Web Designer, Author at The Western Howl

By: Rachael Jackson
Staff Writer

The “Ask a Black Person” panel consisted of 6 black students ready to discuss what it is to be black in today’s society. They discussed a wide array of topics including: experiences on campus, misconceptions of hair, and the Black Lives Matter movement.

Due to low attendance from those students outside of the club, the panel turned more into a discussion among them and the group. 

One student that came out, Rachel Danskey, junior and public policy and administration major, saw how important it is to listen and discuss race issues. She appreciated having the chance to listen to the diverse panel.

“[These events] are a segue for me into different perspectives,” Danskey said. “I see how white people have more of a voice than they do, and I think hearing it rather than just reading about in a book brought it all to reality.”

Thelma Hale, senior and communications major, explained how the possible perceptions of her hairstyle kept her from wearing it short and natural. 
“I really didn’t want to come back here [to WOU] with my hair like that, I didn’t think I would feel comfortable. But they love it here; the people here love it. They always have something good to say.”

Contact the author at rjackson13@wou.edu or on Twitter @rachaelyjackson

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WAWA WAAM

By: Joleen Braasch 
Staff Writer

If you’re looking for a fun night, check out the hip hop concert on Friday, Feb. 26. As part of Western Accessibility Awareness Month (WAAM) and Black History Month Activities, WAWA will be performing in the Pacific Room at Werner University Center with his DJ, Nicar.

Don’t know sign language? No problem; WAWA voices the lyrics that he raps, and the concert will be interpreted.

WAWA, Warren Snipe, cannot hear, but he wears hearing aids, speaks, and signs. The rapper has been performing in many mediums of entertainment since childhood, and has been traveling the world to perform in the last dozen years.

As part of the emerging music genre Dip-Hop, deaf hip-hop, WAWA stands among other deaf rappers who are working to get Dip Hop into the mainstream music scene, including Prinz D The First Deaf Rapper, Signmark, Sean Forbes, and Survivor C.

Ensuring that the deaf community is heard and pushing back against oppressors, WAWA raps about equality. In his single, “Vendetta,” WAWA states: “You can’t hold me down ‘cuz I’m busy givin’ love … Bully Bully Bully, how nice of you to visit me, now you in my world, consider yourself history.”

These lyrics ring to the goals of Western Accessibility Awareness Month. As stated by Madison Malot, a senior English major and ASL minor as well as a student worker in the Office of Disabilities, “WAAM is a time where the WOU community can come together and learn about how to be accessible and how to bring inclusion to our campus.”
Contact the author at jbraasch12@wou.edu

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Picking on the Banjo

By: Megan Clark
Campus Life Editor

The banjo, as I’m sure you’ve all noticed, has been making a comeback. With bands like Mumford & Sons and Punch Brothers comes a slew of new appreciation for the five-stringed, twangy instrument.

It’s become so popular that its snappy strums have even graced WOU’s Smith Recital Hall. Noam Pikelny played for a gathered crowd, a performance made possible by a donation from Western’s own Dr. David Hargreaves.

Pikelny, of Punch Brothers fame, sang and played the banjo and various types of guitars, but really, his banjo playing was the highlight of the evening due to its earnest melodies, fast paced plucking, and old timey charm.

Though it seems like the hot new instrument, it’s not as common as the guitar and more technically difficult than a ukulele, another instrument that has been gaining traction in recent years.

But why is it becoming so popular? The obvious answer is that it appeals to the hipster in all of us. Perhaps it evokes a simpler time when we didn’t need found footage films to scare us, but instead found horror in an overall-clad boy playing Dueling Banjos, a la “Deliverance.”

The audience for Pikelny seemed to eat up his fiery playing style. Hannah Williams, first year music major, stated that, “The banjo is more versatile than I originally thought […] I could relate to the banjo in a way that caught me off guard in the most delightful way.”

“[Banjo players] have these ring type picks for their fingers so they can fingerpick,” said Thomas Licata, senior interdisciplinary major. He continued on to say, “using a pick instead of the fingertip gets a harder heavier sound which I generally prefer.”

With its sweetly sharp sound and its emotive melodies, the banjo is an instrument that probably won’t be going away any time soon. If the ukulele trend is anything to go off of, then pretty soon there will be Youtube covers of Adele’s “Hello” on banjo. Oh, wait, there already are.

Maybe it will eventually even overtake the guitar in popular culture. Don’t be surprised if, at your next party, a mustachioed, bow-tie-wearing young man sits down with his banjo and starts fingerpicking Oasis’s “Wonderwall.”

Contact the author at meclark13@wou.edu or on Twitter @WOU_CampusLife

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#BHM

By: Rachael Jackson
Staff Writer

Amongst playful banter of competition and gnashing on pizza crust, students gathered to learn about African American history.

The Black Student Union hosted the game of trivia and provided the refreshments. Students provided their brain power as they played through four rounds of 40 total questions.

One student, Keevontye Collier, business major and senior, was enticed by the games because of the importance of the history.

“It’s the history of my race, it’s important to learn how far we’ve come along. Knowing the history is the stepping stone into the future,” Collier remarked.

Want to test your own BHM knowledge? Here are some questions to get you started!

Contact the author at rjackson13@wou.edu or on Twitter @rachaelyjackson

1. True or False: Martin Luther King Jr. received his doctorate from Boston University?
a. True
b. False

2. In 1968, who was the first African-American congresswoman?
a. Shirley Chisholm
b. Alice Walker
c. Henrietta Lacks

3. Name this founder of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People:

(http://www.upenn.edu/gazette/0511/images/gaz_08_dubois.gif)

a. Frederick Douglass
b. W. E. B. Du Bois
c. George Crum

4. In what year did Black History Month become a month-long celebration?
a. 1946
b. 1986
c. 1976

5. This ground-breaking performer sang “Strange Fruit” in 1939. Who is she?

(http://cps-static.rovicorp.com/3/JPG_400/MI0001/325/MI0001325116.jpg)

a. Nina Simone
b. Billie Holiday
c. Rosa Parks

6. What bridge is tied to the events of Bloody Sunday in Selma, AL?
a. Alfred Washington
b. Ernie Davis
c. Edmund Pettus

7. Who are the two pictured that saluted to Black Power during the 1968 Olympics?

(https://i.guim.co.uk/img/static/sys-images/Guardian/About/General/2012/3/28/1332936684595/OLYMPICS-BLACK-POWER-SALU-008.jpg?w=1200&q=85&auto=format&sharp=10&s=096160e0cae7106eda4e94ad5f37a883)

a. Tommie Smith and John Carlos
b. William Carlos and Thomas Smith
c. Thomas Carlos and John Smith

8. What is the name of this university that was founded in 1866 to train black preachers?

(https://hbcustory.files.wordpress.com/2014/03/howard-university-founders-library-everett.jpg)

a. Wilson University
b. Western University
c. Howard University

Answers:
a
a
b
c
b
c
a
c

(http://www.iemoji.com)

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Obstructionism on both sides of the aisle

By: Conner Williams
Editor-in-Cheif

So, big bad Obama thinks he has the audacity to appoint a justice to the Supreme Court during an election year of all times? Who does he think he is; the President or something? Oh yeah…

As it turns out, the President doesn’t have the option to opt out of appointing a justice to the SCOTUS just because it’s an election year, as many GOP members of the Senate have claimed. Article 2, Section 2 of the Constitution states that the President “shall nominate, and by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, shall appoint…Judges of the Supreme Court.”

Interesting. Maybe I didn’t read it correctly, but I didn’t see anything that said the President may appoint judges, it said that he or she shall do so. There is also nothing in the Constitution that states the President may not appoint a justice during an election year, either. Which means Obama has to appoint a justice.

But Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and a large amount of Senate Republicans, including some presidential hopefuls, have publicly voiced that they will block any nomination that Obama proposes.

Many congressional members on the left side of the aisle have publicly condoned this act of “obstructionist politics,” saying that to block any nomination just for the sake of it is to sacrifice the entire system of checks and balances under which our democracy operates. The situation has led to an escalation of yet another feud between the two parties, and I, for one, am sick of it.

Firstly, the Democrats can stop pointing fingers. Many Senate Democrats refused to confirm any justice appointed by President Bush back in 2007, and Obama himself even voted to filibuster one of Bush’s nominations when he was in the Senate. So, what’s with all the outcry when the Republicans do it this time?

I’m a firm believer that much of the debates stirred up by our elected officials are simply to increasingly polarize the country and dig us deeper into the rigged two-party hole that we have created for ourselves. There is no compromise anymore; it’s all about public demonization over which side is trying to ruin the country more. Since when did our legislative system become a jousting match?

Contact the author at journaleditor@wou.edu or on Twitter @journalEIC

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Musings from a woman on the edge

ShiaColor

By: Katrina Penaflor 
Managing Editor

Shia LaBeouf is back at it with his performance art.

Remember his last performance, where he stayed in a theater and watched all his movies with a rotating crowd of fans? Silly question: of course you do.

Well, the newest one “#Elevate,” yes, the hashtag is to stay with the title, is the name of the actor/artist’s latest endeavor. LaBeouf stayed in an elevator on Feb. 19 for 24 hours at Oxford University with two other performers: Nastja Säde Rönkkö and Luke Turner.

It’s there so that visitors were welcomed to enter and exit the elevator to talk, question etc. with the three performance artists. But, really, I’m pretty much 100 percent positive everyone went to talk to just LaBeouf.

Oxford Union’s video description read, “Visitors will be able to join LaBeouf, Rönkkö & Turner inside the elevator during this time, and are invited to address the artists, the debating chamber, and the internet, so that their collective voices may form an extended, expansive, and egalitarian Oxford Union address.”

If I was there I would obviously have asked an endless stream of questions about the show “Even Stevens,” and the movie, and of course if he still talks to Beans. Oh, and how can I forget about my grade school television crush Twitty, LaBeouf’s best friend on the show.

Seriously, where is that guy now?

And what I’m really curious about is how La Beouf comes up with this stuff? Never would I ever consider filming myself in an elevator for twenty-four hours. Because one, I could never stand for that long, and two, my anxieties about who is actually entering the elevator would be through the roof.

What if a crazy person entered the elevator and tried to attack me? Or what if a person tried to carry on a conversation about something super boring, and I was literally bored to death during the 24-hour time period.
Whatever the actor/artist chooses to do next I’ll, of course, have to comment on it because the list of priorities for my column include: ridiculous purchases, stuff I find to be outrageous, and, of course, all things Shia La Beouf.

Contact the author at kpenaflor12@wou.edu or on Twitter @journalkatrina

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“Deadpool” is Dope

By: Ashton Newton
Staff Writer

Superheroes have been huge in movies lately. A little too huge, some might say, but they’ve been wildly successful nonetheless.

Marvel’s “Deadpool” brings a new kind of superhero to the big screen; One which comic lovers know as an “anti-hero.” For him, the lines between good and bad are very blurry. So, obviously, when I found out everyone’s favorite “Merc with a Mouth” was getting his own movie, I was skeptical and afraid we’d get a watered down version.

By far the best part of “Deadpool” was the R rating. If comic Deadpool is known for three things, it’s blood, language, and chimichangas. The R rating allowed all three of those to be expressed in full. There was no holding back in the language or the gore, so the comic Deadpool was really well portrayed on film.

Ryan Reynolds did an incredible job as Deadpool, he didn’t hold back at all in his portrayal of the character. Even under a thick red suit, Reynolds was able to bring so much emotion out of the character through his masterful use of dialogue.

“Deadpool” was also a chance that Fox took to poke fun at itself and the entire superhero genre. Deadpool makes fun of Ryan Reynolds’ “almost Deadpool” from “X-men Origins: Wolverine” and his Green Lantern. The movie also jokes about the low budget being the cause of the lack of X-Men characters and the very confusing X-Men Universe timeline.

The movie is a very easy to understand story of revenge. Set in the larger universe of the X-Men movies, the film seemed a little underwhelming in its small scale. I mean, there’s a guy named Apocalypse who’s about to try destroying the world in a few months. But at its core, “Deadpool” is a fun and entertaining debut of the beloved character on the big screen.

Comedy outweighed action in “Deadpool”. Whether it was breaking the fourth wall or one of his many one-liners, Deadpool had the audience laughing from start to finish. Comedy worked most of the time. As expected, a few one-liners fell flat, and some jokes were placed at awkward times, but “Deadpool” was still an extremely funny and entertaining movie.

A major weak point in the film was the side characters. Colossus and Negasonic Teenage Warhead played the role of the voices of reason for Deadpool and Colossus trying to recruit him to the X-Men. The characters were undeveloped and provided nothing but some extra muscle for Deadpool and a few X-Men jokes.

The action was very fast paced and fun. I found myself wanting more of it in slower moments. The R rating allowed the action to be filled with blood and gore. The film didn’t hold back at all when it came to blood or dismemberment, and it was fantastic.

Overall, Deadpool was a fun but small film that managed to bring a fan favorite character to the big screen while parodying the entire superhero genre. The film didn’t disappoint and left me wanting more.

Western Oregon University’s Land Acknowledgement
Western Oregon University in Monmouth, OR is located within the traditional homelands of the Luckiamute Band of Kalapuya. Following the Willamette Valley Treaty of 1855 (Kalapuya etc. Treaty), Kalapuya people were forcibly removed to reservations in Western Oregon. Today, living descendants of these people are a part of the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde Community of Oregon and the Confederated Tribes of the Siletz Indians.

Accessibility Public Records Privacy Student Consumer Information

WOU prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, sex, national or ethnic origin, age, religion, marital status, disability, veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity, and gender expression in all programs, activities and employment practices as required by Title IX, other applicable laws, and policies. Retaliation is prohibited by WOU.

Why not ask a Black person?

WAWA WAAM

Picking on the Banjo

#BHM

Obstructionism on both sides of the aisle

Musings from a woman on the edge

“Deadpool” is Dope

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