Gay white men have a tendency to latch onto their homosexuality when they are asked to be held accountable for their whiteness. — I remember my first crush in elementary school was on a white boy. There was something so alluring and charming about him and white boys in general. The idea of dating any other race didn’t even cross my mind. Middle and high school would see me having crushes on just…

A publication dedicated to challenging and creating new perceptions. — Perceive More! strives to be a publication that features pieces that challenge our perception and broadens our understanding of complex issues in the world. From race, culture, politics, and more, the publication will offer takes on various topics and attempt to do what is often hard, see things from the…

Plenty of gay males can tell you the journey of coming to accept their voices. A voice that forced them to reckon with things they weren’t ready to discuss for years to come. The very thing that made you stand out from others in school and became the bully's easiest…

The response lacks actionable steps and relies on textbook definitions of how to combat racism without concrete steps to do so. — The following comes from a prompt I asked ChatGPT, which was, “Help me write an essay about racism from the perspective of a white person”. As a white person, I have never experienced racism in the way that people of color have. However, this does not mean that I am…

The superstar was once again shut out of the biggest awards of the ceremony. — Four prizes had been called for Beyoncé, but all were in down-ballot genre categories. Renaissance for best dance/electronic album, Break My Soul for best dance/electronic recording, Plastic Off the Sofa for best traditional R&B performance, and Cuff It for best R&B song. Yet, in a moment of triumph and retribution…

The seemingly mundane interactions that Black people experience on an everyday basis in “Citizen: An American Lyric” highlight the nefarious ways racism is always around us. — I was 21 when I first read Citizen: An American Lyric by Claudia Rankine — a novel about the daily microaggressions that Black people face in America — and the ways it forces us to reckon with our Blackness in this country.

Sexual predators should never be glamorized. — I’ve been a fan of HBO’s Euphoria since it premiered back in 2019. The series follows a group of high school students as they navigate through trauma, drugs, identity, relationships, and sex. …

Black people are always fighting. — I wrote the following post 6 years ago on Facebook and yet the same challenges exist today. Over the past year, I’ve begun to fully understand how racism is still very much present and alive in our country. When I first came to Pitt I could not really relate to…

I won’t keep up the good fight this year. — I used to really believe that vaccines were going to get us out of this pandemic. After all, that was the promise while they were being developed. Vaccines were going to save the day, the pandemic was going to be behind us, and people were going to go back to…