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All content by Kayla Wiltfong
The latest Lil Nas X music video created an uproar around the world but many arent considering the true message behind the video and the song. (BBC)

A Christian’s love of Lil Nas X

Kayla Wiltfong
April 13, 2021

Last weekend, while helping a couple of our friends move apartments, my friend asked me if I’d seen Lil Nas X’s new music video — the one with hell and the devil and all that. At the time, I hadn’t. I’d heard vague details, and I’d seen the notes app letter that...

Half of a glob with a variety of flags printed on it such as Spain, United States, UK, Korea, Mexico, etc. There is a shadow of a city scape in the very background.

We need our language arts

Kayla Wiltfong
February 1, 2021

In the summer of 2019, I was privileged enough to study abroad in Málaga, Spain, with the Spanish program at UMKC. At first, I honestly wasn’t sure if I was going to like Spain, because European history doesn’t interest me much. As the class travelled through Andalucía,...

One individual standing in the middle of a road that forks into two going into opposite directions. There are arrows pointing to the two dividing roads and the roads seem to be in the middle of a desert.

There’s no room for middle ground

Kayla Wiltfong
January 18, 2021

On Wednesday, Nov. 9, 2016, I was devastated. I was afraid of what a Trump presidency would mean for many of my friends and fellow students. I remember calling my friend Anna, who was a freshman at KU at the time, and crying together. I stayed at my parents’ house that night...

Stacy Abrams at a campaign rally for Georgia Senate

Dear white women, our kindness is worthless

Kayla Wiltfong
November 9, 2020

On Saturday, Nov. 7, an arduous election cycle came to an end, resulting in President-elect Joseph R. Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris. In the time since polls closed on Tuesday, voters were on edge, commiserating on Twitter about vote counts. On Friday, Nov. 6,...

Porcupines show the misplaced values of the American justice system

Porcupines show the misplaced values of the American justice system

Kayla Wiltfong
October 13, 2020

I felt nauseated when the Google news notification flashed on my phone screen. It read, “Two Maine cops fired for beating porcupines to death with batons.” At that moment, the news struck me as another example of the violence that is groomed into police officers in the United...

The president who cried COVID

The president who cried COVID

Kayla Wiltfong
October 6, 2020

I woke up around 2 a.m. on Friday, Oct. 2, and instinctively unlocked my phone. I had a notification for a group chat with some friends, and I opened it. In the middle of the night, about two hours after the news had dropped, I found out that Donald Trump, the mask-resistant,...

Black art, J.C. Nichols, and a Trump parade; nothing substantial has changed

Black art, J.C. Nichols, and a Trump parade; nothing substantial has changed

Kayla Wiltfong
September 30, 2020

The artwork was a massive field of black, taking up an entire pane of the RE’s many windows. Two almond-shaped, mustard-yellow eyes glowed out of the top of the frame. The eyes were topped by two green eyebrows, and muted pink tears streamed down from the eyes.  The...

The women who made me possible

Kayla Wiltfong
September 22, 2020

My dad’s mom, who I call Grandma, was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer earlier this year. She did a couple rounds of chemo, but it didn’t work for her, so she decided to stop.  One afternoon this June, I bought McDonald’s and brought it over to Grandma’s house....

How Art Archives the Revolution

Kayla Wiltfong
September 16, 2020

In April of this year, right before the end of the spring semester, I submitted a piece to UNews about archiving the year. I wrote about a project my sister is doing, where she essentially keeps a journal of embroidery doodles on a massive embroidery hoop, one for each day of...

White reader, white writer

Kayla Wiltfong
September 15, 2020

A couple months ago, when the tragic murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and Ahmaud Arbery converged in a wave of Black Lives Matter protests across the country, there was a push within online literary communities to promote and support Black authors. While I thought the...

How “I Can’t Breathe” Illuminates White Privilege

How “I Can’t Breathe” Illuminates White Privilege

Kayla Wiltfong
August 26, 2020

“I can’t breathe,” my white acquaintance told me from under her plastic face shield, “in a mask.” I, a white woman, was on campus for my job and perplexed that I actually had to have the mask conversation with someone in my real life.  “It makes me uncomfortable...

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