What Queen Latifah means to us

by Selena Williams

She’s big and bossy. And what we like most about her is how she knows how to relate to people — with her touch, her eyes, her music.

To all of us in West Oakland, she’s more than glitter, she’s real.

She speaks her mind. For instance, she supports gays and lesbians, and rode in a pride parade. In her hometown in New Jersey, she offers scholarships to minority students in honor of her brother who died in a motorcycle accident.

“She is like a song that never gets old, like Oprah,” said Janaya Andrews, a sophomore at McClymonds.

She’s been around a long time. Queen Latifah burst onto the scene in 1989, one of three hip-hop artists to receive an Academy Award nomination in an acting category.

From her rap origins, she evolved into an actress, jazz singer and icon of classic good taste, without ever losing her edge. “I’m not that into trends,” she says, for starters. “I do my thing.”

Unlike Wendy Williams and Oprah, she adds comedy and originality to her show.

She’s also a plus-size spokesperson for CoverGirl cosmetics, Curvation ladies underwear, Pizza Hut and Jenny Craig. She represents her own line of cosmetics for women of color with CoverGirl Queen Collection.  Latifah changed the game, becoming a role model  for Black girls in West Oakland.

For those of us who don’t look like Britney Spears or Madonna, Latifah was the artist to follow and relate to.  Black women were no longer  eye-candy in hip-hop or rap videos: they took control of the mic.  Few artists have had a bigger impact on West Oakland youth.

Now Queen Latifah returns to daytime television with a new talk show.

Co-produced by the hip Will Smith, through his production company Overbrook Entertainment, it features the  usual celebrity interviews, hot topics and pop culture tropes and top tier musical acts.

For me, Queen Latifah is an idol who shows me that you can be famous as a musician and successful as a businesswoman.

“Griots” project comes to McClymonds

by Jaden Nixon

The “Griots” project made a powerful impact at McClymonds.

“It gave us insight into how Oakland teens think,” said Kaya LaForte, a freshman who saw the exhibit late last month.

“The Griots of Oakland” is the name of a book and an oral history project by five young black men who collected stories of growing up Black in Oakland in interviews with 100 Black  men aged 6 to 24. ‘Griots’ is a West-African word that means storyteller.

“It should be made for the whole school and all of Oakland to see,” said Joseph Sanford, a senior. “It makes me remember about the ‘hood, and what people don’t know about living in a different community and what we do to make it out.”

The project was launched by African American Male Achievement (AAMA), which works to empower young black males, and Alameda Health Care Services Agency created a project to allow young African American males to share their personal experiences. They worked with Story for All to recruit five young men from the ages of 14 to 18 to collect stories.

The young men were taught African American and Oakland history, as well as videography, by the non-profit.

With video cameras and 30 interview questions, the young men hit the streets, interviewed teens at school and captured on video the voices and thoughts of over 100 African American males from the ages of 6 to 24.

Interview questions ranged from “What did you eat for breakfast?” to “What is it like being a young African American man in Oakland?” The answers were sometimes alarming. While nearly 79 percent of boys under 13 said that it was good to be a young black male, 83 percent of those over 13 said that it was hard.

The exhibit at McClymonds included photos, quotes and video clips from the interviews. A book was also published.

However, for some, it is just a reminder of the ordinary. “I’ve seen people get shot. When I see this, I don’t feel anything new,” said McClymonds sophomore Billy Giddens. ” I just go on to the next day.”

Keeping the peace at McClymonds: Peacemakers in the classrooms and halls

by Janaya Andrews

It is a tough third period English class; there is loud bantering, students jumping out of their seats. Sitting quietly in the back, Rhonda Jones stands up and walks around the room calmly. She puts an arm over the shoulder of a particularly irate 9-grader, who is disrupting the class.

“What’s bothering you today and how can I help?” she says. She sounds stern, but her gentle spirit somehow calms the student and redirects his focus to academics.

Jones is a Peacemaker, one of seven at McClymonds High School this year. The program, new to McClymonds, focuses primarily on the needs of 30 students who are on probation, helping them adjust, monitoring their ups and downs, monitoring attendance, assisting them as mentors and providing academic support. The program also has an impact on school culture. The group includes Jones, John Ivy, coach Michael Peters, Hank Roberts and Keith Walters, site manager. It is funded through a grant by Alameda County Probation Department.

“They’re supposed to bring extra support for our neediest kids,” said assistant principal Dinora Castro. “They’re still in the process of structuring and organizing. It’s still a new program.”

“We put kids first,” said Walters about the program. “The  reason  we  wanted  to  come  here  is  because there was  a  high number of  students on  probation who need mentoring in school and after school mentoring and enrichment.”

Peacemakers also  provides support in the classroom, crowd control and academic support. “We  respond  to  the  students in a calm professional, enlightening, proactive manner,” he said.

Students have noticed the impact of Peacemakers. “Some like the fact that they’re there. Those who don’t enjoy acting out,” said Carliss Le Roy, curriculum adviser. “I guess people are more quiet,” said senior Ibraheem Muhammad. “In rowdy classes, you need to be on your best behavior.”

Behavior changes do occur, said Peacemakers’ Hank Roberts. He repeats what he says to students with whom he works. “I say simply, ‘This is where the change begins.'”

Discrimination against Emo as hateful as any bias

Opinion piece by Janaya Andrews People say that we are the most dark-spirited of all “others” and treat us accordingly, as if we were invisible. The term “emo” originated as an insult. Not as an identifier. It’s an abbreviation for a type of music known as “emotive hardcore,” which has been described by some as “punk music on estrogen.” Bands like Five Finger Death Punch, Escape the Fate, Bullet for My Valentine, and Black Veil Brides created the sounds of the latest emo revival with lyrics like “You take my sanity, I’ll take the pain.” Though kids who belong to the Emo counterculture can be identified by dark clothes, piercings, and black nail polish, an Emo is more of a relationship to music and “otherness,” or being an outsider. Because we wear a lot of black and listen to unpopular music, such as rock, heavy metal, hard-core, and Scree-mo, other people assume that we are radically different; that we cut ourselves and are suicidal. “The songs are yen-y and sad, which kind of fits into the way teenagers feel,” says Rebecca “Kiki” Weingarten, M.Sc.Ed, MFA, Parenting Coach and Co-Founder of Daily Life Consulting.  I believe that we are the same and shouldn’t be treated differently.  Emos are like Goths, only we are a lot less “dark” and much more “Harry Potter” and like to be passionate to others.  We also try to reach out to those who are sometimes left out, just need comfort, or try to hide their crying. However, there’s been an uproar against Emos.  In Mexico there have anti-Emo rallies and Emo beat downs.  In England, police in Manchester now label attacks aginst Goths, Emos, punks and metallers as “hate crimes.” The move was a response to the 2007 killing of Sophie Lancaster was attacked by a mob for being a Goth. Only 20, she and her boyfriend were brutally beaten as they walked home. In Iraq, there was a string of homicides last March against Iraqi teenage boys who dressed in a Westernized emo style. In February 2012, the Baghdad Morality Police published a statement criticizing emo teens for wearing “strange, tight clothes with pictures of skulls on them,” and “rings in their noses and tongues.” The statement condemned emo as Satanic. In my opinion,  we  are all not to  be  disliked  for  who  we  are  but  to  be loved  inside  and  out.  So, please stop the snide remarks about Emos.  Aren’t we more tolerant here at McClymonds and in Oakland, California?