Boys

• Surgeon General concluded in 2012 that youth and young adults were twice as likely to smoke compared to those with less exposure.
• The report reveals the number of tobacco depictions in streaming shows popular among 15- to 24-year-olds more than doubled in 2022, exposing nearly 25 million young people.
• The rise was largely driven by Netflix's "Dahmer - Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story," which contained a third of all tobacco depictions.
• You can view it here: youtu.be/dXscOjP2oto
  The report illustrates how tobacco is both normalized and glamorized in today's top streaming entertainment.

• Ron DeSantis had his way, the word “woke” would be banished from public use and memory.
• As he promised in Iowa in December 2023 during his failed presidential campaign, “We will fight the woke in education, we will fight the woke in the corporations, we will fight the woke in the halls of Congress.
• Back then, the word was used as a warning to be aware of racial injustices in general and Southern white folks in particular.

The early days of wokeness

• Examples of its use – in various forms of the word “awake” – date back to before the Civil War in Freedom’s Journal, the nation’s first Black-owned newspaper.
• Because education and literacy were “of the highest importance,” the editors wrote, it was “surely time that we should awake from this lethargy of years” during enslavement.
• In a 1904 editorial in the Baltimore Afro-American, for instance, the editors urged Black people to “Wake up, wake up!” and demand full-citizenship rights.
• Wake up Africa!” At around the same time, blues singers were using the word to hide protest messages in the language of love songs.

A miscarriage of justice

On March 25, 1931, in Chattanooga, Tennessee, two white women, Victoria Price and Ruby Bates, falsely accused a group of
several Black young men of rape.
Based on their words, the nine Black men – ages 12 to 19 years old – were immediately arrested and in less than two weeks, all were tried, convicted, and with one exception, sentenced to death.

• All the cases were appealed and eventually reached the U.S. Supreme Court.
• In its 1932 Powell v. Alabama decision, the court overturned the verdicts in part because prosecutors excluded potential Black jurors from serving during the trial.
• But instead of freedom, the cases were retried – and each of the “Scottsboro Boys” was found guilty again.

How woke became a four-letter word

• Over the years, the memory of the Scottsboro Boys has remained a part of Black consciousness and of staying woke.
• Two years later, a documentary on the group was called “Stay Woke: The Black Lives Matter Movement.”

• When asked to define the term in June 2023, DeSantis explained: “It’s a form of cultural Marxism.
• Civic literacy requires an understanding of the social causes and consequences of human behavior – the very essence of being woke.

Ronald E. Hall does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

• Religion is likely to play a big role in voters’ choices in the 2024 presidential election – much as it did in previous years.
• Despite an overall shift away from participation in organized religion in the U.S. populace, religious rhetoric in the political arena has intensified.
• In the 2016 race, evangelical voters contributed, in part, to Republican nominee Donald Trump’s victory.
• Historical evidence can help identify trends that will likely influence the mix of religion and politics in the year ahead.

1. End-times rhetoric

• End-times rhetoric has long played a prominent role in American politics.
• Ever since Puritan John Winthrop first called America a “city on the hill” – meaning a shining example for the world to follow – the threat of losing that divinely appointed status has consistently been employed by presidential candidates.
• John F. Kennedy employed that exact image of the “city on the hill” in a 1961 speech on the cusp of his inauguration, claiming that – with “God’s help” – valor, integrity, dedication and wisdom would define his administration.

• By March 2023, at the annual gathering of the Conservative Political Action Conference, he predicted that “if they [Democrats] win, we no longer have a country.” Biden has likewise drawn on the image of final battles.
• In a speech at Philadelphia’s Independence Hall on Sept. 1, 2022, he said that he and his supporters are in “a battle for the soul of this nation.”

2. Divine mandate

• Since the establishment of the republic, many U.S. political leaders have claimed a divine mandate.
• Scholars have long documented how those in power employ claims of divine authority to legitimize their role in a host of different countries.
• Recently, some U.S. politicians and public commentators have shifted to claiming divine authority for anti-democratic actions.
• Regardless of the outcome of the 2024 election, the switch from historical claims of divine authority for democracy to divine authority to challenge democracy is already obvious and apparent.

3. White supremacy and Christian nationalism

• Likewise, the unapologetically white supremacist “alt-right movement” that coalesced in 2010 around the philosophies of biological racism and the belief in the superiority of white peoples around the world have likewise mixed overt white supremacy with religious doctrines.
• This close connection between religious claims and white supremacy among overtly racist organizations has shown up in mainline political arenas as well.
• Evangelical leaders have consistently failed to condemn or disassociate themselves from leaders with overt white supremacy connections.
• In spring of 2023, 26 members of the House Oversight and Accountability Committee refused to sign a letter denouncing white supremacy.

Tobin Miller Shearer does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

• World-famous, award-winning singer, songwriter, and actress Janet Jackson performed a full-length show before a sold-out crowd packed with ecstatic fans for AIDS Healthcare Foundation ’s (AHF) World AIDS Day Concert at NRG Arena in Houston, Texas Friday night.
• View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20231202844024/en/
  AHF President/Co-Founder Michael Weinstein (right) joins Janet Jackson, Debbie Allen and AHF 2023 Lifetime Achievement Award winner Blair Underwood on the red carpet at the World AIDS Day concert event presented by AHF featuring Janet at the NRG Arena in Houston, Texas on Friday, December 1, 2023.
• “AHF holds this annual World AIDS Day event to draw attention to the cause because it’s not over.
• Past performers at AHF’s World AIDS Day include Jennifer Hudson, Christina Aguilera, Patti LaBelle, Gladys Knight, Diana Ross, and Mariah Carey.