Portland State Vanguard Vol. 72 Issue 29

PORTLAND STATE VANGUARD

VOLUME 72 • ISSUE 29 • MAY 15, 2018

EVICTING THE PEACE PROCESS Thousands protest U.S. Embassy move to Jerusalem ARTS & CULTURE Artists highlight Native American perspectives P. 12

OPINION

Why does media erase queer identity? P. 14

NEWS

Student Fee allocation raises concerns P. 5

INTERNATIONAL

Japanese Prime Minister eats dessert from a shoe P. 10

The Organization of International Students is hosting International Night. Free for PSU students, staff and faculty, but you must reserve your ticket to attend.

5 p.m.—10 p.m. SMSU

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MAY

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PSU’s new Cooperative Education program will connect students with work opportunities while still in school.

Learn more at an info session with lunch provided.

Noon—1:30 p.m. SMSU 238

ALL MAY

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PSU 2018 Bike Challenge Ride your bike to school, earn prizes, enjoy the spring weather and improve your health. The challenge runs for the entire month of May and is open to bike riders of any skill level. Find out how to participate at www.lovetoride.net

Last day to change grading option SHAC hiring for the Wellness and Health Action Team Undergrads from any degree program can apply to be peer health educators for the 2018-19 school year.

Last day to withdraw from a course

CONTENTS

COVER DESIGN BY SYDNEY BARDOLE, IMAGE COURTESY OF WIKIMEDIA COMMONS NEWS PSU EXPERT: TRUMP’S NUCLEAR DEAL DEPARTURE EXEMPLIFIES MISUNDERSTANDING OF IRAN

P. 3

HUNDREDS OF NEW STUDIO RENTALS PLANNED NEAR CAMPUS

P. 4

$531,000 STUDENT FEE ALLOCATION RAISES QUESTION

P. 5

SOCIALISTS DEMAND HIGHER TAXES ON PORTLAND ELITE

P. 7

COVER EVICTING THE PEACE PROCESS: THOUSANDS PROTEST U.S. EMBASSY MOVE TO JERUSALEM

P. 8–9

INTERNATIONAL UNREST IN NICARAGUA

P. 10

NETANYAHU CALLED INSENSITIVE AFTER SERVING JAPANESE PM DESSERT IN A SHOE

P. 10

ARTS & CULTURE NATIVE PERSPECTIVES TAKE A STAND

WEEKLY PLAYLIST

P. 12

FIND IT AT 5TH: ‘WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT KEVIN’

P. 13

MEME OF THE WEEK

P. 13

OPINION MEDIA ERASURE OF ‘QUEER’ AS AN IDENTITY LABEL

P. 14

UNCONSCIOUS BIAS

P. 15

COMICS

P. 15

P. 13

STAFF EDIT ORI A L EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Evan Smiley MANAGING EDITOR Danielle Horn NEWS EDITORS Anna Williams Fiona Spring INTERNATIONAL EDITOR Marena Riggan ARTS & CULTURE EDITOR Alanna Madden OPINION EDITOR Nada Sewidan ONLINE EDITOR A.M. LaVey

COPY CHIEF Missy Hannen COPY EDITORS Molly MacGilbert Jesika Westbrook CONTRIBUTORS Lukas Amsden Gray Bouchat Adam Bruns Cory Elia Andrew Gaines Piper Gibson David Gillespie Jake Johnson Lacey Karjalainen Karina Santacruz Taylor Such Anamika Vaughan Hossam Elsamanaoudy

PHO T O & MULTIMEDI A PHOTO EDITOR Brian McGloin MULTIMEDIA MANAGER Emma Josephson PHOTOGRAPHERS & VIDEOGRAPHERS Li Chun Wu Brett King CR E ATI V E DIR EC TION & DE SIGN CREATIVE DIRECTOR Sydney Bardole LEAD DESIGNER Robby Day Chloe Kendall

DESIGNERS Lisa Kohn Leah Maldonado Kailyn Neidetcher Jenny Vu M A R K E TING & DIS T RIBU TION DISTRIBUTION & MARKETING MANAGER Danielle Horn T ECHNOL OGY & W EB SIT E STUDENT MEDIA TECHNOLOGY ADVISOR Corrine Nightingale T ECHNOL OGY A S SIS TA N T S Damaris Dusciuc Long V. Nguyen Annie Ton

A DV ISING & ACCOUN TING COORDINATOR OF STUDENT MEDIA Reaz Mahmood STUDENT MEDIA ACCOUNTANT Sheri Pitcher To contact Portland State Vanguard, email info@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 and Twitter @psuvanguard for multimedia content and breaking news.

NEWS

PSU EXPERT: TRUMP’S NUCLEAR DEAL DEPARTURE EXEMPLIFIES MISUNDERSTANDING OF IRAN DAVID GILLESPIE President Donald Trump announced the United States’ departure from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, or Iran Nuclear Deal, on Tuesday, May 7, saying the deal “should have never been made.” A Portland State Middle Eastern studies expert said he believes Trump’s decision symbolizes a fundamental misunderstanding of Iran’s cultural, religious and economic positions.

Amid an outcry of opposition from other parties committed to the JCPOA, Trump defended his decision, saying, “at the heart of the Iran deal was a giant fiction that a murderous regime desired only a peaceful nuclear energy program.” Trump also vowed to implement “the highest level of economic sanctions” against Iran and insinuated any country who continued to support Iran could also face sanctions. This measure is a key part of what Trump stated to be a new U.S.–fronted effort to find a “real, comprehensive and lasting solution to the Iranian nuclear threat.”

The JCPOA is an agreement made in 2015 between Iran and the P5+1 World powers— which include the U.S., the UK, France, China, Russia and Germany—requiring Iran to limit its nuclear ambitions to nuclear energy production while allowing

routine inspections by the International Atomic Energy Agency in order to assure the country’s ongoing compliance. Leading up to Trump’s decision to withdraw the U.S., Iran had been in compliance with the JCPOA, according to the IAEA and several international watchdog organizations.

Dr. Robert Asaadi, adjunct professor of international and global studies at PSU and faculty member of the Middle East Studies Center, said he believes the concern over an Iranian nuclear threat shows a misunderstanding of Iranian motives for nuclear development in the first place.

Asaadi explained Iran has publicly maintained its pursuit of nuclear technology is solely for nuclear energy. “There’s a misconception that Iran is awash in oil, so it must have all its energy needs met,” Asaadi said. “Well, they still have a huge problem with refining oil to actually use it. They want to develop nuclear energy as an alternative to that.”

According to the fourth article of the NonProliferation Treaty—a measure presented by the UN in 1968 to promote global cooperation in pursuit of peaceful nuclear energy use and eventual nuclear disarmament—any signatory

of the NPT has the right to pursue nuclear energy technology so long as it does not also pursue its weaponization. According to the Middle Eastern and Islamic studies journal Insight Turkey, Iran remains a signatory of the NTP in compliance with its regulations.

Asaadi also said the religious aspect of nuclear weaponization is significant in Iran’s case, where 90 percent of the population adheres to Shia Islam. “The supreme leader of Iran, Ali Khamenei, who is the highest religious authority for Iranian Shiites, has said that the production, stockpiling and use of nuclear weapons is antithetical to Islam,” Asaadi explained.

Asaadi added that the Trump administration’s tactic of employing economic sanctions in order to bring Iran back to the bargaining table will likely backfire, due largely to what Asaadi sees as Trump’s misunderstanding of Iran’s culture. “There is this idea of putting pressure on someone in order to get them to come to your side...which I think is Trump’s view,” Asaadi said. “He’s a businessman. The idea is that you gain leverage, exploit a position of weakness, and you get the person you’re negotiating with to come to your terms. [That is] not a universal human trait. In different

JENNY VU cultures, if you put pressure on someone, you may in fact get them to just double down and become more intransigent.”

Asaadi said he believes what is really at stake with the possible continuation of the JCPOA—an outcome that has been acknowledged by Iran and other countries that are still involved in the deal—is the potential for Iran’s people to see meaningful reform within the government in the near future. “I think that, within the deal, there can be negotiations or some effort to normalize relations with Iran,” Asaadi said. “The more that that can happen, the better it is for the prospect of reforming the country.”

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NEWS

HUNDREDS OF NEW STUDIO RENTALS PLANNED NEAR CAMPUS TWO HISTORIC BUILDINGS WILL BE DEMOLISHED TAYLOR SUCH Two new apartment buildings coming to Portland State will provide students with hundreds of new affordable housing studio units.

The Portland Design Commission approved plans from the affordable housing non-profit College Housing Northwest in November 2017 for the new 16-story Clay + Tiffany student housing building along the quarter block at SW 11th Ave. and SW Clay St. CHNW partners with New Avenues for Youth, Oregon State University, Portland Community College, Pacific Northwest College of Art, and PSU to supply student housing.

The organization collaborated with Mainland Northwest, LLC. to replace two 100-year-old apartment buildings currently on the corner of SW 11th Ave. and SW Clay St. which, according to Next Portland, were “surveyed as part of Portland’s 1984 Historic Resources Inventory, and given a

Rank of III, indicating that they ‘may be eligible for listing in the National Register as part of a Historic District.’”

The new building will supply 259 studio rental units and 1,200 square feet of retail space on the first floor, as well as bike storage for more than 300 bicycles but no extra parking space.

CHNW’s The Amy building, which will replace a 30-unit apartment building with 141 studio units, is currently under construction at 2031 SW 10th Ave. and is set to open in fall 2018. Once The Amy opens this fall, CHNW will begin its work on the Clay + Tiffany apartments.

“CHNW is a close partner with PSU, and the organizations have worked together for about 50 years,” wrote PSU Associate Vice President for Planning, Construction and Real Estate Dan Zalkow in an email. “As long as I have been familiar with CHNW’s

housing offerings, which is nearly 18 years, the university has been very happy that CHNW offers reasonably priced residential opportunities to PSU students with a residence life support system.”

“The proposed development at 11th and Clay will be available to PSU students,” he continued, “and I anticipate it to be a great option for PSU students which, similar to PSU’s own housing, will have options that are more affordable then what the private market has available and with excellent support services.”

The Clay + Tiffany Apartment housing plans are proposed to have an exterior courtyard on the second floor and communal double height kitchens and lounge spaces on the third, seventh and 15th levels. Though the project has secured approval from the Design Commission, CHNW needs to apply for building permits before construction can begin.

NEW APARTMENTS WILL REPLACE BUILDINGS ON SW 11TH AVE. BRIAN MCGLOIN/PSU VANGUARD

MAY 6–12 LACEY KARJALAINEN

ONGOING: VOLCANIC ACTIVITY TAKES OVER HAWAII’S BIG ISLAND

MAY 11: OREGON’S FOSTER CARE SYSTEM CHANGES HANDS

Since Hawaii’s Kilauea volcano on the Big Island erupted on May 3, causing hundreds of earthquakes and at least 16 fissures releasing toxic gas to open, more than 1,800 residents have evacuated, and lava has destroyed almost 30 homes. President Donald Trump has declared a major disaster and Hawaii Governor David Ige has deployed the National Guard to help with evacuation. As lava levels drop, officials fear steam inside Kilauea could cause the volcano’s crater to explode, sending an ash plume and superheated boulders into the air.

MAY 7: NEW TRUMP IMMIGRATION POLICY COULD SEPARATE FAMILIES

According to Los Angeles Times, the Trump administration will now prosecute all individuals immigrating to the United States illegally, which could separate families not requesting asylum. The “zero tolerance” policy states parents trying to bring their children into the U.S. illegally will likely be separated from them if caught. Border agents currently try to keep families together, but under the new policy, children would be sent to refugee facilities. Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen said the policy reinforces current laws, while immigrants rights activists have called it cruel.

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MAY 10: MORE APARTMENTS APPROVED IN MIDST OF VIEW WAR

According to Willamette Week, Portland City Council has given preliminary approval for the Fremont Place high-rise in downtown Portland after the developer made additional design changes to accommodate more bike and pedestrian paths along the Willamette River. The Pearl District Neighborhood Association has contested the project due to dwindling visibility as more tall buildings populate the waterfront and encroach on residents’ views of the river. The association ultimately approved the updated design, and the developer plans to donate $35,000 to PDNA, a move one member compared to bribery and blackmail.

After a state audit in January found Oregon’s foster care system has been ignoring systemic problems within the organization, manager Kevin George will be replaced after 17 years, according to The Oregonian. The audit found officials knew of the flaws, including a lack of effort to recruit new families, yet didn’t properly address them. This left Oregon foster children in unsatisfactory and sometimes abusive conditions due to high employee turnover and over-burdened caseworkers. This has also put Oregon behind Department of Human Services standards and prompted a flood of multimillion dollar lawsuits.

MAY 12: RING OF FIRE ON SHAKY GROUND

Since the eruption Hawaii’s Kilauea volcano this month in the Ring of Fire—a belt of 450 dangerous volcanoes that includes many on the U.S. West Coast—scientists are concerned about increased volcanic activity in the Pacific Northwest and California. Though there is no current threat of eruption from local mountains, some experts speculate Mount St. Helens in Washington might be the first to awaken. As reported by The Oregonian, scientists say they are most concerned about the possibility of California’s Mount Shasta experiencing activity, as areas around it are densely populated.

NEWS

$531,000 STUDENT FEE ALLOCATION RAISES QUESTIONS ANAMIKA VAUGHAN In a budget proposal to Portland State President Rahmat Shoureshi, the Associated Students of PSU’s Student Fee Committee has focused its attention on funding projects it says will enhance student safety and accessibility. However, the dedication of student building fees to these projects has sparked concern that the SFC—which operates independently of the university administration—is beginning to absorb costs PSU should be paying for.

According to SFC Chair Patrick Meadors, the committee has decided to allocate $531,000 to 12 projects including beacons for an emergency alert system, a railing at the grand stairs of the new $64 million Karl Miller Center, an improved accessibility ramp at Millar Library and tactile maps for vision-impaired students.

“If it’s mandated by the Americans with Disabilities Act, it’s something [the university] has to do,” said Student Activities and Leadership Programs Director Aimee Shattuck. “Those types of things...are foundational, basic things [the administration] should provide [and] probably shouldn’t be coming out of the fee that students get to choose to allocate.”

Shattuck added, “To me, the intent of that, same with the intent of the student fees, is not to fund the things that the university has to do to function.”

WHERE DO STUDENT BUILDING FEES GO?

Current SFC bylaws state, “The Student Building Fee is used to finance construction or remodeling of buildings such as student unions and study spaces across campus.”

PSU used to be part of the Oregon University System and charged students $45 each term for a centralized pot of money shared by other universities in the state. This system allowed smaller universities to access more funds for building maintenance.

In 2013, state lawmakers allowed PSU to leave the system and collect its own fees. Around this time, the way in which Student Building Fee money was allocated also changed.

“When you look at the student building fee section of the SFC bylaws now, and you compare them to how they are described in the old guidelines,” Shattuck said, “the fee was specifically for auxiliary buildings, so non-academic buildings, that were student-centered and in some part student-fee funded.”

The old guidelines, as stated in a document from 2003, say “Building fees can be used for self-supporting, revenue producing campus spaces” and “The purpose of these funds is to enhance the spaces and services that are provided through auxiliary buildings/spaces on campus.” From 1979–2003, no funding allocations were made to academic buildings.

“Now [the guidelines are] much looser,” Shattuck said.

“Which in some ways is good because you want that flexibility, but now [that the] provision went away, [Student Building Fees are] now funding academic buildings.”

WHEN SHOULD THE ADMINISTRATION FOOT THE BILL?

Meadors listed several examples of student fees improving academic buildings in recent years: small student study and lounge areas in Cramer Hall, 4th Avenue, Parkmill, and the Art Building; conversion of single stall, gendered restrooms to all-gender restrooms across campus, including Science Building 1; an elevator and a lift for Parkmill and Honors, respectively; renovations to the Cramer Hill first floor lounges; and accessible mechanized door openers in a variety of academic buildings.

Despite the SFC allocating money to renovations on areas of campus not run by student fees, however, Meadors and Dan

Zalkow, associate vice president for Planning, Construction, and Real Estate, both insist students are not paying to bring the university up to code.

“None of the projects proposed to be funded are being done to bring buildings or spaces up to current ADA requirements for new buildings,” Zalkow stated. “The university always renovates or builds spaces in a manner that meets ADA requirements and often designs and constructs spaces that are more accessible than what the ADA requires.”

Still, Shattuck said she thinks the line between the administration’s capital improvements allocations and funds allocated by students might be getting blurred.

“To me, the original intent of [the Student Building Fee] was things the students wanted to fund, capital projects, that probably wouldn’t rise to the top of things that could happen,” Shattuck said.

“Because the university’s funds for those capital projects had to go towards making things accessible, fixing them, building an academic building, it had to be the foundational pieces of the university,” she said. “And now the building fee projects are slipping into that category. Or, people could see it that way.”

It is unclear whether the SFC is really making up for capital improvement costs the university administration cannot cover, but similar to what the university claims about rising tuition costs, capital improvements seem to be at the mercy of state funds.

“We receive funds from the state on a biennial basis for capital improvements on campus,” Zalkow stated in an email. “This has ranged from $2.8 to $5.3 million, per year, in recent years. Since this is not enough to do all the improvements that are desired, we focus the funds on the most pressing needs.”

According to Vice President of Finance and Administration Kevin Reynolds, PSU deliberately postpones some lesspressing maintenance projects until the state grants PSU money for major building renovations.

Otherwise, Zalkow said, student fees make up for projects that fall into unusual categories.

“Right now, [Student Building Fee] guidelines do talk about [Smith Memorial Student Union] being an important place for money, as well as student places around campus, but not specific to an auxiliary or self-support building,” Zalkow said, “which I think is important because there are a lot of academic buildings that have interesting spaces that have no direct department ownership of those spaces, and there is no funding source to improve those spaces.”

ROBBY DAY

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NEWS

ACTIVISTS CONDEMN PORTLAND POLICE STAFFING INCREASE

BUREAU UNDER ONGOING SCRUTINY FOLLOWING APRIL DEADLY FORCE

CORY ELIA Critical Resistance Portland and the Care Not Cops: Mental Health Care, Not Policing campaign held their Envisioning Community Safety Forum Saturday, May 5 at Hughes Memorial United Methodist Church in Northeast Portland. The forum addressed the role of policing in mental health care, specifically in the context of Mayor Ted Wheeler’s recent budget compromise to hire 55 new officers by the end of Portland Police Bureau’s 2019–2020 budget.

Care Not Cops is a community campaign dedicated to divesting from PPB in favor of community-based mental health first responders. “We...are grounded in the belief that policing endangers the health and well-being of communities,” reads a January 2018 statement posted on the Critical Resistance website.

“With the City of Portland prioritizing policing rather than trained communitybased mental health first responders,” the statement continues, “mental health instances are punished or criminalized and can lead to incarceration, injury or death, rather than effective and lasting support.”

Following the April 7 police shooting of John Elifritz, an individual who may have been experiencing a mental health crisis, PPB has been under scrutiny for its tactics in

ACTIVISTS AT APRIL 11 PROTEST CONDEMN POLICE SHOOTING OF JOHN ELIFRITZ. BRIAN MCGLOIN/PSU VANGUARD dealing with individuals experiencing mental health issues. According to The Portland Mercury, a Multnomah County grand jury determined on May 9 the use of deadly force against Elifritz—who PPB said it believes was holding a knife—was justified and officers involved should not be charged. However, Elifritz’s family might still bring a wrongful death suit against PPB, and the Bureau is still conducting an internal review.

Other organizations in attendance included Don’t Shoot Portland, Enlace: Organizing for Racial and Economic Justice, Mental Health

Providers Unite!, Rethinking Psychiatry, the National Lawyers Guild and the Western Regional Advocacy Project.

The forum featured a question and answer session with Portland City Council candidates Julia DeGraw and Nicholas Sutton, which primarily revolved around police treatment of houseless people and those with mental illnesses.

Sutton expressed opposition to funding increases for PPB. “The power of the police needs to be taken from the mayor, and instead the communities [being] policed need to be

the ones directing the police,” he said. “Police should not be handling mental health issues.”

“We should not be hiring a single new police officer,” DeGraw added. “We have a terrible contract with the Portland police, [and] they are held to no accountability for their actions.”

After the Q-and-A, several partner organizations went in-depth about their goals. The Western Regional Advocacy Project has been working in conjunction with Street Roots on a homeless bill of rights in Colorado, California and Oregon consisting of five demands.

They include “the right to move freely, rest, sleep, and be protected in public spaces without harassment or discrimination,” “the right to occupy a legally parked vehicle,” “the right to share food and eat in public,” “the right to legal counsel if being prosecuted” and “the right to 24-hour hygiene facilities.”

The forum concluded with representatives from each organization sharing their viewpoints on the PPB budget increase and issues surrounding policing in general including violence, racism and the treatment of communities facing mental illnesses and houselessness.

“We need better representation for the ethnic and impoverished communities of Portland,” one attendee said, “not more policing.”

WORKERS DISCUSS FATE OF LABOR JOURNALISM FALLING MEMBERSHIP MIGHT IMPERIL UNION PRESS ADAM BRUNS Directors of worker-owned news publications and their readers gathered in the basement of the Northeast Portland nonprofit Jobs With Justice on May 9 to discuss the current state and future of labor journalism in the United States. Labor media organizations report on organizing efforts, legislation and controversy within unions, but due to falling union membership some fear for labor press’ future.

The event’s first speaker was Mark Brenner, former director of the national monthly magazine and media organization Labor Notes, which was founded in 1979 in part, Brenner said, due to “an incredible squeeze that bosses were putting on the workforce.”

Brenner described conflict between workers, the unions they created to represent themselves and the employers they often saw as enemies.

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At times, there were threats of bloodshed, as Brenner recounted hearing from a steel hauler who was striking with his union in the Midwest: “’Yeah, you know we had to carry guns, because the scabs had guns. So sometimes there’d be shooting at the picket line, but it only happened on a couple picket lines I was on.’”

Labor Notes’ activism was more subdued, Brenner explained. In 1979, U.S. unions had long represented only their members, or at best entire industries. The magazine’s task, he explained, was to “try and connect those groups of workers and synthesize the experiences they were having.”

Brenner added that Labor Notes’ mission led it away from some journalistic norms that are considered gospel truth elsewhere. “We never pretended to be objective,” he said. “We weren’t

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calling bosses, and often it was really hard for us to get a hold of union leaders...We assume that people who are reading this are union activists.”

This target audience may be dwindling, however, placing the viability of labor journalism in peril. The event’s second speaker, Don McIntosh of Northwest Labor Press, expressed skepticism of the field’s future. “For the most part, with the labor press, it’s an involuntary subscriber base,” he said, explaining when workers pay dues to their unions, part of what they receive in return is a subscription to the news publication sponsored by that union.

Northwest Labor Press is operated by a coalition of Oregon and Washington unions and is distributed to all of their members. Given the strenuous jobs many of these workers do, McIntosh said, it would come as no surprise if

many of the newspapers delivered only received a quick glance. Additionally, even with a guaranteed subscriber base provided by union sponsorship, membership is in decline.

According to a January 2018 Bureau of Labor and Statistics report, labor density—the percentage of workers who belong to a union—has shrunk from 20.1 percent in 1983 to 10.7 percent in 2017. McIntosh blamed the decline on insufficient power available to unions. “Collective bargaining is broken as a system,” he said. “You can’t get anything at the bargaining table...You don’t have the ability to strike and strike successfully.”

Still, McIntosh said he has hope for the future. “Something is gonna happen,” he said.

“Something is gonna change. There’s an appetite for something, [but] I don’t know what form it’s gonna take.”

NEWS

SOCIALISTS DEMAND HIGHER TAXES ON PORTLAND ELITE PROPONENTS CLAIM ‘TAX THE RICH’ PLAN ADDS $114 MILLION IN REVENUE ANNA WILLIAMS Members of the Democratic Socialists of America Portland branch filed into the Portland City Council chambers on Thursday, May 10 to protest Mayor Ted Wheeler’s proposed budget for the upcoming fiscal year and pitch the DSA’s own “Tax the Rich” plan it claims will add $114 million to the city’s annual revenue.

Before the budget hearing, DSA members joined Opal Environmental Justice and Youth Environmental Justice Alliance outside City Hall to rally in support of TriMet’s Youth Pass, a free bus pass used by more than 12,000 Portland high school students. The Youth Pass is cut from the city’s upcoming budget in Wheeler’s proposal.

“Mayor Wheeler’s budget proposal uses Portlanders’ real needs as a bargaining chip with business interests and grossly misrepresents Portland’s priorities,” said DSA member Keith Guthrie during the council meeting. “We demand a budget that prioritizes the needs of the people to create a city where people get all their needs met.”

According to The Oregonian, Wheeler plans to focus this year’s budget on increased police staffing and a greater contribution to the Joint Office of Homeless Services, an agency operated by both the city and Multnomah County. To do this, Wheeler proposes increasing Portland’s business tax from 2.2 to 2.6 percent to add what he claims will be $15 million of additional revenue.

DSA members said they appreciate Wheeler’s plan to increase business taxes, but said the plan does not go far enough. The DSA proposes a two percent income tax on individuals making more than $250,000 per year and up to eight percent on those making $1 million or more. According to Portland State’s Young DSA Chair Abigail Lopez-Gay, this would add $114 million per year to the city’s budget to fund additional houseless, mental health and education services, including the TriMet Youth Pass.

Wheeler proposes cutting the Youth Pass from the upcoming budget. Currently the city pays for a third of the $2.9 million bill and Wheeler promised to cut the city’s contribution last year to focus on houseless issues and police staffing to reduce 911 response times. Wheeler spokesperson Michael Cox told The Oregonian programs like Youth Pass are “popular, but not central to the City’s mission.”

Portland Public Schools will foot the last third of the bill, but a PPS spokesperson told The Oregonian the district might get 70 percent of the extra $967,000 refunded from the state. The

ACTIVIST TESTIFIES DURING MAY 10 COMMUNITY BUDGET HEARING. PORTLAND CITY COUNCIL LIVE STREAMS SCREEN GRAB Parkrose and David Douglas school districts in East Portland received the Youth Pass for the first time this school year.

Regardless, some activists at the council meeting questioned Wheeler’s support of the Youth Pass altogether. Nia, a sophomore at Parkrose High School in East Portland and member of YEJA, told Wheeler “Your support of the Youth Pass is urgent to the youth of the City of Portland.”

“If this program is not funded I’ll be forced again to figure out how to pay to ride the bus,” Nia added. “We should not have to continually talk about why this program should be funded.

We urge you to provide transitional funding and support for Youth Pass. Mr. Wheeler, you were at the launch of Youth Pass in 2015. What happened to your support since then? Is the youths’ success not a priority to you? Please, show us that this program is essential.”

Several public commenters asked Wheeler for a transition year before PPS takes over the last third of the bill. In response, Wheeler said, “I provided a transition year. That was last year.

And I was very clear that the city would work with Trimet and the school districts to find ongoing funding for the Youth Pass.

It has not happened.”

“I don’t know if it’s because people didn’t think I was serious or if they didn’t feel that it was an urgent need,” he continued.

“The Youth Pass will be funded because we have to allow kids a safe ride out to school.”

To hisses in the crowd, Wheeler added, “I’m counting on the school districts to step up and fund it because they are legally required under state law to do it.”

According to Willamette Week, DSA’s proposal does not currently have support from any council members. However, at the end of the council meeting, Commissioner Chloe Eudaly encouraged DSA members to continue talking to her about their plan.

DSA volunteers are currently working on gathering enough signatures to get the Portland Clean Energy Fund—a gross receipts tax on corporations making over $500,000 in annual sales—on the November ballot. The measure resembles last year’s failed Measure 97, but excludes grocery and medicine sales. Eudaly gave her support of the PCEF earlier this month.

Still, some Portlanders hope increased taxes on people who earn more money don’t end there.

“I think we need to do better job at looking at how we are funding our cities and...having a little more of an awareness of the impact of the lower economic tiers in our city,” said Nicole Aulbach, a community member protesting outside City Hall. “[We need to recognize] they are a healthy part of our city and they need to be supported.”

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COVER

EVICTING THE PEACE PROCESS: TENSIONS RISE IN THE OCCUPIED TERRITORIES

JEWISH AMERICAN ACTIVISTS IN WASHINGTON, D.C. PROTEST U.S. EMBASSY MOVE. MARENA RIGGAN/PSU VANGUARD

HOSSAM ELSAMANAOUDY AND MARENA RIGGAN Since President Donald Trump announced he would move the United States Embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, which he formally recognized as Israel’s capital last year, thousands of people around the world have begun protesting.

The embassy officially opened in Jerusalem on Monday, May 14.

Following Trump’s December 2017 announcement, thousands of protesters in Chile and the UK turned out to demonstrate against the decision, while in Turkey demonstrations took place outside the U.S. Consulate in Istanbul and the U.S. Embassy in Ankara.

As of Monday afternoon, clashes erupted between police and Palestinian protesters marching from Ramallah to Qalandiya— the most popular security checkpoint in Jerusalem. Other protests inside the West Bank have been taking place in Bethlehem and Al-Bireh.

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In Gaza, as reported by Haaretz, at least 55 Palestinian adults and six children have been killed by Israeli soldiers during protests against the embassy opening, while over 2,200 were wounded, about half of which were from live gunfire.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has threatened to cut diplomatic ties with Israel, calling the embassy move a “red line for Muslims.” Amid protests in South Africa, the African National Congress downsized its embassy in Israel, and later threatened to cut diplomatic relations with the country.

In January 2018, a representative at the UN’s Universal Periodic Review described Israel as the only apartheid state in the world. On May 14, following the killings along the Gaza border during the embassy ceremony, the South African government recalled its ambassador from Israel.

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Palestinian protests in Gaza against Israel’s long-standing occupation of the Gaza Strip have been ongoing for six weeks but intensified as the opening of the U.S. Embassy approached.

Since these protests began on March 30, over 6,000 participants have been injured and 49 killed, including journalists and medics. The protests ulminate on Tuesday, May 15, otherwise known as Nakba Day, or Day of Catastrophe, which commemorates the 1948 removal of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians from their homes following the creation of the state of Israel.

The Occupied Palestinian Territories—a name designated by the UN—comprise the West Bank and Gaza. Based on a 2017 UN report, around 2 million people live in Gaza, an area of only 365 square kilometers. The unemployment rate is 42 percent with youth unemployment over 60 percent, and only 3.8 percent of water is safe to drink.

Movement is severely restricted, and the only three border crossings remain closed a majority of the time.

On Sunday, May 13, tens of thousands of right-nationalist Israelis paraded through the Old City of Jerusalem during an annual event marking the capture of the city during the 1967 Six-Day War. Right-nationalists often use this day to provoke altercations with Palestinian residents. According to Haaretz, police suggested Palestinians close up shop for the day in order to prevent altercations.

Israeli Defense Forces guarded the rally where demonstrators were shouting “Muhammad is dead” and “Death to Arabs”.

In Jerusalem, citizen revocation and home demolitions are part of the Palestinian reality. Just recently in March, the Knesset— or Israeli parliament—passed a law which could revoke residency in the case of “breach of loyalty” to Israel.

ISRAEL, IRAN AND THE U.S.

While Israel has lost favor with many governments around the world, relations between Israel and the U.S. are strong. “U.S.–

Israel ties have never been better than they are now,” President Trump said at a press conference in March with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who echoed the sentiment.

The U.S. Congress first recognized Jerusalem as Israel’s capital when it passed The Jerusalem Embassy Act of 1995, which set aside funds for the embassy’s eventual relocation. Until Trump, every president since has waived the relocation.

On December 6, 2017, President Trump officially recognized Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. In his address, Trump declared his intention to move the embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, citing the 1995 Congressional law. He emphasized the Jewish historical connection to the city but did not reference Palestinian connections, alluding only to the Islamic significance of the Al-Aqsa Mosque.

On May 8, Trump officially declared his decision to withdraw from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action—known as the Iran Nuclear Deal—after Netanyahu presented what he claimed was evidence Iran lied about its nuclear program.

Netanyahu praised Trump’s decision, as did Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, but the remaining signatories of the deal—including China, France, Germany, the EU, Iran, Russia and the UK—publicly expressed regret, while Iranian President Hassan Rouhani announced he would continue negotiations without the U.S. Airstrikes continue in Syria from various government entities including the U.S. and Israel, the latter of which, according to Business Insider, launched attacks just after Trump announced he would withdraw the U.S.

PARALLELS BETWEEN TRUMP AND NETANYAHU

In an op-ed for The Jerusalem Post, Shlomo Maital, a senior research fellow at the Samuel Neaman Institute, attributed strengthening relations between Trump and Netanyahu to similarities between the two.

Both leaders have been flooded with allegations of misconduct. Faced with several

COVER

Thousands protest U.S. Embassy move to Jerusalem corruption and bribery charges, Israeli police recommended indicting Netanyahu in February 2018. Trump faces allegations of Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election and the more recent scandal surrounding a nondisclosure agreement signed by Trump’s lawyer Michael Cohen and adult film actress Stormy Daniels regarding an alleged affair between Daniels and Trump.

While the charges may differ in both cases, investigations surrounding the leaders have included family members on both sides. Jared Kushner is believed to be involved in the Russia-election collusion, and Sara Netanyahu has been a key figure in the corruption allegations surrounding her husband.

Kushner also received some $30 million from an Israeli firm just before Trump’s first visit to Israel, as reported by Newsweek.

Though the issue is often polarized into a pro-Israel or pro-Palestine stance, many human rights groups focus on ending occupation while retaining Israel’s right to exist.

Furthermore, Trump and Netanyahu had similar responses to the charges, first by rejecting them and proclaiming their innocence, and then blaming opposition groups. Both leaders have also called the charges witch hunts and reporting on their behavior fake news. Earlier this year, Haaretz reported that between 2012 and 2017, Netanyahu interfered in at least 13 Israeli news outlets.

Maital also pointed out the wealth of both leaders. With a net worth estimated by Forbes at $3.1 billion, Donald Trump may be the richest president in U.S. history. Netanyahu is also one of Israel’s richest politicians, with a net worth of $11 million.

Political polarization, Maital said, is also apparent in both Israel and the U.S., as shown

by Pew Research Center’s 2016 studies of American and Israeli public opinion. White evangelical protestants, which comprise one of Trump’s strongest voting blocs, constitute the largest group to sympathize more with Israel than Palestine: 78 percent, according to a 2018 Pew Research Center Survey.

Trump and Netanyahu are also leaders of their respective right-wing parties, Trump with the Republican Party and Netanyahu with the Likud. According to Middle East Monitor, 62 percent of Israelis view Trump’s decision to exit the Iran deal is in line with Israel’s interests, and support for Netanyahu rose immediately following the decision.

Though the two political figures have been able to forge strong political ties, it’s uncertain how they intend to move forward with a peace process while political ties elsewhere in the region become strained from the recent events.

UNSETTLED FUTURES

While Trump assured he would continue to pursue a peaceful solution in his White House address, it’s unclear what type of solution that would imply, especially after comments he made last year at a press conference. “I’m looking at twostate and one-state,” he said, “and I like the one that both parties like. I can live with either one.” A two-state solution includes an independent state for Palestine and one for Israel, while the onestate solution referenced here would imply only Israel would retain independent statehood.

Similar concern rests with Netanyahu, who has yet to curb settlement expansion in the West Bank and even ran on a a campaign promise to pursue a one-state solution during the previous election cycle.

The Palestinian Authority remains adamant a one-state solution does not promote peace.

PA President Mahmoud Abbas stated recently, “East Jerusalem will be ours and West Jerusalem theirs.” A senior official with the Palestinian Liberation Organization stated in a press conference out of Ramallah “East Jerusalem is an occupied city according to international law, and any such move would be null and void.” Additionally, he accused Nikki Haley, U.S. Ambassador to the UN, of perpetuating Israeli crimes against Palestinians.

HUMAN RIGHTS GROUPS OFFER A NEW PATHWAY TO PEACE

Non-governmental organizations and nonprofit groups like Ir Amim, Al-Haq, Yesh Din, B’Tselem, and Breaking the Silence work to document human rights abuses in the Occupied Palestinian Territories and educate the public on these issues.

Though the issue is often polarized into a proIsrael or pro-Palestine stance, many human rights groups focus on ending occupation while retaining Israel’s right to exist.

Combatants for Peace, an up-and-coming rights organization, was formed in 2006 by former Israeli and Palestinian combatants. Its vision statement reads, “The cycle of violence can only be broken when Israelis and Palestinians join forces.”

The organization’s work includes conducting educational tours of the West Bank and organizing regional binational groups comprised of both Israeli and Palestinian civilians. In 2017, it was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize.

In April, CFP held its 12th Memorial Day ceremony in Tel Aviv, an event which brings together those who’ve lost family and friends in the conflict.

“And we Israelis, even after 70 years— no matter how many words dripping with patriotic honey will be uttered in the coming days—we are not yet [home],” said author David Grossman, whose son was killed during 2006 Lebanon War, during the event. “The solution to the great complexity of IsraeliPalestinian relations can be summed up in one short formula: If the Palestinians don’t have a home, the Israelis won’t have a home either.”

However, the event was not without its bureaucratic challenges. After the group extended invitations to 90 Palestinians living in the West Bank, Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman blocked them from obtaining the necessary permits to attend. In response, Times of Israel reported, CFP brought the case to the Israeli High Court of Justice, which ordered Lieberman to grant the permits.

About 100 Jewish-American demonstrators rallied outside the Trump International Hotel on Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, D.C. on Monday, May 14 to protest the embassy move.

According to The Jerusalem Post, ralliers chanted “we will build this world with love” and “we support freedom and dignity for all, Israelis and Palestinians.”

JEWISH AMERICAN ACTIVISTS IN WASHINGTON, D.C. PROTEST U.S. EMBASSY MOVE. MARENA RIGGAN/PSU VANGUARD

PSU Vanguard • MAY 15, 2018 • psuvanguard.com

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INTERNATIONAL

UNREST IN NICARAGUA KARINA SANTACRUZ

On Monday, April 18, President Daniel Ortega of Nicaragua approved a social security reform for the Instituto Nicaragüense de Seguridad Social, raising tensions in an already polarized country. The reform reduces workers’ pensions by 5 percent while increasing the contributions of both employees and employers. Protests ensued, and in response Ortega censored social media outlets.

Tensions between Nicaraguans and the government started on April 3 after Ortega refused assistance from Costa Rica for a wildfire that broke out in the Biological Reserve Indio Maíz. Activists organized demonstrations in response, saying they felt the government had not acted appropriately. The fire was contained about two weeks later, but tensions still ran high between activists and the government.

According to The New York Times, violence began to escalate after the Sandinista Youth and police engaged the protesters. Sandinista Youth, also known as the Sandinista thugs, are a pro-government organization working with the police. “The order was definitely to kill, not to stop the protest,” said founder of the Nicaraguan Center for Human Rights Vilma Nunez in The NYT. According to BBC, a total of 45 people

died due to the protest, including university students and a journalist named Ángel Gahona. Students at the National University of Engineering, the National Agrarian University and the Polytechnic University of Nicaragua took shelter to protect themselves from police. The Wall Street Journal stated Ortega revoked the pension law Sunday April 22 in response to the unrest, though The NYT reported that some are still demanding Ortega’s resignation.

Ortega first became president in 1979, where he remained until 1990. In 2007, he was re-elected and has held power since.

His wife Rosario Murillo works alongside him as the vice president. According to BBC, the Nicaraguan National Assembly approved changes to the constitution in 2014, eliminating term limits for the president entirely.

Liz Throssell, a spokesperson for the United Nations Human Rights Office, told The NYT she thinks Ortega needs “to ensure that people are able to freely exercise their right to freedom of expression and to peaceful assembly and association.”

An opinion piece in The Washington Post commented on the instability this has caused the country. The next step will be the UN investigating the deaths of the protesters.

COURTESY OF CREATIVE COMMONS

NETANYAHU CALLED INSENSITIVE AFTER SERVING JAPANESE PM DESSERT IN A SHOE LUKAS AMSDEN Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has drawn accusations of cultural insensitivity after Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and his wife Akie Abe were served dessert in a dish shaped like a shoe while visiting Netanyahu in Israel.

In his second visit to Israel, Abe dined with Netanyahu on Monday, May 2. According to The Washington Post, their discussions focused on topics including the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action—more commonly known as the Iran nuclear deal—and the possible relocation of Japan’s embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. In an earlier meeting, Netanyahu presented evidence Iran violated nuclear agreements.

However, Abe has chosen to continue supporting the Iran nuclear deal. According to Haaretz, Abe asserted the Japanese embassy would remain in Tel Aviv while conveying his continued support for a two-state solution.

After attending meetings that day, the two prime ministers and their wives were served dinner by Israel’s celebrity chef Segev Moshe. Following the dinner, the four were presented chocolates in a stylish shoe sculpture that many have deemed culturally insensitive. As reported by Kotaku, the shoe was crafted by UK designer Tom Dixon, whose website showcases the series of sculptures as doorstops. Though Abe stated he “enjoyed the dinner,” the chef’s choice of dessert decoration has sparked an internet firestorm.

According to The Japan News, a comment on a photo Moshe uploaded to Instagram described the shoe-themed dessert was called “a blatant cultural faux pas that embarrasses Israel

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on a global scale.” Japanese and Israeli diplomats expressed offense over the incident. “If this is meant to be humor, we do not find it funny,” a Japanese diplomat told Israeli daily newspaper Yediot Aharonot via The Jerusalem Post. “I can tell you that we are offended for our prime minister.”

“There is nothing more despised in Japanese culture than shoes,” one Israeli diplomat told Yediot Aharonot.

“Not only do they not enter their houses while wearing shoes, you will not find shoes in their offices either.

Even the prime minister, ministers and members of parliament do not wear shoes to work.”

Although this statement isn’t exactly correct, the sentiment was felt on both sides of the issue. In Japanese culture, it is customary to remove shoes before entering a home. Traditional Japanese homes have delicate tatami mats on their floors, and in order to keep them clean and prevent them from being destroyed, it is necessary to remove footwear before entering.

Japan’s diplomatic relations with Israel began in 1952, when Japan first officially recognized Israel’s statehood. Japan cut ties with Israel at the behest of the Arab League during the Yom Kippur War and the oil crisis of 1972. Only after the weakening of OPEC influence in the early 1990s due to explosive growth in alternative energy and the U.S.–led shale gas revolution were diplomatic relations restored.

CHLOE KENDALL

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ARTS & CULTURE

NATIVE PERSPECTIVES TAKE A STAND ADDRESSING INDIGENOUS ISSUES THROUGH ART

LARONN KATCHIA RESPONDS TO A QUESTION DURING THE PANEL DISCUSSION. JAKE JOHNSON/PSU VANGUARD JAKE JOHNSON Native American women are murdered at rates 10 times higher than most United States citizens. This was just one of many issues discussed at “Native Perspectives on Arts, Culture and Justice,” a panel event series presented by We Can Listen at The Old Church Tuesday, May 8. The first half of the event welcomed six Native American artists who introduced themselves, their work and how their cultural heritage has informed their practice.

THE ‘MISSING INDIGENOUS’

prosecuted for it—except at the federal level, and the feds aren’t interested.”

“Most Native families never find a body,” said journalist and writer Jacqueline Keeler. “There is no body; they don’t get answers. They certainly don’t get the tribal police taking bullets and storming man camps.” Federal laws have tied the hands of tribes to be able to prosecute non-Native people for crimes on reservations. Keeler’s solution: “Change the laws.”

Film producers LaRonn Katchia and Isaac Trimble discussed ‘RESERVATION BLUES’ their recent silent film Missing Indigenous, which seeks to Keeler recently wrote about the #MeToo movement and naraise awareness to the crises of missing Native American wom- tionally renowned writer and filmmaker Sherman Alexie, whose en. Their award-winning film has been shown internationally. story caused Keeler to express disappointment toward publish“This is not just a Native American issue, this is an all Indig- ers who turn away Native American writers. Recalling Alexie’s enous issue,” Trimble said. “We showed this in Paris—we had story, Keeler pointed out how Alexie said he would have died an Melbourne and Mexico City next to us—some folks had no idea alcoholic if it wasn’t for the eventual yes he got from a publisher. what was going on, and both of them said ‘you know, this hap- Alexie’s first novel Reservation Blues was published in 1995.

According to The Guardian in 2008, a highpens in my country, and I’m so glad you said school teacher introduced Alexie to the works this….We put Missing Indigenous to mean all of poets that included Leslie Silko, James Welch Native people.” and Joy Harjo: In addition, Katchia and Trimble named “It was the first time I’d seen anything creative their group Team Red Fawn to raise awareness regarding the imprisonment of Red by an Indian. Everything else was archaic, loinFawn Falls, a water protector and political cloth literature. But they combined the day-toprisoner who was arrested at Standing Rock day desperation of being Indian with the magic in October 2017. Standing Rock was not simof being alive, in poems about powwows, brokenply an issue related to water; the main issues down cars, the food we eat, basketball. It was a involve who controls Native American land revelation. It was a revelation.” and what jurisdictional sovereignty indigeKeeler said there are roughly 400 talented nous tribes have in order to stop corporations Native American authors who remain unpubfrom laying oil pipes through burial grounds. lished each year. Multidisciplinary performer Contentions involving jurisdictional sovAnthony Hudson agreed with Keeler, adding ereignty also interfere with the legal prothe point of how with approximately eight jobs, journalist and writer Native Americans are generally just making cesses of solving missing persons cases. “At least just on Native lands, jurisdictions need it above the poverty line. In January 2018, the to change,” said Brenda Mallory, one of the panel’s visual art- U.S. Census Bureau reported the poverty line at an annual ists. “A huge part of the problem is certain Native lands are income of $12,140 for a one-person household; $25,100 for a known as hunting grounds for sexual predators because they four-person household. can come onto reservation land, commit crimes and can’t be Without the recent award for Native Arts and Culture

“What would ethical colonialism look like?”

– Jacqueline Keeler,

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Foundation National Artist Fellowship, Hudson said they would be struggling even more—and most Indigenous peoples don’t have that support.

PORTLAND ART MUSEUM BACKLASH

In 2016, the Portland Art Museum featured the exhibition, “Contemporary Native Photographers and the Edward Curtis Legacy,” which featured Edward Curtis’ prominent grayscale and sepia photographs alongside three other Native American artists Zig Jackson, Wendy Red Star and Wil Wilson. According to PAM’s Curtis exhibition webpage, the exhibit’s objective was to “ask visitors to consider Curtis’ continuing influence on the interpretation of Native American culture while highlighting contemporary reactions to his complex role within the history of representation of Indigenous peoples.”

However, multidisciplinary artist and mentor Shirod Younker pointed out that when it came to PAM visitor consideration, “[PAM] did not allow local Indian people to respond...

That’s a slight,” he said. “We have a response to that because we live with the stereotypes that Curtis put on those other tribes.”

“Colonists [and] others,” Younker continued, “they come and they expect us to look like that, they expect us to do those things, they expect to buy artwork that represents that—and that’s wrong.”

MOVING FORWARD

According to Katchia, the best way to help Native American women is to listen, which in turn can help Native American artists. The event host, Julianne Johnson, added to this point by sharing her experience as a professional singer as a Black Native American woman. Johnson explained that she has a lot to say, but event promoters and venues often told her, “Don’t talk, sing.”

Keeler wants us to know: When water protectors were mauled by police dogs at Standing Rock, when activists were shot with rubber bullets and hosed down with water in freezing temperatures, these acts of violence were done on the behalf of U.S. citizens as colonists. Keeler wondered aloud, “What would ethical colonialism look like?”

ARTS & CULTURE

POSTMIDTERM CHILL ALANNA MADDEN

1. CNT U SEE – Jamie Isaac,

9. Ms. Fat Booty – Mos Def,

2. Foreplay – Jalen Santoy, Charlie Eastern (2016)

10. Graffiti on a High School Wall – People Under the Stairs,Talk That

3. Gold feat. Mick Jenkins – High Klassified, Kronostasis (2015)

11. Polaroids – Jay Prince, BeFor Our

Couch Baby (Revisited) (2016)

4. MICHIGAN – BROCKHAMPTON, All-American Trash (2016)

5. Jaded – Lone, Reality Testing (2014) 6. KOD – J. Cole, KOD (2018)

Black on Both Sides (1999)

Talk (2011)

Time (2015)

12. JBS – Chaz Bundick Meet the Mattson 2, Star Stuff (2015) 13. So Far to Go – J Dilla, The Shining (2006)

7. Distant Land – Madlib, Shades of

14. Love Me Tonight – GwaiLow & Caleb Belkin, Faceless (2018)

8. The Root – Magna Carda, Cirqla-

15. Camelblues – Mndsgn

Blue: Madlib invades Blue Note (2003) tion (2016)

Yawn Zen (2014)

Listen to DJ Salinger online at psuvanguard.com or on Spotify.

MEME OF THE WEEK

FIND IT AT

‘WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT KEVIN’ ANDREW GAINES Lynne Ramsay’s 2011 film We Need to Talk About Kevin is a difficult film to watch and to talk about because it asks viewers to address the presence of mass violence at school, specifically the perpetrators and the people who are often invisible: their families. Kevin provides a fictional, in-depth account of the family’s experience in raising a school shooter with the lead-up and aftermath encompassing most of the film, rather than the highlight of a few short, horrific minutes.

Tilda Swinton plays Eva, the mother to the titular Kevin (Ezra Miller), a problem child who has committed an unspeakable act at the outset of the film. From there, Ramsay takes us through Eva’s life with Kevin, showing his burgeoning psychopathy as he manipulates and torments his mother and father, Franklin (John C. Reilly). As Franklin overlooks and dismisses Kevin’s behavior, Eva is left alone to deal with the stress and anguish of raising a child who not only doesn’t love you back, but might just hate the entire world.

While the topic is uncomfortably prescient, the film doesn’t offer as much insight into why psychopaths do what they do, as one might want. Director Ramsay isn’t looking into the motivation behind tragedies like Columbine or Parkland as much as she’s examining the toll these individuals take on others long before such incidents make the news.

While mass killers don’t come out of nowhere very often, it’s all too easy to wave away signs until it’s too late. With an uncritical lens covering the span of many years, Kevin adopts the tone of a depulpified version of The Bad Seed, or The Omen: stories of a parent trying and failing to comprehend or overcome evil in the family.

With the classic horror and crowd-friendly elements taken out, Kevin becomes a simple yet terrifying story about the adversities of parenting and the fear of failure. Eva constantly sees the worst Kevin has to offer, but continues to try supporting and loving her son anyway—even after the shooting takes place. Although, is the message really “What else can a mother do”?

Find out for yourself on the weekend of May 18–20 at 5th Avenue Cinema.

COURTESY OF OSCILLOSCOPE FILMS

PSU Vanguard • MAY 15, 2018 • psuvanguard.com

13

OPINION

MISUNDERSTANDING OF QUEERNESS IN MEDIA HOW MISLABELING JANELLE MONÁE HARMS LGBTQ+ PEOPLE PIPER GIBSON We often rush to label people, especially celebrities, when they show any sign of being non-straight and/or noncisgender. Media tend to mislabel those who have come out that don’t fit into society’s binary understanding of gender and sexuality. This misunderstanding and mislabeling only serve to perpetuate the marginalization of queer people.

Janelle Monáe, a celebrated actress, musician and activist, recently came out via a Rolling Stone article about her new album Dirty Computer and what it felt like to step into the world as Janelle, not her created android persona Cindy.

In her words, she is a queer Black woman, and she went on to say that she had initially identified as bisexual. She also identifies with parts of pansexuality and is open to learning more about herself.

When a flurry of media outlets reported on the article, nearly everyone labeled her as pansexual. The word pansexual was even the most searched of the day on Merriam-Webster’s website, but why are we as a society in such a rush to stick everyone who even mentions queerness with a definitive label?

This situation is echoed in recent articles about Harry Styles. The singer and ex–One Direction member sang a song on his current tour that didn’t make it into his album, with the lyrics “the boys and the girls are in / I mess around with them / and I’m okay with it,” prompting many fans and media outlets to label him bisexual, despite him stating in a past interview he didn’t feel the need to label himself.

The insistence to label or mislabel everyone causes real harm and erases identities that are less widely known and accepted. This problem is worse for queer people of color, who have to battle racism, homophobia and/or transphobia simultaneously. “The most violent part of all this is that I’ve felt forced to choose between and prioritize parts of my identity,” stated Ashleigh Shackelford, a cultural writer and director of Free Figure Revolution. “In creating this hierarchy of my identity, I’m merely trying to survive the non-intersectional world that requires adapting to this violence to navigate it.”

This is why it’s so important that Monáe specifically and explicitly labeled herself a queer Black woman. She made a statement, asserting that she was not about to let her Blackness or womanhood be lessened or erased in her coming out. Yet, most media outlets did exactly that, quoting the section on pansexuality instead of the coming out portion that was in her own words and mentioned her race and gender.

A member of the Black Bottom Archives writing team, Sierra Witcher, wrote on Black queer erasure: “Deviance as resistance…implies that Black queer women refuse to change their identity and its expression for the sake of acceptance into a dominant culture.”

Monáe’s newest album unapologetically centers Black, queer and female lives, experiences and expressions. To ignore that her coming out also centered these identities is to ignore her as a multifaceted person with intersecting identities. Her resistance means openly telling her story and being proud of her identities. If we mislabel her, we are disrespecting how important it is, especially for queer folks, to name yourself and be seen in the world the way you choose.

The process of mislabeling, misunderstanding and ignoring certain narratives contributes to erasure. “‘Erasure’ refers

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KAILYN NEIDETCHER to the practice of collective indifference that renders certain people and groups invisible,” according to a writer for The New York Times. “The word migrated out of the academy, where it alluded to the tendency of ideologies to dismiss inconvenient facts, and is increasingly used to describe how inconvenient people are dismissed, their history, pain and achievements blotted out.”

The erasure of Monáe’s identity denotes that she is inconvenient for choosing queer as a label for herself and insignificant in society as a Black queer woman.

Perhaps the most frustrating part is that queer is already an identity label. It can be used as an umbrella term, but many people in the LGBTQ+ community use the word to define their non-cisgender and/or non-straight identity. When media and society at large focus on labels we deem more mainstream and appropriate, we erase queer as a label that already exists and is used daily. Refusing to use this word suggests that it is

not good enough as a label, is too vague or undefined, or isn’t easily understood. Focusing on the portion of Monáe’s coming out that mentions pansexuality is the easy way out; it doesn’t ask cis and straight allies to do any work around their homophobia, and in this case, their racism and misogyny as well.

When the Rolling Stone article was posted, queer wasn’t the most searched word on Merriam-Webster’s website that day because United States society still has a huge stigma against the word and its associations. We understand things in terms of Black and white, gay and straight, man and woman, which leaves no wiggle room for those who, like Monáe, don’t fit the dichotomies. People researching pansexuality is a good first step to dismantling binary ideas of sexuality and gender; now we just have to actually listen to Black women when they tell their stories.

OPINION

UNCONSCIOUS BIAS MOTIVATES RACISM

ARREST OF TWO BLACK MEN IN STARBUCKS QUESTIONS STEREOTYPING GRAY BOUCHAT Even when you think you hold no discrimination, unconscious bias still exists. Personal backgrounds, privileges, experiences and history dictate actions, motives and decisions, whether implicit or explicit, conscious or unconscious. Unfortunately, society’s stereotypes allow unconscious bias to continue.

The recent arrest of two Black men, Donte Robinson and Rashon Nelson, occurred in a Philadelphia Starbucks on April 12, 2018. Police arrested Nelson and Robinson and escorted them out of Starbucks in handcuffs under trespassing charges. Nelson and Robinson were simply waiting for their friend to arrive and did not display threatening or violent behavior, but it was enough for their skin color to unsettle the manager. The person who called the police has their own unconscious bias that motivated them to take action, stereotyping the two Black men as dangerous and unsettling solely based on race rather than behavior.

According to the NAACP, Black people are arrested five times more often than white people. Although Black and Hispanic people make up a total of 32 percent of the United States population, 56 percent were incarcerated in 2015.

Tessa Dover, assistant professor of psychology at Portland State, said unconscious bias plays into most social interactions. “What immediately comes to mind are interactions between police and [particularly] Black men and reactions to women gaining power or leaving traditionally feminine roles,” she said. This form of unconscious bias plagues society, as police brutality against Black men constantly appears throughout various media.

Renee Navarro, vice chancellor of Diversity and Outreach at University of California, San Francisco defines conscious bias as active discrimination against another person and unconscious bias as applying stereotypes to others. Social stereotypes—ranging from race, ethnicity, sexual orientation,

sex, gender or any other defining feature a person holds— dictate these biases and produce ugly assumptions. The person holding unconscious bias clings onto one of these features, attaches a stereotype to it and acts accordingly.

Dover said she believes the incident at Starbucks can’t be rationalized to just unconscious bias, as there is no way of determining this. “We do know that it’s rare to find a white American with no anti-Black unconscious bias, and we also know that unconscious bias can play a role in people’s behavior,” she said. Although it is difficult to diagnose a case of unconscious bias without being present in the situation, “it seems clear that there were many conscious, deliberate thoughts and actions that led to these arrests,” Dover said.

Dover also said it is important to note minute interactions that display unconscious bias, not only events media broadcast. “When I think about unconscious bias, I tend to think more about interactions that don’t get reported on,” Dover said. “How schools teach and discipline their students, how physicians treat their patients, how we decide who we want to work with or befriend. These situations affect lives but do not garner as much attention as more explicit demonstrations of bias.”

This event is just one of many that shows unconscious bias at work. Think back to Stephon Clark or Philando Castile. These situations were potentially fatal cases of unconscious bias or complete lack of empathy. The Starbucks event shows privilege and how it plays into unconscious bias.

This event should raise awareness and make people more conscious of stereotyping. When one acknowledges his or her privilege and sees these stereotypes at play, that is the beginning of recognizing and unlearning unconscious biases and motives.

LEAH MALDONADO

JENNY VU KAILYN NEIDETCHER

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t n’ Do el Fe He d?

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