Common Ground Spring 2016 - CROSSings: Borderless

borderless crossings

ucsd cross cultural center

COMMON GROUND VOLUME 21 • SPRING QUARTER 2016

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direc to r’s me ssa ge

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preuss intern intro & first generation college student inter vie ws

edwina welch

gabriela ramos & ccc interns

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c o m m u ni t y su b m i ssi ons

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academic su b m i ssi ons

natalie lai, miranda cai, thuy tien nguyen

sandra amon & fatima kamil

borderless crossings

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s el f - in itia ted pro jec t f ea tures

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tho ug hts po ts & pa s s ive b o a rd s

ccc interns

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sp r i n g m o m e n t s staff & interns

ccc interns & volunteers

ucsd cross cultural center

COMMON GROUND VOLUME 21 • SPRING QUARTER 2016

border A C A N VA S O F P O S S I B I L I T Y

by edwina welch

As I sit to write this last Common Ground article for 201516 I am holding personal and professional contradictions and angst which so fit the yearlong theme of borders.

It’s another spring on campus and students, staff, faculty and community are confronted once more with acts of intolerance,

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director’s message

bigotry, and malice. The antiimmigrant and anti-Chicanx words and phrases may very well fall under free-speech but their impact on community and belonging are present and long-lasting. Often people say “it’s no big deal” or “get over it,” which only show the embedded privilege some of us carry day to day. How can you say “it’s no

big deal” when your fellow students may not have seen their parents in years because of our immigration policy? How can you say “get over it” when you just came from a class–where you were asked to speak to all Queer, Brown, Women’s experiences because your classmates just want to know what you eat and how you do your hair?

So here we sit, in solidarity with many others, raising our voices using our power to say “I will not get over it” and “it is a big deal--I am impacted, and this is my community, my campus.” For many it will not feel like ‘enough.’

And that is the real contradiction of social justice work. Individuals pull us from our focus and work to respond to their bigotry and go about their merry way while we miss class, lose sleep, and are left to

and community building? Everyone will have a different answer and experience with this question. Some will say there is only one way to respond and if you do anything differently, you are complicit in keeping things the way they are. I fight and ask myself these questions every day.

In art class I was taught you don’t need a frame if you paint to the edges and around the sides of a canvas. This “borderless” practice allows the painting to continue over the edge and allow it to be framed or not.

This metaphor stays in my mind.

There is power in “borderless-ness.”

I can re-imagine, re-frame and refocus my ideas and efforts. This re-imagining does not make the picture, or circumstance, go away, but maybe, just maybe, I can find a

wonder if it will ever change.

And so my angst: how do you hold onto a person’s right to say ‘ugly, hateful’ things; support and fight to leverage institutional change so less of these incidents happen; and stay grounded in the long-haul work of social justice

new vision on how to proceed.

After note: Thank you to Hye Young, this year’s Common Ground Marketing and Newsletter Intern.

Your presence, work, and care show up in all you do.

rless

E. WELCH

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meet the new intern GABRIELA RAMOS /

spring preuss intern

Hello my name is Gabriela Ramos, but I prefer to go by Gabbie. I play volleyball, soccer, and I box. I love to do makeup and dance. My dream is to become a lawyer and own a law firm. I also love spontaneous adventures.

g first en lege col student Stories interviewees: alexis buz, whitney kim la, h y e yo u n g c h o i , e d wa r d n a d u r ata & maurx salcedo peĂąa

What is your parent(s)’ highest level of education?

ALEXIS: Middle School WHITNEY: It's kind of complicated for my parents because neither of my parents really had a chance to finish their high school education for various reasons. My mom was raised by a single mom and her grandmother in China. She had two older brothers that didn't really live with them for long so she had to drop out of high school to work and 05

spring preuss intern profile & first gen college student survey

help support her family. My dad on the other hand left high school to work in my grandpa's market in Vietnam. When my dad came to the U.S. he managed to get a certificate in various vocational occupations and put that he had a GED in Vietnam to find work, although it is unclear to me if he ever finished school.

HYE YOUNG: My mother graduated college with an associate's degree and my father dropped out of college. Answering this question confuses me because my father had to go to school in

attempts to maintain his student visa when we first immigrated to the U.S. Technically he has a bachelor's degree in theology, but he went to an unaccredited school that no longer exists.

Regardless of my parents' level of education, I would say neither of my parents understand how to navigate higher education in the United States.

EDWARD: Bachelor's Degree MAURX: Both of my parents completed up to Elementary School in their hometowns in Mexico.

What are your family members’ sentiments about higher education? Do they align with how they feel about you in college?

ALEXIS: Very supportive and worked very hard to get me where I am today.

WHITNEY: My parents feel that high education is the only way to get myself (and all of my siblings) out of a life of poverty and to not have to work as hard as they do for as little as they make. My dad immigrated to the US in the late 70s as a refugee from Vietnam and my mom immigrated after marrying my dad in the early 90s. Ever since I was little, my dad has always emphasized the importance of school and getting a degree. My dad has always been supportive in the ways that he knew how to be in trying to help me be able to make college possible. I remember that we would always cut down on spending money on a lot of things, but whenever it came to school expenses, my parents would try their best to make it work. I believe that higher education and getting a college degree is a way for me to have more opportunities in the future, but I also feel that it is a time for me to grow and learn about my passions.

HYE YOUNG: My parents have always encouraged me to pursue higher education. They dream about me becoming a doctor or a professor.

They have high hopes and expectations for me, but sometimes they do not correspond with the amount of guidance they give me. I used to feel frustrations about the discord between what they wanted from me and the amount of help they were able to provide, but now I feel nothing but guilt and appreciation. I cannot blame them for not knowing the skills and steps required to pursue and succeed in higher education. All they can do is provide me with moral and financial support. And honestly, that is all that they have given me ever since they stepped foot in this country. They have sacrificed so much for me and I often feel that the only way I can give back is by fulfilling my role as a student. My dreams are no longer my own—they now represent my parents dreams as well as my gratitude for them.

EDWARD: My family has always encouraged higher education and that is something that I am really grateful for. They're very happy that college has been a transformative and learning space for me both in my classes and in my extra-curricular activities.

MAURX: I am the eldest and the first in my family to go to college. A lot of contradicting sentiments have emerged out of that. Both of my parents are immigrants and have not been able to access much opportunities. I, in a lot of ways, became the vessel for my family's seeds of hope and expectations of a better future. Many dreams that they have lost or imagined were buried in me with the expectation that I will bring their wishes to fruit. Carrying those seeds is a tremendous amount of pressure and expectation. My family sees college as a way for self-improvement and access to a better life.

They definitely understand the significance of it and some of the benefits that it can bring. Yet at the same time, there has always been (and still is) a reluctance to accept some of the changes that can

first gen college student survey

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come with college. There is/was an expectation that I still perform the same duties and responsibilities for my family even though i am almost 500 miles away. My parents can be simultaneously proud of me yet also question and invalidate decisions that i make because they do not align with what they want for me. I think there will always be contradiction stemming from their sentiments because my time at college has been and will continue to be a process for both me and them.

College has not been what either of us expected.

What motivated you to attend college?

What discouraged you from attending college?

ALEXIS: Attaining financial stability for my family, having their endless support and love, and overcoming the many systemic barriers affecting undocumented students like myself both motivated me and discouraged me from attending college.

WHITNEY: What motivated me to attend college was seeing how hard my parents would work through different points of struggle and still try to pick up the pieces. My dad became unemployed when I was in 7th grade and struggled to find work for 5 years. During that time, we had to go on the CalWORKS and CalFRESH program to survive.

A part of being in the program was that my mom had to volunteer at our local library for 4 hours a day, 5 days a week, while dad worked at a part time job that he later found. College was my way out and to do something for myself and my family.

When I got accepted into UC San Diego, I saw it as an opportunity and the first step out of a cycle of stress, financial problems, and repetition.

What was discouraging me from attending was the distance and trying to figure out a lot of the things on my own. My parents wanted me to be closer to home in San Jose and I didn’t have any relatives

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first gen college student survey

in San Diego. I was fortunate enough to be in a program called Summer Search during my time in high school. My mentors and college advisers in Summer Search pushed me to challenge myself and helped me with a lot of the process when my parents couldn’t. I also wanted to set an example for my younger siblings that going off to college far away from home wasn’t impossible.

HYE YOUNG: Watching my parents work so hard made me want to go to college. They instilled in me an appreciation for learning and hard work. I also knew that one of the main reasons why my parents came to the U.S. was so my sister and I could have better educational opportunities. We endured so much as immigrants, and later, as undocumented immigrants. There were many times when I just wanted to give up because it seemed like all the odds were against me as an undocumented student.

I felt that the system was just not designed for people like me. But I had to keep knocking on doors and overcoming barriers because it would have been the biggest insult and disappointment to my parents who worked tirelessly to support our family.

The factors that discouraged me from pursuing higher education still haunt me today, but I am learning to be more resilient every day.

EDWARD: My biggest motivation for attending college is my parents because they moved to the US so that I can have the best education I can get.

MAURX: The first time i thought about college was in fifth grade, I think. I got to see a nearby University because of a program called “ I am going to college”. The program seeks to make college a reality for many underrepresented students in higher education. I remember getting back from the field trip with a dark blue backpack and school supplies. I eagerly translated my day for my mother as we walked back from school. And I remember the child-like joy in my voice contrasted with

my mother’s pensive and worried look. She was wondering if we would ever be able to afford it. And over the years I kept hearing about rising costs and so new barriers that I slowly lost that eager joy I carried back then. It became harder to cling to that dream as I grew older. I grew up in a community where most of us could not go to college and instead had to work to support family, flee violence, etc. Early high school was an incredibly discouraging and dark time in my life because I received so many mixed messages and negative expectations from many around and close to me.

At some point there was a shift but it was a long and difficult one. I began to do spoken word/poetry, find outlets for my expression, wanted to prove my own worth to myself and others, made some good friends, and put so much of my energy into my hopes and aspirations for going to college. I gained a lot of motivation from my story and experiences.

Knowing and validating everything it took for me, my family, friends, and ancestors to get here has definitely been a source of motivation. My motivation has also been so tied with the resilience i have had to build over the years. I owe so much to this resilience even though that very resilience came about through such high costs.

What motivates you to stay in college? What discourages you from staying in college?

ALEXIS: Being able to succeed despite my background of being a low income first generation undocumented student that grew up in an isolated and impoverished farm in the outskirts of Stockton and ultimately helping change the many systematic oppressive structures destroying our communities. I want to learn and grow as much as I can and return to Stockton to help uplift a community in crisis.

Whitney: It is easy to feel really lost in a large university like UCSD. There are so many people in the lecture halls and sometimes hard to reach out

F E AT U R E D : ALEXIS BUZ @ HIGH S C H O O L G R A D U AT I O N

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to the professors here. Academically the courses were a lot more challenging than what I thought and I remember feeling that my experience in high school did not really prepare me for college at times. I wasn't that homesick when I first came here, but when the novelty of being in college wore off, I questioned my choices in picking such a far university. What motivates me to stay in college is just seeing how far I have come and finding a community or home away from home here. When I think about the obstacles I had to overcome, I know that I have to keep pushing forward. In my first year, I was a part of OASIS Summer Bridge and APSA. Being a part of these spaces really helped me feel grounded in what I wanted to do and what I was passionate about. Summer Bridge gave me a lot of opportunities and the ability to connect with others who had similar experiences to me.

Through APSA, I meant a lot of really good friends and got involved in the CCC. I felt really retained being a part of these spaces. When I figured out that I wanted to major in Public Health to one day address issues of health disparities in different communities I felt more reassured of my purpose in being here.

HYE YOUNG: Individuals who affirm my right to be in college motivate me to continue my journey in higher education. I appreciate students, staff, faculty, and other important figures in my life who have nurtured me, challenged me, and supported me in my pursuits. There are times when I feel very replaceable and undeserving due to narratives about what kind of people should have access to certain opportunities and privileges. But people who give space for me to share counter narratives and pave previously invisible paths inspire me to stay in college and achieve more.

EDWARD: The thing that motivates me the most for college is my desire to give back to my family, friends, but most especially to my community.

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first gen college student survey

MAURX: Sometimes, I think back to the person I was in high school. And that person still motivates me. Getting into college was no easy task for me.

I helped doubt and invalidate myself along every part of the journey but I proved myself wrong too.

I often think back to the moment i found out that I got into UCSD. I was sitting out on the curb waiting for the bus down to the neighborhood I lived in. I saw a missed call from the San Diego F E AT U R E D : W H I T N E Y K I M L A & FA M I LY

area and was completely expecting it to be a family relative. I called back and was told I got accepted into UCSD. I actually started crying right there by myself on this empty street with a smile of disbelief on my face. I think back to that person sometimes and wish them all the validation they were denied.

I want to finish college for that person as well as who I am now. I know that I owe it to myself. I draw a lot of motivation from the people I value in my life as well. Last year, one of my good friends from high school died. He was a student at Cal and actually helped me a lot with college stuff. I never had anyone to guide me through college things and as a first-generation college student, I had to figure it out all on my own mostly. He helped fill some of the gaps of support. We used to volunteer at an Oakland library together. I actually found out about his passing immediately after my interview for my position here at the Cross-Cultural Center. His death unraveled me in tandem with other things I was dealing with at the time. It is something I am still processing, grieving, and hurting over but it has also become another source of strength for me. I want to finish college for him, for me, my friends, family, and others who have been there along the way. There is so much that discourages me from staying. If I am honest, my time at UCSD has actually been quite painful and far from the hopes and oasis I yearned for it to be. I have come close to leaving many times because there is always something pushing me out. And yet I am still here.

Still learning to live in and practice hope. I know I have so so much to fight for.

What kind of contradicting structures and expectations do you face as a firstgeneration college student?

ALEXIS: I face a lot of pressure to succeed as an undocumented student, particularly because of the DREAMer narrative that has been prevalent in my life. Having the pressure to bring stability to my family both financially and if possible by fixing our immigration status is a tremendous burden (That I personally decided to take on, not because my parents force me). I constantly have to worry about money and looking for the

few opportunities that I can actually qualify for regardless of my immigration status. And most importantly the life decisions I have had to make because of my undocumented status that make me feel emotionally 40 years old through the hardships I have survived because of these choices.

WHITNEY: I feel that a lot of first-generation college students struggle with learning how to navigate identity at home and away from home.

My parents wanted me to go into the STEM field and study for some kind of career that they knew earned a decent salary. It was hard for me to explain and translate what my major was at first.

On one hand my parents are really proud that I got into UCSD because they have heard that it's a prestigious university, but on the other hand they sometimes wonder why I couldn't have just gone to San Jose State University or community college first. One time I called my mom because I was feeling homesick and stressed out with school and she told me, "You should just come home and change schools to San Jose State University". I knew that she was saying this because the only way she knew how to help me was to have me home where she could take care of me if I wasn't feeling well, but mentally and emotionally, I felt like I was alone. Also, a lot of the times, I find it hard to explain to my parents what I am doing or learning in school when they ask me because being a second generation immigrant, I feel like I don't have the words or language to describe what institutional racism is or how public health is different from being pre-med or studying biology. It is hard going to college and being expected to acquire all of this new knowledge, but still being expected to be exactly the same person when I go home. I think another thing about being a first-gen college student is that a lot of the time, people forget that once we "make it" into a good college, we still need help and resources.

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HYE YOUNG: As an Asian American undocumented immigrant without DACA, I have to deal with the detrimental effects of the model minority narrative as well as the Dreamer narrative.

Both narratives place a lot of pressure on me to be a perfect, exceptional immigrant. However, my reality is far from what people assume it to be and it's difficult to feel entitled to certain opportunities and assistance that other first-generation college students receive because of people's preconceived notions of what Asian students are like.

EDWARD: For me, one of the biggest contradictions about being a college student is this idea of a student taking general education classes to be more well-rounded and more cultured BUT the course catalog itself isn't as diverse as it should be. Most of the classes are focused on Europe/the US, even a lot of study abroad programs focus on Europe so I think about that all the time.

MAURX: I struggle with the guilt that comes with my experience of being a first-generation college student. My family wants me to be in school but they also want me to be over there and often need me over there. I carry some guilt for not being able to support them in the same ways. There is so much pressure for me to be focus on school but to also be their "savior" and continue fulfilling their expectations. There have been so many moments where I have to choose between UCSD and others that I care about. Many first-generation college students and people of color, like myself, are expected to let go of any ties to our families and become fully immersed into the university and its expectations. I struggle with creating belonging here at UCSD because it is always uprooting me in some way. Despite universities trying to recruit more first-generation college students, there is always something or someone reminding me that I don't belong here. I've had professors expect students to spend $100+ per class project despite barely having enough money to make it through the quarter. There is an expectation of who "students" are supposed to be even if that doesn't really align with our own respective realities and experiences.

F E AT U R E D : HYE YOUNG CHOI @ HIGH SCHOOL GRAD

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first gen college student survey

How do you navigate (or fail to navigate) those contradictions?

ALEXIS: I sacrifice sleep in order to handle my academic responsibilities, in order to make time to apply to countless scholarships and internships. I am constantly looking for resources and building my support networks everywhere I go as I am constantly navigating new systems and areas that life has taken me. I have tremendous passion and resilience as well as incredible resourcefulness in order to be where I am today, as well as just being lucky to have had the many people that have helped me out and supported me throughout my life so far.

WHITNEY: I try to navigate these contradictions by finding a community outside of home or friends that can relate to me. The Cross-Cultural Center, Summer Bridge and APSA were definitely some of the spaces where I could go to and feel like I wasn't alone in a lot of these struggles. The people I have met there have been my support system whether it was my Academic Transition Counselor (ATC), my suite mates, the staff at the CCC, or even my

friends. It takes a lot of internal processing for me and accepting the fact that I can't meet everyone's expectation for me but my own. Sometimes, I still fail to negotiate my identity and who I decide to be when I am back at home versus when I am here. I think that being away from home has allowed my family and I to appreciate each other more. It took a lot of communication and trying to explain things to them to help them understand.

HYE YOUNG: I try hard to get by and succeed without help. When I succeed without asking for help, I feel like I am perpetuating the model minority myth and the Dreamer narrative. It makes me so angry because sometimes buying into those stereotypes are the only way I can survive. There are many things I sacrifice in order to uphold toxic expectations of perfection including my relationships and mental health. Sometimes I do fail or actively challenge contradicting structures and expectations. Working at the CCC and gathering stories as the Common Ground intern is just one of the many ways I fulfill this role.

EDWARD: The way I've navigated this is by creating spaces where students can explore and learn about their identities especially through Directed Group Studies which is basically a class that can be created and facilitated by students for students.

MAURX: I think my ability to navigate contradicting structures and expectations comes out of the resilience that I have had to build in my own life. In a lot of ways, I have grown up in many different worlds. Some of these worlds go against each other and others try to deny the other.

Some of my identities place me in difficult and contradictory positions that I have had to figure out. Navigation, for me, is very tied with support.

I've learned to get better at asking for help and figuring out who is there for me and who is not.

first gen college student survey

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F E AT U R E D : MAURX SALCEDO PEĂ‘A & FRIENDS

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first gen college student survey

Sometimes I feel like the contradictions are incompatible puzzle pieces that I am forced to somehow put together.

Other comments or thoughts?

WHITNEY: Being a first-generation college student is amazing because it shows how resilient, resourceful, and ambitious you are and how much you have overcome to get this far so keep doing what you've been doing!

HYE YOUNG: My mom and dad always apologize to me for not being educated enough to help me in school. I hope they realize that they have taught me more than enough to overcome the challenges I face in college. 꽃피던 시절은 나에게 다시 돌아와서 나를 꽃피우기 위해 거름이 되어버렸던 그을린 그 시간들을 내가 깨끗히 모아서 당신의 웃음 꽃 피우길 Your blooming days have returned to me You became the ashes to my fertile soil, I hope to collect the smoke your time has become.

And let a smile bloom like a flower once again

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community submission

F E AT U R E D : UNTITLED PIECES B Y N ATA L I E L A I

“The boundaries of our minds does not exist. Darkness has no bottom, while love has no ceiling. Its an adventure navigating souls in a space that has no end, and sometimes I get lost.

Sometimes I get tired. Always I prevail.�

Natalie Lai

untitled pieces: natalie lai

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inher

I. Dear Baba, I remember your back, Silhouetted in the lamplight.

It casted you in a florescent glow, Made the strands of your hair light up, Curly like mine, gave you a halo in the dark room, Still working when everyone else had gone to bed.

I remember the furrows on your forehead, You were always so worried About making the ends meet, Providing the best you could for your family.

I remember your hands, Palms calloused and heavy With the weight of carrying your family across the Pacific Ocean.

You braved a new land, Built yourself from the bottom up, A real adventurer, With your compass always pointed towards home.

Mama says you’re a good person But I cannot bring myself to love you.

I can only love the pieces you left behind.

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community submission

II. Dear Dad, I remember tiptoeing, I could never be too careful, Lest I caused you to erupt.

You were like a volcano: All the possibilities simmering beneath the surface, All paths of destruction leading toward me.

I remember how you berated me, I was never good enough for you, The laundry list of problems For the daughter you never wanted.

I remember the stinging of my cheek, The hot flash of tears, You tried to choke the life out of me, Pushed me against the wall, Watched the light drain from my eyes, Because I could not respect you.

I cannot respect you.

Mom says you’re a good person But I cannot bring myself to love you.

I can only love the pieces you left behind.

ritance Abuse slinks in the shadows and hides behind closed doors. We can condemn abusers and tell ourselves that they are monsters. What happens when the monsters are the people close to us? Our favorite teacher. Our parents. Our best friend.

Abusers can be “good people�. Humans are complex beings, we are capable of wonderful and terrible

things. There is no divide between being a good person and being capable of violence (emotional, physical, or otherwise). They are both, one and the same. We can only grapple at what they left behind.

If these poems resonate with you, please remember: it is not your fault, it was never your fault.

BY MIRANDA CAI

III. My father has passed but his ghost still lingers Underneath my skin cells his fingers still trace the scars he left behind, The roadmap of blood blooming into bruises on my throat.

My father was an angry man And I see him in every sudden movement As I brace myself for the blow that will never again come.

Abused children are statistically more likely to become perpetrators themselves.

And I am my father’s daughter.

I wonder if my hands are predestined to hurt.

My brother is only nine.

I feel my father stirring in me when I raise my voice.

I pray I one day do not raise a hand When my anger spills crimson onto the kitchen floor Is this my legacy?

To have generations of hurt Burn through my veins.

This is my inheritance, Heavy I keep.

I pray to change the hands of fate.

I pray to change my hands of fate.

Before it becomes too late.

inheritance: miranda cai

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crossings: borderless

BY THUY TIEN NGUYEN

Looking When I was Cold, Lost, Powerless, Hopeless, Struggling in vain, Not knowing to stay or follow, Keep going or give up.

My high school teacher would tell me a quote: “Man surprised me most about humanity.

Because he sacrifices his health in order to make money.

Then he sacrifices money to recuperate his health.

And then he is so anxious about the future that he does not enjoy the present; The result being that he does not live in the present or the future; He lives as if he is never going to die, And then dies having never really lived.� Dalai Lama Maybe Mankind created their own Struggle, Suffering, And borders.

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community submission

“Sleep is the best meditation�

Dalai Lama At one point in my college life, I was sleep deprived.

I had a full time job, Forty hours a week, Dental coding, Drafting treatment plans, Explaining to patients, Negotiating with insurance companies.

At the same time, I was a full time student, Taking Physics with Calculus, Together with Linear Algebra.

My classes met three times a week.

I had three exams each week If I was lucky, Maybe more if I was not.

I read my book after work, I did my homework until The sky turned from dark to light.

I slept two to four hours Each night.

I was perfectly functional.

I was sad.

I was depressed.

I was stressed.

I was hopeless.

I would cry to myself For no particular reason.

I was a thin thread Stretching in cold air With the weight of responsibilities.

I should drop Maybe my job,

Maybe my classes, One or the other.

It was a difficult decision.

I kept hanging on.

I lost my attention; On my way to school, I passed One red light, Two red lights, Three red lights.

I was half as sleep While driving my bike.

I decided To drop one class and keep the rest.

That night, I went to sleep When the sky was dark, When the stars were up high, When peace came back to me Once again.

The border of life and death Is so thin That sometimes I cannot recognize it.

Do not test that border!

Or Maybe I should In that quarter, I was so efficient.

I was an expert in time management.

I was the best self-learner in my life so far.

I learned so many skills That I did not imagine were possible to learn before that.

It was the border of heaven and hell.

Staying on Earth with some good sleep Maybe a better option after all?

collection of poems: thuy tien nguyen

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y g theofener my

BY THUY TIEN NGUYEN

day

In the southern part of Viet Nam, My family is ordinary.

Just a minor detail, I have been underweight Throughout my childhood.

I survived on fruits, vegetables, and milk.

I started trying other foods occasionally.

My nutritionist, doctor, and parents were So happy if I gained weight, grew taller, or ate a lot.

I improved from a picky eater to a semi-easy eater.

My mom would take me To the small market A five minute-walk away from our house To check out the swimming fish, To watch people skinning the jumpy frogs, To trap the flying shrimps inside a plastic bag, To bring home for lunch and dinner.

My mom would finish cooking our meal in ten minutes.

My dad would make the fish sauce.

My brother and I would clean up and arrange the table.

We ate in the same table, same side dishes, Same time, same place.

It was warm and cozy.

It was my family.

Then I moved away,

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community submission

Away to the Bay Area, The Northern part of California.

My new family, My aunt, uncle, and me Maybe ordinary according to American standards.

We do not eat together.

My uncle or aunt cooks once or twice a week.

This week is spaghetti.

Next week is pizza.

The week after that is burger.

And so on‌ When we feel hungry, We take the food out of the refrigerator, Warm it up in the microwave or oven,

Then we sit in front of the T.V., laptop, or desk And eat.

It is my family.

I try eating For a few weeks.

It does not work out.

I stop eating.

I starve myself.

I go to sleep…

Days… Weeks…

I live on fruit once again.

My mom calls.

My mom asks.

My mom yells.

I go to the kitchen.

I relive the moment of cooking three times a day, Ten minutes each time.

I am happy once again.

I cook American vegetables with Recipes that I come up with.

I merge ingredients with What I think may turn out good.

It is not Vietnamese food.

It is not American food.

It is a combination, without a border.

Maybe it is the new condition.

Maybe it is the tradition.

Maybe it is the habit.

Maybe it is just me.

It is still an underweight me.

But it is a happy me.

collection of poems: thuy tien nguyen

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This is Home

ETHN183 / CGS114 PAPER: BY SANDRA AMON

The ways in which people are depicted in media, especially those who face multiple and intersecting oppressions based on their social positions, powerfully influence mainstream ideas of who people are.

Most importantly, these attitudes translate into policies, resulting in material consequences.

What happens when the fourth wall is broken? When members of oppressed communities talk and fight back against media distortions? The following paper explores how one effort at addressing housing injustice in Richmond, California, addresses media depictions of housing project residents, as well as its larger social significance

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a) Which database did you chose?

Google b) Why did you choose the database?

I wanted to search for a piece that could have been made by an ordinary person. I do not believe that all have access to sharing their work on academic databases. c) What search terms did you use to identify the resource? “spoken word” “housing projects” d) Citation of the "non-academic" text you are focusing on: Vadi, Jose. "Off/Page Project Poets Draw from CIR's Public Housing Investigation." Off/Page Project Poets Draw from CIR's Public Housing Investigation. The Center for Investigative Reporting, 27 Feb. 2014. Web. 28 Jan. 2016.

How do representations function in pieces with a specific political goal, arguing for a certain progressive stance while negotiating already entrenched narratives in relation to race, class, and gender? How do they destabilize these dominant narratives and at the same time re-inscribe such narratives? In this paper, I ask these questions by examining This is Home, a short spoken word-documentary-music video piece set to music and visual shots of the infamously dilapidated and crime-ridden Hacienda and Nevin Plaza housing projects in Richmond, CA (Vadi 2014). This is Home features spoken word artists Deandre Evans, William Hartfield-Peoples, and Donte Clark. These individuals are young black men, all Richmond locals (though note: they do not live in the housing projects in question, themselves) who serve as narrators due to their prowess in stage performance, collaboration with investigative reporters, indepth

interviews with residents, and first-hand experience of the site, speaking out against various injustices they witnessed.

In this paper, I argue that This is Home works to play on the stereotypes of housing projects, such as the idea that a mostly black population of poor young single mothers and their children inhabit these projects (a play on the “welfare queen” controlling image); crimes of drug dealing, theft, prostitution, and vandalism run rampant; and finally lazy, morally deviant individuals who live in public housing are the source of its failure because of their reckless behavior (smoking, alcohol and drug abuse, teen pregnancies, crime, etc.). Subverting these stereotypes or controlling images through the story structure, establishing place, use of vivid visual and oral imagery, and juxtaposition of visual elements and word choices, This is Home argues to their intended audience of youths and concerned locals, that the Hacienda and Nevin Plaza projects need not apathy, disdain, and contempt, but empathy and righteous indignation – all of which are crucial in educating the larger public of the actual lived conditions, as well as galvanizing public advocacy for the rights of Richmond housing projects’ residents.

Perhaps indicative of the need to speak out against oppressive narratives that naturalize deviance (Clawson 2000), as the first part of a three act story, the spoken word piece begins with a description of the buildings in disrepair. This disrupts the tendency of US media to focus on individual behaviors (e.g. crime), instead highlighting

the context of what residents face. For instance, Deandre Evans declares: No heat for when Richmond wind blows / No AC to cool down the weather that makes us sweat / Neglect is the only thing we get / Fungus disintegrating the walls / Bathroom sink replaces bathtub Thus, the first stanza establishes that the Richmond Hacienda and Nevin Plaza housing are in sore need of repairs and maintenance.

No heat and no air conditioning for residents signify that even the most basic needs for residents are not met, a description which hopes to elicit some compassion for the subjects of this poem, the residents.

Importantly, this is important in combatting negative unconscious associations with housing projects’ residents. Also, notably, providing context like this, instead of centering individual behaviors, gives an audience a sense of the frustration residents must feel when later on Evans exclaims, “No one is responsive – feel like I’m talking to myself / When help is asked to restore something as simple as a lock on a gate.”

Neglect is clearly communicated to be one of the most frustrating parts of living here.

These conditions are not due to the fact that the residents themselves are at fault, as American ideology would presume, but instead attributed to external forces such as the housing authority (Vadi 2014). In doing so, however, these lines paradoxically also affirm a myth that stigmatizes public

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housing, focusing on the admittedly grossly negligent aspects of corrupt officials (Carrano 2015). Unfortunately, this flattens the situation – its social, historical, and political realities, as well as the structural origins for the failure of public housing. Where, for instance, is the discussion of US gradual disinvestment from the communal good (hooks 2000), diverting funding from social programs into other sectors, such as the military? Though, one should take into account that this spoken word piece is only four minutes long. It may be possible that the creators were more interested in providing an impactful and emotionallyprovoking video in a short period of time.

Little time translates to limited education on structural origins of injustice, other than the two lines that do hint at it: “This is home - / it’s not built for us to survive.” In short, while the first stanza works to shift the discussion from individual behaviors to the situational context which does complicate simplistic stereotypes, it may not be enough to entirely communicate the complexity of why Richmond housing projects are in such a dire state.

Following a logical and emotional progression intended to build upon the first stanza’s exposition, the second stanza as narrated by William Hartfield-Peoples, centers the experiences of poor black seniors, in particular, women with disabilities as the primary sufferers of the ill-maintained, poorly secured housing. Spoken word performer Hartfield-Peoples’ interjects that he sees Juanita, an older black woman who is wheelchair bound, and Mama Hall, an “81 years young” volunteer guarding against the

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external threats of dope dealers and prostitutes.

The video correspondingly presents both women, at times weary and guarded, but also warmly interacting with other poor seniors in their complex. Both of these, the spoken lines and visual images, serve in subverting the myth that young black working-class single mothers, that is, the controlling image of the welfare queen (Collins 1999), and deviant individuals live here. Instead, members of the deserving poor do (Clawson 2000), namely black elders who are disabled. Such a tactic ideally would further encourage audience empathy, and hopefully, indignation at their unfair living conditions. Since the spoken word piece frames these black elders as protagonists, it is implied that the dope dealers and prostitutes who come into the housing projects as criminal antagonists of this story. This is problematic, when considering the larger context that these individuals too bear and share in the burden of living in a classist, racist, and sexist society. Indeed, would survival crimes like sex work and drug dealing be seen in a world that equitably distributes wealth? Does this implicit condemnation leave the oppressive structures of capitalism, white supremacy, and patriarchy uncritiqued because it falls into the trap of upholding white middle-class sense of Puritan morality? Also worthy of examination is that a young black man speaks on behalf of the experiences of older black women. What does it mean for these women’s voices to be mediated through individuals who have not exactly had their lived experiences? Though all do experience some overlap in experiences of oppression (e.g. violence and antiblackness),

it is possible that accounts of the intersections of sexism, ageism, and racism are absent by the very nature of this filtering. Thus, while Hartfield-Peoples attends to destigmatizing the residents of Hacienda and Nevin Plaza, his efforts also raises audience questions of the authenticity of speaking on behalf of others’ lived experiences and the implications of respectability politics.

In vividly presenting a severe problem and portraying its marginalized targets as sympathetic beforehand, This is Home concludes its final stanza with words intended to push audiences to look for solutions and push for change. Donte Clark asserts that in order for residents to be more than just tools to be exploited by corrupt officials things must change: Gotta protest, raid the government, shake their pockets and make them fix these pro-jects, huh!?! ‘cause if not here then where?

Where do we go next? ‘cause left is cemetery In this call to action, the explicit demands for protests and outcries to the government signify that institutional change will not come from within the government, rather, ordinary folks involved in mass organizing and disruption of business-as-usual. This engages the American narrative that glorifies individual efforts with its claim that change results from collective efforts. It also suggests that the consequence of not fixing these homes are dire, deadly even. With a virtually ineffective safety net, with government support for social programs low, where indeed would

residents go? Thus, Clark strongly indicts the government with a familiar charge of negligence to the highest degree, with the hopes of also inviting viewers to agitate for change as well.

This is Home strives to change traditional discourse surrounding housing projects, and in particular Richmond housing projects, so that practices can change to increase material and financial support for residents, rather than pulling this much needed support away. Examining the various strategies used, from sympathetic portrayals of residents to revelations of unbearable living conditions, This is Home both challenges dominant narratives and re-affirms certain aspects of them. Constrained by time, understandably the spoken word piece does not address the problems of housing projects in all its complexity. Yet, it does work to more positive representations of public housing residents – an important project towards rebuilding efforts to re-invest in public housing.

Works Cited Hooks, Bell. Where We Stand: Class Matters. Psychology Press, 2000.

Carrano, George, Chelsea Davis, and Jonathan Fisher. Project Lives: New York Public Housing Residents Photograph Their World. First ed. Brooklyn: PowerHouse, 2015. Print.

Clawson, Rosalee A., and Rakuya Trice. "Poverty as We Know It: Media Portrayals of the Poor." Public Opinion Quarterly (2000): 53-64. Print.

Collins, Patricia Hill. Mammies, Matriarchs, and Other Controlling Images. na, 1999. Print.

Vadi, Jose. "Off/Page Project Poets Draw from CIR's Public Housing Investigation." Off/Page Project Poets Draw from CIR's Public Housing Investigation. The Center for Investigative Reporting, 27 Feb. 2014. Web. 28 Jan. 2016. <http://cironline.org/blog/post/offpage-project-poetsdraw-cirs-public-housing-investigation-5894>.

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ANBI130 PAPER: BY SANDRA AMON

adaptive plasticity

and implications for interventions How does social inequality and injustice get written in the bodies of marginalized peoples? This essay delves into some of the scholarship that explores the biology of stress responses and its connection with social and political environments. Borders between the body and outside world are nonexistent as seen in this exploration of the biology of inequality

Some researchers argue that early life plasticity of stress responses can be adaptive, rather than harmful, in certain situations. Explain the idea of plasticity, provide examples of situations in which plasticity may be adaptive, and name a few implications of this research for the design of interventions.

Plasticity can be defined as the ability of a genotype to result in various biological mechanisms and features that change in response to an event or series of environmental events (Barker, 2003; Kuzawa & Taylor, 2011).

It is a process, much like reversibility and resilience (Southwick et al., 2014). While plasticity is shaped an individual’s early life, it is a mistake to assume only the events that happen during pregnancy affect the fetus. In fact, experiences of the mother even before her pregnancy, and as a corollary, the experiences of generations prior, shape the maternal phenotype that “programs” the biology of future offspring. In other words, plasticity is one adaptation that corresponds to a decadeslong process (Kuzawa and Taylor, 2011).

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Plasticity follows numerous pathways such as psychosocial stress, cardio-metabolic inflammation, cultural dissonance, immune system dysfunction, weathering/allostatic load, epigenetic and their role in regulating the stress response, telomeres, and lastly, memory and cognitive ability. For example, when a mother experiences a rise in glucocorticoid levels due to psychosocial stress, or in response to maternal phenotype, a fetus receives information about the “average” environment their mother experiences and accordingly, is able to adjust their development in response (Kuzawa & Sweet, 2009; Kuzawa & Thayer, 2011). Offspring adapt to maternal stress in the uterus in ways predicting an environment similar to the one experienced by the mother (Sheriff and Love, 2012). In connection to this, the Dutch Hunger Winter may be considered as a situation in which plasticity is adaptive (Schulz, 2010). While often considered an instance of maladaption, if the affected children had instead been placed in an impoverished environment with little food available, their metabolisms would have been matched to that environment. This is due to

their bodiesâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; adaptation to hoard energy and nutrients, resulting in metabolic changes that are beneficial in low-nutrient, resource-poor environments.

In addition, individuals particularly sensitive to their environments due to their stress reactivity, exhibit adaptive mechanisms to cope in extreme environments of high stress or high support (Ellis & Boyce, 2008). These individuals have increased capacity to respond to threats or optimize usage of resources, respectively. This proposed theory recalls the theory of early fetal programming, which postulates that the intrauterine environment fundamentally shapes fetal development, and thus, adult functioning later in life (Barker, 2003).

Furthermore, at infancy Rewak et al.

(2014) found that the telomeres of Black women were longer than White women.

However, this was no longer true in adulthood, when telomeres were found to be similar among White and Black individuals. This may indicate developmental plasticity, such that it is an adaptation that protects African American women from a future of material and social disadvantage. It might be possible that these children, while in the womb of their mothers, receive biological signals such as high cortisol levels, due to increased allostatic load experienced by African American women (Geronimus et al., 2006). This in turn influences the course of fetal development, because the fetuses develop a counter-response to their mothersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; signs of increased stress in the midst of an unjust social environment (Kuzawa and Sweet, 2009).

Outside of the US, plasticity is found in the inflammation responses of people in non-Western, educated, industrialized, rich,

and democratic (WEIRD) societies. It is hypothesized that higher microbial exposure in critical periods (that is, early life) lead to more efficient regulation of inflammation in response to chronic stressors (McDade et al., 2012). The findings from Ebrecht et al.

(2004), however, also offer hope. In their study, they observed that perceived stress and cortisol levels were strongly correlated. In other words, stress appraisal affected wound healing - lower perceived stress implied lower cortisol levels, which was strongly correlated with faster wound healing (Ebrecht et al., 2004). Thus, it is not too late to ever intervene in populations experiencing high stress, and thus, dismal health outcomes. In addition, offspring of parents who experienced PTSD as a result of the Holocaust, exhibited methylation of certain sites on the genome, which contributed to increased sensitivity to stress (Yehuda et al., 2014). In a sense, this is adaptive, as these epigenetic changes biologically prepare individuals for a similarly challenging and stressful environment.

The implications for plasticity on research are many. Because plasticity implies that the human body can adapt, it encourages the investment of money into interventions.

In other words, plasticity indicates human illness is not inevitable, and can be prevented.

Human ailments are problems with solutions.

However, as shown by Kuzawa and Thayer (2011), researchers must pay attention to the human tendency to be more responsive to long-term interventions, rather than short-term interventions. For example, an intervention targeting expectant mothers with vitamin supplements is not enough. Social programs that care for mothers even before they carry children, even starting at their own

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birth, are important, as well as social programs that care for the child throughout its lifetime.

These types of interventions, which ideally last for decades, signal to future generations of a more constant, benevolent environment through their effects on maternal phenotype, resulting in healthier babies. This also argues for sensitivity of the impacts of health in all policies, because individual biological sensitivity depends on how social and economic policies shape the environment (Ellis & Boyce, 2011).

A major question in the research on stress and health is whether the effects of stress are reversible. Briefly discuss whether you think effects of stress on health are in fact reversible, and justify your position drawing on any empirical studies we have read.

Effects of stress on health are reversible in the sense that trauma inflicted early in life during a critical period can be compensated through other mechanisms. It might not be likely that the epigenetic changes themselves can be reversed unless more sustained interventions are leveraged, as posited by the early programming model (Berkman, 2009; Barker, 2003). But taking cues from the cumulative exposure/weathering life course model (Geronimus, 2006), I believe that ultimately public health has a duty not to give up on a population facing multiple stressors.

While it is important to set up a good foundation for future generations, as argued by the social trajectory model, it is nevertheless important to fight for building the resiliency of current populations, as well as seeking to remove the increasing stressors placed on populations in general, especially that of

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historically marginalized and underrepresented communities (Link and Phelan, 1995; Gravlee, 2009).

For example, as Kubzansky and Thurston (2007) discovered, emotional vitality is associated with reduced coronary heart disease, independent of negative affect and mood disorders. This implies that individuals, despite presence of early-life strife, might reduce their risk of chronic diseases with the help of a strong sense of self-efficacy, optimism, and emotional regulation. However, this does not mean that the individual people themselves are solely responsible for cultivating emotional vitality. As suggested by Wilkinson and Marmot (2003), it is key to build an environment in which people feel supported and secure to do so.

Similarly in a study by Ebrecht et al.

(2004), healthy adult males experienced increased wound healing, which was significantly associated with lower perceived stress, and thus, lower cortisol levels. As such, their results also speak to the validity of stress appraisal and its psychosocial effects on health.

In addition, Monaghan et al. (2011) found that in Zebra finches whose stress levels were artificially raised at one time point during early life, their mating partners also experienced the consequences secondhand, living significantly less than controls. These results provide hope that if stress can be transmitted through close relationships, it might be possible that reduced stress levels might also be possible.

In an experiment conducted by Francis et al. (2002), rats separated from their mothers were able to compensate for the deleterious effects of higher CRF expression and lower glucocorticoid receptors through other

means. In other words, while the epigenetic changes due to maternal separation werenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t themselves reversed, the rats adapted in a way that functionally did reverse the effects.

Furthermore, this reversibility was the result of changes in the environment, garnering further support for creating nurturing, supportive environments for individuals throughout their lifespan.

Based on our discussion of psychosocial interventions, how might you design an intervention that would reduce a racial or social disparity in health, of your choosing?

Describe the specific health disparity you wish to address, and then describe the design of your intervention, and how your intervention would improve on gaps or failings of prior interventions.

In designing a hypothetical intervention, I would choose to address the social disparities of health as seen in the SES gradient, which demonstrates that the more someone is made to â&#x20AC;&#x153;feel poor,â&#x20AC;? the more their health suffers (Sapolsky, 2005). This difference in health status all along the spectrum of wealth is demonstrated in most areas of health, such as weakened immune function (e.g. high CMV antibody levels and susceptibility to colds), memory and cognitive function, CHD, and diabetes (Dowd and Aiello, 2009; Cohen et al., 2008; Evans and Schamberg, 2009; Noble et al., 2007). Such a powerful effect on health, especially when populations not only bear the burden of classism, but also racism and sexism as well (Earnshaw et al., 2012), then addressing the SES gradient is paramount because of its demonstrated nature as one of the fundamental causes of disease (Link and

Phelan, 1995). More specifically, however, I would choose to intervene on the social disparities as seen in immune response. As Dowd and Aiello (2009) has shown, people of color who were low-income and had low levels of education, had higher CMV antibodies than their high-income, highly educated, and white counterparts.

The design of the proposed intervention is multi-faceted. It is a decades-long experiment with the intention to provide support throughout the lifespan, targeting people with low levels of education and income, especially those who are racial minorities.

The intervention itself would be a policy that guarantees free higher education, universal access to health care, affordable and safe housing, and living wages to the residents in San Diego County. The control group would be residents in another West coast county such as King County, Washington, who would not benefit from the effects of this policy.

I propose that the implementation last the span of two human lifespans. Effects of the intervention would be measured with a survey measuring perceived stress levels, quality of life, and health status, as well as objective measures of mortality and morbidity rates pre-intervention, during the intervention (every 5 years), and post-intervention. I hypothesize that the policy, by creating an environment structured to meet basic human needs, will reduce socioeconomic disparities in health among San Diego residents. I plan to sample 2000 people using random sampling, conducting the health interviews and collecting objective measures with the same cohort and their descendants.

My intervention strives to close the gaps left by previous research. In particular, it

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seeks to fill the need for long-term sustained intervention as argued by Kuzawa and Thayer (2011), in order to most appropriately care for people, especially their unborn children.

The intervention takes extreme care to note that fetuses during critical periods, take into account the “average” experiences of their mother as posed by the field of developmental origins of health and disease (Schulz, 2010).

Furthermore, it places special focus on the most marginalized of the poor, unlike Young and Hade (2004), who failed to recognize the rich potential in disaggregated data and focus on the implications of their study concerning the health of women and African Americans. In addition, while this intervention is a policy seeking to change population health and shift distribution of disease, it does not neglect the need to prioritize high-risk individuals on the basis of social justice and health equity (Rose, 2001).

References Barker, D. J. (2003). Editorial: the developmental origins of adult disease.

European journal of epidemiology, 18(8), 733-736.

Berkman, L. F. (2009). Social epidemiology: social determinants of health in the United States: are we losing ground?. Annual review of public health, 30, 27-41.

Cohen, S., Alper, C. M., Doyle, W. J., Adler, N., Treanor, J. J., & Turner, R. B. (2008).

Objective and subjective socioeconomic status and susceptibility to the common cold. Health Psychology, 27(2), 268.

Dowd, J. B., Aiello, A. E., & Alley, D. E. (2009).

Socioeconomic disparities in the seroprevalence of cytomegalovirus infection in the US population: NHANES III. Epidemiology and infection, 137(01), 58-65.

Earnshaw, V. A., Rosenthal, L., Lewis, J. B., Stasko, E. C., Tobin, J. N., Lewis, T. T., ... & Ickovics, J. R. (2013). Maternal experiences with everyday discrimination and infant birth weight: A test of mediators and moderators among young, urban women of color. Annals of Behavioral Medicine, 45(1), 13-23.

Ebrecht, M., Hextall, J., Kirtley, L. G., Taylor, A., Dyson, M., & Weinman, J. (2004). Perceived stress and cortisol levels predict speed of wound healing in healthy male adults. Psychoneuroendocrinology, 29(6), 798-809.

Evans, G. W., & Schamberg, M. A. (2009).

Childhood poverty, chronic stress, and adult working memory. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 106(16), 6545-6549.

Ellis, B. J., & Boyce, W. T. (2008). Biological sensitivity to context. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 17(3), 183-187.

Francis, D. D., Diorio, J., Plotsky, P. M., & Meaney, M. J. (2002). Environmental enrichment reverses the effects of maternal separation on stress reactivity. The Journal of Neuroscience, 22(18), 78407843.

Geronimus, A. T., Hicken, M., Keene, D., & Bound, J. (2006). “Weathering” and age patterns of allostatic load scores among blacks and whites in the United States. American journal of public health, 96(5), 826-833.

Gravlee, C. C. (2009). How race becomes biology: embodiment of social inequality. American journal of physical anthropology, 139(1), 47-57.

Kubzansky, L. D., & Thurston, R. C. (2007).

Emotional vitality and incident coronary heart disease: benefits of healthy psychological functioning. Archives of General Psychiatry, 64(12), 1393-1401.

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Kuzawa, C. W., & Sweet, E. (2009).

Epigenetics and the embodiment of race: developmental origins of US racial disparities in cardiovascular health. Am J Hum Biol, 21(1), 2-15.

Yehuda, R., Bierer, L. M., Schmeidler, J., Aferiat, D. H., Breslau, I., & Dolan, S. (2014). Low cortisol and risk for PTSD in adult offspring of holocaust survivors.

American Journal of Psychiatry.

Kuzawa, C. W., & Thayer, Z. M. (2011).

Timescales of human adaptation: the role of epigenetic processes. Epigenomics, 3(2), 221-234.

Link, B. G., & Phelan, J. (1995). Social conditions as fundamental causes of disease. Journal of health and social behavior, 80-94.

Young, D. C., & Hade, E. M. (2004). Holidays, birthdays, and postponement of cancer death. Jama, 292(24), 3012-3016.

McDade, T. W. (2012). Early environments and the ecology of inflammation. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 109(Supplement 2), 1728117288.

Monaghan, P., Heidinger, B. J., D'Alba, L., Evans, N. P., & Spencer, K. A. (2012). For better or worse: reduced adult lifespan following early-life stress is transmitted to breeding partners. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London B: Biological Sciences, 279(1729), 709714.

Noble, K. G., McCandliss, B. D., & Farah, M. J. (2007). Socioeconomic gradients predict individual differences in neurocognitive abilities. Developmental science, 10(4), 464-480.

Rewak, M., Buka, S., Prescott, J., De Vivo, I., Loucks, E. B., Kawachi, I., ... & Kubzansky, L. D. (2014).

Race-related health disparities and biological aging: Does rate of telomere shortening differ across blacks and whites?. Biological psychology, 99, 92-99.

Rose, G. (2001). Sick individuals and sick populations. International journal of epidemiology, 30(3), 427-432.

Sapolsky, R. (2005). Sick of poverty.

Scientific American, 293(6), 92-99.

Schulz, L. C. (2010). The Dutch Hunger Winter and the developmental origins of health and disease. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 107(39), 16757-16758.

Sheriff, M. J., & Love, O. P. (2013).

Determining the adaptive potential of maternal stress.

Ecology letters, 16(2), 271-280.

Southwick, S. M., Bonanno, G. A., Masten, A. S., Panter-Brick, C., & Yehuda, R. (2014). Resilience definitions, theory, and challenges: interdisciplinary perspectives. European journal of psychotraumatology, 5.

Wilkinson, R. G., & Marmot, M. G. (2003).

Social determinants of health: the solid facts. World Health Organization.

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Scientific Racism

in Israel

ETHN142 PAPER: BY FATIMA KAMAL

In my opinion, they are beasts, not humans.

–Eli Ben-Dahan They have to die and their houses should be demolished so that they cannot bear any more terrorists.

–Ayelet Shaked The Sudanese are a cancer in our body…I apologize; I did not intend to hurt cancer patients.

–Miri Regev These three heavily racialized statements come from members of the Knesset, the Israeli parliament. Much like other prominent Israeli figures, these politicians epitomize the political ideologies in Israel that promote racist policies and serve to position white, Jewish Israelis as genetically superior people.

The Zionist project is a settler colonial enterprise that aims to remove the indigenous population of Palestine and replace it with an exclusively Euro-American Jewish population.

Similar to American settler colonialism, the settler colonial project in Israel manifests in three discernible ways: the genocide of the indigenous population, the exploitation of foreign labor, and the subjugation of Black populations. These groups are constructed as intrinsically inferior and thus deserving of 33

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persecution. The supposed inferiority of these racialized groups is dependent on the use of pseudo-scientific concepts that explain racial difference by genetic variation, attributing the existence of socioeconomic and political inequalities in racialized communities to biology. The underlying ideologies that justify these phenomena are comparable, taken in a transnational context. Although this is essentially a comparative study, it would be amiss to claim that these two settler colonial projects are identical - each are unique in the ways in which respective populations experience displacement, genocide, and erasure. I will first examine the lived experience of indigenous Palestinians in terms of gender, reproduction, criminality, and health in the context of Orientalism.

I will then consider the health problems migrants face as a result of the nature of their labor, reproductive health policies, and the psychological effects of exclusion. I will also focus on the racialization of Black bodies in conversation with criminality, disease, and eugenics. Finally, I will situate all three populations within the Zionist project of Euro-American Israeli superiority.

Israel’s ideological basis in justifying the genocide of Palestinians is rooted in the

concept of Orientalism. Orientalism is an ideology reified by Palestinian scholar and academic Edward Said. It is a complex idea that refers to the construction of the Orient and the Occident as contrasting forces. 1 The Orient refers to a falsely homogenous geographical location that includes parts of northern Africa, western Asia, and southern Asia, while the Occident refers to Western Europe. 1 These two regions and the cultures that exist within them represent opposing sides of the spectrum. The Occident is constructed as a civilized and advanced area, in opposition to the construction of the Orient as an uncivilized and backwards society.1 Western images construct inhabitants of the Orient (Arabs) as inherently barbaric, savage, sexually deviant, misogynistic, and violent – as genetically predisposed to such characteristics. 1 By establishing itself as everything the Orient is not, the Occident positions itself as culturally and biologically superior, thus justifying its efforts to dominate and colonize the Orient. 1 In a Zionist context, Orientalism plays a dominant role in shaping the settler colonial project. By using Orientalist ideas in constructing the image of the Palestinian, Israel adopts the role of the Occident and establishes itself as the dominant, more advanced population and thus more deserving of Palestinian land and resources than the indigenous population. The notion that Palestinians are intrinsically primitive and violent has permeated Israeli thought and manifested in military, economic, and political efforts to sanction the mass genocide of Palestinian life and society.

Israel uses sexual violence against women as a tool of genocide in order to exert colonial strength and racialized dominance. 2 Palestinian female sexuality is specifically targeted

by Israeli forces as a method to curb the

reproductive ability of indigenous Palestinians.

Sexual torture and rape are methods employed in Israeli prisons. 2 A specific case is that of Rasmea Odeh, a Palestinian woman who was arrested in suspicion of organizing a terrorist attack in an Israeli center and was subsequently raped by interrogators until she confessed. 3 Women like Rasmea are stripped of their sexual agency and reproductive sovereignty as prisoners and victims of sexual assault.

Furthermore, Israeli society encourages soldiers to rape Palestinian women as a war tactic. In one Israeli town, a banner was hung reading “Israeli soldiers, the residents of Or Yehuda are with you! Pound ‘their mother and come back home safely to your mother.” 4 Colloquially, the Hebrew word for “pound” carries a sexual connotation that implies rape. 4 In another image circulated via social media, a Palestinian woman is depicted wearing a burqa, a form of modest Islamic dress. The caption reads: “Bibi, finish inside this time! Signed, citizens in favor of a ground assault.” 4 The colloquial meaning of “finished” is to ejaculate – implying a type of intimate attack that would also cripple the sustention of Palestinian life. 4 Furthermore, respected religious figures endorsed by the Israeli Defense Forces have issued rulings that consider rape permissible during wartime. 4 As part of a military campaign intent on eradicating a significant percentage of the Gazan population, encouraging Israeli soldiers to rape Palestinian women serves to promote a type of gendered genocidal violence that would strip Palestinians of the ability to reproduce and thus complete the Zionist project of elimination.

The targeting of Palestinian reproductive ability extends further than rape. In the West Bank, military checkpoints separate Palestinian towns from each other, cutting off vital resources and facilities from other ETHN142 paper: fatima kamal

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villages, including hospitals. 3 Often, pregnant Palestinian women will have to wait extended periods of time at checkpoints while soldiers prevent their access to crucial reproductive health services. 3 As a result, miscarriages and newborn deaths are common. 3 By administering an informal and nonconsensual form of abortion, Israel prevents the continuation of the Palestinian population and thus reinforces indigenous genocide.

Israel furthers its genocide by intentionally targeting Palestinian children. Soldiers indiscriminately shoot Palestinian youth, labeling them as terrorists or potential terrorists. 5 A total of 1,523 Palestinian children have been killed by Israeli attacks since 2000.0 During the latest assault on Gaza, Israeli naval officers fired at four Palestinian children from the Bakr family who were playing soccer on the beach after a temporary ceasefire was declared. 7 The same assault included attacks on UN schools and on playgrounds during a religious holiday. 8,9 These instances are clear examples of Israeli forces intentionally targeting Palestinian children.

Under Orientalist Zionist ideology, Palestinian children are seen as a demographic threat to the Jewish settler body politic and thus must be eliminated.

The psychological ramifications of living under military sieges and occupation are abundant amongst Palestinians, particularly among children and adolescents. In a 2011 study, British researchers found that almost all Palestinian children had experienced their homes being shelled by Israeli troops and almost all had seen mutilated corpses on television. 10 A majority of Palestinian children and adolescents have lived through the death of a close relative and even more have lived through the death of a similarly aged friend. 10 Children currently aged six and above have 35

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lived through three major Israeli military operations. Exposure to death and violence at such a young age has severe tangible effects on the Palestinian psyche. 70% of Palestinian youth experience posttraumatic stress disorder and exhibit a variety of symptoms including anxiety, night terrors, late-age bedwetting, attention deficiency, and emotional withdrawal. 10 Criticism of the Palestinian genocide tends to focus on the massacre of women and children â&#x20AC;&#x201C; labeling Palestinian men as inherently criminal and deserving of Israeli fire. 11 Through Orientalist ideology, masculine Arab bodies are automatically marked as savage and dangerous and are associated with the image of the terrorist. 1 Israel employs a form of preemptive and preventative punishment in which Palestinian men are regarded guilty of whatever violent actions they may potentially carry out if allowed to live. 11 Recalling Orientalist perceptions of gender relations in the Orient, these men are portrayed as dangerous to their female counterparts, further justifying Israeli efforts to target Palestinian men while simultaneously positioning Israel as a civilized, superior liberator.

The success of Israelâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s economy relies on the exploitation of foreign labor, notably in the agricultural sector. Thai migrant workers make up the majority of agricultural labor in Israel. These workers are subjected to 17-hour days with no time off. 12 Housing conditions are typically inadequate, with some workers living in warehouses and others in makeshift cardboard shelters. 12 In the workplace, Thai workers are exposed to organophosphate pesticides, which result in health problems including headaches, respiratory problems, and irritable eyes. 12 However, medical care is difficult, if not impossible, for Thai migrants to access due to the lack of health coverage

for migrant workers and the high costs of medication. 12 Mental health is also a concern for Thai workers. The psychological distress that results from alienation and discrimination within Israeli society coupled with cultural difference leads to increased rates of anxiety and depression. 13 Another racial community whose labor is exploited by the Israeli economy is Filipina migrant workers, who are employed in Israel as care workers and generally as live-in help for the elderly. 14 Care workers operate in a contradicting nature in Israel â&#x20AC;&#x201C; they are barred from any attempts to become naturalized citizens and are regarded as alien and foreign, yet the nature of their employment requires a type of intimacy that one expects from communal integration. 14 The problem of healthcare is also central for these workers.

One woman, Beth, recounts the deterioration of her health due to her lack of access to medical care. 14 Because the national healthcare system in Israel does not cover migrant workers, Beth was unable to access vital resources for her health. She campaigned to be recognized as a permanent Israeli resident, given that she was so closely integrated into Israeli society. However, since her physical appearance was marked as inherently foreign and other, she was unable to achieve residency and was unsuccessful in accessing basic medical care. 14 The exportation of surrogate labor to South Asian countries constitutes another form of exploitive, racialized, and gendered labor.

In Israel, only married, heterosexual couples are eligible for surrogacy. 15 Consequently, Israelis whose relationships are not strictly heterosexual marriages as well as Israelis who are not in relationships must outsource their surrogacy. India was the main attraction for Israeli surrogacy given the low cost

and premium health care. However, when the nation altered its laws so that gay men were prohibited from employing women to be surrogate mothers, the industry shifted to Nepal. Indian women who had already undergone in vitro fertilization moved to Nepal temporarily to complete their pregnancies. After a recent earthquake that killed over eight thousand Nepalese, Israel evacuated twenty-six Israeli babies while none of the surrogate mothers were aided in escaping the destruction in Nepal. 15 These women are considered fit to bear Israeli children but not fit to step foot onto Israeli soil. The commodification of life and the exploitation of socioeconomically disadvantaged South Asian women by western nations like Israel displays a form of labor that exploits the reproductive capabilities and disregards the health of poor women of color in a transnational context, essentially reducing the worth and value of these women to nothing more than their reproductive abilities.

Compared to other ethnic groups, African migrants from Ethiopia, Eritrea, Sudan, Nigeria, and Ghana experience a unique form of marginalization within Israeli society.

These groups are constructed as inherently criminal and suspect, evoking the history of racialization of Black Americans. Following waves of migration from these regions, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon initiated a program of mass deportation in the summer of 2002.1 6 Deportation forces employed techniques that resulted in the criminalization of Black bodies. Within Israeli media, blackness is associated with innate criminality and danger. The aesthetics of blackness, in conversation with the politicization of Black bodies as undesirable in a primarily EuroAmerican Jewish state, marks blackness as a threat to the Zionist project. The ETHN142 paper: fatima kamal

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advertisement of hotlines to encourage Israelis to report suspicious individuals contributes to a culture of racial profiling and antiblackness. 16 The construction of blackness as naturally criminal has unique psychological effects on Black populations in Israel. Specific to the case of Ethiopian Jews, intra-Jewish racism produces an alienating diasporic identity for adolescents. 16 In schools, formal Jewish education differs distinctly from Ethiopian cultural norms, positioning Euro-American Israeli Judaism as authentic and Ethiopian Judaism as invalid. 16 Ethiopian Jews are thus seen as inferior and not truly Jewish. The criminalization of African migrants has also produced deep psychological ramifications amongst black communities in Israel. The association of blackness with criminality and illegality and the threat of indefinite detention or deportation has produced growing anxiety and paranoia amongst these groups. 16 References to African migrants as diseased compared to the alleged healthy nature of Israeli society constructs blackness as incorrigibly sick. Miri Regev, a member of the Israeli parliament, recently echoed popular public sentiment regarding Sudanese refugees, calling them a “cancer” to Israeli society. 17 These types of comparisons construct African migrants and refugees as the carriers of disease that will infiltrate and infect Israeli health.

The construction of disease in relation to Black communities also furthers this notion.

Studies on tuberculosis in detention facilities have associated the disease with the genetics of blackness. 18 Similar to tuberculosis in the United States, the Israeli strain arose out of poor housing conditions and residential segregation. 18 However, geneticists and researchers associated the disease with Black populations and in both cases, tuberculosis 37

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became known as a “Black disease.” The convergence of blackness and sickness produces a discourse that regards blackness as a threat to the demographic makeup of Israel’s favored white population.

African migrants, foreign laborers, and Palestinians are all collectively constructed as demographic threats to the Israeli body politic. These constructions result primarily from the notion that the biological and genetic dispositions of racial groups manifest in inferiority, sickness, and violence. As Ethiopian migration into Israel increased, the government instituted new policies that made entry into Israel contingent on the reception of birth control shots. 19 This policy, enforced exclusively against Ethiopian women, directly contributed to a reduction in the birthrates of Ethiopians in Israel. 19 Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared that Ethiopians were a threat to the Jewishness of Israel. 19 This raises the question of who is considered Jewish and who receives the full benefits of citizenship. The construction of blackness as biologically diseased furthers the threat of miscegenation to the Zionist project of achieving racial and religious superiority.

The reproductive rights of migrant workers also play a role in the demographic goals of Zionism. For non-citizen migrant workers, the act of reproducing in Israel results in the revocation of both work and residence permits, and the worker must depart Israel. 20 In 2010, the Israeli government instituted a program of mass deportation of the offspring of migrant workers – predominantly Filipino children. 21 Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu cited the need to preserve the Jewish nature of the state of Israel as the reason for these deportations. 21 Targeting the children of migrants aligns with the Zionist settler colonial project – preventing the reproduction of undesirable

groups while exploiting the labor of these groups. The construction of Palestinians living in Israel as hereditarily threatening furthers the exclusion of racial groups from the body politic. Netanyahu also referred to this group, classified as Israeli Arabs in an effort to erase indigeneity, as a “demographic threat” to Israeli society and promoted the need to “balance” the Israeli-to-Arab ratio of the nation. 22 The fear that Palestinians or other racialized groups will taint or overwhelm Israeli identity is central in the execution of race-based politics.

The construction of race in Israel relies on these pseudo-scientific ideologies that position minorities as tangible threats to Israeli society.

Israel is thus erected as a healthy, genetically superior identity whose demographic makeup must be protected. As a settler colonial project

Works Cited Said, Edward W. Orientalism. New York: Vintage, 1979. 2-30.

Print.

2 Abusneineh, Bayan. "Gendering Al-Nakba." Sixteen Minutes to Palestine, 14 May 2014. Web. 09 June 2015.

3 Jamail, Dahr. "Tortured and Raped by Israel, Persecuted by the United States." Truthout, 2 Sept. 2014. Web. 09 June 2015.

4 Sheen, David. "Israel's War Against Gaza's Women & Their Bodies." Muftah, 23 July 2014. Web. 09 June 2015.

5 "PressTV-'We Must Kill All Palestinian Mothers'" PressTV'We Must Kill All Palestinian Mothers', 16 July 2014. Web. 09 June 2015.

6 "Israelis and Palestinians Killedin the Current Violence."

Israelis and Palestinians Killed since 9/29/2000. If Americans Knew, n.d. Web. 09 June 2015.

7 Abunimah, Ali. "Children Die Playing Football, in Taxi with Grandma, as Israel Bombs Gaza for Tenth Day." The Electronic Intifada. 16 July 2014. Web. 09 June 2015.

8 Catron, Joe. "Israel's Gaza Onslaught Targeted Children And UN Shelters." MintPress News. N.p., 1 May 2015. Web. 09 June 2015.

9 "Children Killed in Gaza Playground Shelling." - Al Jazeera English. N.p., 29 July 2014. Web. 09 June 2015.

10 Khan, Hammad Moses. "Palestinian Youth and the Psychological Impact of Violence." The Huffington Post.

TheHuffingtonPost.com, 7 Aug. 2014. Web. 09 June 2015.

11 Mikdashi, Maya. "Can Palestinian Men Be Victims?

Gendering Israel's War on Gaza." Can Palestinian Men Be Victims? Gendering Israel's War on Gaza. Jadaliyya, 23 July 2014.

Web. 09 June 2015.

12 "Israel: Serious Abuse of Thai Migrant Workers." Israel: Serious Abuse of Thai Migrant Workers. N.p., 21 Jan. 2015. Web. 09 June 2015.

13 Griffin, Jennifer, and Varda Soskolne. "Psychological Distress among 1

rooted in the concept of Orientalism, the eradication of the indigenous Palestinian population is central to the completion of this project. The introduction of migrant groups is permissible in this project under the conditions that these migrants are not granted the privileges and status afforded to white, Jewish Israelis and that these migrants refrain from reproducing and infiltrating Israeli society. This project is also reliant on the construction of Black individuals as biologically inferior and diseased. These collective ideologies stem from an effort to retain and preserve Israeli identity as exclusively white and Jewish. The phenotypes associated with racial difference ultimately diagnose these populations as genetic threats to Israeli society.

Thai Migrant Workers in Israel." Psychological Distress among Thai Migrant Workers in Israel. N.p., Sept. 2003. Web. 09 June 2015.

14 Lutz, Helma. Migration and Domestic Work: A European Perspective on a Global Theme. Aldershot, England: Ashgate, 2008. Print.

15 Kamin, Debra. "Israel Evacuates Surrogate Babies From Nepal but Leaves the Mothers Behind." Time. Time, 28 Apr. 2015.

Web. 09 June 2015.

16 Willen, Sarah. "Toward a Critical Phenomenology of “Illegality”: State Power, Criminalization, and Abjectivity among Undocumented Migrant Workers in Tel Aviv, Israel." Wiley Online Library. N.p., n.d. Web. 09 June 2015.

17 Rosenthal, Max J. "Miri Regev, Israel Legislator, Calls Sudanese Refugees 'A Cancer' Amid Violent Anti-Immigrant Protests." The Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, 24 May 2012. Web. 09 June 2015.

18 Yacobi, Haim. "‘Let Me Go to the City’: African Asylum Seekers, Racialization and the Politics of Space in Israel." (n.d.): n. pag. Oxford Journals. Oxford University Press, 2010. Web. 9 June 2015.

19 Abunimah, Ali. "Did Israel Violate the Genocide Convention

by Forcing Contraceptives on Ethiopian Women?" The Electronic Intifada. N.p., 28 Jan. 2013. Web. 09 June 2015.

20 Elias, Nelly, and Adriana Kemp. "Project MUSE - The New Second Generation: Non-Jewish Olim, Black Jews and Children of Migrant Workers in Israel." Project MUSE - The New Second Generation: Non-Jewish Olim, Black Jews and Children of Migrant Workers in Israel. N.p., 2010. Web. 09 June 2015.

21 Sanders, Edmund. "Israel to Deport Hundreds of Migrant Workers' Children." Los Angeles Times. Los Angeles Times, 02 Aug. 2010. Web. 09 June 2015.

22 Alon, Gideon, and Alof Benn. "Netanyahu: Israel's Arabs Are the Real Demographic Threat." Haaretz.com. N.p., 18 Dec. 2003.

Web. 09 June 2015.

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CCC intern self-initiated project h i g h l i g h t i n g w o r k s o f : n ata l i e l a i , jolena vergara coll as, hye young choi, maurx salcedo pe単a, kevin le

features

INTERN: Natalie Lai POSITION: Social Justice Educator SIP TITLE: Nail Files What was/is your SIP about?

My SIP was about Vietnamese-Americans/ Vietnamese people in the nail industry. I wanted to bring my experience as a nail technician and look at the industry in a critical lens; the roles people of color play, the perpetuation of white supremacy, and the power paradigm of customer in relation to technician.

Why did you decide to do what you did?

I got my licence when I was 18 and have been working in the industry every summer since in order to pay for college. I have a lot of lived experience.

As a young college student working in an industry that is influx with older first generation Vietnamese folks who migrated to the US, I am in a very special situation where I read things a lot differently.

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What was the process of planning your SIP like?

I knew exactly what I was going to do my SIP on because my experience was so unique and informed so much of my interest in social justice. I had material from an essay I wrote a long time ago for a class, so I didnt have to start from scratch. The process of building the website and finding relevant material was done over time. My role as an SJE really helped, since I had to learn new materials in order to reteach it.

If you could have done an additional SIP, what would have been the topic?

I would have done a workshop about the flaws and contradictions in our judicial system. I would talk about human rights and how human rights

are concepts that is fairly new, and how it is nonexistent with without a governing entity. People in power are the ones who decide what constitutes as “human rights” and a lot of time, folks fall through the cracks. Laws and declarations can be negated in states of panic, so I question how reliable is our governing systems if exceptions are made when its convenient for those in positions of power?

Any other comments/thoughts about your SIP that you want to share?

It was fun. If i could do it again, I would. I’d do it better.

F E AT U R E D : N ATA L I E L A I & PA R T I C I PA N T S AT N A I L F I L E S

nail files: natalie lai

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INTERN: Jolena Vergara Collas POSITION: Joy de La Cruz Art & Activism SIP TITLE: Filipiniana: A Collection of Memories What was/is your SIP about?

Filipiniana is an exploration of the role of women, femininity, and Pinays as a whole in the cultural imagination of Filipino history, tradition, narrative and identity. The term Filipiniana traditionally was derivation from two root words: namely Filipinas, the Spanish-language version of the country name of the Philippines and -ana or -aniana, which means “collected items of information”. While this definition can be anecdotal or biographical in nature, this particular collection uses Filipino anecdotes, myths, historical events, and narratives to inform and inspire reimagined ideas of what Pinay femininity in the designs of Terno style dresses. While the collection is not limited to Terno or traditional style dresses, each dress is a demonstration and navigation of my own personal struggle with what it has meant for me to identify as a Pinay in today’s society.

and Activism Intern has challenged me to pursue activism in other ways that require more passive reflection and processing. I wanted this project to be able to facilitate for this type of engagement.

Furthermore, I don’t really consider myself very artistically gifted but this position has also called into question the way I see art and what constitutes art so this project reflects that navigation as well.

Why did you decide to do what you did?

In terms of the topic, while the struggles of Pinays cannot be made into a monolithic image, these dresses are my own personal attempt to creatively negotiate being a second generation, FilipinaAmerican woman in a supposedly “post-race” society that seeks to systematically erase the narratives of women of color. In terms of the medium and process, I wanted to do a project that would challenge me to lean into my own discomfort and reflect the type of growth this internship has instilled in me. Due to my background in student organizing, I am quite comfortable with holding workshops and public speaking, but my position as Joy De La Cruz Art

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F E AT U R E D : PIECE FROM FILIPINIANA: A COLLECTION OF MEMORIES | BY JOLLENA VERGARA COLLAS

What was the process of planning your SIP like?

My SIP took much longer than I thought it would because each design required so much thought and reflection. All of the designs are grounded in historical events, periods, myths, and anecdotes so the research aspect was very time consuming as well, although the final project doesn’t reflect that aspect as much.

If you could have done an additional SIP, what would have been the topic?

If I could’ve done an additional SIP, it would’ve been a spoken word workshop or performance art workshop for women of color.

Any other comments/thoughts about your SIP that you want to share?

I dedicate my SIP to my grandmother, Adoracion.

This work is an ode to her and my adoration of strong Pinays.

INTERN: Hye Young Choi POSITION: Common Ground Newsletter & Marketing SIP TITLE: Baggage Check & Claims: Sharing Our Immigration Stories What was/is your SIP about?

Baggage Check & Claims: Sharing Our Immigration Stories” was an opportunity for the community to hear each other’s immigration journeys, struggles, and dreams. Through this event, my intentions were to complicate and debunk stereotypes and myths about immigration and immigrants, destigmatize the undocumented community, and celebrate the lives and contributions of immigrants.

Why did you decide to do what you did?

I thought about my passions and what elicited the most emotions from me. I cared about immigrant lives. I was curious to know what kind of stories other undocumented students had to share. I thought of doing a SIP on less personal topics, but I kept returning to the idea of a storytelling night.

There were not enough counter narratives about

undocumented immigrants, particularly API undocumented people. And many folks still did not know what kind of struggles we had to endure.

I wanted people to know about the unjust and arbitrary chaos that we had and continue to have for our immigration system. I wanted people to realize the how powerful borders and exclusive citizenship “rights” were in creating injustices and disparities in our communities.

What was the process of planning your SIP like?

Planning my SIP was an emotional journey. I was often driven to tears while excavating stories from myself and my family, especially when incorporating the story of my grandfather who passed away two weeks prior to the event. I learned again the violence of the broken immigration filipiniana: a collection of memories: jolena vergara collas baggage check & claims: sharing our immigration stories: hye young choi

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system and revisited old traumas. Although the process was grueling, the actual event was affirming and healing, to my personal fortune. However, I feared that the process and outcome for other students at the event did not outweigh the amount of strength and vulnerability required to speak before all the attendees. My only hope is that it was a beneficial space for not just the audience, but the speakers as well, and that no one left feeling empty, invalidated, or unheard.

If you could have done an additional SIP, what would have been the topic?

If I could have done an additional SIP, it would have been quite similar to Kevin’s topic, “BJ (Biology, Justice) and Beyond.” I love finding connections between biology, health, medicine, and social justice. I don’t think a lot of STEM majors realize how relevant social justice is to their fields. I wanted to teach people to care about structural and historical inequalities, question the assumed objectivity of their respective fields, and introduce them to my personal interest in medical anthropology.

F E AT U R E D : F LY E R F O R B A G G A G E C H E C K & C L A I M S

BY HYE YOUNG CHOI

INTERN: Kevin Le POSITION: Campus Outreach & Engagement SIP TITLE: Biology, Justice, and Beyond!

What was/is your SIP about?

My project aims to bring science discussions back to examining race, gender, sexuality, migration, and class, and how the intersections impact communities differently in their biology and access to health resources. My project will also highlight current and past leaders and programs that address 43

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needs of underserved communities as well as provide the scientific basis tosupport the biological and health impacts from experiencing environmental racism, microaggressions, discrimination, harsh labor conditions, and more!

F E AT U R E D : PA N E L I S T S & PA R T I C I PA N T S AT BAGGAGE CHECK & CL AIMS

Why did you decide to do what you did?

Last quarter, I took a biology class that fulfills the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion requirement for UCSD students. The class talked about how science is related to ethics, but failed to think critically about how past and current scientific methods have always marginalized communities of color. I absolutely hated the discussions in the class. Our

discussions have moved from thinking critically about underserved populations and access to resources to talking about the pros of colorblind societies, animal rights and health â&#x20AC;&#x153;issuesâ&#x20AC;? facing the middle class La Jolla population. The class empowered me to create my own project as an intervention to the kinds of discussions I heard in the class.

baggage check & claims: sharing our immigration stories: hye young choi biology, justice, & beyond!: kevin le

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What was the process of planning your SIP like?

I created a Tumblr, which would be continually be updated from here, onwards. My goal has been to organize a curriculum and resource guide for those seeking to learn more about the scientific basis for understanding impacts of racism, sexism, etc., and current STEM related projects that serve the underserved communities they work with. My blog will be have a combination of current events related to social justice in the STEM field as well as links to scientific articles supporting the blogâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s content. I will occasionally upload my own reflections.

In addition to my own interests, I want my SIP to be reflective of what you all are interested in talking about. People will also be able to contribute to the curriculum and blog through directly commenting and asking questions on the post. Depending on my capacity, I would also like to meet up to have lunch or coffee with activists and leaders in STEM in San Diego to feature their work on my blog.

If you could have done an additional SIP, what would have been the topic?

One of my other passions has always been about professionalism and helping others through career counseling, cover letter and resume building, and interview practicing. However, one of my biggest critiques about professionalism is its inaccessibility, particularly when race, class, gender, and sexuality are examined. A heterosexual white man coming from the middle class has different advantages and privileges over resources that I would not.

One of the ways in which I have negotiated my passions is to find ways to incorporate into my SIP, alternative careers in science that uses social justice frameworks. I aim to keep my SIP focused around highlighting leaders of color and queer leaders in the science field and the work that they contribute to health equity and social justice.

Any other comments/thoughts about your SIP that you want to share?

I intend my SIP to continue on living even after I graduate! I want my project to be active and updated for my peers and future students who are interested in the ways that science is related to the fight for justice.

P.S. Look out for my sticker! I branded my project with a sticker that my femtor, Maggie Quan, designed for me.

Meet me on b j a n d b e y o n d @ t u m b l r . c o m

F E AT U R E D : STICKER FOR BJ & BEYOND

BY MAGGIE QUAN, FOR KEVIN LE

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INTERN: Maurx Salcedo Peña POSITION: Program Assistant SIP TITLE: Homebound(ed) What was/is your SIP about?

My student initiated project (SIP) is about my struggle and journey to find “home” and what that means for me. The project will culminate into a sculpture, corresponding booklet with pictures+poems+descriptions, and a blog. “Home” is a concept, place, feeling, etc. that i have never been able to pinpoint and experience within my own life for many many reasons. The title of my SIP alludes to that difficulty. Homebound(ed) acknowledges two contradicting aspects of this project. I am “homebound” because I believe that I am on my way toward “home” although I have not found and cultivated that yet. It is a space, feeling, idea, etc. that I trust i will one day finish building and will be able to enjoy. Over the course of my life, I have encountered different people, spaces, animals, and experiences that have provided me with pieces of what home may mean to me and what i envision for my home. I am also “homebounded” or bounded to “home” because I have already had a “home” assigned to me by others. But what happens for those of us whose “homes” have also been sights of violence, invalidation, fear, loss, hurt, etc.? I am still tied and connected to the places that i have grown up in and want to acknowledge both the good and bad embedded in my experiences of “home”. I also want to validate my agency to make my own “home” and remove myself from toxic spaces (while still recognizing how spaces I am “bounded” to have impacted who I am and my experiences).

The sculpture will be in the shape of a cactus or “Nopal” in spanish. Cacti have always been very significant within my Mexican family and culture.

For many Mexican people, the Nopal has become a symbol of resilience. I specifically picked a cactus to be my main sculpture vessel because it captures so many of the meanings, life parallels, and contradictions embodied within my struggle and project. For example, cacti survive harsh conditions and are able to bear delicious fruit amidst difficult times. I resonate so much with this ability to bring something sweet and beautiful into the world and even into spaces that are seen as “void of life”.

Cacti can also hurt you via their needles. So even though I resonate so much with cacti because of my Mexican identity, that very same identity has also clashed and affected my other identities that are made to seem incompatible with being Mexican.

Why did you decide to do what you did?

One of my goals for my internship at the CrossCultural Center has been to fully and sustainably immerse myself into my position and responsibilities.

The SIP is a major component of that for me and I wanted to do something really personal. I originally was going to do a program on the same topic (because I also truly love putting on programs so much :3 ) but decided to change the medium into sculpture+other components because art has been such a critical aspect of who I am. Art saved my life countless times. Art has always been a very healing and generative outlet for me. And as a result, I realized that art was the best medium for this topic because it is something so personal and something I am still processing through. I chose my topic because I also want to challenge myself to continue unpacking and reflecting on these experiences in order to heal

biology, justice, & beyond!: kevin le homebound(ed): maurx salcedo peña

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and get to a better place. I want to create that challenging yet healing space where I will really explore ideas of “home” in connection with my own experiences. Ultimately, I trust that my SIP will be meaningful and help me heal, laugh, smile, learn, grow, share and be challenged. And that’s really one of the biggest reasons why I decided to take the risk and do this topic.

What was the process of planning your SIP like?

It has been a really fluid and gradual process for me. I really took my time and didn’t pinpoint a

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topic until about halfway through my internship.

Finding relevant content and inspiration was a little difficult initially. I am really introspective and the process really picked up when I started asking myself the really difficult questions and trying to make sense of my feelings and experiences.

I’ve gotten great support from some folks here at the Cross (indirectly & directly). Some of the most awesome moments so far have been those sudden realization moments of “OH MY GOSH. AHHHHAAAAA!!!” where things just click and make sense. I had a couple of those random moments where a friend, favorite show, etc. will say something that helps me build and further my

project in really meaningful ways. It’s been a lot of introspective and emotional work but so so so worth it. The idea for the sculpture actually came from earlier this quarter when I went to a panel of queer & trans artists of color. The artists and organizers of the event created a really beautiful and meaningful space that night. One of them talked about her experiences as a queer chicana and talked about her own connections to the significance of nopales, which sparked a lot of my creative flow.

And I was fortunate enough to talk to her and the other artists who gave me a lot of motivation and inspiration to get back to my love of art!

If you could have done an additional SIP, what would have been the topic?

To be completely honest, I thought through a lot of ideas and sorted through my own passions several times but this is the topic that most resonates with me and where I am at in my life right now. This SIP connects to so many of my other passions, identities, and experiences that I don’t think I would have it any other way. I am sure that if i were at a different point in my life then i would have picked whatever resonated with me most and that could have been something else. I am just happy with where I am at now and what I decided to do.

F E AT U R E D : H E A R T-S H A P E D N O PA L (C A C T U S ), A SYMBOL OF RESILIENCE

BY MAURX SALCEDO PEÑA

homebound(ed): maurx salcedo peña

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thoughtspots & passive programming boards

thoughtspots & passive programming boards

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spring moments

spring moments

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