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Sanaa Scott-Wheeler

Staff Writer

On November 28, white-black biracial rapper Joyner Lucas released a music video for a song entitled “I’m Not Racist”.

On December 1, three days after the songs release, the video had 406K likes, 11K dislikes and 5M views. Why all the attention?

The song is told  from the perspective of two men, one white and one black. In the song, the phrase “I’m not racist” is repeated by both men (although they are both voiced by Joyner Lucas) while they both tell their opinions about the other race.

After the song dropped, countless students at Science Leadership Academy took to social media platforms to express their reactions. Several people had reposted the link to the song on social media platforms, with captions reading “SHOOK” or only flame emojis.

Many students  were uncomfortable with the white man’s verse.

“The song made me uncomfortable, but in a necessary way, ” said Sophomore Maren Lamb, who is white. “There are a lot of excuses going around, i’ve heard the phrase “I’m not racist” so many times. A white person who says the N word, can find any reason to not recognize the issue.”

The video walks a careful middle ground, since Joyner-Lucas is technically the voice of the white character. That man mouths the following words:

“I’m not racist, my sister’s boyfriend’s black

I’m not racist, my sister-in-law’s baby cousin Tracy

Got a brother and his girlfriend’s black”

For me personally, the passion in his words made me want to listen to what he was saying even though I did not agree with most of the things that were said. That’s what Joyner Lucas did well, he brought both sides to people’s attention, and people did not have to solve a puzzle to get the meaning.

Many students thought the video was interesting for the sole fact that there was an unpopular opinion explained.

When asked what stood out to her in this song, white and puerto rican, Mia Concepcion related the song to her own family talking about how people act on certain things but never acknowledge the things that may factor into why they act that way.

“Part of my family is caucasian, but no one has ever voiced their ethnicity, they have the privilege so they don’t feel like they have to say anything about it,”

“Neo-liberals tend to not even voice what the other side is,” said Lamb.

The video as a whole left me wanting more, there was not enough on the black man’s part in my opinion I felt like the white man came at the black man’s neck and he sat and took the hate.  There are some things in the song that are hard to explain but people from the same background will understand, so maybe having the black man say less was an artistic choice.

There were  things said in the song that people from the same ethnic background will understand. “In my opinion, I feel like they don’t know where the word comes from and they use it to just be down with everyone” said Senior Deja Harrison, who is Black.

“I feel like we use the word for empowerment, and it’s our word now, the fact that white people are still saying that is disrespectful and kind of takes people back to that time when everything was unequal, I feel like that time is still alive. Enough change hasn’t happened for everybody to be able to say that word.”

“We shouldn’t say it but we do, and that just what it is

But that don’t mean that you can say it just ’cause you got n**** friends”

A line from the black man’s character.

The song had some political references to modern controversial topics, including Colin Kaepernick:

” N****s kneelin’ on the field, that’s a flag down.

How dare you try to make demands for this money?

You gon’ show us some respect, you gon’ stand for this country,n*****!”

said by the white man.

The song also voiced stereotypes that have been made about black people:

“But you’re lazy as f*** and “you’d rather sell drugs than get a job and be straight and then you turn around and complain about the poverty rate”

said by the white man’s character.

As I talked to multiple students, no one beat around the bush on the topic, which was refreshing.  

“He was trying to make the song accessible,” said Sophomore Thea Risher, who is White. “There were some points in both arguments that were valid, but others that were wrong.”

The way the video ended, with the two men hugging made me uneasy only because it was clear everything that was said made the two men mad. To “hug it out” it doesn’t feel genuine to me. It does seem like an important symbol for brotherly love but I feel like there was a better way to portray the message that they get along.

 

by Meymey Seng

Staff Writer 

Justice League is the latest movie that can claim the “one most expensive to produce” title, with the heaping total of 300 million dollars. What does this investment get the viewer? Supervillain Steppenwolf and his group of parademons plan on taking over the world. Even though Superman is no longer alive, Batman decides to recruit a team to prevent the villain from succeeding.

Who would Bruce Wayne choose to tackle this mission? First, he went to Diana Prince, or Wonder Woman. Having been raised on an island filled with powerful women warriors, she has learned impeccable fighting skills. Along with that, she has a very useful tool called the lasso of truth, which when wrapped around a person, would force them to blurt out the truth.

 

Batman himself actually has no superhuman abilities but is clever, strong, and is very rich. Together, the two looked for other people to join them.

 

When Batman first went to recruit the Barry Allen, or called the Flash, Allen denied having abilities, since it is something that is hidden. Batman revealed himself by throwing a batarang (Batman boomerang) at him, causing the Flash’s reflexes to catch it in lightning speed. Flash then is immediately on board, not even fully knowing what he just became a part of.

 

Afterwards, Batman recruited Aquaman who is able to control water and communicate with underwater creatures. Lastly, Wonder Woman was able to convince Cyborg to join, who is very skilled with technology, after persuading him to take advantage of his abilities.

 

Before watching Justice League, the only other DC film that I’ve watched is the movie Wonder Woman. That movie, was amazing, so my expectations for Justice League was set high — but I was walking in without much basis for comparison.

 

Without knowing much about the other characters in the Justice League, I was still able to understand what each character is capable of, which means that the writers did well in explaining the roles.

 

Although, at certain points of the movie, there was a lot going on in some scenes which made the understanding of the movie difficult to follow. For example, there was a fight scene with characters and objects that were not introduced yet.

 

At the start of the movie, there is a scene with Superman and how he was killed. It seemed strange to me that there was such a big focus on Superman. (Warning, spoilers ahead!)

 

When he was revived from the dead, he was very out of place and confused, wanting to kill everyone in the Justice League. With one smack he was able to push Wonder Woman very far and was able to defeat the rest of the group so easily. This surprised me because they should be just as strong as he is, especially since it was five against one.

 

Aside from that, the other action scenes were very captivating. For example, watching Wonder Woman fight was a highlight for me, I just thought it was shot nicely. Towards the end of the movie — surprise, surprise — they were able to defeat Steppenwolf, making him so weak that his army of parademons killed him.

 

Overall, even though some aspects of this movie was confusing or not as memorable, I still think it was a great watch.

Eric Valenti

Staff Writer 

 

Do you like to act? Do you know what improv is? If you don’t, there’s a new club that will show you.

 

Improv club was formed by four teachers: Counseling Intern Tess Libersohn, Physics, and Astronomy teacher BJ Enzweiler, History teacher Daniel Symonds and Digital Video teacher Anna Walker Roberts.

 

Ms. Libersohn is the teacher who really wanted to make the club a reality.

 

“As soon as I knew I would be interning at SLA, I thought about ways I could connect with students outside of the counseling office. Improv and counseling go quite well together (both are about validating others and witnessing what emotions are present), so it made sense to start a club. I was thrilled to find out that other teachers (Mr. Symonds, Ms. Walker-Roberts, Mr. Enzweiler) have improv experience and wanted to join.” Ms. Liebersohn stated.

 

Improv is a type of comedic theatre, where the actors and the performance are not planned or scripted, everything is made up on the spot and it’s up to you and your fellow performers to keep the scene moving and entertaining.

 

Though most of the teachers and students see Ms. Libersohn as the leader of the club, Ms. Walker-Roberts named another teacher as the origin of the plan.

 

“Really this was Symonds’ idea and I just jumped on board and have helped out.  I did have an improv team at another school I taught at and think it’s great for high schoolers!”

 

Though the club doesn’t know who or what exactly got the group to form and they do have a strong team.

 

The club’s participants vary week to week. , Sometimes there are only four people in a meeting and sometimes there are twelve people — but that’s what exciting about improv, everything that happens is a surprise.

 

When they meet on  Tuesdays after school in the drama studio, they start with a few stretches. Then they immediately get into the games. The games differ for every meeting of the club but they usually focus on a new skill about improv and acting.

 

Ms. Libersohn talked about her favorite game and the benefit.

 

‘My favorite is one called Five Things, where each person is given five things to come up with, like “Name five things an angry lifeguard would say!” Then we move into longer exercises that practice specific skills, like agreement, setting descriptions, or building character relationships. For example, there are an exercise where two people inhabit characters who work together to come up with the story of how they met, all made up on the spot. There are a lot of smiles and laughs throughout the whole thing.”

 

The club gives off an energy that says “It’s okay to mess up, just have fun,” which is great when there are benchmarks or tests coming up. The teachers want this group to be a place where kids can not only learn new acting skills but be able to express themselves as well.

 

“You get to blow off some steam, everyone gets to have fun, find new friends and everyone is able to connect…it’s not what I thought it would be,” said Senior Keith Hodge. “When you’re in improv club you have to think on your feet and it’s really great that everyone is friendly and intelligent.”

 

The club’s teachers all have past improv or some sort of acting experience, no matter your level of acting experience, the club can help in teaching new and spontaneous skills.

 

“I think all students who are involved will grow as people by doing improv and it helps to de-stigmatize failure.  People fail all the time in improv and do scenes that don’t work or aren’t funny. You learn to accept failure as part of the process.  With improv, there are no time to pre-plan and when everything is happening on its feet it doesn’t all work out.” Ms. Walker Roberts stated.

 

“The idea of being able to do more than what’s expected, the opportunity for students to grow is the benefit to the community.” Mr. Enzweiler stated.

 

According to Mr. Symonds the club would like to perform sometime in the future. However they are undecided about who or when they will perform. The club hopes to continue for years to come.

 

Naima DeBrest

Staff Writer 

There is a new wave of music, food, and life quickly moving into Philadelphia and we need to embrace it. Hip new restaurants and boutique popping up all over the city, not to mention the countless apartment buildings and condominiums that are being built right under our noses. The object has taken the bulk of the renovations is nightlife.

 

There is always a festival going on, or a star coming to town. However, the real place to be it Warmdaddy’s Restaurant located on Columbus Boulevard. They have been serving soul food and brunch along with live music since 1995. The restaurant has been a favorite of my family’s and I have spent countless dinners there enjoying the atmosphere.

 

In this past year, Warmdaddy’s has decided to take there live entertainment scene to another level. They have allowed the husband and wife duo “Kindred the Family Soul” host events where they interview artist. Kindred the Family Soul is a pretty prominent R&B group in the black community, they have come out with hits like Far Away and Stars.

 

There events have drawn tremendous crowds into the restaurant to the point of standing room only and they have gained a huge following on facebook for live streaming the events. I had the pleasure of attending one of these “Kindred Presents” events. The special guest was none other than the outstanding and outspoken attorney and liberal political commentator for CNN, Angela Rye and the three time Grammy Award winning singer and Philadelphia native Jill Scott.

 

I also had the honor of interviewing the curators and members of “Kindred the Family Soul”, Mr. Fatin Dantzler and Aja Graydon to get a better view of how they are feeling about their journey with this program.

 

Q: When did you start the events at Warmdaddy’s?

A: We started Kindred presents in February of 2017 after having done one episode in late 2015 it took us nearly a year and a half to get back on the initial idea.

Q: Who is your one dream guest to have at one of the events?

A: The Obama’s would be the dream guest at this time since you can’t bring folks back from the dead to interview ie Prince,Michael Jackson or James Brown.

Q: Why are these types of events important?

A: Platforms for black artist and influential people are always important because there are far too few of them that actually represent us well to our core audience. We are happy to be one of those vehicles and pray that we are able to sustain this for along time.

Q: What was an unexpected lesson you learned from your guests this season?

A: The biggest lesson we have learned from our guest this season is how similar most creative peoples journeys are although people come from different places a lot of familiar ups and downs are the makeup of great stories that produce great people.

Q: What are the different ways young people can find success in the music industry they may not have thought about?

A: Young people start where you are the people around you are your greatest resource.So collaborate and work with those who are closest to you to hone and nurture your skills first and then branch out to like minded individuals in other places but you can’t skip the groundwork it must be in your heart and you must be willing to do the uncomfortable stuff as well as the fun stuff.

 

As you can see this event has allowed the nightlife to prosper. This little restaurant has brought  so many people together to enjoy wholesome entertainments. These are the relics that we need to keep alive in Philadelphia so that artist always have a platform to express themselves. The simple human interaction that the audience experiences is a vital and healthy part of life. So if you can I suggest that you support the “Kindred Presents” program by either attending an event or watching in Facebook live so Philadelphia knows that its citizen appreciates and enjoy their artistic efforts.