The Crimson White Justice Edition, Feb. 2, 2022

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 2, 2023
VOLUME CXXIX | ISSUE V
CW / Autumn Williams
50 Years
of Title IX
Title IX and its impact on UA Athletics
ABBY MCCREARY
ASSISTANT SPORTS EDITOR
When she first stepped
on The University
of Alabama’s campus in 1998,
Jenny Mainz was the only female
women’s tennis head coach in the
SEC and one of only two female
head coaches at the University
alongside gymnastics coach
Sarah Patterson.
It took 25 years, but now, Mainz
is one of five female head coaches
in SEC women’s tennis and one of
five female head coaches at The
University of Alabama.
“There’s no question that Title
IX was the light behind this,”
Mainz said.
Title IX has been changing
women’s sports for more than
50 years now. The legislation,
CONTENTS
CULTURE
which was passed as a part of the
Education Amendments of 1972,
prevents sex-based discrimination
in federally funded programs, such
as collegiate athletic programs.
In other words, the law made it
illegal to treat male athletes better
than their female counterparts,
and vice-versa.
While Title IX today doesn’t
create waves as big as it did in the
‘70s, its impact still ripples through
the collegiate sports landscape and
ensures equity for all.
Mainz said in her 25 years as
a UA coach, she has seen Title
IX take root in the Alabama
athletics department.
“I think Greg Byrne, our athletic
director, has been instrumental in
that growth, in that movement to
hire women in those leadership
positions,” Mainz said. “It’s
exciting because what happens is
that a lot of young girls and a lot of
immigrants
are still barred from Alabama’s
3AUndocumented
public universities.
young women look and think that
they want to do that too.”
According to the National
Women’s Law Center, less than
32,000 college athletes were
women before the passage of Title
IX. In 2020, that number was over
200,000. Numbers from College
Factual indicate that just over 400
are UA athletes.
Mainz said that seeing women
in prominent roles is crucial for
girls who want to continue their
athletic careers.
“There are so many women
who went before us who made
big-time courageous decisions
to fight for Title IX,” Mainz said.
“It’s a movement. You look back
at Wilma Rudolph, Althea Gibson
and Billie Jean King. They are
the iconic athletes that were
fighting for equal opportunity
and participation. We’re certainly
heading in the right direction but
NEWS
react to the Jan.
26 “Ye is right” chalkings
2BStudents
with support for the Jewish
community.
ultimately the message needs to be
that we’re not done.”
To celebrate the 50th
anniversary of the legislation, the
University’s athletic department
has sponsored a series of Title IX
events, many of which are matches
during a female sport’s season.
Last fall, the Alabama volleyball
program held its Title IX match on
Sept. 25 against Auburn, and head
coach Rashinda Reed invited one
of her predecessors, Judy Green,
to celebrate.
“[Green] was a coach here when
I was a player at Georgia,” Reed
said in September 2022. “Alabama
was amazing and she was one
of the trailblazers for women in
sport, in volleyball.”
Green was Alabama volleyball’s
head coach from 1996-2010 and a
phenomenal athlete in the 1980s,
when the nation was still figuring
out what Title IX entailed. As a
three-sport college athlete, she
paved the way for women who
wanted to take advantage of every
opportunity sports offered them.
Reed said that it was the perfect
chance for her team to learn about
how female sports have changed
over the years.
“It’s important for our ladies
to know the history of Alabama
sports and they understand that
there are people before you who
have made this situation what it
is,” Reed said. “I thought it was
a beautiful moment for Judy to
come back and have people here
supporting her and then have our
players see that there’s history
right here.”
It’s tempting to celebrate the
legislation’s 50th anniversary and
then put it back on the trophy
shelf, but its importance is just
as relevant in today’s college
sports atmosphere.
As a member of the volleyball
team, middle blocker Alyiah Wells
recognizes the role of Title IX in
her collegiate career, even though
the legislation passed decades
before she was born.
“It’s extremely important,” Wells
said. “We have a good Title IX
department. They try to make sure
we’re all aware of what’s accessible
to us in regards to Title IX, if we
have any questions or if we need
any help.”
In today’s college sports
environment, the main focus
of Title IX is making sure every
athlete has the same opportunity.
A laundry list of Title IX benefits
is used to objectively evaluate
athletes’ resources, such as their
equipment, facilities, opportunities
for tutoring and more.
OPINIONS
SEE PAGE 4A
Alex Jobin argues
the filibuster is an obstacle to
5BColumnist
justice.
sheltonstate.edu

2A
what’s inside
opinions
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CW / Wesley Picard
OPINION
Shining a light
on Aramark
TRISTAN WALDROP & ELLE STANDISH
CONTRIBUTING COLUMNISTS
CW / Jesse Clopton
The latest string of prison strikes
within the Alabama Department of
Corrections, beginning in late September 2022
and subsiding in mid-October, has reanimated
conversations regarding the treatment of
inmates — conversations that had previously
remained dormant in the public consciousness.
The cries for justice from inmates
incarcerated in the ADOC are not new.
In 2017, the grassroots organization Free
Alabama Movement launched a protest
campaign against Aramark, the University’s
primary dining service provider. At the time,
they pointed toward Aramark’s relationship
to prison labor, listing complaints ranging
from the mistreatment of inmates on the
part of supervisors to the provision of
undercooked food.
Aramark, a multi-billion dollar company,
does not compensate inmate kitchen workers
with a proper wage. According to Aramark, the
responsibility of just compensation should fall
on corrections; however, amid a lawsuit levied
against Aramark and Alameda County, the
county suggested that if any institutions were
to pay proper wages, it should be Aramark.
Regardless of which entity should be the
one to pay real wages, Aramark is still clearly
embedded in a system that benefits from
captive labor.
The use of prison labor in this country is not
a new phenomenon. Pioneered by the likes of
John W. Comer, this pernicious form of labor
was allowed to persist as the consequence
of a loophole in the 13th amendment to
the constitution.
While the Convict-Lease System was
formally disbanded in 1928, the principle of
using virtually free prison labor found a home
in the modern prison-industrial complex. The
language of this practice has been obscured,
couched in euphemisms to elude scrutiny from
the public eye, but it persists nonetheless.
In addition, the University already has a long
and personal history of slavery. If the University
is to reconcile with its history, it would
behoove the administration to look closely at
its relationships with companies that still have
their hands in correctional departments across
the country. The administration has already
made a conscious effort to remove racist
namesakes from campus, but it’s time we shift
from symbolic gestures to addressing ongoing,
tangible processes.
In most states, prisoners are paid pennies
an hour. These pennies are often recycled
into the prison system via facilities charging
prisoners for things like toilet paper and
medical co-pays. Many inmates in Alabama
receive no compensation for their work, and
the refusal to do so runs the risk of enduring
solitary confinement or some other form
of punishment.
Universities across the country, including
The University of Alabama, contract their
dining services out to Aramark. Pressure
from student activist groups has led some
universities, like the University of Florida, to
cut ties altogether. Other schools have proven
that the University is capable of not giving
business to a company that generated around
$1.5 billion in revenue from its work around
prisons in 2020. When universities work with
companies entrenched in prison labor, they
indirectly sustain the practice itself.
In response to our inquiries, Heather
Dotchel, who manages Aramark’s
corporate communications, laid out the
company’s policies.
“Aramark proudly serves individuals who
are justice-impacted in the United States in
both the food service and commissary spaces,”
Dotchel said.
To Aramark, serving “justice-impacted
individuals” appears to mean using them for
unpaid labor and working with correctional
departments to classify inmates as students for
profit. Via the IN2WORK program, Aramark,
in coordination with correctional facilities
across the country, frames the labor of inmates
in kitchens as an educational opportunity rather
than a form of employment, thus relieving
them of the responsibility of placing them on
the payroll.
While Aramark is not the primary food
service provider for the ADOC, Dotchel did not
deny its involvement with some correctional
facilities in Alabama.
By disguising prison labor as a learning
experience rather than employment, they are
able to circumvent calling their company what
it is — a multi-billion dollar corporation with a
relationship to modern-day slavery.
Dotchel elaborated that they have staff
members in correctional facilities who often
work alongside “justice-impacted individuals”
who are designated by corrections agencies to
work in kitchens.
“Corrections agencies — not Aramark —
provide assignments to incarcerated individuals
such as landscaping, laundry, and kitchen work,
as well as determine any compensation they
receive,” Dotchel said.
But despite not being specifically delegated
the power of assigning work to individuals,
their complicity undeniably abets the use of
prison labor.
In a country where poverty is criminalized
and justice is conceived through the lens of
punishment rather than reform, it is little
wonder that the United States has the highest
prison population in the world. Yet there is still
hope, because in America, the buck stops with
the consumer, and for many, the grapes of mass
incarceration have begun to sour.
As students of the University, it is imperative
that our investment in this institution comply
with the conscience of its student body, which
means demanding our alma mater cuts ties
with an industry enmeshed with the practice of
involuntary servitude.

culture
Undocumented Alabamians remain
locked out of public universities
ETHAN HENRY
STAFF REPORTER
Immigration is one of the few
topics that constantly dominate
headlines, including recent news
stories of Biden’s plan to expand Title
42 expulsions to Mexico of immigrants
from Cuba, Venezuela, Haiti and
Nicaragua. When immigration is
being debated, the humanity of the
people involved is often treated as
an afterthought to its political and
economic implications. In fact, the
continuing impact of Alabama’s own
harsh immigration laws serves as a
demonstration of what happens when
the political stakes take precedence
over ethical ones.
Alabama as a state, our
communities suffer because
we lose those talents. We
lose those skills. A lot of
our towns are becoming
sleepy towns or they’re
dying because instead of
our population growing, it’s
declining, and everybody’s
leaving small-town Alabama.
ANA DELIA ESPINO
Alabama is one of only three
states that prohibit undocumented
students from attending public
colleges and universities, the others
being South Carolina and Georgia.
In Alabama, these restrictions are
due to a section of Alabama HB 56,
a 2011 state law that places severe
restrictions on immigrants. Although
many provisions of the law were
struck down, the restrictions on
higher education for undocumented
immigrants have remained in place.
Heath Grimes, superintendent
of Russellville City Schools in
Russellville, Alabama, said many
exceptional students are unable to
realize their full potential in higher
education. Within Grimes’ school
district, he estimates that around
28% of students are English learners,
meaning they are learning to speak
English as a second language, and
although it’s impossible to know how
many students are undocumented,
the number is almost certainly higher
than in other parts of the state.
“Why do we all want our
community to have a higher level of
education?” Grimes said. “Because it
makes for a better community. When
we’re saying that somewhere between
28 and 50% of our kids are limited to
a high school education, what are we
doing to our community? What are
we doing to our state?”
One element of this issue that
Grimes highlighted was the lost
potential of many bright students. In
addition to reducing the opportunities
for students, the restrictions are also
impractical from the perspective of
the school.
“We have elementary teachers that
are working incredibly, unbelievably
hard to educate these students, to
get them to the point that they are
flourishing in our schools. They
become valedictorian, salutatorian,
top 10 in their class, and then we
say they can’t go to college,” Grimes
said. “It doesn’t make any sense that
we spend that money in K-12, but
we forbid them to go to college in
our state.”
Grimes used the example of a
former Russellville student who
was forced to apply to colleges outof-state.
Grimes said this student
“wasn’t asking to go for free. [They]
just wanted to enroll and pay in-state
tuition.” Instead, the student is now
forced to go to a more distant school,
which is made even more difficult
because they can’t apply for a driver’s
license. According to the American
Immigration Council, there are
55,000 undocumented immigrants
in the state of Alabama, and they pay
$54.1 million in federal taxes and
$11.4 million in state taxes. Public
universities, such as The University of
Alabama, receive a majority of their
funding from state tax revenue.
Steven Bunker, an associate
professor of history at the University,
explained some of the political context
underlying immigration restrictions.
“If you notice who’s sponsoring it
[immigration bills], you rarely ever
will find any Republican representing
a rural district doing this. They’re
all from more sort of affluent or
comfortable suburban districts. Their
reps do that because they don’t have
skin in the game, because rural areas
need the labor,” Bunker said.
Most districts incorporate a variety
of areas and interests, making clear
judgements difficult about whether
they are strictly rural or suburban,
but the two state legislators who
sponsored Alabama HB 56 have a
history of questionable conduct. Scott
Beason, formerly an Alabama state
senator representing District 17, in
the same year that HB 56 was signed
into law, was caught on tape referring
to predominantly Black customers of
a gambling hall as “aborigines.”
Micky Hammon, formerly a state
representative for the 4th district, was
the other sponsor of HB 56 and pled
guilty to mail fraud in 2017.
Although undocumented
immigrants contribute large amounts
in tax dollars in addition to their labor,
anti-immigrant sentiment still exists
in many parts of Alabama.
Unfortunately,
limiting
the educational attainment of
undocumented students will only
exacerbate Alabama’s ranking among
the states with the worst educational
attainment. In the midst of Alabama’s
ongoing “brain drain,” many believe
it does not make sense to prohibit
many Alabamians from getting an
affordable in-state higher education.
Ana Delia Espino, the executive
director of the Alabama Coalition
for Immigrant Justice, said that the
organization formed in response to
the passage of HB 56.
CW / Autumn Williams
“Alabama as a state, our
communities suffer because we lose
those talents. We lose those skills.
A lot of our towns are becoming
sleepy towns or they’re dying because
instead of our population growing,
it’s declining, and everybody’s leaving
small-town Alabama. ... We’re not
keeping our talent here,” Espino said.
Although HB 56 has created a
difficult situation for undocumented
students, ACIJ has been proactive
in informing the community and
forming relationships with private
universities in Alabama.
“We try to be proactive and share
the information because not many
people know that this is a barrier.
We have become closer with private
universities, and we try to collaborate
and help people financially prepare
for those expenses, because those
universities are much, much
more expensive than your public
universities,” Espino said.
Despite the frustration involved,
Espino maintains a positive outlook
about the future and possibilities for
undocumented students.
“There have been a lot of losses,
and it’s really easy to be disappointed.
However, we’ve had a lot of
documented and undocumented
youth go to college, get degrees.
I know some people who are in
master’s programs now. They’ve
done great work and have been
very successful and are staying in
3A
Alabama because Alabama is home,”
Espino said.
Mariana Rios Nava, president
of the University’s Hispanic Latino
Association and a junior majoring
in psychology, came to the United
States from Mexico at age 13.
Although she has a different story
than many immigrants who come
without documentation, she has
a personal understanding of the
immigration process.
“Just the application process for
citizenship is a thousand dollars, and
that literally does not ensure anything
from happening. And it’s even harder
if you came without documentation
because they already don’t want you
here,” Rios Nava said.
According to U.S. Citizenship
and Immigration Services, the nonrefundable
naturalization filing fee,
including a biometric fee, is $725.
“When HB 56 came out, it was
and still is one of the harshest antiimmigration
laws in the country, and
so I think it hinders the potential of
our community in the United States.
The Latino community is one of the
fastest growing minority groups in the
United States, and everybody knows
that,” Rios Nava said. “We have so
much to offer when we’re here, but if
we’re negated from having so many
opportunities, there’s only so much we
can do, and we remain in a position
where we cannot grow.”

4A
sports
news
CONTINUED FROM 1A
“I think in terms of equity,
Alabama does a good job making
sure everything is equally balanced
out,” Wells said. “We just got our
court updated and I feel like they
definitely take it into consideration if
we feel like we aren’t getting as much
as a male sport.”
With hundreds of studentathletes,
the University has a lot to
consider to stay Title IX compliant.
This is where Karin Lee, the Title
IX coordinator and chief diversity
officer of athletics, steps in.
Lee recently conducted a Title
IX review via a third party to
determine what areas of the athletics
department need to be updated.
“From [the review] I can develop
the action plan for Title IX: What
does compliance look like at UA?”
Lee said. “Especially when it comes
to the laundry list. The laundry list
is about 10-12 things [like] travel,
academics and making sure that
just because you’re on the football
team, you’re not getting the tutors
over the volleyball student athletes.
I go through that list and evaluate
whether we’re okay when it comes
to all the different aspects of the
laundry list.”
It’s important for our ladies
to know the history of
Alabama sports and they
understand that there are
people before you who have
made this situation what it is,
RASHINDA REED
Lee not only analyzes the finances
dedicated to each sport program but
also the number of athletes involved
in each program. She ensures that
Alabama guard JaMya Mingo-Young shoots a pair of free throws versus Alabama A&M at Coleman Coliseum in
Tuscaloosa, Ala. CW / David Gray
Alabama midfielder Felicia Knox defends versus Chattanooga at the
Alabama Soccer Stadium in Tuscaloosa, Ala. CW / David Gray
the University stays compliant with
any of the three prongs of Title IX,
although some are more realistic
than others.
“I always tell people there’s no such
thing as equal. You’re never going to
have 100 men and 100 women,” Lee
said. “However, we need to have an
equitability factor.”
Lee said that when institutions
are faced with the possibility of
eliminating a sport, this balance
between equal opportunities for all
athletes and finances becomes tricky.
“I don’t know if it’s a Title IX
problem or a funding problem,
where people need to learn how to
fund the right way, so we don’t have
to have these conversations,” Lee said.
It’s a movement. You look
back at Wilma Rudolph,
Althea Gibson and Billie Jean
King. They are the iconic
athletes that were fighting
for equal opportunity and
participation.
JENNY MAINZ
“A lot of universities and colleges are
struggling because they’re trying to
make sure they can provide a great
experience to the student athletes
who are there but also trying to
stay afloat.”
Thankfully, Lee doesn’t predict
the University will have to make
that decision any time soon. She
said she thinks that every program is
treated equally.
In the world of tennis, Mainz said
she agrees.
“A lot of people will say Alabama’s
a football school,” Mainz said. “I say
it’s a women’s tennis school. The
belief behind that is that [Alabama]
has always treated me and our
program with respect, dignity
and class.”
Title IX’s 50-year roots reach far
and deep into UA athletic programs,
and its impact continues to ensure
that every athlete receives the
opportunity to become legendary.
'When you know your purpose, it almost feels like electricity':
How student organizations are championing change
SARAH CLIFTON
STAFF REPORTER
For Kaila Pouncy, a UA senior
majoring in criminal justice
and political science, her passion for
prison reform was sparked during
an internship.
The summer before her
sophomore year, Pouncy interned
for a federal judge. While sitting in
on a proceeding, she watched a man
automatically receive a life sentence
due to three-strike laws, which are
laws designed to subject repeat
offenders to harsher punishments.
“He had maybe one family
member there, and when the judge
sentenced him he literally broke down
into tears, and so did his one family
member,” Pouncy said. “Everyone got
really emotional watching it.”
One of her fellow interns said that
she did not empathize with the man’s
plight, and Pouncy found that their
debate about the situation sparked a
curiosity, not only about the prison
system, but also about how to help
those disproportionately or unfairly
affected by it.
“At this point, I hadn’t really
narrowed down what I wanted to
do, or how to use my experience and
community work to help people,”
Pouncy said. “But this moment, this
realization that [the prison system]
is such a huge problem almost felt
like electricity.”
Pouncy said that she hopes to use
this “electricity” to make students on
campus aware of the problems within
the prison system through educating
others and fostering understanding.
For students like Pouncy, attending
The University of Alabama presents an
opportunity to make waves in the local
and statewide social landscape, and
many do this through involvement
with student organizations that tackle
social issues. Tide Against Time,
Students for Sensible Drug Policy and
HopeU are three such organizations.
Tide Against Time
Tide Against Time, which Pouncy
founded in January 2022, primarily
educates students through social
media posts explaining the problems
in the United States prison system.
They also host events and speakers,
as well as run donation drives. In
April 2022, TAT hosted Alabama
Appleseed, a non-profit advocating
for prison reform, to speak on the
current state of Alabama’s prison
system. From this event, they collected
and donated 326 items to Aid Inmate
Mothers in Montgomery.
Pouncy stressed the importance
of listening to others in order to
make change.
“The condition of these facilities
is horrible, and it’s right in front of
our faces,” Pouncy said. “Most people
think, ‘If you aren’t willing to succumb
to, don’t commit the crime.’ But it’s not
that easy, because there are people
who find themselves in really tough
situations, and that can really derail a
person’s life.”
More than anything, Pouncy
said it is important to address these
problems at their roots.
“If I could plaster anything on a
billboard, it would be ‘Crime is not
random,’” Pouncy said. “It’s often
the result of needs that are going
unmet. It’s a cry for help. The key to
addressing this is putting our ears to
the ground in these communities and
figuring out what is missing so that we
can address it.”
Students For Sensible
Drug Policy
Education is a pillar to many
social justice organizations, including
Students For Sensible Drug Policy.
UA SSDP Founder Marlie
Thompson, a sophomore majoring in
interdisciplinary studies with a focus
on sociology and social advocacy, said
that though SSDP at the University
is a chapter of a larger national
organization, there were no chapters
in the state of Alabama before she
became a UA student.
“[Alabama] has the highest opioid
prescription rate in the country, and it
kills thousands of people,” Thompson
said. “I saw a need in Alabama
specifically for this kind of education,
so I got involved.”
Thompson said that, considering
how often students on campus
encounter drugs, the misconceptions
she saw acquaintances hold
were alarming.
“I heard someone once say that
they thought LSD and acid were the
same thing,” Thompson said. “Or
that molly and ecstasy are different.
I’m so relieved we are getting to
these people and educating them
before they try drugs.”
These misconceptions are not only
harmful to one’s health, Thompson
said, but they are also harmful to
society at large.
“The average sentence for a crack
offense is 18 times longer than a
cocaine offense for the same amount of
the substance,” Thompson said. “And
this really brings the implications of
these misconceptions to light — this is
a direct product of the War on Drugs,
which popularized the idea that crack
is a poor, ‘Black’ drug and cocaine is
more ‘white collar.’ But they’re the
same thing, chemically speaking.”
Thompson has spearheaded
events and efforts to make students
more educated and, overall, safer.
During the Fall 2022 Get On Board
Day, SSDP handed out free fentanyl
testing strips.
Telling people what different
drugs will do to their body
is just as important as giving
out test strips.
MARIE THOMPSON
“I saw on YikYak the day after
that someone posted about finding
fentanyl in their drugs,” Thompson
said. “I don’t have proof that it was
our fentanyl testing strips that found
it, but either way it goes to show how
important and useful these are on
college campuses.”
More recently, SSPD has worked
alongside the Student Government
Association to propose new legislation
regarding drug overdoses.
The legislation will challenge parts
of UA’s Medical Emergency Assistance
Policy that lack sufficient protections
for students who overdose.
Additionally, SSDP’s legislation
will demand more comprehensive
drug training for both students and
University staff, such as requiring
UA Housing to train staff to
administer NARCAN.
SSPD’s overall goal, Thompson
said, is to give students the tools they
need to make informed decisions and
address stigma surrounding drugs.
“Telling people what different
drugs will do to their body is just as
important as giving out test strips,”
Thompson said. “Drugs as a whole
are not inherently bad, even though
that’s what we are all taught. [SSDP] is
about giving out information so that
students can be educated on what
they put in their bodies.”
HopeU
Beyond education, some
organizations work to put in time to
directly impact the causes they are part
of. HopeU is a Christian organization
that seeks to educate, support and
raise awareness for victims of
human trafficking.
The campus organization is part
of a collegiate initiative to “traffic
hope,” and stems from the Church
of the Highlands, which is based
in Birmingham, Alabama. HopeU,
which started its UA branch in
the fall of 2021, spreads a message
of hope and awareness through
social media posts and organizes
awareness/prayer walks.
Caroline Quinn, a senior majoring
in finance, accounting and theater and
vice president of HopeU, said that,
over the next semester, HopeU wants
to mobilize to do more donation
drives, but its limited resources and
membership restricts what it can do.
The organization has still been able
to help victims by organizing events
and giving time to victims at the Well
House, which is an organization that
offers “medical, mental and emotional
care” to victims of human trafficking.
“Whether they need prayers, or
cards, or items, or just people to
donate their time or an ear, we’re here,”
Quinn said.
Quinn said her interest in
supporting this cause came from
volunteering at the Well House.
“There was once when I went, and
I met this woman in her 30s,” Quinn
said. “And we did this activity with
them where we painted and talked
about their experiences, and the way
this woman talked was amazing. She
talked about her experiences, and
made it clear that they were horrible,
but she never described herself as a
victim. She was confident that she
came out of this stronger, and it was
so powerful to me.”
Quinn said that Tuscaloosa is
an especially concerning spot for
human trafficking.
In October 2022, the West
Alabama Human Trafficking Task
Force reported that trafficking spikes
during major events in Tuscaloosa.
Just recently, on Jan. 20, 15 people
were arrested on charges of human
trafficking, as well as prostitution and
drug charges. These arrests were the
result of two separate investigations —
one involving an underage victim, the
other involving victims performing
commercial sex acts in a Tuscaloosa
hotel on the south side of town.
“With Tuscaloosa’s location right
on I-20, it’s very connected to the rest
of the world,” Quinn said. “Going
to the Well House and seeing girls
my age who got trafficked ten miles
from where I live really opened my
eyes. This isn’t some scary thing
that happens in stories, it’s real and
it’s here.”
Above all, Quinn emphasized the
importance of unconditional support
for victims.
“So many people get sucked into
this despicable thing, because they
trust the wrong person who just wants
to use them, or they fall down the
wrong path, and they think they have
no hope — which is heartbreaking,”
Quinn said. “So, we really want to
drive home that survivors are loved,
cared for and enough, despite what
they’ve been through.”
We really want to drive
home that survivors are
loved, cared for and enough,
despite what they’ve been
through.
CAROLINE QUINN
Through donation drives or raising
awareness, UA students can and do
mobilize for important causes during
their time on campus. For them,
change starts in the present – one
event, infographic or SGA resolution
at a time.
To get involved, you can follow
TAT, SSDP and HopeU on their
respective Instagram accounts, which
is where these three organizations
primarily advertise events/make
educational posts, as well as keep
an eye on their respective pages on
The SOURCE.

6A
sports
Navigating NIL:
Student-athlete empowerment, generosity soaring to new heights
MATHEY GIBSON
STAFF REPORTER
ntercollegiate athletics is at
I the dawn of a new era.
Standing before a fog of
uncertainty lies university leaders,
the NCAA, athletic conferences
and their student-athletes. As
new name, image and likeness
legislation rattles the ground
beneath their feet, once clear
power dynamics between athletes,
universities, boosters and NCAA
entities have shifted towards
conflict and imbalance.
The donors who once shelled
out cash at the drop of a hat to their
institution’s athletic departments
have changed their strategies.
Many have formed collectives
with an end goal of funneling
money directly to student-athletes
and recruits through their own
personal fundraising endeavors
and respective business incomes.
The black and white line
between professionalism and
NCAA bylaws has been grayed at
the hands of a forced concession
between evolving state NIL laws
and growing support for the wild
west of endorsements, influencers
and public consumption between
on-field performance, social
media proficiency and activism.
Amateurism is effectively dead,
and student-athletes are reaping
the benefits.
For student athletes, it presents
an opportunity to garner an
amplified voice and align with a
company or product that shares
mutual values. In the age of NIL,
brands aren’t just looking to
partner with athletes for the sake
of popularity; they’re seeking
to establish an enhanced sense
of purpose in their quest to
resonate with the public’s growing
apprehension surrounding a
variety of social equality and
environmental issues.
I don’t dislike NIL. I’m all
for players and I want our
players to do well. … The
thing I have expressed
is there has to be some
uniformity and protocol
in how name, image and
likeness is implemented.
NICK SABAN
In one of the more high-profile
examples of such promoted
engagements, Rutgers men’s
basketball player Geo Baker
was paid to endorse a scholarly
article in which economic
justice for student-athletes
through legislative sports reform
was advocated.
Not only have players taken
Alabama quarterback Bryce Young (9) warms up before the Crimson Tide takes on
Utah State at Bryant-Denny Stadium in Tuscaloosa, Ala. CW / David Gray
Alabama quarterback Jalen Milroe (4) warms up before
the Crimson Tide takes on Utah State at Bryant-Denny
Stadium in Tuscaloosa, Ala. CW / David Gray
advantage of social opportunities,
but the now-opened financial
window courtesy of NIL has
changed the lives of countless
student-athletes and their families
and has helped transform the
communities in which they reside.
For Micah Howell, a junior
majoring in business management
and the co-founder and CEO of
Hometown Heroes Sports Agency,
helping clients navigate both
fronts during NIL’s ambiguity has
been a rewarding practice.
“I work with a lot of athletes
where sports were their way out.
Where they grew up in a small
town, maybe in a broken family,
and now they’ve been able to use
sports to not only provide for their
families monetarily, but to provide
for their education that they might
not have gotten otherwise,” Howell
said. “To go out and make it out of
that hometown and spend four
years on a full-ride scholarship
at a university because they’re
athletically gifted. That’s my
favorite part of sports in general,
but now you’re seeing NIL provide
that opportunity for these athletes
to go and actually make money for
what they’re doing.”
At The University of Alabama
alone, quarterback Bryce Young
boasts a $3.1 million NIL
valuation, securing deals with the
likes of Cash App, Subway, Dr.
Pepper and Logan’s Roadhouse.
For Nagurski Award winner
Will Anderson Jr., an NIL
valuation of $1.3 million has led to
deals from Rhoback, Dr. Teal’s and
BMW of Tuscaloosa.
“It’s been able to help me and
my family, and I feel like right
now I put money aside for, of
course, myself, but I really am
doing NIL to help my family a lot,”
Anderson Jr. said in a July 2022
press conference. “I don’t want my
parents to have to be stressed and
worried about how they’re going
to get to my games, any of that
stuff like that. So to be able to take
care of all that and to help them
out to make sure that they’re living
well enough to balance everything
out has been great.”
It doesn’t stop at football,
though. With the departures of
Young and Anderson to the NFL,
freshman forward Brandon Miller
and senior guard Jahvon Quinerly
round out two of the top three
evaluations on campus, with
Miller’s $832,000 mark leading
the way and Quinerly following
at $497,000.
“Not only are they being paid
for with their education, now
they’re also able to maybe buy
food for their families, or help
make their own car payments,”
Howell said. “It’s things like that,
where otherwise, these athletes
Alabama forward Nick Pringle warms up before the
Crimson Tide face Liberty at Coleman Coliseum in
Tuscaloosa, Ala. CW / David Gray
wouldn’t have had the opportunity
in doing so.”
Around the country, players
have begun to use their new
source of income to invest in
their surroundings.
At the University of Michigan,
running back Blake Corum
partnered with a local Ann Arbor
chocolate shop to raise money by
meeting customers and serving
the shop’s wares, with 15 % of the
proceeds being donated to the
Uniform Funding Foundation,
which works to ensure that
underprivileged children have
uniforms to play youth sports.
At the University of Texas,
quarterback Casey Thompson
used his NIL deal with Cameo to
help combat childhood hunger,
donating all video purchase
proceeds to No Kid Hungry.
In Mountain Brook, Alabama,
Crimson Tide offensive lineman
Emil Ekiyor Jr. partnered with
Samaritan’s Feet, giving away
25,000 pairs of shoes to kids
in need.
“It’s so cool to be able to use NIL
to team up with a company, I don’t
have to do it on my own,” Ekiyor
Jr. told the Tuscaloosa News in
July 2022. “I’ve got support from
an organization that’s done this
kind of thing in the past.”
When asked about how NIL
is impacting the dynamic of
collegiate athletics in August 2022,
Alabama head coach Nick Saban
was cautious, yet supportive of
its implementation.
“I don’t dislike NIL,” Saban said.
“I’m all for players and I want our
players to do well. They made
over $3 million dollars last year.
… The thing I have expressed is
there has to be some uniformity
and protocol in how name, image
and likeness is implemented. How
does this impact competitive
balance in college athletics?
Is there transparency across
the board?”
The Pandora’s box is open, but
perhaps it’s for the best.
While student-athletes will need
supplemental financial guidance
in the new age of collegiate sports,
initiatives have begun to construct
the necessary framework in
helping young men and women
improve their financial literacy
through monetary coaching and
self-care infrastructure. Alabama
has created its own called The
Advantage, which promises to
be a “comprehensive program
that will provide Crimson
Tide student-athletes with the
education and tools necessary
to build and elevate their
personal brands.”
Regardless of popularity or
accolades, every collegiate athlete
now has the chance to make the
most of their NIL prospectives,
and savvy athletic departments
like Alabama’s are leaving no stone
unturned in ensuring the success
of their students, even as they
leave school.
It’s so cool to be able
to use NIL to team up
with a company, I don’t
have to do it on my own.
I’ve got support from an
organization that’s done this
kind of thing in the past.
EMIL EKIYOR JR.
After all, it’s smart business.
By giving student-athletes insight
into the world of entrepreneurship
and business, colleges are not just
equipping them for life beyond
the roar of a crowd, or the pen of
an eager fan, they’re giving them
continued opportunities to one
day give back to the institutions,
families and communities that
once poured into them fervently.
NIL is making intercollegiate
athletics a better place. It’s not
without its lion’s share of issues,
but as policies change and laws
progress forward, we should
take a moment to appreciate its
saving graces.
Here’s to NIL. Here’s to doing
right by student-athletes. Here’s
to the continued amelioration
of society.
This is our water.
Help UA protect it.
Only rain down the drain.
For questions, comments, or concerns
about Storm Water, contact
Environmental Health & Safety
Shop Boots,
Jeans, & Hats
at The Wharf
in Northport
(205) 348-5905 | ehu.ua.edu | @EHS_UA
220 Mcfarland Blvd N (205)-752-2075

opinions
OPINION
Consent campaigns are getting it wrong
1B
RACHEL JAKOVAC
GUEST COLUMNIST
Disclaimer: In this article, I draw
connections between sexual violence
and normative heterosexuality
by examining how patriarchy
contributes to the prominent
violence perpetrated by men against
women. The stance reflected in this
article does not negate violence that
occurs amongst other groups, but
rather analyzes the societal factors
that contribute to the campus sexual
violence epidemic.
Trigger warning: This article
discusses themes of sexual violence.
Be sure to prioritize your own mental
health when reading.
*Names in this article have been
changed to protect the identities of
interview subjects.
thought I understood consent.
I Mandatory lectures hosted in
residence hall common rooms and
in my women’s studies classes harped
on the necessary boxes to check for
“consensual” sex. Throughout my
formative years, I absorbed every
kind of consent campaign. Despite
this, I was sexually assaulted during
my first year of college and I didn’t
even realize it. The offender did it in a
way that was far more insidious than
I ever knew was possible.
I am now a senior at The
University of Alabama, and I’ve
been working with survivors since
my freshman year. By listening to
their stories, I realized that singular
solutions to sexual violence, like
consent education campaigns,
are often ineffective and uphold
ideas that perpetuate and justify
sexual violence.
I argue that mainstream adoption
of the verbal consent-dominant
approach has distracted us from the
true root of the problem: one person
feeling the need to dominate another.
“A consent-focused model is
inadequate not only because it is too
low a standard of consent, but also
because it fails to address the ways
in which sexual behaviour is socially
constructed,” said Melanie Beres, a
leading scholar on consent.
Here’s the bottom line:
sexual violence is not caused by
miscommunication. This image
of sexual violence inadvertently
creates a false dichotomy that puts
the responsibility to say “yes” or “no”
entirely on the woman, while using
ideals that aid the actions of men,
paving the way to ensnare women
into verbal contracts. The problem is
not a lack of clearly communicated
nonconsent but rather the culturally
designed desire for power and
control that is more commonly
conditioned into men.
These campaigns perpetuate and
uphold the narrative that women
are typically gatekeepers and men
are typically initiators, shifting
responsibility and blame to women
while still framing men as the
primary sexual agents.
In a series of interviews, I asked
UA students about their perceptions
of consent. The expectation for
women to gatekeep their own bodies
was apparent in the stories shared.
“The second [he] had the
opportunity to make a questionable
decision that I didn’t really have the
CW / Autumn Williams
CW / Autumn Williams
toolkit to say ‘yes’ or ‘no’ to, [he]
took that opportunity and absolutely
ran with it,” said Sarah*, a junior as
she candidly recounted her sexual
assault for the first time.
Although women are socialized
to be non-violent and soft-spoken,
we are expected to suddenly become
confrontational and aggressive in
unwanted sexual situations. Not
only does the expectation require
flawless navigation of complex social
encounters in order to stay safe, it
also inherently imposes blame on
those who don’t fulfill it. Sarah didn’t
report her sexual assault because
of this.
“It feels a lot more like I’m not
allowed to talk about it because I
don’t know how much of it is my
fault,” she said.
I asked Katie*, a senior, what
her experience was with navigating
consent. She paused and told me that
she had never been asked for consent,
pointing out that voicing nonconsent
is often dismissed, saying that “if you
do try to voice anything against it,
they will try to persuade you.”
This illustrates another emerging
crack in the consent-dominant
approach. Consent is purely for
public perception — a box to check
for legal and social safety. Once an
impression of consent is achieved,
the instigator has permission to
do whatever they want beyond
the physical cues and silence of
their partner.
Upholding these views allows for
men to do anything just to check that
box and obscures what could — and
often should — be considered sexual
violence. Many women “consent” for
the sake of appeasing the other party,
knowing that a “yes” is the only thing
that will be taken at face value.
Painting one-word consent as
the only important factor in sexual
situations lends itself to a view of
sex as singular, rather than a series
of interrelated actions. We should
create a culture where consent is not
something to achieve, but rather it’s
a bottom line of understanding and
respect that ought to exist during the
entirety of all relationships.
Men who have coerced and
pressured women into saying “yes”
are possibly even more dangerous
because they are socially protected
and legally bulletproof. A consent
framework allows for men to
polish their existing behavior
into something other than sexual
violence. From that is born the
"champions of women," the men
who have not undone their affinity
for power and control yet are praised
and adored because they make
sure, by any means possible, that
they get the “yes” before exerting
this entitlement.
The tangible effects of these
findings can be seen in one University
of Alabama organization that serves
as the perfect case study: Men
Against Rape and Sexual Assault.
Founded in 2019, this group has
pledged to be “leaders on campus
who educate other students on how
to prevent rape and sexual assault,
and how to help those who survive
rape and sexual assault.” MARS
was founded as an initiative of Not
On My Campus, which has existed
since 2015 and completed numerous
successful projects such as opening
the SAFE Center, a Tuscaloosa sexual
assault crisis center.
MARS intended to facilitate peer
education presentations at different
fraternity houses. In 2020, they
completed three of those training
sessions. In 2021, they completed
zero. In 2022, they completed one.
They were highly regarded on
campus, seen as a beacon of trust
among female students. During
this time, members indulged in
this status.
An interview with Jane*, a former
member of NOMC's executive board,
reflected this. However, Jane revealed
to me that she was sexually coerced
in fall of 2020. The perpetrator was a
MARS representative. She recalled a
sense of trust being broken, thinking,
“He’s a great guy, he’s in MARS.” After
sharing this story to a member of
MARS exec shortly after, she stated
that “nothing happened.” MARS was
on his side.
Following this incident, Jane noted
that MARS became very difficult for
NOMC to work with. “I feel like if
you’re genuine, you shouldn’t have
to be begged to go to something,” she
said, pointing out that she had a lot
of trouble getting MARS to attend
NOMC events.
Jane noticed that when she
continually asked MARS to integrate
survivor voices, she was brushed off
with apathy or even irritation.
All the while, members of MARS
continued garnering trust, only to
break it. Sarah was sexually assaulted
by a member of MARS.
“I felt like I could invite him into
my house because he was like ‘Oh,
I’m in MARS,’” she said.“ I didn’t
think about why [MARS] would
be harmful to women until that
happened to me.”
A quiet interview with Clara*,
another survivor who was sexually
assaulted by a MARS representative,
exhibited another common theme:
women not only trusted the
individuals in the organization, they
also placed their trust in the integrity
of the organization as a whole to
achieve its mission.
“He had sexually assaulted me
before he applied to MARS,” she
recalled. “[He] was able to recognize
that what he did was wrong, so I was
like ‘You got into MARS, now you’re
going to use this position to make
sure nobody else does what you did.’
He did not end up doing that. He
went on to rape two other girls.”
But that wasn’t it. Sarah and Jane
also revealed something even more
shocking: a member of MARS’
executive board had deliberately
covered up a rape by another
executive member. He pushed the
complaints aside and continued to
work with the perpetrator, using a
MARS endorsement to propel his
campaign for SGA.
“I guess his campaign and
winning was more important than
doing the right thing,” Jane said.
Whether it was refusal to
integrate female voices, failure
to punish predators within their
own membership or general
misunderstanding about the weight
of the issue they were addressing,
MARS consistently failed in
their mission.
“There’s really a lack of care
that they’re showing in the face
of something really significant,”
Dylan*, a former member of MARS’
executive board, said. “I just don’t see
it as an effective means of combatting
sexual assault in any way.”
Hannah*, founder of NOMC,
noted that the creation of MARS, “fits
within this larger context of women
putting in the groundwork … but it
only then becomes something taken
seriously when men attach their
name to it.”
On March 3rd, 2022, MARS
released a statement on their
Instagram that revealed one of
their members displayed a pattern
of behaviors that resulted in their
suspension. The statement has since
been deleted.
Dylan recalled that while a
couple members of the executive
board took the situation seriously,
he was “alarmed by the lack of
urgency or an understanding of the
severity of the situation by people
in the organization.” Following
the statement, NOMC publicly
disaffiliated with MARS. Dylan
resigned from his position within
the executive board. It seemed like a
lesson had been learned.
Now, MARS is recruiting
once again.
“In the beginning, I don’t think
anyone really thought they had bad
intentions,” Jane concluded. “But it
turned into something that I could
not have imagined and I don’t think
anyone could have.”
How did the very organization
that promised to be betterbecome an
organization comprised of men that
have silenced cases of sexual assault,
have been cited by multiple women as
pressuring them to engage in sexual
activity, and created a boys-only
club against rape and sexual assault?
The consent-centered framework
as a means to prevent sexual assault
created the perfect environment for
MARS to exist. When we lend our
narratives to male action, society
continues to solely value male voices
and male actions. MARS uplifts and
upholds solely male voices while
addressing a crime in which 83% of
victims are female. I guess they truly
believe that men are from Mars and
women are from Venus.
Nonetheless, MARS is not
unique. The person who sexually
assaulted me was not a member of
MARS, but he took advantage of the
framework, harboring my trust by
self-proclaiming himself as a good
and modern man, and an activist.
The fight is much bigger than my
story or this club. We have to change
the social culture on this campus.
Instead of preaching, “just get the
yes,” we should be raising a generation
of individuals who don’t want power
and control over each other. We
should be giving all young people the
tools to know their own boundaries
and set them. We should reject the
narrative that sex is something done
to women and understand that sex
should be built on mutual desire.
Only then the obscuration of sexual
violence is undone and we can
effectively fight sexual violence.
Here’s what it comes down to:
whether we’re talking about fraternity
gentlemen assaulting each other in
basements, corrupt structures in
student government or men who are
wolves in sheeps’ clothing, we need
to cultivate a society where we don’t
want to dominate each other.
Rachel Jakovac is a senior at the
University of Alabama, studying
political science and marketing. She
began advocating for survivors of
sexual violence during her freshman
year when she started working at
the Women and Gender Resource
Center, which has lead her to speak
to hundreds of students across
campus, mentor students at Skyland
Elementary, and organize advocacy
events. That work inspired her to
start her 501(c)(3) non-profit, End
The Silence, which helps survivors of
interpersonal violence heal through
various projects across the country,
including the ETS Scholarship
Fund, which is accepting applicants
this spring.
To read the complete version,
please visit The Crimson White’s
website.

2B culture news
MEDIA
LITERACY
TRISTAN WALDROP
CONTRIBUTING WRITER
During the height of the
pandemic, the American
media landscape saw a flurry of
conspiracy theories spring up,
categorizing COVID-19 as either a
hoax or a bioweapon that governments
deliberately conspired to create.
Similarly, on Jan. 6, 2020, when
a mob of impassioned Trump
supporters attempted to “stop
the steal,” they did so under the
pretext that a hidden cabal stole the
presidential election, a narrative
inflated by conspiracy theories
regarding a secretive “deep state”
committed to undermining America’s
democratic process.
At first glance, these issues may
seem worlds apart. One is a matter of
public health, and the other is a crisis
of faith in the American electoral
college system. However, they have
one thing in common: roots in a
growing crisis in media literacy.
Students should always
double-check where
messages are coming
from, who spreads these
messages, and whether the
source of the message is
reliable or not.
JIYOUNG LEE
Media literacy is the ability to
proficiently decode the meaning
behind online content, such as
memes, news stories, social media
posts and more. Internet users with
high media literacy are less likely to
fall for online hoaxes, misinformation
or deliberate lies and disinformation,
as they are spotting signs of incorrect
information and making decisions
about how much they believe
online content.
When misinformation or
disinformation spreads, there are
real people affected by it. Conspiracy
theories aimed at people of color,
members of the LGBTQ community,
Searching for truth in the age
of misinformation
women and beyond affect how people
vote in elections, how they treat others
and how they spread disinformation.
Media literacy education, which has
become more popular over recent
years, is often the next step in trying to
stop conspiracy theories and hoaxes.
For example, since early 2020,
politicians and voices from the farright
have started calling LGBTQ
people “pedophiles,” which has caused
a spike in hate crimes and assaults of
members of the LGBTQ community.
According to a study in Statista,
more than 38% of Americans have
accidentally shared news that was
fake or misinformed, and only 26%
are very confident in their ability to
spot misinformation.
Fears over media literacy were
especially brought to the public’s
attention during the 2016 election
when Cambridge Analytica, a
consulting firm in data collection, was
exposed for selling Facebook user data
to political campaigns. This exchange,
as the accusation went, worked to
deepen the polarization of American
political culture and caused a schism
that moved voters into radically
different political worlds.
The crisis of internet-based
polarization has fostered the
emergence of political bubbles on
the internet, wherein participants
only consume political content
that reinforces their ideological
biases. These internet bubbles
serve as a half subculture and half
political organization, giving rise
to a host of conspiracy theories
that had previously resided in
relative obscurity.
The introduction of oncefringe
conspiracy theories into
mainstream discourse carries with it
grave implications for the health of
American democracy. From climate
denialism to lies about the Black Lives
Matter Movement committing fraud,
conspiracy theories have become
a powerful tool in obstructing the
advancement of environmental, racial
and economic justice.
A.J. Bauer, a professor specializing
in conservative news and right-wing
media, said these “modern” conspiracy
theories are, in many ways, new in form
but old in substance, particularly in
relation to the American right-wing.
“There’s a long history of
conspiratorial thinking on the right. It
isn’t really that new. If you look back,
for example, to the beginning of the
modern conservative movement in
the late 1940s and early 1950s, there
were a lot of conspiracy theories about
Communist subversion,” Bauer said.
CW / Autumn Williams
Bauer mentioned how the
conservative movement of the 20th
century wielded conspiracy theories
to label Martin Luther King Jr. as a
communist to discredit the broader
civil rights movement.
Bauer also spoke to recent
developments in how the
conspiratorial thinking of the 21st
century works differently from past
generations. More specifically, he
described the inner workings of
QAnon, a conspiracy theory first
formulated on far-right message
boards that mythologized the Trump
administration as a force engaged in
an abstruse struggle against America’s
secret elite.
If Bauer’s analysis is correct, and
QAnon is more like an “omnibus
theory” that is more grassroots than
top-down, it would seem to coincide
with the internet making media
more fragmented than ever. Unlike
past generations, there are no longer
unifying voices to represent the media,
such as Walter Cronkite or Barbara
Walters, to help build a common
truth. Therefore, it has become
imperative for regular people to pierce
through webs of misinformation.
Jiyoung Lee, an assistant professor
in the College of Communication
& Information Sciences, researches
misinformation and humancomputer
interaction. Lee is at the
forefront of tackling new sets of
problems introduced by the advent
of the internet, working on models
to understand how misinformation
spreads through public discourse.
“Students should always doublecheck
where messages are coming
from, who spreads these messages,
and whether the source of the
message is reliable or not,” Lee said.
“But in addition to that, related to
what I am doing my research about,
like synthetic media, when we think
about deep fakes, it is difficult for us to
simply just be educated.”
Deep fakes are the newest
development in the spread of fake
news. With the use of deep learning
artificial intelligence, agents of
disinformation can digitally alter the
image of someone, often a celebrity
or politician, to portray them saying
or doing things that they never said
or did.
Lee brought up how the
development of new technologies
often enables disinformation vectors
to convince audiences into believing
distortions of the truth or outright
lies. To this end, Lee offered different
tips for students at the University
on navigating the growing tide of
virtual deceptions.
“We’re normal people. It is super
difficult to see whether deep fake,
video-based misinformation is
true or not,” Lee said. “Instead of
being passive observers toward this
phenomenon, [students] should take
an active role in understanding what
things are going on in our society,
what are some popular narratives that
are being spread on social media these
days so that they can simply be aware
of what’s going on and then behave in
a more active way.”
In order to regain some
semblance of normalcy in the age
of misinformation, students and
academics are looking to play a more
active role in combating the spread of
fake news. Modern problems require
modern solutions, and adapting to an
ever-changing media landscape will
continue to be an important challenge.
‘Terrifying for Jewish students on campus’:
How students are processing Jan. 26 chalkings
RAELEE SENTS & SARAH CLIFTON
STAFF REPORTERS
Almost two dozen chalk
messages with the hashtag
“YEisRight” were visible on campus
sidewalks the morning of Jan. 26,
with many including references to
Friday, Jan. 27, which is International
Holocaust Remembrance Day.
Organizations across campus
condemned the behavior, but some
students criticized the University’s
response.
Ye, or Kanye West, is a famous
rapper and fashion designer
who in recent months has
taken up antisemitic stances,
including Holocaust denial, that
have gotten him deplatformed
from Instagram and pre- and
post-Elon Musk Twitter.
The Crimson White photographed
at least 20 instances of the hashtag
on campus sidewalks, some of which
were partially washed away by water.
A Twitter account with the handle
@YEisRIGHT2024 posted photos
of the chalked messages around
midnight on Jan. 25, with the caption
“Spotted in Bama! ROLL TIDE!”
The CW was not immediately
able to confirm who was responsible
for the chalkings.
The University first released a
statement on Twitter in response to
the chalkings. The Twitter statement
was in a reply to a tweet by @
StopAntisemites posted depicting
Chabad tables in response to campus chalkings on Jan. 26.
Photo courtesy of UA Chabad
a chalking outside of Amelia Gayle
Gorgas library. The University
released the same statement via an
Instagram story. Instagram stories
remain visible on an account for
24 hours before disappearing. No
permanent statement was made on
the University’s Instagram page.
“We condemn these chalkings,
which violate our Capstone Creed,
our campus culture and our core
values,” the statement read.
The University’s Capstone Creed
is “a statement of principles that
guide each student.” Every incoming
freshman class pledges to uphold
the Capstone Creed at the start of
each academic year. The Capstone
Creed was written knowing that
“the University community does not
stop at the geographic boundaries
of campus.”
University officials began
removing the chalk as soon as they
were notified of its presence around
campus. The University did not send
an official email communication on
the day of the incident or afterwards.
Tori Stincer, a junior majoring in
news media, said the University needs
to prioritize better communication.
“There needs to be direct
communications with students
through a channel of communication
we all have, like Crimson email,”
Stincer said.
“I think [the University’s
response] was unprofessional," said
Savannah Prescott, a freshman
majoring in math and secondary
math education. “Addressing it
in a way that will disappear feels
like they don’t want to draw more
attention to it.”
The Student Government
Association released a statement
on Instagram on Friday, Jan. 27,
saying that “the antisemitic actions
committed on campus yesterday are
nothing less than abhorrent.”
The SGA also encouraged the
student body to continue to uphold
the Capstone Creed.
The SGA ended the statement
with “Hate doesn’t roll here.” On
the post, there were also resources
to connect students to the UA
Counseling Center, UA Diversity
Incident Reporting, Bama Hillel,
the Office of Diversity, Equity
and Inclusion, and the Office of
Student Life.
Marlie Thompson, a sophomore
majoring in interdisciplinary
studies, said the 1/27 reference
was concerning.
“The fact that there was a
date included and that date being
Holocaust Remembrance Day, is
terrifying for the Jewish students on
campus,” she said.
Thompson said the University
needs to take antisemitism
complaints more seriously before a
“devastating hate crime” occurs.
In response to the antisemitic
chalkings, the University’s Chabad,
a Jewish organization on campus,
tabled outside of Gorgas library
on Jan. 26. Chabad did not have a
permit to table, but the University
supported the group’s efforts.
“Some people from the University
came by the Chabad table and said
‘You know what, you’re exercising
your First Amendment rights, we
support it, ” said Alex Malkin, a
junior majoring in public relations
and member of the Chabad
executive board.
Malkin said Chabad set up the
table quickly on Jan. 26, and that
random students came up to the
Chabad table and were supportive.
“It’s blowing my mind,” Malkin said.
Bama Hillel, another Jewish
campus organization, also released
a statement on Instagram. In their
statement, Hillel said they are
“diligently addressing the situation
and are currently working with
local and federal agencies as well as
the [Secure Community Network]
director of security through the
Birmingham Jewish federation.”
Hillel also noted that the
University is providing additional
support and security measures to
students and members.
The University’s chapter of Alpha
Epsilon Pi, a Jewish fraternity at the
University, released a statement on
their Instagram as well.
“The Brothers of the Iota
Deuteron chapter of Alpha Epsilon
Pi strongly condemn the recent rise
in antisemitism taking place in our
world,” the statement read.
Other campus groups, like
Alabama Queer Student Association,
also made an Instagram post in
response to the chalkings.
“The queer student association
stands in support of the Jewish
community against the hateful,
antisemitic attacks found across
campus,” The statement said. QSA
extended regards to those effected
on campus and members of the
Jewish community.
To read the complete version and
access other resources, please visit
The Crimson White’s website.

BLAKE BYLER
SPORTS EDITOR
HOW ALABAMA BASKETBALL CHANGED THE SEC
The University of Alabama
men’s basketball program has
a storied history.
From head coach Wimp
Sanderson’s SEC Tournament threepeat
in the 1980s and ’90s, to head
coach Mark Gottfried’s Elite Eight
in 2004, or the program’s return to
prominence under current head
coach Nate Oats, much of Alabama’s
success on the hardwood can be
traced back to head coach C.M.
Newton, who came to Alabama
in 1968.
Newton was 38 years old when
he arrived at the Capstone to lead
Alabama’s basketball team. Coming
from Lexington, Kentucky, he was
relatively unknown among the
national coaching ranks.
Friendships are not based
on success on the field or
on the court. You certainly
might find that the very
best players might be best
friends with the third-team
linebacker or a student
manager. That’s not
designed by race.
BEN SHURETT
“He was a gentlemen in every
regard and every moment that I
ever knew him,” said Ben Shurett,
a manager and then graduate
assistant for the Alabama basketball
team from 1969-74. “I never really
saw him change. He was always that
person who was an outstanding
tactician, and outstanding coach, a
good recruiter. A good person who
valued all people.”
In Newton’s first year in 1968, the
Crimson Tide suffered a 4-20 regular
sports
season. Following this, Newton
recruited Wendell Hudson, who
became the first Black scholarship
athlete in the University’s history.
Over the next few seasons,
Newton recruited more Black
players and won more games.
Alabama improved its win total over
the next five seasons under Newton,
winning eight games in 1970, 10 in
1971, 18 in 1972 and 22 in 1973.
This led to the 1974 team,
the team that sent shockwaves
throughout the Southeast.
The team started the season with a
5-1 record, and next on the schedule
was the eighth-ranked University
of Louisville Cardinals on Dec. 28,
1973. As the game began, Newton
sent his starting five onto the floor.
Ray Odums, T.R. Dunn, Charles
Cleveland, Charles ‘Boonie’ Russell
and Leon Douglas. These five
players — all of whom were — took
the court.
These five men made history on
Dec. 28, 1973, becoming the first all-
Black starting five in the history of
the Southeastern Conference.
Sanderson, who was an assistant
coach under Newton at the time
before taking over the program
in 1981, said that there weren’t
any previous discussions from the
coaching staff about the fact that
this lineup was all-Black.
“We didn’t talk about it. We didn’t
even think about it,” Sanderson
said. “We played the game. We
had however many kids we had,
some Black, some white, we started
who we thought was the best team
to start.”
Odums, who was a senior guard
on the team, said that it wasn’t
something the players talked
about either.
“We just figured Coach [Newton]
put the best players for us available
at that time,” Odums said. “Our five
was all-Black, but we didn’t dwell
on that point. We just felt that we
were out there playing, trying to
do a good job to win games for
ourselves and our university.”
Douglas, who was just a
sophomore on that team, had a bit
of a different mindset.
“I was aware, because I had
been looking forward to that,”
Douglas said.
Alabama won that game against
Louisville by a final score of 65-
55 and went on to share the SEC
regular season championship with
Vanderbilt. The team finished the
season with a 22-4 record and the
SEC championship was the first won
by the Crimson Tide since 1956.
As this team was formed over
Newton’s early tenure, Sanderson,
the lead recruiter on the staff,
wanted his players to meet a
few criteria, none of which were
race related.
“We recruited good people
who were good students and good
athletes,” Sanderson said. “That’s
what we looked for. We had a certain
standard. … We got good players.
We didn’t worry about whether they
were Black or white.”
Douglas, who went on to be
the No. 4 overall pick in the 1976
NBA Draft, said that other schools
used race as a recruiting pitch
against Alabama.
“Everyone said that Alabama
would never start five Blacks,”
Douglas said. “When there was
a recruitment war going on, the
people that recruited against
Alabama would always say, ‘You
know, Alabama’s never going to start
all you guys.’”
The entire starting five was
made up of players from Alabama,
and Douglas said that making the
decision to stay home was an easy
one for all of them.
“We were all from Alabama
and we recruited each other. We
recruited each other with the
standpoint of if we all went to the
University, we could not only change
it but set a standard,” Douglas said.
“We decided to stay in the state and
make a difference.”
3B
The 1973-1974 Alabama men’s basketball team poses for a team photo.
Photo courtesy of Jimmy Bank
Once this collection of players got
on campus together, an unbreakable
bond was formed.
“When we got on the court, we
were all for one and one for all,”
Odums said.
“We’re still friends. We’re like
brothers,” Douglas said. “Even to
this day we call each other. There’s
a brotherhood there. That’s one of
the reasons that we were able to
do the things that we did. … We
were competing and playing with
a purpose.”
Even for the white players on the
team, like sixth man Johnny Dill,
the fellowship formed by that team
was special.
“We got along as teammates
very well,” Dill said. “They were my
friends. We wanted to win basketball
games. [The coaches] treated us
with great respect. In four years with
them they never belittled us.”
Shurett, who witnessed Newton’s
teams closer than anyone not
playing on the court, felt that the
people are what brought these teams
as close as possible.
“I think it’s a real testament to
the people that were on all of those
teams,” Shurett said. “C.M. [Newton]
never said to us, ‘Hey, we’re going
to have a Black guy on the team.’ It
was a team; it was our team. I was
very blessed that the people on that
team let me be on that team. I was
a manager, but I was all in. They
treated me like I was a player, and I
was emotionally invested in that.”
Shurett said that the togetherness
formed by teams with great people is
one that transcends all divides.
“Friendships are not based on
success on the field or on the court,”
Shurett said. “You certainly might
find that the very best players might
be best friends with the third-team
linebacker or a student manager.
That’s not designed by race. That’s
people who are drawn to each other.
… That dynamic plays out on every
team with good people. What I
remember most is our people were
good people.”
The 1974 team laid a foundation,
and paved the way for more growth
as the years went by. Now in 2023,
all 11 scholarship men’s basketball
players at the University are Black, a
testament to the barriers broken by
Newton, his staff and his players.
So, even now, as Alabama
basketball fans are enjoying a
Crimson Tide renaissance on
the 94-foot floor of Coleman
Coliseum, remember to look
to the rafters and reflect on the
teams, wins, championships, and
most importantly, people that
came before.
“People have a tendency to forget
the past, but there’s no present
without the past,” Douglas said.
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4B
Diverse student groups fighting injustice on campus
SAVANNAH ICHIKAWA
ASSISTANT CULTURE EDITOR
As The University of Alabama
grows, striving for diversity
and inclusion amongst student
organizations is essential to
promoting a welcoming environment
for all students and fighting for
injustice on campus. In a school with
a population over 70% white, starting
a student organization can be one of
the first steps for a minority group to
create community and stand up for
its own interests.
Over 70 student organizations
focus on emphasizing diversity and
inclusion, and they are taking action
and creating events to fight injustice
on campus and beyond. The Bama
Indigenous Student Organization
Network, the Indian Students
Association of Tuscaloosa and the
African Students Association are just
a few student groups who are doing
their part to inspire understanding
and encourage diversity on campus.
Bama Indigenous Student
Organization Network
Kiana Younker, a senior majoring
in dance, is the co-president and
co-founder of the Bama Indigenous
Student Organization Network.
After a professor connected
Younker with Katherine Johnston,
another indigenous student on
campus, the two became friends and
began to collaborate on the concept
for their organization.
“For the first two-and-a-half years
of our undergrad, we were told that
there were no other indigenous
people on campus besides ourselves,”
Younker said.
According to the UA Office
of Institutional Research and
Assessment, there were 108 fulltime
students enrolled in the fall
2022 semester who identify as being
American Indian or Alaska Native.
The two established BISON
to create awareness and connect
with other indigenous students
at the University. Younker said
they hope to rewrite the historical
and contemporary narrative of
indigenous people on campus and in
society. They currently have 40 active
members and are continuing to grow.
It’s very important that
all these student groups
and different cultures are
represented in the UA
campus because it brings a
sense of closeness among
people.
ADITYA UPRETI
“The fact of the matter is a lot of
people don’t know that indigenous
people are still alive,” Younker said.
“If you don’t think that my race exists
then you also think my issues don’t
exist, and that is super discouraging
in any environment.”
According to a study conducted
in 2018, 40% of Americans don’t
believe that Native Americans still
exist. More recently, it was found
that “87% of American schools
don’t teach about Native Americans
past 1900.”
BISON strives to create a presence
on campus in hopes that it will inspire
the University to pay more attention
to its demographic and do outreach
to get more indigenous students
on campus.
“BISON is a resource for
information, but it is also up to the
individual to enlighten yourself, and
that’s what higher education is for,”
Younker said.
While the organization is new
to campus, it is already impacting
students in meaningful ways. Cary
Robinson, a junior majoring in
history and communications, joined
BISON because of her interest in
history and Native American culture.
She is now the treasurer and secretary
of the organization.
“This position has really helped
me understand the pain that other
cultures and people have gone
through that I didn’t even know
existed,” Robinson said. “It’s been
such an eye-opening experience.”
Indian Students
Association of Tuscaloosa
The Indian Students Association
of Tuscaloosa is another organization
that has helped students find their
own community on campus. A
large and active organization, ISAT
aims to make Indian students feel at
home and to share the culture and
traditions of India.
Aditya Upreti, a doctoral
candidate studying physics, joined
the club when he first came to the
University a few years ago and is now
the president of the association.
“It’s very important that all these
student groups and different cultures
are represented in the UA campus
because it brings a sense of closeness
among people,” Upreti said.
He said diversity on college
campuses encourages people to
learn about the unique cultures of its
citizens and people from around the
world. Additionally, it actively fights
injustice by helping others be more
accepting and respectful of others.
“The United States is a very big
country with so many different
cultures and people,” Upreti said.
“Having diversity in these student
groups is very important because it
brings a lot to the institution.”
Sandhiya Thiagarajan, a doctoral
candidate studying chemical and
bioengineering, is the vice president
of the association. She said their
main goal is to promote exchanges of
culture so that students feel accepted
and understood.
“There should always be a diverse
environment, where everybody
is given a chance to represent
their ideas and their views,”
Thiagarajan said.
The association is also open to
Indian families in the Tuscaloosa
community and anyone else who
wants to get involved. Within the
past few years, the club has seen a lot
of growth and many families attend
their events such as Bollywood
nights and Diwali.
Both Upreti and Thiagarajan said
they have enjoyed their experiences
at the University and like being a
part of ISAT because it makes them
feel more at home, strengthens their
leadership skills and allows them to
meet many new people.
African Students
Association
culture
The African Students Association
is an active group on campus that
welcomes international students
as well as people interested in
African culture.
The ASA’s mission states that
they support involvement on the
University’s campus and foster unity
amongst students regardless of race,
ethnicity or religious orientation.
Sunday Okafor, a doctoral
candidate studying civil engineering,
joined when he came to the Capstone
in 2021 and is now the president of
the organization.
“The primary aim of the
association is to create a community
for international students from
Africa and also to create an avenue
for other people to interact with and
learn more about the culture and
heritage,” Okafor said.
ASA hosts many activities and
events throughout the year that expose
the UA and Tuscaloosa communities
to African food, traditions and
heritage, in the hopes that attendees
will gain a new understanding and
respect for their culture.
Okafor said the organization also
helps international students from
Africa feel more at home and makes
them feel welcomed at the University.
“When we have diversity within
the University it helps us to learn
from each other, know the cultural
differences we have, and helps us to
know how to integrate better and to
live a better and more inclusive life,”
Okafor said.
ASA combats injustice on campus
by partnering with the University’s
Office of Diversity, Equity and
Inclusion, the International Student
and Scholar Services and with
other organizations that advocate
for diversity and the voices of
minority students.
Coming to Alabama from Nigeria
and working for the ASA has enabled
Okafor to meet new people and
develop personally by teaching him
valuable life skills.
“It takes patience and emotional
intelligence because you have
people of different backgrounds
and orientations,” Okafor said. “You
want to learn how to show empathy
and understand how to deal with
different types of people.”
He said the organization has
grown by over 50% within the past
year and has become a resource for
international students adjusting
to the University, while engaging
other students on campus through
social activities. Currently, there are
161 international students at the
University from Africa.
The BISON, ISAT and ASA
are just a few organizations that
promote diversity and inclusion
so all students can feel safe and at
home on campus. While increasing
diversity at the University may seem
small, these steps will hopefully
enact social justice and spark positive
change not only within institutions
of higher education, but also beyond
these institutions.
BOOKS
FOR THE
BLACK BELT
JAN 30 - FEB 24, 2023
Why?
The Alabama Black Belt includes some of the poorest counties in
the USA. We want to provide new or gently used K-12 books of any
genre, especially STEM and ACT Prep Books, so children in the
Black Belt can develop a love of learning and reading.
On-Campus
Autherine Lucy Hall
Blackburn Institute Office
Carmichael Hall
Honors Hall
Pi Beta Phi Sorority House
Reese Phifer Rotunda
SGA Office
Tuomey Hall
Wade Hall
Where?
Off-Campus
Alberta Baptist Church
Ernest & Hadley Booksellers
Stillman College
Student Center
United Way of
West Alabama
UA Center for
Economic Develpment
uaced.ua.edu/books-for-the-black-belt
Contact Erin Hackenmueller at 205-348-8344 or uaced@ua.edu
Indian faculties and their families at Diwali celebrations. Photo courtesy of Sandhiya Thiagarajan
The fact of the matter is a
lot of people don’t know
that indigenous people
are still alive. If you don’t
think that my race exists
then you also think my
issues don’t exist, and that
is super discouraging in any
environment.
KIANA YOUNKER
UA students celebrating Holi- the Indian festival of colors. Photo courtesy of Sandhiya Thiagarajan

opinions
5B
OPINION The filibuster stands in the way of justice
ALEX JOBIN
STAFF COLUMNIST
Since 2020, the U.S.
Senate has narrowly
favored the Democratic Party,
which effectively holds a 51-50
majority by way of independents
who caucus with Democrats and
Vice President Kamala Harris’
tie-breaking vote.
This might leave some voters
wondering why relatively little
headway has been made on
the Democratic legislative
agenda in the past few years
Outside of traditional issues
of government gridlock and
Sen. Joe Manchin’s penchant
for screwing over Democrats to
uphold austerity measures, there
is one massive culprit, America’s
very own legislative bogeyman:
the filibuster.
The filibuster, in short, is a way
to cease the passage of legislation
which would traditionally pass
the Senate with a simple 51-vote
majority by prolonging debate
on the bill until it dies on the
floor. This works, because a
“cloture” vote — one which must
be reached to end debate in the
Senate — has a higher threshold
of 60 votes.
In our recent era of highlycontested
and strongly polarized
politics, the filibuster has
become an unfortunate mainstay
in the minority party’s political
arsenal. It is time to do away
with it.
Do a quick “ctrl + f ” on our
nation’s founding document, the
Constitution, and you will notice
that the word “filibuster” is
nowhere to be found. Indeed, it
is an issue which early members
of our government explicitly
discouraged. Alexander
Hamilton called it “a poison” and
the Senate even once held the
same “previous question” rule as
the House which acts as a means
to end debate.
However, that “previous
question” rule was used so
infrequently by our early senators
that it was removed from the
Senate’s rulebook in 1806,
clearly without the foresight
that it would later become the
longest strand of hair clogging
our government’s metaphorical
shower drain.
Since then, the “previous
question” rule has not returned,
and the filibuster, which comes
from the Dutch word for “pirate,”
according to a 2021 historical
review by National Geographic,
has gone on to block, or at
least slow, the passage of what
could have been, and in some
cases became, some of the most
progressive and influential
legislation in our nation’s history.
This is true even after the cloture
rule was established in 1919.
The filibuster’s modern
prominence originated in
white supremacy, as Southern
senators intent on maintaining
both de jure and de facto
segregation during the Jim
Crow era. They successfully
used the tactic to block bills
CW / Reagan Christian
which would have criminalized
lynching and eliminated poll
taxes which dissuaded Black
political participation. The
longest continuous filibuster in
American history was performed
by Sen. Strom Thurmond in a
failed attempt to defeat the Civil
Rights Act of 1957; the cloture
threshold was lowered from
two-thirds to three-fifths in the
same year.
At least in 1957, Thurmond
had to actually stand on the
Senate floor and talk for over
24 hours; today, the filibuster
does not require such an effort.
We now live in the era of the
“stealth filibuster,” a filibuster
so scary that the mere mention
of its name sends lawmakers
fleeing down the Capitol’s halls.
All a senator must do in the
modern era to frustrate their
political opponents is declare the
intention to filibuster, effectively
raising the intended simple
majority vote of 51 to that 60-
vote threshold on any and every
piece of legislation which wishes
to pass the Senate.
As recently as 2021, the
filibuster has prevented the
passage of democrats’ voting
rights bill, S.1, which would
protect absentee and mailin
ballots, improve national
voter registration and counter
the other funny-but-malicious
word which continues to
plague our democratic process:
gerrymandering.
The absurdity of the filibuster
is obvious. It has led Senators
to do everything from reading
oyster recipes to reciting Dr. Seuss
in what is supposed to be one of
our nation’s most prestigious and
important institutions, all in the
name of gridlock.
In our recent era of highlycontested
and strongly
polarized politics, the
filibuster has become an
unfortunate mainstay in the
minority party’s political
arsenal. It is time to do away
with it.
There is a reason that the
history of the filibuster is tied
to blockage of voting reform; it
is a weapon molded from antidemocratic
intent and cured
in racism. If the American
people have elected a party into
the Senate majority, then they
expect results and wish to see
their agenda accomplished. The
filibuster is the antithesis to this,
and only acts to further separate
our legislators from the mandate
of the people.
It should not be controversial
to say that without
democracy, there can be no
justice. If we do not work
to protect the equal rights
guaranteed to all of us by
our most sacred laws and
documents, then we
fail to
ensure
that we will all be
afforded fair and just
treatment under
those laws. It is
in that spirit that
the filibuster must
be repealed,
whether through
the reestablishment of a
“previous question” rule or
through a lowering of the
cloture vote threshold to a
simple majority.
Unfortunately, many
senators wish to
keep this archaic relic intact
in order to preserve their own
individual power. Republicans
have been consistently losing
popular support for years, and
the abolition of the filibuster
threatens to deprive their
inequitable hold on power
even further.
It would eliminate their
stranglehold on progressive
legislation in the Senate and
also allow for the passage of
S.1, thereby snuffing out the
gerrymandering tactic which has
worked to prop up Republicans
in districts they may not have
otherwise controlled.
Some Democrats have also
been staunch supporters of the
filibuster, perhaps most notably
the aforementioned Manchin.
Manchin has used the single-vote
advantage which Democrats have
in the Senate to his own personal
advantage, holding massive
pieces of legislation hostage for
the purposes of gaining political
clout, appeasing his corporate
donors, and ensuring provisions
which would personally benefit
him and the capitalist interests
of his family members.
The absurdity of the
filibuster is obvious. It
has led Senators to do
everything from reading
oyster recipes to reciting Dr.
Seuss in what is supposed to
be one of our nation’s most
prestigious and important
institutions, all in the name
of gridlock.
Part of Manchin’s role as thorn
in the Biden administration’s
side has been the blocking of
filibuster reform — reform which
would minimize a spoiler like
himself ’s ability to abuse power
and clog legislative efficiency.
Of course, Manchin, like others,
has concealed his true motives
behind claims of necessary
“checks and balances,” when in
actuality he is only interested in
his checkbook and the balance
on his bank statement.
Recently, Manchin was seen
high-fiving fellow Senator
Kyrsten Sinema — formerly
a Democrat, but now an
independent — in jubilee over
their opposition to filibuster
reform. Sinema has also acted as
a regular roadblock to legislative
action and has grown highly
unpopular in her own state
of Arizona.
But no matter your political
leaning, you as the voter, should
welcome the death of the
filibuster. If you value your ability
to participate in a government of,
by and for the people, then you
should not settle for your words
falling on deaf ears. You should
celebrate anything which would
amplify your voice and ensure
that it is felt in the halls of our
nation’s Capitol.
When a minority holds the
power to stamp out that voice,
we no longer have democracy
and we no longer maintain the
spirit imbued in this country’s
foundation. Cries of “tyranny of
the majority” pale in comparison
to the true-blue hijacking of
the peoples’ will which the
filibuster embodies.
Indeed, how can we have a
“representative democracy”
when those we elect to represent
us are bound and gagged by inane
and racist precedent? But, God
forbid the American government
ever gains the ability to actually
effect real change in the 21st
century, right?
If you wish to see your
lawmakers actually make laws
instead of reading “Green Eggs
and Ham,” consider contacting
them and letting them know that
the era of the filibuster,“stealthy”
or not, must come to an end.