Conversations about rankings are coated in a pretentiousness that only swell within this university’s privileged echochamber. 

One of the most notable remnants of in-person class, though, is the tendency for men to interrupt and speak over women.

“I had expected my peers to feel similarly, to be in awe of the amenities, to be thrilled by the opportunity, the absolute privilege, we all have received by getting to be educated at somewhere like Wash.U. But instead…I have been surrounded by insults to the food, insults to the housing, insults to the institution.

“While a lot of us are comforted by the interiors of our homes, that same opportunity is not granted to everyone, and this is a fact that we should not remain ignorant to.”

There are people on this campus who don’t know what it is like to have to constantly search for themselves in spaces, and this is a privilege.

This is the path that white people ought to take in the battle against racism: following those who know of its evils rather than leading with a false understanding.

I probably deserve to be in jail right now. This past weekend, on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, I was stopped and questioned by a police officer for trespassing in an abandoned building because I wanted to take some photographs. Was I in the wrong? Absolutely.

Oftentimes, people mention we are smart because we are at Wash. U.; we attend a university that has the privilege of selecting its students from a large group of applicants.