By: Alexis Franks, Associate Editor, Vol. 27 In the summer of 2020, Black Lives Matter protests erupted all over the world in response to murders of Black individuals at the hands of law enforcement. The grief and anger kickstarted a conversation. Society was forced to acknowledge that racism is not an issue of the past […]

By: Elisa Teeter, Associate Editor, Vol. 27 These days, it’s hard to overlook the explosion of cannabis retail stores on every corner, or the numerous cannabis billboards scattered along highways near the borders of states with legalized marijuana. Despite a global pandemic, legal cannabis sales hit $20 billion in 2020, $25 billion in 2021, and […]

By: Rihan Issa, Executive Articles Editor, Vol. 27 Part 1 of the series discussed the argument in Simone Browne’s book, Dark Matters. She highlighted the importance of racializing surveillance as an important conceptual understanding of the way surveillance has been used to order society along racial lines. She argues that this framing will allow us […]

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By: Kathy Jara, Associate Editor, Vol. 27 Linguistic reclamation[ii] of racist slurs has been described as “the process of taking possession of a derogatory label – usually introduced by a dominant group – by stigmatized group members.”[iii] Scholars believe this practice can empower marginalized groups because it “limits the dominant out-group’s control of the words […]

By: Alexis Franks, Associate Editor Vol. 27 The IDEA and the Emotional Disturbance Category The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), first enacted in 1975, provides federal funding for special education services for children with disabilities.[i] The goal of the legislation is that all handicapped children, who were historically excluded from the classroom, would be […]

By: Madelyn Hughes, Associate Editor, Vol. 27 During the 1884 Berlin Conference, European powers including Britain, France, Spain, and Belgium met to carve up the African continent to create colonies in what was known as the “Scramble for Africa.”[i] For decades after this conference, African countries were stripped of their natural resources and subjected to […]