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Study finds using county jails for ICE detention of immigrants perpetuates criminal perceptions

By Emily Ryo, Professor of Law and Sociology, University of Southern California, and Ian Peacock, Ph.D. Candidate in Sociology, University of California, Los Angeles Hundreds of county jails in the U.S. are paid by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to detain immigrants facing removal proceedings. On a typical day in 2017, for instance, Theo Lacy Facility in Orange, California, operated by the Orange County Sheriff’s Department, held about 500 individuals for ICE and received US$118 per person per day, bringing in a total of $59,000 a day. More so than federally operated facilities, county jails, along with facilities operated...

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From SARS to Avian Influenza: A witness to history reflects on the first epidemics of the 21st-century

When the first whispers of a new virus emerged from Wuhan, China late last year the situation was on my radar. I lived in China for many years, and had the misfortune to experience the conditions of SARS in 2003, the H5N1 Avian Flu in 2005, and the H1N1 Swine Flu in 2009. That firsthand and repeated exposure can make anyone into a Howard Hughes-level germaphobe. For all the fear and uncertainty that came about from SARS, and the mass culling of livestock over the animal influenzas, the Chinese government never quarantined a city of millions. To isolate Wuhan...

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Love Stories: When superheroes fell from fashion and romance comic books briefly dominated the industry

By Michael C. Weisenburg, Reference & Instruction Librarian at Irvin Department of Rare Books & Special Collections, University of South Carolina Before World War II, superheroes were all the rage. Reflecting anxieties over the Great Depression, the rise of fascism and the march to war, readers yearned for mythical figures who would defend the disenfranchised and uphold liberal democratic ideals. Once the war ended, the content of comic books started to change. Superheroes gradually fell out of fashion and a proliferation of genres emerged. Some, such as Westerns, offered readers a nostalgic fantasy of a pre-industrial America. Others, like...

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Slave Songs: How “spirituals” spoke about the black experience in America prior to 1863

By Donna M. Cox, Professor of Music, University of Dayton From the moment of capture, through the treacherous middle passage, after the final sale and throughout life in North America, the experience of enslaved Africans who first arrived at Jamestown, Virginia, some 400 years ago, was characterized by loss, terror and abuse. The Abolition of the Slave Trade Act of 1807 made it illegal to buy and sell people in British colonies, but in the independent United States slavery remained a prominent – and legal – practice until December 1865. From this tragic backdrop one of the most poignant...

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No One is Safe: Traumatic injuries escalate nationwide in ongoing health care crisis

By Lynn Marie Frydrych, General Surgery Resident, University of Michigan; and Matthew J. Delano, Professor of Surgery, University of Michigan Traumatic injury, or sudden physical injury requiring immediate medical attention, is an epidemic in the United States. It affects individuals of all ages, races and societal classes and accounts for over 41 million emergency department visits and 2.3 million hospital admissions each year. Additionally, 214,000 people die yearly from traumatic injury, including things such as falls, car crashes and violence. That is one person every three minutes. Trauma is the leading cause of death for individuals from 1 to...

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The Blind Spots of Privilege: While decent white people were sleeping the bigots stole America

Wake up, white Liberals and Progressives and Moderates. It’s morning in America. A lot happened while we were sleeping. This is not the America we thought existed back in November of 2008 — likely the last time many of us were fully awake. Back then, we basked in the warm glow of the reality of a black President and we grew comfortable, nestling down into a complacency that only the blind spots of privilege and false information provide. The joy of that moment became a slow-acting emotional sedative that slowly squeezed out the urgency from us; one that gradually...

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