Donathan Brown joined several panel discussions on a recent episode of the Emmy Award-winning television program “Fresh Outlook” to discuss major events shaping the United States.
The associate professor in the Department of Communication Studies spoke on the contentious political landscape following the death of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, and a new report from the Southern Poverty Law Center that shows active hate groups are on the rise in America.
“You see the line over-and-over again that we’ve never confirmed a justice in 80 years during an election year. It’s misleading,” Brown said during the first segment. “One of the key points is that rarely have you seen a Supreme Court justice vacate the bench during an election year. So you think about that and some of the politics surrounding everything today, this is really a referendum against the president.”
While discussing the increase of hate speech in national dialogue and the rise of hate groups, Brown said: “Look at our laws to see what continues to happens with immigration reform – or the lack thereof – or states taking it into their own hands; as well as voter identification laws, amongst other things. If you look at the survey data on public opinion, as well as public policy, this doesn’t surprise me at all.”
Brown’s research is focused on the intersection of race, rhetoric and public policy, particularly pertaining to African Americans and Latinos, and includes issues of race and the Supreme Court, presidential and political rhetoric, and legal rhetoric.
“Fresh Outlook” airs live at 2 p.m. on Saturdays on the Ebru TV channel. It won an Emmy Award from the Mid-Atlantic Chapter of the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences in 2014.