The Pitt News T h e i n de p e n d e n t st ude nt ne w spap e r of t he University of Pittsburgh
Missouri’s stance an important step Page 8 November 11, 2015 | Issue 61 | Volume 106
BUS HITS PITT STUDENT Elizabeth Lepro
Assistant News Editor
Local workers and activists march for a $15 minimum wage Downtown on Tuesday. Dale Shoemaker | News Editor
THE FIGHT CONTINUES Pittsburgh Mayor Bill Peduto issued an executive order Tuesday mandating a $15 per hour minimum wage for city workers. Later that day, workers rallied for more. | by Dale Shoemaker
With official action coming yesterday morning and a rally descending upon Downtown in the evening, the fight for a $15 minimum wage bookended in Pittsburgh. Amid a national discussion about workers’ pay and the federal minimum wage, Pittsburgh Mayor Bill Peduto issued an executive order Tuesday morning requiring the city to pay its workers at least $15 per hour. Nine hours later, roughly 250 workers and activists marched on the Pittsburgh City-County Building Downtown in another push in Pittsburgh’s fight for a $15 minimum wage. The order mandates the city pay all full-
time employees at least $15 per hour by 2021. The city will phase in increases over the next five years, the release said, to comply with the city’s Act 47 Recovery Plan, a plan from the state that designates Pittsburgh as financially distressed. The order will affect about 300 city employees, according to the release, including laborers and clerical workers. At the rally Tuesday evening, workers and activists marched from the U.S. Steel Tower down Grant Street, chanting, shouting and gathering on the steps of the City-County Building. Labor leaders, activists and elected
officials spoke in support of Peduto’s order and called on those gathered to use it as momentum in their continued fight for a higher minimum wage. “We’re still fighting because we want [$15 per hour] for fast food workers. But it’s a start,” Ashona Osborne, a Pittsburgh worker who works two part-time jobs at McDonald’s in Penn Hills and at the Pittsburgh Zoo, said. The city will begin phasing in pay increases in 2017, giving it a full year to work the increases into its budget. In the first year, Peduto’s spokesperson Tim McNulty said, city workers, See Rally on page 3
Port Authority Police is investigating what happened before a Port Authority bus hit a Pitt student on Fifth Avenue Tuesday afternoon. The student stepped into the bus lane to cross Fifth Avenue toward Thackeray Avenue when a Port Authority bus running the 71A outbound route toward Shadyside struck him. The bus driver called 911 at 2:25 p.m., and Pitt Police, as well as Port Authority police, responded to the scene, according to Port Authority spokesperson Adam Brandolph. Port Authority is not releasing the name of the student, but Brandolph said he had minor abrasions on the scene. The student stood and spoke with police for several minutes before walking to an ambulance. He was in stable condition at UPMC Presbyterian Hospital this afternoon following the accident. After police arrived, an unnamed woman on the bus who hit her head on impact complained of a headache, according to Brandolph. EMTs treated her on the scene, and she did not go to the hospital. Brandolph said Port Authority is investigating the details of the incident and will perform routine drug and alcohol tests on the driver before the end of the night. Following impact with the bus, the front windshield cracked in the bottom-right corner. This is the fifth reported person hit by a bus on Pitt’s campus since the beginning of October.
News
SGB CO-HOSTS FORUM Following its public meeting Tuesday, Pitt Student Government Board hosted the third official — and fifth total — forum discussing Pitt’s Strategic Plan | by Annemarie Carr
Students gathered in the William Pitt Union Tuesday night for SGB’s forum. Kate Koenig | Staff Photographer
After months of back and forth, Student Government Board and University administration offered a tangible — yet controversial — solution to including students in Pitt’s Strategic Plan. Following SGB’s weekly meeting Tuesday night, SGB and the Strategic Planning Team co-hosted a third open forum. Thirty students — a majority of whom were SGB members — gathered in Nordy’s Place for what Kenyon Bonner, vice provost and interim dean of students, said is the last open forum he has scheduled to address Pitt’s Strategic Plan. At the first open forum in October, students said they wanted administration to explicitly tell them how the plan would address issues, such as student debt, diversity and sustainability. Bonner said he will
compile student concerns from all three forums into a document and will send it to the working groups, planning team and University departments. “We are never going to say, ‘Here is the final plan.’ We are never going to etch it in stone,” David DeJong, vice provost for academic planning and resources management, said after the first forum. “We want [the plan] to [change] in response to the input we receive and the landscape as it changes.” Three open forums and two private forums later, students have successfully gained access to the working groups of the strategic plan. SGB, which co-hosted the forum, will screen applications to select two students to sit on each of the five See Forum on page 4
SGB TO BACK CITY-WIDE RENTAL REGISTRY Lauren Wilson and Lauren Rosenblatt The Pitt News Staff
Pitt students will soon get extra help dealing with landlords from the city and Student Government Board. At SGB’s weekly meeting this Tuesday, Pat Corelli, SGB Governmental Relations Committee chair, introduced a resolution to support Pittsburgh City Council’s proposed Rental Registry System. Though City Council hasn’t formally introduced legislation, the registry would serve as a sort of business license for all landlords in Pittsburgh to hold them accountable for housing conditions and keeping their properties up to
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city code. If a landlord doesn’t register with the system, the city will fine them several hundred dollars every day until they do so. According to City Council documents, registered property is subject to regular inspections to “ensure they are being maintained properly” and are not adversely affecting the neighborhood. Corelli said the city has been planning the registry bill for five or six years, but is preparing to for-
mally introduce it in the next few weeks. To show student support of the bill,
wanted to introduce the resolution in order to utilize SGB’s resources, such as social media and member involvement. For students, the bill would increase safety and quality of life for off-campus residents. “A lot of places in South Oakland aren’t likely to be up to code. In the past few years I’ve been here, we’ve had an apartment burn down and a house explode,” Corelli said. “[The bill] tells landlords the city knows who they are and where to find them.”
“A lot of places in South Oakland aren’t likely to be up to code.” -Pat Corelli Corelli introduced the resolution to SGB on Tuesday night. Corelli said he
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See SGB on page 4
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Rally, pg. 1 who currently average around $11 per hour, will make $12.50. In 2017, McNulty said, this increase will cost the city about $150,000. By 2019, city workers will make $13.75 per hour and $15 per hour beginning Jan. 1, 2021. In Pennsylvania, Act 47 allows the Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development to designate certain municipalities as financially distressed. Pittsburgh received its designation in 2003 and retains the status in part because Act 47 municipalities receive tax revenue from people who work in the area, even
if they don’t live there. Peduto issued two other charges in his order, including one in which the Office of Management and Budget issues guidance on how to work the wage increases into the city budget by Jan. 1, 2017. Peduto also called on City Council to introduce legislation early next year that would require all companies that contract with the city to pay their workers no less than $15 or face penalties. McNulty said because the Mayor just issued the order Tuesday, they had not yet laid down specific consequences they would impose on city contractors that do not comply with the minimum wage, but said they could possibly include sanctions or barring the companies from bidding on future contracts. McNulty said Peduto would begin working with City Council in order to introduce the noncompliance legislation by early 2016, most likely in late January or early February. City Council member Ricky Burgess, who
spoke at the rally, said he had not yet heard of pending legislation but spoke in support of Peduto’s order. Burgess, who is also a pastor at a church in Homewood, said the fight was about decency as much as it was about $15 per hour. “I’m a politician some of the time, but I’m a preacher all time,” Burgess said at the rally. “When you come together under righteousness, God will show up.” According to Osborne, the worker and Fight
employees, nor does it have a minimum wage requirement for the companies with which it contracts. Currently, the Pennsylvania Senate is nearing a deadline on a bill that would raise the state minimum wage from $7.25 per hour to $10.10 per hour. Pennsylvania Sen. Christine Tartaglione, D-Philadelphia, and Sen. Jay Costa, DAllegheny, along with eight other senators, introduced the bill in January and issued a discharge petition on Oct. 21, to force the bill out of committee and onto the Senate floor for consideration. In the Northeast, Pennsylvania has one of the lowest minimum wages compared to its neighboring states. Maryland’s current minimum wage is $8.25 per hour and is set to increase to $10.10 by July 2018. New Jersey’s minimum wage is currently $8.38 and is now indexed to increase alongside the Consumer Price Index. New York’s minimum wage is set to increase to $9 per hour by the end of this year, while its governor, Andrew Cuomo, is pushing for a $15 minimum wage. In July, presidential hopeful Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vermont, an independent candidate seeking the Democratic nomination, introduced legislation to raise the federal minimum wage to $15 per hour. Christoria Hughes, who works as a dietary aide at UPMC Presbyterian Hospital, welcomed Peduto’s order, but said the fight for higher wages should continue. “I don’t want scraps from the table,” Hughes said. “I want a seat at the table.”
“We’re still fighting because
we want [$15 per hour] for fast
food workers. But it’s a start.” -Ashona Osborne
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for 15 organizer, the group’s goal is still to raise the minimum wage to $15 per hour for fast food workers. Last semester, several student groups at Pitt and a local branch of Fight for $15 rallied on campus last semester to raise the state’s minimum wage. Several members of Pitt’s student group Americans for Informed Democracy rallied alongside workers Tuesday. Pitt spokesperson Ken Service said the University had no comment on Peduto’s order. Pitt does not currently have a set minimum wage for its academic employees or non-academic
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Forum, pg. 2 SGB tabled the resolution and will vote on it next week. SGB president Nasreen Harun also announced the election of five new members to the Election Committee, a committee that works to oversee the SGB election and encourage voters, to serve for the remainder of the 2015-2016 academic year. The new members are junior Phillip Anderson, freshman Gabrielle Galterio, freshman Sydney Kockler, freshman Emily North and sophomore Olivia Wiesner. SGB also voted unanimously to add Pitt Program Council to the Assembly. The Assembly, which meets on the first and third Monday of every month, is an initiative Harun started in February to allow student groups to work more closely with SGB. Currently, the Assembly includes all eight student groups affiliated with Student Affairs, including the Resident Student Association, the Interfraternity Council and the Nursing Student Asso-
ciation. The Assembly also includes the Rainbow Alliance and the Campus Women’s Organization. With the addition of the PPC, the Assembly will have 11 total members. In other news, Harun announced that students can apply to join the seven working groups discussing how to implement the Strategic Plan, Pitt’s five-year plan to accomplish University goals. The idea came after students expressed interest in helping with Pitt’s Strategic Plan at an open forum held by SGB and Pitt administration last month. See “SGB cohosts forum” on page two for more information.. Allocations: Catholic Newman Club requested $1,516 to send four members to a leadership conference in Dallas to learn to lead Bible study on campus. SGB approved this request in full. The Hindu Students Council requested $3,454.98 for Diwali this Saturday to cover the cost of a banner, food and custodial staff. SGB approved this request in full.
SGB, pg. 2 working groups for the Strategic Plan — SGB’s process that some students say is too bureaucratic. “We’re going to get student representatives into the working groups,” DeJong said Tuesday night. “We heard you at the last forum.” According to SGB President Nasreen Harun, there will be one or two students in each working group, and the students will serve on the group for the 2015-16 academic year. The application, which SGB posted on its website Tuesday morning, is open to all students, but SGB is looking for students with well-rounded experience. Applicants will pick their top three choices of working groups, and the Assembly, the lower legislative branch of SGB, will take students’ preferences into consideration when selecting applicants. The Assembly will review the applications at its next meeting on Monday. “The idea is that these people have had experiences on Pitt’s campus that will allow them to represent the entire student body,”
she said. “We’re trying to make sure they are people who carry ideas for the whole student body and are able to take in multiple points of view, and they are not coming in with a personal agenda.” Sophomore Joseph Dryer has attended both the private student forum that the Student Solidarity Coalition held last week and the first open forum for students and administration. Dryer said while it’s encouraging the University is taking steps to include student input, he’s “wary” of the strategy. “[SGB might choose] students that aren’t likely to question [the plan] much or might see it as a resumé builder rather than a tool for addressing problems,” Dryer, a communication major, said. Harun said it’s vital that the SGB Assembly, which includes the Black Action Society, the Resident Student Association, the Rainbow Alliance and the Panhellenic Association, will be choosing the candidates.
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November 11, 2015
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Opinions
CULTURAL APPROPRIATION IGNORES PRIVILEGE
Matt Moret Columnist
Self-expression and American pride are pretty synonymous — along with American stubbornness. Appropriating other cultures, however, is not self-expression. It is carelessly using others’ expressions as personal emblems without taking into account the meaning those elements have to others. Not everybody should stick to their
own culture. Integrating elements of each other’s heritages and traditions is the crux of the “American melting pot” concept. Bringing people together, however, requires respecting who they are and valuing them equally. That means understanding what matters to them, why it matters and changing when they say you’re wrong. The problem with cultural appropriation comes down to that dreaded word: privilege. Having privilege does not mean that you or your ancestors never had to work hard or struggle. It means that you don’t have to worry about being murdered for looking different. It means that your
people do not regularly face the burden of being historically treated as less than human. Most importantly, it means that your voice — and the voices of those like
— I don’t try to skirt that truth. But when people behave without recognizing the existence of this privilege, they treat all cultures and people as if they exist on a level playing field — which they don’t. What seems small can have a larger significance than we — as outsiders to the culture — recognize. It may seem confusing to some when Kylie Jenner wearing dreadlocks or Lena Dunham wearing cornrows becomes news. It’s just hair, right? But for black women, the people from whom these styles derive, hair matters a lot. Their natural hair has long carried a stig-
When we brush off attempts to defend cultural identity, we are ignoring the social hierarchy. yours — are hard to dismiss. As a white man, my level of privilege is higher than just about any other group
See Moret on page 6
CULTURAL APPROPRIATION BARS CULTURAL APPRECIATION
Timothy Nerozzi For The Pitt News
Respect for other cultures is a noble endeavor — but we’ve taken it too far. The Museum of Fine Arts in Boston ran an art exhibit this summer based on the famous Claude Monet painting, “La Japonaise.” The museum had planned to run the exhibit until
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July 29. The impressionist painting of a woman in a traditional Japanese kimono was on display, as well as a handmade Japanese replica of the kimono pictured, which visitors were encouraged to try on and take pictures with in front of the iconic painting. That is, until an online-organized group of protestors deemed the exhibit racist, Orientalist and, perhaps most damning of all, an example of “cultural appropriation.” Critics protested the idea of Westerners wearing traditional Japanese garments without thorough knowledge of the historical and cultural significance of the kimono. The museum, filled with protestors carrying signs deriding the exhibit, removed the tryon kimono and canceled the exhibit on July 8. Instead, the museum will move the painting
and kimono in with the other impressionist works and only allow guests to touch the kimono. This move wrongly inhibits the appreciation of culture. There is a clear line between the mockery of a group of people and appreciation of cultural aesthetics different than your own. Students’ rightful eagerness to quash the former has led to the suppression of the latter. The sharing and remixing of cultural treasures is a beautiful thing and has been a source of innovation for centuries. The flagrant use of the accusation “cultural appropriation” boils down to well-meaning — yet misguided — barriers between cultures. Japan has a long history of appropriating ideas and artifacts from other cultures. There are the kanji, Chinese characters taken straight
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from China’s language and reworked to fit Japanese. Even the kimono protesters are so fiercely defending was originally an undergarment Japan adopted from China. To accurately claim that someone appropriates something from its “true” owner, we would need to trace human history back to arbitrarily decisions for when something became unique, separate from surrounding influence. History isn’t that clear, and the blurriness of historical trends and appropriation of cultural inventions is what makes our world diverse. Cultural appropriation is not exclusively a Japanese issue, obviously. Westerners are fighting the war against cultural appropriation almost exclusively in Western countries. It’s a war against people taking an interest in things See Nerozzi on page 6
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Moret, pg. 5 ma of being unkempt and unprofessional, with preference being placed on styles that they cannot naturally meet. Wearing their hair naturally and styling it in ways that don’t require fitting a western standard of beauty is a major social statement. People of any other race have no point of reference for the meaning that those hairstyles carry. For white people, adopting those styles is a temporary fashion choice. So who are we to say it doesn’t matter when or how we use them? Telling the members of a culture what should and should not matter to them devalues their collective voice. Most white people cannot fully understand the struggle minority groups face to be heard by others. We tend to view those realizations as attacks and deflect any real confrontation. Just look at the Black Lives Matter vs. All Lives Matter debate. Supporters of All Lives Matter, which argues for greater inclusion in the Black Lives Matter movement, scrubbed away the cultural distinction — black — and attempted to appropriate the entire social message. Once the black community protested the alternate movement, they were labeled as the divisive ones holding back social progress — All Lives Matter swept aside the movement’s initial statement and struggle. When we brush off attempts to defend cultural identity, we are ignoring the social hierarchy. In doing so, we reinforce it. The fact that these historically oppressed people have a voice at all is remarkable. Telling them how to use it silences that voice. Now, take a person of any race other than Native American. This hypothetical person has no deep knowledge of Native American culture. They are totally unaware of the fact that, according to the
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Pew Research Center, one in four of these people live in poverty. This person doesn’t know that many of them now live in borderline slums that we forced them into. When this person wears a feathered headdress at a music festival, it reduces the meaning of an oppressed culture’s most famous symbol of dignity down to its aesthetic value. The people stealing it are exploiting it to look cool, rather than actually sharing in the culture. That is the very heart of appropriation: ignorance of meaning. Often, we mistake pilfering cultural
Nerozzi, pg. 5 that don’t belong to their ethnic group. It’s gotten so out of hand that sometimes criticism arises toward people taking interest in their own ethnic heritage. Those People, a self-described “black magazine for people too hip for black magazines” ran an article on Sept. 3, telling African-Americans to stop culturally appropriating African culture. “You take a cultural dress, mark or trait, with all its religious and historical connotations, dilute it and bring it out for occasions when you
Illustration by Terry Tan
want to look ‘trendy,’” writes Zipporah Gene, a writer for Those People. Is this the kind of global community we want to fight for? One where society allows you to wear things based on your skin color, geographical location, ties to communities and every other restriction that it can think up? Do we want to place this kind of bureaucracy on our outward appearance? News outlets criticized Pharrell Williams’ cover photo for the magazine Elle UK for apSee Moret on page 7 propriating Native American culture because
elements for cultural reverence, when the act is actually exploitative. There is an important line between cultural reverence and exploitation that we should not cross. In the hip-hop world, there’s a debate about whether white people can appreciate hip-hop culture without appropriating it. They can, if they approach the culture with value and respect. I believe hip-hop is the best musical
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the photo lacked the culmination of these characteristics. “I respect and honor every kind of race, background and culture. I am genuinely sorry.” These are the resigned words of Williams, renowned musician and fashion designer, after he faced intense backlash over his cover photo. On the cover, Williams wears a replica Native American headdress. Vulture, an online entertainment outlet, called the photo an example of “cultural appropriation.” Various outlets, like the Independent, even threw around the term “red face.” This term alludes to the historic minstrel shows put on in the United States during Jim Crow, dubbed “blackface.” This is a mind-boggling jump in logic. Williams wore a traditional headdress for the simple reason that he enjoyed how it looked. This does not in any way parallel the use of shoe polish and lipstick to mimic and deride African-Americans for the enjoyment of white audiences. One derives from a place of admiration for a headdress — the other is an open mocking of a race of people, misrepresenting and stigmatizing them. To tell Williams, a black American, that he is committing as serious an offense as minstrelsy and Jim Crow stage performances is absurd and only shows how identity politics has warped our views of globalization and cross-cultural exchange. As ridiculous as the criticism is, it’s pointless if you’re judging based on ethnicity. Williams has Native American lineage, as he stated in an interview with O, the Oprah Magazine. Did he contribute greatly to Native AmeriSee Nerozzi on page 7
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Moret, pg. 6 genre in the world. I spend hours reading about the history behind its stories and characters. The music is a reaction to the inner-city poverty and violence most artists face, which I will never experience. I sing along with it — not because I can ever understand what it felt like to go through those situations, but because I appreciate the persistence and growth of the culture. Listening is productive — throwing around dismissive words like “oversensi-
Nerozzi, pg. 6 can culture? Many think not. War bonnets are associated with the greatest warriors in Native American tradition — so, in critics’ minds, to wear one you must be a great warrior or an active and influential member of the culture. As Gyasi Ross for the Huffington Post put it, “It’s not simply a matter of being ‘Native’ either. It’s not that simple. Most Natives will never earn the right to wear a headdress. It’s not a racial thing, it’s an experience thing, a ‘merit’ thing.” If we consider hats and articles of clothing originating from garments that highly respected warriors of a culture wore to be insensitive, then fashionistas, and the public at large, have a lot of explaining to do. Has every rap artist wearing fake dog tags put their life on the line for their country? Is every student getting their viking helmets from Peter’s Pub on their 21st birthday a roaming warrior paving the way for Scandinavia? Has ev-
tive” is not. If you take the time to study the cultures surrounding you, you are helping to break down the boxes around us. Invading when convenient and getting offended that people are unhappy only builds up those barriers. Cultural appropriation is bigger than individual fascination — it’s an invasion of cultural identity. Matt Moret primarily writes on politics and rhetoric for The Pitt News. Write to Matt at mdm123@pitt.edu ery fashion-conscious Parisian socialite wearing an American-style military jacket served in the armed forces? Don’t be ridiculous. I’m not advocating for “color blindness,” and I’d hate to see the thousands of cultural identities that make up this world smashed into a homogenous blob without individuality. Our differences are what make these aesthetics and works of creative inspiration so exciting and interesting. I am advocating for an end to efforts to segregate and divide cultural ar t i f a c t s . There is no place in the 21st century for identity politics to run rampant and prevent the sharing of ideas and artifacts due to preconceived ideas of cultural “ownership.” History has shown us that cultures are better together, mixed into a blurry melting pot of cross-pollination. So let’s enjoy the beautiful works that humans have created, free from arbitrary boundaries based in race and geography.
There is a clear line between the mockery of a group of
people and appreciation of
cultural aesthetics different than your own.
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Email Timothy at thn17@pitt.edu
from the editorial board
Starbucks cup should not ignite fiery, red outrage We’ve passed the torch of ideological outrage, and Starbucks is its latest bearer. This year’s release of Starbucks’ holidaythemed cup on Tuesday, Nov. 3, led to holy outcry in the following days when bewildered Christians couldn’t find the cheer on their coffee-filled canvases. There were no snowflakes, reindeer or other commercialized Christmas symbols adorning the cup to remind them of the holidays. There was just the Starbucks logo stamped on a warm, red background — obviously created using blood spilled during the liberals’ “War on Christmas.” But despite Starbucks’ attempt to spread secular cheer, the iconic cup is no longer a symbol of the holidays — but one of the broader cultural movement against opposing viewpoints. Is the red cup going to be our next trigger warning icon? Along with the Starbucks controversy, students at Yale have surrounded Nicholas and Erika Christakis, Master and Associate Master of Silliman College — one of Yale’s residential houses — with anger over an email Erika Christakis sent to students. Students demanded their resignations and refused to acknowledge the Christakis’ viewpoint when it became clear they would not apologize for holding a differing perspective. Erika Christakis’ email followed one sent by Yale College Dean Burgwell Howard to students asking them to be culturally sensitive to the implications of their Halloween costumes. When students complained that the advice infringed on their freedom of speech and expression, Erika Christakis sent the email questioning the consequences of the university exercising control over students. Students felt Erika Christakis’ email was racially insensitive and decried the idea that a university should be an “intellectual space” over a “safe space.” The alternative to outcry — accepting opposing viewpoints without taking personal offense — is too much of an ideological beating for some to handle. For those whose eyes glaze under the red glare of the Starbucks cup
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— it’s too much to even view. But it shouldn’t be. In some cases, offense is absolutely warranted, and protests voice these concerns. In other situations, however, protest simply implies that someone, or something, failed to shelter an individual from opposing ideological impositions — a responsibility most institutions should not have to bear. Starbucks unveiled its new ombre cups — sans design — after watching customers write on them for years. In a not-so-logical train of thought, Joshua Feuerstein, Internet and social media personality and a self-described evangelist, wrote “Starbucks REMOVED CHRISTMAS from their cups because they hate Jesus,” on his Facebook page on Thursday. Starbucks, of course, was not trying to kill Christmas. In fact, it was trying to broaden the holiday cheer by allowing its characteristic cups to be a blank slate upon which others could inscribe their personal associations with the holidays. In response to the outrage, Starbucks released a statement. “In the past, we have told stories with our holiday cups designs,” Jeffrey Fields, Starbucks vice president of design and content, said. “This year we wanted to usher in the holidays with a purity of design that welcomes all of our stories.” That Starbucks feels obligated to explain design choices for their business out of societal obligation is ridiculous. Customers can take offense with a number of issues — the working conditions of coffee bean farmers or the pretty penny you dole out for a cup of Starbucks coffee, for example — but the lack of design on a cardboard cup should not be a point of national outrage. Protest against those actually infringing on your rights — not against those defying your ideology. Save your outrage for the serious issues. For everything else, a blank, red Starbucks cup makes the perfect canvas for your feelings.
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Sports
The Pitt News
HEED HISTORY IN RESPONSE TO MISSOURI PROTESTS Dan Sostek Sports Editor
In the face of racial adversity, a football team stood up for justice. The players stood as one, risking missing a game in order to ensure a safe environment for all people. This scenario casts the 2015 Missouri football team, where players ceased football activities until the school’s president, Tim Wolfe, resigned following a series of racially charged incidents on campus. Coll e g e f o o t ball has seen this m o t i f before, prior to the Tigers taking their b o l d and impactful stand. The University of Pittsburgh’s own football team also used their platform to promote racial equality during a period of unrest too similar to today’s dialogue. The year was 1956. The game was the Sugar Bowl. The opponent was Georgia Tech. And because of the color of one player’s skin, the game was in jeopardy. The matchup between the seventhranked Yellow Jackets and the 11thranked Panthers came at a major crossroads in United States race relations, just one month after Rosa Parks’ famed
protest. The civil rights movement was about to explode. One day after the protest, Marvin Griffin, the governor of Georgia, said via telegram statement that “The South stands at Armageddon,” asking schools in the Georgia state university system to not play in any sporting event where African-Americans were either on the field or in the stands. The Panthers did have an AfricanAmerican on their team — a fullback and linebacker named Bobby Grier. He would be the first b l a c k football player to appear in the esteemed S u g a r Bowl in New Orleans, meaning he would be the first to play in a bowl game in the deep south. With the game in limbo because of the demands of a segregationist politician, it would have been easy for Grier’s teammates — particularly at that time in American history — to remain silent, to shun Grier or to distance themselves from him to ensure their shot at bowl glory. Instead, they stood firm in their support, vowing, “No Grier, no game.” Pitt refused to budge, and Georgia Tech’s team joined the Panthers’ side in See Missouri on page 9
At a crucial time in our country’s civil rights history, college athletes took a stand.
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Missouri, pg. 8 the movement. Bobby Grier would play, and the Sugar Bowl would not segregate in the stands. Pitt went on to lose the game 7-0, but they won the much more significant battle — the fight for social progress. At a crucial time in our country’s civil rights history, college athletes took a stand. They used their platform. Pitt players knew that they were putting a critical game on the line, with little to gain personally in doing so. Jump forward six decades, and the Missouri football team’s stand comes at a similar inflection point in the country’s social history. Racial tensions are high. Ferguson protests, “I Can’t Breathe” shirts and the Black Lives Matter movement have provided a chalkboard for the previously hushed black Americans who aren’t going to take it anymore. Everything that happened at Missouri to ignite the protests — hurled racial slurs, swastikas made of feces —
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shouldn’t be happening anymore. And that’s the difference. We have to realize that Wolfe’s resignation won’t exactly turn race relations right. Like Grier’s victory before them, this won’t end racism in the United States. It won’t end racism at Missouri. But it serves as a victory for standing on the right side of history and a victory for athletes speaking out. Too often, athletes plead the Fifth, give “no comment” or don’t care about the issues. Perhaps all the sports world needed was a reminder about how loudly their voices can resonate. On college campuses, their voices are even louder. They’re school celebrities. More students at a major conference school would probably recognize the university’s starting quarterback than its chancellor. As Mizzou proved, their actions carry weight, and they clearly make an impact. The Missouri football team can’t be the last football team to use its platform to promote social change. Here’s hoping this is a catalyst and not an exception.
Bobby Grier was the first black player to play in the Sugar Bowl in 1956. Photo courtesy of Pitt Media Relations
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Health & Fitness
KING’S CASTLE
As her personal life began to settle, King’s professional career thrived. She went on to place fourth in Bodybuilding at the U.S. Games in Germany in 1989,as well as the After a professional bodybuilding career, Pitt strength and aforementioned gold at the 1991 Women’s conditioning coach Kim King builds up Panther athletes National Physique Committee championby Jessie Wallace ship and won Pittsburgh’s Athlete of the Year At the Fitzgerald Field House, a former was though. My buddies said once, ‘Just come in 1994. bodybuilding champion works tirelessly to down here with us,’ so I went downstairs.” When Pitt offered her the job, she became During that first lift, she was already the first woman in the country to serve as a groom Pitt athletes into top-tier talent. And stronger than most of her friends. Outmus- head strength and conditioning coach of an she does a fine job of it. Kim King, the head strength and con- cling them was no small accomplishment. Olympic program. ditioning coach for Olympic sports at Pitt, The men were powerlifters. “There just weren’t many females who “So it was very noticeable then that I had were comfortable in this field,” King said. “I boasts a professional athletic career — one that transcends gender and garners her ath- something special,” King said. “And I loved it, had a good niche because I looked the part. letes’ respect — that most people could only more than I was just imagine. A top competitor in numerous elite anything, getting bodybuilding competitions, including a first- I loved the r e a d y place finish in the 1991 National Physique way I felt to retire Committee championships and the 1994 when I was [ f r o m Pittsburgh Athlete of the Year, King under- lifting. It b o d y stands the work required to succeed athleti- made me building] feel like I cally. when I was Kim King King, who Pitt athletes refer to as the was larger offered the Pitt strength and conditioning coach “mother of the operation,” has been the head than life.” job here. From coach of Pitt lifting for 15 years now. You could Although an avid athlete growing up — a there, King’s life and weightlifting career took pick up magazines and see me on the cover. gymnast until the age of 16 and a high school off. Amid her college years at Community But also, talking to me for five minutes about state titlist in the long jump — bodybuild- College of Allegheny County and the Univer- [lifting], you could just tell I was on fire about ing was not always her goal. It was more an sity of Pittsburgh, in addition to meeting new it.” opportunity that fell upon her as a teenager, trainers who were eager to show her the ropes King’s bodybuilding career forced her when she opted to power lift with men in- of becoming an elite competitor, King met to follow disciplined, high-protein diets and stead of women at spas — or what are now her husband, Jeff, who was also a passionate complete mentally and physically grueling weightlifter. They married, and together they workouts. These experiences enable her to referred to as weightlifting gyms. “In those spas back then, they had a men’s had a daughter, Kelly, who has recently de- relate to the teams she trains — particularly part and a women’s part. Men were down- cided to pursue a career in medicine because the wrestling team, as the athletes on the team stairs, and women were upstairs,” King said. of the appreciation for health and fitness that also experience King’s similar experiences of “Downstairs was where all the real weight she has received from her parents. stringent, calorie-counting eating.
“
I loved the way I felt when I was lifting. It made me feel like I was larger than life.
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November 11, 2015
“What I do now is so connected with what I did all those years,” King said. “My coaching style is a little different because it’s coming from someone who competed at a national level and knows what it takes. It just really gives you a way to relate to the athletes. You want [athletes] to trust you, so when they’re squatting 315 pounds and I walk by and say, ‘Put 10 more on each side,’ they know that I know what I’m talking about.” Well aware of King’s experience, athletes trust what she has to teach and know that when they enter the weight room, their workouts will be no-holds-barred. Tyler Wilps, volunteer assistant coach and former two-time All-American Pitt wrestling standout, describes King as “intensely driven but very caring.” As an athlete competing under her for four years, Wilps has developed a close bond with King that dates back to his freshman year and continues to grow as he works beside her in the weight room. Wilps had no qualms about a woman training him. He knew what King had accomplished and was willing to learn from her experience. “You knew right away she was the real deal,” Wilps said. “People showed me her national championship video freshman year. I never questioned what she was saying because she was a woman. She’s just on that level. She exudes the fact that she does know, and when you’re around elite athletes, it’s important to know what you’re talking about.”
Find the full story online at
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Brand new, completely renovated 5 BR, 2 full bath house. All appliances including washer and dryer are brand new and included. Too many features to list. Close to Magee Women’s Hospital. On Pitt shuttle and PAT bus lines. 10 minute walk to Univ. of Pittsburgh. $2500/mo. 412-983-0400 1-2-3-4-5 Bedroom Houses & Apartments. 376 Meyran, 343 McKee, & Atwood, St. James, Bates St. $1,095-$2,000. Call 412-969-2790
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