Like all Loggers, I love our beautiful campus with all of my heart. In case you were not yet made aware, our campus is rated in the top 20 most beautiful campuses according to the Princeton review (we came in at number 20, but don’t tell anyone because we don’t like to talk about that). It seems our community members agree that our campus is pretty dang beautiful, because in the absence of our student body, neighboring dog walkers and children and families on all sorts of bike adjacent contraptions have come to fill the void, and to enjoy the sunshine, freshly bloomed tulips, and our world renowned grass.
You, like any upstanding member of the Puget Sound Community, are of course familiar with the edgy kids who sit on the slab, freshman playing spikeball on Todd Field, ultimate frisbee team members throwing their plastic discs, and groups of PSO kids hanging from hammocks or slacklines. Now get ready for the new kids on the block! If you were to step on campus nowadays on your daily state sanctioned walk you may see:
A Pug sitting on it’s very own beach blanket panting from the exertion of walking, being hand fed gourmet snacks (most likely from the MET) by its owner.
Two, maybe even four weeds growing freely on our campus in the absence of the majority of our hard working grounds keeping team. Fortunately, the lawn does not have this same freedom, as I have witnessed several lawnmowers out mowing down any pieces of grass brave enough to attempt to grow.
Our campus CRANE!!! This crane could once be found working hard on the welcome center, but it now wanders around campus working on various other projects and being all tall and stuff. Also, it is blue.
The welcome center after months, maybe even decades of work is looking beautiful. The fences and barricades that used to surround it have been removed and the groundskeeping (including cute little shrubs) is impeccable. Now, all it needs is someone to welcome.
Puget Sound students with climbing ropes rappelling their way up trees. I guess edgeworks climbing gym is closed?
UPS fraternity bros scooting around the neighborhood on their razor scooters at truly impressive speeds.
The shocking assortment of person powered vehicles that frequent campus. Roller blades, bikes with 2 seats, bikes with 3 seats, tiny push bikes, scooters, bikes pulling carts containing children, plastic cars that parents push their children around in, and sometimes even normal bikes.
The Thompson Parking lot which once housed cars has now been repurposed as a skatepark for middle schoolers and UPS students alike to practice their kickflips. Gnarly!
This Kilworth Memorial Chapel sign across the street from the field house.
A group of thirty something bros playing ultimate frisbee and looking really cool while doing it. Catch these young men setting up a volleyball net on Todd field, then taking it down four minutes later because security told them to.
Small children who are talented enough to set up hammocks all by themselves without assistance, ‘mocking it up in various trees around campus.
UPS students lugging ridiculous amounts of cellar snacks they purchased in the sub back to their dorm rooms.
Those same students toting sub food in to go vesicles seeking out unique dining locations (such as the stairs of Jones Hall, the ground, or the actual slab part of the slab) in the absence of anywhere else to sit.
Families gathering by the circle at night to light lanterns they have hung in trees.
Security guards circling campus in their pickup trucks watching over everyone previously mentioned ready to swoop in and put an immediate end to any shenanigans.
In my Week 1 OpEd, I discussed how much the Diner has changed in terms of the variety of food options for students on campus, the reduction of the stations, and limiting the hours has increased the likelihood of purchasing groceries, cooking and eating out — and this has truly shown how much we miss the access to, and the vitality of, our student-staffed resources on campus. Yet students, in lieu of the virus’s negative effect on campus life, are trying to find ways that can connect and bring solidarity among each other. One way students are bringing connectivity into the hearts is through recipe sharing, and group grocery shopping called #QuarantineCooking, it is spread among students through what is commonly known as a chain email, and it reads:
Going back to old times with a recipe exchange! As the world is social distancing right now, many of us are experimenting in our kitchens to help pass the time. So you have been invited to be a part of a #QuarantineCooking recipe exchange! Yay!
Please send a recipe to the person whose name is in position #1 (even if you don’t know them) and it should be something quick, easy, and without rare ingredients. Actually, the best one is the one you know in your head and can type right now. Don’t agonize over it… It is the recipe you make when you are short on time.
After you’ve sent your recipe to the person in position #1 below (and only to that person), copy this email into a new email, move my name to the top, and put your name in position #2. Only my and your name should show when you send your email. Send to 20 friends via BCC.
If you cannot do this within 5 days, let me know so it will be fair to those participating. You should receive 36 recipes. It’s fun to see where they come from! Seldom does anyone drop out because we all need new ideas.
#QuarantineCooking Notable Student Recipes:
Bún chả recipe by Neomi Ngo
Prep time: 10 min (30 minute fridge time between prep and cook)
Cook time: 20 min
Serving Size: 3 – 4 people
Ingredients:
Pork Patties –
1 lb ground pork (70% lean, 30% fat is best, but whatever you got will work!)
1 shallot
5 cloves of garlic
¼ cup Hoisin sauce
1 tbsp shredded ginger (optional)
2 tbsp green onion
1 egg
2 tbsp cornstarch
1 tsp chicken bouillon powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp black pepper
½ tsp white sugar
Fish Sauce- just mix everything together
1 cup cold, filtered water
½ cup white sugar (yes, THAT much)
2 cups fish sauce (preferably Viet Huong or Phu Quoc brand but whatever works)
1/3 cup shredded carrots (optional)
1 tbsp white cooking vinegar (optional)
1 tbsp soy sauce
2 tbsp chili garlic sauce (Huy Fong brand if ya got it, more or less depending on your how spicy you want it)
½ tbsp sriracha (optional)
1 whole lemon (more or less depending on how sour you want it)
Directions: Marinating the Pork Patties. Dice up 1 shallot and 5 cloves of garlic, shred and cut up 1 tbsp ginger, cut up 2 tbsp green onion. Throw the shallot, garlic, ginger, and green onion into a bowl with the ground pork, mix together. Add in 1 egg into the mixture, mix. Add in ¼ cup hoisin sauce. Add in 1 tsp chicken bouillon powder, ½ tsp salt, 1 tsp black pepper, ½ tsp white sugar. Add in 2 tbsp cornstarch, this is used to thicken up the mixture so that we can form the patties if your mixture is too loose to form patties, throw in a little more cornstarchFridge the marinated pork for 30 minutes! Pan Frying the Pork Patties Use your hands to form the patties, about palm size wide, about 1 inch thick. Depending on how crispy you want them, you can flatten them out more. Add about ½ inch of oil to your pan, we are pan-frying them, so you don’t need as much oil as frying. When the oil is hot enough, throw in meat patties, don’t overcrowd the pan! Pan fry on each side around 4-5 minutes, make sure the meat is FULLY COOKED. Repeat until all your patties are gone! Serve with rice or noodles, and dress with nuoc mam!
What a beautiful time
to be living and engaging antiracism work. You already know this. That’s why
you majored and minored in African American Studies. That’s why you’ve spent
the last four years reading difficult critical texts, writing papers, doing research.
If your family questioned your decision to study AF AM before March 2020, they
have been forced during the coronavirus crisis to confront injustices that are
foundational to our discipline, its literature and praxis. The pandemic has
revealed disparities in access and privilege across systems of health, housing,
employment, incarceration, farming, politics, and education. For example, as of
April 9, 100% of the Covid-19 deaths in St Louis were of African Americans[1].
This virus has
lifted a veil and this clarity is its gift to graduates like you. Unlike previous
graduating seniors, you won’t hear empty platitudes that your anxiety about the
future is “normal” and “it will all work out in the end.” No one will pretend
that structures undergirding our society always work. No one will argue when
you say black communities are at risk and treated as if they’re expendable. No one
will tell you with a straight face that security or stability are features of adult
life. Instead, you are graduating and walking
out into the world with your eyes wide open. Better yet, you are armed with
critical cultural knowledge that explains the current cruelties and collapse.
And this is true as well: There is still a lot of beauty during this pandemic. Have you noticed how many newborn babies there are? Just look around. And spring arrived this year, showing off as usual with her bright blooms. The wonderful details of being human remain. We still appreciate the scent of flowers, still laugh and dance. We will continue to fall in love, experience joy, suffer through sorrow. We are human. And while we acknowledge the distinction between “humanity” and “blackness” made by Afro-Pessimists, African American Studies also teaches that we have a responsibility to create a society that reflects and supports all humanity. Sometimes we understand this responsibility without directly experiencing or witnessing injustice. But sometimes it helps to have this experience. As our scholarship instructs, there is no imagining future liberation, nor creation of blues or jazz, without remaining in the hold of a slave ship[2].
Having
experienced society before Covid-19, you stand at a critical juncture that provides
important perspective. You will be able to explain how society operated before
the virus and what came afterwards. You will be able to describe the nature of
this pivot and whether it was just.
The easiest way to
explain what I’m trying to say is through metaphor.
Wyatt Hall
The other day I watched a video of a colleague and his family. In the video they are smiling as they roller skate in the Wyatt parking lot. They bask in sunlight. The mother skates and moves the baby’s stroller in loving arcs back and forth over the pavement. To someone unfamiliar with our campus before 2020, the video might seem self-evident. It shows a happy, black family. But if you were here on our campus in 2016 you might remember rumors that someone wrote in chalk in that parking lot, “Make America Great Again.” You might remember fewer faculty of color on campus at that time. If you’ve been teaching or working at Puget Sound since 2000 or before, you might recall a long list of racialized incidents that have caused harm to black and brown students, faculty, and staff. From that eagle-eyed perspective you would watch the video while holding the skating and past events in tension. You might think about the very complicated history ensconced in this place.
That’s the vision
you will possess as 2020 graduates in African American Studies. You’ve seen the
before and during. Soon you will witness the after. And you’ve studied the
scholarship and know our deep tradition. Congratulations on all you’ve learned
and accomplished. We look forward to the revolutionary work you will do.
For the purposes of this article we are looking at the academic work entitled “The Invisible Knapsack” by Peggy McIntosh. In the words of McIntosh, “White privilege is like an invisible weightless knapsack of special provisions, maps, passports, codebooks, visas, clothes, tools, and blank checks. Describing white privilege makes one newly accountable.”
McIntosh invites the reader to think critically about the circumstances of their life as an offshoot of identities (race, gender, sexual orientation, socio-economic status, citizenship, level of ability, occupation, etc.) and establishes the ideas that all people have a variety of identities that influence their lived experience, having certain identities makes life more or less challenging, and these identities are not mutually exclusive (ie. black women experience both racism and sexism). This Pandemic has made the inequalities that exist in our society more evident than ever. Many people who have not had to face the realities that people from marginalized groups live every day are experiencing for the first time what it feels like to have larger systems control in a very tangible way what they can and cannot do and have a negative impact on their life.
We have taken the original “The Invisible Knapsack” and altered it to apply specifically to the COVID-19 pandemic. For this activity, I invite you to read through and answer the questions below and take some time to reflect on your responses. To further challenge yourself, think about what privileges (or lack of privilege) you personally have and how the Coronavirus has impacted this. Think about the experiences of others that are different from your own and the systems of oppression that are or aren’t at play here. How does this make you feel, and what can you personally do to combat this thing of oppression to create a more just world?
I have access to a computer and internet
I have a phone or other device that allows me to stay connected with my friends and the outside world virtually
I have consistent access to food
I have the ability to purchase a mask or mask making kit in stores or online
I do not need to rely on public transportation to travel to the grocery store, the pharmacy, to seek out medical care, or to access other essential services.
I have health insurance
I am not currently worried about being able to pay my rent, utility bills, or afford food for my household.
I have a safe home environment to shelter in place in.
I do not experience physical, verbal, emotional, or psychological abuse from someone in my household
If I got sick I know those around me would take care of me and help me access the support and medical care I need
I have enough money saved up to support myself for six months without an income
If I needed financial support I could rely on my family or those close to me to be in a stable enough financial position to help me out
I live in a community where it is safe to go on walks for leisure/ exercise
I do not work in the medical field, grocery stores, pharmacies, or in any essential service that puts me at risk of getting COVID-19
I am currently being paid by my employer (whether that is for working from home or for hours I would have worked if it weren’t for COVID-19).
I can afford to stock up on enough groceries to feed my family/ household for a week or longer so that additional trips to the store don’t need to be made
I have a home that is comfortable for me and my household to remain in for weeks at a time.
I have spent most of my time sheltered in place partaking in hobbies such as arts and crafts, video games, gardening, etc.
I have enough extra money to buy non-essential items for fun and entertainment purposes
I can spend time outside, but not in public because I have a backyard.
My routine and circumstances allow me to stay 6 feet away from people at all times, or nearly all of the time.
I am not immunocompromised, elderly, or have a health condition that makes me especially vulnerable to COVID-19
I am not worried about being denied medical care due to being disabled, elderly, or an otherwise vulnerable person
If I got sick I am reasonably sure that I am of an age and level of health that I would recover without complications
I have not had medical or mental health care appointments cancelled due to COVID19 that are essential to maintaining my physical health or emotional wellbeing
I do not have a mental health problem that has been exacerbated by COVID-19
I have not faced insults targeted at me related to COVID-19 due to my race
I can cover my face without fearing for my safety from law enforcement
If I were to go see a medical professional they and their team would likely be of the same race as I am
If I were to express illness to a medical professional I am reasonably sure they would believe me and treat me
I am here in the US legally, and seeking out medical care or other forms of government related support would not put me at risk of being deported
I am not descended from indigenous people and I do not carry the historical trauma of my ancestors having faced colonizer brought illness
Right now there are conservative groups across the country protesting the corona virus shutdown both virtually in online spaces and movements and in-person protests and calling to “reopen America”. In the words of Fox News host Jeanine Pirro, “They want to keep us away from churches and synagogues. They want to make sure we don’t go back to work. They don’t get it. The American spirit is too strong, and Americans are not gonna take it.” Stephen Moore, an adviser to Trump’s Covid-19 economic recovery task force and a founder of a new group lobbying for a quick re-opening of the economy, Save Our Country, even went so far as to say “We need to be the Rosa Parks here,” he said, “and protest these government injustices” (Michael). The current Coronavirus situation has caused profound fear, suffering, and panic and resulted in the loss of more than 38 thousand lives. It has also resulted in Americans being laid off in droves, a serious hit to the economy and a current unemployment rate of 14.7%, the highest unemployment rate since 1940 (Lambert). The aforementioned right wing movements are protesting these circumstances and their loss of livelihood and security. This may possibly be the first time in their lives that they are experiencing what it feels like to have systems, which are much larger than them and are callous and unfeeling, put restrictions on what they can and cannot do and negatively impact their lives and their ability to provide for themselves and their families.
“Their invisible knapsack is no longer full.”
It is evident that those who have never before faced true oppression have no idea what it feels like to actually experience it. White wing groups claim that the conditions they are experiencing are unbearable and that they cannot live like this, after only having been restricted for a month or so to protect their health and safety during a deadly pandemic. Those who have faced true oppression because of race and gender and additional oppressions face it constantly for their entire lives. It is unbearable, but they have to bear it because there is no other option. It is an overwhelming force that suffocates and takes and takes. It is exhausting, it is consuming, and it can seem to those who experience it as if it is endless and inevitable. The freedoms that white right wing groups are asking for have been denied to people of color, who have been oppressed by systems for centuries. Ironically, often those same right wing groups, who are currently protesting injustice, are the same people who have and are still denying freedoms to people of color.
Coronavirus is killing people of color at rates that are far above other demographics. In New York city, Latinos make up 34 percent of Coronavirus related deaths. A CDC study of nearly 1,500 hospitalizations across 14 states reported that black people made up a third of the hospitalizations and 42 percent of the victims, even though they make up 18 percent of the population in the areas studied (Kendi). This is not a fluke accident. History is there for us to look back on, and when we do we see that this has happened time and time again. Communities of color are consistently hit hardest in national crises.
For those who are paying attention, there is a clear pattern of death and suffering and catastrophe around people of color. This is no fluke accident, as the systems are working as they were created to. For those who have not been paying attention it may seem as though the suffering and ills marginalized people are experiencing during this Coronavirus pandemic are unexpected or surprising. They may just now see systems of oppression at play, and comment on how visible Coronavirus makes them. For those who have lived these experiences and seen these systems at work now and previously, they have seen this very scenario play out over and over again in many different ways throughout time.
“Today Coronavirus is killing marginalized populations at high rates because the systems in our society do not value or protect their lives, and the people within those systems do not seem to care to prevent black deaths.”
Black people have been used historically as test subjects for medical research due to racist beliefs that their blackness makes them less than human, and this pattern continues today. J. Marion Sims performed gynecological experiments on enslaved women and did not provide them with pain medicine because he believed that the experimentation was not “painful enough to justify the trouble”. It was suggested by Jean-Paul Mira, the head of intensive care at a French hospital that a Coronavirus vaccine be tested in Africa. An understandable lack of trust in the healthcare thing due to historical trauma has resulted in black people being less likely to seek out healthcare. Insurance and the financial expenses of healthcare also make it incredibly difficult for many people to access the medical care they need. Historically eugenics, the selective breeding of a population to achieve more desirable characteristics has been used to commit genocide on communities of color because their lives were and still are seen as being less valuable than white lives. Today Coronavirus is killing marginalized populations at high rates because the systems in our society do not value or protect their lives, and the people within those systems do not seem to care to prevent black deaths.
“We need to create a world devoid of invisible knapsacks.”
People in marginalized groups have lived through experiences that those who are privileged enough to not experience would find to be unbearable. The experience of this Coronavirus may seem to be unbearable, but it will end. People will come out of quarantine and go back to their lives and this experience which seems like a nightmare to many will be over. Oppression will continue, because systems of oppression will continue. They will continue to exist until we as a society can clearly see them for what they are and decide that they need to end and we take the steps to undo the layers and layers of racism, sexism, classism, ableism, and all others that plague our society. This current state of existence will continue until we as a society begin to value the lives of marginalized people enough to protect them, and even more than that create a world where people of color and all marginalized people are able to experience the justice and freedom that we are all promised. We need to create a world devoid of invisible knapsacks.
References
Kendi, Ibram X.
“Stop Blaming Black People for Dying of the Coronavirus.” The Atlantic, Atlantic Media Company, 14 Apr. 2020.
Lambert, Lance.
“Real Unemployment in the United States Has Hit 14.7%, the Highest Level since
1940.” Fortune, Fortune, 9 Apr. 2020.
McIntosh, Peggy.
“White privilege: Unpacking the invisible knapsack.” (1988).
Michael. “Trump
Fans Protest Against Governors Who Have Imposed Virus Restrictions.” The New York Times, The New York Times,
17 Apr. 2020,
www.nytimes.com/2020/04/17/us/politics/trump-coronavirus-governors.html.
We all remember the call to action health officials and experts have expressed for all of us to do in response to the COVID-19; stay home and social distancing. The university, in response, has closed much of the facilities and minimizing the number of bodies on campus. The lack of student presence has been noticed and local folks have utilized the campus environment for their daily cardio activities, dog walks and is a playground for children — which shouldn’t be a surprise since the university is a beautiful sight that is routinely cleaned with enough space to do such activities. As more local folks come into this space, I couldn’t help but notice the demographic trend and, frankly, as an African American from Eastside Tacoma (the most diverse area in Tacoma) I was not surprised that most of the people who use this space during this pandemic are white people, it just speaks volume to the lack of diversity in North Tacoma.
Although it is understandable that being cooped up at home creates an urge for movement and exercise outside and the university is the nearest place to do it, students living on campus, however, might find the number of residences amassing on campus troubling and fearful that the university could turn into a public place that could be prone to the virus– risking contact with large groups of people will exacerbate transmission of the Coronavirus. We have to be socially conscious of our actions and priorities, and the wellbeing of each other during this strange time — staying home as much as possible, even if you believe you are healthy and well when performed en masse, has the potential to decrease the rate of spreading the Coronavirus.
On the Flip Side, We Love Seeing Dogs On Campus from Afar…
Oliver is just beautiful!
He is a little shy but he loves spending time with his human.
Look how photogenic and majestic Suzie is!
There was actually a squirrel staring at him, so he stared back.
