For women, deciding to have sex involves much more than the physical act itself. Their decision also includes the use of contraception and the best way to protect themselves and their partner against unwanted pregnancies. Finding what forms of contraception work for their bodies can be a complex, confusing, and exhausting process of trial-and-error. In […]
The impact of September 11th, 2001 Islamophobia is defined as “a fear or dislike of Muslims” (Sheridan 317). Coined in 1991, the term gained popularity after the 1997 publication of a report by an English-based racial equality think tank, Runnymede Trust. Since the September 11th, 2001 terrorist attack, when Osama Bin Laden and Al-Qaeda orchestrated […]
In 1956, the Hungarian people revolted against the Soviet Union, who had occupied the country following World War Two. Despite their anger about the occupation, the Soviet Union clamped down on the revolution, causing hundreds of thousands of refugees to flee the country. Among them were my grandparents, who fled across the border to Austria […]
The Jamaican national slogan is “Out of Many, One People,” which symbolizes the unity of cultural minorities inhabiting the island nation. However, the Jamaican national slogan fails to identify the economic and racial disparities on the island. Jamaica may have “One People,” but Jamaica has two classes: the wealthy White elites and the poorer Black […]
After announcing that he was gay at a media event with the New York Times and the NFL, University of Missouri football player Micheal Sam, received countless homophobic tweets. Many people began expressing concerns about a homosexual man playing professional football. Even an old teammate who was previously privately supportive, was publicly unsupportive of his […]
To many, New York City seems the perfect cosmopolitan city: one defined by diversity and opportunity. But in reality, the history of segregation in the city remains very much alive. City dwellers “live together,” but they live apart – entire neighborhoods, institutions, and schools tend to be dominated by a certain race and socioeconomic class. […]
Antisemetic images are not what anyone expects to find scribbled in an elementary school bathroom in a quaint, seaside town just 16 miles north of Boston. But this past January 18th, and again on January 26th, this is exactly what students discovered inside two boys’ bathrooms at Village School in Marblehead, Massachusetts. Then, on January […]
The amount of medication that Americans take to combat mental illness is astounding. In recent decades, the pharmaceutical and medical industries have convinced a large number of people that drugs are a cure-all for mental illnesses. This increased reliance on these drugs is part of rising pharmaceuticalization in the United States. Pharmaceuticalization has been defined as […]
To Be Diagnosed with Pediatric Cancer “Your child has cancer.” These are four words that a family never wants to hear. But cancer is a reality for nearly 400,000 children each year (St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital), including myself in 2006. With this diagnosis comes months and years of treatment and surgeries. Patients are treated […]
I grew up on the Upper West Side in New York City. The blue portion of the map is the area I grew up in; it consists of mostly tall, expensive apartment buildings. I spent a lot of time playing basketball at the Frederick Douglass Playground (grayed area on the map). It is the foremost […]
