I tried to voice my opinions on the Black Lives Matter movement. I was rightfully shut down by a white friend. For since I am a white Turkish male, how could I understand the ever-present racism in United States? Racism, like anything else, was founded in America. I tried to voice my opinions on the ...
My hometown is a college town — it houses three small liberal arts schools whose students are a fixture of our demographic. Growing up, I would cut through a college campus to get to elementary school, go to haunted houses hosted by fundraising student activists and attend training sessions offered ...
This presidential campaign has taken place under the collective illusion that the winner will be able to do what he or she says. During election season, mass amnesia blocks out the importance of the other two branches of government. Every candidate goes through the ritual of releasing a series of detailed ...
There is perhaps no other holiday that sharply elevates the collective saltiness of society as much as Valentine’s Day. Indeed, hating on Valentine’s Day might be the only course of action that every romantically unattached American, irrespective of class or complexion, can actually agree on. The ...
Last week, Bernie Sanders, D-VT, won the New Hampshire Democratic primary, in no small part due to his attractiveness to young voters. According to CNN exit polls, Sanders received a staggering 83 percent of votes from those between the ages of 18 and 29. This sort of dominance cannot be traced back ...
Another year, another over-the-top Oscars ceremony, another all-white acting nomination field. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has eschewed diversity and ignored some terrific performances from minority actors. In the four major acting categories, every single nominee is white. The worst ...
When I was 10 years old, I first learned about sex from a book: “Lovingly Alice,” a novel about a fifth-grade girl like me. In it, the main character, Alice, asks her single father about the birds and the bees, and he gives a pretty frank response. A rather detailed discussion about the mechanics ...
While abroad last semester in Paris, I took classes at the Sorbonne, an imposing structure with roots in the 13th century. Housing several of France’s most prestigious universities and long associated with the country’s intellectual elite, the Sorbonne’s physical presence is as awe-inspiring as ...
In the wake of the New Hampshire primaries especially, it seems that today there is little audience for moderate or centrist speech. Radical ideas are highly demanded on both sides of the aisle, and it would appear that gap is only widening. Why is it that we, as a nation, disagree so profoundly? Why ...
One evening in November 1989, Western families sat in their living rooms to watch the Berlin Wall crumble. Twenty-six years later, the nations of Eastern Europe are still experiencing political evolution, though not as publicly as during the Cold War era. As a Romanian at Brown, I find myself watching ...
This is not the first column written about Donald Trump’s ascension in the polls, nor will it be the last. Despite his popularity most pollsters and pundits expect that Trump will fade once we get past the early primary states. But that argument has been over-analyzed, granted more than its fair share ...
About a week before I returned to Brown, I found myself driving while listening to FM radio for the first time since arriving home. I was really enjoying the song the station was playing until the chorus hit: “I’m so sick of that same old love, that shit, it tears me up / I’m so sick of that same ...
The sky gradually grew darker as we uncurled our chilled fingers to ring the doorbell of each house. The people of New Hampshire expected visitors on the days leading up to the primary, so most of the walkways were shoveled. The unshoveled walkways might have posed an unwelcoming message, but damp feet ...
This January, the Providence Student Union launched the #OurHistoryMatters campaign, with the primary goal of adding an ethnic studies course for all high school students in Providence to make the curriculum more culturally relevant. According to the school district, over 60 percent of Providence’s ...
I tried to stop caring about the Academy Awards when I began noticing that they often picked winners with which I didn’t agree at all. I decided that it didn’t matter whom the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences decided to honor and that the brilliant artists and beautiful works I admire ...
A doctor of mine once posed to me the following hypothetical: If you told an accountant, he posited, that continuing to serve in her line of work would, over the course of her career, lead to long-term health issues, would you expect the accountant to stop doing her job? The answer, of course, is unclear. ...
My phone cover is currently a quote that says, “Nothing will ruin your 20s more than thinking you should have your life together already.” Over the last couple months, I have constantly googled, “What should I do with my life?” and taken countless quizzes trying to figure out what the next move ...
It’s been two years since I struggled through college applications, but the phrase “Common App” still sends shivers down my spine. I am transported back to the horrors of the university search: the competition, crippling self-doubt and overwhelming uncertainty about the future. It seems melodramatic ...
You’re only a few days into shopping period, and you’re already tired. Your bag is overflowing with crumpled syllabi, your Banner course scheduler is an unnerving shade of red for almost every day of the week, and you can’t keep track of how many override codes you’ve requested. Clearly, you ...
While working for a political campaign over winter break, I was asked to research the young innovators that make up this year’s Forbes 30 Under 30 winners. The selection lists 600 of “the brightest young entrepreneurs, breakout talents and change agents” in 20 fields, from finance to Hollywood. ...
Solutions by The State News
