New Chilean constitution rejected in referendum

Photo courtesy of Jose Pereira via Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung.
Chilean voters rejected a new constitution that would have written the right to housing, education and lifelong care, among other changes, into law.

By Lauren Cincotta ’25

Staff Writer

In a referendum on Sept. 4, 2022, Chilean voters rejected the adoption of a new constitution, failing to replace the existing constitution from 1980 which was created under the Pinochet dictatorship. 

According to The New York Times, the new constitution “would have enshrined over 100 rights into Chile’s national charter, more than any other constitution in the world, including the right to housing, education, clean air, water, food, sanitation, internet access, retirement benefits, free legal advice and care ‘from birth to death.’” Additionally, the senate would have been abolished, gender parity in government required, autonomy of Indigenous groups expanded and commitments to fight climate change made. 

The decision to draft the new constitution began in 2019, after protests in Chile led the government to give voters the choice to vote on whether a new constitution should be written. According to the same The New York Times article, nearly 4 out of 5 Chileans voted in favor of writing a new constitution. Two years later, 62 percent of voters rejected its proposal.

Associate professor of politics at Mount Holyoke College, Cora Fernandez Anderson, noted that since Chile transitioned to democracy in 1990 after the Pinochet dictatorship, there have been calls for constitutional reform from the left. However, these were stalled by a stance of “moderation.” 

“Both sides, but particularly those on the left, [learned] a hard lesson from the 1973 coup and the dictatorship, so they were willing to moderate their views in order to protect democracy,” Fernandez Anderson explained. “This made a constitutional reform difficult.” She noted that it was difficult for the country to reach a consensus on reform until 2019. “I believe that the 2019 protests were needed to shake politicians from all ideological positions and urge them to commit to give the country a new constitution in line with the new Chile,” she added.

Since 2019, the world has been watching as the new constitution took shape. Its rejection comes as a disappointment to many on the left, including young people. Avni Wadhwani ’23, a student currently studying abroad in Chile, noticed a broader generational divide among voters considering whether or not to adopt the new constitution. “A lot of younger people voted to approve, and a lot of older people voted to reject,” Wadhwani said. Wadhwani also explained that unlike the U.S., voters in Chile could be fined if they didn’t vote on the referendum on the constitution. 

There is debate about the reasoning behind its failure, given the large popular support for reform in 2019. An article from Reuters highlights the emergence of misinformation surrounding the new constitution, which spread online, often faster than fact checkers could keep up with. The article notes that while some statements, like that abortion would be allowed in the ninth month of pregnancy, or that the ownership of private property would be banned, were easy to disprove, fact checkers had a complicated task in correcting legal interpretations. The same article continued, “Fabian Padilla, who founded Fact Check CL, a fact-checking site that started during the 2019 protests, said sites can’t declare legal interpretations false, in contrast to, for example, the kind of patently-false medical claims that circulated during the pandemic. ‘With [COVID-19], misinformation was very consistent, repeating the same patterns, some of it very absurd,’ Padilla said. ‘But with constitutional text it’s very debatable.’ This leads to consultations with legal experts and longer verification times.”

Wadhwani experienced the widespread disinformation campaign firsthand, with people from her host parents to one of her professors sharing false interpretations of the constitution.

Despite the battle against misinformation, Fernandez Anderson believes that other factors were at play in the rejection. “What seems clear from [this] data is that most Chileans do not want the old constitution. However, this doesn’t mean that they will settle on the new one. There are many reports talking about the misinformation and fake news campaign against the constitution. These campaigns probably influenced some of the voters, but I believe that the percentage of rejection was quite large to only adjudicate the loss to the lack of accurate information,” she noted. 

An article in Time highlighted the conflicts that existed within the majority that decided to rewrite the constitution. “Some see the referendum as a symbolic opportunity to move on from the dictatorship or tinker with the existing model. Others want a total transformation.” These disagreements likely were amplified by the extremely left wing constitution that was created. In other words, as voters were disconnected from representatives, extreme voices were amplified that did not necessarily match with the actual voters on several issues. “Chile’s rigid political system, [Claudia Heiss, the head of political science at University of Chile’s Institute of Public Affairs] says, had already led to the deterioration of the party system, with the main center-left and center-right parties becoming ‘very distanced from the citizens.’ It also contributed to a massive drop in political participation in Chile. ‘People vote because they want to change the health system or the pensions system. If you can’t change those things because of the political system, why would you vote?’” the article continued. 

The New York Times also mentioned the controversy surrounding declaring Chile a plurinational state, the cost of implementing the reforms and the fact that the left wing outnumbered conservatives in the convention, creating a document that people felt was out of touch with the voters. 

Wadhwari said that around the time of the referendum, “The political atmosphere [was] also was very tense, because the approval of the new constitution kind of was very linked to approval of the current president who’s very progressive, very leftist and also very young.” After the rejection, according to Wadhwari, the atmosphere was calm, and she wasn’t aware of any widespread protests. 

Despite the rejection, Fernandez Anderson believes that there is a possibility for reform in the future, noting that “political parties agreed on certain rules to call for a new constitutional convention. But it is still too early to know how different a new proposal will be. The issue of plurinationality was one of the most contentious so that will need a larger societal debate.” She also believes that there is a lot to learn from the recent events. “I think the lesson from Chile is one of courage, commitment and respect for democracy. Courage to challenge your government in the 2019 protests and demand a constitutional reform that will finally put an end to the legacies of the military dictatorship and advance the necessary institutional reforms to strengthen democracy.” 

She continued, “Commitment and respect for democracy in the sense that Chileans accepted to channel their demands through a constitutional convention and through electing in the next presidential elections a president more in line with their demands, which they did in 2021. The respect for the results of the Sept. 4 popular vote also show how both those who voted in favor of the constitution and the government that sponsored it accepted their defeat and are ready to work on another draft that will reflect the views of society more broadly.” 

Wadhwari also believes in the possibility for reform, and hopes the world will be watching. “I found … how little U.S. media covered it [really disappointing]. It was literally one of the most progressive constitutions in the world, if not the most progressive, and its rejection barely made a dent in U.S. media. I think that goes to show how little the U.S. considers nuances and changes in Latin American politics even though the region has experienced some of the most progressive changes in the world in the past few decades,” she concluded.

Students in the Ethiopian diaspora reflect on the beginning of the New Year

Photo courtesy of Abigel Nahu Asteraye ’25.
The younger sister of Abigel Nahu Asteraye ’25 celebrates the Ethiopian New Year on Sept. 11.

By Cynthia Akanaga ’25

Global Editor

For Ethiopians home and abroad, Sunday, Sept. 11, marked the beginning of the new year — or Enkutatash in Amharic. For Ethiopians in the diaspora, celebrating Enkutatash looked very different from back home.

Ethiopia is one of the few countries in the world that makes use of its own calendar. The East African country uses the Ge’ez calendar, which is seven to eight years behind the Western Gregorian calendar. On the Ethiopian calendar, there are 13 months in a year. 12 of these months each have 30 days. The last month, Pagume, has five days — or six days in a leap year. This makes September, called Meskerem in Amharic, the first month of the year. Other than the unique calendar, September also ushers in the period of bright skies after a long period of rain.

Abigel Nahu Asteraye ’25, a Mount Holyoke student from Ethiopia, detailed how Enkutatash is celebrated in Ethiopia. “New Year is certainly one heck of a time to be back home. The festivities usually start a week before the actual day. You would see the streets fill out with food, spices, cattle — you name it,” she said. “The already bustling Addis Ababa would even seem more lively than ever. The vendors will be filled with adey abeba, an endemic yellow daisy that only comes out during New Year.”

“You miss the smell and view of adey abeba — a unique type of flower that blooms for the New Year — and it’s not a surprise if your stomach sinks drowning in nostalgia ... You just let it be and let it pass with the best that [you’ve] got.”

— Salem Weldegebriel

She also described the Chibo, which is associated with the end of the rainy season. She continued, “Let’s not forget the Chibo. These are bonfires we light up on the eve of the New Year, symbolizing the beginning of a new season — bright and hopeful, now that the rainy season has ended. Gathered around with family and friends, watching these torches light up, it’s hard not to feel the flames of the new beginnings light up from within.”

Behind the festivities brought on by the celebration lies the overarching theme of hope.

Salem Weldegebriel, an Ethiopian student at Gustavus Adolphus College explained, “This celebration marks a new start. There’s this tradition done during the New Year’s Eve where a unique kind of amalgamated sticks designed for this very purpose are lit up on fire and family and neighbors would gather around singing the unique New Years song. … At about the end as the fire starts to die … everyone present takes turn in jumping from one side of the burning stick to the other. This action marks the transition — done with the old, and into the new. … That’s what New Year means to me. New chance, new everything. A new life awaits if acted upon.”

“New Year is certainly one heck of a time to be back home. The festivities usually start a week before the actual day. You would see the streets fill out with food, spices, cattle — you name it. The already bustling Addis Ababa would even seem more lively than ever. The vendors will be filled with adey abeba, an endemic yellow daisy that only comes out during New Year.”

— Abigel Nahu Asteraye ’25

Asteraye further explained how much the New Year means to her personally. “New Year is literally the epitome of social events for me. It brings family members who might have not seen each for a while to come and visit. At the same time, it’s also a time for introspection, where I get to look ahead and make resolutions for the coming year.”

Weldegebriel drew the contrast between the celebration at home and here in the U.S.

 “Back home, … the very words trigger memory, a kind of memory that imbues ever fresh nostalgia,” she said. “The contrast is ever clear cause here there’s no chime of neighbors and family gathered for the holiday. … Here, the best you get away with is perhaps [gathering] with friends coming from where you come from.” 

She continued, “Here there’s no smell of coffee or freshly baked traditional bread, here there’s no smell of a rising incense from the coffee ceremony, here the best you get away with is perhaps a friend bringing you over some Ethiopian food from [an] Ethiopian restaurant and you gather to eat that and have a chat … and you miss it. You miss the smell and view of adey abeba — a unique type of flower that blooms for the New Year — and it’s not a surprise if your stomach sinks drowning in nostalgia … You just let it be and let it pass with the best that [you’ve] got.”

Asteraye echoed similar feelings of nostalgia. In terms of celebrating the new year in the U.S., she said, “We do try to create that sense of togetherness by hanging out together and grabbing some Ethiopian food on [the] New Year, but [it] still won’t feel anything close to how it is back home.”

Papua New Guinea earthquake takes lives, disrupts infrastructure

Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.
While the death toll of the recent earthquake was lower, many people were reminded of the 7.5 magnitude earthquake that killed an estimated 150 people in 2018. Infrastructure, including the power grid, was damaged in the Sept. 11 earthquake.

By Sophie Soloway ’23 & Hannah Raykher ’23

Editor-in-Chief | H.R. Manager

Content warning: This article discusses mass death.

An earthquake with a magnitude of 7.6 struck Papua New Guinea on Sunday, Sept. 11. Al-Jazeera reported that this natural disaster — which struck at a 38-mile depth according to the United States Geological Survey — sparked landslides and damaged nearby infrastructure. The quake resulted in at least seven deaths, according to reports from Fox Weather. 

This earthquake comes four years after another hit the country. In February 2018, a 7.5 magnitude earthquake killed an estimated 150 people, reported Al Jazeera. This quake similarly triggered landslides and disrupted natural resource access and health care services. According to the World Health Organization, “Some 544,000 people were affected with 270,000 in need of immediate humanitarian assistance.”

James Marape, the Papua New Guinean Prime Minister, referenced the previous earthquake in a statement, according to Al-Jazeera. He stated that “he expected the damage to be less than that from a 2018 earthquake and series of aftershocks.”

According to Corrine Liu ’23, an environmental studies major, the country’s geographic location plays a role in its frequent earthquakes. They shared that, “PNG gets a lot of earthquakes because it sits on essentially an arc of faults in the Pacific Ocean, so it’s a hotspot for seismic activity.”

Liu, who has also experienced earthquakes in their home state of California, stated that their own memories of the natural disasters “showed how we are fully vulnerable to the world and that with most natural phenomena, everyday people have no control or way of best preparing.”

Papua New Guinea’s hotspot is also known as the Ring of Fire, according to Sarah Parsons ’24, a geography major. Parsons compared the country’s geology to Oregon, their home state on the west coast of the U.S., which experiences “A lot more seismic [and] volcanic activity.” 

Following the earthquake, officials have told Reuters that the depth of its epicenter has limited some of the damage that may otherwise have been possible. Beyond the seven reported deaths since Sunday, Police Commissioner David Manning told Reuters that, “The regional power grid, internet cables, roads and highways had been damaged.”

An Al Jazeera report suggested that the state’s lost infrastructure and financial constraints may pose more prominent challenges in its recovery from this earthquake, especially given its socioeconomic status, stating, “With government resources limited, much of the rescue effort has been carried out by small private companies and volunteers.”

Elon Musk contemplates Twitter purchase

By Qingyun Shi ’23

Staff Writer

Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla, recently expressed uncertainty about whether his takeover bid for the social media service, Twitter, would be successful, according to an April 15 article from the BBC. Prior to the conference at which he communicated his doubts, Musk “offered to buy the company for $54.20 a share, valuing the firm at $43bn,” as reported by BBC. He also mentioned the existence of a “Plan B,” but did not disclose the content of the plan.

“I think it's very important for there to be an inclusive arena for free speech,” Musk said on Twitter when discussing his motivations for the takeover bid. 

Professor emeritus of politics, Chris Pyle, criticized Musk’s intentions regarding free speech.

“Elon Musk wants to buy one of the biggest printing presses in the country and allow it to function largely without supervision. He claims to be a defender of free speech, but he’s not. He thinks of himself as a libertarian, but the ideas he wishes to liberate are those of rich people like himself. He really doesn’t understand that an unrestricted social media platform really doesn’t advance free speech. It will just advance the freedom of rich men like himself to distort the marketplace of political ideas, often with fake news,” Pyle said. 

“Lots of mistakes are going to be made by well-meaning censors, before anything approaching a stable consensus on what should be allowable speech is going to be reached,” Pyle concluded. 

Musk hasn’t been the only prominent figure to express interest in purchasing Twitter. Saudi Arabia’s Prince Alwaleed bin Talal — who claimed that he has a stake in Twitter through his investment firm Kingdom Holding Company — commented on Twitter about Musk’s offer. “I don’t believe that the proposed offer by Elon Musk comes close to the intrinsic value of Twitter given its growth prospects,” he said. 

Musk replied immediately, asking how many Twitter shares Alwaleed bin Talal’s firm owns. Musk added, “What are the Kingdom’s views on journalist freedom of speech?”

Bryan Nakayama, a visiting lecturer in international relations and politics, discussed his opinion about Musk’s stated aim to promote free speech on the platform.

“Based on what I’ve seen, most users in the U.S. are able to express a fairly wide range of views and opinions from the mainstream to extreme. Speech is more restricted on certain topics — [such as] health-sensitive topics  or types of speech, such as death threats or imagery of child sexual exploitation,” Nakayama said. “One sticky area is the question of disinformation and algorithmic radicalization — for people on the political extremes, something that is considered ‘disinformation’ would be a normal belief or interpretation of reality,” Nakayama continued. 

“Who gets to adjudicate that is a difficult question. Similarly, there are attempts to stem the activity of extremist groups like QAnon,” Nakayama said. “There is no evidence of political bias in the moderation system, but automated moderation systems like Twitter can be gamed by individuals using mass reporting to get accounts taken down. The main clear area of ‘bias’ is in the … promotion algorithm, which favors the right.

Study-abroad diaries: Catelyn Fitzgerald ’23 shares a day in the life in Copenhagen, Denmark

Photo courtesy of Catelyn Fitzgerald ’23. This semester, Catelyn Fitzgerals ’23 studied food anthropology and Danish language in Denmark.

By Catelyn Fitzgerald ’23

Contributing Writer

Studying abroad is a time of self-discovery. By the end, you may become a person that you would never expect. Maybe you pick up new hobbies or find a new dream career path. Maybe, like me, you will become a regular at 7-Eleven. This is where I started my Friday morning in Copenhagen. Nothing leaves you fiending for a cold bottle of orange juice like a night spent in a sweaty club. To start my day, I miraculously managed to roll out of bed and get ready in time for the bus. After collecting my much needed OJ and a blueberry muffin, I headed to Danish Language and Culture, my first class of the day. The day’s class looked different from our usual recitations of tongue-twisting Danish dialogues. Instead, we workshopped ideas for our final papers on Danish culture. While I opted to write about Danish author and cultural superstar Hans Cristian Andersen, several of my classmates opted instead to write about a topic that Americans might find puzzling: the Danish welfare system. Denmark serves as just one example of the thriving welfare systems that are prevalent throughout Scandinavia. It might be hard to imagine how they succeed when in America government welfare is often underfunded and subjected to the whims of political turnover. Denmark’s welfare system relies on deep-seated societal trust to keep it going. This collectivism pays off, with Danes — and foreigners staying for an extended period — receiving free healthcare and other services.

After Danish, I headed to my next class, Anthropology of Food, where we mulled over the true meaning of “home-cooked,” which naturally made me very hungry. I met up with some of my roommates after class and we walked to one of Copenhagen’s buzzing centers, Nørreport, for one of the city’s only affordable meals: falafel pitas. Danish food is not known for its spice, nor, frankly, its flavor in general, but one thing Copenhagen does right is have a shawarma shop on every corner. The prevalence of foods from the Middle East is one of the more obvious signs of increasing multiculturalism in Denmark. Immigration into the country is the source of much political and social controversy in Denmark, as it has been across Europe over the past decade. Food is one of the tools through which Denmark has resisted the influx of non-Western immigrants and their cultures. I remember learning in Anthropology of Food about one famous incident dubbed “Frikadeller-gate,” which involved an attempt to mandate serving pork in school cafeterias, despite strict rules against consumption of the meat in many religions, notably Islam. The ease with which Danish society integrates some parts of immigrant cultures while attacking others is almost as puzzling as it is expected. 

We brought our tzatziki-laden pitas to a local park, where it seemed the entirety of Copenhagen had gathered to sunbathe, since the temperature had finally eclipsed 50 degrees Fahrenheit. The green surrounding the central lake was dotted with people sipping iced lattes and lying out on blankets. My roommates and I spent a while enjoying the sun before taking the bus back to our apartment in a quiet residential neighborhood just outside the city. After rushing to get ready in time for the next bus — which I missed, in typical fashion — I headed off to meet with a friend who was visiting from Berlin. A 20-minute walk, metro ride and bus trip later, I arrived at Reffen, an outdoor food market placed along one of Copenhagen’s idyllic canals. The market, which is the place to go to try cuisines from around the world, had just opened as the weather started to become tolerable. After waiting in a couple impossibly slow lines — the pace in Copenhagen is anything but fast — I happily stuffed down my chana masala and veggie empanadas. Once the sun went down and we couldn’t stand to be outside any longer, my friends and I parted ways, and I embarked on the lengthy journey home. I arrived to my roommates eating dinner together and, before long, I fell asleep in front of our current favorite show, Love Island, which we’d been chipping away at all semester

Tanzania elects first female president

By Cynthia Akanaga ’25

Staff Writer

Last year on March 19, Tanzania joined the cohort of African countries with female leaders with the swearing in of Samia Suluhu Hassan, a Muslim Tanzanian woman, as head of state. In Tanzania, Hassan is widely referred to as Mama Samia. 

According to the Center for Strategic and International Studies, “As the country’s former vice president, Hassan became the constitutionally mandated successor of late president John Magufuli after he allegedly died from COVID-19 in early March 2021.”

In her interview in Dodoma, the capital of Tanzania, Hassan talked about the challenges with assuming the role of president in the country. “Most of the people couldn’t believe that we can have a woman president and she can deliver. The challenge was to create a trust in the people that yes, I can do it,” Hassan stated, as reported by The New York Times. 

Hassan has taken measures to make leadership in Tanzania more accessible to other women. According to The Conversation, “Nine of her cabinet ministers are women, which represents 36 percent, a six percentage point rise from the previous cabinet.”

Sarah Chohan ’24, a student from Tanzania, echoed the idea of the challenges women face in authority positions. “I’m a Muslim Tanzanian woman, and it’s nice to see the representation, especially as a president. … Right now, things are getting better as people are getting educated. But there’s still a lot of backward mindset. Tanzania is still quite, I’d say, conservative. So, I’m not going to lie — we didn’t see this coming, getting a Muslim president woman especially.”

In the same vein, Vanessa Dickson ’25, a first-year from Tanzania spoke about the double standards facing women. “As a woman, you have to do double the work than what the man does to show that you’re capable of delivering the tasks. I think for the longest time, the majority of the people didn’t believe that a woman could lead,” Dickson said. “By Mama Samia now being the person who is leading us as a nation, it’s proving that women can actually lead, and they’re capable of doing it. There is hope for the rest of the women in Tanzania because they have someone that they can look up to,” Dickson added.

Chohan and Dickson both emphasized the improvements Hassan has made for the tourism industry in Tanzania.

“Mama Samia is definitely opening up Tanzania to the world, especially with her recent trips to the U.S. and meeting with Kamala Harris. She’s advertising tourism in Tanzania, which I think is great because we do have amazing things. She’s trying to put Tanzania on the international map, ” Chohan said.

Dickson also highlighted how much Hassan has done for the country’s tourism. She stated, “Personally, I really love [her]. I love what she’s doing for the nation, and one of the things that I really like that she’s doing is within the tourism industry. One of the things she talked about … [was] that many people, when you meet them and you tell them where you’re from, … don’t know it. They’re like, ‘Where’s that?’ Now, she’s made this new film called [Tanzania: The Royal Tour]. It’s a way to promote tourism in the nation and people are able to see Tanzania for what it is.” 

Hassan met with Harris on April 15 in Washington, during which she announced this “Royal Tour program … to showcase Tanzania’s touristic and investment potentials,” according to the White House. Hassan’s meeting with Harris also yielded “the investment of nearly $1 billion from American companies in Tanzania’s tourism and energy sectors,” as reported by VOA News.

“On April 18th, I attended the premiere of the Tanzania: [The] Royal Tour documentary in New York,” Hassan wrote in a Twitter post. “The one-hour documentary shot in Tanzania will promote our country’s unique and unrivaled tourism attractions and investment opportunities to a global audience.” 

In addition to her focus on tourism, Chohan also shed light on how Hassan responded to the COVID-19 pandemic, including how she publicly received her vaccine dose to encourage the citizens to also get vaccinated. 

Chohan stated, “Mama Samia is accepting that vaccinations are out there, [that] we need to get them, [that] they’re necessary, and [that] she believes in the science of it. I believe in the science of vaccinations too, so I agree with her. Tanzanians, for the most part, were very hesitant, and they were resisting the vaccinations.” Chohan continued, “I think her openly taking the vaccinations was more of showing support that, like, ‘I’m also with you guys.’ We’re all in this together,’ kind of thing. I think that was a really good initiative from her because [Some didn’t] believe in the science of it.”

According to CSIS, “As of March 2022, approximately 4.5 percent of Tanzanians are vaccinated against COVID-19. This is impressive given Tanzania’s late start to COVID-19 precautions as well as the pervasive public resistance toward the vaccine.”

Dickson stated, “We’re building relationships with various countries, which is a good thing because it helps both economies and the people of both nations.”

Rokhaya Diallo speaks on Black French culture and identity

Photo courtesy of Jean-Marc Ferré for UN via Flickr. Rokhaya Diallo talked about her experience as a journalist and anti-racist activist in France.

By Sarah Bell ’25

Staff Writer

“Where do you come from?” is a question that Rokhaya Diallo has received all her life, despite being born and raised in France. According to Diallo, this complicated question normalized in French culture ignites a battle of proving one’s French identity while preserving one’s Black identity. 

On Tuesday, March 29, Smith College welcomed Diallo, a French-Senegalese journalist, filmmaker and author, to speak on a panel entitled “On the French Elections and Beyond.”

According to Mehammed Mack, associate professor of French studies at Smith College, “Rokhaya Diallo is the only prominent woman of color to have become a fixture of the nightly news talk shows and radio programs in France. … She brought intersectionality into general public discourse, and has drawn the ire of the right as well as a section of the left that adheres to rigid secularism.” 

“One of France’s most prominent anti-racism activists,” according to The New York Times, Diallo is a notable public figure in television and media. Born in Paris, Diallo graduated from Pantheon-Sorbonne with a degree in International Law, according to BlackPast. Her background in journalism stems from 15 years of coverage of the past three French elections. Diallo is also a published author, with a newly released book with her colleague, Grace Ly, titled, “Kiffe ta Race.” She has also written “Afro!” a picture book about the appreciation of Black natural hair, according to Goodreads. A true triple-threat, she has her hand in filmmaking, too, directing “De Paris à Ferguson: Coupables D'être Noirs” (2016) translated to English as “Paris to Ferguson: Guilty of Being Black,” and “Où sont les Noirs” translated as “Where are the Black People,” according to TV5 Unis. She is currently a researcher in residence at Georgetown’s Gender Justice Initiative in Washington D.C. 

“Prepare to face adversity and lose opportunities,” Diallo said during the panel, speaking on the downsides of speaking out within the journalism world. Diallo has been fired from previous jobs due to her outspoken nature, but has also gained many opportunities from it.

“Language is a real tool of intimidation,” she said to the crowd. She advised young female journalists to be confident in what they are speaking about. Diallo doesn’t spend time on people who don’t want to take the time to learn from her regarding racism in France, though she emphasized that she is explicit with people who do want to take the time to educate themselves. 

Carolyn Shread, senior lecturer in French at Mount Holyoke and faculty exchange professor at Smith, an attendee of the panel, looks to Diallo as a trailblazer in disrupting that pattern of the male-dominated discourse. “Diallo’s voice helps correct the erasures and bring us to a more equitable space, in which we hear from more than the happy few. We need — as soon as possible — for other people to join her so that she is not left to carry the burden of speaking alone.”

Diallo presented a clip she edited called “Qu’est ce que le Manterrupting,” meaning the interruption of female journalists and politicians by male voices. Diallo spoke on “preserving the art of speaking.” She felt like she wasn’t taken seriously in workspaces — however, speaking in a more assertive manner has helped her debate and assimilate in these spaces.

She also spoke on the candidates of the French presidential election, specifically on Marine Le Pen, the current president of the National Rally, and Eric Zemmour, who has made openly racist, anti-immigrant, anti-Muslim remarks, according to The Economist. It is unprecedented in recent years for France to have two far-right candidates so high in popularity.

One question for the panel was about the importance of inclusivity, particularly regarding the underrepresentation of African and Caribbean female and nonbinary voices from Francophone and Lusophone countries. Diallo stated that the preservation of these works by diverse writers and the recentering of today’s notable Francophone African and Caribbean voices, such as Françoise Verges, Awa Thiam, and Paulette Nardal can bring attention to this.

Diallo and Mack recommended several Francophone contemporaries, activists and historical figures, including Louis Delgrès, Toumi Djaïdja and Albert Memmi.