From Your Friend in the Shadows

       I was previously a member of a student government body at a community college, as such I am fairly familiar with the ins and outs of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) policies at academic institutions. The institution I worked at had an equity-focused merit-based system, and I have seen its good fruit in the local community. That said, that doesn’t mean DEI is without its faults, far from it, and one fault in particular has to do with one of DEI’s core tenants.        I remember one of my DEI training sessions where we had discussed privilege. At the very beginning of this session there was a discussion of privilege and identity. One of the quickest points made was the idea that a “Christian white cis-male” is generally the most privileged type of person in society and that anyone who may differ from this identity may not have the ‘most privilege’ possible. Several things went through my mind first. My first tho...

     Has the Global War on Terror truly ended? Short answer, no! We as a society have seem to have forgotten the threat in the shadows for those more apparent and obvious. Before I proceed, here's a bit of backstory.      In 2021, President Biden ordered the withdrawal of all American troops from Afghanistan in what is still very much a controversial move. Within 2 weeks of the withdrawal deadline, the Taliban would take control of the Afghan government and start its repressive rule over the Afghan people. Despite the ominous and somber nature of the affair, many a news outlet praised this withdrawal and called it the ‘end’ of the Global War on Terror. However, the stateside response to the attacks on October 7th 2023, proved us wrong, horribly wrong!     Within weeks of the October 7th attacks on Israel, there were immediately demonstrations against Israel and sharp increase in attacks, assaults, and harassments of Jewish students and faculty, an...