VOLUME 76 • ISSUE 9 • MAY 25, 2021
‘THE RIGHTS OF LGBTQ PEOPLE... ARE BEING SYSTEMATICALLY THREATENED’ P. 8-9
NEWS PPB violates agreement with DOJ P. 5
ARTS & CULTURE What’s going on with Lloyd Center? P. 13
OPINION Oregonian tax dollars shouldn’t fund the timber industry P. 14
CONTENTS
COVER BY SAM PERSON
NEWS HILL TO HALL
P. 3
PPB AND US DOJ DISCUSS NONCOMPLIANCE REGARDING USE OF FORCE PROTOCOL
P. 5
INTERNATIONAL THIS WEEK AROUND THE WORLD
P. 10–11
ARTS & CULTURE 20 YEARS LATER, SHREK IS DEFINITELY STILL A MOVIE
P. 12
SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY SEXTECH ENTREPRENEUR GIVES KEYNOTE SPEECH AT TECHFESTNW 2021
P. 6
WHAT’S GOING ON WITH LLOYD CENTER?
P. 13
INTERNATIONAL CHILE BEGINS DRAFTING NEW CONSTITUTION
P. 7
OPINION OREGONIANS’ TAX DOLLARS SHOULDN’T BE FUNDING THE TIMBER LOBBY
P. 14
WESTERN MEDIA HAS A SYSTEMIC BIAS AGAINST PALESTINIANS
P. 15
EVENTS CALENDAR
P. 16
COVER 2021 SEES THE MOST ANTI-LGBTQ+ STATE LEGISLATION IN RECENT US HISTORY
STAFF
EDIT ORI A L EDITOR IN CHIEF Justin Grinnell MANAGING EDITOR Nick Townsend NEWS EDITORS Conor Carroll Rachel Owen INTERNATIONAL EDITOR Karisa Yuasa SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY EDITOR Béla Kurzenhauser ARTS & CULTURE EDITOR Morgan Troper
P. 8–9
OPINION EDITOR Nick Gatlin
PHO T O & MULTIMEDI A PHOTO EDITOR Annie Schutz
A DV ISING & ACCOUN TING COORDINATOR OF STUDENT MEDIA Reaz Mahmood
ONLINE EDITOR Lily Hennings
MULTIMEDIA EDITOR Olivia Lee
STUDENT MEDIA ACCOUNTANT Sheri Pitcher
COPY CHIEF Sophie Concannon
PRODUC TION & DE SIGN CREATIVE DIRECTOR Sam Person
TECHNOLOGY ADVISOR Corrine Nightingale
CONTRIBUTORS Alana Baldwin-Joiner Diane Erickson Luke Harkins Nova Johnson Allison Kirkpatrick Danny O’Brien Eric Shelby Mackenzie Streissguth
DESIGNERS Sam Garcia Shannon Steed T ECHNOL OGY & W EB SIT E TECHNOLOGY ASSISTANTS Juliana Bigelow Kahela Fickle George Olson
To contact Portland State Vanguard, email editor@psuvanguard.com
MIS SION S TAT EMEN T Vanguard ’s mission is to serve the Portland State community with timely, accurate, comprehensive and critical content while upholding high journalistic standards. In the process, we aim to enrich our staff with quality, hands-on journalism education and a number of skills highly valued in today’s job market.
A BOU T Vanguard, established in 1946, is published weekly as an independent student newspaper governed by the PSU Student Media Board. Views and editorial content expressed herein are those of the staff, contributors and readers and do not necessarily represent the PSU student body, faculty, staff or administration. Find us in print Tuesdays and online 24/7 at psuvanguard.com. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram @psuvanguard for multimedia content and breaking news.
CONOR CARROLL
MAY 17: BIDEN RESCINDS DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE ORDER TO PROSECUTE PROTESTERS IN PORTLAND
Executive Order 13933, titled “Protecting American Monuments, Memorials, and Statues and Combating Recent Criminal Violence,” was enacted by former President Donald Trump in July 2020 in response to the Black Lives Matter protests and unrest in downtown Portland, Oregon. Current President Joe Biden issued a countermanding order nullifying E.O. 13933. Trump’s order required the United States attorney general to prosecute persons who vandalized or destroyed federal property like statues or courthouses. Trump’s order also sent hundreds of officials from the Department of Homeland Security and other federal agencies to Portland, costing taxpayers millions of dollars, according to a report from the Office of the Inspector General. Biden’s countermanding order also negated Trump’s plan to build a garden with hundreds of lifelike statues of historical figures, which the former president approved during his last few days in office.
MAY 18: OREGON LEGISLATURE OFFICIALLY RECOGNIZES INDIGENOUS PEOPLE’S DAY
On the second Monday of every subsequent October, Oregon will acknowledge the contributions made to the U.S. by indigenous peoples. H.B. 2526 passed by a 50-5 vote in the Oregon House of Representatives in April, and in the state Senate by a vote of 22-7 on May 18. Starting October 11, 2021, Oregon will acknowledge that Christopher Columbus’s “discovery” of North and South America is factually erroneous and not laudable of celebration, because his travels created “heinous crimes against humanity,” according to the bill. Oregon is the 11th state to officially recognize Indigenous People’s Day.
MAY 19: OREGON CONSIDERS CLASSIFYING HEALTHCARE AS A FUNDAMENTAL RIGHT
MAY 17–21
The HOPE Amendment, or Senate Joint Resolution 12, was approved by Oregon lawmakers in the House of Representatives on May 19, according to a press release from the Senate Majority Office. “SJR 12 proposes that ‘health care as a human right’ be added to the Oregon Constitution,” the briefing stated. SJR 12 embodies the legacy of the late Representative Mitch Greenlick, D-Ore., who was a staunch proponent of recognizing healthcare as a fundamental human right. Greenlick was also honored on the floor of the Senate with Senate Concurrent Resolution 3. The resolution amends the Oregon Constitution to establish healthcare as a right to all citizens, though it has a loophole. SJR 12 states the obligation “must be balanced against the public interest in funding public schools and other essential public services,” which makes SJR 12 more akin to a call to action, and not a specific legislative proposal or policy. Republicans oppose the measure, claiming that since over 90% of Oregon citizens have access to healthcare already, the action is superfluous.
MAY 20: GOV. BROWN SIGNS EXTENDED RENTER PROTECTION BILL INTO LAW
Oregon Governor Kate Brown signed into law S.B. 282, which will provide renters struggling with financial problems due to the coronavirus pandemic an extension, giving them more time to pay back-due rent. “SB 282 extends residential [the] residential rent repayment period until February 28, 2022…$204 million [will be] available through [the] Oregon Emergency Rental Assistance Program,” according to a State of Oregon Newsroom press release. The law further relaxes occupancy limits, since the pandemic has forced some Oregonians to stay with friends or family as a result of medical or financial hardships. However, the law doesn’t cover the eviction moratorium, which is scheduled to end June 30, nor does it cover any back rent.
MAY 21: GOV. BROWN ANNOUNCES $1 MILLION DOLLAR VACCINE INCENTIVE PROGRAM
Any citizen of Oregon that has received at least one shot of COVID-19 and is over the age of 18 could win up to $1 million on June 28, the governor’s office announced on May 21. “My encouragement to Oregonians is take your shot now. “We have an opportunity to beat California to reopening the economy if we can get close to 250,000 Oregonians vaccinated in the next few weeks,” Brown said in a press briefing. The total amount of money available is $1.86 million pooled together. The “Take Your Shot, Oregon” campaign revealed several tiers of winners: One $1 million winner, five $100,000 Oregon College Savings Plan education scholarship winners, and 36 $10,000 winners, one in each county, according to the press release. The money is coming from Oregon’s Coronavirus Relief Act funds, and those who have received at least the first dose of the Pfizer, Moderna or Johnson & Johnson vaccines are automatically entered in the lottery.
PSU Vanguard • MAY 25, 2021 • psuvanguard.com
NEWS
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apply online at psuvanguard.com or contact managingeditor@psuvanguard.com
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PSU Vanguard • MAY 25, 2021 • psuvanguard.com
PPB AND US DOJ DISCUSS NONCOMPLIANCE REGARDING USE OF FORCE PROTOCOL PPB PRESS CONFERENCE. DAVE KILLEN/THE OREGONIAN VIA AP, POOL
RACHEL OWEN In response to one of the most eventful summers in Portland’s history, the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) reflected on Portland Police Bureau’s (PPB) response to protests, challenging its protocols. Earlier this year, the DOJ sent a formal letter to the City of Portland outlining violations against a 2014 agreement, according to OPB. The letter notes evidence of PPB’s noncompliance with DOJ protocol for use of force. The agreement came about in a 2012 court case, United States v. City of Portland, where the U.S. noted “a pattern or practice of unconstitutional use of force by the PPB with actual or perceived mental illness.” This noncompliance extends to the 2020 protests under which PPB was found to disregard policies surrounding use of force. According to an interview with OPB, Portland Police Chief Chuck Lowell acknowledged that the city had to follow this agreement for eight years. This became a challenge when the city was forced to make budget cuts in the wake of the pandemic. Just months after, PPB faced nightly protests as the country criticized racial injustice in policing. Nevertheless, the city had to stick to these cuts and to the agreement with the DOJ before they could regain autonomy in its policies. On February 10, the DOJ issued a report that ended that agreement. “All the policies we have now are DOJ approved,” Lowell said. “We make tweaks and changes to those as necessary but that’s just a very fluid, live conversation.” However, the DOJ disagrees with this statement, stating PPB is not following protocol and has delayed responses on reports about policy changes. The primary evidence for this is Portland Mayor and police commissioner Ted Wheeler’s press release on Sept. 9, 2020 “directing the Portland Police to end the use of CS gas for crowd control.” Wheeler released this statement at the tail end of summer protests in which CS gas—aka tear gas—was repeatedly used
PSU Vanguard • MAY 25, 2021 • psuvanguard.com
against protesters. According to OPB, the DOJ found that this was “the only guidance PPB received” and that a clarification stating CS gas could still be used when a “threat to safety” was present, contradicts the original press release. The DOJ requested Wheeler report the specifics of this new policy, but Wheeler did not respond until Jan. 13, 2021. This added to the DOJ’s concerns regarding the city’s compliance with the 2014 agreement. “Having received unsatisfactory responses to our many requests, we now base our compliance assessment, in part, on the City’s failure to seek and receive approval from the Department of Justice for what amounts to a change in force policy,” DOJ lawyers wrote. The DOJ pointed out PPB’s dismissal of policy in their report from this past February. Outside of PPB’s lack of approval from the federal agency, the report points out the bureau violated protocol for use of force. According to OPB, “PPB policy requires a use of force report to be filled out before an officer’s shift ends, and for that officer’s supervisor to review it for policy compliance within 72 hours.” However, the DOJ found that PPB failed to do this. “Some supervisors validated uses of force with little or no critical assessment—even uses of force that were captured on video and replayed on news media, or later became subject to complaints,” the February Justice Department report said. “Validation of individual uses of force with little or no discussion of reasonableness of the force used or of de-escalation attempts, stands in contrast to PPB’s policy requirements for force investigations and PPB’s expressed organizational goals.” In response to this, PPB stated it was “overwhelmed by the protests last summer,” according to OPB. Following a meeting with the Portland Committee on Community Engaged Policing in March 2021, assistant U.S. attorney Jared Hager told OPB, “[PPB] says the demonstrations
overwhelmed the system, but it was PPB’s use of force, not the demonstrations, that revealed the city’s reporting/reviewing systems and its accountability systems to be inadequate.” During this meeting, Hager explained that the U.S. has asked Portland for a plan for remediation but has yet to receive one. If it continues not to get one, the U.S. will have to issue a notice under the enforcement provisions of the settlement agreement and move forward with a plan for action. As of April 6, the city has not provided a remediation plan, resulting in the DOJ taking formal action in the form of a letter outlining PPB’s faults in the original 2014 agreement, according to OPB. It wasn’t until earlier this month that the bureau started to provide feedback. According to OPB, PPB stated it would now assign sergeants to crowd control events in order to improve use of force reports. These sergeants will also be responsible for interviewing officers and witnesses before the end of their shift to further improve the reports. The city also intends to allocate funds for Microsoft 365 to help with processing and reviewing these reports. On May 5, federal prosecutors wrote a letter to the city as a response to their suggested improvements. “PPB focuses primarily on external factors beyond its control while over-relying on training and software to address the few faults it is willing to own,” the federal prosecutors wrote. “Consequently, PPB has not yet identified a satisfactory remedy to ensure full compliance with the Agreement’s force reporting and review requirements.” In the event that this letter does not resolve the federal government’s concern about PPB’s compliance, the next step will be an in-person meeting, followed by mediation to settle the disagreement. As a last measure, the federal judge overseeing the 2014 settlement could force the city into drawing up a remediation plan with the DOJ.
NEWS
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SEXTECH ENTREPRENEUR GIVES KEYNOTE SPEECH AT TECHFESTNW 2021 DIANE ERICKSON TechFestNW kicked off its 2021 conference on Friday morning at 9 a.m. for a jam-packed day of speaking events and networking opportunities for Oregon tech entrepreneurs and investors. TechFestNW describes itself as a “global gathering of technology and business leaders, innovators and entrepreneurs” based in the Portland area. The conference is known for addressing important, contemporary topics in business, with former speakers including Siri co-founder Tom Gruber, Oregon Senator Ron Wyden and Portland-based TikTok star Alyssa McKay. In accordance with public safety guidelines, TechFestNW went virtual this year, using the virtual event platform Pheedloop to host its nine-to-five schedule of panels and presentations. This year’s conference theme was “Emerge,” with an emphasis on redefining entrepreneurship and creating a more inclusive tech economy. Normally a two-day event, the conference was shortened to one day this year. Its lineup was also condensed to fit the shorter timeline—this year, there were only eight speakers and interviewers, in contrast with 21 the year before. The conference began with several keynote presentations, which then segued into a selection of networking tables where attendees listened to a wide range of topics such as investing in women-led businesses or diversity in the tech field. In the afternoon, the conference held the Angel Oregon Tech pitching competition, in which nine start-ups competed to win an angel investment worth $125,000. The winner was Rewire Neuro, a Portland-based biomedical research company. Many different companies were represented among the conference attendees, both from the Pacific Northwest and abroad. Marceau Michel, founder and managing director of seed-stage fund group Black Founders Matter, gave a presentation on “the color of money,” urging investors to take a chance on female and BIPOC entrepreneurs who rarely receive venture capital. Another speaker was Mark Frohnmayer, whose company Arcimoto produces electric vehicles just a hop and a skip away from the University of Oregon. Cybersecurity reporter and New York Times columnist Nicole Perlroth also hosted a keynote, promoting her new book about cyber wars, titled This is How They Tell Me the World Ends. The first keynote speaker to present was Lora Haddock DiCarlo, an entrepreneur who founded her eponymous company in 2017 with “a mission to create a more sexually equitable world,” according to her profile for TechFestNW. Her Bend, OR-based company, Lora DiCarlo, creates innovative, awardwinning pleasure products using “sex tech” inspired by human movement and which mimics human touch. DiCarlo promised there is nothing niche about her industry. According to her keynote, the sextech industry was worth $23 billion in 2017, but only two years later, the industry was worth nearly three times more, at $74.7 billion. “This industry is not going away,” DiCarlo stated confidently. “And it’s continuing to grow.” While most sex toys on the market use vibration, Lora DiCarlo’s products are designed using “biomimicry,” which takes the motions of the hands, tongue and mouth and translates them into microrobotic motions. Their flagship product, the Osé, is futuristic and avant-garde— a far-cry from the stereotypical, pink dildo-shaped vibrators that embody the pleasure products market, inspired by a “lifechanging” orgasm that DiCarlo herself experienced.
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The Osé was conceptualized when DiCarlo reached out to John Parmigiani, the head of the Oregon State University’s Prototype Development Laboratory in 2017. After a meeting, a partnership began between DiCarlo and OSU. DiCarlo put together a team of student and professional engineers from OSU’s Engineering & Robotics department, many of whom were women. Despite the many accolades that her company has earned, DiCarlo’s rise to success hasn’t been perfect, and she’s faced unique hardship in the tech industry as a pleasure products entrepreneur. In 2019, the Osé won an Innovation Award at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES), but a month later, when DiCarlo applied for exhibition space at CES, the show’s host, the Consumer Technology Association (CTA), said that this had been a mistake, so they revoked DiCarlo’s award and banned her company from the show. The CTA claimed that Lora DiCarlo was prohibited because sex tech was not allowed on the show floor. Yet despite this statement, some sex tech companies have been allowed to exhibit in the past. One company, OhMiBod, has inexplicably been on the CES show floor for a decade. During her keynote, DiCarlo stated she believes that the CTA banned her because they had called her products “immoral” and “obscene.” Since then, DiCarlo has spoken out about the incident— in 2019, her company published an open letter to CES on their website, denouncing the show for “stifling innovation” through gender bias. They launched an international aware-
ness campaign, which led to 4500 international articles, 70,000 email sign-ups, and an amazing amount of press, according to DiCarlo. Pressured from the campaign, the CTA would later revisit the decision and reinstate Lora DiCarlo’s award, allowing the company back into the show. After the scandal with CES and the CTA, DiCarlo’s company reaped immense financial success. According to DiCarlo’s keynote, when the Osé launched its preorders, the company made $1 million in only five hours. After completing its first year of sales, they would earn a staggering $7.5 million. Their flagship product has been redesigned and re-released into the Osé 2, designed for a more “inclusive, intuitive fit with additional angles to fit a wider range of anatomies more comfortably.” Thanks to its international awareness campaigns, the company has been discovered by people all over the world, even including mainstream celebrities. In 2020, British actress and supermodel Cara Delevingne joined the company as a coowner and creative advisor. According to DiCarlo, Delevingne believes that sextech is something that “belongs in the mainstream” and that “it’s something that should be talked about openly.” “The kinds of people that work here have a purpose...they show up because they believe in something, that sexuality informs identity, that identity informs confidence...and it’s confidence that will inform our equity,” DiCarlo said at her keynote. “It’s not just about sex, it’s about so much more than that. It’s all about pursuing that identity with positivity and confidence.”
LORA DICARLO, FOUNDER AND CEO OF LORA DICARLO. ROSS D. FRANKLIN/AP PHOTO
PSU Vanguard • MAY 25, 2021 • psuvanguard.com
CHILE BEGINS DRAFTING NEW CONSTITUTION PRESIDENT SEBASTIAN PINERA, CENTER, ARRIVES AT LA MONEDA PRESIDENTIAL PALACE. ESTEBAN FELIX/AP PHOTO
DANNY O’BRIEN In Chile, the elections for the candidacy of the Constitutional Convention, a panel of 155 delegates of equal gender parity, were chosen over the weekend from multiple political parties across the spectrum to draft the new constitution, according to Al Jazeera. The decision for the rewrite comes after the city of Santiago saw approximately two million citizens take to the streets in 2019 to protest a hike in subway fare—and the entire structure of their economy. After months of protesting, President Sebastian Piñera announced a compromise to the people, allowing them to reevaluate their constitution and consider drafting a new one. The vote to approve the rewrite, originally set for April 26, was postponed due to COVID-19 until October 2020, where a plebiscite was held, and it was decided that an overwhelming majority of Chileans wanted to have a new constitution drafted by elected members of a Constitutional Convention. “This is the culmination of a political crisis that had been a long time coming,” said Claudia Heiss, the head of the political science department at the University of Chile. “An increase
in participation puts an end to a binomial era [since the return to democracy] in which Chile was ruled by two coalitions with high governability but low representation.” To address disparity in the current constitution, a required 17 delegates, or 9% of the panel, must be indigenous Chileans. Seven of these 17 seats are reserved for the Mapuche, two for the Aymara, and one to Quechua, Atacameños, Qulla, Kawésqar, Diaguitas, Yaghanes, Changos and the Rapa Nui. “We are voting with pride and identity for the first time,” said Maribel Mora Curriao, a Mapuche poet. “We have taken this process very seriously and we are very much aware that this is a unique opportunity not only for us but for the Chilean people as a whole.” As of May 17, the results showed a mixed political spread for the seats. 48 of the seats have gone to those of mixed, independent political status, 37 have gone to conservative delegates, 28 have gone to left-wing delegates, 23 for center-left/ liberal and 17 for the previously mentioned indigenous delegates. The percentage of seats won by conservative delegates, less than 33%, will reduce the veto power of the right, which includes Chile’s
PSU Vanguard • MAY 25, 2021 • psuvanguard.com
current center-right ruling party, Chile Vamos. Each bill that is to be added into the new constitution will be put to a vote for the Constitutional Convention, and a two-thirds majority approval will be necessary to include the bill. As BBC reported, “some of the more controversial proposals include changes to private property rights enshrined in the current text as well as to the employment legislation, which could clash with interests of traditional investors. Parties on the left want greater state control of mineral and natural resources...and more public spending on education, health, pensions and social welfare.” The ongoing protests have included rejection of neoliberal policies that govern Chile. There is a strong malaise among Chileans regarding their partially privatized healthcare services, poor pension programs and the current state of education. Candidates likely to bolster proposals for reforms have two-thirds majority to make it into the New Constitution. “The new charter will involve a bit more state and a bit less market,” according to The Economist. The Convention will have nine months to
debate amongst themselves and make key decisions in the drafting process, after which they can request an additional three months, giving them potentially up to a year to draft the new Constitution. After a draft has been created, it will be put to a public vote for its approval. While the people are witnessing the writing of this revised constitution, they will remain as a democratic republic and must still abide by the international treaties previously signed. In addition to these elections, there are concomitant municipal elections going on around the country. 345 mayors and 2,252 city councilors are also up for election. France 24 reported that these elections are “usually a litmus test for presidential elections, next due in November.” “Many people are saying that [the constitutional convention election] was the day that the transition to democracy finally reached its conclusion,” said Verónica Figueroa Huencho, an academic at the University of Chile’s School of Public Affairs. “The participation of indigenous peoples and independent candidates in a genderequal constitutional assembly is a launchpad for a new Chile,” Huencho said.
INTERNATIONAL
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HUMAN RIGHTS CAMPAIGN PRESIDENT ALPHONSO DAVID. JOHN AMIS/AP IMAGES FOR THE HUMAN RIGHTS CAMPAIGN
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PSU Vanguard • MAY 25, 2021 • psuvanguard.com
NTI-LGBTQ+ TATE LEGISLATION
IN RECENT US HISTORY
CONOR CARROLL An estimated 250 anti-LGBTQ+ state legislative bills have been proposed nationwide since January 2021, and at least 17 bills have been signed into state law. This easily breaks the 2015 yearly total of 15 such laws, with 11 or more currently awaiting a governor’s signature, according to a Human Rights Campaign (HRC) report. “The rights of LGBTQ people—and especially transgender people—across the country are being systematically threatened and undermined by national anti-LGBTQ groups coordinating with anti-equality lawmakers to wage an unprecedented war on the LGBTQ community,” Alphonso David, the HRC President, stated. The transgender community has seen the most targeted political attacks, with at least 33 states introducing more than 100 bills aiming to restrain the rights of transgender people across the United States, according to a CNN report. Anti-trans legislation typically is classified as either a bathroom/locker room ban, youth sports ban, a ban/restriction on transgender medical care or “other,” according to an HRC analysis. While the bills restricting trans rights would affect the trans community as a whole, there could be a greater effect on trans youth. According to a study by The Trevor Project of LGBTQ youth mental health in 2020, “40% of LGBTQ respondents seriously considered attempting suicide” and “86% of LGBTQ youth said that recent politics have negatively impacted their well-being.” The bans on trans participation in same-gender youth sports are also prominent in 2021. 31 states have presented measures which ban trans athletes from partaking in sports in relation to their gender affiliations. Some states, such as Arkansas, have already signed bills of this nature, including an April bill making Arkansas the first to outlaw gender-affirming treatment for trans youth. In April, Florida’s House of Representatives passed a bill that prevents trans athletes from competing in girls’ and women’s sports in college and school writ large. It also requires students to participate in a “physical examination” of their genitals should their gender be disputed. The NCAA has issued a warning to states that have enacted or are planning to enact measures restricting or banning trans youth from participating in sports events that they will remove events from said states should those bills become law. Many states have also begun criminalizing or banning medical treatment for the trans community. According to the HRC, 20 states have introduced legislation which makes it illegal or very difficult to obtain gender-affirming therapy for minors, such as the one which overwhelmingly passed the Alabama State Senate in March. Alabama lawmakers argue minors are unable to make gender-affirming decisions on their own.
PSU Vanguard • MAY 25, 2021 • psuvanguard.com
“Genital surgery is never performed on children, and puberty blockers and hormonal therapy are used only after lengthy informed consent, mental health oversight and subspecialized medical care,” said Dr. Morissa Ladinsky in testimony regarding the bill. Medical best practice ideology from organizations such as the American Psychological Association, Child Mind Institute, and the American Medical Association all recommend that gender-affirmation care for trans youth is safe and effective, despite legislation passed in states such as Alabama. “There is a growing body of research that supports access to gender-affirming care in adolescence,” a recent CNN report said. “A 2020 study by the American Academy of Pediatrics found that access to pubertal suppression treatment was associated with lower odds of long-term and consistent suicidal thoughts among transgender adults.” Some states have not had as much or any such legislation introduced but have still been in an advocacy position, as have organizations within them. The Oregon-based LGBTQ+ organization Basic Rights Oregon is one of such organizations. Mikki Gillette, the “Major Gifts Officer’’ or press affiliate for the group, assisted with recent Oregon state legislation which will provide further protections for the LGBTQ+ community and discussed the recent rash of anti-LGBTQ+ legislation around the country. Basic Rights Oregon hosted a “Queer Rights Town Hall” at PSU in 2018, where legislators and constituents discussed LGBTQ+ rights. “We held a queer rights town hall [at PSU] in 2018,” Gillette said. “We invited all the out-gay legislators and legislators of color and our constituents to an auditorium there. It was successful and informative, and really allowed people to speak their minds and learn at the same time.” Despite a lack of direct anti-trans legislative action, Oregon legislators and advocacy groups have been concerned regarding the national trend towards legislating against the trans community. “I thought public opinion was moving towards broader acceptance of trans people. I really didn’t expect this direct assault from politicians,” Gillette said. “In 2016, North Carolina paid a serious political price for trying to enact such legislation. Polls are broadly showing that [anti-trans] legislation is really unpopular across the political spectrum.” In a recent PBS/NPR/Marist poll, 67% of Americans and over 65% of Republicans oppose the aforementioned anti-trans sports ban measures spreading around the country.
“Most parents are scrambling to educate themselves about their children and their struggles, ‘’ Gillette said. “A lot of times kids display psychological distress from just hearing about this legislation. I would think this is a no-brainer.” Gillette, as a trans woman, said that she “[tries] not to feel too bad about it, because I think it would be too painful. I don’t know what it’s [the legislation] in response to, except people that don’t want transgenders to exist.” “It just seems cruel,” she said. “When I heard people talk about the political calculations, a lot of these representatives are in districts that went Trump plus-40, so they’re not worried about losing to a democrat, but they are about being primaried by a Republican further to the right than they are,” Gillette said. The legislative branch is not the only government institution which may be involved further in such ideations—the highest court in the U.S., the Supreme Court, could be presented with a case regarding trans rights. “My thinking is so shaped by the Bostock ruling that I do honestly have hope that trans rights will be protected [by the Supreme Court],” Gillette said. “This was a 6-3 ruling, and before it had shifted so far to the right, so I think the conservatives on the court will keep to that.” “I just don’t see how you could tell parents what kind of health care their kids could receive.” In regard to the bills inhibiting trans youth from playing sports, Gillette drew upon her own experience transitioning. “These bills seem like an extension of the ‘bathroom myth’ bills we saw so many of,” she said. “It’s this patriarchal idea that these poor, fragile girls will be invaded by trans girls.” “Especially as someone who has transitioned, the nosedive in status you endure, when you don’t look anything like you want to…the idea that a high schooler transitioning would want to play sports in general, let alone draw even more attention to themselves, it just makes no sense.” Advocates for LGBTQ+ rights believe that federal action will be required to protect against such legislation now and in the future. The Equality Act introduced in Congress this February would add to the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and explicitly protect sexual orientation and gender orientation, making the demographics protected classes of citizenry. While the bill passed in the House of Representatives, its fate in the Senate remains uncertain, considering the filibuster’s potential to halt such a resolution in its tracks.
COVER
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PSU Vanguard • MAY 25, 2021 • psuvanguard.com
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May 17
GUJARAT, INDIA
Cyclone Tauktae, the most powerful storm to hit India’s west coast in two decades made landfall on Monday, according to The Guardian. Over 200,000 people were evacuated from low-lying areas in preparation for the impact of the cyclone on Sunday, which had already killed six people before making landfall in India. On May 19, the Indian navy issued a statement announcing they found 26 bodies after searching for a barge that sank in the storm, increasing the number of fatalities to at least 91. The storm comes as India grapples with a second wave of COVID-19 infections. “Our priority is to clear the roads, so there is no impact on oxygen movement,” said Gaurang Makwana, the top official of Bhavnagar district in Gujarat. According to Vijay Rupani, Gujarat’s chief minister, 160 state roads were destroyed in the storm and 40,000 trees were uprooted.
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PARIS, FRANCE
French President Emmanuel Macron hosted approx. two dozen African heads of state and heads of global financial institutions for a summit to discuss ways to help with post pandemic economic recovery, according to Al Jazeera. The summit ended with Macron calling for vaccine patents to be lifted in Africa in order to allow for the manufacturing of vaccines to occur on the continent. The summit however, did not take place without controversy as some believe it was just a ploy for France to show power and control over its former colonies and the larger continent. “It is just another useless gathering, a waste of time and resources which is more beneficial to France than Africa,”
PSU Vanguard • MAY 25, 2021 • psuvanguard.com
said Cameroonian human rights activist Bergeline Ndoumou. “They have been holding countless summits, but how have those summits benefited Africa? Do we have potable water? Good schools or medical facilities? How have [the summits] impacted governance in our various African countries? We still have bad leaders.” 3
May 20
COLOMBIA
The South American Football Confederation (CONMEBOL) announced the 2021 Copa América football championship will no longer host games in Colombia due to recent unrest, according to Reuters. This comes after the decision to host the games in two co-host countries for the first time in the tournament’s 105-year history. Earlier this year, Colombia asked to postpone the tournament to November so spectators could be present in the stadiums, but CONMEBOL said it was impossible “due to conflict with the international calendar.” Protests throughout Colombia have been ongoing since they erupted in late April over tax reforms. According to AP News, a match last week between Colombia’s América de Cali and Brazil’s Atlético Mineiro was interrupted multiple times due to the use of tear gas to disperse protestors nearby. The two guest teams from Qatar and Australia decided in February they would not compete in the tournament due to the pandemic. 4
May 21
BANGKOK, THAILAND
Dogs trained to detect COVID-19 infections by scent were deployed in Thailand, according to Reuters. Three Labradors made their debut at Bangkok’s Chulalongkorn University following
trials that announced a 95% success rate in the last month. “The canines are very fast at screening,” said co-researcher Thitiwat Sirprasart. “At this pace, we are able to isolate those whom we suspect are infected from those who are virus-free.” Thailand is not the only place undergoing trials for canine COVID-19 tests. In Oahu, Hawaii, training is underway at the Queen’s Medical Center with four dogs to identify COVID-19-positive samples based on scent. “At the moment, we are screening people based on history and based on a temperature check,” said Whitney Limm, chief physician executive at Queen’s. “This offers an opportunity for noninvasive testing, adding a layer of security without doing something intrusive.” 5
May 22
ROTTERDAM, NETHERLANDS
On the final day of the 65th annual Eurovision Song Contest, Italy’s Måneskin took home top marks scoring 524 points in the grand final, according to The Guardian. The rock band was followed by France’s Barbara Pravi and Switzerland’s Gjon’s Tears in second and third place respectively for the first song contest back after the 2020 event was cancelled due to COVID-19. “Canceling for another year was never a consideration,” said Martin Österdahl, executive supervisor of the Eurovision Song Contest. “We said very soon, as soon as I started, that the Eurovision Song Contest would come back and we’ve held on to that promise.” Due to worries about the ongoing pandemic, the venue hosted an audience of only 3,500 people, all of which were required to present a negative COVID-19 test prior to the event. “It’s about bringing peace and bringing hope in a lot of homes of citizens in the world despite this very worst that we are passing,” said Ahmed Aboutaleb, mayor of Rotterdam.
INTERNATIONAL
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20 YEARS LATER, AN EMPATHETIC SHREK IS DEFINITELY THERESPONSE TO GUARDIAN’S STILL A MOVIE SHREKTROSPECTIVE
SHREK. COURTESY OF FLICKR CREATIVE COMMONS
MORGAN TROPER I’ll never forget the first time I saw Shrek. Not because it’s my favorite movie of all time or whatever, but because for children born in the early-to-mid 1990s it’s something of a cultural signpost. I remember being with my aunt and cousins in Indianola, Iowa, coming from the theater, listening to “Island in the Sun” by Weezer on the radio—off the band’s Green Album, which, coincidentally, came out three days before Shrek’s official theatrical release. On the way home, I remember stopping at Burger King and getting a Shrek-themed Big Kids meal, replete with green ketchup. The pre-9/11 years were weird and sublime. One could say that I grew up with Shrek. When the sequel Shrek 2 was released in 2004, I was still a young preteen susceptible to the intoxicating burnish of mass media. Plus, the video game tie-in was excellent. By the time Shrek 3 rolled around in 2007, I was squarely in my “fuck you, dad” phase, and when Shrek Forever After was released in 2010, I was technically an adult with adult interests and adult responsibilities who would sooner be dead than caught waiting in line to see the Shrek swan song. In honor of its 20th anniversary, The Guardian ran a revisionist retrospective on the first film that is frequently on-target and hilarious. Its main thesis seems to be that Shrek left a slew of embarrassingly bad imitators in its wake, supplanting Pixar’s signature earnestness with a toothless, pathologically topical irreverence as the industry standard. And for the decade or so after the first Shrek movie’s release, theaters really did seem inundated with CG children’s films that adopted
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ARTS & CULTURE
this formula. Madagascar, Shark Tale, Happy Feet—pretty much any non-Pixar film from this era occupied the house that Shrek built. Where the author of the Guardian piece loses me, however, is when he decries Shrek’s fairytale iconoclasm—or as he puts it, Shrek’s “destructive, know-it-all attitude toward the classics that made any earnest engagement with them seem like a waste of time.” My question is: who are the adults hoping to “earnestly engage” with these classics, and what has Shrek done to make that engagement seem like a waste of time? If the argument is that Shrek has somehow made literary analysis of classic fairy tales purposeless, well, that’s an unhinged take: we’re earnestly engaging with the classics right now by virtue of engaging in this discourse. Or, is the argument that kids no longer “respect” the classic fairy tale canon because Shrek relentlessly satirizes it? The latter argument is far more interesting to me, even if I feel like it overestimates the intelligence and cultural sentience of your average child. When I first saw Shrek I didn’t really think anything about its relationship to the “classic fairy tale canon”—I liked the donkey voiced by Eddie Murphy and I thought it was funny that he wanted to eat waffles. Also, if we’re going to criticize Shrek for being outdated and sanitized, we really ought to take a closer look at some of those fairy tales it skewers. The original versions of the Brothers Grimm fairytales were rife with scenes of physical and sexual violence, not to mention virulent antisemitism. So much explicit and implicit antisemitism, in fact, that the
Nazis appropriated Grimm imagery for propaganda purposes and essentially prescribed copies of Grimms Märchen to every German citizen. It goes without saying that subsequent translations have been cleaned up in this respect, but I’d argue this also qualifies as a “bad legacy”—I would rather show my hypothetical children a story in which an ogre voiced by the Austin Powers guy farts and burps than one that is more or less an allegory for Aryan supremacy. That argument might seem a little disingenuous, so I’ll go out on this note—why are we even talking about this film in 2021, 20th anniversary or not? Portland State Vanguard editor-in-chief Justin Grinnell referred to the Guardian article as “presentism at its worst”—and that’s exactly what it is, even though I laughed the whole way through it. Shrek was a movie that children enjoyed because it featured talking animals and a Smash Mouth single, but I have never met a single adult member of functioning society who earnestly thinks it is a fantastic movie. You can approach any retrospective of any classic, canonized piece of media in this hyper intellectual, sophistic way—shit, give me enough time and dextroamphetamine and I’ll tell you about how Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron predicted the Iraq War. To me, The Guardian’s Shrek piece says less about Shrek and more about the pallid state of pop culture journalism—the domain of fiercely intelligent yet terminally bored writers who are beholden to clicks and fabricated controversy. I doubt this guy even wanted to write about Shrek in the first place; I didn’t want to either.
PSU Vanguard • MAY 25, 2021 • psuvanguard.com
WHAT’S GOING ON WITH LLOYD CENTER?
MORGAN TROPER Back in late 2019—when a global pandemic still seemed like a remote possibility—Lloyd Center, Portland’s oldest and arguably most iconic shopping center, was already in its death throes, at least according to the press. For Willamette Week, Nigel Jacquiss profiled the mall right before Christmas that year, and the picture he painted was dour. The headline says it all: “Will Lloyd Center Last Another Christmas?” Not only did Lloyd Center manage to survive another Christmas, it endured one of the most devastating global crises within the last century. While plenty of Portland businesses and restaurants closed or changed owners within the past year, Lloyd Center—Portland’s retail behemoth—has managed to survive. Amazingly, Lloyd Center’s interior in 2021 is as if not more skeletal than it was a few years ago, when it was being prematurely eulogized by local journalists. All of Jacquiss’ observations then still ring true today—the abandoned storefronts, early00s orthodontist waiting room staples like Train’s “Drops of Jupiter” playing somnolently from the overhead speakers, a general dearth of human activity. Its anchor retailers—Nordstrom, Marshall’s, Macy’s—have all but vanished, the last of which permanently closed at the beginning of this year. When I go into Lloyd Center for the first time in over a year, it’s on a particularly balmy Spring day, and it’s to get my fix of mall Chinese food—one of the few constants in our increasingly fractured society. It’s nearly 70 degrees outside, but for
PSU Vanguard • MAY 25, 2021 • psuvanguard.com
LLOYD CENTER. ERIC SHELBY/PSU VANGUARD some godforsaken reason, the heat is blasting throughout the food court. People are walking around without masks, which adds to the muggy, claustrophobic ambience. It doesn’t seem like a mask policy is being actively enforced; the mall probably doesn’t want to scare off what few customers it has. My favorite spot, Chicken Connection, is still in business, and there’s even a bit of a line, but almost every other restaurant in the once-crowded food court has shuttered. For longtime Lloyd Center-heads such as myself, the most glaring closure is probably Cajun & Grill, which used to be tucked away between the Orange Julius and Dairy Queen combo and the vacant space that used to be home to Tilt, a video arcade and former stomping ground for the city’s most gifted Marvel vs. Capcom 2 players. Lloyd Center today is a veritable ghost town, but it wasn’t always that way. When the shopping center opened in 1960 in its original open-air configuration, it was touted as the largest mall in the entire country. Lloyd Center was also unique in that it was constructed in the middle of an urban area, as opposed to a suburb. This remains an integral part of the mall’s legacy—for kids who grew up in the inner city and relied on public transit especially, Lloyd Center was one of the city’s most popular and convenient meetup spots. It’s right off a MAX line, and it’s within walking distance to the Moda and Metropolitan Expo Centers. Today, Lloyd Center—like most shopping malls—is more or less an anachronism. On one hand, it’s infuriating that a mas-
IT APPEARS TO HAVE SURVIVED COVID-19, BUT JUST BARELY sive and literally vacuous space such as Lloyd Center has been able to endure while other beloved Portland institutions have had to close. On the other hand, I can’t help but feel sentimental for Lloyd Center—I’ve gone on dates here, I’ve met up with strangers from Craigslist to sell records and musical equipment and I’ve spent hours after school just idly wandering around, waiting for the rain to let up or to be notified of a party happening that night in Northeast Portland. Jacquiss’ article about Lloyd Center was, not surprisingly, met with a fair amount of controversy. The piece’s comments section is littered with haranguing and fevered pearl-clutching from concerned citizens, who more or less decry the space as flypaper for crime. “Oregon is anti-business. Minority thugs ripping off the stores with no repercussions, not for me,” reads one particularly heinous comment toward the top of the page. In some ways, this continuously tense dynamic between Portland’s inner city residents and the anxious suburbanites who shuttle in for the weekend would play out more robustly during last summer’s racial justice protests. Like few other spots in the city, Lloyd Center exemplifies the schism between how Portland is represented and what it’s actually like. I don’t doubt people have had weird experiences hanging out in the Marshall’s parking lot after 2 a.m., but take it from a longtime Portlander—Lloyd Center is a chill spot, and Chicken Connection is delicious.
ARTS & CULTURE
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OREGONIANS’ TAX DOLLARS SHOULDN’T BE FUNDING THE TIMBER LOBBY WOODLAND AREA IN HILLSBORO, OREGON. COURTESY OF FLICKR CREATIVE COMMONS
LUKE HARKINS Oregon taxpayers have funded a pro-timber industry group for decades, propping up a state-sanctioned lobbying arm of Big Timber. Thankfully, state lawmakers have moved to change that with Oregon House Bill 2357. Since its creation by the Oregon Legislature in 1991, the tax-funded Oregon Forest Resources Institute (OFRI) has seen no shortage of skepticism regarding its cozy relationships with timber industry insiders. However, an August 2020 investigative report co-produced by ProPublica, The Oregonian and OPB and written by journalists Rob Davis and Tony Schick revealed just how entrenched these relationships have become. Purporting itself to be an organization “dedicated to advancing public understanding of forests, forest management and forest products,” OFRI has now been foisted into the spotlight due to Davis and Schick’s allegations that it has been acting as a “de facto lobbying arm of the timber industry,” an accusation that suggests OFRI has been leveraging its public trust to push a pro-timber agenda, science or public interest be damned. This should give all Oregonians pause. However, lawmakers have proposed a solution; H.B. 2357 presents a clear path toward finally reigning in an organization that may have become a bit too familiar with the timber lobby. The bill, sponsored by State Representatives Andrea Salinas (D–Lake Oswego) and Paul Holvey (D–Eugene), as well as Senator Jeff Golden (D– Ashland), effectively defunds much of OFRI’s current operation and shifts funding management to the purview of the State Board of Forestry. While some would decry this legislation as a bridge too far, it has been long overdue. As detailed in Davis and Schick’s August 2020
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OPINION
article, evidence surfaced indicating OFRI staff had offered to draft public responses for industry insiders seeking to oppose an academic study perceived as detrimental to a pro-timber agenda. In conjunction with the Oregon Forest & Industries Council, OFRI also threatened to pull donor funding to University of Oregon over a collaborative research project between the university’s Communication and Journalism School and Pacific Rivers, a watershed conservation group. Additionally, in 2017, emails from OFRI’s then-Executive Director Paul Barnum indicated his propensity to utilize back-channel communications to attempt to influence members of the state legislature regarding proposed funding cuts to the organization. Most shocking, however, is the accusation that OFRI has attempted to suppress academic research that may run contrary to a pro-timber agenda. In her testimony advocating support of H.B. 2357, Professor Emeritus Beverly Law of Oregon State University alleged OFRI staff had attempted to work in concert with the College of Forestry to pull funding for a study she co-led regarding carbon emission impacts following the 2002 Biscuit Fire. However, this wouldn’t be the last time Law would find her research efforts challenged by OFRI. In 2018, OFRI similarly engaged in a process of alleged interference in Law’s then-most recent study regarding climate change mitigation. This study painted a more dour picture of the timber industry’s true impacts on carbon emissions, which subsequently prompted a response from Barnum. In agency emails obtained by Davis and Schick, Barnum’s concern over Law’s study was made abundantly clear: “it seems to me that we also need to develop a swift, fairly immediate,
response so that this study doesn’t drive all of the initial narrative and so that it doesn’t drive early attempts at the state level to develop carbon policy,” Barnum wrote in 2018. While Barnum claims Law’s 2018 study is based on “faulty science,” the evidence just doesn’t corroborate such an accusation. Even putting aside Law’s extensive body of work in the field and her time spent as an expert panelist on forest carbon for the IPCC, both studies of hers that OFRI had attempted to stifle would ultimately pass the peer review process. Law’s 2002 Biscuit Fire study would even find itself in the pages of Science magazine. OFRI’s continued efforts to sway public policy and suppress research suggests a clear pattern. In a 2017 email regarding a public perception survey on herbicides, Barnum wrote, “the research project sounds legit, but also fairly dangerous…that’s the kind of public opinion data one would want to have proprietary.” Under Barnum’s leadership, OFRI clearly strayed from its original mission as an educational resource and had instead opted to prioritize the desires of the timber lobby over the public need for a non-partisan institution dedicated to science-based education. Make no mistake, communication and cooperation between the timber industry, its lobbyists and OFRI is to be expected. After all, OFRI is a commodity commission whose operations demand a certain level of industry intimacy to effectively produce the appropriate resources it provides to the public. However, we must demand a level of transparency to protect the integrity of our government institutions. OFRI desperately needs oversight, both for the sake of public interest and for the sake of
the institutional trust Oregonians place in the state’s non-partisan, educational agencies. Transparency in government is paramount, and agencies like OFRI shouldn’t be turning to backdoor subterfuge or attempting to discredit academic endeavors in order to advance private interests on the taxpayer’s dime. Ultimately, H.B. 2357 provides for the critical oversight of OFRI that has become a necessity. Per the language of the bill, stipulations that OFRI must add two new voting members to its board—a representative of the environmental community and a member with fishery or wildlife science experience—and its prohibition on the organization disseminating advertising and educational materials lacking a conservation perspective are certainly long overdue. Additionally, H.B. 2357 would also require OFRI to begin maintaining records of interactions between staff and elected officials. Again, while some might argue H.B. 2357 is a disproportionate response to an organization that has since shed itself of many of the key players involved in the allegations covered under the Davis and Schick report, climate change is knocking at our door, and efforts to co-opt Oregon’s educational resources to favor the agendas of commercial enterprises are beyond problematic. As much of Oregon heads into a drought this year and the wildfire season looms around the corner, we may need to examine some hard truths regarding the ultimate ramifications of our current timber-harvesting processes. While these truths may not be so convenient for the timber industry, if we want to preserve the industry in any capacity, we cannot ignore climate change.
PSU Vanguard • MAY 25, 2021 • psuvanguard.com
WESTERN MEDIA HAS A SYSTEMIC BIAS AGAINST PALESTINIANS WORKERS CLEAR THE RUBBLE OF A BUILDING THAT WAS DESTROYED BY AN ISRAELI AIRSTRIKE ON SATURDAY, WHICH HOUSED THE ASSOCIATED PRESS, BROADCASTER AL-JAZEERA AND OTHER MEDIA OUTLETS IN GAZA CITY. ADEL HANA/AP PHOTO
NICK GATLIN Nearly all media coverage of the situation in the West Bank and Gaza Strip is biased toward Israel and against Palestine—and if you don’t know what to look for, you might never see it. As news about Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories comes at us from our televisions, our computers and our social media feeds, we may wish to find an “unbiased” source of information; it’s a complicated issue, after all, and the specter of media bias hangs over every contentious topic. But on some issues—such as the situation in Israel and Palestine—media bias clearly goes one way, and it runs deep. Even advocating for Palestinian rights can get one fired from mainstream news media. According to a 2018 study from 416Labs, a research firm based in Canada, mainstream media such as The New York Times, The Washington Post and others published four times as many Israel-centric headlines as Palestine-centric ones between June 1967–2017. Additionally, Israeli sources were nearly 250% more likely to be quoted than Palestinian sources, and, in Israeli-centric headlines, the use of the word “occupation” has declined nearly 85% since 1967. The use of the phrase “Palestinian refugee(s)” in headlines has also declined by 93% over the 50-year period. Edward Said, author of Orientalism, notable Palestinian activist and professor of literature at Columbia University until his death in 2003, had the following to say in an interview with the Media Education Foundation: “[The idea] that Hamas terrorists on the West Bank are just interested in killing Jewish children is what you derive from looking at this stuff, and very little attention is paid to the fact that the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza has been going on for 30 years [now more than 50 years], it’s the longest military occupation in this century.”
It is nearly impossible, he said, “for an American to see on television, to read books, to see films about the Middle East, that are not colored politically by this conflict, in which the Arabs almost always play the role of terrorists and violent people and irrational and so on and so forth.” The gaming website IGN recently posted an article called “How to Help Palestinian Civilians,” which has since been removed from their website. The article was removed suddenly and without a trace, with no explanation given to IGN staff or the public. Some IGN employees described their coworkers as “pissed” over the decision to take down the article, which promoted Palestinian charities in a manner similar to previous posts on the site about Black Lives Matter, anti-Asian violence and other issues. Dozens of IGN employees penned a letter to management denouncing the decision, making it clear the staff supported the post and calling its removal “a clear instance of corporate overreach [which] demonstrated blatant disregard for the most basic standards of journalistic integrity and editorial independence.” So why was such drastic action taken specifically against an article promoting Palestinian charities and aid groups? In 2018, CNN contributor Marc Lamont Hill was fired by the network after Hill gave a speech to the United Nations on the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People, saying, “We have an opportunity to not just offer solidarity in words but to commit to political action, grass-roots action, local action and international action that will give us what justice requires and that is a free Palestine from the river to the sea.” The Anti-Defamation League, in a statement on the event, claimed the remarks called for “an end to the State of Israel” and said the annual event “promotes divisiveness and hate.” Despite Hill’s repeated explanations that the speech was a “call for justice” and Palestinian self-determination,
PSU Vanguard • MAY 25, 2021 • psuvanguard.com
his contract with CNN was severed the next day. For a more recent example, take the case of former Associated Press journalist Emily Wilder. AP News stated in an May 20 article that Wilder “was being terminated for violations of its social media policy that took place after she became an employee,” though AP spokesperson Lauren Easton would not specify exactly “what Wilder had written that violated the policy.” The article implies—though explicitly does not state—that the tweet in question was one Wilder posted on May 16 where she criticized the invocation of “objectivity” when journalists routinely choose to use terms like “Israel” instead of “Palestine” and “war” instead of “siege and occupation.” This is a pointed critique of media framing, something one would expect from a journalist engaged in critical thinking about their craft. She rightly notes that the choice to use one term over another is oftentimes a political decision. Associated Press admits as such, as they write “the AP Stylebook urges against references to ‘Palestine’ because it is not a fully independent, unified state.” This decision is inherently political. “There’s no question I was cancelled,” Wilder said in an interview with SFGATE. Her social media presence was first highlighted by the Stanford College Republicans in a Twitter thread full of attacks against Wilder, including an accusation that Wilder had committed blood libel. They later called her an “unhinged, Marxist, anti-Israel agitator.” Is this the future of media? If one even criticizes the work of other journalists, pointing out systemic flaws and biases in reporting on certain issues, they are liable to be fired? If a student group engages in bad faith attacks against a journalist, their publication won’t even defend them? Is it now acceptable to be fired for a vague breach of social media policy without even being told what you did? And why, as Wilder’s
former journalism professor Janine Zacharia noted, was Wilder not simply taken aside and given a conversation with her editor? Compare Wilder’s story, or Hill’s, with that of CNN host Chris Cuomo. It was revealed in The Washington Post this week that Cuomo had given advice to the governor of New York—his brother—on how to deal with the sexual harassment scandal the governor has undergone. CNN acknowledged in a statement that “it was inappropriate [for Cuomo] to engage in conversations that included members of the Governor’s staff.” This is surely a breach of journalistic ethics, and a serious one at that. A news host personally advising the governor, his brother, on a political scandal is wildly inappropriate conduct. Yet, Cuomo was allowed to apologize to his viewers on his nightly show, and it seems that he still has a job with CNN. Curious. One wonders why such a serious lapse in judgement garnered dramatically fewer consequences than Wilder’s actions. Why would a junior Associated Press journalist who critiqued the use of language in media face termination, while Cuomo was able to keep his prominent weeknight news show? The answer, of course, is that Wilder has expressed pro-Palestinian viewpoints in the past, and her critique of media framing was similarly interpreted as pro-Palestinian. Marc Lamont Hill was fired from CNN for similar reasons, after simply expressing Palestinians’ right to self-determination in all of historic Palestine. And, for what it’s worth, Wilder is right; as Said put it so eloquently in his article “Zionism from the Standpoint of its Victims,” “the dissemination by the media of malicious simplifications (e.g. Jews vs. Arabs)...contributes to the dulling, regulated enforcement of almost unanimous support for Israel.” In other words, if you don’t pay attention, the media can twist your understanding of a situation before you even know what’s happening.
OPINION
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EVENTS CALENDAR
````````````````````````````````````````````````````````` MAY 25–MAY 29 UNMUTED: PCC STUDENT ART EXHIBIT
TUE MAY 25
PCC Sylvania Campus Free Ongoing through June 4
“Over one year ago, Portland Community College moved to remote operations to help stop the spread of the coronavirus. Since then, students, faculty, and staff have been doing heroic work from home, and art students have continued their education remotely, making work in the midst of personal, local, national, global crises and revolutions. This has become a year of raising voices and making art — in spite of, and in response to the challenges of being alive in this time. To honor the art that PCC art students have created during this pivotal year, our first ever college-wide virtual art student exhibition invites student artists to “unmute” themselves and share their art work with the world.”
WED MAY 26
“Journey back 250 million years to prehistoric North America! Get up close and personal with more than 25 life-size dinosaurs, two authentic massive full body dinosaur skeletons, dozens of real fossils, and more.”
PORTRAITURE FROM THE COLLECTION OF NORTHWEST ART
“Isaka Shamsud-Din: Rock of Ages is an intimate exhibition celebrating the Portland artist’s masterful paintings, rich in a narrative combining personal stories and folklore. ShamsudDin’s paintings also celebrate and honor individuals by capturing portraits. Tightly composed and with a vibrancy of color, the works invite viewers to be among these individuals and warm settings. The exhibition is titled after Shamsud-Din’s painting of his father, Rock of Ages (1976), the museum’s most recent acquisition of the artist’s work.”
“In the rich tradition of portraiture reflected in Northwest art, there is an exemplary range of individuals and styles of depiction. For this exhibition, the artist Storm Tharp was invited to help select works from the collection through his keen eyes as a fellow portraitist. As he combed through the collection, some themes in portraiture rose to the surface: the selfportrait, artists and friends, family, psychological space, and making present those who have been less recognized. For an artist, capturing a literal likeness is far less important than grasping the essence of a person or the moment in time. How artists in this collection have chosen to do this is remarkably varied, offering an alluring examination in itself. Across the themes and styles in this exhibition, it is evident that portraiture allows for a breadth of expressiveness, a scrutiny of the self, and the occasion to connect with those around us.”
ANSEL ADAMS IN OUR TIME
DEADBIRD / CAN ANYBODY HELP ME HOLD THIS BODY
“Ansel Adams in Our Time, making its only West Coast stop at the Portland Art Museum, celebrates the remarkable artistry and visual legacy of the acclaimed American landscape photographer and educator. More than 100 photographs by Adams, from his earliest marketed prints to his world-renowned Western vistas, trace the artist’s development and maturation over five decades while pointing to his continuing influence on landscape photography today.”
“You are invited to a series of events: 1. a conversation, 2. a film, 3. a traveling collective public grief altar, and 4. an online archive of our offerings--to the deceased, to the living, to ourselves, to each other. We begin with a conversation between Devynn Emory and artist Okwui Okpokwasili, presented by Danspace Project.”
Portland Art Museum 10 a.m. $17–20 Ongoing through August 1
FRI MAY 29
OMSI 10 a.m. $8–12 Ongoing through September 6
ISAKA SHAMSUD-DIN: ROCK OF AGES Portland Art Museum 10 a.m. $17–20 Ongoing through August 1
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DINOSAURS REVEALED
EVENTS
Portland Art Museum 10 a.m. $20 Ongoing through September 1
PICA 12 noon $0–20 (sliding scale) Ongoing through May 30
PSU Vanguard • MAY 25, 2021 • psuvanguard.com
