FALL 2015 The Public Eye

g” Right-W hin ing as Ec -W on h o it m a i F c “ s

A l s w e o i : v T e h e R n H i i s st rt or o y ep W R ar r ∙ s C ea on pp tin isa ue e D ∙ P eopl olicies That Make P editor’s letter

THE PUBLIC EYE QUARTERLY

PUBLISHER As the presidential primary campaign is underway this fall, some conservative can- Tarso Luís Ramos didates are racing each other to the bottom of the barrel, scapegoating immigrants and GUEST EDITOR poor people for all the nation’s woes. But alongside the dangerous demagoguery of a Kathryn Joyce lies a less obvious threat: the renewed and growing efforts of a coalition COVER ART of Christian and Corporate Right figures to rebrand Republicans’ approach to poverty. Amelia Spinney LAYOUT In this issue’s cover story, “Faith-Washing Right-Wing Economics” (page 4), PRA Jennifer Hall Economic Justice Researcher Mariya Strauss details how “compassionate conserva- PRINTING tism” has been updated for 2015, using progressive language about social justice and Red Sun Press Christian rhetoric about “the least of these” as fig leaves for policies aimed at gutting EDITORIAL BOARD long-established social protections. While business-friendly leaders publicly talk about Frederick Clarkson • Alex DiBranco “declaring peace on the social safety net,” behind closed doors billionaire donors are Eric Ethington • Tope Fadiran funding Christian theologians and social scientists to come up with scripture-based ar- Kapya Kaoma • L. Cole Parke guments to contain popular anger over the economy—arguments that prescribe free- Tarso Luís Ramos • Spencer Sunshine market capitalism, individual charity and “the dignity of work” to alleviate poverty, and Mariya Strauss which cite Calvinist hierarchies (wherein everyone succeeds or fails according to their talents) to justify income inequality. This kinder, gentler face of free-market capital- The Public Eye is published by Political Research Associates ism has as many potential victims as Trump’s “makers and takers” Producerism, but, as Strauss writes, it’s not the only way. Tarso Luís Ramos Executive Director In our second story, “The History Wars Continue” (page 3), PRA program coordi- Theresa Blackman Operations Coordinator nator Gabriel Joffe and author Katherine Stewart team up for an in-depth look at the Eric Ethington ongoing battle over Advanced Placement U.S. History (APUSH) curricula. For the last Communications Director several years, conservatives have taken aim at the course’s inclusive approach to explor- Kapya Kaoma ing “the ‘why’ of U.S. history,” warts and all, casting the course as a primer on civil dis- Religion and Sexuality Researcher obedience that would leave most students “ready to sign up for ISIS.” Joffe and Stewart Mark Brown explore how the seemingly grassroots opposition to APUSH is actually a well-coordinat- Finance Manager ed national campaign that, this summer, succeeded in getting the curriculum’s authors Kassia Palys to revise the course along more conservative lines. They also explore the deeper ques- Development Associate tions at stake in the debate, namely whether history education should be a fact-based L. Cole Parke Gender Justice Researcher reckoning with our country’s past, or a means of inculcating ideas about citizenship and unified national identity. Mariya Strauss Economic Justice Researcher Gabriel Joffe In this issue’s Q&A (page 11), journalist Dani McClain speaks with Program Coordinator housing justice activist Shana griffin on the anniversary of . In 2005, Fellows after Katrina left more than 1,800 people dead, and displaced hundreds of thousands Tope Fadiran • Frederick Clarkson of others, some politicians saw a silver lining. The storm left them with a blank slate Cynthia Greenlee • Spencer Sunshine that “cleaned up” public housing and cleared the way for redevelopment initiatives that Rachel Tabachnick would massively alter the face of the city. Ten years later, the new New Orleans is whit- Interns er, richer, and more corporate-friendly than ever before. But griffin and her non-profit, Ally Batchelder • Eli Lee the Jane Place Neighborhood Sustainability Initiative, are fighting back. Jaime Longoria • Katie Matejcak Laura Muth • Cassandra Osei Lastly, in Reports in Review (page 18), we look at some notable new publications Meghan Racklin • Jacey Rubinstein and studies from the past year, covering topics such as right-wing groups who oppose Board of Directors government control of public lands; the effects of mass incarceration on families; the Dania Rajendra, Chair “Say Her Name” campaign to center women in the national movement for Black lives Katherine Acey • Paulina Helm-Hernandez Lynette Jackson • Janet Jakobsen and discussions around police brutality; and a new data report on LGBTQ people’s legal Hamid Khan • Maria Elena Letona rights in the South, the Midwest, and the Mountain States. Scot Nakagawa • Zeke Spier

Founder We hope you enjoy this quarter’s Public Eye, and look forward to bringing you the Jean V. Hardisty, Ph.D. Winter 2016 edition, which will be a special issue themed around anti-Black racism and African American resistance. 1310 Broadway, Suite 201 Somerville, MA 02144-1837 Tel: 617.666.5300 Best, [email protected] Kathryn Joyce © Political Research Associates, 2015 Guest Editor All rights reserved. ISSN 0275-9322 ISSUE 84 www.politicalresearch.org commentary

BY GABRIEL JOFFE AND KATHERINE STEWART The History Wars Continue How Right-Wing Pressure Influenced the APUSH Curriculum Update

New Orleans after Katrina. Photo: Flickr. License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode

Photo via Flickr courtesy of Don Harder. License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode

On July 30, 2015, the College Board, creators of college-level curricula and testing for high school students, released an update to its Advanced Placement U.S. History (APUSH) course.1 The revision came after what had already been a two-year battle and was quickly criticized by all sides. Digital news outlet Quartz published an article detailing “All the ways the new AP U.S. history standards gloss over the country’s racist past,”2 while conservative media sites like quoted conservative “experts” who groused that the changes were merely cosmetic and still don’t adequately emphasize “.”3 But as to why the changes had been undertaken in the first place, the media consensus was, as put it, that “Conserva- tives convinced College Board to rewrite American history.”4 Were these headlines just clickbait or had there been mounting pressure on the College Board to appease right-wing critics? Jeremy Stern, an independent historian who had consulted on the College Board overhaul,5 cast the revision in a more positive light, telling The Christian Science Monitor, “This is a major success for an unpolitical look at American history.”6 However, there was nothing “unpolitical” about the events preceding the revisions. The fight over APUSH had been simmering ever since the College Board released its new version of the frame- work in 2012; it boiled over in several states after the new curriculum was implemented for the 2014-2015 school year. The original redesign of the course—in the works since 2006—was intended to reflect an ongoing shift in history classrooms from rote memorization to critical thinking skills.7 As the authors of the new cur- riculum explained in Education Week,8 they’d been motivated by the concerns of AP teachers who felt the exist- ing APUSH curriculum “prevented them and their students from exploring in any depth the main events and

Joffe and Stewart, continued on page 14

FALL 2015 Political Research Associates • 3 BY MARIYA STRAUSS

“Faith-Washing” Right-Wing Economics How the Corporate and Are Marketing Medicare’s Demise

f you have worked all your adult dom Caucus” and the GOP leadership in the economic populist Left, the Chris- life and are now receiving Medicare the House of Representatives can be man- tian Right and fundamental- health benefits, you may be vexed aged remains to be seen. As William Gre- ists are changing the packaging on their to find that the third-largest federal ider recently wrote8 in The Nation, “The long-shared policy agenda12 of cutting Iprogram1 may not cover everything you party can’t deal with the real economic the government benefits on which vast need. Indeed, as PBS reported in July, distress threatening the nation as long as numbers of people rely. “Medicare certainly does not cover long- rebellion is still smoldering in the ranks. During this primary season, right-wing term custodial care in nursing homes or Of course, that suits the interests of the populists such as Donald Trump and other institutional settings.”2 Despite country-club and Fortune 500 wing of the have grabbed headlines with its limitations, the federal benefit pro- party—the last thing they want is signifi- the racist implication that everyone who gram remains among the most popular cant economic reform.” isn’t a “maker” is to blame for keeping government initiatives in U.S. history, In the throes of this turmoil, the free the from greatness. From even among Tea Party Republicans, who market or “country-club” conserva- a public relations standpoint, this sort of found a rallying cry in one South Caro- tives are test-marketing a new brand: a unrestrained demagoguery—dangerous lina man’s infamous 2009 demand to Christian-inflected, contemporary remix as it is—could polish the shine on the re- establishment politicians: “Keep your of the 1980s’ and ’90s’ “compassion- launch of compassionate . government hands off my Medicare.”3 A ate conservatism.” Even as candidates But when we turn down the volume on 2011 Marist poll showed that 70 percent like (who wants to “phase out” these deliberately offensive antics, it be- of those identifying themselves with the Medicare9), Sen. Marco Rubio (a Florida comes easier to recognize how the new Tea Party opposed any cuts to Medicare.4 Republican who has said he wants to right-wing slogans about poverty pose a More recently, an April 2015 poll from raise the retirement age10), and former serious threat. Reuters/Ipsos showed that 80 percent of candidate Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker This isn’t an entirely new phenome- all Republican voters opposed cutting ei- (who proposed cutting $15 million from non. Neoliberal conservatives like Bush, ther Medicare or Social Security.5 his state’s Medicare program11) sharpen neoconservatives such as Rubio, and free Medicare’s broad popularity presents blades to slash retirement security, a cho- market libertarians like Walker benefit a problem for conservative candidates rus of voices preaching Christian love and from the decades-long Christian Right re- who are racing each other to eliminate generosity toward the poor is rising from education of Evangelical voters, around the program as we know it. Some politi- two groups whose connections with each half of whom now believe that capitalism cians want to cut Medicare as a means of other are not widely understood—the is a Christian system.13 These politicians shrinking the welfare state; others want Christian Right and what we might call make the demolition of seniors’ retire- to redirect Medicare’s vast payroll deduc- the free market fundamentalists. ment security seem like a tragic inevita- tion revenues into the hands of private Though this new brand may be meant bility, as uncontrollable as the weather, corporations. (Private contractors al- to appeal to those—including many rather than the political choice that it is. ready administer at least one category of Christians—uncomfortable with rheto- An early election-season example of Medicare benefits.6) ric that demonizes vulnerable people, this narrative came from Jeb Bush in a Either way, following the demise of conservative groups pushing this new July 22 interview, in which he argued ’s 2012 presidential cam- poverty narrative aren’t breaking with that Medicare should be preserved for paign—helped along by Romney’s mock- free market and Christian Right leader- those already receiving the benefit, but ing of poor and working class voters as ship. They have no plans to redress in- “we need to figure out a way to phase “entitled” “victims”7—conservatives from come inequality. Instead, responding to out this program for others and move to across the ideological spectrum have internal pressure from both the Tea Party a new system that allows them to have been in search of a new marketing strat- Producerist Right (whose “makers and something—because they’re not going to egy: one that downplays the take-from- takers” frame blames both the undeserv- have anything.”14 the-poor, give-to-the-rich foundations of ing poor and liberal elites as drivers of a But Jeb’s concerns amount to crocodile their policies. Whether and how faction- system that takes from “real,” productive tears. As Trump parades through city al disputes between the Tea Party’s “Free- Americans) and external pressure from after city, spewing hate-filled rhetoric,

4 • The Public Eye FALL 2015 Bush coolly explains how he will enact Washington Post political commenta- “welfare queen.” (“Poor, uneducated, policies that will cause millions of future tor E.J. Dionne; and President Barack single teenaged mothers,” he wrote, “are seniors to become destitute. By the stan- Obama.17 But Brooks did not mean to ex- in a bad position to raise children, how- dards of progressive economic populists, press approval of direct government ben- ever much they may love them.”) Brooks’ there are no “good guys” among the cur- efits such as Medicare, Social Security, comparison of government aid to meta- rent roster of conservative candidates. Medicaid, TANF, and food stamps. In- static cancer echoed those earlier waves They may differ on message and tactics, stead, his declaration of “peace” was the of AEI antagonism. but as historian Geraldo Cadava wrote of opening gambit for a broader argument It also underscored an implied threat. Bush in a September essay in The Atlan- to weaken these highly popular govern- Brooks went on: “If you don’t pay atten- tic, “do not mistake his moderate tone, ment programs. tion to the macro-economy and the fiscal performance of goodwill, or marketabil- “The safety net should be limited,” stability you will become insolvent. And ity to Latino voters for an entirely differ- Brooks said, “to people who are truly if you become insolvent you will have ent message than his cruder primary op- indigent, as opposed to being spread austerity. And if you have austerity the ponents.”15 around in a way that metastasizes into poor always pay.” Such statements help make the increasingly precarious middle class fear that government di- rect aid programs that help their fellow citizens will lead to an economic tailspin. And if Brooks and his peers can effec- tively frighten the middle class away from defend- ing the social safety net, there will be no constitu- ency left that is strong enough to defend it. But what will certainly remain are the largely invisible government aid programs for the wealthy and corporations: the bil- lions in public subsidies that allow businesses to profit. That’s the cruel irony at the heart of free market fundamentalism. President Barack Obama participates in a discussion about poverty during the Catholic-Evangelical Leadership Summit As political scientist Su- on Overcoming Poverty at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., May 12, 2015. From left, moderator E. J. Dionne, Jr., zanne Mettler wrote in Washington Post columnist and professor in Georgetown’s McCourt School of Public Policy; President Obama; Robert Putnam, her 2011 book, The Sub- professor of public policy at the Harvard University John F. Kennedy School of Government; and Arthur Brooks, president of AEI. merged State: How Invis- White House photo courtesy of Pete Souza. ible Government Policies WHOSE SAFETY NET? middle class entitlements and imperils Undermine American Democracy, privatiz- “It’s time to declare peace on the so- our economy.” Brooks did not mention ing social welfare programs can appear cial safety net,” announced Arthur C. that AEI scholars spent the 1980s, ‘90s like a more efficient use of taxpayer dol- Brooks, president of the free market and 2000s publishing commentaries lars, and, as such, part of a Reaganite think tank American Enterprise Institute and reports pillorying people who apply reliance on market-based policy. “Yet, (AEI), at Georgetown University’s May 12 for public assistance.18 Perhaps the most in fact,” she wrote, “such policies func- Catholic-Evangelical Leadership Summit famous of these scholars is AEI’s W.H. tion not through free market principles on Overcoming Poverty, before calling Brady Scholar Charles Murray (coauthor of laissez-faire but rather through pub- 19 the social safety net “one of the greatest of the noxious 1994 tome The Bell Curve), lic subsidization of the private sector.” achievements of free enterprise.” Shar- whose 1984 book, Losing Ground: Ameri- Because the gigantic subsidies Mettler ing the stage with Brooks were Robert can Social Policy 1950-1980, provided the describes primarily benefit the wealthy Putnam, a best-selling author and Har- intellectual basis for the Welfare Reform corporations that support conservative vard political scientist whose latest book Act of 1996, which effectively ended think tanks such as AEI, conservative in- examines the diminishing prospects for the federal welfare system. Murray’s ar- tellectuals like Brooks never talk about economic mobility in the U.S.16; veteran guments helped shape the myth of the cutting them.

FALL 2015 Political Research Associates • 5 CLOAKING CRUELTY WITH CATCHPHRASES And the most glaring example of this market the Corporate and Christian Right Brooks’ threat of austerity may appear shift is that, whenever the public dis- policy goal of dismantling retirement se- less directly racist than the “bad par- course turns to a criticism of income in- curity and health coverage for seniors. ent” attacks on African Americans that equality, Corporate and Christian Right But many conservative donors want more Murray and others used to pass welfare intellectuals turn to their new narrative: than a catchphrase; they also expect a reform during the 1990s.20 Instead of one that laments the existence of poverty return on their investment in politics. demonizing the poor outright, this time while at the same time prescribing myth- They also want access for themselves to around Brooks melds Christian rhetoric ic free market capitalism—rather than the largesse of the state. Christian Right with economic-speak to offer a more pa- jobs programs or tangible government groups have been working with free ternalistic, “colorblind” characterization. supports such as Medicare—as its cure. market groups since the 1980s to shrink “Every one of us made in God’s im- government programs for the needy and age,” he said, “is an asset to develop.”21 Brooks is vague about how poor Ameri- cans (whom he describes as “the least of these, our brothers and sisters”) can be- come “assets” in a capitalist sense. But he seems convinced that free enterprise will save them from poverty. Brooks conclud- ed his Georgetown remarks, “That’s a hu- man capital approach to poverty allevia- tion.” In his recent book, The Conservative Heart: How to Build a Fairer, Happier, and More Prosperous America, Brooks expands on this Christian-lite evangelizing about the sacredness of work: “Work with re- ward is always and everywhere a bless- ing.”22 So, instead of welfare or government jobs, Brooks is proposing that work in the private sector will help poor people lift themselves out of poverty. Jeb Bush expressed a version of this idea at a Re- publican women’s event in late Septem- ber, saying, “Our message is one of hope and aspiration...It isn’t one of division Arthur Brooks speaking at the 2015 Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in National and get in line and we’ll take care of you Harbor, Maryland. Photo via Wikimedia. with free stuff. Our message...says you can achieve earned success.”23 But this THE BILLIONAIRES’ CHRISTIAN SCHOLARS move the funds from these programs into strategy has already spectacularly failed, Conservative billionaires who have in- the hands of unaccountable, private reli- particularly for communities of color. In vested hundreds of millions in the U.S. gious charities.27 a May 2015 New York Times article, Patri- political system, such as the Koch broth- Writers in this magazine and elsewhere cia Cohen reported how African Ameri- ers, the Kern family, the DeVoses, and have documented this trend of ending di- cans who used to be able to make a mid- others, now fund a caravan of Christian rect government aid to the poor and el- dle-class living at government jobs have social scientists, theologians, and schol- derly in favor of private charity, starting increasingly fallen into more precarious ars to serve as their free market evan- with the 1996 Welfare Reform Act and economic situations as their agencies gelists. The most high-profile of these continuing to the “compassionate con- have been privatized.24 wealthy backers are the Koch Brothers; servatism” that WORLD magazine editor Brooks’ use of “brothers and sisters” not only has AEI received funds from Marvin Olasky helped brand for Presi- and “the least of these,” is just one exam- both the Foundation and dent George W. Bush.28 As Bill Berkow- ple of how neoliberals have been adapt- Donors Trust (a dark-money organization itz wrote for The Public Eye in 2002, ing their language to better appeal to that allows wealthy donors to give anon- “Stripped of alliteration, ‘compassionate conservative Christians in recent years. ymously to conservative causes25), but conservatism’ is the political packaging The Christian Right has become such an David Koch also served on AEI’s National of the Right’s long-term goals of limited important part of the conservative firma- Council as recently as 2014.26 government, privatization, deregula- ment that other factions of the Right are Brooks and other Christian free market tion and the creation of a new social con- often obliged to cast their arguments in surrogates use biblical language sancti- tract.”29 religious terms, weaving religious ideas fying the “dignity of work” and the en- One tool that “compassionate conser- directly into mainstream policy debates. trepreneurial spirit, and craft slogans to vatives” invented for redirecting state

6 • The Public Eye FALL 2015 funds into private hands was the White CHARITY VS. COLLECTIVE ACTION central tenet of Christ’s teachings, and House Office of Faith-Based and -Neigh Free market neoliberals from both free market ideologues know that even borhood Partnerships. PRA has reported sides of the aisle have not historically the most profit-motivated Christian has on this office’s funneling of federal grants concerned themselves with the problems been taught to give back a percentage of to religious nonprofits under Bush, and of the poor. Indeed, as the late political his or her income and time to those in on its continued lack of transparency and scientist Jean V. Hardisty and North- need. Christian Reconstructionism33 and accountability under Obama.30 eastern University law professor Lucy A. its “softer” counterpart, Christian Do- minionism, the intellectual movements that undergird much of the Christian Right,34 offer a set of solutions for how a Christian government should treat the poor. As religion scholar Julie J. Inger- soll writes in her 2015 book Building God’s Kingdom: Inside the World of Chris- tian Reconstruction, many of these “so- lutions,” which are rooted in a strictly literal interpretation of God’s law in the Bible, have filtered into the policy plat- forms of conservative political figures, most notably , , , and . According to the Reconstructionist and Dominionist worldview, only the elect, or God’s chosen few in the church, get to govern.35 These elect see it as their duty, Ingersoll writes, to “transform ev- ery aspect of culture to bring it in line with [the] Bible.”36 This follows from a Calvinist interpretation of the Bible, Occupy D.C. protesters outside the 2012 Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Washington, D.C. Photo via Flickr / www.GlynLowe.com. License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode which posits that only the elect will get into Heaven. In the Georgetown panel discussion Williams pointed out in their 2002 essay, A recent example of this vision came with Obama and Putnam, as well as in “The Right’s Campaign Against Welfare,” in a July 6 video interview that self-styled his book The Conservative Heart, Brooks the coalition that brought Tea Party “historian” David Barton gave,37 updated compassionate conservatism to to power popularized the in which he helped amplify the conserva- draw a sharp divide between what he con- idea that there were fewer people living in tive chorus for cutting Medicare. “Retire- siders the legitimate “safety net” and the poverty than government data showed, ment is not a Biblical concept,” Barton abuse of it in “middle class entitlements.” and that anyone still in need of aid af- said. “That is a pagan concept.” Barton “Help should always come with the digni- ter Reagan’s implementation of supply- seems to be in favor of doing away with fying power of work,” Brooks said. side economic Perhaps hearing Brooks’ remarks as policies, such yet another version of the Right’s attack as tax cuts for on government assistance programs, businesses, was “Retirement is not a Biblical concept,” Obama responded with a defensive ques- simply abusing Barton said. “That is a pagan concept.” tion, asking, “What portion of our collec- the system. “As tive wealth and budget are we willing to a result of a de- invest in those things that allow a poor cade of message kid, whether in a rural town…in Appa- development,” lachia or in the inner city, to access what Hardisty and Williams wrote, “the Right retirement altogether. But despite this they need both in terms of mentors and was able to augment the justification hardline—and surely unpopular—posi- social networks, as well as decent books for the elimination of federal social pro- tion, Barton’s political star appears to be and computers and so forth, in order for grams; they should be defunded not sim- on the rise. In September, Texas senator them to succeed?”31 Obama was giving ply because they tax our paychecks, but and GOP presidential candidate Ted Cruz Brooks a chance to show his support for because they destroy recipients’ charac- hired Barton to lead his superPAC. Time equality of opportunity for all people, not ter.”32 will tell whether Barton can parlay his just for corporations. Brooks offered no But conservative Christians have a grassroots Tea Party network into votes response. more complex relationship to poverty. for Cruz.38 But with Barton granted such Care for the poor is unquestionably a an influential platform, other Christian

FALL 2015 Political Research Associates • 7 Dominionists will likely be emboldened saved “elect” vs. the rest of us41—with an ing of teeth.” to promote their version of biblical gov- economically Darwinist framework that Bradley sees in this parable a lesson ernment. says it is correct and just for wealth to ac- about God-granted “diversity in abili- crue to those who manage it best. ties,” which in turn justifies and normal- FAITH-WASHING INEQUALITY IFWE’s Anne Rathbone Bradley, an izes income inequality. Those who gain Since even a shrunken, limited govern- economist and former advisor to Charles wealth have done so because they applied ment would have to remain as part of a Koch,42 offers the fullest version of this their God-given abilities. Those who have Dominionist transformation, in recent argument, writing in a recent paper, not lack the ability to do so. Bradley’s in- years the Christian Right has had to ad- “Why Does Income Inequality Exist?,”43 terpretation also rationalizes the perpet- dress the sticky question of how govern- that people are simply “created differ- uation of income inequality because, had the master “given each man an equal amount, putting equality over abil- ity,” Bradley writes, “he Koch-funded theologians have developed scripture-based would have squandered his resources” by limiting arguments to address populist anger over economic inequality, his potential profits. (AEI’s blending traditional Calvinist hierarchies with an economically Arthur Brooks echoed this point in a July interview Darwinist framework that says it is just for wealth to accrue to with The Christian Post, those who manage it best. saying, “I think Chris- tians, in particular, can design their own thinking about politics around the 25th Chapter of Matthew, ment should behave toward the poor—es- ently, and some of us will earn higher in- and thinking about people with less, and pecially within the context of unfettered comes than others.” especially people with less power.”45,46) global capitalism. In other words, how Much of Bradley’s theological justifi- Using the Parable of the Talents to in- can the Christian Right reconcile Christ’s cation for this claim rests on her Calvin- form policy decisions is just the latest in admonition in Matthew 25:40 to care ist interpretation of the Bible’s “Parable a long series of Christian and Corporate for “the least of these” with a system of of the Talents,” and how it provides for Right intellectual projects. Marvin Olasky global capital that allows the one percent what she calls “a diversity in income.”44 emphasized the importance of the busi- to hoard trillions while 16.4 million U.S. Also known as The Parable of the Bags ness-faith alliance in a 2010 essay titled children are living in poverty? of Gold, Matthew 25:14-30 tells of three “Prophets and Profit,” in a Heritage Foun- Enter the Koch brothers and Christian servants and their master, who, before dation anthology called Indivisible: Social free enterprise. As Peter Montgomery departing on a and Economic wrote in The Public Eye’s Spring 2015 is- journey, leaves Foundations sue, “The Koch brothers, who describe the servants of American themselves as libertarians uninterested to guard his Liberty. “So- in social conservatives’ culture wars, wealth. To the People are “created cial conser- are more than willing to use Christian first, he gives differently, and some vatives who Right voters as well as mountains of five bags of gold. revere the cash to achieve their anti-government, To the second, of us will earn higher Bible can anti-union ends.”39 Through the use of he gives two. incomes than others.” learn much obscurely-named trust funds such as And to the third, about how to Themis, ORRA, and EvangCHR4,40 the only one—“each apply it from fossil-fuel tycoons have established the according to his economic Christian free market think tank Institute ability.” Upon conservatives for Faith, Work and Economics (IFWE), his return, he finds his first two “good who share a realistic outlook,” he wrote. which has set about resolving this area of and faithful” servants have invested and “Economic conservatives also can learn potential tension between the Corporate doubled the amount of gold that each was from biblically motivated conservatives and Christian Right. given. The third buried his master’s gold the importance of ethical and other non- Beyond advocating simple charity, in the ground and naturally retrieved economic factors in determining eco- IFWE theologians have developed a scrip- only what was given to him. This servant, nomic success.”47 ture-based argument to address populist who merely saved the money, was chas- And for those who find themselves on anger over economic inequality, blend- tised as wicked and lazy, and sentenced the short end of the “talents”- and profits- ing the Christian Right’s traditional Cal- to be thrown “outside, into the darkness, stick? For those, Bradley and fellow IFWE vinist hierarchies—the preordained, where there will be weeping and gnash- theologian Art Lindsley prescribe char-

8 • The Public Eye FALL 2015 ity, citing Proverbs 14:30 in their book, For the Least of These: A Biblical Answer to Poverty: “whoever is kind to the needy honors God.” But they make clear that Jay W. Richards: The free market’s culture warrior the Bible’s instructions for people don’t apply to governments, or government One of the “skillful” leaders—as PRA founder Jean Hardisty characterized right-wing strat- aid.48 Such arguments help set the table egists who mobilize conservatives’ resentment against poor people and communities of for political debates that devalue the role color—who has gone largely unremarked in the mainstream press is Jay W. Richards, a con- of government and make it easier for servative Catholic who currently holds an assistant research professorship at The Catholic conservative politicians to carve into pro- University of America’s School of Business and Economics. Richards has been a guest lecturer grams such as Medicare. at the anti-choice, anti-LGBTQ as well as a former visiting fellow Christian free enterprise has thus made at the conservative Heritage Foundation. Richards, who earned his Ph.D in philosophy and significant inroads in policy circles. The theology from Princeton Theological Seminary, has also worked stints as a fellow at other “bad guys” in their poverty narrative may right-wing think tanks, including the anti-evolution Discovery Institute, where he edited a have changed; they are no longer the book defending creationist curricula. He has authored around half a dozen other books, in- “welfare queens” of the Reagan era so 62 much as liberals accused of a “lack of ci- cluding the 2009 Money, Greed, and God: Why Capitalism Is the Solution and Not the Problem. vility”49 for calling free market capitalists From his current perch at Catholic University, Richards now focuses on the Christian defense greedy, or progressives labeled fiscally of free market capitalism. irresponsible for refusing to cut Medi- care. But the narrative follows a familiar When he isn’t building bridges between the Corporate and Christian Right, Richards is a cul- formula—one that Jean Hardisty identi- ture warrior. He expresses transphobic, homophobic, and anti-abortion views on his social fied in her 2000 book Mobilizing Resent- media pages. On April 10, he posted an article bearing a photo of concrete gargoyle-demons ment: Conservative Resurgence from the on his Facebook and Twitter pages with the caption, “The subject few are willing to broach: to the Promise Keepers: The Attack on Marriage Is Diabolical”—a suggestion that the devil is behind the push for “skillful leaders recruiting discontented same-sex marriage. On May 24, he snarked on Facebook and Twitter about the news of the followers by offering simple explana- Boy Scouts allowing gay troop leaders by commenting, “Sticking a crow bar in the Overton tions, complete with scapegoats, for their Window” next to the article title, “‘Be Prepared’: ‘Gay Men’ with Boy Scouts in Tents,” equating resentments.”50 We can see the progress openly gay Scout leaders with sexual predators entering Scouts’ tents. this new coalition has made when even the President of the United States is com- More recently, though, Richards has shifted his emphasis from social and cultural sniping pelled to defend the country’s continued to economic and political issues. The Christian Right is increasingly turning to Richards as investment in established public benefits a thought leader on reconciling biblical economics with homophobic, white nationalist- on a stage with the head of the American tinged Producerism. Enterprise Institute.

MOMENT OF OPPORTUNITY Christian Right politicians sometimes acknowledge a personal wish to help the 2010. But after Mitt Romney’s defeat in Tea Party populism included Christian poor. Former Congressmember the 2012 presidential campaign, follow- free market principles among its broad- Frank Wolf, speaking at an AEI event in ing his tone-deaf comments about work- ly shared core values, it has been diffi- May 2013, offered such a platitude: “I am ing Americans “who believe the gov- cult for dissenting Left groups such as compelled because of my faith,” he said, ernment has a responsibility to care for the union-backed Organization United “to have compassion for the weak and them, who believe that they are entitled for Respect at Walmart (OUR Walmart) 51 vulnerable in our midst.” to health care, to food, to housing, to and the Fight for 15 movement to dis- Working class and poor people form you-name-it,”52 conservative candidates rupt Tea Party populism with a call for a diverse grassroots base that can mo- are working harder than ever to appeal to better treatment of workers. Thanks to bilize to win political power; they may working-class voters. Walmart’s cultural innovation of “blend- not be quite as “weak and vulnerable” As historian Bethany Moreton, au- ing Christian service ideals with free mar- as Wolf supposes. Leaders on the Right thor of the 2009 book To Serve God and ket theories,” Moreton has written,53 the have in some ways learned to harness this Wal-Mart: The Making of Christian Free company has given rise to an entire low- power. While the 2008 economic crash Enterprise, has observed, Tea Party lead- wage workforce in the retail sector that led, on the Left, to the Occupy move- ers gained ground by building a voter prefers Christian ideas about charity to ment and the Wisconsin pro-labor up- base through local town hall events and collective action or government reform. risings of 2011 and 2012, the Tea Party involvement with White cultural insti- “The same retail workers that progressive used populist anger over the economy to tutions such as conservative churches unions sought to organize,” writes More- marshal White working-class voters to and corporations like Walmart. Because ton of Walmart’s exponential growth in sweep the state and federal legislatures in the 1970s and ‘80s, “report that they are

FALL 2015 Political Research Associates • 9 more likely to turn to God for help on the thought leaders like Barton, Bradley, and BY DANI MCCLAIN job than to a union, a feminist organiza- WHOSE VISION WILL PREVAIL? Brooks may use gentler language that tion, or a government agency.” Industrialist donors are not waiting strikes a chord with some conservatives, But where there are still unions, the around for the Christian Right to step in but the policies they promote bespeak a grassroots political power of the working and help them sell their policy agenda different vision. The elitism that - under class still militates toward the Left. In the of dismantling government benefits. In- girds their collaboration is fundamental- face of a jobless recovery and historic in- stead, as demonstrated above, they have ly at odds with the equality of economic equality, economic justice arguments are begun recruiting—and funding—expe- opportunity that liberals, and even some making an impact. The 2009-2014 de- rienced Christian scholars and public Republicans, hold as a core value. The coalition of Christian conserva- tives and free market fundamentalists promotes a vision that elevates property In a world where the Parable of the Talents rights—rather than human rights—to the level of sacred principle. With wages justifies regressive economic policy, those who continuing to fall even as the business lack property are left to fend for themselves. world recovers from the Great Recession, it is clear that enacting policy according to this principle leads to profit for a few, and suffering for many. cline in median wages across all income In a world where the Parable of the Tal- groups,54 along with high-profile dem- relations experts to make their case in ents justifies regressive economic policy, onstrations by low-wage workers, has the media and on college campuses. The those who lack property are left to fend left the Corporate Right politically vul- Koch-funded IFWE is one center for this for themselves. But there is another way. nerable. An August Gallup poll showed activity; so is the Foundation for Eco- It is not enough for those who desire eco- that one in five U.S. workers worry they nomic Education, a project of the ultra- nomic justice to ridicule or denounce the will have their hours and wages cut at conservative Mackinac Center for Public overtly racist rhetoric of a Donald Trump. work (up from the teens before the 2008 Policy run by libertarian leader Lawrence Politicians also need to hear a full-throat- recession).55 Meanwhile, the rich keep Reed57; and the Institute on Religion and ed rejection of the narratives that treat getting richer: between 2009 and 2012, Democracy, a Washington, D.C.-based poor people, immigrants, and people of one study showed that the top one per- think tank that takes aim at mainline color as “the least of these” or “assets to cent captured 95 percent of total income churches with funding from neoconser- develop.” Such messages infantilize ev- growth.56 vative and Christian Right groups.58 eryone who may one day rely on widely Even in non-union regions and sectors But their victory is by no means as- supported social safety nets; they are of the workforce, movements for eco- sured. Communities of color who were also portents of the broader benefit cuts nomic justice have gotten more sophis- pilloried and thrown off the welfare rolls that conservatives hope to enact. Now ticated, sometimes with an analysis that under President Bill Clinton’s Welfare Re- that billionaires have already purchased appeals to Christians. The North Caroli- form Act were, it turns out, the canaries many of the mechanisms of democracy, na-based Moral Mondays movement, for in the coal mine. Now, most of the White people who do not want a future with- example, has built a robust activist base workforce finds its wages cut; many have out programs such as Medicare and So- through progressive pastors and faith had to go on food stamps or apply for oth- cial Security must act quickly to join and leaders calling for broad-based economic er benefits. Indeed, 40.2 percent of 2013 strengthen the collective movements justice, investment in public education, food stamp recipient household heads that can defend them. and an end to inequality. Further, about were White59; in addition, more than a year ago, the Fight for 15 fast-food half of 2013 Medicare beneficiaries were Mariya Strauss is PRA’s Economic Justice campaign began involving home care White in all states except Hawaii and the Researcher. workers,57 who represent a workforce, District of Columbia.60 two million strong, of mostly low-wage Now, while Producerist right-wing Jaime Longoria contributed research and women, immigrants, and people of col- populists like Trump demonize immi- reporting to this article. or. Although home care workers’ cam- grants and liberal elites as moochers (and paign for public support—a moral appeal worse61), some Corporate and Christian called Caring Across Generations—has Right leaders are offering another line: been underway for years, they had never that everyone flourishes according to his before combined forces strategically to or her talents. This approach could ap- stand with other low-wage workers. The peal to those conservative Christians un- marriage of a bad mood among the vot- convinced by market logic and resistant ing public with effective economic justice to the mean-spirited attacks of Trump organizing has created a moment of op- and the Tea Party. portunity for mass political mobilization. Christian Right and Corporate Right

10 • The Public Eye FALL 2015 q & a

BY DANI MCCLAIN

Policies That Make People Disappear Activist Shana griffin on Housing in Post-Katrina New Orleans

To mark the 10-year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina this August, a conservative member of the ’s editorial board, Kristen McQueary, wrote that she wished that a similar “swirl of fury,” “a real storm,” would whip through Chicago and prompt a citywide “rebirth.”1 While 1,833 people died, and more than 400,000 others were displaced by Katrina—many perma- nently—McQueary found a silver lining in the catastrophe: slashed city budgets and mandatory unpaid furloughs; the demolition of old housing stock, labor contracts, and teachers’ unions; and the rise of “the nation’s first free-market education system.” “That’s what it took to hit the reset button in New Orleans,” McQueary wrote. “Chaos. Tragedy. Heartbreak.” Although McQueary was forced to walk back her language after commenters nationwide pilloried her callous “prayer,” she was merely repeating a powerful narrative that’s been created over the past decade. Just weeks after the hurricane made landfall, ’ longtime conservative columnist David Brooks wrote: The first rule of the rebuilding- ef fort should be: Nothing Like Before. Most of the ambitious and organized people abandoned the inner-city ar- eas of New Orleans long ago, leaving neighborhoods where roughly three- quarters of the people were poor…. If we just put up new buildings and allow the same people to move back into their old neighborhoods, then urban New Orleans will become just as rundown and dysfunctional as be- fore.2 Dreams of a blank slate on which to car- ry out a market-driven recovery weren’t confined to op-eds. Government officials began speculating about how the storm and the area’s subsequent evacuation would change New Orleans’ demograph- ics. Alphonso Jackson, HUD Secretary to President George W. Bush, urged against rebuilding the Lower Ninth Ward and told the Houston Chronicle, “Whether we like Thousands of working-class, African American families were displaced by the Housing Authority of it or not, New Orleans is not going to be New Orleans in favor of corporate development after Hurricane Katrina. Photo via Flickr and courtesy of Culture: Subculture Photography. License: http://creativecommons.org/licens- 500,000 people for a long time. New Or- es/by/4.0/legalcode leans is not going to be as black as it was for a long time, if ever again.”3 Rep. Richard H. Baker, a Republican congressman from Baton Rouge, was quoted as telling lobby- ists in September 2005, “We finally cleaned up public housing in New Orleans. We couldn’t do it, but God did.”4 Democrats got on board with the blank slate narrative as well. The efforts to get rid of large swaths of the city’s public housing units couldn’t have been successful without the unanimous support of New Orleans’ largely Democratic City Council. Arne Dun- can, the Obama administration’s secretary of education, expressed a kind of gratitude for the devastation, telling an interviewer, “I think the best thing that happened to the education system in New Orleans was Hurricane Katrina. That education system was

FALL 2015 Political Research Associates • 11 a disaster, and it took Hurricane Katrina to wake up the community to say that ‘we have to do better.’”5 Now, 10 years later, the results of this enthusiastic promotion of a new New Orleans—one rebuilt along corporate-friendly, neoliberal lines—are clear. A recent New Orleans Advocate article6 describes the city as being “smaller, whiter and wealthier” than it had been prior to Katrina. New Orleans has 79 percent of the population it had in 2000, according to Census data. The city has lost almost a third of its Black population since 2000, but only about eight percent of its White population.7 White residents made up about a quarter of the city’s population before the storm. Now they make up just under a third.8 (See also our 2010 report, “The Long Hurricane.”9) Shana griffin (lower-case intentional), an activist and New Orleans native, spends much of her time thinking about how the changes of the past decade fit into a longer history of discriminatory housing policy and displacement. As cofounder and board president of the Jane Place Neighborhood Sustainability Initiative (JPNSI), a hybrid community development non-profit and advo- cacy organization, she implements solutions she hopes will keep the city affordable for longtime residents. The organization’s first development, a renovated four-unit historic building in the Mid-City neighborhood, is scheduled to open this fall. I spoke with griffin about how not-in-my-backyard attitudes toward public housing residents and housing voucher recipients, weak laws protecting tenants’ rights, and recovery policies that favored homeowners with high property values—conceived of in right-wing policy circles, but embraced by a bipartisan coalition of pro-business politicians—have all contributed to changes in New Orleans’ makeup since Katrina.

Rep. Richard H. Baker, a Republican congressman from Baton Rouge, was quoted as telling lobbyists in September 2005, “We finally cleaned up public housing in New Orleans. We couldn’t do it, but God did.”

In the years since the storm, four of the city’s 10 public housing to be people living in public housing; it has to be kids going to developments have been demolished.10 Those 5,000 units were public schools. There’s something that’s almost inherently bad replaced by just more than 600 units. The number of housing about anything public. It’s like these people are problems, so if vouchers, which are often promoted as a way to de-concentrate you get rid of them, “the problem” goes away. poverty, tripled from 2000 to 2010.11 How are changes to fed- eral and local housing policy related to changes in the city’s de- mographics?

We had Rep. [Richard] Baker (R-La.) making the comment that, “We could not clean up public housing, but God did.”12 The idea [being that] those who occupy public housing were dirty, a social ill that the state, in its paternalistic role, could not deal with, but God did. And seeing Hurricane Katrina as a metaphor, something that cleaned up this problem where the government had struggled to. I grew up in public housing here in New Orleans called Iberville. I resided in public housing almost 23 years, almost half of my life. I grew up always feeling extreme shame about where I lived. I cringed when people would ask me where I lived. It caused an extreme level of anxiety to say I live in the projects. Just to say “public housing” was basically saying that you’re dirty, you’re bad, you’re dumb, you’re lazy, you’re a problem. I have these memories of extreme shame. As I got January 15, 2007 - Martin Luther King Day. St Bernard Public Housing Development. New Orleans, LA. Four to five hundred people assembled on older, I realized that shame wasn’t based on my family or me St. Bernard Avenue to force an entry into the St. Bernard Public Housing or people who live in public housing being bad, dirty, dumb, Development. lazy, or ugly people; it was based on the fear of being blamed Photo via Flickr and courtesy of Culture: Subculture Photography. License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode for something that we didn’t cause. I think that’s what we see now when I think about the de- molition of public housing in New Orleans. It’s like these are These are policies that make people disappear. You don’t see people that you can blame. It’s like if we have social problems, the remnants of what once was public housing. When the it has to be the people that are utilizing public assistance; it has buildings are gone, the assumption is the people are gone.

12 • The Public Eye FALL 2015 You’ve written13 about the specific impact of such policies on women and girls. Did the displacement in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina have a disparate impact on low-in- come women?

Housing is not a gender neutral issue. Public and subsi- dized housing programs are disproportionately utilized by women of color and poor women. Black women represent a vast majority of leaseholders within public housing, and the same is true for voucher holders. So you see the ways in which gender and racial inequality came together to deny black women in the city a right to return home. If you see an advertisement for housing that says, “Blacks not welcome,” that’s an obvious violation. If you see, “Children are not welcome,” that’s a clear violation as well. But whenever you see “No Section 8”—and you see that all the time—that is not a violation. Those who are likely to be poor and who are receiving Section 8 housing vouchers are women, and in the context of New Orleans, New Orleans after Katrina Black women. Photo via Flickr / drp and courtesy of The Times-Picayune of New Orleans. Women’s perceived fertility rates are often used as an License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode underpinning for affordable housing opposition. It’s this typical, unfortunate thing when there are articles around pub- JPNSI creates the opportunity, rather than waiting for some- lic housing or affordable housing in the local newspaper, and thing to occur. We’re not just advocating for this, we’re also de- it’s seen also nationally, when you read the comments section, veloping affordable housing in our communities. there are always comments about, “These women are having When I think about the housing crisis in the city, I see the too many kids. They’re breeding criminals.” community land trust model as being one of many avenues to In 2008, John LaBruzzo, state representative, Re- address the problem. At JPNSI we put a particular focus on per- publican, made statements about exploring legislation to pay manent affordability as well as advocacy to improve equitable poor women, those who are on welfare and in public housing, forms of development and resident-controlled development. $1,000 to be sterilized because they’re having so many kids But a community land trust is not a silver bullet. You can they can’t afford to take care of.14 He made the statement in the create permanent affordability in an area like New Orleans context of people evacuating because of Hurricane Gustav, but and still be able to put somebody out of a unit. Affordability also during the same week that the House of Representatives loses its strength in markets where you have poor tenant rights overwhelmingly denied support of President Bush’s $700 bil- laws. Inclusionary zoning, a rental registry [to address blight lion dollar stimulus plan. through code enforcement], and tenant rights unions all need to play a role in broader strategy. How have homeowners fared in the wake of Katrina? This spring, your organization broke ground on a four-unit de- Under the [federal] Road Home program [which provided velopment that you’ve said will be the first permanently afford- funds that could be used to rebuild homes], Black homeown- able apartment building owned by a community land trust in ers’ properties were devalued compared to White homeowners New Orleans. In Mid-City, the neighborhood where this project and many White homeowners received more Road Home fund- is located, 79 percent of residents rent and rents have increased ing. The formula that was used [to determine who got grants] 44 percent since 2000.16 The need is so great and yet you’ve de- was based on homes’ pre Katrina value, not on the destruction cided to smart small. that the homes suffered through Hurricane Katrina. The dis- parities were obvious and resulted in several lawsuits [which The scale of the project may seem small, but it’s characteristic led to a $62 million settlement].15 in terms of New Orleans neighborhoods. It’s these small neigh- In general, the policies that were enacted did not show any borhood projects that have seen the least of the funding and investment or commitment to supporting people’s right to re- attention. Our effort to explore different possibilities to turn turn home, and also sent a clear message in terms of who was the tide is really important. wanted, who can come back, who can’t come back. These small-scale projects are important and have a big im- pact on people. They feel like, “I can see a change.” The lack of affordable housing in New Orleans seems to be caused by a number of factors, including soaring rents, ste- reotypes about low-income residents, and policies such as the Dani McClain reports and writes on race, gender, policy, and poli- federal Road Home program that left out both renters and Black tics. She is a contributing writer at The Nation and a fellow with the homeowners. What solutions are you working on? Nation Institute.

FALL 2015 Political Research Associates • 13 Joffe and Stewart, continued from page 3 documents of U.S. history.” They sought as well as by AP examinations. Eventu- headlines. But it was just one in a string greater opportunities for their students ally, Tea Party hero Ben Carson, author of conflicts over APUSH curricula taking to “understand the ‘why’ of U.S. his- of One Nation: What We Can All Do to Save place nationwide over the last few years, tory,” and to “make its deeper mean- America’s Future, went so far as to say in Oklahoma, Georgia, Texas, and North ings come alive to students.” The 2014 that “most people” who complete the and South Carolina. While the vehe- redesigned APUSH was greeted warmly course would then be “ready to sign up ment state battles appeared to be driven by academic associations, including the for ISIS.”17 by local personalities and agendas, there American Historical Association, the was a larger, national strategy at work. Organization of American Historians, “LITTLE REBELS” The opposition to APUSH occurred on the National Council for Social Studies, In 2014, the fight received national two levels. The first, as in Colorado, con- and the National Council for History media attention when nearly 400 high cerned control of local school boards and Education. school students in Jefferson County, Col- school communities. A second prong But the College Board’s attempt to orado, engaged in an unusual form of of the attack focused on legislation at change how students learn U.S. history political theater. A newly elected school the state level, bolstered by a resolu- was greeted by conservatives as a revi- board was attempting to create a “cur- tion passed by the Republican National sion of what U.S. history is.9 riculum committee”18 that could review Convention denouncing the course and Education has long been a front in the any course’s instruction materials, start- urging Congress to withdraw funding to U.S. culture wars. In particular, con- ing with APUSH. Its review criteria held the College Board.24 Policymakers in the Carolinas agitated to eliminate or doc- tor APUSH at the end of 2014. In Texas, a state that represents 10 percent of the Ben Carson said that “most people” who completed College Board’s market,25 the infamous- the APUSH course would be “ready to sign up for ISIS.” ly right-wing State Board of Education passed a resolution in September 2014 to request that the College Board revise the APUSH framework.26 In February servatives have argued for at least two that “Materials should promote citizen- 2015, Oklahoma state representative decades that secular progressives have ship, patriotism, essentials and benefits Dan Fisher introduced a bill that would taken over history studies to inculcate of the free enterprise system, respect bar funds from being used on AP His- students with a negative view of the for authority and respect for individual tory, although public outcry effectively American past and present.10 Thanks rights. Materials should not encourage killed the bill within a month.27 And in to a concerted effort from members of or condone civil disorder, social strife March 2015 in Georgia, a lobbyist from the ,11 such as the or disregard of the law.”19 A Colorado the American Principles Project, a right- Boston-based Pioneer Institute and the school board member, Julia Williams, wing think tank based in Washington, Chicago-based ,12 summed up this sentiment in an inter- D.C., reportedly showed up urging leg- high school history has remained a con- view with a local TV news station, say- islators to adopt anti-APUSH legislation, troversial subject on a national level. ing, “I don’t think we should encourage resulting in a bill that passed the state The APUSH controversy of the past our kids to be little rebels.” Senate in March28 (but ultimately stalled several years is reported to have start- In protest of the school board’s at- in the House). ed when Larry Krieger, a retired high tempt to write civil obedience into the The American Principles Project school history teacher who had started curriculum, the students dressed them- (APP), which has been advocating each year with the theme of American selves up as historical figures, including against APUSH since at least the Jef- exceptionalism,13 slammed APUSH in Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King, Jr., and ferson County protests, was founded in numerous articles,14 including several sundry founding fathers, and staged 2009 by Princeton University professor written for the Heartland Institute,15 a a walk out. Some county schools were and Catholic neoconservative Robert P. conservative think tank known for its closed when too many teachers failed to George in order to ensure that the “dig- role in promoting climate-science de- show up for work in protest.20 Jefferson nity of the person” is reflected in local nial. The Republican National Commit- County Board of Education President and national policies. Some of the APP’s tee picked up the beat and condemned Ken Witt dismissed the students as “po- best-known work has been produced in APUSH as “radically revisionist.” Peter litical pawns”21 for the teachers’ unions, the fight against Common Core, but its Wood, President of the right-leaning but the walkout succeeded in stalling the leadership is invested in a broader slate National Association of Scholars and a school board’s plan to change the cur- of culture war issues. After the publi- critic of environmentalism and LGBTQ riculum22 and helped garner support for cation of the Manhattan Declaration in equality, penned an extensive piece crit- the recall of three board members.23 2009, The New York Times called George icizing the APUSH redesign last year,16 “the country’s most influential conserva- using the term “Bowdoin Syndrome” to LOCAL BATTLES, NATIONAL STRATEGY tive Christian thinker.”29 George was the describe what he called the “intellec- The Jefferson County history battle primary author of the Declaration—part tual arrogance” fostered by that college was colorful enough to capture national of an effort to unify conservative Catho-

14 • The Public Eye FALL 2015 APUSH, Old and New APUSH Thematic Learning Objective - Comparison

2014 Edition 2015 Edition

IDENTITY - “This theme focuses on the AMERICAN AND NATIONAL IDENTITY - formation of both American national “This theme focuses on how and why identity and group identities in U.S. definitions of American and national history. Students should be able to identity and values have developed, explain how various identities, cultures, as well as on related topics such as and values have been preserved or citizenship, constitutionalism, foreign changed in different contexts of U.S. policy, assimilation, and American history, with special attention given exceptionalism.” to the formation of gender, class, racial, and ethnic identities. Students should be able to explain how these subidentities have interacted with each other and with larger conceptions of American national identity.”

APUSH Concept Outline – Comparison on Native American History

2014 Edition 2015 Edition

P 42: “During and after the colonial P 41: “Various American Indian groups war for independence, various tribes repeatedly evaluated and adjusted attempted to forge advantageous their alliances with Europeans, political alliances with one another other tribes, and the U.S., seeking to and with European powers to protect limit migration of white settlers and their interests, limit migration of white maintain control of tribal lands and settlers, and maintain their tribal natural resources. British alliances lands.” with American Indians contributed to tensions between the U.S. and Britain.”

APUSH Concept Outline – Comparison of “Manifest Destiny”

2014 Edition 2015 Edition

P 55: “The idea of Manifest Destiny, P 53: “Advocates of annexing western which asserted U.S. power in the lands argued that Manifest Destiny Western Hemisphere and supported and the superiority of American U.S. expansion westward, was built on institutions compelled the United a belief in white racial superiority and a States to expand its borders westward sense of American cultural superiority, to the Pacific ocean.” and helped to shape the era’s political debates.”

Information in this chart was compiled from the 2014 and 2015 edition of the College Board’s AP U.S. History Course and Exam Description.

FALL 2015 Political Research Associates • 15 APUSH Concept Outline – PERIOD 1: 1491–1607 Comparison

2014 Edition 2015 Edition

P 34: “With little experience dealing P 28: “Mutual misunderstandings with people who were different from between Europeans and Native themselves, Spanish and Portuguese Americans often defined the early years explorers poorly understood the of interaction and trade as each group native peoples they encountered in the sought to make sense of the other over Americas, leading to debates over how time, Europeans and Native Americans American Indians should be treated adopted some useful aspects of each and how “civilized” these groups were other’s culture.” compared to European standards.”

P 34: “Many Europeans developed a P 28: “Extended contact with Native belief in white superiority to justify Americans and Africans fostered a their subjugation of Africans and debate among European religious American Indians, using several and political leaders about how non- different rationales.” Europeans should be treated, as well as evolving religious, cultural, and racial justifications for the subjugation of Africans and Native Americans.”

APUSH Concept Outline – PERIOD 4: 1800–1848 Comparison

2014 Edition 2015 Edition

P 50: “Many white Americans in the P 44: “Regional interests often trumped South asserted their regional identity national concerns as the basis for many through pride in the institution of political leaders’ positions on slavery slavery, insisting that the federal and economic policy.” government should defend that institution.”

lics and evangelicals around a three-part the Witherspoon Institute (which helped dating back to at least 1994, when Lynne agenda, which they described as “life, fund a thoroughly debunked 2012 study Cheney, former head of the National En- marriage, and religious liberty”30—but by conservative sociologist Mark Regn- dowment for the Humanities (and wife other APP figures are also proven culture erus suggesting negative outcomes for of former Vice President Dick Cheney) warriors. APP chairman Sean Fieler also children of same-sex couples32). condemned the National Standards for heads the Chiaroscuro Group, whose ra- In their 2015 lobbying document,33 U.S. History as revisionist political cor- dio ads attacking a pro-choice politician APP charged that APUSH “requires rectness in her now-famous Wall Street once featured a talking fetus; the APP’s American History to be taught through Journal op-ed, “The End of History.”34 board president, Francis Cannon, coau- a leftist, revisionist lens.” According Over twenty years later, Cheney, cur- thored a post-2012 report on “Building to APP, the course gave “special atten- rently a senior fellow at the American a Winning GOP Coalition”;31 and other tion to the formation of gender, class, Enterprise Institute, resumed the attack board members include anti-marriage racial and ethnic identities” and “pres- in another Journal op-ed, “The End of equality activist Maggie Gallagher and ents American business in a consistently History, Part II,” arguing, “The [APUSH] Luiz Tellez, cofounder of the anti-LGBTQ negative light.” curriculum shouldn’t be farmed out, not and anti-abortion legal advocacy group This type of accusation is an old one, to the federal government and not to pri-

16 • The Public Eye FALL 2015 vate groups. It should stay in the hands Zachary Goldberg, Director of Media from describing indigenous people’s at- of the people who are constitutionally Relations for the College Board, ob- tempts to “forge advantageous political responsible for it: the citizens of each jected to these characterizations, say- alliances” in order to “maintain their state.”35 ing that inaccurate media reports about tribal lands” to having “repeatedly evalu- the revision had misled many readers ated and adjusted their alliances” in or- WHOSE HISTORY? into thinking the Board had removed der to “maintain control of tribal lands At the core of this debate over “revi- numerous mentions of slavery from the and natural resources”—a subtle tweak sionist” versus “traditional” history is course. Not only was that incorrect, he that seems to speak more to contem- the question of whether U.S. history cur- wrote, but the revision was hailed as a porary conservative complaints about riculum should be about facts or a prim- success “by historians and teachers rep- Native American control of natural re- er on civic duty and citizenship. The Col- resenting a range of political views [for] sources on sovereign lands than an im- lege Board’s new curriculum already had presenting a richer and more balanced partial reassessment of what happened to stand the test of certain state laws such view of American history. This was during colonial times. Where the issue as North Carolina’s Founding Principles achieved not by reducing or minimizing of White racial identity was added, it Act, which since 2011 has required that the important narratives of underrepre- often seemed intended to mitigate injus- high school students pass a course on sented groups, but by adding to those tices perpetuated against Blacks, by link- the “Founding Principles” (because “the ing the experience of White indentured survival of the republic” depends on stu- servants and poor White sharecroppers dents being better “guardians of its heri- with the experience of enslaved Africans tage”).36 “At the root of current and impoverished African Americans in A professor of history at the Univer- objections…is a blatant the Jim Crow South. sity of Oklahoma asserted that the 2014 disregard for the facts” While Goldberg argues that “The “framework represents a shift from na- struggles and challenges experienced— tional identity to subcultural identities” and that continue to be experienced—by and warned, “We will not be able to minorities as America seeks to live up uphold our democracy unless we know narratives and including other impor- to its ideals in no way are minimized in our great stories, our national narra- tant themes and concepts that the 2014 the new edition,” many complexities of tives, and the admirable deeds of our edition was rightly criticized for having those struggles seem to have been lost great men and women. The new AP U.S. minimized.”41 in the Board’s new revision. Quoted in History framework fails on that count, Whether or not the curriculum was a September article in Indian Country because it does not see the civic role of rightly criticized, and the College Board Today, K. Tsianina Lomawaima, a mem- education as a central one.”37 (Scholars was simply “responding to legitimate ber of the Mvskoke/Creek Nation and a of Native American history pushed back criticism while avoiding excessive over- professor at Arizona State University, on this, arguing in Indian Country Today compensation” (as consultant Jeremy pointed to the consolidation of “Latino, that, “American Indian history is part of Stern put it),42 the events preceding the American Indian, and Asian American the fabric of the state of Oklahoma and revisions appear to suggest that APUSH, movements” into one statement in the who we are today…therefore all of that like much school curricula, has been po- course as an example of how the newest history is American history.”38) liticized by a right-wing agenda. curriculum is “once again erasing indig- In September 2014, the Board had re- The areas of the curriculum that the enous sovereignty and sliding American sponded to critics, writing in a memo, College Board noted had received the Indians in as just another piece of the so- “At the root of current objections to this most criticism—the treatment of the called racial-ethnic mix.”44 highly regarded process is a blatant dis- founding fathers, founding documents, To The , which was regard for the facts…the most vocal crit- free enterprise, and America’s role in pleased with the revision, the changes ics have prioritized their own agenda wartime victories—underwent the most amounted to “a good rewrite,” and “bal- above the best interests of teachers, significant changes and expansions.43 anced handiwork.” But the biggest students, and their families.”39 None- And a side-by-side comparison of the question about teaching U.S. history theless, the force of the pushback was two versions of the course shows con- remains: how can you balance coverage enough to convince the Board to solicit crete examples of right-wing influence— of a heritage that was never based on eq- public feedback on their course, which some blatant, and some more coded. uity? they did through their website from late Analysis of White racial identity and 2014 through early 2015.40 power as an undercurrent of U.S. his- Gabriel Joffe is the program coordinator at Po- In the end, with no sign of the debate tory is all but erased. Mention of “white litical Research Associates. relenting, the College Board agreed to superiority” as a component of Manifest another revision, which was released Destiny was stripped from the 2015 revi- Katherine Stewart has written for The Nation, this July. News coverage pointed to the sion, along with any mention of “white The New York Times, and The Guardian. pressure the College Board had received resistance” to desegregation. From 2014 She is the author of The Good News Club: using phrases such as “gives in” and to 2015, the coverage of Native Ameri- The Christian Right’s Stealth Assault on “caves to.” can history under colonialism shifted America’s Children (PublicAffairs, 2012).

FALL 2015 Political Research Associates • 17 reports in review

Going to Extremes: The anti-government extremism behind the growing movement to seize America’s public lands center for western priorities, august 2015

The 2014 high-profile standoff between Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy andthe Bureau of Land Management (BLM) over Bundy’s refusal to pay fees for grazing his cattle on public land is just one example of a growing movement to seize con- trol of America’s public lands at the state and local level. The Center for Western Priorities’ August report is a roundup of the extremist ideology supporting this movement and the links between far-right groups and public officials opposing government control of these lands. The crux of this ideology is the belief that the federal government promised to turn public lands over to state governments when those states joined the union. Another ideological lynchpin for this movement is the concept of “County Supremacy”—the idea that the highest level of law enforcement should be the county sheriff and that the federal government therefore has no right to ad- minister public lands. This often coincides with the Posse Comitatus movement, which claims that the federal gov- ernment has no legitimate authority to enforce the law, and that citizens are empowered to form “posses” to defend their interpretation of the Constitution, through violence if necessary. The Posse Comitatus movement gets its name from a law passed in the post-Reconstruction South to limit the federal government’s use of military in the region, and was invigorated during the 1950s when federal troops were sent into the South to enforce school integration. These trends are also linked to the Sovereign Citizens movement, whose sup- porters believe they are not citizens of the United States and do not have to follow its laws. These groups, which often attract White supremacists, have grown particularly strong in the West, and have resisted the federal government through a range of tactics, from refusing to pay taxes to threatening and even killing law enforcement officers. Many of these groups experienced growth in the 1980s and ‘90s, and a decline in the 2000s. However, the election of the first Black president seems to have inspired a resurgence, and the movement has gained the support of some west- ern legislators. There are indications that this ideology has begun to enter the mainstream. Last year, the Republican National Committee endorsed the transfer of public lands to willing Western states in its official platform, and several Republican presidential candidates have supported land transfers in the Senate, including Senators Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio, and Rick Santorum. PRA’s own research in “Terror Network or Lone Wolf” (The Public Eye, Spring 2015), which examined the disparate treatment of Muslim and non-Muslim defendants in the criminal justice system, revealed that in 2014 federal law enforcement officials rated Sovereign Citizen extremists as the top terrorist threat in the United States. However, that threat is still often treated as highly individualized instead of being linked with broader political and social move- ments. That is partly due to the success of mainstreaming Sovereign Citizen ideology, which makes linking the move- ment to domestic terrorism come with a heavier political cost, even when Sovereign Citizens kill law enforcement officers. This report identifies Utah State Representative Ken Ivory as one of the key actors in bridging these extremist groups and more mainstream politicians. His efforts mean that the future of public lands will continue to be a major political flashpoint. -Laura Muth

Who Pays? The True Cost of Incarceration on Families the ella baker center for human rights, forward together, and research action design, september 2015

Mass incarceration is an expensive business, involving both obvious and hidden costs. The United States devotes $80 billion each year to imprison more than 2.4 million people, which equates to 22 percent of the prisoners across the globe (an egregious proportion considering the U.S. only represents 4.4 percent of the world’s population). More than 60 percent of those in prison in the U.S. are racial and ethnic minorities, with one in three Black men facing incar- ceration in their lifetime. But when a person is sentenced to prison, they’re rarely the only one who pays. A new report released by the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights, Forward Together, and Research Action Design in September 2015 found that the families of incarcerated people also find themselves

18 • The Public Eye FALL 2015 punished in ways that are rarely recognized. As families lose The LGBT Divide: A Data partners, parental figures and providers, the economic fallout can be severe. Nearly two-thirds of families with an incarcerated Portrait of the South, loved one surveyed for this report were unable to meet their basic Midwest & Mountain States needs, with 70 percent of those families including children under the williams institute, december 2014 18; almost 20 percent of families were unable to afford housing because of a member’s incarceration. In 63 percent of cases, fam- ily members were saddled with court costs related to their loved one’s incarceration—often totaling more than $13,000—and 83 percent of those family members primarily responsible for paying the debt were women. The costs associated with visiting or arrang- ing phone calls from prison compounded the financial burden, as some families went into debt trying to maintain communication with loved ones. (Contact with incarcerated loved ones reduces the Living in one of the 29 states where em- outcome of recidivism, which is crucial for the well-being of fami- ployment anti-discrimination laws do not lies and the development of children, who are often traumatized cover sexual orientation can have a seri- by the loss of their parent.) ous impact on the health and economic A loved one’s release doesn’t mean the end of hardship. Twenty and social well-being of LGBT individu- percent of surveyed people said they were denied public benefits als. A report released last December by the like food stamps after they left prison, and nearly 80 percent were Williams Institute analyzed social climate, unable to afford housing. Ten percent of survey respondents were demographic, economic, and health indi- evicted from their current housing after an incarcerated loved one cators among the LGBT population (not all rejoined their family. Five years out of prison, 67 percent of indi- of the research in the report specifically in- viduals represented in the report were unemployed or underem- cluded transgender populations) in these ployed, and 60 percent were unable to afford to return to school states and found a marked difference be- (with 25 percent denied educational loans because of their convic- tween them and the 21 states where anti- tion). discrimination laws do include sexual Communities suffer as a whole as well, as money that could be orientation in their protections. Some of used to support local education, housing, and health centers, for these issues were compounded for Afri- example, instead is diverted towards a (sometimes privatized) pris- can-American LGBT people, who face dis- on industry that disproportionately incarcerates the very commu- crimination on at least two fronts and who nities that most lack those resources. According to The American were found to be more economically vul- Prospect, “confinement costs have claimed an increasing share of nerable and more likely to experience em- state and local government spending. This trend has starved es- ployment discrimination in non-state law sential social programs—most notably education,” which explains states (states that do not have employment why “between 2010-2011, 1,069 public schools closed, primarily discrimination laws that include sexual in urban communities of color across the nation.” The money it orientation). takes to imprison these people could be better used by the com- Analysis of LGBT discrimination issues munities themselves to strengthen social services and to support often highlights the South, but the report formerly incarcerated individuals after their release. (See also Pub- found that health, economic, and social lic Eye’s Fall 2014 report, “Beyond Prisons, Mental Health Clinics: disparities could be just as significant in When Austerity Opens Cages, Where Do the Services Go?”) the Midwest and Mountain regions, which These are systemic problems that are not easily fixed, but “Who include states like , where earlier Pays” focuses on three reforms to the criminal justice system and this year the governor issued an execu- solutions that can help stabilize and support families, commu- tive order removing anti-discrimination 2 nities, and formerly incarcerated persons. The first requires a protections for LGBT state employees, restructuring and reinvestment in social services for vulnerable and Idaho, which does not include sexual populations: states need to draft responsible policies that reduce orientation or gender identity in its hate 3 the number of prisoners, reinvest funds into working social ser- crime legislation. vices to reduce recidivism, and shift their focus to accountability, While there were some commonalities safety, and healing, rather than punishment. The second requires across all these regions, such as lower the removal of resource public benefit barriers: housing and em- rates of social acceptance for LGB/T4 peo- ployment opportunities must be prevalent in order for incarcer- ple and lower numbers of LGBT individu- ated individuals to gain economic stability. The third calls for als with health insurance, the report also increased opportunities that restore family bonds with previously highlighted unique problems in each re- incarcerated individuals, addressing the financial, emotional, and gion. The South had the lowest score for physical burdens placed on families of incarcerated loved ones by social acceptance of LGB/T people and the providing holistic support.1 highest rates of new HIV infections among -Cassandra Osei men who have sex with men (MSM). Only

FALL 2015 Political Research Associates • 19 25 percent of LGBT southerners have health insurance, compared to 84 percent in the general population. The Mid- west, however, experienced the highest rates of food insecurity among LGBT people, who are 82 percent more likely to be food insecure than the non-LGBT population. In the Mountain states, MSM HIV prevalence is more than 50 times the average for the general population and same-sex couples were significantly more likely to have a household income below $24,000 a year than couples in heterosexual marriages. The authors write that the differences in social climate for LGBT people in the non-state law states may be both a cause and an effect of the lack of legal protection. Laws that protect LGBT individuals are less likely to pass in regions with low social acceptance of the LGBT community, but the lack of legal protection can also contribute to a less accepting social environment. Further research into each of these regions could provide a better idea of the challenges and op- portunities to build more inclusive societies there. -Laura Muth

Say Her Name: Resisting Police Brutality Against Black Women african american policy forum, july 2015

Gabriella Nevarez, Aura Rosser, Michelle Cusseaux, Alexia Christian, Meagan Hock- aday, Mya Hall, Janisha Fonville, and Natasha McKenna—why aren’t we saying the names of these victims of police brutality? And why have they become shadows within the social justice movement for Black lives? While the killings of Mike Brown and Eric Garner ignited mass protests, the deaths of Alesia Thomas—who was kicked repeatedly while detained—and Jonisha Fonville—who was shot by Charlotte police after a domestic violence complaint—did not result in the same public outcry. The “Say Her Name” report, released by the African American Policy Forum in July, lifts up the stories of Black women’s lives and provides data and media tools to counter the silence that has too often greeted their deaths. Black woman and girls are equally—if not more—vulnerable to state violence as Black men, but too often their stories are left untold. In New York City in 2013, 53.4 percent of Black women and 55.7 percent of Black men were stopped by police, indicating that Black women are targeted just as frequently for racial profiling as are men. But in the current narratives around the police brutality and extrajudicial killings of Black people, women’s stories are routinely absent. They are often missing from media tallies of police killings, but also are missing from the story lines shaping both the movement and the national conversation around police violence and racial injustice. When statis- tics related to the killing of Black people are cited in the media, they’re sometimes rewritten to suggest that they only relate to the killing of Black men—literally erasing the deaths of Black women (especially those of Black transgender women). As a counterbalance, authors Kimberlé Williams Crenshaw and Andrea J. Ritchie have gathered in this report the stories of a number of Black women who were victims of police brutality, broadening the frame of the movement for Black lives to include ways in which gender, sexuality, class, health and other identity factors emerge as part of the pattern of police violence. There are women killed for “Driving While Black”; those killed against the backdrop of intense socioeconomic inequality; women who became casualties of the war on drugs, castigated as “drug mules”; those dealing with mental health crises who met violence instead of treatment; Black women who were subjected to inhumane treatment because law enforcement officials viewed them as “superhuman,” and incapable of feeling pain; women labeled “collateral damage” of law enforcement’s “real target” in Black men. The list goes on. The report is not a comprehensive accounting of police violence against Black women—given the absence of accurate data on police killings, that’s currently an impossible task, note Crenshaw and Ritchie—but rather an attempt to cor- rect media misrepresentations of law enforcement brutality as something that affects Black men alone. “Our goal is simply to illustrate the reality that Black women are killed and violated by police with alarming regularity,” they write. “Say Her Name” powerfully argues that a more complete understanding of police violence must center and include Black women in the dialogue (across differences in gender identity, sexuality, age, ability, and class). Anti-Black vio- lence impacts all spheres of the Black community, including LGBTQ women. Not recognizing intersectionality within the Black community and the ways police violence also affects Black women and LGBTQ individuals weakens that community, undermines its representation in the media, and neglects to consider how incidents of police brutality against Black women ripples out to their families and neighborhoods. The report recommends the adoption of a “Gender-Inclusive Agenda” that addresses anti-Black state violence at the local, state, and national levels while acknowledging the unique forms of violence against women and girls. The re- port provides an opening for the conversation within and outside of communities that is crucial if all Black lives are to matter. -Cassandra Osei

20 • The Public Eye FALL 2015 endnotes

The History Wars Continue, p.3 condemns-ap-us-history-redesign- 24. Catherine Gewertz, “Republican Education to hear AP US History stanley-kurtz. National Committee Condemns New AP controversy,” Charlotte Observer, 1. “The 2015 AP U.S. History Course and 13. Pema Levy, “What’s Driving History Framework,” Education Week, November 27, 2014, http://www. Exam Description,” Advances in AP, August 11, 2014, http://blogs.edweek. charlotteobserver.com/news/local/ July 30, 2015, https://advancesinap. Conservatives Mad About the New AP History Course,” Newsweek, August org/edweek/curriculum/2014/08/ education/article9237761.html#. collegeboard.org/english-history-and- college_board_statement_on_ap.html. VH0R3THF_kK#storylink=cpy. social-science/us-history/2015-ced. 14, 2014, http://www.newsweek.com/ whats-driving-conservatives-mad- 25. Merrill Hope, “Exclusive: Texas is 37. Wilfred M. McClay, “History, 2. Jack Flanagin, “All the ways the new about-new-history-course-264592. ‘Nation’s Last Best Chance’ To Block American Democracy, and the AP AP US history standards gloss over the 14. Casey Quinlan, “College APUSH, Say Experts,” , Test Controversy,” Imprimis Vol. 44, country’s racist past,” Quartz, July 31, September 11, 2014, http://www. No. 7/8, July/August 2015, https:// 2015, http://qz.com/469169/all-the- Board Caves To Conservative Pressure, Changes AP U.S. History breitbart.com/Texas/2014/09/11/ imprimis.hillsdale.edu/history- ways-the-new-ap-us-history-standards- Exclusive-Texas-is-Nations-Last-Best- american-democracy-and-the-ap-test- gloss-over-the-countrys-racist-past/. Curriculum,” Think Progress, July 30, 2015, http://thinkprogress.org/ Chance-to-Block-APUSH-Say-Experts/. controversy/. 3. Scott Greer, “Experts: AP U.S. economy/2015/07/30/3686060/ 26. Merrill Hope, “Texas State Education 38. Tanya H. Lee, “University of History Still Doesn’t Teach American conservatives-get-major-win-fight-ap- Board Passes Resolution to Stop Oklahoma Prof: Native History is Exceptionalism,” The Daily Caller, history-classes/. Redesigned AP US History,” Breitbart American History,” Indian Country August 5, 2015, http://dailycaller.com/ 15. Larry Krieger, “29 Biased News, September 20, 2014, http://www. Today, March 6, 2015, http:// 2015/08/05/experts-ap-u-s-history-stil Statements In the AP U.S. History breitbart.com/texas/2014/09/20/ indiancountrytodaymedianetwork. l-doesnt-teach-american- Redesign,” Heartland, August 19, texas-state-education-board-passes- com/2015/03/06/university- exceptionalism/. 2014, http://news.heartland.org/ resolution-to-stop-redesigned-ap-us- oklahoma-prof-native-history- 4. Lyndsey Layton, “Conservatives newspaper-article/2014/08/19/29- history-apush/. american-history-159482. convinced College Board to rewrite biased-statements-ap-us-history- 27. Jasmine Song, “Oklahoma Educators 39. “Statement on AP U.S. History.” American history,” The Washington redesign. Quash Attempt to Ban AP U.S. History,” Advances in AP, September 19, 2014, Post, July 30, 2015, http://www. 16. Peter Wood, “Update on AP U.S. neaToday, March 16, 2015, http:// https://advancesinap.collegeboard.org/ washingtonpost.com/local/education/ History,” National Association of neatoday.org/2015/03/16/oklahoma- english-history-and-social-science/us- college-board-rewrites-american- Scholars, July 10, 2014, https://www. educators-quash-effort-ban-ap-u-s- history/college-board-statement. history/2015/07/30/cadadd4c-36d1- nas.org/articles/update_on_ap_us_ history/. 40. Trevor Packer, “Letter from Trevor 11e5-b673-1df005a0fb28_story.html. history?utm_source=Copy+of+July+20 28. Martha Dalton, “Georgia Senate Packer,” Advances in AP, nd., https:// 5. Anya Kamenetz, “The New, New 14+Newsletter&utm_c. Passes Resolution Challenging AP advancesinap.collegeboard.org/ Framework For AP U.S. History,” NPR, 17. Valerie Strauss, “Ben Carson: US History Exam,” 90.1 FM WABE, english-history-and-social-science/us- August 5, 2015, http://www.npr.org/ New AP U.S. history course will make March 12, 2015, http://wabe.org/ history/trevor-packer-letter. sections/ed/2015/08/05/429361628/ kids want to ‘sign up for ISIS’,” The post/georgia-senate-passes-resolution- 41. Zachary Goldberg, e-mail message the-new-new-framework-for-ap-u-s- Washington Post, September 29, 2014, challenging-ap-us-history-exam. to author, September 16, 2015. history. http://www.washingtonpost.com/ 29. David D. Kirkpatrick, “The 42. Jeremy Stern, “Left and Right 6. Kevin Truong, “New guidelines for blogs/answer-sheet/wp/2014/09/29/ Conservative-Christian Big May Not Be Happy with the New AP AP history: Are they still ‘unpatriotic’?,” ben-carson-new-ap-u-s-history-course- Thinker,” The New York Times, Standards. Here’s Why You Should The Christian Science Monitor, July 30, will-make-kids-want-to-sign-up-for- December 16, 2009, http://www. Be,” History News Network, August 14, 2015, http://www.csmonitor.com/ isis/. nytimes.com/2009/12/20/ 2015, http://historynewsnetwork.org/ USA/Education/2015/0730/New- 18. Jesse Paul, “Jeffco students walk magazine/20george-t.html. article/160264. guidelines-for-AP-history-Are-they- out of 5 high schools in school board 30. Frederick Clarkson, “Christian Right 43. “The 2015 AP U.S. History Course still-unpatriotic. protest,” The Denver Post, September 23, Seeks Renewal in Deepening Catholic- and Exam Description,” Advances in AP, 7. College Board, “Announcing AP U.S. 2015, http://www.denverpost.com/ Protestant Alliance,” Political Research July 30, 2015, https://advancesinap. 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Framework Authors Defend Their nsf/files/9NYRPF6DED70/$file/ American Principles in Action, com/2015/09/08/new-ap-us-history- Work,” Education Week, August 18, JW%20PROPOSAL%20Board%20 October 2013, http://www. exam-perpetuates-lies-about-native- 2014, http://blogs.edweek.org/ Committee%20for%20Curriculum%20 americanprinciplesinaction.org/gop- americans-161628. Review.pdf. autopsy-report-2013/. edweek/curriculum/2014/08/the_ 45. Frederick M. Hess and Chester E. authors_of_the_new.html?cmp=SOC- 20. Justin Streight, “Colorado Teacher 32. Brandon Watson, “New Documents Finn Jr., “The Overheated Reactions to SHR-FB. Protest Shuts Down Schools Over History Contradict Regnerus’ Claims on Gay the New AP U.S. History Framework,” 9. Caitlin MacNeal, “Meet The Man Censorship,” Inquisitr, October 1, 2014, Parenting Study,” The Austin Chronicle, National Review, August 5, 2015, Behind The Right’s AP History Freak http://www.inquisitr.com/1511072/ March 29, 2013, http://www. http://www.nationalreview.com/ Out,” Talking Points Memo, October 9, colorado-teacher-protest-shuts-down- austinchronicle.com/news/2013- article/422052/ap-us-history- 2014, http://talkingpointsmemo.com/ schools-over-history-censorship/. 03-29/new-documents-contradict- framework-rewrite-defense. livewire/larry-krieger-ap-us-history- 21. Dr. Susan Berry, “Colorado regnerus-claims-on-gay-parenting- conservatives. Teacher’s Union Uses Students As study/. “Faith-Washing” Right-Wing Economics, 10. Katherine Stewart, The Good News ‘Political Pawns’ in Teacher Salary 33. Ayman Fadel, “Anti- p.4 Club: The Christian Right’s Stealth Assault Dispute,” Breitbart News, September Advanced Placement US History 1. “The Facts on Medicare Spending and on America’s Children (New York: Public 24, 2014, http://www.breitbart. Movement at Georgia Capitol,” Financing,” The Henry J. Kaiser Family Affairs, 2012), 164. com/big-government/2014/09/24/ Aym Playing, March 19, 2015, Foundation, July 24, 2015, http://kff. 11. For a more in depth look at the jefferson-county-colorado-teacher- https://aymplaying.wordpress. org/medicare/fact-sheet/medicare- State Policy Network and its links with s-union-uses-students-as-political- com/2015/03/19/i-dont-have-time- spending-and-financing-fact-sheet/. member organizations see Frederick pawns-in-teacher-salary-dispute/. to-discuss-all-the-scary-ramification- of-this-document-and-the-movement- 2. Philip Moeller, “Medicare coverage Clarkson, “EXPOSED: How the 22. Jack Healy, “After Uproar, School for aging parents’ care is not nearly Right’s State-Based Think Tanks Are Board in Colorado Scraps Anti-Protest it-represents-but-i-wanted-to-pass- this-on-to-others-asap/. enough,” PBS.org, July 22, 2015, www. Transforming U.S. Politics,” Political Curriculum,” The New York Times, pbs.org/newshour/making-sense/ Research Associates, November 25, October 3, 2014, http://www.nytimes. 34. Lynne V. Cheney, “The End of medicare-coverage-aging-parents-care- 2013, http://www.politicalresearch. com/2014/10/04/us/after-uproar- History,” , nearly-enough/. org/2013/11/25/exposed-how-the- colorado-school-board-retreats-on- October 20, 1994, http://online.wsj. curriculum-review-plan.html?_r=1. com/media/EndofHistory.pdf. 3. Philip Rucker, “Sen. DeMint of rights-state-based-think-tanks-are- S.C. Is Voice of Opposition to Health- transforming-u-s-politics/#sthash. 23. Nicholas Garcia, “Jeffco clerk: 35. Lynne V. Cheney, “The End of Care Reform,” The Washington kAdMt3Nz.dpbs. School board recall organizers have History, Part II,” The Wall Street Journal, Post, July 28, 2009, https://www. 12. Stanley Kurtz, “Madison Scholar enough signatures,” Chalkbeat Colorado, April 1, 2015, http://www.wsj.com/ washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/ Condemns AP U.S. History Redesign,” August 18, 2015, http://co.chalkbeat. articles/lynne-cheney-the-end-of- content/article/2009/07/27/ National Review, September 2, 2014, org/2015/08/18/jeffco-clerk-school- history-part-ii-1427929675. AR2009072703066_2.html. board-recall-organizers-collected- http://www.nationalreview.com/ 36. T. Keung Hui, “NC Board of 4. David Weigel, “Poll: 70 percent corner/386849/madison-scholar- enough-signatures/#.VddSnJ1Vikp.

FALL 2015 Political Research Associates • 21 of ‘Tea Party Supporters’ oppose archive/2015/09/jeb-bush-inadequate- capital-fund-dark-money-koch-bradley- 40. In an August 22, 2015 blog post Medicare cuts,” Slate, April 19, latino-ties/402748/. devos. at PRWatch, Lisa Graves, Executive 2011. http://www.slate.com/blogs/ 16. As Elizabeth Stoker Bruenig points 26. Center for Media and Democracy, Director of the Center for Media and weigel/2011/04/19/poll_70_percent_ out, Putnam’s latest book suffers from “Ties to the Koch Brothers,” Democracy and an expert on the Koch of_tea_party_supporters_oppose_ an unwillingness to confront the root SourceWatch.org, http://www. brothers, wrote that EVANGCHR4 “is medicare_cuts.html causes of inequality; yet Putnam is still sourcewatch.org/index.php/ legally tied to a mysterious limited 5. Amanda Becker, “Americans viewed by many as an authority on the American_Enterprise_Institute#cite_ liability corporation called ‘ORRA LLC,’ don’t like big government--but like subject. See: Elizabeth Stoker Bruenig, note-7. which received more than $5 million many programs: poll”, Reuters, “Lost Opportunity,” Democracy from the Kochs’ Freedom Partners 27. Joseph E. Lowndes, From the operation.” Graves also established April 30, 2015. http://www. Journal 38 (Fall 2015), http://www. New Deal to the New Right: Race reuters.com/article/2015/04/30/ democracyjournal.org/38/lost- that Family Research Council Action, and the Southern Origins of Modern the nonprofit arm of the Family us-usa-election-libertarians- opportunity.php?page=all. Conservatism, (Michigan: Yale idUSKBN0NL15B20150430 Research Council, received funding 17. “Obama at Georgetown: Now is the University Press, 2008). from EVANGCHR4 between June 2013 6. Suzanne Mettler, The Submerged Time to Invest in Helping the Poor,” 28. Ben Koons, “Compassionate and May 2014, when disgraced TV State: How Invisible Government Georgetown University, May 12, 2015, Conservatism: An interview with Marvin reality star Josh Duggar was head of FRC Policies Undermine American https://www.georgetown.edu/news/ Olasky,” The Princeton Tory, April 22, Action. See: http://www.prwatch.org/ Democracy (Chicago Studies in poverty-summit-2015-with-obama. 2012, http://theprincetontory.com/ node/12914. American Politics), (Chicago: University html. main/compassionate-conservatism-an- 41. Researcher Chip Berlet explained of Chicago Press, 2011), Kindle 18. One example of this reviling of interview-with-marvin-olasky/. Locations 333-335. the basis of Calvinist theocracy in this the poor can be found in this white 29. Bill Berkowitz, “Tilting at Faith- magazine in 2004: “These ‘Elect’ were 7. Molly Moorhead, “Mitt Romney paper from an AEI scholar: Nicholas based Windmills,” The Public Eye, July originally thought to be the only people says 47 percent of Americans pay no Eberstadt, “American Exceptionalism 1, 2002, http://www.politicalresearch. going to Heaven. To the Calvinists, income tax,” PolitiFact.com, September and the Entitlement State”, American org/2002/07/01/tilting-at-faith-based- material success and wealth was a sign 18, 2012, http://www.politifact.com/ Enterprise Institute, January 5, 2015, windmills/#sthash.fLhY6V1P.dpbs. that you were one of the Elect, and thus truth-o-meter/statements/2012/ https://www.aei.org/publication/ were favored by God. Who better to sep/18/mitt-romney/romney-says-47- american-exceptionalism-entitlement- 30. Clarkson, Frederick. “An Uncharitable Choice: The Faith-Based shepherd a society populated by God’s percent-americans-pay-no-income- state/. wayward children?” See: http://www. tax/. Takeover of Federal Programs,” The 19. Suzanne Mettler, The Submerged Public Eye, Fall 2014, http://www. publiceye.org/magazine/v18n3/berlet_ 8. William Greider, “Why Today’s State: How Invisible Government politicalresearch.org/2014/10/10/an- calvinism.html. GOP Crackup Is the Final Unraveling Policies Undermine American uncharitable-choice-the-faith-based- 42. Lisa Graves, “Josh Duggar-led Group of Nixon’s ‘Southern Strategy’,” The Democracy (Chicago Studies in takeover-of-federal-programs/. Funded via Koch Brothers Freedom Nation, Oct. 12, 2015, http://www. American Politics), (Chicago: University Partners Operation,” PR Watch, August thenation.com/article/why-todays- of Chicago Press, 2011), Kindle Edition 31. President Barack Obama, “Remarks by the President in Conversation on 22, 2015, http://www.prwatch.org/ gop-crackup-is-the-final-unraveling-of- (Locations 410-413). node/12914. nixons-southern-strategy/. Poverty at Georgetown University,” 20. Jean V. Hardisty, Mobilizing The White House—Office of Press 43. Anne R. Bradley, “Why Does Income 9. Jeb Bush: We Need to “Phase Out” Resentment: Conservative Resurgence Secretary, May 12, 2015. https:// Inequality Exist? – Part Two,” Institute Medicare [Video] Retrieved September from the John Birch Society to the www.whitehouse.gov/the-press- for Faith, Work & Economics, June 21, 2015, from https://youtu.be/Ry_ Promise Keepers, (Boston: Beacon office/2015/05/12/remarks-president- 5, 2012, http://tifwe.org/resources/ fRjLyE68. Press, 1999). conversation-poverty-georgetown- income-inequality/part-two/. 10. Jonnelle Marte, “Marco Rubio’s plan 21. Brooks is referring to a strain of university. 44. Ibid. to fix America’s Retirement System,” neoliberal economics that focuses on 32. Jean V. Hardisty and Lucy A. The Washington Post, May 13, 2014, maximizing what late 20th century 45. Napp Nazworth, “Arthur Brooks: Williams, “The Right’s Campaign Conservative Policies Help the https://www.washingtonpost.com/ economists such as Gary Becker Against Welfare,” From Poverty to news/wonkblog/wp/2014/05/13/ termed “human capital,” or the Powerless, Christians Can Lead the Way Punishment: How Welfare Reform (Interview),” The Christian Post, July marco-rubios-plan-to-fix-americas- education and job skills of members Punishes the Poor, Applied Research retirement-system/. of a given population. The human 15, 2015, http://www.christianpost. Center, Gary Delgado, ed., 2002, com/news/arthur-brooks-conservative- 11. “Walker had proposed forcing tens capital of a country is one yardstick http://www.jeanhardisty.com/writing/ that international financiers such policies-help-the-powerless-christians- of thousands of participants in the articles-chapters-and-reports/the- can-lead-the-way-interview-141520/. state program to enroll in private plans as the World Bank uses to measure rights-campaign-against-welfare/. how developed that country is for the 46. Contrary to the teachings of the through the federal Medicare Part D 33. Leo P. Ribuffo, The Old Christian benefit.” See: Jason Stein and Patrick purposes of calculating how much “prosperity gospel” popularized in the austerity to impose on that country Right: The Protestant Far Right from mid-2000s, this version of Christian Marley, “GOP Lawmakers Restore the Great Depression to the Cold War, SeniorCare Benefits,” Milwaukee as part of economic restructuring. capitalism says that those of any faith, See: http://www-wds.worldbank.org/ (Philadelphia, Pa: Temple University not just Christianity, can become Journal-Sentinel, May 21, 2015, http:// Press, 1983). www.jsonline.com/news/statepolitics/ external/default/WDSContentServer/ wealthy. Where Prosperity Gospel held joint-finance-to-deal-today-with- WDSP/IB/1995/03/01/000009265 34. Chip Berlet, “The Roots of no hope for non-Christians, this defense troubled-wedc-cuts-to-seniorcare- _3970702134116/Rendered/PDF/ Dominionism,” Political Research of inequality encourages the listener to b99504512z1-304551231.html. multi0page.pdf. Associates, http://www.publiceye.org/ aspire: if I have the right skill sets and 22. Arthur C. Brooks, The Conservative christian_right/dom_roots.html. abilities, I too can one day “flourish,” or 12. For a fuller discussion of how amass wealth. free market economic ideologues co- Heart: How to Build a Fairer, Happier, 35. Peter Montgomery, “Biblical evolved with the Christian Right, see: and More Prosperous America, (New Economics: The Divine Laissez-Faire 47. Marvin Olasky, “Profit: Prophets Kim Phillips-Fein, Invisible Hands: The York: HaperCollins, 2015), 68, http:// Mandate,” The Public Eye, April 21, and Profit,” in Indivisible: Social and Businessmen’s Crusade Against The www.amazon.com/dp/0062319752/. 2015, http://www.politicalresearch. Economic Foundations of American New Deal. (New York: W.W. Norton, 23. Sean Sullivan, “Jeb Bush: Win org/2015/04/21/biblical-economics- Liberty, (Washington, D.C.: Heritage 2010). Black Voters with Aspiration, Not the-divine-laissez-faire-mandate/. Foundation, 2010), 41. 13. Kevin M. Kruse, “A Christian Nation? Free Stuff,” The Washington Post, 36. Julie J. Ingersoll, Building God’s 48. Anne R. Bradley and Arthur W. Since When?,” The New York Times, September 24, 2015, https://www. Kingdom: Inside the World of Christian Lindsley, Eds., Forward by Arthur March 14, 2015, http://www.nytimes. washingtonpost.com/news/post- Reconstruction, (New York: Oxford C. Brooks, For the Least of These: A com/2015/03/15/opinion/sunday/a- politics/wp/2015/09/24/jeb-bush-win- University Press, 2015), 49. Biblical Answer to Poverty, (Grand christian-nation-since-when.html?_ black-voters-with-aspiration-not-free- 37. “RWW News: David Barton Says Rapids: Zondervan, 2014), http:// r=0 and http://religiondispatches.org/ stuff/. God Opposes Retirement Because It ‘Is A www.amazon.com/For-Least-These- capitalism-and-christianity/. 24. Patricia Cohen, “Public-Sector Jobs Pagan Concept.’” YouTube video, 1:55. Biblical-Poverty/dp/0310522994#read er_0310522994. 14. Tara Culp-Ressler, “Jeb Bush Vanish, Hitting Blacks Hard,” New York Posted by “RWW Blog,” July 6, 2015. Quietly Suggests ‘Phasing Out’ Times, May 24, 2015, http://mobile. 38. , “PAC Built by Ted 49. Jim Wallis and Jay Richards: The Medicare,” ThinkProgress.org, July nytimes.com/2015/05/25/business/ Cruz Mega-Donors Gets Evangelical Common Good and the Church. 23, 2015, http://thinkprogress.org/ public-sector-jobs-vanish-and-blacks- Leader,” Bloomberg Politics, September YouTube video. Posted by “Henry health/2015/07/23/3683804/jeb- take-blow.html. 9, 2015, http://www.bloomberg.com/ Center,” July 6, 2013. https://www. bush-medicare/. 25. Andy Kroll, “Exposed: The Dark- politics/articles/2015-09-09/pac- youtube.com/watch?v=nnV7jvroX6U. 15. Geraldo L. Cadava, “Will Latino Money ATM of the Conservative built-by-ted-cruz-mega-donors-gets- 50. Jean V. Hardisty, Mobilizing Voters Support Jeb Bush?,” The Movement,” Mother Jones, February 5, evangelical-leader. Resentment: Conservative Resurgence Atlantic, September 1, 2015, http:// 2013, http://www.motherjones.com/ 39. Peter Montgomery, The Public Eye, from the John Birch Society to the www.theatlantic.com/politics/ politics/2013/02/donors-trust-donor- April 21, 2015. Promise Keepers, (Boston: Beacon

22 • The Public Eye FALL 2015 Press, 1999), 12. rallies. 10. Rachel E. Luft with Shana griffin, http://media.virbcdn.com/ 51. “Competing Visions of the Common 62. Kyle Mantyla of Right Wing Watch “A Status Report on Housing in New files/54/98c3c2df59d3e8b1-2015-04- Good: Rethinking Help for the Poor,” reviewed Money, Greed, and God in Orleans after Katrina: An Intersectional 21ProjectLaunchPressRelease.pdf. American Enterprise Institute, May 2010, and summarized its premise: “As Analysis,” Katrina and the Women of Reports in Review, p.18 23, 2013, http://www.aei.org/events/ Richards explains, any inequality that New Orleans (2008): 50 - 53 competing-visions-of-the-common- results from unrestricted, deregulated https://tulane.edu/newcomb/upload/ 1. The use of social services would good-rethinking-help-for-the-poor/. is part of God’s will because NCCROWreport08-chapter5.pdf . be more successful if they are run by 52. David Corn, “Secret Video: the entire system of free market 11. Stacy Seicshnaydre and Ryan C. community members. As research Romney Tells Millionaire Donors capitalism is God’s means of working Albright, “Expanding Choice and shows, the “desire to curb public What He REALLY Thinks of Obama his will in the world.” See: http://www. Opportunity in the Housing Choice spending on social services” is Voters,” Mother Jones, September rightwingwatch.org/content/random- Voucher Program,” The New Orleans dangerous to communities in need. 17, 2012, http://www.motherjones. book-blogging-money-greed-and-god. Index at 10, The Data Center, July 8, Yet when community services are com/politics/2012/09/secret-video- 2015 headlined by those who know what Policies That Make People Disappear, services are crucial, a radical shift romney-private-fundraiser. http://www.datacenterresearch.org/ p.11 in imaging develops, where we see 53. Moreton, Bethany and Voekel, reports_analysis/expanding-choice- services are for the people and by the Pamela. “Learning from the Right: A 1. Kristen McQueary, “Chicago, New and-opportunity-in-the-housing- people. (See “Beyond Prisons, Mental New Operation Dixie?” in Katz, Daniel Orleans, and rebirth,” Chicago Tribune, choice-voucher-program/. Health Clinics: When Austerity Opens and Greenwald, Richard A., eds., Labor August 13, 2015 12. Babington, “Some GOP Legislators Cages, Where Do the Services Go?” in Rising: The Past and Future of Working http://big.assets.huffingtonpost.com/ Hit Jarring Notes in Addressing the Fall 2014 issue of The Public Eye.) People in America, (New York: The Katrina-Chicago_Tribune.pdf. Katrina.” 2. Matt Pierce, “Kansas Governor New Press, 2012), 26-36. 2. David Brooks, “Katrina’s Silver 13. Luft with Griffin, “A Status Report Removes Protections for LGBT 54. National Employment Law Project, Lining, The New York Times, September on Housing in New Orleans after Employees,” Los Angeles Times, “Occupational Wage Declines Since 8, 2005 Katrina: An Intersectional Analysis,” February 10, 2015, http://www. the Great Recession,” NELP Data Brief, http://www.nytimes. 50 - 53. latimes.com/nation/la-na-kansas- September 2015, http://www.nelp. com/2005/09/08/opinion/katrinas- governor-gay-protection-20150210- org/content/uploads/Occupational- https://tulane.edu/newcomb/upload/ silver-lining.html?_r=0. story.html. Wage-Declines-Since-the-Great- NCCROWreport08-chapter5.pdf Recession.pdf. 3. Lori Rodriguez and Zeke Minaya, 14. Mark Waller, “LaBruzzo 3. Hate Crime Laws, Movement “HUD chief doubts New Orleans Advancement Project, September 55. Rebecca Riffkin, “One in Five considering plan to pay poor women will be as black,” Houston Chronicle, 16, 2015, http://www.lgbtmap.org/ Employed Americans Worried About $1,000 to have tubes tied,” The September 29, 2005 http://www. Times-Picayune, September 23, 2008 equality-maps/hate_crime_laws. Wage Reduction,” GALLUP.com, chron.com/news/hurricanes/article/ http://www.nola.com/news/index. 4. In a footnote, the Williams Institute August 31, 2015, http://www.gallup. HUD-chief-doubts-New-Orleans-will- ssf/2008/09/labruzzo_sterilization_ explains that the LGB Social and com/poll/185000/one-five-employed- be-as-black-1919882.php. americans-worried-wage-reduction. plan_fi.html. Political Climate Index does not aspx. 4. Charles Babington, “Some GOP 15. Michael J. Fletcher, “HUD to measure questions that directly apply Legislators Hit Jarring Notes in to transgender people, therefore LGB/T 56. Estelle Sommeiller and Mark pay $62 million to La. homeowners Addressing Katrina,” The Washington is used when the data may serve as an Price, “The Increasingly Unequal to settle Road Home lawsuit,” The Post, September 10, 2005 http:// indirect indicator as to the experiences States of America: Income Inequality Washington Post, July 6, 2011 http:// www.washingtonpost.com/wp- of transgender people in those by State, 1917 to 2012,” Economic www.washingtonpost.com/business/ dyn/content/article/2005/09/09/ regions. MSM studies similarly do not Policy Institute, Jan. 26, 2015. http:// economy/hud-to-pay-62-million-to- AR2005090901930.html. include transgender men or women www.epi.org/publication/income- la-homeowners-to-settle-road-home- living with HIV. The lack of data for inequality-by-state-1917-to-2012/. 5. Nick Anderson, “Education lawsuit/2011/07/06/gIQAtsFN1H_ Secretary Duncan calls Hurricane story.html. the transgender population further 57. “Mr. Reed runs Mackinac Katrina good for New Orleans schools,” obscures the specific discrimination (pronounced MAK-in-aw), the largest of 16. Kate Scott, “Neighborhood The Washington Post, January 30, 2010, Organization Rehabilitates Historic they face, especially in states that do the right’s state-level policy institutes. not include gender identity along The center started its training program http://www.washingtonpost.com/ Apartment Building to Provide wp-dyn/content/article/2010/01/29/ Permanently Affordable Homes in with sexual orientation in their anti- eight years ago, and it has alumni in discrimination laws. nearly every state and 37 countries, AR2010012903259.html. Mid-City,” Jane Place Neighborhood from Uruguay to Nepal.” See: http:// 6. Jeff Adelson, “Hurricane Katrina Sustainability Initiative Press Release, www.nytimes.com/2006/11/17/us/ transformed New Orleans, the region’s April 21, 2015 politics/17thinktank.html?ex=13214 makeup after unrivaled exodus in 19600&en=3b6af3fbfa4ff01e&ei=509 U.S.,” The New Orleans Advocate, July 0&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss%C2 11, 2015. PRA released a new book! Written by PRA researcher Rev. Dr. %A0&_r=0. http://www.theneworleansadvocate. Kapya Kaoma, American Culture Warriors in Africa profiles the 58. Frederick Clarkson, “The Campaign com/news/12479410-123/hurricane- top U.S. culture warriors advancing the persecution of sexual katrina-transformed-new-orleans to Undermine Pro-LGBTQ Churches,” minorities and women in Africa. Learn what you can do to Political Research Associates, 7. Paula Martinez, David Eads and March 29, 2015, http://www. Christopher Groskopf. “Post-Katrina interrupt the Right’s neocolonial agenda! politicalresearch.org/2015/03/29/ New Orleans Smaller, But Population the-campaign-to-undermine-pro- Growth Rates Back On Track,” NPR, www.politicalresearch.org/africa lgbtq-churches/#sthash.tmXZsvUY. August 19, 2015, dpbs. http://www.npr.org/2015/08/19/ 59. Alissa Scheller and Arthur 429353601/post-katrina-new-orleans- Delaney, “Who Gets Food Stamps? smaller-but-population-growth-rates- White People, Mostly,” The Huffington back-on-track. Post, http://www.huffingtonpost. com/2015/02/28/food-stamp- 8. Katy Reckdahl, “Katrina scattered demographics_n_6771938.html. New Orleans’ entrenched social networks far and wide as census says 60. The Henry J. Kaiser Family nearly 100,000 fewer black residents Foundation, “Distribution of Medicare after storm,” The New Orleans Advocate, Beneficiaries by Race/Ethnicity,” June 27, 2015 http://kff.org/medicare/state- indicator/medicare-beneficiaries-by- http://www.theneworleansadvocate. raceethnicity/#map. com/katrina/12479401-186/katrina- scattered-new-orleans-entrenched . 61. Jen Hayden, “Trump supporters behaving badly, several immigration 9. Darwin BondGraham, “The activists assaulted at rallies,” Long Hurricane: The New Orleans Daily Kos, September 14, 2015, Catastrophe Predates Katrina.” The http://www.dailykos.com/ Public Eye, Nov. 1, 2010, http://www. story/2015/09/14/1421139/-Trump- politicalresearch.org/2015/08/29/ supporters-behaving-badly-several- the-long-hurricane-10-years- immigration-activists-assaulted-at- later/#sthash.o9LCLDlt.dpbs.

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The Art of Activism Spotlighting the efforts of artists and organizations who are engaged in the struggle for social justice and are helping build the movement through their work. Amelia Spinney, a visual artist and arts edu- sual and Environmental Studies/Art depart- cator in the greater Boston area, created the ment. cover image for this issue of The Public Eye. Spinney’s work often approaches serious Spinney describes being politicized as an art- issues—such as religion, sexuality and iden- ist and a person in two particular moments. tity—informed by their own experiences; When they were a child growing up near their style is a mix of dark topics and more Nashville, Tennessee, their friend’s house was humorous innuendos. “I enjoy making vi- burned down by a group of White people. sual puns with my images, and I frequently “I remember turning to my father, a Baptist incorporate a light-hearted aesthetic.” pastor from Georgia, and asking if it had hap- This approach can be seen in Spin- pened because my friend’s family was Latino,” ney’s current favorite collection of work, Spinney said. “The answer was ‘yes.’” their “Privilege Proverb” screenprints se- Coming out as queer to their conserva- ries, wherein each print spins off from “a tive evangelical family, and the subsequent somewhat offensive, but commonly heard years-long struggle within the family, was phrase,” like “I have a friend like you”— the second experience to shape their identity, scripted on a background of gazing eyes, worldview, and the topics they address in their encircled by chains, and reading at the bot- artwork. tom, “This message is brought to you by the Spinney’s artwork has always been informed current racial, religious, and sexual major- by identity, and as a queer Latinx, they aim to ity groups of America”—or “I miss the good ensure their work is intersectional and can “Triumph” 13”x20” screenprint on paper old days.” speak to multiple aspects of identity. “I want to make expansive When asked about the connection between their art and ac- art that always references or is aware of more rather than less,” tivism, Spinney said, “My art primarily investigates issues of they said. queerness at the moment. I’m very invested in cultural produc- Spinney began creating art during college, developing a style tion—whether or not it appears to possess an immediate focus on that almost always incorporates hand-drawn images with layers tangible change—because I think that to create cultural matter of photographic reference. Spinney went on to earn an MFA in [and] art is to partake in a huge force that can work to shift our so- Printmaking at Northern Illinois University and an ED.M. in Arts ciety over time.” in Education at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. They Additional examples of Spinney’s work can be found at their currently serve as a teaching fellow for Harvard University’s Vi- website, www.ameliaspinney.com. —Laura Muth

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