Volume 109, Issue 5

The Spectator The Stuyvesant High School Newspaper

Arts & Entertainment

Features

A Pedestrian’s Guide to the Mooncake

Q&A Session with the Original Crew of Runaways

In “A Pedestrian’s Guide to the Mooncake,” junior Xi Lu reviews mooncakes from three Chinese bakeries for the Autumn Festival season. see page 13

Volume 109 No. 5

“The Pulse of the Student Body”

Read a Q&A between STC’s very own Runaway’s cast and the original crew from the off-Broadway production, transcribed

by Veronika Kowalski. see page 6

November 16, 2018

stuyspec.com

Calaveras and Papel Picado: Stuyvesant Throws Annual Día de Los Muertos Celebration

NEWSBEAT The Stuyvesant Peglegs Football Team won their Homecoming game Friday, beating Info Tech 28-0 at Pier 40.

The Stuyvesant Girls Swimming and Diving Team won the City Championship competition last week, with seven qualifying for State Championships.

Members of the Model United Nations team won a number of awards at the Twenty-Second Annual Session of the Brown University Simulation of the United Nations (BUSUN), including Best Delegate.

Jane Rhee/ The Spectator

Stuy Legacy won first place at NJIT Finest’s Reign or Shine XII annual dance competition on Sunday.

Jane Rhee/ The Spectator

Senior Claire Liu tied for first place in the Lincoln Douglas category at The Scarsdale Speech and Debate Tournament this past weekend.

By Rebecca Kim and Ryan Kim Festive Latin music streams through the fifth floor. Students sport painted calavera faces and teachers emerge from their offices dressed head to toe in vibrant, traditional attire. An altar filled with sugar skeletons and paper flowers is at the center, and candles illuminate the clay figurines and captivate everyone that passes by.

Stuyvesant’s annual celebration of El Día de Los Muertos has begun.

The Spanish Language department hosted activities and decorated the fifth floor in honor of El Día de Los Muertos, or “The

Day of the Dead,” on November 2. While it is mostly celebrated in Mexico and parts of Latin America, the Spanish Language department has brought the same excitement and tradition to Stuyvesant for the past three years in hopes of starting a long-lasting tradition.

Students enrolled in a Spanish course contributed by setting up this event. They assisted in the creation of decorations like papel picados, flowers made of tissue paper, and prepared the traditional Mexican ofrendas. “I helped by making marigolds and skulls at home and during school.

I also participated in decorating the halls,” freshman Melody Lin

Wong and Tan Elected Freshman Caucus Co-Presidents

By Misaal Tabassum, Diego Vasquez, Jamie Zeng, and Tina Zheng Freshmen Emma Wong and Cynthia Tan were elected co-presidents of the Freshman Caucus for the 2018-2019 school year on November 5. The WongTan ticket finished with a total of 209 votes, while their runners-up, freshmen Elio Torres and Anagha Purohit, received 151 votes.

The election used an instant runoff voting system through the Student Union (SU) voting website. This new system allowed freshmen to rank all of the tickets based on order of preference in a single round of voting. Voter turnout was higher than expected, with 360 voters out of 902 freshmen, compared to last year’s 172 voters.

Junior and Board of Elections Chair Caroline Magoc voiced her support for the Wong-Tan ticket. “We saw over the course of the past weeks that [WongTan] and the other tickets were very passionate,” she said. “They especially put up lots of posters [and] they tried to make contact with lots of freshmen students.”

However, the election came with some issues involving voting, and Magoc acknowledged the controversy of the new system. “You’re not supposed to be

forced to rank all of the candidates because obviously if you’re ranking someone last, that means you don’t want them,” she said.

A new voting system will be implemented by the BOE next election, in which voters will not be required to rank all tickets.

In addition, inappropriate behavior from tickets aiming to slander and strike other tickets during the end of the election was brought to the attention of the BOE. “That was completely out of the character of someone who we wanted to be a leader for freshman caucus,” Magoc said.

Following the election, Wong and Tan discussed their plans for implementing their proposed policies, as well as obstacles they expect to face. “A lot of [our policies] just came from actual experiences from freshmen,” Wong said, explaining their thought process in developing a strong platform for their campaign.

Wong and Tan propose a variety of new policies and advocate for improvements to existing policies for students.

These initiatives include earlier re-entry during free periods, PSAL frees or no P.E. classes for athletes, more WiFi access and printing stations, different bell sounds for each bell, and more freshmen in-school activities.

Freshman Elizabeth Stansberry, one of the campaign

managers for Wong and Tan, explained that she initially advocated for the ticket because of their policies. “Their plan for expanding the bandwidth of the WiFi by allowing clubs to get their own routers is particularly exciting because of how feasible it is and how impactful it will be,” she said in an e-mail interview.

Freshman Amanda Zhong supports Wong and Tan because she would benefit from their proposal of PSAL frees. “One of the main reasons I decided to vote for them was their policy of no P.E. for students in PSAL sports. I am on two teams myself—JV volleyball and basketball—so I personally understand the struggle of having to go to practice every day,” she said in an e-mail interview.Freshman Olivia Tedesco, a campaign manager for Wong and Tan, is in favor of the idea of letting students back into the building mid-period. “One of their policies that I am very excited about is being let inside the building before the warning bell,” Tedesco said in an e-mail interview. “Personally, I find it very frustrating having to wait on the bridge to be let inside, especially on days when it is cold or rainy.”

Continued on page 3

said. In addition, some students recreated traditional calavera face paint on their classmates and teachers at a station on the fifth floor and prepared traditional foods, including pan de muerto, a type of sweet bread, and a type of spicy Mexican hot chocolate.

The language teachers got into the spirit of the celebration as well. Spanish teacher Anna Montserrat was inspired by La Calavera Catrina, an iconic character in an etching created by Mexican printmaker José Guadalupe Posada, for her makeup and outfit.

While the celebration was visually vibrant and exciting, students were also able to truly ap-

preciate the significance of the holiday through the event. “I think it’s an important celebration at Stuy[vesant] because many students take Spanish. It’s so good that we not only learn the language itself but the culture as well,” Lin said.

Others perceived the celebration as a means to learn more about the culture and history of Spain.

“I found [out] that the Spanish believe that the souls of their loved ones will come back to them on this day and that’s not supposed to be scary. Instead, they are glad and happy that their loved ones can come back and visit them on this day,” sophomore Xinlei Lin said.

Mold Found in Biology Labs

By Hayeon Ok and Annette Kim Mold has been discovered on lab equipment, countertops, refrigerator surfaces, drawers, ventilation systems, and lab models in Stuyvesant’s seventh floor labs. Though most of the mold has been cleaned out, some surfaces, especially porous ones,

“The situation is unknown, and therefore the risk is unknown, and the possibility of the symptoms [that mold causes] presenting themselves and causing problems for the people who work here […] is probably the biggest issue,” said a staff member, who asked to be kept anonymous. Members of the Stuyvesant community pushed to identify the

“The situation is unknown, and therefore the risk is unknown, and the possibility of the symptoms [that mold causes] presenting themselves and causing problems for the people who work here […] is probably the biggest issue.”

—Anonymous source

have not been completely cleared.

Symptoms of mold exposure are similar to those of allergies, which include sniffling, sneezing, respiratory irritation, and eye irritation. Reactions can differ in severity depending on the species.

type of mold in order to ensure the safety of students and faculty.

Continued on page 3

Page 2

The Spectator ● November 16, 2018

News Día de Los Muertos Photo Essay Photos by Jane Rhee

The Spectator ● November 16, 2018

Page 3

News Wong and Tan Elected Freshman Caucus Co-Presidents Continued from page 1

Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons and NASA

WORLDBEAT Twelve people were killed after 28-year-old Ian David Long opened fire in a local country music bar in Thousand Oaks, California last Wednesday. Long, a Marine Corp veteran, committed suicide during the tragic event, and investigators are still trying to uncover his motive. “It was like fish in a barrel,” said Matthew Curry, who was in the dance floor when he heard shots ring.

Fierce wildfires sweeping across both ends of California have claimed at least 25 lives as of Saturday. Thousands of homes and businesses were evacuated, and Lt. Governor Gavin Newsom issued an emergency proclamation for numerous counties. President Trump has also come under fire after blaming the state’s poor forest management for the flames’ spread.

This November 11 marks 100 years since the end of World War I, after Germany signed an armistice with the Allied forces. President Donald Trump, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, French President Emmanuel Macron, and Russian President Vladimir Putin attended a ceremony at the Arc de Triomphe in Paris, amongst many others, as part of commemorations for the anniversary.

Two were killed and five wounded after a gunman opened fire inside a yoga studio Friday in Tallahassee, Florida, before killing himself. Police say patrons fought the shooter, 40-year-old Scott Paul Beierle, preventing him from harming others.

E-cigarette company Juul Labs Inc. is to stop selling most of its flavored nicotine liquid ‘pods’ at brickand-mortar stores after facing pressures from the FDA, according to people familiar with the matter. While menthol, mint, and tobacco flavored products will remain at stores, the rest (e.g. mango) will hence only be available on Juul’s website.

Some of the policies that Wong and Tan propose, like earlier re-entry for students during their free periods, have been considered by previous caucuses and the SU. While students have

would work because there would be a security issue,” Wong said.

Currently, students who leave school premises during the school day can only re-enter the building five minutes before the warning bell. Pushing the restriction earlier to halfway into the period would be more convenient but also difficult to enforce, since school officials would need to be especially vigilant of all students and visitors entering and exiting the

and Tan work with administration to provide better services for students, the true test lies in balancing student requests with available resources.

However, Wong and Tan are confident that they will turn their policies into reality with the help of the SU, other caucuses, and school administration. “The other caucuses […] could give us some information on what is actually doable,” Tan said. They believe many of their proposed policies can be

“Their plan for expanding the bandwidth of the WiFi by allowing clubs to get their own routers is particularly exciting because of how feasible it is and how impactful it will be.”

—Elizabeth Stansberry, freshman

requested year after year for the school to enforce such policies, they involve administrative or technical issues that could cause complications for the school. “[We] think that would work, the SU thinks that would work, all of the caucuses would support that, but [Principal Eric] Contreras doesn’t think that

building throughout the entire period.

Moreover, Wong and Tan must face the challenge of Stuyvesant’s limited funding in implementing their provisions to improve student and school services. “We mentioned the idea of having three different warning bells to Contreras,” Tan said. “He told us that it would not work, because we need to wait until the bell system breaks and then the DOE will fund it.” As Wong

implemented over time, building on the work of previous caucuses and the SU. Excited for the year ahead, Wong and Tan are guided by the suggestions and feedback of their peers and are determined to fulfill the promises they made during their campaign. “They definitely deserve the position, and I’m excited to see what they do with it,” Magoc said.

Mold Found in Biology Labs Continued from page 1

At the end of September, a member of the DOE’s Division of School Facilities was brought in to inspect the mold and help remove it. However, the type of mold was never discovered because no tests were completed to determine the species. “The people who visited us did a little bit of cleaning, but they said specifically that they make no representations

or claims about the extent or nature of the condition that exists,” the anonymous source said. “They don’t know if it’s behind the walls, ceiling, cabinets, below flooring.”

Shortly after, however, a member of the United Federation of Teachers was brought in on September 25 to inspect some of the affected areas and to determine the species of the mold.

Though a test was administered, and the mold was found to be harmless, both science teachers and the administration were not given updates on the species

or the safety of the mold. “The fact that someone has come in here and done a visual inspection [...] but we do not have a report yet is a critical concern,” the anonymous source said. “If [the report] has been generated, it has not been given to any of the administrative staff or the teaching staff of the school.”

While the mold does not pose any immediate threat to students using the lab facilities, members of the administration will continue to wait on an official report.

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The Spectator ● November 16, 2018

Page 4

Features Evergreen Athletes In the midst of Stuyvesant students’ busy schedules, being on one sports team is enough of a workload. Talia Kirshenbaum, Ally Archer, Palak Srivastava, and Isabel Leka, however, have managed to play on a different sports team every season. Their passion for sports started at a young age and has continued into their high school lives, shaping them as dedicated members of each team they are part of. They are able to balance their athletic and academic lives all year. Here they share their experiences playing a different sport every season and advice for those who are looking to follow in their footsteps.

What three sports do play? How long have played them for?

you you

TK: Volleyball, basketball, and softball. I played softball since I was 10 or 11 years old, and I’ve been playing basketball about as long. Volleyball I didn’t start until later. I started volleyball in eighth grade.

AA: Volleyball, basketball, and softball. Volleyball is for the fall, basketball is for the winter, and spring is for softball. I started playing basketball at around fourth grade. Basketball is the one that I played the longest. I played softball starting from when I was 10 or 11. The most recent one was volleyball, and I started that basically at the end of eighth grade, so I haven’t been playing volleyball for a long time compared to the other sports.

PS: Last year, I did tennis, ping pong, and fencing (fall, winter, spring). This year, I’m doing tennis and fencing. I’ve been playing tennis since I was four, so 10 years.

I’ve been fencing since I was eight, and for ping pong, I just started last year. My dad just tried me out at every sport.

IL: I play volleyball, softball, and basketball. I’ve been playing volleyball since the sixth grade. I wasn’t very good in middle school, but I played, so it has been five years. For basketball, I just started playing league basketball last year, but I used to play basketball in my school yard around my neighborhood. For softball, I just started last year.

What

is your favorite and least favorite aspect of each of them?

TK: Volleyball is definitely the most challenging in terms of learning the technique and the strategy.

I think volleyball is the hardest for me to improve. Basketball is a really long season so that’s always kind of an endurance thing in terms of staying in shape and keeping your mind in it even though it’s such a long season. And softball is always a struggle for me not to get injured. When I get injured, it’s always during softball season cause you’re sliding, and there are bats, and people are throwing things at you.

I think volleyball—just the structure of the game—is the coolest.

Basketball is a really, really incredible team and a really fun time. I think basketball is probably the most fun. And for softball, I love being able to be outside.

AA: [My favorite thing is] probably getting time to spend with other people and having a social life. I think it’s hard at Stuy to find time

to have a social life; it’s really easy to get wrapped up in the academics and trying to stay on schedule with getting stuff done. But having sports works in time to spend time with these amazing people. I think just meeting people, getting time to spend with them, and getting to know people that I probably wouldn’t have met otherwise.

[My least favorite thing is that] sometimes it’s hard to manage when you get home at 7:30 or 8:00 p.m. and have to do work.

And sometimes there are little issues that happen within the team that are annoying, but there’s not that much to dislike.

PS: [My favorite aspect is] the team itself, not the actual sport.

You get close with people during the going-away games and home games. It’s more fun traveling than actually playing, most of the times. For tennis, we always go to the Bronx or Beacon. Fencing always goes to Queens. It’s always fun to get home at 9:00 p.m.

[My least favorite aspect is] also the traveling. For fencing and tennis, I hate carrying around everything. Fencing bags are huge, and to carry them on the train […] I wish we had a bus, but you need money for that.

IL: For volleyball I like the sport itself, and it is my favorite sport to play because I know it well. For basketball I like the team unity.

We might not be as good as we are at volleyball, but for basketball, it is about the teamwork and getting to know the other players. For softball I am not a big fan of the sport itself but it is more about the team than the actual sport sometimes.

Volleyball is a mistakes sport so the mistakes that you make are how the other team gains points.

So it’s a very mental sport, which can sometimes be very stressful.

Basketball, on the other hand, you can fix it. For basketball, because it is a contact sport, it can be a bit aggressive. Softball is a very slowpaced sport. You have to really enjoy the sport itself to have fun. So it can be kind of boring.

How are the team dynamics for each of them?

TK: Well, Mr. [Vincent] Miller is the coach for both basketball and softball, and there’s a lot of overlap between the players for basketball and softball, so both of those teams are all really close, and there are a lot of my best friends on one or both of those teams. And it’s really supportive with people I know I can depend on and friends that I think I will have for a long time.

For volleyball, I think the captain determines the atmosphere a lot, and we have really great captains this year.

AA: For most of my teams, we become really close and [we kind of form] very weird relationships because we know a lot about each other, and we may cross lines that you probably don’t do with most people that you’re friends with. It’s just something about sports that creates a strong bond with teammates.

PS: All the sports I play are individual. Even though tennis is individual, I play doubles for Stuyvesant. My partner and I are very close, so there’s better communication. The team, as a whole, got really close this year. The captains’ goals were to make [the team] closer. You have people cheering you on, especially when you’re the last game playing. It’s a lot of pressure, but it’s also nice to have ev-

eryone with you.

IL: Volleyball used to have a very bad team dynamic; we used to have a very divided team. This year it is a lot less cliquey. Basketball and softball are both very united.

Because basketball is so small, you get a chance to connect with other people more.

How

does playing sports affect your academics?

TK: I’ve been playing three sports since the first semester of my freshman year, so I’ve never known anything else, really; it’s just kind of the way things have been for me as a Stuy student. I definitely think it forces you to be more organized.

Also, you always have that added incentive to be doing well in your classes so you have to stay eligible to be on the sports teams. There are always people on the team who have taken classes with the teachers you have who can send you study guides and help you out with things.

AA: I came into Stuy playing three sports because I made the volleyball team as a freshman, so having sports all year round is kind of everything I know about Stuy.

I kind of adjusted to it from the beginning. I know that compared to other people who may be getting home earlier than I would be, I would have less time to do my work. So in that sense, I think that playing sports all year round has helped me academically because I don’t procrastinate as much when I have sports. I get h o m e and I know that I don’t have as much time to finish stuff, so I’ll try to get it done fast.

PS: It hurts my academics in the end. Personally, I don’t manage as well as I used to. Last year, I managed really well because I used to spend all my frees in the library and spend any time I had doing homework, even at games when done playing. Toward the end of last year, I didn’t manage well, which is why I quit ping pong.

The main thing is to utilize your time. Everyone does this on the team; when [they’re] not playing, everyone’s doing their homework, not on their phone or chilling.

Tennis is only three days a week, and fencing’s every day. Tennis was a little easier because if I know I’m coming home late on Wednesday, I can do [my homework] Tuesday.

But for fencing, you get home at 8:00 p.m. every day. For my social life, I hang out with the team all the time. I made a lot of new friends through sports. There’s sleep, social life, and grades. During sports, grades is always left out a little. We’ll see if my grades go up this season.

IL: I am a procrastinator so playing sports is something for me to do when I would be procrastinating anyway. There are many cases when I need to do a project and we have a game that starts at five p.m. and I get home at eight p.m. The times are different every day. This makes it so that I have to plan out my time, which is good for me in the future so that I am good with time management.

What are your goals? Have you met them, and what are the ones you’re working on?

TK: It’s kind of hard thinking about playing sports in college. I definitely want to, but it depends a lot [on] what school I go to, and I’m trying really hard not to let that be a factor in determin-

Courtesy of Talia Kirshenbaum

By TALIA KAHAN and HAYEON OK

Talia Kirshenbaum ing where I want to go to school.

I think [I got] to a point where [I had] to recognize that I’m not going to be a professional athlete and I have to start thinking about and prioritizing other things.

I really don’t know how I ended up here. I don’t remember thinking my goal to be [playing] three sports for four years, and that’s going to be my whole thing at Stuy.

I never planned that. My goal in doing it at first was that I knew already that playing sports is a really important part of my mental health, and I think the goal was mostly to use it as a tool to make me a stronger, healthier person, and I definitely think that has worked. Going forward, I want to make my last three seasons hopefully my best seasons, maybe be on some all-star teams; that would be cool. And [I want to] just make sure that everything that I love and appreciate about Stuy sports gets passed down after I leave.

AA: When I came into Stuy, I just wanted to make the varsity sports; I don’t know why I had that aspiration, but it was just something I really wanted to do.

Depending on where I go to college, I’ll definitely try to pursue something probably in volleyball, whether that be a club or trying to walk onto a team. But I’ll definitely try and get involved with sports so I have something to do that’s not just academic-related during college because I don’t think I know how to handle that much free time in college. I wouldn’t be able to handle free time if that makes any sense. I would be so bored.

PS: For tennis, I want to aim to play singles next year. In fencing, I’m second right now but I’m okay at where I am. I also do [fencing] outside of school. One of my goals there is to do better in tournaments. I don’t have any goals within the team right now because it’s kind of far away.

I definitely got more athletic. In the beginning of fencing, it’s so hard. Practices aren’t as bad as tryouts, but they’re still draining. By the end of the season, I was fine with the running and the pushups.

One of my goals then was to do that without getting tired.

IL: Academically I want to be able to have an average that I am comfortable with. For sports, I want to be able to give back to my teammates. For volleyball, if we win the

championship, I would love to do that for the rest of the team to see what we can accomplish. For basketball and softball, my goal is to become a better player. Based on my stature and experience, there is probably not a chance that I will be recruited. It is more about having fun and learning how to communicate with others, and being able to make impromptu decisions to benefit your team is a very important skill to have.

What is your advice to future Stuyvesant athletes?

TK: What has been the most helpful for me is that most of my friends are athletes and play Stuy sports. And I think when you surround yourself with people who have those same issues and have the same structure to their day that you have, it makes it a lot easier to manage it. But also, just [go] easy on yourself and recognize that you do a lot in a day, and if you want to go to sleep early, you should just do it. You shouldn’t put so much pressure on yourself.

AA: If you have a sport that you want or are interested in playing, don’t be scared to try out because the memories and the people that you meet through sports are the greatest things that you can have in a high school experience. That was my experience; that was the greatest thing that I ever experienced here: meeting people in sports teams.

PS: It’s going to be hard to adjust, but you can do it if you just manage your time. I heard that [myself ], and I would just procrastinate. Start [homework] days ahead and plan accordingly to your games. As for getting on the team, you can’t just finesse it. You have to actually work to get on the team. And if you really like it, then it’s going to be a great experience.

IL: I feel like you have to prioritize your academics; sports are secondary to me. But at the same time you have to make sure that you are committed no matter what. To maintain a good balance, you have to be good at time management.

This will allow you to enjoy your sports more. Sports can be frustrating, but they can also be stress relievers.

The Spectator ● November 16, 2018

Page 5

Features True Poetry: “That’s the Way the Cookie Crumbles, Mr. Scrumble!”

It’s safe to say that Spanish teacher Señor Carlos Bravo can introduce himself. “I am a freelance writer [and] a poet, and I write primarily in Spanish and English, but I can also write in other languages. I love words, and I love the metaphorical aspects of grammar, and primarily I like the musicality of language in writing.

When you express it in a passion, when the words come from the heart, you don’t have to really search for them. I’ve been writing for several years, getting my inspiration automatically. Even though I tried to follow certain rules, I tend to express things in my own way, respecting, of course, the grammar of poetry,” he said.

What made you interested in poetry?

It’s an issue of inspiration. I can write in minutes—I immediately just start writing. It’s a moment of life; the moment can be sadness, happiness—about any topic.

What was the process of publishing your book “Ambrosia”?

I didn’t really want to publish at first—I thought writing was a private thing. But I met somebody, a book publisher—an editor. A friend of mine had sent my poems to a publishing company, Palibrio, and they liked them. They suggested that I publish, and they liked the picture I took for the cover.

What is your favorite poem in that book?

“Heart’s Chakra”—it’s very good, and it talks about the heart and emotional/personal feelings.

I wanted to express things in a deep and different way that makes people think a little bit. It makes you wonder what the author actually means. I was inspired by the book “100 Years of Solitude”

by Gabriel García Márquez. I like to think and really manipulate words.

Who is your favorite poet and why?

What is the process of writing a poem? How long does it usually take you, and where do you draw inspiration?

Yes. I have a second book of poetry I am writing. Poems of religious nature—I’m Catholic so I like to write these types of poems.

Pablo Neruda, because he’s very to the point—simple yet very intricate in his thoughts.

name / The Spectator

By SUSANNAH AHN and KAELIANA YU

Do you have plans for publishing another book?

By AMANDA YAGERMAN and VERONIKA KOWALSKI Seasoned educator Professor Michael F. Wesner of Lakehead University in Thunder Bay, Canada, gave a talk at Stuyvesant High School on Thursday, October 11.

Over 100 students, faculty, and distinguished guests were in attendance.

Wesner, a behavioral neuroscientist and psychophysicist, began his undergraduate studies at the University of Wisconsin, where he focused on the reproductive and endocrine systems of primates. From there, he secured a graduate position at Washington State University. His supervisor studied some of the causes of obscured vision. As a result, Wesner switched his focus from primates to humans. He took up an interest in environmental influences on nearsightedness. A clinical professor introduced him to research involving humans, and Wesner became fascinated with the way our pupils change in size when exposed to different

amounts of light.

Shortly afterward, he became connected with Naval Air Development in Philadelphia, where he deduced pilots’ blind spots when they were in the air. As a researcher for a branch of the Navy located in Philadelphia, Wesner ran experiments to determine the effects of oxygen deprivation on pilots’ peripheral vision. Applied research with the Navy, however, did not prove to be the ideal working environment for Wesner due to its rigid structure and lack of flexibility. After five years, Wesner parted ways with the Navy to pursue his own interests in basic research. Now, Wesner is delving into the sensory disconnect in those with ADHD. Research comes with a lot of unexpected setbacks. At Lakehead University, where he currently works, one of Wesner’s students lost an entire set of human saliva samples due to a power outage.

She needed to recollect the samples in order to complete her thesis. “These drawbacks can be quite frustrating,” Wesner commented.

“If you are relying on equipmentbased operations for your research, you need to expect these type of impediments to your research program.

It’s the nature of the beast.”

—Michael Wesner, professor

Amanda Yagerman / The Spectator

The Life and Times of Professor M. Wesner

“But unfortunately, if you are relying on equipment-based operations for your research, you need to expect these type of impediments to your research program.

It’s the nature of the beast.”

When things go right, though, it’s a different story. Just last year, one of Wesner’s undergraduate students received a president’s award for scholarship and was accepted into a prestigious Canadian neuroscience program. “In a nutshell, my students’ successes are my successes,” Wesner admitted. “This gives me great pleasure as an educator and as a mentor. It means I’m doing my job.”

Wesner was invited to give a talk at Stuyvesant High School

by Biology teacher Charlene Chan. Chan met Wesner through a mutual contact, Dr. Florence Denmark. Dr. Denmark is an outspoken advocate for women’s and human’s rights, and she often

speaks at the United Nations. She is also the Chair of Psychology at Pace University. Dr. Denmark was not at Stuyvesant on Thursday, but distinguished guests in the audience included psychologist Dr. Josephine Tan (a professor at Lakehead University whose studies focus on the effects of culture and gender on psychological health) and Dr. Glen Kowach (an award-winning chemistry professor at the City College of New York who has mentored several Stuy students in the past). For those who wish to pursue a career in neuroscience, Wesner’s advice is to keep at it. “You have to have a fascination with the subject,” he said. “Because it is work.” One of the most important components of being successful in the research field is getting to know people and having good connections.

It may come as a consolation to prospective Ph.D. students

that Wesner, himself, still claims to struggle with understanding some concepts. He stresses that the field of psychology requires not only persistence but also constant collaboration between peers, especially those who specialize in different subfields. “Can the brain understand the brain?” Wesner asks. “Yes, but we need interdisciplinary appreciation.”

Wesner’s projects have the prospect of propelling us into the future. He is exploring the effects of vision on Seasonal Affective Disorder, a form of depression that surfaces predominantly during the darkest months of the year, as well as the menstrual cycle’s effect on visual hierarchical operations. Perhaps Wesner and his team will figure out the reason why light exposure heightens one’s mood, or a way that women can use their menstrual cycle to their advantage.

The Spectator ● November 16, 2018

Page 6

Features Q&A Session with the Original Crew of Runaways Sam Pinkleton, the director of the 2016 New York City Center production of “Runaways,” choreographers Ani Taj and nicHi douglas, and Roz Lichter, the late Elizabeth Swados’s life partner, visited Stuyvesant on Saturday, November 2 to watch the Stuyvesant Theater Community’s performance of “Runaways.”

What is your relationship with Runaways, as a show?

Roz Lichter: Miss Swados was a remarkable woman, playwright, and composer. She was a woman that was challenged by depression and anxiety and thrill and love.

Her work, Runaways, is one of the most remarkable pieces about young people and their struggles, which [are still] ongoing. We have Public House, [a theater program] all over the country that works so hard, and we’re proud that Sam [Pinkleton] has taken leadership in getting the Broadway and OffBroadway community to support Public House. [Liz] was a cartoonist, and she was a great wife.

We were together for 28 years.

She would be thrilled to know that you guys did a fabulous show and really felt it from the heart.

“What advice would you give to young people in theater who may one day want to pursue theater professionally?” —Zeynep Bromberg nicHi douglas: My advice is to always love what you’re doing. I have that advice for anyone going into [not only] the theater profession, but also anything else. Just check in with yourself, always, and ask yourself, “Do I love this?” today. The next day, ask yourself, “Do I still love it?” As long as the answer is “yes,” just keep going for it. Keep trying. Keep pushing.

As far as how to do that, find the people you love. Find your tribe.

Ani Taj: The three of us met in high school. Some of us met a year after high school. What nicHi is saying is very real for this particular team. We vibe with each others’ sensibilities. We like making silly things with each other, finding ways to laugh. We also like finding ways to get at the heart of what we care about. That’s how we’re still working together 15 years later.

Sam Pinkleton: One of the things that I learned from Liz was that the things that are weird about me and the things that I’m ashamed of or embarrassed about—the things that make me different than somebody else, or the things that make me not “Mister Broadway,” are the things that are the most interesting. That was a radical lesson.

Anything good that I’ve ever done as a human or as an artist can be traced back to that. It was that I was true to myself. It’s why we work the way we do. It leads to good things. I don’t care that much about what I have to say about Runaways. I care about what you have to say about Runaways. Plus, it’s yours—and it has each of you in it.

“How do you stay true to your character even when you have bad days in real life?” —Morgan Hesse douglas: When it’s super hard, it really has to do with that thing of,

“Do I love it?” If you don’t love the thing you’re doing, change.

Get something else. Get away from it. Continually checking in with yourself is part of how I get through it, day today. It’s part of it all.

Lichter: At the end of the day, Liz would say, “What you need to do is focus,” and “Be the character.”

Keep coming back to the character that you are engaged with.

As you [do that], you’ll find this unity in all those little other dispersions that are trying to take you away.

Taz: For me, it’s funny. I work mostly in the dance world. I do theater things, too. I put different hats on. For me, responding to the other people in the room is a big part of it. It’s trying to check in with all the other people here who also might have had bad days. Maybe I had a bad day, but there are people who came to the theater looking to me to have a nice time. When can I set aside the things that aren’t really right with me and remember them? It depends on the kind of theater or show that you’re doing, but for me, a lot of it is trying to remember what people came here for. It’s true that it doesn’t get any easier.

It’s consistent practice over the course of one’s life.

The original script for Runaways could have been cast for any number of actors. How did that shape the way you worked with the show?

Pinkleton: This weird thing happens with musicals where they do a production, and then it turns into a book. And then everybody else, whoever does that musical, is like, “I have the precious book,” which is not how it works. Musical theater is a living, breathing thing. This goes to show that this was made when she was 25 to 26.

She went into the Public Theater. She said, “We have a crisis.

It’s the ‘70s. It’s New York. There [are] homeless kids all over the city, and no one is talking about it. What can we do?” She spent a year working with kids, actual runaways that she went out in the street and met, and she listened.

She listened to them, and she turned their words into this thing.

It’s created as a living document.

It’s created as a marker of its time.

So our job and your job is not to “Crack The Masterpiece of 1976.”

Liz did that. It’s to say, “How does this thing breathe?” What are we doing in 2018? It’s a crazy year.

So if you’re going to do a musical about a bunch of runaway kids that was 40 years ago, the first thing you have to say is, “Why do you guys care about it?” Why do we care about it? Why do you think that these people should care about it, besides the fact that they are your parents?

We all knew Liz not to be like, “Please do my masterpiece,” but to be like, “Oh! You should sing this today! And you should sing this today! And can you make a dance there?” That never stopped.

It was like that until her last days.

It just never stopped changing because that’s how the world is. If theater is going to continue to be something that’s worth spending time with in a time where we can access anything from a hand computer like pizza, then you have to know what can change about it for us. It was so exciting for us to see the things that we had never seen before and made us think

Beaux Watwood / The Spectator

By VERONIKA KOWALSKI

in a totally different way, or that were nothing like how we would do Runaways. I hope that that’s how everybody thinks of Runaways.

How was this show meant to be understood?

Adam Elsayed: It’s a collection of different stories that really speak to different people, because life itself is complex. I don’t think everybody can really understand the complexity of what everybody goes through at a certain time.

That show was made with this philosophy in mind. You might find some people in the same place, but you don’t know how they got there.

There’s diversity [in] the stories being told and the way of telling the story. We have people who tell their stories in Spanish. People are able to take away something different from the same material.

Bromberg: One of the things that struck me about this show the first time I saw it, which was this past summer in [Central] Park, was the use of different kinds of language, and that language can be a way for us to connect with each other but doesn’t have to be understood by everyone, like [Elsayed] said.

I also found that the people around me still understood the entire show because of the way that Liz used language in the show, in ASL and English and Spanish. It really had the goal of making everyone come together and agree. That’s what theater means to me. It’s a space where we can all tell our stories. We can listen to each other, and participate in it together. That’s my favorite part of Runaways.

At its core, Runaways is about community. With every show that I’ve done here at Stuy, though a lot of the cast members and directors are the same people, at the end of the day, it’s a different family formed because we are able to connect differently through the works that we do. Runaways is different from anything we have ever done here before. It’s not even the method through which the story was told, but the content of all the different stories told. There’s this huge variety of stories we get, and at the end of the day, everyone can be a runaway. We’ve all, throughout our rehearsals, talked about what would make you run away,

[and] why you [thought] your character ran away.

It’s about community with the fact that there are all these different stories being told, and people can connect to them in different ways. It goes to show that we are all human beings. We all have things that make us feel a certain way, and if the audience can connect to one person’s story more so than to another [so] that they can feel that emotion of what’s going on, that’s what’s so beautiful.

Stebbins: I always found it so cool that the first words of the first song are “eeny meeny sicaleeny oo ahh humbaliny achy gotchy liberachy I love you,” and we all understand it because we’ve grown up hearing it. We know what it’s meant to symbolize: childhood. If aliens were to come down and see the show, though, even if they understood English, they would not know what that part necessarily meant. But in the reverse, if aliens came to see the show and not speak English at all, I hope that they would kind of understand what it was about.

“How do you think Runaways has changed since its original conception?” —Jonathan Schneiderman Stebbins: I saw Runaways with Clara [Yuste], and I walked away thinking, “We have to do this.”

We had just done 1776 the year before, and that was interesting because I remember telling everyone the night before our opening show that they needed to remember what it was about. We had just been present in a wild act of horrible violence happening just outside our school’s door. We needed to think about what that experience meant for us as Stuy students and as Americans, and how our founding fathers framed everything.

What was so wonderful about 1776 was that we casted, out of necessity and for creative [reasons], gender-blind and raceblind. Unintentionally, we ended up having the least white production of 1776 ever made, especially in every leading role. I told them to go home and think about why we’re doing 1776, just like why we’re doing Runaways. I walked away thinking, “That’s great, but Runaways is the polar opposite in that any of these people could be

us.” We’re not playing very iconic, historical figures we all study in our history classes. It was interesting to do something that was the polar opposite of what we did the year before.

“How do you go about with choreography?” —Emily Rubenstein douglas: As a person who’s been doing choreography, I’m in awe that you’re doing it for a little while. We should get a coffee and talk about it. How did you start?

Rubenstein: I used to be really bad at dancing as a little kid, and then I went to Sleepaway Camp.

I was in a musical over there.

I’ve been in musicals all my life, but I’ve always been in the back because I was really bad at dancing. I took tap for a [couple of ] years and some musical theater at SHUFFLES. I came here and I directed tap my freshman year.

We did some tap in Urinetown, and then we did 1776. The director asked, “You dance, right? Can you choreograph something?” I’ve been choreographing a lot of the [songs].

Taj: It’s very clear that all of you can answer your questions better than any of us can.

Concluding Statements Lichter: Liz found a lot of inspiration from people your age, younger, and older. What she would say is, “Make sure you get to the ballot by Tuesday and get your parents and your grandparents and everybody that can vote.”

It’s probably the most important election in your time because if you want to see parents together with their children, if you want to see same-sex marriage, if you want to see a balance of power in this country whether you’re a Republican or a Democrat, [and] if you want to see your future, this is the election to get your friends who are 18 to vote. Call your parents.

Call your grandparents.

Pinkleton: All you have to do to be a choreographer is say you are a choreographer. All you have to do to be a writer is say you are a writer. We learned that from Liz. Make sure you’re making your own stuff, because you have more energy now than you ever will.

The Spectator ● November 16, 2018

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The Spectator ● November 16, 2018

Editorials Staff Editorial

Students Should Be Self-Policing

Members of the administration have recently taken disciplinary action against students for comments made on Facebook or other social media platforms.

In one case, a teacher rescinded his offer to write a student a college recommendation after being shown screenshots of the student’s online comments regarding his teaching style. In another, a student was suspended for sharing a vulgar tirade about a teacher written by multiple students on a Google Document in a group chat. None of the other contributors to the document were punished.

In both instances, student online activity was brought to the attention of members of the staff and administration by other students.

These two examples fall within the morally complicated gray area of online communications in our school community, but they invite us to consider when online activity warrants discipline on behalf of the school administration.

While acts of cyberbullying, and threats or hateful speech leveled at students and staff, are clearly actionable, we believe that for the most part, students deserve online privacy. We advocate a self-policing student body, but this would depend upon a large measure of student-to-student trust and responsibility.

Students have come forward to faculty to show them offensive commentary that the staff members would not have seen otherwise. In most instances, showing something vulgar and immature to a teacher only serves to needlessly hurt the feelings of that individual.

Even within last year’s Spectator Editorial Board, a student in our Facebook group chat group informed the administration about another student who made a joke about being drunk. This anonymous betrayal had serious consequences for that student’s extracurricular life, and made the entire chat distrust that commu-

nity. We question whether or not the choice to intentionally report a fellow student, especially for comments that are not targeted towards any individual in malice, can be made in good conscience.

The school administration sees this issue as more straightforward. They consider posting in a private Facebook group as equivalent to making the same comment in person. “There should be no gray area as far as the expectations. Both the expectations and the consequences should be black and white,” Principal Eric Contreras said.

Though the boundaries between a person’s real life and his or her online life can seem blurry, the administration also feels that students should realize that there can be real-world consequences to their online actions. “It’s actually not a gray area. [...] It’s a perceived gray area. But it’s not for colleges and it’s not for employers. And it’s not per the law for schools, either,” Contreras continued.

Exercising caution about online content is common among students, even if many are not always successful in doing so.

However, most students are not familiar with the actual standards of the Code of Conduct for NYC Schools, which deem that any comments, including oral, written, or online, that involve the school community are subject to the jurisdiction of the school administration. This means that if members of the school community are being discussed or might be affected by a discussion, the school technically does have policing power.

But when it comes to certain student spaces, such as online Facebook advice groups, such a conservative definition of online privacy, combined with a lack of trust between students, ultimately undermines one of the purposes of these online communities: to give and receive honest feedback about teachers, whether or not this feedback is something teachers would want to read about

themselves.

The self-policing nature of online communities has proven effective in the past. Last year, posts in Dear Incoming groups about a masculinist club’s interest meeting sparked heated debate, which devolved into vapid comments targeting the club’s two founders.

Former Student Union (SU) President Tahseen Chowdhury (‘18) temporarily and rightly turned off all posting in the group.

Though the administration was eventually involved in this incident, this type of student policing embodies the level of regulation and independence from the administration that social online forums warrant. Leave it to students to self-report and to monitor each other, without getting the staff involved. Unless a Facebook post or personal message constitutes a serious threat to students or staff, Facebook groups and Messenger chats should remain specifically student spaces.

The act of self-policing extends to individuals. There is a difference between insulting a teacher’s teaching style and insulting a teacher’s character. While it is acceptable to say that a teacher’s method simply didn’t work for you, it is inappropriate to attack a teacher’s personal life and invade his or her privacy. As we expect teachers and staff to respect these online spaces as personal and therefore private, we should also respect their personal lives as out of bounds for critique or commentary.

Before you report, consider that by reporting, you might be compromising the honesty of our online conversations. If you are reporting something with good intentions, consider who is being hurt now, and who will be hurt once you report. Decide whether the consequences of reporting are for the best overall. And if your intentions are sadistic, competitive, or selfish, reflect on those intentions, and decide what you want your student body to look like.

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By Beaux Watwood [The following conversation occurred in Spanish and has been translated for the reader’s convenience.]

Cisgendered straight man stands at the front of the classroom I have been stuck in for months. He says, “Watwood— sorry, Sophia—” “I prefer my last name,” I tell him. My arms and ankles are crossed. My legs are stretched out so far that my sacrum lays flat against the butt of my chair.

I didn’t mean to make my junior year style “Stoner Queer,” but I vibe with the way my blue hair falls in my face when I’m giving teachers shit. To be fair to my Spanish teacher, I do give him more shit than he deserves. But his hair is too spiky.

“Oh. Why?” I shake my head. Adults don’t

ocy they seem to get away with. I want the easy sexiness of not shaving or wearing makeup and still being regarded as traditionally attractive. I want hard edges and boxy lines. Long legs and hard jawlines. I want to walk out the door in baggy clothes and shaggy hair without being an exception to my body type. Or at least not be called a dyke.

And as deeply as I want those things, I do not want people to view me as a trans person.

If I could make the transition into being a boy without any of the the actual transition part, like I could wake up in a boy’s body and have no one remember that I had ever been a girl, I would do it immediately. Even better, if I could suddenly turn into some indiscernible, gender-less stick figure and have no one blink an eye, I would pay lots and lots of money to do so. Even more ideally, if I could just morph between bodies as my feelings changed, I’d change bodies and voices between periods. During class. On my way to the movies. On my way back.

But that’s not the reality of being a trans person. The reality is choosing something in-between. Until you’ve spent enough time and money on transitioning to “pass,” you have to be just as publicly transgender as you are publicly your gender identity. I choose not to dress more androgynously or cut my hair shorter or give people definitive preferred

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pronouns because it makes me uncomfortable when people even label me as a lesbian. There’s something vulnerable about being a “queer” person out loud, even in a community where people are largely accepting. It makes me one degree more “other,” one step less normal, describable as a Person like Them instead of a Person like Us. As a queer person growing up in a binary world, most of the dysphoria comes from feeling like there is no word for the thing you are. There is no box for people like you. There are no other people like you. But I have found comfort in the words of others.

I identify more by poetry than by plastic bathroom signs. I find myself reflected in explanations more elaborate and more dense than “girl” or “boy.”

Sitting on my bedroom floor listening to slam poetry, I heard my words for the first time in Ashe Vernon’s “For Anyone Who’s Listening.”

The problem is my gender is a language I cannot speak yet.

I go, wide-eyed jealous stickyhanded child Reaching for the bodies of the boys I have always wanted to look like I think of all the things I would be willing to give up So that I could look so long So that I could look so flat Look so sharp and so boy,

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usually ask why. Especially when it’s about a subordinate’s identity.

“Sophia’s generic. And feminine.”

He cocks his head to the side with a click, like he’s having a spasm. Like a dog.

“But you are a girl, no?”

I shrug. I don’t really want to out myself to my Spanish class.

Y yo no sé la palabra para “Only kinda?” en Español.

“Meh.” “Okay, okay. Te respecto.”

And maybe he does, but I don’t really expect he gets it. I’ve always hated the Spanish language because every time you refer to yourself with a word, you have to gender it. And if you do it wrong, they correct you. I am not “guapo,” I am “guapa.” I am not “un buen amigo,” I am an “amiga.” And when they correct you, you don’t argue with them.

Even if you said what you meant.

I’m not completely comfortable with my own queer-ass; I’m not trying to make waves about it in my Spanish class.

For as long as I’ve had a full understanding that I occupied a body, I have been unhappy with that body. But for as long as I have been aware of myself as a sexual being, the bodies I have coveted have not been those of emaciated fashion models or curvaceous pin-up girls, but of the tall, skinny white boys I spend so much of my time around. I have little to no interest in my own soft edges. I want the flat-chested idi-

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But my curves Are not something I am willing to be divorced of yet.

I look down at my body and think No, I will not abandon you, not yet, Not like the rest of them As a young person searching for my words in a society trying to delete them from its national dictionary, this sounded like God to me. It sounded like a home full of people who understood where I was coming from—somewhere I could be fully myself and still be considered normal. At the moment, the only place I feel comfortable saying My Words are in places where I know I am with My People. Places where my pronouns will not exclude me from the Us. Places that don’t need to know what my gender is for any reason except to make me more comfortable. Places where there really is no People like Them, because all of the Theys are there already.

And despite the Democratic Party’s touting of an Us defined by its outliers, that clearly isn’t the reality yet. Trans people are still a Them.

Take, for evidence, the slow reversal of trans inclusion in American politics: The Trump administration recently handed the Center for continued on page 11

The Spectator ● November 16, 2018

Page 9

Opinions What’s Next for Brazil?

By Michael Dekhtyar

The Guatemalan Model The best place to start is political corruption, which has gone hand in hand with public office in Brazil for decades. Officials

“Brazil before everything, and God above all.” regularly deal in bribes and secret exchanges with corporate entities, like the state-run oil giant Petrobras, that dominate political agendas across the country. However, the general public has shown time and again that its patience for graft is running thin. After the discovery of a far-reaching corruption network involving Petrobras and the country’s former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (more commonly known as Lula) in 2016, huge waves of protests and an anti-corruption campaign led to Lula’s indictment and forced resignation as chief of

whose campaign was defined by a strong emphasis on honesty, has faced probes from CICIG after his attempt to remove its top prosecutor. The panel has proved extremely effective in its overarching goal of a more honest government. Such an organization, with some modifications like greater autonomy and authority over prosecutions of criminal cases, would therefore be ideal for Brazil’s situation.

Brushed underfoot Nearly 62,000 murders were committed in Brazil in 2017,

making it one of the most violent countries in the world. Policies that will be created to combat the horrific level of crime must balance strict adherence to human rights and legal procedures with uncompromising, proactive action.

Brazil’s armed forces have been a point of pride for numerous military dictators who ruled the country in past decades. As the largest economy in South America and one of the largest countries in the world, political leaders often point to the military as an efficient and legitimizing force that protects Brazil’s interests and exists to defend the country and its people. The army generals who took over Brazil’s government in 1964 and proclaimed themselves leaders of the country were the main proponents of the pride, power, and position of the military. While the military government crushed opposition, tortured and killed dissidents, and trampled over human and civil rights, its rule has since been identified by many with law, order, and peace. It was this idolization of the army and the deification of its rule that propelled Bolsonaro to the presidency with 55 percent of the national vote.

As one of the strongest institutions in Brazil, the military has often intervened to preserve national unity and security. Historically, this has meant nothing less than outright coups against the government. But with the country’s crime problem becoming an epidemic in recent years, military commanders have decided to intervene not in the government, but in the urban streets of Brazil.

Soldiers in full combat gear can often be seen apprehending criminals and questioning onlookers.

This situation is not unique to slums and villages; even large cities like Rio de Janeiro have received massive influxes of professional military forces. However, these attempts by the military to bring the killings to an end by the use of force have done more harm than good. Many have criticized the presence of the soldiers as a “publicity stunt,” functioning more as a false reassurance of security than an actual deterrent against crime. Deploying troops in the most crime-affected regions is a temporary solution at best and serves more to destabilize areas of high population than to actually keep people safe.

Mr. Bolsonaro’s preferred solution of increasing gun ownership is even worse than outright military intervention. More weapons in poverty-stricken neighborhoods would only increase robberies, assaults, and killings, and the assertion that criminals would be dissuaded from breaking the law because of increased ownership of weapons is laughable. The best solution is to focus on increasing the funding, efficiency, and procedures of regional police forces.

This could be achieved through mandating provincial and local governments to set aside portions of public funds to pay for hiring, training, and equipping more police officers. Without the specter of past dictatorships to haunt it, the national police force could potentially become a highly effective crime-fighting force in Brazil.

Such an approach would not immediately have a noticeable effect on crime statistics in Brazil, but if the government stays committed to its policy goals, the long-term gains will become obvious.

Real change The third major problem Brazil faces is a quickly eroding economy. Former President Lula became extremely popular with the Brazilian people after implementing a generous and richly funded pension scheme, which aimed to benefit families and the

Sunjung Bok / The Spectator

“Brazil before everything, and God above all,” read the platform slogan of former army captain Jair Bolsonaro, now the Presidentelect of Brazil. Its meaning became clear as the campaign went on. Bolsonaro has disparaged the LGBT community on numerous occasions, claiming that he would rather have a dead son than a gay one. Speaking with a congresswoman from Brazil’s lower house, he publicly stated he wouldn’t rape her because she wouldn’t deserve it. He has attacked people of color (who make up a considerable portion of the country’s population), spoken in outright favor of torture (harkening back to Brazil’s 21-year military dictatorship), and referred to immigrants as the “scum of the earth.”

But there is still some hope for Brazil’s future. Mr. Bolsonaro’s aggressively conservative views on social issues do not have to be realized as actual policy.

If the president-elect can resist his dictatorial bend and follow through on the most promising and fleshed-out parts of his campaign, Brazil will soon be well on its way to returning as one of the world’s foremost democracies.

Bolsonaro is tasked with solving an unprecedented triad of problems. Corruption plagues the country’s government and police; the number of murders nationwide has shot up, predominantly affecting Brazil’s poorest neighborhoods; and a deep recession caused by short-sighted policymaking has gutted its previously booming economy. If the country is to have any chance at recovering its international influence, political integrity, and economic power, Bolsonaro must move past his admiration for a long dead military regime and implement policies that will help, not hurt, the Brazilian people.

staff under newly elected President Dilma Rousseff.

While the ex-president was barred by Brazil’s Supreme Federal Court from being a candidate again, he remains one of the country’s most popular figures due to his far-reaching reforms that provided education, funds, and food for Brazil’s most vulnerable people. Lula was the favorite to win the 2018 election prior to the release of the Supreme Court’s verdict. Subsequent Presidents Dilma Rousseff and Michel Temer have not fared as well.

Their respective tenures proved that Lula’s successors were no less corrupt than him, and their ineffectiveness as government leaders led to a major decline in government integrity and public belief in the honesty of political leaders.

Political misconduct proved to be the strongest reason for the growing popular discontent with the incumbent government.

Enter Jair Bolsonaro, a strongman who, despite serving seven terms in Brazil’s legislature, successfully presented himself as an anti-establishment challenger. By appointing Sergio Moro, the judge who sentenced Lula to prison, as his justice minister and declaring that corruption in his government would not be tolerated, Bolsonaro has taken considerable action toward beating governmental misconduct.

Hardline positions and political appointments, however, are not enough. Brazil’s lawmakers can hardly be trusted to police their own misconduct. To find a workable model for combating corruption and rule-breaking, look no further than Guatemala.

The country has experienced its own share of political problems, including governmental dishonesty and, in some cases, outright violation of constitutional law.

The solution, or at least the start of one, came in the form of the International Commission Against Impunity in Guatemala (CICIG). Created a decade ago with a UN resolution, CICIG’s job is to monitor and report governmental lawbreaking, violations of human rights, and misconduct in the country. While the commission has a purely advisory role, it has been extraordinarily effective as an anti-corruption panel acting independently from the government.

Then-President Otto Perez Molina was jailed in 2015 after a fraud investigation by the commission kickstarted 20 weeks of forceful protests. Since then, CICIG has grown more and more popular with Guatemalans and has been granted legitimacy by the UN to fight corruption.

It has not relented in its mission to clean up national politics: even current President Jimmy Morales,

elderly with a countrywide safety net. Government salaries are exorbitantly high, and public officials have access to massive pots of public money after retirement, which is attainable at ages as early as 50. These combined measures have tanked Brazil’s budget and led to a sharp downturn in economic health. The country’s National Treasury calculated the gross national debt to be 74 percent of GDP at the end of 2017, up from 70 percent in 2016.

Bolsonaro’s economic policy, which advocates for privatization of industry as opposed to public ownership, is among the more controversial parts of his plan to cure Brazil’s woes. The proposed merger of the ministries of Finance, Industry, and Planning into one agency suggests a larger vision for a simpler and more streamlined government.

With the appointment of freemarket economist Paulo Guedes as the head of the vast new “super-ministry,” Mr. Bolsonaro has made clear his adherence to liberal economic principles. However, as with the corruption agenda, more action must be taken if the economy is to rebound from its current slump. Widespread privatization of industry has potential, but it will not keep the debt from rising ever higher. The problem behind the current economic crisis dates back to even before President Lula’s tenure— public spending.

While the bloated government is no doubt in need of serious trimming of red tape, overreliance on the private sector will not solve Brazil’s economic woes. Petrobras, though it is state-subsidized and state-run, is one of the most notorious corporate conglomerates in the world, and the scandals it has been involved in have led to an understandable wariness about private companies among the Brazilian populace. The people at large will not embrace private corporations after years of corruption stemming from government back-channeling with those same organizations.

A better solution would be to invest in human capital, one of the most valuable resources in the world. The government should focus on providing economic opportunities and improved social mobility for the Brazilian population rather than devoting massive public funds to pension pots and

military budgets.

Considering President Lula’s extraordinary popularity with the country during his tenure, his failure to reform Brazil’s pension system underscores just how difficult it would be to push such legislature through the government. Increasing funding to the country’s Ministry of Education would be an excellent first step.

The money should be spent on developing Brazilian children’s potential and skills from the very beginning of their education.

Public schools should get more funding and oversight, and all students at or below high school age should be guaranteed a quality education.

Colleges are more expensive for the government to subsidize and cover, but the government must recognize that they are not the only path to success for aspiring successful Brazilians; training programs and access to adequate jobs should be an essential function of the national government.

Finding space in the national budget for such investment promises to be difficult. The most obvious place to start would be to cut the military’s annual funds, which would have the double effect of freeing up more money and weakening the influence that the armed forces still hold over the Brazilian government. To take these steps would mean the biggest investment in human capital the country has seen in years, if not decades, and it would be the first meaningful action of restoring hope in the potential of the Brazilian people.

As of now, Brazil’s future is in the hands of an ex-military strongman who has expressed strong preference for autocratic leadership and disregard for basic human decency and essential rights. The country would benefit from a combination of support for private industry, opposition to corruption, and investment in education. However, by electing a former military member to the highest office of the land, Brazil risks endangering its hard-won democratic institutions. Right now, Jair Bolsonaro faces overwhelming problems as Brazil’s next president. If he manages to resist his authoritarian leanings and radical personal views, he has a good chance of fixing them.

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The Spectator ● November 16, 2018

Opinions Linguistic Gender Norms

By Anne Rhee A tech start-up company known as npm blogged on Tumblr about the recent challenge that some of their coworkers had created in 2015. Every time an employee said the phrase “you guys” to address a group of mixed individuals—an act the company dubbed as “creepy sexism”—they would have to deposit a dollar into a jar. Once the jar reached a certain amount, it would be donated to a

different non-profit group.

As a freshman debater, I learned that using the phrase “you guys” to a mixed group of individuals or to a solely female team within the debate space was considered linguistic violence. When I was called out for it, I realized that I had said the phrase instinctively without understanding the connotation. After this incident, I began to grow more sensitive to gendered language used by the people around me.

Unlike languages like French where there is a masculine and feminine form for most nouns, English does not designate genders grammatically. However, a large portion of English is gender-specific or gendered language. Terms such as “policeman” or “policewoman” and male pronouns in sentences like “When a hiker encounters a bear, he should…” show that terms associated with males are the norm. When nouns such as careers are defined by using male pronouns, it is more common for one to envision a man in a laboratory experimenting with chemicals, even with growing gender equality

in STEM fields.

In contrast, over the last three decades, French, a traditionally gendered language, has been undergoing a major shift, with feminists and linguists questioning its gender norms. Many have made the argument that because French is such a structurally gendered language, it may lead to greater sexism against women in France. Though this is not soundly supported by evidence, the logic of this reasoning resembles another scientific theory developed in the 20th century known as the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis, which argues that language and discourse direct and select one’s thoughts, and linguistic categories determine our thoughts and decisions.

This became known as a theory called “linguistic relativity,” which was built on the belief that the world was subconsciously divided by various cultures through language. Whorf and other supporters of this principle cited examples such as the Hopi, an indigenous tribe that Whorf said had no tenses for words or time-related words such as “before” or “after.”

This led Whorf to conclude that time was not a universal concept, but rather was specific to those who spoke European languages.

Another supporter of this theory, Lera Boroditsky, gave the example of an Aborigine community called the Aymara, who believe that the future is behind you and the past is in front of you. Even though this theory was eventually rejected by the majority of linguists in the 1960s due to a lack of concrete evidence, there is still a considerable number of psychologists who agree that language does influence and direct our thoughts to a certain extent.

In fact, until the Second-Wave Feminist Movement occurred in the 1960s, any person, regardless of gender, was referred to as “he” or “his” or “him.” Though this has been reformed, gendered language has been replaced with phrases like “you guys,” which is meant to be “gender-neutral,” but is still gendered. The singular word “guy” is defined as a man, yet saying “you guys” has become so naturally used that it is considered unisex despite its singular form being directed

toward one gender. Gendered language is extremely dangerous when you see a girl referring to herself and other girls as guys.

American novelist Alice Walker says that in doing so, women show a fear of being feminine, which can lead to the erasure of their identities by unintentionally exchanging their identities for another. Rather, gender-neutral alternatives like “everyone” should be used more commonly in place of gendered phrases.

It must be noted, however, that we shouldn’t immediately reject all words that we believe are semiotically only associated with men like “mankind,” as they are not commonly used to address a general population, unlike the phrase “you guys.” There is much controversy over what words in the English language are gendered.

However, we should be aware of the implications that our discourse has. Even when brought to our attention, discursive norms that we have been practicing and using are extremely hard to change.

It is the willingness to remain aware and correct oneself that matters.

The Death Penalty and the 10/31 Terrorist Attack

By Julian Giordano

and not disproportionately to people of a certain race, gender, etc.

The death penalty is currently legal in 30 states, and, in most instances, it occurs by lethal injection (the electric chair, gas chambers, and hanging have all been deemed “cruel and unusual” in most states and are considered as second options in other states). While lethal injection is the most humane and

Though it can sometimes bring closure to the families of victims and can act as a deterrent for future crime, these slight benefits do not outweigh the costs of capital punishment. death penalty. As of now, federal prosecutors are still seeking the death penalty, but there have been disagreements over two points of controversy.

The first controversy arose when President Trump tweeted

has added clarity to the clause, stating that the death penalty is not applicable to people 18 years or younger, that people with intellectual disabilities cannot be executed, and that the death penalty must be applied fairly to all people

least painful method of execution, a shortage of the necessary drugs (there is no longer an American supplier, and the European Union, the primary producer, prohibits selling them for use in capital punishment) has prevented many states from executing people with-

out complications that make the process painful and cruel.

Perhaps more important than how the death penalty is given is who is given the death penalty. Between 1989 and 2015, 116 people have been exonerated from death row across the United States. In addition, a Columbia Law School study found that there were mistakes in the conduction of twothirds of all capital trials and that when cases were appealed, seven percent of people were found not guilty. This is atrocious, and perhaps the most important reason why the death penalty should not be implemented in the U.S. is because it can and has killed innocent people. As stated in Blackstone’s formulation, “It is better that 10 guilty persons escape than that one innocent suffer.” If the U.S.’s criminal justice system executes even one innocent person, those are grounds to say that the justice system isn’t truly just and that the death penalty should not be a punishment unless we can convict people with 100 percent certainty.

Even if the morality of the death penalty wasn’t at play, from a pragmatic perspective, the death

penalty should not be applied, as it is much more costly than a life sentence. On average, the death penalty can cost $1.2 million more than life imprisonment. These fees are crucial to ensuring full certainty that the accused are guilty, especially considering that the death penalty is an irreversible punishment. The Justice Department can’t risk avoiding these fees as long as there exists even a minuscule possibility that someone was wrongfully confused.

In examining the specific case of Saipov’s deadly terrorist attack, it is unquestionable that the murders he committed and the damage he caused are immoral, inhuman, and atrocious. If anyone were to “deserve” the death penalty, or if there would ever be enough evidence to correctly indict someone, that person would be Saipov. Yet Saipov should not receive the death penalty because doing so would reaffirm support in a system of punishment that is based on shaky constitutional backing and that has a history of wrongful convictions and overly expensive trials.

Jason Lin / The Spectator

In the deadliest terrorist attack in New York since September 11, 2001, Sayfullo Saipov plowed a truck into the Hudson River bike path directly outside of Stuyvesant High School, killing eight people and injuring 12 more. As Stuyvesant students were preparing to leave school, Saipov exited his crashed van with a pellet and paintball gun and shouted “God is great” in Arabic before getting shot in the abdomen by a police officer. Following his arrest, he revealed that he was inspired by Islamic State videos, that he was intending to kill as many civilians as possible, and that he would have continued his rampage had he not crashed the van.

Following the attack, Saipov pleaded not guilty to 22 federal counts including murder, attempted murder, and provision of material support and resources to a designated foreign terrorist organization. However, Saipov’s lawyers have stated that he will plead guilty if the government prosecutes him for a life sentence instead of the

“SHOULD GET DEATH PENALTY!” when referring to Saipov after the attack. While Saipov’s defense argued that this put tremendous pressure on then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions to pursue the death penalty, Sessions stated that the Justice Department “will not be improperly influenced by political considerations.”

The second and more fundamental controversy in this trial has to do with whether or not capital punishment is morally, constitutionally, and pragmatically right. If any crime were to “deserve” the death penalty, Saipov’s purposeful massacre of eight people and his intentions to kill even more would. And yet capital punishment in the United States is shakily defined in the Constitution, it has a record of being given to wrongfully accused people, and is a costly process. And though it can sometimes bring closure to the families of victims and act as a deterrent for future crime, these slight benefits do not outweigh the costs of capital punishment.

The origins of capital punishment go back to the Eighth Amendment in the Bill of Rights, which states that “excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.”

The definition of the last part of this clause, “cruel and unusual punishments,” is hotly debated.

All that can clearly be determined from it is that it outlaws ancient and “barbaric” forms of torture and that it serves to limit government power and protect citizens in the same manner as the 14th Amendment, which prohibits states from denying “any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law.”

Over time, the Supreme Court

The Spectator ● November 16, 2018

Page 11

Opinions Dear English Teachers

continued from page 8

Disease Control and Prevention a list of seven banned words and phrases not to be used in 2018 budget documents. One of these words was “transgender.”

The Washington Post noted, in Lena H. Sun and Juliet Eilperin’s report, “CDC Gets List of Forbidden Words: Fetus, Transgender, Diversity,” that “In some instances, the analysts weregiven alternative phrases. Instead of ‘science-based’ or ‘evidencebased,’ the suggested phrase is ‘CDC bases its recommendations on science in consideration with community standards and wishes,’ the person said. In other cases, no replacement words were immediately offered.”

Muting the word “transgender” to be used in a scientific way is not just a way to take a jab at the “P. C. Culture” that Trump and many of his supporters abhor.

It’s erasure of an entire group.

By forcing the CDC to keep the word out of budget reports, they force them to be mute on the subject. Removing the word “transgender” from the national vocabulary shuns transgender citizens into silence and confusion. The inclusion of words in a language signifies the inclusion

of ideas in a society. The reverse has the converse power.

Society’s silence when it comes to LGBT issues marginalizes outliers and contributes to shame within the community.

“The prevalence of suicide attempts among respondents to the National Transgender Discrimination Survey, conducted by the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force and National Center for Transgender Equality, is 41 percent, which vastly exceeds the 4.6 percent of the overall U.S. population who report a lifetime suicide attempt, and is also higher than the 10-20 percent of lesbian, gay and bisexual adults who report ever attempting suicide,” states a paper by the Williams Institute.¹ So, Dear English Teachers, This I Believe: When writing a formal essay, when it becomes appropriate for one to refer to an indeterminate singular protagonist, as I am doing in this sentence, it is also appropriate for them to use they/them pronouns to refer to a singular person of indeterminate gender, rather than using phrases such as “he or she,” “him or her,” or “his or her,” et cetera. The phrase “his or her” and its cisnormative brethren is just one more tool of a cisnormative society in which the language

itself utilizes the gender binary at every possible pportunity.

I too, Dear English Teachers, was once a pronoun nut. As a creative writing major at Mark Twain Intermediate School, I had it drilled into me from the sixth grade that They Is Not A Singular Pronoun, and took it upon myself as a lover of the flawed English language to correct anyone using it as such. It was about the time when I realized I was not exactly a she, per se, that I started using they as a singular pronoun at every opportunity in formal essays. In accordance with my queer-as-hell agenda, I have done this in every analytical essay since the beginning of my sophomore year. And Dear English Teacher, the age of “correcting” my use of “their” with “his or her,” is coming to a close.

“His or her” is outdated. In the same way that in the 1970s, new wave feminism brought “he or she” to replace the Victorian “he,” society is adopting “they” as grammatically acceptable 48 years later. It was added to The Washington Post’s style guide in 2015. Universities (andFacebook) allow one to choose they as their personal pronoun. In New Yorker copy editor Mary Norris’ book

“Between You & Me,” she says that this use of “they” is “just wrong.” She also says “Nobody [which is SINGULAR] wanted to think they were not essential.” The Historical Oxford English Dictionary recognizes that Thackeray, Goldsmith, Shaw, Sidney, Byron, Ruskin, Dickens, Shakespeare, and Austen have all used the singular they/them construction.

I say nothing of which I am ashamed. Let everybody on the hill hear me if they can. —Jane Austen, Emma (1815) If it’s good enough for Jane Austen, it’s good enough for me.

And to boot, it’s clunky. Having a tendency to write too much rather than not enough, I have no desire to spend an extra five characters enforcing the gender binary. If English were augmented to include a gender-neutral singular pronoun, like Chinese and Finnish, I would happily adopt it. But for now, I will continue brandishing my singular they, vanquishing English teachers and grammarians everywhere, until genderqueer people are allowed their space in the English language.

Who knows, if society gets that far, maybe they’ll be even realize we don’t need gender designations for single-stall bathrooms.

When people ask me for my pronouns, I say “any and all,” because when people call me by “they/them,” it feels like being blinded with a spotlight. But they’re not wrong, exactly. I amdoing my best to be happy with my in-between space. With my sometimes-gender-neutral name and my binders and my sports bras. I’m figuring out that I’m happiest in massive t-shirts, but I’m even happier wearing glitter.

I’ve been threatening to shave my head since the eighth grade, but first I have to believe I can get boys even when I’m looking like a lesbian. Or get over boys. I’m scared of defining myself like that. I am still scared to say my words. I am still scared they will be foreign and uncomfortable to the people around me when I work up the courage to say them.

—People Like Us Haas, Ann P., et al. Suicide Attempts among Transgender and Gender Non-Conforming Adults.

American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, Williams Institute, UCLA School of Law. 1

The President of the United States is Inciting Violence and People are Dying

By Jonathan Schneiderman

A few weeks ago, the nation was less than shocked by a slew of acts of political violence both indicating and resulting from an atmosphere of hostility, violence, and paranoia that President Trump has stoked repeatedly.

A man to whom I will refer to as Jeff Smith* attempted to assassinate some of Trump’s most notable targets. Though several of Trump’s media allies, including commentator and convicted felon Dinesh D’Souza (whom Trump pardoned in May 2018) and Fox Business commentator Lou Dobbs, claimed that the bombs were false flags sent by Democrats―a hypothesis that Trump himself seemed to suggest in a tweet shortly before Smith’s arrest―it became extremely clear after Smith’s arrest that they were no such thing. Smith left an extensive pro-Trump footprint on social media and drove and lived in a van covered in stickers emblazoned with such unambiguous messages as “MY PRESIDENT...It Was A 306-Tsunami [sic]” (a reference to Trump’s electoral college margin, which ranks in the 23rd percentile of electoral college margins) and “CNN SUCKS.” Smith was systematically and deliberately trying to kill those he believed were a threat to Donald Trump and was doing so out of support for Trump.

In the interest of giving

credit where it’s due, I should note that Trump decried the attempted bombings, saying: “[A] ny acts or threats of political violence are an attack on our democracy itself. No nation can succeed that tolerates violence or the threat of violence as a method of political intimidation, coercion, or control. We all know that. Such conduct must be fiercely opposed and firmly prosecuted. We want all sides to come together in peace and harmony. We can do it. We can do it. We can do it. It will happen.”

But that’s where the due credit ends.

After a week during which a deranged supporter of his tried to assassinate 12 of his critics and a news network, Trump, rather than taking some time for introspection, went straight back to the rhetoric that had inspired Smith in the first place.

Mere hours after Smith’s arrest, he was at a rally chanting “Lock her up.” This was a reference to Hillary Clinton, of whom multiple FBI investigations have found no grounds for prosecution. He even decided to take the stance that the anger that had motivated Smith, despite clearly being directly inspired

by Trump, was actually the media’s fault, an astonishing but unsurprising case of victim-blaming.

Frankly, even if Trump were right about the news media and Democrats (he’s not), his behavior in response to the attacks was unacceptable and dangerous.

Any Trump supporters with feelings similar to Smith’s came out of the debacle more emboldened and more likely to commit further violence. We now know for certain that there are people out there who hear the President call Democrats and the news media “the enemy of the people” and decide that they ought to take violent action against their enemy. Trump’s response to the confirmation of this (pretty obvious) fact was to continue

his rhetorical assault on the news media. More of Trump’s critics will be targeted, and we may not be so lucky as to have their targeter be an incompetent bombmaker next time. And if people die because of Trump’s espousal of rhetoric well-established to be inflammatory, it will be his fault.

But we need not speak about the violent threat that Trump’s rhetoric poses in hypotheticals.

The day after Smith’s arrest, 11 people were shot dead at the Tree Of Life―Or L’Simchah (“light of happiness”) Congregation in Pittsburgh. When information about the shooter, to whom I will refer to as Arthur Brown, started to come out, Trump’s defenders were quick to point out that he was no fan of Trump, and he frequently posted antiTrump memes on social media.

What these defenders failed to point out was why Brown hated Trump. It wasn’t that he particularly disliked Trump’s rhetoric or public persona―quite the opposite. In

Karen Lai / The Spectator

fact, Brown described Trump’s persona as being “a good, strong white leader.” What he didn’t like about Trump’s rhetoric wasn’t the content itself, but the fact that he thought it wasn’t genuine―he thought that Trump had been assigned his role by the Jews.

In fact, Brown was directly inspired to commit his atrocity by a conspiracy theory that Trump has been pushing over the past several weeks: Jews, notably George Soros, have been funding the migrant caravan coming from South and Central America in an attempt to destroy American society. This is the latest in a long history of “the Jews want to destroy the White race” mania, and now, it has killed 11 people.

Those who wish to depoliticize explicitly political violence have tried to argue that this isn’t a political issue but a mental health issue: crazy people are going to do crazy things, regardless of politics, these people argue.

But every country has mental illness. When a society has an unusual amount of violence, this is indicative of something about the society.

And the recent uptick in political violence is a result of an environment in which extremism is tolerated and violence encouraged.

That Trump has contributed quite a bit to this environment is nothing new. During his presidential campaign, he repeatedly encouraged rally-goers to assault protesters. In March 2016, The New York Times compiled some of Trump’s greatest hits, ranging from the nostalgic (“In the good old days [protesting] doesn’t happen because they used to treat them very, very rough, and when they protested once...they would not do it again so easily”) to the lamentatious (“Part of the problem is nobody wants to hurt each

other anymore”) to the explicitly encouraging (“Knock the crap out of them...I promise you, I will pay for the legal fees”).

Trump seems to have a nostalgia for 1968, when Bobby Kennedy and Martin Luther King were shot and the country was engulfed by riots. He has repeatedly encouraged and, as usually happens when the President encourages something, inspired violence. People are dying and will continue to die unless he changes his violent tune, something he seems to have no intention of doing.

The correct response to this is not to respond in kind. Recently, I saw someone on Facebook say that Trump “needs a pipe bomb.” That is wrong and dangerous. But it is imperative that we recognize what Trump is doing and resist.

The best way to resist?

Firstly, talk. Don’t be someone who “doesn’t really talk about politics.” We can’t afford that.

Secondly, because I’m writing for a high school periodical, you probably can’t vote, so volunteer instead. Knock on doors. By the time this article is printed, the midterms will have come and gone. But there will still be special elections, and, perhaps most importantly, there will be the 2020 presidential election, which will act as a referendum on Trump even more than the midterms. It is likely that the Democratic nominee will not be your ideal candidate. That doesn’t matter. Even if you believe the candidate to be corrupt and in the pocket of Big Pharma or what have you, that’s still preferable to a man whose rhetoric is killing people.

And, if you’re an adult or a recent graduate reading this, vote. Please. As someone who has no voice at the polls, I need you. You have a tremendous power. Please use it. *I will not use the actual names of terrorists who have been apprehended by authorities. Terrorists want their names published in the media. It gives them glory and martyrdom.

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The Spectator ● November 16, 2018

Opinions There is Nothing Magical in Reinforcing Asian Stereotypes

By Anna Lu I grew up reading the Harry Potter books. Like most of J.K. Rowling’s fans, I was quickly and completely consumed by the quirky fashions, dazzling heroes and heroines, and fantastic beasts of the Wizarding World.

But now that I can better comprehend the underlying messages of the novels, I realize that the development of the few characters that represented the Asian population was executed very poorly.

The way Rowling portrayed Asian characters seemed careless, as she didn’t elaborate on their ethnicity at all, making it seem like she was just adding them for the sake of increasing diversity among her characters. Her efforts to include Asians in her writing are commendable, but even with good intentions, she manages to box Asian characters into their stereotypical roles.

Considering that the franchise primarily caters to younger, more impressionable audiences, Rowling should have put more thought into whether or not the characters should have been Asian and the implications that their actions have for the image of the community that they stand for.

Cho Chang and the Patil twins, Padma and Parvati, are presumed to be the only characters of Asian origin in the original Harry Potter series, even though it isn’t ever specified that they are Asian. It is problematic that the only indications that they are Asian are their stereotypical Asian names, and Rowling doesn’t make

any more substantial references to their ethnicity throughout the books. Rowling’s creation of Cho Chang’s character evidently wasn’t carefully thought out, as even the character’s name makes no sense.

Cho is a Korean surname, while Chang is a common Chinese surname. The two names would most likely never be found together because they are both last names and are ethnically inconsistent. This confusing mash of names only points readers to the general conclusion that Cho Chang is Asian, but never specifies her ethnicity.

Establishing clear ethnic identities for the few people of color in the novels is important because, in the case of Asian identities, being Chinese is very different from being Korean or Indian. The failure to make this distinction perpetuates the Western perception that Asian ethnicities are homogenous when they are absolutely not.

Cho Chang’s character revolves solely around her relationship with Harry Potter, and her only purpose is to be Harry’s first love interest. Her portrayal is very consistent with the stereotype sur rounding Asian women, making them out to be meek a n d d e pen-

dent. She is cast into the damsel-in-distress trope after her boyfriend’s death, and Harry is the person she relies on to find comfort and resolution for her grief. In “The Order of the Phoenix,” Chang is seen constantly crying, being reduced to a weepy mess in the one book of the series in which she is relevant. One of the protagonists of the novel notes, “Cho spends half her time crying these days. She does it at mealtimes, in the loos, all over the place.” This description exaggerates her emotional vulnerability to a comical extent, and it makes it difficult for the reader to take her seriously as a character and as an Asian woman.

Chang’s lack of character depth is often attributed to her status as a minor character, but that isn’t justification for her being written so one-dimensionally, since many of the white minor characters receive thoroughly developed character arcs. For instance, Percy Weasley, who only makes a few appearances throughout the series and is largely characterized by brief comments made by more prominent characters, shows just as much character development as the protagonists. Weasley is por-

Katherine Kibatullin / The Spectator

trayed as a very obnoxious and entitled character at first, and many of his decisions are driven by his shame about his family’s disfavored status as “blood traitors.”

He chooses to work for Britain’s wizarding government, feeling pressured to succeed and redeem his family name. In the midst of war, Weasley chooses loyalty to a corrupt and oppressive government over loyalty to his own family, believing that he is doing the right thing. Ultimately, he realizes that he is loyal to his family above all and displays a massive amount of courage by standing up to his superiors. Despite his sparse appearances in the novels, Percy Weasley’s character arc is incredibly complex and moving, whereas Cho Chang’s character building has none of that intricacy, and she is instead characterized in favor of a prevailing stereotype, which is inexcusable.

The stereotype that Chang embodies persists in the spinoff series, “Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them.” Rowling recently revealed that the snake, Nagini, from the original Harry Potter series, was actually an Asian woman before she became the main antagonist’s pet snake. This news triggered a massive internet debate, with some believing that there was no harm meant in casting the role of Nagini while others deemed it a blatantly racist role.

In any case, Rowling’s decision to make Nagini an Asian woman was not sensible, as it maintains that same “subservient Asian woman” characterization established in the original series, except this time the correlations between the character and stereotype are glaring.

Nagini is an Asian woman cursed to become a snake, so her character is literally dehumanized. She also eventually becomes a faithful servant to Voldemort and does his every bidding, which takes this stereotype to a new level. This characterization is especially problematic when it happens multiple times because Rowling fails to broaden her representation of Asian women and instead imposes the same narrow characterization on all of her Asian characters.

Many people believe that

Ending Anti-Semitism

By Mia Gindis During a morning service at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania on October 27, a deranged gunman walked in and fatally wounded 11 people.

Upon entering, he made one menacing statement: “All Jews must die.”

Days after the incident, media attention has dwindled to an astonishingly low level, and the public eye was quick to shift away from the sore sight of mourning Jews in Pittsburgh.

Even more recently, a synagogue in Brooklyn, New York, was vandalized with graffiti boasting a similarly wicked mantra: “Kill all Jews.” A day later, seven hasidic institutions in southern

Williamsburg were targeted by an arsonist. Yet the silence of most liberal non-Jewish people, who are usually so quick to react, after these events says something about who they feel is marginalized and deserving of protection.

This is by no means a cry for pity. The Jewish community has always been incredibly selfsustaining. It is beautiful to witness how resilient everyone is and how quickly they come together in times of hardship. But part of the “problem” is undoubtedly that Jews have been so successful— after all, they simultaneously make up 1.4 percent of America’s population and almost 50 percent of America’s billionaires. And to be fair, American Jews have certainly been greeted with relatively high levels of acceptance in the past several decades. Colleges and corporate boards (that their grandparents never would’ve gotten a seat in) have opened their doors to all faiths. Jews can move into mixed neighborhoods without fear of being ostracized; religion has generally ceased to be a defining part of their identity.

But the lack of palpable antisemitism should not be mistaken for a lack of its presence. According to The New York Times, the Anti-Defamation league “logged a 57 percent rise in anti-Semitic incidents in the United States in 2017,

compared to the previous year— including bomb threats, assaults, vandalism, and anti-Semitic posters and literature found on college campuses.” Even more frightening is where the epidemic has struck: American youth. On university campuses alone, according to a study by the Brandeis Center, anti-Semitism has jumped by 80 percent. Students report having to consciously avoid wearing any religious symbols such as Star of David necklaces or shirts with Hebrew lettering, in fear of being labeled “Zionist baby-killers” by classmates. In one instance, five Jewish students at Columbia University were harassed by dozens of Pro-Palestinian activists.

Unsurprisingly, the administration did little to help.

Deborah E. Lipstadt, a professor of Holocaust history at Emory University, likens this reemergence to a herpes infection, which lies dormant and appears at moments of stress. Right now, the political strain on our nation, in addition to copycat attacks, have made these developments all the more unsightly. The vein of antiSemitism that runs deep through America is pulsing yet again, and hardly anyone is trying to quiet it.

There have been too many instances in my own life when people around me have said blatantly anti-Semitic things without

a second thought. I’ve had close friends say things to me that were ridiculously ignorant or scoff at traditions they can’t relate to. I’ve seen horribly offensive anti-Semitic memes shared on Facebook; I’ve had to sit and listen to Holocaust jokes with a blank expression on my face, knowing that speaking up would only make it worse.

And of course, that’s nothing compared to the way some of my Jewish friends have been treated in schools less politically correct than Stuyvesant. And even that is nothing compared to the tragedy which transpired in Pittsburgh on

the controversy surrounding Nagini’s backstory and the racial representation in Harry Potter is overblown and that illogical interpretations are being made from the young adult series. However, Harry Potter’s wizarding world was written using the injustice of the blood purity hierarchy and oppression of magical creatures to paint a metaphor for racial discrimination. The values that Rowling writes into the story in the context of the liberation of house-elves and the delegitimization of the blood purity hierarchy are about being more inclusive and accepting. Yet she never actually succeeds in being inclusive in terms of her representation of people of color or any other oppressed group. She placed the handful of characters of color in pointlessly minor roles, and, like in the case of Cho Chang, did not represent their cultural identities.

She retroactively decided to make Dumbledore, one of the most prominent heroes of the story, gay without actually writing his experiences as reflective of the reality of being gay in a narrowminded society or writing about his sexuality at all. Her value of embracing others regardless of their differences is not upheld in reality, and thus the young people who read her books can’t really appreciate this value outside the context of Rowling’s metaphors.

If writers and filmmakers make the conscious decision to include underrepresented groups in their work, they incur the responsibility to represent them realistically by giving them varied characterizations instead of giving a different name to the same character time and time again. If characters representing a minority group are included, they should be there because they are meant to make an impression on the audience or tell a story with their heritage as just one part of a more complex and developed character.

Otherwise, these characters exist for the sole benefit of the creator to be seen as “socially conscious” rather than to benefit underrepresented groups. This nuanced representation would make inclusivity less of a fantasy and more of a reality.

them here. I’m tired of underhanded comments, I’m tired of being the silent minority, and I’m tired of losing respect for classmates who don’t understand the impact of their words.

But mostly, I’m tired of seeing Jews react to anti-Semitism in the way that’s been instilled in them all their lives: to shut up and take it. They laugh when someone comments on their nose; they take pennies thrown at them on escalators and chuck them right back.

They grow so desensitized to it to the point where they convince themselves that anti-Semitism is

“But the lack of palpable anti-semitism should not be mistaken for a lack of presence. “ Saturday.

But maybe it isn’t nothing. It bothers me that my brother rarely wears his Star of David necklace because he got fed up with my mom telling him to hide it under his shirt. It bothers me that my parents fled their native countries to evade a hatred that’s followed

an antiquated concept, when in reality, it’s pervasive in modern American culture. Casual antiSemitism isn’t “nothing” at all, and the more we normalize it, the more tragedies just like these will continue to occur. I am not okay with anti-Semitism. And I’m done pretending that I am.

The Spectator ● November 16, 2018

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The Spectator ● November 16, 2018

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Arts and Entertainment Theater

By GRACE GOLDSTEIN When junior Sara Stebbins introduced STC’s final performance of “Runaways,” she addressed what makes this particular production—her first as a Slate member and Executive Producer—stand out at Stuyvesant. One year ago, STC’s fall musical was “1776,” a musical almost entirely about older white men. This year, she wanted to produce a show that hits closer to home. “Runaways,” a musical about children and teenagers living on the streets, showcases the most extreme versions of the universally acknowledged teenage fears and struggles: fighting or divorced parents, overwhelming political drama seeping into daily life through the news, sexual assault, and drug abuse.

Originally produced in 1978, it feels freshly relevant.

Directed by sophomore Clara Yuste, junior Zeynep Bromberg, and senior Adam Elsayed, “Runaways” is an ensemble show, meaning there are no set roles. STC cast about 30 students, and divided the thematic series of abstract songs, monologues, and group numbers between them. “Runaways” is a collection of unique stories tied

STC’s “Runaways” Hits Close To Home together under one theme: all of the characters are child runaways, living through shoplifting, prostitution, and more of what they refer to as “enterprise.” The show sends a powerful message regarding the responsibility of parents, the tragedy of stolen childhood, and the enduring spirit that it portrays but does not romanticize.

“Where Do People Go?” (not the first scene of the show, but the first group musical number), captured the effortlessness necessary for a show about angstridden teens, learning to survive away from the perceived support and safety of the nuclear family.

The costumes were ‘70s-inspired, but not out-of-touch, appearing mostly out-of-closet. The set was a brick wall covered in graffiti of contemporary characters and the name of the show in comic lettering. Perhaps one of the most definitive aspects of the performance, however, was junior Emily Rubinstein’s energetic, engaging choreography, which kept the illusion that the cast was bursting with pent-up energy and childlike emotion.

Certain ensemble members stood out throughout the show.

Senior Meredith Silfen, for exam-

ple, played a deaf character, communicating only in ASL throughout the show. Sometimes another cast member translated verbally, at one point, a monologue expressed in ASL, which was projected onto the wall behind Silfen for the audience to read. Even without any spoken or sung lines, Silfen never failed to act on the same level as her peers.

Sophomore Mimi Gillies, in a pink hair bow, brought a childlike innocence to the most troubling solo, “Song Of a Child Prostitute.” Gillies held the audience in stunned silence from the opening line of the heart-wrenchingly descriptive depiction of a young girl, held captive by the coercion of a grown man. This moment, in which the rest of the cast was chilling, cast a chilling spell over the audience which set the tone for the rest of the show.

In a more upbeat section of the show, sophomores Yuvan Das and Saarah Elsayed were electric, singing about the ways they survive on the streets in “Enterprise.” Das and Elsayed (and the ensemble) easily told the audience of their creative solutions to adult-like issues, with an air of teenage joy.

Sophomore Jonathan Schnei-

photos by Allison Eng

derman’s monologue, “Current Events,” served as one of the more hard-hitting points in the already pointedly political show. Schneiderman skillfully emphasized the tension and frustration that emerges when the grimmest of the personal and the political start bleeding together in a young person’s mind.

After a standing ovation for the ensemble and the customary distribution of flowers to directors, producers, and advisors, the cast and crew moved to the empty seats in the audience. A panel of four adults took the stage: Sam Pinkleton, director of the 2016 production of “Runaways” at City Center, NicHi Douglas and Ani Taj, choreographers of the same production, and Roz Lichter, the wife and legal representation of the creator of the original show, the late Elizabeth Swados. In the Q&A that followed, moderated

by Executive Producer Sara Stebbins, the four panelists showed enthusiasm not only about seeing the show they all loved reborn, but also for the group of teenagers who made it a reality. More than anything else, they went back and forth with the cast and directors (with most of the audience still

watching attentively), discussing the deeper meaning of the show, its contemporary implications, and the thought process behind productions old and new. Liz Swados, who passed away in 2016 at the age of 64 due to complications from surgery for esophageal cancer, was an enduring topic throughout the conversation. Any listener could have gathered that putting on “Runaways” without feeling her presence is impossible.

It was Swados who not only conceived the show, after realizing that no one was talking about the enormous population of homeless teenagers in New York City in the ‘70s, but also held workshops with homeless youth as research for the show.

“Runaways,” for all its disturbing moments and melancholy theatrics, is a triumphant and hopeful tribute to the timeless journey of adolescence. Though it was no easy task, STC’s fall production did the show justice with an earnest, committed cast, who made it easy to remember that for once, the characters in the school musical and the students making and watching it aren’t a million worlds apart.

The Spectator ● November 16, 2018

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Arts and Entertainment A Pedestrian’s Guide to the Mooncake

By XI LU No matter where you are in the city, the experience of walking into an Asian bakery is almost always a comforting ritual. There’s always some sort of conversation buzzing in the air, mingling with the smell of sweet warm milk for the drinks and a faint buttery smell from the morning’s bread and pastries. Mothers clutch their toddlers tightly in one hand and somehow manage to maneuver buns with plastic tongs onto a tray with the other. Old men sit by the windows, angling their copies of “The World Journal” so that the sunlight hits the newspaper in just the right way, allowing their aging eyes to squint a little less strenuously. Occasionally, they sip from their cups of cheap coffee, heavily diluted with milk and sugar. The selection of offerings varies little from day to day. There are always the loaves of milk buns, usually shaped into perfect squares and sliced uniformly and bagged with the bakery’s logo. Below those are filled variations of the milk bread in individually-sized portions; walking by, you can see labels for coconut cream, ham and egg, pork floss, corn and mayonnaise, and more. Further down, there are dan tat, or egg tarts, lined up in trays and nestled in delicate paper liners. Sometimes there’s a rotating heater with puff pastry stuffed with curry or pie fillings. In the pastry case next to the cashier are whimsically decorated cake slices, puddings, and other cold desserts.

On a late afternoon in the late summer, the experience of walking into the bakery changes subtly. If you eavesdrop with your loose grasp of Mandarin and examine the display cases, it dawns on you. The usual items are rearranged to make room for red and gold patterned boxes of mooncakes. There are flyers on the wall advertising those boxes as gifts.

In your early childhood, this would be the time of year when your parents stockpiled boxes of edible gifts in the living room, complaining that there was no way such a small family could finish all those pastries.

It is the season of the Autumn Festival, the season for mooncakes. They’re small and dense pastries: sweet fillings encased in a thin pastry shell that shines from the egg wash brushed on top prior to baking. The top is often pressed with some sort of intricate design, be it a character or a flower or decorative swirls, making it seem more like a piece of art than a dessert. Almost every child who grew up eating mooncakes is familiar with the lotus mooncake, the chocolate chip cookie of mooncakes. It seems that nobody has ever been able to finish one by themselves. Instead, it is meant to be cut into slices and shared among family and friends with hot tea.

Even if you miss Autumn Festival season, you can still find these delicate pastries year round in the city. Here are a few:

Golden Fung Wong

Chiu Hong Bakery

The storefront is a plain weathered white and easy to miss if not for the flickering neon sign in the window. Large red Chinese characters spell out the bakery’s name, and a red English translation underneath accompanies it. Inside, the pastries and other baked goods can be found in a large display case, lined up on trays behind small handwritten signs. There’s no seating, just display cases that double as a counter. Middle-aged cashiers seem to do a million things at once, whether it is dashing in and out of the kitchen with trays of pastries, steeping Lipton tea bags in hot milk and sugar, speaking to customers in rapid-fire Cantonese, or ringing purchases up at the cash register.

The mooncakes came sealed in a clear plastic bag with the bakery logo in gold letters. The golden yellow crust was brushed with a glossy sheen prior to baking, indicative of its Cantonese origin. The doughy shell was dense, and both the lotus and green tea fillings were the sweetest out of the three locations. Though not necessarily unpleasant for all, the filling was incredibly sweet, even when accompanied by hot black tea.

Price: $5 per mooncake Rating: 3/5

Chiu Hong Bakery is located away from the Chinatown foot traffic and has a café-like setting, making it seem like a retreat from all the people. An outdated television set hangs from the corner of the ceiling, broadcasting a sports channel in Cantonese. Old men with their copies of “The World Journal” and middle-aged women conversing over cups of tea sit at the metal tables. The pastries are located in well-lit display cases that seem to be the center of attention in the dimly lit shop.

The mooncakes here are small, about the size of an egg. They are round and plain, as opposed to the intricately decorated traditional mooncakes. The flaky shell indicates a Taiwanese or Suzhounese origin, and its size indicates that it was to be eaten as a pastry any time of the year, rather than as a seasonal treat like other mooncakes. Green tea-filled mooncakes are not offered here, but black bean and lotus are.

Both fillings are runnier and not nearly as sweet as the other mooncakes from Lung Moon Bakery and Golden Fung Wong. Out of the three, they’re the least sweet and have a sort of comfort that makes them seem more like something you would be able to enjoy on a daily basis.

Price: $3.50 Rating: 5/5

41 Mott St

161 Mott St

Lung Moon Bakery 81 Mulberry St

Located just a few blocks down from Golden Fung Wong, Lung Moon Bakery is equally inconspicuous. Tucked between two larger stores on a busy street, it can easily be missed. Aside from the neon sign, the storefronts of Lung Moon Bakery and Golden Fung Wong look the same—large Chinese characters in red and an English translation in green beneath it. With baked goods organized close together in display cases and trays mostly behind the counter, Lung Moon is significantly cozier. On a handwritten sign taped to the case, they advertise their hand-pressed mooncakes.

These mooncakes came in small flimsy plastic bags packed into a rigid clear container. The thin crusts are flaky with a reddish brown sheen, and pastry contents are marked by a small colored circle stamped in the middle. The mooncakes are sweet, but mild enough for the flavors of the fillings to be detected. The lotus has a taste reminiscent of red bean with fragrant vanilla essence blended in, while the green tea has the subtle but distinct bitterness of matcha.

Price: $4.5 Rating: 4.5/5

The Spectator ● November 16, 2018

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Arts and Entertainment Get a Life: The Cultured Edition

By THE ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT DEPARTMENT

ONGOING EVENTS FILM SCREENING “Random Acts Expanded: Terence Nance and Friends” @ Brooklyn Academy of Music until 11/15 $15 PERFORMANCE “Amateur Night at the Apollo” @ Apollo Theater until 11/21 $22-$34 FESTIVAL The Great Jack O’Lantern Blaze @ Van Cortlandt Manor, Croton-on-Hudson until 11/24 $16-$27 ART SHOW “Andy Warhol: Shadows” @ Whitney Museum until 12/15 FREE ART SHOW “Everything is Connected: Art and Conspiracy” @ The Met Breuer until 1/6/19 FREE ART SHOW “Armenia!” @ Metropolitan Museum of Art until 1/13/19 FREE ART SHOW “GingerBread Lane 2018” @ New York Hall of Science until

1/21/19 $13-$16 MUSEUM EXHIBIT “Harry Potter: A History of Magic” @ New York Historical Society until 1/27/19 $0-$21

Fashion

By LAURA ILIOAEI Yves St. Laurent is a French luxury brand known for its simple and comfortable yet elegant fashions and quality cosmetics.

Though their merchandise is pricey, it is not uncommon to see the average New Yorker carrying that brown-checkered handbag (or a knockoff!). As a fan of their products, I was excited to find that Yves St. Laurent was opening a pop-up shop on September 8 and 9 in a SoHo townhouse.

This pop-up shop has appeared internationally from Hong Kong to Kuala Lumpur, opening in select cities for one or two days before moving on. While I wasn’t going to hop on a plane for wherever the next pop-up shop was, hopping on the subway to SoHo seemed worth it.

The entrance gave a mysterious vibe. Peeking through the threshold gave no hint of what lied beyond the dimly fluorescent-lit purplish hallway. It did, however, give the security guard a reason to shoot me an unamused

november EVENTS

MUSEUM EXHIBIT “It’s Alive! Frankenstein at 200” @ The Morgan Library and Museum until 1/27/19 $ 13 ART SHOW “Mickey: The True Original Exhibition” @ Skylight 60 Tenth until 2/10/2019 $38 ART SHOW “Constantin Brancusi Sculpture” @ Museum of Modern Art until 2/18/19 $14 ART SHOW “Martha Rosler: Irrespective” @ Jewish Museum until 3/3/19 FREE PLAY “To Kill A Mockingbird” @ Sam S. Shubert Theatre until 3/17/2019 $30-$170 ART SHOW “Voice of My City: Jerome Robbins and New York” @ New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center until 3/30/19 FREE ART SHOW “Andy Warhol—From A to B and Back Again” @ Whitney Museum of American Art until 3/31/19 FREE

TV PREMIERE November 14 52nd Annual CMA Awards @ ABC, 8PM EST CRAFT FAIR November 17 Renegade Craft Fair @ Metropolitan Pavilion until 11/18 FREE ART SHOW November 19 “Atea: Nature and Divinity in Polynesia” @ Metropolitan Museum of Art FREE PARADE November 22 Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade @ Macy’s Herald Square FREE RACE November 24 New York City Turkey Trot @ Roosevelt Island $39 TV PREMIERE November 26 “The Great Christmas Light Fight” @ ABC, 8PM EST TREE LIGHTING November 28 Rockefeller Center Tree Lighting @ Rockefeller Plaza FREE

FILM SCREENING November 15 “Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald” @ Regal Cinemas $17.40

FESTIVAL November 18 The Brooklyn Chocolate Fest @ Aviators Sports & Events Center $7-$10

ART SHOW November 20 “After Hours” @ Metropolitan Museum of Art FREE for members, $5 for guests

FILM SCREENING November 23 African Diaspora International Film Festival @ Columbia University until 12/9 $25 FESTIVAL November 26 Winter’s Eve at Lincoln Square @ Along Broadway, from Columbus Circle to 70th Street FREE BOOK RELEASE November 27 “QUEER EYE: LOVE YOURSELF, LOVE YOUR LIFE” @ Symphony Space $39

Black Opium Addiction And Neon Lights: A Tale From A YSL Exhibit expression.

“So,” I laughed nervously.

“Can I just walk in, or…?”

As it turned out, the event was exclusive and it required some previous online booking.

“But since we’re not at full capacity,” he said, shrugging. “I guess you could go inside,” he said.

I didn’t need to be told twice.

I bolted through the door and whipped out my camera. The #YSLBeautyHotel promised some photogenic sights that my camera roll wasn’t going to miss for the world. The dark hallway lead to an open space, where on my right women were lining up to take pictures posing in a luggage cart illuminated by a string of bulbs radiating a violet glow. It was the sole lighting that was enough to envelop the floor and bounce off the black walls. On my left was a winding staircase. Enticed by crimson glimpses of the floor above, I ran up the flight, eager to explore the other three floors.

The second floor was an open room with a TV screen playing footage from various YSL fashion

shows on the center wall. The floor was mainly covered by two cerulean pools with neon red lights blazing on either side. A sliver of floor was raised as a platform, slicing through the center of the room. And for 30 seconds, one could live a supermodel-wannabe’s fantasy—being filmed giving your best attempt at channeling Tyra, posing and smizing as you strutted your stuff, no payment necessary.

On the catwalk, I was a force of feminine energy powerful enough to part water on either side of me as wispy invisible clouds of some sort of delightful aroma wafted down in graceful beckoning from the floor above.

While this alone was a playground for my imagination, I returned to journalist-mode once I hopped off the runway and returned to the staircase, ascending to the third floor in order to uncover the source of that vanillaladen scent. YSL creates some of my favourite fragrances, but this was one that I did not recognize.

The center of the room featured the sole display, the new perfume

that was permeating the place like a blanket of invisible fog: a special edition of the Black Opium perfume. Who knew that coffee notes, vanilla, and jasmine could blend together in such euphoric harmony?

On the left side of the room, the fluorescent violet lighting I had seen from the first floor reappeared in a lounge-like area, where a beverage bar would serve anyone just about anything (non-alcoholic, that is). One could temporarily let their limbs turn to gelatin in plushy marshmallowy seats as French pop music filled the air.

On the right side of the room was a king-sized “Black Opium” bed with a pale light above it reading “YSL Beauty Hotel”. One had the option of posing on it (guitar optional) and having a photographer take professional-looking photos that could later be delivered through e-mail.

One floor remained. It consisted of two parts: one indoor, one outdoor. The indoor component was a mini shop where one could purchase from a variety of lipsticks

from the recently released Rouge Pur Couture collections, and even get engravings on them to make them more personalized.

The outdoor component was a small barren rooftop overlooking some of surrounding SoHo. Given that it was a rainy Sunday afternoon, I could only stay out for a few moments nomming on some (complementary!) macaroons before my phone camera lens needed drying.

Overall, the entire exhibition was an incredibly sensuous one.

When it was announced that YSL was bringing this beauty hotel to NYC, there was an emphasis on the visual components of it. And sure, you’d definitely get some social-media worthy shots out of this entire pop-up experience. But the physical beauty transcended even the limits of what Instagram could capture. YSL had indulged my other four senses in the most addictive way.

The Spectator ● November 16, 2018

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Arts and Entertainment Music

By ANDREW NG Self-described as “dancing in a place in between the moon and stars” on her Twitter profile, it’s no wonder Aurora’s sophomore album is astral and quirky. This is immediately evident through its title: “Infections of a Different Kind: Step 1.” As the second part of the title indicates, this is only the first “step” of a larger, cohesive piece.

Aurora (stylized as AURORA) is known for her deviant artistry; her debut album “All My Demons Greeting Me as a Friend” (2016) diverged from popular music with otherworldly themes, as seen in songs such as “Murder Song (5, 4, 3, 2, 1)” and “Running With The Wolves.” Her songs, most often classified as folk-pop or indie-pop, are composed of a distinct voice that makes her singing feel authentic and layered. But “Infections of a Different Kind: Step 1” is a journey of experimentation that feels even more adventurous than her previous efforts.

Culture

By YASMINE CHOKRANE This summer, for the second time this year, Kim Kardashian has been accused of cultural appropriation for wearing dreadlocks. She sported the look at the MTV Movie and TV Awards and instantly received criticism, especially because she had received backlash for doing the same thing this January— she posted a picture of herself on Instagram wearing braids and cited the look as “Bo Derek” braids.

Bo Derek was a white movie star known for her breakout role in the 1979 movie “10,” in which she wore the same hairstyle.

According to Oxford Dictionary, cultural appropriation is defined as “the unacknowledged or inappropriate adoption of the customs, practices, ideas, etc. of one people or society by members of another and typically more dominant people or society,” which is why Kim Kardashian received extreme backlash after attributing the hairstyle that acts as a staple of African American culture to Bo Derek, a white actress. Lack of acknowledgment surrounding the history and cultural significance is part of what defines cultural appropriation. The other half is the power imbalance, in which cultural appropriation is rooted. The term “cultural appropriation” was coined in the 1970s and ‘80s by sociologists who criticized colo-

Between The Moon and Stars The opening track, “Queendom,” is a defiant commentary on gender roles wrapped in a fantastical melody: “the women will be my soldiers / the weight of life on their shoulders… I made this Queendom on my own.” The song is upbeat, accompanied by an anthropological layering of voice, percussion, and lyric as human voices and hymnal tones mesh against each other.

It feels somewhat reminiscent of a triumphant Scandinavian ballad, reflecting Aurora’s Scandinavian heritage. “Forgotten Love” feels similarly organic, with a warm and humanistic melody as Aurora sings about being forgotten by a love interest. Later on in the album, “Soft Universe” is also optimistic in tone.

This track, aided

by skillful production, refers back to the anthropological feel of the opening track, with hums, rumbling percussion, and chanting.

Other tracks, however, are less explorative in terms of theme but more explorative lyric-wise and composition-wise. “Gentle Earthquakes” seems to be somewhat of an oxymoronic title, and the dissonance of the title is reflected in the composition of the track.

The song starts off soft, and Aurora sounds wispy and sedated, but as the song edges toward the chorus, the beat quickly picks up as she sings, “like a gentle earthquake / it intensifies.” The connection between the title and the actual composition of the song is a clever integration into the song’s poetry.

O t h e r melodic experiDaniel Berlinsky / The Spectator

mentations throughout the album are further evidence of compositional exploration that Aurora delves into, such as in “It Happened Quiet,” which is a chilling ballad with a particular low strings solo that recalls the Romantic era.

The title track, “Infections of a Different Kind,” is a revelation in its own right. It features contemplative lyrics (“If I’m the world, then why would I hurt / All that is living?”) set to a soaring ballad melody that urges the provocation of thought in listeners.

As a whole, “Infections of a Different Kind: Step 1” is a taste of the wide breadth of talent Aurora has to offer, but doesn’t really explore any cohesive theme other than experimentation. Taken out of context, this bold project on Aurora’s behalf may seem polarizing and dissonant, as the flow from one song to another is at times sudden. But the music, fundamentally, is genuinely explorative, intellectual, and soaring.

Your Primer On Cultural Appropriation nialism, one of whom was Kenneth Coutts‐Smith, who published “Some General Observations on the Concept of Cultural Colonialism” in 1976. Minorities are unable to appropriate white culture, since this is the dominant culture.

It’s the ability of the privileged to profit off of the culture to which marginalized groups have been historically denied access that is upsetting.

It seems that every week, a celebrity is accused for committing the same wrong. Most of this generation has adopted an indolent attitude toward cultural appropriation. We’ve been bombarded with articles and scandals that contain these words so often that we’ve become desensitized to the issue; in part due to frequency, but also because of the nuance cultural appropriation holds. In the war against prejudice—and a world of racial profiling, whitewashing, and blatant discrimination—people seem to have developed the perspective that cultural appropriation holds little weight. However, the gravity of cultural appropriation is not in the clothes people wear or the slang they sing, but rather the worldview that it perpetuates and the fuel it adds to the toxic fire.

Though Kim Kardashian was able to flaunt her braids on the red carpet, a black six-year-old boy was banned from his fundamentalist Christian school for wearing

the very same look. Zuhair Mahad was allowed to profit off of his summer line titled “Indian Summer,” dressing his models’ hair in feathers, while Native Americans were denied that right during the forced assimilation of the 19th and 20th centuries. Cultural appropriation perpetuates the double standard that creates racial disparities and a disportionate power dynamic. During the Milan Fashion Week Show in February, Gucci was accused of appropriation, after dressing their white models in sikh turbans and hijabs. This instance, in particular, demonstrates what makes cultural appropriation so frustrating: Muslim and Sikh people have a history of being physically and verbally abused for dressing in these garments. Where the injustice lies is clear—the apparent undermining of a people’s continuous struggle and the ability of the privileged to escape penance and receive praise.

When people discuss cultural appropriation, they often reference insensitive Halloween costumes or dresses on the red carpet. In terms of cultural sensitivity, the fashion industry is difficult terrain to trek. It’s an art form that is built on blending different looks and capitalizing on experimental outfits, whether the currency be dollar bills or entertainment value. Those “experimental outfits” often include cultural or religious subtext,

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or in some cases, actual religious text.

For example, Claude Eliette, the chief executive of Chanel at the time, received immense backlash for the 1994 collection that included a dress that was embroidered with lines of Qur’anic text.

Karl Lagerfeld, who designed the dress, had adorned the chest area with scripture and so, model Claudia Schiffer’s breasts were dubbed as “satanic.” The transgression threatened Chanel’s exports to the Muslim world and the matter was finally resolved once the three copies of the dress were incinerated.

A smaller but similar outcry was heard concerning this year’s Met Gala, in which the theme was “Heavenly Bodies: Fashion and the Catholic Imagination.” Religious themes in pop culture have almost always been met with controversy, and as the Western world grows more secular, most people in entertainment tend to steer clear of faith altogether. And so, it was no surprise when the Internet was met with the complaints of many enraged Catholics, who erupted with claims of cultural appropriation.

Their arguments were squashed when it was learned that the Met Gala was endorsed and sponsored by the Catholic Church. The way which the Met Gala was conducted, with approval from the culture from which their appropriating imagery and the intent to respect

and admire the art made the Catholic Church, distinguishes the Met Gala as an example of not-cultural appropriation. In addition, cultural appropriation is predicated on power imbalance, and the Catholic Church has certainly been a powerful force, and has a history of forcing their religion upon others.

The idea that they would criticize others for observing their art and lore would be met with claims of hypocrisy, but not cultural appropriation.

Western culture has a history of forcefully assimilating immigrants and obliterating the cultures of indigenous people. We’ve certainly come a far way since then, but there is still social pressure to assimilate. Minorities are getting beat up for wearing turbans, getting cursed at for covering their heads with hijabs, getting fired from jobs for wearing dreadlocks; these type of hostile interactions are exactly why some cultures don’t feel obligated to open up to outsiders.

There’s a point in saying that it’s ridiculous we’ve gotten to this point, criticizing one another for “stirring the melting pot.” Regardless of personal opinions, we should all respect people’s rights to be frustrated. But don’t get angry at people for getting angry. Get angry that we’re in this position in the first place.

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The Spectator ● November 16, 2018

Humor These articles are works of fiction. All quotes are libel and slander.

2018 State of the Race: Freshman Caucus Elections Your FAQs (Freshmen Apathy Questions)

By HELENA WILLIAMS

To all non-freshmen, it’s clear that the snail race known as the Freshman Caucus presidency is quite similar to the sophomore class: a quick phase that people will (hopefully) grow out of. But for those candidates who have been doggedly covering the hallways in decidedly un-dank memes, this race is more important than the spaces in a VHL free response question.

While both the News and Features departments refuse to cover the race, calling it “a footnote on a footnote,” we at the Humor department have your back. That’s why we’ve compiled countless interviews, vertical photos (even the Photos department abandoned us on this one), and commentary to present you with The Spectator’s 2018 State of the Race!

Who is running?

We can confirm that there are a lot of candidates. However, due to the extreme cringiness of the posters and flyers present in the hallways, we cannot determine the names of the freshmen in this race.

What motivates these candidates to run?

We still can’t tell. Colleges have told us that people who mention even contemplating running for Freshman Caucus president are immediately rejected. Still, many of these candidates told us that they were “going to

match my beautiful hair and complexion, making me a more confident president. Secondly, I want a national holiday called ‘Compensate The President For All His Hard Work Day,’ where every single person’s wage from that day goes directly into my

After getting absolutely smashed at the White House, President Donald Trump decided to do something even weirder than usual on November 5, 2018.

Seven vodka shots in, he decided that he was good to give his scheduled speech about the future prospects of the U.S., which lasted a surprising 84 seconds. The speech went like this: “Greetings, ladies and gentlemen of the U.S. Tonight, I’m going to be talking about my future visions for this sacred country to make it a better place. My first goal is to change the White House into the Orange House by literally painting the whole building orange. That way, the house will

It appears that the candidates have, in the traditional style, come up with impossible tasks to try and attract voters.

These include: • Implanting neural linkups into Stuy students instead of distributing ID cards, thus allowing people to enter and exit the building multiple times during lunch • Bulldozing all classrooms on the seventh and eighth floors in order to expand the library so that no students are kicked out • Hiring a squadron of engineer-ninjas who can

Why should I vote?

If you wish to feel a vague sense of pride at participating

don’t do this would be subject to the death penalty. That’s all for tonight, Happy Election Day!” After the speech, Trump had another bottle of wine.

Completely drunk, he went campaigning to try to get the

utes. After leaving countless voicemails, 30 minutes later, only one person showed up: a confused Vice President Mike Pence.

Trump, who had been pacing back and forth in the Oval Office, took a seat, glared at

Seven vodka shots in, he decided that he was good to give his scheduled speech about the future prospects of the U.S., which lasted a surprising 84 seconds. bank account. Lastly, I want a national ‘Trump Admiration Day’ where there is no school, and kids are forced to make huge posters for me and write lots of fan mail. Students who

people’s vote for the supposed 2018-2022 term. At 4:00 a.m., Trump called each and every one of his cabinet members to inform them of an urgent meeting in his office in 30 min-

Pence, and frustratingly declared that it was Election Day and that he forgot to campaign for the new term. Pence, still looking perplexed, instantly burst out in laughter, thinking

in a non-democratic popularity contest, please submit your vote, and explain why you feel this way to us at wedontcare@ stuyspec.com.

What should determine who I vote for?

It’s understandable that many (read: all) of the candidates present similar (read: the same) solutions to common concerns (read: irrelevant non-issues), but we’ve got you covered. Simply ask Siri, Alexa, Google Assistant, or your AI of choice to roll a die for you. Read the number, decide it means you really don’t need to vote in this race, and go home to watch news coverage of the national Election Day.

that the whole situation was some elaborate prank. Trump, however, angrily paced towards Pence, placed his face in front of Pence’s and yelled, “You’re fired!” before calling security to escort an extraordinarily bewildered Pence out of the building.

After firing Pence, Trump called up all his cabinet members again and, annoyed that none of them had shown up, left more voicemails, this time yelling “You’re fired!” at each cabinet member. After finishing up his voicemails and breakfast burrito, Trump boarded his Air Force One in an attempt to campaign once again.

(Of course, everyone knows that among his many sins, drinking is not one of them. So all of this could have truly happened, without him being drunk at all.)

New Names for Stuyvesant HS

• Borough Of Manhattan Community PreCollege • The Gabrielle Umanova and/or Kerwin Chen High School (gotta kiss up to my editors somehow) • Juul School • High School With An Incredibly Long Name For The One And Only Purpose Of Making It Easier To Hit The Word Count On Essays Easier • School #1-800-2738255 • Meme Dream Academy

• School Of Impending Fears of Failure • Just…name it after my dog. I really don’t care at this point because you know what?

There’s always going to be people who are racist and anti-Semitic and Islamophobic and all these other things, and I know it’s a good thing to change the name, but damn it; if we don’t do anything else to stand up against them and help the people they screw over, then this is just an empty gesture to make us feel better about ourselves while

Chrisabella Javier / The Spectator

Yaqi Zeng / The Spectator

By CHRISABELLA JAVIER

• AGGHGHGHGHGHGHGGAGHGHGGHAGH HELP • The Academy Of Running From All Your Responsibilities • Brooklyn Tech 2.0.0 • The Democratic People’s Republic of the Student Union • School of Having Sex In Lecture Halls (you know who you are) • Time To Dievesant

What are the primary issues?

keep every single escalator at Stuy in peak condition There have been some rumors of some freshmen petitioning for “bio frees,” but even freshmen have to recognize how stupid that is.

“Honestly, we were going to use [bio frees] as a part of our campaign, but we were told by the administration that they would invoke the wrath of the Program Office upon us if we tried to get [bio frees] on the ballot,” yet another unremarkable freshman claiming to be running for president said. “Did you get my name down, by the way? I’m ***** *** and I’m running for president.”

Trump Has Gone Mad

By MOHAMED ELEISH

When our school was opened in 1904, racism and other assorted bigotry were as hip as Kankens are today.

Because of this, our school got the dishonor of being named after Peter Stuyvesant, a known anti-Semite (as well as anti-anything-that’snot-his-religion) and dumbbutt. While having a school full of human disasters is definitely a good legacy for him to have and seeing him have a mental breakdown over the makeup of today’s student body would be great, I believe that it would be in our school’s best interest to have a new name that is more representative of our school today. I propose:

put this on [their] resumé.”

Name it after them

we don’t do anything to change our subconsciously bigoted actions, isn’t it? Maybe none of this really matters and we are just destined to repeat the same mistakes history makes over and over and over again and God hates us, and I most definitely failed my AP World

test. Is this even real or are we just a bunch of programs in a simulation? Honestly it would be better to be a mindless programmed robot because then I wouldn’t have Anxiety aghghghghghgggghghgghghghghgh • Despa3to High School

The Spectator ● November 16, 2018

Page 19

Humor How PTCs Shape History

By ABDULLA ELKHADRAWY and MICHAEL DEHKYTAR

then sealed shut and defended by an army of elite warriors to ward off any attempts by angry parents to enter the tomb. The Book of the Dead, one of the most important artifacts from the pyramids, tells us that the sun god Ra likewise retreated into his fortress on the surface of the sun to avoid mobs of furious guardians (pharaohs were unfortunately required to have 50 parents to boost their

100,000,000 BCE - The first known PTC took place during the Jurassic Period, when dinosaurs ruled the earth. Reliable reconstructions of how it played out have been assembled by recovering and analyzing the bones of the predominant species at the time: Teachersaurus rex. PTCs in this time were brutal affairs: they took place on the slopes of active volcanoes, which spewed fire and lava throughout the night. At the end of the conference, the dinosaurs with the lowest grades would be thrown into the fiery core of the volcano; this was part of what historians call the “Good Grade Encouragement” program that inspired modernday tiger parenting styles.

2500 BCE - The first known pyramids in Ancient Egypt were erected to protect the kingdom’s pharaohs from the wrath of their parents after PTCs. Advanced technology revealed that after each conference, if the results were not up to par with the standards of the reigning parents at the time, the pharaoh would be killed and entombed in a pyramid, which was

1426 AD - A time of Black Plague, medieval knights, etc.

Though people were dying left and right during the Middle Ages, that didn’t stop students from going to school. During this period they didn’t really have to worry about PTC. How can you compare a student to other people when everyone else is dead?

on how the ships were built and engineered to revitalize their STEM interests and skills. To reduce the costs of the mission, the Japanese government generously provided each student with their own plane. For a reason mysterious to modern scholars, the Japanese government did not equip any of the planes with landing gears and apparently forgot to mention the mission’s existence to the American forces in Hawaii. No student in Japan has gotten a test grade below 100 since the program’s inception, rendering PTCs in the country obsolete and making the mission a success.

2003 - Bush invaded Iraq to keep Laura Bush from learning that he hadn’t been doing any homework for Basic Politics and Presidential Knowledge, as well as the fact that he had failed out of How To Run A Country 101. PTCs were defunded nationwide and would have been shut down indefinitely if not for the incredibly brave and heroic filmmaking of Al Gore, who described the conferences as “essential to fight the growing threat of climate change, which will definitely, absolutely, for sure wipe out the human race within the next two years.”

Ka Seng Soo / The Spectator

Parent Teacher Conferences (PTCs) are priceless opportunities for parents of mediocre students to realize that their child did not, in fact, ace that chemistry test on Tuesday. They provide a conducive environment for kids to seriously think about running away from home and living in the woods (for real this time).

Throughout time, students have employed countless methods to keep their parents from attending PTCs for as long as possible.

This led to the development of what is now known as the “Art of Finesse,” a collection of advanced techniques focused on tricking, deceiving, and misleading parents about the true nature of a grade from the very beginning of PTCs all the way to the unhappy affairs we know and hate.

ing over the Persian Empire and taking the Achaemenid Throne.

After preparing to set sail to India, Alexander found out that his father had actually suffered a heart attack right before meeting with Aristotle and never found out that he had been cut from Speech and Debate. The shock of the discovery made Alexander also suffer a heart attack and die. Tragic—and all because of one PTC.

accountability). However, even this was not enough to save him, as the ending to the Book retold. Modern legends and conspiracy theories say that the corpses of angry parents, kept alive through sheer will and righteous fury, wander the endless passages of the pyramids to this day, searching for the one student who could actually get a good grade.

427 BCE - A young Alexander the Great, fearful about what his father Philip would discover when meeting with Aristotle during PTCs, embarked on a great adventure of conquest across Eurasia, accidentally tak-

15 AD - Jesus Christ failed his first Biology test after writing “I am the answer” for every single question (including multiple choice). To avoid the unbearable weight of telling his father about the result, Christ ran away into the desert, where he stressed for 40 days about whether or not he would make it into Harvard. Finally, he decided to spread the gospel of avoiding PTC, and his sermons on the Art of Finesse spread throughout the land. Today, these sermons form the basis of how to manage the stress of these conferences and provide an invaluable guide to students everywhere.

1941 - After implementing PTCs during the Meiji Restoration, Japan’s leadership felt that the country had grown complacent in its pursuit of the highest grades in the world. This led to tensions with America, whose embargo on oil cut off the fuel supply of robotic Japanese students and hindered their abilities, restricting their abilities to those of a mere human. As a form of retaliation, the military regime chose the lowestperforming students across the country to take part in a top-secret mission against the United States. They were to fly to Hawaii, visit the naval forces at Pearl Harbor, and take notes

2016 - Hillary Clinton destroyed a hard drive containing all her grade reports with a hammer and wiped all her e-mails with messages from teachers. This somehow led to Russian hackers leaking her grades to the public, causing her to lose the election and thus her presidential dreams. When contacted for further information, Clinton said: “See, the main reasons I lost the election were Russia, PTCs, e-mails, James Comey, Russia, institutionalized and popularized misogynistcapitalist sexism, Russia, and also PTCs. If only I had learned the Art of Finesse sooner.” Requests for President Trump to release his report cards continue to be denied.

No, Mother, Parent Teacher Conferences Don’t Matter

By VICTOR KUANG

Ever since grade school, my mother has always put Parent Teacher Conferences above her life. Usually involving me getting verbally assaulted afterward, she thinks that it’s a very good use of her time.

Contrary to many parents’ beliefs, PTCs are not as useful as they think.

No, I’m not just saying this because me mum screamed at me for having only one passing subject on my report card as a junior. I’m most certainly not writing this article because the only positive remark I received was from Physical Education and boxing teacher Howard Barbin, who said, “Has square dancing potential.”

The truth is PTCs are obsolete and a waste of time, like every minute I spend trying to get the guts to ask my crush out.

First of all, unless you’re

one of the masochists on the robotics team, you’re gonna hate staying at Stuyvesant until 8:30 p.m. You can’t even kill time at clubs because of rapid dismissal, so what are we supposed to do for five hours?

Hang out with some BMCC kids?

Secondly, teachers don’t give actual feedback during PTCs. Believe it or not, most teachers are actual humans too, and they also don’t want to stay at school for an extra three hours to talk to parents.

All they want to do is get on the train, go home, take a

Contrary to many parents’ beliefs, PTCs are not as useful as they think.

Sure, afternoon sessions are a thing as well, but how many parents actually go to those?

Some parents do, but considering that most parents have jobs, the idea of an afternoon session is pointless. You might as well call it “white mom session.”

shower, and then dream of more ways to butcher their students’ grades. With this in mind, teachers will either give a generic compliment or roast a student out of sudden frustration. Though parents may start a fight with the teacher who insulted their precious baby, such

actions are rare and the parent will usually take all comments to heart.

Thirdly, the lines frickin’ suck. I don’t know about you, but my idea of fun sure as hell isn’t waiting in line with a bunch of people of all ages.

People are just crammed in a hallway with very few seats, making everyone sweaty, and moving around the school is practically impossible. Sure, one can argue it produces more exercise than a physical education class, but is it really worth the hassle?

Fourthly, midgets will apparently exist at Stuyvesant.

That’s right, not only do parents show up, little kids do too because they’re too young to stay at home alone. Confusing everyone as to what proto-freshmen are doing in the school, these kids are able to cause plenty of mayhem around the building by ruining clubs’ bake sales, washing

their hands in a urinal, or just screeching in Moran’s office.

Now that it is evident that PTCs are a problem, how do we fix this?

It’s simple, really: just stop doing PTCs. Although boycotting can work, that takes a terrible amount of time to do. By the time the boycott is successful, we will all have graduated. No one attending right now will remember what Stuyvesant is, which is why we should act now.

Y’all could help by signing this Change.org petition here: https://www.change.org/p/ new-york-city-public-schoolsban-parent-teacher-conference s?recruiter=730921229&utm_ source=share_petition&utm_ medium=copylink&utm_ campaign=share_petition (Yes, that’s an actual link).

Thank you and have a blessed day.

Page 20

The Spectator ● November 16, 2018

Sports Boys’ Fencing

Untouchables Fall to Beacon After 13-Year Winning Streak

Tiffany Yu / The Spectator

ally ranked fencers and beat him handily by a score of 9-5. Ali’s strong leadership on the team has been key to their success and will likely prove to be important in the playoffs.

We’ll leave you with this: The Golden State Warriors, one of the most talented and overpowering professional sports teams, have a winning percentage of 81 percent over the past five years. That’s amazing. The Untouchables have had a winning percentage of 98 percent over the past five years. That is no small feat, and one would be hard pressed to think of any team with a more impressive record. Don’t let this loss fool you.

The ‘Untouchables’ are resilient,

By Lewis Woloch and Owen Potter

ADVERTISEMENTS

School. While at the beginning of the season, Stuyvesant was able to get the better of them in one of the closest games they had played in several years, Beacon stole their thunder the second time around. It was almost fitting that after all these years of Stuyvesant domination, a newcomer stole some of their glory.

A silver lining of Wednesday’s game was senior and captain Taaseen Ali’s performance against Beacon. He faced the best of Beacon’s three nation-

Tiffany Yu / The Spectator

The Stuyvesant boys’ fencing team has been the most successful team in Stuyvesant for over a decade, going undefeated since 2006. Unfortunately, their incredible streak has come to an end in their 13th season, with the Untouchables falling to the Beacon High School Blue Devils 90-77 last Wednesday. However, the team will still qualify for the playoffs and have the oppor-

tunity to compete for the city championship. If the team can pull off a win in their last game of the season against NEST+M, who they defeated 90-31 earlier in this season, they will have a shot at another division title, giving them momentum going into the playoffs.

New to the division this year, Beacon had been successful in their previous division, though they were often overshadowed by one of the best teams in the city, Hunter College High

and they plan on maintaining the same standard of excellence despite their one loss.

Though their winning streak is over, their season is just getting started. Playoffs will start soon, and just like every year, the Untouchables will look to claim a city championship. There may even be a chance for them to redeem themselves against Beacon, as the two teams are both among the best in the city, and a meeting between them in the playoffs wouldn’t be surprising. The team will be playing NEST+M this week, and though their historic winning streak may be over, they now have the opportunity to start a new one as they head into the playoffs.

Girls’ Golf

Birdies Undefeated Season Comes to an End

By Bernard Wang and Aryan Sharma Heading into the golf postseason, the Birdies, Stuyvesant’s girls’ varsity golf team, were optimistic about the coming weeks. Their 9-0 regular season record marked the third year in a row in which they went undefeated in the regular season. The athletes had good reason to believe that they could advance to the semifinals and maybe even the finals for the first time since the 2012 season.

Last season, the Birdies made it to the semifinals, and this season, they were looking to take it one step further by reaching the finals. However, a higher level of opposition would await them in both the quarterfinals and semifinals.

The Birdies took care of business in their quarterfinal round against 7-2 Francis Lewis High School on Tuesday, October 30. The game was a nail-biter to the end, as the Birdies came back from a two hole deficit to win the match 3-2. “Their 1/2 was just too good for us, but our 3/4/5 was too good for them,” junior Sara Mui said.

Francis Lewis High School’s first two golfers were “some of the best golfers in PSAL,” Mui said. “But since we have a solid team, the bottom half was able to pull through.” Freshmen Djolin Sutjiawan and Lea Kwok, along with junior Aeryn Lubelsky, sealed the deal with three consecutive wins to end the match. This match against Francis Lewis was the toughest match they played all year, and their win highlighted the depth and mental strength of the team.

Unfortunately, the Birdies’ season came to an end in a hard fought game in the semifinal round against Tottenville High School on Thursday, November 1. Their disappointing 4-1 defeat concluded what was an exciting year of Stuyvesant golf. Though

the score may seem lopsided, the Birdies kept the match competitive.

Lubelsky, the sole winner out of the five starters who played, went undefeated during her matchup by winning four out of five holes and tying the last hole. Mui and Sutjiawan each lost their matchups by slight margins of one hole, and Kwok and junior Charlotte Yee had strong showings in their defeats. “I’m glad that even though we lost, we made them work for their win. They lost members from last year, but we lost more, so the fact that we could play them this year and not lose as badly is an accomplishment,” Mui said.

After another strong season, the girls are ready to get back to work in the offseason in preparation for next year’s season. “Coach [Emilio Nieves] is going to have us practice on a more consistent basis next summer because we really nearly got over the hump,” Yee said, referring to the two consecutive years in a row of narrow defeats in the semifinals. “Instead of just hitting balls at the range, he’s planning on having us practice our short game more,” she added.

The athletes are looking to use this season as a chance to work on their game. Despite the disappointment, the Birdies have high expectations for themselves next season.

None of their starters will graduate, which means they will keep their winning lineup intact. Lubelsky, Mui, and Yee will be seniors then, and with the help of Kwok and Sutjiawan, they seem primed to make a push for the final. The players are wholeheartedly determined to capitalize on their regular season success and believe that they can overcome their annual obstacle of making it past the semifinals in the playoffs. “Our plan for next year is to go to the finals,” Yee said.

The bar has been set for the Birdies.

The Spectator ● November 16, 2018

Page 21

Sports Girls’ Tennis

Lady Lobsters Lose to Bronx Science After Semifinals Push

By Ariel Glazman and Jared Asch

Locked in an intense rally with her first singles counterpart from The Bronx High School of Science, Christina Huynh, senior and co-captain Celina Liu ran frantically from one side of the court to the other, fighting for the first point of her semifinals match. To add to the intensity of any semifinals showdown, Liu and Huynh, after being frequent opponents in the PSAL, have developed both a fierce rivalry and a deep friendship. However, Liu, able to focus on her competitive side, ultimately put away the point and started the match off with a strong victory.

Despite her quick start, howev-

er, Liu went on to lose the match in straight sets, 3-6 and 1-6. The Lady Lobsters, Stuyvesant’s girls’ tennis team, unable to recover following Liu’s defeat, were eliminated in the semi-finals 1-4, with the only victory coming from second singles junior Alyssa Pustilnik.

The Bronx High School of Science proved to be one of Stuyvesant’s toughest opponents this season, with the Lady Lobsters unable to come out victorious in their two regular season meetings as well. In fact, the two teams that the Lady Lobsters were unable to beat during their regular season— The Bronx High School of Science and Beacon High School— went on to face each other for the championship.

Girls’ Bowling

Nevertheless, the team’s performance in the regular season was strong, as they went 5-5 and ended up fourth in their division.

“I’m really happy with how we did this season. Our regular season could have gone better, but at every game, the team played really well and showed a lot of spirit. We even made it to playoff semifinals for the first time in two years, and I’m so proud of our team for making that happen,” senior and cocaptain Lily Yan said.

For the past few seasons, the Lady Lobsters have sat in the middle of the A3 division. While they weren’t able to change that in the regular season, this year’s Lady Lobsters delivered many postseason accomplishments, starting

with being seeded sixth in the city.

In the playoffs this year, the Lady Lobsters were able to conquer their old rivals, beating Hunter High School in a 4-1 victory for their first playoff victory. Next, they faced off against one of Queens’ strongest teams, the third-seeded Townsend Harris High School, who finished the regular season with a record of 9-1. Undaunted by their opponents’ high seeding and formidable record, the Lady Lobsters managed to pull off a 3-1 upset victory. Though they suffered a heartbreaking loss in the next round to the Bronx Science Wolverines, a semifinal finish is no small feat, especially for a team that has often struggled to make deep runs in the postseason.

While this year was a step up for the Lady Lobsters, the next few years have the potential to be even more promising. Yan was quick to recognize freshman Madison Cheng. “Maddie [Madison] is a substitute player, but she’s played in eight games during the season.

She’s just a freshman, but she’s already incredibly talented, and is definitely going to be a standout member of the lineup next year,” Yan said. In addition, besides Liu, the rest of the lineup contains only one senior, leaving a strong group of players to take over next year’s team. With the potential for playoff success clearly in their future, the Lady Lobsters will look to progress even further than they were able to this year.

Boys’ Bowling

Pinheads Roll Through Playoffs

By Eric kim Senior and captain Sylvia Li anxiously held her breath while watching Stuyvesant’s B girls’ varsity bowling team keep a marginal lead over their opponents from Midwood High School. It was their first playoff game of the season, and the Pinheads’ B team had lost by a mere 32 points to their counterparts. Stuyvesant’s C team had pulled away with an easy lead over Midwood of over 100 points, but the outcome of the A team could still transform the outcome of the game.

The Pinheads came away from their first playoff match with a final score of 2-1, and their next opponents were Susan Wagner High School Falcons. They faced off at Show Place Lanes in Staten Island. The Pinheads succumbed to the Falcons 0-3, which effectively ended their season in the second round of playoffs. “We had a short playoff run, but it was a good effort because for the second round, we bowled at a place that we had never practiced at before,” Li said.

Contrary to what would be expected from a team with 13 new members, the Pinheads breezed through their regular season. They were tied for first in their division with Beacon High School. Both schools had an impressive 9-1 record. In the playoffs, the Pinheads were the 13th seed while Beacon was the sixth.

The Pinheads stayed strong throughout the season, going 8-0 from the start of the season and

giving up only one loss to Beacon High School. One of the most memorable moments of the regular season was their loss against Beacon. “Given that the Stuyvesant girls’ bowling team hadn’t lost in over two years, it [was] one of the saddest moments of the year,” junior Erica Ruan said.

The loss was a tough loss; the Pinheads displayed exceptional talent. Most notably, juniors Ruan and Ruo Yan Chen scored 192 and 135 points, respectively. However, Beacon’s senior Madison Estrella managed to bowl 223 points to nullify Stuyvesant’s efforts.

“It was the most memorable because it showed the strength and unity that have always existed in our team. We didn’t let this single game stop us, and now, we are stronger than ever,” Ruan said.

She is also very appreciative of the team members.

“They always have my back if I’m ever feeling down, and being around them is one of the best feelings in the world. I’ve learned so much more from them this season than I’ll ever learn in a classroom, and I’m truly thankful for them,” Ruan said.

She believes that the team’s chemistry is better than ever, with each member being supportive of each other. “They remind me of the reason I love bowling so much, which is to always have a team to support me, even if it’s not about bowling,” Ruan said.

At the end of their season, the Pinheads are looking forward to the future with a high sense of team spirit.

Spartans Fall in Third Round

By Isabel Leka and Kaitlin Duong

The Spartans, Stuyvesant’s boys’ varsity bowling team, finished off this season as third in their Manhattan I division and entered playoffs this season as the 12th overall seed, the highest starting position in Spartan history. After a first round bye, the team was matched against 21st seed, James Madison High School in the second round.

The Spartans dominated the

score in Game C. Senior and cocaptain Linpeng Chen beat his season high, scoring 176 in Game A. Following an undefeated season last year, the Spartans had high expectations this season.

However, losing valuable players Jihui Xue (‘18) and Wesley Chen (‘18) was a struggle for the Spartans, hence their season with a 6-4 record. However, unlike past years, the Spartans had a whole new group in their division made up of Seward Park Campus, Hunter College High School, and Louis

Among their six wins, their victory against the Hunter College High School Bears stood out. Just two weeks prior to it, the Spartans lost to the Bears. This win exemplified their improvement throughout the season. Sophomore Eric Kim and junior Matthew Huang led the team in Game A with scores of 200 and 189, respectively, which were both Kim and Huang’s season-highs. Despite senior and co-captain Ansh Sharma’s season-high score of 160, the Spartans were unable to win Game

This was a crucial win for the Spartans, as they advanced to take on the number five seeded Curtis High School in the third round of playoffs. game, winning 2-0. In Game A, the team won with a score of 628 points overall, compared to Madison’s score of 534. A key player for the Spartans in this win was junior Samuel Fang, who scored 222 points. In Game B, they also dominated and came away with a score of 482-365. This was a crucial win for the Spartans, as they advanced to take on the number five seeded Curtis High School in the third round of playoffs.

Curtis defeated Stuyvesant 2-1, ending the Spartans’ run. Stuyvesant totaled respectable scores in all three games, though, scoring 584, 507, and 535, respectively.

Fang topped the team with his 178

Brandeis. This allowed the team to be a higher seed than last year’s undefeated regular season in the playoffs, despite losing four games.

Of the four losses, three of them were a result of a 2-1 loss, with the other being a forfeit to Seward Park Campus. The Spartans were often able to win Game A but struggled in Games B and C. This can be attributed to the lack of depth in the team. The team’s roster consisted of 15 players compared to last year’s 21 players after nine of their players graduated. Losing many starters made it difficult for the team to fill the gaps, and this showed in three of their games this season.

B. However, the Spartans clinched the win in Game C, winning by a score of 597-499, handing the Bears their only loss of the season. Kim and Huang, who will be returning next season, displayed their ability to score and lead their team to victory.

Looking forward to next season, the Spartans will lose crucial bowlers with the departure of Sharma, Linpeng Chen, and senior Alan Wang. However, under the leadership of Huang, Fang, and Kim, the Spartans have the potential to reclaim the first place title of their division and progress further in the playoffs.

Boys’ Cross Country

By Noah Grenert

Greyducks Fall Short at City Championships

The Stuyvesant boys’ cross country team’s season ended at City Championships on November 10. Only the top four teams move on to the New York State Federation Championships, and the team placed eighth. This is the second straight year that the Greyducks failed to qualify for the Federation meet. The last time the Greyducks qualified was back in 2016, when they placed first at City Championships.

To make it to the City Championships, Stuyvesant first had to finish in the top six at the

Manhattan Borough Championships on October 30. The Greyducks absolutely dominated the field, placing first. Three athletes finished in the top five, and all seven Greyduck team members finished in the top 20. The team accomplished its goal of running in a pack; the difference between the fastest time and the slowest time was less than a minute. However, the Greyducks were expected to win the Borough Championships. The competition would be a lot stiffer at the city level.

Stuyvesant’s fastest finisher in the varsity 5000-meter race

at the City Championships was freshman Atticus Bacon, who placed 32nd with a time of 17:58.56. Senior and co-captain Justin Zhang came in 41st with a time of 18:08.71, followed by junior Baird Johnson in 58th, senior James Huang in 73rd, and freshman Lucas Lee in 74th. Senior and co-captain Caleb Hoo finished in 84th and junior Alex Li in 104th.

“I think varsity did very well,” said Hoo, even though the Greyducks did not crack the top four. He saw the improvement in many areas from the team’s previous races. “Part

of the improvement was from a more even pack spread, but I also credit everyone running their own race and disregarding the status quo as important factors.”

Hoo thinks that next year’s team will have a great shot at breaking the streak and qualifying for the Federation Championships. “Next year on track will be amazing. Baird [Johnson] is back in the zone and has a new philosophy on performing well—the key to doing well is being injured the least, something he has struggled with the last two years. Atticus [Bacon]

and Lucas [Lee] are already great and still have potential. Alex Li still has a vision and one more year to test his potential.” Hoo’s claims are backed up with some evidence. At the Freshman City Championships, Stuyvesant placed fourth, with Bacon finishing third and Lee 11th.

Hoo was also impressed with how the JV team raced at the city championships. “[Juniors] Wentao [Lin], Jackson [Zou], and Jacob [Olin] broke their plateaus and got after it today,” he said.

The JV team finished sixth out of 17 teams.

Page 22

The Spectator ● November 16, 2018

Sports Girls’ Soccer

By Franklin Liou and Jooahn Sur The Mimbas, Stuyvesant’s girls’ soccer team, ran on the grass field for the final time in the 2018 season on a brisk Thursday afternoon. The team was defeated by the powerhouse Tottenville High School team, which finished the regular season with a record of 12-2.

The Mimbas finished the regular season with a record of 8-4 and placed third in their division.

The team kicked off the season with a record of 0-2 but lost junior forward Eve Hausman early in the season to a devastating injury.

In the playoffs, they squared off against James Madison High School, a team that finished the regular season first place in their division with an 11-1 record. The Mimbas came out flat in the first

Mimbas’ Season Comes to a Close

half and found themselves in a 1-0 hole at halftime. After the intermission, however, they were able to erase the one goal deficit and ultimately win the thrilling game by a score of 2-1 on goals

Mimbas facing elimination, junior Selene Kaehny tied the game up in the second half. With neither team scoring for the rest of the half, the game went to overtime.

And in the extra period, the Mim-

ory Walsh’s spectacular 21-save performance.

Though the Mimbas’ playoff run finished much sooner than they would have liked, they have to be pleased with how much

After the intermission, however, they were able to erase the one goal deficit and ultimately win the thrilling game by a score of 2-1 on goals from sophomore Aki Yamaguchi and senior captain Allison Eng. from sophomore Aki Yamaguchi and senior captain Allison Eng. The second round started similarly. Tottenville led at halftime by a score of 1-0. With the

bas allowed a heartbreaking goal, and their brilliant 2018 season came to a close. The team only had a total of four shots on goal to back up junior goalkeeper Em-

they accomplished in such a challenging season. Hausman’s injury was certainly the biggest blow, as she had eight goals and three assists a season ago. However, the

team found a way to fill that large hole in their lineup and finished with a winning record and a spot in the playoffs, improving upon their 5-5 regular season record of 2017.

Now, with many of their star players graduating, the Mimbas must overcome even more adversity in the 2019 season. There will be many gaping holes in the roster left by seniors Alexandra Lennard, Allison Eng, Isabel Mendoza, Lee-Ann Rushlow, and Lumi Westerlund, whose soccer careers helped the team win two playoff games in the last four years.

The pressure is now on for the current juniors and underclassmen to step up and build on their great 2018 season. And hopefully, the 2019 Mimbas will be able to replicate, and perhaps improve on, this special season.

Athlete of the Issue

By Allison Eng

Fencing…Other Sports are Pointless: An Interview with Anna Lanzman

school?

I’m in a club called Fencers Club in Manhattan, and I train about 3-4 times per week. Practice usually ranges from about three to four hours.

Courtesy of Anna Lanzman

What are your aspirations for yourself as a fencer and for the PSAL team, which plays in the spring?

Individually, I want to become the best fencer that I can. I definitely want to fence in college and reach my peak. In terms of school fencing, obviously, I hope that we keep on improving and that we can win championships.

Anna Lanzman Height: 5’6” Hair Color: Dark Brown Eye color: Hazel DOB: 07/08/2001 Grade: Senior How did you get into fencing?

Ever since I was a little girl, I played a lot of sports. When I was three, I started gymnastics, continuing for eight years. Toward the end, I started to lose interest in it and didn’t see a future in it for myself. This girl I did gymnastics with told me about her little brother who began fencing, and I tried it out after quitting gymnastics.

Do you fence outside of

Girls’ Cross Country

By Sunan Tajwar Stuyvesant’s girls’ varsity cross country team, the Greyducks, ended their season at the city championships in Van Cortlandt Park. In addition to the usual girls’ cross country powerhouses, Brooklyn Technical High School, Susan Wagner High School, and Cardozo High School, newcomers from Millenium High School, and Gaynor McCown Expeditionary Learning School lit up the track at the city championships.

The Greyducks finished in sixth place, a slight step down from last year.

To start, though the team

Can you talk a little about the tournaments you do outside of school?

They’re called North American Cups (NACs for short). They are national tournaments that happen once each month for all ages, genders, and types of weapons.

What types of weapons are there?

There are three total weapons: foil, sabre, and epee. Each event has an average of 200 people; the different events are derived from different age groups and different weapons.

Since what age have you been competing in these cups?

I have been fencing since age 12 and began going to national tournaments at age 13, so four years.

Have you won any of these tournaments?

I went to one in October in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. I took first place in this event called Division 1 classification for women’s epee.

It was women of all ages (no age limit) and was a subsection of Division 1, around 40 people.

Are these cups the highest honor you can get being a fencer?

These are national tournaments, but there are also international tournaments (World Cups).

I went to three of them junior year in Finland, France, and Austria.

Those were really fun, and would be the next level up. After that, there are the world championships then the Olympics.

You seem to spend a lot of time at tournaments. How do you balance schoolwork and being a fencer?

In freshman year, it was really hard to adjust and balance schoolwork, studying, training, and tournaments because Stuy is such a rigorous school. But over time, as high school progressed, I got used to it. I definitely learned to manage my time much better, whether it was reading on the train home or finishing up essays on the plane rides back home from tournaments. It definitely gets easier, and some advice I’d give is that a large workload and serious dedication to a sport take time to get used to, but

if you learn to manage your time and learn to keep your focus on just these two things, you’ll be able to better incorporate them into your schedule.

What’s one of your proudest moments that you had while fencing?

I’ve been fencing for years and I’ve had tournaments where I’ve done well (top 16 of 200), but I’ve never gotten a national medal or even stood on the podium. In the tournament I did recently, I was fencing that final bout (fencing term for match) on the stage and getting that last touch, and it hit me: “Wow, I just won my first national medal.”

How do you constantly try to improve yourself, whether through practice or your mentality?

After I come back from each tournament, I remember everything I did wrong during the tournament during practice, either things my coach told me to work on or things I would notice myself.

When I’d practice, I’d keep these things in mind and definitely try to practice specific moves or just train hard. It’s not only physical, but also mental if you’re not mentally prepared or focused. Sometimes, I try to imagine I’m at a tournament and try to control my stress level to train myself for future tournaments.

What will you miss most about

Greyducks Disappointed But Hopeful

didn’t make the State Championships, falling a bit short of the fourth place cutoff, two of the team’s most talented runners had exceptional individual performances. Senior and co-captain Clara Mohri and sophomore Julianne Yotov both qualified for State’s. Mohri sought to leave a mark on PSAL girls’ cross country circuit, with this being her final year representing Stuyvesant at the city championships. She wore her badge proudly and did just enough to carry the Stuyvesant legacy to States. As for Yotov, the sophomore is showing great potential for what is to come in her future years repre-

senting Stuyvesant. An outstanding performance with her captain in the five-kilometer distance run will see her out to States this year as well. In fact, the underclassman slightly ousted the impressive time put up by Mohri.

Yotov isn’t the only underclassman that is making great progress and hoping to carry the torch for the girls cross country team when the seniors graduate.

As one of the only freshmen on the team, Alicia Yu showed tremendous strides of improvement throughout the season. In the five-kilometer race, Yu had a time of 23 minutes and 11 seconds, roughly a minute and a half faster

than her time at the beginning of the season. Stuyvesant has a group of runners whose raw talent is matched only by a stubbornness and lack of contempt that characterizes the school itself. The lack of complacency has pushed the team to great heights in the past, and if the younger, talented underclassmen continue this habit, there is no doubt that the Stuyvesant team will reach heights that it hasn’t seen before.

“The team without a doubt came ready to run. In the end, it just wasn’t quite enough to push us over the hump, but the team put in everything they could, and it would be hard to ask for

the team at Stuy?

Fencing is an individual sport, and it is my first time being on a team at Stuyvesant, since other sports I did were all individual. I’ve never felt what it is like to have people cheering you on while competing, have people you can rely on; being on the team has taught me that there are people who can support you. That support really matters and gives you an extra push while competing. Being on a team is really fun.

Who is your biggest role model or inspiration?

My parents are my inspiration because I don’t only want to be good for myself, but for them too. They came to America from the Soviet Union and worked really hard to provide a good life for themselves and my brother and me. They gave me the opportunity to do fencing, and I want to prove to myself and them that I took advantage of this opportunity.

Choice drink: Water with electrolytes (Sports drinks are too sugary!)

Motto to live by: Keep working until you get what you want.

Fun fact: I played six sports when I was little: gymnastics, swimming, tennis, volleyball, ping pong, and fencing.

more,” said junior Ester Suleymanov when asked to reflect on the team’s season. The Greyducks built up to the city championships for the entire season and put on display some of their best performances of the year. But they were ousted by powerhouses who were determined to show their dominance in the sport and up and coming schools who had something to prove. There is no shame in losing to great competition. The team’s result this year will serve as motivation for next year, as they look to reclaim their stake amongst the great PSAL teams.

The Spectator ● November 16, 2018

Page 23

Sports Football

Under the Friday Night Lights

Continued from page 24 Former Peglegs are known for coming back after they graduate, a number of them even showing up to games as far out as Queens.

Clay Thompson, a member of the class of 1990 and the team under former Coach Falkus, has short graying hair and a wide stance. Wearing a red jersey with his name printed on the back, he stood with his arms crossed a few paces behind the team as he watched them take down Cardozo High School at Flushing Memorial Field on a Saturday morning in September.

“I actually haven’t seen the team play since I’ve graduated,” he began. “And I look at some of these guys from after us. There’s one guy who served in Iraq [who] got wounded. It just got me

thinking about coming and reconnecting with the team a little bit.

There’s at least one person here sitting in the stands who I haven’t seen since… since graduating.”

Even after a few decades, he remembers giving speeches in front of the campfire as a senior and all of the small moments in the games he played. As he spoke, his voice rose a half octave, and a soft look came over his face. “I’m really amaz[ed] at just how much everyone remembers, looking on Facebook [and] reading all the comments. Everyone’s kept all of their photos. And Coach had the most. Coach Falkus had articles and stuff; just reading [them] on my phone, [seeing] a picture of a newspaper article from 1986—it’s pretty silly, you know—brought back a lot.”

When asked if he had anything he would want the outgo-

ing seniors on the team to know, he shook his head quickly. “I think they know already,” he said bluntly. “That [with] these guys, you go through a lot together, so these memories are special. So I don’t have to tell them that.”

Family members, too, realize how important the season is to their children. “Some of us haven’t missed a game in four years,” said Andrew Potter, father of junior Owen Potter. He sat in the middle of six other parents and grandparents all proudly sporting team apparel. Sharon Campbell, junior Patrick Fennessey’s grandmother who drove down from Syracuse, confessed that she couldn’t tell which one of the players her grandson was.

Regardless, she sat for the duration of the game, smiling and clapping throughout.

These family members are

wholly invested in the team and in their kids’ dedication to football. “Even though my son will act like he doesn’t want to talk to me when I’m here, I think he appreciates me being here. Today he called me. He asked me if I was coming, and he said, ‘You know, the game is at Flushing Memorial field, instead of Cardozo,’ so just being here is a good support,” said Judith Dickson, mother of junior Aidan Dickson. “They really need you. There’s a lot of expectation, and they want to give a lot.”

Members of the team are both aware and candid about this expectation to bring home a sort of redemption win. Many of them expressed frustration about being seen as an underdog team, both by other teams and by their peers, as well as a pressure to perform well to upload the legacy of

the team’s alumni.

“It’s tough to play when no one expects you to be able to compete with them, but it’s especially tough when it’s your own school,” junior Clement Chan said. “Look at the other school [Cardozo High School], it’s not even a home game for them.

Their school’s like 30 minutes away, but they’re still coming, and for us, we get so little support.

Even our own school thinks we’re complete trash and can’t win in games.”

Despite his frustration, Chan channeled the heart of the team with what he said next: “We know we’re not going to be as athletic as [other teams]. We’re not as tall, not as strong, [and] not as fast, but we do our best because as long as we do our job, we do it correctly—we’re going to win.”

Jane Rhee / The Spectator

The Spectator ●November 16, 2018

Page 24

The Spectator SpoRts Football

Under the Friday Night Lights

By Jane Rhee

The overhead stadium lights flicker on, casting a warm and strangely nostalgic glow over the field as the light catches on the blue helmets of the players below.

As the sky grows dark, the smattering of people on the bleachers pull up the hoods of their Pegleg apparel, shudder, and slowly gravitate toward each other until they are all sitting close together.

They call themselves friends and family. The team members prefer the term fans.

Regardless of their title, they’ve certainly seen it all. The Peglegs, Stuyvesant’s varsity football team, ended their season last year with a disappointing 0-9 record after losing their homecoming game 42-0 to Frederick Douglass Academy and then being moved down to the C division. But this year, under the guidance of captains Tim Marder, Ariel Melendez, Eddie Zhu, and Ian Sulley, the team bounced back, losing only one game during their regular season to The Michael J. Petrides School.

While the team’s performance has improved drastically, the heart of the team has not changed throughout the last few decades. The Peglegs have one of the strongest support systems backing the athletes on the team,

allowing them to bring an unbridled sense of soul and sport onto the field every single time.

No one knows that better than the team’s managers.

Their involvement started casually. “Sophomore year, it was just because we were really good friends with Andrew Park,” senior Tiffany Wang said. “He asked us, ‘You guys want to manage?’ And we said, ‘Sure, why not?’ And it just went from there.”

The managers, seniors Tiffany Wang, Isabel Yin, Diana Sattarova, and Kristina Kim, are present at every single game, running the operations behind the scenes to make sure that the team’s equipment is in order, attending to players that are rushed off the field because of injuries, and organizing spirit events. Sattarova follows the entire game from start to finish, noting every play down on paper so that the team can review their performance and strategize.

They also play a much more important and irreplaceable role as managers—being able to work as the players’ support systems after particularly difficult games.

“They need a lot of emotional support,” Yin said. “Especially after home games. When they lose, they get really sad. Their effort and general team spirit [are] just really endearing. They always

CALENDAR

november

cheer each other up no matter what. If one of them gets hurt, it’s always team members bandaging each other up before the medics do. I think it’s really sweet how much they care about each other. It’s really a family.”

“They’re all soft as [expletive deleted],” Wang said. “I think a lot of people think they’re nothing but rowdy. But that just means [they] don’t know them really well.” She shared anecdotes about the team’s more intimate moments, laughing especially as she mentioned their love of belting Taylor Swift on the bus rides to and from games.

Even Kim, the newest manager on the team, found a surprising sweetness in the team’s dynamic. “I really liked last year’s homecoming game, because they lost every game, and they lost the homecoming game too, but still, at the end, it was so sweet.

At the end, all of the moms came out, and it was so sad. It was so sweet; they were going off to college, and it just showed how much of a family they were. They were so upset because the seniors were leaving,” she said. Though the season had just kicked off at the time, she spoke with a softer whisper that already hinted at high school nostalgia.

@ 4:30 PM, JV Girls’ Volleyball vs. Murry Bergtraum @ Stuyvesant HS Gym

Continued on page 23

saturday

14

Thursday

17 saturday

20

@ 12:00 PM, Football vs. Long Island City HS @ Long Island City HS Field

@ 4:30 PM, Boys’ Basketball vs. Bayard Rustin Educational Complex @ Stuyvesant HS Gym

Wrapup

Jane Rhee / The Spectator

The Penguins, Stuyvesant’s girls’ swimming team, defeated the Brooklyn Technical Engineers to win the PSAL championship 6339.