Naked 15

Naked

15th Edition

Stripping Away the Layers

As the family of God, Crosspoint Church exists to

create a “Crosspoint” between man and God, seek

to discover our purpose for God, and impact the

world with the love of God.

We believes the growth of a Christian is not

spontaneous but needs to be encouraged and

shaped. We intend one to progress from one stage

to another towards our ultimate goal: making

disciples of Jesus Christ.

Join our services and activities online every Sunday

at youtube.com/crosspointchurch

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Naked Magazine

15th Edition

Letter from the Editor

We are all probably sick of hearing that 2020

was an unprecedented year. As much as I hate to

admit it, it was. Something wild happened every

month, yet whatever it was, wasn’t surprising.

Toilet paper hoarding. The sky turned orange.

Murder Hornets.

My time on the magazine was definitely

unprecedented. I decided to take this class for

fun and to get the experience needed for my

professional career. I have never worked in a

magazine setting before, and this was definitely

an experience.

Everyone worked so hard to make their stories

perfect. We can’t wait to share them with all of

you.

Thank you to this year‘s sponsors, advertisers

and Las Positas College for supporting and

encouraging the arts in this virtual space. A huge

thank you to the LPC Foundation for providing

so much support this year — and always. Most

importantly, thank you to the advisers, the

editorial board, our design mentor, and the

staff, all of whom made this magazine happen

and helped me see the light at the end of the

tunnel.

I hope you continue to read Naked 15 and all

of the amazing work that is in it.

Kirstie Burgess

Managing Editor

Emily Forschen

Editor-in-Chief

Naked Staff

Kirstie Burgess

Managing Editor

Nathan Canilao

Features Editor

Tiffany Summers-Johnson

Visuals Manager

Brandon Byrne

PR Manager

Brittany Bracy

Staff Writer

Cydney Macon

Staff Writer

Gail Gagnon

Staff Writer

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The Las Positas College Foundation

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Jenny Johnson

Melissa Korber

Advisor

Marcus Thompson

Advisor

IV 1

Jennifer Snook

Designer

Naked Magazine

15th Edition

Table of Contents

Trūksta žodžių

Di Makapagsalita

喋れない

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अवाक

பேச்சில்லாத

Tongbûn

Bez słów

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ನಾಲಿಗೆ ಕಟ್ಟಲಾಗಿದೆ

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Везаног језика

Con la lengua atada

The Fight for Follicles

Page 6

Strained brains,

broken systems

Page 12

The making of a local

activist

Page 17

Anti-Blackness in

Asian communities

need to be addressed

Page 20

Tongue-Tied

Page 22

Making the

Dreamworks

Page 26

2 3

Naked Magazine

15th Edition

Table of Contents

Mission Statement

Naked Magazine is a

student-run and editorially

independent magazine. Its

mission is to uncover the lives

of students at Las Positas

College by stripping away

the layers and uncovering

the Naked truth. The views

expressed by the individual

writer ore artist are not

considered to be the views

of the publication’s staff,

the editorial board, the

associated students, the

college administration, or the

board of trustees.

No Fairy Godmothers

Page 28

A tale of two

pandemics

Page 32

The fear stays with

me

Page 34

College behind Costco

proves its worth

during troubling year

Page 40

Elvis Presley, biopics

and the importance

of historicity

Page 44

© 2021

4 5

Naked Magazine

15th Edition

A Fight for Follicles

The centuries-long movement to root out Black hair

discrimination continues

Brittany Bracy

Matthew Cherry was a football player. He

spent three years playing wide receiver for

the University of Akron before pursuing his NFL

dreams. He never played a snap in the NFL. But

he was in training camp or on the practice squad

for four teams before eventually hanging up the

cleats.

He is now an Oscar winner. Why you ask?

Because his animated short film told the story

of a struggle that has been long overlooked.

Not only did it win for Best Animated Short at

the 2020 Academy Awards, it will soon be an

animated series on HBO Max.

Cherry raised more than $300,000 through

crowdfunding, then a record on Kickstarter

for funds raised for a short film, because the

message behind the film he wanted to direct

touched so many people. His film is seven

minutes of adorable. Its infectious warmth

touches on fatherhood, family, self-esteem and

identity.

But at the root of it all is hair. Specifically,

Black hair. It’s called “Hair Love.”

“Hopefully we are able to just normalize our

hair,” Cherry explained in an interview with CBS

This Morning in January 2020. “It shouldn’t be a

conversation. We should be able to wear it how

it grows out of our head just like anybody else.”

It’s just hair, right? Not for Black people. Not

for many people of color whose texture and

cultural styles are met retribution.

Hair discrimination is one of the more

underrated manifestations of systemic racism

in America. Martin Luther King Jr. famously

dreamed of a day when people would be judged

for the content of their character and not the

color of the skin. But many have also been

judged by their hair. It impacts women the

most.

It’s gotten to a point where hair has needed

and is getting legal protection.

In July 2019, Governor Gavin Newsom signed

the CROWN Act into law, making California the

first state to legally prevent the enforcement

of grooming policies that negatively and

disproportionately impact people of color.

Fittingly, Newsom signed it the day before

Independence Day — because are you really free

6 7

if you can’t control your own hair?

New York followed 12 days later, then

New Jersey, then Maryland, then Virginia,

then Colorado, then Washington State.

Then, in September of 2020, the House of

Representatives passed a federal version of the

CROWN Act. It was still sitting in the Senate

when Joe Biden was inaugurated as the 46th

president.

While it waits on its fate in the Senate, 43

states are still allowed to discriminate based on

hair.

The relevance of this movement gained even

more steam during the racial reckoning America

experienced in the summer of 2020 which is still

continuing.

It became all the rage for companies,

celebrity figures and agencies to acknowledge

the Black experience was one of oppression

and discrimination in America, a revelation

underscored by the deaths of Black people

at the hands of police. This was followed by

pledges to be part of ending such practices

against Blacks and people of color.

One way, a relatively simple one, is to

begin undoing these deep-seated systems of

oppression and address hair discrimination.

Such is the plea of the CROWN Coalition, which

sparked the fight to end hair discrimination with

the support of Dove, the National Urban League

and the Western Center of Law and Poverty.

The CROWN Research Study by Dove found

that African American women face the highest

instances of hair discrimination with a higher

likelihood to be sent home from the workplace

because of their hair. They founded the CROWN

Act — CROWN stands for Creating a Respectful

and Open World for Natural Hair — turned the

movement up a notch.

Now it’s a, well, mane issue.

To be sure, this is not a new thing. Black

hair has been in the crosshairs of bigotry and

prejudice for centuries.

“Presumably the slave traders shaved

the heads of their new slaves for what they

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15th Edition

James Brown

considered sanitary reasons,” Ayana Bird and

Lori Tharps wrote in their 2001 book “Hair

Story: Untangling the Roots of Black Hair in

America,” “But the effect was much more

insidious. The shaved head was the first step

the Europeans took to erase the slave’s culture

and alter the relationship between the African

and his or her hair. Separating individuals from

family and community on the slave ships during

the middle passage furthered their alienation

from everything they had ever known. Arriving

without their signature hairstyles, Mandingos,

Fulanis, Ibos, and Ashantis entered the New

World, just as the Europeans intended, like

anonymous chattel.”

Thus began the discriminatory precedents set

up against natural Black hair.

African people commonly used protective

hairstyles such as box braids and bantu knots;

Black hair is celebrated throughout the African

diaspora. It is a unique characteristic of Black

people and used as a form of communication

and self-expression. There is also practicality to

many popular cultural styles.

Bantu knots, a protective style in which the

hair is sectioned off, knotted and twisted, were

created by the Zulu people in South Africa.

Another popular protective hairstyle, cornrows,

got its name from its resemblance to cornfields.

Senegalese people used them, and twists,

to keep their hair healthy, moisturized and

manageable. These practices came to America

with Black people.

“Slaves wore cornrows not only as an homage

to where they had come from,” as stated in

the article “A Visual History of Iconic Black

Hairstyles” on history.com. “But also as a

practical way to wear one’s hair during long

labored hours.”

In West African societies, braids were symbolic

of rank, marital status, age and religion.

In 1786 during slavery, Louisiana women were

ordered to cover their hair. Then Gov. Esteban

Rodriguez Miro of Louisiana and Florida passed

the Tignon law that required Creole women

— often a reference in the region to those of

mixed-race with African and French or Spanish

heritage — to cover their hair with a knotted

headdress.

They were prohibited from wearing

embellishments that garner more attention

or make them more attractive. This visually

enforced classicism and helped the push at the

time by anti-abolitionists to prevent interracial

marriage. When a woman of slave class wore a

headdress, it was clear that she was not to be

eyed or touched by white males.

It’s not difficult to imagine the lack of access

to proper hair care products or styling tools.

They washed and conditioned with butter,

kerosene and even bacon grease. They then

brushed it with the carding combs used for

the sheep. With limited homemade hair care

ingredients and no products on the market

suited for Black hair texture, Blacks struggled to

take care of and style their natural hair — which

was an inherent part of the African culture from

which they came.

Madam C.J. Walker is regarded as America’s

first female self-made millionaire, per the

Guinness Book of World Records, by creating

and marketing a line of cosmetic and hair care

products for Black women: Madam C. J. Walker

Manufacturing Company or The Walker Company.

The Louisiana native is an entrepreneurial

icon, activist and philanthropist celebrated

today all because she chose to do something

about the dandruff, baldness and scalp disorders

she and other Black women were experiencing.

In 1908 she opened a beauty parlor in

Pittsburgh. By 1910, she’d headquartered

her business in Indianapolis, which is now a

designated historical landmark. By 1913, her

mother had a shop in Harlem. By 1917, her

company had trained and employed some 20,000

women.

She died at age 51 in 1919 and her company

grew after her death, expanding to places like

Cuba, Jamaica and Haiti.

A major part of Walker’s legacy was the hot

comb she created, which used heat to relax hair.

As explained by celebrity hairstylist Nai’vasha

Johnson, a relaxer is designed to straighten or

loosen your natural hair, and a permanent, or

perm, is designed to create curl, waves and

textures that are not natural.

In 1909, Garrett Morgan, a tailor, stumbled on

a cream that straightened out hair while looking

for a solution to reduce needle friction with

wool. It was called a relaxer because it loosened

the tight curls of Black hair. He then started his

own company and sold the cream to Blacks.

George Johnson, in 1954, started the Johnson

Products Company and created a permanent

relaxer for men. Three years later, he had

one for women. It was the foundation of his

cosmetic empire that produced Ultra Sheen and

Afro Sheen.

The early to mid-1900s saw a lot of Black

women starting to straighten their hair to

achieve what was being dubbed “good hair”

by society. “Good hair” is essentially, long and

straight hair, similar to the predominant white

culture. Black models, musicians and celebrities

also wore straight hairstyles during this time

period.

“Good hair” became a class signifier as upper

and middle-class Blacks, who tended to be

mulatto with lighter skinned, had straighter

hair. Some churches had a practice of what was

called the comb test: if your hair was smooth

enough to be combed through without getting

stuck, you gained entry or were allowed into

special areas. Those who didn’t have “good

8 9

The Supremes

hair,” went and got it.

“In 1968, Diahann Carroll breaks ground

with her role in Julia, becoming the first Black

woman to star in her own series on episodic

television,” Kristin Booker wrote in the 2014

“History of Black Hair” slideshow article

on Refinery29. “In 1974, another landmark

magazine cover drops: Beverly Johnson becomes

the first Black woman to appear on the cover of

Vogue, sporting long, smoother textured hair.”

Many Black people, including men, who were

public figures tended to aim for a straighter,

more voluminous look that they achieved with

the help of chemical relaxers and wigs. James

Brown and other giant celebrities in the Black

community popularized the look.

Across the Atlantic Ocean, in South Africa,

following the start of apartheid in 1948, the

regime began conducting “pencil tests.” It

involved a person putting a pencil in their hair

and shaking their head. If the pencil remained

in place, because their thick hair held it, they

were considered Black. If the pencil fell out

because their hair couldn’t hold it, they were

deemed white.

Each classification came with its own

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15th Edition

privileges and punishments. The test is

reportedly still being used in some South African

schools today as a way to assimilate Black

students to white beauty ideals.

Writer Panashe Chigumadzi described it in her

New York Times op-ed article, “White Schools

vs. Black Hair in Post-Apartheid South Africa,”

“The way hair regulations are generally written

— the pupil will have ‘hair that falls’ and ‘hair

that is neat’ — assumes that the student is a

white child. Hair that does not naturally comply

with these directives must be made to do so.”

Chigumadzi continued, “More than 60 years

after that legislation schools in South Africa

are still using a de facto form of the pencil

test to classify natural black hair as untidy or

exotic, and thereby exclude noncompliant black

children from academic opportunities.”

The movement against hair discrimination and

biases were popularized during the Civil Rights

Movement in the late 1960s and early 1970s.

A natural hair movement coincided with the

push for equal rights and the emphasis on Black

pride. Black Americans celebrated their culture

while flaunting natural hairstyles like afros,

braids and dreadlocks.

Actors, actresses and activists were suddenly

wearing natural hairstyles — even on screen.

Activist Angela Davis, the Black Panther Party,

actresses like Pam Grier and Isaac Hayes of the

Blaxploitation film genre helped popularize the

afro. Blacks embraced the symbolic meaning

and ethnic ties that came with it.

However, the push for Black equality was met

with strong resistance. Malcolm X, Martin Luther

King Jr., Fred Hampton and many others were

killed. Others became political prisoners. Even

the Black Panther Party was forced into hiding

underground and its top members were wanted

by the FBI. The afro became a stigma that made

Blacks a target.

The demonization of natural hair was again

government-sponsored and mainstream.

In one specific instance in 1988, natural

hairstyles were discriminated against in the

workplace as a Hyatt Hotel in Washington

prohibited two Black female employees from

wearing cornrows, firing one and ordering the

other to wear a wig.

“As many as 1,000 women may have been

victims of the ban on cornrows,” Eric Steele,

attorney for the women, said at the time.

In 2017, the U.S. Army lifted its ban on

twisted locks. The locks, a protective hairstyle

stemming from Hindu culture and later

Rastafarianism, have been policed by American

school and military officials for many years. The

“dread” added to the name infers something

about the hairstyle that prompts dread. So

even the term dreadlocks is born of hair

discrimination.

In January 2020, administrators at Barbers Hill

High School in Texas threatened Kaden Bradford

and De’Andre Arnold, two Black students, with

punishment if they did not cut their dreadlocks.

They would be suspended and not allowed to

walk the stage for their graduation. A federal

court sided with the students, temporarily

overturning the district’s grooming policy.

The referendum on Black hair is

dehumanizing. It can be overt, exercised

in actual policies. It can be unofficial,

discouraged and ridiculed out of existence. Or

it can be subliminally, hidden in preferential

treatment and micro behaviors. Corporations

and government agencies tend to justify the

discrimination by deeming natural Black hair

“unprofessional,” a modern version of the

“sanitary issue” as it was formerly stigmatized

in slavery and Jim Crow eras.

These damages go beyond forced assimilation

and social ostracism. Blacks looking for jobs,

housing and education have for decades been

rejected because of their hair or pressured to

change it for acceptance.

The result is often assimilation. The invention

of the Jheri curl in the 1980s, along with the

advancement and the prominence of the perm,

made Black hair transformation possible from

home. Many were unaware of, or disregarded,

the long-term harmful effects of chemically

processing one’s hair. The relaxers damage hair

follicles and make it hard to grow hair back and

perms alter the texture. But societal acceptance

is often the priority.

Angela Davis

Hair weaves and wigs have become staples of

modern hair care. There was a time when the

best weaves and wigs were designed to convince

people it was natural. But now hair has become

a fashion accessory and acceptable to be nonnatural.

Again, societal acceptance is often the

priority.

“For so long we have been taught that we

have nappy hair when really it’s just extremely

curly,” said Sharon Davis, a natural hair care

specialist for Vizions Salon in Hayward. “For so

long we have used extreme heat to straighten

our hair or we have to result to harmful

chemicals for us to tame our locks — when really

with a proper regime and moisture, we can

achieve lengths, body and fullness.”

Many Black people have stories of growing up

and the emphasis on using their hair as a means

of accommodating society norms. Many parents,

10 11

Pam Grier

hoping to give their children, especially their

daughters, an opportunity and being embraced

by society have permed their children’s hair.

Naps were undesirable.

But previous generations didn’t have the

same knowledge or the same progressive society

available now. The push for Black lives to

matter is, at its core, for Black people to exist

as Black people without ramification. While

cosmetic in nature, the freedom to be authentic

and expressive with hair is symbolic of how

society views Black people. Protecting natural

hairstyles is being aware of the history behind

Black hairstyles, appreciative of the culture and

embracing of the Black experience.

Throughout the trans-Atlantic slave trade,

colonizers tried to strip African slaves of

their ancestral and cultural ties in attempts

to dehumanize and subordinate Blacks. This

process began with the shaving of Black hair

when slaves stepped off of the ship.

The essence of that practice continues today.

Naked Magazine

15th Edition

Sprained brains

“This” — he says as his hand contorts as if

he’s holding an invisible knob, turning it as he

continues his thought — “is like a sprained brain.

Like having a sprained ankle.”

He turns his attention to the crowd hanging on

his every word, including David Letterman, the

host of this exclusive interview on the Netflix

show “My Next Guest Needs No Introduction”

which debuted in 2019.

“And if someone has a sprained ankle, you’re

not gonna push on him more. With us, once our

brain gets to a point of spraining,” he starts

turning the knob again, “people do everything

to make it worse.”

Kanye West’s bipolar disorder has been well

chronicled since it seemed to begin after his

mother died in 2007. Many have tuned him

out because of his antics. He’s been prone to

broken systems

Why men of color aren’t getting the mental help they need

Cydney Macon

Illustrations by Tiffany Summers-Johnson

public episodes, including one in July 2020 that

prompted a public statement from his wife, Kim

Kardashian West, pleading for “compassion and

empathy.”

At the same time, West has become an

ambassador and poster child for mental health.

Through his visible meltdowns and candid

dialogue, West has created awareness of bipolar

disorder, mental health and the vulnerability of

Black men to these issues.

It’s no secret men of color face unique

adversities compared to their white

counterparts. Such was made abundantly

clear in 2020 as the coronavirus pandemic and

racial injustice uncovered the plight of Black

Americans.

Men of color are two to three times more

likely to experience some type of violence or

trauma in their life, according to the American

Psychological Association. A great imagination

isn’t required to envision how embedded

societal stressors and exposure to trauma can

produce serious mental health effects. Just

seeing a police officer could induce a panic

attack.

Even with all that, rarely are men of color

going to therapy. Men are much more resistant

to seek help from professionals even when

facing serious mental health issues such as

schizophrenia, depression and post-traumatic

stress disorder. For a nation so centered on

families, the ramifications of this phenomenon

have layers of impact on society.

So, what’s keeping men of color from talking

it out?

Most would venture to guess it’s a pride

thing. Men are taught not to open up about

their emotions but to hold them in, because

it is manly to do so. That guess wouldn’t be

categorically wrong. But misplaced stoicism

isn’t the only culprit. Psychological wars of

racism, the stigma of mental health and even

socio-economic issues are barriers keeping men

of color from laying on the proverbial couch and

opening up.

This is a cycle that has repeated itself for

decades. Generation after generation, men

are being beat down by the same metaphorical

baton and it is leading to incarceration and

suicide.

More and more programs are battling stigma

and unproductive pressures with hopes of

reaching this marginalized group, including at

Las Positas College. Las Positas’ own Puente and

Umoja programs are actively working to put a

stop to this recurring cycle.

The struggles of 2020 brought mental health

front and center, underscoring the urgency to

address what some call an epidemic. Mental

health issues, especially in communities of color,

are a public health crisis. Finally, some are done

ignoring it.

Machismo is definitely a factor. Showing any

emotion besides aggression or anger makes a

12 13

man “a pussy.” Fear of being questioned for

their masculinity is causing many to swallow

emotions. This creates a build up that leads to

break downs.

“Men just in general in American society do

have a culture of not sharing your feelings,” said

Eric Lee, site psychologist for the Tracy Unified

School District. “They’re afraid to appear weak,

to appear vulnerable — afraid of any social

repercussions that may come from it.”

But experts say more keeps men of color off

the couch. One major factor is systemic racism.

Demonization has been known to play a role

in why men of color don’t open up about their

feelings. Most men from minority communities,

at some point, have been labeled lazy,

dangerous, sexual predators or criminals. This

trope has been so woven into American culture

that, sometimes, men of color manifest these

stereotypes.

The psychological warfare of racism

has attacked the mind of men of color in

this country so fiercely and persistently, it

can normalize damaging behavior in those

communities.

The article “Beyond the Stereotypical Image

of Young Men of Color” in The Atlantic explains

how a young Black man is seen as a “violent,

drug-involved gangster; the angry, withdrawn

teen; the crude, disrespectful provocateur;

the unsmiling, unfeeling, untouchable thug.”

These stereotypes are so pervasive, some men

possessing problematic traits might not even

see an issue at all. Poor anger management,

for example, can be misconstrued as a positive

trait.

Along with this, in general, people of color

suffer from mental health care disparities.

Medical News Today’s Nathan Greene, Psy.D,

said, “African Americans, Latinx and Asian

Americans receive treatment of mental health

challenges at 50 to 70% lower rates than white

Americans in this country. This is the result of

failures on individual and systemic levels.”

However, according to American Psychiatric

Association, men of color are much less likely

to receive mental health services — excluding

American Indian/Alaska Native women.

Making matters worse is a deep distrust for

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15th Edition

receiving any type of treatment.

The racism element creates an antagonistic

relationship between men of color and the

healthcare industry. The trust necessary to seek

and benefit from treatment, to believe in the

systems, is harder to come by for people who

feel discriminated against or racially oppressed.

Skepticism and self-reliance are preferred over

handing your inner thoughts to someone with a

clipboard and a soft voice.

That distrust is often compounded by another

factor: therapists don’t often look like them.

In the U.S., 86% of the psychologist workforce

are white, according to 2015 U.S. Census Bureau

data. This creates an inherent disconnect for

men of color seeking help. For many, it’s a

bridge too far to expect a white therapist to

understand and treat the unique hardships

affecting people of color.

Nearly all psychology schools offer diversity

training and cultural awareness courses in

their masters programs. But the experience of

living in America as a man of color can hardly

be understood through a few graduate level

courses.

Awareness might be less important than

understanding. The website counseling.org,

explains the importance of minority counselors,

contend clients of color need help to “feel

confident and safe in their neighborhoods,

learn alternatives to violence, gain educational

experiences and acquire bicultural skills needed

for success in school.” These are navigational

needs that figure to require experience. Yet,

as of 2016, about 16% of psychologists in the

United States were racial minorities, according

to the American Psychological Association.

“Having therapists of color may make for

a more inviting and trusting atmosphere for

men of color,” said Kimberly Burks, a general

counselor and co-coordinator of Umoja at LPC.

“If a man of color is seeking therapy and does

not see any person of color in the therapy

office, he may assume that there is a lack of

commonality and cultural understanding.”

Cost of therapy also creates an accessibility

issue. Thervo, an online platform that connects

customers to professionals of varying industries,

says a session of therapy averages in the range

of $60 to $120 per hour. With those parameters,

weekly hour-long sessions could cost between

$3,000 and $6,000 annually.

For perspective’s sake, the U.S. Bureau of

Labor Statistics survey stated in 2018 that

Americans paid an average of $1,188 on cell

phone service for the year. So regular therapy

is like adding two or three more lines to their

phone plan. A steep price for many.

Most health plans cover mental health

support. But as of 2019, U.S. Census Bureau data

reports 29.6 million people don’t have health

insurance and about six in 10 people of color are

uninsured.

Therapy is rarely advertised to low-income

areas, perhaps for the financial concerns. The

average counselor may not even be able to

comprehend what living in low-income areas

is like. According to Counseling Today, most

counselors come from middle-class families

of adequate means and are ignorant to the

realities of poverty and the working poor, in

which many men of color exist.

Burks said in some African American

communities, when it comes to mental health,

men will often seek out their elders, pastors,

barbershops or any number of communal

alternatives. These methods are often passed

down through generations, practices from

eras where men wouldn’t dare seek therapy.

But these methods can be insufficient for the

major issues people need addressed, including

transgenerational traumas.

“If they don’t allow for complete healing of

the mental health challenge,” Burks said, noting

the cons of choosing community over therapy,

“then they need to go to that next level, and

that’s where the stigma comes in.”

As a result of not completely healing,

challenges start to pile up even more. People of

color make up about 40% of the United States

population, according to the 2020 U.S. Census

Bureau. However, almost 72% of prisoners are

men of color, per the Federal Bureau of Prisons.

Within these prisons, according to the National

Alliance of Mental on Illness, they are unlikely

to be diagnosed with a mental health issue and

less likely to receive treatment for it.

Suicide is another byproduct from not

completely healing. Among American Indian

and Alaskan Natives, the suicide rate is the

highest within the country as found by the

Suicide Prevention Resource Center. Suicide is

the seventh leading cause of death in Hispanic

men and eighth for Asian men. Although

suicide isn’t one of leading causes of death in

Black men, it is increasing in Black teens. In

a behavioral study performed by the medical

journal Pediatrics, sampled from about 200,000

students, there was a 73% increase in suicide

attempts from 1991 to 2017. So, what’s causing

it?

Unaddressed mental illness from men of

color is, in turn, hurting others. This can most

certainly hurt their children and other family

members. A study performed by doctors Paul

Ramchandani and Lamprini Psychogiu, both

experts affiliated with the Department of

Psychiatry in Oxford, found that mental health

disorders in fathers associate with increased

behavioral and emotional difficulties in

children. This study also included findings

of fathers’ mental disorders having more

distress on their families than mothers’

mental disorders.

This can also affect women as some

men hold the belief that they can’t

talk about their emotions. Within

heterosexual marriages, women

are most likely to initiate

divorce because of the lack

of communication. This

stems from how men

are usually taught not

to express emotions

and leaves women

to take on the

emotional labor of

the marriage.

But hope isn’t

lost as many

have decided

to be part of

the solution of

this public health

concern. For the

better part of 2020,

the chant was “Black Lives

14 15

Matter” and the plight of people of color was at

the forefront of a national reckoning with race.

But if it were more

than virtue signaling,

more than a

hashtag, then

society will

be serious

about

Naked Magazine

15th Edition

addressing these issues moving forward. Mental

health is one of those areas where actions can

declare that people of color matter.

“I do think things will get better,” Burks said.

“I feel right now we’re at a point of another

round of awakening. I feel like ears are open

and people are reviewing their hiring practices

and making sure they have a diverse staff.”

The cover of West’s 2018 album “Ye” is a

picture of snow-capped mountains. Scrawled on

the image in neon green, in handwriting, is this

simple phrase:

I hate being

Bi-Polar

Its awesome

He was on Jimmy Kimmel talking about

it when it came out. His final words in the

interview are about as true now as they were

then.

“I think it’s important to have open

conversations on mental health. Especially being

Black because we never had therapists in the

Black community. [People] need to be able to

express themselves without judgement.”

The making of a

local activist

How LPC student Claire Green found her

voice during the summer of racial reckoning

Nathan Canilao

The Oakland summer air was hot. Smoke

from fireworks seeped through the medical

masks of the men and women as they protested

the murder of George Floyd, which occurred

1,971 miles away in Minneapolis, Minn. The

background noise included sounds of shattering

windows and chants of “No justice! No peace!”

It felt like a scene from Todd Phillips “Joker.”

In the middle of it all was Claire Green.

She, like many others, chanted from the

depths of her soul while walking for miles,

holding up signs and invoking the agony of fallen

names. Breonna Taylor. Ahmaud Arbery. Oscar

Grant. The sign she chose: “Mace a cop, call it

peppa pig.”

She came prepared with masks and hand

sanitizer, a hydro flask filled with water. The

potential for a clash with police loomed.

Violence was in the air. She could feel it. Yet,

she remained on the front lines, fist in the

16 17

air, chanting until she could no longer feel her

bellowing vibrate in her throat.

The summer of 2020 awakened something

in Green. Silence was no longer an option.

America’s reckoning with racial injustice, in the

middle of a pandemic no less, ignited a fire for

justice, perhaps one she’s quenched for years.

She began going to protests anywhere she

could find them. San Ramon. Oakland. San

Francisco. Livermore. It didn’t matter. She

wanted this movement to leave a footprint, for

this summer to be unforgettable. In a matter

of months, Green transformed from uncertain

to adamant, from reserved to leadership. She

became active in the Black Lives Matter Tri-

Valley Chapter. She wanted to prove that her

voice mattered. Even if it meant losing those

close to her.

“It’s not about being affiliated with a political

party,” she said. “I’ve been called radical. But

Naked Magazine

15th Edition

if radical means wanting basic human rights for

everyone then, s--t, maybe I am radical.”

Even before she was “a radical” she

already stood out. A long time resident of

Livermore, she was always one of the few

persons of color and often the only African

American woman in her classes.

She tried to fit in, like any kid,

participating in different activities to be a part

of the community. Hula dancing. Cheerleading.

In a sense she pulled it off, fitting in, as Green

is in some ways a typical Livermore community

college teen. She listens to Anderson .Paak

avidly. She’s a regular at a local taqueria. She

even learned how to speak Japanese fluently.

Ok, maybe that’s not so typical. But she does

binge shows on Netflix. “Orange is the New

Black” was her choice during the shelter in

place.

Most of all, she found friends. The

camaraderie despite being the black sheep, the

lasting relationships she built, were actually

beneficial since she was a latch-key kid. Both

her parents had full-time careers so she had a

certain level of independence. But liberation

would’ve been loneliness if not for her friends.

“I would definitely say my friends are the

people I most looked up to because I felt that

my parents weren’t necessarily all there for me

in terms of being role models,” she said. “I had

to figure out a lot of things by myself, so having

my peers by my side really motivated me.”

One thing she had to figure out was

how she felt about race, racism and justice in

America. And what she would do about it.

She first became aware of how police

brutality impacts African Americans, and how

Black people can be in danger just because of

irrational fears, in 2012. That was when Trayvon

Martin was killed. And 16 months later, his killer,

George Zimmerman, was acquitted.

“That was the first time I witnessed the

unfair treatment African Americans receive,”

she said. “At the time, Trayvon was only a

few years older than I was, and that’s when I

realized it could happen to anyone that is my

color.”

But it wasn’t until this year that Green

decided enough was enough. She wanted to be

a pillar of her community and not just part of it.

For years, she kept her thoughts on these issues

to herself. But this was different. She wanted to

see real change in her community.

On May 25, 2020, when George Floyd

was killed by an officer who knelt on his neck

for 8 minutes and 46 seconds, the coverage

showed the City of Minneapolis riot. Stores and

businesses were burned down. A Minneapolis

police precinct was destroyed and protesters

stormed the streets the entire night. They flared

up in other cities and it was clear to Green this

was her generation’s moment. Like those in

1968 when Martin Luther King Jr. was killed. And

in 1992 when Rodney King’s brutalizers were

acquitted. And all the other times the people

got fed up at injustice and took to the streets.

She couldn’t stand by.

Green attended her first protest in

Oakland, Calif. on May 29. It was there when she

saw the impact of protests and their contagious

spirit. She was keen on how politicians and

community leaders were more angry about

the destruction of property rather than the

destruction of human life. She noticed how the

calmness of the protests in the Tri-Valley did

little in terms of sparking change.

“She’s strong,” said Avery Perrault, a leader

of the Black Lives Matter Tri-Valley Chapter

and one of Green’s childhood friends. “With

everything she had to go through and to see her

this past summer organize these protests was

something incredible.

“When we were organizing the rally, Claire

was the first one to say, ‘We need to be heard.’

She told us to be as vocal about our feelings as

we can and to not shy away from telling it how

it is.”

Green was on the frontlines of the protests

in Livermore. She led chants as they marched

through the streets. And when they gathered

to hear speakers, she was on the mic sharing

her story about being a Black woman in a white

city. She started multiple GoFundMe campaigns

for victims of police brutality. She spearheaded

the raising of $2,606, all of which she gave to

multiple organizations, including The Black

Visions Collective, The Bay Area Black Business

Fund and fundraisers for the families of Floyd

and Arbery.

“Raising the money was important to me

because I knew I was going to be able to raise

a good amount by myself,” Green said, “but if I

could get my friends and family to raise money

as well then I could make a much bigger impact

on the community.”

For some, Green goes too far. Hence the

“radical” label. Or very far left.

She is for defunding the police and

reallocating that budget to the communities,

a controversial stance in a society that for the

most part looks favorably among police. On the

polling site, 538, a study was released in June

2020 that said only 31% of Americans supported

defunding the police. Even President Joe Biden,

who won the White House with the heavy

support of African American voters, said he

doesn’t support defunding the police.

Green, however, isn’t concerned

about being labeled. She has a bar in mind

for basic human rights and isn’t interested in

compromising until it is cleared. She believes

investing in people instead of arresting them.

She believes in protecting people of color from

state-funded over-policing by pumping at least

part of that money into the communities to

address the issues that prompt policing. To

Green, that is far more reasonable than radical.

“It is not radical,” she said, “to ask police to

stop killing us in the streets.”

The summer of 2020 has left a lasting

impact on Green. She came out of her shell,

discovered her voice as a leader and, possibly,

found her calling. When she came to LPC, she

was unsure of what she wanted to do after

college. But activism has hooked her. This is

what she wants to do.

She can already see the results. Before

the revolutionary summer, it was rare to see

any sort of organized protests in Livermore

— especially not on behalf of Black lives, and

absolutely not against the police. But their

Tri-Valley chapter put on six protests as well

as created an online curriculum outlining the

injustices African Americans experience with

policing.

Livermore is quietly percolating with new

voices and progressive minds. They are pushing

18 19

for change in their city, leading the way in

making their beloved monochromatic town more

progressive. One of them is Claire Green. She

used to be quiet. She used to just try to fit in.

But those days are over. She has awakened.

“I’m fighting for my people because it has

been so long since we have had justice in these

scenarios. My goal is to educate people in this

city on the mistreatment of Black people in this

country.”

Naked Magazine

15th Edition

Anti-Blackness in Asian

communities needs to be

addressed

Nathan Canilao

In the summers when I was a kid, I waited for

the sun to go down before I went outside.

It was safe to do so. I lived in a five-house culde-sac

with a Spalding basketball hoop in the

front and neighbors who were as nice as could

be. My street was mostly middle-class families

who plowed the snow in their driveway in the

winters and watched the Bears play on Sundays.

Down the block was a K-8 school. Police officers

routinely patrolled the streets while kids played

ball and rode their bikes.

So why did I wait until sundown to go outside?

Well, for starters, Chicago summers were hot

and humid. A bit of relief didn’t come until the

sun made its way towards California. But mostly

because my mom would always complain if I

went to play during the day. It worried her.

“Why do you have to play outside now?” she’d

ask. “It’s hot and you’re going to get dark.”

I didn’t understand what it was all about. I

just listened to my parents, like any good kid.

But every summer until my teenage years, I’d

wait for the sun to set and the Chicago heat to

calm down and then go outside and play.

Yes, you read that correctly. She was worried I

was going to “get dark.”

As a teenager, I learned what she meant. Her

fear was my skin getting darker.

This is common in Asian-American

communities. For some, such concerns are but a

tasteless joke. For others, they legitimately do

not want their kids to have darker skin. Either

way, it is one of the biggest microaggressions

that exist in our community.

I’ve come to understand the great harm in this

toxic behavior. It’s not only a troubling adoption

of problematic beauty standards, preferring

lighter skin, but it also hints at how many in

the Asian-American community regard African-

Americans. Anti-Blackness is not confined to

racist whites waving a Confederate flag, or even

to white people. But people of color also buy

into the nation’s anti-Black history, including in

the Asian-American community.

The essence of my mother’s concerns is

rational. It doesn’t take much to see the

struggle and treatment of African-Americans in

this country. You can’t consume modern media,

or participate in the public education system,

without getting some idea about the history of

the hostile relationship America has had with

Black people. Of course my mother wouldn’t

want that for me. Of course she’d want me to

do things to avoid being grouped into such a

fate. It makes sense. But it came with great

expense as we were complicit in systemic

oppression.

These colorism standards, the preference

for lighter skin, was a type of thinking passed

down from my grandmother, who learned it from

her mom, who learned it from her mom. These

ideologies can be traced back generations. Like

many countries, the Philippines was colonized by

a European power, specifically Spain. With them

came the teachings of Catholicism and also the

notion that dark-skinned Native Filipinos were

inferior to their light-skinned counterparts.

This, of course, created a demand for lighter

skin.

Fast forward to modern day. Those paradigms

still exist and are echoed in the traditions and

cultures of Filipinos. Young girls, like my mom,

were taught if they wanted to stay beautiful

they needed to be as close to white as possible.

The more melanin you were born with, the

uglier you were considered to be by society.

Obviously, this produces all kinds of issues

in young Asian-Americans girls. Some went to

extremes to not look dark. In the Philippines,

young girls use whitening creams and even

bleach their skin. The World Health Organization

said a common ingredient in these whiteners

can cause kidney damage. Ghana and Rwanda

are among countries that have banned skin

whitening products. Still, the skin whitening

industry is expected to top $31 billion by 2024.

But beauty is only part of the equation.

Colorism produces an anti-Blackness spirit

that leads to stereotyping, discrimination

and prejudice against Black people. Older

generations of Asian-Americans tend to believe

a lot of the tropes propagated about Black

Americans.

For young Asian-Americans like myself, it

wasn’t uncommon to have a talk with our

parents about having Black friends over at the

house. Comedian Jo Koy talked about this in his

special “Jokoy: Live From Seattle.” His mother

used to tell him to hide her purse while his Black

friend was over at his house. It was funny the

way he told it, and many of us can relate, but it

is indicative of a grander issue.

If having a Black person over the house was

a problem, imagine the reaction to dating an

African-American. The traditional views on this

matter underscore how deep the anti-Blackness

runs. If a woman of Asian heritage dates a

white man, she will be regarded as a success by

many in her community because dating a white

20 21

man is seen as an accomplishment. A symbol of

success. Dating a Black man? The grilling would

be instant as the decision would be met with

disapproval.

Progress is happening, though, especially with

the younger generations of Asian-Americans.

Over the summer of 2020, hundreds of protests

broke out across the country over the death of

George Floyd, an unarmed African-American

man from Minneapolis. Millions of people from

all walks of life showed in support of the Black

Lives Matter movement and the young Asian-

American population was represented. These

protests also sparked demonstrations aimed at

problems in the Asian-American community as

well.

The “They Can’t Burn Us All” rally held in San

Francisco, Seattle and Los Angeles were protests

about racism and discrimination against Asian-

Americans during the COVID-19 pandemic. The

rallies reiterated the need for Asian-Americans

to unite in support of African-Americans as they

fight for equality in this country, especially since

whatever strides have been made by the Black

community tend to benefit all people of color.

The Asian-American community are among those

still benefiting from those movements progress

made during the Civil Rights Movement in the

60s.

The solutions are never so obvious and easy,

but there are ways to combat anti-Blackness in

the Asian community. One of them, according to

psychology professor E.J. David Ph.D from the

University of Alaska, Anchorage, is challenging

peers and relatives when they express anti-Black

views.

“You can challenge their beliefs by appealing

to their values and pointing out commonalities,”

David said. “Making them think more critically

by asking them where they got their information

from and possibly engage in a productive

conversation that explores their biases.”

The only way to combat these

microaggressions is to talk about them. While

the history of anti-Blackness in the Asian-

American community is long and entrenched, it

still must be addressed because the struggle for

equality in the Black community is just as much

of our fight as it is theirs.

Naked Magazine

喋れない: アメリカの英語中心の文化は市民に損害を与える

Sprakeloos: Amerika’s eentalige

gewoonte kwetst zijn burgers

There is an old joke shared in the immigrant

community. In addition to a chuckle, it offers

some insight into a troubling phenomenon.

What do you call a person who speaks more

than two languages?

Multilingual.

What do you call a person who speaks two

languages?

Bilingual.

Then how about a person who speaks one

language?

American.

Being bilingual or multilingual is common in

immigrant families. Parents who migrate to

America don’t want their children cut off from

the culture of their ancestors. They want their

kids to assimilate into American life. They want

them to access the privileges and opportunities

this country offers. But at the same time, the

fear is losing that ever-important cultural

identity in the process. It is a tough juggling act.

Målløs: Hvordan Amerikas krav

om kun engelsk språklige

kunnskaper skader innbyggerne

பேச்சில்லாத: அமெரிக்காவின் ஆங்கிலம் மட்டுமே

வழிகள் அதன் குடிமக்களை காயப்படுத்துகின்றன

Bez słów: sposoby w jakie Di Makapagsalita: Ang

Ameryka krzywdzi swoich Ingles-lamang na pamamaraan

obywateli w języku angielskim ng America ay nakakasama sa

kanyang mga mamamayan

Tongue-tied

America’s English-only ways are hurting its citizens

Zhen Xu

ನಾಲಿಗೆ ಕಟ್ಟಲಾಗಿದೆ: ಅಮೆರಿಕದ ಇಂಗ್ಲಿಷ್-

अवाक: अमेरिका के नागरिकों के अंग्रेजी ಮಾತ್ರ ಮಾರ್ಗಗಳು ಅದರ ನಾಗರಿಕರನ್ನು

तरीके उंको नुक्सान कर रहे हैं ನೋಯಿಸುತ್ತಿವೆ Con la lengua atada: Las

Muet: Les habitudes monolingues de l’Amérique blessent ses citoyens maneras del solo inglés en

Sprachlos: Amerikas einsprachige América lastiman a su gente

Gewohnheiten tut seinen Bürgern weh

One of the best ways to stay connected to the

roots is speaking the mother tongue.

It never dawned on me how difficult this could

be until I moved to America and tried to help my

daughter keep her Chinese skills. Surprisingly,

learning a second language is not popular in

American elementary schools. It is ultimately,

and almost exclusively, on the families to push

their children to learn a second language or

even hold on to their heritage languages. For

my 5-year-old daughter, speaking our native

language was no problem. However, reading and

writing Chinese characters was still difficult for

her. She had to take a weekend class to catch

up. It had to be the weekend because adding

extra study hours to the week was met with

resistance. She often questioned why she had to

study another language when her friends did not

have the same requirement.

Some families require their native tongue

at home as a way to keep their culture ever-

present. Assimilation into American life is fine

outside the house. But home is where they hang

on. As a result, immigrant children tend to be

bilingual and get the benefits of being so.

American citizens, however, are missing out.

That’s because it seems easier these days to

find an American student more passionate about

math than about learning a language other

than English. And that’s saying a lot considering

math is one the most hated subjects among U.S.

students.

While many high schools require language

courses to graduate, it doesn’t appear to be a

top priority of the American education system.

According to a survey by the American Councils

for International Education, published in 2017,

only about 20% of K-12 students study a foreign

language. So, in that sense, U.S. public schools

are little help for immigrants looking to keep

their children connected to their motherland

through language.

Part of the reason is, undoubtedly, American

exceptionalism, an ideology no doubt bolstered

by immigrants such as myself who chose to start

a new life here. Many in the country believe

wholeheartedly in the nation’s superiority

and therefore learning English is all that is

necessary. According to a study published in

15th Edition

2019 by the U.S. Census Bureau, only 20%

of Americans can converse in two or more

languages, compared with 56% of Europeans.

There have been repeated attempts in

Congress to make English, officially, the national

language. It has failed repeatedly as the

voices of an inclusive America that embraces

immigrants are still very strong. But the nation’s

attitude towards learning other languages

suggest an engrained ideology of English as a

supreme language. Because America is relatively

isolated from other languages, the need for

learning other languages isn’t so pressing. In

places like Europe, where nearby nations speak

with different tongues, there is a practicality

to learning other languages. American has a

predominantly English-speaking Canada to the

north and Spanish-speaking Mexico to its south.

The practical need for being bilingual, outside

of intellectual curiosity or prolonged travel

abroad, isn’t so profound for U.S. citizens. So

why waste time, energy and money learning a

second language?

But even that logic should be examined.

Perhaps it was true many years ago. But

as technology connects the world, foreign

languages are closer to American society than

they’ve ever been. The internet, smartphones

22 23

Naked Magazine

15th Edition

and cheap flight tickets have shrunk the distance

between countries, continents and languages.

The earth has become a global village. America

is no longer an isolated country.

Plus, as a celebrated beacon for immigrants,

America’s core values — the ones etched into

the tenets of the nation and lionized by symbols

like the Statue of Liberty — is favorable to

cultures of the world. That would suggest an

appreciation for and a desire to interact with

other cultures and people from other lands.

Learning to speak other languages fits the spirit

of America, the English-only dogma aside.

Participating in global commerce, interacting

with growing immigrant populations in America,

the popularization of foreign media and

entertainment, they point to a society that

would embrace speaking other languages.

Similarly, telling immigrants in America to

forget their culture and fully embrace American

culture is contrary to the country’s lofty ideals

of inclusiveness.

Indeed, English has become a global language.

According to the data sight Statista, around 1.27

billion people worldwide spoke English as a first

or second language in 2019 — even more than

the 1.12 billion Mandarin Chinese speakers. The

rest of the world is eager to learn English.

“Learning another language is one of the most

rewarding things a person can do,” Christine

Schulze, executive director of Concordia

Language Villages, said in a 2017 article on her

company’s website.

The mindset of English superiority, the lack

of emphasis on producing multilingual citizens,

actually works against Americans.

For starters, the tendency to not be

interested in learning other cultures contributes

to the xenophobic atmosphere in America.

The lack of understanding and appreciation,

which would be aided by learning multiple

languages, feeds into behaviors that can

make other nations dislike Americans. These

behaviors include being irritated when people

speak in foreign languages in public, buying into

stereotypes about people from other countries

and disrespecting other cultural traditions and

rituals (even unknowingly).

The demand for total assimilation to American

norms pressures immigrants to avoid speaking

their native languages and sharing their

culture, which deprives Americans of worldly

perspectives. Language learning increases

cognitive benefits, improves social life, raises

awareness of other cultures and improves the

traveling experience.

Learning other languages helps workers stay

competitive in the marketplace. A 2017 report

from New American Economy showed the

demand for bilingual workers in the U.S. grew

from 240,000 jobs in 2010 to 630,000 jobs by

2015. Business Roundtable put out a report in

2019 that said one in five American jobs were

tied to international trade.

A golden rule in business: good relationships

promote cooperation.

A known Chinese saying is: having good

relationships can reduce problems, but having

no or bad relationships can cause many

problems.

Even when a professional interpreter is

needed, trying to learn some of the language

of a partner and expressing respect for their

culture is just good business. Plus, the job

market is a constant concern. Per the New

Yorker, America turned the calendar into 2021

with 10 million fewer jobs on the market than

in February of 2020. Competing in the global

workforce requires adapting to the global

marketplace. Without language learning, the

U.S. employer base risks being unequipped.

Kirsten Brecht-Baker, the founder of Global

Professional Search, said, “Americans are in

danger of needing to import human capital,

someone capable of communicating in

languages, someone who can use the language

to augment and fortify other skills.”

Immigrant parents force their students

to cling to their native tongue and reap the

benefits of being bilingual or multilingual.

Meanwhile, American citizens have fallen well

behind the rest of the world.

“We need increasingly to be able to interact

with the rest of the world, to engage with

them, to be able to compete economically

and diplomatically,” Marty Abbott, executive

director of the American Council on the Teaching

of Foreign Languages, said in a 2018 interview

on Boston University’s radio station WBUR, a

member station of NPR.

“And if you don’t have the language skills,

you truly do not understand other cultures, and

you’re not able to fully engage with the rest

of the world. We think naively sometimes that

business gets done at the business table, but it

often gets done away from the business table —

it gets done in social interactions, it gets done

even in the hallways. And if you don’t speak

the language, you can’t fully engage in those

interactions.”

Being bilingual or multilingual doesn’t just

help scholastically, socially and professionally.

But studies show learning other languages

can even delay neurological diseases such as

dementia and Alzheimer’s. Many senior citizens

try learning other languages for that reason.

As an immigration country, America has a

significant opportunity to empower the next

generation with foreign language skills. The

presence of other cultures allows Americans

24 25

to learn through immersion just as immigrants

learn English. Students can find the opportunity

to interact with native speakers because of the

diversity present in the U.S. — opportunities

that don’t exist as much in some other

countries. After all, the immersion environment

is essential in language learning.

I first learned English in middle school in

China. Learning English was a national mandate.

It still is, but now, it begins in elementary

school. Most believe speaking English is a

guarantee for a good job and a successful life.

Unfortunately, at that time, it was difficult

to find a foreigner. My English teachers didn’t

interact with any foreigners or even us students.

I didn’t get to talk to a native English speaker

until I attended a university.

In the U.S., you can learn a language and

literally go test your skills in society. This only

makes it more concerning why learning multiple

languages is common in other countries but not

in the most developed one.

Naked Magazine

Making the

Ranking the most successful Dreamworks movies

Jennifer Snook

Rotten

Tomatoes

Critic: 89

Users: 69

Budget:

$150

million

#5: Shrek 2 — 2004 #4: How to Train Your

Dragon 2 — 2014

Award Nominations

Award Wins

Academy Awards

Golden Globes

• Best Animated Feature


• Best Original Song

Metacritic

Critic: 75

Users: 87

Gross:

$920

million

Grammy Awards

• Best Compilation

Soundtrack Album

• Best Song

Annie Awards


• Music in an Animated

Feature

• Best Storyboarding

• Best Voice Acting

• Best Writing

Rotten

Tomatoes

Critic: 91

Users: 89

Budget:

$129

million

Metacritic

Critic: 76

Users: 84

Gross:

$621

million

Annie Awards


• Character Animation

• Directing in an

Animated Feature

• Music in a Feature


• Editorial in an Animated

Feature

Award Nominations

Academy Awards


Annie Awards

• Best Animated Effects

• Best Writing

#3: Chicken Run — 2000

Rotten

Tomatoes

Critic: 97

Users: 65

Budget:

$45

million

Rotten

Tomatoes

Critic: 97

Users: 65

Metacritic

Critic: 88

Users: 82

Gross:

$225

million

Award Wins

Academy Awards


BAFTA Awards

• Best Adapted Screenplay

Annie Awards



• Best Directing in an

Animated Feature

• Best Music

• Best Production Design


• Best Writing


Metacritic

Critic: 88

Users: 82

Award Nominations

BAFTA Awards

• Best British Film

• Best Visual Effects

Golden Globes

• Best Motion Picture -

Musical or Comedy

Golden Globes

• Outstanding

Achievement in an

Animated Feature

• Outstanding

Achievement for

Directing in an

Animated Feature

• Outstanding

Achievement for

Writing in an Animated

Feature

#2: Wallace and Gromit:

Curse of the Were-Rabbit

Award Wins

Academy Awards


Rotten

Tomatoes

Critic: 95

Users: 79

Budget:

$30

million

Metacritic

Critic: 87

Users: 82

Gross:

$192

million

#1: Shrek — 2001

26 27

BAFTA Awards

• Best British Film

Annie Awards



• Best Character

Animation

• Best Character Design

• Best Directing in an

Animated Feature

• Best Music

• Best Production Design



• Best Writing

Award Nominations

Academy Awards

• Best Adapted Screenplay

Golden Globes

• Best Motion Picture -

Musical or Comedy

BAFTA Awards

• Best Film

• Best Supporting Actor

• Best Sound

• Best Visual Effects

Annie Awards

• Best Character Animation

Grammy Awards

• Best Compilation

Soundtrack Album

Budget:

$60

million

15th Edition

Gross:

$484

million

Naked Magazine

15th Edition

No fairy godmothers

Fairy tales give us unrealistic

expectations for real life

Tiffany Summers-Johnson

Children are bombarded with fairy tales.

We learn through fantastic stories with happy

endings that warm the soul. The stories designed

to teach lessons and instill principles shape our

imagination and before long metastasizes into

our dreams. Before long, life becomes a fairy

tale. We see ourselves skipping through fields of

flowers. Our days are filled singing catchy songs

with friendly inanimate objects harmonizing

in the background. Eventually, we run into our

prince (or princess) charming, get married, have

a utopic family and grow old and work jobs that

make us happy, so happy we whistle while we

work. Good always wins. Evil always pays. Joy

always reigns.

I think about the idealized life I had imagined

for myself, the fairy tales I’d concocted for

myself, as I worked two jobs to buy my own first

car, while going to school, and plotting how the

hell I’m going to get out of my parents house.

The fairy tale girl in me still wishes they were

true. Then I wouldn’t think about killing myself.

Fuck whoever came up with fairy tales.

Fuck whoever thought it was just fine to leave

out the part about life mocking and tormenting

people who believe in that shit.

Life is hard and unrelenting. Some people,

sadly, end theirs. Between 1998 and 2018, the

suicide rate in the U.S. increased 35%. The

COVID-19 pandemic had 40% of Americans, per

a Washington Post article in November 2020,

grappling with at least one mental health or

drug-related problem. A Centers for Disease

Control and Prevention study in August 2020

showed 25.5% of young adults ages 18 to 24

were contemplating suicide — a figure that

does not include those who didn’t admit such

ideation. That is up from 10.4% in 2018.

The precarious edge on which many are living

should make us all rethink how we interact with

others. The era of social media has created a

climate where criticism is unfiltered, ridiculing

is sport and piling on is normal behavior. One

must look no further than the political discourse

surrounding the 2020 Presidential Election to see

just how much kindness and neighborly concern

has evaporated.

Which is why we need to do better. All of us.

Because you never know what people are going

through. Words have impact, whether verbalized

or typed in a comment, and the stakes are life

and death more times than many understand.

We simply don’t get to see what people are

going through.

Have you ever just watched someone and

wondered to yourself about them? Who are

they? How did their life start? What obstacles

have they faced? What are they struggling with

right now?

If you had the chance to ask them, you

might get answers that change how you think

about them, how you talk about them, what

you’re willing to put up with from them. The

answers might be foster care, mommy issues,

abandonment scares, sexual assault, a mental

health illness such as bipolar depression.

Those would be my answers.

What are yours?

You know what you’ve been through. You

know what your deepest struggles are and the

map of holes in your heart. How would you

respond to someone laughing at you in the

throes of an episode? These are real concerns in

a world rife with people on the brink.

Perhaps the answer is to know more about

each other. Perhaps we need to stop hiding

behind facades, pretending our fairy tales

actually came true. I know my facade is up.

I look happy. My blue eyes, puffy cheeks and

bubbly smile are a cut and paste from a fairy

tale. I’m aware of my cheery appearance.

But if you knew my story, you wouldn’t think

I was too fun-loving to be bothered by jabs and

quips. You’d know how fragile I am and you

would handle me with care, that is if you’re a

human with the capacity for concern.

That’s it. Maybe we should be real with each

other more. Maybe we should swim against

the tide of Instagram filters, silicone implants,

28 29

Bigen-bolstered hairlines and contour makeup

and just be transparent. Maybe then we can see

how many people are struggling, and how they

come from all walks of life. They’re students,

teachers, doctors, mothers, fathers and

children. Maybe that triggers the compassion,

the love and kindness so many of us desperately

need.

I’ll start.

Abandoned. Raped. Beaten. Anxious.

Depressed.

My mother was supposed to be a one-night

stand.

She worked at a grocery store. My dad, he

was a felon. But he was hot. Anyway, after

intercourse, my mother refused to leave. She

hung out at his house without him even there.

It got to a point where my dad would stay at

friends’ houses to avoid her. Finally she got the

hint.

Over a year later, his mother ran into her at

the store and she had a baby with her. That’s

how I first met my grandmother. Nanny says she

knew by looking at me that I was my dad’s baby.

My father was in jail at the time so he had

to wait to see me. When he was finally out, it

was amazing. He stopped all his bad habits. He

became a great father. It was perfect living

with my dad. It was a fairy tale.

Remember Disney’s version of Sleeping

Beauty? How there was a king and queen who

had a beautiful daughter and were exceedingly

happy? Then evil Maleficent put a curse on

the girl, thus taking the child away from her

beloved family and forcing her to grow up with

strangers? That’s what happened to me.

I was 7 years old when Maleficent, my mother

in this reality, decided to snatch me away from

my entire family in California and move to

Washington state. As it turned out, my father

was not on my birth certificate. Apparently, that

means he technically had no say in my life.

I know what you’re thinking? Why didn’t he

fight it? A paternity test would prove he’s the

father and get him rights? Like I said, mom was

just supposed to be a one-night stand and she

was clearly crazy. Plus, I was 7. I didn’t know to

ask.

Starting over with a new school and new

Naked Magazine

15th Edition

friends was hard. I wasn’t alone. I had my

brother and sister. Jack is three years younger

than me. My sister was only two at the time.

Things at home started to go downhill faster

than Lindsay Vonn. My mother and stepfather

were addicts. Their drug of choice were video

games, which they thought was OK because it

wasn’t drugs or alcohol. The effects were the

same to me.

They would spend all their time on their

computers and wouldn’t take care of us. I was

the oldest so that left me in charge. Every day,

I got my siblings up and made them food. At 7,

my culinary repertoire was pretty much just mac

and cheese. That’s the only thing I knew how

to make. Things started to get worse when they

stopped working and never left the house. The

food ran out, and we were starving. We stole

our neighbor’s electricity and water. All three

kids had such bad cases of lice our scalps would

bleed. But nothing compared to the terror of our

bathroom. You think a boogie man in the closet

is scary? You didn’t see our disgusting bathroom.

The bathtub was full of maggots and

cockroaches. My 2-year-old sister’s dirty diapers

were everywhere. It wasn’t strange to see a rat

in the bathroom. I had to stand on the sides of

the tub to shower. I cried as bugs crawled over

my feet.

Fairy tale my ass.

One day, I had enough. I couldn’t keep living

that way. I was only a second grader but I

already knew no one should live that way. I told

the school what was going on at home. The next

day cops and Child Protective Services showed

up at our house. I guess my prince charming

wore blue.

I remember sitting in the back of a police car

and listening to my siblings cry. Usually when

CPS takes children from a home, it’s standard to

first go to their offices. Processing or whatever.

In our case, we went straight to the hospital. We

were so hungry you could see our bones. And the

lice was eating us alive.

My father was made aware of our situation

and dropped everything. He sought custody for

me and got the court to order a DNA test. Sure

enough, I was his. Just like Nanny said.

He took parenting classes. He got an

apartment for us. It took awhile, so I was

in foster care for about a year while he got

everything situated. I changed homes twice in

that span. The first foster parents abused the

kids. I don’t even remember the second. The

third was nice, a teacher and a cop.

Finally, my dad was able to get custody of me

when I was 8-years-old. I was so happy to go

home and see my family.

When trying to share with people how rough I

had it, without giving the details, I tend to put

it this way: my situation was so bad the courts

opted to give me to an ex-felon than keep me

with my mother.

There was one problem. A major problem in

my adolescent eyes: My father was not the dad

of my siblings. He had no way to help them. He

barely got it together to get me. So they got

left in foster care. I haven’t seen or heard from

them since.

For four years, life was great. I started

believing in fairy tales again. My struggle put

Cinderella’s to shame, but at least I was getting

a happy ending. I had my family. My dad was

dating a woman named Angie, who was my

Nanny’s boss. Angie looked out for me all the

time when I lived with my dad the first time,

including picking me up from school. She was

a close family friend and was the only woman

outside of my family I looked up to.

Then life started attacking my fairy tale

again.

I was home from sixth grade, sick, with my

aunt and grandpa. My aunt had to leave for a

little bit with my grandpa. That sounds like no

big deal except my grandpa was drunk — as

always. He was not a nice man. He and my

Nanny were separated because he abused her,

and his kids. Drugs. Alcohol. History of abuse.

This is not who girls should be left home with.

Of course, I had no idea the dangers as

we started playing a game of tag throughout

the house. It was fun until he got me in the

bedroom. Everything changed.

He grabbed me and threw me onto the bed.

Touching me, trying to get my shirt off. My

grandfather was trying to rape his 12-year-old

granddaughter.

I am so thankful I had enough strength to

kick him hard enough

to hurt him for a

second, giving me

time to get away

and lock myself in my

aunt’s room.

“You can come out

Tiff,” I could hear him

yelling. “We are done

playing.”

I stayed in the room

until my aunt got

there. The only people

that knew this happened

were my two cousins, Jennifer and

Vanessa, who were more like sisters.

We’re only six months apart and we

were always together. They went through similar

experiences with our grandpa, but that is their

story to tell. We kept what happened with him a

secret until the girls were done with hiding and

wanted to tell their parents. That night was so

clear.

My stepmom and dad were having a small

party at our house and everyone was over. I

didn’t want to say anything, so I stayed in my

room. They gathered the women in the family

and told them all of our stories. It was the

women’s jobs to tell the men. I was scared of

what my dad would do.

Angie came up to me and hugged me and said

she loved me and that I could tell her anything.

I spent the night with my aunt.

In the morning, my dad showed up. He was

furious but not with me. He calmly asked if

it was true and what had happened. Then

something surprising happened. He drove me

to my Nanny’s to meet with my entire family.

Everyone was there — aunts and uncles, my

Nanny and even the culprit himself. They made

us girls stand up and tell them everything that

happened to each of us.

Can you imagine how scared and embarrassed

we were? Where is the fairy tale where little

girls have to detail your sexual assault before an

audience?

He denied everything. You know what

happened after? Nothing. It was like the entire

family decided to forget it even happened. We

30 31

still don’t talk about it. It’s just something that

happened and it stays in the silence of the past.

Karma finally got to him.

He lost one of his legs from

the drugs. Then one night,

when he was drunk in his

wheelchair, he fell over

in the streets and was hit

by a car. That cost him

another leg.

But he is still at every

family party, us girls

forced to hug him and

talk to him to keep up the

facade. Vanessa lives with him.

I started going to therapy early in

2020. I was referred to a psychiatrist. It

was hard in the beginning to talk, to open up to

people. Eventually, I was diagnosed with bipolar

depression.

Bipolar depression is not like regular

depression. It has episodes of mood swings,

ranging from depressive lows to manic highs.

Symptoms of manic episodes include high

energy, a reduced need for sleep and loss of

touch with reality. Symptoms of depressive

episodes include low energy, low motivation and

loss of interest in daily activities. Mood episodes

can last a few days or even months at a time,

and may include suicidal thoughts.

Medication was prescribed. It took a few

tries to find the right fit. But my regimen now

includes four pills a day. Two for the mood

swings, one for sleep and one for any reactions

I might get from the other three pills. There is

a fifth pill I take to combat rough days or when

something makes me especially anxious, but I

only take that when I need it.

Honestly, life is so much better with the

pills. I have bad days. But the crazy highs and

deep lows are gone. I was having a hard time

sleeping, eating too much and having suicidal

thoughts. My behavior is so much more stable

now.

Sometimes, I am smiling, and it’s not a facade

to hide my suffering. It is because I actually feel

good.

Don’t think for a second this is a fairy tale

ending. I don’t believe in that shit any more.

Naked Magazine

15th Edition

A tale of two viruses

The stark difference in handling the pandemic on opposite

sides of the Pacific

Gail Gagnon

I was in Florida the first couple months of

2020. Meanwhile, the novel coronavirus was

making its way through China, Korea, Japan and

Europe. I kept seeing it on the news and became

more interested when I saw cases in South Korea

had skyrocketed in February and March.

This was a problem because my husband is

a right-handed reliever who finally made the

Major Leagues in 2018. He joined several big

leaguers who went overseas to play as they

waited on the late-starting 2020 MLB season.

And guess where my husband was going? You

guessed it. South Korea. It was his first year

playing in the Korea Baseball Organization. This

was a big deal for him, for us, but I no longer

desired to follow him there seeing South Korea’s

struggles with the coronavirus.

Next thing I knew, it was April and time for

him to report. Reluctantly, I followed.

I will never forget when I met the translator

assigned to our family, Lee Yeon Joon. One of

my first questions was about the virus spreading

quickly through the U.S. His answer was jarring

“…they don’t really care about the coronavirus

so it can be more spread after two months or

one months. It can be spread to the old people,

so everybody feel it’s going to be a really big

issue in the United States.”

He also revealed how he was treated during

his stay in the U.S.: “A little bit because all the

Korean people wore masks when we stay in the

United States, and they are looking like, ‘Oh

what the hell are they doing that (for)? Why are

they wearing masks? Are they contagious for

that? Why do they care about the coronavirus?’

So, they are looking at us like anywhere we

go. So, we feel like racism. Especially in the

supermarket.”

The irony of his answer didn’t hit me at the

time.

International flights in the midst of a

burgeoning pandemic was terrifying, especially

after binging on the non-stop media coverage.

It is hard to fathom the creepiness of walking

through an empty, monstrous San Francisco

Airport. You have to experience it.

The silence was downright eerie. I will never

forget it. The buzz of the machinery was an

ambient noise that echoed off the cavernous

roof. Practically no one in line, not in the checkin,

not at Starbucks, not at the Southwest gate

waiting to board. The people who were there

were all intensely watching each other. You

could see the eyes darting back and forth. The

thought of being close to another human was

chilling. Mostly everyone wore masks and kept a

safe distance.

So imagine the shock of entering the plane

and seeing rows and rows of passengers. Do

they not realize we are facing a deathly virus?

Apparently, everyone had to be somewhere,

like us. Many were citizens of South Korea

who, anticipating international travel would be

banned, were making their way back home. I

shared my disinfectant wipe with a gentleman

next to me on the plane.

I took a deep breath when we landed in

Incheon, South Korea, preparing myself for the

tough journey through customs. It was also

frighteningly quiet in this airport, the only

noise coming from the people in line trying to

prove residency. Anyone who couldn’t provide a

specific address of residence was forced to stay

at a facility where they could safely quarantine.

Each step of the way, passengers’

temperatures were tracked through thermal

cameras. Once we were determined to be

in healthy condition, or at least not having

the common symptoms of the virus, arriving

passengers were required to download a phone

app to track our location and health status for

the first two weeks. It felt surreal at the time

but, in hindsight, it is not surprising as South

Korea eventually became a model country for

their response to the pandemic.

Many Americans, when the coronavirus started

ravaging the nation, were suspicious of South

Koreans — all Asians, actually — yet while in

South Korea I felt so safe considering we were in

the midst of a global pandemic.

As I walked the sunny streets of the enormous

Korean downtowns, everyone wore masks

and kept a friendly distance. Yet, they still

made sure to acknowledge one another with a

respectful bow. Elaborate shopping malls were

even open. As one entered these oversized

malls, they were greeted by employees

monitoring their temperature on cameras and

gently misted with a disinfectant.

I never felt at risk for a moment. And while I

was safe in South Korea, my family and friends

in the States were living in a state of panic,

exposed to this disgusting virus. South Koreans

were now suspicious of me and other American

travelers — still respectful, but cautious.

32 33

I went to lunch with another American wife

of a player on the team. Next to us was a clean,

empty table. The restaurant was full. There was

a line to get in. But many patrons continued

refusing the available table next to us. They’d

rather wait longer than sit by the Americans.

It was hard to even be offended given the

statistics at the time.

In April 2020, there were 50,000 deaths

confirmed in the United States, according to

the Washington Post. I was actually glad to be

in South Korea. The thought of heading home

when the baseball season ended in July, where

America’s response to coronavirus policies had

cases and deaths going through the roof, was

increasingly scary.

Before long, it was time to buckle up and take

this fight back to the United States. FYI, my

husband started 28 games, won 11 and struck

out 141 batters in 159.2 innings. Just saying.

At this time, America was having major issues

with the pandemic. Remember how terrified

I was about going to South Korea? I was even

more terrified about leaving.

This time, instead of being shocked by the

empty terminals, I was begging for them, elated

to see a clean and barren airport. There were

several health checks on the way to the airport.

I was pleased with the amount of precaution the

Korean government took to keep everyone safe.

Once again, I took a deep breath when the

plane landed, this time in San Francisco. This

time, the fearful entry I was anticipating was

into California.

Was I even on the same planet? People

removing their masks, crowding together.

TOUCHING EACH OTHER.

The health checks were simplistic,

unconvincing. I got through customs and to my

luggage carousel way too easily. It should’ve

been much harder given we’re in a pandemic.

Leaving the airport and walking to my front

door, I could see maskless neighbors talking to

one another. I slammed my door behind me,

disgusted with what I was seeing. After being

away for four months, we were home. And for

the first time since the coronavirus hit, I was

scared.

The irony.

Naked Magazine

15th Edition

The fear stays with me

Shelter in place leaves children vulnerable to their abusers

Rebecca Robison

I still hear her, now and then.

Creeping up the brown staircase, leaning on

each individual stair. The wood creaking under

her weight, slowly, steadily.

My heart rate increases. My breathing

becomes shallow. My eyes fixate on the closed

door as I clench my pillow. Then my entire body

paralyzes as I wait for her to enter. It feels like,

at any moment, she will break down the door

and unleash her fury.

But the door doesn’t open. It never does. Not

anymore, at least. Not since I was younger.

One thing being quarantined has taught me

is that no matter how much I try to bury my

past, it will always come back to haunt me. To

my chagrin, ignoring it is impossible. The only

path to overcoming is facing the demons from

yesteryear, from a childhood marked by trauma.

The journey is not so glamorous.

Writer Jeanne McElvaney states, “Dissociated

trauma memories don’t reveal themselves like

ordinary memories. Like pieces of a puzzle, they

escape the primitive part of our brain where the

trauma has been stored without words.”

During these past months, my trauma has

escaped from the deep crevices of my brain.

My story must begin with a disclaimer. It

is absolutely not pleasurable to read. It is

disturbing, troubling, appalling. It will make

your skin crawl, and your blood will boil. This

certainly is not easy to write. As the memories

slowly flood back into my mind, the revealing of

it gets increasingly embarrassing.

But I do so anyway because there is a message

hidden among the chaos. And when I consider

that, sadly, with COVID-19 prompting emergency

shutdowns and shelter-in-place orders across

the country, has created more opportunity for

child abuse. One of the concerning components

of the pandemic setting, including schools being

closed, was mandated reporters no longer being

around children.

Teachers are one of the primary reporters

of suspected child abuse and they were

removed from their positions to see the signs.

In California, reports of child abuse dropped

28 percent from April to August in 2020, per

the California Department of Social Services.

Pennsylvania has seen a 50% decrease in calls

to its child abuse reporting hotline, according

to the Pennsylvania Department of Human

Services.

The presumption is that many children are

suffering in silence, trapped in the shadow of

their abuser.

The world is a scary place, full of scary

people. My dad knew this to be true. He just

didn’t expect one of those “scary” individuals to

be Regina, a mother of three who reached out

to him in 2005 through the then-popular social

networking website MySpace.

Regina isn’t her real name, but an alias for

my abuser. While I’m certainly not keen on

protecting the identity of individuals who have

harmed others, I decided to change it simply

because she is no stranger to making threats.

In 2007, the relationship between my father

and Regina blossomed into something more than

just online friends. I remember my dad started

seeming more outgoing, happier and altogether

relaxed.

“I was working the graveyard shift from 5

p.m. ‘til 5:30 a.m., then getting home and

getting you to school, your brother to either

school or work,’’ my dad told me when we

reflected on what happened 15 years ago. “I was

working weekends and holidays, and I was pretty

much brain dead.

“She set up a scenario that was perfect.”

Moving in with Regina made a lot of sense at

the time. My parents had divorced in 2005. My

34 35

dad was taking care of me and my brother in

a small two-bedroom apartment in San José.

I typically slept on the living room couch,

although sometimes I would take my father’s

bed when he went off to work. The apartment

was so compact that I would often hear my

brother playing his Nintendo DS through closed

doors, late at night.

We were living paycheck to paycheck. Barely

keeping afloat. Even as a young child, I could

tell that my father was under massive amounts

of stress. It was evident by the way he had

carried himself: shoulders slouched and eyes

heavy with exhaustion. When he slept, his

snores roared through the apartment, as though

he had not gotten rest in weeks.

Regina, on the other hand, had a house in

Livermore, a town vastly different and much

more beautiful than our neck of the woods. She

lived directly across from Livermore High School

and not far from an elementary and middle

school. She mentioned to my father that if he

moved with her, she would take care of all the

cooking, cleaning and getting me to school. All

he would have to worry about was working. It

was almost perfect.

I’d be lying if I said that I wasn’t looking

forward to moving.

Regina and I were relatively close before

we moved in with her. My mother and I were

close as well, but she had been going through

personal problems which led me to live with my

dad the majority of the time.

Regina and I would bake cookies, go on trips

to the beach and do various fun activities. I

would even sleepover at her house. She had

three children and they all treated me like I was

their little sister.

Multiple nights we sprawled out in the living

room, our blankets and pillows littering the

carpeted floor. We watched movies, like “The

Chronicles of Narnia” or played video games.

Many hours were spent on “Call of Duty 4:

Modern Warfare.”

It wasn’t long after my dad and I officially

moved in that things started to seem off. Regina

and my father had quickly eloped, and after

a couple of months after our first Christmas

together, our seemingly happy home was

Naked Magazine

15th Edition

disturbed.

“One time sticks out to me,” my dad said,

“but I am sure there were others before this

— when she accused you of letting the sister

missionaries into the house.”

Which was a lie.

Regina thought I let missionaries from the

local Mormon church into the house without

consulting a parent first, which would have been

an issue if that actually happened.

When we moved in, Regina came down with

a number of illnesses, including multiple heart

attacks and seizures. She once slipped into a

coma due to sepsis. From time to time, she

suffered from carbon dioxide poisoning, which

made her lash out in peculiar ways.

All of us thought early on her strange actions

were a result of the various health conditions.

“She was acting crazy and accusing everyone

of things that just didn’t happen,” my dad said,

“I thought at the time it was just because she

was sick.”

When I was around the age of 9, I was in San

José one weekend visiting my mother. My mom

bought me this beautiful pink tutu-like skirt

with golden stars scattered all over. I couldn’t

wait to wear it to school and show my fourthgrade

friends. At Jackson Elementary, a group

of popular kids in my grade always wore the

coolest clothes. I just wanted to show off my

skirt and, theoretically, make them envious.

When I came back to my father’s house,

Regina noticed the new skirt and forbade me

from wearing it.

She took the skirt and stashed it inside a

drawer in her room. Me being a defiant kid, I

found it and took it back, secretly wearing it to

school. My plan was simple: wear black leggings

out of the house, slip the skirt on when I got to

school, then slip it off before Regina came to

pick me up at the end of the day.

It was a perfect plan. Except I forgot to take

it off. When she arrived, she saw the skirt,

started yelling at me and I was then grounded.

My beautiful skirt, this time, was stashed in the

trash.

I knew at the time this had nothing to do

with me. Regina was jealous of my mom. I was

convinced. Regina had made it clear I was to call

her “mom” because in her mind she acted more

like a parent towards me than my real mother.

It was uncomfortable at first but, eventually, I

grew used to it.

But once, for reasons I don’t even remember,

I started calling her Regina again. She didn’t like

that. I still remember sitting on the baby blue

steps of the front porch, looking up to her as she

stood over me, her eyes welling with tears. She

told me she was hurt. I was mad at her, so mad I

wasn’t calling her mom.

I felt bad about hurting her and agreed to

keep calling her mom. I did too, until she and

my dad split.

Regina’s resentment of my mother flared up

again when I was 12. I was at Target with my

mom when I spotted a pair of wedge sandals. I

had never worn heels or wedges before, but I

was absolutely infatuated with these shoes. My

mom noticed and bought them for me. I was so

excited to have my first pair of “heels.”

36 37

The excitement lasted all the way until I got

home. Regina was nothing short of furious. She

made me put on the sandals and walk in them

across the room. As I did so, she let me know

I looked like a whore, a slut and a hooker all

rolled into one. By the time I made it to the

other side of the room, the shame had me in

tears.

Again, I was yelled at, grounded and the shoes

were thrown in the trash. I rarely wear heels

now because of that trauma.

In the current state of the world, it’s easy

for parents to lash out at children due to the

overwhelming stress some may be feeling.

People are losing jobs, family members

are ending up in the hospital and some are

struggling to pay their bills.

Peter Hartman, a psychology professor at Las

Positas College weighed in on this topic, stating,

“The age of Covid has brought new and terrible

stresses to many. Losses of jobs, homes and any

sense of normalcy, along with losses of social

outlets, losses of people to the virus, dealing

with the unknown, all create massive stress and

fear. Stress and fear lead to anger and anger can

lead to violence.”

All of this was just the preface. The emotional

abuse was but a precursor. Our lives, my life,

Naked Magazine

was about to get heavier.

On Oct. 27, 2014, Regina’s oldest son was

killed in a freak accident involving a big rig tire

smashing into the front windshield of the car

he was in. He wasn’t just a stepbrother, he was

my big brother, and I was his little sister. He was

someone I turned to during these hard times,

someone who would listen and give advice. He

knew exactly what I was going through as he was

going through it himself.

When he died, my whole world shattered. I

no longer had hope of escaping, no one to turn

to in confidence. I died with him in 2014, in a

very real sense. I wasn’t myself anymore. Just a

shell.

After his death, Regina became ruthless. One

morning I came home early from school because

I was sick and she was not pleased to see me.

After a few words, Regina claimed her son

“would be very disappointed in me” and how

she hoped “he will ‘strike down’ on me.”

It was depression that came down on me.

In the ensuing months, Regina talked bad

about me to other people, calling me lazy, fat,

disgusting — often times with me nearby and

loud enough to hear — I sank deeper and deeper

into a rut of self-loathing. I never told my dad

for fear it would erupt into a gigantic fight

between the two.

But it was inevitable he would find out.

Regina’s daughter told him how she had been

treating me, after she had been fighting with

her mother. She fled the house after the

argument, and out of anger texted my father

the confession. He was furious and confronted

Regina, who was seated on our living room

couch when he got home.

Regina, of course, denied it all. So my dad

asked me about it. I’ll never forget this day.

I was sitting on the bottom bunk of my bed. I

had overheard the conversation between the

two and listened to my father’s footsteps as he

made his way to my room. His face was tensed

up, and while he asked me gently, his voice was

shaken with anger. I confessed sheepishly, saying

it had been happening for a while. My voice was

shaking too, but instead with fright.

Regina responded by racing to my room, after

hearing me tell the truth. As she made her way

to us, she roared, “That’s a lie!”

My dad turned and stood in front of my

room, using his 5-foot-8- inch body to block the

doorway. I could see her fists balled and the

rage in her eyes. My body instantly froze, not

knowing what to do. I stared wide-eyed at the

scene that played out before me.

Regina tried to move her way around my dad.

When she realized she couldn’t, she punched

him in the stomach. When he absorbed her blow

without moving, she retreated back into the

living room.

When she left my room, I sat there shocked,

horrified and I started to cry. This wasn’t the

first time Regina tried to hurt me, as she had

pushed me to the ground a couple of times.

But this time, I was truly frightened. Something

about the ferocity in her eyes had broken me

down and made me fearful for the future.

When she left the room, my dad followed her,

yelling. As expected, a huge fight lashed out

over the situation, which lasted deep into the

night.

The next day, Regina went to the hospital

complaining of back problems. She told the

nurse they were a result of my father shoving

her into my bedroom door. Which was a lie.

But the nurse, doing her job, filled out a

police report about the domestic violence

allegations. A couple of days later, an officer

came to the door asking about the situation. He

knew Regina personally. My dad gave his side of

the story and let the officer know I witnessed

the whole event and would be willing to give an

account.

The officer said it was not necessary and left.

Years after the trauma, I saw Regina sitting

with a friend inside of a local Livermore

restaurant. My friends and I were seated just a

few tables over, and I didn’t notice her until I

heard her voice pierce through the air. I could

never forget that voice.

At first, I felt the same terror that I had felt

as a child and my body started to freeze. But

that slowly distinguished, and I settled down

after reminding myself that I am stronger than

before.

Regina and her friend left about five minutes

after we were seated, and as she walked by our

table to leave, I held my head high and averted had severe anxiety and just the thought of some

my eyes.

stranger Below average test scores, grades and academic

(joining our friend group) would make

She didn’t notice me.

you very achievements. Traits include showing minimal

uneasy. Your spirit is on fire now, raging

After she left, interest in subjects and low my table’s conversation with energy unlike the child you once were

participation.

continued and we ordered. I felt myself slowly years ago. I hope she feels remorse and guilt for

slip away and disassociate from the others. the remainder of her life.”

Flashbacks interrupted in my mind, and I started If there is anything that you take away from

to reflect on the person I was, versus the person this story, it’s to evaluate yourself and others.

SYMPTOMS OF

I am now.

Abuse can happen to anyone regardless of race,

“I think there is an obvious shift in how you sex, status or age.

hold yourself and with your happiness now that Many people were in and out of my childhood

4 SOCIAL WITHDRAWAL

you’re free from that environment,” my friend home. Not one outside person realized the

of over a decade, Crissy

CHILD

Boling, said when I

ABUSE

abuse that was happening behind closed doors

events, conversation

asked her to assess the new me. “I remember (and sometimes, open doors). No one interfered

Little to no interest in social

how anxious and depressed you were when we or asked questions.

were

SYMPTOMS

kids.”

The only reason

OF

dealing with Those or social

peers. with interacting

I long for themselves isolate may withdrawl got out was that my dad and

periods.

Sally Garcia, another friend of mine, told Regina eventually divorced. If that weren’t the

me reflecting on the differences in my attitude case, I wouldn’t be writing this article.

from many years ago: “I understood that you I’d be dead.

victims

Traits commonly seen in ab

abuse victims

in seen commonly Traits

REBELLIOUS BEHAVIOR

1

2

3

5

POOR GRADES

CHILD ABUS

in abuse

CHILD ABUSE

seen commonly Traits

1

2

victims

SYMPTOMS O

BEHAVIORAL CHANGES

This may include heightened emotional outbursts

of anger, frustration and depression. This is

typically involuntary, and may alter behavior.

rules,

household against going includes This

participating in dangerous activities and exhibiting

REBELLIOUS BEHAVIOR

6 SELF-HARM/INJURIES

disrespectful attitudes.

participating in dangerous ac

rules,

household against going includes This

LOSS OF CONFIDENCE


self-harm abrasions can

participating dangerous activities and exhibiting

and injuries Unexplained

signs of child abuse. The National Suicide


be

Prevention Line can be reached at 800-273-8225.

The lack of a positive mindset about oneself.

Difficulty making choices, not speaking in social

LOSS OF CONFIDENCE

situations and personal critical dialog.

I N F O R M A T I O N G A T H E R E D F R O M M A Y O C L I N I C . O R G

REBELLIOUS BE

This includes going against h

Difficulty making choices, not

mindset about oneself.

situations and personal critica

The lack positive a of

38 39

1

2

15th Edition

LOSS OF CONF

The lack of a positive mindset

Difficulty making choices, not speaking in social

Naked Magazine

15th Edition

College behind Costco

proves its worth during

troubling year

Nezrin Hasanly

Jack Stickler was a rising young star in Dublin

High School’s theater program. His beaming

smile and effervescent personality became a

familiar sight in shows like “Guys and Dolls,”

“Urine Town” and “Sweeney Todd.” He had high

hopes by the time college application deadlines

rolled around. The American Musical and Drama

Academy in New York City, that’s what he was

thinking. He would major in musical theater at

AMDA, a top-notch performing arts college.

The nerves were starting to build. It was

getting real. He could envision graduating. He

could imagine the discomfort of being in a new

city all by himself. He could already feel the

intensity pursuing an infamously treacherous

career path. It was a lot to process, and it was

happening so fast. But this felt like destiny.

Then COVID-19 hit. All his plans came to a

crashing halt. He became one of millions of

graduating seniors who had to alter their plans.

They were supposed to be spending the summer

of 2020 enjoying one last romp through their

town, with friends they may never see again,

before entering a new stage of life.

Instead, they found themselves rearranging

plans, vetting distance learning programs and

converting their bedrooms into Zoom-ready

classrooms. Those who got into their dream

school had to wonder whether their virtual

admission was worth the regular price tag

attached. They could take a gap year. But isn’t

the point of that to work and save money, or

travel somewhere to refresh after high school?

All of that was out in a pandemic. A gap year

was robbed of its usual perks.

So what was left?

Community college.

The old reliable. The beacon for altered plans

and second chances. The local staple ready to

assist with most all aspirations.

Colleges were under a microscope once the

pandemic interrupted the spring semesters,

trimesters and quarters. The rise of COVID-19

cases brought partying students into the

spotlight, making them one of the targets of

blame for the rising cases. Then there was the

public debate about colleges keeping their costs

the same despite shutting its doors, closing its

dorms and transitioning to online. When sports

began shutting down in March, the controversy

became about what sports should play, what

should continue and which ones would disappear

altogether due to the loss of revenue.

Through it all, California community colleges

came out looking pretty good. Often overlooked

in the search of prestige, junior colleges in

some cases seemed more equipped for the new

environment — especially commuter schools

such as Las Positas College, which already

boasted a quality distance education program

and isn’t encumbered by on-campus housing.

Behind the appealing curtains, community

college districts have been facing serious

challenges of their own — including a decline in

students enrolling and a reduction in budgets.

But someone had to be there for the students

who needed a place to go. Someone had to

provide for a community in search of quality

academics in the middle of a pandemic.

Someone had to answer the demand for

affordability, convenience and efficiency. And

Las Positas College was that lifeboat for local

students. That includes Jack Stickler, whose New

York theater dreams are currently put on pause.

Stickler had extensive theater training

for someone his age. His experience in

improvisational practice taught him sometimes

he has to make big decisions on the fly and just

go with it. Sure, this improv was brought about

by a virus infecting the globe, but he can adapt.

It’s not acting stages and Central Park strolls.

But it’s also not hundreds of thousands of dollars

to learn online.

In mid-July, UC Berkeley and UC Merced were

the first UC campuses to announce their fall

semester would be online. Within a virtual event

about how coronavirus was affecting California,

UC Berkeley Chancellor Carol Christ claimed it

was too risky to allow face-to-face instruction.

The Chabot-Las Positas Community College

District’s Chancellor Ronald Gerhard announced

in May 2020 the district would enact online

learning for the fall semester. Five months later,

the district announced the spring 2021 semester

would remain online.

“Most colleges and districts in California are

experiencing a 10 to 15% decrease in enrollment

40 41

from last fall,” Gerhard said in October. Las

Positas, he said, was down 8.34%. In other

words, 684 fewer students for the fall 2020

semester.

Gerhard added that, historically, recessions

have typically increased community college

enrollments. Recessions lead to unemployment

and “community colleges are often sought out

to provide short-term training and certifications

for employment, career advancement and

education that leads to new careers and

economic mobility.”

A recession will inevitably lead to changes

in budgets and for the education sector, this

couldn’t be more true. In the Chancellor’s

Budget Town Hall held on Nov. 2, Gerhard went

over how the coronavirus recession has impacted

the economy, including funding for education.

In June, California’s unemployment rate was at

14.9% which then went down to 13.3% in July.

And according to the Employment Development

Department (EDD) for the state of California on

Oct. 16, the unemployment rate dropped down

to 11% in September 2020 compared to only

3.9% during September 2019.

Although the pandemic has caused a $54.3

billion budget deficit for California, Gerhard said

the district is facing budget deferrals, not cuts,

for the moment. Despite deferrals being better

than budget cuts, Gerhard said, “It’s not going

to provide immunity to anticipated cuts or the

level of cuts that we expect.”

The district took action and enacted a hiring

freeze which “provides us with a great deal of

flexibility to adjust, and to respond to the fiscal

circumstances, and not immediately impact the

employment of current employees,” Gerhard

said.

Gerhard also said that the District Enrollment

Management Committee suggested possible

reductions in the number of classes offered

in the 2021-2022 academic year. Gerhard was

quick to reassure his audience that none of the

changes have been set in stone yet. He also

encouraged people to discuss and share their

views about where the budget plans could and

should go.

But there is more than enough at California

community colleges to accommodate the rush

Naked Magazine

of rising and current college students who want

to stay local in a pandemic or don’t want to pay

the cost of attendance without all the perks of

attending in person.

Even though many students across the nation

have scoffed at the idea of online education at

full price, they still seem to find value in online

education when it is affordable and allows them

to stay at home.

“(Students) still find it very important. That’s

why they’re coming,” said Rajider Samra, LPC’s

director of research, planning and institutional

effectiveness. “The more higher education you

have, the more likely that you are able to make

a wage that supports a family.”

Jakdhale Gutierrez has hopes of becoming

a lawyer, though she’s still trying to settle on

a preferred practice. You don’t have your eye

on law school and expect a cake walk. That’s

why although she prefers in-person education,

especially for math and science, she’s fine with

an online detour at the local community college

because “nothing is going to be easy no matter

what level of education we are heading to.”

College is tough as it is. Throw in a pandemic,

a recession and heavy issues weighing on the

national discourse, and you have yourself the

2020-2021 school year. People are having to

toughen up and power through unexpected

struggles. The community college setting is

ideal for students who are determined to grind

through some adversity.

Gutierrez originally planned to attend Saint

Mary’s College after graduating from high

school. But she chose LPC to help her family

save money. She decided the community college

route after meeting with a counselor at Saint

Mary’s and learning what she needed to do to

transfer there from LPC.

Stickler was given similar guidance by AMDA

and the supportiveness of the college regarding

transfer students. However, he still plans

on going to New York. He had been planning

a straight-to-NYC move after high school.

But being forced to shelter in place at home

changed his feelings.

“I think because I’ve spent so much time

at home,” said Stickler, an Eagle Scout who

continued his community service while still

home, “it’s kind of just become really crazy to

think about leaving that really soon and just

making that (move for AMDA) super fast.”

It’s the decision millions have been forced

to make. The trick for them is to keep pressing

towards their dreams while the nation seems

to be suspended in a state of adversity. That’s

where community colleges come in. That’s

where Las Positas thrives.

“The best way to succeed is just keep your

eye on the goal,” Samra said, “(on) what your

goal is, and self advocate for where you want to

go.”

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15th Edition

Elvis Presley, biopics

and the importance of

historical accuracy

Kirstie Burgess

One of Elvis Presley’s most famous songs is

Hound Dog. You know that one, right?

You ain’t nothin’ but a hound dog

Cryin’ all the time

The original song was written by Jerry Leiber

and Mike Stoller and recorded by Willie Mae

Thornton in 1952. Who was better known as Big

Mama Thornton, a legend from the Bay Area

blues scene in the 60s, became a household

name with “Hound Dog.” It spent 14 weeks on

the Billboard R&B charts, seven at No. 1 and

sold 500,000 copies.

Big Mama Thornton and “Hound Dog” was

credited for elevating Black singers into rock

‘n’ roll status. It was also an anthem for Black

women as the song was about a freeloading man

who’d worn out his welcome.

You ain’t nothing but a hound dog

Been snoopin’ ‘round the door

You ain’t nothing but a hound dog

Been snoopin’ ‘round my door

You can wag your tail

But I ain’t gonna feed you no more

In 1956, Elvis made one of the 250 recordings

of the song and his version blew up. At the time,

it was common for artists to cover the songs of

others. As one Slate writer said, it’s just the way

the music industry was then. Elvis tweaked the

lyrics and sold more than 10 million copies. His

version became the theme song for a rock ‘n’

roll revolution which helped him earn the title

King of Rock and Roll.

I learned this in a music history class at Las

Positas College. “History of Rock & Roll” in the

spring semester of 2018. That’s when I was

introduced to Presley and started listening to his

music.

Now, I’m counting down the days to the

release of the biopic “Elvis” by Baz Luhrmann.

The Warner Bros. film stars Austin Butler as Elvis

with Tom Hanks as his co-star. It was originally

scheduled for November 2021 but has been

pushed to June 2022.

Biopics of famous musicians have become

very popular in recent years. There is something

special about our ability to learn about past eras

despite being so far removed. The media age in

which we live creates the best kind of libraries.

In what other era did you get such a wealth of

deep dives into legends and their origins, the

context of the times, the correlation to today?

I knew who Presley was. I’d obviously heard

his name before, knew what he did. But my

only exposure to his music was from the show

“Full House” if I’m being honest. But since the

class, I’ve been collecting Presley records on

vinyl. I watched the HBO doc “Elvis Presley:

The Searcher” and learned a lot. That sent me

deeper down the Presley rabbit hole.

My goal is to own all 57 of his records. I’m up

to 30.

Presley is an example of what gets lost in

translation. Everyone knows the name but,

at the same time, no one knows him. Presley

was a pioneer. There was no one like him. He

resonates with people in a way that doesn’t

happen often, and his life story has incredible

texture. Presley is a window into another time.

But over the decades he’s been reduced to

trinkets and gimmicks. He’s become a two

dimensional figure on purses, mugs and bobble

heads. An entire generation, my generation,

misses out on the greatness of an icon and the

understanding of his era and impact, because he

gets presented in modern culture as someone

who weirdos dress up as in Las Vegas.

Biopics serve a great purpose in that sense.

They introduce us to artists and icons in ways

we haven’t been. That tends to pique interest.

When Queen’s biopic “Bohemian Rhapsody”

came out, according to Billboard, streaming

of the band tripled in the six months after the

movie came out, from 588 million to 1.9 billion.

Films about Motley Crew, Amy Winehouse and

N.W.A. also promoted a spike in the streaming

of their music, per the magazine Ultimate

Classic Rock.

It’s not necessarily that Elvis needs the bump.

In 2019, Elvis was streamed more than 16.5

million hours according to Spotify. People aged

18 to 22 streamed Presley the most at 20%.

While people aged 45 to 59 came in at 17%.

Prelsey didn’t write his songs. He wasn’t a

songwriter, though he co-wrote a few according

to the magazine American Songwriter. He was

44 45

a performer and his excellence ranged from

dancing on stage to movies to connecting

personally on songs like “Separate Ways,” which

came out a year before his divorce was final.

In 2015, Spotify launched two programs to

illustrate how today’s artists were influenced

by Elvis. A Mashable article covered the results

of the since-completed Spotify project. For

example, Trey Songz, the modern R&B star, was

influenced by Presley by virtue of his Smokey

Robinson inspiration. Robinson was influenced

in part by Gene Pitney, who was influenced by

Presley. Lady Gaga, too. Her and Metallica’s

influence traces back to Queen, who was

influenced by Presley.

History buffs eat this stuff up, but on some

level we can all benefit from a course on past

legends. If it can’t be a class in college, then

biopics hit the spot.

That’s why I can’t wait for this Elvis one to

drop. It’d be nice to have some Presley fans to

talk to.

Before you go...

“We are undaunted

in our belief that

we shall overcome.

That we will rise up.

This is American

aspiration.”

— Vice President

Kamala Harris

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