TCCD Collegian April 21, 2021

collegian.tccd.edu

Comedy without the laughs PG. 4

Wednesday, April 21, 2021 – Volume 33 • Issue 24 News

Feature

Entertainment

Opinion

Editorial

SE DRAMA SETS VIRTUAL STAGE Festival of New Plays presents three student productions. PG. 2

CERAMICS IS KILN-ING IT Creative pursuits continue through adversity. PG. 3

SEEKING REVENGE A mother’s road to avenge her daughter’s death. PG. 4

LIVE IN THE MOMENT Sometimes it’s cool for things to be dumb fun. PG. 5

THE STATUS QUO MUST CHANGE Why reform for policing in America is needed. PG. 5

DISTRICT

DISTRICT

Transfer students receive assistance ALYSON OLIVER senior editor

Illustration by Amber Davis/The Collegian

Community weighs in on media representation JOSE ROMERO & LYDIA REGALADO

senior editor & campus editor

Studies show people are a result of their environment, and part of that environment is media representation, TR Campus associate professor of English Johansen Quijano said.

Media representations can impact personal attitudes, he said.

When a person is represented positively, it can breed inspiration, but if represented negatively, resentment can form.

Quijano spent his formative years in Puerto Rico where he said television was diverse and offered representations of multiple cultures.

Shows were broadcasted from countries such as France, Spain, Japan, the U.S. and South American nations. If he were raised in the U.S., he would not have been exposed to as many international cultures through media, he said.

“There is a lack of representation of minority groups in American media because those who control the studios and networks are not part of minority groups,” he said. “As such, they, at best, ‘don't see race’ and ‘only do what is most efficient in the market’ and focus largely on works that appeal to majority groups.”

Eva-Marie Ayala, a TCC alumna and Education Lab editor at The Dallas Morning News, said at its heart, covering education is covering race. She reports on issues across Texas with a particular focus on education, poverty, racial bias and inequality.

Ayala grew up and went to school in a low-income neighborhood in North Fort Worth and said not much was expected from her and her peers.

Now, she takes part in the diversity, equity and inclusion council of The Dallas Morning News and is

a member of the national board for the Education Writers Association.

Narda Pérez, an audience journalist for The Dallas Morning News, said she loves the progress being made towards inclusion in the media. Pérez is the secretary and treasurer for the Hispanic Communicators of DFW, an organization dedicated to furthering the visibility and roles of Latinos within the education and communication fields.

She said it is important to highlight the lives, struggles and successes of all people of color and minorities.

“When you think of diversity, you think about Black and Brown people, but it’s much more nuanced than that,” she said. “We have to collectively amplify the voices of the LGBT community, AAPI community, people with disabilities, people who chose not to pursue higher education, people from different religions, etc.”

The portrayal of communities impacts children — particularly children of color, Ayala said. There is no one way to talk about race or cover issues for communities, but the past year has put a sense of urgency on the media to make representation a priority.

“When you think of diversity, you think about Black and Brown people, but it’s much more nuanced than that.”

Narda Pérez

Journalist / The Dallas Morning News

“It requires constant reflection and constant approaches from different areas,” she said.

When it comes to Hollywood and its portrayal of minorities, Quijano mentioned a common trope where non-white characters

are villains or uncivilized. “Avatar,” “Dances with Wolves” and “The Last Samurai” are a few examples he gave in which the native groups require a white savior to overcome adversity.

According to the 2019 Hollywood Diversity Report, people of color made up 19.8% of lead film roles and women made up about 32.9%. However, Quijano said studios are getting better at addressing the lack of representation in media.

“CW and Marvel do well, for example, but there is still some work to be done,” he said. “I think the way forward is to get people from minority groups in positions of leadership and help promote diversity at a socio-cultural level.”

Instead of encouraging tolerance, people should practice acceptance and welcome other cultures rather than fear them, Quijano said.

For South Campus student Elijah Chapman, minority representation in media is important because it demonstrates media isn’t exclusive to a particular race.

“Movies like ‘Hotel Rwanda’ and ‘Black Panther’ have inspired me,” Chapman said. “Most of the cast in those movies are African Americans, and each have done a tremendous job at playing their parts, showing that there is room for more people of different colors to be a part of media.”

Chapman said it’s important to learn from the past, not repeat it, and give minorities the privilege to be represented in media like everyone else.

“One quote I remember from ‘Star Wars: The Clone Wars’ states that the clones have the ‘same heart, same blood,’” he said. “The same is true for everybody in the world. No matter who I walk past, I always see a human being. Everyone has the potential to be a part of something.

Never count anyone out.”

Transferring to a new school may seem daunting, but TCC has plenty of resources, faculty and staff members in place to help students through the process, NE transfer center coordinator Brittni Hollis said.

“Hopefully, with the transfer center and with the coordinators, they find that the process isn’t as intimidating as they think it is,” she said.

While there are some exceptions, universities typically only require an application and a transcript to apply as a transfer student. The transfer centers can help students pull together both of those things and figure out which classes are essential for their degree plans so they can weed out any extras.

They also offer Transfer 101 information sessions. It’s best if students attend these during their first semester at TCC, TR transfer center coordinator Laura Escamilla said.

A mistake students make is thinking of transferring as something they can worry about later, she said.

Meeting with a transfer coordinator early on makes transitioning smoother for students and starts them off on a good foot, NW transfer center coordinator Rachelle Alvarez-Montero said.

“Really, it’s best if you meet with us, honestly, the semester you start,” she said.

Some students wait until their final semester to begin the transfer process, Escamilla said.

Starting early means they can be prepared and make sure they don’t miss out on scholarship opportunities.

“Getting the information early is going to alleviate most problems,” she said.

The transfer centers work closely with university representatives and can connect students with the four-year schools they wish to attend.

“We have that contact information,” Alvarez-Montero said.

“We can break down those barri-

“We just wanna make sure that the student doesn’t feel like they’re trying to figure it all out by themselves.”

Brittni Hollis

NE transfer center coordinator

ers for you all.”

Escamilla said students should make sure to consider multiple options when choosing a school to transfer to, even if they already have their minds set on one.

“It just reaffirms that they’re making the best decision in the first place,” she said.

Students might face some challenges after transferring. At a four-year institution, they may find larger classes and stricter professors, which can be overwhelming, Escamilla said.

Meeting other people facing the same challenges and taking advantage of the university’s resources can help alleviate this, she said. For instance, TCC has a writing center, a library and a math lab available to students, similar to services offered at many universities.

Hollis said while cost and size are major factors that can differ between two-year and fouryear schools, there are still quite a few similarities. Two-year schools act as preparation, but the students who attend them are still ready for university and on a level playing field with those who start at a four-year institution.

“Being at TCC, although a community college, we are still an institution,” she said. “We are still a college.”

All transfer center coordinators’ emails and phone numbers are available on the transfer center page on TCC’s website. Additionally, they have a district Blackboard page that will be transferred over to Canvas in the fall.

“We just wanna make sure that the student doesn’t feel like they’re trying to figure it all out by themselves,” Hollis said.

TRINITY RIVER

Essay contest puts gift cards in students’ hands JOSE ROMERO ROMERO senior editor

The April 30 deadline is approaching for TR Career Services’ essay contest.

Career Services is rewarding students with hundreds of dollars in TR bookstore gift cards for their college admission and internship application essays.

First place will receive a $300 TR bookstore gift card and will be published in the TCCD campuses’ department newsletter. Second place gets a $150 TR bookstore gift card and third place a $50 TR bookstore gift card.

Career Services provided students advice on essay format.

The contest’s website says to use the five-paragraph structure which includes an introductory paragraph, three body paragraphs and a conclusion.

The introduction should have three to five sentences, the first sentence being the hook — a sentence that grabs the reader’s attention — and the last sentence being a thesis statement — the main point of the essay.

Supporting paragraphs include one introductory sentence, three to five sentences explaining the writer’s stance and a conclusion. The first body paragraph should be dedicated to the writer’s strongest point, the second should be the weakest point and the third should support another strong argument, Career Services said.

The conclusion should restate the thesis and summarize each point in the body paragraphs.

Essays must be submitted to trcareerservices@tccd.edu and winners will be announced May 28 at 11 a.m.

April, 21 2021 • Page 2

News

The Collegian

NORTHWEST

SOUTHEAST

LYDIA REGALADO

JOSE ROMERO

Thoughts on the trial of Derek Chauvin — a former Minneapolis police officer charged in the death of George Floyd — opened conversation between students and professors during a NW Criminal Justice Club event.

On April 20 the jury verdict was handed down, which found Chauvin guilty of all charges including second-degree murder, third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter.

Photo courtesy of Chris Henry/ Unsplash When the verdict was read, NE student Jaden Carothers said he was not surprised. Derek Chauvin was found guilty of murIt is almost always an indication in favor of dering George Floyd April 20. the prosecution when a decision is reached “There was no question of, ‘Did she so quickly. use appropriate force,’ there was just, ‘Did “I’m skeptical of the highest charge, she do what she needed to do,’” Hearn said. murder in the 2nd degree,” Carothers said.

During the Chauvin trial Carothers said “There is that peer pressure and evaluation that the media highlighted the prosecution from the senior officers that plays into the and negated the defense. However, all as- minds of those younger officers in situations like that.” pects of a trial should be considered.

Officers need to step up and take re“We’ll just have to see where it goes in sponsibility for their actions said Hearn. She the coming months,” Carothers said. used former Buffalo police officer Cariol Chauvin was a 19-year police verteran.

Horne as an example.

Horne was fired for inOther officers involved in Floyd’s death intervening with a colleague who she said was cluded Tou Thao, a nine-year veteran, J. Alexander Kueng and Thomas Lane, who had choking a handcuffed suspect in 2006. Her been on the force for three and four days at pension was reinstated just over a week ago.

“Before, it was you have each other’s the time of the incident.

Thao, Kueng and Lane are scheduled to back no matter what,” McMillan said. “Now, be tried Aug. 23 with charges of aiding and we’re starting to see a shift in thinking.”

Hearn said the shift has been a long time abetting murder and manslaughter. coming.

The thought process of officers when “Rodney King was kind of our first peek following their superiors is changing, Ferrin McMillan, NW associate professor of crimi- into this filming of this incident involving nal justice and former Florida Corporal said police use of force,” Hearn said. “Thirty years ago the courts told officers, ‘You’re during the event.

Tracy Hearn, NW associate professor responsible for what happens.’”

Police agencies have incorporated Duty of criminal justice, said rookies rely on direction from senior officers. She described to Intervene policies which were put in place her first experience as a Dallas rookie officer to prevent the use of excessive force.

“Peace erupts from tragedy, and may we involving a drug deal in progress. After she caught and handcuffed one of the suspects, all take a good, hard look at ourselves when her peers evaluated whether she was confi- we ask what kind of society we all want to share with each other,” Carothers said. dent, brave and strong enough to do the job.

Seeking acceptance from a parent, the challenges of performing a virtual play and life’s adversity are topics SE Drama’s ninth annual Festival of New Plays will cover.

Three digital performances will stream for free from April 26 to May 5 on the event’s LibGuide website. The plays selected are “30 Seconds” by Jesse Humphreys, “Saying Everything and Nothing” by Sarah Chavez-Reckling and “Who’s Dead -- Cut!”

by Quanard Carter.

“30 Seconds” highlights life’s ups and downs and discusses how unexpected change can come out of nowhere. “Saying Everything and Nothing” deals with a mother’s struggle to support her daughter’s engagement to another woman because it conflicts with her religious and moral beliefs. “Who’s Dead -- Cut!” pokes fun at the challenges associated with producing virtual productions during the pandemic.

Putting on these shows has proven to be an obstacle for cast members and the production team.

Quanard Carter wrote “Who’s Dead -Cut!” and said in an interview on the festival’s website that the writing process was difficult because he had to determine what does and does not work in a virtual format as well as what works in a live setting. To mitigate, he wrote the play in a way where it can be performed virtually or live on stage.

“Here’s the beauty of this play,” Carter said. “We’ve adapted it, the script a little bit, to say that the reason it’s going wrong is because we’ve changed from being live to doing it on Zoom. But, if it was to be done live, we’d just do the original version where it’s just going wrong because it’s just going wrong.”

Theater director Angela Inman directed Carter’s play and said it was strange to do because it is not theater and it is not film.

“I had to get very creative with thinking about just how people could angle their bodies and the screen,” she said. “How close or

Chauvin trial opens Virtual stage spotlights floor for discussion new student productions campus editor

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“I’m really excited to start learning the technical aspects of theater because it’s really hard to learn that online.”

Liberty Ward Actress

how far away they were and what that might nonverbally say to the audience. So, I had to think about it in a whole different way than I might otherwise if I was doing live theater.”

Kristen Wirkler — actress for the character Mia in “Saying Everything and Nothing” — began doing theater in the seventh grade. She said she’s used to being on stage with a live audience and a person in front of her to interact with. In this format, she’s looking at a camera on her computer while acting out her scenes individually.

Liberty Ward, actress for the director character in “Who’s Dead -- Cut!” and Morgan in “30 Seconds,” said she’s been doing theater all her life and shares Wirkler’s view on how different it is to do everything virtually.

With TCC returning to campus for the fall semester, plays will no longer be performed virtually. Ward and Wirkler started laughing, then shouted together that they will not miss doing productions this way.

Wirkler said she misses the sensation of the lights hitting her face and seeing the audience in front of her. Ward focused on the skills she is missing out on from not being in person.

“I’m really excited to start learning the technical aspects of theater because it’s really hard to learn that online,” Ward said. “You can’t really look at the lightboard. You can’t look at the soundboard. You can’t look at the angles the lights are at whenever you’re online.”

The Festival of New Plays will return next year and feature Carter’s play “Disobedience.”

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The Collegian

Feature

April 21, 2021 • Page 3

Photos by Azul Sordo/The Collegian

NE student Sam Watson pours glaze over his ceramic piece, gently rotating it in the other hand. He has several pieces on display in the Grapevine Tower Gallery.

Despite rain pouring down on the metal roof of the outdoor workshop, Watson carefully glazes his work.

Glazed ceramics vases are lined up outside the kiln — a furnace for burning, baking or drying — awaiting to be fired at temperatures of up to 2,284 degrees Fahrenheit.

Karmien Bowman’s “Buildings on My Mind” is on display at the Grapevine Towers building.

Her bronze cast sculpture took 15 years to cultivate between sabbaticals, important responsibilities, and lack of finances at times.

What people may not appreciate is the significant cost, effort and work that went into creating it.

Bowman’s pieces can be found all around the state installed in various city parks including Heritage Park in Flower Mound and The North Lakes Park.

Bowman hopes to see her award-winning sculpture installed in the DFW area someday, a representation of her love for the state she grew up in.

NE Campus student Breanne Schwarz took her first ceramics class with professor Bowman at TCC in 1998, where she found her calling.

“Professor Bowman and I both remember the moment when I was holding a beautiful bowl I had made fresh out of the kiln, and I looked up at her and said in wonderment, ‘You can major in this?’ and she said, ‘Well, yes, that's what I did,’” Schwarz said. “So I eventually wound up at University of South Florida with an art degree.”

NE student David Bugbee took a ceram-

said. “Much of what we learn is done so in the moment and is best absorbed by engaging and learning from one another. Online learning is useful, there is a lot of information and projects that can be passed on in that format and worked on from home, but I thrive in the in-person class.”

For Bugbee, the campus shutdowns restricted his ability to produce art because he lacked access to necessary resources.

“If I did not have my own pottery wheel at home, I pretty much would have accomplished nothing,” he said. “With the campus in constant complete lockdown for months, getting anything fired and glazed was basically non-existent.”

As the TCC community returns to campuses this fall, ceramics program students and professors look forward to a semester together in a newly renovated studio.

“I am eager and excited to greet all the students again,” Perez said. “To see the classrooms and hallways filled with everyone, there's a lot of energy in the Art Department, and being online can't truly duplicate that environment.”

Unlocking possibilities through ceramics

JANINE SHUMAN campus editor editor

Behind a coffee mug planted on a desk are several days of imagination, meticulous sculpting, glazing, firing and precision, but not many people consider the story these items have to tell. Associate professor of art Karmien Bowman said TCC's ceramics curriculum enables students to appreciate the artwork surrounding them.

The ceramics program teaches students beyond the creation of art, Bowman said.

Students also learn the history of clay as a medium for shaping vessels, cultural contributions and awareness of possibilities in the industry today.

Bowman recently won a first-place award from the Texas Sculpture Association for her sculpture “Buildings on my Mind”, a piece inspired by her connection to her childhood home of Dallas.

“I am inspired by personal experience and the medium of clay,” she said. “Content is personal and also takes on a universal theme, I hope.”

ics class at TCC in the early ‘90s and recently returning to a familiar face.

“Life got busy with work, and I was absent from the campus until just a couple of years back when I started back and was more than excited that Professor Bowman was still there at the helm,” he said.

While there are many options to fulfill an art credit, the ceramics program is very different than others by its nature, associate professor of art Suzanne Perez said.

In addition to challenging perception, students can learn various sculptural approaches, she said.

Due to its hands-on nature, the ceramics program suffered during the transition to the virtual platform.

“Students were disappointed we could not be hands-on in the clay, but they thought to sign up anyway,” Bowman said. “It has been a learning experience, of course, with some assignments being more fun than others.”

NE student Jamie Myers makes the most of the online environment but acknowledges the advantages of in-person learning.

“Ceramics is a very tactile process,” she

Page 4 • April 21, 2021

Entertainment

The Collegian

NETFLIX REVIEW

Mother’s revenge plot ends successfully

Photos courtesy of Netflix

After 10 years on the run, William Sotelo was convicted for murdering Crystal Theobald in 2020. Sotelo was found hiding in Mexico with his wife and four kids.

JANINE SHUMAN campus editor

In the blackness of the still night, only the moon illuminates the SUV Crystal Theobald, her boyfriend and her brother sit in. A white SUV similar to theirs pulls up nearby, sending a chill down their spines. In an attempt to escape, the car ambushes them at an intersection, ending Theobald’s life with a bullet.

Netflix’s latest documentary, “Why Did You Kill Me?”, illustrates this scene through the use of a diorama, which transports the audience to the night of Theobald’s murder.

The documentary instantly hooks viewers with the nostalgic boot-up of Windows XP following a sequence of MySpace message exchanges between Crystal and her pre-

sumed killer. “I love you,” the man professes, to which Theobald replies, “Then, why did you kill me?”

No, Theobald did not resurrect and haunt her killer. Her mother Belinda Lane and cousin Jaimie McIntyre set up a MySpace profile using her photo hoping the presumed killer falls in love with her and reveals information regarding her murder.

The documentary focuses on Lane, whose boundary between revenge and justice fades as her grief deepens. Through MySpace, Lane and McIntyre bring Theobald back to life virtually to message the men involved in her death — a gang called the 5150.

Lane was hellbent on revenge, and after getting one of the members to fall in love with her daughter, she invites the members to a fake party. It is an elaborate setup where she planned on murdering them, only pulling

out when her children emphasize her unstable mental state. The documentary does a great job at showcasing the tremendous impacts of grief as Lane’s desire for revenge grows stronger. Every member interviewed for the documentary provides a relevant perspective to Theobald’s story, leaving no stone unturned. When Lane messages William Sotello, the man driving the vehicle that night, she confronts him with the truth. “This is Crystal Theobald,” she types. “I’m the girl you murdered.” After bringing her evidence to the police, they question two brothers who were in the vehicle that night, where they reveal that Theobald’s car was mistaken as a rival gang.

Theobald wasn’t meant to die, and her murderer was a 17-year-old named Julio Heredia. The brothers Manuel and William Lemus contributed great perspectives to the documentary, noting the trauma they face

years after witnessing the murder and the dangers of joining a gang. After convicting Heredia, Lane makes the honorable decision not to impose the death penalty, even though throughout the film she made it explicit that she wanted the murderer dead. Heredia’s sister makes an appearance at the end, presenting a different perspective. His upbringing was tough and when they were abandoned as children, he was all she had. The documentary will grip at heartstrings and keep viewers at the edge of their seats with plot twists and chilling visuals. In the end, viewers may leave feeling a whirlwind of emotions, but the watch is certainly worthwhile.

NETFLIX REVIEW

Viewers become villains with Netflix’s trash movie JOSE ROMERO senior editor

Netflix’s “Thunder Force” is categorized as a comedy, but it probably shouldn’t be.

The film begins by setting up a vague premise about a laser from space giving sociopaths superpowers.

Seriously, not joking.

These sociopaths become villains called miscreants and wind up killing the parents of one of the two main characters, Emily, played

by Octavia Spencer. Emily is young when her parents are killed and swears to avenge their deaths, no matter how long it takes.

Her character is a generically written smart person, unlike her counterpart, Lydia — played by Melissa McCarthy — who is generically dumb.

The beginning of the movie is alright.

The relationship between the two girls is believable, and there is a genuine feeling of friendship between them. Dialogue is not

Jerry, played by Jason Bateman, dances with Emily in a dream scenario.

great, but it’s serviceable. Honestly, if the film would have focused on the actresses playing the young versions of the main characters, it could have been better.

However, after a shoehorned argument between Emily and Lydia, they separate for years and do not reunite until adulthood.

McCarthy has been typecasted for years as the same dopey character, and it is unfortunately prominent in “Thunder Force.” Lydia is unbearably dimwitted and there are almost no redeeming qualities to her. Emily isn’t any better.

She is bland and comes off as unnecessarily stern. There is chemistry between the two leading actresses, but the script doesn’t do them any favors.

As adults, Lydia wants to reunite with Emily and discovers she opened a science facility nearby. Lydia takes a trip to the facility and visits Emily’s office where she clumsily mashes buttons in an unsecured lab housing a superhero machine that Emily has been working on for years. Lydia manages to activate the start-up sequence and falls into the chair which injects her with a hero vaccine, giving her superhuman strength.

The entire plot could have been prevented with a lock.

Funnily enough, it doesn’t make sense to have a machine in the first place, because Emily gains the power of invisibility by taking pills instead. So, why not make the process pill-based?

The entire film is littered with logical fallacies and the comedic elements don’t do enough legwork to help mitigate the issues.

Studios seriously need to understand that referencing Fortnite is not the foundation of a funny joke. Seeing two adults do dances from

Photos courtesy of Netflix

Emily and Lydia, played by Melissa McCarthy and Octavia Spencer, don their superhero suits for the first time after receiving their powers. the game does quite the opposite of making a person laugh.

There are far too many pop culture references, moments in which the film lingers on a joke for too long and moments where the joke does not land at all. The script needed another revision. It is not entirely bad, though.

Jerry, Jason Bateman’s character, has crab pincers, and that’s pretty funny to see. Also, Tracy — played by Taylor Mosby — is a decent character with the most development out

of the entire cast.

The twist is obvious, the action scenes have no stakes whatsoever and the outfit designs are generic and lack personality, like the film.

Do not watch this movie unless Thunderforced to.

Opinion

The Collegian

Viewpoints

Editorial

Subtle imagery can also elicit responses

LOGAN EVANS campus editor

I love horror movies, but when I think of them, I don’t think about the scary parts.

At least not the big, chaotic, loud parts, as fun as those often are.

“The Texas Chainsaw Massacre’’ is a movie about a man in a mask who kills a group of young hippies, but it’s also filled with striking images and ideas that suggest more about our world. A desolate farmhouse stands in a rough-hewn clearing, calling out to a lost woman. A maniac fails to catch his prey and instead, dances in the bleeding sunrise.

The movie has deeper themes about the effects of automation in the South, but even that doesn’t grab me as much as the images that evoke a vague sense of the beyond.

“Halloween,” another staple in the slasher tradition, is a taut master-

piece of thriller filmmaking, but it also runs deep with a unplaceable cold.

Michael Myers stands with his dark clothes and white mask in the distance of a suburban street, the only thing out of place. He isn’t a crazed killer, as the internal movie logic would have us believe, but an empty slate for all the possibilities of cosmic darkness.

This is why some of the Halloween sequels fall short to the original.

They have the thrills and violence that any slasher needs, but they don’t leave space for something bigger to come in and haunt the celluloid. Horror is most effective when the very makeup of the images you’re watching feels even more sinister than the story they tell.

Even movies dealing directly with the supernatural are often full of visuals that reach a strangeness beyond their own worlds. We know that witches exist in “The Witch,” but when we finally see a coven of them floating, off-kilter, into the sky, we’re filled with something dreamlike. We know that Nosferatu is a vampire, and we know the rules of what a vampire should be, but when we see his crooked silhouette ascending a shadowy staircase, all of that disappears.

Good horror is good fantasy, and good fantasy isn’t an escape from the possibilities of our world. It’s recognizing something in the fabric of it we can’t understand.

Being overly critical breeds trash mindset

MICHAEL FOSTER-SANDERS editor-in-chief

During last week’s Collegian production meeting, senior editor Jose Romero and I got into our weekly banter about the pros and cons of the movies reviewed.

“Godzilla vs. Kong” was on the menu, and I noticed he was being super critical of a movie that was supposed to be dumb fun.

It made me realize this wasn’t just a snobby-movie-reviewer Jose issue, but it has become an issue with the new generation that consumes entertainment. Everything has to be serious or it’s written off as trash, and audiences like to be spoon-fed stories.

Movies have to have an underlying theme for people to feel they are important enough to talk about.

I’m a product of the great 1980’s and 1990’s where ideals for movies, TV shows and games didn’t make

April 21, 2021 • Page 5

sense 90% of the time but came out to be unforgettable relics.

Who would have thought about a police officer’s near-death being cybernetically enhanced to fight crime in Detroit being a blockbuster hit movie?

Or a game about a lone space marine taking on the demons from hell being the one of the best-selling video games of all time?

The aforementioned move “Robocop” and the video game “Doom” took a chance with being different.

Thinking outside the box gave audiences a new thing to crave and ushered in a new renaissance in creation and innovation.

Now everything is so formulaic that it is sickening. Marvel makes the same damn movie every summer that mindless zombies flock to see, and I’m not talking about children.

Rival company DC Comics tries to copy the same formula and fails horribly. They have the uniqueness with their characters and stories to go outside the box and possibly be successful, such as the government teaming up villains against their will to save the world in James Gunn’s “The Suicide Squad.”

Now, I’m not saying critical review doesn’t have a time and a place in media such as in some artsy fartsy films, but sometimes people just need to relax.

Violence must end, reform is necessary

Amber Davis/The Collegian

Anyone with access to social media or mainstream news outlets has probably heard about the push to address a serious epidemic America faces.

In 2020, there were only 18 days out of the year that U.S. police did not kill one or more individuals, according to Mapping Police Violence.

Talk of police reform has been especially prevalent in the wake of George Floyd’s killing at the hands of a former officer last summer.

There have been protests, petitions, fundraisers and phone calls to legislators. So why have things remained static?

Why does the violence still fail to relent?

Why is it that just over a week ago, Daunte Wright, a young Black man with a girlfriend and a child, was killed during a traffic stop when an officer supposedly mistook her gun for her taser?

Must every year be spent like this? Protesting the racism and inhumanity that permeates the U.S. criminal justice system down to the marrow of its bones?

According to Prison Policy Initiative, police killings in the U.S. occur more than three times more often than they do in countries such as Canada and Australia.

What’s more, people of color are at greater risk. A Black person, specifically, is three times more likely to be killed by a police officer than a white person, according to Mapping Police Violence, in spite of only making up 13% of the U.S. population.

This is so much more than just “good cops” versus “bad cops.” This is a trend that has cost the lives of countless people.

That includes those who were incarcerated for low-level crimes, losing years of their lives in prison, coming out with a permanent stain on their record that bars them from their rights such as voting.

A report by The Sentencing Project showed Black people in the U.S. are imprisoned over five times more often than white people are.

This issue of police brutality and mass incarceration is systemic. Reform is needed, and policing is not a replacement for taking care of the underlying issues at the root of crime.

Why not put a greater focus on mending the economic disparities in this country? On addressing the lack of opportunities and resources afforded to underprivileged communities? On providing proper treatment for substance abuse and mental health?

Fighting the symptoms does nothing but put more people in prison, tear more families apart and ruin or end more invaluable lives. Innocent or not, no one should be in mortal danger when they are pulled over for a traffic stop.

When people call to reform or defund the police, they aren’t advocating for a world wrought by crime. Quite the opposite, actually. They’re advocating for a world where the root causes of crime are given appropriate attention.

It is beyond shameful and unfortunate that these violent injustices continue to transpire. It may feel as though hope is gone, but people should not stop making an effort to create change, and the lives that have been lost should not ever be forgotten.

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Feature

Page 6 • April 21, 2021

IN THE

MACHINE STUDENT FINDS PURPOSE IN COMPUTER SCIENCE

LOGAN EVANS campus editor

NE student Ryu Parish sat at his computer, flicking through the 74-page slideshow he’d built for the latest “Binary Dragon,” his monthly virtual lecture on artificial intelligence. He had an unassuming look to him, with close-cropped hair and black-rimmed glasses. The bedroom wall behind him stood blank, except for a blueprint poster of the Enigma machine, a WWII cipher famously cracked by “Father of AI,” Alan Turing.

Parish has a special knack for whittling big ideas into simple statements.

That afternoon, he was planning to speak on the advantages a computer can have over the human mind.

Only, when the session started and no students joined, Parish had to abandon the talk — for the second month in a row.

“It’s exhausting sometimes,” he said.

Parish took it in stride. He speaks with a calm rhythm and his sentences are often punctuated with an infectious, glowing grin. As a computer science major, you can’t let everything get to you, he said.

You have enough to think about.

Born in Japan to a Black American father and a Japanese mother, Parish spent much of his childhood around people who didn’t look like him. Severe bullying in school piled on to an already troubled home life and left him with a sense of helplessness, a feeling he would channel into an oasis of numbers, wires and networks.

“A computer does exactly what you want it to do,” he said. “There’s no fussing or arguing. If someone messes up, it isn’t the computer’s fault.”

Parish had his first brush with computer science in middle school, when he would escape to the Internet and download video game modifications, bending

“A computer does exactly what you want it to do.

There’s no fussing or arguing. If someone messes up, it isn’t the computer’s fault.”

-student Ryu Parish

the fabric of virtual words with increased health and abilities. Most of this was done through websites that gave users a streamlined way to mod, but Parish would sometimes attempt his own code.

“I would always mess it up,” he said, laughing.

But as he got older, he would learn Python — a high-level programming language — with the help of online courses.

Parish, now 20, still chases the same trial-and-error curiosity that led his early attempts.

He recently built an autonomous rover using a single-board computer called a Raspberry Pi. The machine was capable of moving in multiple directions and turning when it encountered a wall, but when Parish tried tinkering with it after putting it down for a week, it started hemorrhaging smoke. He quickly doused it in the kitchen sink.

“I somehow salvaged this, and it still works,” he said, holding up the Raspberry Pi, which looked like a tiny green city.

For all his love of electronic things, Parish strives to serve living, breathing people in his community. Last semester, he was chosen as the male Co-Chair for TCC’s Intercultural Network Student Advisory Team. In an introduction video, he said he hopes to be an advocate for people like himself who have felt different because of their identity.

“Relatability can be a relief to that pain,” he said.

Intercultural Network advisor Marjeanna Burge said Parish has been a lifesaver during the online transition of recent semesters. He’s jumped on opportunities to moderate event sessions, and even created a virtual newsletter to push community events.

“I have never interacted with a student like Ryu,” she said.

Parish hopes to one day funnel his study of computer science into an important field of research.

During the first “Binary Dragon” lecture in February, Parish said that unlike human intelligence, which can’t be definitively measured, computer intelligence is defined as the maximum amount of output a machine can produce using the minimal amount of input. In other words, how well it can draw conclusions.

This idea has fueled a theory in the scientific community called “the singularity,” or a point where AI will surpass human intelligence and take over. For many, this is an inevitable doomsday scenario peopled with smoldering landscapes and robot overlords. Machine learning is the beginning of the end of us, they say.

Parish doesn’t think so.

It’s all about what a person does with a machine, he said.

Illustration by Amber Davis /The Collegian