CORSAIR
SYRIA
APRIL 29, 2015 | VOLUME 109 ISSUE 09 SANTA MONICA COLLEGE
FIRST COPY OF THE CORSAIR IS FREE, EACH COPY AFTER IS 25
A FAMILY'S TIES TO HISTORY AND CIVIL WAR (PG 5)
RECAP OF CONSENT MONTH AT SMC (PG. 3)
L.A. CROWDS REMEMEBER ARMENIAN GENOCIDE (PG. 4)
EARTH WEEK ART FESTIVAL AT SMC (PG. 6)
SEEKING EQUALITY FOR LGBT IN SPORTS (PG. 7)
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CONTENT
VOLUME 109 ISSUE 09 • APRIL 29, 2015 • SANTA MONICA COLLEGE Brandon Barsugli ......................... Photo Editor corsairphotoeditor@gmail.com
EDITORIAL STAFF Alci Rengifo ...............................Editor-in-Chief corsair.editorinchief@gmail.com Jonathan Ramos...................... Managing Editor corsair.managing@gmail.com Jose Gutierrez ................................ News Editor corsair.newspage@gmail.com Yasha Hawkins ................................. News Editor corsair.newspage@gmail.com Paulina Eriksson ................. Health & Lifestyle corsair.lifestylepage@gmail.com Jonathan Ramos .........................Opinion Editor corsair.opinionpage@gmail.com James Powel .................................... Sports Editor corsair.sportspage@gmail.com Claudius West ................ Multimedia Director corsair.multimediadept@gmail.com Devin Page .......... Arts & Entertainment Editor corsair.calendarpage@gmail.com
LETTER FROM THE EDITOR ALCI RENGIFO EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Baltimore is burning. The images on the news look like eerie American versions of the kind of street battles we see in other parts of the world. When I saw video yesterday of Baltimore residents throwing rocks at police officers it reminded me of Palestinians throwing stones against Israeli forces in the West Bank, or Kashmiris facing Indian troops. The last 24 hours are a stark reminder that the United States is not immune to the kind of popular anger and social conflict inherent in any society where communities are ghettoized and feel cast aside. The specter of violence should come as challenge
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Kira VandenBrande ..................... Photo Editor corsairphotoeditor@gmail.com Juan Lopez .......................................Digital Editor corsair.webeditor@gmail.com Jhosef Hern ...........................................Illustrator corsaircartoon@gmail.com William Miguel ........................... Design Editor corsair.designteam@gmail.com
CORSAIR STAFF Carlos Espinosa, Alendy Galindo, Veronica Aviles, Jose Lopez, Josue Martinez, Mark Logarta, Ricardo Hernandez, Raymond Martinez, Michael Downey, Daniel Bowyer, Oskar Zinnemann, Christian Gianni Martin, Bailey Peraita, Chiaki Kudo, Kevin Monterroso, Jocelyne Ruiz, Josh Shure, Nerllyn Eskenassy, Tim Lee, Ryanne Mena, Ethan Singleton, Michelle Melamed, Jose Luis Balderas
A student participates in the figure drawing workshop, a live drawing session with artist Marissa Magdalena during College Night at the Getty Museum on Monday in Los Angeles. The event was meant to engage college students in the art world and showcase notable work. (Veronica Aviles The Corsair)
FRONT COVER
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to us, a challenge to start thinking of adequate responses to the social ills causing this kind of unrest. We can criticize and shake our heads at the rioting and looting, but the real question is why a community would feel so frustrated. While the current unrest is the product of police brutality and questions of race in America, the roots run deeper and are connected to issues of poverty, lack of resources and a society that prides materialism over individuals. In a society where wealth and objects define who we are, those who don't have the luxuries of the few will respond through anger. In a sense, Baltimore isn't just about race, it is about how a society that claims to be classless is just the opposite. Pretty soon it won't be just about black lives, it will be about the working class versus the oligarchs, the citizen versus the state. These are questions of global import because people everywhere fight to
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Lemma Barazi cloaked in the flag of the Syrian rebellion that erupted in 2011 and has since then spiraled into a civil war of international urgency. Barazi’s family has deep roots in the country going back to the time of the Crusades. She is part of the young Arab diaspora hoping for democratic change in a rapidly shifting world. (Kira VandenBrande The Corsair)
cast off yokes, as our cover story demonstrates. In this week's issue we present the story of Lemma Barazi, an SMC student of Syrian origin who's family is being deeply affected by the Syrian civil war which has turned into an international battleground of factions and superpowers. Hers is both a family saga and a universal story about the power of knowing your family tree. Talking with Lemma was like hearing an oral history of Syria as her family has deep roots in the country that go back to the era of the Crusades. Lemma represents the generation of young Arab diaspora who wish to see democratic change in their countries but are instead torn by heartbreaking realities. In the last few months we have brought you the stories of other students from countries like Iran and Egypt. We are an international campus and we make friends from many parts of the world. What we forget
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sometimes is how the events happening their countries affect us as well. Remember that in September 2013 the Obama White House came close to launching a military assault on Syria, an action that would have had serious global consequences since both Iran and Russia are also heavily involved in the civil war. Lemma's a story that shows the microcosm of history and how history isn't just a set of headlines or chapters in a book, it involves real people. Also in this week's issue we run a report on the recent events surrounding Consent Month on campus. The message of the event was important. There is never an excuse for forcing oneself upon someone, or harassing them and violating their space. As always we invite you to share your thoughts and commentary with us and to visit us online. As the news and our cover story show, the freedom to have your voice heard is a powerful gift.
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NEWS
VOLUME 109 ISSUE 09 • APRIL 29, 2015 • SANTA MONICA COLLEGE
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CONSENT MONTH WRAP UP JUAN LOPEZ & JOSE GUTIERREZ WEB EDITOR & NEWS EDITOR Confronted with having her rape allegation made known among her peers, Angela lashed out at Felix.”Once a report is filed, the investigation has to be fully carried out by the university,” shouted Angela. “So now I have to give my testimony over and over and fucking over to everyone.” This was part of Berkeley Interactive Theater’s “Get it Right” at Santa Monica College’s Studio Stage one of the last events in the SMC Foundation, Associated Students, and SMC Associates' Consent Month. Angela and Felix were portrayed by Emma Nicholls and Louel Señores respectively. After the short play, the actors all lined up for an audience Q&A while in character. This exercise led some in the audience to react more empathetically towards the characters, with one audience member asking “Angela, how are you feeling and what can I do for you?” Some characters even asked questions back to the audience, such as asking for advice, getting replies about helping victims such as “when they want the help, you have to be there.” Other events and activities throughout the month included several workshops on consent and assault, the Clothesline Project, screenings of films on sexual assault within large institutions, “The Invisible War” and “The Hunting Ground,” and a purple draped A.S. table on the quad with information and free condoms that invited students to “Pledge to Consent.” These were all planned with the goal to create a conversation on campus as to what constitutes sexual assault and what people can do about it. With a recent national conversation over alleged sexual assaults and TItle IX, the campus saw it necessary to react. “We had an incident where someone posted fliers around campus with '#smcconsent' and we really didn’t know who it was,” said Student Trustee Daniel Kolko, who led the planning of Consent Month with Associated Students Vice-President Caitlin Corker. “This is raising awareness campus-wide. and maybe even community-wide.” Kolko says he didn’t see much beyond a set of troubling numbers when he first started working on Consent Month, but soon realized that sexual assault and awareness was a far-reaching cultural problem. Dr. Gabriel Crenshaw, a clinical psychologist and lecturer at USC was on hand at several Consent Month events. “I think this is the age where people come alive sexually. Hormones are raging,” said Crenshaw. “And then just biologically, physiologically speaking, certain parts of the brain are still underdeveloped even at college age and I think people forget this.” “This is everybody’s business. Every single person here. Not just students, but faculty, staff. You don’t have any idea what administrator, what staff, what faculty person, has themselves been involved in this when they were college age. You don’t know. People really don’t talk,” said Crenshaw. “And there needs to be a level of accountability that comes from the top.” On Monday, a special screening of Oscarnominated documentary “The Hunting Ground” was held at The Broad Stage, with the director Kirby Dick and producer Amy Ziering, the film follows two University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill students whose
rape cases were not followed, or dismissed by their university’s administration as they gathered other victims across the country to speak up about their own rape dismissals. This David versus Goliath-type story is framed by harrowing statistics and several other buried rape cases including several men raped by other men, a girl who took her own life shortly after starting university and being raped, and the story of Erica Kinsman who was allegedly raped by Heisman winner Jameis Winston. In the film, the process of several universities’ dismissal of rape accusations are shown through statistics, where several athletes went unpunished until the end of their athletic contracts with the schools. Each of the universities claimed to take these accusations “very seriously” and many administrators were claimed to turn a blind eye to accusations. Maria Lucero Padilla of Berkeley Interactive Theater said, “I learned that women will leave their place in the academy [..] due to harassing, intimidating, exploitive behavior, we will go. But when I read the narrative, it’s when we go, we often won’t say why we’re leaving.” She adds, “We also sometimes don’t speak up because we don’t have confidence in the institution to respond.” Ziering and Dick first thought of university sexual assaults as a subject through their university screenings of their Oscarwinning “The Invisible War.” “Everyone would come up to us on campuses saying ‘this happened to me here,’” said Ziering. ”I was taken by surprise by the issue itself, it wasn’t on our radar.” Dick said, “What we see here very often is powerful institutions either covering up crimes that have to do with sexual assault.” “We wouldn’t be here talking about this without survivors that came forward on campuses. These are people that have been, for decades, have been pushed down,” said Dick. “That’s part of the reason we wanted to make the film.” According to Dick, of all the universities whose incidents were covered in the film, only Harvard, Saint Mary’s, and Notre Dame have screened the documentary on their campus. He also notes that of all the schools, Notre Dame has gone on to tackle the sexual assault issue more vocally through activism and writing editorials and articles in their school publication. Many people interviewed for this article including Crenshaw and Dick saw prosecution and accountability as the dominant need to tackle the problem of sexual assaults in institutions. Dick said “I’d like to see a college president come forward and say ‘Look, there’s a problem on my campus. It’s a significant problem and I’m here to try and address this problem. I’m going to put money into solving it and you can hold me accountable if it doesn’t work.’” LaShonda Coleman of the Santa Monica Rape Treatment Center has been collaborating with the A.S. to bring her experience with rape survivors as a counselor. She says it’s worth mentioning that the inter-fraternity council at USC hosted screening of “The Hunting Ground” and raised money for the rape treatment center. “Many athletics organizations are reaching out to us for rape prevention education,” said Coleman. She also helped facilitate the Clothesline
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Emma Nicholls, Jonathan Lee, and Louel Senores of the Berkeley Interactive Theater perform as Angela, Caleb, and Felix respectively in "Get it Right," a short play that discusses the sensitivity of sexual assault, at the Santa Monica College Little Theater. (Juan Lopez The Corsair)
Director of "The Hunting Ground" Kirby Dick at a Q&A for the film with producer Amy Ziering and moderator LaShonda Coleman of the Santa Monica Rape Treatment Center. (Juan Lopez The Corsair)
Project for the campus. The project involves writing messages about sexual or other abuse on t-shirts and hanging them on a clothesline for public viewing. This serves as one of many ways to de-stigmatize rape victims according to Coleman. “The conversation that’s happened at SMC over Consent Month, I feel has definitely created a space for those who have been impacted directly or indirectly to come forward and have this conversation about sexual violence,” said Coleman. Ziering said of the stigma that comes with being raped, “I think it’s interesting that the majority of the time we show the film the question we get is what can our girls do to protect themselves instead of how do we prosecute these guys and stop them from raping. But that’s symptomatic of our culture, the first thought is, what can a woman do differently.” She also stressed the importance of first responders to sexual assault being accepting of the victim’s claims and situation, saying that the initial openness to a victim’s attack can make the difference in their healing process. According to Corker, over 2,500 consent pledges have been filled and given to A.S. representatives on the quad. Kolko said that even though he considers the entire month a success, he wishes the outreach for the events could have been higher. “That we need students to come and that we need students to engage because there’s no way that we can spread this conversation without student engagement and without faculty engagement,” said Kolko. Finishing up the month on Wednesday is International Denim Day, where people wear denim to protest sexual assault over what someone wears. The inspiration came from a case in 1992 when an Italian driving instructor blamed his victim’s jeans for his assault of her. Also Wednesday, Healing Through Art @THE_CORSAIR •
is taking place on the quad, presented by A Window Through Worlds. According to Associate Dean of Student Life Sonali Bridges, Thursday April 30, the A.S. office will be closed all day in order for counselors to provide a safe space for students to share their feelings in the Cayton lounge. “This entire month has brought up triggers and memories and all sorts of things for students and we want to create a place where they have the ability to come and talk about anything they’ve felt this entire month,” said Bridges. Also due to popular request, during activity hour on Thursday, a screening of “The Hunting Ground” will be held in the Cayton Lounge at 11:15p.m.
resources on campus SMC Campus Police (310) 434-4300 SMC Psychological Services (310) 434-4503 SMC Health Services (310) 434-4262 Santa Monica Rape Treatment Center (310) 319-4000 911rape.org/about-us/contact-us SMC Title IX Officer (310) 434-4419 The Hunting Ground Film Resources thehuntinggroundfilm.com/resources
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PHOTOSTORY
VOLUME 109 ISSUE 09 • APRIL 29, 2015 • SANTA MONICA COLLEGE
Thousands of people gathered at Little Armenia in Los Angeles to march for the 100th Anniversary of Armenian Genocide. Armenian people suffered the largest genocide in history, with 1.5 million deaths by Turkish hands. The march ended in front of the Turkish consulate in Los Angeles on Friday. (Carlos Espinosa The Corsair)
L.A. REMEMBERS THE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE ALCI RENGIFO EDITOR-IN-CHIEF 100 years have passed since a great sorrow eclipsed the Armenian people and on Saturday Los Angeles let the world know that it remembers. It was during the end of World War I and its immediate aftermath that the Ottoman Empire carried out a genocide of Armenians that is numbered at 1.5 million victims. The event is considered by many historians as a precursor to some later horrors of the 20th century such as the Holocaust. To this day Turkey, former cradle of Ottoman rule, refuses to call the event a "genocide" and the government even tries to downplay the number of victims. But for Los Angelinos of Arme-
nian descent, the scars of history are clear and palpable. Tens of thousands marched through downtown waving Armenian flags and even Turks appeared in solidarity, refusing to accept the Turkish government's official version of events. Among the crowd were older Armenians for whom the history of the genocide has always felt close and younger generation marchers who will carry on their culture's history into the future. In a country where the streets of Baltimore are boiling, Saturday was a reminder that solidarity, pain and the scars of history are realities shared by the world.
Doves of peace caged before being released during the march rememberi the Armenian genocide. (Carlos Espinosa The Corsair)
A man in military fatigues shows solidarity with crowds commemorating the Armenian genocide. (Carlos Espinosa The Corsair)
A marcher holds up a portrait of Armenians who were displaced and murdered during the 1915 genocide carried out by the Ottoman Empire.(Carlos Espinosa The Corsair)
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HEALTH & LIFESTYLE
VOLUME 109 ISSUE 09 • APRIL 29, 2015 • SANTA MONICA COLLEGE
BLOOD & HISTORY Lemma Barazi's family ties to Syria amid civil war
In the 1982 Hama uprising, at least 20 members of her family were wiped out. "That's what fascinates me about history too, because I like to go back to my own family history. And with what's happening, I can't ignore it." Before a revolutionary storm overtook
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country stood up for themselves. It was like the first step towards something bigger. Yet I was still scared for my family." Everyday Barazi and her family in the U.S. would skype with relatives in Syria to keep track of what began as popular, nonviolent protests that spread like wildfire. "It
"That's what fascinates me about history too, because I like to go back to my own family history. And with what's happening, I can't ignore it."
Lemma Barazi holds a Syrian mosaic displaying the country’s map with the flag of the ruling regime. The mosaic is a small memento from Barazi’s trip to the country in 2011 and is now a nostalgic reminder of a country seeking change. (Kira VandenBrande The Corsair)
ALCI RENGIFO EDITOR-IN-CHIEF For Lemma Barazi history is something living and immediate. A Santa Monica College History major, Barazi carries a name bearing the weight of her family's country of origin: Syria, a country few Americans were aware of until a 2011 uprising spiraled into a civil war that has now gripped the world's attention. What began as an Arab Spring revolt has changed shape into a bloody collage of images haunting our news: The cold looks of the Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad and his wife, the Lady Macbeth of the Middle East, Asma Assad and the apocalyptic rebel groups like Islamic State (ISIS) waging war against them. But for Barazi this is only the culmination of a history that goes back further in time. The family roots are deep in Syria's soil. The Barazis can trace their lineage back to ancestors who were the first tribe to fight against the medieval Crusaders (the name "Barazi" is derived from a Kurdish word that means "to charge"). In recent times, the Barazi's have been linked to Syria's stirring political history. "My grandfather's cousin was Prime Minister in the 1950s," explained Barazi. "During that time there was a coup and they overthrew him and they killed him. The man who killed him became the man in charge, and then my grandfather killed him for revenge." Her grandfather, Hersho al-Barazi, now in his 90s, became a fugitive in 1950 when he assassinated Syrian strongman Sami
al-Hinnawi. Hersho made his way to Lebanon where he stayed for a number of years. Her father was born in Hama, a town known for its rebellious streak and where 10,000 rebels were massacred during a 1982 uprising by the regime of Hafez al-Assad, father of Bashar.
Syria in 2011, Barazi and her siblings would travel to the country often to visit family. At one point Barazi lived for a year in the country with her sister at the age of 10. "It was culture shock," she said, "but it was good. Now looking back, I learned a lot. I learned how to speak Arabic fluently. I went to a public school. I got to meet family I had never met before." Barazi was able to experience first hand Syria before the civil war, under the firm grip of Bashar al-Assad's regime. "When I went to school, it was interesting because we would do the pledge of allegiance but it was militarized. It was an Assad version. We would get in trouble if we didn't salute. I would see pictures of Assad in the classroom and it seemed even the kids were afraid to talk about politics." According to Barazi politics would only be discussed in whispers. Trust in neighbors was fragile as it was never known who could be a member of Assad's notorious secret police. Barazi described a country with a diverse society where some cities might tend to be more conservative than others, like her father's hometown of Hama. "I couldn't walk out with short sleeves there," recalled Barazi with a smile. Family honor is important in Syrian society as well. And then in 2011 the Middle East was shaken by the wave of uprisings that began in Tunisia and soon dismissed the region's borders. "It was like an anticipation when we first heard about Tunisia, then Egypt,
Lemma Barazi and her grandfather Hersho al-Barazi watching a soccer game in Hama, Syria before the war (Courtesy of Lemma Barazi)
Barazi was born in Saudi Arabia, where her father worked for an American company before moving the family to California. "Most of the family is still in Syria," said Barazi. "Family there have had to move, like in the capital, Damascus."
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we were just waiting. We knew it was going to happen," said Barazi, adding that at first there were doubts in some sectors that Syria would rebel because of the long history of bloody suppressions. "When it actually happened I was pretty proud. I thought the @THE_CORSAIR •
was hard because they can't really say over the internet what's happening. For example my uncle would say 'they're going to have a big barbecue tomorrow' which meant they [the regime] was going to start bombing," she said. The Assad regime responded to the protests with sheer brutality as crowds were fired upon, organizers disappeared, and even children were broken and tortured. Weapons were raised under Syria's burning skies and the uprising became an armed struggle to overthrow the government. The Syrian revolution became a civil war. "Given the history of what the government has done we expected it," said Barazi. Even her grandfather feels compelled to return. "He's upset, he wants to go home. He wants a peaceful Syria." Again the Barazis are witnesses to history, and again they must endure its heartbreak. "We would hear that one of my dad's cousins and his 16-year-old daughter were walking down the street getting bread and were gunned down, just randomly. Eventhough we're not there right now, it has definitely affected us," laments Barazi. Now the Syrian civil war has also become an international war as fighters pour in from different countries to join different factions in a struggle that could now change the Middle East itself. "Before the war, people here that I knew had no idea where Syria was," said Barazi. "Now people are fascinated with Syria. My friends see it on the news and they're confused. There are so many different opinions." For outsiders the Syrian war has also become a mirage distorted by the rise of radical groups like the Islamic State (ISIS), who wage war against Assad under the banners of an extreme religious vision. "Learn the facts first. Learn the history to understand what's going on today," she recommended. "It's almost like two evils fighting each other." And while she watches Syria change the world from afar, Bazari feels her roots deep within. Her sense of Arab hospitality and pride in her history are forever shaping her. A practicing Muslim, Barazi says "it has helped me be the person who I am. The better version that I am." For Barazi, even two years is too short to hope for the war to end or for real change to come to Syria. "Syria might need 100 years to get to a good, stable, autonomous, democratic country. I'd just like to see peace." As the land of her family roots smolders, Barazi looks forward to finishing her education and hopefully do international work. "I want to do it all," she says enthusiastically. Therein lies the hope that a new, free Syria might one day emerge from a new generation willing to rebuild and end a continuing song of blood and fire.
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ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT
VOLUME 109 ISSUE 09 • APRIL 29, 2015 • SANTA MONICA COLLEGE
SMC hosts interactive art festival for Earth Week DEVIN PAGE ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT EDITOR In a consumerist society where the focus is to buy the newest and best thing, proEarth activists remind us to conserve our resources. Reduce. Reuse. Recycle. It's a phrase you've heard before a million times and it doesn't end there. Celebrating "Thriving Thursday" during Earth Week, Santa Monica College's sustainable clubs worked in conjunction to host an art and culture festival on the main quad last Thursday. The purpose of this event was to raise awareness about our carbon footprint with a focus on ways we can consume less and reuse more and this is done through art. "There's this doom and gloom aspect when people think about conservation. We want to talk about the thriving aspect and the celebratory aspect of learning new methods of conserving and loving planet Earth," said Lauren Hollenstein of SMC's Sustainable Works. All of the artwork at the event featured students work that reused or repurposed old goods to show how students can conserve. Students painted on reclaimed wood to show their artistic expression. One was made from pallets and it will make its home in the Organic Learning Garden. Another one was made from an old headboard and the footboard was broken and it was turned
into a bench from old plywood. "We invited artists to express what conservation means to them through using items that normally become trash and turning them into works of art," said Hollenstein. SMC'S own Associated Students Director of Sustainability Andrea Gonzalez helped plan as well as participated in the event. She submitted two works of art. The first one called "3 Minutes" was a collection of cigarette butts she found in three minutes in the smoker's area. "It's not to place blame or point fingers, but to help our students quit smoking and show where the cigarette butts are going and where the landfill is going," said Gonzalez. Her second project "If It Was Only This Easy" depicted women from around the world collecting drinking water to take to their families and villages, crafted in the style of a water bottle. "In America people get their bottles delivered. In other countries women have to walk miles to pick up their drinking water," said Gonzalez. She used as an example how in India they have to pump their water from the soil in the ground, but in America it's as easy as going to the store. Next to her station was the work of SMC Student Brea Peck, an art major. Her art consisted of items that were lying around her house that she put to good use. Using film negatives she had in a box and an umbrella skeleton that no longer worked, she sewed it all together. Her art represents the web of communication and follows the Global Initiative
Members of Alpha Gamma Sigma Hyo Jung Bea, Jiwon Oh and Hwani Choi (left to right) paint a bench on Earth Day at Santa Monica College on April 23. (Jose Luis Balderas The Corsair)
Theme: "Peace and Security: Managing Conflict and Violence in a Turbulent World." The art festival extended its relevance to all cultures. Folklorico dancers from a local Apache tribe performed tribal dances to convey how sustainability and environmental issues affect this fringe population. In poverty-stricken areas, indigenous peoples are negatively impacted. The dances were in the form of prayer giving gratitude and thanks to mother Earth. The Apache tribe's presence at the festival showed that environmental issues are universal and relevant to all of us. Like Hollenstein said, "Sustainability is often seen as a white man's issue and a wealthy person's issue and it's not. We just want people to see creative ways that are
really tangible and really accessible for them." The art festival offered various fun ways for students to get involved. Inter-Club Council Vice Chair Courtney King headed up the t-shirt making table where she was asked to participate due to her time as a previous Crafting Club President. "We're decorating them in a way that people will wear them," she said. Cutting the shirts up into cool crochetlike designs, King helped students create fashionable t-shirts out of old XL club tshirts. King delivered a message that really homed in on what the event was all about. "Being involved at SMC I feel like I can give back to my community and feel involved in projects larger than myself."
to a lack of education on the cause they are decimating their city for. If the entire point of this "necessary evil" is to change the authoritative system that Americans have lived with for so long, then people need to reassess their actions because they could not be further from progress. However, if people are so confident that
kind of change. They may speak about why they are doing it but will not take time to educate themselves on how they can truly make a difference. The only hope that can be derived from all of these videos is one of a mother disciplining (that's and understatement) her child for throwing rocks at the police.
OPINION
ON BALTIMORE
But it cannot happen overnight and it surely cannot happen with a bunch of violence-happy individuals thinking they can be game changers by burning the world down, while the corrupt officials sit at home and watch these rioters do the job for them.
William Miguel The Corsair
JONATHAN RAMOS MANAGING EDITOR When one person throws a rock, everyone must then throw a rock. That is the mentality of much of the youth participating in the rioting that began Monday night after the funeral of a black man who inexplicably died under police custody. Unfortunately, the impulsive violence-which protestors say is for Freddie Gray, the man who died--actually raises confusion as to what people are protesting for. Some will say that movements like #blacklivesmatter are the motives for these riots while
others will claim police brutality as their primary reason. But if people decide to turn their cities into a war zone every time they watch the latest video on social media, the cause they proudly claim to be fighting for is worth about as much as the ashes of the cars and buildings they incinerate. Here lies the problem. The videos that have garnered national attention primarily show members of the younger population, many of which are teenagers, wreaking havoc on parts of the city that have absolutely nothing to do with the issue. This recklessness points to a lack of direction and organization, which can then point
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tearing down cities that, while not perfect, have had a lot of work put into them by the communities living in them will bring change the system, then I pose the questions: What progress has been made? What great change has come? How many more people (not officers but bystanders) have to be beaten, trampled on, and have their stores looted? I cringed when I saw a post on Facebook that stated "Until #blacklives matter, all lives won't matter..." This is the example being set for children who will undoubtedly have their own reasons to protest later in their lives; "if someone punches you in the face, go ahead and hurt everyone around you until that person stops" is what is being told to them. This is evident in the teenagers committing highly immature acts of today. Perhaps this was the example set for them while they were growing up and they are doing an excellent job making sure that, ironically, nothing changes. Photos of kids highjacking a UPS truck and even, far more bizarrely, driving around in a "Thomas the Train" model, and most disturbingly, a video of a man being knocked unconscious outside of a liquor store only to be stomped on by pedestrians standing outside, show that these kids care more for an adrenaline rush than they do about any @THE_CORSAIR •
Does that mean that this woman does not understand? That she's a sell out? That she didn't live through the same struggle? Of course not. It means she likely has the integrity to understand that she does not want to sink to a level of violence that these corrupt officers have exhibited. It means she knows that protesting a system taking innocent lives and then proceeding with action that helps dig her own community digger into a trench than it already is, is as idiotic as the idea of a police force neglecting to acknowledge what happened to a man who mysteriously died in their custody. The police in Baltimore did something wrong. Every video capturing the abuse of power by police will help make a change. But it cannot happen overnight and it surely cannot happen with a bunch of violencehappy individuals thinking they can be game changers by burning the world down, while the corrupt officials sit at home and watch these rioters do the job for them. Hopefully, with Baltimore icons like Ray Lewis standing against the violence, the city will regain its composure and end what has already been an upsetting couple of days. Like Lewis so passionately tweeted: "Baltimore this isn't the answer!!!"
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OPINION
VOLUME 109 ISSUE 09 • APRIL 29, 2015 • SANTA MONICA COLLEGE
Loving thyself What I learned from Kim Kardashian
Jhosef Hern The Corsair
BAILEY PERAITA STAFF WRITER The Kardashian family are well known reality-TV stars accustomed to controversy and life's standard complications. From posing nude in Playboy magazine to running businesses and having babies, it’s hard to avoid their press releases or faces covering magazines while you’re standing in line at the grocery store. They’re on almost everything and it’s unavoidable. With fame, comes infamy which is nothing the Kardashians are shy of. With their gi-
gantic media exposure and influence, the family is well known to have critics or haters that tend to question why they deserve the attention. If you’re on the side of the fence against their media empire, I’m going to answer these questions for you from the view of a mixed girl (predominantly Italian and Spanish, the list goes on) from a small town in Northern California a.k.a. me. At the cusp of puberty, I underwent the process that every human naturally goes through; the turbulence of hormones and the addition of new features to your body. For women, according to biology the metabolism of women tend to slow down during puberty causing weight gain in the adipose tissues of the breasts, hips and thighs (this is a fact, you should know this if you paid attention in sex ed) . This is natural. This is healthy. However, during my youth, I was raised around people and a media who idolized thin bodies with bones that could ever so slightly graze beneath your epidermis. This can be healthy but this perpetuates diet fads, ideal body image, and can lead to harmful illnesses and diets. Be warned, I was one of those people. Here is where the Kardashians enter the stage. In a small town where the populous was either “redneck or Indian” in the humble words of the locals, it was mostly thin girls or overweight as the majority. While I, according to biology and genetics, gained weight in areas that deemed me as “curvy” in a flattering way, in my town I was considered fat. Fat is not a bad thing. F Everyone needs fat in their bodies. Even if you try to have zero percent body fat there will still be fat in your organs used for functionality. Again, fat is healthy for you if it’s not in excess. Moving on. I hit puberty. My attributes grew as they should yet I despised them. The stereotypes
of being promiscuous, trying too hard to impress guys, and overall a general disdain from those that looked at me came rushing in like guests at a surprise birthday party. So I secluded myself by staying home, reading often, and watching television. The images and media on the TV also perpetuated my desire to be skinny so I sat home, starved myself (200 calories every other day), ate diet pills and waited until I was comfortable enough to leave the house with bones showing. However, “Keeping Up With The Kardashians” popped up on my screen one day. This was the beginning of learning there are different types of beauty and bodies. Kim, Kourtney, Khloe, Kendall, and Kylie were five sisters who set a beautiful standard of love regardless of looks. Over the years, each sister has made comments on body image. Khloe, the most scrutinized often said "I'm proud of my body" regardless of her fluctuating stature. She and Kim, the curvy and gorgeous epicenter of the show, acknowledged their bodies without shame. I was shocked. I googled Kim's measurements and we had been the same size, yet I was the only one ashamed. I thought she looked amazing but I thought I didn’t. This didn’t make sense to me. Until I learned it was my own psychology and my environmental factors. Meanwhile Kim Kardashian immediately became the media’s succulent peach that everyone wanted to see and eat for their own exposure. She had a sex tape which most attribute for her fame. This is often the reason for her being scrutinized. A woman, not the first woman known or seen to have sex, was scrutinized for that and will be for the remainder of her career. Parents of young and impressionable girls often comment their opinions of “What kind of role model is that?” “Why is she important?” “She should be ashamed for
7
promoting public nudity.” And to that I respond, Kim is as important as Marilyn Monroe with her empire based around sexual tension. She set a standard that allows women to accept their body regardless of their fluctuating sizes, be vocal about who they are and what they want; sexually or non-sexually, and to be one of the female trailblazers that aren’t ashamed of the human body and what it’s capable of doing. She’s inspired young women, mothers, and myself to be healthy, take care of themselves, and love the body they have. In accordance to that, her life is public. She is filmed and photographed more often than any person in the world. Her being nude isn’t a secret. Google’s algorithms can easily hit a few letters and respond with results pertaining to her photo shoots. With such simple access to see images that aren’t secret she shouldn’t be ashamed for publicly showing what all women have- a human body with reproductive parts. Lastly, Kim Kardashian as a role model sounds like an oxymoron to the common ear yet the public chooses to see her in only one light. As Kim says, "I love when people underestimate me and then become pleasantly surprised." To follow her words, she shows her versatile character with multiple endeavors and businesses before and after fame. Yet she is often limited to the viewership of just her body. The Kardashians are proof you can't underestimate the power of the media. They are the most covered and controversial family in the history of celebrity culture which forces them to be under the shadow of doubt and speculation. They have proven to be trailblazing women that led others, such as myself, on the path to positive body representation thus making them role models, regardless of their personal lives.
SPORTS
Life is complicated.
Time
to get
Making the playing field equal LGBTQ in Sports
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Jhosef Hern The Corsair
JOSH SHURE STAFF WRITER Back in the 1970s, openly gay, San Francisco politician Harvey Milk once remarked, "all over the country, they're reading about me, and the story doesn't center on me being gay. It's just about a gay person who is doing his job." Fast forward to 2015, the LGBT community has grown to adopt it's own place among American mainstream. However, in the typically close-minded conservative world of sports that America lives in, the idea of a professional athlete identifying themselves as part of the LGBT community is stamped as being either taboo or a @THE_CORSAIR •
publicity stunt. The two most public coming out stories in the sports world are Jason Collins, former NBA basketball player who came out before entering his final season, and Michael Sam, current NFL free agent who came out before being drafted last season and has yet to play his first professional game. When contrasting the coming out of Jason Collins and Michael Sam, Collins was a guy who played professional basketball for over a decade, came out and is now judged by who he was as a player not just his sexual orientation. In contrast, Michael Sam came out before (Continue on PG 8)
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8
SPORTS
(Continued from PG 7) ever becoming a professional football player; therefore, he has been judged, unfairly based off of him opening up about his sexual orientation, not Michael Sam as a player. "Professional sports aren't enforcing their code of conducts, there is currently not one openly gay player in Major League Baseball. Only a couple of guys have come out after they have retired, and any idea of major league baseball, let alone any sport, promoting or enforcing LBGT inclusion is a joke," said Cyd Zeigler Co-founder of Ou, the world's leading gay-sports publication. As well as of being the co-founder of outsports.com, Zeigler is a contributor for the Huffington Post, Out Magazine, The Advocate and Playboy and has appeared on CNN, ESPN as well as in Sport Illustrated and The New York Times. "The issue is what are the coaches and managers doing on a day-to-day basis and that answer is nothing," Zeigler said. Now as the time is changing, I'm proposing the idea that major American professional sports leagues create a day or week, solely focused on promoting the inclusion of the LGBT community across the world of sports. "The problem is coaches and managers just don’t want to talk about it, they say that they just want to focus on their sport which clearly is not working," remarked Zeigler. The idea of an LGBT inclusion day or week in professional sports would promote an inclusive and equitable workplace to help provide awareness and educational resources to regulate the leagues' codes of conducts. The National Football League has Pink October for Breast Cancer Awareness Month. The National Basketball League has had teams wear Latin Night jerseys, Chinese New Years jerseys as well as St. Patrick's Day jerseys. Major League Baseball created an annual
VOLUME 109 ISSUE 09 • APRIL 29, 2015 • SANTA MONICA COLLEGE baseball holiday on April 15th known as Jackie Robinson Day where every coach and player dons the number 42. Teams have created jerseys for specific occasions, so why can not professional sports teams adopt the rainbow for one day a season to have LGBT Inclusion Night? Major League Baseball's past of being an ultra-conservative sports league is fading away into the chronicles of history as they start to promote equal opportunities and treatment of all athletes. To show MLB's changing views, the league should add to the festivities of their self-created holiday, Jackie Robinson Day; make the number 42 rainbow on all jerseys across the league. Jackie Robinson's legacy could expand to not just him being the man to have broken the color barrier in baseball, but as the face of equal rights for all athletes regardless of personal appearance or identification. However, Zeigler was adverse to my my Jackie Robinson Day idea. "I’m actually against the idea of using the rainbow flags and rainbow jerseys because that is all that is being done. The education and seeking out those within the sports that are LGBT is what's truly important," said Zeigler. "What is more important is for athletes to come out openly to the public because it will help connect with the youth in showing what it means to be an individual." To all athletes that have to hide who they truly are and do not feel comfortable coming out, remember the words of Jackie Robinson, "I'm not concerned with you liking or disliking me. All I ask is that you respect me as a human being." The snowball effect of LGBT inclusion across sports is slowly picking up more momentum daily due to the work of people like Cyd Zeigler. Hopefully in the near future, an athlete coming out about their sexual orientation will be viewed as acceptable in every locker room throughout the sports world.
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