Yes, I am a woman. I also am a first-generation Hispanic-American. I also am an editor. In that order.
My mother is part of a generation of women who stood in picket lines to advocate for equality for women. She grew up with the stigma of being not only a woman, but a Latina in 1960s New York City. In her high school, her Jewish classmates were racist toward her because she was in honors classes. She had limitations forced upon her from the day she came to this country from Panama.
And so I’ve dealt with oftentimes lesser stigmas and a new world that she and her generation helped open up for me. I encountered racism and sexism in the hallways and classrooms of my own high school. Maybe the America I live in is worlds away from the one my mother came to, but underneath all the change some things do stay the same. So I deal with racism and sexism all the time — in my home, in my work, in my life.
As an editor, it is not my job to shelter the University campus community from the real world. It is not my job to tell the readers how to think or what to believe in. This paper is an open forum for all voices. The same applies for advertising. The Daily Lobo does not advertise illegal businesses, nor does it ban controversial advertisements. We ran the David Horowitz ad. We run TD’s and Fantasy World ads.
This is the nature of any newspaper, whether it is a college publication or not. The system within this country are not equal and our society has many things inherently wrong within it. Nobody will ever be perfectly happy. But just as it’s important to show the real horror of war by running a certain photo, so is it important to advertise a business that, while many people disagree with it, many others still endorse it. This does not mean we'll run anything, though.
People have the right to think for themselves. They make their own choices and fight their own battles. The one great thing about this country is that we have the freedom in print and speech to carry that with us as long as our Constitution stands.
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Write and speak out and experience life. This newspaper will always support that.
Angela Williams
Editor in Chief
