“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” Martin Luther King, Jr., Letters from Birmingham Jail, April 16, 1963 In 2002, President George W. Bush ordered the creation of the Guantánamo Bay Detention Facility to hold prisoners captured during the war on terror. Since that time, the word “Guantánamo” has come to symbolize the controversy surrounding […]
Read MoreChinyere—“God’s Gift.” How could a name meaning something so sweet taste so sour? As early as Pre-Kindergarten, I was engaged in a war against my name—I hated it! Every day, all I heard from my classmates was, “What’s you name again?” as they snickered and made snide remarks, mumbling, “African booty scratcher!” I was born […]
Read MoreThe sun beat down on us during an unseasonably hot day in January 2001. My family had just moved from Syracuse, New York, to Washington, D.C. We decided to take a break from unpacking to play soccer in the backyard. My dad and I were positioning the soccer goals, while my mom and 2-year-old younger […]
Read MoreWhen my parents told me that we were going to visit Ghana my feeling of surprise soon turned to anxiety. The purpose of our trip was to accomplish my parents’ goal of my sister and I visiting my grandpa. I had never met my grandfather, and my parents felt like it was time for me […]
Read MoreLike most teenagers I was thrilled at the prospect of being able to sit behind the wheel of a car and experience the wide open road. I was determined to get my Learner’s Permit the moment I became eligible. The day of my 16th birthday found me standing in line at the Department of Motor […]
Read MoreI’m not going to lie to you; I once bullied a classmate named Ann. She was 12 years old. We were in the same class at our elementary school and I did it because everyone was doing it. I was shy and didn’t know how to stand up for what was right. Ann was […]
Read MoreChildren in Somalia wake up every single day feeling weak, hungry, thirsty and often times not sure when their next meal will come. After two decades of war and instability, Somalia has been devastated and the population continues to suffer. Every day, 7-year-old Hassan wakes up in the morning in Somalia’s capital Mogadishu. Hassan has […]
Read MoreThe United States is perhaps the only nation built by immigrants. If another country is also, I do not know if it. No other nation has seen such an influx of foreigners destined to try to make a better life. This patchwork of ethnicities is, as our first African-American President recently shared, is our strength, […]
Read More“Filipino ka ba?” Are you Filipino? “Opo, yes,” I say. “Go Manny Pacquiao!” Manny “Pac-man” Pacquiao is a national hero of my country. This boxing legend and I come from a little collection of islands in the South Pacific called the Philippines. Even though he came to America with a set future, many Filipinos have to […]
Read MoreWhere I live, “safety” is not a word taken lightly. I wish things were different, but one of the biggest local issues in my area is youth on youth violence. Recently, the National Youth Violence Prevention Resource Center reported that 35.7 % of students in grades 9-12 had admitted to being involved in a physical […]
Read MoreI can tell you the skies in Beijing were dark the day Grandfather passed away, even though I was on the other side of the globe, because the skies in Beijing are dark almost every day. Grandfather left Beijing shortly after the buildings on the horizon disappeared. Even after he was diagnosed with idiopathic pulmonary […]
Read MoreI see a Mercedes car followed by a carriage pulled by a donkey amidst a horde of people. For a moment, the swarm of dirt suffocates me. A wave of heat envelops me. These are the first images that will forever be imprinted in my mind, when thinking of my first few moments in Cairo, […]
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