Over fall break, I was visiting a friend at Stanford University during their homecoming weekend. I saw droves of students and alumni flooding the campus with their Stanford Tree paraphernalia. This showout, however, didn’t compare to the scene I saw during the University of Michigan’s homecoming weekend, where the streets were lined with students and alumni covered head-to-toe in maize and blue. I saw enthusiasm and fellowship shared by so many people. Although my amazement at the sheer number of people present at each event may have simply been a result of the size difference between those schools and Oberlin — after all, each of those campuses do include graduate schools — I began to wonder, how much of an imp...

Oberlin is an institution composed mostly of students whose political views fall on the left side of the spectrum. Because of this, there are many stereotypes associated with the typical “Obie.” As a member of the Oberlin football team, I can personally say that my peers from other institutions have stereotyped me on multiple occasions. Bigotry is definitely a contributing factor to the stereotypes Oberlin student-athletes face. For instance, I have been called the N-word on the field before — and yes, the person was white. We shared a few choice words afterward and he tried to accuse me of being soft for being offended by his disrespectful word choice. At that moment, I felt that I would have been ...

As a tennis player, I grew up watching the Williams sisters on television. They were — and still are — my heroes. I would sit criss-cross-applesauce on the family room floor, eyes glazed over, head bobbing back and forth to follow the ball, barely understanding what was happening on the screen. Back in those days, Venus and Serena often played one another in the finals of tournaments. I would root for Venus, since she was the big sister, and my little sister would cheer on Serena. While Venus has fallen out of the spotlight in recent years, Serena continues to dominate the sports page. Yet as I age, I’ve seen her reputation dragged through the mud time and time again. Whether it be positive or negat...

For many people in the United States, the happenings of everyday life in Cuba are nothing short of mysterious. Although the two countries are separated by a mere 103 miles, a half-century of socially-and-economically-restrictive international policy has made it difficult for most citizens of either country to understand what goes on in the other. One way in which Cuba has managed to exert its influence in American culture over the past 50 years is through Major League Baseball. Cuba is one of four major countries in Latin America (the others being Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic, and Venezuela) that have produced some of the most successful baseball players worldwide in recent decades, including many who ...