The Tufts Daily - Friday, December 3, 2021

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VOLUME LXXXI, ISSUE 40

MEDFORD/SOMERVILLE, MASS.

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Friday, December 3, 2021

Somerville Police Department releases IDHE report reveals record turnout among report on surveillance technology student voters

ALEXANDER THOMPSON / THE TUFTS DAILY ARCHIVES

The Somerville Police Department reported the possession of eight pre-approved surveillance technologies.

by Emily Thompson Assistant News Editor

The Somerville Police Department made its first annual surveillance technology report to the Mayor’s Office on Oct. 15, allowing Somerville residents to see exactly what surveillance technology the city’s police department is using.

In 2018, Somerville’s Ward 3 City Councilor Ben EwenCampen worked with the

American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts to introduce a city ordinance that would require the police department to obtain public approval from the city council for any new surveillance technology purchases.

“The purpose of this is so that there’s transparency and accountability around these technologies,” Ewen-Campen said. “There were a few technologies that the administration [brought to the city council] for

approval that the city council actually basically made it clear that we would not support.”

Emiliano Falcon-Morano is the policy counsel for the Technology for Liberty Program at the ACLU of Massachusetts.

He has worked with the Somerville City Council over the past three years to draft and implement the ordinance as a part of the larger push by the ACLU to regulate surveillance technologies used by the government. He explained why the ACLU feels that transparency surrounding police surveillance technology is important.

“The problem is basically our surveillance technologies tilt the balance in favor of the government,” Falcon-Morano said. “They are so powerful … [and] they can collect massive amounts of data. That data can be aggregated and can be stored, [which] might have a kind of chilling effect [on] people that wouldn’t exercise their rights because they know they’re being surveilled.” see SURVEILLANCE, page 2

Baker confirms plans to construct pedestrian bridge between Somerville and Everett

by Odessa Gaines Contributing Writer

Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker announced on Oct. 22 that the state will soon move forward with plans to build a pedestrian bridge connecting Somerville with the Encore Boston Harbor Casino in Everett. After nearly 20 years of initial planning, construction is set to begin no later than 2024.

The bridge will cross the Mystic River between the cities of Everett and Somerville and will roughly connect Somerville’s Assembly Square neighborhood with Everett’s Encore casino.

Brad Rawson, director of the Mobility Division in the Somerville Mayor’s Office of Strategic Planning and Community Development, explained that the new bridge will not only benefit those working in the two cities, but will also benefit pedestrians and tourists in the area. Furthermore, Rawson described the bridge as a link for connecting various trails and avenues for safe, civilian use.

He also explained that the bridge will aid in economic advancement for marginalized communities.

“The bridge … is an essential part of a strategy to make sure that people have pathways to economic advancement,” Rawson said.

The new bridge aims to create more job opportunities for the cities’ residents of color and better job advancement opportunities for both white-collar and blue-collar workforces.

Jay Monty, who earned a master’s degree in urban and environmental policy and planning from Tufts in 2014, serves as Everett’s director of transportation. He says the bridge is set to allow for more transportation options for pedestrians and cyclists, and will allow for easier passage across the Mystic River.

Monty believes that the pedestrian bridge will help to solidify and strengthen the existing network of walking and biking paths in the Mystic Valley region of Massachusetts.

Rawson expressed enthusiasm for Somerville’s dedication to promoting a deeper connection to nature and decreasing carbon emissions.

“The City of Somerville has made a commitment in our cli-

mate plan to decarbonize transportation [and] straight up eliminate all carbon emissions from the transportation sector by 2040,” Rawson said.

Rawson explained that the new bridge is an important step for the city to move toward this goal of a greener Somerville.

“This bridge facility will be a transformative investment that really improves our residents’ connections to the incredible network of open spaces and environmental opportunities on the Mystic River,” Rawson said.

Rawson also described the bridge as a tool to improve bus, rail, walking and biking connections in the area. Additionally, Monty mentioned how plans for the pedestrian bridge predate the existence of the Everett Casino.

According to the directors, the bridge reflects larger trends toward walkability and more environmentally conscious infrastructure.

“It’s indicative of a larger regional effort to do the same kind of work down in the see BRIDGE, page 2

NICOLE GARAY / THE TUFTS DAILY

The Tufts Cannon is pictured on Sept. 24, 2020. The cannon was painted with a message encouraging people to vote in the 2020 presidential election.

by Simran Patel

Contributing Writer

The Institute for Democracy & Higher Education at the Jonathan M. Tisch College of Civic Life released a new report on college student participation in the 2020 election season. The data indicated that students voted at unprecedented rates, with a 66% turnout rate in 2020 compared to 52% in 2016.

The report analyzed turnout across various demographics and reflected on the correlation between academic experience and political participation.

IDHE’s National Study of Learning, Voting, and Engagement (NSLVE) studied the student voting habits of around 1,100 institutions in all fifty states. It used the method of merging the enrollment records of participating campuses in the fall of an election year with the administrative state-level voting records from secretaries of state.

David Brinker, the senior researcher at IDHE who worked on this report, mentioned how third parties helped contribute to the study.

“It’s a process that we engineer and administer, but there are third parties who are entrusted routinely with protected student data … from which we can learn about student participation in general elections,” Brinker said.

Brinker added that his role on the report included identifying areas for future study.

“For this report, my primary responsibility was to do the data analysis, but really to look for the interesting data points that were worth exploring further,” Brinker said.

ARTS / page 4

FEATURES / page 3

SPORTS / page 7

Sean Baker masters intentional discomfort in ‘Red Rocket’

Fighting the bad and seeking the good in social media

Squash gets squashed in weekday match against Harvard

Adam Gismondi, director of impact at IDHE and a co-author of the report, manages communications and strategy implementation. “[My work] centers around making sure that [the research] gets used and is seen,” Gismondi said.

In general, different methods of determining voter ability produce ranging implications for the voting rate. According to Brinker, NSLVE’s biggest strength is its complete enrollment of a campus rather than a sample or self-report data.

“We have a true denominator,” Brinker said. “It’s still an estimate, but we have a very good sense for how many students at each of our participating colleges were eligible to vote.”

Brinker said the limitations of NSLVE are twofold.

“We know certain things about the dataset that we’re very transparent about,” Brinker said.

“For one, that we underrepresent community colleges, primarily two-year institutions.”

The team monitored whether this significantly impacted the results and determined that it did not. The second shortcoming is conceptual and inherent in the type of data the IDHE collects, according to Brinker.

“We measure student voting as a metric to reflect the civic health of U.S. colleges and universities,” Gismondi said. “It’s a proxy indicator for civic participation, but there are, of course, good reasons not to vote, and we don’t measure other [reasons].”

Gismondi added that many are interested in partisan interpretations of the data. However, see VOTING, page 2 NEWS

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ARTS & POP CULTURE

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FUN & GAMES

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OPINION

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THE TUFTS DAILY | News | Friday, December 3, 2021

THE TUFTS DAILY Madeleine Aitken Editor in Chief

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Surveillance technologies report holds Somerville PD accountable to the community SURVEILLANCE

continued from page 1 Falcon-Morano discussed the role of the surveillance report in rebalancing that power dynamic.

“The annual surveillance report is an essential part of that process created by the ordinance because that allows the city council and the community to basically know how that surveillance technology was used,” Falcon-Morano said.

The police department reported possessing eight pre-approved technologies. These include covert device cameras, which “are hidden in household devices such as an alarm clock, smoke detector or computer speaker”; GPS monitors that are placed on “bait” bicycles and packages to apprehend thieves; and homeland security cameras that are placed on traffic poles throughout the city. Out of the eight reported technologies, three of them went unused, including the covert device cameras and GPS monitors.

“I’m never 100% satisfied [with] surveillance technologies, but I guess we can push towards their control,” FalconMorano said. “The report is useful because it says how and when [the technology] was used. So basically, if some technologies were not used that much, then we can start asking ourselves, ‘Do we really need this if it is not being used?’”

The report estimates the annual cost of each surveillance technology, which it says includes “personnel and other ongoing costs.” The most expensive of the technologies reported, a system called Advanced/Next Gen 911 that is used to “provide emergency services to individuals who have initiated a 911 call,” had a services budget of $1,128,609 for fiscal year 2021. The report does not state the purchase cost of the technology.

Ewen-Campen said he feels satisfied with the technology approved by the council.

“I think if you look at the technologies that have been approved, they’re a pretty good justification for why the police department wants to use them there for specific cases,” EwenCampen said. “None of these [technologies] are expensive or highly invasive.”

During a Nov. 4 Legislative Matters Committee meeting, committee chair and Somerville Ward 6 Councilor Lance Davis requested additional information on the level of detail included in the report.

Lieutenant Sean Sheehan of the Somerville Police Department said he would provide “any additional requested information and will work to make these reports more responsive in the future.” “[The report] reflects an excellent step towards ensuring transparency and enabling us as citizens to know when and how this sort of technology is being used,” Davis said in a newsletter to his constituents.

During the same meeting, Ewen-Campen recommended that the types of crimes the surveillance technologies were used to monitor be reported.

After noting that most of the crimes were traffic accidents, Lt. Sheehan said he would provide the information when possible.

“Just speaking for myself, I think that the process is working really well,” Ewen-Campen told the Daily. “I’ll say I’m really thankful to the administration and the Somerville Police Department for the amount of work that they put into this over the last two years.”

Falcon-Morano stressed that Somerville’s ordinance and this report are important tools for creating public oversight of the police department’s use of surveillance technologies.

“These types of ordinances [are] providing public accountability, transparency, democracy,” Falcon-Morano said. “We want people to be involved. We believe that these decisions have to be taken collectively.”

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Voter participation rate among students rose to 66% nationally VOTING

continued from page 1 IDHE does not document party affiliation or candidate selection.

IDHE has been imploring colleges and universities to shift their attention from increasing registration rates to motivating registered voters. According to Pew Research Center, unregistered citizens are simply less driven to vote. On the other hand, registered nonvoters are more likely to be obstructed from voting in ways that beg questions of equity and access, according to Brinker.

IDHE urges states, municipalities and power figures to stand up for student voting rights and ensure that students are well-informed of the voting opportunities at hand.

Jane Romp, one of two democracy representative coordinators at JumboVote, agreed that low yield is a consequence of lack of accessibility, especially with the absentee ballots.

“Because a lot of Tufts students have made the decision to vote at home rather than in Medford or Somerville … the process for requesting absentee ballots … was really confusing for a lot of folks,” Romp, a junior, said.

In Massachusetts, the proposed VOTES Act would establish mail-in and early in-person voting, which would allow students to vote with more convenience. Tisch College is working to mend these disparities in absence of the legislation.

Gismondi describes how Tisch College has a broad reach with its programming.

“Tisch College is the only college of its kind … and that allows for more robust research work,” Gismondi said. “We have a policy center, we have community outreach work … [and] the civic studies major.”

Romp explained that JumboVote established liaisons to work with students from the SMFA and School of Engineering to amplify voices in academic fields not commonly associated with politics and civic engagement. Brinker characterized Tufts as a school that supports students’ desires to commit themselves to progress.

“I really think that Tufts students are not content to just go to the classes, and get the grades, and get the degree, and get the job,” Brinker said. “I think they

want their work to matter now, not later … and I think Tufts embraces that mentality.”

Romp believes that young people want to help build a better future for themselves. According to Brinker, not only can the report’s data be utilized as an educational tool, but it can also motivate students to continue making a difference by exercising their right to vote.

“The data make us resistant to the assumptions that we might have about the groups that we measure; the assumption that young people don’t vote is hard entrenched in some people’s minds,” Brinker said. “I hope that people [read] the equity data and that they understand that these are not reports of how things inevitably are or rules that govern the political world.”

Pedestrian bridge to connect Assembly with Encore BRIDGE

continued from page 1 Neponset River Watershed.”

Rawson said.

One of the biggest benefits of the bridge is said to be the direct connection it creates over the Mystic River for residents of the surrounding cities.

“If you think about how to get across the river, you can’t go on the Blue Line … [and] it’s not a very safe cycling route,” Monty said.

The bridge, much like the East Coast Greenway and the Mystic River Greenway Network, would give access to development and economic opportunities in Cambridge, according to Monty.

However, Rawson revealed that many factors must be taken into account to ensure the success of such a large project, such as workforce development, cultural facilities, affordable housing and equitable access to open space.

“If the communities working on this infrastructure fail to center

VIA WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

A bridge for pedestrians and cyclists those larger questions of sustainability, resilience and equity, there can be downsides,” Rawson said.

Monty also explained that, like many other projects, the cost has been a large factor. Due to the lack of government prioritization of funds for this project, construction had been pushed back many years.

will be constructed over Mystic River.

“It was hard to really make the case that the bridge was … functional, but now … you can make that case for 40 million dollars,” Monty said.

Both directors agreed that Everett and Somerville’s leaders now feel that the bridge is essential in providing transportation safely and equitably to pedestrians.

“We’re very enthusiastic and excited as a community about reclaiming our waterfront,” Rawson said. “Somerville is not Cambridge, Riverside, and we’re not Boston’s Back Bay… But we do have a waterfront and it’s on the Mystic River, and we want to open this waterfront up to public access.”

tuftsdaily.com

Features

3 Friday, December 3, 2021

Social media: Our frenemy

by Katie Furey

I find that the abuse and the lack of attention to ameliorating the toxicity that’s present there takes its toll on women and, in particular, on women from marginalized groups,” Sobieraj said. “So if you are a queer woman, if you are a Muslim woman, if you’re a woman of color, if you’re all of those things, the abuse can be particularly burdensome and particularly ugly and usually centers your identities.”

According to Sobieraj, becoming the victim of identity-based attacks online can cause people to change the way they interact with social networking platforms.

“So the reason that’s significant and related to the Haugen quote that you just read is that it has a toll for the individual, but it also takes a toll democratically because what happens is, I find that the women who are experiencing this tend to withdraw from certain social media spaces or from public discourse… But even the ones who stay tend to self-censor and live in of fear of being attacked,” Sobieraj said.

Sobieraj elaborated on the effects withdrawals from social media and self-censoring can have on democracy.

“As a result, that shapes a number of things that are central to democracy, like journalism,” Sobieraj said. “I’ve worked with journalists who choose their stories quite carefully or don’t pitch certain ideas because they don’t want to write them because the

blowback is likely to be too difficult… Since the burden is so high on people from underrepresented groups [and] women from underrepresented groups, the voices that we most need to hear are the ones that are most likely to be pressed out of those public spaces.”

Lillyana Simson, a Tufts firstyear, has spent years avoiding social media and its negative effects. Simpson, a computer science enthusiast, spoke about her decision to largely stay off of social media.

“I know how the algorithms work. They’re designed to kind of play off your emotions to keep you on the app as long as possible, and that normally includes using things like fear mongering and making you angry,” Simson said.

Simpson said the social media apps are designed to make the users feel bad.

“That’s kind of why I steer clear,” Simpson said.

Simson did, however, decide to use Reddit for a period of time at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic after being encouraged to do so by some friends, but she later decided to delete it.

“I quickly learned how addictive the system was… and then I obsessed over it for really long periods of time,” Simson said. “I got into some not-so-great LGBTQ Reddits and stuff that are very transphobic, so I just kind of cut it out of my life.”

Simson noted that a feeling of distrust was one of the most

impactful and difficult takeaways from her Reddit experience.

“I no longer fully trust the [LGBTQ] community after Reddit, and that’s kind of weird because I am part of it,” Simson said. “I’m trying to work on gaining my trust back because most people in real life aren’t that bad, but it’s kind of hard not to remember stuff that happened on Reddit.”

Unlike Simson, Lily McIntyre, a senior majoring in psychology and child study and human development, is a regular user of social media. This year, for her senior honors thesis, McIntyre is researching how social media may influence college students, though her specific focus is on TikTok. She is currently collecting responses for a survey about college students’ interactions withTikTok. “The aim of my thesis is to investigate whether there is a relationship between some sort of change in self esteem in college students due to regular use of TikTok by browsing your For You Page,” McIntyre said.

McIntyre became interested in the topic after she noticed TikTok having mainly positive impacts on her own life after first downloading the app in fall of 2019.

“It’s very much you exploring content, usually made by strangers, about things that you’re interested about, and I really like that,” McIntyre said. “But when COVID happened, my use kind of changed.

I became more reliant on it as an escapist measure … So for me personally, I’ve experienced majorly positive effects. I’ve learned so many new life skills.”

While she has had a generally positive experience with TikTok, McIntyre also acknowledges the detrimental effects the platform, as well as other social media sites, exacerbates.

“It is really hard when you are a young person still establishing your own sense of self and seeing these people who are posting what I like to call their ‘highlight

the company of a book. When I’m alone, I go to places I want to try and unabashedly order dessert. I slurp obnoxiously and lean back till my chair wobbles precariously, listening to pop music playing on the radio and conversing with my uncensored thoughts. I am so grateful for these moments with myself and for the restaurants that welcome them. This week, in Porter Square, I took the time I didn’t know I needed at a wooden counter inside Soup Shack.

The restaurant is unassumingly found along the parking lot in Porter Square, about a half mile from Davis and a short walk from Porter Square Books — a great bookstore worthy of its own review.

The inside is decorated with simple wood and brick with a view right into the kitchen. Better yet, there’s a wooden bar as you walk in, lined with single seats ideal for solo diners wary of eye contact with every person coming through the door.

And there were quite a few! From what I could hear, most people were getting take out, but the tables in the back were more or less full.

Still, the service didn’t waver. All the workers were so kind and attentive.

My water was never halfway full, and they were happy to accept my praise in regards to the food.

The menu has pho, ramen, rice bowls and Thai noodle soups, along with some Japanese-style appetizers. I ordered the Tom Yum soup with roasted pork, ground pork, rice noodles, bean sprouts, peanuts, scallions, cilantro and crispy garlic. For $14, it was massive, so you don’t need much more. The broth was equally spicy and sour, with underlying flavors of coconut milk and lime. The herbs and peanuts floating on top made for a really nice spoonful (see what I did there?), with a hearty balance of curry flavor and sweetness. My only complaint would be the salt level on the broth, but accompanied by

my ever-flowing water glass, I certainly made do.

The bountiful rice noodles were especially filling and perfectly cooked, while the bean sprouts tasted fresh and still crunchy. The roasted pork was a little fatty for my taste, but the parts I did eat were tender and flavorful, with a hint of sweetness from the marinade.

On another day, I would’ve taken home leftovers, but there’s no better way to celebrate the coming of December than absolutely slamming an entire bowl of soup.

Overall, the dish was surprisingly complex and satisfying. It was definitely on the heavier side, making it an ideal choice for a cold night demanding steamy, spicy comfort food. I’ll be back for the ramen with roasted duck, or the restaurant’s most popular dish, dirty ramen, served in a spicy pork broth with fermented bean curd.

For my fellow introverts with a love for solo dining, I’m happy to

Features Editor

Social media has been integrated in our lives for so long that sometimes we forget just how much it influences us.

Whether it’s a quick scroll through Facebook between classes, a glimpse at a friend’s private Snapchat story for the latest updates on their life, or an hour-long TikTok binge watching people from around the world do the same 60-second dance, we’ve become accustomed to connecting with others instantaneously — for better or for worse.

While learning about a student organization event through a Tufts class Facebook page or Snapchatting with an old friend who lives thousands of miles away may certainly improve our lives, the detrimental effects of social media are also evident. Such downsides have recently received significant news media attention.

On Oct. 5, Facebook whistle-blower Frances Haugen testified to Congress about the negative effects she believes the Facebook app has on users. Haugen, who worked as a data scientist for just over a year between 2019 and 2020, claimed that, “Facebook’s products harm children, stoke division, weaken our democracy and much more.”

Haugen’s testimony sparked a larger conversation about the impact social media has on mental and physical health as well as democracy. Professor Sarah Sobieraj, chair of the sociology department, weighed in. Recently, Sobieraj has been researching identity-based attacks online,most — but not all — of which are happening on social media platforms, not only on Facebook but also on platforms such as Twitter, Instagram and TikTok,among others.

“I work with women who might be, for example, journalists or pundits or public intellectuals, politicians, comedians… And absolutely

Sonia Richter Spoonfuls

Soup Shack

W

hen I was a firstyear, I wasn’t comfortable eating alone in dining halls. It terrified me. I didn’t want to be seen overloading my plate, or appear lonely and friend-less. Often, I just didn’t eat because of it. I kept crackers and granola bars in my room to satiate myself, or planned meals days in advance to ensure I wouldn’t be alone.

Thankfully, I grew out of this — slowly. I still avoid dining halls, but only because I no longer want to be in a place where I don’t enjoy food as much. Hence, the restaurant column.

Solo-dining was a big part of this. Through it, I learned to be content with my own company, or

ALICE FANG / THE TUFTS DAILY

The negative impacts of social media have garnered widespread media attention following a Facebook whistleblower’s testimony to Congress.

reels’ on social media. We all tend to do that,” McIntyre said. “So it’s unfortunate when people — myself included — compare those sort of ‘highlight reels’ to what I like to call your ‘blooper reels.’”

Balancing the negative and positive impacts of social media continues to be a challenge for both individuals and social media companies. Sobieraj offers some suggestions on measures she believes tech companies could take could help mitigate social media’s harmful effects.

“So if you think of a platform, like Twitter, if you have someone who either has been targeted for abuse already or is quite likely to be targeted for abuse, it doesn’t seem insane to require Tweets that ‘@’ mention them to go into moderation before they go online,” Sobieraj said.“And I know that’s really countercultural because we’re in a moment where we publish and then filter. But if you have someone who’s at risk, it isn’t awful or unreasonable … to be more proactive in keeping that content offline all together.”

Sobieraj also suggests requiring that new social media accounts be moderated for a certain time period or number of initial posts before being allowed to post completely freely. She says this could help prevent online attackers from constantly creating new accounts after theirs are reported and taken down.

According to Sobieraj, social media can be a powerful tool for visibility, especially for activists, which is partly why she suggests these measures.

“That’s the cruel twist, right, that, if you’re an activist — especially if you’re from a marginalized group — visibility is necessary and sometimes the most necessary thing to your ability to raise issues, change minds, persuade people,” Sobieraj said.

“It’s especially heartbreaking that these same platforms are also the most dangerous for the folks who need them.”

have stumbled upon this spot. It’s a rare occurrence to find a place that not only accepts but embraces our happy independence, and something about noodle soup makes the guilty pleasure of a solo night out that much more noisily satisfying.

That being said, the cost of a restaurant meal is not without its own weight. Yet, for me, these outings have always functioned as moments of self-care, wherein I (try to) leave behind monetary concerns in order to wholeheartedly enjoy the act of fueling my body.

This can happen anywhere that works for you, whether it be a salad under the trees outside Hodgdon or a sandwich from Dave’s Fresh Pasta. Thanks again to Soup Shack for providing me the much-needed space to breathe, think, and consume noodles.

Sonia Richter is a senior studying English. Sonia can be reached at sophia.richter@tufts.edu.

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Arts & POP ARTS Pop CULTURE Culture

tuftsdaily.com

Friday, December 3, 2021

Paul Osmond For the Culture

Virgil Abloh’s subversive album art

R

est peacefully, Virgil Abloh. I was never his greatest fan, but I certainly could not ignore the impact he had on both hip hop and fashion. Founding Off-White (originally called “PYREX VISION”) and eventually joining Louis Vuitton as its men’s artistic director, Abloh was a pure creative — he was an artist as much as a designer. In fact, Abloh designed over a dozen album covers in his career. He was someone whose talents were not confined to one genre. No matter what medium, Abloh was always for the culture.

Abloh developed under the tutelage of Kanye West, so it is only right I start with the album covers he designed for the rapper. Released in 2008, “808s & Heartbreak” features a pastel background with a bright red balloon resting deflated in the shape of heart — symbolic of heartbreak — in the middle. The cover is beautiful not only because it is something that visually looks good; it is something that carries such incredible symbolism in such a simple image. Though an album’s music is considered the primary artwork, Abloh demonstrates that the cover can be equally powerful. Abloh’s other covers for West include “My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy” (2010), “Yeezus” (2013), “Watch the Throne” (2011) and “Cruel Summer” (2012).

Another stand out cover is A$AP Rocky’s “Long. Live. A$AP” (2013). The rapper stands in the center of the cover wrapped in an American flag. A black bar featuring “A$AP ROCKY LONG.LIVE. A$AP” runs horizontally across the image whose top and bottom are distorted.

Released in 2013, two years after Rocky quit selling drugs to focus on his rap career, the album potentially represents a reset — the black and white nullifies color, eliminating any sort of emotion from the image. When viewers see the cover, they see the American flag, they see a man, but they do not see any color. Without these, they are forced to enter from a point of innocence. It is an almost melancholic image that should have emotion and should have color but does not. Beautiful.

My favorite cover is Lil Uzi Vert’s “Luv is Rage 2” (2017). I like this cover equally for its ideas and its imagery. In the same muted tones as A$AP Rocky’s “Long.Live.A$AP,” Abloh constructs a cover that is both illustratively captivating and conceptually fascinating. In a breach of norm, the cover includes the entire track list, making it feel very much like a package that Uzi (and Abloh) are delivering. This is the peculiarity of Abloh’s creativity — while all his covers are different, they contain some sort of messaging that relates to the artist in a subversive manner. This relates so wonderfully to his artistic practice, where he takes established things and edits and develops them into something new while also underlaying some significant or subversive message. As much as I do not enjoy some of his designs, I can’t help but appreciate his brilliance. I am sad to lose such a powerful and wonderful artist.

Paul Osmond is a sophomore who has not yet declared a major. Paul can be reached at paul.osmond@tufts.edu.

‘Red Rocket’: The impossible icky-ness of the mundane

by Miranda Feinberg Staff Writer

Sean Baker, king of the beautifully mundane, returns to the silver screen following his hit “The Florida Project” (2017) with “Red Rocket” (2021), a raunchy, fun, balls-to-the-wall joyride on a one-speed bike. It tells the tale of porn star Mikey Saber (Simon Rex) as he returns to his old hometown and reunites with his ex and her mom following a stint of hard times (or, as Variety more aptly puts it, limp times.) As he tries to look for work, an effort thwarted by his narcissistic tendencies, he meets 17-year-old Raylee “Strawberry,” and he falls head-over-heels on a mission to use her as a way to get back to his life of acclaim. The film becomes an odd sort of character study which examines an unlikeable narcissist who, while obnoxious and off-putting, begs you (over and over) to love him.

The film teeters between the intentionally uncomfortable and the grimy reality of that intention all throughout, so that we the audience are left with a bad taste in our mouths. It is a criticism of the problematic, but a soft criticism, as the film (and Baker) truly feel for each and every person in their cinematic adjacency. It is with an empathetic view that Baker tells his stories, even when it’s hard to feel empathy for those characters.

The film follows Mikey, who is goofy, confident, self-serving and horny. He is the wrecking ball which runs through the town of Texas City at large. He is haphazard in his use of others, nonchalant in his seduction of them. For comic veteran Rex, it is a pitch-perfect performance, and he is so good as both affable doofus and narcissistic quasi-bad-guy. He gives a full-bodied performance which fully takes over, and even when unlikeable, he is fully believable.

The cast for the rest of the movie also performs very well. Bree Elrod, who plays Mikey’s ex wife Lexi, and Suzanna Son, who plays Strawberry, light up the screen as warring roles (Lexi gritty and resigned, Strawberry bubbly and hopeful). The film is so focused on the characters, so focused on who each person is, that we can later see how they think of each other, and audiences watch as each person spirals around each other down the proverbial drain.

The cinematography, in true Sean Baker fashion, is beautifully open and light. The framing is used just as much

VIA IMDB

A teaser poster for “Red Rocket”is prictured. for comedy as it is for drama, and there is a lot more flare to the filmmaking than past Baker movies. The music, too, is used to great effect, especially with NSYNC’s “Bye Bye Bye” multi-use play throughout the movie to punctuate changes in the character’s circumstances or mental locations.

As said above, the greatest drawback to the movie is immediately hard to voice, because it is so intentional and self-aware. There is a relationship that develops between the jaded 39-year-old Mikey and the 17-year-old Strawberry.

It is a relationship based in discomfort and hollow sincerity, and yet that is the point, to highlight that Mikey is not a good guy. I find it unsettling that I enjoyed the movie so much despite the discomfort of its central relationship, but this induced unsureness is the very point of the film and what makes it most successful. This is not to discount the comedy and very great humor that is rife throughout the movie. Just as uncomfortable as it is, the movie is truly a fun ride, full of a cast and crew that truly know what they are doing.

Friday, December 3, 2021 | FUN & GAMES | THE TUFTS DAILY

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F& G

LATE NIGHT AT THE DAILY Maddie: “My tummy doesn’t do well with dairy”

FUN & GAMES

SUDOKU

DIET COKE

Difficulty Level: Wearing a mask comfortably with a runny nose.

by Annalise Jacobson

Thursday’s Solutions

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CROSSWORD

Before anything else, we are all human.

It’s time to embrace diversity.

Let’s put aside labels in the name of love.

Rethink your bias at lovehasnolabels.com

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Opinion

6 Friday, December 3, 2021

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VIEWPOINT

In Poland, Law and Justice party lawfully dismantles justice

by Makram Bekdache Staff Writer

The right-wing Law and Justice (PiS) party has been governing Poland for the last six years. The ruling coalition has turned a blind eye to and even discretely defended societal measures that go directly against the European Union’s stance, notably on issues like abortion and LGBTQ rights.

These measures are a populist attempt by the PiS to ensure the loyalty of their crucial rural base, and they have already maintained the party at the helm through two elections. The country that birthed Lech Walesa and the fight against Soviet hegemony abruptly turned back on its history, bringing the Kaczyński twins, Jaroslaw and Lech, and their bigoted party to power.

This is yet another chapter in Poland’s long and tumultuous history, marked by attacks and occupations from neighboring powers. After the Second World War, it followed much of the Eastern Bloc and fell under the USSR’s proxy control, lasting into the early 1990s when social unrest wrestled the country back into democracy.

Poland made immediate efforts to redevelop its economy into a free-market model. It opened to the West and initiated accession talks with the EU in 1994. It became a full member in 2004, with many Poles quickly jumping at the opportunity to resettle and work in other EU nations. As of 2011, over two million Poles are estimated to have left Poland, with 80% choosing an EU country to resettle in. This diaspora has contributed in a key way by transferring funds back to Poland and establishing important trade markets.

Hence, there is a strong financial incentive for Poland to entertain friendly relations with Brussels and remain in the Union. The country already has the Union’s 14th lowest GDP per capita and receives much more money from Brussels than it contributes. The EU has enabled Polish economic development since accession and markedly improved the country’s financial stability postUSSR, while also protecting it from Russian interference in its internal affairs.

But while Poland is famously pro-European, it is now in the midst of a heated dispute with Brussels. The real danger lies in how Poland’s government has dismantled many of the country’s most crucial checks and balances, starting with its judicial system. In the U.S., the term “court-packing” is used

BY ANNABEL NIED to describe the appointment of court judges based on one’s partisan affiliation to ensure a lasting political impact on judicial policy. The PiS has taken things even further. The ruling coalition has enacted laws that effectively give the government control over the whole judicial pipeline. From judge training and naming to choosing inspectors that investigate any judge that may oppose its political agenda, the PiS has full power over Polish courts.

The EU has been watching these developments with concern, attempting to prevent further damage to what it calls “the rule of law” in Poland. The European Court of Justice had previously blocked some of Poland’s reforms, forcing the government to comply with Brussels’ injunctions. But a controversial ruling shuffled the cards.

Poland’s prime minister asked its Supreme Court, now packed

Fall 2021

full of loyal judges, to declare that Poland’s constitution has precedence over EU law, an interpretation that would go against the very core of the Union’s charter.

In a perhaps unsurprising result, the court granted Polish law primacy over European law. Brussels responded harshly, imposing a record fine of one million euros per day on Poland and withholding 42 billion euros from the country’s share of the EU COVID19 recovery package, a massive economic blow to the Eastern nation. Now, the two sides are locked in a bitter war of trenches, no one willing to budge and cede ground to their adversary.

The border crisis with Belarus is another blow to the EU’s efforts to confront Poland. The Union has taken note of Polish efforts to block migrants massed at Minsk’s border from entering EU territory. Poland might end up weaponizing its borders, much

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like Belarus and Turkey, if it feels too pressured by Brussels.

Poland is not looking to exit the EU but the danger of confrontation remains. Every move sets a dangerous precedent for other rowdy EU members, such as Hungary, to employ to undermine the EU’s grip over its member states. While the Brexit referendum of 2016 was a monumental change, the UK could afford to leave the EU when differences arose, and the EU was able to absorb Brexit and move on. The Polish crisis, on the other hand, is a bombshell. Brussels must quickly address the issue to prevent a much larger crisis. Poland’s government is singlehandedly undermining the EU ideal in which countries can collaborate and live under the umbrella of overarching laws and principles.

Poland’s blatant disregard of the EU central government may create a sentiment that Brussels is

incapable of ruling its members, which may scare off prospective members from trying to join and lead to polarization among EU nations that could paralyze Brussels’ institutions.

The aggressive approach taken by the EU’s leadership to stop Poland is key to the future survival of the Union. If Poland wants to benefit from the economic stability offered by the EU, it also has to abide by the organization’s fundamental values. The separation of powers is key to sustainable governance. Poland’s central government is beginning to look like a neo-USSR politburo trying to strong-arm every institution — moving in an increasingly anti-democratic direction.

Brussels weathered the Greek crisis that almost blew up the Eurozone. It now has to brave a Polish winter that may bite deep into the Union’s credibility if left unaddressed.

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Sports

Men’s and women’s squash topped by powerhouse Harvard

NICOLE GARAY / THE TUFTS DAILY

A member of the Tufts squash team is pictured playing Conn. College on Feb. 1, 2020.

by Steven Landry Staff Writer

Both Tufts men’s and women’s teams dropped all nine matches to the visiting Harvard Crimson in their home opener at the glistening Tufts Squash Courts on Tuesday. This is the first loss for both the men’s and women’s Jumbo teams, which are both now 3–1 on the season.

Boasting one of the most elite squash programs in the country, both Crimson teams are consistent national championship contenders. Before facing Tufts, the men’s team at Harvard collected its 36th consecutive win against its Cambridge counterpart, MIT. Even more impressive, the women’s team arrived in Medford having not lost a game since Jan. 11 of the 2014–15 season, tallying its 85th win in a row against the Jumbos.

The Tufts men’s team entered the game with a cumulative record of 25–1, besting Hamilton, Hobart and Connecticut College in its previous matches. Knowing the significant gulf in skill between these teams and the Crimson, the mindset was to use Tuesday’s match as a measuring stick of Tufts squads against some of the best players in the world.

Tufts senior Konrad LaDow said the team was “just focusing on our own

squash games, not so much who we are playing. It’s a great opportunity to play world class opponents.”

Prior to playing the Jumbos, the Harvard men’s team had only dropped three games all year: two to MIT and one to the University of Rochester. Tufts was able to notch five games with first-year Kerwin Teh, junior co-captain Vivaan Jaikishan, senior co-captain Marco Rodriguez, junior Shloke Sahay and firstyear Oliver Eielson all stealing a game off of their opponents. A young but deep team, this Jumbos squad differs from those in years past.

“We have a few young guys that are playing at the top of our ladder and are really committed to it,” LaDow said. “We’re in the best spot we’ve ever been in terms of our depth.”

On the women’s side, the Jumbos were coming off a momentous 9–0 win against Connecticut College where not a single player dropped a game. The Crimson were also fresh off a dominant win, where they bested one of their Ivy League opponents, Brown, by a score of 9–0. In this match, Harvard did not drop a single game, and not a single Brown player was able to reach eight points in a game.

For the Jumbos, first-year Nieve Monderer posted an 11–6 win in the third

game of her match, and pushed the final game to a tiebreak, eventually being bested 12–10. Monderer’s win was the first game a Harvard women’s squash player had lost all season. First-year Aleezah Burhan also had a competitive match against the Crimson’s Charlotte Orcutt, ending with a match score of 6–11, 7–11, and 8–11.

The Crimson’s long standing win streak is imposing, but even more impressive are the two women who are currently representing the U.S. at the Junior Pan American Games in Columbia.

“It’s a really cool opportunity to play with some of the best players in the world.

We had a lot to learn from it,” senior Natalie Bartlett said.

The Jumbos certainly have plenty to learn, and with the majority of the team being comprised of first-years and sophomores, leadership will be integral to their success this season.

“Ten people on our team are in their first year of collegiate squash. All of the underclassmen are super talented so it’s been a pleasure,” Bartlett said.

Both Tufts teams will host NESCAC foe Bates College on Friday, Dec. 3 at 5 p.m. in the Tufts Squash Center. The Bates men enter the match with a 0–3 record, while the women stand at 1–2 on the year.

7 Friday, December 3, 2021

Matt Goguen Keeping up with the 617

A

Purgatory

t a certain point in a team’s successful run, the discussion of the “championship window closing” becomes a hotbed topic; for the Boston Bruins, it’s all they’ve been hearing since 2019. Although they’ve been to two Stanley Cup finals since their win in 2011, the Bruins continue to fall short of expectations in the most frustrating of fashions. Take for example the recent playoff series loss to the New York Islanders; even though the Islanders took the Tampa Bay Lightning to the brink in the Eastern Conference Finals, they weren’t the better team in the Bruins series. In each loss, the Bruins committed frustrating mistakes that ultimately led to their demise — bad turnovers, horrific shot attempts and undisciplined hockey, just to name a few.

The frustration continued into the 2021– 22 season. Ahead of their game against the Nashville Predators on Thursday night, the Bruins sat in fifth in the Atlantic Division and three points outside the second Wild Card spot. Although the Bruins have fallen victim to terrible scheduling this season, that excuse doesn’t cover up their poor performances. Stars like David Pastrnak and Taylor Hall, who just signed a fouryear contract in the offseason, have been invisible in the offensive zone. Additionally, the goaltending has been abysmal; Jeremy Swayman and Linus Ullmark have lost all their confidence between the pipes and their performances are subsequently hurting this team. I partially agreed with the decision not to sign Tuukka Rask because of injury this offseason, but this tandem simply cannot get it done. Swayman does not perform like a No. 1 starter and Linus Ullmark is lucky to let in only three goals per game.

I understand that this sounds like another spoiled Boston sports fan who is shaming a team for a poor start, and that theory could be correct. We’ve seen Pastrnak and Hall find that extra gear.

And last season, Swayman was unstoppable in his short stint with the team.

But right now, this is not a playoff hockey team; you cannot keep relying on the Bergeron-Marchand-Pastrnak line to bail out the rest of the team’s poor performance. Hockey is the true definition of a “team sport,” and one line will not lead this team to success.

As much as Bruins fans might try to ignore the sounding alarms, you have to recognize that this might be one of the last seasons of this Bruins “dynasty.” And to be completely honest, I do not see this team making a deep playoff run with the current construction of this roster. Outside of the top line, where is the goal production going to come from? Sans a solid defensive core, this Bruins team has no attractive quality that most NHL playoff teams have.

The writing is on the wall for this Bruins team: clean up the undisciplined hockey.

Especially with their shaky goaltending, mistakes with the puck in the defensive zone will become costly. This Bruins team is in unfamiliar territory, as they seem to be stuck within the purgatory of NHL teams. These next stretch of games will define the season, and I don’t see this Bruins team escaping the basement anytime soon.

Matt Goguen is a junior studying biopsychology. Matt can be reached at matthew. goguen@tufts.edu.