“When the dominant status of whites relative to racial and ethnic minorities is secure and unchallenged, white identity likely remains dormant,” according to research by political scientist Ashley Jardina. “When whites perceive their group’s dominant status is threatened or their group is unfairly disadvantaged, however, their racial identity may become salient and politically relevant.”
Read More in The New York Times
Why Confederate Statues Fail to Represent Southern History
“The Civil War was about conflict within the Confederacy and within the United States. But statues of Confederate soldiers erase those conflicts by portraying the South as united behind the Confederacy,” writes historian Laura Edwards. “In fact, the South was as conflicted in the Civil War era as it is now. So was the rest of the United States. And that is why the Confederate statues and their portrayals of false unity are so misleading and dangerous.”
Read More in The Hill
The Politics of NAFTA Have Been Driven More by Story Than by Fact
“The undramatic truth is that NAFTA was never truly villain or hero. … NAFTA was always far from perfect and there is a need to update it — not surprising for an agreement negotiated a quarter century ago. But just as NAFTA did not cause inequality, killing NAFTA would do nothing to address it,” writes Frederick “Fritz” Mayer.
Read More in The Hill
When Activism Came to My Hometown
“I absolutely want memorials to racism, hate and prejudice removed. They should be either destroyed, or relegated to museums with appropriate historical representation. But, I want their removal through legitimate, law-abiding processes,” writes Larry Moneta, vice president for student affairs at Duke.
Read More at Inside Higher Ed
White Identity Politics Isn’t Just About White Supremacy
“Trump’s reaction may have energized some of his key supporters, but the whites marching on Charlottesville were only a small segment of a much larger population for whom the politics of white identity resonates. The vast majority of white Americans who feel threatened by the country’s growing racial and ethnic diversity are not members of the KKK or neo-Nazis. They are much greater in number, and far more mainstream, than the white supremacists who protested in Virginia over the weekend,” writes political scientist Ashley Jardina.
Read More in The Washington Post
CEOs Under Fire to Dump Trump Over Response
Within 24 hours on Monday, the chief executives of Under Armour (UA), Intel and Merck (MRK) quit Trump’s manufacturing council in protest over his initial failure to condemn white supremacists. Corporate leaders who were once eager for a seat at the Trump table are increasingly deciding the costs outweigh the benefits.
“Unquestionably, CEOs would prefer to remain silent. But at what point do they feel the risks of silence outweighs the risk of taking a public stance?” asks Bill Boulding, dean of The Fuqua School of Business.
Read More on CNN
Would The Public Follow Trump Into War?
Political scientist Peter Feaver, who served as a senior adviser on the national security council for strategic planning under President George W. Bush, says international doubts won’t make it impossible for foreign leaders to back Trump if they support his strategy — as demonstrated by the unanimous recent United Nations vote tightening economic sanctions on North Korea. But these widespread reservations, he adds, will make other leaders more cautious about supporting his initiatives.
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Should Confederate Statues Be Removed From Public Spaces?
Political scientist Kerry Haynie struck a note of caution in removing the Confederate monuments. “I am fearful as an educator that we will forget the past,” says Haynie, director of Duke’s Center for the Study of Race, Ethnicity, and Gender. “You often see now in textbooks and various places almost a denial of a slavery past or a racist past. One of the purposes those monuments serve is to remind us of that past.”
Read More at WJLA
White Supremacist Groups’ Rally Turns Deadly In Charlottesville
Kerry Haynie, associate professor of political science and African and African-American studies, talks about race and the White House’s response to the weekend’s protests in Virginia. Haynie says it’s hard to see President Trump’s condemnation of white supremacists two days after the protests as genuine. “We’re in some troubling times, I think,” Haynie says.
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Military Bases Named For Confederate Leaders
“Let’s not be in any doubt about what Braxton Bragg represents. He was a slaveholder who fought against the U.S. Army in order to preserve the South’s ‘peculiar institution.’ The time has come for Fort Bragg and the other bases named after Confederate generals to be renamed in honor of individuals who fought to defend the United States and the values that the U.S. Army is pledged to defend,” writes Michael Newcity, a professor of Slavic and Eurasian Studies.
Read More in the Detroit Free Press
Charlottesville and The Legacy of Slavery
Mark Anthony Neal, chair of Duke’s Department of African and African-American Studies, talks about the weekend’s deadly protests and what the violence in Charlottesville reveals about America’s struggle to reconcile the country’s legacy of slavery.
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Trump Can Prove His Words on White Supremacy Aren’t Hollow
“After running a highly divisive campaign that emboldened overt racists to advocate for their agenda in the political arena, the president now has an opportunity, with the Charlottesville tragedy, to demonstrate that his words against racism and bigotry are not hollow promises. He has a long way to go,” writes public policy professor David Schanzer, director of the Triangle Center on Terrorism and Homeland Security.
Read More in The Guardian
