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 comments on ADL report on increase of white supremacists’ propaganda effort
The Orange County Register/Southern Californian News Group
Feb. 14, 2020
Brian Levin, director of the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at Cal State San Bernardino, was interviewed for an article that said white supremacist propaganda heavily targeted the Inland Empire and Southern California as a whole in 2019, according to an annual report released by the Anti-Defamation League.
The ADL report comes at a time when Riverside and San Bernardino counties have seen a number of incidents involving high school students flashing or posting symbols associated with racism such as swastikas and Confederate flags, as well as a racial epithet typically used against African Americans, online and on campuses.
It’s not coincidental or accidental when young people are seen with these types of hateful symbols, said Levin.
“It’s not just the fact that white supremacy and prejudice are being mainstreamed, but among youth, there is also the need to be hurtfully shocking,” he said. “These are the images that go viral online. Bigotry is now cool for young people who feel that society is cleaving away from them. It’s an expression of in-your-face tribalism.”
The worldwide white supremacist movement is “attracting young people especially at a time when there is nationalist sentiment coupled with deliberate indifference,” Levin added. “When you have diminution of our civic values, what do you get? Nazis and confederate flags.”
Read the complete article at “Southern California heavily targeted in 120% increase in white supremacist propaganda in U.S.”
Research by CSUSB center shows hate crimes increase during presidential election period
Bakersfield Now/KBAK TV via Sinclair Broadcast Group
Feb. 14, 2020
If this presidential election season is anything like those in recent years, it will be violent.
According to research by the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism (CSHE) at California State University, San Bernardino, the worst months for reported hate crimes, ideological violence and public violence have been around presidential elections.
'The data we have seen shows that these kinds of political seasons produce identifiable spikes in conflict but also in crimes and violence,' explained Brian Levin, the director of the center. 'And we're concerned.'
Read the complete article, which was picked up nationwide on the Sinclair Broadcast Group, at “Targeted violence increases around presidential elections, research shows.”
CSUSB professor comments on Trump calling for Russia to end support of Syrian government
Press TV
Feb. 17, 2020
In a follow-up to a previous report on Feb. 15 about the advance of the Syrian army into a region of Syria controlled by Turkish-backed forces, David Yaghoubian, CSUSB professor of history, was interviewed for a segment in which U.S. President Donald Trump – in a phone call with Turkish President Rejep Tayyip Erdogan – called on Russia to end its support for the Syrian government.
Commenting Russia’s possible reaction, Yaghoubian said, “I don’t suppose that (Russian President) Vladimir Putin would actually laugh overtly. The idea (that Russia would pull support from Syria) is absurd. Syrian and Russian relations go back decades. … The Syrian-Russian alliance is one that has proven to be durable and long lasting.”
The segment can be viewed at “Trump demands Russia ends support for Damascus.”
CSUSB professor interviewed about Syrian army moving to re-take northwest provinces from foreign-backed forces
Press TV
Feb. 15, 2020
David Yaghoubian, CSUSB professor of history, was included in a segment to discuss the advance of the Syrian Arab Army south of the country’s northwest provinces of Aleppo and Idlib that share a border with Turkey, and the Turkish response to the troop movement. Turkish-backed forces control the area.
Yaghoubian said Turkey had failed to live to a memorandum of understanding from 2018, which said in part that two main highways in the region would be opened for passage and a demilitarized zone wjould be cleared of armed forces. The Syrian army’s move was to implement the MOU, Yaghoubian said, because the reopening of the two highways are key to the “rebuilding of the Syrian economy and Syrian national coheasion.”
The segment can be viewed at “Syrian govt. forces secured high linking Syria’s 4 largest cities.”
These news clips and others may be viewed at “In the Headlines” at inside.csusb.edu.