OPINION
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COLUMNS
Chroncast: Rush Series
By Leah Abrams | March 21, 2018“I think I saw some of the worst parts of Duke while sitting in a deliberations room.”
“I think I saw some of the worst parts of Duke while sitting in a deliberations room.”
The hookup girl, the friend or any sexual assault victim is also someone’s child, girlfriend or sibling. She is not an anonymous face for someone to sleep with, send off and boast about the next day. This is where the unbalanced power dynamic surfaces: when men get to engage in predatory behavior, are not held accountable and fail to understand the pain they cause.
When we black out, we lose our inhibitions. That is, we lose our “voluntary or involuntary restraint on the direct expression of an instinct.” Simply put, we lose the rational ability to read situations, to reason with others and to recognize our own compromised state of being.
It’s a cycle of trite statements and hollow condolences, of thoughts and prayers that culminate into inaction and shun politics.
Over winter break, I decided to worsen my social standing a bit by deleting Instagram off my phone.
On Friday, Attorney General Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III fed everything depraved in the current administration.
Last week, we were heartened to read of Duke’s decision to bar incoming students from hand-picking a first-year roommate.
Even fans of certain players, admirers of certain athletes, will tone-police these same individuals, cautioning them from taking extreme steps outside of their roles as just basketball players. They will present the ultimate question every basketball fan—every sports fan, even—faces: why do you care so much about players you don’t actually know, teams you are not a part of, outcomes that don’t tangibly affect you or a game you can barely play?
In most superhero movies, the world is endangered by the newest imaginary monster or power that would never exist in real life. But in Black Panther, the root of the villainy is systematic oppression and unequal allocation of resources—both in the U.S., and in wealthier Western nations that believe they have no responsibility to help nations with so little.
Most manufactured students who are smart, talented, and driven are lost in this bubble of privilege, and with it comes little intellectual curiosity and a stunted sense of purpose.
This week, LGBTQIA+ Duke Divinity School students and allies spoke out against the constant marginalization and oppression they face at the hands of the Divinity School’s administration.