Spring 2016 Issue 10

o ldaetne GGX

wednesday, APRIL 6, 2016

SF State students and faculty share their personal stories about dreadlocks on goldengatexpress.org

SF State braces for faculty strike Page 2

Issue

#10

Volume CII goldengatexpress.org Serving the San Francisco State community since 1927.

XPRESS

DREADLOCKS

SF State students and faculty tell the stories behind their dreadlocks in an exclusive multimedia piece on goldengatexpress.org.

EMILY CHAVOUS, IMANI MILLER, CONNOR HUNT / XPRESS

read more about the dreadlocks controversy ON PAGE 6 facebook: /GoXpress

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Wednesday, April 6, 2016 goldengatexpress.org

NEWS

SF State says campus will remain open during strike MADELINE MANSON

mmanson@mail.sfsu.edu

NASHANTA WILLIAMS nwillia1@mail.sfsu.edu

A

s the California Faculty Association strike dates loom, SF State faculty are preparing to participate in the first-ever systemwide strike against the California State University, and students are wondering how this affects them and what campus services will still be available.

“They just made the announcement and that was it,” said Brittany Barrios, a first-year nursing student.

The University will remain open during the strike. Student services on campus, such as food vendors and maintenance, will also be continuing per usual, as well as campus activities.

Vice President of Student Affairs Luoluo Hong sent out an email Tuesday to students regarding the strike.

“Our campus will remain open during the strike, and students should be able to access all non-instructional programs and services without interruption, including any planned campus-wide activities and events,” Hong said in the email. “Academic ceremonies such as honors convocation or other events related to graduation should continue as planned.”

Official dates for the strike will affect all 23 CSU campuses Wednesday, April 13 through Friday, April 15 and Monday, April 18 through Tuesday, April 19.

CSU faculty members will be picketing for a 5 percent pay increase.

The CSU has agreed to give faculty a 2 percent increase, but the CFA continues to insist that a 2 percent raise is not enough. The CSU has until midnight April 12, the night before the strike, to concede, according to the CFA website.

“It’s about the priorities of the CSU,” said SF State CFA Chapter President Sheila Tully. “When you put faculty last, you also put the students last. The faculty and students go hand in hand. I don’t want to strike. I do want to settle, but I will fight because the stakes are so high.”

When asked, Tully did not have a number for faculty members participating in the strike.

“We have a lot of support,” she said.

Although CFA members plan to picket and rally, students are neither encouraged or discouraged to picket to support their instructors.

“The University fully respects the free speech rights of our students, staff, and faculty,” Hong’s email read.

“You are not obligated to support either the CFA’s position or the CSU administration’s side regarding the strike. You cannot be compelled to walk out of class, walk picket lines or otherwise support the strike as part of a class assignment, for extra credit, or in exchange for a grade.”

“I have classes that are cancelled,” said Keith Donnell, an SF State graduate student. “Any class that’s not being held I’m not going to go to.”

The services rendered on campus by staffed employees (as opposed to faculty) will remain open. The library on campus will remain open

“

When you put faculty last, you also put the students last.

The faculty and students go hand in hand. I don't want to strike. I do want to settle, but I will fight because the stakes are so high.

-Shieila Tully,

CFA Chapter President

as well as all of the maintenance and services available for students. The food locations will also remain open to continue to make sure that the students at SF State are not negatively affected by the strike.

Marco Ballesteros, owner of Taqueria La Girasol in the Cesar Chavez Center, explains that he supports the faculty strike but the taqueria will remain open during the strike.

“We will be open regular hours because the kids still need to eat,”

Ballesteros said. “I hope they get what they want ... they need it, they do.”

University Librarian Deborah Masters declined to comment on the status of library faculty members who will or will not be participating in the strike, but Mira Foster, a librarian at the J. Paul Leonard library, said librarians would be striking as well.

“We are (all) faculty and we will be on strike,” Foster said.

The only services that will be affected are classes taught by instructors participating in the strike. Some professors and lecturers will cancel class, while others will have alternatives for students, depending on the faculty member.

The average salary of a CSU faculty member is $46,000 per year, while tenured faculty members of the CSU average $85,000 according to the CFA. 60 percent of faculty members are temporary faculty, making an average of $28,000 annually.

The CFA and supporters are fighting for a 5 percent salary raise, which would cost the university $69 million.

Funds that were originally allocated for the raise are now to fund increasing enrollment rates, graduation rates and hiring more faculty.

94.4 percent of the CFA’s members voted in October to strike. The CFA’s “Fight for Five” will be the biggest strike in higher education history, according to their website.

Ethnic Studies students publicly call White and Wong KELSEY LANNIN

klannin@mail.sfsu.edu

Flanked by “Where’s White?” posters, students gathered onstage in Malcolm X Plaza Tuesday to confront CSU Chancellor Timothy P. White, who cancelled his visit to SF State without explanation. White was to address the financial issues surrounding the College of Ethnic Studies.

“Today, Chancellor White was scheduled to visit our campus, but his visit and his intentions have been obscured,” said a student at the rally who wished to remain anonymous.

“Therefore, we are calling President Wong and Chancellor White to ask them what does Ethnics Studies mean to them, and how are they going to protect it, and how are they going to protect our education.”

The group gathered on stage in front of a small but cheering crowd of about 15 students as they made calls to White and Wong over the loudspeaker.

“Let’s all give them a call,” said the speaker after attempts to contact White and Wong directly were unsuccessful. “I propose that we blitz and leave tons of messages demanding

why they don’t care about our education.”

None of the students on the stage gave their name or the name of the organization they were with to Golden Gate Xpress.

Organizers looped the song “FDT (Fuck Donald Trump)”

by YG and Nipsey Hussle over the loudspeaker from the stage, eliciting scorn from some students tabling nearby.

Peter Sobrino, vice president of Young Americans for Liberty, said he made a complaint about the music to the student activities and events coordinators.

“There’s time and effort that goes into getting these spaces, and I think it’s unfair that (the students on the stage) are disrupting not only the Young Republicans, because they have the right to free speech, but also ours, the fraternity over here, and other groups,” said Sobrino, who noted that the organizers had pointed the speakers toward the Republican Student Union, which has voiced support for presidential candidate Donald Trump.

“It was successful, in that we raised a little bit of awareness and that we at least got a response from them to know

that they currently don’t have a set date,” said O’Neal Stidum, 20, a criminal justice major who came to the event in support of

the College of Ethnic Studies.

White’s office confirmed that he will be visiting SF State, but didn’t provide a reason for the

cancellation or a new visitation date.

KELSEY LANNIN / XPRESS

SF State students who refused to give their names or organization protest the cancellation of CSU Chancellor Timothy P. White’s campus visit Tuesday.

Wednesday, April 6, 2016 goldengatexpress.org

NEWS SCREEN CAPTURES COURTESY OF LUNA MALBROUX

Screen captures from EquiTable, an app that allows groups to split restaurant bills based on earning disparity between genders and races in their dining party.

New app explores economic disparities through dining out NASHANTA WILLIAMS nwillia1@mail.sfsu.edu

W

hile a heated conversation about race and economic equality is at a boiling point, a new app for smartphones has come up with a creative solution on how to cool the

waters.

EquiTable is a Silicon Valley born app that claims to split bills fairly based on current census data, taking into account ethnicity and the current wage disparity.

Luna Malbroux, EquiTable’s creator, is a comedian with a local San Francisco talk show and is also an antibias consultant who works with companies and schools to train people in the realm of bias and identity. The app was initially made for Comedy Hack Day, an event where app development gurus and comedians team up to make hilarious technological innovations, and soon it became a tangible idea.

“I learned as an anti-bias trainer when you talk about things dead on, people put up a lot of defenses,” Malbroux said. “Having that experience (as an anti-bias trainer), I tend to use humor as a tool as much as possible.

I heard about Comedy Hack Day that brings comedians and developers together, and I was really excited about the idea of pitching an app. The idea kind of came to me, one thing specifically that I realized as an anti-bias trainer, is that gender is the first place to start because it’s the easiest place for everyone to understand.”

The app splits the bill at a diverse table according to actual average wage gap earnings that are present in the country. The data are taken from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics and implemented in a simple percentage calculation. The app then takes into account all people dining and divides the bill at a dinner table based on those inequities, with the minorities on average paying less due to the fact statistically that economically minorities make less money.

“We put in actual earnings, what figures say is the wage gap issued,” Malbroux said. “For example, Latina women make on average 53 cents on the dollar compared to what a white male makes. For black women it’s 54 cents on the same dollar – not the same pay for the same work. I just used those statistics.”

The app has caused mixed reviews on the SF State campus, with students having a much less racial perspective on dining. Heather Rutz-Leighton, a journalism major and San Francisco bartender was unsure

about the bill splitting app.

“I don’t agree across the board that in every situation the white man is going to make more than the black woman. I feel like if you go out to eat the bill should be split based on what each person orders,” Rutz-Leighton said.

The app was released March 16. Since then, tensions have flared at SF State after an argument over dreadlocks in the Cesar Chavez Student Center went viral. The video ignited a racially driven conversation on campus.

Felicia A. Viator, an SF State assistant professor in the history department who also has a background in African American History was intrigued by the development of EquiTable. She felt as though the app succeeded in peaking interest and had potential to get a meaningful conversation about race and income disparity.

“I think it’s a unique way for people to get a real world person lesson to the kinds of disparities the app is talking about,” Viator said. “Things are abstract.

People sometimes talk about statistics, and we know that women make less than men, we know that people of color generally make less than whites, and this seems like a good way to bring it close to home. It seems like the perfect way to start a meaningful conversation, and not just one based in stats.”

Wednesday, April 6, 2016 goldengatexpress.org

NEWS

Republican Student Union’s support of Donald Trump sparks controversy AHALYA SRIKANT

asrikant@mail.sfsu.edu

T

he Republican Student Union experienced a third day of protest on Tuesday against their support of Donald Trump for president, following two consecutive days of conflict before spring break.

Student protesters played the song “FDT (Fuck Donald Trump)” by YG on loudspeakers in Malcolm X Plaza Tuesday afternoon. The song was played repeatedly in response to the RSU table donned with Trump paraphernalia and numerous photographs of Trump himself.

A larger sign saying “Trump” covered the sign saying “Republican Student Union” at the table.

The first day of protesting resulted in police presence. John Ayoub, president of the RSU, said on March 15 around 50-60 people surrounded them, blocking their “Donald Trump for President” sign.

“I was surprised and disappointed that they tried to block my freedom of expression,” Ayoub said.

The second incident took place the day after, during the Ethnic Studies rally on March 16. Several people confronted the organization with crude remarks during the rally, according to Liza Remmer, who works for the Promoting Achievement Through Higher Education program at SF State and was representing the RSU in the Malcolm X Plaza that day.

“We had permission to be out there,” Remmer said. “This kind of thing is what makes young Republicans feel like they don’t have a voice.”

Remmer is one of the few members of the organization who doesn’t support Trump. She supports John Kasich for president.

Ayoub himself supported Ben Carson’s candidacy until he

RYAN ZARAGOZA / XPRESS

SF State student John Ayoub, president of the Republican Student Union, points toward the ethnic studies demonstration to draw attention to the fact that they were loudly playing an anti-Donald-Trump song in Malcolm X Plaza Tuesday.

withdrew from the race. He now supports Trump because he likes how, just like Carson, Trump is not part of mainstream politics.

Many students approached the RSU to talk to them about why they supported Trump. One of these students was Edgar Alvarez, a fourth-year psychology major at SF State. Alvarez was also present during the March 15 conflict.

That day, he didn’t agree with the protesters’ approach, describing it as counterproductive.

“We’re going to school here to learn more and to be educated, and at the same time we’re still yelling obscenities,” Alvarez said.

“They do have the right to be here and they do have the right to their

RYAN ZARAGOZA / XPRESS

SF State freshman Raysean Jones (right) shares his political concerns with John Ayoub (left) Tuesday in Malcolm X Plaza.

RYAN ZARAGOZA / XPRESS

Staff member Muata Kenyatta (left) and student Ben Fontes stop by the Republican Student Union table to share their concerns with the group Tuesday.

RYAN ZARAGOZA / XPRESS

The SF State Young Republicans group tabled in support of presidential candidate Donald Trump at Malcolm X Plaza on Tuesday.

opinion as well as we do.”

Raysean Jones, a first-year civil engineering major, was also having a conversation with the RSU. He agreed with Alvarez about negative protesting.

“It promotes the same message that we’re trying to fight,” Jones said. “It’s hateful messaging that I feel like Donald Trump is pushing, so I’m not gonna push my opinion on them.”

The College Democrats at SF State were present on the first two

days when the RSU was tabling.

“Although we acknowledge that freedom of speech is a right, we believe that hate and racism is not something that we should promote on campus,” said Adam Rey, political director for the SF State College Democrats.

Trump’s stance on immigration is one of the main reasons Ayoub supports his candidacy for president, although he immigrated to the United States 20 years ago from Egypt.

As a legal immigrant, Ayoub said he had to follow the rules to come to the U.S. He thinks there are a lot of opportunities for people to come to the country legally and doesn’t support them doing it illegally. His strong stance against illegal immigration and his status as an immigrant himself causes a lot of people to question his support of Trump, Ayoub said.

“You don’t have to agree with someone 100 percent of the time to support them,” Ayoub said.

Wednesday, April 6, 2016 goldengatexpress.org

LIFESTYLE & CULTURE

SF State students and faculty speak out about dreadlocks following viral video EMILY CHAVOUS

echavous@mail.sfsu.edu

“A

couple weeks ago I had two long french braids with extensions down to my hips, about the length of Beyoncé’s in her ‘Formation’ video,” said Stella Dugall, a 26-year-old visual anthropology grad student at SF State.

“This young white male was like, ‘I love your hair! It’s so long!’ I said I got extensions, and his face fixed with disappointment. I don’t know this guy; I’ve never met him. I don’t know how I could have disappointed him.”

“So that’s fake?” he asked Dugall, whose thesis film, “Natural Resistance,” just so happens to examine thoughts and opinions about black hair in the Bay Area.

“That’s not your real hair?”

“He was looking at it,” Dugall recalled with a laugh.

“Just looking and looking.”

Dugall asked the man if he’d like to touch her hair.

“No,” he responded. “It’s kind of gross.”

“Maybe this is the biased opinion of being a black woman in America,” Dugall said. “Maybe this is speaking from hurt, speaking from a history of being discriminated against because of how I look that I have that type of reaction, to think that he was only saying, ‘Ew, that’s gross,’ because I am a black woman.”

Understanding Dugall’s experience may help to comb through the hair-raising debate that flooded the Internet this week, after a video of two SF State students went viral – a black woman evidently tells a white man he shouldn’t wear dreadlocks.

The question has circled the social sphere and it’s a query raised by Brandeis University associate professor of African and Afro-American studies Carina Ray: “Who has the freedom to have dreadlocks?”

While locs (termed for hair’s natural tendency to lock together when uncombed) are visible across cultures, Ray noted these conversations tend to “fall along a blackwhite line.”

“The history of black people wearing dreadlocks has been one of real push-back and discrimination,” Ray said.

“In a way, to see a young white kid decide that he wants to grow them, there is a certain amount of privilege in that.”

According to Dugall, people should interrogate the root of the problem.

“Why is the white boy wearing dreadlocks cool and hip and edgy, and the black boy wearing dreadlocks a rebel, lazy, probably jobless?” Dugall asked. “We should be educating ourselves as to why we think the way we do about certain people and their behaviors. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with anyone wearing locs or wearing an afro or straightening their hair – just understand where that’s coming from.”

Social hierarchies are tied to physical appearance, Dugall explained, attributing modern stereotypes to “scientific” research of the Enlightenment era that categorized Africans as “cunning, lazy, lustful, careless.”

“There’s a certain expectation of conformity,” Ray said. “Hair becomes a very politicized issue in that context. I have very curly hair. My son has very curly hair. People always assume that we’re sort of wild. We’re wild, we’re crazy, we must be free-living. And that’s just how our hair grows out of our heads.”

SF State psychology lecturer Zoe Martell defined cultural appropriation as the taking and claiming of something significant that belongs to another group of people.

CONNOR HUNT / XPRESS

Fine arts major Amy Abernathy near the West Campus Green Tuesday. “I don’t think we should silence those people who are upset about cultural appropriation,” Abernathy said. “But at the same time, we need to be more open to conversation.”

Living as a white woman with locs for more than a decade, Martell said she understands both sides of the dispute.

“I don’t want my hair to offend anyone, but at the same time it has an identity marker for me that is so entrenched in my own past,” Martell said. “It’s entrenched in a time when there were culture wars going on in this city that most of the young students can’t begin to fathom because they weren’t even alive.”

Each individual dreadlocks story is unique, but all of them weave a tale of personal empowerment and pride.

“I do feel liberated having dreads,” said Amy Abernathy, a 20-year-old fine arts student at SF State who began locking her hair three years ago. “It just makes me feel stronger. Sometimes having dreads is like having a mane. They always carry a characteristic to them, a personality, an edge, a strength.”

For some, the journey is spiritual.

“Your hair falls out every day,” Abernathy said. “But with dreads, they kind of retain it. So in a way, they retain your energy, they retain your memories. So in that sense, it’s quite spiritually uplifting if you allow it. It kind of forces you to think positively.”

Martell said she’s offended and considers it appropriation when celebrities like Justin Bieber jump on the locs-trend without acknowledging related issues that matter to the black community.

“The problem isn’t white people wearing dreads,” Martell said. “The problem is colonialism and everything that came after colonialism. And the problem is that white people have been appropriating anything and everything for centuries as if that were ours to do. … The real issue is people of color being told that their hair is not appropriate.”

SF State Africana studies lecturer Dave “Davey D”

Cook said these debates have educated the public about the hairstyle’s origins around the world and although the controversy continues, there is an opportunity for meaningful conversation.

“People know a lot of history, more than the Rasta thing,” Cook said. “It’s a U.S.-centric cultural understanding of the hairstyle, which is rooted in the oppression many have felt in terms of not being able to have a natural hairstyle. If there’s one thing I know about sisters, when it comes to the hair things, that’s a big, big, big deal with a lot of black women – my sister, my mom, my friends. (It’s more than) academic history. There’s a cultural understanding, embodied knowledge that goes above and beyond that.”

Ray said the debate of cultural appropriation is nothing new.

“We were having this discussion in the late ’80s and early ’90s,” Ray said. “It feels really old and really tired to be back in this place, talking about these kinds of issues, but they clearly haven’t been resolved.”

For Martell, the hairstyle reflects a rejection of mainstream values, a counter-cultural defiance of heterosexual norms that represents a personal journey.

“So much of my life has been about carrying this hair with me,” Martell said. “This is mine. This is who I am in the world.”

But the controversy has her contemplating a trim.

“I’ve thought long and hard about, well, should I cut my hair off?” Martell said. “Would that matter? Would it make the world a better place? No. I don’t think it would.

I think speaking out makes the world a better place – being honest and inviting discussion.”

Wednesday, April 6, 2016 goldengatexpress.org

LIFESTYLE & CULTURE

ALEX KOFMAN / XPRESS

Theatre arts students Desiree Juanes (left), Roni Espinoza (middle) and Sara Witsch (right) portraying rehearse for a play called “COMM 150,” the second phase of SF State’s annual “Fringe” event featuring plays written and directed by SF State theatre arts students Monday.

Student talent takes center stage in one-act Fringe series JEREMY PORR

O

jporr@mail.sfsu.edu

ver the course of the past year, theatre arts major Jennifer Marte has been up late laboriously writing about rape, relationships, mental health and selfworth to prepare for her short play “Comm 150.” The show premiered Tuesday, April 5, at 7 p.m. in Room 104 of the Creative Arts Building.

ALEX KOFMAN / XPRESS

Desiree Juanes, an SF State student portraying a character named “Ashley” in the play “COMM 150,” part of the second phase of “Fringe,” practices her scene with other theatre students during a rehearsal Monday.

“Comm 150” is centered around five SF State students enrolled in a communications course. Throughout the show, students receive writing assignments that remind them of painful past experiences.

“I wrote this play because I wanted to explore the fascinating reality that, though there is no one untouched by tragedy, we seem to forget that we are not the only ones dealing with hardship,” Marte said.

“Everybody you will ever meet or have ever met has known pain. We all have stories we’d rather not tell.”

The play is one of several taking place as part of this semester’s Fringe series, an event put on by the theatre arts department that features a series of one-act plays written and directed by students.

“Everything you see when you go to The Fringe is done by the students at SF State – that’s a huge testament to how much talent is on this campus,” Marte said.

“Comm 150” director and senior theatre arts major Elyssa Mersdorf is a longtime friend of Marte. According to Mersdorf, she initially agreed to direct the show because she admires Marte’s uncanny ability to write dialogue that feels relatable.

“Her characters speak and act like real people,” Mersdorf said. “This play makes you laugh and then unexpectedly cry.”

Senior theatre arts major Sara Witsch plays the sweet-yet-slightly-neurotic Willa, who has the strange habit of stress-eating fruit in order to alleviate her anxiety.

According to Witsch, working with both Marte and Mersdorf has been an incredibly collaborative process. “(Jennifer) and I can bounce ideas off each other, and when I talk about the smallest details for hours, she understands how important every little detail can be,” Witsch said. “Working with Elyssa is inspiring. Working with her is like a conversation – we both have the opportunity to share ideas and can work off each other.”

Junior theatre arts major Desiree Juanes plays Ashley, a short tempered yet flirty

ALEX KOFMAN / XPRESS

SF State students Donny Goglio (left) portraying and Roni Espinoza (right) rehearse a scene Monday.

freshman who struggles with helping her classmates complete a paper about sexual violence.

“Jennifer has written such a beautiful show and is also very open-minded,” Juanes said. “I am honored to be a part of this brilliant piece of writing.”

Mersdorf took special care to note that she has acted alongside Marte in multiple

small-scale productions over the course of the past three semesters.

“Jen and I have been friends since we acted together in a Greenhouse staged reading last year,” Mersdorf said. “In that play, we were sisters – we still are sisters, really.”

“Comm 150” plays every night through Friday.

Wednesday, April 6, 2016 goldengatexpress.org

OPINION STAFF EDITORIAL

oldaetne Racist rhetoric deepens divide O GGX

XPRESS

DARCY FRACOLLI

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF dfracoll@mail.sfsu.edu

REID CAMMACK

MANAGING EDITOR reidcamm@mail.sfsu.edu

EVA RODRIGUEZ

ART DIRECTOR erodrig2@mail.sfsu.edu

JARED JAVIER

ASSISTANT ART DIRECTOR jjavier@mail.sfsu.edu

BRIAN CHURCHWELL

PHOTO EDITOR bchurchw@mail.sfsu.edu

JOEY REAMS

NEWS EDITOR reams94@mail.sfsu.edu

MIRANDA BOLAR

ASSISTANT NEWS EDITOR mbolar@mail.sfsu.edu

ASHLEY BOWEN

LIFESTYLE & CULTURE EDITOR anbowen@mail.sfsu.edu

JESSICA NEMIRE

OPINION EDITOR jdn@mail.sfsu.edu

TYLER LEHMAN

SPORTS EDITOR tlehman@mail.sfsu.edu

CHRIS DEJOHN

COPY EDITOR cdejohn@mail.sfsu.edu

ver the past few weeks, Xpress’ coverage of both the College of Ethnic Studies funding controversy and the viral dreadlocks video has drawn a particularly nasty breed of Internet denizen out of the woodwork and made it very clear that the type of education provided by the College is fundamental to racial discourse in the U.S. The racist, misogynist vitriol employed by these commenters is frankly shocking.

This is a topic about which much has been written and much more could and should be, but a 500-word staff editorial is nowhere near enough space to begin addressing the far-reaching implications of white privilege, cultural appropriation and the socioeconomic rifts along racial lines in America. What we can do, however, is address the violent, personal, bigoted rhetoric that has inflamed the conversation.

However wrong Tindle’s actions in the video appear to be, it is important to remember no one deserves to have their personal information exposed over a 45-second clip. The video begins at the end of Tindle and Goldstein’s interaction, and provides no context for their argument. Tindle, who deleted her social media accounts shortly after the video went viral, has not publicly commented or shared her side of the story.

Free speech is a fundamental belief in our country, and people have the right to express their opinions online. However, the majority of comments that have emerged in the wake of this video are angry, personal attacks aimed not only toward the people in the video, but to those who have any connection in the incident and its coverage.

The editor-in-chief of Xpress magazine has received several harassing Facebook messages in the wake of the Golden Gate

Xpress newspaper’s articles about the viral video, despite having nothing to do with the coverage. Additionally, the Golden Gate Xpress reporter who interviewed Goldstein on camera was also personally targeted by numerous commenters on the Internet who used obscene and hurtful language to voice their complaints.

There are important racial issues surrounding this video, and resorting to intentionally hateful speech eliminates the possibility of a legitimate and meaningful conversation.

Comments have described College of Ethnic Studies classes as useless, but the bigotry and racial epithets these events have elicited are exactly the type of thing those courses are intended to prevent. Educating people about the systemic racism that still pervades this country, and the way it influences people’s actions on both sides of the aisle, is the only way to meaningfully

engage in this debate.

If people express their opinions in a respectful manner, they would provide a more compelling argument for their own point of view and discourage others from immediately deploying personal attacks that are hugely damaging to the people in the line of fire. Time and time again, we have seen people’s lives ruined over their involvement in viral controversies.

We cannot begin to address the deep roots of this problem if we continue to converse with physical violence and verbal threats.

DARCY FRACOLLI Editor-in-Chief

GRADY PENNA

Social Media Editor/ Online Editor

Misogyny in our society nearly kills R&B artist Kehlani

JOCELYN CARRANZA

MULTIMEDIA EDITOR jcarranz@mail.sfsu.edu

KELSEY LANNIN

ASSISTANT MULTIMEDIA EDITOR klannin@mail.sfsu.edu

GRADY PENNA

SOCIAL MEDIA/ONLINE EDITOR gpenna@mail.sfsu.edu

RACHELE KANIGEL PRINT ADVISER kanigel@sfsu.edu

JESSE GARNIER

FACULTY ADVISER jgarnier@sfsu.edu

KEN KOBRE

PHOTO ADVISER kkobre@sfsu.edu

EVA CHARLES

ADVERTISING & BUSINESS echarles@sfsu.edu

ARUN UNNIKRISHNAN

ILLUSTRATION BY KELSEY LANNIN

I.T. CONSULTANT arun@mail.sfsu.edu

SAMANTHA LOPEZ CIRCULATION

AMANDA ARAGONA

aaragona@mail.sfsu.edu

EVA RODRIGUEZ

STUDENT GRAPHIC DESIGNER ggxads@sfsu.edu

WRITE US A LETTER The Golden Gate Xpress accepts letters no longer than 200 words.

Letters are subject to editing.

Send letters to Jessica Nemire at: jdn@mail.sfsu.edu

ABOUT XPRESS The Golden Gate Xpress is a student-produced publication of the journalism department at San Francisco State University.

For more information or comments, please contact Darcy Fracolli at: dfracoll@mail.sfsu.edu

Celebrity news has seen yet another case of slut-shaming and double standards this past week.

R&B singer Kehlani was accused of cheating on her boyfriend Kyrie Irving with her ex, Canadian singer and rapper PartyNextDoor, after PND posted a photo on Instagram of him holding her hand in bed. Even though the picture was only up for a few minutes, the Internet went up in flames, calling Kehlani names such as “whore” and “ho,” leading to a suicide attempt by Kehlani later that night.

I had a very frustrating conversation regarding Kehlani’s story with a male colleague. His response to a young woman attempting suicide after being slut-shamed was, “She’s not even that cute.” A person tries to take their own life, a person is ridiculed all over the internet for something she didn’t even do, and all that matters is her appearance.

The main issue here isn’t whether or not Kehlani cheated (and she stated that she had already broken up with Irving in a later post on Instagram). The issue here is that time after

time again, if a woman cheats she gets labeled a whore. When a man cheats, he gets to brag and high-five his friends.

This is what society has ingrained in our brains: It’s okay for men to sleep around because they can’t control their urges, but if women sleep around they should learn how to close their legs and stop being sluts.

Last week, a video was posted in which Iggy Azalea’s fiancé, Laker Nick Young, admitted to cheating on her. The video was taken by his teammate D’Angelo Russell.

Instead of the internet getting on Young for cheating and bragging about it to his friends, Russell was blamed for snitching. Fans at the Lakers game that evening were booing Russell, not Young.

This is one example of how a man can get away with cheating, but a woman receives so much flack and ridicule that she doesn’t even want to live to see another day.

Kehlani is a 20-year-old girl. She would only be a junior in college right now, and I think most of us can agree we were still figuring out who we were at that age, and what love really was. Kehlani stated that she was devastated after she and PND broke up, and she started a relationship with Irving, one of her best friends, until she realized she was madly in

love with her first love, PND. I’ve been 20 years old, in love with two people, sleeping with both, and feeling so lost and confused as to what to do. Dealing internally with such strong emotions is hard enough, but it’s even harder to hear the whispers of your friends and colleagues calling you a slut. Boys at that age are taught college is their time to sleep around with as many people as possible, but as women, we cannot have the same option without being scrutinized.

People have a right to change their minds and handle their relationships in private without being scrutinized on social media by people jumping to conclusions and stuck with these ideals that women cannot be sexual, and have to date one person their whole lives.

Somehow PND gets to go without any blame in the situation for posting the picture in the first place with the misleading caption, “After all her shenanigans, still got the R&B singer back in my bed.” The language used paints Kehlani in a light where she sounds “slutty,” and is airing the fact that they just had sex all over social media. Everything falls on Kehlani, because she is the woman and therefore, easier to blame.

Wednesday, April 6, 2016 goldengatexpress.org

OPINION

Trans people need more than one day of visibility

ILLUSTRATION BY JARED JAVIER

JORDAN VAIL

jmv@mail.sfsu.edu

M

arch 31 is Transgender Day of Visibility. If you weren’t aware, or didn’t even know that such a day existed, that’s understandable. It’s typical for trans people to be invisible, at least until we are brutally murdered for simply existing. It then becomes a grotesque kind of hyper-visibility that makes a spectacle of our deaths and puts our bodies on display without care or consent.

Consequently, it makes

sense that the only other day for trans people is Transgender Day of Remembrance, which memorializes and mourns the loss of trans people to transphobic violence and hate crimes, and highlights the continued violence and hatred endured by the trans community.

It’s a heavy, painful day, especially for trans people.

I never even entertained the possibility of coming out until I found out about Transgender Day of Visibility. Before, all I had was a day about trans people being killed. All it inspired in me was fear.

While it is important to reflect on the rampant transphobia that exists in this day and age, the fact of the

matter is that trans people will never be in danger of forgetting the threat that comes with being themselves. We can never forget the names and faces of those we lost. We can never forget that just last year showed the highest number of recorded murders of trans people. We can never forget the risk that comes with being out. We can never forget that we’re not safe, that we’ll never be safe, because that is the dominant narrative pushed upon us. That all we’re worth is remembrance when we’re gone.

I don’t want to say that everything changed when I found out about Transgender Day of Visibility back in 2014. I didn’t come out that year, or the year after that. This year, well,

I’m trying. I’m writing this piece after all. I’m already out to my boyfriend, which was a huge step, and I’m going to make an effort to tell my close friends.

I’m still afraid, of course.

Sometimes I think I’ll be afraid forever. But that fear lessens just a little bit after I see face after smiling face accompanied by these defiant words: Yes, I’m trans. Yes, I’m genderqueer.

Yes, I’m non-binary. Yes, I’m agender. Yes, I’m genderfluid.

Transgender Day of Visibility is transformative. It gave us the power to come out and celebrate who we are. It gave us the agency to reject the fear that dominates our lives and controls us. It gave us the opportunity to inspire hope in trans and non-

binary teens who feel scared and alone. It gave us a reason to be proud of who we are, right now, in this moment.

Pride, I think, is the biggest tool the trans community has. I want so badly for trans people to be proud of their identities and proud of their bodies. I want to be proud of my identity and proud of my body. I want that pride to fuel us, to empower us, to declare our presence and demand more than what has been given to us. Transgender Day of Visibility isn’t a magic wand that will erase all transphobia in the world, but it is a vital step towards trans liberation. That is something worth remembering.

Adoption jokes are nothing to laugh at JEREMY PORR

jporr@mail.sfsu.edu

Nothing gets under my skin more than an adoption joke. I was adopted at the ripe young age of 5 months old. Fortunately, I was afforded the immense privilege of leaving the foster care system early. My parents never sat me down and had a “talk” with me about how I was adopted, instead I grew up reading books about “alternative” families, and my parents always remained open to my questions. I didn’t have some sort of identity crisis before the age of 10. In fact, to this day I am still a fully functional human being.

Adoption is most often referenced in a derogatory manner or used as a punchline. This only alienates adoptees and marks them as a target for derision based on society’s agreed-upon trope that to be adopted is somehow equal to being unwanted. Jokes about adoptees aim to essentially strip them of their personhood. Telling an adopted person they are somehow illegitimate or “less than” because they don’t know their “real” family is

disgusting and shameful.

Whenever I see my fellow peers joke with one another about which one of their siblings is “adopted,” my heart sinks to my stomach. Usually the joke is made because the person in question is considered so different from the rest of their family there is no way they could possibly be related.

It feels as though adoptees are completely forgotten in the college setting. When I first arrived on campus, I was overwhelmed by the amount of student organizations available to me. Nowhere though, did I see a space solely carved out for adoptees or children that grew up in the foster care system. This kind of omission is present at a state-wide level as well. According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, there is no single source that provides an official count of how many children are adopted in the U.S. each year. A report published in 2008 placed the number around 130,000.

Despite having a family to call my own, it’s true that I sometimes still feel as though something is missing.

That “missing” something could be attributed to the fact that I’m just another angsty millennial in my early 20s, it

could be attributed to feeling so bogged down with work that I long for an occasional change of pace, or it could be attributed to my identity as an adoptee. It doesn’t really matter what that “missing” something is, because at the end of the day we’re all searching for something more, despite life’s circumstances.

Yet, that’s one of the core issues with how people view adoptees, that they will forever go through life searching for that “missing” piece. Maybe that’s true, but it doesn’t mean adoptees are incomplete people, and it doesn’t mean adoptees should be pitied because they’ll never know their “real” families. I don’t know about the rest of the adoptee community, and I can’t speak for all of them, but I definitely don’t need your pity.

My parents are my parents – period. I wouldn’t trade them for the world. I don’t have “real” parents and “adoptive” parents. My birth-mother provided me with life. My parents made me into the person I am today. My parents are the ones who changed my diapers, fed me, provided me with a home and a bed to sleep on – they’ve been with me every step of the way. Family is about a lot more than blood.

Wednesday, April 6, 2016 goldengatexpress.org

SPORTS

ALEAH FAJARDO / XPRESS

SF State track and field hurdler Tamiyah Thomas (3) runs in the women’s 200m during the ninth-annual Distance Carnival hosted

by SF State at Cox Stadium Saturday.

Gator shatters steeplechase record for second time during Distance Carnival CHRIS DEJOHN

cdejohn@mail.sfsu.edu

S ALEAH FAJARDO / XPRESS

SF State track and field sprinter Alesia Francis gets on her mark in the blocks during the ninth-annual Distance Carnival hosted by SF State at Cox Stadium Saturday.

RYAN ZARAGOZA / XPRESS

SF State track and field sprinter Jazmine Tyler (middle) runs in the women’s 200 meter during the ninth-annual Distance Carnival hosted by SF State at Cox Stadium Saturday.

upersonic sophomore civil engineering major Adriana Calva shattered school speed records once again at Cox Stadium during the ninth annual SF State Distance Carnival Friday, April 1.

After recently destroying Joanna Luk’s previous overall SF State women’s 3,000-meter steeplechase record – held since 2003 – by more than 11 seconds during February’s Johnny Mathis Invitational, Calva crushed her own 2016 school record on Friday by more than 12 seconds, setting the new all-time best at 10 minutes, 57.35 seconds.

“It felt good to go under 11 (minutes) for the first time,” Calva said. “I think running with the front pack helped really push me. I think overall, for distance, we did really well. A lot of girls in the fifteenhundred ran (personal records).”

SF State junior Jessica Betancourt not only demolished her personal 3,000-meter steeplechase record by more than 45 seconds, she also landed herself SF State’s fourth-best time in school history by one second. The speedy recreation, parks and tourism major finished the event with an 11:25.21 time.

“I got a season’s best, which is pretty exciting,” Betancourt said.

“Everybody kind of set the tone in the fifteen-hundreds. Basically every girl PR’d right before us, so it definitely amped us up.”

Fast freshman Kendra Butters hit a personal best for the season in the women’s 800-meter run. Butters finished in a swift 2:25.91, three seconds faster than her previous record.

“I PR’d for this season, which is really exciting, so I’m super happy about that,” Butters said.

“My team did really well today, I’m

so proud of all of them. I think we have a really good bond with each other right now. We all want each other to win just as badly as we do individually – it’s really a cool thing.”

Men’s cross country head coach Tom Lyons, who helps coach distance runners for women’s track and field, is the director of the two-day event. According to the SF State website, Lyons originally started the SF State Distance Carnival in Spring 2009 so “athletes from around the country could enjoy a fantastic day of distance racing.” The meet was so successful it enjoyed a 50 percent entrant increase only a year later in 2010, according to the SF State website.

Lyons said somewhere around 1,700 athletes competed at the event this year.

“It’s an aggressive time schedule because we’re going to run out of daylight.” Lyons said.

“It’s gotten a lot bigger. We’re probably an hour longer than last year just because we have about 200 more athletes. So it’s growing every year.”

Lyons even had a members of the men’s team run Friday. Men’s cross country meets are usually reserved for the fall, but that didn’t slow down junior Benji Preciado, who ran the men’s 10,000-meter in 31 minutes, beating his own personal best.

“I did well,” Preciado said. “I ran 31 flat, which is a minute and 20 second PR for me on the track from last year – last mile to go I just gave it all I had. I look forward to cross country season in the fall. I’m just training and training and training, … trying to go AllAmerican.”

SF State took home first place in the hammer throw Saturday behind the arm of Nicole Uikilifi. She set a mark of 52.06 meters, the fourthlongest throw in school history.

Wednesday, April 6, 2016 goldengatexpress.org

SPORTS

Softball and baseball teams catapult themselves up conference standings Softball

baseball TYLER LEHMAN

tlehman@mail.sfsu.edu

The baseball team has been on a tear as of late, winning six of their last seven conference matchups. The Gators’ recent string of success is largely due to their bats. SF State has scored eight runs or more in five of their last seven games.

Seven Gators are batting over .280 for the year, led by Myles Franklin, who’s batting a ridiculous .415, with a teamleading 17 RBIs. Chris Nicholson’s bat has also been on fire for the Gators. He was named CCAA player of the week this past week after hitting three home runs and four doubles in his past four games, to go along with an even .500 average.

It’s been a resurgent season for the SF State softball team, as they sit near the top of the CCAA standings with a 22-15 record. The Gators have won their last eight conference games behind great pitching and solid defense. Pitcher Megan Clark holds a microscopic 2.21 ERA, to go with 10 wins. Lindsey Cassidy and Jenny Obbema have also

been stellar so far this year, with a 2.79 and 3.27 ERA respectively.

Not to be outdone by the pitchers, the Gators’ batters have been a big part of the team’s revival. Kayli Shaw and Chelsea Brent are leading the way with 15 RBIs apiece, and Gabby Reta leads the team with a sterling .404 batting average.

QING HUANG / XPRESS

ALEX KOFMAN / XPRESS

SF State Gators infielder Kayli Shaw (2) slides into second base against the Cal State Stanislaus Warriors during a doubleheader at the SFSU softball field Saturday, March 19.

SF State Gators infielder Bryce Brooks (39) throws to home plate after tagging out a base runner from the Monterey Bay Otters Saturday, March 19.

2 0 1 6 S o f t b a l l S ta n d i n g s

2 0 1 6 b a s e b a l l S ta n d i n g s

south Division

North Division

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chico State 12-6 22-8 L2

humboldt state 20-2 31-3-1 w6

Sonoma State 10-6 12-14 w1

San francisco State 16-8 22-15 w2

CSU monterey bay 11-7 22-8 w1

chico State 17-9 26-10 w8

San francisco State 9-9 15-13 w1

Sonoma State 14-9 22-14 L1

CSU east bay 8-10 17-12 w1

uc san diego 15-11 25-15 w4

stanislaus State 8-11 16-14 w1

stanislaus State 13-13 21-18 W1

csu pomona 13-7 21-10 L1

csu san bernadino 13-15 22-21 W3

uc san diego 12-10 22-12 l1

CSU monterey bay 10-13 21-15 W8

csu san bernadino 10-10 15-17 l1

CSU east bay 8-14 13-21 L3

csu Dominguez hills 8-12 14-16 L1

csu Dominguez hills 6-22 13-28 W4

csu san marcos 8-14 16-18 w1

csu san marcos 5-21 8-28 l1

csu los angeles 6-13 7-23 l1