Alice Vol. 6 No. 1
Published by UA Student Media Summer 2020.
Published by UA Student Media Summer 2020.
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[ 1 ]<br />
[Cover Photographer] Hannah Saad<br />
[Photographer] Hannah Saad
<strong>Vol</strong>ume 6 Issue 1<br />
<strong>Vol</strong>ume 6 Issue 1<br />
<strong>Vol</strong>ume 6 Issue 1<br />
[Photographer] Hannah Saad<br />
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[ 3 ]<br />
[Photographer] Hannah Saad
[Photographer] Alexis Blue<br />
[ 4 ]
EDITORIAL STAFF<br />
editor in chief<br />
Annie Hollon<br />
managing editor<br />
Alexander Plant<br />
creative<br />
Creative Director A’Neshia Turner<br />
Design Editor Sarah Lumpkin<br />
Assistant Design Editor Autumn Williams<br />
photo<br />
Photo Editor Alexis Blue<br />
Assistant Photo Editor Keely Brewer<br />
writing<br />
Beauty Editor Christine Thompson<br />
Fashion Editor Gabby Gervais<br />
Lifestyle Editor Jennafer Bowman<br />
Entertainment Editor Hannah Taylor<br />
Food and Health Editor Lindsey Wilkinson<br />
Market Editor Evan Edwards<br />
digital<br />
Digital Director Ansley Segal<br />
Social Media Editor Kendall Frisbee<br />
Online Editor Brynna Mitcher<br />
Youtube Editor Mae Frey<br />
contributors<br />
Kelsey Bridgeforth, Kaila Pouncy, Kaitlyn Gabaldon, Hailey Wilson, Farrah<br />
Sanders, Sophia, Surrett, Jennafer Bowman, Olivia Bowman, Christine<br />
Thompson, A’Neshia Turner, Sarah Hartsell, Jeffrey Kelly, Hannah Taylor,<br />
Hannah Saad, Jonathan Knox, Kalei Burgess<br />
models<br />
Eboni Rollins, Kai O’Neill, Jacob Gorbis, Kaylin Flam, Gavin Hayes, Mia<br />
Karle, Sarah Nelson, Alex Holliman, Sophy Mangana, Kristen Sentell,<br />
Christian Thomas, Tamera Foster<br />
faculty<br />
Editorial Adviser Mark Mayfield<br />
Advertising Julie Salter<br />
Interim Director Traci Mitchell<br />
copyright<br />
Editorial and Advertising offices for <strong>Alice</strong> Magazine are located at 414 Campus Drive East,<br />
Tuscaloosa, AL 35487. The mailing address is P.O. Box 870170, Tuscaloosa, AL 35487.<br />
Phone: (205) 348-7257. <strong>Alice</strong> is published by the Office of Student Media at The University of<br />
Alabama. All content and design are produced by students in consultation with professional<br />
staff advisers. All material contained herein, except advertising or where indicated otherwise,<br />
is copyrighted © 2020 by <strong>Alice</strong> magazine. Material herein may not be reprinted without the<br />
expressed, written permission of <strong>Alice</strong> magazine.<br />
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W<br />
hen I first<br />
began writing<br />
for <strong>Alice</strong> in 2018, I never<br />
pictured myself in this role or in the world we<br />
are currently in. I certainly never envisioned writing<br />
my first “Letter From The Editor” from my childhood<br />
bedroom and collaborating with the <strong>Alice</strong> team via<br />
Zoom call either. However, I see this as an opportunity<br />
rather than a hindrance for us to grow beyond the<br />
Tuscaloosa city limits and reach out to college women<br />
across the country, which we’ve already begun with this<br />
issue.<br />
Since our inception in 2015, we’ve worked diligently<br />
to represent and tell the stories of college women and<br />
have grown significantly since. Yet as we look back and<br />
celebrate everything we have achieved, we have had to<br />
take a good look at where we have failed our readers<br />
and team. <strong>Alice</strong> has for a long time claimed to represent<br />
all college women while our content showed otherwise.<br />
We only represented a certain kind of woman then,<br />
and as a magazine built by and for dynamic and<br />
incredible women, that lack of representation changes<br />
with the digital launch of <strong>Vol</strong>ume 6.<br />
Our cover word is an apt representation of how I aim<br />
to lead and encourage our contributors and readers. As<br />
a publication, we will work even harder to find stories to<br />
resonate with women from all walks of life, from BIPOC<br />
individuals to members of the LGBTQ+ community<br />
and beyond. Some of our contributors lent their own<br />
life experiences and<br />
beliefs to their wellresearched<br />
articles, marked<br />
with an <strong>Alice</strong> Opinion disclaimer, to allow their<br />
voices to be a part of the stories they share. With the<br />
launch of our advice and opinion columns “Ask <strong>Alice</strong>”<br />
and “<strong>Alice</strong> Asks,” we encourage you all to make your<br />
voices heard and be open to discussing life’s difficult<br />
questions so we can grow and learn together. We will<br />
reach out to journalists and students from every corner<br />
of the country to do what we can to represent every<br />
view possible and tell stories that extend beyond the<br />
Southeast and UA’s campus. We’re going to get real and<br />
honest with the content we produce and share, and I<br />
hope you’ll be honest and real with us, too.<br />
Change starts with us all and hopefully these steps are<br />
only the beginning of what we accomplish in the name of<br />
celebrating womanhood and the college experience. I’m<br />
honored to serve as the Editor in Chief of this magazine<br />
for the mystery that is this upcoming school year and<br />
hope we can all change for the better and for good.<br />
Annie Hollon<br />
[ 6 ]
9<br />
15<br />
19<br />
23<br />
27<br />
31<br />
35<br />
Change is Coming<br />
Bursting my Bubble Town<br />
Yays and Nays: LGBTQ+ Representation in Media<br />
Black Mental Health<br />
The Dismantling Period<br />
On The Frontlines<br />
Ask <strong>Alice</strong>/<strong>Alice</strong> Asks<br />
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37<br />
43<br />
45<br />
47<br />
49<br />
51<br />
55<br />
Pandemic Passion Projects<br />
Intersectionality and the Resilience of Womxn<br />
She Well Read<br />
I Exist<br />
Use My Pronouns<br />
Black Lives Matter Through a Lens<br />
If You Like This, Try This<br />
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On May 26, 2020, George Floyd, a Black<br />
man who was unarmed and pinned to<br />
the ground by four police officers was<br />
murdered. Derek Chauvin held his knee on Floyd’s<br />
neck for eight minutes and forty-six seconds.<br />
Before Floyd’s final breath, he cried “please I can’t<br />
breathe.”<br />
Being Black is difficult in America and will be a<br />
challenge for those to come. Young Black Americans<br />
are tired of being treated as “animals” and “thugs.”<br />
In order for them to fight, they use their words.<br />
Black protestors speak from brokenness, strength and<br />
experience. The words they speak on the front line are<br />
true and are rooted by their ancestors. “Black Lives<br />
Matter,” “I Can’t Breathe” and “<strong>No</strong> Justice <strong>No</strong> Peace”<br />
have been the chants for years and we are still saying them<br />
today just with another black person’s name attached to it.<br />
Though the cry for “Black Lives Matter” was already<br />
present, the death of George Floyd amplified the movement.<br />
Individuals from San Francisco to Atlanta created protests<br />
for thousands of other people to come out and voice their<br />
hatred of systematic racism and unlawful kills of African<br />
American men and women in America.<br />
It is not easy going to a protest knowing there are people out<br />
there that do not want to hear what the Black people have to<br />
say. Some people are willing to put African Americans in harm<br />
just for uttering their truth. This generation is bold, unshakeable<br />
and persistent. They urge others to speak out about the injustice<br />
acts and tell the nation that silence is too an issue. Like the ones<br />
before, this era is tired, and it’s demanding change on the frontlines<br />
of every protest.<br />
“As a Black woman, it is important to me that my voice is heard<br />
and the voices of people like me are heard,” said Love Lundy, a<br />
freshman majoring in political science at Spelman College and one<br />
of many young Black activists. “<strong>No</strong>t just as a Black woman, but as a<br />
queer woman and a disabled woman.”<br />
She participated in the protests in Huntsville, Alabama, and Leonia,<br />
New Jersey and is known for her determination to reflect her opinions.<br />
When it’s time to be the voice of the movement, she does not back down.<br />
[Photographer] Hannah Saad<br />
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[Photographers] Alexis Blue and Hannah Saad<br />
“I have been an activist all my life,” she said, “I know<br />
that a lot of the time when I am at a protest or a rally, I<br />
feel called to say something. If I have the opportunity I<br />
will do that.”<br />
Lundy organized, advertised and promoted the<br />
marches in Huntsville and New Jersey for other likeminded<br />
individuals to become known and speak on the<br />
gripes happening in America. When she spoke at her<br />
first protest in Huntsville someone yelled out “bomb.”<br />
They managed to set up a Bluetooth speaker in the area<br />
of the protest and play a recording of a bomb ticking.<br />
This interruption caused panic and dispersion. Lundy<br />
fled before the police tear-gassed the protestors in<br />
attendance.<br />
“I do not know what it is, but police most definitely<br />
become more aggressive at night and when there<br />
is a large group of people,” said Elana Daniels, a<br />
sophomore at The University of Alabama. “It’s like they<br />
are intimidated. It should not be a normalized thing<br />
to protest for black lives. You see people joke about it.<br />
People you thought you knew are backing the police and<br />
the media is exploiting the situation.”<br />
On May 31st, she and 2,000 other people marched<br />
on Kelley Avenue and NE 36th Street with their signs<br />
and flyers in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. The protest she<br />
attended was not only for the murder of George Floyd<br />
but also for the murder of Isaiah Lewis, a 17 year old<br />
mentally ill black man gunned by the police. During the<br />
day children attended, the community sang songs and<br />
State Rep. Ajay Pittman said encouraging statements to<br />
the crowd of peaceful protestors.<br />
The protest was overwhelming to Daniels, who was<br />
“on edge” for the entirety of the march. She watched as<br />
officers patrolled the area and became more aggressive<br />
as night fell. Around 6 p.m. to 9:30 p.m., she feared that<br />
something was going to happen to her. There were two<br />
groups of protestors. While Daniels was a part of the<br />
group protesting in front of city hall, the other group<br />
was on the highway. Oklahoma issued a 10 p.m. curfew.<br />
As people were attempting to leave, the group from the<br />
highway converged with her group of protestors.<br />
Police proceeded to use rubber bullets and tear gas to<br />
[ 11 ]
disperse the wide group of protestors.<br />
This country has been in the crisis of protesting<br />
for Black human rights for centuries, however, this<br />
generation has not. This era is not settling for the bare<br />
minimum anymore nor are they letting people take<br />
action for things that they can fix.<br />
“There is nothing more powerful and nothing more<br />
efficient than doing the physical groundwork,” said<br />
Lauren Perry, a freshman at Syracuse University.<br />
Perry attended the protest in Atlanta, Georgia, and<br />
demanded the application of physical pressure. There<br />
is more to do than just sign petitions and ballots.<br />
“Protest brings about more immediate change,”<br />
she said. “There are people who do not care and are<br />
compliant, people who do not want to put themselves<br />
out there or be an activist.”<br />
This is a call to action. If we do not go out there and<br />
voice our acrimony then no one will. We are building<br />
society in a positive direction once we take physical,<br />
meaningful actions.<br />
“We are past awareness,” she said.<br />
Silence does not help the movement or Black<br />
existences progress. Speak up and out about the issues<br />
that are present in America. Stand and fight systematic<br />
oppression. Bringing more attention to crucial problems<br />
will cause those in power to have a change in heart and<br />
to create a pavement of equality for African Americans.<br />
“The Black Lives Matter movement as a whole is<br />
about the visibility of all Black lives,” Perry said. “This<br />
time around compared to the civil rights movement we<br />
are making sure Black women and the Black LGBTQ+<br />
members are not being left behind. It’s not taking away<br />
from the Black Lives Matter movement, it’s making<br />
sure that in the modern movement everyone has their<br />
seat at the table.”<br />
Understand, that if this was not a real issue then people<br />
would not protest. Black men and women are being<br />
killed by police officers every day. The only difference in<br />
these cases is that they were recorded. What about the<br />
killings that were not recorded? What happens to those<br />
officers? What justice do those families get? Protesting<br />
will give us those answers.<br />
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[ 13 ]<br />
[Photographer] Alexis Blue
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[ 15 ]
I<br />
was 18 the first time I was called an activist. This<br />
was a big deal to me because, in my own little world,<br />
it has always been one of my biggest dreams to be<br />
part of something so powerful, so influential and<br />
earn that title from others. To be considered an activist<br />
always seemed considerably distant from my reach. In<br />
my mind, it struck me as an exclusive, card-carrying<br />
social club where only the most diligent of the socially<br />
active would be allowed in and accepted. Thinking of<br />
myself as an activist seemed remarkably unconvincing<br />
until it simply wasn’t anymore.<br />
Growing up, I spent the majority of my childhood and<br />
adolescence in two small Georgia towns: Fayetteville<br />
and Peachtree City. I, a young Black woman, roamed<br />
in predominantly white spaces, driving around towns<br />
of small, family-owned, decorated shops and dodging<br />
trails paved for golf carts driven by white, upper-class<br />
families. Although my experience was not significantly<br />
diverse until I entered high school, I’ve always seen and<br />
recognized the importance and the value of differences<br />
in others from all backgrounds, and it was easy to see and<br />
accept the contrast in them whenever I left my bubble.<br />
Throughout my youth, I knew holding these values<br />
close to my heart were extremely important in order to<br />
simply be a kind person, but I never knew exactly how<br />
much they would affect me growing into the young adult<br />
that I am today. I am no stranger to empathy, as it is<br />
something I have possessed an overwhelming amount<br />
of since I was a child. My family can attest that I was<br />
always rescuing stray neighborhood cats and creating a<br />
positive kind of trouble at school by speaking my mind<br />
for what was right for myself and others.<br />
When Trayvon Martin was unjustly murdered, I was<br />
ten years old. As a young child, I couldn’t process why<br />
the world had gone up in flames. At ten years old, I had<br />
to learn why I couldn’t stay out after the streetlights<br />
came on, walk to the neighborhood convenience store<br />
and why the “But Mom, my other friends’ parents let<br />
them do it!” argument was no longer effective. At ten<br />
years old, I had to learn that carelessly strolling in<br />
the wrong areas could get me killed. At 12 years old,<br />
I witnessed the world harbor a similar rage with the<br />
death of Michael Brown, and at 12 years old, I had to<br />
learn this was going to keep happening.<br />
As I grew physically and intellectually, I acquired a<br />
strong passion for social justice, and that passion grew<br />
stronger with each passing day. Between then and now,<br />
I have watched the lives of people who look just like me<br />
come and go with a temporary public eruption of anger<br />
to follow. Each outrage, each speech, each protest and<br />
chant being more intense than the last without proper<br />
consequences given to the murderer to match. I’ve seen<br />
this on television, the internet, and in books for years.<br />
Looking in the mirror, I often wondered where society<br />
fit me in and exactly how much I was truly valued in<br />
these white spaces I called home. Additionally, it<br />
became apparent to me how the murders of the very<br />
Black women I resemble never get the same attention<br />
in the media. Black women carry a very similar burden<br />
to our Black men, yet still fight to be included and<br />
protected by a cause that is supposed to embody us<br />
conjointly when we proclaim “Black Lives Matter.” This<br />
creates an extremely heavy weight to be carried, but a<br />
weight often carried with such grace by Black women<br />
everywhere. Alas, I digress. Watching people of any and<br />
all causes organize spaces for their voices to be heard<br />
in big cities across the nation was never foreign to the<br />
American people. It’s so common and such a crucial<br />
part of our history that it’s something we all learned<br />
about as early as elementary school. Revolution is, and<br />
always will be, in our blood. When you think about it,<br />
Americans have obtained almost all the rights we have<br />
today by protesting. We, the people, have watched this<br />
happen many times throughout history, whether it be<br />
our fellow workers, our strong women, our beautiful<br />
LGBTQ+ community, and our people of color. The<br />
only difference is that Black and Brown people are still<br />
fighting an ancient problem in a modern world.<br />
I never thought I’d live through something quite as<br />
massive as what transpired after the tragic murder of<br />
George Perry Floyd Jr. I always imagined protests being<br />
reserved for people of giant cities; modern people who<br />
work in big buildings and finally decide to abandon<br />
them in order to storm the wide, shiny streets and<br />
walkways leading to state buildings to fight federal laws<br />
and injustice. Living in my tiny bubble town, I never<br />
expected to see something like this in my city. Even<br />
though I longed to be part of something so powerful,<br />
I had never attended a protest until the death of<br />
George Floyd. The week following the sad day of May<br />
[ 16 ]
25, 2020, I remained glued to social media, watching<br />
every city across the country, and eventually the world,<br />
explode one by one in protest. I couldn’t sit still or<br />
sleep. I watched people spewing hate at those who were<br />
simply pleading to be protected. I watched all of this<br />
happening through every screen in my household. My<br />
heart broke day in and day out. When my electronic<br />
screens transformed into watching through my own car<br />
windows, I realized that people in my town were just<br />
as outraged as I was. It became all too real for me. My<br />
bubble town had finally burst.<br />
Up until this point, I had acted from the safety of my<br />
room. I had signed petitions, shared resources, donated<br />
money, written letters, yet nothing felt like I was doing<br />
enough. I felt scared, angry and sad wondering if I<br />
should be out there with my fellow citizens experiencing<br />
the same pain and fighting the same fight. As a firstgeneration<br />
pre-law college student, I was terrified<br />
about how my current actions, or lack thereof, would<br />
affect my future. What if some person out there holding<br />
potential future authority over me doesn’t see things<br />
the same way I do when I speak my mind? What if I say<br />
the wrong thing? What if my lack of action hurts me,<br />
too? After much deliberation about the potential risks,<br />
I decided that I owed it to my ancestors, the deceased,<br />
my little Black brother, and myself to stand in unity<br />
with others and raise my voice. Besides, I came to the<br />
conclusion that I don’t belong in any place of business<br />
where my existence is not safe or valued. I watched<br />
my small, predominantly white town transform into a<br />
beacon of diverse unity, something I never thought I’d<br />
ever see in my life. When I arrived to join the peaceful<br />
protest organized by local residents, I had no idea what<br />
to expect to see, but I do know that I didn’t expect what<br />
I saw. I saw people of all skin tones, identities, and<br />
backgrounds raising their voice in support of Black and<br />
Brown lives in the courtyard of our tiny city hall. People<br />
with colorful signs, loud voices, and passionate souls.<br />
I soon became one of a countless number of people<br />
circled around individuals giving speeches, sharing<br />
their pain one by one as onlookers both observed and<br />
supported. As I moved closer to the center, I realized<br />
I was witnessing various people of color sharing their<br />
experiences with discrimination, informing the public<br />
on important topics ranging from voter registration to<br />
recognizing white privilege and sharing resources for<br />
anybody hurting or struggling. As I inched even closer<br />
to the center, brimming with bravery and feeling warm<br />
with support, I felt compelled to speak, share some<br />
thoughts of mine, and contribute to the conversation.<br />
I held a bullhorn in my hand and informed my<br />
community about the importance of holding one<br />
another accountable.<br />
Black lives matter. All of them. My education, social<br />
status, place of residency, interests or the people I hang<br />
out with are not what gives my life worth. My life matters<br />
simply because I am a living, breathing human being<br />
who walks this earth. I am Black and my life matters<br />
just as much as my white counterparts. As a friend, I am<br />
holding my non-Black friends accountable for proudly<br />
proclaiming this fact. In order for you to be a friend,<br />
you must believe wholeheartedly that my life matters<br />
the way I believe that yours does. As students, we<br />
must hold our places of education and fellow students<br />
[ 17 ]
accountable for standing up for our Black peers to help<br />
everyone who desires an education to safely achieve it.<br />
As employees or consumers, we must apply pressure to<br />
our places of business to value their Black employees<br />
and consumers. It is not enough to simply not be racist,<br />
we must actively be anti-racist. We must hold our non-<br />
Black friends accountable to act on behalf of those who<br />
are being condemned by hatred right now. We must do<br />
our individual parts to make the world a better, more<br />
just place for all. <strong>No</strong>ne of us will truly have justice until<br />
all of us have justice.<br />
The first time somebody called me an activist was<br />
right after my speech. The person who casually awarded<br />
me this title was a girl from high school who I had met<br />
in passing and didn’t know much about me, but she<br />
recognized my passion which made it a significant<br />
moment to me. I proved to myself I was able to put my<br />
comfort aside to better my community for others and<br />
stand up for myself. The moment I truly grasped how<br />
much my actions of courage affect and inspire others to<br />
speak up and do the same encouraged me to keep going.<br />
Becoming aware of that was what truly made me feel<br />
like the activist I had been dubbed.<br />
My first protest redefined what it meant to be an<br />
activist for me. To be an activist and to achieve a mindset<br />
of activism means to always be open to and participating<br />
in ways to make this world a better place. It means to<br />
wake up every day and be the change you want to see<br />
in this world and encourage others to do the same, no<br />
matter how big or small your reach is. Furthermore,<br />
this experience gave me hope in our communities to<br />
come together during hard, painful times like this.<br />
Watching as people became physically willing to step<br />
out of their comfort zones and potentially risk their<br />
safety to walk in support of BIPOC individuals, most<br />
of whom they’ve never even met before, became one of<br />
the most motivating things I have ever seen. It simply<br />
reminded me that there are so many people standing in<br />
the corner of love fighting against hate and I will not be<br />
standing alone. My first experience protesting was lucky<br />
considering it didn’t include tear gas, arrests, damage or<br />
injuries, but I will acknowledge the protestors putting<br />
themselves on the frontlines and I will stand with them.<br />
My experience has been safe, but it hasn’t been easy.<br />
It hasn’t been easy to watch my Twitter timeline turn<br />
into an obituary. It hasn’t been easy worrying if the<br />
name of somebody I love, or even my own, will become<br />
the next trending hashtag or headline. The fight has<br />
never been easy for anyone, but it will always be worth<br />
it. If you are able, I highly encourage you to stand and<br />
walk in support of your peers. Donate money to local<br />
nonprofits. Sign and share petitions boosting justice<br />
for those who have been harmed or murdered unjustly.<br />
Register to vote and write letters to your local legislators<br />
encouraging them to act. Whatever it may be, use your<br />
voice and platform to encourage others to do the same<br />
and make your stand.<br />
That day, I left the bulk of the crowd and sat on the<br />
edge of a water fountain outside of city hall. Soaking<br />
in the moment, I felt the warmth of the sun sparkling<br />
across my shoulders and felt content with myself, the<br />
color of my skin and my ability to help change the world.<br />
I repeated to myself, “I am a young Black woman, and<br />
there is nothing in this world that I cannot do.”<br />
[ 18 ]
[ 19 ]<br />
[Photographer] Kalei Burgess
LGBTQ+ REPRESENTATION IN MEDIA<br />
BY KAITLYN GABALDON<br />
uring Pride Month in June, you probably noticed<br />
an increase in LGBTQ+ representation in the media<br />
ranging from social media campaigns to magazine<br />
covers. With Pride having to be different this year<br />
because of the COVID-19 pandemic cancelling many celebrations,<br />
it’s more important than ever that TV, film and other media outlets<br />
bring the stories, experiences and talent of LGBTQ+ individuals to<br />
the forefront. Mainstream media showcases LGBTQ+ talent and<br />
characters more prominently than ever before, but is it always done<br />
in the best way possible?<br />
Take a series like Pose on FX, for example. Pose is revolutionary<br />
in how it authentically shares LGBTQ+ stories that are important<br />
to the community’s history while being the first show to feature<br />
transgender women of color in prominent roles on television.<br />
The praise for Pose is well deserved, as it brings the vibrancy of<br />
80’s underground Ball culture and delves into the struggles of the<br />
LGBTQ+ individuals in the show in an authentic way that many<br />
other series struggle to do. While Pose is an example of what<br />
LGBTQ+ representation in the media should be, many miss the<br />
mark.<br />
During Pride Month, and throughout the rest of the year, we<br />
need to be more aware and critical of how LGBTQ+ individuals are<br />
portrayed and treated in the shows we watch and the campaigns we<br />
see. While there’s still a lot more work to be done to accurately and<br />
genuinely share their stories and experiences in the media, here are<br />
some of the yays and nays of current LGBTQ+ representation in the<br />
media to think about.<br />
[ 20 ]
Give LGBTQ+ characters<br />
equal screen time as their<br />
straight counterparts.<br />
Oftentimes, LGBTQ+ characters serve as a plot driver for their straight, main<br />
counterparts. They’re the best friend, part of the friend group or in some cases, the onetime<br />
possible love interest (think Lucas from To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before.) They<br />
help the main character solve their problems or bring out their true selves, but they’re<br />
only shown from time to time.<br />
Toni Topaz, played by Vanessa Morgan on Riverdale, is a good example of a Black<br />
LGBTQ+ character whose main plot function is as a side character who drives the<br />
development of others. Her time on-screen increases around the second season, but<br />
as time goes on, we don’t see plots that center around her, nor does she have the same<br />
amount of screen time as her co-stars despite being upgraded to a season regular. With<br />
a greater need for Black LGBTQ+ representation to be more visible on television, we<br />
hope to see more of her in the upcoming season.<br />
Giving equal screen time to Black and LGBTQ+ characters is something that all<br />
shows and films should strive for in order to increase LGBTQ+visibility and make it<br />
commonplace in everyday TV and film. LGBTQ+ characters shouldn’t be stuck on the<br />
sidelines as plot drivers. They’re multi-dimensional, and many people can relate to them<br />
and their storylines. If you’re interested in shows with great LGBTQ+ representation,<br />
check out Sex Education on Netflix and Vida on Hulu, Amazon Prime Video and Starz.<br />
Only showing LGBTQ+<br />
representation during<br />
Pride Month.<br />
[Photographer] Kalei Burgess<br />
Pride Month is an exciting time to celebrate the<br />
LQBTQ+ community, but that doesn’t mean that<br />
representation ends on the last day of the month.<br />
Some brands will only include LGBTQ+ talent or have<br />
collaborations with them for the duration of month,<br />
but their commitments to the LGBTQ+ community<br />
should extend beyond Pride Month as well. Having<br />
LGBTQ+ visibility year-round is important for the<br />
community and should be incorporated into the<br />
media that these brands put out throughout the year.<br />
It’s not enough to just have it during Pride Month,<br />
and there’s no shortage of LGBTQ+ talent that these<br />
brands can help spotlight.<br />
[ 21 ]
Brands paying LGBTQ+<br />
individuals in “exposure” to<br />
create content for them.<br />
Brands often have large budgets of money when working with influencers to create<br />
content. During Pride Month, many brands reach out to LGBTQ+influencers to create<br />
content for social media with the goal of highlighting campaigns and products created<br />
specifically for Pride Month. While influencer collaborations are not new, what isn’t<br />
often known is that LGBTQ+ influencers, especially those who are Black, are often<br />
pitched collaborations in exchange for “exposure” on a brand’s social media. Lydia<br />
Okello (@styleisstyle), a queer Black creator, was recently asked by Anthropologie to<br />
take part in its #sliceofhappy campaign for Pride in exchange for a free outfit. Okello<br />
shared their typical rates for working with brands only to be told by Anthropologie<br />
that they didn’t have the budget for an influencer of their level.<br />
Exposure doesn’t pay the bills, and for large brands like Anthropologie, there’s no<br />
excuse to not pay LGBTQ+ influencers for their work especially during a month that<br />
is meant to highlight and celebrate them. Be mindful of how brands treat LGBTQ+<br />
influencers, and if you want to stay informed about this and other issues in the<br />
fashion and beauty industry, follow accounts like @diet_prada and @esteelaundry<br />
on Instagram.<br />
Hiring LGBTQ+ directors, talent,<br />
production staff, and writers to<br />
tell LGBTQ+ stories.<br />
There’s a plethora of LGBTQ+ talent in the industry waiting to make their mark<br />
on the screen and in the media. One of Hollywood’s biggest debates is having actors<br />
and production staff who are not members of this community telling the stories of<br />
LGBTQ+ characters. Out of the 25 actors who have been nominated for an Oscar for<br />
playing an LGBTQ+ character, none are openly LGBTQ+. The film and television<br />
industry is divided on the issue, with some actors like Darren Criss vowing to turn<br />
down future LGBTQ+ roles, while others like Ben Whishaw, who is gay himself, don’t<br />
see the issue with non-LGBTQ+ actors playing LGBTQ+ characters.<br />
While the debate continues, Hollywood should provide more opportunities for<br />
LGBTQ+ individuals to bring their talents to the industry in all aspects, especially<br />
when it comes to telling LGBTQ+ stories. People like screenwriter Steven Canals<br />
(Pose), director and writer Dee Rees (Empire, Pariah, Space Force), and actor<br />
Keiynan Lonsdale (Love Simon, The Flash, Legends of Tomorrow) are paving the<br />
way for other LGBTQ+ individuals in the industry. Including their voices and talents<br />
in Hollywood makes it exciting to see what’s to come for the industry in the upcoming<br />
years.<br />
[ 22 ]
[ 23 ]
I<br />
know<br />
it’s hard right now. Rules have been enforced<br />
telling us to stay home to protect us and our loved<br />
ones, high school students have missed out on major<br />
life experiences such as prom and graduation, recent<br />
college graduates are wondering what their next step is,<br />
health care workers are risking their lives fighting for<br />
us daily. Those are only just a few examples of what we<br />
have been going through during the pandemic. If that<br />
is not enough to make your head spin, well, we are in<br />
another epidemic: a fight for racial justice and a call to<br />
action that has swept the world.<br />
Racial injustice is not a new issue to Black people and<br />
the effects of it is not either. Black Lives Matter and so<br />
does Black Mental Health. If you have found yourself<br />
not feeling like yourself, or the repeated incidents of<br />
police brutality have gotten you down, I want to help<br />
you. Here are some tips and resources to assist you with<br />
getting through this tough time.<br />
[ 24 ]
PRACTICE MINDFULNESS<br />
Mindfulness is the practice of being in the present moment, right<br />
here, right now and accepting it without judgment. While constant<br />
worries and thoughts of what is to come can keep you up at night,<br />
practicing mindfulness may come to your rescue. When done<br />
correctly, stress and anxiety can be managed dramatically<br />
better. Do not think about the past, and don’t try to have<br />
the future all planned out either. Let yourself be and go<br />
with the flow as life comes to you. It is ok to have an<br />
idea of what direction you want to go in within your<br />
life, but do not dwell on it too much. The most<br />
popular mindfulness practice is mediation.<br />
“I practice meditation myself and I highly<br />
recommend it to my clients,” Dr. Tamika<br />
Anderson, a private practicing psychologist<br />
said. “You won’t master it your first try, but<br />
each practice takes you a step closer to a<br />
healthier thought process.”<br />
If you want to try this technique,<br />
Headspace and Calm are two great apps<br />
to start with.<br />
UNPLUG<br />
To start, take a break from wherever you are getting<br />
your news, whether that is social media, Apple News<br />
notifications or the traditional local and national<br />
television coverage. I know that this can be a tough one for<br />
people to do, and can hear some people now, “Removing<br />
myself from social media during a pandemic?” I know.<br />
The main thing people are wanting and are being told<br />
to do is to stay connected. Which for a lot of people<br />
staying connected happens via social media. Start with<br />
taking one day off. Don’t watch the news, turn off your<br />
notifications and delete your apps. If this step is too<br />
drastic, put a time resection on your apps through<br />
your phone’s settings. While you are on your break,<br />
do something you enjoy. Watch your favorite Netflix<br />
series, tackle that thing you’ve been wanting to do or<br />
simply do nothing. The point of this is to give your<br />
mind a break from all of the information you are<br />
absorbing on a daily basis. In the meantime, stay<br />
connected and call your friends and family on the<br />
phone. Talk to them and check in with how they<br />
are doing. You never know, this could be just<br />
what you needed.<br />
[ 25 ]<br />
[Photographer] Alexis Blue
LET IT OUT<br />
If you are feeling angry, sad or even alone, you have every right to<br />
feel that way. The last thing that you want to do is ignore whatever<br />
emotion you are feeling. Write down that emotion as soon as<br />
you can. Journaling is a practice that is widely used to help<br />
with emotional release and has been proven to help with<br />
anxiety and stress.<br />
“Journaling helps me analyze exactly where my<br />
thoughts are coming from since I can see them on<br />
paper,” said Ariel Sanders, a senior at The University<br />
of Alabama.<br />
You can use the notes in your phone or a<br />
journal. Grab some paper and something to<br />
write with and let it all out. There is no right or<br />
wrong way to do this. After you feel like you<br />
have gotten everything out, read it aloud.<br />
THERAPY<br />
If you want to take the previous suggestion a step further,<br />
try therapy.<br />
“If you are comfortable talking to someone please do,”<br />
Makya Jenkins, a senior at UA said. “I know there is a<br />
stigma in the Black community in regard to therapy.<br />
Please know you are not broken by asking for help.”<br />
If you are new to the world of therapy, it can appear<br />
intimidating. Finding a therapist related to your<br />
particular needs can be hard. Don’t be discouraged<br />
because there are organizations catered to helping you<br />
with this process. Therapy for Black Girls, founded by<br />
Joy Harden Bradford compiled a useful directory of<br />
therapists who actually “get it.” The organization also<br />
produces a podcast, publishes a weekly newsletter,<br />
and hosts free support groups on Thursday nights.<br />
Inclusive therapists are equipped in racial trauma<br />
training to ensure that health care providers look<br />
critically at mental health. The organization has<br />
a database of professionals, many of whom offer<br />
reduced-price virtual sessions. These resources<br />
can be extremely helpful to find someone for<br />
your specific needs.<br />
We currently face difficult times, and it<br />
can be hard and even confusing to seek<br />
help for yourself. However, prioritize<br />
your wellbeing and take care of yourself.<br />
Remember that there are people<br />
advocating for a better and unified<br />
world for us all.<br />
[ 26 ]
[ 27 ]
[Photographer] Hannah Saad<br />
T<br />
he quickly growing mass uprising against<br />
racial inequality is uncovering long-ignored<br />
issues of systemic discrimination in the<br />
United States. By way of traffic-stopping<br />
protests, widespread social media use and overdue<br />
conversations about race, a new era of understanding is<br />
fastly approaching. This is causing us to take a serious<br />
look at how we as a nation are holding onto the past.<br />
Protestors and movement leaders nationwide quickly<br />
identified confederate monuments and memorials as<br />
the first artifacts to fall in what historians are calling<br />
the dismantling period.<br />
These monuments have been subject to nationwide<br />
debate. It appears that every area of this country is<br />
being directly affected by this movement, including<br />
Tuscaloosa, Alabama. The University of Alabama is no<br />
stranger to this argument. Students, faculty and staff<br />
have historically led the discussion on the removal of<br />
monuments and the renaming of buildings dedicated<br />
to those with racist pasts. Hilary N. Green, associate<br />
professor of history and the Department of Gender and<br />
Race Studies, has centered her research around African<br />
American remembrances.<br />
“African Americans have rejected these monuments<br />
and the racial geographies implemented from the very<br />
beginning,” Green said. “Due to threats of violence, they<br />
had resorted to developing safe spaces and advancing<br />
clear counter memories to this ‘Lost Cause’ landscape.”<br />
The monuments that Green referred to are in<br />
various places on campus, gifted to the University<br />
as early as 1914. Given by the United Daughters of<br />
the Confederacy, a large boulder was dedicated to<br />
Confederate soldiers that were also given an honorary<br />
diploma. Since moving to its second location, the center<br />
of the Quad, this memorial has been the center of the<br />
removal controversy. Standing 10 feet in length, 10 feet<br />
in width and not far from the Little Round House that<br />
housed enslaved drummer boys during the Civil War,<br />
this mammoth of a rock served as a constant reminder<br />
of a dark past and the University’s persistent silence.<br />
As tension around the country grew, so did the pressure<br />
for change. On June 8, the UA System Board of Trustees<br />
authorized the removal of three confederate plaques<br />
on campus. A small council of trustees was created<br />
to review the current names of buildings and report<br />
recommended name changes. This announcement<br />
came as a surprise to the UA community, especially<br />
those who have actively fought for change.<br />
Teryn Shipman, university alumna and founder of<br />
For Black Girls Who Have A Lot to Say, feels bittersweet<br />
towards this moment but believes that these matters<br />
and more should be met with a lot of deliberation<br />
and reflection.<br />
“I believe that UA, it’s administration and it’s Board<br />
[ 28 ]
of Trustees must honor the lives of those who were<br />
enslaved on UA’s campus, specifically when we are<br />
talking about renaming buildings,” Shipman said.<br />
She recalls one of the reasons that she decided to<br />
attend the University was because of “its racist past and<br />
present.”<br />
“I felt I was called to help create real institutional<br />
change from policies to practices and even traditions,”<br />
Shipman said. “While there, I’ve gotten to work<br />
alongside many freedom fighters...I believe that this<br />
is just the beginning of truly creating a country that<br />
represents the people. Shoutout to my ancestors and<br />
fellow freedom fighters.”<br />
For decades, students, faculty and staff have found<br />
their own ways to contribute to awareness and progress.<br />
Shipman organized movements such as Bama Sits, Wake<br />
Up Bama and We are Done. A coalition of students and<br />
faculty, We are Done released a list of demands to be<br />
met by University administration in 2015. Their second<br />
demand called for the removal of the names of white<br />
supremacists, Klan members, Confederate generals and<br />
Eugenicists. The demands of the coalition can be found<br />
with a quick Google search. Shipman sees the demands<br />
as “still unmet or met but with the bare minimum.”<br />
Liz Foshe, a graduate student and teaching assistant<br />
of Gender & Race Studies, felt like now was a good time<br />
to push for change at UA again.<br />
“Essentially, there were two petitions circulating: one<br />
to change the racist building names at UA, and one to<br />
remove the confederate monuments from campus,”<br />
Foshe said.“Petitions like these have been going around<br />
for years since before I came to UA, but with everything<br />
going on with the Black Lives Matter protests all over<br />
the world, now seemed like the right time to really put<br />
pressure on UA to make change.”<br />
Foshe met with a fellow student, Anna Beth Peters,<br />
and together they created an email campaign. This<br />
consisted of creating a pre-written email that could<br />
The University of<br />
Alabama System<br />
Board of Trustees<br />
voted unanimously<br />
on August 5 to<br />
rename <strong>No</strong>tt Hall<br />
to Honors Hall.<br />
[Photographer] Hannah Saad<br />
[ 29 ]
[Photographer] Hannah Saad<br />
be accessed through a shared URL. Participants could<br />
enter their names and send the prepared statement to<br />
various members of the administration as well as the<br />
Board of Trustees.<br />
To gain support, they reached out to various campus<br />
leaders and groups on campus, especially those who<br />
appeared to be in support of renaming buildings and<br />
removing memorials. Foshe recalls feeling disappointed<br />
that Student Government Association leadership<br />
responded in an email by saying they would like to<br />
support but there are “some aspects that the University<br />
cannot change.”<br />
[ 30 ]
ON THE<br />
FRONT LINES<br />
BY SOPHIA SURRETT<br />
[ 31 ]<br />
[Photographer] Keely Brewer
At the beginning of the COVID-19<br />
pandemic, the country had started<br />
establishing lockdowns in place and<br />
spreading the word of the outbreak.<br />
Putting their doubts and concerns aside, the<br />
workers that kept our country afloat accepted the<br />
job. Throughout the ever-changing new “normal”<br />
that the virus demanded, essential workers have<br />
stayed consistent in their fight against COVID-19.<br />
Essential workers have taken on the roles of<br />
heroes amidst the pandemic and have placed<br />
themselves on the front lines. Many people who<br />
have come into contact with these workers have<br />
shown their gratitude for the sacrifices made by<br />
the employee.<br />
“Customers are a lot more patient and thankful<br />
with us as well as our employer,” Brandon<br />
Crittenden, a University of Alabama student and<br />
Publix employee said. “They give us extra cash to<br />
go buy groceries with due to our cut hours and we<br />
practically always receive positivity from all of our<br />
customers because they know how risky it is at a<br />
time like this to be working.”<br />
Several grocery stores and supermarkets across<br />
the country have been putting more cleaning<br />
methods into place as the Stay at Home Orders lift<br />
and people return to “normal” life.<br />
“The measures that we have had to take varied<br />
at the beginning, but as the circumstances<br />
changed, the safety policy did as well,” Crittenden<br />
said.“Where I work, they issued out face masks<br />
and have designated people to sanitize shopping<br />
carts and wipe down door handles.<br />
Due to the Stay at Home Orders across the<br />
country, COVID-19 brought the world together<br />
online in a way that has never happened before.<br />
Crucial employees have been able to communicate<br />
internationally and share their day to day life in<br />
their place of work. The risks and dangers that<br />
have been reported can only describe what the<br />
essential workers are exposing themselves to.<br />
“So much has changed since the Coronavirus<br />
outbreak,” Amy Brewer, a flight attendant with<br />
Delta Air Lines said. “As a company, we have cut<br />
back immensely. We decreased our fleet, retired<br />
certain aircrafts, let go of contract workers, offered<br />
unpaid leaves to employees, reduced salaries, as<br />
well as stopped all services on flights. To me, the<br />
biggest change has been the reduction of flights<br />
and hours for my job. I used to work about 16 days<br />
a month and now I am working significantly less<br />
because we have stopped so many flights.”<br />
Among the beginnings of the outbreak, flight<br />
attendants were some of the first people to be<br />
exposed to the virus due to constant international<br />
and national travel. Many were still forced to be<br />
out in the field, even if hours were reduced after<br />
the virus started to spread. Due to the high risk of<br />
spreading at airports, many airlines have adopted<br />
numerous new sanitation and cleansing steps to<br />
ensure safety.<br />
“Delta’s number one priority is to keep<br />
employees and customers safe,” Brewer said.<br />
“We take extreme precautions from the moment<br />
people get to the gate to the second they deplane<br />
the aircraft. We use high-grade disinfectant before<br />
every single flight, make sure all customers are<br />
employees are wearing a mask, and everyone is<br />
social distancing. We ensure this by boarding back<br />
to front and reducing capacity to 60%.”<br />
Healthcare workers have been on the frontlines<br />
constantly throughout this pandemic. Nurses have<br />
Essential workers have taken<br />
on the roles of heroes amidst<br />
the pandemic and have placed<br />
themselves on the front lines.<br />
[ 32 ]
[ 33 ]<br />
to make sure patients are monitored constantly<br />
due to the uncertainty of this virus, wear personal<br />
protective equipment (PPE) to shield themselves<br />
from exposure and try to keep the numbers of<br />
deaths to a minimum. These healthcare heroes<br />
have had to handle the idea of spreading the<br />
virus not only to other patients but their families<br />
as well. Broadcast through media coverage,<br />
these actions have not gone unnoticed by<br />
the public.<br />
“I have definitely felt respected and loved<br />
during the crisis,” Baylee Gilchrist, a nurse at<br />
UAB hospital, said. “We have gotten free lunches<br />
multiple times and have gotten cards and words<br />
of encouragement from patient family members.”<br />
With all the appreciation from patients and<br />
recognition across the country, nurses like<br />
Gilchrist have said it makes the risk worth it.<br />
Hospitals have put measures into effect to ensure<br />
maximum safety so that the presented risks can be<br />
prevented.<br />
“Before work, we would get “screened,”<br />
meaning we would get our temperature taken,”<br />
said Gilchrist. “We had the mask and the hospital<br />
wasn’t allowing visitors. But with many nurses<br />
being young and healthy, we could have had it<br />
and never known, especially since our unit was<br />
a COVID unit. The hospital never would test an<br />
employee unless they were running a fever, been<br />
exposed, and experiencing other symptoms.”<br />
To help protect and show gratitude to<br />
these essential workers, you can spread your<br />
appreciation on social platforms and practice<br />
social distancing. If you have friends or family<br />
members that are helping fight against the<br />
virus, show your support by making a card<br />
for them or communicate to them that they<br />
are appreciated.
[Photographer] Keely Brewer [ 34 ]
Ask <strong>Alice</strong><br />
Q<br />
A:<br />
What does it mean to “Defund the<br />
Police”?<br />
The statement “defund the police” does<br />
not mean the complete elimination of the<br />
police system as a whole. As explained in<br />
a Cosmopolitan Opinion article by ACLU<br />
Policing Policy Advisor Paige Fernandez, the<br />
idea is to “cut the astronomical amount of<br />
money that our governments spend on law<br />
enforcement and give that money to more<br />
helpful services like job training, counseling,<br />
and violence-prevention programs.” Investing<br />
in these resources and redirecting funding to<br />
other vital elements such as education can<br />
make a major impact on communities across<br />
the country, and can be a stepping stone to<br />
creating a more just system.<br />
<strong>Alice</strong> Asks<br />
[ 35 ]<br />
Q<br />
A:<br />
A:<br />
A:<br />
How do you feel about how your university<br />
plans to operate in the fall?<br />
I feel operations will be disorganized and that<br />
there will probably be an outbreak<br />
Super nervous to be on UA’s campus in the<br />
fall as an immunocompromised student!!!<br />
I am happy that we get to return in the fall as<br />
of now, but my hope is that we can continue<br />
the college experience as it was last year<br />
while keeping everyone healthy.
Q<br />
Does systemic racism/police brutality only<br />
affect black men?<br />
Q<br />
What are some things I can continue to do<br />
to support the LGBTQ+ community and the<br />
BLM movement?<br />
Q<br />
A:<br />
Definitely not! Black women are also<br />
unfortunate victims of systemic racism and<br />
police brutality, such as Breonna Taylor,<br />
Sandra Bland and many more. However,<br />
their stories continue to slip under the radar<br />
as opposed to Black male victims of the same<br />
system. In fact, Taylor’s death wasn’t a major<br />
news story until three months later when<br />
the killing of George Floyd made national<br />
headlines. The forgotten stories of these<br />
women is why The African American Policy<br />
Forum began #SayHerName in 2015 as a<br />
way “to continue to call attention to violence<br />
against Black women in the U.S.”<br />
What’s the difference between “Systemic<br />
Racism” and “Systematic Racism”?<br />
A:<br />
Q<br />
Go beyond sharing cute Instagram graphics<br />
and tweets. Protests have not stopped across<br />
the country, and that means there are still<br />
petitions to sign as well as GoFundMe<br />
fundraisers to support victims of police<br />
brutality and those arrested at protests.<br />
Beyond donating and signing petitions,<br />
supporting organizations and businesses<br />
owned by Black and LGBTQ+ people is a great<br />
way to show your support, especially in your<br />
own communities. Holding your friends and<br />
loved ones accountable for saying or sharing<br />
racist or homophobic things is also a great<br />
way to continue to show your support as an<br />
ally. It is not the responsibility of people from<br />
those communities to teach and correct those<br />
who act that way.<br />
How can I talk to my friends about how I may<br />
have been a bad ally to them in the past?<br />
A:<br />
Q<br />
Systematic racism is active discrimination<br />
with a plan or method used to implement it.<br />
This type of racism is not random or sporadic,<br />
it takes place in a planned and organized<br />
way. There are many cases of it that aren’t<br />
well known,but several take place within<br />
the workplace. Hiring, firing or refusing<br />
to give promotions or raises on the basis of<br />
race is a good example of systematic racism.<br />
Systemic racism is a byproduct of a structural<br />
system. Apart from systematic, systemic is<br />
much more oppressive because it happens at<br />
much higher rates and has a wider impact on<br />
minority communities as a whole.<br />
Do you think college football should be<br />
canceled this fall?<br />
A:<br />
Q<br />
Having those tricky conversations with your<br />
friends is a great first step to become a better<br />
ally. There’s no changing the past, so take<br />
this not as an opportunity to feel bad about<br />
yourself, but as an opportunity to do your<br />
research and read up on how some things you<br />
may have said or done were insensitive. As we<br />
mentioned before, it shouldn’t be up to your<br />
BIPOC and LGBTQ+ friends to correct and<br />
teach you why you shouldn’t do or say certain<br />
things. With a plethora of information out<br />
there, taking the time to educate yourself will<br />
not only start you on the right path to become<br />
a better ally, but will also help you further<br />
understand why certain words and actions<br />
are so insensitive and cruel.<br />
What have you done to keep yourself healthy<br />
during the pandemic?<br />
A:<br />
A:<br />
A:<br />
Yes<br />
<strong>No</strong>t canceled but they should probably not let<br />
people watch in the stadium<br />
<strong>No</strong>ooooo<br />
A:<br />
A:<br />
Spending time in nature!<br />
Workout videos - palema reif & chloe tings<br />
[ 36 ]
PANDEMIC PASSION PROJECTS<br />
By Jennafer Bowman<br />
[Photographer] Jonathan Knox<br />
[ 37 ]
R<br />
emember when it felt like there wasn’t<br />
enough time in the day? Between work, social<br />
life, that pile of laundry that started to infest<br />
more of the room, it felt like everything was<br />
literally piling up. Throughout the country, the stress of<br />
everyday life was becoming greater and greater. Some<br />
felt that a weekend off would cure their woes. One<br />
weekend turned into weeks, which turned into months,<br />
that felt like years. After cleaning the bathroom for a<br />
third time and watching what felt like all of Netflix’s<br />
catalogue, boredom set in.<br />
But, not for some.<br />
In Cadiz, Ohio, some turned to the heat of the kitchen<br />
for their passion projects.<br />
“I started around mid-March,” Lexi Corder, a<br />
sophomore majoring in dance and nutrition at The<br />
University of Alabama said. “I was really bored with<br />
all the extra time I had because of quarantine, and I’ve<br />
always loved baking, so one day I decided I wanted to<br />
learn how to make sugar cookies that were fancy like<br />
the ones you buy in the store. I looked up a recipe and<br />
went from there.”<br />
Corder has since created all different kinds of themed<br />
cookies, like beach themed and even personalized<br />
batches. The unforeseen downside? Ironically, it’s time<br />
management.<br />
“I’m bad at time management,” Corder said. “When<br />
you mix that with<br />
being a perfectionist,<br />
it’s the perfect storm.<br />
I have had cookies<br />
take me from six plus<br />
hours to two days to<br />
frost because of how<br />
detailed they are!”<br />
Corder began to sell<br />
her cookies through<br />
social media (Cookies<br />
and Creations by<br />
Lexi), which is the<br />
icing on the cookie.<br />
But, as states lift Stay<br />
at Home Orders, life<br />
is starting up again.<br />
As quickly as these<br />
passions start, they<br />
might come to an end.<br />
“Once school starts<br />
back in the fall my free<br />
time will be a lot more<br />
limited, I’ll probably<br />
still bake every once<br />
in a while, but I’m not<br />
sure I’ll continue to<br />
[Photographer] Alexis Blue<br />
sell them,” she said.<br />
[ 38 ]
A sweet twist on an otherwise dull past couple of<br />
months.<br />
Down South in Mobile, Alabama, others turned<br />
to a business approach to pass the time.<br />
“I started investing with the stock market about<br />
late May,” Preston Phillips, a sophomore majoring<br />
in nursing at the University of Alabama said.<br />
“I got into stocks because of my father. He’s a<br />
businessman and has always talked about stocks<br />
before but never really introduced me to them.<br />
I decided to pick it up and see what the hype is<br />
about. I downloaded the app Robinhood,” Phillips<br />
continues to joke that he’s on his road to millions.<br />
Robinhood is a free-trading app that lets investors<br />
trade stocks, options and cryptocurrency without<br />
paying commissions or fees. While investing is a<br />
more costly approach to avoiding boredom, it can<br />
become a great investment in the long run.<br />
“I found this tiny penny stock at the lowest<br />
point, that was only worth .33 cents,” Phillips said,<br />
“I invested a lot of money into it and had a gut<br />
feeling it would do me good. About a month and a<br />
half later, that tiny penny stock turned to $2.20.”<br />
He traded his stock quickly, making a profit of<br />
over 300% from the total amount he bought them<br />
for.<br />
“As an extreme extrovert, I was craving human<br />
interaction with friends during the quarantine. I<br />
struggled with trying to find happiness in staying<br />
home,” he said.<br />
As the days seem to blend together and drag out,<br />
it can become harder to wake up every morning<br />
and get things done. While passion projects can<br />
bring joy in such hard times, there can still be<br />
setbacks.<br />
“Stocks are very picky and you could be profiting<br />
$100 one minute then lose every penny the next,”<br />
Phillips explained. “The thing about stocks is, it’s<br />
really an educated guess. <strong>No</strong> one knows the secret<br />
behind which companies will boom overnight or<br />
which ones will plummet.”<br />
With stock trading being such a risky and<br />
expensive activity, it can be intimidating. But with<br />
all new things, thorough research and practice<br />
make perfect.<br />
“My biggest advice would be to do research<br />
on potential stocks you are looking at,” Phillips<br />
said.“Check their past record, especially how they<br />
are dealing with the pandemic. There are tons of<br />
videos on YouTube to help beginners. Anyone can<br />
invest, but not everyone wants to put in the effort<br />
to research before committing to something.”<br />
Others have taken their passions outside.<br />
Located in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, Ebonie Rollins,<br />
a senior majoring in nursing at the University<br />
[Photographer] Alexis Blue<br />
[ 39 ]
[ 40 ]
[ 41 ]<br />
[Photographer] Alexis Blue
of Alabama, has taken to the blacktop and<br />
brought back a groovy ‘70s trend.<br />
“I began rollerskating to stay in shape<br />
and become more in tune with nature and<br />
spirituality,” Rollins said. “It’s easily become<br />
a long lost hobby that is often the excitement<br />
that makes my day.<br />
Rollins was working in the Emergency<br />
Department as a scribe, someone who<br />
specializes in charting physician-patient<br />
encounters, but she had to end her experience<br />
early due to COVID-19. With extra time on<br />
her hands, she found herself reliving old<br />
memories and hobbies.<br />
“Skating has always been an important<br />
aspect in my community,” she said. “Growing<br />
up, my younger siblings and I would go to allnight<br />
skate on New Year’s Eve and skate all<br />
night with friends. Even though it was for a<br />
short moment, the memories last a lifetime.<br />
It was a must to revive an old excitement<br />
in my life and I must say, it has made my<br />
spiritual journey easier.”<br />
It seems that while in quarantine old habits<br />
have started back up, both good and bad, but<br />
thankfully for Rollins, roller skating helped<br />
her become more adventurous.<br />
“Skating is pure fun. It gives me the<br />
opportunity to enjoy being outside again,”<br />
she said. “I also find myself finding new<br />
places to skate which adds to the curiosity of<br />
the different settings.”<br />
Even with being shut inside for nearly two<br />
months, people still find a way to be negative<br />
about others’ passions.<br />
“At this moment the only set back I have<br />
is definitely finding a good area to enjoy<br />
without judgment,” Rollins said. “I find<br />
myself getting both positive and negative<br />
judgments because people are not as active<br />
as before.”<br />
Even with the negativity COVID-19<br />
has caused, Rollins still remains positive,<br />
encouraging others to join her, “I do offer<br />
that people join me rather than judge and<br />
step out on bravery again.”<br />
With COVID-19 causing us to adapt to new<br />
ways of life, the one thing that hasn’t changed<br />
is the passion we have for things that make<br />
us happy. During this time of uncertainty<br />
and chaos, take it upon yourself to try that<br />
new activity or hobby you’ve always thought<br />
about. You finally have the time to do it.<br />
[ 42 ]
WOMXN<br />
AND THE RESILIENCE OF<br />
INTERSECTIONALITY<br />
BY OLIVIA BOWMAN<br />
T<br />
, oday I found myself watching Nanette, a comedy<br />
special on Netflix by Hannah Gadsby. Gadsby is a<br />
gay woman who grew up in Tasmania, Australia<br />
in the ‘90s – when homosexuality was still considered<br />
illegal. Gadsby tells her story in the form of a paradoxical<br />
comedy routine guaranteed to make you laugh and cry.<br />
This, however, is not about Gadsby’s show, this is about the<br />
message that I heard in the last ten minutes of the special.<br />
In the final minutes of the comedy routine, Gadsby<br />
says, “I will not allow my story to be destroyed. What<br />
I would have done to have heard a story like mine…<br />
to feel less alone. I believe that we could paint a better<br />
world if we learned to see it from all perspectives.”<br />
The idea of seeing all perspectives or the understanding<br />
of all perspectives brought to mind intersectionality,<br />
particularly intersectionality as it stands for womxn.<br />
Intersectionality, as defined by Merriam-Webster<br />
dictionary, is “the complex, cumulative manner in which<br />
the effects of different forms of discrimination combine,<br />
overlap, or intersect.” Comparably, intersectional<br />
feminism is the understanding that different forms<br />
of gender discrimination differ for womxn of varying<br />
intersectional identities.<br />
[ 43 ]
Each one of us holds multiple identities that tie<br />
us to who we are and how the world sees us. These<br />
physical and social frameworks can bring communities<br />
together, make people feel connected and allow us to be<br />
celebrated.<br />
Each and every one of us hold multiple identities that<br />
tie us to who we are and how the world sees us. These<br />
physical and social frameworks can bring communities<br />
together, make people feel connected and allow us to be<br />
celebrated.<br />
Each one of us holds multiple identities that tie us to<br />
who we are and how the world sees us. These physical<br />
and social frameworks can bring communities together,<br />
make people feel connected, and allow us to be<br />
celebrated.<br />
However, what happens when these identities cause<br />
tension, anger or even guilt?<br />
In New Jersey, Reginah Mako, a 22 year old Rutgers<br />
graduate, first learned the term intersectionality in a<br />
gender studies class. However, Mako has felt the effects<br />
of intersectionality her entire life.<br />
“I knew what [intersectionality] felt like,” Mako said.<br />
“I just couldn’t articulate it.”<br />
Mako identifies as a young person of color – both<br />
biracial and Black – who recognizes her womxnhood<br />
but knows that she does not necessarily fit into a gender<br />
category.<br />
“I want people to know that identity isn’t finite,”<br />
Mako said. “It can be expanded and it’s okay to change<br />
your identity.”<br />
Mako is not the only person interviewed who<br />
understands the importance of recognizing<br />
intersectionality.<br />
Jessica Savage is a 23 year old University of Vermont<br />
graduate. Savage identifies as a gay, white womxn who<br />
struggles with both anxiety and an eating disorder.<br />
Savage wants to make it clear: she holds a tremendous<br />
amount of privilege when it comes to intersectionality<br />
and intersectional feminism.<br />
“I experience comparably mild obstacles in my daily<br />
life because of my mental illness, but my [disadvantaged]<br />
identities are practically invisible,” she wrote. “That<br />
means I can move through my daily life with ease from<br />
the external world.”<br />
Savage tries to think about her privilege in the context<br />
of the events happening in the nation right now. She<br />
recognizes how her white privilege is coming to light<br />
after the recent killings of George Flloyd and Breonna<br />
Taylor at the hands of police officers.<br />
“I am living everyday thinking… how, in white rural<br />
Vermont... I have some fear that I can be vulnerable out<br />
in the middle of nowhere,” she said. “I am not deadafraid<br />
that my life could end if a white homeowner sees<br />
me in their yard. “<br />
Black Lives Matter co-founder Alicia Garze discussed<br />
intersectionality and its importance in the BLM<br />
movement with Ms. Magazine in 2017.<br />
“I think there needs to be a deep dive into<br />
intersectionality and relations of power.<br />
Intersectionality has been around for a long time and<br />
has resurged as a core principle of what movements<br />
need to be effective,” Garze states.<br />
When it comes to relations of power from a<br />
healthcare perspective, Skye Allen, a New Jersey<br />
native and 2020 graduate of Florida Gulf Coast<br />
University understands all too well what it means to<br />
be a womxn seeking care in a world dominated by<br />
stereotypes.<br />
Allen, who identifies as a straight, white, disabled<br />
woman was diagnosed with major depressive<br />
disorder, generalized anxiety disorder and seizures<br />
at age 17. She has also faced a recent diagnosis<br />
of both fibromyalgia, a chronic pain disease and<br />
dysautonomia, which affects the body’s nerves.<br />
Allen notes that the American Disabilities Act, a<br />
civil rights law that prohibits the discrimination of<br />
people with disabilities, was only recently established<br />
in 1990.<br />
“Unfortunately, the world doesn’t take too kindly<br />
to those with disabilities,” she said. “There is a big<br />
stigma around what a disabled person looks like.”<br />
Allen wants people to understand the implications<br />
of being a disabled womxn based on her experiences.<br />
“As a woman, my healthcare journey has been more<br />
difficult than if I were a man,” Allen said. “Oftentimes,<br />
doctors disregard or invalidate women’s pain, simply<br />
because we are women. On average, it takes women<br />
years to get a diagnosis for a condition than if they<br />
were a man.”<br />
John Zambarano, a 22 year old queer, nonbinary,<br />
spiritual nonreligious, white person, who uses they/<br />
them pronouns, is no stranger to the importance of<br />
inclusion in varying communities.<br />
They urge people to approach others and their<br />
communities rather than make assumptions about<br />
their identities.<br />
“My communities and other marginalized<br />
communities are full of love,” they said. “We deserve<br />
the same level of compassion, empathy and support<br />
that we give.”<br />
John’s words resonate closely with what Gadsby<br />
relays in her special; that every community is worthy<br />
of understanding.<br />
“To be rendered powerless does not destroy your<br />
humanity,” Gadsby said. “Your resilience is your<br />
humanity.”<br />
<strong>No</strong> matter how many times womxn and other<br />
marginalized communities are stereotyped, attacked<br />
or rendered powerless, we will be there to pick each<br />
other back up. Despite our differences, we all share<br />
one commonality:<br />
Resilience.<br />
[ 44 ]
With an infectious virus spreading quickly<br />
in our country, and in a time of intense<br />
political and social upheaval, uncertainty<br />
permeates the atmosphere of the United<br />
States. In these times, people – especially womxn –<br />
desperately seek solace. In Birmingham, Alabama, and<br />
from the comfort of their homes, two inspired young<br />
womxn have created just that.<br />
University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) alumni<br />
and best friends Samra Michael and Alana Bauman<br />
co-founded the podcast SheWellRead in hopes of<br />
“empowering womxn to invest in themselves and each<br />
other.” Inspired by the Comedy Central sitcom Broad<br />
City, Michael wanted the podcast to serve as a safe<br />
space for “girls who want to stay more informed and<br />
read more.” Though the podcast is by and for womxn,<br />
the duo states that their platform is open to everybody<br />
– including “men who want to learn.”<br />
Each episode , such as “The One Where We Talk<br />
About Friendships,” has a title that references popular<br />
relics of girl culture: Friends, Mean Girls, etc. With<br />
episodes ranging from 20 minutes to over an hour long,<br />
they’re perfect for a quick car ride to the grocery store<br />
or a lengthy study session. This episode in particular<br />
features the first chapter of the autobiography Text Me<br />
When You Get Home by Kayleen Schaefer – a homage<br />
to the significant female friendships that shaped<br />
Schaefer’s womanhood. Bauman and Michael share<br />
their opinions about “mean girls,” the origin of the<br />
concept of “friendship” and discuss how these themes<br />
affect the dynamics of female friendships today.<br />
“It’s like in Congress when all of these men are making<br />
decisions about womxn’s bodies,” Michael stated, when<br />
discussing a philosopher who believed womxn were not<br />
“skilled enough” to maintain friendships.<br />
With a quickly-growing platform, the duo does not<br />
hesitate from expressing overtly political views.<br />
“I’m personally not afraid to get political, because we<br />
have facts and experiences to back up what we believe,”<br />
Michael said.<br />
This could be concluded based on their recent video<br />
By Christine Thompson<br />
[Photos provided by She Well Read]<br />
[ 45 ]
posted to SheWellRead’s IGTV. “Question for The<br />
Culture” is the first episode of the SheWellRead IGTV<br />
series addressing the current state of the country. The<br />
ten minute virtual discussion with Lacey Woodroof,<br />
founder of basic.clothing company where Michael<br />
works, tackles white supremacy, the Black Lives Matter<br />
movement and sustaining small businesses during<br />
COVID-19.<br />
“That was me kind of bringing that [the series] to<br />
the table, and Lana was like ‘I think we need a second<br />
opinion’ and that was good we have a balance,” Michael<br />
stated.<br />
This balanced dynamic is apparent early in the<br />
interview. If opposites attract, then these two are<br />
magnets. Bauman, who majored in accounting at UAB,<br />
credits their success to this partnership.<br />
“Samra is very much the creative, stylistic person …<br />
I’m a very structured person, like, ‘let’s have a plan, let’s<br />
map this out … our chemistry really works,” Bauman<br />
stated.<br />
Michael also feels that, pragmatically, their polar<br />
personalities make for an excellent team.<br />
“I think the fact that she’s an accounting major and<br />
I’m a marketing major … that’s really all you need to run<br />
a business,” Michael said. “It worked out kinda well in<br />
a weird way.”<br />
The conversation shifts to our childhoods as we begin<br />
to discuss the experiences that shaped us as young<br />
womxn. Michael shared how her upbringing created a<br />
unique set of struggles that the average Alabamian has,<br />
most likely, never experienced.<br />
“I am a first-generation American living this double<br />
life where I didn’t feel comfortable being my real self for<br />
a very long time,” Michael says. “I felt as though I had<br />
to fit into the bubble … I mean, we all know how Black<br />
womxn are perceived … It got really bad in middle and<br />
high school, to the point where I didn’t have a will to<br />
live anymore,” Michael said.“But getting to college and<br />
meeting Black womxn who cared about me … and being<br />
accepted for who I was, changed my whole perspective.<br />
But I don’t think I would be the same person if I didn’t<br />
go through those things.”<br />
Michael’s experience isn’t uncommon among Black<br />
girls and first-generation Americans. Feelings of<br />
“otherness” due to the culture clash between white<br />
America, and Blackness/foreign cultures of color can<br />
lead to serious identity issues. However, surrounding<br />
yourself with other Black womxn can make the journey<br />
much easier. Bauman relates and shared how her<br />
struggle with the mental health issues in her family led<br />
her to Birmingham.<br />
“My mom and I were super close growing up and when<br />
it came to my senior year she had a [bipolar] episode…<br />
I left the situation with my mom when I was seventeen<br />
and moved in with my dad here in Alabama… I didn’t<br />
have any friends coming into [UAB] or know anybody<br />
from Birmingham…the [friends] became my family.”<br />
Unbeknownst to many, Black female friendships are<br />
the very lifeline of Black girls everywhere. In a world<br />
where our existence meets at the intersection of two of<br />
the most marginalized identities, oftentimes, we only<br />
have each other.<br />
“I also had this identity crisis issue,” Bauman said.<br />
“I always felt like I was trying to conform. You lose<br />
yourself for sure.”<br />
Given the current state of the world, many might<br />
think they feel this sense of uncertainty that Bauman<br />
describes. However, for Black womxn, the search for<br />
identity has always been our reality. Creative outlets,<br />
friendships, and passion projects bring joy in times<br />
riddled with strife and political tensions. Their place<br />
in our society should not be underestimated. For<br />
womxn everywhere (and men who “just want to learn”)<br />
SheWellRead serves as a warm, funny, and dependable<br />
place of comfort.<br />
Every time you tune in, you will undoubtedly be<br />
reminded of the unwavering resilience and vulnerability<br />
of the young Black female voice. Their soft laughs, mild<br />
disagreements and heartwarming stories will elicit<br />
feelings of gratitude and empathy for the womxn in<br />
your life, and the womxn to come.<br />
[ 46 ]
[ 47 ]
[ 48 ]
USE MY PRONOUNS<br />
BY SARAH HARTSELL<br />
ALICE OPINION<br />
s someone who is a cis woman and dresses<br />
fairly feminine, I have never personally had<br />
anyone misgender me, nor do I have the<br />
right to say I understand what having my<br />
gender misidentified feels like. People who are cis,<br />
trans and nonbinary are misgendered quite often.<br />
However, when a cis person who may dress more<br />
androgenous is misgendered, it may not impact<br />
them in the same way it would a trans person.<br />
When people assume pronouns, and oftentimes the<br />
gender associated with those pronouns, they risk<br />
misidentifying someone’s gender, which can put that<br />
person in an uncomfortable position. People who are<br />
trans or nonbinary often struggle with accepting their<br />
identity because of negative social interactions with<br />
friends, family and strangers.<br />
Merriam-Webster states that a pronoun is “any<br />
of a small set of words in a language that are used<br />
as substitutes for nouns or noun phrases and whose<br />
referents are named or understood in the context.”<br />
These substitutes are commonly attached to a specific<br />
gender but can be harmful to someone if their<br />
pronouns are assumed incorrectly.<br />
With LGBTQ+ friends that act as supportive allies<br />
for our trans and nonbinary friends, I have grown<br />
up reminding myself to try to use correct pronouns<br />
to avoid accidentally insulting someone or bringing<br />
up past trauma. Even though I know sharing my<br />
pronouns would help nonbinary and trans people be<br />
more comfortable, my cis privilege often makes me<br />
forget.<br />
“When you assume pronouns, you are implying<br />
that gender expression and gender identity<br />
intertwine, and that’s not really it,” Ally Mia<br />
Karle, a sophomore film major at New York<br />
University said. “It’s just like you wouldn’t assume<br />
someone’s name.”<br />
When cis allies normalize identifying their own<br />
pronouns and asking others for theirs, it can<br />
make people who identify as trans or nonbinary<br />
more comfortable. When pronouns are willingly<br />
introduced, non-binary and trans people do not<br />
have to initiate the conversation by asking that their<br />
pronouns be used correctly.<br />
Alex Holliman, a 19 year old from Birmingham,<br />
Alabama, identifies himself as trans but also<br />
nonbinary. Holliman explained that he identifies<br />
as a man but not in an opposite-of-woman<br />
way, because gender is a really personal thing<br />
to him. He believes strongly in breaking any<br />
rules people try to put on his gender identity<br />
or presentation.<br />
[ 49 ]<br />
[Photographer] Sarah Hartsell
“People kind of forget trans people exist,” Holliman,<br />
who is often misgendered, said. “When a cis person<br />
sees an afab [assigned female at birth] person who<br />
presents masculine they assume ‘lesbian’, and that’s<br />
not me. It’s two aspects of my identity being mistaken<br />
at once, my gender and sexuality.”<br />
This kind of assumption can be degrading to<br />
someone’s self-esteem. Sarah Nelson, a junior film<br />
major at NYU, suggests that cis allies can help when<br />
they make introducing their pronouns habitual<br />
to make others feel included, rather than making<br />
assumptions about others’ gender identity.<br />
“We have to be active allies. If we stand to the side<br />
and do nothing, we become bystanders,” Nelson said.<br />
Many conservative platforms joke that in today’s<br />
society, people continue to change their identity at the<br />
drop of a hat or identify as genders that do not exist.<br />
To combat these negative comments, it is critical for<br />
cis allies to educate others as well as practice using<br />
correct pronouns regularly. Listen when trans and<br />
nonbinary friends say how to make them feel accepted<br />
and comfortable in different settings. It is just as, if<br />
not more important, that we do not assume what they<br />
need for us to support them. In previous discussions<br />
I’ve had with trans people, they’ve suggested that the<br />
best way to go forward after incorrectly assuming<br />
someone’s gender is to quickly correct yourself then<br />
move on. If cis allies make a big deal out of correcting<br />
themselves when they misspeak it makes the person<br />
misidentified more uncomfortable. The next time a<br />
cis ally uses a gender-specific pronoun when referring<br />
to someone, make sure they use the correct pronoun<br />
to reinforce they know how the trans or nonbinary<br />
person identifies.<br />
“That when a trans person has to correct someone<br />
on their pronouns, that action leads to the trans<br />
person outing themselves,” Nick Mueller, a junior at<br />
Auburn University said. This not only puts the person<br />
who is trans in an awkward situation, but<br />
also a potentially dangerous one if someone<br />
responds violently to this information.<br />
It can be an uncertain time to be trans as<br />
protections in place for this community are<br />
at risk legally. If someone insists on using<br />
a trans or nonbinary person’s pronouns<br />
incorrectly on purpose, it is important as<br />
allies to continue to use the correct pronouns<br />
to reinforce that the trans/nonbinary<br />
person’s gender identity is valid. Cis allies<br />
have the power to continue fighting for trans<br />
and nonbinary rights because if we stand to<br />
the side, we become the problem.<br />
[ 50 ]
THROUGH A<br />
BLACK LIVES MATTER<br />
ALICE<br />
LENS<br />
BY JEFFREY KELLY<br />
VOLUME 6<br />
[ 51 ]<br />
[Photographers] Alexis Blue and Hannah Saad
Alongside the protestors’ call for justice, the<br />
violent noise of colliding bodies in the searing<br />
heat, the hiss of tear gas and the crack of<br />
rubber bullets from the barrel of a gun, few<br />
noticed the stray clicks of a camera capturing history.<br />
Those frozen frames of tangible anger soon covered<br />
newspapers, magazines, websites and social media,<br />
captivating thousands with images depicting the<br />
nation’s unrest.<br />
Yet for some photographers, taking these photos isn’t<br />
about gaining notoriety.<br />
“We’re not here to make beautiful images,” Taylor<br />
Gerlach, a University of Georgia senior and photo editor<br />
of UGA’s newspaper The Red & Black said. “We’re<br />
here to tell a story that needs to be told and honor the<br />
humanity of the people in that story.”<br />
It is necessary to tell other people’s stories, Gerlach<br />
said, pointing out how journalism is under attack for<br />
occasions when the news was “skewed.”<br />
“For me, [photos are] like a very accurate portrayal<br />
of what is happening,” she said. “And I think photos<br />
have a lot more power sometimes to show emotion,<br />
connection and humanity.”<br />
Angela Wang, a University of Texas senior and UT<br />
Athletics student assistant, said protests must be<br />
photographed so what is happening is not disregarded.<br />
“People fifty years from now could say [protestors]<br />
were throwing rocks at the police and that’s why they<br />
were fired on by rubber bullets, [but] the photos will<br />
overwhelmingly show that the police misconduct came<br />
first,” Wang said.<br />
Hannah Saad, a senior at The University of Alabama,<br />
The Crimson White’s photo editor and a contributing<br />
photographer at <strong>Alice</strong> Magazine, said it is easy for<br />
people to ignore words, but not photography.<br />
“When you can see mass crowds gathering for Black<br />
Lives Matter that hits differently than someone tweeting<br />
like ‘oh there’s a big group in front of the courthouse,’”<br />
she said. “I can show you what’s going on through<br />
photography better than someone can really type out<br />
what’s going on.”<br />
Saad said photographs better highlighted how many<br />
protestors’ wanted to speak up during the Black Lives<br />
Matter movement.<br />
“People connect better with seeing human emotion<br />
from people at these protests and seeing the hurt they’ve<br />
been through,” she said.<br />
Daniel Roth, the digital content producer in the<br />
Tuscaloosa Mayor’s office of public information, agreed<br />
with Saad’s sentiment, sighting how photography was<br />
“an incredibly powerful tool.”<br />
“We saw the power that the video of George Floyd had<br />
and what that did to the hearts of our country,” he said.<br />
“I think photography is in the same line and can be just<br />
as powerful. [It] can get you outside of your own bubble<br />
and [help you] see that things are happening outside<br />
your world.”<br />
Ian Hoppe, a managing producer of news video at<br />
Alabama Media Group, summed the importance of<br />
photographing protests up when he said, “It’s history,<br />
man.”<br />
Hoppe said when he first got into media, he learned<br />
from a seasoned reporter that journalists “don’t [just]<br />
Google [information] – you go out and get the story,<br />
and you become part of the record.” He said it made<br />
him realize sometimes the story doesn’t exist and<br />
journalists have to pull the pieces together using photos<br />
as punctuation to a story that becomes the record of an<br />
event.<br />
“It’s a difficult, important and rewarding role to have<br />
in the world,” he said.<br />
While getting the story, photographers have witnessed<br />
and felt the effects of the protest.<br />
“The best photo is the one [where] you’re closest to the<br />
action,” Hoppe said. “That’s always been the case. The<br />
best photographers, video journalists, photojournalists<br />
... they’re not standing a block away. They’re in the<br />
action, and sometimes that can be harrowing.”<br />
Hoppe said he saw colleagues who were attacked at<br />
protests. For him, the protest on June 3, in Huntsville,<br />
Alabama, was particularly harrowing.<br />
Hoppe said the protest took place in Big Spring Park<br />
and was peaceful until it was shut down earlier than<br />
expected. While still marching, the protestors and<br />
Hoppe found themselves in a standoff against police<br />
officers suited in riot gear armed with rubber bullets,<br />
batons and tear gas launchers.<br />
“I had never been tear gassed before then either, so<br />
I was anticipating what that would be like. Turns out,<br />
it’s pretty awful,” he said. “They unleashed a lot of tear<br />
gas, and it was just absolute chaos. I saw kind of the<br />
very intense power of a police department in the 21st<br />
century unleashed on a group of citizens, which is a<br />
pretty moving moment.”<br />
Wang said she witnessed many unsettling moments<br />
while at protests in Austin, Texas.<br />
She recalled a protest where she saw a woman collapse<br />
and be carried away by another protestor. A few days<br />
later, she found out the extent of what happened to her.<br />
According to KXAN Austin, the woman had been<br />
sitting on the ground when officers shot her with rubber<br />
bullets in the stomach, back and back of her head.<br />
“There was absolutely no reason for that,” she said.<br />
Yet, while there are harrowing moments, some<br />
photographers experienced moments that were<br />
impactful in other ways.<br />
“I went to the first protest in Birmingham, and the<br />
energy here is always very powerful,” Roth said. “So, it’s<br />
[ 52 ]
always a powerful experience to be at any sort of rally<br />
or protest in Birmingham knowing that you’re standing<br />
on the ground that people fought very hard for civil and<br />
human rights.”<br />
Roth said while at the protest, the photograph he<br />
liked the most was of two young men holding posters<br />
and shouting.<br />
“It’s an image of hope for me. It’s the next generation<br />
participating in something that’s been going on since<br />
the beginning of the United States,” he said.<br />
John Watson, a freelance photographer and Spain<br />
Park High School senior, recalled the morning after the<br />
riot in Birmingham, Alabama. He’d gone out to take<br />
photos downtown and saw a homeless man sitting near<br />
the confederate monument picking up trash from the<br />
night before.<br />
Jasmine Kennedy, another Birmingham freelancer,<br />
said her most memorable moment was during a protest<br />
when a little girl held up a sign that said, “Stop killing<br />
our dads.”<br />
“It was definitely a gut punch,” she said. “To have<br />
a feeling of fear of knowing there’s a possibility my<br />
guardian will not return to me. It’s a feeling of trust on<br />
the ends of law enforcement surrounding our future.”<br />
From these moments that create lumps in throats<br />
and butterflies in stomachs, photographers are left with<br />
photos that linger long after the moment passes. More<br />
importantly, they recognize each moment’s historical<br />
implications.<br />
According to USA Today, there have been more than<br />
1,700 protests in the United States across all fifty states.<br />
“Just seeing the scale of things has been really<br />
different for me,” Wang said.<br />
She said she had seen protests in Austin before, but<br />
none with the momentum of the current movement. She<br />
described how the protests occupied multiple locations<br />
and somehow seemed to flow as one.<br />
“I’ve been really amazed at how global it has become,”<br />
Gerlach said.<br />
She said she was working on an article for UGA’s<br />
newspaper that compared images of the protests in<br />
Athens, Georgia now to prior years: 2012, 2014 and<br />
2016.<br />
Gerlach said in prior years the protests seemed to<br />
have a max of a hundred people who were primarily<br />
Black. After looking at photos from last weekend’s<br />
protest, she saw a diverse group of over 2,000 people.<br />
“It’s been really cool to see how large the movement<br />
has become and how widespread it is,” Gerlach said.<br />
“It’s like so many more people are waking up to the<br />
reality of the world we live in and [are] willing to fight<br />
for something, which is cool.”<br />
Hoppe expressed his amazement at the Black Lives<br />
Matter protests emerging in places like Uganda, Kenya<br />
and Bristol.<br />
“I don’t remember a movement having this kind of<br />
global impact,” he said. “The size of this movement has<br />
reached a pitch that I never thought I would see.”<br />
“Speaking of the context of history, we are walking in<br />
it, you know. It’s a really cool moment to know that you<br />
are in the middle of history; there’s nothing like that,”<br />
Hoppe said.<br />
Every day protestors call for justice, accountability<br />
and change, creating historical moments to be captured<br />
by photographers who wait on the front lines poised to<br />
apprehend the truth and leave it bare for all citizens to<br />
assess.<br />
“It’s been really cool to be a part of telling the<br />
history of this moment,” Gerlach said. “I can see how<br />
transformative this moment in history is going to be, so<br />
I’m really honored to be on the front lines and be able<br />
to have people who will share their stories with me and<br />
learn from the source.”<br />
[ 53 ]
[Photographer] Alexis Blue<br />
[ 54 ]
Stories across media<br />
hold power, and with<br />
that power comes the<br />
ability to spark change.<br />
Watching movies and miniseries<br />
is not going to be the act that<br />
transforms how racism is felt or<br />
understood, but these resources<br />
and works can alter people’s<br />
perspectives by educating viewers<br />
on the history of racism, police<br />
brutality and inequality. Take<br />
a look at our recommendations<br />
for stories that can push people<br />
past empathy and understanding<br />
to action.<br />
IF YOU LIKED 13TH,<br />
TRY WHEN THEY<br />
SEE US<br />
Ava DuVernay’s powerful<br />
storytelling abilities are on<br />
full display in two of her most<br />
thought-provoking works. A<br />
haunting documentary, 13th<br />
offers an in-depth analysis of<br />
how the modern prison system<br />
comes directly from slavery,<br />
while the miniseries When<br />
They See Us illustrates this<br />
systematic racism in a portrayal<br />
of the wrongful conviction of<br />
the Central Park Five.<br />
IF YOU LIKED<br />
MOONLIGHT, TRY<br />
IF BEALE STREET<br />
COULD TALK<br />
If you found yourself swept up<br />
in Moonlight’s moving story<br />
of a Black man’s struggle with<br />
sexuality and identity, then<br />
you’ll like If Beale Street Could<br />
Talk, in which lovers Fonny<br />
and Tish must prepare for the<br />
birth of their first child while<br />
Fonny is imprisoned for a<br />
rape he did not commit. Both<br />
are directed by Barry Jenkins,<br />
who addresses social and<br />
racial inequality with lyricism<br />
and poignancy.<br />
AVA DUVERNAY,<br />
NETFLIX<br />
BARRY JENKINS,<br />
NETFLIX<br />
[ 55 ]
IF YOU LIKED<br />
FRUITVALE<br />
STATION, TRY THE<br />
HATE U GIVE<br />
Two devastatingly relevant<br />
depictions of police brutality,<br />
Fruitvale Station tells the<br />
true story of the last day of<br />
Oscar Grant’s life before he is<br />
shot in the back by the BART<br />
police. The Hate U Give,<br />
based on the novel by Angie<br />
Thomas, details a young girl’s<br />
fight against racial injustice<br />
after her friend is gunned<br />
down by a police officer.<br />
IF YOU LIKED<br />
BLACKKKLANSMAN,<br />
TRY MALCOLM X<br />
Experience Spike Lee’s diverse<br />
directing abilities by following<br />
the comedy BlacKkKlansman<br />
with the drama Malcolm X. Lee<br />
paints two different portraits<br />
of two Black activists in these<br />
gripping historical tales.<br />
IF YOU LIKED<br />
SELMA, TRY 12<br />
YEARS A SLAVE<br />
Those who appreciated the<br />
close examination of Martin<br />
Luther King Jr. and his<br />
movement in Alabama won’t<br />
be able to turn away from the<br />
visceral, brutal look at what<br />
life was really like for a slave<br />
in 12 Years a Slave. Both<br />
are based on true accounts<br />
and received multiple Oscar<br />
nominations, with 12 Years a<br />
Slave winning Best Picture<br />
in 2014.<br />
RYAN COOGLER,<br />
PRIME VIDEO<br />
SPIKE LEE,<br />
HBO<br />
AVA DUVERNAY,<br />
PRIME VIDEO<br />
GEORGE TILLMAN JR.,<br />
PRIME VIDEO<br />
STEVE MCQUEEN,<br />
PRIME VIDEO<br />
[ 56 ]
INSIDE BACK COVER<br />
[ 57 ]<br />
[Photographer] Alexis Blue
[Back Cover Photographer] Hannah Saad [ 58 ]
BACK COVER