Febrary 23, 2018

The Oberlin Review February 23, 2018

established 1874

Volume 146, Number 15

“God the Mother” Followers Aim to Proselytize Students Andrea Wang

Tuesday’s City Council meeting, where more than 60 students and community members stood chanting to protest the city’s vote to settle with NEXUS over the incoming pipeline.

Photo by Bryan Rubin, Photo Editor

Council Votes to Settle with NEXUS Sydney Allen News Editor Tess Joosse Staff Writer “They’re breaking our laws, they’re taking our rights, but we won’t give up without a fight,” chanted the more than 60 Oberlin students and community members who protested during Tuesday’s City Council meeting.

Councilmembers voted 4–3 to move forward with a potential $100,000 settlement with Enbridge, the company set to build the NEXUS pipeline.

After nearly an hour of public comments asking Council to oppose the agreement, the ordinance authorizing the city manager to execute the settlement agreement with Enbridge will now move to a third reading. A majority vote on the third reading would pass the ordinance.

Councilmembers Linda Slocum, Heather Adelman, and Sharon Pearson were the three dissenting votes in the second reading of the settlement agreement. Both Adelman and Slocum voted against the agreement in the first reading at the Council’s Feb. 5 meeting.

Pearson, who was out of town Feb. 5, did not vote on the first reading and addressed the public to explain her vote.

“I never thought that we would be at this point,” Pearson said, adding that the settlement “feels just kind of dirty, and it’s something that I am not willing or ready to be able to accept.”

In exchange for the payment, the settlement dictates that the city cannot engage in any further litigation intended to interfere with construction of the pipeline and grants full easement rights to NEXUS. A grant of easement would give NEXUS the legal rights to build the pipeline on city-owned land. NEXUS has proposed construction of a natural gas pipeline through a 50-foot section of land in the southernmost part of Oberlin. The city of Oberlin has engaged in litigation opposing this construction since December 2015.

The city of Green, Ohio, another city fighting the pipeline, recently settled with Enbridge for $7.5 million.

Council President Bryan Burgess, who has been particulalry active in the fight against NEXUS, said he has a responsibility to settle, for the good of the community.

“We could do a lot with $100,000; …

I think it’s a position of privilege to say we don’t care about the money — it’s only about the principle,” Burgess said.

“I have to look out for the welfare of the entire community.”

A number of students and community members were allowed to speak at the meeting, including College first-year Gayla Wolcott, who responded directly to Burgess’s comment.

“I am not ashamed of the word principle because when you have privilege, you use it to take responsibility for your actions and you use it to take responsibility for the

greed of other people who care more about pipelines than about humans,” she said. “So stand up for our future because we’re all really angry.”

Oberlin’s Community Bill of Rights and Obligations, is often invoked by legislators and citizens alike as a reason to oppose the pipeline’s construction.

The ordinance was voted on by citizens and passed in 2013 to affirm the authority of the people of Oberlin to govern their own community in relation to the oil and gas industry.

“The voters wanted the city to adopt a law saying that they wouldn’t allow any … fossil fuel infrastructure in the city,” said College junior Cecilia Wallace. “So City Council taking a settlement is a really clear statement saying that they don’t take the laws that they passed very seriously.”

At Tuesday’s Council meeting, many Oberlin residents and students referenced the Community Bill of Rights in their comments. Others spoke about Oberlin’s history of progressivism and position within a greater movement against the fossil fuel industry. Many attendees held signs in protest, with phrases like “Be brave,” “We’re better than this,” and “Fascism sucks.”

When roll was about to be called for the vote, members of the public, including members of the College organization Students for Energy Justice, stood and began chanting, “City Council, stand with us, defend CBR, no NEXUS.”

In recent weeks, dozens of Oberlin students have been stopped on campus by religious proselytizers claiming to be theology students in order to engage them in conversation about “God the Mother.”

These missionaries are affiliated with a group called the World Mission Society Church of God, a fringe sect of Christianity that has been falsely rumored to have ties with human trafficking — often referred to as a cult by former members.

Safety and Security is aware of the visitors and has encouraged all students to notify officers if they encounter the missionaries, as they are unauthorized to be on campus.

“Anybody who wants to talk to students needs to be sponsored,” Campus Security Officer Tyrone Wicks said. “If they’re not sponsored by a student organization or a college-authorized organization, then they’re asked to leave campus.”

Wicks added that due to the repeated nature of the unauthorized visits, the visitors are considered trespassers.

“The first time, you can say, well that’s an accident, even though we know that’s probably not true, as a matter of policy as far as courts are concerned,” he said. “The first time you can tell them, OK — don’t come back here. And then the second time we can take stronger measures to make sure they don’t come back here. That might involve getting assistance from law enforcement, for example.”

WMS missionaries approached College junior Joanna Quinn on the second floor of Mudd library, introducing themselves as theology students doing a school project.

They asked for a couple minutes of her time and led her through a picture book of illustrations of biblical scenes.

“At first I was kind of intrigued, because they were picking out parts of the Bible that made God sound very pluralistic, that God could be a he, or also a she,” Quinn said.

“They asked, ‘Have you ever heard of God the Mother?’”

From there, the tone of the conversation escalated quickly.

“She turned the page and asked, ‘When our souls come to be judged, do you want to be saved forever, or go to hell eternally?’”

Quinn said, adding that she then became more suspicious about their motives. “It seemed like the story didn’t match up. They later told me they were part of a youth group.”

The missionaries, two collegeage women, said the group met “near Cleveland” but did not specify where and did not provide any informational materials, according to students they interacted with.

No information could be found online about see World, page 2

CONTENTS NEWS

OPINIONS

THIS WEEK

ARTS & CULTURE

SPORTS

02 New Class of Members Elected to Student Senate 03 Exhibit Highlights Japanese Internment

05 Editorial: Americans Must Resist Russian Influence 06 Gender-Neutral Bathrooms Mark Key Step Forward

08-09 The Game of Science

10 MRC Speaker Series Features dapperQ Founder

14 James, Athletes Have Right to Discuss Political Issues

11 Oberlin’s Live Show “Good Talk” Leaves Audience in Stitches

16 Yeowomen Top Big Red, Advance to NCAC Semis

The Oberlin Review | February 23, 2018

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New Class of Members Elected to Student Senate What do you hope to do in your term?

I hope to work with Senate to find creative solutions to many of the pressing issues facing Oberlin, including the College’s financial situation, the studentathlete divide, the accessibility of Oberlin Student Cooperative Association, Oberlin Disability Services, and how to properly utilize campus spaces.

This semester’s new Student Senators: College sophomore Johan Cavert, College junior Priyanka Sen, College first-year Brittany Mendez, double-degree first-year Patrick Powers, and College first-year Eddy Tumbokon.

Photo courtesy of Sydney Allen

Roman Broszkowski News Editor As five new student senators begin their terms, the Review reached out to learn a little more about them. Although the new legislative class is dominated by first-years from the College, it also includes sophomore and junior representatives, as well as a new senator from the Conservatory.

Johan Cavert, College sophomore Why did you run?

I was inspired by Senate’s recent initiatives and hoped to assist their trajectory toward becoming a respected body that effectively communicates student desires and needs while collaborating with the administration and the Board of Trustees to overcome the College’s challenges.

Priyanka Sen, College junior Why did you run?

I ran because I’m passionate about certain things in Oberlin, particularly about issues related to international students on campus. International students are a small but dedicated and closely-knit group, and our experiences can sometimes be very different from those of our American peers; I ran because I wanted to help represent this community and also work on facilitating conversations and formulating policies to improve international student life at Oberlin.

What do you hope to do in your term?

Change the world, change the culture. Realistically though,

at least in my first semester, I hope to start discussions about designing and implementing better institutional support systems for international students, especially in the areas of career readiness and applied learning. Also, as a former Residential Assistant for program housing, I’m excited to see peers and fellow Senators work on improving accessibility in residence halls, social spaces, etc. I’m constantly inspired by these efforts and will certainly do my best during my time as Senator to help them reach their goals.

What would you like the larger student body to know about you?

I am a third-year English and Politics major from Kolkata, India. I am also a Bonner Scholar and an Oberlin College research fellow. I am a huge fan of seasoning, public transport, red pandas, and the Japanese figure skater Hanyu Yuzuru. I’m also almost always the shortest person in my friend group.

I’m generally a nice and funny person to talk to — feel free to stop me on the street and say hi.

Brittany Mendez, College firstyear Why did you run?

I ran in hopes of making every day life for Oberlin students fundamentally better. There are a lot of little things that I think students complain about and can be fixed. Although some issues are bigger and will take more time to solve, there are some immediate ones that can be taken care of.

What do you hope to do in your term?

I want to help close the divide between athletes and non-athletes by uniting North and South campus. I believe that hosting stereotypically “Obie” events on North campus and vice-versa could help solve this problem.

What would you like the larger student body to know about you? Introduce yourself!

I am a first-year student from Washington, D.C. hoping to major in Law and Society and Philosophy. I am an editor and writer for The Oberlin Review, a member of the women’s varsity soccer and track and field teams, a host for prospective students, See Student, page 3

World Mission Society Members Appear on Campus Continued from page 1

the group to verify the women’s story. The women requested Quinn’s phone number and encouraged her to attend a meeting.

When she offered her email instead, the women insisted on a number.

In most incidents, according to students approached by the missionaries, one or two individuals first introduced themselves as students doing a project.

Students reported that they were asked to read from scripture and if they knew about God the Mother.

Wicks said students often forget safety concerns given the intimacy of the College campus.

“I think the most important thing that we tell students every day is that the residence halls are your private space,” Wicks said. “But frequently we’ll find the doors propped open, or students will hold the door open for someone that walks up behind them, and that person may or may not be a student. If it’s important enough for you to be concerned about, it’s important enough for you to call us.

You’re not wasting our time by asking us to investigate things that seem strange.”

Reports indicate that the group is becoming increasingly active on college campuses across the country, strongly trying to recruit students. Former members have described the group as a “doomsday

cult” which uses “psychological control tactics” on its members, according to a report from People Magazine.

In the last two weeks, individuals have been approached by WMS members all over Oberlin’s campus, in places like Wilder Bowl, outside of dorms, by offcampus housing, and even at a Robertson Hall practice room.

College first-year Ella Mosher was approached by a WMS member around noon last week in a hallway in the Science Center. Mosher described the member as a 30-year-old who introduced herself as a theology student.

“She pulled out her Bible and had me read a verse about the Holy Mother and how it related to God, Jesus, and the Holy Ghost,” Mosher said. “When I said I had to go, she asked for one more minute, and kept on trying to flip to new pages and have me read new verses. Later I found out a similar thing happened to my roommate.”

Mosher’s roommate had been using a practice room in Robertson around 11:45 a.m. when an older man and a woman knocked on the door and asked if they could ask her a few questions.

The WMS Church of God was founded in 1964 by Ahn Sahng-Hong. Ahn, now deceased, was believed to be the Second Coming of Christ by followers. WMSCOG followers believe in a Mother God in addition to the traditional Holy Trinity

The Oberlin R eview February 23, 2018 Volume 146, Number 15 (ISSN 297–256) Published by the students of Oberlin College every Friday during the fall and spring semesters, except holidays and examination periods. Advertising rates: $18 per column inch.

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Editors-in-Chief

Melissa Harris Christian Bolles Managing Editor Daniel Markus News Editors Sydney Allen

Roman Broszkowski Opinions Editors Jackie Brant

El Wilson This Week Editor Lucy Martin Arts Editors Julia Peterson

Ananya Gupta Sports Editors Alex McNicoll

Alexis Dill Layout Editors Hannah Robinson

Parker Shatkin Elena Hartley Photo Editors Bryan Rubin Hugh Newcomb Business Manager Monique Newton Ads Manager Madison Kimball

of Christian doctrine, and they claim that God the Mother and God the Father have a spousal relationship. The church is currently led by Zahng Gil-jah, a woman in her 70s deified by her followers as “God the Mother” or “Heavenly Mother.” WMS has approximately 2.7 million members in 150 countries worldwide and has received multiple accolades for its community service initiatives. WMS has obtained a religious tax exemption from the Internal Revenue Service through supposedly fraudulent means and subsists through donations from its members.

Numerous posts warning college students to be wary of the group have been widely circulated on social media.

Many people claim the group is associated with a human trafficking scheme, likely because of their aggressive recruiting practices on university campuses around the U.S. and tendency to target women.

In January 2018 alone, Boston College, Vanderbilt University, and the University of Mississippi all reported WMS presence on campus. Over 70 percent of the group’s followers are women.

According to WKYT-TV of Lexington, KY, the rumors that the group is linked to human trafficking activity are unsubstantiated. Officer Jervis Middleton from the Lexington Police Department said that they, “have investigated the rumors and have found nothing to

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Yonce Hitt Krisen Mayhew Leo Hochberg

substantiate their potential involvement in any criminal activity.” The police departments of Kent, Ohio, and of Oxford, MS, released similar statements.

Although the human trafficking allegations may be baseless, many former members of the WMS have attested to their cult-like practices. In March 2014, former WMS member Michele Ramirez filed a lawsuit against the Church, citing emotional distress and financial ruin caused by the church’s deceptive practices.

Ramirez explained that members were expected to recruit new members, or “bear fruit” — an experience she found “humiliating and degrading.” She described a vicious cycle in which the more degraded she felt, the more she required support from the church. Ramirez also claimed the group misrepresented its teachings from the outset, coerced her to donate large sums of money, and used guilt and manipulation tactics to isolate her from friends and family members.

Ramirez’s account has been corroborated by many former WMS members.

The group has been denounced by the Christian Council of Korea, a representative organization of Korean Christianity, as “heretical,” and the U.S. Cult Education Institute, based in New Jersey, actively tracks the group.

Corrections: “Oberlin Black Student Excellence” (Feb. 16, 2018) improperly attributed planning of Black History Month programming to ABUSUA. The Black History Month Committee, not ABUSUA, is primarily responsible for leading programming during Black History Month.

A sentence in “City Must Improve Traffic Safety” (Feb. 16, 2018) left local law about bicycle riding ambiguous. It is illegal to ride bicycles on city sidewalks, and to comply with city law, cyclists should ride in the roadway.

In “Professor Brian Doan Passes Away at 44,” (Feb. 16, 2018), Brian Doan’s wife was incorrectly named as Visiting Professor of Rhetoric and Composition Susan Guidry. Her name is actually Denise Guidry; Susan Doan is Brian Doan’s mother.

Exhibit Highlights Japanese Internment Injustice Security Notebook

Professor Renee Romano discusses the nationally-touring exhibit “Courage and Compassion” with sophomores Justin Godfrey and Abe Kuhn.

Photo by Hugh Newcomb, Photo Editor

Simon Idelson

“Courage and Compassion,” a historical exhibit that details national and local histories of Japanese Americans during World War II, opened at the Richard D. Baron ’64 Art Gallery last Saturday. Related lectures, film screenings, and concerts will run throughout the month, recounting the work of the local activists concerning Japanese-American incarceration during WWII. The Go For Broke National Education Center — a Los Angeles-based nonprofit founded by JapaneseAmerican veterans in the 1980s — is sponsoring the exhibit.

“We were fortunate enough to get a grant from the National Parks Service and the Japanese Confinement Project to fund a traveling exhibit to ten different cities in the U.S.,” said Dr. Mitch Maki, the director and CEO of the GFBNEC. “Not only telling the generic story, but also allowing the local communities to tell their stories about how individuals — in this case at and around

Oberlin and Oberlin College — stood up and showed courage and compassion in a time of crisis.”

Maki added that during WWII, Japanese Americans participated in the American war effort.

“We tell the story of what happened during WWII when [Japanese Americans] were incarcerated. This is not just a great Japanese-American story; it’s a great American story.

These young men were doubted by their nation but say ‘we are Americans’ and prove it on the battlefield while their parents were behind barbed wire,” Maki said.

History Professors and Exhibit Directors Renee Romano and Shelley Lee are teaching a first-module course on memorializing and commemorating the history of JapaneseAmerican incarceration. “[The students] are serving as the docents at the exhibit and field-trip facilitators for local secondary and grade school students,” said Romano.

The College and city accepted Japanese-American students when they were forced to leave their colleges

and universities on the West Coast and were sent to internment camps.

“From the perspective of professors and the College, it is a fabulously interesting story, and not that it hasn’t been talked about at all, but it’s not as well known as Oberlin’s history of anti-slavery activism,” Romano added.

The exhibit features a wide variety of archival materials and artifacts, including photographs, projections, application essays of JapaneseAmericans students to the College, and copies of speeches by JapaneseAmerican Oberlin students.

“President Wilkins [of Oberlin College 1927–1946] welcomed Japanese-American students when they were not allowed to attend other schools like UC Berkeley or UCLA, and students welcomed them, eventually electing Kenji Okuda, OC ’45, to serve on the student council,” Maki said. “Students even pooled their money for a barbershop to cut nonwhite hair, and it was run by a Japanese-American barber. Today that sounds pretty cool, but in 1943, it was unheard of.”

Oberlin community members, alumni, and current Oberlin students played a vital role researching for the exhibit.

“I got involved my first year, and people weren’t really sure the exhibit was actually going to happen, but it did,” said College junior and participating student Mackenzie Lew. “It was really cool to see it get funded and come to Oberlin. I’m pretty sure one of the documents I found in the archives in Mudd upstairs is in the exhibit.”

When the exhibit was confirmed, Asian-American alumni contributed their stories. “At every step, the response has been above and beyond our expectations,” Romano said. “One of the moments where we were just blown away was with an alum named See Courage, page 4

Student Senate Welcomes New Class Continued from page 2

and I live in program housing [Afrikan Heritage House]. I am excited to serve the Oberlin student body and make the most of our time here.

Patrick Powers, Double-degree firstyear Why did you run?

I ran for Student Senate in order to represent first-year and Conservatory students. Over the course of my first semester here, I saw a lot of things that either don’t work or could work better, and I wanted to do my part to improve the overall quality of this institution.

What do you hope to do in your term?

One of my primary interests is the PAL program. I think that there is a lot of room for that program to grow, and I’d like to see it develop into not just a general orientation tool but a way to help get students with specific orientation needs — double-degree and international students, to name a few.

It’s a fantastic concept, but it can be much more than it was this year.

What would you like the larger student body to know about you?

Outside of Senate you can find me around the Conservatory, in Philips gym, at The Local spending every dollar I’ve ever earned on bagels, or

The Oberlin Review | February 23, 2018

in Azariah’s pretending to work on homework. I will have office hours on Monday from 9 to 10 p.m. in the Conservatory lounge, and at the same time on Thursdays in Azariah’s, so come say hi. I feel like I do the best work when I have face-to-face conversations with individual people, so I would really love for any and all of you to stop by.

Eddy Tumbokon College first-year Why did you run?

I ran purely due to the premise that I believed that first-year students needed to be represented especially in light of and in anticipation of policy changes that will most affect student life for the Class of 2021 and beyond.

What do you hope to do in your term?

There are a lot of items on my list I want to tackle, and I’m still deciding which items I can take on in the short term (within this semester) and which items require more time and concerted effort. Currently, I’m definitely looking at three primary things: One, as Senate’s new Communications Director, I want to continue the good work previous Communication Directors such as Meg Parker and Hanne Williams-Baron have done and explore how to take this position to new heights — maybe

even get the ball rolling on a more accessible website; Two, taking active steps on how to improve student life for first-generation and low-income identifying students — especially for first-years — to improve retention and morale; Three, continue a collaborative dialogue between Senate and Oberlin’s senior staff as we collectively transition to a period where a lot of tough, budgetcrunching decisions will be made.

What do you see as the most pressing problem at Oberlin?

I think this question is incredibly difficult to answer because it’s asking me to judge which harm or violence deserves the respect of attention above anything else, and who am I to determine that? However, if I were to answer this question, I think a problem that needs to be addressed these next couple months is figuring out what short-term solutions the institution can enact that will help remedy our financial struggles but maintain the best interest of faculty, students, and the community at large.

What would you like the larger student body to know about you?

I’m a Sagittarius with a Pisces Moon and Rising, and the last three songs I listened to were “Before He Cheats” by Carrie Underwood, and “Dynamite” by Taio Cruz, and “Visions of Gideon” by Sufjan Stevens.

Thursday, Feb. 15, 2018 12:21 p.m. Safety and Security officers, and members of the Oberlin Police Department assisted an unresponsive individual on the second floor of Philips gym. The individual was transported by ambulance to Mercy Allen Hospital for treatment.

Friday, Feb. 16, 2018 4:54 p.m. Officers assisted a student who cut their thumb at Tank Hall. The student was transported to Mercy Allen Hospital for treatment.

Saturday, Feb. 17, 2018 3:38 a.m. Officers responded to a complaint of water leaking in a first-floor Firelands apartment. Upon arrival, water was found in the first-floor lobby with fallen ceiling tiles. Water also leaked into a second floor hallway and apartment. The water came from an apartment on the third floor, which was shut off. The Facilities manager on call was notified. Crews were contacted for cleanup and the residents of the affected rooms were relocated.

Sunday, Feb. 18, 2018 1:18 p.m. A student at a College Street Village Housing Unit reported that a portion of the ceiling had collapsed. Maintenance technicians responded and determined a leak in a toilet water inlet had damaged the ceiling.

The leak was repaired.

11:09 p.m. A student reported their vehicle was broken into sometime between 10:50 p.m. and 11 p.m. while parked in the Wilder Hall lot. The vehicle was rummaged through and a pair of black JBL headphones were taken from a backpack. The student said the vehicle was locked.

Monday, Feb. 19, 2018 1:03 p.m. A student reported an older male with long gray hair stealing bicycles between Kahn Hall and Stevenson Dining Hall. Officers responded and the individual, who was not a student, was located near Asia House. The Oberlin Police Department was contacted, and the individual was taken into custody.

1:35 p.m. Staff members reported four high school juveniles being loud at the Kohl Building. When asked to leave the building, the juveniles were disrespectful. Officers responded and checked the interior and exterior of the building, but the individuals could not be located.

Tuesday, Feb. 20, 2018 8:20 a.m. Grounds staff reported vandalism at the koi pond at the Conservatory. An ornamental stone was pushed into the pool.

There were also branches, broken off a pine tree, that were thrown in the pool. There are no suspects.

9:45 a.m. Grounds staff reported vandalism near Baldwin Cottage. A UPS sticker with non-offensive letters written on it in black was on the dumpster near the handicap ramp.

There are no suspects.

1:47 p.m. Residential Life staff reported finding a glass pipe, containing a substance consistent with marijuana residue, in a room in Tank Hall. The item was confiscated and turned over to the Oberlin Police Department.

6:44 p.m. A student reported their backpack missing from Mudd library. The backpack was found by Mudd staff on the third floor. A wallet, containing credit cards and miscellaneous items, was missing from the backpack. The theft is under investigation.

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“Courage and Compassion” Exhibit Opens in Oberlin Continued from page 3

Clyde Owan, [OC ’79]. When we contacted him, he said ‘I’m gonna contact other alums,’ and we got immediate offers: ‘I have my granddad’s diary, I have this, I have that.’ We were just amazed.”

In addition to the exhibit at the gallery, there are various events in the next month, which are all free and open to students and the public.

One such event is a performance and lecture from San Jose Taiko in Finney Chapel at 7:30 p.m. tomorrow.

“I’m really excited,” Lew said. “Taiko moved into the mainstream because of third-generation Japanese Americans whose parents were interned. It was used as a way to reclaim that cultural pride, and it was only through their work and connection to incarceration that it became so popular.”

93-year-old Alice Takemoto, OC ’47, will also return to campus to give a concert March 7. Takomoto graduated from the high school at the Drome incarceration camp and entered the Oberlin Conservatory to study piano when she was 16 years old.

Maki said that “Courage and Compassion” tells an important story of American people throughout their challenges in the war and how those challenges continue today.

“The United States government went across the nation collecting testimony,” Maki said. “They came out with their findings and said the internment was wrong, and attributed to wartime hysteria, racial prejudice, and failure of political leadership. These three terms apply today. We are at war with terrorism, prejudice still exists, and Congress has trouble doing anything not along party lines. We need to go beyond this, working together for the greater good.”

Romano added that the exhibit is relevant in the face of political issues like immigration and refugee policy.

“What’s inspiring is that there are people in every historical era who stand up for what they believe to be right, and refuse to simply accept stories that are based on no evidence and that are just fear mongering, that are based in racial prejudice, and say that this cannot stand,” she said.

The “Courage and Compassion” exhibit is open Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Sundays from noon to 5 p.m.

The exhibit and the events to follow are free and open to both students and the public. “Courage and Compassion” is also visiting Honolulu; Chicago; Albuquerque, NM; Kingsburg, CA; Minneapolis; Rochester, MN; Monterey, CA; Peoria, IL; and Salem, OR, on its tour.

OFF THE CUFF

Sara Hlupekile Longwe, Feminist Activist Sara Hlupekile Longwe is an internationally renowned feminist activist from Zambia. She visited Oberlin Feb. 16 to give a talk titled, “Organizing to Tackle Women’s Issues in Lusaka Zambia,” which detailed her experience with gender disparities in Zambia as well as her experiences creating and organizing women’s collective action groups there. She is known as one of the foremost figures in Zambian activism, often referred to as the founder of the women’s movement in Zambia. She is the author of the Longwe Framework for Gender Analysis, a radical guide to planning and enacting gender-based equality work, and in 2003 was awarded the Africa Prize for Leadership. Longwe’s visit kicked off Oberlin’s 2018 Global Issues Symposium, which will run until April 27.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Interview by Sydney Allen, News Editor Alex Davies, Staff Writer How did you first become interested in gender activism?

I had been a school teacher for just under three months.

I was pregnant, already in my fifth month, so I applied for maternity leave. Then I discovered the difficult struggle that women go through when they are doing wage employment.

I discovered that all married women in [civil] service at the time were temporary employees.

So, if you are a temporary employee, you are not entitled to go on leave or anything.

Although I had applied for unpaid leave, I discovered I could not be given leave because I was married and therefore was a temporary employee. And I discovered that actually it wasn’t just me; that was the norm. So, if you were employed while you were single, as soon as you got married, you became a temporary employee and whatever benefits you had, you didn’t keep. You didn’t get housing, you didn’t get laundry facilities, and you got taxed more because a woman’s wage was seen as extra. And married women who were working in civil service did not receive a child allowance. Even with unmarried women who could not receive child allowance, it was always paid through the father of those kids. So, if your husband didn’t work for the civil service, then you missed out on the allowance.

So I did a bit of research because I was very surprised — I knew that Zambia had ratified the [International Labor Organization] convention of paid maternity leave for 90 days, and I discovered that they hadn’t

implemented it. I had to resign and then I came back to teaching as a temporary employee. So I said, “Okay, because I’m married I’ll always be a temporary employee anyway, so now, let me be a part-time teacher,” but I was persuaded to be a full-time teacher and with my colleagues we decided to fight. Why should women be temporary employees or worse?

What was going through your mind when you discovered all of these injustices in the education system?

Well, I knew all along they were wrong, and because I have been fighting injustice in my own family, in my upbringing, I know that if you speak out, you are listened to.

And if you have more people listening to you, you make more headway. I discovered that I should get maternity leave if Zambia ratified the ILO convention. So when I didn’t, I said loudly and clearly to all my colleagues, “I’m not teaching anymore because of this,” and they all explained to me, “Didn’t you know?” I said, “No, I didn’t.”

I managed to find friends who also said, “We can’t have this.” So, we formed a research group because finding the data for discrimination was difficult. And in the 1970s we couldn’t register because any organization that’s talking about women’s rights was seen as trouble, and then you never got the registration.

So after this, we started to continue working as a loose group and gave ourselves a name. By then, I had gone back to work as a teacher and as a group we decided: we need to come up with a submission to the inquiry on improving civil servants’ work conditions and we need to do research.

I remember doing my own

research to find out why I couldn’t have maternity leave and I discovered all those discriminatory things that I didn’t know before. So I took a week’s leave from my teaching and did the research and we made the submission.

A year later, most of the things we complained about were changed: permanent employment, paid maternity leave for 90 days, and married women could get loans.

As time went on, people started making organizations, thematic ones. In 1980, it was a few groups max, maybe one or two. But when it came to 1985, we had several more organizations. We formed a committee so that we can collectively look for money, so that we can collectively decide what are the issues and divide among ourselves so that when we go to the international conferences on women’s issues, people can go to different sections and speak out and join forces combating the discrimination that is in our country. When we came back from a conference in Nairobi, we decided: We can’t continue working in silence.

Let’s make an umbrella group of women’s organizations.

We registered our organization as the Zambia Association for Research and Development. From the name you can’t tell whether it’s a women’s movement or not.

We had to camouflage our feminist intention because once they got a wind of it, you would get de-registered.

The feminist thing was not in the title, but was in our constitution and in our objectives and [it] decided who became a member. And our membership, we had to open it to men as well, you see?

So, it wasn’t just a women’s organization. In that way, we were able to camouflage our true purpose.

Sara Hlupekile Longe, activist.

Photo courtesy of Oberlin College

When you first started out, just noticing this one injustice of not being able to take maternity leave, did you ever imagine that you would be part of something that could grow to this scale?

Yes. We were optimistic, and that’s what we’re aiming at because in developing countries, you stand out like a sore thumb when you are speaking about issues on gender inequality. And of course, you get labeled and mimicked. Eventually we realized that interorganization, inter-regional, and global coalitions or interaction were the best way forward because governments, even in our own country, will just accept gender inequality. But when they are out there at these meetings, they camouflage it, they say, “we have no discrimination.” That’s why we shadowed them and the organizations like IWRAW. If a human rights report is being given, the U.N. will ask in that country — the civil society — “What’s your report?” We then give our shadow report.

In the country, they won’t accept feminist or gender equality or gender issues, to be candid. But now that we are in the 21st century, we can finally say what it is really we are fighting.

We can even now proudly say, “I am a feminist.”

Although they will still call you names, you can explain: Feminism is about fighting inequality between males and females and bringing about tranquility and happiness.

What’s wrong with that?

Oberlin Community News Bulletin India Garden Closed Monday India Garden closed its doors Monday, after two years in Oberlin. The restaurant, located at 65 E. College Street, closed for financial reasons. They held a free lunch and dinner buffet Sunday and Monday, and all donations were given to the Oberlin Police and Fire Departments. India Garden has another location in Lakewood, Ohio.

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Oberlin’s Baseball Legacy The Toledo History Museum will conduct a forum discussing former Oberlin student and local baseball legend Moses Fleetwood Walker as well as the Negro Baseball League on Monday, Feb. 26 from 6 to 8 p.m. in the McMaster Center of the Toledo Lucas County Main Library.

New LGBT Assisted Living Facility Will Open An assisted living facility that caters to elderly members of the LGBT community will start accepting applications this week. The center, called Rainbow Steps, will be located at 345 N. Professor Street and seeks to create a communal living environment for those who face discrimination in other facilities.

OPINIONS February 23, 2018

Letter to the Editors

Constitution Does Not Automatically Permit AR-15s

established 1874

Volume 146, Number 15

Editorial Board Editors-in-Chief Melissa Harris

Managing Editor Daniel Markus

Opinions Editors

El Wilson

To the Editors: The AR-15 must be banned. Like the M-16 used in Vietnam by our military, the AR-15 was designed to kill as many enemy soldiers as possible with the greatest ease and efficiency. Some argued fiercely in the ’60s that the AR-15 should have been our weapon of choice on the battlefield, not the M-16.

Today, the M-16 is not available to the public, but the AR-15 is. It has been the ideal weapon for mass killings and was used in Florida a week ago to slaughter 17 of the brightest lights for our future: those high-school students and young teachers just moments before their school day was to end. Instead, their lives ended.

In 2008, the late U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, the most revered conservative of our time, made it clear in an opinion that the Second Amendment did not give citizens the incontrovertible right to possess any kind of gun. Surely, if that right existed, machine guns capable of slaughtering five or 10 times more children in the same time period would be used by murderers.

Of course, we have a right to bear arms. Scalia just made it abundantly clear that what our founding fathers had in mind in 1791 was not to give us unlimited access to any kind of weapon. He argued compellingly that states have the right to determine — almost 230 years later — what should or should not be available to us. The Constitution does not automatically permit the availability of AR-15s.

Even though the ban of AR-15s will not prevent mass massacres of children and others, we must demand that our legislators support the ban, along with support of improved background checks, mental health programs, etc. Nothing is likely to guarantee the perfectly safe society we seek. But we must not let the perfect become the enemy of the good and do nothing to make progress. Let’s support legislators who support the ban. Celebrate this day.

– Booker C. Peek Emeritus Associate Professor Africana Studies SUBMISSIONS POLICY

The Oberlin Review appreciates and welcomes letters to the editors and op-ed submissions. All submissions are printed at the discretion of the Editorial Board. All submissions must be received

by Wednesday at 4:30 p.m. at opinions@oberlinreview.org or Wilder Box 90 for inclusion in that week’s issue. Letters may not exceed 600 words and op-eds may not exceed 800 words, except with consent of the Editorial Board. All submissions must include contact information, with full names and any relevant titles, for all signers. All writers must individually confirm authorship on electronic submissions. The Review reserves the right to edit all submissions for clarity, length, grammar, accuracy, strength of argument and in consultation with Review style. Editors will work with contributors to edit pieces and will clear major edits with the authors prior to publication. Editors will contact authors of letters to the editors in the event of edits for anything other than style and grammar. Headlines are printed at the discretion of the Editorial Board. Opinions expressed in editorials, letters, op-eds, columns, cartoons or other Opinions pieces do not necessarily reflect those of the staff of the Review. The Review will not print advertisements on its Opinions pages. The Review defines an advertisement as any submission that has the main intent of bringing direct monetary gain to a contributor.

The Oberlin Review | February 23, 2018

Christian Bolles

Jackie Brant

Americans Must Resist Russian Influence

In May 2016, as Donald Trump’s campaign snowballed into a force of nature, a quiet conversation at the Kensington Wine Rooms between George Papadopoulos, a foreign policy advisor to the campaign, and Australian diplomat Alexander Downer took on the distinct scent of a smoking gun. Having overindulged in the establishment’s titular offering, Papadopoulos mentioned to Downer that Joseph Mifsud — a professor with connections to Russia — had indicated that the foreign government had “dirt” on Hillary Clinton, instigating a push to connect Trump to Russian efforts to discredit the Democratic candidate. Downer was not the confidant Papadopoulos may have expected, and provided the tip that would kick off a clandestine FBI investigation in the coming months — one that has, at long last, come to some kind of fruition, and has the potential to re-contextualize the way we think about democracy in swing states like Ohio.

Oberlin students surely remember where they were on the night of Nov. 8 that year. As The New York Times’ probability needle indicated support for Hillary Clinton dropping beneath the 90th percentile and broadcasted maps of our country gradually reddened, a collective silence fell over campus. You could hear a pin drop — and the Times’ continued to do so until a Trump victory was all but guaranteed. Thus began a period of profound confusion in which what once was considered unusual became normal — a country governed by Twitter diplomacy from an administration with more leaks than Firelands Apartments. The disenfranchised white working class surged onto the national stage — and was abruptly robbed of its moment in the limelight by a president too money-minded to cater to the interests of his own base. The familiar cries of “lock her up” and “build the wall” splintered and diffused, catching in the throats of those who had hoped beyond hope that their vote was well-placed. In the midst of Trump and his cabinet’s maelstrom of misspeech, many on the left hoped for a way out from an unlikely figure: Robert Mueller, special counsel.

The source of that hope is Mueller’s twofold charge — first, to determine whether Russia interfered in the 2016 presidential election, and second, whether that interference involved direct cooperation with the Trump campaign.

Both have been vehemently denied by President Trump, whose belief in an alternate reality as a means of ego-preservation seemed to render him impermeable to the workings of Mueller’s inquiry. But recent developments in the investigation have proven that Papadopoulos’ verbal slip was just one thread in a much larger tapestry of manipulation that extends further than the public is currently capable of knowing.

Fortunately, the Feb. 16 release of a Mueller-signed indictment detailing the illegal actions of 13 Russians has provided a window into that grand deception. At its most basic, the document describes the actions of the Internet Research Agency, described as “a Russian organization engaged in operations to interfere with elections and political processes.”

Employing “hundreds of individuals … ranging from creators of fictitious personas to technical and administrative support” with a budget equal to “millions of U.S. dollars,” the IRA sought to target key points of tension in American communities, exploiting them to sow dissent in a country poised to split. When its operations began in 2014 — following a trip by a handful of employees to the U.S. to get a sense of the weaknesses of communities nationwide — its goals were general: defame Hillary Clinton by exploiting buzzwords and hashtags in order to prevent her from becoming president. However, the rise of Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump, particularly the latter, presented an irresistible opportunity for the IRA and its puppeteering government. The agency’s methods expanded to include bolstering both far left and right candidates’ campaigns in order to mold capable challengers to Clinton’s run; agents were pushed to “use any opportunity to criticize Hillary and the rest (except Sanders and Trump — we support them).”

As students in Ohio, a swing state, there is one allegation in the indictment that we find particularly disturbing and believe the people of Oberlin should reflect upon and consider in future protests and political actions. The allegation details sowing political discord in Florida, also a swing state, and involved a series of July 2016 efforts connected to the Facebook group “Being Patriotic” and the Twitter account @March_for_Trump. Using stolen identities acquired during their trip to the U.S., employees of the IRA successfully organized “a series of coordinated rallies” in Florida under the name “Florida Goes Trump.” By purchasing Facebook and Instagram advertisements, as well as keeping in contact with and identifying as grassroots pro-Trump groups, those Aug. 20 rallies had what appears to be a demonstrable impact on Trump’s influence in Florida.

“Florida is still a purple state and we need to paint it red.” This is an excerpt from an Aug. 2 message — one of many like it — sent using a fake IRA-fabricated account to “Florida for Trump,” a real Facebook page indistinguishable from those crafted by the IRA. The scope of this indictment is inherently limited to those individuals for whom Mueller was able to prove wrongdoing, but it nonetheless indicates the terrifying motive fueling the IRA’s 2016 efforts to influence the election. One doesn’t have to look too closely at IRA-sponsored tweets and posts to recognize their language — “Hillary is a Satan,” “Donald Trump is the one and only who can defend the police from terrorists,” and, more pertinently to this community, “Ohio Wants Hillary 4 Prison.” Though it’s unlikely that these soundbites originated from Russian efforts, they were certainly propagated by them, preying on an online sphere in which users pick up buzzwords in an instant.

As the echoes of these poisonous phrases begin to fade, we must take this opportunity to strip them away from the center of American political discourse and look at the underbelly which they served to obscure: a network of anger and distrust politically weaponized in part through manipulation by a foreign government. As a community, we were and are far from immune from these efforts and others like them; for while most of the IRA’s efforts served to bolster support for Trump, their support for candidates like Sanders and Stein cannot be ignored as irrelevant simply because we could have been affected. “Choose peace and vote for Jill Stein. Trust me, it’s not a wasted vote” read a post published on the IRA Instagram account “Blacktivist.” In one instance, the IRA organized two separate rallies on Nov. 12, 2016 in New York — one in support of Trump, the other titled “Trump is NOT my President” — for the sole purpose of exacerbating political tensions in a traditionally blue state. Both sides were equally viable pawns, and it will be some time before the full impact of those exploitations is revealed.

This is a call to avoid the allure of sensationalist rhetoric; if the past year has proven anything, it’s the power of a hashtag — used for good or ill — and the catastrophic impact that can be caused by a single tweet or headline. That is precisely the power that the IRA harnessed to drive a wedge through the cracks already splitting America in two, and now, with thoughtful consideration, we can work to take that power away.

Editorials are the responsibility of the Review Editorial Board — the Editors-in-Chief, Managing Editor, and Opinions Editors — and do not necessarily reflect the views of the staff of the Review.

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Opi n ions

Gender-Neutral Bathrooms Mark Key Step Forward El Wilson Opinions Editor

The new gender-neutral bathrooms around campus are a triumph of student activism. Last semester, I was thrilled to receive an email from Title IX Coordinator and Director of Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Rebecca Mosely asking if I would like to participate in a meeting about designating more bathrooms in academic buildings as gender neutral.

For years, transgender students have protested the lack of accessible bathrooms around campus. There were many buildings on campus, including Stevenson Dining Hall and King Building, that didn’t have a single gender-neutral bathroom. Although Oberlin’s policy states that students can use whatever bathroom fits their gender identity best, this still makes many bathrooms inaccessible to non-binary folks and those questioning their gender identity. Going to the bathroom shouldn’t be a stressful experience. Using the bathroom is a

universal human experience and should therefore be universally accessible and safe. No student should have to travel to another building just to use a bathroom that they are comfortable with.

In the past month, vast improvements have been made. Now, Carnegie, Bibbins, Robertson, Finney, Hales Gymnasium, King, Peters, Rice, the Science Center, Severance, Stevenson, and Wright all have gender-neutral bathrooms. Some buildings, most notably the Adam Joseph Lewis Center, still do not have any because of Ohio building codes — which state that if there are only two multiuse bathrooms in a building, they have to have gender designations. However, Oberlin’s decision to designate more bathrooms as gender neutral has a profoundly positive impact on transgender students.

Part of this positive impact arises from the level of student involvement.

The meeting Mosely invited me to included several other transgender students. We discussed which buildings

needed bathrooms the most, as well as smaller details such as signage. For example, we agreed that all of the singleuse bathrooms in Rice should be genderneutral, despite professor protests. As one of the other students at the meeting put it, single-use bathrooms are the gender of the person inside them.

I deeply appreciate the genderneutral sign design. Most gender neutral bathrooms are identified with the usual symbols used to designate male and female. Since most gender-neutral bathrooms are single-use and handicapaccessible, these symbols are often accompanied with the usual picture of a wheelchair. As a disabled non-binary person, I joke that “wheelchair” must be my gender identity. The new signs avoid this by simply showing what type of facilities are available — a toilet and/or a urinal.

Furthermore, by designating multiuse restrooms as gender neutral, the College is making a firm statement that transgender people are not dangerous

Mass Shootings Prove More Complex Than Proposed Solutions Lucille Eleanor Nguyen Contributing Writer

Like every other American, I was shocked and horrified to hear the news that 17 people had been killed in yet another mass shooting. The stories of the brave people at Marjory Stoneman High School who gave their lives to save others — like Peter Wang, only 15 years old, who was killed holding open the door so that his fellow students could escape to safety — are a testament to the indomitable human spirit that persists in even the worst of circumstances. They deserve our memory, our respect, and our action.

Something should be done. Something needs to be done. Something has to be done.

Unfortunately, I’m not sure that the legislative proposals that are being put forward today by our representatives would even be effective at stopping attacks like this. I hoped that my intuition was incorrect, but the harsh truth is that no popular gun control policy proposed today — or that has been previously proposed — would have stopped this shooting.

Universal background checks would not have stopped this shooting. The man accused of this heinous act went to a Federal Firearms Licensed gun store, filled out what is known as a Form 4473 Firearms Transaction Record, and was approved by the National Criminal Background Check System created by the FBI. According to the special agent in charge for the Miami division of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives, Peter J Forcelli, “no laws were violated in the procurement of this weapon.”

An assault weapons ban would not have stopped this shooting. Nick Cruz commit-

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ted last week’s killings with an AR-15 style semi-automatic “assault” rifle — one of the most popular civilian rifles available to the general public, with an estimated 5 million AR-15s in civilian hands. Most firearms experts agree that previous legislation on assault weapons focused on mostly cosmetic features of a rifle — pistol grips, telescoping stocks, handguards, flash hiders, bayonet mounts, vertical foregrips, etc. — and did nothing to address the lethality of the weapons themselves. A commonly available semi-automatic rifle known as the Ruger Mini-14 was available during the 1994 Federal Assault Weapons Ban until the ban’s mandatory expiration in 2003; it was just as lethal as the AR-15 and had a similar rate of fire. The only difference? It’s a gun made of wood and metal, free of any of the features that any state or federal law would classify as an assault weapon.

A magazine restriction capacity would not have stopped this shooting. Even if this shooter was restricted to 10 round magazines, an experienced shooter could easily replace a magazine in two to four seconds. A review by Gary Kleck of Florida State University found that of 23 mass shootings — defined as more than six deaths — between 1994 and 2003, when a magazine restriction of ten rounds was mandated by the Federal Assault Weapons Ban, only one stopped while reloading and all 23 had multiple weapons. The shooter at Marjory Stoneman had multiple minutes of uninterrupted shooting between when he started and when he was arrested by the police. It is unlikely that multiple magazines would have impeded his rampage.

Killers could easily subvert ammunition purchase limits by amassing a large amount of

ammunition over a longer span of time. Requiring weapon microstamping, which involves firing pin imprinting specific indentations on bullet casing, wouldn’t have stopped a mass shooting. Gun safes wouldn’t have stopped this mass shooting — although they may have prevented shooters from obtaining their weapons by acquiring them from other gun owners. Enhanced mental health treatments wouldn’t have stopped this shooting — the shooter had, reportedly, previously been in therapy. Gun licenses wouldn’t have stopped this shooting — this shooter passed all legal requirements to own a gun. Waiting periods between the purchase of a firearm and time of possession likely would not have stopped this shooter — he had reportedly planned this attack for quite some time.

I’m not alone in this analysis. Glenn Kessler of The Washington Post’s “Fact Checker” blog analyzed mass shootings between 2012 and 2015, finding that of the 12 mass shootings during that period, nine would not have been stopped by any proposed gun control laws. The other three had more nuanced findings: The Dec. 14, 2012 Newtown Elementary School shooting might have been prevented if the shooter wasn’t able to access his mother’s firearms, and the AR-15 rifle — one of many weapons used in the shooting — might have been made illegal under a failed 2013 assault weapons ban; the June 7, 2013 Santa Monica shooting involved a person who built their own firearms and circumvented federal law; and the Dec. 2, 2015 San Bernardino shooting involved weapons modified to circumvent California law but were legal in most states under federal law.

So what should be done?

See Gun, page 7

in bathrooms. Most of the debate concerning transgender people using bathrooms centers around the idea that trans people, especially trans women, will be a danger to those in the bathroom. By having multi-use gender-neutral bathrooms in academic buildings, some of which will inevitably be used by people other than Oberlin students and faculty, the College shows the world that genderneutral bathrooms are perfectly safe and make public places far more accessible.

The College should have made this change far earlier, but I’m grateful that the administration finally took these steps forward. Oberlin has been at the forefront of trans rights and safety; other colleges and universities learn from how Oberlin approaches transgender issues. By including trans students in the decision-making process and by making these changes in public buildings, Oberlin prioritized trans students’ needs over public opinion. This is how we dismantle systems of oppression: one flush at a time.

Paying Columnists Will Increase Accessibility Nathan Carpenter Columnist

In recent weeks, my fellow Review columnist Kameron Dunbar has published two pieces that succinctly and cogently identified instances in which Oberlin campus publications — namely, the Review and The Grape — have failed to assemble editorial staffs that reflect our community’s diversity and, as a result, have published pieces that fall short of the standards of rigorous inquiry and commitment to social justice that our community holds itself to.

As a former Review opinions editor who is studying abroad this semester, I certainly understand the intensity of working for a campus publication. It can be a relatively thankless, if personally fulfilling job — the hours are long and come in addition to normal academic and extracurricular commitments. This pressure often leads to missed mistakes.

Part of the nature of putting out a weekly publication, in the case of the Review, is that there are going to be slips.

That being said, publication staffs should do everything in their power to minimize errors, especially to preemptively address potential content mistakes that will cause harm if they fall through the cracks of the editorial process. I know that the staffs of both the Review and The Grape are committed to this principle — now comes the hard work of envisioning how to bring it into existence.

One key step that I believe the Review should take — and that The Grape has already taken — is to pay its columnists. I believe that the

Review’s Opinions section is one of the paper’s most important because it provides an opportunity for sharing substantive thoughts and engaging in longer-form discourse on a public platform that anyone in the community can read and contribute to.

However, there are certain barriers to contributing.

A key one, in my mind, is that of financial accessibility.

There are plenty of Oberlin students, myself included, who are much less likely to participate in an organization or take on a role if they will not be compensated for their time and energy. Who can blame them? It costs a lot of money to attend Oberlin, and I think a compelling argument can be made that students should not prioritize activities that do not satisfy graduation requirements, offer financial benefit, or promote self-care.

By not paying columnists, I believe that the Review limits its Opinions section to hearing regularly from voices that are willing, for whatever reason, to pour time and energy into writing columns without financial compensation. To be sure, there is nothing wrong with contributing simply out of passion, but to make that an institutional expectation of writers and columnists is misguided and unfair.

Having been on the Review staff last fall, I know that there is interest within the office in securing funding for the very purpose of paying columnists and staff writers. I applaud their commitment and hope that this proposal comes to fruition. It would be an important step toward making the Opinions section more accessible and therefore more See Publications, page 7

Students Against NEXUS Must Stay Active, Should Refocus Patrick Wai Contributing Writer

At the town hall meeting Tuesday, the turnout against City Council’s settlement with NEXUS was amazing; not only were all the chairs filled, but students lined the walls with signs in opposition to the settlement. After the Council opened the floor to anyone to speak, numerous townspeople and students lined up to speak against the settlement. Students spoke out against the fatalistic attitude of submitting to NEXUS and reminded the Council that the Oberlin Community Bill of Rights rejects a settlement of this type. I even spoke, which surprised me. After the public opinion section, the Council moved to the vote. Students began chanting, echoing the same sentiments of the public forum; this led councilmembers to leave the room and police officers to intervene — this is where I left the scene. Although the verdict was unfortunately still 4–3 in favor of the settlement, there is a third hearing in

two weeks that will be the last stand in rejecting the settlement.

I left the scene during the chants because the chanting hurt our cause more than it helped, as these sorts of chants can be perceived as noisy and disrespectful — that students are being loud just for the sake of being loud.

These chants unfortunately seemed to turn into party anthems by adding various interjections, such as “hey!”, in order to encourage more students to join in. While the interjections helped facilitate more students to chant, as in a warmer environment to echo support, the fact that councilmembers left and police had to intervene only left one message in my mind: the Oberlin townspeople and the Oberlin College students were separate bodies, that while may have had similar goals, they had significantly different methods.

The Gibson’s incident, which is still in due process, is too recent in the minds of the College and the town. As a result of this

incident, Oberlin students are all too familiar with the parts of American society that see youth protests as being loud for the sake of being loud. While representation at Gibson’s was strong, others may have seen a disturbance of daily life and noise about an issue that’s not important to them. In my interactions with various townspeople — including a policeman and a speaker at Town Hall — some members of the town share a common distaste for Oberlin students not necessarily because of our position on issues, but because of our methods of fighting for these issues.

In chanting against the NEXUS settlement, we showed our position on it, but we also showed the townspeople that not much has changed in college activist ways. When China was denied restoration of its territories — especially Shandong, the heart of Chinese civilization — at the Paris Peace Conference in 1919, did they come crashing in at the signing of the Treaty of Versailles, protesting and protesting

CARTOON OF THE WEEK

the answer to the Shandong settlement? No, the delegates were simply absent. Their silence and absence were miles more powerful than any protest at the signing. I’m not staying that students should be absent at the next hearing; rather, that we as college activists must keep a more professional air and be silent when necessary. Our points have been said, established, and the council members are accustomed to student protests — protests that they often view as distasteful and unproductive. We must maintain our pressure on the Council, but refocus our energy — no chants, no shows of force by volume. Our silence could be miles more

effective to our audience than our perceived rowdiness. If we wish to be persuasive, we must refocus.

I also have a last remark about the Council’s monetary concerns regarding the imminent protest period of the pipeline. The public forum pretty much took care of any financial concerns, but what this leaves the College and city with is an opportunity to collaborate and bring together funds to fight against the pipeline and any deficits Oberlin may run into through whatever fundraisers possible. One possibility is integrating College events into the environmental dashboards and focusing most proceeds at the events to combating the

Eliza Amber

pipeline, whether through donating to the township or other philanthropic endeavors in the community.

By first advertising more College events to the town, we can increase engagement in events from both students and townspeople.

The NEXUS pipeline has given us as student activists an opportunity to rekindle our relationship with the city and unite against this common evil. We must show the councilmembers that behind them is the fighting spirit of thousands willing to protest the pipeline in various forms — our representation at the town hall meetings, and the fundraising in preparation for our response to the pipeline construction.

Financial Solutions Require Active Gun Law Reform Should Balance Participation from Students Idealism, Reality After Shootings Meg Parker Contributing Writer

Oberlin’s financial strife is not news. Enrollment in private liberal arts colleges is down across the nation, the financial crash of the late 2000s hit Oberlin hard, and we have been living beyond our means a for too long. The budget deficit was reduced to $3 million this year but is expected to increase to $9 million next year if the market behaves as predicted. Fretting, discussing, and occasionally ranting about the institution’s financial outlook and fiscal management has become nearly routine practice for students, faculty, and staff during my six semesters at Oberlin.

We are quick to ask why some departments are more expensive than others and where funding for departments comes from and to question the validity of a program or department altogether. We have all pointed a finger once or twice and grumbled that something has more funding than our program — even if it’s just conjecture.

During a conversation in December, I recall President Carmen Ambar remarking that vilifying other constituencies on

campus as access to resources diminish was a common practice — one we have a responsibility to avoid. I could not agree with her more. Directing anger and frustration at others as the institution readjusts to a new fiscal environment is only going to make us worse off in the long run. Transparency can cause us to be extremely critical, for better or for worse. Having served on the Educational Plans and Policies Committee for the past two years and participated in program reviews and tenure proposals, I have witnessed first-hand how intense these conversations can get. We feel powerless as our needs get pushed to next year. Occasionally, we find ourselves fighting with each other just out of exasperation.

All of us with a stake in Oberlin’s future, however, have a duty and an extraordinary opportunity to unite as a whole community to shape the outlook of the institution.

In an editorial piece earlier this month, the Review called for direct student involvement and faith in the process (“Ambar, Students Must Share Vision of Oberlin’s Future,” The Oberlin Review, Feb.

The Oberlin Review | February 23, 2018

9, 2018). The prospect of trusting in the process may seem terrifying to most Obies, myself included; I believe that it’s easier to have faith in the process if you participate in it. Oberlin is crafting a new institutional outlook through the lens of our vague Strategic Plan and through financial reallocations. Let this serve as an opportunity to think creatively, innovatively, and rationally about our resources, rather than as an overall loss.

President Ambar’s goals are to use our resources most effectively and to uphold the values that shape Oberlin. This week, she gave the second round of Financial Resiliency Q&A presentations at the monthly General Faculty meeting. This week, she will host a student forum on Wednesday, Feb. 28 at 8 p.m. in King 306. Come. Participate in the process. Ask questions about our financial situation, our proposed solutions, and ask yourself: “What are my goals for Oberlin’s resources?

How can I contribute to this process?” Most importantly, what matters to you? What drew you to Oberlin, and what makes you want to stay?

Continued from page 6

Nobody has a good answer to that question. 33,000 people die every year from firearms, almost two-thirds of which are suicides. Only the remaining third is split between firearm murders and accidents. In fact, mass shootings only constituted one percent of firearm deaths between 1980 and 2008.

I am in favor of universal background checks for every firearm purchase, reasonable waiting periods, gun safe and lock requirements, and expanded access to mental health treatment. However, I recognize that mass shootings are an unfortunate consequence of the wide availability of firearms, the American culture of individualism, a desire for fame and notoriety, and the copycat

phenomenon. The legislative solutions for those problems are much more difficult than anything that has been put forward so far.

We owe it to the victims to make the right choices when we request legislation from our representatives.

It’s easy to believe that if we just do a few things that we can totally eliminate mass shootings, but the reality is much more difficult. We must balance our idealism with our realism and face these difficult choices together, as one people. As Abraham Lincoln professed this month 158 years ago in his Cooper Union address, “let us have faith that right makes might, and in that faith, let us, to the end, dare to do our duty as we understand it.”

Publications Must Pay Columnists to Increase Student Participation Continued from page 6

inclusive of the diversity of perspectives that Oberlin is lucky to have. I also hope that, come spring budgeting time, the Student Finance Committee shares this vision and commitment.

I’ve written this column to encourage the greater student body to have this issue on their radar. Obies frequently advocate for the importance of compensating people — especially students, who already face significant financial barriers in this age of rapidly inflating tuition costs — for their time and energy.

Applying that same emphasis on financial accessibility to the Review is perhaps more important than some students currently understand.

People — in Oberlin and around the world — read pieces in this publication. It is already a place where important events are covered and important ideas are proposed, and it has great potential to move even further in that direction.

Making the process of contributing to the Review more accessible will be an important step toward addressing some of the issues that have recently arisen in campus publications — but it should only be a piece of the effort to make Oberlin’s writing and editorial staffs more diverse.

Oberlin is a special place with a lot of big thinkers and it benefits us all to have their ideas shared on a platform that we can all learn from.

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Biology Professor Angie Roles is currently researching the effects of somatic (body cell) mutation on the visible distribution of mutations and how they affect survival in arabidopsis thaliana — a small flowering plant native to Eurasia and Africa. Her lab is testing the hypothesis that selection on somatic mutations is shifting possible visible mutations to favor beneficial mutations and weed out harmful ones.

Physics Professor Jason Stalnaker is currently attempting to measure alkali atoms using stabilized optical frequency combs — white-light lasers.

Using the combs, one can measure the small frequency difference between two neighboring frequencies.

He is also working on developing a high precision magnetometer, which would serve to measure magnetism.

Psychology Professor Meghan Morean has two primary lines of research. The first focuses on increasing understanding of environmental, cognitive, and physiological factors that indicate risk for alcohol abuse, as well as learning the individual effects of alcohol.

The second line of research regards tobacco products and developing novel methods of intervening with tobacco addiction.

Dennis Hubbard is a professor in the Geology department, and has been working on the Caribbean Coring Program since before coming to Oberlin. It involves developing Holocene coral reefs using various submersible coring systems, such as the SCARID coring unit. He is continuing his work at Oberlin and still attempting to get it back on track after Hurricane Hugo in 1989 and the closure of the West Indies Laboratory in 1991.

START

Bradley Carter, who works in Oberlin’s Neuroscience department, is researching brain development along with current undergraduate students. They are looking at the effects of genetic and environmental factors associated with neurodevelopment disorders and psychiatric disorders. For this research, they are using zebra fish as their model organism and exposing them to environmental chemicals to understand the effects of prenatal exposure to these compounds in humans.

February 23 OMTA Presents: Keep It Gay! a celebration of queerness in musical theater.

This production features songs from An American in Paris, Into the Woods, Hedwig and the Angry Inch, and many more. Tickets are on sale at Wilder desk for $3 in advance and $5 at the door.

Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m.

February 24

Come support the track and field team at their first annual fundraiser, On Your Mark, Get Set, ’Sco! The DJs will be playing hits from the early 2000s but song requests are welcomed. $3 admission and free drinks are included.

The ’Sco from 10 p.m.–1 a.m.

February 25

Every two weeks, the Jewish Student Union will be having a Short Story Club to discuss the works of various Jewish authors. This week they will be reading two short pieces by Jamaica Kincaid: “Girl” and “Biography of a Dress” All are welcome.

Wilder 216 from 11 a.m.–12 p.m.

February 28

The Center for Student Success is offering weekly drop–in sessions to help students get organized. They will offer time for people to plan or get started on tasks. The group is open to anyone interested but especially helpful for students with executive functioning challenges.

Group will be hosted by Anna Brandt, Monique Burgdorf, and Maria Z. Maclay.

Snacks and a laid-back environment will be provided.

Peters 101 from 4:30 p.m.–5:30 p.m.

March 1

Professor Beers is an opportunity to discuss and socialize with faculty in a casual environment. For faculty, the first pitcher is only $1.

The ’Sco 4:30 p.m.–6:30 p.m.

Professor Catherine Oertel from the Chemistry and Biochemistry department is currently working on projects that focus on both the creation of new materials and the conservation of historic materials.

She is synthesizing hybrid inorganicorganic network compounds in which their metal centers are connected by diatomic organic ligands — any atom or molecule that donates electrons to form a bond with a metallic ion.

The Physics and Astronomy departments help run the Oberlin College Observatory on the fourth floor of Peters Hall. The schedule is: Friday, March 2 from 7–9 p.m.

Friday, March 16 from 8–10 p.m.

Friday, April 6, 20; May 4, 18 from 9–11 p.m.

Friday, May 25, 26, and 27 from 9:30–11:30 p.m.

On nights when it is cloudy, the planetarium will be open.

FINISH

In her lab here at Oberlin, Professor of Chemistry Rebecca Whelan identifies and validates DNA aptamers for ovarian cancer. Aptamers are single–stranded oligonucleotides — RNA and DNA — which are selected by function randomly from a pool. Significant progress has been made on aptamer selection for cells that express high levels of the ovarian cancer marker CA125, and the lab is currently evaluating these aptamers’ binding properties.

e m a G nce e e i h c T S f o

Layout and text by Lucy Martin, This Week Editor To play: Flip a coin, if heads move two spaces, if tails move one space.

Psychology Professor Nancy Darling is interested in how natural variability in basic processes across individuals and situations affects human development. The intricacy of these processes and a desire to understand how the development of individuals has also led Darling to become interested in statistics and research methods.

Every Monday through Thursday, 4:30–5:30 p.m. in the Carl E. Howe Lounge/Reading Room (W108), the Physics and Astronomy departments host “Tea/Coffee & Conversation” with physics students, faculty, and staff. This event is open to everyone who is interested in physics and astronomy, allowing them to discuss current events in the field or whatever interests them most.

Christopher Howard’s neuroscience research has two overarching goals: to understand the contributions of neuron circuits to an organism’s behavior and to determine how drugs that impact the brain affect these circuits. They are using a multidisciplinary approach to determine how dopamine advances the establishment of habitual behaviors like those found in OCD, as well as how a commonly prescribed drug for Parkinson’s disease regulates dopamine. signaling and gene expression.

Geology Professor Karla Hubbard’s research looks at the processes of preservation used by molluscs and echinoderms. The research group she is a part of is called Shelf and Slope Experimental Taphonomy; their goal is to understand when fossilization occurred on the continental shelf.

The group intends to accomplish this by measuring current destructive processes and applying them to find the locations of ancient fossils.

Physics Professor Robert Owen conducts research on the spin of black holes in numerical simulations. His experiment involved setting up an optimization problem to find the vector field that “distorts spacetime least” as coordinates are pushed along. He found that the vector field is best expressed in terms of a potential z. Owen’s measurement has become the standard used in the SpEC code and is thus integral to gravitational-wave source modeling.

Biology Professor Taylor Allen researches how skeletal and cardiac muscles turn force production on and off, as well as how individual muscles gain contractile characteristics. This is tested by engineering mutations in genes that code for proteins found in the calcium sensitive switch. The switch activates the motor that changes ATP (energy) into mechanical work. These mutated genes are transferred into C. elegans and the effect on muscle function is observed.

You can join The Synapse, Oberlin’s student-run science magazine, as a writer, artist, or editor. No prior experience is necessary, and while applications are no longer being accepted for the first issue of the spring semester, a new issue will begin production in late March.

Biology Professor Angie Roles is currently researching the effects of somatic (body cell) mutation on the visible distribution of mutations and how they affect survival in arabidopsis thaliana — a small flowering plant native to Eurasia and Africa. Her lab is testing the hypothesis that selection on somatic mutations is shifting possible visible mutations to favor beneficial mutations and weed out harmful ones.

Physics Professor Jason Stalnaker is currently attempting to measure alkali atoms using stabilized optical frequency combs — white-light lasers.

Using the combs, one can measure the small frequency difference between two neighboring frequencies.

He is also working on developing a high precision magnetometer, which would serve to measure magnetism.

Psychology Professor Meghan Morean has two primary lines of research. The first focuses on increasing understanding of environmental, cognitive, and physiological factors that indicate risk for alcohol abuse, as well as learning the individual effects of alcohol.

The second line of research regards tobacco products and developing novel methods of intervening with tobacco addiction.

Dennis Hubbard is a professor in the Geology department, and has been working on the Caribbean Coring Program since before coming to Oberlin. It involves developing Holocene coral reefs using various submersible coring systems, such as the SCARID coring unit. He is continuing his work at Oberlin and still attempting to get it back on track after Hurricane Hugo in 1989 and the closure of the West Indies Laboratory in 1991.

START

Bradley Carter, who works in Oberlin’s Neuroscience department, is researching brain development along with current undergraduate students. They are looking at the effects of genetic and environmental factors associated with neurodevelopment disorders and psychiatric disorders. For this research, they are using zebra fish as their model organism and exposing them to environmental chemicals to understand the effects of prenatal exposure to these compounds in humans.

February 23 OMTA Presents: Keep It Gay! a celebration of queerness in musical theater.

This production features songs from An American in Paris, Into the Woods, Hedwig and the Angry Inch, and many more. Tickets are on sale at Wilder desk for $3 in advance and $5 at the door.

Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m.

February 24

Come support the track and field team at their first annual fundraiser, On Your Mark, Get Set, ’Sco! The DJs will be playing hits from the early 2000s but song requests are welcomed. $3 admission and free drinks are included.

The ’Sco from 10 p.m.–1 a.m.

February 25

Every two weeks, the Jewish Student Union will be having a Short Story Club to discuss the works of various Jewish authors. This week they will be reading two short pieces by Jamaica Kincaid: “Girl” and “Biography of a Dress” All are welcome.

Wilder 216 from 11 a.m.–12 p.m.

February 28

The Center for Student Success is offering weekly drop–in sessions to help students get organized. They will offer time for people to plan or get started on tasks. The group is open to anyone interested but especially helpful for students with executive functioning challenges.

Group will be hosted by Anna Brandt, Monique Burgdorf, and Maria Z. Maclay.

Snacks and a laid-back environment will be provided.

Peters 101 from 4:30 p.m.–5:30 p.m.

March 1

Professor Beers is an opportunity to discuss and socialize with faculty in a casual environment. For faculty, the first pitcher is only $1.

The ’Sco 4:30 p.m.–6:30 p.m.

Professor Catherine Oertel from the Chemistry and Biochemistry department is currently working on projects that focus on both the creation of new materials and the conservation of historic materials.

She is synthesizing hybrid inorganicorganic network compounds in which their metal centers are connected by diatomic organic ligands — any atom or molecule that donates electrons to form a bond with a metallic ion.

The Physics and Astronomy departments help run the Oberlin College Observatory on the fourth floor of Peters Hall. The schedule is: Friday, March 2 from 7–9 p.m.

Friday, March 16 from 8–10 p.m.

Friday, April 6, 20; May 4, 18 from 9–11 p.m.

Friday, May 25, 26, and 27 from 9:30–11:30 p.m.

On nights when it is cloudy, the planetarium will be open.

FINISH

In her lab here at Oberlin, Professor of Chemistry Rebecca Whelan identifies and validates DNA aptamers for ovarian cancer. Aptamers are single–stranded oligonucleotides — RNA and DNA — which are selected by function randomly from a pool. Significant progress has been made on aptamer selection for cells that express high levels of the ovarian cancer marker CA125, and the lab is currently evaluating these aptamers’ binding properties.

e m a G nce e e i h c T S f o

Layout and text by Lucy Martin, This Week Editor To play: Flip a coin, if heads move two spaces, if tails move one space.

Psychology Professor Nancy Darling is interested in how natural variability in basic processes across individuals and situations affects human development. The intricacy of these processes and a desire to understand how the development of individuals has also led Darling to become interested in statistics and research methods.

Every Monday through Thursday, 4:30–5:30 p.m. in the Carl E. Howe Lounge/Reading Room (W108), the Physics and Astronomy departments host “Tea/Coffee & Conversation” with physics students, faculty, and staff. This event is open to everyone who is interested in physics and astronomy, allowing them to discuss current events in the field or whatever interests them most.

Christopher Howard’s neuroscience research has two overarching goals: to understand the contributions of neuron circuits to an organism’s behavior and to determine how drugs that impact the brain affect these circuits. They are using a multidisciplinary approach to determine how dopamine advances the establishment of habitual behaviors like those found in OCD, as well as how a commonly prescribed drug for Parkinson’s disease regulates dopamine. signaling and gene expression.

Geology Professor Karla Hubbard’s research looks at the processes of preservation used by molluscs and echinoderms. The research group she is a part of is called Shelf and Slope Experimental Taphonomy; their goal is to understand when fossilization occurred on the continental shelf.

The group intends to accomplish this by measuring current destructive processes and applying them to find the locations of ancient fossils.

Physics Professor Robert Owen conducts research on the spin of black holes in numerical simulations. His experiment involved setting up an optimization problem to find the vector field that “distorts spacetime least” as coordinates are pushed along. He found that the vector field is best expressed in terms of a potential z. Owen’s measurement has become the standard used in the SpEC code and is thus integral to gravitational-wave source modeling.

Biology Professor Taylor Allen researches how skeletal and cardiac muscles turn force production on and off, as well as how individual muscles gain contractile characteristics. This is tested by engineering mutations in genes that code for proteins found in the calcium sensitive switch. The switch activates the motor that changes ATP (energy) into mechanical work. These mutated genes are transferred into C. elegans and the effect on muscle function is observed.

You can join The Synapse, Oberlin’s student-run science magazine, as a writer, artist, or editor. No prior experience is necessary, and while applications are no longer being accepted for the first issue of the spring semester, a new issue will begin production in late March.

A r t s & C u lt u r e

ARTS & CULTURE February 23, 2018

established 1874

Volume 146, Number 15

MRC Speaker Series Features dapperQ Founder Julia Peterson Arts & Culture Editor

Anita Dolce Vita, who has produced some of the largest queer fashion shows in the United States and is the owner and Editor-in-Chief of leading online queer style magazine dapperQ, came to Oberlin to give a talk on queer style as visual activism Saturday afternoon. Dolce Vita has produced shows at the Brooklyn Museum, the Institute of Contemporary Art/ Boston, and SxSW, and her work has been featured by The New York Times, HBO, OUT Magazine, and many other prominent outlets. Her talk was organized as part of the Multicultural Resource Center’s My Name Is My Own speaker series, which centers the experiences of queer and trans people of color. dapperQ, which Dolce Vita describes as “one of the world’s most widely read queer style digital magazines,” is well-known among the queer community and boasts over 45,000 social media followers.

College senior Monique Newton, who attended the talk, said she appreciated having a speaker involved in a project of this magnitude present her work on campus.

“I follow dapperQ on Instagram,” Newton said.

“They’re really big, especially in the POC queer community, so I definitely knew who they were. And as soon as I saw who was coming, I was really, really excited. It was great hearing her talk about the intention behind each and every thing that dapperQ does, in terms of each and every fashion show and every model. … It was just really nice hearing someone who’s in charge of this cool organization and in this position of power talking about how it was really important that she

included femme queers into the discussion, and disabled people into the discussion, and just being really intentional about who they were including in the whole organization.”

For MRC Student Life Program Coordinator Khalid Taylor, OC ’17, bringing speakers like Dolce Vita to campus is particularly important because they can be role models for students whose identities are often marginalized.

“Part of the reason of bringing queer and trans people of color [to campus] is often that their voices are not centered or appreciated, and the intersection of their identity is not often given space to exist in many different areas,” Taylor said. “Anita Dolce Vita, for example, … [is] really trying to understand the dynamics of what it means to break the standards of heteronormative concepts of what it means to present or perform a certain type of way. I think she is an amazing role model and an amazing powerhouse, because she’s … a nurse by day and an amazing founder of an incredible fashion-based organization that centers marginalized voices by night.”

In her talk, Dolce Vita spoke about the many nuances and layers of queer style and the way that they interact with people’s own lives and with the mainstream fashion industry, and how a multiplicity of queer identities and experiences can and should be uplifted through fashion.

“The LGBTQ community is at the forefront of revolutionizing the way in which we look at garments in relation to our gender performance and expression,” Dolce Vita wrote in an email to the Review. “Our self-expression through fashion exemplifies the basic principle that

style is a personal, curated, artistic reflection of who we are on the inside, and by fearlessly breaking norms, we have created a social movement that enables every member of our society to benefit from less restrictive, less oppressive ways of expressing ourselves. Given the mainstream fashion industry’s current hyperfocus on ‘gender neutral’ style as a ‘trend,’ I was most excited to discuss how queer style is part of our daily lived experiences, not just a trend, as well as explore how other queer expressions, such as femme style, are radical and deserve visibility.”

For Newton, this idea of fashion as more than just clothes or trends was especially resonant.

“I really liked the points she made about how what you wear is so important to how you feel,” Newton said. “Oberlin is very diverse in terms of fashion and style and what people wear, and so I hope that people took away [the idea of ] seeing fashion in a more critical lens.”

Dolce Vita examined queer aesthetic from an activist point of view, exploring a long history of style as a mechanism for social change.

“Queer style has its own revolutionary roots, but is also part of a rich legacy of style as visual activism, including the symbolic political resistance of the flapper dress, Zoot suit, and hip hop style, to reference a few examples in popular Western culture,” Dolce Vita wrote in an email to the Review.

Dolce Vita’s talk mentioned the histories of queer fashion in communities of color, which are often erased when styles created by these communities are appropriated by the white queer community or by the mainstream fashion industry.

“Being from New York, I know about the ballroom scene — the queer, LGBTQ and Latino ballroom scene, about voguing and the history of that community, and how that has come up in a lot of current fashion trends and fashion trends since the ’80s, which is when the scene was at its highest,” Taylor said. “Much fashion and so many social trends were taken from the community without actual recognition and without actual praise, and without the consent of these communities, without empowering these communities financially or giving them the credit that they deserve. How are you going to take their fashion, how are you going to take their style, how are you going to take their way of existing, but then punish them and penalize them for existing in that way?”

Dolce Vita also mentioned scientific reasons why fashion has such an impact on people’s lives, which Taylor found to be a particularly impactful part of the talk.

“I loved how she brought up aspects of embodied cognition,” Taylor said.

“The idea of what you wear or the value you assign to clothing really determines how you wear it, and also how you perform or how you present or how you enact your day.” dapperQ is currently involved in a number of high-profile projects, such as organizing a show at New York Fashion Week and preparing to present “RompHims and Boyfriend Jeans: Ungendering Fashion” at SxSW this March.

Oberlin will also host a fashion show — Sankofa Remix’d: Reclaiming My Fly, in recognition of Black History Month — March 3.

“It’s going to be an amazing event, See Dolce, page 13

Black Panther Shakes Foundations of Race, Gender Norms Kameron Dunbar

The world was watching Wakanda last weekend as Black Panther opened in theaters across North America, as it should have been — Black Panther is a landmark film for America, and in many ways a pivotal expression of Blackness in film.

Some have posited Black Panther as a referendum on the financial and cultural salience of centering Blackness rather than relegating it to supporting roles. Appropriately released in the heat of Black History Month, the movie collected $241.9 million dollars in North American box office sales over the four-day President’s Day weekend. The movie’s success continues as it quickly approaches the $500 million mark globally.

Wakanda, where the film is set, is a fictional African nation possessing exceptional wealth, resources, and technology. The leaders of Wakanda, ultimately ruled by King T’Challa (Chadwick Boseman), hide those resources from the rest of the world, using a façade of despair and poverty as a tool to protect Wakanda from colonialist pillaging.

This is only one example of the strong and creative social commentary brought to life by the director, Ryan Coogler (Fruitvale Station, Creed). The film reconstructs generations of Black Nationalist theory through Killmonger (Michael B. Jordan) and T’Challa, challenging previous notions of what superhero films can address. At multiple points in the story, the CIA defeats itself by assuming that

10

Wakanda is what it purports to be: a poor, struggling nation. American imperialism fails due to its own racism.

T’Challa becomes king of Wakanda when his father, King T’Chaka (John Kani), is killed. But the king’s crown comes hand in hand with the mantle of the Black Panther — an ancient power granting the strength of the panther and the goddess Bast to the ruler of Wakanda. Boseman portrays T’Challa as a thoughtful, quiet, patient, and smart character. T’Challa’s central problem in the film is deciding whether to carry on Wakanda’s isolationist traditions or to contribute to the outside world and help the needy beyond its borders, particularly nonWakandan Black people.

Jordan’s turn as Killmonger merits considerable praise as well. Typically, a Marvel film villain is some variation on a megalomaniacal man who wants to destroy the world. Black Panther breaks this pattern by giving us a villain whose motives are more grounded, relatable, and emotionally wrought. The character is also more nuanced than most Marvel villains; Jordan’s incredible performance brings humanity to a tragic role and makes the audience aware of his struggle, grief, and fury through a wellstructured development of the character.

Not only has Black Panther achieved its purpose of being a film in which Black people can see themselves as they want to be seen, it is also 10 times the feminist that movie Wonder Woman was. The women in Black Panther are regal, dynamic, central,

and Black. In an industry where women, especially Black women, are almost always given subservient roles, it was refreshing to watch the the female characters of this film flourish. Danai Gurira (The Walking Dead) is spectacular as Okoye, the head of Wakanda’s Dora Milaje, an all-female kingsguard.

Lupita Nyong’o (Twelve Years A Slave, Star Wars: The Force Awakens) plays Nakia, a dynamic and impressive fighter (and T’Challa’s love interest), and Letitia Wright (Black Mirror) steals the spotlight as T’Challa’s sarcastic, tech-genius sister, Shuri. Seeing Black women as both intellectually and physically powerful role models is novel, exciting, and long overdue.

Black Panther embraces African culture head-on.

At no point did the creators decide to water down any aspect of the culture they were depicting to make it more “suitable” for white audiences. Wakanda is shown to be advanced not because it has imitated the West, but rather because it has fully embraced its Africanness. The costumes, landscapes, humor, and characters are all wonderfully, unapologetically Black.

If it sounds as though I’m making this film about race, it’s because I am. In short, the film was Blackity Black Black. From featuring prominent Black artists on its soundtrack such as Kendrick Lamar, SZA, and The Weeknd, to rolling out a purple carpet at its premiere, Black Panther stands as a landmark staple of Black culture, a home run for Marvel, and a film worthy of global recognition.

ON THE RECORD

Fredara Hadley, Assistant Professor of Ethnomusicology Fredara Hadley is a Visiting Assistant Professor of Ethnomusicology at Oberlin. She received her Masters degree in Arts from Clark Atlanta University and is currently pursuing her Ph.D. at Indiana University. Professor Hadley is involved with the Society of Ethnomusicology, the International Association for the Study of Popular Music, and Experience Music Project’s Popular Music Conference. She is also the founder of Jooksi, a company that provides music education and musicbased walking tours of New York City. Last Tuesday she gave a presentation on “The Black History of Oberlin Conservatory” in honor of Black History Month.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Visiting Assistant Professor of Ethnomusicology Fredara Hadley Photo by Hugh Newcomb, Photo Editor Interview by Kirsten Heuring Staff Writer

What do you want people to take away from your talk?

I was thinking a lot about my students — the students who are in my class now, presently, and students who have been in my classes. I say this to them all the time: they have a tremendous amount of power. I wanted them to be inspired by what [other] students were able to accomplish while they were here; I wanted them to be inspired artistically; I wanted them to be inspired [and know] that they can do a lot socially. Dean [Chris] Jenkins told them last week that student activism helped to bring him here. Student activism helped to bring me here. Students have voices that I respect, and I think that they should be reminded and inspired by what people do when they leave here.

And even in a contemporary moment we talked about

composers like the brilliant Courtney Bryan [OC ’04] who graduated from the composition department here, Rhiannon Giddens [OC ’00] who just got a Macarthur Genius Award … Theo Croker [OC ’07], Sullivan Fortner [OC ’08], who graduated from here as well. And so [I’m working on] really helping them connect the dots regardless of who they are, what their race, gender identity may be.

Be inspired by all of these folks who’ve come through the same experience that you’re coming through, and use your voice in all the ways that you can use your voice.

By being an Obie … you are a part of a legacy, a community of people. Be proud of that, and hold it and yourself accountable.

What do you think is the relevance of ethnomusicology in the modern world ?

I think [of ] ethnomusicology as [a]

discipline that is built around ethnographic methods and actually talking to people and observing musical performances. ... It’s a great opportunity to get out of the building, get out of your head, get beyond what you think you know about the world, what you think you know about a group of people, no matter how similar or dissimilar they may be. I really thought a lot about that in a course I taught last semester called Black Music in the Hour of Chaos, [and] one of the themes we were really trying to work through was gentrification. I had students talk about the Black community that exists in the closest proximity of where they’re from, and also talk about the music associated with that community, if they could identify some kind of musical representation of that community. I thought it was a revealing exercise [for the] field of ethnomusicology.

This academic discipline could be used to help students grapple with and address personal experiences with these communities, ... through musical associations and to really reconsider what they thought they knew about these communities or for students to … reframe the narrative about their neighborhoods. A year ago I wouldn’t have thought that something like ethnomusicology would’ve been useful in that way. I think we’re fortunate that Oberlin has ethnomusicologists who are here. Professors such as Professor Fraser are really committed to ideas of community engagement

… and thinking about how do we make this as practical and as close to students in their experiences as possible.

Music is usually something everyone has experience with, and you can get everyone to come to the table using music.

What is the most exciting part of the research you do?

The exciting part always is finding something I had no idea existed. When I was in the archives last week, I really felt like I was on a treasure hunt. Everything I found out about Shirley Graham DuBois was amazing but also, [the archives] had lots of people’s handwritten things. I am happy to go off and dig. If I could just research all day, I would. I love it. It just so happened a colleague of mine, Professor Tamika Nunley from [the] History [department], was in the archive at the same time. I was knee-deep in Shirley stuff. She said she, too, was interested in Shirley Graham DuBois, and so we’re kicking around possibilities, because it became important to both of us to bring her work back … to us here at Oberlin in some kind of meaningful and powerful way. Shirley Graham DuBois might be a really interesting opportunity to branch the divide between the College and the Conservatory. Here you have this really [unique] figure who created a unifying piece of work.

How does the music you study intersect with the modern political culture?

This is where I have to

say I’m grateful to teach at a place like Oberlin where we have a bit more latitude … to deal directly with what’s happening in the world. It’s important to me to never proselytize or put my political views on students or things of that nature, but we can talk about the 2016 elections or Black Lives Matter, … and if I’m going to be honest and have integrity when I’m … talking about music and race then I feel obligated to talk about these issues. A lot of the ways by which we deal with it is by looking [at] and thinking about and listening to musical responses that are happening in the world. If I want to talk about Black Lives Matter I will pull pieces like Kendrick Scott’s “Philando,” ... Ambrose Akinmusire’s “Rollcall for Those Absent” … [and] really talk about how Black music has really been in response to what has happened in the world. [Black music is] also the practice of joy despite what has happened in the world. We talk about that in the class, listen to albums by Solange, Beyoncé, Jay Z, Marvin Gaye, really peeling back the layers, doing deep listening of these works. Studying music, something that brings people to the table, can be a powerful way to gauge people’s commentary about what’s happening in the world, good or bad.

The Conservatory actually had an activism teach-in, and I thought this was one of the most powerful days I’ve had here at work. It was full faculty and deans there.

A few of us presented, and See On The Record, page 13

Oberlin’s Live Talk Show “Good Talk” Leaves Audience in Stitches Kate Fishman Staff Writer

“Good Talk,” Oberlin’s live talk show, made a triumphant return to the ’Sco Monday night to begin its third season, to the delight of comedy fans on campus.

At the start of Monday’s show, co-hosts Victoria Liebetrau, College sophomore, and College senior Owen Harrington proclaimed to a packed house, “‘Good Talk’ is back, and we’re a normal talk show now.”

Being a “normal talk show” constituted a series of skits involving a set of two bodyguards named Butchy and Muscles, a car salesman gone rogue, and the promotion of a new product — SC4RK or “Shitty Clothes 4 Rich Kids,” a device bearing a remarkable likeness to a fork with which you can quickly shred your designer clothes.

According to Harrington, the writing process for “Good Talk” begins during the fall semester, with the sporadic throwing around of ideas. Once the spring semester begins, the writing gets more concrete, and

The Oberlin Review | February 23, 2018

the bi-weekly schedule becomes more serious. Right now, in addition to its two hosts, the show has four writers — Harrington, College junior Ben Silverman, College sophomore Olive Sherman, and College firstyear Mary Brody. The show stars two actors, College first-year Matteo Debole and College junior Eliana Zuckerman, and is produced by College junior Lara Edwards.

“The week leading up to the show is full of lastminute details, bookings, and mishaps,” Edwards wrote in an email to the Review. “Yet, every time we are able to come through that Monday night with amazing segments and a cohesive show. Personally, I thrive in the considerable chaos of the Good Talk process and the excitement of the days leading up to a taping.”

Harrington, a long-time member of the “Good Talk” team, said he became a host through a series of happy accidents — most recently that the intended host went abroad — and his co-host, Liebetrau, made her first run on the show this semester.

“I actually hadn’t ever seen an episode of it before [Monday night],” Liebetrau wrote in an email to the Review.

According to Harrington, the show this year has moved in a different direction from last year’s season. It had become, in his opinion, a little too “self-referential” and “confrontational.” For example, a segment called “The Zone” involved an audience member’s name being pulled from a hat, and when that person came to the stage to collect their prize, the prize turned out to be sitting on a stool at the back of the stage ringed with chicken wire (The Zone) for the remainder of the show. In reference to this season, Harrington laughed, “I’m trying to make people not scared.”

In the spirit of President’s Day, the hosts called up club presidents from the audience to compete and determine the “best president.” Members of OCDems, OSnow, YeoPress, and the OC Acrobats dueled it out on stage in challenges such as miming the club activity and pairing the club’s vice president with its president.

The OCDems won and took home prizes of their choice — an apple and a plastic candle.

Another highlight was some footage unearthed

by Doris Kearns Goodtime — the “Good Talk” marijuana enthusiast and historian — that made a See Strange, page 13

11

A r t s & C u lt u r e

Japanese Literature Sheds Light on Issues of Violence

Scholars of Japanese literature convened in Oberlin last weekend for a conference on “Violence, Justice, & Honor in Japan’s Literary Cultures.”

Photo courtesy of Ann Sherif Ananya Gupta Arts & Culture Editor

The two-day annual conference of the Association for Japanese Literary Studies was themed “Violence, Justice, & Honor in Japan’s Literary Cultures” this year.

Panel topics ranged from written Japanese literature, manga comics, gaming, and photography, among various other forms of visual art, all revolving around the theme of violence. “Minds are brutal places,” said Norma Fields, University of Chicago Robert S. Ingersoll Distinguished Service Professor in Japanese Studies and East Asian Languages and Civilizations.

The conference was hosted by East Asian Studies Professor Ann Sherif on behalf

of Oberlin College. Normally held at research universities such as Yale and Penn State, the Association of Japanese Literary Studies conference took place at a liberal arts college for one of the few times in its 26 year history.

“Scholars came from as far away as Japan, Hawaii, and Italy because we crave the opportunity to dive in deeply with other researchers in our field,” Sherif said. “When I’ve attended it before, very few undergraduates came, because mostly this conference is hosted at research universities. … It’s usually just graduate students and scholars in the field.”

Perhaps for this reason, Sherif’s students made up the bulk of College attendance, even though the conference was widely publicized on campus.

“This is a great chance for the students who were able to participate to learn both something about the theme of violence, about scholarly method in the humanities ... and how scholars network and do our work together as a community,” Sherif said.

In one session, “Proletarian Responses to Class Violence,” Bard College Assistant Professor of Japanese Mika Endo — joined by colleague Nathan Shockey and DePaul University Professor Heather Bowen-Struyk — spoke about the Proletarian Movement and the portrayal of violence in children’s literature, particularly that of working class families in the 1920s and ’30s. Endo mentioned literary pieces like Twenty-Four Eyes by Sakae Tsuboi, which describes

the experiences of children watching their parents getting arrested and witnessing their pain, emphasizing the role these pieces have played in creating more emotionally sensitive children. She also mentioned her work on a compositional pedagogy called “Tsuzurikata,” or “writing education,” which encouraged children to write about their daily life in wartorn Japan, acting not only as a means of documentation of their suffering, but also as a kind of catharsis from the trauma of violence.

“The ethos of this writing education that I work on is that writing makes you look deeper and makes you pay attention to what’s going on around you,” Endo said. “That’s the ideal process by which writing is used to help improve your life.”

In an argument relevant to the United States, BowenStruyk alluded to different kinds of violence, particularly the slow and invisible nature of violence in capitalism. She mentioned highly troubling ideas such as workplace violence that can take the form of bullying or harassment, and their roots in the capitalist hunger for productivity, violence enabled by imperialist supremacy, and the violence wrought by poverty. BowenStruyk argued that poverty is essential for capitalism, since capitalism is dependent on the desperation of the poor.

“I think the problem is, if you don’t have ... security nets then you — no matter how qualified and awesome — are willing to work for less,” Bowen-Struyk said. “Why? Because you need it. The more desperate you become, the less you’re willing to work for. And there’s nothing to prevent you from working for less than you could need

to buy the food to replenish [yourself ].”

Bowen-Struyk highlighted flaws in the capitalist economic model, which she said uses the vulnerability of the poor for cheap labor — significantly diminishing their standard of living — and then blames them for their inability to improve their conditions.

“Fundamentally in America, even though we talk really positively about capitalism, we have decided capitalism does need rules, and that’s why we do have a minimum wage,” she said. “What remains then, is this fiction that the system is fair but minimum wage still doesn’t provide a living wage.

So you could work two jobs and still not have enough to pay the bills.”

In light of recent massshootings in the U.S., dealing with violence and its aftershocks is a highly pertinent topic that has grown in the national discourse. The representation of proletarian protest and their responses to violence using art resonates especially with the views of many Oberlin students who often unite on issues of social welfare.

“The arts in Japan have protested violence; they’ve helped people heal; some writers and artists have also aestheticized violence and promoted war,” Sherif said. “[The conference showcases] the ability of the arts to engage with many pressing issues today: nuclear weapons, nuclear tech, slow violence of environmental pollution, war, [and] virtual violence. ... Even though Japan and the arts might seem distant, we’re grappling with really pressing social issues, and are highlighting the crucial role of arts in our society.”

AMAM Hosts “Art on the Brain”

The Allen Memorial Art Museum hosted Tracie McCambridge of the Wexner Center for the Arts at The Ohio State University Wednesday evening. She spoke about her program “Art on the Brain,” which integrates art into the process of recuperating from and living with brain injuries. This is the museum’s third “Art and Health” session, and the first time that this program has focused specifically on the brain.

Text by Julia Peterson, Arts & Culture Editor Photo by Bryan Rubin, Photo Editor

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Strange, Witty “Good Talk” Makes Spring Comeback at ’Sco

Dolce Vita Talks Queer Style, Activism

Continued from page 11

convincing case for JFK’s last speech having been an adamant endorsement of recreational drug decriminalization.

“It’s not just I who love[s] opiates, it is the American people who love opiates, and hallucinogens, and the other thing,” proclaimed “JFK” in the dubbed speech. “We do not love these drugs because they are easy. We love them because they are hard.”

From there, the hosts introduced an educational segment, GoodTEDx, wherein Sherman presented her talk, “Reading Response Week 11: Persepolis,” a charming homework assignment-based presentation. The segment included slides of the coffee shop where she had her Skidmore college interview, the kid who bullied her for her middle-school presentation on Persepolis, and Sherman alongside her best friend in their 4th grade Halloween costumes as Juno MacGuff and Bleecker — all, of course, in service of the question of Western influence in the Persepolis narrative.

One of the evening’s funniest moments was

a short performance of “Hancock,” a knock-off of Hamilton performed by the “Hamilton offBroadway cast.” The performance featured lines like, “The only parties I like are political parties,” and, when Washington beat Hancock out for the role of President, “You’re still the President in my heart. Wanna get Dunkin?” These were, of course, punctuated by short raps with less-thanperfect rhythm.

In two weeks, things will ramp up — Harrington promises a riff on daytime television and a cooking show segment, as well as a muchawaited interview with President Ambar.

“Good Talk” will also be hosting open mics after each of their shows, in which people can do stand-up, tell stories, do some improv, or just perform whatever they’d like. They encourage people to stay for these post-show segments, buy some drinks, and enjoy themselves.

In Liebetrau’s words, “There’s something energizing about having an audience full of pals.”

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and will hopefully incorporate the lived experiences of many different folks, particularly Black folks,” Taylor said.

“We’ll bring to light the identity, the culture, the lived experiences of Black communities in different forms.”

For Taylor, celebrations of queerness and queer fashion are particularly important in the face of often hostile reactions, especially toward more marginalized members of the queer community, who often dress in ways that subvert or challenge existing binary notions of fashion.

“I think queer and trans voices and queer style in particular, needs to be celebrated,” Taylor said. “Because there’s so much hate that goes to it, without the balance of celebration, without the balance of positivity, without the balance of it being seen as something that is worthy of the light and the praise and the glory, then there’s no balance.”

On The Record with Fredara Hadley (cont.)

Continued from page 11

CROSSWORD SOLUTIONS

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... after the lecture some of the students said, “I don’t understand what I should be doing now. Does the world still need me to be in a practice room eight hours a day when it feels like everything’s going crazy in the world itself?”

So we talk about all the ways in which music is even more important in those moments. It can be music of protest, which is really important. It can be music of memory, like this piece “In Memoriam: [The Colored soldiers who died for democracy.]” It can also just be catharsis — music that is beautiful and helps us forget for one minute if things are terrible.

Can you talk a little about Jooksi and why you founded it?

As a musicologist, I had long been studying more than a specific genre, the narrative, the arc of the story of Black music in America. I was struck by [how] you can walk around [New York] City and go to a place that is connected to almost every genre that one could teach about in terms of Black music. I

wanted a way to extend that conversation beyond what I do in academia. I wanted to find ways to make that a wider audience, … so I started Jooksi. It started out as a podcast … and that was our opportunity to play lots of music that we felt deserves to be heard both from the past and the present and to tell stories about the music, the people who made the music. and about us that we felt weren’t being told enough.

But I liked talking to people, so I got my sight-seeing license in New York, and I would do walking tours of Harlem and Brooklyn and lower Manhattan talking about all these genres. I tell people I’m a one-trick pony — the only thing I can really do is talk about Black music — and so it’s about trying to figure out what are all the ways I can deliver that message. And it’s also about community engagement; it’s important to me that the knowledge I’ve been fortunate enough to earn is available not just to my students, but … to the community from which I gained the knowledge in the first place.

THE UNFORTUNATE OWL: PADDY MCCABE

The Oberlin Review | February 23, 2018

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Sp ort s IN THE LOCKER ROOM

Matt Sarro, Brian Cabral, and Sam Paul, Gruffs Rugby Captains College seniors Matt Sarro and Brian Cabral and junior Sam Paul all came to Oberlin without any experience playing rugby, but the trio has found a love for the sport and formed a brotherhood after joining Oberlin’s club team. The team — which has no coach — schedules its own games and practices. They play six games in the fall and compete against teams of their choice in the spring. Their first open practice is Monday at 4:30 p.m. on North Quad, weather permitting. Anyone interested is welcome.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

From left: Sam Paul, Matt Sarro, and Brian Cabral, Gruffs Rugby Captains.

Photo by Hugh Newcomb, Photo Editor

Interview by Alex McNicoll and Alexis Dill Sports Editors

How and when did you get involved with rugby? What are your roles on the team?

Matt Sarro: I didn’t play rugby in high school — I wrestled in high school, and Oberlin didn’t have a wrestling team.

During orientation week [the rugby team] had an open field practice, and I enjoyed it. It was a relatively easy transition for me going from wrestling to rugby. I’m president [of the team], so I guess that’s coordinating administration, any outside emails that come from people who want to sponsor us or reach out to us, and organizing games with other teams.

Sam Paul: Like Matt, I came to this school not playing a single second of rugby. In fact, I didn’t play sports at all in high school, so I came here and was like, “Well, my size should be for football,” but I had never touched a football before in an actual game, so I thought I would just go to the club sports fair. The first thing I did was go up to the men’s rugby team and say, “Is this where I sign up to play?” Our captain that year was just like, “Yes, absolutely.

Come sign up.” I’ve been playing ever since. It’s been a good time. Right now, I’m captain of the forwards and am also Matt’s secretary, so I’m scheduling the games this spring. I contact the refs — all that stuff.

Brian Cabral: I joined the rugby team my first year, second semester. I’ve been on and off because I just have a lot going on with other clubs and other memberships that I have on campus. This year I am the rugby social chair, [which involves] building community with other club teams and varsity teams; it’s an outreach position. I was

reached out to [during] my first semester [at Oberlin], and I initially rejected it. I think after my first semester I realized I needed a community and sense of brotherhood that I had in high school, because I played football and basketball.

I didn’t want to play varsity sports because all these people have had years of training, so I thought, “OK, let me try out rugby.” It wasn’t that hard to get the rules down, but in my first game, I didn’t know what to do, and my teammates were like, “Just go after the dude with the ball.” There was a moment that spring semester where I had the seniors back me up; I was tackled horribly, and one of the seniors picked me up and was like, “I’m going to get the guy.”

He tackled the f**k out of the guy. For me, it was just where I belonged. We help each other on and off the pitch.

How do you go about recruiting, considering many of your athletes join the team with little to no experience?

MS: During orientation week we reach out. We tell people interested, “Just come to an open practice. See if you like it — if you don’t, that’s fine. Just try it out.” One thing we have to deal with is the stigma of rugby, which is getting hit hard. Honestly, it’s not as bad as you’d expect.

had more people showing up to practice.

What does a season look like — how many games, who do you play, etc.?

SP: In terms of what the season usually looks like in the fall, we tend to get about six games in a season. In past years, we’ve been in the Ohio Central Division, so we’ve played teams like Denison [University], Ohio Wesleyan [University], Ashland [University], and Kenyon [College]. This past year they switched us to the Northeast Division, so we play Akron [University], Case Western [University], and John Carroll [University]. In the spring we get to choose whoever we want to play, so it’s usually teams we’ve had in the fall if we liked playing with them and they’re nice kids. In terms of practices, in the fall we usually try to hold practices three times a week, just so we give people the opportunity to show up to at least two of them. In the spring, it’s a little different because of the rotating field house times and the fact that the varsity sports practice indoors, so we practice about once or twice a week.

What’s the atmosphere of the team like?

If you want to join, please join.

Rugby is technically the fastest growing sport in the U.S. We want more people to play and learn about the game. We enjoy it a lot and like to share that.

SP: It’s a lot more laid-back too, mainly because it’s a club sport. We want people to show up to practice and games, but we’re also not the ones who say, “Well, you didn’t show up to X, Y, Z — you can’t come to this next event.” We want to include as many people as we can — come to practice because they want to, not because we make them.

Do you hope to see rugby become a varsity sport? Or do you prefer it to stay club?

MS: We like the laid-back atmosphere. When you’re on the field, you definitely try to beat the living daylights out of other teams, but when it’s over, it’s tradition to socialize with the other team. So you get together and say, “Hey, that was a nice hit.” And then we’ll sing songs together.

What’s on the horizon for you all?

MS: It varies. In the fall, there’s usually 15 per side, and in the spring there’s usually seven. In past years, we’ve had 20–30 people on the team. That number has declined, but we’ve

BC: We try to stay united and build cohesion among us with workouts, because we self-schedule our workouts — so we can’t get the whole team together for a specific session.

The three of us will go work out together, then three other people will work out together, depending on schedules. We do a lot of community building — hanging out a lot.

MS: It’s incredibly inclusive.

SP: Right now, because we’re communicating with other teams and aren’t on a leaguebased schedule, we still aren’t positive what our total number of games will be or who we will play. But we do know for sure that we will be playing two teams who reached out to us. Denison wants to play us on April 21. We’ve been trying to get them to come to Oberlin for the past like five years. Akron responded to us, and so we’ll probably play them on [April] 28 — April will probably be

featuring James, Golden State Warriors star Kevin Durant, and SportsCenter anchor Cari Champion. In it, James commented, “The number-one job in America, the appointed person, is someone who don’t understand the people.

And really don’t give a f**k about the people.” He added that while President Donald Trump’s words and actions are out of his control, his platform gives him the unique opportunity to encourage fans to rise above Trump’s antics.

James was born 33 years ago in Akron, Ohio. His mother, Gloria James, was only 16 years old when she became pregnant, and

his biological father, ex-convict Anthony McClelland, fled shortly afterward. James never had a stable home growing up. He and Gloria moved every couple months, often crashing on the couch in a one-bedroom apartment that belonged to a friend of hers. The two often relied on welfare to get by. If anybody has the right to give voice to people from underrepresented communities, it’s James. Before the fame and millions of dollars, he experienced disenfranchisement and the challenges of poverty. It was more than God-given talent that helped James become the

first overall pick of the 2003 NBA draft as a senior in high school; he overcame his circumstances with superhuman work ethic, grit, and street smarts.

Ingraham’s comments are disgraceful. To question the intelligence of a man who made it out of a place where nothing is given and everything is earned and all the way to the top is appalling.

“This is what happens when you attempt to leave high school a year early to join the NBA,” Ingraham responded to LeBron’s criticisms of Trump. “And it’s always unwise to seek political advice from someone who gets paid a

How many people are typically on the team?

stacked with games and events.

MS: We’re finally looking to get a coach or an authority figure of sorts, which is an incentive for more people to come out to practice.

BC: It’ll add a ton of structure to our team as well, in terms of backs and forwards, because that’s how we divide our team in practices sometimes.

Do people generally come to games?

BC: Yeah, definitely. People show up. We make Facebook events, spread the word, and tell people, “If you care, you should show up.” And they do. We’ve had administrators, teachers, professors and stuff come.

What are your best selling points for why people should join?

BC: It’s low-commitment.

MS: It’s fun, and it’s not like any other sport you’ve played before, most likely. It tends to combine a bunch of sports. It’s soccer and football put together, and it’s non-stop. In football, if you get tackled, the play stops and you have to restart the clock. If you get tackled in rugby, you don’t. It’s high-intensity and a lot of fun.

BC: We really try to push a sense of brotherhood. We’re here not just as your teammates, but as colleagues. We’re there for each other even outside of Oberlin.

SP: I made 20 new friends instantly when I showed up. I didn’t know any of them and they were older than me, but I showed up and immediately felt accepted into the rugby family.

James, Athletes Have Right to Discuss Political Issues Alexis Dill Sports Editor

Imagine being one of the most awe-inspiring and charitable basketball players to ever hit the hardwood, winning three NBA championships, earning 14 straight All-Star nods, and donating over $40 million to send more than 1,100 students to college tuition-free — just to be told to stick to sports because you expressed your political views.

Fox News Host Laura Ingraham disparaged LeBron James last Thursday after taking offense to an UNINTERRUPTED video

14

hundred million dollars a year to bounce a ball. … Keep the political commentary to yourself or, as someone once said, shut up and dribble.”

Ingraham’s remarks prove that racism still exists in this country — and sports are not an exception. It doesn’t matter how many championships Black athletes win or how much of their hard-earned money they donate to charities. Some Americans will still racially discriminate against them.

In October, San Antonio Spurs Head Coach Gregg Popovich See Professional, page 15

Swimmers Set Records, Personal Bests at Conference standout first-year Tesla Waters. Waters set school records in both the 50-yard freestyle (23.85 seconds) and the 100-yard Individual Medley (59.97) over the course of the competition, finishing ninth in each event. She also took part in the 100-yard butterfly and swam three relays, including the 400-yard freestyle relay, where she set a third school record with her leadoff split of 52.06. The team of Waters, first-year Jillian Jaczkowski, and sophomores Alex Grande and Sarah Dalgleish placed fifth overall.

Other strong performances came from first-year Molly Marshall, who finished 12th in the 200-yard IM and eighth in the 400-yard IM, recording the fifth-fastest time in school history in the latter event with a mark of 4:41.69.

Junior captain Rachel Poyle singled out Marshall’s efCollege senior Rachael Andrews dives her way to an eighth-place forts in particular for praise. finish in the three-meter diving at the NCAC Swimming and “Coming into our conference as a [first-year] is really Diving Championships last week.

daunting, because you’ll have national champions in the

Photo courtesy of OC Athletics lanes next to you,” Poyle said. “It can be really nerveOwen Mittenthal wracking to have to compete with that, but Molly totally Staff Writer took it in stride. She had some pretty big time drops in her races and it was super exciting to see because she worked The swimming and diving teams travelled to Deniso incredibly hard the entire season.” son University last week to compete at the four-day-long First-year Ellisa Lang added a 13th place finish in the North Coast Athletic Conference championships. At the 200-yard butterfly, also entering Oberlin’s all-time top ten end of the grueling competition, the Yeowomen finished list. On the diving board, senior Rachael Andrews led the seventh out of nine teams with 584 points and the Yeoway, placing eighth in the three-meter dive and 11th in the men placed eighth out of ten teams with 430 points. Denione-meter dive. Poyle revealed that Andrews had disloson University and Kenyon College — widely regarded as cated her knee shortly before the meet, making her aptwo of the three best programs in all of Division III — batpearance in the finals of the three-meter event even more tled for the victory on both sides, with the Denison men’s impressive. team and the Kenyon women’s team ultimately coming For the Yeomen, sophomore Michael Lin provided a out on top. pair of the team’s top performances, placing ninth in the Head Coach Andrew Brabson said he was satisfied 200-yard breaststroke and 14th in the 100-yard breastwith teams’ efforts throughout the competition. stroke. Fellow sophomore Kristoph Naggert competed in “Overall, I was quite pleased with the team’s perforboth of those events as well, placing 15th and 18th, respecmance,” Brabson said. “We ended up with around 50 pertively. First-year Farzad Sarkari had a strong competition, sonal bests, 17 all-time top ten performances, and three with career best times in both the 1650- and 500-yard school records. I was happy to see everyone keep the enfreestyle events, placing 16th and 23rd in those races. The ergy up and support each other through the duration of Yeomen also fielded numerous relays, including the 800the meet.” yard freestyle, where the team of Naggert, Sarkari, and The Yeowomen were keyed all week by the efforts of sophomores Jack McKeown and Matthew Berry finished

Yeowomen Seek Redemption After 2017 NCAC Championship Loss Alexis Dill and Alex McNicoll Sports Editors

The women’s lacrosse team had one of their most successful seasons in school history last spring. After starting off strong with an eight-game winning streak, the Yeowomen earned a 14–2 record and made it to the North Coast Athletic Conference championship, in which they lost to Denison University 10–15.

Under the leadership of senior captains and midfielders Natalie Rauchle and Sydney Garvis, the 2018 squad — which added on six first-years and two walkon sophomores — are gearing up to take on the challenge of not just matching, but exceeding last year’s success.

In 2017, three All-Great Lakes Region honorees — goalie Alexa L’Insalata, midfielder Sloane Garelick, and attack Sara Phister — graduated. The trio accomplished a record of 43–20 over their four years in the program, making them the second winningest class in the program’s history. However, Head Coach and 2017 Great Lakes Region Coach of the Year Lynda McCandlish said she has moved on from last spring’s successes and is excited to see what her new squad is capable of.

“We have a very different team than we had last year, with a lot of young talent, but our potential is as great as it ever has been,” McCandlish said. “I’m excited to see our team develop and grow this season. It should be fun to watch.”

Rauchle has proven herself one of the best sharpshooters — if not the best — in the conference over the course of her career. As a sophomore, she was an AllNCAC Second Team selection after finishing second in the conference with 62 goals. Last spring, she was a Great Lakes All-Region First Team selection and AllNCAC First Team selection after finishing as the conference’s goals per game leader, scoring 62 times in 16 contests. She also collected 19 ground balls and 46 draw controls.

After missing the entire 2016 season due to injury, Garvis had herself a successful junior campaign. The midfielder started all 16 games and collected 10 assists, 26 ground balls, and seven caused turnovers.

She will work alongside junior midfielder Haley The Oberlin Review | February 23, 2018

Drapkin, who started in 12 games last spring before being sidelined due to an injury. Despite missing four contests, she finished fourth on the team with 42 points, scored 20 goals, and collected a team-best 22 assists.

Drapkin also had 32 ground balls, 13 caused turnovers, and 11 draw controls. In addition to the assets she and the rest of the returners bring, Drapkin said she is excited to see what the newcomers will offer.

“We have a lot of really amazing freshmen coming onto the team,” Drapkin said. “We are ready to step up our game and take it to the next level this season. We are looking to make a run in the NCAA tournament.”

Sophomore midfielder Eliza Amber was an AllNCAC Second Team selection and the NCAC Newcomer of the Year last spring, starting all 16 games and scoring 24 goals. She also had six assists and led the team with a shot-on-goal percentage of .861. She was second on the team with 20 caused turnovers, tied for team-best with 46 draw controls, and third on the squad with 38 draws.

Junior midfielders Sabrina DeLeonibus and Jenna Butler will see time as well. DeLeonibus played in 14 games last year, scoring five times and collecting eight ground balls. Butler was featured in 13 games, scoring eight goals, collecting 30 ground balls, and causing 14 turnovers.

The defense will be led by sophomore Emily Berner, who was an All-NCAC Second Team selection last spring, and junior Sydney Allen. Berner started in all 16 games and collected 39 ground balls, the second highest on the team. As a sophomore, Allen made 10 starts, scored four goals, and added 13 ground balls, four draws, and eight caused turnovers.

Perhaps the biggest change will come from the netminder, as replacing All-American L’Insalata between the pipes will be a tough task. However — from what they’ve shown t0hus far — junior Siena Marcelle and first-year Maranda Phillips seem to be up for the challenge. Last spring, Marcelle played in nine games, making six starts in the net. She made 19 saves with a goals against average of 3.90 and a save percentage of .487.

The Yeowomen will look to begin the 2018 campaign on a positive note as they take on Baldwin Wallace University Yellow Jackets at home Wednesday at 6 p.m.

seventh.

Sophomore Duncan Reid, who finished 17th in the 1650-yard free, was pleased with his team’s results.

“I thought we did well,” Reid said. “We’re not the largest team in the meet, but we held our own against the other schools in the conference. I think our breaststroke corps did well, and Farzad swam strong in his events.”

Both teams will compete a final time at Kenyon tomorrow, which will cap off this uniquely challenging season where the team did not have access to a pool facility on campus, due to ongoing renovations of Philips gym and Carr Pool. While commuting to Splash Zone at odd hours and having to coexist with numerous high school teams was a considerable inconvenience all year, the athletes did not allow this obstacle to slow down their training.

“Although our training conditions were difficult this season, the team bonded around these hardships and made the most it,” Brabson said. “Going through a common struggle can certainly galvanize a team and I believe our conference meet performance was a direct result of that.”

Poyle, one of the oldest members on the modestly sized team, wasn’t happy with the challenge but was impressed with how her team handled such a bizarre practicing routine.

“Having to wake up 30 minutes earlier and shuttle to a pool that isn’t ours and that is maintained and catered towards geriatric recreation more than college-level competition isn’t ideal and isn’t fun,” Poyle said. “But we made it, and we’ll have an absolutely beautiful, functional facility for next season, and that makes it all worth it.”

With just two seniors combined on both rosters, and the talents of newcomers such as Waters and Marshall, both squads look poised to continue improving and rise through the conference ranks in the coming years.

“The fact that we had so many underclassmen scoring highly and making strong contributions certainly bodes well for the future of our program,” Brabson said. “I think our first-years gained a lot of experience this season and will come back even stronger and more confident next year.”

Professional Athletes May Speak Out, Act Continued from page 14

called Trump “a soulless coward who thinks that he can only become large by belittling others.” Golden State Warriors Head Coach Steve Kerr has spoken out on social issues multiple times since Trump was elected. “We have a president who has no regard for compassion or empathy, in the most important leadership position in the world,” he told the Bay Area News Group. Why wasn’t either coach mentioned in Ingraham’s verbal attacks? It’s because they’re white.

The same athletes that we cheer for when they make a mesmerizing play and show off otherworldly athleticism are criticized when they speak or act off the court. But basketball was never just a sport, and James was never just an athlete. The sport was invented in 1891 as a way to foster values like cooperation and selflessness in a country that was experiencing rapid urban growth. Likewise, James does more than just inspire young hoopers sporting jerseys with number 23 on the back.

Cleveland.com reported in 2015 that James’ return to the Cavaliers in 2014 resulted in a nine-figure economic boost for downtown Cleveland. When he helped bring the city its first major championship in 52 years, an estimated one million people lined the streets surrounding Quicken Loans Arena and Progressive Field for the parade. In many ways, James represents Clevelanders. But he does more than that — he represents anyone who has a dream and is willing to work for it. To reduce him to his abilities on the court is preposterous.

During a time when our children have no real role models in the White House, athletes and celebrities have filled the void by stepping up and speaking out. We need individuals like James, who rise to the top in their field and pave the way for others to follow suit. If James’ biggest fault is that he is outspoken when it comes to issues that he cares deeply about, then we have ourselves quite an icon.

Athletes aren’t animals thrown onto a stage for our entertainment. They’re spokespeople. They’re artists. They’re bestselling authors. They’re activists. They’re mothers, fathers, husbands, wives, sons, daughters, and — most importantly — United States citizens with the right to free speech and an obligation to be role models for our youth. Let’s quit reducing professional athletes to mere performers. Instead, let’s reduce Laura Ingraham and those like her to what they are: racists.

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SPORTS February 23, 2018

established 1874

Volume 146, Number 15

MLB Offseason Spending Highlights Change in Values Alex McNicoll Sports Editor

Sophomore Ally Driscoll looks to make a pass in a 66–52 victory Tuesday against #6 Denison University. The Yeowomen will face #2 Kenyon College in a semifinal matchup today at 7 p.m. in Greencastle, IN.

Photo by Justin Bank, Staff Photographer

Yeowomen Top Big Red, Advance to NCAC Semis Jane Agler Staff Writer

The women’s basketball team advanced to the North Coast Athletic Conference semifinals for the second year in a row Tuesday, marking their recent and sustained success and giving Head Coach Kerry Jenkins his 100th win with the program. The women’s basketball team triumphed over the Denison University Big Red in the NCAC’s quarterfinal game 66–52 on the home court in front of a large crowd of fired-up fans.

“I would say the feeling I’m having is not predicated on [the win],” Jenkins said. “I think it’s more related to the sense of accomplishment and pride [having] watched the team perform. It was exceptional. We played very hard, had positive energy throughout the team, and I cannot say enough about the representation from the student body. It pushed our game to that next level … that little extra step, that little bit of extra energy.”

Many members of the student body and community lined the stands by the time the opening whistle blew, having come to cheer on this historic Yeowomen squad that set a new program record with 19 wins, as well as take part in the festive giveaways and raffle. Both teams came out of the gate hot. The first quarter was a back and forth battle, as the Yeowomen jumped out to a modest 13–10 lead with two minutes remaining. However, the Big Red retaliated, ending the first quarter with a buzzer-beater and a 16–13 advantage. The second quarter showed an entirely different game. The Big Red could only clinch four points against the Yeowomen’s impenetrable defense, and the Yeowomen’s offense continued to roll as they subsequently managed to break away from their point deficit by finishing the half with a 27–20 lead.

“It’s all about mental reps,” said senior guard Tyler Parlor, who snagged 10 rebounds against Denison. “[It’s about] trying to get our head in the right place, making sure we know all of our coverages [and] know all of our plays, to bring our maturity and experience to the court in these games.”

The two teams seemed to reach a rhythm in the third quarter. Denison struck back against the Yeowomen as best they could, scoring 32 points in the second half and even cutting the deficit to as low as nine, but the Yeowomen had built enough of a lead to coast to a win. The Yeowomen maneuvered through the half with 39 points, finishing with 66 in total. Junior shooting guard Alex Stipano carried the offense throughout the semi-final game, amassing 19 points in the second half alone and sinking a career-high 30 points overall.

“I was actually struggling with my shot the past couple of weeks,” Stipano said. “But because I am a shooting guard, I’ve always been told that you just have to keep shooting and it will all just click. Luckily, it was that game — a very important game. I don’t know, it was just a crazy experience, a crazy feeling.”

While the Yeowomen can walk away from the game with plenty of momentum moving forward, they now have to focus their energy toward rival the Kenyon College Ladies, who they will play at DePauw University campus today.

Kenyon College beat the College of Wooster Fighting Scots by a whopping 33 points — a staggering 63–30 score — to advance onto the semifinal against Oberlin. Jenkins said that he and the team are not intimidated, however.

“We were very comfortable [in the last game],” he said. “[The] majority of our games are played at a very similar [point] deficit. We play a very methodical game [such] that once we get ahead, it’s tough to come back on us because we defend really well and we execute on the offensive end.”

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The Boston Red Sox signed outfielder J.D. Martinez to a five-year $110 million mega-deal Monday. On the surface, the deal will help them contend with their American League East rival New York Yankees next season, after they made headlines by acquiring National League MVP Giancarlo Stanton of the Miami Marlins. However, with the contract finalization so close to the start of the season — spring training starts today — it highlights an alarming trend of MLB teams choosing not to sign blue-chip free agents, opting instead to pocket extra cash. With four of the top 10 free agents of this offseason still unsigned, MLB teams appear to have adopted the strategy of tanking.

30-year-old Martinez comes off a career year in which he hit .304, 45 home runs, and 104 RBIs. In a normal offseason, teams would be lining up to sign him, but this winter has been historically slow. A January report by FiveThirtyEight.com showed that by day 82 of the MLB offseason between 2006 and 2016, 76 percent of the top forty players had been signed. This offseason, only 43 percent were signed by day 82. Today, only 73 percent have been signed, and among those still unsigned is former NL Cy Young winning pitcher Jake Arrieta. While the lagging market may just be a statistical anomaly, there are several signs pointing to this being the start of a worrisome trend.

Baseball was the first sport to fully implement advanced statistics in all aspects of the game. From building teams to constructing stadiums, there is no decision made by an MLB team without first looking at analytics. From batting average to OPS, ERA, WHIP, and more nuanced statistics, such as how batters spread the ball across the field or how fielders should shift according to who is at bat — to name a few — it only makes sense that the league married to stats would begin applying it to managing salaries.

The MLB is the only league out of the four major sports to not have a salary cap.

While some skeptics think this gives big market teams an advantage, it really lets MLB teams give their own values to players and at their own risk. Without a salary cap, it’s easy to assume that the biggest problem facing baseball would be inflated salaries to mediocre players, but this offseason, players are facing the exact opposite. Just as baseball has no salary cap, it also has no salary floor. The most telling statistic in baseball is WAR, or wins above replacement. WAR measures how many more wins a team gets by playing a specific player instead of an average player at their position. In other words, it indicates how many more wins a specific player earns his team than his contemporaries at the same position would. Bottom and middle-tier teams with little hope of making the playoffs in the near future are beginning to realize that paying hundreds of millions of dollars for players that will only add a few wins to their teams will not make a difference. Instead, they are balking on top-tier players and pocketing extra money for future years.

The Houston Astros — who just won their first World Series in franchise history in October — were the first team to pick up on this strategy. Just four years ago, they had a combined payroll of $22 million. For reference, the average payroll in 2017 was $137 million. In 2018, the highest payroll will be the Los Angeles Dodgers, who will dish out nearly $250 million, including over $35 million to their ace pitcher Clayton Kershaw.

This shameless tanking by the Astros actually made them the second most profitable team in the MLB and led to draft picks and huge signings that made them the World Series champions. This style of management was introduced to American sports by Sam Hinkie, the infamous former general manager of the Philadelphia 76ers, whose salary cap manipulation and shrewd trades led his team to some of the worst records in NBA history, as well as five top-five draft picks in the last five drafts. While Hinkie brought tanking to a new extreme and will likely never have a job in the NBA again, it looks like the recent success of teams such as his and the Astros have inspired plenty of imitators.

Derek Jeter, the sure-fire Hall of Fame short stop for the New York Yankees from 1995–2014, was part of a group that purchased the Miami Marlins in 2017 and has taken on the role of CEO. While the Atlanta Braves, Chicago White Sox, Cincinnati Reds, Detroit Tigers, Kansas City Royals, Oakland Athletics, Philadelphia Phillies, Pittsburgh Pirates, and Tampa Bay Rays have all made clear that they will be competing for the top overall pick this season through a winter full of questionable trades and non-signings, no team has gone further to reduce their team to ashes than the Marlins. One of Jeter’s first moves as CEO was to ship his franchise’s best player and NL MVP Stanton to his old team, but even more questionable was the return he got for it: two mediocre prospects and a decent second baseman in Starlin Castro. In addition to trading Stanton, he also dealt the franchise’s two other stars, Dee Gordon and Christain Yellich, to complete the winter salary dump. With such blatant tanking, both the MLB Players Association and agents are starting to get worried.

Earlier this month, Tony Clark, executive director of the MLBPA, didn’t mince words while addressing the slow-moving offseason. “It’s a race to the bottom,” he said, per USA Today. “[It’s] a fundamental breach of the trust between a team and its fans and it threatens the very integrity of our game.” While it’s tough to feel bad for players arguing the decimal points in deals that are worth tens of millions of dollars, the prospect of tanking is a serious threat to the game. The MLB has enjoyed having the most parity in professional sports, with no team winning back-to-back championships since 2000. With the league already battling issues in viewership, going as far as to limit mound visits per game to just six, a loss of equality could seriously hurt the sport dubbed America’s pastime.

As current MLB powerhouses such as the Astros, Yankees, and Cubs are busy gearing up for the start of the season, more teams are readying for the draft than the playoffs. If teams continue to forgo paying players to save money and acquire top picks, the MLB will have to step in. But as for now, we can only wait and see as spring training ushers in the start of a new baseball season.