vox--2020-11-30--Staying safe this winter means a lot of time outside. Here’s how to stay warm.

This winter is going to suck .
We know this because the rest of this year has sucked , but we also know this because the main respite from the suckiness was summer — for those living in much of the northern hemisphere , warmer weather meant that it was far more pleasant to be outside , where the coronavirus is less likely to spread .
But now , winter is coming , and nobody seems to know what to do about it .
America is in the midst of a third surge of Covid-19 cases in a lame duck @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
Local governments are closing schools while keeping bars open in attempts to stave off any further economic collapses .
Restaurants that remain open are building elaborate “ outdoor ” dining spaces that are literally just indoor dining spaces .
What we do know , however , is that if you need to leave your home , it ’ s much safer to be doing activities outside than inside somewhere else .
That means that many Americans are going to need to learn how to deal with , and dress for , cold @ @ @ @ @ @ @ who are experts in this particular area , for whom brutally cold environments are just part of the job .
Cathy Geiger is a professor at the University of Delaware , and has studied the behavior of sea ice at both the arctic and Antarctic poles for more than three decades .
Having worked on 10 polar expeditions , Geiger ’ s seen a lot ( including some gross frostbite stuff that involves eyelashes ; we ’ ll get to that ) .
For the sake of clarity , because layering for sub-zero @ @ @ @ @ @ @ information will be distilled via a handy question-and-answer format .
There are a couple main tenets of layering that Geiger adheres to .
The first and most important of them is to wear lots of loose layers — the key word here being “ loose.
” That ’ s because the insulated air that circulates between each layer is what ’ s actually keeping you warm .
The more active you plan to be , the fewer layers you should wear .
Another important tip she stresses is that good body circulation is @ @ @ @ @ @ @ you ’ re wearing 700 layers and you ’ re like the Michelin man and you can ’ t move , all that padding isn ’ t going to do you any good if you block off your circulation , ” she explains .
“ [ If you wear ] four pairs of socks stuffed in a boot , your toes are going to get frostbite because everything ’ s too tight .
There ’ s no blood down there.
” When Geiger goes on an expedition where temperatures can plunge between 30 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ she usually layers about four pairs of oversized long johns in moisture-wicking synthetic fabrics or merino wool , a Dickies bib , a Turtle Fur for her neck and face , and at least three pairs of gloves ( the thinnest layer goes on first , the military surplus ones go on last ) , topped with Carhartt coveralls and knee pads .
Over that , she wears an extra-large L.L .
Bean extreme-weather coat shell .
“ The shell stops the cold from breaking through , so it ’ s just like @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a personal shelter .
In really cold weather , you want to wrap your body like you would insulate your house.
” What are the best fabrics to use to shield from wind and cold , and how should I layer them ?
Conventional wisdom says to keep away from cotton , because it has virtually zero moisture-wicking properties .
Instead , Geiger says , make sure that the fabric closest to your skin is made of synthetic fabrics or merino wool .
Why are moisture-wicking fabrics so important ?
“ Sweat is @ @ @ @ @ @ @ says .
“ The big thing to do is [ move ] slower than you think .
Once you get into the zero digits , you don ’ t want to start running around and warm up so much that you break a sweat.
” And regardless of how you feel about Canada Goose , they ’ ve done hoods right .
Geiger recommends hoods with fur ( or faux fur ) trim because “ fur creates friction that holds back the wind.
” What ’ s the best way to protect my @ @ @ @ @ @ @ always be wearing sunblock on your face , but before heading out into a snowy environment , there ’ s one place that people might miss : the underside of their nose .
“ Snow reflects !
” she warns .
Once you ’ re back inside , go for the usual suspects that promise to moisturize : heavy lotions , balms , and Vaseline .
Yes !
And they require their own layering methods , too .
While you probably won ’ t be wearing goggles during your commute to work , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ used by arctic researchers to protect your eyes and face .
“ If you put on a baseball cap and [ then ] a snow hat , the ball cap creates a brim , [ and ] it ’ s amazing how much sun that blocks , ” she says .
“ It ’ s a great wind blocker.
” Another handy use for baseball caps : When you wear sunglasses , the brim traps the heat that would have been lost through the top of the shades .
And now is the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ me something truly wild ; in order to properly describe it , I have included the full transcript : The eyeball is really a serious place where you do not want things to freeze .
Wait , how do your eyeballs freeze ?
You ’ ll notice it because you ’ ll realize your eyelashes are starting to freeze .
We ’ ve had situations where people have gone , “ Oh my god , what did I just do ?
Please look at me.
” There was a little bit of tearing @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in your eye you will start to tear , and then that can cause your eyelashes to freeze .
If you try to open [ your eyes ] too fast , you can actually rip the eyelashes out .
That ’ s happened to a friend .
When you ’ re talking -20 , [ you see ] freezing of contact lenses and tearing your eyelashes out because they ’ ve frozen together .
If that happens , the first thing you do is leave your eyes closed .
If you have sunglasses @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and put your mittens right over your eyes .
Warm it up before you try to open your eyes and rip your eyelashes off .
My feet get really sweaty if I wear bulky socks .
What ’ s the best way to layer on your feet ?
Remember the thing about loose layers ?
That ’ s important here , too .
“ If you ’ re really , really , really cold , you actually want your feet to be in something so loose that your boot ’ s moving around @ @ @ @ @ @ @ She never puts on more than two layers of socks ( any more and your feet will slide around too much ) : a moisture-wicking one closest to the skin , followed by a thicker wool pair .
And obviously , wear a waterproof boot because , once again , “ wet will really kill you.
” What stupid things do people do in the cold that they really shouldn ’ t ?
Strangely enough , one of the worst mistakes people often make is more mental than physical .
“ If you @ @ @ @ @ @ @ tense , you ’ re going to block your circulation , ” she says .
Instead , the key is to warm up before you go outside .
“ Saunas exist from northern cultures for a really good reason , ” she explains .
Try drinking warm soup broth before heading out rather than coffee or tea , because “ tea makes you pee.
” How do I know if I ’ m getting frostbite ?
And what do I do about it ?
Your first warning that you ’ re getting too @ @ @ @ @ @ @ feel , since they ’ re the farthest from your heart .
“ When I was taking students out on the ice , that ’ s the first thing I ’ d ask : ‘ How ’ s everybody ’ s fingers and toes ?
All 10 ?
All 20 ?
’ I wanted them to feel that they can count all 20 digits because they ’ re your remote sensors.
” Geiger stresses that cold extremities need to be tended to immediately .
If your hands and feet are starting to hurt @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and warm them up , either by going inside or using the tools available to do so ( there are strategies used by fisherman and the Inupiat people of Alaska that involve using one ’ s own snot and/or pee that hopefully you will never have to use ) .
Any sign of “ bleak white skin , ” she adds , also means that blistering may have already started .
So , uh ... what ’ s happening with the sea ice ?
One of the most shocking things Geiger said was @ @ @ @ @ @ @ on sea ice for decades , within the last 10 years it ’ s gotten so thin that it ’ s unsafe to camp there .
“ I ’ ve been on the sea ice since 1984 and in those days it was great .
We just took a boat up there , walked on the ice , and worked on it .
2007 was the last time we could really just camp on the ice .
Since 2007 , the ice is too dangerously thin to go out and just work on @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to work on a boat.
” Because her work has been laden with political baggage due to the Trump administration ’ s denial of climate change , polar research has been largely on hold since 2016 .
And yet despite how politicians may feel about the term “ climate change , ” this , unfortunately , does not mean that it is not happening .
Geiger explains that because the planet is warming so quickly , the temperate climates that many people currently inhabit will someday not exist at all .
“ The @ @ @ @ @ @ @ warmer , things get wavier , and as things get wavier , the tropics and the poles are all that we have left , and we don ’ t have that nice , cozy , temperate , moderate climate , ” she says .
“ And I think , if the news could communicate that , people would say like , ‘ Holy expletive .
There ’ s no temperate zone anymore ?
’ It ’ s like , ‘ Yeah , that ’ s the consequence of the poles warming faster than @ @ @ @ @ @ @ zone .
And once you do that , that really does make life miserable.
” Which is to say , the coronavirus isn ’ t the only extremely depressing part of this winter .

This winter is going to suck. We know this because the rest of this year has sucked, but we also know this because the main respite from the suckiness was summer — for those living in much of the northern hemisphere, warmer weather meant that it was far more pleasant to be outside, where the coronavirus is less likely to spread.
But now, winter is coming, and nobody seems to know what to do about it. America is in the midst of a third surge of Covid-19 cases in a lame duck presidency where little is likely to improve. Local governments are closing schools while keeping bars open in attempts to stave off any further economic collapses. Restaurants that remain open are building elaborate “outdoor” dining spaces that are literally just indoor dining spaces.
What we do know, however, is that if you need to leave your home, it’s much safer to be doing activities outside than inside somewhere else. That means that many Americans are going to need to learn how to deal with, and dress for, cold weather.
Luckily, there are people who are experts in this particular area, for whom brutally cold environments are just part of the job. Cathy Geiger is a professor at the University of Delaware, and has studied the behavior of sea ice at both the arctic and Antarctic poles for more than three decades.
Having worked on 10 polar expeditions, Geiger’s seen a lot (including some gross frostbite stuff that involves eyelashes; we’ll get to that). For the sake of clarity, because layering for sub-zero temperatures is pretty complicated, the following information will be distilled via a handy question-and-answer format.
What’s the best layering method?
There are a couple main tenets of layering that Geiger adheres to. The first and most important of them is to wear lots of loose layers — the key word here being “loose.” That’s because the insulated air that circulates between each layer is what’s actually keeping you warm. The more active you plan to be, the fewer layers you should wear.
Another important tip she stresses is that good body circulation is the key to warmth. “If you’re wearing 700 layers and you’re like the Michelin man and you can’t move, all that padding isn’t going to do you any good if you block off your circulation,” she explains. “[If you wear] four pairs of socks stuffed in a boot, your toes are going to get frostbite because everything’s too tight. There’s no blood down there.”
When Geiger goes on an expedition where temperatures can plunge between 30 degrees and 40 degrees below zero, she usually layers about four pairs of oversized long johns in moisture-wicking synthetic fabrics or merino wool, a Dickies bib, a Turtle Fur for her neck and face, and at least three pairs of gloves (the thinnest layer goes on first, the military surplus ones go on last), topped with Carhartt coveralls and knee pads. Over that, she wears an extra-large L.L. Bean extreme-weather coat shell.
“The shell stops the cold from breaking through, so it’s just like weatherizing your roof: Your body is a personal shelter. In really cold weather, you want to wrap your body like you would insulate your house.”
What are the best fabrics to use to shield from wind and cold, and how should I layer them?
Conventional wisdom says to keep away from cotton, because it has virtually zero moisture-wicking properties. Instead, Geiger says, make sure that the fabric closest to your skin is made of synthetic fabrics or merino wool.
Why are moisture-wicking fabrics so important? “Sweat is what will kill you,” she says. “The big thing to do is [move] slower than you think. Once you get into the zero digits, you don’t want to start running around and warm up so much that you break a sweat.”
And regardless of how you feel about Canada Goose, they’ve done hoods right. Geiger recommends hoods with fur (or faux fur) trim because “fur creates friction that holds back the wind.”
What’s the best way to protect my skin from the elements?
You should always be wearing sunblock on your face, but before heading out into a snowy environment, there’s one place that people might miss: the underside of their nose. “Snow reflects!” she warns. Once you’re back inside, go for the usual suspects that promise to moisturize: heavy lotions, balms, and Vaseline.
Do hats really matter?
Yes! And they require their own layering methods, too. While you probably won’t be wearing goggles during your commute to work, you can still rely on the tenets used by arctic researchers to protect your eyes and face.
“If you put on a baseball cap and [then] a snow hat, the ball cap creates a brim, [and] it’s amazing how much sun that blocks,” she says. “It’s a great wind blocker.” Another handy use for baseball caps: When you wear sunglasses, the brim traps the heat that would have been lost through the top of the shades.
And now is the portion of the conversation where Cathy told me something truly wild; in order to properly describe it, I have included the full transcript:
The eyeball is really a serious place where you do not want things to freeze.
Wait, how do your eyeballs freeze?
You’ll notice it because you’ll realize your eyelashes are starting to freeze.
What?
We’ve had situations where people have gone, “Oh my god, what did I just do? Please look at me.” There was a little bit of tearing because when the wind blows really hard in your eye you will start to tear, and then that can cause your eyelashes to freeze. If you try to open [your eyes] too fast, you can actually rip the eyelashes out.
Oh my god!
That’s happened to a friend. When you’re talking -20, [you see] freezing of contact lenses and tearing your eyelashes out because they’ve frozen together. If that happens, the first thing you do is leave your eyes closed. If you have sunglasses or anything on, take them off and put your mittens right over your eyes. Warm it up before you try to open your eyes and rip your eyelashes off.
So yes, hats matter.
My feet get really sweaty if I wear bulky socks. What’s the best way to layer on your feet?
Remember the thing about loose layers? That’s important here, too. “If you’re really, really, really cold, you actually want your feet to be in something so loose that your boot’s moving around a bit,” says Geiger. She never puts on more than two layers of socks (any more and your feet will slide around too much): a moisture-wicking one closest to the skin, followed by a thicker wool pair. And obviously, wear a waterproof boot because, once again, “wet will really kill you.”
What stupid things do people do in the cold that they really shouldn’t?
Strangely enough, one of the worst mistakes people often make is more mental than physical. “If you’re excited and you’re tense, you’re going to block your circulation,” she says.
Instead, the key is to warm up before you go outside. “Saunas exist from northern cultures for a really good reason,” she explains. Try drinking warm soup broth before heading out rather than coffee or tea, because “tea makes you pee.”
How do I know if I’m getting frostbite? And what do I do about it?
Your first warning that you’re getting too cold is how your fingers and toes feel, since they’re the farthest from your heart. “When I was taking students out on the ice, that’s the first thing I’d ask: ‘How’s everybody’s fingers and toes? All 10? All 20?’ I wanted them to feel that they can count all 20 digits because they’re your remote sensors.”
Geiger stresses that cold extremities need to be tended to immediately. If your hands and feet are starting to hurt, stop what you’re doing and warm them up, either by going inside or using the tools available to do so (there are strategies used by fisherman and the Inupiat people of Alaska that involve using one’s own snot and/or pee that hopefully you will never have to use). Any sign of “bleak white skin,” she adds, also means that blistering may have already started.
So, uh ... what’s happening with the sea ice?
One of the most shocking things Geiger said was that though she’s been working on sea ice for decades, within the last 10 years it’s gotten so thin that it’s unsafe to camp there.
“I’ve been on the sea ice since 1984 and in those days it was great. We just took a boat up there, walked on the ice, and worked on it. 2007 was the last time we could really just camp on the ice. Since 2007, the ice is too dangerously thin to go out and just work on it anymore. You’ve got to work on a boat.”
Because her work has been laden with political baggage due to the Trump administration’s denial of climate change, polar research has been largely on hold since 2016.
And yet despite how politicians may feel about the term “climate change,” this, unfortunately, does not mean that it is not happening. Geiger explains that because the planet is warming so quickly, the temperate climates that many people currently inhabit will someday not exist at all.
“The fact is that as the poles get warmer, things get wavier, and as things get wavier, the tropics and the poles are all that we have left, and we don’t have that nice, cozy, temperate, moderate climate,” she says.
“And I think, if the news could communicate that, people would say like, ‘Holy expletive. There’s no temperate zone anymore?’ It’s like, ‘Yeah, that’s the consequence of the poles warming faster than the tropics — you lose the temperate zone. And once you do that, that really does make life miserable.” Which is to say, the coronavirus isn’t the only extremely depressing part of this winter.


vox--2020-12-01--Why Trump taking credit for the Covid-19 vaccines could be a good thing

Donald Trump clearly wants credit for the recent successes of the Covid-19 vaccines US companies are developing .
“ I came up with vaccines that people didn ’ t think we ’ d have for five years , ” he said on Fox News Sunday .
He ’ s now apparently not only taking credit for his administration ’ s Operation Warp Speed , which has pumped billions in to the vaccine development process , but for the vaccine formulations themselves .
With each new , exciting development , Trump has taken credit .
When the pharmaceutical company Pfizer announced @ @ @ @ @ @ @ trial with BioNTech , he claimed in a news conference the success was “ as a result of Operation Warp Speed.
” Trump ’ s comments about the Pfizer vaccine weren ’ t quite true .
Pfizer has not received money from Warp Speed , the administration ’ s plan to catalyze vaccine development — at least when it comes to research and development : The US government has agreed to purchase 100 million doses of Pfizer ’ s vaccine if it gains approval .
The government has given Warp Speed money to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ be extremely effective .
Even in the case of Moderna , it definitely wasn ’ t Trump who catalyzed the research and development of the technology .
But you know what ?
Let Trump take credit for these vaccines .
And not because he ’ s been an actual champion of science , scientists , or the regulatory process .
Let him take credit because it may serve a greater good : convincing his Republican followers to trust and take the vaccine when it becomes broadly available .
That , ultimately , could @ @ @ @ @ @ @ hesitant of an eventual Covid-19 vaccine — Republicans more so than Democrats We may eventually have vaccines , but the question remains : Will people take them ?
Only 58 percent of respondents on a recent Gallup poll indicated they ’ d take the vaccine when it first gains approval .
This figure is up from a low of 50 percent back in September .
Before that , willingness to get vaccinated had been declining throughout the summer .
What ’ s more , the surveys might actually be underestimating the problem of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ seasonal influenza vaccination rates , for example , surveys always overestimate the number of people who get it , ” Matt Motta , a political scientist at Oklahoma State University , told me over the summer .
It ’ s a lot easier to tell a pollster that you ’ re going to get a vaccine than it is to actually go get one .
According to Gallup , just 49 percent of Republicans say they ’ d get a vaccine when it ’ s approved .
( Democrats are more confident , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ confidence on the upswing . )
Which means there ’ s a chance for Trump to do some actual good in his final days in office and after he leaves by continuing to trumpet his contribution to the vaccine process , thereby inspiring some of his Republican followers to take the vaccine .
To beat the virus , we ’ ll need a large proportion of vaccinated people across the country ( at least 50 percent or higher ) , and that number needs to include people of all political beliefs .
Trump @ @ @ @ @ @ @ real .
Can he put it to good use ?
Trump owns a lot of the blame for much of the Covid-19 vaccine hesitancy for many reasons : for instance , his constant attacks on scientists and his insinuations that the career officials at the Food and Drug Administration played politics with the vaccine approval .
But he has an incredible power to shift the opinions , nearly overnight , of his followers .
My colleague Dylan Matthews has documented sudden changes in opinion on topics like Russia and Vladimir Putin , free @ @ @ @ @ @ @ media ’ s watchdog role .
Or consider how Trump riled up Republicans hostility toward the NFL after calling on the league to fire players who kneeled in protest during the national anthem .
Trump ’ s power to sway Republican minds has also been shown experimentally , as I wrote about in a 2018 piece on the “ follow the leader ” effect in political science .
In January 2017 , BYU political scientists Michael Barber and Jeremy Pope designed an experiment that wondered : Are Trump ’ s supporters ideological , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ policy whims go ?
Right after Trump ’ s inauguration , they ran an online experiment with 1,300 Republicans .
The study was pretty simple .
Participants were asked to rate whether they supported or opposed policies like a higher minimum wage , the nuclear agreement with Iran , restrictions on abortion access , background checks for gun owners , and so on .
These are the types of issues conservatives and liberals tend to be sharply divided on .
Barber and Pope wondered : Would Republicans be more likely to endorse a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ supported it ?
The answer : “ On average , across all of the questions that we asked , when presented with a liberal policy , Republicans became about 15 percentage points more likely to support that liberal policy ” when they were told Trump supported it , Pope says .
They follow their leader .
“ The conclusion we should draw is that the public , the average Republican sitting out there in America , is not going to stop Trump from doing whatever he wants.
” The effect even held true @ @ @ @ @ @ @ supported a lax immigration policy , his supporters were more likely to say they did , too .
( They ’ ve also replicated these results with new responses , later in the Trump presidency , though these new findings have yet to be published in a peer-reviewed journal . )
I recently contacted Barber and Pope and asked them : Do they think Trump has the power to sway GOP minds to take the vaccine ?
“ Trump ’ s best move from a public health perspective would be to take credit @ @ @ @ @ @ @ voters to be more trusting of the vaccine , ” Barber said in an email .
Not only would it help to encourage more people to get the vaccine overall , but also Trump supporters getting the vaccine could be particularly helpful in stopping the pandemic .
Trump supporters are less likely to engage in behaviors that help stop the spread of the virus , like mask-wearing , which will still be needed for some time even if there ’ s an approved vaccine , and have been more vocally opposed to stay-at-home @ @ @ @ @ @ @ feeling loyal to Trump in 2021 after he leaves office , they could be a big part of the solution when it comes to the vaccine .
There could be other consequences to a Trump vaccine endorsement , however : If Trump supports the eventual approved vaccines , might Democratic voters be less likely to get it ?
Yes , Trump can change the minds of his own voters , and he may also change the minds of his opposition , in the opposite direction : The recent decline in Democrats ’ trust @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to Trump ’ s rhetoric .
“ You ’ re right to worry about decreased trust among Democrats , but I think that might be mitigated if the scientists also backed the vaccine — people like [ Dr. Anthony ] Fauci and others in the FDA/CDC , ” Barber says .
Of course , Trump inspiring his followers to take the vaccine doesn ’ t solve the overall hesitancy problem .
Surveys have also found higher rates of hesitancy among women and Black Americans , groups that are generally less likely to listen @ @ @ @ @ @ @ just that people are afraid the science is being rushed or that the administration is playing politics with the approval process ; as I reported in August , people are also worried about costs and access .
The lesson here isn ’ t that Trump can fix this giant mess he ’ s created .
It ’ s that everyone in power who has influence over public opinion should encourage their followers to get the vaccine if it ’ s deemed to be safe and effective by the scientific community .
The messaging @ @ @ @ @ @ @ because both of the most promising vaccines — the Moderna vaccine and the one from Pfizer — require two doses .
People will need to be motivated to sign up for not just one shot , but two .
There ’ s so much about the US response to the pandemic that has been botched .
We failed on testing early and then failed to scale it up .
We failed on contact tracing and on reopening many of our communities safely .
But we haven ’ t screwed up a vaccine campaign @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to get it right .
Trump endorsing a vaccine that ’ s shown to be safe and effective is a decent start — even if it comes with a heap of undue boasting .

Donald Trump clearly wants credit for the recent successes of the Covid-19 vaccines US companies are developing. “I came up with vaccines that people didn’t think we’d have for five years,” he said on Fox News Sunday. He’s now apparently not only taking credit for his administration’s Operation Warp Speed, which has pumped billions in to the vaccine development process, but for the vaccine formulations themselves.
With each new, exciting development, Trump has taken credit. When the pharmaceutical company Pfizer announced promising results from its Covid-19 vaccine clinical trial with BioNTech, he claimed in a news conference the success was “as a result of Operation Warp Speed.”
Trump’s comments about the Pfizer vaccine weren’t quite true. Pfizer has not received money from Warp Speed, the administration’s plan to catalyze vaccine development — at least when it comes to research and development: The US government has agreed to purchase 100 million doses of Pfizer’s vaccine if it gains approval. The government has given Warp Speed money to Moderna, whose vaccine also appears to be extremely effective. Even in the case of Moderna, it definitely wasn’t Trump who catalyzed the research and development of the technology.
But you know what? Let Trump take credit for these vaccines.
And not because he’s been an actual champion of science, scientists, or the regulatory process. Let him take credit because it may serve a greater good: convincing his Republican followers to trust and take the vaccine when it becomes broadly available. That, ultimately, could save many lives.
Many Americans are hesitant of an eventual Covid-19 vaccine — Republicans more so than Democrats
We may eventually have vaccines, but the question remains: Will people take them?
Only 58 percent of respondents on a recent Gallup poll indicated they’d take the vaccine when it first gains approval. This figure is up from a low of 50 percent back in September. Before that, willingness to get vaccinated had been declining throughout the summer.
What’s more, the surveys might actually be underestimating the problem of mistrust. “When we look at seasonal influenza vaccination rates, for example, surveys always overestimate the number of people who get it,” Matt Motta, a political scientist at Oklahoma State University, told me over the summer. It’s a lot easier to tell a pollster that you’re going to get a vaccine than it is to actually go get one.
According to Gallup, just 49 percent of Republicans say they’d get a vaccine when it’s approved. (Democrats are more confident, at 69 percent, with their their confidence on the upswing.) Which means there’s a chance for Trump to do some actual good in his final days in office and after he leaves by continuing to trumpet his contribution to the vaccine process, thereby inspiring some of his Republican followers to take the vaccine.
To beat the virus, we’ll need a large proportion of vaccinated people across the country (at least 50 percent or higher), and that number needs to include people of all political beliefs.
Trump’s power to sway minds is real. Can he put it to good use?
Trump owns a lot of the blame for much of the Covid-19 vaccine hesitancy for many reasons: for instance, his constant attacks on scientists and his insinuations that the career officials at the Food and Drug Administration played politics with the vaccine approval.
But he has an incredible power to shift the opinions, nearly overnight, of his followers. My colleague Dylan Matthews has documented sudden changes in opinion on topics like Russia and Vladimir Putin, free trade, and support of the news media’s watchdog role. Or consider how Trump riled up Republicans hostility toward the NFL after calling on the league to fire players who kneeled in protest during the national anthem.
Trump’s power to sway Republican minds has also been shown experimentally, as I wrote about in a 2018 piece on the “follow the leader” effect in political science.
In January 2017, BYU political scientists Michael Barber and Jeremy Pope designed an experiment that wondered: Are Trump’s supporters ideological, or will they follow him wherever his policy whims go? Right after Trump’s inauguration, they ran an online experiment with 1,300 Republicans.
The study was pretty simple. Participants were asked to rate whether they supported or opposed policies like a higher minimum wage, the nuclear agreement with Iran, restrictions on abortion access, background checks for gun owners, and so on. These are the types of issues conservatives and liberals tend to be sharply divided on.
Barber and Pope wondered: Would Republicans be more likely to endorse a liberal policy if they were told Trump supported it?
The answer: “On average, across all of the questions that we asked, when presented with a liberal policy, Republicans became about 15 percentage points more likely to support that liberal policy” when they were told Trump supported it, Pope says. They follow their leader. “The conclusion we should draw is that the public, the average Republican sitting out there in America, is not going to stop Trump from doing whatever he wants.”
The effect even held true on questions about immigration. If Trump supported a lax immigration policy, his supporters were more likely to say they did, too. (They’ve also replicated these results with new responses, later in the Trump presidency, though these new findings have yet to be published in a peer-reviewed journal.)
I recently contacted Barber and Pope and asked them: Do they think Trump has the power to sway GOP minds to take the vaccine? “Trump’s best move from a public health perspective would be to take credit for whatever vaccine emerges — moving Republican voters to be more trusting of the vaccine,” Barber said in an email.
Not only would it help to encourage more people to get the vaccine overall, but also Trump supporters getting the vaccine could be particularly helpful in stopping the pandemic.
Trump supporters are less likely to engage in behaviors that help stop the spread of the virus, like mask-wearing, which will still be needed for some time even if there’s an approved vaccine, and have been more vocally opposed to stay-at-home orders. If they’re still feeling loyal to Trump in 2021 after he leaves office, they could be a big part of the solution when it comes to the vaccine.
There could be other consequences to a Trump vaccine endorsement, however: If Trump supports the eventual approved vaccines, might Democratic voters be less likely to get it? Yes, Trump can change the minds of his own voters, and he may also change the minds of his opposition, in the opposite direction: The recent decline in Democrats’ trust in a potential vaccine may be linked to Trump’s rhetoric.
“You’re right to worry about decreased trust among Democrats, but I think that might be mitigated if the scientists also backed the vaccine — people like [Dr. Anthony] Fauci and others in the FDA/CDC,” Barber says.
Trump can’t solve vaccine hesitancy alone
Of course, Trump inspiring his followers to take the vaccine doesn’t solve the overall hesitancy problem. Surveys have also found higher rates of hesitancy among women and Black Americans, groups that are generally less likely to listen to Trump.
It’s not just that people are afraid the science is being rushed or that the administration is playing politics with the approval process; as I reported in August, people are also worried about costs and access.
The lesson here isn’t that Trump can fix this giant mess he’s created. It’s that everyone in power who has influence over public opinion should encourage their followers to get the vaccine if it’s deemed to be safe and effective by the scientific community. The messaging needs to be extra clear and consistent because both of the most promising vaccines — the Moderna vaccine and the one from Pfizer — require two doses. People will need to be motivated to sign up for not just one shot, but two.
There’s so much about the US response to the pandemic that has been botched. We failed on testing early and then failed to scale it up. We failed on contact tracing and on reopening many of our communities safely. But we haven’t screwed up a vaccine campaign yet.
There’s still time to get it right. Trump endorsing a vaccine that’s shown to be safe and effective is a decent start — even if it comes with a heap of undue boasting.


vox--2020-12-01--What happened to department stores?

What happened to department stores?

Department stores , once a symbol of the American middle class , have been declining for years , along with the shopping malls they anchor in communities across the US .
Just last year , both the high-end Barneys and the country ’ s oldest department store , Lord & Taylor , went bankrupt and announced plans to close all their locations .
Then came the coronavirus pandemic , which shocked the economy , hitting lower- and middle-income Americans the hardest by forcing them out of work and deeper into debt , with little or no relief in sight .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ physical retail stores and kept people at home for months , giving them more reasons than ever before to shop online at e-commerce giants like Amazon or from the smaller direct-to-consumer brands whose ads follow us all around the internet .
As we near the end of 2020 , the prognosis for the American department store is grimmer than it ’ s ever been .
The reasons extend far beyond Covid-19 or even the continued rise of online shopping , and have more to do with trends in the American economy that have @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the already wealthy .
That ’ s why the decline of these retail giants is something to pay attention to .
They employ hundreds of thousands of people and occupy an outsize space in our communities ; their gradual disappearance , as well as what is replacing them , tells us something about where we ’ re headed .
The death of the department store and the American middle class The collapse of America ’ s middle class crushed department stores .
Amazon and the pandemic are the final blows .
Pop culture @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to want The death and rebirth of America ’ s department stores , in charts | coming Wednesday What one of Amazon ’ s biggest critics thinks about the future of the industry | coming Thursday How retailers track your every move in exchange for coupons and convenience | coming Friday

Department stores, once a symbol of the American middle class, have been declining for years, along with the shopping malls they anchor in communities across the US. Just last year, both the high-end Barneys and the country’s oldest department store, Lord & Taylor, went bankrupt and announced plans to close all their locations.
Then came the coronavirus pandemic, which shocked the economy, hitting lower- and middle-income Americans the hardest by forcing them out of work and deeper into debt, with little or no relief in sight. The crisis also temporarily shuttered most nonessential physical retail stores and kept people at home for months, giving them more reasons than ever before to shop online at e-commerce giants like Amazon or from the smaller direct-to-consumer brands whose ads follow us all around the internet.
As we near the end of 2020, the prognosis for the American department store is grimmer than it’s ever been. The reasons extend far beyond Covid-19 or even the continued rise of online shopping, and have more to do with trends in the American economy that have been shrinking the middle class while enriching the already wealthy. That’s why the decline of these retail giants is something to pay attention to. They employ hundreds of thousands of people and occupy an outsize space in our communities; their gradual disappearance, as well as what is replacing them, tells us something about where we’re headed.
—Samantha Oltman, editor of Recode
The collapse of America’s middle class crushed department stores. Amazon and the pandemic are the final blows.
by Jason Del Rey
by Constance Grady
by Rani Molla
by Shirin Ghaffary
by Sara Morrison


vox--2020-12-01--Pop culture’s department stores taught us what to want

There ’ s a French movie from 1930 , black-and-white and silent , that begins with a young country girl named Denise walking into Paris .
Upon her arrival , Denise is greeted by ads : sign after sign , billboards , banners , parades , fliers that blow right into her outstretched hands .
And all of them are advertising just one thing : the city ’ s grand new department store , Au Bonheur des Dames , The Ladies ’ Paradise .
At this magical new department store , from which the film takes its title , Denise @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ s what the ads promise her : The department store holds all that you desire .
The department store is one of the great movie and TV backdrops of the 20th century .
Expansive , luxurious , and filled with props that lend themselves to everything from comedy to romance to horror , department stores are by their nature cinematic .
The camera sweeps lovingly over their racks upon racks of goods in movies and TV alike : Splash , Mad Men , Miracle on 34th Street , The Queen ’ s @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Department stores are where we go to find all that we desire .
And they teach us what it is that we ’ re supposed to desire , too .
Under capitalism , you are what you buy .
If you ’ re a respectable member of the bourgeoisie , for most of the 20th century , you buy at a department store .
So the department store offers pop culture a place for teasing out issues of class , and specifically the middle class .
For nearly a century , the department @ @ @ @ @ @ @ gone to think about the middle class .
And now , as the American middle class compresses , the department store is leaving , too .
At the department store , you can learn to become a real girl Arguably the greatest cinematic innovation of the department store film is the makeover montage .
The chance to watch characters try on identity after identity , and every last one of those identities is for sale .
And at the center of the makeover montage is the character learning how to perform class and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ class , and how to live out a hegemonic gender identity .
This idea goes back to Au Bonheur Des Dames , which features Denise , newly hired as an in-store model at that fancy department store , learning how to walk and dress the way a bourgeois woman walks and dresses .
She paces back and forth through the models ’ dressing room in her slip while the other models laugh and jeer at her , but by the time the store hosts a fashion show , she ’ s learned how @ @ @ @ @ @ @ it stretches to this year , when 2020 ’ s The Queen ’ s Gambit sees chess prodigy Beth go straight to a department store with her chess winnings so she can buy proper suburban ’ 60s teen black-and-white saddle shoes , all the better to lord it over the mean girls at school who mocked her for her orphanage-standard brown ones .
In 1984 ’ s Splash , when Madison the mermaid wants to learn how to be a human woman , she heads right to Bloomingdales , where a kindly saleslady @ @ @ @ @ @ @ just won ’ t do .
The saleslady puts her in a miniskirt and heels , and Madison wanders over to the electronics department to watch a jazzercise class on a TV bank .
Within hours , she ’ s speaking fluent English .
Perhaps the most elaborate department store makeover montage of all comes in 1987 ’ s Mannequin , when Emmy — a time-traveling Egyptian ghost who is also a department store mannequin ; truly , this movie is exquisite — leads her window-dresser boyfriend through a variety of quick-change costumes @ @ @ @ @ @ @ hits play in the background , rapidly they become rock stars , gangsters , vampires , and beach bums .
The character justification for this montage is that Emmy longed to see the world and try out new things back when she was alive , but she never had the chance .
Now that she ’ s a mannequin within the rich , wide world of a department store , she can do it all — kind of .
She can be anyone she wants to be because the multitude of clothes offered @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that person .
Emmy doesn ’ t need real life as long as she has the department store .
And the department store offers employment to those deserving members of the middle class who have fallen on hard times .
When Mad Men secretary Joan leaves her office job upon her marriage , only to find that her husband can ’ t support them after all , she gets a job at a department store .
When The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel ’ s Midge divorces her husband , before her career in standup @ @ @ @ @ @ @ herself with a department store job .
But the class movement the department store offers isn ’ t always presented as a good thing .
The adultery that powers 1930 ’ s The Women begins when a wealthy husband goes to a department store to buy perfume for his wife , and then he ends up falling for the perfume salesgirl .
And when the wife ’ s rich and catty friends go to the store to confront the salesgirl , such are her savvy street smarts that they end up falling into @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in humiliation .
When the salesgirl enters another department store as a customer and dares to meet the wife on equal footing , the wife knows at last that she has lost .
Even horror movies know that department stores are where we go to reestablish our identities as safe , respectable members of the bourgeoisie .
In George Romero ’ s 1978 film Dawn of the Dead , it ’ s the mall and especially J.C. Penney where the survivors of a zombie plague try to shelter .
But the zombies are @ @ @ @ @ @ @ some kind of instinct .
Memory.
” After all , “ this was an important place in their lives.
” The story of the department store in pop culture is the story of the rise and fall of the middle class In pop culture , the department store builds and reaffirms the middle class , and in this way the store itself comes to stand in for the class .
Films and TV have tracked the creation and supremacy of department stores , and also their decline .
And the message is clear @ @ @ @ @ @ @ your desires with a smile is in danger , the middle class is , too .
The department store must be protected .
Not that the department store is always in danger .
When Au Bonheur des Dames hit screens in 1930 and codified the tropes of the department store movie , the department store is the big new bully on the street , and it ’ s destroying Denise ’ s family boutique drapery .
It drives her uncle to madness , and after he runs at the department store with a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ over by one of their trucks .
The shop ’ s owner , stricken with remorse , offers to give the store up — but Denise , seeing the writing on the wall , tells him no : He must keep the store and marry her .
Together , they will make Au Bonheur des Dames into the biggest store in the world , never mind what lives are destroyed in the process .
That is their dream ; that is capitalism .
By 1947 , Miracle on 34th Street sees the department @ @ @ @ @ @ @ stores or being in any danger itself .
The Macy ’ s where Kris Kringle sets up shop simply is , as eternal and unchanging as the vision of Christmas that Hollywood was at the same time busily enshrining into American popular consciousness .
And when Kris Kringle institutes a new policy of sending shoppers to competitors if Macy ’ s doesn ’ t stock exactly what they ’ re looking for , it comes across as an act of condescending noblesse oblige .
Of course Macy ’ s can afford to be @ @ @ @ @ @ @ don ’ t pose it any real threat .
When the store that sells all your desires with a smile is in danger , the middle class is , too But by the time Mannequin came around in 1987 , the classic grand and gracious department store of the beginning of the century — stores like the Herald Square Macy ’ s of Miracle on 34th Street — was already in danger .
The tawdry new-money department store had arrived to threaten it .
In Mannequin , Emmy ’ s store of choice @ @ @ @ @ @ @ onscreen by Philadelphia ’ s iconic Wanamaker building .
Wanamakers was the first American department store , and it ’ s built like a cathedral , with a giant organ that spans multiple stories of the vast marble mezzanine and an ethos of fine craftsmanship and personalized customer service .
Prince & Co. is facing stiff competition from trashy nearby Illustra , which features plastic hangers , windowless underground shopping levels , faceless modern mannequins , and budget-friendly low prices .
But Emmy and her boyfriend are able to bring a new level @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Co. with their groundbreaking window displays — which means that as they save Prince & Co. from Illustra , they ’ re saving a specific idea of what it means to be middle class .
The trajectory these films outline is one in which stores get progressively more and more impersonal and soulless .
And every time they do so , our pop culture warns us , we take a step away from beauty and humanity and a step toward alienation and self-loathing .
But the journey doesn ’ t end with the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ cheap and convenient Illustra .
Since the 1980s , department stores have slowly faded out of popular culture ’ s present day .
Sure , Rachel on Friends worked at Bloomingdales , and Mr. and Mrs. Smith had a shootout in a department store in 2005 .
But generally , department stores have stopped feeling all that relevant to pop culture that ’ s meant to be contemporary and urgent .
Instead , over the past few decades , when department stores have shown up in the movies or on TV , they @ @ @ @ @ @ @ pieces , where part of the point is to get lost in the glamour of a bygone world : Cate Blanchett swanning through a department store toy floor in her fur coat in 2015 ’ s Carol ; Rachel Brosnahan pitching the perfect red lipstick on The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel .
And in 2015 , a new show emerged about a store that continued that promise to sell you all that you desire .
“ One-stop shopping for everything you could ever need , ” is how this new store is described in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ “ Do you want to be thinner , fatter , happier , sadder ?
Are you looking for friendship ?
Solitude ?
Or even love ?
” This new store was there to sell them all to you .
But it ’ s not a department store .
The show is Superstore , and the store it ’ s describing is Cloud Nine , a big-box store in the mold of Walmart or Target .
That ’ s the new place our pop culture sends us to find everything we desire : a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ as Au Bonheur des Dames was , but without the seductive trappings of luxury and glamour to compensate .
The new signifier of the middle class is a lot more precarious and a lot less beautiful than the old one was .
And the superstore isn ’ t the last step , either .
After all , if there ’ s a single place in the world that ’ s going to sell you all that you desire , that will take us to the final word on convenience , affordability , and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ department store .
And it ’ s not the superstore , either .

There’s a French movie from 1930, black-and-white and silent, that begins with a young country girl named Denise walking into Paris. Upon her arrival, Denise is greeted by ads: sign after sign, billboards, banners, parades, flyers that blow right into her outstretched hands. And all of them are advertising just one thing: the city’s grand new department store, Au Bonheur des Dames, the Ladies’ Paradise.
At this magical new department store, from which the film takes its title, Denise can find whatever she wants. That’s what the ads promise her: The department store holds all that you desire.
The department store is one of the great movie and TV backdrops of the 20th century. Expansive, luxurious, and filled with props that lend themselves to everything from comedy to romance to horror, department stores are by their nature cinematic. The camera sweeps lovingly over their racks upon racks of goods in movies and TV alike: Splash, Mad Men, Miracle on 34th Street, The Queen’s Gambit, Dawn of the Dead. Department stores are where we go to find all that we desire. And they teach us what it is that we’re supposed to desire, too.
Under capitalism, you are what you buy. If you’re a respectable member of the bourgeoisie, for most of the 20th century, you buy at a department store.
So the department store offers pop culture a place for teasing out issues of class, and specifically the middle class. For nearly a century, the department store has been where pop culture has gone to think about the middle class.
And now, as the American middle class compresses, the department store is leaving, too.
At the department store, you can learn to become a real girl
Arguably the greatest cinematic innovation of the department store film is the makeover montage. The chance to watch characters try on identity after identity, and every last one of those identities is for sale. And at the center of the makeover montage is the character learning how to perform class and gender, how to become respectably middle class, and how to live out a hegemonic gender identity.
What happened to department stores? The fates of the American middle class and American department stores have always been intertwined.
This idea goes back to Au Bonheur Des Dames, which features Denise, newly hired as an in-store model at that fancy department store, learning how to walk and dress the way a bourgeois woman walks and dresses. She paces back and forth through the models’ dressing room in her slip while the other models laugh and jeer at her, but by the time the store hosts a fashion show, she’s learned how to sway her hips correctly.
And it stretches to this year, when 2020’s The Queen’s Gambit sees chess prodigy Beth go straight to a department store with her chess winnings so she can buy proper suburban ’60s teen black-and-white saddle shoes, all the better to lord it over the mean girls at school who mocked her for her orphanage-standard brown ones.
In 1984’s Splash, when Madison the mermaid wants to learn how to be a human woman, she heads right to Bloomingdale’s, where a kindly saleslady informs her that her men’s suiting just won’t do. The saleslady puts her in a miniskirt and heels, and Madison wanders over to the electronics department to watch a jazzercise class on a TV bank. Within hours, she’s speaking fluent English.
Perhaps the most elaborate department store makeover montage of all comes in 1987’s Mannequin, when Emmy — a time-traveling Egyptian ghost who is also a department store mannequin; truly, this movie is exquisite — leads her window-dresser boyfriend through a variety of quick-change costumes and dances. As synth-heavy ’80s hits play in the background, rapidly they become rock stars, gangsters, vampires, and beach bums.
The character justification for this montage is that Emmy longed to see the world and try out new things back when she was alive, but she never had the chance. Now that she’s a mannequin within the rich, wide world of a department store, she can do it all — kind of. She can be anyone she wants to be because the multitude of clothes offered by a department store will make her that person. Emmy doesn’t need real life as long as she has the department store.
And the department store offers employment to those deserving members of the middle class who have fallen on hard times. When Mad Men secretary Joan leaves her office job upon her marriage, only to find that her husband can’t support them after all, she gets a job at a department store. When The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel’s Midge divorces her husband, before her career in standup comedy works out, she too supports herself with a department store job.
But the class movement the department store offers isn’t always presented as a good thing. The adultery that powers 1930’s The Women begins when a wealthy husband goes to a department store to buy perfume for his wife, and then he ends up falling for the perfume salesgirl. And when the wife’s rich and catty friends go to the store to confront the salesgirl, such are her savvy street smarts that they end up falling into an elegant store-branded trash bin, shrieking in humiliation. When the salesgirl enters another department store as a customer and dares to meet the wife on equal footing, the wife knows at last that she has lost.
Even horror movies know that department stores are where we go to reestablish our identities as safe, respectable members of the bourgeoisie. In George Romero’s 1978 film Dawn of the Dead, it’s the mall and especially J.C. Penney where the survivors of a zombie plague try to shelter. But the zombies are irresistibly drawn there too, by “some kind of instinct. Memory.” After all, “this was an important place in their lives.”
The story of the department store in pop culture is the story of the rise and fall of the middle class
In pop culture, the department store builds and reaffirms the middle class, and in this way the store itself comes to stand in for the class. Films and TV have tracked the creation and supremacy of department stores, and their decline. And the message is clear: When the store that sells all your desires with a smile is in danger, the middle class is, too. The department store must be protected.
Not that the department store is always in danger. When Au Bonheur des Dames hit screens in 1930 and codified the tropes of the department store movie, the department store is the big new bully on the street, and it’s destroying Denise’s family boutique drapery. It drives her uncle to madness, and after he runs at the department store with a gun, he’s fatally run over by one of their trucks. The shop’s owner, stricken with remorse, offers to give the store up — but Denise, seeing the writing on the wall, tells him no: He must keep the store and marry her. Together, they will make Au Bonheur des Dames into the biggest store in the world, never mind what lives are destroyed in the process. That is their dream; that is capitalism.
By 1947, Miracle on 34th Street sees the department store transcending any questions of bullying other stores or being in any danger itself. The Macy’s where Kris Kringle sets up shop simply is, as eternal and unchanging as the vision of Christmas that Hollywood was at the same time busily enshrining into American popular consciousness. And when Kris Kringle institutes a new policy of sending shoppers to competitors if Macy’s doesn’t stock exactly what they’re looking for, it comes across as an act of condescending noblesse oblige. Of course Macy’s can afford to be generous. Everyone knows that its competitors don’t pose it any real threat.
When the store that sells all your desires with a smile is in danger, the middle class is, too
But by the time Mannequin came around in 1987, the classic grand and gracious department store of the beginning of the century — stores like the Herald Square Macy’s of Miracle on 34th Street — was already in danger. The tawdry new-money department store had arrived to threaten it.
In Mannequin, Emmy’s store of choice, Prince & Co., is represented onscreen by Philadelphia’s iconic Wanamaker building. Wanamakers was the first American department store, and it’s built like a cathedral, with a giant organ that spans multiple stories of the vast marble mezzanine and an ethos of fine craftsmanship and personalized customer service.
Prince & Co. is facing stiff competition from trashy nearby Illustra, which features plastic hangers, windowless underground shopping levels, faceless modern mannequins, and budget-friendly low prices. But Emmy and her boyfriend are able to bring a new level of prestige and excitement to Prince & Co. with their groundbreaking window displays — which means that as they save Prince & Co. from Illustra, they’re saving a specific idea of what it means to be middle class.
The trajectory these films outline is one in which stores get progressively more and more impersonal and soulless. And every time they do so, our pop culture warns us, we take a step away from beauty and humanity and a step toward alienation and self-loathing.
But the journey doesn’t end with the transition from elegant Prince & Co. to cheap and convenient Illustra.
Since the 1980s, department stores have slowly faded out of popular culture’s present day. Sure, Rachel on Friends worked at Bloomingdale’s, and Mr. and Mrs. Smith had a shootout in a department store in 2005. But generally, department stores have stopped feeling all that relevant to pop culture that’s meant to be contemporary and urgent. Instead, over the past few decades, when department stores have shown up in the movies or on TV, they’ve tended to be in period pieces, where part of the point is to get lost in the glamour of a bygone world: Cate Blanchett swanning through a department store toy floor in her fur coat in 2015’s Carol; Rachel Brosnahan pitching the perfect red lipstick on The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel.
And in 2015, a new show emerged about a store that continued that promise to sell you all that you desire.
“One-stop shopping for everything you could ever need” is how this new store is described in the opening of the first episode. “Do you want to be thinner, fatter, happier, sadder? Are you looking for friendship? Solitude? Or even love?” This new store was there to sell them all to you.
But it’s not a department store. The show is Superstore, and the store it’s describing is Cloud Nine, a big-box store in the mold of Walmart or Target. That’s the new place our pop culture sends us to find everything we desire: a store just as destructive to mom-and-pop businesses as Au Bonheur des Dames was, but without the seductive trappings of luxury and glamour to compensate. The new signifier of the middle class is a lot more precarious and a lot less beautiful than the old one was.
And the superstore isn’t the last step, either. After all, if there’s a single place in the world that’s going to sell you all that you desire, that will take us to the final word on convenience, affordability, and alienation, it’s not the department store. And it’s not the superstore, either.
It’s the Everything Store. It’s Amazon.


vox--2020-12-01--This week in TikTok: The only election that mattered

Hello from The Goods ’ twice-weekly newsletter !
On Tuesdays , internet culture reporter Rebecca Jennings uses this space to update you all on what ’ s been going on in the world of TikTok .
Is there something you want to see more of ?
Less of ?
Different of ?
Email rebecca.jennings @ vox.com , and subscribe to The Goods ’ newsletter here .
The only awards show that mattered this year went down over the weekend , but you couldn ’ t watch it on TV .
It happened on Instagram , on the most important account @ @ @ @ @ @ @ their followers : TikTok Room .
It ’ s hard to overstate the influence of TikTok Room to the growing world of the micro-famous ( and now , some actually famous ) TikTokers who comprise the most followed users on the app .
Like the Shade Room , which it is directly modeled after , the account posts gossip and other hard-to-find morsels of drama , like deleted tweets , recordings of livestreams , or screenshots of comments , replies , and likes between popular creators .
During the pandemic , when kids @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and spending less time with classmates and friends , digital dirt is more essential than ever .
When I wrote about TikTok Room in February , the account had nearly 300,000 followers ; now it has almost 2 million .
Most importantly , TikTok Room is run by two regular fans who are anonymous outside of their first names : Elasia , a 19-year-old college student in New Jersey , and Nat , a 17-year-old high schooler in Texas .
Its graphic design and branding may seem slightly amateurish , but that ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ authentic : Nat and Elasia are just genuinely so obsessed with creator culture that the account posts dozens of times a day , often within minutes of major drama occurring .
( I asked Elasia if she considers herself a journalist ; she said , “ We don ’ t post fake tea.
” ) All this is to say that when TikTok Room announced that it would be holding its first awards show in November , it was a pretty big deal .
Nominees such as Charli D ’ Amelio , Bryce @ @ @ @ @ @ @ fans to vote for them in categories like “ Best Dance Creator , ” “ Best Clapback , ” “ Least Problematic Female , ” and “ Best Ship ” ( for creators who haven ’ t confirmed their relationship status but whom fans love to see together ) .
Voting took place last week via Google Form , and the results , which were rolled out in a series of timed Instagram posts on Saturday night , included pie chart breakdowns of the voting results for transparency .
The winners were not @ @ @ @ @ @ @ won “ Best Makeup.
” “ Best Role Model ” went to body-positive creator Sienna Gomez ( as did “ Least Problematic ” ) .
Charli won “ Most Achieved Female , ” and “ Best Dance Creator ” went to “ Say So ” choreographer ( and Vox profile subject ) Haley Sharpe .
These are the users TikTok is synonymous with , and that says volumes about the future of social media stardom : These users are , for the most part , white , cis , thin , and primed @ @ @ @ @ @ @ not millions , of dollars from their followings .
Maybe more pressingly , the TikTok Room awards prove how little “ real ” awards shows matter anymore , and how much mainstream celebrity culture has to catch up on .
According to the awards ’ results , nearly 500,000 votes were cast , which would illustrate an enormous rate of user engagement for the account ’ s 1.9 million followers .
There are rapidly expanding and increasingly niche fandoms for more and more TikTok creators , and the power rankings are constantly in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ fame can affect young people ’ s lives and mental health — especially when it goes away .
These mechanisms are already in hyperdrive , and they ’ re getting faster .
Whatever this sort of attention does to the influencers themselves , TikTok Room and its marquee awards are a wildly impressive feat for two regular teenagers who might be the future of entertainment media .
Though kids under 18 may not have been able to vote in that other election last month , to some of them , the TikTok Room @ @ @ @ @ @ @ mattered more .
• ByteDance has been given yet another deadline extension to sell TikTok to US ownership .
( It ’ s now December 4 . )
An amazing holiday present would be to give up the whole charade and let us TikTok in peace .
• “ How did I end up on Cartel TikTok ?
” is a question you ’ ll see asked a lot on social media , as videos of dozens of bags containing what are assumed to be illegal drugs or exotic pets and luxury cars @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of TikTok users ’ feeds .
Yet according to experts on organized crime , it ’ s all just “ narco-marketing ” — that is , “ the latest propaganda campaign designed to mask the bloodbath and use the promise of infinite wealth to attract expendable young recruits.
” • Relatedly , many TikTok users , including me , have been served videos that appear to be filmed in North Korea .
Some appear to be staged ; for instance , one video shows people waiting at the top of a staircase seeming @ @ @ @ @ @ @ account describes itself as “ North Korean residents sharing their current daily life ” and says it is produced in the Chinese city of Dandong , next to the North Korean border .
But like all media that purports to come from North Korea , where citizens are subject to some of the world ’ s most extreme censorship measures , its origins and intentions are suspect .
• Former Target employees are claiming on TikTok that Target will “ let ” you steal from stores , all the while tracking everything you @ @ @ @ @ @ @ more than enough to prosecute people for grand larceny .
Current Target employees , DM me !
• Here ’ s a cool mini-doc on how LGBTQ Muslims are building a community on TikTok .
Sick of seeing everyone ’ s perfectly color-coordinated Christmas trees on Instagram Stories ?
Here is a TikTok for those who appreciate a tree with , uh , “ character .
”

Hello from The Goods’ twice-weekly newsletter! On Tuesdays, internet culture reporter Rebecca Jennings uses this space to update you all on what’s been going on in the world of TikTok. Is there something you want to see more of? Less of? Different of? Email rebecca.jennings@vox.com, and subscribe to The Goods’ newsletter here.
The only awards show that mattered this year went down over the weekend, but you couldn’t watch it on TV. It happened on Instagram, on the most important account for Gen Z social media stars and their followers: TikTok Room.
It’s hard to overstate the influence of TikTok Room to the growing world of the micro-famous (and now, some actually famous) TikTokers who comprise the most followed users on the app. Like the Shade Room, which it is directly modeled after, the account posts gossip and other hard-to-find morsels of drama, like deleted tweets, recordings of livestreams, or screenshots of comments, replies, and likes between popular creators.
During the pandemic, when kids and teens are living their lives online and spending less time with classmates and friends, digital dirt is more essential than ever. When I wrote about TikTok Room in February, the account had nearly 300,000 followers; now it has almost 2 million.
Most importantly, TikTok Room is run by two regular fans who are anonymous outside of their first names: Elasia, a 19-year-old college student in New Jersey, and Nat, a 17-year-old high schooler in Texas. Its graphic design and branding may seem slightly amateurish, but that’s also what makes it feel so authentic: Nat and Elasia are just genuinely so obsessed with creator culture that the account posts dozens of times a day, often within minutes of major drama occurring. (I asked Elasia if she considers herself a journalist; she said, “We don’t post fake tea.”)
All this is to say that when TikTok Room announced that it would be holding its first awards show in November, it was a pretty big deal. Nominees such as Charli D’Amelio, Bryce Hall, and Loren Gray encouraged their fans to vote for them in categories like “Best Dance Creator,” “Best Clapback,” “Least Problematic Female,” and “Best Ship” (for creators who haven’t confirmed their relationship status but whom fans love to see together). Voting took place last week via Google Form, and the results, which were rolled out in a series of timed Instagram posts on Saturday night, included pie chart breakdowns of the voting results for transparency.
The winners were not particularly surprising. Beauty YouTuber James Charles won “Best Makeup.” “Best Role Model” went to body-positive creator Sienna Gomez (as did “Least Problematic”). Charli won “Most Achieved Female,” and “Best Dance Creator” went to “Say So” choreographer (and Vox profile subject) Haley Sharpe. These are the users TikTok is synonymous with, and that says volumes about the future of social media stardom: These users are, for the most part, white, cis, thin, and primed to make hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of dollars from their followings.
Maybe more pressingly, the TikTok Room awards prove how little “real” awards shows matter anymore, and how much mainstream celebrity culture has to catch up on. According to the awards’ results, nearly 500,000 votes were cast, which would illustrate an enormous rate of user engagement for the account’s 1.9 million followers. There are rapidly expanding and increasingly niche fandoms for more and more TikTok creators, and the power rankings are constantly in flux. We already know how overnight fame can affect young people’s lives and mental health — especially when it goes away. These mechanisms are already in hyperdrive, and they’re getting faster.
Whatever this sort of attention does to the influencers themselves, TikTok Room and its marquee awards are a wildly impressive feat for two regular teenagers who might be the future of entertainment media. Though kids under 18 may not have been able to vote in that other election last month, to some of them, the TikTok Room awards might have been the one that mattered more.
TikTok in the news
ByteDance has been given yet another deadline extension to sell TikTok to US ownership. (It’s now December 4.) An amazing holiday present would be to give up the whole charade and let us TikTok in peace.
“How did I end up on Cartel TikTok?” is a question you’ll see asked a lot on social media, as videos of dozens of bags containing what are assumed to be illegal drugs or exotic pets and luxury cars have popped up on hundreds of thousands of TikTok users’ feeds. Yet according to experts on organized crime, it’s all just “narco-marketing” — that is, “the latest propaganda campaign designed to mask the bloodbath and use the promise of infinite wealth to attract expendable young recruits.”
Relatedly, many TikTok users, including me, have been served videos that appear to be filmed in North Korea. Some appear to be staged; for instance, one video shows people waiting at the top of a staircase seeming to wait for a cue. The account describes itself as “North Korean residents sharing their current daily life” and says it is produced in the Chinese city of Dandong, next to the North Korean border. But like all media that purports to come from North Korea, where citizens are subject to some of the world’s most extreme censorship measures, its origins and intentions are suspect.
Former Target employees are claiming on TikTok that Target will “let” you steal from stores, all the while tracking everything you take over time until the total is more than enough to prosecute people for grand larceny. Current Target employees, DM me!
Here’s a cool mini-doc on how LGBTQ Muslims are building a community on TikTok.
Megan Thee Stallion remains Thee queen of TikTok trends.
One Last Thing
Sick of seeing everyone’s perfectly color-coordinated Christmas trees on Instagram Stories? Here is a TikTok for those who appreciate a tree with, uh, “character.”


vox--2020-12-01--The pandemic is changing college. Let’s reconsider GPAs while we’re at it.

In the beginning of November ( otherwise known as college application season ) , I came across Darya Nouri ’ s PSA to high schoolers on TikTok , which went viral with 1.3 million views .
“ In HS I studied 24/7 , never did anything fun , was in a million clubs , and took all APs , ” she captions the beginning of her video .
The camera transitions to a friend flipping off the camera .
“ This mf had beef w every teacher and dropped his only club and had fun .
We both ended up @ @ @ @ @ @ @ t be me .
Go have fun.
” Her TikTok is an ode to the movie Booksmart , which follows a high school gunner obsessed with getting into the Ivy League .
In one of my favorite scenes , the main character finds out that a seemingly underachieving classmate will be attending the same school as her .
She feels shocked , even cheated .
As the scene ends , a voice in her head echoes , “ You ’ ve worked harder than anyone who ’ s ever doubted you .
Worked @ @ @ @ @ @ @ … ” This theme speaks to a growing culture among many students , in part because of the ways so many schools in the United States foster gatekeeping and competitive environments .
“ Working hard ” is expected to result in acceptance to a “ good ” college , followed by the promise of a job .
And when peers who have “ worked less ” end up at the same institutions , there is a feeling of unfairness , followed by questions like “ Could I have gotten away with less ?
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ reinforce capitalist ideas , teaching students that anything is possible with hard work and that their achievements are deserved , even though academic institutions are structurally designed to be inequitable .
GPAs and test scores , for example , are shallow and easily skewed representations of intelligence , but are still widely used to determine admissions and funding .
In light of the pandemic , schools are finally being forced to attempt alternative forms of evaluation and learning , and to more deeply consider students ’ needs .
I attended a competitive public @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , where attending SAT prep classes in the summer was a norm .
The school had the kind of reputation that drew families to the area , hoping to get their kids zoned .
Classes started at 7:30 am , and students who participated in extracurriculars usually didn ’ t leave campus until 5 pm .
Exhaustion and burnout culture were so glorified that the school eradicated class rankings in an attempt to ease competitiveness .
Nerds were more respected than jocks , and at the end of every academic year , a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ what college they had committed to .
I enjoyed learning but didn ’ t participate in the cutthroat environment , especially after watching my friends stress .
When I moved on to higher education , I took what I needed from institutions ( degree credentials , facilities and resources , certain classes and professors ) and went through the motions for anything that didn ’ t serve me ( testing , core classes , awkward networking ) .
My brother , on the other hand , had dreams of becoming a lawyer since @ @ @ @ @ @ @ had permanent bags under his eyes .
In high school , he slept an average of five hours a night and was part of a friend group that vigorously pulled all-nighters , completed assignments others might call busywork , enrolled in a mix of AP and “ easy A ” courses to boost their GPAs , and strategically divvied up club leadership positions .
“ Every November , ” he told me , they “ underwent a hell week that we saw as a rite of passage , ” consisting of mock trial @ @ @ @ @ @ @ tournaments that ran over multiple days .
When he fell sick during one of these hell weeks , a friend guilt-tripped him for ditching the group .
After college , my brother worked as a paralegal ; many of his high school peers also went on to work at law firms , banks , or management consulting firms , places where employees work with intangible assets and joke about “ selling their souls.
” Years of throwing themselves into the school system had primed them for the late nights and tedious tasks that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ positions could be lauded as measures of their intelligence and hard work , but they are equally due to their access to resources .
Years of throwing themselves into the school system had primed them for the late nights and tedious tasks that corporate jobs all but require There are numerous barriers to entry in academic institutions , including letters of recommendation , GPA minimums and degree requirements , insufficient access to disability accommodations , legacy admissions/nepotism , narrow teaching methods , segregation and lack of school resources , and the questions of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ work and support their families while attending school ; who can afford private tutors , extracurricular fees , test prep courses , and tests themselves ; whose parents have the time and ability to help with schoolwork .
Students who are able to overcome systemic barriers are often championed as tokens of diversity and proof that anything is possible with hard work , when these success stories are , for the most part , singular exceptions to the rule .
Thousands of nonprofit organizations act as external lifelines , hoping to fill in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Questbridge ’ s National College Match pairs “ the nation ’ s most exceptional low-income students with leading colleges and opportunities , ” supporting students with full scholarships or generous financial aid .
Programs like these , along with specialized public schools that require testing to gain admission , might seem like generous offerings , and in many ways they ’ re invaluable to students who might otherwise be excluded altogether .
But they do distract from the larger question of why students must prove themselves “ exceptional ” to have access to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ student debt and the strings that often come attached with nonprofit grants and scholarships .
In Oakland , California , there is a long history of non-privatized alternatives to the school system , starting with the Black Panther Party ’ s youth institutes and programs in the 1960s and ’ 70s .
Designed to serve the community without government restrictions , these programs had as their mission to “ educate to liberate , ” directly challenging capitalist views of education and providing a blueprint for future organizers .
My friend Vohid Ergashkulov immigrated @ @ @ @ @ @ @ was 15 , and quickly became dissatisfied with the public high school he attended in Brooklyn .
“ I ’ m an active learner and like studying through asking questions , gaining experience , and making mistakes , ” he said .
“ When you go to school here you sit and listen and don ’ t have an objective .
The subjects we had to take weren ’ t interesting , and the teachers didn ’ t take the time to explain things .
I wasn ’ t good at American math @ @ @ @ @ @ @ back home.
” Vohid later spent two years at a community college , earning an associate ’ s degree before deciding that the payoff of a four-year degree wasn ’ t worth pursuing .
Instead , he opted to explore advancement directly in the workforce .
“ When you go to school , you learn how to work for someone else .
I didn ’ t want to learn how to work for a salary .
I wanted to be a self-learner.
” In many non-corporate industries , grades are no longer as @ @ @ @ @ @ @ references and résumés more closely scrutinized than transcripts .
Camila Bustos , who completed her undergrad at Brown University in 2016 and is a current JD candidate at Yale Law School , is going into public interest rather than corporate law .
“ For public interest organizations , although grades matter , what matters most is your experience , so how you lived your summers and what kind of clinic experiences you ’ ve had , ” she said .
“ I ’ ve never really been asked for my transcripts — maybe @ @ @ @ @ @ @ for law school .
At the same time , corporate firms want Yale Law students no matter what.
” Both universities Camila attended have moved beyond the traditional 4.0 grading scale : In 1969 , Brown implemented a “ New Curriculum ” that eliminated GPA calculations , allowing undergrads to opt for as many pass/fail classes as desired .
Instead of using grades to assess students , they promoted evaluations based on student work portfolios , course performance reports , and letters of recommendation .
Yale Law School also experienced a period of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ replacing traditional letter grades with pass , low pass , and honors ( H ) categories for the top third of each class .
The change was an attempt to ease student competition , but some say it unintentionally put a high premium on H ’ s and extracurriculars .
Camila is a big proponent of the pass/fail system .
During the pandemic , a fall survey was sent to Yale Law students , essentially asking , “ How should we grade you ?
” Camila reported , “ All of the affinity @ @ @ @ @ @ @ students , Black students , the Asian American Association — and a huge majority of the student body voted to continue credit/fail because we ’ re still in a global pandemic.
” Despite the overwhelming student response , the faculty voted to continue the honors/pass/low pass system , citing studies that claim minorities and first-generation professionals are scrutinized in ways that those with privilege are not , therefore making it more difficult to compare them without grades .
“ There ’ s this idea that if you open the floodgates and allow more @ @ @ @ @ @ @ not going to care , but I think the pandemic shows us that isn ’ t true ” Camila did not find this argument compelling , considering Yale ’ s prestigious reputation .
“ The reason why firms are going after Yale Law grads is not because of our grades , whether that ’ s a P or an H ; it ’ s because they assume we ’ re the smartest of the smartest , which I disagree with — I think people end up at this school for structural reasons — @ @ @ @ @ @ @ offering jobs and trying to recruit students from these institutions.
” The only way for small reforms to have any widespread impact is for powerful institutions to hold themselves accountable and push for inclusivity .
Camila continued .
“ I think that if schools like Yale and Harvard don ’ t take the lead and say , ‘ Let ’ s think differently about how we measure success , and let ’ s think in a more innovative way , ’ then it ’ s so much harder for schools that don ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , the reputation .
There ’ s this idea that if you open the floodgates and allow more flexibility for students , then they ’ re not going to care , but I think the pandemic shows us that isn ’ t true.
” It ’ s also worth considering why people privilege the actions of historically “ elite ” institutions and look to them as role models in the first place .
During the pandemic , many universities adjusted their admissions processes by making SAT and ACT scores optional , but in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ students rather than diminishing it .
If testing locations near them closed , high schoolers who were financially able would go as far as road-tripping or flying to different states to take the SAT , while others were left without options .
Similarly , some law schools now accept GRE scores instead of only requiring the LSAT , yet many students still feel limited because this standard isn ’ t consistent over a wide range of schools .
When the onus of reform is left to individual , privatized schools , particularly powerful @ @ @ @ @ @ @ change the system or culture of elitism .
Underrepresented and marginalized students are left to “ work hard ” in an attempt to infiltrate the university , but when they do make it , they often aren ’ t supported .
Intentionally or not , our current mode of academic institutions has sold a false American dream under the guise of education , warping people ’ s ideas of what learning can and should be .

In the beginning of November (otherwise known as college application season), I came across Darya Nouri’s PSA to high schoolers on TikTok, which went viral with 1.3 million views.
“In HS I studied 24/7, never did anything fun, was in a million clubs, and took all APs,” she captions the beginning of her video. The camera transitions to a friend flipping off the camera. “This mf had beef w every teacher and dropped his only club and had fun. We both ended up at the same college. Don’t be me. Go have fun.”
Her TikTok is an ode to the movie Booksmart, which follows a high school gunner obsessed with getting into the Ivy League. In one of my favorite scenes, the main character finds out that a seemingly underachieving classmate will be attending the same school as her. She feels shocked, even cheated. As the scene ends, a voice in her head echoes, “You’ve worked harder than anyone who’s ever doubted you. Worked harder, worked harder, worked harder …”
This theme speaks to a growing culture among many students, in part because of the ways so many schools in the United States foster gatekeeping and competitive environments. “Working hard” is expected to result in acceptance to a “good” college, followed by the promise of a job. And when peers who have “worked less” end up at the same institutions, there is a feeling of unfairness, followed by questions like “Could I have gotten away with less?”
The education system has come to reinforce capitalist ideas, teaching students that anything is possible with hard work and that their achievements are deserved, even though academic institutions are structurally designed to be inequitable. GPAs and test scores, for example, are shallow and easily skewed representations of intelligence, but are still widely used to determine admissions and funding. In light of the pandemic, schools are finally being forced to attempt alternative forms of evaluation and learning, and to more deeply consider students’ needs.
I attended a competitive public high school in a Southern California suburb, where attending SAT prep classes in the summer was a norm. The school had the kind of reputation that drew families to the area, hoping to get their kids zoned. Classes started at 7:30 am, and students who participated in extracurriculars usually didn’t leave campus until 5 pm. Exhaustion and burnout culture were so glorified that the school eradicated class rankings in an attempt to ease competitiveness. Nerds were more respected than jocks, and at the end of every academic year, a Facebook group circulated for students to announce what college they had committed to.
I enjoyed learning but didn’t participate in the cutthroat environment, especially after watching my friends stress. When I moved on to higher education, I took what I needed from institutions (degree credentials, facilities and resources, certain classes and professors) and went through the motions for anything that didn’t serve me (testing, core classes, awkward networking). My brother, on the other hand, had dreams of becoming a lawyer since age 15 and often worked until he had permanent bags under his eyes.
In high school, he slept an average of five hours a night and was part of a friend group that vigorously pulled all-nighters, completed assignments others might call busywork, enrolled in a mix of AP and “easy A” courses to boost their GPAs, and strategically divvied up club leadership positions. “Every November,” he told me, they “underwent a hell week that we saw as a rite of passage,” consisting of mock trial, Model United Nations, and debate tournaments that ran over multiple days. When he fell sick during one of these hell weeks, a friend guilt-tripped him for ditching the group.
After college, my brother worked as a paralegal; many of his high school peers also went on to work at law firms, banks, or management consulting firms, places where employees work with intangible assets and joke about “selling their souls.” Years of throwing themselves into the school system had primed them for the late nights and tedious tasks that corporate jobs all but require. Their positions could be lauded as measures of their intelligence and hard work, but they are equally due to their access to resources.
Years of throwing themselves into the school system had primed them for the late nights and tedious tasks that corporate jobs all but require
There are numerous barriers to entry in academic institutions, including letters of recommendation, GPA minimums and degree requirements, insufficient access to disability accommodations, legacy admissions/nepotism, narrow teaching methods, segregation and lack of school resources, and the questions of time and money: who has to work and support their families while attending school; who can afford private tutors, extracurricular fees, test prep courses, and tests themselves; whose parents have the time and ability to help with schoolwork. Students who are able to overcome systemic barriers are often championed as tokens of diversity and proof that anything is possible with hard work, when these success stories are, for the most part, singular exceptions to the rule.
Thousands of nonprofit organizations act as external lifelines, hoping to fill in the education system’s failings. Questbridge’s National College Match pairs “the nation’s most exceptional low-income students with leading colleges and opportunities,” supporting students with full scholarships or generous financial aid. Programs like these, along with specialized public schools that require testing to gain admission, might seem like generous offerings, and in many ways they’re invaluable to students who might otherwise be excluded altogether. But they do distract from the larger question of why students must prove themselves “exceptional” to have access to a fair education, one free of student debt and the strings that often come attached with nonprofit grants and scholarships.
In Oakland, California, there is a long history of non-privatized alternatives to the school system, starting with the Black Panther Party’s youth institutes and programs in the 1960s and ’70s. Designed to serve the community without government restrictions, these programs had as their mission to “educate to liberate,” directly challenging capitalist views of education and providing a blueprint for future organizers.
My friend Vohid Ergashkulov immigrated to the US from Uzbekistan when he was 15, and quickly became dissatisfied with the public high school he attended in Brooklyn. “I’m an active learner and like studying through asking questions, gaining experience, and making mistakes,” he said. “When you go to school here you sit and listen and don’t have an objective. The subjects we had to take weren’t interesting, and the teachers didn’t take the time to explain things. I wasn’t good at American math, but I was good at math back home.”
Vohid later spent two years at a community college, earning an associate’s degree before deciding that the payoff of a four-year degree wasn’t worth pursuing. Instead, he opted to explore advancement directly in the workforce. “When you go to school, you learn how to work for someone else. I didn’t want to learn how to work for a salary. I wanted to be a self-learner.”
In many non-corporate industries, grades are no longer as heavily weighted as work experience, with references and résumés more closely scrutinized than transcripts. Camila Bustos, who completed her undergrad at Brown University in 2016 and is a current JD candidate at Yale Law School, is going into public interest rather than corporate law. “For public interest organizations, although grades matter, what matters most is your experience, so how you lived your summers and what kind of clinic experiences you’ve had,” she said. “I’ve never really been asked for my transcripts — maybe once, which is kind of hilarious for law school. At the same time, corporate firms want Yale Law students no matter what.”
Both universities Camila attended have moved beyond the traditional 4.0 grading scale: In 1969, Brown implemented a “New Curriculum” that eliminated GPA calculations, allowing undergrads to opt for as many pass/fail classes as desired. Instead of using grades to assess students, they promoted evaluations based on student work portfolios, course performance reports, and letters of recommendation. Yale Law School also experienced a period of student-driven reform around the same time, replacing traditional letter grades with pass, low pass, and honors (H) categories for the top third of each class. The change was an attempt to ease student competition, but some say it unintentionally put a high premium on H’s and extracurriculars.
Camila is a big proponent of the pass/fail system. During the pandemic, a fall survey was sent to Yale Law students, essentially asking, “How should we grade you?” Camila reported, “All of the affinity groups — the first-generation students, Latinx students, Black students, the Asian American Association — and a huge majority of the student body voted to continue credit/fail because we’re still in a global pandemic.” Despite the overwhelming student response, the faculty voted to continue the honors/pass/low pass system, citing studies that claim minorities and first-generation professionals are scrutinized in ways that those with privilege are not, therefore making it more difficult to compare them without grades.
“There’s this idea that if you open the floodgates and allow more flexibility for students then they’re not going to care, but I think the pandemic shows us that isn’t true”
Camila did not find this argument compelling, considering Yale’s prestigious reputation. “The reason why firms are going after Yale Law grads is not because of our grades, whether that’s a P or an H; it’s because they assume we’re the smartest of the smartest, which I disagree with — I think people end up at this school for structural reasons — but they assume that and end up offering jobs and trying to recruit students from these institutions.”
The only way for small reforms to have any widespread impact is for powerful institutions to hold themselves accountable and push for inclusivity. Camila continued. “I think that if schools like Yale and Harvard don’t take the lead and say, ‘Let’s think differently about how we measure success, and let’s think in a more innovative way,’ then it’s so much harder for schools that don’t have the resources, the legitimacy, the reputation. There’s this idea that if you open the floodgates and allow more flexibility for students, then they’re not going to care, but I think the pandemic shows us that isn’t true.” It’s also worth considering why people privilege the actions of historically “elite” institutions and look to them as role models in the first place.
During the pandemic, many universities adjusted their admissions processes by making SAT and ACT scores optional, but in many cases this furthered the gap between students rather than diminishing it. If testing locations near them closed, high schoolers who were financially able would go as far as road-tripping or flying to different states to take the SAT, while others were left without options. Similarly, some law schools now accept GRE scores instead of only requiring the LSAT, yet many students still feel limited because this standard isn’t consistent over a wide range of schools.
When the onus of reform is left to individual, privatized schools, particularly powerful ones, there is no incentive to change the system or culture of elitism. Underrepresented and marginalized students are left to “work hard” in an attempt to infiltrate the university, but when they do make it, they often aren’t supported. Intentionally or not, our current mode of academic institutions has sold a false American dream under the guise of education, warping people’s ideas of what learning can and should be.