Every year, folks in the gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender and queer communities observe National Coming Out Day in the month of October.
Most Monday nights I’m holed up in my apartment, elbow-deep in a bag of family-sized Ruffles, spending intermissions between episodes of "Roseanne" on Netflix visiting my ex-girlfriend’s Facebook page (she is so much happier than I am). But this past Monday night was time for a change, and it was the Force that guided me from the dark, damp and Dagobah-like state of my bedroom to the buzz of Mother’s Pub and Grill just a block away. You know, the Force. The thing that gives a Jedi his or her power. That energy field created by all living things. The thing that surrounds us, penetrates us and binds the galaxy together.
While everybody was busy on social media waging a war over who did better in the Democratic debate, I was in the middle of a caffeine-filled all-nighter for a group project that prevented me from watching the debate live. However, missing out on the initial viewing of the debate proved to be an advantage, as I was able to sit down and actually take my time watching the debate over the weekend. I did not have to bother live-tweeting it or looking out for others doing it. Instead, I could pause whenever I wanted without fear of missing anything. And this capacity for reflection allowed me to realize who the real winner of the debate was: Anderson Cooper and, to a lesser extent, the rest of the moderators.
Every college student is told to walk the line between chasing a passion they truly love and being realistic in the likelihood of success in those aspirations. The paradox is that many of the most popular fields to pursue are where people are predicted to not find success. Forbes ranked degrees in the arts and humanities as the worst to receive. On the other hand, jobs in statistics and computers, fields that definitely have acquired tastes, show the best projections in the coming decades in terms of employment and overall job satisfaction.
It recently emerged that Arab graffiti artists who had been hired to decorate the set of the Showtime program "Homeland" successfully snuck in subversive messages. These included phrases such as "Homeland is racist" and "#BlackLivesMatter." For those of you who pay attention to the world around them, this should come as no surprise.
Rainbow Rowell, a young adult novelist, has managed to do something original enough to make a stir in the literary world.
On Thursday, the U.S. government issued a report calling for an end to "ex-gay" conversion therapy. A practice devastating to LGBTQ+ children and teenagers, conversion therapies "reinforce harmful gender stereotypes and are not appropriate mental health treatments," according to a Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration official.
I’m a people watcher. Whether it be at Midtown, Turlington or in class, you can often find me unabashedly staring at people from a stationary viewpoint — usually just watching, but occasionally taking notes. What started as a slightly creepy habit has recently been exacerbated by my independent research class, which requires me to take extensive field notes on basically anything I observe people doing. Sure, I was used to standing in a corner at any given social event and idly watching people interact. However, something about taking notes took it to a sociopathic level I wasn’t particularly comfortable with.
Last week, I decided to talk to Gainesville’s own Ted Yoho, representative for the third District. As someone who has previously worked on his campaign, I know he has a lot to say and would make for a great interviewee.
This Halloween, like all Halloweens, the floodgates for offensive costumes will open. In two weeks’ time, lots of people will think it’s OK to make fun of cultures and demonstrate a complete disregard toward the historical and social context of their costume. Darkening your skin isn’t cool; it harkens back to when blackface was used for minstrel shows. Similarly, dressing as a Native American is insensitive to their culture, which was trampled on and remains largely ignored to this day. These costumes parody, rather than honor, other cultures because they act as hollow interpretations that are rooted in assumption, not actual knowledge.
Amie Kreppel is the founding director of the Jean Monnet Center of Excellence and associate professor of political science.
I turned 21 over the summer. It was bittersweet: The luxury of being able to buy beer was offset by a deluge of anxieties about my future. Was I doing the right thing? What should I have been doing? Was I where I was supposed to be at 21?
Tuesday was No Bra Day, which would normally be my favorite public holiday. An excuse to ditch the confinement of underwire? Sign me up.
On Tuesday afternoon, I was regrettably introduced to an article written by The Wall Street Journal columnist Bret Stephens, a column so repugnant it left a nausea in me that has yet to go away.
Last week, presidential candidate and retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson made a string of comments on the shooting in Oregon. One of Dr. Carson’s claims was if the Jews in Nazi Germany had been armed, then Hitler’s plans for the Holocaust would have been greatly diminished. This line of inane rhetoric is nothing new, with many in the National Rifle Association (NRA) and other gun lobby groups citing this ill-thought-out hypothetical for several years.
College is where you find your life passion and follow your dreams. Unfortunately, after 42 years as a university student, professor and administrator, I haven’t yet discovered my life passion, and I’m not following a dream.
Last week, UF Student Government coordinated a series of events in accordance with Sexual Assault Awareness Week. Events held during the week included a panel in which survivors of sexual assault spoke of their experiences and the prevalence of the trend.
The recent commemoration of Columbus Day, rightly rebranded to Indigenous Peoples Day by nine prominent cities in the country, provides an excellent point of reflection as to who Americans are and what exactly America is.
Somehow, these names don’t fit together: George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln and Donald Trump. However, many polls measuring the presidential race predict Trump will soon be sitting alongside some of the greatest leaders who built this very country. So, as hundreds of thousands of Americans visit Mount Vernon and Monticello today, I have to ask: Will we be taking our children to visit the Trump Tower?
Last week, celebrity profile writer Vanessa Grigoriadis interviewed rap superstar Nicki Minaj for "The New York Times" in an article titled "The Passion of Nicki Minaj." No big deal, right? Wrong.
Solutions by The State News
