Abstract
Alisha Kirchoff
Nothing says power and politics like Contexts Magazine getting permission to use a Kehinde Wiley portrait of a Black man riding a white horse in the colors of the American flag with an elegantly regal money-green background. As you probably know, Wiley is the artist that created Barack Obama’s presidential portrait that is housed in the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, DC. Wiley’s work is masterful at inserting African Americans into recreated “classic” art forms that were often devoid of racial diversity. Wiley’s work shows how much representation matters and we appreciate him allowing us to share his masterful work of art with Contexts readers.
Beyond cultural representations, power and politics are correlated to influence our social interactions and social institutions. There are real structural costs associated with the power of politics. Recently, the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) made rulings that showcase how fluid social change can be. The Dobbs decision to reverse Roe v. Wade is making abortion illegal in several states and reproductive rights for women more challenging. Research shows that people, regardless of background, living in states with more limited reproductive rights have worse health outcomes.
The SCOTUS Miranda rights ruling in the Vega v. Tekoh case has chipped away at a law from Reconstruction meant to protect freed enslaved people. Police officers can no longer be sued for failing to Mirandize suspects. From this ruling to others on qualified immunity, the current SCOTUS continues to help police officers evade liability and accountability when they infringe on people’s civil rights. Other rulings related to the second amendment and climate change also have the potential to alter the next several decades in the United States. However, changing policies are not just limited to the United States. Political leaders around the world are being ousted and even assassinated, like the former Prime Minister of Japan Shinzo Abe. Our society is grappling with its social and cultural norms and we are living through a moment in history that will be discussed forever.
This issue of Contexts Magazine takes a deep dive into the various contours of the relationship between power and politics. In the Features section, Francesco Duina focuses on “Why Populist Leaders Succeed”. Given the number of populist leaders popping up in countries around the world, including in the United States, it is important to examine how and why they seem to be resonating with so many voters. Louis Edgar Esparza addresses “Contemporary First Amendment Politics” and how free speech protections have afforded social movements to flourish. Though “cancel culture” is mostly used to hold people accountable for prejudicial attitudes discriminatory behavior, Esparza argues that it has the potential to limit future progressive social movements. Brittany Friedman’s article addresses how white nationalist ideals form alliances between white prison guards and white incarcerated people. David Kirk’s article tackles how residential change is an overlooked solution to solving recidivism. Steve Hoffman and his colleagues provide “Five Big Ideas About AI” moving into the 21st century.
Our Q&A for this issue highlights Brookings Institution Senior Fellow Jonathan Rauch, who talks about his career and how contemporary political and cultural shifts have threatened free speech, impacted the prospects for social change, and carry implications for future knowledge creation. In Briefs highlight new research on community perspectives of racialized policing and the class-based distinctions of Black parents having “the talk” with their daughters. Culture has essays exploring factors that contribute to how Asians experience, process, and understand anti-Asian racism, how white domestic terrorists are aiming to use land as justification for their attitudes and behaviors, and the implications of the War on Drugs turning 50. A Trends essay focuses on the influence of patriarchy, social change, and institutional legacies on reproductive selection in Azerbaijan.
In Photos, Nana Tuntiya explores how the built and social environment in European cities facilitates everyday environmentalism in a way that is less common in the United States. In Books, Emily S. Mann reviews Rene Almeling’s GUYnecology: The Missing Science of Men’s Reproductive Health, which explores how gender ideology shapes scientific knowledge and ideas about health and reproduction. In the Policy Brief, Kimberly Higuera argues that remittances operate as a policy gap that overestimates income and underestimates poverty rates in Mexican immigrant communities. On our back page’s One Thing that I Know, Tom Chiang, Jr. complicates the model minority myth by examining the economic success of Indian Americans and the structural and social factors that helped facilitate migration patterns and access to opportunity in the United States.