TCB Nov. 14, 2019 — The senator speaks

Greensboro / Winston-Salem / High Point Nov. 14-20, 2019 triad-city-beat.com

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THE SENATOR SPEAKS Richard Burr talks impeachment and process at Wake Forest PAGE 6

‘Queer Eye’ in Japan PAGE 4

Chitterling thing PAGE 11

Extreme black cop? PAGE 10

Nov. 14-20, 2019

EDITOR’S NOTEBOOK

Sympathy for Medill The chatter among journalists this week concerns one of the country’s Top 5 J-schools, Medill School of Journalism at Northby Brian Clarey western University in Chicago, its student-run news organization the Daily and the manner in which it covered a protest against an appearance by former Attorney General Jeff Sessions.

At issue is an apology issued by the editorial staff after the fact, outlining the mistakes they felt were made in the coverage and a list of actions they undertook to remedy them.

They removed photos of the protesters after some complained that the photos felt “retraumatizing and invasive.” They said they regretted looking up students in the school directory to contact them for comment, and they removed from the story the name of a student they quoted to protect him from reprisal by the university.

To this, the professional journalism community responded more or less with one voice: No! No! These things for which the Daily editorial board apologized are the very stuff

of the business: truth, accountability, attribution, the asking of uncomfortable questions to people who might not want to answer them.

Everything else, as they say, is just PR. It’s tempting to unload on these kids — who, to be fair, were having the right conversations but ended up on the wrong side of the thing. I know I was tempted.

That’s the point from which I started writing this column.

But then I remembered a couple incidents from my own college-newspaper days, two massive mistakes in particular — one a matter of attribution, the other an act born of laziness and malformed ego — that might have gotten me fired had they happened in a professional setting.

The former was pointed out to me, graciously and even sympathetically, by a Times-Picayune reporter via a phone call to the newsroom.

“You could actually get sued for this,” he told me. I have never forgotten the lesson.

Point is: Students are allowed to — even supposed to — make mistakes, as long as they recognize that they’re mistakes.

I think the Medill students have gotten theirs: Journalists don’t hide the identities of the people they’re writing about. That’s kind of the whole point of the thing.

QUOTE OF THE WEEK If we’re gonna move schools forward, we’re gonna have to make change. ­—John Doyle pg. 8

BUSINESS PUBLISHER/EXECUTIVE EDITOR Brian Clarey brian@triad-city-beat.com

PUBLISHER EMERITUS Allen Broach allen@triad-city-beat.com

EDITORIAL SENIOR EDITOR Jordan Green jordan@triad-city-beat.com

ASSOCIATE EDITOR Sayaka Matsuoka sayaka@triad-city-beat.com

SPECIAL SECTION EDITOR Nikki Miller-Ka niksnacksblog@gmail.com

STAFF WRITER Lauren Barber lauren@triad-city-beat.com

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1451 S. Elm-Eugene St. Box 24, Greensboro, NC 27406 Office: 336-256-9320 Sen. Richard Burr (R-NC) and STAFF WRITER Savi Ettinger Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.), chair savi@triad-city-beat.com and vice chair of the Iintelligence EDITORIAL INTERN Cason Ragland Committee, spoke about their ART findings and the prospect of impeachment at Wake Forest ART DIRECTOR Robert Paquette robert@triad-city-beat.com University on Monday. [Photo SALES illustration by Robert Paquette] KEY ACCOUNTS Gayla Price gayla@triad-city-beat.com

CONTRIBUTORS

Carolyn de Berry, Matt Jones

TCB IN A FLASH @ triad-city-beat.com First copy is free, all additional copies are $1. ©2018 Beat Media Inc.

Nov. 14-20, 2019

CITY LIFE Nov. 14-17, 2019

by Savi Ettinger

THURSDAY Nov. 14

Joyful Creations @ the Artery Gallery (GSO), 5 p.m.

The Wizard of Oz @ the Carolina Theatre, 2 p.m.

Head to the Hayworth Fine Arts Center for a staging of Bright Star. The Broadwayknown show unfolds a love story that happens in the wake of the World Wars in the Blue Ridge Mountains. Find the event on Facebook.

SATURDAY Nov. 16

SUNDAY Nov. 17

Drag Brunch @ Undercurrent (GSO), 11 a.m.

Stonewall Sports, Greensboro’s LGBT-focused sports alliance, partner with Undercurrent host a Sunday brunch, with bottomless mimosas, bacon and eggs, and a drag show.

Find the event on Facebook.

Preservation Forsyth Membership Gala @ George Black House and Brickyard (WS), 2 p.m.

PReservation Forsyth welcomes anyone interested in the local history of Forsyth County to their membership gala. Linda Dark of the African-American Archives speaks on African-American entrepreneurship in 1900s Winston-Salem. Find the event on Facebook.

Puzzles

Silent Book Club @ Scuppernong Books (GSO), 6 p.m.

For those who dislike the stress of finishing books within a certain time, or simply prefer to not have the pressure to speak, Scuppernong Books has an answer. The Silent Book Club meets for casual discussion of what each person picks to read, with bonus silent reading time. Find the event on Facebook.

Nutcracker preview @ Kaleidium Downtown (W-S), 10:30 a.m.

Get the whole family in the holiday spirit, even before UNCSA’s The Nutcracker opens. A storytime begins the morning, followed by a mini dance-lesson and a meetand-greet. Find the event on Facebook.

Extravaganza @ Elsewhere (GSO), 8 p.m.

Elsewhere’s 11th annual Extravaganza returns, inviting guests to explore all three floors of the thrift-store-turned-museum during its transformation into a dream realm. Buy tickets and learn more at goelsewhere.org.

Shot in the Triad

The reception for Joyful Creations, an exhibit by local artist Betsy Bevan, opens the gallery. Bevan plays with rigid shapes and bold colors to create her works. Find the event on Facebook.

Extra Life @ Hope Moravian Church (WS), 8 a.m.

Whether your favorite console is XBox or Playstation, join in for a 24-hour video-gaming marathon. Each hour of the day-long gaming session raises money for Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals. Find the event on Facebook.

The Community Theatre of Greensboro stages the Wizard of Oz for the 25th year in a row, bringing back a drama tradition. Performances run through Nov. 24. Buy tickets and learn more at carolinatheatre.com.

Culture

Laurelyn Dossett @ Gas Hill Drinking Room (W-S), 8 p.m.

Laurelyn Dossett performs to give a behindthe-scenes look at The Gathering: A Winter’s Tale in Six Songs, a set rooted in North Carolinian musical traditions. The concert will be in conjunction with the Winston-Salem Symphony. Find the event on Facebook.

Opinion

FRIDAY Nov. 15

Founders Day @ Historic Bethabara Park (W-S), 11 a.m.

This day-long event features a wide array of demonstrations and activities designed to immerse guests in history. Learn about pottery traditions, quilling, or the stories behind both Bethabara and Old Salem. Find the event on Facebook.

News

Second anniversary @ Little Brother Brewing (GSO), 8:30 p.m.

Stop in to celebrate the second anniversary of Little Brother Brewing with a concert from Time Sawyer, and weekend-long discounts on drinks and merchandise.

The rest of the weekend is filled with live concerts each night. Find the event on Facebook.

Bright Star @ High Point University, 7:30 p.m.

Up Front

Spring Awakening @ UNCSA (W-S), 7:30 p.m.

Freedman Theater hosts this rock-and-roll musical adaptation of a German play, about a group of teenagers working their way through their adolescence. Performances run through next weekend. Find the event on Facebook.

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Nov. 14-20, 2019 Up Front News Opinion Culture Shot in the Triad Puzzles

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Queer Eye in Japan

by Sayaka Matsuoka Since its revival in early 2018, the television show “Queer Eye” has not only made over, but arguably changed the lives of more than 30 individuals. The current iteration of the show streams on Netflix while the original premiered on Bravo in 2003 and was called, “Queer Eye for the Straight Guy.” The show follows of a group of five gay men, otherwise known as the “Fab Five,” as they meet and help individuals who have been nominated by friends or family and whom the group has been tasked with helping. The goals for each nominee are different episode to episode and include examples from wanting to rekindle a relationship with a spouse or simply becoming more confident. And while each season has captured audiences across the country, the show’s latest season is the one that caught my attention.

While all four of the previous seasons of the new Queer Eye revolve around individuals in the US, the latest season sets the show in Tokyo and follows the transformations of four Japanese “heroes.”

And it’s in these episodes that a nuanced and deeper understanding of the culture I grew up in can be viewed.

Japan, unlike the United States, has long been understood as having a conformist culture. While members of American society are encouraged to be individuals and show their strengths and unique qualities, sticking out is considered to be social suicide for most in Japan. Not unrelated, the country has also been known for its collectivist culture, in which the whole is emphasized and placed in higher regard than the individual.

And this theme of wanting to conform plays a vital part in each of the four episodes.

In the first episode, the Fab Five meet a woman named Yoko who works as a hospice employee and who has turned her home into a live-in hospital for elderly individuals.

Nominated by her close friend, viewers quickly find out that Yoko has dedicated most of her life and time to her patients, so much so, that she has given up a bedroom in her home and sleeps in a sleeping bag under the coffee table or in the hallway. When one of the Fab Five talks to Yoko about the importance of self-care, she responds that she hadn’t thought about herself in that way.

In the second episode, a young gay man talks about how he feels like he can’t be himself because of the still-strong taboo against homosexuality in the country. In the final episode, a once vibrant and creative man talks about how he has “killed” himself to blend in and go along with society.

And despite the language barrier and the cultural differences, each of the members of the Fab Five find themselves relating deeply to the struggles that these average Japanese people face because of their own experiences of being ostracized for their sexual orientation. By setting “Queer Eye” in Japan, producers take what on the surface seems like a simple, makeover show and instead brings viewers a more nuanced, interesting dive into a culture that has become synonymous with sushi, anime and karate.

Even though there are only four episodes, this season of “Queer Eye” is the first time in a long while that I can remember any American show, or movie for that matter, engaging in Japanese culture in a way that’s empathetic and respectful. The hope, of course, is that they take the success of this season and translate it to other countries and cultures moving forward. Because as Tan French, one of the Fab Five, says in the final episode of the season: “No matter where we go in the world, the one connecting factor is our desperation for love and connection and support.”

Saving social media

by Brian Clarey

This story offers much insight into the most important aspect of America’s society today, the family. It is somewhat of a healing force that anyone can use that will help them find the path where it all started.

powerbeyondthegrave.com

Opinion

The author is available for book signings and speaking engagements

News

Available in Print $21.99 Audio $5.99 Online $5.99

Up Front

Ever get the feeling that you’re arguing with a sock puppet?

If you believe Sen. Richard Burr (R-NC) and the Senate Intelligence Committee, Facebook has been compromised as a democratic public square by fake accounts intent on distorting reality, sowing discontent among the American people and affecting our electoral process.

Even worse, many of our fellow Americans hide behind fake accounts so they can display their worst impulses without fear of social or professional repercussion. And even worse than that: sometimes they do it for marketing.

I’d wager that half the content on Facebook is generated by people who are not who they say they are. In that case, the entire medium as a window on reality is useless, ineffective except for matters of propaganda and PR.

But there’s an easy fix: No more anonymous accounts.

In this new era of publishing, we all benefit from First Amendment protections of the sort that publications like Triad City Beat have enjoyed since the Constitution was written. But I remind everyone: The First Amendment protects the speech itself, but not the consequences for the person uttering it; our founders relied on the American people to enforce feedback, which over the years has ranged from actual tar and feathers to figurative ones like social pressure and real-life workplace consequences.

But anonymous trolls bear no such penalties; as such, they haven’t really earned the right to free speech. These rights were granted to actual people, not catfish and sock puppets.

If Facebook were to enforce the same ID requirements as, say, an airline or a bank, they’d be able to remove all but the very best fake accounts, raising the level of dialogue and lowering our collective blood pressure — and, perhaps, in the process restoring the sanctity of our national elections.

Nov. 14-20, 2019

“Power Beyond the Grave” is a true story that can benefit anyone who reads it.

Culture

NOVEMBER

Shot in the Triad

The Idiot Box Presents: Special event on Saturday Nov.23

Judah Friedlander OTHER EVENTS:

stand up comedy competition 7:30 p.m. & 9:30 p.m. Friday, November 15th

Puzzles

Ultimate Comic Challenge Quarterfinals Improv Comedy

7:30 p.m. & 9:30 Saturday, November 16th.

503 N Greene St, Greensboro

ibxcomedy.com

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Puzzles

Shot in the Triad

Culture

Opinion

News

Up Front

Nov. 14-20, 2019

NEWS

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Senate intel committee chair and vice-chair talk impeachment at Wake

by Jordan Green While the House committee leading the impeachment inquiry grabs headlines, its Senate counterpart charts a quieter and more harmonious course.

While the Democrat-controlled House Intelligence Committee commands the attention of the world with impeachment proceedings against President Trump, its Senate counterpart, led by Sen. Richard Burr (R-NC), has remained largely overshadowed.

Burr expressed his distaste for the impeachment process during a forum with Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.), the ranking Democrat on the committee, during a panel at Wake Forest University on Monday. Burr graduated from Wake in 1978 and is donating his congressional papers to the university.

“I’ve been through impeachment,” Burr said. “Nobody wins. Period, end of sentence. No party wins. The American people don’t win.”

Burr, who voted as a House representative in 1998 to impeach President Clinton for lying about his affair with White House intern Monica Lewinsky, described the bar for impeachment as “extremely high.” Burr characterized Trump’s critics as taking the position that he needs to be removed from office because of his rhetoric, and then cited revelations prior to the 2016 election about Trump talking about grabbing women by their genitals.

“There were some outrageous things that were released before the last election,” Burr said. “I can remember his conversation with Billy Bush. Well, that didn’t raise to the threshold that people thought he was unqualified to be president.”

Warner showed more reluctance to stake himself out on impeachment.

“We need to take a deep breath, take a step back, and recognize that we have a constitutional responsibility,” he said. “This is as serious as it gets in our form of government. And it needs to be treated with that level of seriousness.

And what upsets me is, again, the men and women I work with on either team that are jumping to conclusions, either saying, ‘I’ve already made my decision that he’s guilty,’ or not. So, let’s let this play out. We should be doing it with a sense of sobriety and seriousness.”

Burr and Warner take pride in their bipartisan approach to running the

‘The obvious thing is we can’t do it if we don’t trust each other.’ — Sen. Richard Burr

Senate Select Intelligence Committee, especially in comparison to its House counterpart, where Democratic chairman Rep. Adam Schiff is managing the impeachment inquiry while Rep. Devin Nunes, the ranking Republican, has disparaged the process as being “a bit like watching a cult.”

“Twenty years from now, somebody will look at how we conducted the intelligence committee, how we interacted with 17 intelligence agencies, and they will look at the precedent we set, and hopefully they will follow us,” Burr said.

“It just so happens we do it at a time when there’s a completely different approach on the House side.”

Warner interjected: “The bar’s been set pretty low.”

“The obvious thing is we can’t do it if we don’t trust each other,” Burr continued. “Now, we don’t agree on everything. And when we don’t agree we get together and we hammer that out. If, in fact, it’s a tie, the chairman still gets to win. But to my knowledge we have never actually exercised that.”

Burr declined to take questions from the press after the program.

But Warner acknowledged that matters under investigation in the impeachment inquiry — which hinges

on whether Trump used military aid and an invitation to the White House as leverage to pressure Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to open an investigation into the son of Trump’s political opponent Joe Biden — overlap with the Senate Select Intelligence Committee’s purview.

“We’ve got counterintelligence issues that we’ve looked at,” Warner said.

“For example: How did this discredited theory about Ukraine being the source of the intervention in 2016? That is appropriate under counterintelligence.”

Although he said some of the House Intelligence Committee’s focus is different, the impeachment process has raised concerns that the whistleblower program is being compromised.

“One of the things I feel very strongly about is I worry someone’s going to undermine the whistleblower program, the anonymity of that,” he said. “Because if you undermine that program, then you’re not going to have people step up and stand up. This is something that’s been supported 40-some years with bipartisan support.”

Burr criticized the House Intelligence Committee for not keeping a tight enough rein on information. In contrast, House Republicans have charged that

MADISON ROLAND

the House inquiry lacks transparency, although the committee has begun releasing transcripts and will begin start holding open hearings on Wednesday.

“I would say the biggest distinction between the House and the Senate is we’ve gone for two-and-a-half years through a Russia investigation, and until you read the report you really don’t know what we’re gonna say,” Burr said. “That’s intentional. It’s intentional because we want to protect the integrity of the committee that we’ve been tasked to be in charge of. We’re stewards of it as long as we’re there. But the precedent we set is going to be picked up by someone 20 years down the road.”

Burr took a jab at the press, noting the increasing use of anonymous sources, and extolled his committee’s penchant for secrecy.

“We’ve interviewed over 200 people in the Russia investigation,” he said.

“There may be 13 that you know who we interviewed because they came out publicly, or there was some acknowledgement of a subpoena. There were 180+ people that you’ll never read about, hopefully, that came in and we interviewed because we do do things behind closed doors. And we’re not ashamed of that. We think America’s safer because

Nov. 14-20, 2019 Up Front News Opinion Culture Shot in the Triad Puzzles

we do our business behind closed doors.

“Our biggest challenge when this over is to get back to where our members don’t talk to the press, where we do our business, which is oversight over 17 agencies, so that Mark and I can look at you and absolutely assure you that everything we do lives within the letter of the law,” he added.

Burr and Warner have widely concurred on the underlying facts of Russia’s attempts to influence the 2016 US presidential election.

On the release of the second installment of the Russia report in October, Burr said, “Russia is waging an information warfare campaign against the US that didn’t start and didn’t end with the 2016 election. Their goal is broader: to sow societal discord and erode public confidence in the machinery of government. By flooding social media with false reports, conspiracy theories, and trolls, and by exploiting existing divisions, Russia is trying to breed distrust of our democratic institutions and our fellow Americans.”

But the two lawmakers expressed differing views on what tools government has at its disposal to counter disinformation on social media.

“You gotta understand that when we saw social media used to create societal chaos in the United States, there was no legislative remedy for this because they’re under a First Amendment issue,” Burr said. “So, we could have rushed out and said, ‘Well, we’re gonna regulate this.’

And it might have made a big splash, but the two of us realized that if we did that, it would get overturned in the Supreme Court. They’ll say they have a First Amendment protection. So, it’s better in this case — and this may be the model in the future — is have government, the private sector, academia collaborate together for the good of the country.”

Warner, who co-founded the wireless telecom company that became Nextel in the 1990s, said he partly disagrees with Burr.

“I’m not 100 percent sure these platforms — there’s First Amendment rights, but the reason why these companies have no responsibility for example that a media company has is in the late ’90s when we set up rules for social media, we said, ‘Let’s consider these companies as dumb pipes, or telecom companies,’” he said. “And maybe that made sense in the late ’90s. But when 65 percent of Americans get their news from Facebook and Google, maybe we ought to be thinking that what was given them in an exemption called a Section 230 exemption, maybe needs to be revised.

“And we have already said you can’t do child pornography, you can’t do sex trafficking,” he continued. “And other countries — the UK, Australia are starting to look at content…. If you actually had to own your content that you put on Facebook and put your real identity next to that, that might decrease. Countries like Estonia have seen so much outside intervention that the only way you get on the internet and on social media in Estonia is if you validate who you are.”

Discussing emerging threats to the United States and reflecting on Russia’s meddling in 2016, Burr said, “I would say that we’re blessed with the fact that they targeted elections and not the economy.”

As members of the audience murmured in disapproval, Warner quipped, “We’re not invited back much.”

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Nov. 14-20, 2019 Up Front News Opinion Culture Shot in the Triad Puzzles

8

Guilford school board allows for short-term suspension appeals

by Sayaka Matsuoka The Guilford County school board passed a proposal that formalizes a process for parents and students to appeal short-term suspensions.

The Guilford County school board voted 5-4 on Tuesday evening to allow for parents and students to appeal shortterm suspensions in the school district.

The decision, which has been met with both fierce opposition as well as steadfast support, allows parents and students to appeal decisions by assistant principals or principals to the principal’s supervisor or the school support officer, and then appeal that decision to the superintendent’s designee. If parents and students wish to appeal further, they can take their case all the way up to the superintendent level, although those cases will be rare, according to the chief of schools, Tony Watlington.

According to details outlined by the school district, parents and students can appeal if the short-term suspension (10 days or less) was issued in error; based on unsubstantiated allegations or a personal conclusion; in violation of the student’s rights under the individuals with disabilities act; or was in violation or inconsistent with the school board’s Code of Conduct.

Dozens of speakers and supporters packed the school board meeting room on Tuesday, resulting in an overflow crowd and a line out the door before the meeting had even started.

The proposal was first voted on during the Oct. 10 school-board meeting when board members voted 6-3 to seek public comment on the policy for 30 days.

During that period, the district received more than 100 messages expressing both support and opposition to the changes.

In other public forums, parents and community members started opposing petitions which garnered thousands of signatures.

During Tuesday’s board meeting, 37 speakers talked during the public comments portion to either support or oppose the proposal. Of the 37 who spoke about the proposal, a majority — 29 speakers — spoke out in favor of the changes.

A number of public officials including High Point city council members Michael Holmes and Tyrone Johnson spoke in favor of the proposal. Guilford County commissioner Skip Alston, former school board member Dot Kearns and state house representative Amos Quick III all supported the changes as

well.

John Moyle of Greensboro pointed out a worry regarding safety in schools that many of those opposing the proposal mentioned during the public comment period.

“This has the potential to have a significant effect on students,” Moyle said.

“Any change we make seems to imply the chance for some risks. If we’re gonna move schools forward, we’re gonna have to make change. I don’t think that the simple fact that there are risks associated with this doesn’t mean we shouldn’t pass it. I think the risks in this case are small.”

Many of the speakers in support of the appeals process emphasized the need for due process for students and pointed out the racial disparities of discipline in schools.

UNCG professor Crystal Dixon spoke about the disparities found in discipline within the school district based on race and pointed out that black students The Guilford County School Board voted 5-4 Tuesday to allow for an SAYAKA MATSUOKA appeals process addressing suspensions of fewer than 10 days. missed an average of six days on average based on data from 2017, while white potential for an increase in workload for run.” students missed four. principals.

Board member Pat Tillman expressed “Today, we have the collective opporShirley Stipe-Zendle, the principal concern that there is already due tunity to mitigate this disparity and the at Morehead Elementary School cited process in the schools and that this new power to empower all students to appeal work that she did for her dissertation policy would add extra work for school suspension decisions,” Dixon said. “All that involved studying more than 5,000 administrators. While some principals parents should have the right to protect calls from parents to schools.

She said do have an informal appeals process at their child’s future if they feel like they that what she found was that more often their schools, board members who supwere wrongly disciplined. Today, we than not, parents just wanted someone ported the measure such as Khem Irby have an opportunity to serve as a stateto listen to them. and Bellamy-Small cited the need for a wide example of what accountability “All calls would not formal process so that all parents could looks like.” result in appeals,” access the same level of transparency.

By passing the Stipe-Zendle said at When asked by Tillman how of‘We are human. We new changes, Guilthe board meeting. ten principals have reversed decisions ford County Schools make lots of mistakes...

“As far as more work, because of appeals, Shayla Savage, the became the first your best principals principal at Union Hill Elementary, When I get it wrong, I public school district are already doing responded that it is inevitable because in the state to have an want to make it right the work on the front principals are human. appeals process for end….

We didn’t find “We are human,” she said. “We make because ultimately I short-term suspenthat principals are lots of mistakes. We have good days, we sions. Appeals for want to make sure that resisting this.” have bad days…. When parents know long-term suspensions Mike Hettenbach, that you do what’s in the best interest already exist in the I’m not doing anything the principal at of their child, they’re gonna always give district. that’s gonna negatively Southwest Guilford you the benefit of the doubt. When I get Before the board High School spoke it wrong, I want to make it right because voted on the measure, impact a child’s life.’ about the need for ultimately I want to make sure that I’m a panel of school – Shayla Savage, principal of the change to mainnot doing anything that’s gonna negaprincipals who were Union Hill Elementary School tain accountability tively impact a child’s life.” involved with creating amongst principals In the end, board members Pat Tillthe new procedure like himself. man, Linda Welborn, Darlene Garrett for the changes were “I enjoy being called out if they think and Anita Sharpe voted against the brought to the dais to answer any quesI’m wrong,” he said. “That’s a great proposed changes while Khem Irby, Ditions that board members might have. healthy conversation and I feel like I’ve ane Bellamy-Small, Winston McGregor, Board member T. Dianne Bellamygot a great relationship with my comByron Gladden and Deena Hayes voted Small simply asked, “Will this policy munity.

I think that’s what it’s about and in favor. help you make clearer decisions?” Board I think they’ll trust you more in the long member Linda Welborn asked about the

Homeless advocates see remnants of Jim Crow

Up Front News Opinion Culture Shot in the Triad Puzzles

The numbers are not surpristhey lack housing, if they lack the means to afford housing ing, but it’s striking to see them on their own.” nailed down: In a survey of more And then there’s custom. than 200 people experiencing “The other part of Jim Crow’s very much real, especially homelessness in Greensboro, 51.5 in this town,” Hyde said. “We have a history knowing that percent reported being cited, it goes beyond the law, right? There doesn’t need to be a harassed or arrested by police for specific statute that people treat certain minority populahanging out — or loitering, as it’s tions different, right? And people have had to fight that,

by Jordan Green known in the general statutes. too.”

Exactly half said they’d been harassed for sleeping.

The report examines not only policing, but also housAlmost half for sitting or lying down. ing. It limns a history of drastic divestment by the federal More than a third for asking for money, also known as government from low-income housing from 1978 to 1983, panhandling. and various programs to jettison public housing units going The share of survey participants who were black was 68.5 by names like HOPE VI, Transforming Rental Assistance percent, compared to 41.8 percent of the city’s population. and Rental Assistance Demonstration.

Forty-two percent of the survey participants told the In 2016, Greensboro voters approved a $25 million housresearchers from Guilford College and UNCG that they ing bond. Beth McKee-Huger, the retired executive direcbelieved they had been targeted by police for appearing tor of the Greensboro Housing Coalition, said that despite to be homeless. And 43.6 percent said they believed they being billed as “affordable,” the housing units produced had been targeted for race, manifesting a double burden. through the investment of bond funds are typically out of Economic status, gender, disability and sexuality also facreach for the poor people who are in most dire need of tored into survey participants’ perceptions that they were housing. targeted by the police.

“The city wanted to leverage that The Greensboro Police Department $25 million by having the city put some routinely denies that its officers show money in that private developers will bias. When I interviewed two men exput money in,” she said. “And by putting periencing homelessness in the summer ‘So they’ve leveraged all money into huge projects, where they of 2018, they complained about two come up with $800-$900 a month rents the money, but they police officers in particular whom they and leverage millions and millions of haven’t come up with said were notorious for harassment. dollars, and they say, ‘See, doesn’t this Capt. John Thompson, who oversees look good? We’ve leveraged all this housing that’s the Center City Division, told me at the money.’ So they’ve leveraged all the affordable to the time: “There’s nothing in my experience money, but they haven’t come up with to say they’re overly aggressive.” that’s affordable to the lowestlowest-income people.’ housing To date, no court that I’m aware income people. You don’t get much – Beth McKee-Huger of has found the city of Greensboro leverage when you’re building housand its police force liable for violating ing that’s $300 a month. But it’s what’s the civil rights of people experiencing needed most.” homelessness, but it’s hard to not see a The report includes a 10 Point pattern.

Platform summed up as “Homes, Jobs & Justice Now — The report, which is entitled A Safe Place to Stay: Not Death in the Streets.” The “toolkit” handed out to the Combating Homelessness, Police Violence and Jim Crow in roughly 40 people who attended the presentation includes Greensboro, draws a through-line from black codes that enmodel policies on eviction diversion, written consent for forced exclusion and Jim Crow through “broken windows” police searches, guidelines for police interactions with policing and the criminalization of homelessness beginning people experiencing homelessness and non-police mobile in the 1990s. It’s a tragic mark of failure that these laws crisis services, which the group wants to see adopted by and customs have all flourished since the 1868 ratificaGreensboro City Council. tion of the Fourteenth Amendment, whose guarantee of They’re armed with data, they’re building coalitions, and equal protection under the law has been plagued by spotty they’re coming to a city council meeting in the near future. enforcement.

“They have violated all of my rights when I experienced “There’s legal mechanisms — specific laws that are used homelessness, and they still continue to violate peoples’ to reinforce inequality, criminalizing mundane and basic rights in this report,” said LaTonya Stimpson, a member life-sustaining activities,” said Marcus Hyde, an organizer of the homeless union. “It’s awesome to let people know with the Homeless Union of Greensboro, during a presenhow the police department and the city of Greensboro tation of the report at McGirt-Horton Library on Tuesday handle homeless people. And it’s not just here. But we are evening. “When it was asked what do you get messed with here, and I am here. And I am here to tackle this problem for? What do you get harassed, cited and arrested for? because it needs to be addressed.”

Those were basic things — sitting on the sidewalk, lying down. Those were things people necessarily have to do if

Nov. 14-20, 2019

CITIZEN GREEN

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EDITORIAL

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A black extremist cop?

This week, the Greensboro Police Center, which has clocked them as an Department suspended Lt. Stacy Morextremist hate group due to their antiseton pending an investigation into his mitic thesis and “white devil” rhetoric. participation in a nationalist hate group.

But let’s keep things real: An AfricanThis comes as no surprise to people American cop who is waiting for Black who pay attention. The connection Jesus is hardly the type of hate-group between law enforcement and whiteinfiltration the FBI was talking about. supremacist groups is well documented: Sure, Morton might have been able The FBI released a report on the corto treat white people unfairly in the relation in 2006, finding, among other course of his duties with the GPD. But things, that white-supremacist groups it’s a pretty safe bet to say that overall, encourage members black people bear to don “ghost skins” the brunt of unequal and try to find jobs as enforcement by a The connection cops. significant margin — between cops and Except Lt. Morton the New York Times is black. And the hate reported on it back in white-supremacist group with which he is October 2015. accused of associating groups is well That’s not to say is the Black Hebrew Morton’s activities documented, but Israelite Movement, shouldn’t be invesblack cops aren’t the tigated. And that’s which marched in the GHOE parade this what’s happening now. problem. year — that’s where But the saga of Lt. Morton’s accuser says Morton and the Black he or she spotted him.

Hebrew Israelites The Black Hebrew Israelite moveshould be regarded for the man-bitesment contends that black people are dog story that it is, an anomaly and not the true Hebrews, scattered across an indicator of a larger iceberg lurking Africa and then these Lost Tribes of beneath the waves.

Israel were systematically hunted down Because in the quest to rid law and sold back into slavery. In decades enforcement of dangerous racist ideopast, the BHI prophesied that Black logues, black supremacists barely move Jesus would return in the year 2000 to the needle. “enslave and destroy the white race,” according to the Southern Poverty Law

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The chitterlings platter with macaroni and cheese, collard greens, cornbread at Dr. Chops was a pleasant surprise.

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most interesting of the bunch — the small intestines of with how good they were. The plate had the flavor of hogs. And I have to admit: I never had chitterlings until a house-spiced breakfast sausage with a light funk of last week. boar taint. Eating it between Presented in a Styrofoam bites of collards and cornbread container accompanied by gave me a minute to opine Try chitterlings at Dr. Chops Soul vinegary collard greens (to cut about other strange yet deliFood Café in Winston-Salem the fat of meat), macaroni and cious meats I might be missing cheese (to offer comfort if the out on due to social stigma or located at 4830 Old Rural Hall Rd. meat was not palatable) and lack of desire.

Find the menu on their Facebook sweet, yellow cornbread, the Once, I was proud to boast page. chitterlings looked like nothing that I’d never eaten chittermore than chopped Steaklings. Now, I’m embarrassed umms. Mixed with red and to have gone so long without green bell peppers, onions, garlic, crushed red pepper trying them. Next on the list: pickled pig feet and blood flakes, a hint of apple cider vinegar and a heavy hand sausages. I think my grandmother would be proud. of ground black pepper, the chitterlings blew me away

Shot in the Triad

t’s killing season.

For hogs, that is.

As a great-granddaughter of a farmer, I’m two generations removed from picking crops, plowing fields, missing school for harvest season or helping butcher farm animals

by Nikki Miller-Ka for dinner and putting them up for the winter. I’m so removed from the process that, while dining out recently, I made an insensitive comment about the fabrication skills of the house fishmonger when a bone lodged itself in my throat. I actually forgot fish have bones.

My refined palate and my current diet frequently take me on a road where meat and fish arrive with nary a sign of skin nor hair before and after cooking. I am so used to seeing perfect cuts of meat with uniformly marbled fats swirling behind windows of cellophane and plastic wrap in the grocery store; perfectly cut strips of bacon that wave like a flag in the refrigerated section and ground pork sausage molded into the shape of a pig with cherry tomatoes for eyes that decorate the butcher’s display case.

Living in 2019, we are somewhat disconnected as a society from how the food gets from the farm to the table. Tradition and novelty meet somewhere in the middle when it comes to offal meats. Whether it’s a delicacy, specialty item or seasonal on a restaurant menu, the way we see (and eat) offal is different.

I used to say, “There’s a reason why they call if offal,” but no longer.

While foie gras (goose or duck liver), pâté (potted meat or rillettes) and sweetbreads (thymus gland or pancreas) are regarded as delicacies, other, less glamorous parts of the animal remain standards in traditional regional cuisine and are often consumed in connection with holidays or special occasion.

These are the most polarizing parts of animals. Either you love them or you hate them. There is no in between.

Which brings me to chitterlings.

I have a vague memory of my grandmother boiling chitterlings for a holiday meal. The acrid and putrid aroma relegated me to the back of the house where I could get away from the funky stench of hot feces. I’d point and laugh at the buckets of frozen chitterlings at the store and silently pray my grandmother would leave them be.

The small intestines of pigs are not easy to come by. Not only must they be cleaned, there is a thin, yet tough membrane that has to be peeled away from the lining before being chopped and boiled for up to eight hours in seasoned water. Its origins came from days of slavery. Overseers and plantation owners would keep the bacon, pork chops, loins and roasts of pork for themselves and toss the undesirable parts to the slaves like pig’s feet, ears, tails, brains and intestines.

Testicles, livers, gizzards, kidneys, tongues and skin are included in that modern elite offal category. The intestines or chitterlings (pronounced CHIT-linz) are the

Nov. 14-20, 2019

Nik Snacks Offal yes, awful no: A black food writer tries chitterlings for the first time

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Nov. 14-20, 2019 Up Front News Opinion Culture Shot in the Triad Puzzles

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CULTURE Reflections on race, identity showcased in new Alison Saar exhibit

by Sayaka Matsuoka

A

lison Saar stands next to her reflection, a woman whose torso, arms and legs — rather than made of flesh like hers — are wrapped in thin metal sheets, nailed together along incongruent seams across her body.

The doppelganger measures just under five feet tall, same as Saar herself.

She stands in juxtaposition, her left leg gently bent forward while her right plants firmly into the ground. Her right hand lifts a black, cast-iron skillet up to her face, like a mirror. A face appears out of the pan and gazes back at the sculpture.

“Mirror, Mirror; Mulatta Seeking Inner Negress” speaks directly to Saar’s personal experience of growing up as a biracial woman.

The daughter of a white father and a black mother, the renowned artist often gets mistaken as white because of her fair complexion, and uses art to contemplate her split identity.

“I was hyperconscious of the AfricanAmerican side of my ancestry,” Saar says in an interview, “just because, being perceived as white or looking white, that was always something that I struggled with.”

Saar grew up in Los Angeles, raised by two artists: Richard Saar, an arts conservator and ceramicist, and Betye Saar, an assemblage and collage artist whose work tackled racism and identity and which played a vital role in the Black Arts Movement of the ’70s. Much like her mother’s, Saar’s pieces also deal with issues of race, gender and identity.

A new exhibit at the Weatherspoon Art Museum in Greensboro titled ‘Mirror, Mirror’: The Prints of Alison Saar, displays decades of the artist’s work, forming a timeline of her earlier pieces from the ’90s to newer ones created in the past few years. And while she may be perceived as white, much of her work depicts darker skinned individuals, most of them women.

“Those were the customs and the traditions, the family that I loved being around,” Saar says of her black family.

“It was the food, it was the music, it was the dancing.”

Saar says she was estranged from her father’s side of the family for a few years; she’s always felt closer to her mother’s half of the family.

On a wall near the sculpture hangs a corresponding woodcut print of the

mulatta, this time clothed in a white dress, her back to the viewer, the black face peering out from the skillet at the audience.

Many of Saar’s prints in the exhibit have corresponding sculptures that inspired the two-dimensional work.

Nearby, Saar points out a print titled “Washtub Blues,” in which a black maid peers into a large tub of water that reflects her black face.

This piece, which Saar says is one of her favorites in the show, highlights the invisibility and erasure of the efforts of laborers.

“It talks about the failure of recognition of domestic workers and people that are working within other people’s homes and households and how they’re faceless,” Saar says.

Like the print of her self-portrait, the woman in “Washtub Blues” has her back turned to the viewer, the only depiction of her face shown as a secondary reflection in the murky SAYAKA MATSUOKA Artist Alison Saar stands next to her piece, “Mirror, Mirror; Mulatta Seeking Inner water. Floating on the Negress,” displayed in a new show at the Weatherspoon Art Museum in Greensboro surface, the woman’s face is simple, showing viduals on old sugar or seed sacks, and portrays her characters just her lips, her white cap and two blank eyes. In fact, all of holding tools of labor like sickles, hoes, irons and skillets, now the people depicted in Saar’s works have eyes that are blank. empowered in her pieces as weapons. Reclaiming the black “They’re kind of masks in some experience and uplifting the stories sort of way,” Saar explains during an of her heritage embodies the core of artist talk on Nov. 7. She talks about Saar’s work. It also helps navigate “Mirror, Mirror: The Prints of drawing inspiration from images of ideas of who she is not only as an artearly slaves who were brought to the Alison Saar” will be on display at ist, but as an individual as well. country and thinking about how they “I think it’s really important to the Weatherspoon Art Museum maintained their dignity in times of understand who you are and if you through Feb. 23, 2020. Learn more unimaginable degradation. don’t understand who you are, to “How do you survive those things about the exhibit at weatherreally look at who you are,” she says. and how do you survive those afspoonart.org.

“Even if you are talking about things fronts?” she asks. “And one of the that are happening out in the world, ways you do that is by not giving I think it’s important to come from a them the satisfaction of not returnreally personal point of view. ing that gaze. That you still have control over this.”

“I guess I am a storyteller,” Saar continues. “I can’t write at Themes of labor and slavery recur throughout Saar’s work. all, so I have to do it through art.”

A lover of found objects, the artist often casts images of indi-

CULTURE Winston’s LB the Poet releases first full-length album

by Savi Ettinger

Nov. 14-20, 2019

L

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LB the Poet celebreated the release of his first full-length studio album, Transitions, at the Ramkat on Sunday.

SAVI ETTINGER

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onstage reading he gave 10 years ago, with a piece called “The As the night continues, a screen on one side of the stage Letter,” a poem about his father. turns on, displaying a short film about the making of the “I performed it and this big, tough guy came out of the music video to LB’s single from the album, Focus. The rapper crowd in tears,” he said. “That was my first time understandstands by green lockers next to a classroom door, a few kids ing how I could touch people with my greeting him as they walk in. The scene words.” cuts to show LB directing some of his Aside from a “positive affirmation students as they gather shots, and then To learn more about LB the movement,” LB uses his writing in the to LB rapping as the camera crew folPoet, visit lbthepoet.com. classroom. Around Winston-Salem he lows him down the hallway. runs Word Academy, a venture to boost “I keep going,” he raps. “I stay focused. the creative-writing skills of children and ’Cause I’m doing it my way.” college students, with programs at AshHe encourages people in the audience ley Elementary, Reynolds High School, Parkland High School to sing along, pointing out individuals who he catches mouthand Wake Forest University’s School of Divinity. ing his lyrics. When entire lines are too tough for audience “I just knew I had something on my spirit that I had to get members to remember, though, LB made an easy saying. off,” he said. “I’m a firm believer that we are all connected in “Every day is W-I-N-S-D-A-Y,” he says. some way, shape or form.”

Shot in the Triad

B the Poet stops one of his live tracks three times.

He paces the room in thought, microphone held slightly down and away from his face. He looks over his shoulder to the live band, the backing vocalists and the DJ after the third abrupt pause. He asks to stop the music.

“Something’s telling me to just spit this for y’all,” he says.

Slamming his way through a song titled “Made It,” Larry Barron, better known by his stage name of LB the Poet, ends the album release of Transitions with spoken word.

The Winston-Salem based rapper and writer brought his first full-length studio album to the Ramkat on Sunday during a release party and concert.

Transitions followed multiple singles and poetry performances from LB, who sees the two mediums as interchangeable. The songs flow from storytelling to what feels almost like guided meditations with a beat. The easily memorized hooks and catchy beats help LB craft what he calls “feelgood music,” designed to keep listeners playing positive messages to themselves on loop.

“If you can get people repeating lyrics,” he says in an interview, “that’s key.”

Before he begins rapping, he stops to go over the lyrics with the audience.

He sounds out a line from a song titled “Bridging the Gap,” hoping to impart some sort of musical mantra, and asking the crowd to sing the chorus with him once they get the hang of it. As he performs, voices from the audience intermingle with his own.

“You can’t tell me I’m not bridging the gap,” he sings. “Every day my dreams, you know I’m living them out.”

Even within the uplifting words, LB addresses somber issues, mixing in mentions of inequality, personal struggles and gun violence. In between songs, LB drags the microphone stand to the front of the stage, resting a hand on it, and speaks directly to the audience.

“It seems like we keep losing the kids,” he says.

He sways through a song called “Nothing was the Same,” the only interruptions coming from occasional snaps of people’s fingers or agreements shouted out.

“In this cold world,” he raps, “something’s gotta change.”

Poetry remains at the core of LB’s performances. He recounted the first

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Opinion Culture Shot in the Triad Puzzles

1 “The ___ Report” (BBC Two’s answer to “The Daily Show”) 5 Educational foundation 9 Soaks up sun 14 Domini preceder 15 Big high school event 16 6-Down’s opposite 17 What Chubby Checker tried to pull off with his hit?

20 “Jazz From Hell” Grammy winner 21 “By gosh!”

22 Kind of bracket or shelter 23 Galena, for one 24 11th-grade exam 27 Cranberry field ©2017 Jonesin’ Crosswords (editor@jonesincrosswords.com) 29 Collaboratively edited site 30 Big bucks 34 Bad excuse for a vermin catcher?

39 Duplicate 40 “A Whole New World” singer Bryson 41 Executor’s concern 42 What I can only hope for when writing this puzzle?

45 “Arrested Development” actress Portia de ___ 46 DEA figure Answers from last issue 47 Airer of many RKO films 49 Casually 19 Apprehend 50 GoPro, e.g.

25 Microsoft purchase of 2011 53 Rave genre, for short 26 Archer, at times 56 “___ Flux” (1990s MTV series) 28 Like some architecture or typefaces 58 “Yours” follower 29 Most sardonic 60 Difficulty identifying people?

31 Pie crust cookie 64 Diversions (and components of the theme 32 Placed down answers) 33 Mar. follower 65 Night, in Paris 34 Skywalker cohort 66 “The Revenant” beast 35 “Bloom County” penguin 67 Aid in replay 36 Fumbler 68 “The Lord of the Rings” extras 37 Pipe section under a sink 69 Work IDs 38 L.A. area 39 “Bad Moon Rising” band, for short 43 He had a Blue Period Down 44 Have a go at 1 Passover bread 48 Sound from a kitty 2 1978 Nobel Peace Prize co-winner Sadat 49 “Not ___ lifetime” 3 Attack anonymously 50 343 and 1331, e.g.

4 ICU locale 51 Poe’s middle name 5 Tarzan cohort 52 “Shrek” star Mike 6 Cold reaction 53 Baker’s stock 7 Dancer’s partner?

54 Binary 8 City air problem 55 Short note 9 1996 Pauly Shore/Stephen Baldwin comedy 57 “It can’t be!”

10 Band accessory 59 Massages 11 “My ___” (“Hamilton” song early in Act I) 61 Advanced coll. course 12 Caffeine-yielding nut 62 Muscle contraction 13 “Come Sail Away” band 63 ACLU focus 18 South American animal with a snout

EVENTS

Nov. 14-20, 2019

CROSSWORD ‘Two Can Play’— what’s on the shelf? SUDOKU

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