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Americans Think They Know A Lot About Politics – And It’s Bad For Democracy That They’re So Often Wrong In Their Confidence

5Sep

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

POLITICS

Americans Think They Know A Lot About Politics – And It’s Bad For Democracy That They’re So Often Wrong In Their Confidence

As statewide primaries continue through the summer, many Americans are beginning to think about which candidates they will support in the 2022 general election. This decision-making process is fraught with difficulties, especially for inexperienced voters. Voters must navigate angry, emotion-laden conversations about politics when trying to sort out whom to vote for. Americans are more likely than ever to view politics in moral terms, meaning their political conversations sometimes feel like epic battles between good and evil. But political conversations are also shaped by, obviously, what Americans know – and, less obviously, what they think they know – about politics. In recent research, I studied how Americans’ perceptions of their own political knowledge shape their political attit...

A History Of Myths About Black Hair: From Slavery To Colonialism And School Rules

2Apr

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

CULTURE, VIDEO REELS

A History Of Myths About Black Hair: From Slavery To Colonialism And School Rules

“Your hair feels like pubic hair.” That was one of the first insults that someone hurled at my hair. She was a junior at my school. She would touch my hair and repeat this sentence to all present. I had to threaten her with violence to get her to stop touching my hair and comparing it to her pubes. This is one of the first dilemmas that black people face: do I let people touch my hair and under what circumstances? The question, “can I touch it?” becomes one of the most awkward social moments and can break relationships before they even start. This fascination with the texture of black hair (please don’t call it “ethnic”), is not new. In slave societies, white women would often hack off the hair of their enslaved female servants because it supposedly “confused white men” . Today, black w...

Politicians Seek To Control Classroom Discussions About Slavery In The US

3Apr

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

EDUCATION, POLITICS

Politicians Seek To Control Classroom Discussions About Slavery In The US

Of all the subjects taught in the nation’s public schools, few have generated as much controversy of late as the subjects of racism and slavery in the United States. The attention has come largely through a flood of legislative bills put forth primarily by Republicans over the past year and a half. Commonly referred to as anti-critical race theory legislation, these bills are meant to restrict how teachers discuss race and racism in their classrooms. One of the more peculiar byproducts of this legislation came out of Texas, where, in June 2022, an advisory panel made up of nine educators recommended that slavery be referred to as “involuntary relocation.” The measure ultimately failed. As an educator who trains teachers on how to educate young students about the history of slavery in t...

What We Don’t Understand About Young People’s Motivations

26May

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

SOCIETY, VIDEO REELS

What We Don’t Understand About Young People’s Motivations

Young people are demanding change. In the last few days, young Indigenous activists and their supporters blocked parliamentarians in Victoria, B.C., from accessing the provincial legislature and led waves of protest across the country. For some young people, climate change is urgent. For others, gun violence is a crisis. From truth and reconciliation to inclusion and diversity and mental health, young people are bringing awareness to societal crises and making headlines along the way. Historically, this is really nothing new. Young people have long been leaders and catalysts of important movements. Unfortunately, these change-makers are often thought to be outside of what is considered typical of this age group. Young people are often labelled problematic, selfish or not yet ready to le...

Sunny Hostin Has Some Pretty Unforgettable Stories To Tell About Herself—And About America

31Jul

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

BOOKS

Sunny Hostin Has Some Pretty Unforgettable Stories To Tell About Herself—And About America

The Emmy Award winning legal journalist and co-host of The View Sunny Hostin chronicles her journey from growing up in a South Bronx housing project to becoming an assistant U.S. attorney and journalist in this powerful memoir that offers an intimate and unique look at identity, intolerance, and injustice. “What are you?” has followed Sunny Hostin from the beginning of her story, as she grew up half Puerto Rican and half African-American raised by teenage parents in the South Bronx. Escaping poverty and the turbulence of her early life through hard work, a bit of luck and earning academic scholarships to college and law school, Sunny immersed herself in the workings of the criminal justice system. In Washington, D.C., Sunny became a federal prosecutor, soon parlaying her wealth of knowled...

What You Need To Know About The Supreme Court’s Roe Decision

27Jun

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

POLITICS

What You Need To Know About The Supreme Court’s Roe Decision

After half a century, Americans’ constitutional right to get an abortion has been overturned by the Supreme Court. The ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization – handed down on June 24, 2022 – has far-reaching consequences. The Conversation asked Nicole Huberfeld and Linda C. McClain, health law and constitutional law experts at Boston University, to explain what just happened, and what happens next. What did the Supreme Court rule? The Supreme Court decided by a 6-3 majority to uphold Mississippi’s ban on abortion after 15 weeks of pregnancy. In doing so, the majority opinion overturned two key decisions protecting access to abortion: 1973’s Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey, decided in 1992. The opinion, written by Justice Samuel Alito, said that the Constitutio...

Only About 1 In 5 Engineering Degrees Go To Women

23Jun

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

EDUCATION

Only About 1 In 5 Engineering Degrees Go To Women

Despite various efforts to encourage more women to study STEM fields in college, the percentage of engineering bachelor’s degrees earned by women in the United States hasn’t increased much in the 21st century. Specifically, it has risen from 18% in 1998 to 22% in 2018. CC BY-ND Of all the fields in STEM – or science, technology, engineering and mathematics – the engineering workforce has the lowest proportion of women, at 14%. That low participation matters for several reasons. Women are not only being left out of some of the highest-paying jobs in STEM, but companies are losing out as well. Research shows that gender-diverse teams make better business decisions than teams that are all-male. So why aren’t women going into engineering? And what, if anything, can be done to help ...

From The Celebrated Author Of The Secret Life Of Bees, A Magnificent Novel About Two Unforgettable American Women

9Jun

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

BOOKS

From The Celebrated Author Of The Secret Life Of Bees, A Magnificent Novel About Two Unforgettable American Women

Writing at the height of her narrative and imaginative gifts, Sue Monk Kidd presents a masterpiece of hope, daring, the quest for freedom, and the desire to have a voice in the world—and it is now the newest Oprah’s Book Club 2.0 selection. Hetty “Handful” Grimke, an urban slave in early nineteenth century Charleston, yearns for life beyond the suffocating walls that enclose her within the wealthy Grimke household. The Grimke’s daughter, Sarah, has known from an early age she is meant to do something large in the world, but she is hemmed in by the limits imposed on women. Kidd’s sweeping novel is set in motion on Sarah’s eleventh birthday, when she is given ownership of ten year old Handful, who is to be her handmaid. We follow their remarkable journeys over the next thirty five years, a...

Six Misunderstood Concepts About Diversity In The Workplace And Why They Matter?

3Jun

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

LGBTQ, SOCIETY

Six Misunderstood Concepts About Diversity In The Workplace And Why They Matter?

Diversity and inclusion in the workplace is a sensitive topic. People are afraid to get things wrong or to use the wrong word. It doesn’t help that the words involved are confusing. You have probably encountered these concepts at a mandatory training session, a workplace event, or on Twitter. They often involve decades of complex scholarship being reduced down to a single word, and, as such, they can easily be misrepresented. But for any progress to be made, and for real diversity and inclusion to be achieved, getting to grips with what they actually mean is crucial. Here then are six of the most embattled concepts. You may be interested in: ‘We’re her real mum’: lesbian parents face healthcare challenges How racism and a lack of diversity can harm our workplaces CEOs are hinderin...

What We Know About The Gunmen Who Carry Out The Mass School Shootings In The US

26May

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

IMPACT

What We Know About The Gunmen Who Carry Out The Mass School Shootings In The US

When the Columbine High School massacre took place in 1999 it was seen as a watershed moment in the United States – the worst mass shooting at a school in the country’s history. Now, it ranks fourth. The three school shootings to surpass its death toll of 13 – 12 students, one teacher – have all taken place within the last decade: 2012’s Sandy Hook Elementary attack, in which a gunman killed 26 children and school staff; the 2018 shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, which claimed the lives of 17 people; and now the Robb Elementary School assault in Uvalde, Texas, where on May 24, 2022, at least 19 children and two adults were murdered. We are criminologists who study the life histories of public mass shooters in the U.S. As part of that research, we buil...