The College Hill Independent — Vol 49 Issue 6

November

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2024

Volume 49 Issue 06

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OVERWORKED, OVERLOOKED, OVERTIME

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MOISTURIZING ILLUSIONS

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“CHUMMUS”...

THE

ISSUE

THE COLLEGE HILL INDEPENDENT

49 06

11.01

Masthead MANAGING EDITORS

DESIGN EDITORS

Jolie Barnard Plum Luard Luca Suarez

April S. Lim Andrew Liu Anaïs Reiss

WEEK IN REVIEW

DESIGNERS

ILLUSTRATION EDITORS

Julia Cheng Izzy Roth-Dishy ILLUSTRATORS

01 THE PLIGHT OF A HOLY MAN Luca Suarez

Lucas Galarza Ash Ma WORLD

COPY CHIEF

ARTS

03 WEEK IN PODCAST

Beto Beveridge Nan Dickerson

Ben Flaumenhaft & Ilan Brusso

04 OVERWORKED, OVERLOOKED, OVERTIME Layla Ahmed

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Mia Cheng Anna Fischler Mekala Kumar Mingjia Li Ellie Lin Cindy Liu Ren Long Benjamin Natan Jessica Ruan Jackson Ruddick Zoe Rudolph-Larrea Meri Sanders COVER COORDINATORS Sofia Schreiber Kian Braulik Elliot Stravato Brandon Magloire Luna Tobar Catie Witherwax STAFF WRITERS Lily Yanagimoto Layla Ahmed Alena Zhang Tanvi Anand Nicole Zhu Hisham Awartani Nura Dhar WEB EDITOR Keelin Gaughan Eleanor Park Lily Ellman David Felipe WEB DESIGNERS Audrey He Kenneth Anderson Martina Herman Mai-Anh Nguyen Elena Jiang Annika Singh Daniel Kyte-Zable Brooke Wangenheim Emily Mansfield Nadia Mazonson SOCIAL MEDIA TEAM Coby Mulliken Imran Hussain Daphne Mylonas Sabine Jimenez-Williams Naomi Nesmith Kalie Minor Caleb Rader Nat Mitchell William Roberts Eurie Seo Caleb Stutman-Shaw Emma Zwall Natalie Svob Tarini Tipnis FINANCIAL Ange Yeung COORDINATOR Peter Zettl Simon Yang

Ilan Brusso Ben Flaumenhaft

EPHEMERA

Anji Friedbauer Selim Kutlu Sabine JimenezWilliams FEATURES

USAW-RI NEGOTIATIONS OPEN LETTER

Riley Gramley Angela Lian Talia Reiss

07 THE HEARTBEAT IN THE PUBLIC Martina Herman

LITERARY

Sarkis Antonyan Georgia Turman METRO

08 MOISTURIZING ILLUSIONS Peter Zettl

METABOLICS

Brice Dickerson Nat Mitchell Daniel Zheng

10 MOVEMENT Martina Herman

SCIENCE + TECH

12 “CHUMMUS” AND THE CONSUMPTION OF THE PALESTINIAN-ORIENTAL SUBALTERN

Emilie Guan Everest Maya-Tudor Emily Vesper SCHEMA

Hisham Awartani

Aboud Ashhab Ivy Rockmore

14 PRIMAL URGE TO FETAL POSITION

DEAR INDY

Selim Kutlu

Kalie Minor

15 A TALE OF TWO SYRIAS

BULLETIN BOARD

Qiaoying Chen Gabrielle Yuan

Aboud Ashhab

16 NOWHERE A THREAT, EVERYWHERE A LISTENER Daniel Kyte-Zable

18 BACKWARDS FROM THE TERRAIN OF TOUCH 19 DEAR INDY Kalie Minor

20 BULLETIN Qiaoying Chen & Gabrielle Yuan

FROM THE EDITORS Cursed Items in the Providence Vicinity: Mummy’s Pinky Toe. Gas Station Sushi from 199X. Chewed Up Bratz Doll.

Inverted Crucifix. Tamagotchi Possessed by Victorian Child. Hairoglyphics.

Silent Chalk. Indy Tape. Double Dice (only roll 2s). H.P. Lovecraft’s Haunted Cuck Chair. Gaudy Ass Smoke Shop. “The Creature From Somewhere Else.” Eternally Greasy Burrito Paper. AAAAAAAA Batteries. Anthrax Vape. The Freaky Issue.

THE COLLEGE HILL INDEPENDENT

Samantha Ho COPY EDITORS / FACT-CHECKERS

Justin Bolsen Jackie Dean Jason Hwang Avery Liu Becca Martin-Welp Lila Rosen Bardia Vincent

SENIOR EDITORS

Arman Deendar Angela Lian Lily Seltz MVP

👅

*Our Beloved Staff

MISSION STATEMENT

Nan Dickerson

02

Cameron Leo Lily Seltz

Mary-Elizabeth Boatey Jolin Chen Sejal Gupta Kay Kim Minah Kim Seoyeon Kweon Saachi Mehta Tanya Qu Zoe Rudolph-Larrea Rachel Shin

-PL(um)/(uca)

The College Hill Independent is a Providence-based publication written, illustrated, designed, and edited by students from Brown University and the Rhode Island School of Design. Our paper is distributed throughout the East Side, Downtown, and online. The Indy also functions as an open, leftist, consciousness-raising workshop for writers and artists, and from this collaborative space we publish 20 pages of politically-engaged and thoughtful content once a week.

We want to create work that is generative for and accountable to the Providence community—a commitment that needs consistent and persistent attention.

While the Indy is predominantly financed by Brown, we independently fundraise to support a stipend program to compensate staff who need financial support, which the University refuses to provide. Beyond making both the spaces we occupy and the creation process more accessible, we must also work to make our writing legible and relevant to our readers.

The Indy strives to disrupt dominant narratives of power. We reject content that perpetuates homophobia, transphobia, xenophobia, misogyny, ableism and/or classism. We aim to produce work that is abolitionist, anti-racist, anti-capitalist, and anti-imperialist, and we want to generate spaces for radical thought, care, and futures. Though these lists are not exhaustive, we challenge each other to be intentional and self-critical within and beyond the workshop setting, and to find beauty and sustenance in creating and working together.

WEEK IN REVIEW

WEEK IN

PODCAST

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BEN FLAUMENHAFT B’27 and ILAN BRUSSO B’27 VOLUME 49 ISSUE 06

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Overworked, Overlooked, Overtime Brown’s service workers bargain for a liveable contract ( TEXT LAYLA AHMED DESIGN ANAÏS REISS ILLUSTRATION JULIA CHENG ) In the summer of 2023, Sarah (a pseudonym), a Dining Services employee at Brown University, found out that she was pregnant. She was working in the Facilities department at the time—she had picked up a role for the three summer months when many Dining Services employees aren’t able to work or get paid. She was worried about her ability to safely execute that role while pregnant. “When you were in Facilities, you had to move furniture and lift things,” said Sarah. She asked to return to Dining Services—but her request was denied. She had a miscarriage a week later.

After the miscarriage, Sarah asked to use her sick or vacation days to take some time off.

Even after she presented a doctor’s note from the emergency room, this request was denied.

“They were like, ‘no, it’s not allowed. You can’t use any of your time,’” she said. Sarah returned to work three days after leaving the hospital.

Sarah’s story sheds light on several major issues in Brown’s treatment of its service workers—a category that includes the University’s dining, mail room, library, and facilities staff, represented by the United Service and Allied Workers of Rhode Island Union (USAW-RI). Although they are under the same union, each bargaining unit has their own contract. Unless the union members demand to negotiate new terms, the contract is automatically renewed every three years. For the first time since 1998, the librarians’, facility workers’, and dining workers’ contracts have expired within just several weeks of each other. Bolstered by the collective power that this alignment off rs, all three units have chosen to bargain with the University for a new contract. Those negotiations are currently underway.

Negotiators are pushing Brown to address multiple concerns that service workers have raised over the last three years: low wages, understaffed departments, an unreliable scheduling process, unsafe working environments, overreliance on “temporary” workers who work fulltime without union protections or benefits, and an overall sense of devaluation and disrespect.

Insuffic nt pay in particular has caused increasing difficultie for workers to pay for the basic things they need—from housing, to food, to gas.

High costs, low wages—& lowball offer “You go to the store and you pay like $200 sometimes, [for] like two bags [of groceries],” said one Dining Services employee, who spoke under the pseudonym Juliana to avoid workplace retaliation. “You’re like, what did I pay? And you have a family, and gas is going up. Everything is going up.”

From 2015 to 2023, median rent in Providence has nearly doubled, from $1,067/month to $1,987.

The city saw an especially sharp increase in housing prices during the pandemic, which coincided with a general inflationary spiral: consumer prices have risen by over 20% nationwide since February of 2020. Despite these circumstances, service workers at Brown haven’t received a wage increase of more than 2.5% any year in the last several years.

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The librarians’ contract expired on September 30, followed by the facilities’ on October 12, and dining’s on November 1. Employees will continue to work under the terms of the existing contract until a new one is agreed upon between USAW and the University. Due to these ongoing negotiations, the workers I spoke with could provide only limited information on Brown’s response to their demands. However, several people involved in the process shared that, on October 28, Brown responded to calls from the Dining Services’ bargaining unit for a wage increase with a counter-off r workers characterized as negligibly low.

“Brown is refusing to put an offer on the table that is worth even bringing to membershipfor a vote,” said Maddock Thomas, President of the Brown Student Labor Alliance (SLA). SLA marshals student support for labor organizing efforts at Brown and across Rhode Island.

Thomas believes that Brown has been engaging in bad faith negotiations—using lowball counter-off rs to draw out the process and wear down workers’ patience. A prolonged negotiation period can dishearten the staff, resulting in concessions that will trap workers in the same conditions for another three years.

On Thursday, October 24, two Brown administrators—Provost Francis J. Doyle III and Sarah Latham, Executive Vice President for Finance and Administration—wrote to the community that the University is operating in “a $46 million structural deficit” as it transitions into a “leading research university.” As part of its efforts to manage the deficit and maintain Brown’s “financial health,” Doyle III and Latham promised to “ensure that Brown’s overall staff headcount remains fla .” Yet it is difficult to imagine how Brown can become a “leading research university”—or continue operating at all—without adequately staffin (and paying!) the departments that keep its buildings safe and clean, that cook and serve food for its students and faculty, that send and sort the mail, and that underpin the very research efforts that the University touts.

Schedules & scheduled overtime While livable wages are a top priority, service workers are also fighting to change a litany of unjust conditions and practices that make their jobs almost intolerable. “Brown used to be a really nice place to work,” said Juliana. “Before, you would never, never hear people saying that they were leaving Brown. Now… I hear people saying that they’re looking for another job.”

To start, several workers pointed to the opaque and unreliable process used to schedule personal days and vacations. Brown requires that employees request time off through Workday—but according to dining workers, management chooses not to respond to their requests on the platform.

“The schedule will come out and that’s how you know if it’s approved or not,” said Sarah, the dining services worker who experienced a miscarriage in 2023. “For me, I requested this

weekend and Monday off, and I got the weekend off, but I still don’t know about Monday. On [Tuesday] when the schedule will come out, that’s how I’ll see if Monday is approved or not.”

This practice makes scheduling time off confusing and stressful for workers, some of whom are coordinating their personal days with family schedules.

As a result, many workers cannot take full advantage of their rightful time off, which is already limited.

According to the current contract terms, union members are allotted two personal days per benefit year. While vacation days are determined by length of employment, the annual minimum an employee may receive is 10 days (for one year of service) and the maximum is 22 days (for at least five years), according to the current contract. Employees who manage to reach 25 years of employment receive a “one time bonus” of 10 vacation days.

There are tight restrictions, however, on when workers can take these personal and vacation days.

The University establishes several “blackout periods” throughout the year, during which employees are not allowed to request time off. Typically, blackouts occur during high-traffi seasons like the holidays or, at Brown, when students return to campus. These black-out periods are at least partially enforced to mitigate the fact that service teams are severely understaffed—anoth r issue that each bargaining unit has continued to contend with.

To accommodate the labor deficit and ensure that services run smoothly, part of the University’s strategy is to subcontract to temporary work agencies. Since temporary workers operate outside of the union, the University is not required to compensate them with the same pay and benefits that USAW members receive.

But despite this recourse, gaps in the schedule remain, and workers across departments say that they face frequent pressures to work overtime.

“If it weren’t for a lot of the food service workers working overtime, it would be a shitshow,” said Sarah. “Longer wait times, everything moving a lot slower. They may have to close certain stations because we don’t have enough people.”

Aside from external pressure to fill needed shifts, employees say that working overtime (which is paid time and a half) is the only way they can make enough money to get by. “If you don’t get overtime, your regular pay doesn’t… you’re on the edge,” said Juliana, noting that an overtime schedule wasn’t possible for everyone: “There’s people who have to work just their forty hours.

They have to pick up their kids from school.”

Dining workers are also guaranteed employment only for the nine-month period that coincides with the academic year. As a result, says Juliana, “from June until August, [many employees] have no pay. They are home with no money.” The need to save throughout the year in order to make it through those summer months creates extra pressure to take on overtime from September to May. Workers also told us that the University tends to under-staff summer shifts, meaning that those few dining workers who do stay on during the

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“Sometimes, Dining Services, we feel like we belong to Brown. We have to do what Brown says. Our lives revolve around what our job needs us to do. And it shouldn’t be like that, you know? We all have family outside [of] here. We all have our lives, too. And it is hard. It is hard.” - Juliana summer are granted little flexibility to take time off. “Sometimes they say, ‘you should take vacation during the year,’” said Juliana. “It’s cold. Your kids are in school. Where are you going to go?”

Working in the hot & cold The staff is further advocating for protected working conditions, following numerous workplace injuries and management’s neglect for personal safety.

In 2018, Sarah worked in the Ratty without air conditioning. She remembers how the dining workers would take five-minu e breaks in a side room that was equipped with an AC to find relief from the heat.

“We were constantly told, ‘We don’t have the money. We don’t have the money [to install AC],’ until one of the workers had a heatstroke. I believe she was in the intensive care unit for a few days actually,” said Sarah. “Not even a month later, we had the money for it…of course we [did].”

Sarah added that the installment of the AC came only after students protested on the Main Green and threatened to stage a sit-in in the Ratty.

“A lot of us wanted her to sue,” she continued. “I hope she did, and I hope she won because it was ridiculous. They would put fans in the corner, but what is a fan going to do when we are behind these lines with all these warmers? It’s not going to do much.”

In another instance, the department planned to hand out pumpkins and donuts to students the week before Halloween. Since this was during the pandemic, this event was planned to be held at diff rent tabling locations across campus. Although a surprise snowstorm caused temperatures to drop, management did not create a change in plans, nor did they provide the staff with adequate protections from the elements.

“It was freezing, and we were out there for, I want to say, five or six hours,” said Sarah. “We used tablecloths as blankets because it was so cold. I could not feel my feet for a couple of hours after leaving.”

No right to get loud Despite this environment, the current contract terms prevent members of USAW from protesting or even speaking out about their treatment.

According to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), strikes are considered “concerted activities for the purpose of collective bargaining…or protection,” which is protected under section seven of the National Labor Relations Act. However, the right to strike has its limits, one of which being the No Strike-No Lockout clause in the current contract.

This clause prevents union members from striking during the duration of their contract and prevents the employer from interfering with their work. Employers often include this clause in their contracts to funnel employee complaints through a grievance procedure where complaints are filed with a supervisor and discussed through a series of mediations. The grievance procedure protects employers from disruptions to their daily business that would arise from a workers strike.

For existing unions like the Graduate Labor Organization (GLO), the No Strike-No Lockout clause ensures that its members will not “engage in, call for, encourage, or condone any strike, work stoppage, slowdown, sympathy strike” or other “disruptions” to the University’s business operations.

USAW’s current contract includes this provision and also forbids any “sit-in, demonstrations, displays, banners, picketing, or advertisement concerning any matter in dispute” from the contract. As a result, service workers are both prevented from withholding labor in protest of how the University treats them and from publicizing the conditions they endure, even through a fli r.

“Brown is essentially violating both their freedoms of speech and assembly under their contract, which is part of why we have an obligation as students to be so loud and supportive of [the Union] because they can’t do so until their contracts expire,” said Thomas.

“We will not stand by and let Brown force a concessionary contract onto the workers who we depend so heavily on to exist on this campus,” he continued.

Student solidarity As of publication, SLA already launched a fly ring campaign to raise awareness on the negotiations and an open letter to show support for the service workers on campus. Within the first 12 hours following the letter’s release, it had garnered more than 300 signatures from students, parents, faculty, and community members. As of publication, it has since reached 534 signatures, roughly 400 of which are from Brown students. SLA plans to continue building student support for USAW and subcon-tracted employees in the impacted departments.

“Because we are not working full time and in bargaining, we have the capability to try and maintain these [community] relation-ships and make these calls that a lot of workers who are working 60 hours a week don’t necessarily have the time to,” said Thomas.

Student solidarity has proven an effective measure at other institutions. In April 2023, students from the Rhode Island School of Design striked alongside their custodians, groundskeepers, and moving staff—members of the Teamsters Local 251 union—on the University’s admitted students’ day, which was part of a larger two-week strike. Within a week of the solidarity strike, the union secured a new contract with “wage increases averaging 33 percent…wage retroactivity to October 2022, strong benefits, longevity bonus, and more.”

More recently, United Automobile Workers members at Cornell University—including their facilities, dining, and groundskeeping staff—agreed on a new contract that guaranteed protected scheduling and safety policies, in addition to $43 million towards wages and benefits. This was a marked increase from Cornell’s initial proposal of $37 million, which “workers knew would not be enough to counter declining real wages and skyrocketing housing costs in Ithaca.” The

decision followed a strike towards the end of August that similarly received student support. +++ Despite the University’s treatment, students recognize the workers who are key to keeping this campus functioning.

“The custodians who clean your toilets and keep your living spaces clean for you. The facilities workers who respond to requests because Brown doesn’t want to pay for serious renovations and maintenance in these buildings, [so] they are constantly running around and fixing pipes that break so that we don’t have to deal with flooded dorms,” said Thomas. “The dining services—the people who feed the vast majority of us for two to three years—are out here every day, working overtime, working six to seven days a week so that we can be fed.”

“They are not being treated fairly,” he continued. “And I think a lot of people can empathize with that because they see how hard they work and interact with them all the time.”

The service employees on this campus consistently show up in spite of changes in management, icy roads, burnout, and low pay.

Why do they stay in these jobs under the conditions they face? The staff I spoke with highlighted one constant answer: the students.

“The students are wonderful—our top priority,” said an anonymous facilities employee.

“They’re the only reason I come to work.”

Their coworker agreed, adding, “We take care of our students like our kids…They see the hard work we are doing and say thank you all the time and appreciate us.”

It is our duty as students to support our service workers like they support us. Sign the Student Labor Alliance’s open letter by scanning the QR Code below. And show up to the Student Labor Alliance’s noon rally on Friday, November 8.

Scan to sign the Student Labor Alliance's open letter

LAYLA AHMED B’27 supports her campus workers.

VOLUME 49 ISSUE 06

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Open Letter to Brown University Concerning Campus Workers’ Negotiations (USAW-RI) We the students, staff, and members of the Brown University and broader Rhode Island community, collectively declare our support for Brown’s facilities workers, dining service workers, and librarians in their ongoing struggle to receive a fair, respectful, and honestly-negotiated contract.

Because of the hard work of the hundreds of campus workers represented by the United Service and Allied Workers of Rhode Island (USAW-RI, the undersigned have enjoyed a clean, functional campus; a vast, curated collection of over 7 million volumes spread across six libraries; and regular meals cooked and distributed with personal care. Over the years, students have come and gone, but its workers have been here for decades—Brown is their school.

In spite of this, and despite a 728 million dollar net return on its endowment in Fiscal Year 2024, Brown is refusing to negotiate with its workers in good faith. The University’s existing off rs fall profoundly short of providing workers with a comfortable lifestyle amidst a constantly rising cost of living.

Since the start of the pandemic, median rent in Providence has increased by over 55%. In the same period, inflation has risen over 20%.

And even though tuition has gone up by 8,000 dollars since the 2020-2021 school year, the Brown workers’ wages have stagnated—leaving workers’ real wages significantly lower.

Just over a year ago, custodians with Teamsters Local 251 at the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD negotiated their first union contract. When RISD refused to bargain with the Union and meet their wage demands, workers went on strike, and hundreds of students walked the picket line with them for two weeks. That strike culminated in immediate 22% raises for RISD custodians.

This past September, workers with United Auto Workers Local 2300 ratified a new contract with Cornell University that included 25.4% wage increases, improved holidays, and a guaranteed cost of living adjustment. This too came after a two-week strike with strong student, labor, and community support.

As of October 17, Brown University allowed its contract with facilities workers to expire without putting a fair off r on the table. Time is also running out on dining workers’ and librarians’ contracts.

We, the undersigned, demand that Brown begin to honestly negotiate with campus workers, that it bargains fairly and responsively with USAW-RI, and that it grants employees the wage increases which are necessary for them to affo d to live in Rhode Island. This University owes it to itself and its community to embody the values it espouses and to come to the table with a just off r.

The student body is watching. The community is watching. We are prepared to support Brown’s workers as they fight for a fair contract that recognizes their place as the bedrock of our University.

Signatories Updated October 30, 2024

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Organizational Signatories: Brown Student Labor Alliance (SLA) Rhode Island AFL-CIO Teamsters Local 251 Graduate Labor Organization (GLO) Labor Organization of Community Coordinators (LOCC) Teaching Assistant Labor Organization (TALO) International Union of Painters and Allied Trades District Council 11 (IUPAT DC 11) Students for Educational Equity (SEE) Sunrise Brown Brown Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) Women’s Health Advocacy Group (WHAG) Brown-RISD Young Democratic Socialists of America (YDSA) The Rib of Brown Slavic Studies DUG Urban Studies DUG RI Independent Socialist Group (RI ISG) WORD! Performance Poetry Love Grows LLC

See supplemental statements from the AFL-CIO and others

Sign the Open Letter Here Please direct all inquiries to the Brown Student Labor Alliance at brownusla@gmail.com

ARTS

THE HEARTBEAT IN THE PUBLIC

Choreopolitics, choreopolice and bodies in circulation ( TEXT MARTINA HERMAN DESIGN KAY KIM ILLUSTRATION JESSICA RUAN ) Imagine walking into a museum, expecting to admire the art, when suddenly, two mounted riot police start guiding your every move. This is exactly what happened during Tania Bruguera’s performance Tatlin’s Whisper #5 at the TATE Modern Museum in London. Instead of just looking at art, the audience became part of it—pushed, pulled, and controlled by the police.

During Bruguera’s performance, two actual riot policemen are mounted on a white horse and a black horse, respectively. As they would on their typical day on the job, they direct and guide the movement of the audience through the room. According to the museum’s website, they dictate their interaction with the space “using a minimum of six crowd control techniques, like closing off the gallery entrances, pushing the audience forward with lateral movements of the horses, manipulating the audience into a single group and encircling it to tighten it, and breaking up the audience into smaller groups.” These commands are the paradigmatic examples of performative speech acts in J.L. Austin’s classic How to Do Things with Words. In order for the performatives to be felicitous, to fulfill their task, they are dependent on the context and on the legitimacy of the person(s expressing the order. The crowd control techniques, which are common in major public events or gatherings, are less common in a museum context (but so are policemen mounted on horses Throughout the duration of the performance, none of the ‘pedestrians’ rebelled, refused, or protested. “The fact that they’re having the same reaction that they have in real life when they see the police controlling them for me is very important,” Bruguera shares during a TateShots interview. The performance forms part of Bruguera’s series Arte de Conducta (“Behaviour Art”, where she explores how individuals’ conduct oscillates between rebellion and conformity. This performance—defined by the artist as an “experience with power”—shows that even in a defamiliarized context, the individuals maintained their usual behavior towards figu es of public authority.

The commands of the policemen and the compliance of the audience are an image comparable to the experience of a ballet class: there are moves that are right and moves that are wrong, delineated spaces in which to move, and specific body postures in which to stand. Choreography, according to William Forsythe, is “an art of command.” For Hannah Arendt, in her unconcluded work Introduction to Politics, to command and to obey are essentially “antipolitical” actions: “To speak in the form of commanding and to hear in the form of obeying [cannot be] considered actual speech and hearing.” This sort of interaction is not political because its movement is not oriented towards freedom.

Arendt defines a notion of ‘the political’ in contrast to the business of politics, politicians, and policymaking: the political is an evolving movement to freedom, which consists in action in the presence of others, in human plurality. “It is less predicated on a subject than on a movement (Bewegung, defined by intersubjective action, that, moreover, must be learned, rehearsed, nurtured, and above all experimented with, practiced, and experienced,” writes Lepecki, emphasizing the kinetic characteristics of Arendt’s definition. They can be best witnessed when she says, “We have arrived in a situation where we do not know — at least not yet — how to move politically.” Lepecki also reads it as “we do not know — at least not yet — how to move freely.”

Through pieces of performance arts that defy and break the fi ed function of spaces, dance and performance studies critic André Lepecki defines the concepts of ‘choreopolitics’ and ‘choreopolice.’ These off r a framework in which to understand our embodied interactions with material space (the street, the subway, the city, the campus in order to expand the limits of our kinetic imagination. We can thus find ways in which to disrupt, modify, and reconfigu e our traversing through public spaces.

How can we unify kinetic knowledge with political and social knowledge?

Yak Films, an ensemble that predominantly works in the hip-hop style of Turf, challenges the established paths of circulation, our daily, routinized way of interacting with space that is established and made natural by social policing. Their video performance, “Dancing in the Rain in Oakland Street,” is a site-specific work that takes place at the intersection of MacArthur Boulevard and 90th Avenue in Oakland, California. In the opening scene, two of the four dancers stand at the corner with a police car in front of them that then turns slowly and leaves the frame. As it disappears, they start dancing and taking up a space that is not legally conceived for dancing. Their movements are graceful: they pirouette, pop, lock, slide, and turn. One of them moves into the traffi lane, taking an elegant pose: almost in a lunge, his right leg stretched, left leg bent, head bowed, right arm stretched up diagonally towards the sky, left hand on left knee. He is right in the middle of the road and, as he sustains his pose, he forces a turning car to go around him. Their movement challenges laws and social norms that restrict these spaces to being solely places for circulation. The political character of their dance stands not only against external policing from figu es like the patrol that is seen in the opening, but rather also against the internal conception that the street is no place to dance.

Lepecki would call this a choreopolitical dance, defining choreopolitics as “the formation of collective plans emerging at the edges between open creativity, daring initiative, and a persistent—even stubborn—iteration of the desire to live away from policed conformity.” Choreopolitics is disruption, unexpectedness, a training of the imagination to trace new pathways and modify pre-established ones.

Philosopher Jacques Rancière establishes the public space as defined by a partition of the sensible, which refers to the ways in which a community is ordered both symbolically and materially. The partition comes from the sense-making practices within that group: what is voice and what is noise, what is seen or heard (and from whom), what is possible or impossible, what is thinkable or unthinkable, where circulation is allowed or forbidden, and when it is the only acceptable interaction with the space.

These practices of partition—or “routinised perception and interpretation”—have a policing effec . Rancière uses the term ‘the police’ to refer to these orders of governance, its essence being not repression but the distribution of the sensible, of what is deemed normal.

There is not one single police order that is complete and immutable, but rather, the effects can be produced through “any hierarchical structure that seeks to allocate and keep places, people, names, functions, authorities in their ‘proper’ place in a seemingly natural order of things.”

Gilles Deleuze develops the notion of the control society and diff rentiates it from Foucault’s discipline society. The agents of inscription of hegemony (teachers, doctors) and the mechanisms of confin ment (schools, hospitals, asylums) that worked to uphold the discipline society have been replaced by an operation of permanent surveillance, tracking devices, and instant communication technologies in the control society.

Movement in this way, for Deleuze, is not only tracked but

“preconditions freedom from within by subtly providing pathways for circulation that are introjected as the only ones imaginable, the only ones deemed appropriate.”

What Tatlin’s Whisper #5 with its mounted policemen exposes, according to Lepecki, is precisely this introjection: not the power in the exercise of police determination of movement of bodies but rather the self-policing instinct that has been inscribed on subjects. Choreopolice is defined as “any movement incapable of breaking the endless reproduction of an imposed circulation of consensual subjectivity, where to be is to fit a prechoreographed pattern of circulation, corporeality, and belonging.” As Rancière tells us, choreopolice does not require policemen to reproduce it, but rather becomes absorbed with the laws of circulation of the individual in society.

I am writing this after attending a class with Stephanie Batten Bland. A dance-theater artist who works with site-specific dance and immersive theater experience, Stephanie’s class, which was 3 hours in duration, was an experimentation of our movement and emotionality and their interaction with the spaces we inhabit. One of the activities was to form quartets to create what Stephanie called choreographic ‘beats’ by moving in proximity and with a focus “not on destination but on action.” After a few minutes of working in groups, we gathered around the first group to witness their choreography, the audience forming a semi-circle around them. It was the second group’s turn to share their own version and they organically moved to take the first group’s space in the center of the semi-circle, instead of making the rest of the dancers turn to them and use the space more fully. Everyone became extremely conscious of the space being imbued with the qualities of a stage—a proscenium—and a normative interaction with it. The group’s gestures exemplify an internalized policing of movement, choreopolice.

As each group performed, Stephanie gave the dancers ideas and directions to enhance the beats, and collectively the class would imagine a situation and a characteristic for the piece, based on observation of the performance.

Each group was off red a title/description to inhabit: a passionate party in vehicularity, a visual conversation on the sidewalk in Ruth J. Simmons Quad, a suspicious family in the regal stairs inside Lyman Hall, and an earthy playground in the corner of Ashamu dance studio.

The visual conversation on one of the sidewalks of Ruth J. Simmons was the first performance. What was most striking about it was the sudden integration of sense and emotion in a public green. A reclaiming of the space happening through the dance, a normative pathway for circulation, became the site for surprise, unexpectedness, and attentive care. In a later conversation, one of the dancers pointed out the dynamic of watching/being watched that happens in public spaces in this university, even comparing it to Foucault’s Panopticon in the surveillance society. When talking about site-specific performance, Stephanie mentioned that “we can’t change the identity of the space,” but, like Yak Film’s video performance “Dancing in the Rain in Oakland Street,” we can challenge and alter the normative rules that dictate our interaction with it through choreopolitics.

Then, a reconception of choreography is happening, one that does away with the notion of a system of command. Choreopolitics disrupts, innovates, and opens new possibilities of circulation. Deleuze calls this sketched-out but flexible plan “the minimal condition for sociality, the motor of experimentation.” This quality of rehearsing, practicing, attempting is based on physical interaction with material spaces not as something fixable or containable, not as a product, but rather as a process that is variable, transformative, and shapeshifting. The critical performances show a sketching of new pathways that happens in resistance to a pre-established normativity that is enforced on us and may open a door to think how our own daily movement could reconfigu e our usual and ‘normal’ ways of traversing through cities, rural landscapes or even our own university. Choreopolitics is an invitation to create a space for action in human interrelation, to learn how to experience and experiment, to practice moving politically, moving freely.

MARTINA HERMAN B’26 is dancing and circulating (suspiciously).

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FEATURES

MOISTURIZING ILLUSIONS ( TEXT PETER ZETTL DESIGN RACHEL SHIN ILLUSTRATION ANNA FISCHLER )

It’s early November, and Gurl just uploaded her last midterm paper to Canvas.

It’s early November, and Gurl just uploaded her last midterm paper to Canvas. The first draft of her article for issue 7 of The College Hill Independent is due in two days, and her article is still 4000 characters short. And actually, there’s also another paper looming in the distance. And she has her weekly response for LITR 1153A, and she hasn’t even opened the book (which happens to be 1300 pages long). It’s 9 AM and Gurl feels so ready for a long nap in either a twin XL or a coffin. Does it make a difference? And why does her mom keep texting her that a detoxifying sheet mask might “do her wonders”? Mom, she texts back, I just need more time, like a sheet mask can’t magically save me. Mom disagrees. Self-care is so important in college. Especially during midterm season.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, as young people were diagnosed with mental health conditions at unprecedented rates, the popularity of ‘self-care’ surged. In the beginning of lockdown, prominent methods of self-care included meditation, FaceTime calls to distant loved ones, and at-home workouts, but companies quickly capitalized on this trend by introducing practices that relied exclusively on the purchase of their products. These new methods included home improvements centered around assembly-ready furniture, aesthetic room makeovers, multi-colored Pop Its to relieve stress, and, very importantly, multi-step skincare routines.

Especially in later stages of lockdown, the beauty industry aggressively marketed ‘skin-soothing’ and ‘healing’ products, suggesting that their purchase would give consumers comfort when, really, the industry was simply recognizing and exploiting an opportunity in a time of restriction and uncertainty: turning the promise of control into a buyable commodity. This promise was the crux of the self-care industry’s success during the pandemic: by marketing products that help consumers regulate their own bodies and environments, companies sold this previously lost control back to them.

This hasn’t always been the nature of self-care, which is broadly defined as taking an active role in protecting one’s mental well-being, particularly in times of stress. Especially since the pandemic, however, self-care has evolved to include the purchase of a “self-care product,” even when that product doesn’t necessarily work as advertised. For many people, engaging in this consumption-based self-care would entail buying a sheet mask, maybe a facial roller and a bath bomb and perhaps eye masks and also a snail mucin mask, and definitely a red-light-therapy facial massager from Temu, or maybe a “bro mask,” “a roast beef bath bomb,” and “dude wipes” (these all exist) if you’re too masculine

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for gender-neutral products. Although non-consumption-based self-care (like meditation or yoga) does exist, chances are the self-care industry has found a way to mooch off of your checking account.

The origin of modern ideas of self-care can be traced back to the 1950s when it emerged as a practice popular among members of the Black Panther Party as a means of countering activist burnout during the civil rights movement. Angela Davis and Ericka Huggins, both former leaders of the party, used forms of self-care like yoga and meditation to foster resilience while incarcerated and went on

to promote the power of nutrition and exercise as methods of preserving one’s mental well-being even after their release from prison. They created wellness and self-care education programs for children and adults of all ages in recreational centers across the United States and have continued to advocate for the maintenance of personal health to this day.

Both women also promoted the understanding of health justice as an integral aspect of social justice, highlighting how structural racism — specifically lack of funds allocated towards majority Black neighborhoods resulting in little access to high quality foods — can affect both mental and physical health in marginalized communities. Because these challenges had been largely ignored, the Black Panther Party was especially vocal in their advocacy for accessible healthcare, mental health services, and the eradication of health disparities as part of broader struggles for racial equality.

Davis also argued that mental wellness was not an individual pursuit, but rather a very political and collective responsibility. She was especially concerned with how capitalist and racist systems of exploitation harm both the body and the mind, particularly for working-class and Black Americans.

She also argued that caring for oneself and one’s community through advocating for adequate

healthcare as well as mental health support and mutual aid was a form of resistance against systems that sought to dehumanize and exploit marginalized populations. To Davis, self-care and the struggle for liberation were inextricably intertwined. +++ These origins of self-care have been obscured in the broader scheme of monetizing comfort. One of capitalism’s greatest achievements is selling consumers solutions for the problems it itself creates, and self-care is no exception. The market size of the “clean beauty” industry is estimated to expand to $22 billion by the end of 2024, and is exemplary of capitalism’s success in encouraging superfluous consumerism under the guise of ‘doing yourself a favor.’

The self-care page on Amazon features over 90,000 products and primarily seeks to justify exorbitant spending by emphasizing that its purpose is protecting the consumer’s well-being.

Simultaneously, capitalism generates a need for selfcare as it functions on burnout, financial instability, anxiety, and the exploitation of labor. By transforming one’s well-being into a commodity that can only be offered by a system that also generates its demand, an infinite cycle of self-perpetuation is initiated.

Offering self-care is also one way that capitalism justifies putting the people it exploits under additional stress, as the self-care industry frames mental well-being as a personal responsibility as opposed to a basic need.

Offering self-care is also one way that capitalism justifies putting the people it exploits under additional stress, as the self-care industry frames mental well-being as a personal responsibility as opposed to a basic need. A great example of this is Google, which offers its employees free lunches, yoga classes, massages, and nap-pods to encourage them to stay in the office for longer. This is a very superficial way of addressing the symptoms of an unhealthy workplace culture while deflecting from its roots: unrealistic expectations and unmanageable work-loads.

Similarly, by offering temporary relief through sheet masks and red-light-therapy massagers produced and promoted by the beauty industry, capitalism seeks to justify the stress inherent in its existence. It frames this stress as an opportunity for personal growth, creating a feedback loop

FEATURES

where stress is both produced and monetized.

Fancy skincare products don’t even really have to work as long as their consumers are under the impression that they’re taking care of themselves by purchasing them. Newspaper columnist Jessica DeFino examines the contradictions of the beauty industry’s marketing techniques: the same brand, for example, might offer “charcoal facial cleansers to get rid of your skin’s natural oils and cold-pressed chia seed serums to replace them,” writes DeFino.

Meanwhile, she continues, “science says your skin doesn’t need most pre-bottled skincare products.”

If we don’t need most skincare at all, then the beauty industry’s insidiousness goes beyond its willingness to market the most superfluous products: it’s eager to capitalize on fears generated by standards it itself produces, offering ‘solutions’ to natural conditions such as aging, skin imperfections, or irritations. Operating on the fears associated with having these conditions, it then disrupts the human skin’s ability to function properly by selling products that both rely on and offset one another; for example, drying it out with a toner and then selling moisturizers that only work if used with that same toner.

Still, all over the country, teenagers and young children have begun swarming Sephoras in pursuit of skincare, including harsh products like retinol serums and chemical peels. Dermatologists warn that this can adversely harm young children’s skin and cause irreversible damage to the epidermal barrier, making them more susceptible to sun damage and skin cancer. However, the joint forces of the beauty industry and the internet continue tightening their grip on young consumers and exploiting their naivete by forcing them to adopt the flawed notion that the purchase of beauty products — and the subsequent enhancement of beauty — makes them more valuable. +++ The beauty industry also constantly reinvents itself to maintain its appeal. In 2023, for example, beauty trends centered around mirroring the appearance of food flourished on #BeautyTok. Now, influencers are being paid thousands of dollars to invent new trends and sell them in highly targeted advertisements every week. And please don’t even worry about getting lost amidst all the trends 2023 and 2024 produced: luckily for you, Dazed Digital has a list of “food-inspired beauty trends, ranked by tastiness.” So how tasty are glazed doughnut nails, blueberry milk nails, strawberry girl make-up, cinnamon cookie butter hair, plum eyes, latte make-up, or cherry cola lips? To the beauty industry, they are all equally tasty! One’s skin will never look like a dewy dumpling or glossy hardened sugar no matter how many products one purchases—it’s skin, afterall. The beauty industry can create an infinite race

towards a finish line that does not exist and demand money along the way. Once it has successfully normalized this terminology, other industries join in and advertise their “cinnamon cookie butter latte shaken espresso pants” (real quote) on Instagram.

In a way, the manifestations of this phenomenon are not surprising; objectification has historically been an inextricable part of describing female beauty and appearance. A woman’s body is often fragmented into parts (lips, eyes, hair), which detaches her from complete personhood and enables a near-surgical examination of her alleged flaws and ways to fix them. In Victorian literature, this fragmentation is especially visible in combination with objectifying comparisons between female beauty and inorganic bodies; women are often described as having skin like marble, hair like silk, or eyes like stars. These kinds of comparisons have survived and continue to shape the narrative framework that food-inspired beauty trends rely on for success.

The beauty industry knows that by targeting women with these trends, they are able to appeal to these standards of femininity and beauty. They exploit the patriarchal idea that a woman must make herself up to appeal to men. By marketing products using terms like “clean” and “natural,” they tap into the patriarchy’s desire for agelessness and almost virginal purity. Companies not only sell a product but sell the promise of an idealized lifestyle. Ironically, the cleanest, most natural skincare routine would be using nothing at all.

Gurl was about to purchase a blueberry milk soothing retinol treatment from Temu at the cost of $3.02 and the slight inconvenience of giving away all her data, but now she’s reconsidering because she read “Moisturizing Illusions” in the Indy. She decides that she should go back to sleep for a few hours and then join her friend for

yoga. Maybe she could grab dinner with her roommate. Perhaps it would be enough to simply take a break, journal, and then do laundry. Maybe she can ask her section editor for an extension on her own article for issue 7. She looks for her phone with an inverted squint — who cares about getting crow’s feet and fine lines, anyway? — and pulls up the messages app. That other paper can probably wait, and her professor won’t mind the LITR 1153A weekly response being a little late. Gurl will be fine, she realizes, even without buying skincare from Temu.

PETER ZETTL B’28 just placed an order for blueberry milk lavender latte eye masks on Temu.

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Movement ( TEXT MARTINA HERMAN DESIGN ANAÏS REISS ILLUSTRATION LUNA TOBAR )

LITERARY

Arquitectura Las paredes de una casa se derrumban ante una mujer desnuda con sus ojos cerrados.

En la espuma que se mece entre mis huesos el reflejo resurge agua concentrada en un desnivel.

La sal del mar: una estela que se expande entre corrientes crea la piedra que permite el tajo, que preserva a la carne bajo el sol.

En un momento de silencio el pasto se entrelaza para amarrarme, sí, es un momento de silencio el que inclina la apertura.

La repetición de un aullido se quiebra, se fractura en ríos que van el movimiento de un árbol crea un tornado:

Paso en falso en el placer legítimo de la equivalencia rasgo los velos de un escenario. dejo (ya no hay más que hacer) que una aguja invisible zurza mi piel a la corteza de lo que no se equivoca. bailo en el centro de un ciclón para protegerme de lo posible, digo sin decir evito mirar al viento a los ojos. pienso en la destrucción más pequeña, en la transubstanciación más simple. el olor del vidrio quemando, el plano material en el que mi ego se deleita en la ilusión; la leve y sutil transposición de un ángulo en el que no me desangro en el que sobrevivo incluso como una cuerda que se rompe.

Suspensión la traición se efectúa rítmicamente y en el límite miro una ciudad desde la altura. le hablo al mundo como si me escuchara, me miro a mí misma en el espejo como si pudiera sorprenderme, b o servarme en un gesto amoroso en el desagüe entre la mentira y la verdad, actúo imito los detalles de ser parte de una conversación en otro idioma, bailo con alguien con nuestras manos unidas por imanes de nube rozándonos sutilmente lo miro a los ojos y encuentro el ritmo en el ritmo la distancia en la distancia como si llegara a una revelación. ligeros, asentados en la periferia, en el mínimo movimiento de las células en la sonrisa agotada de una fascia dormida que muere sin cesar sostengo el nexo, la construcción de una intimidad.

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LITERARY

Architecture the walls of a house crumble to a naked woman standing with her eyes closed. in the iodine that serpents between my bones the reflection reappears water concentrated in unevenness. the salt of the sea: a trail of movement expands in currents creates the limestone that cuts, that keeps the flesh intact under the sun. in a moment of silence, grass’ hands come together to moor me down. yes a moment of silence inclines the opening. the ceremony of a howl becomes fractured in rivers that go the oscillations of a tree create a tornado, the debris, the silk… the epidermis… the ruins of something that is yet to fall

Misstep in the legitimate pleasure of equivalence i tear the veils of a stage. i let (what else is there) a transparent needle mend my skin to the bark of what is never wrong i dance in a hurricane to protect myself from the possible, i say without saying avoid looking at the wind in the eye. i think of the smallest destruction, the simplest transubstantiation. the smell of burning glass, the material plane in which my ego basks in illusion; the slight and subtle transposition of an angle in which i don’t bleed out in which i survive even as a rope that splits.

Suspension betrayal takes place rhythmically and at the limit i look at a city from a height. i speak to the world as though it listened look at the mirror hoping to catch myself off-guard,

observe myself in a gesture of love

in the gutter between lies and truth i pretend to be part of a conversation in another language, i dance with someone with our hands held together by magnets of cloud. subtly brushing against each other i look into their eyes and i find the rhythm in rhythm the distance in distance as if i was reaching a revelation. lightly, settled in the periphery, in the minimal movement of the cells in the exhausted smile of a sleeping fascia that endlessly dies i sustain

MARTINA HERMAN B’26 is taking a breath…*suspira*

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METABOLICS

“Chummus” and the consumption of the Palestinian-oriental subaltern A tahini tale ( TEXT HISHAM AWARTANI DESIGN ANDREW LIU ILLUSTRATION ELLIE LIN )

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In the early 2000s, the Israeli hummus brand Tzabar produced a series of locally aired advertise-ments celebrating all things hummus and highlight-ing the authenticity of their product. These ads starred the late Egyptian-born actor Jacques Cohen, famed for his portrayal of Arab restaurateur Abu Rami in the 80’s sitcom HaMis’adah HaGdolah (Heb: The Big Restaurant). In one clip, Cohen approaches the creators of the viral himnon hachummus (Heb: hummus anthem) at a generic chummusiyyah (Heb: hummus store), introducing them to B-list singer Lion Narkis (whose claim to fame is a 2003 Eurovision appearance). The scene descends into an ecstatic bacchanalia reveling in the joys of hummus: assorted celebrants dancing à la Arabe while balancing olive oil and plates of hummus on their heads, all to the chorus of the himnon which starts with the Arabic exclamation ya salam (roughly “how wonderful”). Cohen then states that “every wipe of hummus will be a hafl ” (Ar: party), and affirms the aut nticity of the hummus by its association with the chummusiyot of Abu Marwan and Abu Maher––conspicuously Arab names (Abu means “father of”). In another clip, Cohen returns to his role of Abu Rami, where he welcomes the well-known Israeli chef Raphi Cohen (no relation) to his kitchen, much to the bafflement of his Arab staff. Raphi then instructs the cooks on the preparation of “artisanal” hummus, with the head chef Hakim remarking to Abu Rami in Arabic that “we taught them how to beg, and now they’re beating us to the doors.”

When it comes to hummus, authenticity is synonymous with Arabness; in an Israeli context, “Arabness” is a euphemism for “Palestinian.” In the words of Shuki Galili, an Israeli food journalist and founder of the blog Hummus for the Masses, “Hummus is best when it is fresh and made by Arabs.”

At the same time, hummus is often considered quintessentially Israeli. The largest Israeli hummus brand (the aforementioned Tzabar), and the American-based but Israeli-owned Sabra are both named after the Hebrew word for the prickly pear cactus.

The fruit also denotes an Israeli-born Jew based on the Israeli self-characterization as a nation “prickly on the outside and sweet on the inside.” How then can the authenticity of a definitional part of sraeli culture be marked by its proximity to ”Arabness” (read: Palestinian-ness)?

Prior to the Nakba (the mass expulsion of more than 750,000 Palestinians by Zionist militias leading up to and immediately following the establishment of Israel), hummus was largely regarded as the food of the native – the Other – consumed on rare occasions

by the Jewish immigrants in Palestine. In the years following, with a Jewish majority believed to be ‘secure,’ harsh austerity measures led to increased Jewish patronage of Palestinian grocers and restaurants in Israel. Two key factors secured hummus’ role on the Israeli dining table: first, hummus can easily be industrially mass-produced, as opposed to other Palestinian staple dishes such as falafel or labaneh.

Second, it is pareve (Yid: neutral), meaning it can be consumed both with dairy and meat. Thus, hummus quickly became a national dish, widely consumed across all strata of society. It was a perfect symbol for this new Israeli identity: a food that was a clear break from diasporic tradition, simple, practical, and above all, deeply rooted in that holy land of eretz yisrael. This essential indigeneity of hummus contains its essential paradox: it signifies tradition and authenticity only through its proximity to the Palestinian, who, in Zionist mythology, is simultaneously the savage native and the rootless interloper.

The Israeli solution to squaring this Palestinian circle would be to appropriate the Oriental within.

This would be made possible by the arrival of a large number of Jewish immigrants and refugees from Middle Eastern countries. These mizrachim (Heb: Eastern/Oriental Jews) were marginalized upon arrival and placed in less-developed border towns with limited access to employment. One avenue of social mobility for this group was the opening of “oriental restaurants” (mis’adot mizrachiyot), which would often serve hummus, falafel, kebab, and other “oriental” foods. Rather than reflec ing the Iraqi, North African, or Yemeni origins of most mizrachim, this category of “oriental” foods subsumed Palestinian cuisine into a more palatable Jewish mizrachi one. In fact, within the Arab world, hummus is considered a quintessentially Levantine dish, and thus outside that region is off red only at Syrian or Lebanese-style restaurants. Nonetheless, the figu e of the mizrachi off red the ideal semiotic source which justified the consumption of such foods as a properly Israeli activity: one rooted in millennia of biblical tradition and removed from the problematic figu e of the Palestinian.

Indeed, much of the marketing for hummus featured such mizrachi figu es as markers of authenticity and quality. A 1977 Osem advertisement features what appears to be a Yemenite man—darkskinned, bearded, with Yemenite sidelocks—who is so enthusiastic about their instant hummus that he is sporting a veritable ear-to-ear grin (fi . 1). Another from 1978 states that using Osem instant hummus powder is like “opening an oriental kitchen in your

There is no relation between the two. Tzabar and Sabra are respectively owned by competitors Osem and Strauss

The fluffy “Israeli-style” pita characteristic of such restaurants is a uniquely Palestinian style of bread.

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house,” the image featuring a comically orientalized man (Aladdin-esque) watching over an Ashkenazi family gleefully consuming hummus. Ironically, the de-Palestinianization of hummus closely mirrors the de-Arabization of the mizrachi: just as hummus cannot be both a symbol of Israeli culture as well as a Palestinian dish, the mizrachi cannot hold onto his rich Arab past, language, and identity while also assimilating into Jewish Israeli society. And yet, even in these stripped versions of both the Palestinian and the mizrachi, traces of the suppressed Arab Other can never be entirely erased. The Palestinian refusal to fulfill the first Israeli prime minister David Ben-Gurion’s prediction that “the old will die and the young will forget” is thus a constant source of anxiety for the Zionist project. For Israeli identity to comfortably exist, the Palestinian subaltern must “disappear.” On the other hand, while the mizrachi has today largely been assimilated into wider Israeli society, their more brash and stereotypical representations utilize motifs that paint them as similar to the savage Palestinian/Arab Other.

This can be seen in the modern mizrachi mediation—with Jacques Cohen serving as an example.

Fluent in both Hebrew and Arabic, he is able to

METABOLICS

The eagle-eyed among you will have noticed the italicization and alternative spelling of hummus in this sentence. This highlights the linguistic realm of differentiation when it comes to hummus, the most salient and jarring for Arabic speakers. The initial letter of the word in Arabic is pronounced as a voiceless pharyngeal fricative (the sound one would make upon taking the first sip of a refreshingly cold beverage on a scorchingly hot day), whereas the ch in Hebrew chummus is a voiceless uvular fricative (much like the “ch” in Scottish loch, or alternatively the sound of an old man snoring) and reflects the inability of early Ashkenazi colonists to realize the Sephardic-based intended pronunciation of Modern Hebrew (which would have been closer to Arabic).

portray both the Arab and the mizrachi (but never both simultaneously: he is either Jacques Cohen or Abu Rami). Crucially, he serves as an intermediary between the Arab makers of “authentic” hummus and the Israeli consumer public. For this mizrachi, it is precisely this latent Arabness, his suppressed resemblance to the Palestinian Other, which allows him to be an authority on hummus (regardless of any actual historical fact of its consumption).

Because the mizrachi is viewed as having come from the mystical Orient—a cultural monolith charac-terized primarily by its food and “eternal antisemi-tism”—he is an authority on all things “oriental.”

Here lies the “essential paradox of Israeli hummus.” It should raise some eyebrows when the most essential culinary product of Israel, one which represents the very soul of the nation itself and its ambassador on the international stage of gastronomic relations, is at its most authentic when produced by the Palestinian Other. What is at play here is no less than the consumption of the Palestinian for the creation of the Israeli. A core principle in the formation of Israeli identity was that of shlilat hagolah (Heb: negation of exile), through which the Jewish people

Abu Hisham’s very own hummus recipe: Ingredients: A bag of dry chickpeas 1/3 cup lemon juice 2 cloves of garlic minced 1 tbsp salt 2 cups crushed ice 1 tbsp cumin 1 1/4 cups tahini 1/2 tsp baking soda

would free themselves of the shackles of diaspora, shedding the remnants of their previous cultural traditions to become “Israeli.” Culture cannot simply be created in a laboratory, much less a gastronomic culture, which is constantly practiced and repeated around the dining table multiple times a day across generations. The Palestinian cuisine of the pre-colonial populations was thus an essential source in this construction of an “Israeli kitchen.” Foods such as hummus, shawarma, and falafel became symbols of Israeli identity, alongside the unsubtly named Israeli salad, Israeli pita, and Jerusalem bagel (a wonderful bread whose only similarity to a bagel is having a hole). Yet even though these foods have been incorporated into the Israeli mythos, their authenticity continues to be marked by their proximity to the Palestinian. This mythic Palestinian figu e represents a rootedness in the land, connection to native wisdoms and traditions, and Oriental authenticity.

At the same time, the Palestinian is also an existential threat to the project of a Jewish state.

The reduction first of the Palestinian nature of these foods, and then of the Palestinian himself to this cuisine, neutralizes this latent threat. The Palestinian owner of a chummusiyyah, invariably named Abu Fulan (Ar. equivalent of John Doe) is of no threat to Israel. After all, he is engaging in the patriotic act of making chummus , the national dish of Israel!

In this way, the Palestinian becomes yet another ingredient of hummus, alongside the chickpeas, tahini, garlic, lemon, cumin, and ice, a ready-to-consume morsel for the affirmatio of Israeli identity.

This consumption-as-affirmation has ave consequences in light of the ongoing genocide in Gaza and the Israeli invasion of Lebanon. In January of this year, The Jerusalem Post ran an article titled “Meet the IDF reservist in Gaza making hummus from IDF rations,” lauding the soldier for “[m]aking hot, delicious hummus in the heart of Gaza.” The article also utilizes a supposed quote from Napoleon, opening with the statement that an “army marches on its stomach.” Here the appropriation of hummus as an Israeli symbol has reached its final stage: symbolic and actual nourishment for the Israeli state in their effort o eradicate the people from whom hummus was sourced in the first place. n the other hand, hummus plays a vital role for the bombarded population of Gaza, 95% of whom are facing food insecurity. In April, Reuters ran an article about Basma Al-Shawish, a 20-year-old Gazan who is making and selling hummus as a means to support her family.

Additionally, social media are abound with videos of Palestinians in the strip preparing hummus “Gaza style”; that is, with the limited selection of ingredients caused by Israel’s obstruction of humanitarian aid from entering. Among these supplies are chickpeas, a staple in the Gazan diet more generally and one of the key ingredients of hummus. In the midst of a genocide, hummus is playing a role in the continued survival of the Palestinian people and their refusal to be erased. Just as the Palestinian was never truly exorcized from hummus, hummus continues to be a strand in the tapestry of Palestinian resilience and survival.

Hummus was the cornerstone in a previous conflict: the sraeli-Lebanese Hummus wars. In October 2009, Lebanese chefs prepared a new world record plate of hummus weighing in at over two thousand kilograms (the previous record having been held by a series of Israeli companies).

In response, an Israeli dish of over four thousand kilograms was prepared in January 2010. Finally, the issue was settled with a Lebanese dish weighing 10,452 kilograms (approx. 1 Apache helicopter), representing Lebanon’s land area of 10,452 square kilometers (approx. half a New Jersey). An often-overlooked detail is that the Israeli dish was prepared in the Palestinian town of Abu Ghosh by Jawdat Ibrahim, an Arab citizen of Israel. In fact, the event seems to have primarily been a marketing campaign for Israeli hummus manufacturer Miki Delicatessen (in which Ibrahim was a partner) and Abu Ghosh restaurant (owned by Ibrahim), whose corporate branding was far more prominent than the meager symbols of Israeli nationalism (limited to a few Israeli flags elcutantly allowed on lampposts and a few white and blue balloons). This is in contrast to the Lebanese celebration of the record-breaking dish, which was saturated with Lebanese national iconography: cedars, flags, and a p rformance of the national anthem. Putting aside Ibrahim’s intentionality vis-à-vis patriotism, it is significant that ven in the context of a nationalistic hummus pissing contest that this most Israeli of all dishes could only have been prepared by an Arab chef.

HISHAM AWARTANI B’25 actually prefers labaneh.

Start by soaking the chickpeas overnight. The next day, bring them to a boil with 1/2 tsp baking soda and cook until the chickpeas can easily be mushed between the fingers. Rise thoroughly to remove baking soda (many here remove the peels of the chickpeas but according to Ali "what kind of donkey throws away perfectly good fiber"). Chill the chickpeas until cold, then add 4 cups into a food processor adding the tahini and ice periodically. Add the spices, lemon, and garlic, and adjust per taste. Serve with fresh olive oil and garnish with leftover chickpeas, paprika, and parsley.

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SIBYL

Primal Urge To Fetal Position, Cyanotypes on cotton sheets, pillow stuffing, embroidery floss SELIM KUTLU B/R’29

14

THE COLLEGE HILL INDEPENDENT

WORLD

A Tale of Two Syrias The legacy of Assad’s sectarianism Syria is back in global headlines, now beyond the usual narratives of civil war and displacement. Recent news suggests that the Syrian Civil War, which began in 2011, may be concluding with President Bashar al-Assad emerging as the “last man standing.” When the Arab Spring began in 2011, Bashar al-Assad brutally cracked down on dissenting Syrians, leading to a civil war where the Syrian military—loyal to Assad—committed atrocities and displaced millions of Syrians. In response to Assad’s war against his own people, the Arab League suspended Syria’s membership in 2012, isolating the country politically. Now, more than a decade later, Assad had reclaimed much of the territory lost to rebel forces with help from his Iranian and Russian allies, trapping rebel groups in besieged and disparate pockets of land along the Turkish border. As the war comes to a close and the Arab world is embroiled in new conflicts, Assad refuses to yield. He managed to circumnavigate sanctions through the illicit trade of captagon and got various countries to recognize his regime through promises of repatriating the Syrian refugees he forced out. Arab states were faced with a difficul choice: continue supporting a mostly unsuccessful revolution, or reconcile with the Assad regime in exchange for the possibility of addressing the ongoing humanitarian crisis.

In May 2023, after extensive debate, Syria was readmitted into the Arab League. Although Arab leaders are skeptical about resuming normal relations with a leader they once considered a puppet of their Iranian adversary, the ongoing strife in Lebanon and Palestine has overshadowed their qualms with Assad, as Damascus now bears the responsibility of Lebanese refugees. However, as Syria gradually emerges from its conflic -induced isolation, many of its domestic issues resurface as well, among them the ethnic and religious divides known as sectarianism or ta’ifiya Sectarianism has long been wielded by the Assad family as a political tool, dividing the Syrian populace to consolidate power while weakening communities once united in a common identity.

This political manipulation of religious divisions did not begin with Bashar al-Assad, stretching back to the French Mandate’s partition of the country along ethnic and religious lines following the First World War, which created six states each with a diff rent ethnic and religious administration. This divide was seemingly resolved in a 1970 coup where Bashar’s father, Hafez al-Assad, used the ongoing state of emergency as an opportunity to seize political power, initiating what is now known as the ‘Corrective Movement.’ The regime repurposed the doctrine of ba’athism to justify their rule, an Arab nationalist ideology that advocates for the establishment and advancement of a unified Arab state led by a vanguard party with a socialist agenda.

However, sectarianism quickly became a crucial tool in maintaining control and stifling dissent under the new regime. The Indy interviewed Ahmad B’27 last fall on his experiences with sectarianism while growing up in Syria. Ahmad is from an Alawite background, a minority sect from which the ruling Assad family hails. He notes that “the Assads turned Ba’athism into a means to maintain power under the guise of Arab unity. In reality, it became a regime of fear and paranoia.” This ideology evolved into Assadism, a cult of personality that aimed to keep the Assad family in power above all else by seeding divisions among other groups. Under Hafez, the armed forces and bureaucracy of the Syrian government were purged and replaced with loyal Alawites, stoking divisions between diff rent communities within Syria’s population. Sectarianism became a strategic tool, not only to maintain domestic control but also to influ nce Syria’s external relationships.

Hafez al-Assad’s regime would later intervene in Lebanon’s civil war, supporting the Maronite-led government against Palestinian factions and funding Shia Muslim opposition parties depending on

which groups served their interests best at the time.

As the Syrian Civil War dragged on, sectarianism became a pivotal tool in perpetuating conflict, primarily through the Assad regime’s exploitation of rising fundamentalist groups like ISIS in order to create fear and paranoia. Assad’s ability to consolidate power over most of the country came at an enormous cost. The Syrian army, once heterogeneous, became dominated by Alawites and Shiite militias, many recruited or funded by Iran. These forces were disproportionately sent to the frontlines with devastating consequences; by 2015, an estimated one-third of young Alawite men conscripted to the army had died in the conflict, despite being of the same sect as the ruling class. Ahmad comments on this dissonance between Assad’s claims of religious value and its clear disregard to human life, stating that “the regime used us as pawns.”

As global attention now shifts to the unfolding crises in Gaza and Lebanon, Syrians emerge from a decade of mass violence to reflect on the sectarian divides that exacerbated their suff ring. In post-war Syria, communities attempt to foster a collective consciousness shaped by shared trauma rather than division. Ahmad gave a personal perspective on the Assad regime’s coercive use of sectarianism, having witnessed the Syrian Revolution firsthand.

“I was seven or eight when it started. I wouldn’t say I was a part of the revolution, but I witnessed it.” Ahmad adds, “The revolution wasn’t sectarian at its core, but the regime made it that way to distract people from fighting them. It turned communities against one another.” For Ahmad, this was a tactic of survival for Assad. “If people are busy fighting each other, they don’t have the time or the means to challenge the regime.”

According to Ahmad, this manipulation of religious identity didn’t necessarily benefit Alawites, despite the regime’s ties to the sect. “My family lives in Mezzeh, a predominantly Alawite neighborhood in Damascus, and we only get electricity for a few hours each day,” he explains, pointing to the regime’s selective loyalty. “Wealthy Sunni neighborhoods that support the regime have full access to electricity and other resources.”

Ahmad story also highlights broader patterns of inequality under Assad, where loyalty to the regime, not religious identity, dictated privilege.

Regardless of their faith, those who serve to benefit the Assad family the most are granted wealth and security, while those who come from the communities Assad claims to protect become nothing more

( TEXT ABOUD ASHHAB DESIGN ANAÏS REISS ILLUSTRATION WALEED MUSTAFA )

than expendable fodder. The Assad regime’s selective repression extended to other communities, such as the Druze in al-Suwayda. As he recounts, “al-Suwayda has seen kidnappings by government-backed thugs who target those critical of Assad.” Though historically neutral, the Druze of al-Suwayda have become increasingly vocal against Assad, adding to the complexity of the sectarian fabric. When asked about his experiences as an Alawite navi-gating the regime’s pressures, Ahmad reflects on the subtle but pervasive coercion. “I didn’t feel overt pressure to conform, but there was always a sense from my family to stay silent or neutral.”

Looking forward, Ahmad expresses frustration at the international community’s normalization of Assad’s rule. “It angers me to see Assad and his wife welcomed abroad like celebrities while Syrians are still starving. The deals with China, the Arab League—they would be acceptable if they genuinely improved life for the people, but they don’t.” The attention generated by headlines covering the Assads’ visits to Beijing and Riyadh takes away from underlying issues back home of a country with irreparable fissu es between its people and their government.

For many Syrians, like Ahmad and his family, the struggle is no longer about politics or ideology.

“People now just want to survive,” he says. “My parents told me recently that they get two consecutive hours of electricity, and that was seen as a huge improvement. That’s how low the bar is.” For many like Ahmad living in post-war Syria, the hope is not for political change but for basic stability. “We never had the luxury to focus on politics or thowra revolution,” Ahmad concludes. “Now, we just want to live.”

The people of Syria continue to build community in the face of Assad’s destructive and divisive rhetoric. In recent weeks, Syrians have opened up their homes, stores, and restaurants to Lebanese and Palestinians fleeing from Israeli bombardment regardless of their sect or allegiance. Many Syrians have taken to social media to advertise their homes and welcome their Lebanese neighbors as “brothers” regardless of the previous animosity between the two countries. Lebanese and Syrian communities are now standing in solidarity with one another, despite years of Syrian occupation in Lebanon and an entrenched xenophobia of Syrians within Lebanese communities.

Assad’s sectarianism and the bloody war it pursued have created an ever-stronger Syrian identity, one rooted in collective reconciliation and repair.

ABOUD ASHHAB B’25 now has more free time to write since Brown cracked down on divestment organizing

VOLUME 49 ISSUE 06

15

SCIENCE + TECH

Nowhere a Threat, Everywhere a Listener Q-Day, information paranoia, and a mathematician’s crack at poetry

( TEXT DANIEL KYTE-ZABLE

On April 10, 2024, the cryptographic world held its breath. Yilei Chen, an assistant professor at Tsinghua University’s Information Science Institute, uploaded a paper entitled “Quantum Algorithms for Lattice Problems” to the Cryptology Archive, a database of preprints. Chen claimed to have devel-oped a class of algorithms for quantum computers that quickly resolved a set of mathematical problems widely thought to be unsolvable, known as lattice problems. The implications would be catastrophic. Whereas traditional cryptographic methods can be easily cracked by a quantum computer, lattice problems are thought to be universally robust.

Cryptographers, aided by a slew of federal agencies, have devoted the past two decades to discovering and implementing the optimal lattice cryptosystem. Chen’s discovery meant that years of research and careful planning would be nullified.

Any hope of secure online communication, digital banking, ATM transactions, weapons systems— (and even Vatican secrets! Poor Francis!)—would ooze down the drain.

On April 19, 2024, an update was made to the preprint. Someone found a bug. +++ In 1998, Peter Shor waits backstage to speak at the International Congress of Mathematicians. He is due to receive the Rolf Nevanlinna Prize, for which he will be the fourth recipient in the award’s history. Four years prior, while working at Bell Labs, he developed the first quantum algorithm for factoring large numbers—an unfeasible task on classical computers—thereby rendering many cryptosystems unsafe. A round of applause goes by. He walks on stage. Awaiting him is Volker Strassen, famed mathematician and professor.

Strassen and Shor clasp hands. Strassen unfurls a piece of paper bearing a limerick Shor and his wife, Jennifer, wrote a few years prior. He begins, aloud: “If computers that you build are quantum, Then spies of all factions will want ‘em…” +++ Cryptographers keep cluttered personal websites.

Chen is no exception. Lists of his prior publications and lecture notes on lattices and number theory are sandwiched between a list of favorite movies (“Amadeus,” “Dead poets society,” “La Dolce Vita (fall asleep for 30 mins)”). Nestled between a catalog of favorite restaurants (“Boston: Shangri-La,” “Shanghai: Everywhere, anything”) and a page mocking USNWR college rankings lies a screenshot of cryptographer Joe Killian’s paper “Founding Cryptography on Oblivious Transfer.” Its opening line has since become famous: “Cryptographers seldom sleep well.”

How could they? Their careers hinge on the theoretical successes and failures of complex mathematical theory, on bets hedged for and against advances in computing efficiency. One can hardly fathom how Chen felt in those nine days. Prideful, as a necessary pioneer in his field? Terrified at the profound consequences of his discovery? Or secretly thrilled, in a more savage vein? Regardless, the week following the 19th must have inched by painfully.

For the rest of the cryptographic world: optimism restored, premises reestablished. A return to the dire, necessary work that fills the daily lives of these sleepless academics: ensuring that quantum-safe cryptosystems are robust against any and all threats.

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THE COLLEGE HILL INDEPENDENT

Traditional cryptographic security protocols, used to encrypt everything from classified government communications to online banking, rest on computationally difficult math problems.

Cracking the RSA protocol, which is used to secure your emails, requires breaking up huge numbers into their factors1. For a classical computer, which includes anything from the supercomputer used to train ChatGPT to your MacBook Pro, this task would require trillions of years to accomplish.

Even if you clicked “run script” at the beginning of time, you would be twiddling your thumbs till kingdom come.

Fortunately for you, bored to tears as the universe experiences heat death, quantum computers have a leg up on their classical counterparts.

Rather than using ordinary bits—the 0’s and 1’s that constitute everything digital—quantum comput-ers use ‘qubits,’ which exist simultaneously as a combination of 0’s and 1’s. For a number of technical reasons stemming from qubits’ structure, quantum computers vastly outperform classical computers in terms of effic ncy. If run on a sophisticated enough quantum computer, Peter Shor’s algorithm for factor-ing numbers could crack RSA in a matter of seconds.

RSA and similarly vulnerable cryptosystems underpin virtually all of our everyday online activities: secure communication, authentication, cryptocurrency, e-commerce, monetary transfer, credential verification—the list goes on. In the wrong hands, a quantum computer that could run Shor’s algorithm would render all online activity insecure. For you, this implies the theft of your identity, personal information, and bank details; for governments, this implies an end to covert military operations, espionage, and secure diplomacy.

Quantum computing, as it turns out, is hard.

Implementing some systems required for making a computer practical, while straightforward for classical computers, is difficult for quantum computers––even impossible, according to some experts.

Corporations like IBM and Google are free to engineer and boast about bigger and bigger quantum comput-ers; nonetheless, the field remains in its infancy. For instance, error-correction, used to prevent messages from degenerating and CD scratches from ruining recordings, is convoluted for quantum computers. Q-Day—the mass-media-given name for this quan-tum Y2K—could very well lie far into the horizon.

Cryptosystems based on lattices are thought to be ‘quantum-safe.’ For the foreseeable future, their computational complexity exceeds the strength of quantum computers. This is hardly a free lunch, however. Getting governments, corporations, and individuals to uproot their cryptographic systems is a tall order. Past transitions between encryption protocols took decades to complete. Expecting that all parties could switch at a moment’s notice to lattice-based cryptosystems in the weeks following Q-Day is nonsensical. Logistics may doom us yet. +++ The catastrophe forewarned by Q-Day is slippery, intangible. The future impacts of climate change are visible decades out; the tools to combat it, though inaccessible to the global majority, are comprehensible. Our collective depictions of We present some for the reader as an exercise: (1) 88,082,649,547,634,539,735,932,714,787,06 9,852,964,949,779 (2) 130,099,759,895,077,839,079,826,688,437, 846,459,980,701,499,723 (3) 23,124,291,054,074,716,560,020,184,503,8 32,980,341,708,801

DESIGN SEOYEON KWEON ILLUSTRATION YAN JIANG ) nuclear war feature broiling political tensions and a cascade of escalating events as a necessary prelude. These are known, foreseeable calamities.

Q-Day is different. Research into lattice-based algorithms and cryptographic attacks is specialized to a finite, academic class, and ever-guarded by the military and other covert institutions. Further, should a party develop a working quantum computer, it is in their best interest to keep their discovery hushhush to maintain a competitive advantage. Will the revelation be visible months out? Years out? Will it even transpire? Jay Servidea, the head of the NSA’s mathematical research team, speak-ing at Brown’s own undergraduate mathematics conference last spring, quipped that “Q-Day has been five years away for the past few decades.”

As our dependence on digital communication grows, so does the seeming incomprehensibility of its undergirding system. The public’s understand-ing of cryptography is either rudimentary or dated at best; it is filled with relics of the 20th-century, like cipher codes and the enigma machine. We are largely ill-equipped to understand the heavy mathematical machinery that carries our digital livelihoods—machinery that often has surprising connections to famously difficult problems, like the Riemann hypothesis or Fermat’s Last Theorem.

The fact that catastrophe could simultaneously be imminent and entirely impossible presents a strange case. Q-Day is unknowable, even after it occurs; the best time to be prepared was twenty years ago, or today, or never at all. The threat is abstracted, shifting, multi-form. Compared with more familiar calamities, it is imbued with a fickle brand of anxiety: that a hidden threat, operating in a remote corner, is acting undetected to disrupt the vast (digital) world. It is an anxiety that can only establish itself from a threat that is so nebulous and so incomprehensible as to escape the public’s understanding.

This particular anxiety, which I refer to as information paranoia, has riddled any and all talk of QDay. The scope of Q-Day far eclipses any indi-vidual breach, like a bank getting hacked, or your SSN getting stolen. The foreseeable effects are not contained to some finite division of the Internet.

Information paranoia is a dread over total collapse— that mass digital insecurity will render all activity unfeasible. It is a dread over an untraceable fragility within the digital world. It is a dread that our online equivalents, whom we are inextricably bound to, will spill out like runny yolk on the pavement.

Three years ago, in the midst of the search to select an optimal lattice-based cryptosystem, the National Institute of Standards and Technology published a ten-page document advising other federal agencies on transitioning to quantum-safe systems.

The document is permeated with information paranoia, which is thinly veiled behind the consultant authors’ corporate lingo. Organizations lack “complete control” over their security and “agility” in switching between systems. All cryptographic keys “will be subject to exposure.” “Once Shor’s algorithm becomes practical,” the authors conclude, “nothing can be done to protect the confidentiality of encrypted material.”

In an interview with the MIT Technology Review last year, Shor was asked what present researchers should do to better implement latticebased systems. “You probably should have started years ago,” he said. +++ Shor waits patiently behind the podium. Strassen continues: “…Our codes will fail, And they’ll read our email…”

SCIENCE + TECH

+++ Information paranoia is by no means old or unprecedented––contemporary dread of mass espionage finds its origins in the Cold War. In 1950, Boris Hagelin, a mechanic-by-trade and owner of a cipher manufacturer, was approached by William Friedman, the chief cryptologist at the NSA. Friedman’s prop-osition was simple: the CIA would pay the Hagelins to move from Switzerland to the United States and secure a visa for Boris’ Turkish son-in-law. In exchange, the CIA would determine which parties Crypto AG, Hagelin’s company, could sell to. Guided by the CIA, Crypto AG expanded its markets to previously inaccessible nations, like Indonesia and Egypt. By 1957, the Hagelins’ American honeymoon ended. Boris’ son, Bo Hagelin, the supposed heir of Crypto AG, was homesick and at odds with Boris, who had since lost his standing with the agency. In an act of desperation coerced by then-director Allen Dulles, he secretly sold the company to the CIA. The organization’s initial goal of controlling the sale of ciphers gave way to sinister ambition. In 1960, the NSA discovered a way to secretly incor-porate a backdoor in Crypto AG’s ciphers, allowing the CIA to read encrypted messages. The growing popularity of the company proved a boon; in the late 1970s, Crypto AG became the preferred cipher supplier for roughly 80% of the world. The compa-ny’s popularity with Non-Aligned and USSR-aligned nations gave them near-universal leverage in all diplomatic encounters.

By intercepting messages passed through corrupted ciphers, the United States gained the upper hand in negotiations at Camp David in 1978, the overthrow of Allende in Chile in 1973, the Iran hostage crisis in 1979, and the ousting of Manuel Noriega in the invasion of Panama in 1989.

Even for the CIA, no good thing can last. Rumors of the existence of intentionally-placed security weaknesses in Crypto AG’s ciphers, which began to circulate in the 1980s, fully surfaced in the late 1990s, thanks largely to the Baltimore Sun and Der Spiegel. After going through cycles of rebranding and relicensing under various shell companies, Crypto AG has since been liquidated, having laid off the lion’s share of its workers in the late 2010s.

Still, the perversion of the CIA’s mass-surveillance program figures deeply into its public perception. Operation Rubicon—the agency’s systematic use of Crypto AG’s ciphers to intercept messages from geopolitical allies and foes alike—paints the organization as a nebulous, paranoia-inducing agent, capable of triggering Q-Day. For the nations

targeted by Operation Rubicon, threats against secure communication stemmed not from bad actors within the system, but from the system’s very designers. The manufacture of ciphers, their advertisement, and the ownership of Crypto AG was carefully manipulated by the CIA, NSA, and West Germany foreign intelligence service (BND). The company’s head mathematician—codenamed ATHENA—was tasked with simultaneously presenting the ciphers as secure to customers and painting the company as well-intentioned to all but the most high-rank-ing employees. Pulling the wool over the eyes of Crypto AG’s engineers was critical to maintaining this outward-facing facade.

Proposed fixes for the ciphers’ ‘accidental’ security flaws were dismissed by the higher-ups as unnecessary, frivolous changes.

The reconstruction of this history finds hints of misdoing in each crevice. Everywhere lie traces of foul play: Crypto AG engineers being forced into early retirement, CIA officials committing suicide or abruptly resigning upon leadership changes in the company, BND visits to the houses of owners of competing German cipher companies, and said companies being liquidated or absorbed into Crypto AG. Much of the case remains out of sight––only a fraction of the CIA-intercepted communications have been declassified.

This paranoia of an unseen actor pulling at the strings, of a threat from everywhere and nowhere at once, is best seen in a 1996 Der Spiegel exposé of Operation Rubicon. Ernst Polzer, a former employee of Crypto AG, described the shock of discovering a deliberate flaw placed by the CIA in the ciphers he manufactured: a guarantee of protection from espionage conducted by third parties, which, simultaneously, guaranteed access to a nameless fourth party. A fourth that remained out of reach for him and the article’s author. An indiscernible fourth, lying just behind the curtain. +++ “…Till we’ve crypto that’s quantum, and daunt ‘em” A muddle of laughter and applause erupts from the crowd. Before Shor can begin his speech, Strassen waves his hand in the front of the audience. He has yet to read his reply.

Transfer,” Joe Killian articulates a fundamental diff rence between the study of cryptography and other areas of mathematics. The work on two-party protocols, a subclass of cryptosystems, rests on “assumptions” of what is computationally feasible and unfeasible. “Unfortunately,” Killian writes, “reductions to intractability assumptions is the best we can do.” We can never guarantee that a cryptosystem will work forever.

The ciphers used by Julius Caesar to communicate with his generals have long since been rendered redundant. Weaknesses are consistently found in widely-employed modern cryptosystems, necessitating further revision or the use of larger cryptographic keys. The field exists in a constant state of consumption, invention, and obliteration.

Perhaps we have been foolish. Foolish to imagine that cryptosystems were developed in the public’s interest, rather than to preserve military secrecy. Foolish to imagine that, upon beginning to serve us, cryptosystems would always serve us, even in the midst of their growing theoretical complexity. It is only natural to envision shapeless threats lunging out from every distant corner.

In this, there is some solace. Q-Day stands to invert the global landscape in a novel fashion, which, naturally, you’d think we would learn to expect by now; our history is a history of Novel Things happening swiftly in dark, remote places under little-to-no public supervision. We are paranoid because we cling, unjustly, to ways and systems that have never lasted forever. +++ “To read our E-mail, how mean of the spies and their quantum machine; Be comforted though, they do not yet know how to factorize twelve or fifteen.”

DANIEL KYTE-ZABLE B’27 is sleeping soundly tonight.

+++ In Chen’s poorly-cropped screenshot of the introduction to “Founding Cryptography on Oblivious

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EPHEMERA

Backwards FromThe Terrain of Touch:

NAN DICKERSON B’26 is getting in touch.

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THE COLLEGE HILL INDEPENDENT

H S I F D E R H S I F E U BL My explicit introduction to American politics came with the 2016 election, as it did for a multitude of Americans. 2016 was the year I learned what “unprecedented” meant (though it took me a couple of months to learn it did not mean un-presidented). 2016 was also the year that I, in a 30 person group chat, got into my first heated argument of a political nature. Up until then, I had been privy to politic only inasmuch as the world forced it down my throat. But ceaseless microaggressions and my family’s objections to 4th grade Pioneer Day was never as fun as watching Kate McKinnon and Alec Baldwin huddled together in their ill-fitting suits, welcoming me to Saturday night (live from New York, of course).

I’m older now, and I no longer subscribe to the simple Democratic identity I’d formed at age twelve, adamant in my hatred of Brett Kavanaugh and the edge-lords of my class. But sometimes I miss its ease, the faith in a ‘good’ that was inevitable. An American Dream which, come Tuesday, November 8th, 2016, would no longer be deferred. I suppose I am painfully American in that way.

Through my own personal political journey, however, I never once relinquished my appreciation for the absurd humor that defines the American political circus. I, in my ever informed nature, love to contemplate the political and economic state of the world, so let me pose you a question I will immediately answer. Are we really living in unprecedented times?

DEAR INDY ( TEXT KALIE MINOR DESIGN APRIL S. LIM )

INDIE MET GOD, SHE’S BLACK. No. Stormy Daniels. You fool me you can’t get fooled again. The Great Molasses Flood (which wasn’t political, but it happened in Boston so close enough), and the Boston Tea Party (because that was just childish). Have you ever actually sat down and read the transcripts from Clinton and Lewinsky’s Congressional hearings? The mere existence of Watergate. And Pizzagate? As someone who knows what it’s like to stand in Hilary Clinton’s Miu Miu pumps (trust me on this one), I know firsthand that America is one big, neo-colonial joke; too involved in its comic book villain-esque desire for world domination and fear of MSG to notice that its fly is down, and there’s been ranch smeared around its mouth for the past 30 minutes.

God, this place, stuffed with lard and hubris, is all I’ve ever known.

Realistically—tragically, perhaps—I think it’s the only place where I’ll ever feel at home. And that’s my cross to bear. Sometimes I feel like Tilda Swinton in We Need to Talk About Kevin. Sometimes I pass two rest stops, opposite one another on I-95, each consisting of two Dunkin Donuts, a Starbucks, a McDonald’s, and an Arco gas, and I feel a strange sense of pride.

Indie doesn’t get a byline, but you should know that INDIE (B’??) is still dreaming…

Q: Will I ever find beefy love?

Q: Do you miss

John

?

Every single day. And night…

Q: Why are boobs so political?

Probably because AWOOGA, followed by three successive car crashes, a dip in the DowJones, the discovery of a new element to add to the periodic table, and a stubbed toe. And I only flashed one that time.

Q: Why are PENISES so apolitical?

Probably because no one’s ever taken a man in a trench coat seriously. We all know what he’s got going on under there. No one’s impressed.

Q: Dear Indie, I’m not quite sure how to begin this message.

Frankly, I’m not all that great at articulating what exactly plagues me at any given moment. That being said, I can’t shake the feeling that the nation is one big, juicy watermelon, and we can’t stop wrapping rubber bands around it. It then seems inevitable that sooner or later the watermelon is going to explode in all our faces—probably when we’re turned away, writhing in our own success, beginning to forget that there’s even a watermelon under all those rubber bands. Even if it does explode, I’m not convinced that the chunks of watermelon will cause any damage, contained as they are in this rubber band ball of shit. Maybe all that’ll happen is that a little bit of juice will dribble out and make a small sticky patch on the floor. Will that patch be mopped up? Will anyone notice it? I love this watermelon (and I know that’s not cool to say, but it’s true, and I want the best for her), but sometimes I want to move across the world to a place where I can’t see the rubber bands anymore. What’s your take, Indie?

—Sick of Silly Bands

Yes! But only if you follow my very important recipe. K

Ingredients

Directions

Compassion.

(Enough to take your breath away. Enough to make you embarrassed to be that kind. Enough to forgive the unforgivable (although you won’t, but you could)).

2 pounds chuck roast.

I used to get mine from the local butcher but his family fell out of favor. Now it’s sourced from Aldi.

Patience.

Which is not, contrary to popular belief, the practice of waiting. Rather, it is letting time pass with little preoccupation with what has yet to be. This is also a great way to approach the actual creation of Beefy Love.

A scallion, finely chopped An egg.

(To bind the beef, but also to crack. Maybe it’ll be twin yolks! Wouldn’t you be so lucky).

Paprika, lemon pepper, Lawry’s, onion powder, garlic powder, chili powder, cumin (only a little, though).

The spices of life, if you will.

1 Grind your chuck roast until malleable. There may be bits of bone and organs. Worry not, the calcium makes for a strong skeleton, the organs boost executive function. Pro tip: ask for the heart. Beefy Love comes out pretty dry without it.

2 Mix egg, scallion, beef, spices, compassion, and patience together. Pop in the oven at 350℉.

3 Now comes the waiting. If you’ve tried Beefy Love before you may have an idea about how it’ll start to look. Your parents’ version might’ve been a little overcooked. Your ex-partners’ was still too pink inside. And you have one friend that puts raisins in theirs??? But this is your Beefy Love. You’ll know when it’s ready.

4 Remove from the oven. You don’t have to let it cool. Enjoy.

Dear Sick of Silly Bands I wanted to be cute, and coy, and say “I ain’t reading allat. Sorry that happened to you.

Or congratulations.” But I couldn’t, because you pose a wonderful question. It really is just one big rubber band ball of shit, isn’t it? Let me be so honest with you, Sick of Silly Bands. The rubber bands have wrapped up the entire globe. There is nowhere you can go to escape the faint aroma of watermelon in the air, wafting from the slowly cracking rind. Nowhere you won’t be able to hear the snap of rubber on rubber as more bands are added. So then I get to dreaming about a cantaloupe. Unburdened by rubber bands. Succulent. Orange. Whole. Something new, and beautiful.

I’ve known people to navigate the melon in a variety of ways. Some try to put titanium-reinforced rubber bands on the melon, some decorate them with rainbows and glitter. A favorite of mine is when two people are trying to put on the same band, but the other’s is too shiny, or too matte, so we go back and forth. I personally have considered letting the watermelon explode. I’ve fantasized about its fles y red guts spilling everywhere, rubber bands discarded and useless, the exhale that follows release. But what about the people allergic to watermelon? Or those hit by seeds accelerating too fast for safety? What happens to them when it explodes? I’m so sick of collateral.

For the time being, I take off bands, one by one. I’m relieving pressure, and I’m very ineffic nt.

That’s not the point, though. I will take off bands until my hands are calloused and I am so frustrated that I want to smash the watermelon, collateral be damned. And then I will take off another.

But get this. I’m growing this cantaloupe in my garden.

It’s getting big. And it’s getting juicy. Just you wait.

Q: How are we to be collectively unfucked by the horsecock of history?

Awh man. I’m still trying to figu e that one out.

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( TEXT DESIGN

QIAOYING CHEN & GABRIELLE YUAN APRIL S. LIM

)

Upcoming Actions & Community Events

11/01/2024

The Bulletin

Saturday 11/02 @5:30PM-10PM Location: Southside Cultural Center, 393 Broad St, Providence, RI 02907

Día de Los Muertos RI Latino Arts La Catrina Fashion Show and PVDHouse Block Party

Dress up as La Catrina and join in on an informal fashion show to celebrate Día de Los Muertos with RI Latino Arts! Family activities, food, and music will begin at 5:30PM, and an ofrenda will be set up for mementos. Face painting will be off red on site. The procession will begin at 6:15PM, and a celebration will continue afterwards at PVDHouse. Tickets to the block party are $20 in advance and $25 at the door. All proceeds will go to building queer-friendly affo dable housing.

Tuesday 11/05 @5:30PM-6:30PM Location: Mt. Pleasant Library – Community Room

All Levels Yoga

Whether you’re an expert at yoga, or have never tried it before, the All Levels Yoga classes have something to off r everyone! Whether you’re looking to improve your physical or mental health, the certified yoga instructor Danielle Cavallacci can help you connect with relaxing yoga, as well as with other resources. Come enjoy the All Levels Yoga classes at your own pace!

Saturday 11/02 @7:30AM-9:30PM Location: Barker Playhouse - 400 Benefit Street, Providence, RI 02903

Newport Live Presents Amandla Freedom Ensemble Jazz From South Africa

Hosted by Newport Live, The Amandla Freedom Ensemble from South Africa will be performing at the Barker Theater. Led by a South African Trumpeter, come enjoy some good music as Newport Live celebrates their 30th Anniversary of South African Independence with the Amandla Freedom Ensemble.

Wednesday 11/06 @5PM-6PM Location: Rochambeau Library – Community Room, 708 Hope Street, Providence, RI 02906

Percussion Performance by Acclaimed American Percussionist Peter Ferry

Hosted by PPL, American percussionist Peter Ferry, acclaimed for his virtuosic expressivity and dedication to creating arresting musical experiences, is performing. A passionate advocate for new music, Ferry has devoted himself to collaborating with the most exciting composers of our time, such as Meredith Monk, Shawn Okpebholo, and many more. Come enjoy Ferry’s free performance! Registration is required.

Wednesday 11/06 @5PM-6:30PM Location: True North Classroom (101), Stephen Robert ’62 Hall, 280 Brook Street, Providence, RI

What Happens Next?

Unpacking the 2024 Presidential Election

As the 2024 election is growing closer, it will shape up to be one of the most consequential races in recent history. What do the results mean for the future of American politics? Join the Taubman Center for American Politics and Policy for a Post-Election Panel, featuring Brown’s political science scholars.

The panelists will break down election results, explore shifts in voter behavior, and more.

Saturday 11/09 @1PM-5PM Location: Southside Cultural Center, 393 Broad St, Providence, RI 02907

Liberated Circle: Envisioning a New Economy

Come participate in SISTA FIRE RI’s Liberated Circle with fellow families, friends, neighbors, and comrades to explore the question of how collective healing, cooking, making, and plotting is connected to liberation. Focused on the idea of creating a new economy, this space is meant to restore and rejuvenate. Please register at bit.ly/LiberatedCircle24 in @sistafi e’s Instagram bio!

Sunday 11/10 @11AM-3PM Location: Farm Fresh RI, 10 Sims Ave, Providence, RI 02909

Flea at Farm Fresh!

Come enjoy the indoor flea market at Farm Fresh Rhode Island Market Hall! Open through the fall and with special events during the holiday season, local vendors and Farm Fresh tenants are selling vintage clothing, local produce, fresh-baked goods, and more! Flea at Farm Fresh will be happening every Sunday until the end of December. Free to enter; No tickets necessary!

Wednesday 11/13 @5:30PM Location: Zoom

Virtual Worker Rights Training

Join the George Wiley Center (GWC) to learn more about your rights as a worker! If you are curious about or have questions concerning wage theft, immigration status, minimum wage rates, overtime pay, proper compensation, youth employment, family or medical leave, and more, be sure to RSVP to this event at https://tiny.url.com/registertrainingwrk to receive the meeting link!

Reach out to the GWC at 401-728-5555 or organize@georgewileycenter.org with any questions.

20

THE COLLEGE HILL INDEPENDENT

Thursday 11/14 @5:30PM-6:30PM Location: Wanskuck Library – Adult Area, 233 Veazie St, Providence, RI 02904

FOCUS ON PROVIDENCE: THREE LOCAL STORIES

Presented at the Wanskuck Community Library, this is the last of the three events in the Focus on Providence series. This last event will have guest speaker Patricia Raub, who will talk about Early Providence through the art of pictures. Come learn more about the city!

Arts Friday 11/01 @7PM Location: RiffRaff Bookstore and Bar, 60 Valley St, Suite 107A, Providence, RI 02909

Open Mic Night

Every first Friday, Riff aff Bookstore + Bar and LitArts RI partner together to host an open mic night where community members can share creative pieces such as poetry, prose, music, theater, and spoken word. Each person is allotted five minutes, and sign ups begin at 6PM. Swing by this open venue to participate and enjoy each other’s work!

Friday-Saturday 11/01-02 @11AM-2PM Location: The Lindemann Performing Arts Center, Performance Lab

the dead teach me how to die by letting me wildly live: An Emergent Forest Production

Curated by Laura Brown-Lavoie and Kei Soares Cobb, founding artists of Emergent Forest, and Becci Davis, artist and lecturer in the Department of Visual Art, the dead teach me how to die by letting me wildly live helps us remember how we return our bodies to Earth. This two-day gathering features a performance-ritual by Laura Brown-Lavoie and Kei Soares Cobb, a gallery installation curated by Becci Davis, a conversation-circle of green burial practitioners and Earth-workers, and more.

Saturday 11/09 @1PM-3PM Location: Knight Memorial Library – Outside 1

Outdoor Maker Marketplace – Holiday Edition

Hosted by the Community Libraries of Providence, come to the Outdoor Maker Marketplace, Holiday Edition, for a day of shopping, community engagement, and more! This community-focused marketplace will feature local vendors, food trucks, live music, creating the perfect environment to kick off the holiday season! This event is open to the public, so come if you want to support small businesses, find holiday gifts, or simply enjoy a fun afternoon in Providence.

Saturday 11/09 @1PM-3PM Location: Fox Point Library – Main Area, 90 Ives St, Providence, RI 02906

Workshop Sewing Meetup

Happening every Saturday at the Providence Public Library’s Makerspace, come to the library for a sewing meetup. This gathering is designed for individuals with some sewing experience who want to improve and collaborate with others. This is the perfect opportunity to share techniques, work on personal projects, and learn from fellow sewers in a supportive environment. There will be sewing machines at the workshop, but also feel free to bring your own.

Mutual Aid* & Community Fundraisers *Mutual aid is “survival pending revolution,” as described by the Black Panthers. Join in redistributing wealth to create an ecosystem of care in response to institutions that have failed or harmed our communities.

Friday 11/15 @8PM-12AM Location: 249 Main St, Pawtucket, RI 02860

DARE’s Anual Court Debt Fund Fundraiser

Help support DARE’s (Direct Action for Rights & Equality) mission to help reduce the court debt of low-income families by participating in their annual fundraiser! There will be a raffl for a 70-inch Smart TV. Speak with a DARE staff member, message them on their Instagram @darepvd, check out the link https://tinyurl.com/CourtDebtFund for information to purchase a ticket to the event.

RI Coat Exchange

Do you have warm winter gear that you no longer wear or need? Drop them off with RI Coat Exchange! All coats will be distributed to the community the day after Thanksgiving on the State House lawn. For information on where to drop off winter wear, visit ricoatexchange.org. For any questions or to sign up to be a collection site, contact ricoatdrive@gmail.com.

Do you have an event, action, or other information for the Providence community that you’d like to see shared on this page? Email us at indybulletinboard@gmail.com!