Students take stock in their futures- Page 3
Obsessing over brand names to fit in- Page 7
A fan’s perspective of sports events- Page 14
HIGHLANDER
THE
Virtual reality takes tech by storm- Page 17
Carlmont High School — Belmont, California
February 2016 Vol VII Issue V
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Camille Duvalsaint- Senior
“Even though I know that there’s no racism here, of course, everyone who’s black feels it. There are certain people who give you that vibe. They can say, ‘Oh, I’m not racist,’ but you know they are by the way they treat you, the way they talk to you.”
Privilege fades into the background MINH HAN VU
Ogden Asmar- Sophomore
“The main point of today is that, at least in this area, racism doesn’t really look like someone shouting the ‘n’ word at a black person anymore. It’s just very subtle.”
Theo Chatman- Senior
“Sometimes it’s good to step in the shoes of minorities and see how things can be different if there aren’t as many people who look like you. But I think the school does a good job by trying to spread awareness on culture and the privilege that people can have and the privilege people don’t have.”
Sophie Haddad April 1, 1983. Amidst a tribal genocide in South Africa, a woman fled for her safety. Only six months pregnant, she went into early labor and was rushed to a hospital. She gave birth to a boy who, by all laws of science and reason, should not have survived. The next day, the boy’s grandmother came to the hospital, and she immediately understood the boy’s eagerness to escape the womb. The boy was running towards something. And the grandmother knew exactly what that something was. Having spent her whole life in times of war, she hoped for better for her grandson. So she named him Freedom. Today, Freedom Cheteni, or “Mr. Free,” as his students call him, teaches math at Carlmont High School. He has dark, chocolate-colored skin and a round face. His black hair is cut short and his face is cleanshaven. In the United States, Cheteni realized that even the country that champions its “freedom” can still house inequities. He came in contact with many racial stigmas that are a part of American society. There was a social expectation for him to prove himself, whereas white people were respected automatically. He said, “It almost seems like I have to work much harder than a similarly quali-
fied individual because of that privilege.” When Cheteni attended graduate school at New Mexico State University in 2007, he took a test that he thought he did well on. He got it back to find he received a C. Looking at the answers of his classmates, Cheteni realized that they were the same, even though his classmates got higher grades. He asked his professor if there was an error or if she could help him figure out his mistakes. She told him that she didn’t have to, that she went to West Africa to study the dengue virus and when she got blood samples from the residents, she paid them in sugar. She told him that he should be happy he was actually passing. Cheteni said, “People have stereotypes. If you’re not white, more often than not, you are not given the benefit of the doubt. But even in that situation of not being given the benefit of the doubt, even if you’ve done everything correctly, you are also not given a fair shake on whatever it is, it could be the work that you’ve done. Somebody could just look at it and just say, ‘Okay, that’s a black person so they’re not getting this treatment or this opportunity or this grade.’” Cheteni contended that the situation is not always so lucid to white people. “I don’t think [white people] notice it as much, because it’s always been there. It’s not something to work on. It’s not some-
thing to achieve. You’ve always had it. And so noticing something that’s always been there is like a fish trying to notice water,” he said. Math teacher Andy Ramroth explained that, as a white person, he never thought that he was given a certain treatment because of his race. He said, “I know that I’ve never had to think about how my race influences an interaction with somebody else. If I had a good interaction with a person, I’ve never thought that it happened because of my race.” Even though the Bay Area boasts a more accepting view of minorities, Cheteni still faced racial prejudices when he moved there. “When I first moved here, I was followed by cops all the way to my house. Sometimes they’ll drive all the way, stop by my driveway, and then drive away,” said Cheteni. After being pulled over so many times, Cheteni wondered if his car was the problem. He went to a Nissan dealership where he noticed a car he liked. The salesperson reminded Cheteni that the car he was interested in was expensive. The seller asked if Cheteni would rather look at a smaller car or even a used car.
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Revealing Carlmont’s celebrities behind the screens Estella Lippi You pass by a quiet student whose only focus in the world is their smartphone. You’ve never heard them speak much, but behind their screens, they’re wildly popular. They might sing, dance, rant, or create, but in one glance you never would have assumed that they had thousands of followers on social media who looked up to them or even worshiped them. Some of these Internet-famous teens attend Carlmont High School and are just living life day to day without ever mentioning the fact that they have a huge following.
One of these students, junior Elanna Vital, has more than 146,000 followers on her fan account on Instagram (due to inappropriate language, Vital’s username is not being printed). “I make funny edits that are different and weird. My edit’s are short 14 second video of clips of One Direction that I put together. Usually I make fun of them, but I think the reason I have so many followers is because I go past boundaries and try to make comedy out of everything,” Vital said. Vital doesn’t like to advertise her account to her fellow students. “I don’t tell people that I have a big account. I only tell the closest people around me and I generally try and avoid
it. If someone asks, I’m not ashamed of my account and I won’t lie, but I never brag around,” she adds. Another student, freshman Marlon Fu, makes funny skits and short films on YouTube. He posts on his account @trimite. One of his videos, “Paper Warfare: Cheese,” has more than 227,000 views. “It all started winter break, two years ago, when my sister and I were really bored. We made fun little videos for our family to watch and somewhere along the road, I got a school project that involved making a video and I was like, how perfect, we’re already pretty experienced, let’s do it,” Fu said.
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