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UCLA Professor Eric Avila Discusses How U.S. Infrastructure Historically Fostered Racial Inequality

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Recently U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said, “There is racism physically built into some of our highways.” It is this recognition that has shaped President Joe Biden’s plan to improve U.S. infrastructure. Dr. Eric Avila, Professor of History, César E. Chávez Department of Chicana/o and Central American Studies, and Urban Planning, was recently interviewed by PBS SoCal and NPR where he discussed the history of how communities of color were uprooted by highway construction.

In the PBS SoCal piece, Dr. Avila says, “I think that the conversation we’re having now about race, inequality and infrastructure at this level is new, and to me that’s encouraging.” To read the full article, “How infrastructure has historically promoted inequality,” click HERE.

To read and/or listen to the NPR segment “Beneath The Santa Monica Freeway Lies The Erasure Of Sugar Hill,” click HERE.

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UCLA Professor Eric Avila Discusses Infrastructure and Racial Equity with The New York Times and NPR

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Dr. Eric Avila, UCLA Professor of History, Chicana/o and Central American Studies, and Urban Planning, was recently featured in The New York Times and NPR to discuss infrastructure and racial equity in light of President Biden’s new plan, which seeks to address racial disparities.

In The New York Times, Dr. Avila discusses how federal redevelopment programs negatively affected and excluded minority communities. “‘These highways were essentially built as conduits for wealth,’ Mr. Avila said. ‘Primarily white wealth, jobs, people, markets. The highways were built to promote the connectivity between suburbs and cities. The people that were left out were urban minorities. African Americans, immigrants, Latinos.'”

To read the NYT article, click HERE.

With NPR, Dr. Avila expands further on the impact of highway construction: “It destroyed many communities, and it destroyed the economic, social and cultural lifeblood of these communities. It also divided them, creating these huge barriers within communities or between communities. The best example I can think of in Los Angeles is the Boyle Heights neighborhood. You could imagine an army of bulldozers and wrecking balls invading Boyle Heights to clear neighborhoods to build these massive freeway interchanges that have a huge footprint upon what used to be racially and ethnically diverse working class, sustainable communities. But the freeways and their interchanges destroyed that. And that happened on a national pattern throughout the United States.”

To read or listen to the NPR “For All Things Considered” interview, click HERE.

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UCLA Podcast “Then & Now” Analyzes the Election Aftermath

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UCLA’s Luskin Center for History and Policy (LCHP) has continued to be a leading voice in connecting past to present. The center’s “Then & Now” podcast has tackled some of the most challenge topics of the day by connecting them to the past. As a follow-up to their last pre-election episode, Dr. Lynn Vavreck and Zev Yaroslavsky return to “Then & Now,” joined by Dr. Lorrie Frasure, to analyze the 2020 election results. They discuss a range of key topics: President Trump’s refusal to concede, the persistence of divided electorates in U.S. history, the political behavior of white men, the performance and reliability of polling, and the question of whether American democracy is dying.

  • Lorrie Frasure is an Associate Professor of Political Science and African American Studies at UCLA, and Acting Director of the Ralph J. Bunche Center for African American Studies.
  • Lynn Vavreck is the Marvin Hoffenberg Professor of American Politics and Public Policy at UCLA, a contributing columnist to The Upshot at The New York Times, and the author or co-author of five books on electoral politics.
  • Zev Yaroslavsky is the Executive Director of the LA Initiative at the Luskin School of Public Affairs. He served as LA City Council Member from 1975 to 1994, and as LA County Supervisor from 1994 to 2014.

To hear this informative podcast, click HERE.

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Professor Avila Featured in PBS Film, “Driving While Black: Race, Space and Mobility in America”

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UCLA Professor Eric Avila, was one of the scholars and community activists that was featured in the PBS film, Driving While Black: Race, Space and Mobility in America. The film is defined as “a ground-breaking, two-hour documentary film by acclaimed historian Dr. Gretchen Sorin and Emmy-winning director Ric Burns, which examines the history of African Americans on the road from the early 1900s through the 1960s and beyond.”

Watch the film now for free until November 11th HERE. It will be available for purchase after that date.

To learn more about the film, check out the following links:

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LHZjzJN0sVg

Website: http://www.dwbfilm.com/

Recent Reviews:

https://www.cnn.com/2020/10/13/entertainment/driving-while-black-review/index.html 

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/review/driving-while-black-race-space-and-mobility-in-america-tv-review

https://www.npr.org/2020/10/13/923170416/pbs-documentary-driving-while-black-examines-long-road-of-racism

 

 

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“Be Still And Do Not Move”: The COVID-19 Migrant and the Ministry of the Soul

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Prayagraj: Migrants arrive to board Shramik special train to travel to native places, during the ongoing COVID-19 lockdown, at Prayagraj Railway Station, Thursday, May 28, 2020. (PTI Photo)(PTI28-05-2020_000152B)

India’s largest media network, ABP Live, recently published UCLA Professor of History and Asian American Studies Dr. Vinay Lal‘s latest essay, “‘Be Still And Do Not Move’: The COVID-19 Migrant and the Ministry of the Soul,” about the global pandemic. Dr. Lal takes a historic look at the imposed countrywide “lockdown” that the government of India instituted more than two months ago. Dr. Lal provides some historical examples to expose the draconian move by Prime Minister Modi. To read the complete essay, click HERE.

Also, check out his informative blog, “Lal Salaam: A Blog by Vinay Lal,” “a series of articles on the implications of the coronavirus for our times, for human history, and for the fate of the earth.” You may read his earlier essays on LA Social Science.

Subscribe to LA Social Science and be the first to learn more insight and knowledge from UCLA social science experts in upcoming video/audio sessions and posts about current issues.

 

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LA Social Science Summer Course Previews: History Department Courses in 2020

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Summer 2020 is right around the corner, and LA Social Science will continue to highlight some of the summer courses being offered within the Division of Social Sciences at UCLA.

UCLA summer courses are open to BOTH UCLA students and NON-UCLA students. All Summer 2020 courses will be offered online due to the COVID-19 pandemic. You can enroll as long as you are 15 years of age or older by the first day of summer and you do NOT have to be enrolled in an academic institution in order to participate in UCLA Summer Sessions. For more information, click HERE.

UCLA’s History Department has 11 amazing courses this summer. Check out each of the flyers below and watch some fascinating video previews of a few of the courses. Enroll HERE or click on each of the links below.

Session A (June 22nd – July 31st)

  • HIST 1C – Introduction to Western Civilization: Circa 1715 to Present

  • HIST 97M – Introduction to Historical Practice: Double Visions in Southeast Asian History

  • HIST 140A – 20th-Century U.S. History, 1900 to 1928

  • HIST 141B – American Economic History, 1910 to Present

  • HIST 142D – American Popular Culture – Watch video preview HERE.

  • HIST 179B – History of Medicine: Foundations of Modern Medicine

  • HIST 180A – Science of Violence: Military Technology and Rationalization of Killing in Modern History

 

 Session C (August 3rd-September 11th)

  • HIST 1B – Introduction to Western Civilization: Circa 843 to Circa 1715

  • HIST 13C – History of the U.S. and Its Colonial Origins: 20th Century

 

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