Thursday November 14, 2019

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THE BROWN DAILY HERALD THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 14, 2019

VOLUME CLIV, ISSUE 51

METRO

As impeachment dominates D.C., students express tempered excitement The Herald interviews 13 students amid public hearings for impeachment inquiry

acting ambassador to Ukraine, was the first to testify before the House Intelligence Committee. He discussed

While not all had tuned into Wednesday’s political event, many students interviewed expressed excitement

“People are worn out and have lost some of that initial vigor and hope that something is going to change.”

The public hearings phase of the investigation commenced Wednesday, about two weeks after the House of Representatives launched an impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump. William Taylor Jr., the

a previously unknown phone call between Trump and the U.S. ambassador to the European Union, Gordon Sondland, about “investigations” into the president’s political opponents.

As proceedings unfolded in the Capitol, The Herald spoke with 13 undergraduate students around campus about the impeachment hearings.

that the impeachment process was underway. Some spoke of their hopes of impeachment with fervor, while the vast majority cautioned optimism.

Elana Confino-Pinzon ’20, who concentrates in political science, discussed the prospects of impeachment

COURTESY OF SAUL LOEB

Among others, Acting Ambassador to Ukraine William Taylor Jr. (above) testified before the House Intelligence Committee.

MUSIC REVIEW

FKA twigs’ second album ties personal suffering to religion

In her second studio-length album “MAGDALENE,” cross-genre artist FKA twigs employs her emotion-laced voice as a medium for self-reflection, dancing between genuine emotion and cliched heartbreak.

The album’s title alludes to the biblical figure of Mary Magdalene, who is one of Jesus Christ’s most prominent disciples historically portrayed as an emotive, repentant witness to his trial and crucifixion. In FKA twigs’ album, Mary Magdalene is used as a channel for and token of the artist’s expression of personal pain and suffering. In this way, the obvious use of Mary Magdalene as an emblem feels a little banal — but maybe this straightforward affinity to the biblical figure serves to emphasize the album’s aim to be emotionally frank.

Atlantic EIC, writer talk Trump foreign policy

BY MAISIE NEWBURY STAFF WRITER

As the public phase of the House of Representatives’ presidential impeachment inquiry commanded attention in the nation’s capital, students on College Hill tried to stay engaged with the news while focusing on more localized challenges: midterms.

“I would like to tune in if it’s playing at a time when I don’t have rehearsal, but I don’t think that’s going to happen,” said Miriam Arden ’23.

BY KATHERINE OK SENIOR STAFF WRITER

UNIVERSITY NEWS

Jeffrey Goldberg, George Packer examine American diplomacy, global influence

BY OLIVIA GEORGE SENIOR STAFF WRITER

English singer, songwriter delves into femininity, martyrdom in ‘MAGDALENE’

BROWNDAILYHERALD.COM

“MAGDALENE” is most certainly what would be described as a “labor of love.” In a press release, describing the emotions that propelled the album, FKA twigs stated, “I never thought heartbreak could be so all-encompassing. … The process of making this album has allowed me for the first time … to find compassion when I have been at my most ungraceful, confused and fractured.”

The instrumentation, vocals and production in “MAGDALENE” reflect this amalgamation of spirituality and raw emotion. From the chorus’ Gregorian chant-esque singing in “fallen alien,” to extraordinary orchestral flourish in “cellophane,” FKA twigs echoes a kind of religious air in exploring emotional suffering and growth. In “home with you,” she sings, “But I’d save a life if I thought it belonged to you / Mary Magdalene would never let her loved ones down.”

According to the album’s liner notes, the album was co-produced by a number of artists like Nicolas Jaar ’12, Benny Blanco and Daniel Lopatin, who goes by the moniker

SEE FKA TWIGS PAGE 3

SEE IMPEACHMENT PAGE 3

In a crowded lecture hall, George Packer, a writer for the Atlantic and an award-winning author, described President Trump’s foreign policy as “a zero sum game, with us (the United States) against the rest.”

Joined by Jeffrey Goldberg, the editor-in-chief for the Atlantic, Packer went on to argue that Trump creates his foreign policy with a desire for the U.S. to remain powerful enough to intimidate other countries into submission if needed. Goldberg concurred, describing “Trumpism” as a reversal of the long-held American belief in the values of “muscular interventionism” and “diplomatic indispensability.”

These beliefs characterized the

last 70 years of American foreign policy — a period that Goldberg and Packer said is embodied by the late Richard Holbrooke ’62, a former American diplomat and an assistant Secretary of State. Holbrooke serves as the subject of Packer’s most recent book — Our Man: Richard Holbrooke and the End of the American Century.

The two men continued to discuss the United States’ foreign policy efforts under the Trump administration, taking particular care to contrast the policies with Holbrooke’s diplomatic work. Beginning in Vietnam, Holbrooke always saw the United States as “the good guys,” Packer said. Though he eventually acknowledged that the conflict was ill-conceived, Holbrooke “was different from most politicians in that Vietnam did not fundamentally change him,” Packer said.

Holbrooke continued to advocate for U.S. intervention and stressed a “strategic and moral imperative” on the part of Americans to act whenev-

SEE ATLANTIC PAGE 4

FILM REVIEW

‘Parasite’ stuns viewers with class commentary Bong Joon-Ho’s Korean-language film shatters cinematic norms

BY KAITI YOO SENIOR STAFF WRITER The South Korean film “Parasite” has continued to shock audiences across the globe ever since it won the Palme d’Or award at the May 2019 Cannes Film Festival.

Directed by the highly acclaimed South Korean director Bong Joon-ho, also responsible for the dystopian movies “Snowpiercer” and “Okja,” the film follows the symbiotic-later-turned-parasitic relationship between the unemployed Kim family and the wealthy Park family.

In an industry with a surplus of content and low barrier to entry, it is increasingly challenging for creators to produce something of true revolutionary caliber. But according to critics worldwide, Bong Joon-ho has managed to do it again — with flying colors.

The story opens in the city of Seoul — more specifically, in the humble, dingy, roach-infested basement apartment

LEON JIANG / HERALD

“Parasite,” Bong Joon-Ho’s award-winning film about class conflict in South Korea, is currently playing at Avon Cinema. of the Kim household. The two unemployed adult children, Ki-woo and Kijung, along with their also unemployed father, Ki-taek, and mother, Chungsook, fold pizza boxes for change that barely pays the bills. Desperation saturates their every action. From keeping their windows open during the toxic, city-wide fumigation for free pest control to scavenging around their apartment for signals from neighboring coffee shops’ free Wi-Fi, they witness their necessities evaporate into unaffordable luxuries.

A&C

News

Commentary

Commentary

Artist Michael Rakowitz fills stomachs, promotes Iraqi ingredients in latest cookbook Page 2

Watson Institute establishes Center for Human Rights and Humanitarian Studies Page 4

Caira ’22: University should increase variety, accessibility of food options Page 6

Kramer ’20: TV shows inaccurately portray legal system’s response to sex crimes Page 7

The family’s willingness to do literally anything to escape poverty accelerates to new heights when a golden job opportunity falls into the son Ki-woo’s lap — an old friend refers him as the new English tutor for the daughter of the wealthy Park family.

With a forged diploma and degree (a nod to his sister’s elite Photoshopping skills) in hand, he is hired, and just like that, a “have-not” steps one cautious foot into the lavish world of

SEE PARASITE PAGE 4

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THE BROWN DAILY HERALD | NEWS

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 14, 2019

ARTS & CULTURE

Conceptual artist discusses Iraqi date palm-inspired cookbook Michael Rakowitz connects Iraqi date palms to cultural diaspora

BY EMILY TENG SENIOR STAFF WRITER Michael Rakowitz, an Iraqi-American conceptual artist, stepped into the List Art Building on the evening of Nov. 12 to present his latest gastronomic project, “A House with a Date Palm Will Never Starve,” a cookbook which features recipes from 41 chefs — himself included — that revolve around date syrup, a traditional Middle Eastern ingredient.

The lecture traced the inspirations behind Rakowitz’s personal projects with Iraqi dates and unraveled the political and cultural messages within cans of date syrup. The cookbook’s title refers to an ancient Mesopotamian proverb.

Rakowitz started his lecture with a photo of dead date palm trees — the fronds of the trees are discolored, and rotten fruits wrapped in plastic bags dangle gravely from their branches.

Rakowitz went on to explain that these palm trees have been polluted by radiation resulting from the munitions that have bombarded Iraq since 2003.

The cookbook aims to honor the versatility of the date palm tree. “It’s the dates that will nourish the family, but it’s also the palm that is used for shade. And then it’s also the leaves that fall off the tree that can be woven for furniture and baskets and other components,” said Rakowitz while ex-

TIFFANY DING / HERALD

Iraqi-American conceptual artist Michael Rakowitz presented his cookbook, “A House with a Date Palm Will Never Starve,” at the List Art Building Tuesday evening. plaining the cookbook’s title. “Once the palm dies, (the wood) can be used to extend the house as the family itself expands,” Rakowitz said he has used dates in his artwork since August 2004, when he first discovered red cans of date syrup in Sahadi’s, a Brooklyn grocery store that Rakowitz’s grandparents frequented to purchase Middle Eastern produce after they immigrated from Baghdad. “(The owner of Sahadi’s) told me that the date syrup is processed in the Iraqi capital, put into large plastic bags and then driven over the border to Syria, where it gets put into unmarked tin

plate steel cans. (The syrup) then crosses the border into Lebanon, gets a label and is exported to the rest of the world,” said Rakowitz. He went on to explain that even though the United Nations hasn’t sanctioned Iraqi exports since 2003, Iraqi companies still employ this method to export goods because their products are widely considered unsafe

by American consumers.

Rakowitz has used date syrup as a motif in his projects to examine the effects that prolonged military conflict has on a country, from the loss of historic artifacts to the forced displacement of civilians in war-torn Iraq.

“At its peak in the mid-’70s, the Iraqi date industry was a bit over 30 million date palms in the country. By the end of the Iran-Iraq war in 1988, this number had been halved to about 16 million.

At the end of the 2003 invasion, only three million (trees) remained,” Rakowitz said.

In 2018, the artist used colorful date syrup cans to build a statue of the lamassu — an Assyrian deity that has a human head, a cow’s body and a bird’s wings — on the fourth plinth in London’s Trafalgar Square. This large-scale contemporary art installation, titled “The Invisible Enemy Should Not Exist,”

recreated the ancient stone statue that was destroyed by ISIS in 2015. Rakowitz added that the lamassu intentionally faces outward so the statue is “in a stare down” with the iconic Trafalgar Square lions made of melted-down cannons.

“The material culture of the victims of war are facing off against the weapons of war,” he explained.

Sophia Petros ’20 said that she was fascinated by the way Rakowitz has been able to work with a wide variety of mediums, from gastronomy to videography to sculpture.

“His work has a critical social dimension … (he makes) us aware of the intimate and at times uncomfortable relationships between artistic and gastronomic objects of culture, and cultures of people,” said Holly Shaffer, assistant professor of history of art and architecture, when introducing Rakowitz at the event.

Following the event, Rakowitz spoke with The Herald about his decision to withdraw from the 2019 Whitney Biennial in protest of Warren Kanders’ membership on the museum’s board.

While Rakowitz described his withdrawal as “a private decision,” he said artists needed to support each other in holding powerful individuals accountable.

“Suddenly there was this question of why (I) was stepping in front of the achievements of so many other artists that are part of the most incredible and, in my mind, one of the most talented rosters of the biennial to ever happen. … There are many ways for us to protest this, and we are all implicated, we are all entangled. If we are going to truly divest, we’re going to need each other,” he said.

UNIVERSITY NEWS

Watson Institute creates Center for Human Rights, Humanitarian Studies Center receives $8.5 million endowment, replaces Humanitarian Innovation Initiative

BY JAMES WINIKOFF CONTRIBUTING WRITER The Center for Human Rights and Humanitarian Studies opened its doors at the Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs in September. As a newly endowed center, CHRHS plans to promote research and education on humanitarian issues and human rights concerns, said CHRHS Director Adam Levine.

The center’s mission “is to promote a more just, peaceful, and secure world by furthering a deeper understanding of global human rights and humanitarian challenges and encouraging collaboration between local communities, academics and practitioners to develop innovative solutions to these challenges,” Levine said.

CHRHS replaces the Humanitarian Innovation Initiative, called HI2 for short, which began in 2016. “We always had in mind that we wanted to grow (HI2) to become a center,” said Seth Stulen, CHRHS program manager.

Unlike its predecessor, CHRHS is a permanent center and has its own $8.5 million endowment. CHRHS also receives slightly more annual funding from the University than HI2 did, which “goes into expanding program

faculty to support the center’s work,” Levine said.

One of the hallmarks of the new center is its focus on human rights in addition to humanitarian issues, Stulen said. “We have yet to find another university that is looking at these two fields in a single academic center.”

Levine said human rights involves “protection for individuals” against harm — such as extrajudicial killings and torture — from both governments and non-governmental entities. Human rights also include quality of life rights, such as access to clean water and food, he added. Humanitarianism, on the other hand, “refers to the efforts to reduce the impact of disasters” like flood, disease and warfare.

CHRHS’s mission is important because “human rights violations are most likely to occur in disaster or conflict settings,” like the ones that humanitarian organizations focus on, Levine said. By studying the intersection of human rights and humanitarianism, the center hopes to develop a “rightsbased approach to humanitarian aid,” he added.

The center plans to use its increased funding to continue and expand its research efforts, both at the University and abroad. One major CHRHS study is working to examine civilian-military coordination during humanitarian crises in Jordan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the Philippines.

This work also receives funding from the Gates Foundation, the Carnegie Corporation of New York and the U.S.

DANIELLE EMERSON / HERALD

The new center at the Watson Institute opened in September with the goal of deepening understanding of global human rights challenges.

State Department, among other organizations, Levine said.

Additionally, the center provides seed funding for research conducted by University students, faculty and alums as well as several other researchers connected with CHRHS around the world, Levine added.

CHRHS plans to continue hosting events to involve students with humanitarian work, such as a hackathon called Hack for Humanity, which HI2 began hosting in March 2018, Levine said. Hack for Humanity is “a really exciting and interesting way for students to engage in humanitarian work and gain some experience tackling some of the challenges that exist” in the field of humanitarianism, he explained. The hackathon gives teams of students an

opportunity to develop strategies for responding to current humanitarian crises.

This semester, CHRHS also started a new speaker series called the Human Security Seminar, which brings humanitarian experts to the University, Stulen said.

In addition, the center has partnered with leading humanitarian organizations — such as Human Rights Watch, the International Crisis Group and the World Health Organization — to offer University students funded summer internship opportunities in humanitarian work, said CHRHS student assistant Rakhi Kundra ’21.

In the transition from HI2, CHRHS retained a valuable network of humanitarian scholars from around the world,

Kundra said. The center collaborates with a long list of fellows and advisers, ranging from faculty and scholars of humanitarian issues to directors of large-scale humanitarian efforts, according to its website.

Layla Beckhardt ’20, another student assistant at CHRHS, said she feels that the center is an important vehicle for combating “scholarly pessimism,” which is the perception that human rights are eroding and that plans to improve them are futile. “CHRHS is so important so that we can invest in research and demonstrate that things are looking up, that things are positive,” she said. “You need to have hope to continue fighting for something, and not just pessimism that everything is going terribly.”

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 14, 2019

FKA TWIGS FROM PAGE 1 Oneohtrix Point Never — all of whom influence the album’s electronically inventive sound. And the album’s greatest strength lies in its versatile, constantly shifting instrumentals, which oscillate between cinematic classical compositions and trap-inf luenced trip-hop, like in “holy terrain” which features the rapper Future. Through this versatility, the album finds a number of ways to express emotional weightiness.

What is most thought-provoking, however, is what “MAGDALENE” says about the relationship between femininity and art. In relying on Mary Magdalene as a recurring symbol, is FKA twigs purposefully exercising the device of female suffering and martyrdom, knowingly leaning into the cliche of female heartbreak? If the motif gives into the cliches that seem impossible for women in the

IMPEACHMENT FROM PAGE 1 with enthusiasm, but added: “I need to check my excitement and be more realistic about what could possibly go down and how it could affect the 2020 election.” She said that she had discussed impeachment with her friends, and did not expect the Senate to vote to remove Trump from office.

Students at the University’s traditionally left-leaning campus have reported concern about the Trump administration. In The Herald’s fall poll, 15.9 percent of University students responded that “current government leadership” is the most important issue facing the country today. Only “environmental/climate change” drew more responses, with 37.8 percent of the students polled, The Herald previously reported.

Nationally, college students overwhelmingly support an impeachment inquiry into Trump. An October Axios/ College Reaction poll found that 76

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD | NEWS industry to avoid, does this invalidate FKA twigs’s candor?

In answering these questions, it is important to acknowledge that musical works by women are frequently unfairly pigeonholed into the tired genre of “music by women.” In “MAGDALENE,” FKA twigs’ musical and emotional narrative seems to teeter on the line between submitting to the gratuitous trope of female suffering, and practicing the agency to do so without being polemicized. In her song “Mary Magdalene,” FKA twigs sings, “A woman’s work / a woman’s prerogative / A woman’s time to embrace / She must put herself first.”

This last line indicates that FKA twigs performs emotional fragility fully conscious of the thin line between creative freedom and the tired trope of female martyrdom — and in this consciousness, the album succeeds in finding personal, independent musical catharsis.

percent of college students support an inquiry— a number that jumps to 97 percent among Democratic college students.

In interviews with The Herald, students described misgivings about the potential political ramifications of impeachment proceedings. Rose Carrillo ’20 expressed uncertainty about whether “impeachment would do more harm than good.”

In Carrillo’s experience, students have not necessarily paid close attention to the impeachment proceedings so far. “It’s not always the first thing that people are talking about, even within the bubbles of public policy and poli-sci,” she explained.

Arrington Harper ’23 agreed. “I thought it was a hot topic a while ago, but I haven’t heard anything about it in a while,” she said of impeachment.

Few students interviewed expect impeachment to result in the president’s removal from office. “Compared to the way people were talking

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COURTESY OF ANDREAS MEIXENSPERGER

FKA twigs, a cross-genre English singer-songwriter, released her second album “MAGDALENE” Nov. 8.

COURTESY OF ANDREW HARNIK

William Taylor Jr., acting ambassador to Ukraine, discussed a call where Trump discussed “investigations” into political opponents. prior to the 2016 election and after the 2016 election, I think that a lot of folks are really burnt out,” said Dylan Quintal ’20.5, who has stayed informed with National Public Radio’s “Up First” podcast. “It feels like too much to hope for that this will go any-

where, but I still am hoping anyway.”

President of Brown College Democrats Zoë Mermelstein ’21 voiced excitement that the impeachment hearings are “finally underway,” but stressed that for the Brown Dems, the focus remains on tangible advocacy

work and community engagement.

“Rather than letting ourselves get too bogged down in the minutia of the impeachment,” she explained, “this semester we have really tried to focus our attention on advocacy and working to alleviate the effects of the administration through more issue-based work and coalition building.”

Brown Dems did not organize an official impeachment-centered event Wednesday night. Instead, they hosted an event titled “An Evening Discussion on Addiction, Recovery, and Policy with Tom Coderre,” which had been planned since the beginning of the semester. Coderre is a leading national expert on opioid addiction and mental health policy and a senior advisor to Gov. Gina Raimondo (D-RI).

The Brown Republicans did not respond to requests for comment.

—With additional reporting by Ben Glickman and Julia Grossman

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THE BROWN DAILY HERALD | NEWS

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 14, 2019

ALBUM REVIEW

Earl Sweatshirt’s ‘Feet of Clay’ lands with concision, eccentricity Enigmatic rapper opens up about personal losses, verbalizes emotional subconscious

BY NICHOLAS MICHAEL CONTRIBUTING WRITER Through an exploration of the subconscious and a confrontation of grief, rapper Earl Sweatshirt reveals more of himself than ever before in “Feet of Clay” — an album only 15 minutes long.

Thebe Neruda Kgositsile, better known by his stage name Earl Sweatshirt, described his first project since stepping away from Columbia Records in 2018 as “a collection of observations and feelings recorded during the death throes of a crumbling empire.” Sweatshirt, who produced the album himself, leans into the darkness of death, addiction and grief in his atmospheric 7-track EP. He provides a voice to the emotional subconscious, allowing each track to find an innate flow.

The album’s title alludes to an Old Testament story where Nebuchadnez-

ATLANTIC FROM PAGE 1 er possible, Packer said. He took this impulse into Bosnia during the Serbian occupancy. “He negotiated the end of that war. It was a very flawed peace, but a peace that was needed,” he added.

But despite Holbrooke’s success in Bosnia, the two men argued that Holbrooke’s approach to the conflict in Afghanistan helped legitimize the sentiments that fueled Trump’s political rise. “The Holbrooke magic that worked in Bosnia did not work in Afghanistan,” Goldberg said. During his final days, Holbrooke worked to convince the Obama administration to give him permission to negotiate with the Taliban. But at that point, Holbrooke had established a reputation for being combative after receiving the enmity of former Afghan president, Hamid Karzai.

“This is where the tale turns tragic,” Packer said. Holbrooke “wanted money and (he) made a lot” from his diplomatic work. “It was a sort of legal corruption that implicated the political class in Washington,” Packer said.

And so Holbrooke became “the kind of figure that is partially responsible for the fact that Americans no longer trust our leaders to use their money

PARASITE FROM PAGE 1 the “haves.” Blown away by the Parks’ stunning estate, Ki-woo hatches a plan from his very first day on the job. He refers his sister Ki-jung to become the new art therapist of the Park’s disturbed young son. With her aforementioned Photoshopping skills and unfinished art education, she breezes through the interview: “I Googled ‘art therapy’ and ad-libbed the rest,” she brags afterward.

Together, they then plot to get the chauffeur fired and replaced with their father, and eventually, the longtime housekeeper with their mother.

With every scheme more elaborate, more ambitious and more ridiculous than the former, the audience cannot

zar, the emperor of the Babylonian Empire, dreams he has clay feet, a sign of vulnerability that foreshadows the empire’s fall. In an interview with Apple Music, Sweatshirt compared this biblical story to how he felt when trying to make music while grieving the death of his father.

Sweatshirt explores the pains of death by detailing the loss of his girlfriend, grandmother and father in his lyrics: “My soul and my heart / All in it, keep fishing / Gone, the macabre finish,” he raps over a dissonant, cartoonish beat on the EP’s second track, “East.”

Sweatshirt highlights the vulnerability in grieving atop this inharmonious backdrop, embracing a novel gloominess and emotionality in both the track’s lyricism and production.

In “OD,” the rapper further meditates on the “macabre finish” through the lens of his personal life: “My noose is golden / True and livin’ / Lonesome / Pugilistic moments / ... / Healing cuts / But willingly I’m refilling the pump / No concealing it.” Still, Sweatshirt struggles to fully realize emotional candor.

“My memory really leaking blood / It’s congealing, stuck / ... / Feeling rushed,

and blood wisely, enabling the Trump era,” he added.

Holbrooke did not live to see Trump’s presidency, but Packer and Goldberg believe that he would have felt horrified. “We are in an unprecedented situation,” Goldberg said.

“What’s interesting to me is not the emperor, but all the people around the emperor who are insisting that he’s wearing clothes. … The structure of the (Republican) party and the very intelligent people within that party who are insisting that ‘This is normal.’

That’s the issue.”

Citing the ongoing impeachment proceedings in Washington, Goldberg added that Trump’s presidency could end “tomorrow if a handful of Republican leaders say, ‘Thank you for your service, but we’re moving on now.’”

Yet, Goldberg and Packer expressed an awareness that Trump could still retain support despite the controversies surrounding his conduct as President.

“We can normalize anything, that’s the human gift,” Goldberg said.

“It’s a lot more fragile than we thought. … Once you take a taboo away you can’t really restore it,” Packer said.

“It feels like a plague is hitting all of us because we’re all too close to it to not be infected.”

help but laugh at the Kims’ incredulity and Parks’ gullibility. The expertly written screenplay wields a sharp comedic timing that immaculately nails the rude hilarity behind the Kims’ fake subservience at the expense of the oblivious Parks. The jokes do not one-dimensionally poke fun at the tomfoolery of the rich; rather, their ambiguity in portraying the multi-dimensional motives and malice of both sides underscores that there are neither villains nor heroes in this story.

When the Parks leave for a camping vacation, the Kims take over as temporary kings of their massive playground.

But their reign is cut short when the old housekeeper pays them a visit and brings a harrowing, chilling secret with

COURTESY OF ELI WATSON

Rapper Earl Sweatshirt’s new seven-track EP “Feet of Clay” explores the death of his girlfriend, grandmother and father. grew up quick / Trip around the sun, this my 25th, give it up / Gin and rum / We wasn’t supposed to be alive, no funny shit,” he emotes as the track continues, providing tangible specificity about his own identity to the listener. With a flow that almost mimics a talking voice, he is more intimate with listeners than ever before, using raw lyricism to reveal his “pugilistic” battle with alcoholism while

coping with loss.

Sweatshirt’s exploration of the subconscious reaches its culmination in the album’s final song, “4N,” which takes up nearly a third of the EP’s total listening time of 15 minutes. Sweatshirt’s newfound openness carries itself over into the vulnerability he exhibits in the album’s longest song.

Featuring rapper Mach Hommy,

“4N” also expands upon the sulky, violent imagery of earlier tracks. Sweatshirt raps “Going in landmines, don’t count steps / The old chest said it’s about time / Slow breath, cold flesh made her mouth cry/We know death, alright let’s go left.” In these verses, Sweatshirt expresses a comfortability with exploring tenebrosity in the unconscious mind and even in death. The minimalist production lulls the listener into a trance-like engagement with its ominous lyricism and incorporation of an irregular baseline more evocative of R&B. No care is taken in stepping over landmines, and death becomes accepted as an organic postlude to life.

In the embrace of his own experiences with death, Sweatshirt spits lines with a slouchy flow that reflects the subconscious, offering a glimpse into his head. But he still remains a subversive, esoteric figure, leaving fans hungry for more of his experimental sound.

This dynamic may stem from a newfound artistic confidence: “For a long time, I just felt like shit about my verse.

Then I was like, you know what? This joint kind of go crazy,” Sweatshirt said in an interview with Apple Music.

AREEZ KHAN / HERALD

George Packer (left), a writer for the Atlantic, and Jeffrey Goldberg (right), editor-in-chief of the Atlantic, discussed foreign policy under the Trump administration during a Wednesday night event.

Philip Weinstein, who attended the event, expressed similar worries.

Trump’s approach to foreign policy is “mystifying to me,” Weinstein told The Herald. “It’s very depressing, even more so than I thought. (Trump) doesn’t know what he’s doing. He’s what I call ‘a bull in a china shop.’”

Benjamin Weber MA’08,who will teach a spring 2020 course on U.S. for-

eign policy and the carceral state, said it was “interesting to learn how foreign policy comes home and how different aspects of foreign policy have influenced the carceral state domestically.”

Ultimately, Goldberg views the situation as a call to action for young people. “It’s a great time for undergraduates to get involved in foreign service,” he said. “There’s the saving

grace of this particular moment: the American people are getting to see people we’ve never even heard of take their roles seriously and understanding how to better American democracy.”

Packer agreed, telling the audience that “It’s up to us. … If Trump is a oneterm president, the damage done could potentially be repaired. If he continues for a second term, it’s irreversible.”

her. With this arrival, the plot’s power struggle is suddenly diverted to a new arena. The focus is no longer solely on the warfare between the rich and the poor. Now, it is the fight between the poor and the poorer, competing for the scraps and crumbs of the rich, that takes the main stage.

In this fight, the film poignantly portrays the sad reality of the unequal socioeconomic distribution in many societies beyond just that of South Korea.

The fact that the livelihoods of those at the bottom of the ladder literally hinge on the superficial decisions of the rich is brazenly underscored.

The narrative then escalates to chaos, coating the pristine white walls of the Park residence with broken glass,

blood, booze, peaches and dirty secrets.

The world that the Kims strove so carefully to create comes crashing down, as do all cinematic norms and audience expectations.

Bong Joon-ho masterfully employs both acoustic and cinematic direction to immerse viewers so deeply in a world that no matter how absurd it becomes, it remains believable and inescapable.

Many scenes are filmed with a wide-angle lens situated in a still shot, giving the illusion of an unrestrained view, but always leaving the possibility that there is something crucial lying just outside of the frame. The musical score is subtle and used sparingly, so as to build palpable tension that keeps viewers holding their breath. Through such mechanisms,

this twisted and satirical social commentary is able to perfectly teeter along the many lines of thriller, comedy, suspense and drama.

In the end, even the film’s title proves to be deceptive upon first and last glance.

Who are the parasites in this story? The Kims, who cling onto every sign of wealth in hopes of turning it into their own? Or the Parks, who must blindly rely on servants and their skills to live their normal, day-to-day lives? We don’t know, and that is exactly the dialogue that Bong Joonho sparks with such a mind-provoking, dichotomous narrative.

“Parasite” will show at the Avon Cinema on Thayer Street until Nov. 21.

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 14, 2019

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Women in Archaeology Wikipedia Edit-a-thon 11:00 A.M. Rhode Island Hall

‘Chili Cook Off’ Community Buffet Luncheon 11:30 A.M. Faculty Club

Support Group for Black Womxn 12:00 P.M. Smith-Buonanno Hall

Baha’i Conversation: “The Inherent Nobility of All Human Beings” 8:00 P.M. Robert Center Conference Room

TOMORROW

23

A Forum on Fiction Presents “Novel Life-Forms” 9:00 A.M. Stephen Robert ’62 Campus Center

Brown Anthropology Colloquium 12:00 P.M. Giddings House

30

Dance Marathon 4:00 P.M. Sayles Hall

Men’s Hockey vs Harvard 7:00 P.M. Meehan Auditorium

Q U OTE OF TH E DAY

“The material culture of the victims of war are facing off against the weapons of war.”

—Michael Rakowitz SEE DATES PAGE 2

C O RRECT I ON

CR O S SWO R D

The Nov. 13 article “BSI, other students advocate against divestment” mistakenly identified Zach Harris ’22 as a member of BSI. In fact, he is president of the University’s chapter of J Street U. It also misattributed information about Alums for Campus Fairness to one of its spokespeople, when it should have attributed it to Naomi Reinharz, the president of the ACF-Brown chapter. The Herald regrets the errors.

The Nov. 13 article “Brown Esports fosters community, fundraises” stated that Griffin Beels ’21 had founded Games Done Quick. In fact, he did was inspired by Games Done Quick. The Herald regrets the error.

C L ARI F I CAT I ON The Nov. 13 article about BSI and divestment ran in print with the headline “BSI students advocate against divestment,” but the headline “BSI students, others advocate against divestment” is more accurate. Additionally, the print article stated that “Brown Students for Israel presented an argument against University divestment,” when it is more accurate to say that “Brown Students for Israel in addition to other students opposed to divest” presented the argument. The Herald regrets the errors.

S QUI RREL

AANCHAL SHETH / HERALD

A squirrel gobbles up its meal, stocking up for the winter. These strangely bold creatures will soon depart from campus as the temperature continues to drop, sleeping in the trees until the spring semester.

6

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD | COMMENTARY

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 14, 2019

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THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 14, 2019

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD | COMMENTARY

7

Dining Services must improve its selection for students with dietary restrictions

BY ALISA CAIRA ’22 STAFF COLUMNIST This year for the first time, all sophomores, myself included, were forced onto meal plan as part of the University’s attempt to address food insecurity among students. This decision was well-intentioned, but it has ended up making matters worse for many students who were fully ready to take their diet into their own hands. While not every student may want the responsibility of buying groceries, managing a budget and cooking, some do. And for those students in particular, it is outrageous that they are forced into a dining system that may not meet their desire for control over what they eat.

This forced meal plan is especially problematic for students with dietary restrictions, such as vegetarians like myself. When I first came to Brown, I was thrilled at the thought of being able to become a better vegetarian. As a prospective student, I had been told about the school’s vegetarian dining hall — the Ivy Room — and I soon learned about the vegetarian section, “Roots and Shoots,” of the Sharpe Refectory. But in reality, I have found the options for vegetarian students on meal plan to be underwhelming at best.

There are vegetarian options at dining halls such as Andrews, the Verney-Woolley and the Ratty. But we must consider the importance of convenience in the day-to-day lives of students. As a student myself, I often feel like there is not enough time to run to a dining hall across campus just for a better food option; Brown cannot expect us to shop around each of the dining halls every time we need a meal. Additionally, odd dining hall hours and payment options prevent students from enjoying the full scope of University food offerings. For example, the Blue Room

does not accept meal credits before 4 p.m. on weekdays, and the Ivy Room does not accept them for lunch. Dining on campus is often too inconvenient to encourage students to eat wherever is most suited for them, so many of us, myself included, are often forced to go to the Ratty.

I have often walked away from the Ratty

practically every day. Yet this year, the University seems to have changed “Roots and Shoots.” It often serves the same meal for a week at a time, and occasionally for multiple weeks. These bowls change quite slowly and unexpectedly, without a clear system to account for their rotation. Some of these options are decent — I personally like the Mediterra-

starving its students who have dietary restrictions, but it is leaving its vegetarians disappointed and, often, still hungry.

It is reasonable to hope that Dining Services, when selecting food, takes into account more factors than just whether the food is edible. I urge Dining Services to consider the variety of options it offers and the preferenc-

still hungry, unable to find much that I genuinely want to eat. Besides “Roots and Shoots,” the other frequently offered vegetarian options — french fries, pizza, cereal and pasta, to name a few — do not exactly constitute a balanced meal. While there is a salad bar in the

nean Tofu Quinoa Bowl — but others I dislike, such as the Curried Tempeh Bowl. Yet I am often forced to eat the food I dislike, because it is the only full and balanced meal offered at the Ratty that satisfies my dietary requirements. I can speak only as a vegetarian, but from what

es of students (perhaps even accepting credits across all dining halls). Otherwise, it is only fair to demand the University to allow firstand second-year students to opt out of meal plan.

“It is reasonable to hope that Dining Services, when selecting food, takes into account more factors than just whether the food is edible. ”

Ratty, that option does not quite cut it either; many times my vegetarian friends and I settle for salads, but we walk away feeling unsatisfied by the substance of the food we have consumed.

“Roots and Shoots” used to solve that problem. Last year, “Roots and Shoots” varied its selections fairly regularly. I vividly remember having a new array of vegetables, grain bowls and other vegan options to choose among

Alisa Caira ’22 can be reached at alisa_caira@brown.edu. Please send responses to this opinion to letters@browndailyherald.com and op-eds to opinions@browndailyherald.com.

I can gather, students with other types of dietary restrictions — such as those who are gluten-free or who are following religious diets — are similarly limited in options.

While there is technically enough for a vegetarian to eat at the Ratty, we should have the same array of options as meat eaters. For example, the “Comforts” and “Entrees” sections, which almost always serve meat, change their selections every day. Brown might not be

Television’s false reality of sexual violence ANNA B. KRAMER ’20 STAFF COLUMNIST

In high school, I watched Law and Order: Special Victims Unit compulsively. I distinctly remember waiting for a new season to be released on Netflix with a sense of joyous anticipation.

Perhaps it was the suspenseful introduction that got me hooked, or maybe it was the formulaic plot, in which Detective Olivia Benson always manages to sniff out and catch the perp.

Like many young women my age, I found the show addictive. And yet, when I took a step back and thought about what I was watching — harrowing storylines of sexual assault and violence against women — I could not help but feel uncomfortable, like I was an involuntary voyeur, and that my passive viewing of the show was somehow insensitive. This was all years before the #MeToo movement, which, among other things, brought problematic undertones in popular culture to light. But at the time, when I was a high school student talking about SVU with my friends, we seemed to agree: it was indeed strange that we all liked watching SVU so much.

I am certainly not saying that watching shows or movies depicting storylines of sexual violence is inherently condemnable. Television and film can be crucial tools in teaching viewers about the unfortunate realities of the world in which we live. I am also not suggesting that people should stop watching SVU altogether.

Roxane Gay, author of “Bad Feminist,” makes an interesting argument supporting SVU. She argues that it gives young women hope by showing that “justice … can exist within the realm

of possibility.” Women on the show are always listened to by the detectives. Their voices are heard. Justice is served.

The ironic air of optimism in these episodic storylines can be encouraging and validating, but it is also largely inaccurate. The perfect justice system depicted by SVU is no more a reality than a world in which sexual assault does not exist at all. To put it in context, a mere 0.7 percent of all rape cases lead to felony convictions.

Of cases reported to the police, only 2 percent of perpetrators face incarceration. For many

the conviction of the perpetrator. With that comes a feeling of relief and a sense that the story is … well … over. But as many know either from personal experiences with sexual violence or from the experiences of others, the story is far from over for the survivor. There is very little depiction in the show of how survivors are expected to return to their normal day-to-day lives, work a job, raise a family, be happy. For survivors of sexual violence, the risk of developing post-traumatic stress disorder is extremely high — well above 50 percent in the long-term.

“As a society, we sensationalize violence against women in television and movies.”

without personal experiences with the justice system, that number seems staggeringly low, in part because shows like SVU give us a skewed perspective of responsiveness to sexual assault.

At the very least, we should be watching SVU with an awareness of its inaccuracy. The show represents a best-case response to atrocity, one that we should strive to attain, but that is unfortunately not the reality of the present-day justice system.

In that same vein, it is important to acknowledge the incompleteness of the SVU story arc. In the show, nearly every episode ends with

By simply ending the episode with the arrest of the perp, the storyline highlights the assaulter instead of the victim, and implies that a conviction can eliminate trauma.

There is also no universal response to trauma. Though the show aims to be diverse in the types of victims it showcases and the circumstances it places them in, it is certainly not exhaustive in portraying the multiplicity of a survivor’s potential responses to sexual violence. This may risk making viewers who have experienced sexual violence themselves feel as though their own reactions and coping mecha-

nisms are abnormal.

I do not aim to only criticize SVU: the show is part of a larger trend of sensationalizing sexual violence. Even “Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile,” the Ted Bundy movie that was shown on Brown’s campus last spring, had a way of glamorizing violence against women.

Casting Zac Efron, a former Disney Channel star and Hollywood heartthrob, as a well-known serial killer felt eerily like romanticizing atrocity. The movie also left out a lot of the gruesome aspects of Bundy’s behavior, instead focusing on his extremely likeable public appearance. I doubt that I was alone in leaving the screening wanting to have seen more of the wicked, evil and vile.

As a society, we sensationalize violence against women in television and movies, and I caution against the normalization of this trend.

But there is hope for change. Netflix’s new crime series, “Unbelievable,” depicts the same heinous crimes as SVU but intentionally shows how the victims are often disbelieved during police investigations. I am optimistic that the release of “Unbelievable” is representative of a cultural shift in the way we generally understand sexual violence and depict it in media.

Despite their flaws, shows like SVU still have their place. I now understand why I found the series so undeniably attractive in high school: It creates a world in which women’s voices are validated. Nonetheless, we need to better acknowledge that reality is far more convoluted.

Anna B. Kramer ’20 can be reached at anna_kramer@brown.edu. Please send responses to this opinion to letters@browndailyherald.com and op-eds to opinions@browndailyherald.

8

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD | NEWS

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 14, 2019

UNIVERSITY NEWS

UFB plans to release breakdown of student group funding UCS general body also discusses student appointments to ACCRIP working group

BY KAYLA GUO SENIOR STAFF WRITER

members for input on student appointments to the University working group that will advise revisions to the Advisory Committee on Corporate Responsibility in Investment Policies. The committee “considers issues of ethical and moral responsibility in the investment policies”

The Undergraduate Finance Board announced three policy changes and a plan to release how much money it allocates to each student group, said UCSUFB Liaison Ellis Clark ’23 at Wednesday night’s Undergraduate Council of Students meeting.

A new yearlong pilot policy will extend baseline funding to $600 from $200 per semester for Category III cultural/ ethnic and religious student groups, such as the Black Student Union, Muslim Students Association and the South Asian Students Association. Category III is the highest categorization status student groups can achieve. The new policy aims to alleviate difficulties these groups face in obtaining funding for food from UFB, Song said.

For performance groups, UFB will now consider funding up to $1,800 a semester to purchase the rights for shows.

Finally, a new policy will provide up to $5 per person for food at events dedicated to breaking fast.

When the Board releases student group funding data, it will also explain why the highest funded groups receive their budgets, said Chair of Student Activities Alex Song ’20. UFB is “anticipating backlash on what’s revealed,” he said.

Clark agreed, adding that there might be backlash “because everyone will be able

of the University, according to its website.

The working group will have four undergraduate appointees, McKeever said.

McKeever will serve in one of those spots as a UCS representative, and another slot will be a rotating position for students who currently serve on ACCRIP, he said.

“The people on this group are going to have a lot of impact in terms of how the new ACCRIP or investment group reviews policies (and) recommends policies,” Caplan said. “Eamon and I felt that this wasn’t something that we could unilaterally decide … so we wanted to get feedback from the general body” on the values and experiences student representatives to the working group should have.

McKeever and Caplan also invited general body members to join in on interviews for the position, which are set to take place today.

“We recognize the limits to our own knowledge and authority to make this decision, and we really want this to be as representative of a choice as it can be,” Caplan added.

Chair of Student Wellness Shivani Nishar ’20 raised concerns that certain demographics of students might be excluded from the working group because they lack pre-existing knowledge on ethical investment policy.

Caplan said that a background in investment policy would only be used to “contextualize” applicants rather than “qualify or disqualify” them. “We’re

to go in and see how much money we give groups.” The Board funds 250 student groups with a budget of about $2 million.

Also during the meeting, Co-Chairs of Appointments Sam Caplan ’22 and Eamon McKeever ’22 asked general body

looking for people who value student voice and have a passion for investing in a change like this,” he added.

The Council also voted to confirm Song and Mary Stack ’21 as its elections board co-chairs.

REBECCA HO / HERALD

Alex Song ’20 and Mary Stack ’21 were confirmed co-chairs of the elections board at Wednesday’s UCS meeting. The board oversees the annual UCS and UFB spring elections.

Song, who has served on the elections board for two years, said that he hopes the board can take a more “active” role in UCS and UFB’s spring elections by revamping its online presence and making resources for potential candidates more accessible. The board has historically taken a “pretty passive” role in overseeing the annual elections, he said.

Stack said she would be open to altering the length of elections, which typically occur over a one-week period.

Song added that the board could discuss

tial new bylaw that would designate a UCS student liaison on University committees to “facilitate more information sharing,” McKeever said.

Currently, UCS appoints student representatives to University committees, such as the Residential Council and Dining Council, but the students are not required to report to UCS. Under the new bylaw, one student representative per committee would also be required to maintain regular communication with UCS.

are appointed each semester.

Chief of Staff Melissa Lee ’20 said the UCS liaisons should communicate with the entire general body, not just the relevant UCS committee chairs, and that the liaisons should prioritize sharing information not generally accessible to the broader student body.

UCS President William Zhou ’20 suggested that the UCS liaisons could also submit written summaries of their University committee activities.

“Eamon and I see this bylaw as the

moving the elections time line earlier in the semester to allow elected students the opportunity to shadow UCS members or gain greater familiarity with the Council.

The Council also discussed a poten-

If the bylaw is approved by the general body, the liaison responsibilities would not be implemented retroactively to students already appointed to University committees, Caplan said. Instead, the role would be phased in as new students

beginning of a greater cultural change of streamlining communication” and reducing the distance between UCS and University committees, Caplan said.