The University Star
OPINIONS
Tuesday, February 21, 2017 | 7 Mikala Everett Opinions Editor @mikala_maquella
UniversityStar.com @universitystar
RACE
MEDIA
Don’t limit black history to a month America’s
watchdog needs to stop sleeping on the job
By John Lee Opinions Columnist @ leeeeyonce The words Black History Month usually bring a nostalgic image to my mind. It reminds me of elementary school, when I learned about the significant contributions black citizens made: Rosa Parks’ impact on the Civil Rights Movement, George Washington Carver’s experiments and, of course, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s fight for nonviolence. At that age, most of us happily accepted and enjoyed Black History Month. It was a time to celebrate black excellence and recognize their contributions to the world. However, as I got older, I came to understand that black history, or black excellence should not be contained in the shortest month of the year. To put it simply, black history is American history and should be taught more comprehensively year-round. Negro History Week, as it was called at the time, was started in 1926 by Carter G. Woodson, a Harvardeducated historian. Woodson saw the underrepresentation of African Americans being taught in school, and made it his mission to change history. He chose the month of February to pay respects to Fredrick Douglas and Abraham Lincoln, both of whom were important figures in black—American—history. The week of “negro history,” eventually became Black History Month in 1976. What Woodson did not perceive, is that by setting up the foundation for Black History Month, he also set up a system in which black history is only celebrated in February. At the lower grade level, teaching about Rosa Parks and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. is important and introduces the idea that not all citizens were equal at one point in history. Yet, as they grow older, students are taught about the same leaders repeatedly, instead of the many black Americans that have made significant and numerous contributions to society.Evidence has shown that many students do not
By May Olvera Opinions Columnist @yungfollowill
ILLUSTRATION BY ISRAEL GONZALEZ
understand some of the most important historical actions that have taken place in the United States. According to the National Assessment of Educational Progress U.S. History Exam, out of the 12,000 12th grade students tested, 73 percent of students were unable to come up with an appropriate response when asked about “separate education facilities (being) inherently unequal.” The answer pertaining to the Brown V. Board of Education is quite possibly one of the most important Supreme Court cases to date. Another report by the Southern Poverty Law Center, a nonprofit organization, shows that 35 states receive an F grade for only teaching “20 percent of the recommended content” concerning civil rights. Fifteen of these states completely ignore civil
rights all together. When discussing the state that America is in when looking at black history, one month is absolutely not enough. Black history is important because it is American history and the only way to avoid repeating history is to learn from it. The history of slavery, segregation, civil rights, and oppression needs to be taught. Since students are not learning about inequality and injustice, they are bound to repeat it. It is vital that students learn about Claudette Colvin, Marsha P. Johnson, Bessie Coleman, Robert Smalls and other forgotten black iconic figures, and not limit black history to just a month to understand the impact black people have made on all of our lives. -John Lee is a marketing freshman
INTERNET
Crossing the red tape of cyber warfare
ILLUSTRATION BY JUAN CARLOS CAMPOS
By Jakob Rodriguez Opinions Columnist @JakobRyRod With the rise of cyber attacks, modern conflicts are essentially borderless. Surveillance between world powers has too often blurred the lines of cyberwarfare. As technology continues to advance, there is an inherent need to establish rules for this new age of espionage and warfare. U.S. government and world officials need to realize a “Cyber Geneva Convention” needs to be drafted to establish online boundaries on interactions between countries. Cyber security was a mainstay in the 2016 presidential election cycle with private email servers, talk of the Republican and Democratic National Conventions being hacked and the overall election being influenced by Russia in some way. Donald Trump, presidential nominee at the time, tweeted: “If Russia, or some other entity, was hacking, why
did the White House wait so long to act? Why did they only complain after Hillary lost?” Trump stated that while he did not know who hacked the DNC, it could have been Russia, China, a 14-year-old or someone sitting on their bed that weighs 400 pounds. This statement, while comical, is not necessarily wrong. However, cyber warfare and large scale hacks are not typically the work of a 400-pound 14-year-old. They are the work of governments and sophisticated, trained teams. The United States, Russia, China and other world powers have been keeping tabs on one another for years. Cyber terrorists and internet trolls are completely indistinguishable online. The continued advancement of both technology and ways to manipulate it makes it increasingly difficult to crack down on hackers trying to steal information—whether it is a government official or a Texas State student. Computer hacks and hackers have
only continued to advance. Even Texas State fell victim to a campuswide phishing attack, where students were baited into providing information to an unofficial source earlier this semester. Government officials are attempting to prevent a “cyber-Pearl Harbor,” which would take the nation by surprise and devastate information from Tommy down the street to the President of the United States himself. An attack on American servers is bound to happen if we do not step up our informational technology game. “A cyber attack perpetrated by nation states or violent extremist groups could be as destructive as the terrorist attack on 9/11,” said Leon Panetta, former U.S. Secretary of Defense, according to the NATO Review. The Senate Armed Services Committee’s “Worldwide Threat Assessment” strategic outlook states: “The consequences of innovation and increased reliance on information technology in the next few years on both our society’s way of life in general and how we in the Intelligence Community specifically perform our mission will probably be far greater in scope and impact than ever.” We are living in a different age than most politicians grew up in. Everything they say, do and support is cataloged online. Lack of familiarization among government officials in regards to how the internet works is evident in the recent congressional record. Politicians say internet when they mean web. However, the internet is the structural underpinning of the web, which is what you see while clicking around online. This lack of familiarization adds to the chaos of a potential cyberattack. We have nuclear warheads that are still controlled by floppy disks. This and numerous breaches in information has created the need for around-the-clock innovation and intervention. It appears that in order to stop the hackers of tomorrow, we need help from the hackers and inventors of today.
-Jakob R. Rodriguez is journalism Freshman
Formal journalism has strayed from what it should be and has allowed for citizen journalists to pick up the baton of true reporting. Now, more than ever, it is vital for journalists to pick up their slack, drop their appeals to the government and serve the American citizens. The current state of journalism requires a look at recent history and, more specifically, the conflict in Iraq. The United States’ involvement in the Middle East has led to the amplification of news media and to the birth of “embedded journalism.” The term “embedded journalism” first arose during the 2003 invasion of Iraq. It refers to news reporters who follow military units during armed conflicts giving them an inside-view of war. Although this may sound beneficial, the concept is quite problematic because it allows a country’s military to dictate what can and cannot be reported to the rest of the world, effectively turning it into state propaganda masked as objective news. According John Pilger, Dan Rather, one of America’s most prominent journalists in modern history, argues, “had journalists questioned the deceptions that led to the Iraq war, instead of amplifying them, the invasion would not have happened.” Perhaps as a direct result of the issues irresponsible formal news sources have posed to our society, such as unmitigated bias and spotty news coverage, there has been a rise in citizen journalism throughout social media. In Egypt, Yemen and Tunisia, Twitter and Facebook were used as revolutionary tools to schedule protests, build underground networks of resistance and diffuse information clear of government propaganda to the rest of the world. The revolutionary media presence dominated by ordinary citizens was so profound, in fact, the Egyptian government blocked all access to the Internet Jan. 28, 2011. In response, cyber-activist groups like Anonymous provided Egyptian revolutionaries with proxies to bypass the ban and allow people to continue to report the brutalities they were experiencing. Americans witnessed a media blackout in 2014 when Michael Brown was killed by a Ferguson police officer and protestors took to the streets to demand justice. The resistance was mainly streamed on Twitter until official news sources were forced to report on the matter. Why is it that formal sources have begun to fail American citizens again and again? Why has the responsibility of reporting people’s struggles against state-led injustices fallen to those people themselves? To me, it seems like the first amendment—which protects journalists from government repercussions—is largely going to waste. We currently live under a president who, in his first hours in power, presided over the arrest of over 200 inauguration protestors, including several journalists. Those arrested are facing 10 years in prison. He has also overused the term “fake news” to describe any negative reports on his presidency, going as far as to wage a press war against CNN. Now is the time for journalists to set aside their need for a gold star from the government and maximum viewership. They should instead report on the real struggles people are currently facing. There is a reason people are turning to their peers for information. However, as journalists, professional or ordinary, can and need to work together to do better by the people. Journalists have an inherent responsibility to act as watchdogs for the government. Today, journalism is not what it should be, but with ethics, passion and conviction, journalists can seize this political moment and begin to better serve ordinary citizens. - May Olvera is a journalism junior