I feel safe walking around my own neighborhood late at night. I have never been followed around a clothing store by a security guard. I have never witnessed someone of my own race victimized on video. My family has never been targeted by the police for crimes we did not commit.

I’ve always been aware that I have privilege as a white woman in America, but looking into the eyes of people I deeply care about and hearing their cries as they speak to their experiences of what I listed above -- I wasn’t just aware of my privilege. I felt my privilege crawling along my every limb.

Santa Monica College's (SMC) yearly fashion show, "La Mode," will be held online this year as a result of COVID-19. When the pandemic hit the US in March, the fashion department closed immediately on March 14, according to Professor Lorrie Ivas.

It appears as though President Donald Trump’s May 29 proclamation that “when the looting starts, the shooting starts” did not have its intended effect.

Showing up to the Center for Media and Design on March 12 felt unlike any other day at Santa Monica College.

A group of civil rights advocates including The National Lawyers Guild, Black Lives Matter and Los Angeles Community Action Network are suing the City of Los Angeles, alleging that they violated peoples rights to protest and used excessive force while enforcing curfews last week.

Santa Monica residents helped clean up the mess left by gangs of looters, and within a week, the boarded up storefronts were home to a variety of colorful images, and mostly optimistic messages.

Protests originally forming in Minneapolis over the death of George Floyd by former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin have quickly spread nationwide, as many organized protests continue to take place across Los Angeles county and neighboring cities. Los Angeles protests sparked as early as May 28 and public officials have since called for police and military intervention.

In light of the recent death of George Floyd, multiple petitions surfaced on the internet in order to call for charges against Derek Chauvin, the former Minneapolis police officer who had killed Floyd. Other petitions regarding deaths of Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, and other deaths from police brutality are being widely spread through social media, reaching over a million signatures each. Petitions are nothing new and are one of the founding rights that Americans have used to induce social change.

After ten days of nation-wide protests against police brutality in response to the death of George Floyd, Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti announced a series of reforms to be made to the LAPD.

Science has shown that, “Thinking positive, happy, hopeful and optimistic thoughts decreases Cortisol [the body’s stress hormone] and produces Serotonin [the body’s natural anti-depressant], which creates a sense of well-being. This helps the brain function at peak capacity.”

During a time when many Performing Arts Centers are unsure about what the next season may hold, Rob Bailis, Artistic and Executive Director of The Broad Stage, along with Santa Monica College (SMC) Superintendent Dr. Kathryn Jeffery, and The Broad Stage Board President Richard Kendall, announce The Broad Stage’s impressive 2020/21 Season.

An older black man swept up heaps of shattered glass from the floor of his nail salon. The glass front door of his business had been smashed in the uproar of protesting for justice in the killing of George Floyd that led to property-destructing outbursts in downtown Santa Monica, late Sunday afternoon.

For some people, their reality is a day filled with optimism and hope, while for some us our daily dose of reality is filled with fear. We fear not making it back home when we leave out the front door. We fear being pulled over while driving because of the unknown that can come along with that encounter.

As we enter phase two of California’s safer at home order, many California residents are beginning to become fed up. For a while this wasn’t a problem, but now our privilege is showing.

Masks are defining life in America. People wear a face mask to prevent the spread of COVID-19, which has already killed over 100,000 Americans before the start of this month. Today, any cautious American does not leave home without wearing a face mask.

City officials announced curfews effective immediately today until tomorrow morning around the city of Los Angeles. Individuals violating curfew are subject to arrest, according to the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD). Curfews are subject to change and updated on a day-to-day basis.

A protest sparked in Santa Monica, Calif. in response to police brutality and racial injustice on Sunday, following multiple demonstrations taking place throughout the country in the last few days. These protests started in Minneapolis on May 26, the day after the killing of George Floyd by former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin on May 25. Protests have occurred in Los Angeles since May 27, taking place in downtown Los Angeles (L.A.) and Beverly Hills and turning violent in some areas.

Peaceful protesters marched through Santa Monica, on Sunday, May 31, 2020. Later, looters converged in the downtown shopping area and broke into stores and stole merchandise.

Classes and support services were moved online from campus mid-March, and students have been home for almost 3 months.

Thousands protest the death of George Floyd, on Friday, May 30, 2020, in Los Angeles, Calif.