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670 lines
78 KiB
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<title>21 November, 2022</title>
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<title>Daily-Dose</title><meta content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0" name="viewport"/><link href="styles/simple.css" rel="stylesheet"/><link href="../styles/simple.css" rel="stylesheet"/><style>*{overflow-x:hidden;}</style><link href="https://unpkg.com/aos@2.3.1/dist/aos.css" rel="stylesheet"/><script src="https://unpkg.com/aos@2.3.1/dist/aos.js"></script></head>
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<h1 data-aos="fade-down" id="daily-dose">Daily-Dose</h1>
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<h1 data-aos="fade-right" data-aos-anchor-placement="top-bottom" id="contents">Contents</h1>
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<ul>
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<li><a href="#from-new-yorker">From New Yorker</a></li>
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<li><a href="#from-vox">From Vox</a></li>
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<li><a href="#from-the-hindu-sports">From The Hindu: Sports</a></li>
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<li><a href="#from-the-hindu-national-news">From The Hindu: National News</a></li>
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<li><a href="#from-bbc-europe">From BBC: Europe</a></li>
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<li><a href="#from-ars-technica">From Ars Technica</a></li>
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<li><a href="#from-jokes-subreddit">From Jokes Subreddit</a></li>
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</ul>
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<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-new-yorker">From New Yorker</h1>
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<ul>
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<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>The Indian Coal Mine That Razed a Village and Shrank a Forest</strong> - A company run by Asia’s richest man, Gautam Adani, is strip-mining tribal lands for fossil fuels. Forest-dwellers are fighting back. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/dispatch/the-indian-coal-mine-that-razed-a-village-and-shrank-a-forest">link</a></p></li>
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<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Why Jerome Powell Could Be the Most Important Person in Washington Between Now and 2024</strong> - With gridlock looming in Congress, the task of stabilizing the economy will fall largely on the Fed chair. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/our-columnists/why-jerome-powell-could-be-the-most-important-person-in-washington-between-now-and-2024">link</a></p></li>
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<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>When Election Deniers Concede</strong> - In the midterms, voters rejected Stop the Steal candidates in critical swing states. Is the democracy crisis over? - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/the-political-scene/when-election-deniers-concede">link</a></p></li>
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<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>How to Pay for Climate Justice When Polluters Have All the Money</strong> - The COP27 climate conference, in Egypt, was in large part a global search for cash. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/how-to-pay-for-climate-justice-when-polluters-have-all-the-money">link</a></p></li>
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<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Will the New Special Counsel Bring Donald Trump to Justice?</strong> - The task for Merrick Garland—and now Jack Smith—is to ignore political considerations and resolve the investigations as speedily and equitably as possible. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/will-the-new-special-counsel-bring-donald-trump-to-justice">link</a></p></li>
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</ul>
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<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-vox">From Vox</h1>
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<ul>
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<li><strong>Black Panther: Wakanda Forever unearthed deep colorism within Latino communities</strong> -
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<figure>
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<img alt="" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/vrcVUHKXESjNUb9f6l1a23HhdxA=/163x0:1136x730/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/71656231/namor2.0.jpg"/>
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<figcaption>
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Namor, played by Tenoch Huerta Mejía. | Marvel/Disney
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</figcaption>
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</figure>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
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Tenoch Huerta Mejía is breaking barriers as Namor. White Latinos are bristling.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="zxj8RJ">
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As viewers return to the futuristic, fictional country of Wakanda, the latest <a href="https://www.vox.com/culture/23447763/black-panther-wakanda-forever-marvel-phase-4"><em>Black Panther</em></a> movie is once again the focus of complicated and heated discussions about representation. Except this time, casting decisions have run headlong into the knotty politics of Latino representation.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="zc5UuK">
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While most American audiences see <em>Black Panther: Wakanda Forever </em>as a win for Black and Latino communities — with the introduction of underwater king Namor played by Mexican actor Tenoch Huerta Mejía — the reaction in Mexico has been much bumpier. Last month, newscasters for Mexico’s ADN40 channel <a href="https://www.debate.com.mx/ciudaddemexico/Racismo-a-la-inversa-Activistas-responden-a-comentarios-sobre-discriminacion-de-conductores-de-TV-20221015-0260.html">complained</a> that the movie’s focus on darker-skinned Latino actors is a form of discrimination against white Latinos.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="skKx9n">
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“The only thing they achieve is to separate people more,” said host Vaitiare Mateos in Spanish. “The people in a production must be selected for their talent and not for their skin color.”
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="4nR0dS">
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For centuries, colorism, or the discrimination against those with darker skin tones within the same group, has haunted Latino communities across the Americas. The echoes of the Spanish caste system still impact everything from <a href="https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanam/article/PIIS2667-193X(22)00162-4/fulltext">health outcomes</a> to <a href="https://www.debate.com.mx/ciudaddemexico/Racismo-a-la-inversa-Activistas-responden-a-comentarios-sobre-discriminacion-de-conductores-de-TV-20221015-0260.html">job opportunities</a>. That violent history is something that <em>Black Panther: Wakanda Forever</em> tries to address; the characters portrayed by Latinos are intended to be Mesoamerican and that’s key to the story, which grapples with the horrors of colonialism.
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</p>
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<div class="c-float-right">
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<aside id="iUkGQI">
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<q>“The people in a production must be selected for their talent and not for their skin color”</q>
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</aside>
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</div>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="fQTwTN">
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Namor and his Talokan countrymen are connected to the <a href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/the-mesoamerican-influences-behind-namor-from-black-panther-wakanda-forever-180981106/">Maya and Aztec cultures</a>, and to a time before the Spanish were able to systematically oppress Mesoamerican people and their lands. To escape smallpox and certain death, the Talokanils went underwater (with the help of an in-world magic plant). There, they shielded themselves from slavery.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="rhozgJ">
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It’s important to note here that Latinos are not a monolithic group. There are Indigenous and Black Latinos as well as mixed and white ones. There are also Indigenous groups who don’t identify as Latino at all but live in Latin American countries. The <em>Black Panther </em>actors do not all identify as Indigenous, but some do have Indigenous or mixed ancestry. (Most Indigenous groups agree, though, that to identify as Indigenous requires more than a distant ancestor — there has to be lived experience and <a href="https://www.un.org/development/desa/indigenouspeoples/wp-content/uploads/sites/19/2018/11/UNDRIP_E_web.pdf">community acceptance.</a>) Regardless, to cast white Latinos as the Talokanils wouldn’t have been the right call.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ClXSRf">
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The ADN40 clip is now going viral on TikTok, where creators are highlighting how, within Latin media, lighter-skinned (especially white) actors are cast at much higher rates than darker ones. If you grew up on telenovelas, you would know that the lead characters were almost always green- or blue-eyed, and anyone who was a “moreno” would be <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/2000/08/03/the-blond-blue-eyed-face-of-spanish-tv/bb1806c5-1f84-412c-a6b5-07b4f04ba46e/">relegated</a> to goofy sidekicks or nosy maids. American entertainment, too, comes with its own typecasting of Latinos.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="W5IE0V">
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In the grand scheme of things, fretting about representation in corporate superhero movies might seem like misplaced attention. But colorism is a nasty disease within Latino communities, in the US and elsewhere. It’s a multilayered problem that for so long has been pushed to the side or ignored. We have a chance to hash that out now.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Izlwaw">
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As Angie Gutierrez, a political science professor at the University of Texas, Austin, who teaches a course on the politics of Latino identity, said, “Going forward, if we want to really address this, we’re going to have these difficult conversations.”
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</p>
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<h3 id="U6szBz">
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The <em>Black Panther</em> sequel cast darker-skinned Latinos. And that’s a problem?
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</h3>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="U9DhCa">
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First thing’s first: spoilers are ahead. If you haven’t seen the movie<em> </em>and you decide to keep reading, that’s on you. (Or you can skip this section!)
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</p>
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<figure class="e-image">
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<img alt="Image of a spoiler warning" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/uPQF4l3Wvpgo7pB7TTD6_3CasSQ=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/8565937/spoilers_below.png"/>
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</figure>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="stTlZ2">
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While <em>Black Panther: Wakanda Forever </em>is primarily about grief, it’s also about forging and failing to find solidarity. The premise, more or less, is that ever since the now-deceased King T’Challa (Chadwick Boseman) revealed Wakanda’s wealth and strength to the rest of the world, other nations clamor for their primary resource: vibranium, a super-powerful (fictional!) metal. Because Wakanda, rightfully, does not trust these other countries, they refuse to share it, leading to attempts at theft and mining of the ocean floor. That’s where Tenoch Huerta Mejía’s character, Namor, comes in.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="1ej9oY">
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Namor — the leader of Talokan, an underwater Mesoamerican society — approaches Queen Ramonda (Angela Bassett) and Princess Shuri (Letitia Wright) after his people dismantled an American-made vibranium detector. Like Wakanda, Talokan is vibranium-rich, and has spent centuries keeping this a secret from other nations. Namor pleads for help and political allyship (read: Please kill the scientist who is responsible for the detector) out of desire to protect the Talokanils, who had already escaped colonialism’s trenches. When things go sideways, the two nations are pitted against each other, despite their shared appreciation for one another.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="lyY28Z">
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However, this is not the “separation” that the ADN40 hosts and other white Latinos are upset about. In their eyes, the controversy lies with the fact that Marvel only cast darker-skinned Latinos with Indigenous features or who are Indigenous themselves. There are several layers to this knee-jerk reaction of “forced inclusion,” said Alejandra Chávez Menendez, a Mexico City-based DEI consultant for <a href="https://www.lmfnetwork.com/">LMF Network</a>. According to her, the historical intertwining of classism, racism, and colorism has led to a response rooted in discomfort.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="L06C8I">
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“The stories that we watch have been framed from a white-, male-, straight-centric viewpoint,” said Chávez Menendez. “So when things deviate from that, the first reaction is rejecting that because we’re just not used to it.”
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</p>
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<div class="c-float-left">
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<aside id="1l89uD">
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<q>“The stories that we watch have been framed from a white-, male-, straight-centric viewpoint”</q>
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</aside>
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</div>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="qdUlhf">
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Huerta Mejía has spoken several times about the perception of white Latinos around casting decisions in Latin America. In a June <a href="https://www.vice.com/en/article/7kb5pe/black-panther-tenoch-huerta-calls-out-mexico-racism">interview with Vice,</a> he told reporter Emily Green about the hurdles he has faced in Mexico when pursuing roles. “They need thieves, they need kidnappers, they need whores,” he told Vice. “So they call the brown-skinned people to make them. And we fit under that stereotype. They are always calling me to make the same character. It’s the bad guy — always. But I always make a different version. Because for me, it’s a person. I create a new personality, a new character each time.”
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="70QSdw">
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Namor, for sure, breaks some of those stereotypes, despite being the “bad guy.” Like Killmonger before him, Namor is strong, sympathetic, and sexy. He’s powerful and admirable, with a deep sense of loyalty. He’s not meant to be seen as entirely evil. And even with his miscalculations, it’s hard to walk away from watching the movie without sharing Namor’s sense of pride in what he has built for his people.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="zOIQX8">
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In the US, Latino roles are hard to come by. Only around 8 percent of roles in American movies go to Latino actors, according to a <a href="https://socialsciences.ucla.edu/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/UCLA-Hollywood-Diversity-Report-2022-Film-3-24-2022.pdf">2022 Hollywood diversity report</a>, conducted by the University of California Los Angeles. Huerta Mejía is not the first Latino Marvel character; Salma Hayek and Xochitl Gomez, who are both Mexican, had key roles in <em>Eternals </em>and <em>Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness</em>, respectively. The <em>Star Wars</em> franchise, too, had Pedro Pascal, Oscar Isaac, Diego Luna, and Benicio del Toro. Yet, even in American media, these roles tend to go to those with lighter skin. Huerta Mejía’s casting, alongside Yalitza Aparicio in the 2018 film <em>Roma</em>, has been indicative of a recent push to include morenos and indígenas.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="oPSDgW">
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“Representation is not about just having Latinos with dark skin up on screen,” Chávez Menendez said. “It’s not just about having them or a quota. It’s about the type of roles.”
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</p>
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<h3 id="spXYy0">
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The myth of mestizaje
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</h3>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="5AoPoH">
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It’s easy to apply an American lens to discrimination; there is so much of it there. But to truly understand the ugliness that has emerged in the aftermath of the movie’s release, it’s necessary to untangle the differences in the way colonialism was executed.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="DSlXPB">
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In what later became the United States, Anglo-Saxon colonizers wanted to kill and erase the “Indians” who were living there in order to create a sanctuary for white Protestants, said Niria Alicia, a Xicana Indígena community organizer and climate activist. “It was a very Puritan way of colonization where they didn’t mix, versus what happened in Latin America,” Alicia said.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="jUW6Rd">
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The Spanish, who were coming to Mesoamerica from Spain, had already experienced intercultural and racial mixtures via the Moors and other racial groups. So they then mixed with Indigenous and Black peoples, sometimes violently, and imposed a caste system to subjugate others, with white people at the top.
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</p>
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<figure class="e-image">
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<img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/Jg4dSwjHI6tF81bcezwNWSIDYW8=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/24210626/namor1.jpg"/> <cite>Marvel/Disney</cite>
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<figcaption>
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Namor, underwater.
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</figcaption>
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</figure>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ZGKaPB">
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“In their mixture, they could still favor whiteness by creating those caste categories,” said Alicia. “They couldn’t just so easily get rid of everybody. They had to make sure that they put [those groups] at the bottom of the pyramid and reminded them that that’s where they belong.”
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="M4cz1H">
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The caste system still lingers today but is intentionally ignored and denied by Latin American countries. A large part of that is because ignoring differences was fundamental to creating a national identity when so many countries were fighting for independence against Spain. In Mexico, specifically, nation builders claimed that everyone was mestizo: To be Mexican is to be mixed. The <a href="https://www.mdpi.com/2313-5778/4/3/77/htm">myth of mestizaje</a> was born.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="usMyzZ">
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And while, yes, most people are mixed (myself included), what happens when there is no explicit addressing of the structural inequities caused by centuries of colorism is that it becomes accepted classism.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="qusHTm">
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“In the case of Mexico, if they see people with darker skin color or from Indigenous communities, it’s more likely they’ll be less educated, come from low-income backgrounds, and probably have less opportunity for social mobility,” said Chávez Menendez. “This feeds into classism, which is differentiating access and treatment of people based on your socioeconomic background.”
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="DvFHE4">
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Discussions around the reality of economic and social outcomes — in addition to things like representation — has led to a sense of defensiveness for people who have benefited from a culture of silence, like the news anchors at ADN40.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="fs0vng">
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“This forces us to reckon with 500 years of violent history where white Latinos are getting to see the violence of the caste systems that their ancestors were responsible for creating,” Alicia said. “It also forces us to reckon spiritually with how unsuccessful colonizers were in their attempts to eradicate us and forever make us inferior to them. They now have to reckon with our power and their unsuccessful genocidal efforts.”
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="RjwMpX">
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For the record: If white Latinos don’t see themselves in the Talokans, they can still find plenty of representation with the Spanish colonizers, who are depicted in an accurately unflattering light.
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</p>
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<h3 id="WdToBn">
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Surface-level representation alone won’t get us far
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</h3>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="cg8Mgt">
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Since white Latino newscasters have opened the can of worms that is colorism and separation in Latino communities, it’s worth finally talking about the other problems wriggling around. There’s the representation the actors bring — which is good and challenging around discussions about colorism — and then there’s the representation the Talokanil characters bring. “It really isn’t just a matter of descriptive representation in terms of having someone like me, but having those viewpoints actually reflected back,” said Gutierrez, the UT professor. “That’s what’s crucial.”
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="iUvbfQ">
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That’s where <em>Black Panther </em>could use more attention and criticism. To an American audience, the Talokanil can feel exciting since it seems like they “survived” colonialism and “maintained” their culture. But that falls into a trope of situating Indigenous peoples in the past tense. There are millions of Indigenous peoples living in Latin America. The Maya, which the movie draws heavy inspiration from, still exist. (I am no authority on the depiction of Indigenous groups, but I have to expect that creating the Talokanil from an amalgamation of cultures will probably lead to a flattening of those respective groups in the collective American understanding).
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</p>
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<div class="c-float-right">
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<aside id="jrHqXx">
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<q>“It’s the neocolonial tactics … they just have to feed us these stories that we are each other’s enemies, and then we do the dirty job for them”</q>
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</aside>
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</div>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ZzsHHt">
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There’s also, frankly, the race war of it all; the Talokanil versus the Wakandans. While this conflict does resolve itself, more or less, there’s something to be said about how the pressure from Western, predominantly white nations creates an environment where colonized peoples feel like they have to fight each other for resources or support. As Alicia told me, “It’s the neocolonial tactics of they no longer have to, you know, beat us and kill us — they just have to feed us these stories that we are each other’s enemies, and then we do the dirty job for them.”
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="lk5H6C">
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I don’t think a Disney movie will ever fully be able to grapple with that dynamic well. This isn’t the primary concern around the film, but it does seem like a more legitimate line of complaint than “not enough white Mesoamericans.”
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Dkryay">
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At the end of the day, <em>Black Panther: Wakanda Forever </em>is a movie operating within an American paradigm and understanding of world cultures. It’s not going to revolutionize the way Latinos talk about other Latinos or about Indigenous peoples on its own. If we really want to create better futures, not just in fiction but in real life, we need to rip off the bandage around colorism ourselves.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="CzWdCs">
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“The first step to move the needle is acknowledging the problem and that racism and classism in Mexico and Latin American countries exist,” Chávez Menendez, the DEI expert, said. “Then challenging [yourself] to set the tone — that’s a hard one because it’s about getting uncomfortably honest with yourself.”
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</p></li>
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<li><strong>The world to come</strong> -
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<figure>
|
||
<img alt="" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/C_-fGdd4mtbjUChmdRgEPJF2qeY=/478x0:3343x2149/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/71656197/DoubleUp_Vox_Cake_Still.0.jpg"/>
|
||
<figcaption>
|
||
Double Up Studio for Vox
|
||
</figcaption>
|
||
</figure>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
Earth’s population passed 8 billion this month — now what? Plus: the rise of an anti-vaccine America, the looming dangers of superintelligent AI, the shifting landscape of higher ed, and more.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Ke1809">
|
||
This month, the 8 billionth human was born. But that number can elide a sobering fact: Population trends in many parts of the world have been dipping, even as growth is still robust in much of the Global South. It’s a phenomenon that will, as much as any other trend, shape the future.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="WokvPb">
|
||
That future is the loose theme of this edition of <a href="https://www.vox.com/the-highlight?itm_campaign=hlnov22&itm_medium=article&itm_source=landing-page-toc">The Highlight</a>, created by the Future Perfect team at Vox. <a href="https://www.vox.com/future-perfect?itm_campaign=hlnov22&itm_medium=article&itm_source=landing-page-toc">Future Perfect</a> is the section of Vox that looks at stories that are sadly neglected but truly important. Whether that’s surfacing the innovations reshaping society, calling attention to policies that are quietly monumental, or interrogating ideas that could reshape moral and ethical norms, Future Perfect is a guide to the future that will be — and could be.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="k9KlBr">
|
||
That approach is what animates this edition of The Highlight. We hope you enjoy it.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="pYJ9tq">
|
||
—<a href="https://www.vox.com/authors/bryan-walsh">Bryan Walsh</a> (Editor, Future Perfect) & <a href="https://www.vox.com/authors/elbert-ventura">Elbert Ventura</a> (Editorial Director, Vox)
|
||
</p>
|
||
<figure class="e-image">
|
||
<img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/5ehybxHPmrUY9_PVbv6fK1KCa_g=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/24184796/Vox_Highlight_Story_1_Final_16_9_.JPG"/> <cite>Violeta Encarnacion for Vox</cite>
|
||
</figure>
|
||
<h3 id="2QFivb">
|
||
<a href="https://www.vox.com/the-highlight/23436211/overpopulation-population-8-billion-people?itm_campaign=hlnov22&itm_medium=article&itm_source=landing-page-toc"><strong>Are 8 billion people too many — or too few?</strong></a>
|
||
</h3>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="c8Dvtn">
|
||
Welcome to the population paradox of the 21st century.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="BwPgkg">
|
||
<em>By Bryan Walsh</em>
|
||
</p>
|
||
<hr class="p-entry-hr" id="2lM0mD"/>
|
||
<figure class="e-image">
|
||
<img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/CKV5oaDvadJLyLSLR9VY5h6xk9k=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/24182967/Vox_November_Highlight_Story_3__Composition_3__Final.jpg"/> <cite>Violeta Encarnacion for Vox</cite>
|
||
</figure>
|
||
<h3 id="t7NR4G">
|
||
<a href="https://www.vox.com/the-highlight/23428166/college-enrollment-population-education-crash?itm_campaign=hlnov22&itm_medium=article&itm_source=landing-page-toc"><strong>The incredible shrinking future of college</strong></a>
|
||
</h3>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="dlwnFV">
|
||
The population of college-age Americans is about to crash. It will change higher education forever.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="yGzTYo">
|
||
<em>By Kevin Carey</em>
|
||
</p>
|
||
<hr class="p-entry-hr" id="CE8t81"/>
|
||
<figure class="e-image">
|
||
<img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/XbJJ0-zXEUj51QoLeMcC4Kj13RE=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/24183147/vox_jasu_hu_nov2022_2.jpg"/> <cite>Jasu Hu for Vox</cite>
|
||
</figure>
|
||
<h3 id="lCnBk5">
|
||
<strong>Will America continue to turn away from vaccines? </strong><em><strong>(Coming tomorrow)</strong></em>
|
||
</h3>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="LzDM4V">
|
||
Covid-19 vaccines helped stem the pandemic, but public skepticism about them could doom future vaccines.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="pQrtmn">
|
||
<em>By Yasmin Tayag</em>
|
||
</p>
|
||
<hr class="p-entry-hr" id="w2AXlq"/>
|
||
<figure class="e-image">
|
||
<img alt="A realistic portrait illustration shows Robert Greenstein, an older white man with short gray hair and mustache, taking off a pair of black-framed glasses to look at the viewer. Behind him is a stylized depiction of clouds and wind in orange and white. The suit he wears is made up of many hands reaching upward, in shades of blue." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/jvK0yuonRL8Mr572XV5ot04tCmg=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/24182934/Vox_November_Highlight_Story_6_Final.jpg"/> <cite>Violeta Encarnacion for Vox</cite>
|
||
</figure>
|
||
<h3 id="30gy9p">
|
||
<strong>The unradical revolution of Robert Greenstein </strong><em><strong>(Coming tomorrow)</strong></em>
|
||
</h3>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="MivJOi">
|
||
Robert Greenstein isn’t a household name. But his four-decade career pushing Washington to stitch the safety net has changed the lives of millions of Americans.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="6q7dem">
|
||
<em>By Dylan Matthews</em>
|
||
</p>
|
||
<hr class="p-entry-hr" id="ImFo4E"/>
|
||
<figure class="e-image">
|
||
<img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/oCm5Ecj86qOpeVz6QThqfxFp1w4=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/24184786/vox_jasu_hu_nov2022_3.jpg"/> <cite>Jasu Hu for Vox</cite>
|
||
</figure>
|
||
<h3 id="L3Y70l">
|
||
<strong>AI experts are increasingly afraid of what they’re creating </strong><em><strong>(Coming Monday, November 28)</strong></em>
|
||
</h3>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="8RoNNq">
|
||
AI gets smarter, more capable, and more world-transforming every day. Here’s why that might not be a good thing.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="5nhdu7">
|
||
<em>By Kelsey Piper</em>
|
||
</p>
|
||
<hr class="p-entry-hr" id="zQzj7M"/>
|
||
<figure class="e-image">
|
||
<img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/aHWNcgMmY2kzL38jPrMgxoATd3Q=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/24184787/Vox_November_Highlight_Story_7__Dark_Version__Final_16_9.JPG"/> <cite>Violeta Encarnacion for Vox</cite>
|
||
</figure>
|
||
<h3 id="wqLxlb">
|
||
<strong>Poor countries are developing a new paradigm of mental health care. America is taking note. </strong><em><strong>(Coming Monday, November 28)</strong></em>
|
||
</h3>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="un1BMU">
|
||
This is what the future of mental health could look like.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="7VZS9n">
|
||
<em>By Sigal Samuel</em>
|
||
</p>
|
||
<hr class="p-entry-hr" id="fuF6SH"/>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="SR0qmr">
|
||
<strong>CREDITS</strong><br/><strong>Editors: </strong>Bryan Walsh, Elbert Ventura <br/><strong>Copy editors:</strong> Kim Eggleston, Elizabeth Crane, Caitlin PenzeyMoog, Tanya Pai<br/><strong>Art direction: </strong>Dion Lee<br/><strong>Audience:</strong> Gabriela Fernandez, Shira Tarlo, Agnes Mazur, Mary Perkins<br/><strong>Production/project editors:</strong> Susannah Locke, Nathan Hall
|
||
</p>
|
||
<div class="c-float-right">
|
||
<div id="SgOaj1">
|
||
<div>
|
||
|
||
</div>
|
||
</div>
|
||
</div>
|
||
<div id="Titgc0">
|
||
<div id="money_pixel_page_level_exception">
|
||
|
||
</div>
|
||
</div>
|
||
<div id="xLTjcA">
|
||
|
||
</div></li>
|
||
<li><strong>The incredible shrinking future of college</strong> -
|
||
<figure>
|
||
<img alt="" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/66BiBDdcReo4SoBSYvqqW0T60-k=/313x0:2188x1406/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/71626021/Vox_November_Highlight_Story_3__Composition_3__Final.0.jpg"/>
|
||
<figcaption>
|
||
Violeta Encarnacion for Vox
|
||
</figcaption>
|
||
</figure>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
The population of college-age Americans is about to crash. It will change higher education forever.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="X9dYto">
|
||
In 2021, Shippensburg University won the NCAA Division II Field Hockey championship, completing an undefeated season with a 3-0 victory over archrival West Chester. The “Ship” Raiders also won it all in 2018, 2017, 2016, and 2013, which I know because I saw it written in big letters on a banner festooning the fieldhouse on Ship’s campus in south-central Pennsylvania when I visited last month.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="RzTwZR">
|
||
Ship was in fine form. Young men and women wearing logoed Champion sweatshirts bustled between buildings. There was a line at the coffee shop in the student union. It was the kind of bright-blue autumn day that you would see on a brochure.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="qd8fFu">
|
||
There was no way to tell, from the outside, that Ship was a shrinking institution. Or that the problem is about to get a lot worse — not just here, but at colleges and universities nationwide.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="QvtprA">
|
||
In four years, the number of students graduating from high schools across the country will begin a sudden and precipitous decline, due to a rolling demographic aftershock of the Great Recession. Traumatized by uncertainty and unemployment, people decided to stop having kids during that period. But even as we climbed out of the recession, the birth rate kept dropping,<strong> </strong>and we are now starting to see the consequences on campuses everywhere. Classes will shrink, year after year, for most of the next two decades. People in the higher education industry call it “the enrollment cliff.”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="IMCK6x">
|
||
Among the small number of elite colleges and research universities — think the Princetons and the Penn States — the cliff will be no big deal. These institutions have their pick of applicants and can easily keep classes full.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="3rqQCJ">
|
||
For everyone else, the consequences could be dire. In some places, the crisis has already begun. College enrollment began slowly receding after the millennial enrollment wave peaked in 2010, particularly in regions that were already experiencing below-average birth rates while simultaneously losing population to out-migration. Starved of students and the tuition revenue they bring, <a href="https://www.newscentermaine.com/article/news/6-new-england-colleges-close-in-3-years-leaving-students-from-maine-stuck/97-c715d9f8-e11f-44c8-84c3-726bd8b42fd1#:~:text=Since%202016%2C%20four%20Vermont%20colleges,College)%20announced%20plans%20to%20close.">small private colleges in New England</a> have begun to blink off the map. Regional public universities like Ship are enduring painful layoffs and consolidation.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<div class="c-float-right">
|
||
<aside id="MC7901">
|
||
<q>Classes will shrink for most of the next two decades</q>
|
||
</aside>
|
||
</div>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="60ZAy7">
|
||
The timing is terrible. Trade policy, de-unionization, corporate consolidation, and substance abuse have already ravaged countless communities, particularly in the post-industrial Northeast and Midwest. In many cases, colleges have been one of the only places that provide good jobs in their communities, offer educational opportunities for locals, and have strong enough roots to stay planted. The enrollment cliff means they might soon dry up and blow away.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="96zPjK">
|
||
This trend will accelerate the winner-take-all dynamic of geographic consolidation that is already upending American politics. College-educated Democrats will increasingly congregate in cities and coastal areas, leaving people without degrees in rural areas and towns. For students who attend less-selective colleges and universities near where they grew up — that is, most college students — the enrollment cliff means fewer options for going to college in person, or none at all.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="RkuFzp">
|
||
The empty factories and abandoned shopping malls littering the American landscape may soon be joined by ghost colleges, victims of an existential struggle for reinvention, waged against a ticking clock of shrinking student bodies, coming soon to a town near you.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p class="p--has-dropcap" data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="JoIfPs">
|
||
Ship was founded in 1871 as the Cumberland Valley State Normal School, to train young women to be school teachers. It became the State Teachers College in 1927, and stayed that way until something happened that would transform higher education and much else: the baby boom.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="1UyiX1">
|
||
Some 4.3 million American children were <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/19/health/19birth.html">born in 1957</a>, a number that would not be matched for another 50 years, even as the overall population almost doubled to over 300 million.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="dQUxoc">
|
||
The relationship between demography and higher education is always a two-decade delay of cause and effect. The college years of one generation fall in the birth years of the next. The baby boom meant that by the 1970s, campuses were bursting as the children of midcentury fecundity reached early adulthood and women increasingly sought degrees in professions that were finally opening up to women.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<div class="c-float-right">
|
||
<aside id="YJtE6E">
|
||
<q>Higher education was saved by tectonic shifts in the labor market</q>
|
||
</aside>
|
||
</div>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="J5vv79">
|
||
This put college leaders in a difficult spot. In the short term, they needed dorms and classrooms and teachers to handle the boomer wave. But birth rates had been declining for nearly 20 years, and they saw what that would mean for them in the near future. The talk then was much like today: Future enrollment trends looked bleak, and some colleges were already struggling.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="LyLRdw">
|
||
But the 1980s enrollment cliff never really arrived. Higher education was saved by tectonic shifts in the labor market. As predicted, the number of high school graduates <a href="https://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d21/tables/dt21_219.10.asp?current=yes">declined</a>, from 3.1 million in 1976 to 2.5 million in 1994. But college enrollment rates actually increased, driven by deindustrialization and the collapse of well-paying blue-collar jobs. In 1975, <a href="https://nces.ed.gov/programs/coe/pdf/Indicator_CPA/coe_cpa_2013_01.pdf">the percentage of high school graduates who chose to immediately enroll in college</a> was only 51 percent. By 1997, it was 67 percent.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="8ArigB">
|
||
Colleges found themselves in the extraordinarily lucky position of being the only places legally allowed to sell credentials that unlocked the gateway to a stable, prosperous life. That was enough to smooth out the bottom of the demographic trough until the children of the baby boom arrived.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="i4tY4O">
|
||
And sure enough, the millennial college years began as expansionary times for places like Ship. From 1985 to 2007, the total number of undergraduates nationwide <a href="https://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d21/tables/dt21_303.70.asp?current=yes">increased</a> from 10.6 million to 15.6 million. And while birth numbers had been cycling back downward from the early 1990s to the mid-2000s, they began to <a href="https://econofact.org/the-mystery-of-the-declining-u-s-birth-rate">move up again</a> in 2006 and 2007 as older millennials reached parenting age.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="gDNJUo">
|
||
Then everything went to hell.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p class="p--has-dropcap" data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="do7YJY">
|
||
The immediate effect<strong> </strong>of the Great Recession on higher education was financial. State tax revenues cratered, and university budgets were slashed. From 2009 to 2012, Pennsylvania <a href="https://shef.sheeo.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/SHEEO_SHEF_FY13_Report.pdf">cut</a> public funding for higher education by more than 19 percent, some $430 million. Nationwide, state funding for college dipped by 9 percent.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="lkzrl7">
|
||
But the global financial calamity also created a bomb with an 18-year fuse: Birth rates immediately reversed course and began to plummet. From the early 1970s until 2007, the number of <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvsr/nvsr70/nvsr70-17.pdf">annual births</a> per 1,000 women ages 15 to 44 stayed between roughly 65 and 70. Starting in 2008, the ratio went down, down, down, to 56 in 2020, the lowest rate in American history. There were <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvsr/nvsr58/nvsr58_24.pdf">4.3 million</a> births in 2007; last year, there were <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/vsrr/vsrr020.pdf">3.7 million</a>.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<div class="c-float-right">
|
||
<aside id="zgOPd2">
|
||
<q>Colleges have likely hit a ceiling in terms of how many 18-year-olds they can coax onto campus</q>
|
||
</aside>
|
||
</div>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="f8KU7u">
|
||
Colleges have been left to manage a complex mix of past, present, and future demographic trends. Early on, state funding cuts were offset by a surge in enrollment and tuition revenue, as laid-off workers went back to college for retraining and the millennial wave <a href="https://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d21/tables/dt21_303.70.asp?current=yes">peaked</a> in 2010, with a record 18.1 million undergraduates. For some community colleges, the big problem in the late aughts was too many<em> </em>students and not enough money to teach them.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="FfH6I5">
|
||
But in the early 2010s, enrollment began to drop. In 2019, the last full year before the pandemic, undergraduate enrollment was down to 16.6 million. (That number could have been worse: Bush-era <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/research/is-the-rise-in-high-school-graduation-rates-real/">school reform</a> policies contributed to a rise in the percentage of teenagers graduating from high school, which offset some of the demographic drop.)
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="106nZY">
|
||
The problem now is that colleges have likely hit a ceiling in terms of how many 18-year-olds they can coax onto campus. The percentage of <a href="https://nces.ed.gov/programs/coe/indicator/caa">young adults with a high school diploma</a> has reached 94 percent. And the immediate college enrollment rate of high school graduates <a href="https://nces.ed.gov/programs/coe/indicator/cpa/immediate-college-enrollment-rate?tid=74">was flat</a>, right around 70 percent, from 2010 to 2018, before dipping in 2019 and 2020 as the job market heated up for less-skilled, lower-wage jobs.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="6pAJYu">
|
||
Some parts of the country are already experiencing an enrollment bust, mainly because of internal migration. According to the census, 327,000 people <a href="https://www.census.gov/data/tables/time-series/demo/geographic-mobility/historic.html">moved</a> to the Northeast (which includes Pennsylvania) from elsewhere in the United States in 2018-19, while 565,000 moved out, for a net loss of 238,000 people.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="QqUFQs">
|
||
By contrast, the South (which includes Texas and Florida) saw a net increase<em> </em>of 263,000 internal migrants, and another 447,000 people arrived from abroad, more than twice the number for the Northeast. Fertility rates are also <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvsr/nvsr70/nvsr70-17.pdf">lower</a>, and falling faster, for white people, and the Northeast and Midwest have proportionally more white people. This was true before the Great Recession, too.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="uNvMTe">
|
||
All of which made states like Pennsylvania a kind of canary in the demographic coal mine. In the 2010-11 academic year, Ship <a href="https://viz.passhe.edu/t/Public/views/Enrollment-PublicFinal/TrendTables?%3AisGuestRedirectFromVizportal=y&%3Aembed=y">enrolled</a> 8,326 students. Last year, the count was down to 5,668.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p class="p--has-dropcap" data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="IGTTMi">
|
||
Nathan Grawe, an economist at Carleton College in Minnesota, has projected all of these trends forward to create what he calls the Higher Education Demand Index, a forecast of college enrollment that takes into account regional differences, various types of colleges, immigration rates, and differences in birth rates and the likelihood of attending higher education among demographic groups.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Xv0cXF">
|
||
According to Grawe, highly selective colleges and universities will be least affected. They have power in the marketplace for students, and the United States’ very wealthy, very unequal society has produced a sizable upper class that is eager and able to buy access to sought-after schools. By immunizing themselves from the effects of enrollment decline, elites will shove the problem down the ladder of institutional status and make things worse for everyone else.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="w1qMXl">
|
||
The future looks very different in some parts of the country than in others, and will also vary among national four-year universities, regional universities like Ship, and community colleges. Grawe <a href="https://ngrawe.sites.carleton.edu/the-agile-college/">projects</a> that, despite the overall demographic decline, demand for national four-year universities on the West Coast will increase<em> </em>by more than 7.5 percent between now and the mid-2030s. But in states like New York, Ohio, Michigan, Wisconsin, Illinois, and Louisiana, it will decline by 15 percent or more.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<div class="c-float-right">
|
||
<aside id="1eDa2H">
|
||
<q>Higher ed’s eight-decade run of unbroken good fortune may be about to end</q>
|
||
</aside>
|
||
</div>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="6Dzjus">
|
||
Demand for regional four-year universities, per Grawe,<strong> </strong>will drop by at least 7.5 percent across New England, the mid-Atlantic, and Southern states other than Florida and Texas, with smaller declines in the Great Plains. Community colleges will be hit hard in most places other than Florida, which has a robust two-year system with a large Latino population.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="kEyVzD">
|
||
Immigration is a factor, and tricky to project far into the future. The Trump administration <a href="https://www.huffpost.com/highline/article/invisible-wall/">erected many barriers</a> to legal immigration, while immigration seems to have <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/05/us/immigration-census-population.html">bounced back</a> under President Joe Biden. But it’s likely that under any circumstances, immigrants will arrive at higher rates in California and Texas than, say, the Northeast or Upper Midwest.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="7Hhxnv">
|
||
The economy is another headwind. Shippensburg is next to I-81, a pulsing artery of commerce for the Northeast. The first thing you see after turning off the interstate is a 1.7-million-square-foot Procter & Gamble distribution center. There’s an Amazon warehouse at the exit on the other side of town, five miles away. These giant companies have a version of the university’s problem: fewer people of typical employee age in the hiring pool. So they pay more: a minimum of $22 an hour at P&G.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="7R4XQy">
|
||
Colleges are offering increasingly expensive, often debt-financed credentials with a long-term payoff that can seem uncertain compared to a steady, increasingly large paycheck in hand. The state of Pennsylvania has made matters worse by chronically underfunding higher education, forcing schools like Ship to charge tuition that doesn’t compare well to other states, or even some private colleges. All of this makes the shrinking pool of 18-year-olds even harder to recruit.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="wy0FZW">
|
||
Meanwhile, the pandemic threw millions of students into online classes, and some of them seem to like it there. A <a href="https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2022/10/14/more-traditional-age-students-enroll-fully-online-universities">recent survey</a> found a small but noteworthy increase in the number of high school juniors and seniors aiming for an online degree. If this continues, it would further burden colleges that have enormous amounts of money tied up in their buildings and physical plants.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="jTOCf0">
|
||
Birth rates did not recover after the Great Recession, even as the economy eventually did. Grawe notes that American fertility is now in line with comparable economically advanced nations, and is <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/blog/up-front/2021/05/24/will-births-in-the-us-rebound-probably-not/">well below</a> the level needed for the native-born population to sustain itself. The new normal is just normal now. Higher ed’s eight-decade run of unbroken good fortune — always more students, more money, more economic demand, and more social prestige — may be about to end.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p class="p--has-dropcap" data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="gDP43N">
|
||
As we walked across the Ship campus, president Charles Patterson pointed to the student union named after Anthony Ceddia, who led Ship for a quarter-century and built much of what was around us during the long boom years. Those kinds of presidencies are in the past, Patterson said. “Presidents these days are in the business of deconstruction,” he said — not in the sense of tearing down what their forebears created, but of rethinking and reconfiguring what universities have and who they are, for leaner times.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="eJSbmT">
|
||
“Deconstruction” is about to become the watchword in campus boardrooms nationwide. How this affects you depends on whether your local colleges succeed or fail at it.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="NdkSie">
|
||
Public colleges and universities tend not to disappear entirely. They have the backstop of public funding and local political support. But they can diminish over time. Ship is part of the 14-campus Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education (PASSHE). As in the rest of the country, system enrollment peaked in 2010-11, 20 years after the top of the millennial birth wave.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<div class="c-float-right">
|
||
<aside id="dRM61l">
|
||
<q>The new dorms are empty, and for sale</q>
|
||
</aside>
|
||
</div>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="M9zsMt">
|
||
But some campuses acted like the students would always keep coming. In 2007, Edinboro College, in the northeast corner of the state near Lake Erie, <a href="https://www.meadvilletribune.com/archives/edinboro-announces-115m-housing-project/article_3665038c-18b3-5f08-ab51-961858ec88ff.html">spent</a> $115 million to construct new dorms. They opened in 2011, when Edinboro had 8,642 students. Last year, it had 4,043. The new dorms are empty, and <a href="https://www.goerie.com/story/news/education/2022/04/15/edinboro-university-highlands-residence-halls-passhe-pennsylvania/65350008007/">for sale</a>.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="dGg1rN">
|
||
Private colleges are even more vulnerable. Many have small financial endowments and get by year to year on tuition revenue. Unluckily for them, private colleges are disproportionately located in the Northeast and Midwest — the same regions that will be hit hardest by declining enrollment. When they shut down, they leave a void of employment and tax revenue that local communities can’t easily fill.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Zc2WwC">
|
||
Finding a good buyer for empty campuses can be difficult. The defunct Marlboro College in Vermont was sold in 2020 to a charter school entrepreneur whose plans to resell it at a seven-figure profit possibly <a href="https://www.sevendaysvt.com/vermont/a-secretive-cryptocurrency-creator-could-hold-the-future-of-marlboro-college-in-his-hands/Content?oid=33106955">in exchange</a> for a new cryptocurrency called “Chronotanium” were interrupted by his arrest and eventual conviction on federal wire fraud charges. That same year, the former Green Mountain College, also in Vermont, was <a href="https://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/story/news/2020/08/19/green-mountain-college-sells-auction-4-5-million/5606010002/">auctioned</a> off for pennies on the dollar to a liquor entrepreneur whose previous claim to fame included <a href="https://nypost.com/2004/11/05/lover-boy-loser/">hitting on</a> Anna Kournikova and being fired by Donald Trump on <em>The Apprentice. </em>Neither campus has reopened as an accredited school.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="5P0DOV">
|
||
At colleges that survive, as most of them will, the biggest effect of the enrollment cliff will be on how students experience higher learning. Administrators will be hustling to give them new reasons to turn down that $22-an-hour warehouse job. Sports will play a growing role. The biggest athletic schools in America, measured by the percentage of undergraduates who participate in a varsity sport, aren’t the Division I behemoths you watch play football on Saturday afternoons. They’re the Division II, Division III, and NAIA (National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics) schools that are most vulnerable to an enrollment shock. If you loved playing field hockey in high school, the chance to play for the national champions is a powerful draw.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="lFAZO6">
|
||
Colleges will very likely step up their use of “enrollment management,” a controversial and <a href="https://slate.com/business/2022/07/college-financial-aid-sham.html">sometimes exploitative</a> technique for combining marketing, recruitment, and high-powered number-crunching to maximize tuition revenue from every student.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="WNdfgo">
|
||
But the most powerful force driving the post-cliff transformation, by far, will be the labor market. First and foremost, students go to college so they can start a career. As tuition and student debt have increased, on-the-job training has declined, and as the unforgiving job market has raised the bar for well-paying careers, students have moved away from the traditional humanities toward degrees in business, health care, and IT.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="81KlX2">
|
||
The enrollment crisis will shift this trend into overdrive. Ship is responding to all the distribution centers out on I-81 by developing programs in logistics and supply chain management. It’s looking to create more short-term, job-focused certificates that lead up to a bachelor’s degree, and others that supplement BA’s after graduation. Other nearby colleges are expanding nursing programs, developing professional master’s degrees, and creating new courses for adults looking to change careers.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="3QEpZu">
|
||
Colleges won’t just be going along with the strengthening alignment of the higher education experience with the labor market. They will be actively promoting it, jettisoning “unprofitable” majors that used to be sheltered inside universities with more than enough students. The next generation of higher education leaders will take scarcity as a given and “return on investment” as both sales pitch and state of mind.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="fGg1vn">
|
||
This will be good in some ways and bad in others. Good, if it means colleges are more focused on helping students stay in college and graduate, instead of just maximizing the size of the freshman class. Bad, if academic standards are sacrificed to the “customer is always right” ethos. Good, if colleges build better relationships with local employers so students have a clear path toward a career. Bad, if they cut deals with for-profit companies to spin up <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/usc-online-social-work-masters-11636435900">overly expensive, debt-financed online degrees</a>.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="387som">
|
||
But there is no arguing with demography. Colleges are about to experience something outside of living memory, and not all of them will make it through.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p class="p--has-dropcap" data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="MLPcX7">
|
||
Is there an upside to all of this? After all, a lot of the students who came through college during the early-century boom years were shackled with student loans and had a hard time launching their careers. Why force someone down a college path that isn’t best for them and load them up with debt when there are good jobs to be found?
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="i0h7vJ">
|
||
These are fair questions, and it’s certainly true that college is not always worth it for everyone. Before the student loan collection system was frozen in 2020, <a href="https://educationdata.org/student-loan-default-rate#:~:text=An%20average%20of%2015%25%20of,loans%20enter%20default%20each%20year.">a million people</a> were defaulting on their loans every year.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<div class="c-float-right">
|
||
<aside id="MnFdcU">
|
||
<q>The vocationalization of less-selective colleges and universities will further divide students by income and class</q>
|
||
</aside>
|
||
</div>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="udjFfl">
|
||
But people who graduate from places like Carnegie Mellon and Swarthmore aren’t handing their kids a brochure for jobs at the P&G distribution center. They’re sending them back to Carnegie Mellon and Swarthmore, where the humanities are alive and well. The payoff to college, particularly bachelor’s degrees, comes less in the first job than the second and those that follow, on the path to graduate school and management careers.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="3kudpN">
|
||
The financially motivated vocationalization of less selective colleges and universities will further divide students by income and class. First-generation students are not going to discover their calling in academia at the local university if all the quiet and quirky majors have been eliminated in the name of financial efficiency.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="p6EV8Z">
|
||
If your political leanings are progressive, you may know that Democrats have a <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/politics/wp/2018/03/27/gerrymandering-is-one-problem-for-democrats-wasted-votes-is-another/">concentration problem</a>, clustering in highly educated metropolitan areas in a way that puts them at an electoral disadvantage. People sometimes joke that 150,000 liberals should decamp to Wyoming and grab its two Senate seats. But the enrollment cliff will, no joke, likely make this problem worse, killing some colleges and shrinking others in many of the same Northeastern and Midwestern places that helped Donald Trump overcome a 2.9 million-voter deficit in the 2016 election, while pushing more college-educated voters into states and districts that are already safely in Democratic hands.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="9N4NnM">
|
||
In the midst of all the enrollment doomsday prepping and general pessimism, there was a small piece of good news. After a steep 4 percent decline from 2019 to 2020, the number of births in America <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/databriefs/db442.pdf">ticked up</a> by 1 percent in 2021, with the largest increase among women ages 35 to 39.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Jja5JK">
|
||
Perhaps it was an artifact of the lockdown and the downward trend will resume, particularly with a new recession looming. Or it might be something longer-lasting.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p class="c-end-para" data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="aYpMvF">
|
||
Either way, its effects will not be felt for decades. The near future of higher education is one of decline, and its consequences will reshape the American landscape.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<hr class="p-entry-hr" id="L3CX9a"/>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="wPKgzy">
|
||
<a href="https://www.vox.com/authors/kevin-carey-2"><em>Kevin Carey</em></a><em> writes about education and other issues. He is a vice president at </em><a href="https://www.newamerica.org/"><em>New America</em></a><em>, a think tank in Washington, DC. </em>
|
||
</p>
|
||
<aside id="1kzAwh">
|
||
<div>
|
||
|
||
</div>
|
||
</aside>
|
||
<div class="c-float-right">
|
||
<div id="OwFPzi">
|
||
<div>
|
||
|
||
</div>
|
||
</div>
|
||
</div></li>
|
||
</ul>
|
||
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-the-hindu-sports">From The Hindu: Sports</h1>
|
||
<ul>
|
||
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>My Opinion, Mr Mozart, Magic Moment and Wood Art shine</strong> -</p></li>
|
||
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>She Is On Fire, Goldiva and Son Of A Gun please</strong> -</p></li>
|
||
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>FIFA World Cup 2022, England vs. Iran | Starting line-ups released as kick-off approaches</strong> - Here are the starting line-ups for the first FIFA World Cup 2022 Group B match between England and Iran</p></li>
|
||
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>De Villiers, Siege Perilous and Double Scotch please</strong> -</p></li>
|
||
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 | Indian Vice-President Dhankar meets FIFA, world leaders</strong> - Vice President Dhankhar is on a two-day visit to Qatar at the invitation of Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani</p></li>
|
||
</ul>
|
||
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-the-hindu-national-news">From The Hindu: National News</h1>
|
||
<ul>
|
||
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Pangode military station felicitates couple whose marriage invitation to Army went viral on social media</strong> - Brigadier Lalit Sharma conveyed the Army’s “deepest appreciation for their adorable marriage invite”</p></li>
|
||
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Madurai Campus</strong> -</p></li>
|
||
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Nirmala Sitharaman to meet State FMs for pre-Budget consultation on November 25</strong> - The Budget for 2023-24 will have to address critical issues of high inflation, boosting demand, job creation and putting the economy on a sustained 8%-plus growth path</p></li>
|
||
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Congress oblivious to existence of tribals in India: PM Modi in Gujarat</strong> - PM Modi said Adivasis cannot expect Congress to improve their condition because leaders of Congress mock tribal outfits and insult tribals at regular intervals.</p></li>
|
||
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Case registered against company for disruption in services of Arasu Cable TV</strong> - The firm was allegedly involved in hacking the software controlling the operations of cable TV’s set top boxes.</p></li>
|
||
</ul>
|
||
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-bbc-europe">From BBC: Europe</h1>
|
||
<ul>
|
||
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Ukraine war: Hope returns to Kherson after Russian forces leave</strong> - Kherson starts its long healing process - though Russian forces are only a few miles away.</p></li>
|
||
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Turkey Kurdish strikes: Operation Claw-Sword targets militant bases</strong> - Operation Claw-Sword targeted sites in Syria and Iraq a week after a deadly bombing in Istanbul.</p></li>
|
||
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Turkey Kurdish strikes: A population living in fear</strong> - After the recent bombing in Istanbul, Turkish retaliatory air strikes on Kurdish targets have left a population on edge.</p></li>
|
||
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Zaporizhzhia shelling: Explosions at occupied nuclear site in Ukraine</strong> - The head of the nuclear watchdog issues an urgent plea after new blasts near the Zaporizhzhia plant.</p></li>
|
||
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>ATP Finals: Novak Djokovic beats Casper Ruud to equal Roger Federer’s record</strong> - Former world number one Novak Djokovic beats Casper Ruud to win a record-equalling sixth ATP Finals.</p></li>
|
||
</ul>
|
||
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-ars-technica">From Ars Technica</h1>
|
||
<ul>
|
||
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>A history of ARM, part 2: Everything starts to come together</strong> - What had started as twelve people and a dream was now a billion-dollar company. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1896053">link</a></p></li>
|
||
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>“Just a bunch of idiots having fun”—a photo history of the LAN party</strong> - An interview with Merritt K, chronicler of a crucial, awkward time in PC gaming. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1898593">link</a></p></li>
|
||
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>The World Cup ball has the aerodynamics of a champion</strong> - A sports physicist breaks down the Al Rihla, the official ball of the World Cup. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1899073">link</a></p></li>
|
||
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Binance has a plan to save crypto—if it’s not too late</strong> - Crypto exchanges want to prove that the market can thrive after the FTX collapse. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1898837">link</a></p></li>
|
||
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>The road to low-carbon concrete</strong> - Humanity’s love affair with cement and concrete results in massive CO<sub>2</sub> emissions. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1898748">link</a></p></li>
|
||
</ul>
|
||
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-jokes-subreddit">From Jokes Subreddit</h1>
|
||
<ul>
|
||
<li><strong>An old man calls his son and says, “Listen, your mother and I are getting divorced. Forty-five years of misery is enough.”</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF -->
|
||
<div class="md">
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
“Dad, what are you talking about?” the son screams.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
“We can’t stand the sight of each other any longer,” he says. “I’m sick of her face, and I’m sick of talking about this, so call your sister and tell her,” and he hangs up.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
Now, the son is worried. He calls his sister. She says, “Like hell they’re getting divorced!” She calls their father immediately. “You’re not getting divorced! Don’t do another thing. The two of us are flying home tomorrow to talk about this. Until then, don’t call a lawyer, don’t file a paper. DO YOU HEAR ME?” She hangs up the phone.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
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The old man turns to his wife and says, "Okay, they’re both coming for Christmas and paying their own airfares.
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</p>
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</div>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/OrdosDeluxe"> /u/OrdosDeluxe </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/z0v1ow/an_old_man_calls_his_son_and_says_listen_your/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/z0v1ow/an_old_man_calls_his_son_and_says_listen_your/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
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<li><strong>God: Creates humans as they were meant to be.</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF -->
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<div class="md">
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
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Also god: New rules! I need you all to cut the extra skin off your penis.
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</p>
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</div>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/TakingAMindwalk"> /u/TakingAMindwalk </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/z08a5t/god_creates_humans_as_they_were_meant_to_be/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/z08a5t/god_creates_humans_as_they_were_meant_to_be/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
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<li><strong>Mrs. Johnson</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF -->
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<div class="md">
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
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There was a lady who was cheating on her husband with a boyfriend. One day while they were getting intimate she hears her husband pull into the driveway. Her boyfriend says “oh no! What should we do?!” She says “hurry! Get dressed and go to the living room!” Once they’re in the living room she starts sprinkling baby powder all over him. He says “what are you doing?” She says “I’m making you white like a statue. Just stand in a pose, my husband will never know you’re real, because he’s stupid!” Her husband comes in and sees them and says to her “what’s that?” She says “Well, me and Mrs. Johnson next door went shopping today. She has one just like it. I liked hers so much that she took me to get one.” He shrugs it off and goes about his business. That night the boyfriend is still standing in the living room still posed, too afraid to escape. He hears the husband wake up and open the bedroom door. The husband walks past him, opens the fridge, pops open a beer and makes a bologna sandwich. He then walks up to the boyfriend and hands him the beer and sandwich and says “Here, I was next door at Mrs.Johnson’s house stuck in that position for 2 days and no one gave me anything to eat.”
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</p>
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</div>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/phoeebsy"> /u/phoeebsy </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/z0qb6h/mrs_johnson/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/z0qb6h/mrs_johnson/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
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<li><strong>What’s your favourite Chuck Norris joke?</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF -->
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<div class="md">
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
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Let’s start with one of my favs:<br/> “Chuck Norris’ password is the last 9 digits of pi.”
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</p>
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</div>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/crispilly"> /u/crispilly </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/z0tqy2/whats_your_favourite_chuck_norris_joke/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/z0tqy2/whats_your_favourite_chuck_norris_joke/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
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<li><strong>Two boys in Egypt free a crocodile…</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF -->
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<div class="md">
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
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In a small village in Egypt lived two orphan boys, Set and Amenhotep. They always watched out for each other, well past their years of childhood and into their time as young adults.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
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One day, the two were walking outside the village when they saw a crocodile trapped in a poacher’s snare. The two young men, sympathetic to a creature in need, approached the crocodile and released it from the trap.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
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Once freed, the crocodile transformed into a wispy, glowing fairy! “Thank you, young men” said the fairy, “Your hearts are truly selfless, and I will grant each of you one wish. What are your names?”
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
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“This is my friend Set, and you can call me ‘Ep’”, said Amenhotep.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
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“Very well, Ep” said the fairy “What is the desire of your heart?”
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
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“I wish I was the strongest man in the world!” Amenhotep wished.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
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“Very well”, said the fairy, “but you must always use your strength to help others.” Smoke gathered around Amenhotep, and when the smoke cleared Ep was 7 foot six and rippling with muscles.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
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The fairy turned to Set “And what is your wish, Set?” Set responded “I never want to be poor again! I wish for money!”
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
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“Very well,” said the fairy. Smoke gathered in front of the two of them, and when the smoke cleared a small elf remained, bowing to the two boys. “Greetings, sirs! My name is Elmon, and I am here to serve!”
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
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“Elmon is an expert in all things money,” said the fairy, “He will help you make wise decisions and turn any business profitable, but will only help you so long as he is only asked to do good for your fellow man.”
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
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Amenhotep and Set were inseparable. True to his word, Amenhotep used his great strength to build many houses for people in need. Set helped, as well, but his comparatively small size next to the now massive Amenhotep earned him the nickname “Imp”. With Elmon’s financial savvy, the two started a non-profit dedicated to building houses for the less fortunate, and Elmon kept all their paperwork in perfect order.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
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Years passed, and the two lived very fulfilling lives helping the homeless. Amenhotep met a girl while building houses and the two got married and had a beautiful baby boy, Josep.
|
||
</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
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Ep and Set’s business expanded globally. 15 years passed and Amenhotep grew kinder and more generous, giving to people in need at any of the places he went to build houses. Set built a campus in Cairo for the headquarters of their business, and directed global efforts. Over the years, Set lost touch with the people he was helping, and became more focused on business expansion and money of the business.
|
||
</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
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As all fathers do, Amenhotep wanted his son to eventually take over the business and help the next generation of needful people find purpose in their lives. He sent Josep to the the HQ in Cairo to learn business from Set. Once there, Josep was surprised to find that much of the financial success was due in large part to the financial savvy of Elmon, the elf.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
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Josep spent months at HQ learning how to run the business. While there, Set decided that it was time to expand the company into a more profitable venture. Instead of building houses for the needy, he drafted up a plan to buy up land around urban areas and construct rental properties at expensive prices while preventing construction of new, affordable housing. He sent Josep with the proposal to Elmon to determine the financial logistics.
|
||
</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
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Upon reading the proposal and its ill-nature’s effect on Set’s fellow man, Elmon keeled over and died, instantly.
|
||
</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
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Josep was shocked, and ran to alert Set right away, who wailed in dismay at the loss of his financial mastermind. In a rage, he accused Josep of killing Elmon, and sent the teenager to jail.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
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Amenhotep, hearing of the distress, caught the first flight back to Cairo to find himself neck-deep in a legal battle between him and his old friend.
|
||
</p>
|
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
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Without the financial and legal savvy of Elmon, Set’s case was a mess. Amenhotep, distraught, tried to reason with his childhood friend. “Come, Imp, release my boy and call off the lawsuit. Let’s use our energy to help those in need and not further what we both know is a fruitless path.”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
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Set refused, furiously gathering circumstantial evidence to bring to the court to frame Josep for Elmon’s murder.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
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The case was brought before the court, but Set’s claims were weak and unsupported. The judge, thoroughly disgusted with the lack of evidence from the prosecution, dismissed the case outright.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
Obviously, Ep’s teen didn’t kill Imp’s elf.
|
||
</p>
|
||
</div>
|
||
<!-- SC_ON -->
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/Philip_J_Frylock"> /u/Philip_J_Frylock </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/z09tmh/two_boys_in_egypt_free_a_crocodile/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/z09tmh/two_boys_in_egypt_free_a_crocodile/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
|
||
</ul>
|
||
|
||
|
||
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