In honor of Black History Month, American University’s Caribbean Circle, an on-campus organization dedicated to providing space, promoting community, and embracing students of Caribbean heritage, sponsored an outing to see the movie Bob Marley: One Love.
Within the hip-hop and rap genres, the amount of attention and fame received from fans toward male and female artists is disproportionate. Could this be the result of a double standard in the industry?
The Burial is a movie that does two things: tell a life story and ask us to be honest about the exploitation that these big corporations and companies do. Typically movies of the “small lawyer, big corporation case” genre are dramatic and thrilling. However, this movie seemed to fall flat, leaving more questions than answers.
Are you new to the DMV and AU? Are you curious about which thrift stores to go to? You’re in the right place. There are many thrift stores in the DMV, but in this article, I will be reviewing three thrift stores; Planet Aid, the Salvation Army Family Store & Donation Center and the Georgetown Flea. Planet Aid and the Salvation Army Family Store & Donation Center are close in proximity so as a car-less college student, you will be able to walk from one destination to the other. Taking public transportation also makes it a lot easier to commute to the stores.
In a world where attention is a form of currency, the idea of a symbol is a capitalistic dream. America appreciates trailblazers and change-makers, but not someone too “radical.” America idolizes “acceptable revolutionaries” such as Martin Luther King Jr. and his non-violent contributions to society, but honoring him starts and stops at MLK day. The problem with many Americans is that they hate to see actual progress for Black Americans.
Through iconic and awarding winning roles in West Side Story as Anita and on the Electric Company to historic accomplishments like being the first latina and Puerto-Rican to win the pinnacle of acting awards known as the EGOT, Rita Moreno’s impact spanning eight decades has indisputably paved the way for young latino filmmakers, actors, and directors.
As the first Gen Z and Afro - Cuban congressman, Representative Maxwell Alejandro Frost of “Florida 10th congressional district”, is a historic figure who has contributed to a new wave of grassroots activist policymakers who use social media and other spaces to advocate for a litany of issues especially gun control and abortion rights.
Black students only make up 8.65% of American University’s student population, coining the university as a Predominantly White Institution, also known as a PWI. As conveyed through anonymous testimonies, social media posts and scholarly journals, being a person of color at a PWI can pose a distinctive set of challenges. Students of color at PWIs tend to have lower retention rates, consistently face discriminatory behavior, and disproportionately struggle to assimilate to their environment. Many Black students have testified that institutionalized racism on college campuses causes emotional distance between them and their white faculty and peers.
From the McDonald’s Cardi B and Offset meals in February to the Pride logo temporarily replacing company logos in June, to even the corny commercials only displaying Mexican culture instead of all Hispanic culture, these marketing strategies are used to monetize off the public. Trinidad Aguirre noted that "it's honestly common in my experience. Major brands try to do these things without really attempting to understand our diverse culture, right, and they often miss the mark time and time again." And, he’s right, I think it’s great to have these months where music, food, clothes, history, and culture can be highlighted, celebrated, and revered but instead, major corporations and companies leverage capitalism as a ploy celebration.
TikTok has established itself as “the giant” of social media video-streaming platforms, as its users are relying on the app to view and participate in hundreds of thousands of trends that have been going viral on the platform. From dancing to cooking videos, Tiktok has become the go-to app for all things trendy.
“[Celia Cruz] no es una pasa de moda]” sings the legendary Celia Cruz, the iconic Queen of Salsa and arguably, one of the most synonymous singers with Cuban music. Born in Havana, Cuba, on October 21, 1925, Cruz was born of humble beginnings and would become a fixture in dance halls and clubs during her 20s. As an Afro-Latina woman, Cruz was raised believing in the diasporic religion of Santeria which fuses West-African folklore traditions and music orally preserved by African enslaved people in the Caribbean.
If you’ve spent some time on TikTok recently, you may have heard of the term “quiet quitting” from a variety of videos which began with a video by @zaidlepplin. If not, then the term can seem misleading for quiet quitting as a practice has nothing to do with quitting your job. Quiet quitting describes when employees set boundaries to work within their specified work hours and not exceed the expectations of their job description. The “quiet” in quiet quitting denotes that setting these employment boundaries is done without explicitly apprising your employers.
Recently with many questions of tolerance and ethics rising, people have asked for a change in the education system. With schools in progressive states, like my former high school in California, swapping its current education standards for courses that stray away from Eurocentric perspectives, teachers are forced to create new curriculum to adapt to the changing times.
Keeping the failed government response to Hurricane Maria in mind, ongoing crises of poor energy policy and crumbling infrastructure remains clear as Puerto Rico was ravaged by Hurricane Fiona, experiencing week-long power blackouts.
I never liked going to school on 9/11.
The seemingly simplistic words spray-painted on buildings and landmarks have such a rich history with complex racial politics surrounding it and provide accessibility to create art for artists of all backgrounds. These factors combined are why instead of brushing graffiti off as vandalism and a crime, it should be recognized as a valid art form.
My mother doesn’t consider herself Latina. Several shades lighter than myself with loose black curls, my mother is the pinnacle of mixed-race Haitian identity. She is the legacy of Code Noir, a racial caste system that worked to subjugate those who were not landowning whites, and the fact that she does not consider herself Latina is proof that four hundred years later, the system still works.
The onset of warm weather has brought us yet another opportunity to confront the conditions of women everywhere. This past Women’s History Month in March launched superficial Instagram story campaigns full of recycled infographics and meaningless platitudes calling for celebration and awareness but not much else. Though sardonic and skeptical, pessimism towards the feminist movement as a whole is not uncommon. Since its start in the 19th-century, the modern women’s movement has debatably failed to represent the interests of marginalized women and aided towards advocating for the rights of middle-class white women.
This week, Supreme Court Justice nominee, Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, the first Black female nominee to the position, sat through hostile confirmation hearing proceedings where she was questioned by Senate Republicans.
Amidst bombings of the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv, foreign students attempting to flee the country have reported facing discrimination and racist violence at the border. These student refugees are claiming that they’re not being allowed onto buses and trains, turned away at the Polish border, or left stranded without food or shelter in unsafe areas.
Solutions by The State News
