Vol. 14 Issue 3 by Backdrop Magazine

BACKDROP SPRING 2021

ORIGINS THE

ISSUE

Why are the Suburbs so White? pg.18 Here Comes the Sunflowers pg.14 Adventure through Athens pg.32 backdropmagazine.com

Letter from the Editor

Taylor Linzinmeir | Editor-in-Chief backdropmag@gmail.com

With so much happening in the present —the coronavirus, the Black Lives Matter protests, the 2020 election— it’s easy to feel like you’re stuck in a never-ending cycle of historic events, not a lot of which have been very positive. For my staff in particular, who are spread out all across the state, it can also be difficult to cover a city that you’re miles away from. To escape from, and make sense of, some of the more negative side-effects of the present situation, Backdrop decided to take a trip through our pasts. The theme of this issue is Origins. We wanted to explore where our staff comes from; the unique places, cultures and traditions that all intersect to create our lived experience —both good and bad. The goal was to discover what makes people who they are. What is the foundation of our personalities? Associate Editor Abby Neff explores the social, psychological and economic implications of predominantly white suburbs on page 18. She discusses how, while diversity is growing in these places, the roots of racism often run deeper than some may want to admit. Citizens of Oxford, Ohio, confront their own troubled history in Event Planner Maya Meade’s story about a local school district changing a problematic mascot on page 8. Bringing it home to A-town, staff writer Andie Hunt took an adventure through Athens on page 32. They took a break from their typical routine to live like a tourist in their own town, and you can too. When you’re done, take a look at the history of this very publication in Managing Editor Eleanor Bishop’s Q&A with Backdrop’s creator on page 6. I hope this issue of Backdrop makes you think about where you come from and the agents of socialization that have formed your unique perspective on the world around you. Most of all, I hope it can help you escape for a little while. Stay Well,

backdrop | Spring 2021

SPRING 2021 » VOLUME 14 ISSUE 3

Interested in working with us? Backdrop is an award-winning, student-run magazine aimed at covering current events and culture with OU and Athens as our "backdrop." We are currently recruiting more people for our amazing staff. We have positions available for:

Writers Photographers Designers Social Media Content Creators And More!

If you're interested in joining our team, email backdropmag@gmail.com

backdropmagazine.com

backdrop magazine EDITOR-IN-CHIEF TAYLOR LINZINMEIR MANAGING EDITOR ELEANOR BISHOP ASSISTANT MANAGING EDITOR HELEN WIDMAN WEB EDITOR NORA MCKEOWN COPY CHIEF LILY ROBY ASSISTANT COPY CHIEF GABRIELLA HAYES ASSOCIATE EDITORS SOPHIA ENGLEHART & ABBY NEFF

CREATIVE DIRECTOR ASHLEY LAFLIN ART DIRECTORS ABIGAIL SUMMERS & LAINEY DOUGLAS DESIGNERS MACEY ELDER, JULIA GREENWOOD, CJ HERR PHOTO EDITOR ELLIE HABEL SOCIAL MEDIA DIRECTOR SARAH TODACK SOCIAL MEDIA COORDINATOR & EVENT PLANNER MAYA MEADE MARKETING DIRECTOR KATIE HAWKINSON

SEE "LET

THE SUNSHINE IN" PAGE 14

Sunflowers from Morning Sun Flower Farm. Photo provided by Mindy Staton.

backdrop | Spring 2021

CONTENTS FEATURES SEGREGATED SUBURBS

Backdrop explores the economic, social and psychological implications of majority-white communities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18

MOTHERHOOD BEHIND BARS

U.S. jails and prisons are ill-equipped to care for pregnant women or their children . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22

Q&A

COMMUNITY

Backdrop's first editor-in-chief takes a look back. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

Oxford, Ohio, is rich with Black history — if you know where to look. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24

BACKDROP'S BEGINNINGS

THE DROP

REDEFINING BRAVE With the decision to change a school mascot, Oxford, Ohio, confronts its past. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

RECIPE

THIS BREAD IS SODA-LICIOUS Cover illustration by Ashley Laflin.

One Backdropper's family recipe makes for a delicious snack. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

INFOGRAPHIC

REVIVING BLACK HISTORY GOLDEN GHOSTS

A historic Lebanon, Ohio, hotel and restaurant has been the source of countless supernatural tales. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26

THE BEAT

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, ROCK LOBSTERS

Members of OU's All Campus Radio Network reminisce about the group's 50 years. . . . . . . . 28

STYLE

HOMETOWN HIDDEN GEMS

IT'S NOT A TREND: CULTURAL APPROPRIATION

PHOTO STORY

VOICES

Live like a local across the state with this guide to Ohio's secret spots . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

LET THE SUNSHINE IN

Experience the fresh blooms of Morning Sun Flower Farm. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

Understand the distinction between appreciation and appropriation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30

A-TOWN TOURIST One Backdropper takes a break from their routine and explores Athens with new eyes . . . 32

EXHIBIT A OU student and award-winning photographer

Nate Swanson shares his work . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34

SPRING 2021 » VOLUME 14 ISSUE 3

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Q&A

BACKDROP’S

BEGINNINGS Fifteen years after its start, Backdrop’s creator and first editor-in-chief sits down to talk about some origins of her own.

BY ELEANOR BISHOP | ILLUSTRATION BY MACEY ELDER

shley Luther Micklish, Backdrop’s first editor-inchief, had no idea that what started as a class project would grow into Ohio University’s first and now oldest student-run magazine. Since graduating from OU in 2008, Micklish has ventured into successful careers in brand strategy and marketing, working for companies like Toms, Nike and currently, the coupon aggregator Honey.

How did Backdrop come to be?

I was a magazine journalism major within Scripps and my junior year, which would have been '06-'07, we [took] that one class … it was basically a capstone magazine class, and [former editor-in-chief of Writer’s Digest and Boston Magazine, John Joseph “Jack”] Brady was our professor. He was a mentor, and I was really inspired by him and his experience. Part of our end–of–the year project was creating a concept for a publication, creating a business plan, coming up with the editorial calendar, coming up with the sections, all that stuff, but all just for presentation. We came up with Backdrop as an idea then in that class. A couple of us got beers after the class and we were all like, “Well, why don’t we just do this on our own?” [So] we thought, “OK, let’s bust this out into the world for real. And if it fails who cares, we’re just trying.” Never did we really expect it to still be going on for so long.

backdrop | Spring 2021

What was the student publication landscape like at the time? Were there other magazines at OU?

There was The Post, and there was the Athens News …. and that was it for newspapers … there was a nascent online magazine, and Southeast Ohio Magazine, but that was it. That’s why we were like, “OK, there’s a huge need.” And also, I think Jack Brady really inspired us to think more about the culture and the lifestyle around college life. We were very inspired by New York Magazine, Time Out, even The Village Voice. A lot of those magazines that were hyper-local, and [we wanted to] focus on neighborhoods or common Athens colloquialisms, or common things that were around in the ether of Athens and OU. We wanted to make it a balance of harder hitting features that took longer to develop and were more magazine essay style and … easier to read, more bite size content that was fun and easily digestible. We realized that mix of content was missing as well in the town.

How did you go about putting together a student-run magazine without having a model for what that looked like?

One thing we thought of was, “We have no money, how are we going to print this?” We knew for a fact that we wanted to give it out for free, because college students aren’t going to pay for anything, so that was actually a huge pillar of … the non-negotiables for Backdrop. We knew we wanted it to be student-run, we knew we didn’t want to take any money from the college because we didn’t want any censorship, we knew we wanted it to be self-funded, and that’s where we were like, how are we going to fund this?… We really just went around to local businesses, asking them to support us, we said, “Hey, we’re trying this new thing, it’s going to come out four times a year, could you please just give us 500 bucks to put your bagel shop in this magazine?” And a lot of people just threw us a bone, to be nice, I think. There was a lot of grassroots, door-to-door sales kind of work … I’ll never forget going up to [the printer] to proof the first issue and just seeing the reams of paper come through. It was just a really gratifying feeling.

How did you establish Backdrop’s tone?

We looked at the type of content that was already out there with The Post and The Athens News and everything else, and we thought, there’s room to be a little more irreverent, be a little more risqué, not that I’d say Backdrop’s really risqué, but we weren’t trying to take ourselves so seriously. We wanted to create, I guess you’d call it ‘water cooler talk’ among the campus … We had that stupid column, “Hot for Teacher” profiling hot professors, that feels so tone deaf these days, but back then, we tried to tap into things that were naturally reverberating around campus and bring that to light ... we wanted people to pick up the magazine, read it, and then pass it along to a friend. That was also sort of a central goal.

“

I look back on it as one of the most fun jobs I’ve ever had, if I had to call it a job. I miss it, I wish I could get my hands in that type of work again, mainly just because of the collaborative nature of Backdrop … It did give me a ton of sills that I use today, [like] not just thinking about the consumer, audiencereader view [of journalism], but also the business side. They don’t necessarily teach you that, you think about editorial integrity, you think about writing and ethics and story, but you also have to think about the nuts and bolts of running a business, which is advertising, distribution, production, operation, so that experience was invaluable. We definitely made mistakes and learned a ton and learned how to optimize and fix [them] for next time. So that was invaluable.

Do you have any advice for current journalism students?

Don’t be afraid to take risks and stick your neck out there. I think a lot of us feel like we’re asking stupid questions or feel like we’re intimated to do things, and I think a little vulnerability goes a long way. I think sticking your neck out and you know, asking the bagel shop to advertise for $500, or asking the printer for a loan – I think we ended up negotiating really flexible payment terms –just asking those things actually helped us to get our project over the line. If you have a vision and if you have a goal, surround yourself with smart people who also believe in that vision and goal and … I think things will manifest for you in that way. That’s really what Backdrop taught me. b

backdropmagazine.com

THE DROP

After years of debate, a smalltown school district changes their Native American mascot. BY MAYA MEADE

backdrop | Spring 2021

ince 1956, The Talawanda School District in Oxford, Ohio, has been home to the Talawanda Braves. The image of the mascot was originally a man with bright red skin that wore an earring and feathers. Over time, adjustments were made to the image as progress as a community and nation took place. In 2010, the Oxford Citizens for Peace and Justice (OCPJ), which serves to educate and act locally to make Oxford a peaceful place through social, economic, and environmental justice, recognized a need to address an issue of racial injustice facing the community. The OCPJ asked that the Talawanda school board, and educators in general, consider the ramifications that the Braves name and image has on the students in the district. The petition they wrote was signed by 300 members of the Talawanda district. According to the Oxford Citizens for Peace and Justice website, “In 2010 the board chose not to study the issue further stating, ‘the majority of the citizens in the Talawanda School District agree that the Braves mascot is not offensive and they favor its continued use.’” In recent years, the use of Native American caricatures as sports mascots has seen an increase in scrutiny. For decades, American sports culture has relied on stereotypical and racist depictions of Native Americans with reddened skin wearing headdresses and carrying spears. Some of the most

famous teams to use racist mascots includes the former Cleveland Indians and the former Washington Redskins, both teams which only announced their plans to change names in the last year. The contentious debate surrounding these mascots can be boiled down to whether using Native Americans as mascots is honorable or offensive. According to the National Congress of American Indians (NCAI), the intolerance and harm that is encouraged by these mascots, logos and symbols have consequences for Native people. “Derogatory ‘Indian’ sports mascots have serious psychological, social and cultural consequences for Native Americans, especially Native youth,” says the NCAI website. “Most concerning in considering negative stereotypes of Native people, are the alarmingly high rates of hate crimes… According to Department of Justice Analysis, ‘American Indians are more likely than people of other races to experience violence at the hands of someone of a different race.’” Michael Crowder, who served on the Talawanda school board for 12 years, remembers the first time the mascot was really addressed in 2010. “This issue came up several times during the 12 years I was on the board,” he says. “There was a group of students that were really pushing to get rid of the mascot, the Braves mascot, particularly the warrior head. And there was a large number of students that wanted to keep it. Then there were community

members on both sides of the issue, too.” Crowder was the deciding vote on the decision to officially change the mascot when the issue resurfaced during the 2018-2019 academic school year. The divisiveness of the topic never changed. From that first time he heard members of the community speak in 2010 to the last, the community was polarized. Crowder says that in 2019, the community was split down the middle. Individuals in the Talawanda and Oxford community spoke at a board meeting in 2018 in which people within the local communities and from out of the state openly discussed their concerns about the change of the mascot to the school board. Dalton Norris, who graduated from the Talawanda School District in 2020, says at the time he felt hurt by the decision to change the mascot. “I was very closed minded and my background thinking was that they were throwing away a rich tradition that my entire family had built,” he says. “The mascot meant so much to me. My entire family had grown up in the Oxford community. Being a part of the Talawanda Braves was all I ever knew.” This was a running theme among the comments that school board members heard at their meetings. But other students and Oxford citizens like Ella Cope, who graduated with Norris, felt differently. “I think that, while some would argue that all mascots are symbolic, the tokenization of Native Americans is anything but,” Cope says. “The dehumanization that occurs when diverse, rich cultures of people are reduced to a caricature to then be used by [mainly] white people has real impacts on the way those people are treated in society.” Both the viewpoints of students like Norris and Cope were taken into serious consideration by the school board that year. “I knew the day of the election of the new school board that I was going to

be the deciding vote,” Crowder says. “What ended up swaying me in my vote was two things. One is that I knew there were middle school students who were Native Americans that were hurt by this. The reasons for why they were hurt, I didn’t care, but they were hurt

“

The very least we can do, as people who profit from the settlercolonial state which continues to oppress Native people, is to acknowledge our true history and give their cultures utmost respect.” ELLA COPE TALAWANDA DISTRICT GRADUATE that we were using a warrior head and Braves as a mascot for sports.” The second reason that Crowder gives for voting to change the mascot is that he knew early on in 2019 that he was not going to run for school board again and he didn’t want the future board to have to deal with it again. The issue of Native American mascots took a toll on the Oxford community. Crowder knew

that if he didn’t vote the way that he did, then the issue would have come up again. Crowder was the third vote out of five to vote in favor of changing the mascot from the Braves, used as a noun, to the Talawanda Brave, an adjective, and removing the Native American head from all Talawanda merchandise that had not yet been made. The Talawanda School Board and many professional sports teams such as the former Arkansas State University Indians, who changed their mascot to the Red Wolves in 2008, have opened their eyes to the way that these mascots are affecting Native Americans. According to the American Psychological Association, American Indian mascots have a negative effect on all students. They are especially impactful for students who have had little or no experiences and contact with Indigenous peoples. These mascots “[establish] an unwelcome and often times hostile learning environment for American Indian students that affirms negative images/stereotypes that are promoted in mainstream society.” The decision made by the Talawanda School Board was a catalyst of change for local districts nearby and was an educational experience for the members of the community that welcomed the change and listened to the concerns of others. As of August of 2020, there are 79 Ohio school districts that use Native American names and mascots, and only 13 of those districts are considering changing them. Those in favor of the mascot change hope that the Talawanda Brave have set the example and plan to continue to use their strength as a community to bring justice to issues facing Oxford. “The very least we can do, as people who profit from the settler-colonial state which continues to oppress Native people,” Cope says, “Is to acknowledge our true history and give their cultures utmost respect.” b

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RECIPE

THIS BREAD IS SODA-LICIOUS STORY AND PHOTOSBY NORA MCKEOWN

One Backdropper passes down a recipe from her family to yours. 10

backdrop | Spring 2021

y grandmother is an Irish immigrant who's lived in the United States since she was 19 years old. She's one of the best cooks I know, and a lot of what I understand about my Irish heritage has come from watching her bake and cook traditional Irish foods. When I called her to ask if I could publish her soda bread recipe for this issue, she told me that she never uses a recipe; she eyeballs it every time. Here is my best approximation of what she does:

This Irish soda bread is best served with a slab of butter and a cup of tea.

Irish Soda Bread INSTRUCTIONS

INGREDIENTS:

1. Preheat the oven to 365 degrees. 2. Mix all the dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, sugar and raisins) in one bowl. If you have a sieve, use it to evenly distribute all ingredients before adding raisins. If not, just make sure you mix it all together really well. 3. Beat the eggs in with the buttermilk and, little by little, mix it in with the dry ingredients. 4. Put some flour on your hands and mold the dough into one big ball in the bowl. If the dough is damp, add a little more flour in and try again. 5. Use a knife to mark a cross in the top of the dough. 6. Put the dough into a seasoned 10-inch cast-iron skillet or a greased 10-inch round cake pan and leave in the oven at 365 degrees for 15 minutes. 7. After 15 minutes, lower the temperature to 350 degrees and leave in the oven for 1 hour. 8. Let cool and then remove from the pan and enjoy! I personally like it with a slab of butter on my slice and a cup of breakfast tea!

3 1/2 cups flour 3 teaspoons baking powder A pinch of salt 1 tablespoon sugar 1 teaspoon baking soda 2 cups raisins 1 egg 2 cups buttermilk

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INFOGRAPHIC

Hometown Hidden Gems Let Backdrop's staff take you on a tour of their hometowns. BY ELEANOR BISHOP | INFOGRAPHIC BY ASHLEY LAFLIN

SWEET TOOTH COTTAGE: POWELL, OHIO This bakery is owned by the parents of an Ohio University student. Their cookies are better than Cheryl's Cookies and the designs are immaculate. -Abby Neff, associate editor

MAC AND JOE'S: OXFORD, OHIO Mac and Joe's is the longest standing restaurant in Oxford. They serve a variety of common bar foods and have popularized mac and cheese balls. The wall art, food and drinks all make for a fun night in town. -Maya Meade, social media and events

JOLLY'S DRIVE-IN: HAMILTON, OHIO This seasonal drive-in hot dog and root beer stand is famous for their delicious root beer which can be bought by the gallon. -Ashley Laflin, creative director

backdrop | Spring 2021

THE CIRCLE: COPLEY, OHIO The circle is the center of our town and the setting for a lot of events and gatherings. In the summer they host concerts here where the whole community can come together and listen to music. - Ellie Habel, photo editor

THE GIANT DANCING HARES (A.K.A. THE BUNNY HILL): DUBLIN, OHIO In the middle of a local park stands this giant hill with a spiral sidewalk leading to a giant sculpture of three dancing bunnies. They are at least 20 feet tall, and when you approach them you will notice the random household items lodged in the statue, such as scissors, gloves and a typewriter. -Julia Greenwood, designer

FIELD OF CORN: DUBLIN, OHIO The Field of Corn, sometimes called “Cornhenge,” is a sculpture in the middle of my hometown. The rows of cement corn are definitely a sight to see when visiting. -Helen Widman, assistant managing editor

JUNGLE JIM'S: FAIRFIELD, OHIO One of the world's largest international grocery stores, with tons of unique attractions. This massive store has literally almost any food you could want from anywhere in the world. -Katie Hawkinson, marketing director

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PHOTO STORY

let the

sunshine in

Morning Sun Flower Farm provides fresh blooms to the Oxford area all year long BY ASHLEY LAFLIN | PHOTOS PROVIDED BY MINDY STATON | ILLUSTRATIONS BY ABIGAIL SUMMERS

orning Sun Flower Farm was started the Spring of 2015 by Mindy Staton and her husband Josh Staton in Oxford, Ohio. Mindy was inspired to start Morning Sun while attending a workshop hosted by Erin Benzakein of Floret, one of the nation’s leading floral designers. The farm operates all year round with one green house, a hoop house, a perennial field and a field specifically for dahlias. Mindy grows a large variety of flowers. Typically, in the spring, she grows Poppies, Ranunculus, Tulips and more. In the summer there are Lisianthus, Snapdragons and Yarrow. In the Fall, there are Dahlias, Sunflowers and Mums. Mindy also owns a flower shop, Two Little Buds, with her mom Alice Francis. Two Little Buds is located in Hamilton, Ohio, and started in 2007. Two Little Buds does wedding and event flowers but is also open for walk in sales. b

backdrop | Spring 2021

Mindy and Josh Staton are the owners of Morning Sun Flower Farm in Oxford, Ohio.

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Anemones and ranunculus blooming in the hoop house.

Morning Sun's green house and hoop house.

backdrop | Spring 2021

Snapdragon is among a large variety of flowers that grow at Morning Sun Flower Farm.

backdropmagazine.com 17

FEATURE

Segregated Suburbs How majority white communities foster harmful color-blindness in schools and at home.

BY ABBY NEFF

hite suburbs. White picket fences, bright green grass, cookie-cutter homes and screams of children running through their backyards: just another day in American suburbia. Down the streets, behind the windows and doors of every home, who lives within these townships and cities? A white hand opens a car door, a white hand waves at a neighbor, a white hand holds a dog leash or pushes a stroller. Now what happens if the hand has a darker complexion? The Pew Research Center surveyed Americans between 2012 and 2016, finding that 68% of suburban county residents are white, while only onein-ten suburban counties are majority nonwhite. Consider the classic American Dream: finding a job, marrying “the one,” buying a home and starting a family. In a debate against moderate centrist in 1965, American essayist, activist and poet James Baldwin declared the American lifestyle was exclusively available to white people. “The American Dream is at the expense of the American Negro,” he says. What does that mean? According to Glennon Sweeney, a researcher at the Kirwan Institute for The Study of Race and Ethnicity at The Ohio State University, the concept of suburbs did not come about until the early twentieth century. “Prior to 1890, the word ‘suburb’, it was a word, suburbs existed, but there weren’t planned suburbs. ‘Suburb’ was really just referring to anything outside of Central City, anything peripheral to the city,” Sweeney says. “But in the 1890s, there were these groups that got together,and they started to build the first planned suburbs,” she says. With the establishment of the first planned suburbs, a phenomenon called “white flight” began to occur. Specifically, in Columbus, white flight came in three waves throughout the twentieth century.

backdrop | Spring 2021

According to Sweeney, there was a distinct racial, ethnic and cultural hierarchy in the United States. Wealthy white Protestants were at the top, and Catholic and Jewish communities were specific targets of inequality. Anyone who wasn’t white, however, was “at the very bottom” of the hierarchy. “When they were building these communities, what they did is they created these restrictive covenants and home deeds to make sure that only the white, Protestant, wealthy people they wanted were going to live in these neighborhoods,” she says. “So, they restricted ... anyone who was not white... they [also] restricted Jews and Catholics.” The development of suburbs accelerated after World War II as soldiers returned from war. Levit town in Long Island, New York, served as the first model for suburbs, and were created as an appealing alternative for veterans and their families that wanted to leave the city. An example of targeting that developers of Levit towns practiced was a written restriction on agricultural land use and the types of animals, such as chickens and goats, that were allowed in a specific suburb. At the time, Sweeney says, those animals were most commonly associated with Black Americans. Suburban laws and zoning codes evolved overtime, and with the exclusion of chickens came a minimum square footage requirement for a home, and even minimum cost requirements to build a home. “This was really to ensure that only wealthy people were moving into these neighborhoods,” Sweeney says. “Class, race and ethnicity played a very big role.” By the middle of the Great Depression, there was a shift from short mortgages with hefty down payments to mortgages that were federally insured. Redlining, a policy designed to determine risk in a neighborhood, emerged as a method to determine what people obtained a federally insured mortgage. “And it didn’t matter if they were wealthy

communities or not,” Sweeney says. “There were middle class Black suburbs that were redlined as well, because it wasn’t white people who were the only ones building suburbs, Black people were as well. Financing them became an issue.” According to Sweeney, the overarching trend of restrictive policies served one purpose: to deny Black property ownership. “And that was intentional because in the 20th century, in the United States of America, property ownership was the primary mechanism by which Americans built wealth,” she says. The value of home ownership prompted a boom in the mass production of homes, opening sub-urbanization to the middle class, a lifestyle formerly exclusive to wealthy elites. However, Black, Latino, Jewish, Catholic and other families were still excluded from the new suburbs, while their own neighborhoods were being red lined. That initiated an era of “white flight:”the migration of white families to the suburbs once Black families moved into their neighborhoods in cities and metropolitan areas. Realtors would then buy the white homes at a discount and sell them at a higher rate than the original price, a practice known as “Blockbusting.” “They’d literally go door to door and tell everyone a Black family moved in,” Sweeney says. White families reacted to integration after the Brown v. Board decision in 1954 by fleeing into white suburbia, ushering in a covert form of segregation through the late 1950s and 60s, which still affects suburban residents educationally, economically and even psychologically. Kimberly Rios, a social psychologist at Ohio University, explained that there are highly referenced studies which show that the amount of diversity where a child is raised impacts how they perceive their identity, specifically regarding their race and ethnicity. “Ethnic minority kids were more likely to, when describing themselves, mentioned their ethnicity early, relative to white kids,” Rios says. “But when white kids were in a school where their group was less prevalent, where they were even in the minority, or where there were just fewer white kids, then they would also tend to mention their ethnicity first.”

backdropmagazine.com 19

According to Rios, studies show that in Western societies like the United States, people tend to define themselves by group memberships that make them unique to others. A nonwhite person growing up in a suburb that is primarily white will tend to think about their race and ethnicity more than the average resident. Rios says research indicates that diversity is seen as less relevant to whites than minority groups. “So, whites, when they hear about celebrating diversity and acknowledging differences, they tend to feel excluded or left out of these conversations,” Rios says. “And [they] don’t feel like they have enough or as much to contribute as other groups do.” While parents have a choice in deciding where to raise their families, children do not have a say in where they grow up. When Emma Stiefel was 6 months old, she moved to a suburb outside of Cincinnati, Ohio, for her dad’s job. Stiefel is currently a senior studying data science and history at Minerva in San Francisco, California. In her early years, Stiefel made friends with the other children in her neighborhood, who were mostly white. When she got to middle and high school, she began making friends whose parents were Asian immigrants. “But as I got older, and was filtered into AP classes...the classes became less diverse in some ways,” Stiefel says. “There were definitely less Black and Latino kids in those classes, though there were still some, but not as many as there were in elementary school.” Stiefel says she was introduced to the concept of race and racism through surface level understanding in elementary school but didn’t have to think about it until she got to high school. “I was taught growing up, and I don’t think this is unique to me, that basically we were living in the glorious aftermath of the Civil Rights movement,” she says. “We would listen to Martin Luther King Jr. speeches in school, and everything was chill.” The conversations about race that Stiefel experienced are not uncommon in white households. According to Rios, white racial socialization, most commonly referred to in social psychology as “color blindness,” is sometimes practiced by white parents when they don’t know how to talk about race. She says that dominant group members in a society, like white people in the

backdrop | Spring 2021

United States, avoid talking about race because they believe that doing so makes them racist. “If kids hear from, or they get the idea from their parents that discussing racial differences is not okay, or if they get explicitly colorblind messages like, ‘Oh, you know, these differences [don’t] matter, we’re all the same person on the inside,’ then of course that’s likely to carry over, along with other environmental influences [that] have an impact on the child,” she says. While the majority of children in suburbs are white, nonwhite families also live in those same suburbs. Olivia Ratcliff-Totty, a senior studying psychology at Ohio University, grew up in Huber Heights, outside of Dayton, Ohio. She is biracial; her mom white and her dad Black. The dominant group at her high school was white, but the next prominent group of students were Black. “I would say in my life I was more accustomed to white culture.” Ratcliff-Totty says, “And then when I slowly got introduced to more Black culture... that’s when I started understanding both sides a little bit more.” Ratcliff-Totty says that a particular revelation about her identity led her to understand the way the world views her. “My parents had open conversations with me about race,” she says.“...the biggest thing that they said to me was, ‘You know, Liv, you may be white and...black,but when you’re walking down the street, no one is ever going to say, ‘Look at that white girl.’” Gideon Kariuki, a sophomore studying public service and public policy at Arizona State University, is a second-generation immigrant whose mother moved from Kenya to the United States. He grew up in a suburb outside of Phoenix, Arizona, and attended a charter school where most of his classmates were white.

“When I started meeting people outside of my school bubble the ‘diversity score’ of my friend group was pretty low,” Kariuki says. “I was the diversity most of the time.” Activists and researchers throughout the country are currently pushing back against these de-facto segregated suburbs. Sweeney, who is currently working toward a PhD in City and Regional Planning at OSU, says the general population does not understand that discriminatory public policies and housing segregation go hand in hand. “They see them as one off,” Sweeney says. “They don’t understand how they work together in a very insidious way to really create the segregated--and when I say segregated, I don’t just mean race and ethnicity, I mean class, I mean in every kind of way you can think about really--the segregated society that we live in today.” Growing up without diverse interactions in nonwhite, class-segregated communities, Sweeney says, has a profound effect on a child’s socialization. “It reinforces that culture of poverty narrative, that poor people are poor because there’s something wrong with them,” she says.“Well, poverty in the United States is a direct function of policy.” Sweeney says in order to build economic and educational equity, access to higher education and workforce development are crucial for people to adapt to a fast-paced economy. She says communicating the need for a policy change to the general public has been difficult. “People think that if other people get more rights, or more resources or more opportunities, they will lose them,” she says. “We’ve been trained to think that because it is a winner and loser game in the capitalist economy, but it doesn’t have[to be]. It’s a choice we’ve made.” b

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FEATURE

motherhood

BEHIND BARS Incarcerated pregnant women face traumatic birth-situations and a lack of resources in U.S. prisons and jails. BY SOPHIA ENGLEHART AND ELEANOR BISHOP | ILLUSTRATIONS BY ABIGAIL SUMMERS

he stark gray walls and tall barbed wire fences of the Ohio Reformatory for Women, (ORW) are a contrast to the brightly colored nursery built within the walls of the prison, a new addition to the allfemale correctional institution. The sight is rare in prison, where most children born in lockup are taken away almost immediately after birth, to be placed in foster care or with other family members while the mother serves out the rest of her sentence. ORW, located in Marysville, Ohio, is home to one of only 11 prison-nursery programs in the U.S., and the only prison in Ohio to have a program such as this. ORW’s Achieving Baby Care Success program, also known as the ABC program, was established in 2001. The program takes a hands-on approach to teaching these young mothers how to raise their children and establish healthy parenting habits while they serve their sentence. Mothers are screened before being allowed to enter the program and must be serving a short sentence for a nonviolent crime. According to information stated about the program on ORW’s website, the bond between a mother and baby in the first couple months is critical to the intellectual development of the baby. Separation, especially right after birth, can lead to cerebral development issues and various complications in the “emotional and intellectual functioning” of the baby. ORW’s goal with the childcare program is to ensure that the mother and child leave the program together. A study of 22 state prisons and all federal prisons

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conducted by John Hopkins University in 2016 and 2017 found that nearly 1,400 incarcerated women were pregnant when admitted into prisons during that period. Of the births from these pregnancies that occurred in prison, over 90% ended in live births with no maternal deaths. Eleven abortions, four stillbirths and three newborn deaths were also reported. This study is believed to be the first of its kind to take a systematic look at pregnancy in U.S. incarcerated populations, as federal agencies and state prison systems do not track birth statistics. Dr. Carolyn Sufrin, the lead author of the study and an assistant professor in gynecology and obstetrics at Johns Hopkins University stated that there are no mandatory standards for prenatal and pregnancy care for incarcerated women. Kirstine Taylor, an assistant professor of Political Science and Law, Justice and Culture at Ohio University, explained that American prisons are ill-designed to support the health and wellness of incarcerated individuals. “They are places of organized punishment,” she says. “Access to quality healthcare, especially for vulnerable populations such as pregnant women, is a serious problem.” Prisons, while being funded by taxpayer dollars, are excluded from Medicaid funding. This means the federal government can't mandate a certain level of care for incarcerated individuals. “There's nothing that the government [can] provide as an incentive,” Sufrin says. “They can't say, ‘If you don't follow these standards, we'll take your Medicaid funding away,’ because there isn't

Medicaid funding to be given.” The Rebecca Project for Justice, a national organization dealing with the protection of women’s rights, documented in their 2010 project, “Mothers Behind Bars,” that prison healthcare was not designed to cover the medical needs of pregnant inmates. They released a comprehensive state-specific “report card” on the services provided by state prison systems, with the intent to educate and encourage state and federal prison systems to evaluate and update prisoner policies. States were evaluated on the quality of their prenatal care, shackling policies and family-based treatment as an alternative to incarceration. Only one state, Pennsylvania, received an -A, the highest composite score recorded. Ohio received a C overall. While prisons like ORW are attempting to provide a healthy environment for new mothers and their children, there is still a long way to go. Only recently have many states passed anti-shackling laws banning the practice of forcing pregnant inmates to give birth in shackles. Shackles, like any type of restrictive device, are designed to limit the capacity of motion of the person they are being used on. The act of shackling someone and forcing them to remain partially immobile while going through a process as painful and variable as childbirth can be extremely dangerous and traumatizing for the mother and baby. Sufrin explains that, in obstetrical situations like preeclampsia, breech births or caesarean sections, shackles prevent doctors from effectively working on their patient and ensuring a safe delivery for both the mother and child. “If the baby's heart rate drops [during] fetal monitoring, one of the first things that we [would do is] change the position of the woman to try to increase blood flow to the uterus, but we can't change her position if she's shackled,” Sufrin says. “If we need to do an emergency C-section and transfer her to the operating room in an emergency, you can't do that if she's shackled.” In 2018, the First Step Act was passed, a federal law that prohibits the shackling of pregnant incarcerated women. However, this law does not apply to women

in state prisons and county jails, where a majority of incarcerated women in America are held. According to a 2020 Guardian article, 23 states still do not have laws against the shackling of incarcerated pregnant women. In February 2019, Ohio Senators Nickie Antonio and Peggy Lehner introduced Senate Bill 18, which would prevent pregnant women from from being shackled while in their third trimester, in labor, or while recovering postpartum. The bill was passed in the Senate but has been stalled in the House Criminal Justice committee since May 2020. Sufrin says that even if the practice was made illegal in all 50 states, additional accountability measures would be needed. “The laws aren't enough,” she says. “There need to be implementation programs and trainings within hospitals and within the individual correctional institutions to make sure that people are following the law and they understand why.” Even in situations where shackles are not employed, most incarcerated mothers still have to deal with the trauma of being separated from their newborns as soon as they’re discharged from the hospital and sent back to jail. “[The Ohio] prison system has one of the few other care programs where the baby can get back to the prison with the moms,” Surfin says. “These programs are out there on the surface celebrated [as] fantastic models because moms [are with their] babies and they can learn parenting skills, but there are also a lot of complexities too.” The strict criteria to qualify for programs like ABC means that many mothers cannot participate, and despite measures to improve conditions like ORW’s new nursery facility, the situation is far from ideal. “The baby is still starting out their life in prison … It's hard to start to imagine,” Sufrin says. “There's just a lot of variability [in] experiences.” The iron bars of American prisons stand strong and cold, enclosing not only its inhabitants, but also the spread of equal healthcare and services that all incarcerated individuals deserve to access. b

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COMMUNITY

Before embarking on the journey from Oxford, Ohio, to Mississippi, Freedom Summer volunteers sing "We Shall Overcome." Photo courtesy of Miami University.

REVIVING BLACK HISTORY The small town of Oxford, Ohio, is rich with the history of Freedom Summer and the Black families that once held the town together.

BY MAYA MEADE

xford, Ohio, home to Miami University, has a history older than some of its buildings, one that continues to be unknown to outsiders, and even some residents. The town’s Black history, in particular, has rich and powerful roots that developed decades ago, and grew into the 1960s, when Freedom Summer took place on the university’s campus. Freedom Summer, formally known as the Mississippi Summer Project, started as a way to register Black voters in Mississippi. Jim Crow laws segregated Black and white voters in the South and allowed for discrimination and suppression at the polls and in daily activities. Both the Black and white volunteers received violent harassment from members of the Klu Klux Klan. In 1964, the Freedom Summer movement found a place to train its 800 volunteers: Miami University. Over 50 years since the Freedom Summer events, Oxford has made efforts to inform its citizens of its Black history. While working at Enjoy Oxford, the Oxford visitor’s bureau, Taylor Meredith recognized a demand for a Black history tour as visitors and locals grew curious about the town’s history. In response, she created the Oxford Black History

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Tour, a year-long project that was completed and distributed in July of 2020. “I thought, ‘Who better than me?’ because I knew that I would handle it sensitively and do a good job,” Meredith says. Meredith didn’t grow up in Oxford and did not know much about Oxford’s Black history until she started researching for the tour. She found a lot of initial information for the project from the Smith Library, a local history research library housed within the Oxford Lane Public Library. “This history isn’t super readily available, like where you could just Google it,” she says. “As a Black person, I see how the accomplishments of Black people are constantly erased, and when you erase the accomplishments of an entire community, it’s so easy to further dehumanize them.” Lanny Hargraves, a long-term Oxford resident and an involved community member, was part of the Freedom Summer Project Oxford put together in 2014. The purpose of the Freedom Summer Project was to explain what it was like to grow up as an African American in Oxford. Hargraves says the Smith Library served as a link between the Oxford Community and the University to provide accurate information about

Photo courtesy of KPBS.

the history of African Americans in the town. “For example, my uncle, Bill Hargraves, was the first African American to receive a four-year degree in the arts from Miami University in 1925,” he says. “I have 12 relatives with 14 degrees from Miami from 1914 to 1967.” The history of his family’s legacy is not readily available for many Oxford citizens. One of the only ways to access it is through the Miami University archives. An old copy of the Miami Student that is housed at the Smith Library profiles the Hargraves family, but there are few resources to learn what it was like growing up as a Black member of the community. Hargraves and his friend, Dave Churchman, both shared stories of their experiences growing up as a young Black boy in Oxford. “It was pretty much the original mile square,” Churchman says. “It was Locust Street to Sycamore, over to Patterson Avenue, where Miami [University] is, and then down to Chestnut. Pretty much everyone lived in that mile square. All of the houses that are now student rentals were private residences back then.” The idea of a small, one mile square filled with Black homes and businesses is foreign to the current residents of the Oxford community. Especially a square filled with Black people. The majority of property and businesses in Oxford and Miami University are whiteowned and white-run. According to the United States Census Bureau, 83.1% of the Oxford population is white, while 4.8% of the population is African American. “There were so many Black families,” Churchman says. “It [was] amazing. And they’re all gone now. The slum lords bought all the houses and turned them into student rentals.”

Churchman and Hargraves witnessed this community transformation. They witnessed the good and the bad of Oxford; The Talawanda School District segregated the baseball team, so the Black community members made their own. Churchman’s older sister wasn’t allowed to swim at the local public pool because she was Black, but by the time Churchman and Hargraves were both 12 years old, they could enjoy the pool together. Churchman believes that the community has not done enough to make this history accessible. Hargraves has a more centered outlook. He says he is aware of the areas of education that can be improved, but also knows that some Oxford citizens have made an effort to educate others and educate themselves. Citizens like Meredith, however, have recognized this need and desire in the community and have responded with action. “Demographically, Oxford has a largely white population,” Meredith said, “So as a person of color, it is nice to know that there were these thriving Black businesses on Sycamore Street, and [the] beautiful cobblestone bridges on Miami’s campus were made by a Black stoneman.” The Oxford Black History Tour is a self-guided tour, allowing visitors to take their time understanding that Black history happened around the same buildings and architecture that continue to stand in Oxford. “Educating people is important,” Meredith says, “but it’s also a sense of pride just to know that even though I wasn’t here at the time, I am part of a community that has always been so resilient.” b

Freedom Summer Volunteers, as part of the their training, practice how best to non-violently resist. Photo courtesy of Miami University.

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COMMUNITY

GOLDEN GHOSTS

Listen to the tales of The Golden Lamb and its haunted halls, where ghosts are rumored to linger long after their stay. WRITTEN BY CAROLINE GILLEN | PHOTOS PROVIDED BY THE GOLDEN LAMB

fter a long night of drinking, a musician stumbles upstairs to his hotel room. With some struggle, he unlocks his door and walks in, only to lose his balance and fall flat on his face. A little girl’s laugh echoes through the halls — mocking him. Dizzily, he stands up and staggers back out into the hallway. He looks around, seeing no sign of a young girl. He retreats back into his room and tries to convince himself that he’d just had too much to drink. But he isn’t able to shake the feeling that he may have had an encounter with one of The Golden Lamb’s infamous ghosts. The haunting of the Golden Lamb isn’t news to its visitors. In fact, it is one of its main attractions. In 2019, Food Network named the Golden Lamb, “The most haunted restaurant in Ohio.” Over 200 years after Ichabod Corwin, one of the town founders, constructed the hotel and restaurant in Lebanon, it continues to serve the residents and visitors. Founded in 1802, The Golden Lamb was one of the first buildings in Lebanon. The Golden Lamb has seen many notable guests, from 10 presidents, including John Quincy Adams and Ulysses S. Grant, to writers like Charles Dickens, Harriet Beecher Stowe and Mark Twain. Over the years, guests have claimed to have seen ghosts, one of which is a young girl identified as Sarah Stubbs. In the late 1800s, Sarah’s father died when she was five, which led her to move into the Golden Lamb to live with her uncle, who was the hotel manager. Two years later her mother died. Eventually, Stubbs moved out of the Golden Lamb, got married and died at the age of 79 in 1957. If she didn’t die inside the Golden Lamb at a young age, then how would the ghost of the young girl be Stubbs? John Zimkus, a historian of the Golden Lamb and education director of the Warren Country Historical

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Society, says her haunting has to do with a paranormal theory called the imprint theory. The imprint theory is the idea that a traumatic event can leave an impression on the soul, so when one dies it is possible for them to return back to the age that the event occurred. The back-to-back death of Stubbs’s parents at a young age would explain why she would return to haunt the halls of her childhood home. Stubbs has a way of making her presence known to the guests at the Golden Lamb, whether it be knocking objects off walls or making lights flicker. “One of our servers, her name is Jane, heard a commotion happening in front of the partition of Sarah’s childhood bedroom,” Zimkus says. “Jane goes over and asked this lady if she was alright and the lady says, ‘I just took this picture’ and the lady shows her digital camera to Jane. In Sarah’s room there is a little brown dress that belonged to her laid out on the bed. However, in the photograph on the camera, it wasn’t there. Then, in front of Jane, the lady takes another photograph and once again the dress is not in the photo. For years, if I was talking to a table and Jane walked by, I would call her over and ask her if the story was true, and she’d cross her heart and hold up her hand and swear by it.” In addition to Sarah Stubbs, guests claim to have seen a ghost of a gaunt older man staring out the windows of the inn. Guests have reported smelling a strong scent of cigar smoke, despite the Golden Lamb being a smoke-free establishment. Speculation about who the ghost could be points to Charles R. Sherman, an Ohio Supreme Court judge who died in one of the hotel rooms from typhoid fever, or Albert Stubbs, the hotel manager from 1878 to 1914 who collapsed and died right behind the front desk. The most popular theory, however, is Clement Vallandigham. He was an Ohio politician and leader of the anti-war Copperheads,

On the fourth floor of the hotel lies the recreation of Sarah’s childhood room. The room is filled with toys and clothes that had once belonged to Sarah.

known as "peace democrats" in the 1860s who opposed the Civil War and wanted to declare a peace settlement with the Confederates. The story of Vallandigham’s death began on Christmas Eve in 1870 when a bar fight between democrat Thomas McGehean and a Republican ended with one man dead. Vallandigham was convinced McGehean was innocent of murder, and the Republican man had accidently shot himself instead while pulling the gun out of his pocket. He spent the day testing his theory and building his defense by measuring, with a gun and piece of cloth, the powder burns one would have if they were to shoot themselves. Vallandigham went back to the Golden Lamb where he was staying, where he received a package containing a brand-new 32 revolver that was meant to be used during the court room demonstration. In his room, he laid both guns on the dresser and, in front of his two colleagues, started to practice how he planned to present his case to the court. He started acting out how he believed the event to unfold. In his eagerness to prove his theory, instead of picking up the safe, court-demonstration gun, he picked up the other gun and accidently shoot himself in the abdomen. “Vallandigham proves that you can die that way by dying that way,” Zimkus says. “If anyone has the right to haunt the Golden Lamb, it’s Clement Vallandigham." Because of Vallandigham’s incident, McGehean was proven acquitted and released from custody. The room where Vallandigham shot himself is now a private dining area named after him where a portrait of Vallandigham adorns the back wall of the room. Some may claim the ghost stories to be untrue or fabricated. On the other hand, others are assured in their assertions that ghosts haunt the halls of the Golden Lamb. The mysterious and unknown hauntings are what makes the hotel so alluring. The Golden Lamb, with its rich history entangled with contested stories and narratives, continues to be a gathering place for all guests, both dead and alive. b

The Clement Vallandigham dining room.

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THE BEAT

HAPPY BIRTHDAY,

OU’s All Campus Radio Network (ACRN) celebrates 50 years of music creation and appreciation. BY AYA CATHEY | PHOTOS PROVIDED BY ATHENA YEARBOOK

he All Campus Radio Network, founded in 1971, is Ohio University's only student-run radio station and music production company. After 50 years of music, faculty advisor Greg Newton and two of ACRN’s executive members look back on ACRN’s history. "My role is to be there as a resource as what I think of as big picture questions, general strategy things or just dealing with university bureaucracy. All of the editorial things are entirely in the students hands,” Newton says. Newton, associate dean for graduate studies, research and creative activity, has served as the faculty advisor for ACRN since 2002. He explained that while the media company continues to make strides in music journalism and video production, they have always stood out for being inventive and unique. In the late 1960s, ten student-directed dormitory radio stations existed at OU. They broadcasted across the university's East, West and South greens and linked their dorm stations to a news network feed. Later on, ACRN decided to separate from the other stations and became a commercial FM radio station. Their first broadcast with a commercial network affiliate was in 1971. By 1974, ACRN was broadcasting 24 hours a day and connected with the Continental Cable of Athens to expand their listener base. In 1978, ACRN became the first college radio station to utilize an Optimod FM audio processor and significantly improved their sound. Unfortunately, despite the new equipment, ACRN was still unable to gain a listening base on campus due to a decline in dorm station users and lack of exposure. Throughout the 1970s, the station played genres ranging from free-form jazz to progressive rock. In 1981, the station adopted its crustacean mascot, Snat the Rock Lobster, from the hit song "Rock Lobster" performed by the band The B-52's. During this time, they also moved into an air studio and established their craft in alternative and classic rock music.

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When their format changed to 'New Rock' in the early 1990s, it attracted several more listeners. A typical week for the station consisted of live shows, NBC produced concerts and interviews and broadcasts of community events. Each week would also include a two-hour program titled "A Year In Rock," where DJs would play a year's worth of hit songs the entire show. After over a decade of protesting, OU installed cable in all campus dormitories in 1995. Finally, the station was able to connect to the CATVision University Cable System and increased its presence on campus. Because of this, ACRN skyrocketed in the digital media world of Athens. Even in 1999, when they switched from a Cable FM broadcasting system to an online website (due to lack of funding), they continued to have a loyal fanbase. While they have continued the tradition of a 24/7 broadcast online, ACRN has grown tremendously in the last fifty years. What started as a FM radio broadcast has become a multiplatform, multimedia enterprise. In addition to their online music stream, they have expanded their platform to include video and digital journalism. For those who enjoy music in any capacity, there is a place for them at the new and improved Rock Lobster station. Including the production department, which primarily works on audio engineering, ACRN has expanded their Promotions department, which regularly hosts live events. Their editorial staff writes and creates music-related content for the websites. "I guess what I’ve seen mostly is an expansion of some of the non radio areas. The music journalism in particular on the website has really grown a lot,” Newton says. “Back in 2002, we probably had two or three students working on articles and now it's the single biggest department at the station," Newton says. Kiah Easton, an Athens native and junior at Ohio University, has spent three years with ACRN. He started at the station as a staff writer and was promoted to column editor before filling

his current role as the editorial director. "ACRN is an organization based around a communal love for music and a desire to share that love,” Easton says. “ACRN is flexible, nurturing, educational, and diverse." Through his work at the station, Kiah used his love of learning to discover a passion for music journalism. Having a team of like-minded individuals gave him community and some of his best friends. His experiences on the editorial staff inspired him to double major in Journalism and Music Production. His role in the editorial department has also increased his confidence and made him a more skilled writer in a way that classes could not. ACRN gave him the opportunity to practice his craft in a semi-professional setting that would prepare him to enter the professional world. "ACRN works because our team is made of passionate, hardworking people who have invested their time for countless numbers of years,” Easton says. “Those that ran the show when I joined were extremely talented and have gone on to do amazing things. Those that are here now are on track to do the same." Since his first day, ACRN has shaped Easton and many like him. "Ever since attending my first concert hosted by ACRN, I knew I wanted to be a part of it,” he says. “Since then, I have had countless more formative experiences such as booking and interviewing some of my favorite artists." The station earns all of its money independently, and live music is one of its largest revenue sources. Canceling most of the scheduled productions and shows due to the coronavirus pandemic put a large dent in their plans for the year. Over the last three semesters, DJs have not been able to get into the station regularly, and some of the departments' projects were compromised. Despite this, the ACRN team successfully hosted two events last year: their Fall Quaranstream, in September, and their most popular event, Battle of the Bands, in November. Additionally, the editorial department has recruited several new staff writers. Over the last semester, they have worked tirelessly, creating album reviews, movie reviews and artist features. OU Senior RJ Martin joined the ACRN production department in the fall of 2018 then became a DJ the following semester. Currently, he is the music director. "The experiences and relationships I have built have taught

me that there are endless career options in the music industry and I hope others realize the same,” Martin says. “Having the opportunity to meet alumni and successful artists through ACRN gives me hope that I can achieve my goals as well." He recalls his favorite memory at ACRN as the time he played kickball with fellow station members during his first semester at the station. The little-known event was soon called "Kick Ball and Kick-Back" and became a semesterly occasion. Unfortunately, there has not been a proper one in quite some time with the world on lockdown. "It was here that I met some of my best friends and just had a genuine good time," Martin says. Martin has worked directly with the programming department, assisted in artist bookings and managed the daily music rotation for the past three years. As he reflected over his time at the radio station, he realized the tremendous impact ACRN has had on his life. "When I first started college I was dead set on a career as an audio engineer, producer and musician,” Martin says. “Because of ACRN, I am now searching for a job in radio directly out of school. If I could have my job at ACRN as a career for the rest of my life, I would be completely content." Newton is grateful for his 19 years of experience as ACRN’s advisor. "I think the way it has helped me most is that my relationships with the students at ACRN are a little bit different than the relationships I have with students in my classes or my advisees. I think it’s probably made me better in those roles because I understand a lot of the things going on with students better. It’s a closer connection,”Newton says. Newton believes working at ACRN reinforced the importance of out–of–classroom experiences for him. "They things they [students] do at ACRN are definitely a part of their learning experience and ways of making progress toward their professional goals, their career goals, but also just the relationships that those students make,”he says. “Those folks are going to be their friends for life.” Although this April is ACRN’s fiftieth anniversary, the organization’s official celebration, organized by the Ohio University Alumni Association (OUAA), has been moved to April 2022. More details regarding the event schedule can be found at their website, www.acrnalumni.com. b

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STYLE

IT'S NOT A TREND: Cultural Appropriation OU senior Shalyn Foster gives a Black woman’s perspective on cultural appropriation. BY HELEN WIDMAN | ILLUSTRATION BY LAINEY DOUGLAS

When a non-Black person sees cornrows, they might see just another hairstyle. But to many Black people, they look at cornrows and see maps, means of survival and the sisters and brothers that struggled before them. To Black people and many other people of color, cultural appropriation is an all too common battle. But what is cultural appropriation? According to an article by Northern Arizona University professor Richard A. Rogers, “Cultural appropriation [is] defined broadly as the use of a culture’s symbols, artifacts, genres, rituals, or technologies by members of another culture.” For Shalyn Foster, an Ohio University senior studying health services administration, cultural appropriation is a phenomenon she has both witnessed on social media and experienced firsthand. One popular example of cultural appropriation often cited in the media is non-Black celebrities adorning cornrows. “For example, Kim Kardashian and Paris Hilton [and] the rest of them wearing braided hairstyle cornrows, they feel like they're paying homage to Black women who wear those styles, but they have no idea of the history,” Foster says. Cornrows have been worn by African women since 300 B.C. In America, the hairstyle has ties to the Underground Railroad.

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“They don't know that slaves would braid rice in the hair so that when they got down the river, they would be able to survive,” Foster says. “You know they don't know the stories of countless Black children who have been suspended from school and have had teachers cut braids out of their hair because they've been told their hair was unruly. I know many Black women and Black men [that] have gone to job interviews [and been] denied because their hair wasn't ‘professional.’” Although the difference between appropriation and appreciation can be difficult to distinguish, Foster sums it up in one word: purpose. “I think the purpose is the biggest difference between appreciation and appropriation, like why are you doing this?” Foster says. “Do you want to learn about this culture, you want to learn about their history, or is it because you thought it was cool and you liked it?” While the Internet can be a helpful tool for non-Black people to use to research Black culture, an important part of seeking out education on any cultural topic is listening to voices from that specific culture and giving their voices a platform as well. “I think the biggest part is doing your own research, but also know there's only so many things you can do,” Foster says.

While online research does help, a non-Black person will never truly be able to walk in the shoes of a Black person. “You can research all day, but living the life of a Black woman is completely different,” Foster says. “It's just the day-to-day microaggressions, systemic racism and institutionalized… just hate. It's way more than you can research, so just giving us that platform to speak on our issues to educate others on our own…I think, is a great step in the right direction.” There is also a fine line between a non-Black person looking for information from authentic sources and relying too heavily on a Black person to educate them. Often, people of color may feel like they have to deal with appropriation in addition to bearing the weight of teaching others about their culture when those people have the means to do simple research on their own. Foster says that when people get called out for appropriating, they tend to get defensive rather than try to learn. “People don't want to think they're in the wrong so they'd rather deny altogether that [these things] came from Black people and they'd rather say they came from a social media trend and fashion trend,” she says. “You can literally acknowledge that it came from Black people and still be a good person. It's not going to condemn you. You just have to be honest with yourself and with those around you.” Another key component of cultural appropriation is that it can be separate from racism. Studies by Ariel J. Mosley and Monica Biernat from the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology found that, “Some acts of cultural appropriation may be classified as racist, as in the examples of Blackface and culture parties, but this may not be true of other acts, as in the examples of cuisine and literature.” Some examples of this also includes “soul food,” which originated in the Southern United States Black community during American slavery, and African American Vernacular English, which also originated during American slavery and has since been developed by Black people in the LGBTQ+ community. “AAVE originated from specifically, usually Black men who [were] part of the LGBTQ community,” Foster says. “And that really happened because, well it would be the ones who felt more feminine, they were expressing feminine tendencies, so they would copy the language of the women around them, which would be

their mothers, grandmothers, aunts, etc.” Foster says that many people seem to lack accountability in terms of cultural appropriation. “They don't want to know that they're appropriating another culture because … you don’t have to be racist to appropriate a culture. Some people I really think they truly don’t know,” she says. As the president of Ebony Minds, a student organization on campus, Foster helps bring awareness of Black culture to anyone and everyone. Ebony Minds hosts self-care workshops, educational workshops about issues relating to Black women and even has a book club that members can sign up to join. “We are centering around Black women,” Foster says. “We’ll always be a safe space for Black women and Black women will always have some type of role in anything we do…[but] we are literally for everybody.” As a Black woman, Foster recognizes that both objects and content that originated from Black culture can be appreciated by non-Black people. “We don't expect people to just be like, ‘Black people said no bamboo earrings so we're just not going to wear them,’ nobody expects that,” Foster says. However, she still believes that there are aspects of certain cultures that should remain untouched. “I still feel like some things should be left sacred for some cultures, that we can learn about it, we can admire, but that doesn't mean that we should put ourselves in those shoes,” Foster says. “We don't know what happened to Asians for them to wear [kimonos], we don't know. We don't know all the in-depth things the Native Americans had to endure for their headdresses, so it's like, why do we feel we can wear it, make it like a fashion trend now?” A few things that non-POC can do to ensure that they are appreciating culture and not appropriating include doing background research, seeking out appropriate and culturally accurate sources and being aware of the limitations that being a non-POC has. “I think the research and education part is important, but … that in itself has limitations because you can't get the real-life experience,” Foster says. “You need to put somebody on your level so you can give them the opportunity to speak to the real life experiences. Because being Black is multifaceted; everything is intersectional.”b

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VOICES

A-TOWN After some exploration, one Backdropper sees their college town in a whole new light BY ANDIE HUNT | PHOTOS BY DYLAN BENEDICT

pon signing the lease on my house for the fall 2020 semester, the owners told me that it was built in the 1800s on President Street and moved not once, but twice, before it ended up where I live. As it was the early 19th century, the house was moved by horses through the streets of Athens. This discovery reminded me to look at this town with an eye of wonder instead of taking the bricks and their history for granted. Whether someone has lived in a town for three years or a lifetime, there is always something new to uncover. Living like a tourist close to home allowed me to break out of the routine of life interrupted by the coronavirus. Since social outings aren’t the safest way to pass the time, this adventure gave me an outlet to avoid potential boredom, while being a responsible citizen, and learning something along the way. “A building might just be an old building, then you learn something about it and the more you learn about it, the more interesting and fascinating it becomes,” says Tom O’Grady, a 40year Athens resident and Director of Development and Outreach and Director of Emeritus at the South East Ohio History Center. “You find out who designed it, where the materials came from that they built it with, and who lived there, or who worked in it, or what kind of an event occurred there, or who gave a speech there, and all of a sudden the building gets more and more and more important.” The site of the diner on Court Street was once a premiere hotel of America built by Edward Berry in 1893. The Berry Hotel created a new standard of hospitality as the first hotel in the country to provide Gideon bibles in each room, as well as sewing kits, cologne and individual closets for travelers. Berry attended the Albany Enterprise Academy just 11 miles down the road and became the

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most successful Black businessman in Ohio in the early 1900s. The OU Foundation purchased the hotel in 1961 and turned it into a parking lot in 1974. Pictures I have found feature bay windows and balconies, and a commanding brick structure that was fought for by Berry and his wife Martha. Decades later, I am curious as to why an architectural and cultural hub of Athens would be destroyed. The diner in the location of the old Berry Hotel.

On the corner of West Washington and Maple streets stands a two-story white house, taller than it is wide. A bronze plaque with gold letters is the only sign of antiquity. In 1886, this house served as the wedding venue for renowned leaders in higher education: Booker T. Washington and Olivia A. Davidson. Prior to meeting Washington, Davidson attended the Albany Enterprise Academy. The house was owned by Davidson’s sister and brother-in-law, and

is now a student rental. Following the curve of the road down South Shafer Street, I found myself with the bike path and Hocking River to my right. Across the street from the Convocation Center is the oldest house in Athens built in 1803 and believed to be the work of Revolutionary War hero, Silas Bingham. Originally built on South Green Street, the Bingham House served as the first courthouse in Athens. Moved in 1853, the house found new residence on East State Street until 1987 when the building was dismantled and relocated to its current location on the southwest corner of Richland Avenue and Shafer Street. The repurposed yellow poplar logs were reinforced with cement to maintain the historic integrity in the modern era. On the horizon, I saw the Ridges and a flock of vultures circling overhead like a dark cloud in an otherwise clear blue sky. The Athens Lunatic Asylum was the first building Levi T. Scofield ever designed and the largest building in the state of Ohio at the time. At 26 years old, the Connecticut Western Reserve resident created a series of buildings that would shape Athens’ history. The Ridges, as they were renamed by the university, are few of the last-standing buildings by Scofield. One of Scofield’s better-known works is the Cuyahoga County Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Monument on Public Square in downtown Cleveland. As the single sculptor, architect and benefactor, Scofield’s civil war monument is one of the largest in the country. On Depot Street, the Baltimore & Ohio (B&O) Railroad ran right through town until the 1980s. Still, the original train depot remains with the Queen Anne style architecture, painted blue with a plot of freshly mowed grass in front where freight and passenger trains alike passed through during the 20th century. From 1976 to 1981, students of OU could hop on the “Shenandoah” Amtrak train to get from one end of campus to the other. I imagined running from Grover to Schoonover over my three years at OU and how nice it would have been to have the train do the work for me. Upon finding the building, an “open” sign invited me in. I was greeted at the door and welcomed inside by the sole employee. It had an echo of old wood, when each floorboard creaked the sound bounced to the other side of the room, and I knew I could whisper and be heard. The depot is now a leasing office for the properties behind it, but the interior feels just as it would have 40 or more years ago. Nestled between Oxbow Trail and South Green Drive is Emeriti Park. Although the streets surround, it is a sweet escape with a fountain to drown out the noise. A plethora of benches allows for meditative moments from the various vantage points surrounding the water. It provides a setting for plant diversity and wildlife, like sleepy deer and fat groundhogs. Nearly all the elements, from trees to benches to gardens, are dedicated to the educators and community members that have left their legacy in town and on campus. This park serves as a memorial to the people of the past that worked to create our present. Schoonover Center once served as the campus hub, Baker Center. It was an architectural site to be seen, equipped with the old Front Room café, a billiards room and a bowling alley. The building served as a cultural center where townies and students gathered to hear famous bands and influential speakers, such as the Reverend

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. In 2006, the building was renovated and officially became the Steven L. Schoonover Center for the convergence of the Scripps College of Communication in 2013. “The university is in an arms race with all the other campuses in America—they think they have to have bigger and better,” O’Grady said. “They ended up with bigger but not better, it’s not really progress…it was a cultural hub.” A walk across campus offers what could be considered the largest The Bingham House, the first Court House in Athens.

open-air museum of Frank Packard’s architecture in the country. “America’s foremost institutional architect” designed many of the buildings that house our intellectual growth, but we know them as Bentley, Ellis, Gordy, Scripps, and Tupper halls. Four other OU buildings designed by Packard have been torn down, and more are on the verge of a similar fate, such as the President Street Academic Center (PSAC). Packard took an integrated approach to erecting buildings within a town by using the materials produced or sourced locally, such as the brick and oak that were so plentiful in Ohio. As his life’s works are demolished one after another, the remaining structures have increased meaning. Beyond the history of a building is its foundation: its physical elements. The yellow poplar logs that form the Bingham house and the brick laid by Edward Berry for his hotel, these history-rich materials are often put into a landfill for the next few centuries instead of rendered for further use. Buildings have been relocated when there was less technology, or had money invested into them for repairs, but it seems the modern impulse is to scrap the old for cheap and make something generic in its place. A previous life turned into rubble and forgotten, except for the few people that told the stories and fought for a plaque to tell it long after they are gone. My tour through town revealed much more to me beyond just the history of this town, but rather illuminated the active strides being taken to tear it down. The politics of preservation serve to decide which history should be remembered, relocated or replaced. How long these places will continue to exist is uncertain, so take a stroll down memory lane before it’s forgotten. b

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Exhibit A. BY NATE SWANSON

Nate Swanson is a photo journalist at Ohio University who placed second in the Photo Journalism Features and News Competition of the 2020 - 2021 Hearst Journalism Awards Program. He currently works as the photo editor for The Post. Many of the photos I took captured pivotal moments of 2020 both in Athens and in Chicago, where I’m from and where I learned to use a camera as a teenager starting out in high school. Much of what I submitted for Hearst was from assignments I took while working as photo editor with The Post, while others were taken when I was home in Chicago.

ABOVE

An enormous crowd of Ohio University students follow and protest far-right gun rights advocate Kaitlin Bennett as she enters Baker University Center on Monday, Feb. 17, 2020. Bennett has gained popularity and infamy for her work as an Infowars contributor and as a member of libertarian media outlet Liberty Hangout.

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RIGHT

Protestors clash with Chicago police officers on Saturday, May 30, 2020. CPD retaliated by deploying multiple cans of tear gas and wielding their batons during several scuffles in the streets and alleyways. Protestors marched their way through The Loop and Lake Shore Drive just days after George Floyd was killed at the hands of the Minneapolis Police Department, leaving behind a trail of glass and fire with millions of dollars in destroyed property. The day of riots eventually ended with the bridges raised over the Chicago River so officers could attempt to trap and arrest the demonstrators.

LEFT

A child gives a thumbs down toward the media following President Trump's notorious disapproval of the "fake news" at his Circleville, Ohio, rally on Saturday, Oct. 24, 2020.

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backdrop | Spring 2021

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Vol. 14 Issue 3

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