Academic Rants

In a recent newsletter James Basker, president of the Gilder Lehrman Institute, wrote: "Earlier this summer, I read a rather dispiriting poll from Harvard’s Institute of Politics: Only 57% of 18- to-29-year-olds said it is “very important” that the United States is a democracy; 7% of respondents said it is either “not very” or “not at all important.” The same poll found a third of young Americans questioning whether we’ll remain a unified nation." Although Basker received some encouraging news from another source, it is not difficult to see why young Americans might harbor such feelings. There is very little in the news that supports the continuation of our democracy. Our politicians on the left and the right, but especially the right, are engaged in tricking the population about major issues. It would take a devoted academic, attorney or activist to keep up with the manipulations that constantly skirt the law and easily make us doubt the worthiness of our political instituti...

In another era, one much earlier than now, most major cities had multiple daily newspapers. Many cities like New York, Philadelphia, Boston and Chicago, had newspapers that were written in different languages. New York, for instance, had newspapers printed in Chinese, Japanese, French, Spanish, and Yiddish.  Papers were sold at corner stores, at newsstands, train and subway stations and on the streets. Often on the streets, the job of selling newspapers fell to youngsters. Now only captured in period piece movies, young folk cried out the name of the paper, the headlines or feature stories to get people to buy newspapers. There was a skill in selling newspapers and it became a product of an urbanizing society. Indeed, this was hard work. But it was a job that had no age requirement, did not require a formal education, was not restricted by race, ethnicity or religion, yet required some mathematical and consumer-oriented skills. Crying The News , Vincent Digirolamo’s award winning b...

Since Richard Nixon’s presidency, every Republican administration has taken steps to try and kill Affirmative Action. They and their conservative allies have miscast its purpose and its targeted audience. The current actions in front of the most conservative Supreme Court in recent memory continue to weaken the intent of the program, and simultaneously allow attorneys to use racial identities against students of color to deny them from obtaining access that symbolizes the American Dream. Each case brought before the court tries to stress that white students are victimized in an attempt to improve the nation. In this instance to highlight white victimization, white organizations are supporting Asian American groups thereby pitting Asian Americans against African Americans in the Harvard case, and supporting a white coalition to challenge the enrollment of African Americans and Latinos at UNC.  The arguments against Affirmative Action always focus on "alleged losers". However, ...

 I recently attended a conference and one of the reoccurring points of conversation was: "What happens after Tuesday?" Tuesday, of course being Election Day. There is a great deal of fear surrounding this election. Both political parties, Republicans and Democrats, have a lot riding on the decisions. People have called it the most important election of our lifetimes. There is a great fear that the American experiment, our democracy, is threatened by the outcome of the election. That if the Republicans win, authoritarianism will emerge. Conversely if Democrats win that the nation will fall prey to mass murders, criminals and radical rule. Conspiracy theories are dominating the public discourse and it is hard to tell what will actually happen. Ever since 2016, Americans have lost faith in pollsters and polling. They want to believe that people are hiding their true feelings and not sharing their political views. In contrast, I don't think that is true. People are masking so...

  Often the academic world collides with popular culture. If one were looking for a broader definition of Afrocentricity, it can be found in depictions of the Black Panther. The aura of the Black Panther has been captured as a comic book series, a series of graphic novels, several video games and most recently a movie. Historically, the “Black Panther” is a product of the 1960s. It is associated with the freedom crusade for Civil Rights as political party struggling to secure African American voting rights in Mississippi and also the progressive political organization that supported black nationalism a few years later. The uniqueness of the panther made it an ideal symbol for Negro/Black liberation. In 1966 Stan Lee and Jack Kirby enhanced the symbolism. They introduced the Black Panther, the first African superhero, in the developing Marvel comic book universe. The uniqueness of a non-white character authored and drawn by white men was revolutionary even in the Civil Rights era...