The Lancer

The Lancer

The Lancer

New MegaMind TV and Movie Sequel Release
New MegaMind TV and Movie Sequel Release
Joseph Goodnight, Opinion Editor • February 20, 2024

In March of this year, Dreamworks is set to release a Peacock exclusive TV show and movie sequel to the beloved 2010 MegaMind movie. The trailer...

In Fastbreak Fashion
Jake Bradley, Sports Editor • February 14, 2024

Lancers lead the way in the second half. The Great Oak Wolfpack came into Thousand Oaks Tuesday night for the CIF quarterfinals and with them...

Perserving in Penalty’s
Jake Bradley, Sports Editor • February 14, 2024

The Lady Lancers traveled to a neutral site in Anaheim to take on the Katella Knights in the second round of the CIF-SS girls soccer playoffs....

Kanye - He's Back at it...or Maybe Not?
Elijah Brown, The Lancer Staff • February 14, 2024

Kanye West's new album “Vultures 1”, many nationwide were skeptical at first about Kanye's new album considering the controversies he has...

It’s Valentine’s, Baby
It’s Valentine’s, Baby
Momo Sonoda, Editor-In-Chief • February 14, 2024

St. Valentine’s Day commemorates the death of St. Valentine, but for others, the holiday marks a day of birth. Junior Chokee Weezer was born...

Health Science Majors Program hosts their senior showcase
Momo Sonoda, Editor-In-Chief • February 12, 2024

Last week, the seniors in Health Science Majors hosted a showcase, featuring various professions that they hope to pursue in the future. At the...

Advancing Again
Jake Bradley, Sports Editor • February 12, 2024

The Lancers left campus during lunch to travel to Temecula for their round two playoff game, and the ride wasn’t enough to stop the Lancers....

Double-Double Galore
Jake Bradley, Sports Editor • February 12, 2024

The Lancers once again came out of a playoff game as a victor, behind a powerful Trent Maclean performance nonetheless. Maclean powered his way...

Avid Attack
Jake Bradley, Sports Editor • February 9, 2024

A massive performance from standout freshman led the way for the Lancers at Ventura College, freshman Maddie Linville started the game off strong...

Advancing at last!
Jake Bradley, Sports Editor • February 8, 2024

Fast start, with no slowing down, your Lancers took down the Chaffey Tigers 3-1. A very early goal from junior attacker Gabriel Torreblanca gave...

Elias Chin ready to take a shot
Onto the Next
Jake Bradley, Sports Editor • February 8, 2024

Advancing at last!  Despite a close score after each of the first two quarters, stars Elias Chin and Trent Maclean were able to help the Lancers...

Valentines Day grams for your special someone -- or not
Valentine's Day grams for your special someone -- or not
Gabriella Muller, The Lancer Staff • February 8, 2024

With Valentine's day approaching quickly, the student store is crowded with students buying Valentine's Grams for people they know -- and those...

Sephora Takeover
Sephora Takeover
Gabriella Muller, The Lancer Staff • February 8, 2024

With the rise of popular skincare brands coming from Tiktok, Sephora is seeing a rise in sales but a massive drop in age. “10-13 year old kids...

Point Counterpoint: The Super Debate
Point Counterpoint: The Super Debate
Kevin Starr and Christian-Isaiah AguilarFebruary 8, 2024

Two The Lancer columnists -- Kevin Starr and Christian-Isaiah Aguilar -- have strong opinions about the upcoming Super Bowl. Here, they square...

on the bottom is real animal based leather, while on the top is “vegan” leather, or “pleather”
Vegan Leather is Worse for the Environment than Real Leather
Joseph Goodnight, Opinion Editor • February 8, 2024

Throughout the the past 20 years the interest in sustainability and ethicality has risen immensely, especially in regards to fashion, as the...

Guest Column: A Call to the Majority

Guest+Column%3A+A+Call+to+the+Majority

To understand racism as a white individual in America, one must understand their own privilege. Privilege is the ability to breathe. The privilege of being a Thousand Oaks resident is to only understand racism as an abstraction. An abstraction that will capture white America’s attention for a brief moment only to dissipate as if no real people were affected, as if it did not “concern” us. Privilege is living comfortably enough to where you forget race is a problem, so you “don’t see color,” or declare that “all lives matter.” Privilege is being able to comfortably not condone the looting on your Instagram story because you’ve never experienced poverty. Privilege is to understand slavery as a distant memory rather than an active plight. Privilege is being able to quote Martin Luther King Jr. in a call for peaceful protest as if we had progressed since his passing. Privilege is a call for peace as if there is something to bargain in a system providing no favors. Privilege is being able to call protesters “thugs,” as if their actions were really the problem. When will people understand that these supposed horrid acts are a failure of us as people? 

The government is an acting body in which only presides power upon the citizens upholding its laws in a social contract. Any act contradicting such a social contract is glorified by the media as a hideous act when in actuality it is only hideous because we believe it so. White America is so invested in upholding the social contract that many people of privilege do not even recognize they are doing so, for it is easy to uphold a system that favors your own needs. 

However, upholding a social contract that spits back in your face is another matter entirely. 

Upholding the social contract for black America has only led to more dead bodies and young men deprived of their prime because of an inherent flaw in the system. Imagine living day after day with more bullets than favors being offered by the social contract you so graciously agreed to. Imagine your fellow man being so comfortable in his seat of ignorance that he continues to uphold the existing social contract as if it has no inherent flaw. Imagine confiding to your agreement with society to have it degrade you to a lesser lifeform, to a villainized blackness. Talk of injustice. Now consider the George Floyd protestors, not as thugs or looters but people acting out against a society that offered nothing but pain. Consider them as people pushed to the brink of destruction. Consider these protestors not within the confines of the preestablished social contract because you will only reach the conclusion we have already come to time and time again: They are “thugs” and you cannot justify violence. Rather than continually buy into the social contract embedded with institutionalized racism, I ask that you understand these protests are no mere acts of violence but attempts to destroy the status quo. A protest is to contradict the confines of the existing social contract, so continued complaints about violence reduces the protest within the society as a mere question of character. This postulation perpetuates the current cycle of injustice our country finds itself within, as questioning the ethics of an individual within a system that inherently lacks ethics is demeaning. 

The system enacts violence as an enforcer, so every time we ask for peace, we call for our fellow citizens to lay down arms. To lay down arms is to provide the system with the justification it needs to continue its existing plight against the black man. We punish our black communities for picking up arms against racism even though the system has driven them to such a solution. Our condemning of their violence only rewinds the clock on the cyclized injustice against African Americans. Rather than recognizing their violence as a flaw in character or an “overreaction,” I ask that we understand their violence and protest as an act against the system. All talks of peace can be made after the abolishment of the system. I can wholeheartedly say that I can condone acts of violence against the current system. And if you do not like violence then end the system.

End the cycle of injustice. And let the black community breathe; they have been holding their breath for far too long. 

 

TOHS students may email guest column submissions to [email protected].

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Guest Column: A Call to the Majority