Addressing a culture of white supremacy: a letter to my fellow white people
Mat Chapin, Columnist
June 17, 2020
I will never understand the struggles that Black people go through on a daily basis, and it is not my place to represent those struggles. However, it is my responsibility, as it is the responsibility of every White person, to address the giant killer elephant in the room. We must confront the twisted, c...
Taking steps toward allyship
Dana Walden, Opinion Editor
June 6, 2020
In the wake of George Floyd’s murder, we have seen protests in every state and a mass media campaign against police brutality. Now, more than ever before, non-Black communities need to show up for Black people; if real change is to happen, everyone needs to do their part. But what does it mean to ...
Editorial: In support of the Black Lives Matter movement
Alasdair Padman, Emma Fletcher-Frazer, and Ella Meyers
June 3, 2020
Content Warning: This editorial includes discussion of racially-motivated violence and police brutality. The same applies to many of the links. In the past week, cities have erupted in protest in response to the murder of George Floyd. While his murder, and that of Ahmaud Arbery and Breonna Taylor,...
STEM and the liberal arts
Gavin Victor, Columnist
May 13, 2020
In “This Is Water,” David Foster Wallace writes, “there are these two young fish swimming along and they happen to meet an older fish swimming the other way, who nods at them and says, ‘Morning, boys, how's the water?’ And the two young fish swim on for a bit, and then eventually one of them...
Should students return for the 2020 fall semester?
Sydney Bellon, Columnist
May 1, 2020
It’s fair to say that we are all living day by day, hoping for this pandemic to magically improve overnight. Now that we’ve all gotten a taste of virtual classes, it has become easier to see that classes from home are not something we want to do forever. Interaction is a key part of our college’...
Numbness in the information age
Gavin Victor, Columnist
April 30, 2020
The principle is simple: repetitive stimulus leads to the human being needing a greater amount of stimulus for the same effect. This phenomenon occurs in many forms, but I think that it is critical to look at the effects of exposure to a constant flood of “information” — a term that has become so n...
Immigration during the pandemic
Claire Maurer, Columnist
April 29, 2020
Since the coronavirus has spread worldwide, border closures and strict lockdowns have led to a steep decline in migrants coming to the United States from Central America. Our immigration system is backed up and masses of people are still detained within Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facil...
Letter to the editor: Preserving the present
Ben Murphy, Archivist and Head of Digital Services at Whitman College and Northwest Archives
April 28, 2020
The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted daily life at Whitman, but it is not the first time that the college has experienced significant disruptions of in-person gatherings and classes. In 1918, during the Spanish Influenza pandemic, classes were held on campus, but only students living in campus housing were a...
The problem with celebrity “charity”
Elise Sanders, Columnist
April 23, 2020
When Gal Gadot and her other celebrity “friends” posted a cover of John Lennon’s “Imagine” to various social media platforms, they did so with the goal of “raising morale.” They failed to do this, but they succeeded in receiving a tsunami of backlash and criticism. The cover was labele...
Cardinal George Pell should be in prison
Mat Chapin, Columnist
April 22, 2020
Everyone should know who Cardinal George Pell is. The former Vatican treasurer and Archbishop of Melbourne made history in 2018 when he was convicted by a jury on five charges of child sex abuse. He made history again last week when he was acquitted by the Australian high court after serving only 13 mon...
Moderating the student listserv won’t solve anything
Dana Walden, Opinion Editor
April 17, 2020
If you are a Whitman student, then you’ve likely seen the conversation about online racism on the student listserv. If you are not a student, then this article might be coming out of left field, but I promise you, this is important. On Tuesday, April 7, a student sent an email to the student list...
Online autonomy matters now more than ever
Claire Maurer, Columnist
April 15, 2020
Right now, we are witnessing life moving online – something that has been happening for several years. You can participate in weddings, religious ceremonies, work meetings, happy hours, concerts, yoga classes and routine doctor’s appointments without ever leaving your living room. People are seeking...
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