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Dark humor fails to excuse racism
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I have often been labeled as “too sensitive” to the jokes my peers make, so I tend to keep my mouth shut when I am frustrated with what they have to say. But when an acquaintance looked me dead in the eye to tell me that he hates Black people, then paused and giggled…
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Stop the performative activism
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In the electronic age, news spreads like wildfire. Social media has taken over as the younger generation’s “news source,” often spreading biased information about the latest stories. This provokes a recurring trend that has proven to do more harm than good, jumping on the bandwagon and acting out of bad faith because of an…
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Our community must reckon with hatred
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On Feb. 12, White supremacists rallied over the Borchard Road overpass, hanging signs covered in hate speech. In response, Claudia Bill-de la Peña, a Thousand Oaks City Council member, proposed a resolution which strives to condemn all acts of hatred. It passed at the Feb. 22 city council meeting in a 4-0 vote with…
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Halting the production of Dr. Seuss books is a step in the right direction
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Racial prejudice and stereotypes were excused and a part of everyday life in the early 20th century. An example of this racial inaccuracy are select Dr. Seuss books; as of March 2, six of Dr. Seuss’s books are halting publication, helping to stop propagating these harmful ideas. The halting of publication of these books…
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Mixed race fishing is a gateway to cultural appropriation
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In our world today, racial fishing is a prominent form of modern cultural appropriation and erasure, popularized by social media. As White creators continually make themselves appear to be a different race than they were born, falsifying their experiences and their background, they commit harmful erasure, speaking over people of color while simultaneously mocking…
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Let women of color guiltlessly criticize Kamala Harris
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The 2020 election will make history for a number of reasons, the most notable being the nomination of Kamala Harris, a half-Black, half-Indian woman of color as the Democratic Party’s vice president. If Harris is elected into office, the standard she sets will be the new generalization for all Black and Asian women. If…
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There is no such thing as Trump’s “Chinese Virus”
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On Thursday, March 19, President Donald Trump referred to the coronavirus, medically classified as COVID-19, as the “China virus” for the first time of many. Despite facing major backlash from the Asian American community for his blatant xenophobia, Trump has continually defended the usage of this term, encouraging stigmatizing and racially targeted verbal abuse…
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Hate Crimes
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A shock in the night A vacant football field rests silently on campus as the students indulge in their seasonal, summer celebrations. Suddenly, a roar emerges from the campus PA. Rhetoric from an older time flows onto the football field, flooding the school and the nearby residential areas with a coarse, saline solution…