NOTE: Faculty, if you are interviewed and quoted by news media, or if your work has been cited, and you have an online link to the article or video, please let us know. Contact us at news@csusb.edu.  

CSUSB professor’s column: March for Our Lives SLC goes viral; will the movement influence the 2018 midterms?KSL.com (Salt Lake City)April 9, 2018

Meredith Conroy, an assistant professor of political science at California State University, San Bernardino, wrote in an op-ed: “Over the weekend, March For Our Lives Salt Lake City organized a demonstration at the Wallace Bennett Federal Building after their request to arrange a town hall with members of Utah’s congressional delegation, failed.

“The town hall effort was a national one — in partnership with Town Hall Project, March For Our Lives organizers established the April 7 date and encouraged gun safety activists around the country to attend already scheduled town halls and raise their issues; where meetings were not scheduled, March for Our Lives encouraged activists to either pressure their representatives to meet, or hold ‘empty chair’ meetings to call attention to their absence.

“But Salt Lake City March for Our Lives did them one better.”

Read the complete article at “March for Our Lives SLC goes viral; will the movement influence the 2018 midterms?”

Hostile political rhetoric and its possible relation to hate crimes discussed by CSUSB professorBuzzFeedApril 10, 2018

Brian Levin, director of the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at Cal State San Bernardino, is interviewed in a BuzzFeed News analysis that found that Republican officials in 49 states have openly attacked Muslims with words and proposed legislation since 2015, and few have faced repercussions.

Levin, a criminal justice professor, has studied the link between the hostile political rhetoric and the increase in hate crimes targeting Muslims. He said presidential election years typically show an increase in hate crimes, some spikes occurred after bombings, and the numbers sometimes rise because of local disputes such as mosque-building projects or an influx of refugees.

But even with those caveats, he said, it’s clear political speech influences the numbers. When former president George W. Bush publicly defended Islam in the immediate aftermath of 9/11, hate crimes dropped, Levin said. And when Trump proposed a “Muslim ban,” Levin said, “we saw a precipitous increase.”

Read the complete article at “State and local Republican officials have been bashing Muslims. We counted.”

These news clips and others may be found at “In the Headlines” on the Inside CSUSB website.