Evening – RELephantUA

The American Dream

In the United States people are often categorized by what is known as Social Class. Social Class is often thought as a large group of people, with similar economic, cultural and political status. The classes range from Upper High Class to Very Low Class. There is mobility within this system. You can be born rich and end up destitute, and visa- versa. Some believe that within this system there is boundless opportunity. The boundless opportunities within these classes are often associated with the American Dream.

But, is this dream just a dream? Are the same opportunities available to everyone? Can a person born into a low income family really compete with someone born into a high income family?

The Religion of Wall Street

Is economics really all that different from our current view of religion? Think about the rhetoric we use when discussing economics and religion.

“Capitalism is the saving grace to the world.” “All salvation comes through the Catholic Church.”

“The USSR was a corrupt form of communism and shouldn’t be how we judge it.” “ISIS is Islam gone wrong and we can’t consider them truly Muslim.”

“How about distributism?!” “Oh yeah, we forgot Jediism was a thing.”

The conflicts in economy are just as pronounced as in the religious world. People are willing to stand and die by their preferred system.

Shrine or Video Game Ad?

When an elderly woman was videoed by a security camera bowing and making offerings before a statue, viewers interpreted the actions in different ways. Suggesting that the statue was not a shrine to Guan Yu (a general who became recognized as the God of War for many in China) but a figure from a video game, some have laughed at the elderly woman’s mistake, while others have expressed sympathy or wondered if the divine would respond to a prayer presented sincerely before the “wrong” statue.

Just Another Beyoncé Discussion

In recent months, the release of Beyoncé’s new song “Formation” has made waves across the country. The song’s accompanying music video has particularly sparked a lot of controversy. We (Emily Vork and Catie Stewart) find the current discussions about it to be a…

On Belief and Beyoncé

In their most recent April edition, Elle magazine published a rare gem: a full interview with Beyoncé. While she is never far from sight, some have noted that Beyoncé has retreated from the public eye in the past few years, declining interviews in favor of more carefully cultivated portrait’s of the artist’s interior life. When she released the video single for ‘Formation’ earlier this year–proudly parading her personal roots and featuring her baby daughter–many fans were jazzed with what appeared to be a peek into the privatized, “authentic” blackness of Beyoncé. But if the song seems to revolve around embracing authentic individual identity, why, then, do many Americans find Beyoncé’s pro-black anthem a political and public threat? What is it about this new iteration of Beyoncé that the public finds so jarring, when this is far from the first time she has called for critical engagement with the way our nation talks about gender, race, and police brutality?

Category: Evening