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Warriors celebrate in Oakland SEE FEATURES PAGE 3
EAST BAY ARRIVES AT WHITE HOUSE
SEE FEATURES PAGE 5
A FAREWELL TO CHRISTOPHER LEE
SEE NEWS PAGE 6
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NBA championship festivities overshadow relocation to San Francisco By Louis LaVenture SPORTS AND CAMPUS EDITOR The Golden State Warriors returned home to Oakland on Friday and celebrated their first NBA championship in 40 years with the city and their fans. City officials said more than one million people descended on Downtown Oakland to participate in the festivities that included a parade and a rally where the players spoke to the crowd. “Hopefully this isn’t a one time thing,” Stephen Curry said to the crowd. “We want to do this every year.” Many fans in attendance acknowledged how special this day was, but the lingering relocation of their beloved “Dubs” was on many of their minds. “Great, we finally win one and then we move to San Fran?” Warriors fan Augustine Ramos said at the rally. “All my life I have been waiting for my hometown team to win a ship. We finally get a star MVP player and a ship and now they’re gonna take it from us.” Fans like Ramos are in fear of losing their Oakland franchise to the Mission Bay neighborhood of San Francisco, which is the reported site of their new arena. The new building is being privately funded on private land and is expected to be open for the 2018-2019 season, according to the NBA. While Oakland celebrated, lawmakers in Sacramento on Friday made the new San Francisco arena deal a lot easier to finalize when they included an environmental law exemption for the planned Warriors stadium at San Francisco’s Mission Bay in the state budget proposal unveiled last week. The new development requires an environmental impact report detailing
what wildlife and animals will be displaced by construction and the plans to rectify displacement, which will be waived for one year due to the new law exemption. The Mission Bay Alliance is one of the main opponents of the proposed Warriors event center and according to them “The proposed stadium will have a disastrous impact on the health and welfare of thousands of patients and families.” They also stated the new arena would block access to medical services, make parking difficult and cause traffic around the area to hit a complete halt during the 225 events that are planned each year in addition to sports events. The new arena is located near several hospitals, including those specific for women, children, cancer and cardiology. There is a public hearing regarding the San Francisco arena plan on June 30 at City Hall and public input is being listened to at the meetings until July 20. With the move to San Francisco seeming more likely fans will just have to appreciate Oracle Arena for the few seasons it has left. Oracle has become known as one of the loudest and hardest places to play in the league. It has been nicknamed “Roaracle” for the decibel level the fans reach and this season the Warriors were 39-2 at home in the regular season this year. “Hands down this is the best place to play in the league,” Warriors fan and parade attendee John Simon said. “Moving could make all of that different. The crowd isn’t going to be the same and that’s a huge factor when it comes to home-court advantage.”
SEE NEWS PAGE 4
LAYOUT DESIGNER The creation of different graduation commencement ceremonies may seem like a step backwards in social justice, but it can be seen as a large step forward as well. In the last issue of The Pioneer, the article “Grad ceremonies should be combined” was printed about having multiple commencements demonstrates that we still segregate ourselves despite decades of change. CSUEB recently had five commencement ceremonies, all of which celebrated the academic achievement of different minority groups. In generations past, the numbers of those minorities graduating were so few that they were negligible. To have so many different minority students graduating that CSUEB can create individual commencement ceremonies is a testament to the university’s ethnic and cultural diversity. Many of the students have come from a place where they were aware of the stigmas held against them and the adversities that they would have to overcome to reach this level of academic success. These stigmas include, but are not limited to, the belief that certain minorities cannot make it to college without being really good at sports and you have to work harder to get into college because you are not white. As a minority scheduled to graduate in the next year, I find it difficult to recall a single moment when gender and skin color did not coincide with success, because society has still refused to acknowledge ethnicity as only a combination of genetic inheritance, cultural
background and pigmentation of skin. If social justice is put into perspective, no one should get more points for being one ethnicity, nationality, gender, sexual preference, lifestyle choice, or geological location, but it happens on a daily basis anyway. There is no such thing as quietly breaking glass ceilings. When glass is broken it makes a loud noise and can start uproar. When barriers are broken they do not go unnoticed, and they often bring concerns about the change to the surface. In terms of the separate ceremonies inclusivity, although they are separate, any race or gender can attend. Segregation and exclusion are terrible machinations of so-
ciety that should not be embraced. However, the commencement ceremonies do not forbid individuals from participating. Rather it is an individual’s personal belief of who they believe they are and what they identify as that discourages them from participating in a ceremony that is representative of a population that they do not identify with. The demographics of East Bay are so diverse. Someone within the student population represents almost any culture that you can think of. Each culture is unique from the next, with no culture being identical. With that said different cultures may celebrate differently from each other. By embracing multiple commencement ceremonies a student is allowed to choose whichever they feel most comfortable or most familiar with. In that regard it is not segregation but a choice to be
Summer 2015 Issue 1
Families forgive Charleston shooter By Shannon Stroud EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
PHOTO BY TAM DUONG JR./THE PIONEER
PHOTO BY BRYAN CORDOVA/THE PIONEER
Top: Golden State Warriors fans lined the streets of Oakland on Friday during the championship parade. Bottom: NBA MVP Stephen Curry (right) and his wife Ayesha Curry leave the stage following the rally on Friday in Oakland.
Diversity proves useful for grad ceremonies By Mario Bohanon
THURSDAY JUNE 25, 2015
apart of what feels right, just like a person would do when choosing a club or organization to join. If you take out all the minority debates, culture, diversity issues, and social justice aspects, the fact remains that having additional graduation commencement ceremonies allows for more families and friends to watch and celebrate completing an important milestone. In this year’s graduation, each student was given only five graduation tickets. If you have many family members or important people in your life to share graduation with five is most likely not enough. But they could go to a different commencement ceremony, which is ideally different but important to you all the same, because it represents the same thing. There is no social justice more important than having the right to choose your own path and make your own decisions. As far as I can see, having multiple commencement ceremonies to choose from helps East Bay achieve that right.
GRAPHIC BY TAM DUONG JR./THE PIONEER
On the evening of June 17, a mass shooting took place at Emmanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in downtown Charleston, South Carolina. Nine people were killed and a tenth person was shot and injured. Dyalnn Roof, 21, was arrested the following Thursday, where he confessed to the authorities that he committed the mass murder at the church in South Carolina. According to The Huffington Post, Friday morning Roof was charged with nine counts of homicide and possession of a firearm during commission of a violent event. What happened in Charleston has been called a hate crime. According to CNN, when Roof was asked why he committed these crimes he responded, “to start a race war.” All too often mass shootings headline newspapers and each time our nation is shaken. Families mourn, citizens become outraged, communities protest, and government officials scramble to pick up the pieces, yet nothing changes. One thing that as a nation we can do to change is to take note from the families of the nine victims. Friday afternoon five relatives from different victim’s families appeared at Roof’s hearing, where they shared different messages with him, each conveying the same thing: that they forgive him. “I forgive you,” Nadine Collier, the daughter of 70-year-old Ethel Lance, said at the hearing. “You took something very precious from me. I will never talk to her again. I will never, ever hold her again. But I forgive you. And have mercy on your soul.” These families have come together to do something that we as a nation don’t see often, instead of responding to these hateful crimes with more hate, they went above and beyond to respond with love. “Although my grandfather and the other victims died at the hands of hate, this is proof, everyone’s plea for your soul, is proof that they lived in love and their legacies will live in love,” said Wanda Simmons, granddaughter of Daniel Simmons at the hearing. “So hate won’t win. And I just want to thank the court for making sure that hate doesn’t win.” To the families of Cynthia Hurd, 54; Susie Jackson, 87; Ethel Lance, 70; Reverend Depayne Middleton-Doctor, 49; Honorary Reverend Clementa Pinckney, 41; Tywanza Zanders, 26; Reverend Daniel Simmons Senior, 74; Reverend Sharonda Singleton, 45; and Myra Thompson, 59; thank you for reminding the nation that in tragedy there is still light.
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PHOTO BY TAM DUONG JR./THE PIONEER
2 OPINION
THURSDAY JUNE 25, 2015
THE PIONEER
Raised with the Pokémon franchise What can be learned from a video game By Kern Wallace CONTRIBUTOR
In less than a year’s time, the Pokémon franchise will celebrate its 20th anniversary. It is currently the second best-selling video game series of all time, just behind the Super Mario Bros., a series with more than 10 years of a head start. Pokémon may still be pretty big nowadays, but it’s difficult to overstate the sheer prevalence of Pokémon in the late 90s and early 2000s. Back then it was visible everywhere. The core concept of Pokémon is simple. You play as a child who lives in a world inhabited by strange creatures who are the eponymous Pokémon. At the beginning of the game, you set off on a journey, capturing and battling Pokémon along the way, with two goals. The first is to become the greatest Pokémon trainer in your region, by battling every trainer you come across. The second is to collect every Pokémon in existence in order to record them in the Pokédex, a sort of Pokémon encyclopedia. In February 1996, Pokémon Red and Green versions were
released in Japan. Its success seemed unlikely. It was a buggy game with bad sprite art developed for an aging system and utilized an accessory, the Game Link cable, which almost no other game else used. At first it seemed doomed to failure and obscurity, with middling initial sales in a market where 80 percent of sales are made within the first two weeks. Nintendo of Japan wrote the games off as a loss. Instead, it defied all expectations by selling at a steady pace. In 1999, when I was a young child, I won a prize in school for a minor competition. The prize I received was a card, blue in color with strange symbols on it and a picture of a small, light-blue turtle-like creature blowing bubbles into the air. The top of the card proclaimed its name: Squirtle. At 6 years old, I was not fully aware of the context of this card, but it interested me enough that I knew that I wanted more. l went deep into the trading card game, collecting, trading, and battling with the cards, things I continue to do even to this day. Within a year of my introduction
to Pokémon, I found out that there was a TV show and I took many trips to the local video rental store to rent tapes, trying to assemble the chronology of the story in my head, because watching the episodes in order was nearly impossible because the tapes were constantly checked out. On Christmas Day 2000, I walked down the stairs and found a Game Boy Color next to a copy of Pokémon Gold in the middle of the floor near the tree. My absorption into the world of Pokémon was complete. A lot of my firsts came from Pokémon. It was my first trading card game, my first anime, my first video game, and my first fandom. My first and longest lasting friendship is partially fueled by our love of Pokémon. I’ve never been one to make friends easily, but when the world of Pokémon opened up to me, it became a bridge that connected me to people I never would have bonded with other-
wise. It became a common language shared between my peers and me. Pokémon can teach children lessons, just like it did to me. One lesson is that death is not something to be taken lightly. Unlike in some other games, when an opponent in the game defeats a Pokémon they are not killed, they are knocked out. This was a deliberate choice on the part of the series’ creator, Satoshi Tajiri, who didn’t want the children who played his games to have a cavalier attitude towards killing and death. Another lesson is that while some competition is healthy, being obsessed with winning and being strong isn’t. After twenty years, Pokémon has become pretty firmly entrenched in our culture. It may no longer be as huge as it was in its heyday, but it is still strong. While I have other interests that have grown on me over the years, I will always have a special fondness for Pokémon and the ways it has influenced my life.
EDITORIAL STAFF EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
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FEATURES 3
THURSDAY JUNE 25, 2015
THE PIONEER
East Bay reaches the White House CSUEB graduate interns in Nation’s Capitol
By Louis LaVenture SPORTS AND CAMPUS EDITOR Most people in a position of power in Washington D.C. don’t come from Fremont. However an East Bay native is trying to change that in a hurry. California State University, East Bay 2014 graduate Erin McDonough recently wrapped up her internship within the Executive Office of the President of the United States Barack Obama. McDonough worked as an intern in the Department of Public Engagement and Intergovernmental Affairs during her five-month tenure, which began in January and ended in May. According to the White House website the department is responsible for organizing dialogue and events where public groups and citizens are able to voice their issues and concerns to
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the President. The position required a lengthy application process and only about 450 applicants are chosen to participate in just three intern semesters offered each year. The Mission San Jose High School
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alumna and Ohlone College transfer student volunteered for the Obama presidential campaign locally in 2008 and 2012. The experience led to her applying for the internship. “I really didn’t feel like I was ready or had the necessary experience to be selected,” McDonough said. “In 2012, when I worked on the campaign, I showed people I was especially motivated and would do what I needed in order to get [Obama] elected.” That experience paid off for her and in one of the two essays that were required to apply, which had to do with “civic duty leadership and what you have
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done for your community.” McDonough argued that the long volunteer hours she logged and the outreach to potential voters from the area in addition to attending school gave her the work ethic she needed for the internship. During her time in D.C. she worked under Valerie Jarrett, a Senior Advisor and Assistant to Obama. Jarrett is also the Vice Chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee. “Working for her was priceless,” McDonough said. “Her department is very important in terms of community outreach. From their front doors to the White House, it is all about connecting with the American people and bringing them in.” Some of her internship duties included daily scheduling, updating her briefing book, staffing White House events, day-to-day handling of events and meetings as well as secondary office duties for Jarrett. Initially, McDonough was intimidated by the position because she felt there would be a lot of Ivy League ap-
plicants. Coming from a state school, she had counted herself out. However, once she arrived she realized that your school has little to do with who is selected. “I met people from other state schools, veterans and even people from community colleges,” McDonough said. “Passion and drive don’t come from money or a prestigious school. This experience changed who I am and what I believe so much, that I recommend everybody apply for the internship.” McDonough said that before this experience she would have never considered a career in politics but it changed her opinion. “After seeing what we do and how much of a difference you can make for people, I would definitely be interested in a career in politics not just federally but possibly locally as well,” McDonough said. McDonough said she just finished a jury duty commitment and would like to travel before she begins to apply for jobs. She has not yet decided if her career path and goals will take her into the world of politics.
4 NEWS
THURSDAY JUNE 25, 2015
THE PIONEER
From Page 1
Warriors
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PHOTOS BY TAM DUONG JR./THE PIONEER
Golden State Warriors fans descend on Downtown Oakland on Friday for the championship parade. This is the first NBA title for the Warriors since 1975 and their fourth overall.
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FEATURES 5
THURSDAY JUNE 25, 2015
THE PIONEER
The man of metal skills By Bryan Cordova MANAGING EDITOR
Wizard, Jedi, writer, metal singer, Christopher Lee was a man who wore many hats. Lee, most popularly known as Saruman from the “Lord of the Rings,” films passed away June 7. While the world of mainstream entertainment mourns the loss of a man whose career spanned seven decades, very few may know about the metal career he had. Lee had an operatic bass voice, which can be heard in his performance in the musical “The Return of Captain Invincible.” In his debut metal performance “The Magic of the Wizard’s Dream” re-
leased in 2005, he played with the symphonic power metal band Rhapsody of Fire. He continued to narrate and sing on their next four albums. Along with Rhapsody of Fire, Lee performed as the narrator of the song “Dark Avenger” in Manowar’s 2010 album “Battle Hymns.” The album was a re-recording of their 1982 album of the same name, but with Lee and the original drummer Donnie Hamzik on board. Along with his numerous collaborations, Lee pursued his own album, which was met with critical acclaim. His first solo album was released in 2010 titled “Charlemagne: By the Sword and Cross.” The album was awarded the “Spirit of Metal” award by the Metal Hammer Golden Gods, an award ceremony that recognized rock
and metal music by the magazine of the same name. After winning the award the 70-year-old Lee stated his album was a symphonic metal album, but was still largely metal. “I am a young man who is right at the beginning of his young career,” he concluded during his speech. Sir Christopher Lee was knighted in 2009 for his services to drama and charity. His fourth and final album was the sequel to “Charlemagne: By the Sword and Cross,” and was released in 2012 on his 90th birthday. That year, Forbes Magazine named him the oldest heavy metal performer in history. He passed away this year due to respiratory problems and heart failure. May he and his legendary voice rest in peace.
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6 NEWS
THURSDAY JUNE 25, 2015
THE PIONEER
ASI SEEKS QUALITY OVER QUANTITY A peek into Associated Students, Inc. event spending
GRAPHIC BY TAM DUONG JR./ THE PIONEER
By Derek Herbert CONTRIBUTOR Associated Students, Inc. is the most financially funded organization by students on the California State University, East Bay campus. The organization accrues the majority of its budget from student fees included with tuition and has an annual overall budget of approximately $1.7 million. Despite the budget cuts in its programming department, past events and changes have shown that a few tweaks will not keep ASI from being consistent and fair with financing programs for its students. Erik Pinlac was interim Executive Director of ASI since December, before taking on the position in June 2015. The board of directors set the direction of the organization while Pinlac and his staff execute the board’s vision and maintain any and every fiscal and legal responsibility. One major change that raised questions by students and staff was the public knowledge of ASI, the Recreation and Wellness Center, and The University Unions splitting in opposite di-
rections regarding whom manages what building and what student fee’s go where. According to Pinlac since July 1, 2014 ASI no longer managed the RAW or the University Union, both buildings now managed by the University. While attendees of the campus may fault this change as the reasoning behind its alleged ‘poor budgeting’ for events, ASI now has more time to truly pursue their mission, to enhance student success and experiences, including programing, advocacy, and leadership. “The programs budgets have doubled since last year,” says Pinlac. The overall budget from student fees is roughly $1.7 Million in student fees with the Raw and both University Unions having their own separate funds. ASI’s budget depends on the head-count of students that are enrolled at CSUEB. While ASI spends a portion of their budget on programming events, according to Pinlac without the financial responsibilities of the RAW and University Union ASI was able to redirect funds to student advocacy and programming events. “We did start fall quarter flat on programming,” said Pinlac. He attributed it to the resignation of the former Executive Director which
left staff and faculty members with an increase of responsibilities. Another large portion of the ASI budget goes the student board, the board of directors who travel to mandatory monthly meetings with CSU wide campuses and representative to discuss funding and issues. ASI has spent roughly around 23% on 20142015 events on California State University East Bay’s campus. The variety of different events this year have ranged from but not limited to Showtime at the Apollo, Comedy Show, Dr. Cornel West, and most recently Spring Mayhem (formerly known as Spring Fest). On Saturday, May 30th, 2015, Spring Mayhem reflected the months of the previous quarter’s planning and exceeded the expected turnout by ASI with a budget estimated around $130,000 for the event. The event had is estimated to have had 6,000 people in attendance, making it the biggest community event CSUEB hosted in its history. According to Pinlac ASI does not have a quantity requirement for events, and will be using this summer to prepare quality events for the upcoming 2015-2016 school year.
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8 FEATURES
THURSDAY JUNE 25, 2015
THE PIONEER
Bingo isn’t just for grandma anymore Rhythmix Cultural Works draws younger crowd By Brianne Kaleo CONTRIBUTOR The image of bingo is traditionally that of a big hall with bad lighting, a monotone ball caller and grandmas with 30 bingo cards fastened to a table with adhesive tape. Rhythmix Bingo has changed the old feel of bingo into an evening filled with music, dance, live entertainment, celebrity ball callers and a whole new perspective on the game. Since its invention in 1929, the game has changed to include prizes for a variety of different patterns. Some games require only one number to be matched, while blackout bingo requires covering an entire card. There are even games
that award prizes to players raiser for the last four years for matching no numbers or for Rhythmix to run its faachieving no pattern. cilities and provide different Besides these slight varievents for the community. ations, the bingo scene has “The people who just been the same for the past think they’re going to a bin15 years. Rhythmix Cultural go; the kind of bingo they Works, a community cultural want to go to which is more arts center in Alameda, has quiet and it’s just about the changed the game from an old game they usually don’t folk’s activity to a mini casino come back because there for the 18 and over crowd. are plenty of places where “I always start with a dethey can do that and that’s scription of what we do in this not what we do,” said Maar. PHOTO COURTESY OF RHYTHMIX CULTURAL WORKS “People are like ‘let’s have a way: ‘Would you be interested in coming to a party where Attendees sit at bingo tables at Rythmix in Alameda. good time!’ and I feel like my there’s a full bar, there’s music job is to keep that good time playing all night, there are dancing girls Rhythmix Cultural Works is a going no matter what else is going on.” on stage, where you can win prizes up to non-profit art center that started up in All performers and entertainers have $200…and oh by the way it’s a bingo,” an old, empty factory building refur- years of experience in show business insaid emcee and designer of Rhythmix bished into a place of fun for the Bay cluding the ball caller. Pons Maar was in Bingo Nights, Pons “Mr. Entertainment” Area community. show business for over 20 years doing Maar. “That’s why we call it Rhythmix Rhythmix Cultural Works founder, dance, film, and starring in movies and Bingo and not just bingo.” Janet Koike, has hosted bingo as a fund- television shows. “The last thing I ever
thought I’d be doing in my career was emceeing a bingo,” said Maar. People come dressed in costumes and can win cash prizes. Plush toys are showered over the audience as party favors known as the “onion top” of the night. “They just love it,” said Koike. “It’s a community builder and each one is sponsored by a different local business and they pay for the prizes and they become the centerpiece of the evening.” On June 11 an Italian Restaurant, C’era Una Volta, meaning “Once Upon A Time,” where the chef came by and dressed up like Clint Eastwood, sponsored a themed Wild West Bingo night. “One woman said it was like a mini vacation and another guy said it was like an acid trip,” said Koike. The next Rhythmix Bingo is Aug. 13, with the theme of Rock and Roll. The event starts at 7:30 p.m. and tickets are on sale now for $25 online.
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