American Citizens Research Articles

Machine learning techniques in classifying satisfaction with the economy of Latin American Citizens

Applications of machine learning algorithms offer a new perspective for exploring data from opinion polls, aiming to better understand perceptions and population profiles on various topics, including satisfaction with the economy. In this context, this research aimed to apply machine learning algorithms to classify economic satisfaction from citizens in Latin American countries, evaluating their performance on different datasets and analyzing the variables contributing most to this theme. Four base algorithms were applied: Random Forest; Gradient Boosting; XGBoost; and Naïve Bayes, along with two ensemble methods: hard voting; and soft voting. Subsequently, variable importance was assessed using Gradient Boosting and Random Forest methods, showing the contribution of the predictors to the economic satisfaction. The results showed an accuracy of approximately 86% for three of the base classifiers and soft voting but all methods performed better in classifying dissatisfied citizens, struggling to recognize patterns of those satisfied with the economy. The most important predictor variables considered for classifying this satisfaction were "Satisfaction with democracy" and "Comparison with the economy 12 months before".

Vulnerability and conspiracism in the United States from McCarthyism to Trumpism

This text offers an overview of conspiracism in the United States from the 1950s to the present. Even if contemporary conspiracy mongering extends certain practices and attitudes that were already well-known at the time of Richard Hofstadter’s classic study of the “paranoid style in American politics” (1964) and Robert Goldberg’s more recent study of “the culture of conspiracy in modern America” (2001, 2010), it also introduces new techniques by savvy strategists, such as Donald Trump and Tucker Carlson, who exploit the economic vulnerability of many and the status loss anxiety of many others to destabilize the faculty of judgment of American citizens, increase polarization and suspicion between opposing camps, and weaken confidence in public institutions and democracy. This new conspiracism, we claim, serves to console the most vulnerable and turn the attention of the American public away from a forty-year social trend (conspiracy or not) which would be a neoliberal globalization that deepens inequalities and advances most often with total impunity to advance the interests of powerful deciders and loyalists—the first being to retain power and their control over narratives of power. The paper concludes with some recommendations for combatting this highly cynical and corrosive new conspiracism.

Neighbourliness in concrete: modern construction, ethnic labour and the architectures of New York Italians

‘Neighbourliness in concrete’ assesses the intertwined histories of modern construction and Italian migration in New York City at the turn of the twentieth century. Through the analysis of architecture, construction, and union journals of the period along with the voices of social reformers, ministers, and other intellectuals, the article contends that the adoption of concrete construction did not follow an uncontested technical revolution, as it is often discussed, but was critically mediated by labour debates, social clashes, and ethnic conflicts decisively involving Italian migrant workers, who constituted a majority amongst concrete labourers at the time in New York City. The article situates these debates in relation to the definition of these migrants as ‘neighbours’ — linking negotiations amongst trades and ethnicities in the construction site to contemporaneous discussions on collective housing models in the American metropolis. It explores how new forms of ‘neighbourliness’ defined in these two sites were simultaneously framed by industrialisation, capitalism, nationalism, and migration throughout this formative period for both the Italian and American republics. Coming fundamentally from the south of their country, Italian migrant workers struggled to identify (and be recognised) as both members of the new Italian nation and as American citizens and, rather than easily fitting in any of the ‘imagined communities’ defined for the two republics, they constituted themselves as a material one. Modern architecture, the article concludes, was both dependent on and the catalyst for negotiations of neighbourliness in concrete.

A critical discourse analysis of Jayland Walker's demise in digital journalism

This research investigates the shooting incident involving Jayland Walker, an African American citizen, on June 27, 2022, resulting from a traffic violation in Akron, United States, and its subsequent coverage across major online media outlets such as CNN News, NBC News, and The Washington Post. Utilizing qualitative methods and drawing on Van Dijk's (1985) Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) model, the study focuses on analysing the ideologies embedded in ten online news stories from June 2022 to August 2022. The findings highlight a discernible trend in the representation of Jayland Walker by CNN News and The Washington Post, where he is predominantly portrayed as a victim, with the police depicted negatively through strategic use of lexical elements and metaphors, underscoring the influence of media ownership ideologies in shaping news content. In contrast, NBC News maintains a more neutral stance, attributed to frequent changes in ownership. The research contributes theoretically to CDA, providing a conceptual framework for students engaged in critical discourse analysis studies, and offers insights into the complexities of media representation in incidents involving discrimination and police violence.

“Missing people never make sense”: Don DeLillo’s Point Omega or, Addressing the Terroristic Real to Oneself

Point Omega, Don DeLillo’s fifteenth novel, is both overtly and covertly about a historical reality, that of the Global War on Terror and some of its tragic consequences, the Iraq War and the Abu Ghraib scandals. Centered on the figure of Richard Elster, a retired architect of the GWOT, the novel enacts a counterterrorist politics of terror thanks to a haunting poetics. Indeed, everything about DeLillo’s opus seems to convey the general atmosphere of counterterrorist terror that characterized the US abroad and that is now surreptitiously and spectrally performed on national ground. Considering that the plot takes place in the US and that the main victims—whether direct for Elster’s daughter Jessie who disappears or, indirect for Elster himself in the face of that loss—are American citizens, I argue that the shadowy implementations of the GWOT have, so to speak, contaminated the US itself due to an autoimmune principle. I examine how DeLillo suggests that the terroristic real returns to the sender and afflicts those it was designed to protect in the first place.

Cardiovascular Disease Prevalence in Asians Versus Americans: A Review of Genetics, Diet, and the Call for Enhanced Prevention and Screening.

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) continues to pose a global health challenge, demonstrating significant disparities in occurrence among various populations. A wide number of research studies have indicated a higher prevalence of cardiovascular disease in South Asian immigrants compared to the local American population. The demand to improve the cardiovascular benefits of immigrants is increasing, which calls for further research with larger and more diverse population samples. This study will investigate the major causes of this variation, which include genetically diverse characteristics and changes in nutritional status among the study population groups. To assess the increase in the prevalence of cardiovascular disease among South Asian populations compared to the US population, a narrative review of accessible data is carried out. The data in support of the present document are from the Centre for Disease Prevention and Control, Statistics for Heart Diseases and Stroke 2023, a trend analysis about incidences of cardiac diseases and global burden in 2017, all dating back to the last two decades. Relevant articles from PubMed and Google Scholar have also been included, as appropriate, and their references are provided wherever necessary. Graphs for the geographical variations in disease incidence are produced using Microsoft Excel (Microsoft® Corp., Redmond, WA). The review shows that there is a significant decline in the prevalence of CVD among American citizens when compared to the steady increase in the number of cases among South Asians, which is attributed to the unique genetic predisposition of South Asians to be more prone to CVDs. The changing dietary habits also play an important role in the fall in HDL levels in South Asians when compared to Americans. This is driven by genetic disparities, including the APOA1 and APOA2 genes, and nutritional disparities, including variance in quality and quantity of dietary consumption. Addressing the escalating cases of CVDamong South Asians necessitates additional research to enhance proactive preventive measures and implement screening programs specifically tailored to address prevalent risk factors within the population.

Auschwitz Survivor and Nobel Prize of Peace, Élie Wiesel as Theologian

Abstract This article examines the life and work of Elie Wiesel (1928–2016), a Francophone writer of Romanian origin, Auschwitz-Birkenau survivor, American citizen, Nobel Peace Prize laureate of 1986. It specifically explores Wiesel’s complex engagement with the divine and the faith, which remained a central concern throughout his life, following his return from the Nazi extermination camps. This is most evident in his seminal book, Night, where he recounts the experience of God’s death in the death camps. Despite such profound crisis of faith, Wiesel remained a deeply religious Jew till the end. On the 16 July 2006, Oprah Winfrey dedicated her Book Club to The Night and called it “one of the greatest books of the century”. More than 3 million copies were sold in a few weeks in the United States. This study proposes that Wiesel’s confrontation with the divine can be best understood through his response to mysticism, expressed as a spiritual song of a fervent yet torn soul. It further suggests that his rejection of Nietzsche’s proclamation of “God’s death” and his alignment with Rabbi Nachman of Bratslav’s idea of a “broken faith” underscores his profound spiritual resilience.

The impacts of ideological polarization among political elites on citizens’ attitudes toward opposing-party supporters via an affective channel

ABSTRACT Recent studies have reported that the ideological polarization of party elites induces citizens’ affective polarization toward parties in the United States, while others have found that American citizens’ affective polarization strengthens their biased attitudes toward opposing-party supporters. This study tests the implication of the literature that affective polarization mediates between the ideological polarization of party elites and biased attitudes against fellow citizens using survey experiments in the United States and South Korea. We find three common results between the two countries. First, the manipulation of the ideological distance between the two parties does not influence respondents’ relative affect between them. Second, however, there appears to be a positive correlation between the relative affect and biased attitudes toward fellow citizens. Finally, mediation analysis further reveals that the manipulation does not affect the biased attitudes through the relative affect. We conclude by briefly discussing the key findings.

The Hidden Family Story of Transnationalism: Deportation, Educational Planning and Mixed Immigration Status

ABSTRACT This study examined the collateral effects of deportation on the children of mixed-immigration households where the father is Mexican and has been deported, the mother is American, and the children were born in the United States. These children are American citizens by birth, but after spending most of their lives in the United States, they begin a new life in Mexico. The results of this qualitative study show that the adaptations of these young people are not one-dimensional, and decisions are made within the family that affect the incorporation of these young people into a new context. The prevalent idea that the family should stay together conditions the direction the family takes. One of the main results of this study advances the discussions around the educational profiles of transnational youth by showing two new profiles derived from their status as American citizens by birthright and their access to online education. The implications question the work of the Mexican government to recognize these young transnationals in a context of collateral deportation. This recognition would be invaluable to authorities, school communities, instructors, and families in granting the legitimate right to quality educational care to current and future transnational youth.

George Takei’s Allegiance: WWII Japanese American incarceration as a cautionary tale

ABSTRACT The musical Allegiance was inspired by the childhood of actor-activist George Takei, a Japanese American whose family was incarcerated by the United States government in ‘war relocation camps’ during World War II. Performed in both New York and London, the play is a rare popular depiction of Japanese detention – a chapter of American history that is simultaneously present and hidden in U.S. public imagination. The musical underscores the realities of racial discrimination that rendered Japanese Americans vulnerable to rights abuses and asks whether a citizen must prove one’s loyalty. Thinking through the ‘absent presence’ of Japanese American incarceration by viewing performances such as Allegiance is a vital step for acknowledging the precariousness of American citizenship and for preventing human rights abuses in the future. Today, this play serves as a cautionary tale for the United States as anti-Asian hatred spikes and citizenship stripping among naturalized American citizens increases.

Ikigai in the Workplace and its Impacts on Happiness

In an exceptional society, each person would follow their belief and their dream of becoming whatever or whoever they want. In American society we have been constricted under the influence of schooling and the common American society’s ideals. These shared ideals of the American community have led students to believe in the pursuit of wealthiness, which in turn has also guided a lack of passion among American citizens. In Japan, the focus is less on the interest in pursuing a wealthy life in riches, but more in the pursuit of a fulfilled life through the continued use of Ikigai. Each person does think about the wealth that will be accumulated in their profession, but they focus more on the fulfillment of the job in relation to their “meaning of life”, or their Ikigai. Ikigai in a profession falls under four common categories, what the world needs, how talented you are in the profession, how much you love/like your job, and the income the job provides (Hughes, 2021). Those that can meet these categories in their job are said to be happier than someone who does not. The purpose of this study is to determine if Ikigai in the workplace really leads to a happier life. The results of this study support the theory of Ikigai leading to increased happiness in life.

Legal violence: the struggles of Thai women in Thai massage businesses.

Prior studies of legal violence concerning minority groups in the United States are often linked to Immigration Law. Drawing primarily from 30 interviews with Thai massage business owners in Los Angeles, this article reveals how the implementation of local and federal regulations and laws regarding massage businesses constitutes legal violence. Using Crenshaw's structural, political, and representational intersectionality, this article demonstrates how Thai women's race, ethnicity, and gender affect their experiences in countering the state regulations. The analysis focuses on two interrelated areas of Thai massage business owners' and Thai massage therapists' lives-the strict government surveillance of Thai massage business operations and the enforcement of professional certification. This legal violence toward Thai massage owners and massage therapists is rooted in a legal system that aims to protect consumers. Nevertheless, the effect of legal violence is not limited to undocumented Thai immigrants but also affects Thai American citizens and legal permanent residents.

To vote or not to vote? Fake news, voter fraud, and support for postponing the 2020 U.S. presidential election

AbstractPrior to the 2020 election President Trump suggested the election should be postponed “until the country can make sure that only eligible American citizens can vote.” With the COVID‐19 pandemic leading many states to take steps that made it easier for citizens to vote safely, the president and his allies made numerous false claims about voter fraud; others argued that voter fraud is not common and is unlikely to appreciably increase with greater reliance on mail balloting. We rely on a national Internet‐based survey experiment conducted prior to the 2020 election to assess the effectiveness of both messages on citizens' support for a hypothetical proposal to postpone the presidential election. The results suggest that respondents were more likely to support postponement if they received a fake news message that fraud is common. The results also suggest that these effects are conditional; both political party and knowledge moderate the relationship.Related ArticlesAguado, N. Alexander. 2022. “When Charismatic Leadership Trumps Social Networking: Searching for the Effects of Social Media on Beliefs of Electoral Legitimacy.” Politics & Policy 50(5): 942–51. https://doi.org/10.1111/polp.12494.Fisher, Patrick. 2020. “Generational Replacement and the Impending Transformation of the American Electorate.” Politics & Policy 48(1): 38–68. https://doi.org/10.1111/polp.12340.Stockemer, Daniel. 2013. “Corruption and Turnout in Presidential Elections: A Macro‐Level Quantitative Analysis.” Politics & Policy 41(2): 189–212. https://doi.org/10.1111/polp.12012.

Critical Review of Geographic Illiteracy in the United States: A Multifaceted Analysis

This paper explores the concept of geographic illiteracy in general, and specifically in the United States over the last several decades. The researcher sets out by placing geographic literacy concerns and challenges within the context of the broader literacy challenges raised in the United States in the last quarter of the previous century via the 1983 published landmark education report, A Nation At Risk. Geography illiteracy, also called ‘geo-illiteracy’ is demonstrated from reports and statistics comparing geographic achievements internationally among nations in certain cohorts, and the state of geographic education nationally, is examined. The importance of geography education-literacy is highlighted, and the researcher explores several authoritative sources including organizations, scholars, and writers on the subject, and then from an analysis of the extant literature, devises “Five Theses” as to the causes of geographic illiteracy (culture value thesis, curricular thesis, corporate-economic value thesis, and perceptions of geography thesis). The consequences of geographic illiteracy are then examined under “Five Themes” referred to as ‘challenges’ (environmental-sustainability challenge, economic challenge, national competitiveness challenge, threat to national security challenge, and well-being and happiness challenge). Finally, the researcher presents several recommendations for improving geographic literacy across the United States, noting that a public policy effort by the federal and state governments must ultimately be the most viable solution to improving the geographic knowledge and skills of American citizens.

With Liberty and Justice For All? The U.S. Internment of Japanese Peruvians During World War II

After the bombing of Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, the United States committed to a policy of interning more than 120,000 Japanese Americans. While Japanese American detention remains the most researched instance of wartime internment, the U.S. incarceration of Japanese Peruvians merits equal attention. The political forces behind Japanese Peruvian internment transcended the more common explanations that haunt so much of literature today. Racism and hysteria played their respective roles in this history of wartime internment, but as the war progressed, other reasons for Japanese internment emerged. On January 4, 1942, the Japanese began interning American civilians in the Philippines. Days later, the U.S. State Department decided to hold Japanese Peruvians hostage for the purpose of aiding American repatriation. America used hostage-taking as a political instrument of war, facilitating the return of more than 3,000 American citizens. Such retaliation, however, came at the human cost of interning more than 1,000 Japanese Peruvians without charge in places like Crystal City, Texas.

Freedom’s Dominion: A Saga of White Resistance to Federal Power by Jefferson Cowie (review)

ABSTRACT: Last summer, Alabama Senator Tommy Tuberville stirred controversy by insist ing that white nationalists were not racists but simply loyal American citizens like any other. In an interview on Alabama public radio about his opposition to the Pentagon's personnel policies, among them efforts to prevent white supremacists from serving in the armed forces, Tuberville claimed that the people the Biden administration maligned as "white nationalists" were simply "Americans" who "don't believe in [Biden's] agenda." Designating them as unfit for service, he argued, is a form of federal overreach—intruding in matters of identity and conscience over which the federal government has no rightful authority, and sowing weakness and division in the "strong, hard-nosed, killing machine" that is the U.S. military. "We cannot start putting rules in there for one type, one group and make different factions in the military," he said, "because that is the most important institution in the United States of America." Despite the efforts of his staff to convey that he had simply been misunderstood, Tuberville doubled down in a later interview: targeting white nationalists was part of a partisan, un-American agenda—an agenda that threatened to drive "most white people in this country out of the military."

СУСПІЛЬНО-ПОЛІТИЧНІ НАСТРОЇ ГРОМАДЯН США В КОНТЕКСТІ МІГРАЦІЙНОЇ КРИЗИ 2022 – 2024 РОКІВ

This article is devoted to the attitudes of U.S. citizens toward new residents in the context of the migration crisis of 2022–2024. Understanding the socio-political views of Americans provides deeper insights into the intense confrontation between Republicans and Democrats in the U.S. Congress, which began in late 2023 and continued into early 2024. The study aims to clarify how public sentiments changed following the surge in illegal immigration and to identify the reasons behind these changes in public perception. Therefore, the goal of the research was to determine American citizens’ attitudes toward immigration into the U.S., and to identify the causes of their concerns and changes in attitudes during the migration crisis of 2022–2024. The scientific novelty of the research lies in the introduction and analysis of new sources on the history of the American migration crisis of 2022–2024. Based on empirical data, it has been proven that the surge in illegal immigration, rather than migration in general, led to significant shifts in public attitudes toward migrants, and subsequently, to a political crisis in the country. The methodological foundation of the article is the principle of historicism, widely applied in contemporary historical research practices. To accomplish the research objective, a positivist approach was employed, according to which the study must be based on empirical data derived from sources. The comparative method was used in the analysis of source materials, allowing for a detailed observation of changes in public sentiments over a specific period. Conclusions. The migration crisis of 2022–2024, which the U.S. faced, became the country’s greatest humanitarian challenge in decades. It exacerbated internal political strife due to widespread public dissatisfaction with the influx of illegal migrants. This dissatisfaction is clearly traceable through statistical data from government bodies and public opinion surveys conducted by major U.S. research centers such as Pew Research Center and Gallup. The highest percentage of citizens, since the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, expressing a desire to reduce immigration levels is a clear indication of the crisis that has engulfed the country.

BLACK AMERICANS’ VIOLENT STRUGGLE AGAINST RACISM IN THE UNITED STATES: A SCRUTINY OF STEPHEN COONTS’S UNDER SIEGE

The examination of Stephen Coonts’s Under Siege has enabled us to discover that Aldana and his black fellows are the first characters who organize a violent struggle against racism in the United States in order to achieve their civil rights denied to them for years by their white counterparts because of their black skin color. They, for example, start bombing on Whites’ stores and killing even white American authorities who refuse to see them as full American citizens. Unfortunately, this violence which gives to the author’s text the form of a historical book does not provide them with their needs. For, many of them are caught, punished, and killed under the white American authorities’ order. Such is the case of Aldana who is persecuted several times and tortured mercilessly by Whites for his committed crimes as a way for the latter to give a lesson to all Blacks in case of disobedience. This black character’s violence which also results in the spread of drug in all the spheres of the United States urges white American authorities to fight against drug business in this powerful nation.

Freedom’s Dominion: A Saga of White Resistance to Federal Power by Jefferson Cowie (review)

ABSTRACT: Last summer, Alabama Senator Tommy Tuberville stirred controversy by insist ing that white nationalists were not racists but simply loyal American citizens like any other. In an interview on Alabama public radio about his opposition to the Pentagon’s personnel policies, among them efforts to prevent white supremacists from serving in the armed forces, Tuberville claimed that the people the Biden administration maligned as “white nationalists” were simply “Americans” who “don’t believe in [Biden’s] agenda.” Designating them as unfit for service, he argued, is a form of federal overreach—intruding in matters of identity and conscience over which the federal government has no rightful authority, and sowing weakness and division in the “strong, hard-nosed, killing machine” that is the U.S. military. “We cannot start putting rules in there for one type, one group and make different factions in the military,” he said, “because that is the most important institution in the United States of America.” Despite the efforts of his staff to convey that he had simply been misunderstood, Tuberville doubled down in a later interview: targeting white nationalists was part of a partisan, un-American agenda—an agenda that threatened to drive “most white people in this country out of the military.”

Methods of foreign students from Europe and Latin America recruiting on the example of Peoples' Friendship University of Russia

This article considers the ways of international students recruiting in Russian universities using as an example the Peoples' Friendship University of Russia named after Patrice Lumumba. As a leading university in the fields of working with international students RUDN University uses a variety of ways to attract students from Europe and Latin America. The aim of the work is to identify commonalities and differences in working with international students from Europe and Latin America, taking into account the peculiarities, level of economic and social development of the regions, their native languages and planned field of studies among applicants. The methodology used in the article is a comparative analysis of the methods of recruiting European and Latin American citizens to study at the RUDN University. In addition, the comparison uses the real practice of the Peoples' Friendship University of Russia named after Patrice Lumumba in recruiting international citizens from Europe and Latin America. The results of consideration show the effectiveness of the RUDN University methods used in the recruiting of European and Latin American students, as well as usefulness in their further implementation. The novelty lies in the comparison of the methods of international applicants recruiting from two regions – Europe and Latin America – for studies to RUDN University. The author concludes that it is advisable to operate Russian language centers, profile classes, resource centers, hold Open Olympiads to recruit talented young people to study at the RUDN University. It is also possible to continue working with recruiting companies and participation in international fairs. The possibility of introducing existing practices not only into the Russian, but also into the global educational space is being considered.