The design of the GSU “quad” discourages unity.

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A photograph of the Georgia State University Plaza from Atlanta Preservation.

The Georgia State University quad, or as the students refer to it: plaza or courtyard, has been a wide ranged space that is in the center of all the classroom buildings and library. Although this space is provided for the students be able to hang out and for student organizations and small businesses to set up tables and tents, the space is really expanded to the point where it is so spaced out that there’s enough room for almost anybody to sit away from each other.

I was walking through the courtyard the other day and despite seeing groups of students bundled up, students also isolated themselves from such groups  by sitting on the concrete benches  or on the unused tables through the plaza and would be on their electronic devices. Because the design of the quad is divided having so many of these miniature plant gardens, this encourages students to find their own little spots to sit away from tables and benches that are being occupied. Even if the majority of the space was being currently occupied, that doesn’t stop students from sitting near each other but not interact with one another.

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A photograph of the Georgia State University Plaza taken for Georgia State University Magazine in 1985.

Referencing to this picture, as the courtyard is covered with students all over the area, despite many sitting in groups together or near one another, if you look closing there’s still some isolation occurring. So even though the plaza was designed to have enough space for students to relax before or after class, it still expands opportunities for students to stir away from one another sitting in their own spots or hangouts.

Summary of “Architectural Exclusion: Discrimination and Segregation Through Physical Design of Built Environment” by Sarah Schinlder

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Associate Professor of Law, Sarah Schindler, wrote an article about how architecture has played along with racism and discrimination in the most unseen ways that people often don’t realize. With the feedback she received from peers from Columbia Law School and American University’s College of Law, she includes research and has the support for the information she provided. In the article, she writes about how some infrastructure was made to prevent certain groups of marginalized minorities having access to be able to get to areas that were premindomently reserved for upper and middle class white. These factors partaked in ways that separated and isolated a vast majorities of communities from one another because one feared that the other would violate their territories. The court system did not see it as this way, they saw these infrastructure as a inconvenience for some not realizing what it’s creating for others.

In Part I, it discussed about architecture being used a type of regulation among certain groups and classes of people. “Architectural regulation is powerful in part because it is unseen/ it “allows government to shape our actions without our perceiving that our experience has been deliberately shaped.” (Schindler). I annotated that this describes that government and the system makes changes and creates regulations that benefit certain groups while limiting and restricting it for others. An example of this is when a bench has arm rests to prevent homeless people from lying on them to take naps. I recall reading an article years before that a certain city or country actually installed spiked-like figures on the seating and backs on the benches resembling a needle or nail bed to prevent homeless people from laying on them. As I also recall, the reaction to such a thing were stating that it’s cruel and unfair to treat them poorly. That type of infrastructure being made is made beneficial to those who have homes and can just use the armrests to, obviously, rest their arms after running errands but it actually makes it hard for homeless people to lay and sleep because it’s blocking the function of bench also acting as a bed for them.

In Part II, it talks about the actual practice of architectural exclusion being used. Robert Moses was considered as the “Master Builder” of New York infrastructure creating many of its land. His biographer suggested that he favored upper and middle-class white people who owned their own vehicles as opposed to lower class groups, as mentioned African-Americans, because of his bias distinguishing of social-class and racial prejudice. An example of this is shown earlier in the reading where it mentioned that he created a number of low-hanging overpasses and bridges that led to Jones Beach to prevent buses from going to there. This decision prevented those who relied on public transportation such as people of color and poor people from receiving access to reach those areas. Another example of how public transportation are limited to reach certain areas is where the designated transits stops are placed.

A seventeen year old woman, Cynthia Wiggins, was hit and killed by a dump truck as she was attempting to cross a seven-lane highway to a mall where she worked. The reason because of this incident is because the bus stop for the mall was across the street from it on the other side of the highway. This was because during a conversation a mall store owner had with one of the officials recalled them saying that they did not want to attract the type of people that rode to bus into the mall. This shows racial profiling and discrimination against a certain group of individuals that depended on the public transits. Also, while the same small allowed charter buses to make stops there, they wouldn’t oblige the same for the city’s transits because, once again, they did not want to attract certain groups of people into their property.

Aside from architecture limiting and routes being placed outside certain areas in order to discourage certain groups that took public transportation from entering such territories, infrastructure was almost made to separate communities. In the 1940s,  a private developer in Detroit constructed a six-foot-high wall known as the Eight Mile Wall to separate a black neighborhood from a new white one that was to be made. The wall still exists in the area today although the neighborhoods around it are no longer segregated despite Detroit still being one of the most racially segregated areas in the United States. Recently in 2014, a ten-foot-high, 1,500-foot-long fence that separated a white suburban area from a black one was taken down. It was built in the 1950s to keep crimes out of the city of Hamden, Connecticut from New Haven. However, this made it difficult for those living outside of the Hamden territory to reach certain areas to run errands. As more occurrences of these walls and fences were built up to “isolate” violence and crimes, it made it difficult for those who were not involved in the actions to be able to reach areas for the potentially of receiving jobs and running personal errands. I believe it still goes today when upper class neighborhoods have spiked fences and a security coded entrance so that only residents or friends of residents are allowed to enter the premises. Anybody that doesn’t live there or know a personnel there is restricted and almost prohibiting from having an access in the area. There’s a lot of that especially in suburban areas in Georgia.

Many people don’t realize that certain areas were built to either isolate them or because it was made for them. This causes problems for marginalized groups while benefiting the vast majority. While most infrastructure and areas would believe it’s supposed to bring protection into certain, it leaves out and makes it harder for people seeking opportunities to access them. You would think that if they would have signs stating who they serve to and didn’t that it would give a clearer message of who they welcome and don’t, but nowadays it’s no longer signs that make the statements. It’s the architecture of such areas that is built to separate and segregated groups from each other. People don’t live in the fear of their protected areas to eliminate violence, they live in a bias and prejudice role that holds them up higher against a lower and poor classified group of people. That’s how most of the country’s architecture was made, to keep one preferred group in while pushing out the others they did not prefer.

5 Blogs I Enjoy

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I don’t believe there’s necessarily a blog I can dislike. Blogs are everyday virtual journals that people write it in expressing their thoughts out into a safe space on their own. As someone who has been writing in numerous of volumes of personal journals for years and who still is, I don’t blame someone for doing the same. Writing helps one express to where saying it aloud nearly can’t. I don’t necessarily have a preference or a favorite blog, but here’s a few that I enjoy:

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http://befittingstyle.com

Befitting Style is run by Oyinkan who has been surrounded with style since her childhood as she grew up watching her mother obsess over style. This is a daily fashion blog that I’ve been subscribed to for over a year now. She talks about fashion trends, showcasing outfits and looks she wears daily and even gives insight looks on fashion shows. I believe when I was looking for a blog to help me gain a sense of what could be my signature and key looks this was one I stumbled upon and have stuck with ever since.

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http://flowerroots.com

Okay, so even if I did have a favorite blog, this would be one of my selections. Flower Roots is run by Karlye Hayes, who I believed graduated from GSU not too long ago. I first followed this blog when I first discovered Karlye on Instagram through the So Worth Loving organization that promoted self-love and positivity sending out the message through t-shirts. Karlye was one of the people that was actively involved with the campaign and I’ve followed her ever since. Her blog, Flower Roots, is a deeper insight into knowing who she is. She gives advices on self-love, relationships, self-assurance, and updates on her life. Every time I read her blog, I feel refreshed because it brings out such a peaceful tone in every description. And especially during a dark time in my life on discovering who I was, this was a blog I immediately went to to seek advice and guidance that I needed.

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http://nycbambi.com

Another one of my favorite blog selections is NYCBambi by Christie “Kiki” Tyler. I first discovered her on Tumblr through my dashboard when various fashion posts of her would appear, and when I actually went onto her Tumblr page, I fell in love and immediately followed her and all her other social media accounts. We’re the same age and she lives more up north and she recently has been working for a lot of companies because they love her style and how she presents and promotes their products which I find is amazing and is the modern day millennial way of promoting and advertising such companies through social media. Once again, while pursuing a fashion sense and feel for myself this is one of the blogs I relied on. I don’t necessarily rely on it for fashion anymore, but I still like to keep up with what’s in Christie’s closet.

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http://blog.franchesca.net

Franchesca Ramsey, an actress and comedian, famous for being on MTV Decoded has this blog that is run through the Tumblr website. She actually has her own website which has just been relaunched, franchesca.net. I’ve followed Franchesca since earlier this year when I first saw one of her famous controversial YouTube videos. She is hilarious and truly outspoken on so many things within the media, society and injustice that occurs within these systems which is why I’m so glad to have followed her on social media because to me, she is someone who is standing her ground so that people like me don’t have to keep going through the indecency we constantly do and have done. I have religiously watched MTV Decoded, but from what I’ve already seen Franchesca doing and pursuing, I almost don’t have to (but I’ll still pursue it). Here on her Tumblr blog, Franchesca responds to fans through asks, and also writes personal text posts dealing with or expressing topics such as having anxiety, what’s trending in the world, and calling out what should be done and could be done to fix such problems within the society’s fixed standards.

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http://savanaogburn.com/blog

Last but not least is a friend of my friends’ but who is soon going to be one of my friends is Savana Ogburn. She just graduated from the same high school I went before her, she will be attending SCAD, she has created her own zine, sonicblumezine.com, and is one of the most amazing and creative people I have yet to met. I discovered her when a few months ago when a couple of my friends were tagged in her pictures of them for Rookie Magazine, an online website that’s a safe places for girls and femmes to express and connect with each other, and I’ve digged her artwork ever since. Just over the summer, one of my best friends got featured on Rookie Mag for one of her pieces, and I couldn’t be more proud of him and more amazed by her. Sonic Blume is an online magazine Savana created to promote concert photography, photographers and local band music. Savana’s website, savanaogburn.com, showcases her art work and her latest projects. I’ve got in touch with her recently about meeting up and taking pictures because I really wanted to be able to create with her and also get to her and make a new friend. Once she gets settled into SCAD, we will and I cannot wait!

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These were 5 blogs I really enjoyed and I hope you get to check them out, too!

Is #AerieREAL for real?

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In 2014, American Eagle’s lingerie brand, Aerie, created a campaign where they featured untouched photography of their models promoting the notion of body positivity. This ad was used to break the barrier and standards of the ideal of the “perfect” body reaching out to their audience, which ranges in 15-21 year old women, that their bodies are perfect the way they are. Also it was brought out because the Aerie President, Jennifer Foyle, stated, “We definitely had a creative moment where the team got together, and we just said ‘Really, what’s happening today with millennials and the next generation?'” According to Huffington Post, when she spoke to Business Insider the year before she also state that, “And we really felt like girls today are just more independent and stronger than ever. We just really knew it would resonate with this generation.”

Among that, sales have gone up 32% since the start of the campaign. While the world seems to be on board with such a campaign, I found one article that is not convinced. Fusion’s Cora Harrington writes listening three ways she’s not convinced of the company’s new campaign quite yet. She obviously states she cannot disagree with the surge of sales that has aroused the company since its campaign release, but she always wrote that the company closed down 15% of its retail stores in the U.S. including 34 its Aerie’s shops signifying that store closures peek revenues at other stores still in production. She also adds that the stores bralette section has doubled down because it is not a popular margin in sales. And because a variety of other companies sell lingerie products as well, their no-Photoshop campaign isn’t what could be their reason for surging sales. Finally, Harrington describes while Aerie is given the credit of obscuring beauty standards by not touching up their photos of models, it’s not doing the job all the way through. Harrington posted with an example that the pictures of their models still shows the European-centric beauty standards that has embodied society for so long. She states, “What standard of beauty is Aerie challenging here? They’ve placed themselves at the forefront of the body positivity movement, yet they’re relying on the very same imagery that this movement was created to disrupt.” She concludes that Aerie is less diverse than Victoria’s Secret.

I, personally, am proud of a company such as American Eagle promoting body positivity with Aerie using “real” models and not touching up any of the photos showing the models in their curves, rolls, marks and scars. However, there is still work to be done and process still need to be made. While this lineup of #AerieREAL models shows a very diverse cast including women that work within the company, there’s still a spectrum of representation that is being left out. While we have slightly thicker women than slimmed down models, we still don’t have representation of women who are as one would say “Precious” (from the movie Precious) sized, or darker skinned women or black women wearing their naturally kinky hair.

But on Instagram and Twitter, the #AerieREAL hashtag has women promoting themselves and their bodies positively through social media using the hashtag to embrace their beautiful selves not fitting into the “norms” of society’s beauty standards.

So is #AerieREAL for real? I believe it is so, but it still has a long way to get as really REAL as it gets into being about embracing body positivity of many, many different shapes, sizes, and shades of bodies.