Trump apologists no longer have an excuse


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Where is the proverbial breaking point for Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump supporters? A 2005 video showing Donald Trump speaking to television personality Billy Bush about non-consensual kissing and grabbing women’s genitals has dominated the news cycle since the video’s release Friday. The “locker-room banter” between the two men should come as no surprise to […]

USC and Foshay exemplify beneficial outreach program


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The gap between low-income and high-achieving can be closed with just a little thought and care on behalf of a successful program. The relationship between Foshay Learning Center and USC is one that other universities should seek to emulate. Foshay sent more students to USC this fall than any other public or private high school […]

It’s time to transform the inner city


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In his seminal 1965 report “The Negro Family: The Case for National Action,” politician Daniel Patrick Moynihan opened with the words, “The United States is approaching a new crisis in race relations.” He couldn’t have been more right then, and he’s just as right now. Moynihan argued that while the defeats of slavery and segregation […]

Reevaluate strategies of digital surveillance


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Edward Snowden — the National Security Agency subcontractor who in 2013 leaked classified information about NSA surveillance activities — has reemerged as a central talking point in national news. His ascendance back into the news cycle coincides with the release of the film Snowden and a recent campaign by human rights groups urging President Barack […]

Social justice can exist beside national unity


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As urban Affairs Counselor Daniel Patrick Moynihan wrote to President Richard Nixon in 1968, “Tory men and Whig measures are what changed the world.” The quote, of course, refers to the two competing political temperaments that have defined Anglo-American politics since the Tudors, Shakespeare and the Anglo colonization of North America: Whiggery and Toryism. For […]

Standardized testing spotlights inequality


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Each year, students in California public schools sit to take the California Assessment of Student Performance and Progress exam, which determines how prepared students are for college. Those test scores were just recently released, and while students in the Los Angeles Unified School District scored better on this year’s state standardized test than last year’s, […]

Social media outcry can enact real change


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On Sept. 2, TIME Magazine tweeted, “Stanford swimmer Brock Turner to be released from jail Friday.” A few days later when Turner was registered as a sex offender, media outlets followed TIME’s precedent for a headline. BuzzFeed News tweeted, “Ex-Stanford swimmer Brock Turner registers as sex offender.” The Associated Press followed suit with a tweet […]

Facebook ad policies cripple open discourse


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Facebook is relatively transparent about why you see certain advertisements. Any user can go into “Ad Preferences” and see how Facebook targets its ads. For example, Facebook thinks I will be interested in, and therefore more likely to click on, ads that concern Beyoncé, Postmates and irony. The New York Times  this week brought to […]

Next semester, renew student involvement


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Today marks the last issue of the Daily Trojan this semester. To most, this doesn’t mean much, but to me — as today marks the end of three columns, four semesters with the Daily Trojan and two semesters as its editorial director — it carries intense emotional consequences that somehow feels like a closure to […]