Op-Eds
IUPRA staff are often asked to share their expertise on how various policy and social issues disproportionately affect people of color in op-ed pieces. These op-eds have been published in local, state-wide, and national press.
The views and opinions expressed in these articles are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of IUPRA or The University of Texas at Austin.
- 2022
Opinion: It’s Time to Hold Social Media Platforms Accountable
Annika Olson
The Austin Chronicle | January 2022 - 2021
Opinion: We need antitrust laws to limit America's food monopolies
Annika Olson
Austin American-Statesman | December 2021Facial Recognition Tech Perpetuates Racial Bias. So Why Are We Still Using It?
Annika Olson
Yes! Magazine | December 2021The Plan to Tax Billionaires like Elon Musk is dead — for now. Why it Should be Revived.
Annika Olson
NBC News | October 2021Opinion: HUD must disclose flood risk to protect low-income homebuyers
Annika Olson
Austin American-Statesman | October 2021Opinion: Why milk alternatives mislead consumers, hurt Texas dairy farmers
Annika Olson
Austin American-Statesman | August 2021Commentary: To build a better America, raise minimum wage
Annika Olson
San Antonio Express-News | July 2021Leaving a PhD Program
Annika Olson
Visible Magazine | July 2021Commentary: Special session starts with playbook for voter restriction
Annika Olson
San Antonio Express-News | July 2021CRT reminds us that systemic racism exists. In my classroom we don’t bury it, we discuss it.
Kevin Cokley
USA Today, Yahoo News | July 2021I'm 26 and I have some news for my peers on vaccination
Annika Olson
CNN | May 2021Some Police Automatically Fear Black Men. De-escalation Training Won’t Solve That.
Kevin Cokley
USA Today| April 2021It Is Time to Formally Recognize Racial Trauma
Annika Olson
Social Work Today | April 2021Millennials have almost no chance of being able to afford a house. This is what can be done
Annika Olson
CNN | March 2021Insurrection was a product of deep-seated racism
Kevin Cokley
San Antonio Express | January 2021Black people tried to tell y'all about Trump. So yeah, we've got jokes now.
By Patrice Peck. Dr. Kevin Cokley featured as a contributor.
MSNBC | January 2021 - 2020
Psychology shows us there are ways we can deal with COVID-19 uncertainty
Annika Olson
Visible Magazine | October 2020Why amazon and its domination should be raising concerns
Annika Olson
Austin American Statesman | 2020Trump's tepid disavowal of white supremacy says alot
Kevin Cokley
San Antonio Express | 2020Telling young people to stay inside during a pandemic is like telling them to abstain from sex. Here are some better ideas.
Annika Olson
CNN | August 2020We should all welcome the bipartisan push to expand AmeriCorps
Annika Olson
Austin American-Statesman | August 2020We need leaders to affirm that Black Lives Matter, not exploit the phrase to divide us
Kevin Cokley
USA Today | July 2020Commentary: COVID, poverty burden front-line worker
Ricardo Lowe
San Antonio Express | July 2020U.S. Senate Should Pass Additional School Funding to Combat 'COVID-19 Slide'
Annika Olson
U.S. News & World Report | July 2020Austin's next superintendent must address poverty, equity gaps
Valerie Sterne
Austin American-Statesman | June 2020When is enough, enough?
Kevin Cokley
The Hill | May 2020Texas must bridge the digital divide in school districts
Annika Olson
Austin American-Statesman | May 2020
Valley Town Crier | May 2020
Waco Tribune-Herald | May 2020
The Daily Light | May 2020
Nueces County Record Star | May 2020
Lubbock Avalanche Journal | May 2020
Van Alstyne Leader | May 2020Now or Never: Hold the Superintendent Accountable to Communities of Color
Danielle Wright, Ph.D.
The Austin Chronicle | May 2020Calling it the 'Chinese virus' distracts from addressing public health needs
Ricardo Lowe and Tracie Lowe
Austin American-Statesman | April 2020
San Antonio Express | April 2020
Abilene Reporter News | April 2020COVID-19 shows why we need misdemeanor criminal justice reform
Annika Olson
The Hill | April 2020Equity audits should be commonplace
Annika Olson
Inside Higher Ed | March 2020AISD is perpetuating a historic racial dividing line
Annika Olson
The Austin Chronicle | March 2020An open letter to my peers partying on the beach
Annika Olson
CNN | March 2020Don't pit slavery descendants against Black immigrants. Racism doesn't know the difference.
Kevin Cokley
USA Today | February 2020Good schools are not enough when children lack adequate housing
Annika Olson
Houston Chronicle | January 2020
Austin American-Statesman | January 2020
Waco Tribune-Herald | January 2020 - 2019
Why support for the death penalty is much higher among white Americans
Kevin Cokley
The Conversation | November 2019
Houston Chronicle | November 2019
KUT | November 2019
Chicago Tribune | November 2019Don't sanitize African American Studies
Kevin Cokley
Houston Chronicle | November 2019
San Antonio Express | November 2019
Austin American-Statesman | November 2019
Caller Times | November 2019Place children at the center of any plan to change Austin schools
Annika Olson
Austin American-Statesman | November 2019School closures would impact an already vulnerable Black population in Austin
Ricardo Lowe
Texas Tribune's TribTalk | October 2019Imposter syndrome, Black college students, and how administrators can help
Tracie Lowe and Donte Bernard
Diverse: Issues in Higher Education | July 2019What is a real American, President Trump?
Kevin Cokley
The Globe and Mail | July 2019On Juneteenth, we must celebrate our cultural bond
Kevin Cokley
USA Today | June 2019
Austin American-Statesman | June 2019
Dallas News | June 2019
Caller Times | June 2019
San Antonio Express | June 2019
Abilene Reporter News | June 2019A political stalemate over Puerto Rican aid is leaving all US disaster funding in limbo
Lauren Lluveras
The Conversation | April 2019Why LeBron James' I Promise School should be more like LeBron and not shy away from issues of race
Kevin Cokley
The Conversation | April 2019Race relations in Texas still a work in progress
Kevin Cokley
Austin American-Statesman | April 2019
Waco Tribune-Herald | April 2019This is how Texas can do a better job of preventing maternal mortality
Michele Rountree
Caller Times | March 2019My Great Expectations for Miles Morales
Lauren Lluveras
Latino Rebels | February 2019Including foster care and homeless students in higher education
Tracie Lowe
Texas Tribune's TribTalk | February 2019 - 2018
'Estamos Bien' and the forced resiliency of Black and Brown communities
Lauren Lluveras
Latino Rebels | December 2018College is an impossible dream for many black foster children
Tracie Lowe
Texas Tribune's TribTalk | November 2018There should not be a litmus test for patriotism
Kevin Cokley
The Hill | October 2018Trump's behavior towards Puerto Ricans after Maria adds insult to injury
Lauren Lluveras
The Globe Post | September 2018Puerto Rico has not recovered from Hurricane Maria
Lauren Lluveras
The Conversation | September 2018
Univision | September 2018
WTOP | September 2018
UPI | September 2018Kavanaugh could undermine diversity on college campuses
Shavonne Henderson and Martin Kamp
San Antonio Express | September 2018
Austin American-Statesman | September 2018
Caller Times | September 2018
Campus Reform | October 2018
WND | October 2018What keeps racism alive? To start, most of us can't see it
Kevin Cokley
San Antonio Express | August 2018
Austin American-Statesman | August 2018My Grandma Went to Jail for Selling Joints and Now White People are Profiting Off Weed
Lauren Lluveras
Vice | April 2018How MLK's death changed America
Kevin Cokley
Dallas News | March 2018
- 2017
Brown v. Board of Education anniversary — re-segregate schools voluntarily for black students
kihana miraya ross
The Hill | December 2017Texans Lose After Lawmakers Defund Office of Minority Health
Lauren Lluveras
Rivard Report | November 2017
The Monitor | November 2017
Amarillo Globe-News | November 2017
Austin American-Statesman | November 2017
Houston Chronicle | November 2017
San Antonio Express-News | November 2017It’s wrong for Texas to criminalize abortions
Shavonne Henderson and Richa Gupta
Texas Tribune's TribTalk | November 2017Why Texas doesn’t come close to having true democracy
Lauren Lluveras
Austin American-Statesman | October 2017
Corpus Christi Caller-Times | October 2017Is racial bias driving Trump’s neglect of Puerto Rico?
Lauren Lluveras
Houston Chronicle | October 2017
Chicago Tribune | October 2017
The Conversation | October 2017
United Press International | October 2017Puerto Rico: Racializing the federal response
Lauren Lluveras
The Globe Post | October 2017Puerto Rico’s bankruptcy will make hurricane recovery brutal – here’s why
Lauren Lluveras
The Conversation | September 2017
Houston Chronicle | September 2017
Washington Post | September 2017Trump isn’t urging patriotism; he’s provoking a culture war
Kevin Cokley
Austin American-Statesman | September 2017
Waco Tribune-Herald | September 2017
Rivard Report | September 2017More universities need to embrace anti-hate policies
Shetal Vohra-Gupta and Naomi Reed
Houston Chronicle | August 2017On race, America cannot look to Trump for moral leadership
Kevin Cokley
The Globe Post | August 2017Australian woman’s death reveals the human toll of a police shooting
Kevin Cokley
The Globe and Mail | July 2017JFK at 100: Celebrating women’s rights legacy
Laurie Green and Shetal Vohra-Gupta
USA TODAY | May 2017
Houston Chronicle | May 2017Working moms to suffer under TrumpCare
Shetal Vohra-Gupta
The Hill | July 2017Gaffes aside, what Ben Carson could do with the keys he holds
Shetal Vohra-Gupta
EBONY | March 2017An open letter to Betsy DeVos: Listen to your community
Shetal Vohra-Gupta
Medium | January 2017
Huffington Post | February 2017‘Our children can become president, too’: Obama’s presidency was a dream realized
Kevin Cokley
the grio | January 2017What Martin Luther King Jr. may have thought about U.S. today
Kevin Cokley
Austin American-Statesman | January 2017
Dallas Morning News | January 2017
Psychology Today | January 2017
Texas Perspectives | January 2017
Virgin Islands Daily News | January 2017
Olean Times Herald | January 2017 - 2016
Stop, drop, and pay retail workers what they’re worth while you’re benefiting from Black Friday
Shetal Vohra-Gupta
Medium | November 2016Despite strides against HIV, there’s much work ahead
Michele Rountree
Houston Chronicle | November 2016Fighting imposter syndrome
Kevin Cokley
The Alcalde | November 2016Making America white again: The ‘white lash’ that carries Trump
Kevin Cokley
The Globe and Mail | November 2016FBI Director James Comey has a long history of ignoring the truth
Amanda Woog
Washington Post | November 2016Law enforcement funding should be tied to proper reporting of custodial deaths
Amanda Woog
Houston Chronicle | October 2016What it means to be black in the American educational system
Kevin Cokley
The Conversation | October 2016Toward a reproductive justice framework based on meaningful family choice
Amanda Woog and Shetal Vohra-Gupta
Harvard Law and Policy Review | September 2016Who dies in police custody? Texas, California offer new tools to find out
Amanda Woog
The Conversation | August 2016
Huffington Post | August 2016
Houston Chronicle | August 2016Lost in the rhetoric of race are too many lost lives
Kevin Cokley
The Globe and Mail | July 2016Change police training tactics to stop shootings of black men
Kevin Cokley and Germine Awad
Dallas Morning News | July 2016Beyonce, bell and biracial me: A thank you note by Naomi Reed
Naomi Reed
NewBlackMan (in Exile) | May 2016Donald Trump, Militias, and the Paradox of “Whiteness History Month”
Naomi Reed
Truthout | April 2016School-to-prison pipeline rooted in Nixon’s war on drugs
Lorna Hermosura
Austin American-Statesman | April 2016
San Antonio Express-News | April 20163 steps to chip away at the gender pay gap
Shetal Vohra-Gupta
Dallas Morning News | April 2016Are all black students falling behind?
Kevin Cokley
The Conversation | April 2016
New Boston Post | April 2016Texas must change how we learn about black lives in school
Naomi Reed and Karen Moran Jackson
Fort Worth Star-Telegram | February 2016Martin Luther King Jr.’s ‘dream’ is on life-support
Kevin Cokley
Dallas Morning News | January 2016;
Austin American-Statesman | January 2016Kids, dogs and law enforcement
Victor O. Obaseki
Texas Tribune’s Trib Talk | January 2016 - 2015
Texas law on police shootings is only a start
Amanda Woog
Dallas Morning News | December 2015After ‘Shakara’: 5 reforms to prevent police violence in schools
Amanda Woog, Naomi Reed, and Shetal Vohra-Gupta
EBONY | December 2015Are Texas textbooks making cops more trigger-happy?
Naomi Reed
The Conversation | November 2015
Newsweek | November 2015Real Talk: Ebony’s controversial Cosby Show cover is just what Dr. Huxtable ordered
Naomi Reed
Chicago Reader | October 2015End racial disparities in school discipline
Kevin Cokley
San Antonio Express-News | September 2015
Houston Chronicle | September 2015
Dallas Morning News | September 2015
Fort Worth Star-Telegram | September 2015On the clearance rack – the value of a working woman
Shetal Vohra-Gupta
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