Spartan Daily Vol. 162 No. 14

San José hosts Black Family Day

By Ethan Li STAFF WRITER

Silicon Valley African Film Festival presented by Black Leadership Kitchen Cabinet of Silicon Valley held its annual Black Family Day on Saturday afternoon in Downtown San José.

The event aimed to celebrate Black heritage, health and wellness, according to its website.

The two organizations worked in partnership with the Santa Clara County Public Health Department, according to the same website.

Jahmal Williams, co-chair of the Black

Leadership Kitchen Cabinet, said the organization is a coalition of community members focused on policy advocacy work and community building.

Williams said the focus of his work adapts to the changing times.

“As the Democratic demographics have changed, and as the cost of living has increased, there have been less structures in place to make sure that the Black community here is situated place-based, has a neighborhood, a community that speaks to them and speaks to us in our heritage,” he said. Black Family Day puts

on live performances, food, family and children’s activities, Black-owned vendors, raffles and giveaways according to its website.

Williams said Black Family Day started six years ago to help support and uplift the Black community in San José.

Tomara Hall, San José resident and assistant associate to the senior project manager of the African American Cultural Center, said that the event has changed over the years.

“The people who started this event wanted to bring resources to the Black community and they said, ‘Let’s do it in a fun way and

let’s do it in an engaging way. Let’s just (create) a kind of festival’ and we decided to do this,” Hall said.

She said that during its inception, the event aimed to bring the community together and it evolved into Black Family Day over time.

Hall said Black History Month serves as a reminder that enslaved people founded this country without compensation.

“Black History Month is just a reminder for everyone, not just Black people that the culture, the society and everything that we benefit from came from the work of our ancestors

… enslaved people, mostly of African descent founded this country without being compensated,” Hall said.

Hall said that many developments in technology that are widely adopted originated from Black people. Examples include GPS navigation, computer technologies, feminine products, the ice cream scooper and items as ubiquitous as potato chips, she said.

“Black history is knowing where we came from, knowing how we got here, but also knowing how we can sustain ourselves and build upon all the contributions you’ve already been given,” Hall said.

Melody Hanes represents the Santa Clara County Behavioral Health Services working for the Cultural Communities Wellness Program.

“You don’t have to wait till Black History Month to appreciate what Black people contribute to society,” Hanes said.

Hanes said there is a lot of stigma associated with mental health problems, especially within the Black community. She said part of her work focuses on clearing up the idea in and out of the Black community.

She said this idea dates back to the power imbalance and abuse that the Black community has suffered at the hands of the European colonizers in the history of our country.

“Because of the effects of slavery and racism, (Europeans) didn’t want to

take care of us,” Hanes said. “So we can’t have mental health issues because that means they (would) have to take care of us. So we have to be strong. We have to be able to go above and beyond regardless of the circumstances.”

Hanes said this narrative was established because Black people were seen as less than human and their sufferings were not acknowledged.

The goal of the community wellness program is to connect people to the resources they need, Hanes said. She said her program ensures that Black people are connected to appropriate services, such as education, and provides one-on-one support, workshops and outreach.

Tomara Hall said Santa Clara County provides mental health services like therapy and clinical resources. She said they also provide more holistic health services such as COVID masks and tests, and youth programming.

Williams said that Black Family day is not exclusively for the BIPOC community.

“I would invite anybody to come through next year in 2025 and really celebrate Black Family and Black joy with us, anybody in the county,” Williams said.

ETHAN LI | SPARTAN DAILY

Families connect and chat at Parque de Los Pobladores in Downtown San José near the SoFa district on Saturday afternoon at the Black Family Day festival.

ETHAN

Audience

“I think it ’s important to celebrate diversity and inclusivity especially with going to a school that ’s very social justice focused.”

Dominique Thomas humanities and liberal arts

“It ’s a time to acknowledge and create more unity in the black community. I think it ’s also a time where we shift the focus away from our struggles and more on our successes and celebrating being black.”

“I think it ’s of great importance for black culture but as well as giving us a good reminder for us to look back at our cultural legacy, especially in America.”

“BHM is very important, not just to represent different populations, but also to highlight different people ’s experiences and identities that make up their backgrounds.”

Liliana Santana psychology senior

freshman

Alexander Riley mechanical engineering junior

Ana Caustill justice studies senior

JONATHAN CANOS | SPARTAN DAILY

By Christine Tran OUTREACH EDITOR

Several attempts have been made for a live-action remake of “Avatar: The Last Airbender”, but no one has been able to get it right –until now.

While JNJ Studios made valiant efforts with its 2022 fan-film “Avatar: The Last of the Airbenders” and M. Night Shyamalan with the 2010 film “The Last Airbender”, Netflix’s new series finally mastered and restored justice for the beloved Nickelodeon series.

In other words, it’s a great time to have a Netflix subscription right now.

The original 2005 animated television series is based on a fictional world with four nations whose people have powers involving one of the four elements: water, earth, fire or air.

They all lived in harmony among each other until the Fire Nation planned to rule over other nations.

Every episode in the show began with a voiceover that explained the show’s central conflict: “Only the Avatar, master of all four elements, could stop them (Fire Nation), but when the world needed him most, he vanished.”

The opening scene of Netflix’s eight episode series is dark and intense, which audiences can attest as shocking compared to the mostly light-hearted narrative the original series delivered.

It takes place before the Fire Nation begins its plan to rule in tyranny. An earthbender is gruesomely incinerated by Fire Lord Sozin, played by Hiro Kanagawa, after the earthbender stole the Fire Nation’s plans.

The show depicts Sokka,

played by Ian Ousley, and Katara, played by Kiawentiio Tarbell, –siblings from the Southern Water Tribe – finding Aang, a twelve-year-old airbender and the Avatar played by Gordon Cormier, in an iceberg.

The siblings accompany him as he rediscovers the new world around him while learning the Avatar’s responsibilities.

While the trio bounces around different parts of the world, Zuko, played by Dallas James Liu, Fire Lord Ozai’s son, is hot on their trail and wants to capture Aang to get back in his father’s good graces.

It’s hard to believe the original Avatar series’s concept was marketed for younger audiences given that the main characters tackle mature subject matter including grief and genocide.

Netflix’s live-action

remake expands on Aang’s backstory when he lived with the Air Nomads as a gifted airbender whose abilities were noticeably surpassing his peers.

Aang, played by a brighteyed and youthful Cormier, decides to leave home with his sky bison Appa after quickly learning he’s the Avatar and must begin training to master the four elements.

When I watched the animated series growing up, it was easy to forget Aang, Sokka, Katara and Zuko were just kids considering each characters’ life experiences during the war.

However, it’s the superb casting of actors with baby faces that kept their ages at the forefront of my mind as I inhaled the first four episodes on Netflix.

Paul Sun-Hyung Lee shines through as Uncle Iroh in the newer “Avatar:

The Last Airbender” as he embarks on Zuko’s journey in capturing Aang, an impossible mission Zuko’s father Fire Lord Ozai, played by Daniel Dae Kim, sends him on after he’s banished from the Fire Nation for refusing to fight Ozai when challenged.

Lee is outstanding to watch as Iroh because of his calm and wise nature while he silently mentors a furious Zuko throughout his mission and desperation to reclaim his title as the prince.

The daddy issues are ever present for Sokka in this series because the writers chose to show more of his background and how his father held him responsible for the Southern Water Tribe when he was just thirteen years old.

Ousley is not only quick with original Sokka’s sarcastic wit, but he also depicts a side of Sokka

audiences have never considered: smart and crafty, eager to learn and undeniably brave.

It’s refreshing to see “Avatar: The Last Airbender” finally given the platform it deserves.

The creative effort from the costumes to the effects and the predominantly Asian cast to convey each nation’s cultural backgrounds is everything that fans of the original show have wanted for a live-action remake.

It’s clear that Netflix handled every detail with thoughtful consideration and the remaining four episodes are bound to whisk me away.

Overcoming a vaping addic tion

Maya Benmokhtar OPINION

I never realized how much vaping took over my entire daily life until it was too late.

Seconds after rolling over in my bed and removing my retainers, I grabbed my mint-flavored vape and enjoyed a fresh hit. The first hit of the day was always the best.

Some of you may read this and automatically think “fiend” and honestly I can’t argue, I was.

The crazy thing is I never noticed how hooked I was until writing this.

When it was time for my 15-minute break at work, I would spend each of those minutes savoring my cool mint-flavored vape.

When I would drive to school, I had one hand holding the steering wheel and the other holding my vape.

If I forgot my vape at home, my three options consisted of: go home and grab it, stop at a smoke shop and purchase another or have a shitty day.

I am not exaggerating – not having a vape would ultimately ruin my day.

Most of my classes are no longer than an hour and 15 minutes, yet I would stare at the clock waiting for class to be over so I could return to my car where my beloved vape was.

It didn’t help at all that I worked at a smoke shop with shelves

of different branded vapes and tobacco surrounding me and customers constantly puffing around my register.

Most of my peers vape, so smoking has become the go-to thing to do in social settings.

Vapes are being passed around more than salt at the family dinners.

Sadly, I cannot recall my life before vaping.

While quitting, it was extremely hard to go about my daily routines without a vape in my left hand because I was so used to having it in hand no matter what I was doing or where I was going.

Looking back, it is crazy that not only was I buying a new vape for $20 every two days, but these vapes had six thousand puffs and I was running out that frequently.

I’ve never been good at math but that’s about $60 a week on a student budget.

I’d tell my friends I couldn’t go out because I didn’t have the funds, yet I would always find the money to fund my nicotine addiction.

I constantly made excuses as to why it wouldn’t be an ideal time to quit.

Telling my partner, “School has me stressed out and vaping helps,” or “I’ll quit after the new year,” – the list of excuses could go on forever.

In reality, it was never the timing that wasn’t ideal, it was me.

I scared myself trying to imagine what type of person I would become without my vape.

What if I become different? Mean? Bored with life? Fat?

Again, I could go on with this list of “what-ifs” for eternity.

Right after my birthday in December, I decided to start my

quitting journey.

I woke up one morning and tossed out every vape in sight. As days progressed, the itch to vape grew more and more.

It was so hard, I had to constantly remind myself that these feelings were temporary and I would get past these withdrawals

and cravings as if I was a crack addict fiending for cocaine. I wish I could say this is a happily-ever-after ending like some Disney Channel movie, but that is not the case.

I was wrong. Months later I still get the urges to grab my friends’ vape out of their hands and blow

a big cloud of smoke or go to my local smoke shop and have a “spur of the moment” kind of day. I always remind myself, “Mind over matter, Maya.”

The chemistry between us felt kinetic before we even spoke. Body language speaks in ways which words cannot . . . and Karla’s flirtatious noncommunicative cues sang a siren’s song that lured my gaze like a fish to a hook.

Naturally, this was before I knew that Karla was a homeless tweaker, but we’ll circle back to that later.

Sharing eye contact with an attractive stranger is one of life’s simplest pleasures.

In a world where most peoples’ eyes are glued to their phones, it’s reassuring to feel seen by someone. Especially by a pretty someone during your tiresome, morning Caltrain commute.

Beauty is subjective however and your presumed allurement could be purely fantasy. Either way, I took my chances.

“Where ya headed?” I asked.

“Getting off at Diridon,” she said. “What about you?”

“Same,” I said.

We spoke for nearly 10 minutes and almost missed our stop because of how well we’d hit it off.

“It was nice meeting you,” Karla said as she stepped off the train. Too

shy to ask for her number, I waved goodbye and we parted ways.

The Uber I’d ordered was already waiting for me in front of the station.

Right before I entered the vehicle, I noticed Karla heading to the nearby bus stop.

“Screw it.” I thought, “What’s the worst that could happen?”

Little did I realize the worst was yet to come. I apprehensively approached her and asked for her number.

“I’m not sure . . . ” Karla said. “My ex-boyfriend said he’d beat the shit out of anyone I try to date.”

“Well,” I said. “How about you don’t tell him?”

Looking as if my proposal hadn’t even crossed her mind, she surveyed me top to bottom.

“You got a pen?” Karla said.

A good journalist should always have a pen. Not to hit on train station strangers, but nevertheless, I didn’t.

“Don’t worry,” Karla said.

She pulled a tube of mascara from her purse, wrote her number on the back of a crinkled 7-Eleven receipt and handed it to me.

Mind you, Karla was blocking the bus’ entryway this entire time.

“Hurry up lady!” said the surly bus driver.

The bus’ folding doors hissed shut on Karla’s face as it left the station.

I sprinted back to my Uber, unraveled the scrunched-up receipt and

smiled the entire ride home.

We scheduled a date the following weekend and I couldn’t have been more excited. I was sincerely smitten.

The red flags that soon popped up came quicker than a game of Whac-AMole.

One of the red flags came from the three different cell phone numbers she used to text me.

I thought only drug dealers and Wall Street day traders used multiple phones.

To ensure that her ex-boyfriend didn’t “beat my ass” I chose the Sunnyvale Caltrain station for our first date.

This way, I could scope out the area beforehand

and make sure it’s not a setup. It just seemed fitting given our first encounter.

I nervously sat beside Karla after thoroughly surveying the station for pugnacious looking ex-boyfriends.

Sparks flew yet again and I thought to myself, “This is the one.”

“Do you smoke?” Karla said.

“I just quit actually, but I don’t mind if you do!” I said.

“No fool, not cigarettes,” she said.

“Ahhh you mean ‘Mary Jane,’ ” I said. “I’ve been sober for a couple of years now but by all means, do your thing.”

“I’m not talking about that either . . . ” she said.

Now, unless Karla had a raw rack of ribs

hidden nearby, I finally understood what she was intending to smoke.

As realization dawned upon me, Karla reached into her bra and pulled out the biggest ball of meth I’d ever seen.

“I have to smoke it before I get back to the shelter,” she said. “They search me before entering.”

Gobsmacked and confused, I was rendered speechless.

Not only was my Caltrain cutie homeless, (which is not bad by any means, just a bit mind-boggling given the context), but she was also a meth-smoking tweaker.

I’d have preferred an ass-beating from her ex-boyfriend to the pain these sudden realizations inflicted on my heart.

I felt like a kid being told that Santa wasn’t real. Bellows of chemicalsmelling smoke blew into my face as I snapped out of my silence.

“I have to go,” I said. Karla put down her pipe and looked as confused as she was high.

Everybody has their dealbreakers and apparently, one of mine is meth-rock bottom.

So dear readers, before flirting with a stranger on a train, be forewarned that a Caltrain cutie could be nothing more than a pipe dream.