NAMED NATIONAL FOUR-YEAR DAILY NEWSPAPER OF THE YEAR FOR 2020-21 IN THE COLLEGE MEDIA ASSOCIATION’S PINNACLE AWARDS
Tuesday, March 22, 2022
Volume 158 No. 23
Protesters call out Rep. Ro Khanna Santa Clara County leader faces controversy on actions involving Palestine By D’Netrus Chevis-Rose & Bojana Cvijic STAFF WRITER & NEWS EDITOR
Local advocacy groups organized a march Friday outside of Rep. Ro Khanna’s office in Santa Clara to protest Khanna’s alleged lack of support for the people of Palestine. Khanna represents the 17th Congressional District of California, which includes some cities in Santa Clara and Alameda counties, according to his website. About 10 people attended the march, which was organized by members of advocacy groups Human Empowerment and Radical Optimism (HERO) Tent, Party For Socialism and Liberation (PSL) and United Against War and Militarism. The goal of Friday’s event was to raise awareness and push people to be “more involved” in the protest against Khanna’s “contradictory actions” toward anti-war efforts in Palestine, according to the event flier posted on the HERO Tent Instagram account. Dayton Andrews, United Against War and Militarism organizer, helped facilitate the protest in solidarity with the people of Palestine. “We came out here today, brought some handouts, some signs, invited folks to come out and we gave speeches hoping to publicize and really encourage people to get involved,” Andrews said. Participants protested against Khanna for allegedly claiming to be “anti-war progressive”, but simultaneously participating in endorsements against Palestinian people. Nancy Robles, Party for Socialism and Liberation organizer, marched
PHOTOS BY AI BLY | SPARTAN DAILY
Above: Protesters march outside Santa Clara County Rep. Ro Khanna’s office on De La Cruz Boulevard in Santa Clara, about ten minutes north of SJSU’s campus, on Friday. Bottom left: Protester Katie Latimer holds a sign during a demonstration on the street outside Khanna’s office.
with protesters around Khanna’s office building, saying Khanna “maintains a progressive stance in American politics to support Palestine.” After an attempt to open the locked front entrance of Khanna’s office building by tugging at the door handle, Robles and protesters continued to express their personal reasons for marching. “I’m an immigrant and so I’m fully aware of the displacement and
destabilization that the United States government does on other countries,” Robles said. “In Palestine, I can feel for them, and I think we need to be in solidarity with all oppressed people in the world.” Khanna has described himself as “progressivecapitalist” and has taken “progressive stances” on climate change and the economy, according to a May 16, 2019 Fox Business article.
Robles said she believes Khanna has appeared publicly to make himself appear progressive, but doesn’t actually do “anything substantial.” “He did this pathetic little press release where he visited with two Palestinian girls, which is ridiculous because he supports the government that has displaced these women,” Andrews said. Khanna announced in a Feb. 17 Twitter post that he traveled to Palestine and spoke with students about international growth and an increased investment in Palestinian education and jobs
Sanctions movement Several protesters raised concerns about Khanna’s perceived lack of participation in the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement. “Anything else is like he can’t support the [Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement], he can’t do that to Israel because Israel is a business partner,” Robles said. The Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions [BDS] movement promotes the boycotting of Israeli-produced goods, divestment from the Israeli economy, and government sanctions on Israel to force Israel to comply with international law and cease its oppression of Palestinians, according to the BDS website.
He did this pathetic little press release where he visited with two Palestinian girls, which is ridiculous because he supports the government that has displaced these women. Dayton Andrews United Against War and Militarism organizer
Khanna expressed his opposition towards the BDS movement in 2019 when he voted for House Resolution 246, which condemned the movement in a bipartisan majority according to congress voting records.
Legislation The absence of Khanna’s signature on a House of Representatives Bill (H.R.2590) was another one of the protesters’ main grievances during their speeches. The bill, named “Defending the Human Rights of Palestinian Children and Families Living Under Israeli Military Occupation Act,” was introduced on April 15, 2021. The legislation would limit U.S. assistance to Israel, and prohibit the Israeli government from using U.S.-given funds in support of military detention or interrogation of children, according to the text of the bill. The Bill has approximately 32 co-sponsors excluding
Khanna, who signed the original child detention bill back in 2017, but has his name on the more recent and detailed version of the bill, according to a Feb. 11 Mondoweiss article. Noor Lazkani, Party of Socialism and Liberation (PSL) organizer, also said she wants Khanna to sign his name onto the H.R.2590 bill. “We have a right to be here and make our demands, it puts more pressure, Khanna needs to listen to us,” Lazkani said. Lazkani led a chant, which protesters loudly recited through Khanna’s office building parking lot. “Not another nickel, not another dime, no more money for Israeli crimes,” Lazkani said.
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ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT
TUESDAY, MARCH 22, 2022
SJSU celebrates festival of colors Photos by Ai Bly
San Jose State University students and community members celebrated the Indian festival of colors on March 19 on Tower Lawn. The Indian Students Organization spearheaded the colorful event which is known as Holi in South Asia. Traditionally, the festival celebrates good over evil and welcomes the harvest season.
Holi was officially on Friday March 18 but was celebrated worldwide this weekend. Attendees threw colored powered on each other and danced to festive Indian music played by DJ Brown Buoy. Most participants wore white to show off the vibrant color thrown on them. Although the weather was overcast, it did not dampen the festivities.
Attendees hold colorful powder at SJSU’s Holi event at Tower Lawn on Saturday.
A participant opens up a packet of red powdered color in the midst of a crowd.
Smita Gupta, USC student, turns her head as someone throws yellow powder at her.
An attendee pulls and dumps a packet of blue powdered color onto a friend.
Boom, clap, crash: Charli’s free
By Joaquin De La Torre STAFF WRITER
Bright, complex and unafraid to reference her pop predecessors, English singer-songwriter Charli XCX’s fifth studio album “CRASH” is both an anthological review of pop music and a peek into its future. Critics of the genre frequently dismiss the artistry that goes into creating a pop album with the tired “rockism” argument that pop is inauthentic and inferior to other genres, according to an April 17, 2015 Washington Post article. Charli XCX cheekily retorted to her naysayers in a Sunday Instagram post wearing a cute pink crop top which read, “They don’t build statues of critics.” Charli also said in an April 16, 2021 tweet that numerous pop powerhouses from the ‘80s, ‘90s and early 2000s era of pop music and a few contemporary artists inspired her new album. This list includes Janet Jackson, Cyndi Lauper, Taylor Dayne, Rick James, Charlie Puth and Sophie. The raven-haired artist kneels atop a car with a trail of blood streaming down her face and is wearing nothing but a black bikini on the album cover. Although Charli is exposed to the world and wounded in the image, her eyes express a self-assured power.
Her arms are stretched towards the cracked windshield as she gazes into the car as if she is getting ready to claw through the glass with her black stiletto nails. The title track “Crash” is an electrifying introduction to the album and features a classic Janet Jackson snare drum that can be heard in songs by the artist including “Control.” “I’m about to crash into the water, Gonna take you with me,” Charli sings in a robotic cadence that breaks up almost every other syllable. “I’m high voltage, self-destructive.” In this eclectic blend of pop’s future and past, the tracks “Lighting,” “Good Ones,” “New Shapes” and “Every Rule” all share an analog synthesizer sound. “Lighting” is by far the best of the five ‘80s-inspired songs because it masterfully combines the vintage analog synthesizer sound with Charli’s lyrics about being infatuated with a new lover. Charli sings lyrics including “Heartbreak already hit me once, they say that it won’t happen twice,” as the music fades around her voice which is modified by a vocoder. A vocoder is a function on a synth, where an artist can input their voice in the machine, and the synth will change the frequency of the artist’s voice, making it sound robotic. Charli’s vocals give a
ILLUSTRATION BY JOVANNA OLIVARES
bone-chilling effect reminiscent of Daft Punk 2001 song “Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger” sound. “Lighting” was co-written by Rami Yacoub, whose accolades include co-writing “ Hit Me Baby One More Time” for Britney Spears, according to the November 11, 2015 Billboard article. “Beg For You,” featuring British-Japanese pop singersongwriter Rina Sawayama, was produced with a sample of
“Cry For You” by Swedish Europop artist September, and is the first single on the album to give listeners the early 2000s pop sound. “Beg For You” plays into the overall album’s themes of love and power and what it feels like to lose control. “You’re like an ocean breeze, coming and going just as you please,” Sawayama sings. “Separated by a degree, hesitating, I’ll lose you so far out of reach.”
Despite the song’s irresistible flow and excellent use of high-hat drum beats, it’s one of the weaker tracks on the album. With a high energy sample like “Cry For You,” the producers did the song a disservice by slowing it down to an almost ballad-like level when it had the potential to be a club anthem. Charli redeems this misstep later with the track ALBUM | Page 3
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ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT ALBUM Continued from page 2 “Used To Know Me,” which features a sample of the ’90s house classic “Show Me Love” by American singer-songwriter Robin S. Charli said in her Spotify album preview that this song was her returning to her most recognizable style of songwriting.
“My kind of ‘Boom Clap,’ ‘Fancy’ style,” Charli said. “Where the chorus feels anthemic, a little bit shouty and essentially just a party anthem.” On the track “Used To Know Me,” Charli understood the assignment, period. The song has an infectious beat that can transform any room into a dimly lit club, where the sweat of strangers is dripping down the walls. This certified club banger
album review “CRASH” Rating:
Artist: Charli XCX Release Date: March 18, 2022 Genre: [ Synth-pop ]
TUESDAY, MARCH 22, 2022
The song has an infectious beat that can transform any room into a dimly lit club, where the sweat of strangers is dripping down the walls. tells the story of a person freed from a toxic, controlling partner and gives vibes similar to “Girls Just Want to Have Fun” by Cyndi Lauper. “Held me back, tied me up inside a cage. Had to change my life ‘cause I knew you’d stay the same,” Charli sings in the song. I prefer Charli when she creates fast-paced pop hits, but when she
CLASSIFIEDS CROSSWORD PUZZLE
sings a ballad I am in emotional shambles. “Move Me” and “Every Rule” are two ballads that take different approaches to the pop-album staple. “Move Me” is a slow, trapadjacent ballad that has ethereal qualities. The hairs on my neck stood up when the music fades out and
SUDOKU PUZZLE Complete the grid so that every row, column and 3x3 box contains every digit from 1 to 9 inclusively.
Charli cries “Something ‘bout the way you hold my body tight even on my lowest nights.” “Every Rule,” featuring British music producer A.G. Cook, is a more traditional approach to a ballad and is ’80s-inspired with synths layered throughout the song. Overall, this album is brilliant and is one of Charli’s best albums yet. Even though it’s a departure from her hyperpop era, which truly kept my sanity intact during the pandemic, “CRASH” carries on the experimental torch of her previous albums. In the words of Randy Jackson from American Idol, “It’s a yes from me, dawg.”
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JOKIN’ AROUND “What type of tree fits in your hand?”
“A Palm Tree!”
SOLUTIONS
ACROSS 1. Precipice 6. Hawaiian strings 10. Powdery dirt 14. Neighborhood 15. Dash 16. Moving within 17. Overweight 18. Calyx 19. Pond gunk 20. Possessing a hard shell 22. Walking stick 23. Pal 24. Apt 26. College treasurer 30. Lumberjack 32. Mimicking 33. The quality of being contrived 37. Corporate image 38. Rescued 39. Bright thought 40. Swaddled 42. Supernatural being 43. Wall painting 44. Swallow 45. Aroused 47. American Dental Association 48. Flaccid body fat 49. A cylinder in a cave
56. Decorative case 57. Storage cylinder 58. Governed 59. Express in words 60. Margarine 61. Requested 62. Backside 63. Coral barrier 64. Untidy DOWN 1. Coagulate 2. Part of the outer ear 3. Frosts 4. Quick 5. A run-down hotel 6. Exhorted 7. Knockout 8. Beige 9. Tottered 10. Distinguishing 11. Open, as a bottle 12. An attention-getting feat 13. Hefty volume 21. Mongrel 25. Former North African ruler 26. Cotton bundle 27. Atop 28. Trailer trucks 29. Skidoo
30. Shack 31. Barely managed 33. Laugh 34. Border 35. Views 36. Sodium chloride 38. Anxiety-inducing thing 41. Arctic bird 42. A word with the same set of letters 44. Actress Lupino 45. Revamp 46. Wails 47. Standoffish 48. Greek cheese 50. Scrabble piece 51. Away from the wind 52. Cogitate 53. Varieties 54. T T T T 55. Countercurrent
March 17
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SCIENCE & TECH
TUESDAY, MARCH 22, 2022
ILLUSTRATION BY BIANCA RADER
Sunken ship serves as sealife shelter By Saumya Monga A&E EDITOR
In 1915, Captain Ernest Shackleton and his crew embarked on a harrowing journey no one ever dared to go on before: a land crossing of Antarctica. As they were traveling to Antarctica, his ship the Endurance got stuck in ice and sank in the Weddell Sea. From there, Shackleton and his crew escaped on a life raft to a nearby island. As interesting as the story of Shackleton’s voyage was, the story of the Endurance ship was even more intriguing. The ship was thought to be “long gone” considering it sank in one of the most difficult regions to search for a wreck, the Weddell Sea. The Weddell Sea is densely packed with ice which has made exploration of the region difficult, according to Britannica. Remarkably, the shipwreck was found on March 9, about 106 years since the ship sank, after a month-long search organized by the Falklands Maritime Heritage Trust, according to a March 9 New York Times article. “It’s 10,000 feet deep in area, the Antarctic that’s always covered in sea ice. And so it’s just a very inhospitable environment to go trying to search for a shipwreck,” said Scott Hamilton, professor of Ichthyology at San Jose State University’s Moss Landing Marine Laboratory in a phone call. Despite the temperature ranging from 50 to 28 degrees Fahrenheit, there are more than 9000 animal species in Antarctica, according to the non profit environmental advocacy group Antarctic and Southern Ocean Coalition (ASOC) webpage. However, much of the region’s wildlife is unknown, which is another reason why the discovery of the ABOUT The Spartan Daily prides itself on being the San Jose State community’s top news source. New issues are published every Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday throughout the academic year and online content updated daily.
Endurance shipwreck is so unique. “We still don’t know a lot about the deep ocean. And the water is cold down there, just above freezing. And it typically is an area that doesn’t have a lot of oxygen,” Richard Starr, Moss Landing Marine Laboratory faculty research member, said in a phone call. “So we are always amazed when we see flourishing biological communities in areas with really low oxygen and cold temperatures.” Because of the cold water, the structure of the ship largely remained intact with the name of the ship still visible, according to a March 15 New York Times article.
One of the invertebrates, organisms that don’t have a spinal column, found living off the shipwreck were sea lilies, organisms with thin stalks and hair-like structures resembling flowers, according to a March 9 Vox article. “The most important part of artificial reefs is that they provide a bunch of nooks and crannies for a bunch of different things to start hiding and then once those things are there, then they form the base of the food chain and then bigger fish start eating them and then bigger fish start eating the smaller fish,” Bri Sotkovsky, a grad student at the Moss Landing Marine Laboratory, said in a phone call.
Artificial reefs can provide a structure for invertebrates to grow on to develop communities that are little functioning ecosystems, and that is one of the benefits, if you will, of putting structure on an otherwise flat, relatively flat, sea floor. Richard Starr Moss Landing Marine Laboratory researcher With the Endurance’s structure in pristine condition, the ship acted as an artificial reef and attracted an abundance of marine life, some of which included species that had never been seen in the Weddell Sea. “Artificial reefs can provide a structure for invertebrates to grow on to develop communities that are little functioning ecosystems, and that is one of the benefits, if you will, of putting structure on an otherwise flat, relatively flat, sea floor. . .” Starr said. “Because of the structure, they get them up off the bottom, where they might be smothered by sediment movements and keep them in relatively clean, clear, ocean water.” EDITORIAL STAFF EXECUTIVE EDITOR MADILYNNE MEDINA MANAGING EDITOR CHRISTINA CASILLAS EXECUTIVE PRODUCER AMANI HAMED NEWS EDITOR BOJANA CVIJIC
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“The life first to colonize the shipwreck, you know, that attracts more and more life to it…So yeah, I think the shipwrecks are good as artificial reefs because they’ll be in the environment [for] a long time,” Hamilton said. Because of the Antarctic treaty, no one is allowed to touch the shipwreck. The Antarctic treaty was signed in 1959 by 12 countries, agreeing to protect the Antarctic area and only use it for peaceful and scientific purposes, according to Secretariat of The Antarctic Treaty webpage. The Antarctic is facing the worst of global warming with more than 252 billion tons of ice melting, making these observations even more valuable,
according to the ASOC webpage. “The warming of the oceans and acidifying the oceans because of all the extra CO2 in the environment is a big challenge,” Hamilton said. The ocean has absorbed about 40% of the extra CO2 in the atmosphere which has led to an increase in ocean acidification, according to the same ASOC webpage. “Ocean acidification is mostly affected by the higher the temperature of the ocean gets the less dissolved oxygen in the West; the warmer that the ocean gets, the less oxygen it can hold,” Sotkovsky said. “And so there’s less and less oxygen being able to be dissolved in the water, and so less creatures can live there as well.” Hamilton said marine life is threatened by climate change which is detrimental to humans because much of the oxygen humans breathe comes from the ocean. Approximately 50% of oxygen comes from the oceans, according to the U.S. National Ocean Service webpage. The National Ocean Service provides data, tools and services that support coastal economies, according to its webpage. In the icy Antarctic waters lies the Endurance- which has surely endured a lot and because of its ability to preserve its structure the sunken ship has allowed marine life to flourish, giving us all a chance to breathe more deeply. “We just want our children and our grandchildren and everybody to continue to see life,” Stokovsky said. “It’s just . . . it’s pretty impossible for one creature like humans to live healthily in an unhealthy ecosystem.”
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