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In the early morning of May 8, Lolade Siyonbola, a black student, was writing a paper, and accidentally fell asleep in the common room of her dorm at Yale University. At approximately 1:30 a.m, she was awoken by a white student, Sarah Braasch, and was told that she was not allowed to be there. Siyonbola fought back and insisted that she was indeed permitted to be there, as she was a student and payed tuition just like everybody else. Braasch proceeded to call the campus police, and they arrived immediately. Siyonbola was interrogated, and the officer told her, "You're in a Yale building, we need to make sure you belong here." Siyonbola then proved her residency by unlocking her dorm room with her key, yet police were still skeptical and asked to see her ID. Shortly after, an email was sent out by the vice president of the university, stating that the incident was "deeply troubling". Yale then made "listening sessions" available to students, where students could go to voice their opinions and take action toward unjust incidents such as Siyonbola's, which occur way too often in our society. It is unbelievable the lengths people go due to the sole reason of being uncomfortable. The color of somebody's skin is no valid reason for feelings of insecurity and unrest, and you can almost bet that if Siyonbola were white, the incident would not have gone as far as it did. To disrupt and trouble the life of someone else just because you have an unreasonable unsettling feeling is completely absurd, and people who are judged so harshly should have the option to take action toward prejudiced people like Braasch. If society continues to go on the way it is, we will be making absolutely no progress toward universal peace nor equality for all.

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Napping. Add that to the list of activities - driving, walking, laughing, waiting for someone in Starbucks, checking out of an Airbnb - that put you at risk of being interrogated by the police if you are black.

Early Tuesday morning, Lolade Siyonbola, a graduate student at Yale, fell asleep in her dorm's common room, where she'd been working on a paper. At around 1:30 a.m. she was awakened when a white student turned on the lights and said, according to Ms. Siyonbola: "Is there someone in here? Is there someone sleeping in here? You're not supposed to be here." The student, Sarah Braasch, then called the campus police.

"You're in a Yale building and we need to make sure that you belong here," one of the officers said to Ms. Siyonbola, in a 15-minute exchange she videotaped and posted to Facebook.

After Ms. Siyonbola used her key to open the door to her room, the police still doubted that she belonged there and asked to see her ID.

At that point, she said: "I deserve to be here; I paid tuition like everybody else; I am not going to justify my existence here." You can watch the whole back-and-forth here.

In an email to students, the university called the incident " deeply troubling. "

Also troubling: Last week Thomas Kanewakeron Gray and Lloyd Skanahwati Gray, Native American brothers who drove seven hours to tour Colorado State University, had their visit cut short after a parent on the tour called 911. She told the dispatcher the two teenagers were "creepy" and "they stand out." She also said they "made me feel sick" and were "real quiet."

The message here is clear: Black and brown people seem out of place to some people when they encounter them in institutions of higher learning. Never mind that Ms. Siyonbola is earning a master's degree in African studies, that she founded the Yoruba Cultural Institute in Brooklyn and that she is the author of a book about African history and diaspora migration. To her fellow student, she seemed like an interloper.

I know what that feels like.

When I was 18, I moved to Italy to attend an American liberal arts college. I hadn't been the best high school student, and I imagined it would be difficult to learn a new language - it was - but I fell in love with school and I excelled in most of my courses.

I was thrilled to be on my own for the first time. I embraced what made Rome so different from the suburbs of Washington, where I'd grown up. (I'd never heard of an Aperol Spritz, let alone tried one.)

But even thousands of miles from home, one constant remained: I was constantly made aware of the color of my skin.

I was regularly asked if I was a prostitute in broad daylight, asked how much I cost while walking to class. I was pushed off a bus twice by angry old men. I was spat at. I was once locked in a taxi and propositioned by the driver. I got out only when I started to scream and hit the windows.

While subletting an apartment for a summer, the landlord came to pick up the rent money (this is common in Italy), and instead of just taking the money and giving me a receipt, he said I could keep my money if I just "had a little fun" with him. I declined, threw the money on the table and left the apartment. When I told the white student that I'd sublet the apartment from, she was skeptical and said she had never had any problems with the man.

In this environment, the campus, its supportive professors and the group of friends I found became a haven. But on a few occasions, it felt like the nastiness outside the school found its way in.

My junior year, I took a rigorous course that nearly everyone dropped after the first week. One day, the professor asked me a question and my response fell short. He laughed. I later learned he had posted about the response on his Facebook account, calling out students who ask silly questions. The same professor later told me he was "surprised" I got into Columbia Journalism School.

A few weeks after I received that message, a different professor accused me of plagiarizing a history paper. I showed him my sources; it was clear I hadn't done so.

I loved school and wanted to shrug off these experiences. But while I could chalk up the hostility on the street to Italian culture, in the classroom, I was surrounded by Americans. And the truth is that my white friends weren't being questioned about the validity of their work or asked to prove that they deserved to be there.

But I never said anything. I didn't want to seem paranoid or overly sensitive. Most of all - amazingly - I didn't want to make them feel uncomfortable.

I remember one day during my senior year a staff member whom I had worked with several times over three years asked me how my family was "holding up with the war and all." I was confused. My family is from Zimbabwe, but there was no war. I realized she had confused me with my friend and classmate who was South Sudanese. "They're fine," I told her, unsure of how to correct her and unwilling to take the time. My classmate was often mistaken for being me. We were the only black women in our class.

As a senior I became frustrated that the security guards asked for my ID every time I entered one of the campuses. That was the policy, sure, but they didn't hold other students to the same standard. Others came and went without flashing theirs, yet I always had to show mine. I later heard from other students of color that this was a common experience.

After graduation, I moved to New York to attend Columbia Journalism School. There, a career counselor told me not to bother applying to Reuters, The Washington Post or The New York Times, even for internships. When I asked why, she told me I was too young and inexperienced, and it just wasn't realistic.

I ignored her. I applied to that internship at Reuters. I got it.

She couldn't imagine me there. But I knew I belonged.

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Opinion | Napping While Black (and Other Transgressions)

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Napping. Add that to the list of activities - driving, walking, laughing, waiting for someone in Starbucks, checking out of an Airbnb - that put you at risk of being interrogated by the police if you are black. Early Tuesday morning, Lolade Siyonbola, a graduate student at Yale, fell asleep in her dorm's common room, where she'd been working on a paper.

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Trump's "Hawkish" Nature Benefits Future Foreign Interactments

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Trump's "Hawkish" Nature Benefits Future Foreign Interactments

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President Trump extending his hand to North Korea's leader, Kim Jong Un, overwhelmed the nation with shock and disbelief. The act was so unbelievable due to the fact that ever since Trump came into office, it seems as though North Korea was his biggest target. He has made countless remarks revealing his plans to take down or destroy Kim Jong Un and his people, yet now, out of nowhere, he wants peace? Trump has called the Korean leader things such as "Little Rocket Man" and a "sick puppy", and has made reference to his "nuclear button" and how it is "bigger and more powerful". Nothing about Trump's demeanor indicates the desire for friendship or serenity between the two, which is what contributes to the controversy over his spontaneous decision. Studies show that history is repeating itself, in the sense that Trump's current situation is very similar to something that happened with President Richard Nixon back in the early 1970's with communist China. Nixon displayed himself as an anti-communist and a critic of the Chinese government, yet made peace and embraced their government, leading to improved relations with Beijing. Researchers have proven that the "hawk-like" nature of both Nixon and Trump are actually an advantage to their efforts in improved foreign relations. If they were calm, well liked, "dove-like" leaders, such as President Obama, the extension of the olive branch would be used against them by the opposing leaders, and they would be taken advantage of. It is proven that voters are more likely to support and give publicity to a situation like Trump's, and the US-North Korean summit in Singapore is expected to be quite successful.

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Hurricanes Strengthening at An Alarming Rate

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Hurricanes Strengthening at An Alarming Rate

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Last year, the major hurricanes intensified rapidly, with their maximum wind speed increasing by at least 29 mph within 24 hours.  Studies show that the main cause of this disaster is a natural climate phenomenon that heats seawater where hurricanes typically form. The strength of hurricanes depends on the temperature of the water, and the warmer the upper ocean, the stronger the hurricane will be. Researchers analyzed hurricane data from up to 30 years back and concluded that intensifying hurricanes is not happening often, but hurricanes that are intensifying rapidly are becoming much stronger and faster. They also concluded that the average wind boost within a 24 hour period is about 13 mph more than it was 30 years ago. The Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation (AMO) is the natural climate cycle that controls how the temperature of the north Atlantic Ocean alternates between warm and cool, and the AMO has been in its warm cycle since the late 1990's. If the temperature continues to surge over the upcoming years, we could have hurricanes of up to 200 mph occurring in just under 24 hours. There is no way to regulate it or slow it down, which is extremely detrimental to the population. All we can do is take proper measures to protect ourselves to the highest degree, and educate ourselves on the dangers and abilities of these storms.

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CLOSE

With the start of hurricane season just three weeks away - and memory of last year's disastrous storms still fresh - scientists reported that powerful hurricanes are strengthening faster than they did 30 years ago.

Four of the monster hurricanes last year (Harvey, Irma, Jose and Maria) all intensified rapidly - when the maximum wind speed increases at least 29 mph within 24 hours.

Maria was an extreme example on Sept. 18 - roaring from a Category 1 (90 mph) to a Category 5 (160 mph) in under 18 hours.

According to a study out this week, the main cause appears to be a natural climate phenomenon that warms the seawater where hurricanes typically intensify in the Atlantic.

Hurricanes get their strength from warmer ocean water. The warmer the upper ocean, the more powerful a hurricane can become.

In the study, researchers analyzed 30 years of satellite hurricane data, from 1986 through 2015. Although scientists said rapid intensification is not happening more often, hurricanes that do intensify rapidly do so more quickly and get stronger.

The natural climate cycle, known as the Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation (AMO), governs how the temperature of north Atlantic Ocean swings between warmer and cooler, with each period typically lasting a decade or more. The AMO has generally been in its warm phase since the late 1990s.

"This was a surprise, that the AMO seems to be a bigger influence in rapid intensification than other factors, including overall warming," said lead author Karthik Balaguru of the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory.

The study also said, "The role of (man-made) climate change cannot be ruled out."

Scientists said the average boost in wind speed during a 24-hour intensification is about 13 mph more than it was in the late 1980s.

Penn State climate scientist Michael Mann, who was not involved in the study, told The Washington Post that the study's attribution to this cycle, rather than human activity, was "not justified."

The study was published in Geophysical Research Letters, a publication of the American Geophysical Union.

This map shows the tracks of all Atlantic Ocean hurricanes that formed between 1851 and 2012. Hurricanes often rapidly intensify in the western Atlantic and Caribbean Sea, but the new study shows warmer waters in the eastern and central Atlantic over the past several decades have made hurricanes strengthen more quickly before they move west. (Photo: Nilfanion, public domain)

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Hurricanes are strengthening faster than they did 30 years ago

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CLOSE With the start of hurricane season just three weeks away - and memory of last year's disastrous storms still fresh - scientists reported that powerful hurricanes are strengthening faster than they did 30 years ago.