A double standard in crises, pg. 4
Hall sweeps: Nuisance or necessity? pg. 6
“The Batman”: a welcome revival, pg. 7
Red and Black
Montgomery County Public Schools
Northwood High School
919 University Boulevard W.
Silver Spring, MD 20901
Spring 2022
Life of a Northwood Athlete
A behind-the-scenes glimpse into Gladiator sport customs by Megan Leatherwood and Madison Riggs Sports Editor and News Staff Want to know what it’s like to be a Northwood athlete? Hear what these players have to say about being an athlete. You will find that it is challenging but the outcome is worth the hard work. Here are some Gladiator athletes giving you a glimpse of their lives as they represent Northwood.
Coach Simpson
Northwood athletes in action (NAA).
Race and ethnicity:
What’s the difference? by Jeanne Gnahoua Supervising Editor Race, ethnicity and nationality are concepts used everywhere today. From television to news broadcasts, or even the marketing for what goes on our food. But why is that? In fact, what is race, ethnicity, and nationality? These concepts need clarification. A simple Google search tells you that race is “each of the major groupings into which humankind is considered (in various theories or contexts) to be divided on the basis of physical characteristics or shared ancestry.” This definition still lacks connotations and may leave some more confused than enlightened. Race, at its roots, is really just a way to categorize humans based on varied, deeply flawed, physical and
ancestral traits. While people of certain races sometimes share physical distinctions, we all know that’s not true for every single person. Not every person of a specific race has the features society has assigned to them. But why do these categorizations exist in the first place? The concept of race was developed over hundreds of years. When explicitly done, it was often used as a means for “scientifically” justifying racism and arguing for “superior” races. In short, then, race is based on pseudoscience developed to discriminate against people. But we cannot completely ignore race because race and racism still shape our institutions. After all that, one might wonder where exactly ethnicity falls into the equation. Race and ethnicity are terms that are often conflated in our media, and nationality complicates things further. (cont’d. on page 6)
Fatphobia in pop culture How media sends harmful messages by Bennett Forville Supervising Editor Fatphobia. For being such a prevalent issue, not many people fully understand what it means. Yes, to some degree it is exactly what it sounds like: the fear of someone who is fat. But it has be-
Meet Ms. Simpson. She teaches AP Language, is the Humanities and Arts Academy Chair, and is a coach for Northwood’s Track and Field team. Specifically, she coaches athletes for the shot put events. For those of you who aren’t familiar with the sport, shot put is a part of (continued on page 3) come something with much bigger ramifications than that. It is an issue that has been built by a society that relies on social media. Society has aversions to plussize people, and these are fueled by social media. Take the popular HBO Max show “Euphoria,” for example. If you think of a body-positive character in the show, I bet your mind immediately goes to Barbie Ferreira. Ferreira, who plays Kat, is one of the only plus-size actresses who appears throughout the two seasons of the show. (continued on page 3)
Alexa Demie and Barbie Ferreira in “Euphoria” (Eddy Chen/HBO)