Helen H. Moore's Blog, page 284

7 ways to use media and tech to raise bilingual kids

(Credit: AP Photo/Patrick Sison)

Whether you speak Spanish or just want your kids to learn it, raising bilingual kids is a big commitment. But even though it can be challenging, it’s definitely worth the effort. Many studies confirm the multiple benefits of bilingualism.

Aside from the learning value, Spanish fluency will open doors for kids. Spanish is the third most spoken language in the world, and according to Pew Research, it’s the most spoken non-English language — even among non-Hispanics — in the United States. Thanks to the Internet and other factors, the world has become increasingly more interconnected, and knowing more than one language makes you more competitive in a global economy. If you’re interested in having your kids become bilingual, check out our recommended apps list to help kids learn another language. You also can visit our Latino landing page for more information in Spanish.

When learning a second language, it’s important to hear, read, and speak it as often as possible. If you can, visit a Spanish-speaking country to immerse your whole family in the language and culture. Here are some tips to support you and your kids as you navigate the experience of living between two languages and cultures:

Use media and devices whenever you can to support the Spanish learning process. Join your kids when possible. That way the message will be more clear: This is a family goal, and we can do it together!
Reading is a great way to increase vocabulary and learn grammar. Start with bilingual books or ones with Spanish words. Read them to your kids if you can, or find people you trust to read to them in Spanish. For little kids whose mother tongue is Spanish, these activities are especially important. Research shows that developing their literacy skills in Spanish first facilitates the learning process of reading, writing, and speaking in English.
Spanish TV shows teach vocabulary, intonation, and culture. Watching these shows also helps kids develop their listening abilities.
Choose audio in Spanish when you’re watching a movie. If your kids are usually immersed in an English-speaking environment, they might have trouble following along — but keep trying. Listening to the language will really help them develop their ear for Spanish.
Download apps that can support your kids’ growing Spanish vocabulary. Some apps let you select the primary language.
Watch documentaries in Spanish that cover history, culture, and life in Spanish-speaking countries. If you’ve been to the places depicted in the movie or experienced the traditions, share your own stories or memories.
Explore digital storytelling tools to create memories. You can have your kids practice their Spanish by writing the titles and sharing what they’ve created. Plus, you can share them with friends or relatives who live in other states or countries.

5 ways racism is still embedded in American school curricula

(Credit: AP Photo/Julio Cortez)

Some much-needed attention has been focused in recent years on the racist practices in our schools, including the ways in which American schools suspend and expel black and Latino students at higher numbers than white students. Certainly the practice of school discipline, by ignoring culturally responsive methods of teaching and redirecting student behavior, embodies much of the racism that is still normalized, practiced and even encouraged in some school districts. But in too many cases, the curriculum itself is embedded with racist, outdated beliefs.

1. ‘Critical thinking’ exercises ask fifth-graders to practice radical empathy with the Ku Klux Klan.

The New York Times recently reported that a South Carolina teacher recently asked a class of 10-year-olds the following question on a homework assignment: “You are a member of the K.K.K. Why do you think your treatment of African Americans is justified?”

At least one student went home crying, and the teacher has since been placed on administrative leave. This comes a month after our president endorsed empathy for white supremacists in Charlottesville by claiming that “both sides” had validity.

2. The brutality of American slavery is diminished.

As recently as 2015, a textbook published by McGraw-Hill was still softening the violence of racial history by referring to black slaves as “workers.” McGraw-Hill later apologized and corrected the gaffe. A quarter of Texas students used the book before it was pulled from classrooms.

3. Colonial-era maps still used in Boston classrooms distort the importance of Europe.

The most widely used standard map in social studies and history classes in Boston is several centuries old, and actually portrays Northern Europe as much larger than it really is, while diminishing the scale of Africa. Advocates for newer maps say the old maps push a Eurocentric point of view that is steeped in colonialism.

4. Arizona forbids non-white students from learning their own history.

The Arizona state government shut down an ethnic studies course on Mexican-American history and culture in Tucson in 2011. This August, a federal judge condemned the move and said the racially motivated ban violated students’ constitutional rights.

5. Standardized tests put people of color into predictable boxes.

The offensive AP Government multiple-choice question created by a Pearson study guide underlies how multiple choice tests actually narrow students’ thinking methodology into “right” or “wrong” options. When applied to questions of race and politics, the result can only be damaging. Surely, a better lesson to teach children is that these questions are always complex and multilayered.

Perhaps our new education department will take on the challenge of producing and regulating a standard curriculum that does not disempower people of color or misrepresent or lie about American history. Oh, wait — Betsy Devos’ department has already shown it is more focused on protecting male rapists than addressing real problems in American education. So, all signs point to no.

The wonderful world of Renaissance faire kink

(Credit: Salon / Ilana Lidagoster)

You see a lot of unusual things at Tuxedo Park, New York’s annual Renaissance Faire. Couples dressed like DC Comics characters cavort with buxom wenches, white people inexplicably wear outfits typical of Japanese rice farmers, and dominants drag their submissives around on leashes.

You didn’t notice the latter? Whether you see people walking their subs around on leashes or not, people who practice kink and BDSM are almost certainly attending the Ren Faire near you.

Having gone to my first Renaissance Faire (in Tuxedo Park) last weekend, I couldn’t help but notice the ample cleavage, the obvious interest in fantasy and role-play, and the leather — so much leather. Sex had to be a part of the experience for some of the adults who attended. A hookup culture and relevant meetup groups seemed more than likely.

There were around 200 “Renaissance, Medieval, and Pirate Faires” taking place across the United States as of 2015, according to Renfaire.com’s directory, with some of the larger events, like the Pennsylvania Renaissance Faire, attracting close to 250,000 people annually. Of course, this means there’s a group for Ren Faire enthusiasts on Reddit.

“Best bet is to join fetlife.com and spend some time searching there,” said one Reddit user in response to my query about finding a BDSM community at the Faires. “It’s a good community, and I’ve seen meetups scheduled there.” Another user echoed this suggestion.

On FetLife.com, an online community for people into kink and BDSM, several forums pertain to the Renaissance Faire. There’s “Renaissance Faire Kinksters,” with 5,321 members; “The Texas Renaissance Festival Kinksters” (1,359 members); “Pa Renaissance Faire. Ye Olde and Kinky” (452 members); and “Wenches, Rogues and Rennies” (363 members), among others. The overlap between BDSM and Renaissance Faires is apparent, and it is born out of many people who just happen to enjoy both activities separately. Renaissance Faires are accepting, convenient places to come together with other kinksters to both play (after hours) and nerd out in costume.

Twisted_Janey (she asked that I use her FetLife handle) is a 24 year-old woman who’s been attending Faires since she was 18 while separately practicing BDSM. Her profile picture on FetLife depicts large breasts (presumably hers) covered in large, hicky-like marks. She only found out about kinkster groups going to her local Faire this year.

Twisted_Janey has visited the Pennsylvania Faire since she was 22, and this year was her first meeting with a group of kinksters who use “a couple of subtle garb additions that signal us out to others in the kink community.” These include “a leather patch in the shape of the FetLife heart” and “a combination of black, red and purple ribbons incorporated into the garb.” While Twisted_Janey doesn’t act out a period- or fantasy-based character at the Ren Faire, like many other dedicated attendees do, she does have a “variety of corsets and skirts” she mixes and matches to create costumes. A “pirate hat” turns her into a pirate, and a sword makes her a warrior.

The outfits don’t exactly “bleed into BDSM,” she said. “I do wear corsets to dungeons, as I consider them a form of restraint and being held. [The Renaissance Faire] is also the only other place I can think of where it’s socially acceptable to wear a corset in public, and I do very much love the feeling of having one on.”

Others are more interested in the intersection of kink and the historical aspects of the Renaissance. Ron Murphy, a 40-year-old Pennsylvania man who appears bearded and bespectacled in his FetLife pictures, majored in history in grad school. “As an historian, Ren Faires are a fun way to visit an anachronistic past,” he messaged me on FetLife.

Murphy attended his first Ren Faire when he was in his 20s. “I was hooked!” he said. “Women in seductive dresses, offering themselves to the nearest man. Of course I knew this was all drama, but the fantasy of a beautiful woman willing to be with you was very appealing.”

As a self-identified dominant, Murphy finds his passion for history and BDSM intersect in the archetypal fantasy of “the Dungeon Master in a medieval role-playing game.” He can also “be a monk tempted by a nubile forbidden fruit.” And then, of course, there are the clothes other people wear.

“The layers to undress,” Murphy explained. “It forces you to take time with the person so it becomes a conquest rather than merely a sexual experience.”

Costumes for kinksters at the fair vary. Scott, a 62-year-old man who lives in Texas and got involved in BDSM before ever attending a Renaissance Faire, dresses up as a “Scotsman” at the faire because he has Scottish heritage. “My faire persona is unrelated to my BDSM practices,” he said.

However, Scott mentioned that kinksters at the fair “will carry whips, floggers, cuffs, and paddles . . .  On occasion there will be St. Andrews crosses [an x-shaped setup with appendage-binding at every end] and pillory [better known as ‘the stocks’].”

One is more likely to find gear like that at a faire-adjacent bondage camp. Scott has visited the one by the Texarkana Renaissance Faire and speaks highly of it, though he doesn’t camp there because he has a “broader range of friends” with whom he visits the Faire.

“Activities will generally include spanking, flogging, various forms of binding, etc.,” he said. “To varying degrees there may be cutting, humiliation, possibly suspension [depending] on what equipment is there. There will almost assuredly [be] some ‘service’ activities, like a cigar lounge and boot blacking.” Campers may participate in a variety of these activities or simply act as voyeurs, a form of participation in its own right.

Joanna, a 50-year-old woman located in Houston, has been helping run the Texarkana bondage camp for eight years. (It’s been around for nine.) A self-described dom, she goes by the FetLife handle HellKittenJ, where her profile picture (as of this writing) shows a cartoon man with a tuba stuck in his ass, captioned, “‘A butt tuba’ spelled backwards is still ‘a butt tuba.’” In past profile pics, you can see that Joanna is a busty blonde with a passion for flogging and creating both small- and large-scale sculptures.

Joanna said information about the camp spreads by “word of mouth, and I have a Facebook and Fet[Life] presence.” Since campers come from all over the state, Joanna’s role also includes trying to “hook them up with kinksters from their area.” She also teaches at the camp (“whip stuff or fire flogging”) and spreads the word about events during the festival. She used to have to bring her own dungeon over in an uncovered truck, which caused some problems when it rained or there were “too many vanilla folks” around.

“I now have a group of friends who bring a dungeon from the Beaumont area, so I do not have to do that any longer,” she said. “Thank the gods! Lol.”

Though Faires welcome all kinds of nerdy subcultures, kinksters who attend make a point of respecting “vanillas.” Joanna showed me a map she drew of the bondage camp, complete with tent camping areas with the side note, “Fill in so no vanillas get close ☺.” In other words, bondage campers are encouraged to pack in as a visual buffer from the non-BDSM practicing public.

“We do not want to push our kink on vanillas,” she explained. This year, though, HellKittenJ may take a man around on a leash during the fair. “I have a bottom coming in from Atlanta, and I may have to do something like that for him.”

The emphasis on respecting others’ boundaries jibes with the overall Ren Faire environment. Deven Parker, a doctoral student in English at the University of Colorado in her twenties, has been going to Renaissance Faires since she was 11 years old. Though she’s not involved in any BDSM subculture, she definitely understands why it’s found a place at the Faire.

A self-described “big nerd,” Parker felt like she “stumbled upon this really accepting, inclusive nerd community where you could really just let your freak flag fly” after attending her first Faire. “It draws all kinds of weird nerd subcultures . . . the BDSM community usually has a strong showing there, the Goth community, steampunk . . . and even people wearing Harry Potter or Dr. Who shirts.”

Recently, Parker flew to Pennsylvania to attend the same Renaissance Faire she attended as a kid, this time for her bachelorette party. With mead flowing and entertainers like the “rakish rogues” who are essentially paid to flirt with fairgoers (especially the ones dressed up and there for a bachelorette party), Parker and her friends had a blast. In telling me about her latest Ren Faire weekend, Parker recalled a strange sight she witnessed at her very first Faire.

“I remember seeing my first time when I was 11 . . . a guy walking another guy like a dog and asking my mom, ‘What is that?’”

Her mom’s response? “Oh, that’s just the Renaissance Faire.”

The founder of “WeRateDogs” on being a professional dog-rater

(Credit: Shutterstock)

they're good dogs Brent

— WeRateDogs™ (Oct 3) (@dog_rates) September 12, 2016

Every millennial with internet access knows this legendary Twitter reply from @dog_rates, otherwise known as WeRateDogs. Over the course of two years, creator and curator Matt Nelson has built an empire out of being the internet’s go-to dog-rater. Nelson bestows impossibly high ratings — on a 1-to-10 scale, all of his ratings are higher than 10 — on user-submitted pups, along with witty, ironic captions that are cute, hilarious, and relatable all at once.

WeRateDogs started from humble beginnings — he claims the idea was hatched at an Applebee’s in 2015 — and became an instant success. Nelson, who majored in golf management in college, used his marketing skills to turn a fun, creative outlet to a six-figure business — while popularizing slang terms for canines like “pupper” and “doggo,” which have now become mainstream. With more than 3 million followers to date, WeRateDogs is a cultural force in its own right, to the extent that dog slang that Nelson popularized was employed by the official Twitter account of the CIA.

Besides being a Twitter legend, Nelson has made his mark merchandizing and, soon, publishing. “#WeRateDogs: The Most Hilarious and Adorable Pups You’ve Ever Seen” brings, as the title suggests, the cutest “smol puppers” and “floofs,” some never before seen, with h*ckin’ awesome ratings to match. Salon interviewed him about his print endeavor and how he got started as a professional dog-cuteness judge.

* * *

Do you consider yourself the pioneer behind terms like “pupper, doggo, woofer, etc.” or do you feel you just popularized that style of dog slang?

I did not pioneer any of the terms you mentioned, but I did notice that dog lovers seemed to readily accept them, so I’d be foolish not to incorporate them in my own work. Since my account was also growing rapidly while I used these terms, it’s safe to say I played a role in their popularization.

Your tweets coined a style of gratuitous censorship — like writing “h*ck” instead of “heck” — combined with clever misspellings, that seemingly imitates how a dog might talk. Why do you think this type of humor has caught on so quickly?

I actually started using “heck” uncensored the same way I used “pupper” and “doggo,” because dog lovers enjoyed it. My account was known for its innocence and purity, so why not further censor the word? I’m not sure why words like that take off, but I’m still using it today, so its effect hasn’t been lost on my audience.

The Central Intelligence Agency sent out a series of tweets  about their K-9 training program that mimicked WeRateDogs’ posting style. How does it feel to have the CIA tweet something you popularized?

The CIA using the lingo I’ve coined was . . . interesting. It was clearly an attempt to be relatable but, judging by the responses it got, I think it’s hard for anyone to think of an intelligence agency as just another meme Twitter account.

Trainer presents tin to pup who sniffs it
Trainer then erupts into squeals of delight, jumps around & tells them they are a h*ckin' good dog pic.twitter.com/ZpHcFqRpjy

— CIA (@CIA) September 13, 2017

Do you think this good-dog image is why you’ve been able to maintain your popularity?

The affirmation that “all dogs are good” via my account has been the cornerstone of my popularity since the “Brent” debacle of September 2016. I’ve been pleasantly surprised that my account has maintained its passionate following for so long. Usually these things arrive quick and die quicker. I take comfort in the fact that dogs aren’t going out of style any time soon.

Salon recently published this piece examining the data behind the recent rise of dog memes and the decline of cat memes. Do you feel partially responsible for this trend?

I’ve been asked this question a lot. I think it’s undeniable that dogs have usurped cats when it comes to internet dominance, and it’s hard to know whether my account sparked this, played a role in it, or took advantage of a trend independent of myself.

How you do you handle haters who visit your account?

I am absolutely horrible at handling haters. I still have no idea how to ignore them. I tweeted on my personal account the other day that my biggest takeaway from running WeRateDogs has been realizing how many people truly detest the success of others. You wouldn’t think an account such as mine would fall victim to these sad individuals, but it does. And it’s something I’ve yet to learn how to deal with properly.

How has your tweet style changed over the past two years since you’ve started the account?

My tweet style has changed a lot since my first dog rate. With a bigger audience I’ve had to taper my creativity down to a formula that, for the most part, will always work. The posts have gotten much less absurd and more generic in order to appeal to the greatest number of people. As you can imagine, even though every other post would go viral, I wasn’t satisfied at all. There was no risk involved. I knew the jokes would do well. That’s when I started @dog_feelings, an account that fills a content gap for WeRateDogs, but is also a fresh new creative outlet for me to pour my creativity into.

I’m sure you’ve come across a few copycat accounts who try to replicate your style. What makes you so authentically funny?

I’ve had accounts copy and paste my tweets for every post and accumulate more followers than I have until I shut them down. I’ve had accounts steal individual photos and captions and use them as a way to grow their own cancerous “parody” accounts. I’ve had major corporations tweet out and use lingo directly tied to my account without attribution or even a thought of compensation. I’ve had people successfully impersonate the owners of dogs I had posted and go through Twitter’s incredibly broken copyright system in order to shut my account down more than once. It’s been frustrating to say the least, but clearly I’ve tapped into something if so many people try to abuse it. I learned my style of internet humor through “Weird Twitter,” a place not nearly as fun as it used to be, albeit I am looking from the outside in now. Through the process of posting several horribly crafted jokes a day, learning, and rewriting until I was able to get my desired response out my very few followers at the time, I learned to write jokes in 140 characters. Without my past experience in that section of Twitter, WeRateDogs would be just a rating and a picture. Instead, I learned how valuable those characters are and how to use them effectively.

Do you have a personal twitter for not-dog related memes?

I do! It’s @matt___nelson. I’d say it’s a “behind the scenes” of WeRateDogs, but it’s also where I’m much more opinionated. It’s my creative outlet for things not appropriate for my dog accounts.

You’ve raised a lot of money for animal charities; would you ever start one of your own?

When I think about the directions WeRateDogs could go, charity work always crosses my mind. I didn’t make this account with any charitable goals in mind. I made it to make people laugh, but our influence is insane and it’s a route that we definitely can’t ignore.

What can readers expect from your new book?

Readers of #WeRateDogs can expect a combination of never-before-seen pups and the greatest hits of @dog_rates over the last year or so. They will also have their vocabulary expanded. We added a dogtionary at the end with some personally defined terms I use on the account and frequently in the book.

Now that you’ve got publishing down, what’s next?

When people ask me about my future goals with this business, it’s hard for me to answer. Every opportunity I’ve been exposed to from running this account has come to me. I didn’t go searching for a book deal (I didn’t know such a thing based on a Twitter account was even possible). We have some things in the works that we hope our audience enjoys, but I’m just as optimistic and excited about what’s next as you are.

What would you rate your book?

The book is a 13/10 — it’s wonderful. I’m grateful for such an amazing opportunity and I’m incredibly proud of it. I’d like to thank all the contributors and everyone who worked so hard on making it what it is. However, that 14/10 is still out there.

“#WeRateDogs: The Most Hilarious and Adorable Pups You’ve Ever Seen” is available Oct. 3, 2017.

Every year, millions try to navigate US courts without a lawyer

(Credit: stockelements via Shutterstock)

Judge Richard A. Posner, a legendary judicial figure, retired abruptly earlier this month to make a point: People without lawyers are mistreated in the American legal system.

In one of his final opinions as a judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, he expressed frustration at the dismissal of one self-represented litigant’s lawsuit, writing that the prisoner, Michael Davis, “needs help — needs it bad — needs a lawyer desperately.”

Unfortunately, Davis’s circumstances are far from unique. Many lower-income people have no lawyer to help them navigate the legal system, either in civil or criminal cases.

Eighty percent of state criminal defendants cannot afford to pay for a lawyer, and only those who are actually incarcerated are constitutionally entitled to appointed counsel. Many people facing misdemeanor charges can, if convicted, be subjected to significant fines and fees, or face the loss of benefits (including housing) or deportation. Yet, they have no right to an attorney, and those who cannot afford a lawyer will go without one.

Unlike in the criminal context, there’s no federal constitutional right to counsel in civil cases. Civil cases can involve a range of critical issues, including housing, public benefits, child custody and domestic violence. And while some civil litigants may be entitled to counsel in certain jurisdictions, in most of these cases, people who cannot afford a lawyer will be forced to go it alone. Doing so may mean that they fail to make it through the process, have their case dismissed or lose what otherwise would have been a winning case.

As directors of the Center for Access to Justice at Georgia State University College of Law, we agree with Judge Posner. People like Michael Davis desperately need help. Without legal assistance, their issues will likely be unresolved or, worse, wrongly resolved against them.

Unrepresented

In some states, as many as 80 to 90 percent of litigants are unrepresented, even though their opponent has a lawyer. The number of these “pro se litigants” has risen substantially in the last decade, due in part to the economic downturn and the relationship between poor economic conditions and issues like housing and domestic relations.

The Legal Services Corporation, the single largest funder of civil legal aid for low-income Americans in the nation, reported in June that 86 percent of low-income Americans receive inadequate or no professional legal help for the civil legal problems they face. Here in Georgia, state courts heard more than 800,000 cases involving self-represented litigants in 2016 alone.

In some types of cases, not having counsel can make a dramatic difference. Take the example of low-income tenants facing eviction. Across the county, roughly 90 percent of landlords are represented by counsel, while 90 percent of tenants are not. Simply having a lawyer increases the odds of being able to stay in one’s home. When tenants represent themselves in New York City, they are evicted in nearly 50 percent of cases. With a lawyer, they win 90 percent of the time.

Navigating the system

Why is having a lawyer so important? The reality is that even the most mundane legal matters can require dozens of steps and complex maneuvering.

In one study, researchers identified almost 200 discrete tasks that self-represented litigants must perform in civil cases — from finding the right court to interpreting the law, filing motions, compiling evidence and negotiating a settlement. Some of these tasks require specialized knowledge of the law and of the court system. Almost all require time away from work and caring for children. Many also require the ability to get to the courthouse, to read and to speak English or access a translator.

The Access to Justice Lab at Harvard Law School has also tracked how labyrinthine the justice system can be. Just starting a routine process — like establishing a legal guardian for a minor — can take many steps, and even these can vary in unexpected ways, given the natural variation among judges and the particulars of a specific case.

Regardless of the type of case, missing just one step could mean you have to start the process all over again or even cause the case to be dismissed, sometimes without the option to refile.

People often quip that there are far too many lawyers. Yet the reality is that, while there are a lot of lawyers in certain geographic areas and certain specialties, in many rural areas — sometimes referred to as “legal deserts” — there are actually far too few lawyers.

Our center recently published a map of Georgia’s legal deserts. In our state, there are five counties without any lawyers at all and another 59 with 10 lawyers or fewer.

To make matters worse, in many of those counties, public transportation and internet access are sparse, and a significant percentage of the population doesn’t even have access to a vehicle.

The Self-Represented Litigation Network, a nonprofit focused on reforming the system to help those representing themselves, has also used mapping tools to depict how access to the justice system can vary across the country and sometimes even within the same state.

Changing the statistics

So, what do we do about the fact that the legal system is, for many people without a lawyer, nearly impossible to navigate? We believe that it will take a variety of different approaches to solve this issue.

Some experts, like John Pollock with the National Coalition for a Civil Right to Counsel, have focused on expanding the right to counsel in civil cases implicating basic human needs. Others have advocated for expansion of the right to counsel in lower-level criminal cases where the consequences — including obstacles to housing or employment, or deportation — can still be incredibly high.

In Washington, nonlawyers can be trained and licensed to offer legal support to those unable to afford the services of an attorney.

Still others, like Self-Represented Litigation Network founder Richard Zorza, emphasize simplification of legal processes, including changing or eliminating the procedural and evidentiary rules that make the process so difficult. For example, the Tennessee Supreme Court has approved plain-language forms and instructions, written at a fifth- to eighth-grade reading level, for use in uncontested divorces between parties with minor children.

Maybe it’s a matter of increasing available self-help resources or placing the onus on the courts and requiring judges to play a more active role in solving the problem.

Which approach is best? It may depend on the case — and an effective solution will include a combination of the above. Some cases will require nothing less than full-service representation by a lawyer, while in other contexts, streamlined procedures and simpler forms may be sufficient for pro se litigants to get a fair shake.

Whatever the solution, the problem is clear: Self-represented litigants’ grievances are real and, for too many, justice is out of reach.

Lauren Sudeall Lucas, Associate Professor of Law; Faculty Director, Center for Access to Justice, Georgia State University and Darcy Meals, Assistant Director, Center for Access to Justice, Georgia State University

High school violates students’ constitutional right by banning taking a knee

Members of the Detroit Lions take a knee during the playing of the national anthem, September 24, 2017 (Credit: Getty/Rey Del Rio)

Donald Trump has made clear his opposition to the First Amendment with a series of rage tweets against NFL players who protest police brutality by taking a knee during the national anthem. It appears some high schools are now taking their cue from the president, demanding student athletes stand during “The Star-Spangled Banner” or suffer consequences ranging from losing time on the field to being kicked off sports teams.

In direct violation of students’ constitutional rights, Parkway High School in Louisiana issued a letter to student athletes and parents mandating that players stand for patriotic displays or be punished. Writer Shaun King tweeted a copy of the letter, dated September 28, to followers:

The LHSAA (Louisiana High School Athletic Association) allows school principals to make decisions regarding student participation in the National Anthem while competing in athletic contests and games. Parkway High School requires student athletes to stand in a respectful manner throughout the National Anthem during any sporting event in which their team is participating. Failure to comply will result in loss of playing time and/or participation as directed by the head coach and principal. Continued failure to comply will result in removal from the team. Parkway High School is committed to creating a positive environment for sporting events that is free of disruption to the athletic contest or game.

The letter is signed by Principal Waylon Bates. If you’re interested in sharing your thoughts on the school’s proactive censoring of its students, Bates can be reached via email or by phone at 318-759-2200.

And it has begun.

High schools are now following Trump’s order.

Will kick off any players who don’t stand during the National Anthem. pic.twitter.com/lfNWyW7z5f

— Shaun King (@ShaunKing) September 28, 2017

Apps stirring up trouble in schools

(Credit: Getty/AntonioGuillem)

How certain apps become popular with kids is a bit of a mystery. The best ones mix all the stuff tweens and teens love – gossiping, hanging out, clowning around, and meeting other kids – with an X factor that makes them go viral. Once an app gains critical mass (like, when every kid in school is on it), that’s when the real fun begins. But that’s where things can go wrong, too.

While recent app crazes were all about the new and novel, such as Snapchat’s disappearing messages and WhatsApp’s free texting, this year’s social media giants mostly serve up familiar features. And though some new offerings correct safety issues of the past – and kids are getting savvier about responsible use – social media can still stir up drama. The ones to watch out for this year include anonymous apps, live streaming, group chatting, and friending, which bring up risks associated with giving blunt “feedback,” broadcasting yourself to the internet, oversharing, and meeting strangers.

It’s tough to keep up with all the latest apps kids get into. And the truth is, you don’t have to know every single detail of how each one works. The most important thing is to keep the lines of communication open with your kid. Talk about their social media, ask questions – and listen. Pay attention to anything that sounds like a red flag and dig deeper. Helping your kid learn to use social media responsibly is the most effective way to help them stay safe online.

Check out some of the apps that can potentially stir up drama in schools.

Anonymous Apps

These apps allow kids to provide anonymous, unsolicited, and unmoderated feedback to other users. Anonymous apps are notorious hubs for cyberbullying because kids feel emboldened to say things they wouldn’t normally. New apps in this category include safety precautions, but you should still keep an ear out for potential issues.

Kiwi. This app and website lets people ask questions of friends or all users. Posts are tagged with your location (unless you turn it off), so all the kids at one school can be on the app. The combination of anonymity and proximity led to the downfall of similar apps such as YikYak.

Sarahah. An Arabic word that translates roughly to “honesty,” Sarahah lets you send anonymous comments to friends. Some teens may use it to send anonymous messages with their schoolyard crushes, but more often it’s used to transmit all the mean things teens would never say to a friend’s face.

TBH. Standing for “to be honest,” TBH lets kids answer mostly wholesome questions about friends. The app’s launch was pretty tame, but with anonymous apps’ poor track record, TBH’s planned chat function could get out of hand.

Live Streaming

As with live TV, users simply aim the camera on themselves and broadcast to whomever is following them. Since there’s no delay – and kids are often streaming from their bedrooms – there’s a real risk of giving away personal or even intimate information. This kind of oversharing can make kids vulnerable to “sextortion” because users can record the live streams. If a kid reveals too much, others can use the recordings against them.

BIGO LIVE. BIGO lets users make video blogs or live stream their activities with the object of monetizing their videos and possibly becoming the next YouTube sensation. User-generated content can include bad language, violence, and nudity.

Live.ly. Live.ly is an extension of the lip-syncing app Musical.ly – which is known for its young users dancing suggestively. The app has no screening tools, so users who watch the streams are never entirely sure what they’re going to see when they open it up. And though the terms of use clearly define what objectionable content is not allowed, it also states that the developers have no obligation to respond to reports about violators.

Live.me. Live.me has a racier feel than other live streamers. You’ll see everything from racial slurs to kids being asked to take off their clothing. The emphasis on getting followers and fame is even embedded in the title, which may propel people into doing more outrageous acts.

YouNow. A very popular gathering place for kids, this app has its own celebrities and culture. Not only can you comment and like someone’s video, but you also can buy them gold bars or other gifts, which generates money for the broadcaster.

Making New Friends

The new “friending” apps enable kids to easily connect and chat with people they don’t know. While many of them rely on Snapchat or Instagram, they make it very easy to widen your circle of contacts to strangers. Friending apps also use location, so the new “friends” are all nearby, increasing the possibility of face-to-face meetings. Privacy and safety are real risks with these apps.

MyLOL. MyLOL is an app and website advertised for “teen dating” but is really meant for users over the age of 17. Users often post provocative, half-naked pictures of themselves and engage in flirty or even sexually explicit conversation. Chat topics also can include references to drug use, alcohol, or violence. Some users post their real names, IM handles, email addresses, and phone numbers.

Spotafriend. Billing itself as a Tinder alternative, this risky location-based app lets you rate other members (and lets other members rate you) by swiping left or right. It’s marketed as a teen “friend” app for users age 13 to 19, but comes with a Mature 17+ rating in the app stores.

Yellow. Called “Tinder for teens,” Yellow works with your Snapchat or Instagram account and similarly to Tinder in that users swipe left or right on photos to find a match. Users don’t have the option to make their profile private, and your profile can be viewed by anyone in a particular radius of your real-life location.

Group Video Chatting

Group video chatting is the newfangled party line from the olden days of rotary phones. Using their webcams or phones, kids communicate with several friends at once via live video. Because there’s no screening, there’s always the possibility of kids sharing private information or encountering age-inappropriate content.

Airtime. Airtime has most of the same features as other video-chat platforms but with the added twists of letting users watch videos and listen to music from across the web together. They can also live stream themselves. Viewing age-inappropriate content is a big risk, since there are no filters. And Airtime’s ability to create private “rooms” means kids could have one-on-one video chats with strangers.

Houseparty. Unlike FaceTime or Skype, Houseparty lets you have up to eight people in a room and have several “parties” going at once. The app makes it easy for kids to connect with people they don’t know and have private conversations.

Monkey. This app randomly connects teens with other Snapchat users around the world for a 10-second video chat. As with so many social networking tools, a teen’s experience will depend a lot on other users’ behavior. Some users report abuse and requests for baring body parts, so it could be easy for some teens to get into trouble with this one.

I stole a white girl and took her to prom

(Credit: Getty/kali9)

My prom date’s parents had no idea their white daughter would spend the evening with a black man.

For starters, they didn’t know I was black. As an African-American man born with albinism, I have seen the look of awareness creep across faces when people set aside their initial assessment, based on my light skin and hair, and finally figure out that I am black. As they come to terms with this realization, their silent reactions range from harmless (“Well, I’ll be. I had no idea you even existed!”) to the irrational (“I’ve been betrayed! Why did you trick me?”). Moments like these have plagued my life.

For me, high school began with ostracism. I was teased about my very light hair and skin, lazy eye and Coke-bottle glasses. But as I matured from a terrified freshman to a more confident senior, my classmates’ attitude toward me transformed dramatically. The most important change for me was that suddenly women didn’t find me revolting.

The first thing I wanted to do with my newly acceptable level of attractiveness was ask my friend Kate to prom. Kate had dark hair, a great sense of humor, boobs and combat boots — everything that at 18 I felt was important. Although she listened to better music than I did — she liked The Replacements while I liked A-ha — Kate did think I was cool enough to hang out with intermittently. Sometimes we met for lunch in the concrete commons area separating the two buildings comprising Minneapolis North High School’s campus. We would slowly chew breaded chicken breasts while criticizing everyone else’s clothes.

Before asking Kate out, I watched her from inside the glass double doors of the southern building until I could slow down my breathing enough to feel normal. I left the safety of the doorway and asked, “Will you go to prom with me?” She paused, looked surprised, smiled and then agreed to the date.

The next day, every time I saw her she smiled or blushed. I wondered if this was what dating felt like. Then the following afternoon, Kate greeted me in the lunchroom with tears in her eyes.

“I’m sorry,” she said.

Although we were surrounded by cafeteria commotion, it felt like she and I were alone.

“My — my parents won’t let me go to prom with you,” she stammered.

“Why?” I was so confused.

“Because you’re black.” She said it like I maybe should have known.

I was genuinely surprised. My whole life people shunned me for looking different, but never for my race.

Apparently, when Kate told her parents she had been asked to prom, she pointed me out in the yearbook to her mother, who thought I was “different looking” but nice enough.

Her father, on the other hand, took one look at my photo and had questions.

“What is he?” he asked.

Kate said that I was black, that both my parents were black. Through a genetic anomaly, they produced a child like me.

The look on Kate’s face filled in the rest of the story. She turned around and left the lunchroom as quickly as she could. I was left standing alone, surrounded by everyone I knew.

That evening, I broke the news to my friends Dave and Pete. The three of us had planned to triple date to the prom. We were renting a limo together. Now, with Kate pulling out of our date, our entire evening was harpooned.

But I’d always been a fan of John Hughes’ movies, especially his romantic comedies like “Sixteen Candles.” Molly Ringwald took an incredible risk before landing her true love. So why couldn’t I come up with my own madcap scheme to win Kate’s heart?

What would happen if I sent one of my incredibly white friends to Kate’s house on prom night? Maybe I could fool her parents into thinking she was going to the dance with a safe Caucasian male.

Pete and Dave were in — I just had to pick my proxy.

Pete was my hunkiest buddy. His father was an ex-Marine, and his brother was a fireman. He came from Nordic stock. Every time a new attractive girl moved to our school district, it was inevitable that he would end up in bed with her. Was I handing Kate over to him? Pete was definitely not the guy for the job.

Dave was a tall and nerdy German kid with blonde hair and thick glasses. I would find out later that Dave got more action than anybody, but at the time he made me feel safe.

The next day I presented the idea to Kate over lunch. She was flabbergasted at the plan for Dave to be our ethnic beard, but she agreed to play along.

On the night of the dance, Dave, Pete, their dates and I all arrived outside of Kate’s house in a limo. I had picked a cumberbund and bow tie to match Kate’s blue dress, so Dave and I switched our tuxedo accessories to avoid any suspicion.

Pete and I watched from the limousine as Kate’s father greeted Dave and ushered him into their living room for pictures. It was surreal. Part of me felt so smart that I had come up with a way to trick Kate’s parents. I also felt like a creep hiding in the car while a white guy posed with my prom date.

Eventually, Kate and Dave emerged and jumped into the limo. I stayed hidden until the car door closed, and we were all safe behind privacy glass. Once Dave and I switched our accessories back, Kate and I sat next to each other, awkwardly, not touching at all.

That evening we danced, we bowled, and we held hands. By the end of the night, as the limo dropped other kids off, one by one, Kate and I had grown bold. We pulled up outside of Kate’s house. We stood on her sidewalk. If Kate’s mother had looked out of her window right then, she would have seen us. Kate and I leaned in for a kiss. We may have been too excited because we bumped teeth. We were both too embarrassed to correct our mistake, so the fumbled kiss was all we had.

Years later, when Kate was in her early twenties and sitting in the back of her parent’s station wagon on a family trip, she decided it was time to tell them that she spent prom with that black kid who didn’t really look black.

Her father kept driving but screamed “WHAT?!” in an exaggerated cartoon fashion. He wasn’t a fan.

Kate’s mother responded just the way a movie mom might. “I knew it!” she said, laughing.

Kate and I didn’t end up together, but the part of our short relationship that I kept has affected my dealings with intimacy since. Life rewarded me for taking a chance. My experience with Kate became a seminal moment. Risk became my blueprint for how relationships that were worth it began.

Most of the time, seizing the moment has led to something exceptional. When I started a conversation on Facebook with a woman I’d never met, she asked if I would meet her in New Orleans after she finished her stint rebuilding houses shortly after Hurricane Katrina. I agreed. We met for the first time at a boutique hotel on Bourbon Street and enjoyed three days of dancing, jazz, gumbo and gambling. We toured an almost empty aquarium as it was being restocked after the storm. Since the rules were relaxed, I even got to pet my first penguin.

Taking chances has sometimes lead to terrible things, too. But even though I woke up to an empty wallet and a missing phone after almost a week of hanging out with a poet from Kansas — who to this day swears she will pay me back — I still enjoyed the conversation, the affection, and joy she gave me before she robbed me blind.

The key to surviving in space without going insane? TV.

(Credit: Paramount Pictures)

No one knows for sure what a long-range space journey will be like for the people on board. Nobody in the history of our species has ever had to deal with the “Earth-out-of-view” phenomenon, for instance. How will it feel to live in close quarters with a small group, with no escape hatch? How will space travelers deal with the prospect of not seeing family or friends for years, or even ever again? How will they occupy themselves for years with nothing much to do?

Researchers do know some things from observing astronauts who’ve stayed in space stations revolving around Earth for long periods of time, people who spent a lot of time shut off from the outside world in isolated regions (such as on polar expeditions) and from experiments with simulated Mars missions.

Because astronauts would have a lot of free time to fill, some researchers have casually suggested sending along a selection of books and films or even bespoke video games. As a social scientist who studies media use and its effects on behavior, I believe television could help. Recreating the media environment from before we had permanent, continuous access to anything we want to watch or listen to might be just the thing to help space travelers cope with a loss of a sense of space and time, with loneliness, privacy issues, boredom and more.

Floating rudderless in space and time

In space, the distinction between days of the week, day and night, or morning and noon will be mostly meaningless. Before DVDs and streaming, television helped us structure our time. For some, “lunch” was when a particular game show came on. “Evening” started with the news. “Thursday” was when the next episode of our favorite drama finally arrived. Seasonal programming split the year into chunks (Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas). Annual events, such as the Super Bowl, helped us realize yet another year had passed.

A media system that recreates structured access would help define time in space, something unlimited access to a random list of movies would not. Knowing that you were watching something that millions of others were watching at the same time created a particular group feeling – think tuning in to a royal wedding or a presidential funeral. It remains to be seen how today’s fracturing of the media landscape has changed that. Interestingly, one of the earliest occasions where millions around the world shared a bond in front of their or their neighbor’s TV was the first lunar landing.

Out of reach, out of touch

One reason prisoners like to watch television is that it shows them how the world outside is evolving. If we don’t want long-range space travelers to return feeling like aliens, they will need to keep up-to-date with what’s happening back on Earth.

Television news has an “agenda setting” effect: It tells viewers not only what is going on, but also what matters to people, and public opinion about current events. Entertainment media, from reality shows to game shows to drama, display how fashion, vocabulary and even accents are evolving.

Tuning in to what’s going on back home is also a way to counteract the “Earth-out-of-view” phenomenon. The feeling of being on top of what’s happening on Earth may help keep the psychological connection to the home planet active and strong.

Heritage maintenance

Members of a crew are likely to have different cultural backgrounds. The distinctions are biggest if they come from far-flung countries or different language families.

Immigrants, for instance, use the media to integrate more quickly into their new culture. But exposure to home media is also a way to keep a connection to (and derive support from) the culture of origin. Imagine a crew consisting mainly of people from the United States, but with one member from, say, Japan. It will be equally important to facilitate integration and bonding by making media content available that everyone can consume as a group as it is to make specific content available that (in this example) may cater to a person who grew up in Japan.

Balancing solitude and community

As individuals, astronauts will crave autonomy and privacy. Media can help create “alone time.” Being immersed in a book, a movie or music (using headphones) helps lock out the environment, as every teenager knows.

At the same time, astronauts as a group will need to work on interconnection to be successful. Even though media are often blamed for dissolving social cohesion, they can also create and reinforce powerful feelings of community and group cohesion. Even in families where everyone has their own smartphone and a TV set, a lot of group viewing occurs because members enjoy being in each other’s company. Spectator sports, in particular, can create strong bonds.

Of course, it makes sense that individuals’ interests differ among groups, cultures and genders, as well as with personal preferences. A supportive media access program will need careful pretesting long before the journey starts.

Building on how we already use media

Media can do much more. People turn to media for mood management, either when they feel down or want to relax. The distraction caused by media is usually seen as negative for people trying to avoid overeating, but if food is bland and monotonous, that might be a good thing.

There are dangers, too. Media can distract from necessary tasks, affect sleep or lead to addiction-like behaviors. News from Earth or exposure to social media could induce fear and anxiety for loved ones.

There is, finally, a more mundane but perhaps also more fundamental reason to incorporate media into the daily lives of future Mars travelers. They will be drawn from a generation that grew up immersed in and surrounded by media access and content. Recreating a reasonable facsimile of that environment may go a long way toward making astronauts feel a little bit more at home out there.

Jan Van den Bulck, Professor of Media Psychology, University of Michigan

Welcome to the Romance Resistance

(Credit: Carina Press / Avon / Nicobar Press / Dirtyscribbler Press / CreateSpace)

During the 2016 election, “Love Trumps Hate” became a popular, catchy rallying cry, a slogan seen on signs held by Hillary Clinton supporters, as the organizing slogan of performances for the candidate held by Katy Perry, Jon Bon Jovi and Jennifer Lopez, and spoken during Clinton’s final campaign speech. While it may seem quaint in the wake of Donald Trump’s election and his administration’s destructive policies that seem determined to tear apart immigrant families and wreak havoc on our health care system, for romance novelists and readers, it’s more than an empty slogan — it’s a truth they’re seeing as readers flock to the genre.

Contrary to the New Republic’s July article suggesting that Trump may be ruining book sales save for nonfiction political books (Clinton’s memoir “What Happened” has proven a breakout bestseller in this genre, selling more than 300,000 copies in its first week) and topical dystopian novels like “1984,” the romance genre is thriving.

According to booksellers, industry insiders and authors, readers — 84 percent of them women, according to the nonprofit trade association Romance Writers of America — are avidly consuming romance, now more than ever.

Leah Koch, co-owner of romance bookstore The Ripped Bodice in Culver City, California, told Salon that Trump’s ascendancy has been a boon for the genre.

“Since the day after the election, not a day has gone by that a woman has not come into the store and told us she just wanted to be in a safe space for women,” said Koch. “We have not seen a significant decrease in sales. In fact we have seen more readers turning to romance than ever before, especially those who are new to the genre. Interest in politically minded heroes and heroines is on the rise and we expect to see an entire wave of books featuring characters who are fighting back and resisting in their communities. Ultimately, we feel that in this time when so many people feel downtrodden and personally attacked by this president, romance, the literature of hope and happiness, is more important then ever — and our sales back that up.”

Sarah Wendell, cofounder of the popular romance review website Smart Bitches, Trashy Books, has seen a similar level of interest.

“The number of requests for recommendations has increased dramatically for us,” revealed Wendell. “I receive more email messages daily from readers who are eagerly and sometimes despairingly seeking out new books to read, specifically asking for romance because of the hopefulness of the genre as a whole, and the reassurance that happiness exists when the immediate surroundings can be so bleak and painful. The genre has always offered an optimistic worldview that happiness is valuable and agency is important, and that message seems to be desired by more readers every day.”

She said she’s happy to recommend books to those who reach out to her.

Author Tamsen Parker has also noticed a change in both sales figures and attitudes toward romance. “Immediately after the election, sales in romance absolutely tanked, which from what I’ve read is similar to other genres,” she explained — but that didn’t last. “Particular to romance, I think a lot of readers felt like fictional happy endings were useless when they were so worried about what the election would mean for themselves, their families, and their neighbors. However, since that initial bottoming out, I’ve had some of the biggest releases I’ve had in my career, which I think in part can be attributed to becoming better known, but I’ll also credit the desire of people to escape from reality.”

“People often speak poorly about romance for being an ‘escapist’ genre,” she added. “But what is so terrible about escaping from a world that has suddenly turned upside down, where a new horror happens every day? Taking time to recharge your batteries is essential if you mean to go on fighting against injustices, and romance can provide that.”

Len Barot, president of LGBTQ publisher Bold Strokes Books, said unit romance sales have increased by over 25 percent. “We’ve also seen an increase in published titles featuring transgender characters as well as other subject matter dealing with issues ‘under fire’ in the current political climate: immigration, domestic terrorism, hate groups and climate change within the context of romance novels,” said Barot.

“In light of the regressive current political stance on LGBTQ issues, we believe Bold Strokes Books romances and the affirming view of queer sexuality, relationships, and community they provide are a crucial source of inspiration and hope for readers and a critical forum for LGBTQ authors giving voice to the lives of LGBTQ people.”

Romance novelist Farrah Rochon said that while post-election she “went through months of being paralyzed by fear and rage,” she returned to writing in part because her readers were asking for it.

“In the days just after the election, I received several Facebook messages from longtime readers who begged me to keep the stories coming because they would need the escape,” said Rochon. “Many cling to that promise of a happily ever after, knowing that no matter what hardships the characters face, they will find happiness in the end.”

Bonding over romance

Readers aren’t just consuming romance in private, but sharing their excitement and passion for these love stories in person. The Ripped Bodice regularly hosts book signings by romance writers, romantic movie screenings, and comedy nights, and other bookstores have also embraced bringing romance out from the pages and into real-life meeting spaces. In October, Brooklyn’s Greenlight Bookstore will host its first romance reading group, led by writer Ashley C. Ford, discussing “Hate to Want You” by Alisha Rai. Another Brooklyn bookstore, WORD, also hosts their own monthly romance book group, as does Durham, North Carolina’s Southwest Regional Library.

Washington, D.C.’s Politics and Prose started a romance book group in February of this year, led by Finance Associate Alexis Jason-Mathews.

“My goal is to make sure that we read broadly across the many subgenres in romance and, more importantly, that we are reading diverse authors and storylines,” said Jason-Mathews.

While the Politics and Prose group doesn’t specifically focus on politics, its effects have worked their way into modern romances nonetheless, according to Jason-Mathews.

“The trope of the alpha male is very common in romance, but readers always expect that even if the guy is awful at the beginning of the book, by the end he will have been changed by love,” she said. “In the current political climate, I think that kind of character shift feels improbable and inadequate in light of his past behavior. As a reader, I am definitely finding that I now have far less patience for alpha males who bear too strong a resemblance to certain overbearing, sexist politicians and their supporters. And from what I have heard in the book group, I am not the only one.”

Christa Desir, a romance editor and part-time bookseller at suburban Chicago bookstore Anderson’s Bookshop, said that while the genre is one of the lower selling ones at the store, its fans “are the most vocal. They will talk in depth about their favorite books and are always up for recommendations and do a lot of swapping.”

Politics and romance do mix

Authors who explicitly included politics as the setting for their romances have found that this is indeed a popular pairing. Emma Barry has been writing political-themed romances for several years, and has noticed an uptick in sales since the election.

“Readers want to believe that people with integrity work for the government and have agency to do good when they’re there,” she said.

She’s gotten a particular response to the legislative aide, Parker, in her novel “Special Interests.”

“Falling in love changes him from being cynical to pragmatic if not idealist,” said Barry. “Readers seem to appreciate that love makes him a better person and a better public servant.”

Barry isn’t just writing about politics in fiction, but also expressing her ideals on social media.

“Obviously there’s a great deal of debate about whether authors should be political on social media and whether that hurts your brand. I turned into that skid, so to speak,” she explained. “I’ve never hidden my politics, both my partisan identification and my political attitude toward the world. I’m certain that’s cost me readers, but I suspect it’s also won some for me. The reaction I’ve seen has all been positive, so people who are pissed aren’t telling me about it or were never reading me to begin with.”

Barry, Parker and six other authors released the self-published “resistance romance” anthology “Rogue Desire,” with a forthcoming sequel, “Rogue Affair,” featuring stories that all share political themes. Barry said she took inspiration directly from news headlines for her tale “Kissing and Other Forms of Sedition.”

“It was April, the president was tweeting about North Korea, and I went to bed wondering if nuclear war was going to break out overnight and if the Cabinet might invoke the Twenty-fifth Amendment,” she explained. “But when I told my version, I had the happily ever after.”

For Rochon, writing for a political character, while not a calculated move on her part, wound up working in her favor.

“In my latest release, ‘Trust Me,’ the heroine happens to be a local politician — something I feared would be off-putting to readers in this political climate — but its sales were even better than the previous book,” she said. “I think readers were ready to read about a politician they knew would turn out to be ‘one of the good ones’ in the end.”

However, not every author using political settings has been greeted warmly. Erotic romance novelist Elizabeth SaFleur come up with the title “The White House Gets a Spanking” two years ago, but released the femdom novel this month. When she posted about it on Facebook, reactions ranged from “Is this a joke?” to “This is stupid.” She considers it “either the best-timed or worst-timed release of my entire career.”

SaFleur also said that with so much dismal news coming out of Washington, some want to avoid the seat of U.S. political power entirely in their fiction.

“I had one big-name author pick up my book at a book event, read the back blurb and set it down saying, ‘I just can’t do it.’ I’m not sure that would have happened before. Authors are notoriously supportive of one another. But, given the real political climate, I believe people feel they can easily dismiss anything related to D.C. and that ‘you’ll just understand,’” she said.

Yet the longtime D.C. area resident said the city is a natural backdrop for her stories, both because she knows it so well and wants to do it justice.

“I feel compelled to write in a setting that is so often maligned, to show the people who aren’t part of government who make that town work.”

Trump’s rise to power has also affected the kinds of characters romance novelists want to laud. Historical romance novelist Sarah MacLean, who’s been using the Twitter hashtag #RomanceResists and distributing postcards at events with the phrase and a romance heroine type wearing a pussy hat, overhauled an entire novel in the wake of the election. As she wrote in the Washington Post about her hero, “This dude wasn’t just aggressively masculine. He was toxic. Indeed, I suspected he would have voted for Donald Trump. And I wanted nothing to do with him.”

She told Salon that romance has continued to sell because it “delivers something that the world can’t right now — the promise of happily ever after.”

That being said, she’s seen a turn, much like the one she made, toward a wider range of characters in romance.

“While I have trouble believing that romance readers will ever turn their backs fully on the alpha hero, I think we’re seeing him evolve,” she explained. “We’re also seeing ever-stronger heroines, and a rising tide of awesome books about characters from marginalized communities — characters of color, queer characters, disabled characters — all finding hope, happiness and love.”

Beyond the world of electoral politics, social issues have also made their way into numerous modern romance novels. This month, author Tasha L. Harrison published her romance “The Truth of Things,” which grapples with sexual harassment and police brutality.

“My writing always tends to touch on social issues or darker, heavier topics that some have said don’t belong in romance, and that may be true. But with my book and titles by Alyssa Cole and Courtney Milan, I see that changing,” Harrison said.

Desir reports coming across numerous references to politics in her reading, citing, among others, “Antisocial” by Heidi Cullinan, which “overtly discusses the devastation of the election for queer people.” She added, “Last night I was reading a Molly O’Keefe book, ‘Baby, Come Back,’ and one of the characters in the book was wearing a shirt that said ‘This Pussy Grabs Back.’ I loved it.”

Jason-Mathews has also noticed this phenomenon with the romance book group she runs.

“We recently discussed the trend among romance authors to insert subtle nods to politics into their work. ‘Nevertheless, she persisted’ has appeared in a couple books, as have other references and quotations. Some people in the group found this to be a little off-putting, as it took them out of the story and back into the real world, while others felt that if it is done well it can be really fun to catch those asides,” she said. “It feels like an inside joke between you and the author.”

Authors find catharsis in writing

Obviously authors appreciate the fact that their romances are selling well, but that doesn’t mean it’s been easy to turn to writing about love at a time when there are so many threats to their health, safety and democratic ideals. All the authors I interviewed for this story said writing romance has been challenging for them post-election but that it’s ultimately been helpful as they forge ahead, as has reading the work of their fellow novelists.

Asked what role romance has played in her life since Trump’s ascendancy, SaFleur said it’s helped counter the real-life drama taking place nearby.

“While romance has always been a big part of my life, it’s now even more so. I ‘hide’ from the news some nights, listening to a Kristen Ashley or Susan Elizabeth Philips audiobooks, hoping it will drown out the broadcast news my husband is listening to in the other room,” she said. “Unrest is President Trump’s favorite state and the media hasn’t helped calm things down. But for me to get up and write every day, I need a calm mind.”

Parker said that she’s found the romance writing community inspiring, and has motivated her to become more politically active, on and off the page.

“I’ve become more inclined to put my politics into my books,” she said. “I wasn’t terribly shy about it before, but at this point, I have completely run out of fucks to give. Which means my books have been more inclusive, and more reflective of the world in which I live. I’ve had LGBTQ, non-white, and non-Christian characters in my books since the beginning but now I’m even more committed to that, as well as boosting the voices and books of marginalized authors. Writing a happily ever after for my marginalized characters is one of my favorite parts of the job. It feels empowering in a time when I feel like my voice has little impact. I also hope that I’m giving happiness, enjoyment and satisfaction to people who sorely need it in their lives, especially when their own government seems so dead set against them.”

Rochon said that after seeing her readers’ requests for more stories, not fewer, “I realized that I’m not providing just a few hours of entertainment anymore. I’m offering hope to readers who are feeling as lost as I am. Reading romance remains my personal respite from all the political noise. I find myself gravitating toward more lighthearted and young-adult romances these days. Because, like my readers, I need that assurance of a happily ever after too. “