Opinion | Columns

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Show bingers beware: Spoiling is on the rise and it needs to stop

I am a victim of a spoiler. In an interview before the Screen Actors Guild Awards, Angela Bassett and husband Courtney B. Vance revealed details about the second “Black Panther” movie. The actors got too excited and decided to drop spoilers. Herein lies the issue: My unexpecting ears weren’t prepared to hear this information.

Krishna Lunch is the perfect cure for a bad day

The first article I ever published for The Independent Florida Alligator was a comedic piece about where to study around campus. One of the places I suggested going to was Plaza of the Americas, and I stand by this statement. It’s still where I eat and study most weekdays. I spend most of my waking hours on Plaza because Krishna Lunch has become a staple in my diet. No, seriously. I eat it all. the. time. And that’s saying something because I am an extraordinarily finicky eater.

21 Savage’s detainment is a window into US immigration

Anyone who has ever dealt with the U.S. immigration system is likely to label the process long, challenging and sometimes discouraging.

Local LGBTQ advocate discusses problems with the recent transgender military ban

College isn’t only for education. It’s where we build a community.

Nonlinear shows are creating a new age of TV, and I can't stop watching them

Television shows are Mad Libs to me. I turn on a cable TV show, sit there and try to finish the character’s sentences, fully aware that I am the worst type of person to watch TV with. Correctly guessing the ending to a show can be so satisfying. Nothing is as fulfilling as saying out loud exactly what a television character says with the same timing and beat. But on the other hand, when I am wrong, the results are devastating — yet so humbling.

The truth lies in shades of gray

City plastic ban is admirable, but there are better ways to reduce plastics

Talking trash about your professor won’t get you that A

In the wake of the statistics exam came a slew of angry messages. It was another test that hundreds of students spent hours studying for, starting early in the day and ending late in the night. The material wasn’t meant to be easy, but many felt that it wasn’t meant to be so hard.

Scholarships aren't as rare as you think

The topic of scholarships is often tied to large-scale economic problems and all of that complicated, serious mess. But this discussion of scholarships will not be attempting to slip Marx and Engels into your ideology like a sugar cube into a cup of tea.

My AirPods are fake, but they stand for something bigger

I’ll out myself before anyone thinks they can discredit me: I have fake AirPods.

Asking what position I play is wrong

If you had mistaken me for a college athlete when I was in high school, I would have been flattered. But when I started my freshman year at UF in 2015, I quickly realized the hidden meaning behind the question: “What position do you play?”

UF Student Body President Ian Green welcomes students back for Spring semester

What’s up, Gator Nation?

College doesn’t have to be the best four years of your life

It was the summer of 2017. I had just arrived in Gainesville for the first time as a student two weeks earlier. As I laid in the twin bed in my dorm room, I struggled to fall asleep. There was a throbbing pain in my jaw, and I could feel it spreading. I tossed and turned. I rubbed my temples hard, and when I turned to look at the clock, it was 3 a.m.

Art and STEM can go together, despite what stereotypes say

A few weeks ago, I introduced my roommate to the Swampy UF memes for top ten public teens Facebook group. The stereotypes of different kinds of students, particularly STEM majors, cracked us up.

Women in the music industry deserve recognition

This is not our parents’ movie industry

For some time now, I have been intrigued and disgruntled by the state of American cinema — specifically, by the movie industry’s obsession with sequels and remakes. Perhaps obsession is a dramatic word; after all, a fraction of the movies available in theaters today are sequels or remakes. Let’s substitute obsession, then, with fixation.

The American two-party system limits voters’ freedoms

By now I’m sure you’ve heard the narrative about how third-party voters cost Hillary Clinton and the Democratic Party the 2016 presidential election. Unfortunately, this claim is not based entirely on speculation, nor was it dreamed by Democrats displeased with the election results who needed someone to blame. There is actually some reasonable justification behind the animosity many people hold toward third-party voters.

2020 candidates need to address gerrymandering as a big issue in politics

We’re well over a year away from the 2020 presidential election, but candidates are already jumping into the race. Last Monday, Sen. Kamala Harris announced her campaign for president on “Good Morning America.” Three weeks prior, Sen. Elizabeth Warren announced she was forming a presidential exploratory committee. And President Donald Trump filed his 2020 re-election paperwork on the day of his first inauguration in January 2017. As these candidates get their campaigns together and form their messages, they’ll have to decide which issues will be the most important ones in 2020. I’d like to make a suggestion for an issue they should place front and center in 2020: redistricting and gerrymandering.

'The Bachelor' perpetuates an archaic stereotype of women

I am embarrassed to say that I watched “The Bachelor” last week. It was a fun time with friends and French toast, but I cringe at the thought of giving that show any of my time. It was the second episode I had ever seen. Like the first time, it was impossible to look away. Watching “The Bachelor” is similar to witnessing a horrible car crash: You know you shouldn’t look, but it’s so terrible you just cannot help but stare. Despite its popularity, “The Bachelor” is problematic and anti-feminist.