Highlights of The Month

The Mosa i c

Tapas Series: What Are You Consuming? This semester’s Tapas, a Lealtad-Suzuki Center sponsored signature program, took place on November 1st in the Cultural House’s multipurpose room. It was called “What are You Consuming?” and it aimed to foster a dialogue about representa-tions of multiple identities in different music genres and ways to increase media literacy on the Macalester College campus. A friendly, engaged group of students and faculty were able to join the facilitators Chloe Chon ‘13, Dadri-Anne Graham ‘13 , and Elisa Lee ‘15 for the event. The event started off with listening to, analyzing, and discussing the participants’ fa-vorite songs from Beyoncé’s “If I Were a Boy” to One Direction’s “What Makes You Beautiful.” This was followed by lis-tening to snippets of various pre-selected songs like Toby Keith’s “A Little Too Late,” Coldplay’s “Princess of China,” Three Loco’s “We Are Llamas,” India.Arie’s “I Am Not My Hair,” and Missy Elliott’s “One Minute Man.” As everyone listened and/or watched the music and music videos, participants also ate a snack each time they saw and/or heard some-thing that made them feel uncomfortable, was problematic, or just outright offensive. This was a fun media literacy activity

found in Jennifer L. Pozner’s Reality Bites Back but was modified to be played consuming music and not reality television shows. This Tapas event highlighted the importance of being critical of all sorts of media not just ones that we consume visually but also auditorily , in addition to being critical of all genres of music.

Monthly Newsletter from the Department of Multicultural Life

C-House Poetry Slam—Fall 2012 The Cultural House held its 18th Annual C-House Poetry Slam on Friday, November 2nd. The C-House staff worked hard to create the perfect atmosphere for the slam. The participating poets shared poems that ranged from themes of gender identity to issues of sexual harassment. It was a great night filled with inspiring words, many contemplative moments, as well as periods of laughter. The excited and engaged crowd of Macalester students and staff provided a supportive and affirming environment for the poets to engage with the community and fully express themselves. This year’s poets included Hannah Rasmussen '14, Anna Binkovitz '14, David Jacobson '13, Renee Schminkey '16, Niko Martell '13, and Sarah Horowitz '13. After the audience voted for their top three, the three poets that moved to the second round were Anna Binkovitz, Renee Schminkey, and Niko Martell. After a final vote by the audience, Anna Binkovitz won the honor of being named the C-House Poetry Slam champ. Niko Martell came close as second while Renee Schminkey placed third.

November/December 2012 Edition

By Dadri-Anne Graham ‘13, Choe Chon ‘13 and Elisa Lee ‘15

Lealtad-Suzuki Center’s Program Assistants

By Erica Lee ‘15 Cultural House Program Assistant

DML Corners!

On November 9th, Fresh Fridays, a monthly event at the Cultural House, hosted an event to kick off Native American Heritage Month. The event was titled “Misappropriation or Appreciation?” and focused on (mis)representations of Native American culture in fashion and sports mascots. The event was co-sponsored by the student organization Proud Indigenous People for Education (PIPE).

The co-facilitators of the event, Abaki Beck ‘15, and Lucy Andrews ‘14 chose this subject because it is relevant to cur-rent events and because it is a subject that is of interest to the college-aged demographic. The event was inspired by a recent lawsuit involving Urban Outfitters in which the clothing company was sued by the Navajo tribe for misusing and misrepresenting the Navajo name - the clothing company had a line featuring such items as the “Navajo hipster panty.”

The event was discussion based, and in addition to great conversation, there were pumpkin cookies and hot chocolate (both foods native to the Americas!). This event was particularly important because in past years, very little has been done on campus to recognize Native American Heritage Month. It was well attended and warmly received, and besides spurring dialogue about a contemporary Native American issue often discussed in the media, it also got more students involved with PIPE. In addition, the event received national recognition when co-facilitator Abaki Beck was inter-viewed by the Associated Press about issues of Native American cultural misappropriation in a recent Victoria’s Secret fashion show."

Fresh Fridays At The C-House

By Abaki Beck ‘15 Cultural House Volunteer

C-House Moments

C-House Poetry Slam—Fall 2012 C-House Poetry Slam—Fall 2012

C-House Fresh Friday November 2012

C-House Fresh Friday November 2012

2012 C-House Staff and Residents

DML Corners!

Gender & Sexuality (By Isela Gomez ‘13 and Elisa Lee ‘15) The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) sup-ports the FDA’s recommendation to provide emergency contraception to women of any age. The AAP recommends that pediatricians should make emergency contraception more accessible to teens by prescribing it in advance. Current federal laws require women under 17 to have a prescrip-tion for it. Kellan Baker of Open Society Foundations re-flects on the annual Transgender Day of Remem-brance, on November 20, 2012. It is a day to re-member the names of transgender people who were murdered as a result of transphobia, fear, and hate. Many killed were poor transgender women of color. Transgender people, face system-atic and institutionalized discrimination and bru-tality in areas such as “health care, housing, em-ployment, education, and legal recognition”. Rape and Sexual Assault in the U.S. Military are receiving growing, yet not enough, national atten-tion. Last month, the Airforce instituted a “wingman policy” at a Texas base, requiring all trainees to always be with at least one classmate. Officials created the policy after 23 instructors received allegations of rape, sexual harassment, and “unprofessional relationships.” This year’s documentary “The Invisible War” features inter-views with military personnel, advocates, and sur-vivor veterans of sexual assault and pro-vides history of this long-occurring issue against women in the military.

Economic Justice (By Katie Hinkfuss ‘13 and Yuris Martinez ‘13) Alabama and South Carolina are the only states where HIV positive inmates are isolated from other prisoners. The goal of this policy is to stop the spread of HIV and to reduce medical costs. In South Caro-lina HIV positive inmates wear white plastic arm-bands identifying them as HIV positive and are housed in one maximum security prison. They are banned from eating in the cafeteria and working around food. The ACLU sued the Alabama Depart-ment of Corrections for discrimination against in-mates living with HIV, the policy is currently under review. Get more information here . The situation in Portuguese prisons has gotten in-creasingly worse due to the economic crisis in Europe. Budget cuts have made the prisons both overcrowded and added more pressure to the guards, which some link to recent spikes in abuse. Despite this, many prisoners would prefer to stay in prison because as opposed to outside, they will receive a free meal. This further reflects the desperate situation of Portugal due to the financial crisis. Get more infor-mation here. The annual holiday concert took place on December 8th at the Highland Mountain Correctional Center in Eagle River, Alaska. The organization Arts on the Edge formed the Women’s Orchestra in 2003.

LSC Issue Areas

By the Lealtad-Suzuki Center’s Program Assistants

The DML Family

LSC Issue Areas research current events and policies, locally, nationally and internationally.

DML Corners!

Religion & Spirituality (By Daimon Hardy ‘13 and Dadri-Anne Graham ‘13)

A newly found church that serves the communities of Brooklyn Park and Brooklyn Center has taken on the prevalent but pervasive issue of teen hunger in the two towns. The United Methodist Church partnered with other community organizations to establish a food shelf that has since become part of a larger program, Community Emergency Assis-tance Program (CEAP). A Barnesville priest denied a local teen confirma-tion for posting a picture on Facebook that sug-gested the teen did not support the Minnesota marriage amendment. Additionally, the church associated with the priest, Assumption Church, denied the teen’s family communion. Multiple religious leaders came together to bring awareness to hunger by participating in the food stamp challenge. Participants live on a food budget of $31.50 for a week, which is the average amount food stamp recipients allocated per person. Nativity Story performed Dec. 8th at Basilica of St. Mary in Minneapolis.

Racial/Ethnic/National Identities (By Chloe Chon ‘13 and Isabel M Ruelas ‘15) Schools to Prison Pipeline: A Mississippi school is violating its students due process rights by sending students on probation directly to the local juvenile detention center for any school infraction including violations of the dress code and tardiness. Puerto Rican Statehood: On Election Day, the ma-jority of Puerto Ricans voted for statehood in a non-binding referendum due to the economic aid that changing from a territory (colony) to a state would provide.

The film “Red Dawn”, a remake of the 1982 original, swaps the initial Soviet threat with an invasion by North Koreans and incites a flurry of racist tweets. The movie’s Asian enemy was changed from Chinese to North Korean in postproduction. Tweets read from “Red dawn has taught me not to trust a Korean ever.” to “I hate all Chinese, Japanese, Asian, Korean people.” (typo part of tweet) Admission policies of colleges are getting reexamined as diversity in higher education come under inspec-tion. Some contend that class-based admissions is a win-win alternative to race-based admissions, a more progressive solution. Others say that class-based and race-blind admissions would still cause problems. While there may be higher percentages of people of color among low-income Americans, they remain minorities in the whole population. White people still make up the majority, and purely class-based ad-missions would reflect that. Race-based affirmative action gets more complicated when Asian-American students are discussed. While some populations of Asian-Americans, including stu-dents from India, China, and South Korea, see them-selves as victims of race-conscious admissions, others continue to benefit from it.

LSC Issue Areas

By the Lealtad-Suzuki Center’s Program Assistants

The Lealtad-Suzuki Center’s Team

LSC Issue Areas research current events and policies, locally, nationally and internationally.

DML Corners!

My Experience as a Mentor! My experience as an Emerging Scholars Program mentor, this year, has definitely been enlightening.

When I started the semester I had the mindset that I was supposed to be involved with eve-rything that my mentees were doing. As the semester went on, I realized that as a mentor I am supposed to reach out to my mentees and be casual.

I have grown as a person because with my mentees it isn’t so much that I am an authoritative figure. This is something that I do not want to be. I am seen as a friend who they can just talk to about various aspects of life. Our conversations have ranged from where good barbershops are in the area to going back home for break and what that means for them.

It has been a fun semester getting to know my mentees. Some of my mentees are on a sports team so it’s good to see them interacting with other members of the team and hear that they are transitioning into life at Mac easily because that is the primary goal of being an ESP mentor. That being said, I did not have the opportunity to spend much time with a few of mentees, but for the ones that I did have a chance to spend time with, I can definitely see why they are at Mac. I am defi-nitely lucky to have the group of mentees that I do. They will all make good leaders some day!

SPEAK! You Play (Ball) Like a Girl On November 13, three inspiring and incredible athletes joined us for a panel discussion on the life and role of women athletes in their sport, the spotlight, and the community. The SPEAK! Series was honored to host Lisa Bauch, the owner of the only female-operated boxing gym in the U.S., Nicole Baier, a Division I soccer player from the University of Minnesota, and Susannah Scanlan, a 2012 London Olympic Bronze medalist in fencing. Our very own Lucy Andrews ’14, varsity athlete, and Sarah Graves ‘04, Mac women’s volleyball coach, facili-tated the evening’s panel in JBD hall.

The athletes shared about their experiences as females in a male-dominated industry, mainstream perceptions of women athletes, their lives as students, and intersections with other identities.

Over fifty people attended the event and participated in the lively talkback. Following the panel, the guests of honor and the attendees engaged in intimate, fun chats over appetizers. Some lucky guests had the opportunity to take pictures with the athletes and with the Bronze Medal! We were excited to work closely with Macalester’s athletic department, bridging conversations across campus!

By Isela Gomez ‘13 and Katie Hinkfuss ‘13

Lealtad-Suzuki Center Program Assistants

By Cyrus Hair ‘15 ESP Mentor

November 2012 SPEAK! Series Co-facilitators and Speakers

DML Snapshots Fall 2012

Christopher MacDonald-Dennis

Dean

Multicultural Life

cmacdona@macalester.edu

Karla Benson Rutten

Director

Lealtad-Suzuki Center

benson@macalester.edu

Demetrius Colvin

Assistant Director

Lealtad-Suzuki Center

dcolvin@macalester.edu

Afifa Benwahoud

Department Coordinator

Multicultural Life

benwahoud@macalester.edu

Sedric McClure

Multicultural Counselor

Macalester Academic Excellence Center

mcclure@macalester.edu

DML Contact Information

For questions and suggestions, please contact us at x6243, Monday through Friday, 8:00am-4:30pm

or email Afifa Benwahoud at benwahoud@macalester.edu.

Web: www.macalester.edu/multiculturalism

November 2012 Tapas Series participants

December 2012 Soup & Substance Panelists

Fall 2012 Kente Summit at Macalester

November 2012 Soup & Substance Panelists