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Fourth Estate

BY VIVIANA SMITH, CO-EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

On Oct. 22, Mason student leaders, alongside the student body representatives of nine public universities throughout the Commonwealth of Virginia, signed and sent a letter to Gov. Glenn Youngkin regarding “the longevity of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion [DEI] programs at our public institutions.” According to the letter, the 10 student leaders represent a collective of 180,000 students across the Commonwealth. 

The letter follows developing conversations regarding DEI in higher education and policies enacted by Youngkin, including Executive Order 1, which stops the use of “inherently divisive concepts” in K-12 public schools. 

According to Secretary of Public Relations for the Cuesta-McAulay Administration Jackson McAfee, the letter aims to express the necessity of DEI programs within higher education and the importance of having students’ voices in conversations surrounding their curriculum. 

“Despite divisive rhetoric about DEI, students from Fairfax to Charlottesville, from Harrisonburg to Richmond, and from Norfolk to Blacksburg, students stand united in their support for these programs,” McAfee said. “This letter represents a collective voice of the student communities of major Virginia Public Universities…a collective voice that believes state education policy can not be adequately developed without the input and consideration of student experiences.” 

The coalition, kick-started by Student Body President Maria Cuesta, Secretary of Government & Community Relations for the Cuesta-McAulay Administration Liam Keene and McAfee, is comprised of student leaders from James Madison University, Longwood University, University of Mary Washington, Virginia Tech University, Virginia Commonwealth University, University of Virginia, Norfolk State University, College of William & Mary and Christopher Newport University.

“Each student body president’s motivations for signing are unique,” McAfee said. “This coalition gave many of us the chance to hear from other student communities and form a mutual understanding that unity amongst our universities was the way we get heard.”

The coalition was sparked by growing concerns for the future of DEI, including the rejection of various programs suggested by Virginia universities. “Just Societies and VCU had racial literacy courses. VCU’s Board voted to reject this curriculum. Mason’s Board halted instituting those courses despite students and faculty supporting it using rhetoric about completely removing DEI principles from classrooms ‘root to branch’.”

During a BOV session in Spring 2024, people in the gallery, including students, faculty and staff expressed their defense of the maintenance of DEI within Mason’s curriculum, while multiple visitors disagreed, advocating for its removal. 

In a 2023 report by The Heritage Foundation, DEI staff are claimed to be “wasteful, associated with worse campus climates, and are found at universities that promote radical ideologies.” In September 2023, President Gregory Washington responded by stating the report was “problematic” and contained inaccurate information. “Unfortunately this report – sloppy, methodologically questionable, and simply inaccurate as it is – not only falls short of something we can take seriously, it does damage to our capacity to have such a serious conversation…This university deserves better.”

McAfee emphasized that the intention of the letter is not to discuss morals but rather to open discussion between government officials and the collective student body of multiple public universities regarding the future of DEI.

 “This is a request for a reorientation,” McAfee said. “If we want to get back to placing student’s well-being and academic success at the center of education policy discussions, students have got to be there and they’ve got to have an audience willing to listen.”

“We know that for many, these programs are a large part of their everyday student experience…The benefits of DEI offices are clear and the impact they have on us every day is real, and politically appointed officials do not get to make that any less of a fact,” McAfee said. “We hope that the governor is enlightened from this collective effort and will meet with us to discuss our student experiences and center those in his education policy.”

Nylah Mitchell/ Fourth Estate

BY NYLAH MITCHELL, STAFF WRITER

Early in the fall 2024 semester, The City of Fairfax Regional Library and Mason University Libraries co-hosted a screening of the film “If Beale Street Could Talk” (2018), followed by a Q&A discussion with a guest panel moderated by Adult Services Outreach Coordinator William Osborne. The panelists were Mason Professor Helon Habila, Mason film student Erika Timmons and Mason civil engineering student Shane Stevenson.  

The screening was part of Fairfax County Public Library’s annual event series, All Fairfax Reads. This year’s event focused on civil rights activist and world-renowned writer James Baldwin. 

The film, directed by Barry Jenkins, is a screenplay adaptation of Baldwin’s 1974 novel, “If Beale Street Could Talk.” The novel and film examines a young Black couple, Tish and Fonny, in Harlem, New York City. Their relationship is tested when Fonny is falsely arrested for allegedly sexually assaulting a woman. Jenkins and Baldwin delve into how Black Americans incarcerated within the criminal justice system face unprecedented levels of discrimination and racism. 

Jenkins dramatizes the film from Tish’s point of view as she tells the story of Fonny and his end road in prison. The cinematography and the mid-century jazz score romanticize the life shared between Tish and Fonny, disrupted when a revenge-harboring street cop arrests Fonny for a crime he didn’t commit. The film uncovers the never-ending cycle of over-policing in Black neighborhoods, leading to mass incarceration and delayed justice within the system. 

To the panelists, it’s a story that still resonates today. 

“A lot of these questions still go unanswered so our solution for a lot of these things still hold so much trauma that’s being unpacked,” Timmons said. 

“It’s a love story. For me, that’s one of the things that will never age,” Habila said. “The story of young love in a harsh world is always going to be relevant because we understand it.”

The discussion covered another theme shown throughout the film: the injustice of the prison-industrial complex, specifically its treatment of Black Americans. The prison-industrial complex refers to the relation between corporations and criminal institutions that privatize prisons for profit and political influence. 

What does the film and James Baldwin himself have to say about [the prison industrial complex]? 

Habila: James Baldwin is always on point in his books and he touches the pulse of what’s important in the community… Whether it’s prison, it’s gay love and all these things. He’s never afraid of speaking up.

Stevenson: I don’t think that [Baldwin] feels like there’s anything in place for us. For even just people like us to really change what’s set in place in the system. In the prison-industrial complex, it’s not so much that ‘it’s just taking people and it’s not going to change,’ it’s also saying that in this change, in this stagnation of the rules, it is still drilling deep in these communities and effectively working hard against it.

Does the romanticization of the cinematography in the film still drive home Baldwin’s point on being Black in America? 

Habila: I think it does. Love and romance are metaphors here used to represent innocence and beauty and fragility and also resilience. The beautiful cinematography and the concept of artistic imagination and dreaming are all used to show the need for dreaming of a better tomorrow, at least with justice and equality.

Timmons: As much as I may respect and find this cinematic world fluid and beautiful, it fails at showing the voyeur the same world created by Baldwin in the novel, which is more in tune with the struggles of Black people as we face down the systemic caste and racist police and judicial systems in this country.

What are the biggest things viewers of If Beale Street Could Talk can take away with them?

Habila: The carceral system is as virulent as ever, racism is alive and thriving, police injustice is also doing quite well. But at the heart of it, ‘If Beale Street Could Talk; is a love story, albeit love in a very challenging milieu, that is a positive.

Timmons: Above all the concepts and harsh reality to be observed in this film, I hope that people to breathe in the love story that leads this story. Two young lovers forced to fight a society poised to harm them at every turn, determined to blossom despite the struggles they are forced to face. That love, above all other emotions, is the only one that can save society.

Learn more about the upcoming All Fairfax Reads events here. 

Photo Courtesy of Won Jun Choi

BY PHILLIP KIM, STAFF WRITER

Editor’s note: This interview was initially conducted in spring 2024.  

Junior Won Jun Choi was in the first grade of elementary school when his family immigrated from South Korea to the United States. For years, he struggled with language, cultural barriers and racism. Offhand derogatory remarks were not uncommon.

“My high school did not have that many Asian students,” Choi said. “We had 1,300 students and only maybe 10 of them were Asians. When you grow up in that sort of environment, you sort of lose your identity. You are not proud of who you are. You are not unapologetically you.”

That changed when Choi enrolled at Mason as a computer science major, around the time the pandemic broke out. During lockdown, he studied Korean history and culture, learning to embrace both sides of himself.

Choi soon joined Mason’s Korean International Students Association (KISA), and has been the president since fall 2023. KISA’s mission is to provide information about Korean culture to all students who are interested and to connect Korean students on campus to embrace Korean culture. He had never held a leadership position before, but he is passionate about helping other Korean students adjust to new life in America.

“This semester, we were able to serve more people, give them job opportunities that are good for them and connect them with Korean students within the Washington, Maryland and Virginia area right here,” Choi said. “Every time we coordinate with the [Korean] embassy to help Korean students get jobs or just host a networking event, that’s when I’m the most proud of myself and the group.”

Organizing events is not an easy task, according to Choi. First, KISA leadership determines who the event is for. Then, it must figure out the date and time that most target individuals would be free by. Finally, the organization must contact said students to invite them using various means, ranging from direct messaging via social media to handing out pamphlets. Choi shared that nothing beats the rewarding catharsis of moments when events are successfully held.

Growing up as a Korean American in Annandale, Va. was a challenge for young Choi. Now, he chooses to use his experience to help others at Mason going through what he once did.

“I can equally think I’m a Korean and I’m an American,” Choi said. “My ultimate goal is to provide a bridge between Korean Americans and Koreans, for them to understand each other more and make connections with each other in the area.”