Author: TheConversation

By Rodney Coates, Professor of Critical Race and Ethnic Studies, Miami University The “great replacement theory,” whose origins date back to the late 19th century, argues that Jews and some Western elites are conspiring to replace white Americans and Europeans with people of non-European descent, particularly Asians and Africans. The conspiracy evolved from a series of false ideas that, over time, stoked the fears of White people: In 1892, British-Australian author and politician Charles Pearson warned that White people would “wake to find ourselves elbowed and hustled, and perhaps even thrust aside by people whom we looked down.” The...

By Dan Murphy, Executive Director of the Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Business and Government, Harvard Kennedy School Which country is the greatest threat to the United States? The answer, according to a large proportion of Americans, is clear: China. Half of all Americans responding to a mid-2023 survey from the Pew Research Center cited China as the biggest risk to the U.S., with Russia trailing in second with 17%. Other surveys, such as from the Chicago Council on Global Affairs, show similar findings. Senior figures in recent U.S. administrations appear to agree with this assessment. In 2020, John Ratcliffe, director...

By Jessica L. Adler, Associate Professor of History, Florida International University The family of Samuel Lawrence, one of 10 people to die in Georgia’s Fulton County Jail in 2023, is fighting for answers and accountability. “I got to think about him every day of my life and I don’t know when the pain stops,” Lawrence’s father, Frank Richardson, told a local TV station in October 2023. “I pray to God that he touches that jail and puts people in place to help the other ones that are left behind.” Shortly before his death, Lawrence, 34, had filed a complaint...

By Mike McDevitt, Professor of journalism and media studies, University of Colorado Boulder Walter Lippmann, who lived from 1889 to 1974, was an early and prime example of the public intellectual as pundit commenting on news of the day. Lippmann, a Pulitzer Prize winner, wrote a syndicated column on national and international affairs. He advocated a philosophy in which honest reflection on common experiences would lift citizens out of their parochial worldviews. A pundit is someone who offers commentary in the media on a particular subject area. A gallery of legacy newspaper pundits would include a more raucous wing....

By Christine Larson, Assistant Professor of Journalism, University of Colorado Boulder; and Ashley Carter, PhD Student in Journalism, University of Colorado Boulder A major transformation is underway in Romancelandia. Once upon a time, romance novels from major U.S. publishers featured only heterosexual couples. Today, the five biggest publishers regularly release same-sex love stories. From May 2022 to May 2023, sales of LGBTQ+ romance grew by 40%, with the next biggest jump in this period occurring for general adult fiction, which grew just 17%. The data from 2023 extends a boom that began in 2016: In the five years from...

By Oluwafemi Atanda Adeagbo, Assistant Professor of Public Health, University of Iowa; Engelbert Bain Luchuo, Senior Research Associate, University of Johannesburg; and Oluwaseun Abdulganiyu Badru, Ph.D. Candidate in Community and Behavioral Health, University of Iowa HIV self-test kits were developed to make it easier for people to access HIV testing. However, our research team has found that many people who use self-test kits do not go on to receive needed HIV treatment or start preexposure prophylaxis, or PrEP, to prevent future infection. In 2016, the World Health Organization recommended HIV self-test kits as a way for people to confidentially...