Vinciman Ponders

The 44th West Indian Labor Day Parade in Brooklyn, 2011, was more than a celebration—it was a vibrant tapestry of identity, history, and unity. As I stood among hundreds of thousands of revelers lining Eastern Parkway, I was struck by the sheer diversity of flags fluttering in the breeze. West Indian and Caribbean nations were proudly represented, of course, but so too were flags from Central America, the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, and even a few African nations. In that moment of collective joy, differences in language, birthplace, and skin shade faded into the background. The flags waved side by side, and many individuals carried more than one—embodying layered identities and shared pride. Each section of masqueraders and dancers seemed to pulse with its own rhythm, often anchored by a dominant national flag. Grenada’s contingent stood out, celebrating the recent 400-meter gold medal victory of one of their athletes at the World Athletics Cham...

I stumbled into a movie theater on a fantastic New England Friday night, looking for something lighthearted to cap off a couple’s night out in a small city with limited entertainment options. I chose Crazy, Stupid, Love , a romantic comedy featuring Steve Carell, Ryan Gosling, and Julianne Moore. I hoped for a few laughs and maybe a fresh perspective on love. What I got was a vivid reminder: love—and everything that often comes with it, like sex and marriage—is messy. The film portrays love not as a tidy arc but as a tangled journey. It’s a story of falling in and out of love, navigating personal emotions, family dynamics, psychosocial stages of life, and community values. A boy wrestles with puberty, infatuation, and unrequited love. A 17-year-old girl becomes both the object of a younger boy’s affection and the recipient of an older man’s misguided desire. A young professional discovers the tension between career and intimacy. A playboy learns that love is more than conquest. And...

The concept of the inclusive college—however defined—is increasingly recognized as a vital goal for higher education. Across North America, colleges and universities are undergoing a decades-long transition, striving to serve culturally diverse student bodies better. But inclusion is not just about representation; it’s about reimagining institutional structures to ensure that all students can fully benefit from the college experience. One powerful lens for this work is intersectionality. Rooted in Black feminist thought and popularized by scholars such as Patricia Hill Collins, intersectionality prompts us to examine how overlapping social identities—such as race, gender, class, disability, and sexual orientation—interact to shape advantage or disadvantage. It’s not enough to consider a student’s disability status in isolation. If that student is also a woman and a racial minority, the barriers to access may be compounded. These layered experiences of exclusion require a more nuance...