All posts tagged: Americans

How education in the US has been weaponised against Native Americans

How education in the US has been weaponised against Native Americans

Published by skeptic

November is National Native American Heritage Month in the US. This should be an opportunity for schools to discuss their country’s colonial history. But the picture that students receive is often sadly lacking. A study conducted by Pennsylvania State University between 2016 and 2018 found that 27 states did not name a single individual Native American in their history curriculum standards for schools. The study also found that 87% of curriculum standards do not mention Native American history after 1900 – a very partial picture. The marginalisation of Native American people and culture in the US education system has a long history. My PhD research explores the exploitation and assimilation Native American children were subjected to in the 19th century. In 1879, in Pennsylvania, the first government boarding school for Native American children, Carlisle Indian Industrial School, opened its doors. It was founded by Captain Richard Henry Pratt, a soldier who had fought for the US army against various tribes including the Comanche, Cheyenne, Arapaho and Kiowa. Pratt developed his early ideas for educating Native …

Americans’ opinion of Republican Party on the rise

Americans’ opinion of Republican Party on the rise

Published by Sam

Americans’ opinion of the Republican Party is on the rise, according to a new poll from The Economist/YouGov. In the poll, 45 percent of Americans said they feel “favorable” toward the Republican Party, up 6 points from an Economist/YouGov poll in late October, when 39 percent said they felt favorable toward GOP. The number of… Source link

Donald Trump’s Big Tariff Plan Will Cost Americans

Donald Trump’s Big Tariff Plan Will Cost Americans

Published by Sam

Donald Trump on Monday threatened to impose 25% tariffs on goods from Mexico and Canada when he enters office next year—a move that would make good on a central campaign promise but that would likely crush American consumers who already say they’re struggling with the high cost of living. Trump said he would sign an executive order on the first day of his presidency putting the tariffs in place, claiming that “thousands of people are pouring through Mexico and Canada, bringing crime and drugs at levels never seen before.” Trump posted on TruthSocial, “It is time for them to pay a very big price!” In a separate post, he also said he would charge an additional 10% on China unless the country implemented the death penalty for drug dealers: “Thank you for your attention to this matter,” he wrote. The threat to America’s top trading partners—wielded through social media posts Monday evening—shook global markets and drew warnings that inflation could worsen, an issue, incidentally, that likely helped Trump defeat Kamala Harris in this month’s election. …

We’re About to Find Out How Much Americans Like Vaccines

We’re About to Find Out How Much Americans Like Vaccines

Published by Sam

Sign up for Being Human, a newsletter that explores wellness culture, mortality and disease, and other mysteries of the body and the mind. Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the nominee to be the next secretary of Health and Human Services, is America’s most prominent vaccine skeptic. An advocacy organization that he founded and chaired has called the nation’s declining child-immunization rates “good news,” and referred to parents’ lingering doubts about routine shots as COVID-19’s “silver lining.” Now Kennedy may soon be overseeing the cluster of federal agencies that license and recommend vaccines, as well as the multibillion-dollar program that covers the immunization of almost half the nation’s children. Which is to say that America’s most prominent vaccine skeptic could have the power to upend, derail, or otherwise louse up a cornerstone of public health. Raising U.S. vaccination rates to where they are today took decades of investment: In 1991, for example, just 82 percent of toddlers were getting measles shots; by 2019, that number had increased to 92 percent. The first Trump administration actually presided over …

For Arab Americans and Muslims in newly red Dearborn, a mix of defiance, ambivalence, fear

For Arab Americans and Muslims in newly red Dearborn, a mix of defiance, ambivalence, fear

Published by skeptic

DEARBORN, Mich. (RNS and NPR) — Jumana Judeh understands why so many in her Arab American community voted the way they did in last week’s presidential election, even as she had tried to get them to change their mind, endorsing Kamala Harris in the final days before the election. “It wasn’t the outcome that I was hoping for. But at the same time, I think the Arab community got their message across that we could no longer be taken for granted,” said Judeh, a Christian and a Palestinian American. “Even though we’ve paid a heavy price. “I’m scared. I have no clue what Trump is going to do. I don’t think Trump knows what he’s going to do,” she added. Home to one of the largest Arab American communities in the country, Dearborn, Michigan, has long been considered a Democratic stronghold. This election, the city went Republican for the first time since 9/11, with 42% voting for former President Donald Trump and only 36% supporting Vice President Harris. Nearly 1 in 5 voted for third-party …

Biden wants Americans to “bring down the temperature” — but MAGA will not let that happen

Biden wants Americans to “bring down the temperature” — but MAGA will not let that happen

Published by Sam

In the wake of Donald Trump’s devastating win last week, Democrats have fallen back on an old habit and are now trying to coax better behavior out of Republicans. In his Rose Garden speech acknowledging the loss, President Joe Biden begged, “Something I hope we can do no matter who you voted for is see each other not as adversaries but as fellow Americans, bring down the temperature.” Striking a similar note in their statement, Barack and Michelle Obama asked people to “listen to each other,” adding that “progress requires us to extend good faith and grace—even to people with whom we deeply disagree.” There are no limits to the faith that modeling good behavior will cause Republicans to shape up, apparently.  You cannot turn down the temperature when one side keeps setting the furniture on fire. Even prominent Trump supporters were making these “unity” and “peace” noises in the aftermath. Podcast host Joe Rogan, who endorsed Trump, appeared not to understand the character of the man he sat with for a three-hour interview. “He’s got …

Muslim Americans face a tough choice, but we have to refuse to empower Trump

Muslim Americans face a tough choice, but we have to refuse to empower Trump

Published by skeptic

(RNS) — Determined after the horrors of the first Trump presidency not to see another, in 2020 I gathered a diverse team of Muslim Americans from around New Jersey to form NJ Muslims for Biden. In the 2020 election cycle, we made more than 136,000 calls in partnership with the Muslim political organizing group Emgage Action, helping to turn out more than 50,000 Muslim voters in Pennsylvania. We were part of a broad coalition that was the margin of victory in that election.  I never imagined then that four years later our Muslim American community would be confronted with such a difficult choice. Many Muslims view Harris as simply an extension of Biden, a president who has seemingly heartlessly funded a war and with American bombs enabled catastrophic harm to our Palestinian and Lebanese siblings and children.  A longtime progressive Muslim American Democrat, I understand this anti-Biden sentiment. Like my community, I feel abandoned and betrayed by a party that has stood silently by as civilian men, women and children have been targeted en masse …

The Books Briefing: What Americans Should Read Before the Election

The Books Briefing: What Americans Should Read Before the Election

Published by José

Alexei Navalny’s memoir, in particular, reminds readers how crucial the freedoms to vote and dissent are. The Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, right, makes a V sign for the media in court in Moscow on March 30, 2017. (Evgeny Feldman / AP) November 1, 2024, 11:30 AM ET This is an edition of the Books Briefing, our editors’ weekly guide to the best in books. Sign up for it here. If I were to assign one book to every American voter this week, it would be Alexei Navalny’s Patriot. Half memoir, half prison diary, it testifies to the brutal treatment of the Russian dissident, who died in a Siberian prison last February. Still, as my colleague Gal Beckerman noted last week in The Atlantic, the writing is surprisingly funny. Navalny laid down his life for his principles, but his sardonic good humor makes his heroism feel more attainable—and more real. His account also helps clarify the stakes of our upcoming election, featuring a Republican candidate who has promised to take revenge on “the enemy from within.” …

When 20,000 Americans Held a Pro-Nazi Rally in Madison Square Garden in 1939

When 20,000 Americans Held a Pro-Nazi Rally in Madison Square Garden in 1939

Published by José

Above, two-time Acad­e­my Award nom­i­nee Mar­shall Cur­ry presents A Night at The Gar­den, a film that revis­its a night in Feb­ru­ary 1939 when “20,000 Amer­i­cans ral­lied in New York’s Madi­son Square Gar­den to cel­e­brate the rise of Nazism — an event large­ly for­got­ten from U.S. his­to­ry.” As we described it back in 2017, the film doc­u­ments the fol­low­ing scene: What you’re look­ing at is the 1939 “Pro-Amer­i­can Ral­ly” (aka Pro-Nazi Ral­ly) spon­sored by the Ger­man Amer­i­can Bund at Madi­son Square Gar­den on George Washington’s 207th Birth­day. Ban­ners embla­zoned with such slo­gans as “Stop Jew­ish Dom­i­na­tion of Chris­t­ian Amer­i­cans,” “Wake Up Amer­i­ca. Smash Jew­ish Com­mu­nism,” and “1,000,000 Bund Mem­bers by 1940” dec­o­rat­ed the great hall. New York City May­or Fiorel­lo LaGuardia—an Epis­co­palian with a Jew­ish mother—considered can­cel­ing the event, but ulti­mate­ly he, along with the Amer­i­can Jew­ish Com­mit­tee and the Amer­i­can Civ­il Lib­er­ties Com­mit­tee decreed that the Bund was exer­cis­ing its right to free speech and free assem­bly. A crowd of 20,000 filled the famous sports venue in mid-town Man­hat­tan to capac­i­ty. 1,500 police offi­cers were present to ren­der …

Rural Americans trust government less, no matter who’s president

Rural Americans trust government less, no matter who’s president

Published by José

A recent study published in American Politics Research sheds light on the connection between geography, identity, and political trust in the United States. The findings reveal that both living in rural areas and identifying with rural regions are linked to lower levels of trust in the federal government. This trend persists regardless of whether a Republican or Democratic president is in office, offering new insights into the political divide between rural and urban America. James R. G. Kirk of the University of Notre Dame conducted the study to explore whether political trust varies across the urban-rural spectrum. While there have been many observations about political behaviors and attitudes differing between urban and rural populations, less is known about how place and place-based identity affect trust in the federal government. The authors were motivated by the fact that political distrust seems to be more prominent in rural areas. For example, during the COVID-19 pandemic, vaccination rates were significantly lower in rural counties compared to urban ones, pointing to a possible distrust of government-led health initiatives. Additionally, …