Editors' Choice
Into the Elephant's Den
Four years ago, the Harvard Republican Club chose not to endorse Donald Trump, denouncing his “racial slander” as a “threat to the survival of the Republic.” Several weeks ago, the same club released a very different decision, not only endorsing the President but describing his policies as leading to “the most prosperous and safe lives for Black Americans.” So, what changed? Exploring a central group chat described as a “lion’s den,” a previous election characterized by “Harvard snakery to the millionth degree,” and the experience of two women on the club’s board, The Crimson dug into the factors behind the club’s controversial reversal.
The Pandemic-Era Allure of Productivity YouTube
This is how, in the early phases of the pandemic, I stumble upon the productivity side of YouTube. Over the last seven months, I have somehow found myself spending more time watching videos that tell me how to optimize my life — how to take notes, stack habits, sleep better, focus on work — than ever before.
A Creatrix Walks Into an Anticapitalist Pottery Bar(n)
Made by Me — a paint-your-own-pottery studio run by queer women, in the process of selling ownership to its employees — is real, open for business, and located right on Mass. Ave.
A New Fear for Salem
These days, a crowd isn’t just a crowd: It’s a coronavirus outbreak waiting to happen. This is the fear of Salem residents in 2020, especially those who work in the town’s tourism sector.
A Theatre for One (or Fourteen More)
The Brattle Theatre, housed in a 130-year-old red brick building in Harvard Square, has been operating as a movie theatre since 1953. Now, as COVID-19 casts doubt on the future of the cinema industry, the Brattle Theatre is working to re-imagine what a theater can be.
The Case for RepHAIRations Hair Shop
Mangcu, Adams, and Bailey grew increasingly frustrated with the lack of diverse hair care products in Arlington and Cambridge. Enter RepHAIRations, which opened its doors in Arlington on June 19 — Juneteenth.
Four First Steps for a Better Editorial Board
Both our impact — like citations in University decisions and national publications — and our mistakes suggest that our community deserves a board that is receptive to the breadth of perspectives on our campus as well as transparent about who we are.
The Language of “Merit” Divides Immigrants When We Most Need Solidarity
Let us not use our privileges as international students or high-skilled workers to further entrench the immigration hierarchy. Let us rethink our toleration of a punitive immigration system.
Dismissals and Disparity: Racial Inequity in Harvard’s Biostatistics Department
We must identify and dispose of practices that create disadvantages for underrepresented minority students and move towards institutionalizing racial equality in graduate programs. Minority students are counting on it.
A Springtime Storm
Until this year, the spring of 1970 appears to be the only semester in Harvard’s history during which the College offered a schoolwide pass-fail option. Now, the spring 2020 semester has become the second. The circumstances surrounding each decision, however, are more different than they are similar.
Locked and Loaded Against COVID-19
“I think a lot of this has to do with a fear of the indeterminacy and the effect this pandemic will have on civil society,” says Caroline Light, a Harvard senior lecturer on studies of Women, Gender, and Sexuality whose research focuses largely on Americans’ relationship to lethal self-defense. Spikes in civil gun purchases often accompany moments of uncertainty or instability, such as periods of economic distress or widespread layoffs, Light explains. “As we see the social capacities of the government eroding, we see more and more people asking this question of, ‘How am I going to survive?’”
Mornings at Murphy's
Jen took her coffee with milk and one Sweet’N Low, iced in the summer. I handed her the pink packet, grabbing two Equals for Bruce before rushing to the donut rack for his glazed jelly stick and ice water with a plastic straw. Will took his coffee black with two Splenda and George usually asked for a milkshake, but only if Suzy was working (which she usually was). If not, he’d have a coffee and a bagel with extra cream cheese or a hot dog with raw onions, not grilled. I’d hand Lucy, a nurse practitioner, her cinnamon twist and cup of tea just in time to hear her chide George for his order — after all, he recently suffered a stroke. I identified my regulars by their orders long before I learned their names. They called me “Red” before they learned mine.
A Waiting Space
This is a CultureHouse “third space,” a place “between home and work to hang out, meet people, create, share skills, and learn,” its website states. Started in 2017, CultureHouse aims to “increase livability and joy in cities,” by designing free-to-use, public infrastructure projects that leverage vacant urban spaces, founder Aaron B. Greiner explains. The Harvard Square location is one of two temporary CultureHouse pop-ups in Cambridge; the other is in Kendall Square.
You Don't Have to Go Home, But You Can't Stay Here
The parties that happened in those last five days were like corrupted versions of normal college parties. They were necessarily more debaucherous than usual, but more than that, the regular components of a party now felt discordant. The people, locations, and drinks were all the same. But as partying mutated into a four-day-long hangover, there was no distinction between a party and daily life. People spoke bluntly in a mimicry of normal, tipsy party behavior, but now they did so because nothing seemed to matter. If a conversation turned awkward or if flirtation was poorly received, there was no need to blame it on the alcohol or the atmosphere — no one would see each other for months, or maybe ever again.
Shopping for Scrubs and Other Traces of Normalcy
I’ve always been vaguely aware that my mom is an infectious disease doctor. There were little clues — medical jargon over dinner, horror stories about patients used to scare me into healthy eating, a skin rash-themed wall calendar — but on the whole, I simply thought of her as my mom, and beyond that, just perpetually busy. Now, though, her profession is not just unignorable — it’s inseparable from her identity as my mom, from her very existence.
