Time to Kill the Zombie Argument

Writing in The Intercept, Medhi Hasan contends it is time to cease the often-repeated narrative that Donald Trump secured his presidential victory because of to the economic concerns of white, working-class Americans. Pointing to the prevalence of this theory on both the right and the left, Hasan argues it was cultural anxiety and fears of displacement that mobilized many of these Trump voters. Hassan quotes from a May 2017 story by The Atlantic’s Emma Green that analyzed PRRI data. Green writes, “Evidence suggests financially troubled voters in the white working class were more likely to prefer Clinton over Trump. Besides partisan affiliation, it was cultural anxiety—feeling like a stranger in America, supporting the deportation of immigrants, and hesitating about educational investment—that best-predicted support for Trump.”

White Evangelicals Rally Behind Republicans for 2018 Midterms

Evangelical voters, backed by non-profits like the Faith and Freedom Coalition, are ready to back Republican candidates in the 2018 midterm elections. The Coalition, a conservative evangelical group that invested heavily in the 2016 elections, has launched an $18 million campaign to target congressional, Senate and governor’s races in 19 states, according to PBS NewsHour. The non-profit aims to mobilize evangelical voters on issues that matter to them, such as abortion, religious freedom, and conservative judicial appointments. As found this summer in a PRRI survey, 73 percent of white evangelical Protestants hold a favorable view of the president. Trump’s support among those evangelicals had steadily increased since the early fall of 2016 when 61 percent of white evangelicals viewed Trump favorably. In late 2017, PRRI found that 30 percent of white evangelicals approved of Trump’s job performance and said there was virtually nothing he could do to change their minds about him. PRRI CEO Robert P. Jones PhD, who was quoted in PBS NewsHour, argued that evangelicals’ support of President Trump is “part of their DNA at this point.”

An Attempt to Address Institutional Racial Bias

Jay Coen Gilbert, co-founder of B Lab, a non-profit, wrote a piece in Forbes on becoming aware of his own unintentional biases within his company. Gilbert points out an internal survey found that only 57 percent of the organization’s staff who are people of color feel comfortable “bringing their whole selves to work” while among white co-workers that number is 96 percent. The author speaks to socially segregated social networks that tend to exist within organizations. Making reference to PRRI polling to reinforce his point, he argues, “according to research by PRRI 5 percent of white people do not have a significant relationship with a person or family of color. As a result, building racially heterogeneous teams and cultures requires commitment to get out of our comfortable networks and patterns of behavior.”

Denise Mueller-Korenek Breaks the Bicycle Speed Record

Last Sunday, Mueller Korenek made history when she rode a bicycle at

approximately 184 mph. Riding a specially equipped bike that was hitched to a race car, she accelerated to 100 mph, allowing her to access the bike’s gear system and turn over the cranks. Unfastening the bike from the car, she was able to pedal as fast as she could. “It’s like a dance. Behind the fairing, I’m constantly adjusting, floating forward and floating back. Shea [driver] is doing her own dance, accelerating and decelerating so she doesn’t drop me as I’m floating back or have me hit the car as I’m coming forward. She has to match my stride.”

Muslims Commemorate the Day of Ashura

On Thursday, Muslims around the world began observing the Day of Ashura, a sunset to sunset period of remembrance. According to the BBC, “It is marked by Muslims with a voluntary day of fasting which commemorates the day Noah left the Ark, and the day that Moses was saved from the Egyptians by God.” Though many Muslims observe Ashura in some capacity, it is considered a more prominent day for Shia Muslims who mourn the death of Imam Hussein, grandson of the Prophet Muhammad.