tag:theconversation.com,2011:/fr/topics/new-york-city-31154/articlesNew York City – The Conversation2024-03-14T12:43:43Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2196872024-03-14T12:43:43Z2024-03-14T12:43:43ZCity mouse or country mouse? I collect mice from Philly homes to study how they got so good at urban living<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/576250/original/file-20240216-24-90lbyl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">European colonizers brought mice to the Americas, where they squeaked out a comfortable life.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/mouse-peeking-out-of-the-hole-royalty-free-image/525023427">Dejan Kolar/iStock Collection via Getty Images Plus</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Dusty barns, gleaming stables and damp basements. These are all places where you might find a house mouse – or a member of my research team. </p>
<p>I’m an <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=DMxMLmwAAAAJ&hl=en">evolutionary biologist</a>, and my lab at Drexel University studies wild house mice. With help from Philly residents, we are collecting mice from high-rises and row homes to learn more about the impacts of city living on house mice. In short, we want to know whether there is any scientific basis to <a href="https://sites.pitt.edu/%7Edash/type0112.html#aesop">“The Town Mouse and the Country Mouse” fable</a> in which the cousins eat differently based on where they live.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.npr.org/2023/07/26/1190071137/its-hot-out-there-a-new-analysis-shows-its-much-worse-if-youre-in-a-city">Cities are hotter</a> and they have a lot of people living in high densities, which means more trash and usually more pollution. This can affect how <a href="https://www.doi.org/10.1126/science.aam8327">species that live in cities evolve</a>. Cities are also dominated by artificial habitats such as sidewalks, high-rises and subways rather than open fields and forests. </p>
<p>We are interested in many possible changes, but especially in whether the many differences between urban and rural environments translate into genetic differences between city mice and country mice, such as which versions of genes related to metabolism are more common. </p>
<p>To find the answers, we sequence the mice’s genomes. With that data, we can answer a variety of questions, such as: Are city mice more or less genetically diverse than country mice? Are there regions of DNA, the molecule that encodes genetic information, that are consistently different between urban and rural mice? If so, what are the functions of genes in those regions? </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/579697/original/file-20240304-16-fd7au7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="An illustration of two mice from a translation of Aesop's Fables published in 1912." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/579697/original/file-20240304-16-fd7au7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/579697/original/file-20240304-16-fd7au7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=410&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/579697/original/file-20240304-16-fd7au7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=410&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/579697/original/file-20240304-16-fd7au7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=410&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/579697/original/file-20240304-16-fd7au7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=516&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/579697/original/file-20240304-16-fd7au7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=516&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/579697/original/file-20240304-16-fd7au7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=516&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Just how different are city mice and country mice? Researchers are studying their guts and genes to find out.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Rackham_town_mouse_and_country_mouse.jpg">Arthur Rackham, public domain via Wikimedia Commons</a></span>
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<h2>Why study house mice?</h2>
<p>One reason we study house mice is because they are so widespread. European colonizers <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/g3journal/jkac332">brought house mice to the Americas</a> around 500 years ago. The rodents have now spread into many different climates and habitats across North and South America in most places that humans live, including Philadelphia. </p>
<p>Though small in size, house mice have made immeasurable <a href="https://shop.elsevier.com/books/the-mouse-in-biomedical-research/fox/978-0-12-369456-0">contributions to genetics and medicine</a>. They are mammals like humans, but house mice reproduce quickly and are relatively easy to breed and maintain. In fact, part of why scientists adopted mice early on as a model system is because people were already breeding “<a href="https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.05959">fancy mice</a>” as pets. As a result, methods for keeping and breeding them were known.</p>
<p>Mice have many visible traits for geneticists to study. My team wants to know more about the genes and traits that have contributed to their ability to thrive in a variety of environments. The work we do with wild house mice also feeds back into work with laboratory mice and biomedical research. The house mice found in attics and cabinets are the same species that are studied in labs, but they are <a href="http://doi.org/10.1038/ng.847">more genetically diverse</a> than laboratory strains. Our project will generate whole genome sequences from many wild mice, and that data can help scientists who study traits and diseases. </p>
<h2>Tips for catching mice</h2>
<p>I previously worked on a large project studying <a href="https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pgen.1007672">how house mice have adapted to different climates</a> in the Americas. For that project, I went to many, many farms throughout the eastern United States and became very good at catching mice in barns. </p>
<p>Starting this project with a focus on cities was a new challenge. First, our team had to find Philly residents who wanted us to trap their mice. We spent a lot of time spreading the word on social media, talking to friends and posting flyers. </p>
<p>We talked to many Philadelphians who were frustrated with trying to rid their homes of mice. Some had videos of house mice avoiding the traps they had set or stealing the bait and running away. We share this frustration and feel it keenly. In some cases, it took us many days to catch a single mouse in an apartment.</p>
<p>Part of the reason is because many Philadelphia houses are old. This means they are often full of character – and holes that give mice great places to hide. Luring the mice out of their nests and into our traps is difficult. We had the most success with peanut butter bait, which has a strong and very appealing odor for mice. But mice are omnivores, eating a diverse diet that includes insects. We have heard many stories from community members who used bait such as chocolate, cereal, cookies and even bacon bits. </p>
<h2>What’s next</h2>
<p>We hope to start sharing results over the next two years. We are working in three cities – Philadelphia, New York City and Richmond, Virginia – and have completed our first collections. Now we need to generate and analyze genetic data, so we are very busy in the lab. </p>
<p>We are extracting DNA, as well as another form of genetic material called RNA, from different tissues. With the DNA we will study how much genetic variation exists within city mouse populations, and whether there are genetic differences between urban and rural mice. The RNA will help us understand how differences in DNA translate into differences in metabolism, physiology and other cellular processes. </p>
<p>We will also look to see whether there are differences in traits. For example, we will measure their skulls and skeletons. We will sequence the DNA of the microbes in their digestive system to learn about their gut microbiomes, the collection of bacteria that live in their digestive system, and use <a href="https://www.futurelearn.com/info/courses/archaeology/0/steps/15267">stable isotope analysis</a> to identify any differences in their diets. Stable isotope analysis of diet uses the ratios of naturally occurring atoms of elements such as carbon and nitrogen to determine what types of food an organism has eaten.</p>
<p>Cities are full of wildlife. Learning about how cities shape the evolution of mice may help us find better ways to manage mouse populations and other urban wildlife while also better understanding evolution.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/219687/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Megan Phifer-Rixey receives funding from the National Science Foundation (NSF CAREER 2332998 Division of Environmental Biology).
</span></em></p>An evolutionary biologist is studying what these resilient urban pests can teach us about adaptation and evolution.Megan Phifer-Rixey, Assistant Professor of Biology, Drexel UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2222472024-03-13T12:45:24Z2024-03-13T12:45:24ZBuyouts can bring relief from medical debt, but they’re far from a cure<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/577693/original/file-20240223-20-aiwmsy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C15%2C5145%2C3462&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Medical debt can have devastating consequences.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/stethscope-on-pile-of-us-banknotes-royalty-free-image/153349316">PhotoAlto/Odilon Dimier via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><a href="https://www.kff.org/health-costs/press-release/1-in-10-adults-owe-medical-debt-with-millions-owing-more-than-10000/#:%7E:text=Americans%20Likely%20Owe%20Hundreds%20of,who%20owe%20more%20than%20%2410%2C000.">One in 10 Americans</a> carry medical debt, while <a href="https://www.commonwealthfund.org/publications/issue-briefs/2022/sep/state-us-health-insurance-2022-biennial-survey">2 in 5</a> are underinsured and at risk of not being able to pay their medical bills.</p>
<p><a href="https://doi.org/10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2022.31898">This burden</a> <a href="https://www.commonwealthfund.org/publications/podcast/2023/oct/how-medical-debt-makes-people-sicker-what-we-can-do-about-it">crushes millions</a> <a href="https://doi.org/10.1377/hlthaff.2023.00604">of families</a> under mounting bills and contributes to the <a href="http://doi.org/10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2022.31898">widening gap</a> between rich and poor. </p>
<p>Some relief has come with a wave of debt buyouts by <a href="https://fortune.com/2023/03/10/local-communities-are-buying-medical-debt-for-pennies-on-the-dollar-and-freeing-american-families-from-the-threat-of-bankruptcy/">county and city governments</a>, <a href="https://apnews.com/article/business-georgia-nonprofits-2a5c3afc4a646d489242bd99eb6652fc">charities</a> and even <a href="https://www.wmdt.com/2024/01/chick-fil-a-pays-medical-debt-on-delmarva/">fast-food restaurants</a> that pay pennies on the dollar to clear enormous balances. But as a <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=cGZVMkoAAAAJ&hl=en">health policy and economics researcher</a> who studies out-of-pocket medical expenses, I think these buyouts are only a partial solution.</p>
<h2>A quick fix that works</h2>
<p>Over the past 10 years, the nonprofit <a href="https://ripmedicaldebt.org/">RIP Medical Debt</a> has emerged as the leader in making buyouts happen, using <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/03/01/us/medical-debt-campaigns-give-back-trnd/index.html">crowdfunding campaigns</a>, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/jun/06/john-oliver-medical-debt-forgiveness-last-week-tonight">celebrity engagement</a>, and partnerships in the private and public sectors. It connects charitable buyers with hospitals and debt collection companies to arrange the sale and erasure of large bundles of debt. </p>
<p>The buyouts focus on low-income households and those with extreme debt burdens. You can’t sign up to have debt wiped away; you just get notified if you’re one of the lucky ones included in a bundle that’s bought off. In 2020, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services <a href="https://revcycleintelligence.com/news/hospitals-can-sell-patient-bad-debt-to-charitable-orgs-oig-says">reviewed this strategy</a> and determined it didn’t violate anti-kickback statutes, which reassured hospitals and collectors that they wouldn’t get in legal trouble partnering with RIP Medical Debt. </p>
<p>Buying a bundle of debt saddling low-income families can be a bargain. Hospitals and collection agencies are typically <a href="https://www.wbur.org/onpoint/2023/09/21/buy-and-sell-medical-debt-health-care">willing to sell</a> the debt for <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2019/08/medical-bill-debt-collection/596914/">steep discounts</a>, even <a href="https://fortune.com/2023/03/10/local-communities-are-buying-medical-debt-for-pennies-on-the-dollar-and-freeing-american-families-from-the-threat-of-bankruptcy/">pennies on the dollar</a>. That’s a great return on investment for philanthropists looking to make a big social impact.</p>
<p>And it’s not just charities pitching in. <a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2024/01/23/1225014618/nyc-joins-a-growing-wave-of-local-governments-erasing-residents-medical-debt">Local governments</a> across the country, from <a href="https://arpa.cookcountyil.gov/medical-debt-relief-initiative">Cook County, Illinois</a>, to <a href="https://www.axios.com/local/new-orleans/2023/05/23/new-orleans-medical-debt-forgiveness">New Orleans</a>, have been directing <a href="https://apnews.com/article/health-care-costs-boston-toledo-e423c64c1322bc8e4254b7a70b1da50c">sizable public funds</a> toward this cause. <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2024/01/22/nyregion/medical-debt-forgiveness.html">New York City</a> recently announced plans to buy off the medical debt for half a million residents, at a cost of US$18 million. That would be the largest public buyout on record, although Los Angeles County may trump New York if it <a href="https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2023-10-04/la-county-buy-forgive-medical-debt-how-work">carries out its proposal</a> <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/losangeles/news/la-county-considering-plan-to-erase-medical-debt-for-residents/">to spend</a> $24 million to help 810,000 residents erase their debt.</p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">HBO’s John Oliver has collaborated with RIP Medical Debt.</span></figcaption>
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<p>Nationally, RIP Medical Debt has helped clear more than <a href="https://ripmedicaldebt.org/about/">$10 billion</a> in debt over the past decade. That’s a huge number, but a small fraction of the estimated <a href="https://www.kff.org/health-costs/issue-brief/the-burden-of-medical-debt-in-the-united-states/">$220 billion</a> in medical debt out there. Ultimately, prevention would be better than cure.</p>
<h2>Preventing medical debt is trickier</h2>
<p>Medical debt has been a persistent <a href="https://files.consumerfinance.gov/f/documents/cfpb_medical-debt-burden-in-the-united-states_report_2022-03.pdf">problem over the past decade</a> even after the reforms of the 2010 Affordable Care Act <a href="http://doi.org/10.1056/NEJMsr1406753">increased</a> <a href="http://doi.org/doi:10.1001/jama.307.9.913">insurance</a> <a href="http://doi.org/doi:10.1001/jama.2015.8421">coverage</a> and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1353/hpu.2020.0031">made a dent</a> in debt, especially in states that <a href="http://doi.org/10.3386/w22170">expanded</a> <a href="http://doi.org/10.1001/jama.2021.8694/">Medicaid</a>. A recent <a href="https://www.commonwealthfund.org/publications/issue-briefs/2022/sep/state-us-health-insurance-2022-biennial-survey">national survey by the Commonwealth Fund</a> found that 43% of Americans lacked adequate insurance in 2022, which puts them at risk of taking on medical debt. </p>
<p>Unfortunately, it’s incredibly difficult to close coverage gaps in the patchwork American insurance system, which ties eligibility to employment, income, age, family size and location – all things that can change over time. But even in the absence of a total overhaul, there are several policy proposals that could keep the medical debt problem from getting worse.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.urban.org/sites/default/files/2022-06/Which%20County%20Characteristics%20Predict%20Medical%20Debt.pdf">Medicaid expansion</a> has been shown to reduce uninsurance, underinsurance and medical debt. Unfortunately, insurance gaps are likely to get worse in the coming year, as states <a href="https://www.kff.org/medicaid/issue-brief/10-things-to-know-about-the-unwinding-of-the-medicaid-continuous-enrollment-provision/">unwind their pandemic-era Medicaid rules</a>, leaving millions without coverage. Bolstering Medicaid access in the <a href="https://www.kff.org/medicaid/issue-brief/status-of-state-medicaid-expansion-decisions-interactive-map/">10 states</a> that haven’t yet expanded the program could go a long way.</p>
<p>Once patients have a medical bill in hand that they can’t afford, it can be tricky to navigate financial aid and payment options. Some states, like <a href="https://medicaldebtpolicyscorecard.org/state/MD">Maryland</a> and <a href="https://medicaldebtpolicyscorecard.org/state/CA">California</a>, are <a href="https://doi.org/10.1001/jama.2021.23061">ahead of the curve</a> <a href="https://medicaldebtpolicyscorecard.org/">with policies</a> that make it easier for patients to access aid and that rein in the use of liens, lawsuits and other aggressive collections tactics. More states could follow suit.</p>
<p>Another major factor driving underinsurance is <a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2022/06/16/1104679219/medical-bills-debt-investigation#:%7E:text=For%20many%20Americans%2C%20the%20combination,slightly%20lower%20than%20the%20uninsured.">rising out-of-pocket costs</a> – like high deductibles – for those with private insurance. This is especially a concern for <a href="https://www.chiamass.gov/assets/docs/r/pubs/2020/High-Deductable-Health-Plans-CHIA-Research-Brief.pdf">low-wage</a> <a href="https://www.ajmc.com/view/financial-burden-of-healthcare-utilization-in-consumer-directed-health-plans">workers</a> who live paycheck to paycheck. More than half of large employers believe their employees <a href="https://www.kff.org/report-section/ehbs-2023-summary-of-findings/#:%7E:text=As%20noted%20above%2C%2025%25%20of,a%20moderate%20level%20of%20concern">have concerns</a> about their ability to afford medical care.</p>
<p>Lowering deductibles and out-of-pocket maximums could protect patients from accumulating debt, since it would lower the total amount they could incur in a given time period. But if the current system otherwise stayed the same, then premiums would have to rise to offset the reduction in out-of-pocket payments. Higher premiums would transfer costs across everyone in the insurance pool and make enrolling in insurance unreachable for some – which doesn’t solve the underinsurance problem.</p>
<p>Reducing out-of-pocket liability without inflating premiums would only be possible if the overall cost of health care drops. Fortunately, there’s room to reduce waste. Americans <a href="https://www.pgpf.org/blog/2023/07/why-are-americans-paying-more-for-healthcare">spend more on health care</a> than people in other wealthy countries do, and arguably get less for their money. <a href="http://doi.org/doi:10.1001/jama.2019.13978">More than a quarter</a> of health spending is on <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/articles/reducing-administrative-costs-in-u-s-health-care/#:%7E:text=Cutler%20proposes%20several%20reforms%20to,in%20the%20health%2Dcare%20system.">administrative</a> <a href="http://doi.org/10.1111/1475-6773.13649">costs</a>, and the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1377/hlthaff.2018.05144">high prices</a> Americans pay don’t necessarily translate into <a href="https://www.doi.org/10.1001/jama.2019.13978">high-value care</a>. That’s why some states like <a href="https://www.milbank.org/publications/the-massachusetts-health-care-cost-growth-benchmark-and-accountability-mechanisms-stakeholder-perspectives/">Massachusetts</a> and <a href="https://hcai.ca.gov/get-the-facts-about-the-office-of-health-care-affordability/">California</a> are experimenting with <a href="https://www.chcf.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/HealthCareCostCommissionstatesAddressCostGrowth.pdf">cost growth limits</a>.</p>
<h2>Momentum toward policy change</h2>
<p>The growing number of city and county governments buying off medical debt signals that local leaders view medical debt as a problem worth solving. Congress has passed substantial <a href="https://www.cms.gov/priorities/key-initiatives/hospital-price-transparency">price transparency laws</a> and prohibited <a href="https://www.cms.gov/nosurprises">surprise medical billing</a> in recent years. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is <a href="https://www.consumerfinance.gov/about-us/newsroom/cfpb-kicks-off-rulemaking-to-remove-medical-bills-from-credit-reports/">exploring rule changes</a> for medical debt collections and reporting, and national credit bureaus have <a href="https://www.urban.org/urban-wire/medical-debt-was-erased-credit-records-most-consumers-potentially-improving-many">voluntarily removed</a> some medical debt from credit reports to limit its impact on people’s approval for loans, leases and jobs. </p>
<p>These recent actions show that leaders at all levels of government want to end medical debt. I think that’s a good sign. After all, recognizing a problem is the first step toward meaningful change.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/222247/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Erin Duffy receives funding from Arnold Ventures. </span></em></p>Local governments are increasingly buying – and forgiving – their residents’ medical debt.Erin Duffy, Research Scientist, University of Southern CaliforniaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2225882024-02-27T19:40:15Z2024-02-27T19:40:15ZBetty Smith enchanted a generation of readers with ‘A Tree Grows in Brooklyn’ − even as she groused that she hoped Williamsburg would be flattened<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/577625/original/file-20240223-28-ht6czh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=11%2C11%2C3691%2C2714&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Betty Smith's novel sold millions of copies in the 1940s.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/group-of-young-women-smile-as-they-crowd-around-another-who-news-photo/119076541?adppopup=true">Weegee/International Center of Photography via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Eighty years ago, in the winter and spring of 1944, Brooklyn-born author <a href="https://www.ncpedia.org/biography/smith-betty">Betty Smith</a> was entering a new chapter of life.</p>
<p>A year earlier, she was an unknown writer, negotiating with her publisher about manuscript edits and the date of publication for her first book, “<a href="https://archive.org/stream/ATreeGrowsInBrooklynByBettySmith/A+Tree+Grows+In+Brooklyn+by+Betty+Smith_djvu.txt">A Tree Grows in Brooklyn</a>,” a semi-autobiographical novel about the poor but spirited Nolan family. </p>
<p>Now she was one of the lucky few. Her book was spotted in cafes, on buses and in bookstores all over town. The following year, <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0038190/">when it was being made into a film</a> directed by Elia Kazan, <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=H1MEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA43&dq=A+Tree+Grows+in+Brooklyn&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwj25depp-CDAxXiSTABHYd3C6YQ6AF6BAgKEAI#v=onepage&q=A%20Tree%20Grows%20in%20Brooklyn&f=false">Life magazine reported</a>, “Betty Smith’s ‘A Tree Grows in Brooklyn’ (2,500,000 copies sold) has become one of the best-loved novels of our time.”</p>
<p>New York in the 1940s was not the city we know today. The Empire State Building had not reached its <a href="https://www.esbnyc.com/about/history">full height</a>, nor had the statue of <a href="https://www.centralpark.com/things-to-do/attractions/alice-in-wonderland/">“Alice in Wonderland” taken up residence in Central Park</a>. And it would be decades before anyone was humming along to a tune that brashly commanded, “Start spreadin’ the news, I’m leavin’ today, I want to be a part of it: New York, New York!” </p>
<p>Brooklyn, too, was still becoming itself – and no other 20th-century American novel did quite so much for the borough’s reputation.</p>
<h2>Readers fall for Brooklyn</h2>
<p>During World War II, writes law professor <a href="https://www.harpercollins.com/products/when-books-went-to-war-molly-guptill-manning">Molly Guptill Manning</a>, “A Tree Grows in Brooklyn” was one of the most popular books among the Armed Services Editions, which were mass-produced paperbacks selected by a panel of literary experts for distribution to the U.S. military during World War II. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Green horizontal copy of 'A Tree Grows in Brooklyn' with creases along the cover." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/577644/original/file-20240223-28-x187bq.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/577644/original/file-20240223-28-x187bq.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=414&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/577644/original/file-20240223-28-x187bq.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=414&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/577644/original/file-20240223-28-x187bq.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=414&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/577644/original/file-20240223-28-x187bq.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=520&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/577644/original/file-20240223-28-x187bq.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=520&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/577644/original/file-20240223-28-x187bq.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=520&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Armed Services Edition of ‘A Tree Grows in Brooklyn.’</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://blogs.lib.unc.edu/ncm/wp-content/uploads/sites/6/2017/03/A-Tree-Grows-in-Brooklyn-ASE.jpg">UNC Libraries</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>It seemed like everyone wanted to declare some affiliation with the novel-turned-film and, by extension, with Brooklyn. Even readers who had never set foot in the borough nonetheless found themselves enchanted by it through Smith’s portrayal. </p>
<p>As one reader wrote to Smith, “Raised as a ‘rebel of the old South,’ Brooklyn has long been my symbol of all yankee, thus learning to hate it; but now I have learned to love it through Francie’s eyes … as Francie loved it.”</p>
<p>Advertisers also took note, riffing on Smith’s title with tags such as, “<a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=SlMEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA8&dq=A+Tree+Grows+in+Brooklyn&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjgn8vbp-CDAxU6RDABHX3uAF44ChDoAXoECAkQAg#v=onepage&q=A%20Tree%20Grows%20in%20Brooklyn&f=false">A Dress Grows on Peggy</a>,” or Rheingold extra dry lager – the “beer that grows in Brooklyn.”</p>
<h2>Poverty loses its sheen of shame</h2>
<p>Meanwhile, readers who had grown up in the borough responded enthusiastically to Smith’s evocations of their favorite neighborhood haunts, writing to her to share their own memories of the shops and streets that she had included in the novel. </p>
<p>“A Tree Grows in Brooklyn” had done something remarkable for them: It removed the veil of shame that surrounded tenement living and, as historian Judith E. Smith has written, <a href="https://cup.columbia.edu/book/visions-of-belonging/9780231121712">helped them reclaim their humble origins</a>.</p>
<p>And not just reclaim them. The novel affirmed the desire to move beyond poverty, as the protagonist, Francie, had done, and Betty Smith, too.</p>
<p>Francie’s wanderings through Brooklyn lead to her discovery of a more inviting public school than her own. With her father’s help, she manages to enroll in the school, which is better funded but farther from home. Despite the extra-long schlep, Francie sees it as “a good thing” to have found this new school: “It showed her that there were other worlds beside the world she had been born into and that these other worlds were not unattainable.” </p>
<p>It was a feeling that people of many backgrounds could understand, and not just in Brooklyn. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Red and white brick apartment buildings in Brooklyn." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/577637/original/file-20240223-16-quqvex.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/577637/original/file-20240223-16-quqvex.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/577637/original/file-20240223-16-quqvex.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/577637/original/file-20240223-16-quqvex.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/577637/original/file-20240223-16-quqvex.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/577637/original/file-20240223-16-quqvex.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/577637/original/file-20240223-16-quqvex.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">702 Grand Street in Williamsburg, where Smith spent part of her childhood and which served as the setting for ‘A Tree Grows in Brooklyn,’ pictured in 2020.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.compass.com/listing/702-grand-street-brooklyn-ny-11211/265170627315403233/">Compass Real Estate</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Smith certainly understood the importance of broadening her horizons: Although she never finished high school, when her marriage to a University of Michigan graduate student brought her to Ann Arbor, she was able to audit classes as a special student.</p>
<p>There, her work for her playwriting classes led to a prestigious playwriting prize, and then an invitation to study at Yale School of Drama. Divorced at that point, Smith was free to pursue her education in theater at Yale. The theme of self-improvement through education made “A Tree Grows” relatable for readers of modest origins.</p>
<p>Readers were quick to see the novel as a paean to Brooklyn, and often sought to bond with Smith over their presumed shared love of Brooklyn.</p>
<p>“I hope you will give us further stories of the Brooklyn which you know, and, I am sure, love so well,” wrote one reader. </p>
<p>“Some day, if you have time, it might be fun to chew the fat a bit about old Williamsburgh (sic),” journalist Meyer Berger wrote to Smith after reading and reviewing her novel. </p>
<p>“Betty Smith obviously loves Brooklyn and is proud of it,” Orville Prescott declared in his <a href="https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1943/08/18/issue.html">glowing New York Times review</a>.</p>
<h2>Smith scorns the borough’s new arrivals</h2>
<p>But did Betty Smith love Brooklyn? </p>
<p>After all, she wrote the novel while living in Chapel Hill, North Carolina – years after having moved away from New York. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.bkmag.com/2021/08/20/priced-out-the-2020-census-throws-brooklyns-affordable-housing-crisis-into-relief/">Like so many who leave Brooklyn today</a>, Smith did not return to take up residence, in part because she could not afford to live there on her own. By the time she had earned a windfall from “A Tree Grows in Brooklyn,” she had come to love Chapel Hill.</p>
<p>Smith also left Brooklyn with mixed feelings about her hometown. <a href="https://cup.columbia.edu/book/visions-of-belonging/9780231121712">She wrote to her publishers in 1942</a>, “If Hitler’s bombers should ever get over and if any portion of this great city has to be wiped out, it would be a blessing if it were (Williamsburg).” </p>
<p>“Evil seems to be part of the very materials that the sidewalks are made out of and the wood and the brick of the houses,” she added. </p>
<p>Although writing about Brooklyn had brought her fortune and fame, she had no desire to return. </p>
<p>As she explained in her 1942 letter, Smith perceived Brooklyn’s current situation as the result of a changing population and growing crime: “A hundred years ago, it was a quiet peaceful village settled by hard-working, sturdy, honest burghers,” Smith reflected in her letter, adding that even 25 years ago, Williamsburg was a gentler place. “But now it’s a fearful one.” </p>
<p>Smith offered her own analysis of the situation: “The feuds in the neighborhood came about because most of the Italians originally came from Sicily and were fierce and murderous. The Jews in the neighborhood were mostly Russian Jews, conditioned to pogroms and much fiercer and more ready to fight.”</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Kids tug and pull at one another while a woman cries in the background and another woman tries to keep order." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/577631/original/file-20240223-26-2gw4kw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/577631/original/file-20240223-26-2gw4kw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=463&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/577631/original/file-20240223-26-2gw4kw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=463&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/577631/original/file-20240223-26-2gw4kw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=463&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/577631/original/file-20240223-26-2gw4kw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=582&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/577631/original/file-20240223-26-2gw4kw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=582&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/577631/original/file-20240223-26-2gw4kw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=582&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A crowd gathers in Williamsburg in 1941 to see the corpse of a man shot twice by an unknown gunman.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/premium-rates-apply-a-crowd-gathers-in-the-williamsburg-news-photo/2716771?adppopup=true">Weegee/International Center of Photography via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Like many Americans at the time, Smith held some entrenched and intolerant views about immigrants and their character. Since she was often invited to contribute guest essays to publications during the height of her fame, she had ample opportunity to express her worldview. </p>
<p>After World War II, Smith directed this hostility toward foreigners at America’s wartime enemies. In her August 1945 essay “<a href="https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1945/08/26/305533912.html?pageNumber=104">Thoughts for These Days of Victory</a>,” she encouraged readers not to forget their anger at wartime enemies: “Let us hold this bitterness so that we’ll not again be lulled into a false sense of security. The war proved conclusively that not all men are brothers and that not all nations are sisters.” </p>
<p>A full understanding of the Betty Smith behind the novel that changed how Americans felt about Brooklyn – and their humble origins – are complicated by Smith’s own views and her experiences away from Brooklyn. </p>
<p>As Smith knew, making something of yourself often requires leaving home. It’s hard to tell whether distance made her heart grow fonder. In leaving Brooklyn, Smith had not suddenly started seeing her hometown through rose-colored glasses.</p>
<p>In Chapel Hill she was finally able to see Brooklyn – and write about it – in a way that brought readers of all kinds closer to Brooklyn and legitimized their own origin stories. That, in and of itself, is a kind of love, even if it’s not the unconditional kind so many had imagined.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/222588/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Rachel Gordan does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>No other 20th-century American novel did quite so much to burnish Brooklyn’s reputation. But Smith rarely saw her hometown through rose-colored glasses − and even grew to resent it.Rachel Gordan, Assistant Professor of Religion and Jewish Studies, University of FloridaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2201202024-01-25T13:16:51Z2024-01-25T13:16:51ZFrom New York to Jakarta, land in many coastal cities is sinking faster than sea levels are rising<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/567456/original/file-20231228-21-99pvh5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C8%2C5991%2C3979&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Infrastructure can increase vulnerabilities to coastal cities like New York.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/new-york-city-skyline-royalty-free-image/523392100?phrase=new+york+sea+level+rise&searchscope=image%2Cfilm&adppopup=true">GlennisEhi/Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><a href="https://www.climate.gov/news-features/understanding-climate/climate-change-global-sea-level">Sea level rise</a> has already put coastal cities on notice thanks to increasing storm surges and even <a href="https://coast.noaa.gov/states/fast-facts/recurrent-tidal-flooding.html">sunny day</a> flooding at high tide. These challenges will continue to grow because global projections point to a mean sea level rise of at least one foot above year-2000 levels by the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/jun/26/its-absolutely-guaranteed-the-best-and-worst-case-scenarios-for-sea-level-rise">end of this century</a>.</p>
<p>However, many cities are facing another factor making them even more vulnerable to rising waters: <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2023/05/30/land-sinking-us-subsidence-sea-level/">land subsidence</a>. </p>
<p>The three of us – <a href="https://web.uri.edu/gso/meet/pei-chin-wu/">Pei-Chin Wu</a>, <a href="https://web.uri.edu/gso/meet/matt-wei/">Meng (Matt) Wei</a> and <a href="https://web.uri.edu/gso/meet/steven-dhondt/">Steven D'Hondt</a> – are scientists at the University of Rhode Island Graduate School of Oceanography working with the U.S. Geological Survey to research challenges facing waterfront cities. Our findings indicate that <a href="https://doi.org/10.1029/2022GL098477">land is sinking</a> faster than sea levels are rising in many coastal cities throughout the world. </p>
<p>By using radar images of the Earth’s surface collected from orbiting satellites, we measured subsidence rates in 99 coastal cities worldwide. These rates are highly variable within cities and from city to city, but if they continue, many metropolises will experience flooding much sooner than projected by sea level rise models.</p>
<p>Cities in South, Southeast and East Asia are seeing the most rapid rates of subsidence. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/6IW3CV3-Sio?wmode=transparent&start=3" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Taipei is sinking: University of Rhode Island | Taiwan News | RTI.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2023/05/16/headway/indonesia-nusantara-jakarta.html">Indonesia</a>, for example, is moving its capital 800 miles from Jakarta to Nusantara in large part because Jakarta is sinking at an alarming rate due to groundwater extraction. </p>
<p>Other regions are not immune. Our research with Tom Parsons of the U.S. Geological Survey found that most of <a href="https://doi.org/10.1029/2022EF003465">New York City</a>is sinking between 1 to 4 millimeters per year due to a combination of <a href="https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/glacial-adjustment.html">glacial rebound</a> and the weight of its more than 1 million buildings. In a city where sea level is projected to rise between 8 and 30 inches by 2050, subsidence <a href="https://www.uri.edu/news/2023/06/new-york-city-is-sinking-and-its-not-alone/">further increases its vulnerability</a> to coastal storms. </p>
<p>In the U.S., most of the cities on the Atlantic coast are subsiding due to glacial rebound. Even if the rate is low at minus-1 millimeter per year, it should be accounted. Other cities in the U.S., especially in the Gulf of Mexico, including Houston and New Orleans, also face subsidence. </p>
<p>Governments around the world are facing the challenge of coastal areas that are subsiding, and there is a shared global challenge of mitigation against a growing flooding hazard.</p>
<p>While our research continues to evolve – for example, by using machine learning to improve our monitoring capability – we urge city planners, emergency managers and other decision-makers to account for subsidence in the plans they are making today to prepare for the impacts of rising sea levels in the future.</p>
<p><em>Editor’s note: This story was updated to correct the rate at which New York City is sinking.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/220120/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Pei-Chin Wu is working towards her PhD degree at the Graduate School of Oceanography at the University of Rhode Island and receives funding from the Ministry of Education in Taiwan.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Steven D’Hondt receives funding from Rhode Island Sea Grant.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Meng (Matt) Wei does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Land subsidence is a factor as preparations are made for rising sea levels and strengthening storms. Human infrastructure, including buildings and groundwater extraction, increases vulnerabilities.Pei-Chin Wu, Ph.D. Candidate in Oceangraphy, University of Rhode IslandMeng (Matt) Wei, Associate Professor of Oceanography, University of Rhode IslandSteven D’Hondt, Professor of Oceanography, Graduate School of Oceanography, University of Rhode IslandLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2184952024-01-22T20:42:47Z2024-01-22T20:42:47ZDespite legislative progress, accessible cities remain elusive<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/566380/original/file-20231218-29-jo501r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C5755%2C3833&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Textured surfaces on city pavements can help make public space more accessible to disabled persons.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span></figcaption></figure><iframe style="width: 100%; height: 100px; border: none; position: relative; z-index: 1;" allowtransparency="" allow="clipboard-read; clipboard-write" src="https://narrations.ad-auris.com/widget/the-conversation-canada/despite-legislative-progress-accessible-cities-remain-elusive" width="100%" height="400"></iframe>
<p>Amid a complex web of disability civil rights legislation in Canada and the <a href="https://www.ada.gov/">United States</a>, one could easily be lulled into thinking that the work is done. Some of this legislation is now <a href="http://www.ccdonline.ca/en/humanrights/promoting/20years">several decades old</a>; more recent additions include <a href="https://www.ontario.ca/laws/regulation/110191">accessible design standards and guidelines</a> and barrier-free elements of <a href="https://www.ontario.ca/laws/regulation/120332">building codes</a>.</p>
<p>But <a href="https://accessnow.com/moca/">if only this were true</a>. Watching Toronto and other cities in North America work on accessibility feels a bit like watching a snail moving through molasses: the best route is unclear, progress is slow and they often become stuck.</p>
<h2>Paratransit</h2>
<p>Access to safe and reliable public transit is one such problem. For example, many of the issues <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/1524839919888484">plaguing paratransit (ideally on-demand, door-to-door service for disabled persons) today</a> — unacceptably long wait times, having to plan and schedule days in advance, service costs, convoluted trip regulations, failing to pick people up — are often as <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/1524839919888484">old as the services themselves</a>. </p>
<p>It’s perhaps hard to imagine, but it could get worse. Data from the <a href="https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/pub/89-654-x/89-654-x2021002-eng.htm">2017 Canadian Survey on Disability</a> indicate that nearly 18 per cent of <em>housebound</em> disabled persons report the absence of transport service as the cause — they have somewhere to go, but no way to get there.</p>
<p>New York City, Toronto and Montréal have underground public transit. These systems share a checkered past where disability is concerned. Time and time again, each system has been the site of disability activism, litigation, accessibility retrofit, cycles of investment progress and delay, and what I call last-millimetre problems.</p>
<p>In New York City, it took multiple <a href="https://new.mta.info/accessibility/ada-settlement-notice">class-action lawsuits</a> filed by disabled persons to get the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) to launch a multi-decade accessibility plan. This included a promise to stop renovating stations in violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), the <a href="https://www.eeoc.gov/rehabilitation-act-1973-original-text">Rehabilitation Act of 1973</a> and <a href="https://www.nyc.gov/site/cchr/law/the-law.page">New York City Human Rights Law</a>. </p>
<p>Seven years on, an August 2017 article in the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/31/nyregion/nyc-subway-accessible-disabled.html"><em>New York Times</em></a> reported on the MTA’s stalled progress and justifiable skepticism on the part of disabled passengers.</p>
<p>The Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) is in the midst of a promising multi-year <a href="https://www.ttc.ca/accessibility/Accessible-Transit-Services-Plan">Accessible Transit Services Plan</a>. The plan includes accessibility retrofit of many stations built before the <a href="https://www.ontario.ca/laws/statute/05a11">2005 Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA)</a> became law. These are massive infrastructure projects with hefty price tags.</p>
<p>Symptomatic of a much broader failure across the province to meet AODA’s 2025 deadline, implementation of the TTC’s accessibility plan is behind schedule. In the most recent <a href="https://files.ontario.ca/msaa-fourth-review-of-aoda-final-report-en-2023-06-30.pdf">AODA progress review</a>, Rich Donovan, CEO of The Return on Disability Group, declared a state of crisis following “17 years of missed opportunities,” “minimal change in accessibility” and reports of terrible accessibility experiences across the province.</p>
<p>Looking back reveals a deep history of transit <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/montreal-metro-50-years-criticism-1.3804756">criticism and activism in Montréal</a>. In 1988, members of the American Disabled for Accessible Public Transit (ADAPT) protested poor transit accessibility during the <a href="https://adaptmuseum.net/gallery/index.php?/category/24">American Public Transit Association (APTA) meetings held in Montréal</a>. This occurred two years before the iconic “<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/22/us/ada-disabilities-act-history.html">Capitol Crawl</a>” in Washington, D.C. where, tired of congressional inertia, disabled protesters climbed the steps of the Capitol to push for the immediate passing of the Americans with Disabilities Act. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/stSkqzI9mKY?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">A 2009 documentary about disabled persons’ experiences with Montréal transit.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Montréal’s Société de transport de Montréal (STM) now has a long-range accessibility plan with an <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/stm-metro-accessibility-plan-will-mean-more-elevators-ramps-1.4013361">aspirational end date of 2038</a>. The <a href="https://cutaactu.ca/stm-wins-equity-diversity-and-inclusion-award/">Canadian Urban Transit Association</a>) recently announced STM as the winner of an equity, diversity and inclusion award, noting it has “taken significant steps in enhancing customer accessibility since 2023.”</p>
<h2>The last millimetre problem</h2>
<p>Beyond a now seemingly normalized requirement for disabled persons to hold transit authorities to account, much of the progress underground has focused on elevators.</p>
<p>What I find astounding is the “last millimetre problem” — a wide gap or vertical misalignment between platforms and transit vehicles making it impossible or hazardous for some disabled persons, like my daughter, to get on or off the system. The problem seems to occur most often when newly acquired trains meet up with old stations. </p>
<p>In New York City, a vertical misalignment of up to six inches was reported in at least one MTA station. Gaps across the system have led to <a href="https://amsterdamnews.com/news/2022/10/26/riders-with-disabilities-sue-mta-to-close-the-gap-between-subway-train-and-platform/">more class-action litigation</a>. </p>
<p>As of 2019, the TTC has a subway platform gap retrofit program. Consultation
with its Accessibility Advisory Committee produced tolerances of <a href="https://pw.ttc.ca/-/media/Project/TTC/DevProto/Documents/Home/Public-Meetings/Board/2019/September_24/Reports/8_Subway_Platform_Gap_Retrofit_Program.pdf">89 mm or less and 38 mm or less respectively for horizontal and vertical misalignments</a>. Misalignment problems have also been reported <a href="https://montrealgazette.com/news/local-news/how-some-universally-accessible-montreal-metro-stations-are-not">across multiple Montréal Metro stations</a>.</p>
<p><a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/0739456X231175595">Disability as an afterthought</a> makes platform and vehicle retrofit an inconvenient, costly necessity. The technical part of this problem can likely be solved with existing technology, like platform gap fillers and bridge plates. Waiting around for disabled passengers to engage in class-action litigation is not an effective strategy.</p>
<h2>Cycling infrastructure</h2>
<p>The voices of disabled persons have been relegated to the edges of the conversation about active transportation (cycling, walking) and healthy, climate-resilient urban futures.</p>
<p><a href="https://doi.org/10.18061/dsq.v42i1.8276">Disabled persons ride bikes</a> on and <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/player/play/2059170883639">off-road</a>. The literature on cycling and disability focuses on <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jth.2017.01.013">planning for the inclusion of disabled cyclists</a>. Due consideration should also be given to interactions between <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.healthplace.2022.102896">disabled pedestrians</a> and transport infrastructure in general, including bike lanes. </p>
<p>Recently, a bike lane in Toronto was built level to an adjacent sidewalk, without sufficient aids to alert <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/blind-advocates-toronto-bike-lanes-1.7034433">blind pedestrians</a>. Design solutions exist — the Canadian National Institute for the Blind’s <a href="https://www.cnib.ca/en/sight-loss-info/clearing-our-path?region=on"><em>Clearing Our Path</em></a> suggests various types and applications of tactile walking surface indicators.</p>
<p>Curbside bike lanes can produce other <a href="https://www.toronto.ca/legdocs/mmis/2018/di/comm/communicationfile-79642.pdf">problems for disabled pedestrians</a>. For example, parking spaces adjacent to bike lanes with a step up to the sidewalk can force wheelchair users into the path of bicycles or vehicles.</p>
<p>Cycling infrastructure needs to be inclusive and safe infrastructure.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/570542/original/file-20240122-17-emsqmn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="a bidirectional bike lane" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/570542/original/file-20240122-17-emsqmn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/570542/original/file-20240122-17-emsqmn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/570542/original/file-20240122-17-emsqmn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/570542/original/file-20240122-17-emsqmn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/570542/original/file-20240122-17-emsqmn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/570542/original/file-20240122-17-emsqmn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/570542/original/file-20240122-17-emsqmn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A bike lane in downtown Toronto.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Consulting the community</h2>
<p>Research, policy, legislation, design and technologies exist to improve urban accessibility. Despite real progress on both the legislative and infrastructure fronts, the lived experiences of disabled persons continue to highlight serious incongruity between legislation, policies and outcomes.</p>
<p>Accessibility advisory committees are often a requirement of provincial legislation, and enacted at the <a href="https://www.ontario.ca/page/municipal-accessibility-advisory-committees">provincial or municipal levels of government</a>. Transit agencies often have separate committees comprised of community volunteers and agency staff — the <a href="https://www.ttc.ca/about-the-ttc/the-advisory-committee-on-accessible-transit">TTC</a>, <a href="https://new.mta.info/accessibility/ACTA">New York MTA</a> and <a href="https://www.stm.info/en/about/corporate-governance/board-committees/customer-service-and-universal-accessibility-committee">Montréal STM</a> all have committees. </p>
<p>Committee membership criteria should ensure adequate representation from within and across disability communities. Disabled community members should be compensated for sharing their specialized knowledge. </p>
<p>Real accountability, rather than performative empty consultation, should be the order of the day. Accessible cities can only happen when governments and their various agencies deeply listen to and act upon what disabled citizens have to say.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/218495/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ron Buliung does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Decades of activism have resulted in legislation and infrastructure to make cities more accessible, but the lived experiences of disabled residents shows there’s still a long way to go.Ron Buliung, Professor, University of TorontoLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2192802023-12-13T13:36:15Z2023-12-13T13:36:15ZBig-box retail chains were never a solution for America’s downtowns − and now they’re fleeing back to suburbia<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/564994/original/file-20231211-89932-pedkqb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=12%2C0%2C2032%2C1529&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Merchandise is locked in cases to guard against theft in a Target store in New York City on Sept. 23, 2023. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/target-retail-stores-in-new-york-city-have-installed-locked-news-photo/1726478336">Deb Cohn-Orbach/UCG/Universal Images Group via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Holiday shopping is in full swing, but city dwellers may have fewer options for buying in person than they did a few years ago. That’s because many large chain stores are pulling out of central cities. </p>
<p>This trend has been building for several years. Target made national headlines in 2018 when it closed its store in a <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/30/business/target-baltimore-store-closings.html">predominantly Black Baltimore neighborhood</a> after just 10 years of operation. COVID-19 sped things up by cutting foot traffic in city centers and boosting online commerce. </p>
<p>Target has <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2023/10/12/business/target-closing-us-cities-crime-dg/index.html">closed additional stores</a> in Chicago, Milwaukee, New York, San Francisco, Seattle and Portland, Oregon. <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/walmart-store-closings-2023-full-list">Walmart</a>, <a href="https://www.thestreet.com/retailers/cvs-is-permanently-closing-hundreds-of-stores-for-a-surprising-reason">CVS</a>, <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/shopping/2023/11/29/rite-aid-store-closures-grow/71744831007/">Rite Aid</a> and Walgreens have also closed many urban stores.</p>
<p>Closures have spread to many suburbs and small towns. Retailers saddled with high debt, overexpansion, <a href="https://nrf.com/research/national-retail-security-survey-2023">shoplifting losses</a>, slumping sales and <a href="https://www.jpmorganchase.com/institute/research/cities-local-communities/post-covid-consumer-spending-in-new-york-city">online competition</a> are shedding stores fast. But this contraction lopsidedly affects city dwellers, who often lack the shopping options and price competition suburbanites enjoy. </p>
<p>Many news reports, particularly from conservative outlets, have <a href="https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/manhattan-retail-is-getting-destroyed-by-shoplifting/">blamed lawlessness</a> and <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-root-causes-of-san-franciscos-disorder-crime-homeless-911-auto-theift-public-disorder-a45b170c">weak leadership by progressive city governments</a>. In my view, however, there’s another important factor: flawed corporate strategies.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/L6g-mJe90pI?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">As big-box chain drugstores close in St. Louis, an independent pharmacy works to fill the gap with more personal service.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>The self-service revolution</h2>
<p>The concept of letting shoppers serve themselves dates back to 1879, when Frank W. Woolworth <a href="https://guides.loc.gov/this-month-in-business-history/february/woolsworth">opened his first store in Utica, New York</a>. Its successors grew into the F.W. Woolworth chain of “five-and-dime” discount dry goods stores, which became fixtures of hundreds of cities, suburbs and small towns in the early 20th century. </p>
<p>Food stores followed suit in the early 1900s, beginning with the <a href="https://www.supermarketnews.com/archive/early-stores-pioneer-self-service-concept">Alpha Beta chain</a> in California in 1914 and <a href="https://mypigglywiggly.com/aboutus/">Piggly Wiggly</a> in Tennessee in 1916. Instead of having clerks gather customers’ orders from store shelves, these stores let shoppers loose in the aisles, then allowed them to pay at the end of their visit.</p>
<p>This approach seeded the meteoric rise of “big box” stores like <a href="https://www.thestreet.com/markets/history-of-walmart-15092339">Walmart</a> and <a href="https://corporate.target.com/about/purpose-history/history-timeline?era=2">Target</a> in the mid-20th century. With their low manufacturing costs, streamlined logistics, minimally staffed stores, national advertising and vast inventories, big-box chains <a href="https://www.npr.org/2012/11/19/165295840/the-past-and-future-of-americas-biggest-retailers">drove many small retailers out of business</a> – and most Woolworth stores, too. </p>
<p>Self-service came to rule the suburbs, where big chains could build mega-stores with plenty of parking. But they were rare in central cities for most of the 20th century, except for a few affluent enclaves, such as West Los Angeles or Chicago’s North Side. Generally, these chains avoided poor neighborhoods and many downtowns altogether. </p>
<p>As shoppers increasingly gravitated to suburban malls, many urban neighborhoods became <a href="https://www.city-journal.org/article/the-return-of-urban-retail-deserts">retail deserts</a>, with few vendors meeting local needs. Those that endured, often run by small-scale entrepreneurs, typically were businesses that offered a single type of product, such as grocery stores, delicatessens or pharmacies. </p>
<h2>Chains discover downtowns</h2>
<p>Harvard management professor <a href="https://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Pages/profile.aspx?facId=6532">Michael Porter</a> drew attention to the lack of retail services in densely populated urban neighborhoods in a seminal 1995 article, “<a href="https://hbr.org/1995/05/the-competitive-advantage-of-the-inner-city">The Competitive Advantage of the Inner City</a>.” Economic development, Porter argued, was key to revitalizing inner cities – and these zones housed a lot of potential customers.</p>
<p>“Even though average inner city incomes are relatively low, high population density translates into an immense market with substantial purchasing power,” Porter wrote. “Ultimately, what will attract the inner city consumer more than anything else is a new breed of company that is not small and high-cost but a professionally managed major business employing the latest in technology, marketing, and management techniques.” </p>
<p>Chains of many kinds began to <a href="https://www.npr.org/2010/12/21/132231472/big-box-retailers-move-to-smaller-stores-in-cities">rediscover the central city market</a> in the early 2000s. <a href="https://nyc-business.nyc.gov/nycbusiness/article/reduce-operating-expenses">Tax breaks</a> and subsidized redevelopment projects often greased the wheels. Urban gentrifiers were reliably drawn to new urban chain stores like Target, Walmart and Whole Foods.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="InstagramEmbed" data-react-props="{"url":"https://www.instagram.com/p/cLCAmoR6BL/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link\u0026igshid=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==","accessToken":"127105130696839|b4b75090c9688d81dfd245afe6052f20"}"></div></p>
<p>Many small retail shops now faced a juggernaut of national chains. One example was <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1001/jamainternmed.2019.4588">independent pharmacies</a>: Between 2009 and 2015, 1 in 4 urban pharmacies in low-income neighborhoods closed.</p>
<p>And chain stores often failed to generate major benefits for their new neighborhoods. Employees had few chances for advancement beyond <a href="https://www.epi.org/press/new-company-wage-tracker-shows-low-wages-are-the-norm-at-large-retail-and-food-service-employers/">minimum-wage hourly work</a>. Clustering of chain stores in prosperous neighborhoods and business districts failed to address “food deserts” <a href="https://www.ers.usda.gov/amber-waves/2011/december/data-feature-mapping-food-deserts-in-the-u-s/">in impoverished areas</a>.</p>
<h2>Broken big boxes</h2>
<p>Certain qualities that made chains so successful – national sales strategies, self-service stores and brand awareness – are proving to be liabilities in today’s more complicated and divided urban context. </p>
<p>Retail executives and their <a href="https://nrf.com/advocacy/policy-issues/organized-retail-crime">trade associations</a> have cited excessive shoplifting losses and weak law enforcement as factors in urban store closures, even though they have conspicuously <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2021/12/shoplifting-holiday-theft-panic/621108/">failed to provide shoplifting data</a> by location. There are signs, moreover, that <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/08/business/organized-shoplifting-retail-crime-theft-retraction.html">shoplifting is receding</a>, except for in a few large cities like New York.</p>
<p><iframe id="nnu49" class="tc-infographic-datawrapper" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/nnu49/1/" height="400px" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
<p>In my opinion, there are three reasons why city chain stores are closing at such a high rate compared with those in suburbs.</p>
<p>First, despite job recovery in many cities since the pandemic, low-income urban households remain in crisis, with <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/25/realestate/rent-burdened-american-households.html">high rents</a> and inflation driving up the cost of essentials. According to the nonprofit Brookings Institution, 9.6% of suburban residents lived in poverty in 2022, compared with about <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/articles/post-pandemic-poverty-is-rising-in-americas-suburbs/">16.2% in primary cities</a>. Widespread poverty in a city like Baltimore, for instance, is reflected in the <a href="https://mdfoodbank.org/hunger-in-maryland/maryland-hunger-map/">concentration of food banks</a> on the west and east sides. </p>
<p>Less disposable income, compounded by shoplifting losses, can lead to store closures – especially since national chains like Target and Walmart expect the dollar value of sales from stores that have been open for more than a year to <a href="https://www.wallstreetmojo.com/same-store-sales/">increase steadily over time</a>. </p>
<p>Second, urban chains clustered too many of their own branches close together or too near other chains – usually in high-income residential or business districts. <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/09/business/media/09adco.html">Manhattan below 96th Street</a> is a clear example of this pattern. With affluent customers shifting to online shopping, and reduced foot traffic overall thanks to remote work, this aggressive strategy has failed. </p>
<p>Third, widely distributed <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2023/12/07/business/shoplifting-surge-hype-nightcap/index.html">media images of rampant shoplifting</a> send a message at odds with these chains’ powerful brand images of order, safety and standardization. A <a href="https://counciloncj.org/shoplifting-trends-what-you-need-to-know/">small but rising share</a> of shoplifting incidents since 2019 have involved assaults or other crimes. These events have the potential to <a href="https://www.vox.com/money/23938554/shoplifting-organized-retail-crime-walmart-target-theft-laws">scare executives</a> concerned about employee lawsuits. Chains want urban locations but not “urban” reputations. </p>
<h2>Retail flight</h2>
<p>Large retail chains have finally figured out that cities aren’t suburbs. Those that remain are adding staff, scaling back self-checkout, checking receipts at exits and <a href="https://www.kqed.org/news/11949025/why-are-retail-stores-locking-up-basic-necessities">locking down higher-priced goods</a> – essentially, abandoning the self-service model. However, these costly measures won’t bring back online-addicted shoppers or daily commuters, nor will they put more money in struggling consumers’ pockets.</p>
<p>Responding to retail association pressure, some city and state governments are imposing <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2023/08/11/organized-retail-crime-nine-states-pass-laws-to-crack-down-on-theft.html">stricter punishments for shoplifting</a> and cracking down on <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5RIjWTO2Yz4">black-market vending</a> on sites like Amazon and eBay. However, it isn’t clear that this get-tough approach can or should rescue the big-box model, since these stores failed to create safe, secure shopping environments in the first place.</p>
<p>As I see it, the urban chain store implosion raises questions about whether suburban-style retail really does much for cities. These stores are mediocre job creators, undercut local entrepreneurs, often <a href="https://www.strongtowns.org/journal/2022/9/13/mainstreet-vs-chain-stores-a-western-north-carolina-analysis">pay relatively low property taxes</a> and build ugly parking lots. They also don’t provide the kind of “<a href="https://medium.com/i-cities/eyes-on-the-street-ab12b39b960b">eyes on the street</a>” local security that small-scale shopkeepers do. In fact, their parking lots and open aisles seem to <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/newyork/news/yonkers-shoplifting-big-box-stores/">attract disorder</a>.</p>
<p>Shoehorning suburban-style stores into urban neighborhoods now looks like a Band-Aid for much deeper urban problems. In my view, city leaders would do better to focus on <a href="https://www.recastyourcity.com/">building local capacity</a> and protecting smaller stores that usually have greater local wealth-building potential, more reasonable growth expectations and the kind of personal service that <a href="https://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/how-retail-crime-impacts-business-16720683.php">naturally deters shoplifting</a>.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/219280/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Nicholas Dagen Bloom does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Shoplifting has been hyped as a driver of chain-store closures, but did these companies ever really understand urban environments in the first place?Nicholas Dagen Bloom, Professor of Urban Policy and Planning, Hunter CollegeLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2107642023-08-23T12:27:04Z2023-08-23T12:27:04ZWhy have you read ‘The Great Gatsby’ but not Ursula Parrott’s ‘Ex-Wife’?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/543788/original/file-20230821-29-jhus0n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=68%2C53%2C1079%2C810&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Writer Ursula Parrott, pictured with her son, Marc, in 1935. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.neh.gov/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/2023-04/Ursula_w_son_Fig_12_Gordon.jpg?itok=LBc8_0fM">ACME Newspapers</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>In 1925, F. Scott Fitzgerald published “<a href="https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/The-Great-Gatsby/F-Scott-Fitzgerald/9781982146702">The Great Gatsby</a>.” Four years later, Ursula Parrott published her first novel, “<a href="https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Ex-Wife/Ursula-Parrott/9781946022561">Ex-Wife</a>.” </p>
<p>I probably read “The Great Gatsby” a dozen times between junior high school and my late 20s. But I had never even heard of Ursula Parrott or her 1929 bestseller until I stumbled across a screenplay adaption of one of Parrott’s short stories. </p>
<p>Fitzgerald, in fact, had been hired to write that screenplay. Even though “Infidelity” was never produced because it was <a href="https://collections.new.oscars.org/Details/Collection/627">deemed too risqué by Hollywood’s Production Code Administration</a>, its very existence piqued my curiosity.</p>
<p>Why was the most famous author of the Jazz Age hired to adapt a story by a totally unknown writer? And who on earth was Ursula Parrott?</p>
<p>I acquired a used copy of “Ex-Wife” on eBay and soon realized that Ursula Parrott was not unknown; she was just forgotten. </p>
<p>In April 2023, <a href="https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520391543/becoming-the-ex-wife">I published a biography</a> of Parrott. Since then, I’ve continued to try to understand just how and why she and her writing drifted into obscurity – how “The Great Gatsby” is required reading but few have heard of “Ex-Wife” or its author.</p>
<h2>Greeted by mixed reviews</h2>
<p>Both “Ex-Wife” and “The Great Gatsby” are modern novels of love and loss, money and (mostly bad) manners. They’re set in New York and saturated with the energy, language and spirit of the time. <a href="https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1929/08/11/91915237.html?pageNumber=30">Both garnered mixed reviews</a>, deemed by many critics as entertaining and of the moment <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2015/04/to-early-reviewers-the-great-gatsby-was-not-so-great/390252/">but not great literature</a>.</p>
<p>At first, “Ex-Wife” was far more successful than “Gatsby,” blasting through a dozen printings and selling over 100,000 copies. It was translated into multiple languages and reprinted in paperback editions through the late 1940s. </p>
<p>Meanwhile, “The Great Gatsby” went through <a href="https://boydellandbrewer.com/9781571133717/american-icon/">a mere two printings totaling less than 24,000 copies</a>, not all of which sold. By the time Fitzgerald died in 1940, the novel had essentially been forgotten.</p>
<p>“Ex-Wife” centers on a 24-year-old woman named Patricia whose husband is divorcing her. Supporting herself with a job in department store advertising, she learns to navigate life in Manhattan as a divorcée. </p>
<p>Whereas “The Great Gatsby” is largely a suburban novel with trips into the city, “Ex-Wife” is fully immersed in Manhattan, especially Greenwich Village, where Parrott herself lived after she married her first husband. The novel’s characters drink Clover Clubs, Alexanders, brandy flips and Manhattans while frequenting the Brevoort, the Waldorf, Delano’s and Dante’s. </p>
<p>“Ex-Wife” revels in the rhythms of the city: One chapter even includes musical bars from George Gershwin’s hit “<a href="https://www.loc.gov/item/ihas.200156779">Rhapsody in Blue</a>” sprinkled between paragraphs. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Musical notes appear on a page underneath dialogue." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/544084/original/file-20230822-15-g3yjz0.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/544084/original/file-20230822-15-g3yjz0.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=297&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/544084/original/file-20230822-15-g3yjz0.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=297&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/544084/original/file-20230822-15-g3yjz0.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=297&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/544084/original/file-20230822-15-g3yjz0.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=373&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/544084/original/file-20230822-15-g3yjz0.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=373&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/544084/original/file-20230822-15-g3yjz0.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=373&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Chapter 12 of ‘Ex-Wife’ features bars from ‘Rhapsody in Blue.’</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Marsha Gordon</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>But “Ex-Wife” is not all martinis and music. Parrott uses it to address, in unsparing directness, the challenges that women faced and the limited paths available to them. This alone sets it apart from the male protagonists of “The Great Gatsby” and the novel’s scant attention to the experiences of its female characters.</p>
<p>Parrott’s witty and biting novel was, in fact, concerned first and foremost with a generation of young women who had abandoned Victorian sensibilities: They got educations and jobs, drank, had premarital and extramarital sex, and cast aside pretensions of being the fairer, gentler sex. </p>
<p>But in shedding these mores, they also sacrificed protections. Patricia reflects on how men of their generation used women’s self-sufficiency and independence as an excuse to leave them to fend for themselves: “Freedom for women turned out to be God’s greatest gift to men.” </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/543765/original/file-20230821-29-lmgeo5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Book cover featuring drawing of a young, forlorn woman." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/543765/original/file-20230821-29-lmgeo5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/543765/original/file-20230821-29-lmgeo5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=837&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/543765/original/file-20230821-29-lmgeo5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=837&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/543765/original/file-20230821-29-lmgeo5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=837&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/543765/original/file-20230821-29-lmgeo5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1052&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/543765/original/file-20230821-29-lmgeo5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1052&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/543765/original/file-20230821-29-lmgeo5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1052&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">‘Ex-Wife’ sold four times as many copies as ‘The Great Gatsby’ in the 1920s and 1930s.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Ff689e048-ef86-4a0b-bcff-e59400fd1186_413x576.jpeg">Screen Splits</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>“Ex-Wife” depicts a culture in which women often suffer at the hands of men. At one point, Patricia is brutally raped. In another scene, her husband throws her through a glass window during a fight, a moment as harrowing for its rendering of domestic violence as it is for Pat’s nonchalant reaction to it. In one of the book’s most moving episodes, Pat is compelled to procure a risky abortion at her soon-to-be ex-husband’s insistence but at her financial, physical and psychological cost. </p>
<p>“One survives almost everything,” Patricia unhappily realizes.</p>
<p>She survives, however, thanks only to a streetwise female friend and mentor, her own ability to earn a living, practiced if not heartfelt flippancy, the numbing effects of alcohol and an acceptance that everything in her life is both transient and precarious.</p>
<h2>Art imitates life</h2>
<p>Ursula Parrott <a href="https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520391543/becoming-the-ex-wife">had a keen understanding</a> of gender inequality and male privilege: Her own publisher made passes at her, her banker once proposed sexual favors in lieu of interest payments, and she experienced a rape not unlike the one she depicted in “Ex-Wife.”</p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="Black and white photograph of woman sitting on balcony smiling and using a typewriter." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/543763/original/file-20230821-19-vgphn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/543763/original/file-20230821-19-vgphn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=777&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/543763/original/file-20230821-19-vgphn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=777&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/543763/original/file-20230821-19-vgphn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=777&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/543763/original/file-20230821-19-vgphn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=976&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/543763/original/file-20230821-19-vgphn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=976&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/543763/original/file-20230821-19-vgphn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=976&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Ursula Parrott in California in 1931, two years after the publication of ‘Ex-Wife.’</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">AP Photos</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Before she became a novelist, Parrott, who earned a degree in English from Radcliffe, had desperately wanted a career in journalism. However, she was barred from employment at all New York newspapers because her ex-husband, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1987/09/21/obituaries/lindesay-parrott-ex-times-reporter.html">reporter Lindesay Parrott</a>, marked his professional territory by warning the city’s editors – all male, of course – not to hire her. </p>
<p>There is a similar form of male chauvinism at work in the way that Parrott’s writing was often treated by critics during her lifetime. Many described her books and short stories as romantic or melodramatic, fit only for consumption by women.</p>
<p>“Melodramatic,” <a href="https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520391543/becoming-the-ex-wife">Parrott once smartly observed in a letter</a>, is “just a word men use to describe any agony that might otherwise make them feel uncomfortable.”</p>
<h2>Gatsby’s boosters</h2>
<p>I am convinced that “Ex-Wife” deserves a place <a href="https://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2021/01/11/why-do-we-keep-reading-the-great-gatsby/">alongside Fitzgerald’s novel</a> in classrooms and in the hands of a new generation of readers based on the merits of its style and contents. </p>
<p>But more importantly, I’m convinced that the reason Fitzgerald’s novel is so ingrained in American life and letters has little to do with its originality, craft or quality and everything to do with <a href="https://bookshop.org/p/books/so-we-read-on-how-the-great-gatsby-came-to-be-and-why-it-endures-maureen-corrigan/110705">the way books were marketed and promoted</a> over the arc of the 20th century. </p>
<p>“The Great Gatsby” <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/achenblog/wp/2015/03/20/why-the-great-gatsby-is-the-great-american-novel/">owes its resuscitation from obscurity</a> in the 1940s to the efforts of prominent male critics and scholars – and even to the American military.</p>
<p>Fitzgerald had important friends and admirers, among them the esteemed literary critic Edmund Wilson, who was instrumental in the republication of “Gatsby” in 1941. <a href="https://paw.princeton.edu/article/enduring-power-gatsby">Thanks to Wilson’s efforts</a>, Fitzgerald’s novel could be taken up by other well-regarded and influential scholars like Lionel Trilling, <a href="http://thenation.s3.amazonaws.com/pdf/1949.pdf">who wrote admiringly</a> about Fitzgerald in The Nation in 1945, and <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1989/03/29/obituaries/malcolm-cowley-writer-is-dead-at-90.html">Malcolm Cowley</a>, who edited collections of Fitzgerald’s short stories and celebrated his literary gifts.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Seated man in suit holding a cigarette and looking out a window." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/543773/original/file-20230821-10983-meide4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/543773/original/file-20230821-10983-meide4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=456&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/543773/original/file-20230821-10983-meide4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=456&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/543773/original/file-20230821-10983-meide4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=456&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/543773/original/file-20230821-10983-meide4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=573&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/543773/original/file-20230821-10983-meide4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=573&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/543773/original/file-20230821-10983-meide4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=573&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Critics like Lionel Trilling rescued ‘The Great Gatsby’ from obscurity.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/the-american-literary-critic-lionel-trilling-is-shown-here-news-photo/515252642?adppopup=true">Bettmann/Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>After Trilling, a parade of writers took up Gatsby’s cause, praising it for precisely the same traits that might also have been found in “Ex-Wife,” had anyone bothered to look: its use of contemporary language, its critique of hedonistic behavior, its rich attention to period detail and its depressing portrayal of aimless, unmoored characters trying and failing to find meaning in modern America.</p>
<p>Consider just one instance of differential legacy-tending: during World War II, the American military <a href="https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/62358/how-wwii-saved-great-gatsby-obscurity">provided over 150,000 free copies</a> of “The Great Gatsby” to American soldiers – ensuring a readership that well exceeded the number of people who had, to date, actually bought the book.</p>
<p>But when the <a href="https://www.nypl.org/blog/2012/07/25/victory-book-campaign-and-nypl">Victory Book Campaign</a> started its drive to collect novels for overseas servicemen, it explicitly warned potential donors to desist from handing over any “women’s love stories,” specifically naming Ursula Parrott among the authors whose books they would not be putting in soldiers’ hands.</p>
<h2>Making the case for ‘Ex-Wife’</h2>
<p>There are, of course, many other factors at play here. <a href="https://www.theawl.com/2014/01/all-the-drunk-dudes-the-parodic-manliness-of-the-alcoholic-writer/">There’s the tendency to romanticize</a> the tragic lives of male authors who drink heavily, spend recklessly and make bad decisions – departments in which Fitzgerald and Parrott seem pretty equally matched. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/543768/original/file-20230821-19874-9e3281.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Newspaper clipping suggesting authors to avoid when sending troops books." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/543768/original/file-20230821-19874-9e3281.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/543768/original/file-20230821-19874-9e3281.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=726&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/543768/original/file-20230821-19874-9e3281.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=726&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/543768/original/file-20230821-19874-9e3281.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=726&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/543768/original/file-20230821-19874-9e3281.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=912&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/543768/original/file-20230821-19874-9e3281.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=912&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/543768/original/file-20230821-19874-9e3281.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=912&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Book donors were discouraged from sending ‘women’s love stories’ to troops during World War II.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Moberly, Missouri Monitor</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>There’s also what can only be described as a collective <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/life/books/2013/05/07/why-the-great-gatsby-is-the-great-american-novel/2130161/">refusal to categorize</a> “The Great Gatsby” as a romance novel, a category that has historically been used <a href="https://theconversation.com/if-the-romance-writers-of-america-can-implode-over-racism-no-group-is-safe-130034">to diminish women’s writing</a>.</p>
<p>“The Great Gatsby”‘s ascension from obscurity to ubiquity is only one example of how Parrott’s book was passed over. “Ex-Wife” and William Faulkner’s “<a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/48428/the-sound-and-the-fury-by-william-faulkner/">The Sound and the Fury</a>” were marketed alongside each other by publishers Jonathan Cape and Harrison Smith. Faulkner biographer Carl Rollyson observes that Faulkner’s book <a href="https://www.nysun.com/article/even-as-william-faulker-struggled-ursula-parrott-thrived">sold “less than a tenth” as many copies as Parrott’s</a>. But Faulkner amassed critical praise in the right places, and Parrott, Rollyson concludes, “did not manage herself or her work the way writers like Faulkner did.” </p>
<p>But this is not merely a question of self-management. It is true that Parrott did not publish during the last, difficult decade of her life. After a series of public scandals, missed deadlines, ongoing battles with alcohol and financial missteps, she tried to write herself back into literary society, to no avail. </p>
<p>The real difference, in my view, is that Parrott had nobody to tend to her legacy – no Trilling or Wilson or Cowley in her corner to bring her writings back into circulation or make a case for her genius or her novel’s importance.</p>
<p>However, there is no reason to believe that the erasure of “Ex-Wife” from cultural memory is a fait accompli, or that “The Great Gatsby” will always be the go-to Jazz Age novel. Writer Glenway Wescott, <a href="https://newrepublic.com/article/116002/moral-scott-fitzgerald">in his February 1941 tribute to Fitzgerald</a>, wrote of “The Great Gatsby”: “A masterpiece often seems a period-piece for a while; then comes down out of the attic, to function anew and to last.”</p>
<p>Consider this article a “better late than never” effort to make the case that “Ex-Wife” deserves to come out of the attic of America’s lost literary past to be read, discussed and taught as one of the important American novels of the 1920s. </p>
<p>After McNally Editions republished “<a href="https://www.mcnallyeditions.com/books/p/ex-wife">Ex-Wife</a>” in May 2023, reviewers remarked on the “freshness of its prose” and the “remarkable erotic freedom” it depicted, as <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/30/books/she-wrote-frankly-about-divorce-and-suffered-the-consequences.html">The New York Times</a> review put it; <a href="https://thebaffler.com/latest/the-dark-side-of-the-jazz-age-fletcher">The Baffler described Parrott’s writing</a> as “deftly crafted, wryly observed, and thoroughly unsettling.”</p>
<p>“The Great Gatsby” is a fantastic period piece. But “Ex-Wife” manages to be both that and to remain timely. Women’s lives and bodies continue to be subject to all manner of scrutiny, critique and legislation, which means that many of the things that Parrott wrote about in “Ex-Wife” – the double standard, women in the workplace, work-life balance, rape and even abortion – remain astonishingly relevant today.</p>
<p>In “Ex-Wife” – and in many of her 19 other books and over 100 stories – Parrott wrote from what amounts to Daisy Buchanan’s point of view rather than Nick Carraway’s, to use “The Great Gatsby” again as a reference point. </p>
<p>Imagine what a different story “Gatsby” would have been had the reader seen the world through Daisy’s eyes? </p>
<p>Or don’t imagine. Rather, give “Ex-Wife” a read.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/210764/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Marsha Gordon has received funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities Public Scholar Program and the National Humanities Center.</span></em></p>‘Ex-Wife’ originally outsold ‘The Great Gatsby,’ but critics sniffed at the novel, deeming it a melodramatic period piece − even though it tackled timeless issues like gender, money and power.Marsha Gordon, Professor of Film Studies, North Carolina State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2085592023-08-04T12:30:54Z2023-08-04T12:30:54Z‘Knowledge of self’: How a key phrase from Islam became a pillar of hip-hop<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/539283/original/file-20230725-29-1pw7oc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=17%2C8%2C2977%2C1895&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The popular phrase 'knowledge of self' -- invoked by numerous rappers who adhere to Islam -- is nearly a millennium old.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/rapper-nas-pays-tribute-to-old-school-rap-group-eric-b-and-news-photo/51865969">Paul Hawthorne for Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>I was 9 years old when Eric B. and Rakim’s “Paid in Full” dropped. I have vivid memories of the bass-laden track booming out of car stereos and hearing it on Black radio, like <a href="https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/music-news/kiss-fm-off-the-air-wbls-nyc-urban-radio-station-317989/">Kiss FM</a>’s top eight at 8 p.m. countdown.</p>
<p>On the track “<a href="https://genius.com/Eric-b-and-rakim-move-the-crowd-lyrics">Move the Crowd</a>,” Rakim – also known as “<a href="https://www.chron.com/culture/music/article/The-God-MC-Rakim-houston-Southern-hip-hop-rapper-16086689.php">the God MC</a>” – rhymes “All praise is due to Allah and that’s a blessing.” <a href="https://pillarsfund.org/content/uploads/2023/06/MNC-CHAPBOOK-FINAL-6.27.23-2-1.pdf">Growing up as a Black Muslim in the Crown Heights</a> neighborhood of Brooklyn, I was already familiar with the phrase. Like all Muslims, I learned to say it during my daily prayers and as an expression of gratitude.</p>
<p>But when Rakim laced those words into the lyrics of what ultimately became a popular song, he affirmed what I was seeing around me in my Brooklyn community – that Islam and Muslims were prominent features of Black life.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Rapper Flavor Flav and Chuck D film a music video." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/539295/original/file-20230725-17-eic2ve.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/539295/original/file-20230725-17-eic2ve.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=404&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/539295/original/file-20230725-17-eic2ve.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=404&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/539295/original/file-20230725-17-eic2ve.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=404&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/539295/original/file-20230725-17-eic2ve.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=507&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/539295/original/file-20230725-17-eic2ve.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=507&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/539295/original/file-20230725-17-eic2ve.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=507&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Rapper Flavor Flav and Chuck D of the rap group Public Enemy film their ‘Fight The Power’ music video in 1989.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/rapper-flavor-flav-director-spike-lee-and-chuck-d-of-the-news-photo/74291996?adppopup=true">Michael Ochs Archives via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>A key concept</h2>
<p>Rakim dropped another familiar phrase in the song: knowledge of self.</p>
<pre class="highlight plaintext"><code>With knowledge of self, there’s nothing I can’t solve
At 360 degrees I revolve
This an actual fact, it’s not an act, it’s been proven
Indeed and I proceed to make the crowd keep moving.
</code></pre>
<p>When Rakim extols the benefits of “knowledge of self” to himself as an emcee and a human being, he is drawing on a philosophy that has been critical to <a href="http://www.suadabdulkhabeer.com/black-islam">Black Islam</a>, a term I use to describe the different forms of Islamic belief and practice found in Black America.</p>
<p>Knowledge of self comes from this tradition, beginning roughly a century ago, which has become known for advancing Black consciousness, resistance and redemption. Knowledge of self is an ethical pursuit to understand one’s place in and relationship to the world in order to positively change it.</p>
<p>In my 2016 book, “<a href="http://www.suadabdulkhabeer.com/muslim-cool-book">Muslim Cool: Race, Religion and Hip Hop in the United States</a>,” I demonstrate how knowledge of self is fundamental to hip-hop. It is often described as hip-hop’s “<a href="https://www.britannica.com/question/What-are-the-four-main-elements-of-hip-hop">fifth element</a>,” the others being DJing; emceeing or “rhyming”; graffiti or “writing”; and dance, from “b-boying” to “pop locking.”</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/539299/original/file-20230725-30-xdtf0u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Artist Lauryn Hill performs on stage." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/539299/original/file-20230725-30-xdtf0u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/539299/original/file-20230725-30-xdtf0u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=403&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/539299/original/file-20230725-30-xdtf0u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=403&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/539299/original/file-20230725-30-xdtf0u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=403&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/539299/original/file-20230725-30-xdtf0u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=507&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/539299/original/file-20230725-30-xdtf0u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=507&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/539299/original/file-20230725-30-xdtf0u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=507&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The concept of ‘knowledge of self’ was instrumental in Lauryn Hill’s breakout 1998 single ‘Doo Wop.’</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/ms-lauryn-hill-performs-during-the-2019-sonoma-harvest-news-photo/1174919334?adppopup=true">Tim Mosenfelder via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>While the phrase and the consciousness that it represents have been mentioned in too many songs to count – from <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mmo3HFa2vjg">Public Enemy’s “Fight the Power</a>” to <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T6QKqFPRZSA">Lauryn Hill’s “Doo Wop</a>” and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kETkgRNSVzk">Talib Kweli’s “K.O.S. (Determination)</a>” – history shows the term has been a part of Islamic literature for nearly a millennium. For example, the first chapter of the celebrated 12th-century Islamic scholar Abu Hamid Al-Ghazali’s famous text “<a href="https://www.sacred-texts.com/isl/tah/tah05.htm">The Alchemy of Happiness</a>” is titled “The Knowledge of Self.”</p>
<p>In my book, I make the case that Islam, specifically Black Islam, gave hip-hop knowledge of self.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/539319/original/file-20230725-29-j123v5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Elijah Muhammad speaks at a conference." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/539319/original/file-20230725-29-j123v5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/539319/original/file-20230725-29-j123v5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/539319/original/file-20230725-29-j123v5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/539319/original/file-20230725-29-j123v5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/539319/original/file-20230725-29-j123v5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=500&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/539319/original/file-20230725-29-j123v5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=500&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/539319/original/file-20230725-29-j123v5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=500&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Elijah Muhammad led the Nation of Islam from 1934 until his death in 1975.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/chicago-il-elijah-muhammad-leader-of-the-black-muslims-news-photo/515177512?adppopup=true">Bettmann via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>The lessons</h2>
<p>Rakim’s reference to knowledge of self’s being an “actual fact” is a nod to the “<a href="https://online.fliphtml5.com/xrqx/dcip/#p=2">actual facts</a>” of the “Lost-Found Muslim Lessons,” the catechism taught by Master W.D. Fard Muhammad, who founded the Nation of Islam on July 4, 1930. Master Fard taught these lessons to the Honorable Elijah Muhammad, who would become the religious movement’s leader. </p>
<p>These lessons are fundamental to the way that the Nation of Islam understands the world and the role of Black people in it. The lessons are also studied by the <a href="https://www.npr.org/2006/08/04/5614846/god-the-black-man-and-the-five-percenters">Nation of Gods and Earths</a>, a related spiritual path, of which Rakim is a member. Knowledge of self comes to hip-hop through these lessons.</p>
<p>Rakim was not alone. During the <a href="https://uhhm.org/revolution-of-hip-hop/">golden age of hip-hop</a>, a period from about the mid-1980s through mid-1990s, rappers – influenced by Black Islam – steadily proclaimed their knowledge of self in their music. Big Daddy Kane declared there’s “<a href="https://genius.com/Big-daddy-kane-young-gifted-and-black-lyrics">no pork on my fork</a>,” an acknowledgment of the Islamic injunction against the consumption of swine. The Poor Righteous Teachers gave the Arabic greeting <a href="https://youtube.com/clip/Ugkx_LfwFaVQ77HWVnvhYPfS9frgaR6k7o-O">as salaamu alaikum</a> with the dome of Harlem’s Masjid Malcolm Shabazz in the background in the music video for “Rock Dis Funky Joint.” And from Brooklyn to the California Bay, acclaimed emcees like <a href="https://youtu.be/WeoCOdbAy3s">Guru</a> and <a href="https://robflow.bandcamp.com/track/praying-to-the-east-original-version">local acts</a> were rhyming about “praying to the east,” a reference to the Muslim practice.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Rap group Poor Righteous Teachers in New York City." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/540568/original/file-20230801-21-zdr7od.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/540568/original/file-20230801-21-zdr7od.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=391&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/540568/original/file-20230801-21-zdr7od.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=391&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/540568/original/file-20230801-21-zdr7od.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=391&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/540568/original/file-20230801-21-zdr7od.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=492&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/540568/original/file-20230801-21-zdr7od.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=492&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/540568/original/file-20230801-21-zdr7od.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=492&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Poor Righteous Teachers was one of many rap groups whose music was influenced by Black Islam.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/rap-group-poor-righteous-teachers-appear-in-a-portrait-news-photo/1470055741?adppopup=true">Al Pereira/Michael Ochs Archives via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>The message</h2>
<p>Long before rappers spoke of knowledge of self in the 1980s, the Honorable Elijah Muhammad expounded on the term in his book “<a href="https://www.worldcat.org/title/message-to-the-blackman-in-america-messenger-of-allah-leader-and-teacher-to-the-american-so-called-negro/oclc/547614">Message to the Blackman in America</a>,” released in 1965 at the height of the Civil Rights Movement. In it, he emphasized Black self-reliance – with knowledge of self being a key component.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/539316/original/file-20230725-15-152dsl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Muhammad Ali sits in his home and reads the book 'Message to the Blackman.'" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/539316/original/file-20230725-15-152dsl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/539316/original/file-20230725-15-152dsl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=391&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/539316/original/file-20230725-15-152dsl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=391&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/539316/original/file-20230725-15-152dsl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=391&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/539316/original/file-20230725-15-152dsl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=492&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/539316/original/file-20230725-15-152dsl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=492&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/539316/original/file-20230725-15-152dsl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=492&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Elijah Muhammad’s book ‘Message to the Blackman in America’ played a critical role in Muhammad Ali’s life.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/former-heavyweight-boxing-champion-cassius-clay-or-muhammad-news-photo/517259190?adppopup=true">Bettmann via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>“The so-called Negroes must be taught and given Islam,” Muhammad wrote. “Why Islam? Islam, because it teaches first the knowledge of self. It gives us the knowledge of our own. Then and only then are we able to understand that which surrounds us … this kind of thinking produces an industrious people who are self-independent.”</p>
<p>In some ways, it comes as little surprise that a term promulgated by a fierce advocate of self-reliance in the mid-1960s would be so widely embraced by hip-hop shortly after it was born as a counterculture in the early 1970s.</p>
<h2>Hip-hop’s consciousness</h2>
<p>When Black Islam helped hip-hop culture cultivate knowledge of self, it created an aspiration, arguably unique for contemporary popular music as a whole, to not just rhyme about it or write graffiti about it, and so on, but to apply it in real life. As a result, knowledge of self became hip-hop’s consciousness, emphasizing an awareness of injustice and the imperative to address it through both personal and social transformation. Critically, this consciousness, while informed by Black Islam, is embraced by hip-hop community members of all stripes.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/539310/original/file-20230725-28-ahl1f9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A man wearing glasses and a suit speaks in front of microphones at a rally." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/539310/original/file-20230725-28-ahl1f9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/539310/original/file-20230725-28-ahl1f9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/539310/original/file-20230725-28-ahl1f9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/539310/original/file-20230725-28-ahl1f9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/539310/original/file-20230725-28-ahl1f9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=498&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/539310/original/file-20230725-28-ahl1f9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=498&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/539310/original/file-20230725-28-ahl1f9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=498&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The 1989 song ‘Self-Destruction’ opens with a sample of a speech by Malcolm X.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/nation-of-islam-leader-malcolm-x-draws-various-reactions-news-photo/515392246?adppopup=true">Bettmann via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The consciousness led to different forms of hip-hop-based activism. Songs against gun violence like The Stop the Violence Movement’s “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jxyYP_bS_6s">Self-Destruction</a>” and “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UJD1oDKKMdM">We Are All in the Same Gang</a>” by the West Coast All Stars.</p>
<p>“Self-Destruction” opens, not inconsequentially, with a sample of a speech by Malcolm X, the onetime spokesman for the Nation of Islam and icon of Black Islam. The consciousness also contributed to the formation in 2004 of the <a href="https://www.democracynow.org/2004/6/23/rap_on_politics_first_national_hip">National Hip-Hop Political Convention</a>, which set the stage for other, albeit less radical and comprehensive, engagements with politics by the hip-hop generation, like the <a href="https://wwd.com/fashion-news/fashion-features/p-diddy-in-8216-vote-or-die-8217-campaign-706486/">Vote or Die</a> campaign and the push for <a href="https://www.npr.org/2008/11/07/96748462/obama-hip-hop-from-mixtapes-to-mainstream">Obama in 2008</a>. </p>
<p>Nearly 10 years later, this consciousness was on display at the 2017 Grammy performance by A Tribe Called Quest, Busta Rhymes and Consequence that was an open call to “resist” in the Trump era. This consciousness also continues to inspire the many organizations like <a href="https://www.kuumbalynx.com/menu/about-us">Kuumba Lynx</a> and the <a href="https://www.npr.org/2013/02/16/172191234/from-the-inner-city-leading-a-new-generation-of-muslim-americans">Inner-City Muslim Action Network</a> in Chicago that use hip-hop as a form of arts-based activism for youth. </p>
<p>And, of course, it remains in the music.</p>
<h2>The knowledge continues</h2>
<p>On the track “Family Feud,” Jay-Z – like Rakim – praises God, but this time in Arabic: “<a href="https://genius.com/Jay-z-family-feud-lyrics">Alhamdulillah</a>,” <a href="https://youtube.com/clip/UgkxD-lGB_QTKoYq8VQL_M7Fc4myiXNipfIY">Mumu Fresh</a> questions others’ knowledge of self with the line “Good morning, sunshine, welcome to reality/I tried to wake you, but you were sleepin’ so peacefully in your fallacy.” <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/goings-on-about-town/night-life/busta-rhymes-extinction-level-event-2-the-wrath-of-god">Busta Rhymes </a> dropped “Extinction Level Event 2: The Wrath of God,” full of warnings and prophecies. And in a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=prmQgSpV3fA">freestyle</a> viewed around the world, Black Thought rhymes about the wisdom he got at the <a href="https://pluralism.org/mosque-minaret-and-mihrab">masjid</a>. This consciousness is so entwined with music that Kendrick Lamar’s “<a href="https://www.npr.org/2019/08/26/753511135/kendrick-lamar-alright-american-anthem-party-protest">Alright</a>” became a Black Lives Matter movement anthem.</p>
<p>Like hip-hop, this consciousness operates globally. Take, for example, the Iraqi-Canadian <a href="https://music.empi.re/iraqforever">Narcy</a>, Cape Town’s <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j_w4TQCloCA">YoungstaCPT</a>, Cuban hip-hop artist <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CDOg7B8NBsc">Robe L. Ninho</a> and the U.K.’s <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jqp_fsJlw5A">Enny</a>, whose works track their own journey for knowledge of self.</p>
<p>Things have changed since Rakim dropped “Move the Crowd” in 1987. Gentrification is pushing my community out of Brooklyn, and Islam and Muslims are more known and subject to the state and interpersonal violence of anti-Muslim racism. Yet hip-hop still affirms what I see around me – knowledge of self is as vital as ever.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/208559/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Su'ad Abdul Khabeer does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>A scholar explains how a concept that appeared in Nation of Islam literature nearly a century ago essentially defines hip-hop’s consciousness today.Su'ad Abdul Khabeer, Associate Professor of American Culture, University of MichiganLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2040782023-06-09T12:29:14Z2023-06-09T12:29:14ZThe US has a child labor problem – recalling an embarrassing past that Americans may think they’ve left behind<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/530946/original/file-20230608-2398-osoifr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=311%2C187%2C2993%2C2286&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Lewis Wickes Hine, 'A little spinner in a Georgia Cotton Mill, 1909.'</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Gelatin silver print, 5 x 7 in. The Photography Collections, University of Maryland, Baltimore County (P545)</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>At the University of Maryland, Baltimore County’s Special Collections, where I am head curator, we’ve recently completed <a href="https://umbc.edu/stories/preserving-the-photography-of-lewis-hine/">a major digitization and rehousing project</a> of our collection of over 5,400 photographs made by <a href="https://iphf.org/inductees/lewis-hine/">Lewis Wickes Hine</a> in the early 20th century.</p>
<p>Traveling the country with his camera, Hine captured the often oppressive working conditions of thousands of children – some as young as 3 years old. </p>
<p>As I’ve worked with this collection over the past two years, the social and political implications of Hine’s photographs have been very much on my mind. The patina of these black-and-white photographs suggests a bygone era – an embarrassing past that many Americans might imagine they’ve left behind. </p>
<p>But with <a href="https://www.marketplace.org/shows/make-me-smart/in-2023-america-has-a-child-labor-problem/">numerous reports</a> of <a href="https://www.reuters.com/business/us-crack-down-child-labor-amid-massive-uptick-2023-02-27/">child labor violations</a>, many involving immigrants, occurring in the U.S., along with an uptick in <a href="https://www.npr.org/2023/03/10/1162531885/arkansas-child-labor-law-under-16-years-old-sarah-huckabee-sanders">state legislation</a> <a href="https://apnews.com/article/iowa-child-labor-bill-d2546845dd6ad7ec0a2c74fb3fc0def3">rolling back the legal working age</a>, it’s clear that Hine’s work is as relevant today as it was a century ago.</p>
<h2>‘An investigator with a camera’</h2>
<p>A sociologist by training, Hine began making photographs in 1903 while working as a teacher at the progressive Ethical Culture School in New York City. </p>
<p>Between 1903 and 1908, he and his students photographed migrants at Ellis Island. Hine believed that the future of the U.S. rested in its identity as an immigrant nation – a position that contrasted with <a href="https://pluralism.org/xenophobia-closing-the-door">escalating xenophobic fears</a>. </p>
<p>Based on this work, the <a href="https://www.loc.gov/pictures/collection/nclc/background.html">National Child Labor Committee</a>, which advocated for child labor laws, hired Hine to document the living and working conditions of American children. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/530975/original/file-20230608-29-2g9rie.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Boy covered in soot poses with his hands clasped behind his back." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/530975/original/file-20230608-29-2g9rie.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/530975/original/file-20230608-29-2g9rie.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=827&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/530975/original/file-20230608-29-2g9rie.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=827&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/530975/original/file-20230608-29-2g9rie.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=827&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/530975/original/file-20230608-29-2g9rie.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1040&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/530975/original/file-20230608-29-2g9rie.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1040&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/530975/original/file-20230608-29-2g9rie.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1040&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Lewis Wickes Hine, ‘Trapper Boy, Turkey Knob Mine, MacDonald, West Virginia, 1908.’</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Gelatin silver print. 5 x 7 in. The Photography Collections, University of Maryland, Baltimore County (P148)</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>By the late 19th century, several states had passed <a href="https://www.bls.gov/opub/mlr/2017/article/history-of-child-labor-in-the-united-states-part-2-the-reform-movement.htm">laws limiting the age of child laborers</a> and establishing maximum working hours. But at the turn of the century, the <a href="https://www.bls.gov/opub/mlr/2017/article/history-of-child-labor-in-the-united-states-part-1.htm">number of working kids soared</a> – between 1890 and 1910, 18% of children ages 10 to 15 were employed.</p>
<p>In his work for the National Child Labor Committee, Hine journeyed to farms and mills in the industrializing South and the streets and factories of the Northeast. He <a href="https://90025031.weebly.com/uploads/2/2/9/4/22941172/6532401.png?256">used a Graflex camera</a> with 5-by-7-inch glass plate negatives and employed flash powder for nighttime and interior shots, hauling upward of 50 pounds of equipment on his slight frame. </p>
<p>To gain entry into factories and other facilities, Hine sometimes disguised himself as a Bible, postcard or insurance salesman. Other times he’d wait outside to catch workers arriving for or departing from their shifts.</p>
<p>Along with photographic records, Hine collected his subjects’ personal stories, including their ages and ethnicities. He documented their working lives, such as their typical hours and any injuries or ailments they incurred as a result of their labor. </p>
<p>Hine, who considered himself “<a href="https://openlibrary.org/books/OL2525831M/Lewis_Hine_in_Europe">an investigator with a camera</a>,” used this information to create what he termed “photo stories” – combinations of images and text that could be used on posters, in public lectures and in published reports to help the organization advance its mission.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Boys standing at a table splayed with seafood as an older worker obsveres" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/531002/original/file-20230608-21-jdp136.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/531002/original/file-20230608-21-jdp136.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=355&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/531002/original/file-20230608-21-jdp136.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=355&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/531002/original/file-20230608-21-jdp136.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=355&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/531002/original/file-20230608-21-jdp136.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=446&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/531002/original/file-20230608-21-jdp136.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=446&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/531002/original/file-20230608-21-jdp136.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=446&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Lewis Wickes Hine’s photograph of three young fish cutters working at the Seacoast Canning Co. in Eastport, Maine.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://tile.loc.gov/storage-services/service/pnp/nclc/00900/00972v.jpg">National Child Labor Committee collection, Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Legislation follows</h2>
<p>Hine’s muckraking photographs exemplify the genre of <a href="https://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/edph/hd_edph.htm">documentary photography</a>, which relies upon the perceived truthfulness of photography to make a case for social change. </p>
<p>The camera serves as an eyewitness to a societal ill, a problem that needs a solution. Hine portrayed his subjects in a direct manner, typically frontally and looking straight into the camera, against the backdrop of the very factories, farmland or cities where they worked. </p>
<p>By capturing details of his sitters’ bare feet, tattered clothes, soiled faces and hands, and diminutive stature against hulking industrial equipment, Hine made a direct statement about the poor conditions and precarity of these children’s lives.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Five young boys wearing caps and holding newspapers in front of an imposing white building." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/530972/original/file-20230608-19-jlog7o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/530972/original/file-20230608-19-jlog7o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=409&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/530972/original/file-20230608-19-jlog7o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=409&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/530972/original/file-20230608-19-jlog7o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=409&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/530972/original/file-20230608-19-jlog7o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=514&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/530972/original/file-20230608-19-jlog7o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=514&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/530972/original/file-20230608-19-jlog7o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=514&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Lewis Wickes Hine, ‘Group of newsies selling on Capitol steps, April 11, 1912.’</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">The Photography Collections, University of Maryland, Baltimore County (P2904)</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Hine’s photographs made a successful case for child labor reform. </p>
<p>Notably, the National Child Labor Committee’s efforts resulted in Congress establishing the <a href="https://www.childwelfare.gov/pubPDFs/Story_of_CB.pdf">Children’s Bureau</a> in 1912 and passing the <a href="https://www.archives.gov/milestone-documents/keating-owen-child-labor-act">Keating-Owen Act</a> in 1916, which limited working hours for children and prohibited the interstate sale of goods produced by child labor.</p>
<p>Although the <a href="http://sites.gsu.edu/us-constipedia/child-labor-law/">Supreme Court later ruled</a> it and a subsequent Child Labor Tax Law of 1919 unconstitutional, momentum for enshrining protections for child workers had been created. In 1938, Congress passed the <a href="https://www.dol.gov/agencies/whd/flsa">Fair Labor Standards Act</a>, which established restrictions and protections on employing children. </p>
<p>The National Child Labor Committee’s project also included advocacy for the enforcement of existing child labor regulations, a regulatory problem reemerging today as the Department of Labor – the agency tasked with enforcing labor laws – <a href="https://news.bloomberglaw.com/daily-labor-report/dols-wage-arm-vows-child-labor-focus-despite-no-rule-changes">comes under fire</a> for failing to protect child workers.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Hooded girl in a field of cotton stares forlornly at the camera." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/530998/original/file-20230608-29-alq94t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/530998/original/file-20230608-29-alq94t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=438&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/530998/original/file-20230608-29-alq94t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=438&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/530998/original/file-20230608-29-alq94t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=438&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/530998/original/file-20230608-29-alq94t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=551&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/530998/original/file-20230608-29-alq94t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=551&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/530998/original/file-20230608-29-alq94t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=551&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A young picker carries a large sack of cotton on her back.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/young-cotton-picker-carries-a-large-sack-of-cotton-on-her-news-photo/640486085?adppopup=true">Lewis Wickes Hine/Library of Congress via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>The ethics of picturing child labor</h2>
<p>A recent surge of unaccompanied minors, primarily from Central America, has brought new attention to America’s old problem of child labor and has threatened the very laws Hine and the National Child Labor Committee worked to enact. </p>
<p>Some estimates suggest that one-third of migrants under 18 <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/25/us/unaccompanied-migrant-child-workers-exploitation.html">are working illegally</a>, whether it’s laboring more hours than current laws permit, or working without the proper authorizations. Many of them perform hazardous jobs similar to those of Hine’s subjects: handling dangerous equipment and being exposed to noxious chemicals in factories, slaughterhouses and industrial farms.</p>
<p>While the content of Hine’s photographs remains pertinent to today’s child labor crisis, a key distinction between the subject of Hine’s photographs and working children today is race. </p>
<p>Hine focused his camera almost exclusively on white children who arrived in the country during waves of immigration from Europe during the late-19th and early-20th centuries. <a href="https://journalpanorama.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/Zelt-American-Photographs-Abroad.pdf">As art historian Natalie Zelt argues</a>, Hine’s pictorial treatment of Black children – either ignored or forced to the margins of his images – implied to viewers that the face of childhood in America was, by default, white. </p>
<p>The perceived racial hierarchies of Hine’s era reverberate into the present, where underage migrants of color live and work at the margins of society.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A group of women hold drums and signs reading 'Popeyes Stop Exploiting Child Labor.'" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/531004/original/file-20230608-29-lcdhg2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/531004/original/file-20230608-29-lcdhg2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=414&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/531004/original/file-20230608-29-lcdhg2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=414&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/531004/original/file-20230608-29-lcdhg2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=414&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/531004/original/file-20230608-29-lcdhg2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=520&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/531004/original/file-20230608-29-lcdhg2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=520&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/531004/original/file-20230608-29-lcdhg2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=520&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Workers protest outside a Popeye’s restaurant in Oakland, Calif., on May 18, 2023, after reports emerged of the franchise exploiting child labor.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/betty-escobar-left-and-other-fast-food-workers-protest-at-news-photo/1491552588?adppopup=true">Jane Tyska/Digital First Media/East Bay Times via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><a href="https://www.reuters.com/investigates/section/underage-workers/">Contemporary reports</a> of child labor violations offer few images to accompany their texts, graphs and statistics. There are legitimate reasons for this. By not including identifying personal information or portraits, news outlets protect a vulnerable population. <a href="https://www.unicef.org/eca/media/ethical-guidelines">Ethical guidelines</a> frown upon revealing private details of the lives of children interviewed. And, as Hine’s experience demonstrates, it can be difficult to infiltrate the sites of these labor violations, since they are typically kept secure.</p>
<p>Digital cameras and smartphones offer a workaround. Beginning in 2015, the International Labor Organization <a href="https://www.dol.gov/agencies/ilab/our-work/child-forced-labor-trafficking/My-PEC">urged child laborers in Myanmar</a> to become “young activists” and use their own images and words to create “photo stories” – echoing Hine’s use of the term – that the organization could then disseminate.</p>
<p>Photographs of child labor in foreign countries are far more common than those made in the U.S., which leaves the impression that child labor is someone else’s problem, not ours. Perhaps it’s too hard for Americans to look at this domestic issue square in the eyes. </p>
<p>A similar effect is at work when viewing Hine’s photographs today. While they were originally valued for their immediacy, they can seem to belong to a distant past.</p>
<p>But if Hine’s photographic archive of child laborers is evidence of the power of photography to sway public opinion, does the lack of images in today’s reporting – even if nobly intended – create a disconnect? </p>
<p>Is the public capable of understanding the harmful consequences of lack of labor enforcement when the faces of the people affected are missing from the picture?</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/204078/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Beth Saunders does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>While Lewis Hine’s early-20th century photographs of working children compelled Congress to limit or ban child labor, the US Department of Labor is now under fire for failing to enforce these laws.Beth Saunders, Curator and Head of Special Collections and Gallery, University of Maryland, Baltimore CountyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2064392023-05-31T21:26:23Z2023-05-31T21:26:23ZDaniel Penny’s GiveSendGo campaign: Crowdfunding primarily benefits the most privileged<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/528707/original/file-20230528-147502-41rsji.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=315%2C0%2C3079%2C2254&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Daniel Penny, centre, is walked by New York Police Department detectives out of a Manhattan precinct in May 2023. He was charged with manslaughter in the death of Jordan Neely.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Jeenah Moon)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>A former United States Marine was recently charged with second-degree manslaughter <a href="https://nypost.com/2023/05/20/daniel-penny-breaks-silence-on-jordan-neely-nyc-subway-death/">for fatally choking a 30-year-old Black man, Jordan Neely, on a New York subway train</a>. </p>
<p>A GiveSendGo <a href="https://www.givesendgo.com/daniel_penny">crowdfunding campaign</a> has raised over $2.8 million from 57,000 donations for Daniel Penny’s legal expenses. It’s the <a href="https://www.foxbusiness.com/features/marine-vet-daniel-penny-givesendgo-legal-defense-fund-sites-second-biggest-campaign">second largest</a> fundraiser on that platform. </p>
<p>While many people on the left have <a href="https://twitter.com/FredTJoseph/status/1657731710824456195">expressed dismay</a> at the success of this fundraiser, GiveSendGo isn’t necessarily wrong to host it. </p>
<p>What’s more objectionable about this campaign isn’t so much that it helps someone defend himself in court but what it demonstrates about the larger, and highly inequitable, enterprise of crowdfunding itself.</p>
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<h2>Violent crime ban</h2>
<p>Penny’s fundraiser was likely created on GiveSendGo rather than the much larger and better known GoFundMe website because GoFundMe <a href="https://medium.com/gofundme-stories/gofundme-policy-on-fundraisers-for-the-legal-defense-of-violent-crimes-975aff8ba5f6">has a policy</a> against allowing fundraisers for the legal defence of people accused of violent crimes. </p>
<p>After Illinois teenager Kyle Rittenhouse was charged with the death of two Black Lives Matter protesters in 2020, GoFundMe announced a policy banning campaigns for the “<a href="https://www.gofundme.com/c/terms">legal defence of alleged financial and violent crimes</a>.” </p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/528708/original/file-20230528-158323-uyhxuv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A round-faced dark-haired young man closes his eyes tightly." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/528708/original/file-20230528-158323-uyhxuv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/528708/original/file-20230528-158323-uyhxuv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=410&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/528708/original/file-20230528-158323-uyhxuv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=410&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/528708/original/file-20230528-158323-uyhxuv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=410&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/528708/original/file-20230528-158323-uyhxuv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=515&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/528708/original/file-20230528-158323-uyhxuv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=515&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/528708/original/file-20230528-158323-uyhxuv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=515&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Kyle Rittenhouse closes his eyes and cries as he is found not guilty on all counts in Kenosha, Wis., in November 2021.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Sean Krajacic/The Kenosha News via AP, Pool)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><a href="https://time.com/6150317/givesendgo-trucker-convoy-canada-profits/">This has made GiveSendGo a home</a> for <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/may/13/daniel-penny-jordan-neely-defense-fund">right-wing legal causes</a>, including legal defence funds for Rittenhouse, police officers accused of homicide, Jan. 6 rioters, Canada’s so-called Freedom Convoy activists and, most recently, Penny. </p>
<p>In many cases these fundraisers have been enormously successful, raising hundreds of thousands to millions of dollars.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/is-gofundme-violating-its-own-terms-of-service-on-the-freedom-convoy-176147">Is GoFundMe violating its own terms of service on the 'freedom convoy?'</a>
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<p>There are many compelling reasons to condemn the kinds of crowdfunding campaigns that GiveSendGo often hosts. Its lax moderation policies have made it home to a wide range of activities and organizations that spread <a href="https://www.adl.org/resources/press-release/adl-research-finds-extremists-and-bigots-raise-millions-dollars-through">hate and bigotry, harming specific groups</a>. </p>
<p>But helping people accused of violent crimes to defend themselves in court is a different matter. Legal defence and due process in the courts are a basic civil right. While many of us find Penny’s actions horrific and welcome the charge of manslaughter against him, it’s his right to defend himself in court and to access legal counsel to do so.</p>
<h2>Unfair advantage</h2>
<p>Nonetheless, Penny’s fundraiser shows crowdfunding is a wildly unfair way of securing this and other rights. </p>
<p>It was initiated by his legal team even before charges were laid against him. He has benefited from the politicization of his actions and <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/14/nyregion/daniel-penny-jordan-neely-conservative.html">wide support on the political right</a>, including calls to support the fundraiser from politicians like <a href="https://twitter.com/RonDeSantis/status/1657212176178855939">Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis</a> and Republican congressman <a href="https://twitter.com/RepMattGaetz/status/1657145179306950657">Matt Gaetz</a>. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1660243054329036801"}"></div></p>
<p>After Penny was charged with manslaughter, funds began pouring into the 24-year-old’s campaign, helped by exposure on mainstream and social media. As a result, Penny will have the finest legal defence money can buy, likely with ample money left over.</p>
<p>This isn’t the case for the vast majority of people accused of crimes — violent or otherwise — who are equally deserving of effective legal counsel. </p>
<p>Most crowdfunding campaigns <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9566.13568">fall well short of their goals</a>. White beneficiaries generally <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/sf/soab076">fare better</a> than Black and other racialized minorities, and people in relatively wealthy and well-educated communities <a href="https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0229760">raise more money</a> than those in less affluent areas. </p>
<p>All campaigners rely on networks of donors for support. People with more privileged networks can expect better outcomes than people in positions of greater relative need. </p>
<h2>Campaigns with no support</h2>
<p>What this means is that crowdfunding isn’t a fair means for people accused of violent crimes to pay for their legal defence.</p>
<p>For every Daniel Penny or Kyle Rittenhouse, there are thousands of campaigns that get little or no public support. </p>
<p>Perhaps their alleged crimes are abhorrent and people would have no interest in financially supporting those accused of them. But the bottom line is that some of these people are innocent of the crimes they’re accused of and, regardless, everyone is deserving of an effective legal defence. </p>
<p>In the United States and most other democracies, all people in principle have access to public defenders and their basic right to legal due process is secured in this way. But the reality is that public defenders are often <a href="https://stateline.org/2022/06/21/public-defenders-were-scarce-before-covid-its-much-worse-now/">under-resourced</a>, <a href="https://www.aclu.org/news/criminal-law-reform/if-you-care-about-freedom-you-should-be-asking-why-we-dont-fund-our-public-defender-systems">overburdened</a>, and struggle to provide their clients with effective counsel even with their best efforts. </p>
<p>In other cases, <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/us-journal/is-this-the-worst-place-to-be-poor-and-charged-with-a-federal-crime">these defenders fail</a> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/jun/17/poor-rely-public-defenders-too-overworked">outright</a> in their duties to their clients. </p>
<p>That means a defendant with a multi-million-dollar legal fund is in a wildly different position than the much larger mass of people navigating public defender systems. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="College graduates in blue robes hold up anti-racism signs." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/528709/original/file-20230528-201140-yysxz2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/528709/original/file-20230528-201140-yysxz2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/528709/original/file-20230528-201140-yysxz2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/528709/original/file-20230528-201140-yysxz2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/528709/original/file-20230528-201140-yysxz2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/528709/original/file-20230528-201140-yysxz2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/528709/original/file-20230528-201140-yysxz2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">College graduates hold signs reading ‘A Black child was lynched yesterday! Jordan Neely’ and ‘Stand up, Fight Back, Black People Under Attack’ as U.S. President Joe Biden speaks at Howard University’s commencement in Washington, D.C., in May 2023.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Alex Brandon)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Reputational damage</h2>
<p>GoFundMe’s decision to ban campaigns for the legal defence of people accused of violent crimes was likely driven by reputational concerns rather than principle. </p>
<p>It’s understandable that a company that brands itself as <a href="https://medium.com/gofundme-stories/how-gofundme-will-accelerate-progress-towards-our-vision-to-be-the-most-helpful-place-in-the-world-b1e60c95009e">the most helpful place in the world</a> doesn’t want to invite criticism for hosting high-profile campaigns for police officers who killed Black Americans during arrests, political insurrectionists and people who shoot racial justice protesters. </p>
<p>We can question the priorities and values of donors who enthusiastically support primarily white defendants accused of violence against protesters and people experiencing mental health crises while ignoring others in need. </p>
<p>But helping people secure due process in the courts is a noble goal, as are crowdfunding campaigns that help pay for medical care, housing and education. </p>
<p>The problem is that crowdfunding operates largely as a popularity contest, distributing help in deeply inequitable ways. That, among other things, is what Penny’s campaign reveals: Leaving it up to the public to pick who should have access to basic rights leads to deeply unfair outcomes. </p>
<p>If people on the left and right can agree that a legal defence is something everyone deserves, then we should also agree that crowdfunding isn’t the way to secure this right.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/206439/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jeremy Snyder receives funding from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, and the Greenwall Foundation. </span></em></p>Helping people secure due process in the courts is a noble goal. But the problem with crowdfunding campaigns is that they largely operate as popularity contests.Jeremy Snyder, Professor, Health Sciences, Simon Fraser UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2024882023-05-30T12:23:18Z2023-05-30T12:23:18ZWhy more cities are hiring ‘night mayors’ and establishing forms of nighttime governance<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/528904/original/file-20230529-2741-l211gc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=58%2C25%2C5511%2C3682&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A dancer at 'The Fairy Tale Ball' in Madrid in October 2022.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/participant-performs-on-stage-during-the-fairy-tale-ball-news-photo/1433721531?adppopup=true">Aldara Zarraoa/Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Growing up in a small town in Brazil, my daily life was shaped by the rhythms of my family’s working hours. My father has been a night shift worker for over three decades at a local factory. We got used to silent days and busy nights, noticing how our lives weren’t in sync with those of our neighbors.</p>
<p>After all those years, my fascination with the night as a separate, habitable world became a research project as a Mellon Fellow at McGill University. Then it became an opportunity to work with local governments and communities on nightlife policies. </p>
<p>From June 2020 to November 2022, I was a member of the <a href="https://www.mtl2424.ca/en/">MTL 24/24’s first Night Council</a> in Montreal, where I contributed to data research and policies for nighttime governance.</p>
<p>While trying to understand nocturnal life, two main questions emerged: Why should cities govern themselves after dark? How can they responsibly do so?</p>
<p>The recent calls for a “<a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-019-03836-2">science of the night</a>” and evidence-based nighttime policymaking are taking place, as over <a href="https://www.nighttime.org/chapter-five-nighttime-governance-in-times-of-covid/">50 cities around the world</a> have developed new forms of nighttime governance.</p>
<h2>A complex ecosystem</h2>
<p>Often, when people think about the nighttime in cities, a core set of impressions come to mind. </p>
<p>There’s fear of the dark, safety concerns and noise disturbances. It’s a period that’s ripe for partying, illicit activities and recklessness. And then there are the traditional notions of night: silence, sleep and rejuvenation. </p>
<p>Much work has gone into figuring out how to alleviate some of these fears and facilitate quietude, such as <a href="https://direct.mit.edu/books/book/4986/American-IlluminationsUrban-Lighting-1800-1920">building out a public lighting infrastructure</a> and passing <a href="https://www.nonoise.org/lawlib/cities/ordinances/Boston,%20Massachusetts.pdf">noise codes</a> with <a href="https://www.cb5.org/cb5m/announcements/noise_code_guide.pdf">special hotlines</a> for noise complaints.</p>
<p>However, the nightlife of any given city is far more complex. </p>
<p>In my research, I mapped people, activities, organizations and communities <a href="https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.7272288">that operate primarily during the night</a>, forming a nightlife ecosystem.</p>
<p>Some cultural spaces and institutions operate at night, like museums, college libraries and cafes. Media outlets don’t stop reporting about the world at night, while some restaurants and convenience stores serve up food, drinks and cigarettes 24/7. If an accident happens at night, people need access to health care. Childbirth doesn’t wait for the sun to rise.</p>
<p>Waste management and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jsr.2007.04.001">roadwork</a> often take place after dark to avoid interrupting traffic, and many formal and informal laborers <a href="https://autonomy.work/portfolio/workingnights/">do the work of keeping cities running efficiently</a> while other people sleep. In many cities around the world, public transit runs late or overnight, and various communities make use of the city after dark to congregate, learn and explore, whether it’s at Alcoholics Anonymous meetings, night school or open mic nights.</p>
<h2>Governing and studying the night</h2>
<p>Fortunately, policymakers and scholars have recently made a push <a href="http://www.revistascisan.unam.mx/Voices/pdfs/11102.pdf">to prioritize the hours</a> when cities are supposedly asleep.</p>
<p>Amsterdam was the first city to formally recognize the night as a space and time that requires special attention from elected officials, citizens and civil servants.</p>
<p>Following more than 10 years of appointing unofficial night mayors, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/0042098019895224">Amsterdam formally institutionalized the position in 2014</a>, which set the stage for a bureaucracy of councils, departments and commissions dedicated to governing the city after dark.</p>
<p>Perhaps not surprisingly, New York – the largest city in the U.S. – was at the forefront of this movement in the country. </p>
<p>In September 2017, the city established its <a href="https://www.nyc.gov/site/mome/nightlife/nightlife.page">Office of Nightlife</a> with the appointment of Ariel Palitz as its founding director – the equivalent of a night mayor or night czar. With Palitz <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/18/nyregion/ariel-palitz-nyc-nightlife.html?smtyp=cur&smid=tw-nytimes">stepping down from the role in early 2023</a>, the city is looking for a new “nightlife mayor.” This office is tasked with the routine regulation of after-hours businesses and issuing licenses, as well as confronting abstract challenges like the ways in which gentrification leads to rising rent prices, which threaten cultural and community spaces that operate at night.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/528711/original/file-20230528-17-tv54m1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Man sits on construction scaffolding overlooking New York City skyline." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/528711/original/file-20230528-17-tv54m1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/528711/original/file-20230528-17-tv54m1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=806&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/528711/original/file-20230528-17-tv54m1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=806&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/528711/original/file-20230528-17-tv54m1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=806&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/528711/original/file-20230528-17-tv54m1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1013&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/528711/original/file-20230528-17-tv54m1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1013&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/528711/original/file-20230528-17-tv54m1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1013&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">In 2017, New York established its Office of Nightlife.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/view-on-the-empire-state-building-and-the-nocturnal-news-photo/56457316">brandstaetter images/Hulton Archives via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Since then, Washington has established <a href="https://communityaffairs.dc.gov/monc">an office for nocturnal governance</a>, Boston recently created <a href="https://www.wbur.org/news/2023/03/17/boston-nightlife-czar-corean-reynolds-st-patricks-day-newsletter-weekender">the position of night czar</a>, and Atlanta <a href="https://atlanta.eater.com/2022/4/7/23015039/atlanta-mayor-andre-dickens-forms-nightlife-division-night-mayor">formed a Nightlife Division</a>.</p>
<p>Night governance is more institutionalized in the higher-income parts of the world, but experiments and studies also exist in lower-income countries. In 2022, Bogotá joined the “24-Hour Cities Network,” following the publication of <a href="https://observatorio.desarrolloeconomico.gov.co/sites/default/files/files_articles/bogotaproductiva24horas_web_final.pdf">an extensive report</a> commissioned by the local government in 2019, to help city leaders understand the nocturnal needs of the Colombian capital. </p>
<p>Other cities in Latin America, such as San Luis Potosí in Mexico, have self-appointed night ambassadors. Cali, the third-largest city in Colombia, launched an initiative that <a href="https://www.mtl2424.ca/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/DIAGNOSTIC-SUR-LA-VIE-NOCTURNE-A%CC%80-MONTRE%CC%81AL_2020.pdf">mapped the nighttime priorities of its residents</a>.</p>
<p>In academia, there’s also been a push to better understand the night. As the authors of <a href="https://www.nighttime.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/Rise-Up-A-Manifesto-for-Nightlife.pdf">a 2022 nighttime manifesto</a> wrote, “Nightlife inspires individuals, forms communities, and ignites cities. Rather than serving as an escape from the present, nightlife provides us with a window into different realities.”</p>
<p>Encompassing disciplines like <a href="https://shs.hal.science/halshs-00642968/file/La_nuit_derniere_frontiere_de_la_vi.pdf">geography</a> and <a href="https://www.versobooks.com/products/56-nightwalking">history</a>, an <a href="https://doi.org/10.3390/j3010001">interdisciplinary field called “night studies”</a> has emerged, bringing together scholars from various backgrounds to better understand the urban night from a range of perspectives. There have been studies on <a href="https://doi.org/10.1289%2Fehp.117-a20">light pollution</a> and its effects on humans and wildlife, <a href="https://journals.lwbooks.co.uk/soundings/vol-2018-issue-70/abstract-7590/">how the shuttering of LGBTQ nightclubs has weakened communities</a> and how late-night venues and businesses <a href="https://www.creative-footprint.org/new-york/">spur higher rents</a>.</p>
<h2>Responsible tech adoption</h2>
<p>As cities formally adopt systems to govern the night, one of my key concerns centers on the rise of surveillance technology and the deployment of big data. </p>
<p>Even if technology isn’t one of the main pillars of nighttime governance just yet, municipal governments have already been investing in <a href="https://rosalux.nyc/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/RLS-NYC_smart_cities_EN.pdf">smart technologies</a>, often without proper frameworks in place to safeguard human rights. One of the most controversial examples is the deployment of <a href="https://www.ajl.org/federal-office-call">facial recognition technologies in public spaces</a>, which has happened in cities such as New York, Rio de Janeiro and Buenos Aires. <a href="https://www.banfacialrecognition.com/festivals/">The use of facial recognition at music festivals</a> in 2019 led to campaigns for its ban.</p>
<p>In my view, the urge to make the night safer should not simply mean more surveillance. </p>
<p>The use of surveillance technologies has also been shown to increase <a href="https://read.dukeupress.edu/books/book/147/Dark-MattersOn-the-Surveillance-of-Blackness">racial</a> and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/20539517211053712">gender</a> discrimination because they often incorporate biased data sets and disregard historical inequalities. There’s a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/0042098014552934">long history of night regulations and policing</a> that has <a href="https://www.rutgersuniversitypress.org/urban-nightlife/9780813569390">disproportionately targeted minorities</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Person rides bike in front of hanging lights." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/528713/original/file-20230528-158323-ui1pvr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/528713/original/file-20230528-158323-ui1pvr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/528713/original/file-20230528-158323-ui1pvr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/528713/original/file-20230528-158323-ui1pvr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/528713/original/file-20230528-158323-ui1pvr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/528713/original/file-20230528-158323-ui1pvr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/528713/original/file-20230528-158323-ui1pvr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Thousands of bikers take to the streets during an annual event called ‘Ciclovia Nocturna’ in Bogotá, Colombia.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/thousands-of-people-took-to-the-streets-on-their-bicycles-news-photo/1237135190?adppopup=true">Juan David Moreno Gallego/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>With responsible, careful deployment, however, certain data can be a <a href="https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.7272288">useful tool for night governance</a>. For example, responsibly tracking movement at night can help cities understand where more nighttime public transit might be useful.</p>
<p>Expanding safety and a sense of belonging is essential. While <a href="https://www.mtl2424.ca/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/MTL2424_RapportConsultations_fe%CC%81vrier2021.pdf">consulting with residents of Montreal</a>, I learned about the ways in which they wanted <a href="https://seloppgcomufmg.com.br/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/Arte-Comunicacao-e-transpolitica-Selo-PPGCOM-UFMG.pdf">the night to be safer</a> for LGBTQ communities and free from racial and ethnic discrimination. The city’s nightlife was also entangled with the fight against gentrification and more reasonable noise mitigation policies – issues that affect many places in North America.</p>
<p>As more American cities adopt nighttime governance mechanisms, lessons learned from cities like Montreal are valuable – and can help families like my own, who don’t operate on the traditional 9-to-5 clock, <a href="https://hal.science/halshs-01700806">thrive</a>.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/202488/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jess Reia received funding from the Mellon Foundation. They are currently a member of the Coalition for Independent Technology Research and a former member of MTL 24/24's first Night Council in Montreal, Canada.</span></em></p>Nighttime is much more than a source of danger or an occasion to party – it’s a portal into a different world, with rhythms, challenges and lifestyles of its own.Jess Reia, Assistant Professor of Data Science, University of VirginiaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2047212023-05-25T15:10:22Z2023-05-25T15:10:22ZListen: A 5th generation New Yorker traces her family history and finds the roots of anti-Asian violence – and Asian resistance<iframe height="200px" width="100%" frameborder="no" scrolling="no" seamless="" src="https://player.simplecast.com/de138b12-ba9e-4e14-9a19-46cdefce0299?dark=true"></iframe>
<p>In this episode of <a href="https://dont-call-me-resilient.simplecast.com/episodes/a-5th-generation-new-yorker-reveals-tales-of-asian-resistance-since-the-19th-century"><em>Don’t Call Me Resilient</em></a>, author and CUNY professor Ava Chin, a 5th generation Chinese New Yorker, discusses her new book, <a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/563929/mott-street-by-ava-chin/"><em>Mott Street: A Chinese American Family’s Story of Exclusion and Homecoming</em></a>. </p>
<p>The book artfully explores themes of exclusion as it relates to all Chinese Americans, plus personally for Chin with her father, a “crown prince” of Chinatown that she didn’t meet until adulthood. Chin reveals personal family stories against the backdrop of the U.S. eugenics movement and draws a connecting line between <a href="http://aapidata.com/blog/year-after-atlanta/">the current rise in violence against Asians in North America</a> and anti-immigration laws more than 100 years old. </p>
<p>Chin also showcases the resilience, love lives and dreams of Chinese immigrants as well as their resistance to the attitudes and laws of the era.</p>
<p>In our conversation, Chin said: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>This story goes back to a period in time, in the era of reconstruction, when the young country was asking itself, who is an American and who is not…And the decisions that they made back then in the 19th century set us on a course as a nation towards viewing all Asians as being foreign and suspicious. And so the great aim of this book is to shed light on Asian American stories and place Asian Americans into our proper space into the larger American story.</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>Listen and Follow</h2>
<p>You can listen to or follow <em>Don’t Call Me Resilient</em> on <a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/dont-call-me-resilient/id1549798876">Apple Podcasts</a>, <a href="https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5zaW1wbGVjYXN0LmNvbS9qZFg0Ql9DOA">Google Podcasts</a>, <a href="https://open.spotify.com/show/37tK4zmjWvq2Sh6jLIpzp7">Spotify</a> or <a href="https://dont-call-me-resilient.simplecast.com">wherever you listen to your favourite podcasts</a>. </p>
<p><a href="mailto:DCMR@theconversation.com">We’d love to hear from you</a>, including any ideas for future episodes. Join The Conversation on <a href="https://twitter.com/ConversationCA">Twitter</a>, <a href="https://www.facebook.com/TheConversationCanada">Facebook</a>, <a href="https://www.instagram.com/theconversationdotcom/">Instagram</a> and <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/@theconversation">TikTok</a> and use #DontCallMeResilient.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="(Alfred A. Hart Photographs, 1862-1869, Stanford University Libraries)" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/528034/original/file-20230524-17-dehexd.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/528034/original/file-20230524-17-dehexd.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=300&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/528034/original/file-20230524-17-dehexd.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=300&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/528034/original/file-20230524-17-dehexd.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=300&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/528034/original/file-20230524-17-dehexd.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=377&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/528034/original/file-20230524-17-dehexd.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=377&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/528034/original/file-20230524-17-dehexd.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=377&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Chinese railroad workers were often left off the official story. Here, they construct a section of the First Transcontinental Railroad on the Humboldt Plains of Nevada. Archival research by Gordon Chang.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Resources</h2>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/528157/original/file-20230525-17-si8tvn.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/528157/original/file-20230525-17-si8tvn.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/528157/original/file-20230525-17-si8tvn.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=913&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/528157/original/file-20230525-17-si8tvn.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=913&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/528157/original/file-20230525-17-si8tvn.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=913&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/528157/original/file-20230525-17-si8tvn.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1147&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/528157/original/file-20230525-17-si8tvn.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1147&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/528157/original/file-20230525-17-si8tvn.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1147&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Ava Chin’s ‘Mott Street: A Chinese American Family’s Story of Exclusion and Homecoming.’</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Penguin</span></span>
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<p><a href="https://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674260351"><em>The Chinese Must Go: Violence, exclusion and the making of the Alien in America</em></a> by Beth Lew-Williams </p>
<p><a href="https://www.sup.org/books/title/?id=29278"><em>The Chinese and the Iron Road: Building the Transcontinental Railroad</em></a> by Gordon Chang and Shelley Fisher Fishkin</p>
<p><a href="https://www.brookings.edu/blog/how-we-rise/2022/05/18/confronting-the-invisibility-of-anti-asian-racism/">Confronting the invisibility of anti-Asian racism</a> by Jennifer Lee</p>
<p><a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssaho.2021.100232">Anti-Chinese stigma in the Greater Toronto Area during COVID-19: Aiming the spotlight towards community capacity</a> - <em>Social Sciences & Humanities Open</em> </p>
<p><a href="https://www.thenation.com/article/society/asian-american-anti-racism/"><em>“Multiple Things Can Be True”: Understanding the Roots of Anti-Asian Violence</em></a> - <em>The Nation</em></p>
<h2>From the archives, in The Conversation</h2>
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<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-model-minority-myth-hides-the-racist-and-sexist-violence-experienced-by-asian-women-157667">The model minority myth hides the racist and sexist violence experienced by Asian women</a>
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<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/year-of-the-tiger-an-opportunity-for-bold-changes-in-combatting-anti-asian-racism-174385">Year of the Tiger: An opportunity for bold changes in combatting anti-Asian racism</a>
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<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/204721/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
Author Ava Chin, a 5th generation New Yorker, traces the roots of today’s high rates of anti-Asian violence back to 19th century U.S. labour and immigration laws.Vinita Srivastava, Host + Producer, Don't Call Me ResilientLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2016002023-03-10T17:01:51Z2023-03-10T17:01:51ZMeet Me in the Bathroom: documentary shows how 9/11 shaped New York’s indie music scene<p>In 2021, trend forecaster <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/@oldloserinbrooklyn?lang=en">Mandy Lee</a> predicted the return of “indie sleaze”, referring to the hedonistic and unfiltered UK and US indie music scene which stretched from 2006 to 2012. As of March 2023, the Instagram account “@indiesleaze”, which shares images of <a href="https://www.instagram.com/indiesleaze/?hl=en">“the decadence of the mid-late aughts and the indie sleaze party that died in 2012”</a>, has amassed over 135,000 followers.</p>
<p>The appetite is there, then, for Meet Me in the Bathroom. Based on <a href="https://www.harpercollins.com/products/meet-me-in-the-bathroom-lizzy-goodman?variant=32117003419682">the 2017 book</a> of the same name, the documentary is an oral history of and an “<a href="https://www.meetmeinthebathroomfilm.com/synopsis/">immersive journey through</a>” the New York scene.</p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">The trailer for Meet Me in the Bathroom (2023).</span></figcaption>
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<p>Before indie’s “sleaze” era, the New York music scene exploded in the early years of the 2000s, with bands such as <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sWSK-3CN4Nw">LCD Soundsystem</a>, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dkpgz3uQ58U">Interpol</a> and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0J2QdDbelmY">The White Stripes</a> transforming the genre for the rest of the decade. </p>
<p>Its influence is still felt today. Sheffield band, Arctic Monkeys, opened their 2018 album Tranquillity Base Hotel and Casino with a lyric referencing the defining band of the New York indie scene: “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f_2rM8A_1-w">I just wanted to be one of The Strokes.</a>”</p>
<p>The documentary pieces together fan footage, band video diaries and news broadcasts. These frames are stitched together with audio – some from slick media interviews, others that sound like they were recorded in a tin can. </p>
<p>Indie music is a sonic collision of alternative rock, pop and electronica. The indie artist, like their punk predecessor, is a “<a href="https://web.mit.edu/allanmc/www/levistrauss.pdf">bricoleur</a>” – a performer of large number of tasks who takes whatever tools and material that are available to them and creates something new. </p>
<p>The structure of the documentary is presented in a bricolage fashion through its fragmented narration of a city experiencing huge changes. The attacks on the World Trade Center on September 11 2001 reshaped New York’s indie music scene. Shock waves were sent through the city and its inhabitants, including a generation of young musicians.</p>
<p>Indie, like the bricoleur, works with a collection of fragments to form something new. In response to the 9/11 attacks, the New York indie scene transformed both sonically and physically, just as bands including the Yeah Yeah Yeahs moved from Manhattan to Williamsburg in Brooklyn. </p>
<h2>The impact of 9/11 on New York’s indie scene</h2>
<p>To ask Meet Me in the Bathroom to be as expansive as its source material would be an impossible task. The 621-page book follows the New York music scene from 1999 up to 2011, whereas the prominent moment in the documentary is 9/11 and its aftermath.</p>
<p>The claustrophobia and paranoia of the city is represented through shots of news channel coverage of 9/11 as music by the Yeah Yeah Yeahs play in the background. The documentary also uses harrowing amateur footage that captures a grieving city and a community of musicians processing that in their music.</p>
<p>Scenes of a mass exodus from Manhattan transition into an acoustic performance of <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fUcoRjhynB0">NYC’s Like a Graveyard</a> (2001) by The Moldy Peaches, the first indie band the documentary follows. Although not written as a response to 9/11, the song’s release coincided with the attacks. It takes on a specific meaning, distinct from its original intention, as it is paired with the footage.</p>
<p>A notable shift in the documentary occurs here as gig footage no longer represents the youth culture surrounding indie music. Rather, New York’s indie gigs represent a <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/340103292_Emotion_memory_and_re-collective_value_shared_festival_experiences">loss of innocence</a>. </p>
<p>As the camera pans across a sweaty crowd, both audience and musician are experiencing a collective trauma. The experience of both the loss of loved ones and a once-familiar city. In one scene, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs singer Karen O shares that, for her, performance offered escapism.</p>
<p><a href="https://whitmanarchive.org/published/LG/1867/poems/184">Walt Whitman’s poem Leaves of Grass</a> bookends the documentary and acts as a reminder of the New York music scene’s resistance, resilience and growth. The music coming out of New York in the early 2000s shaped the next decade of music. But, as Meet Me in the Bathroom shows, it was forged in a time of collective trauma.</p>
<p><em>Meet Me in the Bathroom is in UK cinemas from 10 March 2023</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/201600/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Amy McCarthy does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The oral history showcases how the indie music scene became a way for many New Yorkers to channel their grief after 9/11.Amy McCarthy, PhD Researcher in English Literature, York St John UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1987072023-02-03T13:30:53Z2023-02-03T13:30:53ZThe ethical dilemmas behind plans for involuntary treatment to target homelessness, mental illness and addiction<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/507705/original/file-20230201-17231-xvmqx2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=4%2C6%2C1017%2C722&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Involuntary treatment for homeless people aims to help – but also raises ethical debates.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/homeless-man-sleeps-on-a-subway-bench-september-7-2022-in-news-photo/1421695998?phrase=new%20york%20homeless&adppopup=true">Robert Nickelsberg/Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Over the past year, cities across the United States have unveiled new policy plans to address homelessness amid <a href="https://www.kpbs.org/news/local/2022/06/13/mayor-glorias-push-for-homeless-progressive-enforcement-leads-to-eightfold-spike-in-arrests">rising concerns</a> about health <a href="https://www.opb.org/article/2022/11/30/portland-mayor-promises-action-central-eastside-safety-concerns/">and crime</a> – for homeless people themselves, as well as for surrounding communities. Notably, several proposals include civil commitment, also referred to as involuntary treatment, for people with severe mental illness or substance use disorders.</p>
<p>In November 2022, for example, New York City Mayor Eric Adams <a href="https://www.nyc.gov/office-of-the-mayor/news/870-22/mayor-adams-plan-provide-care-individuals-suffering-untreated-severe-mental#/%5B0">announced a plan</a> to <a href="https://www.nyc.gov/assets/home/downloads/pdf/press-releases/2022/Mental-Health-Involuntary-Removals.pdf?utm_medium=email&utm_name=&utm_source=govdelivery">use mental health laws</a> to facilitate involuntary treatment when people are unable to care for themselves, or when their actions endanger others. </p>
<p>Court-mandated treatment could include therapy, social workers, housing referrals, medication or other interventions, either in hospitals or on an outpatient basis. New York’s plan builds on other recent initiatives to connect <a href="https://www.nyc.gov/office-of-the-mayor/news/087-22/mayor-adams-releases-subway-safety-plan-says-safe-subway-prerequisite-new-york-city-s#/0">more homeless</a> and mentally ill people with shelters or <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/04/nyregion/nearly-2600-apartments-for-mentally-ill-and-homeless-people-sit-vacant.html">supportive housing</a>.</p>
<p>Political leaders in <a href="https://www.gov.ca.gov/2023/01/13/los-angeles-county-accelerates-care-court-implementation-to-support-californians-with-untreated-severe-mental-illness/">California</a> and <a href="https://www.opb.org/article/2022/12/12/portland-mayor-ted-wheeler-suggests-easing-process-involuntarily-commit-mentally-ill/">Portland, Oregon,</a> have approved similar plans to use civil commitment laws.</p>
<p>As a <a href="https://health.usf.edu/publichealth/overviewcoph/faculty/katherine-drabiak">health law and medical ethics professor</a>, I believe it’s worth explaining how these laws work and the <a href="https://www.thehastingscenter.org/new-york-citys-involuntary-commitment-plan-fulfilling-a-moral-obligation/">ethical issues</a> they raise.</p>
<h2>How civil commitment works</h2>
<p>Civil commitment laws have been <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/20784735?seq=3">around for decades</a>. However, they only recently appear to have regained traction as a strategy for addressing the intersection of homelessness, <a href="https://www.samhsa.gov/sites/default/files/civil-commitment-continuum-of-care.pdf">mental illness</a> and <a href="https://pdaps.org/datasets/civil-commitment-for-substance-users-1562936854">substance use disorder</a>.</p>
<p>States have enacted these laws based on two theories. First, under the doctrine of <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/parens_patriae">parens patriae</a>, a Latin phrase that means “parent of the nation,” states have a legal and ethical obligation to step in and help vulnerable people who cannot act for themselves. Second, in public health law, the concept of <a href="https://doi.org/10.1001/jama.283.22.2979">police power</a> means that states have a duty to pass and enforce laws to preserve public health and safety, which can be impacted by homelessness.</p>
<p>Every state has <a href="https://pdaps.org/datasets/civil-commitment-for-substance-users-1562936854">different laws</a> outlining civil commitment. Importantly, these laws are a civil mechanism for courts to oversee a treatment plan for people with severe mental illness or substance use disorders that meet specific criteria. For example, a court could assess testimony and evidence from clinicians that a person has such a severe substance use disorder that he repeatedly loses consciousness, will not accept assistance and risks freezing to death outside. These laws do not “<a href="https://www.opb.org/article/2022/12/12/portland-mayor-ted-wheeler-suggests-easing-process-involuntarily-commit-mentally-ill/">criminalize</a>” or punish homelessness.</p>
<p>During the initial assessment process, the person receives care in a hospital, where clinicians determine their medical needs. Afterward, the court may order a treatment plan that would outline requirements for the person to accept shelter and maintain weekly appointments such as attending therapy or drug treatment. Treatment in inpatient hospitals are generally only used in cases of severe illness, and <a href="https://www.samhsa.gov/sites/default/files/civil-commitment-continuum-of-care.pdf">laws require</a> using the least restrictive plan possible.</p>
<p>Civil commitment laws also require due process, or a <a href="https://www.disabilityrightssc.org/involuntary-mental-health-commitments/">fair procedure</a> for people to participate in the process, object and have assistance from <a href="https://www.nycourts.gov/ad3/mhls/Ch-08_12-09-16.pdf">legal counsel</a>.</p>
<h2>Understanding chronic homelessness</h2>
<p>What is often called “the homeless” population is actually <a href="https://www.samhsa.gov/sites/default/files/programs_campaigns/homelessness_programs_resources/hrc-factsheet-current-statistics-prevalence-characteristics-homelessness.pdf">multiple groups with different needs</a>, including youth, families, veterans, people with short episodes of homelessness spurred by job loss or unexpected bills, and the chronically homeless.</p>
<p>However, the most visible population – those who are chronically homeless without shelter – suffer from <a href="https://doi.org/10.1097/JCP.0000000000001528">high rates</a> of untreated severe substance use disorders and mental illness, <a href="https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2019-10-07/homeless-population-mental-illness-disability">though estimates vary</a>. The University of California’s California Policy Lab <a href="https://www.capolicylab.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/Health-Conditions-Among-Unsheltered-Adults-in-the-U.S.pdf">analyzed surveys of 64,000 people</a> who were homeless across 15 different states and found that 78% of the unsheltered homeless suffered from mental illness and 75% from a substance abuse disorder. Fifty percent experienced both.</p>
<p>Clinicians note that mental illness and <a href="https://www.capolicylab.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/Health-Conditions-Among-Unsheltered-Adults-in-the-U.S.pdf">substance use disorders can contribute</a> to homelessness, and <a href="https://journalofethics.ama-assn.org/article/four-ways-limit-use-force-care-persons-experiencing-homelessness/2021-11">worsen it</a>, too.</p>
<h2>Ethical issues</h2>
<p>Civil commitment aims to improve the well-being of individuals and communities. But it raises difficult questions about core ethical issues such as autonomy – people’s right to make medical decisions for themselves – and beneficence, or ensuring that interventions provide more benefit than harm.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="People at a protest hold signs, including one that says 'Healing not Hospitalization'" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/507719/original/file-20230201-10184-z8uwxf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/507719/original/file-20230201-10184-z8uwxf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/507719/original/file-20230201-10184-z8uwxf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/507719/original/file-20230201-10184-z8uwxf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/507719/original/file-20230201-10184-z8uwxf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/507719/original/file-20230201-10184-z8uwxf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/507719/original/file-20230201-10184-z8uwxf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Opponents of New York Mayor Eric Adams’ plans for involuntary treatment participate in a rally at City Hall.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/opponents-of-new-york-mayor-eric-adams-plan-to-news-photo/1447764898?phrase=homeless%20new%20york&adppopup=true">Spencer Platt/Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><a href="https://doi.org/10.1377/forefront.20180329.955541">Some experts oppose</a> using civil commitment laws and assert that states should rely on voluntary services. Voluntary treatment, some of them contend, is just as effective but preserves autonomy and the freedom to choose or decline treatment.</p>
<p>Critics also assert that involuntary commitment violates the principle of beneficence, <a href="https://www.thehastingscenter.org/new-york-citys-involuntary-commitment-plan-fulfilling-a-moral-obligation/">because it can stigmatize</a> homeless people with severe mental health and substance use disorders by implying that they do not belong in public. Others contend it is cruel and coercive.</p>
<p>Advocates for plans like New York City’s, on the other hand, assert that civil commitment laws are not only effective at <a href="https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/homelessness/story/2021-04-22/fatal-shooting-raises-questions-of-police-response-to-homeless">connecting people with help</a>, but fulfill a moral obligation to prevent people from suffering on city streets. </p>
<p>In most instances, health care workers and ethicists presume that adults can make their own medical choices in line with their values and needs. But people with severe mental illness or substance use disorder may experience impairment in their ability to deliberate, assess their needs and make decisions, which <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/7129619/">compromises their autonomy</a>. Though <a href="https://doi.org/10.1056/NEJMms1610124">involuntary treatment</a> violates autonomy, it can also help people regain it through stabilization and recovery.</p>
<p><a href="https://doi.org/10.1056/nejmp1811623">Many clinicians</a> and outreach workers argue that glossing over the impact of untreated mental illness and substance use disorder violates the principle of beneficence, because avoiding treatment may result in more health harms.</p>
<h2>Wider effects</h2>
<p>Ethics debates must also grapple with how treatment affects the surrounding community, <a href="https://www.opb.org/article/2022/11/30/portland-mayor-promises-action-central-eastside-safety-concerns/">such as safety</a> – including for other people experiencing homelessness. As one data point, the San Diego District Attorney’s Office has compiled data showing people who are homeless are far more likely to be the victims of crime. Its data found that this population commits <a href="https://www.sdcda.org/content/MediaRelease/Homeless%20Data%20and%20Plan%20News%20Release%20FINAL%203-21-22.pdf">dramatically higher rates</a> of vandalism, arson, assault and burglary as well, although there are few nationwide studies. And while most people who are homeless, have a mental health illness or have a substance use disorder are not violent, some studies suggest people with a severe mental health illness are <a href="https://ps.psychiatryonline.org/doi/full/10.1176/ps.2008.59.2.153?utm_source=TrendMD&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=Psychiatric_Services_TrendMD_0">three to four times more likely</a> to display violent behavior.</p>
<p><a href="https://doi.org/10.1176/appi.ps.52.3.337">Some evidence</a> suggests that civil commitment can increase follow-through with treatment plans, reduce acute hospitalization and decrease violent behavior. <a href="https://www.pewtrusts.org/en/research-and-analysis/blogs/stateline/2019/09/11/gravely-disabled-homeless-forced-into-mental-health-care-in-more-states">Proponents assert</a> that despite the coercive nature of civil commitment, it provides benefit as a step toward restoring the health of each person, and of society.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/198707/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Katherine Drabiak does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>New York City’s plan has garnered the most attention – and criticism – but several cities are expanding their own intervention programs.Katherine Drabiak, Associate Professor of Health Law, Public Health Law and Medical Ethics, University of South FloridaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1917312022-11-17T13:27:40Z2022-11-17T13:27:40ZWhy the re-release of iconic porn film ‘Deep Throat’ fizzled<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/495448/original/file-20221115-23-7wrxw2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=54%2C8%2C1745%2C1127&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Linda Lovelace starred in 1972's 'Deep Throat,' which kicked off porn's golden age.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/deep-throat-poster-us-poster-art-linda-lovelace-1972-news-photo/1137256251?phrase=deep throat&adppopup=true">LMPC/Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>In 1972, “<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0068468/">Deep Throat</a>,” a feature-length porn film directed by Gerard Damiano, was hailed for moving pornography into the mainstream and beginning a golden age of theatrical porn. </p>
<p>To mark the 50th anniversary of its release, <a href="https://damianofilms.com/deepthroat50/4k-restoration">a restored high-resolution version</a> was released earlier this year. Yet outside of a few screenings in New York City, <a href="https://nypost.com/2022/06/10/deep-throat-still-hard-to-swallow-on-50th-anniversary/">most U.S. theaters expressed little interest in showing the film</a>.</p>
<p>As the editor of the essay collection “<a href="https://www.rutgersuniversitypress.org/pornography/9780813538716">Pornography: Film and Culture</a>,” I’m not surprised by the relatively muted fanfare to the re-release. </p>
<p>To me, it’s a sign of how much pornography has changed during the past 50 years.</p>
<h2>‘Stag’ shorts in ‘smokers’</h2>
<p>Film pornography <a href="https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520219434/hard-core">has a long underground history</a>, going back to “stag” shorts in the silent film era, which for decades were screened in “smokers” – named after the all-male audience that gathered to watch the films together and smoke cigars.</p>
<p>In the late 1960s, pornography moved into theaters in porn districts in cities like New York, and these places remained male-dominated settings. The films initially were feature length and while they lacked traditional narratives, many of them had various forms of narrative structure. The 1970 documentary “<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0178315/">Sexual Freedom in Denmark</a>,” for example, used educating the public about Denmark’s liberal censorship laws and red light districts as a pretext to screen explicit scenes featuring hardcore sex.</p>
<p>Films such as “<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0315949/">He & She</a>,” also released in 1970, featured a young, attractive heterosexual couple. Similarly, this film fashioned itself as instructive <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/3704912">in the tradition of marriage manual books</a> but used erotic hardcore pornography to teach the ins and outs of various sexual techniques. </p>
<p>Many other films with now-forgotten titles from the 1970s featured different couples simply having sex. But even those productions often had a loose narrative structure. </p>
<h2>The rise of ‘porno chic’</h2>
<p>“Deep Throat,” which stars pornographic actress Linda Lovelace, tells the story of a woman whose clitoris is in her throat. Because it was a feature film centered on female sexual pleasure, porn started being seen as somewhat respectable. </p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="A billboard advertises 'Deep Throat' as a can't miss theatrical release." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/495460/original/file-20221115-11-i3e6ks.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/495460/original/file-20221115-11-i3e6ks.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=910&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/495460/original/file-20221115-11-i3e6ks.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=910&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/495460/original/file-20221115-11-i3e6ks.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=910&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/495460/original/file-20221115-11-i3e6ks.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1144&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/495460/original/file-20221115-11-i3e6ks.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1144&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/495460/original/file-20221115-11-i3e6ks.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1144&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">‘Deep Throat’ brought porn into the mainstream.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/theater-marquee-advertises-the-film-deep-throat-starring-news-photo/2884111?phrase=deep%20throat&adppopup=true">Arnie Sachs/CNP via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>When “Deep Throat” premiered in New York in 1972, the response was enthusiastic, giving rise to the term “<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/film/2022/jun/10/deep-throat-at-50-linda-lovelace-porn-mainstream">porno chic</a>.” Movie stars, theater directors and composers embraced the film. Critic Roger Ebert, though he panned the film, <a href="https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/deep-throat-1973">called it</a> “the first stag film to see with a date.”</p>
<p>The norm in pornography had been for viewers to simply enter and leave the theater whenever they wished. Starting times were not even listed in newspapers. With “Deep Throat,” however, couples stood in line waiting for the next showing to start. This was, for many couples, their first foray into porn theater districts. </p>
<p>The film is said to have ushered in porn’s golden age, and classics such as “<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0068260/">Behind the Green Door</a>” (1972), “<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0075018/">The Opening of Misty Beethoven</a>” (1976) and “<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0075018/">Barbara Broadcast</a>” (1977) soon followed. These films had comparatively big budgets and told stories with central characters. The production values were high, with good lighting, composition and editing. </p>
<h2>The home viewing experience</h2>
<p>But by early 1980s, theatrical porn had fallen by the wayside, and home video porn took off. </p>
<p>Homes created comfortable viewing environments for women who felt alienated from – and threatened by – the so-called theater “raincoat crowd” that one female porn film performer <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt1dszzbk">described as</a> “isolated men masturbating under their coats.” Now women – and men who were also turned off by the movie theater atmosphere – could watch those same movies from the comfort of their living rooms.</p>
<p>The rise of digital, streaming porn further upended the industry. Feature-length films were replaced by low-budget, comparatively short videos, with no narrative. They often centered on kinks or simple sexual fantasies – feet fetish videos or skimpy narrative premises such as sex between realtors and their clients. </p>
<p>Sometimes longer versions are available for pay, but these often simply feature extended sex scenes rather than plot or character development. Streaming porn on the internet effectively ended the production and exhibition of features. Porn theaters and video stores – where customers could watch porn films in private viewing booths – have become relics of a bygone era.</p>
<h2>The re-release lands with a thud</h2>
<p>The response to the re-release of “Deep Throat” was so muted that very few people probably even know that 2022 is the 50th anniversary of the film’s initial release. Movie theaters didn’t show it and most of the media didn’t cover it. A high-resolution restored DVD is unavailable, nor is it streaming.</p>
<p>Although he acknowledged today’s appetite for digital porn, the son of director Gerard Damiano, Gerard Jr., seemed to pin the blame on Americans’ puritanical approach to sex. </p>
<p>Americans are “very skittish about talking about anything that has to do with sex,” <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/film/2022/jun/10/deep-throat-at-50-linda-lovelace-porn-mainstream">he told The Guardian</a>. “People today are so afraid of anything sexual because they don’t know what to do… There’s not a lot of sex positivity and we’re hoping to reintroduce that with this film.”</p>
<p><a href="https://nypost.com/2022/06/10/deep-throat-still-hard-to-swallow-on-50th-anniversary/">In a separate interview</a> with the New York Post, he noted, “Europe is much more receptive to us. We couldn’t find a U.S. venue that was comfortable showing the film.”</p>
<p>But in my view, saying Americans are skittish about sex doesn’t explain the box office failure of the re-release of “Deep Throat.” The current porn industry was neither built on skittishness nor fear of sex. A quick visit to Pornhub disabuses that notion. </p>
<p>Pornography is a genre much like others with a complex and changing history. It is not one fixed thing: It is not always dangerous, evil trash; nor does watching porn make people sexual perverts or worse. <a href="https://nbc-2.com/news/2021/01/12/heres-how-your-porn-habit-could-be-helping-human-sex-traffickers/amp/">While such serious issues</a> as sex trafficking and sexual abuse have arisen in the porn industry, similar problems have also plagued Hollywood involving high-profile figures such as <a href="https://people.com/tv/kevin-spacey-controversy-timeline/">Kevin Spacey,</a> <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-41594672">Harvey Weinstein</a> and <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/60-women-accused-bill-cosby-his-conviction-had-been-considered-n1272864">Bill Cosby</a>. </p>
<p>The re-release of “Deep Throat” may have ultimately collided with the #MeToo movement. <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Ordeal-by-Linda-Lovelace-1980-01-03/dp/B01FKWZ9QC/ref=sr_1_5?crid=1BXQCWJI87IFB&keywords=Linda+Lovelace&qid=1668567351&s=books&sprefix=linda+lovelace%2Cstripbooks%2C170&sr=1-5">In her highly publicized memoir</a>, lead actress Linda Lovelace described being physically abused at home by her husband, who worked as a production manager on the film. She also wrote about feeling coerced on set while shooting the sex scenes. </p>
<p>That aspect of the film’s legacy – more than any sort of squeamishness towards sex – could have also contributed to the reluctance of theaters to screen it.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/191731/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Peter Lehman does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The son of the director has argued that Americans are still too squeamish about sex to fully appreciate the film. A porn scholar disagrees.Peter Lehman, Emeritus Professor, Film and Media Studies in English, Arizona State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1930062022-10-27T12:27:53Z2022-10-27T12:27:53ZThe first televised World Series spurred America’s television boom, 75 years ago<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/491965/original/file-20221026-21-k03uax.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=47%2C59%2C3898%2C2780&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">An estimated 3.5 million Americans viewed the first televised World Series at bars, restaurants and storefronts.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/crowd-watching-world-series-game-on-tv-set-in-window-of-news-photo/515248870?phrase=crowd gazing in window at television new york&adppopup=true">Bettmann/Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Boston Red Sox catcher Carlton Fisk <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2WRi6iZAl-I">desperately waving at his home run to stay in play</a>. Los Angeles Dodgers outfielder Kirk Gibson <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AZzGkoXlaTM">pumping his arms</a> as he hobbles around second base after muscling a home run off Dennis Eckersley, the Oakland A’s dominant closer. The ground ball hit by New York Mets outfielder Mookie Wilson <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rpyJjecJnuI">skipping through the legs</a> of Red Sox first baseman Bill Buckner. </p>
<p>Some of the most dramatic images in World Series history are ingrained in the minds of baseball fans thanks to television coverage. This year’s World Series between the Philadelphia Phillies and Houston Astros will surely bring another timeless highlight to the <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2021/11/03/2021-world-series-ratings-braves-astros-game-6-draws-14point3-million.html">12 million or so viewers</a> expected to watch. </p>
<p>Yet the first 43 World Series weren’t televised at all. It wasn’t until the 1947 series between the New York Yankees and Brooklyn Dodgers – 75 years ago – that fans could watch their favorite players duke it out on screen. </p>
<p>As I detail in my book “<a href="https://www.nebraskapress.unl.edu/bison-original/9780803248250/">Center Field Shot: A History of Baseball on Television</a>,” which I co-authored with Robert Bellamy, the telecasts became a sensation. They drew millions of Americans to a new medium at a time when there were no national networks, only a handful of stations and somewhere between 50,000 and 60,000 TVs in the entire country.</p>
<h2>Negotiations go down to the wire</h2>
<p>In August 1947, the television industry anticipated a possible all-New York World Series: The Yankees had a huge lead in the American League, while the Dodgers also held a substantial one in the National League. </p>
<p>If the two teams met in October, New York’s three television stations – run by NBC ABC, and the now-extinct <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/DuMont-Television-Network">DuMont</a> – decided they wanted to cover the games.</p>
<p>But the rights to televise the games were held by the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Mutual-Broadcasting-System">Mutual Broadcasting System</a>, a radio network that had no television division. Thus, Mutual would need to farm out the coverage to one or more New York stations. </p>
<p>Although no national television network existed at the time, NBC, DuMont and CBS did have the means to link stations on the Eastern Seaboard through a combination of coaxial cable, microwave and over-the-air broadcast transmissions, expanding the potential audience for the World Series. The Series would air on eight stations in four markets: New York City, Philadelphia, Washington and Schenectady, New York.</p>
<p>While the Yankees-Dodgers series materialized, the televising of the Series almost didn’t. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Boy hawking souvenir programs." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/491966/original/file-20221026-21-dnupqt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/491966/original/file-20221026-21-dnupqt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=451&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/491966/original/file-20221026-21-dnupqt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=451&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/491966/original/file-20221026-21-dnupqt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=451&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/491966/original/file-20221026-21-dnupqt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=567&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/491966/original/file-20221026-21-dnupqt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=567&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/491966/original/file-20221026-21-dnupqt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=567&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Broadcasters got their wish when the New York Yankees faced the Brooklyn Dodgers in the 1947 World Series.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/new-york-ny-yankee-and-dodger-fans-are-jamming-the-yankee-news-photo/515585048?phrase=boy%20selling%20souvenir%20programs&adppopup=true">Bettmann/Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The predictable stumbling block was money. Baseball commissioner <a href="https://baseballhall.org/hall-of-famers/chandler-happy">Albert B. “Happy” Chandler</a> wanted $100,000 for the television rights to the Series. Gillette, the sponsor of the radio coverage on the Mutual Broadcasting System, balked at the steep price given television’s limited penetration – only 50,000 to 60,000 U.S. households owned TVs at the time. The radio rights to reach the nation’s 29 million homes with radios had cost Mutual only $175,000. </p>
<p>Initial negotiations produced an offer of $60,000 from two sponsors: Gillette and the Ford Motor Company. New York’s <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Liebmann">Liebmann Breweries</a> offered to meet Chandler’s $100,000 demand, but the commissioner refused because he did not want beer ads when youngsters would be prominent members of the audience.</p>
<p>Even before a coverage deal had been finalized, bars, restaurants, television dealers, department stores, automobile dealerships and movie theaters started advertising the event, urging customers to come by to watch the World Series on television. And in the days and weeks leading up to the Fall Classic, the demand for television sets spiked. </p>
<p>The excitement pressured Chandler and the sponsors to reach a compromise. </p>
<p>Finally, on Sept. 26, just four days before Game 1 at Yankee Stadium, Chandler, Gillette and Ford <a href="https://worldradiohistory.com/Archive-BC/BC-1947/1947-10-06-BC.pdf">agreed to $65,000 for the rights to televise the World Series</a>. Production costs added another $35,000 to the sponsors’ bill. Mutual, Gillette and Ford also agreed to allow all three New York TV stations and those connected to them to broadcast the game, providing the widest possible exposure.</p>
<h2>An unexpectedly strong response</h2>
<p>Initial industry estimates had the Series reaching between 600,000 and 700,000 viewers, many of them located in the bars and restaurants where a substantial number of the nation’s first television receivers were located. </p>
<p>But that forecast ended up being conservative. Although home viewing for the seven games was substantial – 450,000 in a <a href="https://worldradiohistory.com/Archive-All-Music/Billboard/40s/1947/BB-1947-10-18.pdf">Hooper rating survey commissioned by Billboard</a> – the out-of-home viewing numbers were extraordinary: Another 3.5 million were estimated to have viewed the World Series in public locales. </p>
<p>Hooper’s survey found that an average of 82 customers showed up at each of these public locations to watch at least some of the World Series. Variety reported that bar owners saw a 500% increase in patrons during the Series, with some offering reservations to their regulars for a choice location near the TV set.</p>
<p>What viewers from those choice seats saw was primitive by today’s standards. The screen was usually small – 12 diagonal inches or less. The low-definition images were black and white and came from just a few cameras. No extreme close-ups were possible. There was no instant replay, so fans had to pay attention or the moment was lost. </p>
<p>But for the first time, they were seeing the World Series live, and for free.</p>
<h2>The TV industry’s World Series bump</h2>
<p>The audience liked what they saw. <a href="https://worldradiohistory.com/Archive-All-Music/Billboard/40s/1947/BB-1947-10-11.pdf">Billboard</a>, quoting The Newark Evening News, reported that TV “audiences hung on every turn of the video cameras and the ‘oohs and aahs’ at a slide or strikeout were something radio broadcasters would give their eye teeth to hear.” </p>
<p>It didn’t hurt that <a href="https://www.baseball-reference.com/postseason/1947_WS.shtml">the 1947 World Series</a> ended up being so dramatic. The Yankees prevailed in seven games, but Brooklyn owned the two greatest moments.</p>
<p>In the bottom of the ninth inning of Game 4, Dodgers pitch hitter <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oWjpOAy5zCM">Cookie Lavagetto ended Yankee starter Bill Biven’s no-hit bid</a> with a two-out hit, driving in two runs and sending the Dodgers to a 3-2 win. Then, in Game 6, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4SrtxVs8uMI">Al Gionfriddo’s stunning catch of Joe DiMaggio’s deep drive to left field</a> helped preserve an 8-6 Dodgers victory, leading legendary Dodgers broadcaster <a href="https://books.google.com/books/about/Red_Barber.html?id=lWhgEAAAQBAJ">Red Barber</a> to exclaim, “Oh, Doctor!”</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/oWjpOAy5zCM?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Cookie Lavagetto’s double won the game for the Brooklyn Dodgers in Game 4.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The Washington broadcasts even reached the White House, where President Harry S. Truman, his staff and the D.C. press corps watched some of the contests. The <a href="https://worldradiohistory.com/Archive-Televiser/Televiser-1947-09-10.pdf">industry magazine Televiser</a> reported an enthusiastic response from the White House viewers: “If TV can do as good a job as that on perhaps the most difficult of all subjects to televise, then it really has arrived.” </p>
<p>The public’s embrace of the World Series on television, along with the generous coverage of the telecasts by the press, provided an important boost to the nascent television industry. The Sporting News reported that the first televised World Series increased sales for new receivers in New York to levels not seen since the early days of radio. Similar reports came from dealers in Washington and Philadelphia.</p>
<p><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Sarnoff">David Sarnoff</a>, chairman of RCA – which owed NBC and was a leading manufacturer of receivers – regarded television’s coverage of baseball and its crowning event, the World Series, as one of the most important factors in triggering the growth of the new medium. </p>
<p>Television makers, <a href="https://books.google.com/books/about/Center_Field_Shot.html?id=6kPQhpS-X8YC">he concluded</a>, “had to have baseball games and if [baseball owners] had demanded millions for the rights, we would have had to give it to them.” </p>
<p>The television industry eventually did pay millions and then billions for those rights. <a href="https://www.sportsbusinessjournal.com/Daily/Issues/2018/11/15/Media/MLB-Fox.aspx">Fox’s latest seven-year contract</a>, including rights to the World Series, pays Major League Baseball $5.1 billion. </p>
<p>Happy Chandler’s 1947 demand for a $100,000 seems like quite a bargain today.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/193006/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>James Walker does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Just five days before the first pitch of the 1947 World Series, a deal was struck to air the Series on television.James Walker, Emeritus Professor of Communication, Saint Xavier UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1878632022-09-26T20:32:50Z2022-09-26T20:32:50ZDebate: How to stop our cities from being turned into AI jungles<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/486555/original/file-20220926-12-8kztvd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C383%2C3464%2C2359&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">In the city of London, security cameras can even be found in cemeteries. In 2021 the mayor's office launched an effort to establish guidelines for research around emerging technology.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e5/City_of_London_Cemetery_Columbarium_security_camera_2_lighter.jpg">Acabashi/Wikimedia</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>As artificial intelligence grows more ubiquitous, its potential and the challenges it presents are coming increasingly into focus. How we balance the risks and opportunities is shaping up as one of the defining questions of our era. In much the same way that cities have emerged as hubs of innovation in culture, politics, and commerce, so they are defining the frontiers of AI governance.</p>
<p>Some examples of how cities have been taking the lead include the <a href="https://citiesfordigitalrights.org/">Cities Coalition for Digital Rights</a>, the <a href="https://recherche.umontreal.ca/english/strategic-initiatives/montreal-declaration-for-a-responsible-ai/">Montreal Declaration for Responsible AI</a>, and the <a href="https://opendialogueonai.com/">Open Dialogue on AI Ethics</a>. Others can be found in San Francisco’s <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/14/us/facial-recognition-ban-san-francisco.html">ban of facial-recognition technology</a>, and New York City’s push for <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/new-york-city-artificial-intelligence-hiring-restriction/">regulating the sale of automated hiring systems</a> and creation of an <a href="https://www1.nyc.gov/site/ampo/index.page">algorithms management and policy officer</a>. Urban institutes, universities and other educational centres have also been forging ahead with a range of <a href="https://fari.brussels/">AI ethics initiatives</a>.</p>
<p>These efforts point to an emerging paradigm that has been referred to as <a href="https://ailocalism.org/">AI Localism</a>. It’s a part of a larger phenomenon often called <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/book/the-new-localism/">New Localism</a>, which involves cities taking the lead in regulation and policymaking to develop context-specific approaches to a variety of problems and challenges. We have also seen an increased uptake of city-centric approaches <a href="https://china.elgaronline.com/view/edcoll/9781788973274/9781788973274.xml">within international law frameworks</a>. </p>
<p>In so doing, municipal authorities are filling gaps left by insufficient state, national or global governance frameworks related to AI and other complex issues. Recent years, for example, have seen the emergence of <a href="https://ir.lawnet.fordham.edu/faculty_scholarship/611/">“broadband localism”</a>, in which local governments address the digital divide; and <a href="https://www.law.nyu.edu/sites/default/files/upload_documents/Rubinstein%20Privacy%20Localism.pdf">“privacy localism”</a>, both in response to challenges posed by the increased use of data for law enforcement or recruitment.</p>
<p>AI localism encompasses a wide variety of issues, stakeholders, and contexts. In addition to bans on AI-powered facial recognition, local governments and institutions are looking at procurement rules pertaining to AI use by public entities, public registries of local governments’ AI systems, and public education programs on AI. But even as initiatives and case studies multiply, we still lack a systematic method to assess their effectiveness – or even the very need for them. This limits policymakers’ ability to develop appropriate regulation and more generally stunts the growth of the field.</p>
<h2>Building an AI Localism framework</h2>
<p>Below are ten principles to help systematise our approach to AI Localism. Considered together, they add up to an incipient framework for implementing and assessing initiatives around the world:</p>
<ul>
<li><p><strong>Principles provide a North Star for governance:</strong> Establishing and articulating a clear set of guiding principles is an essential starting point. For example, the <a href="https://www.london.gov.uk/publications/emerging-technology-charter-london">Emerging Technology Charter for London</a>, launched by the mayoral office in 2021 to outline “practical and ethical guidelines” for research around emerging technology and smart-city technology pilots, is one example. Similar projects exist in Nantes, France, which rolled out a <a href="https://metropole.nantes.fr/files/pdf/numerique-innovation/Charte-donnee.pdf">data charter</a> to underscore the local government’s commitment to data sovereignty, protection, transparency, and innovation. Such efforts help interested parties chart a course that effectively balances the potential and challenges posed by AI while affirming a commitment to openness and transparency on data use for the public.</p></li>
<li><p><strong>Public engagement provides a social license:</strong> Establishing trust is essential to fostering responsible use of technology as well as broader acceptance and uptake by the public. Forms of public engagement – crowdsourcing, awareness campaigns, mini-assemblies, and more – can help to build trust, and should be part of a deliberative process undertaken by policymakers. For example, the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing held their <a href="http://celavoice.org/">first virtual public hearing</a> with citizens and worker advocacy groups on the growing use of AI in hiring and human resources, and the potential for technological bias in procurement.</p></li>
<li><p><strong>AI literacy enables meaningful engagement:</strong> The goal of AI literacy is to encourage familiarity with the technology itself as well as with associated ethical, political, economic and cultural issues. For example, the <a href="https://montrealethics.ai/">Montreal AI Ethics Institute</a>, a non-profit focused on advancing AI literacy, provides free, timely, and digestible information about AI and AI-related happenings from across the world.</p></li>
</ul>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="Security cameras on a pole in New York City." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/486554/original/file-20220926-19-b72ydd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/486554/original/file-20220926-19-b72ydd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/486554/original/file-20220926-19-b72ydd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/486554/original/file-20220926-19-b72ydd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/486554/original/file-20220926-19-b72ydd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/486554/original/file-20220926-19-b72ydd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/486554/original/file-20220926-19-b72ydd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">In New York City, the city has established an Algorithms Management and Policy Officer to govern the use of how data captured by security cameras and other devices is managed.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f0/NYPD_Surveillance_Tech_2.jpg">Cyprian Latewood/Wikipedia</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<ul>
<li><p><strong>Tap into local expertise:</strong> Policymakers should tap into cities’ AI expertise by establishing or supporting research centres. Two examples are the <a href="https://claire-ai.org/">Confederation of Laboratories for Artificial Intelligence Research in Europe</a> (CLAIRE), a pan-European project that takes a European focus to AI uses in cities and <a href="https://howbusyistoon.com/">“How Busy Is Toon”</a>, a website developed by Newcastle City Council and Newcastle University to provide real-time transit information about the city centre.</p></li>
<li><p><strong>Innovate in how transparency is provided:</strong> To build trust and foster engagement, AI Localism should encompass time-tested transparency principles and practices. For example, Amsterdam and Helsinki <a href="https://venturebeat.com/2020/09/28/amsterdam-and-helsinki-launch-algorithm-registries-to-bring-transparency-to-public-deployments-of-ai/">disclose AI use</a> and explain <a href="https://www.antibes-juanlespins.com/administration/acces-aux-documents-administratifs">how algorithms are employed</a> for specific purposes. In addition, AI Localism can innovate in how transparency is provided, instilling awareness and systems to identify and overcome <a href="https://aiblindspot.media.mit.edu/">“AI blind spots”</a> and other forms of unconscious bias.</p></li>
<li><p><strong>Establish means for accountability and oversight:</strong> One of the signal features of AI Localism is a recognition of the need for accountability and oversight to ensure that principles of responsive governance are being adhered to. Examples include New York City’s <a href="https://www1.nyc.gov/office-of-the-mayor/news/554-19/mayor-de-blasio-signs-executive-order-establish-algorithms-management-policy-officer">Algorithms Management and Policy Officer</a>, Singapore’s <a href="https://oecd.ai/en/dashboards/policy-initiatives/2019-data-policyInitiatives-24364">Advisory Council on the Ethical Use of AI and Data</a>, and Seattle’s <a href="https://www.seattle.gov/tech/initiatives/privacy/surveillance-technologies/surveillance-advisory-working-group">Surveillance Advisory Working Group</a>.</p></li>
<li><p><strong>Signal boundaries through binding laws and policies:</strong> Principles are only as good as they are implemented or enforced. Ratifying legislation, such as New York City’s <a href="https://techcrunch.com/2021/07/09/new-york-city-biometrics-law/">Biometrics Privacy Law</a>, which requires clear notices that biometric data is being collected by businesses, limits how businesses can use such data. It also prohibits selling and profiting from the data. Such regulation sends a clear message to consumers that their data rights and protections are upheld and holds corporations accountable to respecting privacy privileges.</p></li>
<li><p><strong>Use procurement to shape responsible AI markets:</strong> As municipal and other governments have done in other areas of public life, cities should use procurement policies to encourage responsible AI initiatives. For instance, the Berkeley, California Council passed an <a href="https://berkeley.municipal.codes/BMC/2.99.010">ordinance</a> requiring that public departments justify the use of new surveillance technologies and that the benefits of these tools outweigh the harms prior to procurement.</p></li>
<li><p><strong>Establish data collaboratives to tackle asymmetries:</strong> Data collaboratives are an emerging form of intersectoral partnership, in which private data is reused and deployed toward the public good. In addition to yielding new insights and innovations, such partnerships can also be powerful tools for breaking down the data asymmetries that both underlie and drive so many wider socio-economic inequalities. Encouraging data collaboratives, by identifying possible partnerships and matching supply and demand, is thus an important component of AI Localism. Initial efforts include the <a href="https://amdex.eu/">Amsterdam Data Exchange</a>, which allows for data to be securely shared to address local issues.</p></li>
<li><p><strong>Make good governance strategic:</strong> Too many AI strategies don’t include governance and too many governance approaches are not strategic. It is thus imperative that cities have a clear vision on how they see data and AI being used to improve local wellbeing. Charting an <a href="https://ajuntament.barcelona.cat/digital/sites/default/files/mesura_de_govern_intel_ligencia_artificial_eng.pdf">AI strategy</a>, as was undertaken by the Barcelona City Council in 2021, can create avenues to embed smart AI use across agencies and open up AI awareness to residents to make responsible data use and considerations a common thread rather than a siloed exercise within local government.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>AI Localism is an emergent area, and both its practice and research remain in flux. The technology itself continues to change rapidly, offering something of a moving target for governance and regulation. Its state of flux highlights the need for the type of framework outlined above. Rather than playing catch-up, responding reactively to successive waves of technological innovation, policymakers can respond more consistently, and responsibly, from a principled bedrock that takes into account, the often competing needs of various stakeholders.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/187863/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Stefaan G. Verhulst ne travaille pas, ne conseille pas, ne possède pas de parts, ne reçoit pas de fonds d'une organisation qui pourrait tirer profit de cet article, et n'a déclaré aucune autre affiliation que son organisme de recherche.</span></em></p>As states and nations struggle to regulate growing AI use, municipal authorities are often leading the way. An emerging paradigm known as AI Localism can help us better define the way forward.Stefaan G. Verhulst, Co-Founder and Chief Research and Development Officer of the Governance Laboratory (GovLab), New York UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1911462022-09-21T23:58:48Z2022-09-21T23:58:48ZNew York’s $250 million lawsuit against Donald Trump is the beginning, not end, of this case – a tax lawyer explains what’s at stake<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/485999/original/file-20220921-23-khyuk0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=231%2C378%2C6783%2C4196&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">New York Attorney General Letitia James announced a $250 million lawsuit against former president Donald Trump on Sept. 21, 2022 .</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://media.gettyimages.com/photos/attorney-general-letitia-james-speaks-during-a-press-conference-at-picture-id1425941143">Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images </a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>New York Attorney General Letitia James hit former president Donald Trump with a <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/live/2022/09/21/nyregion/trump-fraud-lawsuit-ny-james">US$250 million lawsuit</a> on Sept. 21, 2022, citing “staggering” amounts of falsified business information and fraud.</em></p>
<p><em>The civil lawsuit alleges that Trump, his company – the <a href="https://www.trump.com">Trump Organization</a> – and three of his children lied to lenders and insurers about billions of dollars’ worth of assets. This follows a <a href="https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2022/08/letitia-jamess-trump-investigation-is-nearing-its-endgame">three-year investigation </a> into Trump’s New York-based real estate business.</em></p>
<p><em>The Conversation spoke with <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=iGSWDoAAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">Bridget J. Crawford,</a> an expert on tax and property law at Pace University, to help navigate the various dimensions and the potentially broader, criminal implications of this lawsuit.</em></p>
<h2>What are Trump and his children accused of in the lawsuit?</h2>
<p>The complaint is over <a href="https://ag.ny.gov/press-release/2022/attorney-general-james-sues-donald-trump-years-financial-fraud">200 pages long</a> and contains many specific claims. But, at its heart, the complaint says the Trump Organization made false financial or business statements in order to get loans or to keep those loans on favorable terms, in a way that was dishonest or fraudulent. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Vehicles pass the Trump Park Avenue building on a sunny day." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/485984/original/file-20220921-24-c6n5wh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/485984/original/file-20220921-24-c6n5wh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/485984/original/file-20220921-24-c6n5wh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/485984/original/file-20220921-24-c6n5wh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/485984/original/file-20220921-24-c6n5wh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/485984/original/file-20220921-24-c6n5wh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/485984/original/file-20220921-24-c6n5wh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Trump Park Avenue – just how much is it worth?</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/TrumpLegalTroubles/a2f0eeeced6e4692ad28139ee0bfbf37/photo?Query=Trump%20Park%20Avenue&mediaType=photo&sortBy=arrivaldatetime:desc&dateRange=Anytime&totalCount=29&currentItemNo=0">AP Photo/Frank Franklin II</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Trump didn’t allegedly overestimate the cost of buildings, which is a technical term, but rather he is accused of inflating the value of certain businesses and properties. </p>
<h2>How does overstating the value of properties help Trump?</h2>
<p>Banks want to make loans to people who are likely to be able to repay them. And how does the bank measure whether someone is likely to repay? It’s knowing the recipient of a loan has enough collateral to satisfy the bank’s concerns. Trump said he had collateral worth a certain amount. James is saying that the values are really wrong, and really wrong over a period of years, in multiple different filings. Moreover, the lawsuit says this is not just a mistake, or an, ‘Oops I got it wrong.’ Rather, the attorney general alleges a systematic pattern of fraud. </p>
<h2>What should we make of this being a civil, not criminal, action?</h2>
<p>James is bringing a lawsuit regarding the Trump Organization’s compliance with <a href="https://www.nysenate.gov/legislation/laws/CVP">New York’s civil laws</a>, meaning business and lending laws and the like – hence it is a civil suit. </p>
<p>That said, James made clear that she has also referred certain matters to both the IRS and to the federal prosecutors in the Southern District of New York for criminal investigation.</p>
<p>So this being a civil lawsuit does not mean we won’t potentially see criminal charges further down the line. Just, at this point, the New York attorney general is focused on the civil law violations. </p>
<p>In other words, this could be just the beginning of a longer story. </p>
<h2>What does the lawsuit demand in way of relief?</h2>
<p>This is where it gets interesting, I believe. James is calling for very dramatic relief, including permanently preventing Trump, along with three of his children – Donald Trump Jr., Eric Trump and Ivanka Trump – from serving as a director or officer of any corporation conducting business activities in New York. It could preclude them from having any formal business ties in New York. This would be a severe blow to the family’s business interests.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/485998/original/file-20220921-26-9jazmu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A group of people dressed in formal, dark clothing stand in front of white steps" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/485998/original/file-20220921-26-9jazmu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/485998/original/file-20220921-26-9jazmu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=480&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/485998/original/file-20220921-26-9jazmu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=480&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/485998/original/file-20220921-26-9jazmu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=480&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/485998/original/file-20220921-26-9jazmu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=603&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/485998/original/file-20220921-26-9jazmu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=603&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/485998/original/file-20220921-26-9jazmu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=603&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Former president Donald Trump and four of his children are seen at Ivana Trump’s funeral in July 2022 in New York.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://media.gettyimages.com/photos/donald-trump-melania-trump-barron-trump-jared-kushner-kimberly-picture-id1242030390">Jose Perez/Bauer-Griffin/GC Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>How would an IRS investigation differ from the New York one?</h2>
<p>It would be about federal tax laws, in particular. <a href="https://www.irs.gov/compliance/criminal-investigation">The IRS will</a> be looking for an answer to this question: “Did Trump overstate the valuation of any property he gave to charity?” The New York attorney general is concerned that he did.</p>
<p>The possible overvaluation relates to two different properties in Westchester, a county outside of New York City, and in Florida. What is at issue for the IRS is whether Trump correctly claimed the proper deduction, or whether he overstated, in a fraudulent way, the value of what he gave to charity. An overstatement of what he gave away would mean that the former president took a bigger income tax deduction than the one he was entitled to. Again, this is not just a matter of, “Oops, I made a mistake.” The attorney general alleges a widespread and longstanding pattern of misrepresentation of business values.</p>
<p>By handing this part of the investigation over to the IRS, the New York attorney general is signaling that she intends to stay in her lane, so to speak. James is basically saying, “I am talking about fair business practices in New York. If there is a tax issue, I am referring it over to the IRS.”</p>
<p>But all of the issues grow out of the same core set of facts and practices – how is the Trump family valuing its businesses and properties, and is it being done in a way that is honest?</p>
<h2>Does the lawsuit increase the chances of criminal charges?</h2>
<p>It certainly increases the possibility there might be criminal charges in the future. It also fans the flames that Trump continues to stoke in claiming that he is being unfairly targeted, which appears to be part of his attempt to discredit the American legal system. In fact, he is being asked to play by the same rules that apply to everyone else.</p>
<p>I will be very interested to see whether and how the IRS responds – the IRS strives to be an apolitical organization, but unfortunately, anything involving this particular former president is treated by a vocal minority as inherently political. </p>
<h2>How common is it for this type of lawsuit to happen?</h2>
<p>It is very unusual. There would have had to be evidence of an egregious pattern of fraud for any attorney general, of any political party, to file a complaint of this sort. In fact, the whole investigation, from the length of time it has taken to the amount of money involved, makes this a very uncommon case.</p>
<h2>What happens next?</h2>
<p>The New York attorney general has asked for a variety of actions, including the removal of the current trustees of certain trusts holding Trump Organization assets.</p>
<p>Trump has already responded, calling it <a href="https://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/us-elections-government/ny-trump-fraud-allegations-ag-letitia-james-lawsuit-gop-reactions-20220921-i6324ukflfei3bd5zhlnv5jdny-story.html">a witch hunt</a>, which is consistent with the way he has responded to lawsuits in the past. I expect he will employ any available procedural tactics to delay answering this suit as long as he can. Eventually, he will be called to respond, and he will have to answer the claims put to him.</p>
<p>If he refuses to respond, the attorney general can act to protect the public, and the Trump family businesses would not be authorized to operate in New York. Ultimately, the state can shut the businesses down, if need be.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/191146/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Bridget J. Crawford does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>New York’s lawsuit against Trump could mean he and three of his kids are prevented from operating a business again in the state – but the IRS will determine whether federal tax crimes also took place.Bridget J. Crawford, Professor of Law, Pace University Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1882142022-08-04T20:44:37Z2022-08-04T20:44:37ZMonkeypox vaccines: A virologist answers 6 questions about how they work, who can get them and how well they prevent infection<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/477723/original/file-20220804-20-4y65ta.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=86%2C113%2C3683%2C2351&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The Jynneos monkeypox vaccine provides strong protection against infection but is in short supply.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/vial-of-the-jynneos-monkeypox-vaccine-sits-on-a-table-at-a-news-photo/1412754952?adppopup=true">Mario Tama/Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>Monkeypox isn’t going to be the next COVID-19. But with the outbreak having bloomed to <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/poxvirus/monkeypox/response/2022/us-map.html">thousands of infections, with cases in nearly every state</a>, on Aug. 4, 2022, the <a href="https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/as-monkeypox-spreads-u-s-declares-a-health-emergency/ar-AA10j7ha?cvid=d63b6a053efb410ca447e51c2fcde7cc">U.S. declared monkeypox a national public health emergency</a>. One reason health experts did not expect monkeypox to become so widespread is that the U.S. had previously approved two vaccines for the virus. <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=Dxbq8hkAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">Maureen Ferran</a>, a virologist at Rochester Institute of Technology, has been keeping tabs on the two vaccines that can protect against monkeypox.</em></p>
<h2>1. What are the available monkeypox vaccines?</h2>
<p>Two vaccines are currently approved in the U.S. that can provide protection against monkeypox, the <a href="https://www.fda.gov/vaccines-blood-biologics/jynneos">Jynneos vaccine</a> – known as Imvamune/Imvanex in Europe – and <a href="https://www.fda.gov/media/75800/download">ACAM2000</a>, an older smallpox vaccine.</p>
<p>The Jynneos vaccine is produced by <a href="https://www.bavarian-nordic.com/">Bavarian Nordic</a>, a small company in Denmark. The vaccine is for the prevention of smallpox and monkeypox disease in adults ages 18 and older who are at high risk for infection with either virus. It was approved in Europe in 2013 and by the U.S. <a href="https://www.fda.gov/media/131079/download">Food and Drug Administration in 2019</a>. </p>
<p>The Jynneos vaccine is given in two doses four weeks apart and <a href="https://www.webmd.com/a-to-z-guides/monkeypox-vaccination#">contains a live vaccinia virus</a>. Vaccinia normally infects cattle and is a type of poxvirus, a family of viruses that includes smallpox and monkeypox. The virus in this vaccine has been crippled – or attenuated – so that it is no longer able to replicate in cells. </p>
<p>This vaccine is good at protecting those who are at high risk for monkeypox from getting infected before exposure and can also lessen the severity of disease post-infection. It is effective against smallpox as well as monkeypox. Until the recent monkeypox outbreak, this vaccine was primarily given to health care workers or people who have had confirmed or suspected monkeypox exposure.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/477726/original/file-20220804-14-ckx2sj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A circular mass of squiggly lines." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/477726/original/file-20220804-14-ckx2sj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/477726/original/file-20220804-14-ckx2sj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=461&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/477726/original/file-20220804-14-ckx2sj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=461&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/477726/original/file-20220804-14-ckx2sj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=461&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/477726/original/file-20220804-14-ckx2sj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=580&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/477726/original/file-20220804-14-ckx2sj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=580&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/477726/original/file-20220804-14-ckx2sj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=580&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Both the Jynneos and ACAM2000 vaccines use the vaccinia virus, shown here, to produce immunity to smallpox and monkeypox.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://phil.cdc.gov/details.aspx?pid=2143">CDC/ Cynthia Goldsmith</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The <a href="https://www.fda.gov/vaccines-blood-biologics/vaccines/acam2000-smallpox-vaccine-questions-and-answers">ACAM2000 vaccine</a> was <a href="https://www.fda.gov/media/75792/download">approved by the FDA in 2007</a> for protection against smallpox disease. This vaccine is also based on vaccinia virus, however the version of the vaccinia virus in the ACAM2000 vaccine is able to replicate in a person’s cells. Because of this, the ACAM2000 vaccine can be <a href="https://www.fda.gov/vaccines-blood-biologics/vaccines/acam2000-smallpox-vaccine-questions-and-answers#">associated with serious side effects</a>. These can include severe skin infections as well as <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/smallpox/vaccine-basics/vaccination-effects.html">potentially life-threatening heart problems in vulnerable people</a>. Another potential issue with the ACAM2000 vaccine is that it is more <a href="https://www.vox.com/2022/7/29/23281407/monkeypox-vaccine-acam2000-jynneos-smallpox">complicated to administer compared to a normal shot</a>.</p>
<p>The U.S. government has over <a href="https://www.fda.gov/vaccines-blood-biologics/vaccines/acam2000-smallpox-vaccine-questions-and-answers">200 million doses of ACAM2000 stockpiled</a> in case of a biological weapon attack of smallpox. But despite the adequate supply of the vaccine, ACAM2000 is not being used to vaccinate against monkeypox because of the risk of serious adverse side effects. For now, only designated U.S. military personnel and laboratory researchers who work with certain poxviruses may receive this vaccine. </p>
<h2>2. How effective are these vaccines?</h2>
<p>According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, there is not <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/poxvirus/monkeypox/considerations-for-monkeypox-vaccination.html">yet any data available</a> on the effectiveness of either vaccine in the current outbreak of monkeypox. But there is older data available from animal studies, clinical trials and studies in Africa.</p>
<p>A number of clinical trials done during the approval process for the Jynneos vaccine show that when given to a person, it <a href="https://www.precisionvaccinations.com/vaccines/jynneos-smallpox-monkeypox-vaccine">triggers a strong antibody response</a> on par with the ACAM2000 vaccine. An additional study done in nonhuman primates showed that vaccinated animals that were infected with monkeypox survived <a href="https://www.fda.gov/media/131078/download">80% to 100% of the time, compared with zero to 40% survival</a> in unvaccinated animals.</p>
<p>Another use of the Jynneos vaccine is as a <a href="https://www.nmhealth.org/publication/view/policy/7661/">post-exposure prophylaxis, or PEP</a>, meaning the vaccine can be effective even when given after exposure to the virus. Because the monkeypox virus incubates in a person’s body for six to 14 days, the body of someone who <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/poxvirus/monkeypox/considerations-for-monkeypox-vaccination.html">gets the Jynneos vaccine shortly after being exposed</a> will produce antibodies that can help fight off infection and protect against a serious monkeypox case.</p>
<p>The ACAM2000 data is older and less precise but shows strong protection. Researchers tested the vaccine during an outbreak of monkeypox in central Africa in the 1980s. Although the study was small and didn’t directly test vaccine efficacy, the authors concluded that unvaccinated people faced an <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/poxvirus/monkeypox/clinicians/smallpox-vaccine.html">85% higher risk of being infected than vaccinated people</a>. </p>
<h2>3. Does a smallpox vaccine protect against monkeypox?</h2>
<p><a href="https://www.charlotteobserver.com/news/state/north-carolina/article264045516.html">According to the CDC</a>, a previous smallpox vaccination does provide some protection against monkeypox, though that <a href="https://www.charlotteobserver.com/news/state/north-carolina/article264045516.html#storylink=cpy">protection wanes over time</a>. Experts advise that anyone who had the <a href="https://www.npr.org/2022/07/24/1113197119/monkeypox-symptoms-prevention-vaccines-what-to-know">smallpox vaccine more than three years ago</a> and is at increased risk for monkeypox get the monkeypox vaccine.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/477725/original/file-20220804-23-gdsh7v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="People lining up for monkeypox vaccines." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/477725/original/file-20220804-23-gdsh7v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/477725/original/file-20220804-23-gdsh7v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/477725/original/file-20220804-23-gdsh7v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/477725/original/file-20220804-23-gdsh7v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/477725/original/file-20220804-23-gdsh7v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/477725/original/file-20220804-23-gdsh7v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/477725/original/file-20220804-23-gdsh7v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">In California and New York City, demand for vaccines has been high among at-risk communities.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/MonkeypoxVaccineCalifornia/acac850b3b834fe6aa41d421eb737748/photo?Query=monkeypox%20vaccine&mediaType=photo&sortBy=&dateRange=Anytime&totalCount=59&currentItemNo=13">AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez</a></span>
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<h2>4. Who should get vaccinated?</h2>
<p>At the national level, anyone who has had close contact with an infected person, who has a weakened immune system or who had dermatitis or eczema is <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/poxvirus/monkeypox/considerations-for-monkeypox-vaccination.html">eligible for a Jynneos vaccine</a>.</p>
<p>Some state and local governments are also making vaccines available to people in communities at higher risk for monkeypox. For example, New York City is allowing men who have sex with men and who have had multiple sexual partners in the past 14 days <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/article/monkeypox-vaccine-nyc.html?action=click&pgtype=Article&state=default&module=styln-monkeypox&region=MAIN_CONTENT_1&block=storyline_levelup_swipe_recirc">to get vaccinated</a>. </p>
<h2>5. What is the supply like for the Jynneos vaccine?</h2>
<p>As of July 29, 2022, a little over <a href="https://aspr.hhs.gov/SNS/Pages/JYNNEOS-Distribution.aspx">300,000 doses have been shipped to points of care or administered</a>, with another 700,000 already allocated to states across the U.S. However, demand is far outpacing supply. Public health officials acknowledge that <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/roberthart/2022/07/18/struggling-to-find-a-monkeypox-shot-severe-shortages-and-technical-mishaps-are-slowing-down-rollouts/?sh=2a3b4ed9e018">vaccine supply shortages have resulted in</a> long lines and clinics having to close when they run out of vaccines. The issues have been magnified by <a href="https://www.axios.com/2022/07/13/monkeypox-vaccine-new-york-website">technical problems with online booking systems</a>, particularly in New York City. </p>
<p>To help boost supply, the U.S. has ordered nearly <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/07/15/health/monkeypox-vaccine-supply.html">7 million doses of the Jynneos vaccine</a>, which are expected to arrive over the coming months. </p>
<h2>6. What about just using one dose of Jynneos?</h2>
<p>Although federal health officials advise against withholding the second dose, some places – including <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/07/25/dc-monkeypox-vaccines-first-dose/">Washington, D.C.</a>, and <a href="https://www1.nyc.gov/site/doh/about/press/pr2022/monkeypox-vaccination-prioritization-first-doses.page">New York City</a> – are withholding the second dose until more become available. This strategy is being used in <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/monkeypox-vaccination-resources/protecting-you-from-monkeypox-information-on-the-smallpox-vaccination">Britain</a> and Canada as well to vaccinate as many people as possible at least one time.</p>
<p>A previous study reported that a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.0804985105">single shot</a> of the Jynneos vaccine <a href="https://doi.org/10.1056/NEJMoa1817307">protected monkeys infected with monkeypox</a> and that this protection lasted for at least two years. If this holds up in the real world, it would support withholding second doses in favor of immunizing more Americans. This would be key as many health experts expect the virus to continue spreading, furthering increasing demand of the vaccine.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/188214/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Maureen Ferran receives funding from the National Institutes of Health.</span></em></p>There are two approved monkeypox vaccines in the US. Both use a related poxvirus called vaccinia to produce an immune response that protects against smallpox and monkeypox.Maureen Ferran, Associate Professor of Biology, Rochester Institute of TechnologyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1821282022-05-02T02:32:29Z2022-05-02T02:32:29ZAustralia should have a universal basic income for artists. Here’s what that could look like<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/460678/original/file-20220502-18-ij3dwl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=17%2C8%2C5949%2C3963&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source"> Frankie Cordoba/Unsplash</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>While artists struggle to get noticed in the Australian political arena, particularly in the lead up to an election, other nations take their artists more seriously – even seeing them as critical to a successful and vibrant community.</p>
<p>When I talked to artists during the pandemic, it became evident they needed <a href="https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/24/13561">four conditions</a> in place to be able to practice successfully as artists: a regular income, a place to do their work, capacity to do their work and validation of their work. </p>
<p>Without these conditions, productivity and mental health suffer. </p>
<p>The Republic of Ireland has recently instituted <a href="https://mymodernmet.com/ireland-basic-income-program/">a new scheme</a> to provide three-year support for up to 2,000 individual artists, piloting a form of universal basic income. </p>
<p>Artists will be expected to meet at least two out of three qualifying terms to apply for the scheme: have earned an income from the arts, have an existing body of work and/or be members of a recognised arts body, such as a trade union. </p>
<p>Successful artists and creative workers will be given a weekly income of €325 (A$479), and be able to earn additional money without this basic income being affected.</p>
<p>The Irish Minister for the Arts Catherine Martin hopes this first model <a href="https://www.thesun.ie/news/8609980/basic-income-support-scheme-artists-ireland-catherine-martin/">can be broadened</a> to include all practising Irish artists in the future. </p>
<p>She sees it as a simple and economic method to protect artists from precarious existences while benefiting the community as whole.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/could-the-idea-of-a-universal-basic-income-work-in-australia-59811">Could the idea of a universal basic income work in Australia?</a>
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<h2>International support for artists</h2>
<p>The Irish scheme for a universal basic income for artists isn’t the only model.</p>
<p>In the US, several states and private foundations have developed schemes to provide direct support to artists as an outcome of the pandemic. </p>
<p>In May 2021, the City of New York paid <a href="https://www1.nyc.gov/site/dcla/cultural-funding/cityartistcorp.page">3,000 artists</a> no-strings-attached grants of US$5,000 (A$7,080). Additional grants were provided for public art works, exhibitions, workshops and showcase events.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/460679/original/file-20220502-14-nnhrbf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A man paints" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/460679/original/file-20220502-14-nnhrbf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/460679/original/file-20220502-14-nnhrbf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=898&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/460679/original/file-20220502-14-nnhrbf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=898&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/460679/original/file-20220502-14-nnhrbf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=898&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/460679/original/file-20220502-14-nnhrbf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1128&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/460679/original/file-20220502-14-nnhrbf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1128&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/460679/original/file-20220502-14-nnhrbf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1128&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">The City of New York gave artists no-strings-attached grants: giving them time to create work.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Flow Clark/Unsplash</span></span>
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<p>In June 2021, the philanthropic Mellon Foundation announced a new program called <a href="https://news.artnet.com/art-world/mellon-foundation-creatives-rebuild-new-york-1976068">Creatives Rebuild New York</a> to provide 2,400 New York artists with a guaranteed monthly income of US$1,000 (A$1,415) for 18 months.</p>
<p>The program employed another 300 artists and creative workers on an annual salary of US$65,000 (A$92,000) to work in collaboration with community organisations and local authorities for two years. They will <a href="https://www.creativesrebuildny.org/">also receive</a> other benefits and dedicated time to work on their artistic practice. Both these programs were designed by artists. </p>
<p>The city of San Francisco provided US$1,000 per month for 130 local artists for six months from mid-2021. Thanks to philanthropic support from Twitter founder Jack Dorsey, the <a href="https://sfist.com/2021/05/24/guaranteed-income-program-for-sf-artists-gets-expanded-thanks-to-3-5m-gift-from-twitter-square-ceo-jack-dorsey/">scheme expanded</a> to support 180 artists for 18 months.</p>
<p>The city of St Paul in Minnesota, with a population of just over 300,000, has <a href="https://www.twincities.com/2021/04/05/st-paul-springboard-for-the-arts-launches-program-to-grant-500-a-month-to-frogtown-and-rondo-artists/">initiated a program</a> to give 25 artists a guaranteed unrestricted income of US$500 (A$708) per month for a period of 18 months.</p>
<p>Closer to home, the House of the Arts (HOTA) on the Gold Coast recognised the economic dilemma of local artists during the pandemic.</p>
<p>In 2021, they <a href="https://www.artshub.com.au/news/news/artkeeper-program-puts-artists-on-payroll-2515622">employed four artists</a> to work three days a week for six months on their own creative projects at HOTA. They were given a regular salary, a studio to work in, and were invited to participate in the organisational planning of HOTA.</p>
<h2>Could we recreate this in Australia?</h2>
<p>In Australia, some artists were eligible for schemes like JobKeeper and JobSeeker during 2020 and into early 2021, which could provide a model for how to support artists with a basic income going forward. </p>
<p>But in 2020-21 the Australia Council only funded <a href="https://www.transparency.gov.au/annual-reports/australia-council/reporting-year/2020-21">584 individual artists</a>, a drop of nearly 50% <a href="https://australiacouncil.gov.au/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/australia_council_annual_report_2012-13.pdf">since 2012-13</a>.</p>
<p>Ireland’s three-year pilot program for artists will cost the government around €25 million (A$37 million). With a population about a fifth of Australia’s, a similar scheme applied here using the same ratio could provide funding to 10,000 individual artists at a cost of A$185 million over three years. </p>
<p>This would be a drop in the ocean for the <a href="https://theconversation.com/budget-2022-frydenberg-has-spent-big-but-on-the-whole-responsibly-180122">Australian federal budget</a>, but it could be a game changer for the community, the arts and artists. </p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/why-arts-and-culture-appear-to-be-the-big-losers-in-this-budget-180127">Why arts and culture appear to be the big losers in this budget</a>
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<p>A universal basic income provides a regular amount of money that allows the individual to live above the breadline. It can transform an individual’s life while having a <a href="https://julkaisut.valtioneuvosto.fi/handle/10024/161361">positive impact</a> on the whole of society. </p>
<p>Schemes that provide an ongoing income to individual artists – such as royalty schemes, lending rights and long-term leasing of artwork by government bodies and corporations – are all important, but the amounts received from them for the majority of artists are usually quite limited. </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/460683/original/file-20220502-56362-jn73md.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A woman dancing" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/460683/original/file-20220502-56362-jn73md.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/460683/original/file-20220502-56362-jn73md.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/460683/original/file-20220502-56362-jn73md.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/460683/original/file-20220502-56362-jn73md.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/460683/original/file-20220502-56362-jn73md.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/460683/original/file-20220502-56362-jn73md.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/460683/original/file-20220502-56362-jn73md.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">An Australian model could support 10,000 artists at a cost of $185 million over three years.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Carolin Thiergart/Unsplash</span></span>
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<p>Just imagine if every Australian arts centre, library, school, university, hospital, local council and government department employed an artist in residence. The artist gets an income while the institution gets an extraordinary input of ideas and imagination that can transform their environment. </p>
<p>We need to stop patronising our artists by giving them tiny grants and making them go through endless hoops and form filling to gratefully receive them. </p>
<p>Artists are essential to our community. It is time to demonstrate – like Ireland and New York – the success of our artists reflects our healthy and vibrant nation, and pay them accordingly.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/182128/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jo Caust has previously received from the Australia Council. She is a member of NAVA and the Arts Industry Council (SA).</span></em></p>A new scheme in the Republic of Ireland provides a compelling model for supporting Australian artists.Jo Caust, Associate Professor and Principal Fellow (Hon), School of Culture and Communication, The University of MelbourneLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1749982022-01-14T19:28:50Z2022-01-14T19:28:50ZWhat Supreme Court’s block of vaccine mandate for large businesses will mean for public health: 4 questions answered<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/440893/original/file-20220114-19-1vlcd02.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=41%2C82%2C5483%2C3594&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">New York City's vaccine mandates are unaffected by the court ruling.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/VirusOutbreakNYCVaccineMandate/b861c05810224abcaea350d87f73ec09/photo?Query=vaccine%20mandate&mediaType=photo&sortBy=arrivaldatetime:desc&dateRange=Anytime&totalCount=823&currentItemNo=32">AP Photo/Mary Altaffer</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>The U.S. Supreme Court on Jan. 13, 2022, <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2022/01/13/politics/supreme-court-vaccine-mandate-covid-19/index.html">blocked the Biden administration’s vaccine-or-test mandate</a>, which applied to virtually all private companies with 100 of more employees. But it left in place a narrower mandate that requires health care workers at facilities receiving federal funds to get vaccinated. The ruling comes at a time when the number of COVID-19 cases and hospitalization rates <a href="https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#datatracker-home">continues to soar throughout the United States</a> as a result of the omicron variant.</em> </p>
<p><em>We asked <a href="https://zicklin.baruch.cuny.edu/faculty-profile/debbie-kaminer/">Debbie Kaminer</a>, a professor of law at Baruch College, CUNY, to explain the ruling’s impact.</em></p>
<h2>1. What did the Supreme Court decide?</h2>
<p>The court’s six conservative justices <a href="https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/21pdf/21a244_hgci.pdf">held that the Occupational Safety and Health Administration exceeded</a> its power in issuing the mandate on private companies, which would have covered <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/live-updates/biden-covid-19-vaccine-mandates-announcement/">about 80 million workers</a>.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/21pdf/21a244_hgci.pdf">majority opinion</a> distinguished between workplace safety and occupational health, determining that “although COVID-19 is a risk that occurs in many workplaces, it is not an occupational hazard in most,” as it can spread wherever people gather. The majority also expressed concern that the mandate was a “blunt instrument” and did not distinguish “based on industry or risk of exposure to COVID-19.”</p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/21pdf/21a244_hgci.pdf#page=17">three liberal judges dissented</a>, arguing that “COVID-19 poses special risks in most workplaces, across the country and across industries.”</p>
<p>At the same time, by a narrower 5-4 vote, the Supreme Court allowed continued enforcement of a mandate requiring health care workers at facilities that receive government funding through Medicare or Medicaid to be vaccinated. <a href="https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/21pdf/21a240_d18e.pdf">According to the court</a>, this mandate by the Department of Health and Human Services “fits neatly” within the congressional power given to the agency because of the increased risk associated with health care workers becoming ill with COVID-19 and infecting their patients.</p>
<h2>2. How does this affect other worker mandates?</h2>
<p>Despite this Supreme Court ruling, many types of COVID-19 vaccine mandates remain legally enforceable and continue to be an important tool in ensuring Americans get vaccinated. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.littler.com/publication-press/publication/mandatory-employee-vaccines-coming-state-near-you">Approximately half of all states</a> have some type of vaccination mandate, and the enforceability of these mandates is not affected by the court’s latest decision. While the Supreme Court limited the authority of administrative agencies, this does not affect the ability of state and local governments to pass laws regulating the health and safety of the public. These mandates most commonly cover health care workers and government employees, while some cover all employees. New York City, for example, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/12/27/nyregion/nyc-vaccine-mandate.html">recently passed a mandate</a> covering most employees who work in person or interact with the public, and this mandate is not affected by the court’s decision.</p>
<p>Some states and localities have also issued vaccine mandates covering customers in public spaces. For example, New York City <a href="https://www.nydailynews.com/coronavirus/ny-us-supreme-court-vaccine-ruling-business-20220113-ew2gfvitdzhrphnr3ex4j2c46m-story.html">has broadly mandated the vaccine</a> at most indoor venues, including restaurants, gyms and theaters. </p>
<p>Many private businesses, on their own authority, require employees to get vaccinated. This includes major companies such as <a href="https://fortune.com/2021/08/23/companies-requiring-vaccines-workers-vaccination-mandatory/">Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, Delta Airlines, Google and CVS</a>. The ruling doesn’t affect their legal ability to impose such mandates – though it may make companies that had been mulling a mandate <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/14/business/dealbook/supreme-court-vaccine-mandates-companies.html">less likely to institute one for their workers</a>.</p>
<p>In all, about 36% of U.S. workers <a href="https://www.shrm.org/hr-today/news/hr-news/pages/number-workers-under-vaccine-mandate-levels-off-scotus-osha-ets.aspx">are required by their employers</a> to get vaccinated, according to Society for Human Resource Management, an industry group. </p>
<h2>3. How about school mandates?</h2>
<p>Educational institutions also continue to play an important role in mandating COVID-19 vaccination, and this is not affected by the court’s decision.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.chronicle.com/blogs/live-coronavirus-updates/heres-a-list-of-colleges-that-will-require-students-to-be-vaccinated-against-covid-19">Over 1,000 universities</a> have some form of vaccine mandate, and in August 2021 the Supreme Court <a href="https://www.scotusblog.com/2021/08/barrett-leaves-indiana-universitys-vaccine-mandate-in-place/">refused to block Indiana University’s mandate</a>. Unlike the OSHA case, this did not involve the authority of an administrative agency. </p>
<p>Additionally, as a result of the omicron outbreak, a growing number of universities are now also <a href="https://www.chronicle.com/blogs/live-coronavirus-updates/heres-a-list-of-colleges-that-will-require-students-to-be-vaccinated-against-covid-19">requiring students, faculty and staff to get the COVID-19 booster</a>.</p>
<p>Some public school districts have mandated the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/04/nyregion/vaccine-mandate-teachers-nyc.html">vaccine for teachers and other school employees</a>. At least two states, California and Louisiana, have mandated the vaccine for students, but both states have said they will not enforce the mandate until the 2022-2023 school year, and even then, only if the vaccine has full FDA authorization for children. </p>
<p>While COVID-19 vaccine mandates in public schools may be challenged, <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/parents/records/schools.html">proof of immunization</a> for other diseases, such as measles, are nothing new. As such, I believe there is a strong chance that COVID-19 vaccine mandates for schools will generally be upheld as constitutional. Before the pandemic, all 50 states already had in place some form of <a href="https://repository.law.wisc.edu/s/uwlaw/media/304807">vaccine mandate for schoolchildren</a>.</p>
<h2>4. Will this affect the government’s ability to protect public health?</h2>
<p>The court’s decision is significant in that it limits the authority of government administrative agencies generally, and specifically limits the power of OSHA to protect public health.</p>
<p>Still, this decision will not meaningfully restrain the government’s ability to fight pandemics more generally, as federal statutes, state and local vaccine mandates, public university mandates and public K-12 school mandates are not affected by the decision. </p>
<p>The Supreme Court essentially determined that because the risk of COVID-19 exists both within as well as outside the workplace, OSHA does not have the authority to generally protect employees across workplaces. In doing so, the majority essentially determined that the court – and not OSHA – is the institution that should make health policy and decide which workplaces are high enough risk that a vaccine mandate is appropriate. </p>
<p>The dissenting justices responded with incredulity: “In the face of a still-raging pandemic, this court tells the agency charged with protecting safety that it cannot respond in the most effective way possible. Without legal basis, the court usurps a decision that rightfully belongs to others.”</p>
<p>[<em>Over 140,000 readers rely on The Conversation’s newsletters to understand the world.</em> <a href="https://memberservices.theconversation.com/newsletters/?source=inline-140ksignup">Sign up today</a>.]</p>
<p>The majority did recognize, however, that “where the virus poses a special danger because of the particular features of an employee’s job or workplace, targeted regulations are plainly permissible.” </p>
<p>It remains to be seen how narrow a government agency mandate must be to be upheld by the Supreme Court. </p>
<p>While the majority of Americans are already fully vaccinated, and <a href="https://www.mayoclinic.org/coronavirus-covid-19/vaccine-tracker">approximately 75%</a> of all Americans have received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, mandates will likely remain an important tool in continuing to fight the pandemic.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/174998/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Debbie Kaminer does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>A legal scholar explains what the ruling means for other vaccine mandates and the government’s ability to protect public health.Debbie Kaminer, Professor of Law, Baruch College, CUNYLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1674812021-09-07T14:23:30Z2021-09-07T14:23:30Z9/11: the controversial story of the remains of the World Trade Center<p>In the months after the <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/topics/9-11-1414">9/11 attack</a>, which killed thousands of people and cost US$40 billion (£29 billion) in damages, the shock at the tower collapse gave way to the monstrous scale of the rescue and clean-up operation in New York.</p>
<p>Amid the destruction, an <a href="https://us.macmillan.com/books/9780865476752">improvised team</a> of volunteers, firefighters, police and detection dogs found 21 people alive on the first day, but none thereafter. The remaining body parts would be painstakingly collected in <a href="https://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674971493">21,900 pieces scattered throughout the skyscrapers’ debris</a>. This uneasy piece of forensic work would haunt the American psyche, with intriguing side-effects and aftershocks.</p>
<p>The authorities designated a Staten Island landfill as a site where the tower debris was transported to be sorted and inspected for human residues. Evocatively called “<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2016/oct/28/new-york-comes-clean-fresh-kills-staten-island-notorious-dumpsite">Fresh Kills</a>” (from the Middle Dutch word <em>kille</em>, meaning “stream”), the suburban landfill had served since 1948 as the primary disposal facility for New York City’s solid waste. Over time, according to NYC mayor, Rudy Giuliani, it became “<a href="http://cup.columbia.edu/book/fresh-kills/9780231189491">the world’s largest landfill</a>”. </p>
<p>The landfill would soon become a site for the <a href="https://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674971493">most costly forensic investigation in US history</a>, involving DNA identification of damaged bone and statistical analysis of partial profiles. But, sifting through the melted computers, corroded steel, broken glass, ash and dust, analysts could not systematically <a href="https://www.academia.edu/35723664/PLACES_AND_SPACES_OF_MONSTROSITY">identify and separate the human remains</a> from architectural debris.</p>
<p>Fresh Kills became a graveyard for unidentifiable bodies. The monstrous ruins further escaped the attempt to control them, their toxic vapours proving harmful to the workers on site. In Manhattan, the <a href="https://www.statista.com/chart/18745/world-trade-center-related-firefighter-deaths-by-year/">death toll escalated</a>, reaching the lives of construction workers, medics and others exposed to contaminants and likely to contract deadly illnesses after the attack. </p>
<p>Thousands of tonnes of pulverised concrete, construction debris, cellulose, asbestos, lead and mercury, and fire dioxins increased the risk of kidney, heart, liver and breast cancer <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/sep/10/911-attack-ground-zero-manhattan-cancer">among first respondents</a>. Over the next decade, surviving first responders filed workers’ compensation claims and <a href="https://www.firehouse.com/historical-incidents/news/10512050/30-firefighters-among-600-lawsuits-filed-in-911-toxic-air">sued NYC</a> for failing to provide proper protective equipment at Ground Zero, until the passing of the <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/niosh/docket/archive/pdfs/NIOSH-226/0226-010510-act.pdf">9/11 Health and Compensation Act</a>, a law created to provide them with medical care.</p>
<h2>Pain and profit</h2>
<p>Though the site was considered a health hazard, the towers’ structural steel was not. The scrap metal industry <a href="https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-2002-01-27-0201270268-story.html">bought</a> the buildings’ remains and <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2015/09/where-the-twin-towers-ended-up/404884/">sold them for profit</a> to Chinese and Indian second-hand metal markets. </p>
<p>One scrap processor under contract with the New York City Department of Sanitation had purchased and cut down the metal at Fresh Kills with torching equipment. Another company, Shanghai <a href="http://www.china.org.cn/english/2002/Jan/25776.htm">Baosteel Group</a>, bought an additional 50,000 tonnes of large structural beams auctioned by NYC at US$120 (£87) a tonne.</p>
<p>Despite an early and <a href="https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2002-feb-18-mn-28627-story.html">unsuccessful attempt by Greenpeace</a> to qualify the scrap exports as hazardous and ban their repurposing in the “global south”, the steel reached India within six months of the tragedy. Several buildings were built with Twin Tower steel <a href="https://www.rediff.com/news/2006/sep/14spec.htm">across Indian cities</a>, including a college, a car maintenance yard, arcades and … a trade centre.</p>
<p>The Department of Design and Construction contracted five construction companies to clear the rubble of the WTC from Ground Zero (in order to reopen Wall Street as quickly as possible the NYC Department of Sanitation deployed thousands of staff to clean the area around the Stock Exchange and lower Manhattan in general). Families of victims objected that the authorities improperly handled body remains. Piles of organic and non-organic waste from the rubble of the Twin Towers had, they argued, been hastily displaced and indistinctly buried along with conventional sources of municipal waste. </p>
<p>An affidavit filed in 2007 before a Manhattan Federal Court reveals that the remains, mixed with debris powders known as “fines”, had been allegedly carried away by city employees to <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-sept11-remains-idUSN2341843920070323">fill ruts and potholes in NYC</a>. The remains of a privately owned vertical tower had been used to patch a broken horizontal public road network. </p>
<p>As the families of victims <a href="https://casetext.com/case/wtc-families-for-a-proper-burial-v-city-of-new-york">filed a lawsuit</a> for mismanagement of human remains against the municipality, the authorities objected that the debris had been inspected following a meticulous process of classification. In the end, the judge sided with NYC. He said: “the victims perished without leaving a trace, utterly consumed into incorporeality by the intense, raging fires, or pulverised into dust by the massive tons of collapsing concrete and steel”. </p>
<h2>Rising from the ashes</h2>
<p>With time, however, a regime of land reclamation covered up the presence of the dead. Since 2008, the Fresh Kills dumping ground has gradually morphed into a <a href="https://freshkillspark.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/Fresh-Kills-Park-Draft-Master-Plan.pdf">municipal recreational park</a>, accessible by bike, canoe and horseback. Once completed, the expansive area will be almost three times the size of Central Park and covered in vegetation and synthetic playgrounds.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="View of Manhattan across Freshkills Park, which has been built on the site of the landfill where the debris from 9/11 was buried." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/419811/original/file-20210907-16-176m2ma.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/419811/original/file-20210907-16-176m2ma.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/419811/original/file-20210907-16-176m2ma.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/419811/original/file-20210907-16-176m2ma.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/419811/original/file-20210907-16-176m2ma.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/419811/original/file-20210907-16-176m2ma.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/419811/original/file-20210907-16-176m2ma.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Memorial: Freshkills Park on the site of the former landfill where the debris from 9/11 was buried.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">H.L.I.T. via Wikimedia Commons</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>A marshland in the 19th century, Fresh Kills is now an eco park, including a human-made wetland, secured by a system for the capture and treatment of underground toxic gases that heats 20,000 local homes. </p>
<p>The story of 9/11 provides a stark example of the political economy of waste management, which profoundly shapes the culture of the modern metropolis. “Waste” is not an undesired byproduct of human society but contributes to the cycles of boom and bust.</p>
<p>As Wall Street reopened, Silverstein Properties and the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation <a href="https://en-academic.com/dic.nsf/enwiki/42076">oversaw the reconstruction of the site</a>, including the erection of six new office towers, the highest one being One World Trade Center. Totemic symbols of wealth stand erect to ensure the institutional continuity of the financial corporation.</p>
<p>But waste is impossible to ignore, much less eliminate, control or even predict. Starting in 2006, explosives detonated to clear bedrock for building foundations. In July 2010, construction of the Ground Zero memorial ground to a halt when remains of an 18th-century ship were <a href="https://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/07/14/18th-century-ship-found-at-trade-center-site/">found in the mud</a>. It was speculated that the hull of this wooden ship was used as part of the debris in a landfill to extend the island of Manhattan into the Hudson River. </p>
<p>Historically, New York used the rubble of its construction operations and wreckage of its seaport to create artificial land and expand its waterfront. Much as other prized real estate still standing today, the Twin Towers were originally built on the site of a former landfill in Lower Manhattan, following a <a href="https://www.dukeupress.edu/down-in-the-dumps">law of ruins</a> according to which “capital is built upon the foundations of its own refuse”.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/167481/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Tina Beigi of McGill University, Luca Bonadiman of the Chinese University of Hong Kong and Diego González Cadenas of the University of Valencia gave assistance with this article.</span></em></p>What happened to the debris and human remains from the ruins of the World Trade Center?Michael Picard, Lecturer in International Environmental Law, The University of EdinburghLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1629122021-07-02T12:14:54Z2021-07-02T12:14:54ZNew York City or Los Angeles? Where you live says a lot about what and when you tweet<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/409182/original/file-20210630-25-r9a84i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C4440%2C2299&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Tweeting from NYC? There's a good chance you're talking about art. LA? More likely health care.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://flickr.com/photos/farmboyted/23101728031/">Times Square: farmboyted/Flickr, Sunset Boulevard: Doug Kerr/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/">CC BY-NC</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The Big Apple versus The Big Orange. The City of Dreams versus The City of Angels. I’m referring, of course, to the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BwQPqpmiD88">ongoing rivalry</a> between New York City and Los Angeles. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g8_mwyqbbXQ">Hilarious “survey” videos</a> and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ekOPaKqPKsU">talk shows</a> will give you one picture of the cities. My colleagues and I decided to take a more serious look at the differences between the cities, so we studied what everyone else was talking about – on Twitter.</p>
<p>We set out to answer a simple research question: Are people who are located near each other likely to tweet about similar things? To do so, we <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s42001-021-00129-5">analyzed millions of GPS-enabled tweets</a> across New York City and LA. This type of study – looking at huge amounts of social media traffic by location – is useful for more than tracking pop culture memes in different cities. It could be valuable for understanding many aspects of urban life, including the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.</p>
<p>If we were considering the case of a single, small community that takes pride in local events, celebrities and culture, the answer to our research question would be a resounding “yes.” One challenge in comparing two large, international cities is the reality that <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=9IOtZgbaQyIC&pg=PA35#v=onepage&q&f=false">globalization has led to unprecedented interaction</a> among multiple cultures and peoples, along with Starbucks and McDonald’s seemingly in every city on the planet.</p>
<p>For cities that are international but also take pride in their uniqueness, the key is teasing out the extent to which local qualities or global culture dominate tweeting behavior. We designed our methods to be precise enough to account for the fact that, contrary to the fun videos, New York City and LA are quite similar. Both have high housing costs, famous educational institutions, hospitals, museums and other cultural establishments, and residents who tend to vote Democratic. </p>
<h2>Define ‘close’ and ‘same’</h2>
<p>Our study tackled two problems: There’s no simple definition of “close together,” and it’s difficult to say whether two tweets are about the same topic. We combined several definitions of “close together,” ranging from people located in the same city to the distance in miles between their coordinates, using <a href="https://www.igismap.com/haversine-formula-calculate-geographic-distance-earth/">a common formula</a> from spatial sciences. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/408080/original/file-20210624-19-jo6ww5.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C2524%2C1239&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Side-by-side maps of Los Angeles and New York City covered with bright blue blobs" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/408080/original/file-20210624-19-jo6ww5.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C2524%2C1239&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/408080/original/file-20210624-19-jo6ww5.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=295&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/408080/original/file-20210624-19-jo6ww5.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=295&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/408080/original/file-20210624-19-jo6ww5.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=295&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/408080/original/file-20210624-19-jo6ww5.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=370&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/408080/original/file-20210624-19-jo6ww5.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=370&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/408080/original/file-20210624-19-jo6ww5.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=370&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Tweeting in Los Angeles (left) and New York City (right). Blue indicates density of tweets; the brighter the blue the greater the number of tweets.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Minda Hu</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>It’s more difficult to determine whether two tweets are talking about similar things. Looking for common hashtags might suffice, but unfortunately many people do not use hashtags or use different hashtags when talking about the same thing. To overcome this problem, we used state-of-the-art <a href="https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aaa8685">natural language processing</a> technology. Algorithms developed in this field read and interpret sentences in a manner similar to the way humans do, and they are able to deal with nuance. </p>
<p>We used this technology to group tweets into clusters of topics. We then studied whether tweets falling inside the same cluster were also from people who were close together based on their GPS-enabled tweets. This allowed us to determine, for example, that clusters containing art-related words and phrases tended to arise more often in New York than LA. </p>
<h2>Health and wealth versus art and representing</h2>
<p>Even before we looked at who tweets about what, we found tweeting across New York City to be more evenly spread, while in LA, more tweeting happens in wealthier areas, including Calabasas – <a href="https://www.architecturaldigest.com/story/kim-kardashian-kanye-west-home">home to Kim Kardashian</a> – Palos Verdes, West Hollywood and the coastal areas. </p>
<p>We also found that New Yorkers referred to themselves and their city far more often than Angelenos did. On a per capita basis, New Yorkers like to talk about art, while Angelenos like to talk about health care and hospitality. </p>
<p>LA generates more tweets than New York throughout the day, despite having a smaller population, but from 8 p.m. to 5 a.m. local time, the two have comparable numbers of tweets. Tweeting in New York City rises sharply from 8 p.m. to a peak at 9 p.m., whereas tweeting in LA rises steadily from 2 p.m. to a peak at 7 p.m.</p>
<p><iframe id="5VVZ1" class="tc-infographic-datawrapper" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/5VVZ1/1/" height="400px" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
<h2>Computational social science</h2>
<p>Our methods are a case study in the growing field of <a href="https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aaz8170">computational social science</a>, which aims to find insights in unique, often large, data sets using artificial intelligence models and algorithms. In contrast, traditional social science tends to rely on <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/our-methods/u-s-surveys/">surveys and polls</a> to quantify public perception about an issue. Though surveys have some distinct statistical advantages, they can be expensive and time-consuming to use for collecting quality data with good response rates. </p>
<p>For example, Gallup releases new survey data every few months and currently <a href="https://aws.amazon.com/marketplace/pp/prodview-uapupqnfizgci#offers">charges US$30,000 for academic licenses</a>. Decades ago, researchers found that <a href="https://doi.org/10.1086/269336">monetary incentives increase response rates significantly</a>. Even today, online surveys are often accompanied by lottery-based promises of receiving an Amazon gift card. Researchers are working on <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bdr.2020.100145">combining the benefits of traditional and computational social science</a>.</p>
<p><a href="https://usc-isi-i2.github.io/ai-networks-society/heatmap_la_time.html">Zooming into our data</a>, we uncovered some fascinating trends that we hope future research will explore. We found, for example, that on a per capita basis, as crime increases, so do tweets, at least at the level of ZIP codes. Why do high-crime areas tweet more? We don’t know yet, but the trend is consistent across both New York City and LA. </p>
<h2>Tweeting, place and COVID-19</h2>
<p>Studying tweeting behavior by location could also be useful for understanding disparate outcomes of large-scale events. For example, our twitter analysis could help shed light on how the COVID-19 pandemic has affected people in different places.</p>
<p>New York City was <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/69/wr/mm6946a2.htm">hit hard by COVID-19 early on</a>, showing that even major cities were affected in different ways by this terrible pandemic. <a href="https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2021-06-22/covid19-case-rates-la-county">New reporting</a> is now showing that even within cities, socioeconomically disadvantaged communities were disproportionately burdened. </p>
<p>Recently, we released <a href="https://doi.org/10.3390/data6060064">a Twitter data set</a> covering 10 of the largest metropolitan areas in the United States to further study such disparities using computational social science. We are already using our methods across all of these cities to better understand how COVID-19 has affected certain groups, and the levels of expressed vaccine hesitancy among these groups.</p>
<p>Eventually, we hope to use our methods with a large set of international metropolises to study urban behavior.</p>
<p>[<em>Get our best science, health and technology stories.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/science-editors-picks-71/?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=science-best">Sign up for The Conversation’s science newsletter</a>.]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/162912/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Mayank Kejriwal receives funding from the Zumberge Diversity & Inclusion grant, US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), and the Yahoo! Faculty Research Engagement Program. </span></em></p>An AI analysis shows that differences in how New Yorkers and Angelenos tweet go beyond the words they use.Mayank Kejriwal, Research Assistant Professor of Industrial & Systems Engineering, University of Southern CaliforniaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1619772021-06-29T12:05:54Z2021-06-29T12:05:54ZDefund the police? Actually, police salaries are rising in departments across the United States<p>Police work can be one of the best-paid professions in the United States.</p>
<p>According to the <a href="https://www.bls.gov/ooh/protective-service/police-and-detectives.htm">U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics</a>, the 2020 median salary for a police officer was US$67,290 – more than one-third higher than the national median of $48,769 for all occupations. Many officers probably earn much more, because the bureau’s analysis is based on hourly wages for a typical work year of 2,080 hours and does not include overtime – one of the factors that can drive an officer’s yearly income even higher.</p>
<p>Although there is a great deal of variation across the nation’s <a href="https://bjs.ojp.gov/content/pub/pdf/nsleed.pdf">roughly 18,000 police departments</a>, the agency also reports that salaries for police have largely climbed in the past five years – from an 8.8% increase in Mississippi, the state that overall pays its police the least, to a 21% increase in Hawaii, one of the best-paying states.</p>
<p>While efforts to control police budgets have succeeded in Austin, Denver and Oakland, among others, the Biden administration <a href="https://www.npr.org/2021/06/23/1009281690/the-white-house-announces-new-steps-to-try-to-curb-surging-gun-violence">recently announced that</a> COVID-19 relief funds can be used to hire police officers to combat the rise in gun violence. </p>
<p>As <a href="https://as.vanderbilt.edu/sociology/bio/?who=laurie-woods">a former police officer who studies policing in America</a>, I think it is unlikely that police salaries can go anywhere but up. </p>
<h2>Police salaries are inching up</h2>
<p>Just look at the trends across the U.S.</p>
<p>The Bureau of Labor Statistics published <a href="https://www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes333051.htm#st">the mean salaries for police officers</a> in all states plus the District of Columbia for the year 2018.</p>
<p>Somewhat predictably due to <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/personalfinance/2014/09/13/cheat-sheet-most-expensive-states/15455129/">cost of living</a>, California topped the list at $101,380, followed by Alaska at $88,030, where the cost of living also drives salaries higher. New Jersey, Washington state and Hawaii round out the top five. </p>
<p>All of the 10 departments with the lowest-paid officers are located in the South, where Mississippi police officers earn slightly more than one-third of their California counterparts. </p>
<p>Large cities clearly offer higher wages to their police officers, as do some cities surrounding large metropolitan areas. The Los Angeles Police Department currently advertises a starting salary of <a href="https://www.joinlapd.com/salary">$70,804 a year</a>. That’s up from the 2015 starting <a href="https://per.lacity.org/psb/lapd_salary.htm">annual salary of $59,717</a> – an 18.5% increase over just six years.</p>
<p>Starting salary for police officers in Baltimore is $55,117, with a seasoned officer earning <a href="https://www.baltimorepolice.org/careers/sworn-careers">$95,325, base salary alone</a>. Seattle officers earn $83,600 once they’ve completed their basic academy training and top out at $109,512 after 54 months, not including overtime. <a href="https://crosscut.com/2018/10/details-and-critics-emerge-new-seattle-police-contract">Seattle even agreed to pay</a> its officers an extra 2% for <a href="https://www.seattle.gov/police/police-jobs/salary-and-benefits#income">wearing body cameras</a>. </p>
<p>Larger, better-paying police departments attract officers from smaller departments by offering more pay and better training for experienced officers. This often leaves a void that small agencies struggle to fill with qualified candidates. </p>
<p>There are three main drivers of police take-home pay: overtime, education and competition.</p>
<h2>1. Overtime</h2>
<p>In his recent trial for the murder of George Floyd, Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin was represented by an attorney paid for by his union, the Minneapolis Police Federation. This benefit is only a small part of <a href="https://www2.minneapolismn.gov/media/content-assets/www2-documents/departments/wcmsp-200131.pdf">the union’s 128-page labor agreement with the city</a>, which details salaries, vacation, sick leave, medical insurance, grievance procedures and, in particular, overtime pay. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/408656/original/file-20210628-25-dpnzgj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A white man wearing a gray suit and a blue mask listens to an unseen speaker" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/408656/original/file-20210628-25-dpnzgj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/408656/original/file-20210628-25-dpnzgj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=340&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/408656/original/file-20210628-25-dpnzgj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=340&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/408656/original/file-20210628-25-dpnzgj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=340&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/408656/original/file-20210628-25-dpnzgj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=427&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/408656/original/file-20210628-25-dpnzgj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=427&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/408656/original/file-20210628-25-dpnzgj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=427&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Derek Chauvin was sentenced to 22 ½ years in prison on June 25, 2021, for the death of George Floyd. His defense was part of his compensation as a Minneapolis police officer.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/GeorgeFloydOfficerTrial/7bfdcc4f5b974bb2865b5984b771180a/photo?Query=Chauvin&mediaType=photo,graphic&sortBy=arrivaldatetime:desc&dateRange=Anytime&totalCount=1617&currentItemNo=39">Court TV via AP</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Reportedly, <a href="https://govsalaries.com/chauvin-derek-m-30649148">Derek Chauvin’s 2018 salary was $90,612</a>, more than twice the average Minneapolis <a href="https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/fact/table/minneapoliscityminnesota/INC910219#INC910219">per capita income of $38,808 in 2019</a>. But it is overtime rather than base salaries that drives up officers’ total compensation.</p>
<p>Across the country, police officers typically receive “time and a half” for every hour worked beyond the standard 40-hour week, meaning a pay rate that combines their regular hourly rate plus an additional 50%. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.checkthepolice.org/database">Most union agreements</a> also stipulate higher pay for other work deemed “overtime,” such as off-duty court appearances. They also stipulate other after-hours pay boosts, such as a minimum of four hours’ pay for officers called back to duty for any reason. </p>
<p>In practice, these extra pay arrangements have a huge effect on driving up the size of police budgets. A few examples:</p>
<p>– In Los Angeles, where the second-largest police force in the U.S. boasts salaries of $83,144 after two years of employment plus an annual 1.5% cost-of-living increase, the union recently negotiated $245 million in overtime pay for its officers.</p>
<p>– Boston’s <a href="https://www.boston.gov/sites/default/files/embed/file/2019-08/bpdbs_cba_july_1_2016_to_june_30_2020.pdf">complex agreement with its police department</a> results in many opportunities for overtime as well as extra payment for special assignments.</p>
<p>City governments typically budget for some police officer overtime, since that extra income does not count toward an officer’s eventual retirement pay and reduces the need to hire additional employees. However, unanticipated events such as national disasters, public demonstrations and political rallies all result in overtime pay for cops that cities must pay whether or not they planned for it:</p>
<p>– Palm Beach, Florida, <a href="https://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/national-govt--politics/trump-palm-beach-pbso-overtime-bill-feds-and-growing/FPRZCKSkEU8XjULnNtyE9I/">paid $3.26 million in police overtime</a> for former President Donald Trump’s visits to his Mar-a-Lago resort over a period of just 27 days from late 2017 into early 2018. </p>
<p>– <a href="https://www.marketplace.org/2020/07/03/police-departments-have-spent-millions-in-overtime-during-protests/">Demonstrations in the wake of Floyd’s murder</a> cost New York City $115 million in overtime during one two-week period, while Seattle paid $6.3 million during the first 12 days of protests. </p>
<h2>2. Education</h2>
<p>Few local law enforcement agencies require a four-year college degree, but most offer educational incentives that range from a 2% annual salary increase for earning an associate’s degree to 10% for a bachelor’s degree. </p>
<p>For example, since 1970 in Massachusetts, police <a href="https://www.salemstate.edu/academics/college-health-and-human-services/criminal-justice/quinn-bill">receive pay incentives of up to 25%</a> over and above their regular salary for a master’s or law degree. <a href="http://directives.chicagopolice.org/CPDSergeantsExam_2019/directives/data/a7a56e3d-12887ea9-ce512-887e-c625cb562ad2e1d6.html?ownapi=1">The Chicago Police Department</a>, among others, provides tuition reimbursement for college courses, as well as additional incentive pay once a degree is completed.</p>
<p>Such incentives may be a good investment. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/1098611109357325">Research indicates that</a> police officers with college degrees are less likely to use lethal force and are subjects of fewer citizen complaints. Since fewer complaints mean fewer claims to pay and lawsuits to defend, <a href="https://theconversation.com/5-reasons-police-officers-should-have-college-degrees-140523">this can ultimately save cities money</a>.</p>
<h2>3. Recruitment</h2>
<p>More police officers are leaving the profession before retirement age, according to <a href="https://www.policeforum.org/assets/WorkforceCrisis.pdf">a 2019 study by the Police Executive Research Forum</a>. The group has also found that the number of applicants for police jobs has steadily declined over the past 10 years. So departments trying to attract new recruits often go beyond tempting salaries by offering incentives like assistance with relocation, housing and childcare, education pay, college tuition reimbursement, health club memberships and employee signing bonuses. </p>
<p>At the New York Police Department, the nation’s largest force, the starting salary is a relatively modest $42,000 a year. But the department highlights on its website that <a href="https://www1.nyc.gov/site/nypd/careers/police-officers/po-benefits.page">starting benefits</a> include “holiday pay, longevity pay, uniform allowance, night differential and overtime,” which together with salary can boost annual compensation to more than $100,000. </p>
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<p>Even smaller departments are coming up with incentives <a href="https://www.policeforum.org/assets/WorkforceCrisis.pdf">to try and remain competitive</a> with larger agencies that can offer higher salaries, more overtime and more attractive benefits. The police department of Bellmead, Texas, a city of around 10,500 about two hours north of Austin, <a href="https://www.kxxv.com/news/local-news/more-cities-offering-incentives-to-get-best-police-officers">has begun offering experienced officers a $5,000 bonus</a> for signing on to the force.</p>
<p>Another trend to watch: Not only are police salaries rising, but the size of police forces also continues to grow. <a href="https://www.bls.gov/ooh/protective-service/police-and-detectives.htm">The Bureau of Labor Statistics forecasts</a> a 5% growth in police jobs from 2019 to 2029, from 813,500 to an estimated 854,200, which is faster on average than other occupations.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/161977/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Laurie Woods does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Despite growing public criticism over how much counties, cities and towns spend on policing, many are increasing officer pay.Laurie Woods, Senior Lecturer in Sociology, Vanderbilt UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1622132021-06-23T15:06:22Z2021-06-23T15:06:22ZHow gay neighborhoods used the traumas of HIV to help American cities fight coronavirus<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/407521/original/file-20210621-21-81okm0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C43%2C5873%2C3859&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">HIV health and support groups offered COVID-19 testing and other community services during the pandemic.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/lgbt-colored-medical-face-mask-isolated-on-blue-royalty-free-image/1253129247"> iStock / Getty Images Plus</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Throughout the pandemic, local neighborhoods have played a critical and <a href="https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007%2F978-3-030-66073-4?page=1#toc">well-documented</a> role providing the health and social services necessary for American communities and businesses to survive and recover from the COVID-19 pandemic. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.thebody.com/article/covid-19-aids-not-same-but-similar-in-many-ways">Gay neighborhoods were particularly well equipped</a> to meet this challenge, according to our latest research on <a href="https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007%2F978-3-030-66073-4?page=1#toc">these communities</a>. </p>
<p>We find that the <a href="https://www.advocate.com/commentary/2020/5/11/many-gay-men-current-pandemic-triggering-hivaids-trauma">lessons learned and trauma experienced early in the HIV/AIDS pandemic</a> helped <a href="https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-030-66073-4_1">urban gay areas respond to COVID-19 quickly and effectively</a> – especially in the face of early federal government paralysis. </p>
<h2>How gay neighborhoods fought HIV/AIDS</h2>
<p>Gay neighborhoods are those that <a href="https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-030-66073-4_1">welcome lesbian, gay, bisexual, transsexual, queer and other sexual minorities</a> – a population generally referred to by the shorthand LGBTQ+. Well-known examples include the Castro district in San Francisco, Dupont Circle in Washington and Greenwich Village and Chelsea in New York City. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/407525/original/file-20210621-35190-1bhpf7f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Street scene with lots of pride flags flying" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/407525/original/file-20210621-35190-1bhpf7f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/407525/original/file-20210621-35190-1bhpf7f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/407525/original/file-20210621-35190-1bhpf7f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/407525/original/file-20210621-35190-1bhpf7f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/407525/original/file-20210621-35190-1bhpf7f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/407525/original/file-20210621-35190-1bhpf7f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/407525/original/file-20210621-35190-1bhpf7f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">New York City’s West Village neighborhood during Pride month, June 2021.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/pride-flags-are-seen-at-chase-bank-in-the-west-village-on-news-photo/1324160143?adppopup=true">Alexi Rosenfeld/Getty Images</a></span>
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</figure>
<p>“Gayborhoods” grew during the sexual liberation movements of the 1960s and 1970s, offering LGTBQ people and their allies an escape from <a href="https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-030-66073-4_1">pervasive discrimination and prejudice</a>. In these areas, sexual minorities could rent apartments, socialize in bars and express themselves freely in a like-minded, compassionate community. </p>
<p>Even as LGBTQ people in the U.S. began to live more openly, gay neighborhoods really <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm5531a1.htm">coalesced around the HIV/AIDS pandemic</a>. </p>
<p>When that mysterious new disease began ravaging the LGBTQ community in the 1980s, the U.S. government turned away from, not toward, those communities. Support critical for fighting HIV – including health care subsidies for uninsured people and <a href="http://www.DOI.org/10.1016/0168-8510(86)90035-7">funding for research on treatments and cures</a> – <a href="https://www.glsen.org/sites/default/files/2020-06/David%20Barr%20Backgrounder.pdf">was initially not provided</a>. <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/feature/nbc-out/lgbtq-history-month-early-days-america-s-aids-crisis-n919701">Information given</a> by governments about disease transmission and treatment was inconsistent and sometimes inaccurate. </p>
<p>Government neglect ended up stigmatizing people with HIV and leading to many avoidable deaths. So, as we uncovered in <a href="https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007%2F978-3-030-66073-4?page=1#toc">our most recent book</a>, gay neighborhoods filled the void where government and mainstream organizations failed. They became the battlefields where the AIDS pandemic was fought and eventually won. </p>
<p>People in gay neighborhoods developed community organizations and systems to deliver health care and mental health services, provide social support for LGBTQ+ people and support LGBTQ-friendly businesses. </p>
<p>Public health organizations like New York City’s <a href="https://www.advocate.com/commentary/2018/8/10/gay-mens-health-crisis-crisis-has-never-gone-away">Gay Men’s Health Crisis</a> also stepped in to do what many doctors would not. They shared information about slowing and stopping the spread of HIV and also distributed condoms, conducted free HIV testing and connected people who tested positive to help. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/407517/original/file-20210621-35190-199bh6b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Men march shirtless holding a 'GMHC' lbanner and another that reads 'Fighting for Our Lives,'" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/407517/original/file-20210621-35190-199bh6b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/407517/original/file-20210621-35190-199bh6b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/407517/original/file-20210621-35190-199bh6b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/407517/original/file-20210621-35190-199bh6b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/407517/original/file-20210621-35190-199bh6b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=500&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/407517/original/file-20210621-35190-199bh6b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=500&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/407517/original/file-20210621-35190-199bh6b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=500&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">New York City’s Pride march in June 1985, featuring a contingent from the Gay Men’s Health Crisis.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/view-from-above-of-onlookers-and-marchers-with-a-gmhc-news-photo/1250039345?adppopup=true">Suzanne Poli/Getty Images</a></span>
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<h2>Building community through crisis</h2>
<p>The COVID-19 pandemic <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/coronavirusfrontlines/2020/04/22/this-hivaids-specialist-explains-its-similarities---and-differences---to-covid-19/?sh=27a9592d49f8">shares many similarities</a> reminiscent of early days of the HIV/AIDS pandemic. </p>
<p>With both HIV/AIDS and COVID-19, there was a <a href="https://dailycampus.com/2021/02/23/important-similarities-between-the-aids-epidemic-and-covid-19/">disjointed and bungled government response that endangered lives and produced both fear</a> and <a href="https://abc11.com/covid-19-pandemic-hiv-epidemic-aids/10411778/">stigma</a>. Even some of the same government-appointed leaders were in place: Both <a href="https://www.axios.com/anthony-fauci-hiv-aids-goals-2c9f111d-68e8-4a9e-a906-cbc3e704e787.html">Dr. Anthony Fauci</a> and Dr. Deborah Birx worked on marshaling government resources to spearhead the medical response to HIV in the 1990s.</p>
<p>With COVID-19, as with HIV/AIDS, <a href="https://www.glsen.org/sites/default/files/2020-06/David%20Barr%20Backgrounder.pdf">city and state governments were unprepared to fight a disease outbreak</a>. They lacked both planning and infrastructure to effectively fight a rapidly accelerating public health threat. </p>
<p>Several U.S. states, as a result, looked to organizations within gay neighborhoods for help, relying on <a href="https://www.thebody.com/article/kelsey-louie-lessons-7-years-gmhc-ceo">neighborhood-based LGBTQ+ health care organizations</a> to help support their <a href="https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-030-66073-4_17">COVID-19 pandemic response</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="'Please stand here' social distancing sticker in Pride colors" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/404902/original/file-20210607-13-1f7asig.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/404902/original/file-20210607-13-1f7asig.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/404902/original/file-20210607-13-1f7asig.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/404902/original/file-20210607-13-1f7asig.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/404902/original/file-20210607-13-1f7asig.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/404902/original/file-20210607-13-1f7asig.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/404902/original/file-20210607-13-1f7asig.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Example of social distancing signage from Toronto gay neighborhood.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Robert Modzelewski</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>For example, in New York, the Erie County Department of Health requested that <a href="https://www.evergreenhs.org/our-mission/">Evergreen Health</a> – an LGBTQ community group originally established in the 1980s as a volunteer effort to fight HIV – assume responsibility for <a href="https://www.advocate.com/health/2021/2/10/cdc-report-gay-and-bi-people-greater-risk-severe-covid-19">HIV testing during</a> the COVID-19 pandemic so that the county government could focus on COVID-19 testing. Evergreen also <a href="https://www.evergreenhs.org/news/evergreen-health-to-open-drive-through-covid-19-testing-site/">opened a drive-though COVID-19 testing center</a> in the spring of 2020 – four decades after it had introduced HIV testing to the Buffalo region. </p>
<p>Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, Evergreen Health not only continued to provide health care and other supportive services to Buffalo’s LGBTQ community but expanded offerings to better serve <a href="https://www.bu.edu/articles/2020/how-covid-19-is-impacting-the-lgbtq-community/">underserved and minority neighborhoods</a> across the city. At that time, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COVID-19_pandemic_in_New_York_(state)">New York state was the global epicenter</a> of the COVID-19 pandemic. </p>
<p>In Chicago and other cities, activists used <a href="https://time.com/6073829/hiv-aids-covid-19/">LGBTQ+ urban social and professional networks</a> established during the <a href="https://www.advocate.com/commentary/2020/5/11/many-gay-men-current-pandemic-triggering-hivaids-trauma">HIV/AIDS pandemic</a> to tackle this latest disease. Queer communities disseminated information about COVID-19 to neighbors and <a href="https://www.ama-assn.org/press-center/press-releases/chicago-area-non-profits-receive-180k-masks-covid-19-prevention">distributed face masks and other protective gear</a>, just as they had once shared information about HIV transmission and given out condoms. </p>
<p>[<em><a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/science-editors-picks-71/?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=science-corona-important">The Conversation’s most important coronavirus headlines, weekly in a science newsletter</a></em>]</p>
<h2>Lessons learned</h2>
<p>States with major grassroots activism in the HIV crisis also applied lessons from that era about <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/stophivtogether/hiv-stigma/ways-to-stop.html">overcoming misinformation</a> and <a href="https://www.kqed.org/science/1966675/as-with-covid-19-uncertainty-and-stigma-marked-the-outbreak-of-hiv-now-these-men-navigate-a-new-pandemic">fear of contagious diseases</a>. </p>
<p>For instance, New York state used a network of small laboratories to process its COVID-19 tests and administer vaccines – <a href="https://www.hiv.gov/hiv-basics/overview/history/hiv-and-aids-timeline">a model pioneered during the emergence of the HIV/AIDS pandemic</a> when large, centralized laboratories were initially nervous about working with HIV-positive blood samples. Early on in the COVID-19 pandemic, this allowed New York to react effectively and process COVID-19 tests relatively quickly. </p>
<p>New York, followed by California, was among states in which COVID-19 infection first showed up in the U.S. As <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-usa-testing/california-florida-new-york-texas-will-not-follow-new-u-s-covid-19-testing-plan-idUSKBN25N31H">these state governments</a> set up testing procedures, <a href="https://goodmenproject.com/featured-content/flashback-1985-the-first-fda-hiv-test-wcz/">they drew upon methods for testing established during the HIV/AIDS pandemic</a>. The experience in both New York and California with HIV/AIDS helped, at least in part, to establish robust testing networks during the COVID-19 pandemic. </p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/health-55274833">United Kingdom government</a>, on the other hand, chose centralized laboratories to process tests, rejecting an offer to create a complementary network of smaller local providers. That decision <a href="https://www.bmj.com/content/370/bmj.m3678">may have complicated testing and slowed results</a> and contact tracing, <a href="https://news.sky.com/story/coronavirus-thousands-of-laboratory-tests-coming-back-unclear-raising-prospect-of-damaging-delays-11992324">according to reporting by SkyNews</a>.</p>
<p>Our research also finds <a href="https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-030-66073-4_1">gay neighborhoods banded together to meet the needs of the broader community</a>. </p>
<p>Activist <a href="https://www.kff.org/coronavirus-covid-19/poll-finding/the-impact-of-the-covid-19-pandemic-on-lgbt-people/">mutual aid networks</a> formed decades ago within “gayborhoods” deployed peer-to-peer mobile technologies to <a href="https://www.them.us/story/coronavirus-lgbtq-mutual-aid-fundraisers-charity-financial-help">help feed locked down and sick people</a> – not only within the LGBTQ community.</p>
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<p><a href="https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-030-66073-4_17">Many of these efforts to combat COVID-19</a>, like actions taken to <a href="https://www.kff.org/coronavirus-covid-19/poll-finding/the-impact-of-the-covid-19-pandemic-on-lgbt-people/">fight HIV/AIDS</a>, were done quietly, without fanfare. This neighbor-helping-neighbor approach is a <a href="https://www.fredhutch.org/en/news/center-news/2021/05/40-stories-about-hiv.html">hallmark of the leadership</a> that can be found in gay neighborhoods – <a href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/if-youre-comparing-coronavirus-and-aids-recognize-the-lgbtq-heroes-of-history">experienced rescuers</a> in times of crisis.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/162213/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Having survived the HIV/AIDS pandemic, gay communities in the US were well equipped to get residents health and social services early in the pandemic, when the government’s COVID-19 response lagged.Daniel Baldwin Hess, Professor of Urban and Regional Planning, University at BuffaloAlex Bitterman, Professor of Architecture and Design, Alfred State College of Technology, The State University of New YorkLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.