Jaime Lastimosa waits in the Malcolm X Plaza for his camera crew, San Francisco, Calif., Friday, Feb. 21, 2014. The cinema major and his classmates are going to do some filming.
Category Archives: Uncategorized
Chika’s Ukelele
Chika Ohata, who is a business major student at San Francisco State University, sits in front of the Cesar Chavez Student Center playing her ukulele, San Francisco, Calif, Sunday, Feb. 16, 2014. Ohata’s ukulele filled the empty air around campus on this sunny Sunday afternoon.
What Goes Up, Comes Down
What A Nice Day…
Students sit and talk on the phone, walk to and from the library, and spend time with friends outside the J Paul Leonard Library at San Francisco State University, San Francisco, Calif., Feb. 11, 2014. The fairly new campus library officially opened in April 2012.
I Live in the Library. not really, though.
Kill or Be Killed, Kinda Thing.
Zombie hunters at San Francisco State University congregate in from of the Ethnic Studies Building, San Francisco, Calif., Sunday, Feb. 16, 2014. The Ethnic Studies Building was established following the 1968 strike at San Francisco State University in which students of color and allies organized to demand an ethnic studies program that would include and reflect their lived experiences.
Muy Romanticos.
SFSU student, working class hero
A San Francisco State University student recalls the problems that appearances can create for a young black man following his negative encounter with campus police.
“I was pulled over by SF State police,” he says, “because they said I fit the description of an African American man that was going around robbing houses.” The eighteen year old freshman was on his way to school.
He continues, he found out the campus officers had lied trying to make him admit to something he never did.
Still, he shrugs it off. “I walked away with a smile,” he says, “because that shows me I’m better than them.”
Darnell Hillman, 18, is a young San Francisco native from the Sunset district. He is the second youngest in an extensive family of six brothers and seven sisters. Only a first year undergraduate student, he already has a sharp mind and is more aware of the world he lives in than most other people his age. As a youth of color, he has dealt with unpleasant experiences, such as the situation with campus security, that have tested his attitude and actions. Nonetheless, Hillman is a bright kid whose spirit conveys optimism and strength.
Anyone can pass Darnell and take him to be for what he looks: A six feet tall black male in an oversized grey shirt that more or less resembles a dress, two pierced ears, and sagging blue jeans that cling slightly below his waist with the help of a spiked studded belt. He looks like your average urban teenager.
Darnell, however, thinks that appearances are not relevant to who a person is. “We wear certain shoes so people can see. I don’t know if that puts you on a list somewhere,” he says.
He continues to express his discontent with the way the media connects self-esteem with appearance and fashion. “We’re getting blasted with advertisements every single day,” he says.
As a result, he argues, the public gets distracted from serious problems going on in the world. “You’re not really buying them,” he says about apparel and accessories, “you have to think of the countries they come from.”
Darnell cites the SFSU ethnic studies professor, Larry Salomon, 44, for his critical perception and knowledge expansion of the world. He speaks very fondly of his intro to ethnic studies professor for the inspiration he’s allowed him.
“I think it’s terrible,” Salomon jokes.
“He’s a smart kid,” he says about Darnell’s classroom interaction. “He had a lot of questions. He had more questions than answers, which is great.”
In addition, he remembers, “He had a lot of charisma, friendly guy. I gravitate towards those students who have good personalities.”
Outside the school environment, however, people often treat Darnell with fear and mistrust.
“Even when I’m on the M, on my way to school, people still grab their purses like I want to, you know? I got a job. I go to work every Monday, Wednesday and Friday,” he says.
This full time student works part-time under the supervision of a sheriff at the San Bruno jail maintaining a garden. “We harvest organic fruits and vegetables,” he says describing his job responsibilities. This produce gets distributed among those who have nothing to eat, like homeless people.
He proudly declares that the garden makes organic food, “No pesticides. None of that.” He shows his concern for the fact that healthy food is so unaffordable, “Organic food is more expensive than food with pesticides on it. We’re killing our own people. Disrespectful.”
Darnell’s job responsibilities reflect his drive to give back to the community.
Cathrine Sneed, 58, Special Assistant to Sheriff at the San Francisco county jail attests to this. Being Darnell’s supervisor, she says, “He wants to be an example.” Sneed explains that when inmates at the jail are released, they come back soon enough. She says Darnell wants to show people that they can overcome difficulties by staying disciplined and focused.
Darnell worries about global problems, naming globalization among those issues. “If you want to live now, you got to know what’s happening,” he says.
He keeps himself informed and open minded by befriending all types of people. He advises, “You should be around people who think like you, but at the same time you should be around people who don’t think like you.”
Orlando Schuler, 19, a peer student and friend, shares similar views and worries of the world with Darnell.
“He comes from a similar place I did,” Schuler says, “From a hood they would consider a ghetto.”
Their friendship is grounded in an intimate place. Schuler adds: “That’s not something you really have in common here on this campus. Most of these kids are not coming from that situation. For those of us who have experience, we click with each other in this crowd of others.”
Darnell has in fact experienced feelings of detachment from society. “I’ve been dealing with rejection my whole life,” he admits as he tells me that he was rejected once from his former high school, Academy of Arts and Sciences, before being accepted.
Likewise, he was denied enrollment from San Francisco State University three times before finally being admitted.
“I promised myself I wasn’t going to City,” he says, expressing his will to be more challenged at a California state institution, rather than at a community college.
His older brother, who is a pastor at Shekinah Christian Fellowship, a church in the city, was an influencing factor for his continuous attempt to get into SFSU. Darnell looks up to his brother because he is experienced and knowledgeable. His brother is very involved in the community and has shared with Darnell that people looking for positive change have to start at the community level and not depend on their government to see the changes they need.
Not only did he consider his older brother for not giving up on getting into SFSU, but his younger sibling, Emmanuel, 16. “He tells me he looks up to me.” Only two years apart from Manny, as he affectionately calls him, Darnell sees it as his responsibility to maintain a positive role model image for his youngest brother.
Darnell’s dad reached a final point in the rearing of children and to make it official, he named Manny, the youngest of six brothers and seven sisters, Emmanuel Jonathan That’s It Hillman.
That’s It, Darnell, and his two parents are the only ones from his big family who presently live together in the Sunset district.
He shows a sadness overtaking him as he communicates that he doesn’t know much about the current lives of his older brothers and sisters. “Some of them are in the military. Some of them I don’t even see, but we’re all here.”
Despite the displeasing experiences Darnell has encountered, he does not get discouraged from putting up a cheerful expression and a friendly attitude towards others. If it were any other person, they would walk the path of life with a pessimistic outlook, emanating hostility to people. Yet, Darnell says, “I don’t mind being underestimated, it gives me a chance to show people what I can really do.”
Free books! free coffee!! free tampons?!
By Nik Andrews, Alma Villegas, Anais Fuentes, Marie Romano
Women’s Center Profile
Students at the SFSU Women’s Center are not afraid to say the word vagina, and since it’s founding in 1973 the organization has continually strived for the empowerment of women.
This February and April, the Women’s Center is sponsoring the Vagina Monologues, an annual event that promotes awareness about violence against women and women’s sexuality. In effect, the event encourages women to lose the fear surrounding the word vagina.
Brianna García, 19, a student auditioning for the school’s Vagina Monologues, talks about her bringing up in a conservative home where mention about sex and words like vagina was not permitted and even reprimanded. She feels the opposite atmosphere at the Women’s Center and states, “Okay, I’m a woman, I belong here.” The play will be performed three days in April.
This past Friday, February 08, they had their Spring Mixer, another annual event, in which they networked and introduced their organization to students and other campus organizations. The mixer included food and drinks, a DJ, and the opportunity to win prizes.
The organization “began in 1973 as a direct product of the then snowballing women’s movement reaching the San Francisco State campus. There was an organization that was called the Independent Campus Women that began the process of creating the women’s center,” Perla Flores, 26, Program Director of the Women’s Center.
Crystal Mendoza, 23, office assistant for the center says, “This area is provided for a chill space or a study space. Just kind of like a drop-in center you know?” The center offers a library that offers numerous books for Women and Gender studies courses, a community oriented atmosphere providing women with free tampons and pads as well as fresh coffee every morning, a microwave to heat lunches, and couches to the SFSU student body.
almendra 