S2 E4: Your Mind on History, Guns & Racism, with Dr. Gerald Higginbotham
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One of the first and strictest gun laws passed in the United States was the Mulford act of 1967, sparked by lawmakers perceived threat of the Black Panthers. Thus, the launch of the gun restriction movement was a targeted effort to limit Black Americans' gun access. How does this history influence attitudes about guns in the U.S. today? Dr. Gerald Higginbotham discusses the importance of history as a context in which to consider present-day attitudes, and how our own perceptions of history, like how long ago we feel the Tulsa Race Massacre happened, may in turn influence our current attitudes and support for policy.
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Dr. Gerald Higginbotham
Research discussed & further reading
Sports:​
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Higginbotham, G. D., Shropshire, J., & Johnson, K. L. (2021). You play a sport, right? A persistent and pernicious intersectional bias in categorization of students vs. student-athletes. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin
Recommended further reading-
Edwards, Harry. (1971). The sources of the Black athlete's superiority [article]
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Guns:
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Kerner, L., Losee, J. E., Higginbotham, G. D., & Shepperd, J. A. (2022). Interest in purchasing firearms in the United States at the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Journal of Threat Assessment and Management.
Recommended further reading-
More on the Mulford Act: https://www.history.com/news/black-panthers-gun-control-nra-support-mulford-act
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Anderson, Carol (2021). The second: Race and guns in a fatally unequal America [book]
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Buttrick, Nicholas (2020). Protective gun ownership as a coping mechanism [article]
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Winkler, Adam (2011). Gun fight: The battle over the right to bear arms in America [book]
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History:
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Higginbotham, G. D. (2021). Shifting the Self to Make Sense of the Past: Interdependence as Mediating Racial Divergences in Perceptions of Critical Black History. University of California, Los Angeles.
Recommended further reading
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Other:
Black Panthers at the California Capitol,1967
CIR Online / Wikimedia Commons, from California Local News