The Spectator 04-23-2015 Special Race Edition

A Special Edition

April 23, 2015

A hands-on approach to

RACE

Is it just a black and white issue?

Weather

Today Partly Cloudy

Friday Mostly Sunny

April 23, 2015

Saturday Scattered thunderstorms

Page 1

The science behind sticking to your race

Tatyana Phelps

COPY EDITOR tnphelps@valdosta.edu Although segregation was outlawed in the 1960s, students sometimes tend to segregate themselves from people outside of their race. However, this action may be caused by sociological factors rather than personal choice.

When looking at the statistics, VSU can be called a diverse college. According to Niche, 35 percent of VSU students are African-American, 54 percent are white, 4 percent are Hispanic, 2 percent are international, and the other 1 percent is Asian.

Despite the wide range of backgrounds and cultures at VSU, students can sometimes be found to normally associate with people of the same color.

However, there are some organizations on campus that demonstrate a diverse group of students, such as the Gay-Straight Alliance, Anime & Manga, Tau Kappa Epsilon and Women of Diversity.

The Women of Diversity president, Kandice Smith, finds joy that her organization is able to break past the differences in skin color.

“The main reason I love my organization so much is that I learn about them as individuals, but I also learn about their culture through their conversation, their experiences,” Smith said.

“We represent over 20 nationalities, but at the end of the day we see each other as human beings,

with feelings, dreams, ideas, and goals. We see each other as sisters.

It just so happens that some of us have more or less melanin that the other.”

Smith believes that the separation between races that may occur is not always intentional and that society plays a major role in the way people view racial differences.

“I believe that people have the tendency to stick to their own race because it’s comfortable, it’s familiar,” Smith said. “It’s so much easier to think to yourself, ‘she and I have something in common because she and I have the same skin; we must have experienced the same things growing up. We must have the same culture, the same heritage, (and) the same ideals.’ I think it’s a subconscious method of survival (in) a way. It is both a psychological and sociological thing.”

Smith is correct — it is a sociological factor. Thomas Hochschild, VSU sociology professor, has studied race for years.

“You’ve heard the phrase ‘birds of a feather flock together,’ right?” Hochschild said.

“Sociologists call this tendency for people who are similar to stick together the ‘homophily effect.’ Race, ethnicity, social class, gender, religion and political affiliation are but several characteristics that people use to organize themselves. People are generally more comfortable being around others with similar values, attitudes and behaviors.”

According to Hochschild, the way people view race begins at a very early age and starts in the home.

“Parents can counteract the homophily effect by seeking out a diverse group of playmates, as well as a home in a diverse neighborhood, for their children,” Hochschild said. “These children are more likely to be open-minded about others when they become adults.”

Hochschild feels that despite the fact that many people are more comfortable being around

people who are more similar to them, many students at VSU don’t let differences in skin color change who they socialize with.

“One thing that I love about David Johnson/THE SPECTATOR Valdosta State University is that students of different races and ethnicities can be seen interacting throughout the campus,” Hochschild said. “At other universities I have taught at, I typically saw ‘co-presence without co-mingling.’ In other words, people of different races and ethnicities would be in the same room or geographic area, but they rarely interacted with each other.”

While some teachers believe that race does not affect our campus, some students feel otherwise.

“I personally believe that (race) does (affect) VSU,” Smith said. “It affects many campuses across the United States. We are the nation’s future. Many of the students on campus are the result of interracial/intercultural relationships. To have such a clear divide, to see each group

John Preer/THE SPECTATOR

hang out with their own can be difficult for those students, and it can also be challenging for those students who desire to reach out to others who are unlike them. I feel as though it causes a ‘them vs. us’ mentality.

“In the United States, society dictates that you should stick with ‘your own kind.’ A lot of people see an interracial couple or even a group of diverse ladies, such as the ladies in my organization, hanging out…and it’s an anomaly to them. It is an anomaly because we are taught to stick with our own,” Smith said.

Hochschild said people are all too quick to say race isn’t an issue in our world.

“It is fashionable for people to say that ‘a person’s race doesn’t matter to me,’ or ‘we should just ignore race and it will go away,’” Hochschild said. “The problem with this line of thinking is that there are significant racial disparities in the United States in regards to the criminal justice system, socio-economic status, educational outcomes, political representation, health outcomes and media depictions.

To ignore race is to ignore the harm currently being inflicted on millions of people because of their race. Sociologists refer to these pleas to ignore race as a form of ‘color-blind racism.’

“As good Americans and responsible citizens, we need to be informed about racial data, and mature enough to address these disparities in a meaningful way,” Hochschild said.

April 23, 2015

Page 2

NEWS

The results are in

‘The Golden Ticket’ campaign candidates win SGA President

Jamel Shorter

David Burdette

619

Christopher Hellams 368

Vice President

Matthew Cowan

419

Colleen Kavanaugh

607

Jarius Leavy

918

Secretary

Comptroller Othellious Cato

472

Sequoia Kirby

476

STAFF WRITER jhshorter@valdosta.edu The SGA elections have come to a close and it was a highly anticipated race, with the candidates having strong viewpoints for the advancement of SGA and VSU. Current SGA President Tyler Barker announced the winners of the election on Monday in the Student Union.

The winners of the election were candidates from “The Golden Ticket” campaign, which included David Burdette for president, Colleen Kavanaugh for vice president, and Jarius Leavy for secretary. Seqouia Kirby won the position of comptroller.

Burdette has many clear ideas for the future of the school.

“I’m focused on innovating ideas that will target students that are present, the students that plan

to attend this prestigious university and alumni as well,” Burdette said. “While innovating, I am coming up with a plan to elevate pride, tradition, and unity that has already been instilled… so that we can operate to increase the retention rate to ultimately graduate.”

David Burdette spoke on behalf of his team, Kavanaugh and Leavy, when talking about the effects of leadership.

“Leadership means you know how to follow, but you are ready to take off the training wheels and control your destiny as others see you try,” Burdette said. “While you are on that path, you must listen to the guidance behind you and in front of you in order to reach the finish line.”

Burdette, Kavanaugh, Leavy and Kirby will lead the student body for a full year. Tyler Barker will remain SGA president until the end of the spring semester.

SGA Senators for 2015-2016 Year Maya Bramletta Kelan Blash Damon Brown Michael Daniel Tiffany Delgado Alexis Farley Jennifer Holloway Dzigbode Limehouse Jasmine Jackson Maya Mapp Joseph Moore Nicole Njoku Amirrah Nur Joel Pollack Joshua Rivers Jayson Ross Shayla Slappy Daria Thomas Brittany Transou Deythan Walton Lethia Washington Nydrah Wright

SGA passes a series of resoultions based on recent campus events Kayla Stroud

WEB EDITOR kistroud@valdosta.edu VSU’s Student Government Association approved of a series of resolutions Monday night, including consideration for student parking on Georgia Avenue and a position statement on the current flag controversy.

Several of the resolutions were in reaction to last week’s protest in which several students stepped on the American flag and a veteran was detained by police for trying to take the flag.

The most direct resolution was approved by a vote of 36 to 2 stating that while SGA respects a person’s right to protest, they disapprove of the actions taken

during the events on April 17.

“We respect a person’s right to protest,” SGA Vice President Nicholas Buford said. “The Supreme Court made it clear in 1989 that those who were protesting were using their free speech rights.”

Another resolution was passed unanimously to show the VSU student body’s appreciation of

our country’s armed forces.

Buford was pleased of the events during the second demonstration held on Monday.

“It was a great display of Blazers from all backgrounds uniting behind the flag,” Buford said. “I want to commend Kalin Allen and Mia Rawls for their leadership during the student-led protest on Monday.”

SGA also dealt with the overwhelming issues of parking by recommending VSU’s Parking and Transportation to re-examine parking spaces. Resolutions were also passed thanking President William McKinney and congratulating graduating seniors.

Kayla Stroud/THE SPECTATOR

Freedom of speech at VSU on FIRE Kailee L Kivett

STAFF WRITER klkivett@valdosta.edu VSU is in the red, and not in the money sense.

The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) categorizes VSU as a Red Light University, which means that VSU has at least one policy that FIRE says clearly and significantly restricts freedom of speech.

FIRE’s grading system for these policies is Red Light for super restrictive, Yellow Light for somewhat restrictive, and Green Light for barely restrictive.

Valdosta’s Red Light Policy is about internet usage. This policy prohibits the use of the university’s email to send anything that might tarnish the university.

“Any students or faculty who are critical of the university over email are potentially subject to punishment under this policy,”

Samantha Harris, FIRE’s director of policy research, said. “It is a totally inappropriate limitation on their right to free speech.”

The Red Light Policy also bans emails with offensive material, chain letters, unauthorized mass mailings, email hoaxes and malicious code.

“The policy does not define ‘offensive’ in any way, giving the university essentially total discretion to punish email users for engaging in controversial or unpopular speech over email,” Harris said.

VSU’s Yellow Light policies cover bullying, protest and demonstration, and harassment.

The protest and demonstration policy states that VSU has the right to decide the time, manner, and place of demonstrations or protests.

The Green Light policy prohibits using the computing systems to make terroristic threats, unsolicited sexual advances and harassment, and obscenity that is

offensive.

In 2007, VSU’s former President Ronald Zaccari academically withdrew student Hayden Barnes from the school after Barnes protested the construction of new parking garages. Barnes filed a lawsuit against Zaccari, claiming that his due process and freedom of speech rights had been violated.

FIRE wrote to the Board of Regents various times, asking them to reverse Barnes’ expulsion. The board eventually reinstated Barnes in 2008.

FIRE also wrote to VSU in the past to express their concern over the “Free Expression Area” policy, which restricted the area for free speech to one stage and only gave students access to it for two hours a day. VSU was briefly taken off the Red Light list after they did away with this policy, but it was put back on the list due to the strict internet usage policy.

Stella Henderson/THE SPECTATOR

Trevor Conway, a former VSU student now firefighter was walking around peacfully carrying an American flag around the front of Odum Library. “I don’t want people to be afraid to come to school and get their education. I don’t want people to be afraid.

I’m not carrying, I don’t have any weapons on me, it’s just myself and this flag,” he said.

Follow us on Twitter for on-the-go news! @vsuspectator April 23, 2015

Page 3

Racism has no over-night solution

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Our point of view...

Valdosta community, take VSU needs more diversity Zenobia Harris a breath and calm down A .F E Tyra Mills

PHOTO EDITOR tnmills@valdosta.edu

opposing protestors probably felt that the flag represented those who died fighting for this country and those who risk their lives and give their lives for the citizens of this country.

The flag is a piece of cloth; that represents the United States of America, not what has happened in this country or what our military stands for. Soldiers do not fight for a piece of cloth, they fight for the citizens of this nation and to protect this country, so protesting against the very citizens of this nation is contradictory. Soldiers fight to protect the citizens of this nation so that they can speak freely and be protected under this government. Though the soldiers and veterans may not agree with it, protestors have a constitutional right to walk on any flag they want.

Again, I completely understand why someone would be upset about people walking over our flag. I just question why no one is upset that Michelle Manhart posed nude and completely sexualized the flag. The same woman who was arrested for trying to “protect” a flag, draped the same flag around her body and posed nude with it. Sexualizing the flag seems just about equal to walking on it to me, and yet there has been no protest against her.

Ultimately, the community of Valdosta needs to calm down and take a breather.

With protests breaking out at Valdosta State, a Blazer may be beginning to question what is going on with our beloved campus. Students have been stepping on flags, veterans coming on campus allegedly “armed” in protest of it, black lives matter campaigners joining the march and many students inserting their opinions and adding to the mayhem.

Social media has been on fire this week; students are voicing their opinions as well as people who don’t even attend Valdosta State University and have no intentions of ever even coming to this city. For some students, the recent turn of events has given some the idea to leave.

For others, this has brought out their Blazer Pride.

This past Monday, countless people were on the pedestrian walk, yelling, crying, recording and watching the numerous demonstrations happening. It seemed as though there were a lot of different groups of people with different agendas, passionately wanting to be heard and understood.

I understood those who came out to show their patriotic feelings about the flags. I spoke with and listened to many veterans and soldiers who felt the protestors who walked on the flags were being disrespectful. This is completely understandable because they put their lives on the line for this country.

To me, the definition of a flag is a cloth used as an emblem or symbol of a country or institution used as decoration during public festivities. I feel as though both parties are inserting too much symbolism into this object.

The initial protestors who stepped on the flag felt as if the flag represented injusTyra Mills/SPECTATOR tices and prejudices put upon Students joined together on Monday, April 20 to express African Americans in this their opinions regarding the protest that took place on Friday, April 17. country. I’m assuming the

SST EATURES DITOR

znharris@valdosta.edu

Valdosta State University is home to a lot of different things, but diversity may not be one of them.

According to the VSU 2013-14 profile, there were about 9, 328 undergraduate students last year. Of those students, 51.9 percent are listed as White, 35.8 percent as Black or African American, 4.9 percent Hispanic, 3.0 percent Multiracial, and less than five percent listed as Asian, American Indian, Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander, and unknown.

The City of Valdosta displays similar demographics with a majority of residents being listed as White, followed by African American, then Hispanic, and so on.

In terms of the ratio of Caucasian to African American students, VSU has a pretty standard mix of race for the location, but the realms of diversity extend far beyond black and white, or even race and ethnicity in general. There are many other factors to take into consideration such as religion, sexual orientation, gender, etc. These factors all play an important part in making our campus more diverse.

There are students here who are different from the majority. They come from different places and have different experiences that matter and are worth understanding. However, people often fear or stay away from “different” and what they don’t understand, so

Photo illustration by Tyra Mills/THE SPECTATOR

The definition of diversity extends beyond black and white or race and ethnicity.

the bigger question is whether culture and diversity is being nurtured at VSU and in the Valdosta area?

There are several factors to be considered that may suggest a larger need for diversity. As an observation, students don’t seem to be extremely encouraged to intermingle and go to events or join organizations that put them outside of their cultural and social norms, or their “comfort zone.” While there are some organizations that promote diversity or consist of people from different backgrounds, there could be a lot more done by many organizations to encourage students to join who may differ from the status quo.

The other problem may lie within the school’s location. VSU is a college located in the South, an area that historically values tradition and “keeping things the way they are” in regards to race, politics and other factors.

While the university is supposed to be considered a

society within a society— creating a different environment than the surrounding region— often the beliefs and characteristics of the area bleed over into the university. The overall environment can certainly have an impact on diversity and the type of students that apply to and attend VSU. If more international students and minorities were encouraged to attend, integrated well into VSU, and the students and faculty promoted a more diverse environment, more minorities and more international students would come to the school.

College can be a completely different society on its own. It allows students who may not come from very diverse places to meet people from different backgrounds. In order to promote an atmosphere of acceptance and cultural awareness, VSU has to be more open to embracing diversity and making sure all students feel comfortable, appreciated and accepted.

April 23, 2015

OPINIONS

GoFund Me closes cop’s page Zenobia Harris

STAFF WRITER znharris@valdosta.edu Michael T. Slager, the South Carolina police officer who was arrested and fired after shooting and killing an unarmed man, has apparently become a cause worth supporting.

Go Fund Me, a crowdfunding site that allows people to raise money for various causes, shut down a page that was gathering money in support of Slager.

A Go Fund Me representative issued a statement explaining that the page was shut down because it violated the site’s terms and conditions. The campaign was moved to another crowdfunding site, Indiegogo.

Go Fund Me was right to take down the page, but the issue of the Slager campaign page exists far beyond the terms and conditions of the site. The unidentified campaign organizer posted on the Indiegogo campaign page that the campaign is about Slager’s right to a fair trial.

While everyone has that right, it has become clear to many people who have viewed the horrific video that Slager is guilty of a senseless murder and whatever punishment he receives will surely fit the crime.

In the video, Slager can be seen handcuffing Scott after he shoots him. Slager then returns

to the spot where he shot Scott to retrieve an object that appears to be his taser. He runs back to the spot where Scott lay and drops the object beside his body.

So not only did Slager shoot an unarmed man, he tampered with a crime scene in order to corroborate his story. The sad part is that up until the day the video was released, Scott’s alibi may have checked out in court and Scott’s family wouldn’t have gotten the justice they deserved.

Of all of the cases that have

port whatever causes they feel are important, but supporting a man who is clearly a murderer and has no sense of integrity is ridiculous.

While the real reason the campaign organizer is trying to raise money for Slager is not clear, any American who truly believes in justice and the meaning behind “protect and serve” should think twice before supporting any campaign associated with Slager.

The beauty of being in Ameri-

popped up through the past few months that involved a civilian and an officer of the law, this is probably be the first time evidence was released that shows, unarguably, that an officer abandoned police protocol to protect his own agenda.

Not only is Slager guilty of murder, but he has also manipulated the people who had the most faith in him to do the right thing. From the police department where Slager worked, to his family and even the people he vowed to “protect and serve,” he violated that trust by attempting to abuse the system for his own personal gain.

Everyone has a right to sup-

ca is that everyone is supposed to have the right to a fair trial and freedom of expression. However, there is a time when politics have to be set aside and morals are called into question. Crowdfunding sites are a great way to raise money for noble causes, but it can also be home to some offensive and undeserving campaigns.

Raising money for Slager won’t change what happened and it probably won’t change the course of the case no matter how much money is raised. Despite anyone’s opinion, the evidence will speak for itself. Slager will have his day in court and he will surely get just what he deserves.

Page 4

Cosmo publishes trends, exemplifies racism

“Slager is guilty of a senseless murder.”

Visit www.vsuspectator.com for more stories!

BuzzFeed Cosmopolitan magazine published beauty trends featuring minority races with trends that “need to die” and majority races with “gorgeous” trends.

Racism is a topic that is tender to bring up. However, in a recent article ASSITANT SPORTS EDITOR jparmistead@valdosta.edu that Cosmopolitan published on its online magazine, racism was definitely prevalent.

The article discussed recent trends that were either “gorgeous” or “need to die. “ The 21 trends that were considered “gorgeous” had white models showing the trend.

However, those trends that “need to die” had women of color.

According to Buzzfeed, the article received more than 80,000 across the Internet due to the controversial photos.

Racism is already a difficult and argumentative subject to discuss.

The fact that such a huge and popular magazine, both online and in print for women of all races, published such a discriminatory article is unacceptable.

Whether it just so happened to be that those trends that “need to die” were trending with women of color, the magazine should have recognized this and found a way to integrate women of color into the “gorgeous” trends and vice versa.

The title “trends that need to die” is just as harsh as the racism that Cosmo published in its issue.

Anyone who saw his/her picture on a website under “trends that need to die” would feel offended, no matter their skin color.

Lia Armistead

Starbucks heats up race conversation: Franchise tries to get customers to talk about race with baristas Kenzie Kesselring

ASST. OPINIONS EDITOR klkesselring@valdosta.edu Starbucks declared its longing for Americans to “race together,” but not all coffee drinkers seem thrilled about the idea.

It’s not that Americans are opposed to talking about race, but many don’t seem to want to at 8 a.m. over a tall skinny vanilla latte.

The campaign launched by Starbucks’ CEO Howard Schultz premiered in a full-page ad in the New York Times in the middle of March. The ad was simple and featured the words “race together” with the Starbucks logo underneath.

Schultz told Fortune the reason he feels America needs to start talking about race in an interview soon after the promotion began.

“It’s an emotional issue,” Schultz said. “But it is so vitally important to the country.”

One would think Starbucks

would be the perfect company to kick start such a controversial campaign. The company has spoken out about other hot topics in the past and according to Fortune, out of all 200,000 people employed by Starbucks, 40 percent are members of a racial minority.

According to CNN and the U.S Census, America is at a peak of racial diversity with 13 percent of the population being African American and 17 percent being Hispanic. It would seem that now is as good a time as any to talk about racial diversity in America, but Starbucks goers and experts don’t quite agree.

“Ever since the #RaceTogether fiasco, I get really self-conscious at Starbucks when they ask me if I want light or dark roast,” said writer and comedian Dana Schwartz via Twitter.

Matt Glowacki, a diversity expert who teaches students and leaders how to properly handle and celebrate diversity through

a seminar called “Diversity According to Family Guy and South Park,” expressed his thoughts on Starbucks’ movement during a seminar at the South Eastern Panhellenic Conference at the end of March.

“In the context of appropriateness, I don’t know you, I have no emotional investment in you, you’re handing me a coffee, and then there’s 50 people behind me, so you have an invested interest in getting me out of the way,” Glowacki said.

“I don’t like that they were trying to do this in a really impossible situation,” Glowacki said.

“Also, the more I hear about it, the more it sounds like they were just trying to get their brand out there instead of improving this controversy.”

The issue of racial tensions in America is not something that ended in the 1960s. It is noble of Starbucks to try to contribute to the healing people need in regards to race, but a coffee house

MCT Campus Starbucks wants customers to begin to talk about race with their baristas.

is not an ideal place to have conversation about race issues in our country.

Starbucks should be applauded for its attempt at spicing up a morning coffee run with a dose of reality, but a little more forethought could have gone a

long way.

It is highly unlikely that Starbucks will back down from confronting tough issues headon in the future, but Americans don’t seem to be quite ready for this tall order.

Fun Fact:

The Hubble Space Telescope turned 25 this month.

April 23, 2015

Page 5

Elan Waite/ THE SPECTATOR

Web Buzz: Citymaps app helps users collect, share points of interest MCT CAMPUS It’s easy to put together your own map-based guide to favorite hot spots, whether you’re collecting as you travel or planning for a trip.

Details include contact info, price rating, hours, reservations where applicable, and directions for those walking, driving or taking a bus.

Use the “Explore” feature to find collections, featured mappers and what’s being pinned near you.

I particularly liked the “Stream” function to find travel inspiration. Make sure you follow more people than you know.

What’s not: You can connect with other people through the app’s list of Citymaps users, your friends on Facebook, Google Plus and your own contact list.

Despite what I think is a

Currently

fairly tech-savvy group in my networks, I couldn’t find any Citymaps users (yet).

Because I couldn’t ask a Facebook friend to help me grow my collection, I had to email or text a friend to add Citymaps in their “Friends” section.

Slightly annoying, but not the end of the world.

A global map app that enables you to collect and share points of interest.

Name: Citymaps Available: iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch with iOS 7.0 or later, Android 4.0.2 and up.

Cost: Free

Ivey Ingalls-Rubin/ THE SPECTATOR

The Daily Strange:

Spray on skin coming to you soon Ivey Ingalls- Rubin

Staff Writer iningallsrubin@valdosta.edu Spray on skin is reality.

A prototype medical device has turned the science fiction notion of spray-on skin to a reality. This device literally sprays skin cells directly onto burn victims and enables the body to re-grow skin.

The traditional methods like skin grafts were far more invasive and took weeks and sometimes months to heal, whereas this spray gun takes only about an hour and creates less scarring

while using less skin.

Though this device is still technically in an experimental stage, it has already successfully treated dozens of burn victims.

The way in which it works it quite astounding. The spray gun uses a swath of stem cells from a patient’s healthy skin and mixes them with a small amount of skin that has been broken down by enzymes. This concoction creates a solution that is in turn sprayed directly onto the burned area of the victim.

This spray has already been approved in Europe, Australia, China and Canada, but the U.S.

Under

is yet to jump on board. Recell is the Australian product, and it is under clinical testing on 106 patients at 15 locations in the U.S. The testing began in May 2010 and is funded by the Armed Forces Institute of Regenerative Medicine.

This form of skin treatment has the potential to save lives as well as decrease a patient’s length of stay at a hospital and the number of operations they need. The skin that is healing after the spray is also smoother and more regular looking than the results of a skin graft.

Construction

Rock N Roll Hall of Fame AWARDS BAND BEATLES BILL WITHERS DRUMS FAME

GREENDAY GUITAR RINGO STAR ROLLING STONE STARS

Like our new design? Tweet us your thoughts @ vsuspectator!

April 23, 2015

End of Semester Events Earth Day Festival April 25 1-4 p.m.

Drexel Park Art by the Water April 25 10-12 a.m.

2316 Clyattville Rd. Emerging Artists Showcase April 23-26 7:30pm Sawyer Theatre Blazefest Music Festival April 25 2-8 p.m.

Front Lawn RHA Movie Screening April 24 8:30 p.m.

Front Lawn End of year Bash April 30 6 p.m.

Baptist Collegiate Ministry

Page 6

Minority superheroes: More than just a trusty sidekick John Preer

College Life Editor jhpreer@valdosta.edu If I asked you to name five minority superheroes, could you do it? Probably not, and you’re not alone.

When the average person thinks of a superhero, a few come to mind like Superman, Batman or Ironman. What do these classic comic book heroes have in common? They are all white males. For years, minorities have not exactly shared the spotlight with their white counterparts. Aside from a few honorable mentions such as the Green Lantern or Cyborg, minority superheroes haven’t gotten the same attention as the more famous

characters.

The major comic book companies such as Marvel and DC have been trying to break this cycle and inject a little more color into their comics. However, Marvel seems to have taken the lead in this area leaving DC to play catch up. Marvel recently released a statement claiming that Falcon, Captain America’s black sidekick, would be taking on the Captain’s role. This comes after news of a female Thor joining the fray.

There have been rumors of the Human Torch, Black Panther and even Spiderman being portrayed by black actors in upcoming live adaptations of the series. The most notable DC live adaptation rumor has been the casting of actor Tyrese Gibson as the Green

Lantern. This is great and all, but what about all of the other minorities out there that aren’t being represented?

In the last installment of the live action Batman trilogy, there was no mention of Bane’s, a historically Hispanic character, ethnicity. Although his ethnicity wasn’t crucial to the movie’s storyline, it is still a defining characteristic for the character that was completely left out.

There is still hope for the genre. Iron-Fist, a Chinese superhero, has a leading role in the new animated Spiderman series.

There has been another win for minorities in comics. The Marvel character, Iceman from the X-men series, is supposedly coming out as gay in a new installment of the comic.

‘Ex Machina’ director: ‘I like the machines. I have problems with humans’

Mark Olsen Los Angeles Times MCTCampus

Three characters trapped in a house debating human consciousness may not sound like the most exciting backbone for a movie. Yet in “Ex Machina,” the directing debut for writer Alex Garland, that dry-sounding concept becomes the basis for a sci-fi thriller of sleek, gleaming surfaces and impressive intellectual depth, somehow managing to feel modern, futuristic and classical all at once.

“The challenge is — and this is such a bad way to sell a movie — the challenge is how do you make a movie which is basically a film of ideas?” Garland said.

“And then part of the challenge is making those ideas accessible and dramatically interesting and trying to understand them.”

Opening Friday, the film begins with young computer programmer Caleb (Domhnall Gleeson) winning an internal company contest for a private visit with the reclusive tech industrialist Nathan (Oscar Isaac) — think Mark Zuckerberg plus Steve Jobs plus Howard Hughes — on his remote nature preserve estate. There, Caleb discovers that Nathan has created Ava (Alicia Vikander), a lifelike and beautiful robot with artificial intelligence, strengthened with data from the compa-

ny’s online search engines.

What begins as Caleb administering a series of tests designed to determine whether Ava has gained sentient self-awareness becomes a twisting game of wills and wits as the three characters battle for dominance and survival.

“One of the big things for me to figure out for my character was what’s he doing on purpose, what’s he accidentally doing, what’s he in control of, what is he not in control of and then feeling all that,” Isaac said. “Really we’d talk about the script as a whole and then look at it from every single angle to make sure it sticks together.”

“There’s a lot of misdirection in the film,” Garland added.

The London-born Garland, 45, has had an intriguing path to his first directing credit. After his debut novel, the backpacking adventure “The Beach,” was adapted into a movie, he reinvigorated the zombie story with his first screenplay, “28 Days Later.”

Alongside two more novels, he followed this up with scripts to the space drama “Sunshine” and adaptations of the novel “Never Let Me Go” and comic “Dredd.”

Taken together, it now appears as a consistently inventive body of work, full of big ideas, sharp storytelling and a complicated view of technology’s interface with society.

For all its high-tech filigree, there is something elemental in the drama of “Ex Machina:” a grounding in the basic forces of desire and power alongside headier ideas of consciousness and artificial intelligence. The film’s serious ideas are relieved by its escalating tension, and Garland was also aware of baiting the trap in how the gender dynamics between Caleb, Ava and Nathan would all play out.

“If you look at issues of strong A.I. that is self-aware, you inevitably are talking about consciousness,” Garland said.

“And when you’re talking about consciousness, you are talking about lies, jealousy, attraction, sexuality.”

“The great science-fiction movies are human dramas also,” Gleeson added. “They’re not separate in my mind. Just because something is science fiction doesn’t make it just spaceships.

In my head, they tell you more about people than they do about machines.”

Garland, Gleeson and Isaac were speaking while sitting together around a conference table in a room overlooking downtown Austin, Texas, during the recent South by Southwest Film Festival. Introducing the film’s North American premiere a few hours later, the festival’s senior programmer, Jarod Neece, declared, “This might be one of the best

DNA Films

films we’ve ever played at South

by Southwest.”

The film was shot in just six weeks on a budget of less than $15 million, with a healthy percentage of it spent on visual effects to create Ava. Four weeks were spent at Britain’s Pinewood Studios, the production leaving just ahead of the arrival of “Star Wars: The Force Awakens,” in which both Isaac and Gleeson will appear. The organic modernism and untouched nature of Nathan’s estate were captured at a boutique hotel and private residence in Norway.

Garland, serious but friendly, is quick to highlight the collaborative nature of filmmaking with a team that included cinematographer Rob Hardy, editor Mark Day, production designer Mark Digby, costumes by Sammy Sheldon Differ, visual effects supervisor Andrew Whitehurst and music by Ben Salisbury and Portishead’s Geoff Barrow. His cast includes three rising stars— Isaac, Gleeson and Vikander will each be seen in numerous other films this year.

On making the transition to directing with his original script for “Ex Machina” — “I love this question,” Garland dryly said before it was even fully asked — Garland gave a brief disclaimer to something he has now been asked many times.

This day in Sports History April 23, 2015

• 1954-Hammerin’ Hank Aaron hits 1st of his 755 homers

Page 7

Blazer softball holds on to the No. 1 spot in GSC Last games of the regular season against No. 6 Mississippi College Niamani Carlyle-Hollis Sports Writer ntcarlyle@valdosta.edu

Blazer softball will celebrate senior day as they prepare to chop down. Mississippi College Choctaws in the last game of the regular season before Gulf South Tournament starts on April 30.

The Lady Blazers will face off against MC in a double-header on Saturday starting at 1 p.m.

The Lady Blazers have not played a game since their big wins, 8-0, 19-3 in a double header against Albany State University on April 14.

The Lady Blazers hit a whopping nine homers over the Albany State Rams, with Kiley Rusen and Fran Johnson both accounting for two home runs apiece in the first game.

Rusen kept in stride, connecting for the long ball an extra three times and recording seven RBIs in the second game.

The Lady Blazers have been on a seven game winning streak since they were defeated by Alabama-Huntsville on April 4 and had hoped to keep things rolling against Lee University,

but were unable to play due to rain.

Though they have not played a game in over a week, the Lady Blazers hope to pick up where they left off against the Choctaws.

The Lady Blazers are currently 44-4 on the season and 25-3 in the conference play, placing them in the No.1 position.

The Lady Choctaws are currently 23-17 on the season and 13-13 in the GSC making them stand in the No. 6 spot.

Heavy hitters for the Lady Choctaws are Tori Bankston and Karla Beth both with career high three home runs on the season.

Megan Everett has a total of 33 RBIs recorded on the season and Brooke Smitherman is not far behind with 23 of her own.

The Lady Blazers will also be honoring seniors Fran Johnson and Courtney Albritton as they celebrate Senior Day. The Blazers have won six consecutive GSC tournaments and have been NCAA South Regional Champions for three consecutive seasons.

Stella Henderson/THESPECTATOR

Senior outfielder Fran Johnson puts a big swing on the ball against Georgia Southwestern on April 8. The Blazers won both ends of the doubleheader, 6-1 and 8-0. The Blazers go into the last game of the regular season with a 44-4 overall record and 25-3 in the conference play, putting them in the No.1 position. The

Blazers have won six consectutive GSC titles and three NCAA South Regional Championships.

59 years ago, discrimination law and sports intersected Frank Fitzpatrick

MTC Campus The Philadelphia Inquirer The national controversy that clouded the run-up to a Final Four that concluded April 6, in Indianapolis wasn’t the first collision between basketball and civil-rights politics.

In Louisiana in 1956, as in Indiana 59 years later, a fourteam basketball tournament involving a favored Kentucky team was engulfed in a political storm, though the divisive issue then was race and not sexual preference.

And as in Indiana, where a recent religious-freedom law was widely seen as discriminatory against homosexuals, the Louisiana dispute involved changing cultural mores, a conservative legislature, worried civic and business leaders and, ultimately, government intervention that saved the event.

The turmoil surrounding the 1956 Sugar Bowl, a Christmas basketball tournament run by the organizers of the better-known New Year’s football game, had been triggered two years earlier by the Supreme Court’s historic

ruling outlawing segregation.

In the tumultuous southern reaction to Brown V. Board of Education, many cities and states responded by transforming long-standing Jim Crow customs into hardened law.

Louisiana’s legislature passed a flurry of such bills in 1956.

One, Act 579, widely known as the Athletic Events Bill, outlawed all public interaction between blacks and whites.

“All persons, firms and corporations,” it read, “are prohibited from sponsoring, arranging, participating in, or permitting on premises under their control any dancing, social functions, entertainments, athletic training, games, sports or contests and other such activities involving personal and social contacts, in which the participants or contestants are members of the white and negro races.”

Powerful interests in New Orleans immediately foresaw financial consequences, though the only civic entity initially willing to speak out in opposition was the Mid-Winter Sports Association (MWSA), organizers of the popular football and basketball

Sugar Bowls.

That group prodded Gov. Earl Long to veto the legislation. But the son of populist politician Huey Long refused.

“My mail,” he told reporters, “is running 4-to-1 in favor of the legislation.”

Next, Sugar Bowl organizers sought to water down the bill, proposing an exemption for New Orleans. When lawmakers rejected that, the group devised a failed plan that essentially would have created tiny integrated islands within an otherwise segregated arena and stadium.

Racial restrictions in college sports were loosening slowly in the 1950s, but not in the South. The region’s three largest conferences the Atlantic Coast, Southeastern and Southwest remained segregated and would be for another decade.

The 1956 Sugar Bowl field was comprised of three Catholic schools Dayton, St. Louis and Notre Dame and the most dominant team in college basketball, Adolph Rupp’s Kentucky.

When action to invalidate or weaken the Louisiana law failed, Notre Dame and St. Louis, each

of whom had black players, withdrew. Dayton, though it had no blacks at the time, did the same.

“If we went to the tournament as it now stands,” said Dayton athletic director Harry Baujan, “we’d be condoning the law.”

Kentucky Gov. Happy Chandler, assuming the event would be canceled, hastily made plans for a new Christmas tournament in Louisville, the Blue Grass Classic, that would feature the Wildcats.

Rupp’s Kentucky team was allwhite. He wouldn’t add his first black player, Tom Payne, until the 1970-71 season, well after most SEC teams had integrated.

Some Kentucky alumni saw the Sugar Bowl controversy as a chance for the border-state school with national ambitions to make a positive statement on race. They urged UK to join the other schools in withdrawing.

“Here is a situation where the University of Kentucky could courageously show that principle is more important to it than the ‘sugar’ in the Sugar Bowl,” Herschel Weil, a 1922 grad, wrote to UK president Frank Dickey.

But as Rupp himself had done

so often when questioned about racial issues, Dickey used contractual obligations as an excuse.

The school had promised the organizers it would appear, Dickey said, and it intended to honor that commitment.

“I agree with you that the problem of the religious and moral implications in this situation is a difficult one,” wrote Dickey in response to Weil.

“However [I] feel that the moral values of integrity and honesty are also involved.”

Rupp’s influence on the decision can’t be determined, but he and Kentucky helped round up three southern schools Houston, Virginia Tech and Alabama as replacements and the 1956 Sugar Bowl, which the Wildcats won easily, went on.

Asked for his reaction to Act 579’s impact on what had been one of the nation’s premier holiday tournaments, MWSA president Paul DeBlanc said: “That’s the law and we will try to live under it.”

Three years later, the U.S. Supreme Court declared that law unconstitutional.