CEARTE Éirí: Kneecap and radical resistance through music
Kneecap has emerged as a pioneer in Irish-language rap, producing caustic political satire with playful, punchy bilingual lyricism. Their tracks inject new life into Gaelige, one of Europe’s oldest languages, challenging sanitized depictions of Irish culture with gritty lived realities of post-Troubles youth. Once marginalized through centuries of colonial suppression, the Irish language is often […]
The Price of Innocence: Emotional, Financial, and Legal Costs of Wrongful Convictions
Wrongful convictions demonstrate one of the most apparent signs of injustice in the United States. A wrongful conviction occurs when someone is found guilty of a crime they did not commit, often after being targeted in ways that are shaped by systemic bias. For African Americans, wrongful convictions are not rare accidents; they instead happen […]
Weaponizing Humanitarianism: the Geopolitics of U.S. Foreign Aid Distribution
In 1917, President Woodrow Wilson declared that the United States’ duty as a leader on the global stage was to “make the world safe for democracy.” His bold vision set a powerful precedent for US intervention globally while defining an era in which the United States could position itself as a moral force in international […]
Imperialism: The Driving Force Behind Police Militarization in the U.S.
In 2020, police departments across the US deployed widespread militarized response in light of the nation-wide Black Lives Matter protests. Policing in the US has become increasingly militarized, with the War on Drugs serving as a major catalyst. The War on Drugs, a government-led initiative to fight illegal drug distribution and use, led to policy […]
Reentry Isn’t Freedom: The Black American Struggle After Incarceration
American policing was never a neutral institution; it was born from systems designed to control African Americans. Slave patrols, first organized in the 1700s, enforced curfews, hunted for enslaved people who ran away from their masters, and terrorized enslaved populations, embedding racial control into the very foundations of law enforcement. Even after slavery ended, these […]
The Future of Federal Injunction Power and Birthright Citizenship in Trump’s America
Over the past decade, federal courts have consistently challenged executive branch actions. Most recently, the narrative has changed and the constitutional authority of the federal courts to stifle the executive orders has been questioned. While the Constitution does not directly articulate the presidential right to issue an executive order, the United States has a long […]
Missing the Mark on AI
AI is progressing faster than the ability of global communities to keep up. Regulators are busy with hearings and writing laws, while major tech companies roll out new AI models every few months. Without enforceable rules, AI might worsen inequality, destabilize economies, and threaten democracy. The gap between innovation and regulation keeps growing, and this […]
An American Spin on Oliver Twist: Trump-Vance Administration’s Dismantling of Aid for Homeless Students
“We know, Heaven help us, that the best and fairest of our kind too often fade in blooming” – Charles Dickens, Oliver Twist What to do With Homeless Youth Our federal government’s perspective has long been for homeless Americans to “pull themselves up by their bootstraps” and secure their places as productive members of society. […]
Mobilizing the National Guard is Stupid, But Constitutional
It has been attributed to the late associate justice Antonin Scalia that it is possible for an act of government to be extremely stupid, but still constitutional. It is tragic, but remediable when the government does something both stupid and unconstitutional; it is just tragic when it is stupid. Regrettably, the actions of the second […]
From News to Noise
Media manipulation, deliberately shaping information to influence public perception, has profoundly transformed the digital age. No longer confined to traditional news broadcasts, it now permeates every corner of the online world. With social media, those who strategically maneuver their online activity now hold the power to shape public perception. While the democratization of information can […]