INSIDE
INDEX
Vol. CIV, No. 3 © 2022, The Heights, Inc. www.bcheights.com Established 1919
THIS ISSUE
NEWS...........A2 ARTS...........A8 METRO........A4 OPINIONS.....A9 MAGAZINE....A6 SPORTS.........A11
www.bcheights.com
Monday, February 14, 2022
Chestnut Hill, Mass.
METRO
ARTS
Make some plans for Valentine’s Day with this guide to Newton restaurants.
Gracie Abrams delivered an intimate concert at The Sinclair on Saturday.
A8
A5
SASA Condemns Racially Biased Posts By Erin Shannon News Editor
Boston College’s South Asian Student Association (SASA) released a statement on Wednesday condemning a string of anonymous posts that surfaced last weekend attacking and racially stereotyping South Asians. The club denounced a number of posts on Herrd—an anonymous social media app popular among the BC community—that singled out specific students, negatively compared South Asians to other racial minority groups, and made demeaning comments about physical features of South Asians. “We were just very surprised about the posts,” Ishaan Kaushal, a member of the SASA and WCAS ’23, said. “We’ve definitely as a club seen microaggressions or very, like, complicit or casual racism on campus, but to see it so widespread on Herrd, and especially people liking the messages and people being individually called out is what threw us off guard.” Carter Beaulieu, co-founder of Herrd and BC ’20, said one user uploaded around 10 to 15 posts
over a short period of time. The posts were later removed by Herrd administrators. “Some of the posts were like ‘Oh, why do Indians always own gas stations or hotels,’ and then someone responded and said, ‘They don’t usually own it because they’re too poor for that. They just work there,’” Kaushal said. “Another one was ‘If my Marriage Pact was a South Asian, I would want to kill myself ’ and then ‘If your last name is Patel, Kumar, Singh, Gupta, or Dhaliwal, like please shut up.’” Lubens Benjamin, chair of the AHANA+ Leadership Council and CSOM ’23, said hateful comments like these let students know this is not a safe and inclusive campus, but a place where people have hate in their hearts. “[Students] who identify with these identities, they have to hear these things, to see these things, internalize these things, and really have to go throughout the day at BC feeling like they have to survive,” he said.
ERIN FLAHERTY / HEIGHTS EDITOR
One Year Later, MLE Residents Still Feel Effects of Harassment “It makes me really uncomfortable because it doesn’t seem right for people like that to be here and around us when they directly are trying to make other people’s lives uncomfortable.”
See Herrd, A3
See A6
Sports
Eagles Crush Northwestern in Lacrosse Season Opener
By Emma Healy Deputy Managing Editor
Boston College lacrosse didn’t skip a beat in its first game since winning the 2021 NCAA Championship. Facing No. 4 Northwestern, which made a trip to the Final Four one season ago, the Eagles picked up right where they
left off. BC (1–0) jumped out to an early lead and sealed the deal with a powerful fourth quarter for a season-opening, 18–9 victory over Northwestern (0–1). The 2022 season is the first to feature a quarter system rather than halves. “It’s a big momentum changer,”
Charlotte North said about the quarter system. “But what we talk about as a team is really wanting to be able to come out of timeouts and come out of those quarter breaks taking over and sending that first punch right from the get-go.”
See Lacrosse, A11
Metro
KEARA HANLON / HEIGHTS SENIOR STAFF
Newton Lifts Indoor Mask Mandate By Connor Siemien Asst. Metro Editor
CHRIS TICAS / HEIGHTS STAFF
Newton Mayor Ruthanne Fuller and Newton Health and Human Services Commissioner Linda Walsh announced the removal of the indoor mask mandate for public spaces effective at the end of the day on Feb. 18, according to an email update from Fuller on Feb. 11. Fuller and Walsh rescinded the
mandate, in effect since Sept. 2, 2021, due to a variety of factors, Fuller wrote in the update. One factor Fuller highlighted is that over 95 percent of Newton residents age five and older have at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, and 88 percent of residents are fully vaccinated as of Feb. 1, according to the Newton COVID-19 dashboard.
See Masks, A5