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,…
African Students Could Be the Hidden Victims of Trump Administration’s Proposed Visa Restrictions
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…
Is 15 Percent Too Much to Ask?
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…
Would increased police training save black lives?
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…
The Africans Among Them
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…
‘Defund the Police’ Doesn’t Mean Dystopia in America
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…
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,…
Boycotts don’t work the way you think.
By Jeresa Anderson The Montgomery Bus Boycott started Dec. 5, 1955, after the arrest of Rosa Parks due to her refusal to move from her seat on a bus. The boycott is seen as the first large-scale demonstration against segregation in the U.S. Since then, boycotts have become a popular tactic for protesters fighting for…
Court Decision on Asylum Seekers Resonates with Washington Area Latinos
By Énoa Gibson A federal judge has ruled that the Trump administration cannot prevent Central American migrants from requesting asylum at the southwestern border of the United States, a limited victory for the Washington area’s Latino communities. The administration last year began requiring persons fleeing poverty and persecution, mostly in El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala,…
A Pandemic Problem, Or Just an Excuse to Deny HBCUs More Funding?
By Arthur Cribbs Victorious plaintiffs in a lawsuit to compensate Maryland’s four historically black public colleges for years of inequitable funding have criticized as “disingenuous” Gov. Larry Hogan’s claim that the state cannot afford to do so because of the financial toll of the coronavirus crisis. In March, the General Assembly authorized a 10-year, $580…