📢📢 On this MLK Day, a reminder that faculty at Texas public colleges and universities are now uncertain whether or not they can legally teach Martin Luther King Jr.’s “Letter From Birmingham Jail.” ⬇️ thebarbedwire.com/2026/01/19/w...

This is (*checks notes*) after a Federal District Judge ordered them not to use chemical weapons on observers. ICE is a collection of lawless, cruel, racist thugs. Defund them, and prohibit their non-elected federal employment for the next 20 years.

This is a change in generational demographics -- lotta people died over 10 years and a lotta people came of age-- and the more extremist fundamentalism becomes a chokehold and takes over the conversation, the more regular folks of values & conscience assume there's nothing in there for them. Duh?

New — I wrote about ChongLy Scott Thao, the elderly Hmong American wrongly arrested and forced out of his home by ICE in his underwear during the punishing Minnesota winter, what witnesses saw, and DHS's racist claim that he fit the description of another Asian man they were looking for. My story:

this from @juliaazari.bsky.social is great and has me thinking — as circumstances often do these days — about something that has been lost in the age of trump, which is the presidency as steward of the constitution.

In Minnesota, Democrats are unraveling our disability services system by imposing AI-driven payment waiting periods so that small businesses can't keep providing services to disabled Minnesotans. Currently it's non-emergency medical transport that's collapsing. All in the name of fighting fraud.

I don’t think I’ve ever seen this one but I love Skyfall. See yall Sunday after surviving the first week of classes. #HATM

because from my vantage point, the white house does not have a win condition. like so many past occupiers, it seems to believe that a sufficient show of force will deter opposition. but like most occupations, the only thing you get with more force is greater resolve.

fantastic piece from my colleague @polgreen.bsky.social that gets at something i have been thinking about. what, exactly, is the administration's strategic goal in minnesota? what does "victory" look like for trump and miller?

I consider how Republicans responded to Martin Luther King's assassination in diverse ways, largely due to their broader engagement with civil rights, in my new book "The Republican House Divided" available from @uscpress.bsky.social 🗃️ uscpress.com/The-Republic...

It feels like there’s been a shift where instead of fighting against people sanitizing King, we’re seeing more demonization & questioning why he should be celebrated in the 1st place. Ideas that used to only be in trolling comment are now a pretty common response.

There's no better way to observe MLK Day than to go on the news and insist that the civil rights protesters objecting to police brutality are actually "paid agitators"

This is actually a signifier of the compressibility of the works in question and not an indicator that the works themselves are stored in the AI -- critically because storing the works in the AI is MATHEMATICALLY IMPOSSIBLE.

Urgent call to action, Texans: we need to write to our State Board of Education members and tell them NOT to adopt the proposed required reading list they’re considering at the the end of the month. It is BAD. I wrote about why here: franklinstrong.substack.com/p/call-to-ac...

Imagine telling George Orwell that the state of Texas proposed mandating Animal Farm in public schools during the same year as, for whatever reason, Antigone, Great Expectations, The Odyssey, and Night, and then reinforcing a predetermined understanding of it through standardized exams.

#tdih 1966, Georgia State House refused to seat Julian Bond despite his election (82% of vote) as a state rep, because of his endorsement of SNCC statement against U.S. in Vietnam. They denied Bond & the voters their rights. #VoterSuppression Read ⬇️ 🧵 www.zinnedproject.org/news/tdih/ge...

Julian Bond was eventually seated after winning his seat again, denied again, & going to SCOTUS. He later taught popular courses on Civil Rights Movement. Read his lectures in @beaconpress.bsky.social collection ⬇️, co-edited by @jeannetheoharis.bsky.social. www.zinnedproject.org/materials/ti...

For some reason, very few people these days will stand up and say it, but: the US federal bureaucracy is one of the great wonders of the world, staffed with incredibly diligent people who do their jobs well and care deeply. Trump's destruction of the federal apparaus was a historic crime.

"Buried within the kind of crony capitalist network that has propelled Trump’s imperialism is something far stranger, and far darker, than simply seizing Greenland’s resources for financial gain." @cjcmichel.bsky.social on the Network State and Greenland. newrepublic.com/article/2051...

Abolish ICE. Destroy their weapons and melt down their equipment. Deny their agents, employees, and bosses all government employment for all time. Remove the agency entirely from the budget and give the money to public libraries and free health care.

"Before the sun went down, I think that was the best day of my life." That line recontextualizes the entire film, followed by Stack's line - "For just a moment, we were free." This is a story about real life, real history, real stories wrapped up in a fantastical vampire tale. 🫡 #HATM

"Damn right, he’s got the blues… and the scars to show for it. ' variety.com/2025/music/n... #HATM

I didn’t notice the first time that stack doesn’t give a reflection in the mirror. #HATM

And make sure you're subscribed to our substack at jasonherbert.substack.com #HATM

Y’all need to keep watching through the credits. All the way. #HATM

This final scene with Smoke got some 🤨 from commentators... and it is somewhat extraneous to the story... but I'm not ever going to criticize a Black director for filming a Black actor going Call of Duty on a bunch of klansmen. Let them cook, I say. #HATM

And here is the infamous trunk. #HATM

SNEH just said he’s super reminiscent of Lucifer in Supernatural. Also helps that he keeps yelling “Sammy!” #HATM

The idea of Remmick as the Devil, but also having a keen interest in Sammie's music, evokes the myth of Robert Johnson at the crossroads, but in reverse - the Devil needs his music to create something powerful and new, and change the world accordingly. #Sinners #HATM

Our 4 legged “kids” would also like a word… #HATM

Supernatural got me thru Comprehensive Exams! #HATM

#1 lesson of Sinners... ALWAYS LISTEN TO ANNIE!!!! #HATM

Annie telling it like it is. "Admit you're dead." #Sinners #HATM

There's even a backstory to the song Pick Poor Robin clean - Vampire Remmick appropriated a song that was written by two women who were likely Black and was orginally a blues song... #HATM thedocumentrecordsstore.com/sinners-pick...

The lynching that launched Ida B. Wells' investigation into lynchings were of a Black owned grocery store serving a Black clientele. But the white owned store still saw them as competition & took them out as such. #HATM daily.jstor.org/peoples-groc...

Preacher Boy's song... this scene and all the visual elements 🤯on first watch. I teach African American Studies and try to bring an emphasis on storytelling.... and these visuals capture everything about its importance in African American culture and the connect bt past, present, and future. #HATM

Omg yes! And please tap the people who made Prey (the Predator series) for it because that was amazing! #HATM

"What are you?" "I'm a human being." 🎯 #HATM

“What am I?” “I’m a human being!” Well said, Hailee!! But wait for it, girl! 😬😮🤭 #HumanHailee #HATM

"What am I? I'm a human being." Hailee Steinfeld is fantastic here, and speaks from her own experience - her grandfather was Filipino and African, reflecting the character's ancestry here. #Sinners #HATM

Delroy Lindo is hands down one of the greatest character actors in the last 30 years. He doesn’t have any bad performances! Just love him in everything! #hatm #Sinners

I discussed this in the lecture on Asian Exclusion (covering Chinese Exclusion & Japanese Incarceration) in Forgotten America for the Great Courses and Audible. bit.ly/4omm0oi #HATM

And subject to lynching & pogroms (race riots) in much the same way too. After the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, white gangs used violence to extralegally evict Asian communities including at Tacoma, hence the Tacoma Method. www.tacomamethod.com/mapping-anti... #HATM

Charley Patton, to whom this guitar (allegedly) belonged, was a founder of Delta Blues, and was (plausibly) of some Choctaw descent, owing to his light skin. Notably, he is still alive at this point (died in 1934 from a heart attack), so whether this is his guitar is an open question. #Sinners #HATM

And since it is the 1 year anniversary of TikTok temporarily being banned, go follow us both on the clock ap. #HATM

1) definitely a vampire movie 2) We Will Shoot Back: Armed Resistance in the Mississippi Freedom Movement 3) enchiladas #hatm nyupress.org/978081472524...

1. It's a movie WITH Vampires (& not a lot of them in the 1st half). 2. I'm going with @drkarenlcox.bsky.social's Goat Castle 3. We're running a few minutes late tonight b/c there's a cold front so I made a double batch of chili (with beans!) & SNEH is working on the corn bread now. #HATM

It almost feels like 2 different movies put together. The first half isn't horror. The 2nd half has some twists that lean that way but I'd also put it more in the suspense category. #HATM

This is a very good point. The November 2025 US National Security Strategy never mentions the Arctic at all. The idea that it's a genuine security priority for the Trump administration is not credible.