A Well-Informed People

09/04/2021

Today, the workers of the Amazon distribution site in Bessemer, Alabama seem to have voted against joining the Retail, Wholesale, and Department Store Union. This was one of the biggest moments in modern American labor history, with even President Biden weighing in. Additionally, as the link between active unions and lower class and race based wage inequality is further solidified, this vote foretells the future of the labor rights movement and economic trends.

Led by Black employees, the organizing in Bessemer highlights the critical role of Black Americans in the U.S. labor movement. However, Black laborers were not always widely included in early labor unions:

“In 1935…Union formation excluded agricultural and domestic workers, occupations predominantly held by black workers, and largely left black workers unable to organize.

By the late 1960s and early 1970s, unions began to integrate. The manufacturing boom brought large numbers of black workers north to factories, the civil rights movement focused increasingly on economic issues, and the more liberal Congress of Industrial Organizations organized black workers.” (Natalie Spievack, Urban Wire, 2019)

For more, check out aw-ip.org (🔗 in bio!)

- -

01/04/2021

Last week, President Biden held his first press conference. A major topic was immigration, especially Title 42. The Center for Disease Control issued Title 42 last year to allow the deportation of undocumented immigrants to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

This quickly raised issues of undocumented immigrants’ rights:

“Title 42 has been challenged legally. Last year, immigrant rights activists challenged the policy, with some saying unaccompanied minors have special rights under anti-trafficking legislation, said Nicole Hallett, director of the Immigrants’ Rights Clinic at the University of Chicago Law School.

A district court sided with the activists and ordered the Trump administration to begin accepting unaccompanied minors. However, the ruling went to the Court of Appeals, where it stayed the lower court ruling while it considered the merits of the appeal, Hallett said.” (Rebecca Morin, USA Today, 2021)

Undocumented immigrants # rights are a massive part of the immigration crisis discussion, but they weren’t really recognized until the end of the 20th century:

“For more than a century, with a dramatic increase after 1965, Border Patrol officers and [Immigration and Naturalization Service] agents...apprehended suspected “illegal” Mexican immigrants...

Those who agreed to be “voluntarily” deported...were advised that because there would be no formal record of their deportation, they would not be subject to imprisonment if apprehended trying to cross the border again. The reliance on voluntary deportation saved the I.N.S. millions of dollars while keeping ajar the revolving door that allowed Mexicans to cross the border, reunite with their families and satisfy American employers’ insatiable appetites for cheap, unprotected, nonunionized labor.

Only in the middle 1990s, after extended court battles, did the I.N.S. agree to inform apprehended immigrants of their legal rights to consult a lawyer and request asylum. As a result, immigrants...challenged their removal, leaving government officials no no choice but to institute formal deportation procedures.” (David Nasaw, NYTimes, 2020)

Check out aw-ip.org for more! 🔗 in bio!

- -

03/03/2021

The shift from Melania Trump to Jill Biden presents two women with two very different views of the role of the First Lady. While Dr. Biden made headlines when she clarified that she would be keeping her job as a college professor, making her the first First Lady to maintain employment, Mrs. Trump preferred a less public life.

While Mrs. Trump’s less public role was a departure from more recent First Ladies, she would not have stood out among her eighteenth and nineteenth century colleagues. It wasn’t until the 20th century that the role of the First Lady became more public due to the expanding press and the efforts of Lady Bird Johnson. But even then, the public can’t decide what a First Lady is supposed to do. This leaves each officeholder to define the role for herself and endure endless critique along the way.

“A 1964 Time cover story quoted Robert Kennedy as admitting, “Lady Bird carried Texas for us” in the extremely tight 1960 election. Yet the same article also said “her nose is a bit too long, her mouth a bit too wide, her ankles a bit less than trim, and she is not outstanding at clothesmanship.”

Things have gotten better since then, but not by much. First ladies are notoriously targeted for appearance-based criticism (just last month, a talking head on Fox News suggested that Michelle Obama “drop a few” before promoting childhood nutrition). But today, it’s not just the way they look. Since the role has morphed into something more than mere hostessing but less than an elected official, there’s a wide range in which to castigate them for not doing enough…

Serving as first lady, as it stands, is an unpaid role in which a woman is expected to manage a staff—in recent terms it has been of around 15 people—and perform duties as both the White House hostess and champion of some cause, usually related to women or children...outlining and acknowledging the work that the presidential spouse is expected to do would help to mitigate the disproportionate criticism faced by any woman who occupies this office” (Scarlet Neath, The Atlantic, 2014)

For more, check out Aw-ip.org (🔗 in bio!)

- -

18/02/2021

The debate over the student debt crisis and student loan forgiveness is once again in the news as Democrats debate $50K forgiveness vs $10K forgiveness.

The debt crisis is a complicated issue with a thorny history and unclear solution. To keep you informed, we’ve summarized the problem, it’s history and impact, and the experts’ discussion of proposed solutions in this flip book.

As always, visit aw-ip.org for more history of today’s biggest issues (🔗 in bio!)

- -

16/02/2021

While the annual Mardi Gras celebration in New Orleans, Louisiana has been cancelled, the citizens of New Orleans have refused to completely give up in their tradition. Instead, many locals are decorating their homes as the famous floats.

This gives us an opportunity to look at the unique architecture of New Orleans, which blends French, Spanish, and African traditions. This cultural blending extends beyond the architecture to be etched into life in the city itself, with the origins of this uniquely multi-ethnic society often overlooked.

We turn now to our sister site, :

“Over a 100-year period, formal control of New Orleans changed hands three times: from France to Spain, then back to France, and then finally to the United States as a vital component of the Louisiana Purchase. During this period, a vibrant capitalist system developed along the river, lending French, Spanish, English, and African influences to the architecture, food, and music—all staples of modern New Orleans tourism…

In February, notorious Mardi Gras beads adorn lamp posts outside distinctive Creole townhouses and French Pontalba rows long past Fat Tuesday.

These infrastructural bones come with their own ghosts, haunting the streets of the city. While New Orleans has long pushed Louisianan Creole culture to the forefront of the city’s image, recognition of the slave trade that brought Africans to New Orleans is often relegated to the background…

The dark history of the slave trade in Louisiana is often overlooked in favor of less violent aspects of antebellum history. Until recently, there was no recognition of the slave trade in the French Quarter and many of the plantations around the city have been converted to museums that sanitize elite white antebellum culture.” (Sarah Paxton, Origins, 2020)

Learn more about slavery in New Orleans and the recent steps NOLA has begun to take to reckon with their history at origins.osu.edu. Then check out aw-ip.org (🔗 in bio) for more on the history of today’s events!

- -

11/02/2021

Vaccine distribution ramped at the end of the Trump administration and has increased even more in the first weeks of the Biden presidency.

But many are still waiting to get an appointment, even to be eligible to book one, and concerns over supply shortages and “line-cutting” are growing. While an inoculation effort of this scale is largely unprecedented, this struggles and concerns are not.

Consider Polio and Jonas Salk’s 1955 vaccine:

“Confusion over how to get the vaccine abounded, said [James] Colgrove of Columbia University. Private physicians were unsure when they would receive doses and when they’d be able to deliver them to patients. There were rumors, too, of black-market sales.

In a particularly tragic episode, one of the companies enlisted by the federal government to manufacture the vaccine — California-based Cutter Laboratories — produced a defective batch that effectively resulted in tens of thousands being injected with the polio virus, a fiasco that led to a reported 40,000 cases, 50 children suffering paralysis, and five deaths.

The contamination temporarily halted the vaccine distribution, though it eventually returned and, along with a second vaccine from scientist Albert Sabin, resulted in a sharp decline of polio cases across the country. The disease was eventually eliminated in the United States.” (Dugan Arnett, The Boston Globe, 2021)

But it’s also important to remember that America can learn from her failures. The Cutter Incident, for instance, resulted in tighter regulations and greater oversight by the FDA in the development and approval process.

And despite the current distribution ‘hiccups,’ the tremendous strides made over the past year should not be ignored, [Rahul] Gupta said.

‘We’ve had a number of vaccines developed within a year, remarkable work by the global community to come together and serve the most vulnerable people across the world,’ he said. ‘In so many ways, I think it’s a remarkable success.’” (Arnett, 2020)

For more on the history of pandemics and medical treatment, check out aw-ip.org! (🔗 in bio)

- -

05/02/2021

In November 2020, 5 more states legalized ma*****na, adding to the already 35 states (plus the District of Columbia) who have legalized recreational and/or medical ma*****na.

This process has been slow, implicating the difficult structure that the mass criminalization of ma*****na in the 20th century. But why was the criminalization so swift but legalization so slow?

A key part of this was race: smoked ma*****na wasn’t a big American trend until introduced by Mexican immigrants during the early 20th century and became popular in Mexican and Black communities. The early 20th century back lash to ma*****na was then due in part to racism and xenophobia. (Stephen Siff, Origins, 2014)

The 20th century head of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics (the predicate to the Drug Enforcement Agency), Harry Anslinger, was also instrumental. Congress was proposing to eliminate the FBN in 1936 and Anslinger quickly turned to ma*****na, declaring it addictive and as dangerous as the harder drugs it led to and led to additional crime. (Siff, 2014) the 1937 Ma*****na Tax Act essentially criminalized ma*****na.

From then on, ma*****na was often lumped in with legislation designed to combat narcotics like he**in. This included crime bills like the 1951 Boggs Act and the state level “little Boggs” that established the first mandatory minimums for ma*****na possession and trafficking. (PBS, 2014)

For more on ma*****na and the war on drugs, check out aw-ip.org (🔗 in bio)

- -
*****na

02/02/2021

The unemployment numbers have been closely watched since the pandemic began. Working women lost more jobs during the pandemic than men, resulting with 2.2 million fewer women being in the workforce in October 2020 than in February, compared to the 1.4 million fewer men. (Ariadne Hegewisch and Eve Mefferd, Institute for Women’s Policy Research, Nov 2020)

Further, mothers of small children have been hit especially hard, at a rate of 3x that of fathers. (Tim Henderson, Pew Research Center, Sept. 2020).

This is not a new phenomenon but rather one that the pandemic exacerbated and exposed.

A couple factors are in play here. One of these is the gender pay gap itself. Women make approximately 82 cents on the male dollar and, when economic decisions have to be made (such as who is going to stay home with the kids while schools and day cares are closed), women typically earn less and so Mom stays home. (Pallavi Gogoi, NPR, Oct. 2020).

Further, women lost their jobs in higher numbers because industries with high levels of female employment, such as restaurants and hospitality, were devastated in 2020. This will have a heavy impact on the economy and but also on the future success female workforce. (Gogoi, 2020)

For more on gender equity, check out aw-ip.org (🔗 in bio!).

- -

27/01/2021

Yesterday, President Biden directed his administration to not renew contracts with private prisons. However, privately owned and operated prisons are only the latest form of for-profit practices within the carceral state.

In the 19th century, prison labor, in a system called convict leasing, was a brutal facet of American criminal justice. Prisoners were “leased” by private companies to perform labor, especially in the aftermath of the 13th Amendment, which barred slavery except as a form of punishment.

In the early 20th century, many states moved away from convict leasing and instead operated their own prison labor programs, including plantation-style prisons in the south.

Today, private prisons have imposed cuts or other cost-saving measures to education programs and medical care as well as maintained insufficient numbers of guards to protect a large inmate population. This culmination of factors, included deeply embedded racism that began in the Jim Crow system of punishment, has resulted in private prisons experiencing significantly higher violence rates than state-run institutions.

Learn more about the history of prisons and criminal justice in the United States, visit aw-ip.org (🔗 in bio!)

- -

20/01/2021

Today, Kamala Harris was sworn in as the Vice President of the United States.

This makes her the first woman, the first Black woman, and the first South Asian woman to serve at the Vice President in American history.

Learn more on political gender equity at aw-ip.org (🔗 in bio!)

- -

17/01/2021

Continuing our countdown to the historic inauguration of the first woman of color as Vice President, we turn to Geraldine Ferraro.

Ferraro, like VP-elect Kamala Harris, was a former prosecutor and was elected to the House of Representatives in 1978. In 1984, Democratic presidential nominee Walter Mondale, selected Ferraro as his running mate, making her the first female candidate of a major political party for the Vice Presidency.

“Some were dubious about the move, attributing it to Mondale's desire to ‘pander to pressure groups.’ Others were ecstatic. It's a "dream come true," effused Stephanie Solien of the Women's Campaign Fund. Gloria Steinem, a leading feminist, dismissed the doubters: "Half the human race is not a special interest."…

Ultimately, having Ferraro on the ticket made little difference in the 1984 results. But it was clear that something important had transpired that day when Mondale made his historic selection.” (Ken Rudin, NPR, 2011)

Read more on female candidates at aw-ip.org! (Link in bio)

- -

15/01/2021

Continuing our discussion of elected women’s history leading to the historic inauguration of Kamala Harris and the first woman and woman of color Vice President, we turn now to Shirley Chisholm. Chisholm was both the first Black woman elected to the US Congress (1968) and the first woman and Black woman to run for the presidential nomination of a major political party (1972).

Learn more in women’s electoral politics at aw-ip.org (link in bio!)

- -

“[Shirley] Chisholm’s campaign was the most successful of these female presidential and vice presidential candidates of 1972. Before entering national politics, Chisholm had served in the New York State Legislature and worked as a teacher and director of child care centers. In 1968, Chisholm became the first African American woman elected to Congress (and she hired an almost all-female staff)…

Chisholm hoped to use her historic candidacy to draw new people to presidential politics—inner city residents, women, people of color, and young people recently enfranchised by the 26th Amendment which lowered the voting age to 18. At the 1972 convention, Chisholm carried 151 delegates and earned the right to speak from the main podium.

While she ultimately lost the nomination to George McGovern, Chisholm considered her campaign a victory.” (Kimberly Hamlin, Origins, 2016)

- -

15/01/2021

Next week, Kamala Harris will be sworn in as Vice President of the United States, making her the first woman, and woman of color, Vice President.

For the next week, we here at AWIP will be highlighting other “firsts” for women and women of color in federal office in preparation of this historic event. We begin with the first woman elected to Congress, Jeanette Rankin of Montana.

You can learn more about gender equity in history at aw-ip.org!

“While other women joined the US House of Representatives in the years after Rankin’s election and the passing of the 19th Amendment, many of these women inherited their late husband’s seat rather than being elected on their own merits. Part of this was surely because women running as wives of previously elected men fit the supportive wife characteristic of a true woman, but it was because there was no concerted effort to support and elect female candidates. So while the women’s rights movement faded in the aftermath of the 19th Amendment, female candidates failed to pick up much steam and, between 1919 and 1970, the average total number of women in the House of Representatives and the Senate was approximately 13. It wasn’t until the feminist movement of the 1970s that effective lobbying organizations geared toward the election of female candidates to federal office emerged.” (Sarah Paxton, Origins, 2020).

- -

07/01/2021

Yesterday, Trump supporters stormed the US Capitol Building in an attempt to stop the certification of the electoral college votes. This insurrection resulted in property damage to the Capitol, the building to lock down for several hours, and the deaths of at least 4 people.

Much has been said about President Trump’s actions yesterday, including his encouraging the crowd to go the Capitol and his failure to provide adequate response resources to law enforcement, both before and during the occupation. This has resulted in a wave of White House resignations and several Democratic leaders, including newly re-elected Speaker Pelosi, calling for the presidents removal from office through the 25th Amendment’s disability clause. It has been confirmed that members of the cabinet have discussed invoking the 25th Amendment, though no action has been taken.

The 25th amendment is a complex piece of the US Constitution and we here at AWIP want to provide critical historical and procedural context that will be important over the next few days. We present this flip book of the basics of the 25th Amendment in hopes it will provide clarity to the complicated discussions taking place during these tumultuous times.

As always, please visit us at aw-ip.org (link in bio) for more historical context to modern politics.

- -
#2021

16/12/2020

The COVID-19 epidemic has dramatically effected both daily life and the economic stability of every country and this is one where history can't really help us. There is no playbook for handling the economic and social fall out of an epidemic of this size and its unclear how each country is going to fair in the long run, especially since most countries aren't working together. ⁠⠀
⁠⠀
“The pandemic has created a massive economic contraction that will be followed by a financial crisis in many parts of the globe, as nonperforming corporate loans accumulate alongside bankruptcies. Sovereign defaults in the developing world are also poised to spike.⁠⠀
⁠⠀
This crisis will follow a path similar to the one the last crisis took, except worse, commensurate with the scale and scope of the collapse in global economic activist. And the crisis will hit low-income households and countries harder than their wealthier counterparts." (Reinhart & Reinhart, Foreign Affairs, Sept/Oct 20)⁠⠀
⁠⠀
"‘Every infectious disease outbreak is a problem for the entire world, not just for one country, especially when it becomes a pandemic,” said Guillen. “So, it’s extremely unfortunate that right now very few countries are talking to each other. Part of this is because we came from a period of turmoil in the world, not knowing what the role of the U.S. was, for example, and having trade wars and other kinds of frictions in the world. It’s unfortunate that the pandemic came the moment when global cooperation on key issues, such as climate change, was at an all-time low.”⁠⠀
⁠⠀
That is unfortunate because in a pandemic, it is essential that governments exchange information about the spread of the disease and about what works and doesn’t work in containing the spread of the virus, he noted." (The Wharton School & UPenn, 2020). ⁠⠀
⁠⠀
Fore more on the global & economic impact of Covid-19, visit aw-ip.org⁠⠀
⁠⠀
--⁠⠀
⁠⠀
#2020

16/12/2020

The pandemic has impacted the lives of every single American in some way. However, both domestically and internationally, COVID has disproportionately affected BIPOC communities and the lower socio-economic classes. And for many, this isn't surprising because the health of these communities has historically been less protected. ⁠⠀
⁠⠀
"Many of the causes for these health disparities are systemic and well known. 'We’re getting infected more because we are exposed more and less protected,” says Camara Phyllis Jones, an epidemiologist at the Rollins School of Public Health at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia. Existing socio-economic and health disparities — caused by historical segregation and endemic racism in the United States — can at least partially explain why people of colour are getting sick and dying at disproportionate rates.” (Nidhi Subbaraman, Nature Research, 2020).⁠⠀
⁠⠀
"Research has shown that the richest 1% of Americans can expect to live more than a decade longer than the poorest 1%—and that’s without a pandemic in the mix. COVID-19 has drawn a clear line between people with white-collar jobs that allow them to follow public-health advice and work from home, and those in service-focused jobs who must be physically present—thereby risking infection—to collect a paycheck. The country’s most vulnerable populations, such as those who are homeless or living below the poverty line, are the least able to stock up on groceries, prescription medication and other supplies and hunker down inside; they’re also less likely to own a car, or otherwise have the means to safely travel to a doctor’s office if needed." (Jamie Ducharme, Time Magazine, 2020). ⁠⠀
⁠⠀
Find out more about the effects of COVID on different communities (and get the links to the Nature & Time articles) on aw-ip.org !⁠⠀
⁠⠀
- - ⁠⠀
⁠⠀

19/11/2020

While it may seem like another year, it was only a couple months ago that armed protestors demonstrated in state buildings, violent threats were being sent to public health officials, and fights broke out after mask mandates and stay-at-home orders were being enacted. Now, as a new rise in cases is resulting in renewed calls (and movement) to once again lockdown, so too has the fear of dangerous partisanship escalated.

But where does this deep divide come from? A variety of places, certainly. But many are influenced by the division within the American government.

“In democratic countries, the public is highly responsive to cues sent by political elites whose messages can encourage unity or deepen social cleavages. Because the public relies on these cues for reliable information, it is especially important that elites present a unified message during a crisis. Elites sent such a unified message after the September 11th terrorist attacks, when Republican and Democratic lawmakers issued joint statements reassuring Americans that they were safe and promising rapid retaliation.

However, the high levels of partisan polarization observed today among both elites and the mass public in the United States can lead to a fractured national response, as elites send conflicting cues to citizens who are inclined to only be receptive to the messages of co-partisans. In addition, once initial opinions based on these messages are formed, they may be difficult to update with subsequent factual information....

Given the high levels of polarization in the American electorate, citizens are less likely to change their behavior in ways that correspond to the consensus of public health experts if there is not a political consensus that these changes are necessary.”
(Green, Edgerton, Naftel, Shoub, & Cranmer, Science Magazine, 2020)

Read more on the politics of the pandemic (and get the links to the NPR & Science Magazine articles) on Aw-ip.org

- -

19/11/2020

One of the consequences of American politics during the COVID-19 pandemic was the speed at which pandemic response became partisan. As shown above, Pew Research Center found a partisan divide over trusting science which has been shown to have an impact on the American response to the pandemic. ⁠⠀
⁠⠀
While not the first partisan divide, there are multiple instances in American history where the United States government has come into a partisan consensus. ⁠⠀
⁠⠀
"Roosevelt could coin a phrase, as he did when he called on the nation to be the “arsenal of democracy,” and he also knew how to hire able people, who had the confidence of the country, to take the steps necessary to produce everything that was necessary for war, and to help Americans feel that they were involved in the struggle.⁠⠀
⁠⠀
'Don’t you know there’s a war on?' was a common refrain, and Americans wanted to do their part…⁠⠀
⁠⠀
Consensus and common purpose are therefore absolutely crucial in a time of crisis. So why then are we at such an impasse in our collective response to the Covid-19 crisis now?” ⁠⠀
⁠⠀
(Allan Winkler, , 2020)⁠⠀
⁠⠀
Read more on the politics during the pandemic (and get the link to the Pew & Origins articles) on aw-ip.org ⁠⠀
⁠⠀
- -⁠⠀
⁠⠀

A Well-Informed People - AWIP

09/04/2021

01/04/2021

03/03/2021

18/02/2021

16/02/2021

11/02/2021

05/02/2021

02/02/2021

27/01/2021

20/01/2021

17/01/2021

15/01/2021

15/01/2021

07/01/2021

16/12/2020

16/12/2020

19/11/2020

19/11/2020

Address

Website

Alerts

Contact The Business

Shortcuts

Share