This attempt to silence a professor (and one of my advisors!) for calling out racism and holding people accountable for injustice is appalling. It resembles the asymmetrical and scorched earth tactics of the GOP. It’s an abuse of power, self-aggrandizing, and wrong.
The great reporting by the @MSFreePress lays it all out. Dr. Thomas participated in the #ScholarStrike to raise awareness about racial injustice. The state auditor said the action ran afoul of an anti-labor law where any teacher who strikes can be fired. mississippifreepress.org/5913/auditor-s…
That law was passed after Mississippi teachers in 1985 went on strike for higher pay. They were successful, but the powers-that-be said “never again.” I mean...if we pay teachers their due, what’s next? Socialism?! The demise of the Republic itself?!? 😱
Now this professor becomes the scapegoat for everything that far-right officials in the state think is wrong with “librul” education. Meanwhile, his own school (and mine) remains passive when people send one of their own professors death threats. You can’t make this stuff up.
Anyway, you can say “That’s just Mississippi” all you want. But this state is a bellwether and a mirror. It puts in stark relief what has happened, is happening or will happen in the rest of the nation. What happens to folks here can darn sure happen to folks where you are.

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More from @JemarTisby

2 Dec
I take no pleasure in writing posts like these. But certain things must be said...

New Post: Southern Baptist seminary presidents reaffirm their commitment to whiteness

thewitnessbcc.com/southern-bapti…
"By highlighting [Critical Race Theory] as particularly acute threats to Southern Baptist orthodoxy, the seminary presidents take aim at virtually anyone who advocates for racial justice beyond hugs, handshakes, and symbolic statements."
thewitnessbcc.com/southern-bapti…
"For several years, fundamentalist Christians have positioned CRT as an epithet...It's the theological and ecclesiastical equivalent of the 'Red Scare.' Slap anyone with the label 'Critical Race Theory' and they automatically become enemies of the church."
thewitnessbcc.com/southern-bapti…
Read 4 tweets
16 Sep
There's a lot to unpack in this data, but my top line observation is this: If racial justice was about popularity we'd never see change. Progress has always come from a small but committed group of people. Never let the numbers crush your conviction.
barna.com/research/ameri…
While the numbers for white Christians were not great, I was more interested in the data around Black Christians:
Motivation to address racial injustice:
2019: 63% (very motivated: 33%)
2020: 70% (very motivated 46%)
@BarnaGroup
AND Black *Christians* were more likely than Black people as a whole to say that the country has a race problem:
Black People: 76%
Black Christians: 81%
Read 4 tweets
15 Sep
#OnThisDay: September 15, 1963
Four young Black girls—Addie Mae Collins (14), Denise McNair (11), Carole Robertson (14), and Cynthia Wesley (14)—were killed by a white supremacist in a terrorist attack. But there’s so much more to know...
#16thStBaptistChurch
The blast injured about 20 others including 12 year old Sarah Collins, Addie’s sister, who was blinded in one eye. The 15 sticks of dynamite shattered all the church’s stained glass windows except one—an image of Jesus Christ. The face of Christ had been blown out.
Also...Here's the story of the new stained glass window that replaced the damaged one. It's inspiring! instagram.com/p/CCjgAeQJd1I/…
Read 8 tweets
8 Sep
It always gives me pause to remember that Woodrow Wilson's father was Rev. Joseph R. Wilson whose First Presbyterian Church hosted the first General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church of Confederate States of America (later PCUS).
Rev. Wilson presided as the Stated Clerk for the southern Presbyterian denomination for nearly 40 years. In addition, he preached a well-known sermon called "The Mutual Relation of Masters and Slaves" which defended race-based chattel slavery on supposedly biblical grounds.
Woodrow Wilson continued his father's racist patterns while president. The younger Wilson allowed the re-segregation of several federal government departments and famously railed at W.E.B. DuBois and William Trotter that segregation was "not humiliating but a benefit."
Read 4 tweets
28 Aug
It happens all the time, especially among certain Christians. Whenever Black people organize for uplift someone raises the specter of “Communism.” Happened with the #MarchonWashington, too. Image
The FBI and J. Edgar Hoover hounded the Civil Rights movement and its leaders to try to find or fabricate evidence of Communist infiltration. Under pressure from Hoover, investigators made MLK into either a Communist puppet or leader.
On August 30, 1963 the head of the Domestic Intelligence Division, William Sullivan, called the “I Have a Dream” speech “demagogic” & wanted to “mark” King as “the most dangerous Negro of the future in this Nation from the standpoint of communism, the Negro and national security” Image
Read 5 tweets
28 Aug
#OnThisDay: August 28, 1963- at least 200,000 people participated in the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. Their platform included voter protections and job training for the unemployed.
#MarchOnWashington Image
At the march, MLK gave his “I have a Dream” speech and spoke of the “fierce urgency of now.” Over half a century later and we must still respond to issues of racial injustice with a sense of urgency. Image
Organizers told John Lewis to tone down his rhetoric. He wanted to say..."We will march through the South, through the heart of Dixie, the way Sherman did. We shall pursue our own ‘scorched earth’ policy and burn Jim Crow to the ground — nonviolently." Image
Read 6 tweets

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