In a hard-to-find windowless room deep inside a New York university, some difficult conversations are taking place. But this is not unusual, because this is a Difficult Conversations Laboratory. Though it does not physically resemble a dungeon, it probably should. Researchers conducting experiments here routinely generate the kind of excruciating discomfort that most of us spend every family gathering trying to avoid. Participants sign a waiver warning them that the experiments could cause stress or unpleasant feelings, before they are surveyed on a range of fraught topics, from abortion to the Israel-Palestine conflict. They are paired with someone who utterly disagrees with them and asked to talk things through around a small conference table. All while being recorded. It does not always go well – but that’s the point. “It is hard to study real-life, intractable conflict as it happens,” says the social psychologist Peter T Coleman, who started the lab over a … [Read more...] about Make America talk again: the lab teaching sworn enemies to have decent conversations
Americas
Dutch soul singer Glennis Grace takes America’s Got Talent by storm
Dutch singer Glennis Grace has wowed the judges on television show America’s Got Talent with her performance of power ballad ‘Run to You’, a song made big by Whitney Houston. Judge Simon Cowell said of the Dutch singer ‘I feel I am looking at a star already’ as he and the other three judges sent Grace through to the next round. But While Mel B and Heidi Klum were also enthusiastic, they suggested that Grace bring some of herself into her next performance rather than Whitney Houston, website Golderbby.com said. Grace is sworn to secrecy about what happens next in the talent contest and told the AD she is so pleased the audition has finally been shown on tv. Grace is part of the successful Ladies of Soul line-up in the Netherlands, in which she performs classic hits alongside Berget Lewis, Edsilia Rombey and saxophonist Candy Dulfer. According to the AD, Grace, who is just 40, did not put herself forward for the American contest. Her international management … [Read more...] about Dutch soul singer Glennis Grace takes America’s Got Talent by storm
Harley rumbles in Europe, but its ‘made in America’ message doesn’t always resonate
Rick Barrett Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Published 12:00 p.m. UTC Jun 27, 2018 In Europe, the Harley-Davidson brand is probably as familiar as Levi jeans or an Apple iPhone, at least in pop culture. Sure, there are more German, Italian, British and Japanese motorcycles in the European Union, but the Harley brand is associated with America and the freedom of the open road. Harley-Davidson is the world’s largest manufacturer of heavyweight motorcycles, and it’s been selling bikes overseas for about 100 years, practically since the company was founded in a shed in Milwaukee in 1903. About 16 percent of all new Harleys are sold in Europe, the company’s second-strongest market behind the U.S. Harley-Davidson has viewed the European Union as a growth opportunity, going wheel-to-wheel with Euro competitors Ducati, Triumph and BMW, whose bikes are especially popular. That's why Harley-Davidson said Monday it plans to move production of … [Read more...] about Harley rumbles in Europe, but its ‘made in America’ message doesn’t always resonate
Mass Migration, White Supremacy and The Sanctimony of Liberal America
Donald Trump is America and America is Donald Trump. His war against black and brown migrants is rooted in the same white supremacy that informed his predecessor Barack Obama's no less inhumane treatment of migrants coming over the Mexican border, fleeing the social and economic dislocation wrought by US economic and foreign policy since time immemorial. White supremacy has to be understood not only as a racial construct but also an ideological construct. Thus Obama, whether consciously or unconsciously, did, while in office, serve the purposes of white supremacy, rooted in the very foundations of a country that was founded and built upon the genocide and slavery on non-whites, and whose foreign and domestic policy to this day functions along the same white supremacist lines. On this episode, we are delighted to be privileged, once again, with the wisdom and intellectual heft of US … [Read more...] about Mass Migration, White Supremacy and The Sanctimony of Liberal America
How to Cut Crime and End America’s Mass Incarceration
The great American crime wave is over. Since peaking in the late 1980s and 1990s, murder rates have plunged, and many cities have seen drops ranging from 60 percent to almost 90 percent. Fears that a slight rise in violence in 2015 and 2016 heralded a reversal of the trend proved unfounded, and crime declined in 2017.The tremendous reduction in crime is finally being followed by a fall in incarceration. Since its peak in 2008, the percent of Americans in prison or jail has fallen by about 14 percent:Meanwhile, the reduction in incarceration among young men, especially young black men, has been much larger, signaling that the pace of the decline is only getting started. And states that reduced jail and prison populations haven’t seen crime rise, meaning it’s unlikely the policies that led to the decline will be reversed.But the decrease in incarceration has been much smaller for men above the age of 35. And for men over 40, incarceration rates have actually risen. This could … [Read more...] about How to Cut Crime and End America’s Mass Incarceration