Counterculture Magazine Issue Three

Letter from the Editor

I love a good story. I’ve been an avid reader since I was a kid, and above all else, fiction remains my favorite genre. There is no better feeling than to lose yourself in a story, to fall in love with protagonists and antagonists, heroes and villains. I especially love people who are good at telling stories. Good storytellers know how to construct a well-made plot, how to perfectly pace their story to lead to the most satisfying conclusion. Everything lines up. Everything makes sense. There are no loose ends in the plot.

In the plot we live in, however, there are more loose ends than ever. The story of the United States of America is one that is growing increasingly more complex, fraught with angst, and frankly, one where I am not sure where the plot will end. We live in a time of so much uncertainty, confusion, and unprecedented matters. There is so much in the complex narrative of this country that at times it is mind boggling to wonder how it fits under one story. In some parts of the country, abortion access is being expanded more than ever, workers are receiving more justice than ever, and voting access is as equitable as ever— while in others, discussion of race has been criminalized, books are being banned, and the marginalized, particularly transgender individuals are being oppressed more than ever. In the context of larger history, rarely has progress ever been made in exact alignment with the progression of time’s steady march forward. All of us, particularly the marginalized, know this story well. Yet at times the plot itself seems uncertain, and our status as (mostly) free individuals in this country becomes unclear.

What gives me hope, however, is witnessing the actions of my generation and our continuous efforts to stand up to racism, sexism, transphobia, and fascist leaders all around us. From clapping back at politicians on Twitter to running for office, to showing up in record numbers for recent elections to vote for progressive and liberal leaders, Generation Z has sent a clear message: we’re changing the story that’s being told. We are tired of the same authors— usually old, rich, white men— controlling the narrative. We’re taking the pen into our own hands, flipping the script, and moving the plot forward.

For this reason, Counterculture Issue 3 is aptly titled Turning the Page. Generation Z represents a new story, a story which is more diverse, progressive, and forward thinking than ever. We’re starting a new chapter, both in our lives as we further enter adulthood, and in the larger world, where we’re already turning things upside down. Nowhere is this better reflected than in the cover of this magazine, which features three young Black women sitting in the Classics Library at the University of Richmond. They represent the new era— forward thinkers surrounded by older ideas. It’s exactly what this issue and Counterculture as a magazine Is intended to embody.

As you turn the page, I hope that you will enjoy this lovely third issue, which features some of our most provocative articles today. This issue features articles on topics such as incel culture, car dependency, racism in academia, and voter suppression. I hope that it inspires you to write a new chapter, tell your own story, and change the narrative. Happy Reading.

Best, Christian Herald Founder and Editor in Chief

Acknowledgements

The Executive Board of Counterculture Magazine would like to extend much gratitude to everyone who participated in this project and helped us create Issue Three. It is because of your support that we were able to keep the momentum we needed to establish this organization and make it into the magazine it is today.

We would first like to extend a huge thank you to our faculty advisor, Dr. Thad Williamson at the Jepson School of Leadership. Dr. Williamson was one of the first supporters of this project and helped us to conceive many of the ideas that are foundational to the magazine. His support during our time as both an affiliated and unaffiliated organization is unprecedented, and we are forever grateful.

Next, we would also like to thank our team of writers, who have persisted through this project despite academic and personal stress. Thank you for telling your stories and providing your insights, as well as devoting much of your time to the creation of this project. Without your hard work, this magazine would not be able to exist. We would also like to extend a thank you to our creative design team for developing the concept for this issue and making it come to life through visual narratives. To our cover models, thank you for your participation in this project and for making this magazine come to life in a powerful and provocative way.

Lastly, we would like to thank the larger University of Richmond community for their consistent support over the last three issues of the magazine. From sharing social media posts from the Counterculture Instagram account to telling us how excited you were to see this project come to fruition, your endless support and enthusiasm propelled us to make this issue come alive. We are elated to have you as our mentors, peers, and friends.

Photo Credit: Grace Brogan

The Emergence of Incel Ideology into the Mainstream: Andrew Tate, The Rise and Fall of an Incel Icon

be “high-value men,” to Greta Thunberg’s clap-back tweet and hiss subsequent sex-traffic related arrest, his presence has undoubtedly taken the internet by storm. A former professional kickboxer turned social media personality, his misogynistic takes, revolutionized the way that men, especially young men, view women. His spotlight of stardom highlighted a subculture of incels and an onslaught emergence of male figures that promote and facilitate spaces which encourage this type of mindset. To understand, we have to start from the beginning.  10

movement. However, the name did not start with such pessimistic intentions. The name was originally coined by a woman named Alana, who in 1997 started an internet forum, the Involuntary Celibate Project or incel for short, for lonely virgins looking to find love. It was a place she had intended as a fun way for men and women to connect with others. Despite its humble beginnings, the name was adopted by misogynistic men who were angry and frustrated with women and sought solace in one another.

As a subculture, they orbit around concepts of misogyny and male chauvinism. Often, young men are swept up into this culture through a social media pipeline, traditionally starting with funny and simple reaction videos then transitioning into right-wing commentary and then into conspiracy theories, white nationalism, and anti-women ideologies. Despite the meaning of the name incel being involuntarily celibate, the community is not entirely made up of virgins, rather they collectively share a belief that feminism and modern women are to blame for the deterioration of western civilization and the traditional roles of men and women resulting in men being unable to find sexual partners.

Elliot Rodger, the mass shooter behind the 2014 Isla Vista shooting that occurred outside of a sorority house at the University of California, Santa Barbara, is a primary example of an incel. In his autobiography Elliot Rodger Manifesto: My Twisted World

, he expresses his unsettling view of himself and others:

I saw them as the enemy. I felt condemned to live a life of lonely celibacy while other boys were allowed to experience the pleasures of sex, all because girls didn’t want me. I felt inferior and undesirable. This time, however, I couldn’t just stand by and accept such an injustice anymore. I refused to continue hiding away from the world and forgetting about all the insults it dealt to me” (56).

This idea that women gatekeep sex from men is shared among the incel community. Incels are prevalent in misogynist spaces and tend to be found in pockets of the internet where they can discuss their shared frustrations of women. Places like Reddit, Twitter, 4Chan, and YouTube are primary examples of places these forums tend to pop-up.

“One day I found some posts on the internet about teenagers having sex, and I was once again reminded of the life I had been denied. [...] I developed extreme feelings of envy, hatred, and anger towards anyone who has a sex life.

From the various forums of the internet where such ideas cultivate, the incel community, like any niche subgroup, has created terms and ideas to further convey concepts and cultivate comradery. Some of these terms include, alpha/sigma males, Chad, manosphere, high-value men, and red pilled. Compiled here is a list of some of the most popular terms and their meanings:

Alpha male: Originating in science and the animal kingdom, alpha males are primarily associated with wolf packs but have come to be applied to human men. They are seen as being dominant, assertive, intimidating, takecharge, and aggressive. In the incel space, being an alpha male is something coveted and sought after.

Sigma male: The phrase emerged from far-right activist Theodore Robert Beale who first used the term in a blog in 2010. It saw a surge of use on forums like 4chan and is used to describe a man who is like an Alpha, but is more introverted and reserved. He is seen as a lone wolf that people are drawn to by his strong presence. For the sigma male, he does not approach women, women approach him.

Chad: Based on the stereotypical name of a football quarterback jock who is popular and can have any girl that he wants, this is a name that incels use to refer to an untenable standard of an attractive and desirable man who is able to have sex with women.

Manosphere: The term refers to a wide array of communities and public forums on the internet that facilitate discussion on misogynistic discourse. This broad term refers to a wide scale of misogynistic groups from supremacist factions to incels to men’s rights.

High-value man: This is a man who is highly desirable to women. He is funny, smart, successful, talented, and alpha/sigma, basically he is the total package. Women want to date him and men want to be him.

Red pill / blue pill: Originating from a scene in The Matrix, taking the blue pill is to continue to live and understand the world as one already does whereas the red pill is to choose to know the truth about reality. Many in the incel community identify as being ‘red pilled’ meaning that they understand the dark reality of life and understand how women “really are.”

Now that we have a basic understanding of incel talking points, we can begin to navigate the community.

Stemming from the red pilled ideology, many men in the manosphere believe that as a result of the feminist movement, women now only want to date men ‘out of their league’ and are no longer choosing to date the “nice guy.” As a result of this, they have come out with unsupported statistics of the 80/20 rule where 80% of the most desirable women go after the top 20% of high-value men and that the remaining 80% of men are left to fight over the remaining 20% of undesirable women.

Prior to his rise to fame as a social media influencer, he was a four-time world champion professional kickboxer, winning his first championship in 2011. During his kickboxing career, he went by the name Cobra Tate, named after his lowered-arm stance. He garnered more popularity when he starred on Big Brother, a popular UK reality TV show. He was pulled from the show in 2016 when a video of what appeared to be Andrew Tate beating a woman with a belt leaked to the public. He asserted that the video was taken out of context and that they were just playing around.

The red pill community is rampant with toxic masculinity, rape culture, and men’s right activism. The subreddit, r/TheRedPill featured users discussing the “first rule of dealing with rape accusations and the Police, keep your mouth shut.” The r/TheRedPill subreddit was quarantined from the platform in 2018 and appears to have been scrubbed from the site.

Now that we have a solid understanding of the culture that was bubbling under the surface, we can better understand just how Andrew Tate was able to captivate audiences and propel the manosphere into the spotlight.

Andrew Tate’s Origins and Rise to Fame

Andrew Tate is the son of Emory Tate, a famous African-American chess International Master.

He resurfaced to fame in 2022 when he launched a viral social media campaign to promote his male focused ‘self help’ company Hustler’s University. He showed off his expensive cars, $30 million dollar Romanian home, and other luxuries as a means of promoting Hustler's University and shared controversial takes on women and masculinity on TikTok. His viral internet fame primarily stemmed from his clips talking about women, which garnered both admiration and hate. He is heavily associated with toxic masculinity and is considered to be red pilled. These associations have led him to be heavily tied to the manosphere and the incel community despite him never directly associating with either.

Hustler’s University is a $50 a month subscription which gives a person access to a Discord server with a

plethora of channels to learn and discuss subjects that educate users on how to themselves become successful multimillionaires like Andrew Tate.

Being a big fan of referencing The Matrix, the service has garnered a lot of criticism, with many people calling it a pyramid scheme. The accusation comes from the affiliate program that is encouraged on the platform and has been suggested to be one of the primary sources of revenue for students. The Hustler’s University 2.0 site promotes its affiliate program but does not mention exactly how much revenue can be earned from each signup that is received from one's own link. It has been reported that sales commission is around 50% of anyone who uses the link’s first month subscription, which would be $25 of the $50 subscription fee. At the end of the day, the real person making the most money from these commissions is Andrew Tate as he gets 100% of subscription costs after the first month.

From asserting that sparkling (bubbly) water is the only acceptable water to saying women can’t drive to saying that rape victims are partly to blame for being assaulted, he had shared a wide array of highly controversial ideas. Despite being 36 years old, he asserted that he refuses to date a woman who is over the age of 25, solely for the reason that the younger the girl is, the less sex and experience she will have had, making it a better dating experience for him.  He has also shares that one of his preference for choosing to live in Romania was based on fact that it has much stricter thresholds for proving rape, which he learned after being charged for sexual assault while living in London. He complains that the West is far too quick to side with women.

In October 2022 Andrew Tate released a much less well known site called The Real World, which is basically a carbon copy of Hustler’s University 2.0 but with a different name and an initial cost of $147 for the first month and the $50 for every month after that.

Beyond just Hustler’s University, he has many controversial takes that have riled up people on the internet.

Not only has he made such atrocious comments about women, he has also promoted his ability to monopolize off of women for monetary gain. He has talked about, both on the internet and on his Hustler’s University site, his webcam business. On Fresh and Fit, a “manosphere” podcast known for its misogynistic takes on women, Andrew Tate shared how he started his webcam business small with only two women, whom he identified as his girlfriends, and grew to a large operation with four locations and revenue of $600,000 a month.

Andrew Tate has expressed that all of the women who worked in his webcam business were his girlfriends, asserting that his girlfriends would do more for him than most men's wives would.

Many have associated Andrew Tate’s tactics of luring women into the webcam business as a well established method known as the loverboy method. The method is characterized by a man making a woman believe that they are in a relationship and then transitioning to using them for their money or as a way of earning money. He shared that he would lure women to come live with him in Romania, take them on dates, and in one instance promise marriage, only to then have them perform sexual acts on camera for which Tate would receive more of the revenue. These actions are a primary example of sex-trafficking, which is what, as of December 29, 2022, Andrew Tate has been imprisoned.

Prior to his arrest, Andrew Tate, who has been banned from basically every platform on the internet, provoked climate activist Greta Thunberg on Twitter by listing all his gas emitting vehicles and asked her to provide her email so that he could send her a more in-depth list. Greta clapped back, stating that he could email her at “smalldickenergy@getalife.com.”

Tate responded to this with a video responding to Greta. At the time Tate was hiding from Romanian authorities. Fans were quick to point out a pizza box in the background of his video from a pizza chain located in Romania.

At the time of his arrest, tweets on his account started popping up about The Matrix, one of which said, “The Matrix has attacked me./ But they misunderstand, you cannot kill an idea./ Hard to kill .” Andrew Tate’s entire time as a social media influencer, prior to being banned on nearly all platforms, was riddled with references to The Matrix from red pilling to the belief that he had broken out of The Matrix and was no longer confined by it. There is a bit of irony in The Matrix being co-opted by the male chauvinist and incel community, the movie was actually written and directed by Lana and Lily Wachowski, two trans women.

There is a growing concern about how men like Andrew Tate are impacting young boys between the ages 14-19. Teachers across the country have been reporting that many boys in their classes have begun regurgitating many of the concepts and talking points that Andrew Tate has said regarding the inferiority of women. Platforms like TikTok, which have algorithms for personalized content, make it very easy for toxic subcultures, like the incel community, to create echochambers where the same ideas and beliefs are reiterated and appear to be the only ideas that these young boys are being introduced to. The more these young boys watch and like content about misogyny, the more of that same content they will receive.

This creates a steep pipeline for boys to be sucked into overtly misogynistic ideologies without any real opportunity to hear counterpoints or the dangers of such beliefs.

While Andrew Tate’s arrest put a swift halt to Andrew Tate producing more content, and based on his charges it is unlikely he will be making a comeback anytime soon, there is much debate over whether such a phenomena is bound to happen again. There are still plenty of spaces on the internet that continue to facilitate the manosphere but the subculture is no longer in the spotlight. The world lies in wait, wondering if another Andrew Tate or perhaps some new ideology will create a paradigm shift, forever altering the hearts and minds of the youth.  ***

Editor’s Note: Andrew Tate was released from Romanian jail on April 3rd, 2023, after this article was submitted for publication, and he is currently on house arrest..

Not So Peachy: Voter Suppression in the State of Georgia

In November 2020, the state of Georgia shocked the country by voting for Joe Biden, the first time that the state had voted for a Democratic presidential candidate since the 1996 election. Approximately 49.5% of Georgia voters voted in favor of Joe Biden, giving him just 0.3% more votes than Donald Trump.

The results of the 2020 election brought Georgia voters to the forefront of consideration, with many branding it an official “swing state” after the 2020 election results. However, more eyes on Georgia also meant more people noticing the poor voting practices taking place and the blatant voter suppression.

Photo Credit: Shutterstock

Since the 2020 election, Georgia has been heavily criticized for enacting laws and engaging in practices that suppress the votes of certain demographics. Some of the voter suppression methods that Georgia has utilized in recent years include: carefully crafted voter ID laws, voter purges, poll closures, removal of ballot boxes, and early voting restrictions. Some of the main groups who are experiencing efforts to suppress their votes are people of color and college students.

In order to truly understand the gravity of what Georgia is doing to its voters, it is important to understand some of the various methods that the state is using to suppress votes that are not commonly understood. Voter ID laws are intended, in theory, to ensure that those who are voting, are actually who they say they are. Voter ID laws are meant to ensure that everyone is able to cast their vote and that no one is being impersonated for the purpose of voting. Voter purges are the process of “cleaning” the voter registration rolls to remove those who have passed away or no longer live in that state or district.

Recent years and elections have highlighted the ways in which Georgia utilizes voter ID laws for the purpose of suppressing the votes of particular demographics. While there is merit to the fact that voter ID laws help to prevent voter fraud, they also serve as a barrier to voting for those who do not have access to the limited number of accepted IDs. 18

While Georgia used to have a relatively extensive list of IDs that could be used for the purpose of voting, the list has been systematically reduced over the last several years, making it more difficult to meet the voter ID requirements. For those who do not have a driver's license or another approved form of ID, Georgia does offer a free voter ID. However, this ID can take months to come in the mail, with some never receiving it. A college student from Georgia, who wishes to remain anonymous, stated that they ordered their voter registration card (the approved free ID) on the day of their 18th birthday, and still have not received it two years later.This makes the process incredibly difficult for those who require the voter registration card in order to vote. The source also recalls the Georgia Secretary of State office telling them that there was nothing they could do to help and that their card would eventually arrive. Creating more restrictive voter ID laws also includes limiting the number of ID forms that can be used for same day voter registration. Ultimately, these measures have served to disproportionately impact minorities and people of color in Georgia who obtain state IDs at a lower rate and rely more frequently on the free voter registration card that too often never comes in the mail.

Voter purges were initially enacted in order to ensure that voter rolls were as up to date as possible, making the election process move smoothly and preventing voter fraud.

However, voter purges have been utilized to wipe active citizens who are eligible to vote from the voter rolls and subjecting these individuals to Georgia’s increasingly difficult same day registration rules. In 2021, Georgia removed the names of over 100,000 people from voter rolls, in an act of voter purging without evidence to remove them. This purge, like many of the others that Georgia has engaged in, disproportionately affected people of color. Numerous college students were also impacted, as well.. Georgia removed many college students who attended schools out of state with no apparent reason. There is speculation that this may have been due to an assumption that those students would register to vote in the state of their college. Furthermore, no notification was provided to the victims of the voter purge, with many of them not finding out until they were unable to vote in the next election.

In the last decade, the number of places in which Georgians can cast ballots and submit absentee ballots has decreased by 10%. However, the poll closures are not following a random pattern. Many of the poll closures in the last decade have disproportionately impacted communities of color, which directly affects the ability for people of color to vote. Rural counties faced issues too, with certain areas having just one polling location for over 50 miles . While many companies provide time off to vote, many still don’t.

Removing polling places decreases the likelihood of an individual getting time off to go vote and once again disproportionately impacts people of color.

Recent changes to Georgia’s early voting rules have made it increasingly difficult to vote early or through mail, limiting the ability of those with disabilities, jobs that do not provide leave for voting, and out of state college students to vote. As previously mentioned, there has been a decrease in the number of polling stations in minority communities. As a result, many minorities in Georgia have resorted to voting by mail. The process for obtaining a mail in ballot has become increasingly difficult over the last several years; many getting their ballots denied despite sending in all of the necessary information on time. Furthermore, polling locations have been slow to count and collect mail in ballots which forces them to be counted as “late” even though they were mailed and received on time. When voters are not informed that there is an issue with their mail in ballot, they are not able to fix problems to ensure that their vote is counted. This issue has particularly affected college students who are attempting to vote from their respective colleges.

The state of Georgia’s continuous efforts to suppress the votes of minorities and college students draws attention to these practices around the country and drives calls for voter reform and standardization of voting practices.

On June 25, 2021, the United States Justice Department filed a lawsuit against the state of Georgia for having racially discriminatory provisions in its new voting law. In light of Georgia’s actions, this is not likely to be the last time that the state is called out for discriminatory voting practices and voter suppression

However, Georgia voters have some power to make changes. The secretary of state department runs elections. Electing a secretary of state that will enforce election rules and ensure fair voting practices is essential. Talking to your representatives and ensuring that they understand the importance of proposing voter protection laws will also be vital. Georgia is under the microscope, but that only matters if it means change.  ***

Curbing Car Dependency: How We All Benefit from Reduced Car Usage

As a University of Richmond student, I have generally been happy with my undergraduate experience so far. I have great professors, take amazing classes, and get to enjoy an incredibly beautiful campus. Such dismay for my experience is felt, however, during one particular occasion: when I have to get in my car and make the two minute drive to The Village on Three Chopt Road.

I’m from a major city, and where I live, the distance from Richmond’s campus to The Village wouldn’t even be thought of as a drive— it would be considered a short walk, if anything else. But the lack of sidewalks and perilous driving that makes me feel unsafe, even in my car, has deterred me from even attempting the trip in a vehicle that isn’t either my own or the bus.

This lack of pedestrian access isn’t just merely a fluke, however, or a coincidence. It’s the result of decades of policies from both the United States government and the automobile industry which have made walking nearly impossible in countless places throughout the country.

An article in the Harvard Crimson refers to the United States as a “motocracy”— a state in which cars reign supreme. In every single part of the United States, with the exception of some major cities, a car is necessary to access important and necessary services such as medical care, grocery stores, schools, outdoor recreation, and more. In 2021, 45 percent of individuals in the United States had no access to public transportation.

Photo Credit: Christian Herald

It’s nearly impossible to ignore car dependency once you become aware of the phenomenon. You notice the overwhelming number of parking lots and the underwhelming number of sidewalks. You notice the lack of buses, trains, streetcars, and other forms of public transportation which are prevalent in nearly every other developed Western nation. You notice the danger in cars, and the absurd expectation to make individuals as young as 16 operate a several ton hunk of metal to travel nearly everywhere. Car dependency does more than just make us have to travel in cars— it reinforces systemic racism and classism, damages the environment, and claims tens of thousands of lives every year.  What is more tragic, however, is that American cities weren’t always this car dependent, and that car dependency is an intentional choice, funded by the automobile industry and signed off by elected officials. It’s time to reconsider how even policy choices such as cars have a deep impact on our society, and how we can imagine a better, more equitable, more safe America free from them.

Background

In the early 20th century, over 250,000 miles of railroad tracks were present in the United States. By 2023, this number has shrunk to just a little over 160,000 miles, with only 21,000 of those miles being devoted completely to personal travel.

What has happened in the past 100 years to turn a thriving railroad system, which was utilized for both freight and personal transportation, into a world dominated by highways?

The answer is typically American: the greed of corporations and their never-ending quest for profit in a capitalistic society. Beginning in the 1920s, not long after Henry Ford’s revolutionary assembly line process sped up the production of the car to levels never seen before, American cities began the slow but damaging process of making their cities more car oriented. One of the earliest examples of how policy decisions shaped cities around cars can be found in the 1920s, when the concept of jaywalking was invented. Before this time, pedestrians controlled the streets, with cars being second class citizens in this dynamic.  With the introduction of jaywalking policies, however, it sent a subtle yet clear message: cars became  the dominant force, forcing pedestrians to become secondary. It also changed the onus of blame in accidents, from reckless drivers themselves to individuals who shouldn’t have walked at the supposed “wrong” time.

Car-oriented policies ramped up during the postwar boom of the 1950s and 60s.

Policies such as “urban renewal”

(read: pushing Black and brown individuals out of their communities by destroying them all together), razed millions of blocks of previously pedestrian friendly communities in order to construct highways, places on which it is expressly forbidden for individuals to walk. Examples of how highways decimated communities are close to home: the once thriving Black neighborhood of Jackson Ward in downtown Richmond was bisected in the mid 20th century by the construction of I-64, destroying a cornerstone of Black culture in Richmond and displacing 10% of the total Black population.

What is more tragic, however, is that the process of highway building is one that was lobbied by automobile companies and further subsidized by the US government, making it not just difficult to travel places without cars, but the most economically viable option in many cases. The United States government matched the building of the National Interstate System by 90 percent. In the last 40 years, this subsidization has continued, with the government supporting up to 30% of highway and road system costs that aren’t covered by taxes and other fees. At the same time, privately owned public transportation systems affected by the war didn’t receive the same funding, allowing for an even further dependence on cars.

It is deeply ironic that while widespread car usage is often viewed as a sign of capitalistic freedom— a message propagandized by automobile companies— their mass usage in the United States has its roots in socialist policies.

The Racist, Classist, and Environmental Implications of Car Dependency

How does car dependency make all of us worse off— no matter where we come from? Let’s examine the many ways in which the motocracy decreases the quality of our lives, from the way it subjects us to unsafe conditions to even the way it perpetuates isolation, prejudice, and other discriminatory beliefs.

Car Dependency Makes The Environment Worse

It’s no secret that cars are one of the most detrimental sources of pollution to the environment— transportation is the largest pollutant in the United States, according to data collected by the Environmental Protection Agency. It’s also not a secret that the automobile industry works hard to keep environmentally-friendly restrictions on cars to a minimum, using their incredibly powerful lobbying abilities to save their multi-billion dollar corporations a few extra dollars. Particularly with climate change becoming a more prevalent issue, with billions of dollars being shelled out each year in the US on major environmental disasters, it’s time to think about a more viable solution to transport that is more environmentally safe and efficient.

Car Dependency is Racist and Classist

As we’ve already discussed, the history of car dependency in the United States has racist roots, with most major interstate highway systems destroying Black, brown, and low income neighborhoods. But while we talk about the racism of car dependency, we speak about it in the past— ignoring the very present car dependency racism that exists to this day. Traffic stops, which serve to police drivers on the road, are also one of the most common ways in which minorities have contact with police officers, leading to profiling, arrests, and even death at a far higher rate than white drivers. Furthermore, creating a car-centric environment without providing any sort of economic assistance to purchase a car or investing in public transportation leaves millions of individuals who can’t afford cars stranded. People of color in the United States are far less likely to own cars, the disparity being the worst in Black communities, which are two times less likely to own cars then the national average. This creates inequitable situations in which racial minorities are quite literally stranded within the vicinity of their own homes, forced to rely on public transportation, which is nationally inconsistent, or simply unable to access resources which might be further away from their house.

Car dependency also creates an “economic trap” in which low income drivers struggle to maintain the upkeep, costs, and necessary repairs that are required to keep their car safe and legal to drive on the roads. Despite low income drivers using various tactics to keep car costs low, vehicle maintenance still remains roughly the same even when accounting for the amount one drives. This creates a devastating phenomenon in which individuals are forced to drive without any alternative or financial assistance, burdening their own pockets for a lifestyle they didn’t choose. And this dynamic doesn’t even account for the elderly, who are incapable of driving after a certain age.  What happens to individuals who live in car centric areas when they age? Our society fails to provide an answer, leaving our most vulnerable the most isolated.

Car Dependency is Dangerous

Lastly, car dependency relies on the premise that millions of individuals will drive incredibly powerful machines in a safe and competent manner. Car fatalities remain one of the highest causes of death in the United States each year, with over 40,000 people dying each year in crashes. This doesn’t even factor in the individuals who are injured by car accidents yearly, a number which stretches into the millions. Car dependency isn’t just racist or classist— it’s a phenomenon that is quite literally killing us.

For much of the last century, cars have been equated to freedom. Yet in reality, car dependency exacerbates detrimental systemic problems that plague our society, such as racism, classism, environmental destruction, and premature death. True freedom is not the ability to choose cars, but the ability to select a range of transportation options, whether that be bikes, high speed trains, streetcars, buses, or walking. Without dependency on cars, we gain back our safety, our time, our freedom, and most importantly, our sense of dignity in a democratic society.  ***

Ron DeSantis and the Shackles of History

Education has been a hot button topic for decades, but especially in the years since the COVID-19 pandemic hit the nation. Questions of whether schools should be able to require students to wear masks sparked outrage in parents and politicians, both supporters and opponents. The controversy bubbled up to the point of the creation of a new, parent-run organization in January 2021: Moms for Liberty.

Over the past two years, the group has made national headlines for condemning masks and COVID-19 precautions, promoting efforts to ban books, and preventing classroom discussions on topics like race, gender, and sexuality. They’ve led the conversation surrounding the infamous term ‘critical race theory,’ which, though primarily taught in higher education, now generally refers to any discussion on race.

Photo Credit: Grace Brogan

The distrust of school boards and educators to properly educate children has been largely facilitated by Moms for Liberty, and it is leading to harmful legislation that limits what students are able to learn and what teachers are able to teach. Most recently under fire is the AP (Advanced Placement) African American Studies course, and heading the battle is Florida Governor Ron DeSantis.

Who is Ron DeSantis?

Ron DeSantis has left an undeniable imprint on Floridian schools, economic and health policies, culture, and way of life. Throughout his political career, he has regularly criticized the policies of President Obama and supported those of President Trump. When numbers did not look promising for the primaries, he begged Trump to back him, whose endorsement then allowed him to win the primaries and narrowly defeat his opponent, Andrew Gillum, with a .4% margin.

The former limits discussion of sexual orientation and gender identity in public schools, and the second “protects” Floridians, specifically children, from discrimination and woke indoctrination, essentially prohibiting conversations of race relations.

The Framework and Pilot

Since taking the gubernatorial office in 2019, DeSantis has enacted a range of notable policies, several cementing him as a barrier to secondary education. In 2022 alone, he passed the Parental Rights in Education Act, or the “Don’t Say Gay” bill, and the Individual Freedom Act, or the Stop WOKE Act.

The CollegeBoard began to develop its AP African American History in 2020 amidst social justice uprisings, catalyzed by the murder of George Floyd. This AP class is a full year course covering four units: Origins of the African Diaspora; Freedom, Enslavement, and Resistance; The Practice of Freedom; and Movements and Debates. It begins with the study of early African societies, kingdoms, and city-states, dating all the way back to 3000 BCE and includes source materials from these societies, such as photos of architecture/ landscapes, paintings, sculptures, and other artistic expressions. The course material then progresses to the enslavement of Africans in the 16th century up until the mid-to-late 19th century and also the struggle to gain freedom and how it is still a struggle for Black Americans today to keep this freedom. The third unit covers the institutional and systemic barriers that have been put in place to stop Black Americans from fully exercising their freedoms as their white counterparts have. The last unit dives deeper into the movements that were created to uplift Black and African Americans.

In the 2022-23 school year, the first pilot was launched at 60 schools across the country. There are no specifics provided on where these schools are located, but it is assumed to be in several states. In the 2023-24 year, the pilot will expand to hundreds of additional high schools, and the following year all schools can begin to offer the course. In spring 2025, AP exams will be available for all students to take.

Current Controversy

The CollegeBoard is attempting to offer courses that will enrich students’ understandings of the country we live in and will generally inform them of vital history. Despite these efforts, states have still lashed out against the prospect of the course. Governor Ron DeSantis of Florida has been at the forefront of this fight. On February 7, 2023, after the release of the updated framework for the course, the Florida Department of Education sent a letter to the Senior Director of CollegeBoard’s Florida Partnership, Brian Barnes. In it, the Bureau of Standards and Instructional Support argued that certain parts of the course violated the statutes in House Bill 7 regarding the Principles of Individual Freedom. The letter then reveals the revised framework had removed nineteen of the original topics included in the pilot, a number of which the FDOE cited as conflicting with Florida law.

Some of these topics included those covering African American art, culture, and poetry; African American political thought; the social construct of race; and systematic institutions of racism. However, the FDOE still presses for further omissions to be made to the course if it is to be taught in the state.

Since Florida’s refusal to teach the new AP course, the state has also threatened to ban all AP courses. The Arkansas, North Dakota, Mississippi, and Virginia (all Republican-led) departments of education are reviewing the course to determine if it complies with their restrictions on lessons about race and racism. Texas has already passed a bill that would ban the course if it interfered with state law. All five of these states are among the eighteen that have passed anti-CRT laws.

In Arkansas and Virginia, the states are currently reviewing the course to determine if it violates state laws or executive orders censoring certain lessons on race and racism. Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin issued an executive order on January 15, 2022 banning “the use of inherently divisive concepts, including critical race theory,” saying that “political indoctrination has no place in our classrooms.”Arkansas Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders issued a similar executive order a year later on January 10, 2023 to review policies that “promote teaching that would indoctrinate students with ideologies.”

District leaders in these states are worried about results these assessments may lead to and argue decisions such as this should not be left up to politicians, but to educators and subject-matter experts.

North Dakota passed a law in 2021 that prohibits instruction in critical race theory. Due to this law, a school district would have to go through the materials to determine if they comply with the state’s law and administrative rules as well as academic content standards. After this, the districts must put in requests for a course code to the Department of Education in order to offer said course. No school districts have done so thus far. Mississippi officials have deemed the course compliant with state law, despite anti-CRT laws. Reportedly, these laws are briefer and less strict than others. Texas has recently introduced a bill in February 2023 to ban any AP course that doesn’t comply with the state’s anti-CRT laws, concerning students that the course might be banned.

Secondary Education Takeover

DeSantis joined eighteen other states in passing laws that restrict how teachers talk to their students about race, sexuality, gender identity, and diversity. The biggest victim caught in the crossfire of this culture war? Educators. Many teachers worry that teaching issues the way they want to teach them would cost them their jobs, lose their school’s funding, or lead to even harsher restrictions.

Even in states without anti-CRT laws, teachers are overly-conscious of their assignments as they do not want to spark conflict with conservatives. The laws, though, are very vague, leaving teachers to wonder about what is and isn’t off limits, how much context they can really give on a topic, and how students are meant to learn about certain issues if they can’t mention race.

The CollegeBoard has now also fallen victim to these restricting laws. After the framework of the AP African American Studies course on February 1, 2023, the CollegeBoard was accused of downplaying and eliminati ng important topics due to the political pressure of DeSantis and other Conservative forces. If the CollegeBoard continues to cut back the inclusion of important issues in order to appease Conservative demands, it will undermine the reason for the course’s creation: to expand the presence of Black people in curriculum and in the classroom. Black people have been marginalized throughout our history, so they should not be oppressed even further in our history classes. Teachers are expected to teach the entire 250year history of the United States in one year– we need classes like African American studies to dive deeper into topics that are typically skimmed over or ignored due to timing issues. When the CollegeBoard submits to a state government saying that African American studies lack educational value, it invalidates their experiences and their histories.

The introduction of these classes is long overdue in American public schools, and by not providing said courses with their fullest, most comprehensive curriculum possible, the CollegeBoard may exacerbate this issue.

Post-Secondary Education Takeover

DeSantis’ tight grip over education does not end at secondary schools; he is also aiming to control Florida colleges and universities.  He decided to target New College, a small, littleknown liberal arts public college in Sarasota, Florida. It is known as a place for free thinkers to excel, giving them space they typically would not have. Now though, DeSantis and his administration want to remake the school in the image of Hillsdale College, a Michigan school that has been active in conservative politics. In order to achieve this goal, DeSantis has removed six of the college’s thirteen trustees, replacing them with his own, and the college’s president, who he has replaced with his former education commissioner. On January 31, DeSantis unveiled new higher education policies. He wants to weaken faculty tenure protections, eliminate all diversity and equity programs, and mandate Western civilization courses. He has also asked students and faculty to fill out surveys regarding their political leanings and requested information about schools’ resources for transgender students, though it is not certain what he will use this information for.

DeSantis blamed New College’s failure to attract more students on its embrace of diversity and equity programs, which he argues serve as an “ideological filter.” In reality, the lack of marketing and state funding provided to the school since it was made independent in 2001 is a result of its small enrollment. DeSantis has recently promised $15 million for new faculty and scholarships to New College, but many note that the state has not invested in school to any degree such as this prior.

Going Forward

Ron DeSantis is one of the most dangerous men in politics today. He is attempting to limit a new generation to incomplete histories and conservative realities. He is attempting to remove the existence of minority groups both in our past and present. He cannot erase a group of people from our society, a place they are meant to flourish. However, by taking away safe communities, such as New College, and restricting the ways in which we can speak about pressing topics, like institutional racism, sexism, and homophobia, he is doing exactly that.

Education plays a vital role in shaping who we are today. Who you surround yourself with, who your teachers are, who your classmates are. What classes you take, what topics are covered, what extracurriculars you participate in Whether you stand up for the pledge of allegiance or sit with your back facing it, whether you are the only person of color in your class or one of many. It all matters. DeSantis knows this.

He is trying to curate a class of people who, in our more progressive world, will always give a voice to the past. We are meant to learn from history, not let it shackle us down and prevent us from moving forward. DeSantis represents the shackles. We need to break free.

UR Inaccessible: Criticism & Awareness

It has been a year since my last encounter with writing about inaccessibility on our campus. I have returned with accounts of experiences both from myself and others in our campus community. This article will focus on these personal experiences and follow up on what the school has done within the past year including hiring a new director of Disability Services. As I mentioned in my disclaimer last year, I do not have a physical disability. However, since the publication of my article last year, I have discovered that I have a mental disability that most people would be unaware of just by looking at me.

Although there is a difference in the stigmatization of physical and mental disabilities because of this unawareness factor, this discovery has helped me to understand just how difficult it is to be faced with discrimination and to advocate for yourself—especially on a college campus.

Photo Credit: Grace Brogan

On their website, Disability Services states that, “The mission of Disability Services is to ensure that those within our campus community who have disabilities are provided opportunity for full participation and equal access to campus resources.” This mission reflects a commitment consistent and in compliance with federal standards and state regulations. It also underscores the importance of recognizing and promoting the student’s ability and independence.” The team is made up of two full-time employees: Dr. Cort Schneider, the director of Disability Services, and Julia Kelly, the accessibility specialist. One of the changes within the past year was hiring Dr. Schneider in May of 2022. This was a huge change for the department and the university because it gave people with disabilities a representative who understands the difficulties of the campus and how to advocate for students.

I reached out to some of my peers to see what their experience was with Disability Services as someone with a disability and what their expectations were for improvements going forward. One student said, “As a student with dyslexia, disability services reached out to me from the beginning of my time at UR to make sure that my accommodations are heard and protected in the classroom.

I am grateful for their presence on campus and know that I can come to their office if I have any questions or concerns about my rights as a neurodivergent student.”

Another student said, “I’ve had a good experience with them however it was mostly through the DAN process, so for my accommodations I worked with Julia Kelly and she was very helpful and always sends reminder emails and various other things to help.” Both of these experiences were from students who have interacted with Disability Services through class accommodations and the testing center. On the Disability Services Student Portal, booking the testing center and requesting alternative format textbooks are two options that the services can provide. For other physical disabilities, the layout and the innate inaccessibility of the campus makes it hard for Disabilities Services to provide the accommodations that they are able to for mental disabilities. However, an inaccessible campus layout is not an excuse for the University of Richmond. The university and Disability Services should ensure that the campus is accessible for every student, faculty member, and staff member.  After asking what could be changed or improved, one student replied, “With the Disability Accommodation Notice (DAN) stuff, I think it’s fine but overall I think they could improve how much they actually do and how much aid they actually provide. I feel like they could do more to work with other departments on campus.”

In order to become a place where all students with disabilities are able to feel supported, Disability Services and the University of Richmond should provide access for students to have their input taken into consideration through public forums and interviews with students to determine what would be most beneficial to them.

1. I am a short girl. At 4’10, I am shorter than most of the people on campus and definitely shorter than the lowest setting for most crutches. Because of this, I was forced to use crutches that were four inches too tall for me because of a lack of pediatric or shorter crutches. By failing to provide pediatric crutches, the University’s care excludes anyone shorter than 5’2. This inaccessibility creates an environment where some students who are on this campus without a disability will have trouble finding solutions that are beneficial to them.

2. The wheelchair accessible buttons are flakey most of the time and occasionally don’t work. You have to press them for 5 seconds and they are usually on the opposite side of the door than where you would enter from. Also, the heavy-to-open doors to classrooms do not have this accessibility, so when you go to class, there is no way to open the door.

For example, when I was on crutches I got in touch with parking services because it would be easier for me to drive instead of walking up and down all of the hills on crutches that were too big for me. After a discussion with parking services, I got a Y parking pass. This is a pass that parking services provides for students who need temporary accommodation and allows them to park in lots for residents and commuters. However, it quickly became evident that I couldn’t park anywhere near the buildings I needed to enter. The places I could park were up hills—which is not fun on crutches. The only parking spots near the dining hall are faculty staff spots and the closest space I could have gone would have been up the exact hill I was trying not to go up. I got in touch with Disability Services to see if I could park outside of my dorm instead of walking up and down a grassy hill or getting fined, but their response was that I was going to be ok in a few days and they wouldn’t help me.

3. Parking spots on this campus are another form of inaccessibility.

While this is not an exhaustive list of all of the accessibility services that the University of Richmond can make available, my previous article touches on more of what the university can implement for physical disabilities. To reiterate, more elevators in visible places, gradual sloped hills and wheelchair accessible paths, automatic doors, and braille on all signs would create a better environment for people with physical disabilities.

When we create accessible environments, we make it easier for people with and without disabilities to go about their daily lives. In the 1940s, curb ramps were introduced to the United States to provide comfort to veterans with disabilities who were returning from war. Now, curb ramps are a design that we all take for granted, but it makes life easier for every person walking on a sidewalk.

So, what is the point of this criticism? My answer is: awareness. What can be done if nobody is acknowledging these problems? When more people are aware of an issue and choose to act, the mental workload is shared and authority figures are more likely to acknowledge the problem. There are many issues on this campus that make us students wary. That starts with allocating more resources and funds to Disability Services and expanding the number of available staff positions in the department. Although Disability Services is working to help students, providing alternative experiences and ideas will promote inclusivity for the broader community. It is up to the university and the staff to make this campus a safer and more accessible environment for all students, faculty, staff, and visitors at the University of Richmond. ***

Hypocrisy: Western Perceptions of the “Woman, Life, Freedom” Movement in Iran

Photo Credit: Arash Ashourinia/ The Guardian

On September 16, 2022, Mahsa

Amini died under suspicious circumstances in a hospital in Iran after being detained by morality police. It was later revealed that she was severely beaten and tortured at the hands of these police, and her subsequent injuries led to her death. What was the cause of her arrest? She was arrested for ‘improperly’ wearing the hijab.

In Iran, it is mandated that all women have to wear the hijab, a concept known as the compulsory hijab. No woman is able to choose under what circumstances they want to wear a hijab or whether they even want to wear a hijab at all. Such compulsion, of course, is an attack on the rights and autonomy of women. Iran erupted in protest after the death of Mahsa Amini because her death became clear evidence that the compulsory hijab rule being mandated by the morality police was leading to the subjugation and brutalization of women around the country. “Woman, life, freedom” became the chant heard around the world, calling for freedom of choice for women everywhere.

What is interesting about the worldwide response to the movement is that many other countries, Western and non-Western alike, embraced the movement while denying freedom of choice to their own women.

This was a phenomenon heavily criticized by Muslim hijabi women worldwide who were being denied their choice to wear the hijab.

Muslim hijabi women in India, for example, found it quite hypocritical when there was worldwide response to the movement in Iran, but no response near that level to the hijab bans occurring in their own country. The main motivator for protests in Iran is not about the hijab itself, many women say. The main motivator is the freedom of women to wear or not wear whatever they may please. And if that is the main motivator for the movement, then supporters should be equally passionate about preserving freedom of choice in India, where Muslim hijabi women face discrimination and hijab bans.

A similar sense of hypocrisy exists in France, a country well known for its persecution of Muslim women. Muslim women face obstacles in schools, public beaches, and even political campaigns in France if they choose to wear a hijab. However, many famous French people did not post about these obstacles being instigated in their country. They did post, though, when the “woman, life, freedom” movement began in Iran, passionately stating that they did not condone the systemic oppression of women.

Muslim women have their autonomy violated in France every day when they choose to keep the hijab on, but many French public figures only started talking about the oppression of women when it concerned being able to take the hijab off.  This hypocrisy comes down to one simple fact: many countries still subscribe to a deeply Western understanding of feminism that fails to see how both the nonconsensual obligation of certain clothing and the nonconsensual ban of certain clothing threaten the freedom and autonomy of women around the world. This understanding of feminism is also deeply rooted in racism and Islamophobia.

The hijab is still mainly viewed as a tool of subjugation and religious oppression, forced upon women and hindering their ability to liberate themselves. This understanding of the hijab leaves no space for Muslim women who find their hijab to be an integral and liberating part of their identity. Islam is still widely viewed as a religion of violence and hatred that threatens the preservation of human rights. This understanding of Islam leaves no space for thousands of Muslims worldwide who find their religion to be a source of comfort, safety, community, and connection. It also deeply skews the meaning of Islam and paints the religion in a way that is inaccurate to its actual ideals and practices. Moreover, it is an understanding that is not rooted in fact.

When these understandings of the hijab and Islam became popularized around the world, they limited the scope of feminism and the fight for equal rights for women. This is the dilemma that the hypocrisy of Western perceptions of the “woman, life, freedom” movement stems from. When the “woman, life, freedom” movement is understood as a movement of liberation from the hijab, its entire purpose is diminished. In Iran, the hijab is utilized by a male-dominated government as a tool to control women. The “woman, life, freedom” movement is about ending that control of women and giving them the choice to wear or not wear hijab. As Basma Khalifa says:

“What women in Iran are fighting for shouldn’t be downplayed into a conversation about the enforcement of the hijab. It’s in fact a much larger conversation about the generational brainwashing that has occurred at the hands of Islamic fundamentalist men who want to use religion to impose order.”

Similarly, in India, a hijab ban is a form of social control also used to subjugate women. The government in India is currently quite maledominated and Hindu nationalist, meaning that many government officials believe that all of India should be led by Hindu faith and culture, and nothing else.

Such an ideology leaves no room for separation between religion and government, and also erases the several other religions practiced in India, one of which is Islam. It does leave room for people in power to start banning any practices that divert from Hindu nationalism, such as wearing the hijab freely. And so hijab bans in India are used to oppress Muslim people as a whole and specifically oppress Muslim women, making them a tool of the patriarchy and a threat to the same freedom of choice that protesters in Iran are fighting for.

Yet conversations in the West about bodily autonomy often center around policies such as the compulsory hijab in Iran, but rarely include hijab bans being used to control women in places such as India and France.

For feminism in the West to advance, there has to be a restructuring of our understanding of women’s liberation. Our understanding of liberation must be extended to women who choose to dress more modestly as a form of their own empowerment just as much as it is extended to women who choose to dress less modestly as a form of their own empowerment.

For many Muslim women, choosing to wear the hijab can be a step towards their own spiritual empowerment that greatly benefits their sense of self and identity. The hijab can enrich their lives and bring them great joy and security. Feminism has to include these women, or it is not feminism at all. Feminism includes condemning oppression that forces women to cover up against their will and oppression that forces women to show their skin against their will. We cannot let a Western, racist, and Islamophobic understanding of liberation hinder our ability to create a more just and equitable world where women of all backgrounds have the ability to experience their lives the way they wish to. We must speak as passionately about India and France and all the other countries that hinder a Muslim woman’s ability to choose her path in life as we do about Iran, where women are also prohibited from choosing their path in life.

For if we are to speak against oppression, we must speak against it in all its ugly forms.

The Distinct Troubles Faced by Faculty of Color in Higher Education

There are many factors that prevent higher education from being accessible to the general public, especially to people of color. From a lack of access of the application process, extraordinarily high tuition rates, and discriminatory environments, academia is a particularly hostile profession for racially marginalized individuals. . These harmful patterns discourage POC from entering fields related to academia, which only reinforces problems regarding diversity. However, in recent years, more people have recognized these detrimental trends. Subsequently, scholars have worked to produce a body of work that analyzes these issues.

Photo Credit: Grace Brogan

As this realm of study contains many layers, I chose to learn more about the struggles faced by faculty of color. I wanted to understand how the unequal environments perpetuated by higher education affect these professors and their ability to operate under these structures. While conducting my research, I noted two main themes. The first, is that  faculty of color often reported feeling pressured to take on a series of social justice initiatives upon being hired at a particular university. Secondly, they have to manage delicate classroom environments in order to successfully teach their students. Ultimately, these work concurrently to keep people of color out of higher education, serving as a detriment to both POC academics themselves and students from marginalized backgrounds.

When hiring faculty of color, universities may use opportunity, affirmative action, or diversity hire programs to attract more professors. However, embedded within this practice is the perception that “diversity does not equate to excellence." Thus, this hostile racial climate places faculty of color "in positions to prove their worth, or legitimacy of academic discipline and professional practice." The pressure associated with these hiring avenues forces professors to demonstrate their ability to successfully complete their jobs.

These patterns cause many faculty members to question their place within these academic institutions. Within his dynamic, professors repor t feeling "targeted and tokenized for their racial identity." There is a commonly held belief that institutions hire faculty of color in order to carry out diversity initiatives that will improve the campus environment. And if they refuse, they risk acquiring labels such as a “troublemaker” from their colleagues. All of these burdens affect professors' ability to feel safe, accepted, and appreciated in their working environments. As a result, problems regarding access continue to be reinforced.

As mentioned in the previous paragraph, faculty of color feel pressured to take on more social justice initiatives after accepting a given position. In fact, many "see a personal mission of social change as a fundamental part of their professional responsibilities." Dr. Jean Moule of Oregon State University expands more on these feelings by explaining that professors of color feel the “need to alleviate the isolation of race and to increase the understanding of the issues by involving outside resources often results in additional service to the university." However, completing this type of work leads them to take on an increased amount of responsibilities and expectations within their respective campus community.

In the process, faculty often have to relive traumatizing experiences in order to successfully make important changes. Not only do these dynamics cause mental health problems like anxiety and depression, but they also prevent the professors from embarking on important professional opportunities like research. Thus, they are less likely to receive promotional offers and tenure positions. Once again, the harmful dynamics perpetuated within higher academia prevent more individuals from accessing these important spaces.

In addition to the challenges stated above, faculty of color must also navigate difficult classroom experiences. While all professors of color may encounter instances of discrimination, I want to focus specifically on the gendered racism experienced by female identifying professors. In one of her studies, Dr. Chavella T Pittman, a professor at Dominican University, explains that classrooms "reflect the oppression of society." Due to the misogynistic nature of our present day culture, gendered dynamics continue to persist in higher education. Consequently, Dr. Pittman reports that female faculty of color are expected to take on more gender conforming roles and responsibilities within the classroom.

One of the interviewees, Emily, explains that “as a woman of color, I have to...be very careful about how I behave in the classroom . . . because of the issues of authority...I cannot be too friendly...I can be sensitive as a human being, but I can't open up totally.” In order to successfully cope with the gendered expectations projected by classroom environments, these professors must present a carefully constructed persona to their students. They cannot appear too friendly or authoritative in fear of cultivating a reputation that will prevent them from being as successful in regards to their teaching practices. Within this dynamic, several interviewees reported other examples of sexbased discrimination, as well. For example, they explained that students, especially white males, failed to use the title “Dr.” when referring to female faculty of color even though they readily use the honorific when addressing other white professors. As a result, the rampant sexism in these spaces encourages toxic classroom environments that harm professors and students alike.

Having established the existence of misogyny and racism embedded within higher education, I want to emphasize the particular role white male students play in enforcing these patterns.

Because white males have historically controlled all forms of social power, these professors note that "[these] students, consciously or unconsciously, use their own position in the matrix of domination at the intersection of white and male privilege to undermine the authority of women of color faculty." This dynamic manifests in several different ways: students either tend to question the professor's knowledge of mainstream scholarship or reject the validity of scholarly work pertaining to race, gender, and other forms of intersectionality. As Dr. Carin notes “'I don't walk into a classroom expecting that - especially my white students, and particularly my white male students will automatically accept that I'm a scholar in my area.'" Thus, not only do female faculty of color have to navigate sexism, but the intersectional nature of gendered racism. Consequently, these detrimental dynamics prevent professors from cultivating a classroom environment that encourages a sense of belonging and interpersonal connection. The circular nature of these patterns prohibit reforms from altering these structures and improving overall access to these spaces. In many of the scholarly articles, professors reported feeling pressured to prove their professional capabilities though initiating more social justice work.

However, in the process, their eagerness to manage more projects negatively impacted their mental health. It also prevented them from engaging in enriching opportunities, like research. Due to these patterns, faculty of color don't receive as many promotional offers such as tenure.

In addition to the trends explained above, professors also recounted troublesome experiences within their classrooms. Student bodies often reflect the oppressive dynamics of society, which encourages gendered racism to prevail in many of these academic institutions. To navigate these conditions, female professors of color must present themselves with a carefully crafted façade. However, this necessity affects their ability to reach their students and be authentic within the classroom. Thus, there is much work to be done in order to improve these spaces. The existing structures that govern universities and other academic institutions weren't built to support faculty of color. Therefore, organizations must work to dismantle these harmful systems and rebuild them with equity in mind. Only then will higher academia begin to cultivate a more welcoming and accessible environment for professors of color.

Photo Credit: Grace Brogan

Contributors

Editor’s Note: To protect privacy, ensure freedom of speech, and emphasize our collective unity regarding the issues we write about, Counterculture does not use bylines in individual articles, instead including a contributors list at the end of each issue.

Writers

Amal Ali

Sydney Dwyer

Maddie Fellner

Abby Green

Christian Herald

Sydney Tellis

Savannah Throneberry

Cover Design Team

Grace Brogan

Sumaya Fawaz

Christian Herald

Cover Photo

Grace Brogan

Cover Models

Cristalla Chapman

Zara Cruickshank

Jamilah Ganyuma

Executive Board

Founder and Editor in Chief

Christian Herald

Managing Editor

Sydney Dwyer

Editorial Board

Amal Ali

Sogona Cisse

Maddie Fellner

Head Photographer/ Social Media Manager

Grace Brogan