As a black man, I can't be abstinent. Well, at least it seems that way. There is pressure to have sex. When I turn on music to get me through the day or get me from class to class, that fresh R&B crooner or hip-hop heavyweight — who looks like me or sounds like me or dresses like me — seemingly takes every opportunity to lace their lyrics with sexual connotations and … [Read more...] about The Pressure: Race & Sex
christianity
We can Defeat the Impossible
Las Vegas students do not graduate. That is an overgeneralization; nevertheless, in the 2009-2010 academic year, only 52 percent of black males graduated high school, according to the 2012 Schott 50 State Report on Public Education and Black Males. In 2011, the Nevada Report Card reported that only 59.34 percent of Las Vegas’ enrolled high school students graduated that … [Read more...] about We can Defeat the Impossible
Revealing Truth about Halloween
The last time I went trick-or-treating I was about 4, and I dressed in a Barney costume. My mother helped me stuff newspaper in the tail. And then we stopped celebrating Halloween, and it became an evil day in our home. This was true of many of my Christian friends as well. In elementary and middle school, I wasn’t the only one who either went home early or had to watch the … [Read more...] about Revealing Truth about Halloween
Defining Diversity
The enormous cross that greets you as you arrive to campus is a pretty leading statement that this is a Christian university. However, I have had the privilege of meeting numerous people who don’t identify themselves with the Christian faith. There is a very diverse spiritual culture here at Pepperdine that a lot of students might not be aware of yet. I have found … [Read more...] about Defining Diversity
Let’s Stop Bragging About Lack of Sleep
We live in a culture that thrives on valuing hard work. This is great! We enjoy trading anecdotes of success stories and how we pulled ourselves up from our bootstraps, and as college students, one of our favorite things to do is to complain about how much we deprive ourselves. If I had an hour for every time I hear about how you got 45 minutes of sleep last night or a grain of … [Read more...] about Let’s Stop Bragging About Lack of Sleep
