Biases at the Ballot Box: How Multiple Forms of Voter Discrimination Impede the Descriptive and Substantive Representation of Ethnic Minority Groups

Research shows that ethnic minority candidates often face an electoral penalty at the ballot box. In this study, we argue that this penalty depends on both candidate and voter characteristics, and that pro-minority policy positions incur a greater penalty than a candidate’s ethnic background itself. Using a conjoint experiment embedded in a panel study of British voters, we investigate the relative contributions of candidate ethnicity, policy positions, affirmative action, and voter attitudes to this electoral penalty. We find that although Pakistani (Muslim) candidates are penalized directly for their ethnicity, black Caribbean candidates receive on average the same levels of support as white British ones. However, black Caribbean candidates suffer conditional discrimination where they are penalized if they express support for pro-minority policies, and all candidates are penalized for having been selected through an affirmative action initiative. We also find that some white British voters are more inclined to support a black Caribbean candidate than a white British one, all else being equal. These voters (one quarter of our sample) have cosmopolitan views on immigration, and a strong commitment to anti-prejudice norms. However, despite efforts across parties to increase the ethnic diversity of candidates for office, many voters’ preferences continue to pose barriers toward descriptive and substantive representation of ethnic minority groups

Digital Love: Where Does the Marital Communications Privilege Fit in the World of Social Media Communications, 32 J. Marshall J. Info. Tech. & Privacy L. 105 (2016)

This comment explores the impact of recent developments in communication on the applicability of the marital communications privilege. Particularly, this article explores the role social media communication plays, focusing on whether a change is necessary for the privilege to adhere to the recent changes in marriage and communication. Part II of this article discusses the history of the marital privilege, the evolution of marriage, and the history of social media. Part III proposes the need to extend the marital privilege to include private communications on social media. I will advocate for this by comparing the Privilege to other communication privileges, analyzing the Privilege’s current status relating to electronic communications (including text messages and emailing), and evaluating the current state of marriage in relation to the Privilege

Nature of African American archaeology in Texas

textThis report is an assessment of archaeological research conducted on sites related to African American history that have been examined within the state of Texas. The research conducted had four broad research goals. The first goal was to understand the nature of African American archaeology in Texas. The second goal was to compare African American archaeology as practiced in the state of Texas to that of the wider discipline of African American archaeology as practiced within academia. The third goal was to integrate data of historic sites that have an African American component to assess sites within the state that hold archaeological promise. Finally, the fourth goal was to compare and contrast between the common types of historic and archaeological sites related to the life and history of Black Texans in order to assess gaps in the archaeological understanding of African American life and history.Anthropolog

Constructing place, building commuity : the archaeology and geography of African American freedmen's communities in central Texas

This dissertation focuses on how African Americans residing in southern freedmen’s communities engaged with their institutional spaces, specifically educational and religious centers, between the years of 1870 and 1940. Using Antioch Colony, a freedmen’s community established in Hays County, Texas, as a case study I argue that Black Americans constructed their social institutions to enculturate members of the community into ideologies of self-help and reciprocal obligation. These ideologies were collectively believed to provide the best avenue for achieving equal rights, dismantling structural inequality, and combating anti-Black racism. Through a multidisciplinary study integrating methods of archaeological excavation, artifact analysis, archival information, and geographic information systems, I demonstrate how Black Americans used material culture and the built environment, as facilitated through their social institutions, to enact and reproduce such behaviors. In this manner, I engage with geographic theories of place to position social institutions as spaces produced to resist the dehumanization and subjugation of Black citizens in the postemancipation United States.Anthropolog

The Impact of Fire on Soil Characteristics in the Maritime Forests on Sapelo Island, GA

Human activities have drastically altered natural fire regimes in countless ecosystems by suppressing and/or effectuating fires. In the past, management strategies were formulated to eliminate the occurrence of fire altogether but as we have become more aware of the benefits of fires such as reducing the amount of fuel build-up, recycling of nutrients for healthier plant communities and the promotion of biodiversity, prescribed burns are now considered an integral part of forest management. While many studies have explored the benefits of fires on plant communities, very few studies look at the impacts of fire on soil characteristics. Sapelo Island, which is located off the coast of Georgia, USA experiences both prescribed fires and natural wildfires. The goal of this study was to investigate the impact of different fires on soil characteristics. We hypothesized that soil from areas impacted by wildfires would have significantly different soil characteristics, especially when compared with soils from the prescribed fire areas or soils from areas not affected by the same fires. Four sites were chosen for sampling, two prescribed and two natural wildfire sites. Soil samples were collected at each site from burned and nearby unburned areas. Soils were analyzed for pH, extractable minerals including P, K, Ca, Mg, Zn, Mn, Cu, B, and Na (all measured in ppm), soil texture, and organic matter. Results suggest that prescribed fires do not cause significant changes in soil characteristics and can overall be beneficial whereas some wildfires are likely to negatively affect soil characteristics

The potential release of phosphorus in floodplains

In the Illinois River Watershed, there has been growing concern over elevated phosphorus concentrations in the water column. This study evaluated how much phosphorus is contributed from floodplain soils into surface waters, examining the relationship between the flux of phosphorus released and the amount of phosphorus stored in the soil. This was investigated by artificially inundating soil cores from four sites and determining the soluble reactive phosphorus concentrations of the overlying water and the levels of Water and Mehlich-3 extractable phosphorus in the soil. The flux of phosphorus to the overlying water ranged from 0.43 to 6.61 mg m-2 hr-1 within the short-term (16.5-hr incubation) and 0.06 to 1.26 mg m-2 hr-1 over the long term (282.5-hr incubation). Phosphorus flux to the overlying water was significantly correlated with the amount of phosphorus stored in the soil. This study showed that riparian soils with elevated phosphorus content have the potential to release phosphorus when flooded

Anti-cosmopolitanism and ethnic cleansing at Cronulla

Anti-cosmopolitanism was at the centre of Sydney’s Cronulla beach riots in December 2005, and in this chapter we argue that a logic of ‘ethnic cleansing’ is at work in these processes. Contemporary cosmopolitanism involves a sense of commonality with other peoples, despite their diversity – a sense heightened by globalising processes that make more immediate, extensive and inevitable the contact with strangers, and also create more shared and more universal human problems. Cosmopolitanism also involves an ethics of hospitality, or at least of accepting the stranger without hostility. We may define anti-cosmopolitanism as a reaction to these principles and practices. Anti-cosmopolitanism seeks to close off the openness to the other and to difference; it emphasises incompatibility, rejects a moral community with the other, and adopts hostility towards the other