Newsroom RoundUp 9/12

Co-Authored by: lunaranarchy and thebrightblogger2

Local:

On Tuesday, September 5th,2023, Virginia tech graduate students and workers formed a rally to reveal two new unions, Graduate Labor Union and United Campus Workers. These groups protested for high living wages and addressing workplace issues. Graduate students are living off of their stipends because of the time constraint that being in school puts on them, and the wages that they receive from the school leaves them struggling to balance this money with paying rent and taking care of themselves. Some feminist ideals come into play in regards to inherently exploitative systems and unions as a way to advocate for people to get treated fairly and compensated as such. We felt it was important to address these struggles that both the graduate students and workers are facing to help raise awareness around this issue to better help the Virginia Tech community and other schools who face this issue.

National:

On August 22, a human rights group leveled new criticism at a New Mexico privately operated migrant detention facility that “fast-track” screenings regularly without legal counsel or privacy. Even migrants with strong claims to asylum who are unable to return to their country because of threats of torture or persecution are being inappropriately screened out for deportation. Pass rates are unusually low at this specific facility, interviews are conducted without legal orientation, migrants are being denied access to their own files during initial rejection appeals, and interviews or testimonials pertaining to personal matters such as organized crime or sexual assault are easily overheard by other migrants. This raises concerns and instills trepidation in migrants who fear they will be denied asylum, deported, and others will hold the knowledge of  what they’ve done which will follow them back to the country they’re trying to escape from.

We felt that bringing this topic to light in the newsroom was important because so often immigrants are left out of conversations pertaining both to feminist investments and everyday life. Although the U.S. has  a large number of migrants seeking asylum, more often than not, many people in the U.S. are unaware of what transpires at these facilities. Additionally, these facilities often treat its inhabitants poorly and raise several humanitarian concerns that we feel are necessary to explore.

92,003 fans attended the women’s volleyball game on Wednesday, August 30th 2023, beating the world record for the biggest crowd at a women’s sporting event has ever had. Previous record was 91,648 at the Champions League soccer game in Barcelona.

Women’s sporting events have always struggled to get a good turnout compared to mens. For many athletes their fans are what encourage and motivate them so to have significantly less attended can be discouraging. In addition, this also plays into different pay wages. Fans are what bring in the money for these athletes and having a big difference in attendance numbers is what allows women to make significantly less money. Furthermore, when we discuss sports, the majority of the time it’s with the unspoken implication of masculinity. We say “I’m going to watch the basketball game,” and the assumption is that one will be watching men’s basketball. Therefore, we felt this was a worthy exploration with a plethora of feminist ideals.

Global:

On September 9th, pride activists in Serbia convened for a pride march despite heavy presence of police, and anti-LGBTQ messages from the country’s leadership and far-right organizations. Right before this 11th consecutive Pride event, the populist president of the country, Aleksander Vucic, said that as long as he maintains power that he would never allow a law that would allow same-sex marriages or partnerships. This march highlights the broader global issue of the fight for LGBTQIA+ rights and codification of legislation that would help . As anti-LGBTQIA+ legislation continues to be passed worldwide, with activists and the community itself still showing up for marches and other events there are several feminist considerations offered up.

As we continue to delve into feminist topics, we believe it vital to not only bring to light events that are tragic or capitalize on the pain of excluded populations. Rather, this march displays a balance of both the lived experiences and realities of the LGBTQIA+ population in Serbia, but also highlights their community. Despite staunch opposition from others, they still banded together to show their solidarity for one another which is just as important as acknowledging the trials and tribulations they continue to face.