Category Archives: Op-Ed

An Op-Ed opinion piece.

A Superpower’s Language Inadequacies Exposed

Op-Ed

The United States, heralded as a melting pot of cultures, is a largely monolingual nation. The US Department of Education (DOE) says that only 18% of US citizens can speak a language other than English at a conversational level. When compared to over 50% of Europeans who are proficient in at least two languages, according to surveys done by the European Commission, the US figure is embarrassing. An investigation into what the US is doing wrong is long overdue. To understand this unfortunate difference we need to look at our school system. Logically, it is there that most Americans should get the opportunity to learn a foreign language.

Foreign language instruction in our schools suffered a considerable decline in the first decade of the 21st century. According to the DOE’s own statistics, the percentage of middle schools offering foreign language classes dropped from 75% in 1997 to 58% in 2008. The chief agent of this decline was the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) of 2001, which set ambitious goals for educational success. NCLB defined success in terms of students’ achievement on newly-created standardized tests. These standardized tests had high stakes, making school funding and teacher evaluation contingent on the students’ performance. Because these tests focused heavily on math and science, schools shifted their curricula in response, cutting offerings in the arts, athletics and, of course, foreign language.

Worse, NCLB did not affect all schools equally. Rural schools were more likely to experience harsh cuts and declines in the quality of education offered. Even before NCLB, schools in rural areas were barely half as likely to offer foreign language as their urban counterparts. Little wonder, then, that the US lags far behind Europe where over 50% of the population can speak at least two languages conversationally and mandatory foreign language instruction begins in primary school. This, however, is a far cry from a demand for compulsory foreign language education in the United States; it is easier than that. The option to take a foreign language in school must first be offered nation-wide.

The benefits of learning a second language far outweigh the negatives. From a cognitive standpoint, learning a foreign language at a young age enhances development and correlates to academic success. According to the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL), students who begin studying a second language in middle school or earlier are much more likely to become proficient than those who start in high school or later. Years of research by the ACTFL have demonstrated that learning more than one language makes students smarter overall by teaching them to think critically and creatively and to imagine worlds beyond their personal cultures, values and traditions. Language education helps students think across cultural bounds by teaching them to communicate and build relationships.

On a practical note, being multilingual in our increasingly globalized world is an asset. ACTFL studies have shown that multilingual people in the workforce are promoted at higher rates and considered assets to their companies. While the public school system does not exist solely to prepare students for the workforce, it is a part of its function—and one that it fails at with regard to language instruction.

Individuals who feel strongly about learning a foreign language do have options outside of school. There are numerous online and audio tools that allow for self-instruction, but this type of program is not ideal for every student nor is it as successful as a classroom experience that involves speaking, listening and reading comprehension exercises. Further, putting the onus on students to learn outside of school assumes that all students have both the means and time to do so, which is not a safe assumption. The public educational system needs to offer foreign language so students do not have to seek it out themselves. As it stands right now, the United States cannot legitimately claim to be an integral part of the global community if it educates students who are unable to imagine cultures beyond their own. Rather than declining, foreign language instruction should be on the rise in schools across the United States. Instruction needs to start now and with students as young as possible.

What I Think About When I Think About the City

Op-Ed
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Above ground in Prague

People in Europe are on average much more attractive than in the US. Well-groomed, fashionable, not overweight. Just comparing my T ride to the airport in Boston to walking around Munich today was eye-opening. Just saying, there are a lot of attractive German women……

An ex-boyfriend wrote this gem in a letter to me from Germany shortly after I dumped him. I usually tried read his letters with the passive eye of a long-suffering but loyal friend, but when a man who once wore orange sneakers with a tuxedo attempted to compare me unfavorably with my German counterparts, he managed to finally catch my attention. Even more irritating than the personal dig was his assumption that the difference in appearance between women on the T in Boston, and those promenading around downtown Munich was a consequence of nationality.

I could imagine what he was seeing in Munich, likely very similar to what I have seen in Paris and Moscow. Women my age in Paris seem to favor strappy sandals and strapless dresses, and in Moscow enormous fur coats and high-heeled boots are all the rage.  The glitz and glamour of these European metropolises is evident in the way women carry themselves as they walk along the Champs-Elysees, or across Red Square. Boston is no different. The maze of streets fanning out from Downtown Crossing and anchored by the Prudential Center to the west and the Charles River to the North is populated by a female elite just as chic as their European sisters.

But in any city, I enter another world as I push through the turnstile into a metro station. Here you see all the women: those who live their city lives behind the scenes, who staff the expensive boutiques, and scoop gelato or мороженое. They carry bags of groceries or chunky toddlers. Their customers don’t shun public transport either, but here they appear somehow diminished, slouching into their seats with sighs of relief, and perhaps slipping feet out of high heels to furtively rub their toes. Here the similarities overpower the divide between these two groups of women. At the end of the day, we are all worn-out and vaguely, habitually frustrated.

To be taken seriously in shops, restaurants and offices, those who can do so don a disguise and hide behind lipstick and hairspray. It’s more than good grooming and exercise; the culture of the city demands both fashion and glamour from the young female elite almost regardless of occupation. The ‘beauty premium’ is a name given by economists to the improved labor market outcomes of people considered attractive. It doesn’t only affect women, but expectations of women have evolved far beyond the baseline standard of appearance for men in identical positions. Women grasp at the beauty premium to gain a little bit more of an advantage in a world where women still do not compete with men on a level playing field.

It’s exhausting, frustrating and expensive. Women who have the money shell out about $15,000 in their lifetime on makeup alone, and this pales in comparison to expenditures on clothing, purses and shoes. Trips to the salon for complex haircuts and coloring gobble up both hours and dollars. It’s a luxury to be able to take time out of your schedule to utilize a gym membership, and healthy, good-quality food is pricy and time-consuming to prepare. The ‘pink tax’ inflates these expenses even further: women who choose to buy into the beauty premium get charged on average 13% more for products marketed to them than for identical items marketed to men. All over the world a subset of the women are left behind, lacking the resources for a cosmopolitan woman’s costume. In Boston, where half the population lives on less than $35,000 a year, it’s a big subset.

But anywhere in the world, the women on the subway are different creatures from the women strolling between the high rise buildings. When we go underground, those of us who have the resources to buy the appearance of a successful women let the image fade. Suddenly we are all the same again. As my ex-boyfriend observed, we are no longer well-groomed after the wind has disheveled our hair. We are no longer fashionable as we shed blazers and scarves in the heat of the bodies packed together in the train. We may not look or feel particularly fit after those doughnuts eaten to make up for missing lunch. Dismayed at the change, we look at the men who examine us as the metro carries us homeward. We close our eyes, and try to remember that we can do anything they can do, as long as we can figure out how to do it in high heels.

Racism all’Italiana

Op-Ed

Italy has produced some of the most celebrated movies in the Western world, featuring directors and actors like Federico Fellini, Vittorio de Sica, Sophia Loren, and Marcello Mastroianni—household names for many cinema lovers. From the irreverent movies like La Dolce Vita and Marriage Italian Style to the tearjerkers like Cinema Paradiso and Life is Beautiful to the social justice-oriented films like Rome, Open City and Bicycle Thieves, Italian cinema has brought to light many facets of the country’s culture.

Italian identity has undoubtedly shaped and been shaped by its cinema, yet there are still groups that are ignored, fetishized, and even mocked by the country’s widely-renowned movies. The groups that are most misrepresented by Italian cinema include immigrants, Italians of color, and southern Italians. The way that we represent our society through cinema, one of Italy’s most beloved cultural activities, provides excellent insight into the divisions and tensions that exist in the country. Because Italian cinema is key to understanding the country’s culture, there must be a more concerted effort on the part of cinema makers to represent the society more accurately.

The lack of complex representation in Italian cinema is especially frustrating because it is clear that Italian filmmakers do not lack insight or nuance. In fact, marginalized groups have been accurately represented and valorized by the country’s cinema. Most notably, some of Italy’s most famous and best-loved Italian films—the Neorealist movies of the 1960s and 1970s—largely focus on the issues faced by working class people in Italy. These films help bring to light the differing levels of opportunity that social and economic status afford people in Italy. However, it is important to examine where race fits into this picture.

Though it is not apparent from Italy’s most popular films, there have been black actors in the country’s movies since the inception of filmmaking. Fred Kuwornu, a black Italian director and activist, has brought this issue to light with his 2016 documentary Blaxploitalian: 100 Anni di Afrostorie nel Cinema Italiano (100 Years of Blackness in Italian Cinema). This film discusses the presence of Italian actors of African descent and black foreign actors in Italian movies in order to highlight the historic and continued presence of black actors in this cinema.

With his films—which also include Inside Buffalo and 18 IUS Soli— Kuwornu has helped to map out a more realistic vision of Italian society today, a vision that cannot be gathered from most of the country’s media. Kuwornu forces his audience to ask themselves whose voices have been privileged in Italian media.

Unfortunately, even if many actors of color are born and raised in Italy, they are usually still cast in the roles of immigrants and are sometimes forced to fake accents that are not their own. It is clear that actors of color have been given a narrow space in Italian media: they are cast in roles of people that are represented as being outside of the country’s cultural identity.

These flawed representations prove that Italian cinema makers have been unable to depict a nuanced and critical vision of Italy. They have not been able to represent the ever-changing demographic landscape of the Peninsula. In fact, to be black and Italian, or to be Asian and Italian, or to be Hispanic and Italian, is becoming more and more common: around 14% of Italians were born to immigrant parents. Italy does not have as far-reaching or complex a colonial history as France or England, so it is a less attractive country for French and English-speaking African immigrants. However, Italy’s colonial history does impact the country’s demographics. In fact, Eritreans and Somalis have been migrating to Italy since at least the 1970s. Yet, when you turn on the TV or go to the movies in Italy, it is highly unlikely that you will see a newscaster or actor of color. It is rare to hear an accent that falls outside of the acceptable “native” and “well-educated” Italian—it is even uncommon to hear a strong southern Italian accent on TV.

Until we see more Italian cinema makers like Kuwornu, who highlight the voices and experiences of marginalized groups in Italy, we will only see a small portion of Italian society portrayed in its media. Cinema makers must seek to represent all facets of Italian society if Italy is to maintain its status and relevance in worldwide cinema.

On Body Hair

Op-Ed

“Have you heard the one where Abram complains to Moishe, ‘you know, my wife has been going out of her mind with worry. My youngest, Sarah, has grown a beard.’ Moishe responds, ‘Mazel tov! You have a boy to run your shop!’”

“Thanks for that, mom!” said Roza, as she picked up the tweezers.

— — — — — —

“How do you tell the bride at an Italian wedding?” Cecilia’s grandma told this joke at every family dinner, to the embarrassment of her grandchildren.

“She’s the one with the braided armpits!” Nona Torchio laughed uproariously at her own jest.

— — — — — —

“Female armpit hair. Hmm, sounds a little gross.”

We wonder: is it the “female armpit” part?  Or the “armpit hair” part? Or just the “female hair”? What about coarse female stomach hair? Or beard hair? Or nipple hair? Is any female hair okay?

None of it was okay when we were kids.

Roza’s middle school friends all straightened their already-straight hair every morning. But her massive, coarse Jewfro took three hours to straighten–and would rematerialize at any hint of wind or humidity (or normal human movement).

Three states away, Cecilia was walking barefoot with some camp friends when one of them asked “are you a hobbit?” Cecilia wasn’t sure what this Lord of the Rings reference had to do with her until she looked down at her hairy toes. Thanks to her Mediterranean genes, she did in fact have foot hair that could compete with Bilbo Baggins’s.

Back in school, the popular girls were either blonde or mysteriously smooth like babies. We figured that we were just maturing a little earlier when our hair came in thick and sprouted everywhere. But as the years passed, it became very clear that not all women have Italian toes or Jewish fros.

In any case, coarse dark hair anywhere on the body does not conform to Western beauty standards. According to dermatologists who specialize in hirsutism (excess hair growth in women), variations in hair growth are significantly related to race and ethnicity.* The Mayo Clinic reports that women of Mediterranean, Middle Eastern, and South Asian ancestry are more likely than other women to develop excess hair growth.

Societal standards for female beauty are often seen as a feminist issue so it’s common for activists to grow out their body hair in protest of societal norms. However, those women who feel the most comfortable growing out their body hair tend to be women with sparse and light hair. So barely-visible female body hair becomes more normalized but this doesn’t make it any easier for women with coarse, dark hair. And, as such, we are still left to do battle with our hair.

One reason that it is so easy to ignore the role of ethnicity in determining the distribution and density of body hair is that hair can be fairly well-concealed noninvasively, unlike other physical characteristics linked to ethnicity, like dark skin, big noses, or flared nostrils. Our mothers taught us what they knew to help us blend in: Shaving with coconut oil instead of shaving cream or soap. Repurposing beard trimmers for arm hair. Tweezing your Italian lady-beard. Bleaching your mustache. Though none of this would ever be completely effective, still we battled on. At the beach, no one could guess that we had spent hours going through these remedies, while our friends took just five minutes to shave their calves.

Abram’s hirsute daughter and Nona Torchio’s Italian bride made us squirm as kids, but as adults we can see the discrimination hidden in the punch-lines of those jokes. Instead of turning a blind eye to the discriminatory implications of Western beauty standards, feminists and hair-lovers everywhere should acknowledge the relationship between body hair and ethnicity. Just as women are expected by men to be hairless, Mediterranean and Middle Eastern women are expected by Caucasian women to have fine hair. The female body hair debate is an instance not only of sexism, but also of discrimination on ethnic grounds.

We’ve slowly accepted our hairiness and have come to the realization that we are not at all exceptional in having a physical trait that subjects us to judgment. Plenty of people face much worse. As we come up with new ways to hide and remove our hair, we think of all the people who are severely discriminated against, and not merely laughed at, for having physical features that they do not have the option of hiding. Growing up a little bit different ourselves, we’ve seen this discrimination, however minor, first-hand. Just as we’ve learned to accept ourselves, we’ve learned to accept others and hope you can do the same when we walk around in shorts with our unshaved luscious leg hair.

*http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4025516/

Harry Potter and the Blunders of J.K. Rowling

Op-Ed, ,

“I am told that people have been twittering on my behalf, so I thought a brief visit was in order just to prevent any more confusion!”

This was the inaugural tweet of J.K. Rowling, author of the acclaimed Harry Potter book series. Since then (September 2009), Rowling has cultivated a reputation as an author ready and willing to personally respond to her fans’ questions. In recent years, she has fielded much online criticism for expanding the Harry Potter world beyond the initial series, in somewhat tone-deaf attempts to make her characters’ world more diverse.

Rowling has two strategies for making Harry Potter more multicultural: Twitter interactions with curious fans, who often want to know if their identities are present in Harry Potter, and pseudo-encyclopedic entries about character backstory and world-building published on Pottermore, the interactive Harry Potter fan website. In Rowling’s tweets, her assurance of fans that they are, in fact, represented in her world, feel more like surface-level tokenism than meaningful reflections on her work. On Pottermore, Rowling’s essays about magical communities outside of the U.K. reveal her inexpert knowledge of other cultures and histories.

In early March, Rowling published on Pottermore a four-part “History of Magic in North America,” which provided a stereotypical portrayal of Native American cultures. Several Native American groups have spoken out, saying Rowling’s depiction of indigenous people as practitioners of “animal and plant magic” plays into historical representations of Native Americans as noble savages. These groups, as well as individual fans, also object to Rowling’s blanket use of the term “Native American community.” If she can bother to differentiate between the cultures of different houses at Hogwarts (Britain’s top wizarding school and the original books’ main setting), surely, they say, she can differentiate between tribes.

One of the most inflammatory aspects of “History of Magic in North America” is Rowling’s description of “skin-walkers,” people with the ability to transform into or disguise themselves as animals. This is a concept lifted from Navajo religious beliefs, which Rowling attributed to all Native Americans as an example of nature magic. On March 8, Rowling responded to a fan’s request for an explanation about skin-walkers with the following tweet: “In my wizarding world, there were no skin-walkers. The legend was created by No-Majes [non-magical people] to demonise wizards.” This statement upset members of the Navajo Nation because skin-walkers, considered evil and dangerous creatures, are an important aspect of their religion. Rowling’s attribution of skin-walkers to her fictional world plays into a long history of calling Native American beliefs magical, making it easy to dismiss their cultural importance. Adrienne Keene, a post-doctoral fellow in Native American Studies at Brown University and a member of the Cherokee Nation, describes Rowling’s blunder in a blog post: “If Indigenous spirituality becomes conflated with fantasy ‘magic’—how can we expect lawmakers and the public to be allies in the protection of these [sacred Native American] spaces?”

Skin-walkers in “History of Magic in North America” is only Rowling’s most recent misstep in expanding diversity in Harry Potter. In December 2014, Rowling answered a tweet asking about Jewish wizards at Hogwarts with the following: “Anthony Goldstein, Ravenclaw, Jewish wizard.” Although Rowling probably meant to use Goldstein as an example of Jewish wizards at Hogwarts, rather than singling him out as the only one, her reply comes across as flippant. Fans were also quick to point out that Goldstein is a very minor character in Harry Potter, which barely evokes his personality, much less his Judaism. (And how many Jewish couples would name their child after a Catholic saint?) Rowling was similarly called out for her revelation in late 2007 of Albus Dumbledore’s homosexuality, since the original books don’t mention of this aspect of his character. Put simply, Rowling’s after-the-fact pronouncements about her characters’ diverse identities are too little too late. They feel inadequate and even opportunistic.

Rowling has not yet responded to recent complaints made about skin-walkers and “History of Magic in North America.” Her silence is unusual; perhaps she is taking her time to come up with the right response. In the meantime, she should remember how the original Harry Potter books gained the recognition they did. Rowling earned her fans’ respect for her nuanced usage of European mythology in her writing. Much of the magic in Harry Potter comes from her detailed knowledge of British culture and history. But her sloppy treatment of Native American cultures is clearly not up to par with her past work. Ultimately, if Rowling plans to continue expanding the world of Harry Potter, she should make sure the quality of her world-building matches that of the original series.

Rowling_inauguraltweet

American Abroad

Op-Ed

“So where are you from?” the taxi driver asked me, speaking in rapid Portuguese

“Why don’t you guess?” I replied, proud to have caught his question.

“You are Brazilian, from Rio.”

“No, I am not, I only just learned Portuguese,”

“French! No, German!”

“No.”

“Are you from the UK?”

“No, I’m American.”

“Really? Wow, I would have never guessed.  You don’t act like an American.”

__________________________________________________________________

The American stereotype abroad has been captured from many different angles, and immortalized in various forms of entertainment.  The image that particularly comes to mind is of men in khaki shorts who roll up their Hawaiian shirts to expose beige travel safe fanny packs, and pull out large bills as they buy cheap souvenirs. Ignorant meatheads who cannot use a phrasebook or eat anything other than McDonalds.  People who come back and tell their neighbors that the French are mean to anyone who doesn’t speak French, the Brits cannot cook, and all there is to Mexico is Cabo and Cancun. My mother constantly reminds me that I have the best passport, but when I see it hanging in clear plastic around tourists’ necks I shrug away in embarrassment.

I am not an exceptional American, but wherever I go in the world, I am told again and again, that I am not like “other” Americans.  When I was younger, I traveled with my parents to Austria to attend the 250th Mozart festival.  When we arrived at the opera, our friends introduced us to the Bürgermeister (mayor).  He was a large man, sporting a white tuxedo with a maroon cummerbund.  He was cold and rude to me, dismayed by the presence of an American child (who might squirm, whisper, and eat Cheetos loudly throughout the performance) at such a prestigious event.  After I sat patiently through the show and then the lengthy dinner (into the earlier hours of the morning), he confessed to my mother that I was the best-behaved American child he had ever met.  Congratulations! My parents were so proud their daughter did absolutely nothing and was awarded the immense honor of being an above-average American.  An award winning performance of a kid sitting quietly and and not intruding on the adults and their fun.  Bravo.

250th Mozart Festival

Well-behaved child and her parents at 250th Mozart Festival

After the United States gained independence from England, Americans found their new nationality greeted with hostility around the world.   Our former motherland started many rumors about our greed and inferiority to Europe.  Abbé Raynal explained in 1770 that we are a cultureless group, “America has not yet produced a good poet, an able mathematician, one man of genius in a single art or a single science.” However this generic disgust for the arrogant American began, in my own experience I have found that American behavior abroad may deserve some contempt.  As a political and military superpower that has set 20th Century precedent to butt in whenever we can, Americans feel entitled throughout the globe.

Not only are they entitled with a “I live in the best country in the world” mentality, but they also frequently overestimate the ubiquity of the English language.  Although it is true that English is widely spoken, over 1 billion people speak Chinese, 400 million speak Spanish, and 335 million speak English as a first language.  English surpasses Spanish when it comes to second language acquisition, adding another 500 million English speakers. Regardless of the probability of someone near you speaking English as you travel abroad, it is not an amenity to be expected. When I traveled to Portugal for a medical internship I overheard college students complaining that the Portuguese hospital doctors and staff didn’t speak English. Worse still I also heard students assume that since they took some high school Spanish they would be able to communicate adequately in yet another Romance language, Portuguese.  Knowing a romance language will help you learn another, but it is not just a different dialect. Such little respect for another culture’s language is one of the most common ways Americans undervalue other cultures.  

As I traveled, I have learned that the best foods are always the foods the locals recommend because it is what they make best.  Even if it sounds different or strange, I can promise that it’s worth a try.  I cannot even count how many times I have heard an American abroad order an American meal to only be upset by their lack of condiments or proper handling of the food item.  They don’t have ranch dressing in France (only mayonnaise), and if you want food you could get from your local Denny’s perhaps you should have just stayed home.  What is the point of traveling, trying new foods and meeting new people, if you just want to pretend you never left.

Americans perpetuate most of the stereotypes themselves by their own inability to recognize the validity in something unfamiliar, but different is not synonymous with bad, just as American is not synonymous with idiot. If Americans can dislodge their own preconceived notions about a world that contains 195 other countries and open their minds to hundreds of cultures with traditions older than the Declaration of Independence, perhaps the world will change its mind about Americans abroad.  

 

The 5 unimpressive things I do to challenge the American stereotype:

  1. Be respectful
  2. Be polite and show gratitude
  3. Try the foods recommended by the locals
  4. Try your best to learn and speak the language
  5. Do NOT use a lanyard to carry your passport