December 2018
VOLUME 15 • ISSUE 1
AS WELL AS:
Redefining Antifa, 5 The Case Against Affirmative Action, 10
What's next For Progressives: Midterms to 2020
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CHARIOT TEAM MANAGEMENT
Edgar Hsieh ('20) Claire Cheng ('20)
CONTRIBUTORS
Aanand Joshi ('20) Philip Ng ('20) Philip Wu ('20) Jared Shirts ('22) Scott Hwang ('22) Edgar Hsieh ('20) Neha Muthiah ('22) Aditya Dhir ('20) Quinn Arbolante ('20) Boris Bukchin ('21) Sanaa Zakariya ('19) Claire Cheng ('20)
COPY EDITING Edgar Hsieh ('20) Audrey Xie ('20)
LOGISITICS
Claire Cheng ('20) Edgar Hsieh ('20)
DEAR READERS,
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e are proud to present Volume 15 Issue 1 of The Chariot! For you new readers, The Chariot is Gunn High School’s political and cultural magazine. Our goal is to facilitate political consciousness in our community by providing an open venue for all people of Gunn High School to express their opinions about things they genuinely care about, from domestic and international politics to cultural critiques. The Chariot was on a hiatus for the past year. We are starting again this year, with a few changes in our approach. We will be focusing less on reporting news now, due to the prevalance of digital news. The news section will be instead condensed into one page denoted as the Quick News List, where we will list about 10 news events in the past three months or so. The news are picked based on significance and also whether or not if they are underreported by mainstream news. Our main focus right now is on opinion articles. We want to facilitate more political discussions, and we want to people to be freely partisan in their discourse. We also want expand the scope of “politics”. All subjects that concern people about the state of the society on any level can tie into politics. Politics isn’t just for young people interested in electoral affairs or for aspiring students seeking a political career. It is for everyone, and it is the language of societal progression. You may not be interested in politics, but politics is interested in you. Thank you for supporting this publication, and we hope that you will be interested in joining the Chariot team.
The Chariot would like to thank Advisor Justin Brown for his support.
Sincerely, The Chariot Team Front cover by Audrey Xie ABOUT US
The Chariot is intended to create and promote political discussion at Gunn and make people aware of issues that matter. We ask that you respect all opinions which are reflected in our publication, and write letters to the editors if you wish to voice your opinion. The views expressed do not reflect that of The Chariot, but rather those of the individual writers. The Chariot was originally founded in 2001 as The Partisan Review by Gunn alumni Ilan Wurman (‘06), Channing Hancock (‘06), and Sarah McDermott (‘05). Visit www.issuu.com/thechariot if you wish to view any issues from previous years or for more information about us. Any questions, comments, suggestions, or requests to join can be sent to gunnchariot@gmail.com. If you’d like to make a donation or subscribe, please send checks to: Justin Brown Re: The Gunn Chariot 780 Arastradero Road Palo Alto, CA 94306 Checks can be made out to Gunn High School with “The Chariot” on the memo.
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QUICK NEWS LIST
CC BY-SA 4.0 License, by Osps7
Contributors: Philip Wu, Aditya Dhir, Quinn Arbolante, Edgar Hsieh, Claire Cheng, Boris Bukchin, Aanand Joshi, Philip Ng, Sanaa Zakariya, Jared Shirts
1. UN Climate Summit, December 10th 2018
While President Trump has threatened to leave the Paris Climate Accord in 2020, the UN Climate Summit has continued in its scheduled meeting for 2019 (COP24) to finalize practical guidelines to enforce goals set forth in the Paris Agreement. The US joins the ranks of Russia, Kuwait, and Saudi Arabia as it refuses to sign a statement endorsing a UN Climate report’s findings on the possible effects of climate change.
2. George H.W. Passes Away Peacefully at Age 94, November 30th 2018 All five of the remaining living presidents attended Bush’s funeral to pay respects. A touching eulogy was delivered by the younger former president Bush, which evoked tears of both joy and melancholy.
3. Midterm Elections, November 6th 2018
While losing seats for the Senate, the Democrats take control of the House of Representatives. Here are the results of some races that directly affect our community: California Senator: Dianne Feinstein (D) California's 18th Congressional District Representative: Anna Eshoo (D) California Governor: Gavin Newsom (D) Palo Alto City Council: Alison Cormack, Eric Filseth, Tom DuBois PAUSD School Board: Ken Dauber, Shounak Dharap
4. Wildfires in Northern California finally get contained, November 26th 2018
The Camp Fire finally gets contained after weeks of effort. The wildfire has killed at least 85 people and torched over 153,000 acres of land. Not only is this wildfire one of the deadliest fires in the country's history, it is also the most expensive in California.
5. Tear Gas at the Border, November 25th 2018
US Border Patrol Agents utilized tear gas against 500 migrants attempting to cross the San Ysidro Port of Entry. The use of tear gas has ignited controversy and this incident is another instance of escalation on the border.
6. France’s Developing Concern: The Yellow Vests Movement, November 17th 2018 - Ongoing Hundreds of thousands of people clad in yellow vests participated in a myriad of protests that spread across France in response to an unpopular fuel tax.
The protests transcended the tax issue and became a national movement against French president Emmanuel Macron's government. Four French citizens have died along with more than 1,200 people injured. On December 10th, Macron promised to appease the people by making amends to his prior tax policies that resulted in this controversy.
7. Jair Bolsonaro becomes the president of Brazil, October 28th 2018 Jair Bolsonaro of the Social Liberal Party (PSL) defeats the Workers’ Party (PT) candidate Fernando Haddad in the Brazilian run-off elections. Bolsonaro is known for his far-right views such as opposing homosexuality, abortion, and secularism. Bolsonaro’s win stems from the momentum of anti-corruption politics against the establishment party of PT, as well as massive support from Brazilian economic elites.
8. Canada officially legalizes recreational marijuana, October 17th 2018 With the support by the majority of the Canadians, Canada became the second nation to legalize recreational marijuana.
9. Brett Kavanaugh Confirmation, October 6th 2018
Amidst fiery controversy over Dr. Ford’s accusations of sexual assault, Brett Kavanaugh was confirmed to the Supreme Court on a close count of 50-48. Kavanaugh’s confirmation comes after weeks of Senate hearings and an additional FBI supplemental background check demanded by Senator Jeff Flake.
10.
Prison Strike, August - September 2018
In response to the riot in Lee Correctional Institution, a “maximum security prison in South Carolina,” prisoners across America went on strike, demanding better living conditions, better access to rehabilitative programs, and “the end of modern day slavery.
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TECHNOLOGY
Threat of Data Breaches
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Jared Shirts Contributing Writer
s the world increasingly becomes more and more digitized, our online presence becomes evermore tied with the real world. Thus, it is of paramount importance that our privacy is protected online, and our data secure. However, companies have been grossly unable to secure their users’ data as of late. This past September, Facebook suffered a data breach. Over 50 million users had their information accessed by hackers. In April, Facebook suffered the Cambridge Analytica Scandal, impacting over 87 million user’s personal data. Equifax, a consumer credit reporting agency, suffered a major breach on September 7th, 2017, exposing the social security numbers and addresses of up to 143 million of its users. And most recently, Google was forced to shut down Google+ due to a bug which allowed third party applications to access the data of users and their friends. While it is easy to feel removed from these breaches, it is important to realize that these data invasions like-
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ly impact you. Data breaches are not some issue only facing corporations, it impacts every single American with an internet connection. These systemic breaches of data are endangering privacy on the internet. Yet, the companies responsible for them get nothing more than a slap on the wrist. Equifax was given no fine in the United States due to their breach, as long as they promised to tighten security. Since the breach, Equifax has faced no real punishment. Facebook received a $660,000 fine after the Cambridge Analytica scandal, a laughably small amount for a juggernaut of their size. When companies face tiny punishments for large errors that impact millions, it sets a precedent that companies will face no SEPTEMBER DECEMBER 2016 2018
real punishment for these mistakes. This is inexcusable. There must be harsher legislation created in order to punish companies for allowing data breaches, in order to provide a much stronger incentive to protect the user. One major step forward in this area is the EU’s GDPR, which is the General Data Protection Regulation, in which corporations can receive larger fines if data breaches occur. This is a much needed step, but more action is needed, especially in US legislature. Companies need to face real repercussions for failing to protect their users’ privacy. In our ever more digital world, they need to be held accountable for protecting our data. Only through this way, we can move forward into a safer online world.
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DOMESTIC
$100,000—led to widespread condemnation by mainstream media outlets, which declared the anti-fascists “outside agitators” without evidence. With the denunciations came the myths: “Antifa are the real fascists,” “they’re oppressing conservatives!” “George Soros is paying protesters to attack anyone who isn’t a Democrat!” and the like. The most pervasive of these myths is by far the first one. I’ve heard “Antifa isn’t any different from the fascists they claim to be against!” from both my liberal parents and Trumpists from the Midwest. Of course, this claim is ridiculous—to assert that suppressing “free speech” is fascism makes words meaningless.
By that definition, almost every country in the history of humanity would be considered fascist, from Nazi Germany to our very own United States.
Redefining Antifa
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Philip Wu Contributing Writer
ebruary 1st, 2017: the day Antifa, which until this point had been largely ignored, became the center of attention for mainstream media outlets. It was on this day that an anti-fascist black bloc halted Milo Yiannopoulos, the alt-right posterboy known for civilized quotes such as “Muslims rape everyone,” “feminism is a mean, vindictive, spiteful, nasty, man-hating philosophy,” and “[sexual relationships] between younger boys and older men can be beneficial,” from speaking at a UC Berkeley event.
For example, in 1917, Congress passed the Espionage Act, allowing the US government to prosecute any who leaked information regarding matters of “national defense” or obstructed military recruitment.
It also allowed the United States Post Office to remove “any written materials violating the act or otherwise ‘urging treason.’” The act, passed during World War I, allowed the government to imprison the socialist Charles T. Schenck. This resulted in a case that went to the Supreme Court, where the act was upheld. The Espionage Act of 1917 still exists to this day, The activists’ violent tactics and the resulting albeit in a modified form. property damage—estimated to be about SEPTEMBER 2016 DECEMBER FEBRUARY 2018 2018
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As we can see, declaring the suppression of free speech to be “fascism” completely invalidates the word’s value. Instead, Mark Bray, author of Antifa: The Anti-fascist Handbook, posits we should define fascism as historian Robert Paxton did In simpler terms, fascism is a far-right ideology
“...a form of political behavior marked by obsessive preoccupation with community decline, humiliation, or victimhood and by compensatory cults of unity, energy, and purity, in which a mass-based party of committed nationalist militants, working in uneasy but effective collaboration with traditional elites, abandons democratic liberties and pursues… goals of internal cleansing and external expansion.”
I say here much more eloquently and in greater depth) notes, “the vast majority of anti-fascist tactics involve no physical violence whatsoever.” These include doxxing fascists (revealing someone’s personal information online), contacting venues and hotels to kick out fascist demonstrators, and infiltration of fascist groups to sow discord. As frequently as possible, antifascists attempt to use nonviolent direct action to prevent confrontations from occurring. The necessity for “civil resistance,” is perhaps is the most important lesson for liberals, both right-wing and “left”-wing, reading this. To squash fascism, you don’t need to use violence, nor do you need to rely on government institutions. Rather, speaking out against fascism, or-
that aims to create an alliance between social and economic classes, usually on the grounds of race, to protect “traditional values” such as racism, sexism and homophobia,. Applying this definition to antifascist activists, who are by and large anarchists, socialists, and communists (who all believe in the end of racism, sexism, and class), is demonstrably incorrect. Of course, I’ve also heard people propose that the violence employed by antifa makes them no better than the fascist thugs they claim to oppose. To which I ask, since when has an antifascist activist run over a Nazi? Antifa in the United States has killed nobody in recent years, whereas the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) has recorded fortythree deaths due to alt-right actions since 2014. These misconceptions also overlap with another myth: that antifa exclusively uses violence. In reality, as Mark Bray (seriously, just read his book—it states everything 6
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ganizing community defense networks, writing articles, and more are all perfectly acceptable—indeed, necessary—methods of working against the alt-right. “Everyday antifascism,” as Bray calls it, is a vital part of preventing fascism from gaining a popular base of support. Peaceful demonstration against Nazis is perfectly acceptable—just remember that any militant antifascist is on your side and is willing to physically protect you from violence committed by fascists.
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Illegal Immigration
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Adam Smith Contributing Writer
he topic of illegal immigration has been a prominent talking point for President Trump and Hillary Clinton during the last election cycle. The Republican party is opposed to any kind of illegal immigration, fully welcoming legal immigration, while Democrats believe that immigrants are an integral part of society. Furthermore, they believe that illegal immigrants should be treated as any other American citizen and should have a path to full citizenship. A 2018 study conducted by Yale University found that there are is an estimated amount of 22.1 million aliens in the United States. This is twice as many as previously estimated by the Pew Research Center in 2017. The economic burden that they place on the United States is colossal. The Federation for American Immigration Reform believes that the total amount which the government spends on its previously estimated 11 million illegal aliens and their children is a staggering 135 billion dollars. While they pay only 19 billion dollars in taxes, the total burden on the economy is an 116 billion dollars per year. Double this figure to compensate for the newly found immigration figure and the total cost to the economy is an astronomical 232 billion dollars per year. Not only do illegal immigrants place a financial burden on the government, but they also significantly lower unskilled and semi-skilled job opportunities for American citizens, especially African-Americans. A disproportionate amount of African-Americans tend to work as unskilled laborers compared to Whites and Asians. According to the Center for Immigrant Studies, there is almost no way to find job displacement due to illegal vs legal immigration because when they move into a labor market the original citizens tend to move out to seek better opportunities due to lost jobs. Additionally, there is widespread agreement among experts that the large amount of immigrants, both legal and illegal, have caused wages to stagnate. Even though isolating legal or illegal immigration in terms of responsibility for wage stagnation is not possible, employers can afford to pay their illegal workers much less than legal workers, and the high volume of illegal workers prevents wages for American citizens in blue collar work from rising. Moreover, illegal immigration is not fair to legal migrants. There are over 4.75 million people waiting to get a visa, this includes family sponsored and employment based visas. Waiting in this long line of people could take anywhere from a couple of years to a couple of decades according to The Atlantic. Many Democrats will use this as a justification for lifting restrictions on illegal immigration. They will say that immigrants did not want to wait in line and that it is not fair that the United States makes them wait this long. This logic is absurd. My parents were immigrants and political refugees. They had to wait their turn, they did not decide to “cut� everyone that was before them. They waited for many years to escape the political turmoil and constant oppression that they had to face. Sometimes, there was not even enough food to eat. However, they persevered and waited until they received their visa. It is no excuse that other people can not wait. Citizens can not just expect the United States to accept illegal immigrants with open arms. Additionally, illegal aliens can use social services without contributing taxes. Emergency medicaid, K-12 schooling, and public infrastructure are some of the examples. According to The Heritage Foundation, "the average unlawful immigrant household received around $24,721 in government benefits and services while paying some $10,334 in taxes [in 2010]." This shows that American citizens have to cover and pay more taxes for illegal alien use of government services. The prominent question today, is how do we deal with the situation? The late Charles Krauthammer, a pulitzer prize winning columnist had a three step plan to fix this problem. First, we need to create an E-Verify system. This will help the government keep track of the 22.1 million illegal immigrants in our country today. Next, we need to build a wall. The effectiveness of barriers have been proven in the United States. The border fence in San Diego has led to a 90% reduction of crossings. According to studies and meta-analysis of studies performed by the Center for Immigration Studies, the average cost of an illegal alien throughout their lifetime is approximately $75,000. If the border wall was to stop 80% of illegal immigrants, an extremely conservative estimate, the wall would pay for itself 8 times over. The flow of illegal aliens just has to slow to a trickle. After this happens, we can grant illegal immigrants legal status, but not citizenship. They
came here illegally, they should not be able to choose who represents the legal immigrants and citizens of the United States. SEPTEMBER 2016 DECEMBER FEBRUARY 2018 2018
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What's Next For Progre
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Edgar Hsieh Chariot Management
n November 6th of 2018, our country had a fateful election. The Midterms saw the Democrats regaining its majority in the House of Representatives. While for progressives this may seem like a significant victory, the truth should be very clear to them: There was no Blue Wave, and it was a loss for the progressive left. The “win” of Democrats was predictable, which is unacceptable in the Trump era.
black woman from Massachusetts to be elected to the House. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez predictably clinched her victory in New York and moved on to join a climate protest at Nancy Pelosi’s office on her orientation day. One thing is very clear: we have a small bloc of progressive Democrats in the House that is willing to take on the establishment.
Next, a major takeaway from the Midterms is how important the position of the presidency is. Numerous Republican candidates won appeal across the United States essentially by either riding on the momentum of Donald Trump’s movement, or by straight-up emulating him. We The Justice Democrats is a progressive political action saw that many candidates, such as Ron DeSantis who won committee founded in 2017. Justice Democrats gained a sig- the race for Florida governor against progressive Andrew nificant amount of attention after the day of June 26th, 2018. Gillum, adopting Trump aesthetics and going over-the-top That was when long-time incumbent House Representative in fear-mongering over immigration. Despite the various and Democratic Caucus Chair Joe Crowley lost in a shock- losses progressives had, progressive candidates generally ing defeat to Justice Democrat member Alexandria Ocasio- over-performed compared to their corporatist establishment Cortez in the primary race for counterparts even in the face New York’s 14th CongressioOne thing is very clear: we have a small " of extensive voter suppression nal District. The 28-year-old and gerrymandering. bloc of progressive Democrats in the House Democratic Socialist OcasioCortez was one of the many that is willing to take on the establishment." One shining and perhaps young people inspired by the unconventional example was the race for West Virginia’s 3rd campaign of Bernie Sanders in 2016 to extend his grassroots movement and radically alter the geography of Ameri- Congressional District. In that race, progressive Democratic can politics. Invigorated by her victory, many of the Justice candidate Richard Ojeda lost to Republican Carol Miller by Democrats that survived the primaries were poised to take 12 points. However, it is worth noting that in 2016 Trump won that district by 49 points over Clinton. In fact, Richard on Republican candidates in deeply red states and districts. Ojeda was leading in the polls until Trump personally visNow, about the midterms. While the election did not turn ited West Virginia to rally for Carol Miller. This shows that out too well for progressives, some things are still worthy of progressive candidates are capable of winning in deeply red celebration. Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar, the first Muslim states, and how important the position of presidency is to a women representatives elected to the House, were Justice political movement. Democrats. Justice Democrat Ayanna Pressley was the first
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ssives: Midterms to 2020 Another takeaway from the Midterm Elections is the demographic shift of the Democratic Party. Roughly thirty out of the forty House districts Democrats won over in the Midterms are rated as “comfortable or “prosperous by the bipartisan think tank Economic Innovation Group. Meanwhile, only two out of the 43 districts controlled by Republicans rated as “distressed” by the EIG were won over by Democrats. In other words, Democrats are becoming less and less the party of the poor. While Democrats still do perform well in poor urban areas with minority populations, they have lost their hold on distressed Rust Belt and rural regions to the Republicans and Trump. More white suburban regions are flipping to the Democrats in their place. What’s next for progressives then? Firstly, progressives should still try to transform the Democratic Party. Progressives must take a strong stance against corporate Democrats and the Trump Administration. Progressives must also continue to push for progressive policies. But doing this through local and national legislatures isn't enough. As we have learned, the presidency is an important position, even just symbolically. The question is, what should a good 2020 candidate be like? While it is too early to give a definitive answer, one person is worth looking into. That person is the aforementioned former House of Representatives candidate Richard Ojeda. Richard Ojeda announced his run for presidency on November 11th, 2018. While a long shot from winning the primaries, Richard Ojeda is introducing a unique form of politics that progressives can learn from. The former paratrooper and major served in the United States military for 24 years before returning to his home state West Virginia, only to encounter rampant poverty and a widespread opioid epidemic. Richard Ojeda then entered politics as a relentless fighter for the working class. He is known for being a key figure in the 2018 West Virginia Teachers' Strike and successfully legalizing cannabis in his state. Richard Ojeda is essentially an antithesis to Donald Trump, because he is able to attack Trump from a position Trump's base can relate to. He runs on a very explicit anti-corruption platform. He has proposed a requirement for lobbyists to wear body cameras when interacting with politicians, and also a requirement for Federal public officials to sacrifice any net worth over a million dollars to charity. Regardless of the feasibility of these policies or if they can be accepted, Ojeda will resonate clearly with voters that he is an anti-corruption candidate. A lot of Trump's successes in 2016 are due to his calls to "Drain the Swamp", or getting rid of corruption. Richard Ojeda shows that he is genuine and serious about "draining the swamp". He has attacked Donald Trump for wasting taxpayer money at Mar-A-Lago and being soft on Saudi Arabia due to personal business interests. Therefore, Ojeda is capable of wrestling the agenda of anti-corruption from Donald Trump to the Democrats in 2020 and regain many parts of its old demographic.
Youtube: Richard Ojeda
Another value of Richard Ojeda is his quality as a fighter. He remarked in an interview that now is the "time to knuckle up" and not compromise with corporate politicians. That includes Democrats, such as Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer. Ojeda is simply not afraid to directly attack the Democratic establishment. He frames all of his policies in the context of for the working class and against the coporate establishment. For example, when elaborating on his stance on abortion, Ojeda emphasized that his primary reason to support a woman's right to choose is the fact that a lack of access to abortions is detrimental to poor working women. This quality that progressives such as Bernie Sanders lacks. In order for a Democratic candidate to truly appeal to voters in 2020, they must have definitive break with the Democratic establishment. Ojeda, with his unequivocal pro-working class rhetoric and support for progressive policies such as Medicare for All and a Green New Deal, has already proven himself to be a powerful candidate in the 2020 arena that progressives can learn from. SEPTEMBER DECEMBER FEBRUARY 2016 2018 2018
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When we refer to the term “minority” in this context, we refer to people of non-Caucasian ethnicities or, in many cases, non-Asians, as many point to the larger representation of Asians in certain occupations and colleges as evidence of “privilege” that must be fought. Caucasians are almost always assumed to be in the majority, supposedly better off than anyone of another race due to their privilege. Unfortunately, it seems that Dr. King’s words are still being ignored by the institutions which largely dictate our lives today.
The Case Against Affirmative Action Aanand Joshi & Philip Ng Collaborating Writers
“I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.”
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Those who are identified as minorities are often given special treatment over the majority, with the intent of compensating for widespread discrimination that is presumed to affect all of them, whether it is in the process of getting a job or admission into higher education.
Policies known as affirmative action have been put in place with the intent of combating disparities between social groups. These policies claim to aid those who suffer from discrimination due to their race, sexuality, gender, or other inherent traits by providing such individuals with special assistance and/or consideration based on how underrepresented they are perceived to be in public and private institutions, primarily in the job application process or entrance into higher education.
his is easily the most famous quote from There are many flaws and contradictions with civil rights activist Dr. Martin Luther King. This quote, while over half a cen- this line of reasoning because it ultimately perpettury old, has a legacy that strongly applies to to- uates what it claims to prevent: discrimination. For example, supporters of this policy automatically day’s world. equate financial stability with race and gender, but We live in a society where racial tension lives on the reality is that using these statistical tendencies in a multitude of ways. Racial nationalism through judges people as part of a collective rather than as movements such as the alt-right and the Nation of individuals, and is quite literally the foundation of Islam still persists, despite the far better social situ- discrimination. ation that now exists compared to the time of the Instead of discovering and considering the obcivil rights movement. But extremist movements are not the only places where these racial divisions stacles that individuals have faced over the course of their lives, the obstacles are assumed to exist prevail. or be absent merely based on the chromosomal In many areas of our country, it has become a makeup, sexual preferences, or skin tone that a social norm to support enforced equal outcome. person may have or may not have. 10
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By adding another variable in determining ad- ficult classes and have vastly unrealistic expectamission for a job or university, the process is only tions of themselves in order to be better than all more stressful for applicants. their peers, resulting in inevitable disappointment from both them and their families. Imagine this: You’ve worked hard throughout high school, and have had to support your famNot only does this negatively affect those in maily at the same time by working two jobs. You’re jority social groups, but minorities are also nega straight-A student, and have a multitude of ex- atively impacted. The mere premise of granting tracurricular activities that you enjoy doing. You additional assistance or funds simply due to one’s submit an application to one of the colleges that race or gender is somewhat patronizing. It directyou’ve had your eye on for a while. ly contradicts the main purpose that affirmative action policies are intended to serve, as this ultiUnfortunately, you’re rejected. But another stu- mately perpetuates a belief within these groups of dent who also goes to your school and applied for inferiority regardless of how hard one works, and the same major who has lower grades, doesn’t en- results in the abandonment of the ideas of selfgage in other extracurricular activities, has plenty improvement and the American Dream. of time on his hands, and doesn’t need to support his family since his In the pursuit of repCC BY-SA 2.0 License, by Tim Sackton parents are very well off resenting an “underfinancially is accepted. represented” group, the What qualified this stuactual merit of these dent over you? candidates is placed as a second priority. This Well, he happened to could potentially result be of African descent, in situations where the and you happened to person who was selectbe Indian. The Africaned through affirmative American population at action isn’t able to keep the school is relatively up with the expectations small, so the board of admissions justified reject- since they were selected in order to fill a racial ing you because there were “too many Indians” quota, and end up failing in their ventures. and “not enough African-Americans” in your major. You were more qualified in every way, yet you The proponents of these policies claim to suphappened to have a skin color which is shared by port racial equality, but in reality, they are promotmany in the field you had chosen, and for this rea- ing a “fight fire with fire” doctrine of fighting unson, you were denied. derrepresentation with discrimination. Racists like the KKK or the New Black Panther Party do not Situations like these, sadly, are increasingly com- claim any association with supporting racial equalmonplace, mostly affecting Caucasians and Asian- ity, and acknowledge their support of discriminaAmericans. In the case of the latter, this only adds tion. on to the academic stress that is already present in many Asian-American communities, where nothLiberals who support affirmative action are not ing less than academic excellence is often accepted. aware that they are actually perpetuating discrimination, which clearly shows that we still have a When race is a factor in decisions, even more long way to go before we reach the triumphant stress is put on these students to take as many dif- day that Dr. King dreamt of. SEPTEMBER 2016 DECEMBER FEBRUARY 2018 2018
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CULTURE
History Shouldn't Be History Scott Hwang Contributing Writer
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here has always been some debate about the virtues and importances of STEM versus liberal arts, especially in this age of rapidly advancing technology. I do not pretend to have the answer. Instead, I’ll instead merely comment on one aspect and why it can’t be overlooked: history. Why is it so important? Why does everyone have to learn it? Simply put, history inspires, predicts, and gives insight to events today. History isn’t the most interesting topic to everyone, but lots of people love sports. In 2016, Leicester City won the Premier League in England despite having 5000-1 odds against them. It has singlehandedly led to many people taking up soccer. Part of the 12
reason I play it today is that I watched Leicester City do the impossible. Like it or not, this is history—a past event changing what many people do today. Maybe you aren’t convinced. “That’s sports, not history!” I’m sure you agree that the Roaring Twenties and Great Depression are historical events. Ever wonder how all these economists make predictions— ”The economy is due for a crash!”, “Housing prices will rise!”, etc.—and, however rarely, get some right? They look at precedent, basing models after past trends to anticipate the future. Don’t believe me? Five Nobel Prize winners have been economic historians. Says Professor Brad DeLong, UC Berkeley, “Every single piece of economic theory is ultimately a piece of crystallised history. And you have a much deeper and sophisticated form of knowledge if you know the history, the events, what happened.” SEPTEMBER2018 2016 DECEMBER
What if you don’t plan on winning a Nobel Prize? You may have heard of the pendulum of history. It describes historical events as swinging objects, which sway back and forth as they reach tipping points. A great example is the Tudor period in England: Anglican (and Church of England founder) James VIII was followed by (devout) Catholic Mary I, who was followed by Anglican Elizabeth I, who executed Mary. How does the pendulum trend help us? Well, it helps us put events today, like the election of President Trump, into context: no, the world isn’t ending, and the the pendulum will swing back. Just as President Obama was followed by his seemingly polar opposite, so too will Trump be followed, eventually, by someone who seems completely different. Looking at history can give perspective on events today. The point is, history is important, whether you like it or not. It can motivate people. It can help make forecasts. Most importantly, it can help you understand the forces that drive events today. So, the next time someone tells you, “If you want money, STEM is the way to go!”, remember that if you want to understand the way the world works, history has the answers.
A Critique of Hypebeast Culture
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Edgar Hsieh & Philip Ng Collaobrating Writers
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ecently, a new fashion trend is looming over all strata of society. The trend in question here is the so-called “Hypebeast Culture”. A deviation from more traditional streetwear fashion, this “luxurious streetwear” trend has taken dominance in many places around the country, and should be quite visible at home in Gunn. If you happen to be out of the loop, basically this style involves clothing brands such as Supreme, Gucci, Bape, Anti-Social Social Club, whatever. People go unthinkable lengths to obtain articles of clothing that happen to be sold by these brands and spend even more unthinkable amounts of money for them. It is the new-fangled method of flaunting wealth and power by young people in the 21th Century.
CC BY 2.0 License, by Alberto Ziveri
The Hypebeast trend targets a demographic ranging from teens all the way to adults in their late 20s. This fashion trend encourages irresponsible spending on worthless products, which is especially bad for young people who do not yet have a high-paying job. In high school, the Hypebeast culture fosters a toxic environment which is already full of angst CC0 Creative Commons License and stress. People who own Hypebeast brand products ultimately use it to flex on other people, and in turn pressure others to buy these products as well. Most high schoolers do not have jobs to pay for these products, and we all like to avoid the likely scenario of kids begging their parents for money or stealing their mom’s credit card. Now, there is animosity towards popular fashion trends and styles since the beginning of fashion history, some of which are justified while others are not. But the “Hypebeast Culture” is particularly egregious with its internal mechanism against criticism, and its enabling of what can be called “corporate irony”. SEPTEMBER2018 2016 DECEMBER
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Corporate Irony In the past, high fashion is deemed as luxurious through the usage of expensive materials or styles that are difficult to produce. CC BY 2.0 License, by CharmaineZoe's Marvelous Melange
Differences of social classes can be easily distinguished with different attires. In fact, criticism against luxurious styles of upper social classes were effective catalysts for social change that brought progress towards equality and democracy. Luxury was visible back then, rich people were at least honest and straightforward about how they want to show off their high fashion. In the 21st Century, the new “Hypebeast Culture” obscures this process. This is because those Hypebeasts hide behind layers of irony to justify their intent to show off wealth.
Brands like Supreme have no exceptional quality and are not particularly attractive in style compared to any past forms of high fashion. Then where does the value of Supreme stem from? In truth, nothing. Supreme’s value simply comes from people thinking it’s valuable. They promote that it is amusing to pointlessly hype over a brand that has no exceptional qualities, and people get in too far on the joke. In other words, people hyped up Supreme to be something of great value ironically precisely because it did not have that much of a value. The result of this phenomenon is a whole bunch of Hypebeast brands that become unironically popular. This is perhaps the most egregious method of displaying of wealth and power conceived by capitalism yet: extract the act of showing off from “for just good quality clothes” and instead turn it into “show off for the sake of showing off”. It’s not the clothes’ quality or style that matters but rather to process of owning a brand and “flexing” on others that matters. The process of flexing is what is commodified. 14
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The greatest insult of this trend is perhaps the If you are truly self-aware, then you shouldn’t appropriation of the streetwear culture. flex how rich you are in the first place. Streetwear was originally the antithesis of The culture of corporate irony eventually spiluxurious high fashion as it belonged to the rals out of control when parodies of parodies working class. It was characterized by comfort, emerge; people create their own knock-offs of affordability, and convenience. Hypebeast brands. Nowadays, streetwear is something rich Silicon Valley kids flex on Instagram. This very rebellious, counterculture fashion is now nullified and absorbed into a trend subservient to the rich elites of society.
Instead of allowing people to formulate criticism, Hypebeasts and their beloved brands formulate an ideological shield that will only allow people to create parodies of the brands, which are parodies themselves. People creating their own fake hypebeast brands as an ironic meme Some Hypebeasts assert that they are aware just continues the process, as they express disof the origins of jointed and meanstreetwear and ingless messages how they stay true that only reinforce to its original intent the idea of flauntand message. ing wealth and power. Parodies of They claim that Supreme are eshow ironically apsentially free adpropriating a style vertising for the associated with Hypebeast mentallower classes of ity. society with luxury is somehow emCorporate irony powering. Howis dangerous. It imever, that is just CC BY-SA 3.0 License, by PNovielloAbsoluto pairs our ability in emblematic of how making proper critcorporate irony functions. icism against consumerism and obscures class To fully understand what corporate irony is, antagonisms. It facilitates, emanates, and reinone must first make the very clear distinction forces a mentality that is passive and defensive towards the status quo. between satire and parody. Satire is made with the intent of criticism, while parody is made with laudatory intent towards a source material. In other words, memeish irony utilized for the mentality of the Hypebeast culture is only there to justify showing off how rich somebody is (a parody), not actually criticizing it (a satire).
If we truly are self-aware, we should just realize that spending ridiculous amounts of money on clothes to show off how we are privileged Silicon Valley kids is stupid.
Next time you line up in front of a Supreme store early in the morning, remember that there are still people who cannot obtain proper People playing into the mentality of corporate healthcare and others who don’t have an access irony defend their actions by claiming they are to clean water. self-aware. However, that is not a valid defense. SEPTEMBER2018 2016 DECEMBER
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CROSSWORD PUZZLE By
Neha Muthiah Chariot Team
Down: 1. Trump has had negotiations with Kim Jong-un for the de-_________ of North Korea. 2. The New York Times published an article stating that Rod _________ allegedly wanted to secretly record Trump. 3. Christine _________ Blasey Ford testified against Kavanaugh in court. 4. Trump’s UN Ambassador, Nikki ______ formally announced that she will resign at the end of the year.
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Across: 5. The name given to young undocumented immigrants, who wish to stay in the United States. 6. Aleksandr Kogan sold the data of Facebook users to Cambridge _________. 7. The Nobel Prize in medicine for 2018 was awarded for the treatment of specific types of _______. 8. The US is imposing tariffs of roughly $265 billion on imports from this country. 9. Trump wanted this country to pay for his Wall. 10. Trump replaced this trade agreement with the US-Canada-Mexico Agreement (USMCA).
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