Beloved Contemporary Connections

An issue within the United States that has somewhat passed, is the election, but just because the election is over doesn't mean anything because Donald Trump is our new president. The election has caused many disputes and riots among many racially diverse groups.  A study done by Philip Klinkner from Hamilton College analyzed a survey done by the American National Election Study (ANES) to determine what this past election was about and the title says it all, "It’s Not the Economy, Stupid: Why Race, Religion, and Immigration “Trump” the Economy in the 2016 Election." Kinkner looked at the responses to several questions, "those who express more resentment toward African Americans, those who think the word 'violent' describes Muslims well, and those who believe that President Obama is a Muslim... (Klinkner)." Klinkner found that those who fit that criteria or answered with those anwers were usually had a higher support for Trump (Klinkner). "For example, moving from the least to the most resentful view of African Americans increases from Trump by 44 points, those who think that Obama is Muslim (54 percent of all Republicans) are 24 points more favorable to Trump, and those who think the word 'violent' describes Muslims extremely well are about 13 points more pro-Trump...(Klinkner)" He also found that attitudes about legal immigrations did not show favoritism towards either candidate. The everyday person was under the impression that the state of the economy was what would put either candidate over the other, but through this analytical article, it shows that the contributing factors were race, religion, and immigration. This connects to my theme of religion because people are discriminated constantly just because of what they believe in. In today's world Uncle Tom's Cabin would be ridiculed for such a religious presence, so many people are just against having any type of religion because those religious views get mixed in with politics and today no two people can agree to disagree. This event relates with Beloved because it shows how race is still playing a role in America so long after the abolishment of slavery. It also related to my overall theme of religion because it shows a different take on it compared to my previous blogs, it shows how people who fully believe in their faith are discriminated against.

Another article that pulls in both religion and race is about a letter that Iran's former President wrote to Trump, who recently had an executive order that banned travel from several countries. In his letter Ahmadinejad wrote about "the spread of  discriminatory, racist and profit-driven attitudes in human relations, as well as expansion of false boundaries and causing rifts among the people (Sepahvand)". The former President also used the fact that society is changing and becoming more accepting everyday and by placing the travel ban its just hindering the progress of an ever changing society (Sepahvand). This article related well to Beloved because Sethe, Denver and then Beloved are very isolated from society after what Sethe did, but not everyone in their community fully understood what Sethe had been through and that's what cut them off from everyone else. It wasn't until Denver reached out to them that they saw how much help she really needed.


Sepahvand, Mehdi. "Iran’s Ex-President Writes to Trump of Racial Discrimination." Trend Capital.English, Feb 26, 2017, Business Premium Collection.

Klinkner, Philip. "It’s Not the Economy, Stupid: Why Race, Religion, and Immigration “Trump” the Economy in the 2016 Election." ResearchGate. Hamilton College, June 2016. Web. 3 May 2017.