THE LEAFLET volume 2 issue 6 jan. 23, 2015
We are the same on the
inside image by lauren glynn
racial equality issue THIS MONTH:
P4: Documented Immigrants P5: Stand Your Ground P8-9: Population by race and ethnicities P10: Ferguson and Eric Garner P14: Diversty throught sports
P15: White washing in movies P18: Police shootings P21: Hannah Brown Opinion Piece P22: Black vs. African American
It has come to the Leaflet staff’s attention that racial awareness is more than relevant at this time. Whether it be around the world or even within SHS, there has been a sudden movement that allows people to express their feelings. Through a class discussion, a classmate brought up that racial equality had been thrown “under the rug” and we decided to shed light on the topic. In this issue we chose to address recent news and events such as Eric Garner and the Ferguson shooting in MO. Not only does my staff address their own opinion on racial equality, many purpose their thoughts on what we
can do to fix the problems. Not only do we hope this issue educates the readers and allows them to be able to understand what is happening in the world, we also want to celebrate diversity. Happy New Year and enjoy the issue!
Lauren Glynn
leaflet editor-in-chief
The Leaflet, the official web news-magazine of Sycamore High School, serves as an educational tool in the training of student journalists. We provide information and editorial leadership concerning school, national and world issues. We also provide a public forum for the exchange of ideas and viewpoints and give coverage to newsworthy events directly related to our diverse school population. These viewpoints are purely from the staff of The Leaflet, and not the administration.
The Leaflet Sycamore High School 7400 Cornell Road Cincinnati, OH 45242
Leaflet Editor-in-Chief: Lauren Glynn Print Editors-in-Chief: Atiya Dosani, Lauren Saxon Web Editor-in-Chief: Kathryn Tenbarge Associate Editors: Joseph Ahn, Madeline Marsh, Anna Zhou Managing Editors: Abbey Baker, Isaac Goldstein Creative Projects: Joseph Ahn, Taylor Evans, Hannah Frey, Elizabeth Rickert, Orion Schlosser, Zoe Schlosser Business Manager: Caroline Gao Web Master: Eli Seidman-Deutsch Assignment Editors: Lila Englander, Brenda Shen Broadcast Editor-in-Chief: Sarah Horne, Victoria Swart, Ben Young
Staff Writers Jordan Baker Jenna Bao Natalie Brinkman Caroline Bruns Ben BrynjulfsonReardon Emily Chien Adhiti Chundur Taylor Close Benjamin Cohen William Coleman Amy Deng Meghan DiGiovanna Jake Englander Sydney Evans Max Fritzhand Zachary Fritzhand Meredith Gottliebson Charles Harte Rujula Kapoor Emilie King Riley Kurtz Lauren Kurtzer Brooke Landrum
Claire Lefton Beverly Liu Jack Loon Melinda Looney-Ho Harsimran Makkad Ellen Martinson Ethan May Hannah May Zachary Milliken Joshua Patterson Esther Pittinger Anthony Popenoe Benjamin Ruskin Madeline Schramm Lauren Shassere Luke Tenbarge Max Torem Emily Tyler Leah Wallihan Kamaria Walton David Wertheim Alex Wittenbaum Neil Yejjey Elijah Zawatsky Nathan Zhang
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Celebrate diversity ev
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verywhere
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Diversity insports Proportion of League’s Players
Racial Breakdown of Sports Leagues White
0.9 0.8 0.7 0.6 0.5 0.4 0.3 0.2 0.1 0
Asian
African American
MLB
MLS
NBA
Latino
NFL
Other
WNBA
Diversity By League
MLB MLS NBA NFL WNBA 54% 67% 36% 47% 42% 4
IMAGE BY orion schlosser RESEARCH BY nathan zhang INFORMATION COURTESY HARVARD SPORT ANALYSIS
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What is the Stand Your Ground law? It is a law first established in Florida that allows people to stand their ground anywhere instead of retreating if they reasonably believe doing so is necessary to prevent harm or death. It allows for people to defend themselves even outside of their homes with deadly force.
Stand
your
ground
What is the Castle Doctrine? The Castle Doctrine is an expansion of the Stand Your Ground law, which says that a person is protected under the law to use deadly force in selfdefense when his or her property or home is being invaded. More than half of all states have passed some form of this law.
States enforcing Stand Your Ground law
53% increase in
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600
homicides
adopted the
was passed
justifiable
5
states have
Castle Doctrine
IMAGE BY orion schlosser RESEARCH BY jacob englander and luke tenbarge INFORMATION COURTESY WASHINGTON POST
additional gun
deaths per year
after law
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College Diversity Maddie Marsh emily chien Sarah horne associate editor
staff writer
staff writer
College diversity has become an important factor on college campuses. By composing universities of students with different races and backgrounds, it improves the racial tolerance and understanding of different people. This increases knowledge of important aspects of different cultures. Photo courtesy of MCT Photo.
L
ooking around the halls of SHS, diversity is everywhere. Many students take this for granted, but such diversity is definitely not seen everywhere. College campuses always love to say on their brochures that they are diverse, so obviously it is considered a good thing. What is diversity? How does it help an educational institution? What are the most diverse colleges in America? Well, diversity is having variety or a number of different races and ethnic backgrounds. There are many positives to having diversity. It expands worldliness, enhances social development, increases our knowledge base, makes us more self aware, and allows for multiple
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perspectives for people to encounter on a daily basis. So, obviously diversity is good. Do colleges have diversity? America has definitely made huge strides in regards to having diverse campuses. This is in part due to colleges considering a student’s race, along with other factors, when evaluating their eligibility for their college. America’s ethnic majority is getting smaller, so that by 2050 our nation will have no clear racial or ethnic majority (source: Center for American Progress). If college campuses are not diverse, we will not be adequately investing in the future workforce. Colleges have seen positive academic and social effects from
diversity on campus from higher levels of academic achievements to more varied relationships. Having people from many different backgrounds and cultures helps bring about tolerance of many different religions, races, and cultures. This is due to the fact that the students are no longer surrounded with statistics and stereotypes, but real people who they interact with. By providing diversity in colleges, people of all races and backgrounds are offered an equal chance in taking charge of their future and career. This allows for everyone to create the life they want and for there to be more intelligence and creativity not only in colleges, but also in individual’s futures.
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TOP 5
1 2 3 4 5
most diverse college campuses in America
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Stanford University
Amherst College
Pomona College
Swarthmore College 7
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IMAGE BY Brenda Shen and anna zhou RESEARCH BY brenda shen INFORMATION COURTESY senate.gov
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Who Are the Members of Congress? Population Gender
U.S. Population
House House
Senate
Female
51%
17%
17%
Male
49%
83%
83%
Race
U.S. Population House
Senate
White
64%
82%
96%
Black
13%
10%
0%
Hispanic
16%
7%
2%
Asian
5%
3%
2%
Native Am.
1%
.002%
0%
Religion
U.S. Population
Senate
House
Senate
Protestant
51%
57%
56%
Catholic
24%
30%
24%
Mormon
2%
2%
5%
Jewish
2%
6%
12%
All Others
21%
4%
4%
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The fight for Ferguson
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eli zawatsky staff writer
adhiti chundur
T
staff writer
he grand jury’s decision not to indict Officer Darren Wilson following the recent shooting of the unarmed Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri was followed by protests and riots. Other confrontations between officers and unarmed AfricanAmericans after the Ferguson incident became the center of national attention, including the cases of 12-year-old Tamir Rice, who was shot in Cleveland, Ohio and Eric Garner, who was approached by police because they thought he was selling cigarettes illegally. A video showed the police allegedly using an illegal chokehold on Garner and bringing him face down on the pavement. Garner said “I can’t breathe” 11 times before blacking out. He later experienced cardiac arrest on the way to the hospital and was pronounced dead an hour later. “The video is shocking, extremely disturbing and evidence that there are major and significant issues
within our police forces. Clearly, institutionalized racism in our country is still widespread, as proven by thousands of statistics on the proportion of blacks and other minorities involved in crime to whites involved in crime,” junior Maya Sheth said. People are outraged at the grand jury’s decision after the video recording of the incident brought into question the need for such a forceful chokehold on Garner. The shootings, and lack of consequences for the offending officer, have sparked protests around the country. Protesters are holding “die-ins,” during which protesters lie down to mimic being dead. “I would participate in a protest and all my family would as well because we firmly believe in equality and that how those men were treated was unacceptable,” sophomore Josh Rosen said. Along with these protests, social media has been abuzz with the trending topics “I can’t breathe” and “black lives matter”. “I think these incidents should
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serve as a wakeup call to people who don’t believe that there are police or race issues in America,” Sheth said. These deaths are also sparking debates over the status of racism in the United States. It is a comforting thought to believe that racism is simply a relic of another era, something that should never even need to be considered in our modern age. The sad truth of the matter is that the United States, along with every other country in the world, is continually awash with the predispositions of every one of its citizens. “Prejudices are engrained into our society. It’s human nature to judge people based on the actions of people like them. For instance, sometimes I accidentally ask people
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wearing red shirts for help in Target, because I assume they are employees. We have to try not to let preconceived notions affect our judgment of others,” junior Max Weiss said. The United States did reach a huge milestone in 2008, when President Barack Obama was elected as President. We have made huge progress in terms of discrimination since the pre-Martin Luther King Jr. days of Jim Crow laws and legal discrimination against African-Americans. Some are even going as far as to call our era “Post-Racial America.” Unfortunately, as indiscriminant as our legal system now is in regard to race, there will always be people who cannot and will not relinquish their predispositions.
Discrimination is not something, like the institution of slavery, that can be extinguished with mass action and a rewriting of the laws. It is something that exists in the minds of the people of the world and merely manifests itself in the physical plane. Racism is the chronic illness of the world; we can treat the symptoms, but the illness itself will always be there- waiting to crop up again and wreak havoc on society. “I don’t think our society can ever completely eliminate prejudices,” said Weiss.
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Whitewashing in movies Breakfast at Tiffany’s
Mickey Rooney was casted to play I.Y. Yunioshi. Rooney is a Caucasian male and was playing the role of a Japanese man. His role was characterized by so many stereotypes of Asian people that any Asian person playing this role would have been offended. Rooney was heavily made up, making this role even more insulting. He was the neighbor of Holly Golightly who is played by Audrey Hepburn and is portrayed as a buck toothed nerd. The responses to this, even in 1961, were extremely negative.
West Side Story
Natalie Wood was casted to play the character of Maria in the movie version of West Side Story, made in 1961. The movie features two New York City gangs, one Puerto Rican and the other Polish. Wood is supposed to be the sister of the leader of the Puerto Rican gang, but she is really Caucasian. The film did cast the rest of Maria’s friends as Puerto Rican people, but they had minor rules.
Cleopatra
Elizabeth Taylor played the Egyptian queen Cleopatra. Taylor, as a white woman, makes this another example of whitewashing. This is just one example of when an Egyptian character has been played by a Caucasian actress. In the movie Exodus many Egyptians were played by Caucasians, this caused many people to boycott the movie.
Peter Pan Live Rooney Mara played Tiger Lily in the 2014 live version of Peter Pan. This character is a Native American but Mara is white. While she is a talented actress, people question if she should have been casted to play a Native American character. After the announcement that she would be playing Tiger Lily, many online petitions started to get someone else to play this role.
What is whitewashing? Whitewashing is used in Hollywood when someone is casted to play a role that is not the race the character is supposed to be.
IMAGE By hannah frey reseaRch by esther pittinger information courtesy huffington post
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CHS studies immigrat
controversial issue the United States faces is what to do about the undocumented immigrants within our borders. Politicians he issue of immigration are not only split between their is definitely not a simple parties, but they are also divided one, and consequently, it within their own parties. is not simply solved. This The policies the government may issue is also what the students enact concerning undocumented of the contemporary Hispanic immigrants will affect over 11.5 studies (CHS) are studying. million people, including college “We’re exploring immigration students. into this country because it’s On Nov. 7, the CHS classes hosted such a huge deal. We are also a guest speaker, Ricardo Ugas, learning to be more sensitive a student at Miami University. toward the topic, because there He shared his experiences as are immigrants that we go to an international student in the school with every day,” senior U.S. as well as what his life was Molly Gearin said. like in a turbulent, violence-torn Something that students often Venezuela. forget is that not everyone in His stories greatly shed light Sycamore goes home to the on how corrupt the Venezuelan same things or problems. One
T
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government is. The everyday life of a Venezuelan is spent navigating riots in the streets and avoiding tear-gas and fire bombs. The height of the conflicts in the country arose in the spring on 2014. “My family really wants to come to the U.S., too, because their quality of life there is so bad,” Ugas said. Ugas and his mother came to the U.S. when he was 14 and has been here since. He is currently studying mechanical engineering but is in constant fear of what is happening with the rest of his family who still lives in Venezuela. “I believe in the American dream, because I believe there is still an opportunity to give your family
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tion issues in the US a good quality of life rather than living in a socialist country where you can get a college degree but not get any farther in life,” Ugas said. In addition to hearing Ugas’ story, students also had the chance to listen to former SHS student, Laura Mendez. She shared her own personal experiences about going to high school and then college as an undocumented immigrant and the challenges of living under a system that provides limited protection to young people. The most memorable thing Mendez told classes was that even though she is from another country, her home is the United States. Currently, she is attending the University of Cincinnati, but is fearful for what will happen to her after she graduates, as no plans are really in place for her afterwards. The classes have also watched several movies depicting the struggle and desperation of people and the lengths at which they will go to come to the United States. One of the most known methods of travel that is highlighted in the media is people coming on freight trains, known as the “Bestia” or the “Beast”. The frightening thing is that the majority of immigrants coming from Latin American countries are children in search of their parents. These kids face poverty, gangs, violence, drugs and most terrifying, the “Beast”. “It’s not like people wake up one morning and decide to come to the U.S. It’s much
more complicated and difficult than that,” Spanish teacher Ms. Meredith Blackmore said. The whole unit of immigration is to put the issue into perspective and give students a better understanding of such a pressing issue. “I’ll admit that before I was a person who thought immigrants were just coming into our country, taking our jobs and all the stuff the media is telling us, but now I understand that the issue is much more complicated and that these people sacrifice so much to come here,” senior Melody Freeland said. On Jan. 14, the CHS class hosted a special viewing of “Documented,” the heart-warming story of an undocumented immigrant and his journey to reuniting with his mother after over 20 years. His journey helps viewers gain insight to the convoluted nature of the system and how hard it is for millions of people to become citizens. Even after the class ends, students know that the issues they have discussed will still be extremely relevant in their lives. Now that they are aware of these issues, they believe they can participate more actively in what is going on in the world. “One of the biggest takeaways is that people can’t be illegal, but actions can. Calling people illegal aliens is really dehumanizing to a very large group, and really contradicts American values,” senior Elli Gibson said.
Of the new U.S. residents, 14% came from Mexico, 7.9% from China, and 6.4% from India
For the first time in 2012, the majority of babies under age 1 were black, Hispanic, Asian, or another nonwhite race
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RACIAL INEQUALITY IN 8,
RACIAL GAPS IN EDUCATION
high school dropout percentage (among persons 16-24 years old) by race WHITES
BLACKS
HISPANICS
child
43% 38%
WHITES ASIANS
21% 15%
HISPANICS
1977
2013
11% 1992
8%
5%
BLACKS
w
12%
16
20%
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in AMERICA
,100,000
dren under 18 Years were uninsured
HEALTH INSURANCE
8.1 million children under 18 years old were without health insurance. Children in poverty and Hispanic children were more likely to be uninsured.
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Black, Latino and Native American students attended schools with higher concentrations of first-year teachers (3 to 4 percent) than white students (1 percent). Black students were more than three times as likely to attend schools where fewer than 60 percent of teachers meet all state certification and licensure requirements. IMAGE By zoe schlosser reseaRch by zoe schlosser information courtesy Racial Equality Matters
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‘What do we want? Dead cops’ Anti-cop sentiment rises as result of racial tension
jordan baker staff writer
hannah frey
R
feature chief
acial tension has been on the rise across the United States, causing many protests and riots across the country. An anti cop sentiment has become the popular view point of many people. This is what led to the killing of two police officers in Brooklyn by Ismaaiyl Brinsley who had killed his girlfriend and then went onto social media saying he would kill cops because Eric Garner was killed by police, as was Michael Brown. He then proceeded to go kill Rafael Ramos and Wenjian Liu. They were sitting in their police car when he came up and shot them. The anti cop view is not just a view; it has become an excuse for people to kill cops. During a protest in New York led by Al Sharpton the demonstrators were chanting, what do we want? Dead cops. When do we want them? Now. The American population seems to be foretting that 99 times out of 100, police officers are the people who are protecting us. A select few may be exploiting their positions of power, but this does not mean that we should villanize the police force as a whole. Killing cops is not the answer to the problem in the United States. It has lead to more than just racial tension.
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l Marriage on the Rise in Ameri a i c a r r e ca I nt More than 35 percent of surveyed American adults say that they have a family member who is married to someone of a different race. Compare this to just 20 years ago, when less than half of the American public believed it acceptable for whites to marry blacks. It’s a clear indication that additudes and behaviors are shifting with the times.
other
Interracial Marriages in America
white-asian
white-african american
white-hispanic
ONE IN SEVEN MARRIAGES IN THE U.S. ARE INTERRACIAL OR INTERETHIC In Ohio alone, there are 3.8% of marriages with mixed races
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IMAGE By lauren glynn reseaRch by melinda looney information courtesy social trends
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Everyone is entitled to his or her opinion
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Care Deeply R
acism hangs around far too often for my liking. I scroll past it on my twitter feed, see it on television, pass the potatoes to it on Thanksgiving. It’s the subtleties really, the underhanded jokes and such that perpetuate social inequality. I think it’s easy to be dismissive of that, but it keeps racism in the rinse cycle. Just sort of circling over and over. The biggest thing about really solidifying racial equality is realizing that it’s everyone’s problem. No one is exempt from worrying about it. It isn’t something we should sweep under the rug, nor can we afford to. To boil it down to the simplest of ideas, to the bare bones of it all: everyone is human, and everyone deserves to be treated as such. There isn’t
any room for exceptions or maybes, possiblies, or perchances. I felt this overwhelming sense of guilt for a while. I desperately want to bring about change, to start in the home and move outward, but I felt as though I wasn’t really getting anything done. However; it is important to note that social media can be a huge platform to influence social change and promote equality. Being able to express yourself and your opinions on such a large scale is a big part of becoming a more equal society. I’ve managed to compile a list of things I feel are important or have something to say concerning racial equality and what we can do, as a person or a community. Enjoy. Everyone is groovy.
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Black vs. African American
Lauren saxon
are not ‘an absorption of light,’ but rather the source of it. The negative connotation of hen asked if I am African the word ‘black’ makes me less American, I respond yes. When asked if I am inclined to identify with it. African American, especially black, I respond yes as well. in a professional setting, implies Although my answer for each is respect. By using it, not only does the same, many don’t recognize that there is a difference between one respect our ancestry from the two. For many, there is also a Africa, but also our adoption of American culture as well. The preference. term African American gives a I prefer African American. better, blended perspective of And with this matter, my my heritage, addressing where I preference is driven by a desire originated and where I am now. for respect. It also separates us from The first definition of the word other cultures, such as Haitian“black” reads as followed: “of the American, or cultures of the very darkest color owing to the absence of or complete absorption Caribbean Islands, that all seem to get lumped into ‘Black Culture’ of light; the opposite of white.” because of skin color. This definition itself contains My opinions regarding the term demeaning misconceptions that African-American, is the same people today associate with toward the word Caucasian. I use African Americans. We are not that term rather than ‘white’ for ‘the opposite of white,’ as we the same reason: respect. share similar views with other It is also important to explain Caucasians around the world. We print editor-in-chief
W
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dis
resp
that the preference between African American and Black is purely generational. My 80 year old grandfather, who lived through the Civil Rights era, prefers to be called black. My great-grandma, on the other hand, fought to be called a ‘negro,’ because it was a better term than what she had been called all her life-a nigger. When I asked my parents their preference, my mom said African American right away, but my Dad hesitated. His final response was “I don’t really care what you call me, as long as it’s with respect.” I do have a preference, but my father’s answer is the main reason why my answer to the question “Are you black?” or “Are you African American?” is yes.
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Underneath the surface
Why no one wants to talk about Race JOsh Patterson
A
staff writer
s a young, white, male I do not know a lot about oppression. I am not someone who has been unfairly treated a lot throughout life. That does not mean that it is not easy to see that these recent decisions are unfair. Ferguson has been one of the few decisions in recent memory that have been blatantly unfair. Setting aside the evidence that was or was not evident, considering there were witnesses that lied on both sides; no one should die without a just cause. If someone must die in a life threatening situation their body should not be left out in the street.
Police officers in the Ferguson decision ignored the basic procedure for this situation and none of them had to pay the price. Then in the Eric Garner situation, the only person arrested was the man taking the video of the incident, where a police officer strangled Garner to death while he was heard saying “I can’t breathe”. How does this happen? We are to use to letting police officers have the benefit of the doubt. Just because they are the law does not mean they are above the law. The justice system should be designed so that police officers are held responsible
nomatter how high up or important they are. They need to be held to the same standard that citizens like Garner and Michael Brown are held to. The justice system has become a public spectacle, with people like CNN, MSNBC and Fox focused more on the riots and protests following the decision than the actual decision The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) has released a list of 76 colored people that have been killed in police custody since 1999. This list includes Tamir Rice, the 12 year old shot and killed in Cleveland, and Garner.
Even though the number 76 seems small there is a much bigger issue at hand here. In those 76 deaths only seven officers were ever indicted. I’m not a law expert and I do not pretend to be one but the idea that only nine percent of police killings being illegal seems a little farfetched. This is something that can be changes, and something that will change. This is just a question of how fast. We must change and adapt before the justice system becomes something where we already know the outcome before we even go to court.
Major Race Riots and Arrests since 1950 Cincinnati, OH 2001 Oakland, CA 2009 100 arrests
Toledo, OH 2005 800 arrests 114 arrests
Ferguson, MO 2014 155 arrests
Los Angele, CA 1992 11,000+ arrests
Brooklyn, NY 1991 129 arrests Selma to Montgomery marches 3,000+ arrests St. Petersburg, FL 1996 20 arrests
Washington D.C. 1951 230 arrests
Miami, FL 1960 1,000+ arrests
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