City gives Smith and Carlos a day
By Alejandra Gallo STAFF WRITER
Oct. 16 has been declared as Tommie Smith and John Carlos Day in the City of San José.
Mayor Matt Mahan of San José announced during the Day of Action Ceremony on Wednesday that the city was dedicating the day to Smith and Carlos because of their historic act in 1968.
“We are officially designating Oct. 16 as Tommie Smith and John Carlos Day in the city of San José,” Mahan said.
As Smith and Carlos stood on the podium to receive their respective medals in the Olympic Games of 1968, they both wore black socks with no shoes. Smith wore a black scarf and as the U.S. national anthem played, they both raised a black-gloved hand in silent protest, according to an Oct. 15, 2023 BBC article.
To honor the actions of Smith and Carlos, Legacy Month is celebrated every October to commemorate the protest at the 1968 Olympic Games, according to an Oct. 1, 2021 San José State University blog post.
Though Carlos was not present at the ceremony, Smith addressed the crowd.
“Change is here,” Smith said. “What we have to do is maintain the running of that change.”
The black socks without shoes represented African American poverty, the black scarf stood for black pride, the beaded necklace that Carlos wore symbolized the lynchings of African Americans and the left fist raised represented black
unity, according to the same BBC article.
Wahhab Salemi, a third-year political science student, said he was honored to introduce Smith.
“I think it’s really rewarding and fulfilling to be a part of such a momentous occasion,” Salemi said.
“Legacy Month is very much centered around Tommie Smith and John Carlos and to celebrate them in real time is really exciting.”
Smith and Carlos were part of the Olympic Project for Human Rights, formed by amateur African American athletes to organize a black boycott of the 1968 Olympics, according to a Civil Rights Teaching article.
“Breaking that barrier is always difficult and so, I definitely think that their actions helped pave the way for other students and other athletes,” Salemi said.
The Olympic Project for Human Rights main goal was to expose how the U.S. used African American athletes to highlight a lie about race relations, according to the same article.
“It was started here, by students on the San José State campus,” Smith said. “Night after night, we met and talked about the need for a change in the system.”
Smith and Carlos were track-and-field runners for SJSU and they said they were
excited to go to the Olympics because they knew that would give them a platform to tell the truth, according to Smith. “I didn’t say very much back then because I didn't talk like I talk now, which is all the time, but knew what we had to do,” Smith said.
The 1968 Olympics were expected to be politically charged because of the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. occurred only months before the event, but it still managed to cause a media sensation, according to a History article.
When they arrived at the games, the United States Olympic & Paralympic Committee, they were warned that if they did something wrong, they would be sent home.
“(Carlos) and I kind of looked at each other and said, ‘man, looks like we’re gonna be sent
home,’ ” Smith said.
After they received their medals on the podium, Smith said he and Carlos were thrown out of México City by the United States Olympic & Paralympic Committee.
“We glorified the victory stand by telling the truth and that truth was,
here we are,” Smith said.
“We earned, we deserved Racism, take a back seat.” Mahan said he regretted that Smith and Carlos experienced unemployment and racism when they came back to San José from the México City Olympic Games.
“I believe your activism can also be translated into whatever you choose to do with this incredible education,” he said.
“Every career gives you the opportunity to serve the community and make the world a more equitable and just place if you approach it in the right way.”
Smith said he and Carlos knew they would be in trouble afterward, but they also knew they had a job to do.
“After the victory stand, we were turned as overzealous in our actions, but we fought and almost died for our reasons to do what we did,” Smith said.
At the event, Alaiyah Holland, a business administration marketing third-year student, sang the Black National Anthem.
“It just made me want to do more on campus,” Holland said. “I was getting emotional and it’s been great to meet so many inspiring people.
“It’s important for me to mention that as we conceptualize Legacy Month,” Victa said. “Oftentimes we forget that our existence right here – my existence right here on this stage – would not have been possible without student activism.”
SJSU President, Cynthia Teniente-Matson spoke at the event about its significance.
“Their message is clear today as we look back,” Teniente-Matson said. “Their message is that sport is just more than competition. Sport is about character, conviction and making a difference.”
Their salute came to be known as the Black Power salute and is one of the most famous moments of political speech in the Olympics, according to a History article.
“Once we stepped off that victory stand, we knew our job had just begun,” Smith said.
Throughout the event, Smith addressed students by telling them multiple times to stay in school and persevere through college.
“You have a job to do, and that job to do is to maintain the idea that you are somebody,” Smith said. “You will make it.”
Diana Victa, the manager of the César Chávez Community Action Center said the center sponsored the event.
ALEJANDRA GALLO| SPARTAN DAILY
Legendary activist and alumnus Tommie Smith talks to community members about the 1968 Mexico City Olympic games protest in honor of Legacy Month on Wednesday.
Sports and activism go hand in hand
By Israel Archie STAFF WRITER
Many students, staff, faculty and community members gathered at the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Library to listen to a panel of speakers talk about the importance of activism and sports on Wednesday.
This event was a part of Legacy Month at San José State University, which is an annual event every October held to honor student activism and civic engagement on campus, according to a
SJSU web page.
SJSU alumni and activist Tommie Smith and his teammate John Carlos both protested at the 1968 Olympics by raising their fists while they accepted their track and field medals to protest against inequality in America, according to a web page from the British Broadcasting Corporation.
The panel included multiple speakers that are either connected to SJSU or have an athletic background.
Jordan Cobbs, a fourth-
year football linebacker, spoke about the human aspect of being an athlete and how that can be a tool for activism.
“Sports and politics definitely go hand in hand simply because we’re human,” Cobbs said. “We feel our own feelings and we have our own way of thinking and no matter what brand or sport I play for, they don’t dictate how I think or feel about anything.”
Amari Hunt, a secondyear track-and-field runner, talked about her
first memory of seeing an athlete protest against inequality.
“I think for me and my generation, it started with us seeing Colin Kaepernick take a knee,” Hunt said. “We were all like ‘maybe we should take a knee’ but I don’t think we really knew what we were taking a knee for.”
Kinesiology professor Lamont Williams added the idea of sports and society intertwining to the conversation.
“Sports mirrors society and because sports mirrors society, it is complicit in a lot of the major issues that we see,” Williams said.
Tianna Madison, a track-and-field assistant coach and three-time Olympic gold medalist, said that athletes can sometimes unknowingly be complacent to these issues by the deals they sign and accept.
“Sometimes with accepting funding, you are inadvertently adopting a lot of stances and positions,” Madison said. “So it gets really tricky for some people and Amari said it well, you get paid more money to be quiet.”
Tommie Smith attended the event and gave Cobbs some hypothetical
in-game situations based on their shared experience playing football as Smith played wide receiver for the Cincinnati Bengals.
Anne Marie Todd, dean of college of social sciences, was the organizer for this event and said she wanted to show students potential opportunities in social sciences.
“Whether you’re a sociology major, a justice studies major or ethnic studies major, you are trained in critically analyzing what’s happening in society,” Todd said. “So you address social problems through activism, analysis and all of that.”
Hunt spoke on the importance of athletes using their platform for activism and to protest against inequality on all levels.
“I feel like people need to understand that everybody needs to come together,” Hunt said. “If sports are able to hold this type of power over us, they can hold it over everybody.”
Madison expanded on the correlation between athletes and activism, detailing how there are multiple levels to it and they are not something
that all of them can do effectively.
“Not every athlete wants this role and that is okay,” Madison said. “I told people all of the time you’re not going to see me at a protest with a poster board, but you will open the New York Times and see that I wrote a piece.” SJSU alumnus and sociologist Harry Edwards offered insight into the importance of activism in sports and what could happen if it is not addressed. He referenced inequality in women’s sports and gambling as issues that can have irreversible damage if not dealt with through activism.
He said that women still have to suffer reproductive bondage, which can hurt women’s sports and that gambling puts pressure on college athletes.
“These are things that are already well on this side of the sports political horizon,” Edwards said. “We have to come to (terms) with that because those two things can destroy significant aspects of sports in American society.”
PHOTOS BY ISRAEL ARCHIE | SPARTAN DAILY
From left, Jordan Cobb, Lamont Williams, Amari Hunt and Tianna Madison speak about sports and activism at Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. library on the SJSU campus.
SJSU President Cynthia Teniente-Matson talks with activist Dr. Harry Edwards.
MLK Library observes Dia de los Muertos
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who
#1: An owl alebrije, a colorful spirit animal that serves as a spirit guide that connects with the spirit world and real world, is displayed in a glass case.
#2: An ofrenda is decorated with flowers, candles, photos, food, papel picado and personal items to honor loved ones
died.
#3: Faux fruit, religious paintings and symbols surround photos of loved ones as offerings.
#4: A sculpture of a hairless dog titled, “Xoloitzcuintli 2022; Mexican hairless dog spirit guide,” by Familia Garcia-Colmenarez is made from paper mache and acrylic paint.
#5: A calavera (skeleton) decoration bearing a flower crown stands by the entrance of the art exhibit for Día de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) at the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Library.
#6: Personal framed photographs and two large paintings sit surrounded by marigolds and candles.
GRAPHIC BY JACKSON LINDSTROM
The booze is not worth the buzz
Jackson Lindstrom STAFF WRITER
I’ve never had a drop of alcohol and never really wanted to try it but last week I turned 21 years old and I thought maybe it was time to try it.
To provide some context, I am not a ‘party person,’ I hardly ever consume unhealthy things. I go to the gym regularly and I track the foods I eat every day down to the proteins, carbohydrates and fat count.
I recognize that I am not the sort of college student to buy
alcohol, but I still thought this would be a fun experience.
The first thing I tried was a Modelo Especial lager, a Pilsner-style beer brewed in Mexico.
Part of me was hoping to like it because it’s one of the alcoholic beverages that is meant to taste good and doesn’t have high alcohol content.
The average beer has around 4 to 8%, according to a Sunrise House Treatment Center webpage.
It tasted like sparkling water and left a slight aftertaste of the actual beer, which has a sort of bitter, sour taste.
If you’ve ever had beer bread, beer has the slightest aftertaste of that flavor.
I finally understand why it’s impressive to be able to chug an entire can or bottle of beer; I always thought it was just the alcohol having too strong of a taste.
At the risk of sounding like an idiot, I didn’t realize that beer is carbonated, so after my first sip I was left bamboozled.
After I had the Modelo beer, I tried my first hard alcohol with two different kinds of rum, Captain Morgan’s spiced rum and pineapple rum.
Rum is kind of a random choice, but that’s all that my parents had for me to try, and I wasn’t going to buy any more.
I tried a swig of both and didn’t expect to like either one of the rums which I didn’t, but the warm sensation in my throat was kind of exhilarating.
My parents told me that rum sometimes gets combined with soda, so I tried mixing Diet Dr.
Pepper with a tiny pour into a cup of each rum and they both tasted a bit better.
Shortly after the rum, I drank some Oja! Syrah wine which is a dry red wine, according to Million Wines.
you’re not getting wasted. If there is any kind of alcohol that is good for social drinking, these two are among the best because it tastes good and it doesn’t instantaneously get you drunk.
just have some regular old soda instead because it just tastes better.
People drink soda primarily because it tastes good, but this isn’t always the case when it comes to alcohol.
However, most of everything I drank wasn’t so good that I’d want to have it again. I’d rather just have some regular old soda instead because it just tastes better.
I was hoping I would like wine because there are so many different kinds of wine you can try, but I did not.
I hated Oja! because it tasted like what I imagine wax tastes like, and I don’t think wax would taste any good.
Maybe it was just that specific brand of wine, but I knew from the second that it touched my lips that it was terrible.
I tried both a Smirnoff Ice Original Malt Beverage and a Mike’s Hard Lemonade and these were the best-tasting drinks I had since trying alcohol.
They tasted pretty similar to Sprite, but with a slight alcoholic taste.
These drinks won’t get you drunk very quickly, as they have around the same alcohol content as beer (about 5%), but the tradeoff for the taste is that
A few days later, I tried Blue Moon Ale and this was my favorite drink apart from the Smirnoff Ice and Mike’s Hard Lemonade. Ale tastes similar to the Modelo lager I had, but I think it tastes slightly better compared to the Modelo I tried. I knocked back three ales in about 30 minutes, and while I didn’t really know what it felt like to be fully drunk yet, I think that was at least close to being it.
Maybe I would feel very drunk after four or five beers, but three was enough for me to feel something, which is around the amount it takes to get the average person to start feeling the effects of alcohol, according to Rosewood Recovery. However, most of everything I drank wasn’t so good that I’d want to have it again. I’d rather
Most of the time, they do it because of the funny feeling they get when they drink enough of it.
I must say that the feeling you get when you’re buzzed is pretty awesome, it’s like being on cloud nine without having accomplished anything in particular.
However, this is really the only reason that it may be worth it to drink, at least for me.
Partying with alcohol and getting good and drunk is fun, but at almost any other time, I’d be fine with drinking soda.
SNL has officially crossed
Saturday Night Live (SNL) released a comedy skit which aired on television Sept. 28 mocking Chappell Roan with a human impersonation of the internet’s favorite pygmy hippo, Moo Deng.
SNL mixed their impression of Chappell Roan’s attitude towards the press embodied with the personification of Moo Deng to poke fun at pop culture’s “Feminenomons.”
Bowen Yang, an AsianAmerican comedian, acted out as if Moo Deng had a humanized personality with the statement “I’m your favorite hippo’s favorite hippo,” a phrase Roan coined in her live performances.
Yang also repeated Roan’s statement “Women don’t owe you shit” proceeding to demand literal sprays from a hose squirted at them.
Towards the end of the bit, Yang directly mentioned Roan saying “I'm 10 weeks old, Colin. Of course I know Chappell Roan.”
Most SNL viewers have praised the comedian and skit for being hilarious and the references to current cultural phenomena. However, I find the segment to be extremely problematic.
If you are unaware of her artistry, Chappell Roan is a queer pop singer who has attracted tens of thousands to her festival shows and became an overnight star
credited to her April 2024 single “Good Luck, Babe!” and debut album “The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess.”
Roan has been making music for over a decade, hailing from a small town in Missouri, and was signed to Atlantic Records at 17 years old, according to Billboard.
Roan’s growth has been slow but steady and eventually peaked with her hit single “Good Luck, Babe!” where she shares the experience of falling in love with a woman who eventually leaves her for a man and later regrets it.
The media and fans of Roan have bombarded her with derogatory comments, harassment and stalking which has been an unfortunate result of her sudden burst of fame.
Roan took to her Instagram to express her boundaries towards this behavior which has been received as a joke to some.
“I’ve been in too many nonconsensual physical and social interactions and I just need to lay it out and remind you, women don’t owe you shit,” Roan said on an Aug. 23 Instagram post.
At the 2024 VMAs in September, paparazzi allegedly shouted slurs at Roan while she was on the red carpet in which she responded with “You shut the f**k up!” and “Not me b***h,” according to The Rolling Stones.
People have since been negatively commenting that Roan complains “too much” and needs to toughen her skin since she is now a big name in the music industry, according to The U.S. Sun.
In the likeness of Chappell Roan’s behavior, Moo Deng has some similarities with the pop star who has also blown up overnight.
Moo Deng is a baby pygmy hippo from Thailand who has won hearts all over the world, achieving a viral status on the internet.
Her personality is funky; she bites items and her trainers ferociously, loves being sprayed with water from a hose and scales slopes within her habit alongside her mother.
Pygmy hippos can only be found in four countries in West Africa and are considered an endangered species with less than 3,000 hippos remaining in their natural habitat, according to the San Diego Zoo.
Thousands of visitors have traveled to see Moo Deng at Khao Kheow Open Zoo and have been throwing items like shellfish and bananas at the baby hippo to get her attention.
Queer women in
the music industry and endangered animals in zoos have had quite a few things in common as far as mistreatment.
Most queer people in the music industry have been forced to be seen as invisible – despite being some of the most influential individuals – being threatened with harassment, assault and even death threats because of the hate towards the LGBTQIA+ community.
Over one third of LGBTQIA+ musicians/ artists have experienced or witnessed discrimination and over one in four musicians/ artists have experienced it directly, according to a Forbes article.
Since the SNL skit was aired, Bowen Yang has responded to criticism saying on his Instagram story, “If my personal stance and the piece aren’t absolutely clear in terms of supporting then there it is I guess.”
Nonetheless, creating a comedic bit like Yang’s on
SNL perpetuates the idea that queer celebrities creating boundaries is something to laugh about.
When it comes down to people’s lives at stake and that’s a subject to be cracking jokes at, there is something incredibly wrong with our society.
I’ve seen countless memes about the Sean Combs Diddy allegations and case as well as many other sensitive topics that people create comedic posts of that make my stomach churn.
While you may chuckle when initially viewing these seemingly lighthearted memes, the darker side of the situation will eventually cause you to rethink this form of comedy
Even if you have not been directly impacted by an issue like what Chappell Roan’s facing, empathizing with her as a human and seeing more than what meets the eye is critical to preventing these issues from repeating.
A national and globally
known show like SNL has no business commenting and making fun of queer people and animal welfare.
Even though Bowen Yang identifies as a gay man, he has never experienced the struggles that Roan has been forced to grapple with as a lesbian and the type of celebrity stardom she has arisen to in such a short time.
These ideas presented in the SNL skit lead to more problematic behavior and commentary from pop culture and only furthers the issues the queer community faces and the mistreatment of animals in zoos.
Perhaps we may be able to see a future where someone asking for basic treatment or an animal being in its natural habitat isn’t laughable, which can only be possible if we recognize these problems in our culture now.
Charity Spicer STAFF WRITER