CSUN On Point

Following one of the most divisive political campaigns in modern American history, President Elect Donald Trump now faces scrutiny and resilience among segments of the population who opposed him from the start. Throughout the campaign, Trump targeted undocumented Latino immigrants, women, Muslims, and people with disabilities, and he now prepares to be president for the various groups of people he attacked.

“A lot of us are very confused and very scared about what’s going on,” said Dreamer and CSUN student Chris Farias.

“Because of Trump’s dangerous rhetoric, people feel they can say things that normally they would have been more in check about,” said CSUN Asian American Studies professor and EOP Faculty Mentor Coordinator Glenn Omatsu.

“Before I didn’t know about DACA [when I was growing up], I didn’t think I was going to go to school,” Farias said. “In the community that I’m from, you’re kind of taught you’re not going to make it… [DACA]… was my way out. I didn’t want to be different I wanted to be included.”

President Obama’s administration established the American immigration policy known as Deferred  Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, in 2012. It gives certain undocumented immigrants eligibility for a work permit and a renewal for a two-year period of deferred action from deportation.

The DREAM Act is a legislative proposal giving undocumented immigrants the opportunity to achieve legal status in the United States through academics or the military. Both of these programs have been fundamental in establishing the rights of thousands of undocumented immigrants.

“What we have to do is use inspiration from students themselves who are fighting,” Omatsu said. “In 1942, [when] Ralph Lazo was a high school student at Belmont high school, his Japanese-American friends were sent to concentration camps. He, as a Mexican American, felt it was wrong, but as … a high school student, he didn’t have enough power [to change policy], but what he did was on his own: he registered himself to be of Japanese ancestry, so he could go to the camps with his friends, because he felt it was an injustice. I think actions like that need to be encouraged in our society.”

California politicians are already laying the groundwork for combatting policies against immigration reform, environment protection, and workers’ rights being floated about Trump and his administration. California is home to a lot of undocumented immigrants, and many young immigrants are now worried about their status as students in the United States. Students who are protected by DACA and the DREAM Act have raised concerns about what could happen to their student status because of Trump’s proposal to combat all forms of immigration. On top of that, some students who may be protected by DACA and the DREAM Act are fearing the ramifications of Trump’s proposals on family members and friends, who aren’t protected by any of these legislations.

“This is our time to show the media and Trump that we are together, and we’ll fight for what we deserve,” Farias said. “It’s a bummer to be seen as a criminal, who doesn’t want to go to school, who isn’t intelligent, but we are and we really need to stick together.”

With pending questions and concerns surrounding president-elect Trump and his immigration policies and their effect on DACA, the DREAM Act, and non-protected immigrants alike, students are looking for ways they can defend these policies that have protected them from being deported.

Anchor: Alicia Dieguez

Moderator: Nick Torres

Producer: Susana Guzman

Social Media Editor: Jaclyn Wawee

Reporters:  Alicia Dieguez, Thomas Gallegos, Ebony Hardiman, Ke-Alani Sarmiento, Jaclyn Wawee

More women are participating in sports today, from youth to pro athletics, but you wouldn’t exactly know that by watching television. A USC study shows that in 1989, five percent of television news media covered female athletics, but in 2014 the percentage had decreased to three percent, and the representation of women in sports media lacks substance as well.

“The number of girls or women [who are] participating in sports in the United States is some 40 percent,” said CSUN Professor of Kinesiology Chris Bolsmann, “so if we’ve got only four percent coverage, for me it suggests what is taking place is just a replication of inequality within society. Sport is an interesting vehicle or lense to look at society. If we look at the patriarchal nature of our society, and more recently the misogynistic nature of our society, that is a reflection of that more generally.”

Title IX is the federal law within the Education Act of 1972 that gave way for equal opportunity, protection from discrimination based on sex, and protection of benefits based on sex. Since its passage, the United States has seen a rapid increase in women’s participation in sports. That increase in women’s participation in sports, from the youth level to pro, hasn’t led to an increase in women’s sports coverage, but it has been extremely beneficial for giving opportunities to women within athletics within the last 40 years.

“Sometimes change requires law, and sometimes change requires some enforcement,” said CSUN’s Associate Athletics Director of Marketing Dawn Ellerbe,” because even now, in 2016, every university, high school, and junior high hasn’t embraced the equal play for women. Without [Title IX], I don’t think we would have seen the rise in women’s sports.”

 The future of women’s sports might very well be the inclusion and integration of the best women within athletics competing with and against men. From real life representations like Little League World Series sensation Mo’ne Davis, to dramatized versions for Hollywood like Fox’s Pitch, maybe more and more women within predominantly male sports will become more accepted.

“The question we should possibly be asking is, ‘Why do we have gendered sports in the first place?’” Bolsmann asked. “Should we not be talking about having not-gendered sports, so if somebody is good enough, without respect to if they are male or female, they can play on a team? If we have a level playing field of some sorts and open it up to competition on the basis of being a human, rather than being a man or a women, we could move into some interesting spaces and interesting discussions more generally.”

Moderator: Alicia Dieguez

Producer: Susana Guzman

Anchor: Jackie Wawee

Social Media Editor: Nick Torres

Reporters:  Alicia Dieguez, Thomas Gallegos, Susana Guzman, Ebony Hardiman, Ke-Alani Sarmiento, Nick Torres and Jackie Wawee

Recently, incidents of police officers shooting and killing African-Americans have gained more attention in the media.

A new study shows a relationship between racial bias and the police use of excessive force against people of color. The study found that police are more likely to use handcuffs, draw their weapons, and use pepper spray or their baton when dealing with people of color.

New technology such as body cameras and smartphones mean more and more officer-involved shootings are being recorded and posted on social media by witnesses. Although police brutality is not a new phenomenon, the coverage by both professional and citizen journalists has made it more prominent. Some hope this coverage will help lessen the violence, but others in the African-American community question the effectiveness of body cams.

“I don’t think it’ll make a difference,” screenwriter and actor Kyle Smith said. “Cops are killing innocent blacks on camera, and getting away with it.”

The Washington Post reports that 991 people were shot by police officers in 2015, but according to data collected by an Ohio researcher, only 26 officers have been convicted of murder or manslaughter.

“As of right now [the new technology] is not working, because even when they’re catching these assassinations and murders on camera, nothing is happening to the cops,” CSUN Africana Studies Professor Aimee Glocke said.

The problem now may be whether or not the media are accurately reporting and portraying these situations, and whether their coverage could actually be helping to perpetuate the violence.

In the aftermath of the Trayvon Martin shooting, #BlackLivesMatter arose as a popular hashtag on Twitter to protest the violence that plagued the African American community. Soon the hashtag evolved into an organization geared toward ending the injustice of police brutality. But the attacks on the community have not stopped, and some feel the community and individuals continue to be targeted due to racism and unconscious bias.

“My interaction with the police has absolutely 100 percent always been different from my peers around me,” CSUN’s Black Student Union President Robert T. Wilson III said. “Personally, it would be nice to not have to feel scared; it would be nice to not feel nervous when interacting with the police, and I could be held accountable [only] for the things I do, or the things I do not do.”

The shootings of Trayvon Martin in Florida in 2012, and Michael Brown in Missouri in 2014, generated an emotional response because they were young men, both under the age of 18.

“I’m a black mother of a 33-year-old black male and I’m constantly holding my breath,” CSUN Africana Studies Professor Monica Turner said. “There’re no words to describe that kind of torment: when you think about a child that you have loved and nurtured and cared for, [and] someone shooting them down like an animal in cold blood. There’s nothing to describe what that feels like. I really feel terrorized.”

Many politicians and law enforcement experts are calling for a closer examination of police training methods.

“’Just being black’: most police officers will say that’s a reason for excessive force,” Glocke said. “I know there’s a standard, and there’s supposed to be this whole judgement of when you use force, [but] many police officers don’t care. They will shoot first, and ask questions later.”

To view the complete interview with Robert Wilson III, President of the Black Student Union at CSUN, please click here.

Moderator: Thomas Gallegos

Anchor: Ke-Alani Sarmiento

Producer: Alicia Dieguez

Social Media Editors: Nick Torres and Jackie Wawee

Reporters: Alicia Dieguez, Thomas Gallegos, Susana Guzman, Ebony Hardiman, Ke-Alani Sarmiento, Nick Torres and Jackie Wawee

California voters face an important decision in this upcoming November ballot, about making marijuana legal for recreation use.

Prop 64, also known as the Adult Use of Marijuana Act, will let Californians decide whether to allow individuals 21 years or older possess up to 28.5 grams of marijuana for legal use.

The National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws says four states: Colorado, Washington, Alaska and Oregon, have legalized the use of recreational marijuana without any major problems, while other states have legalized it for medical use.

The initiative would create a 15% excise tax on the retail price of recreational marijuana. “The government of California would rake in a substantial amount of revenue from that,” said CSUN economics professor Dennis Halcoussis. The projected revenue from legalization is expected to exceed $1 billion.

Marijuana retailers also expect to make money from the new law. “I think [business] is going to be even better,” said Garden Secrets Medical Marijuana Dispensary owner Tommy Amady.

According to the Los Angeles Times, the revenue that will come from taxes will be used for substance abuse education and treatment programs, environmental improvement, and more.

“Our biggest win, that I think is unprecedented compared to all the others states, is we have a $50 million reinvestment fund that will go to communities previously harmed by the War on Drugs,” said Campaign Program Associate for Californians for Responsible Marijuana Reform, Leslie Otañez.

Voters will have their opportunity to cast their vote on November 8, and decide whether they are ready for a change in the marijuana industry.

Moderator: Thomas Gallegos

Anchor: Jackie Wawee

Producer: Susana Guzman

Social Media: Alicia Dieguez and Ke-Alani Sarmiento

Reporters: Alicia Dieguez, Thomas Gallegos, Ke-Alani Sarmiento, Nicholas Torres and Jackie Wawee