“OK Boomer” is the Pepe of 2020. Here’s Why.
The ubiquity of the term “OK Boomer” comes at a time of heightened generational contempt within the Democratic electorate of the United States. Similar to Pepe the Frog’s influence on the 2016 elections, the phrase may impact outcomes in 2020 and have real implications for social and political structure. Pepe the Frog demonstrated the influence […]
Green for Green: Big-Money Donations and Climate Policy
Climate change is real. The science is irrefutable. The Earth’s average surface temperature is increasing at an unprecedented rate—almost a full degree Celsius in the past thirty-five years alone. In contrast, when the Earth transitioned out of the last ice age, it took about ten thousand years for temperatures to rise by 4°C. The past […]
The Egypt–Ethiopian Nile Conflict: A Dam(n) Shame
In 2019, Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed won the Nobel Peace Prize. Now, he might lead Ethiopia to war with Egypt over a dam. The conflict started in 2009, when Ethiopia announced that it would construct the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) on the Blue Nile, without prior consultation with Egypt or Sudan. The Blue […]
A Lot on the Line: Students, Brexit, and the Upcoming General Election
Undergraduate students in the United Kingdom (UK) went to the polls in full force during the 2016 Brexit referendum. While there were initial concerns about youth turnout due to confusion over registering to vote by postal/proxy, 87 percent of eligible university students voted in the referendum, 15 percent higher than the general population’s turnout. Further, […]
The Other War on Drugs: Superbugs and Antibiotic Resistance in the 21st Century
Humanity’s propensity for unbridled technological advancement has pushed us ever closer to the edge of a cliff. The industrial revolution riddled us with greenhouse gas emissions, and the Manhattan Project brought us to the brink of nuclear devastation more than once. Our powerful painkillers—once touted as a cure for debilitating chronic pain—are now one of […]
Policy Platform(s): The Dangers of Political Discourse through Social Media
On February 10th, a month into her first term in Congress, Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) posted on her public Twitter profile. In months prior, she used Twitter to garner support for her congressional campaign and to share her story as an up-and-coming progressive leader. She later used the platform to celebrate becoming one of the […]
Sports as a Mirror to Society
Sports in America have evolved similarly to the country itself: with slow, painful change pushed by minorities and women risking everything to stand up and demand the right to play. Waves of change in sports are reflected in trends throughout society; each step forward for women’s sports have aligned with the different waves of feminism, […]
The Myth of Equal Opportunity
My parents peddled three myths to me as a child: the Tooth Fairy, Santa Claus, and American meritocracy. The “American Dream,” our national ethos of opportunity and success based on hard work, has been a mainstay of many immigrant parents, including mine, who come to the U.S. seeking a better life for themselves and their […]
Peremptory Challenges: A Barrier to Justice
In 1981, James Kirkland Batson, an African-American man from Kentucky, was charged with second-degree burglary and receipt of stolen goods. During voir dire (jury selection), the prosecution struck down all four potential black jurors using peremptory strikes, which allow lawyers to disqualify potential jurors without providing objection or justification. Though the defense and prosecution both […]
The Battle of Hodeidah and the World’s Worst Humanitarian Crisis
The prominent theme of the Yemeni Civil War has unfortunately been extreme famine. It is another example of a poor, vulnerable population caught in the middle of a deadly clash. In fact, Yemen is the poorest country in the Middle East, with a per capita GDP of just $1,300, according to 2017 estimates. Syria’s GDP […]