Brooklyn College’s Weekly Student Newspaper

Volume xxxi issue ix Wednesday, april 18, 2018 WWW.bcexcelsior.com

INSIDE THIS EDITION

News, 2-3 Features, 4

+ more

Opinions, 5-6

+ more

Arts, 7 Sports, 7-8

+ more

BCLP Hosts Brunch With Edwidge Danticat

Brooklyn College’s History Intersects with

FDR’s New Deal

Nature vs. Nurture and Junot Diaz’s Road to Recovery Isle of Dogs Review

BC Men’s Tennis Shutout in Loss to Hunter

By Zainab Iqbal

When Hira Khan—run-ning with Himansu Pal for vice president for College of Liberal Arts and Scienc-es (CLAS) student govern-ment—posted her candi-dacy announcement on the BC In The Know Facebook page, she wasn’t expecting it to get over 100 comments. It all started with a question posed by the current CLAS President Nissim Said in response to Khan’s post ref-erencing her ideas for a “re-formed system”: “What’s the reformed system?”

Pal, a junior majoring in business and statistics, is on the pre-law track en-route to law school. He is a Wat-son fellow and is a part of TEDxCUNY, Students Partnering and Reaching Kids (S.P.A.R.K), and the Kappa-Sigma fraternity. He ran last year for CLAS pres-ident and lost by 107 votes to Said. He has absolute-ly no experience in student government, but that is okay, he says; it’s time somebody new got to hold the torch.

“It’s like if I have a torch with a fire lit in it, and I keep passing it to my fol-lowers, that prevents a new fire from happening, a new passion, a new idea, a new revolution,” he said. “That’s what my campaign is all about—a complete-ly new reformative system.”

“It’s time to bring new faces, new voices and new innovative ideas to student government—a reformed system with everyone includ-ed and everyone involved,” Khan’s Facebook post read. The question Said posed wasn’t answered, even after he asked it four times. Pal

then replied by letting Said know the question would be answered at the CLAS de-bate next week. But that an-swer wasn’t sufficient enough.

The reformed system the pair was referring to was a proposal to elimi-nate corruption within stu-dent government. Accord-ing to Pal, it is the lack of transparency presented by the student government.

“The presidential candi-dates argue that the assem-bly and executive board ar-en’t connected, yet, we have candidates who are running with an assembly,” Pal told the Excelsior. “So last year, Nissim had a flier. On the front he included the peo-ple on the executive side; on the back there were 29 people for assembly. So es-sentially if Nissim wins, so do those other 29 people.”

Pal argues that running with an assembly takes away opportunities from students on campus because student government is essentially go-ing to have the same students every single year—and that is what’s problematic, Pal said.

“I think president and vice president should be sufficient, and after that, as president, you appoint offi-cials. I don’t want to jump to conclusions and be like ‘Hey, want to be my treasurer be-cause I have no one else?’ Is that really the best way to pick a treasurer? You should take the time even after you become president to see who’s really passionate about student government, who really wants that position, and then appoint officials.”

Contrary to what some students commented on the Facebook post, Pal said he

wasn’t hiding anything, nor was he running away from the question. He was just waiting for the right way to present the idea; he believed that a comment on a Face-book thread was not enough.

“An idea like that deserves more,” he said. “These are the same ideas I ran with last year. And I’ve gotten the chance to add more. It’s not because I wanted peo-ple to steal ideas, it’s be-cause I needed to present it the right way to students.”

“When you go to a top restaurant, you never see them bring out a $5,000 dish on a bronze plate. It’s always top quality meal, top quality

meat, top quality everything from garnishing down to the plate, down to the way they put the sauce,” he said. “Pre-sentation matters. And peo-ple need to understand that.”

Regardless of the ques-tions Said may ask on Face-book posts, Pal respects him. Though he believes Said did a great job being president, there’s more he could’ve done.

“Nissim has done amaz-ing things. I don’t want to overshadow that one bit. He’s been truly different from what we’ve had in the past. And he’s someone that I can look up to if I were to become president,” he said. “But I think because he’s try-

ing to do so much, he hasn’t gotten everything done that he wanted to. And that’s a problem. I think you need to start off small, make a checklist, and literally check things off. Not have a thou-sand tasks on one list and then shade in half a box to show 50 percent completion; because at the end of the day it’s what you get done, not what you started, and not what you didn’t finish.”

An idea Pal feels strongly about is building connec-tions with student govern-

Despite Facebook Misfortune, CLAS Presidential Candidate Himansu Pal is Still Going Strong

See “Despite Facebook Misfortune,” 2

Pal (right) plans on running a rigorous campaign with his running mate Khan (left), and believes he'll finally be victorious this year. PHOTO/ Facebook

theEXCELSIOREditor-In-Chief

Samip Delhiwala

Managing EditorZainab Iqbal

Business ManagerChristopher George

Copy EditorsIan MirandaPreeya Ninan

Section EditorsFeatures: Sheba Antony

Opinions: Stephanie Farrier

Arts: Carmen Saffioti

Layout EditorElizabeth Starace

Web ManagerSandy Mui

Advertising ManagerChristopher George

Faculty AdvisorGeorge Rodman

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2 the EXCELSIOR NEWS April 18, 2018

Events Listing Wednesday, April 18

Interfaith Dialog with Mustafa Akyol, author of Islam without

Extremes2:00 PM - 4:00 PM

Student Center, Gold Room, 6th Floor

Engage in an interfaith dialogue featuring Turkish writer and The New York Times International journalist Mustafa Akyol, au-thor of Islam without Extremes: A Muslim

Case for Liberty.

Thursday, April 19

Psychology Graduate Colloqui-um - Insights from Specialized

Spiders into the Study of Animal Cognition

12:30 PM - 1:30 PM5117 James Hall

Professor Fiona Cross is an arachnologist at the U. of Canterbury in New Zealand who specializes in animal cognition and studies the biology of a mosquito-eating jumping spider from East Africa that has unique, complex eyes and a capacity for spatial vi-sion exceeding that for any other animals of similar size... Professor Cross focuses on numerosity and she has evidence that these hunting spiders can count and remember the counts of items they make. Psychology Professor Frank Grasso will moderate the

colloquium.

Sunday, April 22

Master’s Recital - Elisabeth Pa-pageorgiou, soprano

Studio 312, Roosevelt ExtensionPeiwen Chen, piano

Monday, April 23

American Torture12:50 PM - 2:05 PM

Library Multipurpose Room 411Join us for a conversation between CUNY School of Law Professor Ramzi Kassem and Brooklyn College Professor Moustafa Bayoumi as they discuss the legal, political, and cultural implications of torture today.

ments of other City Univer-sity of New York (CUNY) campuses. He believes strong dialogue will create ways to share resources, co-sponsor events, and help each other.

“We all have our own is-sues, and they may not be the same but maybe some-thing that is a problem for us is something that Queens College is really good at?” Pal said. “So why don’t we make use of that CUNY network?”

Pal also believes that stu-dents should be making use of the BC Navigator app, as its only current purpose is to “log on and show your ID card.” He believes, if taken advantage of, the app can be the “next social media.”

“Imagine if you could share your location, take a quick picture, and post it on the app. People get to see, the administration gets to see the issues that are happening and fix it right away,” he said. “We are proposing to use it more like an interactive out-let to connect BC students with the administration. This in turn would resolve larger issues such as the lack of transparency since not everyone has a Facebook.”

When Pal first joined BC in his freshman year, he absolutely dreaded it. He was waiting for the day he could transfer. But then he wound up checking out the scholarship office, apply-ing to a bunch of stuff, got accepted, and decided to get involved. He realizes he now loves Brooklyn Col-lege. And he believes that’s exactly what the college needs—figuring out ways to get the students involved. And that, he said, starts with a story that can resonate.

“I came in thinking that this was going to be a waste of my time. I’m just going to get a 4.0 GPA, do nothing, apply to law school and get the heck out of here—but

then I fell in love with the school,” he said. “This is my way of giving back. I want to leave a story behind. I want to give students that moti-vation that just because you go to BC—yeah it may not seem to be a school of great opportunities and the land of hope—but there’s still so much this school has to offer.”

For those who say be-coming president of CLAS is just another accom-plishment for Pal to add to his resume, he laughs.

“At the end of the day this isn’t something I need and this isn’t something that’s going to further my appli-cation for law school. This is something that I want to do.”

Pal is also very thrilled

about the CLAS debate that is scheduled fornext Tues-day, April 24 during com-mon hours at the Occidental Lounge in the Student Cen-ter. He is optimistic for the chance he’d get to put forth his ideas and see what other candidates are up to, though he hopes the questions won’t get leaked beforehand.

“Brooklyn College, to me, has been an experience that I never saw coming,” he said. “And I just want other stu-dents to feel the same way.”

For more information on Pal and his and Khan’s campaign, you can check out the campaign’s offi-cial Facebook page: Hi-mansuHira4CLAS2018.

Cont’d From “Despite Facebook

Misfortune,” 1

Ovi’s, a popular food spot near campus, publicly endorsed Pal. PHOTO/ Facebook

3 the EXCELSIOR NEWS April 18, 2018

By Sandy Mui

“Everyone has a story.” That is a motto the Brook-

lyn College Listening Proj-ect (BCLP) has always lived by. On March 28, four of BCLP’s stories were told in the State Lounge of Brook-lyn College’s Student Center.

That week, Edwidge Dan-ticat, a Haitian-American writer and 2017-18 Hess Scholar-in-Residence, vis-ited Brooklyn College for a series of events hosted by The Wolfe Institute. “Narrating Our Lives: Brunch with Fac-ulty and Students from the Listening Project” was one event on March 28, held be-tween 11 a.m. and 12:15 p.m.

“Knowing somebody’s journey by talking to them in conversation is always something I’ve tried to do in my work,” Danti-cat said on oral histories.

During the brunch, four students presented their work to an audience that in-cluded Danticat and Brook-lyn College students and faculty affiliated with BCLP.

Radhika Viswanathan interviewed Preeti Vasude-van, an Indian dancer. “I feel totally myself when I’m on stage,” Vasudevan said in the interview. “It’s my home.”

On why she decided to interview Vasudevan, Viswanathan said, “I’ve been dancing for as long as I can remember… specifi-cally Indian classical dance. It’s still the story of the people from their ancestors

and what they value. I liked growing up as a dancer be-cause it made me closer to my grandparents and ap-preciate what they valued.”

Another student, Domi-nick Braswell, began his pre-sentation by explaining the importance of oral histories. “They give us a telling of past events and moments through the voices of those who are directly or indirectly affected by those... moments,” he said.

Braswell interviewed Mark Torres, who spoke about his mother’s expe-

rience coming to the US from the Dominican Re-public in the 1950s during the Rafael Trujillo dicta-torship. “The dictatorship really divided families,” Torres said in the interview.

Zoey Wolfe interviewed Justine Carta Hess, a trans-gender woman from the Philippines who struggled with her identity before coming to the United States. Eventually, Hess came across role models in New York City.

“I found what was striking that their self-concepts had

been built from the ashes… many of their friends had died from AIDS in the 80’s and 90’s,” Hess said in the interview. “Or they had also lost people who had killed themselves or been mur-dered because they were gay.”

Hess’ experiences generat-ed reactions from many peo-ple in the audience. “These are people that should use their platform for people who don’t have that support,” one student remarked. “I just want these people [with a platform] to assist those

people in their darkness.” Jasmine Toledo’s inter-

view with a female undoc-umented immigrant also struck a chord with listeners. For her oral history, Tole-do wanted to answer the question, “What is it like to work in the United States as an undocumented im-migrant? She felt that his-tory books are not enough, since she “wasn’t able to get a sense of [undocumented immigrants] telling their own stories” through them.

“The fact that I’m with other kids that are not mine… I do feel guilty, be-lieve me,” the woman, a nan-ny, said during the interview.

Despite her interviewee’s undocumented immigrant status, Toledo believed ev-eryone can still relate to the woman. “There’s so many commonalities that I share with her and that many of you share with her... she feels a part of their family,” Toledo said.

In her closing remarks, Danticat encouraged stu-dents “to turn to these stories in your own life. Sometimes, we can under-estimate the stories of our parents’ own struggles.”

“What you need are truth-tellers, people who are trying to be vulnerable.”

BCLP Hosts Brunch With Edwidge Danticat

Edwidge Danticat shares her thoughts on oral histories after students' presentations. PHOTO/ Shayhan Lewis

Students and faculty from the Brooklyn College Listening Project pose for a photo with Edwidge Danticat. PHOTO/ Shayhan Lewis

4 the EXCELSIOR FEATURES April 18, 2018

By Sandy Mui

At the intersection of Bedford Avenue and Cam-pus Road lies Brooklyn Col-lege. The campus is divided into two quads, with a street-light connecting both quads. On any given school day, stu-dents can be seen hurriedly making their way from one side of the campus to another.

One of the buildings on the West Quad is Roo-sevelt Hall. The build-ing—generally known to house music classes—rep-resents Brooklyn College’s rich history, which is em-bedded right in its name.

“Isn’t it named after Teddy Roosevelt?” Andy Salcedo, a junior majoring in televi-sion and radio, asked. “It’s ei-ther him, Eleanor, or FDR.”

It was not Teddy, but Salcedo nailed it in one of the other famous Roo-sevelts: FDR. In fact, the Brooklyn College campus in Flatbush was construct-ed as a Public Works Ad-ministration (PWA) project under President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal.

The New Deal—wide-ly known as a set of relief programs FDR launched to alleviate the effects of the Great Depression—led to the construction of five buildings on the Brooklyn College campus, including Roosevelt Hall. The other four original buildings were Boylan Hall, Ingersoll Hall, the Brooklyn College Li-brary, and a heating plant.

All of these buildings still exist, though aspects of certain buildings might be different. Boylan Hall was first called the “Academic Building” and was only lat-er named after the president of the college at the time, Dr. William A. Boylan. In-gersoll Hall was named af-ter then-Brooklyn Borough President Raymond Inger-soll. Roosevelt Hall—the final building in the plan—initially served as Brooklyn College’s gymnasium, but the college is planning to transform it into a science complex that expands the college’s research capabilities.

“I am glad to come here today and to wish Brook-lyn College the fine and successful future that it de-serves,” Roosevelt said on campus, when laying the

cornerstone for the gymna-sium. “May it live through the generations to come for the building up of a bet-ter American citizenship.”

Brooklyn College, origi-nally housed in many build-ings in downtown Brooklyn, moved to what was once a 40-acre field in Flatbush. At the time, it was occasionally used as a golf course when the Ringling Brothers Cir-cus was not in town. The journey to Flatbush was not easy, as the owners were asking for $5.5 million. Ac-cording to Bklyner, Brook-lyn College almost ended up in the area surrounding Bay 19th Street and 21st Ave-nue in Bensonhurst, since it was a more affordable option and was larger (60 acres) than the Flatbush site.

Fortunately, then-New

York City Mayor Fiorello H. LaGuardia personally re-ceived President Roosevelt’s approval for the funds, and the project was on its way with a loan-grant of $5.5 million from the Federal Emergency Administra-tion of Public Works. Con-struction of the Flatbush campus began in 1935, and the college employed local workers and educated lo-cal residents—the children of first-generation immi-grants to the United States.

“This project is killing two birds with one stone,” Roos-evelt said in 1936. “It is not only putting to work thou-sands of people who need work, but it is also is improv-ing educational facilities now and for generations to come.”

During the time of the Great Depression, it was only

Brooklyn College’s History Intersects with FDR’s New Deal

natural for there to be a rise in radical politics, neighbor-hood organizing, and labor activism. Brooklyn College was no different. The college quickly established a repu-tation for student activists who organized for economic and racial equality, includ-ing federal aid for low-in-come students, unemploy-ment insurance, civil rights, and civil liberties. Brooklyn College was often called the “little red schoolhouse” for its “reputation as a cen-ter of left-wing sentiment,” according to the college’s historian Murray Horow-itz in the Flatbush Neigh-borhood History Guide.

And, while many aspects of the college are now dif-ferent than what existed in the 1930s, student activism remains true today. Brook-lyn College students recently participated in the National School Walkout to show their support for the victims of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting and to chant for gun control.

Still, this part of Brook-lyn College’s history is rather unknown and may not be of interest to some students.

“I don’t really have a re-action,” Katherine Miran-da, a junior majoring in fine arts, said upon learning about the college’s connec-tion to the New Deal. “It is kind of nice to know that a building was construct-ed for a public university through help from the gov-ernment during a time when people really needed help.”

PHOTO/ CUNY Academic Works

President FDR at the then-newly established Brooklyn College campus. PHOTO/ CUNY Academic Works

5 the EXCELSIOR OPINIONS April 18, 2018

The opinions expressed in the Opinions Section do not necessarily reflect the views of The Excelsior.

By Milette Millington

As I read Junot Diaz’s ar-ticle about his experience of being abused as a child in The New Yorker magazine, I felt an intensity of emotions. After reading Diaz’s unrav-eling of the horrific truth that he experienced, I was instantly silenced, simply trying to take in the events one by one. The thought of being raped, at any age, frightens me. In Diaz’s in-stance, it happened to him at the age of eight by an adult that he truly trusted; the thought alone would make me feel weak and insecure.

I think that the article raises questions about na-ture versus nurture through what Diaz calls “a mask of normalcy,” which is used as a way of coping with such a traumatic experience. I also believe that it signifies a change in what one consid-ers to be normal. After such an experience, one’s defini-tion of “normal” is engulfed in the traumatic horrors of the experience. Junot writes:

“By the time I was eleven, I was suffering from both de-pression and uncontrollable rage. By thirteen, I stopped being able to look at myself in the mirror—and the few times I accidentally glimpsed my re-flection I’d recoil like I’d got hit in the face by a jellyfish sting-

er. (What did I see? I saw the crime, my grisly debasement, and if anyone looked at me too long I would run or I would fight.) By fourteen, I was hold-ing one of my father’s pistols to my head. (He’d been gone a few years, but he’d generously left some of his firearms behind.) I had trouble at home. I had trou-ble at school. I had mood swings like you wouldn’t believe.”

Diaz’s definition of nor-mal changed dramatically. “When I wasn’t completely out of it I read everything I could lay my hands on, played Dungeons & Drag-ons for days on end. I tried to

forget, but you never forget. Night was the worst—that’s when the dreams would come. Nightmares where I got raped by my siblings, by my father, by my teachers, by strangers, by kids who I wanted to be friends with.”

The nature versus nur-ture argument explains the differences between bio-logical traits and environ-mental traits. Natural traits are ones that a person gets from their parents, found in their genetic makeup, with no room for alteration. Nur-tured traits are ones that are influenced by the environ-

ment around us. This pos-es a very famous question: Are we influenced by our genes or our surroundings?

I think that personali-ties are shaped by behav-iors, and our behaviors are shaped by our childhood experiences, though I also feel they are influenced by social norms. Social norms shape our attitudes about certain things, such as the unspoken rules in society. They are also shaped by in-stinct. For example, humans share basic feelings such as happiness, pleasure, peace, love, anger, etc. The descrip-tion of the social norms that Diaz was exposed to would be described as, according to the article, “More than be-ing Dominican, more than being an immigrant, more, even, than being of African descent, my rape defined me. I spent more energy running from it than I did living. And always I was afraid—afraid that the rape had ’ruined’ me; afraid that I would be ’found out;’ afraid afraid afraid. ’Real’ Dominican men, af-ter all, aren’t raped. And if I wasn’t a ’real’ Domini-can man I wasn’t anything.”

Throughout every stage of our lives, we have new challenges to overcome, new goals to accomplish and new person-to-person interac-

tions to experience. They all help us grow as individuals. They can help us understand the way that society impacts us. Some challenges do leave you with horrific memories. Such is true in Diaz’s case, in which he assessed it say-ing, “It’s the revenant that won’t stop; the ghost that’s always coming for you. The nightmares, the intrusions, the hiding, the doubts, the confusion, the self-blame, the suicidal ideation—they didn’t go away just because I buried my neighbor-hood, my family, my face.”

Emotional recovery from a traumatic experience, such as the one Diaz experienced, is a process. They are often experiences that an individ-ual can never forget. Healing from those emotional scars is a challenge. It can take years for one to feel at peace with such trauma. I would say that Diaz dealt with his emotion-al recovery through writing. Through the process of writ-ing his Pulitzer Prize-win-ning novel, “The Brief Won-drous Life of Oscar Wao,” he was able to write down how he felt emotionally about the experience, which slowly let him clear his mind to get other ideas across.

Nature vs. Nurture and Junot Diaz’s Road to Recovery

Writer Junot Diaz at the Mercantile Library Center for Fiction's Annual Benefit and Awards Dinner, held at the New York Tennis and Racquet Club. PHOTO/ KTEP

140 Characters and a DreamBy Oluranti Olaose

On April 14, 2014, 276 girls were reported kid-napped in Chibok, a rural area of Borno State in Ni-geria. They were taken from their school, where they were slated to be writing their fi-nal exams. Islamic terrorist group Boko Haram later claimed responsibility for their abduction, with their leader promising to sell the girls into marriage in a dis-turbing video. The story first registered like just anoth-er entry in the catalogue of horrors that occur frequently in northern Nigeria, a re-gion where genocide and kidnappings had become as commonplace as weddings and funerals. I remember the first few tweets about the incident, like the first few drops of rain that herald a coming thunderstorm. They expressed outrage about the

kidnappings and decried the silence of the Nigerian gov-ernment, which was notori-ous for being as active as a cripple in a coma. The senti-ment began to spread as Ni-gerian Twitter took a break from mocking celebrities and extolling the virtues of mar-riage and turned its collective attention to the kidnappings. In the days following the in-cident, petitions were signed and profile pictures changed. Pictures of wailing women who may or may not have been the girls’ mothers were shared along with requests to retweet to show support for them, although exactly how retweeting a picture lent any support to these women re-mained a mystery to me. On April 23rd, a hashtag was born, one which spread with the alacrity of wildfire.

#Br ingBackO urGir ls engulfed the timeline, and

hardly a tweet scrolled by without the hashtag includ-ed. In spite of all this activity, very few protests were orga-nized. The largest protest in the nation’s capital only drew hundreds of people, a num-ber that paled in comparison to the hundreds of thousands of people tweeting their ire online. Meanwhile the Ni-gerian government remained mute until it finally acknowl-edged the issue on May 4th, at which point the hashtag had gained international attention. This internation-al attention brought with it the bleeding heart activists who also changed profile pictures and wrote strongly worded articles about why the international community was ignoring the event, iro-ny be damned. Meanwhile the Nigerian populace went about their business as usu-al. In fact, anyone who vis-

ited the country would not have realized that there was unrest within, as work and school and church contin-ued without a hitch. Yet on Twitter Nigerians and for-eigners alike condemned the Nigerian government for inactivity and Boko Ha-ram for its inhumanity, all while heralding the ‘power of social media’ for bring-ing it to the attention of the world and the US govern-ment especially , which was expected to swoop in any second and airlift the girls like a hawk would its prey. Months would pass before any decisive action was taken by the Nigerian government.

One might wonder as to why there were not many protests despite the unified dissatisfaction with the Ni-gerian government. I know from my experience growing up there that Nigerians are

a very circumspect people. Although it is nominally a democracy the government runs almost autonomously, and the people share their grievances amongst them-selves and pray for divine intervention whenever the government oversteps its bounds. The citizens value their lives dearly and pro-testing is considered by most to be brave to the point of foolish. On the occasions where they do gather in pro-test, they flee at the first sign of danger. As such, it’s easy to see why they were duly excited by this ‘power’ of so-cial media, they could voice their anger and frustrations from the safety of home and still get their message as far as it could go. But how effec-

See “140 Characters and a Dream,” 6

6 the EXCELSIOR OPINIONS April 18, 2018

tive is this form of activism? Author and journal-

ist Malcolm Gladwell ap-proaches this subject head-on in his essay ‘Why The Revolution Will Not Be Retweeted’, which drew crit-icism from the enthusiasts of social media activism. In this essay he details the concept of ‘strong ties’ or close and personal connections that fuel successful revolutions such as the Civil Rights Movement, and the ‘weak ties’ that social networks are built on. He writes, “The platforms of social media are built around weak ties… but weak ties seldom lead to high risk activism”, a claim refuted by Leo Mirani who published a response in the same magazine days later. Mirani points out Gladwell’s dismissal of social media’s value, saying ‘’…Gladwell ignores the true significance of social media, which lies in their ability to rapidly spread information about alterna-tive points of view that might otherwise never reach a large audience”. Gladwell posted a two paragraph piece in re-sponse, in which he asserted that the mode of communi-cation in a revolution is the least interesting fact about it. Senior Researcher at Har-vard David Weinberger’s re-sponse was a highly reasoned and meticulous piece which posed some very interesting questions and suggestions to Gladwell. One of those suggestions was that Glad-well’s initial hypothesis was based on historical examples and that new examples (of revolutions fuelled by social media) should be examined to see if they support it. This is what I intend to do to ex-amine the role of social me-dia in the grand scheme of a revolution, and whether it is truly reinventing activism.

On one hand, we have the famed ‘Twitter Revolution’, a collective used to refer to the various protests and demon-strations that took place in the Middle East and North Africa, so named for the me-dium in which protests were supposedly organized and information disseminated. For the case of this cross-ex-amination, I shall single out Egypt and Tunisia’s upris-ings as case studies. On the other we have #BringBack-

OurGirls, which was also spearheaded using Twitter. Despite the use of the same platforms, both panned out very differently. In both cases however, there is a common interest, one which drove the protesters to the web to share their message. According to a friend of Mirani based in Iran, the protests were coordinated in English on Twitter because they “need-ed to be seen and heard by the world… If the govern-ments of the West refused to accept the new government, it was going to be meaning-ful somehow”. The Nigerian protesters on Twitter echoed a similar objective, calling on friends and supporters “who could not attend the protests to show support by tweeting the hashtag to draw the attention of the Western governments”. One could say that both groups were

successful in that objective. But for all the attention

they received, how were the events influenced by this at-tention? In the case of the Nigerian demonstrations, western media only served to sensationalize the story, forgoing facts for rhetoric and emotional value as they are wont to. The sentimental left wing swooped down on the story, and spun it to seem as though the girls were kidnapped for wanting an education although female education is quite common even in Northern Nigeria. There was no direct involve-ment from the US in Egypt or Tunisia. An even more important question would be, why did they so require this western attention? A revolution can only be car-ried out by the inhabitants

of a country from within. And we know from histor-ical examples that Western help seldom comes without a payoff, or the implementa-tion of its own agenda. So-cial media may be effective at garnering attention, and in this age of the Kardashians and people who buy follow-ers on Instagram, attention is quite the hot commod-ity. But fishing for West-ern attention only serves to enforce the status quo, the inactive Nigerian govern-ment for example. Gladwell underscores this in his essay when he states that “the in-struments of social media are well suited to making the existing social order more ef-ficient. They are not a natu-ral enemy of the status quo.”

However, this attention is not as valueless as Gladwell would make it seem. Mira-ni highlights that the “true

significance of social media lie in their ability to rapidly spread information about al-ternative points of view that might otherwise never reach a large audience”. By using social media, protesters are able to provide an unfiltered version of events as they unfold, and alert the glob-al community to its issues. However, 140 characters and a dream do not a revolution make. When considering the effectiveness of social media as an activist tool, we must draw a connection from on-line activity to offline activi-ty. We must ask ourselves of any online campaign, how does it actively affect the issues the country is facing and advance a cause? Many of the tactics used by the Ni-gerian populace, such as this petition which was signed by

over a million people, were effectively impractical. For example, here is an excerpt from the above petition. “By signing this petition we ex-press our solidarity with the kidnapped girls and call upon the world not to forget them, support all efforts to ensure their safe return, and ask all international agencies, orga-nizations and groups to sup-port efforts in Nigeria aimed at rescuing them.” I would describe this petition as the online equivalent of signing a condolence register. What good does signing a petition such as this enforce, apart from a quick conscience boost? This kind of effortless feel-good activism is popu-larly referred to as slacktiv-ism. In a 2009 NPR piece, Evgeny Morozov, a writer and researcher who stud-ies the political and social implications of technology

raises an important ques-tion: “are the publicity gains gained through this greater reliance on new media worth the organizational losses that traditional activists entities are likely to suffer, as ordi-nary people would begin to turn away from conventional (and proven) forms of activ-ism (demonstrations, sit-ins, confrontation with police, strategic litigation, etc) and embrace more "slacktiv-ist" forms, which may be more secure but whose ef-fectiveness is still largely unproven?” The scenario he describes is already hap-pening as witnessed in the Nigerian ‘demonstrations’ and will probably continue to flourish if the armchair activists continue to hail the power of social media.

The crucial distinction of

‘slacktivism’ from tradition-al activism is pretty appar-ent. As a matter of fact, this distinction is drawn clearly in the Bible in James 2:14-26 which culminates in the verse “For as the body with-out the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also.” Similarly, attention or pas-sion without action is dead. The Egyptian and Tunisian protests were both hailed as the Twitter revolution for the means by which they were organized, but it is import-ant to note that the turnout of those protests were large. The protesters contended with violence and high risk to make their voices heard, as opposed to changing pro-file pictures and waiting on the West to solve their prob-lems for them and in both cases, the primary objec-tive of ousting their respec-tive presidents was accom-plished. One could argue that both those regions also continued to undergo polit-ical unrest and tension long after, but no one said the road to democracy was easy.

Overall, we need to re-member that at their core, social media are just that – media to get a message out in the open. They may be more convenient, and have further reach than tradition-al modes of communication such as a poster on the sub-way, but that does not make them the streets we converge in to make our voices heard. We need to recall the unity and passion that made other movements such as the Civil Rights Struggle so success-ful, and not lose sight of the basic function of activism by exalting a useful new tool in its execution to the be-all, end-all of activism. Venting on social media is the new age equivalent of sending a strongly worded letter to the opposition and expecting it to oblige – and a strongly worded letter at least affords you more than 140 char-acters. As a matter of fact, the newfound promotion of slacktivism without action can be said to be causing more harm than good, be-cause after signing the peti-tions and patting themselves on the shoulder, people lose sight of the main goal and carry on with their lives, ren-dering the movement useless in the first place. Just ask the 112 girls from Chibok who are still missing four years after their kidnapping.

Cont’d From “140 Characters and a

Dream,” 5

Parents of the kidnapped Chibok schoolgirls pray for their safe return. Four years after their kidnapping, the girls still remain missing. PHOTO/ Wikimedia Creative Commons

7 the EXCELSIOR ARTS/SPORTS April 18, 2018

By Austin Santiago

Warning: Spoilers ahead.It seems as though direc-

tor Wes Anderson has mas-tered the art of simple story

telling, as well as creating an aesthetic in his films that leaves audience members mesmerized. Anderson has successfully combined those

Isle of Dogs Review

By Samip Delhiwala

After winning two straight matches, both in conference, the Brooklyn College men’s tennis team dropped all singles and dou-bles flights en route to a 9-0 loss at home on the Roosevelt Courts against Hunter Col-lege on Saturday afternoon.

BC’s Justin Vasquez led off singles for his team, fac-ing off against Hunter’s Nasser Ghaffar. Vasquez dropped the first set 6-1, and despite a better effort in the second set, Ghaffar finished off the No. 1 flight with a 6-4 win in the set.

Brooklyn’s Samuel Mey-erovich and Jonathan Kim were both finished off 6-0, 6-0 in the No. 2 and No. 3 flights, respectively. Kev-in Gryka went down in the No. 4 flight, 6-0, 6-1.

The Bulldogs finally won their first set when Chevaugn Mattis faced off against Hunter’s Ryan Hwang. Mattis secured the first set, 6-2, but Hwang countered and dominated the final two sets with two 6-1 victories.

BC’s Akash Jairam was swept in his No. 6 flight (6-0, 6-0), and the Bull-dogs lost all three dou-bles flights 8-0 as well.

The Bulldogs dropped to 4-4 overall, but still hold a winning record in the City University of New York Athletic Con-ference (CUNYAC) at 3-2. Hunter improved to a perfect 8-0 overall re-cord, and 5-0 in conference.

After having its Sunday afternoon match against Sarah Lawrence College postponed, BC played Ba-

ruch College yesterday eve-ning, and the results can be found on the Brooklyn

College Athletics website. BC will move on to play St. Joseph’s College – Brooklyn

tomorrow at 4 p.m. at home before going on the road.

BC Men’s Tennis Shutout in Loss to Hunter

The men’s tennis team were overmatched in a loss to Hunter College. PHOTO/ Damion Reid

talents to give us the critically acclaimed film: “Isle of Dogs.”

A tale of love and com-panionship, the film stresses the importance of the relationship between a man and his best friend. With a star-studded cast including Bryan Cranston, Jeff Goldblum, Bill Murray, and Scarlett Johans-son, it seems as though every ca-nine we meet in this film has its own distinct per-sonality. The film follows the jour-ney of 12-year-old Atari Ko-bayashi, who is the estranged nephew of the corrupt Mayor Kobayashi, the main antago-nist attempt-ing to rid Japan of all dogs. All dogs on Japan have been ex-

iled to Trash Island for fear of dog flu. Among those dogs on the island is Atari’s own dog, Spots. With the help of Chief (Cranston)

and a rag tag group of loyal companions, the search for Spots is on, as well as a plan to get all of the dogs off of Trash Island, and back with their loving owners where they belong. Not only is the story well-written, it is presented incredibly well through stop motion anima-tion, a style that Anderson has become well known for.

Sitting in the theater, the movie was not even half-way over before I decided that “Isle of Dogs” is one the most amazing looking films I have ever seen. Anderson worked closely with Andy Gent, who was responsible for creating the character puppets used in the film. Be-hind Gent was a team of 70 artists who worked on cre-ating the fictional world of Trash Island, using different types of garbage for different landscapes. Of course, being set in Japan means Ander-son went out of his way to showcase Japanese culture in almost every frame of this movie. We are treated to a barrage of bright colors and nods to Japanese storytell-ing, where the claymation style actually transitions to a more traditional form of animation briefly. However, Anderson faced initial back-lash over his casting choices, with many stating he was “white-washing” Japanese culture. Upon watching the

film, you realize that most of the lines are delivered by Japanese characters in their native language, and all Japanese characters were voiced by Japanese actors.

Out of all of the charac-ters in this movie, the one I found the most enter-taining was Tracy Walker, voiced by Greta Gerwig, an exchange student study-ing in Japan. Not only does Tracy offer comic relief, but also a vague social commen-tary, often wearing her “pro-dog” headband, and lead-ing demonstrations against the authority figures in the film. The aspiring journalist proves to be a lighthearted representation of a mod-ern social justice warrior.

If “Isle of Dogs” has one drawback, it is that it can cause sensory overload for the viewer. There were a cou-ple of times when I found myself blinking an extra few times because my eyes couldn’t handle the explosion of colors and stop motion on screen. However, I find this a small price to pay for the ex-perience “Isle of Dogs” gave me at the theater. This film served as a reminder that cinema and art are synony-mous, and it is for that reason I give “Isle of Dogs” an A+.

Promotional poster for Wes Anderson’s “Isle of Dogs.” PHOTO/ Pinterest

8 the EXCELSIOR SPORTS April 18, 2018

By Samip Delhiwala

After sweeping two straight doubleheaders at home against Yeshiva Uni-versity and York College (NY), the Brooklyn College women’s softball team was shut out in both games of Saturday afternoon’s dou-bleheader (9-0, 7-0) against Lehman College at the Brooklyn College Field.

After seniors Brian-na Preston, Uena Xharo, Daminska Estime, Bre-anna Maresca, and Nicole Boudouris were honored during the pregame Senior Night festivities, the first game of the doubleheader was underway with Xha-ro as BC’s starting pitcher.

After hitting Lehman’s leadoff hitter Maranda Diaz with a pitch, Xharo failed to hold the runner, and Diaz stole second and then ad-vanced to third on an error by BC catcher Preston. But Xharo recovered quickly, and induced a lineout followed by two strikeouts to bring the Bulldogs up to the plate.

BC threatened to score early by drawing two straights walks to start the bottom of the first inning. Maresca then bunted for a single to load the bases with no outs. But the Bulldogs failed to capitalize on a prime scoring opportunity—some-thing they have struggled with all season—and Leh-man starting pitcher Dia-

mond Villegas struck out the next three batters in Houd-ini-esque fashion to get out of the inning unscathed.

The Lightning man-aged to record their first hit of the game in the second inning, but were unable to score again. But Ville-gas gave her team another chance by striking out the side in a 1-2-3 bottom of the second for the Bulldogs.

Lehman then drew first blood in the third in-ning. After Stephany Cruz reached on an error by BC shortstop Leslie Lima, Diaz singled to advance her to second. Villegas then helped her own cause by singling on a bunt to load the bases with no outs. Caitlin Vernon then fouled out to first base, but she picked up an RBI after all the runners advanced and Cruz scored to put Lehman up 1-0. Xharo subsequently tossed a wild pitch, allow-ing Diaz to score as well.

Brooklyn again went down in order in the third, and after Lehman secured another run in the fourth, it broke the game open in the fifth inning. With a 3-0 lead, two straight singles to lead off the inning put runners at the corners. Xharo threw her second wild pitch of the game, allowing the runners to advance and bring in a run. Minutes later, another wild pitch scored another run for Lehman, putting it up 5-0.

Brooklyn struck out in order yet again in the bot-tom of the fifth, the Light-ning tacked on four more runs to end the game.

Maresca had the Bulldogs’ only hit of the game, while Xharo gave up six earned runs on 10 hits while striking out eight. Every Brooklyn bat-ter had multiple strikeouts except for Lima, who struck out once. Defensively, the Bulldogs picked up a whop-ping five errors that result-ed in three unearned runs.

Lehman fired on all cyl-inders in the game, offen-sively and defensively; the team recorded 10 hits off Xharo while not having a single error. Villegas had a phenomenal pitching per-

formance, tossing a one-hit-ter shutout while striking out 18 and walking just two.

The second game of the doubleheader featured more of the same for both teams.

Lehman’s offense carried its momentum and got start-ed early. Diaz led off with a solo home run, and Villegas followed with a single. Ver-non then brought her home with a two-run homer to put the Lightning up 3-0 in the first inning with no outs.

The fiery hot road team scored four more times be-fore the end of the game, ending the doublehead-er with a total of 16 runs while giving up none.

Villegas one-upped her previous game’s perfor-

mance, this time tossing a no-hitter while striking out 16 and walking three. Diaz led her team’s offense with a 3-for-5 hitting perfor-mance and driving in four.

With the losses, BC drops to an abysmal 5-15 overall record, and 2-6 in conference. Lehman improved to 8-21 over-all, and 4-4 in conference.

After recording just one hit overall in the double-header, the Bulldogs will look to rebound on the road in a doubleheader against Hunter College this Sat-urday. Game one will start at 12 p.m., while game two is slated for 2 p.m.

BC Women’s Softball Swept in Doubleheader on Senior Night

The seniors on the BC softball team were honored on Senior Night, but the team struggled in two brutal losses to Lehman College. PHOTO/ Brooklyn College Sports Information

By Samip Delhiwala

After finishing the reg-ular season with its best winning percentage (.565, 13-10 overall record, 5-3 in conference) since 2007, the Brooklyn College men’s bas-ketball team failed to make any noise in the City Uni-versity of New York Athlet-ic Conference (CUNYAC) Championships. The fourth seed Bulldogs fell to fifth seed Lehman College 1-3 (25-22, 21-25, 20-25, 14-25) in the CUNYAC Quar-terfinal match on Monday, April 10 at the West Quad Center at Brooklyn College.

The two teams were fight-ing evenly to start off the first set, with a Lehman kill setting up a 16-15 advantage for the road team. But the Bulldogs pulled ahead with a

5-0 run that ended with a kill by Gabriel Pjatak, putting the team up 20-16. Lehman failed to catch up, and se-nior middle hitter Moaz Ali Choudhary won the set for the Bulldogs with a kill.

Unfortunately, the Bull-dogs failed to carry that momentum into the re-maining sets; their point to-tal decreased through each set, perhaps due to fatigue.

In the second set, BC went down early and played from behind all the way. Late in the set, a Lehman service error gave Brooklyn a point and cut the Lightning lead to 22-20. But Leh-man recovered to score two straight, putting the set out of reach for the Bulldogs.

BC matched Lehman’s intensity for the first half of

the third set, and the two teams exchanged kills to an 11-11 tie. But a ball han-dling error committed by the Bulldogs’ Ahmed Moawad fueled a 4-0 Lehman run that the Bulldogs failed to effectively chip away at, and a kill from Yaw Eshun ended the set to give Leh-man a 2-1 match advantage.

The fourth and final set featured more of the same for the Bulldogs; they com-peted for a bit before Leh-man pulled away. After the two exchanged scores, senior and captain Ian Miranda’s kill tied the set up at 9-9. But Lehman’s Peter Veljo-vic’s kill sparked a massive 7-0 run to give the Light-ning a commanding 16-9 lead that Brooklyn never recovered from. After a few

more mini-runs by Leh-man, Veljovic delivered the match-clinching kill off of an assist by George Montilla.

CUNYAC Student Ath-lete of the Month Vaugn Titus led the Bulldogs with a season-high 11 kills and five digs for 12 points. Pjatak and Moawad com-bined for 19 kills and had three blocks apiece. Junior Sayuj Zachariah finished with a team-high 35 assists.

For Lehman, Eshun led the way with a game-high 20 kills and five digs. Filipe Velandia followed with 17 kills, and George Montilla had a game-high 45 assists.

The loss was a som-ber event for seniors Mi-randa, Choudhary, and Sebastian Girodano.

“I started with this team

when I was a freshman, and we went 1-28,” Mi-randa said, reflecting on his four years on the team as he prepares for graduation this May. “Now we’re serious contenders for the finals; it’s crazy to think how far we’ve come. I’m proud of my team and myself for improving so much. I was a little up-set that we lost so early (and especially to Lehman), but we had an amazing year. I won’t let our season be de-fined by our last game.”

With the win, Lehman moved on to play Hunter College in the CUNYAC Semifinal match at the Hunter College Sports-plex on Friday, but lost 3-0.

Men’s Volleyball Eliminated in CUNYAC Quarterfinals