Prior to his pursuit of the Joker in The Dark Knight, Bruce Wayne is warned by his butler, Alfred, “Be careful, some men just want to watch the world burn.” We must internalize this advice beyond its cinematic purpose, because Alfred’s message can be connected to the much larger, widelyRead More

On June 22, 2015, Marc Maron hosted President Barack Obama on his comedy podcast “WTF”, and the President, less inhibited in his speech than usual, said something that would blow the minds of Americans everywhere: “We are not cured of it [racism]. And it’s not just a matter of beingRead More

“What would the hero of your life’s movie do right now?” asks Joe Rogan, a stand-up comedian and podcaster. “We define ourselves far too often by our past failures. That’s not you. You are this person right now. You’re the person who has learned from those failures. Build confidence andRead More

Growing up in Colorado as a nerdy violinist, I was used to being the only black girl—and often, the only black person in any given room. As a result, I learned how to walk through the world as the exception to the rule. I learned how to answer people’s awkwardRead More

The food gets better, students are told to follow the dress code, teachers start smiling more, the hedges are groomed and the grass cut, and white linens are topped with coffee and donut holes. What do all of these occurrences have in common?  They all come about when parents, grandparents,Read More

In September 2014, 43 Mexican students were abducted from rural Mexico. Unfortunately, the Mexican government has done an insufficient job of resolving the case and it may even have been involved in the abduction itself. The abducted students had been planning to protest at a conference held by the mayorRead More

October 1, 2015 seemed to be like any other day. People went to their jobs, Choate students did their homework, and Christopher Harper-Mercer walked into Umpqua Community College armed with six firearms and murdered nine innocent people in cold blood. No one was surprised. As sickening as it is toRead More

The grossly oversimplified politicization of the recent massacre at Umpqua Community College in Oregon has again sparked a national conversation on the effectiveness of ‘common sense’ gun control laws. The proposed measures, however, are abstract, cater to individuals, and impractical.  Gun violence statistics point to a more dire issue: homicidesRead More

I remember tattling on my younger brother to our parents when I was around eight.  He had insisted that our baby-sitter remove a brown bit from the banana he had been eating, so she cut off half of the banana and threw the perfectly edible part of the fruit into theRead More