Tufts Observer
VOLUME CXXXIV, ISSUE 3
March 6, 2017
Study Abroad in the MENA Region
Regarding Tobacco-Free
Limitations on Culture Organizations
Page 2
Page 6
Page 18
The Beliefs Issue
Tufts Observer The Tufts Observer has been Tufts’ student publication of record since 1895. Our dedication to indepth reporting, journalistic innovation, and honest dialogue has remained intact for over a century. Today, we offer insightful news analysis, cogent and diverse opinion pieces, creative writing, and lively reviews of current arts, entertainment, and culture. Through poignant writing and artistic elegance, we aim to entertain, inform, and above all challenge the Tufts community to effect positive change.
@tuftsobserver www.tuftsobserver.org
March 6, 2017 Volume CXXXIV, Issue 3 Tufts Observer, Since 1895 Tufts’ Student Magazine
The Beliefs Issue This issue is centered on beliefs. Beyond religion, our beliefs stretch to all aspects of our lives. Our beliefs often guide our experiences and pursuits on campus. What do you believe in? What are the limits to what we believe? How do our beliefs impact those around us?
Staff
Feature Ben Kesslen
Editor in Chief
News Alexandra Benjamin Misha Linnehan
Managing Editor
Opinion Liza Leonard Jamie Moore
Creative Director
Arts & Culture Susan Kaufman Will Norris
Claire Selvin
Sahar Roodehchi Chase Conley
Art Directors
Rachel Cunningham Annie Roome
Multimedia Director Greta Jochem
Campus Dana Guth Emma Pinsky Voices Julia Doyle Poetry & Prose Carissa Fleury
Photo Director Lily Herzan
Web Julia Press MT Snyder
Lead Copy Editor
Columns Henry Jani
Lead Artist
Photo Kyle Scott Conrad Young
Eve Feldberg
Jake Rochford
Design Abigail Barton Matt Beckshaw Benson Cheng Josh Goodman Kira Lauring Lily Pisano Hannah Vigran Interactive Deanna Baris Cathy Cowell Hannah Freedman Sibonay Koo Kayden Mimmack Justin Sullivan Video Anastasia Antonova Evie Bellew Aaron Watts Publicity Alyssa Bourne-Peters Yumi Casagrande Michael Dunkelman Alexis Walker Editor Emeritus Carly Olson
Contributors Riley Aronson, Judy Chen, Audrey Falk, Madison Haskins, Madeleine Lebovic, Madeline Lee, Ashley Miller, Roxanne Zhang
Staff Writers Sam Crozier Yaa Kankam-Nantwi Lena Novins-Montague Layla Rao Katie Saviano Grace Segers Alexis Tatore Wilson Wong Copy Editors Nicole Cohen Owen Cheung Nasrin Lin Christopher Paulino Alexandra Strong Fact Checkers Erin Berja Sivi Satchithanadan Columnists Chris Dowd Kate Hirsch Sasha Hulkower Georgia Oldham
Contents
2
Feature
13
Inset
24
Campus
Immoral Immersion? truths.
Me to Me
Kate Hirsch & MT Snyder
Megan Mooney
POETRY
5
Mystic River: Part II
Anonymous CAMPUS
6
Sparking a Debate Lena Novins-Montague
OPINION
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Two Perspectives on a Tobacco-Free Campus Nicholas Nasser || Nic Serhan
NEWS
10 The Myth of the Monolith Grace Segers
OPINION
18 The Three-Event Standard Charlie Zhen VOICES
20 The Value in Humanities Claire Gelbart NEWS
22 Preserving the Swamp Will Norris ARTS & CULTURE
26 Spirituality in Song Yaa Kankam-Nantwi
POETRY
17 On Walls Undocumented & Unapologetic
28 Missed Connections
COVER PHOTO BY AUDREY FALK
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Immoral Immersion? The Ethical Implications of Study Abroad in the MENA Region
By Kate Hirsch and MT Snyder with reporting by Katie Saviano
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ince the fall of 2000, approximately 421 Tufts students have studied abroad in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, according to the Tufts Study Abroad Office. Despite ongoing wars led by the US, universities like Tufts continue to encourage their students to study abroad there. In fact, in 2010, Tufts signed an agreement with the American University in Cairo to set up a study abroad center in Cairo, though the project was put on hold. Still, American students who choose to go the MENA region are often unaware of the history of study abroad in the region as a missionary endeavor and the ramifications of their role as an American abroad in the current, post-colonial era. 2
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According to Arabic Professor Kamran Rastegar, the study abroad system stemmed from European tourism and missionary endeavors. “Study abroad is couched within a whole culture and history [going] back to young 19th century Europeans engaging in a ‘Grand Tour’ historical antecedent to the modern study abroad—people of means going on trips around southern Europe, eventually extending to [the] Mediterranean, [the] Middle East,” said Rastegar. There are many educational links to the missionary history of the MENA region. For example, the American University of Beirut was established by missionaries who initially refused to teach students Darwinism. For many students, the greatest pull to study abroad in the MENA region is
the study of Arabic. Tufts senior Aviva Herr-Welber studied with Council on International Educational Exchange (CIEE) in Rabat, Morocco. She said, “I chose to study abroad in the MENA region because it had been the focus of my academics and language study for the past few years...and while studying abroad in this region has the potential to be a more harmful than helpful act on the whole, I believe it would be even worse for me to study this region and claim to have some kind of knowledge or understandings of life there without even spending a few months of my time in the region, at a minimum.” While gaining a greater cultural understanding of the MENA region and the Arabic language are main incentives for Tufts students to study abroad, this is by no PHOTO BY KATE HIRSCH
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means a universal explanation. For other students, such as senior Bahar Ostadan, who studied at the American University of Cairo (AUC), the pull to the MENA was based on a familial tie to the region. “Because my parents emigrated from Iran which is in the Middle East, I always had a personal affinity to the area. I decided to study abroad in Cairo to be in a metropolitan, cultural hub of the Middle East.” Underneath flashy study abroad brochures, “immersive” programs in the MENA region promise students an unparalleled cultural experience that will open their eyes to a culture far from their own. Senior Becca MacLean noted how her program, also through CIEE, attempted to offer such an “immersive” experience. However, she did not feel this was particularly true. MacLean reflected that, while some moments throughout her abroad experience felt “immersive,” such as going to the hammam (a traditional Moroccan bath house) with her homestay sister, the majority of her experience felt very fabricated. “I did feel lot of [my experience was] very structured. Particularly in some of my classes, I felt like the professors were modeling what they thought we [American students] wanted to hear about Morocco. They put the United States on a pedestal, talked about how Morocco was becoming more ‘Western’ and a greater asset to America than ever before, a good investment,” MacLean said. In addition, MacLean explained that many aspects of her program, both in curriculum and excursions to other cities, commodified Moroccan culture. “It’s really problematic”, MacLean noted, when a “culture is marketed a certain way for consumption” by American students. In fact, MacLean said, the idea that an American studying abroad can have this total, “immersive” experience is problematic in itself. She said, “It is such a strange concept to claim [people] can completely immerse into a country that isn’t [their own].” Herr-Weber agreed. “Immersion” is “a pretty exoticizing term if you think about it, just because we’d never actually ask ourselves if we were having an “immersive” experience in our lives at home, but it becomes such a focal question the minute we move into another cultural space.”
Similarly to MacLean, Herr-Welber acknowledged there are some positive aspects of “immersion” in studying abroad in the MENA region, particularly when it comes to language study. “I do think there’s a value to the idea of immersion when it comes to [learning] a language… fully.” Furthermore, Herr-Welber noted that making an effort to learn the language beyond a classroom setting can also ensure that you don’t exclusively spend time with students on your program. In “making a concerted effort to actually be with the people and the place you came to study in,” you don’t fall into the trap of “just [hiding] in an Anglo bubble with the other abroad students.” Ultimately, Herr-Welber said, “that [would be] the worst kind of influence you can have.” Although Ostadan did not seek out an “immersive” program, she recognized a misleading tone beneath the study abroad program advertisements. She said, “I noticed how curated the Americans’ experiences were based on the program and self-selecting activities so what they were doing wasn’t an actual experience. A lot of study abroad students would go out all the time, smoked, and drank...which isn’t educating that person about the nuances of the culture.” “The question becomes whether it’s actually possible for anything to happen organically as it would if you weren’t present as an outsider,” Herr-Welber said. For her, the answer is no. “I was still always trying to make my presence the least amount of an obstacle to whatever was going on. I think there’s also a lot of possibility in just acknowledging your role as an outsider,” she said. “As a person who’s representative of colonization in a lot of ways…[this means] not trying to pretend you’re clean of all these influences and power dynamics that you inevitably carry with you as a US citizen, in my case also White and Eastern European, studying abroad.” Marwah al-Jilani, a PalestinianAmerican studying at the University of Oregon, found her mostly White-American study abroad program with the School for International Training (SIT) in Morocco to be problematic. Al-Jilani said, “navigating [my] positionality as an Arab, as Palestinian, was way more stressful than navigating [Moroccan] culture”. Often, White students assumed that she,
as an Arab-American, would be more “connected” to Moroccan culture, and would often look to her whenever discussing topics like women wearing Hijabs or Islamic (Sharia) law. “We need an orientation of students who come from marginalized backgrounds; I think that would have been really effective.” Although Tufts has a “Diversity and Identity in Study Abroad” page with resources and general information, there are no specific orientations offered for people of color or those with other marginalized identities preparing to study abroad. Yaa Kankam-Nantwi, a Ghanian sophomore at Tufts, noted the stark contrasts between her experience as an international student in the United States and those of her peers. Referring to Facebook photos posted by White study abroad students alongside individuals from host communities, Kankam-Nantwi said, “I’m a part of Strong Women Strong Girls and I’ve never taken pictures with the kids and been like, ‘Working with the American girls.’” In addition, Kankam-Nantwi spoke to the colonial lens that many Tufts students possess in their approach to study abroad in regions such as MENA and her native country, Ghana. “There are people who go to study in a very ‘Other’ lens...and people who essentialize other countries, especially if [those countries] are non-White, for their cultural growth,” said KankamNantwi, who noticed that many students did not even notice their own stereotypical or colonial ideas, nor those of their host communities that came “from an internalized Western superiority.” As for her experience studying abroad at Tufts, Kankam-Nantwi spoke of the dominant Western narrative that had influenced her long before she arrived in Medford. “America being the default, I didn’t feel like I was going abroad because [American culture has] always been with me even in Ghana, in England. It’s been with me.” Nesi Altaras, a Turkish sophomore at Tufts, felt enthusiastic about the prospects of his peers choosing to leave Tufts for the MENA region because of the potential to learn more about a region, of which, he noted, there are few accurate representations or examples in American media. March 6, 2017
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“The people I heard from who have studied abroad in the region usually have interesting insight into the country they went to and don’t have any illusions about knowing everything,” said Altaras. Regardless of how motivated such students are, the question becomes: is study abroad, particularly in the MENA region, ethical? “Study abroad is a fraught endeavor,” stated Rastegar. Speaking to his own experience, Rastegar continued, “I went on study abroad as an undergraduate, it sparked my interest in the region, but it was also an incredibly uncomfortable experience. I would hesitate to say that that study abroad was doing good in the world, but in my case, it helped me to commit to the work that I do.” Junior Clara Belk, who studied abroad in Jordan with Middlebury, noted the ethical imbalance of her ability to travel with few restraints throughout the MENA region as an American while her peers could not. “I was living in Jordan which has a huge Palestinian population, and Palestinian and Jordanian cultures have merged a lot, since the occupation of Israel. Part of something that I struggled with when I visited places in Palestine was that I had the ability to go to places [Jordanians and Palestinians] could not.” Without the right to return, many Palestinian refugees in Jordan are unable to enter Israel and the West Bank. Furthermore, Palestinians cannot move freely within the West Bank or Gaza due to checkpoints and Israeli blockades, respectively. Belk continued, “I was taking advantage of my own privilege in that I could just travel to places for a week and cross the border, whereas other people can’t go back. That was a huge self-realization and contextualization of my own privilege.” For MacLean, the clear privilege she held in relation to her host community raised a red flag. She noted, “I think it’s problematic that Americans [mostly White] can go into these countries so easily while it is so hard for someone in Morocco to get a visa to go to America. Like,
how can it be a ‘cultural exchange’ when we hold all the power and then have an impenetrable country?” Ultimately, if there exist so many negative implications of studying abroad in the MENA region, is study abroad even worth it? Amahl Bishara, a professor of Anthropology at Tufts with a specialty in the Middle East, thinks the answer is yes, with caveats. “I know many students who have had rich experiences abroad and who have really embraced the opportunity to learn about a new place through academic study and by really living there.” However, she says, it is the responsibility of the student to self-educate before embarking on study abroad. “Students [need to] learn about their programs in advance and ask good questions about the political, economic, and educational effects of their presence for host families, host institutions, and students in their host countries.” Bishara feels that she has seen Tufts students choosing to study abroad in the MENA region have this accountability. “Tufts students,” she said, “perhaps especially those who choose a challenging study abroad in the Middle East—tend to be open-minded, curious, and willing to work hard.” Rastegar noted that, in his experience, Tufts students in the Arabic program who study abroad in the MENA region are prepared to be more culturally aware and “understand the limits of their own knowledge and positionalities.” However, study abroad institutions as well as home universities that support them need to become more accountable in prioritizing this message when marketing study abroad. He said, “I think there’s a humility that needs to be taught in the study abroad experience that would ideally lead to person to person relationships that would be informed by positionalities and intercultural identities, but also allow for an exchange that’s productive for both sides.”
“How can it be a ‘cultural exchange’ when we hold all the power and then have an impenetrable country?”
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Poetry
the next Wednesday, I run down Boston Ave with afro big
Mystic River: Part II
and as I look both ways to cross the street I see him hanging out of back window
By Anonymous
our eyes may have met him: blinded by hollers of hate like when a man flies away at the moment of coming me: darting, dizzy all this, in the spot where we had bounced boundless at the curve of the river and the freeway me and J, who said they were too queer for Massachusetts after we had taken the small papers beneath our tongues like orange tic tacs after we had played under sun rays and poured the chemical paint after the other boys hollered and did wheelies between our street and Dunkin’ in a trailer truck: Ladies for Trump it’s been a few months now I haven’t stopped running by that curve in the river and Sunday morning jogs (like the ones in mid-February during an “Indian summer”) have found a way to remain so sweet but, sometimes I tense and TUPD has taken over all my smoke spots like the docks at Mystic Lake and the racists have tainted Mystic River so, many evenings I walk tense with less places to watch the sunset no blood circulation in my hands, and a strained neck from watching my back
endnotes: 1. this was written after some boys shouted racist shit at me out their SUV window on Mystic Valley Parkway 2. the aforementioned event occurred a week after Donald Trump was elected as President of the United States 3. this was published after the Tufts administration approved the smoking ban
(hug your friends) but I would like to think we could hug our strangers too
PHOTO BY MADELEINE LEBOVIC
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ophomore Liam Knox sees a fundamental flaw in the Tufts Tobacco Free Initiative, a new policy that will make Tufts a tobacco-free campus sometime in the foreseeable future. He is bothered by the lack of communication between Tufts Tobacco Free and the student body. He commented, “I don’t think any attempt was made to gauge the campus climate on the issue before making this decision.” Tufts Tobacco Free, a student initiative led by Community Health majors, has recently taken major steps toward making Tufts a tobacco-free campus. The initiative began four years ago as a policy proposal in an Introduction to Community Health class. A group of students from the class became passionate about the concept of a tobacco-free campus and formed Tufts Tobacco Free. Nick Nasser, a senior who is part of the student initiative, said that over the past few years, the group has been meeting with administrators, public safety representatives, and student groups. The initiative was never voted on by the Tufts Community Union Senate; rather, Nasser said, it was “given the thumbs up” by the administration. The group met with TCU on February 12 to discuss how to best implement the policy. While there have been many conversations regarding how a tobacco-free campus would affect students, the impact it would have on the employees of Tufts has not been a focus of the discourse. The policy has received criticism for unfairly targeting marginalized groups like the LGBTQ community, students of color, and low-income students. Statistics show
that all of these groups are more likely to smoke than others. Concerns have been raised that a tobacco-free campus would further isolate these students from Tufts and make them a target for disciplinary action. Knox speculated, “It’s going to physically marginalize certain types of people. It’s an inherently exclusive and classist policy.” The ban would also affect those who work at the University. One Tufts Dining employee, who requested to remain anon-
“[The tobacco ban is] an inherently exclusive and classist policy.” ymous, expressed concern regarding what a tobacco-free campus would mean for him. He said, “We’re not supposed to leave campus on our breaks, so that would mean we’re not allowed to smoke at all.” The employee also explained why he smokes on his breaks. “Smoking is a habit, and it does help reduce stress,” he said. “But it’s also stressful when you can’t have one. Not being able to smoke would make me crankier.” Sylvia Ofoma, a senior TCU senator and the committee chair for the initiative, said that Tufts Tobacco Free has spoken with Human Resources about this potential problem. Human Resources suggested that employees would need longer breaks
in order to have time to walk off campus to smoke. Currently, Tufts Dining employees are given two 15 minute breaks for every eight-hour shift. Nasser said that because Tufts is a small campus, employees who smoke would likely have enough time during their breaks to get off campus. Knox does not agree. He pointed out that workers at places like the Tower Café would have to walk a significant distance in order to get off-campus. Logistics aside, Knox sees the ban as disrespectful to workers. He emphasized, “They barely have a break anyway and their jobs are exhausting. It shows a blatant disregard for their needs and for their lives and for their opinions.” Ofoma sees how the ban could inconvenience workers. She commented, “The meeting [about the initiative] was during the snowstorm, and I was thinking, if I worked in Dewick, would I want to walk all the way to Powderhouse in the snow?” Ofoma believes that the policy shouldn’t target employees. She observed, “Workers smoking isn’t our biggest concern on campus. Most of them tend to smoke in areas that are out of the way where students are unlikely to pass by.” The anonymous Tufts Dining employee concurred. He explained, “I usually try to stay away from the students.” However, Jane Scoppa, an employee at the Tower Café who smokes during her breaks, said she would not be upset if the campus became tobacco-free. She reasoned, “I’m not opposed to it. If I can smoke, great. If I can’t, so be it. My job is more important to me than a cigarette.” Some employees also see the value of a
Sparking a Debate Who is affected by a tobacco ban? By Lena Novins-Montague
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ART BY RACHEL CUNNINGHAM
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ban. Another Tufts Dining employee who wished to remain anonymous stated, “I don’t smoke, and the smoke bothers me.” Tobacco-free campuses are a growing trend. According to Americans for Nonsmokers’ Rights (ANR), there are currently 1,757 smoke-free college campuses. This number has tripled since 2011, when there were 587 smoke-free campuses. The ANR attributes this increase to a change in the social norms around smoke-free environments and support from the academic community. Tufts Tobacco Free has stated that the ban would not be enforced by the Tufts University Police Department. Ofoma explained, “They want it [the policy] to be as non-punitive as possible.” Instead, more resources would be provided to students who are trying to quit smoking, and education on the negative effects of tobacco would be increased. Violations of the policy could be submitted online, through an anonymous submission board similar to EthicsPoint, which Tufts currently uses to allow students to report “unethical or inappropriate activity.” Reported offenders would potentially be required to have a meeting with a representative from Health Services.
But the policy is far from set in stone. At the earliest, implementation will begin in a few months. The administration has asked Tufts Tobacco Free to appeal to student groups, in order to get their opinions about the policy. Tufts Tobacco Free also plans on sending out a student survey in the next few weeks to collect student feedback. Nasser said that the survey is extremely comprehensive and seeks to identify the demographics of people who smoke at Tufts. Ultimately, he wants the policy to be implemented in the best way possible. Nasser articulated, “The policy is not designed to alienate anyone. It’s designed to make us a healthier campus. If groups feel like they’re not represented in the rollout of the policy, we’d love to have discussions with them.” Mauri Trimmer, a first-year, feels frustrated with the way the initiative was passed and the lack of details that have been given to the student body. He explained, “It’s really unsettling that any policy could be made official, and that the logistics of how it’s going to be implemented would be figured out later.” Sophomore Ryan Haddar suggested that initiatives like these should always be voted on by the TCU Senate. Had-
dar also believes that less extreme action could be taken to make the campus healthier, like encouraging smokers to throw away cigarette butts and respect the rule that requires smoking to take place 25 feet away from any Tufts building. He does not support an all-out ban. He said, “I think it’s a bit tyrannical. We’re pretty smart students, we’re pretty mindful of others, and we know smoking [is] bad. But no one will respect this new rule.” TCU Senate and Tufts Tobacco Free have discussed the possibility of beginning with small changes, like moving ashtrays farther away from doors, creating programming that explains the dangers of secondhand smoke, and placing “No Smoking” signs on buildings. Nasser emphasized that students are key to this reform. He stated, “Ultimately, it’s up to the student population to enforce the policy and if they don’t want to, then it won’t be enforced.” Trimmer says that he ultimately does not see the need for a full on tobacco ban. He points out, “We’re a conscious, caring community, so [we] should be able to communicate with people who smoke without placing a huge limitation on their actions. We can have a dialogue instead.”
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Two Perspectives on a Nicholas Nasser Editor’s note: The author is a member of the Tufts Tobacco-Free Initiative.
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ccording to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 41,000 deaths due to lung cancer and heart disease are attributed to secondhand smoke each year in the United States—with no risk-free level of exposure. At 480,000 deaths annually, cigarette smoking is the leading preventable cause of death in the United States; this figure is larger than those for deaths due to alcohol use, motor vehicle injuries, firearm-related incidents, illegal drug use, and HIV combined. Since the 1950s, we have known that tobacco use has significant negative impacts on health. Communities throughout the country have taken steps to reduce secondhand smoke exposure and to provide resources for those who want to quit. States, cities, and towns have passed ordinances relating to this issue, including Medford and Somerville, both of which have raised the legal age to purchase tobacco to 21 years. The policy shift arose from a 2012 Surgeon General report finding that 90 percent of smokers in the US started before the age of 21, and 21-year-old nonsmokers are likely to remain nonsmokers. Tufts would not be alone if it adopted a tobacco-free policy. As of January 2, 2017, at least 1,468 campuses are 100 percent tobacco free, 18 of which are in Massachusetts. In 2012, Tufts Medical School adopted a tobacco-free policy, while the Medford-Somerville campus policy states that no smoking is permitted within 25 feet of any Tufts building. This policy is barely enforced, and people regularly smoke in heavily 8
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trafficked areas including the entrance ways to Tisch Library, dining halls, and dorms. The Tufts Tobacco-Free Initiative was created in Fall 2013 when students in Professor Jennifer Allen’s Community Health class proposed a tobacco-free campus policy after being asked to identify a public health intervention they wanted to
The goal of a tobacco-free campus is not to alienate anyone, but rather to designate our campus as a healthy space. see implemented at Tufts. Over the past three years, students in the Initiative have been conducting extensive research on the implementation of a tobacco-free policy in several peer schools, and have been meeting with key stakeholders, including students, administrators, and public safety officials, to gauge support and understand how this kind of policy could be uniquely adapted to Tufts. The group has also collaborated with Human Resources to draft a policy and an implementation plan to be carried out over several years.
Members of the Tobacco-Free Initiative understand the difficulties of quitting smoking, and have been working with Health Promotion and Prevention, Health Services, and HR to make evidence-based smoking cessation resources available for all students, staff, and faculty at no or limited costs. These resources will not only include cessation programs, but also nicotine replacement therapy (NRT) products. Because stress is a major contributing factor to tobacco use, Health Promotion and Prevention now plans to offer a Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction program. One concern is that the policy could disproportionately affect certain groups that are more likely to use tobacco and are marginalized in other ways. The Initiative recognizes that the tobacco industry has, for years, extensively marketed to members of marginalized groups to increase their tobacco use. The goal of a tobacco-free campus is not to alienate anyone, but rather to designate our campus as a healthy space. While recognizing and respecting the rights of people who choose to smoke, it is also important to recognize the right of every member in our community to clean air, free of secondhand smoke. It is important to note that Tufts is a very small campus, one where getting off campus is a short walk. By reducing tobacco use on our campus and by providing ample educational and therapeutic resources, the hope of this Initiative is to encourage healthy behaviors and to prevent members of our community from becoming just another statistic.
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Opinion
Tobacco-Free Campus Nic Serhan
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speak on behalf of many smokers when I say that we understand the dangers associated with this high-risk activity. Many of us have seen our friends or family fall ill or die from tobacco-related complications. Many of us have experienced the complications of tobacco use. I understand that tobacco kills, and I by no means speak in support of cigarettes, tobacco, or the tobacco industry. We’ve always known that tobacco kills, but it’s time we mention that “tobacco is not an equal-opportunity killer.” The Tufts Tobacco Free initiative recently met with the Tufts Senate to discuss the details of their proposed policy, which would not be enforced by Tufts University Police, but rather through peer-reporting on an anonymous online form. Tufts Tobacco Free also plans to provide smoking-cessation resources through Health Services, a great help for students who want to quit, especially those for whom the cost of nicotine patches or gum would present a larger financial burden. Senior Megan D’Andrea of Tufts Tobacco Free told the Tufts Daily, “We do not want this campus to support smoking, and so it just makes sense to have an overall tobacco-free campus in which this behavior is not approved of.” The “behavior” in question which must not be “approved” is a symptom of addiction, a chronic illness often inextricably associated with many aspects of the tobacco user’s identity, such as race, sexuality, socioeconomic class, and mental health. The last thing people suffering with addiction are seeking is the approval of Tufts students. Furthermore, understanding that tobacco use is closely related to the communities from which we come and our personal health and histories, and seeing that Tufts is a community of people from diverse backgrounds, why should we disapprove of this particular “behavior?”
Outside the Tufts campus, nationwide anti-tobacco organizations have gone in a different direction by focusing their recent efforts on spreading awareness about social factors and catalysts of tobacco use. For example, the anti-smoking advocacy group Truth’s new #STOPPROFILING campaign puts social identities of race and class at the forefront of the anti-tobacco conversation. Our lawmakers, meanwhile, have tried (and failed) to tackle the way the tobacco industry markets to children. Taking a closer look at the prevalence of
We must manage addiction care and tobacco reform as issues of social and economic justice. smoking by racial and income demographics, as well as tobacco marketing campaigns of the last few decades, there exists a major flaw with the smoking ban: the social problem and moral failing underlying tobacco use. Tobacco retailers are more likely to be near schools in low-income neighborhoods; tobacco companies advertise up to ten times more in Black communities than in others, and aggressively market to homeless and queer people. Studies by the Centers for Disease Control also show that smoking is widely used as a coping mechanism for stress, which is often the result of a disability or mental illness. One student I spoke with outside of Tisch told me, “I use cigarettes to cope with stress. Other students have comfort animals on campus and I can’t take care of a
dog so I do this. I don’t think either of us should have to leave campus to cope with stress.” Harvard University has a smoke-free policy, with placards next to building entrances and sidewalk signs scattered around The Yard that read “Tobacco-Free Campus.” I spoke with Jason, a recent Harvard College graduate, who told me about the enforcement of the school’s policies. “It doesn’t seem to be a big issue with students. I know that campus staff, like our dining hall and janitorial staff, have to go way out of their way to smoke...Students have more time and space to get off campus. I always see the dining hall staff workers really far from where they work when they’re smoking, which I assume is because they’ve been told if they’re smoking anywhere near a campus building, they’ll get in trouble.” A campus tobacco ban could easily pose a problem for our dining hall staff and janitors, for example, who work long shifts on campus, in centralized dining facilities and dorms far away from public streets where smoking would be “approved of.” Even with human resources’ proposed accommodations, many workers do not have access to the benefits of Tufts Health Services/Counseling and Mental Health Services. A smoking ban is an easy pill to swallow for someone who could, if they wanted to, walk off the boundaries of Tufts’ campus for a cigarette break in the day. Reducing secondhand smoke is not worth physically kicking marginalized members of the Tufts community off this campus. We must manage addiction care and tobacco reform as issues of social and economic justice, while also maintaining an interest in public health in order to centralize the lived experiences of the people affected most directly by smoke-free policies.
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The Myth of the Monolith
The misperception of Christian support for Trump
By Grace Segers
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hen you open your heart to patriotism, there is no room for prejudice,” said President Trump in his inaugural address on January 20. “The Bible tells us, ‘How good and pleasant it is when God’s people live together in unity.’” Although the president invoked Psalm 133 in his speech, he previously had difficulty establishing his credibility as a Christian on the campaign trail, infamously misspeaking when referring to “Two Corinthians” at the evangelical Liberty University last January. One may think that Evangelical Christians would disapprove of Trump’s gaudy celebrity lifestyle, and relate more to Methodist Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton; nonetheless, Christians voted overwhelmingly for Trump. Because of this, it’s tempting to create a cohesive narrative in which American Christianity is equated with evangelism, and evangelism with conservatism. Yet, in reality, the American Christian experience is not so monolithic. Religion intersects with geography, race, and gender. Still, religion may often impact political opinion and voting decisions. Understanding the complexity of Christianity in the United States and its intersection with American society may help bridge the ideological divide between the left and right. First, it’s important to understand why Trump’s candidacy garnered such widespread Evangelical support. Evangelism is a form of Protestantism, and is traditionally defined by its close reading of the Bible and its emphasis on conversion of non-believers. A Pew Research poll published in November reported that 58 percent of Protestants and 81 percent of Evangelical Christians voted for Trump. This number generally reflects the trends of the past few elections. According to Pew, 78 percent of evangelicals voted for Romney, 74 percent for McCain, and 78 percent for Bush in 2004. “As much as we were shocked about the outcome, there were pretty consistent patterns,” Natalie Masuoka, an associate professor of Political Science, said. “White Christians tend to think of themselves as Republican,” Political Science Department Chair Deborah Schild-
PHOTO BY RILEY ARONSON
kraut said. She added that the intertwining of Christian and conservative values often inspires people to vote along ideological lines. “Many Republicans of any kind are closer to any Republican than they are to any Democrat,” she said. She explained, for instance, that many Christians voted for Trump because he had promised to nominate a conservative justice to the Supreme Court. Indeed, statistics show that faith is increasingly tied to political affiliation. A Gallup poll published at the end of 2016 revealed that 51 percent of Republicans identified as “highly religious,” compared to 33 percent of Democrats. The poll also showed that only 20 percent of Republicans identified as “not religious,” compared to 37 percent of Democrats. Still, nearly half of American citi-
Although the majority of White evangelicals voted for Trump, Curtis added that there were several evangelical leaders who were “vocal on the other side.” She mentioned Russell Moore, the president of the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention. Moore denounced Trump early in the campaign cycle, accusing Trump-supporting evangelicals of abandoning their values in a New York Times op-ed. He has since been condemned by other evangelical leaders for his bold criticisms of Trump. Curtis also discussed another movement known as the “evangelical left,” which seeks to apply Evangelical Christian values to politics from a liberal perspective. “It was a response to a sense of failure in their community to address racism,” Curtis explained. She referred to the
Understanding the complexity of Christianity in the United States and its intersection with American society may help bridge the ideological divide between the left and right. zens self-identify as Protestant. Though Evangelical Christians adhere ever more strongly to Republican candidates, it is important to recognize that all Christians do not share the same political beliefs. “Within Christianity there is huge diversity,” Religion Professor Heather Curtis said. She, Masuoka, and Schildkraut suggested that it was a mistake to conflate the identity groups of White, evangelical, and conservative when evaluating American Christians. “You can’t ignore the racial segregation that occurs in churches,” Masuoka said, adding that Black Christians voted overwhelmingly for Clinton. Curtis also noted that the fastest growing demographic in Christianity in the United States is Latinx, which she doesn’t believe fits into the traditional “schema” of American Christianity.
magazine Sojourners, which uses evangelical ideas to justify liberal positions. Recent articles in the magazine include “4 Ways to Support Communities Affected by Trump’s Immigration Orders” and “Lord, Prepare Us to Be a Sanctuary City.” “It’s an interesting landscape right now,” Curtis said. “The face of Christianity worldwide and in the US is shifting.” As American churches face internecine conflicts over religious and political values, faith leaders struggle to serve a divided country. Reverend Wendy Miller Olapade is the pastor at Sanctuary, a United Church of Christ parish in Medford. Sanctuary has a strong focus on social justice and faith-based activism. Olapade’s congregation engages in service activities, such as holding “Faith and Film” nights for the community and sponsoring organized outings to local
March 6, 2017
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charities. Olapade, who sees herself as a “chaplain to the city,” believes that reconciling the ideological and spiritual divide between Americans of all faiths requires acting with empathy. “The first step is to make a commitment out of your faith to operate from a place of compassion,” she said in an interview with the Tufts Observer, highlighting the need to act in “an attitude of dialogue rather than debate.” Olapade believes that Christianity can be an important source of spiritual and political guidance. She said that the Bible offers “moral imperatives” for citizens to adhere to while voting. However, she does not approve of evangelical ministers who “stand in the pulpit and tell people who to vote for.” “I take the gospel and the morality that comes from faith, and apply it to the world,” the reverend said. She referenced the two most important commandments defined by Jesus in the Gospel of Mark, chapter twelve: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength,” and “Love your neighbor as yourself.” “This is what Jesus expects of us,” Olapade said. Similarly, perhaps, to the Christians on the evangelical left, Olapade believes that these two commandments are the moral basis for her civic engagement, and her support for policies such as making Medford a sanctuary city. If Olapade derives her zeal from her faith, so does her congregation. The reverend acknowledged that she is the pastor of an “uber progressive church,” and that she has not had to preach to many Trump supporters. Ministers in rural areas face more of a challenge in encouraging their parishioners to be discerning about the connection between religion and political affiliation. A Presbyterian minister in rural Pennsylvania talked with the Tufts Observ12
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er about the difficulty she faces in serving a congregation filled with Trump supporters. “There are people who are thinking about faith and politics who have come to different conclusions,” she said during a phone interview. As she is politically liberal, but serves a congregation in a county that voted for Trump by over 60 percent, the minister asked to remain anonymous. Contrary to popular beliefs about conservative Christians, the minister feels that many in her congregation do not fully realize how their faith informs their politics. They are concerned about a degrada-
The minister talked about her frustration with being a young, liberal, female pastor serving a conservative congregation in which so many parishioners had voted for Trump. She has discussed this with other clergywomen feeling similarly hurt by the results of the election. “We are women in a male-dominated field,” she explained. “It was a huge slap in the face.” However, the minister believes that reconciling the ideological divide is possible, and that it begins with starting conversations from within a shared faith and community. She recalled that the Sunday after the election, she served communion in worship with the Words of Institution, which declare that the Last Supper occurred on the night Jesus was “betrayed.” She realized that as Christ was able to sit and eat with those who would condemn him, so could people of differing beliefs come together despite their mutual fear and sense of betrayal.
“People who support Trump want government to regulate morality. Others, like myself, want the government to protect those who are vulnerable.” tion of conservative values in the United States, but do not realize how these morals are shaped by their understanding—or misunderstanding—of the Bible. “Part of the problem is that we’re just talking past each other, and don’t have a shared set of assumptions,” the minister said. “People who support Trump want government to regulate morality. Others, like myself, want the government to protect those who are vulnerable.”
Differing concepts of faith can exacerbate the tension between right and left, but perhaps they can also provide a frame of reference for Christians with varying political beliefs. “If Christians are going to find reconciliation with one another across our political differences, I have a hunch it will begin with us making the choice to sit down and share ordinary meals together,” the minister said.
truths.
AUDREY FALK
MADELEINE LEBOVIC AND AUDREY FALK
ROXANNE ZHANG
JUDY CHEN
FEATURE
Poetry
On Walls By Undocumented & Unapologetic 5,259 miles we traveled to escape from echoes of gunshots and walls painted in blood. An 8-hour plane ride separated me from the only world I had ever known. Here, in these United States, we searched for safety. I dared dream dreams I never once thought possible in my country, for tragedy lurked gleefully behind every corner. I was to learn new tragedies awaited me in America the Beautiful. I was informed that my presence in the country I idealized was illegitimate. Illicit. Illegal. Nine. That’s how old I was when fear began to colonize these bones of mine. Bones which are my only home, the only place I undoubtedly know I am welcome. My existence is a crime. The punishment, a shattering demolition of all the hopeful bricks I have laid, worse than death itself yet cleansed into two neat little words: “removal proceedings.” So you want to build your Wall across borders? Well we and the others you have enslaved built this entire country on land that you stole under the pretense of finding freedom. We the Criminal Aliens of the “United” States of America have been building walls around our hearts for as long as your evil has penetrated the Earth with your poisons. So dare build all the walls you pretend to need. What we have built is far stronger, and there is no tearing it down. The same cannot be said for fascist dictators. Watch yourself.
ART BY MADELINE LEE
March 6, 2017
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Opinion
The Three-Event Standard Examining Culture Clubs By Charlie Zhen
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hen I first entered Tufts, I struggled to adjust to the very wealthy, White environment unlike any I had ever been in before. Seeking a community like the ones I had at home, I jumped at the opportunity to join the Chinese Students Association (CSA). I listened as members talked about their different roles on the Executive Board (eboard) and the events that CSA hosted throughout the year. I was excited to be a part of the larger Chinese community at Tufts. It took me a while to realize that the club was solely comprised of the e-board, and if one was not part of the e-board, one had few opportunities to be involved with the club. CSA is one of 13 culture clubs that are part of the Pan-Asian Council—an umbrella organization for Asian culture clubs. These range from larger communities such as the Korean Students Association and Tufts Association of South Asians, to smaller clubs like the Thai Students Association. Many other culture clubs exist on campus outside of the Pan-Asian Council. However, as I can only draw from my experience within CSA and the Pan-Asian Council, I will focus on how the Tufts Community Union student government affects Asian culture clubs. Each year, clubs must be re-recognized by the Judiciary, according to its bylaws, in order to book spaces and receive the benefits, privileges, and resources of Tufts organizations. Bylaw 2 Section G requires groups to present proof of putting 18
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on at least three events every semester that are open to the Tufts community. While this may sound easy, this requirement actually transforms the way culture clubs function. Ciel Sriprasert, a member of the Thai Students Association, said, “It’s so difficult and it puts so much strain on our club because we need to churn out three events, and sometimes it creates tension in our group when the whole point of a culture group is to bring us together.” These events take weeks to plan and execute, and become the priority for culture clubs, rather than focusing on community-building and support. The logistical work that goes into event-planning compels culture clubs to adopt the e-board structure, which often involves an exclusive selection process. Incoming members are “evaluated” accordingly—are they able to navigate the TCU Treasury? Can they drive? Do they live in a house with kitchen space? Do they have the graphic design skills to handle event publicity? These questions during the interview process suggest that membership in e-boards is based on how useful and productive candidates can be, and these questions neglect other ways these individuals can contribute to a community or how they identify with the culture. This year, CSA had a record number of people run in elections to become eboard members. After the last candidate was interviewed, we had a heated debate about how many should be accepted. The prospect of expanding the e-board sparked worries about efficiency. We accepted nine
new members—a number that is embarrassingly low, considering there are over 120 international undergraduate students from China and many domestic students that identify as Chinese. What does it mean for someone to be rejected by a culture club? It’s not quite the same thing as being turned down by a competition group. At CSA elections last fall, one candidate talked about how they were searching for community and regretted not applying as a first-year. They were turned down. Another asked me after the elections what they had done wrong and why they were not given a spot; I didn’t have the heart to tell them that we selected someone else who could help us advertise events and edit posters. CSA has been a fundamental part of my Tufts experience, and is a community that I value greatly. It deeply upsets me that such a space is inaccessible to so many on this campus, and that, in many ways, I am complicit in perpetuating such exclusivity. The bylaw also does not differentiate between culture clubs of drastically different sizes. Of the approximately 12 students who identify as Thai on campus, a smaller number sit on the e-board of the Thai Student Association. “For bigger clubs [events] may be more manageable as they can divide up the work, for a smaller club like TSA, it ends up being a huge burden,” said club president Pichayapa Limapichat. “It got to the point where we considered dismantling [the club]. However, we decided that the club should be there to serve Thai students first. Especially for the first-
FEATURE
Opinion
years, it’s important to have a home away from home, but that has come at the cost to the existing members.” Because of their event-driven structures, Asian culture clubs often struggle to operate as spaces for their communities. There are few spaces where people of color can come together and be surrounded by others who share their identities, culture, and experiences. These clubs should be serving such communities. When the policy requires culture clubs to plan events that are open to everyone, it is essentially asking culture clubs and people of color to serve White members of the Tufts community. Furthermore, the requirement that clubs prove they held three events has deeper implications that also serve to delegitimize a lot of students’ efforts to build community. Sriprasert asked, “Why do I need to make three events that try to prove the Thai Students Association’s legitimacy?” When meetings are dedicated to event planning, logistics, delegation, and ordering food from our favorite “ethnic” restaurants for the campus-wide community to enjoy, we de-prioritize our communities and instead cater to the interests and “ethnic curiosities” of the rest of the student body. Every student group on campus is held to this three-event standard—that is a fact we understand. But culture clubs are necessarily faced with particular concerns. Many of us hope to build a collective space for international and domestic students to come together, to learn about and share the regions to which we have ties—however fraught
PHOTO BY ASHLEY MILLER
those ties might be— and to support one another in our time at Tufts. Students formed these clubs to carve out a space for themselves and for others, and that mission holds true today even if bylaws and budgeting tell us to think otherwise. There have been several attempts by different Asian culture clubs to re-prioritize their members and make their spaces more accessible. However, despite important efforts from individual clubs such as JCC*, KSA, and TASC, these reform attempts do not address the institutional obstacles clubs face. Kevin Koo, President of the Tufts Asian Student Coalition and a member of the Korean Students Association, described the challenges in reform. “For clubs that have restructured themselves to solve that problem of exclusivity, they are constantly faced with the difficulty of trying to mobilize and plan these events, which inevitably leads to another pseudo‘e-board’ structure at worst, or a constant time and energy sink at best.”
We must recenter people of color in the few spaces that are devoted to them.
At a recent meeting with the Judiciary, I brought up many of the concerns that Pan-Asian Council members had surrounding the three event requirement. At first, Judiciary members defended the three event rule, stating that clubs could throw small events that didn’t need to be widely advertised—something I like to call “ghost events”—in order to fulfill the requirement. However, they were shocked to hear that culture clubs were essentially centered on events and, as a result, excluded members of the Tufts community. After a meaningful discussion, the possibility of reducing the requirement from three events to one event, and requiring two open meetings per semester was proposed. The Judiciary has stressed that this proposal is not set in stone, and they would like to speak with culture clubs first. However, if the bylaws were changed soon, the rule would go into effect this coming fall— allowing the Class of 2021 to have access to more inclusive culture clubs and community-building spaces. As we hold conversations about community-building and making spaces more inclusive for students on campus, it is important that we work on improving culture clubs. There are few places where students can experience cultural validation and support—we must question the rules under which culture clubs operate, and work to make sure that they are being supported in serving their communities. I urge members of the Tufts community to advocate for changing the three event requirement. I urge my fellow Asian culture club members to continue speaking up about institutional obstacles that are counterproductive to community-building, to work towards accepting all members that seek to join, and to ask themselves why they hold certain events, who they operate for, and who isn’t a part of their organization. I urge the Judiciary and the CSL to work quickly with culture clubs and enact this change before the Class of 2021 matriculates. As socio-economic and racial inequalities are becoming increasingly pronounced on campus, we must re-center people of color in the few spaces that are devoted to them and allow culture clubs to function as places where students can feel validated, supported, and accepted. March 6, 2017
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FEATURE
Voices
The Value in Humanities By Claire Gelbart
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ART BY MADISON HASKINS
FEATURE
Voices
O
ver the past four years, I have seen my two homes undergo drastic change. The landscape of the San Francisco that I grew up in has been replaced with the burgeoning tech industry, and with it came the gentrification of the neighborhoods that made up the city’s celebrated and eclectic cultural identity. Across the country, in my home away from home, I have watched our university recalibrate its academic priorities, recruiting more engineers and computer science students, and enticing them with resources I have never seen poured into my own department. I began my academic career at Tufts as a biology and biotechnology major, passionate about the prospect of developing life changing medication and rehabilitating the world from within a lab. But it was in my English courses, the humanities classes I took during my first year to satisfy my liberal arts requirements, that I was pushed to think differently—to read and to write, but also to interpret, and to question. In each of my literature classes I was reminded that I could not attack an argument until I understood it, and, in that way, the humanities taught me empathy. I have learned that to read the work of another person, and to truly understand it, requires inhabiting it enough to find compassion. So, at the end of my first year, racked with the internalized shame of being incapable of making it in the “hard” sciences and pursuing a notoriously un-lucrative field of study, I became an English major. I can remember the first time I read a text with my heart. During my senior year of high school, we studied The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath, and I saw such beauty in the writing that it almost felt like sadness. Sylvia Plath’s words kept me up at night that year—I was consumed not only by her writing, but also by the fearless voice of a woman who would never know her influence. Her work is raw and impassioned, and in her struggle to find her place as a woman, author, and mother, I began to find my own empowerment. Certain passages still move me, almost five years later: “I thought the most beautiful thing in the world must be shadow, the million moving shapes and culde-sacs of shadow. There was shadow under houses and trees and stones, and shadows in the back of people’s eyes and smiles, and shadow, miles and miles and miles of it, on the night side of the earth.” Plath reframed my world. She harnesses a power in her writing that allows her to invite the reader into her vulnerability, and in doing so, she teaches us to access our own. In so many ways, Plath’s writing is about shadows, the abstract darkness created simultaneously and inevitably with light. Her work is tinged with obscurity—it permeates her content, imagery, and language—but through it she is able to access a unique kind of honesty that reverberates throughout her text. Every few years, I stumble on my copy of The Bell Jar, its dog-ears still intact. It always feels a bit like finding an old jour-
nal, and as I re-read my scribbles in the margin, I find myself 16 years old all over again, discovering a language that felt like it was speaking only to me. More than providing me with a narrative I could identify with, her novel gave me the opportunity to see the world through a new lens. Ultimately, the power of reading is that it affords us a space in which we can simultaneously lose and find ourselves. Despite my devotion to the humanities, I am no stranger to the world of technology that our generation continues to create and embrace. I too am accustomed to the convenience and privilege that it affords us, but the very conversations I have during trips in Ubers are what remind me why I made the choice to study what I do. I’ve found that across ages, socio-economic brackets, genders, and ethnicities, we seem to be preoccupied, and disheartened, as a people, with the polarization of our country. “How do we move forward? What will become of a country that seems, no matter the issue, utterly divided?” The response I come back to is always education. Not only must education be accessible to everyone, a task we are still far from achieving, but I believe we must also re-acknowledge the value of specific educations that seem to have fallen off the chart, particularly those that do not focus on technological innovations, or ones that may not be as easy to measure in terms of financial return. There are no Forbes rankings for universities or fields of study that measure students’ individual and intellectual growth independent of eventual salary or position, but if we want to raise future generations to change the world, we must inspire them to pursue knowledge for reasons other than financial success. If we are afraid of further polarization, and if we want to come to agreements that are equitable and that satisfy at least the majority of our country, should we not see the value in educations that teach us to think critically and to question, but most importantly, to listen to one another? In so many ways, my education in the humanities has humbled me. In reading the narratives of others, I have learned a crucial lesson about perspective, and the ways in which we cannot understand the lives of others unless we shed our own egos and allow ourselves the opportunity to do so. So long as our politics dictate whether we are “American,” what we may do with our bodies, and whom we may love, our beliefs will be personal and intrinsically incompatible. We should not strive for homogeneity in beliefs, but rather the opportunity to learn to find compassion in difference. In moments of discouragement I turn to literature, because this is our story—our history and our legacy in one. I find solace in the texts that tell me that these questions I have— of identity, of equality, of belonging—are the same questions that we have always asked ourselves, and in looking to literature for answers, I feel that I am not alone.
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News
Trump’s cabinet by the wealthy, for the wealthy
Preserving the Swamp
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erhaps Donald Trump’s longest-held political belief is his conflation of wealth and suitability for public office. “Part of the beauty of me is that I’m very rich,” he told ABC News in 2011 when he was considering running for president the following year. He reiterated this point when he announced his candidacy for the 2016 election. “I’m really rich, I’ll show you that in a second,” he said. “And by the way, I’m not even saying that in a braggadocios [way]—that’s the kind of thinking you need for this country.” Since taking office, Trump has constructed his government on the same principle, choosing what is shaping up to be perhaps the wealthiest cabinet in history. “I want people that made a fortune!” Trump said to a rally crowd in Des Moines, Iowa, in December. “Because now they are negotiating [for] you, okay?”
Like other Republican presidents before him, Trump believes in the corrective power of the deregulated private sector, and has drawn heavily from the business world to fill out his cabinet. But the political inexperience of his key appointees, the extent and opacity of their conflicts of interest, and the sheer magnitude of their wealth are all without precedent in recent history. Trump’s approach in choosing the personnel in his government suggests a president convinced of a special mandate for the wealthy to run government as they please. This is further emphasized by his refusal to take a salary, his disregard for proper vetting procedures and conflicts of interest, and his reticence with his tax returns. The numbers are staggering. The Boston Globe estimated that, including Trump and “cabinet-rank” level appointees, the new cabi-
By Will Norris
net may be worth as much as $13 billion— about five times greater than Barack Obama’s cabinet. Neither Obama nor George W. Bush had billionaires among their cabinet and cabinet-rank appointees, but Trump has three: Education Secretary Betsy DeVos ($5.1 billion), Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross ($3.7 billion), and, ironically enough, Small Business Administrator Linda McMahon ($1.35 billion). His inner circle of advisors includes some 17 additional billionaires. Additionally, 71 percent of Trump’s cabinet is White and male, the most since Ronald Reagan. This was the case for just 36 percent of Obama’s cabinet. Four of Trump’s 15 cabinet secretary appointees (27 percent)—Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos, Secretary of the Treasury Steven Mnuchin, and Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross—
38% 31%
30%
27%
20% 17% 14%
13%
11%
20%
18%
10%
10%
7%
7% 0%
0%
0%
Ar thu Cle r ve lan d Ha rri Cle son ve lan d Mc Kin T. R ley oo sev elt Ta ft Wi lso n Ha rdi ng Co oli dg e Ho o ve F. R r oo sev e Tru lt m Eis an en ho we r Ke nn ed y Jo hn so n Nix on Fo rd Ca rte r Re ag an Bu sh Cli nto n Bu sh Ob am a Tru mp
Gr an t Ha ye s
0%
Percent of President's Cabinet Members Without Public-Sector Experience
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GRAPHIC BY CHASE CONLEY DATA FROM PEW RESEARCH CENTER
News
are former corporate executives with no prior public sector experience. This number was originally five, but Trump’s choice for Secretary of Labor, fast food CEO Andrew Pudzer, withdrew his nomination on February 15 and was replaced by federal attorney Alexander Acosta. This makeup is rare, but not unprecedented; that percentage is surpassed only by the cabinets of Ronald Reagan, Dwight Eisenhower, and William McKinley, according to a Pew study. Historically, just seven percent of all cabinet secretaries have fit this profile. “Other presidents have appointed people from the business community for particular kinds of positions,” said Jeswald Salacuse, a professor of international negotiation, law and development and former Dean of the Fletcher School. “For example, Secretary of the Treasury: [Bill] Clinton appointed Robert Rubin, who was one of the leaders of Goldman Sachs, and then President George W. Bush had Hank Paulson, also from Goldman Sachs.” Eleven Secretaries of Commerce and nine Secretaries of the Treasury have served previously without previous public sector experience. However, no Secretaries of State or Education have lacked public service experience before Tillerson and DeVos. Tillerson spent his entire career as an executive at ExxonMobil before his appointment. “Exxon is an international company, so he is used to dealing in international matters, but how that’s going to affect the way he runs the State Department is another matter,” Salacuse said. Tillerson has committed to putting his deferred shares in Exxon in an independently managed trust, but the document outlining this appears to include a loophole that could allow him to return to Exxon in the future. His inexperience in government is not the only cause for concern. “Tillerson has sold his stock or put it into a trust, but he’s still going to think like an oil man,” Political Science Professor Jeffrey Berry said. The New York Times reported that under Tillerson, ExxonMobil “struck lucrative deals with repressive governments in Africa, clashed with China and befriended Vietnam over disputed territory in the South China Sea [. . .] and built a close rapport with Russia at a time of deepening mistrust between the Kremlin and the West,” all of which contravened the interests of the United States. DeVos, a hardline advocate of the school privatization movement, has a sprawling web
of financial holdings that are in direct conflict with her ability to faithfully serve the public interest. But unlike Tillerson, DeVos, an heiress to a massive fortune, lacks serious management experience of any kind. That Trump would choose her despite this is telling, Salacuse said. “Trump is attracted to people who are wealthy,” he said. “She was not a corporate manager. She’s [just] rich.” Such dubious interests in the private sector have taken similar forms in past administrations. “Eisenhower’s Secretary of Defense, Charles E. Wilson, had previously been GM’s CEO and is associated with the famous quote: ‘What’s good for GM is good for America,’” said John Burgess, a professor of international law and finance at the Fletcher School. But even among the most businessoriented administrations in American history, the equivocal priorities and ineptitude of
According to Burgess, this cabinet is “somewhat more business-skewed” than Reagan’s famously anti-regulatory administration. Some examples: Mnuchin oversaw more than 36,000 foreclosures while running OneWest Bank, which used the sort of aggressive tactics one judge called “harsh, repugnant, shocking, and repulsive.” Mick Mulvaney, the new White House budget director, has called Social Security a “Ponzi scheme.” DeVos’ family spent $1.45 million on an effort to prevent Michigan from increasing oversight for charter schools. And Scott Pruitt, Trump’s pick to head the Environmental Protection Agency, sent letters to President Obama that were secretly drafted by oil producer Devon Energy of Oklahoma when he was the state’s Attorney General. The administration’s earliest policy proposals augur something similar: Mnuchin said that “there would be no absolute tax cut for the upper class,” but an independent analy-
The political inexperience of Trump’s key appointees, the extent and opacity of their conflicts of interest, and the sheer magnitude of their wealth are all without precedent in recent history. many of Trump’s cabinet members is unusual. “Reagan did the same thing; Reagan said ‘the problem is the government,’” Salacuse said. “That was the problem. On the other hand, Reagan reached out to some pretty decent people. George Shultz was a pretty good Secretary of State […] He’d been a PhD at MIT, taught at MIT, he taught at the University of Chicago.” Trump, on the other hand, has chosen a cabinet mostly devoid of experts and intellectuals. “There are no academics,” Salacuse noted. “Henry Kissinger was an academic. Condoleezza Rice was an academic. George Shultz under Reagan was an academic.” While 23 percent of Obama’s cabinet held PhD’s, no members of Trump’s cabinet do, according to NPR. Nearly the exact reverse is true of former CEOs—none of Obama’s cabinet members were former CEOs, and 24 percent of Trump’s are.
sis of Trump’s tax plan suggests 47 percent of all tax cuts would go to the richest 1 percent, and no group would suffer as much as low and middle-income single-parent families. Trump also vowed to “dismantle” Dodd-Frank regulations intended to prevent another financial crisis, and banks have seen their stocks soar, as have private prisons. Whose interests will such an administration serve? For many Americans, its priorities are coming into focus: a recent Pew study found that 64 percent of Americans think that wealthy people will gain influence under Trump and 74 percent think corporations will gain influence. Few, on the other hand, said they expect poor people, women, Black people, Hispanic people, LGBTQ people, or “people like themselves” to gain influence under Trump. For a candidate who promised normal Americans “will be forgotten no longer,” the duplicity seems evident. March 6, 2017
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FEATURE
Campus
Me to Me: Write an Article A I
magine a bingo board. The grid is filled with phrases like “taking the extra meat sticker off your Hodgdon burrito in the drinks corner,” “FREE SPACE is dead at Tufts,” and “Timely warning, Breaking and Entering Near Medford/Somerville Campus.” The phrases are written in brown and blue Comic Sans, and the “O” at the top of the last column has been changed to say “BO’S.” This meme would not be popular or even understood anywhere besides Tufts, but that doesn’t matter. It currently has over 800 likes in the Facebook group titled “Tufts Memes for Quirky Queens” (TMFQQ). One night this semester, first-years Leo Mandani, Mary Kate Kelley, and Peter Lam were looking at meme pages from schools across the country. Mandani, a resident of California, had seen pages from UC Berkeley, Stanford, and UCLA, and bemoaned the fact that no similar spaces existed at Tufts where students and alumni could post original content. “At late night Carm, I was scrolling through [Berkeley Memes for Edgy Teens] and asked Mary Kate why we didn’t have a page like that. And on the spot we came up with the name and MK made the page on her phone,” Mandani said. And so, Tufts Memes for Quirky Queens was born. Mandani, Kelley, and Lam are the three administrators of the page, but they also added five moderators—mostly their friends—that assist in curating content and allowing users to join the group. However, the admins and mods have mostly been taking a handsoff approach. 24
Tufts Observer
March 6, 2017
“At first we just accepted anyone that requested to join into the group, but a couple people messaged us suggesting that we restrict it to only Tufts students and alumni,” Lam said. “Other than that, we haven’t really been heavily moderating the page aside from deleting anything non-Tufts related.” The group description outlines a few loose rules: add your friends, be nice, and post original content if possible. The page currently has over 4,500 members, the majority of whom are Tufts students. Unlike YikYak, where posts are anonymous, or
Twitter and Instagram, where people only follow whom they want to follow, TMFQQ encompasses a large proportion of the student body. Almost any Tufts-related content is fair game. Common topics include Tony Monaco, pros and cons of different majors, the state of Greek life, and the ever-present Carm vs. Dewick debate. Several memes depict tropes of the Tufts community, such
as IR majors trying to pass as Fletcher students in Ginn Library, SMFA students taking the unreliable shuttle, or ex-members of Greek life writing op-eds. Nearly everyone interviewed for this article talked about how Tufts Memes for Quirky Queens is a unifying group where students can relate to one another about campus-specific experiences, many of which center around differing levels of privilege on campus. A common point of discussion on the page is the prevalence of Canada Goose jackets. A parka that is more expensive than a month’s worth of rent is an easy target, but other memes delve deeper into issues of class, race, and gender. In this way, there exists a point where relatability comes to a halt. On February 15, sophomore Conrad Young posted a screenshot of the email notification for the Financial Aid application deadline with a reaction image of Gavin, a kid made famous by Vine in the summer of 2016. The caption reads “60% of you can’t relate,” and the post received over 300 likes. This references the 57 percent of Tufts students who did not receive grants or scholarship aid during the 2014-2015 school year. Young’s meme not only comments on the difficulties of navigating financial aid at Tufts, but it also directly calls attention to the majority of the student body who do not receive aid and literally “can’t relate.” In a similar vein, junior Chris Paulino posted a screenshot from NBC’s The Office showing Dwight Schrute, a White man, saying “White people, right?” to Kelly Kapoor, a woman of color. The caption reads, ART BY LILY PISANO
FEATURE
Campus
e About the Meme Page By Megan Mooney “white students posting in this group like.” Paulino’s meme takes issue with the White members of the group criticizing Whiteness in an attempt to relate to people of color. He explained that when memes created by Black people use African-American Vernacular English and become popular, eventually White people consume and reproduce these memes without truly understanding them. The meme, as a format, thrives because it has no boundaries, but this aspect of the Internet phenomenon has its limits. “Like, anyone can meme,” Paulino said. “But maybe not everyone should meme everything.” Aidan Huntington, a sophomore SMFA dual degree student, said he feels uncomfortable when it’s difficult to tell if a meme is embracing something or making fun of it, like with Greek life or protests. “Recently a few memes about the Charlie Baker protest were posted, some were positive and some were negative, and they were both deleted by mods.” Huntington thought that posts were deleted because the moderators didn’t want them to create tensions. “It’s designed to be a space for non-contentious memes for the most part.” According to the admins, conflict is rare. Mandani explained that there have been one or two incidences where posts have crossed the line. “[The] only issues have been with posts targeting specific students and the admins/mods not seeing it fast enough to delete early. But other than that, so far everything has run smoothly.” Kelley expressed a similar sentiment. “We haven’t had any serious issues arise.
One person was concerned with who was getting approved into the group so we changed it to where everyone who wants to join needs admin/mod approval, which was good thinking considering how big of a group we were becoming.” Contentious memes are few and far between: most are much less political in nature than Young’s or Paulino’s, and it seems that many students like that about the page. Junior Adam Kercheval said, “Tufts students are pretty political wherever they go, but I also think that there’s
a tacit agreement on meme pages not to take anything too personally. We should all be able to laugh at ourselves and at everything else that goes on around here, and I can’t imagine anyone would go on a meme page, of all places, to attempt to push a political agenda.” Junior Tom Jasionowski compared TMFQQ to other meme pages like Post Aesthetics, which once had 40,000 mem-
bers before it was deleted in the summer of 2016. “I’ve been involved in a lot of meme pages and usually in their infancy, everything is pure and nice and true. Eventually, though, there becomes a lot of in-fighting.” Jasionowski believes that avoiding conflict between moderators and general members of the group is key in generating positive and entertaining content. “If it can do that, it won’t end up like the wasteland that is Post Aesthetics.” The unpredictable nature of Internet trends does not provide an easy road map to tell us where the page will go from here. The creators never expected it to grow to its current size, but they are not worried. “As it stands right now,” Leo Mandani said. “It’s just a mediocre college meme page. I’m glad it got popular on campus because it means more memes and more content.” One of the most liked posts in TMFQQ is a screenshot from the Nickelodeon cartoon Spongebob Squarepants. It shows two stills of Patrick Star with white text overlaid on the top and bottom reading “Make up your mind- Do we know each other!?? Or do we not know each other!??” Posted on February 16, this meme captures the frustration felt “when you pass by people on campus and they’re inconsistent with saying hi,” as the caption reads. It has 822 likes. If this is the most popular meme in the group, what does this say about the Tufts community? Is it easier to communicate with people online than it is when walking across campus? TMFQQ offers no solid answers, but for now, post on. March 6, 2017
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T
here is no denying the growing presence of spiritual elements in popular music today. While music with religious connotations is not a new phenomenon, many popular musicians have recently begun integrating their faith into their art in a way that is modern and relatable. On February 24, UK Grime rapper Stormzy released his debut album, Gang Signs and Prayers. As its title suggests, the album merges beliefs and
said, “I think Black music and religion are interconnected because, even though not everyone that is Black is religious, it is integrated into the culture. Even thinking back to slavery when we were singing Negro Spirituals and as Christianity was becoming incorporated into plantations, they would mix hymns with musical styles from Africa and a whole blend of things that contributed to this Black gospel style.” Echoing these comments, S-Factor
people, especially young people, does not seem so outlandish. Speaking specifically to the sentiments of Jordan and Percy, if music at its core aims to articulate a message, then the link between spiritual Black music and protest cannot be overlooked. Perhaps this could be seen as an iteration of the Black radical imagination and subsequent reflection of the times, but through music. Often religion requires us to overlook our
Spirituality In Song By Yaa Kankam-Nantwi
everyday experiences, placing Stormzy on a star-studded list alongside many other artists who have been doing the same— like Chance the Rapper and Kanye West. However, mainstream artists are not the only ones popularizing religious music. In fact, one of the more popular classes taken for an art credit at Tufts is Gospel Choir; over 100 students have been enrolling in the course each semester since 2006, when current Director David Coleman took the helm. Other organizations on campus have long been incorporating religion into their music, namely the a cappella groups Essence, S-Factor, and Shir Appeal. Specializing in music of the African diaspora, a cappella groups Essence and S-Factor frequently perform gospel covers. Due to its roots in the Black oral tradition, gospel music serves as a testament to the resilience and creativity of Black people and, as such, celebrates the people behind it too. Speaking to this, junior Kristiana Jordan, a member of Essence,
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members sophomore Isaiah MarshallThomas and junior Travis Percy spoke to their own group’s connection with spirituality. “Black music is inextricably linked with religion in so many different ways. Black gospel music is rooted in the experience of overcoming so much adversity and uniting behind a collective cause in the process of doing so. It invokes a sense of community, even how it’s centered around call and response mechanisms and the way the group members have to interact with that,” Percy said. Is music itself becoming more religious or are we just seeing it crossover more frequently into the mainstream? Drawing from the invocation of community and struggle, the current political climate presents a time in which faith in the unknown—like the future— and hope are greatly needed. In this case, the appeal of popular music with overt spiritual elements to non-religious
worldly existence for a larger purpose that can sometimes feel alienating or incomplete, especially for people of marginalized identities. In this sense, music is a means through which one can root their faith in their corporal reality and consume it through art too. For many Black people, these familiar sounds are reminiscent of home. Religion aside, the communal aspect of music about faith inspires a sense of community that can be hard to find in an increasingly individualized society. “It can also be a source of inspiration as a lot of people grew up with it,” said Jordan. “Gospel music is how I started singing, in the church and with the teen choir, which I think is true for a lot of Black musicians.” Similarly, Marshall-Thomas said, “I try to think of it as more so paying homage to our ancestors and their struggles than I do singing to God.” Thinking about ancestry and struggle, what does it mean to celebrate the African diaspora with positive imagery
ART BY ANNIE ROOME
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Arts & Culture
through a religion that also represents strife in the very same people’s lives? Given the interwoven history of slavery, White supremacy and Christianity, how do these performers reconcile the context in which religion became entangled with the Black tradition with the significance that it has in our culture? For example, thinking about the Judeo-Christian conceptions of God as male and given that Gospel music is heavily influenced by, and sometimes even taken verbatim from the Bible, how are these songs framed in a way that is respectful to its context and tradition, but also inclusive and representative of our ideals today? According to Percy, recognizing this history and deciding to center the music of the experience is one way to do so. “Without going to all of the liberation theology behind how a Black Christian can reconcile all of those opposing forces, you can sing music about something that is liberating and oppressive at the same time,” he noted. Similarly, Jordan described a process of separating the music itself from the ill that it can represent by focusing on personal interpretation. For her, “It’s almost like gospel music is divorced from the church and all of its prejudices. I focus on the music itself more and what it does for me. Thinking about the Kim Burrell situation and all the -isms that go along with that,” referring to an incident in which gospel singer Kim Burrell made homophobic comments and lost widespread support as a result. “Black churches can be violent sometimes, but I focus on my personal connection with it.” How then, do those who cannot disengage the two or do not have a personal connection with religion navigate these spaces? “When we’re singing gospel, we
always talk about how even though not everybody can identify with it, we all have a similar element or something we want to be grateful for or some sort of spiritual connection that they can connect with. So we encourage each other to tap into that,” Jordan said. “Thinking particularly about our song ‘Gospel,’ for example, which is one about thankfulness and gratefulness, it’s universal even though the song itself is particular to Christianity.” By this principle, having spiritual elements doesn’t always equate to spirituality per se, especially when it is just as much of a cultural emblem as it is a religious one. In a different set of racial and religious circumstances, Jewish on-campus a capella group Shir Appeal also finds connection to spirituality through song. Junior Stephanie Leah Evans of Shir Appeal told the Observer, “Singing makes me feel connected not only to the people, but also to the culture that is being represented. We are always looking for new ways to represent Judaism by diversifying repertoire and showcasing different cultures, too, so there is the inter-faith aspect of it too. It’s all linked.” Evans also emphasized the recurring idea of finding secular themes in religious music by relating it to common human understanding of subject matters like love and empowerment. Popular music is bringing religious elements of faith and hope to the nonreligious masses, but for those who are in touch with their spirituality, this is just a reaffirmation of the power of music in preserving and spreading the faith. Incorporating religious elements into music can be a way to explore personal themes of growth, community and hope, especially when these things seem to be under threat.
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MISSED C NNECTIONS Music & Chill You were the cute guy deep in study wearing stripes and a green bomber jacket in the music library. Your headphones are big and probably have great sound quality. We were sitting back to back. I was the girl with black glasses also wearing stripes. I was watching music videos on YouTube and kept playing with my curly black hair.
Survey Says... Two years ago you came up to me on the sidewalk, said I was pretty, and asked for my number by requesting I fill out a “survey” on your phone. I had a boyfriend so I said no. My boyfriend broke up with me two days later. I hope you’re a senior too... reveal yourself!! I was wearing pink and purple dip-dyed shorts and I have long blonde hair. I was a little drunk.
Facing Loss Hey everyone, I’m looking for my size medium black North Face jacket that I left in the corner behind a couch at senior pub night yet am still totally shocked that I couldn’t find at the end of the night. I guess it’s possible that someone thought it was theirs? Idk you guys but I’m really cold! I have straight brown hair and I’m usually wearing my super cute “the future is female” shirt on my way back from the gym before my econ class! I went to the women’s march where I wore my medium black North Face jacket so I really want it back also for the memories and sentimental value. This is a movement not a moment you guys!
Submit yours at tuftsobserver.org/missed-connections 28
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ART BY LILY PISANO
CONRAD YOUNG
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