Author: TheConversation

By Terry Shoemaker, Lecturer, School of Historical, Philosophical and Religious Studies, Arizona State University Since the 1970s, White American evangelicals, a large subsection of Protestants who hold to a literal reading of the Bible, have often managed to get specific privileges through their political engagement primarily through supporting the Republican Party. In the 1980s, President Ronald Reagan symbolically consolidated the alliance by bringing religious freedom and morality into public conversations that questioned the separation of church and state. In 2003, President George W. Bush signed the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act into law. In October 2020, President Donald Trump appointed...

By Ravi Sen, Associate Professor of Information and Operations Management, Texas A&M University Data breaches have become common, and billions of records are stolen worldwide every year. Most of the media coverage of data breaches tends to focus on how the breach happened, how many records were stolen and the financial and legal impact of the incident for organizations and individuals affected by the breach. But what happens to the data that is stolen during these incidents? As a cybersecurity researcher, I track data breaches and the black market in stolen data. The destination of stolen data depends on...

By Chris Lamb, Professor of Journalism, IUPUI An audacious Black heavyweight champion was slated to defend his title against a White boxer in Reno, Nevada, on July 4, 1910. It was billed as “the fight of the century.” The fight was seen as a referendum on racial superiority – and all hell was about to break loose in the racially divided United States. Jack Johnson, the Black man, decisively beat James Jeffries, nicknamed “the Great White Hope.” Johnson’s triumph ignited bloody confrontations and violence between Blacks and Whites throughout the country, leaving perhaps two dozen dead, almost all of...

By David W. Stowe, Professor of English and Religious Studies, Michigan State University On the anniversary of America’s independence, the abolitionist leader Frederick Douglass made the opening line of Psalm 137, “By the Rivers of Babylon,” a centerpiece of his most famous speech, “What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?” Douglass told the audience at Corinthian Hall in Rochester, New York, on July 5, 1852, that for a free black like himself, being expected to celebrate American independence was akin to the Judean captives being mockingly coerced to perform songs in praise of Jerusalem. Not only did...

By Jay L. Zagorsky, Economist and Research Scientist, The Ohio State University In the eyes of many Americans, the Fourth of July is a day for parades, barbecue and, of course, fireworks. The tradition got its start at the beginning of our nation’s history after the Founding Fathers met in Philadelphia to write and sign the Declaration of Independence. A day after the Continental Congress adopted the declaration on July 4, 1776, John Adams – soon the second U.S. president – penned a latter to his wife Abigail, declaring that Independence Day “ought to be solemnized with pomp and...