politics – Contemporary Racism

Sharing Your Political Opinion Online

Mari — Tue, 21 Oct 2025 20:44:50 +0000

In recent times, sharing an opinion online can feel a little scary. It’s not like having a casual chat with a friend, where words fade once the conversation ends. On the internet, what you post can stick around forever. There’s no real “rough draft” online once you hit publish, that draft becomes permanent. This has reshaped the way people express themselves. Many hold back, worried about being misunderstood or judged years down the line. Others ...

The Current Hispanic Crisis

MG — Tue, 22 Oct 2024 14:57:36 +0000

Within the history of the United States, the notion that White people are the superior race and that minority groups are perceived as less has not changed much as all throughout the years. Hispanics are the largest minority group in the United States, yet the narrative about this group is not positively portrayed within our society. I believe that the perception of Hispanic communities has gotten worse specifically with the upcoming 2024 presidential election just ...

The Dismantle of Affirmative Action: Racist or Not?

Louis_Lunch — Thu, 12 Oct 2023 19:06:07 +0000

In June of 2023, the Supreme Court of the United States effectively ended affirmative action in college admissions. The Supreme Court ruled that affirmative action violated the 14th Amendment of the Constitution, the equal protection clause. Their claim was that using race in admissions gives an advantage to people of color to get into institutions. This ties into the color-blind ideology where people often say “I don’t see color.” By practicing this ideology they are ...

Trump’s Racist Tweets

Devin — Sun, 20 Oct 2019 16:39:13 +0000

Sadly, my main source of news these past few weeks has been Twitter. If you’ve played around with Twitter, you know that it is intended to grab audience attention with short statements and hashtags. After scrolling through my own feed, I’ve just begun to browse hashtags that are “trending”, meaning lots of people are using them in their own posts. Today, I was struck by one hashtag in specific- “PABPOTUS”. At first glance, I was ...

Staying Afloat on “Lake Diversity”

Brianna Howland — Thu, 09 May 2019 20:18:21 +0000

On April 13, many students of color and allies joined together in front of Muhlenberg College’s Life Sports Center to silently protest racism on campus. While all the rules were followed and the protest was a success, it is certainly not the last time the campus will hear about the Student Action Group. As mentioned in the “Muhlenberg Weekly,” “…the persistence of incidents like these has made it increasingly clear that this is in fact ...

Getting Away With It

Sarah Prince — Mon, 26 Feb 2018 20:00:40 +0000

I have scrolled through my Facebook and found far too many videos’ that capture police brutality. There are very few times I have been able to go on my Facebook feed without coming across a video that captures racism in violent acts. After which I would leave and log off of my social media. Not only has there been an increase in media coverage of these events but there has been an increase in occurrence ...

The Blurred Line Between Old-Fashioned and Modern Racism

Jenna Lehmann — Mon, 12 Dec 2016 01:53:04 +0000

When we were first learning about the differences between old-fashioned, modern, and aversive racism, the definitions made sense to me. I saw that there were differences between the three, each different speeds at which we move down the moving sidewalk of privilege. But now I’m a little less certain about the differences between old-fashioned and modern racism. I agree that in practice they’re different, but I’m less sure that within the person harboring these prejudices, ...

November 8, 2016: The Week After

Sofia Montgomery — Mon, 28 Nov 2016 21:02:06 +0000

I cried when I found out the results of the 2016 presidential election. I cried hard. I fell asleep the night before quite early, because I was tired of being bombarded with political ads and the disgusting hate that I would see every day on Facebook. I went to bed early believing that I would wake up to Hillary Clinton being our next president. It didn’t happen that way and the several paragraphs that were ...

They Say History Repeats Itself….

VictoriaJean — Mon, 21 Nov 2016 23:48:40 +0000

It seems hard not to write a blog post reflecting on the events of this week. Donald Trump is officially our president elect, and there’s so much that could be said about it that I don’t even know where to begin. On Tuesday night, I refused to watch the live coverage with my roommates because for some reason I just had a horrible gut feeling about the results. I went to bed early, scared of ...

Politics with Kids

G_Wolfe — Fri, 11 Nov 2016 03:18:51 +0000

Special Guest Post by Ginelle Wolfe ’16 I knew work would be tough the day after the election because I work with kids at an elementary school. Each teacher I talked to said they were not going to discuss the election, as the assumption is that most students would not even understand what happened. While I understand that approach, my situation is a little bit different. I teach English Language Development classes, so the majority ...

Stark Realizations

Michael Silverstein — Mon, 07 Nov 2016 19:41:37 +0000

With the presidential election coming up on Tuesday, the next four years of policy are being decided. Looking back at the campaigns leading up to this point, the rhetoric surrounding race has been interesting. Much of the things said about race have been problematic, but prior to this semester I would not have understood why. This semester of classes, with contemporary racism and multicultural psychology has been very eye-opening for me. Coming from a predominately ...

Disenfranchisement in the Era of Mass Incarceration

Haleigh Jacob — Mon, 07 Nov 2016 19:37:14 +0000

In light of the upcoming election, I think it’s important to talk a bit about the connection between disenfranchisement and mass incarceration in the United States. Since watching the 2016 Netflix documentary called 13th and reading Michelle Alexander’s fifth chapter from her book The New Jim Crow, I’ve been thinking a lot about the ways mass incarceration will affect the results of the election in just a few days. Here are a few things that ...

Drawing the Line

Connie — Mon, 07 Nov 2016 19:10:12 +0000

Published by an Anonymous Student This week, I learned that my hometown debuted a painted blue line in the middle of the road in front of our municipal building, which houses the library, government offices, police department, and other administrative offices. Multiple government officials posted about it on their official Facebook pages, including pictures like this one from our Committeeman. They presented their action as a tribute to fallen law enforcement officers. Under the Facebook ...

Trump-isms: What’s Next?

Jessica Sperber — Sun, 06 Nov 2016 22:47:31 +0000

I write this on November 2nd, less than a week before the presidential election. I choose to write this now for multiple reasons: 1) it’s becoming pretty clear who the next POTUS will be, and 2) I’m honestly afraid of what the consequences will be. This evening in my Facebook Newsfeed, towards the bottom of the trending bar, was the label “Black Church Burned” (The Atlantic, 2016). Immediately I felt my stomach sink, and when ...

Caffeine and a Call for Unity

taylor_helena — Sun, 06 Nov 2016 22:42:35 +0000

I’ll admit it. I’m a coffee addict. It’s gotten to the point where I cannot make it through the morning without a headache if I don’t have my coffee. I got a Keurig machine for my birthday and cried. I know it’s bad, but when it comes to drugs of choice, I could be worse off. On rare occasions I will treat myself to the capitalist franchise of Starbucks. Something about their coffee gives me ...

Digging deeper: Finding the counter narrative

Cassandra Baker — Sun, 06 Nov 2016 22:30:55 +0000

This past Summer I had the chance to travel around Peru and visit a variety of different historical sites. One of the places I visited was a beautiful estate on the southern cost, Hacienda San José. The property was nothing less than stunning, a grand entrance, a courtyard, a wraparound porch, a swimming pool, an impeccable lawn, and even a beautiful chapel. My guide told us many people rent out the estate for weddings or ...

It’s Just Business

Jenna Lehmann — Sun, 06 Nov 2016 22:21:23 +0000

David Duke, former Grand Wizard of the KKK, narrowly reached the 5% voting support he needed to be considered a legitimate candidate for Senator of Louisiana. Although according to his numbers he doesn’t actually stand a chance in winning the seat, it’s horrifying to realize that a substantial number of people are voting for him. What’s even more disturbing is that he was now allowed to participate in the November 2nd debate which was ...

Protesting #101

Steven Feldman — Fri, 22 Apr 2016 18:14:55 +0000

On April 13th, Muhlenberg College participated in a nationwide day of action against racism and student debt by participating in the #MillionStudentMarch. This movement is a united demand for education as a human right. The movement seeks to gain 1) tuition-free public college, 2) cancellation of all student debt, 3) a $15 minimum wage for all campus workers, and 4) divestment from private prisons by all colleges and universities. Our Contemporary Racism class thought that ...

An Outside Perspective on the Million Student March

Jennieleeb649 — Sat, 16 Apr 2016 20:14:37 +0000

On Friday, Muhlenberg participated in the Million Student March. The Million Student March is an event held at colleges to demand tuition-free public college, cancellation of all student debt, a $15/hour minimum wage for all campus workers, and divestment from private prisons. As a class, we were informed of the protest and its goals, and then headed over to take part, as a sort of exercise in allyship. There, the student organizing the protest gave ...

Spent

Jennieleeb649 — Sat, 16 Apr 2016 19:48:46 +0000

I was recently introduced to an interesting game developed by the Urban Ministries of Durham called Spent. Spent allows you, for just a little while, to step into the shoes of a person on the verge of having nothing. You’ve lost your house, your job, and all of your savings. You’re down to your last $1000 dollars, and you need to find a job, a place to live, and make it through a month as a ...

Black Lives Matter, But So Do Black Female Bodies

kparker17 — Tue, 12 Apr 2016 14:27:53 +0000

This past week, the New York Times published information regarding Donald Trump, the leading Republican candidate for the next presidential election’s, stance on abortion. Trump, like other conservatives, sees abortion as “murder” according to the New York Times; and, taking it back decades, he is in support that abortion should be illegal to all, and he says that women who engage in illegal abortions should be punished by the United States government. I think it ...

Cruz Wears the Colorblind Coat Best

G_Wolfe — Tue, 12 Apr 2016 14:00:22 +0000

The mockery and hatred in the 2016 Presidential Election has undoubtedly been pointed at Donald Trump, as far as the Republican party goes. His overtly sexist, racist com ments constantly appear in the news. While I do agree that Trump’s proposed policies and statements have been extremely problematic, the candidate who actually scares me the most is Ted Cruz. Cruz’s ideas and statements are just as racist and sexist as Trump’s; they are just covered ...

Why Can’t All Bodies be Different, but Fought For the Same?

kparker17 — Mon, 28 Mar 2016 17:14:38 +0000

In her book, The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness, Michelle Alexander (2010) spells out the issues of the master narrative, which has, since the abolition of slavery and strategic implementation of the war on drugs and mass incarceration, legitimized and hidden from the American people what locking up thousands and thousands of Black bodies has done. The emergence of crack cocaine in impoverished streets and mandatory minimum sentencing laws covered up ...

Talking about Trump

Anna Robinson — Mon, 28 Mar 2016 16:49:47 +0000

As I was scrolling through Facebook the other day I stumbled upon a shared link by a conservative Facebook friend entitled, “I’m a Republican, Not a Moron: Being Conservative in a World That’s Not.” Intrigued, I read through the article, the general gist of it being that everyone just needs to respect each other across party lines and that we have to learn that agreeing to disagree is okay. While I agree that respect and ...

Hurricane Katrina: Facts We Lost in the Storm

Hannah — Mon, 28 Mar 2016 15:39:47 +0000

In August of 2005, a devastating storm, Hurricane Katrina, shook up the southeastern United States in a way that no one could have predicted…. Or could they? Behind news stories through televised reports, newspapers, and social media, there was an unspoken controversy that many people did not know about – race and race relations between the authorities running the institutions (such as the FHA and FEMA) and the Black population in New Orleans. Through reading ...

Reparations: The Final Destination for White Guilt

Becky Goodman — Sun, 20 Mar 2016 18:19:56 +0000

The injustices and horrors that were common place in the antebellum United States may live for some only as they are presented in history books but for others the lingering effects from slavery are felt in everyday life. So, how do we, as a nation, begin to undo the wrongs that were committed? Many argue that reparations would be an official way for white America to recognize their wrongs and allow for closure in the ...

Jordan Davis – Law and Implicit Prejudice

Chris Chaky — Mon, 17 Feb 2014 04:56:28 +0000

While what would have been Trayvon Martin’s birthday recently passed, a similar trial was finished in court – the trial of the murder of Jordan Davis. On November 23, 2012, Michael Dunn pulled into a gas station in Jacksonville, Florida. He saw a red SUV full of black teenagers playing loud music and walked up to them to complain. He thought he saw a gun being taken out, so he shot at the teenagers, killing ...

Racial Stereotypes and NYC’s “Stop and Frisk”

Chris Chaky — Mon, 03 Feb 2014 04:55:47 +0000

New York City Mayor Bill De Blasio recently followed through on his campaign promise to reform the city’s “Stop and Frisk” policy. “Stop and Frisk” is an NYPD program in which police stop a person and search him or her for weapons and drugs if they appear suspicious. In practice, people of color are stopped at a much higher rate than white people. Last year, a judge ruled that this policy was unconstitutional and that ...

The Majority vs. Minority vs. Other Minority Race (pun intended)

AmandaRG — Mon, 03 Feb 2014 02:24:45 +0000

A friend shared another blog with me recently, called Black Girl Dangerous, that I believe has a lot of posts and discussions related to this class. One post (the link is at the bottom) called “Broke on Broke Crime: On Black and Brown Living and Unity,” written by Kitzia Esteva-Martinez, discusses her personal experience being mugged at gun-point by three young boys in her neighborhood. Kitzia identifies as Latina and identified the three boys as Black in ...

President Obama and the Promotion of the American Dream

Annie — Mon, 03 Feb 2014 00:47:11 +0000

After our class pulled apart a speech that Obama gave before he was elected president in 2008, I knew that I wanted to pay extra special attention to his first State of the Union speech of the new year. The former speech had been constructed around comments made by Reverend Wright, the former pastor for Obama and his family. Reverend Wright made comments about the state of the country in terms of race, and how ...

America’s “monumental” problems

Lauren B. — Sun, 02 Feb 2014 20:12:52 +0000

In 2008 Obama had the opportunity to speak about race with the whole world listening. He had to walk the fine line of a politically correct statement, or getting at the heart of real racial issues in our country. “Reverend Wright’s comments were not only wrong but divisive, divisive at a time when we need unity; racially charged at a time when we need to come together to solve a set of monumental problems – ...

Voting Rights Act Struck Down by Supreme Court

Connie — Thu, 27 Jun 2013 15:11:15 +0000

While we celebrate the Supreme Court’s momentous decisions on DOMA and Prop 8, we must not overlook their decision on the Voting Rights Act. Read Mother Jones Story here: http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2013/06/supreme-court-voting-rights-act-decision What other facts and findings suggest we still need policy and laws like the Voting Rights Act?

White Backlash to Electing Black Politicians – Then & Now

Connie — Sun, 04 Nov 2012 20:01:23 +0000

This blog entry from CNN discusses how the first Black man to be elected to the U.S. Senate was met with a white backlash that “helped destroy Reconstruction” after the Civil War. It draws parallels between the white backlash then and the white backlash to electing Obama in 2008. What are your thoughts? Is is a reasonable comparison to make? The post quotes a history professor from Fordham who says we aren’t post-racial but we ...

Kony 2012: An Observer’s Perspective

nashkrod — Mon, 12 Mar 2012 17:14:51 +0000

As of right now, I have remained a sideline observer of the Kony 2012 initiative. I have read countless facebook status updates, tweets, and quite a few articles from everything from news sites to blogs on Invisible Children and the make Kony famous initiative. I have been apprehensive about deciding whether I am for or against Kony 2012 for a few reasons, most of which are about the racial issues about it. A few of ...

Playing It Safe

AbbeyRab — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 01:45:02 +0000

Coming into this course with previous experience in this topic, I assumed I would be prepared and conditioned to the material, at least in the beginning. However, this week I was really surprised when I found myself sinking into my old white-girl-ways. As we discussed Obama’s speech in class, in which he responded to Reverend Wright’s comment on racism in America, I sat quietly while other’s expressed Obama’s “chickening-out”. Although I completely agreed with this ...

The Revolution will not be televised

Fri, 16 Sep 2011 13:59:38 +0000

YouTube – The Revolution Will Not Be Televised – Gil Scott-Heron.

Reflection of Obama’s 03/18/2008 Speech

Tennille — Fri, 19 Aug 2011 05:52:38 +0000

In our last class, we went over a speech President Obama had made in 2008. One of the things he said really stuck out to me. “ For the African-American community, that path means embracing the burdens of our past without becoming victims of our past. It means continuing to insist on a full measure of justice in every aspect of American life. But it also means binding out particular grievances – for better health ...

Tar Baby

Connie — Tue, 02 Aug 2011 14:31:05 +0000

Did you know that “tar baby” is racially offensive? Have you ever heard the expression? Republican: Working with Obama Like Touching a Tar Baby | TPM LiveWire. People’s reactions (in the comments) are interesting, and a few explain more about the etiology of “tar baby.” Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah…

Where Do We Start?

Keith — Sun, 05 Jun 2011 16:58:10 +0000

During our class this Thursday we briefly touched on the impact of both laws and public opinion on human behavior with particular concern to attitudes about racial issues. In Rebecca Kook’s (1998) article The Shifting Status of African Americans in the American Collective Identity, she traces the development of the African-American identity in America through landmark events in our history driven almost entirely by public opinion. As her article makes painfully obvious, most positive progress, ...

Racism? What Racism?

Lexie — Mon, 28 Mar 2011 00:23:15 +0000

When I started reading an article for this class last week and realized that it was about Hurricane Katrina, I was confused. To be honest, I did not know that Hurricane Katrina had anything to do with race. The only negative things that I heard about Katrina (besides, of course, the terrible damage that it did) was that the government took a long time to respond. When I learned about the hurricane in school, the ...

Muslims in America

Jordan — Mon, 21 Mar 2011 02:35:29 +0000

http://english.ruvr.ru/2011/03/05/46966119.html I found this interview very interesting because it shows how Arab Muslims in the United States are the most recent group to be oppressed because of their social identities in a country which has a long history of doing that just that to many different groups. Dr. Bagby insightfully notes that while on paper American Muslims succeed in America, in reality they often face overt racism. He also calls on the American Muslim community ...