Free Republic

The U.S. owns five territories: Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands and American Samoa. The first four receive U.S. citizenship. American Samoa does not; people born there receive a second-class status known as U.S. nationals. Anchor babies get more rights than Samoans do. Samoans can’t vote in U.S. elections, they can’t run for office and they can’t serve on juries. They are prohibited from holding jobs that require U.S. citizenship, and cannot apply to sponsor their relatives for immigration visas. But they pay U.S. taxes. American Samoa is separate from the independent nation of Samoa. Three...

In 1987, a few years after Margaret Mead and Samoa was published, it was discovered that one of Mead’s close informers in 1926, Fa’apua’a Fa’amu, was still alive, and wished to swear on the Bible to clear the record on what she had told Mead all those years ago about sexual relations among the Samoans: We said that we were out all night with the boys; she failed to realize that we were just joking and must have been taken in by our pretenses…She must have taken it seriously but I was only joking. As you know, Samoan girls are...

Bottles, rocks and fists flew during lunchtime Friday at Fontana High School. Students poured out of classrooms when they said a fire alarm rang around noon. They then saw what they described as a racial or gang-related riot erupting among about 500 students on the quad of the campus near Citrus Avenue. Some flocked to the chaotic melee with their cell phones taking pictures and recording video while others fled to get out of the way. Helicopters circled over the school. "There were fights everywhere - girls and guys," said Dalila Lizarraga, 16. Campus police officers sprinted across four lanes...