Tag: current

The Right To Be Forgotten – How A Silent Movie Informs The Current Debate
IMPACT

The Right To Be Forgotten – How A Silent Movie Informs The Current Debate

In 1915, Gabrielle Darley killed a New Orleans man who had tricked her into a life of prostitution. She was tried, acquitted of murder and within a few years was living a new life under her married name, Melvin. Then a blockbuster movie, “The Red Kimono,” splashed her sensational story across America’s silver screens. Headlines and headaches for those unable to escape their past. Wikimedia Commons The 1925 film used Darley’s real name and details of her life taken from transcripts of the murder trial. She sued for invasion of privacy and won. In deciding in favor of Darley, a California court said that people have a right to rehabilitation. “We should permit [people] to continue in the path of rectitude rather than throw [them] back into a life of shame or crime,” the court said. It is a...
Reparations Should Cover Past Harms And Current Value Of Slavery-Built Infrastructure That Still Creates Wealth In US
POLITICS

Reparations Should Cover Past Harms And Current Value Of Slavery-Built Infrastructure That Still Creates Wealth In US

American cities from Atlanta to New York City still use buildings, roads, ports and rail lines built by enslaved people. The fact that centuries-old relics of slavery still support the economy of the United States suggests that reparations for slavery would need to go beyond government payments to the ancestors of enslaved people to account for profit-generating, slave-built infrastructure. Debates about compensating Black Americans for slavery began soon after the Civil War, in the 1860s, with promises of “40 acres and a mule.” A national conversation about reparations has reignited in recent decades. The definition of reparations varies, but most advocates envision it as a two-part reckoning that acknowledges the role slavery played in building the country and directs resources to the ...
Video: Current rates of vaccine hesitancy in the US could mean a long road to normalcy
COVID-19, VIDEO REELS

Video: Current rates of vaccine hesitancy in the US could mean a long road to normalcy

Poltical scientist Matt Motta studies the social and political determinants of anti-science attitudes. In this Q&A, he answers questions about the current levels of vaccine hesitancy in the U.S. and how that might affect the country’s ability to achieve herd immunity after a COVID-19 vaccine becomes available. Matt Motta, a scholar who studies political and science communication, explains why herd immunity may be difficult to achieve in the U.S. How many people plan to take a COVID-19 vaccine? Our understanding is that the number of Americans who plan to refuse a vaccine for COVID-19, when it becomes available, is quite pervasive. Somewhere between 1 in 5 to 1 in 3 Americans plan to refuse a vaccine depending on the survey and how you ask the questions. Research that my colleagues and ...