“President Rabinowitz responded to my question with, “You do matter, and every single student on this campus matters to me...I understand that it helps you in some way to say that we don’t think you’re as important as others...but you are...” This comment filled me with an anger I was unable to process to an extent that permitted me to write about it until this week. And even now, I still debate whether or not these feelings are eloquent enough for publication.”

"Hofstra University, where I am a professor in the School of Education, was recently in the national news, largely thanks to exiled Fox News personality Bill O’Reilly. A Hofstra student posted a Change.org petition demanding that the university remove a statue of Thomas Jefferson, author of the Declaration of Independence, because he was a slave owner who sexually exploited an enslaved black teenager with whom he had a number of children – a woman and her children who he kept enslaved. Student groups participated in a university-sponsored forum where multiple positions were aired and over 100 students demonstrated in front of the statute demanding its removal on Friday, March 30."

"Jefferson’s personal history is spotty and his reasoning on race was extremely flawed. However, his contributions to education, engineering and political theory cannot fit a 10-page paper, let alone an editorial. He is undeniably omnipresent in our nation’s history. “One day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed – ‘We hold these truths to be self evident, that all men are created equal.’” That was Martin Luther King, Jr. in 1963. Although the irony cannot be ignored, it was those words, Jefferson’s words, which inspired generations of Americans to fight for equality."

"Yet despite this compelling view of the former president, and ample fact to support these claims, it is not the only study of the president in existence. There is also the “emancipationist” view, put forth by professor Douglas L. Wilson (among others), which sees Jefferson as a product of his time, alleging that he opposed the notion of slavery all his life, merely using it in a fashion similar to his contemporaries. Contrary to what Owens and their constituents might believe, there is also evidence to support this view as well."

"White people really love Lin-Manuel Miranda’s “Hamilton: An American Musical.” I mean, really love it. I’m convinced that the Schuyler Sisters are white people’s Destiny’s Child."