DINING OPTIONS
Women’s squash closes out season with three big wins see SPORTS / PAGE 11
Tufts Dining addresses student dietary concerns
Men’s basketball bests conference rivals over weekend see SPORTS / BACK PAGE
SEE FEATURES / PAGE 4
THE
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T HE T UFTS DAILY
VOLUME LXXVII, ISSUE 5
tuftsdaily.com
Monday, January 28, 2019
MEDFORD/SOMERVILLE, MASS.
Workmen’s Circle fifth graders demonstrate support for Tufts dining workers
Blackface photo prompts condemnation from Tufts administration, community by Jessica Blough
Executive News Editor
CHRISTINE LEE / THE TUFTS DAILY ARCHIVES
Dining hall workers and students celebrate the winning vote for the unionization of dining hall workers at Chase Center on Apr. 24, 2018. by Ryan Shaffer
Assistant Copy Editor
Over 60 people, including children, families, dining workers and Tufts students, gathered in front of Ballou Hall on Sunday afternoon as part of a demonstration on behalf of UNITE HERE Local 26, the union which represents Tufts dining. Led by fifth-grade students from the Jewish Cultural Sunday School at Boston Workmen’s Circle, the purpose of the demonstration was to encourage dining workers in their negotiation process for a union contract. The Sunday School at Workmen’s Circle emphasizes Jewish history, culture and progressive ideals, according to its website. Every year, students from Workmen’s Circle lead a demonstration against unfair labor conditions. According to an organizer from Workmen’s Circle, they chose to support the Tufts dining workers because of its “timeliness” and alignment with the center’s mission. At 2:00 pm, students arrived by school bus to address a crowd of Tufts students, dining workers, members of UNITE HERE Local 26, and members of the community. Students and members of the center distributed handmade signs to the crowd that read “we support Tufts dining workers” and “we demand fair wages.” Signaling the start of the event, students from the Workmen’s Circle gained the crowd’s attention by leading them in chants, taking turns leading the crowd. In front of Ballou Hall, the crowd chanted, “there ain’t no power like the power of the people, ’cause the power of the people don’t stop.”
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One ten-year-old student led the crowd in chants in Spanish, shouting “el pueblo unido, jamás será vencido” (the people united will never be defeated). Following the chants, another student from the center stepped onto a milk crate and began reading an opening statement drafted by students from Workmen’s Circle Sunday School. The opening statement advocated for lower healthcare costs, benefits for temporary workers and higher wages. The student reading the statement said the center and its members stand with the dining workers in solidarity, adding that solidarity means “unity despite differences.” After the opening statement, dining worker Sahra Warsame addressed the crowd about her concerns over healthcare costs. Warsame said the cost of receiving healthcare consumes her budget and that it has forced her to move away from the Medford/Somerville campus in search of less expensive housing. “We are fighting for affordable healthcare. I pay about 620 dollars a month and my coworker pays 240 dollars a week,” Warsame said in an interview after the event. “Tufts needs to pick up more of the cost so I can invest in my daughter’s education.” In front of the crowd with two of her grandchildren, Trisha O’Brien, spokesperson for the dining workers’ union, reiterated concerns over wages and temporary workers. In a November 2018 article, Mike Kramer, UNITE HERE Local 26’s lead negotiator, told the Daily that see PROTEST, page 2
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The Tufts administration and community spoke out yesterday in response to an Instagram photo of a student in blackface that was circulated on social media. On Wednesday night, a senior posted a selfie on their personal Instagram story in which the student was wearing a black face mask, a black sweatshirt and sunglasses, captioned “Yeezy 2020.” The student told the Daily in an email that the caption was intended to reference the futuristic, iconoclastic look of the Yeezy brand’s collection for next year. The brand was founded as a collaboration between Adidas and rapper Kanye West. The student took down the photo when a friend privately alerted the student about the offensive nature of the post. “Invoking blackface imagery was the farthest thing from my mind,” the student told the Daily in an email. “The post was very benign, clearly ignorant but never meant as blackface.” Kenneth Postigo (E ‘17), a Tufts alum, reposted the image in the Tufts Class of 2020 Facebook group. Postigo told the Daily he had intended to bring the incident to everyone’s attention. “I am usually not one to make an issue out of situations when I believe it isn’t something to be upset about,” the post read. “However, this is a perfect example of what isn’t okay to do in 2019. I ask you all to hopefully show some maturity and try to help this person see the implications of her actions through communication (in person, over coffee maybe) in order to bring peace and shine a light on the darkness, instead of being angry and ranting about this.” He said his post was taken down the following day. The student said that their post had not intended to cause any harm and apologized to those the student offended by the image. “I am truly so sorry for all the pain this incident has caused in the Tufts community,” the student said. “As a foreign student, I am constantly learning about the progressive and forward-thinking culture that not only this school but also this country presents, and I hope to use this experience as a stepping-stone in learning more about how I can be a more aware and contributing member of this campus.” This occurs at a time when instances of blackface are cropping up at institutions
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throughout the country, most recently at the University of Oklahoma and Poly Prep Country Day School, an elite independent school in New York City. Yesterday, Florida’s Secretary of State resigned after photos of him in blackface surfaced. In an email sent to the Tufts community yesterday, University President Anthony Monaco referenced reports that a Tufts student had shared a photo of themselves in blackface and condemned the act, stressing that blackface has historical ties to racism and the oppression of people of color. “I condemn this behavior in the most unambiguous terms possible. Racist expressions such as these are profoundly offensive and deeply hurtful,” Monaco said in the statement. “They contradict our values as a welcoming and inclusive community, and have no place at Tufts.” A statement posted last night on the Tufts University Africana Center’s Instagram account (@tuftsafricana) addressed the incident as an act of “racialized aggression” occurring so soon after Monday’s celebration of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s legacy, and urged members of the Africana community to seek support from each other. The statement was attributed to Africana Center Director Katrina Moore, Program Manager Domonique Johnson and Tufts Community Union (TCU) Senate Africana Community Representative Sylvester Bracey, a junior. The statement encouraged members of the Africana community to seek support and solidarity at a campus-wide meeting held yesterday at Breed Memorial Hall to debrief the incident, but also emphasized the importance of banding together. “While there is value in talking to our peers and friends, this is a time that we can lean on each other as we work through our shock, pain, and frustration that this level of racialized aggression has made its way into our campus,” Moore, Johnson and Bracey said in the statement. During a community-wide meeting on Thursday to address the incident of blackface within the Tufts student body, Mary Pat McMahon, the dean of student affairs, said that the incident had been reported to the Office of Equal Opportunity (OEO). The OEO will determine if the incident constitutes a violation of university policy and who is impacted by this violation, according to McMahon. The OEO will then send their report to the Office of
NEWS............................................1 FEATURES.................................4 ARTS & LIVING.......................6
see BLACKFACE, page 2
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