Monthly Archives: April 2010

Fearless Obies

By Alex Posa

fvz-journaliste.nl

Jerry Greenland Greenfield of Ben & Jerry’s, Liz Phair, Ed Helms, and even Charles Martin Hall, Oberlin’s commonly named alumni, are nothing compared to Eduardo Mondlane, Tommie Smith, or the members of John Brown’s raid on Harpers Ferry, our badass forgotten alumni.

Eduardo Mondlane graduated in 1953 and went on to earn a Ph.D. from Harvard. Sixteen years after graduating from Oberlin, he was assassinated via a letter bomb likely sent by the Portuguese secret police. Mondlane founded the Mozambique Liberation Front, or FRELIMO, and started the Mozambican War of Independence. Yes, the man who started the Mozambique Revolution graduated from Oberlin College. Sadly, if I hadn’t researched Mozambique and socialism for my modern African history course, I would never have known this.  Maybe Oberlin doesn’t broadcast Mondlane because he led a bloody war, but I would put him on the front page of our recruiting packet.

Former faculty member, Tommie Smith, the winner of the men’s 200 meter gold medal in the 1968 Summer Olympics, taught Sports Sociology and coached the track team in the 70s. After setting a world record that would stand for nearly 11 years, Smith, along with bronze medalist John Carlos, raised his fist in a black power salute at the medal ceremony. They both suffered immediate backlash; the International Olympic Committee ordered they be suspended from the US team and leave the Olympic village.  After the US team refused, the I.O.C. threatened to suspend the entire U.S. track team.  The U.S. broke and sent Smith and Carlos home.  They both received death threats because of their actions.

In a news conference after the event, Smith said, “If I win, I am an American, not a black American. But if I did something bad then they would say ‘a Negro.’ We are black, and we are proud of being black.”  We should all aspire to reach his level of courage.

Four men involved in the raid on Harpers Ferry, including John Brown (a white man) himself, had strong ties to Oberlin.  The raid, which took place in 1859, was a failed attempt to start a massive slave insurrection.  John Brown’s father sat on Oberlin’s board of trustees.  Three black men from Oberlin died as a result of the raid: Lewis Sheridan Leary, John Anthony Copeland, Jr. and Shields Green. Green was the only Oberlin graduate, though Leary’s wife, Mary, graduated in 1864 and was the maternal grandmother of Langston Hughes.

While Oberlin is getting rid of our beloved new slogan, there is some truth to it. These men had chutzpa. Mondlane was instrumental in the Mozambique War of Independence and the members of Harpers Ferry raid surely knew there was a good chance they would be killed.  Even Tommie Smith put himself in harm’s way by using an international platform to raise his fist for human rights. I can’t imagine believing in something so strongly that you are willing to die for it, and these guys weren’t just willing to die–they created situations to die in.

Nick and the Sauna Veteran Part 2

We sat in silence for a few minutes when he became to look even more uncomfortable. He stared at me for a moment and then asked in a surprisingly defined drawl, “What year are ya?”

“First,” I gave back, smiling.

“Oh yeah, and what do you think of the College?”

I told him what I thought of the College–he didn’t presume I was a Connie, which upset me a little because I figure, to people I don’t know, I’m way more interesting if I’m a Connie. He listened, gnawing on his spit and nodding now and then. When I finished he told me his daughter was a frosh (his words), too, and was having adjustment difficulties. I gave him my sympathies and felt satisfied with the amount of communication we had, but barely after I finished speaking he asked if I have siblings. So I told him I had an older brother, and the man couldn’t stop prying. He opened up his age, his place of residence, occupation, and then he started nabbing at his future. And this is where he found a jumbo can of worms.

I mentioned that my brother was thinking about joining the Navy to pay for medical school. He grunted and frowned at me, “No. Air Force,” he said with such assertiveness I didn’t even think to question it. I sat, lost for words for a moment until he noticed I had nothing to contribute and went on to describe, in detail, the aid plans of the Air Force and how they were superior to those of the Navy. His interest in the subject drew me out a bit and I decided I was going to have to bro it out with this guy. I asked him where he served, and he told me all about Army basic training in Louisiana. And then, without being asked, he embarked on an epic tale of human fortitude and camaraderie in the face of Japanese typhoons. Literally, typhoons, that’s not a euphemism. Here were the bullet points of his story:

He and his comrades was pinned down in a barracks by the Japanese monsoon season for three months.
During these three months he ate nothing but various canned goods.
He was not particularly fond of living in a barracks where the only surplus was grumpy dudes and beans.
But he pulled through by making friends and sharing the suffering.

It’s sort of cheesy, but I left the sauna shortly after this tirade and found that I wanted to join the Army. Eating canned food and playing cards through a rainy day with your buddies sounds like a whole lot of fun. I would never have considered such an option, but that guy recruited the bageezus out of me. I felt like a deer three seconds after getting caught in the headlights, unceremoniously launching toward an unpredicted outcome. So remember people, life changes things pretty quickly if you decide you want it to. Go crazy.

Nick and the Sauna Veteran Part 1

So this one time I was leaving the gym after a crushing defeat on the intramural basketball court. I fucking hate losing. I don’t care what anybody says, it’s not about fun. It’s about fucking winning. Because when you lose a game of chess or croquet or whatever it is you play there is just no way you can ever be close to that person that beat you again. He’s got it in his head that he’s better than you, and he can whip that out at anytime. You might be playing a game of FIFA later and he’ll snidely remind you of that little failure at the squash court and it brings your game down so hard.

He might play the pseudo-nobility card and pretend to be all gracious that you were such good competition. That jerk will be all, “that was really a great match, friend, but you just couldn’t quite beat me.” And he’ll say it with a British accent because it just sounds a bit more snobby. Really, listen some time to somebody who’s trying to be nice about beating you, he’s always going to have a distinct “mmmyyyyesss” quality to his voice at that particular time. I don’t like winners, and I hate being a loser. It’s a difficult paradox.

You may safely infer that I don’t lose well. You could say I slip into my grumpy pants after a loss. So I left the court alone and scowling, and went to the locker room for my post-game pee. Usually there isn’t anybody in the locker room late on a Tuesday, or really at any other time, either, but on this evening I walked past a grizzly looking middle aged man pulling up his swim trunks. Yes, I saw this man’s penis, and yes, that would make things a little weird later. When I left the stall, the man was gone but I had an overwhelming urge to swim, so I put my shoes and my shirt and my phone and my wallet and my pod in a locker and rolled on out to the pool.

I pumped out a few laps and was resting my arms on the side of the pool so I could subtlety assess arm flaccidity when the guy from the locker room walked into the pool area covered in sweat and rubbing his clearly flexing pecs. I had no idea where he had been but this guy was on top of the fucking world. His shoulders were thrown back and he was strutting along teeth flashing and just rubbing the fuck out of his chest. Dude was feeling like the shit, not caring that he was looking a little like a masturbating Wookie. (I refuse to consider that Wookies have penises or vaginas, but they might have nipples so that has to be where they masturbate.)

He popped in the pool and swam a few laps and then left again. I was just about done so I followed shortly after and that’s when I realized what had put that guy in such a good mood. Why he was feeling so great despite being covered in sweat, a state of being generally considered kind of not so great. I stepped to the glass door and tugged it open to see the sweaty man perched on the high bench of the sauna, leaning back and smiling without a care in the world. He was in swim trunks, but I sort of was reminded of seeing him naked when I walked by and may or may not have taken an impulsive glance towards the danger zone. He noticed, and gave me a look of shame so profound that I no longer care about disappointing anyone, they just could never be as upset as that dude.

Welcome to Broberlin

There are certain things that I like that are not so hot among many Oberlin students. Jack Johnson, for one. I can’t explain why, but the man’s voice melts away my worries and just makes me want to rip off my shirt, grab a Corona and kick it in a lawnchair in the front yard. Taylor Swift has a similar effect, except that she makes me want to be a lovelorn 15 year old girl. Can’t have everything, I guess.

Growing up I played three sports a year because a) I had to, and b) I kicked ass. At age 5 my soccer team gave me a standing ovation when I showed up a little late to a game because these kids–myself included–poured their hearts and souls into the game of soccer. It didn’t matter that the team was coed, or that the league didn’t keep score, or that we weren’t actually playing on nets yet. It was the same case for every other sport, too. Sports were law and children abided. Parents didn’t dare keep their children out of a sport for any season for fear that Ken Murphy, the town sports fascist, might start asking questions at the next PTO meeting. Next thing you know half the town’s wondering if you’re in dire financial straits or, heaven forbid, you spawned a homosexual! These things are unacceptable in Hingham, Massachusetts–aka MILF City, aka Brotopia.

It did become acceptable to drop your kid out of ONE sports season if, once puberty hit, he or she developed a reputable talent. This is because parents in Hingham begin discussing college about the time the first zit pops up on their child’s face. And these people know how to get into college. So most parents will begin pushing their children to learn different skills, like drawing or music or exploitation of the weak. A couple might send their son on a trip to Spain to make room for a foreign exchange student (because everybody wants a foreigner that they can show off to their friends) and, when they switch back, the little tyke might bring back a very welcome passion for Spanish guitar. Well, the trip paid off and the kid goes Ivy and then, before you know it, he’s paying for his folks’ retirement in Fort Lauderdale.

Parents recognized when they’d lost the battle with a sport, so all the little ones with chronic asthma were taken off the ice and given a piano to pass the time with. But they did not get to take another season off. I was one of the majority stock that never learned a skill of repute. I can’t play an instrument, I can’t sing, I can’t act, I can’t draw. So I played sports. And through sports I grew to appreciate the adrenaline rush from chasing frantically after a guy kicking a ball, and learned that the greatest compliment one can ever receive is a firm slap on the ass after a solid RBI single.

So it came to pass that I bought into the sports culture and started rocking loose-tongued Timbalands with sweatpants and a pseudo-flannel for the rest of my adolescent life. With the style came the tastes and I found myself chasing the sweet, narcissistic girls who would flirt your face off all night when they were drunk but then never mention it again. I am very easily negatively impressed, so when girls started breaking my heart I started ridiculing them, and my bros and I passed four years of lunches complaining about women’s suffrage and ordering our various female acquaintances to make us sandwiches. (Note: I don’t really have a problem with women voting.)

There’s a very brief summation of my life up to this point. Today, my appreciation of Jack Johnson’s music is complemented by an ardent desire to take the sleeves off all my t-shirts, and wear my flat-brimmed Red Sox hat tilted up just like my boy Sam Adams. These things had been staples in my life until I arrived at Oberlin. It seems, however, that the things I like are decidedly “not cool” here. Which makes no sense because to everyone living outside the zip code of 44074 (approximately 6,692,022,277 people) that’s all hot shit! I love you people, but you make me look crazy sometimes.

So now that you know a little about me, I’d like to invite you into the world of Broberlin, where everything that I once considered “normal” is suddenly offbeat, weird, even. Episode 1 of the Brofiles: Nick and the Sauna Veteran will be here shortly.

Rising Above Adversity is Beautiful: a Preview of Theater and Dance’s Beautiful Thing

Beautiful Thing Poster

Theater and Dance’s Beautiful Thing

Issues within the LGBT community have always been something to which the student body here at Oberlin has paid attention. And for faculty member and chair of the Theater department Matthew Wright, these issues are personal; he has been fighting against bigoted ignoramuses for many years, and one of the ways he’s currently fighting them is by directing Theater and Dance’s next main stage production, Beautiful Thing, written by Jonathan Harvey.

So, why choose this play, Matthew Wright? “I’m passionate about this play because it’s about young gay people who: 1) are not ignorant to the fact that, in certain circumstances, their gayness subjects them to violence and bigotry; 2) aren’t defeated by this fact; 3) are proud of who they are. The biggest lie/mythology around gayness is that gay boys are all ‘pussies’ (how many times did I hear that when I was growing up!) and wimps, and gay women are all bruisers with no fashion sense. To own one’s gayness and dance under the scrutiny of the public eye is one of the great acts of courage. And, by the way, some of the hottest women in the world are out and proud.”

So why is this “gay play” different from others? “This play is populated with people who don’t blame anyone for their circumstances and who are busy rising above the odds in every moment. And it’s a play that illustrates with great certainty that humor is the saving grace of the gay community. We listen to peoples’ stupidity and endless harangues about the moral reprehensibility of our lifestyles and we say, ‘fuck you, what would you do without my big gay color sense?’ What can be better than that ability to rise above it?”

This is certainly true. Oberlin has a prominent LGBT population, and is often assumed to be a place where people do rise above adversity. So why is it important to do Beautiful Thing on such an open campus? “Oberlin has a reputation as a safe haven for young gay adults. I think that’s deserved. I also think that Oberlin’s status as a ‘gay destination’ makes it vulnerable to unrealistic thinking…Here, in this safe place, we sometimes forget that people are dying because their desires don’t meet with the majority’s approval. I have been the victim of peoples’ bigotry and hate-related violence. I assure you that such horror still happens…and it happens even on this campus.”

And even though a majority of people who will attend this play already support the LGBT community, Wright says that the goal of this play is not just to garner additional moral support: “We may, to a small degree, be preaching to the choir. But the choir needs to hear it so they go out and make the world a better place for everyone.”

But can a sweet, comical play like Beautiful Thing have as big of an impact as other more heart wrenching plays that deal with the same subject matter? “I’m relieved that this play has: 1) a happy ending; 2) an uplifting message; 3) relatively sweet humor. Don’t get me wrong, I think it’s important that the Matthew Shepherd stories are out there. I think it’s of historic importance that we have a whole cannon of gay AIDS drama. But I also think it’s important to see two high school boys fall in love and get to have the fantasy fulfilled.”

There are people in the college and community who might feel that by doing a “gay play,” there is an exclusive message being broadcast to the audience. This is certainly not the case, insists Wright: “I once had a colleague tell me that he couldn’t relate to Angels in America because it was a gay love story. My response to that is: does that mean I can’t relate to Romeo and Juliet? I defy anyone to watch the story of Jamie and Ste – this play’s protagonists – and not be affected by their bravery and joyous love.”

Make sure you see Beautiful Thing, running in Hall Auditorium April 22-24 at 8 p.m., and April 24th at 2 p.m. Tickets can be purchased at Central Ticketing Services at Hall Auditorium or online. In advance, tickets are $4 for Students, $6 OCID/Seniors, and $8 for the public.  Make sure not to miss what is sure to be an important play in Oberlin’s theater season this year.

Dr. Robert Sapolsky at Finney as Final Convocation Speaker

Photo by Carolyn Weinstein

By: Nick Perry

When Dr. Robert Sapolsky of Stanford University asked a packed Finney Chapel how many people had a family history of heart disease and cancer on Thursday night, nearly everybody raised a hand. However, when asked about a family history of leprosy and dysentery, all hands went down.

“We are not like normal mammals,” Sapolsky told the crowd. “We don’t get sick like normal mammals, we don’t die like normal mammals.” Sapolsky’s convocation, Why Zebras Don’t Get Ulcers: A Guide to Stress, Stress-Related Diseases, and Coping, discussed the evolution of stress study and how humans have a penchant for causing their own stress.

Stress study is a relatively recent field, explained Sapolsky, and was not fully advanced until scientists began to ask “totally bizarre questions like ‘what’s your psychological makeup,’ or ‘what’s your social status,’ or ‘how are people of your social status treated in society.’” When examining these questions, Sapolsky argued, the exacerbation of diseases can be directly correlated to stress.

When homeostatic balance is lost, animals become stressed and, in the short-term, they turn on the stress response. Humans, however, are a rare animal that turn the stress response on if they “think [their] body is going to be knocked out of homeostatic balance.” Unlike 99% of animals, humans turn the short-term stress response on all the time because they have the capacity to look to the future and complain about it. For this reason, said Sapolsky we are the most vulnerable mammals to stress-related disease.

Sapolsky outlined seven effects of the typical stress response. When an animal is under immediate duress it rapidly mobilizes energy from fat cells, increases its cardiovascular tone, enhances its immune system, sharpens its cognition and alertness, and suppresses digestion, growth, and reproduction. In a stressful situation, all of these steps must occur or, Sapolsky explained, “you’ve got like a 30 second life expectancy.” But humans abuse the stress response and often get sick as they run into what Sapolsky referred to as the “exhaustion phase” when the body is working out of homeostatic balance for too long. While a human will never run out of adrenaline, Sapolsky–in a tribute to Oberlin leftism–argued that the problem is that “after while you’re spending so damn much on your military that you don’t give as much to healthcare and social services.

Sapolsky offered a number of stress-related disorders to each adaptive stress response. By suppressing stress and hostility, disorders such as adult onset diabetes, hypertension, and atherosclerosis can take root in humans. Stress also impairs ability to repair ulcers and suppresses growth. Sapolsky discussed a child who suffered from psychogenic dwarfism while growing up in a stressful, unloving environment, but began to grow when he developed a feeling relationship with a nurse who was studying him. Incredibly, when she left for a two week vacation, the boy stopped growing, only to resume as soon as she returned. This case spoke volumes to the influence of companionship on reducing stress.

Reproductive functions are also thrown off by the stress response, Sapolsky argued. Studies have shown that females under constant stress can begin to run low on estrogen and lose the ability to ovulate. Stressed out males tend to develop erectile dysfunction because, as Sapolsky stated, “In order to get an erection you have to be calm and vegetated.”

Stress can contribute to memory loss, depression, and the endangerment of neuronal development, as well. Since the body releases dopamine when under stress to enhance alertness, if a person is continuously under stress his or her ability to produce a happy feeling becomes inhibited, and neurons can become damaged.

Although stress is related to many diseases, Sapolsky emphatically insisted that it has absolutely no link to cancer as was once thought.

In his concluding statements, Sapolsky presented a study performed on lab rats that examined the development of ulcers on rats in a stressful environment. The experiment put rats in a cage and shocked them at random. The study found that rats who were shocked alone, without warning, were at significantly greater risk of developing ulcers. Meanwhile, rats that were permitted to have an outlet had very reduced chances of getting ulcers. From the study it was concluded that there are specific psychological modifiers to the stress-response. Outlets for frustration, a sense of control, a perception of life improving, and social support can significantly lower stress levels.

Sapolsky reminded the crowd that “none of us are ever going to be stressed running away from saber-toothed tigers, none of us are going to be wrestling for canned food items at the supermarket, instead you’re going to have the luxury to sit around and invent these psycho-social stressors.” He urged people to never be socially isolated because you will become stressed. Humans, Sapolsky claimed, are “smart enough to invent this stuff, and foolish enough to fall for it,” making us very prone to stress-related disorders, and constantly in need of modifiers to the stress-response.

Performance Art

Kalan Sherrard (’10) was seen doing some sort of performance art this afternoon in front of Mudd.  Not quite sure what point he was trying to make, but it was eye-catching.  Anyone have any ideas?  Post your take on his performance here.

Pictures by Sook Jang and Carolyn Weinstein.