Friday, February 23, 2018

SINCE 1891

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 23, 2018

VOLUME CLIII, ISSUE 21

WWW.BROWNDAILYHERALD.COM

U. produces most Fulbright scholars U. releases statement Thirty-nine Brown regarding racist flyers students selected to travel, teach English, complete independent projects

After black students voice concerns, Paxson affirms commitment to black community members

By LYDIA DEFUSTO SENIOR STAFF WRITER

For the second consecutive year, the University has produced the largest number of Fulbright scholars of any U.S. institution, according to data from The Chronicle of Higher Education published Feb. 18. Though the Fulbright Program notified the 39 award recipients from Brown in May 2017 — and the scholars are currently participating in the program — the group only recently released university rankings by number of scholarship recipients.

“Brown’s emphasis on independent learning and on risk-taking and creativity … contribute to making the Fulbright Program a really good fit for Brown students,” said Linda Dunleavy, associate dean of the college for fellowships.

The University has placed among the top 10 institutions with the largest

By ALLIE REED SENIOR STAFF WRITER

number of Fulbright scholars for the past decade, according to a University press release. But for the 201718 academic year, Brown produced 10 more Fulbright scholars than the second-ranked school: the University of Notre Dame, which produced 29 scholars, according to The Chronicle of Higher Education.

“This year’s results were pretty extraordinary,” Dunleavy said. “We’re really thrilled.”

MARLIS FLINN / HERALD

The Fulbright Program, which has existed since 1946, aims to foster “bilateral relationships in which citizens and governments of other countries work with the (United States) to set joint priorities and shape the program to meet shared needs,” according to the Fulbright U.S. Student Program website. The Fulbright committee looks for “students who are really open to cultural exchange and who » See FULBRIGHT, page 5

In response to the racist flyers found around the University, concerned undergraduate black students issued a joint statement in bluestockings magazine Feb. 14 expressing concerns about the University’s silence on the matter.

After community pushback, President Christina Paxson P’19 addressed the “racism in our community” in a message through a Today@Brown letter Feb. 21.

Following the spread of the flyers Feb. 3, some undergraduate black students have become “concerned for the psychological and physical safety of Black students, workers and residents of the Providence community and outraged at the complete silence from Brown University and nearby

institutions,” according to the joint statement. Vanguard America, a white supremacist group known for spreading hateful propaganda, is responsible for the flyers and pamphlets that accused “Providence of supporting ‘Negro Crime’ and committing ‘White Genocide,’” the statement said. The Herald could not independently verify this claim.

“The flyers found on Brown’s campus are part of a calculated nationwide strategy to amplify racist, far-right rhetoric, draw in young white audiences and bring openly white supremacist views into mainstream discourse,” the statement read.

The University has not been able to confirm the “exact whereabouts” of the locations at which flyers were reportedly distributed on campus, Paxson wrote.

On Feb. 5, the Providence chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People held a press conference to demonstrate their outrage regarding the perpetrators’ » See STATEMENT, page 3

State senator resigns Leonidas ’21 named Ivy Rookie of the Week amid criminal charges Freshman guard averages Bipartisan legislation calls for Kettle’s expulsion after sex extortion, video voyeurism charges

By DYLAN CLARK STAFF WRITER

State Senator Minority Whip Nicholas Kettle, R–21, resigned Feb. 22 amid a multitude of legal charges. Kettle was arrested Feb. 16 for two counts of extorting sex from a Rhode Island State House page in 2011 and an unrelated charge of video voyeurism. Kettle was released on personal recognizance on Monday after pleading not guilty, according to the Providence Journal.

Kettle released a statement yesterday regarding his resignation, thanking his constituents for the privilege of seven years of service. “However, I am extremely disappointed in Senate Leadership on both sides of the aisle,” the statement read. Kettle claimed that both Senate President Dominick Ruggerio, D–4, and Senate Minority Leader Dennis Algiere, R–38, did not “understand the importance of due

INSIDE

process as a cornerstone of our legal system.”

Bipartisan legislation filed on Feb. 21 to expel Kettle from the Senate was sponsored by Ruggerio and Algiere, among others. Senators are allowed to expel members with a two-thirds vote under Article VI, Section 7 of the Rhode Island State Constitution. This would have been an unprecedented move for the State legislature, which has not expelled a member using Article VI since 1843, according to the Providence Journal. The vote was planned for Feb. 27.

The day before the legislation was filed, American Civil Liberties Union Executive Director Steven Brown, in a letter to Senate members, asked that they tread carefully. “Rather than rush an expulsion vote, we believe it is critical for the Senate to first consider the ground rules for this novel process,” the letter read. The ACLU acknowledged the seriousness of the charges brought against Kettle but remained adamant that expelling him immediately could set a dangerous precedent. “I don’t think that » See STATE, page 5

18 points per game in weekend tour against Harvard, Dartmouth

By ALEX SMOLAR SENIOR STAFF WRITER

Dominique Leonidas ’21 has been red-hot for the women’s basketball team lately. After scoring a careerhigh 21 points against Harvard Friday, Leonidas posted 15 points the following night against Dartmouth on an efficient 7-12 shooting. In her last three games, Leonidas has shot an impressive 63 percent from the field.

For her high-scoring efforts last weekend, Leonidas was awarded the honor of Ivy League Rookie of the Week and has been named The Herald’s Athlete of the Week.

Herald: Congratulations on winning Ivy League Rookie of the Week. How does it feel to be recognized for your performance in your freshman season?

Leonidas: If I’m being honest, I don’t really think about it that much. It is a » See AOTW, page 3

COURTESY OF BROWN ATHLETICS

Dominique Leonidas ‘21 scored a career-high 21 points against Harvard Friday night. In the future, she hopes to win the Ivy League Championship.

WEATHER

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 23, 2018

METRO LGBTQ+ groups protest national policy shift away from considering gender identity in bathroom use

NEWS Artemis Project encourages underrepresented genders to explore computer science

COMMENTARY McDonald: Paxson’s promotion of Prospect Medical Holdings threatens Rhode Islanders’ welfare

SPORTS COMMENTARY Schapiro ’19: MLB finally gets it right, installs pace-of-play rules that will ideally quicken games

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THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

Men’s track and field relay takes fourth in UCS Invitational Distance medley relay ranks twelfth nationally, could qualify for national championships

By CORMAC CUMMISKEY STAFF WRITER

On Friday, four members of the men’s track and field team — Captain Tosin Oyewole ’18, Captain Zack Emrich ’18, Zachary Lanigan ’20 and Martin Martinez ’18 — flew to WinstonSalem, North Carolina, to compete in the UCS Invitational, squaring off against some of the nation’s top teams in the distance medley relay. Bruno upset several NCAA powerhouses — including Arkansas, Florida and Virginia — to take fourth place over the 4,000-meter distance. After applying the NCAA’s flat-track conversion rate, Brown’s cumulative time of 9:37.6translates to 9:29.9 for national qualification purposes.

Brown’s time currently ranks twelfth on the national list. After the qualification window closes Feb. 25, the top 12 DMR squads in the country will receive berths to next month’s NCAA Division I Indoor National Championship in College Station, Texas. With only one weekend’s worth of meets remaining in the qualifying period, the Bears will punch their tickets to Texas if they hold their position.

Head Coach Tim Springfield tabbed Lanigan — who boasts the second-fastest times in the Ivy League this season for both 800 and 1,000 meters — to lead off for the Bears.

The race “was a little rough in the beginning. … I was aggressive in holding my ground,” Lanigan said. Robert Domanic, “the 3:54 miler from Ole Miss, came up on my shoulder. He tried to cut my lane, so I gave him a bit of a push. The Ole Miss coach actually yelled at me.”

Though Lanigan kept pace with the frontrunners for most of the opening 1,200-meter leg, the Australian’s wheels fell off a bit in the final stretch.

“I think my race ended at about the 1,120 (meter mark). I kind of faded a little bit,” Lanigan said. He nevertheless recorded a strong time of 2:57.8 for his

carry, crossing the line in fifth position, 2.7 seconds out of first.

The team’s 400-meter man, Oyewole, took off like a shot upon receiving the baton from Lanigan. For an intense 49.34 seconds, the senior captain wrestled with centripetal force, delivering his team to the handoff zone in sixth place overall.

Oyewole was unhappy with his performance, explaining that a longstanding lower back complaint, aggravated by the unbanked track surface, had restricted his speed around the curves.

“I hate (the flat track) with a burning passion, especially with my lower back injury. Running those tight turns on a flat track really does not translate well for me,” he said. “But you have to put those excuses aside and try to give your teammates the best performance you can.”

One captain handed off to another as Emrich set off on the third 800-meter leg of the relay. Though he was 4.2 seconds behind the leaders at the outset, Emrich remained undaunted.

“I was just focused on competing with the guys in front of me,” he said.

“A race environment with that much intensity — it’s really easy to bring it, especially when you’re surrounded by your teammates.” Emrich, whose 1:50.3 split time was the third-fastest in the field, passed a flagging rival from Virginia to lift Brown into fifth place.

Then it was all down to Martinez on the 1,600-meter closing leg. The subfour miler sprinted to catch the leaders.

“I went out in about 27 (seconds) for the first 200 (meters) and about 57 (seconds) for the 400, which obviously isn’t ideal if you’re trying to run a fast time,” Martinez said. “I was really hurting at 600.” Despite the blazing early pace, Martinez closed strongly, coming home fourth in a time of 4:00.2 — the second-fastest split of the day.

At the finish, Brown’s contingent of coaches and athletes burst into celebration. “Our head coach, Tim Springfield — when he’s very excited, he likes to give this Tiger Woods fist pump,” Oyewole said. “He did exactly that when Martin crossed the line.”

“We were hooting and hollering,

COURTESY OF BROWN UNIVERSITY

Tosin Oyewole ’18, Martin Martinez ’18, Zack Emrich ’18 and Zachary Lanigan ’20 ranked twelth on the national list for their 4,000-meter time, upsetting NCAA powerhouses such as Arkansas, Florida and Virginia. running around with each other,” EmHaving made their best effort to a little bit of uncertainty around that, rich added. “I don’t think anyone got qualify for nationals, all the quartet but we think we have a pretty good to bed before 1:30 in the morning, we can do is wait and see if their time will shot right now,” Martinez said. were so amped up on adrenaline and still rank in the top 12 come Feb. 25.

Oyewole put it even more sucnervous energy.”

“We’re hoping that we’re safe. There’s cinctly: “I’m praying that we make it.”

Activists condemn policy to disregard gender identity in bathroom use Trump administration states Title IX does not prohibit the separation of bathrooms based on sex

By SOPHIE CULPEPPER SENIOR STAFF WRITER

On Feb. 12, the U.S. Department of Education confirmed that it would no longer investigate claims of discrimination regarding students’ inability to use bathrooms that correspond to their gender identities, BuzzFeed first reported.

This is the Trump administration’s first explicit confirmation of a policy shift from the Obama-era default of considering gender identity in cases of bathroom use to be protected under Title IX, according to the same BuzzFeed article. The article also said

that Liz Hill, spokesperson for the U.S. Department of Education, told BuzzFeed that Title IX did not prevent discrimination based on gender identity, and that in school bathrooms, “long-standing regulations provide that separating facilities on the basis of sex is not a form of discrimination prohibited

by Title IX.” Rhode Island LGBTQ+ advocacy groups condemned the national policy.

“The decision of the U.S. Department of Education to not investigate discrimination against trans youth is unconscionable,” said Elana Rosenberg, executive director of Youth Pride Rhode Island, according to a press release from LGBTQ Action R.I. LGBTQ Action R.I. also condemned the policy, according to the press release.

“It certainly seems like this administration does not have the best interests of LGBTQ students at heart,”

said Wendy Becker ’83, volunteer for Youth Pride Rhode Island and assistant professor at Rhode Island College.

This context means the administration’s policy is a “proactive stance against trans kids,” she added.

“I think it’s a slight (of LGBTQ+ youth) based on fear,” said Gloria Crist, drama advisor at Tiverton High School.

The fear stems from the irrational assumption that if sex-regulated bathroom use were relaxed for transgender students, the risk of sexual assault in bathrooms would increase. But “using the bathroom doesn’t mean (anyone) is going to get sexually assaulted,” she added.

Becker also described the policy as constituting “unnecessary fear,” and questioned the purpose of this policy stance. “In most places, trans kids go to the bathroom, and nobody talks about it, and nobody notices, and (everything

just happens). … Trans kids have been using facilities that match their gender identity for a while now,” she said.

In Rhode Island, this national policy is unlikely to have an effect given statewide non-discrimination law related to gender identity, Becker said. Even without the national policy affecting students in Rhode Island, however, transgender students can face harassment in school. Having previously worked as a school social worker and the manager of Youth Pride Rhode Island, Becker saw “kids really be harassed in school” based on their gender identities, she added.

In the case of bathrooms, she knew of transgender students who would avoid using the bathroom the entire day, Becker said.

“The bathroom and other gendered spaces become a real difficult place for them; they feel caught in wanting to live

as genuine human beings, but they’re fearful of what people are going to do or say — and that’s not a way to live,” she added.

Crist praised her school and the entire Tiverton district for having “an incredible non-discriminant(ion) policy.”

“To diminish the experience of trans kids at this time is really the opposite of the way we should be going,” Becker said, as opposed to “more information, more teacher training, more policy to really help schools with what they can do to provide appropriate environments for all their students.”

“We need to do better at letting (transgender students) know that it’s okay to be their genuine selves and use the bathroom that corresponds with their gender identity — and the idea that we would do anything but that is really terrible,” Becker said.

Issue

In This pazia bermeduz-silverman 4

jacob alabab-moser &

anna harvey

K ATHY LUO 2 3

Utopian Visions of Blackness

Bring on the Butter

Have a Little Faith TESSA DEMEYER 6

INTERVIEW WITH TY WALKER

Slope Style?

postCover by Doris Liou

FEB 23

VOL 21 —

ISSUE 4

written By kathy luo – illustration by harim choi

What does it mean to be Christian at Brown?

Have a Little Faith

FEATURE

T

he first question many people ask me when they hear I’m a Christian is one I’ve also asked myself many times. I ask it most often on Sunday mornings, when my phone alarm rings at the unholy hour of 8:30 a.m. and I have yet again made the unwise decision of allowing myself only five hours to sleep. My body feels steam-rolled to the bed, my eyes are burning like the fires of hell, and I regret everything. Sometimes I think just the fact that I leave my bed every Sunday morning could be evidence of a miraculous God. Every time I do it, I inevitably ask myself: Why am I doing this? Why am I a Christian?

My story is actually quite a common one for someone of my background. My parents were not Christian, and neither were theirs. When they joined a local Chinese-American church after immigrating from China, they did it to find a community; God was more of a side effect. But as a result, the household my brother and I were born into was Christian, we grew up attending church, and now, seemingly as another side effect, we’re Christian too.

But as I’ve grown older, I’ve realized that this story is much more nuanced. The fact is, if you’re 20-something years old, go to an even moderately liberal college, and have thought about your identity in any capacity at all, it is impossible for Christianity to be a mere side effect of your life.

Ask any Christian at Brown, and one of the first things they will tell you is that keeping faith is difficult. Christians believe some crazy things by today’s standards: Even the most liberal, interpretive approaches to the Bible have to concede that one entity made the entire galaxy, took the form of some 30-year-old Middle Eastern dude, then got murdered and came back from the dead.

It makes sense that any kind of public declaration of this belief raises some eyebrows and occasionally leads to direct questioning.

Furthermore, while Christians believe in God, they themselves are nowhere close to being omniscient: Any Christian at Brown will also have a story for you about a time when they needed to defend their faith but couldn’t come up with the right answers. They’ll tell you about identity crises, self-doubt, and conversations they regret not being prepared for.

“I was once talking with a friend, and somehow we got on the topic of life after death,” says David Shin ’20. “He asked me if we have a body in heaven, if there’s pain in heaven, and it just spiraled on. I wanted to give more direct answers, but I wasn’t the best source they could have gone to. Eventually we had to go to class.

Letter from the Editor

Sometimes I think just the fact that I leave my bed every Sunday morning could be evidence of a miraculous God.

The conversation just sort of dropped.”

Mikaela Carrillo ’21 experienced something similar with a friend who had been the victim of a natural disaster. “[She] asked a lot of questions about pain, how someone could praise God when their neighbor or someone next to them had died,” Carrillo said. “I just remember feeling so helpless. In those situations, I don’t want to say anything that I’m not completely sure about. But you’re going to come face-to-face with difficult questions, and sometimes that requires being vulnerable to admit that I don’t know.”

Christians at Brown engage in a daily, even hourly, battle of wits between what they’ve chosen to believe and the plethora of counter-evidence that exists around them. But in some ways, this experience of questioning and identity-building is an essential part of the college experience, Christian or not—and something many Christians actively seek as they come to Brown.

“I think the Brown community has enough perspectives so that you’re exposed to viewpoints that really make you think,”

Dear Readers,

Reasons to Cry

Long weekends can be a time for

happens when something you dedicate

reexamination, whether it’s the mundane—

yourself to heart and soul falls just out of

how am I still unable to finish my

reach. Jacob and Pazia’s piece explores the

1. Getting Rick Rolled

homework?—or the more extreme what-

ground-shaking possibility of another world

am-I-doing-with-my-life existential crisis.

presented by Black Panther (also 10/10

2. No spicy mayo at Jo's

would recommend).

Both my and Anna Harvey’s introspections her, and casually eating brunch next to

Rethinking everything, with this issue in

Governor Raimondo at The Salted Slate

hand,

piece attempts to reconcile two parts of her identity, while Ty Walker talks about what

4.

Someone taking your clothes out of the washer

were precipitated by food: Nigella for

(10/10 would recommend) for me. Kathy’s

3. Getting a C on an exam you studied for

Saanya EDITOR - IN - CHIEF

5. When there's a melted Tide Pod on your favorite shirt 6. The Tide Pod meme 7. The old Taylor is dead 8. Buying textbooks 9. When it's sunny out and you have class 10. Seeing a doggo on the Main Green

2!post–

NARRATIVE David Ferranti ’19 said. “The best conversations I’ve had with other people about faith are ones where we both were able to recognize that we thought a lot about this beforehand. We’re not children having an argument, we’re adults having a conversation. The Christian faith for a believer is a choice, and for the nonbeliever, it’s also a choice.”

Sometimes the word “faith” is immediately associated with religion. But applied more generally, faith is a pretty universal human experience. Every day, we make choices that test our faith. When we get in cars, we need to have faith that its parts are working properly, that the engine will run without interruption, that we will reach our destination in one piece. When people enter a relationship, they need to have faith that the other person cares for them too. Faith is necessary for so many things, and yet, it can be challenged and broken: Getting into an accident can cause people to hesitate the next time they have to drive, and a bad breakup can destroy someone’s faith in love for years. But it's that fallibility that makes it faith at all0—0we must first be willing to extend ourselves to receive anything in return.

Faith in a religious context works the same way. Sometimes, especially in moments when I struggle to see God, I wonder why He doesn’t just toss blatant miracles at us so we would never have to doubt. But then, I wonder about how much vibrancy such a faith would have—whether it’d be out of true love for God or simply out of a lack of other realistic options. “I’ve talked about it with my non-Christian friends, and it’s difficult for them to understand what it means to me to have this faith,” said an interviewee from the class of 2020, who asked to remain anonymous. “I think we as humans have a tendency to box off sections of our lives and give certain sections to certain things. But being a Christian, you can’t give half of your faith. You have to give everything to God. I think that vulnerability is very difficult for people to have.” From that point of view, the difficulty of being a Christian is not simply due to the occasional discomforts—it’s hard because in those moments, faith has to persist anyway.

Of course, a more passionate faith is also a more invested one, and this degree of investment is accompanied by an equal amount of risk. Said one interviewee from the class of 2019 who has asked to remain anonymous, “A lot of Christians at Brown are also liberal, so they have to handle the baggage of Christianity often being in confluence with conservatism. So they might not want to show their faith, because they don’t want to be treated like that group. It sucks, because that’s not the way that Christianity is supposed to be.”

It’s an intellectual journey. Being at Brown has challenged my faith, but the college’s spirit of inquisitive learning has also been a great encouragement. Recalling her conversation with her friend again, Carrillo says, “Although I didn’t have the answers I wanted for her, I was grateful to have that opportunity. There are mysteries and things about God and the world that I can’t fully know. But

at Brown, people take initiative with what they’re learning, and they think a lot about what they believe. That’s made a difference in my own spiritual walk. It’s not just routine, it’s thoughtful thinking and really wrestling with hard topics.”

Christians at Brown also seek to build faith through campus community, which is more varied than one might expect. “I was surprised by the Christian community at Brown,” said Tom Hale ’19.

“It was larger and more vibrant than I expected.”

Several Christian groups meet on a weekly basis to have meals together, listen to messages concerning the Bible and faith, and build community through other events like movie nights or off-campus outings. At these gatherings, which can vary from 15 to 50 people, diversity comes through various geographic, cultural, and experiential differences, as well as more technical divisions through denomination, such as Catholic or Protestant.

Although Brown has a reputation for being one of the most liberal universities in the nation, many Christians at Brown have also expressed that this diverse community has helped strengthen their faith during college.

“I didn’t grow up in a Christian family,” Stella Lee ’19 said. “But another family took me to church, and they would pray for me. As I got older, I also got very close with a group of Christian friends that I could talk to. Now most of the relationships I have with Christians are through the friends I’ve made at Brown.” Lee, a junior, didn’t start to actively engage in Brown’s Christian community until this past summer. Nonetheless, she says, “The community here is the best so far I’ve had—it’s not hard to be integrated. Whenever I’m struggling with something, I bring it up to my community and see how they can encourage me through faith.

Seeing how much trust they put in Him is really encouraging. I have a reminder through other people.”

However, sometimes inclusion in one community means difficulty in fitting into another.

The interviewee from the class of 2020 said, “I was once asked to go to a party, and I just couldn’t go. I know I’m a representative of my fellowship and God, and my friends know I’m a Christian. I don’t think things like drinking are necessarily wrong—it’s only when it makes you act in a way that you normally wouldn’t that it can get difficult.”

“To find the community requires effort, energy, and maintenance,” she admits. “It’s one of the hardest yet best decisions I’ve made coming to Brown.”

Finding belonging, dealing with existential crises, and worrying about the future—Christians and non-Christians at Brown tackle a lot of the same issues. At the end of the day, everyone puts their faith in something, and everyone will have it shaken sometimes. I’ve learned that what matters is not how often you’re shaken, but how willing you are to respond to it. For me, I guess part of that response has been 20 years of getting up on sleepy Sunday mornings. I love sleep more than almost anything else in life. So I think that has to mean something.

Bring on the Butter

Nigella-Approved Meals By anna harvey

The night before second semester began, I dropped my suitcase in my room, grabbed my empty backpack, and trekked through the rain to Eastside Marketplace. I was back on campus early, one of the few on my floor and the first of my friends, and I was hungry. I could have rustled up some plain pasta and upped the nutrition quotient with the few peas from the bottom of the bag I’d left in my freezer over break, provided I could hack apart the icy lump that encased them. It might have worked, brightened up with a little bit of pepper nicked from the open container in the communal kitchen, but I was in a cooking mood. I was in a Nigella mood, actually.

According to Nigella, I was about to make one of her “proudest creations,” and I needed linguine, thyme, garlic, mushrooms, and a lemon. So to the supermarket I went.

Nigella Lawson is arguably the paragon of home cooking, especially in an era when all Food Network seems to show is high-octane competitions involving wicker baskets filled with rooster feet and ostrich eggs and far too much puree. Nigella is different. Though she is the daughter of a British lord and was educated at Oxford, she shuns pretension in the kitchen, preferring a primarily English-Italian hybrid style of cooking that is rooted in the revamping of domestic bliss. She leapt onto the culinary scene in 1998, the year I was born, with the publication of her first book, How to Eat. She is unfussy, decadent, comforting, and unabashedly joyful. Nigella delights in the “ritual disemboweling of the lemon” in an episode of her early 2000s cooking show, Nigella Bites. The second season of this show is compiled, in full, on YouTube in a video that clocks in at just over four hours and 47 minutes. I fell in love with this video, along with the pirated versions of her later series, alone in my dorm room freshman year, when I didn’t have access to a kitchen. Watching Nigella exclaim over the smell of nutmeg, “which in large quantities is a hallucinogen, but in small quantities induces a wonderful feeling of...well-being,” I, too, felt well—like I could handle the uncertainty of young adulthood if only my breakfast were properly spiced. So spice I did (with cinnamon, as I soon discovered the smell of nutmeg induces in me a feeling of queasiness, not wellbeing).

One of the first episodes in the second season of Nigella Bites begins with a recipe for mashed potatoes. First thing in the pan: a healthy splash of cream—milk is acceptable, Nigella concedes, as long as you do not even CONSIDER anything less than full-fat. Then go in boiled potatoes, butter, and salt.

Nigella begins to mash. As she mashes the potatoes, Nigella looks lovingly at the golden rectangle of butter shimmering in the silver packet

"I think I'd be really good at being famous."

"Why are you tenderly holding my water bottle?"

"Living vicariously through my friends is my aesthetic." february 23, 2018(3

NARRATIVE

ARTS&CULTURE

Illustrated by Lisa Fasol

Utopian Visions of Blackness Black Panther Re-Imagines Realities of Race and Power

By Jacob alabab-Moser & pazia bermeduz-silverman "When I bought the tickets to see Black Panther with my close friend, sister, niece, and nephew, I knew I was about to witness history. After the movie, we all shared our thoughts. My niece described many scenes as “powerful” and “spiritual,” and it was clear we all agreed. With all of us identifying as Afro-Latinx, we felt personally touched by the film’s recognition of Black Power."

-Pazia Bermeduz-Silverman

next to her bowl, considers for a moment, and slices off another generous pat. She explains, looking at the camera, that extra butter is essential, “as what I’m doing here is seeking protection from life, solely through potato, butter, and cream.” These kinds of maxims permeate each episode and really Nigella’s ethos as a whole. Food is a glorious, nourishing thing, able to ease heartbreak, boost confidence, and make even the most mundane of Mondays magnificent. Whether eaten in the company of friends and family or on the couch in front of the

with “fat stodges of white plastic bread, please”—no small-batch sourdough here. Nigella often works with fresh ingredients. (Indeed, some of the majesty of watching her cook is seeing how she combines piles of vibrant vegetables into one heaping, colorful dish.) Even so, she also embraces processed food, the kind some of her contemporaries would look down upon. (Though she’s an American icon, and one I also adore, Ina Garten’s dejected “storebought is fine” comes to mind when really, everyone watching knows it isn’t, not really.) Nigella sings the praises of simplicity, of ease, even if that means cutting the occasional corner. For her, any cooking is better than no cooking, and that message rings true throughout, whether she’s making a sandwich or a souffle. Her style instills confidence in even the most timid cook. For example, when whipping up a flourless chocolate cake she remarks, “It’s better not to be scared of egg whites—if you’re too scared it does somehow permeate its way into the cooking. You just have to relax,” flicking her wrist as the camera pans to foam swirling together with chocolate, chaos with calm.

By the time I settled my bounty on the gritty countertop of the Perkins third-floor kitchen and rolled up my sweater sleeves, the rain had stopped, and cool air filtered in through the open window.

Nigella sings the praises of simplicity, of ease, even if that means cutting the occasional corner. television, cooking is the ultimate act of caring—for others, but also for oneself.

“Roast Leg of Lamb, For One” is one of her most famous recipes. If Nigella says so, we all deserve to eat something prepared well and seasoned with love. And we all deserve to delight in watching her smother a hock of meat with red wine and rosemary.

I am starting to believe it for myself.

Despite the extravagance of a roast leg of lamb, particularly for someone on a student budget, what makes Nigella so near and dear to me is her avowed informality. In an episode called “Trashy,” which comes about midway through the master YouTube compilation, she prepares a peanut-butter-andbanana “Elvis sandwich.” It is easy, something one probably doesn’t even need a recipe for, but it is fun and comforting to watch this woman, a cook far more experienced than I am, stick a knife into a jar of peanut butter and slick it across two pieces of white bread to create a sandwich like the kind so many of us brought to kindergarten lunch. As she unwraps the bread, she makes it clear that this is not a gourmet dish, insisting that it must be made 4!post–

Taking a deep breath, I began chopping mushrooms, tossing them with thyme, lemon juice, tiny minces of garlic, and glug after glug of golden olive oil. I boiled my pasta, fishing out long strands every couple of minutes to check for doneness and also, to relish in the process, the chemical transformation from hard stalk to chewy noodle. As I assembled my dish, saving half for leftovers, I remembered another Nigella quotable: “All pasta is good, that’s the universal rule.” Indeed, I thought, with pasta, anything is possible. And then I took a bite.

The movie has the largest opening for an African-American director, the largest Presidents Day opening, the largest three-day opening for February, and the largest Monday opening in boxoffice history. Its economic success is inevitably tied to its groundbreaking move toward dispelling racial stereotypes, increasing POC and female representation in Hollywood, and above all, changing the institutionalized idea that light is good and dark is evil.

But the social justice championed by Black Panther is not apparent in its original inception. The first superhero of African descent, the comic book character Black Panther originally appeared in the 1966 Fantastic Four No. 52 by Marvel creators Stan Lee and Jack Kirby. In the same year, the United States witnessed the rise of the Black Panther Party, though Lee has said that the two names were unrelated. But what started as a mere coincidence now has become a compelling connection; the 2018 film’s main objective largely aligns with that of the revolutionary party: to imagine a Black utopia.

The film envisions an alternate reality through Wakanda, an uncolonized African country that appears underdeveloped to the rest of the world, but is actually extremely wealthy and technologically advanced as a result of vibranium, a locally found precious metal. Its society is predicated both on cutting-edge modernity and deep tradition.

One of the film’s early scenes involves a ceremony in which the Wakandan kingdom and its five tribes crown T’Challa, the son of the recently deceased king, as the next ruler of Wakanda, or the so-called Black Panther. What follows is a complicated series of events that pose a threat to the new king and to Wakanda, intertwining the country’s dark past with its uncertain future.

References to contemporary popular culture appear throughout, especially ones that have origins in social media networks—“What are those?!” says Shuri (Letitia Wright), T’Challa’s sister—a reference to a 2015 meme popularized by Black Vine, Twitter, and Instagram communities.

Black Panther’s temporal paradoxes represent a reckoning of Africans’ and African-Americans’ troubled present reality8—8one marked by racism, violence, and division8—8posing the possibility for change, specifically through the vehicle of PanAfricanism, an ideology born from the Black Power Movement that envisions global unity for all people of African descent.

The African-American character of Erik Killmonger (Michael B. Jordan) touches on the disparity between being African and being of the

LIFESTYLE

Black Panther's temporal paradoxes represent a reckoning of Africans' and African-Americans' troubled present reality!—!one marked by racism, violence, and division. protagonist Rey wears all white and beige while antagonist Ren wears all black, even covering his face in a black helmet.

Also groundbreaking is the movie’s emphasis on Black-made technology, which demonstrates the prominence of African and Black intelligence and challenges the stereotypes of “primitivity” and “genetic inferiority” often used to describe folks of African descent. “Guns…so primitive!” scoffs General Okoye (Danai Gurira), the fiercest warrior in Wakanda, in one battle scene at the supposedly technologically advanced weapons of her white male enemies. She then attacks them with her vibraniumpowered spear.

When the media does show Black as powerful, too often it is attributed to some “magic” that Black people are born with or possess inherently, while white protagonists have only their own merits to

help them achieve a similar level of power. This further fetishizes Blackness, differentiates it from whiteness, and delegitimizes Black power and intelligence, especially since this magic is often depicted as evil (e.g. voodoo). Black Panther pushes away from this trope of the “Magical Negro,” a term coined by actor and director Spike Lee in 2001.

Wakanda is a powerful and “advanced civilization” because of technological advancements, not special powers. When Shuri heals a wound on CIA Agent Ross (Martin Freeman), he remarks that the speed of his recovery could only be attributed to something like magic. “Not magic,” Shuri responds.

“Science.”

Wakanda also challenges representations of women as physically weak and unintelligent; General Okoye is ranked as the strongest warrior in Wakanda and Shuri as one of the country’s most intelligent. However, it should be considered that non-Wakandan female characters in the movie, such as Killmonger’s girlfriend, are used as plot devices and easily killed off whenever a man so pleases.

Moreover, Wakanda is still a heteronormative, patriarchal society in which only men are ever considered for the throne. With little regard to the reality of intersectionality, the film largely discards queer narratives and its feminist narratives could be seen as secondary to those of race.

The film’s conclusion offers a start to the reconciliation of various conflicting themes.

T’Challa, with Killmonger and his wish to aid African Americans in mind, creates a community center in the heart of the Black community of Oakland. He states, “Wakanda will no longer watch from the shadows. We can not. We must not. We will work to be an example of how we, as brothers and sisters on this Earth, should treat each other.

Now, more than ever, the illusions of division threaten our very existence. We all know the truth: More connects us than separates us. But in times of crisis the wise build bridges, while the foolish build barriers. We must find a way to look after one another, as if we were one single tribe.”

As two people of color, one of us Blackidentifying, we felt personally empowered

by Black Panther, in that it offers solace, an alternate reality to the contemporary American experience blemished by expressions of white supremacy and hatred. As Black Panther shows, the world we live in is by no means postracial. And although we still have a long way to go"—"both as communities of color and our representations on screen"—"this film represents progress by paving the way toward a better future.

Illustrated by Nayeon Michelle Woo

African diaspora. Although Killmonger did not choose to leave Wakanda, the Wakandan people still see him as an outsider, just as some people of the diaspora feel like outsiders in African countries although their ancestors were forced to leave the continent. “Bury me in the ocean with my ancestors who jumped from ships,” Killmonger says to T’Challa. “...cause they knew death was better than bondage.”

Aside from being one of the only mainstream films to feature a Black superhero and an almost entirely Black cast, Black Panther also makes a strong aesthetic statement; it is one of the only movies to feature a “good guy” whose costume is black. U.S. history (colonization, slavery, Jim Crow, and the prison-industrial complex) and current media and Hollywood contribute to the problematic notion that white equals good and black, evil. In the past, putting skin color aside, “good” characters appeared light and “bad” characters dark. A recent example of this can be seen in Star Wars: The Force Awakens, the only movie in history that had a more successful four-day opening than Black Panther. Although the actors who play Rey (Daisy Ridley) and Kylo Ren (Adam Driver) are both white,

february 23, 2018(5

Slope Style?

Ty Walker '20 on the Winter Olympics and her Snowboarding Future interview By tessa demeyer Ty Walker has been hitting the slopes ever since she first took up snowboarding at age seven. Because slopestyle was not recognized as an Olympic sport until the 2014 Games, Walker began her career in the halfpipe, training slopestyle simultaneously while growing up in Vermont. At 14, Walker debuted professionally. After hearing that a slopestyle competition would be held in Sochi, she shifted her focus to solely training slopestyle for the two years leading up to the Games. An injury hindered her performance at the Olympics, leaving her out of the finals, but Walker found redemption in 2015, winning the gold medal at the inaugural women’s Big Air World Cup. An ACL tear in March forced her to take time off, and she decided to begin her college experience at Brown. Walker completed a year-anda-half before taking all of 2017 off to train for the Pyeongchang Olympic qualifiers where four athletes were selected to represent Team USA in Korea. After five events, Walker missed out on the four-person team by one spot and returned to College Hill to continue pursuing a biology degree with plans to attend medical school.

This interview has been condensed and edited for clarity. Read the full version online.

Why did you choose Brown?

I had never even really visited schools before I applied. I had really good grades. I had a good SAT score and just kind of applied to 13 schools or something like that...I did want to go to school on the East Coast because my family is definitely really important to me, and I have a little sister I love going home to see…I’d spent so much [time], especially when I was like 14, 15, 16, 17 even, not at home. I didn’t even live at home. I lived out west. I liked Brown because I liked the open curriculum aspect...

When my mom showed up on campus to pick me up from ADOCH, she had wanted me to go to a different school, I think, but then she showed up, and she was like, “I know that you really want to go to Brown.

All the people around here look like they’re your people. I bet you want to go here.”

What’s your take on Team USA’s performance and the snowboarding runs put down in Pyeongchang [as of February 20]?

I know the [overall] medal count is way down; but in snowboarding, we’re killing it. We’ve had four events, and we got four gold medals for slopestyle men’s and women’s [and] halfpipe men’s and women’s. That’s Jamie Anderson, Red Gerard, Chloe Kim, and Shaun White. That’s pretty huge for us.

Overall we do have a really, really competitive team on the snowboarding side. They can only take four people to the Olympics for each country, and it was so hard to watch [because] in the United States we

had five or six girls getting top-10 finishes in Dew Tour this season leading up to the Olympics, which are huge events for the international snowboarding community...To still not be able to go [to the Olympics] because your country can only get four spots, and then there’s someone from Slovakia who gets to go [because] they’re the only athlete from their country, that’s definitely tough because you realize that you’re a more competitive athlete but still can’t perform on that stage.

Going into slopestyle, I was kind of disappointed to look at the course. Even on the men’s side, Red [Gerard] did a great run, but the runs in Korea were not as technical as even the runs in Sochi.…It was a great run, super stylish [and] definitely maxed out the ability of that course, but I don’t think that it showed the absolute best or most technical riding that could be done. I’m not at the course, but it didn’t look like people could get speed for the jumps.

It didn’t look like the jumps necessarily had the pop you need for bigger tricks...To not be able to show that on the Olympic course is tough because that’s why people work on those tricks—to be able to do the craziest trick and win the Olympics because of it.

On the women’s slopestyle side [which Jamie Anderson won], that was just so sad to watch because the weather was so bad...On any other day, even on a training day, we wouldn’t have gone out to snowboard in those conditions. Then you see the runs, and again, so much less technical than Sochi, and that is so disappointing because, at least from my perspective, the level of riding from Sochi to Pyeongchang has gotten so much higher.…My heart breaks for the girls...That’s their full-time job, and they dedicate four years to being able to put down their best runs at the Olympics on that course and then they show up there and don’t even have the opportunity to do that.

What was it like representing Team USA at the 2014 Olympics?

It was such an honor. Again, that’s kind of cliche.

I think everybody uses that, but there is so much honor that goes into it.…You represent your country, but also you represent those lower communities that you came from. I had this honor of representing that small regional snowboard series that I came from when I was a kid...There’s so much respect that you get from becoming an Olympian, which is really cool, but then there’s so much that comes with that, like wanting to represent those communities well and wanting to do best by those communities.

What’s going through your mind when you’re waiting at the top of the slope?

That is so hard. It changes all the time. Sometimes I’m like a nutcase, and other times I’m so chill. At these Olympic qualifiers, in the first couple ones, I was like, “I need to go out there and do well. I need to put down my runs.” I play a lot of rap music to be super confident...At the top before you go, tuning everything out and not being alone with your thoughts is big...The first couple events I was so stressed [about] putting down my runs, visualizing, really locking in what I was going to do and trying to create this sense of confidence. You need to almost

“Imagine a world in which the least qualified, most morally bankrupt presidential candidate in U.S. history somehow won the election and started systematically destroying the democracy-protecting institutions we thought to be unimpeachable.”

—Spencer Roth-Rose, "TO MOCK A TYRANT" 2.23.17

6!post–

Illustrated by Pia Mileaf-Patel

ARTS&CULTURE

remind yourself that you’re a boss and that you’re going to do it. Toward the later events, it kind of shifted to this sense of “doing your best is all you can do.”

It’s a trend among Olympians to get a tattoo of the rings. Do you think you’ll get it done?

I have them! I didn’t get them when I first went, which is really funny because I always wanted them, but I was still 16. What was I going to tell my parents? My dad was always really supportive, but my mom isn’t supportive of any tattoo. I knew that I wanted to get them, but I didn’t really commit to doing it... I went in January 2017 and got them done, which was really cool. Then I had them before the Olympic Qualifications started for this [Olympics].

Do you think you’ll make a run for another Olympics?

I don’t know, honestly. I’m pre-med, so the idea would definitely be to go to med school, and that’s a long process. A lot of people ask me how I balance school and snowboarding, but they’re kind of mutually exclusive. Either I’m at school studying, trying to be a pre-med student, and struggling with that, or trying to snowboard and train every day...

But after this qualification process, I definitely think that there’s some feelings of wanting redemption and wanting to go back. We’ll just have to see. Just kind of let the dust settle after Pyeongchang.…Just kind of go over it with my coaches and see what the plan could be going forward and how I could make it work. That would be pretty awesome.

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NEWS

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 23, 2018 • PAGE 3

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

Artemis Project makes STEM accessible to underrepresented genders Program founded by Brown alums provides free programming to rising high schoolers

By EUGENE I. HRABARCHUK CONTRIBUTING WRITER

Over 20 years ago, Laurie Kardos ’98 and Jesse Marmon ’97 founded The Artemis Project while they were undergraduates in the computer science department. To this day, the project continues to provide free educational programming in STEM to rising ninth grade students of underrepresented genders.

The Artemis Project was created to maintain interest in math and science among girls entering high school, said Anne Spalter ’87, an Artemis Project collaborator. “It was based on research that showed that a lot of girls were interested in math and science, but something dramatic happened between 8th and 9th grade,” she added.

The goal of the project was orginally to make computer science courses more accessible for this demographic, said Professor of Computer Science Andy van Dam, who serves as a lecturer at The Artemis Project. “We

» STATEMENT, from page 1 hateful actions, The Herald previously reported. Mayor Jorge Elorza and other Providence leaders spoke at the press conference to show their solidarity.

On Feb. 11, Brown’s chapter of the NAACP and Providence-area activists and students demonstrated again, allowing students to publicly condemn the racist posters, as The Herald previously reported.

“It is unnerving to witness utter silence and inaction from the University administration,” the statement read, adding that “this administration’s non-response clearly demonstrates the superficial nature of its so-called commitment to diversity and inclusion.” In the statement, students also voiced concerns that Brown utilizes its students’ activism to “market itself as a progressive and liberal institution, while failing to publicly acknowledge acts of racism occurring in its own backyard.”

In her letter, Paxson acknowledged the University’s inappropriate silence.

» AOTW, from page 1 pretty cool accomplishment. My main focus is working hard every day, being consistent and making sure that I play my best every single day.

When did you first get involved with basketball?

I started playing basketball when I was five. I used to play with my brother and sister all the time outside with all of the guys in the neighborhood. I always was playing outside with boys, so that’s pretty much where I started.

When did you start to think that you had a realistic chance of playing college basketball?

Honestly, it was always a goal of mine when I was young that I wanted to

sponsored it through the National Science Foundation grant, and (Spalter) and I did some lectures, and over the years it came to have its current form.” “(The Artemis Project) has morphed over the years,” and has now become a mix of general science and computer science, van Dam added. “The idea is that it would be project-based, and there would be field trips and bonding exercises of various kinds so that it wasn’t just summer school. It was meant to be kind of a combination of summer school and summer camp,” hesaid.

Exposure to upper-level educational resources largely impacts the future decisions kids can make about college and what interests they pursue, Spalter said. With this in mind, The Artemis Project brings a small group of pre-high school students of underrepresented genders to campus for five weeks. “They (have) literally never walked onto a college campus, so just being there and feeling like they could go to college was a huge thing,” she added.

“I find (the students) incredibly enthusiastic and fearless … they really enjoy being taken seriously,” van Dam said.

Nirva LaFortune, an alumnus of The Artemis Project, is the manager

and advisor of the Presidential Scholars Program at Brown and also serves a representative of Ward 3 on Providence City Council. LaFortune noted the importance of students having role models who look like them in college environments. “When you’re in a community where no one in your family has gone to college, you don’t have a model to follow. I didn’t have a model. But having this experience provided me with a network, and so we have to teach our kids how to build their network of resources,” she said.The group LaFortune was a part of was comprised of girls from myriad backgrounds, which improved their experience, she said. “A lot of our activities were focused on team building … but we were also forming a community amongst ourselves.

We had space to discuss issues that impacted us,” LaFortune said.

“You never know what’s going to change someone’s future. Sometimes just meeting one person, one experience, can have a huge impact,” Spalter said. The program is successful because of how invested Brown student leaders and teachers are, she added.

“We need to provide kids with more access to life outside of their neighborhoods and outside of their communities,” LaFortune added.

“A communication denouncing the flyer(s) would have been an opportunity to reaffirm to members of our community who identify as black that Brown is committed to their wellbeing,” she wrote. “I hope that this communication, even if late, is taken in that spirit.”

In addition to demanding that the University denounce “all instances of racism and fascism” on campus, the statement from concerned undergraduate black students also called on the University to eradicate white supremacist propaganda and support “Providence community members in their efforts to combat structural racism.”

Paxson also wrote that “the best way for us to combat the ugly racism of the flyers spread across Providence is to redouble our efforts to do what we as a university community do best: educate ourselves and others about past and continued inequities, take principled stands against racism and bigotry, and continue to move forward on our plans to build a more diverse

and inclusive community.”

Director of News and Editorial Development Brian Clark described the flyers found across Providence as “appalling.”

“Any act rooted in racism, bigotry or hate is cause for concern,” he wrote in an email to The Herald. “Not only are such acts deeply harmful to the individuals and communities they target, but they conflict with the very values that define our community at Brown.”

The statement was signed by 11 concerned undergraduate black students in addition to leaders from the Brown University Chapter of the NAACP, the Black Student Union at Brown University, the African Students Association, Black in Business at Brown, the Black Pre-Med Society, Dominican Students at Brown, Mosaic+ and Students of Caribbean Ancestry at Brown University. In total, 28 students signed the statement.

One of the students who signed the statement declined to comment.

The others could not be reached for comment.

play college basketball when I (got) older. I think I started believing in it during freshman year of high school.

your favorite part of being on the basketball team this season?

My favorite part is definitely being around the girls all the time. They’re fun and we always have great laughs.

Coming in, I was a little nervous about how I would fit in and how things would go. But the team has definitely welcomed me in, especially (with) the seniors doing a good job of helping me get used to the little things. Being with them is definitely the best part.

Why did you choose Brown?

I decided to come to Brown so I could get the best of both worlds, academic side and athletic side. I really had a cool connection with my head coach and I thought she was great. I love the girls — the teammates are great.

Do you have any pre-game rituals?

We usually have a pre-game meal … as a team. Depending on the day, I might take a nap. Then I will just listen to music and get ready. Then I will pray, and it’s game-time.

What would you say has been

What are your personal and team goals for the rest of the season?

Personally, it’s just to take it day by day, live in the moment and have fun. … As a team our focus right now

COURTESY OF BROWN UNIVERSITY

The Artemis Project was created to maintain girls’ interest in STEM. The free math and science courses aim to impact students’ college futures.

Without resources, kids will continue to be disadvantaged as they compete with others who have access to the necessary resources to be successful, she said.

It’s important to invest in our youth regardless of the costs because they will eventually re-invest in their communities, LaFortune said.

“Sometimes the only opportunity for kids to be exposed to these additional (resources) is when they have these summer opportunities,” she added.

LaFortune said she wants to advocate for more student resources and partnerships with universities.

“These are opportunities to develop leaders. People who are able to cultivate these ideas and bring it back into their communities,” LaFortune said.

“There is still inadequate attention being paid to schools that don’t have as many resources … the more enrichment programs after school and during the summer, the better,” van Dam said.

MARIANNA MCMURDOCK / HERALD

Earlier this month, students and government officials gathered to condemn racism in two press conferences arranged by the NAACP.

is just to finish strong and end the season on a good note.

Do you have an overarching goal for your career with the basketball team?

I just want to play hard and win games. Obviously, we want to someday win the Ivy League Championship.

What do you hope to do after graduating?

Right now, I’m undecided. I’m thinking about public health, but I’m not sure. I’m just trying to figure things out.

The Bears will return to the court to host Columbia Friday and Cornell Saturday at the Pizzitola Sports Center.

COMMENTARY PAGE 4 • FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 23, 2018

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

Brown’s partnership with Prospect is irresponsible LINDA MCDONALD OP-ED CONTRIBUTOR President Christina Paxson P’19 has been telling Rhode Islanders for weeks now that she wants the University to team up with Prospect Medical Holdings, Inc., a California-based for-profit, to acquire Care New England, a non-profit and the second largest health care system in Rhode Island. According to Paxson, “Prospect has a national reputation for operating quality, cost-efficient healthcare facilities.” We at the United Nurses & Allied Professionals think that Paxson has it wrong. When it comes to patient safety, Prospect has proven itself an unreliable and ineffective provider of health care, and Rhode Islanders deserve better.

Last spring, Prospect’s own consultants found that surgical instruments in the operating room at Our Lady of Fatima Hospital in North Providence — which is majorityowned and operated by Prospect — were contaminated with foreign material and otherwise worn, cracked or broken, thereby putting patients at risk. Prospect is now being investigated by the National Labor Relations Board, under the National Labor Relations Act, for refusing to make the

consultant’s report public. Prospect is also being investigated by the NLRB for refusing to make information relating to additional deficiencies public.

On Dec. 27, 2017, the Providence Business News reported that here in Rhode Island, the federal govern-

country.

According to a 2016 article that ran in the Journal Inquirer, a Connecticut newspaper, the federal government had to shut down a Prospect surgical unit in California for eight days because of a widespread risk of patient infection. In addition,

tions of patients without doctor’s orders.

Prospect’s failures do not end there. Prospect recently purchased a hospital system in Pennsylvania — Crozer-Keystone Health System.

Under Pennsylvania law, Prospect was required to put the proceeds of

When it comes to patient safety, Prospect Medical Holdings Inc. has proven itself an unreliable and ineffective provider of health care, and Rhode Islanders deserve better.

ment reduced the reimbursement rates at Our Lady of Fatima Hospital and Roger Williams Medical Center — also majority owned and operated

by Prospect — for high patient injury and infection rates. Both hospitals finished in the bottom 25 percent of 3,306 hospitals surveyed across the

several of Prospect’s California hospitals were cited for inappropriately staffed intensive care units, improper storage of biohazardous waste, failure to appropriately store and administer patient medications, failure to ensure that medical staff were professionally qualified and catheteriza-

the sale into a community foundation charged with the responsibility of providing health care-related services to local residents. When Prospect reneged on this obligation, the foundation took the matter to arbitration. Finding that Prospect was in the wrong, Prospect was ordered to make

a payment of approximately $21 million to the foundation. Adding insult to injury, Prospect was late in making the court-ordered payment into escrow. Also in Pennsylvania, Prospect tax payment checks to three local school districts bounced to the tune of several million dollars.

Paxson is most certainly entitled to her own opinion, but she is not entitled to her own facts. Prospect does not have a national reputation for operating quality, cost-efficient health care facilities, and Brown University should not put its reputation and finances at risk by doing business with the likes of Prospect Medical Holdings.

Linda McDonald is a registered nurse and the president of United Nurses & Allied Professionals, a union that represents health care workers employed in Rhode Island, Vermont and Connecticut and advocates for high-quality patient care. UNAP represents over 600 health care workers employed at Our Lady of Fatima Hospital and is involved in a labor dispute with Prospect Medical Holdings.

Please send responses to this opinion to letters@browndailyherald.com and other op-eds to opinions@browndailyherald. com.

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NEWS

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 23, 2018 • PAGE 5

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

» FULBRIGHT, from page 1 really see it as a reciprocal process,” Dunleavy said.

There are two categories of Fulbright grants: the Open Study/Research Awards, which fund students’ independent projects, and the English Teaching Assistant Awards, which allow students to work in schools teaching English, according to the program’s website. There is “pretty much an even split” between the number of Brown students receiving each grant type, Dunleavy said.

Fulbright scholar and former public health concentrator Cindy Abarca ’16 MPH’17 is currently in Poland serving as an English Teaching

» STATE, from page 1 the Senate set a very good precedent with the way it approached this issue,” Brown told The Herald. “I remain hopeful that if and when this comes around again, the Senate will take a much more deliberate approach.”

Upon Kettle’s resignation, Ruggerio and Algiere released separate statements. “I believe that the

Assistant, teaching English at the university level.

“Being here has allowed me to participate in events where I get to meet students from different countries and learn a different language and learn different customs,” Abarca said. “It has given me that global perspective that I was looking for.”

In a few weeks, Maaike Tiersma ’17 will head to Chile to begin working on an independent project. An environmental studies concentrator who created a project about seafood environmental certifications, Tiersma is developing a project in Chile that is “kind of like a sociology and environmental crossover,” she said. Tiersma aims to study “the actual farmers and

fishermen” and how certifications affect them and their estates, she said, adding that she is also interested in “how they perceive the threat of climate change and if they even really think it’s a threat.”

Dunleavy said that about half of the nearly 100 Fulbright applicants for the next cycle have made it through the first round of the application process and have been recommended to their host countries by the National Screening Committee. Each country’s committee will then follow its own selection process and make the final decisions.

The 2018-19 winners will be announced in May, according to the Fulbright U.S. Student Program website.

decision Mr. Kettle made today is in the best interests of the Senate and the state. I certainly respect his right to due process, and the proceedings contemplated in the Senate were not being taken lightly,” Ruggerio’s statement read, adding that Kettle’s actions were “unlike any I have witnessed during my time in the Senate.” Algiere’s statement also acknowledged Kettle’s request for due process and

asserted that the Senate has “an obligation to provide a safe work environment for all employees.”

According to WPRI, former House Rep. for District 41 Michael Marcello said he is considering running for Kettle’s empty seat in 2018.

“I’ve been heartened by the number of people who have encouraged me to run, and I will give it serious consideration,” he said.

The Presidential Faculty Award Lecture

MARCH ,  : P.M. JCB Library, Reading Room Asa Messer Professor of Humanities and Critical Theory; Director, Center for the Study of Slavery and Justice; Professor, Africana Studies

Anthony Bogues

will deliver the Presidential Faculty Award Lecture Black Critique: Toward an Alternative Genealogy of Critical Thought

SPORTS THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 23, 2018

Holy cow — MLB didn’t blow it!

JAMES SCHAPIRO SPORTS COLUMNIST If you know me, you know I’ve been no fan of many of Major League Baseball’s proposed pace-of-play initiatives over the years. Many of the changes suggested even recently, like banning defensive shifts, limiting pitching changes or instituting a pitch clock, would be harmful either to the players or to the game itself.

Some ideas — such as automatically placing runners on second base in extra innings, or, as is reportedly being “whispered” by some MLB officials, allowing losing teams to disregard their batting orders in the ninth inning — are so clearly inane that they don’t merit serious consideration. But earlier this week, MLB announced its pace-of-play changes for the 2018 season, and somehow, they didn’t screw it up. In fact, they did a pretty good job.

Right off the bat, there’s a caveat that needs to be mentioned: Some people, myself included, don’t think that pace of play is actually a problem.

MLB games have lasted around three hours since I’ve been watching them, and I’ve never had a problem with it.

To some, this means that any action on the issue is misguided — if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. But even though I

understand this group’s point, I don’t wholly agree with it. Pace of play isn’t something I’m worried about, but even so, MLB’s recently announced rule changes are far from the worst thing in the world.

MLB’s announced rule changes have two major components: limiting mound visits and quickening the time between innings. The changes are relatively straightforward. Each team is

mound visits is a lot. The definition of “mound visit” has been expanded to include trips to the mound by position players, but still, it’s not often that you see more than six non-pitching change mound visits in a game.

And anyway, even if mound visits were much more limited, it’s just about the smallest change you can imagine. If MLB decided to allow only two non-pitching change mound

own right, as crafty catchers will be forced to concoct convincing rationales for extra mound visits and deliver them to home plate umpires.

Improving the transition between innings is likewise minimally invasive: It eliminates unnecessary delays while not changing the way the game is played at all. No one advocates for longer commercials, and it’s hard to argue that long breaks between in-

MLB has issued a common-sense, widely accepted set of new rules, and we should all be thankful for it.

allowed six mound visits without a pitching change per game, and pitchers must now deliver their first pitch of an inning within five seconds of the 2:05 countdown reaching zero.

Even these small changes have elicited some criticism. It’s awfully hard to complain about shortening the time between innings, but I have seen some anger that pitchercatcher conferences will be limited.

But as much of a baseball purist as I am, I can’t get too worked up about this. For one, six non-pitching change

visits per game, baseball would be almost entirely unchanged. This rule change is the rare example of a paceof-play rule that works exactly as such rules should. It allows the game to continue completely uninterrupted while eliminating the clearly gratuitous sources of delay: multiple conferences with the entire infield, talks with the catcher after every other pitch, etc. In fact, the various exceptions to this rule — for pitcher injury, sign cross-ups and the like — could make for interesting stories in their

nings are part of baseball’s heritage or somehow essential to the game’s integrity. This, again, is exactly the kind of rule change we need. If effective, it will speed up the game without changing gameplay, and if ineffective, it doesn’t have any serious potential downsides.

Of course, MLB probably plans to go further than this eventually.

Commissioner Rob Manfred’s desire to implement a pitch clock might be the worst-kept secret in baseball, and some of his rhetoric on the is-

sue of pace-of-play has been downright alarming. My support for the current rule changes does not mean that I will accept relief pitcher limits and pitch clocks a year from now; I will continue to staunchly oppose any proposed rule that alters the way the game is played or subjects players to increased risk of injury. Pace-of-play rules, if we must have them, should make the game faster, not different.

We’ve played baseball the same way for more than a century, and there’s no reason to change it.

But for now, MLB has issued a common-sense, widely accepted set of new rules, and we should all be thankful for it. Whatever odious rule changes may come in the future, I’ll address them when they arrive. Let’s hope that games get faster this season, rendering further pace-of-play rules unnecessary — I’m hopeful, but not quite optimistic, that they will.

Right now, we’ve got a full season of baseball ahead of us with no clocks, strange rules or automatic baserunners. Let’s savor that while we can and applaud MLB for letting it happen.

James Schapiro ’19 can be reached at james_schapiro@ brown.edu. Please send responses to this opinion to letters@browndailyherald.com and other op-eds to opinions@ browndailyherald.com.

Let athletes be activists CAL BARASH-DAVID SPORTS COLUMNIST In 1968, American Olympians Tommie Smith and John Carlos stood on the podium in Mexico City shoeless. With bowed heads and raised fists during the playing of the National Anthem, the two Olympians protested after coming in first and third respectively in the 200 meter dash.

They did so to bring attention to the ongoing discrimination of black Americans.

After the demonstration, a young sportswriter by the name of Brent Musburger, a man who would go on to become one of the United States’ foremost broadcasters, penned a column on the famous protest. Musburger called the two activists “militants,” “juvenile” and — in what is one of the most tactless and impolitic utterances of his long career (though he accrued an unfortunate collection of insensitive and inappropriate statements prior to his retirement from ESPN in 2017) — “black-skinned Stormtroopers.”

“Perhaps it’s time that 20-year-old athletes quit passing themselves off as social philosophers,” he wrote.

Last week, responding to a podcast in which LeBron James and Kevin Durant were critical of President Trump, Fox News host Laura Ingraham went on air and called their statements “barely intelligible, not to mention ungrammatical.”

“Must they run their mouths like that?” she asked, echoing Musburger’s half-century old sentiment. “It’s always unwise to seek political advice from someone who gets paid $100 million a year to bounce a ball.”

Ingraham then added, “So keep the political commentary to yourself, or as someone once

said, ‘Shut up and dribble.’”

The claim was unsurprising to anyone familiar with Fox News anchors’ collective body of work: insensitive, unfiltered and intentionally provocative.

James has since responded, recently tweeting “#wewillnotshutupanddribble.” Durant also responded that Ingraham’s comments were racist.

Ours is an epoch of activist athletes, but the advent of such figures is by no means novel.

During the Vietnam War, Muhammad Ali, a

able retort falls from the mouths of predominantly white commentators: Shut up and stick to sports.

Ingraham’s comments contribute to this prevailing reduction of athletes to their physical capabilities, dismissing their personhood and viewpoints.

The rhetoric employed to silence athletes often relies, at least in part, on the devaluation of their intellectual personhood. Thus, these commentators position athletes not as sentient, car-

To pare down the value of a black athlete such that their only contributions of note take place within the lines of play is not only racist and reductive — it’s dehumanizing.

conscientious objector, refused to enlist. “My conscience won’t let me go shoot my brother, or some darker people or some hungry people in the mud for big powerful America,” Ali said. He was arrested and convicted for the offense.

In a moderated conversation with Ali, television host David Susskind responded, “I find nothing amusing or interesting or tolerable about this man. … He’s a disgrace to his country, his race and what he laughingly describes as his profession. … He’s a simplistic fool and a pawn.”

This kind of visceral and polemical response always succeeds the tradition of activism and advocacy by athletes. After every display of political commentary by a black athlete, a predict-

ing, thoughtful people, but rather as vacuous automatons whose raison d’etre is to trot onto the field of play and entertain us.

But the players don’t see it that way. In fact, many professional athletes use their positions as public figures — and considerable income — for good. James’ foundation, working in concert with the Akron, Ohio, school board, just opened a new public school, an accomplishment which he considers to be among the most important things he’s done in his career. “Besides having three kids and marrying my wife, putting my mom in a position where she never has to worry about anything again for the rest of her life, this is right up there,” he said. “Championships,

MVPs, I mean, points, rebounds and assists, that stuff is whatever.”

In the past few years, James has expanded his “I Promise” program to include 1,128 students, a cohort of Akron schoolchildren for which he will provide four-year college scholarships. But Ingraham didn’t mention these accomplishments. Ingraham also didn’t mention the tens of thousands of dollars Durant has donated to Positive Tomorrows — an Oklahoma City school for homeless children — in the past three years.

At the heart of Ingraham’s comments lies something beyond a deep-seated antipathy to James and Durant’s opinion of Trump. The flippancy with which Ingraham responds to their comments is emblematic of her condescension.

To her, these athletes do not possess the intellectual capacity to offer comment.

That isn’t to say we should value the opinions of an athlete only when they are involved in their community. We shouldn’t accept an athlete’s point of view only because they have donated a certain amount of money to a worthy cause. We should an accept an athlete’s point of view because they are human. To pare down the value of a black athlete such that their only contributions of note take place within the lines of play is not only racist and reductive — it’s dehumanizing. I do not wish to make some sweeping indictment of the deterioration of civil discourse in our current political moment, but to respect the personhood of an athlete and the value of their insight is certainly a low bar to surpass.

Cal Barash-David ’19 can be reached at callan_barash-david@brown.edu. Please send responses to this opinion to letters@browndailyherald.com and other op-eds to opinions@browndailyherald. com.