VOLUME 76 • ISSUE 48 • MAY 18, 2022
NEWS
SPORTS
OPINION
Commemorating PSU’s legacy of protests P. 3
PSU places second at Portland Distance Carnival P. 6-7
The accomplishments of labor activism are left unspoken P. 11
WE’RE HIRING Copy Editors & News Editor EMAIL RESUME AND COVER LETTER TO EDITOR@PSUVANGUARD.COM
CONTENTS
COVER DESIGN BY SHANNON STEED COVER PHOTO BY CAMDEN BENESH
INTERNATIONAL AUSTRALIA’S #METOO MOVEMENT INDICTS MINING INDUSTRY
P. 4
CREATIVE’S SPOTLIGHT: JOSEPH THE HUMAN
P. 9
THIS WEEK AROUND THE WORLD
P. 5
SPORTS CHASE LOVERCHECK FINISHES SECOND IN MEN’S 800M
OPINION PORTLAND’S STAGGERING MENTAL HEALTH CRISIS
P. 10
P. 6-7
THE INVISIBLE POWER OF LABOR ACTIVISM
P. 11
ARTS & CULTURE FIND IT AT 5TH AVE: COMRADES: ALMOST A LOVE STORY
P. 8
SCIENCE & TECH HOW A RECENT DISCOVERY COULD REDEFINE SEAFOOD ARGICULTURE
P. 12
STAFF EDITORIAL EDITOR IN CHIEF Béla Kurzenhauser MANAGING EDITOR Karisa Yuasa PHOTO EDITOR Sofie Brandt SPORTS EDITOR Eric Shelby SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY EDITOR Ryan McConnell NEWS EDITOR Zoe Edelman ARTS & CULTURE EDITOR Tanner Todd INTERNATIONAL EDITOR Alberto Alonso Pujazon Bogani
OPINION EDITOR Justin Cory ONLINE EDITOR Lily Hennings COPY CHIEF Mackenzie Streissguth DISTRIBUTION MANAGER Tanner Todd MULTIMEDIA EDITOR Olivia Lee CONTRIBUTORS Camden Benesh Nova Johnson Analisa Landeros Milo Loza Ian McMeekan Whitney McPhie Carmen Peters Jesse Ropers Isabel Zerr
PRODUCTION & DESIGN CREATIVE DIRECTOR Shannon Steed
ADVISING & ACCOUNTING COORDINATOR OF STUDENT MEDIA Reaz Mahmood
DESIGNERS Leo Clark Whitney McPhie Mia Levy A Pargett
STUDENT MEDIA ACCOUNTANT Maria Dominguez
TECHNOLOGY & WEBSITE TECHNOLOGY ASSISTANTS Kahela Fickle George Olson Kwanmanus Thardomrong
STUDENT MEDIA TECHNOLOGY ADVISOR Vacant To contact Portland State Vanguard, email editor@psuvanguard.com
MISSION STATEMENT 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.
ABOUT 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 Wednesdays and online 24/7 at psuvanguard.com. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram @psuvanguard for multimedia content and breaking news.
COMMEMORATING THE 1970 PSU STUDENT STRIKE RECAP OF THE MAY 11 HISTORICAL PLAQUE INSTALLATION
ABOVE: THE CROWD AT THE MAY 11, 2022 PROTEST COMMEMORATION. BELOW: SUNFLOWERS PLACED BEFORE THE PLAQUE DURING THE CEREMONY. JESSE ROPERS/PSU VANGUARD JESSE ROPERS Portland State University alumni, faculty and community members gathered outside the Simon Benson House on May 11, 2022 to celebrate the installation of a plaque that commemorates the protestors who were attacked by police on May 11, 1970. The festivities began with a few opening words from Cathy Wood Wyrick, who asked all to stand for the recording of Marian Anderson’s 1939 Lincoln Memorial performance of “America (My Country, ‘Tis of Thee).” After the song concluded and all were seated, Aimee Shattuck—Interim Dean of Students at PSU—took the podium. She spoke at length on how the protests were a foundational piece in her political maturation. “When I give new staff or student leaders an orientation to who we are, I always talk about the 1970 protest and the anti-war, civil rights and feminist movements because that’s when Portland State gelled in its identity,” Shattuck said. “Current students may not realize how they are tethered to events 52 years ago, but just as my political identity and beliefs were shaped by the stories I heard and the values before me, so is the identity of Portland State.” PSU President Stephen Percy spoke next, sharing his own memories of the period and his views on action needed today. “Now more than ever we need people who stand up for justice, what’s right and who gets involved,’’ Percy said. “I worry about things today because I’m afraid not enough of us are standing up.” Wyrick took the stage to give a detailed account of the events. She noted that United States military involvement in Southeast Asia, the unjust incarceration of Black Panther Party member Bobby Seale and a grape boycott to support
migrant agricultural workers were a few key reasons students were standing up to strike. “When a hundred students and faculty refused an order to disperse in an act of civil disobedience, they were forcibly attacked, leaving 31 injured,” Wyrick said. “Both strikers and their opponents united 4,000 strong in a march to City Hall the next day.” In an interview beforehand, Wyrick shared her own account of the event. “By 10 o’clock the night before we had a plan and a timeline for how things would go down,” Wyrick said. “So I went home and went to sleep. I had no idea. All of a sudden I heard all this noise and I came out and all these people were running down the street screaming and the police were there waving their batons.” Wyrick said that the ceremony was held not to recycle old grievances, but unify through sustaining democracy and human value across the nation and world. “We hope our example inspires young people to work in a respectful and democratic manner for a better and more peaceful world in any venue they see fit,” Wyrick said. Strike committee member Clifford Walker spoke next. He described the moment in which he came across the protest. “I was walking across the Park Blocks and there was an activity right here,” Walker said. “And someone called out, ‘Brother will you join us?’ And that sure was the nicest thing I had heard since being at Portland State.” He quickly joined the thralls, but expressed concern to other students when the police arrived. Despite his calls, the students remained strong as the police bore down on them. Today, Walker saw the event as “very, very, very important” and had “an association that
PSU Vanguard • MAY 18, 2022 • psuvanguard.com
we will carry with us for the rest of our lives.” Sue Ellen White—sound engineer and interviewer for 1970 short film The Seventh Day— took the stage after Walker. She described The Seventh Day as an unpolished and visceral film about the student strike produced in an impromptu, passionate manner. White also described how the film’s creators had little prior practice at filmmaking. “Tjerk Dusseldorp and Charles Auch Jr. spent all day, and most often into the night, working on the film,” said White in regards to the film’s production process. “They spliced film with razor blades, compensated for blurry or nonexistent footage, learned how to sync sound recordings and pulled together a galvanizing documentary that won a national student film award.” Joe Bernt, Portland State Vanguard editor at the time of the protests, shared his frustration with mainstream media at that time. “Most of the papers ignored activists at Portland State until barricades blossomed,” Bernt said. Despite the barricades and brutality, most national media ignored the protests with only vague mentions to unrest in the Northwest. Bernt pushed back against any sentiment that the protests did nothing. “Orders from City Hall encouraged baton swinging squads to beat rather than arrest protestors, which shocked Portland’s sensibilities,” Bernt said. “Whether the student strike altered Portland State, it clearly affected relations between residents and the police, and that has continued today.” Doug Weiskopf, a strike committee member, detailed his souring on electoral politics after the losses in 1968 that led him and a dozen
other students to organize a PSU protest group. “Nearly the entire pistol-carrying Portland police department—led by an elite riot squad of two dozen leather-jacketed cops glaring menacingly, armed with 42-inch long riot batons—brutally attacked and beat us exactly one week after the Kent State shootings in full view of every TV and print news camera in town,” Weiskopf said. “We feared for our lives, but peacefully stood our ground.” He noted that the current Park Block design, made in 1974, was structured in the same way barricades were placed in 1970 as a silent homage. Current PSU history professor and teacher at the strike’s time, David Horowitz, took the stage. “As a faculty member who participated in the protest, I was honored to help place the strike in the University’s institutional memory,” Horowitz said. After Horowitz spoke, the plaque’s creator, John Laursen, took the stage. He wasn’t present on May 11, 1970, but swiftly joined the march to City Hall the next day, along with thousands of other outraged citizens. Laursen said he hoped that the plaque will be “a strong, solid testament to the courage and tenacity of the people who were here in 1970 and who stood up for what was right.” The ceremony concluded with Wyrick reading the plaque’s content and thanking the PSU Alumni Association, Student Activities and Leadership Programs (SALP) and the many other individuals and groups that made the event a reality. “We hope this ceremony will play a part in placing the events of 1969 and 1970 within Portland State’s institutional memory,” Wyrick said in the closing statement.
NEWS
3
AUSTRALIA’S #METOO MOVEMENT INDICTS MINING INDUSTRY
PARLIAMENT HOUSE, CANBERRA, AUSTRALIA. COURTESY OF DENIS BIN
AUSTRALIA’S LARGEST ECONOMIC SECTOR FACES HARSH CRITICISMS ALBERTO ALONSO PUJAZON BOGANI In the past 18 months, Australia has seen thousands of women coming together to expose a culture of bullying and abuse in mining—the country’s economic engine—among other workplaces. Provocation of intense public outrage as well as pledges of decisive action have come from executives and politicians. Mining and political leaders faced the reckoning of sexual harassment scandals, which stretch from the outback to the Parliament House. The matter of workplace harassment, and the respective political response, is one of dire importance, in regards to the country’s upcoming May 21 national election. The ruling conservative coalition faces dozens of accusations of sexual impropriety as well as poor handling of an alleged rape case within Canberra’s parliament building. Next month, a report will be released by Western Australia that looked into the sexual harassment at mining companies’ operations within
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INTERNATIONAL
the state, widely expected to focus on the internal handling of complaints. Several mining companies already braced themselves for its publication. “Survivors of sexual misconduct should no longer live in fear, or shame, or silence,” said Elizabeth Broderick, Australia’s former Sex Discrimination Commissioner. “When one woman speaks, others will follow. I call on those who lead in the mining and resources sector to listen and learn from these stories and to step up with strong action.” Reuters interviewed six women who said they experienced sexual harassment and/or bullying at an Australian mining site within the past 18 months. Most of the alleged incidents occured after Western Australia’s launch of its highly publicized investigation into the matter, which warned the industry to clean up its act. According to copies of a complaint and termination letter reviewed by Reuters, Kylie-Jayne Schippers, a maintenance worker at a remote mine
owned by Adani Group, was terminated in Dec. 2021 two days after filing a complaint of sexual harassment and bullying, citing that she had been left afraid to enter the site’s communal dining room. The letter was filed to her employer, French services contractor Sodexo. It detailed that on Dec. 20 an unknown person circulated a note, falsely claimed to be from Schippers, that offered to give a male engineer sexual favors in exchange for favorable treatment. Sodexo’s termination letter on Dec. 22 cited “failure to adhere to reasonable and lawful managerial instructions” as her reason for firing, and a review concluded that “no finding of bullying or harassment was substantiated.” “I was scared, had anxiety through the roof, depression,” said Schippers about the experience that led to her departing from the industry. “They’ve done nothing except swept it under the carpet and got rid of me so they
don’t have to deal with it.” According to Sodexo, Schippers’ complaint “was urgently investigated before being resolved” and her “employment was later terminated for reasons unrelated to the grievance.” Mining accounts for 1% of Australia’s national output and underpins the country’s economy, with Western Australia providing over half the world’s iron ore. One of the world’s largest untapped coal reserves is Adani’s Carmichael mine in Queensland. However, the sector’s workforce is five-sixths male, and gender parity has had little improvement since its beginnings more than a century ago. In June 2021, Melissa McLellan, who was a maintenance supervisor for mining giant BHP Group in Western Australia, filed a gender discrimination complaint citing being passed over for an increase in responsibilities. She was suspended from duties three days later for a “fitness for work assessment” citing that she
looked tired and could be a potential safety risk. According to BHP, McLellan’s allegations of bullying and harassment were investigated promptly and were determined to be “not substantiated.” A spokesperson for the company also added that they were committed to creating a safe environment for people to speak, “and we regret that Ms. McLellan did not have a positive experience with us.” A l o n g s i d e Mc L e l l a n a n d Schippers, most of the women who spoke with Reuters said that their lawyers had either filed or were preparing to file claims for compensation from the companies in question with the Fair Work Commission (FWC), a national workplace tribunal. The FWC declined to comment on individual cases. “It’s jobs for the boys,” said McLellan, who quit in January, citing bullying. “You’re just second class.”
PSU Vanguard • MAY 18, 2022 • psuvanguard.com
THIS WEEK
around the
WORLD
May 9–15
2
3
1
ALBERTO ALONSO PUJAZON BOGANI 1
May 11
MANILA, PHILIPPINES
One day after winning the Philippine presidential election, President-elect Ferdinand Marcos Jr. went to visit the grave of his father, a disgraced Philippines dictator. Marcos’ visit marked the polarization of the return to power of a notorious political dynasty. Images of Marcos shared by his team on Wednesday showed him laying a bouquet of flowers atop his father’s grave while wearing dark sunglasses. His father was buried in the Manila Heroes’ Cemetery, where his body was relocated in 2016 following the family’s long battle to bury him in the same place as other presidents. Due to his 20-year autocratic rule and enforcement of martial law—which culminated in a 1986 People Power uprising—past governments had refused to bury him in the cemetery. “The young Marcos is grateful to the Filipino people for giving him the landslide victory and to his father who [had] been his inspiration throughout his life and taught him the value and meaning of true leadership,” read a statement by Marcos’ team accompanying the photos on Twitter. Marcos won a landslide victory with more than double
the amount of votes of the nearest rival—winning an outright majority in the presidential election of the Philippines for the first time in years—which some criticized as foul play and led to nation-wide protests. On Tuesday, Marcos vowed to work for all people and asked for the world to judge him on his presidency, and not on the history of his family. 2
May 11
LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM
Britain rejected proposals from the European Union on Wednesday that asked to resolve the standoff on post-Brexit trade rules for Northern Ireland. Britain said that it would not hesitate from taking direct action. To this, Northern Ireland responded that Brussels would trigger legal action. The biggest challenge, since the beginning of Brexit negotiations, had been to preserve peace within Northern Ireland and protect the EU’s single market—without imposing a hard border between the British province and Ireland, nor a border within the United Kingdom. Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s administration said the required bureaucracy would be intolerable, despite earlier agreements to create a
PSU Vanguard • MAY 18, 2022 • psuvanguard.com
customs sea border dividing Northern Ireland from the rest of the UK. In October, Brussels offered to ease customs checks, but according to British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss, the offer failed to address the core problem. “Prices have risen, trade is being badly disrupted, and the people of Northern Ireland are subject to different laws and taxes than those over the Irish Sea, which has left them without a [governing] executive and poses a threat to peace and stability,” Truss said in a statement. Irish Foreign Minister Simon Coveney announced on Wednesday that the EU would launch legal action and potentially impose countermeasures should London take unilateral action. 3
May 12
PYONGYANG, NORTH KOREA
North Korea reported its first COVID-19 outbreak, with state media reporting an Omicron variant detected in Pyongyang, the nation’s capital. The country called this outbreak its “gravest national emergency,” and has ordered a national lockdown. Even though North Korea has never previously reported a COVID-19 case, officials in both the United States and South Korea have said there could have been earlier
unreported cases in the country—considering North Korea’s trade and travel with China before its borders were sealed in early 2020 with the intent of blocking the virus from entering. “The state’s most serious emergency has occurred: A break emerged in our emergency epidemic prevention front that had been firmly defended until now,” said state-sponsored Korean Central News Agency. This could be a major crisis as North Korea lacks medical resources and has denied international help with vaccinations. As of March, there were no records of any North Koreans being vaccinated. Samples taken on May 8 from some people in Pyongyang experiencing fevers displayed the presence of a sub-variant of Omicron. A Chinese-state televised address delivered on Thursday reported that North Korea had imposed a stay-at-home order Tuesday, citing suspected flu symptoms in some people. Kim Jong-un, leader of North Korea, convened a politburo meeting of the ruling Workers’ Party, and ordered a strict lockdown nationwide as well as the mobilization of emergency reserve medical supplies. Kim appeared on television wearing a mask as he arrived at the meeting, taking it off once the meeting began, though all other attendees wore masks.
INTERNATIONAL
5
CHASE LOVERCHECK FINISHES SECOND IN MEN’S 800M SOFTBALL FALLS SHORT IN BIG SKY SEMIFINALS
CHASE LOVERCHECK WITH THE BIG SKY CHAMPIONSHIP MEDAL. ERIC SHELBY/PSU VANGUARD ERIC SHELBY
SOFTBALL
The Viks traveled to Ogden, Utah to defend their Big Sky conference title. They started off with the University of Montana Grizzlies in the first round. The Grizzlies scored quick in the top of the first, before Natalia Martinez homered to right field to get their first point on the board. A single by Alexa Cepeda brought Kiara McCrea home and the Viks tied it 2-2. Cepeda singled to left field in the 3rd inning and advanced to second. McCrea advanced to third and Mariah Rodriguez scored, giving the Viks a 3-2 lead. Olivia Dean scored with a sacrifice fly from Emily Johansen in the fourth inning giving the Viks a 4-2 lead. The Viks walked a batter in the following inning and allowed one run. After a hit by a pitch, Montana scored again,
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tying the game 4-4 until the Grizzlies took the lead in the top of the eighth leading 5-4. The Viks couldn’t get any runs in the bottom of that inning and fell to Montana in the first round. The Viks played the loser, Idaho State, in an elimination game. There were no runs for the first four innings until Johansen singled to center field, having Dean advance to second. Cepeda scored, giving the Viks their only run. Luckily, Olivia Grey held on with six hits but zero runs. She also had six strikeouts. The Bengals of Idaho State were eliminated and the Viks survived and advanced. The University of Northern Colorado Bears were the next obstacle for the defending champs. The Bears were the first to strike, scoring in the second and fourth inning, starting off 2-0. A homerun from Johansen
cut the lead in half, late in the fifth inning. Allicitie Frost doubled to right field and Grace Johnson scored, tying the game in the sixth. Bases were loaded and Dean was walked, Cepeda advanced to second, McCrea moved to third and Neveah Smith scored, taking the lead. The Viks weren’t done yet, with Johansen at bat. She tripled to left field, and Dean, Cepeda and McCrea all came home— giving the Viks a 6-2 lead. The Bears had nothing left and the Viks advanced to the semifinals to face Sacramento State Hornets. Martinez singled to left field and advanced to second and Johansen scored in the third inning, making up for the first inning homer by Sacramento State. The Hornets doubled to left field and got a run in the fourth. Ellie Babbitt responded in the seventh with a homer to tie it
up once again. This game went to extra innings. Coming in clutch, Johansen homered and got a 3-2 lead going to the bottom of the eighth inning. The Hornets scored an unearned run and tied it up once again. After a sacrifice pop up, Sacramento State got another run and won the semifinal. The Viks ended their incredible run in the semifinals. Sacramento State went on the fall to Weber State University in the final, making the Wildcats the regular season champs and postseason champs, clinching an automatic bid in the NCAA championship. The Viks finished 28-18 (10-5). They were 9-2 at home and 8-8 away. Grey finished her season with a 2.13 ERA with 18 wins and 8 losses. Johansen finished with a .344 batting average and 1.123 OPS. Logan Riggenbach finished with a .380 batting average.
PSU Vanguard • MAY 18, 2022 • psuvanguard.com
TRACK AND FIELD
The Viks divided and conquered in the Big Sky Outdoor Championships and the Portland Distance Carnival last weekend. Chase Lovercheck came in second in the men’s 800m final with a time of 1:50.24. Rashid Muse won his heat in the men’s 1,500m with a time of 4:05.37. Now that the outdoor track season is over, the Viks prepare for new recruits and cross country season this.
PORTLAND DISTANCE CARNIVAL Women’s Results: 800m: 5. Olivia Brooks, 2:19.42
LEFT: CHASE LOVERCHECK BEFORE THE 800M. ERIC SHELBY/PSU VANGUARD RIGHT: TATUM MILLER IN THE STEEPLECHASE. ERIC SHELBY/PSU VANGUARD
BIG SKY OUTDOOR CHAMPIONSHIPS Women’s Results: 3,000m Steeplechase: 10. Tatum Miller, 11:05.79
1,500m: 10. Natalia Martino, 4:42.23 Sophia Jones, 4:47.82 26. Laura Beghin, 5:09.90 28. Campbell Faust, 5:12.67 29. Abby Donde, 5:14.71 30. Cheyenne Abbett, 5:16.79
Men’s Results: 800m (Prelims): 8. Chase Lovercheck, 1:52.01 22. Luke Ramirez, 1:57.11
5,000m: 10. Sammy Burke, 18:04.75 18. Emma Owen, 18:57.92 20. Sophia Hackett, 19:23.81 25. Madison Tafoya, 21:11.66 Phoebe Brown, DNF
1,500m (Prelims): 14. Luke Ramirez, 3:58.23
3,000m Steeplechase: 2. Abi Swain, 11:37.40 Jalen Marcil, DNF.
110H (Prelims): 7. Jordan Gloden, 14.98
Men’s Results: 800m: 13. Zach Salcido, 1:58.33 1,500m: 17. Brandon Hippe, 4:03.43 19. Rashid Muse, 4:05.37 25. Kelly Shedd, 4:15.61
800m (Final): 2. Chase Lovercheck, 1:50.24
10,000m: 15. Evan Peters, 31:49.06 16. Sam Lingwall, 31:52.57
110H (Final): 6. Jordan Gloden, 15.05 400H (Prelims): 11. Jordan Gloden, 57.40
JORDAN GLODEN IN MEN'S HURDLES. ERIC SHELBY/PSU VANGUARD
5,000m: 23. Cam McChesney, 15:04.88 31. Jake Schulte, 15:23.17 36. Andy Solano, 15:35.60 43. Erik Solano, 16:07.10 10,000m: 4. Zach Grams, 31:15.57 6. Dom Morganti, 31:42.02. UNC ATHLETES ABOVE THE BIG SKY CHAMPIONSHIP BANNER. ERIC SHELBY/PSU VANGUARD
PSU Vanguard • MAY 18, 2022 • psuvanguard.com
SPORTS
7
FIND IT AT 5TH AVE:
MAGGIE CHEUNG AND LEON LAI STAR IN THE FILM IN COMRADES: ALMOST A LOVE STORY (1996). COURTESY OF UNITED FILMMAKERS ORGANIZATION
COMRADES: ALMOST A LOVE STORY EXPLORING THE TRICKY RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN CULTURE, POLITICS AND EMOTION MILO LOZA This weekend, PSU’s 5th Avenue Cinema will be screening Comrades: Almost a Love Story, a Hong Kong film directed by Peter Chan. This 1996 film follows two Chinese mainlanders who travel to Hong Kong—Li Xiao-Jun (Leon Lai), a naive Northerner hoping to get rich so that he can provide for his fiance and Li Qiao (Maggie Cheung), an entrepreneur and opportunist who seeks financial gain through taking advantage of mainlanders like themselves. Alone in the big city, the two end up having a passionate love affair, resulting in a mix of emotions. With Li Xiao-Jun racked with guilt and Li Qiao consistently finding herself in tricky situations, does the film’s title refer to the failure of their love, or the peculiarity of their story? Each 5th Ave. staff member gets to choose two movies to project per term. This week’s Comrades: Almost a Love Story was chosen by Owen Peterson, a business student at PSU. Peterson described his pick as a culturally nuanced one. “It kind of goes through the intricacies of the cultural differences between Hong Kong and China,” he said. Over the last few decades, the relations between the people of Hong Kong and China have been quite tense. China originally ruled over Hong Kong until 1842, and Hong Kong has undergone a complicated series of exchanges during the last couple centuries. “I’m unfortunately sort of uninformed,” Peterson said, but summarized the situation as “one of those things—from what I understand—where it’s fighting over territory that a certain group of people have ownership over, and there’s disagreements of how that piece of land is being handled by governing bodies
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and so there’s a lot of anarchy that happens.” Since the early 2000s, agitation has grown between Chinese Mainlanders and Hongkongers, with political implications like the Individual Visit Scheme—a system requiring Chinese mainlanders to have a business visa to travel to Hong Kong. Although this film precedes intense events like these, the apprehensions are still present. Peterson said he believes that the film does “a good job in representing the political differences and tension in the area.” Peterson said he did a lot of reading on the subject before choosing the film. “I wanted to make sure that it’s a good depiction of that culture because it’s very easy to be extremely jaded like ‘this is what love looks like’ from my United States, male perspective of things,” he said. “It’s a completely different culture that I’m, in a way, projecting—well, literally.” Even though Hong Kong has had to endure a lot of political drama over the past couple centuries, it’s not a subject that many people in the U.S. are aware of. “I remember, in my honors class here during my freshman year, we had a discussion on [Hong Kong] and I had no idea what it was!” Peterson said. “There’s not a lot of movies, at least that I’m aware of, that discuss the Hong Kong-China conflict and it’s something that’s been intense for a really long time.” Although viewers may be able to sense the political tension, it shouldn’t be forgotten that the film is primarily a romance. “Romance may be the main genre people understand it for,” Peterson said. “I mean, it’s in the name—and I think that’s prob-
ably intentional to get more people to see it.” 5th Avenue Cinema is known for choosing foreign films with more diverse perspectives than many students are used to. The theater had a podcast from March 2020 until Aug. 2021, where they discussed movies to make up for their inability to present films during the pandemic. “In our podcasting time, we watched and talked about a few Asian American films and, even in that one, it explained a lot of the differences between how people are able to express something as universal as love differently,” Peterson said. Peterson encouraged people to be open-minded. The choice of movie was intentional, as Peterson said he hoped people will now be informed about the conflict, because the “news here is always momentous,” looking for the next big thing—and avoids “things that don’t involve the U.S.” “Some people don’t like foreign language movies—like I had to convince my parents for the longest time to get into it, because you’re missing out on so much good stuff that you wouldn’t see,” he said. “Honestly, the stuff that is really a game changer that influences everything here was done 10 years ago, somewhere else.” For curious readers looking to see the film for themselves, Comrades: Almost a Love Story is playing this weekend, at 5th Avenue Cinema, Friday–Sunday. Find It At 5th Ave. is a recurring column that reviews, previews and explores running and upcoming films at PSU’s independent movie theater, 5th Avenue Cinema.
PSU Vanguard • MAY 18, 2022 • psuvanguard.com
CREATIVE’S SPOTLIGHT:
JOSEPH THE HUMAN PORTLAND MURALIST TALKS CHANGING REALITIES OF PRACTICING ART ABOVE: ONE OF JOSEPH THE HUMAN’S LANDSCAPE MURALS AT 37TH AND HAWTHORNE, PORTLAND, OREGON. CAMDEN BENESH/PSU VANGUARD
PSU Vanguard • MAY 18, 2022 • psuvanguard.com
For the Portland-based muralist and designer Joseph the Human, art has been a lifelong calling. Joseph, who was born in Brooklyn, New York and grew up in Beaverton, said he was drawn to graffiti at a young age and was determined to go to Portland to practice his creative work. “My whole goal was just to get out of the suburbs and get to a place where I can try to go art school and try to do some kind of art,” Joseph said. Once in Portland, he enrolled in classes at Portland Community College and Portland State University, until the pandemic pushed his art onto the streets. “I didn’t really have a goal of [doing] murals,” Joseph said. “I painted graffiti a lot, but I never really had a goal of making the murals a business really until 2020, when…there was really nothing to do.” Much of Joseph’s work consists of detailed environments and recognizable Oregon landmarks, but he is comfortable adapting to any task or any style. Besides his mural work, he also creates designer bags that are reminiscent of the ‘70s, as well as a line of equally retro apparel. For Joseph, this kind of flexibility is built into his artistic workflow, which he said is changing constantly. “It all depends on if I’m making art full-time or working parttime,” he said. “Whatever I’m doing, it’s always different…I’m trying to transition back into fully making art and other bags because, right before 2020, I had an art studio and I was making art full-time.” Joseph stressed the importance of having a space suitable for making art. In Portland, where property prices are going up, this is a challenge. Joseph himself lost his studio space when his building was renovated, forcing him and his fellow artists to take their work elsewhere. “Everyone had to leave their studios,” he said. “Everyone had a month to move out of this building, basically, [and] I had to put my full-time production on
hold and reassess things.” For Joseph and many of his fellow artists, the studio space was vitally important to creating art, because the environment provides room for creativity to blossom and flourish. “I don’t think that’s considered a lot when people talk about the art itself,” Joseph said. “They don’t talk about the process and the space and everything that it takes—the investment, the money and time, everything like that.” Besides having a space of his own to work in, Joseph also cited the need for an artist to live a life outside of art. For Joseph, life is all about experiences, and he cited the importance of constantly learning things not directly related to art. “I always try to learn something,” he said. “I do many different construction jobs, and I’m always learning from those jobs. It might play into my art sometimes and people won’t even know.” He also stressed the importance of expanding his skills in a strategic way, in order to aid him in future situations. “I want to go back to school and take some…real estate law classes,” he said. “I was thinking since I was going through all this real estate [related] renter stuff I want to empower myself, and I want to be in a position where it’s not just financially empowering.” Joseph said that being involved in real-estate ownership has been a long-term dream of his, and that someday he would like to get to a point where he could open a gallery of his own. “I would like to have some gallery spaces and properties and be able to employ people making my bags as an extension of my paintings,” he said. For now though, Joseph is hard at work on his mural installations, as well as creating painted art that is on display in several galleries around Portland. Curious readers can catch his latest work at the Portland Art Museum Rental Sales Gallery, as well as the Hawthorne Gallery.
ARTS & CULTURE
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PORTLAND’S STAGGERING MENTAL HEALTH CRISIS IS OUR LOCAL GOVERNMENT HELPING?
IAN MCMEEKAN Imagine you’re waiting for the train on the south end of Pioneer Square. A houseless man sitting on the curb to your right starts yelling about how the government is probing our phones. Everyone is scared and ignores him and then the police chase him away. Everyone is relieved because the seemingly dangerous mentally ill person is gone. But is he dangerous or does he just need help? This kind of scenario begs the question—what is being done to help the mental health of those unhoused in Portland? According to a study from the Heritage Foundation, mental illness is a serious issue in Portland, affecting approximately 35–40% of the houseless in our state. This is staggering, considering that 10 years ago this proportion was roughly 28– 30%. So what are our government officials doing about this increasingly dire problem? Research on the issue led to the 2021 launch of the Portland Street Response, an unarmed part of Portland Fire and Rescue. This organization was described by OPB as a “program [that] will answer calls city-wide from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m.” where “people across Portland looking to assist someone in a mental health crisis…can call 911 and ask for the Portland Street Response.” Other programs are also working on this issue, such as Greater Portland Health, which works on offering medical, dental and behavioral health services to those experiencing houselessness. The team helps houseless individuals by strengthening their understanding about their health and how to better manage it through navigation of systems, outreach, community education, informal counseling, social support and advocacy. Another service in Portland is Cedar Hills Hospital, which serves adults with many kinds of behavioral and mental health needs, through programs both inside and outside the building via free, 24-hour services. These programs are certainly all steps in the right direction, as they help those struggling with mental illness stay off of the street and have access to treatment. However, we don’t see many ads or commercials about these services, so many people do not know about these resources. There should be a broader public awareness campaign spreading the word about these programs so that more individuals can receive much-needed help. Mental illness is a serious issue for all of us in Portland, and even more so for those living on the streets. Programs like these are a good start, but more needs to be done—and much more effort should go into spreading awareness. If there was more awareness of mental health programs, maybe there would be more of them, and our approach to mental illness would reduce the severity of the issue in Portland. Perhaps that houseless man next to you at Pioneer Square could receive care and treatment rather than being taken away by police. He could instead be next to you waiting for the train, in treatment and prospering.
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OPINION
LEO CLARK
PSU Vanguard • MAY 18, 2022 • psuvanguard.com
THE INVISIBLE POWER OF LABOR ACTIVISM
WE HAVE ALWAYS BEEN THE ONES WHO PROPEL PROGRESS JUSTIN CORY These days it can be hard to feel hopeful in any sense of the word. We are living through a myriad of crises—devastating climate collapse, a global pandemic, massive income inequality, stark political polarization to the point where even facts and information are not mutually agreed upon, massive inflation, the rise of white nationalism as an animating force in mainstream United States politics, legislative attacks on queer and trans children, the pending reversal of nationwide abortion rights, poisoned municipal water supplies, a lower life expectancy and lower quality of life than recent generations—and on and on and on. I have personally been undulating between the extremes of righteous anger, lethargic resignation, overwhelming depression and beyond. These feelings are understandable, and many of you can likely relate. Not to sound conspiratorial, but these feelings are also beneficial for the power structures which run our society as our sense of the impossibility of change and the inertia of facing such staggering odds contributes to their entrenchment. The Democratic Party tends to capitalize on our fear and anger in the face of so much regression while delivering very little in the way of tangible progress. Optics have subsumed substance as rainbow flags adorn capitals, equity boards offer tokenistic gestures at inclusion, land acknowledgements are intoned before events and business as usual carries on ever unimpinged. Much like vultures, the political parties circle grassroots movements and suck the life out of these mobilizations with their promises of reforms if only we will all just temper our ambitions and vote. Centrism is touted as some kind of lofty idealized political position when in reality the center is and always has been a position dependent upon the subjugation of the marginalized. This aggrandized center of U.S. politics has been content to support policies of Indigenous genocide, enslavement, segregation, imperialist wars all across the world, patriarchal subjugation of women’s bodies, institutionalized bigotry towards LGBTQ+ people, economic exploitation of workers to line the coffers of the megarich, ecological devastation in the name of profit and the rap sheet could wax on indefinitely. So where do we glean hope in this mess as we take cover from the shrapnel of carnage in this collapsing society? Of course, in one another. It has always been the people on the bottom fighting the hardest to subvert oppression. Pressure upon the powerful is the only proven method of ensuring results in our fights for equity, access, human decency and a life of flourishing for all. Again, the powerful know this, and this is why they do everything in their power to dilute or crush our momentum. May Day just passed, and few in the U.S. realize the significance of this day—or how much workers in labor unions fought and sacrificed for rights which we currently take for granted. The eight-hour workday, 40-hour work week, paid time off, workplace compensation for disability, child labor laws—all of these aspects of working life in the U.S were gained through the militant struggle of workers. The U.S. government took the side of industry, and massacred workers time after time. These are cases we purposely aren’t taught about, such as the Ludlow Massacre of 1914. Coal miners in Colorado faced off against private mercenaries hired by coal companies and supported by the National Guard. Afterward, investigators also found the charred bodies of women and children in the squalid tent camps the workers were living in. “Sixty-six men, women, and children had been killed,” stated Howard Zinn, later writing about the massacre. “Not one militiaman or mine guard had been indicted for crime.”
The 1921 Battle of Blair Mountain in Matewan, West Virginia, was another strike where 10,000 miners rose up in defiance of horrendous conditions—they weren’t even paid in currency, but rather company scrip which could only be redeemed at company stores making them essentially dependents of the companies they worked for. Estimates placed around 100 people killed, and the strike and the unions were forcibly suppressed. It is very telling that these important parts of U.S. history are omitted from our history lessons in school, and that most people think of September’s Labor Day—the holiday which was meant to replace May Day—as a time to stop wearing white rather than as a reminder of how much was sacrificed for the betterment of our social predicament. The end of the enslavement of Black Americans is largely credited to President Abraham Lincoln and his 1863 Emancipation Proclamation, while little attention or deference is given to the massive abolition movement which actually forced a nationwide reckoning on the immoral scourge of enslavement. We’ve heard the names of courageous abolitionists—such as Frederick Douglass, Harriet Tubman, Nat Turner, John Brown, William Lloyd Garrison, Harriet Beecher Stowe—but there were countless people building that movement from the ground up with them. Every struggle has been like this. Countless feminists fought for women’s liberation in the various waves of feminist movements. One of these feminist groups, the Jane Collective, was a Chicagobased women’s health organization that performed over 12,000 safe illegal abortions between 1969 and 1973, many with little to no formal medical training. These brave people risked their freedom breaking archaic and unfair laws in order to ensure bodily autonomy. It was only when the Roe v. Wade case was decided, legalizing abortion nationwide, that these individuals were able to escape prosecution for their heroism. In the struggle for LGBTQ+ rights, we are just finally starting to acknowledge the massive work that was and has always been done by LGBTQ+ Black, Indigenous, people of color (BIPOC). This is especially true of queer activists of color, such as Marsha P. Johnson and Sylvia Rivera, who were literally there at the founding of Gay Pride in its initial sparking moment at the 1969 Stonewall Riots—the famous uprising against New York police raids and the nationwide systemic repression of queer people. These struggles and countless others like these persist and all of them share this quality of coming from the bottom-up. They have all depended upon solidarity amongst communities, vulnerability, risk, trust and love. The Civil Rights Movement is a great example of this. How many countless people banded together against segregation? The 1964 Civil Rights Act and 1965 Voting Rights Act were only passed because of massive momentum and pressure. The same is true of the New Deal in the 1930s, enacted when the Great Depression and the pressures of militant labor unions forced the U.S. government to make concessions in the interests of the working class. There is not the space here to cite all of the examples of grassroots organizing and the results it has yielded. My purpose here is to remind us all of this hidden truth and of its importance. We don’t get out of any of the messes we are in without one another. Our struggles are bound together and inseparable. When we remember this we can actually influence change on a massive scale. We are not atomized individuals suffering alone. All of us have our well-being invested in these struggles whether we realize it or not. When we organize together, our collective well-being and flourishing are a lot more tangible and the odds no longer appear so insurmountable. Reach out to your peers and your broader community—and you will find we can do anything when we do it together.
WHITNEY MCPHIE
PSU Vanguard • MAY 18, 2022 • psuvanguard.com
OPINION
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RYAN MCCONNELL On May 3, the peer-reviewed journal Nature Communications released a report describing a powerful archeological discovery—how Indigenous peoples, of North American coasts and Australia, cultivated and harvested oysters for upwards of 5,000–10,000 years or more. This cultivation of a food staple was woven into these cultures, but it was also sustainable. Indigenous fisheries succeeded in harvesting large quantities of oysters without harming the ecosystem or the oyster population itself. Understanding the history of native agriculture, as well as its environmental impacts, can help redefine how industrial aquaculture is set up today. It can provide a model for sustainable cultivation that positively affects the environment instead of harming it. Oysters are what are known as filter feeders. This category of marine wildlife feeds off microscopic plankton found on the surfaces of particles in the water. These particles pass through the oyster, and after their feed is digested, are collected as waste and settle down to the bottom of the water. An oyster’s way of life doesn’t filter the water for humans to drink, but rather filters water to make it more habitable for other marine wildlife in the ecosystem. These critters collect and condense food and nutrient particles for bottom feeders, and coat other unsustainable materials like chemical pollutants in the form of pseudofeces, which wrap the particles in a mucus-like material that resembles a muddy smoke, before being expelled through the shell before it enters the digestive tract. Filter feeders are also great at identifying the toxicity levels of water. If it becomes too toxic for these animals, they close their shells until the water particles become more manageable. Poland uses this to its advantage, by attaching sensors to clams that live in the main water source. If the water is too
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SCIENCE & TECH
A PARGETT t o x i c , the clams will shut, cutting off the water supply from the river. The significance of filter feeders in the ecosystem is an essential part of sustainable seafood agriculture. Without them, the surrounding water can’t sustain other forms of life. The fewer particles filtered naturally by feeders, the more our own water systems and the seafood we harvest benefit. The Chesapeake Bay is a prime example of how overfishing and climate change can dangerously impact a marine ecosystem. A matured oyster can filter up to 1.3 gallons of water per hour, and up to 30 gallons of water per day. Before industrialized fishing, the entire Chesapeake Bay could be filtered by oysters in under a week. Now, because of habitat loss, disease, rising water temperature and overharvesting, it can take up to a year for the oysters in the bay to completely filter out the same amount of water. Indigenous peoples across both coasts and in Australia, however, were able to construct and harvest vast quantities of oysters without damaging the ecosystem. The evidence comes from shell middens, which contain millions of collected oyster shells—and collaboration with Indigenous cultures to identify how these communities created and used middens. Middens were once understood by colonial archaeologists to be simple collections of floral and faunal remains. However, such thinking significantly undermined Indigenous engineering that created sustainable, healthy and enduring lifestyles for millennia before colonial occupation. Scientists and native communities alike are now finding that some middens next to estuaries were advanced, artificial oyster reefs cultivated to provide a steady food source without damaging the ecosystem. Understanding the feats of native sustainable engineering can help revitalize natural habits that colonists have destroyed since the industrial revolution—without removing a food source outright. This process will not happen overnight, but as scientists look to the cultural past, there’s hope to provide a healthier, more sustainable future for all of Earth’s inhabitants.
PSU Vanguard • MAY 18, 2022 • psuvanguard.com
