The Cavalier Daily
Serving the University Community Since 1890

Sasha Wan


​WAN: Don’t exaggerate systemic racism

The fairer way to describe the situation is that the community is influenced by cultural stereotypes of race. Racism involves dehumanization and discrimination against racial groups by labelling them as inferior, and thus it oppresses the abused groups. Racial stereotypes, on the other hand, are sets of beliefs about typical characteristics of certain groups and mental shortcuts that people employ to help reduce the cognitive efforts without the intent to dehumanize certain groups.

​WAN: Stop overlooking Virginia polo

Despite the popular image of polo players as predominantly privileged white males, the Virginia polo team is very diverse. Members of the team are composed of American students and international students from Costa Rica, Colombia, the United Kingdom and Switzerland. In various informal conversation, the players on the team explain their diverse interest and background in polo.

WAN: To credit, or not to credit

While the grading system is admittedly a strong incentive for students to achieve academic excellence, if the policy undermines the liberal arts education essential to the University and leads to significant inconvenience for students, reforms are necessary.

WAN: Re-evaluate the community

We believe that the self-governance of the University and the joint effort of the students and faculty can accomplish many amazing goals. However, proper treatment of sexual assault reports is not one of them.

WAN: Turn off the spotlight

There seems to be a view that international students are more likely to cheat than their American peers. However, this assumption is invalid and oversimplified, because these two groups are not examined under the same circumstances.

WAN: Suffering from stereotypes

Unlike plain racist and sexist comments, stereotyping, far from being condemned, criticized and down-voted, is recognized by the Yik Yak community as the key to getting high votes.

WAN: Fighting for suffrage

The Occupy Central movement in China is a courageous act against the prerogative of Beijing and a justifiable expression of frustration over economic inequality, but it is not making any progress.

WAN: The international experience

Although many international students come with a strong interest in learning about American culture, cultural disorientation can still be more difficult than anyone without such experience could possibly imagine.

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