Jackie Brant, Opinions Editor

March 6, 2020

 Texas on Super Tuesday in the wake of numerous accusations of rampant voter suppression across the state. This voter suppression could have contributed significantly to Biden’s win in the state. This result is alarming and something that the Democratic Party must take notice of and capitalize on in future elections. Texas is one of 21 states in the U.S. ruled by a Republican “trifecta,” meaning that the Texas House of Representatives, the State Senate, and the office of the governor of Texas are all currently controlled by Republicans. There has been a Republican...

Leo Hochberg, Columnist

March 6, 2020

 Coronavirus has now spread to 81 countries after breaking out in Wuhan, China just a few weeks ago, with over 97,800 confirmed cases and 3,332 confirmed deaths as of March 5. As is typically the case with contagious diseases, false news, overblown risk assessments, and conspiracy theories have spread quickly, inducing plague-level fears surrounding a disease that is only slightly more of a risk to the global population than the common flu. And while everyone should doubtlessly be taking coronavirus seriously, the hysteria surrounding the disease, on both a social...

Ilana Foggle, Columnist

February 28, 2020

 For the past year and a half, we have seen constant coverage of one primary and one primary only: the Democratic presidential primary. At this point, many Oberlin students and community members have already decided who they will be voting for as the Democratic nominee for president. Yet, if you asked Oberlin students who is running for Congress in our district, most would be at a loss for words.  Perhaps this is due to the fact that students see no scenario in which a Democratic opponent unseats Republican incumbent Representative Jim Jordan in our heinously...

Leo Hochberg, Columnist

February 14, 2020

 You’ve doubtlessly heard that on Jan. 3, President Trump ordered an execution strike, killing Iranian General Qassem Soleimani, along with Iranian politician and commander Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis and several others at the Baghdad airport. In the following days, many speculated: Are we headed towards another undesirable Middle East conflict? Is this the beginning of a dangerous and illegal shadow war between Iran and the U.S., rife with rebounding political assassinations? Have years of growing tensions between the two countries now triggered an irreversible wave...

Leo Hochberg, Columnist

February 7, 2020

 Today, citizens and residents of the U.S. are more angry, emotional, and divided than we’ve ever been — and, doubtless, there’s plenty to be angry about. Children remain separated from their parents and locked away in prison camps on the southern border; successive conservative administrations have all but annihilated the pro-poor welfare policies of the mid-20th century; and now, the president has been acquitted by spineless politicians who seek to avoid accountability for aiding and abetting high crimes and misdemeanors. The racist and colonialist foundations...

David Mathisson, Columnist

February 7, 2020

 Amy Klobuchar just finished fifth in the Iowa caucuses with 12.3 percent of the vote. A near nonfactor in the presidential race until December, Klobuchar could certainly spin such a performance as a victory. But a more apt term for her performance would be pre-defeat. She’s spent more time in Iowa — her downstairs neighbor — than in every other state combined. That’s left little time for campaigning anywhere else. The next primaries will take place in the notably more progressive New Hampshire and Nevada, then South Carolina, where Joe Biden’s dominance...

Department of Africana Studies

June 14, 2020

Editor’s Note: This list of resources was originally attached to ABUSUA’s Letter to the Administration and Board of Trustees.  This following selection of works (written, visual and aural texts) have been combined by the faculty and affiliate faculty of Oberlin College’s Department of Africana Studies, to provide for its major, minor and interested students a list of what members of the department see as foundational works in the field of Africana Studies. The interdisciplinary nature of the field and the multi-disciplinary range of the contributors to this...

ABUSUA

June 14, 2020

To Oberlin College and Conservatory administration and Board of Trustees ABUSUA, Oberlin’s Black Student Union, would like to express our anger and dissatisfaction with Oberlin's administration. The recent killings of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, Tony McDade, and countless others have made the world take a hard look at all of the continually ignored racist practices and institutions embedded in our society. Their painful deaths serve as a reminder of the systematic oppression and racism that continue to affect Black people in America. Oberlin has...

UAW 2192 Leadership Team

June 12, 2020

To Oberlin College, Historically, the United Auto Workers union has played an important role in pioneering civil rights and freedoms in and out of the workplace. The UAW has walked hand in hand with civil rights leaders and the civil rights movement — from helping fund the Montgomery bus boycott and the march from Selma to Montgomery to providing an office at the Solidarity House for Martin Luther King Jr., where he penned his “I Have a Dream” speech. The UAW was also there to post bail for Dr. King’s release in 1963 from a Birmingham City Jail. That is...

J Holzen, OC ’20

June 10, 2020

Editor’s Note: This letter has been signed online by 356 members of the Oberlin community at the time of publication. To the deans and conductors at Oberlin Conservatory: Oberlin College, like many of our peer institutions, has recently issued statements on social media expressing its support for the Black community during this time. However, we request that you put a plan in place as an institution to hold the Conservatory accountable for these issues outside of its social media presence. Oberlin College prides itself on its liberalism and its progressivism,...

May 28, 2020

Dear President Ambar,  Oberlin Admissions chose an incoming class that cares about the world, and many of us committed out of a belief that the College felt the same way. Now, we’re not so sure. When we learned of Oberlin’s plans to lay off 108 unionized workers and replace them with an outside contractor, we were forced to question whether or not Oberlin is truly the school that was marketed to us. Oberlin claims the motto, “Learning and Labor,” but does it practice it? We have yet to be on campus, but we know that both learning and labor are equal parts...

Melissa Cropper, President, Ohio Federation of Teachers

April 24, 2020

To President Carmen Twillie Ambar, We, the more than 20,000 members of the Ohio Federation of Teachers, stand in solidarity with our United Auto Workers brothers and sisters targeted for outsourcing at Oberlin College. Outsourcing more than 100 union workers in order to avoid paying health benefits is morally bankrupt in the best of times, but to do so during a global pandemic is absolutely unconscionable. Furthermore, union busting is especially egregious for an institution that markets its progressive history to draw students. As teachers, we know that the...