Project News

While it's common to hear adults mocking millennials behavior and interest, there are young people doing what they can make this world a better place and to support a greater good.

An episode of Add Your 2 Cents l politics

Everyone has bias; this reality is neither good nor bad. How bias connects with power and authority begets racism. Racism is messy, and anti-black bias in America is alive and well, even at Starbucks. That Starbucks is now lining up “racial bias training” for hundreds of store employees across the country as a response to the recently documented racial profiling incident in Philadelphia is curious.

Starbucks on Tuesday said it will close its more than 8,000 company-owned U.S. stores, including those in Arizona, for the afternoon of May 29 to conduct racial-bias training. The effort is designed to prevent discrimination following the Thursday arrests of two African-American men at a Philadelphia location.

Black culture is constantly being used, abused and appropriated. Its beauty and uniqueness cause frenzies because its essence is unmatched. Hip-hop and rap are cornerstones of black culture. Both genres are testaments to the love, pain and joys of life.

In the aftermath of the chaos that erupted in Philadelphia as Eagles fans tore through the streets celebrating their Super Bowl victory, many could not help but notice the difference in how the public and officials reacted to riots by fans compared to those prompted by civil unrest. 

Students of different faiths and cultures are able to come together through the many different interfaith initiatives that ASU offers. One of these, Dispelling the Myths: Religious Doctrine and Religious Dogma, is a series of public conversations hosted by Project Humanities that aims to encourage community building among people of different faiths. “We hope (Dispelling the Myths) will be a place where people can be honest about their misconceptions,” said Neal Lester, director of Project Humanities.

It almost sounds like the start of a joke: How do you get a staunch Republican and a left-leaning Democrat to have a civil conversation about Arizona politics? Sit ’em down for a meal. “It’s hard to be uncivil when you’re having a meal with someone,” said Neal A. Lester, founding director of Arizona State University's Project Humanities and Foundation Professor of English. “Bringing people together around a meal has the potential to make conversation easier to have, especially surrounding politics.”

Ahwatukee Professor Neal Lester will be honored in two separate celebrations of Martin Luther King Jr., but he's more than a little wistful about all the memorials that will be taking place in advance of and on the slain civil rights leader's birthday Monday.

THE HOLIDAY HONORING MARTIN LUTHER KINK JR. HAS HAD A BUMPY HISTORY IN ARIZONA. WE EXAMINE THAT HISTORY AND TALK TO DR. NEAL LESTER (DIRECTOR ASU PROJECT HUMANITY) ABOUT THE RISE OF PROTESTS THROUGH SOCIAL MEDIA AND IF THERE HAS BEEN ANY PROGRESS SINCE MLK WAS APROVED IN ARIZONA.