Academic Rants

  While 2020 has proven to be one of the most disappointing years of my lifetime, it has revealed that my academic training has served me well. I was able to find historical connections for what I believe are the biggest issues of this year.  It has been a year of tremendous lows. I frequently feel like the essence of America has been broken. We remain a powerful nation, but no longer a unified one. And while I cannot place all of the blame on Donald Trump, he is leading the parade. Under his watch our distrust of the systems of governance, the rule of law (police and the courts), and even our neighbors has increased.  China knew about COVID in 2019 and American intelligence informed the White House before the end of the year. We entered 2020 with few cases but with the knowledge of a powerful virus. Yet, well into March, the Trump administration downplayed its potency. The president gambled his re-election and fate on the economy when it was obvious that the virus could sink it all. C

  Throughout the year I have battling with myself over the idea of American exceptionalism and exclusivity. I thoroughly believe that something makes America different from other nations, but I don't know if that makes us better. COVID-19 has forced me to re-examine my faith in American greatness. To put it mildly, this has been one of the saddest and most disappointing moments in my life. How could the United States for all of its promise fail in this crisis? This is a question that I believe will haunt this nation for generations to come. I believe when historians have all of the facts that they will find a villain or set of villains and a few scapegoats. And, it's very possible that President Trump will transform from villain to scapegoat. However, all of the statements, quotes and tweets will make him liable for a large percentage of this disaster. History teaches us that the reaction to pandemics tend to follow certain patterns. In July, one of my entries offered a compari

Around noon today, CNN, FOX, AP, and MSNBC announced that Joe Biden has a unsurmountable lead in Pennsylvania and he will surpass 270 electoral votes. This will make him president-elect.  President Trump has not conceded and in fact was out playing golf.  Both candidates will probably speak to the nation later tonight. We are now moving into the next phase of the election and confirmation of a new president. There are several critical takeaways from this election drama. Foremost, is that we are an impatient nation. Americans are demanding and not logical in their thinking. We are suddenly proven willing to violate rules, in a nation that cries about law and order, to learn who will be president. But are we willing to accept the decision? There is a process to elections and it cannot be shortened due to public whims. (Americans seemingly are adopting the behavioral traits of the president.) The Constitution determines the presidency by votes and the Electoral College. All votes are coun

Regardless of the election's outcome, 2020 will be a watershed year in American history. Social scientists are trying to understand what is happening to the nation and its people by looking at the past. Sometimes we have found the clues in the immediate past like in 1968, and at other points we go back further to the 18th and 19th centuries. Times have changed but not always in the ways that we think.   In my mind it feels like we are not looking at the right clues. We should not concentrate on the 1960s, but rather the 1950s. Our textbooks consider this period one of transition and development, while in reality it is equally a period of fear and chaos. The desire to replicate the 1950s in 2020 is peculiar. Maybe for older Americans Pre-COVID 2020 offers similarities. For example, the economy was humming along and the stock market was soaring. Many Americans could feel like they were living in a second golden age. The 1950s was an era of a booming economy. An infrastructure was bui

I awoke to a nation trying to understand an election that remains undecided. 2020 has proven to be a year full of surprises, but this moment was not supposed to be one. We all knew that the election results would be late because of the unprecedented number of mailed votes. Americans were told to be patient and wait for the decision. However, indecision and uncertainty appears to be against America's creed. Our president is not waiting, and he is encouraging others to join him. He is making demands and suing several states. To help insure his victory he has placed his confidence in the federal courts, mostly because he appointed hundreds of judges. He also has faith in the nation's highest court. A court to which he has appointed three justices, and a court filled with justices who have had a hand in securing the 2000 election.  For months President Trump has told crowds that the system is rigged, and now as the leader of this nation, he is doing his best to prove that point. He

 The recent announcement of Ice Cube's involvement with the Trump administration has created an uproar in the African American community. On the eve of the 2020 election, this discovery reveals that the Trump Administration has pulled out all of the stops trying to pry black voters from the Democratic Party. In the process, the Trump campaign has found a way to increase the wedges between rich and poor, educated and less educated, and the male, female and non-gendered. And the ensuing controversy overshadows several key elements. Foremost, Trump is willing to do anything to win, but he is just as willing to find a way to maintain white supremacy and white dominance in American society. Secondly, is that the ranks of African American leadership are more fragmented than they have been since the death of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. African Americans should not doubt that Donald Trump has again enabled white supremacists by furthering and creating new tensions within the black communit

 As I write, the history wars are again being waged throughout the nation. And the losers are America's school children. After a year of praise, the 1619 Project a series of articles published by the New York Times is being turned into an educational curriculum. The 1619 Project is an attempt to reframe African American history through a black lens where African Americans are the central actors. The 1619 Project has come under criticism largely because it places slavery at the center of America's founding and as a root cause of the American Revolution. Several prominent American historians attacked the document in the spring, and the Trump administration attacked it over the summer.  In the meantime, a group of conservative blacks denounced the 1619 Project as racist. In turn they proposed a counter curriculum called the 1776 Project. This curriculum infuses positive black images into American history. It does not criticize America but revives the "melting pot" theor

Since Labor Day, the Trump campaign has changed direction. It has decided that the president might need the support of some minorities to win re-election. The question is: how can you convince people to vote for a candidate who has often disrespected you or your racial group?  Apparently President Trump hopes that you won't notice or don't have any degree of racial solidarity. Luckily for him Asians, African Americans and Latinos are not singular monoliths.   Surveys and existing research suggests that Filipinos will vote Republican more than any Asian group. There are also some Southeast Asians, especially Indians, who are leaning Republican, and despite the increase of racial hostilities, there are still Chinese voters supporting a man who has called COVID 19 the "China Virus." However, the Trump team is banking most of its energies on African Americans and Latinos.  If Trump maintains or surpasses his 2016 percentage of the Black and Latinx vote, he might be succes

  Last week, President Trump provided the next soundbites in the cultural wars. This time he focused squarely on education and the teaching of American history. Education Week, an online educator periodical, captured and highlighted aspects of the president's comments. "We must clear away the twisted web of lies in our schools and our classrooms, and teach our children the magnificent truth about our country," Mr. Trump stated. He also said that teaching the 1619 Project and ideas like Critical Race Theory "is especially harmful to children of minority backgrounds who should be uplifted, not disparaged. Teaching this horrible doctrine to our children is a form of child abuse in the truest sense of those words."  The president feels that educators are confusing students about the legacy of our nation, and he called for schools to "teach American exceptionalism" because schools are teaching kids to "hate their own country."  The presiden

 The Silent Crisis With over 200,000 souls lost, COVID-19 has had a devastating impact on the United States. Since the pandemic hit these shores in late January, America has faced its greatest medical challenge since the Great Flu Pandemic. Despite the fact that the United States has about four percent of the world's and roughly a quarter of the world's positive tests, there isn't an overwhelming sense of fear or panic throughout the nation.  This national optimism is due in part to poor messaging through the media, elected officials, and social media. The press, depending on its affiliation, is stressing that the virus is deadly or that it is benign. Additionally, there is a false sense of national confidence that America is immune to this plague and that we are somehow protected from its impact. Part of this confidence is based on our legacy in fighting flu epidemics, polio, and HIV-AIDS. People like to point out that the Great Flu Outbreak occurred during World War I and

  It is interesting to hear countless political figures struggle when discussing systemic racism. There is a need to deny the existence of racism when we all know it is historical in nature. The quest to “Make America Great," and to "Make America Great, Again” is a search for a mythical time when America was perfect. A simple survey of the twentieth century proves that no such era ever existed. America, in the minds of most social scientists, was always a contested space. None-the-less, the quest to find that “special time” continues.  Some social commentators have described it as a time when whites dominated the suburbs and were able to keep blacks and other minorities out. A deeper dive would reveal that the suburbs were never perfect for any group. See Richard Rothstein's seminal work, The Color of Law to see how the government provided the tools for segregating America. Neither the city, suburb, or rural countryside gave rise to the ideal American residence. Various

People moving out, people moving in Why? Because of the color of their skin Run, run, run but you sure can't hide An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth Vote for me and I'll set you free Rap on, brother, rap on Well, the only person talking about love thy brother is the preacher And it seems nobody's interested in learning but the teacher Segregation, determination, demonstration, integration Aggravation, humiliation, obligation to my nation Ball of confusion Oh yeah, that's what the world is today Woo, hey, hey The sale of pills are at an all time high Young folks walking round with their heads in the sky The cities ablaze in the summer time And oh, the beat goes on Evolution, revolution, gun control, sound of soul Shooting …   Those are some of the words of Norman Whitfield and Barrett Strong from the Temptations 1970 hit, Ball of Confusion . The song still resonates some fifty years later. American cities are experiencing mass outward migration as people flee from th