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Going Hyperlocal, Filmmakers Explore the Pain of Racism

Cara Buckley New York Times
A year after racial discontent neared levels not seen since the Rodney King beating case, the country finds itself convulsed by controversies over neo-Nazis emboldened by Donald Trump’s rise to power. Now, a burst of new films, many of them documentaries, are taking a deep look beyond the headlines at the lasting impact that racial schisms and racism have on Americans’ everyday lives.

'Of Men, Not Law': To Make America Hate Again

William Cohn Common Dreams
To pardon a public official who refuses to obey the law (especially a direct court order) is to give the finger to the judiciary, and thus our constitutional order. It encourages further lawlessness. It unleashes bias, hate, vigilantism, mob rule. And it hits where the rubber meets the street.

Fascism, American Style

Paul Krugman New York Times
Let’s call things by their proper names here. Arpaio is, of course, a white supremacist. But he’s more than that. There’s a word for political regimes that round up members of minority groups and send them to concentration camps, while rejecting the rule of law: What Arpaio brought to Maricopa, and what the president of the United States has just endorsed, was fascism, American style.

Why Men Don’t Believe the Data on Gender Bias in Science

Alison Coil Wired
While sexual harassment is certainly an issue, we need to look deeper at gender bias. Women who do make it to the upper ranks have often been told that they were only given that job or that award because they are women, implying that the field is admitting less-deserving women simply to increase their numbers. In fact, these studies show that many of the women in science must be more capable than the men, to even have advanced in the field. And who wants to admit that?