President Lyndon B. Johnson once said: “You do not take a person who, for years, has been hobbled by chains and liberate him, bring him up to the starting line of a race and then say, ‘You are free to compete with all the others,’ and still justly believe that you have been completely fair.”

"We need to understand why people think what they do, then respond to them without force, malice or guilt-tripping. Amens from the choir feel good, but they’re empty if non-believers don’t convert."

We are fortunate here at Santa Clara University to live in one of the most diverse areas of the United States. Our student population should reflect this diversity.

He failed to acknowledge that people of color are systematically disadvantaged from birth, and Affirmative Action policies are necessary to help level the playing field. Race and class are tightly intertwined; people of color make significantly less money than white people and the wealth gap is growing.

Lego’s attempt to promote gender equality through their development of pastel colored legos for girls is insulting.

College admissions offices across the country are the most blatantly racist institutions in modern day society.

The night of the Iowa Caucus, I watched in awe as Senator Ted Cruz—the single most unlikeable politician I have ever known—delivered his insufferably long victory speech.

I am suggesting that there is something more to the issue of rape than a mixture of excessive alcohol and misjudgment.

People don’t say “Check your privilege” to belittle someone. Use of this phrase is simply a call for awareness, with the intention of promoting equality.

As the Million Student March movement points out, “The average college graduate of the Class of 2015 has over $35,000 in debt. More than 40 million Americans share a total of $1.2 trillion in student debt and 58 percent of that is held by the poorest 25 percent of Americans.”

Last week’s opinion piece was so basically, economically and morally wrong that I don’t know where to begin my response. The business major who wrote it would likely want a quick, practical response to his opinion on student debt, so I’ll give him one.

For many, it’s easy to forget that there is starvation, violence and homelessness in the world. It is even more unfathomable that these very issues are present just down the block from our own university.

Through organizations like the “Million Student March” students have been demanding tuition-free public college and calling for student debt to be forgiven.

Yep, it’s that time of year again when there isn’t an excuse to eat unhealthily for another six weeks, at least, until Valentine’s Day.

Millions of Americans will rush to malls this Thanksgiving to take care of their Christmas lists during the time when stores have their most affordable prices: Black Friday.

This Halloween, Santa Clara’s administration made a point to emphasize that students would be representing our school when they were out at night, specifically when it came to their costumes. We were strictly warned to “appreciate not appropriate” and choose costumes that were in “good taste.”

Yet one difference arises in the fact that America’s use of the death penalty seems to blatantly violate its own rules. The United States of America executes its citizens in clear violation of its moral and legal backbone: the Constitution.