Ryland Staples | Staff Writer Salvador Melendez | Associated Press Let’s be honest with ourselves. Life can be stressful at times. Especially now that we are in college. A Harvard Medical Researchers study that looked at more than 67,000 college students across the country “…found that while racial or ethnic and sexual or gender minorities are especially vulnerable, high rates for stress events, mental health diagnoses and the risk of suicide or suicidal thoughts were reported among all students surveyed.” Personally, I did not think college would be this mentally draining. Admittedly, I thought college was going to be like … Continue reading Talking to the right people

Lindsay Keener | Staff Writer Frank Micelotta | Associated Press In most communities, music is said to bring people together. What happens when it has the power to tear people apart? In the weeks after the controversial six-part docuseries “Surviving R. Kelly,” I have found myself disgusted with the amount of people still willing to play the music of someone facing allegations of sexually abusive behavior. Is talent justification for supporting someone who could be a monster? Is it enough to play his music on Hampton’s campus? “Among black culture, his music is popular, and hearing it is to be … Continue reading The divide over R. Kelly’s music

Ryland Staples | Staff Writer Jacquelyn Martin | Associated Press Recently, there has been a lot of hateful rhetoric said about individuals who don’t identify themselves on the traditional binary spectrum of gender, as well as people who don’t conform to the tradition norms of gender roles. These people often consider themselves to be transgender or non-binary/genderqueer. There has been a lot of disrespect going around on social media with people proclaiming that even if they were told a person’s personal pronouns, they would still call them by their birth-assigned pronouns. In my opinion, that is very disrespectful and shouldn’t … Continue reading Respect trans and non-binary people

Kennedi Williams | Staff Writer Max Ortiz | Associated Press It seems that every time we turn on the television, we see another tragedy. We find out about shootings taking place in common, frequented areas such as schools or religious centers. They happen so often, that we, as a country, are becoming desensitized to them, and a lot of them are not even making the national news. Whenever a shooting occurs, the same routine happens where people express their condolences the first few days but then stop thinking about it within the next week. Why is this? Why are these … Continue reading The normalization of shootings in America