the VOLUME 40 ISSUE 3 28 FEBRUARY 2020
03 DETENTION, INCARCERATION Leela Berman The Wyatt and the national prison-industrial complex
06 RACE FOR WARD 1 Peder Schaefer
07 THREE STORIES Nicolaia Rips
The Independent’s guide to Ward 1 City Council elections
Mean things from a brain in a vat
Indy
the
Cover
From The Editors
Teething phase Nina Sinclaire Fletcher
Q: Help. I am sad. Can’t shake the feeling. Work is tough, unrelenting, etc. I know that I cannot live without work. But also I’m frigging tired of working: I want to live.
News
A: Cut past the furniture music. The biggest problem you’re facing right now is that you (and we) keep swimming through cardboard boxes that you (and we) can’t see. Take the polyethylene glycol from your standard 50-caliber eye drop vial and open your eyes.
02
Week in Bureaucracy Ben Bienstock & Alex Valenti
06
Race for Ward 1 Peder Schaefer
11
Keeping an Open Mind Will Allstetter
Q: Alright. Boxes, huh. Are you saying that I should–
Metro
A: Yes! The subjunctive. It’s all about imagining what could be. Already integrated in that one word––the tug of possibility and doubt, pulling at each other like two horses running in the opposite direction, tied together by a jumper cable. Don’t fry your horses, but remember to maintain an unflinching DC current.
03
Detention, Incarceration Leela Berman
Features 05
Cavell’s Horse, Derrida’s Cat, and Other People Irina V. Wang
13
Tuning Out Reality Cecilia Barron
Literary 07
Three Stories Nicolaia Rips
Science+Tech 09
The Leadership Function Izzi Olive
Arts 15
Unmasking Artistry Anabelle Johnston
Ephemera 17
The Ephemera Coloring Page Liana Chaplain and Sindu Sriram
X 18
Excerpts from Soy Pollo, Soy Carne (y Otras Mujeres del Mercado) Miranda Villanueva
MISSION STATEMENT
STAFF
The College Hill Independent is a Providence-based publication written, illustrated, designed, and edited by students from Brown and RISD. We are committed to publishing politically engaged and accessible work. While the Indy is financed by Brown University, we hold ourselves accountable to our readers across the Providence community. The Indy rejects content that explicitly or implicitly perpetuates racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, xenophobia, ableism and/or classism.
WEEK IN REVIEW Emily Rust | NEWS Anchita Dasgupta Peder Schaefer Tristan Harris | METRO Ricardo Gomez Miles Guggenheim Deb Marini | ARTS Zachary Barnes Eve O’Shea Isabelle Rea | FEATURES Audrey Buhain Mia Pattillo Nick Roblee-Strauss | SCIENCE + TECH Bilal Memon Izzi Olive Andy Rickert | LITERARY Catherine Habgood Star Su | EPHEMERA Liana Chaplain Sindura Sriram | X Jacob Alabab-Moser Ethan Murakami | LIST Ella Comberg XingXing Shou Cate Turner | STAFF WRITERS Alana Baer Leela Berman Mara Cavallaro Uwa Ede-Osifo Eduardo Gutiérrez Peña Evie Hidysmith Kaela Hines Muram Ibrahim Anabelle Johnston Jennifer Katz Emma Kofman Evan Lincoln Zach Ngin Jorge Palacios Nell Salzman Issra Said Kion You | COPY EDITORS Josephine Bleakley Muskaan Garg Sarah Goldman Marina Hunt Though this list is not exhaustive, the Indy strives to address Christine Huynh Seth Israel Thomas Patti Ella Spungen | DESIGN EDITORS Daniel Navratil these systems of oppression by centering the voices, opinions, Ella Rosenblatt | DESIGNERS Anna Brinkhuis Amos Jackson Kathryn Li Katherine Sang | and efforts of marginalized people in Providence and beyond. ILLUSTRATORS Sylvia Atwood Leslie Benavides Natasha Brennan Bella Carlos Ryn Kang Eliza Macneal Sophia Meng Sandra Moore Pia Mileaf-Patel Claire Schlaikjer Floria Tsui Veronica The Indy is constantly evolving: we are always working to Tucker Katrina Wardhanna | BUSINESS Caín Yepez Abby Yuan | WEB Ashley Kim | SOCIAL make our staff and content more inclusive. Though our editing MEDIA Muskaan Garg | SENIOR EDITORS Ben Bienstock Ella Comberg Olivia Kan-Sperling process provides an internal structure for accountability, we Chris Packs Tara Sharma Tiara Sharma Cate Turner Wen Zhuang | MANAGING EDITORS Matt always welcome letters to the editor. Ishimaru Sara Van Horn Alex Westfall | MVP Daniel Navratil
28 FEBRUARY 2020
VOL 40 ISSUE 03
@THEINDY_TWEETS
WWW.THEINDY.ORG
week
ANTIQUES RHODE SHOW
in
bureaucracy
BY Alex Valenti & Ben Bienstock ILLUSTRATION Gemma Brand-Wolf DESIGN Amos Jackson
From lawmakers’ struggles to understand Facebook Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system, software the George Wiley Center. As for Steinhauer, while we during Mark Zuckerberg’s congressional hearings that would modernize state HR, payroll, finance func- would have preferred he keep his filth off the roads, he’s to Rudy Giuliani’s horizontally inserted AirPods, we tions, and other tasks. The proposed project comes such a bastid he probably wouldn’t care what we think. often hear stories of older politicians fumbling with on the heels of the state’s disastrous 2016 launch of Regardless of this paper’s moral righteousness, modern technology. Yet in Rhode Island government the Unified Health Infrastructure Project (UHIP), a the more freewheeling ProJo has noted that either of offices, quite the opposite is happening. According to $600 million computer system meant to streamline these scandals of state overreach could provide the a recent WPRI-TV report, some state departments are eligibility verification for social services. The system ACLU of Rhode Island with the plaintiff it has long still using electric typewriters, microfiche, and other was dogged by technical failures and resulted in two sought to challenge the state’s restrictions on free analog technologies of a bygone era. Here, millennial federal class action lawsuits by the ACLU of Rhode front-and-rear speech. The organization might have hires banking on their Microsoft Word proficiency are Island. found divine intervention in its Kentucky counterout of luck. Unlike UHIP, which was specially designed for part, which won a landmark court case establishing Seemingly frozen in the late 20th century, Rhode Rhode Island, the ERP system is already widely used the First Amendment rights of all beings earlier this Island still relies on pre-digital methods to manage and in both the private and public sector. Anxious state month. For years, Ben Hart had driven with Ohio store data about employees. Workers handwrite their officials have thus assured the public that this transi- plates proclaiming “IM GOD,” but when He moved to hours on paper time cards, which are stored in moun- tion will be smoother. We can only hope. Still, it seems neighboring Kentucky, the DMV rejected His request tains of boxes throughout state offices. All updates that the days of typewriters and dot-matrix printers to keep His plates on grounds of offending “good taste.” in employee information are tediously typed out on clattering away in the Rhode Island Statehouse may On Hart’s behalf, the ACLU of Kentucky sued the state, electric typewriters and inked onto five-ply paper with be numbered. After years of dutiful service, these winning Hart not only the right to His sacred plates, dot-matrix printers—a type of printer which saw wide- old-timers are being kicked to the curb to make room but also $175,715.50 (enough to buy approximately one spread use from the 1970s to the 1990s. The paper is for newfangled automation. A fable for our time, to two Teslas) to cover His legal fees. then separated and marched over on foot to the neces- perhaps. Hart’s case may provide a path forward for sary offices. On top of this, older, long-term personnel -AV Steinhauer and the Tesla owner, but His success will be information is stored on microfiche—flat sheets of film difficult to replicate. Although news stories detailing on which scaled-down reproductions of documents are Hart’s struggle tend to depict Him as an amusing kept. At least the state has moved past papyrus scrolls. RHODE RAGE atheist standing up for His non-beliefs, this is journalIn an interview with WPRI, Executive Director of istic malpractice. The media has missed a much more Human Resources, Kyle Adamonis said of the current Barreling toward city halls across the great highways important story: with His success at all levels of the system: “It’s really old.” It’s also time-consuming, and and backroads of the United States, brave motor- judiciary, Hart has legally established that He is God. repair technicians for these fossilized technologies ists are bringing the crusade to defend free speech to This raises significant theological quandaries, but are hard to find. Unsurprisingly, younger government new speeds. Here in Rhode Island, the Department perhaps spells doom for Rhode Island drivers. If the employees are often confounded when encountering of Motor Vehicles has tried to silence two drivers for Lord Himself had to fight in the courts for years to win these antiquated machines. Human Resources Analyst their enactment of the unalienable right to pay 70 His beloved plates, then what chance does a bastid like Kelly-Durkin Murray told WPRI that new hires trained dollars for vanity license plates. In two stories on the David Steinhauer stand? to use the devices have often asked, “What is that?” In plate beat last week, the Providence Journal reported this case, boomers have the technological upper hand. that neither the unnamed owner of a Tesla electric car -BB The State of Rhode Island is not the only govern- bearing “FKGAS” plates (presumably suggesting the ment that still places faith in the analog. Alongside unprintable obscenity “f**k”) nor David Steinhauer, hipsters and stubborn novelists, various local and who had requested plates sporting his nickname, federal authorities have been found using typewriters “BAASTD” (read with a heavy Ocean State accent), will in recent years. The New York City Police Department be permitted to speak their truth on their bumpers. was still filling out yet-to-be-digitized forms on the The Independent cannot and will not condone machines in 2015. Two years ago, the borough of the kind of language that the drivers used to express Matanuska-Susitna in Alaska reenlisted its old type- their dissatisfaction with the status quo. However, the writers after suffering a cyberattack that locked town substance of their critiques—fossil fuels are a plague administrators out of their computers. And after on humanity; David Steinhauer is a bastid—are right Edward Snowden revealed the NSA’s extensive inter- on the money. As a family-friendly publication, we national surveillance program in 2013, members of would have preferred that the Tesla owner forgo their both the Russian and German governments suggested vulgar vehicular sloganeering and instead engage in a that typewriters were being considered as a more more wholesome approach to the climate crisis, such as secure alternative to digital documents. engaging in revolutionary anti-imperialist struggle to Despite the apparent cybersecurity benefits, the overthrow the global militarized system of extraction Rhode Island government is hoping to pull the plug on that exploits workers and poisons the land, water, and its aging machines soon. Governor Gina Raimondo’s air—or at least lobby their state senator to support current budget proposal includes $93 million for a new the Percentage Income Payment Plan proposed by
THE COLLEGE HILL INDEPENDENT
WEEK IN REVIEW
02
DETENTION, INCARCERATION, DEPORTATION THE WYATT DETENTION CENTER AND THE NATIONAL PRISON-INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX
discourse surrounding the Wyatt through years of policing migration. Friedman, of Never Again Action activism and community organizing. When Central RI, explained that one of the reasons that the Wyatt The Donald W. Wyatt Detention Facility is located Falls announced the new ICE contract in March of returned to ICE contracting after a 2009 abuse case is across from a park. A wide expanse of grass—often 2019, Alianza para Movilizar Nuestra Resistencia that criminalizing immigration has become “a source filled with kids playing soccer or used for school grad- (AMOR) began a months-long battle: one that started of revenue for prisons across the country, continuing uations—stops inches from the road. On the other side with trying to stop the contract with ICE, grew to the dual-mechanism of racism and profit that fuels of the grass is a concrete building, towering ominously, #ShutDownWyatt, and then became a mission to ban prison decision-making.” A Justice Department severed from the street by a giant barbed wire fence. private prisons in Rhode Island. report from last August notes that in 1998, 63 percent The Wyatt exists in a perilous in-between space: of federal arrests were of US citizens. 20 years later, between a park and a river, between private and public, however, 64 percent were non-citizens, largely due to between the local and the federal. It is a testament to THE PRIVATE PRISON MANTRA: PROFIT, an increase in arrests for “immigration offenses.” In the fact that, in the United States, detention, incar- PROFIT, PROFIT other words, the War on Drugs expanded prisons, and ceration, and deportation impact communities and the War on Immigrants maintains them. Both leave national politics in a vicious cycle. Established in 1993, The carceral history of Central Falls mirrors a national wreckage and despair in their wake in the hopes of profthe Wyatt Detention Facility is publicly owned and story of prison expansion that started in the 1980s—a iting from mass incarceration and using mass incarcerprivately operated: although owned and administered history which is inextricably tied with the rise of ation to maintain a system of racialized control. by the city of Central Falls, out-of-state corporations private prisons. In 1993, the landscape of private own shares in the Wyatt. It was one of the first prisons prisons looked far different than it does today. The under private control in the United States. first corporation to engage in the “business of prison,” THE WYATT’S FINANCIAL AND RACIAL Central Falls, the city where the Wyatt is located, now known as CoreCivic, started operations in 1984, ORDER is small, with a population of about 19,500. In the as a result of rapid mass incarceration in the wake of 1990s, like many small cities, Central Falls struggled the Reagan administration’s racist “War on Drugs.” The Wyatt embodies the profit-hungry nature of with poverty and unemployment. According to Tal Private prisons make money by expanding incarcer- the carceral complex. In its time, it has shifted Friedman, an organizer for Never Again Action RI, in ation and cutting down on the costs of prison mainte- between many forms of profit-maximization, despite the 1990s, the Central Falls City Council was forced nance. It is important to keep in mind that the problem continuing to rack up debt. A brief summary of these into choosing between a “garbage dump and prison” is not just with private prisons or with immigration many twists and turns to grapple with the Wyatt’s for job creation. It chose the prison. This decision ties detention. It’s not about pitting private prisons against financial woes are essential to understanding its into a larger trend of the 20th century where prison was public prisons, either. Both private and public prisons current positioning: $106.7 million was invested in seen as a “new, recession-proof, non-polluting industry mistreat incarcerated people. Still, it is valuable to see 2005 by private bondholders, including national corpo[which] would jump-start local redevelopment,” writes how private prisons play a vital role in the incarceration rations like UMB Financial, a Kentucky-based bank, geographer Ruth Wilson Gilmore. Furthermore, the and deportation machine, which prospers from profit and INVESCO, an investment management company. history of mass incarceration is inextricably tied to and racial control. Furthermore, the abuse in private An Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) the history of racism and the legacy of slavery—the prisons is distinctive: a 2016 report by the Justice contract to house detained immigrants in 2006 ended overpolicing and criminalizing of communities of Department found that private prisons were violent in an investigation of rampant abuse and a rapid shift color, especially Black communities, and the use of and prisoners were deeply mistreated, even more so to supplying rooms for Navy personnel under General prison labor as allowed by the 13th Amendment—make than in government-owned prisons. Immigration Court-Martial Convening Authority. Whether you see prisons racist instutions. detention centers, private and public, have come under it as a failed venture or a failing one, the Wyatt remains At the Wyatt, profit and racial control go hand- fire in the last few years as a result of allegations of for two reasons: a desire by investors to turn prison into in-hand. The Wyatt was supposed to bring jobs and violence, harassment, and mistreatment of incarcer- profit and a system of using prison as a form of racial prosperity to Central Falls, but in 2011, the city filed ated people by correctional officers. control. for bankruptcy. In January of 2019, in an attempt to The relationship between private prisons and Bondholders, who hold shares in the Wyatt from gain some sort of profit, the Wyatt signed a contract immigration detention is key. According to the the 2005 deal, continue to have power over the direcwith Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to nonprofit The Sentencing Project, 73% of people in tion of the Wyatt. Once they had invested, they needed incarcerate people who had been detained at the US immigration detention were held in privately-owned the facility to make money—regardless of the human border. This little prison, in a city of fewer than 20,000, facilities in 2017. The United States border-to-prison cost. In 2006, the Wyatt began to contract with ICE to became part of a project to control the racial demog- pipeline, where people are detained at the US border imprison people arrested for immigration offenses. In raphy of the nation. for and then forced into prisons all over the States, is 2008, this relationship ended when Hui Li “Jason” Ng, A year after this contract, on January 22nd, supported by a system of profit for private companies a computer engineer from Queens, NY, passed away 2020, Rhode Island State Treasurer Seth Magaziner which rely on locking people up for immigration viola- from undiagnosed liver cancer while detained inside announced that the Rhode Island Pension Fund would tions. The growth in privatization goes hand-in-hand the Wyatt. An ICE investigation revealed that he had divest from private prisons. This is a disjointed narra- with “crimmigration,” the extensive criminalizing suffered gross abuse by correctional officers, including tive because the Wyatt is not a conventional “private of migration—and reflects a larger shift in the pris- being refused a wheelchair and enduring constant prison.” Still, divestment is deeply connected to the on-industrial complex to fuel incarceration through harassment. After Ng’s death, 153 ICE prisoners were
PLACING THE WYATT IN CENTRAL FALLS
03
METRO
28 FEB 2020
BY Leela Berman ILLUSTRATION Georgianna Stoukides DESIGN Amos Jackson
relocated, and a Prison Legal News article from 2009 of last year. Soon after, the bondholders of the Wyatt, endure its harm. Prison and detention are two sides of explained that because “the jail relies heavily on including UMB Bank, filed a lawsuit demanding that the same cruel capitalist coin. government contracts...the removal of ICE prisoners the Wyatt continue to receive ICE detainees. The AMOR recognizes this. Díaz concluded the interseriously affected its profitability.” lawsuit also tried to get a restraining order against the view by saying that she “just want[ed] to emphasize No statement better encapsulates this profit incen- city’s board, alleging that it should stop interfering that this fight is about the ICE contract, but it’s also tive then a comment made by the Wyatt’s director in with the Wyatt’s decision-making. Now, the Wyatt is about the facility itself.” AMOR wants not just to 2009, Daniel Cooney, who said in an interview to a in lawsuit limbo, but continues to house around 120 change the conditions of the Wyatt but to shut it down. Providence Journal reporter: “[I’m] looking at it like I’m ICE detainees, whose lives have been put on hold as One suggestion made in a 2012 report about the Wyatt’s running a Motel 6 ... I don’t care if it’s Guantanamo Bay. this case continues. AMOR, Never Again RI, and other debt was that it could be sold in order to remove the We want to fill the beds.” We want to fill the beds. The community organizations have continued to organize burden of management from the Central Falls governMayor of Central Falls promptly fired Cooney, multiple around shutting down the Wyatt. AMOR not only ment, thereby becoming fully private. Given current organizations held protests outside the jail, and the operates their #ShutDownWyatt campaign by putting tensions and the abusive profit-maximizing nature of ACLU of RI sued dozens of officials and employees political pressure on RI and investors in the Wyatt to private prisons, it is important for AMOR to prevent at the Wyatt and lobbied for the state to reject all divest, but also raises bail for people detained inside. that from happening. contracts with ICE. Of course, due to the profit motive, Díaz noted that one of the most emotional parts the ICE contract murkily returned, 10 years later, in of organizing was seeing how it mattered to the people no small part due to pressure from private companies on the inside—and how those people shaped their own CARCERAL CAPITALISM AND DIVESTMENT which are stakeholders in the Wyatt. discourse connecting detention and incarceration. Although the Wyatt isn’t strictly private, it needs None of the people who are detained in the Wyatt can It was in no small part because of AMOR’s organizing, to make money to pay back the private bonds it took see the public protests that AMOR holds in front of it including multiple meetings with State Treasurer Seth out in 2005 and to fund its private operation. Now, the from their cells, but other incarcerated people can, Magaziner, that Rhode Island will divest from private Wyatt is used partially to imprison people awaiting and they bang on the windows, cheer, and write “Shut prisons. In his January 25th announcement, Magaziner trial or serving sentences in Rhode Island, but largely down the Wyatt” on pieces of paper. Díaz emphasized: called divestment the “moral and responsible thing imprisons people arrested for immigration offenses “Detention and incarceration, it’s the same thing. We’re to do.” As Díaz stated, “We want to know that Rhode across the nation, especially people detained at the fighting for the end of incarceration and detention as a Island wasn’t doing anything to support private border who cannot pay bail. The corporate project to whole.” The discourse connecting incarceration and prisons,” and added that on January 29th, Magaziner profit off prison and the state project to control racial detention was also present in AMOR’s community wrote a letter to Martin Flanagan, the CEO of Invesco, demography transcend state borders. Profit deter- gathering on February 14th. the largest investor in the Wyatt, asking that Invesco mines the direction of the prison-industrial complex, “work with relevant stakeholders to take any measures and the pattern of increased racist federal arrests available to address the concerns of community related to immigration is represented in the Wyatt’s CELEBRATING COMMUNITY DESPITE THE members in the Wyatt dispute.” This centers the turn back to the ICE contract. This time, though, orga- WYATT Central Falls community itself in protesting against nizers across Rhode Island were ready to make their the Wyatt—the very community the Wyatt was supposprotests heard. AMOR’s community gathering, ¡Celebrando Nuestra edly established to help. Díaz noted, of course, that Comunidad y Resistencia! (“Celebrating Our the announcement of divestment didn’t end AMOR’s Community and Resistance”), was filled with food: dedication to support those detained within the Wyatt, SHAPING THE COMMUNITY DISCOURSE Olive bread, dumplings, empanadas, a vegan cake especially because the Wyatt continues to hold its ON THE WYATT with “Fuck ICE” written in frosting, mac’n’cheese, rice contract with ICE. Friedman stated that it was a great and beans decorated with the Puerto Rican flag. Signs step in the “direction of ethical investing,” but echoed On a phone call, Arely Díaz, one of the lead organizers decorated the space, the headquarters of Providence Díaz’s claim that there is always more to be done. of AMOR, explained: “AMOR wasn’t created to make Youth Student Movement: “migration is beautiful;” Friedman also emphasized that the system of political campaigns, but the ICE contract was just so “no human being is illegal;” “keep families together: incarceration relies on violence. In August of 2019, atrocious that...we had to do something.” Although stop deportation.” Never Again RI organized a protest blocking the AMOR wanted to provide direct support to those Above the main dishes, a sign from a previous Wyatt’s entrance. There, correctional officers pepperpersonally affected by state violence, giving emotional, protest at the Wyatt asked, “What would you like to see sprayed protestors and drove a truck into peaceful financial, and legal support to community members, replace the Wyatt?” Answers ranged from “a commu- demonstrators. Despite injuries to protesters, later they still participated in protest. As Díaz details, “We nity garden” to an “amphitheater” to “affordable that year, the officer was not charged. “If the system is held a march from City Hall to the Wyatt, that was the housing” to a “centro de communidad” (community willing to enact so much violence in plain sight...all of first action/demonstration against the Wyatt and their center). Another sign asked what amor, communidad, the violence that goes on behind bars must be so much new ICE contract.” Since then, AMOR has been a key y justicia (love, community, and justice) meant to the bigger,” Friedman explained. organization in the grassroots mobilization around people who entered. Some of the answers includes “a Violence, especially racialized violence, is omnithe Wyatt, shaping the discourse around its closure world liberated,” “no incarceration,” and “no borders.” present in the system of carceral capitalism. This is, by emphasizing the fundamental injustice of the ICE Although AMOR was only founded in 2017, it has perhaps, the crux of the danger of the “prison is profit” contract and the absolute harm the Wyatt has done in already launched a support line. In just a few years, it mentality. A garbage dump or a prison. We have to fill the Central Falls community. This discourse, which has supported community members hurt by immigra- the beds. Within the carceral logic, incarceration is an equates prison to harm, is in direct conflict with the tion policy and grown a sense of community imagina- economic motor and the Wyatt is simply an attempt to original rationale behind the Wyatt and the ideology of tion: envisioning a world without the Wyatt, and more deal with unemployment in Central Falls. It is through its bondholders: prison is profit. specifically, a Central Falls that takes community community organizing, the questioning of the Wyatt’s Díaz highlighted the complexity of trying to shut needs and desires into consideration. purpose, and sketching better uses of community down the Wyatt amid these two competing visions Near the desserts, a sign near the window resources, that this logic erodes. for the prison. The Mayor of Central Falls, James proclaimed “Migra. Policia: la misma porqueria” Diossa, made a statement advocating for the Wyatt’s (Immigration enforcement, police: the same crap), LEELA BERMAN B’23 agrees with Angela Davis and closure and, as a result of immense public protest echoing on a very local level the historical relation- thinks prisons are obsolete. and political pressure, the Wyatt’s mayor-appointed ship between incarceration and detention that exists board suspended the contract with ICE on April 5th in plain sight, well known to the communities that
THE COLLEGE HILL INDEPENDENT
METRO
04
Cavell’s Horse, Derrida’s Cat, and Other People The challenge and reward of interspecies negotiations
My first galvanizing career goal was to become an Olympic equestrian, which was not unusual among my prepubescent peer group. It was short (though intensely) lived. My explanation for why I stopped riding always came down to the cross-species relationship: I never felt that we were quite able to get each other. I expected the kind of reciprocity promised by Steinbeck, Sewell, and the countless Young Adult equine adventure serials chronicling that elusive yet legendary bond between humans and horses. Whenever I groomed Miranda’s coat with a stiff-bristled brush, I spoke at her in my head and imagined she could understand. But she never seemed to get the hint when I telepathically urged her to speed our trot into a canter. Old Dusty was interested in the carrots I brought him, but didn’t seem to sense that I was having a bad day… or worse, he didn’t even care? Many years later, I realize that bond is more likely the result of embracing and negotiating within the equine-hominid gap rather than bridging it with some genetic predisposition for “horse-whispering.” Proud, impatient, going for gold, I dismissed the career path as unfulfillable when no special connection clicked into place; I thought the magic would feel like impossible knowledge being made possible. But maybe the magic happens precisely when the possibility of knowing is surrendered after earnest pursuit, then navigated with newfound reverence, co-learning, and joyful humility. I never bothered pushing past the point of surrender, but perhaps I had the right idea. I couldn’t have possibly fostered what animal trainer Vicki Herne and ecofeminist scholar Donna Haraway describe as companion species happiness, which results “from striving, from work, from fulfillment of possibility… [discovering] happiness together in the labor of training.” All the limited ways a girl of my time and place could experience a horse—riding lessons one hour per week, expensive summer camps, long drives to the nearest stable—felt misaligned with my sense of the creatures themselves, and all the lore and literature surrounding them. I continued to draw horses feverishly, trying to capture their kinesthetic grace and power on paper long after I stopped trying to trot them in circles around the corral.
BY Irina V. Wang ILLUSTRATION Natasha Brennan DESIGN Daniel Navratil
What degree of dissonance could cause a headstrong little girl to give up? Biologist Jakob von Uexküll influenced the field of semiotics by introducing the German term umwelt, which translates to environment. The existential exceptionalism and the intellectual vulnerterm describes a lens of environmental perception ability that follows. Questioning who is seeing whom, specific to a species’ biological capabilities and rele- we are confronted with what Derrida calls “the abyssal vant needs. A narrow slice of visible light on the electro- limit of the human... the bordercrossing from which magnetic spectrum drives most human understanding vantage man dares to announce himself to himself.” of reality, while a tick’s sensemaking revolves around +++ 37° Celsius—the temperature of all mammalian blood. Markers of spatio-temporal significance across umwelten are often as self-evident as they are distinct. Results vary when I find myself keenly aware of the consciousness of an unfathomable other. Faced with This severely limits interspecies comprehension. To meaningfully transcend the barriers of horses, I stopped riding; faced with cats, I find quiet umwelten requires an understanding that these barriers affinity; faced with humans—well, the messiness and need not be dissolved or crossed, but rather accepted dreadfulness and loveliness of life ensues. Although and celebrated. Philosopher Stanley Cavell describes it’s psychologically strenuous to really reckon with it as a readiness to surrender total comprehension the gaze of an absolute other, our alternative is of the other. The discontinuity between human and lonely living under the delusion of human hubris: animal consciousness is not a problem of seeing without ever being seen. The ethical choice, it impenetrable umwelten, he suggests, seems, is to move deliberately through the world in but rather a “skeptical terror of this suspended awkwardness, this constant collision the independent existence of of umwelten. For Derrida, the only interesting quesother minds.” Cavell reminds tion is: “What are the edges of a limit that grows and us that a horse is capable of multiplies by feeding on an abyss?” While I won’t be sensing, interpreting, and seeking answers on horseback, humans and cats keep extrapolating from every drawing me back to that inter-umwelt space of necesshift and micro-twitch of its sary negotiation. It’s been a long time since I’ve thought this much rider’s muscles. There is skepticism in imag- about horses, and the only evidence of that childhood ining such foreign fixation is tucked away somewhere in an old sketchkinesthetic points of book and disposable camera. As I recall and revisit the view (the phrase itself feelings that ushered me away from the corral, I’m (dis) betrays humans’ sensory arming myself with the readiness to under-know the bias). Moreover, there beings that surround me now. Last weekend, I moved is terror in suspecting into a new home with a good friend and his feline that what we assume companion. The three of us will continue to temper is invisible could be Cavell’s skeptical terror and Derrida’s shameful shame inherently exposed in order to live alongside each other with integrity and to the discerning delight. To see and love a non-human is exactly what it other. A good rider can is to see and love another human—existentially chalembrace this new naked- lenging, emotionally rewarding, requiring relentless ness, signalling humility and self-and-other-awareness. It’s the active co-creation collaboration rather than fear of understanding, gazing intently across the abyssal and desire to conquer. It turns out edges of significant otherness. that horse-whispering is more like IRINA V. WANG R’20 is 37°C. horse-listening. Philosopher Jacques Derrida describes something similar as he recounts the peculiar feeling of “shame that is ashamed of itself” whenever his cat saw him naked. Why is it staring like that? Why do I even feel embarrassed? Maybe I should be? Just as Cavell’s horse is “a rebuke to our unreadiness to be understood, our will to remain obscure,” the cat’s lingering gaze is unnerving because it suggests the existence of an independent mind, creating friction against the Anthropocentric umwelt. In this case, our uneasiness stems not from a feeling of physical insignificance and powerlessness, but a disruption of
+++
05
FEATURES
28 FEB 2020
RACE FOR WARD 1 The Independent's guide to the candidates Blue, yellow, and white campaign signs mark homes Public School District. “I don’t want to downplay BY Peder Schaefer and businesses up and down Wickenden Street in the Brown’s contribution to the city, but the problem is that ILLUSTRATION Claire Schlaikjer Fox Point neighborhood of Providence, where three what they’re actually paying in the budget, the $6.3 DESIGN Daniel Navratil Democratic candidates are running in a special elec- million they are paying now, just pales in comparison tion to fill the Ward 1 City Council seat vacated by to what it could or ought to be.” Councilman Seth Yurdin in the beginning of January. As for changes that could be made to the Ward 1 includes parts of Downtown, the Jewelry Providence Public School District, Cicchitelli said that District, and the Fox Point neighborhood. The winner the current teachers union contract needed to go, but by the current mayor of Minneapolis, Jacob Frey. of the Democratic primary on March 3 will go onto the any improvements would have to be followed by a raft City Council, as no Republican candidates filed to run. of other changes. Anthony Santurri The Democratic candidates running to replace He also stressed that he would like to see biking Kurdin—John Goncalves, Nick Cicchitelli, and play a larger role in Providence’s future in conjunction Anthony Santurri is a local nightclub and bar owner Anthony Santurri—care about local issues unique to with the city’s proposed Great Streets plan in order to who says he can use his experience with his small busitheir backgrounds, such as schools, development, and combat climate change and move the city away from ness on the City Council. He has lived in Providence for small business, but the most controversial topic of relying only on cars. Affordable housing was also a over 30 years and in the Downtown section of Ward 1 for debate is a progressive tiered property tax plan that priority for Cicchitelli; he said that the city needed to the past eight. Santurri was a founding member of the was proposed by members of the Providence City incentivize private developers to build more housing Downtown Neighborhood Association and currently Council last summer. That proposal, which called for via Tax Stabilization Agreements and tax credits, as serves on the Jewelry District Association. Along an increased property tax rate on real estate valued well as providing better funding for the Providence with Goncalves, he helped organize the Providence above $350,000, was proposed at the last minute and Redevelopment Agency, which refurbishes derelict Coalition of Neighborhood Associations. He owns the shot down after facing strong opposition from East homes. Coliseum Nightclub and the Free Play Bar and Arcade Siders who thought it placed an unfair tax burden Asked where he stands on the progressive-mod- downtown. When asked by the Independent what on their area. Still, it started a conversation—that erate spectrum that is captivating national Democratic makes him a contender for the council, Santurri maincontinues to engage all the candidates—about whether politics, Cicchitelli said he’s not as progressive as tained that his ability to control his own schedule, his the East Side, the wealthiest part of the city, has a Sanders or Warren, but more progressive than the small-business acumen, and his ability to build partresponsibility to pay their fair share. The positions of moderates in the national race, such as Biden. nerships are unique amongst the candidates. “I don’t all the candidates are shaped by the reality that Ward over promise,” said Santurri. “I’m not promising that 1 is full of wealthy residents, most of whom don’t want John Goncalves I can do this or that. What I am promising is because their taxes raised, period. I own my own business, I have control over my time…. Here’s the Independent’s guide to the candidates. Of all the candidates, John Goncalves has the deepest This is not a part-time job, this is a full-time job.” roots in Ward 1. He grew up in Fox Point and attended Santurri is also against the progressive tiered propNick Cicchitelli public school in Providence, and later the Wheeler erty tax because “it’s unfair to assume that someone School and Brown University. After spending a few who has a home for $500,000 should be paying more Nick Cicchitelli grew up in Johnston, Rhode Island. years working as an educator and being involved in in taxes because we assume that they have the money.” He’s a nine-year resident of the Fox Point neighbor- Democratic politics in Minneapolis, he has returned to Santurri said that while he is not for the plan in its hood, where he owns real estate that he rents out to his hometown of Providence. Now he works as a fourth current form, he is open to further discussion about young professionals and graduate students. In his grade teacher at the Wheeler School and is involved it. He said that there are other revenue streams that interview with the Independent, Cicchitelli stressed in organizing around neighborhood issues, such as the city could look toward, but that the city’s whole his experience working within Ward 1 and with the Fox opposing the progressive tiered property tax. He also tax burden shouldn’t be “laid on the backs” of East Point Neighborhood Association, as well as his broader serves on the board of the Fox Point Neighborhood Side residents. He also said that he’d like to see Brown political experience. He’s in the second year of the Association and is one of the founders of the Providence and other non-profits begin to pay incremental tax presidency of his neighborhood association and has Coalition of Neighborhood Associations, a coalition of increases on new property they buy in order to make sat on its board since 2016. Cicchitelli also has masters 30 different neighborhood associations throughout the the real estate market between non-profits and private degrees in political science and public administration city. As an educator and the only former Providence developers more competitive. from the University of Rhode Island and has worked Public School student in the race, addressing the On the issue of affordable housing, Santurri makes on state Democratic campaigns in the past. He claims struggles of the Providence Public School district is a a similar pitch, saying that the city needs to look at that these experiences strengthen his candidacy for priority for Goncalves. a number of different routes to try and build more City Council. Goncalves is also against the progessive property affordable housing. “If we only throw money at it, that “There’s a lot of institutional knowledge and tax issue that's been a concern of all the residents. can only go so far. If we do TSAs that can only do so memory coming off the City Council at once,” said He was involved in organizing East Siders against much,” said Santurri, referring to Tax Stabilization Cichitelli, referring to the fact that half of the City the tax proposal last summer, and after that fight, he Agreements that can be used to incentivize developers Council seats will be open in 2022 due to term limits. was appointed to a city council special commission to build in Providence. “I want someone who lives in “We want to make sure the person going there is qual- studying the issue. On most other issues, however, the city to tell me: this is what I can really afford, and ified, a person who knows the history and depth of the Goncalves is unabashedly progressive. He said that then work from that.” Santurri stressed the role that issues facing Fox Point and the Ward.” affordable housing was deeply personal to him, after he thinks charitable individuals can make through Cicchitelli strongly opposes the council’s prior his family was forced to move out of the Fox Point donations of time or money to causes like affordable attempt at a progressive tiered property tax. The tax neighborhood due to gentrification, the expansion of housing and the development of the Providence Public plan proposed by the council, he said, targets the East the I-95 highway corridor, rising living costs, and the School District. Side unfairly, using a “false logic” that all the residents “expansion of local institutions.” When asked about whether he was a progressive of the ward are capable of paying a higher tax regard“When we think about development, how can we or moderate, Santurri was clear. “I’m not a progresless of their individual circumstance. encourage smart development that doesn’t push people sive,” he said. “In my life, I’m a centrist. I’m moderate. “This is not something we can do with lip service out of their neighborhoods?” said Goncalves. To this I believe that we need a strong financial base in order and platitudes,” said Cicchitelli, who added that the end, he’d like to see a bill passed outlawing Source of to execute all the social programs we would need to city needs to consult with more experts on municipal Income discrimination by landlords, and that the city ensure quality of life. One reason I think we’re in a bad tax reform. “We need to continue to take a look at other should develop smart zoning practices and fund more position with schools and housing and infrastructure cities and see what’s worked elsewhere.” affordable housing oppourtunities. Goncalves has is because we haven’t had that strong financial base.” On the relationship between Brown University been endorsed by Housing Opportunities for People Santurri stressed his commitment to public safety and the city of Providence, Cicchitelli was adamant Everywhere (HOPE), a Brown University student and the relationship he’s developed with the police that he wanted greater financial contribution from group that advocates on behalf of people experiencing from working at his nightclub and bar. He said that the the University to the city. He believes Brown should be homelessness. Like Cicchitelli, Goncalves also wants Providence Police Department should be expanded to taxed on all its property that is not fundamental to its non-profits like Brown University to play a bigger role 450 officers from the current 415 so residents can feel academic mission, such as off-campus housing. in Providence’s financial well-being. Goncalves sits on safe in their community. “It’s pathetic that you have a wealthy university the Brown Alumni Association Board of Governors. “I have learned more about what my city and my three blocks away from a crumbling school,” said When asked how he squared his progressive values community wants in the six weeks of running for office Cicchetelli, referring to the struggling Providence on housing, schools, and smart development with his than in 10 years of being on neighborhood boards,” opposition to the progressive tiered property tax policy, said Santurri. “I thought I knew a lot, but now I really, Goncalves said, “It wasn’t about not trying to help the really am understanding things. That’s going to stay most vulnerable amongst us, it was about how this was with me, win or lose.” introduced at the 11th hour.” The progressive tiered tax plan was introduced by the City Council last summer The Democratic primary for Ward 1 will take place on only a month before property tax bills were to be sent Tuesday, March 3rd. out. Goncalves is also the only candidate to have signed Sometimes PEDER SCHAEFER B’22 likes to pretend the Green New Deal pledge and he has been endorsed he’s a regular newspaper reporter.
METRO
06
BY Nicolaia Rips ILLUSTRATION Katrina Wardhana DESIGN Kathryn Li
Candles, Please “Exhale.” The crowd—upwards of forty years old and clad in a variety of branded spandex—sighs.
Economists have some number for how much money it takes to make a person happy. Money can buy happiness, up until like $75,000. Then it plateaus. From that point, your quality of life does not increase constantly with the more money you earn. Once you’re a millionaire, the difference in happiness escalates by degrees.
Similarly, once past $30, candle quality evens out. Up until that, the difference in “candle quality” is huge. I use as coasters. They are scattered in my apartment, The $5 scented candle is a throwaway gift. My friend My knee creaks. Stupid willful knee. Have I not done unopened but mottled with round stains. Set reminder: in high school would get me vanilla candles from enough for you. buy coasters. Bath and Body Works for every birthday, Christmas, Hanukkah gift exchange, and I would never ever light “And, bending your knee, tuck your heel under it. “So, the camera crew’s arriving at eleven. We’re going them. To light such a candle was to be enveloped in Lengthen from the base of your spine, not the middle. to start outside and follow you through the house on a a noxious saccharine shroud, fumigating your own Breathe. In. Out.” handheld. I’m going to be next to the camera the whole connection to nature. time, but you’re going to direct your answers straight The woman I’m shadowing has her face in her vagina. into the lens. Your agent should have sent you the list What they sell you is the lifestyle behind the candle, While impressive, it’s also disquieting. I look around of questions?” the $80 candle lifestyle. A lifestyle of pseudo-miniand everyone, all the spandex yoga women, have malism and faux-efficiency, streamlining everything their faces between their legs. Missed the self-fel- She nods. you consume to create one whole persona. They sell latio commandment. I bend my head down and the you the candle promising the compound and the white instructor comes up behind me, knees into the small of “Fantastic!” I say. “If you want to freshen up before they couch I’m sitting on. A Swell bottle is not a vessel but my back, willing me forward. I don’t want to do this. I arrive, now’s your chance.” a sip of icy water on the beach. Every item says somewant to be inflexible. There’s real skill, power even, in thing about who you are, you as the individual, you as inflexibility. In a WWE fight who wins, the rod or the As she goes, I readjust on the couch. There’s a candle unique, that is different from everyone else’s unique. blade of grass? on the glass table. I sniff it. Smells like orange blossoms. I watch all of us antagonistic agnostics believing not I feel completely transported to a place I have never in divinity but ultimate determination, in wellness Back at her house/apartment/compound (walls been and probably doesn’t exist. It’s the scent of Eat, and acquisition, in the most holy of things: branding. covered in ivy can’t disguise that there are walls every- Pray, Love, of Armie Hammer’s gently sweaty shirts Ultimately though, this is all a sham, you will not be where) she nestles into a white couch, a coffee table in Call Me by Your Name. This candle promises eternal happier, you will not have the lifestyle, you will still book of Weimaraner photography open between us. I summer without the bacne, roasting a whole suckling have your roommates, and your underbed storage have a dab of blue ink on my index finger and I have pig on a log fire, forgetting the moral dubiousness of from IKEA, and your bacne in the summertime. somehow managed to smudge it on the otherwise eating meat under these environmental conditions. Its pristine couch. To compensate, I am now sitting at an label is egg shell and says something Candles cannot fix your creative block or your armpit angle to cover the blue speck. There is no lumbar in Cyrillic; under it, the scent: rash or the stash of contact lenses your ex left under support in this couch and I struggle not to be Lavender and Orange. I swoon. your bed. Things cannot fix things. More things are completely enveloped. simply more things. Google tells me the candle is Anna has offered me a glass of water on a $80. Instead you will be left with an $80 lump of beeswax coaster. I have a stack of and a wick, burnt sparingly in an act of preservation, books that for the candle, yes, but more for yourself. I want it so bad. I want it all so bad. “Tighten your left buttock.”
Anna is now dressed in a white sheath dress. I am still contorting on the couch to cover up the ink stain. I look up at her, radiant in eyelet. Restless misshapen thing I am, repentant, readily reshaped, squeeze me, reteach me, I have the capacity but not the time. “Are we ready to start?”
07
LITERARY
28 FEB 2020
proven by the lack of perceived interest in the Being. Beauty and agreeability are not the same thing. In fact, beauty and agreeability are opposing principles. A thing cannot be both because agreeability implies use and beauty is pure. Because the Being is not found desirable for any utilitarian or pleasure-oriented reasons (i.e. a powdered sugar-covered donut) but rather as an entity outside of usefulness, the Being is unquestionably beautiful. Beyond a shadow of a doubt the Being is beautiful. However, because of the same qualities that make it unquestionably beautiful, (that the object is utterly without use and nobody wants to obtain, possess, consume), nobody ever wants to hang out with the Being.
End of the Empire The climate is hot these days; as well as the spot in my bed where I lie, as well as butchers and people who work with their hands and are connected to things normal people like me buy in plastic. Raw chicken feels too explicit to look at sometimes. Puffy but slick, the flesh so shiny it looks liquid and shrink-wrapped to oblivion. It’s so pink and nakey. I’m like, cover up please. On Instagram, a girl from a sorority posts the Dolly Parton challenge. You can tell it was a breakout year for her. She really came into herself. How humble of her to post unflattering photographs. This has been a breakout year for me too. Every part The 2:00 AM Manifesto of my body has broken out in cystic acne. Additionally, I’ve been broken up with in many ways, by some people Thesis: I Am Aimless and That Is Purposeful who I didn’t even realize I was dating. I am allergic to my own sweat; it has started producing histamine. All To have purposiveness without purpose, is to reside at of my jeans are too tight, dammit. A big old breakdown the salty core of humanity, to understand what exactly year for me. we all share. I went to the store the other week and stood there looking around. I greased the top of my head with oil, not the bottom. In my haste I put my hands on the top and then moved I went to the store the other week and instead of them to the bottom. In the mirror, I scold myself. I am purchasing, instead of using the spatiality of the place here to provide for you. I glare at my reflection. Shape for its intended purpose, I left and returned home up, asshole. Tell yourself to follow your dreams and with nothing. To return with nothing from an outing other platitudes. Don’t shit around. My reflection’s like, intended to procure something, to ameliorate the lack up yours, you don’t have dreams. of something and fill it with a nothing is to decide to lean into the purposiveness without purpose, and to do Time to get a coffee and banish thoughts. On the way, that is to obtain, to store, purpose. I pick up a lost girl on the highway. I knew she was lost because I found her, as I often find lost things, pencils and wallets and bugs in sinks. Her thumb is up and Thesis: I am a Child of Time it’s weirdly long, bordering on tentacle-y except her nail is cut short, way too close to her nailbed. It was so The singularity of universality of the Being (me) is incidental, she asked to be dropped off on the side up found within. To be a child of time slowed is to live ahead. There was nothing but swamp. outside of the temporal plane that others exist on, to not just be a product of time but also to exist in a way At Starbucks, there is a waxiness to the breads in the that is both elongated and separate. The Being is a display case. Madame Tussaud's for baked goods. I child of time in that the Being (me again) resides in buy two brioches. They appear to be sweating. No time but often in the negative space outside of it, the histimine there. I eat one because everyone knows negative space being one created when focusing in if you don’t enjoy something the calories time on the reflection of time. don’t apply, like mayo, and jack cheese and Thousand Island dressing. The To be in time but out of time and without purpose and other I squirrel away, tuck living in a negative to obtain purpose and time times it in my coat in its brown sometimes. Sometimes time just times. bag. Thesis: Everybody Is Out to Get Me Beings (not just me) are inherently selfish. Beings (collectively) are conniving and stinky and vicious. They hog things, always, taking seconds, and they lie, grabby, grabby Beings. Because I am a Being, I am all of those things. Because of this, conflict often arises. In these situations it is important to remember that all Beings are selfish, not just a singular Being being selfish. Thesis: I Am Grotesque It is of no importance that the viewer finds the beautiful Being (me) agreeable. Should I be found agreeable, there is an implication that the viewer wishes to obtain, possess or consume the Being (i.e. a powdered sugarcovered donut). There is no risk of this as the Being (me) is fundamentally disagreeable. This is
THE COLLEGE HILL INDEPENDENT
Brother calls me up asking where I am, am I coming home for the holiday, and I scream at him because my hair is bad and I can’t help it. I scream at him in the Starbucks, which feels right. How guilty does he think I am? Does he understand how bad my hair looks? Really, it looks like I washed it in a cow’s mouth. He knows I can’t do anything right. I felt good running, greens, sleep but now alcohol, hormones and more sleep, I love myself a little less, full choked up of pitted
things, can’t hide from myself. I can’t hide what I am steeped in. There’s a pause on the other end and I can tell he’s smoking something. I am too anxious for recreational drug use, for throwing large parties, for not thinking about dying brain cells (I need every single damn one) every time I smoke weed or black tar when I share a cigarette with a pretty girl. Brother is a musician. Pretty good at it too, passionate about guitar, constantly sending me the best playlists. At some point in the last year though he’s slipped from cool rock man to sad rock man. He’s got a job playing at a fajita joint in Jersey. Plays happy birthday to bratty kids in little league shirts to the white noise of endless sizzling. Play music fuck the man, man, until you grow beer large. He asks how my friends are and I say wow they’re great, they’re so cool and hot and fun. He pauses and I know he wonders if I’m being ironic but doesn’t want to say anything. What was I supposed to say? That they are anxious sexed-up sexless fucks trying to construct selves from refusing things left behind at parties, things seeded away, collect offs and ends, animated stacks of junk, Tetris detritus in puffy coats? Drove past where I dropped the girl off but the swamp was all dried up. Maybe I misjudged the spot. A podcast plays and the host yells about the end of the empire this, the end of the days that. Every century suddenly is the end. Honestly, valid. I wonder what I would do if this was actually the end of days. There are so many options. Eat my roommate’s yogurt. He’s so insane about his yogurt, pretty sure he monitors it every day. Take a bath in his good greek yogurt. Break the glass case in the Starbucks, free all those waxy pastries. Record a podcast about podcasts. Have sex with someone I love, I guess. Or better, fuck someone random. Cry with my family. Tell my brother I love him. Smoke a pack of cigarettes. Walk around full Winnie the Pooh. Roll around in the dried-up swamp and scare kids. Find that girl and ask what’s wrong with her thumb. Read the second and third books in the Twilight series. Yeah, I’d do it all. When I get home, it’s getting dark. Past daylight savings, the earth is penny-pinching sunlight, squeezing us. It is the end of day, the end of days. I grab my mail from the porch, an Amazon package of paper towels. I fiddle with the brioche in my pocket. I get back in bed. My hair looks so bad.
THE LEADERSHIP FUNCTION SYSTEMATIZING ENTREPRENEURSHIP IN THE UNIVERSITY
BY Izzi Olive ILLUSTRATION Eliza Macneal DESIGN Amos Jackson
Meritocracy is perhaps the most embedded of our premise that entrepreneurship can be taught. The very values. Schumpeter thus offers a working definition of various apologies for capitalism, and so its logic is concept of entrepreneurship pedagogy is somewhat actual economic entrepreneurship which is conceptufamiliar enough. With it, success in market society can arresting in light of the conventional mythology of the ally useful to distinguish it from the many colloquial be explained away as a natural occurrence. The titan entrepreneur: Is not the entrepreneur a charismatic, uses of the term—for example, to refer to small busiof industry—the paradigmatic capitalist—embodies disruptive figure whose defining traits lie beyond the ness owners, or to a certain plucky resourcefulness. His this fantasy of just desert: they followed the rules, and reach of pedagogy? The Nelson Center’s signature definition is also useful as a historical referent because it paid off. three-step “entrepreneurial process” seems diamet- select concepts of Schumpeter’s are enthusiastically If we understand this as the mythology of the rically and self-consciously opposed to these concep- invoked in entrepreneurial discourse today, while meritocrat, the mythology of the entrepreneur offers tions. This process, which has structured Nelson others—namely his view of the economy as a space for a subtle, lawless variant. The entrepreneur is disrup- Center Director Danny Warshay’s private consultancy the expression of elite will—have been left behind. tion embodied. Unlike the traditional capitalist, who’s since before the Center’s opening, is schematized as Schumpeter’s acknowledgement of the force in the business of producing what society already follows: involved in entrepreneurship did not amount to a knows it needs, the archetypal entrepreneur tramcondemnation of the entrepreneur. The entrepreneur’s mels the old ways and revolutionizes the economy by exercise of power within the economy was natural and 1. Find & validate an unmet need force of will. This, at least, is the most glorified articnecessary — a view predicated on Schumpeter’s vision 2. Develop a value proposition ulation of the entrepreneurial mythology, and we can of inexorable civilizational progress, with the forceful 3. Create a sustainability model note that in this particular formulation, the entrepreentrepreneur showing the way. By contrast, today’s neur’s charisma derives precisely from their breaking In this methodology, entrepreneurship emerges notional entrepreneur represents anything but coerthe rules to which meritocrats subscribe, and then as something entirely different from how we might cion, despite the fact that successful entrepreneurship proceeding to succeed in even greater proportion. know it from well-worn cultural myths—appar- still entails control over immense amounts of labor Bezos, Gates, Musk, Zuckerberg, Jobs: the mythology ently requiring none of the entrepreneur’s ineffable and capital. about these guys is that they dropped out of college, led characteristics. heterodox upstarts, and delivered something society When asked by the Independent why he holds Schumpeter to Drucker and back again hadn’t known it needed. These details may not be true, the view that entrepreneurship is now more socially exactly, in each of these cases, but in the world of myth, necessary than ever before, Warshay stated simply With Schumpeter’s entrepreneur as our working this is hardly important. What is unquestionably true that there are more global problems today than ever definition, the idea that we can all be entrepreneurs is that when these men are celebrated, it is for their before. This view of entrepreneurship carries within is hardly intuitive. Yet this notion has taken root in audacity, for impressing their will upon the fabric of it a long history of theorizing the entrepreneur, argu- popular discourse, largely due to the contributions of society. ably founded on the theorizing of the market as the mid-20th century management theory, particularly The entrepreneur, then, offers an alternative to the forum for the expression of elite will. At the same time, that of consultant and author Peter Drucker. Historian meritocratic apology for capitalism. Alex Gourevitch, Warshay’s remark also captures a fundamental reality Angus Burgin has argued that Drucker’s intellectual professor of Political Science at Brown University, of capitalist society: that progression occurs through trajectory, from his early writings of the 1940s to his prompts us to consider what these fantasies reflect innovative acts of entrepreneurship. In this sense, the most influential work, The Principles of Management, about political economy today. If the entrepreneur's “entrepreneurship racket” (in the words of Jacobin’s first published in 1954, reveal an underlying shift in meteoric rise rivals the meritocrat’s measured advance Avery Wiscomb) that consumes universities today feels attitudes towards automation during that time. Taking as the preeminent fantasy of capitalist success, it might both old and new. On the one hand, it’s just the latest stock of the mechanical nature of factory labor in the seem that the meritocratic path appears increasingly rendition of the old model of the entrepreneur—still a 1940s, and doubtful of the state’s capacity to interuntenable—that the traditional structures of success vessel to impose the will of the few on the lives of the vene in industrial organization, Drucker initially are simply unpromising. But beyond offering a liber- many. Yet the new notion that entrepreneurship can, proposed management and organization as a means atory fantasy in the face of systemic disillusionment, and should, be taught—especially at what Gourevitch to combat the alienation of worklife. By granting the the entrepreneur seems to give us something more calls “ruling class colleges and universities”—as well worker leeway to integrate tasks with “executive funcfundamental. As Gourevitch remarked on leftist global as the new ubiquity of the concept, gesture towards tion”—requiring thought and judgement—Drucker politics podcast Aufebunga Bunga in 2019, “when entre- new forms of capitalist enclosure necessitating new proposed to reimagine industrial worklife in the model preneurs truly are entrepreneurial, they remind us of fantastical strategies of ‘escape.’ of unalienated craftsmanship. But the contributions the human potential to exceed the normal and natural for which Drucker is best remembered today bear little of everyday life. To reach beyond where you normally The roots of the concept trace of these early concerns regarding the “social have to find yourself." This is to say that entrepreneurs, pathologies of industrial civilization,” in Burgin’s on the public stage that is the economy, serve as inspi- In his forthcoming article, “Capital Personified,” words. This, Burgin argues, is the result of Drucker’s rational spectacle. But if we look to the entrepreneur Gourevitch traces foundational theories of the entre- adoption of a euphoric attitude towards new technoloas a model of human potential, we must ask for whom, preneur’s role in political economy, beginning with gies, reflected in his theorizing of a new type of worker and how, entrepreneurial feats are made possible. early 18th-century theoretician Richard Cantillon altogether: the knowledge worker. Like many of his contemporaries, Drucker became and culminating with 20th-century Austrian polit+++ seduced by the liberatory potential of automation. ical economist Joseph Schumpeter. This genealogy Drucker came to believe that machines would enable highlights the important divergence of Schumpeter’s In certain discourses, entrepreneurship serves as notion of the entrepreneurial “leadership function” the industrial worker to act as an entrepreneur at every an ‘everything good’ catch-all. Entrepreneurship is from previous theories in which the entrepreneur’s level of the corporation. Working in tandem with inteldynamic, creative, nimble; its purview is not limited to acts were crucial in the economic system, but held little ligently-designed machines, the knowledge worker the traditional ‘business world.’ Through the category cultural meaning. Because Schumpeter conceived of would be able to exercise executive function. This of ‘social entrepreneurship,’ in particular, entrepre- the economy as a forum for the production of culture, embrace of automation all but supplanted Drucker’s neurship is invoked as the silver bullet by which social values, and civilization, he imbued entrepreneurial earlier concerns. Corporations and business schools ills might be transcended. These capacious definitions acts with moral significance. Schumpeter’s entrepre- alike soon integrated management theorists’ cyberof the entrepreneur are conspicuously expressed in neur makes history; his interventions into the other- netic techno-futurism, which remains distinctly the university. In 2016, Jacobin reported that despite wise static state of the economy effect economic visible in contemporary philosophies of corporate the decline in the absolute number of start-ups in growth, but more significantly, they are acts of leader- organization and business school curricula. As new the US over the past 30 years, entrepreneurship has ship which renovate civilization. technologies made old concerns seem obsolete, Burgin ballooned in higher education—the number of entrewrites, “Schumpeter's chiliastic vision thereby began Such acts of history-making are fundamentally preneurship courses offered in colleges and universi- coercive for Schumpeter because they divert some to evolve into the relentlessly optimistic discourse of ties has increased more than five-fold over this time portion of the fixed amount of capital in the economy entrepreneurship that has pervaded business educaperiod, with over 400,000 US college students taking away from the pre-existing projects and towards the tion ever since.” courses in entrepreneurship in 2013. Brown University entrepreneur’s own innovative project. Gourevitch As Gourevitch notes, however, the experience proclaims itself to be at the vanguard of institution- notes that Schumpeter’s language conveys the aggres- of the vast majority of workers today is a far cry from alized entrepreneurship. Prior to the 2019-2020 sive quality of these acts: capital confronts, the entre- entrepreneurial. At the Amazon fulfillment center, academic year, the University had offered an under- preneur forces. But since the entrepreneur heralds or the call center, or in any number of other occupagraduate concentration that included entrepreneur- civilizational advance, this coercive act is seen as a tions, the worker is more machine than ‘self-author,’ ship since 2007. This year, the University subsumed social good. contrary to the entrepreneurial mandate of creative the latest iteration—the concentration in Business, Schumpeter’s entrepreneur is not a creative figure. license to be borne from the liberatory force of automaEntrepreneurship, and Organization (BEO)—into He is exceptional not for his ability to invent, but his tion. Automation no longer carries the techno-utopian two existing academic departments. Brown now ability to innovate in a way that can catch on in the sheen that swept up Peter Drucker half a century ago. offers an undergraduate ‘certificate’ in entrepreneur- market. By recombining existing technologies or Instead, automation is now often invoked as a threat ship, to be administered by the Nelson Center for services, the entrepreneur offers something new. And to the worker. But the indelible mark of management Entrepreneurship, established in 2016. insofar as society had not previously expressed its theory is that corporate organization is now offered as The Nelson Center, like other university programs value for this new thing, which did not previously exist, a corrective to such ambivalence towards automation intended to cultivate entrepreneurship, rests on the the entrepreneur’s innovation transforms societal and other forms of industrial malaise. This equation of
09
SCIENCE + TECHNOLOGY
28 FEB 2020
entrepreneurship with industrial freedom at all levels more intensive advising by “a deep and knowledgeable As Alex Gourevitch explains, the particular political of the corporate structure underlies the vast array roster of mentors, industry contacts, and experienced importance of the entrepreneur is that under capiof institutions dedicated to the theory and practice entrepreneurs,” as well as meetings with venture talist society, “it really is the case that [...] this is how of entrepreneurship which have taken hold since capitalists. creativity and innovation takes place.” In other words, Drucker’s time. The Nelson Center describes itself as an “equi- it’s not only that we look to entrepreneurs as models Management theory reimagined entrepreneurship ty-free zone,” meaning that none of its grant offer- of human potential. It’s also that materially speaking, as a way of operating within business contexts which ings are tied to a stake in student ventures. However, entrepreneurs drive economic innovation, and thereorganization could facilitate. No longer defined in the Center’s existence and continuation does depend fore social change. So long as the traditional individstrictly economic terms, the concept became increas- on the success and support of Brown alumni. On its ualistic model of entrepreneurial creativity continues, ingly diffuse, to the extent that entrepreneurship could website, the Center addresses student entrepreneurs entrepreneurial acts will continue to reflect the entrebe understood as an assimilable attitude. Observing with the following: “If (when?) you go on to great preneur’s desires, or, in the most socially-conscious the growth in organizational approaches to entrepre- success our hope is that you’ll help pay it forward by scenario, the entrepreneur’s diagnosis of others’ neurship that gained steam in the 1990s, for example, supporting the next generation of Brown entrepre- desires. in Brown University's Business, Entrepreneurship, neurs!” ‘Paying it forward’ can mean financial donaThe narratives surrounding entrepreneurship and Organizations undergraduate concentration, it’s tions, but non-financial ‘philanthropy’ is perhaps work to conceal this reality. By the logic of Brown’s tempting to say that the institutionalization of entre- more significant to the Center’s model. By offering Nelson Center for Entrepreneurship, the recognition preneurship has amounted to its ‘meritocratization.’ If mentorship, sharing contacts, and facilitating access of a market opportunity amounts to a justification to entrepreneurship is governed by rules and structures, to venture capital, alumni constitute the Center’s exploit it. Much like Schumpeter’s entrepreneur, this then it would seem that becoming an entrepreneur is “networks of support”: webs of human, social, and entrepreneur need not be creative. Instead, this entreno different from becoming a typical capitalist. But in sometimes literal capital. preneur needs only a discerning perspective on society, important ways, the Schumpeterian logic of the entreSince entrepreneurship no longer falls under any and the access to capital to act upon their diagnoses of preneur has been preserved, even as a vast body of of Brown’s academic departments, the model for its its latent desires—tools at the disposal of only a few. theoretical work has reimagined the entrepreneur as perpetuation at the University is necessarily unlike In rejecting the personalistic mythology of the the everyman, rather than the ubermensch. While the that of academic concentrations. Though the certif- entrepreneur, the Nelson Center proposes that we rhetoric of entrepreneurship may now be ubiquitous, icate program receives university funding, without are all capable of the human act of entrepreneurship. the model of entrepreneurship most likely to produce a designated concentration, the revenue stream for This is ‘human’ in the Schumepeterian sense of histoactual entrepreneurs, in the sense of individuals who entrepreneurship is divorced from the departmental ry-making—human in leaving one’s mark on the world. begin and expand their own ventures, continues to be model, and now relies to a greater degree on the entre- This fantasy, of making an impact, is as legible today as structured around individual vision that is, crucially, preneurs it produces. There are certain advantages to it was when Schumpeter wrote a century ago. But what situated within elite institutions. this model—for instance, some might say that funding has been left behind—fallen out of fashion, perhaps—is of business ventures, or the development thereof, is a recognition of the force necessary to make an impact. Institutional history at Brown misplaced use of university resources. Such criticisms For Schumpeter, the entrepreneur’s ability to marshal revive old debates over the ultimate pursuit of the such force was intimately tied to the entrepreneur’s That Brown University has placed itself at the university, with blatant support of the world of busi- right to disrupt the status quo, to nudge civilization vanguard of the general turn towards institutional- ness and profit seeming to cheapen the classical vision onward. Schumpeter did not shy away from the reality izing the mythological naturalism of entrepreneur- of the university as a space for the pursuit of knowledge that only a select subset of society has the power to ship is written across its entrepreneurship programs. and excellence. Nevertheless, one result of distin- innovate in the economy—the entrepreneurial class, The "Mission" page of the Nelson Center’s website guishing entrepreneurship from the pursuits Brown while not benevolent, worked for the benefit of all— features a banner reading: “Entrepreneurship: An enshrines in academic concentrations is to make the even if the masses would not recognize the situation Essential Part of the Brown Experience.” The text University’s status as entrepreneurial all the more as such. The suggestion that entrepreneurship is about which follows tells us how this is so: “With centuries explicitly self-reinforcing. In the Center’s “sustain- the imposition of elite will to the supposed greater of innovative research, teaching, and learning, Brown ability model,” to borrow its term, entrepreneurship benefit would likely discomfort most contemporary has always been fertile ground for entrepreneurial is intended to breed entrepreneurship—establishing institutions that teach and promote entrepreneurship, thinking.” Entrepreneurship, in the Center’s lexicon, is Brown as an ever-more influential architect of the yet individualized creativity seems to inevitably point synonymous with problem-solving, and this definition world through the broadening of its networks of capital. in this direction. allows for “entrepreneurial thinking” to be read into The Center’s model of entrepreneurship is also The problem we are left with is, in Gourevitch’s the university’s ‘institutional tradition.’ The Center unmistakably individualistic. As one student partic- words, that of taking seriously the problem of thinking further elaborates its usage of the term as it outlines ipant in the Nelson Center’s summer accelerator about creativity. Gourevitch explained to Aufebunga its pedagogy: “While we love the optimism and can-do program remarked in a promotional video, “Getting Bunga that this problem is more specifically one of spirit that is the hallmark of most entrepreneurs, what to do something that’s for me and not for someone else “thinking about creativity not as a semi-conscious we teach is something altogether different: entrepre- is really special. It gives me the ultimate freedom to process by which a few so-called geniuses impose their neurship as a structured process.” me and to make the impact I want to make.” ‘Making will on people who don’t realize what’s happening, but In sum, entrepreneurship is problem-solving, and an impact’ is familiar language in public interest instead as something much more conscious and collecproblem-solving is a process which can be system- discourse, but in the context of entrepreneurship, tive that could in principle happen through collective atized and learned. The three-step process at the heart ‘impact’ seems to refer less to the magnitude of social political activity rather than through the market.” of the Center’s pedagogy, is framed as the Center’s key change than to the individual’s mark. Society is rife with problems, but the fact that an entredivergence from “most entrepreneurs.” Juxtaposed The Nelson Center does promote social entrepre- preneur can turn a profit does not amount to a solution. with the purportedly characteristic optimism of most neurship, but first and foremost, it promotes successful entrepreneurs, we get an intimation of the figure of the entrepreneurship. Funding allocation is “agnostic Nelson Center entrepreneur as calculated and sober, a with respect to what sectors or industries ventures IZZI OLIVE B‘20.5 believes that anyone can be an trustworthy realist. are working in, or even whether they are commer- entrepreneur, herself excepted. The Center’s funding of student ventures loosely cial, social, or have blended approaches.” Instead, corresponds to its staged model for entrepreneur- funds are awarded to the projects deemed most viable ship. The lowest level is the ‘Explore Grant,’ which at according to the rubric of the Center’s three-step $250 is designed to help students “find and validate an process of entrepreneurship. In this practice, entrepreunmet need.” From there, students may apply for the neurship becomes an end unto itself. No one “opportu$2,500 ‘Expand Grant’ — intended for “developing nity or challenge” is seen as more significant than any a value proposition,” or a salable solution to the need other; the mere existence of latent demand justifies its they have found. The $25,000 ‘Venture Prize,’ and fulfilment. the $50,000 ‘Venture Founders’ award, specifically for students founding startups in Rhode Island, are +++ meant to get ventures "off the ground." In addition to funding, this top tier of programming also confers
THE COLLEGE HILL INDEPENDENT
SCIENCE + TECHNOLOGY
10
police can still make arrests. Even after decriminalization, the Denver Police Department arrested two minors (for whom possession was not decriminalized under the ballot measure) for psychedelic mushrooms and the Drug Enforcement Agency searched another man’s home who they suspected of growing and dealing. What this decriminalization amounts to is more a symbolic message than a concrete change in the legal landscape. When asked about the impact of decriminalization, the Denver Police Department’s Media Relations Unit admitted that “psilocybin mushroom-related crime was not a big issue prior to the passage of the ordinance and has not been a big issue since.” Between 2016 and 2019, just over one tenth of a percent of filed drug cases in Denver involved psilocybin. So what’s the point of decriminalization if the psychedelics are still illegal and laws were already rarely enforced? A lot, actually, because it opens doors to future research and utilization of the drugs by a broader community. +++ If we look back at the history of psychedelics in the United States, the recent decriminalization marks an important turning point in a fraught history. In the 1950s and 60s, psychedelics were brought into the forefront of American consciousness by R. Gordon Wasson when he detailed his experience with psilocybin mushrooms in Life Magazine. Investigated for their mind-altering uses, psychedelics were seen as a miracle drug by both the scientific and general population, with over 1,000 studies on the drugs published before 1965. Before that, indigenous cultures have been utilizing psychedelics for thousands of years, a fact often ignored by the Western scientific community despite indigenous knowledge being used to inform Western practice. The Aztecs, for example, believed that psilocybin could be used to receive divine knowledge, Amazonian tribes used and continue to use ayahuasca to help identify and treat illnesses, and many others incorporate psychedelics into both their medicinal and spiritual practices. As knowledge surrounding psychedelics spread throughout the 60s, these drugs made their way into the general American population, quickly becoming associated with the growing hippie counterculture. This association became a death sentence for the future of psychedelic research. As the face of anti-government and anti-war protest, anything associated with hippie culture became suspicious in the eyes of the mainstream and the government, psychedelics included. In an interview with John Ehrlichman, counsel to Nixon, he stated that their administration intentionally associated hippies (among other groups, specifically Black Americans) with drugs as an excuse to “break up their communities. . . [and] vilify them night after night on the evening news.” Unsparingly, Nixon began the War on Drugs in conjunction with this vilification. In 1970, he signed the Controlled Substances Act, banning the use, sale, and transport of psychedelics by making them a Schedule I drug, designating them as having no accepted medical use and a high potential for abuse and tightly controlling research. Nixon’s decision greatly derailed promising research into psychedelics BY Will Allstetter as a treatment for depression, addiction, and anxiety, ILLUSTRATION David Gonzalez among other mental health problems. Researching DESIGN Anna Brinkhuis psychedelics became both a bureaucratic nightmare and a social taboo. Up until the mid to late 2000s, research was effectively halted. Through decriminalization, however, cities are bucking this restriction. Dr. Jeffrey Bratberg, a clinical professor at the University of Rhode Island, acknowledges the taboo For most, magic mushrooms carry connotations of mushrooms as well as other “natural” psychedelics still surrounding the medicalization and research of hippies, music festivals, and perhaps a previous room- such as ayahuasca and peyote. But what does it mean psilocybin mushrooms and other psychedelics, “but mate. But, in recent years, there has been a concerted to decriminalize a drug? Contrary to popular belief, [the government] is coming around to this group of effort by psychedelic believers to change their bohe- the legislative actions have not included legalization, drugs.” Nonetheless, psychedelics remain Schedule I mian image and bring magic mushrooms (among but they will have strong impacts on the future of drugs. What research has been done, however, shows other psychedelics) into the mainstream. Proponents psychedelics. encouraging results. cite the spiritual and mental benefits the drugs can In a 2014 study by Johns Hopkins, over a third Once a substance is decriminalized, city funds are provide—including treatment for addiction, depres- no longer directed toward prosecuting and enforcing of smokers treated with psilocybin did not pick up sion, and anxiety—as a central argument for legalizing possession charges for those over 21 and psilocybin a cigarette for 12 months following their trip. Other and normalizing their usage. mushroom possession becomes the lowest possible studies have shown promising results when exploring The decriminalization efforts seem to be working. priority for law enforcement. Cities do not have the psilocybin as a treatment for otherwise treatment-reAlmost a year ago, Denver became the first city in the ability to make psychedelics legal—that’s up to state sistant depression, anxiety, and OCD. A 2017 psychoUnited States to decriminalize mushrooms containing and federal authorities—but they can effectively logical study at the University of Adelaide confirmed psilocybin, the psychoactive chemical in “magic” un-enforce the law through their police department. what many already believed: the medical benefits mushrooms. Since then, two other cities—Oakland However, decriminalization does not extend to those are commonly attributed to psychedelics’ ability for and Santa Cruz—have followed suit by decriminalizing involved in the selling of the drug and state and federal one to “step back” from themselves, changing the
KEEPING AN
OPEN
A glimpse at the fight to decriminalize psychedelics
MIND
11
NEWS
28 FEB 2020
way participants view themselves and the issues the purest form of existence. The voice in my head percent of the people out there, since they might not fit plaguing them through a process dubbed “ego-death.” was muted and my understanding felt objective and the criteria for use. There’s also hesitation around the “Ego-death” is understood as a complete loss of so powerful.” Another described their closeness with medicalization and the clinical aspect, considering self-identity—an experience common in mushroom nature while tripping: “I could feel plants breathing. I Big Pharma.” Instead of solely therapeutic purposes, trips. Users are able to step outside “the self” to look also sensed waves of energy from large rocks.” Another the group’s rationale behind the decriminalization at the world and their issues more holistically. Even user I spoke with microdosed (or, consumed an unno- of natural psychedelics stems from the “inalienable if a user doesn’t experience “ego-death,” profes- ticeable amount of mushrooms) often over the period human right to develop our own relationship with sionals have compared taking mushrooms to shaking of a couple of months, stating that afterward, she was nature.” a psychological snowglobe, disrupting the worn-in able to “step back from” sensations like being too hot or By making psilocybin a medicalized, scheduled patterns your brain has fallen into and helping you to cold thanks to greater control of their mind. drug, some also worry about increased cost. As Norris break out of possibly harmful routines. Despite promising research, psychedelics like explains, “We want to make sure people can grow it on But these studies have been small-scale psilocybin can have potentially harmful effects. Bad their own. The danger with the other way comes from and many in the medical community believe more trips do happen, which can lead to serious psycho- corporatization and capitalism.” If mushrooms were research needs to be done before we can confidently logical damage. Eight percent of users who reported to be legalized and medicalized before decriminalutilize mushrooms as a medical tool. Due to the crack- bad trips sought psychological help afterward. In ization, drug companies could inflate prices and make down in the 70s, “We’re 50 years behind on research,” some very rare instances, those with increased risk of mushrooms less accessible. notes Dr. Bratberg. In his opinion, and in the opinion of serious mental health issues, such as schizophrenia, Possessing or producing other legalized, schedmany other experts, the route to a future where mush- can have psychological breaks triggered by the drugs. uled, drugs like Xanax or Adderall without a prescriprooms can be effectively used is one where psilocybin These concerns are not reflected in clinical trials, as tion is illegal for good reason. Counterfeit production can be standardized. He notes that “with two mush- researchers screen potential users to minimize the risk. of prescription pills is infamously subject to dangerous rooms that look exactly the same, one could have much And, like any mind-altering substance, mushrooms impurities, such fentanyl added to Xanax. However, more psilocybin than the other, making it hard to effec- must be taken carefully and users must recognize that because the growth of natural psychedelics is relatively tively use.” To start regulating these drugs, the FDA their judgment is compromised when high. safe and easy for everyday users, the monopolization needs to relabel psychedelics as drugs with medical of production with Big Pharma isn’t as much of a worry. benefits, which means “convincing the government or +++ If you’re looking for the standardized forms that private companies to fund it… We have to resurrect and Dr. Bratberg support, however, you might see some redo some of the trials [done in the 50s and 60s]. And While many see medicalization and standardiza- price hikes. According to researchers at Johns Hopkins, if the trials show a significant enough effect, we can tion as the best path towards effective use of psyche- the psilocybin currently being used in their medical get it approved,” says Dr. Bratberg. This process has delics, some worry about the effects this could have research is about 13 times more expensive than the already begun. The US Food and Drug Administration on the long term future of the drugs. Decriminalize market price of homegrown varieties. This difference has granted studies of both psilocybin mushrooms Nature, an activist group that helped decriminalize is due to the high standards the FDA sets in their Good and MDMA, the active ingredient in ecstasy, a “break- natural psychedelics in Oakland and Santa Cruz, is Manufacturing Practices. At each step in synthesizing through therapy” status, fast-tracking their future against medicalization as the sole route for the future psilocybin, certain standards must be met to ensure research through close collaboration with the FDA. of psychedelics. When speaking with Larry Norris, a safety and standardization, as opposed to homegrown As one might expect, visual hallucinations and co-founder and board member of the organization, he varieties which can be treated like a slightly more euphoric feelings are common when tripping on psilo- explained that he recognizes the medical benefits that involved houseplant. cybin. The experience is different for everyone, but drugs like psilocybin can have but remains wary: “at A similar phenomenon can be seen with the legalone mushroom user I spoke with said that “it felt like the end of the day, medicalization isn’t going to help 90 isation of marijuana. Due to taxes accrued at multiple steps of the supply chain and governmental regulations, illegal marijuana is almost always less expensive than its legal counterpart. Even post-legalization, nearly 90 percent of marijuana sold in Massachusetts and 78 percent in California was illegal, thanks in large part to these price discrepancies. Once the price hikes drug companies are notorious for are factored in, the cost could reach even higher. In the first six months of 2019,the prices of 3,400 drugs have raised an average of 10.5 percent. Others, such as Norris, cite another worry: the potential for medicalization to arbitrarily designate a user as “good” or “bad.” One might not fit the clinical criteria for psychedelic treatment but could still benefit from the perspective the drugs can offer. In a different Johns Hopkins study of psilocybin mushrooms, 94 percent of the fully-healthy adults studied cited their experience as one of the top five most meaningful in their lives. 39 percent claimed it was the most meaningful. That’s why Decriminalize Nature sees decriminalization as such an important step in psychedelics’ integration into the mainstream. Whether medicalized or not, they want to ensure that one cannot get in trouble for possessing these drugs. The message seems to be sticking. Norris says that Decriminalize Nature is currently helping to organize similar movements in over 100 cities. Chicago’s City Council has introduced a resolution to explore the decriminalization of organic psychedelics; Washington, DC’s Board of Elections has approved the first steps towards getting decriminalization on the ballot; Vermont lawmakers are filing a bill to decriminalize; and many others across the country are organizing to do the same. We probably won’t see mushroom dispensaries any time soon, but cultural and governmental momentum is building around the usage of this promising group of drugs. Soon, you might be able to fill a prescription for psychedelics at your local pharmacy.
WILL ALLSTETTER B’22.5 believes in magic.
THE COLLEGE HILL INDEPENDENT
NEWS
12
TUNING OUT REALITY A FAREWELL TO THE REAL HOUSEWIVES
BY Cecelia Barron ILLUSTRATION Leslie Benavides DESIGN Anna Brinkhuis
I was 10 when I witnessed a physical fight for the first these lapses in morality as any viewer. are divorced, living their wealthy lives and lamenting time. It occurred at a country club. Upset by rumors Real Housewives first aired in 2006 with the their wealthy woes. But, as the episodes inched on, the disputing her wealth, one woman, Teresa, chased her premiere of The Real Housewives of Orange County. plotlines became remarkably less real and all the more ex-friend Danielle around the grounds of the estate, Noticeable in its grainy footage and mundanity, the desperate. Though (allegedly) unscripted, the shows screaming expletives as she cut around banquet rooms. show’s first season contained few of the brawls and began to have the same thrilling edge that the high Danielle hid in the bushes while crowds swarmed the blowouts so closely tied to the franchise today. Most of drama of Desperate Housewives had provided. screaming women. As Danielle was being led away the first season’s issues were inconsequential. In one The catalyzing moment which defined the franfrom the chaos, a friend of Teresa’s yanked Danielle’s episode, a Housewife hires another Housewife’s son chise as dramatic spectacle rather than an earnest hair, leaving a pile of brown extensions on the floor. I to shoot the rabbits invading her yard. Any moments exploration was in the first season finale of RHONJ. still remember this moment, my pounding heart, my of tension were entirely personal, like the ongoing Cast member Teresa Giudice flips a table in outrage anxiety about these perils of adulthood. It all occurred plot line dealing with the troubled engagement of over her fellow castmate Danielle Staub’s refusal on The Real Housewives of New Jersey. Housewife Jo De La Rosa and her husband Slade to admit she was a “prostitution whore.” From then After a decade under its influence, I’m quitting Smiley (they would break up during the second season). on, viewers expected more from Housewives. The The Real Housewives and its brethren. Housewives—and, Though monotonous, the realistic element of the new show could no longer survive as an inside look into more broadly, reality TV—has been as central to my show, the seemingly absolute intrusion into these the lives of rich women; it had to be an expositor coming of age as Harry Potter or Hannah Montana. I women's lives, was not only intriguing but cathartic for of the evils that existed between these characters. can’t remember the first time I watched an episode of watchers. The women—rich women—were mired in Desperate Housewives faded into obscurity once the Housewives not because the moment was insignificant, the same petty problems we all were: rabbit invasions, same dramatic effect could be reached by featuring but simply because I was too young to recollect the a floundering relationship. All these women claimed real women rather than actors. There was something exact timing of my fall into Bravo’s vortex. It has existed to want was what all American women were assumed enticing about the realness of Housewives fights: these as a throughline, connecting the years of my life and to desire from life: the perfect husband, the perfect women wouldn’t walk off set and hug each other. The dictating the seasons, without ever really starting. kids, and a multi-million dollar home. Naturally, many stakes of their fights were higher and the consequences However, the anxiety I felt about the world I could American women had dismissed these lofty, patriar- were more permanent. be entering as I watched the New Jersey “Country chal ideals long ago. And yet these shows thrived, for Two years after the famous table-flipping and Clubbed” episode in 2010 was justified: the depraved while we could sympathize with these women chasing seven Real Housewives expansions later, Desperate universe of the Housewives wasn’t just contained to the some unrealistic model of womanhood, we could also Housewives announced its end. Cohen had noticed that TV. But as I am now actually an adult, I can no longer judge them for it. the unbelievably dramatic lives of real people were bemoan the effects of Housewives without action. My The pilot episode of RHOC debuted on the same more entertaining than the manufactured conflicts participation in the dastardly franchise ends here. day when the first tweet ever was sent: March 21st, spun out in scripted dialogue on Universal backlots, 2006. The show now had a medium for which all opin- and he capitalized on it. What began as a mini-series +++ ions about the Wives could be shared. Intriguing and about five women living outside of LA became an cathartic, Housewives were now also uniting. The international franchise with over a dozen cities and Let us start at the beginning. Inspired by the distribution of viewers breaking up approximately spin-offs, a viewership in the millions, and a cultural success of ABC series Desperate Housewives—a drama evenly between California and New York, Florida and phenomenon. which followed the surprisingly thrilling lives of four Nevada, viewers states apart could now both ridicule otherwise average suburban women—Andy Cohen, a Housewife’s new breast implants (“Fake boobs. Fake +++ the CEO of the Housewives franchise, wanted to capi- tan. No hips. No booty,” @bougieknitter tweeted, “I talize on the public’s curiosity about what happens don’t wanna look like none of them! #RHOC”). Friends A show about wealthy, sheltered, (mostly) white behind the white picket fence. While Desperate separated by oceans could unite over their hatred for a women is destined to produce endless examples of Housewives was scripted—complete with murder and particular husband (“Slade is back?!?” @DavidAtlanta ignorance and unchecked privilege. More surprising, more murder—the Real Housewives began as a docu- complains, “*puke*”). Only eight episodes, the however, is that the audience for Housewives is so quiet mentary-style inquiry into the same American fascina- first season of RHOC laid out the blueprint for all of about these issues, even while they publicly advocate tion: what do these housewives do all day? While ABC Housewives to follow: a complete dismissal of privacy against them. The creator himself, Andy Cohen, is a positioned its characters from the show’s title as hope- and an invitation for the audience to judge without self-proclaimed “total liberal” who frequently calls lessly flawed, Bravo offered a more honest lens through consequences. out transphobia and homophobia on his own latewhich to view modern women. Perhaps these houseFollowing Orange County came New York, night talk show, Watch What Happens Live. On Twitter, wives would turn out to be as devious and corrupt as Atlanta, and New Jersey, all within three years. Each he has expressed his strong opposition to his homethe Desperate Housewives were written to be, but these expansion followed the same structure: several state senator, Josh Hawley, a pro-life Republican who real women were (at least, in theory) as perceptible to women, some of whom are married, many of whom supports President Trump’s policy of child separation
13
FEATURES
28 FEB 2020
at the Mexican border. He’s also voiced support for is embarking upon a new frontier of feminism, away and trash-talking. On Orange County, an otherwise movements like #BlackLivesMatter. His shows like from the tropes which inspired its conception. But, average bus ride to the airport ended with castmate Housewives, however, propagate the various modes of in a matter of episodes, Jayne, too, falls victim to the Vicki Dodd telling Shannon Beador to “shave her chin discrimination that he publicly denounces. conflict necessitated by the show’s form: “I’m tired of off” with all that “freakin’ hair.” On Atlanta, Phaedra While the franchise is most often criticized for its being nice to you,” she says to a fellow wife. Parks spread a rumor that Kandi Burruss wanted to stereotypical portrayals of women, Housewives is as Despite all of this, I continued to watch The Real drug and sexually assault a fellow castmate. On New problematic when it comes to race. When the cast for Housewives. What started as a one episode curiosity York, a girls' trip to the Berkshires culminated in cast the upcoming season of Beverly Hills was announced, became a weekly obsession. I couldn’t get enough. I member Bethenny Frankel yelling at De Lesseps that the Housewives fandom praised Bravo for including the added city after city, spin-off after spin-off, until all she “f***s everyone.” first Black Beverly Hills cast member, Garcelle Beauvais, of my weeknights were consumed between 8 and 10 This narrative about spiteful female friendrather than questioning why the network had segre- pm. I knew, however, that all of this—the racism, the ships is pervasive in society. Men often joke about gated these casts for so long: each franchise is almost homophobia, the sexism—was ingrained within these how easy male friendship is. Mothers will comfort always entirely white, besides Atlanta and Potomac, shows. And I still watched. their daughters with the notion that “girls can just be which are almost all Black. On the latest season of New mean.” Implicit in the emphasis on sisterhood in sororYork, white cast member Luann de Lesseps dressed +++ ities is an attempt to prove that women can exist in a up as Diana Ross, lead singer of the Supremes, for contained space peacefully. I’ve heard middle school Halloween. Complete with a towering, twelve-inch Essential to my excusing of Housewives was the notion teachers employ this trope in classes about puberty. afro and a dark spray tan bordering on blackface, her of choice. I was choosing to subject myself to such But most female friendships don’t assume—or at least fellow Housewives whispered about her costume’s stereotypes; society wasn’t forcing my hand. Choice don’t want to assume—this catty archetype American racism but did little to stop it. De Lesseps later apol- today is everything. We choose what to post, what culture has laid out for them. Yet the narrative persists, ogized “if she offended anyone” and remained on to comment, who to swipe right on, and who to leave and reality TV is largely to blame. the show. In Dallas, Housewife LeAnn Locken made on read. We have so much control, it’s impossible to Beyond perpetuating this dangerous stereotype, several offensive comments relating to another cast imagine that someone else is holding the ropes, telling Real Housewives has also recruited many watchers—of member’s Mexican heritage. Both De Lesseps and us what to do or swipe or watch. But that’s exactly all genders—into their vortex of meaningless drama. Locken were grilled by Cohen in interviews, but these what Bravo and large corporations are counting on. The “clap back” culture so pervasive in social media confrontations were heavily teased and sensationally Choice requires agency, and agency is freedom. But today is full of Housewife lingo and attitudes. “Girl, edited. Bravo’s obsessed with the idea of racism—its our choices being made “freely” doesn’t free them bye,” “who gon’ check me boo,” and (to a degree) the victims and perpetrators, its relevance in today’s from their ties to oppressive structures. Modern soci- profuse use of “b*tch” is all attributable to the Bravo society, its ability to shock witnesses. The network is ety’s fetishization with choice cannot cloud the unjust empire. (The appropriation of Black vernacular that much less interested in counteracting racism, whether systems our agency endorses. often comes with these meme-able Housewives quotes that’s the hate spewed by a Housewife or the discrimiI chose to watch these shows as a form of escapism. can be traced back to Cohen’s empire, too.) “Clapping nation inherent in the show’s structure. With an audi- Like The Bachelor or Jersey Shore and just about every back” is not always bad: some of it is innocuous and ence that’s 80 percent white, this sensationalization other reality TV show, they provide an alternate some of it is necessary. But much of it, like most things spins racism into a topic of intrigue, rather than a topic reality: one we can mock and laugh about, one we can on social media, is just mean. to be addressed. be grateful we’re not in, one we might even secretly And while Housewives has a large queer following— envy. That’s what I loved about reality TV, and that’s +++ Cohen himself is a gay man and vocal about many why, for so long, I ignored how terrible these shows and LGBTQ+ issues—the shows invoke and perpetuate their effects were. Since I was choosing to watch them, Our culture has become an offshoot of The Real homophobia. On the past season of Potomac, a cast I thought I could also choose to ignore their nefarity. I Housewives. The stereotypes depicted on Housewives member’s husband, Michael Darby, was alleged to could overlook their implications and enter their reality, are not only reflections of the worst -isms; they are have drunkenly stated that he would fellate a fellow however harmful it may have been. But this is the false also powerful influences on our own behavior. Women Househusband. The event was not recorded, but choice Housewives presents us with. We may choose to have to actively counter the narratives the shows the rumor spread like wildfire between the women. enter, but we can’t choose to remain unaffected. present about female interactions. Our interactions Additionally, Darby was sued for allegedly groping a These shows are harmful past their hour- with each other online employ the same sensationalist cameraman on set, though the case was later dropped. long slots. The constant excusals of racism send a tactics. And I’d be mistaken to think that after a decade Ashley Darby, Darby’s wife, was condescendingly comforting message to an audience that is predomi- of ingesting its content, my own behavior hasn’t been pitied by the other Housewives who wanted to make nantly white. The portrayals of bisexuality—as either impacted by its evils: I crave the glamour and pointsure she was “ok” while they joked behind her back a drunken female escapade or an example of a man’s less materialism of the Wives, with their Birkin bags about her husband’s sexuality. This sort of emascula- reduced masculinity—only reaffirm existing, internal- and extravagant parties; I often find myself retweeting tion via homophobia has been a trend on other shows ized prejudices towards queer people. And though the spiteful “clap backs” just because they seem funny; I as well. Bisexuality is also a constant punchline: shows may feature women and are largely supported will suspect the worst of my female friends—they’re Housewives will often kiss each other to the shock by a female fan base, H ousewives has commodified and excluding me, they’re talking trash about me—while of the other castmates who either laugh about how sensationalized internalized misogyny. I never do the same for my friends of other genders. I drunk they must be or who cast their kiss off as “classIf our form of relaxation and escape has become externally reject everything that franchise emits, lessness.” For shows with such large queer follow- watching women compete for a rose from a man, while I internally crave and emulate its most misogyings, these repeated accounts of homophobia seem watching women brawl at a christening, and watching nistic aspects. counterintuitive. But key to understanding The Real women mock each other’s weights, then we must be Every season of Housewives ends with an all-cast Housewives is understanding its ability to minimize returning to our own realities with the notion that reunion where the cast members can confront each ignorance into a harmless joke or obscure discrimina- sexism might be bad in the real world but it’s certainly other one last time. Andy Cohen sits between two tion into an enticing plotline. It then becomes easy to fun to watch on TV. Yet if we’ve stopped excusing couches of extravagantly-clothed Housewives and brush off the franchise’s problematicness: it’s all just a the stereotypes about catty female friendships, the brings up drama from the past season in hopes that part of the show! emotionality of women being an example for their there will be enough conflict to keep watchers hooked The same technique of minimization is what has inability to lead, and men talking about sex in terms for another two or three episodes. As my decade-long allowed the show’s misogyny to quietly prosper. Since of conquest and numbers in our lives, why should we season with the franchise comes to a close, I want to the primary casts are entirely female-identifying, the excuse it on TV? And by choosing to popularize it in the think I’ve had it out with every conflict these shows idea that Housewives could be an intentionally sexist media, aren’t we increasing its possible vitality in real present, but I’m not naive. Turning off the TV won’t show seems hard to grasp. Any men featured—from life? end the harmful narratives Housewives perpetuates; husbands to fathers to friends—are accessories to While it may be easy to dismiss reality TV as a ridic- obliterating reality TV entirely wouldn’t do that either. the women’s plotlines, and if they make an offensive ulous but insignificant problem, Bravo is the top cable But just as there’s power in our choice to watch, there’s comment, their wives often call them out on it. And the network for female viewers. One episode of Atlanta power in our choice to disengage. So I end my run with women themselves, though prone to conflict, are inde- pulled in nearly four million viewers three years ago. The Real Housewives here. And I’m taking my choices pendent and strong-minded. Some are entrepreneurs Other franchises average well over a million watchers with me. and lawyers, retired actresses or fashion designers, per episode. To contextualize this, Anderson Cooper’s and many have managed to spin their Housewives fame 8pm show on CNN broke records by hitting one million CECILIA BARRON B’23 is looking for a new, morally into their own personal money-making entity. But viewers—per month. The narrative that these shows acceptable TV show to binge. though the show’s model relies on the outdated idea of are occasional indulgences protects the franchise the American wife, its portrayal of women shouldn’t from the proper criticism it deserves. These shows are be judged by those old-fashioned, highly economic remarkably popular. These shows have influence. terms. To still view sexism through that dated lens— One very real impact of The Real Housewives is its the providing husband, the submissive wife—ignores control over the narrative of female friendship. The the changing nature of this prejudice. “guy’s girl” trope—the notion that some women believe Erika Jayne, a cast member on Beverly Hills, is the that they’re better suited to the friendship of men who archetype of the modern woman. 48 years old with a don’t engage in the now-gendered terms “drama” second identity as a catsuit-wearing popstar, she’s far and “gossip”—has existed for decades, perhaps centufrom the typical American wife. Known to reappro- ries. Shows like Housewives, though, have certainly priate misogynistic slurs, she’s loved for her quotable strengthened the appeal of this internalized misogyny. phrases like “Being poor sucks. And being rich is a On TV, through fights like those of the Wives, female lot better.” It’s easy to see Jayne and think the show friendships seem to entirely consist of backstabbing
THE COLLEGE HILL INDEPENDENT
FEATURES
14
Inspecting The
King
of Mask Singer the American under gaze
I have spent many afternoons with my grandfather taekwondo matches, both artists bow to each other as the world. This mass viewership occurs in the wake of watching K-dramas I cannot understand, appreciating the track for “Love Leaves Its Scent” by Tei begins to strict censorship during the 1980s, the terminations the joy he derives from listening to his own language play. In the same direct present tense used to describe of which opened the country for importation of media from the comfort of his own couch. He loves to point to action in comic books and video games, a small red at astounding rates. Perhaps because of this, so much the scenic unidiscovered mountain ranges that young bubble appears next to a well-known judge reading: 그 of the art consumed and created as a reaction is often women in hanboks run through, wistfully stating, “I 는 귀를 기른다 (he perks up his ears). The viewer expe- infringed upon by Western subjectivity, as monoknow that place. That is home.” While my mother rience at home is contingent upon these edited inter- lithic institutions such as Disney and Marvel Studios values silver-screen representation and cheered at jections that serve to create an immersive experience continue to produce popular American content that is Parasite’s Oscar victories, my grandparents always I can’t possibly visit outside of my grandparents’ tele- internalized by South Korean youth. appreciate the accessibility of Korean media designed vision set, as the saturated animations contribute to a South Korea has developed its own brand in recent specifically for a Korean audience, wherever in the sense of belonging in the world The King of Mask Singer years, both in film through auteurs like Park Chanworld that audience may be. Although I can never fully operates within. I am not only invested in the outcome wook (Old Boy, 2003) and Bong Joon-Ho (Parasite, understand this longing for a home located in both for each contestant but also the impact on a commu- 2019), and in music through K-Pop groups like BTS a different time and place, I enjoy South Korean TV nity that the audience is somehow implicated in. This and EXO. In many ways, the long-standing popularity shows that seemingly subvert Hollywood altogether style is not unique to this show, though it is distinctly of The King of Mask Singer in South Korea reflects this by speaking directly to issues of Seoul outside of the not-Western; yet, instead of feeling foreign, I feel right distinctly un-American brand since it hinges upon confines of Western cinema and structure. at home. un-American values of private identity and uninhibAs a retired fan of The X Factor, my favorite show With a simple spotlight and pastoral imagery ited expression. The use of masks stands staunchly to watch with my grandparents is always The King of projected on an LED screen behind the artists, the against the pervasive fandom culture that has afflicted Mask Singer (미스터리 음악쇼 복면가왕). Though I lack set design is similar to many slow-song productions much of South Korea with the rise of national idols, the linguistic abilities to fully comprehend each song in American singing competitions with a simple spot- as PR executives and the general public constantly and the exclamations of the judges, I’m drawn to the light. The text and whispers of the panelists analyze examine young celebrities for signs of “improper saturated colors and premise of celebrating unidis- the performance as it occurs, stating that “Hodori has conduct” such as unsanctioned dating and unmodcovered talent. The program first debuted in 2015 in a mature voice” and that “His understanding of frus- erated diets. This close inspection of celebrity bodies Seoul on MBC channel and has run 242 episodes to tration proves that he’s experienced.” Commentary and personas necessitates programs like The King of date. Each competition lasts two episodes, as masked from the judges revolve around talent and ability in Mask Singer, positioning its existence entirely out of the singers compete Western paradigm. one-on-one for three However, when looking the show up in English, elimination rounds, the first link always directs to a Ryan Reynolds cameo the outcome of each made in May 2018, singing “Tomorrow” from Annie decided live by a panel of while donning a unicorn mask and glittery silver judges and studio audicape. Reynolds epitomizes the condeence members. When scending approach maintained by the loser’s identity is many white male actors that choose to revealed, the winner goes on to challenge the reigning appear on Asian game shows during Mask King, a title applied to all victors regardless of overseas film promotion, as if the gender identity. childish mask and pastel colors of My favorite episode from 2016 pits two characters the stage were something to be tried against one another, a costumed Hodori, the official on, then taken off, before returning mascot of the 1988 Seoul Olympics, and Vinicus, the their most unadulterated forms, distinct from the to statutes of masculinity. As a montage of clips taken official mascot of the 2016 Rio de Janiero Olympics. identity of the performer. Despite its flashy colors and from Deadpool (and Deadpool 2) played for screaming To counter the phenomenon of celebrity culture and cartoonish stylization, The King of Mask Singer stands women and viewers at home, Reynolds stood sheepidols in South Korean media, all contestants wear powerfully against the performative nature of identity ishly and allowed himself to be the subject of adoration. masks designed by artist Hwang Jae-geun and perform and allows for artistic expression unfiltered through His subdued reactions juxtaposed with the animated without revealing their faces. But before the cloaked biased scrutiny. responses of the audience and panel members reinartists set foot on stage, the host introduces a 12-person Because of the idiosyncratic editing style and forced a Western self-identification as serious in the judging panel comprised of celebrity-idols, past-vic- premise of the show, I was shocked to find the face of hysteria. tors, and comedians. I’m overwhelmed listening to his American adaptation, The Masked Singer, on FOX. The Perhaps it is the success of the Reynolds cameo hurried exclamations that mirror the frantic comedy of tagline of this version, “Can you guess the celebrity that helped propel the American launch of the show the overlaid graphics and sound effects. And yet, I can’t behind the mask?” contradicts the foundational intent in January 2019. Creator Craig Plestis was origilook away. The audience’s laughter at an embarrassed of the MBC original and speaks to the Western values nally mesmerized by the Thai version of the show panelist is accompanied by a reverberating boing and of stripping down and unveiling. Through the lens of after seeing it in a restaurant and quickly moved to a bright blue tear, the editing augmenting the action. critic Craig Owens’ belief that “Visibility is always on acquire the rights for US adaptation. This process The onomatopoeic animations explicitly outline what the side of the male,” this often-nonsensical reality and the subsequent audience approval was abetted by the show’s creators intend, utilizing hyperbolic humor program operates, then, in an Orientalized adapta- Reynolds’s viral performance, a moment still referto elicit nostalgia and develop a sense of community. tion of an inherently feminized Other. The Masked enced by critics and culture writers looking to analyze From my grandparents’ couch, I feel the pull towards Singer equates unmasking with truth, and this mascu- The Masked Singer today, myself included. Although manufactured familiarity, as I laugh both with and at line act of interrogation undermines the use of the many American singing competitions travel overseas— everyone on stage. As returning performers stand to mask-as-protection in The King of Mask Singer. the structures of The Voice (its origins in The Voice of greet their fans, the frame freezes in an anime-style The first episode I saw of FOX’s competition Holland) and American Idol (its origins in Pop Idol UK) sequence to display an image of their most distinct features a singer in an elaborate butterfly costume were purchased from Europe—The Masked Singer is costumes from their time as contestants. The constant performing an intricate number with background most notably rooted in something exotic. and sometimes contradictory stimulus—both sights dancers before a panel of four celebrity judges: Robin The King of Mask Singer suffers from its own and sounds—demands complete attention, calling Thicke, Jenny McCarthy Wahlberg, Ken Jeong and Western influences, as contestants sing a mix of back to past episodes while reversing roles and unset- Nicole Scherzinger. The host, Nick Cannon, introduced contemporary Korean and American music. An tling previously-established power dynamics. Even this haphazard conglomeration as the lead team of episode featuring a golden pig (The Masked Singer’s formerly disgraced contestants can sit on the opposite “investigators,” immediately positioning members of own Ken Jeong) singing “Creep” by Radiohead has side of the stage as members of the panel and vote in this “elite” group as inquisitors and not participants in been heralded as one of the best performances of the the current competition, quickly moving beyond old the action. Unlike its Korean counterpart, The Masked whole show in a YouTube compilation made by MBC failures. Singer performances are less about musical integrity itself; a duel performance of contestants singing “Billie A quick pan of the room reveals a young, attrac- and instead center on spectacle and reveal. Instead Jean” in Michael Jackson masks wearing different tive audience enthralled by the distorted voice of the of superimposed digital stickers and bouncing excla- suits not only emulates Jackson’s voice but also body current Mask King. She sits in a throne clad in a dark mations, the adaptation relies on Jeong’s comic inter- language. Unlike in the American version, contesrobe with gold embroidery and crown designed to jections, Cannon’s vivacity, and Thicke’s frequently tants on The King of Mask Singer have mobility in their resemble fire, responding to the host in an altered high- inappropriate comments in order to sustain audience costumes, which more closely resemble clothing than pitched frequency. The competition structure is not engagement. Although it is fun to see Korean media elaborate dressings of The Masked Singer, allowing unlike that of an intense wrestling competition (or at in Western contexts and revel in the influence of Seoul for the incorporation of intricate dance routines to least, my imagined version of WWE), beginning with over Hollywood, I can’t help but ache for the integrity more upbeat songs. This falls in line with involved the Round One: the duet song match. Text that mirrors of the original and notice what is lost in translation. K-Pop performances in which the artists are required the audience’s anxiety—누가 이길 것인가, 그들은 우리 to provide constant entertainment, and is a stylistic 에게 무엇을 보여줄 것인가 (who will win, what will they +++ hybrid utilizing Korean structures and American raw show us)—and repeats the judges statements—this is materials. the most nerve wracking moment, 노래가 시작되기를 기 Long before The King of Mask Singer came to the In the third episode of the second season of The 다리는 중 (waiting for the song to start)—flashes along United States, America came to Seoul. Despite being Masked Singer, a contestant dressed in an elaborate the bottom of the screen in bright orange and yellow the 28th most populous nation, South Korea is the flower costume performed “9 to 5” by Dolly Parton, as the disguised contestants prepare to sing. Like in fourth largest movie market by box office revenue in limited in motion by the heavy dress and headpiece.
UNMASKING ARTISTRY
15
ARTS
28 FEB 2019
BY Annabelle Johnston ILLUSTRATION Sandra Moore DESIGN Daniel Navratil
tranquility of a pure feminine past and the brutality and violence of a masculine hypermodern future that ultimately is resolved as simply Other. The appearance of Ryan Reynolds on The King of Mask Singer and the audience’s over-animated response to his mediocre performance after uncovering his identity raises the question of self-imposed Orientalism, and if that can be a means of reclaiming agency. For years, films created in South Korea rejected orientalist tropes, perhaps due to centuries of imperialism and domination by Japan. This inter-orient imperialism further degraded South Korea in the unjust hierarchy of states, contributing to the modern South Korean desire to create its own brand in the form of K-dramas, K-pop, and Hallyu (Korean wave)-wood. As this media rises in global popularity, self-Orientalizing—casting oneself as an exotic commodifiable Other—can allow those who have been traditionally intellectually imperialized to resist that imposition and instead gain power and recognition by Western oversight. By partially conforming to the exaggerated American imaginations of Korean game shows, The King of Mask Singer became a global phenomenon increasing profit and popularity in the West. The United Kingdom also purchased the rights to the show and has run seven episodes beginning in January 2020. If Orientalism can be construed as intellectual imperialism, then The King of Mask Singer is both a victim and masterful manipulator of this blind superiority. As the Fox on The Masked Singer sang in season two, “Hey Look Ma, I made It” is not only an anthem for Panic! At the Disco fans but also for South Korean media that has become the epicenter of the Oscars and Wednesday television at 8/7C on FOX. +++ My experience of watching The King of Mask Singer was not quite what its creators intended, as I had no prior knowledge of the idols nor did I care about the true identity of the hidden celebrities. The cultural context for the show can only be truly appreciated by those immersed in it who understand the turmoil of K-Pop PR and the lack of privacy stemming from the archiHer only movement during the entire set was in the first having authority over the Orient.” This domination is tectural compression of Seoul. These experiences are ten seconds as she walked towards the center of the a longstanding tradition in the West’s conception of the necessary backstory to The King of Mask Singer and stage; she was subsequently accompanied by dancers itself, as it regards Asia as a stagnant force and culture even as a Korean-American, I lack the pieces necesin orange tracksuits and rotating industrial sheets to be co-opted by the West as they please, a place for sary to fully grasp the significance of this performance. of metal, providing no sense of place or setting. The cultural tourism without its own interiority. Oriental By establishing my own roots in Western thought in singer resembled a character from Alice in Wonderland, splendor, sensuality, and violence are simultaneously a university setting, I am aware that even part of the and stood stoically amidst chaos, as if reveling in the regarded as the acts of brutal masculine individuals sanctity of watching K-Dramas with my grandfather insanity. After she sang (1 minute 46 seconds) worth and infantile feminized societies, a contradiction is compromised, as I inflict my theoretical jargon upon of music), the four judges proceeded to bow down that ultimately regards the Other as inferior. This our shared sense of home. The resistance against the theatrically, Scherzinger loudly proclaiming “we’re mentality is exemplified by many American critics of act of viewership is at the core of the Korean program not worthy.” The panel continued to guess the identity the show such as Kathryn VanArendonk for Vulture, and is missing from both the American adaptation and of the artist—later revealed as Patti Labelle—offering who compares it to other televised talent competi- intention of the American audience member. Perhaps actresses like Taraji P. Hanson and artists like Mariah tions stating, “The Masked Singer is weirder, sillier, and that is part of what makes The Masked Singer so flawed— Carey. As they continued to audibly ponder, Ken Jeong stupider than those shows.” Her comparison stakes the aim is not to protect the contestants from a stanstood proudly and pointed at the masked performer, The Masked Singer as an American entity that can then dard of scrutiny but instead allow for a different type shouting “YOU ARE BJÖRK” in the most nonsensical be viewed through a western subjectivity, continuing of in-person analysis and unveiling. Throughout the fashion. This comically accusatory nature underscores to state that “somewhere buried in their cores, the show, Robin Thicke continuously calls costumed the layers of performance specific to this adapta- idea of judging a singer on a reality show is often about women sexy, telling a lioness to “work your mane” tion, and reinforces American viewership as an act of a slew of powerful American myths.” VanArendonk after stating he was mesmerized by her hip movements. unveiling who the creator is rather than what they are calls the show “a reality TV fever dream,” situating it as This objectification of the artist is the exact opposite creating. the disgusting cousin to the otherwise valiant pursuit of what The King of Mask Singer was designed for. It’s of truth undertaken by The Voice or American Idol. a figure for the cycle of Western male subjectivity (in +++ Faulting The Masked Singer for incompletely capturing a contained context) gazing upon the Eastern female the American version of Truth ignores the fact that The landscape. Much of the language utilized by critics and fans to King of Mask Singer is after something else entirely. As I renounce the absurdity and revel in the weirddiscuss The Masked Singer and its Korean counterpart Conventional approaches to Orientalism place ness of my favorite Korean game show, I am acutely is rooted in the idea of an inherently absurd Other. In countries like South Korea in a distant past, utilizing aware of the role I play as a viewer and how I unwitmany cases, the childish use of weird to denote 'bad' pastoral imagery that, when juxtaposed with Western tingly impose my beliefs upon the object being viewed. instead of 'different' places the grotesque American industrialization, serves to emphasize American Identity is inherently performative and yet we are all adaptation on a pedestal while casting off its originator. modernity. However, the advent of hypermodern active audience members. I understand the impulse to This, coupled with the feminized costumes and the representation of Asia in films like Blade Runner and cover up and wear a mask; the limited control we have infantilization of the Korean premise, mirrors Edward Alien place imagined cities in a video-game adjacent, over how we are viewed comes from what we choose Said’s discussion of Orientalism, defined as the techno-Orientalist future state. Of The Masked Singer, not to share. distinct philosophical separation of the “Orient” from Emily Todd VanDerWerf of Vox states, “The new the “Occident,” which is centered around Western reality show feels like something that would be on in ANABELLE JOHNSTON B’23 does not like the idea of values and superiority. Although this study primarily the background of a dystopian movie.” The implication being perceived. focuses on differences between the Arab-Islamic and is not that Asia is a media pioneer, but that the seeds European worlds, it has been co-opted by American of America’s worst nightmare can be found in contemacademics with reference to the “Far East” of China, porary South Korea. This version of Orientalism still Japan, and Korea, as both forces rise in world relevance. relies on the same initial discomfort with the East and In his introduction, Said describes Orientalism West existing in the same temporal reality. It presents “as a Western style for dominating, restructuring, and both sides of the contradiction between the beauty and
THE COLLEGE HILL INDEPENDENT
ARTS
16
17
EPHEMERA
28 FEB 2020
THE COLLEGE HILL INDEPENDENT
X
18
The market is the woman’s domain; women tend to not only be the vendors, but the shoppers as well. The markets are where I felt most at home in Oaxaca, probably because the strong presence of women made me feel protected from the wandering eyes of men.
These photos revolve around women, raw meat, and the sale of raw meat; they’re intended to provoke thoughts of gender roles and machismo, as well as to highlight something women often experience existing in such a society (be it the US or Mexico): feeling like a piece of meat.
FRI 2.28 Ariella Aïsha Azoulay in conversation with Stanley Wolukau-Wanambwa WaterFire Arts Center 6:30 PM
SAT 2.29 Leap Year Boogie: DEYO and Friends AS220 8 PM
Ariella Azoulay will discuss Potential History, her new book on the imperial foundations of knowledge, with writer and photographer Stanley Wolukau-Wanambwa. Come hear Azoulay and Wolukau-Wanambwa speak about anti-imperialist archival and artistic practices.
On Leap Day, Amy Adams is allowed to propose to a man, being born sucks, and Yllwblly and and Charm will be opening for DEYO at AS220! It’s your last chance before 2024 to dance this particular night away, so make some memories. If you post something embarrassing on Facebook, you have a buffer of several years before it reminds you what happened!
SUN 3.1 2020 PPS Winter Bash: Studio 54 Bucklin Plaza 7:30 PM Your two problematic faves are teaming up! Join the Providence Preservation Society—perhaps the only remaining nonprofit in Providence with a serif typeface logo—for a Studio 54-themed bash. Andy Warhol’s leveling of high and low art offers a potentially antithetical backdrop to the PPS, which itself has a reputation for preserving cornices and red brick more so than the discarded bagels and sex manuals that populate the Warhol archive. Tickets start at $45 for the benefit, which supports the PPS’s efforts (including advocating for the reuse of the vacant Superman Building, among other pursuits).
MONDAY 3.2 PVDFest Battle of the Bands Alchemy, 71 Richmond St. 7:30 PM At the first of three Battles of the Bands leading up to PVDFest, Guess Method, Fathercard, and Jesse Ramos of Tree People will face off at Alchemy. This LW has never attended a Battle of the Bands, but judging from the ending of School of Rock, this oughta be good.
WEDNESDAY 3.4 WTF Night Recycle-A-Bike 6-9PM
TUESDAY 3.3 of Montreal, Lily's Band, Ravi Shavi Columbus Theatre 8 PM Last time the List advertised a concert at the Columbus, this LW noted that the audience was sure to include every middle-school social studies teacher in RI. This time, the West End’s entire population of former MySpace hipsters who now wear their geometric tattoos with great ambivalence will be present.
It’s time to haul your bike out of the basement and bring it over to Eagle Square to get a spring tune up. “We're gonna be cleaning, tuning up brakes, lubing chains, filling up tires,” says Recycle-A-Bike. The best part is that the whole thing is free! We can’t recommend a spring ride in PVD enough, so tune your sh*t up!!!
THE COLLEGE HILL INDEPENDENT
THURSDAY 3.5 Trial Support for Sherrie New Bedford District Court 8:30 AM-5 PM Come out to support Sherrie Andre, co-founder of the FANG Collective. They are going to trial as a result of an August 2018 action at the Bristol County House of Corrections held in solidarity with people in I.C.E. detention who launched a hunger strike to demand better conditions at the facility. Email support@shutdownicenow.org to submit a letter of support.