He claims never had to "consider race outside of history" because, as far as he knew, his race, sex, gender, sexual orientation — his identity — never mattered. It never prevented him from being catcalled in the street. It never prevented him from being stopped while "driving while black." It never made him three-fifths of a person. It never prevented him from feeling uncomfortable in the body he was born with. Jeremiah was just fine with the skin he was in.
Sam Sherman is a College junior from Marblehead, Mass. His email address is samsherman6@gmail.com.
There are countless organizations on campus dedicated to promoting mental wellness. But many of these organizations don’t deeply explore the ways in which intersectionality may affect students’ mental health.
Unfortunately, for our black peers, “learning about racism” by occasionally dipping one’s toes into side research and casual activism is not a choice. Racism is a front-and-center issue for many Penn students, not necessarily because they seek out racial minorities as so-called special interest groups, but because they are subjugated to virulent racism themselves.
I am grateful to have met many people over the course of my time at Penn who are passionate. Many students are driven to make changes in the Penn community, and our larger society, by being activists both on and off campus.
“What’s your name?” “Where are you from?” These two questions are nearly ubiquitous when we meet a new person.
“What’s your name?” “Where are you from?” These two questions are nearly ubiquitous when we meet a new person.
Sam Sherman is a College junior from Marblehead, Mass. His email address is samsherman6@gmail.com.
There are countless organizations on campus dedicated to promoting mental wellness. But many of these organizations don’t deeply explore the ways in which intersectionality may affect students’ mental health.
People assume a lot about me because of the color of my skin. First off, I’m a racist. Then, I am rich, unaware, stuck-up, and out to keep the black man down.
Hannah Rosenfeld is a College sophomore from Tokyo.
There’s a persistent mindset that non-career-related personal goals and relationships are something we’ll get a chance to do over, but that possibilities for career advancement are the real once-in-a-lifetime opportunities. The biological clock doesn’t tick as loudly as the countdown to final exams or a quarterly review.
The attack on women in America needs to end. Despite being one of the most developed and influential countries in the world, we are decades behind many other countries when it comes to reproductive rights. While European countries provide free access to contraceptives and encourage comprehensive sex education, in America, women’s health care autonomy is limited by the religious and moral views of others.
Anneka DeCaro is a College freshman. Her email address is annekaxiv@gmail.com.
It sucks that I have to put off that creative writing course I’m interested in until next year, but I want to become a more educated person. Requirements raise us to a level of competency so we can graduate with the knowledge base we need to take on the world. English majors need rudimentary math skills to survive; Wharton kids need to know how to write. Learning across disciplines allows us to pick up skills we wouldn’t otherwise have, to teach us how to think. If that’s not the purpose of college, I don’t know what is.
Unfortunately, the cult of the natural has overstepped its bounds. These people are no different from the fanatically religious; they cling mindlessly to dogma, guided by simplistic maxims like “nature good, technology bad.” And their lack of insight is putting everyone at risk.
What’s most disappointing about the Penn Dems’ column is that they fail to mention any of Corbett’s successes. There’s no hint of a counterargument in their entire column. They don’t mention that Corbett cut the Pennsylvania state deficit by over $4 billion, that Pennsylvania recently experienced its lowest unemployment rate since 2008, that the state income tax has not increased over his entire tenure and that he reduced the state government to its smallest size in 50 years.
Jonathan Iwry is a 2014 College graduate from Potomac, Md. His email address is jon.iwry@gmail.com.
Why is it that when a tuition bill is posted to my account, my parents are notified immediately to pay up, but when it comes to the deaths of our classmates, they are left in the dark?
“Given that culturally appropriative Halloween costumes are caricatures of the cultures that they aim to emulate, they’re a means of exercising control over them,” Huynh says. “In this mindset, white culture gets to be complex. It cannot be reduced to a certain type of clothing or mannerism. But ‘East Asian culture’ can be reduced to the geisha girl. Cultures can be bought and worn for Western entertainment.”
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.
Hannah Rosenfeld is a College sophomore from Tokyo.
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.
Solutions by The State News
