[{"id":73,"date":"2021-03-06T10:29:53","date_gmt":"2021-03-06T10:29:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/ad2380a\/?page_id=73"},"modified":"2021-03-07T20:10:34","modified_gmt":"2021-03-07T20:10:34","slug":"federal-ev-tax-credit-paper-presentation","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/ad2380a\/federal-ev-tax-credit-paper-presentation\/","title":{"rendered":"Federal EV Tax Credit Project"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t<div data-elementor-type=\"wp-page\" data-elementor-id=\"73\" class=\"elementor elementor-73\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<section class=\"elementor-section elementor-top-section elementor-element elementor-element-473e55ad elementor-section-boxed elementor-section-height-default elementor-section-height-default\" data-id=\"473e55ad\" data-element_type=\"section\" data-e-type=\"section\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-container elementor-column-gap-default\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-column elementor-col-100 elementor-top-column elementor-element elementor-element-588dc744\" data-id=\"588dc744\" data-element_type=\"column\" data-e-type=\"column\">\n\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-wrap elementor-element-populated\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-2febeff9 elementor-widget elementor-widget-text-editor\" data-id=\"2febeff9\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-e-type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"text-editor.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p><a href=\"https:\/\/documentcloud.adobe.com\/link\/review?uri=urn:aaid:scds:US:485eb95e-6479-49bf-9fa4-33cb2ea0d3ba\">Federal EV Tax Credit Paper PDF<\/a><\/p><hr \/><p><span style=\"color: #000000\">Project Description<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"color: #000000\">In the fall of 2019 during my Sophomore year of college, I took a class called Political Power and American Public Policy. In this course, I received an introduction to the varying political powers across the United States and how these political powers in turn affect public policy. The course focused on questions such as, h<span style=\"font-weight: 400\">ow and why does the government determine policy problems and solutions? How is the American policymaking process related to politics, and thus to power? What level or branch of government assumes responsibility for defining and solving certain problems? Why are some issues on the policy agenda and others not? Who is involved in the policymaking process, and which interests and voices dominate? What are some challenges of public policy implementation? How should policy outcomes be evaluated, and policy alternatives be formulated and enacted? At the end of the semester, the class had to complete a final project with a ten presentation explaining the topic you did, background information on the topic, and what policies you would propose to improve this issue in the United States. As a person who loves cars, I did my project on the federal electric vehicle tax credit and proposed some new policy on how automakers can sell more electric vehicles in the United States. This project was the inspiration for my applied qualitative methods paper that I completed in the Spring Semester. Overall, this project shows that when I am interested in a topic, I want to do a lot of analysis and research to learn more about it so I can become more informed in the future. Additionally, this project displays my presentation-making skills and shows my dedication to learning more about public policy regarding electric vehicles.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p><hr \/><p><span style=\"color: #000000\"><b>The Federal Electric Vehicle Tax Credit: Is it on the Brink of Extinction?<\/b><\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;color: #000000\">Throughout the 2010s, the electric car industry has burst into the automotive scene born anew. Although electric vehicles have been around for nearly two hundred years, the world now has the proper motives and technology to start supporting a growing electric vehicle market. To help grow this new market the United States government has implemented electric car tax credits and incentives to appeal to more potential buyers (Electric car tax credits &amp; incentives for 2019, 2019). This incentive applies to both all-electric vehicles and plug-in hybrids as a buyer can receive a tax credit worth up to $7,500 as long as the vehicle meets all of the criteria created by the government (Electric car tax credits &amp; incentives for 2019, 2019).\u00a0<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;color: #000000\">However, since the Environmental Protection Agencies funding has decreased and electric vehicles have become more affordable, electric cars sold after December 31, 2019, will no longer be eligible for tax credits on a federal level (State and Federal Electric Vehicle Incentives, 2019). Although there are still tax incentive\/rebate programs on a state level, the phase-out of tax credits on a federal level could be detrimental to the growth of the electric vehicle market and cause major setbacks for electric vehicle automakers such as Tesla.<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"color: #000000\"><b>History<\/b><\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;color: #000000\">Since the birth of the automotive industry back in the nineteenth century, people in the United States and across the world have been interested in electric vehicles. This market was born back in 1828 when the horse and buggy were the most popular form of transportation (U.S Department of Energy, 2019). As the industry started to grow, there were three main energy sources that cars used to create power: steam, petroleum, and electricity. In fact, in the early twentieth century, electric vehicles accounted for one-third of all cars on the road in the United States (U.S Department of Energy, 2019).<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;color: #000000\">\u00a0However, after Henry Ford created and started mass producing the Model T, electric car popularity decreased as this car was cheaper to buy and easier to fuel. Other automakers followed suit and by the early 1970s gas-powered vehicles ruled the road with no competition. At the time, gas was cheap and people did not realize the impact petroleum-powered cars and trucks were having on the environment. After new government regulations were implemented on automotive safety and environmental friendliness from the clean air act of 1970, automakers started to explore electric-powered vehicles further than ever before (U.S Department of Energy, 2019).<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;color: #000000\">The first modern fully electric vehicle that was mass-produced and revitalized the electric vehicle industry was the EV1 built by General Motors in 1996 (U.S Department of Energy, 2019). This car revolutionized the automotive market and helped form a new segment in the automotive industry dedicated to electric vehicles. Throughout the twenty-first century, electric vehicles have been gaining popularity fast in the United States, after the car company Tesla entered the market back in 2003 (Walsh, 2019). Tesla is crucial because they only produce electric-powered vehicles to date, they have been the only successful automotive company to not be bought out since World War II (Walsh, 2019). Although Tesla has hit some road bumps in its young history, the company has created a new chapter in automotive history combining both renewable energy and a practical vehicle that can be used daily. As EPA regulations become more stringent, and people want to live greener lifestyles, Tesla has been a role model for the cars of the future. They have done this by creating vehicles that have less of a carbon footprint yet do not compromise in other facets of what people desire in an automobile causing other automakers to start competing in the electric vehicle market like we have never seen before.<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;color: #000000\">Technology-wise, the electric vehicle market is causing ripple effects within the car industry. Tesla is at the forefront of this change, they\u2019ve collaborated with the DOE and have been able to establish nationwide charging infrastructure for electric vehicles across the country making it just as easy to fuel a car at the gas station (Electric car tax credits &amp; incentives for 2019, 2019). Battery technology has also improved as high-end models of electric vehicles now have a range of two hundred and fifty miles or more. At a direct current fast charger (480 V), people can have their vehicles eighty percent charged in thirty minutes (Cattaneo, 2018). Additionally, electric automobiles are easier to maintain as they do not require as much service as a normal gas-powered vehicle (no oil changes or engine maintenance) and buyers will save over $1,000 a year since they will not have to fuel up their vehicles at the gas station. With fuel prices rising, this number could increase in the coming future (Cho, 2018).<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;color: #000000\">Electric vehicles have gained unparalleled popularity after the federal government implemented a tax incentive program in 2008 which encouraged people to buy these new vehicles despite being more expensive than their gas counterparts (Gorzelany, 2019). As of 2018, Tesla and General Motors have sold over 200,000 vehicles that are eligible for the federal tax rebate (Gorzelany, 2019). In the United States alone, there is projected to be over half a million electric vehicle sales as of 2020 (Muthalan, Natesh M., et al., 2018). Without the federal tax rebate, the sales projections of electric vehicles will slow significantly and people will not feel as inclined to buy these cars since there is no benefit for them. Additionally, if sales of EVs decline at a fast enough rate, automakers will start to sell less environmentally-friendly vehicles to their consumers causing the environment to deteriorate at a faster rate than it already is.\u00a0<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"color: #000000\"><b>Policy Proposal\u00a0<\/b><\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;color: #000000\">Currently, transportation methods in the United States\u2019 are the largest contributor to the greenhouse gas emissions problems with a large portion of this issue coming from gas-powered vehicles (Cattaneo, 2018). Despite this though, the market for electric power vehicles in the United States is considerably smaller than other foreign markets which are projected to have sales of over twenty million electric vehicles by 2025 showing that the United States is not too concerned about lowering its carbon footprint in the future as of right now (Muthalan, Natesh M., et al., 2018).\u00a0<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;color: #000000\">Yet, the current administration and President Trump have vowed to eliminate electric vehicle tax credits as he tweeted, \u201cVery disappointed with General Motors and their CEO, Mary Barra, for closing plants in Ohio, Michigan, and Maryland. Nothing being closed in Mexico &amp; China. The U.S. saved General Motors, and this is the THANKS we get! We are now looking at cutting all @GM subsidies, including\u2026.for electric cars. General Motors made a big China bet years ago when they built plants there (and in Mexico) \u2013 don\u2019t think that bet is going to pay off. I am here to protect America\u2019s Workers! (Gorelany, 2018).\u201d In the republican parties eyes, they see the electric vehicle tax credit taking away jobs from automotive plant workers within the United States and view other countries as a threat to this industry. As a result, they want to cut all tax incentives for all-electric vehicles and plug-in hybrids purchased by consumers which would ultimately kill this growing industry in this country and never give automakers a chance to develop jobs in this newer field of vehicle technology.<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;color: #000000\">Instead of eliminating the tax incentive for buying electric cars after a manufacturer sells 200,000 vehicles or because the United States government does not like how automakers are cutting jobs, the federal government should keep this program in effect until this country has electric vehicle sales compared to its foreign counterparts and the infrastructure for electric automobiles is developed at a higher level. If this country&#8217;s government is so keen on making America great again, why should we not try to rival other countries in producing and selling electric vehicles? Right now, the United States is viewed as being far behind the curve for vehicle innovation and as the market for electric vehicles increases and automotive technologies become more advanced jobs will be created but if we end the tax incentive program now, electric vehicles sales will significantly drop and the market would stall which could destroy the whole electric car\/plug-in hybrid industry automakers have created in the United States.<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"color: #000000\"><b>Current Trends<\/b><\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;color: #000000\">Back in 2010 when the federal government tax incentive program was first put into effect, a vehicle had to meet certain standards to be eligible for a tax credit. These requirements included a purchase date after December 31, 2009. The vehicle had to use 1.) a traction battery (the most common form of battery used in almost all electric-vehicles), 2.) the battery had to be able to hold at least four kilowatt-hours on one charge, 3.) the car had to use an external plug-in source to recharge, 4.) the car had to have a weight rating of up to 14,000 pounds (to meet safety regulations), and 5.) the automobile had to meet emission standards (Electric car tax credits &amp; incentives for 2019, 2019). In addition to all of these requirements controlled by the federal government, a \u201cphase out\u201d element was included which is dependent on the manufacturer of the vehicle being sold (Electric car tax credits &amp; incentives for 2019, 2019). The \u201cphase out\u201d goes into effect after the second calendar quarter after a manufacturer has sold 200,000 eligible electric vehicles (Electric car tax credits &amp; incentives for 2019, 2019). Since Tesla and General Motors have already passed this threshold, their electric vehicles\/plug-in hybrids will no longer be credit eligible starting in 2020.\u00a0<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;color: #000000\">As of today, state politics have become more of an integral part of developing electric vehicle interests and infrastructure. Currently, California has done the most concerning electric vehicle sales by implementing a Zero Emission Vehicle program where the state requires automakers to sell a certain percentage of electric vehicles (Bellan, 2018). They have also implemented a rebate program to counteract the effects of the federal tax credit being phased out (Electric car tax credits &amp; incentives for 2019, 2019). Other states and cities have followed suit. Atlanta, it is now required that all new residential homes and public parking facilities need to be able to accommodate electric vehicles and at least twenty percent of parking spaces have to be plug-in ready (Bellan, 2019). However, the fact of the matter is that electric vehicles are only holding an overall market share of just over one percent in 2017 and although that number is rising, the market growth has been inconsistent (Cattaneo, 2018). Without the federal tax credit, the number of electric vehicle sales will decrease across the country. The state of Georgia has already shown this trend as \u201cEV registration peaked in 2014 at 10,540 units\u2026 [however] they [have] dropped to 6,846 in 2015 and just 2,549 in 2016 (Blanco).\u201d<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"color: #000000\"><b>Policy Debate\u00a0<\/b><\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"color: #000000\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">After Congress passed the <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Energy Improvement and Extension Act<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> bill in 2008 making tax credits available for electric vehicles\/plug-in hybrids (Section <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">30d<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">)<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">, studies have shown that more than thirty percent of electric car sales in the United States can be attributed to the federal tax credit and even impacting nearly half of the Nissan Leafs sales since it began hitting showroom floors (Cattaneo, 2018). Additionally, this bill included larger tax breaks for fleet acquisitions of electric\/plug-in vehicles and offered manufacturing incentives. The executive branch has also taken part in this bill providing funding for research and development of electric vehicle technology (Cattaneo, 2018). This includes helping reduce the cost of batteries and helping build charging infrastructure across the United States. Improving battery technology has been one of the largest fronts in attracting people to buy electric cars second to the federal government tax credit since battery prices have fallen over seventy-five percent since 2016. As a result, electric vehicles are no longer as expensive as mid to high-end luxury vehicles and can be bought by the majority of America as of 2019 (Cho, 2018). This part of the tax incentive has been praised and has not been challenged since research shows that the tax credit is helping sell and improve electric vehicle technology. The debate revolves around the \u201cphase out\u201d manufacturer-base cap and whether it will be effective or not.<\/span><\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"color: #000000\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">There have been many people critical of the \u201cphase out\u201d cap put in place by the federal government. Critics have stated their concerns stating \u201c<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">that this cap hamstrings the market and that the credits would be more effective if they had an expiration date instead (Cattaneo, 2018).\u201d People have also taken issue with the federal government not indexing the tax credit to take into account inflation. The tax credit was created in 2008 and the incentives have remained the same. As of today, the tax credits are worth less than they were over ten years ago, and since federal tax credits are decreasing as more electric automobiles are being sold across the country (Cattaneo, 2018). There is little to no federal incentive for consumers to buy these vehicles anymore since fueling and regular maintenance of a gas-powered vehicle may be cheaper than paying the premium for an electric vehicle where the technology is not on par with a combustion engine just yet.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;color: #000000\">Another major issue concerning this policy is that the United States is not being aggressive enough to convince consumers to buy electric vehicles compared to their foreign counterparts. In Norway, for example, their parliament has removed purchase and import taxes from electric vehicle purchases, financed fast-charging stations every thirty-one miles on the main roads of Norway which were completed in 2018. This policy even reduces ferry rates for electric cars across the country. Additionally, Norway has also reduced taxes for electric vehicle registration, company cars, purchasing\/leasing, and licensing fees. Electric vehicles also have access to free toll roads, get bus lane access, and municipal parking privileges (Cattaneo, 2018). These policies have made electric vehicles less expensive to own than gas-powered vehicles in Norway since people get all of the benefits of a gas-powered vehicle and have helped electric cars to become self-sustaining. This has helped the Norwegian Parliament phase-out tax incentives. China has also been cited as another country doing more than the United States in its promotion of electric vehicles as the Chinese government handed out more than $8.4 billion in electric vehicle incentives alone while the United States has only spent $2 billion between 2010 and 2019 in tax incentives (Cattaneo, 2018).<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"color: #000000\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The last major part of this debate revolves around a lot of Americans possibly losing their jobs with the increase in sales and production of electric vehicles in the coming future. According to the United Auto Workers labor union who conducted a study titled \u201cTaking the High Road: Strategies for a Fair EV Future\u201d the study found that if electric vehicle production increases, more workers will be displaced, shifting contracts and employment to non-auto companies to build components of electric vehicles elsewhere. According to <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Sam Abuelsamid, the principal analyst at Navigant Research who focuses on mobility: &#8220;A lot of the individual small components that go into vehicles today, especially in engines, is going to go away.&#8221; putting thousands of people out of jobs (Thibodeau, 2019). Automakers like Tesla have already moved in this direction as manufacturing robots complete most of the assembly of the vehicles being sold. Since there are fewer components that need to be built, there is less need for people to assemble cars like we have since the automotive industry began to take shape.<\/span><\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"color: #000000\"><b>Suggested Policy Solutions<\/b><\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;color: #000000\">Currently, this is the perfect opportunity for the United States federal government to pass a new bill concerning incentives and infrastructure changes related to electric vehicles. Since the \u201cphase out\u201d manufacturer-base cap is starting to take effect, the Environmental Protection Agency has been relaxing regulations, the US government and its people first need to have a reality check, is this country truly wants to fix the pollution problem we are causing through our transportation methods.\u00a0 If this answer is a resounding yes, then the United States government should first look at the policies that other countries across the world have implemented such as Norway, and start following their lead because as of 2015, the United States has produced the second-highest amount of total CO2 emissions at five billion tons of carbon dioxide and the second-highest amount of CO2 emissions per capita at 15.53 tons (\u201cCO2 Emissions by Country 2019\u201d). Additionally, the United States accounts for 16% of the world\u2019s carbon emissions in 2019 (\u201cEach Countries Share of CO2 Emissions\u201d).\u00a0<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"color: #000000\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The United States needs to be implementing alternative incentives for people to buy electric vehicles such as 1.) remove high purchase and import taxes, 2.) reduce taxes for vehicle registration, 3.) provide free toll when driving on the highway, 4.) financed fast charger stations every fifty miles, etc. (<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Cattaneo, 2018). This is because <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">although there are a lot of benefits to tax credit incentives, they cannot last forever as a potential financial crisis could cause the program to go under (Cho, 2018). <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u00a0The United States should also raise the gas guzzler tax to deter people from buying combustion engine-powered vehicles with bad gas mileage. Additionally, in this policy solution, there would need to be a stipulation mandating automakers to produce a certain amount of jobs to support electric vehicle production and growth. If these policy changes were put into place, I believe that electric vehicles could have a bright future here in the United States as people would be more convinced to invest their money in electric vehicles as the technology gets better and the vehicles become greener.<\/span><\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"color: #000000\"><b>The Future of the Issue<\/b><\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;color: #000000\">Unfortunately, the future of the federal electric vehicle\/plug-in hybrid tax credit is far less clear than the suggested policy solution would seem to indicate. According to Kristin Dziczek, the Vice President of the Center for Automotive Research, \u201cincentives are pulling away and overall U.S. fuel economy and greenhouse gas standards appear to be relaxing.\u201d Tariffs are increasing, and this government administration does not care about the environmental impacts transportation is having in the United States (Bellan, 2018). The idea of jobs being cut in the automotive world scares a lot of people about the rise of electric vehicles here in the United States (Thibodeau, 2019). Gas-powered vehicles have been the focal point of the automotive industry for nearly a century. Why should we change our ways now? Although there have been many examples of electric vehicles being successful in foreign automotive markets, the automotive industry in America is conservative as people would rather drive their gas-guzzling trucks and high-end sports cars over trying to change the way we see transportation as we know it.\u00a0<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;color: #000000\">In the upcoming 2020 presidential election, it will be interesting to see if any candidate brings up a plan to address gas-powered transportation policy. Will any candidate has a plan to support electric vehicle incentives that will convince consumers to buy greener lower footprint vehicles? If the next administration focuses more on the impact gas-powered cars are having on the environment and tries to find ways to convince people to buy vehicles with less of a carbon footprint, then policy changes will move forward and electric cars will become more popular in the United States as they have in other countries.<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"color: #000000\"><b>Conclusion<\/b><\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;color: #000000\">The question of whether or not to change the federal tax credit for buying electric\/plug-in hybrid vehicles has pitted scholars and politicians against one another. Both sides of the debate hold passionate opinions and believe their solution is best for the future of transportation of American citizens. The issue of receiving tax credits for buying electric\/plug-in hybrid vehicles takes on a dire need because it deals directly with the future of the world and the impact we are having on the environment in the United States. Particularly in a time where other foreign nations are making more aggressive strides toward a greener economy, the United States should have a responsibility as one of the world\u2019s leaders to take charge of improving its policy regarding electric vehicles. The US needs to show that Americans can be compensated for helping make the world a cleaner place. Changing the policy altogether seems like the most direct way to target this issue. However, the complexities of tax credits and altering road laws\/regulations make it far more difficult than one might think. Though it will not likely change within the next few years, debates about receiving tax credits for buying electric\/plug-in hybrid vehicles will continue in the United States as long as climate change becomes more of an issue in the future. Unfortunately, that would seem to indicate that the incentives for buying greener electric vehicles will continue to be a topic within our national political discourse for decades to come.<\/span><\/p><p style=\"text-align: center\"><strong><span style=\"color: #000000\">Work Cited<\/span><\/strong><\/p><p><span style=\"color: #000000\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Bellan, Rebecca. \u201cThe Grim States of Electric Vehicle Adoption in the U.S.\u201d <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">CITYLAB, <\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">October\u00a0<\/span><\/span><span style=\"color: #000000\">15,\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 2018, <\/span><a style=\"background-color: #ffffff\" href=\"https:\/\/www.citylab.com\/transportation\/2018\/10\/where-americas-charge-towards-electric-vehicles-stands-today\/572857\/\">https:\/\/www.citylab.com\/transportation\/2018\/10\/where-americas-charge- towards &#8211;\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 electric-vehicles-stands-today\/572857\/<\/a><a style=\"background-color: #ffffff\" href=\"https:\/\/www.altenergymag.com\/article\/2019\/03\/the-impact-of-electric-cars-on-the-automotive-industry\/30627\">https:\/\/www.altenergymag.com \/article\/2019\/03\/the &#8211;\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0impact-of-electric-cars-on-the-automotive-industry\/30627<\/a><\/p><p><span style=\"color: #000000\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Blanco, Sebastian (2017, November 20). \u201cHow Critical is the EV Tax Credit?\u201d <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Automotive\u00a0<\/span><\/i><\/span><span style=\"color: #000000\"><i>News,\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0<\/i>November 20, 2017, <\/span><a style=\"background-color: #ffffff\" href=\"http:\/\/www.autonews.com\/article\/20171120\/OEM11\/171129965\/how-critical-is-ev-tax-credit\">http:\/\/www.autonews.com\/article\/20171120\/OEM11<\/a><a style=\"background-color: #ffffff\" href=\"http:\/\/www.autonews.com\/article\/20171120\/OEM11\/171129965\/how-critical-is-ev-tax-credit\">\/171129965\/how-\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 critical-is-ev-tax-credit<\/a><\/p><p><span style=\"color: #000000\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Cattaneo, Lia.\u00a0 \u201cPlug-In Electric Vehicle Policy.\u201d <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Center for American Progress<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">, June 7,\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a02018,\u00a0<\/span><\/span><a style=\"background-color: #ffffff\" href=\"https:\/\/www.americanprogress.org\/issues\/green\/reports\/2018\/06\/07\/451722\/plug-electric-vehicle-policy\/\">https:\/\/www.americanprogress.org\/issues\/green\/reports\/2018\/06\/07\/451722\/plug-\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0electric-vehicle-policy\/<\/a><\/p><p><span style=\"color: #000000\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Cho, Renee. \u201cWill Electric Cars Take Over the World?\u201d <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Columbia University, <\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">April 23, 2018,\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/span><a style=\"background-color: #ffffff\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.ei.columbia.edu\/2018\/04\/23\/will-electric-vehicles-take-world-just-green-really\/\">https:\/\/blogs.ei.columbia.edu\/2018\/04\/23\/will-electric-vehicles-take-world-just-green-really\/<\/a><\/p><p><span style=\"color: #000000\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u201cCO2 Emissions by Country 2019.\u201d <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">World Population Review<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">, November 5, 2019,\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 <\/span><\/span><a style=\"background-color: #ffffff\" href=\"http:\/\/worldpopulationreview.com\/countries\/co2-emissions-by-country\/\">http:\/\/worldpopulationreview.com\/countries\/co2-emissions-by-country\/<\/a><\/p><p><span style=\"color: #000000\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u201cEach Countries Share of CO2 Emissions.\u201d <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Union of Concerned Scientist<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">, October 10, 2019,\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/span><a style=\"background-color: #ffffff\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ucsusa.org\/resources\/each-countrys-share-co2-emissions\">https:\/\/www.ucsusa.org\/resources\/each-countrys-share-co2-emissions<\/a><\/p><p><span style=\"color: #000000\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u201cElectric Car Tax Credits &amp; Incentives for 2019.\u201d <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">EnergySage,<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> September 8, 2019,\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/span><a style=\"background-color: #ffffff\" href=\"https:\/\/www.energysage.com\/electric-vehicles\/costs-and-benefits-evs\/ev-tax-credits\/\">https:\/\/www.energysage.com\/electric-vehicles\/costs-and-benefits-evs\/ev-tax-credits\/<\/a><\/p><p><span style=\"color: #000000\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Goldman, Josh. <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u00a0<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u201c<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Hey Congress! Here\u2019s Why You Can\u2019t Scrap The Electric Vehicle Tax Credit.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/span><span style=\"color: #000000\"><i>Union\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0of Concerned Scientist<\/i>, November 17,\u00a0 2017<i>, <\/i><\/span><a style=\"background-color: #ffffff\" href=\"http:\/\/blog.ucsusa.org\/josh-goldman\/hey-congress-heres-why-you-cant-scrap-the-electric-vehicle-tax-credit\">http:\/\/blog.ucsusa.org\/josh-goldman<\/a><a style=\"background-color: #ffffff\" href=\"http:\/\/blog.ucsusa.org\/josh-goldman\/hey-congress-heres-why-you-cant-scrap-the-electric-vehicle-tax-credit\">\/hey-\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0congress-heres-why-you-cant-scrap-the-electric-vehicle-tax-credit<\/a><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;color: #000000\">Gorzelany, Jim. \u201cFederal Tax Credits Are Already Being Phased Out For Some Models, With\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"color: #000000\">EV\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 Incentives in a State of Flux Nationwide.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"color: #000000\"><i>MyEV<\/i>, March 7, 2019,\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0<\/span><a style=\"background-color: #ffffff\" href=\"https:\/\/www.myev.com\/research\/interesting-finds\/electric-vehicle-incentives-update\">https:\/\/www.myev.com\/research\/interesting-finds\/electric-vehicle -incentives-update<\/a><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;color: #000000\">Gorzelany, Jim. \u201cHere\u2019s Which Automakers Will Suffer If Trump Ends Electric Car Tax\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"color: #000000\">Credits.\u201d\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0<i>Forbes<\/i><\/span><span style=\"color: #000000\">, December 10, 2018,<\/span> <a style=\"background-color: #ffffff\" href=\"https:\/\/www.forbes.com\/sites\/jimgorzelany\/2018\/12\/10\/heres-which-automakers-will-suffer-if-trump-ends-electric-car-tax-credits\/#299da3559068\">https:\/\/www.forbes.com\/sites\/jimgorzelany\/2018\/12\/10\/.\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 heres-which-automakers-will-suffer-if-trump-ends-electric-car-tax-credits\/#299da3559068<\/a><\/p><p><span style=\"color: #000000\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Jurvetson, Steve. \u201cCase Study: How Tesla Changed the Auto Industry.\u201d <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">SUPPLYCHAIN<\/span><\/i><i>DIVE<\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">,\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/span><span style=\"color: #000000\">February 20, 2018,<\/span>\u00a0 <a style=\"background-color: #ffffff\" href=\"https:\/\/www.supplychaindive.com\/news\/case-study-how-tesla-changed-the-auto-industry\/517251\/\">https:\/\/www.supplychaindive.com\/news\/case-study-how-tesla-<\/a>\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0<a style=\"background-color: #ffffff\" href=\"https:\/\/www.supplychaindive.com\/news\/case-study-how-tesla-changed-the-auto-industry\/517251\/\">changed-the-auto-industry\/517251\/<\/a><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;color: #000000\">Muthalan, Natesh M., et al. \u201cElectric Vehicle\u2014Disruptor of the Automotive Ecosystem.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"color: #000000\"><i>INFOSYS,\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0<\/i>2018, <\/span><a style=\"background-color: #ffffff\" href=\"https:\/\/www.infosys.com\/industries\/automotive\/white-papers\/Documents\/disruptor-automotive-ecosystem.pdf\">https:\/\/www.infosys.com\/industries\/automotive\/white-papers\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\/Documents\/disruptor-automotive-ecosystem.pdf<\/a><\/p><p><span style=\"color: #000000\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u201cState and Federal Electric Vehicle Incentives.\u201d <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Center for Sustainable Energy, <\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">2019,\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0<\/span><\/span><a style=\"background-color: #ffffff\" href=\"https:\/\/cleanvehiclerebate.org\/eng\/ev\/incentives\/state-and-federal\">https:\/\/cleanvehiclerebate.org\/eng\/ev\/incentives\/state-and-federal<\/a><\/p><p><span style=\"color: #000000\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Thibodeau, Ian. \u201cShift to Electric Vehicles Will Radically Change Auto Factories.\u201d <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The Detroit\u00a0<\/span><\/i><\/span><span style=\"color: #000000\"><i>News,\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0<\/i>September 5, 2019, <\/span><a style=\"background-color: #ffffff\" href=\"https:\/\/www.detroitnews.com\/story\/business\/autos\/2019\/09\/05\/shift-electric-vehicles-radically-change-auto-factories\/2208961001\/\">https:\/\/www.detroitnews.com\/story\/business\/autos\/2019\/09\/05\/\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 shift-electric-vehicles-radically-change-auto-factories\/2208961001\/<\/a><\/p><p><span style=\"color: #000000\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u201cTimeline: History of the Electric Car.\u201d <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">U.S. Department of Energy<\/span><\/i><\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"color: #000000\">, 2019,<\/span>\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0<\/span><a style=\"background-color: #ffffff\" href=\"https:\/\/www.energy.gov\/timeline\/timeline-history-electric-car\">https:\/\/www.energy.gov\/timeline\/timeline-history-electric-car<\/a><\/p><p><span style=\"color: #000000\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Walsh, Dylan. \u201cNew Case Study Takes up Tesla\u2019s Entry into the Auto Industry.\u201d <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">MIT Sloan\u00a0<\/span><\/i><\/span><span style=\"color: #000000\"><i>School of\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0Management<\/i><\/span><span style=\"color: #000000\">, May 13, 2019,<\/span> <a style=\"background-color: #ffffff\" href=\"https:\/\/mitsloan.mit.edu\/ideas-made-to-matter\/new-case-study-takes-teslas-entry-auto-industry\">https:\/\/mitsloan.mit.edu\/ideas-made-to-matter\/<\/a><a style=\"background-color: #ffffff\" href=\"https:\/\/mitsloan.mit.edu\/ideas-made-to-matter\/new-case-study-takes-teslas-entry-auto-industry\">new-case-\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0study-takes-teslas-entry-auto-industry<\/a><\/p><hr \/><p><span style=\"color: #000000\"><b>\u00a0<\/b><\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"color: #000000\"><b>To: <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Congress of the United States of America<\/span><\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"color: #000000\"><b>From: <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Ari Drayman<\/span><\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"color: #000000\"><b>Subject: <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The Federal Electric Vehicle\/Plug-in Hybrid Tax Credit<\/span><\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"color: #000000\"><b>Date: <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">December 9, 2019<\/span><\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"color: #000000\"><b>Executive Summary: <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The federal government electric vehicle\/plug-in hybrid tax credit is helping the car industry go in the right direction, Congress can improve the hybrid industry by removing the \u201cphase out\u201d manufacturer-base cap and adopting other foreign electric vehicle incentive programs similar to Norway\u2019s, this would emphasize an urgency to rectify climate change.<\/span><\/span><\/p><p style=\"padding-left: 40px\"><span style=\"color: #000000\"><b>1. Issues with the United States Government Electric Vehicle Tax Credit<\/b><\/span><\/p><ol><li style=\"list-style-type: none\"><ol><li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;color: #000000\">The \u201cphase out\u201d manufacturer-base cap is too low of a number to stop giving out tax credits<\/span><ul><li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;color: #000000\">Tesla and General Motors have already passed this threshold in 2018 in only ten years<\/span><\/li><\/ul><\/li><li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;color: #000000\">Technology and infrastructure is not up to par with gas vehicle counterparts<\/span><ul><li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;color: #000000\">Buyers sacrifice convenience to buy greener vehicles<\/span><\/li><\/ul><\/li><li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;color: #000000\">Tax credits are worthless in real money today due to inflation of the market from when they were first introduced back in 2008<\/span><\/li><\/ol><\/li><\/ol><p style=\"padding-left: 40px\"><span style=\"color: #000000\"><b>2. Implications of Implementing the Proposal<\/b><\/span><\/p><ol><li style=\"list-style-type: none\"><ol><li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;color: #000000\">Automakers would be more inclined to produce electric\/lower emissions vehicles<\/span><\/li><li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;color: #000000\">Consumers will have a better reason to buy vehicles with a lower carbon footprint<\/span><\/li><li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;color: #000000\">Electric vehicles would become self-sustainable quicker so consumers do not need tax incentives as compensation<\/span><\/li><\/ol><\/li><\/ol><p style=\"padding-left: 40px\"><span style=\"color: #000000\"><b>3. Conclusions and Implications\u00a0<\/b><\/span><\/p><ol><li style=\"list-style-type: none\"><ol><li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;color: #000000\">The United States Government Electric Vehicle Tax Credit has had a positive effect on the automotive market<\/span><ul><li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;color: #000000\">More people are buying electric vehicles<\/span><\/li><li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;color: #000000\">Automakers have a reason to produce lower emission vehicles<\/span><\/li><\/ul><\/li><li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;color: #000000\">The federal government should get rid of the \u201cphase out\u201d manufacturer-base cap and implement international vehicle incentives that have been shown to work in Norway and China that will convince consumers to buy electric vehicles\/plug-in hybrids and as a result, will reduce greenhouse gas emissions<\/span><\/li><li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;color: #000000\">Consumers would be more willing to buy electric vehicles\/plug-in hybrids<\/span><\/li><\/ol><\/li><\/ol><p style=\"text-align: center\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;color: #000000\">Reference:<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"color: #000000\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Cattaneo, Lia. \u201cPlug-In Electric Vehicle Policy.\u201d <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Center for American Progress<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">, June 7, 2018,\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0<\/span><\/span><a style=\"background-color: #ffffff\" href=\"https:\/\/www.americanprogress.org\/issues\/green\/reports\/2018\/06\/07\/451722\/plug-electric-vehicle-policy\/\">https:\/\/www.americanprogress.org\/issues\/green\/reports\/2018\/06\/07\/451722\/plug-electric\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0-vehicle-policy<\/a><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t<section class=\"elementor-section elementor-top-section elementor-element elementor-element-1b655f5 elementor-section-boxed elementor-section-height-default elementor-section-height-default\" data-id=\"1b655f5\" data-element_type=\"section\" data-e-type=\"section\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-container elementor-column-gap-default\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-column elementor-col-100 elementor-top-column elementor-element elementor-element-ef399cd\" data-id=\"ef399cd\" data-element_type=\"column\" data-e-type=\"column\">\n\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-wrap\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Federal EV Tax Credit Paper PDF Project Description In the fall of 2019 during my Sophomore year of college, I took a class called Political Power and American Public Policy. In this course, I received an introduction to the varying political powers across the United States and how these political powers in turn affect public [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2669,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-73","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/ad2380a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/73","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/ad2380a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/ad2380a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/ad2380a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2669"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/ad2380a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=73"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/ad2380a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/73\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/ad2380a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=73"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}},{"id":71,"date":"2021-03-06T09:43:47","date_gmt":"2021-03-06T09:43:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/ad2380a\/?page_id=71"},"modified":"2021-03-07T20:09:43","modified_gmt":"2021-03-07T20:09:43","slug":"2016-election-research-paper","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/ad2380a\/2016-election-research-paper\/","title":{"rendered":"2016 Election Research Paper\/Zine"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t<div data-elementor-type=\"wp-page\" data-elementor-id=\"71\" class=\"elementor elementor-71\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<section class=\"elementor-section elementor-top-section elementor-element elementor-element-505f1a7a elementor-section-boxed elementor-section-height-default elementor-section-height-default\" data-id=\"505f1a7a\" data-element_type=\"section\" data-e-type=\"section\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-container elementor-column-gap-default\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-column elementor-col-100 elementor-top-column elementor-element elementor-element-66a7ceb9\" data-id=\"66a7ceb9\" data-element_type=\"column\" data-e-type=\"column\">\n\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-wrap elementor-element-populated\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-4a65cf51 elementor-widget elementor-widget-text-editor\" data-id=\"4a65cf51\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-e-type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"text-editor.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p><a href=\"http:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/ad2380a\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1278\/2021\/03\/Research-Paper.pdf\">2016 Election Research Paper\/Zine PDF<\/a><\/p><hr \/><p><span style=\"color: #000000\">Paper Description<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"color: #000000\">In the Fall of 2019 during my Sophomore year of college, I took a class called writers in print and person. In this course, I was able to develop my imaginative and intuitive thinking by engaging with contemporary texts, including poetry, fiction, and nonfiction. Through this process, I was able to learn about how <span style=\"font-weight: 400\">an author conceives of and decides to execute a writing project, how their projects come to be the book we encounter as readers, and where the author\u2019s intentions shape or diverge from our own experiences. After the class was finished reading each book, the professor invited the authors of the books to talk with the class so they could explain the intricate process of how a book is published. Through these author lectures, it got me thinking about the 2016 presidential election since the books we read were politically charged and for my final project, I wrote a nonfiction piece\/research paper on the voting tendencies of metropolitan areas in the United States and how this affected the 2016 election. However, I took this paper one step further. In the spirit of this course being based around the publishing process of books, I created a zine out of the contents of this paper (hence why the paper is so short). Unfortunately, I cannot share the zine in this portfolio but, it was a unique experience and made this project one of the most fun to complete.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p><hr \/><p><span style=\"color: #000000\"><strong>How Metro Areas Decided the 2016 Presidential Election<\/strong><\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;color: #000000\">In the beginning, the United States had no cities. It was just a lush green wilderness where the main sources of income were hunting, gathering, and farming. This all changed when the industrial area started to implement its outcomes in the United States of America. It ended up producing a total of 381 metropolitan areas across the country (50,000 people or more), the most in the world which house a total of 249,253,271 United States citizens according to the US census which was last conducted in 2010 (Berg, 2012). Metropolitan areas now equate to a total of 90% of the United States economy including business, retail, and other big-box corporations (Florida, 2016). Not only do cities play large roles in our economy but they also have the biggest outcome in choosing our government officials, senators, mayors, and most importantly the president of our country. And in the 2016 election cities across the country were split into their beliefs and ideologies of which candidates were most fit for the job. However due to education, wealth, and promises for change, although candidate Hillary Clinton won the majority of America\u2019s metro areas voters, Donald Trump swayed enough people in his favor for him to win the election.<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;color: #000000\">Let&#8217;s start by talking about metro areas with a population of over one million civilians. Overwhelmingly, all of these cities voted for Hillary Clinton including the three largest metro areas in America being New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago in that order. In the graph below, the outcome is clear,<\/span><\/p><p style=\"padding-left: 40px\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;color: #000000\">\u00a0<\/span><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone\" style=\"margin-left: 0px;margin-top: 0px\" src=\"https:\/\/lh3.googleusercontent.com\/fL6SCR-I2f0iUiREA_vyTPdhyUyIR3h_bawlUGysYA1xgjPoPEDe9LxRORwy1NWfwWwoTWurazbb_I4gHBW4XA9h1SPZdi9ebEPTPHFRE9aHaua2oj2Wz8NsoB5JWPYRDTp6Aqy3\" width=\"611\" height=\"481\" \/><\/p><p style=\"text-align: center\"><strong><span style=\"color: #000000\">\u201cThe map below by MPI\u2019s Taylor Blake charts the metro area votes. Clinton\u2019s votes are in blue, Trump\u2019s votes are in red, and the height of the bars indicates the percent of the national vote cast in metros. Look at the large blue columns for Clinton across the Boston-New York-Washington Corridor; in Miami, in Northern and Southern California, and Chicago. While there is more red on the map, there is nothing nearly so tall for Trump. (Florida, 2016)\u201d<\/span><\/strong><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;color: #000000\">Although there is more red on this graph, the taller and wider bars representing larger metropolitan areas are shaded in blue signifying that Hillary Clinton won more than 50% of those metropolitan areas population. There are a variety of factors that contributed to this outcome the most important being education. Each large metro area had a highly educated population of people and this can be seen through the United states economy. According to Mark Perry an American Enterprise Institute economist, he concluded that America&#8217;s largest metro areas have a larger GDP than most foreign nations. Here is the evidence.<\/span><\/p><p style=\"padding-left: 40px\"><span id=\"docs-internal-guid-7ddd3254-7fff-1141-8b1c-f555b4e54adb\"><span style=\"font-size: 8pt;font-family: 'Times New Roman';color: #000000;background-color: transparent;vertical-align: baseline\"><span style=\"border: none;overflow: hidden;width: 624px;height: 416px\"><img decoding=\"async\" style=\"margin-left: 0px;margin-top: 0px\" src=\"https:\/\/lh4.googleusercontent.com\/8T2t4MiYiJDEYfh_6YZTlMLjriSuR5qfqyCZ-Ifm9IKGINOzcS9k9c5M2Iz-l78MgtEzLg5lyrZ_ZBsQlFWg-lAkAsLkuqYltgQLZmP5lvIPSBIvXKSDXgtaOG2sZkHhrMOheL5Z\" alt=\"aei1\" width=\"624\" height=\"416\" \/><\/span><\/span><\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;color: #000000\"><br \/><\/span><\/p><p style=\"text-align: center\"><strong><span style=\"color: #000000\">This Graph makes comparisons of the United States\u2019 largest cities to Foreign nation\u2019s GDP in billions. The total outcome of money in all 30 metropolitan cities combined is about 18 trillion dollars (credit to<\/span><\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.aei.org\/publication\/understanding-americas-ridiculously-large-18t-economy-by-comparing-the-gdp-of-us-metro-areas-to-entire-countries\/\"> <span style=\"font-weight: 400\">American Enterprise Institute<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">).<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;color: #000000\">This graph shows us that not only are these cities successful but also that they did not buy into Donald Trump&#8217;s campaign slogan of, \u201cMake America Great Again.\u201d The people of these metro areas were more tailored to Hillary\u2019s way of doing business and knew that both economically and socially, her plan would benefit their goals of creating more jobs, wealth, and bringing more people into each of their growing cities.<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;color: #000000\">However, less fortunate cities were looking for a change and they were looking for a president who could speak those words for them. This person happened to be Donald Trump. His slogan, \u201cMake America Great Again\u201d spoke to these people and they bought into it. And this promise translated into voters which are shown in this chart below.<\/span><\/p><table><tbody><tr><td><span style=\"color: #000000\"><b>Metro Size<\/b><\/span><\/td><td><span style=\"color: #000000\"><b>Clinton Share<\/b><\/span><\/td><td><span style=\"color: #000000\"><b>Trump Share<\/b><\/span><\/td><td><span style=\"color: #000000\"><b>Share of National Vote<\/b><\/span><\/td><td><span style=\"color: #000000\"><b>Share of Population<\/b><\/span><\/td><td><span style=\"color: #000000\"><b>Share of Economic Output<\/b><\/span><\/td><\/tr><tr><td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;color: #000000\">1 million or more people<\/span><\/td><td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;color: #000000\">56%<\/span><\/td><td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;color: #000000\">40%<\/span><\/td><td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;color: #000000\">54.7%<\/span><\/td><td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;color: #000000\">56.0%<\/span><\/td><td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;color: #000000\">65.6%<\/span><\/td><\/tr><tr><td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;color: #000000\">500,000 to 1 million people<\/span><\/td><td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;color: #000000\">46%<\/span><\/td><td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;color: #000000\">48%<\/span><\/td><td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;color: #000000\">12.1%<\/span><\/td><td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;color: #000000\">12.0%<\/span><\/td><td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;color: #000000\">10.4%<\/span><\/td><\/tr><tr><td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;color: #000000\">250,000 to 500,000 people<\/span><\/td><td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;color: #000000\">43%<\/span><\/td><td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;color: #000000\">52%<\/span><\/td><td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;color: #000000\">8.9%<\/span><\/td><td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;color: #000000\">8.7%<\/span><\/td><td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;color: #000000\">7.0%<\/span><\/td><\/tr><tr><td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;color: #000000\">Less than 250,000 people<\/span><\/td><td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;color: #000000\">38%<\/span><\/td><td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;color: #000000\">57%<\/span><\/td><td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;color: #000000\">9.2%<\/span><\/td><td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;color: #000000\">9.0%<\/span><\/td><td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;color: #000000\">6.8%<\/span><\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><p style=\"text-align: center\"><strong><span style=\"color: #000000\">This chart displays the percentage of voters who voted for each candidate depending on the category of the metropolitan area they fall in (Florida, 2016)<\/span><\/strong><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;color: #000000\">And as the chart entails, any metropolitan area under 1 million people voted more for Donald Trump. As the metropolitan areas get smaller, more and more people started voting for Trump to the point where there is not even a contest. Remember the first graph? Take a look at it again. Although the blue bars are large and healthy with numbers, they are sporadic and far in between while the red bars although small are littered across America. Slowly but surely, those red bars started adding up eventually outnumbering Hillary Clinton\u2019s votes helping Donald Trump win this election.<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;color: #000000\">All of these numbers tell a story of our country&#8217;s stance on politics. With these large swaths of data, it is easy to conclude that Donald Trump is favored by the American people, but not by much. He had won the metro areas of our county that need more money fast as they are declining in economic wealth. All of these cities with under one million people have a combined economic output of only 24.2%, not even half of the economic output of metro areas with over a million civilians. As a result, this causes budget cuts and a lower quality of education making people susceptible to being deceived by words with empty meaning. Make America Great Again is all they needed to hear they were on board with the idea and just rolled with it without a second thought. But, the other metro areas with more than one million people saw the loopholes of this slogan and saw how this could negatively affect our economy. They used their education skills to detect this problem ultimately voting for Hillary Clinton. Our country has spoken and there is no turning back; the data said it all, quantity always wins in a democratic society ultimately voting in Donald Trump.<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"color: #000000\"><strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/span><\/p><p style=\"text-align: center\"><span style=\"color: #000000\"><strong>Works Cited:<\/strong><\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"color: #000000\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Berg, Nate (2012, March 26). <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">U.S. Urban Population Is Up&#8230; But What Does &#8216;Urban&#8217;\u00a0<\/span><\/i><\/span><span style=\"color: #000000\"><i>Really Mean?<\/i><\/span><span style=\"color: #000000\">\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0Retrieved From<\/span> <a style=\"background-color: #ffffff\" href=\"https:\/\/www.citylab.com\/equity\/2012\/03\/us-urban-population-what-does-urban-really-mean\/1589\/\">https:\/\/www.citylab.com\/equit y\/2012\/03\/us-ur ban-population-what-does-\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0urban-really-mean\/1589\/<\/a><\/p><p><span style=\"color: #000000\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Beyer, Scott (2016, October 29).<\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> America&#8217;s 20 Largest Metros Have Higher GDPs Than\u00a0<\/span><\/i><\/span><span style=\"color: #000000\"><i>Most Foreign\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 Nations<\/i>. Retrieved From <\/span><a style=\"background-color: #ffffff\" href=\"https:\/\/www.forbes.com\/sites\/scottbeyer\/2016\/10\/09\/americas-20-largest-metros-have-higher-gdps-than-most-foreign-nations\/#6cc00ae754db\">https:\/\/www.forbes.com\/sites\/scottbeyer<\/a><a style=\"background-color: #ffffff\" href=\"https:\/\/www.forbes.com\/sites\/scottbeyer\/2016\/10\/09\/americas-20-largest-metros-have-higher-gdps-than-most-foreign-nations\/#6cc00ae754db\">\/2016\/10\/09\/americas-\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 20-largest-metros-have-higher-gdps-than-most-foreign-na<\/a><a style=\"background-color: #ffffff\" href=\"https:\/\/www.forbes.com\/sites\/scottbeyer\/2016\/10\/09\/americas-20-largest-metros-have-higher-gdps-than-most-foreign-nations\/#6cc00ae754db\">tions\/#6cc00ae754db<\/a><\/p><p><span style=\"color: #000000\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Finnigan, Brandon (2017, February 20). <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The Largest City to Vote for Donald Trump<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><span style=\"color: #000000\">Retrieved From\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0<\/span><a style=\"background-color: #ffffff\" href=\"https:\/\/decisiondeskhq.com\/data-dives\/the-largest-city-to-vote-for-donald-trump\/\">https:\/\/decisiondeskhq.com\/data-dives\/the-largest-city-to-vo te-for-donald-trump\/<\/a><\/p><p><span style=\"color: #000000\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Florida, Richard (2016, November 29). <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">How America\u2019s Metro Areas Voted<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">. Retrieved\u00a0<\/span><\/span><span style=\"color: #000000\">From\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0<\/span><a style=\"background-color: #ffffff\" href=\"https:\/\/www.citylab.com\/equity\/2016\/11\/how-americas-metro-areas-voted\/508355\/\">https:\/\/www.citylab.com\/equity\/2016\/11\/how-americas-metro-areas-vo<\/a><a style=\"background-color: #ffffff\" href=\"https:\/\/www.citylab.com\/equity\/2016\/11\/how-americas-metro-areas-voted\/508355\/\">ted\/508355\/<\/a><\/p><p><span style=\"color: #000000\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Florida, Richard (2016, December 1). <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Mapping How America\u2019s Metro Areas Voted<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><span style=\"color: #000000\">Retrieved From<\/span>\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0<a style=\"background-color: #ffffff\" href=\"https:\/\/www.citylab.com\/equity\/2016\/12\/mapping-how-americas-metro-areas-voted\/508313\/\">https:\/\/www.citylab.com\/equity\/2016\/12\/Mapping-how-ame<\/a><a style=\"background-color: #ffffff\" href=\"https:\/\/www.citylab.com\/equity\/2016\/12\/mapping-how-americas-metro-areas-voted\/508313\/\">ricas<\/a><a style=\"background-color: #ffffff\" href=\"https:\/\/www.citylab.com\/equity\/2016\/12\/mapping-how-americas-metro-areas-voted\/508313\/\">-Metro-areas-\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0voted\/508313\/<\/a><\/p><p><span style=\"color: #000000\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Shearer, Richard (2016, November 11). <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The small town-big city split that elected Donald\u00a0<\/span><\/i><\/span><span style=\"color: #000000\"><i>Trump<\/i>.\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0Retrieved From <\/span><a style=\"background-color: #ffffff\" href=\"https:\/\/www.brookings.edu\/blog\/the-avenue\/2016\/11\/11\/the-small-town-big-city-split-that-elected-donald-trump\/\">https:\/\/www.brookings.edu\/blog\/the-avenue\/2016\/11\/11<\/a><a style=\"background-color: #ffffff\" href=\"https:\/\/www.brookings.edu\/blog\/the-avenue\/2016\/11\/11\/the-small-town-big-city-split-that-elected-donald-trump\/\">\/the-small-town-\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0big-city-split-that-elected-donald-trump\/<\/a><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>2016 Election Research Paper\/Zine PDF Paper Description In the Fall of 2019 during my Sophomore year of college, I took a class called writers in print and person. In this course, I was able to develop my imaginative and intuitive thinking by engaging with contemporary texts, including poetry, fiction, and nonfiction. Through this process, I [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2669,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-71","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/ad2380a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/71","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/ad2380a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/ad2380a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/ad2380a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2669"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/ad2380a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=71"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/ad2380a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/71\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/ad2380a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=71"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}},{"id":68,"date":"2021-03-06T08:59:45","date_gmt":"2021-03-06T08:59:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/ad2380a\/?page_id=68"},"modified":"2021-03-06T11:08:55","modified_gmt":"2021-03-06T11:08:55","slug":"creative-writing-sample","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/ad2380a\/creative-writing-sample\/","title":{"rendered":"Creative Writing Sample"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t<div data-elementor-type=\"wp-page\" data-elementor-id=\"68\" class=\"elementor elementor-68\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<section class=\"elementor-section elementor-top-section elementor-element elementor-element-3d75c999 elementor-section-boxed elementor-section-height-default elementor-section-height-default\" data-id=\"3d75c999\" data-element_type=\"section\" data-e-type=\"section\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-container elementor-column-gap-default\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-column elementor-col-100 elementor-top-column elementor-element elementor-element-2e7401d5\" data-id=\"2e7401d5\" data-element_type=\"column\" data-e-type=\"column\">\n\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-wrap elementor-element-populated\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-58be1b2b elementor-widget elementor-widget-text-editor\" data-id=\"58be1b2b\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-e-type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"text-editor.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p><a href=\"http:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/ad2380a\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1278\/2021\/03\/Identity-Essay-Final-Draft.pdf\">Identity Essay PDF<\/a><\/p><hr \/><p><span style=\"color: #000000\">Paper Description<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"color: #000000\">In the spring of 2019 during my freshmen year of college, I took a writing course where we grappled with the concept of identity. In this course, I learned about how writing and research are meta-cognitive processes and how information not only has a lifecycle but also has value to a reader. I also began to understand how writing requires us to enter an ongoing conversation in order to be effective and how structure, style, and the mechanics of writing are rhetorical. Throughout the semester, working on a creative writing project which focused on the &#8216;hypebeast&#8217; identity. I chose this identity for my paper topic because I am a big fan of sneaker culture and after hearing so much about hypebeast all over YouTube and the internet, I wanted to learn more about them. In this paper, I combined both my creative writing ability I formulated throughout high school as well as my research skills to develop an argument explaining how &#8216;hypebeast&#8217; is a misunderstood identity. Additionally, I was creative with the formatting of my paper using pictures, graphs, and videos to illustrate my points while also showing my ability to think outside of the box. Overall, this was a fun paper to work on and I hope to learn more about the &#8216;hypebeast&#8217; subculture in the future.\u00a0<\/span><\/p><hr \/><p><span style=\"color: #000000\"><strong>Hypebeast: A Misunderstood Identity<\/strong><\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;color: #000000\">I remember the day clearly in my head, September 14, 2012. This was when one of my classmates Brandon made me think about something I never paid much attention to. While we were in line waiting to enter math class, he looked at my feet and whispered in my ear, \u201cYo, what are those shoes on your feet man?\u201d I turned around and responded \u201chigh tops, what about them?\u201d he then gave me a smirk and replied, \u201cDude why don&#8217;t you get a pair of Jordans or something you would totally rock them!\u201d At that moment, my identity changed.<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;color: #000000\">When I was on the bus going home that afternoon, I could not get what Brandon said out of my head. It was on a loop and made me feel like an outsider. As I looked around at people\u2019s feet on the bus I could see what Brandon meant. Nikes, Jordans, and Adidas were present on nearly everyone\u2019s feet.\u00a0 Amidst that bus ride, I decided that since my parents would not let me get a new pair of shoes without a reason, I would lie to them and say that my shoes were too small for me and I needed a pair of Jordans.<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;color: #000000\">After convincing my mom that I needed a new pair of shoes, we went to my local Footlocker. While we were there, I remember frantically looking for a pair of Air Jordans and at first, I thought there were no Jordans in my size. I then panicked in my head and that was the first moment I realized why I was doing this, to promote my image. After finding out that this Footlocker did have one pair of Jordans in my size I gave my mom the \u201cplease buy these for me\u201d face and she grudgingly bought them for me dropping seventy dollars on the counter. I was happy as could be.<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"color: #000000\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">That Sunday night, I kept inspecting the shoes running through all the scenarios that could happen at school, <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">what will people think of me? Are these \u2018real Jordans\u2019? What if people don&#8217;t like them?<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Then Monday came and I knew what I had to do. I put my new kicks on and when I walked through the doors at school, I immediately started getting comments on my shoes on how awesome they were. Hell, even my homeroom teacher thought my shoes were fire! Everyone kept raving about how awesome my shoes were and all day long I kept getting comments about them. There was one moment in particular when I was in gym class where one of the most popular people in my grade called me out and said, \u201cLook at Ari rocking those Jordans!\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;color: #000000\">Since then, my love for shoes has grown immensely and at times out of control. At college, I have fifteen pairs of shoes and another twenty pairs of shoes at home and this number keeps on rising. It took me a long time to realize it, but I now understand how privileged I am to be able to afford all of my footwear. In thousands of people\u2019s eyes, people like me are considered hypebeast which according to <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dictionary.com\/e\/slang\/hypebeast\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">dictionary.com<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;color: #000000\"> is a slang term for someone who follows fashion trends to make a social statement. In their minds, being a hypebeast is a privilege and only those who are wealthy enough are truly able to embody this identity.\u00a0 For example, QrewTV an up-and-coming YouTube channel run by a man named Qias with just over a million subscribers created a <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=lmeCD2jdCsk\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">video<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;color: #000000\"> labeling 20 different types of people that are deemed as hypebeast. The video outlines how hypebeast represent their identity (both children and adults) and sheds light on how people believe hypebeast act in public as well as around others.\u00a0<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;color: #000000\">Even though this video is supposed to be shed in a comedic light, there are a variety of themes that are present. For example, if you did not know brand prominence such as Supreme and Nike tend to be a recurring theme in the hypebeast identity. In addition to this, this video outlines hypebeast as people who are a little bit crazy which in reality the video is definitely over the top. However, after looking in the comment section, it never occurred to me how upset some people got from the video. One person in the comments section felt inclined to say that, \u201cif you buy Supreme or Gucci, you are lowkey brain dead.\u201d Many people have a hard time understanding why the hypebeast identity exists. When the video outlines the \u2018flexin hypebeast\u2019 (Type number 17), this is the perfect example of how the concept of privilege falls in line with the term hypebeast. It is important to note when the person to the left (Jacob) asks his friend (Qias), \u201chow\u2019s the fam?\u201d he (Qias) instantly responds with how awesome and expensive his outfit is multiple times. This then makes his friend (Jacob) concerned when he asks, \u201chave you fed your family?\u201d This view of hypebeast across the world has caused people to become outraged and has made them feel like all hypebeast are privileged selfish individuals that are hindering society.<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;color: #000000\">In the world population today, privilege has never been more prevalent. From an economic standpoint, the elite class of citizens although small in number owns 41% of the world&#8217;s wealth while 68.7% of the world&#8217;s population owns only a measly 3% of the world&#8217;s total income. This graph displays how many people (in percentages) account for the world&#8217;s wealth.<\/span><\/p><p style=\"padding-left: 120px\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0<\/span><img decoding=\"async\" style=\"margin-left: 0px;margin-top: 0px\" src=\"https:\/\/lh4.googleusercontent.com\/u-ql9qzZUxaJAP3hb5l-eKS52vSCakoGguVF8tS74ftxuQjkeSh6CthZYLhOsORl57jnQvPN8_U4Zvf0bwkK1BUg2RVqdE_8asFdVXWAqWtuilxyEeBQu6s6Radiaa0IPTxO-MlL\" alt=\"41% of world's wealth in hands of 1% of population\" width=\"440\" height=\"330\" \/><\/p><p style=\"text-align: center\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"color: #000000\"><b>\u00a0This is a <\/b><\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.pewresearch.org\/fact-tank\/2014\/11\/08\/with-41-of-global-wealth-in-the-hands-of-less-than-1-elites-and-citizens-agree-inequality-is-a-top-priority\/\"><b>Pew Research Center<\/b><\/a><span style=\"color: #000000\"><b> Graph representing showing how the world&#8217;s wealth is shared among different income brackets<\/b><\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;color: #000000\">As you can see from the graph above, income inequality has been a strong culprit for causing the concept of privilege to become such an important topic of conversation. This has caused the topics of money and privilege to become heavily intertwined with each other and has led us to believe strongly that the more money you have, the greater the amount of privilege you possess. Although this is not true in all circumstances, the research shows that a lot of money does generally lead to higher amounts of privilege by being able to buy daily needs such as food and water as well as own a house. Money also allows people to chase after their dreams by being able to afford post-secondary education and create an identity such as being a hypebeast.<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"color: #000000\">This idea of privilege has become ingrained in nearly all of us if we were born after the year 2000. From personal experience, I have heard this word more times than I can count and at college, this concept has been more prevalent than ever. In one of my classes recently, we talked about how we as individuals need to check our privilege when we talk about race. We thoroughly discussed the fourth chapter of the book,<\/span> <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/You-Want-Talk-About-Race\/dp\/1580056776\"><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">So You Wanna Talk About Race?<\/span><\/i><\/a> <span style=\"font-weight: 400;color: #000000\">by Ijeoma Oluo a Seattle-based American Writer who has written many pieces on feminism, race, and social justice. In this chapter, she talks about how her skin color has affected her while living in Seattle, Washington, and how her privilege has fluctuated as she has joined different racial groups and moved to different neighborhoods in the Seattle area. After reading this chapter myself, one claim that she made caught my eye in which she said that \u201cI&#8217;ve found from my conversations and from witnessing the conversations of others that very few people know what privilege is, let alone how they would go about checking it.\u201d From her perspective, she has come to think that people do not know what privilege is and have little to no clue how to check it properly. From my perspective, she is only half right.<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;color: #000000\">After thinking about what she said though, it clicked in my head that the situation is similar to the one that the views of the hypebeast identity are taking today. In this circumstance, the concept of privilege blindness is what I suspect people are upset about. Privilege blindness is when someone is unaware of their privilege and thinks of the rest of the world as being on their level. On Oluo\u2019s first point from the quote above, I disagree with her though on people not knowing what privilege is. Nearly everyone knows what privilege is and if they do not know then they can look it up on the internet or research this topic since it is well documented. However, checking our privilege is much more difficult for people because of what I see as privilege blindness, an ideal that has manifested itself in the hypebeast community for a long time. Yes, I will be the first to admit that many people who identify as hypebeast are blind to the privileges they possess over others flaunting their outfits to everyone and are the \u2018flexin hypebeast\u2019 in the video from earlier displays. The blanket thought that all hypebeast are like this though is simply untrue. Hypebeasts come from all walks of life and are not simply the rich, privilege-blind people that pop into our heads once we hear this word. We often forget that the main reason why the hypebeast identity has become so popular is that it has made wavelengths in the fashion world and is creative in its mission to foster individuality.\u00a0<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;color: #000000\">Since the inception of the hypebeast identity, people within this community have been dedicated to creating new trends and art for the world to see. Websites such as Etsy and thrift stores across the world have also become a huge part of what fosters the hypebeast identity. This idea of creativity and ingenuity takes away from the argument of critics believing that people who are hypebeast have to be privileged. In fact, anyone can be a hypebeast if they are contributing to the art and\/or fashion world. From the video, this type of person is described as the \u201cartistic hypebeast\u201d which recently, these types of people have been growing rapidly in number because anyone can be this type of person.\u00a0<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;color: #000000\">Every time I go on Etsy, it always amazes me how people from all walks of life can create a piece of fashion that is unique and at the same time says something about your identity, take this post for an example of two custom pairs of shoes. The one to the left was posted on Etsy while the one to the right was posted in an article in the <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.metrotimes.com\/the-scene\/archives\/2017\/08\/08\/six-local-spots-to-%20let-your-hypebeast-flag-fly\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Detroit Metro Times<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">,\u00a0<\/span><\/p><p style=\"padding-left: 40px\"><span style=\"color: #000000\"><b>\u00a0<\/b><\/span><\/p><p style=\"padding-left: 240px\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" style=\"margin-left: 0px;margin-top: 0px\" src=\"https:\/\/lh6.googleusercontent.com\/Sk6pUJs84hIAqBtUGxKPtUi286buYHaSbfkzHHztn1HlD_weexZzRTAeXxIW_2l64fKfjNY5AEyfyhZmde-Y8VieerASE73DwuNsQ0b5oAUlDBvOBuyuHz8x9YK8YSR6xkR9kNsU\" width=\"252\" height=\"258\" \/><span style=\"color: #000000\"><b>\u00a0<\/b><\/span><\/p><p style=\"text-align: center\"><span style=\"font-weight: bold;color: #000000\">This is a custom pair of Nike Air Force 1\u2019s\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"color: #000000;font-weight: bold;text-align: right\">and are hand-painted\u00a0 by an Etsy creator\u00a0<\/span><\/p><p style=\"padding-left: 240px\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" style=\"margin-left: 0px;margin-top: 0px\" src=\"https:\/\/lh3.googleusercontent.com\/7Al7OU86_al8OAQWgr84_IAWXTvq24_XawBopRRA26u_yCOOULXbz9N-jAZf57EjuSpR-m-DmG-DBYUAJ6AISD1mF-Pu_FUzHSVKutZEvACDvdwBvrin6x3XkBw9FJ6dEnRBXnr1\" alt=\"Image result for thrift store hypebeast\" width=\"262\" height=\"258\" \/><\/p><p style=\"text-align: left\"><span style=\"color: #000000\"><b>\u00a0<\/b><\/span><b style=\"color: #000000\">\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 <b style=\"text-align: right;color: #000000\">This is a pair of\u00a0 custom Yeezy Boost V2\u2019s<\/b><\/b><b style=\"text-align: right;color: #000000\"><b>\u00a0and are popular in the hypebeast community<\/b><\/b><\/p><p style=\"text-align: left\"><span style=\"color: #000000\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p><p style=\"text-align: left\"><span style=\"color: #000000\">As you can see, these pairs of shoes are unique in their own right and the possibilities for customization are endless. Hypebeast can alter their identity whenever they pleasas there is no one set definition of who or what a hypebeast is. No two hypebeast identities are alike as everyone has their unique taste in art and fashion. This identity gives people the ability to create a sense of individuality while also being socially accepted by others.<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"color: #000000\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">This side of hypebeast fandom has also taken off in magazines and local publications such as <\/span><a style=\"color: #000000\" href=\"https:\/\/www.printmag.com\/regional-design-awards-2017-winner-galleries\/regional-design-awards-winners-2017-far-west\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Print<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> which is a publication that promotes people\u2019s work in the hypebeast community throughout the United States. In this publication, it is loaded with artwork and designs that were created by people who want to get their work out there and recognized by others. Take for example the fifteenth entry of this publication where the hypebeast magazine appears. As you will notice, this magazine is not just a dull boring magazine like many others in the United States but is colorful and is created by a designer named KAWS who is trying to get his identity out to the rest of the world, not just the hypebeast community.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;color: #000000\">It is also important to note that, according to the article <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/fashpow2015.wordpress.com\/2015\/05\/07\/that-hypebeast-identifying-hypebeasts\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u201cThat Hypebeast: Identifying Hypebeast,\u201d<\/span><\/a><span style=\"color: #000000\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Erica [no last name] mentions that \u201cthe identity of the hypebeast is created through the clothes they wear and in achieving this style, it dictates a particular lifestyle invested on the hype trends of pop culture and culture of hypebeasts.\u201d This quote from the author speaks to what many people who are hypebeast are hoping to achieve by becoming apart of this identity. People want to fit in and hypebeast do this by creating new trends in the fashion world as well as creating new cultural phenomenons. This includes trends such as new art styles like urban graffiti. This, as a result, has caused companies like Gucci and Nike to jump on board as <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">the study of, <\/span><\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.marshall.usc.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/jnunes\/intellcont\/Brand%20Prominence%201-12-10-1.pdf\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Signaling Status With Luxury Goods: The Role of Brand Prominence<\/span><\/a><span style=\"color: #000000\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> from<\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> The Marketing Journal <\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">highlights, \u201cContemporary research in marketing recognizes the symbolic role of possessions in consumers\u2019 lives. It is widely accepted that people make inferences about others based on their possessions.\u201d Due to this, company interference has caused a huge shift in people\u2019s hypebeast identity and has made many individuals believe that hypebeast are privileged. This is because some hypebeast are willing to spend thousands of dollars on clothing from name brands like Nike and Gucci.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;color: #000000\">From all the research I have conducted on this niche topic and after looking at all the work and culture hypebeast have contributed to society, it is important to note one last quote from a person who held the hypebeast identity head-on throughout college. <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.racked.com\/2015\/5\/21\/8629511\/confessions-of-a-recovering-hypebeast\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Ben Fullon<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;color: #000000\">, before becoming a hypebeast was a person who wore uniforms for most of his life, he was socially awkward, and as he describes it, was woefully unprepared for city life. After reading the ups and downs of his hypebeast identity phase he says this,\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;color: #000000\">Whenever I mention my hypebeast past, the question I&#8217;m always asked is &#8220;Was it worth it?&#8221; When this happens, I pause. And I think about all the time spent on lines in front of stores in the chilling cold. I think about all the money that could have eventually gone to paying back my enormous college debt. I think about all the friends I made talking over sneakers and clothes, however short or long those friendships may have lasted. I think about how I finally felt like a person with an identity, how I finally stopped worrying about being socially weird. And I&#8217;ll reply, &#8220;I think so?&#8221;<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;color: #000000\">Although he wasted a lot of money and waited hours on end to grab clothes that were probably not worth the price, he was creating a unique identity every hypebeast strives for. Ben was improving the world by showing his individualism and creating his own sense of fashion. In my mind, without his hypebeast identity, Ben would have been a gray cloud in the sky on a rainy day like everyone else. We would not know that he was Ben since there is nothing special about him. But, since he took a leap of faith and owned the hypebeast identity, we now know who Ben is and in that same scenario of clouds being in the sky on a rainy day, Ben differentiated himself by changing the color of his cloud to red and now everyone is talking about it. He was able to differentiate himself from the crowd in his own way and created new friendships which in reality is what every hypebeast strives for.<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;color: #000000\">So this begs the million-dollar question of why does the hypebeast identity exists? No, it does not exist because of the brand\u2019s prominence in the fashion industry or because privileged people want to differentiate themselves from the rest of society. This identity exists because it promotes the inner entrepreneurial being in people&#8217;s minds across the world and as a direct result has created an up-and-coming pop culture that can define a large number of people in their own unique way. As a result of this, what comes with a lot of success must come some negativity. Hence, brands such as Nike, Gucci, etc have been capitalizing on this identity causing controversy about privilege concerning hypebeast. However, at its core, the hypebeast identity is a positive concept that has helped millions of people define themselves and will keep growing in the near future.<\/span><\/p><p style=\"text-align: center\"><strong><span style=\"color: #000000\">\u00a0<\/span><\/strong><\/p><p style=\"text-align: center\"><strong><span style=\"color: #000000\">Work Cited:<\/span><\/strong><\/p><p><span style=\"color: #000000\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u201c20 TYPES OF HYPEBEAST.\u201d <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">YouTube<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">, uploaded by QrewTV, 23 December 2018,\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/span><a style=\"background-color: #ffffff\" href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=lmeCD2jdCsk\">https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=lmeCD2jdCsk<\/a>. <span style=\"color: #000000\">Accessed 10 February 2019<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;color: #000000\">Dr\u00e8ze, Xavier, Han, Young L., and Nunes, Joseph C. \u201cSignaling Status With Luxury\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"color: #000000\">Goods: The Role\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0of Brand Prominence.\u201d <i>The Journal of Marketing,<\/i> July 2010,\u00a0<\/span><a style=\"background-color: #ffffff\" href=\"https:\/\/www.marshall.usc.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/jnunes\/intellcont\/Brand%20Prominence%201-12-10-1.pdf\">https:\/\/www.marshall.usc.edu\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \/sites<\/a><a style=\"background-color: #ffffff\" href=\"https:\/\/www.marshall.usc.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/jnunes\/intellcont\/Brand%20Prominence%201-12-10-1.pdf\">\/<\/a><a style=\"background-color: #ffffff\" href=\"https:\/\/www.marshall.usc.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/jnunes\/intellcont\/Brand%20Prominence%201-12-10-1.pdf\">default\/files\/jnunes\/intellcont\/Brand%20Prominence%201-12-10-1.pdf<\/a>. <span style=\"color: #000000\">Accessed 31\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 January 2019.<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"color: #000000\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Erica. \u201cThat Hypebeast: Identifying Hypebeast.\u201d <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">WordPress<\/span><\/i><\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"color: #000000\">, 7 May. 2015,\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0<\/span><a style=\"background-color: #ffffff\" href=\"https:\/\/fashpow2015.wordpress.com\/2015\/05\/07\/that-hypebeast-identifying-hypebeasts\/\">https:\/\/fashpow2015.wordpress.com\/2015\/05\/07\/that-hypebeast-identifying-hypebeasts\/<\/a>.\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0<span style=\"color: #000000\">Accessed 31 January 2019<\/span>.<\/p><p><span style=\"color: #000000\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Fullon, Ben. \u201cConfessions of a Recovering Hypebeast.\u201d <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Vox Media<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">, 21 May. 2015,\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/span><a style=\"background-color: #ffffff\" href=\"https:\/\/www.racked.com\/2015\/5\/21\/8629511\/confessions-of-a-recovering-hypebeast\">https:\/\/www.racked.com\/2015\/5\/21\/8629511\/confessions-of-a-recovering-hypebeast<\/a>.\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0<span style=\"color: #000000\">Accessed 31 January 2019.<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"color: #000000\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Garcia, Tess. \u201cSix Local Spots to Let Your Hypebeast Flag Fly\u201d <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Detroit Metro Times<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">, 9 Aug.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><span style=\"color: #000000\">2017,\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0<\/span><a style=\"background-color: #ffffff\" href=\"https:\/\/www.metrotimes.com\/the-scene\/archives\/2017\/08\/08\/six-local-spots-to-\">https:\/\/www.metrotimes.com\/the-scene\/archives\/2017\/08\/08\/six-local-spots-to-let-your-\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0hypebeast-flag-fly<\/a><span style=\"color: #000000\">. Accessed 18 February 2019. <\/span>\u00a0<\/p><p><span style=\"color: #000000\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Oluo, Ijeoma. <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">So You Wanna Talk About Race.<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> New York, Hatchet Book Group, January 2018.<\/span><\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"color: #000000\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Scher, Paula. \u201cFar West Regional Design Awards.\u201d <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">PRINT<\/span><\/i><\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"color: #000000\">, 2017,\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 <\/span><\/span><a style=\"background-color: #ffffff\" href=\"https:\/\/www.printmag.com\/regional-design-\">https:\/\/www.printmag.com\u00a0<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.printmag.com\/regional-design-\">\/regional-design-awards-2017-winner-galleries\/regional-\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 design-awards-winners-2017-far-west\/<\/a><span style=\"color: #000000\">. Accessed 18 February 2019.<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"color: #000000\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u201cWhat Does Hypebeast Mean?\u201d <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Dictionary.com<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">, 2019, <\/span><\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dictionary.com\/e\/?s=Hypebeast&amp;post_type=crb_words\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">https:\/\/www.dictionary.com\/e\/?\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0s=<\/span><\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dictionary.com\/e\/?s=Hypebeast&amp;post_type=crb_words\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Hypebeast&amp;post_type=crb_words<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"color: #000000\">. Accessed 31 January 2019.<\/span><\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;color: #000000\">Wike, Richard. \u201cWith 41% of Global Wealth in the Hands of Less than 1%, Elites and Citizens\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"color: #000000\">Agree\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 Inequality is a Top Priority.\u201d <\/span><i style=\"color: #000000\">Pew Research Center<\/i><span style=\"color: #000000\">, 4 Nov. 2018,\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0<\/span><a style=\"background-color: #ffffff\" href=\"http:\/\/www.pewresearch.org\/fact-tank\/2014\/11\/08\/with-41-of-global-wealth-in-the-hands-of-less-than-1-elites-and-citizens-agree-inequality-is-a-top-priority\/\">http:\/\/www.pewresearch.org\/fact-tank\/2014\/11\/08\/with-41-of-global-wealth-in-the-<\/a>\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0<a style=\"background-color: #ffffff\" href=\"http:\/\/www.pewresearch.org\/fact-tank\/2014\/11\/08\/with-41-of-global-wealth-in-the-hands-of-less-than-1-elites-and-citizens-agree-inequality-is-a-top-priority\/\">hands-of-less-than-1-elites-and-citizens-agree-inequality-is-a-top-priority\/<\/a><span style=\"color: #000000\">. Accessed 10\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 February 2019.<\/span><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Identity Essay PDF Paper Description In the spring of 2019 during my freshmen year of college, I took a writing course where we grappled with the concept of identity. In this course, I learned about how writing and research are meta-cognitive processes and how information not only has a lifecycle but also has value to [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2669,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-68","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/ad2380a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/68","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/ad2380a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/ad2380a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/ad2380a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2669"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/ad2380a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=68"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/ad2380a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/68\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/ad2380a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=68"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}},{"id":66,"date":"2021-03-06T08:33:27","date_gmt":"2021-03-06T08:33:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/ad2380a\/?page_id=66"},"modified":"2021-03-06T08:33:27","modified_gmt":"2021-03-06T08:33:27","slug":"published-writing-sample","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/ad2380a\/published-writing-sample\/","title":{"rendered":"Published Writing Sample"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: #000000\">Link to published article &#8211;<\/span> <a href=\"https:\/\/jewishberkshires.org\/community-events\/berkshire-jewish-voice\/berkshire-jewish-voice-highlights\/young-judaism-what-i-learned-on-my-birthright-israel-trip\">https:\/\/jewishberkshires.org\/community-events\/berkshire-jewish-voice\/berkshire-jewish-voice-highlights\/young-judaism-what-i-learned-on-my-birthright-israel-trip<\/a><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000\">Article Description\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000\">This is an article that I wrote shortly after my Birthright trip to Israel. I wrote this piece in order to reflect on my trip and critically think about what I had learned on it. I talk about how nervous I was to go on the trip at the beginning and how I mainly wanted to go to Israel to learn about the countries rich history. Yet this ended up being one of the most memorable trips I have been apart of and I made everlasting friendships along the way. Since this point, it has been important for me to write about impactful experiences so I am able to remember them for years to come. What makes this article special though is after my temple put my article in the monthly bulletin, the Jewish Federation of the Berkshires asked me if they could put my article in the Berkshire Jewish Voice. I was so happy to hear that people were enjoying my work and this article is one of my best reflection pieces I haw written to date.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;color: #000000\">Birthright Israel Trip Reflection<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;color: #000000\">When I arrived at John F. Kennedy airport before my journey began, I had no idea what to expect. All I could see was that I was in a group full of strangers going to a foreign land that is associated with a lot of negative connotations. I felt out of my comfort zone and even thought to myself a couple of times, \u201cWhat am I doing? Why didn\u2019t I just stay home to spend more time with my family before I have to go back to school from winter break?\u201d However, after landing at Ben Gurion airport in Tel-Aviv, what was in store for me was a trip of a lifetime that I will never forget.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;color: #000000\">Before this trip, one of the main reasons why I wanted to go to Israel was to fully understand what Israel means to me and to put a landscape to all the knowledge I had gained over the years in Hebrew school, NFTY, listening to sermons, and taking classes discussing this land\u2019s history. Over the duration of this trip though, I began to realize that these questions are not answerable with the amount of time I was in Israel. Being there for only ten days, I was challenged by speakers, Israeli soldiers, and my peers to think about Israel not just as a land of the Jewish people but as a place that has induced change within the world. I learned that Israel a state the size of New Jersey has more tech startups than any other place in the world besides in the silicon valley. I learned that Israel is one of the world\u2019s leaders in creating and producing skincare\/beauty products used by millions of people. I learned about how Israel is one of the few places in the world where people are able to balance religion and modern innovation. Without Israel, the world we live in would be on a different trajectory<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;color: #000000\">This is not to say though that Israel is a perfect country. Over the duration of this trip, it became clear to me that Israel is facing some grave issues that I would not be able to see without going there directly. For example, Israel is a segregated country. Nearly all of the Jewish and Palestinian populations live in different parts of Israel. The majority of Palestinians live within East Jerusalem and the West Bank while the Jewish population lives within West Jerusalem and Tel Aviv. This segregation was also prevalent within the Old City of Jerusalem as this small area is split up into four distinct sections based on religion including the Armenian Christians, the rest of the Christians, the Jews, and the Muslims.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;color: #000000\">Israel also faces issues between the ultra-religious Jewish people and its secular population. The best example of this is on the western wall. Although many people know that the western wall is segregated based on gender, I never realized how much more space and rights the men get at the western wall as opposed to women. The women\u2019s side of the wall is much more crowded, nobody is there to help them wrap tefillin, and there is no library while on the men\u2019s side of the wall, there is a plethora of text to read from, there is a lot of space to move around, and they\u2019re a lot of people offering to help you wrap tefillin. After talking to the Israeli soldiers on my trip, I also got some more information on other arguments between the ultra-religious Jewish people and its secular population. This mainly revolved around the issue of Shabbat and what you should and should not be allowed to do on this holiday. For example, on Shabbat, there is no public transportation in Jerusalem, yet the Israeli government wants fewer people to buy cars. Another example of this is that on Shabbat, the religious Jewish people want the Jerusalem market closed entirely while the rest of the population wants it open seven days a week.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;color: #000000\">Although I had learned a lot about Israel on this trip about its innovations and myriad of issues it faces, I also have had some of the best experiences of my life within Israel. I got to hike Masada with my friends and see the Negev on one side and the Jordan River on the other. I got the chance to put mud on my body and float in the dead sea. I got the opportunity to converse with Israeli soldiers where we got to talk about our lives and ask each other questions with no bounds. I got the opportunity to meet Jewish people my age and experience Israel with them. This trip exceeded all of my wildest dreams.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;color: #000000\">At the beginning of the trip in the airport, the tour guide of our group told us that before you know it, you will be on the plane back home wondering where the time went. During this time, I did not believe him. I thought to myself, \u201chow could a ten-day trip go by so fast?\u201d But when I found myself back at the same airport ten days later, I fully understood what he meant. After making some of the best friends I have ever made, engaging in some of the most intense conversations I have ever been apart of, and exploring my Jewish identity with forty-seven other people it all ended within the snap of your fingers. My biggest takeaway from this trip was if you ever get the chance to go on Birthright, even if you question your decision as I did in the beginning, go anyway. This experience will change your life and help you understand the true importance of Israel in this world despite the problems it faces today. You will meet incredible people and engage in experiences you will never forget. Before I left for Israel, I seriously thought that I would never want to go back to Israel after this trip. Now, I yearn to go back to Israel sometime soon to see this land again in the near future. Boy, I could not have been more initially wrong. Thank you for reading.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Link to published article &#8211; https:\/\/jewishberkshires.org\/community-events\/berkshire-jewish-voice\/berkshire-jewish-voice-highlights\/young-judaism-what-i-learned-on-my-birthright-israel-trip Article Description\u00a0 This is an article that I wrote shortly after my Birthright trip to Israel. I wrote this piece in order to reflect on my trip and critically think about what I had learned on it. I talk about how nervous I was to go on the trip [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2669,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-66","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/ad2380a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/66","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/ad2380a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/ad2380a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/ad2380a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2669"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/ad2380a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=66"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/ad2380a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/66\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/ad2380a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=66"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}},{"id":62,"date":"2021-03-06T04:09:29","date_gmt":"2021-03-06T04:09:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/ad2380a\/?page_id=62"},"modified":"2021-03-06T11:09:53","modified_gmt":"2021-03-06T11:09:53","slug":"legal-writing-sample","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/ad2380a\/legal-writing-sample\/","title":{"rendered":"Legal Writing Sample"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t<div data-elementor-type=\"wp-page\" data-elementor-id=\"62\" class=\"elementor elementor-62\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<section class=\"elementor-section elementor-top-section elementor-element elementor-element-2e34cbb8 elementor-section-boxed elementor-section-height-default elementor-section-height-default\" data-id=\"2e34cbb8\" data-element_type=\"section\" data-e-type=\"section\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-container elementor-column-gap-default\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-column elementor-col-100 elementor-top-column elementor-element elementor-element-610b88f0\" data-id=\"610b88f0\" data-element_type=\"column\" data-e-type=\"column\">\n\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-wrap elementor-element-populated\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-3744093d elementor-widget elementor-widget-text-editor\" data-id=\"3744093d\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-e-type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"text-editor.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p style=\"text-align: left\"><a href=\"http:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/ad2380a\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1278\/2021\/03\/California-v.-Texas-Mock-Opinion-of-the-Court.pdf\">California v. Texas Mock Opinion of the Court PDF<\/a><\/p><hr \/><p style=\"text-align: left\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;color: #000000\">Project Description,<\/span><\/p><p style=\"text-align: left\"><span style=\"color: #000000\">In the Fall of 2020 during my Junior year of college, I took a class called Constitutional Law Powers\/Process. In this course, I received an introduction to American Constitutional law and our political system at the federal level. While earning about this topic, I engaged in critical thinking activities regarding the American Legal System, developed problem-solving\/legal logic skills, and refined my writing\/verbal communication skills. These skills I had obtained throughout the semester helped me with the final project of the class where we engaged in a moot court case simulation. The professor assigned each individual in the course a person to emulate in the case the class chose (I was justice Neil Gorsuch). We decided to do a simulation of California v. Texas since the case had recently been heard by the Supreme Court and was a case that was highly contentious. After the class engaged in oral argument and conference, the professor asked us to write an opinion of the Court based on how the class voted and who we thought would write the document.\u00a0 This document shows my ability to write from another person&#8217;s point of view and shows that I am able to write in a legal format. It also displays my strong research abilities. Overall, I am proud of this paper and I am excited to hone my legal writing skills in the future.<\/span><\/p><hr \/><p style=\"text-align: center\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;color: #000000\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p><p style=\"text-align: center\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;color: #000000\">Opinion of the Court<\/span><\/p><p style=\"text-align: center\"><span style=\"color: #000000\"><b>SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES<\/b><\/span><\/p><p style=\"text-align: center\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;color: #000000\">_________________\u00a0<\/span><\/p><p style=\"text-align: center\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;color: #000000\">No. 19-840<\/span><\/p><p style=\"text-align: center\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;color: #000000\">_________________\u00a0<\/span><\/p><p style=\"text-align: center\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;color: #000000\">California et al. v. Texas et al.<\/span><\/p><p style=\"text-align: center\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;color: #000000\">On Writ of Certiorari to the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit<\/span><\/p><p style=\"text-align: center\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;color: #000000\">[December 4, 2020]<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;color: #000000\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;color: #000000\">Mr. Chief Justice Roberts delivered the opinion of the Court.<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;color: #000000\">Today, we resolve constitutional challenges to two provisions of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010: Whether the individual and state plaintiffs, in this case, have established standing to challenge section \u00a75000A of the individual mandate; and whether reducing the amount specified in section \u00a75000A(c) to zero rendered the minimum-coverage provision unconstitutional and if so, is the minimum-coverage provision severable from the rest of the Act? We do not consider whether the Act embodies reasonable policies. That judgment is given to the nation\u2019s elected leaders. We only ask whether Congress has the power under the Constitution to uphold the challenged provisions.\u00a0<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"color: #000000\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">In 2010, Congress enacted the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act to help increase the number of Americans covered by health insurance and to decrease the cost of healthcare. In 2012, the Court determined in the case <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">National Federation of Independent Business v. Sebelius<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> 567 U.S. __ (2012), that the individual mandate of the Affordable Care Act was unconstitutional under the Commerce Clause. However, the mandate could be read as exercising Congress\u2019 power to tax, because the Act provides that the \u201cpenalty\u201d would be paid to the Internal Revenue Service with an individual&#8217;s taxes and were \u201cassessed and collected in the same manner\u201d as tax penalties. Five years later, the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 zeroed out the penalty for violating the individual mandate. The plaintiffs of the case thus argued that reducing the amount specified in section \u00a75000A(c) to zero is a \u201ccommand for people to purchase insurance\u201d making it out of compliance with the law. As a result, this causes the individual mandate to be inseparable from the rest of the Affordable Care Act causing it to be unconstitutional as a whole.<\/span><\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"color: #000000\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The Court thinks otherwise on this matter. In <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">National Federation of Independent Business v. Sebelius <\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">567 U.S. __ (2012), it was found that under the Taxing and Spending Clause, Congress does have the power to require American citizens to buy health insurance. However, the First Amendment mentions that \u201cCongress shall make no law prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech\u201d which means that citizens have two choices when it comes to the individual mandate: buy the insurance it provides or purchase health insurance from somewhere else. Therefore, although citizens are required to have health insurance, they are not \u201ccommanded\u201d to purchase health insurance from the Affordable Care Act as people reserve the right to buy insurance provided by another entity such as their employer. As for the Act being out of compliance with the law, the Court has found no evidence of such claims. Over two centuries ago in <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">McCulloch v. Maryland, <\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">17 U.S. 316 (1819) Chief Justice Marshall determined that although the states retained the power of taxation, the Court holds the power to enact judicial review. From the Court\u2019s perspective, in <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017, Section <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u00a7<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">5000A\u2019s penalty amount had been reduced on purpose which means that the intent of the government was for the tax to be zero and can be changed at a later date if they so choose. The states have no say in this matter making <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u00a75000A(c) an operative clause and in compliance with the law as it causes no injury to anyone who does not purchase insurance from the Affordable Care Act.<\/span><\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"color: #000000\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">This brings up the question of whether the individual and state plaintiffs have established standing to challenge the minimum coverage provision in section \u00a75000A of the individual mandate. <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Cooper v. Aaron <\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">358 U.S. 1 (1958) helps answer this question. In this case, the Court held that state officials are bound by federal court orders that are derived from the Supreme Courts\u2019 decisions. Additionally, since the Supremacy Clause of Article VI makes the Constitution the supreme law of the land and <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">McCulloch v. Maryland, <\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">17 U.S. 316 (1819) makes the Court the final interpreter of the Constitution, in the case of <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Cooper v. Aaron <\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">358 U.S. 1 (1958), this means that the precedent outlined in <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Brown v. Board of Education <\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">347 U.S. 483 (1954) is binding in all states, regardless of any state laws contradicting the ruling. Therefore, <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">National Federation of Independent Business v. Sebelius<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> 567 U.S. __ (2012) serves as precedent on all matters pertaining to the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act including section \u00a75000A of the individual mandate. As such, every state must follow the ruling presented in <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">National Federation of Independent Business v. Sebelius<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> 567 U.S. __ (2012) and there would need to be concrete evidence to create standing for this case to have the Court overturn its ruling on matters that already have precedent. However, the legislative intent from the plaintiffs is viewed by this Court as a form of anticipatory action as they were not able to show that any parties were injured by the individual mandate of the Affordable Care Act being \u201cout of compliance.\u201d Also, there appear to be no legal consequences other than to pay a tax for not having health insurance which was established in <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">National Federation of Independent Business v. Sebelius<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> 567 U.S. __ (2012).<\/span><\/span><\/p><p style=\"text-align: center\"><span style=\"color: #000000\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">*<\/span> <span style=\"font-weight: 400\">*<\/span> <span style=\"font-weight: 400\">*<\/span><\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"color: #000000\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Section \u00a75000A of the individual mandate is constitutional. Although the individual mandate cannot be upheld as an exercise of Congress\u2019s power under the Commerce Clause as determined in <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">National Federation of Independent Business v. Sebelius<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> 567 U.S. __ (2012), it is within Congress\u2019s powers to change a tax at will even if it is zero dollars. In this case, the \u201cpenalty\u201d does not \u201ccommand for people to purchase insurance\u201d from the Affordable Care Act policy as they have a choice to buy insurance from an employer which means Section \u00a75000A of the individual mandate complies with the law.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"color: #000000\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">As for standing, the plaintiffs do not provide enough evidence to challenge the ruling provided in <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">National Federation of Independent Business v. Sebelius<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> 567 U.S. __ (2012) as their case is based on anticipatory action rather than concrete facts. Thus, no portion of section \u00a75000A of the individual mandate needs to be struck down at this time.<\/span><\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"color: #000000\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The Framers created a Federal Government of limited powers and gave this Court the duty of enforcing those limits. The Court does so today. The Court does not express any opinion on the wisdom concerning the individual mandate of the Affordable Care Act. Under the Constitution, that judgment is reserved for the citizens of the United States. The judgment of the Court of Appeals for Fifth Circuit is hereby reversed. <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">It is so ordered<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">.<\/span><\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;color: #000000\">For this case, there will be several concurrences and dissents from other justices. Justices Kagan, Sotomayer, and Breyer will write concurring opinions to the case focusing on the important concerns about the practical implications of overturning the Affordable Care Act in a pandemic. They will also focus on justifying the Affordable Care Act as an equal protection issue. Additionally, Justice Breyer will discuss how this case presents a separation of powers issue in line with the conservative justice\u2019s dissents. As for dissents, Justices Thomas, Alito, Kavanaugh, and Barrett will each write a dissent focusing on the separation of powers issues within the case and how a tax cannot be zero dollars as it does not provide any funds to the Internal Revenue Service. Additionally, these justices will argue that this case does have standing in the Court despite the NFIB case serving as precedent on the Affordable Care Act and the individual mandate. Justice Thomas will also say that since the individual mandate of the Affordable Care Act is unconstitutional and is essential to the operation of the Act, it is not severable from the rest of the Affordable Care Act and will make it unconstitutional in its entirety.<\/span><\/p><p style=\"text-align: center\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;color: #000000\">Work Cited<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"color: #000000\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Article I. (2020). <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Legal Information Institute<\/span><\/i><\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"color: #000000\">. Retrieved 10 December 2020, from\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0<\/span> \u00a0<\/span><a style=\"background-color: #ffffff\" href=\"https:\/\/www.law.cornell.edu\/constitution\/articlei#:~:text=Article%20I%20describes%20the%20design,the%20powers%20that%20Congress%20has.\">https:\/\/www.law.cornell.edu\/constitution\/articlei#:~:text=Article%20I%20describes<\/a>.\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0<a style=\"background-color: #ffffff\" href=\"https:\/\/www.law.cornell.edu\/constitution\/articlei#:~:text=Article%20I%20describes%20the%20design,the%20powers%20that%20Congress%20has.\">%20the<\/a><a style=\"background-color: #ffffff\" href=\"https:\/\/www.law.cornell.edu\/constitution\/articlei#:~:text=Article%20I%20describes%20the%20design,the%20powers%20that%20Congress%20has.\">%20de.sign,the%20powers%20that%20Congress%20has.<\/a><\/p><p><span style=\"color: #000000\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Article VI. (2020). <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Legal Information Institute<\/span><\/i><\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"color: #000000\">. Retrieved 10 December 2020, from\u00a0<\/span> \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0<\/span><a style=\"background-color: #ffffff\" href=\"https:\/\/www.law.cornell.edu\/wex\/supremacy_clause#:~:text=Article%20VI%2C%20Paragraph%202%20of,laws%2C%20and%20even%20state%20constitutions.\">https:\/\/www.law.cornell.edu\/wex\/supremacy_clause#:~:text=Article%20VI%2C%20.\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 Paragraph%202%20of,laws%2C%20and%20even%20state%20constitutions.<\/a><\/p><p><span style=\"color: #000000\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">California v. Texas. (n.d.). <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Oyez<\/span><\/i><\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"color: #000000\">. Retrieved 10 December 2020, from<\/span>\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0<\/span><a style=\"background-color: #ffffff\" href=\"https:\/\/www.oyez.org\/cases\/2020\/19-840\">https:\/\/www.oyez.org\/cases\/2020\/19-840<\/a><\/p><p><span style=\"color: #000000\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Cooper v. Aaron. (n.d.). <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Oyez<\/span><\/i><\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"color: #000000\">. Retrieved 10 December\u00a0 2020, from<\/span>\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0<\/span><a style=\"background-color: #ffffff\" href=\"https:\/\/www.oyez.org\/cases\/1957\/1_misc\">https:\/\/www.oyez.org\/cases\/1957\/1_misc<\/a><\/p><p><span style=\"color: #000000\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">McCulloch v. Maryland. (n.d.). <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Oyez<\/span><\/i><\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"color: #000000\">. Retrieved 10 December 2020, from\u00a0<\/span> \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0<\/span><a style=\"background-color: #ffffff\" href=\"https:\/\/www.oyez.org\/cases\/1789-1850\/17us316\">https:\/\/www.oyez.org\/cases\/1789-1850\/17us316<\/a><\/p><p><span style=\"color: #000000\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">National Federation of Independent Business v. Sebelius. <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Supreme Court of the United States<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/span><span style=\"color: #000000\">(2020). Retrieved 10 December 2020, from\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0<\/span> \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0<a style=\"background-color: #ffffff\" href=\"https:\/\/www.supremecourt.gov\/opinions\/11pdf\/11-393c3a2.pdf\">https:\/\/www.supremecourt.gov\/opinions\/11pdf\/11-393c3a2.pdf<\/a><\/p><p><span style=\"color: #000000\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">National Federation of Independent Business v. Sebelius. (n.d.). <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Oyez<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">. Retrieved 10 December\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0<\/span>2020, from <\/span><a style=\"background-color: #ffffff\" href=\"https:\/\/www.oyez.org\/cases\/2011\/11-393\">https:\/\/www.oyez.org\/cases\/2011\/11-393<\/a><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>California v. Texas Mock Opinion of the Court PDF Project Description, In the Fall of 2020 during my Junior year of college, I took a class called Constitutional Law Powers\/Process. In this course, I received an introduction to American Constitutional law and our political system at the federal level. While earning about this topic, I [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2669,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-62","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/ad2380a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/62","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/ad2380a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/ad2380a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/ad2380a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2669"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/ad2380a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=62"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/ad2380a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/62\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/ad2380a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=62"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}},{"id":44,"date":"2019-12-05T03:29:44","date_gmt":"2019-12-05T03:29:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/ad2380a\/?page_id=44"},"modified":"2021-03-17T09:52:43","modified_gmt":"2021-03-17T13:52:43","slug":"spa-leadership-individual-project","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/ad2380a\/spa-leadership-individual-project\/","title":{"rendered":"Qualitative Methods Research Paper"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t<div data-elementor-type=\"wp-page\" data-elementor-id=\"44\" class=\"elementor elementor-44\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<section class=\"elementor-section elementor-top-section elementor-element elementor-element-7c669f84 elementor-section-boxed elementor-section-height-default elementor-section-height-default\" data-id=\"7c669f84\" data-element_type=\"section\" data-e-type=\"section\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-container elementor-column-gap-default\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-column elementor-col-100 elementor-top-column elementor-element elementor-element-dc34b60\" data-id=\"dc34b60\" data-element_type=\"column\" data-e-type=\"column\">\n\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-wrap elementor-element-populated\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-7d27c482 elementor-widget elementor-widget-text-editor\" data-id=\"7d27c482\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-e-type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"text-editor.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p><a href=\"http:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/ad2380a\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1278\/2021\/02\/Final-Research-Paper.pdf\">Final Research Paper PDF\u00a0<\/a><\/p><p><a href=\"http:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/ad2380a\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1278\/2021\/03\/Project-Presentation.pdf\">Project Presentation<\/a><\/p><hr \/><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;color: #000000\">Project Description<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"color: #000000\">In the Fall of 2020 during my Junior year of college, I completed a research project focused on sports activism within the United States. As a passionate sports fan and researcher, I wanted to learn about how <span style=\"font-weight: 400\">athletes within team sports in the United States have brought attention to racial inequality since the end of the civil rights movement. This research topic is also relevant to the current sports world as, in 2020, a<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">thlete activism has hit an all-time high, and issues involving racial inequality have come to the forefront of politics in the United States. After doing extensive research of prior literature written within the field, it was surprising to find that there was no analysis looking at a possible relationship between politics and the rise of athlete activism presenting a gap in the research. This study utilized a qualitative approach to examining the research question by utilizing a historical model and codebook method to help develop theory on athlete activism<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">.<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> The findings of the research analysis show that there is a strong relationship <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">between <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">politics and athlete activism lending support to the research hypothesis that due to the changing political culture, the rise of social media, and the financial success athlete activists have given professional sports leagues in the United States, they are becoming an important part of the sports world&#8217;s identity<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">. Overall, I enjoyed learning more about the intricacies of athlete activism in the United States and I hope I can do more research on this topic in the future.<\/span><\/span><\/p><hr \/><p style=\"text-align: center\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;color: #000000\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p><p style=\"text-align: center\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;color: #000000\">Symbolic Protest on the Rise: A Qualitative Report on How Athlete Activism Has Influenced Change in Sports Across America<\/span><\/p><p style=\"text-align: center\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;color: #000000\">Ari Drayman<\/span><\/p><p style=\"text-align: center\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;color: #000000\">PSC 201: Applied Qualitative Methods<\/span><\/p><p style=\"text-align: center\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;color: #000000\">December 11, 2020<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"color: #000000\"><b>Abstract<\/b><\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"color: #000000\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The purpose of this research paper is to identify how athletes within team sports in the United States have brought attention to racial inequality over time. This topic is important because, in 2020, athlete activism has hit an all-time high, and issues involving racial inequality have come to the forefront of politics in the United States. After doing extensive research of prior literature written within the field, it was surprising to find that there was no analysis looking at a possible relationship between politics and the rise of athlete activism presenting a gap in the research. This study utilized a qualitative approach to examining the research question by utilizing a historical model and codebook method to help develop theory on athlete activism<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">.<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> The findings of the research analysis show that there is a strong relationship <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">between <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">politics and athlete activism lending support to the research hypothesis that due to the changing political culture, the rise of social media, and the financial success athlete activists have given professional sports leagues in the United States, they are becoming an important part of the sports world&#8217;s identity<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">.<\/span><\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"color: #000000\"><b>Introduction<\/b><\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;color: #000000\">Since the invention of the ball and competition, athletic activities have played a central role within societies across the globe.\u00a0 Sports have amassed astronomical fan bases and have become one of the most profitable sectors of the entertainment industry. Millions of people dream of playing for a professional team or work within the field and want to be a part of this business. Yet, the politics of sports are often overlooked by political scientists, fans, and sports organizations alike as the main goal of the industry is to entertain the masses while making a profit. Despite this oversight, athletes have slowly become politically active as they began to realize that they have a recognizable platform to send their message out to the public. Early examples of athletes using their sport to send out political messages include Jackie Robinson, Muhammed Ali, and Fritz Pollard.\u00a0<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;color: #000000\">However, from the perspective of people who care deeply about the inner workings of the business of sports, they believe that \u201csports and politics don\u2019t mix\u201d (Gift &amp; Miner, 2017). Political scientists are reluctant to study politics within sports because there is a lack of good data within the field to work with and sports are generally perceived as an unserious topic compared to other political issues such as voting or war (Gift &amp; Miner, 2017). This study explains this gap in the research and delineates how athletes use their epistemic power to become activists for racial equality on and off the playing field.\u00a0<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"color: #000000\"><b>History of Activism in the United States Since the 1960s<\/b><\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;color: #000000\">During the 1960s, activism within the United States was at an all-time high. Civil rights groups were using both violent and non-violent protests to fight for minority rights and social change. Activists like Martin Luther King, Rosa Parks, and Malcolm X were at the forefront of these movements and developed a blueprint for dissident minorities to fight for what they believed in. From these two approaches of protesting (violent and non-violent), we learn that the media sees activism from different points of view. Violent protests were seen as \u201cdisorderly riots\u201d and \u201cuprisings\u201d while non-violent protests were seen as people fighting for their rights (Wasow, 2020). These two forms of protesting triggered varying results from the elite population and the masses within the United States.\u00a0<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;color: #000000\">Although there was backlash against both forms of protest, non-violent protests were much more effective. This is because people against this form of activism had no platform to fight these protestors as they were not breaking the law or the Constitution in any facet. Violent protests on the other hand brought negative media attention to the minority populations of the time and were heavily exploited by the populations who wanted segregation laws to not change (Wasow, 2020). As such, non-violent protest has become the most common form of activism to fight for political change and is the protest of choice for athletes across all sports (Wasow, 2020).<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;color: #000000\">After the civil rights movement peaked in the 1960s, activism for racial inequality changed. Many people involved with the civil rights movement became a part of the black nationalist movement. This group fought for limited forms of black autonomy as they still felt they were under the constructs of Jim Crow laws while other activists were still fighting for dissident minorities to be more integrated into American Society (Valls, 2010). There were impending questions from the minorities of the United States about what was next in the fight for racial equality and who was going to step up to continue this seemingly never-ending battle? According to Eisinger (1974) in a 1970 survey of Milwaukee residents eighteen and over, forty-three percent of the black population wanted to see more protests to gain attention and win their demands while fifty-two percent of the white population wanted to see less protest in Milwaukee (Eisinger, 1974). These survey results illustrate the deep-rooted issues of racial inequality within the United States. In reality, although minorities can have significant public influence by creating groups with large followings like the civil rights movements, they often are vulnerable to the majority\u2019s demands and are easily weakened by people ignoring what they have to say (Schraub, 2020). This calls into the conversation a new population that previously spoke little on the issues regarding racial inequality. Athletes at this time in American history were more concerned about building a brand and helping the sports industry grow rather than become political activists. However, as sports leagues garnered more notoriety and athletes were starting to become celebrity-like influences on a national scale, their voices were becoming important for the minority populations&#8217; push toward racial equality in the United States.<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"color: #000000\"><b>The Development of Athlete Activism<\/b><\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;color: #000000\">Throughout the twentieth century, athlete activism was starting to become popular for players who wanted to stand up for their rights.\u00a0 We do have historic examples of athlete activism occurring at this time in history such as with Kareem Abdul Jabbar boycotting the 1968 Olympics, Elgin Baylor refusing to play in an NBA game after he was told he could not stay in the team hotel in West Virginia due to Jim Crow laws 1958, and Jim Brown who founded the Black Economic Union which facilitated black athlete involvement and investment in black-run business ventures (Whitener, 2020). However, although these are famous examples of athlete activism, they are largely the exception to the rule in earlier eras. Athletes have historically shied away from activism due to gaining negative attention in the media, putting their job security into jeopardy, and losing endorsement deals.\u00a0<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"color: #000000\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">In American sports today, athletes possess a celebrity level of influence and have a large amount of epistemic power. Epistemic power is defined as <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">the ability to influence what others believe, think, or know (Archer et al., 2020). When it comes to activism in the past, many famous athletes did not fight for social change while playing their sport and were heavily criticized by minority populations. An example of this phenomenon taking place was with Michael Jordan who famously said that \u201cRepublicans buy sneakers too.\u201d This type of attitude toward activism within sports started to take hold after the civil rights movements as athletes no longer felt an obligation to fight for social change or protest the issues going on in the United States (Cassilo &amp; Coombs, 2017). Sports during the civil rights movement did not garner the massive appeal that they did from the 1980s into modern times. Athletes were trying to be as uncontroversial as possible while trying to become more nationally recognized. As athletes started to become recognized on a national scale though, their epistemic power started to grow.<\/span><\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"color: #000000\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Additionally, athletes are worried about being activists because they have seen the consequences that come with fighting for the rights of others and are worried about how their actions may affect their image or their job security. Athlete activists have more opposition than other celebrities with a lot of epistemic power due to their large fanbase and the business side of sports (Kaufman, 2008). A great example of an athlete experiencing the consequences for their activist actions is Colin Kaepernick. Back in 2016, Colin Kaepernick kneeled during the national anthem before every football game. His motive for kneeling during the national anthem was to bring attention to the harsh treatment of African Americans by law enforcement and used the football field to show his symbolic protest to the world. Although his protest did garner a lot of support from Americans, he also had critics, many of which held positions of power in the sports world. Former Baltimore Ravens coach Brian Billick said that Kaepernick was not, \u201cliving up to his responsibility as a team member\u201d and many people believed that he was putting the San Francisco 49ers in a difficult position <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">(Gift &amp; Miner, 2017).\u00a0 After the 2016 season, Colin Kaepernick was released from the <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">San Francisco 49ers due to a \u201ccontract dispute\u201d and has not been able to find a job in the NFL since. Many people believe that he was blackballed from the NFL due to being an athlete activist even if the NFL denies such claims.<\/span><\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;color: #000000\">Despite the consequences many athletes have faced for being a part of symbolic protests on and off the field, more athletes each year are starting to become comfortable with being activists using different forms of media to send out their message. The athletes that have had the most success with inducing social change are the ones who have the most epistemic power (aka the superstars of each sport). LeBron James has been a model athlete activist since the early 2010s as he is one of the most recognizable athletes on the planet and has a lot of pull when he says something. Although he does have his critics, sports executives do not want to displease him as he is the face of the NBA and his status gives him the perfect platform to be one of the most successful athlete activists of all time. This has allowed him to bring awareness to the Black Lives Matter movement and the many social issues America currently faces (Cassilo &amp; Coombs, 2017).\u00a0<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;color: #000000\">Yet, athletes of superstar status are not the only ones becoming activists in the sports world. In a study conducted by Peter Kaufman and Eli Wolff, they found that although there are not that many athlete activists as or right now, their numbers are quickly rising, and as the issues, they are fighting for are becoming more solidified, they believe that sports can and should be a vehicle for progressive and social change (Kaufman &amp; Wolff, 2010). As younger college-aged athletes start moving up to the next level, they will be able to build off of the platform other professional players had developed before them. According to a study conducted at Texas A&amp;M University, many black male college athletes still believe that race is an important issue in American society, having knowledge about the activism of black athletes from the past is important, and that they have a responsibility to speak on social issues that affect the United States today (Agyemang, 2010). This notion of future professional players displays the influence that athlete activists have on the impressionable youth of America. Not only did they grow up seeing symbolic protest but they also believe that the activism of athletes is making a difference in creating social change and think that continuing this legacy with the right use of the epistemic power they develop will further help sports promote activism in the future.<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"color: #000000\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Although sports and politics may not always get along, the literature examining the relationship between these two entities has been able to find that political scientists should pay more attention to this relationship. Such a study would be relevant because as athlete activism becomes more prevalent in sports, more people are going to want to understand how activism, symbolic protest, and sports all got so intertwined with each other and why there is so much controversy surrounding activism in sports. Thus I hypothesize that <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">due to the changing political culture and the rise of social media in the United States, athlete activism is becoming an important part of the sports world&#8217;s identity.<\/span><\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"color: #000000\"><b>Methodology<\/b><\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;color: #000000\">In an attempt to support the hypothesis, I used the historical model as a guide in collecting my data. The historical model is based on describing past events to understand present patterns and helps with theory building. This model helped me focus on finding impactful events of athlete activism in team sports since the civil rights movement and allowed me to construct a theory on why athlete activism has exploded in our world today and what the future holds for activism in sports. After learning more about the historical model and the benefits of this research method, it became clear that both primary and secondary sources were important in answering my research question. Primary sources are first-hand accounts of an event from an eyewitness account while secondary sources are documents created by an individual who did not participate in the event being researched. The types of primary and secondary sources I was looking for included online articles, photographs, and social media posts. I wanted to use these types of sources because they do the best job of formulating a story over time of how athlete activism has become an important part of the sports industry.<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"color: #000000\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">At the beginning of the research process, I looked for sources on the Eastern Connecticut State University library database because I wanted to find evidence that was credible and unbiased. However, after reading some of the articles, I began to realize that the documents on the database were not helping me answer my research question and did not align with the historical model I was following. Thus, I turned to Google which presented a wide array of documentation that was able to help me piece the puzzle together in answering my research question. I chose documentation that would receive a lot of traffic from the subscriber bases of news outlets such as <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The New York Times, Twitter, <\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">and <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Sports Illustrated<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">. This is important because the subscribers would be able to see what is going on in real-time and learn more about the topic of athlete activism even if they glance at an article for a brief period of time.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;color: #000000\">Using the historical model as a guide, I searched for articles that discussed athlete activism during the civil rights movement first and then slowly moved further up in time until I reached 2020. To be more specific, I search for major events concerning athlete activism in increments of one decade. For example, I first looked for sources that were discussing the major events and people involved with athlete activism between the years 1960 &#8211; 1970. Then I would move on the years between 1970 &#8211; 1980 and so on. Due to the limited amounts of primary data on athlete activism before the 2010s, I used secondary sources to learn about the important contributors to athlete activism during these times. Additionally, I compiled evidence from news sources that have either a sport or political focus. Since these are the two main topics within my research question, it felt appropriate to include documentation from both points of view.<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;color: #000000\">On the topic of secondary sources, I made sure that none of the documentation of this type was older than five years old. This is because I was worried about some secondary sources not aging well or predicting events that never happened. As a result, all of the secondary sources I used for this study on symbolic protests were written or produced recently (fifteen of the sources were published in 2020) and show what we have learned from athlete activism in the past.<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"color: #000000\"><b>Data Analysis Approach\u00a0<\/b><\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;color: #000000\">I approached analyzing my data by reading each article used in the analysis section multiple times and found photos\/social media posts that were relevant in answering my research question. For the articles, I first did an unstructured read of each piece of evidence trying to identify if it was a primary source or a secondary source. Then, on my second read, if the article was a secondary source and talking about athlete activism before 2016, I wanted to make sure that it was discussing an athlete and event that would help a reader understand the present patterns of modern athlete activism before reading it again. If the article was a primary source or a secondary source discussing modern athlete activism though, I read it to make sure that the topics they were discussing would help me with theory building with regards to what is the future of athlete activism and symbolic protests in sports. After each piece of evidence passed my test on the second read, I then created a codebook outlining the important athletes\/professional leagues each piece was mentioning, the symbolic protest they started\/were a part of, and what year it occurred. The codebook helped me describe past and present events of athlete activism in the analysis section of the study.<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;color: #000000\">As for the social media post and photos, my main goal was to use these forms of documentation to emphasize important points and themes throughout the paper. Therefore, after I finished reading all the articles, I found social media posts or photos of athletes that had a significant impact on the development of athlete activism as we see it today. This type of evidence helps the audience put a face to the name they are reading about and see the symbolic protest they are partaking in. Additionally, the photos and social media posts show how athlete activism is affecting public perceptions on symbolic protests in sports as well as their thoughts on athletes becoming political activists on and off the field.\u00a0<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;color: #000000\">All of the data I collected was essential in understanding the development of athlete activism and helping me answer my research question. The analysis approach process outlined above helped me with finding themes in the field that are important to the evolving story of this topic such as how the political climate of the United States directly affected athletes activism and the effectiveness of symbolic protest as well as the importance of social media in promoting athletes as the social activist of the future. This analysis approach helped me avoid picking articles that supported my position. At the beginning stages of this research project, I believed that athlete activism was a modern phenomenon that took off in the past decade after the political controversies concerning the shootings of minorities by white police officers. However, after doing some extensive research of peer-reviewed literature and analyzing articles discussing the history of athlete activism, I learned that this is not the case. This information helped me redefine my research question and develop a new position on the history of athlete activism in the United States.<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"color: #000000\"><b>Athlete Activism Before 2016<\/b><\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;color: #000000\">The analysis of the data suggests that there has been a dramatic shift in athlete activism over time. In the past there have been several symbolic protests that have made a difference in the way we see sports activism today. For example, athletes have handed letters to the president explaining the issues of racial inequality, knelt during the national anthem, and locked arms together on the field. Yet, the main difference between athlete activism during the civil rights era and modern times is the number of athletes focused on activism. Back in the civil rights era, athlete activism was centered around individual players where most of the time, they had no support from their teammates or other people close to them. However, in the sports world today, this dynamic has shifted as athlete activism is more team-oriented and players support each other when taking part in symbolic protests on and off the field. Despite knowing this, no individual sports player had more to do with the rise of modern athlete activism than Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.\u00a0<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;color: #000000\">During his time in the NBA, he was the youngest member of the Cleveland Summit which was held back in 1967 and refused an invitation to play on the 1968 Olympic men\u2019s basketball team. He decided instead to show children in New York City how to play basketball and teach them the importance of education (Abdul-Jabbar &amp; Whitener, 2018 &amp; 2020). His symbolic protests served as a blueprint for team athlete activists of the future to peacefully fight for racial inequality as sports were gaining more attention from the general public and becoming highly profitable. He wanted to show America that the push for racial equality cannot be fought alone but has to be fought as a group since he would never succeed without the help of his teammates and coaches supporting his cause. Being a part of the Cleveland Summit demonstrated this initiative and by supporting the civil rights movement, he was advocating for change on a national scale.\u00a0<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;color: #000000\">However, for the next three decades athlete activism took a backseat in most players\u2019 minds. At the time, athletes were concerned about losing their jobs and\/or their endorsement deals as this was \u201c&#8230;the era before huge multimillion-dollar guaranteed contracts (Bembry, 2016).\u201d As a result, athletes steered clear of politics to the best of their ability including superstars like Michael Jordan and Magic Johnson. This ideology of athletes was shown when Craig Hodges (Michael Jordan\u2019s teammate) wanted to boycott the first game of the 1991 NBA finals to bring attention to the police beating of Rodney King. Although Michael Jordan and Magic Johnson were superstars in the NBA and had more than enough money to live comfortably if they were exiled from the league, they refused to support his cause saying that he was on his own (Ryan, 2020). Since other NBA players refused to support him, he took matters into his own hands by \u201c&#8230;[showing] up at the White House wearing a dashiki after his team won the 1992 title, and handed President George Bush a letter requesting that more be done for black communities in America (Bembry, 2016).\u201d Unfortunately for Craig Hodges, he never played another game in the NBA after handing his letter to the president even though he was one of the best three-point shooters in the league at the time. The blackballing of Craig Hodges reaffirmed the notion that politics and sports should never be intertwined. The professional sports leagues were sending out a message to athlete activists saying that you have to make a choice: either shut up and play or never participate in professional sports ever again. This decision was too much for most athletes to bear at the time and nearly all of them kept quiet on and off the court that is until 2016.<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"color: #000000\"><b>The Rise of Modern Athlete Activism<\/b><\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;color: #000000\">Amid a heated presidential election race and at a time where symbolic protests were only performed by superstar athletes who had strong job security like LeBron James, Colin Kaepernick (who was the quarterback of the 49ers at the time), decided to sit on the bench during the national anthem in the preseason of the 2016 NFL season where he was noticed by a reporter. When he was asked about this action, Colin Kaepernick said that \u201cI am not going to stand up to show pride in a flag for a country that oppresses black people and people of color (Haislop, 2020).\u201d In wake of his protest, he received backlash as at the time only 20% of sports fans supported athlete activism (Serazio, 2020). As a result, Colin Kaepernick has a conversation with a former military member named Nate Boyer where they both agreed that Colin Kaepernick should kneel if he wanted to protest the national anthem as this is what military members do in front of deceased soldiers graves (Haislop, 2020). After this conversation, Colin Kaepernick takes a knee before each game the rest of the season as illustrated by the image below,\u00a0<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"color: #000000\"><b>\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0<\/b><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft\" style=\"margin-left: 0px;margin-top: 0px\" src=\"https:\/\/lh5.googleusercontent.com\/UdBLPT2IQaQsp2LOVjWk3vZLaOSyqLDJELmnVJK3iBGT4x1WuEhCBv7NLXfS_ePtQRRnXoVkTJRise7pVefErWqJ7M7m3l5h1LgogokDmLapcLnNdGbUDJgCMAPkbgjOJ7jOMmJD\" alt=\"PHOTO: Eli Harold #58, Colin Kaepernick #7, center, and Eric Reid #35 of the San Francisco 49ers kneel in protest on the sideline, during the anthem, prior to the game against the Buffalo Bills at New Era Field, Oct. 16, 2016, in Orchard Park, New York.\" width=\"314\" height=\"177\" \/><\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"color: #000000\">Colin Kaepernick and his teammates Eli Harold (Left) and Eric Reid (Right) kneeling during the\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 national anthem (Michael Zagaris\/Getty Images)<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;color: #000000\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;color: #000000\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;color: #000000\">After looking at the image, it becomes clear that he is not the only person who wanted to symbolically protest or bring attention to the issues of racial inequality. His teammate Eric Reid was the first person other than Colin Kaepernick to kneel for the national anthem in the NFL and after Barack Obama defended his protest, many other NFL players followed his lead by not only kneeling during the national anthem but also pointing their fist up in the air to further demonstrate their displeasure with the issues of racial inequality in the United States (Haislop, 2020). Although players were symbolically protesting at the time, this phenomenon was not widespread across all professional sports leagues and a lot of athletes were still reluctant to protest off the field that is until Donald Trump entered the fold.\u00a0<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;color: #000000\">When Donald Trump was elected president, a lot of athletes were displeased with his comments regarding his stance on athlete activism. When he was running for president in 2016 he posted on Twitter that Colin Kaepernick and other players protesting during the national anthem should leave the country (Haislop, 2016). A year later though, Trump\u2019s comments on athlete activism started to become more public and offensive. At a campaign rally for Senator Luther Strange in Alabama, Trump said in front of the crowd, \u201cwouldn\u2019t you love to see one of these NFL owners, when somebody disrespects the flag, to say \u2018get that son of a bitch off the field right now\u2019 (Romo, 2017)?\u201d He then went on a Twitter rant a couple of days after his rally remark saying that professional athletes should not be allowed to disrespect the American flag or should be fired and find something else to do (Romo, 2017). These comments angered many athlete activists and caused them to take to social media to voice their frustrations. For example, Stephen Curry refused to go to the White House after winning a championship with the Golden State Warriors (it is a tradition for a championship team to visit the president at the White House) and LeBron James called Trump a \u201cbum\u201d on Twitter and said that \u201cgoing to [the] White House was a great honor until you showed up (Romo, 2017)!\u201d The comments of Trump shows how intertwined sports and politics have become with each other since Colin Kaepernick\u2019s decision to symbolically protest the national anthem. Trump\u2019s outcry has encouraged more athlete activists than ever before to bring attention to the issues of racial inequality in the United States.\u00a0<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"color: #000000\"><b>Athlete Activism in the United States Today<\/b><\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;color: #000000\">Since Trump\u2019s remarks in 2017, athlete activists from all professional team sports in the United States started to symbolically protest no matter how well known they were within their respective sport. A good example of this phenomenon occurring was in the MLB where Bruce Maxwell, a catcher for the Oakland Athletics, became the first player to take a knee in this league (Romo &amp; Bembry 2017). What is interesting about Maxwell\u2019s case is that he had made his MLB debut only two months before symbolically protesting in September which means he was taking a huge risk by kneeling for the national anthem despite not being an established player in the MLB. A month later, Tampa Bay Lightning forward J.T. Brown became the first person in the NHL to symbolically protest before a game as he raised his fist in the air. Athlete activists were becoming more comfortable with symbolically protesting both within and outside of their prospective sports and since 2017, the political terrain has started to shift against Donald Trump\u2019s outcries for athlete activism to stop.<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;color: #000000\">This shift in beliefs within most people began to take shape on September 3, 2018, after Colin Kaepernick appeared as the face of Nike\u2019s 30th-anniversary ad campaign. Although there was some initial backlash to the ad campaign (including President Trump) all over social media saying that people should boycott the company and burn their Nike products, \u201cthe Apex Marketing Group has estimated that Nike has gained over $163,000,000 in publicity value since announcing Kaepernick would be the face of the \u2018Just Do It\u2019 campaign, with $49 million of that being negative publicity (Dator, 2018).\u201d Therefore, Nike has gained a lot more positive publicity value than they lost and this was seen as a huge win for athlete activists across America. Never before has a large sports-oriented corporation used an athlete activist as the face of its campaign. Even a few years prior, many people thought this would be impossible. Yet, this type of publicity is succeeding in showing athletes that the messages they are spreading through their symbolic protest and social media posts are being heard and are making a difference on a macro as well as micro-level. Professional Sports leagues also saw the financial success of Nike&#8217;s ad campaign and started to learn that athlete activism can be profitable if marketed correctly.<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;color: #000000\">This ad campaign started a new age for athlete activism in the United States. Remember back in 2016 how only 20% of fans supported athlete activism? Well in 2020, \u201cNielsen found that 70% of American sports fans want teams and [professional sports] leagues to support athlete activism. A similar majority expect athletes to be involved with the movement for racial justice, believing that athletes possess \u2018important influence\u2019 over social change (Serazio, 2020).\u201d Although Colin Kaepernick ended up being blackballed from the NFL for his actions, he walked so other athlete activists could soar. Since the 2018 Nike ad campaign, athletes activists have become a staple of all professional sports leagues across the United States and they are on board with supporting their players. In the NHL during the national anthem, they played slogans like \u201cEnd Racism\u201d and \u201c#WeSkateForBLACKLIVES\u201d on large video screens for fans to see (Campbell, 2020). In the NBA bubble, players wore black lives matter shirts and had activists slogans on their jerseys, and even refused to play games after the shooting of Jacob Blake (Rosenburg, 2020). The NFL has committed to writing \u201cEnd Racism\u201d and \u201cIt Takes All of Us\u201d on the endzones during each game of the 2020 season (Just, 2020).\u00a0<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;color: #000000\">These types of actions from professional sports leagues have helped athlete activists become bolder in their ambitions to bring attention to the issues of racial inequality. Amid the Black Lives Matter movement protests, athletes such as Kenny Stills have been a part of nationwide protests for the Jacob Blake and Breonna Taylor shootings. Kenny Stills was arrested for his participation in a Breonna Taylor protest in Louisville, Kentucky and spent a night in jail with eighty-six other protestors (Wolfe, 2020). A couple of years ago, most athletes would have refused to participate in nationwide protests let alone be willing to be arrested in the fight for social change like Kenny Stills. It would have been too risky for players to be a part of these protests as they could lose their job\/sponsors or worse be blackballed from playing the sports they love. Yet in the year 2020, a professional athlete activist was arrested and put in jail for his participation in a peaceful protest and he still has a job and can hold his head high. Athlete activism and symbolic protest have become a staple of professional sports on and off the field and they are not going away anytime soon.\u00a0<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;color: #000000\">Despite the strides athlete activists have made both through symbolic protest and social media posts, there is still a lot of backlash with the rise of athlete activism in sports. For instance, when the players of the Houston Texans and Kansas City Chiefs locked arms on the opening night of the NFL season in 2020, the fans booed the demonstration (Pheiffer, 2020). TV ratings of professional sports leagues have also been down within recent years.\u00a0 During the 2019 season, the NFL\u2019s television ratings were down ten percent from the previous year and \u201cat least one study has found that nearly one-third of 1,000 random respondents were less likely to watch a game because of players protesting during the national anthem (Platt, 2018).\u201d Millions of sports fans are outraged about the rise in athlete activism within professional sports as many fans voice their displeasure at games throughout the season by bringing signs and booing acts of athlete activism such as in the image shown below,\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"color: #000000\"><span id=\"docs-internal-guid-02009a0f-7fff-4b01-861c-33a4d1d304fc\"><span style=\"border: none;overflow: hidden;width: 381px;height: 216px\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft\" style=\"margin-left: 0px;margin-top: 0px\" src=\"https:\/\/lh6.googleusercontent.com\/mBVFmf0wNvKIes6Wce2ZAV_tQvIVMr1dl9hlQo9urI_nqh2tGde0Mwn0xch57inZYXJbyKCWznHrlChHkbpwlPCdVmOshclh11yELJ9xNJa0oXDvaQfsWFX5wQzmFgt0vyUhCTki\" alt=\"Fan dressed in camouflage holds sign protesting players kneeling for the national anthem\" width=\"289\" height=\"162\" \/><\/span><\/span><b><br \/><\/b><\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"color: #000000\">A fan holds a sign protesting the kneeling by players during the national anthem before the game between the Buffalo Bills and the Arizona Cardinals in 2016. (Photo by Brett Carlsen\/Getty Images)<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"color: #000000\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;color: #000000\">This type of outrage from fans of sports has been partially egged on by President Donald Trump. Throughout his presidency, he has spoken against athletes being activists wanting them to shut up and play sports and he has become more ingrained in his stance since his comments on athlete activism back in 2017. When Trump was asked about the protest within the NBA in 2020 he responded by saying that, \u201cunfortunately, they\u2019ve become like a political organization, and that\u2019s not a good thing for sports or this country (Mccaskill &amp; Mcgraw 2020).\u201d The views of the president have amassed a huge following as he continues to call out players such as LeBron James and Colin Kaepernick for their activist actions. Donald Trump has had more of an influence on athlete activism than any other political figure in the past. No matter the outcome of the 2020 presidential election, his past actions will continue to be a part of the equation when it comes to how athletes activists spread their messages on racial inequality in the United States.\u00a0<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"color: #000000\"><b>Discussion<\/b><\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;color: #000000\">The findings of this study help develop a relationship between politics and sports that was previously ignored by the political science community. This is explained in Thomas Gift and Andrew Miner\u2019s work \u201cDropping the Ball\u201d where they write about how the lack of attention on sports by political scientists is a missed opportunity and creates a void within the political science and sports field alike (Gift and Miner, 2017). Throughout my research, the most notable evidence that helps me answer my research question has to do with social media. In the modern world, social media has become an integral part of our society and the easiest method for most people to communicate to a wide audience. This is a fundamental way professional sports organizations and athletes alike can spread their messages to a large audience across the United States. Since Colin Kaepernick started to kneel during the national anthem, people have been able to learn about his symbolic protest because his actions were not only broadcasted before the games but they were also posted on Twitter, Instagram, and other forms of social media including a Nike ad that was widely publicized in 2018. Additionally, a lot of athlete activists have a sizable amount of epistemic power in addition to large social media followings which means that they are bringing a lot of attention to their messages regardless of whether the attention is positive or negative.\u00a0<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;color: #000000\">The rise of social media also tells a story as to why there are more athlete activists in sports willing to fight against racial injustice than in the past. To put it simply, the world has changed and social activism in sports is no longer controlled by athletes with a radical voice that are not being heard. Throughout the civil rights era up until the 2010s, athlete activists such as Kareem Abdul-Jabaar and Craig Hodges that were willing to speak their minds were few and far between (Ryan, 2020). Many athletes were worried about losing their jobs and endorsement deals for bringing politics into sports. However, in today&#8217;s world, the number of athlete activists willing to bring attention to racial inequality has significantly grown throughout the 2010s. As a result,\u00a0 it has become more accepted by both professional sports leagues and fans alike (critics aside) to support athlete activists in their endeavors even going as far as letting athletes do their own demonstrations on the field during the national anthem and have slogans on their jerseys or helmets that bring attention to the issues of racial inequality in the United States. The rise of the Black Lives Matter movement and the shootings of African Americans such as Tamir Rice have also helped athlete activists further justify their reasons for continuing to bring attention to the issue of racial inequality than in the past.\u00a0<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"color: #000000\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The political climate has also become an important part of the conversation when discussing the rise of athlete activism throughout professional sports. Back before the modern era, sports and politics were largely separate entities and everyone was reluctant to intertwine them due to the reasons mentioned previously. However, through President Trump&#8217;s actions of calling out players on Twitter and at his rallies, many athlete activists were upset and felt personally attacked. This created a domino effect causing many athletes to be even louder when bringing attention to racial inequality by creating and participating in more symbolic protests such as continuing to kneel for the national anthem, attending protests of the Black Lives Matter movement, and even refusing to play scheduled matches forcing them to be postponed. The political climate has also forced the professional sports leagues to choose sides in either supporting the political messages of powerful political figures or the athletes. In the past, professional sports leagues were worried about the negative opinions of fans and politicians alike so if there was an athlete activist who was not a star player within a league, they would have no problem with letting them go. However, the professional sports leagues&#8217; tune has changed on the matter. Sports are generating more revenue and have a bigger fanbase than in the past developed by the rising popularity of athletes in sports. Additionally, athlete activism has produced good publicity and has brought in new fans who previously refused to watch games because the sports leagues did not support their players.\u00a0 These new fans have helped professional sports become more financially successful than ever before. Knowing this, professional sports leagues have started to back the athlete activists they employ, proven by their willingness to let them perform their symbolic protest without challenge and even putting messages to denounce racial inequality on the field and on their social media accounts. Professional sports leagues have also denounced Trump&#8217;s remarks regarding athlete activists and did not punish their players for calling out Donald Trump on social media. Through this research, I was able to provide support to my hypothesis that due to the changing political culture, the rise of social media, and the financial success athlete activists have given professional sports leagues in the United States, they are becoming an important part of the sports world&#8217;s identity<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">.<\/span><\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"color: #000000\"><b>Conclusion\u00a0<\/b><\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;color: #000000\">Since the end of the civil rights era, athletes activists have come a long way on their journey to being heard by the greater population of America. From refusing to intertwine politics with sports to being worried about losing their jobs and endorsement deals, athletes activists have become an integral part of modern professional sports and are no longer just individuals with a radical voice. Through the growing popularity of social media, athlete activists have developed a platform in which people can see their symbolic protests, and with the ever-growing epistemic power off the field, they have become icons to individuals across the United States and the world. Despite the critics, the success athlete activists have experienced by using symbolic protest on and off the field shows that they are becoming more widely accepted and people are willing to hear what they have to say. The accomplishments athlete activists have been able to achieve are going to resonate with future professionals in the field by creating bolder ways in which players will bring attention to racial inequality and continuing to push for their full acceptance into the professional sports leagues in the future (which has already started). In the end, although my research question will never have a complete answer, athlete activism is at an all-time high and how they are bringing attention to racial inequality is more than I can count on two hands. As the next decade starts to take shape, the future of athlete activism is bright and their influence on the sports world will be felt for years to come.\u00a0<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"color: #000000\"><b>Limitations<\/b><\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"color: #000000\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Throughout the process of analyzing the data I have collected, some limitations presented themselves when answering my research question. To start, in some of the documentation, I did find some critiques of the protest such as in the article \u201cBoycotting Themselves Out of Business.\u201d<\/span> <span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Here, the author describes how the athlete activists motives for protesting can be seen as a selfish act for their gain and could unintentionally cause employees to lose their jobs because teams would longer be able to pay them due to a loss in revenue. This is caused by some fans refusing to support the symbolic protest athlete activists are using on and off the field which leads to television ratings being down and could cause a professional sports league to lose money (Malanga, 2020).\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;color: #000000\">The other main limitation of the data I analyzed is that it does not fully answer the research question in its entirety. This is because there have been countless ways athletes have brought attention to racial inequality and it is impossible for the documents that were used in this study to go over all of them. Additionally, this question will never be fully answered because, in the future, athletes are going to find new methods to symbolically protest and send their messages out to the world about racial inequality. The data can imply that there will be an increase in athlete activism in the future but nothing is certain when discussing what will happen next in the sports world.\u00a0<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;color: #000000\">Additionally, throughout the process of conducting this research project, since this study was created during a worldwide pandemic, I was not able to conduct any in-person interviews that may have added to the depth of my research and the events that have happened within the sports world throughout 2020 have been far from normal. During the pandemic, most professional sports leagues have limited the capacity of their stadiums to ensure social distancing and many teams are playing games without any fans in the stadiums. Additionally, social activism in sports is evolving as new athlete activists enter each professional sports league every year. This phenomenon will continue to occur in the future as times change. It should also be noted that since this research was conducted and analyzed during a pandemic, athlete activism could drastically change when stadiums are allowed to have fans again and professional sports leagues are back to normal.\u00a0<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"color: #000000\"><b>Scope for Further Research<\/b><\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;color: #000000\">As a result of the research I have conducted, I am interested in seeing how my research question could be answered using statistics, graphs, and data (a quantitative perspective).\u00a0 Additionally, some questions have arisen from the wake of trying to answer my research question being, how important of a role have political parties played in the rise of athlete activism? How have athletes outside of the United States brought attention to racial inequality? Why has social media made symbolic protest easier to see and hear about? As time goes on, the answers to these questions will grow to define the changing culture of athlete activism and with it, the world&#8217;s outlook of sports in the future.<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"color: #000000\"><strong>Works Cited<\/strong><\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"color: #000000\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Abdul-Jabbar, Kareem (2018). \u201c<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Kareem Abdul-Jabbar: what sports have taught me about race in\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0<\/span>America.\u201d <\/span><i><span style=\"color: #000000\">The Guardian.<\/span>\u00a0<\/i><a style=\"background-color: #ffffff\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/sport\/2018\/aug\/28\/notes-from-an-ungrateful-athlete-why-race-and-sports-matter-in-america\">https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/sport\/2018\/aug\/28\/notes-from-an-\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 ungrateful-athlete-why-race-and-sports-matter-in-america<\/a><\/p><p><span style=\"color: #000000\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Adler, Dan (2020). \u201cAfter Sweeping Player Strikes, Professional-Sports Owners Are Asked to\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 <\/span>Confront the Next Steps.\u201d <i>Vanity Fair.\u00a0<\/i><\/span><a style=\"background-color: #ffffff\" href=\"https:\/\/www.vanityfair.com\/style\/2020\/08\/professional-sports-playoffs-strike\">https:\/\/www.vanityfair.com\/style\/2020\/08\/professional-\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 sports-playoffs-strike<\/a><\/p><p><span style=\"color: #000000\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Agyemang, Kwame, DeLorme, Joshua &amp; Singer, John N. (2010). \u201cAn Exploratory Study of\u00a0<\/span>Black\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 Male College Athletes&#8217; Perceptions on Race and Athlete Activism.\u201d <i>International Review for the\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 Sociology of Sport <\/i>45(4): 419-435<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"color: #000000\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Archer, Alfred T., Cawston, Amanda M., Geuskens, Machteld &amp; Matheson, Benjamin (2020).\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0<\/span>\u201cCelebrity, Democracy, and Epistemic Power.\u201d <i>American Political Science Review <\/i>18(1): 27-42<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"color: #000000\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Barr, Luke &amp; Kelsey, Adam (2018). \u201cMLB All-stars Acknowledge Quieter Posture in Age of\u00a0<\/span>Athlete.\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 Activism\u201d <\/span><i><span style=\"color: #000000\">ABC News.<\/span>\u00a0<\/i><a style=\"background-color: #ffffff\" href=\"https:\/\/abcnews.go.com\/Politics\/mlb-stars-acknowledge-quieter-posture-age-athlete-activism\/story?id=56631139\">https:\/\/abcnews.go.com\/Politics\/mlb-stars-acknowledge-quieter-\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 posture-age-athlete-activism\/story?id=56631139<\/a><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;color: #000000\">Bembry, Jerry (2016). \u201cAthletes Getting Back in the Protest Game.\u201d <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"color: #000000\">The Undefeated.\u00a0<\/span> \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/i><a style=\"background-color: #ffffff\" href=\"https:\/\/theundefeated.com\/features\/athletes-getting-back-in-the-protest-game\/\">https:\/\/theundefeated.com\/features\/athletes-getting-back-in-the-protest-game\/<\/a><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;color: #000000\">Bembry, Jerry (2017). \u201cThe Year of Athletes and Activism.\u201d <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"color: #000000\">The Undefeated\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0<\/span> \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 <\/span><\/i><a style=\"background-color: #ffffff\" href=\"https:\/\/theundefeated.com\/features\/2017-the-year-of-athletes-and-activism\/\">https:\/\/theundefeated.com\/features\/2017-the-year-of-athletes-and-activism\/<\/a><\/p><p><span style=\"color: #000000\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Campbell, Morgan (2020). \u201c<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Hockey, Rocked by Racist Acts, Embraces Black Lives Matter\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0<\/span>Campaigns.\u201d <i>The New York Times.<\/i><\/span>\u00a0<a style=\"background-color: #ffffff\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2020\/08\/10\/sports\/hockey\/nhl-racism-protests-george-floyd.html\">https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2020\/08\/10\/sports\/hockey\/nhl-\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 racism-protests-george-floyd.html<\/a><\/p><p><span style=\"color: #000000\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Cassilo, David &amp; Coombs, Danielle S. (2017). \u201cAthletes and\/or Activist: LeBron James and\u00a0<\/span>Black\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0Lives Matter.\u201d <i>Journal of Sport and Social Issues <\/i>41(5): 425-444<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"color: #000000\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Dator, James (2018). \u201c<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Colin Kaepernick\u2019s \u2018Just Do It\u2019 Nike campaign, explained.\u201d <\/span><\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"color: #000000\">SBNation.\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0<\/span> \u00a0<\/span><\/i><a style=\"background-color: #ffffff\" href=\"https:\/\/www.sbnation.com\/nfl\/2018\/9\/6\/17826662\/colin-kaepernick-nike-just-do-it-nfl\">https:\/\/www.sbnation.com\/nfl\/2018\/9\/6\/17826662\/colin-kaepernick-nike-just-do-it-nfl<\/a><\/p><p><span style=\"color: #000000\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Eisinger, Peter K. (1974). \u201c Racial Differences in Protest Participation.\u201d <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">American Political\u00a0<\/span><\/i><i>Science\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0Review <\/i>68(2): 592-606<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"color: #000000\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Gift, Thomas &amp; Miner, Andrew (2017). \u201cDropping the Ball.\u201d <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">World Affairs<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> 180(1): 127-161<\/span><\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"color: #000000\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Haislop, Tadd (2020). \u201c<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Colin Kaepernick kneeling timeline: How protests during the national\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0<\/span><\/span><span style=\"color: #000000\">anthem started a<\/span> <span style=\"color: #000000\">movement in the NFL.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><i><span style=\"color: #000000\">SportingNews.\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0<\/span> \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0<\/i><a style=\"background-color: #ffffff\" href=\"https:\/\/www.sportingnews.com\/us\/nfl\/news\/colin-kaepernick-kneeling-protest-timeline\/xktu6ka4diva1s5jxaylrcsse\">https:\/\/www.sportingnews.com\/us\/nfl\/news\/colin-kaepernick-kneeling-protest-\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0timeline\/xktu6ka4diva1s5jxaylrcsse<\/a><\/p><p><span style=\"color: #000000\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Just, Amie (2020). \u201cHere\u2019s a closer look at the \u201cEnd Racism\u201d and \u201cIt Takes All of Us\u201d in the\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0end\u00a0<\/span>zones at the Superdome.\u201d <\/span><i><span style=\"color: #000000\">Twitter\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0<\/span> \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0<\/i><a style=\"background-color: #ffffff\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/amie_just\/status\/1305207183257333761\">https:\/\/twitter.com\/amie_just\/status\/1305207183257333761<\/a><\/p><p><span style=\"color: #000000\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Kaufman, Peter. (2008). \u201cBoos, Bans, and other Backlash: The Consequences of Being an\u00a0<\/span>Activist.\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0Athlete.\u201d <i>Humanity &amp; Society <\/i>32: 215-237<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"color: #000000\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Kaufman, Peter &amp; Wolff, Eli A. (2010). \u201cPlaying and Protesting: Sport as a Vehicle for Social\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0<\/span>Change.\u201d <i>Journal of Sport and Social Issues <\/i>34(2): 154-175<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"color: #000000\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Malanga, Steven (2020). \u201cBoycotting Themselves Out of Business?\u201d <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">CITY Journal. <\/span><\/i><\/span><a style=\"background-color: #ffffff\" href=\"https:\/\/www.city-journal.org\/nba-mlb-boycott-black-lives-matter\">https:\/\/www.city\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0-journal.org\/nba-mlb-boycott-black-lives-matter<\/a><\/p><p><span style=\"color: #000000\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">McCaskill, Nolan D. &amp; Mcgraw Meridith (2020). \u201cSports stars&#8217; intensifying activism is a blow\u00a0<\/span>to\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0Trump.\u201d <i>POLITICO. <\/i><\/span><a style=\"background-color: #ffffff\" href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/news\/2020\/08\/27\/sports-stars-intensifying-activism-trump-nba-403887\">https:\/\/www.politico.com\/news\/2020\/08\/27\/sports-stars-intensifying-\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0activism-trump-nba-403887<\/a><\/p><p><span style=\"color: #000000\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Pheiffer, Sacha &amp; Tynes, Tyler (2020). \u201cWhy Kansas City Chiefs And Houston Texans Got\u00a0<\/span>Booed\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0Before The Kickoff.\u201d <\/span><i><span style=\"color: #000000\">NPR News.<\/span>\u00a0<\/i><a style=\"background-color: #ffffff\" href=\"https:\/\/www.npr.org\/2020\/09\/11\/912044996\/why-kansas-city-chiefs-and-houston-texans-got-booed-before-the-kickoff\">https:\/\/www.npr.org\/2020\/09\/11\/912044996\/why-kansas-\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0city-chiefs-and-houston-texans-got-booed-before-the-kickoff<\/a><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;color: #000000\">Platt, Larry (2018). \u201cAthlete Activism on the Rise, But so is the Backlash.\u201d <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"color: #000000\">Global Sport Matters.\u00a0 \u00a0<\/span> \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0<\/span><\/i><a style=\"background-color: #ffffff\" href=\"https:\/\/globalsportmatters.com\/culture\/2018\/04\/16\/athlete-activism-is-on-the-rise-but-so-is-the-backlash\/\">https:\/\/globalsportmatters.com\/culture\/2018\/04\/16\/athlete-activism-is-on-the-rise-but-so-is-\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0the-backlash\/<\/a><\/p><p><span style=\"color: #000000\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Romo, Vanessa (2017). \u201cTrump Embroiled In 2 Controversies About Professional Sports, Race,\u00a0<\/span>and\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0Culture.\u201d <\/span><i><span style=\"color: #000000\">NPR News.<\/span>\u00a0<\/i><a style=\"background-color: #ffffff\" href=\"https:\/\/www.npr.org\/2017\/09\/24\/553214114\/trump-embroiled-in-two-controversies-about-professional-sports-race-and-culture\">https:\/\/www.npr.org\/2017\/09\/24\/553214114\/trump-embroiled-in-two-\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0controversies-about-professional-sports-race-and-culture<\/a><\/p><p><span style=\"color: #000000\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Rosenberg, Michael (2020). \u201c<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The Bucks Burst the NBA Bubble. What Will Happen Next?\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/span><i><span style=\"color: #000000\">Sports\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 Illustrated.<\/span>\u00a0<\/i><a style=\"background-color: #ffffff\" href=\"https:\/\/www.si.com\/nba\/2020\/08\/27\/milwaukee-bucks-protest-jacob-blake-shooting-daily-cover\">https:\/\/www.si.com\/nba\/2020\/08\/27\/milwaukee-bucks-protest-jacob-blake-\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0shooting-daily-cover<\/a><\/p><p><span style=\"color: #000000\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Ryan, Shannon (2020). \u201cAthletes have protested for years \u2014 so what\u2019s different now? It\u2019s no\u00a0<\/span>longer\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 a single, radical voice speaking out.\u201d <\/span><i><span style=\"color: #000000\">The Chicago Tribune.\u00a0 \u00a0<\/span> \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0<\/i><a style=\"background-color: #ffffff\" href=\"https:\/\/www.chicagotribune.com\/sports\/ct-athlete-protest-history-nba-protests-20200909-wol7lzjkbnacfj74riulznru3e-story.html\">https:\/\/www.chicagotribune.com\/sports\/ct-athlete-protest-history-nba-protests-20200909-\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 wol7lzjkbnacfj74riulznru3e-story.html<\/a><\/p><p><span style=\"color: #000000\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Schraub, David. (2020). \u201cThe Distinctive Political Status of Dissident Minorities.\u201d <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">American\u00a0<\/span><\/i><i>Political\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0Science Review <\/i>114(4): 963-967<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"color: #000000\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Serazio, Michael (2020). \u201cThe Numbers Behind America\u2019s 180 on Athlete Activism.\u201d <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0<\/span><\/i><\/span><i><span style=\"color: #000000\">Conversation.<\/span>\u00a0<\/i><a style=\"background-color: #ffffff\" href=\"https:\/\/theconversation.com\/the-numbers-behind-americas-180-on-athlete-activism-145828\">https:\/\/theconversation.com\/the-numbers-behind-americas-180-on-athlete-\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0activism-145828<\/a><\/p><p><span style=\"color: #000000\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Valls, Andrew. (2010). \u201cA Liberal Defense of Black Nationalism.\u201d <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">American Political Science\u00a0<\/span><\/i><i>Review\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0<\/i>104(3): 467-481<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"color: #000000\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Wasow, Omar. (2020). \u201cAgenda Seeding: How 1960s Black Protest Move Elites, Public Opinion,\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0<\/span>And Voting.\u201d\u00a0<i>American Political Science Review <\/i>114(3): 638-659<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;color: #000000\">Whitener, Matt (2020). \u201cA History of Athletes and Activism.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"color: #000000\">Yardbarker.\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0<\/span> \u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/i><a style=\"background-color: #ffffff\" href=\"https:\/\/www.yardbarker.com\/general_sports\/articles\/a_history_of_athletes_and_activism\/s1__32219363#slide_1\">https:\/\/www.yardbarker.com\/general_sports\/articles\/a_history_of_athletes_and_activism\/<\/a>\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0<a style=\"background-color: #ffffff\" href=\"https:\/\/www.yardbarker.com\/general_sports\/articles\/a_history_of_athletes_and_activism\/s1__32219363#slide_1\">s1__32219363#slide_1<\/a><\/p><p><span style=\"color: #000000\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Wolfe, Cameron (2020). \u201cTexans Receiver Kenny Stills Talks Activism, Arrest, and \u2018Real\u00a0<\/span>Change\u2019.\u201d\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0<i>ESPN.<\/i><\/span><a style=\"background-color: #ffffff\" href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/nfl\/story\/_\/id\/29808039\/texans-receiver-kenny-stills-talks-activism-arrest-real-change\">https<\/a><span style=\"background-color: #ffffff\">:<\/span><a style=\"background-color: #ffffff\" href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/nfl\/story\/_\/id\/29808039\/texans-receiver-kenny-stills-talks-activism-arrest-real-change\">\/\/www.espn.com\/nfl\/story\/_\/id\/29808039\/texans-receiver-kenny-stills-talks-\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 activism-arrest-real-change<\/a><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Final Research Paper PDF\u00a0 Project Presentation Project Description In the Fall of 2020 during my Junior year of college, I completed a research project focused on sports activism within the United States. As a passionate sports fan and researcher, I wanted to learn about how athletes within team sports in the United States have brought [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2669,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-44","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/ad2380a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/44","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/ad2380a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/ad2380a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/ad2380a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2669"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/ad2380a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/ad2380a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/44\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/ad2380a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}},{"id":19,"date":"2018-06-26T16:08:57","date_gmt":"2018-06-26T16:08:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/spatemplate\/?page_id=19"},"modified":"2021-03-06T10:06:56","modified_gmt":"2021-03-06T10:06:56","slug":"work-sample","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/ad2380a\/work-sample\/","title":{"rendered":"Quantitative Methods Research Paper"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t<div data-elementor-type=\"wp-page\" data-elementor-id=\"19\" class=\"elementor elementor-19\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<section class=\"elementor-section elementor-top-section elementor-element elementor-element-1846a4f4 elementor-section-boxed elementor-section-height-default elementor-section-height-default\" data-id=\"1846a4f4\" data-element_type=\"section\" data-e-type=\"section\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-container elementor-column-gap-default\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-column elementor-col-100 elementor-top-column elementor-element elementor-element-22be57ba\" data-id=\"22be57ba\" data-element_type=\"column\" data-e-type=\"column\">\n\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-wrap elementor-element-populated\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-404f8515 elementor-widget elementor-widget-text-editor\" data-id=\"404f8515\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-e-type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"text-editor.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p><a href=\"http:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/ad2380a\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1278\/2021\/02\/Final-Research-Paper-1.pdf\">Final Research Paper PDF\u00a0<\/a><\/p><hr \/><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;color: #000000\">Project Description<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"color: #000000\">In the Spring of 2020 during my Sophomore year of college, I completed a research project focused on the electric vehicle charging infrastructure within the United States. As a person who loves cars, I was curious to see if states that passed more electric vehicle regulations had more charging stations and outlets for electric vehicles to use<span style=\"font-weight: 400\">. This research topic is also relevant to the current automotive world as, electric vehicle sales are hitting an<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> all-time high, the United States is having a hard time keeping up with charging infrastructure demand. After doing extensive research of prior literature written within the field, it was surprising to find that there was little analysis looking at the relationship between politics and electric vehicle infrastructure presenting a gap in the research. This study utilized a quantitative approach to examining the research question by utilizing a program called SPSS (Statistical Package for the Social Sciences) which is used for complex statistical data analysis<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">.<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> The findings of the research analysis show that there is a strong relationship <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">between the number of state electric vehicle policies<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> and the number of charging stations\/outlets in each state lending support to the research hypothesis that, in comparing states, those having more refined electric vehicle policy will have better electric vehicle charging infrastructure than will those having less refined electric vehicle policy<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">. Overall, this paper deepened my understanding of charging infrastructure within the United States and helped me see a disconnected relationship between our government and the need for charging infrastructure. Throughout this writing process, I\u00a0 compiled news articles, peer-reviewed journals, and data to back up my thesis I had constructed. This paper also taught me that doing research first is the most important part of the writing process. Without this research, I would have struggled to create a thesis and would have not been able to answer my research question. This paper makes me want to learn more about charging infrastructure within the United States and how electric vehicle manufacturers are developing electric vehicle infrastructure for the future.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p><hr \/><p style=\"text-align: center\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;color: #000000\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p><p style=\"text-align: center\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;color: #000000\">Electric Vehicle Popularity on the Rise: A Quantitative Report on How Electric Vehicle Policy Within States Has Influenced Charging Infrastructure\u00a0<\/span><\/p><h3>\u00a0<\/h3><p style=\"text-align: center\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;color: #000000\">Ari Drayman<\/span><\/p><p style=\"text-align: center\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;color: #000000\">GOVT 310.006: Introduction to Political Research<\/span><\/p><p style=\"text-align: center\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;color: #000000\">April 29, 2020<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"color: #000000\"><b>Abstract<\/b><\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;color: #000000\">The purpose of this research paper is to identify if there is a relationship between the number of electric vehicle policies within each state and charging infrastructure. This topic is important because, in 2020, there are more electric vehicle policies and public charging stations\/outlets in operation than ever before. After doing extensive research of prior literature written within this field, it was surprising to find that there were no studies looking at a possible relationship between the number of electric vehicle policies within each state and charging infrastructure presenting a gap in the research. The hypothesis is, in comparing states, those having more refined electric vehicle policy will have better electric vehicle charging infrastructure than will those having less refined electric vehicle policy. The method used to see if there is a relationship between the variables was a correlation and linear regression test. The findings of the test showed that there is a moderately strong relationship between the number of state electric vehicle policies and charging infrastructure lending support to the research hypothesis.<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"color: #000000\"><b>\u00a0<\/b><\/span><b style=\"color: #000000\">Introduction<\/b><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;color: #000000\">The internal combustion engine (an engine powered by fossil fuels) has been powering vehicles since it was invented in 1876 by Nicholas Otto. At the time, this type of power train was (and still is) the most practical for vehicles as oil is easy to find and cheap to use. However, as cars became more mainstream and the interstate highway system was being formed, people started to realize that oil is a finite resource. This issue became a reality during the oil crisis and economic downturn in the 1970s where people had to wait in lines for hours to fuel their cars. This caused Congress to take action as the newly founded Environmental Protection Agency developed the corporate average fuel economy standards (Bosworth, Crabtree, and Patty, 2017). This federal policy dictates a baseline fuel economy for all automakers selling vehicles in the United States. If the average fuel economy for their model line dips under the minimum fuel economy requirement, the car manufacturer will be fined heavily by the federal government. This regulation was enacted not only because of the oil crisis of the 1970s but also due to people&#8217;s growing concerns about the combustion engine\u2019s impact on the environment.\u00a0<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;color: #000000\">As a result of the Environmental Protection Agency\u2019s corporate average fuel economy standards, regulations became more stringent and in the 1990s automakers started to have trouble keeping their vehicle fleets within the standards of the policy. This motivated car manufacturers to develop and build alternative-fueled vehicles that were fully battery-operated because electric vehicles generate no tailpipe emissions (Bosworth, Crabtree, and Patty, 2017). By doing so, automakers were able to raise their fleet\u2019s average fuel economy within the government&#8217;s regulations. This caused a new vehicle market to be born and as environmental concerns began to rise to all-time highs, demand increased for alternative-fueled vehicles. This is how electric vehicle policy was born.<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"color: #000000\"><b>\u00a0<\/b><\/span><b style=\"color: #000000\">Review of Literature<\/b><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;color: #000000\">In the early stages of electric vehicle policy-making, only a few state governments were incentivizing consumers to buy these vehicles with tax exemptions and high occupancy vehicle lane access as compensation for buying a vehicle with a limited range of travel (Bosworth, Crabtree, and Patty, 2017). However, the economic recession of 2008 provided the government with a new opportunity to offer electric vehicle subsidies at the federal level. As such, electric vehicle purchase subsidies were introduced in the Energy Improvement and Extension Act of 2008. This act passed alongside a bundle of acts intended to mitigate the growing financial crisis, including the first direct federal subsidy for electric cars, offering tax credits of up to $7,500 for electric vehicle purchases (Bosworth, Crabtree, and Patty, 2017). This federal tax credit is still in effect today for car manufacturers that have sold under 200,000 electric vehicles.\u00a0<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;color: #000000\">In addition to the $7,500 electric vehicle tax credit, there are two types of incentives that state electric vehicle policy uses to drive electric vehicle sales: direct and indirect incentives (Lingzhi, Lutsey, and Searle, 2014). Direct incentives have a monetary value associated with them and can be claimed in your tax returns or through a rebate. Indirect incentives provide convenience to electric vehicle owners such as access to high occupancy vehicle lanes and emissions testing exemptions (Lingzhi, Lutsey, and Searle, 2014). However, according to Wayne Winegarden, the average cost of battery electric vehicles is $41,835, significantly more than the average price of a new combustion engine vehicle being $34,077 (Winegarden, 2018). Reichmuth and Goldman from the Union of Concerned Scientists note, however, that the battery-pack manufacturing cost for electric vehicles is becoming more cost-efficient, bringing down the overall cost of battery-powered cars (Goldman and Reichmuth, 2017).\u00a0<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;color: #000000\">In 2015 Chen and Vergis found that there is an incentive policy that not only correlates to battery-electric vehicles but also applies to plug-in hybrid electric vehicles. They note that plug-in electric vehicles are eating into battery electric vehicle sales. During their study, they found that the \u201cnumber of vehicle models available for purchase is significantly correlated with the plug-in electric vehicle market share \u201d as approximately 48,000 plug-in hybrid electric vehicles were sold in the United States in 2013 (Chen and Vergis, 2015). Winegarden\u2019s (2018) study found support for this correlation. Specifically, Winegarden compared plug-in hybrid electric vehicles to battery electric vehicles benefits and found that plug-in hybrids occupy 3.5% of the United States vehicle market, while battery-powered cars occupy only .5%.\u00a0<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"color: #000000\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Since this is a new field evolving rapidly, some gaps exist within the research. Although the aforementioned articles find that electric vehicles are an important part of reducing oil consumption and transportation-induced emission, are any of these direct or indirect incentives making a difference in people\u2019s car-buying decisions? According to Winegarden\u2019s (2018) study, 79% of electric vehicle car buyers had an adjusted gross income of over $100,000 in 2014 (Winegarden, 2018). Additionally, DeShazo looked at the current electric vehicle policies in the United States and concluded that policymakers make it too arduous for buyers to collect their incentives and rebates as well (DeShazo, 2016)<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">. <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Knowing this, one of the biggest gaps in the research currently is the lack of data collection comparing policy to electric vehicle infrastructure and how they might be correlated to each other<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">.<\/span><\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;color: #000000\">In the United States, the vehicle infrastructure for combustion engine cars has been fully developed since the second half of the twentieth century. Today, there are over one hundred thousand public gas stations where people can fuel their cars. According to the scholarship of Yutaka Motoaki (2019), there are two main advantages of public gas stations over electric vehicle charging stations: time and availability. At a gas station, a person can fill up their car in about five to ten minutes at nearly every time of the day. In most places across the United States, gas stations are open twenty-four hours a day. On the other hand, the fastest electric vehicle charging stations take about twenty to thirty minutes to fully charge a car and they are not readily available as most public charging stations (besides Tesla Superchargers) are not open twenty-four hours a day. Although Tesla superchargers are operational twenty-four hours a day they cannot charge any other electric vehicles, limiting their network to only Tesla vehicle owners (Motoaki, 2019).\u00a0<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;color: #000000\">This brings in the correlation between electric vehicle infrastructure and incentives. In most cases, the states that have the best-developed public charging network and indirect incentives relating to the infrastructure of electric vehicles (access to high occupancy vehicle lane access and no emissions testing) have contributed to higher electric vehicle registration counts (Cattaneo, 2018). The states with highly developed electric vehicle infrastructure also offer higher subsidy rates for purchasing electric vehicles and make it easier for consumers to operate their cars much like a combustion engine vehicle shown in the study designs of the scholars (Lesser, 2018).\u00a0<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;color: #000000\">The most common method of study design used in research on electric vehicles has been teams of people comparing state direct and indirect incentives to consumer benefits. Such in-depth studies are useful by showing where state policymakers are implementing various incentives to encourage more people to buy electric vehicles.\u00a0 As a consequence of this study design, the findings of most of the geographical studies on this topic are difficult to generalize for a wider range of states, due to state policies and a narrow range of states covered by the studies. This was the case with a study linking direct and indirect electric vehicle incentives to consumer benefits (Lingzhi, Lutsey, and Searle, 2014). To gather their data, the authors looked at ten states with a large amount of direct and indirect incentives for battery electric vehicles and compared these incentives to the United States\u2019 national average. Lingzhi et al. found that in the states with more incentives, electric vehicle sales have dramatically increased. They determined that the most influential incentives are subsidies, high occupancy vehicle lane access, and emissions test exemptions (Lingzhi, Lutsey, and Searle, 2014). Additionally, the authors investigated what percentage of vehicle sales were battery-powered cars, which was about 0.38% in the United States on average in 2014. While this provides a detailed snapshot of state incentives, this data is outdated as the battery electric vehicle policy in several states has changed since 2014.<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;color: #000000\">In a more recent study, Winegardern, (2018) focused on quantifying the subsidies offered for battery electric vehicles. He relied on the most up-to-date data from Chargepoint and the National Conference of State Legislatures (Winegarden, 2018). Similar to the findings of other studies (Lingzhi, Lutsey, and Searle 2014; Bosworth, Crabtree, and Patty 2017), Winegarden also found a correlation between direct\/indirect incentives and consumer benefits.\u00a0<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;color: #000000\">While the literature on electric vehicle policy examines the relationship between incentives and consumer benefits, no study can find a sure answer to how electric car infrastructure has been influenced by the number of electric vehicle policies within states. Such a study would be relevant because as the number of electric vehicles become cheaper and less tedious to own, more people are to consider buying these cars, causing the demand for electric vehicle infrastructure to increase (Proudlove et al. 2019).\u00a0<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;color: #000000\">This study will consider the relationship between the number of electric vehicle policies currently active within each state and the amount of infrastructure each state has for these cars. As mentioned above, there seems to be a strong correlation between electric vehicle infrastructure and policies in the United States. The latest studies show that states who possess more direct\/indirect incentives, measured by monetary value (direct) and convenience for vehicle owners (indirect), appear to have a better-developed infrastructure for electric vehicles to utilize (Rogotzke et al. 2019). Better developed infrastructure is measured by more charging stations and a higher charging station to outlet ratio. This is a trend that is quickly developing in the automotive market and it deserves scholarly attention. This topic is becoming more relevant during this time due to electric cars becoming more accessible to the average car buyer as the price of producing batteries decreases. Additionally, the range of electric vehicles on the market now is comparable to nearly all gas counterparts. What this means is, as more consumers start to buy electric vehicles, more states will start developing their electric vehicle infrastructure at a faster rate than in the past.<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;color: #000000\">In prior literature, several studies have shown that the most active states in electric vehicle policy foster a higher level of electric vehicle infrastructure (Proudlove et al. 2019 and Rogotzke et al. 2019). In explaining this relationship, Proudlove and his constituents compared state electric vehicle charging infrastructure to the number of electric vehicle actions made by each state over the past fiscal year (Proudlove et al. 2019). They also looked at events in the automotive world that have impacted electric vehicle infrastructure. For example, many states used settlement funds from the Volkswagen emissions case to build charging infrastructure (Rogotzke et al. 2019). Also, according to the EVAdoption website, (which tracks key factors that help drive the mass adoption of electric vehicles), the states with the most charging locations have a higher charger location to outlet ratio than the median, which is 2.58 outlets per charging station (\u201cCharging Stations By State\u201d, 2020). This would lead one to believe that these trends are important when it comes to the development of electric vehicle infrastructure in the future. If this is true, it would suggest that the states who are spending a lot of money on electric vehicle infrastructure have been focusing on building larger charging locations with more outlets and more frequent charging stations possibly due to demand from electric vehicle owners within these states.\u00a0<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;color: #000000\">Therefore, this study hypothesizes that, in comparing states, those having a more robust electric vehicle policy will have better electric vehicle charging infrastructure than will those having less refined electric vehicle policy. The null hypothesis of this study is that, in comparing states, those having a more refined electric vehicle policy will have similar electric vehicle charging infrastructure as will those having less refined electric vehicle policy.<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"color: #000000\"><b>\u00a0<\/b><\/span><b style=\"color: #000000\">Methodology<\/b><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;color: #000000\">The first major concept that will be assessed will be the electric vehicle policy. For this study, the concept will be defined as any law or incentive (direct and indirect) that is currently being followed within each state. The laws and incentives of each state will be measured on a scale giving a value of 0 to states that have 0 to 15 laws\/incentives currently active, a value of 1 for states that have 16 to 32 laws\/incentives currently active, and a value of 2 for states that have over 32 laws\/incentives currently active. I have chosen this rating scale because the mean of the number of laws\/incentives provided by the Alternative Fuels Data Center was approximately 23 and after finding this number, I thought it would be best to calculate a rating scale based on the standard deviation from the mean, which was approximately 18 (\u201cState Laws and Incentives,\u201d 2020). Since nearly all of the states being tested fall within one standard deviation of the mean, I decided to measure half of a standard deviation to obtain more relevant information out of the dataset. Therefore, states that are given a value of 0 falls at or more than .5 standard deviations below the mean. States that are given a score of 1 fall between the mean and .5 standard deviations above it and states that are given a score of 2 falls more than .5 standard deviations above the mean.\u00a0<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;color: #000000\">The next concept I will address is the electric vehicle infrastructure. This will be defined as the number of public charging locations within each state as well as the number of public charging outlets each state possesses. This information is also provided by the Alternative Fuels Data Center (\u201cAlternative Fueling Station Counts by State,\u201d 2020). This data will be graded on a scale of 0-4. For this dataset, the mean of public charging stations is approximately 377 and the mean for individual public charging outlets is approximately 1087 per state. States that are more than .5 standard deviations below the mean for both public charging stations and outlets will receive a 0. States that have at or more than .5 standard deviations below the mean for only one charging category will receive a 1. States that fall within the mean for both categories will receive a 2. States that fall at or above .5 standard deviations of the mean for one charging category will receive a 3. States that fall at or above .5 standard deviations of the mean for both charging categories will receive a 4.\u00a0<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;color: #000000\">The study will perform two tests on the data provided by the Alternative Fuel Data Center including 49 states and the District of Columbia. The tests will look at the relationships between the number of electric vehicle policies in each state and the number of public charging stations\/charging outlets each state has.\u00a0 I will be excluding California from this dataset because the state&#8217;s numbers will heavily skew the rest of the dataset. The data points from California will also display a different story of how the rest of the country is doing in this field causing the results to become spurious. The independent variable will be the number of electric vehicle policies within each state. The dependent variables will be the number of charging stations and charging outlets.<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;color: #000000\">This study will be using a correlation and linear regression test of the number of state policies and the number of electric vehicle charging stations\/outlets. A correlation test is used when the dependent and independent variables are interval level while a linear regression is used when both the dependent and independent variables are continuous. In the context of this study, state policies (the independent variable) are an interval variable. The number of public charging stations and charging outlets (the dependent variables) are all interval variables because they are being rated on a scale based on the standard deviation of scales of 0-2 for electric vehicle policy for each state and a scale of 0-4 for public charging stations\/outlets. I will also be creating a linear scatter plot to see the relationship between the variables being tested from a visual standpoint. This test will hopefully yield the intended results.<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;color: #000000\">As I indicated earlier in the paper there are currently no studies that have looked at the relationship between the electric vehicle state policy and infrastructure for these vehicles to operate. I am contributing to the gap in the research by looking at if the number of electric vehicle policies within states contributes to a larger amount of infrastructure or only to a higher percentage of vehicle sales. In the case of this study, a significant result would show that more policies in place would lead to greater levels of charging infrastructure, not just benefiting consumers who buy electric vehicles. This result would show that owners of electric vehicles in policy-friendly states will have a better ownership experience since they will not have the burden of trying to find charging stations daily. This result would also show that since infrastructure benefits all-electric vehicle owners, it would help consumers of different income brackets and the results would suggest that electric vehicle policy leads to benefits for electric car consumers. This point is displayed in graph three of Josh Goldman&#8217;s article (Goldman 2016, \u201cThe State of the Electric Car Market in 4 Charts and Graphs\u201d).<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"color: #000000\"><b>\u00a0<\/b><\/span><b style=\"color: #000000\">Results and Analysis<\/b><\/p><p><span style=\"color: #000000\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">In an attempt to disprove the null hypothesis<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">, a correlation, and regression test was conducted to see the relationship between the independent and dependent variables. For the independent variable (Number of State Electric Vehicle Policies), the minimum is 5, the maximum is 44, the mean is 22.54, and the median is 20.50. For the first dependent variable (Number of Electric Vehicle Charging Stations), the minimum is 20, the maximum is 1658, the mean is 376.54, and the median is 260.5. For the second dependent variable (Number of Electric Vehicle Charging Outlets), the minimum is 35, the maximum is 4683, the mean is 1087.26, and the median is 678. The first test that was run was a correlation test due to its ability to measure the strength and direction of the relationship between interval-level variables. At the significance level of 0.01, the correlation level was .539 for the number of electric vehicle charging stations and .502 for the number of electric vehicle charging outlets in relation to a state&#8217;s number of laws and incentives. Table 1 shows the results of the correlation test run between the independent and dependent variables.<\/span><\/span><\/p><table><tbody><tr><td colspan=\"5\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;color: #000000\">Table 1: Correlation\u00a0<\/span><\/td><\/tr><tr><td>\u00a0<\/td><td>\u00a0<\/td><td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;color: #000000\">Number of State Electric Vehicle Policies<\/span><\/td><td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;color: #000000\">Number of Electric Vehicle Charging Stations<\/span><\/td><td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;color: #000000\">Number of Electric Vehicle Charging Outlets<\/span><\/td><\/tr><tr><td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;color: #000000\">Number of State Electric Vehicle Policies<\/span><\/td><td colspan=\"4\"><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;color: #000000\">Pearson Correlation \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 1\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 .539** \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 .502**<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;color: #000000\">Sig. (2-tailed) \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 .000\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 .000<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;color: #000000\">N\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 50\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 50\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 50\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p><\/td><\/tr><tr><td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;color: #000000\">Number of Electric Vehicle Charging Stations<\/span><\/td><td colspan=\"4\"><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;color: #000000\">Pearson Correlation \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 .539** \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 1\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 .992**<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;color: #000000\">Sig. (2-tailed) \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 .000\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 .000<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;color: #000000\">N \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 50\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 50\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 50\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p><\/td><\/tr><tr><td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;color: #000000\">Number of Electric Vehicle Charging Outlets<\/span><\/td><td colspan=\"4\"><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;color: #000000\">Pearson Correlation\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 .502**\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 .992**\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a01\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;color: #000000\">Sig. (2-tailed) \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 .000 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 .000<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;color: #000000\">N \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 51\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 51\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 51\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p><\/td><\/tr><tr><td colspan=\"5\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;color: #000000\">**Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed)<\/span><\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;color: #000000\"><br \/>As the data above demonstrates, there is a clear link between the number of state laws\/incentives and the number of electric vehicle charging stations\/outlets in each state. The Pearson correlations, known as r, are .502, .539, and .992. To test for causation and magnitude, a linear regression was used. Tables 2 and 3 show the results of the regression analysis for both dependent variables.<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;color: #000000\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p><table><tbody><tr><td colspan=\"6\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;color: #000000\">Table 2: Regression Analysis<\/span><\/td><\/tr><tr><td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;color: #000000\">Model<\/span><\/td><td colspan=\"2\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;color: #000000\">Unstandardized Coefficients<\/span><\/td><td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;color: #000000\">Standardized Coefficients<\/span><\/td><td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;color: #000000\">T-value<\/span><\/td><td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;color: #000000\">Sig. (p-value)<\/span><\/td><\/tr><tr><td>\u00a0<\/td><td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;color: #000000\">B<\/span><\/td><td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;color: #000000\">Std. Error<\/span><\/td><td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;color: #000000\">Beta<\/span><\/td><td>\u00a0<\/td><td>\u00a0<\/td><\/tr><tr><td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;color: #000000\">(Constant)<\/span><\/td><td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;color: #000000\">17.625<\/span><\/td><td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;color: #000000\">1.549<\/span><\/td><td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;color: #000000\">N\/A<\/span><\/td><td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;color: #000000\">11.379<\/span><\/td><td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;color: #000000\">.000<\/span><\/td><\/tr><tr><td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;color: #000000\">Number of State Electric Vehicle Policies<\/span><\/td><td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;color: #000000\">.013<\/span><\/td><td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;color: #000000\">.003<\/span><\/td><td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;color: #000000\">.539<\/span><\/td><td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;color: #000000\">4.429<\/span><\/td><td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;color: #000000\">.000<\/span><\/td><\/tr><tr><td colspan=\"6\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;color: #000000\">a. Dependent Variable: Number of Electric Vehicle Charging Stations<\/span><\/td><\/tr><tr><td colspan=\"5\"><span style=\"color: #000000\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">b. Adjusted R<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u00b2 = .275<\/span><\/span><\/td><td>\u00a0<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><h3>\u00a0<\/h3><table><tbody><tr><td colspan=\"6\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;color: #000000\">Table 3: Regression Analysis<\/span><\/td><\/tr><tr><td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;color: #000000\">Model<\/span><\/td><td colspan=\"2\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;color: #000000\">Unstandardized Coefficients<\/span><\/td><td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;color: #000000\">Standardized Coefficients<\/span><\/td><td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;color: #000000\">T-value<\/span><\/td><td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;color: #000000\">Sig. (p-value)<\/span><\/td><\/tr><tr><td>\u00a0<\/td><td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;color: #000000\">B<\/span><\/td><td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;color: #000000\">Std. Error<\/span><\/td><td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;color: #000000\">Beta<\/span><\/td><td>\u00a0<\/td><td>\u00a0<\/td><\/tr><tr><td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;color: #000000\">(Constant)<\/span><\/td><td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;color: #000000\">18.021<\/span><\/td><td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;color: #000000\">1.578<\/span><\/td><td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;color: #000000\">N\/A<\/span><\/td><td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;color: #000000\">11.421<\/span><\/td><td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;color: #000000\">.000<\/span><\/td><\/tr><tr><td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;color: #000000\">Number of State Electric Vehicle Policies<\/span><\/td><td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;color: #000000\">.004<\/span><\/td><td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;color: #000000\">.001<\/span><\/td><td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;color: #000000\">.502<\/span><\/td><td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;color: #000000\">4.026<\/span><\/td><td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;color: #000000\">.000<\/span><\/td><\/tr><tr><td colspan=\"6\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;color: #000000\">Dependent Variable: Number of Electric Vehicle Charging Outlets<\/span><\/td><\/tr><tr><td colspan=\"6\"><span style=\"color: #000000\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">b. Adjusted R<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u00b2 = .237<\/span><\/span><\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><h3>\u00a0<\/h3><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;color: #000000\">The first model yields the following function for the number of electric vehicle charging stations: Number of electric vehicle charging stations = 17.625 + .013*(number of electric vehicle policies). The second model yields the following function for the number of electric vehicle charging outlets: Number of electric vehicle charging outlets =\u00a0 18.021 + .004*(number of electric vehicle policies). The y-intercept for the first regression analysis of 17.625 shows us that there are on average 17.625 charging stations if there were no state electric vehicle policies in place. The y-intercept for the second regression analysis of 18.021 shows us that there are on average 18.021 charging outlets if there were no state electric vehicle policies in place. However, since charging stations and outlets can only be measured in whole numbers, these values should both be rounded to 18.\u00a0<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;color: #000000\">The significance (p-value) of the relationship is .000 for both the number of charging stations and the number of charging outlets. Under the assumption that the null hypothesis is correct, we would obtain these results less than 1% of the time.\u00a0<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;color: #000000\">The regression coefficient of 17.625 and 18.021 tells us that the number of electric vehicle charging stations and charging outlets increases by that many with each additional state policy on electric vehicles. Putting these coefficients into context, as states increase the number of electric vehicle policies put into effect, we will see the mean of charging stations and outlets slowly increase across the United States. Knowing this, it becomes easy to see how this would limit the amount of electric vehicle charging stations and outlets being built across the country as putting policy into effect is very difficult to do and takes a long time. Additionally, if electric vehicle policies expire or are taken out of a state&#8217;s legislation, this would lower the number of charging stations and outlets currently in operation.<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;color: #000000\">The value of the adjusted R-squared for the first regression test is .275. This means that about 27.5 percent of the variation in the number of charging stations can be explained by the number of state electric vehicle policies. The value of the adjusted R-squared for the second regression test is .237. This means that about 23.7 percent of the variation in the number of charging stations can be explained by the number of state electric vehicle policies. The other 72.5 and 76.3 percent of the variation in the number of charging stations and outlets is explained by other factors, of which there are many. Therefore, the data describes a moderately strong relationship between the number of electric vehicle charging stations\/outlets and the number of state electric vehicle policies as a PRE of .2 to .3 is considered a moderately strong relationship.<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;color: #000000\">Additionally, a scatterplot was created for the dataset to add a visual representation of how the number of state electric vehicle policies and the number of charging stations\/outlets interact with each other. In this scatterplot, the x-axis is defined with the number of electric vehicle policies in each state (independent variable), and the y-axis is defined with the number of charging stations\/outlets (dependent variables). This graph paints a picture we could not see with the correlation and regression test displaying a visual relationship between electric vehicle policy and the number of charging stations\/outlets. From the scatterplot, it shows us as the states have a higher amount of electric vehicle policies, the number of electric vehicle charging stations and outlets increases. The graph also displays how inconsistent the number of charging outlets within a state can be as opposed to the number of charging stations that are more consistent with their line of best fit.<\/span><\/p><p style=\"padding-left: 120px\"><span id=\"docs-internal-guid-eda83fc7-7fff-978d-303e-06d156009a50\"><span style=\"border: none;overflow: hidden;width: 445px;height: 264px\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone\" style=\"margin-left: 0px;margin-top: 0px\" title=\"Chart\" src=\"https:\/\/lh4.googleusercontent.com\/oLcWF-InW71EKulG71EBEoBi4NbVFTQRlm3t9A5iX5ymTO9yE5uWKlaCKzrEPlD3COL9CJxGZPqJgN9ohXQxlIRjW_P-1-97A50AiKR2TWRf9ZSbN14HMdcTRex7WzG0DQVBo9VH\" width=\"445\" height=\"264\" \/><\/span><\/span><span style=\"color: #000000\"><b><br \/><\/b><\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"color: #000000\"><b>Discussion<\/b><\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;color: #000000\">The correlation and regression test showed a positive correlation between the number of electric vehicle policies in states in relation to the number of electric vehicle charging stations\/outlets. Because the level of significance for all the variables is .000, we reject the null hypothesis since the p-value is less than 0.05. Therefore, the results of this study lend support to the research hypothesis that in comparing states, those having a more robust electric vehicle policy will have better electric vehicle charging infrastructure than will those having less refined electric vehicle policy.<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"color: #000000\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The findings of this study are consistent with previous studies done within this field of academia. In the study looking at electric vehicle policies enacted in 2019 conducted by Proudlove and his coauthors (2019), they found that most states are starting to enact more policies as electric vehicles are starting to become more accessible to a wider array of consumers. In 2019, 49 states and the District of Columbia all made legislative and regulatory actions on electric vehicles (Proudlove et al. 2019). Additionally, nearly half of the country had 10 or more actions when it came to electric vehicle legislative activity including states that do not have a lot of electric vehicle chargers and outlets such as Mississippi which only has 67 charging stations and 224 outlets currently open for public use showing the state&#8217;s potential for possibly creating more electric vehicle infrastructure in the future (Proudlove et al. 2019 and <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u201cAlternative Fueling Station Counts by State,\u201d 2020<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">).\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"color: #000000\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The same story goes for states installing electric vehicle charging stations and outlets. When we compare the number of charging stations from the year 2017 from the EVAdoption website <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">(\u201cCharging Stations By State\u201d, 2020) <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">to 2020 from the data provided by the Alternative Fuels Data Center <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">(\u201cAlternative Fueling Station Counts by State,\u201d 2020)<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">, every state and the District of Columbia has seen an increase of both charging stations and outlets open for public use <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">(\u201cCharging Stations By State\u201d, 2020 and \u201cAlternative Fueling Station Counts by State,\u201d 2020). Since then, nearly all states have seen an increase in electric vehicle policy as well. For example, in 2017, Arkansas only had 49 charging stations and 101 charging outlets available for public use across the whole state. Yet in 2020, the state now has 88 charging stations and 285 charging outlets open for public use (\u201cCharging Stations By State\u201d, 2020 and \u201cAlternative Fueling Station Counts by State,\u201d 2020). In three years, Arkansas nearly doubled the number of charging stations and almost tripled the number of outlets available for people to use. Considering that Arkansas had some of the lowest amounts of electric vehicle activity in 2019 this shows that a little bit of electric vehicle policy can go a long way in developing electric vehicle infrastructure within a state (<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Proudlove et al. 2019).<\/span><\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"color: #000000\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The results of the correlation and regression test, the scatterplot, and previous studies within academia show that the relationship between the number of electric vehicle policies in states and the number of charging stations\/outlets is present. The research I have conducted shows that electric vehicle policy can influence electric vehicle charging infrastructure and that if more states keep taking strides in passing electric vehicle policy, we would see greater amounts of electric vehicle infrastructure being built for public use within each state causing electric vehicle sales to increase over time (Proudlove et al. 2019, <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Lingzhi, Lutsey, and Searle, 2014).<\/span><\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"color: #000000\"><b>Limitations<\/b><\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"color: #000000\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Throughout the process of conducting this study, there were some limitations that presented themselves. To start, since this study was measured by comparing strictly the number of electric vehicle policies and charging stations\/outlets within each state, it did not give me the ability to see how politics may play a role in this field or look at the different types of policies that each state possesses including direct and indirect incentives. In addition to this, there are different types of charging stations and outlets including level 1 120V AC charging, level 2 240 V AC charging, 480V DC fast charging, and Tesla supercharging that were not taken into account in this study (<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Rogotzke et al. 2019, <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Motoaki, 2019, <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Proudlove et al. 2019). This is important in the electric vehicle world because each type of charging station takes a different amount of time to charge a car. For a level one charger, it can add 15 miles of range to a vehicle per hour. For a level 2 charger, it can add anywhere from 30 to 90 miles of range per hour of charge. For a DC fast charger, it can add anywhere from 90 up to 200 miles in 30 minutes of charging (Rogotzke et al. 2019)<\/span><\/span><\/p><p><b style=\"color: #000000\">Scope for Further Research<\/b><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;color: #000000\">As a result of this research I have conducted, there are some questions that have arisen from the wake of this study being,\u00a0 how have political parties played a role in developing electric vehicle policy and infrastructure? How has the infrastructure for other alternative fueling stations developed in the United States such as biodiesel, compressed natural gas, ethanol flex-fuel, hydrogen, liquified natural gas, and propane\u00a0 (\u201cAlternative Fueling Station Counts by State,\u201d 2020)? How have automakers redefined their vehicle lineups due to the growing popularity of electric vehicles? How much would California affect these tests and results? As time goes on, the answers to these questions will grow to define the changing automotive market and with it, our nation&#8217;s future.<\/span><\/p><p><strong><span style=\"color: #000000\">Works Cited<\/span><\/strong><\/p><p><span style=\"color: #000000\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u201cAlternative Fueling Station Counts by State.\u201d <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">U.S. Department of Energy.<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> 2020.\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/afdc.energy.gov\/stations\/states\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">https:\/\/afdc.<\/span><\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/afdc.energy.gov\/stations\/states\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">energy.gov\/stations\/states<\/span><\/a><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;color: #000000\">Bosworth, Ryan C., Matthew Crabtree, and Grant Patty. 2017. \u201cThe Current State of Electric<\/span>\u00a0<span style=\"color: #000000\">Vehicle\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0Subsidies: Economic, Environmental, and\u00a0 Distributional Impacts.\u201d <i>STRATA<\/i>.\u00a0<\/span> \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/strata.org\/pdf\/2017\/ev-full.pdf\">https:\/\/strata.org\/pdf\/2017\/ev-full.pdf<\/a><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;color: #000000\">Cattaneo, Lea. 2018. \u201cPlug-In Electric Vehicle Policy: Evaluating the Effectiveness of State.\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<span style=\"color: #000000\"> Policies for Increasing Deployment.\u201d <\/span><i><span style=\"color: #000000\">Center for American Progress.\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0<\/span> \u00a0<\/i><a href=\"https:\/\/www.americanprogress.org\/issues\/green\/reports\/2018\/06\/07\/451722\/plug-electric-vehicle-policy\/\">\u00a0 \u00a0 https:\/\/www.americanprogress.org\/issues\/green\/reports\/2018\/06\/07\/451722\/plug-electric-\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0vehicle-policy\/<\/a><\/p><p><span style=\"color: #000000\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u201cCharging Stations By State.\u201d <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">EVAdoption<\/span><\/i><\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"color: #000000\">. 2020.<\/span><\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/evadoption.com\/ev-charging-stations-statistics\/charging-stations-by-state\/\">\u00a0https:\/\/evadoption.com\/ev-charging<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/evadoption.com\/ev-charging-stations-statistics\/charging-stations-by-state\/\">-stations-\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0statistics\/charging-stations-by-state\/<\/a><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;color: #000000\">Chen, Belina and Sydney Vergis. 2015. \u201cComparison of Plug-In Electric Vehicle Adoption In\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 the<\/span>\u00a0<span style=\"color: #000000\">United States: A State by State Approach.\u201d <i>University of California at Davis<\/i>. Volume 25:\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Pages 56-64.<\/span>\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/reader.elsevier.com\/reader\/sd\/pii\/S0739885915000475?token=05C6642A178B1FE81814E9334717B6BE878F95E84AF3B68FAF247FC99FC8ED8A409E153DB25C71E57CD6E425D0A94172\">https:\/\/reader.elsevier.com\/reader\/sd\/pii\/S0739885915000475?\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 token=05C66<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/reader.elsevier.com\/reader\/sd\/pii\/S0739885915000475?token=05C6642A178B1FE81814E9334717B6BE878F95E84AF3B68FAF247FC99FC8ED8A409E153DB25C71E57CD6E425D0A94172\">42A178B1FE81814E9334717B6BE878F95E84AF3B68FAF247FC99<\/a>.\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/reader.elsevier.com\/reader\/sd\/pii\/S0739885915000475?token=05C6642A178B1FE81814E9334717B6BE878F95E84AF3B68FAF247FC99FC8ED8A409E153DB25C71E57CD6E425D0A94172\">FC8ED8A409E153DB25C71E57CD6E425D0A94172<\/a><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;color: #000000\">DeShazo, J.R. 2016. \u201cImproving Incentives for Clean Vehicle Purchases in the United States:\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0<\/span>\u00a0 \u00a0<span style=\"color: #000000\">Challenges and Opportunities.\u201d <i>Review of Environmental Economics and Policy<\/i>. Volume\u00a010,\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 Issue 1: Pages 149\u2013165.<\/span> <a href=\"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1093\/reep\/rev022\">https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1093\/reep\/rev022<\/a><\/p><p><span style=\"color: #000000\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Goldman, Josh. 2016. \u201cThe State of the Electric Car Market in 4 Charts and Graphs.\u201d <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Union\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 of\u00a0<\/span><\/i><i>Concerned Scientists<\/i>.<\/span> <a href=\"https:\/\/blog.ucsusa.org\/josh-goldman\/electric-car-market\">https:\/\/blog.ucsusa.org\/josh-goldman\/electric-car-market<\/a><\/p><p><span style=\"color: #000000\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Lesser, Jonathan. 2018. \u201cShort Circuit: The High Cost of Electric Vehicle Subsidies.\u201d\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0<\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Manhattan\u00a0<\/span><\/i><i>Institute<\/i>.<\/span> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.manhattan-institute.org\/html\/short-circuit-high-cost-electric-vehicle-subsidies-11241.html\">https:\/\/www.manhattan-institute.org\/html\/short-circuit-high-cost-\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 electric-<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.manhattan-institute.org\/html\/short-circuit-high-cost-electric-vehicle-subsidies-11241.html\">vehicle-subsidies-11241.html<\/a><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;color: #000000\">Lingzhi, Jin, Nic Lutsey, and Stephanie Searle. 2014. \u201cEvaluation of State-Level U.S.\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 Electric\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"color: #000000\">Vehicle Incentives.\u201d <i>The International Council on Clean Transportation<\/i>.\u00a0<\/span> \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/theicct.org\/sites\/default\/files\/publications\/ICCT_state-EV-incentives_20141030.pdf\">https:\/\/theicct<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/theicct.org\/sites\/default\/files\/publications\/ICCT_state-EV-incentives_20141030.pdf\">.org\/sites\/default\/files\/publications\/ICCT_state-EV-incentives_20141030.pdf<\/a><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;color: #000000\">Motoaki, Yutaka. 2019. \u201cLocation-Allocation of Electric Vehicle Fast Chargers\u2014Research.\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 and\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"color: #000000\">Practice.\u201d <i>World Electric Vehicle Journal<\/i>. Volume 10, Issue 1.\u00a0<\/span> \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.mdpi.com\/2032-6653\/10\/1\/12\/htm\">https:\/\/www.mdpi.com<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.mdpi.com\/2032-6653\/10\/1\/12\/htm\">\/2032-6653\/10\/1\/12\/html<\/a><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;color: #000000\">Proudlove, Autumn, Brian Lips, and David Sarkisian. 2019. \u201c50 States of Electric Vehicles:<\/span><span style=\"color: #000000\">\u00a0Q4 2019\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 Quarterly Report &amp; 2019 Annual Review Executive Summary.\u201d <i>North Carolina\u00a0<\/i><i>Clean Energy.\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 Technology Center.\u00a0<\/i><\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/nccleantech.ncsu.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/Q4-19_EV_execsummary_Final.pdf\">https:\/\/nccleantech.ncsu.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020 \/02\/Q4-19_EV_\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 execsummary_Final.pdf<\/a><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;color: #000000\">Reichmuth, David and Josh Goldman. 2017. \u201cAccelerating US Leadership In Electric Vehicles.<\/span><i>\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0<span style=\"color: #000000\">Union of Concerned Scientists<\/span><\/i><span style=\"color: #000000\">.\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.ucsusa.org\/sites\/default\/files\/attach\/2017\/09\/cv-factsheets-ev-incentives.pdf\">https:\/\/www.ucsusa.org\/sites\/default\/files\/attach\/2017\/09\/<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.ucsusa.org\/sites\/default\/files\/attach\/2017\/09\/cv-factsheets-ev-incentives.pdf\">cv-factsheets-ev-incentives.pdf<\/a><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;color: #000000\">Rogotzke, Matthew, Garett Eucalitto, and Sue Gander. 2019.\u00a0 \u201cTransportation Electrification:<\/span><span style=\"color: #000000\">\u00a0States\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0Rev Up.\u201d <i>National Governors Association Center for Best Practices. <\/i>Pages 3-5.\u00a0<\/span> \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nga.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/2019-09-15-NGA-White-Paper-Transportation-Electrification-States-Rev-Up.pdf\">https:\/\/www.nga.org\/wp-\u00a0 \u00a0content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/2019-09-15-NGA-White-Paper-\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0Transportation-Electrification-States-Rev-Up.pdf<\/a><\/p><p><span style=\"color: #000000\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Sherlock, Molly. 2019. \u201cThe Plug-In Electric Vehicle Tax Credit.\u201d <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u00a0The Congressional Research\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 <span style=\"color: #000000\">\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/i><i>Service<\/i>.<\/span>\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/fas.org\/sgp\/crs\/misc\/IF11017.pdf\">https:\/\/fas.org\/sgp\/crs\/misc\/IF11017.pdf<\/a><\/p><p><span style=\"color: #000000\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u201cState Laws and Incentives.\u201d <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">U.S. Department of Energy<\/span><\/i><\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"color: #000000\">. 2020.<\/span> <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/afdc.energy.gov\/laws\/state\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">https:\/\/afdc.energy.gov\/laws<\/span><\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/afdc.energy.gov\/laws\/state\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\/state<\/span><\/a><\/p><p><span style=\"color: #000000\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Winegarden, Wayne. 2018. \u201cCostly Subsidies for the Rich.\u201d <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The Pacific Research Institute<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">.\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0<\/span><\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.pacificresearch.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/CarSubsidies_final_web.pdf\">\u00a0 \u00a0https:\/www.pacificresearch.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/CarSubsidies_final_web.pdf<\/a><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Final Research Paper PDF\u00a0 Project Description In the Spring of 2020 during my Sophomore year of college, I completed a research project focused on the electric vehicle charging infrastructure within the United States. As a person who loves cars, I was curious to see if states that passed more electric vehicle regulations had more charging [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2669,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-19","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/ad2380a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/19","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/ad2380a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/ad2380a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/ad2380a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2669"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/ad2380a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/ad2380a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/19\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/ad2380a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}},{"id":16,"date":"2018-06-26T16:08:57","date_gmt":"2018-06-26T16:08:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/spatemplate\/?page_id=16"},"modified":"2021-03-15T14:52:53","modified_gmt":"2021-03-15T18:52:53","slug":"about-me","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/ad2380a\/","title":{"rendered":"About Me"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"attachment-266x266 size-266x266 alignleft\" src=\"http:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/ad2380a\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1278\/2018\/09\/IMG_1336.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"266\" height=\"177\" \/><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000\">Hello, my name is Ari Drayman and I grew up in the Berkshires Mountains of Massachusetts. I am currently an undergraduate student at Eastern Connecticut State University majoring in political science and minoring in sports and leisure management.\u00a0 Throughout my life, I have always had a desire to learn and develop my creative and critical thinking skills. As such, I have become a proficient researcher in college and have strived to pursue work experiences that I can both learn from and make me a more well-rounded individual. Thus, I am looking for an internship to gain a newfound understanding of how our legal system operates and see the important role it plays within the lives of the American people. As a person who has a passion for learning experiences and has many interests in life, I will jump at any opportunity I am offered that will help me become a more well-rounded individual for the future.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000\"><br \/>\nContact Information:<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000\">email &#8211; asimpledray@gmail.com<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000\">phone number &#8211; (860) 690-2379<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000\">LinkedIn &#8211;<\/span> <a class=\"pv-contact-info__contact-link link-without-visited-state t-14\" href=\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/aridrayman\">linkedin.com\/in\/aridrayman<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp; Hello, my name is Ari Drayman and I grew up in the Berkshires Mountains of Massachusetts. I am currently an undergraduate student at Eastern Connecticut State University majoring in political science and minoring in sports and leisure management.\u00a0 Throughout my life, I have always had a desire to learn and develop my creative and [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2669,"featured_media":37,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-16","page","type-page","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/ad2380a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/16","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/ad2380a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/ad2380a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/ad2380a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2669"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/ad2380a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/ad2380a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/16\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/ad2380a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/37"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/ad2380a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}},{"id":13,"date":"2018-06-26T16:08:57","date_gmt":"2018-06-26T16:08:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/spatemplate\/?page_id=13"},"modified":"2021-06-17T09:55:03","modified_gmt":"2021-06-17T13:55:03","slug":"resume","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/ad2380a\/resume\/","title":{"rendered":"Resume"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/ad2380a\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1278\/2021\/06\/Resume.pdf\">Resume PDF<\/a><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p style=\"text-align: center\"><span style=\"color: #000000\"><strong>Ari Drayman<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center\"><span style=\"color: #000000\">191 Fox Road, Dalton, MA 01226<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center\"><span style=\"color: #000000\">asimpledray@gmail.com (860) 690-2379<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/aridrayman\/\">www.linkedin.com\/in\/aridrayman<\/a><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000\"><strong>Education:<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\"><span style=\"color: #000000\"><strong>B.A.<\/strong>, Political Science, Eastern Connecticut State University\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 May 2022<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000\">\u00a0 \u00a0<strong>Minor:<\/strong> Sports &amp; Leisure Management<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000\">\u00a0 \u00a0<strong>GPA:<\/strong> 4.0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000\">\u00a0 \u00a0<strong>Honors:<\/strong> Dean&#8217;s List<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000\"><strong>Academic Projects:<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000\">Applied Qualitative Methods Research Paper\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0Fall 2020<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000\">Explored how athlete activism across the United States has evolved since the civil rights movement<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000\">Configured a thorough literature review by finding peer-reviewed sources regarding the history of athlete activism since the mid-twentieth century<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000\">Logged a combination of peer-reviewed pieces, articles, and photos as evidence to develop the data\/analysis section of the paper<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000\">Developed theory on how future athlete activism is affected by seismic activist events in the sports world<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000\">Created a 15-minute presentation on my research, findings, and conclusions which I presented in class<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000\">Applied Quantitative Methods Research Paper\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0Spring 2020<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000\">Researched how electric vehicle policy in the United States has influence charging infrastructure throughout the country<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000\">Wrote a thorough literature review by compiling peer-reviewed sources in electric vehicle policy and government-funded infrastructure<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000\">Produces a comprehensive paper using X statistical methods<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000\"><strong>Work Experience:<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000\"><strong>Hochberg Law Offices,<\/strong> Pittsfield, MA\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 November 2016 &#8211; Present<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000\">Assembled exhibits for open cases within the firm<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000\">Conducted research for open files including cases that went to trial<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000\">Attended trial and took intricate notes on court proceedings<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000\">Taught myself the intricate computer system of the firm<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000\">Assisted supervisors with daily needs such as dropping off files at court, depositing checks at the bank, and creating spreadsheets<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000\"><strong>Berkshire Hills Country Club,<\/strong> Pittsfield, MA\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 Summer 2019 &amp; Summer 2020<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000\">Adjusted my work schedule by waking up at 4 am five to six days a week<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000\">Obtained knowledge on how to maintain a golf course<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000\">Collaborated with coworkers on several projects throughout the summer<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000\">Worked under pressure before tournaments<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000\"><strong>Extracurriculars:<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000\">Temple Anshe Amunim, Pittsfield, MA\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 September 2012 &#8211; Present<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000\">Uechi Ryu Karate, Pittsfield, MA\/Washington, D.C.\/Hartford, CT\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0October 2008 &#8211; Present<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000\"><strong>Skills:<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000\">Microsoft Office Suite, Google Suite, SPSS, Qualitative\/Quantitative Analysis, &amp; WordPress<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Resume PDF Ari Drayman 191 Fox Road, Dalton, MA 01226 asimpledray@gmail.com (860) 690-2379 www.linkedin.com\/in\/aridrayman Education: B.A., Political Science, Eastern Connecticut State University\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2669,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-13","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/ad2380a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/13","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/ad2380a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/ad2380a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/ad2380a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2669"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/ad2380a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/ad2380a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/13\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/ad2380a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}]