Archive for April 2022
Off To See the Wizard
On April 24, 1990, my father was killed in a Pennsylvania hospital. He was in the third day of recovery from elective reconstructive knee surgery when an error his doctors had made erupted somewhere in his abdomen. Most of his blood vessels ruptured and he bled to death. His doctors had prescribed too large a…
Read MoreShe’s not leading you on — you’re doing it to yourself
During my first year at Pitt, I went on a date with a total stranger. We had met on a dating app, and I could tell within a few minutes that we were not a match. Coupled with the fact that it was this man’s first real date and I enjoyed talking with him, I…
Read MoreOppression Does Not Define My Blackness
Oppression. Whenever I hear this word in a class discussion, I am inclined to listen more attentively, knowing that somehow my identity, my Blackness, will require me to offer my stance in the conversation. As an Afro-Caribbean and a Black-American, I always feel obligated to diversify the discussion with first-hand experiences. Every class discussion subtly…
Read MoreAmy Wax is not an anomaly
Wax’s racist comments represent a larger perception of Black students in academia. Penn has been receiving national media coverage lately after Penn Law professor Amy Wax made racist comments against Asian and Black Americans. Her recent remarks are consistent with the comments that she made back in 2018 in a discussion titled “The Downside to Social Uplift”: “I don’t think I’ve ever…
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