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.
The California State University’s news site highlighted a study on the positive impacts of homeownership, written Daniel MacDonald and Yasemin Dildar, assistant professors of economics at Cal State San Bernardino.
“While previous studies on homeownership tend to focus on economics such as the cost of housing, this research looked at the topic from a social justice point of view,” the CSU’s article, published April 18, 2017, said.
“After taking into account income, unemployment and demographics, the researchers determined that when more Californians own homes and overcrowding is reduced there are significant benefits for education, economic opportunity, poverty and crime.
“The study links, too, increased homeownership with greater financial security -- little surprise since owning a home is a better investment than renting -- but the researchers also connected homeownership with better parenting and safer neighborhoods. Homeowners have been found to have a deeper stake in their communities than do renters,” the article said.
The complete article may be read at “Homeownership is a social justice issue.” Also see the related news release, “CSUSB study says homeownership leads to higher education and lower crime rates.”
Brian Levin, professor of criminal justice and director of the CSUSB Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism, continued to be a resource for news media on hate crime and related incidents.
The Los Angeles Times sought him out after a man in Fresno killed three people on April 18, and authorities there cited the suspect’s social media posts. Levin said many of the suspect’s social media postings make reference to terms used by the Nation of Islam, which has been labeled a racist hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center.
Pointing to accused shooter Kori Ali Muhammad’s repeated references to “white devils” and “Yakub” — the villainous figure responsible for creating white people, according to Nation of Islam lore — Levin said it is likely Muhammad thought he was taking part in a race war against whites.
“We’re living in an era of violent reciprocal prejudice, and there are references on his website to Fard Muhammad, the founder of Nation of Islam, and Nation of Islam uses the term ‘white devils’ quite prolifically, as did this shooter,” Levin said.
The article, published April 18, 2017, may be read at “Hate crime is suspected after a gunman kills 3 white men in downtown Fresno.” Other news media picked up portions of the report, including MSN.com and the New York Post.
The Orange County Register quoted Levin in its article about an Orange County woman who sued a supermarket chain over an alleged race bias incident. Providing context, in California, data from 2016 is pointing to an increase in the number of hate crimes, said Levin. Despite the label, such incidents aren’t always sparked by overt hatred, particularly in cases involving racial profiling or stereotyping, he said.
“In any potentially biased situation, never underestimate the role unintentional ignorance can play,” he said. “Where there is ignorance and lack of meaningful context, stereotypes tend to fill the vacuum.”
Deirdre Harris, a marketing executive who is African-American, filed a civil rights lawsuit this month against Safeway, the parent company of her local Albertsons. In the lawsuit, Harris alleges that managers for the supermarket chain took no steps to correct or apologize after a checkout clerk incorrectly assumed that Harris was on food stamps, asking if she wanted to use her discount card while Harris stood in front of a line of other shoppers. Harris claims she was offered $500 to “forget” about the incident.
The article April 18, 2017, may be read at “Rage at Irvine shopper sign of our times.”
The Los Angeles Times published a follow-up article to the April 15 violent clash in Berkeley between alt right and extreme left groups and included comments by Levin.
Uncertainty and disillusionment in the current political climate has caused “a deeper tectonic shift within political extremes,” said Levin. “They will glom themselves onto a tax day rally, a Trump rally, but there is a subgroup of extremists on both sides who are angling for a street battle.”
Replayed to their audiences on social media, “it goes viral,” he said.
The article, published April 17, 2017, and which also appeared in San Diego Union-Tribune, may be read at “For many at violent Berkeley rally, it wasn't really about Trump or free speech: They came to make trouble.”