By Harrison Browne and Rachel Browne | Sunny Bryant is a ten-year-old trans girl who lives with her family in the Houston area. She’s got bright blond, shoulder-length hair and a wide, infectious smile. She enjoys teasing her mom Rebekah and running around with her puppy. When you speak with Sunny, she’s immediately engaged in the conversation, and you can tell she’s deeply curious and inquisitive. She’s excited to share things about her life with you, and she’s open and full of energy and spunk. But, most importantly, she likes to brag about how fast she can run and that her middle name, Jet, fits her well. Read more →

By Paul Ortiz | I came of age in a society that did not work. It especially did not function adequately for working-class people and our families. Growing up in the shadows of Watergate, the American War in Vietnam and deindustrialization, our elders shared two pieces of wisdom to explain the economic and social chaos engulfing our neighborhoods. Firstly, our society was run by rich people. Secondly, our political system was irredeemably corrupt. Read more →

More sparks will be flying this Fourth of July, and not just the sparklers and fireworks variety. Since the orange-dusted despot took office for a second term, we have born witness to the dysfunction of the democracy machine in accelerated mode. Project 2025’s authoritarian agenda is the monkey wrench thrown in the works, causing said sparks. Given the circumstances and bearing in mind the US’s histories, does it make sense to give credence to the Fourth of July at all? And as we protest against the wannabe king, who and what is this holiday for? Some of our authors have a few words to say about it. Read more →

By Kavita Das | On July 5, 1852, brilliant orator, fierce abolitionist, and former slave, Frederick Douglass, gave an impassioned speech entitled “The Meaning of July Fourth for the Negro.” In his speech, Douglass interrogated and excoriated the hypocrisy of Americans to celebrate the seventy-sixth year of their independence while denying the independence and basic humanity of Black Americans through the continuation of American slavery. Read more →

By Carlos Cueva Caro | One of my main interests throughout my four years as a history major was colonial history. As I researched different narratives of colonial America, it became evident that these stories tended to focus on the white male settlers as the protagonists, erasing other groups of people and stripping them of their agency. Hence, my interest turned to the stories left out, like those of the early inhabitants expelled by the European colonists and those forcibly brought here as slaves. This interest led me to take two classes on the history of Indigenous people of the Americas and the history of African Americans, respectively. Read more →