Up in flames

Australia is experiencing more widespread bushfires than in previous years

BY ISHAANI DAYAL AND TINA LOW

Since late July 2019, Australian wildfires have ravaged over 26 million acres of land and destroyed over 3,000 homes. After the deaths of three American firefighters on Jan. 23, the fatality count rose to 32, while millions of animals have been killed or displaced.

According to professor Lisa Alexander at the Climate Change Research Center of the University of New South Wales, these seasonal bushfires are due to the hot and dry climate — but these annual fires began months earlier than usual and have continued to rapidly spread.

The fires have especially impacted states including New South Wales and Victoria near the southeast coast. Areas in major cities like Sydney and Melbourne feel the effects of the bushfires hundreds of miles away but are unlikely to be impacted too severely, according to the New York Times.

Senior Isabelle Dingli, an Australian citizen, spent winter break in Melbourne where she had to adjust, opting to avoid outdoor exercises. Her brother, who has asthma, had to be even more careful to avoid the smoke.

“Victoria has had worse bushfires; however this is some of the worst bushfires we’ve had nationwide,” Dingli said. “In the city, even today, it’s extremely hazy. You can’t see the blue skies, you can’t see if there are clouds or not and when you’re in the city [it] gets really, really smoky.”

As of Jan. 6, according to the New York Times, the air quality index of Victoria surpassed 999, well beyond the healthy limit of 200. Smoke and ash blowing towards the coast prompted the Australian Medical Association to advise people living along the coast to buy smoke masks and avoid the outdoors.

“I have many friends who live further out, and they keep water tanks at the house and ... on the back of trailers attached to cars so that they can use the hoses and whatnot to dampen the ground if fires do get closer to that house,” Dingli said. “Where I live, that’s not as much of a threat as the [air] pollution.”

Alexander, who currently lives in New South Wales, had to change her 1,500 kilometer route to Adelaide in order to avoid the physical effects of the fires over the holiday.

“And actually in Sydney we’ve had some of the worst air pollution days here to the extent that some days, for example, I won’t even let my kids go outside,” Alexander said.

While sophomore Aurora Butler-Schilling moved from Australia to the U.S. in 2018, her family always intended to return home. Her plans remain intact, but these fires are unsettling for her.

“I’m just distraught,” Butler-Schilling said. “I’ve had a couple [friends] out in the outbacks and have to be evacuated from certain places and it just looks awful. I am truly terrified for everyone and just worried. I’ve been looking at all the posts about it and it’s just awful seeing how many people and animals have died and how much land is being burned.”

Many like Alexander see a link between climate change and the aggressive fires, specifically how the temperatures increase every year while rainfall decreases. According to Reuters, Australia’s annual temperatures are the highest rising in the world; the country is projected to increase 5.1 degrees Celsius by 2090, compared to the global projected increase range of 2.6 to 4.8 degrees Celsius. Paired with record-high dryness, conditions for bushfires were amplified.

When Butler-Schilling lived in Australia, she considered herself to be a proactive advocate for climate change.

“Some people in the government are talking about how climate change isn’t real,” Butler-Schilling said. “It is. But they’re probably trying to downplay the revealing of it. I think a few key people in power are against climate change existing [and don’t] believe in it. That’s what’s stopping the communication.”

Alexander also sees this reluctance among officials to fight climate change. She believes that Australia’s government has had a slightly delayed reaction in combating climate change after receiving advance notice that the 2019 fire season had potential to be one of the worst.

“My guess is it will take a lot more debate in Parliament, trying to work out what those changes would be, but the fact is the government actually talking about it is actually quite a step forward for the current government, even to discuss that they want to make changes,” Alexander said. “I think they’ve realized they need to do something.”

After New Year’s, Alexander’s friends and family from her homeland Ireland reached out to her with concerns for her safety after watching the recent news coverage. She now sees the media as effectively driving government action.

“So it’s definitely in the international public press now and that’s a good thing because it’s actually highlighting that we’re actually seeing some of the effects from climate change directly,” Alexander said.

However, Butler-Schilling believes that despite increased media coverage, some people internationally are not informed on the extent of the issue because of the lack of government communication and the reluctance on Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s part to acknowledge climate change as a threat. Currently, a majority of the information she learns is from contacting her Australian friends on Instagram.

“I do think that the government should be posting more about it,” Butler-Schilling said. “I feel like there are probably people in this school that just have no idea. If you don’t have a connection to Australia, it’s going to be hard to get that information.”

Although Australians living in fire-prone areas receive advice and training on safety in the case of a fire, Alexander suggests that more action needs to be taken towards solving — or at least mitigating — the issue of climate change.

“In terms of climate change itself, I think we really need some urgent, ambitious action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions,” Alexander said. “That’s a global problem. So really limiting our greenhouse gas emissions substantially, significantly and urgently is one of the things that we seriously need to do.” e NEWS I THINK THAT WE REALLY NEED SOME URGENT, AMBITIOUS ACTION TO REDUCE GREENHOUSE GAS EMISSIONS, THAT’S A GLOBAL PROBLEM. PROFESSOR LISA ALEXANDER

OUT OF THE

California passes temporary law removing menstrual product sales tax

BY EMILY XIA

alifornia’s Senate Bill 92 went into effect on Jan. 1, 2020, removing the sales tax from menstrual products and diapers. By passing this law in June of 2019, California added itself to a list of 12 other states, such as New York and Maryland, that have also exempted hygiene products from sales tax; however, the law is not permanent and is set to expire on Dec. 31, 2021.

According to NPR, the “tampon tax” can add up to 66 cents per box, and the average menstruating woman spends around $66 per year on tampons and pads. With over half of the population in the U.S. being women, this amounts to millions of dollars spent every year. With the 7.5% sales tax removed, California’s state general fund will lose approximately $20 million. With its current $215 billion annual budget, the money lost is about 0.009% of total state funding. On the contrary, products such as condoms and Viagra, that are more traditionally purchased by men, don’t have the same sales tax that is imposed upon menstrual products.

While biology teacher Lora Lerner does support the bill, she believes that it is more a matter of politics and finance rather than of science. For Lerner, the bill’s passage is an important step in understanding the inequity that women face.

“I understand the purpose of it, which is to, and this is really out of the realm of science, to recognize the difference in economics between men and women,” Lerner said. “We live in a world where women make less money and still do more child care. They have less economic opportunity and it’s over their lifetime.”

Girls Empowerment Project (GEP) officer and senior Naomi Desai agrees with Lerner that women are economically disadvantaged, and stresses the importance

of the bill. To Desai, not only should the sales tax be removed, but menstrual products should be free.

“It’s not a luxury, it’s a necessity for everyone,” Desai said. “Some people can’t even afford to have it — pads and tampons — so having to pay extra is just ridiculous. It’s only for two years, [and] it’s only in California. There’s so many other states that do still have this tax and that’s a huge problem.”

Though junior Sowmya Renukuntla hopes the tax will be repealed permanently in the future, she acknowledges that the bill is an important first step in spreading awareness about the stigma and inequity surrounding periods.

“I think it’s a good first step because [congresswoman] Jackie Speier tried repealing it three times and it didn’t get passed,” Renukuntla said. “Another congresswoman Cristina Garcia, she tried twice and didn’t get passed. So I think even though it’s a trial period, I think it’s good because it’s spreading awareness about it. Even a trial is still a good first step.”

However, Lerner remains unsure of the likelihood of other, more conservative states, to pass the same law, as they are less likely to attempt to overcome stigma surrounding women’s hygiene. Desai, on the other hand, remains optimistic in her view of the future for the tax on menstrual products, and she acknowledges that as a more liberal state, California serves as a role model for the rest of the country, as well as the rest of the world.

“Definitely, for blue states like California, I think this is good, we’re setting an example that other states can follow,” Desai said. “And I know there’s Maryland and a few other states who don’t have this [tampon] tax that we used to have, so this is definitely a good stepping stone for the future.”

Despite the obstacles, Desai and Renukuntla focus on the positive aspects of the bill and the attention it brings to a sometimes u n c o m fo r t a b l e subject. Being part of GEP, Desai hopes that the club’s annual pad and tampon drive in March will be more successful this year. Having already researched the pink tax for two years, Renukuntla hopes to work with congresswomen like Speier and Garcia to continue eradicating the tax in more states and even other countries.

Overall, Lerner stresses the importance in being able to understand each individual’s struggles and situations. As a teacher, she uses her influence to break gender stigma and connect to her students.

“I do make a point of saying women should know about men’s bodies, and men need to know about women’s bodies,” Lerner said. “And it doesn’t even matter if you’re gay or straight or anything. You’re going to have people you love that have different bodies than you, and you’re going to want to be supportive of them.” of low-income women in the U.S cannot afford tampons *According to Reuters

e

PHOTO | EMILY XIA

SENIORITIS STRIKES AGAIN

PHOTO | RACHEL JIANG

Examining teacher perspectives on working with second semester seniors

BY RACHEL JIANG

SSS, better known as Second Semester Seniors or senioritis, is when seniors slack off in their second semester. According to a survey of 124 seniors, 64% have experienced SSS. Of those, 49% have it because they are finished with college applications and are tired after three years of high school.

AP Physics teacher Jim Birdsong has observed this trend for 25 years. In order to prevent senioritis from affecting class, he removes the senior scores out of the Physics grading curves and motivates seniors to try harder. However, that has not worked out so far. According to him, students listen and nod along, however they still end up reverting back to senioritis: not trying or ditching school.

Birdsong hypothesizes that many MVHS students have senioritis because they want to have a normal life after completing college applications, feeling that there aren’t any consequences to getting worse grades. Although Birdsong understands it, he doesn’t think this is justified.

“No one’s looking, so why are you acting different?” Birdsong said. “If you act different when no one’s looking, then you’ve been faking it the whole time. You’re not really a good student if you only do it [to] get the reward.”

Similar to Birdsong, Science teacher Kyle Jones believes that students slack off in their second semester because they feel it won’t affect their future. Still, he wants students to maintain their standards.

“I understand [Senioritis],” Jones said. “[B]ut I also just try and make sure that they at least maintain a certain level of dignity within their academics.”

To help seniors, Jones gently reminds them individually to stay focused and to hang in there a little longer.

Taking a different approach, English teacher David Clarke stated that he simply accepts and acknowledges the stages of SSS. In addition, he tries to incorporate non-academic activities such as selfreflections into his course after AP testing. Finally, he keeps students engaged by creating courses that revolve around their current conditions.

“As a teacher, you’re always adjusting, even on a daily basis, [to] the psychological state of your students,” Clarke said.

Sympathizing with his students, Clarke does not believe that SSS is a bad trend because he believes this is part of the developmental process that students go through. When he was in high school experience, Clarke noticed that his classmates’ priorities have shifted from studying to socializing. In addition, they were less stressed during their second semester.

In terms of the impact of SSS, Birdsong has personally dealt with an alumni who received a failing grade in Birdsong’s class, which kept him out of Yale University. Birdsong decided not to make exceptions since the student did not deserve to pass his class.“They’ve lowered their standards,” Birdsong said. “But I’m not lowering mine.” In addition to affecting seniors, Jones states that SSS may affect non-seniors, specifically in group projects.

“It can be frustrating for the juniors who are trying to maintain that level to be paired with a group of seniors who are maybe not so interested in maintaining that same level,” Jones said. “Juniors can look at it, at best, as a little annoying, and at worst, detrimental to their grade.”

To resolve this issue, Jones typically grades non-seniors based on their contributions to a group project more, thus decreasing the chances that seniors’ grade will be affected because of seniors with SSS.

On the other hand, Clarke doesn’t believe that SSS affects students’ overall performance. According to his experience, people who have struggled to maintain their grades in their second semester don’t generally fail because of SSS; rather, they go through personal issues. Being in an academically competitive area, Clarke believes that students deserve a small break.

“I don’t take it personally that [seniors] don’t take MVHS as seriously toward the end of the second semester [as] they may have when they were juniors or at the beginning [of high school],” Clarke said. “Because they shouldn’t.” e 64% of the class of 2020 experience senioritis *According to a survey of 124 MVHS students

KEEP THE

DREAM ALIVE Community members discuss the personal and legal implications of DACA being rescinded BY SWARA TEWARI AND JAI UPARKAR EL ESTOQUE | FEBRUARY 2020

You need to pack all your things. Your notebooks, all your school stuff.”

Fremont HS English teacher Onette Zabinski vividly remembers her parents telling her this when she was 7 years old. She recalls packing her belongings into the car and thinking to herself, If we’re going on vacation, why do I have to bring all my stuff? But Zabinski didn’t ask any questions at the time

Her family drove 2,121 miles from Morelia, Mexico, to the Bay Area, where her mom’s sisters and extended family were already settled. Although Zabinski didn’t understand it then, she had just illegally crossed the border.

“I don’t think that my parents were ready to explain to me what was happening until we were actually here because of the sheer number of changes,” Zabinski said. “Especially the fact that I didn’t speak English and I was going to need to start school over here. All of those things were slowly rolled out once we were here in the U.S.”

Zabinski went through elementary, middle and high school as an undocumented student. For her, day-today life as an undocumented person was an “overwhelming stress” that compounded the diffculties of being a teenager and growing up.

“Being a high schooler on its own is a very difficult time in life — there are a lot of different stresses,” Zabinski said. “To add that layer of being undocumented means that you also don’t really know [how] you’re going to navigate the world without the means to find a legal job or easily be able to access education. There’s just a lot of different challenges that present themselves when your life is not necessarily in your own control, when it’s being controlled by some other unseen forces.”

Without a social security number, Zabinski was unable to apply for financial aid, which made it impossible for her to attend many universities. She decided to attend De Anza College to get an affordable education and was able to cover the first

year of tuition with scholarship money. After two years, Zabinski transferred to San Jose State University (SJSU). It was at SJSU that Zabinski felt her future was the most hopeless. The uncertainty of her looming future and inability to work in the U.S. became such a burden that she wanted to return to Mexico.

“I told my mom that I wanted to leave,” Zabinski said. “I said, ‘I have family members in Mexico, I’m tired of feeling like I have to live in the shadows and of never being able to feel comfortable and safe outside because you just never know what’s going to happen.’ So I told her, ‘This is the idea that I have and I’m just done with this, I can’t do this anymore.’”

Zabinski’s mom’s response was simple. She told Zabinski that moving back to Mexico wasn’t just her decision — it was something that would impact both her mother and younger brother.

“[My mother told me] that she was willing to have me go back [to Mexico] but only after I finished my degree,” Zabinski said. “She reminded me that an education is worth an education no matter where you go. And especially if I had an American degree, then that would just open up more opportunities if and when I needed to go back.”

Zabinski remembers that period of uncertainty as a constant push and pull — her life felt manageable one second and hopeless the next.

“It was just this fluctuation between feeling like ‘I see the light at the end of the tunnel’ and feeling like, ‘Wait, that wasn’t really a light, that was just a match that someone turned on for no reason,’” Zabinski said. “Just this constant swinging back and forth of feeling like what I was doing was right and ... feeling like what I was doing was fruitless.”

Despite her fears about her hazy future, Zabinski dedicated herself to her education. When she was studying for her teaching credential, her godmother texted her a link to an article that changed her life in the space of a second — the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) had passed. Zabinski now had legal status — she could work and had a path to citizenship.

“When I was finally able to go and get a driver’s license or go and get a work permit, I just couldn’t believe that it was actually real,” Zabinski said. “When I finally had all of these different documents, I started to feel just so much more like a part of actual society. I didn’t have to figure out different ways in which I needed to work around the system because now, I could work within the system.” When DACA was rescinded in 2018, Zabinski was completely heartbroken. She herself was no longer protected under DACA as at that point she had a greencard, but she ached for the thousands of undocumented students who wouldn’t have a chance at the life DACA had allowed her to create.

“I can’t imagine the feeling of being so close to being able to get such an opportunity and then it being pulled out from under you,” Zabinski said. “It has made me tear up on multiple occasions and it just makes me feel the same way that I felt when I was in high school and going through a lot of those feelings of uncertainty.” D ACA is an American immigration policy enforced through an executive order by former President Barack Obama in 2015 that allowed eligible immigrant youth who were brought illegally to the U.S. as children to receive a renewable two-year period of deferred action from deportation and become eligible for a work permit in the U.S. DACA was a temporary program instituted to help eligible immigrants after Congress failed to pass the DREAM Act in December 2010, which would have provided a path to attain citizenship for immigrants brought to the country illegally as children.

Obama hoped to expand DACA in 2014 by establishing a new program, Deferred Action for Parents of Americans and Lawful Permanent Residents (DAPA) to delay deportation for parents of U.S. citizens and lawful permanent residents. However, this expansion was blocked in 2015 by a lawsuit from 26 states. In September 2017, the Trump administration announced it was terminating DACA, as Obama’s executive action of enforcing this program surpassed his legal authority, placing the citizenship and lives of 700,000 DACA recipients in legal limbo.

Due to pending litigation, the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) continues to accept DACA renewal applications but stopped accepting

THEY CALL US DREAMERS, BUT

any new DACA applications as of August 2019 due to an executive order.

In June 2019, the Supreme Court revealed that it would review the Trump administration’s decision to end the DACA policy, hear oral arguments for the case in November 2019 and reach a decision no later than June 2020. The Justices are reviewing a trio of cases that argue that the administration’s decision to terminate DACA violated the Administrative Procedure Act, a federal law governing policy-making procedures.

In an effort to urge the Court to consider DACA’s continuation, the Cupertino City Council unanimously signed on to a amicus curiae brief authored by the City of Los Angeles on Oct. 1, 2019, which was sent to the Supreme Court. An amicus curiae brief is submitted to the court when a third-party to the lawsuit wants to raise additional points of view in an attempt to influence a particular decision.

According to council member Liang Chao, who was Vice Mayor when voting on signing the brief, the council wasn’t provided any background information on DACA and the complexity of the issue before voting on whether the city should sign the brief.

“[In retrospect], I don’t think it’s something that the city should get involved in because this is a legal issue and it’s a temporary solution to a problem, but the actual solution would be for Congress to adopt something legally that can be implemented,” Chao said.

While Chao still supports the idea of protecting these working immigrants, she is

doubting the city’s decision to sign the brief after discovering that the cities of San Jose, Sunnyvale, Palo Alto, Mountain View and Saratoga did not. This brief gathered the support of 109 cities and counties across the country while other big corporations, like Apple, submitted their own briefs to the Court.

“Should a city like Cupertino, where illegal immigrants [are] not a big issue for us, have taken a position before we understood everything?” Chao said. “I don’t think it’s something the city should get involved in because [DACA] is a legal issue and is a temporary solution to a problem.”

Although Chao believes that DACA recipients contribute to American society in school and at work, she also understands why people have opposed the program. For many, the program appears to unfairly reward illegal immigrants with economic and political autonomy while others are stuck waiting years to obtain permanent residency.

“I think we have to be fair,” Chao said. “There should be a path to citizenship for these children, but it needs to be a path that doesn’t penalize others who legally followed the process [of] waiting to get a legal entry to the country. [But] we don’t want to deport them to a country that they don’t even know, that’s just very cruel.”

After further research, Chao discovered more information. In 2016, the Supreme Court announced a 4-4 decision in a case challenging Obama’s expansion of DACA and the establishment of DAPA. In this lawsuit, 26 states, including Texas and Florida accused Obama of ignoring

Attorney Victoria Argumedo, a firstgeneration Peruvian American, has represented thousands of clients over the past seven years and focuses on cases involving deportation defense and asylum practices. Her parents immigrated from Peru to Alabama in the 1970s, where she didn’t have much of a Latinx community. federal procedures and abusing his power by evading Congress in his decision of establishing DAPA. For Chao, the fact that four Justices believed the programs were unconstitutional made her second guess the Cupertino City Council’s decision to publicly support DACA.

“We want to follow the law, we want our representatives to follow the law, we want our president to follow the law,” Chao said. “This is a matter of principle — even a good program should follow the law. So if this is not the right way to solve the problem, find a good way that actually follows the law. There are systems in place, if you break it for one issue and it’s good now, what about another issue? It’s not fair for someone else. [DACA] was a temporary solution, it should have been replaced.”

She decided to pursue immigration law when she realized she wanted to use her education to directly benefit the Latinx immigrant community.

For Argumedo, DACA acts as a “semibandaid” to America’s broken immigration system and provides a temporary remedy to help young people who had no input in their legal residency. While she believes comprehensive immigration reform is needed to solve these problems, she also understands that America’s immigration system is extremely complex. As a daughter and wife of an immigrant, Argumedo is directly affected by the intricacies and nuances of American immigration.

“So I think this whole idea ... about how this current administration is saying that they don’t want chain migration is really, really hard to listen to because this country was founded on immigrants,” Argumedo said. “That is what makes America, America. It’s a melting pot. We have the Statue of Liberty that has the saying: ‘Give me your tired, your poor ...’ but somehow from this administration that’s no longer something we believe in. I don’t see why there would be a need to rescind DACA; these are all young people that have made a pledge to study, they have no crimes. There’s absolutely no negative that comes out of DACA, from my personal and professional opinion.”

Argumedo’s job involves presenting options to families to help them remain in the U.S. legally and to prevent children being separated from their parents.

“I explain to them what their rights are,” Argumedo said. “My job is not to WE'RE THE ONES choose a path for my clients. It’s to make sure that they understand the immigration consequences of the decisions that are available to them, for them to feel empowered to pick the best choice that fits best with their family.”

Although Argumedo has been handling immigration cases for 20 years now — she is in no way accustomed to watching families ripped apart or children losing their homes.

“Those are all the people coming up through the border,” Argumedo said. “That’s a large chunk of what we do. There is absolutely no way that I’m robotic enough to just leave at the end of the day. I can’t just leave those horror stories that I hear.” Similar to Argumedo, Zabinski felt compelled to help undocumented students navigate the complexities of their situations. She is part of a small community of staff members at FHS working to support the school’s undocumented student population. As a highschooler, Zabinski was the first undocumented student her guidance counselor had encountered. She hopes that by sharing her story, she can help students feel less alone.

“I thought that if I share [how DACA being rescinded is] really affecting me, then at least there’s one person that you can put a face to the issue with,” Zabinski said. “I’ve been more comfortable being really open with my students about my experience and framing it as a big challenge but definitely not one that should stop you from being able to pursue your goals, especially in terms of being able to pursue higher education.” Z abinski has noted that certain elements of the media oversimplify illegal immigration when she says it’s actually a complex issue. “[With illegal immigrants], there’s this dichotomy of either being helpless or being a criminal,” Zabinski said. “Most of the undocumented people that I know fall into neither bucket. The stereotype makes it easy to digest this image but the actual reality of it, I think, is just way more than most people can handle and more than people are really willing to grapple with.”

Although Zabinski’s experience as an undocumented person felt insurmountable at times, she says it has given her an inner strength and faith in herself she wouldn’t have developed otherwise.

“It’s safe for me to say that there’s nothing that I’ve dealt with that has been as challenging as being an undocumented person,” Zabinski said. “If you’re able to jump through all these hoops, you’re going to come out on the other side being super savvy and super resilient to a lot of the other challenges that life is going to throw your way.” e

WHO DON'T SLEEP.

They broke Taylor Swift’s record for the most viewed YouTube video in 24 hours. They’re the first group since The Beatles to have three Billboard No. 1’s in one year. They’ve garnered the most Twitter engagement ever recorded on the platform, exceeding Harry Styles’ record. In 2019 alone, Korean-pop group BTS broke multiple records, trumping Western artists after breaking into the American music market. However, despite its glaring success, award shows are xenophobic towards BTS.

In 2019, the Video Music Awards (VMAs) made a new category dubbed “Best K-pop,” after BTS started smashing sales records. Despite its album, “Map of the Soul: Persona,” becoming one of the top selling albums in the U.S. and worldwide last year, the VMAs excluded BTS — and all other K-pop artists — from main awards such as “Best Pop” and “Artist of the Year” through the creation of the new category.

The award show clearly drew a line between non-English speaking and English speaking artists. Allowing foreign acts like BTS to win “Best Pop” and “Artist of the Year” would force the industry to admit that an Asian boy band could trump white artists.

Making a separate category for K-pop furthers the notion that K-pop bands shouldn’t be taken seriously, and that nonWestern artists are not at the same level as “mainstream” pop. 5 Seconds of Summer was nominated for “Best Pop” at the VMAs, even though they’re an Australian boy band — there seems to be a clear division between English-speakers and foreign language speakers.

To some, this may not seem like a big deal. Using the counter-argument that East Asians are “finally being represented” isn’t addressing the fundamentally xenophobic reality in America. While we’re finally seeing Asian faces on the big screen and in the music scene, the “representation” award shows are giving non-white artists is a backhanded reward; they are placing them in a box and othering them even though they’re just as capable as Western artists who are nominated for main awards. Award show xenophobia extends to Latino artists as well, where they are sometimes put into separate labels like “Best Latin Pop.”

“Taki Taki,” a Spanish and English track by popular artists French DJ, Selena Gomez, Cardi B and Ozuna, released in 2018, debuted at number 27 on the Billboard Hot 100, eventually reaching number 11. It also remained at the top of the Spotify Global 50 chart for multiple weeks, demonstrating its international impact. However, it was only nominated for “Top Latin Song” and “Top Dance/ Electronic Song” despite its worldwide success.

Some may argue that award shows in other countries exclude Western artists by creating “international” categories, but this disregards one main difference between American award shows and foreign award shows. In other countries, such as Korea, award shows are held solely AND THE AWARD GOES TO... Entertainment award shows discriminate against non-English speaking artists BY ZARA IQBAL AND CLAIRE YANG

to celebrate Korean entertainers, whereas many American award shows are touted for being allinclusive and diverse.

Award shows have started showing some signs of change after the Korean film “Parasite” took the world by storm last year. The movie has racked up countless awards and nominations, including “Best Picture” at the Oscars. The film also made history as the first foreign film to take home the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture.

However, at the Golden Globes, the film was only able to take home the “Best Foreign Film” award because, according to the Hollywood Reporter, it “did not qualify for the ‘Best Picture’ honor, since the Hollywood Foreign Press Association stipulates contenders feature ‘more than 50% English dialogue’ in the film and ‘Parasite’ is fully in Korean.”

To this day, many awards shows in America stand by the “separate but equal” philosophy, but they are taking steps — albeit baby steps. BTS’ popularity worldwide paved the way for other K-pop artists to be recognized in the West, allowing more nonKorean folk to accept and listen to nonEnglish lyrics without prejudice. “Parasite” director Bong Joon Ho said through his translator at the Golden Globes, “Once you overcome the 1-inch-tall barrier of subtitles, you will be introduced to so many more amazing films.” Music, film and other aspects of the entertainment industry are meant to be enjoyed by all, no matter where they originate from. As a country that prides itself for diversity, having English as the barometer in award shows is misleading and unfair. OPINION e