Editorial: Rise in white nationalism fed by politicians
By The Pitt News Editorial Board
March 17, 2019
In wake of the mass shooting in Christchurch, New Zealand, on Friday, we’ve seen that such blatant refusals to admit the gravity of white supremacy and racism have a wider effect than just the United States alone.
Editorial: Pitt is no place for hate
By The Pitt News Editorial Board
January 17, 2019
We’ve all heard slurs that target a wide range of ethnicities, religions, genders and sexual orientations. But there is no place for this kind of language at Pitt or in Pittsburgh.
Racial slurs found on car roofs in South Oakland
By Brian Gentry, Assistant News Editor
January 16, 2019
Racial slurs were found written in snow on car hoods in South Oakland Sunday night.
Editorial | GOP hard on King, soft on Trump
By The Pitt News Editorial Board
January 16, 2019
The Republican leadership likely hopes their actions against King will be seen as a genuine stand against white supremacy, not something done when it is politically convenient. The GOP’s silence on Trump says otherwise.
Editorial: A royal wedding does not solve racism
By The Pitt News Editorial Board
May 23, 2018
American actress Meghan Markle’s marriage to the British Prince Harry featured celebrity guests, beautiful decor and a well-dressed, smitten couple — staples of any royal wedding. But when Markle walked herself down the aisle May 19, viewers around the world knew something was different this time. Pe...
Pitt debates presence of Parran’s past
By Thompson Wymard | Staff Writer, Contributed reporting by Cassidy Power
March 30, 2018
Pitt graduate student union organizers have garnered more than 870 signatures to rename Parran Hall — the Pitt Public Health building named after the school’s founding dean who was involved in unethical medical experiments. But Thursday at a University-organized symposium discussing the legacy...
Shock over memes doesn’t mean much
By Brian Gentry | Columnist
February 2, 2018
When news broke last week that some members of Pitt College Republicans were participating in a private GroupMe that shared racist memes, headlines may as well have read, “College students say something racist — again.” A Twitter account called “Racists @ Pitt” published screenshots from the ...
Editorial: Cleveland mascot’s departure signals good first step
By The Pitt News Editorial Board
February 1, 2018
With statues of Confederate generals removed across the South last summer and likenesses of Christopher Columbus vandalized across the North last October, it was only a matter of time before the next symbol of racism in America came down. This time, it was in our own backyard. The Cleveland India...
Conservative-leaning groups deny association after members share racist memes
By John Hamilton and Mackenzie Rodrigues
January 25, 2018
After members of two conservative-leaning campus groups were exposed for sharing racist memes, both the Pitt College Republicans and Polis Media released separate statements claiming these members’ actions were not associated with their organization. The Twitter account Racists @ Pitt started s...
Editorial: Post-Gazette editorial not representative of newspaper or city
By The Pitt News Editorial Board
January 17, 2018
If the Pittsburgh Post-Gazettes’ Monday editorial “Reason as racism” put a bad taste in your mouth, you’re not alone. The editorial defended President Donald Trump’s inflammatory statement he made in a meeting Thursday with lawmakers discussing immigrants from Haiti, El Salvador and sev...
Share your experiences of hate and bias on campus
By John Hamilton / Managing Editor
November 30, 2017
The Pitt News is joining ProPublica’s Documenting Hate project to better report on incidents of hate, bias and harassment at Pitt — and we want to hear your stories. Reports of hate crimes are up nationwide, and college campuses are no exception. The Federal Bureau of Investigation received rep...
Editorial: Journalists shouldn’t be afraid to contextualize evil
By The Pitt News Editorial Board
November 27, 2017
What was unusual in the response to a recent New York Times story wasn't its negativity so much as where the hate came from. With figures on the political right, from President Donald Trump to Joseph Curl of the Washington Times, frequently deriding The New York Times as “failing” and “very,...
SASA, BAS converse about colorism
By Hannah Schneider, For The Pitt News
November 20, 2017
Until about two weeks ago, Anvit Rai wasn’t familiar with the concept of colorism. “I had heard of [colorism], but I didn’t know how pervasive or important it was,” Rai said. “To a degree, I always thought that colorism was racism. I didn’t know it was a completely separate entity.” ...
Hartford hate crime shows what happens when students stay silent
By Sarah Shearer | Columnist
November 6, 2017
Imagine walking into your dorm room at the end of a long day. You get ready for bed, brush your teeth and apply lotion. The faint smell of — moldy clams? — doesn’t quite hit but lingers questionably in the air. You want to ask your roommate if she smells it too, but can’t find the strength t...
Students drown out bigotry in counter protest outside Towers
By Janine Faust and Amanda Finney / TPN Staff
September 18, 2017
A crowd of Pitt students jammed the stairway leading up to Towers Patio on Monday, waving rainbow flags and sporting “I [heart] the female orgasm” t-shirts. Others stood on nearby trashcans and benches and leaned over the patio rails, fervently chanting “God loves everyone” and “shame on you...
Editorial: Racism in humanities isn’t the problem
By The Pitt News Editorial Board
September 11, 2017
Race relations in the United States are rapidly returning to the foreground of the public’s consciousness. It seems nowhere is immune from the rising tensions — not even the study of classical antiquity. At Reed College in Portland, Oregon, student protesters are at the center of a controversy dealing with...
Eradicating racism is about responsibility, not statues
By Elise Lavallee | Contributing Editor
September 5, 2017
With racial violence gripping Charlottesville, Virginia, last month, the nation’s moral conscience was transfixed. The full scale of hatred on display from white supremacists and neo-Nazis was enough to persuade communities across the country to reconsider the continuing public position of racially i...
FEMA fails minority communities
By Saket Rajprohat | Columnist
May 10, 2017
A lot of volunteers pick up litter, serve food or build houses. But not all are backdropped by the snow-capped peak of Mount Adams in southern Washington state. Third-year rehabilitation science major Bethany Lindsey saw this scenery firsthand when she volunteered with Sacred Road Ministries, a group un...
Column: Sterling’s comments require unprecedented action
By Nate Barnes / Senior Staff Writer
April 27, 2014
From the day I was born until I graduated high school, I lived in six different places. The longest stop was a stint from August 2000 to January 2007 in Orange County, Calif., which lies about halfway between Los Angeles to the north and San Diego to the south.While there, I developed an interest in sp...
Pittsburgh embraces the new Dave Chappelle
By Vincent Smith / Staff Writer
September 2, 2013
Sitting on the lawn at the First Niagara Pavilion, listening to a plethora of poorly chosen dance music, I believed that I was not going to see Dave Chappelle perform last Friday night. The interim music break, coupled with a disc jockey’s failed attempts at winning over fans’ attention, seemed ...