Author: TheConversation

By Joel Christensen, Professor of Classical Studies, Brandeis University President Joe Biden began his presidency by memorializing the 400,000 American lives that had been lost up to that point to COVID-19. The ceremony, held on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, was arguably the first official moment of nationwide public mourning in the United States. “To heal, we must remember,” Biden said. “It’s important to do that as a nation.” But how do we acknowledge our collective suffering as the toll of the pandemic continues to grow, with hundreds of thousands possibly undercounted? How do we talk about healing...

By Margaret Lombe, Associate Professor of Social Work, Boston College; and Von Nebbitt, Associate Professor of Social Work, Washington University in St Louis Around 600,000 people are released annually from the United States‘s sprawling prisons network. Many face considerable barriers as a result of their convictions when it comes to essentials in life, like getting a job or a home. It can even be harder to feed themselves. Formerly incarcerated people are twice as likely to suffer food insecurity as the general population, with 1 in 5 ex-prisoners finding it difficult to obtain regular, nutritious meals. A 2013 survey...

By Vladimir Enrique Medenica, Assistant Professor of Political Science, University of Delaware; and David Ebner, Assistant Professor of Political Science and International Relations, University of Delaware The effects of American racial bias and anti-Asian sentiment do not end at the nation’s borders. The racial attitudes of white people also influence their support for American military intervention abroad, according to our working paper on U.S. foreign policy and racism. White Americans who hold racist beliefs are significantly more likely to endorse aggressive military interventions over diplomacy or economic strategies in foreign countries at odds with the United States, if the...

By Ruth Steiner, Professor of Urban and Regional Planning, University of Florida Congress now has control over what kind of commute… good, bad, awful, that workers returning to offices in the United States will have. President Joe Biden’s American Jobs Plan, released in March 2021, includes US$85 billion for city transit agencies to improve their systems by purchasing new buses and train cars and maintaining subway stations and tracks. If passed in Congress, the dollars would explicitly build on the relief already provided to cities in last year’s American Rescue Plan, according to the White House. That coronavirus relief...

By Susan H. Kamei, Lecturer in History; Managing Director of the Spatial Sciences Institute, USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences Imagine being forced from your home by the government, being imprisoned in a detention camp under armed guards and behind barbed wire – and then being required to join the military to fight for the nation that had locked up you and your family. That is what happened in a little-known chapter of U.S. history, in which many of those men went on to become American military heroes, some making the ultimate sacrifice. These soldiers, along with...