JD Vance is “a thing” because people wanted to buy into bad stereotypes of poor white people and have an excuse to ignore the role of racism in the 2016 election. Also, the complex story of rural white working class people in Appalachia was ignored in favor of his stereotypes. /1 Vance capitalized on the fact that white people, especially suburban, rich ones, are often deeply out of touch with the realities of rural, poor white folks and and disdainful towards them. He sold a story of helplessness/failure to “bootstrap” that spoke to their stereotypes. /2

Juneteenth has always been very special and meaningful for me, and I always try to take at least part of the day to read and reflect. Here are a few of my thoughts today.🧵 1) Early Juneteenth celebrations were meaningful. Many were political rallies to make sure freedmen knew how to vote. They recognized the power of voting early on.

What's frustrating about the anti-DEI movement is that there ARE valid criticisms of DEI, but instead of examining them, they purposely misrepresent what DEI is, create victims of majority populations, and use it to manifest their anti-Black, anti-LGBTQ, anti-POC, etc. agenda. /1 To be clear, I think DEI work is and can be very necessary and important. The idea that diversity (which is a collection of different people), inclusion/belonging, and equity (fairness) is seen as a bad thing shows just how disingenuous the anti-DEI movement is being. /2

A lot of people keep referencing Rosa Parks, so can we please tell the Rosa Parks bus story properly? It’s actually more telling that way. She DID NOT try to sit in the front of the bus. What actually happened might be more telling for how power is used and wielded. /1 Rosa Parks paid to get on the bus and actually sat in the first row of the “colored section” behind ten rows of white seating. So, she sat in the rows she was technically allowed to sit in. But what happened was that the bus was filling up and some white people were standing. /2

One demand students are calling for is Israeli divestment. Divestment is not a new request. In fact, it’s been asked for many times, most notably in the 80s to protest South African apartheid. What is less talked about is why colleges will resist divestment more than ever. 🧵/1 Colleges are resisting divestment more now than ever partially because they shifted their endowments from low risk assets to private equity and real estate hedge funds in the mid to late 80s. It caused endowments to soar and institutions to center big donors /2

Justice Jackson's dissent in the affirmative action cases was fantastic, and I'm going to point out some of the parts that impacted me the most here: "Gulf-sized race-based gaps exist with respect to the health, wealth, and well-being of American citizens. They were created in the distant past, but have indisputably been passed down to the present day through the generations." /1

PA vs OH statewide should be a lesson for Ds. You see the difference in PA with candidates who committed to an active and effective appeal to young voters, progressives, and Black voters compared to OH that often tried to appear as Republican-lite and reject progressive ideas. Tim Ryan specifically wanted to appeal to working class voters, but the problem is that he specifically treated working class as synonymous with white, which is a problem since we know the majority of white voters generally aren’t voting for Dems. /2

Every time I see an update related to police in Uvalde, I think about a conversation I had with a police officer well over a decade ago where we talked about how they are marketed to the public versus how they are privately encouraged to act. /1 In public, police are labeled as “courageous heroes” who will risk everything and anything to keep us safe. They are essentially treated like superheroes in a world where without them, the world would just decay and turn to anarchy. /2

As people are reading more about Replacement theory, it’s also important to understand ways that whiteness was constructed in this country, how it evolved, and how it was defined/left undefined. 🧵 Whiteness in this country didn’t have a “positive” legal distinction until the 1920s. Positive in this case means that whiteness wasn’t defined by what it is but rather what it isn’t. What was the reason? The Naturalization Act of 1790. /1

Diversity statements are becoming more popular to ask for, and I've read a lot of them. Most of them are really bad. Here are a few things I'd think about when crafting one: 1) Actually DEFINE diversity and make sure you're thinking of diversity as a collective. People aren't "diverse". You aren't "diverse". And you shouldn't talk about "bringing diversity" because that makes it sound like the mere presence of someone is the important thing.

A lot of people are discovering sundown towns. I knew about them since I was 8 years old. The reason? My family moved to a sundown town around ~1995. My family was one of the very few Black families in Hanover, PA. Here's a list: and here's some info: /1sundown.tougaloo.edu/content.php?fi… A little about sundown towns. Wiki describes them as towns that "practice a form of racial segregation by excluding non-whites via some combination of discriminatory local laws, intimidation, and violence." To understand, let me tell you about 2 notable riots in the area. /2