Let's make it clearer. This week's in-depth briefing from our volunteer collective at @unbreaking.org is on extraordinary acts of courage and decency by ordinary people fighting back against inhumane attacks on their neighbors. unbreaking.org/blog/this-we...

The Wright Museums Instagram page is HILARIOUS. Think The Office but it's the staff at a Museum for Black History. Better believe this is on my list of places to visit. Gentle Spades "I'm a veteran"

In this shitty moment I'm grateful to @karenattiah.bsky.social and @resistanceschool.bsky.social for introducing me to "News for All the People," which calls out US media's white supremacist origins and the ways POC have always resisted it. It's essential reading. bookshop.org/p/books/news...

There is no way, in no world, that people stop telling stories about ourselves. Journalism as we all know it is dead and dying but I’m really hopeful we can rebuild something that is truly equitable, illuminating, and clear-eyed about the world that we actually live in.

If you are able, The Post's union has started a layoff fund for those fired by the world's fourth-richest man today. gofund.me/a310d0286

Without a major investment in publicly funded media or VERY well-funded worker-run collectives, we are all on a sinking ship. The problem is convincing the public that they're going down, too.

I really hate that media layoffs have been happening for the last three years, including my own, and most of the people responsible for the mismanagement won't experience any negative consequences, especially for decimating the number of people of color in so many American newsrooms.

I've had the pleasure of working with Unbreaking for almost six (!) months now as part of their comms team. In light of...everything...I wrote this essay to unpack how it feels to ID as a "lowercase-j" journalist while Journalism courts fascism.

Linkedin is not a place of honor

I just backed The Cookout: A Speculative Fiction Anthology on @kickstarter.com www.kickstarter.com/projects/and...

lupita is the kind of fine that makes you go, "how dare you"

Who among us would not launch a thousand ships for the sake of Lupita Nyongo

Don Lemon has been released without bail, and his next court appearance is Feb. 9

Journalist Georgia Fort has been released from custody (video @fox9mn.bsky.social)

So it seems like I need to finally watch Schitt's Creek this weekend, is what y'all are saying

all I will say about this current news cycle is that severance packages typically have NDAs for a reason. POC journalists have not been doing well for a long, long time

I’ve see a couple mentions that both Georgia Fort & Don Lemon are independent journalists without the coffers, status, & lawyers of media companies to back them - with no acknowledgment of Black press being *forced en masse* to leave the field or go indie in the last 2 years or so.

The important thing to understand about Oakland County, MI, is that it's so racist, a county executive fantasized about turning Detroit into an "Indian reservation" and still kept his job: www.metrotimes.com/news/rip-l-b...

Grateful to @hammerandhope.bsky.social for recognizing the importance of Dr. King's work with Chicago gangs. Blackstone Rangers leader Jeff Fort stressed what a good listener King was —and how he saw their potential for community leadership & organization. hammerandhope.org/article/mart...

Totally love this newsletter from @seizethepress.bsky.social about how art doesn't replace action and more about moralizing stories. Said better than I ever could. buttondown.com/STPMagazine/...

Oh, this snow is crazy.

Something about the prevalence of sharing these feels like lynching postcards to me. Brutal final moments of someone’s life circulated forever. And in the constant rush to share, sure some is for awareness, but a lot feels like people sharing a spectacle.

This reminds me of an excellent review I read on this movie by Brooke Obie, which has this banger line in it: “A loveless revolutionary is just a terrorist.” blackgirlwatching.substack.com/p/one-battle...

Every time I log into this website after a long hiatus I recognize why I needed the hiatus in the first place.

I found the ep in PLURIBUS where Carol--white, American--meets 5 non-white, non-American survivors of the hivemind off-putting, but in a way that made me curious to see where Gilligan was going. Now that I have, I wrote about how empire, privilege, genAI, & resistance converge in the show's subtext:

I just donated to the Immigrant Law Center of Minnesota, in case you want to do the same. www.ilcm.org/donate/

[preparing to get screamed at] I think I officially don’t need to know if you’re mad that an article is paywalled. Perhaps that can be an Inside Thought

Appreciate this piece from Marcus but the piece that’s missing from this essay is the fact that Kenyans and Indians are the primary content moderators or “clean up crew” for the commercially available AI data sets. So yes, he’s right to be upset at the implication but the next step is asking “why?”

This is incredibly important. If you read one thing this week: marcusolang.substack.com/p/im-kenyan-...

In her new essay for Speculative Insight, Donna Glee Williams explores the ways Joseph Campbell's Hero's Journey really needs to be challenged. Listen to her explanation in this video, and then read the essay: www.speculativeinsight.com/essays/hero-journey

Zero-G

This is one of my biggest personal gripes with modern media. Podcasts, personal newsletters, movies - everything is too long and not that interesting. Bring back editors and producers ffs.

Oops...almost forgot to turn my work alarm back on...don't be like me

It's unfortunately still Expedition 33 even though the endings make me want to write an angry thinkpiece.

I just think cheesecake is really great

Today is #CreatorDay2025 at Itch, which means they don't take their cut & the money goes to the creator. Great way to support indie artists! Buy Clipped: kqwatson.itch.io/clipped Buy over 70+ items in one fell swoop with the Creator Day Bundle! itch.io/b/3410/creat... Organized by @aimeecozza.com

For no reason at all, I'm going to make a thread of artists who I think are Neat. First is, of course, @gdbee.bsky.social, who has been making atmospheric and intimate portraits of Black women and girls for years. I just bought two prints from her and they look amazing: gdbee.store/products/fra...

My book is out and it’s about the power of archive and voice and my fellow fellows are dope as hell in it nupress.northwestern.edu/978081014906...

it's funny how defensive folks are about something they loudly proclaim is totally morally fine. like why does the author have to agree with you too?

Editors have a really hard job, and the good ones can make something unreadable readable, and the great ones can make something unreadable into something good. But they're basically invisible, until someone tries to write without one.

Crocodile Dance is a 2D/3D Animated Thriller about a Nigerian musician who must confront the curse of a Mami Wata to save her family. Support us on @Kickstarter today! bit.ly/croc-dance-ks

obviously this is bad, but it’s long been true of other countries we praise to the skies for their healthcare and a lot of progressive Americans don’t want to acknowledge that as a huge vector of oppression. there are a lot of places I couldn’t emigrate to even if I wanted bc they have BMI limits

Nia Davenport ( @niadavenport.bsky.social ) is a great writer and friend whose young family just lost a husband and father. If you've loved her books or her presence in the writing community, and you can spare something, please contribute. gofund.me/4299d5593

Today's the deadline to register for @sfwa.org's fall online Nebula event, Quasar, which takes place November 15 and 16. If you took part in this year's Nebula Conference there's no cost to register. 1/ membership.sfwa.org/event-6301796

Hmm...I'm starting to wonder whether our relationship to photojournalism needs to change considering we live in a society where we're being watched at all times. 'Cause why do we need to see close-up photos of this man sobbing in order to care about people being disappeared off the street?

so nobody Black works in news anymore? they fired all of us?

This legitimately makes me sad. Teen Vogue has been a shining example of journalism done right.

I'll be one of the panelists on Saturday's "Collaboration Done Right!" You should stop by!

If I get this job I'm going to buy something incredibly impractical with my severance money.

With #Sinners back in theaters today, thought I'd reshare the article I wrote about the Choctaw Vampire Hunters and why that moment didn't NEED to be centered more even tho we would all love to see more of their story. redpopnews.com/sinners-give... #redpopnews