Lost in Spaces: Alienation at Amherst

Every Tuesday between 2 p.m. and 3 p.m., a campus tour group usually enters Keefe Campus Center. The tour typically stops right in front of the door to the Multicultural Resource Center (MRC). The MRC door is glass, so the room is generally visible to the outside. However, in those moments, the door transforms into something more — that glass door becomes a window. This transformation changes both the intention of the room and the relationship between those prospective parents and students and t

Questioning Exhaustion: Part 2

This is the second of a two-part series that attempts to answer the question, “What does it mean to be exhausted at Amherst College?” The first part of the series attributed the more insidious aspects of exhaustion to the campus’ excessive disciplinary culture. This second part asks, “Can exhaustion be redeemed?” Exhaustion is a phenomenon unlike any other. At its worst, it homogenizes individual experiences, emptying them of content. It is a feeling that prevents the afflicted from imagining

Questioning Exhaustion, Part 1

This is the first of a two-part series that asks, “What does it mean to be exhausted at Amherst College?” There is a tendency for students at elite institutions to scapegoat the heavy academic workload for campus exhaustion. The problem, I insist, is much more complicated. For many of us, exhaustion is the primary condition of the Amherst experience. It is a feeling that can consume everything, whether eventful or mundane. For many, merely navigating spaces on campus — the dining hall, Frost li

“The Life of Pablo” Reveals Kanye West at His Most Sacred and Profane

A little black girl with pigtails holds her mother’s hands. She sways back and forth, pleading for God’s anointing. Her words, familiar to children of black evangelicals everywhere, invoke the Spirit of the Lord. “We don’t want no devils in the house God,” screams the girl, “Hallelujah over Satan … Jesus praise the lord.” This video from “Natalie is Great,” a four-year old Instagram child star, provides the intro and primary sample for track one, “Ultralight Beam,” on Kanye West’s latest effort,

The Problem of Group Identity

To be an Amherst College student without a group is to walk around with no skin. It is to feel continuously vulnerable and overexposed to the elements. This overexposure is all consuming and exhausting. Participating in class, hellos to acquaintances — the most mundane tasks can seem daunting here. The stakes of being, the continuous scrutiny of our teachers and peers, can sometimes feel so incredibly high. “Did I say this thing right in class,” “I feel so awkward here,” “I just want a safe spac

The Problem of Minority Retention

For many at Amherst College, without an institution like a sports team, prominent club, fraternity or group with great social capital, it is not uncommon to feel naked and constantly exposed to the elements. More often than not for people of color on this campus, this exposure feels especially acute. Subtle erasures of our bodies, slight yet sharp jabs from the ignorant, interrogations of whether or not we are deserving, a continuous feeling of homelessness — “Are you sure this space is really m

Climate Change, the Anthropocene and Amherst's Commitment to the Neoliberal Arts

In 2004, I witnessed Hurricane Ivan, one of the most destructive tropical cyclones in recorded history. I was only a little kid when it hit. For almost two days the scene was apocalyptic: The sky was painted black while the winds screamed; houses were rocked to their very foundations because of unrelenting rain; the hurricane laid a myriad of seemingly immovable objects in the middle of the street; telephone poles, roofs, mango trees and stop signs were a few such objects whisked away like paper

Black Lives, Shadow Lives: A Response to "All Lives Matter"

When I was around 15 or 16 years old, I witnessed an extrajudicial killing by Jamaican policemen outside my mother’s workplace. A black man was running from the police and attempted to scale the wall leading to the entrance of the premises. The authorities quickly pursued the man, and instead of attempting to arrest the individual, the police fired a couple of shots at him. I remember the scene and how quickly this man’s death came. I remember no hostility from this man as he ran fleeing for his

The AC Voice Problem: Activist Olympics and Silent Discourse

AC Voice is the student publication that students love to hate. Depending on who you mention the publication to, you may get everything from encouraging compliments to unenthusiastic sighs and murmurs. Generally, however, campus enthusiasm is low about the publication. Case in point the events of last week. On March 4, AC Voice writer Gina Faldetta ’16, posted an article to the independent publication aptly titled “Amherst College’s Bathroom Problem.” In the article, Faldetta makes a fairly reas

A Letter to Amherst: Response to Racial Epithet

Retraction: In “A Letter to Amherst: Response to Racial Epithet” published in the October 2 issue of The Amherst Student, Andrew Lindsay ’16 wrote that Bradley Keigwin “stole computer components and furniture from the health center and used spray paint to damage the room and draw swastikas.” This statement is not true. Mr. Lindsay and The Amherst Student apologize for this error. Mr. Keigwin was vindicated when another person was identified and pled guilty to these charges. We deeply regret the