“So, like, what are you?”

“A human?”

“No, you know what I mean, what are you? What’s your background?”

“Oh….”

This exchange is one that is probably familiar to many on campus and in America whose physical appearance doesn’t fit comfortably into one of the major racial categories that we often rely on to identify, make assumptions about and relate to other people. While people of mixed heritage are certainly not the only ones subject to the “what are you” question, they can face the question and the prospect of giving an answer more complicated than a single-word: Asian, Black, Latino/a, Native or White.

But we are in a strange time; despite the fact that the “what are you” question and the desire for choose-one identities persist, the visibility of mixed people is higher than it has ever been. President Barack Obama’s white mother/black father parentage was a central part of the story he told on his path to the White House in 2008. And in advertising, mass media and academia, an increasing amount of attention has been paid to mixed folks. So-called “racially ambiguous” people, including many with mixed heritage, are in high demand by marketers and talent scouts (think of former SNLers Fred Armisen and Maya Rudolph). In academia, Critical Mixed Race Studies exists as a field of study, a biennial conference, an academic journal, and a community in the process of forming the Critical Mixed Race Studies Association.

When I (Gaby) came to UC Davis from high school, I did not identify as mixed and was not even aware that I could. As the child of a Mexican father and a white mother, I was often perceived as a white woman, with my Mexican heritage invisible and ignored. I remember attending a Chican@/Latin@ welcome event for new students; I stopped at an organization’s table and one student asked me, “Oh, so are you Latina?” At that moment, I became aware of how much appearance mattered, how difficult it was for people to accept more than one answer, and how much my own experience and perspective differed from many others, not just at this event but all over campus. I didn’t want to choose only one ethnicity. I wanted to be in an ethnically diverse space that recognized my mixed identity and experience.

In 2013, a friend approached me about reviving Mixed Student Union, started in 2004 but inactive for several years. I started to explore my mixed heritage and what it meant. Now, as MSU President and as the Multi-Ethnic Community and Mixed Heritage Week Student Coordinator at the Cross Cultural Center, I implement programs that create space for people of mixed heritage to share experiences and create community. One of these programs is the 11th Annual UC Davis Mixed Heritage Week, “Mixed Roots, Same Earth”, which will take place on campus next week, from March 2 to March 6. Organized by the Cross Cultural Center and MSU, MHW is a week long event, open to all, dedicated to the celebration and empowerment of the mixed heritage community, providing space for sharing, learning and connection.

The challenges of creating a strong mixed community have a lot to do with the diversity of experiences and perspectives. But this diversity is also a strength. Listening to mixed folk and thinking about mixed identity can help us think critically about what it means to live in the 21st century, about equality and inequality, and about the realities and possibilities of our multi-cultural nation (and globe).

One of us (Gaby) came to thinking about mixed identity through her own experience as a new undergraduate on campus, the other one (Simon) came to it as a graduate student who studies race and also as a husband and father. I (Simon) am a white man, my son is a child of mixed heritage and we live in a community with many mixed children. I see first-hand the beauties, questions and challenges of this common ground. My son, German-Jewish, Finnish-American, Peruvian and Scottish, plays with other children and close friends, who are combinations of Ecuadorian, Mexican, African American, Korean, Jewish American, Salvadoran, Portuguese and Spanish ancestries. They play and share the wonder of love and acceptance from families and friends. They share the diversity of traditions and languages, all aware of how to navigate different cultures. And yet, times will come, and already have, when they will be judged by appearance and a presumed racial identity. Some, judged white, will be considered “normal,” well-behaved Americans. Some, black, will be viewed as threatening, more likely to be stopped by police. Some, Latino/a, may be asked where they are “really from.” And some will be asked, “So, what are you?”

As long as that question persists, let’s forget the myth that mixed folk are representative of some kumbaya future when “we are all the same.” Instead, let’s take the time to listen, learn and think about the challenges as well as the beauties. If anything, it will be the thinking, not always easy, that will make for an equitable, harmonious and mixed future.

Gabriela Preciado, third-year Spanish major, food and nutrition minor

Simon Abramowitsch, Ph.D candidate, English

Graphic by Jennifer Wu

The Editorial Board authored an excellent piece on ASUCD’s uncontested election and the lack of student engagement. Having one political party controlling both the legislative and executive branches is potentially dangerous and the Board is correct in calling attention to this. But I think that the Board’s suggestion, that ASUCD could be improved by adding student protests and demonstrations to the discourse, misunderstands the reason why voter turnout and ASUCD competitiveness is at an all time low and I want to offer an alternative hypothesis.

Let’s begin by considering the composition of Senate following this election. Nine of the 12 senators and the executive office belong to the SMART slate, whose members were heavily involved in protests (i.e., Black Lives Matter) and movements (i.e., Divestment from Israel). While ASUCD and those discourses don’t coincide perfectly, there’s substantial overlap. Recall that SMART is a relatively new slate and has grown from nothing to dominance in the past two years. If the key to student engagement is adding those discussions to ASUCD, then we would expect to see student participation rise. But exactly the opposite has happened. Why?

I think the answer is reflected in the composition of ASUCD leadership. Between the 12 senators, President and Vice President, only one and a half senators are not from Letters and Sciences, and the student leaders that are from L&S are from a small subset of departments with the college. Not one comes from Engineering or Agricultural/Environmental Sciences.

If we think about why, ASUCD is really two separate entities. The majority of ASUCD is like Campus Rec and Unions, in that Unitrans, the Coffee House, the Bike Barn and other units provide services for students. The other side of ASUCD is the student government. They are superfluous with respect to the operating of these services, which raises the question of what the purpose of student government is.

When we think about other governments, like Davis City Council or the state of California, both work to craft policies that benefit their constituents. What’s critical to note is that these governments focus on the common features of their constituents. What I mean by this is that even though many of Davis’ residents are from the Bay or SoCal, the City of Davis limits itself to issues relevant to Davis residents. Likewise, many Californians are from other states and from other countries, but the state limits itself to issues relevant to California residents. You’d never hear of City Council or California attempting to dictate Russia’s policies in Ukraine. The best way of summarizing this is that governments serve their denizens qua denizens.

When we apply the same logic to ASUCD, the government of UC Davis undergraduates, we must first ask the question of what it means to be an undergraduate at UC Davis. Students care primarily about how the quality of the education they receive and how much they pay for that education. These are the defining characteristics of students, and both are subjects that ASUCD is silent on. The only action ASUCD has taken relevant to tuition is attempting to join the University of California Student Association, which is not a very effective move considering that Sean Connelly, UCSA’s professional capital staff, has no evidence regarding the impact UCSA has had on student-related issues, let alone the issue of tuition.

If ASUCD wants to be relevant to more than a small subset of students, it needs to tackle issues that concern all students. ASUCD needs to fight for student representation in the Academic Senate, not just in the Administration, and fight for policies that improve the quality of our education.  Here’s one suggestion – require professors to learn how to teach. Currently (at least in my department and a few others I can name) professors are not required to demonstrate teaching competency or take classes on how to teach.  Here’s another suggestion – incorporate instructional quality in the Academic Senate’s rules regarding hiring, retention and promotion of faculty.

I will not imply that changes like these will be easily accomplished, or that these changes will be accomplished at all.  But so long as the only work that ASUCD does is dictating Middle East policy and editing their bylaws to correct grammatical errors, ASUCD will continue to fall toward irrelevance.

Graphic by Jennifer Wu

UC Davis is an incredible school. It wasn’t my first choice, and though I can’t say for sure, it may not have been yours either. I’ll admit my immature 17-year-old self wanted to be at the beach or at a big sports school. However, Davis is becoming a well-known school in the eyes of the public. It may be from the great pepper spray incident of 2011, from the cows, from the fact that it is not at the beach or not a big sports school. I’ve heard people over the years complaining about how there is nothing to do here, but that is simply not true.

Yes, you may have a friend at Santa Barbara who snapchats pictures of beach “studying” or huge parties on a Monday night. You may have a friend on the East Coast who appears to be doing Picnic Day every weekend. If you’re like me, this can be kind of upsetting. It is hard to see people doing stuff like this, but it really is better. We are in college to get a degree and be real human beings, and it is a lot easier without the constant distractions that come from schools like this.

I know it’s tough. I spent the first couple years of my time here explaining the city of Davis as exactly like my hometown Pleasanton, but replacing the soccer kids and their soccer moms with college-aged kids. I have always loved the school, but over the years I have learned more about how to make it just as fun as anyone else’s. It starts with doing the weekends right.

Here are some of the less obvious things to do this weekend that will change how you feel about the school.

1. Go to the Farmers Market on Saturday mornings. A lot of people, including my former self, underutilize this. You don’t have to be the kind of person who grocery shops here to enjoy it. It’s basically a Costco you can walk to, with samples at every station. Get some Bolani samples, and a quart of the famous raw apple juice. Sit on the grass and look at (and play with) all the really good-looking dogs.
2. Go on the free and for sale DC swipes page and go with a big group to weekend brunch. If you don’t remember, they have a make your own omelette bar, unlimited coffee and POG juice, and you may even see your high school friend’s little sister who you knew as a seventh grader and who is now a sorority girl (this is scary and has happened to me all too often).
3. Play a game of campus capture the flag. It took me until fall quarter of my senior year to discover this, so I need to share it with you before it’s too late. You are absolutely NOT too old for this. Grab some friends and make teams. Set some boundaries and make sure to include the Death Star (I could write an entire article on why this is good for hiding, but you probably have already lived the nightmare). You’ll get some exercise and feel young again. Take this seriously though, make sure to have some strategies, a substantial prize and an exclusive team group text or bird call.
4. Go outdoors in the daytime. It appears winter has left already, and Davis is the perfect springtime campus. Specifically on Fridays, go hang out in the MU quad area. There is something about a sunny day with a CoHo baked potato and a lemonade that really brings in the weekend. Bring a football or a frisbee or a whatever you’re into.
5. Go outdoors in the evening. A great man, Sean William Scott AKA “Country Mac” once said, “Sure there’s bad stuff, but what about sunsets?” Davis is famous for some pretty awesome ones, and you are not too cool to enjoy them.
6. Hang out with your friend in an apartment complex. They will have a pool and a hot tub. You can use the pool in the daytime while the Rec Pool is still closed. Ask them to put otter pops in the freezer hours before you arrive: this is very crucial. You can use the hot tub at nights and talk about life or play truth or dare or whatever. If you don’t have a friend in an apartment complex, use the Davis weekend to get drunk and meet one. People are pretty friendly, but no personality would make the friendship not worth a hot tub.
7. Leave Davis. Davis is located pretty close to fun places to be.
   1. It is less than two hours to a beach. Stinson Beach is an awesome place to hang out for a day, and the food nearby is amazing.
   2. Go to the horse races in Berkeley. Golden Gate fields has dollar day on Sundays. Don’t worry though, the betting will allow you to spend much more than that. Wear a ridiculous outfit like a suit with shorts and at the very least put a couple dollars on some races. It helps you get very into the races and you may even make some of your hot dog and beer money back.
   3. Go to one of the nearby lakes. Berryessa is about a half hour away, and Shasta and Tahoe are two hours away. Each of these places have cool hiking trails, and if you’re feeling rich from the above activity, rent some jet skis. You will not regret it.
8. Celebrate something. You don’t need a friend with a birthday to have a crazy night. You can make something out of nothing. Make an awesome playlist of your group’s favorite songs and have a release party for it. Have a party in celebration of your plants in the backyard being ripe; I’ll never forget last year’s Radish party. Play the moustache game. Put a fake moustache on your TV and celebrate every time it fits on someone in the movie.
9. For the 21 and over crowd, there are tons of options. Go to the bars on the weekends if you aren’t already doing this. They are a great place to take your relationship with someone from staring at them in class to becoming friends and staring at their Facebook. Buy them a drink, ask them to “study for a midterm,” and the rest is history. Do bottomless mimosas for brunch on the weekends; many places offer this. Do Trivia or Karaoke somewhere; just make sure you’ve been doing the drinking before the singing. Video footage of my rendition of “My Humps” can be made available upon request.

This coming weekend is one of the last true weekends of the quarter before finals hit. It’s the end of week eight, and though week nine doesn’t immediately lead into finals, the stress has begun to set in. The week eight weekend is arguably the last time to justify doing some of the things on the list. It’s also arguably the best weekend for this, because it can completely keep your mind off the impending stress. Apply it to each weekend that qualifies, especially in the spring to come. Break out of your routine of waking up in the middle of the day and doing absolutely nothing. Try some or all of these things out, and watch the weekdays become much easier in anticipation of your next capture the flag showdown.

The UCD Files is your weekly in depth look at our campus and the lifestyle that comes with it, featuring an occasional dropping of knowledge from a senior who has experienced it all.

Feel Free to send questions, comments, hate mail, or anything you would like to see in future articles to Adam Marx at almarx@ucdavis.edu.

Graphic by CA Aggie Graphic Design Team

Photo by CA Aggie Photo Team

If you know who musician Amanda Palmer is, you are probably a fan. For those who don’t, she has been doing great things in the arts for a while now. The Art of Asking, her new memoir, is one of those things. In it Palmer asks a simple question: Is it fair for the artist to ask for help from fans? Her answer: Yes. Whether you are busking on the street to get $60 a day or raising over $1,000,000 on Kickstarter (Palmer has gone from one to the other), support should be asked for.

This support is mainly financial, so I’ll be on an economic pedestal for some of this column (feel free to knock me off with an email). Palmer’s reasoning is that the real value for the artist (producer) and the fan (consumer) is not in what’s being exchanged (art for money), but in the human connection of the exchange itself (whether in person or over the net).

This week I’d like to look at examples of how those exchanges (and the human connection to boot) occur in the mental health world. Those with mental health issues struggle with the idea of asking for help. Three areas that come to mind for me are: asking for help from psychiatrists, asking for help from therapists and asking for help from friends.

Before I begin, let me note that art for money is of course not the only form of exchange. Exchanges in our 21st century world are complicated, and (as you’ll see) don’t always involve money. Yet Palmer’s principles still hold.

Psychiatrists:

The main exchange in a psychiatrist-patient relationship is drugs for money (like true economists, let’s simplify ourselves out of reality and pretend pharmacists and insurance companies don’t exist). It sounds like a fair exchange, so where’s the concern? Well, unlike other dealers, the psychiatrist actually cares how you use your drugs. So if, like me, you’re meant to be taking two in the morning and two at night daily for a year, but really you’re not taking any (except before blood tests) – then is it fair to ask your psychiatrist to help you deal with your issues? Is it fair to ask them to coach you through a more practical routine? Is it fair to ask them to set you on a path toward one day not needing the drugs (even if it means the psychiatrist isn’t needed)? For me, the answer was yes to all these questions. As any good psychiatrist will tell you, the  human connection is the first priority and the psychiatry comes second.

Therapists:

With a therapist the connection is a bit more obvious, but ironically it’s actually harder to establish good rapport with a therapist. That’s because they are offering a scripted performance in exchange for your money. They’re like a trained actor, only instead of the Stanislavski method (see Marlon Brando), they are versed in the Freudian method. The are many different acting methods, and likewise for therapy methods. As with the psychiatrist, I ask myself whether it’s fair to ask the therapist to step into a different role (though counseling and coaching are actually parts of their job description). Again the answer is yes. Cutting off a prepared speech (some therapists have a lot of these), or asking for advice on an illegal activity (yours or someone else’s). Therapists will usually try to leave their personality, beliefs and worldview outside of the exchange, but it’s completely fair to ask for them for those things.

Friends:

Friends I talk about last because this situation is the most complicated. There’s no real producer or consumer (unless you consider advice and regrettable sex to be products and state transference to be a form of payment). State transference, for those unfamiliar, is basically the process of leaving the friend feeling sad after telling them about your sadness. For this reason, many therapists see their own counselors as an outlet for their feelings (creating a cycle). You can’t practice on yourself (which is also why a depressed person cannot talk themselves out of it). I joke about it, but advice for state transference really does seem to be the exchange. Economically speaking, the person with mental illness has a natural advantage (they get the relief of being heard and get advice). The only benefit the advice-giving friend may get is that feeling of gloating when we find out that we’re doing better than they are (it’s a strange combination of empathy and elation, and I’m ashamed to admit that I’ve felt it myself). But what’s really going on in a friend-to-friend exchange is not about the advice or the story of mental woes. It’s about trust. We all trust our friends with our personal information, and they confide in us as well. That’s what’s important.

A strong connection between producer and consumer means the consumer is more than willing to help raise funds (with either capital or labor). This blurs the lines between a capitalist society based on money (with clear producer and consumer roles) and an alternate community where money is more an afterthought. The real currency is trust.

So, through these three areas of the mental health world hopefully you can see that there are barriers blocking us from making meaningful connections and getting help (which are basically the same thing). If we want to break these barriers, we have to ask. We all deal with at least one of these three areas in our everyday day lives. What’s more, hopefully you can take away the awareness that a business transaction is more about the connection than the product. Anyone can make their own coffee, but we go to coffee shops to connect with others. So don’t be rude to the baristas, they really do want to know how your day is going.

PAUL BEREZOVSKY would like you to ask him something at pbberezovsky@ucdavis.edu.

Graphic by CA Aggie Graphic Design Team

Photo by CA Aggie Photo Team

Students and members of the campus community held a sit-in at The Aggie newsroom Thursday, Feb. 19. The sit-in, which lasted from 2:30-8:00 p.m. and was attended by about 15 people, was in opposition to an Aggie editorial published Feb. 10.

The group indicated to us that they felt that criticising the statements made by the senator, who herself adheres to an Islamic dress code and wears the hijab, triggered an unwitting association with other students who wear hijab. The Aggie Editorial Board certainly did not consider this in the formulation of the editorial and regret that we made students feel demoralized or in any way targeted, as a result. The board was focused only on the expectations and responsibilities of all senators in general, regardless of faith, culture or appearance; this was clarified Thursday.

The editorial was also criticized for providing the senator’s office hours, which was feared to expose her to confrontations or jeopardize her safety. There was no intention to put the senator in any harm, nor did we mean to discount the magnitude of the threats that she received. Providing this information was only to remind students that our representatives are accessible and always willing to listen to those who wish to voice concerns respectfully.

The Aggie exists to serve the UC Davis community and to highlight the interests and opinions of all groups. We believe that when senators run for office they are aware and embrace that in carrying out their duties as an elected official, they must take into consideration the various groups on campus, their respective concerns, sensitivities and sometimes divergent objectives.  Elected representatives are also aware and accept that they may occasionally face public scrutiny from the students they serve. The Aggie, as a media outlet, not only has the right but also an obligation to hold officials, both at the professional and student levels, accountable for their statements and actions while in office.

The Editorial Board is comprised of volunteer students who themselves represent a diverse range of cultural and religious backgrounds and personal interests. In discussing this and any editorial, members of the group are given the opportunity to voice their personal views and are also challenged to confront and reflect on conflicting positions held by others within the group. The Board then attempts to present an editorial that achieves a common ground between its members.

The Board recognizes how the events of the past few weeks have polarized the campus, and that individuals have been deeply affected, others by the residual effects of conflict and the attempts to address it. We were disheartened to hear that some of our readers felt that the editorial contributed to this climate, and regret that its intent was misconstrued. We, in no way, intend to diminish the real concerns over Islamophobia and the strong sentiments many students share regarding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

The Aggie makes a conscious effort to maintain inclusivity and cover events and issues that concern all groups on campus. We have reported on Muslim student functions, causes and contributions. The Editorial Board values the opinions of Muslim groups at UC Davis, as they serve an integral role in the campus community. We sincerely hope that, despite the divisive geo-political and/or religious issues that exist outside our campus borders, UC Davis students, student leaders and organizations can continue the peaceful and respectful  dialogue necessary for greater understanding, tolerance and inclusion, even in disagreement.

The Aggie invites criticism and opposing views and encourages its readers to submit Letters to the Editor or guest opinions to editor@theaggie.org or opinion@theaggie.org.

Graphic by Jennifer Wu