By Olivia Green In July 2021, President Biden claimed that social media platforms were “killing people” by facilitating the spread of vaccine misinformation. Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell cosigned the statement declaring that misinformation is to blame for low COVID-19 vaccination rates. The debate that followed brought up questions surrounding the public’s belief in vaccine…
ESSAY: Simone Biles Ends a Bad Year Better Off
By Aaliyah Seabrooks In the midst of her muddled path to and through the Olympic summer games in Tokyo, it would have been difficult to imagine that four months later, Simone Biles would be celebrated as Time magazine’s 2021 Athlete of the Year. Midway into the competition where she had been expected to easily win several gold…
ESSAY: Naomi Osaka’s Journey to Self
By Janáe Bradford Naomi Osaka seemed to sense that the optics were unsettling, and out of character. She was a top-ranked professional tennis player still a month before her 24th birthday, and she already had earned more money in one year than any woman athlete in history. Yet, there she’d been for all to see: banging…
COVID-19 Continues to Disproportionately Affect Vulnerable University Students
by Ryan Thomas Film Photography by Ryan Thomas Originally from Charlotte, North Carolina, Samiah Fulcher was a wide-eyed, creative excited to be surrounded by like minded individuals who looked like her when she first arrived at Howard University. She worked alongside many on campus organizations including Models of the Mecca and even went on to…
Does Social Media Activism Take a Mental Toll?
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,…
But WHY Did They Kill George Floyd?
By Alexis McCowan The medical evidence is definitive on how George Floyd died: asphyxiation, “the state or process of being deprived of oxygen.” And his death was a homicide, “the deliberate and unlawful killing of one person by another.” It is just as certain who killed him: prosecutors have filed murder charges against four Minneapolis…
This Isn’t the First U.S. Pandemic. So Why Such Extreme Measures This Time?
By Nancy Vu As the number of people infected with COVID-19 passes 4.7 million, cases in the United States have reached more than 1.4 million with at least 89,000 deaths as of May 17. Government and health officials seeking to “flatten the curve” of infection and deaths have ordered unprecedented social distancing measures that shut…
Black May Not Crack, But It Definitely Will Burn
By Sydney Stallworth With summer on the horizon, hundreds of thousands of vacationers will flock to the nearest beach to enjoy some time in the sun. Suitcases will be stuffed with swimsuits, flip flops, and club ‘fits. But what’s one crucial item being left off so many young black millennials’ packing checklist? Sunscreen. Ever received…
Flint Residents’ Water Woes Include High Cost
By T’Keyah Hayes “Flint pays the highest rate of water in the entire United States,” First Trinity Missionary Baptist Church first lady Catrina Tillman told a group of students in April as she discussed the severity of the crisis in Flint. As Flint enters its fifth year in the water crisis, many residents continue to…
Dr. Vivien T. Thomas: Uncharted Black Medical Professional
February commemorates the annual celebration of Black History Month, which highlights the important contributions by people of African descent. Each year, however, we discover that there are many more black individuals and groups that significantly contributed to today’s world, yet remain unacknowledged in today’s history lessons. Black people have made (and continue to make) considerable…