Author: Noah Tesfaye

With applications for our school paper now open and JEA being next week, I’ve spent a lot of time reflecting on my experience being on staff at my school paper, and more importantly, what it’s been like to be a journalist. When our adviser and my English teacher said at the beginning of the year and now with applications that “Journalism is really cool,” I kind of thought he was gassing it up. But no. He was completely right, and in many ways, did not even express how amazing being a journalist really is.

I was talking to two friends yesterday, who go to private school, and they said their school paper was heavily censored and they were not allowed to publish anything political or threatening to the administration. Thankfully, by going to a public school, our paper has the majority of our First Amendment rights available to publish nearly anything we want. This has led us to pursue stories ranging from school segregation, to the presidential election, all without any censorship.

Being a journalist has meant pursuing stories that you may not want to go out and pursue, but knowing it is the right thing to do to pursue it. There are also moments where you want to publish a story or information that will not fit in an article, yet you know that it is something the school needs to hear. These daily conversations in our class brings all of us together and pushes all of us to be better journalists.

Through my experience as a journalist, I’ve been pushed to meet new people, forging new relationships I could not have ever anticipated. Fostering relationships with our administration have gotten not only our paper important information to publish, but has given me the opportunity to learn from those who are in charge and get a better understanding of how our school works. Whether it is pursuing a school safety article or researching on the amount of people who vape at our school, creating channels of communication that are respectful and productive for both sides have been extremely helpful for our school. Our principal also reads this blog sometimes too, so I want to say to you thanks for reading!

I’ve hit some walls this year though. There was one story for a video that I could not pursue because my editor and I could not find a conclusive angle, and it hurt to not continue because I really believed that this story could have been amazing. I put in a lot of time, but we just decided to move on. There are moments also where you cannot seem to figure out an angle, or the purpose of writing a particular article, and that is frustrating too.

But that is where I believe the most important people I’ve got to know this year come in to support me: my fellow staff members. Editors, staff writers, fellow videographers have all helped me so much to hammer out how to get through those challenges. These people have been there helping edit late at night, in coffee shops, online, and during our literal “latenights” (where our editors lay out the paper), all to ensure that I can succeed to the best of my ability. Those countless hours I’ve spent working with this community has gotten me to forge true friendships that I had not known could have existed when I started in August. It is these people who have helped me become the journalist I am proud to be.

So, to anyone who is considering applying for our paper this year, I want to let you know that this experience changed my life. I truly could not have ever thought that after not getting accepted to my school paper last year that I would receive the privilege to be a managing editor. Let me know if you want any feedback on your application, and I would love to support anyone I can who wants to give journalism a chance. And if you are not from the same school, I encourage anyone who wants to pursue journalism to post here, on Medium, and share your stories as I do every week. Maybe it could change your live too.

Alright, here’s an honest fact: I’m a coffee addict. I don’t hide it. I’m not ashamed of it. In fact, I love coffee so much that I think it makes me truly appreciate how amazing coffee is. So when I read earlier this week on the Guardian that “California law requires coffee companies to carry an ominous cancer warning label because of a chemical produced in the roasting process,” I lost my damn mind.

Here’s a funny story. I was never a coffee drinker. I didn’t enjoy coffee and did not really understand why people could enjoy it. Then, last summer, I had my first lecture at Columbia. Combined with the jet lag and lack of sleep, I could not stay awake during the second lecture of the day. So on Tuesday, the next day, I went to the coffee shop under my dorm and got some iced tea. That seemed to do the trick. So Wednesday arrives, I go to get my iced tea, and they ran out. My friend suggested I get some cold brew, some drink so foreign to me that I just went along with them and got a medium. This single cold brew changed my life. It changed everything.

For starters, as an Ethiopian/Eritrean, coffee runs through my blood. It’s part of my heritage. There is always coffee time whenever we go back to Addis and every time I visit relatives who are more in-tune with the culture, they always brew coffee the Habesha way. The instant I had that first coffee in New York last summer, it felt as though a new experience had opened for me. More than just the caffeine, where I could have gotten from anything, I appreciated the flavor, tasting the subtle hints of orange and cherry in the beans. I appreciated the balance of bitter and acidic tastes, meshed together into a clear, non-branded plastic cup over ice.

Coffee has brought people together for centuries, and especially as a student, there isn’t anything like working in a coffee shop with your peers with your caffeine to fuel you through your projects. Especially this year, I’ve spent hours upon hours upon hours at coffee shops, working on all my subjects and the newspaper. Those countless hours I could have spent procrastinating at home disappeared, and the grades went up. It’s the truth.

So this brings me back to today, where I’m in my local coffee shop, where I write my blog every single week, with a cup of iced coffee right next to me(I know!!! They’re out of cold brew…). Reading that Guardian article, along with some other coverage on CNN made me confused. How can something that has been proven to have health benefits and has “no strong link can be found between coffee intake and cancer and, to the contrary, a number of health benefits seem to accompany coffee consumption,” now require a cancer label? I honestly have no idea. Even though the coffee companies could not prove that there were significant risks, there is no way I think anyone would ever give up this amazing beverage.

So what now? I mean, “They’re taking our coffee. They’re taking our caffeine. They’re taking our sustenance, and some, I assume, are good people.” But they’re not good people. I love coffee. And honestly, of all things that require a cancer label now, are you telling me they’re putting it on coffee and not fattening foods with saturated fats, trans fats, and more? I have no expertise in health at all, but I still find it absurd you’re putting a cancer label on a beverage my people have been drinking since its inception. So, while people are being freaked out about drinking coffee and Frappuccinos, I’m going to continue to sip on this iced coffee next to me for the foreseeable future.

The first time I remember learning about the Supreme Court was when Sonia Sotomayor was nominated for the court in 2009. I did not know what this court did nor did I understand the power they actually had. Through elementary and middle school, there were bits and pieces thrown into my history and social studies classes, but the true power of the court was never explained to me until I became interested in learning law in high school. I became fascinated with the court and their decisions, but I still cannot believe that so many of my peers and adults also do not understand the actual significance of the court.

I’ve come up with a few different possible reasons as to why people do not get to know much about the Supreme Court aside from its major decisions like Roe v. Wade, Brown v. Board of Education, etc and nominations. The first reason I think there is as to why there isn’t a general public respect for SCOTUS (Supreme Court Of The United States) is that their job is not as glamorous nor as appealing to watch as the other two branches. The executive branch is filled with usually a charismatic, or in our case today, a flamboyant, ignorant man, and the legislative branch is filled with loud arguments that are aired on television every single week. By contrast, the Supreme Court is a group of nine people who go under the radar, with less security than many officials in DC. They don’t express loud and ludicrous opinions out on CNN every week, nor do they make it their goal to be seen by everyone all the time. They always put their job and duty to the law as their singular goal. Although you may see justices participate in events across the globe, the majority of their work happens in DC. Then again, there’s the Notorious RBG, my all-time favorite justice on the court who’s a true legend and would destroy me in a workout

Another possible reason why they could not be followed or understood well in schools until a civics or US history course is that much of the process is based on partisanship, and while schools feel comfortable discussing beliefs of the past, some schools choose not to bring up these arguments in the classroom. I know when I was studying the Supreme Court that we never discussed the current form of the court and the opinions of the justices. We didn’t really pursue current cases and discuss the possible opinions on both sides. I did eventually get this learning opportunity last summer at Columbia, where I was exposed to a brief, but important overview of the opinions of all the justices and their histories that helped me understand why decisions break down the way they do.

While I can understand why schools may refrain from discussing politics at all for fear of alienating other students, I believe the true objective of education is to share both sides as equal as possible and allow students to create their own opinions. This means explaining the position of Breyer as much as Gorsuch. Exposing students to all ideas is the solution, not restricting just to the ideas discussed that are most comfortable to the student body. They’re not going to stop going over slavery (although they have in some places) because there’s a black person in the room. They’re not going to stop covering the Trail of Tears because a Native American in the room. They aren’t going to stop covering the horrific pasts of women or homosexual people in this country because there are women and homosexual students in the classroom. Why shouldn’t we stop covering politics and politics in the Supreme Court in particular because there are a few conservatives in my classroom?

The Supreme Court is responsible for shaping this country just as much as our presidents and Congress and in many cases much more so. I love the Supreme Court so much because I know their job is focused on one central guiding set of principles: the Constitution. They are some of the smartest people in this country and people who have the historical knowledge necessary to help guide this country to new precedents. At times, I have not agreed with the decisions made by the court in the past and I don’t agree with many of the decisions made today, but the one thing I do have faith in the United States government in is the judicial branch. Even though there’s a weird political theory idea that one day the Supreme Court could one day literally take over the country, picking cases to shape the country they want and retain their power above all other branches, I trust the Supreme Court more than I will ever trust the current Congress and president in upholding dignity and the rights of citizens in this country for the foreseeable future.

Well today has been a long day to say the least. I just wrapped up the SAT for the first time and I’ve been thinking about college stuff all month. Through it all, I’ve been hearing a lot of discouraging BS. There were moments this week that the amount of pessimism that has been being thrown around reminded me to believe in the power of self. The only person that matters most in life is me, or you.

I got the idea to write this week after my good friend, with no past school leadership experience, was voted senior class president after running a “Trump-esque” campaign (the blindside aspect, not the policy). He told himself to just run and have fun and see what would happen. He made a campaign video, amazing poster, got a lot of campaign supporters, and won. Against all of the possible naysayers and people who may have found it ridiculous that he could have lost against all experienced candidates, he worked hard and campaigned to win the election for senior class president.

My good friend’s story this week just speaks to the bigger message out here I want to speak out about. You are the one that can control your accomplishments. Like I wrote a few months ago, I realized that I have the power to change my life if I just work as hard as I can. What is as equally important is to take all advice with a grain of salt. What I really mean is the idea that we should have our goals all in sight and have laser vision about what we want to pursue. This week, I got told no about something that was a dream of mine from someone who supposedly had experience in telling me whether I could do this or not. Had I not had the self-confidence and persistent believe that I could truly pursue this goal, I don’t know how I could have handled what occurred. I may have gone into another serious depressed state that could have thrown off my SAT this week and the rest of the goals I want to pursue this month. I don’t know what could have happened…

What I did know was that I believe in my dreams. I believe in the fact that I can pursue my dreams of truly changing the world on a global scale. It is imperative that you surround yourself with people who can believe your passion, but keep you in check. They need to support you, and even when they know the challenge may be extremely difficult, they will help you every single step of the way because they want you to succeed. Against all expectations, there will be people that will tell you that you cannot do it. You can’t make it. You aren’t qualified enough. Stop trying. Give up. I cannot tell you how much my life would be different if I took any of the advice that I took from these people. They don’t have your best interests and they do not want you to succeed.

So succeed. Kick ass. Be the best person you can be because it is what you want. I don’t want anyone reading this to ever be discouraged from ever giving something their best shot. Why live your life regretting to not take that shot, not giving that opportunity a chance? I am thankful I get to live in a place every single day that gives me the opportunity to succeed and guide me onto my path to a future that will be one in a trillion. So to my fellow classmates, friends, students across the globe, and anyone who may be reading, just know that it only takes one person to make your dream a reality: you. You can do it, against all that may say otherwise. You can change the world too.

I don’t know what the hell to write this week. I’ve been swamped and don’t know what to say. I have a couple pieces that I’ve written in the past that would be great to share with you all, but I don’t know whether I should share those at this moment in time.

I guess the real issue is that, like all my fellow classmates, I am completely stressed to the point I don’t know what to even do. You are so paranoid about the fact that you have so much to do at any given moment in time that it prevents you from actually getting anything productive done at all.

I guess I could say I visited some schools, but that isn’t anything worth really sharing here. I’m working on more school paper stuff, but that’s all on that website. So what now?

This is what it means to write a blog, right? You have weeks and moments in time where everything is set to go and you’re inspired and extremely passionate, but you also have days like today, when I don’t literally have anything to say. I’m even regretting to write this because I know I could be doing so much right now, but I promised I would post something every week this year. I’m not going to apologize for the lack of a regular post because this is something that happens to everyone. I’m just going to hope that next week I’ll be more inspired to share something more intriguing with the rest of the world…

This past week in the East Coast has been one of the best weeks in a very long time for me. Yes, I didn’t have to worry about school for most of the time, or that I could take a detox from a lot of the other stuff going on back home, but I got to reconvene with all my friends and professor this past summer. The one argument we came across and tried to understand was why there has been so much inaction both politically and socially in this country. Perhaps my professor, Camila Vergara, reminded me of this as best where we cannot use solely morals to ever make a case for why there should be change to exist.

The first times in history I could think of with these examples was with the slavery and the Civil War. The Emancipation Proclamation, while freeing slaves in America, only freed slaves in the South as to affect the Southern Army and help guide the North to victory. While Lincoln morally disagreed with the idea of slavery, he didn’t actually still see black people as fit for citizenship at this time. He only freed the slaves to objectively help create an advantage for the North in the Civil War. Fast forward decades later, the United States faced a crisis. Black people were getting attacked viciously by police officers in the South for protesting against the egregious civil rights and equal rights violations by Jim Crow laws. It wasn’t just the fact that these actions were immoral that President Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act, but it was for primarily anger and resentment across the globe about the fact that the US claimed equality worldwide when they couldn’t even achieve equality at home. The Voting Rights Act of 1965 was the culmination of the CRM and ultimately led to the quelling of national debate. Once the cameras of people across the globe shifted, the prison industrial complex and public housing discrimination became more prevalent.

This is where I think we need to address that there are movements designed to shift social perception and those that are designed to shift public policy. Like a topic mentioned in a lecture I went to with my cousin at her school this past week, there are levels of dissent that are allowed in a system and then there is civil disobedience, tackling unjust laws. The Civil Rights Movement was effective because the protestors were willing to give up their livelihoods and safety for their cause. Protests that happen today, I fear, won’t be able to be as effective because both me personally and many Americans fear the consequences of taking serious civil disobedient action are too much of a risk to destroy the livelihood we live with. Action requires enough of a forceful dissent combined with real legislation that is objective.

Speaking towards the civil rights movement, the example I know best, MLK and others had to come up with objective reasons for why civil rights were great for the US. Rather than just protesting the violence, they spoke out about how including black people in all forms of the workforce would make the economy better, that they would be able to create new jobs and not get rid of the jobs that white people had. They demonstrated how they were able-bodied workers and people just like anyone else through the integration of sports and other workplaces. This same methodology must and should continue to be a part of the work that is being done today. I fear that we are too afraid and too concerned to make that risk, and even though we may protest, as I have, we may not be ready to sacrifice what is necessary for the true betterment of humanity as a whole.

This week in particular has been marked by the courageous and valiant efforts of the students of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School who have been not just protesting the gun violence that tore their community apart, but they are actively demanding legislation changes. Now, whether you may agree or disagree, their efforts must be applauded because they are willing to sacrifice their school year, and possibly their lives, to fight for gun restrictions.

There is however one significant problem that can occur with protesting. This is the fundamental crux of what goes on today. In the event that one begins to protest, the real question becomes, “Do I have the power and leverage to cause this change?” This is why many companies began to start allowing workers unions because they feared losing profits from a lack of work at their businesses. The first instinct I honestly had when seeing this protest and the ensuing marches for gun restrictions was, “If Sandy Hook couldn’t get Congress to do anything, why would students in particular strike out of class, losing only their education, to protest against gun violence in schools not in California?” But then I realized something. I realized that it isn’t about legislation at this moment in time. Sure, we should make sure to get these students as educated as possible so they can tackle gun laws head-on with the facts necessary to fight against groups that are in favor of gun rights (NRA, etc). Right now, these students really need to see that there are millions of students who are there to support their efforts. High school students, for the most part, cannot vote in this upcoming midterm election. But, there can be significant efforts made in the upcoming three and four years to ensure that when students do get the chance to vote, they can make sure to vote for candidates that support what they believe in.

Civil disobedience, courage, objective truth, and leverage are all absolutely necessary to create significant change in America. I truly wish we could all morally understand what is right versus what is wrong in the political realm, but that is just never going to be the case. I am rooting for the students of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in their efforts to fight for their beliefs and hope that they can be the first group to help pass comprehensive legislation in Congress in the near future. There needs to be the four: civil disobedience, courage, objective truth, and leverage for there to be change, and once they can really nail down those four things on this journey, there is nothing stopping them on their path to helping make this country a place they want to help change.

It is not in it’s ability to be a great movie, but it is it’s cultural and global introduction to black power is what makes it such a groundbreaking film

Like all blog posts, this story begins somewhere. Last week, I remembered that the most anticipated superhero movie in years was coming out two weeks. I let my A&C editor know that I wanted to write the review. My news editor and friend let me know he wanted to write it as well, so we agreed to co-write. Sometimes our school paper gets access to pre-screenings, and when we got tickets to see the movie this past Tuesday, I couldn’t contain my excitement. Walking into this film, I had the highest of expectations, and thankfully, it exceeded my expectations in all ways. I don’t think I’ve ever been as happy watching a film as I was when watching “Black Panther.” This film is truly one of the greatest, arguably top two superhero movies ever, and one of the best movies this year for sure.

I didn’t get to mention my personal thoughts of the film completely in our review, you can find that on our website, so I thought I would share a few more of my thoughts that we didn’t mention in the review. The first point I want to make is that there is no possible word that could describe how much pride I had watching a full-black lead cast in the biggest film series of our generation. When you see Chadwick Boseman fight against Michael B. Jordan, or when you see Lupita Nyong’o fight alongside Danai Gurira, I don’t think I have to mention this, but I will again: this is the first time this has ever happened! I mean let’s just be honest. As much as I love “Get Out” or other films with black leads, there still has never been a film that has been able to capture black power and black empowerment on such a scale like “Black Panther.” How many times do we actually see that not only a nation in Africa as a place of groundbreaking innovation, Wakanda, but is actually the most technologically advanced place in the world? For as much as we see chaos, especially for me with the recent protests in Ethiopia, black people across the globe get the chance to see their people be the smartest, most high tech, and powerful in the world, and that’s worth something we should be thankful for.

As a film, “Black Panther” fulfilled all my criteria for a great film: a great script, strong male and female leads, and great visuals/cinematography/music. Starting right off with the script and the narrative, I will just say that besides what is in my longer form review, I found Ryan Coogler and Joe Robert Cole’s adaptation of the Black Panther character to especially carry a narrative that the audience really should connect with. They wrote the film so that you could not only just care about T’Challa, Black Panther, but, if anything, you could care more about Erik “Killmonger” Stevens, the antagonist. The motivations for each character are established clearly and concisely to set context for why every single action is taken throughout the film. I won’t go into spoilers, but the two approaches on how to rule Wakanda by T’Challa and Killmonger are truly the best fictional interpretation of the battle of ideologies between MLK and Malcolm X. You can make arguments for why both sides are possible solutions to bring Wakanda to the world, as it’s an isolated nation at the beginning of the film.

Speaking towards the characters themselves, from humble T’Challa to my favorite, Killmonger, to the ferocious Okoye to the methodical Nakia to the angry W’Kabi and to the hilarious M’Baku and Shuri, I couldn’t have asked for a better team of characters that complemented each other both in dialogue but also in how they acted with each other. There was a sense of camaraderie that couldn’t necessarily be seen in the script but rather in how they appeared on screen. When you see them on the press tour now especially, it is clear that they know how important this film is, and they brought individually and collectively their best performances to the biggest stage in film.

I’ll just touch on the music, but please, I assure you that listening to “Paramedic” by SOB X RBE after watching the film is literally the greatest feeling in the world, as it’s literally Killmonger’s anthem. Overall, the soundtrack, while most of it isn’t in the film, does flow just like the film and each song provides a distinct musical interpretation of each section of the film. There were some slip-ups in the CGI at a few points, which will be obvious once you see the film, but for the most part, it was on-par with any other Marvel film in its spectacle and its scope.

The scene I have a screenshot of from the trailer above is really a part of the bigger importance of what “Black Panther” means for me as a young, black student. Even though I’m older than most of the middle school Marvel fanatics, I cannot contain my true passion and happiness for this movie because I am so proud that people like me can get the opportunity to be shared in such a positive light on the most grand stage ever granted. Ryan Coogler, Bay Area native and director of “Fruitvale Station” and “Creed,” took a risk by bringing the true meaning of black power to the world. Thankfully, he did the best job anyone could ever ask for with the creation of a world and group of characters that exemplify what it means to be strong and black. This movie will inspire millions of black people across the globe, heck it’s absolutely inspired me, to know that we can be ourselves and that’s enough. We don’t need to change our blackness to fit into a mold.

There’s no way this film could ever speak for any issues that happen in the world, particularly in Africa, but it provides insight into the most simple debates that exist about why the second most populated continent can become a greater place and has the potential to be one day the greatest continent in the world. As both African and African American, I am so proud of this film, the team, and everyone who has helped bring this story to the world. If you want to watch a film that will be one of the most important of this decade and possibly this century, or just want to watch a great film about gripping with change and acceptance, then you should watch “Black Panther.” You will not be disappointed. I promise;)