This week in COMM 300, my understanding of reparations completely shifted. Before this class, I mostly heard “reparations” talked about in terms of financial payments to individuals. But studying the CARICOM Reparations Commission opened my eyes to a much bigger, more intentional framework, one that focuses on repairing systems, not just writing checks. CARICOM defines reparations as a call for international reconciliation and justice for the descendants of slavery, coloniali

This week, I spent time working through the Checkology media-literacy exercises, and honestly, it changed the way I approach news about the African Diaspora. I’ve always known that international media doesn’t always get African stories right, but I didn’t realize how many tools I could use to check what’s reliable and what’s just noise. The two skills I leaned on the most were lateral reading and critical observation, and they shaped the way I analyzed stories from BBC News A