Author: TheConversation

Fani Willis: Why the Black female prosecutor faces an unequal burden of both racist and sexist attacks

By Bev-Freda Jackson, Adjunct Professorial Lecturer, American University School of Public Affairs On the day he was indicted on financial fraud charges in a New York City courtroom, former U.S. President Donald Trump launched an attack against Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis. One of the handful of Black female prosecutors in the country, Willis has led a criminal investigation into Trump’s alleged campaign interference in the 2020 presidential election in Georgia. “In the wings, they’ve got a local racist Democrat district attorney in Atlanta who is doing everything in her power to indict me over an absolutely perfect...

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War on Woke: DeSantis’ push to rewrite history echoes the ideology of authoritarian countries

By Rochelle Anne Davis, Professor of Cultural Anthropology, Georgetown University; and Eileen Kane, Professor of History, Connecticut College A Florida law that took effect on July 1, 2023, restricts how educators in the state’s public colleges and universities can teach about the racial oppression that African Americans have faced in the United States. Specifically, SB 266 forbids professors to teach that systemic racism is “inherent in the institutions of the United States.” Similarly, they cannot teach that it was designed “to maintain social, political and economic inequities.” We are professors who teach the modern history of the Middle East...

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How the laws to protect Black voters from the Ku Klux Klan are being used hold Trump accountable

By Joseph Patrick Kelly, Professor of Literature and Director of Irish and Irish American Studies, College of Charleston In the indictment against former President Donald Trump and his role in the January 6 violent attack against the U.S. Capitol, special prosecutor Jack Smith charged the former president with violating four different federal laws. Trump pleaded not guilty to each one of them on August 3, 2023. Three of the charges in United States of America v. Donald J. Trump are fairly easy to understand. They require a jury to determine whether Trump tried to overturn the lawful results of...

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While Trump complains of unfair treatment it is far better than what most other criminal defendants get

By Christopher Robertson, Professor of Law, Boston University; and Russell M. Gold, Associate Professor of Law, University of Alabama Former President Donald Trump often complains that he is being treated unfairly by the prosecutors charging him with crimes. Trump is now the subject of three federal and state criminal cases – and it is true that he is being treated unlike other criminal defendants. The prosecutors are treating Trump a lot better than the average criminal defendant. We are law scholars who have defended clients in criminal and civil cases, and we wish that our clients received the advantages...

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A Narrative of Resilience: How trauma-focused therapy is healing Ukrainian kids besieged by war

By Zlatina Kostova, Instructor in psychiatry, clinical psychologist and director of training at Lifeline for Kids, UMass Chan Medical School Childhood trauma is a global health problem. Every year, up to one billion children worldwide experience some form of emotional, physical or sexual abuse. More than two-thirds of children report at least one traumatic event by age 16. Without early intervention, these experiences may deeply infiltrate the minds of children, who may reenact their original trauma by entering toxic relationships that repeat the dynamics of parental abuse. Or they might engage in high-risk behaviors, including unsafe sexual relationships, delinquency...

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Political Pawns: Why Russia kidnaps Ukrainian children when it is unable to care for its own

By Clementine Fujimura, Professor of Anthropology, Area Studies and Russian, United States Naval Academy Since Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Russian soldiers have forcibly taken an estimated 16,000 Ukrainian children to Russia. Over 300 children have since returned home, but it is not clear what happened to most of the rest. The mass abductions led prosecutors at the International Criminal Court to issue arrest warrants in March 2023 for Russian President Vladimir Putin and Russia’s children’s rights commissioner, Maria Lvova-Belova. Moscow counters that the children it has brought to Russia – its estimates are...

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