The Tufts Daily - Wednesday, March 9, 2022

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VOLUME LXXXIII, ISSUE 28

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Wednesday, March 9, 2022

Anti-mask, anti-vaccine group protest local Somerville brewery

Engineers Week celebrates students, hosts speaker Leland Melvin

by Amelia Colafati Staff Writer

The Aeronaut Brewing Company in Somerville is pictured on March 7.

by Emily Thompson Deputy News Editor

A group of at least a dozen protesters staged a sit-in protest at Aeronaut Brewing Company, a brewery in Somerville, on Feb. 20. The unmasked protesters refused to show proof of COVID-19 vaccination, vio-

QUAN TRAN / THE TUFTS DAILY

lating the business’s COVID-19 policies.

The protesters insisted that the brewery was discriminating against their medical status and that they had the legal right to be there without being masked or vaccinated.

Aeronaut updated its COVID19 vaccination policy to require

all guests ages 12 and older to show proof of vaccination beginning on Feb. 2.

“We have also previously implemented an internal vaccination mandate, and are proud to say our staff is fully vaccinated,” Aeronaut wrote

protest of Trump administration policies.”

Kammen recounted the events following the Paris Climate Accords in 2015. He emphasized the urgency with which nations at the conference had to commit to reducing emissions and how quickly those commitments dissipated.

“Just to put it in context, 4 ½ degrees of global temperature rise on average by 2100 would be more than 20 degrees at the poles,” Kammen said. “And what that means is that Antarctica is now quite barren. It means that Greenland now looks like a big rock … and all that water is now part of the ocean.”

Kammen described the dynamic between the United States and China’s climate policies and how cooperation is necessary to make any significant inroads in reducing carbon pollution.

“China, the biggest user of coal and the biggest funder of coal around the planet, has said … at the opening of the U.N. General Assembly in September that they would no longer fund overseas coal projects,” Kammen said.

“That’s great, [but] the real statement needs to be that China will stop financing fossil fuels around the planet, and [the U.S.] needs to say the same thing.”

In addition to his roles in federal climate policy shaping and professorship at University of California, Berkeley, Kammen gained national attention from his resignation letter under the Trump administration. The first letter of each paragraph spelled out the word ‘impeach.’ Kammen resigned due to former President Trump’s failure to denounce neo-Nazis after the deadly 2017 white supremacist rally in Charlottesville.

Although general prospects for a global shift towards carbon neutrality are slim in the short term, certain states like California have achieved some climate change goals.

“California passed a law saying that [their] energy had to be 20% renewable energy by 2010,” Kamen, who is a resident of California, said. “We missed that goal. … We threw a party

see PROTEST, page 2

Tufts Engineers Week, a weeklong event featuring networking opportunities, a design challenge and a lecture from Leland Melvin, was held from Feb. 17–25. A celebration of engineering, the events were organized concurrently with National Engineers Week.

“The real reason why we run Engineers Week is because it is a celebration of all the things that engineering students and professional practicing engineers do,” Chris Swan, dean of undergraduate education at the School of Engineering, said. “It’s also a realization of all the work that needs to be done.”

Engineers Week began in 2008 as an informal competition between different Tufts engineering departments.

Inspired by the Engineering Student Council, the event began to run a more organized program with the help of the engineering school and Tufts about five years ago. “[Engineers Week] came back with students want-

ing to do things, that’s our Engineering Student Council,” Swan said. “They wanted to do events, and the school wanted to support the efforts, so the program became a little bit more formalized to what we have today which is multiple events happening over what tends to be longer than a week period.”

Swan said that to solve world problems, students and faculty must work together and include underrepresented voices. The events were open to all members of the Tufts community to ensure inclusiveness.

“Let’s bring everybody to the same table,” Swan said. “I would like to see [Engineers] Week be one of those situations where we can gather everyone at the same table.”

Engineering student Jacob Carulli found the mission of Engineers Week meaningful.

“I feel like Tufts E-Week is important,” Carulli, a first-year, wrote in an email to the Daily.

“If anything, it was just nice to

Senior Biden climate advisor talks global energy policy and environmental justice

by Daniel Vos Staff Writer

Dan Kammen, senior advisor to the Biden administration on energy, climate and innovation, spoke about the evolution of international climate policy at an event sponsored by the International Relations Program on Wednesday.

Titled “Energy Innovation, Climate Change and Environmental Justice,” the event was sponsored by the International Relations Program, the Department of Political Science and the Environmental Studies Program as part of Tufts Global Month.

Kelly Greenhill, a professor of political science, introduced Kammen.

“Dan has been a member of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change since 1999,” Greenhill said. “The IPCC, as many of you are aware, was co-awarded the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize.

Dan previously served as science envoy for President Obama and the U.S. State Department, where he ultimately resigned in 2017 in

see CLIMATE, page 2

see E-WEEK, page 2

COURTESY WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

Dr. Dan Kammen is pictured during a presentation on climate change.

SPORTS / back

ARTS / page 4

OPINION / page 7

Squash squeezes out strong finish to the season

Kapow! Pattinson’s Batman stands in a class above the rest

Tufts must do more to support Green Dot and ASAP

NEWS

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FEATURES

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ARTS & POP CULTURE

4

FUN & GAMES

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OPINION

7

SPORTS

BACK

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THE TUFTS DAILY | News | Wednesday, March 9, 2022

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City councilor supports businesses who deny services to protesters PROTEST

continued from page 1 in a statement released on Twitter.

The group of protesters refused to leave after being asked by one police officer but eventually left after being confronted by additional officers.

“They have no power or authority to remove us,” a protester told a police officer when refusing to leave Aeronaut.

Willie Burnley Jr., a city councilor at large in Somerville, assured Aeronaut Brewery that they had the right to deny service to the protesters.

“I let [a staff member] know that the City of Somerville had her back on this,” Burnley Jr. said.

“Businesses are allowed to deny entry into their restaurants, and therefore they should have the ability to peacefully eject folks who do not comply.”

Dan Elton, a Somerville resident, witnessed the protest.

“I talked to the guy who was sort of the leader, and he was very ada-

mant that they had the legal right to be there, and he had a printout with some local law,” Elton said.

Elton said the protesters cited an anti-discrimination law that protects individuals against discrimination for categories like race, gender and religion.

“I was telling him, ‘I don’t see anything on here about vaccination,’ but he was claiming that if you discriminate based on vaccination, it’s a protected characteristic,” Elton said. “I don’t think that argument really made any sense, but he was really adamant.”

Burnley Jr. said educating business leaders on what they can do in similar situations is a way the city council and mayor can support them.

“I was surprised to hear from the leadership of this business that they were unsure about what they could do in this situation,” Burnley Jr. said. “As far as I’m aware, they followed the protocol just as they were supposed to.”

Burnley Jr. denounced the actions of the protesters.

“The folks who have been intentionally and aggressively flouting these guidelines and rules, I do not believe [they] are doing so with good intentions,” Burnely Jr. said. “I consider them, for the most part, either bullies or people who have nothing better to do than to be outraged by things and to try to provoke outrage.”

Evan George, a patron of Aeronaut Brewery, said he is against the protesters and supports businesses like Aeronaut that respect public health measures.

“These protests are part of a much larger national anti-vax and COVID denial ideology that has been exponentially growing over the past 2 years,” George wrote in an email to the Daily. “Its reactionary compass is based on the notion that the government should not be able to do anything that restricts their rights as a consumer.”

He emphasized the importance of supporting restaurant staff during protests.

“Tip heavily. Service workers already do not qualify for the state’s minimum wage and on top of that have to deal with people like this,” George wrote. “Second, reassure the staff you are there to support them.”

George also encouraged alienating protesters as long as it does not escalate the situation.

“It is very important for these people to be viewed as social pariahs, especially on social media,” George wrote. “This operates as a deterrent, and people who may be considering engaging in these anti-public health protests will think twice if they know it will be posted on social media.”

Burnley Jr. urged for the collective protection of the Somerville community.

“It’s my opinion that these mandates not only are in place to safeguard people’s health but also just to … send the message that the kind of community we want to be is one in which everyone feels safe and comfortable,” Burnley Jr. said.

Leland Melvin stresses importance of innovation and connection in lecture E-WEEK

continued from page 1 know that there was a week of recognition for engineers and events going on tailored to our interests and our careers.”

Although Carulli thought the events offered were important, he hopes that Tufts considers adding more events focused on renewable energy in the future.

“I’m not sure if there was anything about renewable energy this year, but I would like to see that if Tufts holds E-Week again,” Carulli wrote.

The organizers of Engineers Week selected Leland Melvin, an engineer, astronaut, educator and former NFL wide receiver for the Detroit Lions and Dallas Cowboys, as this year’s keynote speaker. After his brief football career ended, Melvin worked at NASA and ultimately became an astronaut.

During his lecture, Melvin implored students to look for a mentor who would have their back, support their ambitions and encourage them to keep trying even after failing.

Melvin told a story from his high school football career.

After dropping a key touchdown pass, he was humiliated and left the field, but his coach pushed him to go back on.

Melvin caught the next pass,

COURTESY SEBASTIÁN FERNÁNDEZ

First-year “Meet your Major” event takes place during Tufts Engineers Week at the Science and Engineering Complex on Feb. 18. which ultimately landed him a college scholarship to the University of Richmond.

Melvin emphasized the importance of not judging a book by its cover and not letting labeling affect mindsets surrounding problem solving.

“It doesn’t matter what the language is around the writing

on the side of what you have,” Melvin said. “It’s what you do with it … it’s how you repurpose it.”

When asked about what instructors can do to facilitate student learning and to increase instructor-student connection, Melvin stressed empathy.

“Understanding your students, understanding their story, is crucial,” Melvin said.

Melvin reminded students of the value of integrity in the journey they embark on.

“Do it with grace, do it with empathy and do it with the belief that you are bringing everyone else along on the ride,” Melvin said.

Kammens discusses China-US climate relations CLIMATE

continued from page 1 when we missed [it] in 2010.

We threw a bigger party when we made it three years late. And our goal for 2020 was to be one third powered by renewables. … California met our 2020 goal four years early, meaning between 2013 and 2016, we jumped to this 33% level [of clean energy].”

Kammen stressed the importance of environmental justice as increasingly marginalized communities are left out of the climate equation.

He also described a partnership with Google that used their national survey to look at rooftops and determine who did and did not have solar panels. What they found was that minority populations are overlooked by

sustainable energy policies in the U.S. “If you look at communities that are Hispanic or AfricanAmerican majority, they’re 50% less likely to have solar [energy], and it gets worse,” he said.

One student attending the talk asked if policies at the local level can take the initiative oftentimes lacking at the international level.

Kammen looked toward recent developments in Boston as a key example.

“The new plans that are evolving for Boston under Mayor Wu are a remarkable set of taking advantage of investing in low-income communities and solarizing neighborhoods and encouraging the adoption of not only solar panels on rooftops but also, when homes are built, [energy storage],” Kammen said.

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Features

Building Audacity addresses food injustice through youth-led initiatives

by Priya Padhye Staff Writer

Each Saturday at 9 a.m., while their peers on campus largely remain asleep, a group of Tufts students package and distribute food to about 90 to 170 families. This is one part of Building Audacity’s expansive food justice work, which runs in parallel with the organization’s other programs that address the intersectional needs of the communities it serves.

Building Audacity is a Blackfounded, Black-led nonprofit that supports youth-led changemaking.

Nakia Navarro, founder and ‘lead trouble maker’ at Building Audacity (AG ‘18, AG ‘20), explained the issues that motivated the organization’s creation, which seeks to empower youth ages 11 to 25, among other programs.

“I have been a teacher for a while, I have been executive director for different youth-focused organizations, and I always kept seeing the same things and having the same qualms about the organizations,” Navarro said. “They didn’t really know how to allow youth to lead. Also, they didn’t really make space for the Black and brown youth that they said that they were holding space with and for. That’s why I started Building Audacity — to really make space for youth to organize on their own terms for the issues that they felt to be most important.”

Building Audacity is engaged in a wide variety of youth-led projects, ranging from Civically Speaking!, a podcast that holds public officials accountable; to COVID-19 response efforts that encompass food distribution, education and rent assistance; to the Jean Charles Academy, a dual-language school in Lynn, MA that centers the experiences of Black, Latinx and Asian students, founded by Navarro.

The vast array of programs at Building Audacity, not limited to those above, evolve according to youth input and community needs. A common thread unites the organization’s work: a focus on bringing marginalized voices to the forefront.

“We’re speaking to apartheid, we’re speaking to food sovereignty, we’re speaking to allowing people to … liberate themselves and do it on their own terms,” Navarro said.

Three Tufts students have mobilized behind this mission. René LaPointe Jameson, Shariqa Rahman and Flor Delgadillo help run On The Grow, Building Audacity’s food justice program.

Jameson, the food justice projects coordinator at Building Audacity, discussed how On The Grow started during the pandemic, during which food insecurity in Massachusetts doubled. Organizers surveyed families and found that people overwhelmingly said they needed food.

“While COVID has exacerbated food access and food inaccess, it’s just elaborating on existing conditions that were unjust. I think On The Grow … is really about responding to inequitable community development around food access and, again, the denying of communities affordable, sustainable and reliable access to particularly

fresh food and fresh, culturally specific food,” Jameson said.

Since its inception, On The Grow has served over 650 families, with the number varying throughout the pandemic. It is an overarching umbrella for a collection of initiatives, including ongoing food distribution efforts, hydroponic farming, agricultural tech business programming and the eventual retrofitting and redesign of RVs and buses to create mobile food distribution centers.

Building Audacity has organized dozens of food distributions throughout the pandemic staffed by hundreds of volunteers, including Tufts students, students from other universities and members of the Greater Boston community. This semester, distribution has taken place on Saturdays from the Baronian Field House and has involved partnerships with various student organizations at Tufts, including Tufts Labor Coalition, Tufts Asian Student Coalition, Tufts Students for Justice in Palestine and the Tufts Food Rescue Collaborative.

Leila Skinner, a former food infrastructure intern at Building Audacity and outgoing co-coordinator of the Van Rescue chapter of Tufts Food Rescue Collaborative, shared her perspective on the partners’ roles in weekly food distribution. “[Building Audacity] partners with all sorts of organizations, and I see our role as those organizations is to step up and support — that’s kind of the bare minimum that we could do. So Building Audacity organizes the facilities, outreach and ordering hundreds of dollars of groceries, and we just show up. Building Audacity does an amazing job … of really being like, ‘What do people actually want to eat?’ … Not just focusing on white Americans’ needs, but really focusing on, I believe, a largely Latinx and Black population’s desires,” Skinner said.

Another prong of On The Grow consists of hydroponic farming centers based out of the Jean Charles Academy. In 2021, the spaces received over $20,000 from the Tufts Green Fund as part of a winning project proposed jointly by Jameson and Kevin Cody, the Hoch Cunningham professor of the practice in food systems in the environmental studies program. The project aims to address food apartheid and increase urban farming and access to fresh produce in Boston.

According to Navarro, the center yields 40 pounds of produce per 5 square feet. The potential of multiplying this scale is significant; 20,000 square feet of space could yield over 100,000 pounds of food every four weeks.

“That’s massive in regards to food sovereignty because the people that grow these foods don’t have access to land, so growing hydroponically is, to me, the future. If we want to stop hunger, we’ve got to make sure the people who are hungry know how to grow and can sustain themselves and have choice on what they eat,” Navarro said.

Eventually, Building Audacity plans to open a retail space: a co-op grocery store in Lynn, MA, where the produce sold is hydroponically grown. Down the line, the organizers also envision

phasing out purchased groceries in the distribution program and replacing them with self-grown hydroponic produce.

Delgadillo, a Building Audacity accomplice who manages the hydroponic systems at the Jean Charles Academy, explained the importance of the center’s focus on educating students on agriculture and food access.

“In terms of sustainability and even for our own personal care, having kids at such an early age … be aware that they can grow their own food … I think that’s a really big thing overall,” Delgadillo said.

Delgadillo also explained that while the technical, engineering-related aspects of hydroponics may seem intimidating to those from nonscientific backgrounds, she strives to make it a collaborative, creative process.

“It’s about … creative ways to think about sustainability and access to food, and I think that really, at the core of it, that’s what Building Audacity is about,” Delgadillo said.

According to Jameson, a combination of factors makes On The Grow’s food justice strategy unique: its youthled approach, its promotion of food sovereignty and empowerment and its culturally specific produce, which is driven by community need and want, measured through surveys.

Rahman, an accomplice at Building Audacity who coordinates logistics for the food distribution program, explained the importance of listening to the community.

“Having the family feedback really allows us to make sure that … we’re centering their needs first. I think a lot of organizations inadvertently, with soup kitchens and things like that, when [they] get donations from a group of people that are of a different class or background, they don’t really understand the most pressing needs of the community,” Rahman said.

Jameson elaborated on what food sovereignty means in practice.

“We work in solidarity and in collaboration amongst and with different communities of color. I think it’s important that members of their own communities are leading these initiatives, that it’s particularly not waiting around for white people who have generational wealth and often economic privilege, and still do, to save us or help us,” Jameson said. “This is us doing our own work and responding to, again, continuous maltreatment in food access and community development.”

Jameson, Rahman and Delgadillo all stressed the need for more volunteers; they encouraged Tufts community members to join them for food distribution on Saturdays at 9 a.m. at the Baronian Field House. They especially seek more volunteer drivers and will reimburse for gas and Zipcar costs.

They also look to continue developing partnerships with groups on campus.

“We’re just really grateful for those club members and groups for … understanding that their work coincides with ours and that, again, these issues are so intersectional, that they’re all related,” Jameson said. “Putting in the effort to actually show up on a Saturday morning … that’s great.”

3 Wednesday, March 9, 2022

Chris Duncan Talking Transit

Americans will pay more for gas, but will they ride the bus?

R

ussia’s invasion of Ukraine is having worldwide consequences.

Surely almost everyone in the Tufts community is familiar with the situation by now: Russia has invaded its neighbor Ukraine, seemingly attempting to take over much of the country. As a result, the United States and many other countries have imposed harsh sanctions on the aggressor, which has had huge consequences for the Russian economy.

Following calls from lawmakers from both parties, President Joe Biden banned the import of Russian oil on Tuesday. While imported Russian oil makes up a minority of American oil consumption, in terms of economic consequences for Russia, this is about as close to a ‘nuclear option’ as one can get. A ban like this will, among other things, bring gas prices for Americans way up — more so than they’ve already risen in recent weeks.

Does this mean people will use transit instead?

There is actually a good amount of research on this specific topic. The drastic hikes in gas prices seen in the late 2000s in particular have been closely analyzed. AAA recorded the highest ever national average price of a gallon of gas at about $4.11 on July 17, 2008. On Tuesday, the national average was about $4.17, breaking that record. It should be noted, though, that adjusted for inflation, the previous record for a gallon of gas would be worth about $5.37 in today’s dollars. Many researchers at the time analyzed how the price shock affected the transportation behavior of people in areas all over the country.

Generally, the findings showed a delayed response, so we can’t expect to see a large increase in transit ridership right away.

Even after months, the associated increases in ridership were shown to be relatively small, regardless of transit options available in whatever city or town people live in. In short, most people don’t change their behavior at all.

This is unfortunate! It really sucks when so many people have to pay so much more to get around. A lot of this comes down to a lack of transit options — it is simply not feasible to get around without a car in much of the country, so people have no choice but to swallow the cost. It might be easier to drive less if you live in Somerville or Medford, but for people like my parents in Utah, who live with basically zero transit services, they have to drive.

Thus, I’m skeptical that higher gas prices will ultimately be good for the climate as a habit changer. Obviously, more will be revealed with time, but the evidence we have so far is not necessarily reason for optimism. There has to be an active policy approach to taking cars off the road, meaning we have to tax congestion, build more train routes, run more buses and generally try to make transit a better alternative to driving. These actions will help save our planet and work wonders for our energy security.

Chris Duncan is a junior studying political science. Chris can be reached at christopher.duncan@tufts.edu.

4

Arts & POP ARTS Pop CULTURE Culture

tuftsdaily.com

Wednesday, March 9, 2022

Breathtaking cinematography and score transform ‘The Batman’

by Drew Weisberg Arts Editor

To speak frankly, Matt Reeves’ mysterious and evenly layered film noir “The Batman” (2022) is the best live-action adaptation of the character.

While the film’s three-hour runtime might intimidate some filmgoers, the time flies by as the film maintains flawless pacing that drives the cleverly concocted mystery plot forward with unmatched zeal. The detective story takes place in Bruce Wayne/Batman’s (Robert Pattinson) second year of crimefighting as prominent members of Gotham City’s government are being murdered by a puzzling serial killer known as the ‘Riddler’ (Paul Dano). The Riddler’s plot takes Batman from the streets of Gotham to the highest rungs of the city’s society in an effort to stop the Riddler from tearing Gotham apart.

The film is anchored by standout performances by Zoë Kravitz as Selina Kyle/ Catwoman and an unrecognizable performance by Colin Farrell as the Penguin. While Jeffrey Wright does his best with the material given to him, it’s difficult to feel satisfied by his turn as Police Lieutenant and Batman ally Jim Gordon, who essentially acts as a wall off of which Batman can bounce theories. Pattinson is the weakest link, but that’s not to say he turns in a poor performance.

His brooding, Kurt Cobaininspired Batman is amazing in the suit when he appears otherworldly and genuinely intimidating, but he seems slightly emotionally constipated in his identity as Bruce Wayne.

The cinematography by Greig Fraser ties the film

together and gives the movie a wholly unique identity among the mainstream superhero fare currently available in theaters.

Harsh, neon-lush lighting, a color palette rich in blacks and reds and a wide variety of fantastical angles will make any cinephile ask, “How did they get that shot?” Fraser is currently up for an Oscar for his work on “Dune” (2021), and this film makes it easy to see why. Fraser is a skilled artist, and the film would simply be worse off without his masterful work.

The soundtrack by Michael Giacchino is a mix of operatic soaring scores with bits of slinky jazz and hard rock thrown in.

The soundtrack takes on a life of its own and sets the mood for each character perfectly, from Batman’s conflicted, booming dirge to Catwoman’s steady yet unpredictable riff. The soundtrack makes every scene more memorable and serves to highlight the divides between the characters and the different parts of the city itself, making the music indispensable.

While the film sets up several teases for potential sequels and spinoffs, it never feels bogged down by continuity or constrained by a need to set up new properties or spinoffs. It acts as a perfect, self-contained adventure that, even after its titanic run time, leaves viewers hungry for more. Anyone can watch “The Batman” with even a cursory knowledge of the titular character and his extensive mythology and be thoroughly entertained.

“The Batman” is a must-see film, as perfect as a “Batman” film can likely be and the most ambitious superhero film in recent memory.

The film poster for “The Batman” (2022) is pictured.

COURTESY WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

‘After Yang’: Technosapiens, family and Asian identity

by Ryan Fairfield Staff Writer

The line between robot and human is blurred in A24’s most recent project, “After Yang” (2022), and raises the question: What does it mean to be human, and how far is too far for technological advancement? “After Yang” is set in a futuristic America that many viewers would find appealing — everything seems calm, nature is thriving, technology has made people’s lives much easier and there is an overwhelming sense of harmony in the world. Jake (Colin Farrell) and Kyra ( Jodie Turner-Smith) are parents in this futuristic society and have an adopted daughter Mika (Malea Emma Tjandrawidjaja) from China.

In this world, it is custom for parents of adopted Chinese children to purchase a ‘technosapien,’ an Asian robot programmed with extensive knowledge of Chinese culture and history, to not only serve as an older sibling or caretaker for the adoptee but to also help the child connect with their birth culture.

The film opens with Jake, Kyra, Mika and the technosapien sibling — Yang ( Justin H. Min) — taking a family portrait. There is then a shift, and the family is suddenly in their living room competing in a virtual dance competition against other families around the world. This scene results in bright flashes of color as it cuts from one family to another, each battling to stay in

sync with one another and be the last ones standing. Jake’s family is soon eliminated, but Yang cannot stop dancing, and Jake soon realizes he is malfunctioning. For the rest of the film, Jake struggles to find a way to save Yang, as Yang was purchased from a secondhand store that no longer exists, and the warranty is not valid. Along the way, Jake discovers Yang’s memories and learns about the life he did not know Yang had, even as Jake becomes self-aware of how distant he has become from his family.

In 1 hour and 36 minutes, “After Yang” beautifully tackles complex topics such as the line between human and technology, identity, family and loss.

Yang’s relationship to his fam-

ily members is real, despite him being a technosapien, and that is the purpose of the second half of the film’s display of all his memories. The idea that Yang was able to build a relationship with someone outside of his family unit, as his memories show him frequently with Ada (Haley Lu Richardson), and decide what memories were worth keeping in his storage prove that he had consciousness and may be more humanlike than many previously thought. The whole concept of Yang having his own consciousness and memories makes the characters, and the audience, wonder about the nature of humanity.

Alongside the idea of what it means to be human, Mika and Yang attempt to answer the

question: What does it mean to be Asian? Both Mika and Yang struggle with their Asian identity, and their individual struggles emphasize the different ways Asian-Americans struggle with their identity.

Yang has all this knowledge of Chinese culture but no actual memories of China or what it means to be Asian, as he is a technosapien who has been programmed this way, and grapples with the differences between his racial and ethnic identity. While Yang’s racial identity is Asian, he lacks an ethnic identity as he has never experienced traditional Chinese culture, and the closest he has ever been to another Chinese person is with Mika. see AFTER YANG, page 5

A r t s & P o p Cu l t u r e

Wednesday, March 9, 2022 | Arts & Pop Culture | THE TUFTS DAILY

A24 film raises questions about identity and humanity through striking acting AFTER YANG

continued from page 4 On the other hand, Mika comes to terms with what it means to be adopted and how that influences how ‘Asian’ she feels.

In a remarkable scene between Yang and Mika, he attempts to help her understand her Asian and adopted identity. Tjandrawidjaja’s acting in this scene, and throughout the course of the entire film, is incredible and impressive for someone who was less than 10 years old at the time of filming.

Reminiscent of a younger McKenna Grace, Tjandrawidjaja acts with such ease and her energy is captivating, which makes it surprising that this is her first major acting role.

“After Yang” showcases the complexity of identity and family and tells an important story of not only what it means to be human but what it means to be Asian — a topic that is not often seen in the media. Though the cast of the film is small, each actor is memorable and brings another layer of emotion to it. In addition, A24 sticks to their reputation of creating films that push the boundaries of cinema and are not afraid to make bold artistic choices, which is exciting to watch. While “After Yang” is a science fiction, utopian-like drama, it does not allow the science fiction aspect to distract from the overall story and message. With a diverse cast, original story and mesmerizing scenes, “After Yang” successfully tells an important story of family that also brings representation to groups that are not often seen on screen.

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Odessa Gaines K-Weekly

The Big Three

O

The promotional poster for the film “After Yang” (2022) is pictured.

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ne thing many people fail to remember about the K-pop industry is that it is different from Western music industries. There are definitely some overlaps, like how both industries may put together groups via music competition shows (i.e., X-Factor and I-Land), but there are clear differences between both industries. One of these is the foundation and transformation of the ‘Big Three’ in the K-pop industry, whose monopoly on the industry was more extreme than any American music label has been able to achieve.

The ‘Big Three’ refers to K-music entertainment companies SM Entertainment, YG Entertainment and JYP Entertainment.

These three companies were once the most powerful and successful ones in the entire industry, dominating music charts with groups like Super Junior, BIGBANG and MISS A, respectively. These companies are known for starting the K-pop wave and expanding it into Japan, but they are also recognized as heavily manufacturing and controlling their groups like with SHINee and SNSD. While these groups are still clearly successful, it is no longer typical for K-pop listeners to call these companies the ‘Big Three’ after a once extremely small and unknown company by the name of HYBE, formerly known as BigHit Entertainment, surpassed all three.

In just the first half of 2021, HYBE brought in over $3 billion in profits. Since this power exchange among entertainment companies, the concept of the ‘Big Three’ is no longer as clear.

The not-so-secret secret to HYBE’s success? BTS. BTS debuted under BigHit Entertainment back in June 2013 and has broken several records since. The seven-member boy group first started gaining clear recognition in the West after the 2017 Billboard Music Awards when they won the Top Social Artist award for the first time, and they have won it every year since. BTS, however, has been making waves in the K-industry long before Western audiences began to recognize their talents. In May 2016, they held the title for the longest consecutive weeks by a K-pop album on the Billboard World Albums Charts with their album “Most Beautiful Moments in Life, Pt. 2.” At the end of the year, BTS became the only artist not under the Big Three to win one of the four big awards at the Mnet Asian Music Awards, winning Artist of the Year. In the years following, BTS began to bring in significant profits for not only HYBE but also the South Korean economy. Afterward, the company was able to form more groups and to expand into other forms of profit, such as apps and webtoons.

Some would still claim that the Big Three are still top tier and that the success and fame of HYBE have no influence on the accomplishments they had in the first three generations of K-pop.

The truth is, the Big Three deserve their credit for starting the K-pop wave, but HYBE deserves credit for revolutionizing it. Personally, I think ‘Big Three’ is no longer the best phrasing, since the companies are no longer the top three, but regardless, YG, SM and JYP still deserve recognition for what they started.

Odessa is a first-year studying child study and human development. Odessa can be reached at kgaine01@tufts.edu.

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THE TUFTS DAILY | Fun & Games | Wednesday, March 9, 2022

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Opinion

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7 Wednesday, March 9, 2022

EDITORIAL

Students need coordinated sexual assault prevention measures At this point in the spring semester, Green Dot training for varsity athletes is approaching quickly, and a campus-wide revival of in-person social events makes it even more important now than during semesters spent in partial lockdown.

Promoted at Tufts starting in 2016, Green Dot is an on-campus organization providing trainings and workshops that encourage bystander intervention in cases of social misconduct — sexual and otherwise.

The Green Dot training consists of a one to two-hour workshop tailored to group participation, focusing on bystander intervention methods and the social culture of the Tufts community. Another group, Awareness for Sexual Assault Prevention, is a student organization that works to prevent and raise awareness of sexual assault and promote a culture of consent on campus. Currently, student organizations must request these trainings and workshops of their own volition, with the exception of varsity sports teams.

In the past, Tufts has taken action to ensure that students have access to sexual assault prevention training through Green Dot. For student athletes, this access is promoted by the NCAA, which mandates

that varsity athletes receive annual sexual misconduct prevention training. According to Malcom Herbert, a current co-coordinator of Green Dot, these trainings vary year to year; past trainings have included a webinar presented

by TUPD and workshops with Alexandra Donovan, the director of the Center for Awareness, Resources and Education.

Varsity sports teams’ Green Dot training is orchestrated through the Student-Athlete Advisory Committee, which helps select Green Dot representatives for each team. While the Green Dot representatives play a crucial role in ensuring their team meets the NCAA requirement, the position does not mandate any required specific training or qualifications.

Given that sexual harassment and domestic violence at Tufts increased during the pandemic, these sorts of trainings are essential now more than ever amid a return to in-person social events. Due to the pandemic, many underclassmen missed out on normal in-person programming from Green Dot and the Sex Health Representatives — who normally feature during orientation — leading to an educational gap.

Additionally, the pandemic has brought changes to the curric-

ula of sexual assault prevention organizations, with Green Dot shifting its focus to address the rise in domestic violence within the Tufts community. This year, ASAP will also relaunch their annual event, It Happens Here — a student-led event focused on narratives by survivors of sexual violence and assault — for the first time since the start of the pandemic.

To address the recent increase in sexual harassment and domestic violence, Tufts should work to raise the number of students who receive annual sexual misconduct prevention training and ensure that Green Dot representatives for sports teams are prepared to provide information about sexual misconduct prevention training.

While all new students are required to receive training on the university’s sexual misconduct policies from the Office of Equal Opportunity during orientation, Tufts currently only mandates sexual assault prevention training for students participating in varsity athletics — not club sports or other student organizations. An obvious solution might be for Tufts to mandate that all student organizations recieve annual sexual assault prevention training.

According to Herbert, a senior, Green Dot alone does

not have the capacity to train all clubs.

“It would be awesome to be able to do trainings with every club and every group that would want one,” Herbert said. “It’s just the problem is we only have so many ambassadors and [Donovan] has a lot of other responsibilities on her plate. … What we’re kind of dealing with right now is we have to get all these trainings done by April 1 for the NCAA [requirement], which we’re going to be able to do, but … just finding the people to be able to make all those trainings [happen] is definitely going to be like a unique challenge.”

To reach the most students, Tufts should help sexual assault prevention organizations expand their training programs.

Currently, Green Dot is hoping to meet demand by developing asynchronous content, such as informational graphics and videos. While there are notable challenges to an asynchronous or even online interactive training, including consistent attendance and difficulties facilitating candid conversations about sex on an online platform, this content would help quickly increase the number of students who can receive training.

We urge all student organizations, especially those host-

ing social functions, to recieve sexual assult prevention training from Green Dot or ASAP. To meet this demand, we call upon the university to increase the funding for the CARE office and hire more personnel.

With the training, which takes only a few hours, students would be better equipped to handle conversations surrounding not only sexual assault but also uncomfortable or toxic relationships and strategies to make Tufts a safer space. It is critical that students reconcile the reality of sexual assault on Tufts’ campus and know how to take steps to prevent it.

Given the shifting nature of COVID-19 restrictions and the increases in reported sexual misconduct Tufts has seen recently, sexual assault prevention trainings like those offered

by Green Dot are more critical than ever. This should not simply be a matter of athletes fulfilling an NCAA requirement. Instead, in the interest of creating a safe and respectful environment for everyone on campus, we urge as many student organizations as capacity and resources allow to request training to improve student awareness of sexual misconduct and bystander intervention strategies.

VIEWPOINT

‘Don’t Say Gay’: The rise in state anti-LGBTQ legislation

by Reya Kumar Opinion Editor

Content warning: This article mentions suicide.

The United States has seen a drastic increase in antiLGBTQ legislation at the state level in the past year, with 280 bills introduced and 25 passed in 2021. Cathryn Oakley, the Human Rights Campaign’s state legislative director, has stated that 2022 is likely to beat last year’s record as the worst year in recent history for LGBTQ rights. Two such state actions are Florida’s HB 1557, commonly referred to as the ‘Don’t Say Gay’ bill, and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s attempt to criminalize gender-affirming care.

Backed by Gov. Ron DeSantis, the Don’t Say Gay bill passed the Florida House and will soon make its way through the Senate, set to take effect July 1. Though much of the bill is aimed at giving parents more agency and information in the education process, the bill specifically prohibits instruction on sexual orientation or gender identity from kindergarten through third grade, or in a manner that is not age-appropriate, leaving the legality of instruction on these topics for older grades ambiguous. It also

allows parents to seek injunctive relief against the school if the bill is violated.

This bill is deeply harmful and pointedly homophobic.

Everyone has a sexual orientation and gender identity, yet no one will stop a straight third grade teacher from showing her students a picture of her male fiance or cisgender children from talking about their own gender identities.

Instead, it will be used prevent children with same-sex parents from doing something as simple as drawing their family, or children who do not identify with the sex they were assigned at birth from expressing who they are.

As Trevor Project CEO Amit Paley said, “Removing LGBTQ people and topics from public schools will only work to further shame a group of young people who already face disproportionate rates of discrimination, bullying, and suicide attempts.”

Additionally, the prevention of exposure to the very existence of LGBTQ people will further ignorance and hatred in student bodies across the state.

While not explicitly law, Abbott’s new directive called for licensed professionals and members of the general public to report parents of minors

undergoing gender-affirming care. This is based on an opinion released by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, stating that providing gender-affirming medical care to transgender minors is child abuse under Texas state law. While President Biden has voiced his support of LGBTQ youth and has announced that the Department of Health and Human Services will take action to protect transgender youth in Texas, he does not have the power to stop a state-level directive.

Last week, in a lawsuit brought by the American Civil Liberties Union, the plaintiffs were granted a temporary restraining order, preventing Abbott’s directive from being enforced on one family on the grounds that it would cause irreparable harm. Despite the fact that this ruling is limited and does not prevent Paxton’s opinion from being enforced in other cases, the state has appealed the restraining order.

Abbott’s directive flies in the face of medical and scientific consensus. Gender-affirming health care is considered to be medically necessary by all major medical organizations, including the American Psychological Association and the American Medical Association. As Devin

English, an assistant professor at the Rutgers School of Public Health explains, these state actions “will cause extreme psychological harm to LGBTQ youth. Our research indicates these state-level policy positions are linked to suicide risk among these youth, particularly LGBTQ youth of color.”

Abbott is framing his directive as a move to save children from abusive parents. In actuality, it will tear supportive and loving families apart and cause harm to teens that are already at risk.

These laws are widely opposed by public opinion.

70% of Americans support the legality of same-sex marriage, while 66% support transgender men and women being allowed to openly serve in the military.

A Public Religion Research Institute survey found that approximately two thirds of Texans support LGBTQ nondiscrimination laws. Additionally, a Public Opinion Research Lab survey found that 49% of Floridians oppose the Don’t Say Gay bill, while only 40% support it. Meanwhile, a poll showed that the most important issues to Floridians are the economy, inflation and immigration; 88% of Texans said inflation had an impact on their households.

Republican lawmakers are not

doing what is best for their states and constituents — they are disregarding the priorities of citizens while actively harming many of the constituents that they bear responsibility for.

With this recent spate of anti-LGBTQ, state-level political action, it is important that we offer support to the members of our community who are affected by these laws. Tufts prides itself on being one of the most LGBTQ-friendly campuses in the nation. By offering support and donations to LGBTQ rights organizations and working against these terrifying attempts to strip away hard-won rights, we can live up to that title. One of the best ways to do that is to focus more donations and get-outthe-vote efforts on state-level campaigns in this midterm year, specifically in states like Florida and Texas where citizens are at a higher risk of being harmed by their governments. Many people highlight the national government, but flipping federal-level Senate and House seats is very difficult, and often impossible, especially without engagement at a more local level. At the state level, we can make a crucial difference that will help to protect LGBTQ youth.

SPORTS

8 Wednesday, March 9, 2022

Bharat Singh The Final Whistle

The recent rise of Real Betis

tuftsdaily.com

Men’s squash finishes a strong season

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a Liga is often characterized by the big three: Real Madrid, F.C. Barcelona and Atletico Madrid. In recent years, Sevilla, Real Sociedad and Villarreal have cemented themselves as the chasing pack with impressive campaigns both domestically and in Europe. None would’ve foreseen Real Betis’ ascent over the last two years. In the 2019–20 season, Betis finished 15th with a points tally of just 41, five points off the drop zone. In July 2020, veteran Chilean manager Manuel Pellegrini was appointed head coach. His debut season saw Betis finish sixth, securing Europa League football and appearing in the quarterfinals of the Copa Del Rey. Today, Los Verdiblancos sit fifth, two points adrift of Barcelona and defending champions Atletico Madrid. But how has Pellegrini turned the fortunes of this fringe midtable side into dark horses challenging for Champions League status?

Notable for his three seasons at Manchester City, Pellegrini joined Betis after a disappointing stint at West Ham. With experience managing Real Madrid and Villarreal, Pellegrini has revitalized spirits at the Andalusian club.

Without spending enormous fees on marquee signings like Newcastle’s panic transfer sprawl in the Premier League, Betis’ business has been effective and measured with Pellegrini focusing on sculpting the quality out of his dormant squad. Loan moves have brought in prematurely written-off players like Héctor Bellerín and Claudio Bravo to bolster the squad. A blend of technical finesse and physical presence has anchored Betis’ performances this season. With a 4-2-3-1 lineup, Betis’ back four is primarily protected by the defensive duo of William Carvalho, the Portuguese now in his fifth season at the club, and Guido Rodriguez, who commanded the Argentine midfield in their Copa America triumph. Mexican captain Andrés Guardado also fills the position, and his ability to thread key passes for wide players adds more dynamism to the team. Up front, Betis alternates between Willian Jose and Borja Iglesias, who have combined for 14 goals so far this season.

Despite an efficient defensive midfield and reliable strike force, Pellegrini’s side truly flourishes in attacking midfield.

Composed of a trio that converts goalscoring threats and maintains ball possession, Betis’ midfielders have contributed 22 goals and 13 assists this season. Nabil Fekir, the club’s talisman, occupies the central role and controls the tempo of most games. With an explosive left foot and an unmatched strength on the ball, Fekir is dangerous from any position on the field. A member of France’s 2018 World Cup winning side, Fekir links up well alongside Spaniard Sergio Canales. A great crosser, Canales often drifts wide and opens up space for a target man while threatening from long distance. Operating on the left is Juanmi whose 12-goal contribution makes him Betis’ top goalscorer in La Liga. A relentless presser with opportune bursts of pace, Betis’ No. 7 caps off one of the best midfields in Spain.

Having already defeated Zenit St. Petersburg, Betis will face Eintracht Frankfurt in the second round of the Europa League and Valencia in the final of the Copa del Rey. Pellegrini’s side will look to make history and set the tone for the club’s renaissance in the modern era.

Bharat Singh a first-year studying international relations. Bharat can be reached at bharat.singh@tufts.edu.

A player swings at the ball in a match against Dickinson at Harvard’s Murr Center on Friday, Jan. 20, 2017.

by Brigitte Wilson Sports Editor

Last weekend, the Tufts men’s squash team officially finished their 2021–22 season at the College Squash Association National Collegiate Individual Championships in Philadelphia.

While the team championships were in mid-February, junior Sanjeev Jeyabalan explained that the event formatting meant that every squash team only received one or two bids.

“You get in on a qualification basis … and we had one representative who qualified for [the Individual Championship],” he said.

That representative, sophomore Harry Charlton, had one successful match but ultimately lost in the consolation semifinals.

Charlton gave more insight on the logistics of the championship. “[The Individual Championship] is at the end of each season. … The teams will get a certain amount of bids, and the NESCAC teams usually get only one or two for the season,” Charleton said.

The exclusivity of the final event means that the players who qualify are the top performers from around the country.

“It’s a good experience just because it’s all the best players in the country, so you’re able to measure yourself against the best and see what you need to do to improve your next season. It’s a good learning experience,” Charlton said.

Ranked No. 1 for the Jumbos, Charlton was excited to show his skills at the championship. His first match was against skilled Dickinson player Nicolas Serna Londono. Charlton was happy with his performance, even though he didn’t win the match.

“I went into it trying to stay in the rallies and do my best. I was overall happy with how I played,” he said.

Charlton’s best playing of the weekend was against a player from Colby, which turned into a lengthy, five-game match.

“That was probably my favorite match of the weekend just because I was down 2–0 games and had to come back to win in 5,” Charlton said.

While Charlton ultimately lost against Cornell’s Arnaav Sareem 11–5, 11–8 and 11–4, he admitted it was a tough and physical match but an overall great experience.

The Individual Championships were bittersweet for the men’s squash team, as their season was marred by COVID-19 in spite of many aspects of the world returning to normal.

“I wouldn’t go as far as to say we had a season [not affected by COVID19] … because we always had [COVID19] problems existing within the team,” Jeyabalan said.

He also explained that three of the top nine players couldn’t play in the NESCAC Men’s Championship, which affected their performance.

Charlton shared a similar sentiment, explaining that the first half of the season

RAY BERNOFF / THE TUFTS DAILY ARCHIVES

was marked with a win against Bates and a good performance against Williams.

“The second half of the season, we did have a bunch of [COVID-19] issues. …

I had to miss the NESCAC tournament because of that, and … we were missing a few key players. … It was certainly frustrating, but overall it does teach you to appreciate the matches where you do have the entire team and not take those for granted,” he said.

Ultimately, though, the Jumbos bounced back throughout the season.

“We went to nationals, so we did the best we could. [COVID-19] was just something that we had to work with and deal with, but we did really well,” Jeyabalan said.

Looking to next season, both Jeyabalan and Charlton are enthusiastic about the future of the team.

“We’re going to be very well prepared for whatever is thrown at us,” Jeyablan said.

Since he will be one of three co-captains next year, he is also looking forward to leading the team more and contributing to motivating the players.

“This year we finished 18th [in the College Squash Association rankings], so we’ve been steadily progressing [in] rankings and getting better and better each year. I’m pretty confident that the trend will keep continuing. Next year, I think we might have the best team we’ve had in a long time … so [I’m] definitely looking forward to that,” Charlton said.