Roderick Cook | A different kind of financial aid

Recently, my fellow columnist Yessenia Gutierrez wrote about challenging the misguided notions about low-income students being “privileged” and “lucky” for not having to pay tuition.

Roderick Cook | Reframing violence

We must move beyond calling the act of robbing a store or taking someone’s money “violent.” We must also use this term to refer to Penn’s role in the gentrification of West Philadelphia through the expansion of our university, which forces families out of their homes and perpetuates intergenerational poverty. Poverty combines with systematic racism, leading people to commit these crimes of survival.

Roderick Cook | Politicizing Halloween costumes

“Given that culturally appropriative Halloween costumes are caricatures of the cultures that they aim to emulate, they’re a means of exercising control over them,” Huynh says. “In this mindset, white culture gets to be complex. It cannot be reduced to a certain type of clothing or mannerism. But ‘East Asian culture’ can be reduced to the geisha girl. Cultures can be bought and worn for Western entertainment.”

Roderick Cook | Our faves are problematic

Furthermore, we need to be aware that when we uphold the value of artists such as Iggy Azalea, we allow them to take space from other artists — in this example, black artists — who are producing art that is both more authentic and less offensive.

Roderick Cook | Rethinking the 'true academic experience'

Still, some who recognize this fact think that prefacing something with a trigger warning somehow disrupts the intellectual experience of reading or viewing it. As the DP editorial put it, “It is sometimes deemed necessary for students to experience visceral reactions to the material with which they come into contact. The purpose of such material is to be taken by surprise, offended and even, at times, disturbed.”This statement shows a fundamental misunderstanding of the difference between being surprised or offended and being traumatized. Furthermore, it exposes the unsettling fact that many people out there genuinely care more about some assumed abstract “true academic experience” than the safety of students.

Roderick Cook | Beyond a single cause

This legacy of true queer activism has quickly been subjugated to the point where violence against trans women of color still runs rampant, but large, wealthy LGBT marriage equality organizations can afford to spend thousands of dollars on networking galas to “build community.”

Roderick Cook | It's story time

Some stories are hard to tell, but chances are those are the ones that desperately need to be heard.We far too often have an aversion to using individual stories as a way to understand societal problems and enact change.

Roderick Cook | Not-so-happy hour

From the first moment that I was offered a beer at a party to this very day whenever people around me are drinking, I have felt at least a little bit uncomfortable and have had a sense of dread. I can’t quite explain it, but it’s very real.

Roderick Cook | Come out, but don't come in

Our mere existence [as queer and trans people] challenges the structure of objectification of women that frat parties are designed for.

Roderick Cook | What a drag

Expressing femininity in a way that I have been actively and passively told that I am not supposed to has been such a powerful and important experience. It’s helped me to understand my gender and myself in ways that I have previously not been able to.

Roderick Cook | Trigger Happy?

Oftentimes,  it is not simply a matter of someone needing to “get over” their trigger. It may be impossible or extremely difficult to do so, and in any case,  it is not up to someone else to decide that it is time for someone to face these issues.

Roderick Cook | It’s not always about sex

When feminist spaces focus so heavily on intimate discussions of sex, they can very easily do a lot of harm to the same people for which they claim to be advocating.

Roderick Cook | Beyond "Born This Way"

We sometimes throw around this language with the best of intentions, but what are we really saying here? We are perpetuating the idea that queer and trans identities are things that we need to be OK with, but things that objectively are not good.

Roderick Cook | Addressing identity (in just a few letters)

Even the smallest of words can have the ability to either reaffirm or invalidate someone’s identity. When it comes to gender, some of the most important words are usually only a few letters long: pronouns.

Roderick Cook | Celebration, not toleration

We can come out of the closet — but only if we go back in for a little while when other people’s comfort is at risk. Furthermore, people who say that romantic or sexual relationships are private matters usually only apply this to queer relationships.

Roderick Cook | Table Talk: Greekin' Out

We should continue to make fraternities and sororities safer for queer and trans people, but ultimately, these places are built around a binary that alienates an entire segment of the Penn population.

Roderick Cook | Out of the margins

Many — I’m inclined to say most — Penn students know little to nothing about queer and trans identities and the struggles we face. For those who do, the stories that are told are mostly representative of the G and the L in LGBTQIA, while little is known about bisexual, trans, intersex and asexual individuals.