Wednesday, Oct. 6, 2021
Volume 157 No. 21 SERVING SAN JOSE STATE UNIVERSITY SINCE 1934
WWW.SJSUNEWS.COM/SPARTAN_DAILY
EVAN REINHARDT | SPARTAN DAILY
The complex 3Below Theaters at 288 S. Second St. in San Jose is run by Guggenheim Entertainment, a nonprofit theater company that recently canceled its upcoming production.
All-white cast creates controversy SJSU community members express dissappointment with local theater company By Christine Stevens STAFF WRITER
After a local Bay Area theater company received backlash about its canceled holiday production that had an all-white cast, some San Jose State community members are emphasizing
diversity’s importance in theater. The recoil toward San Jose Playhouse began after the company announced its cast for “Into the Woods” at the end of August, though it was canceled by Sept. 12. The nonprofit theater is located one block west from SJSU’s main campus at 288 S. Second St. Kirsten Brandt, film and theatre assistant professor and SJSU’s theatre arts department artistic director, said she was shocked when she found out about the theater’s cast. “I honestly was flabbergasted. My jaw hit the floor when I found out this was happening in San Jose,” Brandt said in a Zoom call. “I was thinking that somebody was talking about some other city that’s not as diverse as San Jose.” In San Jose, 31.6% of people identified
When I see [Asian performers] I just feel very hopeful for myself as a music major. I am a performer and just seeing someone who looks like me on stage, it means a lot. Don Nguyen
music junior
as Hispanic or Latinx, 35.9% as Asian, 3% as Black and 25.7% as white, according to the 2020 U.S. Census Bureau database. Brandt said before the pandemic, her class produced Into the Woods and emphasized casting flexibility because the roles are fabled characters. “The great thing about that show is it [has] an inclusive cast,” Brandt said. “You can do that show, it does not matter,
ethnicity is not is not an issue, gender plays an important role but even that can be twisted a little bit because they’re very fairy tales.” San Jose Playhouse is part of “3Below,” a San Jose theater complex and multipurpose venue run by married couple Shannon and Scott Guggenheim THEATER | Page 2
CAMPUS IMAGES
PHOTOS BY EVAN REINHARDT | SPARTAN DAILY
Left: kinesiology junior Kenny Huynh aims his cue during a game of 8-ball pool with his girlfriend, business management junior Emmy Thang. Right: Thang competes with Huynh in the Student Union Tuesday afternoon. The couple met in the Vietnamese Student Association in 2020 and bonded about their appreciations for the game.
HONORING OUR RESILIENCE BUILDING A SUSTAINABLE FUTURE sjsu.edu/cccac
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NEWS
WEDNESDAY, OCT. 6, 2021
ILLUSTRATION BY DAISHA SHERMAN
THEATER Continued from page 1 and Scott Guggenheim’s brother, Stephen Guggenheim. The Jewish family, who runs Guggenheim Entertainment, has been producing family-friendly content since 1996 and specializes in performance, dance, music and theater, according to the 3Below Theaters website. Shannon Guggenheim said Into the Woods was a replacement for “The MeshugaNutcracker!”, a Jewish play written by the company in 2003 that was canceled because of the coronavirus pandemic. Shannon Guggenheim said the show’s latest rendition of The MeshugaNutcracker! in 2016 featured an all-white cast, who were then invited back for the 2020 production of the same show. She said the company wasn’t in a place “production-wise” to revive the Jewish show in 2021, leading the company to replace the show with Into the Woods but with the same actors. “We really felt obligated to offer those roles to the previous cast who had already lost their jobs,” Shannon Guggenheim said. She said the 2016 casting demographic
Jackson Davis, an Actor’s Equity Association member cast as the Into the Woods narrator, said he wasn’t aware of the casting controversy until a few days before the show was canceled. The Actor’s Equity Association is a U.S. actor and stage manager labor union founded in 1913, according to its website. Davis said in the ‘90s, he played the lead role in Into the Woods at TheatreWorks Silicon Valley at the Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts about 25 minutes from Downtown San Jose. TheatreWorks Silicon Valley is a performing arts center for year-round seasons of musicals, comedies and dramas, according to its website. Davis said he worked with the Guggenheims in the past and had positive experiences with them. “I believe [the family’s] hearts are in the right place,” Davis said in a phone call. “But only time will tell if they can use this to be a better organization and if we in the Bay Area can use this to be a better community.” Davis said it’s already difficult to find jobs as an actor because they have to be able to handle rejection, so aspects including race and gender can be obstacles. “It’s a tough situation to be an actor,” Davis said. “And I can only imagine how much worse it is if people feel like their heritage or you know the color of their skin is holding them back.”
I honestly was flabbergasted. My jaw hit the floor when I found out this was happening in San Jose. I was thinking that somebody was talking about some other city that’s not as diverse as San Jose. Kirsten Brandt
SJSU theatre arts department artistic director, film and theatre assistant professor
wasn’t intentional but was based on performers’ ability to speak Hebrew. “And by no means, would [the ability to speak Hebrew] always be exclusive to a white-only cast and, in fact, we’ve produced it many years since we wrote it in 2003 and they’ve had actors of all color in their roles,” Shannon Guggenheim said. “But the last cast that we had back in 2016 happens to be all white.” She said while she knew it was important to have a diverse cast, finding actors of color was difficult. “I reached out because even though we have auditions, even though we post in all of the obvious professional places, we just weren’t getting enough people to draw from,” Shannon Guggenheim said. Only two people of color applied out of the 75 applications for the 2021 show, she said.
In the 2017–18 season, about 38% of roles were filled by artists of color, according to an annual report from the Asian American Performers Action Coalition that examines representation in New York theater. Music junior Don Nguyen said it’s important for those sitting in the audience of a theater production to see themselves in the cast, especially in San Jose’s diverse city. “When I see [Asian performers] I just feel very hopeful for myself as a music major,” Nguyen said in a phone call. “I am a performer and just seeing someone who looks like me on stage, it means a lot.” Guggenheim said the company reached out to SJSU theatre professors and professors at other universities for student actor referrals, but the company’s efforts weren’t successful.
EVAN REINHARDT | SPARTAN DAILY
Holiday production “Into the Woods” at Downtown San Jose’s 3Below Theaters was canceled by local Bay Area-nonprofit theater company around Sept. 12.
“[SJSU theatre professors] didn’t recommend anybody that we hadn’t already spoken to,” Guggenheim said. Kirsten Brandt said nobody reached out to her about casting to see if any of her students would be interested in auditioning. Guggenheim said actors who spoke to Guggenheim Entertainment already had a job conflict with the Into the Woods time period or already had a “day job.” “There was nobody else to cast who was appropriate for the parts and that’s not a race comment, that’s a, you know, talent and availability comment,” Guggenheim said. Brandt said she respects Guggenheim for wanting to give actors their contracts but casts are based on the production itself so the list should’ve been reevaluated. Nguyen also said the company should’ve addressed the casting situation earlier and been clearer about its decisions. “I feel like the handling of everything is just not direct,” Nguyen said. “I just wish they had some kind of more direct route and more immediate response to calm down the situation.” Scott Guggenheim posted an apology on Sept. 11 for the production’s lack of diversity in the private Facebook group “Bay Area Theater Folks” which is where the casting controversy was initially objected by several members. Bay Area Theater Folks is a group with more than 15,000 members intended for individuals to post acting gigs and jobs relating to theater in the Bay Area. It’s also a forum for people to discuss theater and talk about shows and productions they’ve seen. “We ask you for grace. We need to do better. And we will. We have fallen short and are truly sorry,” Scott Guggenheim said in the post.
Some members of the group weren’t satisfied with his apology. East Bay actor Daniel Olsen commented in the Facebook group and called the show, “Into the White People Only Woods.” Other members of the Facebook group said the San Jose Playhouse should shut down. Nguyen said the criticism was good for the company to hear but some Facebook group members’ negative comments were excessive. “I think [the commenters are] doing a good job but along the line it seems like bullying,” Nguyen said. “Because there’s a mob mentality that this person attacked and then another piled on and it’s actually 430 something comments to call them out and it’s quite a lot.” The Facebook group members also voiced frustrations and compared the San Jose Playhouse to the Berkeley Playhouse, which announced Sept. 9 it was putting on its own production of Into the Woods with a more diverse cast, Shannon Guggenheim said. Brandt said she hopes Guggenheim Entertainment learns from the controversy. “It’s unfortunate. It’s sad that that happened and I hope that they learn from it and realize what an incredibly rich, diverse city San Jose is,” Brandt said. “And then that starts to be reflected in their shows.” Guggenheim said the company regrets not canceling the show earlier. “It was a gut wrenching decision for us to go forward and announce an all white cast,” Guggenheim said. “I certainly do believe now that I wish that we would have just canceled the show in the first place and not done it.” Follow the Spartan Daily on Twitter @SpartanDaily
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ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT
WEDNESDAY, OCT. 6, 2021
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ANALYSIS
Korean Netflix series thrives internationally By Jovanna Olivares A&E EDITOR
The dark thriller “Squid Game” is the No. 1 most-watched Netflix TV show in the world as of Tuesday, proving yet again that Korean filmmaking has the entire entertainment industry in a chokehold. The Korean show is demolishing barriers as a non-English-language series that’s making its way to becoming Netflix’s most watched original series of all time and surpassing current ratings record holder, Bridgerton, according to a Sept. 28 Deadline article. Since 2019, non-English-language viewing in the U.S. has grown by 71%, and 97% of Netflix’s U.S. members have chosen to watch at least one non-English-language title in the past year, according to a Sept. 28 article by Deadline Hollywood, an online news organization. “Once you overcome the one-inch-tall barrier of subtitles, you will be introduced to so many more amazing films,” Bong Joon-ho, director of 2019 global movie sensation Parasites, said during his acceptance speech at the 2020 Golden Globe Awards, according to a Feb. 12 2020 New York Times article. As it’s ranked first in 81 countries except Turkey and Denmark, according to a Tuesday Asian News International article, people are drawn to the sinister satirical series and it’s no wonder.
Do they really have a choice if both options surround suffering? How far is real life in a capitalistic society from a game of the elite watching you hang by a thread to survive anyway? The show illustrates that there’s no weighing out what’s worse: being a pawn in merciless and fatal games run by the elite, referred to on the show as “The VIPs,” or being crushed by capitalism in the seemingly inescapable hell that makes up real life. Do they really have a choice if both options
ILLUSTRATION BY BIANCA RADER
surround suffering? How far is real life in a capitalistic society from a game of the elite watching you hang by a thread to survive anyway? Hwang Dong-hyuk, Squid Game director and screenwriter, set the nine-episode survival series in modern-day Seoul, South Korea. Gi-hun, a divorced and struggling father who lives with his mother, is one of 456 desperate people flooded in financial debt who get invited to play a series of lethal, popular children’s games for a chance to win. Each one of the 456 players’ lives is worth $100 million South Korean won, implying there will only be one winner. The singular champion gets about 45.6 billion won, which equates to 38 million U.S. dollars, after the final game. Contestants must fight for their lives throughout traditional children’s games including “Red Light, Green Light,” marbles and tug-a-war with extreme deadly twists. Risks include surviving their stays among fellow bloodthirsty and distressed players in a fever dream-like playroom located on a mysterious island. Players, who accepted the strange invitation to the game, are constantly reminded of their willingness to play by the pink-suited game
COPY EDITORS HAILEY FARGO KAH MUN CHIA REBECCA LEE SAVANNAH NATIVIDAD ALAN BAEZ SPORTS COPY EDITOR JESUS TELLITUD
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facilitators, who unremorsefully make bullets rain from their closely strapped assault rifles and pistols every other scene. The pink-suited facilitators, whose faces were covered with black masks labeled either by a circle, an “X” or a square, claimed the games were designed to be fair and untainted from corruption, unlike the outside world. The games and the terms, which are that if you lose any of the games or refuse to play, you die, represent the harsh relationship between capitalism and the lower class. While the show makes clear critiques toward capitalistic societies, it also challenges religion and the hypocrisy of those who consider themselves morally disciplined, when in reality they’re corrupted beyond recognition. The irony-filled episodes are an eye-opener to parallels between the banter on screen and the state of desperation we’ve all normalized. The Korean drama has shown so much traction that South Korean broadway firm SK Broadband, a high-speed communications network to homes and businesses for Internet access, is suing Netflix because of increased network traffic and maintenance work from Squid Game viewership to the U.S. firm’s content, according to a Friday Reuters article. Squid Game is stirring conversation about how incorrect interpretations for
languages, including English, damage the show’s message. Subtitles demand attention and that’s why I always recommend people to watch foreign films in their original languages rather than dubbing a series, but closed caption English subtitles, which match the dubbed English version of the content, are often inaccurate in most cases. Subtitles are supposed to help preserve the original feel of each scene, yet even as a non-Korean speaker, it wasn’t hard to tell the translations of Squid Game were consistently botched. This leaves viewers, like myself, feeling like we missed out on a deeper meaning and understanding of each scene and character. Producers need to appreciate the art and intricacy of language and take the time to properly redistribute and translate content accurately. Squid Game is the prime example of how language doesn’t mean we cannot enjoy the same entertainment around the world but how crucial and fundamental it is to have accurate depictions and translations of the content while doing so. Follow Jovanna on Twitter @joo_zuniga
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SPORTS
WEDNESDAY, OCT. 6, 2021
ANALYSIS
Pro sport vaccine policies may tilt season results By Christopher Nguyen STAFF WRITER
As more people get coronavirus vaccinations, some professional athletes are choosing to remain unvaccinated, resulting in a negative effect on the competition and morality in the sports world. The NBA, which isn’t enforcing coronavirus vaccine mandates, has informed its teams that unvaccinated players will face many of the same restrictions the 2020 season had including daily testing, according to a Sept. 28 ESPN article. In the memo ESPN obtained, there are p olic y dif ferences between unvaccinated and vaccinated players, according to the same article. Unvaccinated players are required to remain at their residences during home games and at the team hotel for road contests with the exceptions of team and essential activities i n c lu d i n g bu y i n g groceries or taking their kids to schools. The only in-person interactions an unvaccinated player can have with non-family members would be with a small number of close personal guests who’ve to be tested beforehand, according to the ESPN article. Some players who’ve yet to take the vaccine including Brooklyn Nets’
ILLUSTRATION BY BIANCA RADER
guard Kyrie Irving may be forced to take it because of the COVID-19 policies in the athlete’s city in which they play. Golden State Warriors’ forward Andrew Wiggins is an example of this as he reportedly got vaccinated after refusing to do so initially. According to an ESPN article, Wiggins said he felt forced to get vaccinated because if he didn’t, it would mean the end of his NBA career. The lack of pay, on top of COVID-19 policy limitations, may also entice some players to get vaccinated for their upcoming seasons. The NBA announced unvaccinated players on teams based in New York and San Francisco won’t
The consequences of remaining unvaccinated will have a negative effect between vaccinated players and teams with those who’re unvaccinated in upcoming seasons.
get paid for the games they miss, according to a Sept. 29 ESPN article. Vaccine mandates issued by cities, including New York that requires at least one-shot vaccination and San Francisco that requires two, are being strictly enforced for access and entry to public venues, according to the same ESPN article.
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Like most people, professional sports athletes want to be paid for their talents so taking that money away may push unvaccinated players to get the vaccine. It’s not just the NBA that has announced strict policies in regards to vaccination requirements. The NFL hasn’t enforced vaccine mandates on
players but released a memo regarding COVID-19 policies to teams before its season started on Sept. 9. In the memo, the NFL stated the consequences for teams who aren’t fully vaccinated would be an outbreak in cases. The memo includes that if a game is canceled because of a COVID-19 outbreak among unvaccinated players on a team and can’t be rescheduled within the 18-week schedule, the club with the outbreak will have to forfeit the competition and will have been considered to have played 16 games. The forfeiting team will be given a loss and the other team will be credited with a win.
SUDOKU PUZZLE Complete the grid so that every row, column and 3x3 box contains every digit from 1 to 9 inclusively.
Coaches are here to see their teams compete and win, not be sick and defeated from the COVID-19 virus. While players can choose to be vaccinated or not, it may result in the loss of a competitive edge. Tom Brady, MVP of Super Bowl 55 and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback, spoke out in an interview with the Tampa Bay Times regarding the COVID-19 policies. “I actually think it’s going to play more of a factor this year than last year, just because of the way what we’re doing now and what the stadium is going to look like and what the travel is going to look like and the people in the building and the fans,” Brady told the news organization in its Sept. 4 article. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers said the team is 100% vaccinated in a Sept. 2 ESPN article. The consequences of remaining unvaccinated will have a negative effect between vaccinated players and teams with those who’re unvaccinated in upcoming seasons. It will be interesting to see which teams across the sports world will win or lose as unvaccinated players affect the seasons.
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JOKIN’ AROUND “What do a tick and the Eiffel Tower have in common?”
“They’re both Paris sites.”
SOLUTIONS
ACROSS 1. Orange pekoe 5. Coral barrier 9. Ex-servicemen 13. Light bulb unit 14. 3-banded armadillo 16. River of Spain 17. Highest point 18. Cabled 19. Part of a plant 20. Wearing footgear 22. Applicants 24. Smudge 26. Coil of yarn 27. Express strong disapproval 30. Day after Saturday 33. Guiding 35. A piece of information 37. French for “Summer” 38. Mentally prepare 41. Letter after sigma 42. Conditions 45. Powerful 48. Property 51. Tooth doctor 52. Entices 54. Any day now 55. Long slender cigars 59. Rank 62. 53 in Roman numerals 63. High society
65. Nile bird 66. Circle fragments 67. Motherless calf 68. Dash 69. Kid 70. Alert 71. Expunge DOWN 1. It was (contraction) 2. Every single one 3. Air 4. Spire 5. Uncooked 6. Sweeping story 7. Noblemen 8. Some circus performers 9. A porch 10. Black, in poetry 11. Gait faster than a walk 12. Drunkards 15. French farewell 21. A swinging barrier 23. Subconscious 25. Journey 27. A song for 2 28. A chemical compound 29. N N N N 31. Possible 32. Chinese currency units
34. Cheat 36. Mongrel 39. Rechewed food 40. Hastens (archaic) 43. Listlessness 44. A promiscuous woman 46. Kiss 47. Celebrated 49. Cornered 50. Lemon or canary 53. Type of antelope 55. ___ du jour = Meal of the day 56. Breezy 57. Notch 58. Blend 60. Found on rotary phones 61. Feudal worker 64. Poetic dusk
Oct. 5
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OPINION
WEDNESDAY, OCT. 6, 2021
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Slothful ‘slacktivists’ stray from true activism Saumya Monga STAFF WRITER
“I have done my job, the rest is up to you,” my friend said after posting an article he didn’t even read on his Instagram story. This came from someone who is extremely political online and prides himself on being well-informed. But alas, social media’s lure is uncontrollable. It’s an enticing world filled with ignorant folks who’re trying their best to appear knowledgeable. Their methods to gain that knowledge are surface level because, heaven forbid, they have to read an article that’s more than 250 Twitter characters. I wasn’t surprised, to say the least. This isn’t unusual. Every day you surely see a post from a person you’re following who doesn’t check the information’s source, fully read the content or try to understand it. These “slacktivists”, or social media activists, believe their advocacies start and end with simple post reshares. Slacktivism is defined as garnering support for a particular cause in a way that requires minimal effort, according to Merriam-Webster. What if the article was spreading misinformation or written by someone with a history of being factually incorrect? About 47% of young adults aged 18 to 29 get their news from Instagram, according to a Pew Research Center survey conducted Aug. 31 through Sept. 7, 2020. Pew Research conducts data-driven research to inform the general public on a variety of issues including demographics and social
media engagement, according to its website. Internet users spent about 145 minutes a day on social media in 2020, according to a Sept. 7 Statista article, a company that provides data on consumers. It feels as though activism can’t exist without social media because of how much time is spent online. If you aren’t posting about it, did it really happen? On June 2, 2020 you may remember your Instagram feed being filled with black squares. In the wake of the Black Lives Matter protests and amid a pandemic, people turned to social media for activism. Posting black squares on Instagram was an easy way to show that you cared and it didn’t require much effort. Several people used the #BlackLivesMatter and #BlackoutTuesday hashtags to show their support, however it did more harm than good because Instagram was flooded by a sea of black squares and people pretending to be advocates.
Social media is a tool for activism and doesn’t actually equate to reform. Unfortunately, performative activism isn’t new. In the past few years, advocacy accounts including “So.Informed” and “The Slacktivists” have filled everyone’s feed. In ten slides or less, young adults are getting briefed on several complex issues including immigration and abortion rights. The activism performance has become so prevalent that CBS announced a show called
ILLUSTRATION BY AUDREY TSANG
“The Activist” where activists compete to see who’s the best representative for their cause. The metrics for success are based on social media engagement, according to a Sept. 16 NPR article. The show makes it seem that social media dictates whether movements can be more or less better than another. What about the people doing ground work every day and those who drive the movements, even though many aren’t broadcasting it for social media users to see? Social media is a tool for activism and doesn’t actually equate to reform. While Instagram accounts can share sources at the end of posts, many users don’t take the time to actually read through to the end or do the necessary work outside of social media: including fundraising, protesting and being informed. Instead, young adults trust these accounts to inform them
without calling into question the information’s accuracy. The “So you want to talk about” Instagram account gained thousands of followers while posting graphics that break down complex topics, especially those pertaining to people of color, which has about 3 million followers as of Tuesday. The issue is, the account’s founder Jess Natale is a white woman who conveniently kept her race hidden from her followers. Many assumed she was a person of color who had some relation to the popular book of the same name that was written by Ijeoma Oluo, a Black woman. A white woman was profiting from the fame of a woman of color. Natale apologized in a lengthy post saying she is renaming the account to So.Informed and apologized to Oluo after receiving backlash. Natale’s information may be well-researched and well-informed, but the lack of transparency
toward nearly 3 million followers is alarmingly. Her anonymity shielded her from liberal and conservative mobs alike. Many people using social media accounts are often hiding behind the facade of “advocacy.” It can be easy to reshare a post and tell yourself you’ve done something, but it’s not enough. Advocacy social media accounts should strictly be a jumping-off point for you to go and educate yourself. You can touch your thumb to a screen, dust off your hands and sit in the comfort of your own home, or you can attend a protest or a city council meeting, and you can have hard conversations with those around you. Whatever you decide to do, just don’t be a slacktivist!
Follow Saumya on Twitter @MongaSaumya
Men should fear hurting women, not being canceled Evan Reinhardt STAFF WRITER
As we reach the 15th anniversary of the #MeToo Movement, some men have become nervous and even scared to interact with women, fearing they will be accused of inappropriate behavior. While some men see themselves as victims of cancel culture, their discomfort is a fraction of the anxiety, fear and sexism women have experienced throughout history. Excellent news, men have failed to learn their lessons and this is long overdue. Social-media activist Tarana Burke started using the phrase “me too” on MySpace in 2006 to advocate for victims of sexual assault. In 2017 the #MeToo ignited a viral movement, exposing people to the massive scale of sexual violence, according to the movement’s website. MySpace is an American social-media platform created in 2003, according to Britannica. Now that western culture has started to hold more people accountable, many men are finally facing the consequences of their words and actions toward others, especially women. Former film producer Harvey Weinstein was convicted of criminal sexual assault and third degree rape in 2020. Former USA gymnastics doctor Larry Nassar was convicted of criminal sexual assault in 2018 and singer R. Kelly was also convicted of sex trafficking in September. As men are learning to be more mindful regarding their interactions with women, some men are nervous to interact at all, according to a 2018 Harvard Business Review survey. The online survey of 1,100 people found 63% of respondents described the #MeToo movement as “healthy,” but also revealed men and women are mingling less in the workplace.
ILLUSTRATION BY BIANCA RADER
“There is fear of not wanting to say the wrong thing, to be blamed, or to be part of what could be a harsh workplace environment,” Ellevate Network researcher Marcus Patterson said in an Ellevate article. Ellevate Network is a community of professional women striving for gender equality in the workplace, according to its website. Although men shouldn’t be paranoid, the increasing number of men who worry about offending women can only be beneficial. A 2019 poll by Lean In found 60% of male managers said they felt “uncomfortable” when mentoring, socializing or working alone with women in the workplace. Lean In is a global community committed to aiding women’s success, according to its website. Just because it may be uncomfortable for some men to mentor a female employee, doesn’t mean men are now the victims. Women have been forced to feel uncomfortable in professional situations for as long as they’ve been allowed to be professionals. It wasn’t until the early 1960’s, the second wave of feminism, that women began to enter the world of politics, careers and power that men previously populated most, according to the National Women’s History Museum website. Although women penetrated the occupational domain, they would still face
sexism and harassment from the men who were supposed to be their peers. About 60% of women have experienced unwanted sexual attention, sexual coercion, sexually crude conduct or sexist comments in the workplace, according to a 2016 U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commision study.
Why is it so hard to treat others with respect? Consider the 60% of women who came forward were the ones who felt comfortable sharing their experiences. There are always more. But what about the men who aren’t fearful of offending women? “Strangely, it’s men who aren’t doing anything wrong who are feeling needlessly nervous,” Dr. Arin Reeves said in the same Ellevate article. “The men who are not nervous are probably the ones to worry about.” Reeves is a researcher in workplace leadership and president of Nextions, a consulting firm based in Chicago, Illinois aimed at creating diversity and inclusion in the workplace, according to its website. While accountability and mutual respect sounds like a win for everyone, communities exist across the country that fight for “men’s rights” and condemn the evil
“cancel culture” for stealing their free speech. Steven Crowder, one of cancel culture’s fiercest opponents, is a conservative political commentator and host of the podcast and Youtube channel, “Louder with Crowder.” He is best known for his “Change My Mind” series conducted on many college campuses. “[Cancel culture is the] ever-changing rules, designed to change at a moment’s notice in order to box you in, in order to box in our speech, ultimately to separate all of us from one another,” Crowder said in an April 10 Youtube video-podcast. Crowder’s description of what cancel culture is, explains exactly what it prevents. Most of the individuals who get “cancelled” face consequences of their actions that either offended or hurt someone. It’s goal is to create a safe environment for people of all genders, races and backgrounds, so a stupid white guy can’t try and make a sexist joke and ruin someone’s week. Crowder continues to complain in the same video about how “there used to be a thing called a joke,” but fails to see that people can make jokes without demeaning or objectifying others. His position implies that it’s everybody else’s fault no one likes his rude comments. Crowder has 5 million subscribers on his Youtube channel, many of whom are young white males. His views reflect the many men across the country who believe they are victims of cancel culture and they need to defend their right to free speech against the enraged “feminazis” and “social justice warriors.” Their perspective lacks empathy toward women’s constant fight for fairness. It exposes their ignorance to the long history of women being objectified and belittled by men, purposefully or not, with the inability to defend themselves. Why is it so hard to treat others with respect? It’s male privilege. Sometimes equality can seem unfair to those who have never faced adversity or discrimination. Follow Evan on Twitter @ReinhardtEvan