Author: Noria Doyle

From pulpits to plantations: The moral imperialism of Wisconsin’s role in the annexation of Hawaii

On July 7, 1898, President William McKinley signed the Newlands Resolution, formally annexing the Hawaiian Islands into the United States. Widely criticized by Native Hawaiians and later condemned by the U.S. government itself in a 1993 congressional apology, the decision marked the end of an independent kingdom and the start of America’s imperial footprint in the Pacific. While often remembered as a clash between Pacific powers and Washington’s ambition, the road to annexation was not paved by East Coast statesmen alone. A midwestern state thousands of miles from the Pacific played a surprisingly formative role. Wisconsin exerted its influence...

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Excluded by design: America’s racial wealth gap exists because of laws to promote White prosperity

For generations, the United States has used federal policy not only to distribute land, property, and wealth, but to do so along racial lines. While the narrative of American meritocracy champions hard work and self-reliance, the historical record tells a different story: White Americans were repeatedly granted free or subsidized land, monetary benefits, and structural advantages through government action, often at the direct expense of Indigenous, Black, Mexican, and Asian communities. The economic divide that persists today is not the result of personal failure. It is the predictable outcome of decades of legalized racial preference. Long before the founding...

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Wallace in Wisconsin: The 1964 campaign that tested America’s soul over the politics of identity

In April 1964, Alabama Governor George Wallace entered the Wisconsin Democratic presidential primary as a defiant challenger to the mainstream liberal consensus. Known nationally for his opposition to desegregation and federal civil rights mandates, Wallace used Wisconsin as a political laboratory to test whether his hardline message, rooted in states’ rights, anti-federalism, and White backlash, could resonate outside the South. His surprising success shocked the national Democratic Party and exposed emerging cracks in the New Deal coalition. Wallace’s decision to campaign in Wisconsin appeared quixotic at first. He had no local organization, no endorsements, and faced an electorate far...

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How Plessy v. Ferguson sparked early civil rights activism from Milwaukee’s Black community in 1896

In the summer of 1896, African American communities across the United States mounted a broad and determined response to the Supreme Court’s ruling in Plessy v. Ferguson, handed down weeks earlier in May. While the decision effectively legalized racial segregation under the doctrine of “separate but equal,” it also triggered the earliest wave of coordinated Black civic resistance following the end of Reconstruction. Often overshadowed by later national civil rights efforts, the post-Plessy mobilizations that began in Northern cities such as Milwaukee, Chicago, and Boston represented a decisive turn toward organized protest against the consolidation of Jim Crow laws....

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¿Qué le debemos al futuro? Nuestra urgente responsabilidad moral de proteger a las generaciones venideras

¿Qué le debemos a las generaciones futuras? La pregunta sobre lo que la humanidad debe a quienes aún no han nacido ya no es un debate teórico. Es un imperativo moral urgente e ineludible. A medida que el mundo moderno enfrenta amenazas existenciales que van desde el cambio climático hasta pandemias provocadas por ingeniería biológica, queda cada vez más claro que las decisiones que tomemos hoy determinarán el destino de miles de millones de personas que aún no han nacido. Ya no hay espacio para la complacencia. Las generaciones futuras no son observadores pasivos de nuestras acciones, son los...

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La Iglesia Episcopal se niega a ayudar en la reubicación de los falsos refugiados blancos sudafricanos promovidos por Trump

La Iglesia Episcopal ha trazado una línea firme contra el programa acelerado del régimen de Trump para reubicar a sudafricanos blancos, condenando la iniciativa como una traición a los principios estadounidenses sobre refugiados y una peligrosa politización de la identidad racial. En una ruptura con décadas de colaboración, la iglesia anunció que se retirará de sus subvenciones federales para reasentamiento de refugiados antes que participar en lo que describió como una campaña selectiva por motivos raciales y éticamente indefendible. El obispo presidente Sean Rowe anunció la decisión el 12 de mayo, horas antes de que aterrizara en el Aeropuerto...

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