Spartan Daily Vol. 160 No. 10

SJSU talks violence prevention

By Mat Bejarano STAFF WRITER

After Monday’s mass shooting at Michigan State University, San Jose State faculty members reflect on their feelings and emotions regarding if a shooting were to happen on campus.

Justice studies assistant professor Shawna Bolton said she hopes to see an improvement in active shooter training. She said she wants staff and students to both be aware of what to do, who to call and what exits to take in an active shooter situation.

“If push comes to shove the only plan that I have is to tie a whole bunch of lab coats together and try to get my students out of the window somehow, so that they can get to safety as quick as possible,” Bolton said.

On Monday, 43-year-old Anthony Dwayne McRae opened fire on Michigan State’s campus, killing three students and injuring five.

According to the Gun Violence Archive, a mass shooting is defined as an incident in which four or more people are shot.

Since 1966, there have been nine shootings on college campuses in

Internment survivors recall imprisonment

By Matthew Gonzalez STAFF WRITER

San Jose State students were invited to the Day of Remembrance event held in the Student Union room three on Wednesday, aiming to bring awareness to the struggles shared by Japanese Americans in the U.S. during the internment period in 1942.

Internment camps were installed under Executive Order 9066 with over 120,000 Japanese Americans on the West Coast being incarcerated on the basis of suspicion of loyalty to Japan after the Pearl Harbor attacks on Dec. 7, 1941, according to an article by Britannica.

Students heard from a variety of speakers, including two former internment-camp survivors and a San Jose councilmember.

Councilmember Rosemary Kamei said it was important to recognize this was an act of civil betrayal.

“I want to emphasize the word ‘Americans’ – that this happened to Americans,” Kamei said. “As we lead through today, let us reflect on the impact of this decision that it has had on Japanese Americans.”

Kamei said she wanted the event to serve as a reminder that freedom in the U.S. is not always promised.

“Let us use this as an opportunity to educate ourselves and others on the fragility of civil liberties, especially in times of crisis,” Kamei said. “As we look around with everything that’s happening, we know how fragile it can be.”

Lisa Millora, vice president for Strategy and Institutional Affairs and chief of staff at SJSU, led the event with a memory exercise. She said she wanted to emphasize the incredible persistence Japanese Americans had amidst such a detrimental injustice.

“Let me say again, memory is powerful, and it can motivate our behaviors,” Millora said. “I hope that by remembering the injustice of interning 120,000 people, and by remembering the power of human spirit to persist in the face of adversity, we are called to act in ways that will bring greater justice to our communities into our world.”

The Day of Remembrance included a “fireside chat” with SJSU alumna Shirley Kuramoto and former U.S. house

representative Mike Honda, who were both in internment camps as children. Kuramoto said shortly after World War II, she was met with racial discrimination from a boy in her elementary school.

She said although she is 90 years old, the memory of racial discrimination is still fresh.

“I was in class or in school and this little boy – and it’s really amazing I can still see his face and still remember his name – he

started calling me ‘jap’ and I never heard that word before,” Kuramoto said.

She said being on the receiving end of the slur was not a one-time occurrence.

“Once again he kept shouting that word,” Kuramoto said. “And he didn’t say it in a friendly manner and so I thought it’s not a good term, but I didn’t understand it at all.”

She said the introduction to her new life was abrupt and unexpected, but her main concern was leaving her canine companion behind.

“One day I went home and my mother says to me, without any explanation, ‘we’re gonna move,’ ” Kuramoto said. “And I said ‘you know what’s going to happen to our dog Shiro?’ ”

Rosemary Kamei San Jose City Councilmember

CAROLYN BROWN | SPARTAN DAILY

A campus security vehicle sits parked in front of the University Police Department on Washington Square on Wednesday afternoon.

MATTHEW GONZALEZ | SPARTAN DAILY

SJSU alumna Shirley Kuramoto and former U.S. house representative Mike Honda recall their time in Japanese internment camps, at the Day of Remembrance event at The Student Union on Wednesday morning.

I want to emphasize the word “Americans” – that this happened to Americans. As we lead through today, let us reflect on the impact of this decision that it has had on Japanese Americans.

TRAINING

Continued from page 1

which four or more people were killed, according to The Violence Project, a nonprofit organization that conducts research on mass shootings in the U.S.

While a college mass shooting has not taken place in the Bay Area, in 2001 then De Anza College student, Al DeGuzman, planned to bomb the campus but was ultimately caught before the event could take place.

In 2018, graffiti was found in the women’s bathroom of Dudley Moorhead Hall in which a shooting on San Jose State’s campus was threatened, however it was deemed noncredible.

Bolton said she feels mostly safe on campus, but it being open to the public does cause concern.

“Anyone is free to roam the campus and of course we

REMEMBRANCE

Continued from page 1

don’t want to close that to the public,” Bolton said. “It is kind of worrisome, especially when we have a lot of people with mental health issues close by.”

Joanne Wright, senior associate vice president for university

and what is needed is continuously evaluated so there may be changes.”

The Behavioral Intervention Team is a program on campus that is aimed at those who serve as a threat to themselves or another person.

“We have conducted multiple trainings and it is usually by request,” Belcastro said.

An active shooter situation is often over within 10 to 15 minutes, before law enforcement arrives on the scene,

police departments, multiple fire departments, EMS and educators,” Belcastro said. “It includes a medical portion which has the officers treating simulated gunshot wounds.”

Computer science sophomore

Anne Mai said she would not know what to do in the case of an active shooter on campus and that the university should designate a day towards campus safety.

“I don’t feel like we do a drill in San Jose State often about this kind of thing even though it probably should happen,” Mai said. “I think a lot of students might feel more reassured that they have to do it and just knowing the process of what they’re supposed to do during that time.”

personnel, said there is no mandatory violence prevention training program.

“Resources regarding workplace safety, behavior issues and workplace violence are available to employees,” Wright said.

“Evaluation of training programs

She said she had a special connection with her dog and still doesn’t know what happened to Shiro.

Kuramoto, displayed one of her art pieces that correlates with the sentiments she shared as a little girl about to embark on an unfamiliar journey.

She said her art reflected some of her most prominent physical and emotional affinities such as pigtails and Shiro.

University Police Department (UPD) Capt. Frank Belcastro said the UPD offers training in video programs such as “RUN, HIDE, FIGHT,” a six-minute-long video covering the three things a person in an active shooter situation should do.

Honda was 10 months old when he was forced into an internment camp. He said he had no memory of life prior to internment, but remembers the revolting living conditions.

“I was taken to Camp Amache after a few months in Merced, where we were housed in horse stalls.” Honda said. “So we had to clean our own horse stalls, it smelled dirty, there was flies and stuff like that, but aside for all that I still love horses.”

Construction on Camp Amache began in 1942 with Governor Ralph L. Carr advising the project. The camp was known to be one of the less restrictive

according to the UPD website.

Belcastro also said UPD Officers are prepared and trained with exercises in the event of an active shooter on campus.

“UPD participates each year in a full scale active shooter exercise that includes multiple

camps allowing internees to decorate their quarters, according to a uncovercolorado. com blog post.

Honda said he was grateful that Associated Students took initiative in recognizing issues that resonate so deeply to him.

“I just want to take a moment to say thank you for your leadership and the kinds of projects that you have started to take time to change the character and the texture of this institution,” Honda said.

A.S. President Nina Chuang said it was an honor to host such a pivotal event and catalyze dialogue.

“I’m so honored for us to be here as we reclaim this space and this history gathered here today,” Chuang said. “I’m extremely looking forward to this intergenerational dialogue.”

Rent increases hurt SJSU students

By Alina Ta STAFF WRITER

Some students are having a difficult time finding a place to live after rent prices increase.

The average consumer price index in the Bay Area for rental spaces has increased by 4% from 2020 to 2023, according to a study by the Federal Reserve, the central bank of the U.S.

The consumer price index is a measure of the average pricing that is adjusted for inflation, according to a webpage from the U.S. Labor of Statistics.

Public health sophomore

Dora Duran said she’s a fulltime student with a part-time job who is struggling to find an apartment.

She said she’s trying to find a place that’s affordable and within walking distance from San Jose State.

“[It’s] so difficult, especially since you can’t really plan months in advance. You have to do it two months before you move and it’s so expensive,” Duran said.

After doing the math, Duran said her current salary would basically go to paying rent.

“I would only have $50 a week for myself,” Duran said. She said $50 would barely cover necessary expenses, including food.

Duran said $800 a month would be the most she would be able to afford without utilities. With her budget, she said it would be impossible to live on her own without having roommates.

Duran said she tried to make a friend group because it was too difficult to organize how much each person would pay for rent.

“It’s just stressful thinking like, ‘I don’t know where I’m gonna live next semester,’ ” she said.

Justice studies senior Raya Carrillo said she is trying to find an apartment in South Almaden with her partner, but is experiencing similar issues with housing.

“It’s just unaffordable. I don’t know how anyone is really living right now like with the

current systems we have in place,” Carrillo said.

Carrillo said she feels blessed to be able to share the cost of rent with her partner, but it’s still not affordable.

“The pricing is crazy. It’s

to spend on things that I need,” Carrillo said.

SJSU assistant professor of economics Justin Rietz said rent prices have been increasing because of inflation and higher interest rates.

increased interest rates on Jan. 25 in an attempt to decrease inflation, according to a Feb. 1 article by The New York Times.

Rietz said increases in interest rates also push prices up in rental spaces, making it difficult for consumers to take out loans to buy houses.

“That means more people are renting so you have a higher demand for rental units, and less demand for buying single family homes,” he said.

Rietz said the increase in inflation and interest rates can put students in a difficult financial situation.

really not affordable with my almost minimum wage,” said Carrillo. “It’s just not a livable wage at all.”

Carrillo said with her current salary, her budget only leaves them with $600 to pay for insurance, food, clothing and school supplies.

“School supplies, like textbooks, can be up to $300 a semester and that would take away most of the money I have

Rietz said inflation has increased the prices for products across multiple markets throughout the country over the last two years.

“You go to the grocery store, things are more expensive. Cars are more expensive. [Houses] are the same,” Rietz said.

Rietz said the Federal Reserve has also been increasing interest rates.

The Federal Reserve

He said as rent increases, if wages don’t increase at the same rate, people might be unable to make up the difference.

“Especially as a student, you’re not making a lot of money, because you’re also going to school full time,” Rietz said. “That means you’ve got to balance [or] sacrifice something in order to afford your housing.”

Duran said she is considering getting a second job to afford rent.

She said it’s been really stressful because she still has to attend classes as a full-time student.

“It’s like I’m jumping through all of these hoops to try to get a place, but at the end of the day, it’s affecting my academics,” said Duran.

Carrillo said living in San Jose can feel impossible because residents have to pay for so much on top of inflation.

Carrillo said the current financial situation for her and many students on top of inflation and layoffs in the tech industry are unjust.

“It’s not fair. There are so many unhoused people. You are always one car accident or electrical bill away from being unhoused,” Carrillo said.

INFOGRAPHIC BY BRYANNA BARTLETT SOURCE: U.S. BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS, CONSUMER PRICE INDEX FOR ALL URBAN CONSUMERS

If push comes to shove the only plan that I have is to tie a whole bunch of lab coats together and try to get my students out of the window somehow, so that they can get to safety as quick as possible.

Shawna Bolton justice studies assistant professor

It’s like I’m jumping through all of these hoops to try to get a place, but at the end of the day, it’s affecting my academics.

Dora Duran public health sophomore

Dylan Newman contributed to this article.

SJSU barber gives confidence in cuts

By Brandon Nicolas STAFF WRITER

The average cost of a men’s haircut has increased by 97% since 1997 from an average of $20 to $39.38 in 2023, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Despite the high-cost of haircuts, business and administration sophomore Diego Reyes provides affordable haircuts for the San Jose State community.

Reyes said his journey of barbering started by coincidence.

“I went into Target and bought myself a trimmer to shave my mustache,” he said. “The trimmer came with barber guards and I thought, ‘I could start cutting my hair.’ ”

Born and raised in Los Angeles, Reyes said he chose to attend SJSU to get out of his comfort zone and experience something new.

“I noticed there are a lot of students who are looking for barbers,” he said. “When I came to San Jose, I tried to find a barber, but they’re pretty expensive.”

It was spring break 2022 when Reyes returned to Los Angeles and met with a friend who runs a barber business out of his garage.

“He’s been hustling since quarantine just cutting hair,” Reyes said. “I saw that and thought I could probably start doing the same.”

Reyes’s friend George Pochon took up barbering during the 2020 coronavirus lockdown, and started a profitable business in two years.

Reyes said he was inspired by Pochon after he saw his clientele grow and practiced with his trimmers from Target.

Over summer 2022 Reyes said he gave free haircuts to not only increase his clientele, but also to hone his craftsmanship.

He said during his first time with a client, he was scared to dig into the hair with his clippers.

“You can’t really charge if you don’t know what you’re doing,” Reyes said. “It’s not easy when you start cutting hair because it takes a lot of skill and patience.”

When Reyes returned to campus in fall 2022 he said he received compliments from students who motivated him to start charging for his service, first starting from $15 and then increasing to $20.

Nine months after cutting his first client, Reyes said he cuts hair for students on campus regularly between classes and study sessions.

Industrial engineer senior Emmanuel Pioquinto is a returning client of Reyes and said he found him through the SAMMY app.

He said Reyes was very respectful and professional during their first encounter in December.

“I was kind of skeptical because he told me he was getting into the barber business,” Pioquinto said. “But he reassured me everything would be fine.”

After giving his trust, he said Reyes knew what he was doing and delivered.

“He has good prices for good quality haircuts,” Pioquinto said. “I don’t think you can beat that.”

Reyes said outside of his haircut studio in his dorm, he connects with students across campus, whether it be in the gym or the library.

Radio television senior Josue Garcia said he started receiving haircuts from Reyes after he approached him on campus. “I see his ambition,” Garcia said. “He likes barbering and he’s dedicated to his work.”

Garcia started out getting “emergency cuts” from Reyes when he needed a quick and reliable haircut before a special event.

“Lately I’ve been trusting him more

and more because he does a decent job,” he said.

Reyes said he tries to give haircuts to his clients that’ll make them feel good receiving compliments.

Pioquinto said the confidence Reyes gives students with his service is what keeps them coming back.

“Today I got a haircut from him and I walked out a different person,” Pioquinto said.

ENRIQUE GUTIERREZ-SEVILLA | SPARTAN DAILY Follow

Business and administration sophomore Diego Reyes cuts a client in his dorm at Campus Village 2.

GRAPHIC BY VANESSA TRAN

Jeremy’s GameStop: best couples in games

By Jeremy Martin SENIOR STAFF WRITER

In every great video game, there’s a compelling story and a love interest that drives the overall narrative further.

Love stories can last throughout the duration of an entire franchise while others change, continuing to evolve from game to game. With Valentine’s day having just passed, here are my picks for the top five couples in video games.

While It Takes Two is a great co-op video game in general, it’s especially good for couples to play together. The entire video game follows the story of Cody and May, a husband and his wife trying to hash out their issues in their marriage, going so far as to think about divorce.

On top of that, their daughter Rose is caught in the middle with her own feelings on the issue.

Long story short, Cody and May take on the form of their daughter’s dolls thanks to a ritual triggered by their daughter’s tears.

The two must work together to reach their daughter, mend their relationship and get back to their normal human selves. As Rose says, “they have to stay together.”

It Takes Two is available for the Playstation 5, Playstation 4, Xbox series consoles, Xbox One and PC.

The Nintendo Switch version was released later on Nov. 4, 2022, making It Takes Two available on all modern platforms.

Another plus is that anyone who owns a copy of the game can share it with their partner or friends, via the It Takes Two Friends Pass, according to the EA Games website. This way, only one person needs to buy the game to play together.

I highly recommend anyone to try out this video game and play co-op with your partner. It will take you both on a heartfelt tearjerker of a story that will entertain and bring just about any couple closer together.

longer has a body, yup, I’m talking about Juliet Starling and Nick Carlyle from Lollipop Chainsaw.

Lollipop Chainsaw initially infected players’ consoles in 2012 and is scheduled for a remake this year, a ccording to IGN.

The video game originally came out for both the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. It stars Juliet Starling, a highschool cheerleader who just turned 18 and is supposed to meet with her boyfriend, Nick Carlyle, on her birthday.

Out of nowhere, their school gets attacked by zombies that resulted in Nick getting bitten by one.

After a heartfelt exchange between Juliet and Nick, she performs a ritual on Nick’s decapitated-head before clipping it to her skirt.

Juliet breaks the news about being descendants of zombie hunters to Nick and goes on to defend their school, as well as the city, from zombies.

Throughout the game, Nick aids Juliet in her efforts by possessing dead zombie bodies. This allows him to perform different actions, clearing pathways and solving puzzles to help Juliet succeed in the game.

While Lollipop Chainsaw isn’t a great video game for couples, especially if you’re a guy, it is one of the best examples of a video game love story.

Throughout the narrative, the exchanges between the couple are sincere, giving an intense sense of realism.

This is seen especially after Nick gets bitten. However, this video game is really best for the guys who may find themselves single. The frequent raunchy jokes and oversexualization of Juliet, with multiple costumes to dress her up, can really turn off a lot of women from playing it.

That said, if you’re a guy and all you have is your old gaming console, Lollipop Chainsaw would be perfect to go back and dive right into.

intelligence companion.

Most gamers probably wouldn’t consider Master Chief and Cortana a couple, but there are several occasions throughout the entire franchise where subtle flirtatious behavior is exchanged between the two, specifically seen from Cortana.

Cortana says things like, “Come on Chief, take a girl for a ride,” as she lovingly smiles at the Master Chief in Halo 4. It’s times like these that give hints within the franchise that the two companions care slowly forming a connection and falling in love.

If anyone would like to see the full story unfold, gamers can buy just about any of the Halo entries at a bargain bin price.

However, for anyone who wants to immediately own most of the Halo franchise, I’d recommend that gamers buy Halo: The Master Chief Collection on Xbox One. The collection can be purchased from Gamestop both digitally and physically pre-owned for $29.99.

may have been our first real introduction to the concept of dating.

Oh wait, you thought Donkey Kong was the first to capture Princess Peach didn’t you? Nope.

Contrary to popular belief, that isn’t Mario in the very first Donkey Kong video game and the girl being taken isn’t Princess Peach either.

I have a real classic. If you thought Sonic and Amy were the tip of the popularity iceberg, you haven’t seen anything yet.

For number one on this list, I picked Mario and Princess Peach.

Come on, everyone knows this couple.

Mario and Princess Peach have a relationship that spans decades long, a pretty awesome` accomplishment and strong bond for a princess who can often be found in another castle.

According to Fandom’s website, Princess Peach first appeared in Super Mario Bros. and has been known as princess of the Mushroom Kingdom ever since her first appearance in 1985.

The fact that these two have managed a relationship for so long in the Mario series goes to show that the love between the two is undeniable.

Speeding into number two on this list is Amy Rose and Sonic The Hedgehog. Amy first appeared in Sonic CD, released in 1993. She is the “self-proclaimed” lover of Sonic, according to Fandom, a website encyclopedia for different media fanbases.

Throughout several forms of Sonic media, Amy can be constantly seen crushing on him, while Sonic is seen having little to no real interest in her, other than as a good friend. After all, this relationship is truly a one-way endeavor.

However, the relatability to the couple’s situation is what made me pick these two struggling love hedgehogs for number two on this list.

Their bond is a testament to their loyalty toward each other, even though Princess Peach gets kidnapped by Bowser just about every five minutes these days.

Mario was originally called Jumpman in the Donkey Kong arcade game and that woman who most people think is Peach, is actually an entirely separate character named Pauline, according to The Gamer, a gaming news site.

The two weren’t seen together like they traditionally are now, until Super Mario Bros. How’s that for a Mandela effect?

Nevertheless, these two have a love for each other that will never die and is likely to continue for many more years to come, which is why they are the very best video game couple of all time.

While Halo can be played as a co-op video game, it really shines in the context of the couple’s story between the main characters Master Chief and Cortana, his faithful artificial

I mean, come on, we’ve almost all had crushes on someone who doesn’t feel the same way, placing us in the dreaded friend zone at some point in our lives.

In fact, for many of us, this

She’s a zombie hunter and he’s a high school jock that no

GRAPHIC BY JILLIAN DARNELL

Innocent Storytelling or identity theft?

own culture, heritage and experiences should be promoted, praised and given more attention.

Jillian Darnell OPINION EDITOR

Storytelling is the prime source of entertainment, but the media people consume has a responsibility to deliver content that can challenge or aid its audience.

All media must contain some intellect and challenge its audience, but noteworthy and excellent media does attempt to enable the consumer to rethink certain aspects of life.

A storyteller’s most important role is to provoke thought.

Many writers, television show creators and directors love to dive into worlds and characters that have stories they never really experienced before.

There’s great examples of this where people have won or were nominated for awards including the movie “Green Book” directed by Peter Farrelly won three Oscars and three Golden Globes.

The same year

“BlacKkKlansman” directed by Spike Lee was also nominated for an Oscar, causing a lot of discourse among fans of the movie.

“‘Green Book’ does not sanitize history, nor does it have much to offer the present,” a Dec. 3, 2018 Guardian article said. “It is possible to do better. Spike Lee’s ‘BlacKkKlansman,’ starring Adam Driver and John David Washington, for example, confronts the institutional racism of its 70’s setting head-on.”

Award shows and representation of the best artists are in itself an extremely debatable topic, especially with its past of racism.

“2020 still saw only a single non-white acting nominee and the 2019 awards awarded ‘Green Book,’ ” according to an Apr. 14, 2021 BBC article.

“A turgid and extremely problematic film about race relations, the biggest prize of the night. ‘Green Book’ represented the worst sort of ‘progress,’ in that, similarly to ‘Driving Miss Daisy,’ which won best picture 30 years earlier, it used racism as a tool to explore the conversion of a white, bigoted protagonist.”

Minority artists who produce media about their

But there is also the concept of whitewashing, where if a minority story is told through a white lens, certain aspects of their identity or culture is lost because of the story being told through a privileged, white, perspective.

The definition of whitewashing is “to portray in a way that increases the prominence, relevance, or impact of white people and minimizes or misrepresents that of nonwhite people,” according to MerriamWebster dictionary.

is how impressionable and vulnerable we are of a story, particularly as children,” Adichie said in her speech. “Because all I had read were books in which characters were foreign, I had become convinced that books by their very nature had to have foreigners in them and had to be about things in which I could not personally identify.”

Adichie goes on to say that after discovering African books that are underrepresented in storytelling mediums, the world of storytelling expanded for her.

“I realized that people like me, girls with skin the color of chocolate and whose

“The single story reduces people, rendering them incomplete, flat, onedimensional,” a Nov. 18, 2020 Reading Partner article said. “As a result, it becomes difficult to recognize equal humanity in the characters of a single story.”

A YouTube video published in 2022 titled “The Day Rue ‘Became’ Black” by Yhara Zayd discusses the topic of the need to break the stigma of casting Black characters in movies, specifically using the example of the racist reactions of “The Hunger Games” fan base when the movie adaptation to the book trilogy by Suzanne Collins

color described. And you realize ‘Oh. They don’t need the description because they are understood to be white.’ ”

The reaction to Rue being Black shows how even a book, released 15 years ago, that attempted to break the stigma of young Black girls, readers were still being racist towards this character especially when the movie was adapted and was put on screen.

”Studios don’t question whether a teenage Black girl will be able to relate to a story about a teenage white girl,” Zayd said.

This conversation needs to be had, even though these reactions were so hateful

cast, notably Leah Jeffries for the leading female character Annabeth.

Annebeth’s casting had a similar reaction to Rue’s in “The Hunger Games” series, many fans were upset that the character was not casted as white or a different race, the author who is taking a big part in the production of the televised adaptation posted a response to this hatred on his website.

“You refuse to believe me, the guy who wrote the books and created these characters, when I say that these actors are perfect for the roles because of the talent they bring and the way they used their auditions to expand, improve and electrify the lines they were given . . . You are judging the appropriateness for this role solely and exclusively on how she looks. She is a Black girl playing someone who was described in the books as white. Friends, that is racism,” Riordan said.

When storytellers dive into this side of the creative process, they may delve into writing characters or stories that represent identities they have no ties to, such as a white male director filming a story of a young Black girl, or a straight author writing a queer coming out story.

However, even though “Green Book” can be considered a controversial piece, media creators that have the opportunity and foundation to create stories should diversify their media to include more of these minority stories.

This is an incredibly controversial topic, but I feel like there’s great defense on both sides – to honor and respect storytellers having the courage to write stories so unlike their own, and to recognize that minority storytellers should have the honor of telling their own stories and be promoted and uplifted in popular media.

The concept of writing “what you don’t know” is incredibly riveting, but what is the consequence of this? Unfortunately, diving into stories that have a media creator who has no personal experience can easily emit stereotypes from ignorance.

In her TedTalk, “The danger of a single story” novelist Chimamanda Adichie talks about growing up as Nigerian and reading British novels that contained only white characters, and only being influenced by a single story. “What

kinky hair could not form ponytails, could also exist in literature,” Achidie said. “I started to write about things I recognized.”

It is important to have minorities to see proper representation of themselves in stories, the danger of a single story is the audience only seeing one perspective, preventing them from seeing the richness in diversity. Understanding different cultures and backgrounds is vital to the human experience.

Fortunately, there are creators who are including more diversity in their stories, but it needs to be proper representation in order to break the stigma of infusing minorities into stories.

The Reading Partners, an organization of tutors and volunteers geared towards educating a community of readers including diversity within their learning,goes into great detail about how children can recognize stereotypes at a young age and that can be incredibly harmful.

“Stereotypes can be dangerous because they encourage people to believe sweeping generalizations about entire groups of people, and ignore individuality among us,” according to a July 1, 2021 Reading Partners article.

Another Reading Partners article named “The danger of the single story and underrepresentation in kids’ books,” refers to Adichie’s argument in her TedTalk.

came out.

”Despite these characters and the color of their skin literally being described more than once, a section of ‘The Hunger Games’ fans were still unreasonably surprised because white fans in particular are very used to being the only kind of people who exist in their favorite books.” There was a lot of backlash for the casting of Amandla Stenberg for Rue, who was originally characterized as African American in the books.

In the video, Zayd went through Twitter threads posted by the fan base that had severe racist remarks about the casting, one that stood out among the rest was “call me racist but when I found out Rue was Black her death wasn’t as sad.”

Many of the fans believed Rue to be a white character in the books, even though she was characterized as dark skinned, mainly because white tends to be the default when it comes to reading literature.

“Western literature in general tends to center white writers and, in doing so, centers whiteness,” Zayd said. “How many times have you found yourself reading a book and noticing when an author describes a character as being Black, Asian, or Hispanic? It feels sudden not only because this is the first character of color you’ve come across in the book, but because no other characters have had their race or skin

toward a young Black teen girl being casted in a movie that had a large fan base, it was a step in the right direction to break that stereotype.

“They ask if white girls will be able to relate to Black girls and then decide they can’t,” Zayd said. “Which ends in Black girls getting little to no light-hearted stories about high school or coming of age.”

There needs to be more movies about African American girls casted in roles that aren’t just about discrimination or racism in order to normalize identities without using stereotypes. Creators must humanize and treat these characters like actual people with cultural backgrounds, heritage and complexity.

Regardless, these conversations need to be had. “The Hunger Games” movie adaptation was released in 2012, only 11 years ago. Although we have television series like “Ginny & Georgia” and “Never Have I Ever” streaming with a diverse cast and getting a lot of attention for breaking the stereotypical mold, the consumers must realize the impact this media is having on them and where it’s coming from.

There’s also the young adult book series called “Percy Jackson and the Olympians” By Rick Riordan, where all the characters in the books were characterized as white. However, the television series adaptation, coming in 2024, has a diverse

Just like Riordan, it is up to the creators of these stories, no matter what media format, to be responsible for publishing work that elicits healthy representation to break stereotypes.

So, where is the line? Can storytellers of all kinds of mediums produce stories of experiences and identities they’ve never experienced?

The answer to that question is complicated to say the least, and there is no right response to this, but I believe that there’s a line between creativity and authenticity.

Consumers should promote and further uplift stories solely about minority experiences to minority creators to show a more authentic, representative, and validated story.

But for creators that do want to explore different identities, they should put in the research and take into account other people’s experiences when writing minority narratives.

Stories should have a strong foundation, no matter the medium. None of us want poorly developed characters that don’t fall into stereotypes but fall flat because of being told through an unrelated lens. The audience desires complexity, and in order to nurture a society that is prone to being entertained by storytelling, these stories need to instill healthy representation of characters.

The audience desires complexity, and in order to nurture a society that is prone to being entertained by storytelling, these stories need to instill healthy representation of characters.

There are too many award shows today revolving around music and Hollywood – and they don’t matter.

Many fans of artists and actors don’t watch award shows including the Grammys or the Oscars because the awards are given out based on the opinions of a few judges.

The Oscars only accept votes from academy members who have seen the list of movies in a category.

The Grammys rely on the votes of academy members as well, according to The Recording Academy.

In addition, the cruel underrepresentation in award shows is criminal.

During the 64th Annual Grammy Awards, a new category called Best Global Music Performance was created in an attempt to advance the representation of nominated artists reserved for performers who display non-European, indigenous traditions.

That’s all good and progressive. However, the majority of artists who were nominated for this category were already nominated for Best Global Album – the only other award given to global artists.

Only one of the five artists was not already nominated for Best Global Music Album, making the Grammys inclusive efforts

of expanding the global categories mean little in the long run.

If that wasn’t enough to make people question the Grammys’ equity, it is bad enough that all five nominations for Best Global Music Album were predominantly English songs.

Why should international artists be crammed into these two categories, when American artists such as Kendrick Lamar receive nearly a dozen nominations during a single ceremony?

What’s the point of giving an artist who has won several Grammys one more?

How is one more Grammy going to benefit them besides having dedicated fans telling their friends, “I told you so!”?

White artists and actors are not the only people in the industry making significant contributions.

Something I never saw coming was the nomination for Best Pop Solo Performance in 2021.

Justin Bieber’s “Yummy” was nominated for the category while The Weeknd had zero nominations that same year.

Did the world forget he released “After Hours,” a tonal shift in The Weeknd’s music, including “Blinding Lights,” one of the biggest records of all time?

Bieber said the word “yummy” 46 times and somehow secured a nomination at the 2021 Grammys, alongside Doja Cat’s catchy hit “Say So,” Dua Lipa’s disco inspired “Don’t Start Now” and Harry Styles’s sweet track “Watermelon Sugar.” Make that make sense.

Shifting over to the world of acting, first it needs to be established that there has been a history of inaccuracies with representation in the Golden Globes.

The Hollywood Foreign Press Association, a non-profit organization of journalists and photographers who report

changes to their staffing and administration. But why did it take so long?

“We are working to correct past wrongs, past transgressions, but we are really feeling like we’re in a position to take pride in some of that work. But most importantly, we aren’t done,” Hollywood Foreign Press Association’s Chief Diversity Officer Neil Phillips told NPR.

The Golden Globes have been around since the 1940s and the association has just owned up to their wrongdoings.

How could an award show accurately represent the best actors and actresses when their own board has

not participate.”

And don’t even get me started on the Oscars. Last year, all I could hear about was Will Smith slapping Chris Rock.

Was that really the most exciting thing to happen at an award ceremony where hundreds of society’s favorite celebrities came together to celebrate the stars in their field?

Not to mention, Megan Thee Stallion butchering the most anticipated performance of the evening, “We Don’t Talk About Bruno” from the animated film “Encanto.”

Original cast members appeared on stage to sing the hip shaker of a song that is “We Don’t Talk About Bruno,” only to have Megan Thee Stallion come out and start rapping about the Oscars.

I sure as hell didn’t ask for that. No one would ask for that.

To add onto the list of mistakes the Oscars made last year, there were reportedly eight categories cut from the live ceremony.

on the entertainment industry and founded the Golden Globe Awards, was boycotted during the 2022 ceremony because of several controversies, according to a Jan. 9 NPR article.

Issues included the association not having any Black members, accepting bribery from networks and organizations who wanted a spot on the nominations and notoriously not nominating Black actors.

The association has claimed to have made big

limited diversity?

Brendan Fraser, a wonderful actor who was nominated for a Golden Globe for his lead role in “The Whale,” made a clear announcement he would not be attending the ceremony.

“I have more history with the Hollywood Foreign Press Association than I have respect for the Hollywood Foreign Press Association,” Fraser told GQ magazine in a Nov. 16, 2022 interview. “No, I will

Isn’t that the point of the award show, to see the awards being presented?

People cannot celebrate their favorite actor or actress having one of the biggest moments of their life when no one can see it.

And how can we forget the 2017 Best Picture winner “Moonlight?”

I was ecstatic when the film won the award because the film broke boundaries and represented the LGBTQ+ community and the Black community. But the golden moment flew

fast when the announcer mistakenly read that “La la land” won the award.

It is these moments of controversy that have made award shows what they now are.

Similar to how people tune into the Super Bowl for the famous commercials, families sit at home watching award shows waiting for announcers to slip up or celebrities to make a fool of themselves.

America has latched onto these moments of cringe and awkwardness.

Because of this, we miss the whole purpose of award ceremonies in the first place: representation and recognition for an amazing performance.

When an award at any ceremony is given, it increases the popularity and chance for that artist to experience new opportunities, whether that be a new collaboration on a project, or a new role that breaks boundaries.

But when the same artist wins an award to add to their shelf of accomplishments to catch dust, what do they gain?

Another chance to make a fool of themselves on live television for people to talk about, because that’s what is important to society today.

If we want to support our favorite artists and actors as fans, we need to share their music, art and talents with our communities where our vote matters.