In 2005, I was a five-year old little girl living in Ecuador. Despite being merely a child, I have a very vivid and traumatic memory of the chaos and political instability my native land endured. On the morning of April 20, my parents turned on the television and were greeted by the image of thousands … Read more
In 2015, inside the Miami-Dade Permitting and Inspection Center was a small dark box affixed to a wall; next to it hung a giant poster that beseeched community members to “Give us your input.” The box itself made its purpose clear, proclaiming: “SUGGESTIONS COMMENTS.” Despite its earnest plea, the feedback system was useless for most … Read more
“Dear Non-American Black, when you make the choice to come to America, you become black. Stop arguing. Stop saying I’m Jamaican or I’m Ghanaian. America doesn’t care.” – Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Americanah. *** Accepting Adichie’s words has become more than a choice. It has become a frank requirement to understand the black social fabric of the … Read more
“We go to the demonstration, and there’s six workers.” In 2012, UNITE HERE Local 26 chief steward Ed Childs spent a summer organizing workers to protest against the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte. When it came time to demonstrate, Childs and another out-of-state organizer were dismayed by the low turnout. “We look at it like, … Read more
Donald Trump and Kim Jong-Un impersonators together in Hong Kong’s Victoria Park, January 2017. Following the inauguration of President Trump, North Korea immediately started to test the new U.S. administration, launching a ballistic missile during Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s visit to the United States in February, and then conducting two more rounds of missile tests … Read more
With estimates ranging from one to three million total deaths, the Vietnam War spawned some of the most ferocious domestic resistance to government policy to ever exist in the United States. This sentiment was strongly reflected in protest music, which gained significant popularity in the ’60s and ’70s. While the public often views Vietnam as … Read more
“As I stand here and look back at that episode of history, I could almost hear the camel bells echoing in the mountains and see the wisp of smoke rising from the desert,” said Chinese President Xi Jinping in Astana, Kazakhstan in 2013. Xi’s poetic pomp voiced a nostalgia for the second century BCE, when … Read more
“And they lived happily ever after””—a classic footnote to a classic Disney-style animated fairytale. The idea of animation as a happy children’s medium along these lines is so persistent that it has seldom been adjusted over the past five decades. Indeed, in this so-called “golden age” of television we have seen very little recent progress … Read more
The Harvard Graduate School of Education released a report in January titled “Turning the Tide,” which recommended that college admissions should de-emphasize standardized testing in favor of activities such as community service. The report is but the newest installment in an ever-growing confederation against standardized testing. Critics of standardized testing often accuse testing as contributing … Read more
In a 2014 article, Steven Pinker advocated for college admissions systems to prioritize test scores during the admissions process. Pinker makes two major claims: university spots should be granted to those who are best able to utilize the academic resources that colleges offer and aptitude-measuring standardized tests are the best way to predict professional success. … Read more