I am not a doe-eyed freshman who just graduated from high school in the town I spent my whole life in. In fact, there are many students who don’t fit this description at all. Yet there are professors who still give lectures as though their class composition consists of this very stereotype.

Whether in the bold declarations of humanity as displayed in the "I, Too am Harvard" Conference play or the solemn memorial of the black lives lost to state-sanctioned lynchings, it is an inconvenient fact that racism is America’s silent curse. If we are to ever move past this nation’s traumatic youth, we must be willing to endure the growing pains that shatter our complacency with our current state of affairs.

Theoretically, human trafficking would decrease when prostitution is legalized because victims forced to work as prostitutes should no longer be afraid of the police. A detailed 2012 study, however, came to the opposite conclusion. Countries with legal prostitution are a prime destination for victims from all over the world. The ease with which kidnappers can market the services of their slaves outweigh any difficulties with registration.

“You’re more than just a number” is the motto for Goucher College’s new video application option, for which students submit a two-minute video talking about themselves in lieu of test scores or transcripts. All they need in addition is two works from high school, one of which must be graded.

Corbett, the Republican governor elected in 2010, has used his one term in office to cut education funding, halt economic growth and attack women’s rights and LGBT equality. He hasn’t earned our vote, and he hasn’t earned yours.

Rock the Vote’s video implies that the way to reach millennials is to play up drinking culture and show off actors from our favorite Netflix series — how can we not vote if Natasha Lyonne’s doing it? Rock the Vote isn’t wrong for trying this approach, but it’s a sad commentary on how society views us.

Undocumented immigrants are a part of U.S. history not simply because immigrants as a whole are a part of U.S. history. Undocumented immigrants are a part of U.S. history because U.S. policy has directly affected conditions necessitating the migration of millions of people to a country with a large role in their own dislocation.

That said, the personal nature of religious belief doesn’t excuse it from the hot seat of free expression and intellectual discourse. To witch-hunt people who criticize religion is to say that an opinion is more valuable than the freedom to express one’s discontent — and no idea should ever be put before a human being.

This fuels a constant, underlying thread of competition in our interactions. If a peer says he has two midterms this week and got four hours of sleep last night, another will counter in a show of supposed empathy that she has two papers due tomorrow, pulled an all-nighter last night and is in the midst of Hell Week for an upcoming show.

I felt out of place from the first time I stepped onto Penn’s campus. Being a black male from the South who isn’t affluent and wasn’t given the opportunity to attend an elite private high school, I knew I was different from most of my peers in every aspect.

Thus, moral relativity becomes a convenient way to dogmatically support any worldview whatsoever. Of course, the relativist has the advantage of being keenly aware of his intellectual superiority because he does not really “believe” what he preaches. But this absence of belief does not necessarily represent greater practical rigor than all the dominant theistic philosophies from Lao-Tzu to Plato to Descartes.

Calling Palestinian deaths “murder” discourages objective scrutiny. To a layperson without serious knowledge of the conflict, it presents the situation in over-simplistic, one-sided and emotionally exploitative terms.For one thing, the accusation of murder yields little insight and discourages scrutiny by those who want to understand the conflict. How many deaths, for example, were accidental, or provoked by local insurgents? How many deliberately attacked Israeli soldiers? On important details such as these, the exhibit was characteristically silent.

Right now, as we grapple with yet another tragedy on our own campus, any effort to help those suffering with mental health issues should be praised and bolstered, not condemned. When even the care that Counseling and Psychological Services provides — from one-on-one counseling to group therapy sessions — is not always enough for a student struggling with mental health issues, how can we begin to think about repealing a law that works to make this type of care affordable for all Americans?

These shouldn’t be the only two options, but stress creates a mob mentality. We talk about how overwhelmed we are, and then we feel left out if we’re not equally as scrambled. If we haven’t worked until midnight like our friends have, then we feel like we’re not adequate students. There’s a general feeling that if you’re not stressed out of your mind, you’re doing something wrong.

While I appreciate Watson’s candor, and don’t wish to take away from her experiences, I scarcely feel that a rich, Caucasian actress from a wealthy, developed nation such as Britain is the best spokesperson for women’s issues on equality. Yes, Emma Watson brings celebrity and media attention, but by making women like her, Hillary Clinton and Angelina Jolie the spokespeople for these causes, we heedlessly claim that the only voices worth listening to belong to privileged white women.

We all know that one person in class who, with one comment or hand raise, has the power to make the entire room of students roll their eyes simultaneously.

Like most Penn students, I have political and social ideas about what should be done to help “the underclass.”But there’s a guy who sits on the corner of 38th and Chestnut in a wheelchair that I’ve walked past many times. He’s the poverty I’d like to solve. But not once — even just with a passing smile — have I acknowledged his humanity.