An article about the history of state-sanctioned racism in California cites a UMass Amherst Poll from April 2021 that found a majority of respondents disapproved of providing financial reparations to the descendants of slaves. “Four hundred years since Africans were forcibly brought to the shores of America, 245 years since the 3/5^th Compromise and 156 years since freed African Americans were promised 40 acres and a mule, a majority of Americans express an unwillingness to pay the descendants of slaves for the nation’s original sin,” says Tatishe Nteta, Associate Professor of Political Science and Director of the UMass Poll.(San Francisco Chronicle, 12/30/21; News Office release)

One year after thousands of supporters of former President Donald Trump stormed the U.S. Capitol in an attempt to protest and disrupt the certification of Joe Biden’s victory in the 2020 presidential election, the results of a new national UMass Amherst Poll released Dec. 28 show 71% of Republicans – and one-third of the nation – continue to believe that Biden’s victory was illegitimate, and that Republicans continue to blame Democrats, Antifa and the Capitol Police for the events of Jan. 6. They also oppose both the continuation of law enforcement efforts to prosecute the rioters and attempts to learn more about what happened that day. (WCVB-TV 5 Boston, WBUR Radio, News Office release 1/3/22)

Tatishe Nteta, Associate Professor of Political Science and Director of UMass Poll is quoted in a WGBH story on the prospect of Attorney General Maura Healey running for Governor of Massachusetts in 2022. Most folks on Beacon Hill — whether Democrats, Republicans, bureaucrats, or the mice in the walls — fully expect Attorney General Maura Healey to run for governor next year. So why hasn't Healey, who is expected to lead the Democratic field if she enters the race, officially declared herself a candidate and started her campaign in earnest? Because even as an undeclared candidate, Healey appears to be so far ahead of the pack of three already declared Democratic candidates, that there are very few political downsides to waiting, strategizing and preparing to compete for an open seat now that Gov. Charlie Baker is out of the race. "That might come in the next few days, or it might come sometime in the new year. But I don't think it puts her, given the state of the Democratic field, at any real disadvantage," said Professor Tatishe Nteta. (WGBH, 12/16/2021)

Charli Carpenter, Professor of Political Science & International Security Program Fellow, along with Zoe Marks, Lecturer in Public Policy at Harvard Kennedy School were interviewed to share their thoughts on how the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan, and the war in general, has impacted Afghan women, and what the women themselves and others can do to improve their situation. (Harvard Kennedy School, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, Fall 2021)