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Sports

How to be a sports fan

by Zoe Babad-Palmer on

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So, you want to be a sports fan. If you were not born wearing the jersey of the team that your family has followed for decades, beginning to follow sports can be intimidating, but it’s not as daunting a task as you may think. To help you on the journey, here are five easy steps to become a sports fan.

Step one: Choosing a sport

If you are just starting out, it’s best to stick with one sport. While one of the North American “Big Four”—baseball, basketball, football, or hockey—will probably be easier to follow from Montreal, don’t be afraid to follow a sport that is more popular internationally, like soccer or cricket. You can also try something more niche, such as fencing or Quidditch. If it calls to you, watch it.

Now you have your sport—let’s say you picked hockey. You are eager to get started, but the NHL has five games tonight, and you have no idea which to watch. This brings us to step two. 

Step two: Picking a team

The NHL, to continue with our example, has 31 teams. You might have an idea of which one you want to follow, maybe your home city’s team. It’s also fine if you have no idea. You can pick the team with the best logo or name, or the team that you heard mentioned on an episode of Bones years ago. You could pick the team that won the Stanley Cup last year, or the one that’s the favourite to win this year, because, despite what you might have heard, there is nothing wrong with being a “bandwagon fan.” If a team is popular, they’re probably fun to watch, so go for it.  

Since this is Montreal, let’s say you pick the Habs. Now it’s time to move on to step three.

Step three: Watching a game

If you are worried about learning the rules next, don’t worry: You will learn more from watching a game than you ever will from staring at a rulebook. Having a friend you can pester with questions at every whistle is also very helpful. If you like history, some research can be fun, but you are not a “fake fan” if you can’t list every time the Yankees won the World Series.

Going to games is a great experience. Major league games can get prohibitively expensive so consider going to a minor league or university game—The McGill Tribune is particularly fond of the McGill teams. The feeling of being surrounded by an arena full of fans cheering for your team is unparalleled.

Whether your team won or lost, you probably learned a lot from that first game. If they did lose, you might be questioning whether you made the right choice. This brings us to step four.

Step four: Learn to love losing

Teams lose. It happens. Not even the best teams win all of their games. But losing can have its benefits: Commiserating with fellow fans about a loss is almost as enjoyable as celebrating a win. Complaining about your team is a time-honoured tradition in most sports. You can also find bright spots in losses. Maybe a player you like snapped a goalless streak, or your team took fewer fouls than they did last game. 

Through losses and wins, you’ll experience a rollercoaster of emotions. It’s now time for the fifth, final, and most important part of this process: Step five. 

Step five: Have fun!

Despite the billions of dollars invested into sports, their ultimate purpose is to provide entertainment. At the end of the day, watching a game should be fun. Remember that, and you’ll do fine.

 

Congratulations, you’re a Certified Sports Fan! Welcome to the club. We’re happy to have you.

McGill, News

“Save Our Samosas” protest draws crowd of six

by Pascal Hogue on

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Six students gathered to protest McGill’s samosa ban in front of Roddick Gates on Nov. 4. The Facebook group ‘Save Our Samosas’ organized the protest and received over 1,200 likes on their page as of press time, with 600 students expressing interest in attending the event. While most of those who showed interest did not show up, those who did were not deterred by the poor attendance. One student chanted  “No samosas, no rights!” while performing a protest dance. Another student tried to get passers-by to join the rally, with mixed results. 

City of Montreal inspectors shut down a samosa sale fundraiser on Oct. 22 due to sanitation violations, prompting the Students’ Society of McGill University (SSMU) to ban all samosa sales on campus until a proper protocol regarding food sales can be developed. The decision was met with discontent by students who view samosas as a source of inexpensive food and a fundraising opportunity for student groups.

Michael Dickinson, U1 Arts, however, felt that the ban was unnecessary.

“We do not have to tolerate the tyrannical health department of this city telling our students at what temperature we can and cannot eat our samosas,” Dickinson said. “This is […] a massive example of government overreach. I came to Montreal thinking it was a liberal city in which I could live my life the way I wanted to.”

Avni Aghi, U0 Arts, expressed her disappointment with the new rules regarding samosa sales, saying that they demonstrate a lack of consideration for student life.

“Samosas are a source of cheap, nutritious, [and] fulfilling food for students on campus, and they’re taking that away from us,” Aghi said. “Student groups […] are doing a service [for] students on campus [.…] You get three samosas for [two] dollar[s]. And that’s a full meal […] which the university doesn’t seem to understand.”

SSMU Music Senator Sebastian Duckett also decried the ban. 

“We see this as what might be the greatest threat to student wellbeing on campus all year and definitely in my time here at McGill,” Duckett said. “Samosas are a staple of our culture and this should be taken as a direct attack on that.”

During the protest, attendees also discussed their concerns about student life in light of the samosa ban. One student worried the university could ban the farmers’ market next. 

By 1:12 p.m., a third of the crowd had to leave for a POLI 244 midterm. The rest of the protestors had disbanded by 1:27 p.m.

News, The Tribune Explains

Tribune Explains: McGill’s updated drug policy

by Kate Addison on

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McGill’s updated Policy Concerning Alcohol, Cannabis, and Other Drugs went into effect on Nov. 1. The McGill Tribune spoke with Gabriel Aboutboul and Matthew McLaughlin, representatives for Canadian Students for Sensible Drug Policy McGill (CSSDP), about how this policy will affect drug use at McGill. 

Which drugs are allowed under this policy?

The policy forbids the use of alcohol on McGill property unless it is done at residence or at an event that has acquired an alcohol permit. The use of non-medical cannabis and other illegal drugs is strictly forbidden, however, the consumption of marijuana for medicinal purposes is allowed. As in the rest of Canada, personal cannabis cultivation and the sale or distribution of cannabis or any other drug is prohibited without an official license. It is also in violation of the policy to promote marijuana products on school property or in university communications. Violations of the new policy will be considered non-academic offenses and may result in disciplinary measures, ranging from removal from university property to criminal charges.

Why is an updated policy necessary? 

The updated policy on drugs and alcohol replaces the interim rules enacted in Aug. 2018 following the federal government’s legalization of cannabis. The past guidelines prohibited the use and sale of cannabis on campus, excepting cases of use in academic research. Cynthia Lee, associate director for media relations at McGill, explained the reason for updating this interim policy. 

“There was no specific incident that caused the development of this policy,” Lee said. “When the university announced its interim cannabis rules shortly before the legalization of cannabis in Oct. 2018, Vice-Principal (Administration and Finance) Yves Beauchamp and Provost Christopher Manfredi informed the community that […] McGill will develop an [updated] policy addressing the possession and use of cannabis, alcohol and other drugs.” 

According to the policy statement, the purpose of the recent update is to promote a healthy, safe, and respectful environment for all members of the McGill community. However, McLaughlin, U2 Economics and Urban Systems, explained that this policy was not created solely at the discretion of the McGill administration. 

“The government of Quebec has a policy that says cannabis can’t be [smoked or vapourized] on campus. McGill goes a step further and says you can’t consume it in any form.” McLaughlin said. “If we were in let’s say [British Columbia (BC)], it might be a different story because in BC there’s no provincial law that says that you can’t consume cannabis on campus. In fact, [The University of British Columbia] has made it so that you can smoke or consume cannabis in certain sites.” 

To whom does the policy apply?

All members of the McGill community, including students, faculty, staff, and visitors to any of the school’s campuses must abide by the rules of this policy while on university property and while representing McGill at conferences or events. Certain members of the McGill community will be subject to specific clauses within the policy, such as employees, who are all prohibited from working under the influence of drugs or alcohol.

McLaughlin said that students who live in residences are also impacted by the campus-wide ban on recreational cannabis.

 “Students in residence, who literally live on campus […] have to essentially leave their homes. There’s no place for them to [consume cannabis] except for in the public street.” 

How will this policy impact people with substance–use disorders? 

For members of the McGill community with substance–use issues, accommodations will be made up to the point of unacceptable harm and inconvenience towards the university. Students and staff suffering from substance abuse are encouraged within the policy to seek support from the Employee & Family Assistance Program or Student Services.

Emerging Trends, Student Life

‘OK Boomer’ is a call to action

by Sophia White on

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‘OK Boomer,’ the digital world’s latest viral meme, has gained seemingly overnight attention from mainstream media outlets and spurred heated controversy between the young and old. Last week on Nov. 7, New Zealand Member of Parliament (MP) Chlöe Swarbrick dropped the phrase in response to heckling by an older MP. The catchphrase, initially popularized on the app TikTok, has become a more-or-less universal retort to shut down or make fun of older people whose views are considered out-of-touch among the younger generation.

The phrase was originally meant to target baby boomers, those born during an era of rapid population growth in Western Europe and North America between the mid-1940s and 1960s. While many baby boomers joined counterculture movements during their youth, younger people have since blamed them for many societal woes, from the high cost of college tuition to the failure to address climate change. Many Millenials and Gen Z-ers feel as though they were brought into the world by baby boomers and are now expected to clean up their mess, so to speak.

‘OK Boomer’ has become nothing short of a sensation, with a flood of tweets, TikToks, and Instagram posts to prove it. The catchphrase has interestingly even become a commodity, now appearing on t-shirts, phone cases, stickers, and reusable grocery bags. The trend is emblematic of Millenials’ and Gen Z-er’s rather unique ability to transform serious matters into both memes and marketing devices.

Despite its name, ‘OK Boomer’ has transcended its literal meaning and can now be used to address people of any age, as long as they exude boomer qualities. It is most frequently used as a retort to adults who seem dismissive of the younger generation’s concerns or who hold outdated views on gender roles, the job market, or immigration. On the other hand, younger people have notoriously been criticized by the older generation for being lazy, entitled, oversensitive, and obsessed with technology and avocado toast.

Skeptics of ‘OK Boomer’ seem rather puzzled about the potential implications of the term, as it is somewhat unclear as to whether ‘OK Boomer’ is just a meme or a call to action. Rather than shutting boomers down altogether, young people may be better suited to encourage them to hear us out on the problems we face today.

The growth of ‘OK Boomer’ in the public consciousness is indicative of both the new power of social media platforms to spread collective grievances and the enduring nature of generational divides in ideology.  Social media has become an extremely powerful tool, to the point that memes like ‘OK Boomer’ have set the media agenda and the narrative. In fact, many older people likely learned of ‘OK Boomer’ from the news. The emergence of the phrase through TikTok might be new and specific to today’s younger generation, but the generation gap has always existed. Boomers and Gen Z-ers have grown up in different eras and faced different obstacles throughout their lives, so they are bound to disagree and approach things from different perspectives. Rather than perpetuate this divide, it is important to learn how to breach the generation gap and collaborate on finding solutions to the issues we face today. As such, ‘OK Boomer’ should be taken as a call to action for both the young and old to address these problems together by drawing on their diverse perspectives. 

Young people seeking economic security while struggling to pay off their student loans are probably not looking to be lectured by those who shaped the policies that contributed to putting them into that situation. That said, it is important to not stereotype all ‘boomers’ as out-of-touch. ‘OK Boomer’ may have started out as a joke, but it now serves as an important reminder of the generation gap, as well as a call to action which implicates both young and old people.

Arts & Entertainment, Books

‘Find Me’ is stirring and lush

by Charlie Mascia on

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Andre Aciman’s new novel, Find Me, seems conscious of the burden of being a sequel to two works: It follows Aciman’s wildly popular Call Me by Your Name published in 2007, as well as Luca Guadagnino’s 2017 film adaptation. With the exception of choice passages and lines, Aciman resists allaying fans’ desire for a third immersion into the familiar dreamscape of the languorous, unhurried longing of two men during a summer without consequence.

The two protagonists remain the same. Elio, a melancholic and precocious adolescent has become, in the past decade, a classical pianist living in Paris. Oliver, the elegantly rugged philosophy student whom Elio fell in love with in the first novel is now a professor of the pre-Socratics in Manhattan. 

The sequel does not get to either of them until the halfway mark. Elio’s father, Samuel, a secondary but warm and insightful character in the original, directs Aciman’s streaming prose for the first hundred pages. We enter his thoughts as he engages in a dance of seduction by wits with a younger woman. These two lovers are sometimes frustratingly, unbelievably articulate in their introspective powers.

In Samuel’s courtship, there is little of the hesitant tension of the first novel. Reading Aciman, the everyday becomes a feast of sensual motion—the handling of a fresh fish, a momentary graze of the arm, even kisses which clumsily miss their marks. Tenderness is an inevitability in spontaneous, everyday interactions. The fog of rapturous adolescent lust in Call Me by Your Name has aged into a meditation on love, language, and time. Find Me sacrifices such youthful romance for a slower, more controlled passion.

Elio and Oliver each get their own parts of the novel. Elio, meets an older lawyer, Michel, at a concert. They tumble into an awkward romance which oscillates between a country estate and a darkened bistro in a loop of careful conversation and extravagant passion. Oliver, hosting a party in his apartment on the Upper West Side, dreams of being in bed with two of his guests. He hardly knows either of them but both feel more passionate and perceptive than his wife. In reality, he is drawn to the shimmering suggestion of Elio in each of them. 

Call Me by Your Name is a memory, recalled in the past tense by Elio. Find Me has the rushing immediacy of the present unfolding, yet Aciman’s prose retains this hazy quality. Perhaps, because his style here is more spare and abstract, demonstrating a departure from the film’s and first novel’s textured richness, where the environments were as enchanting as the seduction itself. 

“We all have many lives, one tucked beneath or right alongside the other,” one character remarks. For Aciman’s speakers, these interior lives are those remembered and imagined, coexisting in the imagination to render the present a prism which creates meaning only because it reflects the past, or what could have been. In his conclusion, Aciman presents an escape from this retrospection, yet it comes about only through a contradictory reclamation of what is in the past—or, rather, who. 

“A paradox is never an answer, it’s just a fractured truth, a wisp of meaning without legs,” muses a character. Find Me is, with its speakers who seek novel love and find only the shadows of old romance, exactly this sort of delightfully incomplete paradox. 

Album Reviews, Arts & Entertainment

Doja Cat’s ‘Hot Pink’ will keep you warm all winter

by Nicholas Raffoul on

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Only a year after her debut album Amala and viral Twitter sensation “MOOO!”, Doja Cat proves to audiences that she is no one hit-wonder with the release of Hot Pink, a sophomore album proving her audacity as an artist. While Amala signaled an effortless and playful entrance to the rap world, Hot Pink demonstrates that the 24-year-old rapper can consistently deliver deliberate and lush production. 

The album opens with steamy “Cyber Sex,” a bouncy beat that is reminsicent of the light and fruity energy of her Amala track “Game.” The track is accompanied by a gorgeous high-tech and futuristic video, showing off Doja Cat’s same lovable charm from “Go To Town,” but with creative high-production experimentation. The video is a sexy Black Mirror episode, featuring innovative metallic outfits and purposefully tacky visuals. 

Hot Pink matches the charismatic energy seen from Doja Cat in her previous hits, but the album overall feels far from repurposed. Doja Cat flexes a new range of creativity with a versatile set of tracks. She shows off her multifaceted talent with powerful and sexy “Bite,” “Say So,” and “Like That,” — all electric summery-hits that are more than welcome in these cold winter days. The second half of the album slows down, with “Addiction” and “Streets” offering Doja’s more sultry and hazy bedroom vocals. Where the album lacks a stylistic cohesion, Hot Pink satiates a range of moods that make for an all-round memorable set of tracks. 

Hot Pink ends with a remix of her iconic “Juicy,” a near-perfect track, spoiled only by the unfortunate Tyga feature. While Gucci Mane and Tyga are welcome additions to the album, Doja Cat’s solo tracks establish that her songwriting has more than enough substance on its own—a mix of genres, gorgeous vocals, and a captivating charisma that we first fell in love with last year. 

Science & Technology

44th SQEBC covers cognitive ecology and animal behaviour

by Julia Kossakowski on

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The 44th Société Québécoise pour l’Étude Biologique du Comportement (SQEBC) took place in the McIntyre Medical Building from Nov. 1–3, drawing speakers and attendees from around the world. This year, the theme of the conference was cognitive ecology, the study of cognitive phenomena in social and natural contexts. 

Organizers Simon Reader and Mélanie Guigueno, both professors in McGill’s Department of Biology, attended prior conferences, but this was their first time organizing SQEBC. 

“There were many rewarding aspects to the conference, namely the connections I built with the [four] invited speakers, who gave phenomenal plenaries on the theme of cognitive ecology,” Guigeno said in an interview with The McGill Tribune.

Researchers from around the province presented over 60 talks, as well as workshops on spatial analysis and careers within the field.

Sarah Benson Amram, an assistant professor in the Department of Zoology & Physiology at the University of Wyoming, presented her research on behavioural flexibility in carnivores, specifically raccoons. Known for their intelligence, raccoons have the same ratio of neurons-to-brain size found in primates. Benson Amram and her team set up problem-solving trials to test patterns of intelligence in raccoons and concluded that the individuals that attempted more solutions to the problems were more successful, a pattern that may also ring true for other carnivores. 

“The same cognitive abilities that are enabling [raccoon populations’] success in urban areas are actually bringing the most adaptive individuals into greater conflict with people,” Benson Amram said.

Adaptive raccoons can thrive in city environments because of their problem-solving capacity. However, their ability to do so makes them a pest to humans. As urbanization and city sprawl increases in North America, people are encountering wild animals more often, making research on species like raccoons essential for urban planning and conflict resolution. 

Studies on animalian social patterns are not limited to mammals. David White, a professor in the Department of Psychology at Wilfrid Laurier University, discussed his research on the cognition and social patterns of the cowbird, a parasitic species that lays its eggs in other birds’ nests. Through a set of logical trials, White and his team observed that female cowbirds prefer nests with more host eggs. By tracking nest and resource visits of Passive Integrated Transponder (PIT) tagged cowbirds, White described that, in most contexts, the smartest cowbirds rely on personal information, rather than social.

“In each circumstance, a female goes in, figures out the value of personal and public information in that moment, and makes a decision on which one is more valuable,” White said.

Another plenary speaker at the conference was Lauren Brent, a faculty member at the University of Exeter and McGill graduate. Brent presented her research on the affiliations within a group of rhesus macaques, a species of Old World monkey that she studies on Cayo Santiago, an island off of Puerto Rico. Macaques spend 20 per cent of their time grooming each other, making them ideal social network study subjects.

“Individuals that have received more grooming have greater reproductive output,” Brent said. “Stress [caused by lack of social support] at the molecular level recapitulates many of the hallmarks of aging.” 

Macaques with fewer social connections thus showed a higher biological age—the age at which the body functions—relative to chronological age, which describes how old the calendar says an individual is. Evidently, it pays to be socially connected, a conclusion that many human studies have also reached. In this way, by delicately designing research methods, cognitive ecologists can uncover innate animal behaviour, which contributes to a greater understanding of both the environment and humans.

Overall, the conference provided an opportunity for researchers and students from different backgrounds to learn about diverse, yet interconnected, research. 

“The breadth of the work is what struck me: From conservation biology to behavioural neuroscience, from across Quebec and also international researchers,” Reader said.

New York Knicks
Basketball, Sports

Supporting a team that never fails to disappoint

by Adam Burton on

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It’s a fact of life for all sports fans: At some point, your team will be bad. Some fans’ teams will be worse than others’, and the most unlucky of us all are the fans of teams that have been terrible for our entire lives. Regardless of how much you have been teased and tossed aside by your team, you are expected to stick it out and wait for the bright future ahead—no matter how ludicrous and far-removed it may be.

The New York Knicks have been remarkably terrible for nearly three decades. Unfortunately for me and Knicks fans everywhere, there does not seem to be a bright future in sight.

We are trapped in an eternal cycle of excitement, hope, and eventual soul-crushing disappointment. It has happened over and over again: The 1992 Game 7 loss to Michael Jordan and the Bulls; the fleeting hope of Carmelo Anthony and Linsanity; the Kristaps Porzingis trade; and, most recently, the possibility of signing Kevin Durant and drafting Zion Williamson. Nobody holds on to unfounded optimism like Knicks fans, but every time we fail, we’re slightly more deflated and cynical. Despite all this, there is one thing a true Knicks fan would never entertain: Leaving.

The team’s owner James Dolan represents everything that Knicks fans hate: He appears to have no knowledge of basketball, and his horribly timed hands-on management style have earned him the title of worst owner in sports according to some commentators. His oppressively tepid music, fedora-wearing habits, and increasingly fragile ego have also made him the Darth Vader of basketball.

Celebrity chef and Knicks superfan Eddie Huang echoed the sentiments of many Knicks fans when he spoke up on Hot Ones.

“Shoutout to the Knicks,” Huang said. “I love the Knicks, they give me these tickets, I get to go eat in the suite, but honestly, I have thought about killing James Dolan. They have very sharp steak knives, and I’m like, ‘Look, for the Knicks […], we might have to do this.’”

Huang was obviously joking, but grizzly steak-knife assasination plots highlight the limited options available to Knicks fans who wish to depose the cruel dictator James Dolan and restore the Knicks to their pre-1970s glory.

After years of suffering, I have realized something: I love to hate the Knicks. The team has not won a championship since 1973, yet remains the most valuable basketball franchise by $300 million. The most memorable moment the Knicks have had in two decades was Linsanity—a two week winning streak, led by Jeremy Lin, in an otherwise forgettable 2011-12 season. New York fans spend so much money on merchandise and tickets that the franchise value rose $170 million in the span of one week. We love to lose our minds over nothing, and I will be there every time, no matter how disappointed I know I will be. 

I do not expect my team to ever be good, and I am fine with that. Being the worst team for so long has given Knicks fans a shared experience, something to stand for, and practice in self deprecation. It’s the most prolific culture of ineptitude in sports today. Chanting “Sell the team!” and heckling JD & the Straight Shot—James Dolan’s unremarkable band that screams “We only exist because I inherited my dad’s money”—on the night of the 2017 draft are the only victories we need, as long as we are together, united by our frustrations. I would rather be last and proud, waiting for the number one overall draft pick that will never come, than be stuck as a mediocre potential eighth seed without a shared community.

Commentary, Opinion

Lecture halls are still unsafe for racialized students

by Favour Daka on

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On Oct. 23, an English professor at the University of Western Ontario used the n-word while describing terms that were historically used to refer to certain classes of slaves. The nonchalant use of a word with such violent historical and current implications was justifiably met with outrage by Black students in the lecture hall who felt deeply humiliated and angered. In addition to this offense, the professor claimed that he used the n-word was to “get a reaction” from students. This is a dangerous statement because it plays into a historical narrative that has disregarded the position and sensitivity of Black people. Further, it serves as a prime example of the ways in which academic spaces continue to exist as racialized spaces, where historical realities can manifest in damaging ways. 

Academia often prides itself on being neutral and unprejudiced, an environment where anyone, from any background, can engage in the dissemination and acquisition of knowledge. This neutrality often serves to actively ignore the ways in which racialized people are misunderstood and misrepresented within this supposedly all-inclusive intellectualism. In bringing the need for representation to the forefront, the Black Students’ Network of McGill (BSN) has proposed a Black Students’ Bill of Rights as a way of advocating for the rights of Black students. This would act as an essential step forward towards broader institutional recognition of the ways in which the black experience at McGill is marginalized. 

 The Black Students’ Bill of Rights highlights the barriers that Black students face at McGill, including a lack of representation within the teaching and professional staff, microaggressions, physical and online harassment, racial profiling and various forms of verbal discrimination. This bill also aims to suggest ways in which McGill can better accommodate the equal existence of Black students by first recognizing the distinct experiences and needs of Black students on an institutional level.

“In bringing the need for representation to the forefront, the Black Students’ Network of McGill (BSN) has proposed a Black Students’ Bill of Rights as a way of advocating for the rights of Black students.”

 Following the incident at Western, it is clear that the conception of academic spaces as sterile and welcoming to all is far from an all-encompassing reality. This incident serves to remind us of why a Black Students’ Bill of Rights is needed, especially one that specifically considers the daily challenges Black students face while navigating an academic space such as McGill. It is also important in outlining the appropriate steps McGill can take to better cater to the needs of Black students both presently and in the future.

 In making sure that this Black Students’ Bill of Rights is as comprehensive as possible, BSN called for a town hall on Oct. 22. It focused on discussing the barriers that Black students face at McGill, as well as using an online consultation form to collect feedback from Black students regarding their experiences in general. BSN proposes that this Bill of Rights will create an institutional structure which will allow Black students to better advocate for their needs on campus and it will also aim to hold the McGill administration accountable to its commitments to Black students.  

 Since McGill’s founder, James McGill, was a slave owner, the very history of McGill’s inception is tied to anti-Black racism. For example, until 2017 McGill did not officially celebrate Black History Month, despite the month being recognized by the House of Commons in 1995. Considering the university was established in 1821, that marks 196 years of institutional disregard for Black students and Black history, again reinforcing the need for a Black Students’ Bill of Rights.

“Since McGill’s founder, James McGill, was a slave owner, the very history of McGill’s inception is tied to anti-Black racism.”

 Academia, and more specifically McGill, has a role in ensuring that feelings of marginalization and ostracization are reduced for all its students, especially those of racialized backgrounds. The Black Students’ Bill of Rights serves as an important step towards creating an academic space that is truly inclusive and accommodating of the challenges Black and racialized students face. However, this should not be seen as a singular and temporary push for Black students rights under the guise of inclusivity, but rather as a demand for continuous institutional introspection over how to commit to the welfare of marginalized students.

Off the Board, Opinion

The hidden hurdles of a wallflower

by Helen Wu on

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The social interactions of everyday life exhaust me. Oftentimes, I would rather observe commotion unfold before me than engage in it. Due to our reserved nature, introverts like myself are frequently asked if we are okay when, in reality, we are happily minding our own business. Although the people asking these questions generally mean well, they make me wonder whether my natural disposition is somehow unfit for my environment.

Western society has always expected that women be approachable, chatty, and outgoing in social situations. However, I have learned that it is fine not to pretend to have any of those traits just to gain the validation of my peers. At social gatherings, I find myself hiding in the host’s bedroom, leaving early, or staying in one corner of the room, with no desire to network or strike up a shallow conversation. This is not to say I am unkind or hostile; I am just not interested in talking about superficialities like the snow, how classes are going, or which Netflix shows we are watching. After lengthy periods of socializing, I need some downtime, either spent alone or with one or two close friends.

In a world run by extroverts, I often feel that my capabilities are overshadowed by my peers’ forwardness in the classroom, on teams, or during group work. Those who earn leadership positions are usually outspoken, as they gain the trust of others more easily. Extroverts are more recognized because of their affable nature, while introverts struggle to break out of their personal space and are consequently perceived as cold. 

It is more difficult for me to prove my skillset in a group, however, I have realized that the affirmation of my capabilities is not necessary for me to make an impact. While it has always been frustrating to watch leadership positions be given to those able to make an impression, I now find my place in settings that prioritize the quality of one’s ideas. As a student conducting research in a life-science laboratory, I found a place that does not stress the importance of extroversion. Scientific research does not have to be done out loud, therefore, allowing reserved voices to investigate revolutionary ideas in peace. Although extroverts often have an advantage, even in science, I feel more powerful presenting data than when sharing my opinions on politics. In the end, what changes the world is not how people present themselves but rather the actions they take and the relationships they build. 

“This is not to say I am unkind or hostile; I am just not interested in talking about superficialities like the snow, how classes are going, or which Netflix shows we are watching. After lengthy periods of socializing, I need some downtime, either spent alone or with one or two close friends.”

Although I have a low tolerance for frivolous interactions, I do value genuine relationships and care about those around me. I prefer forming new friendships in less clamorous settings, where I can focus on learning about a person’s more important experiences. While speaking out in a group seems effortless for extroverts, it takes a lot of energy from me, and when I do, I find my voice drowned out by those around me. Both introverts and extroverts hold ideas that are worthwhile and it is beneficial for everyone to make space for their ideas to come through.

Naturally, I am a listener and a thinker rather than a speaker. However, my silence does not mean that I have no opinions. Although I speak up when I have something important to say, I prefer to reflect before speaking. Frankly, the conspicuous voices of extroverts that dominate the room deter introverts from expressing themselves. Although I am introverted, I do want to share my thoughts, be acknowledged for my work and have insight to bring to the table. People should be more cognizant of the ideas being left behind when louder voices eclipse those that may be more reserved. Words are powerful, but silence does not correlate with inadequacy.

 

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