By Ravyn Hardwick There is no doubt that Black students, Black families and Black colleges would be special beneficiaries of whatever student-loan debt President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. would wipe out by executive order on his first day in office. The more, the better. The uncertainty is whether there will be any loan forgiveness at…
By Arielle Williams Some in Hollywood have launched very personalized initiatives in response to the movements for women’s empowerment, social justice and Black Lives Matter by focusing on crimes of racial and sexual violence against Black women, including women in LGBTQ communities. The actions often are more individualized than sweeping, shaped in part by how…
By Jalen Whitehead Gun control has long been a controversial topic, especially in the United States. Most Americans believe guns are essential to their freedom, a sentiment enshrined in the Second Amendment’s guarantee of the right to bear arms. Americans own almost 50 percent of the civilian-owned guns worldwide and has 120.5 guns per capita,…
By Greer Jackson Whether by design, coincidence or indifference, the Trump administration’s proposal to tighten restrictions on international students could extract greater tolls on those from Africa, whose numbers are among the least contributing to what the administration asserts is a national security threat, critics of the plan say. Countries on the continent account for…
By Tia Lowe It was just a few days after George Floyd died under a policeman’s knee on a Minneapolis street, a killing that would breathe greater life into protests against racial injustice as part of the Black Lives Matter movement, that Aurora James posed her question. “What if major retailers like Walmart, Sephora, Target…
By Jade Whaley In the midst of increased racial tensions in the U.S., a new kind of cultural appropriation has emerged, which some have dubbed “Blackfishing.” Cultural appropriation, the idea of members of one culture adopting elements of another culture, is a hot topic on social media. The term Blackfishing is used to describe an…
By Ravyn Hardwick George Floyd, an unarmed Black man, was seen by millions in video footage gasping, “I can’t breathe” while a white police officer kneeled on his neck until he died. In death, he joined a growing litany of names: Trayvon Martin, Breonna Taylor, Atatiana Jefferson, Philando Castille, Eric Garner, and Tamir Rice, just…
By Jaylin Ward The woman who said a doctor at an immigrant detention center removed one of her fallopian tubes without her consent doesn’t quite fit the Trump administration’s suggested image of a desperate illegal alien sneaking across the border from Mexico. She is 30 years old, has a 12-year-old American-born daughter, and has lived in…
By Jaylen Williams Calls to defund the police after the death of George Floyd got a lot of attention in the 2020 election season, with each presidential candidate accusing the other of seeking to slash the budget for law enforcement. But what does the call to “defund” even mean and does either outgoing President Trump…
By Kayla-Ajanae Archer-Buckley Social media has become a key component of activism in the last few years. Movements are easily able to gain traction with the use of hashtags. Popular platforms like Twitter also make it easier to spread information through infographics, circulate crowdfunding pages and share other resources. On its 10-year anniversary in 2016,…