat a loaf of bread with my friends in Pyle at 1 am or we cry about “Lady Bird” on the Sco Ramp. I will still show up at your door, bloated with gluten, tear-stained post Greta Gerwig inspired cry session, snapchatting my friends during the whole the walk of shame. I’ll be there on one condition: You’ll just have to get the job done before Saturday morning friend Feve brunch. sabel ust found out that the hole Grape sta thin s she is a closeted ionist. mail her at i lein@oberlin.edu for her sraeli phone number. Or ust te t her at if you anna ma e her t o ee deadline.

DECEMBER 1, 2017

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