It’s Not the Spectacle of the Protests That Matters. It’s the Substance.
What you feel when you see a police officer depends entirely on who they are to you. For the privileged white protesters who donned military gear, brandished guns, and marched uninhibited into the Michigan State Capitol on April 30, police officers were public servants to be shouted at on the way into the building. Amid […]
Coronavirus in America: Obsession and Oppression
For the past few months, the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has completely upended the conventional functions of our society. As we attempt to understand and combat this virus, there are still a plethora of unknowns. Despite our limited knowledge about the virus, stay-at-home orders have been widely accepted as a measure to mitigate the disease’s spread. […]
The New Yellow Peril? — Anti-Chinese Sentiment in the West
On March 11, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the novel coronavirus outbreak (COVID-19) a pandemic. Since the outbreak began in December 2019 in China’s Wuhan city, the number of reported cases has increased daily, so it’s no wonder that people are bombarded with news about it every day. While recent news about COVID-19’s mortality […]
Anti-blackness in Asian and Asian-American Communities
In an increasingly divided America, there is a greater need for solidarity and coalition building between communities of color. Yet, I am increasingly frustrated. I was frustrated in high school when I had to explain, more than once, why my Asian friends couldn’t use anti-black slurs—no, ending it with an “a” doesn’t change the fact […]
A Notorious Traffic: A History
It is a sad but inescapable truth about the history of international law—and internationalism more broadly—that much of it is fraught with racism, imperialism, and moral crusading. The counter-human trafficking regime is no exception. The earliest legislative action against human trafficking on an international level was conceived of as the International Agreement for the suppression […]
The Importance of Inclusive Memorialization: Boston’s Struggle with Racial Inequality
This article is the initial report from a column that aims to explore politics, history, and culture, specifically as they pertain to race and gender. It will probe subjects such as gun violence, child marriage, domestic violence, and racial brutality. It will examine these ideas, and the issues that ensue, on both a local and […]
The Comforting Limits of Pessimism
A turning point in my emotional development occurred during the historically destructive winter of 2015, the one that buried Boston under 108 inches of snow. Those months laid bare a pessimism I had harbored for most of my adolescent life. Until that point, the pessimism existed as a quiet dread in the pit of my […]
#WAKEUPWORLD and Showing Solidarity
“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” – Martin Luther King, Jr. Early last week, I was lucky enough to witness and participate in #WAKEUPWORLD, a Boston march in solidarity with students of color all over the country protesting institutionalized discrimination within schools and universities. Representatives of 17 schools, including Northeastern, walked through Boston […]
Mizzou Protests and the Misguided Reactionaries of The Atlantic
Over the last four months, The Atlantic magazine has published a slew of articles lambasting college students for their political oversensitivity. Caitlin Flanagan states, “today’s college kids can’t seem to take a joke.” Greg Lukianoff and Jonathan Haidt claim trigger warnings and protests against microaggressions exacerbate mental health problems. Conor Friedersdorf questions the vitriol of […]
Whitewashed Feminism: The Imaginary Gender Vacuum
Feminism, defined by the Oxford dictionary as “the advocacy of women’s rights on the grounds of political, social, and economic equality to men,” is becoming a mainstream movement. You may have heard a similar definition spoken by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie over an instrumental interlude in a hugely popular Beyoncé song. Critics and proponents of feminism […]