Author: Charis Owen

The Black Lives Matter protests of 2020 were sparked by the unlawful murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis last year, May 25th; from this came worldwide demonstrations against the racial violence against Black men and women. Political and legal change has been made in small increments towards a real and permanent change but  have these protests only really brought to light the injustices and have yet to fix a broken system? From his murder many came forward and more cases were found proving that this is really worse than it seems. Police violence against Black people has not decreased; in fact since the protests more people are aware of the threat and it has made the lack of a change in attitude more obvious. Derek Chauvin, the police officer that murdered Floyd, has however since be...

The month of February is very much a month of celebration; the UK celebrates it as LGBTQ+ month, the Americans celebrate it as Black History Month and within all that the whole world celebrates it as the month of love. What this year’s February is not celebrating is the impeachment of Donald Trump; it is hard to feel the love in the air when he has successfully avoided the consequences of his actions.  What we can celebrate is the fact that he was held accountable for his actions, that his pedestal is not as high anymore within the Republican party and mainly that he is no longer the President of the United States; so maybe there is still a reason to celebrate this month. Aside from Donald Trump other events need to be acknowledged and celebrated. In the UK it is officially LGBTQ+...

January 6th 2021 will go down in history, not only because it was the first week of a new year after a disastrous 2020, not only because it was one of the deadliest days in American history as white supremacists, those white ‘terrorists’ stormed the Capitol building further demonstrating their white privilege to the whole world. But what has now been overlooked is the success the Democrats had in the special run-off elections in Georgia. The run-off elections in Georgia were due to the fact that there was not enough of a majority in the General Election back in November with neither candidate gaining over 50% of the vote and therefore not clearing the state mandate to be able to claim victory. In this case it was the two Democrats Jon Ossoff and Rev. Raphael Warnock; for the Republican...

Charis Owen One of the greatest Christmas traditions at this time of year should be the Netflix films that come out, from the middle of November onwards there is a wide variety of trashy romantic comedies to be watched. This year a new one came out; Operation Christmas Drop. And it is not like the others, it is still a romantic comedy and it still can be cheesy and over the top but what makes this one different is the story that it is based around. Operation Christmas Drop is a real operation performed by the US Air Force from 1952 onwards and watching this film can teach the importance of giving back and never taking advantage of how lucky we are. Every year the Air Force flies over the islands in Micronesia and drops items that are needed such as fishing nets, rice, clothing and s...

Charis Owen The coronavirus pandemic has been an experience for all, something that was unprecedented and has completely taken control of our lives. It is a time where everything is questioned and simple things such as going to the supermarket requires adequate planning. This has made life exponentially harder. Students’ lives have been massively uprooted and from what has been reported in the media they seem to be the group that is most absent from the conversation. Every student has their own experience, varying between universities and the different age groups as to how they feel that it has been dealt with. However, what is clear is that students feel forgotten and that more attention is paid to other areas instead. The University and College Union (UCU) has asked that all teach...

Wednesday 7th October aired the second live debate in the US presidential election campaign. This time it was the Vice-Presidential debate: Kamala Harris versus Mike Pence. If elected, Harris would be the first female and the first African American Vice President, perhaps setting the stage for her to then run for president in 2024 and 2028. This alone shows the steps that the USA is gradually taking to becoming a more equal society in terms of race and gender. This is a turning point in America. However, the debate was full of constant interruptions. Not unusual if following the format of last week’s debate between Donald Trump and Joe Biden; the latter eventually breaking and going as far to tell Trump to “shut up, man” after Trump reportedly made 71 interruptions. The frustration fel...

A prominent and liberal judge on the US Supreme Court, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg has died aged 87. She has now become the first women to be laid to rest at the US Capitol building. Although her passing has little impact on the UK, the legacy that she leaves can be an inspiration to us all.  The Supreme Court in America constitutes one third of the government; the federal judiciary branch. The cases ruled on by those judges have changed the political landscape in the US whilst also advancing the rights of many US citizens. For example, the case of Brown vs Board of Education in 1954 led the Supreme Court to rule that racial segregation of children in public schools was unconstitutional. In 1973 Roe vs Wade saw the judiciary also give women the right to have abortions. The Supreme...