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Discussion of removal of confederate and Spanish colonial monuments features CSUSB history professor
KUCR Radio
The UC Riverside radio station posted an episode of its program, “DReport,” that featured Daisy Ocampo, CSUSB assistant professor of history, in which she discussed the removal of confederate and Spanish colonial monuments. Recent protests over racial injustice have included calls to remove such monuments from prominent public spaces, such as parks and government buildings.
Ocampo said that when she approaches public monuments from a historian’s perspective, she perceives them as statements of power. “It’s about who has the power of representation, of being able to fundraise – who has the financial capacities to erect monuments – and ultimately they’re making decisions about what histories are being remembered, but also what histories are being suppressed, and consequently erased.”
Listen to the entire episode at “Bringing down monuments to build up new histories.”
CSUSB professor provides historical context behind the use of Blackface
Byrdie
July 30, 2020
Marc A. Robinson, assistant professor of history at CSUSB, was interviewed for an article about the use of Blackface in entertainment, specifically related to a streaming service pulling an episode of the “Golden Girls” sitcom because two characters wore mud masks when they awkwardly met a Black family. Some felt the action was unnecessary.
The intent of Blackface is to degrade and humiliate Black people. Robinson, providing historical context, said, “This make up [Blackface] was commonly used as part of comedic performances that caricatured Black people. On the surface level then, the purpose of Blackface was to visually represent black people and entertain the mostly white audiences. But, on a deeper level, scholars argue that Blackface, as part of these comedies or ‘Minstrel Shows,’ reinforced beliefs of black inferiority and white supremacy.”
Read the complete article at “Blackface is more complex than Rose and Blanche’s mud masks.”
CSUSB report: Purchasing managers weigh in on ‘V’-shaped economic recovery
Inland News Today
Aug. 3, 2020
The monthly Purchasing Manager’s Index (PMI) issued Monday by the Institute of Applied Research at Cal State San Bernardino found “clearly our respondents do not agree with the relatively few economists who believe that a ‘V’ shaped recovery is likely.”
Thirty-eight percent of the purchasing managers who were surveyed believe that the economy will become even weaker in the coming quarter. Only 29% think it will be stronger over the next few months, and the remaining 33% think the economy will continue struggling.
“This month’s PMI has once again provided an indication of contraction in the Inland Empire manufacturing sector and overall economy,” said institute director, Barbara Sirotnik.
Read the complete article at “Purchasing managers weigh in on ‘V’-shaped economic recovery.”
CNN
Aug. 2, 2020
Brian Levin, director of the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at Cal State San Bernardino, was interviewed for an article that examined hate crimes against Latinos in the U.S. in the year following a mass shooting at a Walmart store in El Paso, Texas. Multiple attacks targeting Latinos and immigrants have taken place across the country, the report said.
Hate crimes targeting Latinos have increased every year since 2015, according to the 2018 FBI Hate Crime Statistics report, the latest data available.
In 2018, there were 485 incidents and 671 victims in anti-Hispanic or Latino incidents, compared with 427 incidents and 552 victims in the previous year, the agency's data shows. Comparing 2018 to 2015, when there were 299 incidents and 392 victims, the number of incidents rose 62%.
Levin attributes the increase to a national shift in focus from Muslims to Latinos. The FBI data in 2018 shows 270 incidents were reported against Muslims and Arab-Americans, the fewest since 2015.
In the past few months, more incidents involving Asians and Black people were reported than in the previous two years, Levin says, but it doesn't mean the anti-Latino sentiment is gone.
"We have ticking time bombs across the country and we don't know who they're going to hit exactly but we know who they hate," Levin said.
Phyllis Gerstenfeld, a professor and chair of the criminal justice department at California State University, Stanislaus, was also interviewed for the article.
Read the complete article at “Attacks against Latinos in the US didn't stop after El Paso mass shooting.”
A version of the article also appeared in the Latin Times, “Crimes against Latinos in the US have increased since El Paso shooting,” on Aug. 3.”
CNN also published a Spanish-language version, “Los ataques contra latinos en Estados Unidos no pararon después del tiroteo masivo de El Paso,” on Aug. 3
CSUSB professor discusses U.S. vow to force U.N. sanctions on Iran if arms embargo ends
Press TV
July 31, 2020
David Yaghoubian, CSUSB professor of history, was interviewed for a segment on the latest U.S. sanctions on Iran that include targeting metals that related to Iran’s nuclear, military and ballistic missile programs.
He also discussed the potential sunset of the arms embargo as specified in the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, the multi-lateral agreement regulating Iran’s nuclear program, in October. U.S. Secretary of State Michael Pompeo has said the United States would seek to force U.N. sanctions on Iran if the embargo lapses.
“Increasingly I think that Pompeo’s banal hyperbole, which we’re all very used to at this point, is more geared or aimed at ginning up a new cold war 2.0, specifically against China and Russia, rather than being necessarily about Iran,” Yaghoubian said. “It’s clear that the Trump administration’s ‘maximum pressure’ campaign has failed, that its claim it has legal room to maneuver around the JCPOA an U.N. Security Council Resolution 2231 is bogus.”
The Trump administration pulled the U.S. out of the JCPOA in May 2018, and imposed sanctions on Iran to force it back to the negotiating table, saying it wanted a better deal. China, France, Germany, Russia and the United Kingdom remain in the agreement.
Yaghoubian said this sets up a sort of showdown in October with the expiration of the arms embargo in which the United States will “paint Russia and China, specifically, as well as really the institution of the United Nations Security Council, as the spoiler, putting American security at risk,” along with its allies in the region – a notion which he called “a really bad joke.”
See the interview at “U.S. vows to force U.N. sanctions on Iran if arms embargo ends.”
These news clips and others may be viewed at “In the Headlines.”