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Kevin M. Kruse
@KevinMKruse
, 5 tweets, 1 min read Read on Twitter
Oh no.
When I came to Princeton in the fall of 2000, the (then) Program in African American Studies was housed in the same building as History, so I'd see Toni in the faculty lounge every now and then.
The first time I saw her, I was starstruck.

I'd read Beloved and Song of Solomon and more as an undergrad and, like the rest of the world, was blown away.

I couldn't believe she was sitting there drinking coffee.
I screwed up the courage to introduce myself, and she smiled and said "Oh, hello! I'm Toni Morrison."

At which point I blushed like an eight-year-old and, in the dorkiest voice possible, gushed "Yeah, I know!"
I should've been embarrassed, but I was just so thrilled to meet her. Such a force.

Rest in peace.
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More from @KevinMKruse see all

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Kevin M. Kruse
@KevinMKruse
Fifty years ago, "The Emerging Republican Majority" was hailed then as "the political Bible of the Nixon era."

But as Dov Grohsgal & I write in @TheAtlantic, the Nixon White House and conservatives actually had mixed feelings about it at the time. theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/…
@TheAtlantic Dov's not on Twitter, but he's a former student of mine and I'm going to brag about him anyway.

Those details about the Nixon White House come from his fantastic dissertation on the administration's handling of civil rights and race relations.
@TheAtlantic The dissertation will be published soon by @uncpressblog as part of the fantastic @JPPbookseries edited by @hthompsn and @drrhonday.

Check out what's already in it: uncpress.org/series/justice…
Read 3 tweets
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Kevin M. Kruse
@KevinMKruse
Speaking of Ronald Reagan's views on civil rights and race in the 1960s, I just found a profile of him from Look Magazine, right before he won the 1966 gubernatorial election in California.

The piece is fairly standard stuff, but the photos are ... interesting.
The profile (in the 11/1/66 issue) was inspired by California's gubernatorial election.

Civil rights had become a key issue, with the candidates sparring over the aftermath of Watts and a controversial fair housing law.

This Alistair Cook piece from @guardian sums it up.
The Look profile of Reagan -- paired with a profile of incumbent Democratic Governor Pat Brown -- is pretty routine: some biographical background and personal color, coverage of his policies and political endorsements, speculation about his chances, etc.
Read 8 tweets
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Kevin M. Kruse
@KevinMKruse
In what must be an amazing coincidence, this tweet just got a burst of “they ARE shitholes!” comments from a couple dozen accounts with 10-200 followers each within the span of a few minutes.

Still coming.

These three within a minute.

Follower counts: 6, zero, 46.
Still coming.

All small accounts, all at once, in a flurry of activity not normal for a Sunday morning.

And yes, this one literally used a monkey emoji and still played the “you’re the real racist” card.
Read 4 tweets

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Jewhadi™
@JewhadiTM
'Anti-Jewish, anti-Israel, pro-BDS': California's proposed Ethnic Studies Model Curriculum gets an F from Jewish caucus jta.org/2019/08/05/uni… via @jtanews
The 16 state legislators, all Democrats, are “strongly opposed” to the current draft of the Ethnic Studies Model Curriculum “moving forward without significant revisions.”
The board has put the model curriculum up for public comment and is expected to approve it next year.

The draft provides sample courses in four main areas: African-American Studies, Hispanic Studies, Native American Studies and Asian American Studies.
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Sarah J. Jackson
@sjjphd
A quick, powerful story I will never, ever forget about #ToniMorrison:

In college I befriended a fellow student I’ll call James. James was Black but had been adopted by a white family and raised in an all white community. I was one of his 1st black friends. At 20.
I was an African American studies minor and convinced James, who was a business major, to take a Black literature class with me to fulfill one of his electives. The first book we read was The Bluest Eye.
I had read it in high school, it’s an amazing text but wasn’t new to me. Some others in the class had read it before too, maybe half of us, but for many folks, it was new. The professor began quizzing us on why the book is considered so seminal.
Read 8 tweets
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Filomena Rocha
@Filomen03258997
13. Holocaust in Yemen caused by US, France, UK, Saudi Arabia, UAEmirates, Israel, Bahrain, Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait, Senegal, Sudan, Qatar, Morocco, Canada, Australia, Germany
#Yemen #CrimesAgainstHumanity #WarCrime #Holocaust #YemenCantWait #YemenHolocaust #WorldHypocrisy
1. Holocaust in Yemen caused by US, France, UK, Saudi Arabia, UAEmirates, Israel, Bahrain, Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait, Senegal, Sudan, Qatar, Morocco, Canada, Australia, Germany 🤨👇🏼
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Katharine Gerbner
@ktgerbs
First of all, the good news: I got tenure!

I want to celebrate my job security with a #thread about the history of racism & anti-semitism at the U. of Minnesota. I felt it wasn't wise to share my thoughts until my tenure was approved by the Board of Regents. Let me explain. /1
2/ Like many Universities, the U. of Minnesota is starting to reckon with its own discriminatory history. This history was displayed in a brilliant exhibit two years ago, called “A Campus Divided.”
acampusdivided.umn.edu
3/ After the exhibit, UMN President Kaler called a Task Force to investigate the University’s discriminatory history, and he asked several faculty, including many of my colleagues in the History department, to be part of this committee.
Read 27 tweets
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Ida Bae Wells
@nhannahjones
Taking a single,semester-long black studies course in hs changed my life. Learning the history & contributions of black people empowered me in a way that is difficult to put into words. I became obsessed w learning this history bc I realized it had been kept from me for a reason.
I majored in history and African-American studies in college and continue to read this history obsessively today. You cannot convince a person she is inferior if she knows her history. It’s why my daughter has been learning this history since she was in diapers.
This erasure has been part of the subjugation process for black people and other POC. I truly believe if our youth — including white children — learned our history, they would be transformed as I was.
Read 3 tweets
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Africana WomaNINJA
@ZalUIbaorimi
Just received a request for what I believe are some necessary reads for Black folk. So I’m going to do that right now. Let me clarify though, not all of these scholars/writers are Black folk although most are. Let’s do it.

Some are academic, some are works of fiction, etc.:
Before for I start though, please note that I DO NOT agree with the views of all of these scholars and/or writers. However, I do believe we should be aware of differing perspectives to sharpen our tools
Faces at the Bottom of the Well: The Permanence of Racism by Derrick Bell
Read 125 tweets

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