THE MANEATER
FEB. 22, 2017 • THEMANEATER.COM
Women’s basketball win boosts tournament chances (pg. 13)
MSA SLATE SHOWDOWN What you need to know about Tuesday’s presidential debate
The MSA candidates for president and vice president at Tuesday night’s debate (from left): Willett/Englert, Stockton/Gulati and Schafer/de Leon. COURTESY OF MUTV NEWS
FIONA MURPHY Staff Writer
The candidates for Missouri Students Association president and vice president participated in the first debate of the election cycle Tuesday night. The next debate will be at 6 p.m. Feb. 27 at the Shack. Voting for the election opens March 6 at vote. missouri.edu and ends March 8, with the announcement of the winner to follow full Senate. The debate, which lasted two hours, covered a variety of topics, including social justice issues, the slates’ platforms and divesting from prison labor. Here are four notable moments from the debate:
1. The slates do not agree on whether they support a past joint session resolution that calls for MU to divest from prison labor. Presidential candidate Nathan Willett said he did not support the resolution and that he has visited the Jefferson City Correctional Center. “To address this situation, I think people need to see it first-hand,” Willett said. “I got to shake hands and talk to some of the inmates, and that’s what they love to do, they take pride and passion for it. I do not support the resolution because we need to look more into it.” Presidential candidate Josh Stockton said he supported the resolution. Presidential candidate Tori Schafer,
the current MSA vice president, said more information needs to “get gathered” before “we can make an official statement.” But MSA has made an official resolution advocating for MU to divest from prison labor. A resolution functions as an official statement from the body, and all members are expected to uphold the language of the resolution after it’s passed. The resolution passed in joint session last spring. “Personally knowing someone who was in prison and did prison labor, they do take a lot of joy in those projects and do take a lot of joy in those social interactions,” Schafer said. 2. Schafer, if elected, would be
SPEAKERS
Former MSA President Payton Head returns to MU CLARE ROTH Staff Writer
When introducing Payton Head before his “Lessons from Mizzou” keynote speech Monday night, associate professor Stephanie Shonekan quoted Ta-Nehisi Coates’ article in The Atlantic, “My President was Black,” to describe Head. “He showed it was possible to be smart and cool at the same damn time,” she said. The speech, hosted by the black studies department Shonekan chairs, encouraged students to get
involved on campus and in the local community. Head, who was elected as MSA president his junior year, graduated from MU last spring and is currently living in Washington, D.C. He speaks at universities across the country, including Johns Hopkins, the University of Alabama and the University of Kentucky, where he’ll speak with Michael Sam, a former Missouri football player and the first openly gay player to be drafted by an NFL team. To a packed Leadership Auditorium, Head recalled the first
days of his career as a student at MU. He was standing in Rollins dining hall near a soda machine when a group of black men approached him. They were members of MU’s chapter of Alpha Phi Alpha, a fraternity for black men. “They told me that if I needed anything, they were there for me,” Head said. “They knew the best place to get a haircut … things like that I needed to know.” It has been over a year since Head was called the N-word while
Payton | Page 4
the second female MSA president in 10 years. In her opening statement, Schafer described her first experiences as a woman in MSA. She said that when she first joined, all the legislative committee chairs were men, and she was told upon appointment as a chairwoman that she needed to wear heels to meetings to appear more commanding. Schafer said, “We have not had a Missouri Students Association woman in the past 10 years.” This is not correct. There have been two female MSA presidents in the past 10 years. The last female MSA president was Kelsey Haberberger in 2014.
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WEATHER WEDNESDAY
76/49
THURSDAY
73/55
FRIDAY
57/29
SATURDAY 42/27
Weather compiled from Weather Underground
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THE MANEATER | NEWS | FEB. 22, 2017
The Briefing MADI MCVAN News Editor
Columbia man arrested on charges of supporting terrorism An undercover FBI investigation resulted in the arrest of Columbia resident Robert Lorenzo Hester Jr., 25, on charges of attempting to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organizations. The arrest took place Feb. 17. According to a news release from the office of the U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Missouri, the FBI began monitoring Hester’s social media in September 2016. On Jan. 31, an undercover FBI agent posing as an Islamic State operative asked Hester to procure materials for a fabricated terrorist attack, which would target public transportation in Kansas City. Hester followed the agent’s directions and expressed full support for the fabricated attack on multiple occasions. The agent kept in contact with Hester throughout early February and then met up with him in a warehouse on Feb. 17, where he was arrested. Hester was born in Missouri and was enlisted in the U.S. Army briefly before being discharged in 2013.
Senate debates controversial “bathroom bill�
The Missouri Senate held a hearing on Feb. 21 on a bill that would require K-12 students to use the school bathrooms, locker
rooms and shower rooms that correspond with their biological sex rather than their gender identity. The law allows accommodations such as single-stall restrooms or controlled use of faculty facilities for students who state that their gender identity is different from their biological sex. Three people spoke in favor of the bill and more than 20 spoke in opposition, according to the Columbia Missourian. Avery Jackson, a 9-year-old transgender girl from Kansas City who made national news by becoming the first transgender person to appear on the cover of National Geographic, spoke out against the bill at the hearing. The bill, SB720, was introduced by Sen. Ed Emery. He filed the same bill last year, but it never received a hearing. In order to become a law, the bill still must be approved by the committee, perfected and then passed by the entire Senate, then signed by the governor.
Memos detail immigration plans
Trump’s
New immigration enforcement policies released in two memos by the Department of Homeland Security on Feb. 21 revealed how President Donald Trump’s administration plans to increase deportations. In addition to hiring thousands of additional immigration and border patrol agents, the
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memos broadened the definition of “criminal� in regards to undocumented immigrants by making no distinction between those charged with a crime and those convicted with a crime. In addition, those judged by an immigration officer to “pose a risk to public safety or national security� may be prioritized for deportation, giving individual officers more discretion in deciding who should be deported. The memos marked a reversal of President Barack Obama’s immigration guidelines. While deportations reached recordbreaking numbers under the Obama administration, toward the end of his second term he implemented policies that focused on keeping families together and reducing deportations. The new directives implemented under President Trump suggest that he will follow through on his campaign promises to increase deportations. Edited by Emily Gallion egallion@themaneater.com
CORRECTIONS: A previous version of the article “MU-sponsored charter schools have mixed success by accreditation standards� on page 3 of the Feb. 15 print issue misstated the sources of funding charter schools receive. In addition to state funding, charter schools receive money from local tax levies and additional fundraising efforts. A previous version of the article “Five can’t-miss baseball matchups this season,� on page 14 of the Feb. 15 print issue, misstated details about the Missouri baseball team’s game against Southeast Missouri State University. The Tigers are playing a single game against SEMO on March 28. The Maneater regrets these errors.
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NEWS
Online this Week: True/False coverage, an in-depth look into water quality on campus, and how the proposed student fee will affect campus.
BUDGET CUTS
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LEGAL SYSTEM
Possible cuts to arts pose threat to local ‘Stand Your groups, including The Missouri Review Ground’ law cited after fleeing thief shot in back Columbia resident Karl Henson was arrested after shooting a man in the back who tried to steal his cellphone, police say. SAM FORBES Staff Writer
The Missouri Review office located in McReynolds Hall. SOPHIE NEDELCO | STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
The Missouri Review editor Speer Morgan: “It’s going to be terribly destructive in comparison to what it costs the taxpayers.” JACKSON KINKEAD Staff Writer
The Missouri Review, a literary magazine based at MU, could take a financial hit if a January proposal by President Donald Trump’s transition team to eliminate the National Endowment for the Arts were to take effect. In January, Trump’s transition team announced proposed budget cuts across many departments of federal spending, according
to The Hill. One proposal was to completely eliminate the National Endowment for the Arts, which partially funds some arts organizations in Columbia. The NEA is a program created by Congress in 1968 that provides grants for arts organizations and has a focus on supporting entities that promote arts education and cultural heritage. The Missouri Review is one of America’s most prestigious quarterly literary magazines, and it’s partially funded by the NEA. “The Missouri Review would not have gotten through tough times without NEA grants,” said Speer Morgan, editor of The Missouri Review. In the late ’70s, Morgan served on the National Endowment for the Arts Literature Panel. He is
also a professor in the English department. Morgan helped found The Missouri Review in 1978. Because of his place on the panel, he started applying for NEA grants early in The Missouri Review’s history. During those years, the grants were extremely helpful. “In 1985, we had a tiny budget,” Morgan said. “We were very dependent on the NEA and could not have survived in those years without help from the NEA. We got a piece of fiction from Naguib Mahfouz.” At the time, Mahfouz was a relatively unknown writer, but the then-editors of the magazine published it just “because it was
facing | Page 5
INTERNET ACCESS
Potential student fee would include TigerWiFi updates Students can vote to update MU’s Wi-Fi system in March through the Student Services Enhancement Fee. ELENA CRUZ Reporter
The Division of Student Affairs has proposed an update to TigerWiFi through the Student Services Enhancement Fee, which will be on the ballot in March. If passed, the fee would implement a $35 charge to each student per semester, $5 of which would be directed toward expanding Wi-Fi and technology services. The remaining $30 would
JESSI DODGE | PHOTO EDITOR
go to MU’s libraries, Counseling Center, leadership and service programs, student unions and other campus activities. “Essentially, the student enhancement fee is a response
to a satisfaction survey that was taken last April,” said Okey Ukaga, the student communications coordinator for the fee. “It kind of
WI-FI | Page 5
Missouri’s new “Stand Your Ground” law has been been invoked as the basis for a shooting in Columbia, where the accused believed the statute permitted him to shoot a fleeing thief. Senate Bill 656 went into effect Jan. 1 after former Gov. Jay Nixon’s veto was overturned last fall. This law removed the “duty to retreat” provision and allows citizens to use deadly force whenever they feel reasonably threatened without retreating first. “You used to have a duty to retreat,” criminal defense attorney John Picerno told KSHB news last September. “It’s one of the few laws in Missouri that’s actually very good for the citizens. Not only does it provide the accused with those particular rights, but it places the burden on the government to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that you did not act in lawful self-defense.” But Columbia resident Karl Henson was arrested for first-degree felony assault after allegedly shooting at a man who apparently tried to steal his cellphone. “The only reason I thought it was okay to shoot at him while he was running away was because of what happened with the new year on the law change,” Henson said, according to the probable cause statement for the Jan. 23 incident. Henson nonfatally shot the man six or seven times in the back. MU School of Law professor Frank Bowman, a former criminal defense lawyer, said Henson misunderstood the many provisions of the new statute. “I would say this person has an erroneous understanding of what the law says,” Bowman said. “The [shooting victim] was committing a felony, but you can’t use deadly force because they’re leaving the commission of a non-forcible felony like stealing.” Forcible felonies, Bowman explained, include crimes like murder, armed robbery and assault. Regarding the bill as a whole, Bowman said he was opposed to it and considered it to be “macho posturing” by Missouri legislators. “It’s bad on a number of levels,” Bowman said. “One of them is that, to the extent that people misunderstand it, those kinds of misunderstandings can produce killings which shouldn’t happen. [The law] ought to discourage folks from using deadly force unless it is absolutely necessary.” Edited by Madi McVan mmcvan@themaneater.com
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THE MANEATER | NEWS | FEB. 22, 2017
Panel emphasizes teaching Black Lives Matter in schools MU sophomore Rebekah Hurley: “I want teachers to care about their students, and I want teachers to care about each other.” MAUREEN STRODE Reporter
A panel of one MU education student and four Columbia educators led a discussion on the importance of teaching Black Lives Matter in schools in Hill Hall on Feb. 15. The panel, hosted by the National Alliance of Black School Educators, examined topics ranging from the importance of the Black Lives Matter movement to how educators should implement the movement in their classrooms. They all
prioritized the need to stop focusing on black lives only during February and instead continuing that education throughout the whole year. “I want teachers to care about their students, and I want teachers to care about each other,” said Rebekah Hurley, a sophomore studying early childhood education and the only MU student on the panel. Cynthia Martin, one of the panelists, is a fourth grade teacher who has been an avid supporter of equity training within the Columbia Public School District. According to the Columbia Tribune, equity training is a program practiced in the district that helps teachers cater to students from different socioeconomic groups as well as teach them the importance of inclusivity in and out of the classroom. “Being a teacher working in a district for 10 years, I
would love to say that I’ve been respected by everyone in the district, but I have not been because of the color of my skin,” Martin said. Martin, who teaches at Eliot Battle Elementary School, sees the importance in teaching her students about other cultures and backgrounds. She decided that “every day for Black History Month, I’m going to try and have students learn about students from the past.” She believes that it is “important for [her students] to know these things,” but she also believes that it’s important that teachers both in and outside of her district implement similar plans. Haley Bordelon, an elementary education major at MU, attended the event and learned how she can impact her future students. “I know that I can take what I have learned and
The MU Chapter of The National Alliance of Black School Educators hosted a panel for students, faculty and community members in Hill Hall titled “Teaching #BlackLivesMatter in the Classroom” on Thursday, Feb. 15. LANE BURDETTE | STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
help [my students] become citizens one day, help them become future presidents, or educators, or lawyers, or doctors,” Bordelon said. “I know that I have to know about different cultures, about different races, about
different sexes and about different genders to be able to talk to little minds and help them understand how the world works.” Edited by Madi McVan mmcvan@themaneater.com
Payton Head remembers lessons from years on campus during speech continued from page 1 walking through Greektown. He posted a Facebook status about the incident a day later that gained national attention. His post, along with other reports of racism on campus, sparked “Racism Lives Here” rallies and other student protests during fall 2015. Head said there is still a lot to be done despite the progress made since then. “When we’re afraid of being politically incorrect we don’t talk at all … and we need to talk about these issues,” Head said. “It’s important to
MSA
Continued from page 1
The most recent after her was Rachel Anderson in 2007. If elected, Schafer would be the second female president in 10 years, the third in 11. Seven out of the past 10 MSA president and vice president pairs have been composed of a male president and a female vice president, including the current administration. Both other slates currently running for election are set up with a woman as vice president and a man as president. 3. All three MSA slates plan to spend over $1,000 on their campaign. When asked to disclose how much money their campaigns planned to spend, Schafer said their campaign would spend around $1,800, and Stockton/Gulati said they would spend around $1,500.
know where this all comes from. It’s important to know why things are the way they are. Asking yourself why is how we get to the history.” Head encouraged the audience to acknowledge their privilege and the responsibility that comes with it. “I started to look at my own experience,” Head said. “Consciousness isn’t something that just happens. I used to say the R-word every day in high school because I thought it was funny and liked the way it rolled off my lips.” It was only once he got to MU that someone told him
this word was hurtful. Head praised MU as a “phenomenal institution
Willett/Englert had raised $4,885 as of Tuesday night for their campaign through a GoFundMe. All three slates agreed campaign funding and endorsements should be regulated and that the cost of running an MSA campaign can be a barrier for the involvement of some students. The goal of the Willett/Englert GoFundMe was $10,000. Stockton/Gulati, who also created a GoFundMe, set their goal at $4,301. Willett said the money their campaign doesn’t use will be donated to an organization. Schafer/de Leon do not have a GoFundMe and encouraged students to donate to the It’s On Us sexual assault prevention campaign instead. 4. The three slates all support the Enhance Mizzou fee. The fee would be $2.91 per credit hour, with a maximum total of $35 for a full-time undergraduate. If passed this
March, the fee would go into effect for fall 2017. Enhance Mizzou focuses on improving student access to mental health services and extending student resources, namely library hours. Last semester, students created a petition, which gained over 2,000 signatures, to have the library hours extend to 24 hours a day, five days a week. The library used to operate during these hours, but after the failure of the library fee last year, the library has closed at midnight from Sunday to Thursday and at 7 p.m. on Friday and Saturday. The fee would provide the financial support to extend hours of operation. The fee also creates three new permanent counseling positions at the Counseling Center. Edited by Emily Gallion egallion@themaneater.com
PAYTON HEAD MANEATER FILE PHOTO
with a lot of phenomenal people who will have your back” and encouraged the audience to use resources such as the Women’s Center, Multicultural Center and the Gaines/Oldham Black Culture Center. “It can be hard, like you do all this stuff and people have all of this hateful stuff to say about you, and they want to threaten your life,” Head said. “That trauma is very real. But I’m really working to just keep joy in 2017. The joy that I have is knowing that this election has awakened a lot of people who never would have, you know, thought they needed
to do any advocacy work before.” Head advised students to take black studies courses and educate themselves on what is happening around them — not only in Washington, D.C., but also in Jefferson City. “There’s a lot of stuff going on in Jefferson City right now, a lot of stuff that you don’t see on Twitter,” Head said. “One of the best ways to continue to resist is to continue to be educated on what’s happening.” Edited by Katie Rosso krosso@themaneater.com
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THE MANEATER | NEWS | FEB. 22, 2017
Facing potential cuts to federal arts, Missouri Review adapts continued from page 3 good.” A couple years later, Mahfouz became the first Arab to win the Nobel Prize in literature. Morgan said they “can afford to be complete idealists” in the content they publish because The Missouri Review is noncommercial and does not take advertisements. The Missouri Review typically receives a $10,000 grant from the NEA each year. In the past, the grant was a crucial part of their budget, but now they have over $1.5 million in secured gifts and a $400,000 trust fund. The Missouri Review was able to grow a large financial base because it diversified its sources throughout its growth. “For reasons of safety, we have had to be broader in our fundraising,” Morgan said. The Missouri Review
destructive in comparison to what it costs the taxpayers,” Morgan said. The NEA’s annual budget is about $150 million, which makes up around .003 percent of federal spending. If every person living in America paid for a proportional share of the NEA, they would each pay around $0.46 a year. “It’s such a miniscule amount of money, and yet it is very, very important,” The Missouri Review marketing director Kristine Somerville said. Somerville said that trying to convey why the arts matter can be difficult, especially for people who were never really exposed to them. “Not everyone values the arts the way that people who grow up writing and reading do,” Somerville said. “I mean, we have a president who watches television. He doesn’t profess to be much
of a reader. So, if you’re not engaged in theatre and engaged in literature and engaged in film and ballet and the symphony, then you’re just not going to know how crucial it is.” Somerville said that, for example, the city of Columbia is lucky to have such a thriving art scene and that you could feasibly go to a different performance, gallery, concert or screening every night. “During World War II, Churchill was asked to cut funding for the arts. He replied, ‘Then what are we fighting for?’” Somerville said. “I mean, you can’t have a country unless you have the arts.” If cuts to funding begin, Somerville and Morgan said organizations will need to get creative and likely have to cut down on content. They said organizations supported
by institutions, such as universities, would need to keep on their toes as well. “If they have institutional support, their institutions will need to step up,” Morgan said. “And now is a tough time for institutions like the University of Missouri, which is having its budget cut.” Morgan said he has worked long enough to know it was not safe for the magazine to rely only on a couple sources of funding because “you’ve got to really expand your base of support.” “I guess if you say that, then someone like Trump who is a businessperson would say, ‘Well this forces the arts to be self-supporting,’” Somerville added from across the room. “Yet that’s crazy because it’s the country’s responsibility, too, to preserve arts for their children.” Edited by Kyle LaHucik klahucik@themaneater.com
simultaneously without negatively impacting each other,” said Bryan Roesslet, Division of Information T e ch n o l o gy a s s o ci a te vice president and chief technology officer. These updates would impact the activities the wireless system is built to handle. “Streaming a movie, for instance, uses many more resources than browsing the web,” Roesslet said. “The current design targets ubiquity — coverage of as much of the usable interior space as possible. If we were to receive additional funding
to address the user comments we receive, we would redesign the coverage of the seating area to facilitate density to the extent allowed by the additional funding.” The current system cannot match the level of activity, resulting in the slow internet connections students experience. This is especially clear around noon on Wednesdays, when activity levels peak, Roesslet said. “I do feel like there needs to be a lot of improvement so that those aren’t excuses to why students can’t complete their work or function in an academic setting,” Ukaga
said. The idea to improve MU’s internet accessibility, as well as the chosen amount to fund the modifications, was a result of a student survey randomly distributed last April. “Essentially [the responses] mostly centered around Wi-Fi. That was obviously the main concern currently. It’s slow and terrible,” said Bill Vega, Student Fee Review Committee chairman. Vega said the money would also aid in infrastructure and software updates such as airplay and “smart technology.”
“The technology piece of the fee would generate $275,000 per year,” SFRC staff adviser Alysha O’Neil said. “The needs far exceed what the fee can provide, but the $5 can make an impact in the areas with the highest density of students.” Although there have been many operational updates to the Wi-Fi system, the system hasn’t been replaced since summer 2015. If passed, the fee would go into effect this fall. Edited by Emily Gallion egallion@themaneater.com
M M M M M M M M M M M M M M MM M M M MM M M MM MM MM M M M M M M M M M MM M M M M M M M M M M M M M MM M M M M M M M M M M M M M M MMMM M M M MM M M M M M M M M M M MMMM M M M MM M M M M M M M M M M M M MMMM M M M MMMM M M M M M M M M M M M M MMMM M M M MM MM M M M M M M M M M M M M M MMMM M M M MM M M M M M M M M M M M M M MMMM M M M MMMM M M M M M M M M M M M M MMMM M M M MMMM M M M M M M M M M M M M MM MM M M M MMMM M M M M M M M M M M M M M MM M M M M MMMM M M M M M M M M M M M M M M M M M M MMMM M M M M M M M M M M M M M M M M M M MMMM M M M M M M M M M M M M M M M M M M M MM MM MM M M M M M M M M M M M M M M M M M M MM MM M M M M M M M M M M M M M M M MMMM M M M M M M M M M M M M M M M MM MM MM M M M M M M M M M M M M M MM MM M M M M M M M M M M M M MM MM M M M M M M M M M M M M M M M M M M M M M M M M M M M M M M M M M M M M M M M M M MM M M M M M M M M M M M M M M M M M M M M M M M M M M M M M M M M M M M M M M M M M M M M M M M
WI-FI
projects to grow their $400,000 trust to $2 million in three years. Morgan ultimately is not worried about The Missouri Review’s financial security, but he is worried for smaller magazines and the impact their loss would have on the community. “It would not be as destructive to The Missouri Review as it would to other, smaller magazines,” Morgan said. “I’m really worried in particular about that because all the literary magazines form a community, and they are the prime resource for early career publication of significant young writers.” Art organizations that are more costly to run than literary magazines, such as orchestras and ballets, will be even more damaged without programs like the NEA, Morgan said. “It’s going to be terribly
Continued from page 3
incorporates a lot of different areas on campus that basically needed maintenance.” On the technological side, the money would be directed toward improvements in TigerWiFi speed, especially in high-density areas such as the Student Center, Memorial Union and Stankowski Field. “By redesigning for density, we would allow more clients to perform bandwidth-intensive tasks
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Proud Philanthropy of Kappa Kappa Gamma
6 Student Artist alters paintings to confront MODERN issues
Profile Hannah simon Staff writer
“Rewrite,” displayed at MU’s Visual Art and Design Showcase, presents contemporary twists on iconic paintings. For many, prints of masterpieces such as the “Mona Lisa” and “The Birth of Venus” cling to the cinderblock walls of student dorm rooms. For one MU student, however, these iconic paintings are blank canvases ready to be recreated. JoMerra Watson, a fine arts junior with an emphasis in painting, redefines iconic paintings such as Vincent van Gogh’s “The Starry Night” and Edvard Munch’s “The Scream” in her series “Rewrite.” The series, displayed at the Visual Art and Design Showcase held at Jesse Hall in January, incorporates black women into the artwork. Watson aims to confront contemporary issues, such as the black community’s lack of representation in art, police brutality and modernday standards of beauty. Watson started work on “Rewrite” during the summer of 2016, beginning with “The
Starry Night.” “It was around the time last summer where Philando Castile and Alton Sterling were murdered,” Watson said. “I wanted to paint something that gave way to what we were dealing with as black people, seeing that all of the time [on the news], but something that wasn’t negative because a lot of the work that we were seeing from black artists at that time always had to involve, like a gun and a badge and, you know, the black body represented in a way that was less than ideal.” Watson had not taken any formal painting classes until her sophomore year of college. Watson self-taught using acrylic paint in high school but furthered her painting abilities after taking an oil painting class last year. “Umoja,” Watson’s remaking of “The Starry Night,” incorporates Van Gogh’s style but replaces
elements in the foreground with a unified crowd of black people raising their fists in the air, embodying the meaning of umoja, the Swahili word for unity. Additionally, the cypress tree along with the bottom of the painting incorporates the colors of the Pan-African flag: red, black and green. Other works that Watson has remade include Leonardo da Vinci’s “Mona Lisa,” Sandro Botticelli’s “The Birth of Venus” and Pablo Picasso’s “The Old Guitarist.” By using well-known paintings, Watson hopes to create a common ground between people of color and the white community. “We live in this digital age where images are literally everywhere, and they have kind of gotten to the point where they are starting to replace words, like emojis,” Watson said. “Images are sometimes a lot easier for people to understand; [People] take what they need from [images].
I really just want to start a conversation amongst black people about the issues that we deal with as a community, and also start a conversation with people who are not of color so that they can understand that there are things going on that they might not otherwise understand because they don’t experience it.” Munch explained his reason behind “The Scream” in a passage he wrote in his diary dated Jan. 22, 1982, as being overwhelmed by the feeling of a “vast infinite scream [tearing] through nature” one day when walking outside with friends, according to Khan Academy. Watson’s “Stop Killing Us” replaces the skeletal-like figure of “The Scream” with an African-American woman sporting an afro and a dress, clutching her face as the scream of aggravation from the black community rips through her. “‘The Scream’ was the first
[painting of “Rewrite”] where I said, ‘Let me actually really take some time to research this and understand what I’m doing,’ because it was a concept at that point that I was trying to push,” Watson said. “I try to be as direct as possible with my work. It’s not ridiculously abstract. The title along with the context, a lot of people got it.” For her next series, Watson plans to discuss black women and how head wraps play into African identity. Watson said African women inspire her. “The thing with art school is that we often look back at a lot of art history to understand things,” Watson said. “And so when you can’t look back to see representations of what you look like, you kind of have to work with what’s in front of you.” To view Watson’s artwork, visit www.jolepeintre.com Edited by Katherine White kwhite@themaneater.com
THEATRE REVIEW
‘Two Plays in Two Days: X’ explores the assassination of Malcolm X “X” leaves the audience to reflect upon their place in history. NAT KAEMMERER MOVE Columnist
The widow of Malcolm X, Betty Shabazz, played by Chelsea Williams, faces the country in a courtroom years after the death of her husband. Why? She wants to prove to the world that three men from the Nation of Islam, of which Malcolm was a member, were responsible for her husband’s death. The Acting Company performed X: Or, Betty Shabazz v. The Nation on Saturday night as the first in the Two Plays in Two Days series. The same cast performed William Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar on Sunday afternoon. Both plays feature assassinations of prominent public figures and explore issues of power and social justice. X opens with a shoe-shiner who asks the audience, “You can judge a person by their shoes, but can you walk in
them?” With these words, he transports the audience back to the courtroom where Betty will tell who killed her husband and why. On one side, we have Betty. On the other, Louis X (Jonathan-David), a member of the Nation of Islam and former right-hand man to Malcolm, advocates for his own innocence and tries to show the “real” Malcolm. The audience was an actor in this play, representing the jury. They were even asked to rise as the honorable judge entered the stage. Throughout X, until the very last stage light went out, the play tried to get audience members to think about the show and their relationship to it. Audience members were also on stage in the wings on either side of the court set-up, further representing the jury. Malcolm X, played by Jimonn Cole, was even planted in these wings by Louis. He was “asked” to perform as Malcolm, and initially gave his name as Julius, referencing Sunday’s play. I really didn’t expect X to
have any humor, given that it was about a contentious assassination, but there were some lighter moments. There were no explicitly funny situations, excluding an awkward moment at side-byside urinals, but characters delivered less serious, reactionary lines to some of the heavier moments, and Betty comes out to testify with backup dancers. It really was about portraying who Malcolm was and showing the murky details of his life and work. The courtroom setting was great for exploring Malcolm’s complicated relationships and the tense period at the end of his life. This play perfectly captured the unrest in his life. Rather than diminishing the gravitas of the play’s subject matter, it made it more real and enjoyable, with deeper humanity. Later in the play, Malcolm is getting ready to speak at an event, but he knows something is about to happen. Minutes later, he is shot. One of the most emotional moments occurs after Malcolm’s death. Betty rushes to his side,
and after a few moments he sits back up and talks with her. He tells her about why he first asked her out. This soft moment in the wake of tragedy was possibly the most moving part of the whole play. The shoe-shiner from the beginning of the play returns, standing over Malcolm’s body. He urges the audience to think upon their own impact on history: “Will you be one that defines the times, or will you be for sale?” The play served as a powerful social commentary, both on the era of Malcolm X and now. The controversial political environment in X echoes today’s world. Director Ian Belknap was told whenever there’s a contentious political cycle coming up, you should put on Julius Caesar, said Devin Brain, Julius Caesar’s director, in a post-show discussion. They looked to other plays that showed assassinations and noticed parallels between Malcolm X and Julius Caesar. Ultimately, they decided on the format of Two Plays in Two Days, with the same cast for both shows. The shoe-shiner serves as
a vehicle for the play’s social commentary. The writer of the play thought of him as a man who has heard kings’ and prophets’ wisdom trickle down to him, Brain said. No one looks at him as a wise man, but he wants to “shine your souls” and reflect the nature of the era back to the audience. The play sends simpler, more positive messages, as well. The judge and the stenographer, both Muslim women, wore hijabs during the play. “There was a school of girls all wearing hijabs [attending the play], and as I walked out they were all beaming,” N’Jameh Camara, who plays the judge, said in a post-show discussion. “It made me think of the power of representation.” Though the play covers dark times, it reminds audiences to look back at history and their relationship to it, to stay aware of the times they are in. Tatiana Wechsler, who played the stenographer, Khadijah and other small parts, said in a post-show discussion: “I believe in the power of art in creating change.”
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THE MANEATER | MOVE MAGAZINE | FEB. 22, 2017
BLACK
HISTORY
MONTH
By Brooke Collier You may have to dust off your history books for this quiz. See how much you know about Black History Month and these notable figures.
1)
Who started the idea of Black History Month, but coined it “Negro History Week,” in 1926?
3)
Why was February chosen for the celebration?
4)
Who was the first black person appointed to the Supreme Court?
7) 9)
test your knowledge
5)
Madame C.J. Walker was the first black female millionaire entrepreneur. What was her business?
Who was the first black person to host their own TV show?
2)
Which U.S. President recognized Black History Month on the federal government level?
6)
The first black person to receive a Ph.D. from Harvard was W.E.B. Du Bois in 1895. What did Du Bois go on to do shortly after?
8)
who was the first black woman in space?
Henrietta Lacks advanced the medical field posthumously. True or False?
TORI AERNI | GRAPHICS MANAGER
1) Carter G. Woodson 2) President Gerald Ford in 1976 3) February was chosen because it was the birth month of both Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass 4) Thurgood Marshall in 1967 5) She sold a line of hair-care products for black women 6) He co-founded the NAACP in 1909 7) Nat King Cole in 1956 with “The Nat King Cole Show” 8) Mae C. Jemison in 1992 9) True. The cervical cancer cells she donated continue to live and multiply, allowing doctors to conduct medical research efficiently, even after her death. These cells are now known as HeLa cells
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THE MANEATER | MOVE MAGAZINE | FEB. 22, 2017
To Stephanie Shonekan, Black History Month means ‘everything’ The black studies department chairwoman compels us to “unite in our resolve” to improve life for everyone. VICTORIA CHEYNE MOVE Angles Editor
Stephanie Shonekan first learned about her personal history in an unorthodox way: through music and literature. What began as an endeavor to find herself morphed into a lifelong journey that has spanned countries and opened dialogue among unlikely individuals in the height of today’s polarized politics. For Shonekan, now an associate professor of ethnomusicology and chairwoman of the black studies department, the music specifically has provided a window to discourse that compels people to listen and learn, creating a constructive environment for change on the MU campus. Growing up through literature and music Shonekan was born in Equatorial Guinea, a small country off the coast of West Africa, during a civil war. Her family moved to her mother’s homeland, the island of Trinidad, where she spent the first years of her life. After the war ended, Shonekan’s family moved to Nigeria, and she stayed there through her childhood and much of her schooling. In a followup email, she described her “beautiful childhood” there, where a diverse population “lived among each other.” “The genesis of my beginnings really formed the root for why I’m so curious about the black world, really interested in the shared heritage, between, for example, my mother and father, but also between peoples of African descent all over the world,” Shonekan said. “I’m interested in both the shared heritage as well as the distinct histories and cultures that have evolved since then, since
slavery and colonialism.” But a thorough knowledge and understanding of her own past wasn’t easy for Shonekan to come by in Nigeria, a former British colony in which the education system was commandeered by colonialism. British influence on the Nigerian education system began in 1807, with the installation of religious missions that sought to “develop the child spiritually,” according to a Kaduna State College of Education research study. Nigerian education was engineered in way that “subjected inhabitants to … foreign values,” and the effects of this influence still linger today. To learn the parts of her past that were omitted from formal education, Shonekan began to read works written by Nigerians, such as Chinua Achebe, Wole Soyinka, and black American authors like Langston Hughes and James Baldwin — all writers, or storytellers, rather, who conveyed the struggle and beauty laced within the fabric of black history. This exposure “opened up a new world” for her. Shonekan also used music to learn about her roots and the experiences shared by black people all over the world. She listened to Fela Kuti, “who was such a strong voice in recounting [the] history,” as well as genres including R&B-soul, funk, calypso and reggae. “I would say that much of the impetus and the catalyst for my journey has been the literature and music of black folks,” Shonekan said. Meaningful work at MU Shonekan’s own higher education began in Nigeria, where she got her bachelor’s degree at the University of Jos and her master’s at the University of Ibadan, focusing on English literature. Throughout her years spent pursuing numerous
degrees, Shonekan became more and more enthralled with music in an academic light rather than merely as a form of entertainment. She found her niche in ethnomusicology, the study of connections between music and culture and she earned a doctorate in the subject from Indiana University. In 2011, Shonekan began teaching at MU, where she now has a hand in the department of black studies as well as the School of Music. Both roles offer her different opportunities to apply her studies. For example, she spoke with Wolf Blitzer of CNN following former UM System President Tim Wolfe’s resignation in fall 2015, and she has served an important role in the creation of inclusivity programs on campus, such as freshman diversity orientation Citizenship@Mizzou and a band, Talking Drum, composed of a diverse group of students. “While I love what I do for black studies, it is sort of natural, right, because of what I have studied and what I write about,” Shonekan said. “My work in the School of Music, and on campus generally, is at least as important as what I do in black studies, because I get to see students and engage with students who typically have never had to think about these issues, and that to me is really exciting.” Shonekan teaches several courses in the School of Music, including introductions to soul and country music as well as ethnomusicology. Through them all, she uses music as a tool to raise questions and invite dialogue. The reaction from students? “Great curiosity and epiphany,” Shonekan said. Shonekan recalls a compelling moment from earlier this month when she talked to a group of students outside of class, and music invited a
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THE MANEATER | MOVE MAGAZINE | FEB. 22, 2017 political discussion. “I had been invited to come talk to a group, and when I walked in, there was one student who had his laptop open with a big Trump sticker on [it], and we just started talking about music and came to see that he’s a great Kendrick Lamar fan, so that gave us a way into discussing other things,” she said. Changing society’s mind Shonekan stressed the importance of “recognizing that we are not okay” and realizing that the U.S. is not an even playing field for all competitors. She said solving this problem begins with white Americans understanding what it’s like to be from a different ethnic or racial background. “I don’t know if we’ve worked enough to explain what it is to be black in this country, or what it is to be from an ethnicity that has struggled so much over decades, over generations,” Shonekan said. “I don’t know if we’ve worked enough ... on the minds and psyches of the whiter society to understand what it is that immigrants go through when they come to this country with a real desire to contribute, and with a real desire to be part of what they had imagined was a place that was free and a place that had opportunities for them.” Shonekan’s idea of how to influence the psyches of white America would be no small undertaking: She wants to show them, rather than tell them, the “wonderful stories and contributions of people who have not always had it easy at all in this country.” Shonekan had a prime example of this: a scene from the recent film Hidden Figures, which explores the racially rooted obstacles three black women faced in their careers at NASA during the mid-20th century. “I was struck in watching that movie,” Shonekan said. “I watched it at one of the theater houses in town here, and it was packed. Mostly white people. And I think that that is a wonderful way of starting to dislodge some of the thinking and some of the notions that we have no problems in this country.” In one scene in the movie, black female physicist Katherine Johnson, played by Taraji P. Henson, has to leave her building and go across campus to use the restroom because of segregated bathrooms. What is now a moment in a movie was once a reality in America only some 60 years ago. “Have we done the work in these
60 years to convince descendents of those people who were in the same room as her, who didn’t see the problem?” Shonekan asked. “Have we done enough to convince them? As I sat in the movie theater and watched my fellow moviegoers, I wondered what was going through their minds. I wondered if they were thinking that this is ridiculous, what’s it like now, or whether they thought, ‘Oh my gosh, that’s a feature film, it’s a blockbuster, that’s all it is, it’s fiction.’ And if that’s what most of my moviegoer friends were thinking, then we definitely have a lot of work to do.” Moving forward without forgetting the past Having “work to do” is no novel concept in black history, a story of hardship, struggle, beauty and pride that spans centuries. Passivity doesn’t bring about change, so Shonekan compels us to be aware of our surroundings and to actively educate ourselves. She advises us to read books, listen to music, watch films and ask questions, to be curious, careful and brave so we can better understand each other. In a TEDx Talk she gave in 2016, she put it like this: “To truly understand each other, we have to pay attention, we need to listen, we have to try and empathize.” Taking a “pause” as a nation to do these things is important, Shonekan said. “[Black History Month] means everything,” Shonekan said. “It means we are being intentional about taking a moment a month to recognize the contributions, the histories, the variety, the beauty of black life, not only in the United States, but around the world. Ideally, I wish we didn’t have to have a Black History Month. I wish that black history was woven through our curriculum, our programming, everything that we do throughout the year, but we’re not quite there yet.” Black History Month is also a time to celebrate the many people who have stood up for change within the story, who have made contributions and furthered the agenda of those facing oppression and persecution. Shonekan referenced historical figures “fighting the good fight” for everyone — Bob Marley, Nelson Mandela, Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana, Sékou Touré of Guinea, Patrice Lumumba of the Congo, Malcolm X, Zora Neale Hurston and Angela Davis — and spoke about them as if they
ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR STEPHANIE SHONEKAN SOPHIE NEDELCO | STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER were old friends she had known her entire life. She’s inspired by these people just as she’s inspired by the students here on campus who have opened difficult conversations, continued them and contended with trying circumstances. “The students on our campus have really reminded us about why the struggle is still real and why it’s important for us to keep making those steps forward,” Shonekan said. “That we shouldn’t rest on our laurels, but we should keep moving forward.” As she reflects on generations of oppression and tribulation, Shonekan stressed that it is not about changing perspective in a way that “eradicates” the past, but about being conscious of what was while having an active hand in what is and what will be. She referenced a recent instance in which some observers believed President Donald Trump and Press Secretary
Sean Spicer appeared not to know who famous abolitionist Frederick Douglass was. “Until instances like that are no longer part of our landscape, we will continue grasping this opportunity to remind ourselves, not only as black people, but also as Americans, also as human beings, that the very troubled history of Africans and African Americans, due to slavery and colonialism, has resulted in some of the most beautiful struggles [and] civil rights movements around the world that have shown the strength and resilience of the human spirit,” Shonekan said. “I think that black people show all of us what is possible in just fighting against the most tragic and dangerous waves of human history.” Edited by Katherine White kwhite@themaneater.com
“THE VERY TROUBLED HISTORY OF AFRICANS AND AFRICAN AMERICANS, DUE TO SLAVERY AND COLONIALISM, HAS RESULTED IN SOME OF THE MOST BEAUTIFUL STRUGGLES [AND] CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENTS AROUND THE WORLD THAT HAVE SHOWN THE STRENGTH AND RESILIENCE OF THE HUMAN SPIRIT.” — STEPHANIE SHONEKAN ABOVE: STEPHANIE SHONEKAN AND HER FAMILY IN 2016 OPPOSITE PAGE: STEPHANIE SHONEKAN CUTS THE CAKE AT HER 5TH BIRTHDAY PHOTOS COURTESY OF STEPHANIE SHONEKAN
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THE MANEATER | MOVE MAGAZINE | FEB. 22, 2017
Doctoral journalism student dives into black feminism BROOKE COLLIER Staff Writer
When she first started her journalism career in high school, Rachel Grant was just looking for an elective to take. Her older siblings had been on the school newspaper and yearbook, so she figured she’d give it a shot. Grant, now a doctoral student in journalism at MU, began writing for the newspaper and yearbook and received awards for articles she had written. That’s when she knew she had a knack for this line of work and continued with it. She worked for the University of Arkansas at Little Rock’s newspaper. During her time at the newspaper was the 50th anniversary of the Little Rock Nine, a group of nine black students who were prevented from enrolling in a segregated high school. She covered the anniversary events that took place. This work led her to discover Daisy Bates, a civil rights activist and journalist for the Arkansas State Press. Bates’ house had been a central headquarters for the Little Rock Nine as they integrated into the all-white Central High School. This story sparked Grant’s interest to study black feminism history. She wrote her master’s thesis on Bates and gained knowledge of black women in history and their roles in the civil
rights movement. Now, she spends her time researching historic black women, such as Bates and Rosa Lee Ingram, while working toward her Ph.D. in journalism at MU. Her emphasis is is in race, gender and class media studies. “Luckily, when I chose this program, there were several people who were already engaged in that type of research who kind of helped me foster and take that a little step further,” Grant said.
The celebration that we get to have... now extends to a larger public.
— Rachel Grant Assistant journalism professor Cristina Mislán is one of the people who helped Grant take on this area of study. This past fall, they worked on an independent research project of black feminist media studies, which led to Grant finding a subject for her dissertation. Her dissertation is in its beginning
stages, but it will be taking a black feminist perspective on Ingram’s case. Ingram was a black female sharecropper in Georgia who was assaulted by a white male farmer in 1947. Her two sons saw what happened and killed the man, and all three of the Ingrams were put on death row. “[The dissertation is about] the court case, where the project was centralized, [and also] on this idea of how black female journalists advocate for black women and how, through the lens of black feminism, that understanding of advocacy and lived experiences and social justice can be used through media lenses,” Grant said. For Grant, history is a large part of understanding our nation’s current racial climate. She said it is important to try and understand other perspectives and learn from what has happened in the past, but also to go beyond the normal figures that people usually think of when it comes to black history. “I wish the celebration of Black History Month would be understood in a larger context that, you know, this is not just celebrating the big people like Martin Luther King or Malcolm X,” Grant said. “Black history wasn’t just about those leaders, but very much about a long struggle for a community who had people [who are] the unsung heroes
of Black History Month.” But black history is more than a month for Grant. “For me, Black History is every day,” Grant said. “Not only because I am a black woman, but also that’s what I study.” Grant said Black History Month should be important for all Americans because America is one large community where everyone has their own role to play that affects all of those surrounding roles. And through those roles, people should celebrate all cultures all year long. “If we’re just going to delegate celebrations to one month, I think we missed the mark on understanding the people we live with, the people we’re surrounded by, and it goes back to ignoring the lives of individuals,” Grant said. Grant continues studying the history of prominent black women and following her call to tell their stories as she makes her own mark on history. “Black history month is a way for me and for other people who do this type of research — the celebration that we get to have, discussions that we have, when we’re doing this research, now extends to a larger public, a larger group of people,” Grant said. “In a way, we get to celebrate what we celebrate every day.” Edited by Katherine White kwhite@themaneater.com
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THE OPINIONS EXPRESSED BY THE MANEATER COLUMNISTS DO NOT REPRESENT THE OPINIONS OF THE MANEATER EDITORIAL BOARD.
HERE’S A WHO
Don’t steal people’s self-assigned seats Raise your hand if you’ve ever been victimized by someone stealing your seat. KENNEDY HORTON Opinion Columnist
Kennedy Horton is a sophomore studying English. She writes about student life and social justice for The Maneater. Sitting in somebody’s unassigned assigned seat has to be one of those offenses up there with kicking puppies and stealing candy from babies. An unassigned assigned seat is a college student’s specific seat in a class for a semester. It’s unassigned on a technicality. Since we’re adults and in college, no one is going to give you a specific seat, but the seats are assigned in every other sense. If I sit there every day, and my classmates see me sit there every day, then for all intents and purposes, it is my seat with no room for sharing. Recently, I got to one of my English classes a little later than usual (but still on time). I walked in and a girl was in my unassigned assigned seat. I didn’t know what to do. The way I saw it, I had only three options. I could leave the class, suck it up and just sit somewhere else, or throw her and the desk out of the window. My heart ached for latter, but I stayed. It was the angriest 75 minutes of my life. I just could not wrap my head
PHOTO ILLUSTRATION BY LANE BURDETTE
around it in the same way I can’t understand serial killers and dog kickers, except that there must be something psychologically wrong with them. I don’t even think people who steal seats have this excuse — they’re just malicious. Malicious and meticulous, because although it seems like it happens out of the blue, no one ever randomly sits in a seat that isn’t theirs. They’ve been plotting to do so, waiting for the chance to usurp the self-appointed temporary throne. Determining one’s seat happens in
the first two days of class. The rules of a classroom versus a lecture hell are a bit different, because after a certain row in a lecture, it doesn’t matter; it’s just all counted as “the back.” Nevertheless, there are still rules. After two days of class, you should be locked in and solidified. You’re essentially sworn into that seat until the end of time, or at least the semester. Therefore, it’s a crime to sit anywhere else. It’s simply the principle of the thing. To take a seat that doesn’t belong to you is to throw the entire class into anarchy.
My strategy for recovering from this is to get to class ridiculously early. I’ll get there about 30 minutes early, sit right next to the door and silently dare anybody, especially said chair thief, to go in before me. It’s a bit of an extreme precaution, but it’s a necessary one. Should this happen to you and you are more of a person who would like to throw a chair thief out the window, that’s understandable as well. I’ll look the other way, I promise.
GETTING DOWN TO BIZZNESS
Women don’t have to support Betsy DeVos just because she’s a woman A woman in power is exciting, but we should be empowered by the position, not the person. BIZZY EMERSON Opinion Columnist
Bizzy Emerson is a junior journalism major at MU. She writes about pop culture for The Maneater. In his first month or so in office, President Donald Trump has been hard at work. Between tweeting and holding pointless press conferences, it’s pretty surprising that he’s had any time at all to fill his cabinet. Regardless, positions are being filled, and his appointees are shaping up to
be an interesting group. Arguably, the most controversial news surrounding Trump’s cabinet has focused on his pick for secretary of education. To put things bluntly, evil takes a human form in Betsy DeVos. Not only does DeVos lack any experience in public education, but she is also a major proponent for the voucher system. This program would allow students to use taxpayer dollars to fund private school tuition, which could potentially render public schools obsolete. Likewise, DeVos has shown no support for upholding Title IX services in public schools, putting sexual assault education and prevention programs at risk. For America, this is an extremely difficult pill to swallow. According to the Huffington Post, by the year 2021, roughly 91 percent of students will be enrolled in public schools. By undervaluing these institutions and cutting funding, the quality of education for students will
undoubtedly suffer. I am a product of public schools, and I can say confidently that I wouldn’t be where I am today if it weren’t for my public school education. This is also challenging for women. As a feminist, I think it’s really empowering and exciting to have a woman in such an important position, especially under a male president who hasn’t shown overwhelming kindness to the opposite sex. But it’s hard to enjoy this small victory for women when the leader we’re celebrating isn’t an awesome human being. Feminism is not black and white. It’s not about loving or helping every woman. If someone is problematic or incorrect, it’s essential to recognize and react to it. Yes, it’s amazing that a woman is the secretary of education. No, we don’t have to support her or her policies. It’s OK and natural to feel upset, scared, angry or shocked by DeVos’
appointment. While DeVos may be an unqualified selection for Trump’s cabinet, it’s uplifting for women that Trump has appointed Elaine Chao as secretary of transportation. Chao is profiled by the New York Times as “a woman and an immigrant, a fixture of the Republican establishment for two decades.” Former President Barack Obama endorsed her as an appropriate pick for the position. While many of Trump’s presidential decisions have been questionable, it’s enlightening to know that one woman in office is prepared. Public schools may take a hit with DeVos holding the reins, but that doesn’t mean America will go down without a fight. It’s especially important for women to not be discouraged during this time and to be the change they wish to see by taking on leadership roles of their own. Be empowered by the position, not the person.
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THE MANEATER | OPINION | FEB. 22, 2017
ACCORDING TO EMMETT
Higher education cuts endanger tuition cap Cuts may come from in-state students too, if former Gov. Matt Blunt’s tuition cap is repealed. EMMETT FERGUSON Opinion Columnist
Emmett Ferguson is a freshman who writes about current events for The Maneater.
A common theme in college life is how to make do with little money. Whether it’s having your food pyramid consist of ramen and instant coffee or never washing your clothes, we’re all trying to save what little cash we have. But MU’s wallet just got a whole lot thinner, and
students may have to be the ones to fill it back up. On Feb. 2, Gov. Eric Greitens announced a cut of $159 million to the higher education budget, with $40 million of that coming from the UM System. Greitens partly blames “decades of insiders, special interests, and lobbyists…protect[ing] their pet projects and their slice of pie.” That must have been a big slice of pie. Greitens’ budget has made reductions of more than $572 million across the state government. Over a quarter of all the statewide reductions came from higher education. I get trimming the fat, but this is like throwing out the whole cow. Cutting the budget of a state university is just screwing over the future generations of your state. The reason you should care about these budget cuts is because it means one of two things will happen. Either
the cost of tuition will rise again or the quality of education will decrease. More than likely, both of those will happen to some extent. With $40 million coming out of the total UM System budget, $13.7 million of that will come from MU. This is bad. But what is worse is the fact that last year, Mizzou faced a budget cut of $32 million and a decrease in enrollment of over a thousand incoming students. If you need proof of the effects, you have your choice of looking at any one of the empty residence halls on campus. Another blow like this is going to be detrimental to the school. In past years, budget cuts haven’t really affected in-state students, thanks to a law put into effect in 2007 by then-Gov. Matt Blunt. That law capped increases for in-state tuition at the consumer price index, so it went up about 2.1% last year. This
made most of the tuition increases fall on out-of-state students. The cap may not survive this budget cut, and we would all find ourselves facing steep increases in tuition. Greitens believes that schools can manage without making students pay for it, claiming they only need to “tighten their belts.” But Wesley Payne, the president of Three Rivers College in Poplar Bluff, Missouri, told the Associated Press, “I think there has to be awareness that after you cut so much, you can’t tighten that belt without strangling yourself.” A 10 percent cut to the higher education budget is going to require more than just tightening our belt. Odds are that students, who are already neck-deep in loans, are going to end up being the ones having to finance this cut.
THE FIFTH LAP
Social media and a polarized America don’t mix well A New York Times tennis reporter cried racism and got a well-respected tennis commentator fired. KURTIS DUNLAP Opinion Columnist
Kurtis Dunlap is a fifth-year senior who writes about student life as a columnist for The Maneater.
Social media has created an instant-access society. We can react to live news, events and other worldly things in real time. Social media has also connected humans more than we have ever been connected. Although it has made our lives easier in some ways, we cannot forget the power it has. Doug Adler was a tennis commentator for ESPN. He had worked at the company since 2008.
He was also a tennis ex-pro. Adler was fired from ESPN because he used the phrase “guerilla effect" when he was calling a second-round matchup between Venus Williams and Stefanie Vogele at the Australian Open this past year. Adler claims he was using the term “guerilla,” not “gorilla,” which would have a completely different meaning and implication. He apologized on the air and said he was referring to the type of warfare, not the animal. He left work and didn’t think twice about the instance until he showed up the next day. Ben Rothenberg, a writer for the New York Times, found the clip and tweeted out, in reference to Adler’s comments, “This is some appalling stuff. Horrifying that the Williams sisters remain subjected to it still in 2017. #AusOpen” This short tweet all but ended Adler’s career at ESPN. The mainstream media quickly jumped on the story because of the polarization of the topic of race, and the media backlash was so strong that ESPN felt it was easier to distance
itself from Adler than look into the matter further. The power that social media has and the carelessness with which we can use it destroys people’s reputations faster than it takes to hit send. Rothenberg’s tweet, whether he understood what form of the word Adler was using or not, was enough to raise such an outrage that someone had to lose their job before anyone even knew the facts. When you go on social media and declare or claim that someone is something, without evidence or proper cause, people can get hurt, and their lives can be affected. It may have taken Rothenberg three minutes to type that tweet. In those three minutes, he destroyed a man’s career and reputation by essentially calling him racist. Rothenberg didn’t call or contact Adler or even stop to think about the idea that he was actually using the word “guerilla” and not “gorilla.” He jumped on his Twitter account and claimed racism. It is a polarizing time in America, and being called racist is something
no one wants. To have the power at one’s fingertips to claim that someone is racist without due diligence, resulting in their firing, shows the power that social media has given us. Everyone is looking for the next “hot topic” or to be on the forefront of social change, so much so that they can jump to conclusions and harm someone’s reputation. We need to start taking social media seriously, because what we post can affect our lives and the lives of others. Social media is a very powerful tool. All it takes is for the right person to retweet something and it will spread like wildfire and “trend” before anyone knows what happened. In the age of “fake news,” we have to be even more diligent in what we are spreading around. We have to start being responsible for what we are tweeting and think about the consequences that our messages could have. In the words of Herm Edwards, “Don’t press send.”
THE TENACIOUS TYPIST
The ‘next big thing’ should not sacrifice consumers’ safety With many phones, cars and apps, safety and security have not been prioritized over new technology. JESSIE STALEY Opinion Columnist
Jessie Staley is a freshman who writes about student life for The Maneater.
Living in the 21st century is nothing if not efficient. It comes with self-driving cars, wireless internet, online shopping, live video chats
and dating apps. Most of our days are filled with more information and activity than our ancestors could have had in a month. The new world is exciting, busy and crammed full of opportunity and competition. As the technology race results in more innovation in shorter amounts of time, at what point do we ask ourselves what is being sacrificed for the sake of efficiency? Safety is what’s being sacrificed. Samsung recently faced some extreme safety issues with its new Galaxy Note 7. This version of the phone was updated with a new battery that could reportedly last for up to nine hours of use. However, there were multiple reports of phone batteries catching fire. The new battery was involved in 26 reports
of burns and 55 reports of property damage, according to the September 2016 recall notice. Phones are not the only devices that can be released without proper safety considerations. Even some cars have been purchased before every “i” was dotted and “t” crossed. Tesla, one of the leading electric car manufacturers, has had a long run of safety and utility issues. In late 2016, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration began an investigation in response to safety complaints about suspension failures in Tesla’s Model S luxury vehicle. New cars, phones and online applications should not threaten the buyer’s physical safety or the security of their personal information. Back in 2010, Twitter settled with the
Federal Trade Commission after charges that the social networking site did not properly secure its site and made users’ private information vulnerable to being hacked. This should not happen. It is the responsibility of regulatory agencies, as well as manufacturers, to ensure the safety of consumers. There is nothing wrong with trying to get new products onto the market. Competition is important to a competitive free market. But it is also important that the material being sold as the “next best thing” is safe for consumers. Technological efficiency in the 21st century is crucial to our livelihood, but safety is the utmost necessity. The tech race should work to maintain both.
SPORTS
Online this week: Women’s basketball looks for its 10th win of the year against Mississippi on Thursday, baseball goes down to Texas, and track and field heads to SEC Championships.
TRACK & FIELD
13
WOMEN’S BASKETBALL
Missouri upsets No. 6 South Carolina
UNDER PRESSURE SEC champion Kahmari Montgomery looks to prove his freshman campaign was no fluke.
The Tigers’ ninth conference win this season should help them come Selection Saturday. TITUS WU
Associate Editor
E
story by MATTHEW HOSLER • photo courtesy of MIZZOU ATHLETICS
ntering the last lap of the 400-meter dash final of last year’s Southeastern Conference Championship, Kahmari Montgomery was in last place. By the end of the lap, he was an SEC champion. Proving his legitimacy as a successful athlete, Montgomery, now a sophomore, became an SEC champion with a school-record 45.13 seconds during the SEC Outdoor Track and Field Championships. He ended his freshman season as a second-team All-American and finished with school records in the indoor 200-meter dash (21.03 seconds) and 400-meter dash (45.78 seconds). “It was something that we had kind of talked about during his recruiting process out of high school,” assistant and sprints coach Carjay Lyles said. “[Winning the SEC title] was a realistic expectation
during fall training. I was more relieved that he met the expectations that we had set.” This year, Montgomery has his eyes set on repeating as champion and proving to everyone that his freshman campaign was no fluke. So this year, he said he feels more pressure. “It is not a pressure that I should be nervous or scared about, but it’s like a, ‘I am ready, I am back,’” Montgomery said. “I think this year is going to be something even more special than last year.” He recently ran his first 400meter dash of the season at the Razorback Invitational, finishing in fifth place with a time of 46.57 seconds. “It does not really matter to me if I am the underdog or favorite,” Montgomery said. “I have been both the underdog and the favorite. I’ve been an enemy too. It all does not
really matter to me.” Montgomery is relatively new to the sport — he began running track and field his sophomore year of high school. He has already adjusted to the pressures and level of work athletes must put in to be able to compete at the SEC level. “Last year, the biggest thing was just to understand the level of track and field he was on,” Lyles said. “As a sprinter in the SEC, you are competing against Olympians and the best in the country. It was all about mentally preparing him to know, ‘I am one of the best out there.’ This year was to make sure to prepare his body for the next level of performances he needs to do to defend his title and more. We want to push the physical limits to show him what he can actually do.” Montgomery placed ninth at the
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In the dying moments of the Feb. 19 basketball game against the South Carolina Gamecocks, sophomore Sophie Cunningham tried to dribble around her opponent. She passed the ball to redshirt senior Lianna Doty, a pass that very nearly did not make it. Doty quickly passed it back along the perimeter, and then Cunningham, seeing an opening, forced herself into the paint and made a layup with 0.6 seconds left. The crowd exploded. With that layup, Missouri women’s basketball edged out the No. 6 Gamecocks 62-60 in a pivotal game with NCAA tournament implications that supported Susan G. Komen Missouri’s fight against breast cancer. The Tigers came into the game as underdogs, battling against a team ranked in the top 10 of the Associated Press poll. Entering the game, South Carolina led the Southeastern Conference in field goal percentage and was tied with Mississippi State for first place in the conference. “[It’s] an incredible program at South Carolina,” Missouri coach Robin Pingeton said. “They’re a team that can definitely compete in the national championships this season.” For much of the game, Missouri struggled to gain a lead, but the team never fell too far behind. The first half remained a back-andforth affair, with both sides keeping even. The Tigers kept South Carolina scoreless beyond the arc in the first quarter. “We knew we had to keep pressure on the ball,” Pingeton said. “With 70 percent [of South Carolina’s shots] coming from the paint, we tried to take that away.” The Tigers came into the second half four points down, but they began slipping early on. “We talked about our spacing more than anything,” Pingeton said. “We had four people in the channel or outer third ... we got stuck ... everybody was coming to the ball.” Things seemed to take a dive when South Carolina took a double-digit lead, and senior Lindsey Cunningham, boxed out for a rebound and not feeling well, had to take a temporary exit after throwing up in a trash can. Key plays from senior Sierra Michaelis, Doty and especially Sophie Cunningham allowed the Tigers to claw back to a tie, and a drive from Doty in the middle of the fourth quarter gave the Tigers the
GAME | Page 15
THE MANEATER | SPORTS | FEB. 22, 2017 14 Comparing the stars of Missouri baseball to the titans of the rap game ELLIOT BAUMAN Columnist
Missouri baseball opened its season this weekend with a 3-1 series win over Eastern Michigan. Tanner Houck, Brett Bond and Brian Sharp, under new coach Steve Bieser, impressed on the field. But how do their personalities compare to some of the top emcees? If these Tigers were rappers, who would they be? And, more importantly, what does that say about them? RHP Tanner Houck = Kendrick Lamar Let’s make a few things clear. First, Kendrick Lamar is the most technically and creatively gifted rapper of our generation, and the competition is not even close. What the fiery MC from Compton is to the rap game, right-handed pitcher Tanner Houck is to Mizzou. An undisputed top talent and the crown jewel of the Mizzou baseball program, Houck is a Collegiate Baseball and PerfectGame.com preseason AllAmerican, top draft prospect and, like Lamar, in a whole other realm of talent when compared to his peers. Not only is Houck poised for a strong junior campaign, but he has also been performing at a high level as long as he has been on campus. His freshman season, Houck pitched 100.2 innings and struck out 91 batters on his way to a unanimous Louisville Slugger Freshman AllAmerican team selection, chosen
by Collegiate Baseball. Like Houck, Lamar burst onto the scene with no hesitation. In Lamar’s debut in the spotlight, he released a Grammy-nominated album, declared himself king of hiphop and hasn’t looked back since. His sophomore effort, “To Pimp a Butterfly,” was hailed by critics and fans alike as one of hip-hop’s best projects in decades. Like Lamar, Houck has only improved since his first opportunity to shine. Last year, Houck got his ERA down to 2.99 and struck out 106 batters while pitching an SECleading 105.1 innings. In the same way that Lamar has never had a disappointing album, Houck has yet to have a disappointing season. Both Houck and Lamar are alphas. They are the best in their field and, while they may not overtly flaunt their dominance, they know how dominant they are and demand respect from their peers. Catcher Brett Bond = Drake Every team needs a face, but sometimes the face of the team is not necessarily the most highly-touted prospect or the most successful athlete. Junior catcher Brett Bond is this team’s face, even if he does not come with the same accolades possessed by Houck. Similarly, Drake, a controversial character with neither the skills nor accolades of Lamar, is the face of hip-hop. In part, this is due to his commercial success, but the real
reason Drake has been deemed the face of modern hip-hop is simply because he acts like it. Bond is one of the veteran players on the squad, and he carries himself with pride and confidence. This swagger, like Drake with hip-hop, has turned him into one of the faces of the program. Bond is arguably Mizzou’s most talented position player, but he is a leader on the team because of his unique combination of skill and leadership abilities that allows him to be the team’s leader without being the most talented player. Lamar is never going to be the artist to represent the genre, even if he is the most skilled. That is Drake’s role to take up. Likewise, Bond is the guy for Mizzou, and he knows it. 1B Brian Sharp = Migos Baseball, like the music industry, is hard. The latter part of 2016 and early 2017 was good to both first baseman Brian Sharp and Migos. Sharp hit a team-best .478 and had a .980 fielding percentage during fall ball, while Migos released “Bad and Boujee” and starred in an episode of the Emmywinning series “Atlanta.” Both Sharp and Migos are hot commodities, having thrown together a streak of hits — literally in Sharp’s case — that has required us to pay attention. But neither Sharp nor Migos have completely emerged into the spotlight. Both are ready to explode, but it will take the same effort over a longer period of time for them
both to establish themselves. We need more evidence before we come to a consensus that they are the top players in their respective fields. Mizzou fans and coaches are excited for the potential Sharp has displayed, just like hip-hop fans are excited for the future of Migos. Certainly, if both can remain consistent with their recent productions, they will be the stars of the future. For now, though, we need a bigger sample size from Sharp before we proclaim him as the next big thing. HC Steve Bieser = Jay-Z In sports and in hip-hop, the concept of generations is a talking point. Every generation has a distinct sound and style of play. But some members of older generations transcend the concept itself. Head coach Steve Bieser, like Jay-Z, is one of those people. Bieser graduated from Southeast Missouri State in 1989 and has been playing or coaching baseball ever since. Similarly, Jay-Z has been one of hip-hop’s top emcees for nearly three decades. Jay-Z and Bieser both hold the roles of teacher and leader. They are above everyone else; they are the veterans that have no direct competition and, therefore, no reasons to withhold their immense wisdom. Because of his wisdom and transcendence of generation, Bieser is the Jay-Z of the Mizzou baseball program.
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THE MANEATER | SPORTS | FEB. 22, 2017
GAME
Continued from page 13
lead. The score went back and forth in the final minutes of the game until Sophie Cunningham’s clutch shot. “She’s engaged,” South Carolina coach Dawn Staley said. “[Sophie] figures out ways to score. She put us back on our heels on a lot of places on the floor.” Despite the loss, South Carolina still proved itself a dominant force defensively.
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Continued from page 13 NCAA Championships last year with a 45.81-second time, which was one place off from qualifying for the finals. However, his best time, 45.13, ranked him sixth among all collegiate athletes. Heading into the 2017 season, his best time ranked him fourth in the nation collegiately. “This year, it is all about winning,” Lyles said. “[At the] national championships last year, we had mishaps.
The Gamecocks scored 26 points off of 21 Missouri turnovers and had twice as many steals as the Tigers. One thing the Tigers did have was home-court advantage. Fans packed in for the Tigers’ second-tolast home game of the year and saw alumni recognized during halftime, including Juanita Robinson, who is recovering from a shooting in Chicago in late December. “She’s gone through a lot many people don’t know,” Sophie Cunningham said after the game. “She’s a tough soldier. We have
to win because she’s in the stands.” Sunday’s win will be a big boost for Missouri’s chances of being selected for the NCAA Tournament. But Pingeton cautioned against any over-elation. “We’re not one of those elite programs yet, but we’re making giant strides in that direction,” Pingeton said. Next up: Missouri plays its last home game of the season Thursday against Ole Miss. Tipoff is at 7 p.m. Edited by Eli Lederman elederman@themaneater.com
Sophomore Sophie Cunningham makes the game-winning shot with 0.6 seconds left. JULIA HANSEN | STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
This year’s goal is to win the big races and big meets. Our race pace is to do anything to win. If the pace slacks off, then we are ready for it. If it comes out fast, then we are ready for it. We are using the [Bill] Belichick playbook to prepare for anything.” Belichick’s New England Patriots won the Super Bowl earlier this month. Lyles and Montgomery are looking to have similar success this season. Montgomery is no stranger to success. His junior year of high school, only his second year of running track and field, he won the 200- and 400-meter dash with times
of 21.25 and 46.82 seconds, respectively, for the Illinois High School Association 3A Track and Field State Finals. His senior season, he completed something no one else had done before by winning the 100-, 200- and 400-meter dash at the 3A Illinois state championships. He finished with 10.50 seconds in the 100, 20.96 in the 200 and a 46.24 in the 400-meter dash, to win each. “It was great in high school,” Montgomery said. “I was not expecting to come out being one of Illinois’ top sprinters. I used it as motivation that I can do anything, that I should not be
afraid of anything no matter who I am racing against. It motivated me to basically pick up where I left off.” He finished second alltime in the 400 among Illinois athletes, only behind Jermar Collins of Wheaton Warrenville South, who ran a 46.2. Montgomery’s time in the 200 also ranks him sixth all-time in Illinois. When it comes to pre-race rituals, Lyles likes to remind Montgomery beforehand that both he and Montgomery are the best at what they do. They both say it is a joke between the two of them to relieve the pressure and stress they both face.
“It takes the pressure off of
him, and it takes the pressure off of me,” Lyles said. “We just kind of let it happen.”
Last year, Montgomery’s
45.13 time was ranked 36th
in the world. He will look to improve this ranking this year.
To
accomplish
Montgomery
that,
continues
to prepare to defend his title next week at the SEC
Championships in Nashville, Tennessee.
Edited by Eli Lederman
elederman@themaneater.com