News at Home

• 
• 5/8/2022
  

  Reigniting a Nuclear Arms Race is the Wrong Take-Home from Ukraine

  by David P. Barash

  A simplistic assumption of nuclear deterrence – that having nuclear weapons protects a nation against aggression – has frequently failed in practice. The Ukraine invasion should be a call to rethink deterrence and move toward abolishing nuclear weapons. 

• 
• 5/1/2022
  

  High Crimes and Lingering Consequences: How Land Sale Contracts Looted Black Wealth and Gutted Chicago Communities

  by Tiff Beatty

  Chicago artist Tonika Lewis Johnson is creating public installations documenting properties where Black residents were subjected to predatory contract home sales, and connecting the past to the present struggles of the city's south and west sides.

• 
• 5/1/2022
  

  Recent Violence Shows the Need to Teach More Asian American History

  by Alan J. Singer

  The targeting of Asian Americans for violence and harassment shows the need to teach more of the history of Asian ethnic groups and acknowlege legacies of exclusion and discrimination. 

• 
• 5/1/2022
  

  A Century After the First Insulin Injection, It's Time to Make Sure It's Affordable

  by Martin Abrahamson and Sanjiv Chopra

  The US Senate has the opportunity to honor the legacy of the doctors who pioneered insulin treatment by making sure that everyone who needs this life-saving medicine can afford it. 

• 
• 4/24/2022
  

  Footage in NYC's Archives Sheds Important Light on the Northern Civil Rights Movement and Police Efforts to Undermine It

  by L.E.J. Rachell

  Surveillance footage in the New York City Archives helps to highlight the importance of the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) to the northern civil rights movement – and the techniques the NYPD used to disrupt it. 

• 
• 4/24/2022
  

  The Issue of Visibility in Latino Art

  by Ricardo Romo

  "The moment is ripe for bringing Latino art to public spaces and public museums. The number of talented Latino artists has multiplied over the past two decades, and the opportunity to make their work visible is now."

• 
• 4/24/2022
  

  "Two-Spirit" Visibility and the Year Activists Rewrote History

  by Gregory D. Smithers

  In 1990, a group of Native activists coined the term "Two-Spirits" to encompass a variety of people who embodied masculine and feminine traits in indigenous communities, replacing colonizers' terminology that emphasized shame or deviance. Marginalized communities change their history by changing who tells their story, and how. 

• 
• 4/17/2022
  

  This Failed Blockbuster Killed Old Hollywood (and Maybe John Wayne, Too)

  by Ryan Uytdewilligen

  When John Wayne played Genghis Khan in a disastrous Howard Hughes production, it helped to kill RKO studios. Did it also expose the cast and crew to deadly nuclear fallout? 

• 
• 4/17/2022
  

  Even With the Challenge of a Nuclear Crisis, 1962 Was a Year of Hope

  by Walter G. Moss

  For HNN Contributing Editor Walter Moss, 1962 was a year when it seemed the US was capable of overcoming the gravest challenges with positive results (it was a good year for him personally, too). 

• 
• 4/12/2022
  

  On "Smoking Guns"—Yesterday and Today (and Tomorrow?)

  by Jim Zirin

  As text messages between Donald Jr. and Mark Meadows surface, it seems the last roadblock to a prosecution of Donald Trump over January 6 is a lack of will, not a lack of evidence.

• 
• 4/10/2022
  

  The Problem of Presidential Isolation

  by Michael A. Genovese

  Today, who can speak truth to the president’s power? And to whom can a president unburden himself in those moments of stress and self-doubt? From whom can the president expect direct and candid advice?

• 
• 4/10/2022
  

  The Erosion of the Concept of Legitimate Opposition Undercuts Democracy

  by Jeff Kolnick

  The rising tendency to see partisan opponents as enemies of the nation justifies action to weaken democracy. 

• 
• 4/10/2022
  

  After 50 Years, "The Godfather" Still Has Fresh Lessons For Us

  by Sam Ben-Meir

  Francis Ford Coppola couldn't have anticipated the Trump presidency and its aftermath, but his 1972 masterpiece nevertheless helps uns to understand it. 

• 
• 4/10/2022
  

  Ketanji Brown Jackson's Forbearance Echoed Jackie Robinson Before HUAC

  by Bruce W. Dearstyne

  In a Congressional hearing intended to sow guilt by association between civil rights and global communism, the baseball great refused to take the bait, keeping the focus on the need for justice and fairness in America.

• 
• 4/3/2022
  

  The Integration of College Hoops Came through Many Small Shining Moments

  by Chad Carlson

  Cutting the nets in New Orleans, the Kansas Jayhawks follow the legacy of many players and coaches who gradually chipped away at racial exclusion in college basketball. 

• 
• 4/3/2022
  

  Ralph Lauren's HBCU Tribute Line is Part of a Long History of Fighting for Recognition through Fashion

  by Einav Rabinovitch-Fox

  The designer's new collaboration with Morehouse and Spelman Colleges is more than a marketing ploy; it reflects the long history of Black college students (and Jewish tailors and designers) working to make the fashionable representation of the American ideal more inclusive.

• 
• 3/27/2022
  

  Can Joe Biden Resist War Pressure and Lead Toward Peace?

  by Martin Halpern

  It will take political courage and wisdom for Biden to resist a policy course toward war by diplomatic engagement with Russia.

• 
• 3/23/2022
  

  Decoding Partisan Declarations of What Makes a "Good Judge"

  by James D. Zirin

  Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson has a wealth of legal and judicial experience. The Sixth Amendment guarantees the right to counsel under the Constitution. Why, then, is her service as a public defender a source of partisan attacks on her nomination? 

• 
• 3/20/2022
  

  Again, Russia is at the Center of an American-Backed War for Democracy

  by James D. Robenalt

  The abdication of Tsar Nicholas II in 1917 removed a major principled objection to calls for Americans to fight for the sake of democracy. The moral lines are clearer today, but once again Russia is at the center of an American debate about intervention.

• 
• 3/20/2022
  

  Dispatches from Ukraine: “The critical question is: “How is everyone, and are you still alive?'”

  by Priscilla Hart

  A great deal of the Ukrainian experience can be understood by the efforts of women refugees to keep aware of their families and the progress of the Russian invasion and counterattack.