Globalists Fall 2020 Issue, No.04 by suglobalists

GLOBALISTS FALL 2020

ISSUE No.04

TOGETHER FOR TOMORROW A reflection on our individual and collective experiences during the tumultuous year of 2020 and how we can prepare for a better future. “Cue the Young Voters” | 10 “Lost in Translation” | 18 “Caste, Colony, Color” | 22 1

where your story is celebrated.

sending love as an ally.

FOREWORD we have to talk about COVID-19, but Maggie Sardino brings a new perspective by paying closer attention to how the coronavirus may have brought more vulnerable people harm. While congratulating Syracuse University’s proud alumnus Joe Biden on becoming the 46th U.S. President, Brittany Miller, our talented lifestyle beat editor, reviewed the 2020 Presidential Election, pointing out that more younger-generation voters exercised their rights during this election to contribute to the better future they believe in.

t has been a tough time for all of us during this pandemic. We might have felt uncertain, tired, stressed or even dejected, but I hope all of us acknowledge that we are making it through, with our greatest efforts. In this new issue, we look back at 2020, a year that may have been disastrous but distinguishable for many people. In our feature stories, Zoe Glasser and Haniyah Philogene profile two individuals and highlight the novelty of their experiences during the #BlackLivesMatter movement and the COVID-19 outbreak. Yes, 4 GLOBALISTS // FALL 2020

We all believe in a better future or, at least, we should do so. I want to once again make a lot of shoutouts to our fabulous crew: Led by Managing Editor Izzy Bartling, our editorial board worked with all the writers over the past few months to get every story done and polished to the best of their abilities. A round of applause is reserved for Sujean Gahng, our creative director, as well as the members of the creative team, who made this issue happen. Last but not least, Melanie Izurieta and her communications board members spent their best efforts reaching out and building up more connections with our partners to

make Globalists a more engaged organization on and off campus. Please forgive me that I cannot name each of our executive board members in this short foreword, but I would appreciate you taking the time to read through this issue. I believe you will appreciate their hard work at the end of your reading.

haven’t been waiting for too long. Just so you know, we are always here, and we are the platform to share your story. Infinite love from, KAIZHAO “ZERO” LIN Editor-in-Chief

Once again, we hope everything becomes better when you open up this issue, and we hope you

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suglobalists

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CONTRIBUTORS writers Maggie Sardino Zoe Glasser Haniyah Philogene Ethan Wheel Eden Stratton Marnie Muñoz

editors Brittany Miller Shivani Reddy Ethan Chu Louis Platt Hope Wilkinson

illustration/design Alexa Kroin Jordan Schechter Amanda Lennes

photography Roc Canals Anna Bailey Nora Canal Aicha Sacko

pr/social Jade Chung Keighley Gentle Richard J. Chang April Kim Kelly Chang Chloe Manenti Allison De Young 6 GLOBALISTS // FALL 2020

and of course, here are our amazing department heads who made this issue happen...

JIAMAN “MAGGIE” PENG President MELANIE IZURIETA Communications Director

SUJEAN GAHNG Creative Director IZZY BARTLING Managing Editor

TABLE OF CONTENTS PERSPECTIVES cue the young voters | 10 facing reality | 14

CULTURE lost in translation | 19 caste, colony, color | 22

POSTCARD mill creek, wash. | 45

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FEATURE Spotlighted in these stories are Aicha Sacko and Anna Bailey, two female figures who use their strength and resilience to help their communities overcome adversity. We shine a light on Sacko’s activism and Bailey’s determination to heal minds amid COVID-19. | 26

ON OUR SCREENS the birth of modern cinema | 35

ON ON OUR OUR PLATES PLATES family meals |from the jfsljfsdkl 39 quarantine | 38

MUSINGS behind your lovely locks | 42 9

CUE THE YOUNG VOTERS An overview of the 2020 U.S. Presidential Election BY BRITTANY MILLER ILLUSTRATIONS BY SUJEAN GAHNG

dded complications of early voting, mail-in ballots and virtual debates turned the U.S. election day into an election month in 2020. There was an exponentially larger number of voters this season with more than double the total of first-time voters than the 2016 election. A record figure of voters under 30, 52%–55%, cast ballots in the 2020 Presidential Election, according to the Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement at Tufts University. This is compared to the 42%–44% during the 2016 election.

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The surge in turnout showed overwhelming support for Biden, especially in key battleground states such as Georgia, Pennsylvania and Michigan. The young voters resonated with the candidate’s stance on issues they deemed important such as the pandemic, climate change and racism; they felt heard and listened to. This new generation appeared more eager to reach the polls, sharing posts of their “I Voted” stickers and links for others to register to vote. But what makes this group of voters so different from the ones before them?

This year, one in 10 eligible voters were members of Generation Z — individuals between the ages of 18 and 23. This meant older generations, such as millennials, accounted for a smaller portion of the popular vote than they did in 2016. And with demographic changes such as non-whites accounting for one third of eligible voters, studies showed that minorities who historically lean toward the Democratic Party would be the cause of a political shift. One perspective offered by Syracuse University Ph.D. candidate Jaisang Sun is that voting is becoming more than simply wanting to fulfill your civic duty and advancing democracy. 2020 was an outlier year, meaning there was a new cause and/or factor in play, according to voting studies such as The Cook Political Report. “I think that the new generation wants to get involved so as to hold the older generations responsible for a lot of the issues that they’ve neglected to tackle face on,” Sun said. And this theory makes sense when looking at issues the U.S. has, aside from COVID-19. Ongoing issues include the inaccessibility and inequality of education, income, racial and gender injustice and the lack of immigration policy reforms.

These have all been around for decades with no substantive changes. Gen Z may have hoped experienced voters would exercise their rights in accordance with their own political beliefs, which did not happen. These young voters realized that matters had to be taken into their own hands with their own votes. Sun’s perspective seems to make sense for less experienced voters like Shawky Darwish, who has been involved in politics since 2015 and voted for the first time in Mount Pocono, Pennsylvania in 2018. For Darwish, the act of voting itself is actually quite simple. It’s all the factors outside of voting that are not. “This goes beyond an election and even voting because I don’t think it fixes prevalent issues such as classism, racism and sexism. And not everyone even votes still due to poll access, which is also a huge problem,” Darwish said. He noticed that, in this election specifically, there was no excitement for one particular candidate and no pull-factor or strong representation that follows what others have said about the anti-Donald Trump sentiment present this election season. Seema Mehta, a political writer for the Los Angeles Times, stated that when covering early voting polls, PERSPECTIVE 11

He noticed that, in this election specifically, there was no excitement for one particular candidate and no pull-factor or strong representation that follows what others have said about the anti-Donald Trump sentiment present this election season. there were not a lot of people who would describe themselves as being pro-Biden, but rather that they would vote for anyone who was not Trump. Although Joe Biden appeared to have more of an aggressive stance on younger voters, The New York Times portrayed him as a “generic Democrat.” He has yet to express his stance on some pressing matters, including clean energy and hydraulic fracturing, which offers a large amount of jobs to a few swing states, such as Pennsylvania and Ohio. Darwish understood why experienced voters said that this election was a historic moment to dismantle authoritarianism, but said that it should be more commonly compared to the 2016 election, or even former President 12 GLOBALISTS // FALL 2020

Nixon’s 1968 campaign against Hubert Humphrey. “We need to know that this is still a lesser of two evils situation,” Darwish said. “Whoever wins, we are electing a person with problematic legacies.” The government needs to focus on providing aid to the communities that need it the most, and hopefully voting will make that opinion heard, he added. According to Kerry Devos, a middleaged mother and experienced voter in Pennsylvania, voting gives people the opportunity to better a situation. That is why she has been voting since she was first eligible in 1992. Devos feels that she needs to set an example for her children by voting. “I am worried about what my children will live through if this country flips to the conservative side,” Devos said. This election, for even a seasoned voter, is about more than being a part of a democratic system. It is about having a voice, which social media is making more accessible, she said. Devos hoped that younger voters will use their voices in the same way that she has because they can be much more aware but only if all the new voting measures are actually validated. That is why many people, especially young

voters, considered the 2020 Presidential Election their most significant election. Joel Kaplan, a former investigative journalist who is now a journalism professor at SU, suggested that this should be taken with a grain of salt as there are many more elections to come, despite the extra hurdles and new experiences in this specific one. He discussed all the factors at play such as how states had to be adaptable this year.

unprecedented times. Although an experienced voter expressed the same thoughts, their opinions are not echoed in the federal policies we have seen. If they were, younger voters would be less frustrated with how matters beyond partisan politics are being handled.

Gen Z is filled with activists, and people want to do more than elect someone and assume they will do what is considered right, according to the Pew Research Center, with 70% of them claiming to want an “There are some states that always activist government. They wanted included mail-in ballots when to be the ones actually doing the voting,” Kaplan said, “but there right thing, and it has had a say in are multiple trying this system out 2020’s election. for the first time.” The concept of early voting and mail-in ballots also brings up the topic of voter suppression, a phrase commonly used by presidential candidates. Biden was afraid of certain voters being discouraged from voting while Trump was in support of it. Kaplan said that this backfired by only causing people to become enraged at the thought of possible suppression, which resulted in more people showing up to vote.

Young voter patterns are not as definite as those of older generations. However, young voters can make a significant Voter registration has exponentially impact by showing up to protests, increased, especially for young being vocal on social media and people, so what makes young voters investing in organizations that so much more active compared to speak to them. Voting impacts experienced ones? A generation is this country and the future, and making their voices heard during you are the future. G PERSPECTIVE 13

FACING REALITY

Addressing the disproportionate effects of COVID-19 on individuals with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities BY MAGGIE SARDINO

eated in my basement, I prepared to communicate with hundreds of people from all over the world. My computer screen projected various doctors, engineers, professors, CEOs and journalists from Venezuela to France to India. It was almost my turn to speak at the hackathon event, hosted by MIT, and my nerves were fighting for control of my body. The host called my name. Hesitantly, I pressed the unmute button and said, “Are you aware that individuals with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities are more likely to be hospitalized and die from COVID-19?” During my research to capture the disproportionate impact of COVID-19 on individuals with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities (IDDs), I came across a study conducted by researchers from Syracuse University and SUNY Upstate Medical University. 14 GLOBALISTS // FALL 2020

Dr. Scott Landes, associate professor of sociology at SU and one of the lead researchers conducting the study, stated that individuals with IDDs are four times more likely to contract COVID-19 than those without IDDs. A whopping 4,500 out of every 100,000 individuals with IDDs who contract COVID-19 will die, whereas 2,700 out of every 100,000 people without IDDs who contract the virus will die. The statistics become even more alarming when looking at rates within individual states in the U.S. In New York, for example, the overall casefatality rate as of early June 2020 was approximately 6%. For individuals with IDDs, it was 16%. The disproportionality differs depending on what kind of IDD an individual is living with. A study conducted by researchers at the University of Oxford found that

individuals with Down syndrome are 10 times more likely to die from COVID-19-related illnesses than those without it. Landes believes that the statistical differences between individuals with IDDs and those without them exist for two major reasons. First, these individuals usually have preexisting health conditions that increase their risk of dying from the coronavirus. Second, they are significantly more likely to live in community settings where interactions with caregivers and roommates make social distancing a challenge. While measures to prevent the spread of COVID-19 in group settings such as nursing homes are prolific, the same cannot

be said for the assisted living settings in which individuals with IDDs reside. In some states, staff who work with this population are not even considered essential workers, so acquiring funding for things like personal protective equipment (PPE) is difficult. This becomes even more dangerous when considering the hands-on-care required of staff. In addition to the disproportionate impact COVID-19 has had on the lives of those with IDDs, it has also significantly impacted these individuals’ access to therapeutic and educational services. A study published in September 2020 found that 74% of caregivers in PERSPECTIVE 15

the U.S. had children who were no longer receiving at least one therapeutic or educational service due to COVID-19 restrictions; 30% of caregivers reported that they had lost all therapeutic or educational services.

IDDs cannot be overstated. The study conducted by researchers at Upstate Medical, Syracuse University and Oxford is unique in the way it has quantified the disproportionate impact of the pandemic on this population.

COVID-19 restrictions have also significantly impacted access to healthcare providers. According to the study, 36% of caregivers reported that they lost access to a healthcare provider after COVID-19 mandates were initiated. This is incredibly troubling for individuals with IDDs as they often have comorbidities that make careful supervision from physicians a necessity. As a result, loss to a healthcare provider for any period of time has a high likelihood of compromising their health.

While this may seem like an insignificant finding in the ocean of emerging research during the pandemic, it is crucial in the fight for equity and dignity for the disability community. As the old saying goes, the first step of solving a problem is to admit you have one. These studies bring us closer to recognizing that we need to address this issue as a society.

Where does this leave us? Is there even a chance we can lower the disproportionate effect of COVID-19 on individuals with IDDs? Is there any reason to hope that the reality for these individuals will improve? As James Baldwin once said, “Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced.” The importance of studies quantifying and identifying the disproportionate effects COVID-19 has on individuals with 16 GLOBALISTS // FALL 2020

However, it is not enough to say a problem exists; we have to go further and solve it. Landes recommended tangible ways we can go about doing this. In an effort to address this disproportionality, he said we should pay “careful attention to the impact of public policies such as PPE prioritization and funding streams on the ability of residential service providers to guarantee quality care during this time.” Individuals with disabilities are also working hard to shed light on the ways in which COVID-19 has disproportionately impacted their community. In May 2020,

disability advocacy group People First of Washington held a Zoom meeting to voice their concerns about state budget cuts to longterm care facilities and the adverse impacts this will have on the status of state-funded caregivers. The aforementioned study that surveyed caregivers of individuals with IDDs also questioned parents on the best ways healthcare can be prioritized during the pandemic and the educational resources that have proved to be the most useful. Caregivers emphasized the necessity of larger supplies of medicine being prioritized during the pandemic as well as the assistance from healthcare providers with the monitoring of mew medications. Meanwhile, they stressed the continuance of delayed or canceled clinical trials. Assistance with monitoring would also require greater access to routine lab screenings. As it relates to educational resources, parents of children with IDDs underlined the importance of expanded teleeducation services, toolkits with visual activities and videos and the inclusion of written material in lessons. Getting back to inperson learning was also a key strategy suggested by numerous caregivers, many stating that

“screens just don’t work for my child.” The disproportionate impact of COVID-19 on individuals with IDDs is a serious issue that will not magically disappear within current structural dimensions. The inequity is systemic and exists beyond the current obstacles of the pandemic. That’s why a deeper analysis of the core issues that surfaced during the outbreak is necessary. However, there is reason to have hope. The fact that studies are turning their attention to the disability community in ways that have not been done before indicates that we are approaching recognition of these issues. And while naming an issue is not the same as addressing it, people need to first face reality before possessing any hope of changing it. G PERSPECTIVE 17

LOST IN TRANSLATION What we can learn from the world’s untranslatable words and the places they come from BY IZZY BARTLING ILLUSTRATIONS BY JORDAN SCHECHTER

our years ago on a chilly Saturday evening, I found a small book titled “OtherWordly” sitting on the shelf of Von’s Book Shop while visiting my sister at Purdue University. Up until a few months ago, it sat on my bookshelf collecting dust. Its red, thin spine blended in among a sea of travel books, offering itineraries for bike rides in London and fine dining in Paris. When the pandemic hit and I returned home from Syracuse, NY, I found myself longing for a respite from the monotony of life on lockdown. Offering immediate transportation with no expense, the travel guides on my bookshelf beckoned me. I tugged on a small dictionary of words both strange and lovely.

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Many of the words were from other languages, including Korean and Spanish. Some captured familiar feelings I had experienced but could never find a single word to describe, such as the uncontrollable urge to dance. Specific experiences were summed up in a single word — like tsundoku, the Japanese word for buying books and letting them pile up unread. These words are untranslatable, meaning other languages lack a single word to encapsulate the experiences described. In order to understand their meanings, the words are conveyed in sentences and decomposed into universally understood definitions, which oftentimes causes the cultural meaning of the word to be lost in translation.

According to a 2015 study published in The Journal of Positive Psychology, untranslatable words continue to incite fascination in not only specialized fields like linguistics and anthropology but also popular culture. The study offered an explanation: Such words offer “windows” into other cultures, allowing people to experience the world in novel ways. Anna Wierzbicka, a linguistics professor at the Australian National University, said in the study that encountering untranslatable words can enrich one’s conceptual vocabulary and understanding of other cultures. “Words with special, culturespecific meanings reflect and pass on not only ways of living, characteristic of a given society, but also ways of thinking,” she said. Untranslatability, Wierzbicka

continued, reflects the notion that such words identify phenomena that have only been recognized by specific cultures. Therefore, by learning these words and their cultural significance, we have the potential to enrich our conceptual vocabulary and understanding of other cultures. I unpack the meanings and cultural significance of three untranslatable words related to well-being: uitwaaien (pronounced OUT-vwyehn), nunchi and kintsukuroi.

Uitwaaien: The Dutch Way to Relieve Stress For some, relieving stress encompasses binge-watching a TV show or reading a book that’s been sitting on your nightstand for weeks. However, the Dutch make use of an entirely different way to deal with anxiety and stress that’s rather simple and useful: uitwaaien. CULTURE 19

“It’s basically the activity of spending time in the wind, usually by going for a walk or a bike ride,” Caitlin Meyer, a lecturer at the University of Amsterdam’s Department of Dutch Linguistics, told Nautilus, a science journal. Uitwaaien, a verb that literally translates to “outblowing,” provides an escape to release worries and pressure with the wind. Meyer said uitwaaien is a popular activity in the Netherlands, where she has lived for more than 20 years. Locals believe it positively impacts mood and self-worth by boosting energy and relieving stress. “Uitwaaien is something you do to clear your mind and feel refreshed — out with the bad air, in with the good,” she said.

Nunchi: The Korean Secret to Happiness In many parts of the world, the art of maintaining one’s well-being is recognized as a social phenomenon, nurtured by harmonious connections with others. This way of conceptualizing well-being is not typically reflected in cultures that promote individualism like those of North America. The Korean word nunchi reflects this social aspect of well-being. 20 GLOBALISTS // FALL 2020

Literally meaning “eye-measure,” nunchi captures the ability to read emotions in social settings and to respond skillfully. It highlights the importance of building genuine connections and trust with others to improve one’s well-being and emotional intelligence. Hwa Joo Chun, an international student at Syracuse University from Seoul, said that although it’s a word she uses once or twice a year, the concept of nunchi is important to Korean culture. Nunchi is acting or behaving in a certain way based on how other people around you feel, she said. Euny Hong, a Korean American journalist and author of “The Power of Nunchi: The Korean Secret to Happiness and Success,” believes nunchi is a helpful tool for introverts and those grappling with social anxiety. By actively paying attention to social dynamics, like who is speaking, who is listening and who

interrupts, one can determine how to behave or respond, Hong told The Guardian.

Kintsukuroi: The Japanese Philosophy of Embracing Imperfection The Japanese term kintsukuroi, meaning “golden repair,” refers to a method of revitalizing broken pottery by repairing it with gold. The practice, which dates back to the late 15th century in Japan, often results in the transformation of broken pottery into something more beautiful than it was before. In addition to serving aesthetic purposes, kintsukuroi conveys philosophical ideas important to Japanese culture. It has close ties with the Japanese philosophy wabisabi, which means seeing beauty in the flawed or imperfect, according to My Modern Met. Wabi means “imperfect beauty,” while sabi means “aged beauty.” In her story for BBC Travel, Tokyo-based journalist Lily Crossley-Baxter said that wabisabi has been a core part of the Japanese aesthetic for a long time. In the article, Professor Tanehisa Otabe of The University of Tokyo’s Department of Aesthetics explained wabi-sabi by discussing the ancient art of wabi-cha — a style of tea ceremony in Japan established in the late 15th to

16th centuries. During this tea ceremony, people used simple Japanese pottery with used, rugged appearances rather than the popular and technically perfect ceramics imported from China. The teaware they preferred was not perfectly symmetrical but rather chipped or repaired. This celebration of simplicity and natural flaws challenges the beauty standards of perfection that many cultures, especially in the West, value. By celebrating nature’s inherent flaws, people are truly able to acknowledge the complexities of life. G CULTURE 21

CASTE, COLONY, COLOR BY SHIVANI REDDY

Exploring South Asia’s fraught relationship with skin color and beauty ILLUSTRATIONS BY AMANDA LENNES

hen Khushee Chauhan was visiting her family in Ahmedabad, India, one of her younger cousins ran up to her brandishing a tube of bleaching ointment.

with her. Many South Asians have stories similar to Chauhan’s.

“Didi, you should apply this cream! I used it on this blemish, and it completely went away,” she said to Chauhan, a Syracuse University junior. “You should apply it all over your face.”

Jessica Anand, a junior architecture student at SU, said members of her family discouraged her from buying clothing that made her skin “look too dark.” Shelly Bhanot, a junior public health and policy studies major at SU, also said her relatives asked her to refrain from playing in the sun in fear that her naturally tan skin would darken.

Chauhan rejected her cousin’s suggestion, but the incident remained

The sordid legacy of the fear of dark skin manifests itself within

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South Asian communities in myriad ways, from the interactions we have with our families to the media we consume. In the wake of the resurgent #BlackLivesMatter protests last summer, it seemed like South Asians were finally ready to have the difficult conversation about colorism and anti-blackness. As South Asian celebrities rushed to vehemently oppose racist behavior, whitening cream brands released carefully crafted PR statements to call out white supremacist ideals. However, the response seemed performative to many, and swift backlash ensued. Social media users quickly pointed out that the same celebrities condemning race violence had endorsed skin whitening creams. Some companies that sold these creams acknowledged the system of discrimination they were perpetuating while making no effort to recall their products. Reckoning with and reevaluating colorist standards is hard work, both for the complacent individuals embroiled in a discriminatory society and the corporations peddling them for profit. Neither can be done without acknowledging the longstanding colonial and casteist traditions that constructed those standards, along with the present-day markets that are hungry to keep them in place.

Radha Kumar, historian of colonial and postcolonial South Asia and assistant professor at SU, explained how colonial and casteist forces interacted to nurture colorist attitudes. When the British established the Census of India in an attempt to quantify the nature of Indian society, Kumar explained that they began to rank all of India’s castes. “In the late 19th century, many wanted to be recognized as upper-caste. There was a lot of activity among people to think of themselves as higher caste and that often meant thinking of yourself as fairer-skinned,” she said. In a BBC report, Sanjoy Chakravorty, visiting fellow at the Center for the Advanced Study of India at the University of Pennsylvania, said colonizers selectively elevated only certain religious sects in their attempt to “frame all of that diversity through alien categorical systems of religion, race, caste and tribe.” He said that India’s complex system of faiths and social identities was simplified to a degree that “probably has no parallel in world history” to facilitate a common law under which the subcontinent could be easily governed. Through this system, the census rank essentially embossed in legalese what had originally only been sporadically CULTURE 23

expressed in ancient texts and oral tradition: If you were fairer, you were of higher caste; if you were of higher caste, you were more likely to succeed in the British subcontinent, according to Kumar.

& Lovely’s) ads were very much about how dark women may find a husband,” Kumar explained. “And later, when they got a little more woke, it became ‘how will dark women find a job?’”

These models of preference only grew stronger as time went by, and now they maintain vice grips on various cultural markers in South Asia. Arguably the most pervasive of these are Bollywood and skinlightening product companies — both sprawling, multi-million dollar industries that work together to create hostile environments for people with dark skin.

Seema Hari, a 33-year-old anticolorism activist and model based in Los Angeles, recounted how growing up dark-skinned in Mumbai made her a target of vitriolic bullying to the point of feeling suicidal and facing bouts of depression. She voiced how campaigns like these only amplified that ridicule.

Growing up watching Bollywood films from her home in Maryland, SU junior Bhanot said all the actors she watched on screen were fair. “They are conveying that message that fair skin is better,” she said. “Even though they’re not deliberately saying it, that’s what we’re seeing.” To make matters worse, the same actors signed marketing deals with brands like Garnier, Clean & Clear and, most notably, Unilever’s Fair & Lovely, to star in advertisements that openly called for skin lightening. Kumar pointed out a nascent aspect of these ad campaigns, saying they were “very gendered.” “Women carry that burden of being beautiful by being fair. A lot of (Fair 24 GLOBALISTS // FALL 2020

“(These ads) are so prolific, repetitive and meaner with their punchlines. Those punchlines were the ones that were used (by bullies) to harass me on the street or ridicule me in my day-to-day life,” Hari said. “I would dread the day these new ads would come out because it would mean a new wave of harassment would be coming my way.”

Fortunately, efforts are being made to curb their power. For example, the Advertising Standards Council of India announced a ban in 2014 on all ads depicting dark-skinned individuals as inferior. Hari explained that these guidelines gave brands like Unilever’s Fair & Lovely opportunities to rework their campaigns, but they did not take them. Instead, they continued to create euphemistic and derogatory ad campaigns. Unilever’s call for change finally came earlier this year, seemingly a reaction to the heavy backlash they received amid the global #BLM protests. Through a statement on their website, they announced the change of the brand name, Fair & Lovely, to Glow & Lovely to “celebrate glowing skin, regardless of skin tone.” Many consumers have dismissed the move as a PR gimmick.

Instead of following this precedent, Unilever announced their rebranding without changing the products or shelving them. While the majority of corporate effort to combat colorism and anti-blackness remains vacuous, Hari believes there are steps we can take to make sure we aren’t participating in these systems. Talking about dismantling colorism by itself is daunting and time-consuming, but South Asian culture’s positive and empathetic response to the #BLM movement reveals that these issues lie deeper than skin color. Thus, she hopes our response digs deeper as well. “Everything starts with awareness and education. I really think we’ve got to educate the South Asian community: Colorism doesn’t scratch the surface of it, and we need to go much deeper and do the real work,” she said.

“The real tragedy to me is that they’re still selling the same creams. They haven’t changed anything about their product or their formula,” Hari said. The company had precedent to follow in terms of what other companies had done, she added.

The thing about activism on social media is that it is oftentimes performative. Rather than hopping on the trend, Seema said people can participate in the discussion and then better address problems in their own community.

Johnson & Johnson had already announced they were halting the sale of Neutrogena and Clean & Clear whitening products in Asia.

“Now that your activism has started, extend it beyond the things that directly affect you, beyond things that are trending right now,” Seema said. G CULTURE 25

TOGETHER FOR TOMORROW 26 SUGLOBALISTS.COM

BY IZZY BARTLING

ur two feature stories spotlight members of the Syracuse area who find strength in helping their communities. One is Anna Bailey, a local psychotherapist who transitioned to virtual healing during these increasingly difficult times. The other is a young activist named Aicha Sako who dedicates her time to advocating for the well-being and liberation of Black and Brown populations. Zoe Glasser writes about the changes that occurred in the field of psychotherapy following the pandemic. She shines a light on Bailey and Dr. Max Malikow, a psychotherapist and Syracuse University adjunct professor of psychology. Since the start of the pandemic, both Bailey and Malikow have been practicing more grief counseling as their patients experience loss in different ways. With anxiety, depression and substance abuse rising among her patients, Bailey worries about the effectiveness of online treatment, a mode of therapy she believes will stick around post-pandemic. However, moments of levity during Zoom sessions give her confidence that she and her patients can get through this.

Over a year ago, a group of Black students organized #NotAgainSU, a movement demanding that SU officials support students of color. Protesters occupied the Barnes Center at The Arch for eight days following racist, homophobic and anti-Semitic incidents that took place on campus. Sako, one of the student organizers, reflects on the empowering experience that also took a toll on her mental health. People forget that activism takes a lot of strength from the inside, she said. The SU sophomore’s journey as an activist, which began at a young age, involves balancing advocating for her community and her own well-being. As a Black woman, activism is in Sacko’s blood, and she finds inspiration and strength by connecting to her Malian roots. Haniyah Philogene delves into how activism helped Sako understand what it’s like to be a Black woman in America. By looking back at 2020 and previous years of tumult, our contributing writers Glasser and Philogene tell stories that convey an important message: Hope and resilience blossom in difficult times. G FEATURE 27

SOCIAL DISTANCING, VIRTUAL HEALING Psychotherapists reflect on their online sessions during the pandemic BY ZOE GLASSER

efore the COVID-19 pandemic, psychotherapist Anna Bailey prided herself on the various problem-solving methods she used to help her patients cope with distress. Now, she said she simply bears witness to their suffering. Until March 2020, she operated out of her own solo practice in Armory Square, where she would see patients in a private and confidential setting. Like many other psychotherapists, Bailey switched to virtual therapy sessions due to the pandemic. The transition to online meetings is not the only change the field of psychology faced recently. Psychotherapists witnessed a profound shift in the quality of interactions with patients, leading to concerns about how patients are responding to virtual treatment. 28 GLOBALISTS // SPRING 2020

Bailey works at her own private practice in downtown Syracuse. She specializes in relational psychotherapy, which centers on how interpersonal relationships impact human development and behavior and requires frequent meetings with patients over long periods of time. Because she cannot meet patients in person at this time, Bailey is concerned that she cannot use all of these methods effectively. “I can still teach them about their brain and body, but if we start to think about how to improve enjoyment of life and access to things they really like to do, that piece is cut off because of everything being shut down in the community,” she said. Bailey worries that the social distancing mandate complicates a

efficacy of virtual psychotherapy. “In-person therapy is really different because there’s more connection and more trust (as opposed to virtual therapy),” said Adams. “I do sometimes get paranoid that my roommate is listening to my therapy sessions, so I sometimes refrain from talking about my roommate even if she’s bothering me or causing me stress.”

patient’s set of issues, and the virtual meetings can prevent patients from truly expressing themselves, which may be a barrier to healing. “In a therapy office, patients are completely focused on themselves, which is so important in therapy,” said Bailey, seeing many disruptions during the online sessions. “The technology interruptions mixed with the challenges they experience by being in their home impede their ability to let go and do the work they need to do in order to achieve their treatment goals.” Syracuse University sophomore Megan Adams, who has been seeing a therapist weekly since September 2020, is also unsure about the

Bailey further noticed a shift in the topics that her patients want to discuss. Prior to the pandemic, she worked with her patients about topics spanning from everyday stressors to gender identity. Recently, she has been practicing more grief and loss counseling than ever before. “People are really experiencing a loss in these daily ways, where they’re losing out on opportunities and kind of having these micro-moments of grief throughout the day or the week,” Bailey said. “Life just isn’t as rich; there’s just a lot of loss. As a therapist, I’m just bearing witness to a lot more of that than I would be otherwise.” Dr. Max Malikow, a psychotherapist and SU adjunct professor of psychology, also noticed this feeling of loss among his patients. He added that every session with a patient or client includes some talk about the pandemic. Along with rising severity of anxiety and depression among patients,

Malikow, as well as Bailey, noted increasing rates of substance abuse and domestic partner violence since the onset of the pandemic. Reported global rates of domestic violence have increased by between 20% and 54%, according to Nautilus Quarterly, a science magazine. The Gainesville Sun newspaper also reported that the rate of overdose deaths in Florida increased by 43% between March and June 2020. Bailey suggested that these issues likely stemmed from the quarantine orders that have kept people in close quarters for months.

Adams is cautiously optimistic about the future of psychotherapy and teleconferencing. She hopes that holding appointments online will allow therapy to become more accessible and will improve the mental health of those who would not ordinarily be able to receive treatment.

“A lot of people can’t get to a therapist’s office, and the Zoom sessions are normalizing that mode of therapy, so I definitely think that’s a great thing,” she said. “I don’t see in-person appointments coming back anytime soon, which could take “When I talk to colleagues, people are definitely talking about the grief a toll on people who are used to inperson (appointments).” the pandemic has brought about in patients,” Bailey said. “Family Despite the challenges the stressors have been exacerbated pandemic presents, Bailey was because people are together in pleasantly surprised that she the home all the time, and people didn’t lose patients in the switch aren’t having that varied texture of to teleconferencing. Almost all life, so whatever was already there of them regularly attended their is being exacerbated.” virtual appointments, which also provided brief moments of shared “Life just isn’t as levity when someone’s cat launched themselves across the camera. rich; there’s just

a lot of loss. As a therapist, I’m just bearing witness to a lot more of that than I would be otherwise.” 30 GLOBALISTS // FALL 2020

“We both have these silly moments that would never happen in a normal therapy office,” Bailey said. “I would’ve never wished for this to happen, but I think it’s allowed people to demonstrate a great deal of resiliency and grace and taught me and my patients that we can do this.”

FIGHTING THE GOOD FIGHT BY HANIYAH PHILOGENE PHOTOS COURTESY OF AICHA SACKO

Young activist Aicha Sacko shares how she balances advocating for both herself and her community’s well-being

he first time Aicha Sacko advocated for Black liberation and Black women’s rights was not in front of a large crowd of protesters and press. At the time, Sacko was simply sitting in her middle school classroom responding to ignorant comments made by her teacher.

Being a rebellious and outspoken preteen served as a preface to her story as a future activist. “Although I didn’t realize it, I started my activism really young. I’ve always been doing activism work because as a Black woman, it’s almost embedded in you,” said 19-year-old Sacko. “It comes naturally, so when you’re FEATURE 31

older, you’re used to doing the work.” Being a Syracuse University sophomore connects her role as an activist with various layers of her identity. Sacko holds strong ties to her family’s native land in West Africa. Before immigrating to the U.S., her family belonged to the small Sarakole tribe in Mali. Although she was born in Harlem and grew up in the Lower East Side of Manhattan, Sacko remains connected to her Malian roots through frequent visits to Africa and speaking not only her country’s national language, Bambara, but also her village’s dialect, Soninke. As Sacko evolves in her career as an advocate, she finds herself comparing Black liberation issues in the U.S. to those in African countries. Although there are several differences between the two cultures, Sacko identifies unity and collectivism as the main goals for Black American liberation. At the core of Sacko’s work as an activist is James Ogude’s Ubuntu philosophy, which she learned after going to Africa. “Ubuntu means ‘I am who I am because of who we all are.’ The idea of Ubuntu is about collectiveness and community,” Sacko said. “This whole idea of individualism is not African culture. So, I always reach for unity and community instead of 32 GLOBALISTS // FALL 2020

individualism because that’s what my culture is about.” Small communities within New York City helped Sacko blossom not only as a young woman of color but also as an advocate for her community. In middle school, Sacko joined a clan of like-minded girls in The Lower Eastside Girls Club, which helped her work through some of the difficulties she faced in school. Since high school, Sacko started going to protests and marches and began understanding what it’s like to be Black, a woman, and, more importantly, a Black

woman in America. The female empowerment group also connected Sacko to her mentor, Contessa Gayles, a 32-year-old independent filmmaker. “To see her go from a 15-year-old to a 19-year-old coming into her adulthood and go through that phase of discovery and learning who you are outside of your parents and the environment that you grew up in is amazing to see,” Gayles said. With support from people like Gayles, Sacko spread her wings far beyond the parameters of the Lower Eastside Girls Club. At 15, Sacko participated in Colin Kaepernick’s Know Your Rights Camp, an initiative for advancing the liberation and well-being of Black and Brown communities. Sacko said working directly with the former NFL quarterback at the camp energized her identity as an activist and helped her cherish her work. This experience also inspired the way she organized events at SU, she said. As people celebrated the anniversary of the #NotAgainSU sit-in at the Barnes Center at The Arch, Sacko took the time to reflect as one of the student organizers. Although empowered and proud of the work she has done for the Black community at SU, she recognized how taxing the

experience was on her mental health. “One thing people forget is that not only does it take a lot of strength from the outside, but it takes it from the inside,” she said. “It mentally strips away your identity.” Although Sacko felt the difficulties of organizing, Bushra Raqi, another #NotAgainSU organizer and SU sophomore, said she admired Sacko’s determination and passionate nature. Sacko inspired her both inside and outside the #NotAgainSU movement, she added. As Sacko continues to balance her well-being and her activism, there is one inexorable goal that she hopes to attain: happiness. Over time, she has noticed how easy it is for activists to lose sight of joy. She is determined to not only find complete happiness but also to share it with people around her. Halfway through her college career, Sacko hopes to transfer to the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications and major in broadcast and digital journalism. “I am always going to be the person to fight for my people, whether it’s through poetry, doing interviews or even being out on the field,” Sacko said. “I will always make sure that when I am moving up, people around me are moving up with me.” G FEATURE 33

THE BIRTH OF MODERN CINEMA How the French New Wave revolutionized film history BY ETHAN WHEEL AND ETHAN CHU ILLUSTRATIONS BY AMANDA LENNES

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decade after World War II ended, fatigue in France was growing around the direction of films, particularly Hollywood films and their own. French critics were big fans of American films but became irked by the level of phoniness inherent to those films. They believed a more honest way of making films was possible, especially due to certain key technological innovations including cheaper lightweight and portable cameras. The films that followed would become known as the French New Wave. The importance and influence of the French New Wave cannot be overstated. In the span of a few years starting at the end of the 50s, the directors of the New Wave made significant advancements in editing, self-aware storytelling and micro-budget filmmaking. Nevertheless, it is difficult to define who is and isn’t a French New Wave director and when the movement begins and ends. It started when a group of film critics writing for the magazine Cahiers du Cinéma were able to receive funding to make their own movies. Five critics-turned-filmmakers — François Truffaut, Jean-Luc Godard, Jacques Rivette, Éric Rohmer and Claude Chabrol — were cinephiles and grew up in the postwar years

watching great American films of the past and present decades. They became key members of the emerging movement. But not every French New Wave director was a former Cahiers critic, and not every film from a Cahiers critic is considered a French New Wave film. There is another critical group of filmmakers known as the Left Bank, who were generally older and less movie-crazed. While a proper definition of French New Wave is still ambiguous, a dominating philosophy unites these directors: the Auteur theory, or the idea that a director is to a film what an author is to a novel. The director’s camera is comparable to the author’s pen. Beyond this theory, the best way to explore the innovations of the French New Wave is to let its films speak for themselves. “Breathless” was directed by former Cahiers critic Godard on an incredibly spare budget. He had no professional lighting equipment or even a completed script. The mornings before they filmed a scene, Godard would write the dialogue for the day and allow his actors to improvise while shooting. This should have led to the script being a tangential and unfocused mess, but the result was the complete opposite. ON OUR SCREENS 35

The story of “Breathless” follows a young hoodlum, Michel, who’s watched too many Hollywood movies. He fashions himself into a borderline parody of a film noir gangster, sporting an improperly fitting suit and spouting corny hard-boiled dialogue. He commits multiple crimes throughout the film for no reason other than to better fit the persona he puts on. His obsession with America extends into the cars he steals and the woman he falls in love with.

to all the important dialogue moments and actions without spending time showing characters going from one place to another.

After killing a cop for no good reason, he waits in Paris for money that he’s owed and his lover Patricia to join him in skipping town.

Director Alain Resnais, identified as a part of the Left Bank of the New Wave, rose to prominence with “Hiroshima Mon Amour” and “Last Year at Marienbad.”

This style represents the instability of Michel’s perspective and draws the viewer’s attention to the fact that they are watching a film. By breaking the fourth wall repeatedly, Godard lets the audience reflect on the movie tropes he’s poking fun at and how film grammar affects one’s perception of its story and themes.

The film ends with Patricia giving Michel up to the cops, and he’s forced into a climactic shootout that quickly turns anticlimactic. Michel is shot and, keeping in line with noirs, his death is exaggerated as he limps and stumbles for a comical amount of time before collapsing. It’s as if the film is giving divine punishment to Michel: If he wants to live like a Hollywood gangster, he’ll die like one too.

Resnais was crucially not a film critic and a generation older than the Cahiers group. The most distinctive aspect of Resnais’ production style, when compared to several of his New Wave counterparts, is that he preferred to work from an original script, usually one written by a major novelist. He mainly drew inspiration from the relationship between film and literature.

Unlike Michel’s devotion to Hollywood, Godard’s filmmaking goes against many of its conventions. The film features excessively choppy and jumpy editing. Godard trims out any unnecessary time in a scene, cutting

His debut feature “Hiroshima Mon Amour” was revolutionary in terms of structure and theme. With a script written by novelist Marguerite Duras — who later became an important director herself — and cinematography by Sacha Vierny,

36 GLOBALISTS // FALL 2020

the film is an affecting meditation on the nature and effects of love, war and the malleability of memory. Set against the foreboding backdrop of Hiroshima, a city reborn from the ruins of its destruction, a French actress and a Japanese architect share a brief but ill-fated affair as they bond over the recognition of their individual and collective suffering during the war. Hopelessly caught between their past and present, the pair begins to eroticize their pain, and their affair surrenders to the mutual desire to perceive their new lover as a version of someone they’d lost. Originally commissioned to make a documentary, Resnais was concerned about how a documentary about the bombing of Hiroshima could remain objective and whether one could truly understand another’s suffering unless they experienced it themselves. This framework led Resnais to approach the film by integrating different filmmaking presentations.

He continuously shifts narrative modes from objective to subjective to maintain the tension between past and present. In the film’s famous opening sequence, Resnais combines the dramatic footage of the couple making love with documentary footage of Hiroshima victims in the aftermath of the blast. “Hiroshima Mon Amour” is a radical and influential film that blurs the line between past and present, reality and memory. It is a timeless and daring work of art that explores the suppression of memories, the depths of grief and the undue cruelties we inflict on ourselves. Birthed from the rejection of traditional cinema, the movement challenged audiences with difficult and intellectual themes through films that expressed the directors’ inner thoughts and emotions. French New Wave directors proved that if you love movies enough, you can make good ones. G ON OUR SCREENS 37

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FAMILY MEALS FROM QUARANTINE The pandemic offered students studying at home chances to cook, celebrate and create family recipes BY LOUIS PLATT

he summer after high school ended, I cooked meals for my parents and friends on the weekends with recipes I learned from the restaurant I worked at.

summers earlier that we would not have this opportunity again.

Often, I spent weeknights at my uncle’s apartment instead of commuting to and from the suburbs because it was much closer to the restaurant. My relatives reminded me that summer to enjoy those nights at home because they would tend to get fewer and farther between as I got older.

I no longer had the opportunity to go learn recipes outside and bring meal ideas back home. As a family, we had not shared so many consecutive dinners since my senior year of high school. When the days became repetitive over the spring and summer, or when we felt clamped indoors and way too far into each other’s business, my family coalesced around prepping dinners and eating together.

Under the social distancing order after the pandemic, the only reason for me to leave my house was to walk my dog. I felt weird at home since I had convinced myself three

Throughout quarantine, other Syracuse University students created new recipes or learned family favorites back home. They shared these meals with us. ON OUR PLATES 39

Simmered Green Bean and Noodles with Pork Simmered green bean noodles with pork is a popular dish in the provinces in the northern part of China. Zitong Su, a junior studying international relations at SU, said that the dish is a classic that combines meat with vegetables and noodles. Su learned the dish through FaceTime while studying at SU, and she has cooked it with her family since she returned to China to quarantine during the pandemic. “I have not thought about learning it until I realized I am already far away from home after I came to the U.S.,” Su said. “It is always meaningful to have something that reminds you of the taste of ‘home’ when you are far away.” Su said the pandemic taught her about how important it is to show your love to the people you care for the most. Once she returned home during the pandemic, Su cooked this meal for her family and learned more dishes from her mom to build her repertoire. “After I came home, I made this dish for my parents for the first time. It inspired me to learn more special dishes from my mom during this time. It is always a good idea to have these skills with you.” 40 GLOBALISTS // SPRING 2020

Ingredients and Preparation Green beans – Cut it into shorter pieces. Pork – Buy the ones with a little fat and cut them into small pieces as well. Potatoes – Cut them into relatively the same size as the green beans. Noodles – Japanese ramen noodles work here. Seasoning – Soy sauce, dark soy sauce, vinegar, sliced green onion, sliced garlic, sliced ginger (two pieces of each)

Cooking Steps 1. Put some oil in the pot and make sure it covers the entire bottom of the pot. 2. Put the sliced pork into the pot and stir fry it until the pork starts to singe. 3. Put 2 tablespoons of soy sauce and 1 tablespoon of dark soy sauce into the pot, continue to stir fry when the pork is colored. 4. Put sliced green onion, garlic and ginger into the pot and stir fry with the pork. 5. Once it starts smelling strong, put the sliced green beans and potatoes into the pot, continue to stir fry for roughly 2 minutes. 6. Add water (hot water preferred) into the pot until it covers all the ingredients, after the water is boiled, take a small bowl of the water out for later use. 7. Put one tablespoon of salt in and cover the pot for 2 minutes.

8. Put the noodles on top of all the vegetables, DO NOT stir it! Pour the small bowl of water that we put aside in the previous step on top of the noodles. 9. Lower the flame and cover the pot again for 10 minutes. Remember to check the pot in case water comes out. 10. When the water reaches the bottom, start stirring everything, and it is done!

is the apple trees that the previous owners planted. This year the trees bloomed for the first time since they moved in and her family had more apples than they knew what to do, she said. Ashley’s family made apple desserts and savory apple dishes all summer, but she wanted to share this recipe because, she said, “it is next to impossible to mess up.”

Ingredients

Apple Crisps Ashley Clemens, a junior studying magazine journalism and writing and rhetoric, considers this desert the “heart of Minnesota countryside,” and in her family, a variation of this recipe came from her grandmother who passed it on to the following generations. When Ashley returned home in March due to the pandemic it felt like the first time she really got to know her family home, which they moved into during her freshman year. One of the things she said she grew accustomed to this summer

1 large apple or 3 small apples 1 tablespoon white sugar 1 tablespoon + 1 teaspoon brown sugar 2 teaspoon + 1 teaspoon flour 1 teaspoon cinnamon ¼ stick of butter Optional: slivered almonds, pecans, etc.

Cooking Steps 1. Peel your apple(s). 2. Halve the apples, remove the core and then chop into square pieces (½ inch x ½ inch) 3. In a bowl mix the apple bits, 1 tablespoon of both white and brown sugar, 2 teaspoons of flour and cinnamon. 4. With a spoon, move the filling into cupcake trays – filling almost to the brim. 5. On top, sprinkle a layer of flour, brown sugar, a thin slice of butter and (optional) some almond slivers, granola or oats. G ON OUR PLATES 41

BEHIND YOUR LOVELY LOCKS Hair shapes people’s identity and serves as a conduit for culture BY EDEN STRATTON

fter chopping off 12 inches of my hair, I spent the following days running my hands through its cropped ends, using every product known to man until it replicated a solid block atop my head. As I scrubbed gel and mousse from my hands, I had a spark of curiosity. Hair has an immense impact on our selfimage and identity, but it is

also a conduit for historical cultural values for cultures and people across the world. Although it was easy for me to spontaneously cut and experiment with my hair, historically these changes held immense social and political consequences.

The Japanese Samurai For instance, in Japan, members of the Japanese warrior caste, called samurai, traditionally held their hair up in a topknot, aka a chonmage. According to Constantine Nomikos Vaporis in his 2019 book “Samurai: An Encyclopedia of Japan’s Cultured Warriors,” if a samurai were to cut his chonmage off, it signified

a rejection of his role as a warrior to descend into the lower classes of his society — a choice that would seem ludicrous in ancient Japan since one’s social status was interwoven with their perceived worth.

Merovingian Kings In medieval Europe, this idea continued to manifest itself in the story of Queen Clotilde. Professor Paul Freeman of Yale University explains in his 2011 lecture that when faced with the choice between saving her grandsons’ lives or getting their hair cut, the queen quickly chose to sacrifice them instead, physically

unable to bear the sight of seeing their golden locks sheared. The Merovingian kings that are the basis for the drama believed that to cut one’s hair would be equivalent to stripping oneself of their royal birthright, thus choosing to never cut their hair from boyhood to death.

The Indigenous Community In the U.S., it is easy to reduce hair to colored strands that we simply curl, comb and cut. However, it serves as a major cultural symbol for those who maintain it. In the case of indigenous peoples in the U.S., hair is not only a means of selfMUSINGS 43

cannot simply be explained with words.

The Buddhist Monks

expression but a visible tribute to one’s community and family. Drawing upon her personal experiences, Barbie Stensgar explains in her 2019 Sister Sky post, that hair is braided and adorned with ornamentation based upon the tribe’s personal values and tradition thus connecting the individual to a greater spiritual whole.

The Fulani Tribe The dedication to familial tradition can be found not only within the U.S. borders but an ocean away as well. Marianne Gullestad documented such traditions in her book “Picturing Pity: Pitfalls and Pleasures in Cross-Cultural Communication in a North Cameroon Mission” via the African Fulani tribe. Young Fula girls weave their hair into five braids garnished with shells, beads and threads of their family’s silver coins and amber. It is a tradition that stays alive through each generation, serving as a visual symbol of heritage and commitment to one’s family that 44 GLOBALISTS // FALL 2020

For Buddhist monks, hair is a non-existent entity, both figuratively and literally. Indian historian and scholar Upinder Singh explains in her textbook “ A History of Ancient and Early Medieval India” that in order to adhere to religious doctrine that discourages vanity — a tenet outlined in the sacred Buddhist Vinaya-pitaka text — monks keep their heads clean-shaven, a practice known as tonsure that was also performed in medieval Catholicism. Not only is this a dedicative action, it is also an integral step in a monk’s journey, symbolizing that one has left their material life behind to live among other ordained monks in pursuit of religious harmony. Even though we no longer live among gods, kings and warriors, hair continues to have significant cultural impacts in our time. While my own hair doesn’t have the same deep ties, it is imperative to recognize that for so many of us in our world today, hair represents unique and rich stories that transcend words. Next time when you cut your lovely locks, remember that there is much more to our hair than colored strands. G

PHOTOS COURTESY OF MARNIE MUÑOZ

POSTCARD:mill MILL CREEK, WA

Dreaming of survival and small talk

BY MARNIE MUÑOZ

used to have nightmares. Each night, as the new normal extended past the promise of a two-week spring break, I’d lie awake for hours and beg the glaring lights of the empty, half-constructed home beside mine to be the sun. Sometimes I dreamed of snow, envisioning myself buried beneath its enormous weight and

waiting for an ambulance that would never come. Other times, I imagined myself at the edge of an anonymous highway, waving frantically at cars that always sped out of sight. But by the time the third month of quarantine arrived, I began to dream of a tangible place in my life: the college campus that I had left approximately 2,740 miles POSTCARD 45

behind. Despite every catastrophe that my mind invented before the nightmares stopped, dreaming of a life I could no longer have was somehow infinitely worse. I didn’t know what to make of Syracuse’s small talk and smiles in my first year there, being from a place notorious for its silence between strangers. So, when I returned to my family in Washington, public health officials’ pleas for residents to remain isolated and six feet apart minimally impacted my day-to-day life. Quiet trips to the supermarket were mostly unchanged. The people of my city were content to ignore one another in the same reserved way we always did. But while our stubbornness saved us initially, it also infected the inevitable loneliness that settled in. When the days were longest, I walked in circles through surrounding neighborhoods that I had never explored before, headphones in tow. Without too much talking, I biked across a lake into Seattle and then paddle boarded across another. I climbed a mountain beside my best friend wordlessly, both for lack of things to say and a shortage of clean air caused by relentless forest fires. Having become impossible to carry on forever and everywhere, 46 GLOBALISTS // FALL 2020

Waiting doesn’t have to stagnate, and sometimes small talk can be beautiful. Rest is important — the sun always rises.

the silence eventually began to fade away. A part of me missed the brief waves I had once avoided on the quad and the cheery “hello” of a random person in a narrow hallway. The world was shifting beneath my feet and I couldn’t wait any longer for a deus ex machina to salvage the life I wanted. So I turned to family and friends, both lifelong and new, to start over again. Knowing basic facts and regurgitating them in exams and interviews is relatively simple, a process of memorization and practice until the answers are all correct. However, understanding the people who speak those truths is far more challenging. As the seasons changed outside, I spent more time striving and struggling against my introvert instinct to recognize the faces on the other side of my Zoom window.

I learned of one professor’s quest to find the perfect puppy for their family to take in. I listened to a friend describe her city to me as she drove along its roads with her phone on speaker in the passenger seat. In group calls, I prayed with hundreds of other people in Venezuela, Colombia and Mexico. I watched from afar as loved ones across the country fell sick with the novel coronavirus. And I mourned remotely as others passed away from it.

across time zones, and spring remains, ultimately, my favorite season. Also, waiting doesn’t have to stagnate, and sometimes small talk can be beautiful. Rest is important — the sun always rises.

When the pandemics that my city has endured come to an end, I am looking forward to enjoying the life that’s possible on the other side of what I’ve experienced in the past seven months. I think constantly about the space I left behind in Syracuse and the spaces I will return to in a city that, like mine, is full of Studying outside of New York countless more stories hiding behind for my fall semester, I’ve also ordinary interactions. I hope to fully unearthed new and important details of which to remind myself. remember all the people that filled my inboxes and video calls, and I I know now that certain music equally do not want to forget the helps me write but other genres are best kept for studying. Personal persons who helped me transform growth is not linear, but self-worth during my time in Washington. should be constant. I’ve found that But until then, I’ll continue to dream schedule-sending emails is most of good things and bad. G effective when communicating

WEB ILLUSTRATIONS 47

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