University offers community support after shooting

Desi Gillespie, Staff Reporter

Nearly a month after the Tree of Life synagogue shooting in Pittsburgh, Jewish students and UA faculty reflect on the effects seen on campus. The CW attended the candlelight vigil held at Bama Hillel and was captured by the intensity of emotion in the speakers. The CW realized that this horrific event in Pennsylvania had immediate consequences for the Jewish communities here in Alabama. After the shooting fell out of the news cycle, the CW went back to Hillel to hear how it affected Jewish students. The CW also spoke with several leaders and UA faculty on the potential causes of the shooting, providing cultural context for such an unthinkable crime. Sadly, stories like this will continue to be as important as they are common until the society that produces these atrocities makes an effort to prevent them.

Making History: Miss University of Alabama crowns first black queen

Kinsley Centers, Staff Reporter

Tiara Pennington made history as she was the first African American to be crowned Miss University of Alabama. Pennington expressed how honored she is to represent the University in the Miss Alabama competition this upcoming June. The article shares an insight of the positive impact Pennington has made throughout the state of Alabama and beyond with her platform that brings awareness to psoriasis and psoriatic arthritis. Pennington is still striving to find a cure as she honors her mother and uncle who suffer from psoriasis.

Pennington hopes she will continue to open doors for others at the Capstone as Autherine Lucy Foster did. The history the story contains is impactful and needed to be written so everyone could grasp a better understanding of outstanding young women at the Capstone such as Pennington. This article was to showcase the diversity we now have on campus today by reflecting on Black History Month. The article pushes for continued hope for the future as campus continues to open doors for students’ successes.

Black dancers excluded by limited costume options

Leah Goggins, Staff Reporter

When dancers take to the stage, their leotards are meant to blend seamlessly with their skin tone. But when dancers of color look to find inclusion among clothing racks, they typically walk away empty-handed. While white shoppers may find upwards of six different tones that come close to matching the color of their skin, black shoppers are lucky to find two or three.

This subject was so deserving of a story because it addresses diversity and representation in a specific and concrete way. Discussions of inclusivity with regard to media, employment and even college students aren’t hard to find. But skin tone inclusion is the kind of diversity that hits home for many consumers of color. This form of discrimination isn’t all the way in far-off Hollywood or New York City. Instead, it’s at the makeup counter in the neighborhood mall and on the shelves at a child’s ballet class.

Publishing this story during Black History Month was incredibly fitting, as this is a problem that often exclusively affects black consumers. When retailers and companies ignore the needs of black people, they tack another bullet point onto the list of microaggressions that people of color deal with everyday.

Skin shade exclusion is just one example of manufacturers cutting corners when marketing their products to minority consumers. Giving a voice to those alienated and irritated by their lack of representation on clothing racks and down makeup aisles might be the first step in closing the disparity between white and non-white nude representation.