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.  

Another Civil War in America? Comparing the Social Psychology of the United States of the 1850s to Today
Administration & Society

Montgomery Van Wart (public administration), Cary Barber (history), and Miranda McIntyre (psychology), along with Jeremy Hall (public administration, University of Central Florida), collaborated on a study that “examines the likelihood of another U.S. civil war by comparing perspectives of the 1850s with those of today by using a negative social capital framework as the analytic lens,” according to its abstract.

Ask the Experts: Choosing the least expensive auto liability insurance
WalletHub

Jim Estes (finance) was one of the experts asked by the personal finance website to discuss the best way to look for the least expensive auto liability insurance, and what people need to consider before they make their choice.

California lawmakers condemn racist letter opposing maternal mortality bill
The Sacramento Bee via AOL
April 15, 2024

Brian Levin, founding director of the CSUSB Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism, was interviewed for an article about a racist letter, sent to a Black lawmaker and other legislators, in opposition to a bill, AB 2319, that aims to address disparities in Black maternal and infant mortality rate. The author wrote the letter on behalf of two groups, the Imperial Grand Aryan Council of California and the Western United White Knights.

“We commonly see a much more splintered, fractured threat matrix even within ideologies,” said Levin. “A lot of these groups have recycled membership from other groups or share similar racist ideology.”

Levin noted record levels of hate crimes reported in 2023, particularly antisemitic hate crimes and speech. Anti-Black and anti-LGBTQ hate crimes spiked in the Sacramento region in 2022, according to an annual report by the California Department of Justice.

Why a fight over 'safe space' for LGBTQ residents is roiling a city DEI program
LAist
April 16, 2024

Brian Levin, founding director of the CSUSB Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism, was interviewed for an article about the San Gabriel City Council, which is facing some pushback for a proposal to eliminate its Human Equity, Access and Relations Commission. What is at issue is a proposed program that would promote LGBTQ rights.

Levin said: “Conflicts, like this one in San Gabriel, are part of a larger trend nationally, amplified by a concerted political effort by some on the far right to combat not only legal protections and social recognition of the LGBQTI community, but their related supportive allies, institutions and policies. Fortunately, California state law and government stand as an important tool for equality.”

‘His last name was Bernstein’: Exchange over yarmulke brings antisemitism into focus in murder trial
Forward
April 16, 2024

Brian Levin, an expert on hate crime who founded the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at California State University San Bernardino, was interviewed for an article about Blaze Bernstein, a Jewish man killed in 2018 by one of his former high school classmates who was a member of a neo-Nazi extremist group. The trial is currently underway.

Levin said it is not as easy as establishing — as is the case in this trial — that the victim was Jewish and his killer was active in a neo-Nazi group.

“Bias doesn’t have to be the sole motivating factor” for a hate crime conviction, Levin said. “But it has to be one of them. And that has to be proven beyond reasonable doubt.”

English learner advocates in California oppose ‘science of reading’ bill
EdSource

Barbara Flores, professor of education, emerita, from CSU San Bernardino and past president of California Association for Bilingual Education (CABE), was quoted in an article about a new state bill, Assembly Bill 2222, that would mandate that reading instruction be aligned with the “science of reading.” The bill is being opposed by CABE and Californians Together, who say the bill could hurt students learning English as a second language.

These news clips and others may be viewed at “In the Headlines.”