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The Roundup Top Ten for August 6, 2021

We've Begun to Confront Christian White Nationalism. But What About the Source Text?

by Dianne M. Stewart

Critics of emergent White Christian Nationalism too often stop short of a key point: the Bible's explicit endorsement of war, conquest and genocide back up an eliminationist political outlook on the right. 

Letters from an American: The Rising Appeal of Hungary on the US Right

by Heather Cox Richardson

Tucker Carlson's fawning visit to Viktor Orban's Hungary, at a time when the right is mobilizing to subvert future American elections, is an ominous signal of the growing contempt for democracy on the right. 

Policymakers in the 1960s Created the Student Debt Crisis. Policymakers Today Can Undo It.

by Elizabeth Tandy Shermer

"Lawmakers purposefully crafted the Guaranteed Student Loan Program to jump-start a student loan industry — instead of really investing in colleges and universities to keep costs down or forcing them to provide young people with genuinely equal opportunities to enroll."

The Migration Crisis is a Gendered Violence Crisis

by Laura Briggs and María Josefina Saldaña-Portillo

Central American women are frequently pushed to migrate by the threat of sexual violence. American policy inflicts further gendered harm through family separation and border militarization. 

‘The Green Knight’ Adopts a Medieval Approach to ‘Modern’ Problems

by David M. Perry and Matthew Gabriele

Modern psychological dramas in the Arthurian film aren't foreign to the Middle Ages; they're there in the original text. Viewers should reconsider what they "know" about the medieval period. 

5 Ways Americans Misunderstand Cuba

by Caroline McCulloch

Both the Cuban government's censorship and many Americans' nationalistic perspective hinder an accurate understanding of even the basic history and politics of the Cuban-American relationship. 

Overturning Five Myths of the Haitian Revolution

by Julia Gaffield

Many understandings of the Haitian Revolution, from its intellectual and political roots, to its military progress, to its political consequences, are at best half-truths. And it did not entail "white genocide." 

East LA Bid for Independence Could Achieve a Key Victory

by Eric Avila

"The campaign for special district status would allow East L.A. to inch closer to the right of self-determination afforded to so many other Southland communities."

UFOs and the Boundaries of Science

by Greg Eghigian

The history of the UFO phenomenon is a lens on to the process by which scientists police the bounds of respectable inquiry. 

Simone Biles is the Latest Olympian to Withhold Her Labor for Change

by Johanna Mellis

Simone Biles' decision not to compete in several gymnastic events is part of a legacy of athletes' refusal to compete dating back to Hungarian athletes' protests of Communist repression in 1956.