Politics

Raw and Sincere – Gunjan Hooja

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As the Vice President of the Cornell University Democrats, I gave these remarks to our general body members the day after the election. A meeting that was supposed to be for all intents and purposes, one of celebration, was instead one in which we had to reel from an outcome that almost none of us had prepared for. The message encapsulated here is one I want to convey to the whole Cornell community. So we stand here at a different meeting than we thought. We stand here mourning the loss of what could have been and in fear of what will be.

Politics

OUTSIDE THE MAINSTREAM | No One Should be Shocked

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I have heard a lot of people say that they were shocked by the election results, and I was in a  bit of disbelief myself on Tuesday night. Yet as I heard from speakers at the Friday walkout and from others in my life, no one should be shocked by what happened on Tuesday night. No one should be shocked that a racist or a misogynist or a xenophobic or a bigoted candidate, among other many other things, would be elected president of the United States. Why should we be surprised that an openly racist candidate was elected? We live in country where people can be murdered by the police on the basis of their skin and receive no justice whatsoever.

Politics

POLITICS & STUFF | Asian-Americans and #BlackLivesMatter

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As the consequences of racial inequality take center stage in US politics, America again uncovers its divisions across racial identities. From the abolitionist movement to the Civil Rights Movement, the fight for black liberation has been passed to the modern #BlackLivesMatter movement. Like many afrocentric racial justice movements, Black Lives Matter has been politically charged and has received much attention from both white and black Americans. However, the role of Asian-Americans in the Black Lives Matter movement has remained unexplored. Perhaps it is because we occupy a confusing space between white privilege and minority disadvantage.