Affinity Magazine • 8th December 2019

Op-Ed: The Iranian Hostage Crisis Changed the World

The Iran Hostage Crisis occurred 40 years ago on November 4th, 1979, where 98 people in the U.S. Embassy in Tehran were held captive for 444 days. On the 4th, Iranian protesters, who were outraged with Americans for allowing Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi to escape the country without any consequence for his actions, stormed the U.S. Embassy and, as the weeks went on, released people who were mainly women and other minority members. However, then-President Jimmy Carter, signed off on Operation Eagle

Affinity Magazine • 20th October 2019

Sex Workers and Privacy: Thoughts on GirlsDoPorn

Sex workers have a complicated relationship with privacy. This was especially highlighted in the GirlsDoporn fraud case that has not been emphasized in the media as of late. Abroad, in places like the Netherlands where prostitution is legal, it’s expected that sex workers may have more rights or legal protections. Yet, because sex work is legal, illegal sex workers are on the rise in Amsterdam due to sex workers not wanting to register with the government and clients not wanting to reach out to

Affinity Magazine • 17th September 2019

Purdue Won’t Own Up to Opioid Addiction

On Wednesday, September 11, Purdue Pharma has finally reached an agreement with 23 states and thousands of counties that have sued the pharmaceutical giant over its involvement in the opioid crisis. One of Purdue’s most popular products, a painkiller named OxyContin, has been the leading substance of the opioid addiction crisis that has caused thousands of Americans to fall prey to addiction and ultimately, death beginning in the 1990s. In 2017, more than 47,000 Americans died due to opioid ove

Affinity Magazine • 30th August 2019

Domestic Abuse Analysis- Khachaturyan Case in Russia

Last June in Russia, sisters Krestina, Angelina and Maria Khachaturyan were accused of murdering their father Mikhail in July 2018. They are now in court facing a sentence of 20 years for pre-meditated murder. However, the sisters claim, and reportedly the courts have evidence of, their father psychologically, physically and sexually abusing them. When the sisters, who at the time were aged 17, 18 and 19, committed the act the sisters called the police and were arrested. In their statements, th

Affinity Magazine • 27th August 2019

Hey Media, Let’s Talk About the Victims Instead of Epstein

Reporters have a responsibility to tell the truth and inform citizens on news events. We also have the responsibility to accurately tell survivors’ stories and not sensationalize people’s experiences. It’s fair to say that Jeffrey Epstein’s death gained more traction than his victim’s stories. News outlets in detail described his death and have continued to speculate on his final moments since then, but few have profiled those who suffered from his unconscionable crimes. With all respect to hu

Affinity Magazine • 17th July 2019

Immigration and Identity Politics — Analysis of The Squad’s House Testimony

On Friday morning, the House Oversight and Reforms Committee heard from freshwomen representatives Ayanna Pressley, Alexandria Osacio-Cortez, and Rashida Tlaib. They gave an emotional testimony on their experience with visiting numerous detention centers in the south along with 14 other Congress members. They reported that the conditions were inhumane, with no functioning water from the sinks that women were drinking out of toilets, with intense overcrowding in cells, and other human rights vio

Affinity Magazine • 16th July 2019

Pete Buttigieg and Kamala Harris May Not Be for POC

Mayor Pete Buttigieg and Senator Kamala Harris are two Democratic presidential candidates that have a history that deters minority voters. This piece is to break down and analyze these candidates and how their stances on certain positions may alienate minority voters. Pete Buttigieg has recently polled at zero percent for Black Democratic voters. This has dragged his overall support down by five percent. Buttigieg has tried to appeal to black voters. Last month, Buttigieg proposed his Douglass

Affinity Magazine • 24th June 2019

The Democrats are Coming! An Analysis of the Des Moines Poll

The Des Moines Register, Mediacom, and CNN Iowa Report released a poll that ranked the masses of Democratic hopefuls in terms of public likeability and the possibility of them being Democratic presidential candidates. The poll was ran by Ann Selzer and was conducted in the first few days in June by 600 Iowa Democrats likely to vote in the 2020 caucus. The most popular is Joe Biden. He has received 24 percent from likely Iowa caucus goers which is a decrease by three percent from his last poll.

Affinity Magazine • 1st June 2019

The Nazis were in Chile and Germany is Just Now Paying

Germany has agreed to pay $11,000 in compensation to victims of the Chilean commune Colonia Dignidad founded by former Nazi soldier Paul Schafer in 1961. South America was a haven for former Nazi soldiers with Chile estimated to have accepted 500 and 1,000 Nazi soldiers. Many of these Nazis were never held accountable and tried for their actions, dying in South American countries that protected them. Colonia Dignidad was a colony set up in southern Chile by the remote Maule area. The 53 sq mil

Affinity Magazine • 20th April 2019

Why Colonials Needs to Be Taken Into Account in Notre Dame’s Rebuilding

The famous Notre Dame Cathedral caught fire on Monday. Fortunately, due to the church being under renovation, multiple artifacts had been removed from the site and placed in the Louvre museum. The over-800-year-old church is guessed to have burnt down from the center of the roof, and the damage is so intense that even $1 billion dollars raised from France’s billionaires may not help. However, President Emmanuel Macron has called for the cathedral to be rebuilt in five years and the burning of th

Affinity Magazine • 25th February 2019

Op-Ed: Senator Klobuchar is a Bad Boss, But You Only Care Because You’re Sexist

The New York Times ran an article on Minnesota Senator Amy Klobucher on Friday, depicting the treatment over her an aide that misplaced her fork. The senator, once told she had no fork, scolded the aide, used a comb she had on her person, and once finished with her salad, made the aide clean it. The article punctuated other incidences involving Senator Klobucher, such as her throwing objects such as binders at her aides, and harshly scolding aides at minuscule mistakes. Senator Klobucher is no

Affinity Magazine • 24th January 2019

The History of Transgender Military Service and How the Ban Changes It

The Supreme Court approved Trump’s plan yesterday to restrict transgender individuals from serving in the military. This 5-4 decision overturns the previous decision by lower courts in numerous states to prohibit the ban as discriminatory. How does this ban impact transgender people serving currently? What changes? To answer that question, the history of transgender military personnel needs to be talked about. In the 1900s, when an individual was identified as a gay man or lesbian woman, they c

Affinity Magazine • 10th January 2019

Op-Ed: Elizabeth Warren Should Not Be President if You Don’t Want Another Trump

It will be over a week since Senator Elizabeth Warren has announced her bid for the 2020 presidential election. She has revealed many things since announcing this: that she is actually not Native American, that she has a few ideas on what she would do in office, and that she is one of the first Democrats to openly announce her candidacy amidst rumors of Joe Biden returning. Is Elizabeth Warren ready for the presidency? 56% of her Massachussetts citizens don’t want her to run. The Boston Globe,

Affinity Magazine • 10th January 2019

The Cyntoia Brown Story Brings Awareness of Domestic Violence

Cyntoia Brown was granted parole after serving over 10 years in prison for murdering a man who bought her for sex as a 16-year-old. This means that Brown will be released in August for parole supervision, and reducing the initial 51 year wait for parole. The Tennessee governor’s office granted her clemency, but it also brought a fresh perspective on a case that affects millions of Americans and people around the world. Every 9 seconds in the United States, a woman is assaulted or beaten. In the

Affinity Magazine • 2nd December 2018

Is the Death of a President More Important Than the Death of Millions?

December 1 is World AIDS Day. It is meant to honor the millions of lives lost to the AIDS virus and to encourage people to help those who are living with it today. It was also the day after former President George H. W. Bush passed away. News outlets dedicated the day to honoring the memory of the former President instead of focusing on the epidemic that has been plaguing Americans for decades. The epidemic that Bush did not help control and stop. For young people who do not know about HIV/AID

Affinity Magazine • 30th November 2018

What the Disposal of Rape Kits Means for the #MeToo Movement

CNN recently reported that, nationwide, over 400 rape kits were destroyed by police departments before the statute of limitations expired or before prosecution. According to the report, 80% of the kits were never tested for DNA and kits were kept in police evidence lockers for weeks or months after receiving them. This has been occurring since 2010, and only now is it being investigated completely. The investigation shows disturbing stereotypes that law enforcement has used on rape victims comi

Affinity Magazine • 26th November 2018

The Power a Name Holds: A Look at the Sweep of Renaming in India

After India’s Independence Day on August 15 of this year, India’s cities and towns began to change. Not with any political or social movements, but with the names these cities once had. Bombay is now Mumbai, and Calcutta is Kolkata. This isn’t the first time India has renamed cities and towns. Historically, many countries have renamed cities so what India is doing isn’t that unusual. In the span of three years, India has seen multiple cities have changed names. Not only have these cities have t

Affinity Magazine • 21st November 2018

The Two Kinds of Firefighters Battling California’s Fires You Should Know About

California is on fire. The state has been ravaged by wildfires and the death toll has risen while people’s homes were lost. Thousands of people have left their neighborhoods, yet some people choose to stay. Some people choose to look for those who are missing in the rubble, choose to stop the fires overtaking homes. These people are firefighters. One group of firefighters at work in California are inmates. About 1,500 prisoners joined the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation,

Affinity Magazine • 14th November 2018

Matthew Shepard’s Death Still Matters

He was found on October 1998 in Laramie, Wyoming by a bicyclist. He was tied to a buck-rail fence and the cyclist mistook him as a scarecrow. Matthew was kidnapped, robbed, beaten and left to die. He was found 18 hours after the attack and was in the hospital, comatose. Two men were found and convicted of the crime, a crime committed because he was gay. Matthew’s parents instantly became involved in the gay community, forming the Matthew Shepard Foundation after receiving numerous letters from

Affinity Magazine • 13th November 2018

Here Is Victoria’s Secret

The famous Victoria Secret Fashion Show last Thursday exhibited a multitude of models and lingerie, but what really stole the show was a published interview Vogue submitted on the same day. Chief marketing officer of L. Brands Ed Razek and executive vice president of public relations at Victoria Secret Monica Mitro discussed diversity. Mitro discussed the diversity at first of Victoria’s Secret, with models using their natural hair and being encouraged to speak for themselves. Razek then mentio