Daily Forty-Niner; February 1, 2021

weekly digital print edition

DAILY FORTY-NINER EST p 1949

Vol. LXXII, Issue 18

www.daily49er.com

Monday, February 1, 2021

Winter Daze Inside the

Niner

PAGES 6 AND 7

NEWS

ARTS & LIFE

Outside dining opens up in LA County

Alumna’s art on the big screen

page 3

page 10

2 NEWS

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 1, 2021 | DAILY49ER.COM | @DAILY49ER | EIC@DAILY49ER.COM ON THE COVER Photo by ANDREA RAMOS

Daily Forty-Niner 1250 Bellflower Blvd., LA4-203 Long Beach, CA, 90840

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Madalyn Amato

Lauren Berny

Multimedia Managing Editor multimedia@daily49er.com

Editor in Chief eic@daily49er.com

News Editor Julia Terbeche news@daily49er.com Arts & Life Editor Paris Barraza arts@daily49er.com Opinions Editor Kelsey Brown opinions@daily49er.com Sports Editor Sports Desk sports@daily49er.com Design Editor Alejandro Vazquez design@daily49er.com Advertising Manager Carter Magee advertising@daily49er.com Business Manager Rani Hanna business@daily49er.com Special Projects Editor Peter Villafane Photo Editor Andrea Ramos Video Editor Abel Reyes Social Media Editor Celeste Huecias Podcast Editor Cameron Johnston Podcast Assistant Luke Pajari Design Assistant Anna Karkalik ANDREA RAMOS | Daily Forty-Niner

A forecasted storm hit Southern California Thursday night and is supposed to continue through the weekend. After a break from the morning rain, the Walter Pyramid at Long Beach State is still damp.

News Assistant Iman Palm News Assistant Fernando Haro Arts and Life Assistant Xochilt Andrade Opinions Assistant Jireh Deng Special Projects Assistant Giselle Alexandra Ormeno

Updated ‘Letter to the editor’ policy Dear Long Beach State, Following the discourse surrounding Jose Espinoza’s letter to the editor, we as an editorial staff took the time to sit down and discuss our policies and procedures.

A letter to the editor is traditionally an unedited, or minorly edited, submission from community members to the editor in chief. They do not necessarily go through the same editing process that other opinion pieces are subject to.

Our previous policy only allowed for editing for space in the publication. That policy is outdated and no longer conducive with our changing world.

Moving forward, the Daily Forty-Niner’s official letter to the editor policy will be as follows:

As a publication, the Daily Forty-Niner reserves the right to edit letters for grammar, AP Style and clarity. Claims will be fact checked and must be substantiated. Hate speech or unprotected speech will not be published. All opinions expressed in the columns, letters and cartoons in the issue are those of the writers or artists. The opinions of the Daily Forty-Niner are expressed only in specified, signed editorials and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the journalism department or the views of all staff members.

Included in this issue are four different voices on this matter, on pages 11 through 14.

Photo Assistant Richard Grant Social Media Assistants Ashley Ramos Desiree Aguilera Dominique Hernandez Briet Sarthak Sheladia Webmaster Dinesh Reddy Kommera Distribution Manager Carter Magee Design Adviser Gary Metzker Content Adviser Barbara Kinglsey-Wilson Advertising and Business Jennifer Newton Adviser Letters to Editor editor@daily49er.com

Story Ideas tips@daily49er.com

Corrections correction@daily49er.com

Job Inquiries jobs@daily49er.com

Letters Policy: All letters and emails must bear the phone number of the writer and must be no more than 300 words. The Daily Forty-Niner reserves the right to edit letters for publication in regard to space.

Editorials: All opinions expressed in the columns, letters and cartoons in the issue are those of the writers or artists. The opinons of the Daily FortyNiner are expressed only in unsigned editorials and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the journalism department or the views of all staff members. All such editorials are written by the editorial board of the Daily Forty-Niner.

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NEWS 3

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 1, 2021 | DAILY49ER.COM | @DAILY49ER | NEWS@DAILY49ER.COM

Gov. Gavin Newsom reverted the state to its original order, in which outdoor dining is permitted beginning Friday.

ANDREA RAMOS | Daily Forty-Niner

Newsom lifts stay-at-home order California has returned to the tiered model of health measures, with all but four counties in the widespread risk category.

By Julia Terbeche News Editor

G

ov. Gavin Newsom confirmed during a press conference Jan. 25 that all regional stay-athome orders have been lifted in the state and that counties have resumed operating under the tier-based system of COVID-19 measures.

Under this transition, the majority of counties in California, including Los Angeles County, will be back in the purple tier under the Blueprint for a Safer Economy that closes many non-essential indoor businesses. The purple tier indicates widespread risk, and many businesses are able to operate with outdoor modifications.

“While we are proud of the framework we put out, the CDC put out, and others, but we recognize it has advantages and it has disadvantages as it relates to speed and efficiency,” Newsom said.

Dr. Mark Ghaly, California’s secretary of Health and Human Services, said health officials will focus on COVID-19 case rates rather than regions’ intensive care unit capacity projections. He, along with the governor, maintained that state coronavirus information will be made public moving forward.

“Sharing that very publicly, sharing the lessons learned, I think is key to continuing to develop the confidence of our state, our public, in receiving the vaccine and getting us on

the other side of this pandemic,” Ghaly said. “Using actual transmission rates, actual test positivity to evaluate how a county can move forward with the relative reopening plan that’s stipulated in the blueprint.”

Since Long Beach has its own health department, the city may have its own measures in place, though it is likely they will be in line with county guidelines.

During an Instagram livestream Wednesday, Newsom praised Long Beach Mayor Robert Garcia for the speed and efficacy of the city’s vaccine rollout process.

Newsom congratulated Garcia for leading the state in handling the virus, particularly with vaccination, and asked him why he feels Long Beach is “outperforming” other regions in California.

Garcia maintained that he took the governor’s advice of “getting the vaccines out fast and getting them in arms quickly” when distributing the coronavirus vaccine in Long Beach.

Arguing that Long Beach has “one of the best vaccine rollouts anywhere in the state of California,” Garcia said he knew it was important to prioritize residents aged 65 and older, food workers and teachers to work toward reopening the community.

“It’s a direct communication with the schools and also working with the public, letting them know that getting our school campuses open is good for everyone and for our economy,” Garcia said. “So it’s been a critical piece of what we’re doing.”

Newsom said that Garcia appears to have a “mindset of abundance” for vaccinating as many residents of Long Beach rather than the “increasingly growing mindset of scarcity and concern” held by leaders in other cities and counties.

“Supply is federal and then that distribution map, obviously, comes from the state,” Newsom said.

This, he said, raises some concerns about whether Garcia should “slow down a little bit” so as not run out of vaccines.

“We can’t be holding onto supply for weeks on end, and that’s happened in some parts of the state and country,” Garcia said. “If we get through all of our vaccines in a day or two, that means that we’ve done a good job vaccinating those folks and we’re not just sitting and sitting on supply.

I think it’s a good problem to have.”

He explained the city’s vaccination program called VaxLB, which allows residents to make appointments and

receive notifications regarding availability. Los Angeles is among one of the few California cities testing out a different vaccination program called My Turn as part of the state’s Department of Public Health.

Newsom said California is ranked 26th in the nation in positivity rates, according to Johns Hopkins University data, and maintained that the state is on a steady decline regarding positive cases. He intends to move toward an age-based eligibility vaccination process that prioritizes speed and Californians aged 65 and older.

Daily vaccinations tripled in the state over the last few weeks, Newsom said, and he is looking to distribute one million more vaccines in the next 10 days.

“Getting to herd immunity, getting vaccines to everybody that wants them administered and getting to a point where we can go back to some semblance of the new normal with all the resiliency, that now resides within each and every one of us,” Newsom said.

As of Jan. 26, almost the entire state is under the purple tier, with the exception of Trinity County in Northern California, Mariposa County in the San Joaquin Valley region and Alpine County in the greater Sacramento region, which are all in the red tier, or substantial risk. Sierra County in the greater Sacramento region is the only county in the orange tier, which indicates moderate risk.

As coronavirus cases continue to rise, several variants across the world are spreading as well. According to the Centers for Disease Control, the three quickest spreading variants are the B.1.1.7 from the U.K., the 1.351 strain from South Africa and the P.1 strain from Brazil.

California currently has 92 cases caused by variants, as of Jan. 28, according to CDC data.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and chief medical advisor to the president, said Tuesday that he encourages the public to wear two masks as “double-masking” as a preventative measure against these new variants.

“This is a physical covering to prevent droplets and virus to get in. So if you have a physical covering with one layer, you put another layer on, it just makes common sense that it likely would be more effective,” Fauci said.

Long Beach residents looking to get the vaccine can do so at several locations in the county and can find out when they become eligible via the city’s plan.

4 NEWS

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 1, 2021 | DAILY49ER.COM | @DAILY49ER | NEWS@DAILY49ER.COM

During a virtual meeting, students called on the Board of Trustees to prioritize mental health care and reallocate funds from university police.

Students urge CSU to reinvest Defunding the police and expanding mental health services are among the demands students made of the Board of Trustees.

By Fernandro Haro News Assistant

D

ozens of outraged students called for the California State University Board of Trustees to reallocate funds, including defunding university police and investing in more counseling and mental health services, during a meeting Tuesday.

During public comment, several concerns were raised by speakers who questioned the need for a multi-million-dollar police budget when campuses have been predominantly empty all year due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Nia Hall, a student at San Francisco State University and a member of Students for Quality Education, said that students across the state continue to struggle “physically, emotionally and financially while university police department officers continue to have salaries above that of fulltime faculty and entire student resource centers.”

Hall said that officers on her campus do not serve the role of protecting the student body as they don’t prevent crime despite

being militarized to an “absurd degree.”

In fact, according to the 2020 Annual Security Report by SFSU, on-campus crimes including stalking, fondling, domestic violence and rape all increased between 2017 and 2019.

“Officers, especially at San Francisco State, have become glorified meter maids,” Hall said.

“We demand that the egregious amount of money being given to UPD be redistributed in the form of fee reimbursements, loan forgiveness, [to] resource centers and mental health counseling for students and underrepresented groups.”

Issues, including student mental health, housing, financial distress and accessibility to educational resources, have been overlooked by the trustees and the CSU system as a whole while police departments continue to be prioritized, Hall said.

“As the backbone of this entire system, students deserve the right to a higher education, free of systemic injustices that inhibit their learning and diminish their chance at a brighter future,” Hall said.

However, according to an email by Hazel Kelly, public affairs manager for the CSU, campus police are critical to maintaining a safe campus environment by

enforcing federal and state laws, CSU regulations and establishing crime deterrence and prevention programs.

And it is up to each campus to determine its university police department’s budget, she said.

“The state of California doesn’t provide specific funding for university police department operations,” Kelly said. “Nor does the CSU request specific funding in the state budget for university police.”

During the meeting, speakers also felt there was a lack of priority among the trustees, who were criticized throughout public comment for the layoffs of hundreds of professors across the 23 CSU campuses over the last year while Chancellor Joseph I. Castro, who was elected back in September 2020, received a starting salary of $625,000, a 30.7% increase from his predecessor Timothy P. White.

Along with his salary, Castro also receives a $1,000 monthly auto allowance and a $7,917 monthly housing allowance.

Tanya Acosta, a student at California State University, Fresno and member of Students for Quality Education, called on Castro to reject his raise in order to help save jobs and student retention programs.

“Chancellor Castro took over a high leadership role during a time

[of] financial crisis, food insecurity and housing, and mass evictions,” Acosta said. “How is this increase justified in the middle of a pandemic where students are literally going hungry and struggling to keep a roof over their heads.”

As for faculty and staff, the CSU is still threatening furloughs and pay cuts for the 2021-22 academic year, Acosta said.

Rich McGee, a council chair for the California State University Employees Union, asked the trustees how they could justify the layoff of hundreds of permanent staff employees across the CSU while citing a lack of funds as the reason when California Gov. Gavin Newsom recently announced a surplus budget.

“Imagine facing unemployment during this COVID-19 pandemic,” McGee said. “Those people would be happy to tell you what the sudden unemployment feels like, but they can’t tell you because they’re out looking for a job to feed their families.”

Maryana Khames, a student trustee since 2019, took time to thank the students and audience members who spoke during public comment and said having these conversations help the trustees understand the urgent need for mental health counseling and support services, especially

during a pandemic.

In a unanimous vote, the trustees approved the 2021 Legislative Proposal, which will create the College Mental Health Services Program, intended to provide additional funding to mental health services within community colleges, the University of California and the CSU system.

The trustees also approved the CSU System Priorities for 2021 and 2022, listing their three priorities as restoring the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrival protections immediately to support Dreamers, securing the COVID-19 relief package from the federal government and increasing the maximum Pell Grant while restoring the annual cost-of-living increases to the program.

The CSU System Priorities will also aim to continue working with the K-12 system to ensure college readiness for students, invest in work-study programs, educate students for tomorrow’s workforce and address key societal issues through expansive research.

The CSU Board of Trustees will reconvene Wednesday, Jan. 27 at 9 a.m. for a Committee of the Whole and Plenary Session.

NEWS 5

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 1, 2021 | DAILY49ER.COM | @DAILY49ER | NEWS@DAILY49ER.COM

Remembering Mamba A year after the tragic death of basketball legend Kobe Bryant and his 13-year-old daughter, communities continue to mourn the loss with murals across Los Angeles County.

Photos by Andrea Ramos

By Madalyn Amato Editor in chief

F

ans of the late Lakers legend continue to pay their respects one year later with art across the Long Beach and Los Angeles area.

On Jan. 26, 2020, Kobe Bryant and his daughter, Gianna, died in a helicopter crash in the hills of Calabasas, California, along with seven others, including the pilot.

Individuals across the world mourned the loss with elaborate memorials and celebrations of their lives. The Staples Center, home of the Los Angeles Lakers, became a beacon for those to pay their respects.

Since the tragedy, artists have taken to blank walls and businesses to immortalize the Bryants.

Vanessa Bryant, wife of the late basketball star, has requested via Instagram that news outlets not use any footage or photographs of the crash scene, but rather, use positive images that are “classy” and “tasteful.”

A year after the sudden death of Kobe and Gianna Bryant, murals such as this one by Danny’s Signs have been created to honor their legacy.

Mural artist “drippyspray” pays tribute to basketball star Kobe Bryant. A part of a growing number of murals seen in the past year to commemorate the legacy Bryant suddenly left behind in January 2020.

Mural artist “Misteralek” contributes to the growing number of murals dedicated to the death of basketball star, Kobe Bryant.

Mural artist Alepsis Hernandez dedicates the wall of Signal Liquor store in memory of Kobe and Gianna Bryant after the helicopter accident that took their lives on Jan. 26, 2020.

6 NEWS

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 1, 2021 | DAILY49ER.C

By Madalyn Amato Editor in chief

Damp Days R

esidents looking forward to enjoying outdoor dining this weekend, following Gov. Gavin Newsom’s announcement Jan. 25,

were met with cold w rain.

Newsom confirmed press conference last Mo all regional stay-at-hom have been lifted in the that counties will be ret a tier-based system of C measures.

Under this transition jority of counties in Calif cluding Los Angeles Co

Clcokwise from above; Grey clouds break over the Long Beach Marina in Naples, ending the day of rain. A forecasted storm hit Southern California Thurs a break from the morning rain Friday, the Walter Pyramid at Long Beach State is still damp. Long Beach residents flock to Second Street as stay-at-home State’s soccer field is wet from the morning rain, marking the beginning of a forecasted storm to hit Southern California over the weekend.

NEWS 7

COM | @DAILY49ER | NEWS@DAILY49ER.COM

winds and

d during a onday that me orders state and turning to COVID-19

n, the mafornia, inounty, will

be back in the purple tier under the Blueprint for a Safer Economy that closes many non-essential indoor businesses. The purple tier indicates widespread risk, and many businesses are able to operate with outdoor modifications. “While we are proud of the framework we put out, the CDC put out, and others, but we recognize it has advantages and it has disadvantages as it relates to

speed and efficiency,� Newsom said.

This meant that Long Beach restaurants that have been unable to have outdoor dining since last year were finally able to open their patios, though the weather was not conducive to the activity.

Despite the wind chill and damp conditions, residents flocked to enjoy their favorite food, outdoors.

ANDREA RAMOS | Daily Forty-Niner

sday night and is supposed to continue through the weekend. After e restrictions are lifted and outside dining resumes. Long Beach

8 ARTS & LIFE

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 1, 2021 | DAILY49ER.COM | @DAILY49ER | ARTS@DAILY49ER.COM

Setting the scene for senior films Four graduates share their fall 2020 senior animation projects, a labor-intensive experience resulting in creative and personal films.

By Paris Barraza “Booked” by Stephania State Stephania State is the creator of “Booked,” an animated short film about a bookstore owner who comes to terms with closing his shop and moving to a retirement home.

State said she has always had an interest in Middle America, especially small businesses and the lifestyle that seemed so different from the fast pace of San Francisco, the city she grew up in. That, combined with her admiration for bookstores, drew her to creating a piece revolved around one set in a small town.

The story, State realized, began to hold even more meaning in light of the coronavirus pandemic and the subsequent challenges small businesses across the nation faced.

“Booked” was always meant to be a bit-

tersweet story, according to State.

“I knew I just wanted to say something about changing life and nostalgia and appreciating that you have to move on and find different paths in life,” State said.

One character inside the retirement home, State said, was an “ode” to her grandma, who passed away in May 2020.

The idea for the story began with a note in her sketchbook in January 2019 about bookstores. By Dec. 3, 2020, the piece was finished, a feat that State was not certain was achievable with the transition to virtual learning.

Then, students were given access to drawing tablets and illustration and animation programs by the department. It was because of that access to equipment

that “Booked” was completed in time, something that State was proud of and felt happy to have had the opportunity to do despite the unusual semester.

State, who wants to tell stories that feel relatable or realistic, said that she wants to create work that has meaning as opposed to entertainment that is used to pass the time.

“I want to create things that are like good for the soul and for the mind,” State said. “And you have to have entertainment that has both of those things. It can be exciting and interesting... but if you take the time to sit down and just have a little patience and see what goes behind the art, like the message, I think it’s good for people to have that.”

“For Ma” by Kale Huang “For Ma” by Kale Huang tells the story of a mother and son who immigrated from Indonesia to the United States who try to hold onto their culture while the threat of deportation and questions of Americanization surround them.

Huang, who is a first-generation Indonesian American, said his parents came to the U.S. in the ‘90s. The topic of citizenship and what should happen to those who don’t have it, heightened during the Trump administration, was something Huang wanted to discuss.

“It’s always been a sore subject for us, especially since we have a lot of family members and people that we know in our community who kind of struggle on that line of being documented, and I think it was very important for me as an artist, to try and bring that platform back up again, especially considering the political state of our country,” Huang said.

It was also important, according to Huang, to show representation of the

Asian American community that is less reflected in the media, like people from Southeast and South Asia.

Part of that representation came with the need to show what it is like to be an immigrant in the U.S., which Huang said can come with feeling ostracized from society while trying to hold on to your culture.

In order to tell those themes, Huang animated a scene where the young boy opens his lunchbox in front of his classmates and is teased about the smells and appearance of his food, which looks much different than the pizza and hamburgers the other students are eating.

According to Huang, having the main character be a child was important to her and reflected her own experience.

“I think it was a good indicator for me to try to represent how we grew up, how immigrants in general grow up in this society and kind of try and understand our place in it,” Haung said. “How do we fit into these very strict lines of what’s Amer-

ican, what’s not American and then also how do we still stay within those lines of what you’re comfortable in our own culture.”

“For Ma” took about a year and Huang said that her team of eight was pivotal to the film, including sound designer Bryan Curiel, music composer Marisa Ramey and background artists Melina Rudianto and Kaila Chen.

Huang said that she hopes people who watch “For Ma,” especially children of immigrants, consider the sacrifices their parents made and the experiences they went through as well.

“Just try to understand your parents, I think, is the most important thing,” Huang said. “You might try and shy away from your culture and not be proud of it, but just try to understand the type of position [parents] put themselves in to try and help you. And then also be proud of who you are.”

“Area 50 1/2” by Kenneth Cheung Kenneth Cheung is the creator of “Area 50 ½,” an animated short film about an unpaid intern who saves the day when his boss accidentally lets out a seemingly dangerous paranormal entity.

Cheung voiced all the characters in his piece, choosing to do dialogue in his film which can be an ambitious decision, especially if animators have never done it before. But Cheung has, and chose to create an action-comedy piece reminiscent of early 2000s cartoons.

“I wanted to make mine similar to a Saturday morning cartoon,” Cheung said.

“That’s the reason why I wanted to add di-

alogue.”

The dialogue, paired with Cheung’s art style that he said is a combination of shows like “Dexter’s Laboratory,” “Danny Phantom” and “Samurai Jack,” made for a three-minute piece that ends on one final joke. Despite all of the unpaid intern’s hard work and success in the film, he still remains an unpaid intern.

Cheung said he has been drawing since he was 5 years old, but realized his desire to be part of creating a story when he was watching shows like “Codename: Kid’s Next Door” on Cartoon Network, which aired until 2008.

“We Are Gods” by Genesis Lugo “We Are Gods” by Genesis Lugo is an animated short film about three friends who discover they have the ability to manifest whatever they want.

The film, which started with illustrations of three girls, was inspired by Lugo’s own friendships who she said have always been a source of support and comfort to her.

Lines of dialogue in the film, including a joke Lugo’s friend says about how men should get periods, made it into “We Are Gods.”

Soon, Lugo’s friends figured out her

source of inspiration as she shared how her piece was coming along.

Lugo worked on the film for eight months, and by the final month, Lugo spent eight hours a day on it.

She was assisted by a crew of 10 students who helped her clean up the animation and said that she was proud of them, the opportunity to work and meet more people and “We Are Gods.”

“When I posted the film, I got lots of messages from people [saying], ‘Oh, it made me cry, that felt too personal,’” Lugo

said.

Lugo said that she wants to become a storyboard artist and explained her statement on her website, where she said that she wants to tell stories of people whose voices haven’t been heard.

“I feel like [the] media is obviously very influenced by the old style, like white men, and I myself come from a Latinx community and the people around me are so diverse… I just think [the] media doesn’t show how diverse the world is,” Lugo said.

Now, Cheung wants to be a storyboard artist and eventually become a director to pitch his own original animated shows to streaming services. It’ll be an opportunity to learn everything that goes into telling a story, like sound design and voice acting.

At the heart of Cheung’s stories, which include themes of growing up and being responsible he said, is entertainment.

“I don’t like to include heavy topics and stuff but it can be in there,” Cheung said.

“But the first thing that I want everyone that watches my stuff to feel is I want them to have a good time and basically forget about everything and just have fun.”

10 ARTS & LIFE

MONDAY FEBRUARY 1, 2021 | DAILY49ER.COM | @DAILY49ER | ARTS@DAILY49ER.COM

Screenshot courtesy of Ashley Steeves

A screenshot of Netflix’s “We Watched It All” short that premiered on Dec. 18, 2020. The tentacles were created by Ashley Steeves and the ocean waves were constructed by her husband, Ross Steeves.

From painter to prop maker Alumna Ashley Steeves, owner of a custom prop and art rental business, lands a Netflix promotion.

By Paris Barraza Arts & Life Editor

A

rtist and Long Beach State alumna Ashley Steeves opened up Artsy Props in 2020, a custom prop and art rental business that has since commissioned work for commercials including Pure Leaf, Geico and Netflix’s recent “We Watched It All” video.

It’s not everyday that an artist receives a request to create four large, realistic, flexible tentacles.

But for Steeves and her newly founded business, Artsy Props, unusual requests are the bread and butter for prop makers.

Steeves brought Artsy Props to fruition in 2020, the coronavirus pandemic offering her the time she needed to make the long-awaited idea into reality.

With Artsy Props, Steeves has designed and built a variety of art pieces for commercials, like a paper mache planet Earth actress Lily Collins used to peek her head through in the same Netflix promotion that featured the tentacles.

She built miniature sets, featured in a Pure Leaf commercial directed by Rashida Jones and starring Amy Poehler. Occasionally, her husband Ross gets involved, using his woodworking skills to fashion out shapes and designs as needed.

And as we spoke, Steeves was creating a cow leg that can hold a credit card.

As a child, Steeves’ interest in art was nurtured by her father, who was a talented artist himself, capable of detailed sketches to large art installations he would create for Burning Man festivals in Nevada.

“He was always working on them with groups of people in the backyard and so seeing all of that, definitely not your everyday sort of art, all different variations of what art is, for sure impacted me as a kid,” Steeves said.

When Steeves graduated from CSULB in 2009 with a bachelor’s in life-drawing and painting, owning a business like Artsy Props was unforeseeable.

While Steeves said that there are plenty of pathways to be an artist, for her, creating art and making money off of it was challenging. Steeves did live painting sessions at festivals and nightclubs, and through that community, she met a prop master working for the film industry.

Photo courtesy of Ashley Steeves

Ashley Steeves is a multidisciplinary artist CSULB graduate. She is the owner of Artsy Props, a custom props and art rental business in Los Angeles.

It was then that Steeves began receiving opportunities to create props, custom pieces of work that bring life to ideas that cannot be assembled or purchased in a store or ordered through Amazon.

Like her father’s skillful ability to transition from different mediums of art, so did Steeves, sewing and painting and building her way through props. She worked full time assisting with set decoration, and while she said she enjoyed the job, it was grueling.

But it was because of that experience that Steeves first began to consider owning a prop-making business and saving what pieces of art she could in order to rent out for future jobs.

“A lot of people were really supportive and a lot of people were like, ‘It will be so hard, this town is so expensive and the cost of renting space is so much,’” Steeves said. “I could never figure out how to stop working in order to do this.”

Ross said he was confident in his wife’s ability to take on something like Artsy Props, which seemed more and more like the right fit for her.

“She has the gumption and the concern,” Ross said.

“She’s not one to let something fall in between the cracks and not notice it, she checks all the boxes.”

When the coronavirus pandemic brought the world to a halt, the film industry was affected. So, Steeves took to her garage and began cranking out pieces of art.

As space inside the garage grew smaller and smaller, Steeves knew it was time for a studio, a studio that happens to be about 100 feet from her house.

But the time Steeves makes up for in commuting is put into her work, working on tight deadlines that are normal for the industry.

With one week on the clock, Steeves said she spent about 10 hours a day transforming ideas into workable pieces for the Netflix promotion. It’s a tedious process that requires Steeves, more often than not, to first figure out how to build a prop before she can even get working on it.

“There’s projects that we take on at the house and I will be stumped,” Ross said. “She’s just got a smart head on her shoulders for spatial awareness and how to figure out puzzles. She’s very intelligent.”

That cleverness and ability to problem-solve is key to the success of completing a prop, and key as Steeves takes on more projects that require her to learn new skills, like crocheting or styrofoam sculpting, while balancing her responsibilities to her two young children at home.

As Steeves takes on new jobs, her art featured in previous commercials continues to live on through each viewing.

“Everything that I’ve done in the last year, they kind of get cooler and cooler, especially now as I have the space to do them,” Steeves said. “I would have never been able to do that Netflix job if I hadn’t rented this space because I for sure wouldn’t have had the room, so just having this space has opened up a huge opportunity of what I’m capable of.”

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 1, 2021 | DAILY49ER.COM | @DAILY49ER | OPINION@DAILY49ER.COM

OPINIONS 11

Thank you for engaging in conversation with us

By Kelsey Brown & Jireh Deng Opinions Desk

W

h en I applied for the position of opinions editor for the Daily Forty-Niner summer of 2020 only a week before my first semester at Long Beach State started, I had no idea what to expect. All I knew is that I wanted to be a part of the editorial staff for the school’s paper, similarly to my position at my community college’s paper.

In the first week I learned of the controversial past of the paper. There were complaints of the paper not being diverse and not adequately covering issues affecting people of color. I was disoriented stepping into a position of power at a newspaper that was still undergoing scrutiny.

All I knew is that my job, alongside my assistant, who has been an invaluable asset throughout my career at CSULB, was to cultivate an environment in the opinions section for all voices to be heard.

Both my assistant editor, Jireh Deng, and I were brand new to the Daily Forty-Niner at the start of the fall semester.

Jireh, being connected and courageous as always, was able to voice many of the issues of the community to our paper’s editorial staff. She has had no problem calling people out, holding people accountable, and demanding more from our staff. Our editor-in-chief Madalyn Amato was more than receptive to our concerns of our paper not being inclusive or educated on issues affecting people of color enough, and in turn she responded by creating weekly readings for our editorial staff to engage and converse about.

I was hesitant after the first week I joined the publication due to the issues that had surfaced. But I also knew that having two people of color running the opinions section was an opportunity to expand our section to serve the community in a more meaningful way than had been done before. And we have.

I am immensely proud of the opinion section—the past semester we have allowed stories from all different types of people to be shared through our newspaper. We’ve had stories about Beirut, diversity in STEM, stories about coming out, about hate speech on Tik Tok and about discrimination in higher education.

We’ve worked hard to allow the opinion section to be a platform for all members of the community to be heard.

Recently, the paper has come under heat because of a letter submitted to our editor-in-chief in support of Trump. The article was full of opinions, many of those not backed by any facts, and because of that, I’m disappointed in it running. To claim that the Black Lives Matter movement was

SERGEY ZOLKIN | Unsplash a violent movement when the majority of the protests were peaceful, and to claim that BLM hates America were baseless claims that should’ve been corrected.

Due to a miscommunication, I was unaware of the article posting and had no part in the editing process. I do want to reassure people that Jireh and I normally have a thorough process of fact checking and asking our writer’s to source their information. I am wholeheartedly sorry that the letter went online before we were able to correct the errors in it. But I think it is important to address while we are getting so many angry messages, that the entire point of our student-run publication is to be an independent, unbiased outlet for students and community members.

Discussions reframing the idea of neutrality are happening all over the country in many newsrooms, including ours. We cannot escape the history of journalism in our country that has defined neutrality or bias centered around a heteronormative, cisgendered, male and white gaze.

However, if we had chosen not to run the pro-Trump letter, we are taking a

side. It is not our duty as journalists to discriminate between what deserves press and what does not. It is our duty to serve the community, share perspectives and attempt neutrality. I understand that this is upsetting for many people. But one of the greatest parts of America is our right to free speech, and limiting anyone’s ability to free speech is detrimental to the foundation of our country.

The speech in the letter is hurtful to many in our community who have experienced harm under four years of a tumultuous presidency. We acknowledge that hurt, yet we caution ourselves from taking on the role of a censor against unpopular views in the student body. We face a unique struggle as student journalists of being full time students while covering your 24-hour newscycle. There are critics who attack the media for being too left or too right, and at the end of the day we are still learning and in a process of growth here at the paper.

There have been times in my editing career when I come across a story whose content makes me cringe and that I funda-

mentally disagree with. But it is not my job to police the perspectives of students, but rather to edit and share them.

I kindly remind everyone to remember the importance of freedom of speech, even when the speech offends you. By posting any article we are not siding with or condemning anyone. We are simply an outlet for student’s voices to be heard. If you are unsatisfied with one’s opinion, we’d love to share yours in our section as well. As mentioned earlier, this is a platform for all student voices to be heard.

As this spring semester continues, I hope that if you feel strongly about any matter that you share your opinion to allow your perspective to be heard as well.

Jireh and I will continue to work tirelessly to expand and evolve the opinions section to being a more inclusive and reflective embodiment of Long Beach’s students.

Thank you for your continued support.

To submit your opinions to the Daily Forty-Niner, email the opinions desk at opinions@daily49er.com.

12 OPINIONS

MONDAY FEBRUARY 1, 2021 | DAILY49ER.COM | @DAILY49ER | OPINION@DAILY49ER.COM

Letter to the editor: Dear President Trump, thank you for showing me what true bigotry looks like

By Bella Arnold Staff Writer

D

ear President Trump, I would like to thank you for showing me what true bigotry looks like. As much as I hate to admit it, you set out to do what you had craved for so long: you changed the world. You weren’t just a president, you were a figurehead.

For so long, the cracks have been forming in our society, cracks formed in the foundation of our country. Little glimmers of progression attempted to repair the cracks. But it wasn’t enough.

To be honest, you weren’t the issue, but you perpetuated something our country and citizenry had been gearing towards for years, decades even. The shatter.

Racism, sexism and classism have plagued our country since its inception. We kid ourselves by thinking we, collectively, have progressed past our ugly history.

Small steps like our first Black president, marriage equality and even nominating a woman as the Democratic candidate in 2016. But, when you enraptured the hearts of millions, with your wispy locks and bitter tongue, it became clear that our newfound equality was just a pipe dream.

You weren’t just a president, and the political divide you brought to light wasn’t just a matter of difference in policies or a matter of morality. You continuously attacked people of color, calling Black people thugs.

And yet, you enabled literal white supremacists. You were given a golden opportunity to condemn white supremacy, something I’d call the bare minimum. But you decided to take the opposite approach, telling the Proud Boys to “stand back and stand by.”

The difference of blue and red isn’t founded in anything other than a lack of empathy anymore.

There is no amount of money, tax breaks or charismatic rhetoric that could even make me consider cosigning the bigotry that you sponsor.

I was 15 when you were elected, and I was even younger when unflattering videos of you talking derogatorily about women surfaced.

You stand for everything I’m against. In the same way that darkness is the absence of light, you are the absence of morality and sense. Forget the fact that you are simply unfit for the job, unable to pronounce even the simplest of U.S. landmarks. I’m

embarrassed to say my country once elected Donald Trump to be president. In 2016, we allowed a misogynistic, racist xenophobe with an unhealthy affinity for Twitter to be given access to the nuclear codes.

He will be a hideous, orange stain in our history books.

Because the truth of the matter is, this chapter is not closed.

I’d love to make jokes about his crusty toupees and inability to pronounce the simplest of words, but we’re not there yet.

I wish we could stop talking about Trump. Nothing sounds more euphoric to me than an absence of everything Trumpian for the rest of time, but that’s not our reality. The truth is, 74 million Americans supported him.

After he continuously demeaned women, put policies in place to further marginalize people of color, enabled white supremacists and ignored a virus that has changed our world, 74 million still supported him.

When Trump separated families and threw children in

cages, 74 million people looked the other way. After women were sterilized, without their consent, 74 million people praised no nonsense policies. Black people begged for their lives to matter and Trump called them thugs.

74 million people cosigned that hateful rhetoric and ignored it on their way to the ballot box.

This isn’t about policy. At this point, it’s not even about truth.

Trump has warped what the truth is and made fact and morality a political issue. It’s not, it never has been and it never should be.

Morality and ethicality should not be questioned. People of color asking for equality is not a political issue.

A president grabbing women by the pussy is not a fault of character, it is representative of his character as a whole. We should be embarrassed and ashamed.

Ignoring the last four years and reveling in what’s to come is ignorant and painfully on brand for America. The letters thanking Trump for his valiant effort to make America great again are not

going to stop being written. Red hats are not going to go out of fashion, and flags aren’t going to be thrown away. An inauguration doesn’t make hate end. Members of Congress continue to pedal the unfounded theory that this election was stolen. Neighbors continue to fly their Trump flags.

Classmates continue to write letters to the editor, thanking a literal fascist for being a symbol of unity.

It’s not enough to vote blue.

It’s not enough to post Black squares to your Instagram feed.

It’s not even enough to denounce Trump and those like him. We have to actively ensure that this never happens again. For those who deny the hell-scape that the 2016 election caused, clutching onto the hope that this isn’t our country—it’s time to let go.

Trump wasn’t a mistake, he was our fate. Ignoring issues like systemic racism, gender inequality and classism landed us in this COVID-19-infested, divided nightmare. A blue Congress or progressive executive branch

isn’t going to get us out. We need to push for progression in every aspect, call out problematic behavior. This total disregard for the truth and ethicality has become standard over the last four years, but it is not normal. I don’t care if you voted for Biden, if you continue to sweep these issues under the rug, you’re part of the problem.

As those before me have and I’m sure many after me will, I want to conclude my open letter to you. I am not going to wish you misfortune, as you’ve done to us so many times. Instead, I wish you luck.

I hope you come to your senses and realize what you’ve done to this country you claim to love so much. Nothing could repair the damage you’ve done and no sorry could be adequate enough to reconcile the agony that you’ve inflicted on your citizenry.

But, I hope you get at least one thing out of this. It’s pronounced Yo-SEH-MITT-EE, not Yo-SEM-IGHT.

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 1, 2021 | DAILY49ER.COM | @DAILY49ER | OPINION@DAILY49ER.COM

O

By Ryan Mardon Staff Writer

n Nov. 7 after Pennsylvania pushed Joseph R. Biden to a 270 electoral vote, the president-elect stressed in his victory speech that this was now more than ever a time for unity and healing. This same message was repeated throughout inauguration day, as Biden was sworn in as the 46th President of the United States on Jan. 20, surrounded by 25,000 National Guard troops and a temporary wall with razor wire adorning the top.

In his speech Biden emphasized that “unity is the path forward” and that “we must meet this moment as the United States of America,” again reiterating the theme of unity.

The question that remains is where were these calls for unity from President Biden, politicians and other public figures the past four years?

There is no question that today’s society is very divided, with politics finding its way to the workplace, social media, the dinner table and seemingly every aspect of life. Politics is damaging friendships, relationships, families and ultimately turning us against one another. We cannot even agree on common issues anymore without digging our heels in and pointing the finger at the other side.

There isn’t one person to blame for this, all sides are responsible, but it seems as though blatant hypocrisy has pushed us to be more divided than ever.

In his 2017 inaugural speech, President Donald J. Trump declared, “We must speak our minds openly, debate our disagreements honestly, but always pursue solidarity. When America is united, America is totally unstoppable.” But did this ever come to fruition? The short answer is no.

The past four years have been nothing but each side demonizing each other for their political views; however, the difference lies in how each side reacted, specifically with how Democrats reacted to Republicans.

After living under a Democratic White House with President Obama for eight years, the balance of power shifted back to a Republican president, which was something the political left just could not take, even though Republicans had survived. From the start, on Trump’s inauguration day there were violent protests in Washington, D.C. that brought destruction to the city.

While most demonstrations were peaceful, there did not seem to be any widespread efforts by Democratic lawmakers to disavow and denounce the violence.

This is not to say that there is no violence on the other side due to the outcome of democracy, as seen with the violent and deadly unrest that occurred at the Capitol on Jan. 6, as pro-Trump

OPINIONS 13

Biden’s America: A false sense of unity How will we unify over the next four years if we are still divided in the past and present?

TIM MOSSHOLDER | Unsplash

protesters attacked Capitol police and forced their way into the Capitol building in protest of the certification of President Biden’s victory.

This same sentiment is seen during the instances of rioting and looting amongst the peaceful demonstrations throughout the summer of 2020, in response to the horrible and unjustified killing of George Floyd at the hands of police officers, where a large portion of Democratic lawmakers still neglected to condemn violence and destruction.

Instead, they complained when President Trump sent in federal agents to areas such as Portland, Chicago and Albuquerque to stop the violence, with some even stating that violence from groups like ANTIFA was a myth, as claimed by Rep. Jerry Nadler. While some prominent Democrats, like President Biden, House Majority Whip James Clyburn and Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot did in fact condemn destruction and illegal acts during the riots, separating those from the majority of large and peaceful demonstrations seen across the country, a large majority remained silent, especially left-leaning media outlets like CNN, which aired the headline “fiery but mostly peaceful protests” during the Kenosha riots, following the police shooting of Jacob Blake.

These remarks came in stark contrast to their reactions to the pro-Trump riot at the United States Capitol on Jan. 6, the day the certification of the electoral

votes was supposed to take place.

I am not trying to argue against or for the messages promoted and the reasons for the protests, as everyone deserves to have their voices heard, nor am I trying to prove which riot was more justified or more atrocious, as violence and destruction are never justified and a large portion of both protests were peaceful to begin with. Instead, I look to the clear distinctions in reaction to the protests. I argue that there was a very different tone among Democrats and left-leaning media outlets during the Capitol riot, labeling the rioters as “armed insurrectionists” and not drawing a distinction between the large group of peaceful protesters who did not take part in storming the Capitol and the violent agitators, as they had during the previous riots. This parallels the same efforts by right-leaning media outlets, like FOX News, who focused more on the violent aspects over the summer than the peaceful portions. In short, both sides failed to properly distinguish between violent agitators and peaceful protesters, instead lumping them all together into one category. The one distinction is that nearly every lawmaker, Republican or Democrat, including Presidents Trump and Biden condemned the riot at the Capitol; however, during the summer riots it was mainly only Republicans condemning the violent acts, with only a few Democrats as mentioned, even when buildings in Washington, D.C., like historic St. John’s Church were set on

fire and vandalized. If Democrats truly want to unify this country, they need to not only condemn violence and rioting from Republicans but also from their own side.

It is not just the hypocrisy on violence that has divided us.

These past four years saw the creation of a toxic culture, where people were shunned for supporting one candidate over the other, and were labeled socialists and communists, or Nazis and white supremacists, all depending on which party they belonged to or who they voted for, without anyone even knowing the individual’s true character. The problem with this new push for unity is that it is disingenuous.

Democrats have lambasted not only the President and his administration, but his supporters, all Republicans, including those who might have not even voted for him, and especially anyone that wasn’t supporting the Biden-Harris ticket during the 2020 election cycle. Even Rep. Maxine Waters urged her supporters to confront Trump officials and tell them that they are not welcome in public places.

Now suddenly, after calling Republicans deplorables and white supremacists for the past four years, and accusing those on the political right of supporting racism and not seeing it as a deciding factor for their vote, Democrats want to “heal” and “unify” together with Republicans, solely because they got their way and their candidates, President Biden and Vice President Kamala

Harris, won the election. If the election went the other way, I seriously question whether these same Democrats would be calling for unity and healing.

The foundation of this “unity” message is already beginning to crack and the division is already driving deeper. Hillary Clinton is still claiming President Trump was an illegitimate president who needs to have his phone records checked to see if he communicated with President Putin the day of the riots while Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is advocating for a system of keeping records on those who supported Trump to hold them accountable in the future, or essentially state surveillance, which isn’t something anybody on the political right or left wants. Additionally, “Today” show host Katie Couric has pushed for a system to “deprogram” Trump supporters and Public Broadcasting Service contract attorney Michael Beller stated that GOP voters’ kids need to be sent to reeducation camps, even going as for to state that, “even if Biden wins, we go for all the Republican voters, and Homeland Security will take their children away.” Perhaps most polarizing is Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi’s successful effort to impeach Trump for a second time and force a Senate impeachment trial for a man who is out of office and now a private citizen, when the country needs to move forward for the good of everyone. We should be focusing on battling the COVID-19 pandemic, yet Pelosi and her colleagues still pushed for a second impeachment.

Ultimately, I do think unity is possible, but it’s going to take a lot more than just saying that we need to heal and come together. We need to realize that not everything has to be right and left, and not everything has to be absolute. We need to start treating our fellow citizens with respect again and stop making everything so political. We are all Americans under one nation.

True unity comes when Americans stop trying to grab for power when their party is in office and create a toxic culture and divisive environment when they are not.

If this political climate continues, we will never be unified as a country again. While President Biden may not be my cup of Joe for a lot of issues, there are still areas where I agree with him in terms of addressing climate concerns and raising taxes on large corporations. I still hope for his success as commander in chief and for the divisions to heal in this wounded nation. Let’s start focusing on what we have in common as Americans, rather than what separates us. We all want to live healthy and prosperous lives, achieve our dreams and leave the country a better place for future generations, so why not start talking to one another again and engaging in dialogue, rather than just judging individuals off of their political ideologies and shutting them out of our lives?

Unity is definitely achievable, but it’s going to take a collective effort from everyone in the nation to change their ways and start respecting one another again. As President Bill Clinton once said, “We all do better when we work together. Our differences do matter, but our common humanity matters more.” Hopefully we can all start living up to this message.

14 OPINIONS

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 1, 2021 | DAILY49ER.COM | @DAILY49ER | OPINIONS@DAILY49ER.

By Iman Palm News Assistant

Letter to the editor: A response to ‘Thank you, Mr. President’

T

he most recent letter to the editor was met with backlash from the Long Beach State community.

In this letter, a CSULB student expressed his admiration for former President Donald J. Trump.

However, while showing his support for the former president, this student also supported some of the former president’s baseless claims, attacked a social justice movement and clearly didn’t understand that the attack on the Capital on Jan. 6 was fueled by the president he supports so much.

In light of that, I wanted to respond to that letter and explain why former President Trump doesn’t deserve to be thanked for the terrible job he did as commander in chief.

Trump recently attacked the democracy our country was founded on and played an essential role in inciting violence in the capital. For weeks he said the 2020 election was “rigged” and “stolen from him.” Not only that, but on Jan. 6 Congress was at Capitol Hill to certify President Joseph R. Biden’s win, Trump held a rally in Washington and told his supporters to go walk to the Capital grounds.

“You have to show them your strength” is what Trump told the crowd. With that in mind, you can’t convince me that Trump did not send his supporters to Capitol Hill to stop the certification of the electoral college votes. There is no way to justify that wasn’t Trump’s intention.

In the letter, this student also praised Trump for confirming Justice Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court. In reality, Trump didn’t confirm anybody to the Supreme Court, he just nominated her so let’s not give the former president praises for something

he didn’t do. He does enough of that on his own.

The statement in the previous letter to the editor stating that the Black Lives Matter protesters hate this country and showed it by destroying property is absurd and downright hurtful. Those that went out to protest police brutality were not the same people that started looting and rioting, they were people that took advantage of the situation and used it for their own personal gain. There are videos from protesters that clarify this false narrative. These videos make it evident that those who decided to destroy property were not a part of the peaceful protests that happened over the summer.

To say that supporters and allies of the BLM movement “hate this country” was way more than a step too far. As a Black woman, I was utterly disgusted reading that.

How dare you say I hate this country just because I think it’s wrong for police officers to kill unarmed Black people. I’m a law-bidding citizen, I work, I have a full-time job while maintaining a full-time course load.

I’m like every other college student right now. I don’t understand how the actions of a few that didn’t associate with BLM dictate how I feel about this country. Our ancestors built this country and there are many Black people that serve in the military to protect this country.

Black people don’t hate America, but we do demand that the United States acknowledge and fix the wrongdoings they have committed towards the Black community.

In conclusion, the student that wrote the love letter to Trump may want to do some more research and really get to know the person who they admire so much. If you need help let me clarify things for you—he’s is an alleged rapist, sexist, a white supremacist supporter and was a terrible commander in chief.

Personally, I’m glad he’s out of the White House.

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