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Cover Image: Further Discussion on A Reflection of Our Time 
Annica Mejia and Taryn Bates 

Department of Sociology 
 California State University, Los Angeles 

 
A Reflection of Our Time is a demonstration of resistance, identity, 
and social justice. The pursuit of sociology is to examine 
organizations, institutions, and systemic structures. Still, 
individual sociologists often have their own perspectives and 
reflections on the objectives. Our observations of society today 
have evoked our empathy, and it would be a disservice to deny 
ourselves and others that empathy; this empathy is what makes 
our community.  

The creation of the cover art A Reflection of Our Time 
started out as a collaboration between those who care deeply about 
our journal and our greater community by gathering a collection 
of images from around LA County that reflect current events. 
However, we find ourselves in increasingly turbulent times. As 
events unfolded during the Spring 2025 semester, our board had 
to make a hard decision to omit some of the images originally 
considered. Our decision did not come from wanting to silence 
voices. Instead, our decision stemmed from apprehension. As 
students, activists, and journalists we have to be realistic about the 
impact our decisions have on others. The last thing any of us 
wanted was for there to inadvertently be negative consequences 
due to the unpredictable and constant changes in our nation.  

We must use the voices we still have while we are still 
able to use them. The responsibility for positive change falls on 
these voices–on us. We owe it to those who have had their voices 
stripped from them. All over the world, Indigenous peoples are 
denied their land, their homes, their dignity. It does not stop there. 
After they are stripped from everything, Indigenous communities 
are pushed into silence, erased from the free exchange of public 
discourse and media. Historically speaking, the silencing of any 
marginalized group of people is followed by their erasure from the 
narrative and then, their death.  

That is what brings us to A Reflection of Our Time. An 
image of a cityscape in LA County makes up the background. An 
androgynous figure with angel wings presents itself to the viewer, 



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textured in faded black and white. Solemnly, the figure looks at 
you and holds up a mirror. They prompt you to reflect on yourself 
and your role in society. This is a step away from the usual 
vibrancy on CSF’s past covers. Fading represents how it feels to 
be in a student journal at this current moment. We see the people 
in our community, we hear their voices. We are losing our own 
voices as journalists in these turbulent times. We have to be more 
mindful of the way certain topics have been turned into political 
targets. Still, this journal serves to persist. Our hope is that the 
vibrancy in our community–its voice and its life–will return to the 
cover one day.  

Ultimately, the cover is a strategic message against 
institutional-silencing. Our journal, the community, and the 
cultures and society that surround us are still strong and still worth 
preserving. Indigenous voices, immigrant voices, and incarcerated 
voices all deserve to be represented and protected. People in our 
community are more than headlines, images, a protest; what 
connects us all is the action we take for each other, and the words 
we use to spark this action. 

But how does this pertain to us? Why should our faculty, 
our students, our readers participate in the action of caring? Why 
should you care? Right now, college students, activists, 
journalists, are met with hostility and punishment when they speak 
out about this erasure and oppression. Our community was built 
on diversity. It was shaped at the hands of diverse people. But now, 
our community is in crisis. Students who have dedicated their 
hearts to this campus are seeing its life leave. Our journal serves 
to preserve this life in any capacity that we can. We cannot do that 
if we stand back in silence. Sociologists are not just observers; we 
can spark action. Courses and books that teach us about our own 
roots and identities are being cut from our schools and libraries. 
Objective documentation itself is under attack as we publish this 
journal. The difference a year has made to the production of our 
journal is shocking. In real time we are watching a nationwide 
coordinated attack on fact, knowledge, and truth. 

We must ask ourselves, what happened when the people 
before us gave into the silence? Do we still have a choice? Is our 
tender wording and apprehension a sign that it is already too late? 
We must think about our place in society and how our roles as 



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sociologists evolve when the intricacies of society present 
themselves in a time like now. Our community is textured with the 
voices of immigrants, the incarcerated, the oppressed. In a nation 
that is founded on the principle of freedom, especially freedom of 
speech, what sense can we make of not having it at all? 

 

 
Image Description: A brick wall with two rainbow-colored wings spread 

upwards with the words CAL STATE LA in black with gold outline centered 
above the words WE ARE LA in blue with white outline. 

 
  


	Cover Image: Further Discussion on A Reflection of Our Time - Annica Mejia and Taryn Bates



