SINCE 1891
THE BROWN DAILY HERALD THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 15, 2016
VOLUME CLI, ISSUE 65
WWW.BROWNDAILYHERALD.COM
LGBTQ Center hire focuses on community UCS introduces
accessibility initiatives
Je-Shawna Wholley tasked with supervising center’s staff, coordinating resources for students
Council aims to translate documents into multiple languages, expand access to support deans
By KASTURI PANANJADY SENIOR STAFF WRITER
This fall, the LGBTQ Center welcomed its newest staff member, Program Coordinator Je-Shawna Wholley. Wholley describes herself as “unapologetically” black, queer and a feminist. She felt Brown would allow her to draw on those identities in the course of her work. “Being a first-generation college student from a relatively low-income background, finding a job has been about survival,” she said. “However, I grew to value myself and the work that I do and realized that I deserved to work for an institution that would value me. I got the impression that I would be valued here at Brown.” The creation of Wholley’s new position comes as a result of the Diversity and Inclusion Action Plan, said Kelly Garrett, director of the LGBTQ Center. Wholley’s primary responsibilities will include supervising undergraduate and graduate student staff at the LGBTQ Center and coordinating the center’s support resources. In the long term, Wholley will likely contribute to the center’s gender and sexuality sensitivity
By ROSE SHEEHAN SENIOR STAFF WRITER
COURTESY OF JE-SHAWNA WHOLLEY
Je-Shawna Wholley, the new program coordinator for the LGBTQ Center, comes to Brown after having worked as an activist on a national level. training for faculty members, staff members and student groups, Garrett said. “We could see that Je-Shawna would connect well with students,” Garrett said. “She has an amazing ability to bridge academia and theory with the practical.”
The position is Wholley’s first job out of graduate school — she graduated from Minnesota State University at Mankato in May with a master’s degree in gender and women’s studies. Her studies focused on intersectionality. » See LGBTQ, page 2
The Undergraduate Council of Students discussed new initiatives to improve the accessibility of various campus resources, including a plan to translate crucial documents for students into multiple languages, at its general body meeting Wednesday. “There are a lot of families who apply to Brown, and English is not their first language — whether they’re international families, immigrant families, undocumented families, etc. — and so we want Brown to be accessible to everyone,” said Yuzuka Akasaka ’18, treasurer of UCS. The focus is now on selecting key documents and the languages into which they will be translated, Akasaka said. UCS President Viet Nguyen ’17 also said the initiative has the potential to set a standard of accessibility for other universities. “We looked at what other universities were doing in terms of translation services and interpretation services,
and there’s actually very little going on right now,” Nguyen said. “So a lot of schools don’t have the basic accessibility when it comes to language.” Nguyen also introduced a plan to more effectively advance policies through coalition building among Category 3 student groups. “If we can say 36 student groups support this … it’s a lot more powerful when we go to the administration,” he said. The first step in this process will be pushing for mandatory sexual assault training for all Category 3 groups, he added. UCS members also discussed an initiative to provide confidential resources to students at a range of identity centers throughout campus. The impetus for this project was criticism of the University’s allegedly blanket support system and supposed failure to acknowledge that “different intersections respond differently” to events and experiences, said Naveen Srinivasan ’19, chair of the Student Activities Committee. Srinivasan said he would like the University to hire psychotherapists or social workers of relevant identities to staff each center. “But in the interim, we’re looking for representatives from the Title IX Office or representatives from Counseling and Psychological » See UCS, page 2
‘Indignation’ evokes Maya codex deemed oldest text in Americas Team of anthropologists, proves questions of identity archaeologists authenticity of centuriesFilm explores pressures to conform on college campus, restrictiveness in conservativism By MADISON RIVLIN SENIOR STAFF WRITER
An incredibly poignant commentary on grappling with identity on a spiritual, sexual and intellectual level, “Indignation,” the film adaptation of the Philip Roth novel, explores protagonist Marcus Messner’s emotional suffocation in rebelling against conformity. “Indignation” follows the story of Marcus, a precocious young man from Newark, New Jersey, struggling with his sexual inexperience and bound for Winesburg College in an attempt to escape the Korean War draft. In Newark, Marcus — played by Logan Lerman — worked in his father’s butcher shop
ARTS & CULTURE
INSIDE
and, through his admission into Winesburg, evades his father’s control over his whereabouts and future. Marcus leaves for Ohio to attend Winesburg, a fictional, Christian university that condones social conservatism through strict bedtime curfews and limited co-educational interactions, requires weekly attendance at chapel and inhibits intellectual discourse in controversial matters. As an atheist who grew up Jewish, Marcus feels suffocated by the omnipresence of seemingly puritanical ideals and the college’s emphasis on weekly prayer. Marcus’s feelings of repression are exacerbated by Dean Caudwell’s disrespect toward his beliefs. Rather than offer Marcus solace for feeling out of place, Caudwell, played by Tracy Letts, doubts Marcus’s ability to interact with others, interrogating him and later casting him as a spoiled only child. Despite Lerman’s unconvincing performance in conveying Marcus’s anger, Letts artfully elicits an intense frustration from the audience » See INDIGNATION, page 4
old manuscript
By RACHEL GOLD SENIOR STAFF WRITER
When an ancient Mayan scribe put paint to fig bark sometime around the turn of the 13th century, he hardly could have imagined that his bark sheets would ultimately make their way around the world — via the Internet, no less. But such has been the journey of the Grolier Codex, a Maya astrological manuscript, which can now be considered the oldest known book produced in the Americas, after recent research by a quartet of researchers eliminated questions about the manuscript’s legitimacy. In a 50-page paper published in the journal Maya Archaeology — which also included a pull-out facsimile of the codex — the team analyzed the content and physical structure of the text, offering evidence to counter each
COURTESY OF JUSTIN KERR
Researchers confirmed the legitimacy of an ancient Maya astrological calendar, which was discovered under questionable circumstances. prior criticism. studied,” said Stephen Houston, pro“We felt that this document — fessor of social science, director of the which had been criticized and dis- University’s program in early cultures counted by a number of scholars to and one of the paper’s authors. “We the extent that it was not held by some needed to get together and review people to be genuine — needed to be » See CODEX, page 2
WEATHER
THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 15, 2016
ARTS & CULTURE Novelist Tim Murphy ’91 discusses new book, advice for aspiring writers
ARTS & CULTURE #brownconnect social media campaign encourages students to share summer experiences online
COMMENTARY Al-Salem ’17: Facebook likes do not represent real relationships, so value actual friendships
COMMENTARY Krishnamurthy ’19: Have-ityour-way tendencies contribute to discord, segregation in U.S.
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PAGE 2 • THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 15, 2016
THE BROWN DAILY HERALD
» LGBTQ, from page 1
MARIANNA MCMURDOCK / HERALD
UCS announced initiatives that aim to increase the accessibility of administrators and crucial documents for students at its first meeting.
»UCS, from page 1 Services to hold open hours within each of the centers.” Centers equipped with confidential resources would include the Sarah Doyle Women’s Center, the Brown Center for Students of Color and the LGBTQ Center, he added. A possible program to make support deans accessible to students in
dorms and lounges was introduced as well. The program would connect deans with students rather than forcing “people who need their questions addressed” to seek out deans in University Hall, Nguyen said. “We want it to be very low key,” he said, adding that the casual environment should be more conducive to conversations between deans and students.
Wholley has always been involved in community activism, said Shannon Miller, chair of Mankato’s gender and women’s studies department. While conducting research for her degree, Wholley participated actively in program development at Mankato. Miller said she expects Wholley will “not only be active on campus,” but also keep the national LGBTQ community in her mind as she adjusts to Brown, she said. “She’s probably already started doing amazing things (at Brown) and will really unite (Brown’s) campus and get people talking that have not spoken to each other before,” Miller said. Before graduate school, Wholley worked for the National Black Justice Coalition, a civil rights organization that advocates on behalf of black LGBTQ people. She traveled around the country connecting with black LGBTQ college students. “My job was to make sure that they were informed and were informing our policy advocacy,” Wholley said, adding that the
» CODEX, from page 1 the evidence with time, with more dispassion and determine what we now believe to be true.” The codex is essentially a calendar, documenting the cycles of Venus and associating these cycles with different Maya deities to assist in divination efforts. Each sheet features the lines, bars and glyphs of the Maya writing system — which Houston has played
experience of ensuring that a national nonprofit remained grounded in grassroots activism would be particularly useful in her new job. “Brown students have a reputation for being politically active,” she said. “I’m able to navigate that realm in a way that honors their right to speak while helping them remain productive so that they can accomplish their goals.” Occasionally, working to advance LGBTQ rights at a national level made her feel like she was spread too thin, she said. “I want to spend time in the community and build relationships with the students” at Brown. Wholley’s own journey as a queer activist began as an undergraduate at Spelman College, where she reluctantly agreed to be president of the school’s LGBTQ student group, Afrekete. Wholley struggled with feelings of inadequacy and inexperience as a representative of Afrekete. “I didn’t feel that I could speak for the community. I didn’t experience violence or abandonment from my family as a result of being queer
— my mother never let her journey of acceptance interfere with being my mom,” she said. Wholley only began to embrace her role as president of the group once she understood that she could use the position to amplify the stories and concerns of people in her community. Wholley’s experience leading Afrekete also made her a staunch believer in the power of politicized programming. In a push back against Morehouse College’s “appropriate attire” policy, Afrekete created a drag fashion show on Spelman’s campus to provide queer people from Spelman and beyond with the opportunity to come together and express their identities. “This was our way of saying that not only are we not going to be silent about this, we’re also going to take up space,” she said. Wholley added that she would like to bring similar programming to campus if students expressed interest. “Storytelling is a method of activism. That’s how I see my work as a leader,” she said.
a significant role in deciphering, earning a MacArthur Genius Grant for his work. “The book itself isn’t a work of surpassing beauty,” Houston said. “It’s a kind of everyday book used by a priest in a Maya town a few centuries before the Spanish conquest. What makes it interesting is that it’s a book of the sort the Maya had by the thousand.” In the mid-1960s, looters found the text in a cave in the Yucatan, and through a series of transactions, it ended up in the Grolier Club in New York. Because of these dubious circumstances surrounding its discovery, scholars clashed on its authenticity for decades. Some say the prolonged debate over the codex hinged more on personal bias than historical evidence. Whatever the nature of the suspicions, Houston and the other researchers used every tool available — radiocarbon dating of the paper, chemical testing of the traditional “Maya blue” ink and rigorous analysis of the iconography — to dispel them. Perhaps most convincing is the fact that some of the images in the codex have only become known to Mayanists over the past decade of research. As an example, Andrew Scherer, associate professor of anthropology and archaeology, pointed to a human figure on the second-to-last page of the facsimile, which shows a man with a cleft in his head that has been filled with maize. This image has only been recently understood to be shorthand for the spirit of a mountain. “It is simply impossible that at the time the Grolier was supposedly
forged, extremely detailed information, only known within the last five to 10 years, would have been in possession of a forger in Mexico in 19641965,” Houston said. The text’s authenticity is particularly significant because only three other pre-Columbian texts from the Americas have been discovered. “The Spanish actively burned texts as a way of cultural colonization and evangelization,” said Mallory Matsumoto GS, adding that the humid climate in the Maya region is hardly conducive to book preservation. These aren’t just discoveries impacting Maya researchers: “Knowledge from the academic sphere generated by scholars is being sort of integrated into Maya communities and taken up and used by them in certain ways,” Matsumoto said. “The most famous example is the Pan-Mayan movement in Guatemala. Drawing off studies of the pre-Columbian past, you get this sense of collective Maya identity that did not exist before.” The knowledge surrounding this ancient culture — and the modern world’s ability to understand thoughts recorded over 800 years ago — is constantly growing. “Every couple of months, if not sooner, there’s a new text, a new site excavated, and those are rapidly circulated by email. We know things long before they appear in print,” Houston said. “It’s an exuberantly fun field; there are always new things to learn. The Maya for me have an endless capacity to surprise.”
ARTS & CULTURE THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 15, 2016 • PAGE 3
THE BROWN DAILY HERALD
Murphy ’91 talks writing strategy, LGBTQ rights
Alum’s new book, ‘Christodora,’ centers on treatment for people with HIV/AIDS in the 1990s By JACLYN TORRES ARTS & CULTURE EDITOR
Novelist and journalist Tim Murphy ’91 will visit the Brown Bookstore today to discuss his new acclaimed novel, “Christodora.” The novel grapples with sex, drugs and LGBT activism, centering around a cast of characters living in New York City. The novel was an Indie Next Selection for August and an Amazon Book of the Month. Murphy wrote in an email to The Herald about his inspiration for “Christodora,” his writing process while crafting stories and how he navigated his future after graduating from Brown. Herald: Where do you draw your inspiration from for your novels? Murphy: Novels are so immersive and really drawn from the deepest parts of your inner life, and I think it takes time to find a complete novel. I published two coming-of-age novels in my late 20s, “Getting Off Clean” and “The Breeders Box” — and I wrote one and a half more — and then I became a full-time journalist and did not attempt fiction again for nearly a decade. By the time I started “Christodora,” I had been an HIV/AIDS writer and journalist for 20 years, and I had several years of my own personal demons with depression and addiction — many ups and downs. And all that went into the book, but honestly, when I started it, I did not have a vision for a full novel, so I just started with a novella made up of feelings sitting like a lump in my heart, and that novella is more or less the first chapter of the book. The first several chapters I thought of as a collection of loosely linked short stories, and then the whole thing started to knit together in my head as I wrote. It was a very organically created book for me. How did your time at Brown influence your decision to become a writer? Did your four years here cultivate your love for writing? I was a huge reader and even fiction writer before Brown, but Brown was like a four-year, 24/7 literary and arts salon that never ended — just being surrounded every day and night by brilliant, driven people who were already immersed in their creative careers. I always thought of Brown as a vocational school for very artsy people because you could jump right in and produce theater, film, TV, music. I had a wonderful fiction writing teacher at Brown named Marina Budhos who introduced me to the short fiction
of Flannery O’Connor, Yukio Mishima, so many works that have stayed indelibly on my brain ever since and taught me so much about what makes good writing work. Your latest novel “Christodora” discusses LGBT rights. What are your thoughts on the progress of the movement, and how do you think more progress can be made this year and in the years ahead? Well, the book is more concerned with treatment, research (and) other services for people with HIV/AIDS in the 1980s and early 1990s, but that activist movement was intrinsically an LGBT rights movement as well because so many of the people affected by the epidemic were LGBT at a time when LGBT people had hardly any rights. Gay people did not even have the legal right to visit their lovers in the hospital. As for right now, I would definitely say that priority number one for LGBT folks, as well as all vulnerable groups such as women, nonwhite people, immigrants, Muslims, etc., is to not only elect Hillary Clinton over It — who I can only call Toxic Orange — but to turn as much of the House and Senate blue as well. You have also reported extensively on HIV/AIDS and the new prevention pill PrEP — what does this mean for the LGBT community, and how will this success ultimately further the LGBT movement? I think the new prevention regimen of PrEP — which is taking the HIV med Truvada to prevent HIV — is the biggest HIV breakthrough of the past decade, the biggest thing since effective treatment itself emerged in the mid-late ’90s and started saving lives. I think it has vastly reduced the cloud of fear and anxiety that gay men have lived under for so long. But there are gaps in terms of who is being offered, taking and adhering to PrEP. Rates of PrEP uptake are much lower among gay black men, who have the highest rates of HIV. And solving that is not just about expanding PrEP outreach but looking at all the factors in their lives, like employment and housing and healthcare and family rejection, that impede them from accessing and staying on PrEP. What is your writing process like? How do you develop characters, setting and plot? It is a very slow and immersive process. You are honing in on a time, a place, a story, an idea, a set of feelings, a community of people that fascinates you or holds you emotionally for some reason, and then you start carving characters and circumstances and plot out of that. I don’t really know how it happens. Usually
COURTESY OF TIM MURPHY
Tim Murphy ’91 explores the narratives and treatment processes of people with HIV/AIDS in the 20th and 21st centuries in his new novel, “Christodora.” Murphy credits Brown with much of his development as a writer. I sit down with a very general idea of a chapter or a sequence and then I try to stay really open and listen to the page as I write — not to sound too frou-frou — and see where it takes me. I think you should write what you most want to read and really try to entertain yourself, move yourself, intrigue yourself, stimulate yourself, etc., not to sound too onanistic. What is your advice to Brown students who wish to pursue writing postgraduation? My first piece of advice would be: Don’t do what I did and squander or
minimize your Brown education! Squeeze every bit of reading and writing you can out of those four years and pretend that you’re already doing it professionally. Be ruthlessly open to feedback. Build up a thick skin. If two or more people are giving you the same note, they’re probably right, and you should probably change your work. Whether it’s fiction or theatergoing or journalism, read voraciously, and when you read, don’t just enjoy it, but think hard about what is making it work. What structural choices is the author making to make the work work? Try to get in the habit of writing a bit every
day, even if it’s just for 30 minutes. It’s a muscle you have to exercise just like any other muscle. And finally, I will give you a bit of practical advice, which is, when you’re searching for an agent, read the acknowledgements pages of books that you really love and see who the agent was. You can usually find their contact online. And then when you contact them asking to read your stuff, you should tell them what good taste they have. That’ll give you a huge leap ahead. This interview has been edited for clarity and length.
ARTS & CULTURE PAGE 4 • THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 15, 2016
THE BROWN DAILY HERALD
#brownconnect links summer experiences Social media campaign allows students to discover diverse opportunities during summer months By JENNIFER SHOOK SENIOR STAFF WRITER
The #brownconnect social media campaign started last year as a way to promote BrownConnect, a division of the University’s CareerLAB crafted by President Christina Paxson P’19 as part of an initiative to promote internship opportunities. “Our goal was to increase high-quality internship and research opportunities for Brown students,” said Director of BrownConnect Aixa Kidd. BrownConnect provides these opportunities by relying on Brown’s parent and alumni network to pair students with internships and research work as well as provide financial aid to students with low-paying or unpaid internships. The idea of creating a social media campaign around BrownConnect began as part of a collaboration between a BrownConnect team and a group of senior students completing the Business, Entrepreneurship and Organization capstone course, Kidd said. The students encouraged BrownConnect to use social media as part of its marketing strategy, and BrownConnect responded by building up its Twitter presence and creating
the hashtag #brownconnect as a way to encourage involvement on social media. As part of this social media-based marketing plan, BrownConnect decided to run a #brownconnect campaign over the summer to reach out to students. Students uploaded pictures of themselves at their internships and research locations alongside text about their summer opportunities. The posts were then promoted on Twitter and Facebook and aggregated on a #brownconnect page on BrownConnect’s website. Students posted pictures of diverse summer experiences — such as conducting environmental research in the mountains of Costa Rica, posing under the wing of an airplane at the Boeing Company, standing on the field at Gillette Stadium researching sports medicine and on the floor of the Democratic Convention. The campaign acts as a link between students, BrownConnect, alums and parents, many of whom provide opportunities that BrownConnect offers to students. “#brownconnect is not only for us to learn what our students are doing but to encourage other employers to post amazing opportunities for our students,” Kidd said. Now in its second year, #brownconnect has grown substantially in size, which Kidd credits to the campaign taking some time to catch the attention
of the wider student body. “It takes a year for students to recognize it,” Kidd said. “This year was definitely more successful than last year because students now recognize #brownconnect.” The social media campaign also runs competitions — another recommendation from BEO capstone students. Every month over the summer, BrownConnect awarded the most interesting student submission by sending Meeting Street Cookies to that office. The BrownConnect team has sent Meeting Street cookies all over the globe — to locations including the Bahamas, Hong Kong and California, said Internships Manager Sarah Brown. But #brownconnect contests aren’t summer-exclusive — the campaign continues into the fall, as it will run a November contest targeted at encouraging student groups and organizations to use the hashtag, Brown said. The contest winners will be awarded a $500 prize for their student group budget. The continued success of the campaign has encouraged BrownConnect to continue their #brownconnect social media campaigns in the future. The increase in student engagement with BrownConnect has translated in an increase in alumni engagement with the program as well, Brown said. Alums retweeting and discussing posts encourages job postings and donations for student summer opportunities.
www.browndailyherald.com
MAXWELL SIMEON / HERALD
The Avon Theater is currently screening “Indigation.” The film features Logan Lerman as Marcus Messner, an atheist college student.
» INDIGNATION, from page 1 that effectively rescues the scene and evokes sympathy for Lerman’s character. Marcus’s parents, played by Linda Emond and Danny Burstein, only continue to emphasize the importance of conformity, urging Marcus to become involved in the Jewish fraternity on campus as they are acquainted with certain members. Emond transcends her unimpassioned script, embodying motherly love as she says she wishes for Marcus to fulfill the “American dream.” Marcus’s parents forbid him from seeing his love interest — Olivia Hutton, portrayed by Sarah Gadon — as her mental health issues and history of self-harm do not conform to their standards for his romantic interests. This emphasis on conformity manifests itself in actors’ diction as well. Lerman and Gadon maintain a certain linguistically articulate speech pattern that overemphasizes vowel sounds and formal grammar. Their way of speaking
hinders rash emotional outbursts and stifles raw passionate expression to make the more emotional points of the film less moving. Though Marcus maintains this linguistic poise for the majority of the film — even in his self-reflections and narration — he becomes overwhelmed with emotion when he learns that Olivia has left campus and Caudwell refuses to tell him why. This culminates in his violently, very crudely cursing Caudwell in his presence. A sharp contrast to the formality of the rest of the screenplay, Marcus’s choice to curse Caudwell only deepens the viewer’s understanding of the repression and emotional suffocation Marcus feels. Despite certain shortcomings in its performances, “Indignation” leaves viewers questioning their own identities and further examining the power of pressures to conform in modern society. “Indignation” has a running time of 1 hour and 50 minutes. It is rated R for language and sexual content.
TODAY
THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 15, 2016 • PAGE 5
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ELI WHITE / HERALD
As shopping period draws to a close, clouds loom over the construction on the engineering building. Work on the complex should conclude by 2018.
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“Storytelling is a method of activism. That’s how I see my work as a leader.”
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ACROSS 1 Host of “Late Night Joy” 6 Pennant contest 10 Herbal seed used in smoothies 14 Truly impress 15 Screen image or screen idol 16 Called 17 Eleventh hour 19 Language of Pakistan 20 Beach toy 21 “Otello” composer 22 She played Jackie on “Nurse Jackie” 23 Age of Reason philosopher 25 Short fiction 27 Sloth and envy 29 First name in scat 30 Super __ 33 Words after save or take 36 Afghan capital 39 Lamb nurser 40 Speaker’s stand ... or what each set of circled squares graphically represents 42 Mama bear, in Baja 43 Sauce made with pine nuts 45 Roll dipped in wasabi 46 __ cabbage 47 Drawn tight 49 Big name in golf clubs 51 Bugs’ voice 55 Storied monsters 58 Airline known for tight security 59 About 61 Algerian seaport 63 Humorist Barry 64 Unparalleled 66 Plugging away 67 Heated contest, in more ways than one 68 Aquafina rival 69 Some skinny jeans 70 Torah cabinets
71 Like a neglected garden
DOWN 1 Refuse to, with “at” 2 Outlook messages 3 Lacks choices 4 Quetzalcoatl worshipers 5 High-__ image 6 Jasmine __ 7 Part of an autumn stash 8 Many a beach rental 9 Bitter green in mixed greens 10 Fur-loving de Vil 11 Work that may be imposed with a prison sentence 12 29-state country 13 Feverish bouts 18 “Still ... ” 24 Honda Fit competitor 26 Warning sign in the Rockies 28 High waters 30 Abundance in the cheerleading squad
31 Reverence 32 Observation with a sigh 34 Kwik-E-Mart clerk 35 Kitchen amt. 37 Take for a sucker 38 Little fellow 41 Many an Indian fan 44 Computers that travel well 48 Puget Sound city 50 It’s on the record
51 Wartime award 52 Fill with joy 53 Forty-__ 54 Links hazard 56 Banks with a statue at Wrigley Field 57 Course with leaves 60 Jazz lovers 62 Part of a Wall St. address 65 Meadow drops
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— Je-Shawna Wholley, LGBTQ Center program director
See lgbtq on page 1.
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Coffee With A Cop 8:30 A.M. College Hill Cafe
Finding Funding 12:00 P.M. Rockefeller Library, Hecker Room
Race and the Presidential Election 12:00 P.M. Watson Institute
Study Abroad Info Session 4:00 P.M. BCSC
TOMORROW Games and Brains 12:00 P.M. Metcalf Friedman Auditorium
POBS Open House 3:00 P.M. Department of Portuguese and Brazilian Studies
Tea with the Alpha Delta Phi Society 4:00 P.M. Goddard House
TAPS All-School Ice Cream Social 5:30 P.M. Ashamu Dance Studio
COMMENTARY PAGE 6 • THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 15, 2016
THE BROWN DAILY HERALD
EDITORIAL
Revamping commentary The Herald’s largest job is to facilitate discourse on campus by informing its readership and empowering community members to share diverse, well-supported perspectives with each other. Over the course of fall 2015, it became clear that our commentary section lacked crucial editorial provisions. This was largely because the section was run almost independently of the rest of The Herald. The silo between opinions and the majority of our news writing was put in place out of concern that integrating them would undermine the portions of the paper aiming for objectivity. But this strategy played out as simply lower standards for opinions, and we’ve implemented some major changes to the section since then in order to address that discrepancy in editorial rigor. Before the opinions section was reformed, columnists often submitted pieces to opinions editors the day before publication. Unlike our news pieces, which are all edited in the with the writer present, pieces were simply sent to editors online and edited without the writer. Then, one of the editors of the news section would edit the piece without the opinions editor present. Now, columnists submit pieces to opinions editors a few days before they are to be published, and opinions editors provide a rigorous, conceptual critique. Columnists then revise the piece and edit it once more alongside an editor in the office. Finally, the editor-in-chief or managing editor reads the piece with the opinions editor. Sometimes, even at this stage, editors identify arguments that require clarification, and any significant conceptual changes are worked out with the writer. Additionally, we have reassessed the purpose of opinions pieces, especially those pertaining to sensitive or controversial issues. The purpose of such pieces is to facilitate and frame reasonable discussion among people of disparate views — something not very many publications do anymore. In the words of former New York Times Op-Ed Editor Trish Hall: “We want your thinking to win converts. I have had weeks where I have read op-eds that argue opposite positions. … They are both valid opinions, and if they are well presented, the reader will end up thinking, ‘That makes sense.’” We actively encourage opinions writers — especially when discussing a controversial topic — to empathize with and appeal to the other side instead of stoking the flames of disagreement. Finally, we’ve revamped the production of our editorials, which represent the institutional view of The Herald. Previously, The Herald ran four editorials per week, and they were written by a group of students largely uninvolved in daily production. Editorials will now be published once per week and authored by The Herald’s editorial board, which runs The Herald’s day-to-day operations and leads the staff. These changes ensure that editorials are relevant and timely, as well as that they accurately represent the views of The Herald’s leadership. Publishing opinions in The Herald’s pages comes with a great deal of power and responsibility. These changes have already led to commentary pages of higher quality, and we hope our commentary section will continue to improve over the course of the fall.
R O L A N D H IG H
comic A Horse of Any Other Name | Zach Silberberg
Editorials are written by The Herald’s editorial board: Emma Jerzyk ’17, Joseph Zappa ’17, Andrew Flax ’17 and Caroline Kelly ’17. Send comments to editorials@browndailyherald.com.
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COMMENTARY THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 15, 2016 • PAGE 7
THE BROWN DAILY HERALD
Your Facebook likes don’t make you cool SARA AL-SALEM staff columnist If you’ve ever felt bad about yourself for getting fewer than 50 likes on a photo, please raise your hand. Great, now look around you. The person on your left and the person on your right are the reasons you feel like your social media presence defines your worth. We are both the cause and result of this phenomenon, and even though it should be obvious enough, I will say it for the people in the back: The number of likes you get on Facebook or Instagram does not determine your worth. I realized that people still believe likes are a reflection of character when a coworker of mine sighed dramatically over someone on her newsfeed. I asked what impressed her, thinking she was going to talk about the person as she would a crush, only to find out that the person was “so cool” because they got at least 500 likes on most of their photos. She truly yearned to be better friends with this person based solely on their number of likes. Most people already know that
their status online does not necessarily translate to the real world. However, we all still fall prey to self-doubt when we post a new photo and it doesn’t get the reaction we were anticipating. So we are aware that Facebook likes don’t really mean anything, but we still treat them as the highest acclamations. But let’s break this down. First of
alone. Statistically, if they were to get anything fewer than 500 likes, they could actually be much less popular than the average Joe. But it’s more concerning to me that we take the claim that anyone has 2,000 friends seriously. Robin Dunbar, a British anthropologist, famously conducted a study that proved our human brains
at a dinner party, yet we somehow believe that one person can have upwards of a thousand intimate friends. Though most people know their 500-like friends are not really so popular, we may still value them more because of their social-media presence. If we buy into this notion of popularity, we feed into their in-
The number of likes you get on Facebook or Instagram does not determine your worth.
all, the majority of people who get 500 likes are the same people who friend every Tom, Dick and Harry they meet. Sometimes they don’t even have to meet you — if they see any shared connection, be it school, work or friends, they will add you. These people then have at least 1,500 friends on their Facebook accounts
are only capable of a social circle of 150 people. Further, of those 150, we can only really have a meaningful relationship with five of them. Science aside, this seems like a legitimate claim if we think about the relationships we currently have. The majority of us don’t have 150 people we can confidently vouch for
flated sense of coolness. By treating these people like A-listers, we create a culture of celebrity treatment surrounding 2,000 friends and 500 likes. So the next time you feel bad because you only get 40 likes on a photo, remember you are buying into and reinforcing a culture of self-pity linked to socially con-
structed approval ratings. Yes, I understand that not everyone treats Facebook as a true representation of friendships and personalities. While I personally delete people with whom I’m no longer in touch, I know that Facebook is used like the Us Weekly or People magazine of the non-celebrity world. I get that, and I’m not shaming anyone for using the platform to both spy on and create false personae. But I am against blurring the line between the distorted reality of carefully selected portrayals that is Facebook and the real world. I am against treating ourselves as inferior because our photos do not get the same number of likes as This Person or That Person. I will completely shut you down for idolizing a complete nobody because they know how to choose pretty filters and click ‘Add Friend’ for anyone who walks past them. Your 40 likes from people who actually know you should mean more to you than 500 likes from people who don’t even know how they know you.
Sara Al-Salem ’17 is actually secretly salty that you didn’t like her photo and can be reached at sara_al-salem@brown.edu.
A toxic culture of customization ANUJ KRISHNAMURTHY staff columnist The summer is supposed to be a time of freedom — from all the banal obligations of life, from stress and tension, from the monotony of routine. But instead, just like my spectacularly un-lit Tinder, the past few months produced one calamitous disappointment after another. Violence against black men, gay people and police officers ravaged American communities on far too many occasions and claimed far too many casualties. In the meantime, two major party political conventions, immersed in shameless self-congratulation, offered little in the way of spiritual guidance or leadership. Even Harambe, the beloved gorilla at the Cincinnati Zoo, and an unfading emblem of the American spirit, could not survive the nation’s moral unraveling. Despair, it seems, does not discriminate. I like to think of myself as a patriot: I love this country dearly. That is why this summer’s disasters instilled in me — and most Americans, I imagine — an existential anxiety: Are we, as a people, even capable of love and peace and compassion anymore? Incisive introspection may not be our people’s strong suit, but I did get my answer in typical Yankee fashion: on TV. A few weeks ago, I was watching “Naked and Afraid” — they have great survival tips, really — when, during a commercial break,
a southern drawl spilled out of the television speakers. The voice asked me, “Why are you dating a city girl?” (Full disclosure: I was not dating a “city girl” at the time, nor am I dating one now, but I am very much open to the possibility.) The ad proceeded to promote the merits of courting a woman well versed in agricultural pursuits, like horseback riding and cattle raising. It ended with a catchy jingle:
even our romantic partners — and have them satisfied. To be American today is to know what you want right from the get-go and get it without the inconveniences of coping or compromise. This new mentality, of course, cannot be good for individuals or for society. Life isn’t a Starbucks drink, and the people in our lives aren’t shots of espresso or sprinkles of cin-
To be American today is to know what you want right from the get-go and get it without the inconveniences of coping or compromise.
“You don’t have to be lonely, at FarmersOnly. com!” For a moment, I was stunned. It took me a while to come to terms with the fact that a dating service for farmers actually exists. But my initial bewilderment passed quickly and gave way to a more disconcerting revelation: We now possess the ability to demand precise specifications — from our coffee, our news,
namon — accessories that we can deliberately manipulate to achieve a desired result. Not only is such jerry-rigging obviously nonsensical, but it is also fundamentally divisive. When farmers only date farmers, or when Christians only date Christians — I see you, ChristianMingle.com — we, as a people, internalize an exclusive and highly un-American lesson: Love is to be showered only upon
people who are similar to us, in faith or in occupation; those who are different, even remotely, are unworthy of our affection. The consequences of this homogeneous love, both romantic and platonic, are serious. According to some studies, marriage between members of the same socioeconomic class may be responsible for one-third of the past half century’s increases in income inequality. And the poor state of today’s race relations can be explained, in part, by the fact that three-quarters of white Americans don’t have any non-white friends, so their social exposure is limited entirely to the white experience. Sectionalist relationships really do have the potential to reinforce existing stratification, restrict social mobility and perpetuate de facto segregation. In the end, it doesn’t take a genius or a whole lot of life experience to see that life usually transcends our fallible premeditations. That’s why I don’t particularly like the new American, hell-bent on absolute personalization, unwilling to even consider the unfamiliar or the uncomfortable. So let’s all resolve to resist this rather repugnant mindset and the kind of love that goes along with it — the kind built on superficial and often irrelevant similarities, like religion, salary and profession. Can’t our shared American-ness and our common humanity — or at the very least our collective love for Harambe (HaramBAE?) — be enough?
Anuj Krishnamurthy ’19 can be reached at anuj_krishnamurthy@brown.edu.
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ARTS & CULTURE THE BROWN DAILY HERALD
THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 15, 2016
PBS documentary highlights couple’s bravery in WWII Story of Brown alum and husband who saved hundreds from Nazis in Europe inspires film By ROLAND HIGH SENIOR STAFF WRITER
Driven by Artemis Joukowsky III’s decades of zealous research, “Defying the Nazis: The Sharps’ War,” tells a story of compassionate heroism. Told in the familiar style of two-time Oscar nominee Ken Burns, the film focuses on Joukowsky’s grandparents’ intervention in Nazi-occupied Europe. The film also happens to boast abundant connections to Brown. Also, an exhibition, “A Hymn for the Brave: the Sharps and Humanitarian Work in World War II,” will soon be on display in the John Hay Library. A screening of the film will be shown at the exhibition’s opening reception Sept. 20, and PBS will air the film that day. Joukowsky’s father, Artemis Joukowsky II ’55 LLD’85 P’87 GP’13 GP’14 GP’17, served as Chancellor of the University from 1997 to 1998, while his mother, Martha Joukowsky ’58 PhB’82 LHD’85 P’87 GP’13 GP’14 GP’17, is professor emerita of old world archaeology and art and anthropology. Together, they founded Brown’s Joukowsky Institute for Archaeology and the Ancient World. Martha Joukowsky was just two years old when her parents, Martha Sharp ’26 P’58 GP’87 and Waistill Sharp P’58 GP’87 — the director’s grandparents — were called upon by the Unitarian Church to help Czechoslovakian refugees escape the tightening grip of the Third Reich. They were the 18th couple to be asked by the church to abandon their careers and families, but they were the first to accept. Once in Prague,
the Sharps organized help for hundreds of people — including political dissidents — using whatever means were available. After returning to their children, the Sharps went to Europe once again to help refugees escape France. The film draws from the interviews that Joukowsky conducted with his relatives, the children of refugees the Sharps helped and correspondence from the Sharps. Tom Hanks narrates these letters, which have been donated to Brown, as the voice of Waitstill Sharp. Marina Goldman reads the letters of Martha Sharp. Lion Feuchtwanger, a GermanJewish novelist at the top of the Gestapo’s hit list, was one of the refugees Waitstill Sharp guided from France across the Spanish border. After boarding a ship in Portugal bound for New York City, Feuchtwanger asked Sharp why he was risking his life for people thousands of miles from his home. “I’m not a saint,” Waitstill Sharp answered. “I’m capable of any of the many sins of human nature. … I do what I do without any piety at all.” Feuchtwanger, surprised, asked, “You get enough reward out of that?” “Yes, I do,” Sharp replied. Together with the touching interviews of refugees saved and aided by the Sharps, the movie’s narration spins a dramatic story that is, as Martha Joukowsky points out, very relevant today. “Particularly with the refugee crisis we have,” she said, the film “has relevance because my parents took righteous action.” Producer of the film, Matthew Justus, echoed the sentiment, seeing a strong correlation between today’s refugee crisis and the one in which the Sharps intervened. “I think it starts with interest. … Before a problem can be solved, you have to shed light on it,” he said.
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