AWOL - Issue 022

FALL 2017 » ISSUE 022

FALL 2017 » ISSUE 022

MISSION AWOL magazine aims to continue pushing both ourselves and American University to be more critical of issues that deserve to be understood with nuance; to work subversively when dismantling barriers that suppress certain voices; and to love irrepressibly when it comes to serving our community. We ignite campus discussions on social, cultural and political issues. We want to make our campus more inquiring, egalitarian and socially engaged.

Our stories have an angle, which is different from having an agenda. Our reporting is impartial and fair, but our analysis is critical and argumentative.

We were independently founded by American University students in 2008. While we are still student-run, today we are housed under AU’s Student Media board. AWOL is a member of the Associated Collegiate Press and Generation Progress Voices Network. This publication has won awards at the National College Media Convention, and its writers have won awards from the Society for Professional Journalists and the College Media Association.

EDITORIAL

EDITORS-IN-CHIEFS Andrea Lin, Evie Lacroix MANAGING EDITOR PR DIRECTOR WEB DIRECTOR MULTIMEDIA DIRECTORS STAFF EDITORS COPY EDITOR WRITERS

Rachel Falek Antoinette D’Addario Yan Shi Will Fowler, Ben Weiss Paloma Losada, Reina Dufore Taylor Sabol, Gwynn Pollard Camila Cisneros, Stephanie Lopez, Luci Rascher, Francisco Sabaté, Savanna Strott, Karissa Waddick, Elyse Notarianni, Madeleine Simon, Michael Karlis ni

CREATIVE DIRECTOR Claire Osborn PHOTO EDITOR Melany Rochester DESIGN ASSISTANTS Nana Gongadze, Miranda Blum COVER ILLUSTRATION Asfia Khan ILLUSTRATION Katia Rasch, Nicolla Etzion, Xian Eley, Hannah Tiner, Casey Chiappetta MULTIMEDIA EDITOR Georgia Bergin BACK COVER PHOTO Keira Waites

WEBSITE ISSUU TWITTER FACEBOOK

As 2017 comes to a close, we wanted to reflect and reevaluate on what it means to resist injustice in a country of deepening divisions. What is our place in writing about communities that have been fucked over by inaction of policymakers, their peers and society at large? This meant sitting down with our staff at the start of the semester and asking ourselves: how far have we strayed from our original mission from nine years ago?

According to our original mission statement, AWOL was born as a way to question “the structural and social framework of American University, [as a way to] envision a more egalitarian and socially conscious campus community.” We were built to be a resource to grassroots movements, to give activists a space to write and organize toward a “progressive future without compromising the issues of today.” By analyzing and reporting on issues on campus, in the District and in the nation, AWOL was founded to “bridge gaps and make connections between people of different regional and political backgrounds.” This was done all through in-depth reporting on stories that mainstream media missed the mark on.

The thing is, we don’t know if we can fully live up to this expectation. We are no longer a dirty little zine that was thrown out by Aramark employees after distribution, but a fully funded, institution-backed publication. That doesn’t mean we still can’t make a difference.

We have made strides in creating a more diverse and strong-knit community, and our stories have moved from obscure features to more hard hitting, data-driven investigations — but we are still not there yet when it comes to supporting the communities around us.

We aim to undertake this next semester.

Moreover, we believe that creating a more egalitarian newsroom means improving accessibility to these issues with more immersive storytelling techniques. This semester, we are proud to roll out a new website and our new multimedia department that has already published two mini-documentaries and two podcast episodes.

Today, we present our 22nd issue, featuring an in-depth analysis on racist incidents on campus, how the alt-right coordinate these attacks and how members of the AU community push through these events. How do we make sense of hate and violence, and how do we continue to be open-minded, kind and loving despite it? This issue is an exploration of dissonance — within identity, institutions and policy.

We hope this issue makes you angry for all the right reasons.

Sincerely, Evie Lacroix and Andrea Lin

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FIND US ONLINE

Dear Readers,

www.awolau.org www.issuu.com/awol @awolAU www.facebook.com/awolAU

Want to join AWOL? Write to us: awolau@gmail.com

INSERTING REPRODUCTIVE FREEDOMS

POLITICS

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THE ROLE OF LANGUAGE IN THE FORMATION OF LATINX IDENTITY

4 TITLE IN TURMOIL

IMPLICATIONS FOR UNIVERSITY SEXUAL ASSAULT CASES IN THE TRUMP ERA

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by Camila Cisneros The thin line between volunteering and service learning

by Karissa Waddick Navigating the Title IX rollbacks

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SAFETY FOR SEX WORKERS

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by Michael Karlis The side effects of a booming fake ID industry

by Elise Notarianni A new D.C. bill advocates justice for sex workers

CAMPUS LIFE

9 DOOMED DREAMers

THE LEGACY OF LANGUAGE

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FREEDOMS

FLEETING AUTONOMY UNDER REPUBLICAN LEADERSHIP

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by Ben Weiss A litany of hateful acts mar the recent history of the campus.

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STUDENTS SPARK UP FOR SOCIAL ACTION

by Francisco Sabaté The financial ties between AU and WAMU

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18 BREAKING DOWN SOCIETY’S

MISCONCEPTIONS

BROADCAST BLUES

UNSHACKLING BDSM MYTHS

by Antoinette D’Addario An investigative look into women embracing their sexuality in a subculture that is often misrepresented.

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PHOTO ESSAY: HYPHENATED

by Keira Waites A series of stills from an unreleased student film.

COMMUNITY DWELLERS SERVICE-LEARNING AT AU

by Luci Rascher D.C. may have legalized marijuana, but for college campuses it’s a slow burn

CULTURE

BROADCAST BLUES

FOLLOWING WAMU’S DEBTS AND MONEY TRAIL

by Madeleine Simon How the iud moved from the shadows and into the mainstream

15 BURNT OUT POLICY

WHY US?

ANALYZING THE ALT-RIGHT’S ATTACK ON AU

by Savannah Strott Colleges help out students when Congress won’t

13 INSERTING REPRODUCTIVE

FAKE IT ‘TIL YOU MAKE IT

COUNTERFEIT IDS, REAL CONSEQUENCES

SECURING RIGHTS THROUGH DECRIMINALIZATION

WHAT ARE COLLEGES DOING FOR UNDOCUMENTED STUDENTS

THE LEGACY OF LANGUAGE

by Stephanie Lopez The thin line between volunteering a nd service learning

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A CHANGE AGENT

PROFILE: IBRAM X. KENDI

by Paloma Losada Get to know the founding director of AU’s new Anti-Racist Research and Policy Center

AWOL MAGAZINE

Behind the scenes of AWOL Magazine...

Introducing the new

multimedia team.

MULTIMEDIA DIRECTOR MULTIMEDIA EDITOR MULTIMEDIA ASSISTANT PODCAST STAFF

Ben Weiss, Will Fowler Georgia Bergin Zach Vallese Brandon Ermer, Katya Podkovyroff Lewis, Maddi Cole, Sameera Rajwade VIDEO STAFF Christina McAllister, Will Knight

Mini-Documentaries As a way of exploring issues beyond text and image, AWOL began producing short form documentaries in 2016. The first “mini-doc” was just released this Fall semester exploring the political divisions of New Fairfield, Conn; a second video is soon to be released featuring a homeless busker living in DuPont Circle.

Left: Screenshot from unreleased mini-doc; Right: Screenshot from “State of the Union” mini-doc

Podcast: “Ripped From the Wall” Along with other student publications, AWOL added an audio component this past semester. The new podcast, “Ripped from the Wall”, harkens back to AWOL’s original mission of hard-hitting, investigative reporting about controversies at American University. Before the magazine was recognized by the university, administration asked school staff to throw out all copies of AWOL that they could find. The magazine, which was an underground publication at the time, looked into the questionable institutional practices of AU. With a team of hosts, reporters and writers, “Ripped from the Wall” publishes on a bi-weekly basis and is currently available on SoundCloud and iTunes.

Staffers Zach Vallese and Maddi Cole work on editing the episode.

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POLITICS

Title in Turmoil

Implications for university sexual assault cases in the Trump era Story by Karissa Waddick // Art by Elspeth Reilly

More than 400 individuals gathered outside The Department of Education on Oct. 19 for the National Vigil for Campus Sexual Assault Survivors, to stand in solidarity with campus sexual assault survivors across the country.

The Vigil was organized in light of over 40 sexual assault allegations against Hollywood film producer Harvey Weinstein and addressed growing concerns about United States Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos’s recent repeal of the 2011 Title IX guidance.

The Vigil’s Facebook event description said DeVos’s new Title IX changes, such as changing the due process system to promote fairness in favor of the accused, are “attacking Title IX safeguards for students — protecting perpetrators and making justice even harder to achieve for survivors.”

Title IX of the Education Amendments Act of 1972, commonly shortened to “Title IX,” says that, “No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving federal financial assistance.”

When these 37 words were first inked onto the pages of American law, their main purpose was to give female athletes the same opportunities as male athletes.

“The Obama era Dear Colleague letter did provide us with new hope and direction,” said Liliana Ascenci, the president of American University Students Against Sexual Violence.

Since then, Title IX has grown into an emotionally charged issue that has transformed higher education.

According to Ascenci, the letter shined a spotlight on sexual misconduct on college campuses and created a national conversation.

Arguments about Title IX’s impact on campus sexual assault cases sparked in 2011 when the Obama administration released a memo strengthening Title IX, referred to as a “Dear Colleague Letter.” It provided colleges with a set of policies and procedures to follow when investigating student-on-student sexual assault cases. The memo required colleges to use the least amount of evidence to prosecute alleged perpetrators of sexual assault.

However, the 2011 guidance was by no means perfect. Regina Curran, the new Title IX Officer at AU, said the Obama administration never asked Title IX officers for input when creating the guidance.

“There are reasons a lower level sexual harassment case would be resolved in an informal context” Curran said. “We might have wanted to focus on the education rather than punitive punishment.”

The administration’s guidance memo came Even with its faults, Curran believes the Title in response to complaints that colleges and IX Dear Colleague Letter took important steps universities were not investigating sexaul astoward securing protections for sexual assault sault cases thoroughly and outlined universitiy survivors across universities. obligations in preventing and handling sexual assault and rape cases. Schools that failed to comply with the guidelines risked losing federal “The Obama era guidance came because some schools were really messing up,” Curran said. funding.

“Schools started to do something in 2011 based

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AWOL MAGAZINE on the Dear Colleague Letter.”

Then, on Sept. 22, 2017, Betsy Devos reversed the 2011 Dear Colleague Letter — outraging feminists, sexual assault survivors and activists that saw the Title IX guidance as necessary to their freedoms.

“Shameful. This decision will hurt and betray students, plain and simple,” Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-New York, tweeted. She has been a strong advocate for sexual assault.

In a new Dear Colleague Letter, DeVos outlined the reason for the repeal: “Many schools have established procedures for resolving allegations that lack the most basic elements of fairness and due process, [they] are overwhelmingly stacked against the accused, and are in no way required by Title IX law or regulation.”

“We’re not saying if you have one drop of alcohol or even if you’re mildly buzzed, you can’t give consent because that’s not realistic and that’s just not true.”

Shortly after DeVos released the statement, campus feminists, sexual assault survivors and activists argued that DeVos was supporting perpetrators and undermining the credibility of survivors.

“The whole basis of her logic is, ‘oh sometimes there’s false reporting’ but that’s very low,” Asenci said at a Title IX coffee talk hosted by the Wellness Center. “Very few people are going to report falsely because of the experience of going through a Title IX investigation.”

Ella Whelan, a self-proclaimed libertarian feminist and author of Fun, Freedom and an End to Feminism, was dismayed by the response to DeVos’ decision to revise the legislation. Whelan believes the 2011 Title IX guidance fundamentally hindered the freedom of females on college campuses.

“There is this idea that women are under immediate threat when they get to university and are actively encouraged to feel worried

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about their encounters,” said Whelan speaking on the panel Title IX: Unsafe Spaces. “Under Title IX, women need to be protected like weak children.”

According to Whelan, statistics about sexual violence often over exaggerate the problem and are used to intimidate women.

She cited the Department of Justice’s 2007 Campus Sexual Assault Study statistic that “one out of five undergraduate women experience an attempted or completed sexual assault during their college years.” To Whelan, this was a form of “fear mongering.”

The 2007 survey based its statistics on two Midwestern universities but was used in the “Dear Colleague Letter” to paint a picture of a wider problem across the United States. To Whelan, this misuse seemed like an intimidation tactic used to make college women fear sexual encounters and take away their sexual freedom.

However, other studies reporting similar numbers have recently been released.

According to the 2017 American University Palmer Study, 18 percent of AU students reported experiencing unwanted sexual activity during their time at the university and 32.8 percent of respondents experienced unwanted sexual activity in their lifetime.

For Whelan, programs like Empower AU, which educate incoming freshman and transfer students about consent and sexual assault resources, exacerbate the fear mongering. Whelan believes that these programs are meant to deliberately alarm students about the smallest of sexual encounters.

“The idea that women are allowed to have drunk sex and be a bit reckless is being undermined by this,” Whelan said of programs that teach students about the relationship between consent and drinking.

Sara Yzaguirre, coordinator for Victims Advocacy Services at the AU Wellness Center, believes Whelan’s statement expresses a common and fundamental misunderstanding.

Instead, Yzaguirre and Maya Vizvary, the Sexual Assault Prevention Coordinator on

campus, teach that consent cannot be given when someone is incapacitated, throwing up, or cannot perform basic functions like walking.

Emotionally-fueled cases involving sexual assault and rape very rarely end in an outcome where either party is fully happy.

“Sixty percent of sexual assaults that happen in college have alcohol involved so it is a really important topic to discuss and not to shy away from,” Vizvary said.

“Just because we have trained people and are all really passionate about our work and do our best, it doesn’t mean that things always go perfectly,” said Yzaguirre.

Vizvary also noted that the Office of Advocacy Services for Interpersonal and Sexual Violence avoids victim blaming when talking about alcohol and sexual violence.

However, Yzaguirre said she hopes that AU’s programs will continue to educate students about sexual violence.

“The overlap between alcohol and sexual assault can get really hairy because people feel like it’s victim blaming so, we make sure to talk about how oftentimes the perpetrator is using alcohol to justify that behavior,” Vizvary said.

However, some debate whether it is fair to deem one person responsible for sexual assault if both parties are intoxicated and others question whether universities are even capable of handling these types of sexaul assault cases.

“I’m not saying you should be worried about your interactions,” Yzaguirre said. “But if it’s causing people to have more conversations about sex before they get to college, then I think it’s a really good thing.”

Karissa Waddick is a sophomore majoring in Communication, Legal Institutions, Economics and Government (CLEG) and journalism.

“When serious cases of rape and sexual violence do occur, the idea [is] that it would be solved by a crazy bureaucratic Kangaroo court on campus with people who really aren’t trained,” Whelan said.

The “kangaroo court,” she refers to is an unofficial court that convicts people of crimes without sufficient evidence. Think the Salem witch trials.

However, AU’s Title IX response protocol is set up to try to guarantee convictions with sufficient evidence, not in an impromptu kangaroo court. Through every step of the Title IX process there are checks and balances meant to ensure a fair outcome. The protocol and steps within the investigation are carried out by Curran, AU’s law degree-holding Title IX Officer .

AU was one of the five colleges nationwide to earn the EVERFI 2017 Excellence in Sexual Assault Prevention award. EVERFI is a technology company that creates digital curriculums and provides students with access to technology.

Still, Curran, Yzaguirre and Vizvary all admit that the Title IX process isn’t perfect.

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Safety for Sex Workers Securing rights through decriminalization Story by Elyse Notarianni // Art by Nicolla Etzion One in five sex workers in the District have been asked for sex by a police officer, according to the Urban Justice Center. There is nothing stopping police from arresting them afterward.

The exploitation and abuse of sex workers are all rooted in one main issue.

Sex work is illegal.

Councilman David Grosso wants that to change in D.C. He proposed a bill on October 5, 2017 to decriminalize sex work in the city.

The bill, called the “Reducing Criminalization to Improve Community Health & Safety Amendment Act”, would eliminate criminal charges for sex work in an effort to promote

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public safety, health and human rights. Currently, sex work is punishable by fines and up to two years in prison.

harm than good, from school discipline to drug laws to homelessness,” the councilman wrote in a press release.

The District would be the only jurisdiction in the country to decriminalize sex work, outside 11 counties in Nevada, where strictly regulated brothels operate.

Metropolitan Police has repeatedly arrested sex workers, but their efforts are only temporarily successful at deterring sex work. As the police focuses on one area, these workers move on to another.

Grosso developed the legislation in partnership with Sex Worker Advocates Coalition, a coalition of more than 16 organizations and advocates working to increase sex workers’ access to basic necessities and human rights.

“I believe that we as a society are coming to realize that excessive criminalization is causing more

Police Captain McLean says that there isn’t much they can do unless they catch someone in the act of selling or soliciting sex.

“They have every right to stand on the sidewalks,” McLean said. “We can’t arrest a woman just for looking like a prostitute.”

POLITICS Right now, a majority of sex workers work along the District’s K Street NE between 10th and 11th Streets, and Florida Avenue, according to Ward 6a Commissioner Brown. Next month, they’ll likely be somewhere else.

However, the number of sex workers on the streets in the District and the number of sex work-related arrests have decreased in recent years, according to the MPD’s 2013-2017 Year to Date Prostitution Arrests Overview. There were only 216 arrests in 2016, compared to 714 in 2015 and 596 in 2014. From January to August 10, 2017, there have been 166 arrests by D.C. police.

Leading human rights advocacy organizations like Amnesty International, the World Health Organization, the United Nations and Human Rights Watch argue in favor of decriminalization because banning sex work denies workers basic human rights.

One of those rights is equal protection under the law. Roughly 80 percent of street-based sex workers experience violence in the course of their work, according to a fact sheet by Councilman Grosso.

These organizations argue that law enforcement’s focus on arresting sex workers compromises their access to health, safety and judicial protections, and thereby silences women and fosters an environment of impunity for the human rights abuses committed against them.

This bill would protect sex workers from exploitation by law enforcement. Amnesty International claims that criminalization creates openings for law enforcement officers to commit violence, harassment and extortion against sex workers without reprobation.

In Chicago, 24 percent of street-based sex workers identified a police officer as their rapist.

This abuse of power endangers a worker’s ability to attain judicial protection.

When workers speak up, society often holds them responsible for abuses they incur. In Philadelphia, Judge Teresa Carr-Deni refused to allow a sex worker to press aggravated sexual assault charges after she suffered a gang raped at gunpoint. She charged them instead with “theft of services.”

One component that strips sex workers of human rights is social bias. A 2000 study published in the Journal of Violence Against Women found a correlation between anti-sex work rhetoric that establishes workers as a public nuisance and the violence and bias committed against them. This bias is worse for oppressed people, including people of color, the LGBTQ community, people with disabilities, immigrants, and people with criminal records, according to Grosso’s fact sheet.

Criminalization also denies sex workers the right to health services and information.

Decriminalizing sex work would allow women and clients to gain access to sexually transmitted infection testing and treatment.

D.C. has one of the highest rates of HIV in the country, with one in 13 people contracting the disease at some point in their lifetime, according to the Center of Disease Control and Prevention.

“They have every right to stand on the sidewalks. We can’t arrest a woman just for looking like a prostitute.”

The Global Commission on HIV and the Law argues that denying women these resources not only puts the District’s residents in danger of contracting STDs , but it also directly undermines global HIV prevention efforts.

The bill continues to prohibit coercion or exploitation, but opponents still worry that decriminalization would increase human trafficking.

“There are just so many issues,” said Dan Donahue, who has been living in the District since 1965. “Health issues, exploitation, minors. If they could figure out how to regulate that, then I’d think about it.”

D.C. Council Chairman Phil Mendelson also opposes the bill.

a statement, the Post reported. “Moreover, the penalties for first-time offenders are minor. But there is a great deal of collateral crime associated with prostitution, and it often presents a public nuisance.”

Research conducted by many global human rights advocacy groups suggests that decriminalization of sex work would fix these issues, not enhance them.

Sex work is legal in many countries, including Denmark, Australia, and Germany, which have seen positive impacts on their communities. Germany has seen a 10 percent decrease in human trafficking, and their rates of STDs among sex workers has evened out and is now no different than STDs among the general population.

New Zealand decriminalized sex work in 2003 and data found five years later that about 90 percent of sex workers thought decriminalization gave them employment, legal, health, and safety rights, 64 percent said it was easier to reject clients, and 57 percent said that police views of sex workers was more positive, according to the Christchurch School of Medicine.

Despite reported benefits, efforts to decriminalize sex work in the United States have largely failed. The District bill may also face opposition by the Republican-led House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, which has legislative ruling over the District.

Councilman Grosso hopes the proposed changes will enhance sex worker’s access to human rights and decrease human trafficking in the District.

“It is time for D.C. to reconsider the framework in which we handle commercial sex — and move from one of criminalization to a focus on human rights, health and safety,” Councilman Grosso said.

Elyse Notarianni is a senior studying Spanish and Journalism.

“We have amended the current law over the years to recognize that sex workers are often the victims of trafficking,” Mendelson said in

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Doomed DREAMers What are colleges doing for undocumented students?

Story by Savannah Strott // Photos by Melany Rochester

Education was one of the reasons Derian Luna’s parents brought him to the United States. Now a freshmen at the University of Nevada - Las Vegas, Luna is working hard to achieve his and his parents’ goals. Unlike most freshman Luna has an added pressure — he’s a DREAMER. For years, the lives of almost one million DREAMERs have been a political hot potato tossed between Congress and the president.

Each side insists something must be done for this group of people who came to the US without proper documents when they were young, but neither side has produced any solutions to address the issue.

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Ryan to Sen. Maxine Waters have spoken out in support of DREAMERs, no substantial policy has been voted on, or even proposed, since the September announcement.

A tweet by President Trump hours after the announcement reassured DREAMERs he would revisit the issue if Congress failed to solve it, but his promise seemed as unpredictable as their futures.

“One’s ability to access education should not be based on their immigration status.”

For Luna, the announcement put his view of college into perspective.

“It was more of a feeling of working hard in vain, feeling hopeless,” Luna said. “I can still The greatest progress for these young people has go study, but I won’t be able to work anymore been the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals [once DACA expires]. After I graduate, I still won’t be able to work with my degree, so going (DACA) program implemented by President to college would basically be a waste of time Obama in 2012. DACA gives DREAMERs here in the US.” a work permit and a promise to keep them in America as long as they are in the program, which they have to reapply for every two years. While DREAMERs are being abandoned by the government, many colleges have pledged Under the program, recipients can’t apply for their support. In the months following Trump’s permanent residency or US citizenship, but election, 28 colleges declared themselves DACA adds a layer of security that recipients “sanctuaries” for their undocumented student trust to keep them safe. Or it used to. populations.

This protection was destabilized on Sept. 5 when the Trump administration announced it would begin phasing out DACA in six months, tossing the DREAMERs issue back to Congress. While Along with thousands of other colleges across congressional representatives from Speaker Paul the nation, American University offered a

POLITICS general statement of support and protection for undocumented students, but didn’t label itself a sanctuary. A request for the sanctuary label was made in a November 2016 petition after Trump became President-elect. The petition was signed by 314 AU staff and faculty members, but was rejected by former President Kerwin.

Current AU President, Sylvia Burwell, released a memorandum following the Trump administration’s announcement, promising the university will remain “committed to our undocumented students and will use every legal means at our disposal to offer our support and protection.” Burwell clarified that AU doesn’t label itself as a sanctuary since the term has no legal weight.

The office works with students to help them navigate through barriers, where possible, and tries to remove those barriers all together.

Bendoraitis reaffirmed that CDI was there to offer support and a place for conversation for undocumented students as they would any other student on campus.

Fanta Aw, Ph.D., Vice president of Student Life at AU, said that most of the students come to her with concerns for their extended family.

Whether it’s for themselves or their family, students can speak to the dean of students, the counseling center, Academic Support and Access Center, or any other confidential resource provided to seek assistance or support.

“They can rest assured that their information is left confidential,” Aw said. “We want to make In her memo, Burwell listed the Center for Di- sure that students feel supported to remain versity and Inclusion (CDI) as the first point of here and continue with their semester with the contact for undocumented students needing re- least distractions possible.” sources. Sara Bendoraitis, Director of Programing, Outreach and Advocacy for CDI, said the On-campus resources like Aw and Bendocenter acts as an extension cord between the raitis can connect students to more options services and offices on campus. off-campus. After the Trump administration’s DACA announcement, Aw worked with the “We have our hands in a lot of different places,” Immigrant Law Clinic at the Washington ColBendoraitis said. lege of Law to provide an informational brief-

ing on what the announcement meant to those who are undocumented or have undocumented family members.

The Immigrant Law Clinic remains available to students who seek immigration help, Aw said, providing students with networks, referrals, and resources. These resources include pro bono lawyers and organizations in D.C. that are available to help undocumented immigrants.

“We have the benefit that we are in Washington where the resources are tremendous,” Aw said.

Bendoraitis estimated that the undocumented population makes up less than five percent of students enrolled at AU. She suggested the low number comes from the cost of the school and limitation of aid that can be given to DACA recipients. Aw says students aren’t required to disclose their immigration status so there is no way to know the exact number of DREAMERs at AU. Undocumented students are unable to fill out FAFSA or receive federal aid or loans. They are also unable to receive need-based aid through AU grants because AU uses FAFSA to calculate how much aid to give each student. Without

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“We might have to be more creative and learn more about what students can do post-college and post-graduation.” being able to verify tax forms and other documents with FAFSA, AU can’t confidently know how much aid a student needs, according to Aw. While other schools, like the University of Nevada in Las Vegas, have applications other than FAFSA to determine need-based aid for both international and undocumented students, AU isn’t exploring that option right now, Aw said.

“But it doesn’t mean that it won’t change in the future,” she added.

For now, however, undocumented students at American must fund their education through scholarships and personal finances.

The financial burden is different for undocumented students at California universities. The California Dream Act, passed in 2011, allows undocumented and nonresidential students to receive scholarships funded through public

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universities, state administered financial aid and certain grants. The Berkeley Undergraduate Dream Act Aid is financial aid specifically for undocumented students.

The University of California - Berkeley used the California Dream Act to create the Berkeley Undergraduate Dream Act Aid and a work study program to specifically help undocumented students fund their Berkeley education. In 2010 students from the UC-Berkeley Immigrant Student Issues Coalition presented recommendations to the chancellor on how to better serve the undocumented student population. From that discussion came the Undocumented Student’s Program that provides undocumented students with academic, mental health, legal and peer support.

Liliana Iglesias, an academic counselor for the program, is one of the six staff members that provides this support to undocumented students at Berkeley, a population she estimates is around 500 students. The program receives the names of the students who apply through the California Dream Act Aid to determine who receives aid from this program.

When students come to the center, they receive support and referrals similar to the works

POLITICS

of the CDI at AU. Additional services not offered at AU, or at most other colleges, are a psychologist and a lawyer who specifically work with undocumented students, Iglesias said. The program can also work with the financial office to give their students emergency grants to help cover unexpected expenses, such as a family member getting sick. These grants are specifically for undocumented students and are given on a case-by-case basis.

Iglesias said that more emergency aid may be needed if DACA is eliminated with no solution in its place. Students may need aid because of legal troubles or to help make up for wages students were earning under DACA. When DACA expires, undocumented students will no longer have a work permit and won’t be able to legally work in the US. This will leave graduating undocumented students with a degree, but not job opportunities in the US. “We might have to be more creative and learn more about what students can do post-college and post-graduation,” Iglesias said.

If DACA is eliminated, students in California can still get aid through the California Dream Act and will still have the Undocumented Students Program at Berkeley, Iglesias said.

At AU, the CDI and other resources will continue to provide their services and support to undocumented students, according to Bendoraitis and Aw. As far as implementing a program similar to Berkeley’s at AU, Aw said that won’t happen.

The services provided at Berkeley meet the demand for their large undocumented population, Aw said. At AU, she can’t imagine having a specific psychologist or academic counselor just for undocumented students, though she states those services are currently offered to everyone on campus.

with students to help them meet their needs, according to Aw. The biggest change for current DACA recipients would be their sudden ineligibility to work once DACA is gone. To make up for the loss of income, Aw said that AU would work with them to try to find external scholarships specifically for undocumented students.

“One’s ability to access education should not be based on their immigration status,” Aw said.

“We cannot assume that every DACA student has the same issues, and the same needs.”

“The issues and challenges students face at UC Berkeley are very different from the issues DACA students face here,” Aw said. “We cannot assume that every DACA student has the same issues, and the same needs.”

Savanna Strott is a first-year student studying journalism and creative writing.

If lawmakers fail to find a permanent solution for DREAMERs after DACA expires in the early spring, AU will continue to work AWOL » FALL 2017

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Inserting Reproductive Freedoms Fleeting Autonomy under Republican Leadership Story by Madeleine Simon // Art by Claire Osborn Samantha Garzillo didn’t know what to wear on the day she would get her intrauterine device, otherwise known as an IUD. The Pennsylvania-native was about to be scrutinized by not only the physicians at a Planned Parenthood in Washington, D.C., but also her 695 Facebook friends.

Garzillo decided to post a series of Facebook livestream videos throughout the day of her IUD procedure. She didn’t film during the actual appointment, though.

“What the heck do you wear to have someone stick an IUD in you?” Garzillo, 22, said during her livestream. “So I felt like being cute, and I’m wearing a little lemon romper.”

Wearing her lemon-printed romper, white sneakers and peachy-red lipstick, Garzillo signed off from her first livestream video of the day and headed to Planned Parenthood. She carried her virtual world inside her purse.

In the end, Garzillo decided not to get an IUD after she experienced too much pain during the procedure. Still, Garzillo is part of

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a growing number of women and others who have uteruses in the United States who want to get — or already have — IUDs as their form of birth control. The surge in women getting IUDs is part of the larger conversation of women’s demand for autonomy, and the precariousness of affordable access to birth control. As Republican and GOP leaders push to restrict access to birth control and abortions, many women are seeking contraception that can outlast a presidency. And for some, the best option for that is the IUD. “I think the more recent obsession with IUDs is stemming from realizing the fragility of access to birth control,” Garzillo said. “Unless somebody forcefully takes it out of you because they know you have it, it’s yours. Nobody can take it away from you. People explicitly said that’s part of the reason they got theirs in the past couple of months.”

The IUD is a small, T-shaped plastic device that is inserted into the uterus to prevent pregnancy.

Hormonal IUDs last between three to six years, and nonhormonal copper IUDs can last up to 12 years. Both are over 99 percent effective.

More studies, like one from the Journal of Obstetrics & Gynecology, show that the IUD is a safe contraceptive even for teenagers.

“For the overwhelming majority of women, once it’s inserted they really don’t even have to think about it,” Faith Barash, a board certified OB-GYN, said. “It frees people up because it’s not a daily concern.”

The birth control pill is still the most popular contraceptive in the country. But, the number of women getting IUDs has been on the rise since the early 2000s. IUD usage increased nearly five-fold in the last decade, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, with 7.2 percent of women aged 15 to 44 getting the device.

And that number soared during the election season. IUD prescriptions and procedures increased 19 percent between October and December of last year, according to data compiled for AthenaHealth.

“Right now it’s a choice, whereas a week from now it might not be a choice,” said Aimee Richardson, a women’s health professor at American University. “So it’s making the choice

of what I think is best for my body right now so that I don’t have to pay the consequences later because the rules might change.”

And the rules have already started to change.

In October of this year, the Trump administration rolled back the Affordable Care Act’s birth control mandate.

But worries over access to birth control grew even after the election, and more people became interested in the IUD. In November of 2016, once it was clear that Donald Trump was the president-elect, Google searches for “IUD” skyrocketed, with terms like “IUD options” and “should I get an IUD” increasing by 800 percent and 200 percent, according to Vice.

In May of 2017, the same month the House passed the American Health Care Act, the number of Google searches for “IUD” spiked to an all-time high.

Planned Parenthood reported a 900 percent increase in the amount of women trying to get an IUD, the organization’s president, Cecile Richards, told CNN in January of this year.

And on social media, women urged others to quickly get long-acting reversible contraceptives and, like Garzillo, opened up about their own experiences with such devices.

“There’s no other subjects where the government makes decisions about our bodies,” Richardson said. “When it comes to reproductive health for women — birth control, abortion — there’s no other situation where the government makes a decision that you’re like ‘oh crap, I need to make sure that I get what I need.’”

The buzz around IUDs also helped the device seem less scary and more personable, making it a more viable option for women seeking an alternative to birth control pills. Garzillo and her friend Gabbi Hill, who also made a video sharing her IUD experience, are two voices in the ongoing conversation of long-acting reversible contraceptives and women’s sexuality.

“I think that as a result of more people talking about it, I’ve noticed more and more women getting comfortable with it,” Hill said.

Hill is a second year pharmacy student at the University of Pittsburgh. In January of this year, she posted a video to Facebook where she talked about her experience getting an IUD and gave some basic information about the device.

In the video she wears a nose ring and often

POLITICS flashes a wide, welcoming smile. She made the video to break down stigmas, she said.

“One of the things that I think is still stigmatized is the discussion of feminine products, periods, birth control and safety when it comes to sex education,” Hill said over the phone.

“My goal stemmed from the fact that I had a lot of questions going into it, and I’m an older sister and I know a lot of friends who also were kind of unsure, so I made the decision to put out all the answers.”

Both Garzillo and Hill received positive feedback on their videos. Garzillo says she still receives private messages from people asking about the IUD. Hill even got messages from 30-year-old women after her post. Both videos gave their Facebook friends a platform to open up, bringing positive experiences of the IUD even further into the mainstream.

“What was really interesting about the comments [section] is people were like ‘this was the most painful thing I’ve experienced, I had to be heavily medicated with ibuprofen everyday for three months,’” Garzillo said. “And they were like ‘and I would redo it again in a heartbeat.’”

While the IUD is widely regarded as a safe form of birth control, the device didn’t always have such a positive reputation in the United States.

In the 1970s, the IUD picked up among American women, with almost 10 percent choosing the device as their contraception, according to the Guttmacher Institute. But then a new IUD called the Dalkon Shield was linked to extreme complications, and everything changed.

The Dalkon Shield, which was actually shaped like a shield, was shown to cause pelvic inflammatory disease, septic abortions, infertility and, in some cases, death. In the United States, 18 users died, 15 of those were from septic miscarriages or stillbirths occurring around the second trimester of pregnancy, according to a Planned Parenthood report.

“It was associated with a lot of cases of pelvic inflammatory disease — so really bad pelvic infections that could result in infertility,” Barash said. “So it got a really, really bad reputation after that and a lot of women were really, really afraid of using it.”

From that point on, the IUD was plagued with stigma and suspicion. By 1974, the Dalkon Shield manufacturer suspended sales.

The “Dalkon Shield Disaster,” as Planned Parenthood calls it, cast such a large shadow that IUD usage stalled in the United States.

The IUD’s stigma and rumors can still be seen today.

“If you enter this part of the Internet when you’re looking up birth control, it’s all these scare-tactic articles that are like ‘you’re going to die,’” Garzillo said.

Even though it’s still marred by its past, the IUD is becoming more popular as time passes and more studies show it’s a safe form of contraception.

“In the 1990s, I definitely did have some patients getting IUDs,” Barash said over the phone. “I think there’s been a little bit more awareness of IUD as a safe and very, very effective method of contraception.”

“Right now it’s a choice, whereas a week from now it might not be a choice.”

Infections from an IUD, while still possible, are very rare, according to Planned Parenthood.

“More studies have come out showing that they are safe and very effective at preventing pregnancy for all women,” Lizzie Kitue, a midwife in Massachusetts said.“There has also been a rise in the number of IUDs on the market so that women have more choices when it comes to getting an IUD.” Even though there are more choices than before, the United States is still behind in how many IUDs are available on the market. There are currently only five types of IUDs in the United States, all with the same T-shape. In Britain, there are 22 different kinds of IUDs, according to The Atlantic.

“With every new generation of birth control users comes different needs,” Richardson said.

“And if you look at the needs of Millennials — instant gratification, and STIs aren’t as terrifying as they were 15-20 years ago. You are used to having things versus taking a pill everyday. So then throw in the fear that something won’t be available the way it is now, then IUD becomes a more viable option.”

Even though Garzillo chose not to proceed with an IUD, she instead got the implant, another form of long-acting reversible birth control. The implant is a small rod that is inserted under the skin in the upper arm. Similar to the IUD, the implant lasts up to 4 years and once it’s inserted, the woman doesn’t have to deal with it. Garzillo made another Facebook video after this procedure, too.

Garzillo’s videos are part of a larger grassroots movement of women speaking for their reproductive autonomy during a time when the government seeks to stifle those rights.

“Beyond breaking the stigma, what was nice about [Hill’s] video and then what I also tried to do in my video was that she wasn’t just talking about herself,” Garzillo said. “She was trying to inform others. Even people who would never go on birth control because it isn’t their anatomy. Wanting to put that education out through your own research, that was really nice.”

As the IUD slowly makes progress, so too does the fight for bodily autonomy.

“I believe that it’s becoming less of a radical idea that women are in charge of their own bodies,” Hill said. “I mean we’ve been fighting this fight for many, many years. I don’t think it will ever really be over but it’s definitely a slow progress.

You can’t look at today versus yesterday.”

While progress is slow, the IUD is benefitting from younger generations’ changing attitudes and word of mouth.

Madeleine Simon is a senior studying journalism and international relations.

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Burnt Out Policy

Students spark up for social action Story by Luci Rascher // Photos by Anonymous

On a humid September evening, freshman Katherine and her friends decided to smoke a joint on American University’s campus. Shortly after lighting up, they heard someone shout “AU Police!”

first time drug offense,” Katherine said. “For the rest of the semester, you can’t get caught doing anything on campus: drinking, smoking, anything like that. And if you do, you can get suspended or expelled.”

dorms where all residents are 21 or older. This policy change was done in an effort to make on-campus housing more desirable to upper classmen and to reduce dangerous drinking incidents off-campus.

They assumed it was just a student trying to mess with them and continued puffing out smoke. It wasn’t a joke. Campus police searched their belongings, confiscating marijuana and paraphernalia.

Katherine is just one of many students at AU who has been caught smoking and possessing marijuana on campus. Seven states and the District have legalized recreational marijuana.

Twenty-nine states and D.C. have legalized medical marijuana. But college campuses still have not.

Even though D.C. legalized marijuana, AU’s policy still “prohibits the unauthorized possession, use, manufacture, distribution and sale of medical marijuana and possession and use of marijuana in any quantity,” according to American University Drug Policy.

“A couple of us thought we were literally going to get arrested that night,” Katherine said.

Campus police, however, did not report the incident to Metropolitan Police.

A few weeks later they received an email from the Office of Campus Life mandating they schedule a date for their disciplinary hearing.

At the hearing, Katherine, who was caught with ten grams of marijuana, explained her story.

AU’s Office of University Communications failed to respond by time of print.

“They basically did a standard probation for a

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According to AU policy, first time sale, distribution, manufacture, use, or possession of illegal drugs and illegal drug paraphernalia can result in anywhere from disciplinary probation to dismissal from the university. Juxtapose this with first time alcohol violations, where the most severe punishment a student can receive is probation, an alcohol education program, or community restitution hours. Suspension or dismissal are only considered after repeated alcohol violations.

AU transitioned into becoming a “damp campus,” in 2017 by allowing alcohol in only

“Right now, most campuses around the U.S. treat marijuana as more harmful than alcohol, which is simply not true,” said Jake Agliata, Regional Outreach Coordinator at the Students for Sensible Drug Policy. “We believe that if schools are going to have policies on the books for marijuana and alcohol, they should be equalized.”

On Feb. 26, 2015, D.C. formally legalized possession of up to two grams of marijuana for those 21 and older. The law also stipulates that money cannot be exchanged for marijuana and use of marijuana is strictly limited to private property only. The D.C. Metropolitan Police

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Department highlights in its webpage on “The Facts on DC Marijuana Laws,” that marijuana is still illegal to possess and use according to federal law, so possession or use of marijuana on federal property in D.C. can still be treated as a federal crime.

Federal law is also the primary driving force behind why universities have yet to adopt progressive marijuana policies.

According to the Drug Free Schools and Communities Act (DFSCA) of 1989, any college campus that permits the use of marijuana by any staff, faculty or student will risk losing all federal funding for that school. Catholic University, Howard University and George Washington University all have policies prohibiting marijuana possession and use in their residences due to the DFSCA. “[Schools] are afraid of losing federal funding if they move towards more lenient marijuana policies,’ Agliata said. “Schools do have the ability to equalize marijuana and alcohol penalties even under the DFSCA, since the Act only stipulates that schools need to have a marijuana policy on the books… We simply need

to educate college administrations that they don’t marijuana and blacks with heroin and then criminalizing both heavily, we could disrupt need to fear losing federal funding.” their communities,” said an unknown official in the Nixon Administration, as used in the According to Kate Bell, legislative counsel for 2016 documentary 13th.

Maryland and D.C. at the Marijuana Policy Project, “If marijuana is descheduled, it would no longer be an ‘illicit drug’ under DFSCA, and According to a 2016 report on the racial and its use by students 21 and up would no longer be ethnic disparity in prisons from The Sentencing Project, harsh drug laws are a major factor illegal under federal law.” for the especially severe disparities that come with drug crimes.

“States would be free to set their own marijuana policies without federal interference, and there would be other positive legal changes, including medical marijuana patients being able to seek protection under the Americans with Disabilities Act,” Bell said.

Strong opposition to marijuana legalization by U.S. Attorney Jeff Sessions has recently gained ground, including threats to Obama-era guidance that has generally allowed states to legalize marijuana without federal interference. Social stigma surrounding marijuana is also greatly rooted in racial and class.

“We knew we couldn’t make it illegal to be either against the war or black [people]. But by getting the public to associate the hippies with

“We believe that if schools are going to have policies on the books for marijuana and alcohol, they should be equalized.”

Nellis finds dozens of studies all point to similar explanations for the cause. The disparities come from discriminatory policies and practices that target specific areas and/or people, as well as the role of implicit bias and stereotypes

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in decision making, structural disadvantages in communities of color, and inequalities in the criminal justice system.

“Race and socioeconomic class play a huge role, as the War on Drugs is largely rooted in racism to begin with,” Agliata said. “For example, despite equal levels of consumption, black people are nearly five times more likely to be arrested for marijuana than white people.”

Stereotypes and misconceptions also play an important role in the way marijuana is perceived.

“Some of the more common stereotypes associated with marijuana are the ‘lazy stoner’ trope, that marijuana makes you slow and dumb,” Agliata said. “There are numerous studies that prove people who use marijuana regularly are not academically impaired by their consumption, and some studies even indicate that students who use marijuana are some of the highest performing students in the country.”

A study conducted by the Massachusetts General Hospital/Harvard Center for Addiction Medicine used MRIs to observe the brains of individuals age 18-25 who smoked marijuana at least once a week. The study found that compared to non-users, users had changes to the gray matter within regions of the brain associated with motivation, pleasure, memory, emotion and decision making.

However, Barbara Weiland, PhD, at the University of Colorado at Boulder recently redid

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this study, controlling for alcohol consumption.

After controlling for alcohol, differences in the brain’s gray matter could not be found.

“There is ample evidence that marijuana is safer than alcohol,” Bell said. “For example, it is not associated with violent behavior like alcohol is, and there has never been a recorded overdose due to cannabis, while many people die every year from alcohol poisoning — so it doesn’t make sense to effectively drive students to drink by treating marijuana more harshly than alcohol.”

Alcohol use among college students is responsible annually for about 1,825 deaths, according to the National Institute of Health.

“I find marijuana to be safer than alcohol, as evident by the numerous transports outside Letts and Anderson on a weekly basis,” Katherine added. “You have so many transports on a weekly basis outside of Anderson and Letts and with people not knowing their limits in terms of alcohol. With marijuana I don’t think you have that problem as regularly at least if at all.”

According to AU’s Annual Security Report, in 2016, AU’s main campus had 521 liquor law violations as opposed to 106 drug violations.

So what can be done to ensure that marijuana rights and punishments are treated more like alcohol on campus?

“Students can and do succeed in changing their university’s policies,” Bell said. “An impor-

tant thing students can do is vote! The lower turnout rate among young people results in politicians giving less consideration to them than to other constituents who vote in much larger numbers.”

According to Bell, about 45 percent of 18-29 year old citizens voted in the 2012 election, versus 72 percent of citizens 62 and up.

“In general, I think we need to start viewing marijuana consumption as something that many people do regularly and without any sort of impediment into their daily lives,” Agliata said. “If it’s acceptable to come home after a day of class and have a beer, it should be acceptable to come home and smoke a joint.”

Luci Rascher is a first-year student studying International Studies.

CULTURE

BREAKING DOWN SOCIETY’S MISCONCEPTIONS Unshackling BDSM Myths Story by Antoinette D’Addario // Art by Claire Osborn By day Evie Lupine* (due to the sensitivity of this topic, Evie has asked to be identified by her public persona not her legal name) is a career woman in a field filled with men. By night she produces videos for her YouTube channel dedicated to people interested in BDSM. Her channel is focused on educating people of all ages and types about the BDSM lifestyle and sharing her personal journey.

BDSM, which stands for bondage, domination, sadism and masochism, is a specific realm of sexual exploration that involves two consenting parties play-acting certain fantasies to indulge their sexual desires. While there are often contracts involved in many BDSM relationships, they aren’t legally binding. Rather the contracts help create the illusion of power as well as lay out the rules and limits of each party.

Lupine, 23, grew up in a military family. While in college, she became interested in the BDSM lifestyle and found there was a lot of missing information.

“The internet was dominated by 40 plus year old kinksters and information from 30 years ago,” she said. “When I started going to classes and dungeons I thought, ‘what the heck, I will start talking about my experiences too.’”

While many understand this world through fictional works like the trilogy Fifty Shades of

Terms Grey, there are nuances to BDSM that media tends leave out.

Lupine feels it’s nearly impossible to determine how anyone develops their BDSM preferences, but she feels hers came from a combination of growing up Catholic and observing her parents’ relationship.

“Seeing how my mother always served my father and the mutual love and respect they have always had,” Lupine said. “Service, repentance for sins, being meek and humble [were] all big messages I got as a kid and took with me as life values moving forward.”

Despite the feminist movement of the past few decades, women exploring their sexuality remains a sensitive topic in society. Women are often shamed for not only desiring sex, but also desiring a certain kind of sex. Feminism teaches women to be strong and in charge and many would argue choosing to submit in the bedroom is a reversal of feminist ideals.

BDSM: bondage and discipline, sadism and masochism, dominance and submission, describes a community including a range of activities, forms of relationships and subcultures Dominant (Dom): person who exerts control in the power exchange relationship Submissive (sub): person who submits to control in the power exchange relationship Negotiation: when medical issues and triggers are discussed, as well as safe words, aftercare, limits, sexual touch and the type of scene the parties are looking for Power exchang: any situation where two or more people consensually and voluntarily agree to a relationship in which one assumes authority and one yields authority, either for a predetermined time or indefinitely Protocol: formalized set of rules controlling the interaction between Dominants and submissives

Lupine considers herself a feminist, and she finds BDSM and feminism aren’t at odds with one another.

“I think the misunderstanding comes from the stereotype of BDSM just being submissive women giving up power to men,” she said.

“But BDSM is a free choice – people choose to give up or obtain power from other people with clear negotiation and consent.”

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AWOL MAGAZINE To Lupine, BDSM can be a powerful way for a woman to take control over her sexuality by understanding what she wants and how to ask for it. Additionally, BDSM isn’t always about power.

“It can be just about having fun, about letting go of emotions, about de-stressing, about so many other things besides just subordination to another person,” she said. “And being able to have that and be okay with that is a revolutionary and subversive way of engaging in sexuality.”

In discovering one’s sexual desires, some choose to seek professional advice. Andrea Battiola is a Licensed Professional Counselor in Washington D.C. From a young age, Battiola knew she wanted to be a sex therapist.

“I always felt it was a conversation that wasn’t being had enough,” Battiola said. “I intuitively knew how important sex was in relationships and for individuals and was disturbed by the lack of conversation about it.”

Battiola works with a number of women in her practice and found that almost every one of them struggles with messages they’ve received about their sexuality throughout their lives.

“With 95 percent of the women I work with, we’re having conversations about messages they’ve received about their sexuality and relationships,” she said. “[We discuss] what messages do you want to keep and which ones do you want to get rid of or upgrade.”

Many messages women received throughout their lives leave them with feelings of guilt and shame, according to Battiola. To help women embrace their desires, Battiola gives them homework.

“On your own, explore your body through touch,” Battiola tells her clients. “Women having sexual problems usually are distracted by thoughts of shame or guilt.”

When it comes to specific desires, Battiola encourages her clients to explore whatever satisfies them, whether that be exploring fantasies with their partners or exploring BDSM or kink relationships.

“It isn’t my job to tell anyone that they shouldn’t want what they’re wanting sexually,” Battiola

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said. “I do a lot of reinforcing because there’s nothing shameful about having kink interests.

[There’s] nothing wrong with that. We talk about it. We explore it.”

Dr. D.J. Williams, Ph.D. is a multidisciplinary social and behavioral sociologist who studies leisure science with the Center for Positive Sexuality. Though he began his career studying how leisure relates to crime and offender rehabilitation, while doing post-doctoral work, he came across a BDSM study from Scandinavia that made him wonder if BDSM could be a leisure activity. He had an experience with a dominatrix and has since become more involved in the BDSM community and researching it.

“The internet was dominated by 40 plus year old kinksters and information from 30 years ago. When I started going to classes and dungeons I thought, what the heck, I will start talking about my experiences too.”

And Dr. Williams’ team aren’t the only researchers arguing that BDSM is misunderstood and should be classified as a leisure activity.

Doctors Andreas A.J. Wismeijer and Marcel A.L.M. van Assen of the Netherlands conducted a study that suggested “BDSM participants as a group are, compared with non-BDSM participants, less neurotic... more open to new experiences, more conscientious,” and that “... female BDSM participants had more confidence in their relationships, had a lower need for approval, and were less anxiously attached

CULTURE compared with non-BDSM participants.”

They concluded that their “findings suggest that BDSM practitioners are characterized by greater psychological and interpersonal strength and autonomy, rather than by psychological maladaptive characteristics.”

“As a leisure scientist, I come at it [research] from a different angle,” Williams said. “It helps with gaining trust; it’s so important to build trust and a rapport [between] people and researchers.”

For Williams, changing stigma around the BDSM community has a lot to do with education and language. Personally, he doesn’t consider BDSM deviant behavior in the psychological sense.

“It depends on how one defines deviance,” Williams said. “Deviance really just means statistically different from the norm – on the one hand, diversity has a positive connotation while deviance has a negative one. But they’re more or less the same thing.”

Lupine doesn’t let societal stigmas bother her anymore. She knows most stigmas are based on misinformation and Puritanical views on sex so she tries not to let their ignorance get her down.

“While I wish I could be more open with my family and work, I have come to accept that this is not the world we currently live in,” she said.

If she hears a negative comment about kink, Lupine knows it isn’t directed at her but rather at the false narrative about what kink is and what it means to people who live that life on a daily basis.

“I hope that more people writing and talking about BDSM will some day ease this stigma, but I know that level of change takes time,” she said. “I choose to live in hope that we will be accepted, rather than in anger that we are not.”

If a client is interested in exploring a Dom/ sub relationship, Battiola discusses their desires and expectations and helps them look for a Dom who is willing to engage in that relationship. Once that person is found, if the relationship is purely sexual, the process of contracting begins, where the Dom and sub discuss what the relationship will look like, safe words, limits and what they’re hoping to explore together. A properly executed contract protects the sub from potential abuse or harm.

According to Battiola, it is quite rare in the kink community to find an abusive Dom/sub relationship because everyone is mindful of what their partner wants and their limitations.

While there are many people who conflate Dom/sub relationships with abuse, there is a clear difference. According to Lupine, a Dom negotiates with their sub and asks about and respects their limits and desires. But an abuser does whatever they want, whenever they want without checking in or asking. And a Dom will respect their partner’s limits while an abuser will relentlessly push them.

“A Dom will allow you to leave peacefully,” she said. “An abuser will trap you in a cycle of never being allowed to leave.”

For Lupine, there’s a simple equation to differentiating between abuse and a consensual Dom/sub relationship.

“Over the years, I’ve developed a simple way of telling the difference,” Lupine said. “For a Dom, a single word will stop the scene. For an abuser, a million words will never end the abuse.”

Williams makes a point of teaching his students that in anything they work with it’s not about deviance or the activity being engaged in, rather it’s about the ethics. So long as there is consent and participants are engaging ethically in their activities, there’s no reason to

“I hope that more people writing and talking about BDSM will some day ease this stigma, but I know that level of change takes time,” she said. “I choose to live in hope that we will be accepted, rather than in anger that we are not.” avoid activities they find pleasurable.

Currently the terms “safe, sane and consensual” and the idea behind RACK (risk-aware consensual kink) tend to be the guideposts for the BDSM community. Williams and his colleagues have come up with a new framework for BDSM negotiation which are the four C’s; consent, communication, caring and caution.

While the four C’s were created specifically with BDSM relationships in mind, one could argue these principles can, and should, be applied to all types of relationships, BDSMrelated or not.

“Sex is as natural as being naked,” Lupine said.

“What one person does or does not do in the bedroom is not my concern.”

Antoinette D’Addario is a senior studying print journalism and criminology.

There is a spectrum in BDSM, ranging from occasionally bringing handcuffs into the bedroom to a contractual relationship spelling out the parties’ desires, obligations and limits.

Entry into this world varies from person to person.

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PHOTO ESSAY:

HYPHENATED

by Keira Waites

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Hyphenated means placed in between. It means being strung between two worlds but not fully belonging to either. It is fighting for a space without knowing what you’re making a space for. It is a barrier, a burden and a bridge all at once.

Keira Waites is a junior studying business/entertainment, with a film specialization.

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The Legacy of Language The role of language in the formation of Latinx identity Story by Camila Cisneros // Art by Katia Rasch

The Latinx identity is just as complex as Latinxs are themselves. There is no exact culture that defines them. There are 26 countries in Latin America, each with its own dialect, music, national sport, and with many other unique features. It’s difficult to pinpoint an exact Latinx way of life.

Recently, it seems that ‘immigrant’ is becoming a common addition to the Latinx identity that makes it increasingly interesting to study. What makes one more Latinx? What does it take to revoke your “Latinx card”, metaphorically speaking? How is the connection with heritage affected by being raised in the United States when it comes to Latinxs and their descendants? And perhaps more importantly, what is the significance of language when it comes to the connection and the pride of culture and heritage?

According to a 2015 report from the Pew Research Center, Hispanics in the United States break down into three groups when it comes to their use of language: 36 percent are bilingual, 25 percent mainly use English and 38 percent mainly use Spanish. Among those who speak

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CULTURE English, 59 percent are bilingual. In other words, there is no “right” or “wrong” level of language proficiency. However, it is important to look at how the different levels of proficiency correlate with identity and connection with culture.

A series of interviews from Latinxs show that those who are proficient in Spanish and/ or Portuguese insist on language being one of the most — if not the absolute most — important factors when it comes to the Latinx identity in the U.S..

Those who aren’t as fluent, or do not speak the language at all, tend not to see language as such an important factor, and still feel very connected with their own culture despite lack of fluency.

Most Latino adults say it is not necessary to speak Spanish to be considered Latino.

According to a recent Pew Research Center survey of Latinx people, 71 percent of Latinx adults hold that view while 28 percent say the opposite. When it comes to non-Spanish speaking Latinx people, such as Brazilians, they tend not identify as Latinx, due to the lack of acceptance by Latinx people from Spanish-speaking countries.

Chia-Ry Chang Ureña, a junior in the Kogod School of Business, was born in Costa Rica and grew up in San Francisco. Her father is Taiwanese, so she speaks Mandarin as well as Spanish. She considers herself to be both Asian and Latina.

To her, identifying as equally Asian and Latina does not deter her from feeling any less of either.

“Speaking the languages [of your culture] connect you in a way that not speaking it can’t, because you can submerge yourself without roadblock,” Chang said. “Not speaking the language can make you feel left out, because you miss tidbits that characterize people from that country.”

This demonstrates the widespread belief that many Spanish speaking Latinx people hold — that lack of proficiency in language causes a disconnect from culture.

Despite the increase of the Latinx population in the United States, the Spanish language is getting lost through the generations. According to Census Bureau projections, the share of Hispanics who speak only English at home will rise from 26 percent in 2013 to 34 percent in 2020. Over this time period, the share who speak Spanish at home will decrease from 73 percent to 66 percent.

However, many Latinxs of the later generations are beginning to feel as if Spanish shouldn’t be pushed to the side as English becomes the language of focus for immigrants. A 2011 survey conducted by the Pew Hispanic Center, which found that nearly all (95 percent) Hispanic adults believe it is important for future generations of Hispanics in the U.S. to be able to speak Spanish.

An example of such is sophomore Matthew Matos. He was raised in Mahwah, New Jersey but considers himself to be both Puerto Rican and American, since he has Puerto Rican heritage from both sides of his family. His parents chose not to focus on teaching him Spanish because they lived in a predominantly white suburban town, and thought speaking Spanish would hold him back.

“I accept the fact that I fall between two cultures and I can’t anchor myself in either,” Tapia said about her two identities.

“I know that I will always be both and no one can take that from me.”

This is not an uncommon situation. A 2009 report from the Pew Research Center shows that 22 percent of young Latinos (ages 16-25) say their parents often encouraged them to speak only English, compared with more than a third of older Latinos (ages 26+) who say the same.

Now, Matos is now at an advanced level of Spanish from taking Spanish classes throughout high school and college.

“Being Puerto Rican brings the responsibility of speaking Spanish. It is a big part of the culture,” Matos said.

Some Americans of Latinx heritage do not see language as the decisive mark in whether or not a Latinx is actually a Latinx.

Savina Tapia, a sophomore in the School of Public Affairs, was born and raised in Boston, with a Chinese mother and Dominican father.

“Not being fluent in Spanish made me feel left out, especially with my dad’s side of the family because they all speak Spanish,” Tapia said. “I feel ashamed in public when people ask me [about speaking Spanish] because I don’t know Spanish.”

Additionally, being half Asian and half Latina means many people demand that she choose a heritage of preference; whether she identifies as Chinese or Dominican.

“I accept the fact that I fall between two cultures and I can’t anchor myself in either,” Tapia said about her two identities. “I know that I will always be both and no one can take that from me.” This confidence in her selfidentity is what allows her to still feel Latina without feeling the imperative need to learn Spanish.

“But it would make certain things a lot easier,” Tapia said. “I feel a disconnection and left out, but I still don’t think language proficiency is extremely important when it comes to being connected to culture.”

A perspective that brings new insight to the matter is that of Latinx international students.

Sophomore Alberto Gomez was born in Spain and grew up in Bogotá, Colombia. To him, any American of Latinx heritage is American, but he feels like he can relate and connect more with them if they are able to speak fluent Spanish to him.

“First and most importantly, they need to speak the language,” Gomez said in regards to the

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AWOL MAGAZINE from is that being Latino is different than being Hispanic.”

It is important to note that by definition, Brazilians are Latinx. The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines ‘Latino’ as either “a native or inhabitant of Latin America” or “a person of Latin American origin living in the U.S.” The term ‘Hispanic’ refers to people who speak Spanish as a native language. Therefore, a Spaniard would be considered Hispanic, but not Latinx.

Among Hispanics themselves, many are ambivalent about the two terms. According to a Pew Research Center survey of Hispanic adults, 50 percent say they have no preference for either Latino or Hispanic. But among those who do have a preference, Hispanic is preferred over Latino by a ratio of about 2-1.

Although Bonilha believes speaking Spanish isn’t important for one to feel Latinx, it is key for understanding the culture.

“I cannot stress its importance enough, especially with languages that are built with the culture,” Bonilha said. “By that, I mean that there are some languages that you can figure out different cultural ideals and facts by listening to expressions and colloquialisms.” qualities necessary for a Latinx American to have in order for him to feel as if they shared a culture.

“Secondly, they need to understand and know the culture from where they originate. Latin culture is based on family. Family is the most important thing in life. They must have a strong connection with their family.”

Gomez shared that when interacting with the Latinx Americans on campus, many times they say they are Latinx but would not speak Spanish to him. Gomez believes that many Latinx parents choose to not teach their children how to speak Spanish when they arrive to the U.S. because they think Spanish is an inferior language and will be looked down upon by the rest of society.

However, according to Pew Research Center, 95 percent of adult Hispanics believe it is very important or somewhat important for future generations of U.S. Hispanics to speak Spanish.

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Another factor to consider when it comes to figuring out the Latinx identity are the nonSpanish speaking Latinxs. Brazilians, who are not considered to be “real” Latinxs by many Spanish speakers, face even more difficulties accepting their identity when it comes to being a Brazilian American.

Junior Natasha Bonilha is one such person.

She was born in Vernon, Connecticut and spent half of her childhood in Connecticut and the other half in Shanghai. She is fluent in both Spanish and Portuguese.

To focus on a singular pre-conceived idea of what the typical Latinx is supposed to look like is to entirely miss the kaleidoscope of people with different cultures, backgrounds, beliefs, and values. To invalidate a Latinx for only speaking English is to erase their entire cultural and familial history. Every Latinx will express their identity in distinct and valid ways, because there isn’t one way to be Latinx.

The Latinx identity is as complex, rich, and beautiful as Latin America itself.

Bonilha only recently began to consider herself Latina.

“A lot of Brazilians don’t consider themselves to be Latinos. My parents never considered themselves Latino; they considered themselves to be Brazilian. I think that in Brazil, a big idea that people still can’t seem to separate themselves

Camila Cisneros is a sophomore studying international relations and communications.

CULTURE

Counterfeit IDs, Real Consequences Story by Michael Karlis // Art by Xian Eley

The names of Sarah and Jamie have been changed to ensure confidentiality in this article.

It’s a typical Friday night at American University, and all of South Campus is getting ready for another night of regrets. A freshman from Baltimore, who will be referred to as Sarah, is given the most important task of the night: buying alcohol from Tenley Market Liquor, a store conveniently located diagonally across from the Washington College of Law bus stop.

Sarah has used her fake ID before and never had any trouble. Unfortunately for her, Lucy Park is working the register tonight, a five year veteran of the liquor store and an expert at identifying fake IDs. That night, Sarah’s fake ID was confiscated, and she returned to campus empty handed.

She wasn’t too distraught though, as fake IDs are easier to buy now than ever before.

“It’s really easy to get them, anyone can do it,” Sarah said. “My senior year of high school my friend asked me if I wanted a fake ID for college. Of course I needed one ‒ AU is a bar school ‒ so I joined an order with six other people.”

Her friend made the order online using a website called ID God. ID God only accepts payment in the form of a wire transfer from

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AWOL MAGAZINE Western Union or Bitcoin.

Sarah and her friends were unable to buy bitcoins, so they had to wire $240 to an undisclosed location in China. The address is provided to the buyer after you place the initial order.

ID God offers a wide array of different IDs from 42 states, describing them as “Top tier, best product ever” and “Sexy, Real Deal.” To combat fake IDs, states often change the design of their IDs, but ID God offers IDs from seven states with both the old and new designs.

The price of an order can vary. Each order provides one person with two IDs, but a group order can bring the price of an order down. A one-person order with two IDs from Massachusetts can cost as much as $200, where eight Florida IDs for four people can cost as low as $40 per person. The pricing depends on how hard the ID is to counterfeit and how many people are in an order.

“We bought Florida IDs because they were the cheapest,” Sarah said. “I will probably use my spare one next time I need alcohol.”

“I know a fake ID when I see one, I know by the look in their eyes.”

ID God promises top of the line products that will pass through counterfeit scanners. Reddit has pages dedicated to reviewing IDs from ID God with users rating IDs and evaluating which ones are closest to the real thing. The authenticity of the IDs has posed a problem for establishments such as Tenley Market Liquor.

“They’re printing real IDs” said Park, who confiscated Sarah’s ID. “We use the scanner, but they all pass. That’s why we use the book,” Park said as she pulled out a book called the ID Checking Guide.

“I don’t use it often though,” Park said, “I know a fake ID when I see one, I know by the look in their eyes.”

Although Tenley Market Liquor collects hundreds of fake IDs a year, they never call the police.

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“We keep them to show ABRA (Alcoholic Beverage Regulation Administration) that we are doing our job,” Park said.

Another local liquor store by Beefsteak, Tenley Liquor, said they never call the police because they aren’t interested.

“Most of the time [the person trying to use the ID] leaves and takes their ID with them,” said Jacob Smith, a store clerk at Tenley Liquors.

“Police don’t care for that. They have better things to do.”

Although Tenley Market Liquor and Tenley Liquor employees claim to know a fake when they see one, other establishments are ignorant to the problem.

Another freshman at AU who will be referred to as Jamie, has a fake ID from Rhode Island, a state she has never been to, and has never had it questioned.

“I haven’t used it in D.C. yet, but I use it all the time in Maryland,” Jamie said. “The bars around The University of Maryland and other restaurants over there don’t care.”

Police in the area have taken notice of the fake ID epidemic. According to a WJLA news report in November 2016, local police noticed a large volume of bar fights occurring in the Clarendon area of Arlington, VA. The police discovered that the issues were being caused by minors with fake IDs acting rowdy in bars.

The result was a campaign to crack down on fake IDs. In the following months, the police helped train local bartenders in protocol for identifying fake IDs. The result was the confiscation of over 450 high quality fake IDs. Getting caught with a fake ID can be a serious offense. In the District, misrepresentation of age is a misdemeanor punishable by a maximum of a $300 fine and a 90 day suspension of your driving privileges if convicted, according to Nolo’s Driving Laws database.

However most cases are never prosecuted. The Tenleytown Police Department and American University public safety declined to comment.

The U.S. drinking age of 21 is high compared to other Western countries. The United King-

CULTURE

Don’t forget to pack your fake id. binge drinking in the last 30 days However, Americans are still overall against lowering the drinking age. According to a Gallup poll, 74 percent of Americans would oppose it while 25 percent are in favor. Drinking at a young age does have serious consequences according to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Studies by the CDC have shown that drinking in excess under the age of 21 can cause developmental problems physically as well as sexually. Other problems include issues at school such as higher amounts of absences and poor grades, and higher risk of suicide and depression.

Although the problems associated with underage drinking are serious, a high legal drinking age leads to hospital transports and binge drinking to be a continuing problem at AU and college campuses across the country.

“If the U.S. lowered the drinking age and stopped pretending that 18 year olds weren’t drinking, then we wouldn’t have issues with people going to the hospital and fake IDs” Gonzales said.

Michael Karlis is a first-year student studying Communication, Legal Institutions, Economics and Government (CLEG) and journalism.

dom, France, Canada and Mexico all have a legal drinking age of 18.

For Eva Gonzales, a freshman from Puerto Rico, the high drinking age appears to be strange and counterproductive.

“I think, health-wise, it makes more sense because your brain technically isn’t fully developed until age 25, but I think it’s an unrealistic age,” Gonzales said. “In Puerto Rico, most kids have their first drink with their parents and are taught how to drink responsibly. In the States people don’t know how to drink because it’s so forbidden. Kids here want to drink as much as possible, as fast as they can.”

AU Public Safety does not report the number

of transports from campus to Sibly or any other hospital in their Annual Security Report.

Anecdotally, Gonzalez feels that the number of kids that are transported from AU to Sibley Hospital is ridiculous.

“In Puerto Rico I’ve been to high school and college parties; an ambulance was called once because someone forgot their epipen,” Gonzalez said.

A report from the CDC last year showed that the U.S. does have a higher rate of binge drinking than other western countries. According to the CDC, 12 to 20 year olds consume 11 percent of all alcohol in the United States yearly. 15 percent of this demographic reported

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AWOL MAGAZINE

Analyzing the alt-right’s attack on AU Story by Ben Weiss // Infographics by Hannah Tiner On Tuesday, Sept. 26, American University opened another chapter in its sordid history of racist acts on campus with the school’s second high-profile racially motivated incident on campus since May.

lence or terrorism that typically pounces when some sort of progress is being made.”

While Kendi and other community leaders were not expecting September’s racist acts, they came as no shock.

That evening, circulating first on Twitter, then on Facebook, were photos of cotton stalks “I was tired, I wasn’t very surprised by it,” said taped to printouts of the Confederate flag.

Devontae Torriente, a senior studying Justice They were scattered across campus, pinned to and Law, and the former president of Student bulletin boards in Battelle, McKinley and Mary Government (AUSG). “I think if you’ve been Graydon Center. Most notably, one was hung paying attention to the world […] or recent on a board advertising the new Anti-Racist events at AU, or the history of the black student Research and Policy Center in Battelle. community at AU, it’s not very surprising.”

It was the night of the debut of Professor Ibram X. Kendi’s Anti-Racist Research and Policy Center. Kendi is celebrated for his 2016 book “Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America”, which won a National Book Award, and is a high-profile new addition to AU’s faculty.

September’s racist acts, in their timing, location and content fit the bill for what seems like a trend of white nationalist, or “alt-right,” attacks on AU and other universities across the country.

In post-2016 America, liberal schools like AU are becoming targets for the vitriol of alt-right and falling prey to their tactics.

In an interview with AWOL, Kendi was unsurprised that he had been targeted.

In a statement made to the campus community published Sept. 27, AUSG President Taylor Dumpson reassured the AU community that AUSG would not stop advocating for a more inclusive, united, and safe community.

“In studying the history of racism,” Kendi said, “I know that one form of racism is racist vio-

SEPT 2016

Bananas thrown at Black freshmen women

MAY 1 2017

MAY 1 2017 31

Bananas hung with nooses around campus

Taylor Dumpson becomes first Black female Student Body President

“The significance of this occurring as our country continues to struggle with its history of white supremacy also cannot be ignored,” Dumpson said.

A History of Hate The Confederate flags were the third highly publicized racially motivated incident in just as many semesters at AU. According to the 2017 American University Annual Security Report, there were six recorded hate crimes on campus in 2016.

In 2015, there were three recorded crimes, and in 2014 there were 6 recorded crimes.

Public Safety defines hate crimes as a criminal offense that “manifests evidence that the victim was intentionally selected because of the perpetrator’s bias against the victim.”

The crimes in the report ranged from vandalism offenses, assault, intimidation and burglary. They were related to racial bias, religious bias, ethnicity bias or gender bias.

SEPT 26

Confederate flag posters and cotton posted on bulletin boards

SEPT 26

Dr. Ibram X.Kendi launches Antiracist Research & Policy Center

2017

2017

CAMPUS LIFE In May, the U.S. Attorney’s Office, in connection with the FBI, Metropolitan Police, and American University Campus Police (AUPD), opened up a hate crime investigation after an unknown person came onto campus and hung bananas in nooses from trees outside of the Mary Graydon Center, the East Quad Building, and outside of a shuttle stop. The incident occurred the day after Dumpson, AU’s first Black female AUSG president, was sworn into office.

The noosed bananas were labeled with “AKA FREE,” a reference to Alpha Kappa Alpha, the historically Black sorority at which Dumpson is a sister.

At the time of print, law enforcement officials have yet to identify the suspect.

At the same time, Dumpson was harassed

by Andrew Anglin, the editor of The Daily Stormer, a KKK-affiliated white nationalist website. Anglin encouraged his readers to “troll” Dumpson after her election, according to BuzzFeed.

The Daily Stormer and Andrew Anglin could not be reached for comment. Their website is now being hosted on the Deep Web following their involvement in August’s “Unite the Right Rally” in Charlottesville, Virginia.

On May 1, just hours after the banana incident, Dumpson released her first statement as AUSG President reflecting on the attack.

“It is disheartening and immensely frustrating that we are still dealing with this issue after recent conversations, dialogues, and town halls surrounding race relations on campus.” Dumpson said. “But this is exactly why we need to do more than just have conversations but move in a direction towards more tangible solutions to prevent incidents like these from occurring in the future.”

In the same statement, Dumpson implored the community to stay strong.

“As the first black woman AUSG president, I implore all of us to unite in solidarity with those impacted by this situation,” Dumpson said. “We must use this time to reflect on what we value as a community and we must show those in the community that bigotry, hate, and racism cannot and will not be tolerated.”

Responding to Hate In a campus town-hall meeting following the attack in September, newly appointed AU President Sylvia Burwell delivered an emotional statement in which she said, “An attack on one of us is an attack on all of us.”

In an open letter addressed to campus, Rev. Mark A. Schaefer, university chaplain, “condemn[ed] these acts as violating not only our deepest values, but also the recognition that every person is a child of God and worthy of human dignity.”

“Universities need to work to create community and it has to include everyone.”

Until recently, AU had not regularly made national news for racism. American is widely regarded as a bastion of liberal activism.

Princeton Review, a popular college ranking organization, named AU the fourth “most politically active” university in the United States and in its review wrote that “liberals run the show” on campus. Despite the relative lack of national coverage, in the town-hall and on social media, many students say racism runs deep on campus.

“I think there was a culture [on campus] that was conducive to that act,” Torriente said. “We build a culture where we don’t address the issue of white supremacy and antiblackness head on.”

A campus climate survey released by the AU administration in October found only 34 percent of black students believed that the university was committed to “creating a campus community where everyone has a sense of belonging.” Comparatively, 57 percent of white students answered ‘yes’ to the same question.

Student groups, including the Black Student Union, AU NAACP, and The Darkening (although not an officially recognized student organization) released a set of demands following the first racist act of the 2016-17 school year.

Among their demands were the “actual implementation” of programs to train AU staff to respond to oppressive behavior, the formation of a “campus task force” composed of students for investigating racially-motivated crimes, and the establishment of separate resource centers for students of color and other marginalized groups.

AUSG also released a set of action steps after the flags were hung around campus. These actions were broken down into four categories: safety, retention, education and accountability.

Some of the actions requested included more transparency between AUPD and the AU community, and the hiring of staff that focus on the retention of students of color and other minority students on a more grassroots level.

AUSG also called for the creation of “cultural competency” training for students, staff and faculty, as well as increased transparency and accessibility to the university’s budgets and investments.

Students organized a protest in front of MGC in the days following September’s racist acts.

Kendi spoke to the crowd, offering a message of strength and solidarity with AU’s Black students.

“It’s not just trolling for trolling’s sake.”

Given these developments, many students found themselves asking themselves whether or not AU was really playing host to white nationalists and alt-righters.

“I think a lot of people were disgusted, and also very confused as to how we could let someone who was not a member of the community physically come onto campus and do this,” Torriente said.

Facing A Different Threat Following September’s racist acts, campus police launched an investigation into the potential culprit. The office released security footage that depicted Public Safety’s prime suspect.

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AWOL MAGAZINE The man appeared to be around 40 years old, wore a reflective vest and a hard hat, and carried a tool box. He didn’t look like a student. His appearance suggested that he was a contracted worker, and likely came from off-campus.

At the time this story went to press, city and campus police have yet to identify the suspect.

The idea that someone from off-campus was responsible for September’s racist act doesn’t sound like a particularly relevant detail––if it weren’t for the fact that it’s part of a trend.

After the incidents of last May, campus police released surveillance footage of their prime suspect that captured a car pulling onto campus, offloading a hoodie-clad man, and driving off. It seems that even before the events of this semester, non-students were already involved in committing acts of hate at AU. As The Blackprint reported in September, the reverse sides of the Confederate flag posters featured the logo of the “D.C. Counter Resistance.” Their logo is two overlapping white circles on a black background and has ties to Milice française, an anti-Semitic group formed during World War II. This group has reportedly been operating in Ward 4, the northernmost part of the city.

An August article in DCist references antiimmigrant posters appearing on buildings and telephone poles around the neighborhood.

The group is part of the alt-right movement— pointing to the connection between racist acts on AU’s campus and the greater rash of alt-right “social regressivism.”

The number of hate crimes in America increased by 4.6 percent in 2016, according to a report released by the FBI. The statistics indicated that almost 10 percent of hate crimes occurred at schools or on college campuses.

ProPublica, a nonprofit newsroom, has been actively tracking hate crimes as a part of its Documenting Hate research project.

“This is a definite pattern that we’re seeing,” said Rachel Glickhouse, the partner manager on the Documenting Hate project. “It’s happening all over the country.”

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Source: Federal Bureau of Investigation

According to ProPublica’s database, bias incidents spiked following the 2016 election. At the time this story went to print, 2,274 news stories covering new or developing hate crimes have been published since the first week of August alone. The crimes range from vandalism to racially-motivated assault. Many took place on college campuses.

Glickhouse explained in general terms that the spike in campus hate crimes is a result of the emboldening of preexisting white nationalist elements. White nationalists feel more free to voice their hateful ideology in the current political climate. But why then has AU been so aggressively targeted?

“It’s not just trolling for trolling’s sake,” she said of groups like DC Counter Resistance.

“They’re also trying to recruit in many cases.”

Why Us? Lecia Brooks, Director of Outreach at the Southern Policy Law Center (SPLC), cited AU’s history of enacting positive social change as one of the driving factors behind its recent outbreak of vandalism. She says that AU was one of few schools in the country to follow through on improving its level of inclusivity in the wake of racist incidents on campus.

“AU has done a lot and continues to do a lot, to address these issues,” Brooks said. “I think the administration stood up last school year to this

hate … [and] got a lot of media attention, got the attention of members of Congress.”

She says the Anti-Racism Policy Center is another example of AU taking the initiative to counter attacks by white nationalist groups.

Brooks says the response to hate on other campuses is much more watered-down and usually consists of a college president denouncing the incident but not following up with action.

AU, in her opinion, is more involved than that.

The progressive mentality, Brooks says, is an important root cause of the alt-right’s assault on AU. “What [AU is] doing to address these issues is one of the reasons that you’ve come under attack,” Brooks said.

Torriente echoed that point.

“I think that the AU community is imperfect and that there’s improvements to be made, but I think that we are a much more progressive school than most other schools, and I think that’s what we’re known for being,” Torriente said.

He said that while he first thought AU had created a culture that welcomed the alt-right’s

CAMPUS LIFE

Source: Federal Bureau of Investigation

Source: ProPublica

Source: The Eagle

ideology, “[maybe] the person knew this was something we wouldn’t tolerate and that they could get a rise out of us.”

a problem — especially since it’s not someone who’s a member of the community. That’s going to make it that much harder.”

Brooks said Alt-right groups aren’t seeing the desired result—more division—at AU. Instead, the university is doing more to protect students of color and other targets of white nationalist ire.

Some members of the American community are looking for solutions. Taylor Dumpson, in an interview with the Eagle from June, expressed the desire for AU’s administration to “be more consistent and work to develop a protocol” for responding to hate on campus.

The acts of hate that these groups commit become desperate swings at an ever-improving environment of inclusivity and safety at AU. Groups like the “DC Counter Resistance” piggyback off of the media attention the university gets for its progressive policy by committing racist acts in their backyard.

Looking Forward As for whether or not it was possible to stem the tide of hateful acts on campus, Torriente wasn’t optimistic.

“The sad truth is that it’s going to happen again, and we can’t promise it’s not going to happen again—and anyone who makes that promise to you is lying,” Torriente said. “Until we figure out a way to really eradicate [the culture of white supremacy]. It’s going to continue to be

Brooks offered a long-term solution that she believes will help reduce the frequency of hateful acts, not just on AU’s campus, but at all schools. It’s an idea that she says will probably increase division in the short term, but will lead to greater cohesion in the future.

Brooks says that universities have made great strides in creating environments of diversity and inclusion. However these efforts appear to be explicitly for women, people of color, and other marginalized groups, and white men have never been a part of that list, even if their inclusion is implied.

“I think, at the most fundamental level, white men are invited to the table. They don’t have to be, but they have an automatic seat in many of these discussions,” Torriente said.

He said that the issue lies in white people’s reluctance to accept some of the responsibility for racial divides within the community. “[White people] are beneficiaries of a larger system,” said Torriente, “and [they] need to recognize that … because if we don’t have a mutual understanding of how this works, we’re not going to have a productive conversation about race … White people are invited to the conversation, just not in the friendly manner they would prefer.”

Reflecting on his experience at AU, Torriente expressed the need for students struggling with racism on campus to find like-minded people to share their experiences with.

“I think it’s important that you have space and […] find community to deal with and parse through what’s happening,” Torriente said, “Universities need to work to create community,” “and making sure that you’re taking care of Brooks said, “and it has to include everyone.” yourself — that’s your number one priority.”

Torriente isn’t sold on that conclusion.

Ben Weiss is a sophomore studying international relations.

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AWOL MAGAZINE

Broadcast Blues Following WAMU’s debts and money trail

In 1960, a small group of American University students and graduates received a FM license for a radio station. The station could broadcast to the greater Washington Metropolitan area, had less static and featured scheduled programs.

One year later in 1961, WAMU was officially born. But since then, WAMU has been plagued by financial and staffing difficulties.

Given its success in the early 1960s, WAMU received a non-commercial broadcast license from the National Education Radio Network, the predecessor to National Public Radio (NPR). Shortly after WAMU became one of the founding members of NPR in 1971, AU

relinquished much of its jurisdiction over the radio station, despite still owning the license.

According to WAMU Associate General Manager Carey Needham, the Federal Communications Commission gives American University an eight-year ownership over the license to WAMU. It is unlikely that that the license would transfer to a different entity because of the longstanding relationship between AU and WAMU. This license ownership means that WAMU workers are technically employed by AU and are entitled to all the benefits typical AU employees receive.

“All WAMU employees go through AU’s orientation process, which outlines their full benefits package,” Needham said. “I would imagine the majority take advantage of the package, but AU would have to comment on participation levels.”

However, despite its success, WAMU has gone through some financial rough patches in recent years.

Story by Francisco Sabaté // Art by Nana Gongadze and Casey Chiappetta

These new changes marked a turning point for WAMU. A 2016 press release says that Yore’s cuts to the station are part of a five-year plan that will triple the staff, create an investigative unit and increase the number of beats covered by its reporters.

How AU Affected This Budget Crisis AU is to somewhat responsible for WAMU’s financial crisis according to George Washington University Ethnomusicologist Professor Kip Lornell. Lornell is currently writing a manuscript for the Oxford Press on the history of WAMU and the Bluegrass music it once promoted.

This is because of lease agreements and loan conditions to AU. When WAMU moved from their old location on Brandywine Street NW––an AU owned building––to a newer building on Connecticut Avenue (also owned by AU) in 2013, WAMU was forced to take out substantial loans.

“The [new] space is larger and nice and the rent In 2014, WAMU General Manager JJ Yore [is] substantially higher,” Lornell said. “On top said in a public statement that WAMU was understaffed. It was also losing money. In 2015, of this, the station owes money to American the station ran a $2.58 million deficit after they University for a loan to refurbish their new location.” moved to expensive new offices.

Several prominent programs had to either be shut down or scaled back. According to a Washingtonian article in 2015, the Metro Connection program went on hiatus and The Kojo Nnamdi show was reduced to a one-hour slot.

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In 2013, WAMU entered a loan agreement with AU worth $6.25 million for the transition. According to WAMU’s 2016 financial disclosure, $5.85 million of this loan is still outstanding.

CAMPUS LIFE AU students obtain FM license

1960

JJ Yore becomes WAMU's general manager

WAMU becomes part of NPR 1961

1971

2013

2014

WMAU has a total $38m outstanding balance to AU for the lease agreement

2015

2016

2019

$

$

WAMU is born

“WAMU entered into an agreement with the Finance Office of AU which outlines how we reimburse the University for overhead, rent and the loan,” Needham said. “We have a recurring monthly payment in which all three elements of our obligations are satisfied.”

In order to meet the loan conditions of paying everything off by 2018, WAMU would have to pay a yearly average of $2.9 million.

“The terms of [the loan] are reviewed every twoyears during the AU budget cycle,” Needham said. “Our financial arrangement with AU is constructed to allow us to pay out our obligations to AU and grow our reserve fund, which is crucial to help offset any unexpected losses in revenues and contributions.”

AU is also profiting from the lease agreement it entered with WAMU for the Connecticut Avenue property. This agreement is separate

$

WAMU owes AU $6.25m for moving

from the 2013 loan agreement. As detailed in a 2016 disclosure form, WAMU has paid $13 million, leaving $38 million outstanding. This lease agreement spans a 20 years, WAMU owes AU a yearly average of $2.5 million in rent.

WAMU runs $2.58m deficit

WAMU 5-year plan complete: triples staff and creates investigative unit

Aside from this financial relationship, WAMU works directly with AU students, providing internships and workshops. They also have a partnership with the Investigative Reporting Workshop housed in the School of Communications.

Furthermore, last year WAMU paid $2.2 million to AU from capital lease interest rates. AU “WAMU is an important part of American in turn is generating revenue from WAMU’s University’s outreach beyond campus – to borrowing money to pay off a building that was our regional Washington community and previously under AU’s purview. Even more curi- nationwide through syndicated programming.” ous is how on the top of the 2016 balance sheet, Needham said. “Our radio signal is transmitunder the generic subheading “Due to AU”, ted from a tower which is owned by AU and WAMU owed AU over approximately $1.5 mil- located on campus. In general, we are part of lion. This figure exists outside of the lease agree- the broader mission and vision of AU just like ments. Despite AU making a donation of $1.2 any other entity of AU.” million to WAMU in 2016, WAMU ended up paying AU upward of $7 million.

Yet, WAMU remains financially indebted to AU. In these loans, AU has used its unique position to make a profit off of WAMU, a non-commercial non-profit.

Francisco Sabaté is a junior majoring in international relations and minoring in political science

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AWOL MAGAZINE

Community Dwellers Service-learning at AU

Story by Stephanie Lopez // Art by Andrea Lin

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CAMPUS LIFE

Emma Dion, a sophomore at American University, had to accept that her first days of volunteering at Thrive DC, a local nonprofit working to end homelessness, would be just as awkward and nerve wrecking as she was expecting. At the time, Dion was participating in one of AU’s service-learning programs and had high hopes of making a mark in The District. However, she also knew that she, a white college student, would not fit in with the primarily Black and Latinx population she was serving. Dion was an outsider amongst the crowd and had a hard time adjusting to the realities of service in a diverse community.

Dion’s experience is not an isolated one. Many college students are signing up for service opportunities and classes, ignoring or disregarding the deeper questions and understandings needed to do service.

“I think most students sign up for ‘to change the world’ and literally in the first weeks of the course you learn that just wanting to change the world is not enough,” said Amanda Choutka, a service-learning professor at AU. This reality can sometimes dissuade students from participating. However, universities still believe that students can learn and have an enjoyable service experience.

AU has developed multiple programs to engage students in meaningful service. One popular route AU students take is service learning courses.

Service-learning engages students in community service activities with intentional academic and learning goals and opportunities for reflection that connects to their academic disciplines.

Professors tend to support service-learning more than regular volunteering.

“Volunteering isn’t bad and it can be helpful and necessary, but it tends to more about the person volunteering and not the [service] outcome,” said Paul Albergo, a Professor for the School of Communication and service fraternity Alpha Phi Omega, faculty advisor.

“Service-learning is about addressing the outcome and alleviating the suffering [of others] and fulfilling a need,” Albergo said. “Servicelearning should be part of the education model.”

Universities participate in these servicelearning based courses and activities because it gives their students more of a hands-on experience with what they are learning in class.

Students can develop critical thinking skills and focus on issues they are learning about in the classroom.

“Service-learning is important and if done well [students] can get away from the hero complex,” Albergo said. “[Students] learn the systemic roots, causes and find out successful and unsuccessful solutions. [Students] gain small pieces of knowledge and problem solving.”

As such, the AU’s Center for Community Engagement and Service (CCES) focuses on issues directly tied to the D.C. community and what students are learning in the classroom.

Community service coordinator Harry Gillard argues that critical service learning helps students understand the multi-fold meaning behind issues in communities and educates and impacts students more.

“CCES want our students to have a critical service learning approach because the work we do is justice based and focused on issues in D.C.,” Gillard said. “It helps begin a dialogue with students and tie it to academics.”

AU has made multiple efforts to create a pool of long term volunteers. The School of International Service has developed a partnership with Peace Corps to train and engage students for future service projects. The Peace Corps Prep program has ranked No. 1 among medium size schools for Peace 2017 Top Volunteer-Producing Colleges and Universities list. Fifty-four alumni are currently volunteering worldwide.

Although AU benefits from the good press and its community-oriented students, it is also vital to ask students why they are participating in service. Knowing why students are participating can help professors and community partners advertise and plan according to students needs.

Furthermore, it is important to know students’ expectations because many start with unrealistic expectations about their power and ability to change and fix community problem. These ideas can cause more damage than good, as Professor Choutka states. These are further explored in trainings.

Another reason students may participate in service is for self serving motives. Some are innocent like wanting to learn more about the D.C. community, while others may want service experience for their resumes.

Dion argues that self-interested motives do not help create meaningful service.

“First and foremost, if you are not interested in doing service you should not be in a servicelearning class,” Dion said. “You are just being a nuisance to the service location because you are not actually dedicated and there is not goal for you.”

However, some service-learning facilitators state that it does not matter the reason why

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AWOL MAGAZINE you serve because no volunteer has 100 percent selfless intentions.

“You do not have to be selfless, but your intentions are important in how you interact with the community — be empathetic and have compassion,” Gillard said. “Have those qualities so you can work with vulnerable communities.”

Whatever the motives are for students in service, one thing is clear: they need to be trained.

“Sometimes good intentions are not all good that is why we have to training,” Gillard said.

Training then becomes an essential part part of service-learning.

“Most students have to learn to listen. And learn how to do what they are told,” Choutka said.

“In the beginning, everyone has to soak in the information.”

The CCES oversees trainings for both professors and students. Gillard explains that the office’s role is to help teach the service-learning pedagogy and prepare students for service scenarios.

For the Community Service-Learning Program (CSLP), a one credit add-on course for service, students must attend a two hours training session. Students go over different scenarios of what can happen during service, learn about resources the school provides, and discuss the systemic causes behind the social issue they will be focusing on.

Training can change depending on the service project. However, each CCES training session revolves around the service-learning pedagogy.

The service learning pedagogy uses the concepts of critical reflection, reciprocity, and developing authentic relationships with communities.

As the director for CSLP Gillard has worked with countless students as they begin their service projects.

“The importance for training, for me, is preparing students to go into the community, but also understand that they should be reflecting the entire process,” Gillard said. “Reflection connects what you are learning to academics — it connects service and learning together.”

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Additionally, he says that the CCES focuses on providing a support system to students who may face challenges and questions when entering vulnerable communities.

Choutka believes the CCES office holds professors’ accountable and up to date on issues related to service learning and social justice.

“Service-learning at AU has to be approved by CCES office,” Choutka said. “When I make a significant change to the syllabus, it has to be approved again.”

Additionally, Choutka invites the office to speak to her students to prepare them for situations that may arise during service. She has also invited community partners like Thrive DC and Horton’s Kids, a nonprofit that services kids in Wellington Park, to speak to her class and give students an idea of what the service would be like.

“I think most students sign up for ‘to change the world’ and literally in the first weeks of the course you learn that just wanting to change the world is not enough.”

Both the CCES office and Choutka believe students are going out well prepared for service and learning experiences. However, students have a different perception of how they are being trained.

“A lot of the class wasn’t really preparing us for the community,” Dion said. “Through the class I did not have a lot of preparation. I wish I had more structured help in the classroom.

I wish Professor Choutka had given us more readings [on service and preparation]. If we had two weeks of preparation it would have been better.”

Dion states it was only when she was on her way to Thrive DC that she prepared herself for service. She remembers thinking, “I am about go volunteer and this time is valuable for me and the people I am working for.”

While Dion’s experience turned out okay, other students may not be as lucky — especially when students do not match the demographic that they will be serving.

CAMPUS LIFE “The type of student that usually participates in service-learning is usually a white female,” Gillard said. “The student is ambitious, who probably has service experience in the past, or an experience that triggered them to give back.”

According to the Community-Service Learning Program 2016-2017 student data, the majority of students were females, making up 83 percent of the 60 participants. Additionally, the majority of students were in the College of Arts and Science with 45 percent making up the participants.

The white, female volunteer is not just the norm at AU but also in the United States at large. According to a 2015 volunteering report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, 26.4 percent of volunteers are white and 27.8 percent are females.

The demographic of AU volunteers is a representation of the people who volunteer in the U.S. However, it that does not mean the service will be problematic or unsuccessful.

for a particular group [community partners] at the end of day there is willingness, knowledge, and compassion empathy to serve,” Gillard said.

Service-learning is a unique experience. No one can have the same service experience because they all come from different backgrounds and knowledge. Regardless, every student can learn and grow through service because it challenges their thinking and actions.

“Be open minded and take in everything,” Gillard said. “[Students] may be uncomfortable but that is alright, just be open minded and really invested in the experience because you will grow from it, especially if done right.”

Stephanie Lopez is a sophomore studying public relations and minoring in Spanish.

Gillard, however, still wishes more black males at AU participated in service. He argues that their service could have more impact because “we [CCES] go into under resourced community especially youth, and there is a need for good role models.”

“I will say it, the reach can’t go as far,” Gillard states. “Because students, specifically underresourced students, need somebody who looks like them so they can see that if that person succeeds [then] I can as well.”

While a more diverse pool of volunteers would be ideal, the CCES believes it has good volunteers.

“It is more important to be understanding,” Choutka said. “Everyone has privilege and it okay to recognize your privilege and then move because then it is time to act.”

AU students are active in issues that are important to them. Even though some students may be entering diverse communities for the first time, as long as they want to serve, it can be a good experience.

“These are the people [white female volunteers] who want to serve and though it not be ideal

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AWOL MAGAZINE

A Change Agent Profile: Ibram X. Kendi Story by Paloma Losada // Photo courtesy of Dr. Ibram X Kendi

Ibram X. Kendi is a professor in the Department of History and School of International Service at American University. He also serves as the founding director of the new Antiracist Research and Policy Center. His second book, Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America, won the 2016 National Book Award for Nonfiction. In addition to being a New York Times best-selling author, his scholarship has earned him fellowships, research grants and visiting appointments from a variety of places including the Lyndon B. Johnson Library & Museum, University of Chicago, Wayne State University, Emory University, Duke University, Princeton University, UCLA, Washington University, Wake Forest University, and the historical societies of Kentucky and Southern California.

AWOL sat down with him to discuss current-day activism, hate crimes, and anti-racism work with discriminatory policies.

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You initially studied sports journalism in college. But now you’re an award-winning historian and author. What caused that shift?

I think it’s a number of different factors. I think, as I was writing on sports, I become increasingly interested in racial issues. I guess my first major story, as a sports intern, was something sort of at the intersection between race and sports. And so I entered into sports and then started drifting into racism or race in sports. Then eventually that led me to race or racism more broadly.

You wrote a book on college activism in the sixties and seventies called “The Black Campus Movement: Black Students and the Racial Reconstitution of Higher Education”.

What is some advice you have for current day student activists?

First and foremost, to recognize the difference between a protest and a demonstration. Demonstrations are typically rallies and marches and other sort of public forms of activism that demonstrate to the world that there is a problem, or demonstrate to the world that there are some sort of wrongs that are being perpetrated.

Power doesn’t necessarily respond to demonstrations, but power does respond to protests.

Typically, protests in some ways compel power to make a change. So, I think, modern activists today have conflated demonstrations and protests. Some of them engage in demonstrations expecting them to lead to change, when historically protests are what have brought about change.

On the night that you unveiled your vision for the Antiracist and Research Policy Center, a hate crime occurred on campus. What were your thoughts on that, and what is your opinion on the student and faculty reaction to the incident?

CAMPUS LIFE I mean, I expected as much. In studying the history of racism, I know that one form of racism is racist violence or terrorism that typically pounces when some sort of progress is being made. And that is emblematic of the history.

That happening that night certainly was not something I was thinking would happen, but when it did happen, it did not surprise me. At the same time, I knew and saw many students and even faculty that were deeply hurt and were even feeling scared about what happened and even their own safety. Of course I tried to speak to that, to reach them emotionally so that they could feel better and gather the courage and strength to move on and continue.

What brought you to American University in the first place?

I was attracted to a number of different things.

I was attracted to the faculty’s commitment to engaging their research in policy questions and policy change. And that was apparent even in my first visit to AU, when I gave a talk on my book. I was attracted to the student body, which is renowned as one of the most politically active student bodies in the country – a student body that is itself very conscious and interested in social justice issues. And, of course, this institution is very ambitious, and I like being at places that are very ambitious and are really trying to go to the next level. The opportunity to build this Antiracist and Research Policy Center here at AU, with all of those circumstances that I described and being in Washington, D.C. – which is the policy capital of the world – made all the sense to me.

How did your Antiracist and Research Policy Center come about?

It came about primarily through speaking around the country. I would first and foremost speak regularly about the way we need to focus on bringing about racial change by changes in policy. What racist ideas cause us to do is to think that problem is people rather than policy.

And so, in speaking about that in a nutshell in my talks, of course people would ask me how can they go about changing policies in their communities. They would ask me what am I doing to go about changing policy. And I think those confluences and steady flow of ques-

tions led me to realize it’s not enough to direct people to change in policy. It would be even more effective if I was to engage in that work myself and simultaneously model it for people around the country.

Your upcoming book is titled “How to Be an Anti-Racist: A Memoir of My Journey” hopes to answer some of those questions.

Are you hopeful that such an anti-racist society can be built? Why or why not?

I’m hopeful by the way the term is defined. But I, more or less, understand myself as somebody that recognizes that in order to bring about change, you first need to believe that change is possible. There are many people who are calling themselves activists or change agents who do not even believe that change is possible.

To me, that makes no sense. It’s impossible to simultaneously be a change agent and cynical. I should say an effective change agent and cynical, an effective change agent and pessimistic.

To me, what is fundamental to bringing about change is believing that it is possible. I believe it is possible on a philosophical level. Like I said, you have to believe it’s possible. Now, I have all the reasons in the world and I know all the history – I know the mountain that needs to be climbed. I could easily take that knowledge and not be hopeful, and not believe change is possible. But I choose not to do that.

You’re the youngest person to ever win the National Book Award for Nonfiction, which you won for your second book, “Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America.” Can you talk a little bit about the main idea of that book and what motivated you to write it?

What motivated me to write it was that I realized it didn’t exist. There wasn’t a complete, comprehensive history of racist ideas from their origins to the present. And I found through writing this history that our popular conception, that ignorance and hate are behind racist ideas and that racist ideas led to racist policies, is simply ahistorical. I found quite the opposite.

People created racist policies out of self-interest.

I found people producing racist ideas to defend those racist policies, to normalize those racist policies, to make people think that the problem is not those policies, but people. And then

I found people consuming those racist ideas and becoming hateful or becoming ignorant, which then allowed them to focus their ire on people as opposed to policies. Which then allowed people who benefitted from those policies to continue to benefit.

You’ve published many research articles, books, and op-eds in major magazines and newspapers. Some would say that you’re a public intellectual. Do you agree with that, and if so, what unique responsibilities do you think that role gives you?

I don’t personally identify as a public intellectual or public scholar. I try to identify as someone who produces public scholarship. To me, a public scholar is known by the public, a scholar that the public reads. To me, public scholarship is scholarship that impacts the lives of the public. That’s what I try to sort of produce, public scholarship.

Can you talk about your vision for the Antiracist and Research Policy Center? What purpose do you want to it serve in the AU community and in the country as a whole?

The vision is to bring together scholars, policy experts, journalists, and advocates into AU who would first and foremost investigate problems of racial inequity, the discriminatory policies behind those inequities, and create egalitarian policy correctives. They would then disseminate those policy correctives and research to campaigns of change that focus on getting those policies instituted. And so these groups of people – policy experts, journalists, advocates and scholars – would be organized in six teams and those six teams are education, economy, environment, justice, health and politics. And those teams would teach courses related to their contribution to the larger research projects, which would allow students to become part of of these national and international research projects. And so we’re hoping that through this center, AU would be put on the map as an important, intellectual space that is producing high quality, evidence-based research that is leading to policy change.

Paloma Losada is a junior studying international studies and economics.

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