1. The move by the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill trustees to block tenure for Pulitzer Prize-winner Nikole Hannah-Jones (@nhannahjones), author of the #1619Project on race in America, is an attack on academic freedom -- a stunning yet... 19thnews.org/2021/05/unc-wo…
2. ...inevitable bad place we've been heading with the politicization of state universities, mainly by a Republican Party that hates college. Since a GOP takeover of its state legislature in 2010, NC has handed the keys for public higher ed to right-wing extremists such as...
3. Art Pope, the so-called "Godfather" of the Tarheel State's right turn in Raleigh. Pope and other GOP trustees had already killed academic programs perceived as "liberal," such as an anti-poverty center at Chapel Hill. In fact, a recent list... chronicle.com/article/adding…
4. of the trustees for the entire university system compiled by the Daily Tarheel shows that the GOP-led legislature has chosen 15 Republicans, 7 whose affiliation is unknown, and just one Democrat. (more) dailytarheel.com/article/2021/0…
5. UNC-Chapel Hill, where Hannah-Jones' tenure was blocked, has its own 13-member board. Its chair is a former GOP state senator, and its makeup is shockingly NOT diverse: 11 white men, one white woman and one Black woman. So... bot.unc.edu
6. ...if you're surprised by this attack on a top U.S. journalist, her award-winning work and her ability to teach how journalism can confront racial inequity in America, you haven't been paying attention this past decade. Republicans who see college campuses as outposts of a...
7. ...liberal enemy to be crushed and places to train worker drones, not thinking voters, have slashed spending for state systems to make tuition unaffordable and burden a generation with unfathomable debt, but they didn't stop there... insidehighered.com/news/2019/01/1…
8. Right-wing trustees in states like NC and MI are using their clout to steer campus learning away from liberal ideas they see as dangerous -- the real, actual college "cancel culture" -- and Nikole Hannah-Jones is now their most prominent victim. But with the GOP declaring...
9. ...war on so-called "critical race theory" or any other kind of racial reckoning in the classroom, the battles are only going to get worse. It's critical that we reclaim higher education in America as a "public good," committed to a return to the ideals of learning to make...
10. ...young people better citizens and better informed voters, in addition to participants in an equitable economy. We need free, universal higher ed and training for all our youth -- free from gross political interference like today in NC. -30-
One more thing, which is that I'd be a terrible self-promoter if I didn't mention that I've been thinking about this stuff as I write a book on how college provoked America's political divide, coming next year from William Morrow -- stay tuned for the details!

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More from @Will_Bunch

26 Mar
1. You've probably seen this picture of Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp and his gaggle of white men signing the state's voter suppression law -- the new, new Jim Crow. But there's a shocking angle to this story that you haven't heard. Sit down for this one...
2. Notice the antebellum-style portrait behind Kemp as he signs the suppression law? Thanks to Twitter crowdsourcing and particularly @TheSeaFarmer, I can report the measure to limit Black voting was signed under the image of a notorious slave plantation in Wilkes County, GA
3. If you scroll about halfway down this PDF link, you can see that the painting is clearly "Brickhouse Road -- Callaway PLNT" (PLNT for "Plantation...subtle, right?) by artist Olessia Maximenko from Wilkes County, GA gaarts.org/wp-content/upl…
Read 17 tweets
20 Mar
1. A right-wing troll emailed me a ridiculous Daily Mail article (I know that's redundant) about why the U.S. media isn't pretending that Biden's brief stumble boarding Air Force 1 is the biggest thing that ever happened. So let's talk about presidents... dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9…
2. ...and mental health, shall we? The reason so many people focused on Donald Trump's seeming mental and perhaps physical decline during his time in the White House was because it tied into his clear symptoms around bigger issues like Narcissistic Personality Order. That...
3. ...manifested itself in four years of barking irrational and often illegal demands at his bullied aides, and raised legitimate concerns about his control of the nuclear football, etc. Indeed, we saw how his delusional state of mind affected the nation after 11/3, when he...
Read 8 tweets
16 Mar
1. So I’m at Kenyon College in Ohio today for my book on college’s role in America’s broken politics and I got to see something really cool: The first-ever-in-the-nation strike by student workers
2. K-SWOC was formed by student workers such as lifeguards, library aides or campus farm employees. They have post-pandemic issues about reduced hours, pay and basic respect at Kenyon, one of the most expensive U.S. colleges
3. About 140 student workers have walked off the job for 24-hours, pressing Kenyon’s administration for recognition. They believe their movement will spread to other colleges and universities
Read 4 tweets
3 Mar
There's a line in Lynyrd Skynyrd's "Sweet Home Alabama" that always makes me smile -- "There's good people in Alabama"...because it's true. I worked in Birmingham 1982-85 and some folks there are still my friends 35 years later. They were/are smart, open-minded people who... 1/3
...liked to slam dance to the Jim Carroll Band or make fun of backwoods sheriffs. I never lived in Texas, Mississippi or Florida but I know it's the same way - lots of good people doing their best amid a bigger, backwards culture that can elect the worst leaders. It's because 2/3
...of those great humans that I never damn an entire state, or wish it ill health, or catching a virus, etc. Focus anger where it belongs - on hate, bigotry and the politicians and hucksters who exploit it. Pray for the many good people in those places, and their good health 3/3
Read 4 tweets
28 Feb
1. OK, done with my column, my "back to brunch" (at home with my family pod) and Sunday chores, so here's my thread on why 1970 is the greatest music year of all time. But I have to start with two...
2. caveats. First, most critics think of 1970 for the rise of the singer-songwriter, to which I say...meh. Second, some horrible things happened in 1970 off-vinyl -- the death of Jimi and Janis, breakup of the Beatles. No studio records from the Stones or the Who, BUT...
3. 1970 was the last super great year for the one-off pop-rock 45, including "Venus" by Shocking Blue, "Spirit in the Sky," by Norman Greenbaum, and of course "Ride Captain Ride" by Blues Image
Read 9 tweets
17 Feb
1. On Rush Limbaugh's passing: Harry Truman supposedly said "it's a damn shame when anyone dies." Fair enough. But

Consider this timeline:

1985: Neil Postman's "Amusing Ourselves to Death" predicts a world where entertainment values wreck civil discourse

1987: Reagan's FCC...
2. ...kills the Fairness Doctrine and creates the possibility of conservative talk radio

1988: Sacramento radio guy Rush Limbaugh goes national with right-wing talk

Now, Limbaugh (as his later soulmate, Glenn Beck) was basically the nightmare predicted in "Amusing Ourselves...
3. ...to Death" -- a smooth entertainer with no real political ideas worth discussing, just a talent for funneling white rage into a 3-hour show. Yet in doing so, he changed U.S. politics forever and set the stage for Trump's American fascism

Before "Lock her up!" there was...
Read 8 tweets

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