Courtesy of UHD's College of Humanities and Social Sciences, West spoke before a packed house in the Cullen auditorium. From the beginning, he captured the audience, delivering a message that appeared to be cosmically designed for its listeners. A professed "lover of Jesus," West invoked the religious prophet and spoke in a tone that translated peace and a commitment to sustained, yet restrained, militancy. As a man of faith, I liken him to David from the Bible. Like David, he stands before the giants of injustice and oppression, human degradation, and a system plagued by corruption. A giant himself, although not in appearance, West beat at the doors of deception and of a mass apathetic culture full of hatred and bigotry. Hoping to shake loose the shackles of mental slavery, he challenged the audience at every turn, and ultimately posed a question, one that was first asked by W. E. B. Dubois: "How shall integrity face oppression?"
Throughout the halls of UHD have walked many giants; their footprints symbolically etched in the minds of our students. On Nov 6th, they made way for the eternal presence and intellectually enriching activist and theologian, Dr. Cornel West. To be in the vicinity of the greatness that is Brother West, is to undergo a physical and emotional transformation, manifested in the genius of his intellectual and rhythmic oration.
Courtesy of UHD's College of Humanities and Social Sciences, West spoke before a packed house in the Cullen auditorium. From the beginning, he captured the audience, delivering a message that appeared to be cosmically designed for its listeners. A professed "lover of Jesus," West invoked the religious prophet and spoke in a tone that translated peace and a commitment to sustained, yet restrained, militancy. As a man of faith, I liken him to David from the Bible. Like David, he stands before the giants of injustice and oppression, human degradation, and a system plagued by corruption. A giant himself, although not in appearance, West beat at the doors of deception and of a mass apathetic culture full of hatred and bigotry. Hoping to shake loose the shackles of mental slavery, he challenged the audience at every turn, and ultimately posed a question, one that was first asked by W. E. B. Dubois: "How shall integrity face oppression?"
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Parents in Roseburg, Oregon, gathered anxiously at a nearby fairground awaiting any information regarding the status of their children. Many, no doubt, replaying horrific scenes from Virginia Tech, Sandy Hook, and Columbine in their minds; assuming the worst, but praying for the best. In the end, 10 people lost their lives, seven more were injured at Umpqua College on October 1st, in what many called a “scene of carnage.” The lasting effects on the students, faculty, and their families from the events of that day are immeasurable. Newsweek reports Umpqua as the 45th school shooting in 2015, which brings the death toll to 30, with an additional 53 injured.
In the days following the tragedy, there was the predictable uproar over gun laws with supporters demanding that the United States government strengthen laws, and opponents defending their second amendment rights. Both sides using the tragedy as some form of evidence that their views are being supported by the steadily rising death toll. In late September, Coby Burren, a freshman at Pearland High School – 20 miles south of
downtown Houston – discovered a small, but glaring, error in his World Geography textbook. According to the New York Times, page 126 of the textbook featured a caption that said, “The Atlantic Slave Trade between the 1500s and 1800s brought millions of workers from Africa to the southern United States to work on agricultural plantations.” The fact that the book failed to mention either that the “workers” were actually slaves – or the fact that they were brought to America under deplorable conditions – was not lost on his mother, Roni Dean-Burren. She exposed the issue in an October 1st Facebook video that, according to the Times, garnered nearly two million views. The publisher, McGraw Hill, said through its spokeswoman, Catherine Mathis, on Oct. 6 that it was correcting the language and sending out “stickers” with a corrected caption to schools that want them. The Houston Chronicle reported that if schools requested new copies, the publisher would reprint the books and issue them to schools. While HISD itself does not use the textbook, the Texas Education Agency said that the book has been purchased by almost 400 state districts, including Katy ISD, Conroe ISD and Cypress-Fairbanks ISD. But the Texas textbook controversy doesn’t end there. A July 9th article by the Houston Press also scrutinized social studies textbooks that were based on guidelines of the Texas State Board of Education. The Press alleges that the textbooks make no mention of the Ku Klux Klan, or of the Jim Crow laws that segregated all public facilities from Reconstruction until 1965. This means that an entire century of history has been inadequately represented. In its mission to remove the “liberal bias” from the books, the Board also argued that slavery was “a side issue” to the Civil War. The Press quoted the Confederacy’s vice president, Alexander Stephens, who said: “Our new Government [sic] is founded upon exactly the opposite ideas…its cornerstone rests, upon the great truth that the negro [sic] is not equal to the white man; that slavery, subordination to the superior race, is his natural and normal condition.” Though McGraw-Hill Education’s President and CEO David Levin stated that he was “deeply sorry” about the misprint, it appears that others within the realm of Texas education have some apologizing to do as well. The second Republican debate for president was held on Sept. 16th. The first Democratic debate took place on Oct. 13th. During both, there was a great deal of commentary on a wide variety of issues; to address all of them comprehensively is extraordinarily difficult, in part because of the debates’ length. The GOP debate, in particular, stretched to nearly three hours an hour longer than its Democratic counterpart. In fact, leading candidates Donald Trump and Dr. Ben Carson have threatened to boycott the next CNN debate if it goes beyond 120 minutes. The differences between the two parties are numerous and often stark. Both proceedings opened with introductions, in which the candidates presented themselves to the American people. Immediately, a major cosmetic difference was shown. The Republican debate, held in the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in California, featured Reagan’s presidential plane as a backdrop; in front of that backdrop were the eleven candidates: Sen. Rand Paul, former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, Carson, Trump, former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina, former Florida governor Jeb Bush, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, Ohio Gov. John Kasich, and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie. By contrast, the Democratic debate, held in Las Vegas, featured only five prospects: Hillary Clinton, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, former Senator Jim Webb, former Rhode Island governor Lincoln Chafee, and former Maryland governor Martin O’Malley. Several of the presidential hopefuls in both cases spoke about their spouses and families, but others merely emphasized their credentials. |
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