By Jessica Simpson
Chicago, IL
From the time an African American girl is born, she’s told that she must aspire to have “good hair.” She is told that her hair is nappy and should be relaxed because it’s too difficult to style naturally. Years of relaxing hair developed the notion that black hair is “bad” and not as beautiful as it’s other counterparts. The hatred of natural black hair lasted for years, until recently.
By Yamilet Velez
Los Angeles, CA
In the low-income neighborhoods that surround the worst factories in the United States, smoke fills workers’ lungs, clogs the environment, and paints the skies grey. As dystopian as that sounds, harsh factory conditions are a reality in many communities of color.
My own parents moved into East Los Angeles, near the Tesoro Oil Refinery, not because it had the cleanest air, but simply because they couldn’t afford homes in the “rich areas” of Los Angeles, California. That was their only option, and unbeknownst to them, it was a dangerous one.
By Gabby Santana
New York City, NY
In the 1980’s my grandmother emigrated from the Dominican Republic to the South Bronx, carrying her belongings, her wedding photographs, and jewelry passed down through several generations, all packed into three suitcases. She took any job she could, working as a waitress, a home attendant, and a babysitter. It wasn’t much, but she built a comfortable household. The South Bronx was a place where you could build a life for yourself.
By Jadyn Vizcaino-Bishock
Jersey City, NJ
To the academic world, Wikipedia is synonymous with unreliable information. But that’s not really the case.
The major problem people have with Wikipedia is that anyone can edit any page on the website. This leads to misconceptions that the site is full of lies and exaggerations. However, these faults are the natural result of democratizing information.
By Kimberly Gray
Martinsburg, WV
Waking up, I got dressed for school in a new outfit I had bought the day before, a black-and-white striped shirt with black distressed jean shorts. I felt cute.
At school, my friends complimented me on my outfit. It wasn’t everyday that I tried to dress nicely.
By Analaura Amezquita
Whittier, CA
A 17-year-old girl is browsing through social media when she sees a picture on a boy’s feed with a caption that reads “What a savage.” The image? A girl laying on her stomach facing away from the camera and a friend who says, “Rape her.”
By Williams Mejia
New Brunswick, NJ
The National Football League is an American obsession. In 2016, more than 111 million people watched Super Bowl 50. Television networks pay the league billions of dollars to broadcast games. Americans are nearly united in their love of football. But it comes at a cost.
By Alana Burke
Detroit, MI
Initially, the idea sounds absurd. Of course black people can’t appropriate African culture, because that’s their heritage. Appropriation is defined as the act of taking or using things from a culture that is not your own, especially without showing that you understand or respect this culture. Now the question becomes whether black Americans have the right to wear traditional African garb and immerse themselves in African cultural practices.
By Mirna Rodriguez
Mission, TX
The football stadium is deafening. It is a mixture of passionate screaming and songs melting together. In the midst of all this, keeping the pep alive, are the cheerleaders. Clothed in sparkling costumes and tossing impeccable show hair, they are a single unit, acting as one: dancing, smiling, enduring. They are on top of the world, inspiring countless little girls. With all the lights and glamour, it’s hard to imagine that the beautiful costumes, the iconic pompoms and all the hard work often add up to a paycheck lower than the wages of someone working at McDonald’s. Continue reading
By Amy Kim
Valencia, CA
We’ve been studying the world through a lens of deceit.
To what extent should George Washington’s and Thomas Jefferson’s attitudes toward slavery diminish their accomplishments? Why didn’t the U.S. intervene adequately in the Rwandan genocide of 1994? Why is the 1968 My Lai Massacre in Vietnam, in which women and children were brutally slaughtered by American soldiers, described in a single paragraph in many textbooks? Continue reading
The Princeton Summer Journal 