News at Home

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• 5/16/2021
  

  Racial Epistemology and its Discontents: What Really Makes Concepts "Divisive"

  by Guy Lancaster

  American whiteness has always included a kind of epistemic closure, refusing testimony about the world from nonwhites. Today, it is this epistemic closure that makes some state legislatures legislate against "divisive" ideas. 

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• 5/16/2021
  

  Are Republicans Courting Disaster with Trumpist Loyalty Tests?

  by Michael Landis

  The Antebellum Democratic Party purged itself of members who were insufficiently dedicated to slavery and white supremacy. It ended badly for the party and worse for the country. Will the Trump-dominated Republicans today heed the warning? 

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• 5/16/2021
  

  Vaccine Skeptics Should Heed George Washington’s Example

  by Robert Brent Toplin

  With the American Revolution hanging in the balance, Washington ordered the mass inoculation of the Continental Army against a smallpox pandemic. Would today's vaccine skeptics accuse him of trampling freedom? 

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• 5/16/2021
  

  Historians' Perspective on Media Bias: Where it Came from, and What Can be Done?

  by Walter G. Moss

  Historical perspective shows that media bias is nothing new, but the stakes for democracy are high today. Can historians teach and practice better ways of reading and debating to fight polarization and misinformation?

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• 5/9/2021
  

  Are Campus Bookstores Undermining Student Learning?

  by Elizabeth Stice

  Today’s undergraduates are increasingly being cornered into ongoing financial commitments for everything, while they never take possession of anything. Rejecting digital book programs run by campus bookstores outsourced to third parties could help reverse this trend.

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• 5/2/2021
  

  FDR's Court Packing Plan Backfired in the South. Will Biden Repeat The Error?

  by James C. Cobb

  FDR's court packing efforts were based in a miscalculation of the president's political capital, especially with southern Democrats. It seems like Joe Biden is working to avoid similar overreach.

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• 5/2/2021
  

  Remember The Essential Workers After COVID: They Deserve Better

  by Joshua B. Freeman

  All of us literally owe our lives to our essential workers.  Let’s not forget it.  Giving them a fair shake is not only a moral obligation, it will make a better city for all of us.

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• 4/25/2021
  

  “Not Your Fetish”: Protesting Racism and Misogyny Against Asian American Women

  by Hao Zou

  The Atlanta massage parlor killings reflect a century and a half of history in which racist and misogynistic stereotypes of Asian women have been normalized in American culture. Protests are demanding change.

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• 4/25/2021
  

  Mars Perseverance and the King's Bay Plowshares: A Study in Priorities

  by Mike McQuillan

  The Kings Bay Plowshares group deserve a parade for protesting a nuclear submarine base. Instead seven of them are in jail as the United States spends billions of dollars a day on weaponry.

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• 4/25/2021
  

  Walter F. Mondale and the Creation of the New Vice Presidency

  by Joel K. Goldstein

  Walter Mondale worked with Jimmy Carter to redefine the vice presidency from a stepping stone to a key public servant, and infused this new role with compassion. 

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• 4/15/2021
  

  Is the Presidency a License to Kill? War Powers and the Constitution

  by Paul W. Lovinger

  The Framers' failure to defend war powers from the presidency has given us endless war. It's time to admit that failure. 

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• 4/18/2021
  

  Sadly, Hatred is Very Much American

  by Ralph E. Shaffer

  "Lieutenant Cable, and Oscar Hammerstein, had it wrong in "South Pacific."  Americans don't have to be "carefully taught " to hate. Historically, it's been inherent, one generation after another. The only change has been the target."

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• 4/11/2021
  

  Prosecuting Sedition in a Divided Nation is a Challenge as Old as America

  by William H. Pruden III

  America's cultural value on free expression makes conviction of far-right radicals on sedition charges unlikely. The Ft. Smith, Arkansas trial in 1988 was a PR victory for the far right when 14 defendants accused of plotting against the government were acquitted. 

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• 4/11/2021
  

  Holocaust Remembrance 80 Years After the Beginning of Hitler's Campaign of Genocide

  by Rick Halperin

  We must see our lives as inextricably linked to both the past and future, so that all peoples, individually or collectively, do not have to know of a world with genocide.

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• 4/11/2021
  

  Can Space Exploration Restore American Faith in Science?

  by John Baick

  The 60th anniversary of the first manned space flight is time to reflect on the devolution of space exploration from an expression of science as a public and collective enterprise to a vanity project of fame-seeking billionaires.

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• 4/11/2021
  

  What Will be the Terms of Racial Forgiveness in America?

  by J. Chester Johnson

  Much of today's antiracist discourse among white Americans resembles what anti-Nazi theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer called "cheap grace" – self-forgivness without cost or atonement for crimes that, while past, nevertheless are deeply present today.

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• 4/11/2021
  

  A Reason Republicans May Not Wish to Proclaim Themselves the Party of Lincoln

  by Tim Lynch

  The fledgling Republican Party needed to expand its appeal beyond its antislavery position, which remained its greatest asset and liability through the end of the Civil War. The party risks national ruin if it becomes the party of Trump and his Big Lie about the 2020 election results.

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• 4/11/2021
  

  Political Precedent for the Trump Cult of Personality

  by Donne Levy

  Their differences in character and personality should not obscure similarities between Ronald Reagan and Donald Trump. Both men's ability to flout the truth and survive serious scandals, plus their dalliances with white racism, make their political careers resemble cults of personality.

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• 4/4/2021
  

  Paying the Price: Our Veterans and the Burden of Parkinson's Disease

  by Ray Dorsey

  Parkinson's Disease is the fastest-growing brain disease. It affects people worldwide, but American veterans are particularly affected. The nation must recognize the harm caused by chemical exposure and head injury, and commit the resources necessary to help veterans and all those affected. 

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• 4/4/2021
  

  A Personal and Family History of Encountering Prejudice and Intolerance

  by Ron Steinman

  The author experienced antisemitic prejudice as a college student, but learned more about the pervasiveness of prejudice living in Asia as the husband of a Vietnamese woman during a time of anti-American sentiment, and then when living in suburban America as part of a mixed-race family. While it's necessary to understand the historical roots of racial bigotry, it's also always personal.