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Douglas A. Blackmon Profile picture
Douglas A. Blackmon
@douglasblackmon
Pulitzer Prize for "Slavery by Another Name." Writer, Filmmaker, GSU. Formerly Wall Street Journal, WashPost, AJC, Univ of Virginia. Opinions all my own.
3 subscribers
Mar 12, 2022 • 6 tweets • 3 min read
⁦@ajc⁩ says Herschel Walker’s partner in debt-plagued “Zoners” pizza is one “Brandon Scrushy.”
Appears to be son of infamous felon Richard Scrushy, founder of fraud-riddled HealthSouth Corp, which Walker helped promote in 1990s. ⁦@bluestein⁩ ajc.com/news/investiga… @HerschelWalker served w/other well known sports figures on a sports “council” that promoted Healthsouth to athletes at every level. But the company turned out to be a $2.8 billion fraud. CEO Scrushy ended up in prison for years, and ordered to pay investors for their losses.
Dec 12, 2021 • 5 tweets • 2 min read
So when Texas & Mississippi decide to re-establish segregated schools for Black kids, all they need is a law allowing any citizen to sue any teacher or principal for, say, explaining “Critical Race Theory.”
Trump Sup Court will say “Sure. Not our case.” washingtonpost.com/politics/court… The lawyers down in Hell who defended racial segregation before the US Supreme Court in the 1950s & 60s, arguing openly that separate schools were needed to protect racial purity, are screaming with joy about the Supreme Court’s new embrace of ‘States’ Rights’ and nullification.
Jul 20, 2021 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
Back in the 1990s I started publicly asking how anyone couldn’t see the malignant absurdity of requiring African-Americans to do govt business, or expect fair treatment from judges, in courthouses with monuments to enslavement outside the front doors. 1/4
roanoke.com/news/local/roa… Yesterday a North Carolina judge used exactly that logic to order the removal of the statue (or the courthouse) in his county.
“This monument’s message, in its present location, is offensive to the appearance of judicial fairness and neutrality, without a hint of prejudice.” 2/4
Jul 9, 2021 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
It’s ugly, but we’ve overcome so much worse. Hardcore deluded/hoaxer/TeaParty/GOP/1-6/TrumpCultists are still stuck at 30-35%.
They’re LOSING.

& remember how bad US attitudes have been…
Like (1942) when 1 in 6 of “Greatest Gen” said Hitler was “doing the right thing” to Jews. I know you know all this, Kevin, but worth reminding:

1939: 70+% of whites said Black Americans were less intelligent…

1942: 70% of US said black & white kids shouldn’t attend same schools…65% believed in racially separate housing…

In 1958, 96% opposed mixed race marriage.
Jun 11, 2021 • 4 tweets • 4 min read
Remember back when people talking about magic spells being cast all around you were either characters in a sitcom or about to take their meds?

Now it’s just regular old #Qanon #Trumpcultists, checking in with pals during a @foxandfriends commercial break… I truly wish one of the polls that keep re-proving most Republicans believe the stolen-election myth would also ask:

Do you believe there are black magic spells are routinely used to help the Democrats?

Answer would be 80% yes.

@ReutersPolitics
google.com/amp/s/amp.theg…
May 30, 2021 • 5 tweets • 3 min read
Actually no surprise that the architect of @UNC’s deplorable treatment of @nhannahjones is Arkansas newspaper magnate Walter Hussman.
But PREPOSTEROUS to call him an advocate for balanced/non-political news. He’s been a mini-Rupert Murdoch for 40 yrs.
1/5
 quirky-cray-af5aca.netlify.app/long-form/niko… I didn’t know him personally, but I worked for Hussman almost 35 years ago at the Arkansas Democrat. He was burning millions from his family’s cable-company fortune to destroy the Arkansas Gazette—one of the greatest southern newspapers & the few that supported Civil Rights.
2/5
Apr 4, 2021 • 17 tweets • 3 min read
So you’re asking if I actually can explain how the new Georgia voting law discourages voting, especially in minority & lower income communities and sets up ways for the legislature and exec branch to tamper with elections the way President Trump tried? Okay, if you insist.
1/17 —The most dangerous part of the Georgia voting law is that it removes from the State Election Board the vote of the Secretary of State—even though under Georgia Constitution, the Scty of State oversees elections. It also puts the board under the control of the legislature. 2/17
Apr 3, 2021 • 5 tweets • 3 min read
The horrors of what happened—and has been hidden and denied—at Atlanta Chattahoochee Brick death camp were all but unspeakable...
@AnotherSlavery @eji_org @EricHolder In the first year of operation, dozens of African-American men died of abuse and inhumane conditions at Chattahoochee Brick...
Oct 27, 2019 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
At a time when our commander in chief @realDonaldTrump has proven to be so erratic & dishonorable, willing to betray allies in battle, & put US soldiers & intel ops in unnecessary danger, it’s incredible that our special operations forces remain so professional and effective. I just hope that people around @realDonaldTrump will curb his desperate need to steal the limelight from the soldiers and leadership who did the real work and took the actual risks in this operation.
Had it gone badly, the President would be disavowing them all this morning.
Sep 6, 2019 • 5 tweets • 3 min read
Sad to read something as poorly reasoned as this in @NRO National Review.
The same tired defensiveness taught in segregated Mississippi 50 yrs ago—Africans sold their own into slavery...Muslims started it...other places enslaved more...
#1619project
1/5
 nationalreview.com/2019/09/five-t… National Review’s answer to the @NYTimes #1619Project reads like talking points from a Confederate veterans reunion, circa 1915.
Jefferson Davis would applaud. I’m surprised it left out the shameful old shibboleth about slavery saving souls by spreading the gospel of Christ.
2/5
Jul 30, 2019 • 4 tweets • 3 min read
The FIRST tragedy/black-comedy/irony/clear-and-present-danger of the #TrumpboomHoax is that the White House will soon begin arguing that the problem is that the tax cuts were not BIG ENOUGH. He will push for even bigger ones in 2020 and blame Dems for his stratospheric deficits. The SECOND tragedy/black-comedy-irony/clear-and-present-danger of the #TrumpboomHoax is that if a Democrat wins the White House next year, Republicans will blame *the new president* for the mind-boggling biggest deficits of all time created by @realDonaldTrump and GOP Congress.
Jun 28, 2019 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
It’s not simple. Biden in no way supported mandated racial segregation like in the South, and he strongly embraced the Civil Rights Movement. But like most whites in Northeast he couldn’t see/acknowledge the racism behind de facto segregation of schools in his home state. 1/4 He & his constituents seized on the “unfairness” of being “forced” to move kids from neighborhood schools to achieve racial balance. They were not yelling “segregation forever” like folks were down in my Mississippi home. But racial fears and bias *were* driving it. 2/4
Apr 30, 2019 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
Dems in Georgia should not be so pessimistic about @staceyabrams decision not to run for Senate. They are in the scoring zone already. Obama came close w/out trying in GA. Jason Carter & Michelle Nunn lost mostly due to flawed campaigns. Abrams was robbed w/ suppression. 1/4 Reality is Republicans have a shrinking base which, as in 2018, gravitates toward coarse, extremist candidates with diminishing appeal to suburban moderates. GOP policy strategy to “do even less” is not attractive to millions of rural voters who want better schools & roads... 2/4
Apr 22, 2019 • 12 tweets • 3 min read
When the @GOP rubber stamp Senate process actually finds a @realDonaldTrump appointee unacceptable, that is a BIG DEAL. But thank goodness. Cain, with his obsession with magic numbers, was historically, recklessly, staggeringly unqualified. 2/ The most substantive crazy contradiction of Herman Cain’s career is that his whole I-made-it-on-my-own, with-no-help-from-anybody story is that
A) it is patently false, and
B) he honestly doesn’t appear to know that.
Apr 7, 2019 • 5 tweets • 2 min read
I often love @CharlesMBlow ‘s brutal honesty, but this is way off track and encourages some of the most misinformed neo-Confederate propaganda. It also distracts from the heroism of 100,000s of black soldiers in the Union Army whose sacrifices won the Civil War. /1 In war, there are always contortions of self-interest that on surface appear inexplicable a century (or a few years) later.
Thousands of white Americans initially rooted for Germany in WWI and WWII. There were handfuls of Jews who aided Germans fighting Soviets in Finland. /2
Mar 21, 2019 • 5 tweets • 2 min read
I’ll assume for a moment that you are an actual person and give you a serious answer:
No serious person disputes that Italians (& many other immigrant groups) faced discrimination. Yet you and many others feel compelled to argue that it was part of “Jim Crow,” which it wasn’t. 2) “Jim Crow” refers to a labyrinth of laws all over the US, but particularly in the South, that created an apartheid system of racial separation in the US, from the 1870s to the 1970s. It was specifically targeted at African-Americans.
It’s not a synonym for “bad things.”
Mar 15, 2019 • 5 tweets • 2 min read
“GOP” leaders like @SenThomTillis vote for @realDonaldTrump power grab (after okaying biggest deficits ever); hohum slander of war heros; Prez adores Putin & Kim; @RandPaul & @foxnews fume that sailors get decent food.
Now this: Morality is irrelevant.

thefederalist.com/2019/03/13/eve… That weird sound you hear coming from the direction of Kansas would be Dwight Eisenhower screaming and spinning in his grave.
Feb 9, 2019 • 7 tweets • 4 min read
@Fahrenthold’s story in @washpost about @realDonaldTrump’s large scale hiring of undocumented alien workers gives a clear basis for a criminal investigation. It’s surprising that this is seen primarily as a political scandal. Under current law/policy these are serious crimes. Barely a month ago, Waste Management of Texas was penalized $5.5 million to avoid federal prosecution for a pattern of illegal hiring that perfectly mirrored the behavior of @realDonaldTrump’s companies. Same time period. Same numbers of illegal workers.
justice.gov/usao-sdtx/pr/w…
Feb 2, 2019 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
A more complex question than resignation: What should Northam—or anyone who did a vile thing half a life ago—do after living a very different life? Would it matter if he apologized publicly 20 years ago? Expressed regret to class members 10 yrs ago? Reprinted the yearbook w/out? I’m unsure of the answer. But it’s not unlike Brett Kavanaugh. At a minimum, he was at times a loutish drunk. Said theatrically offensive things in his yearbook. What, if anything, makes amends? Becoming (as Northam did) an ally of those once injured is no longer enough.
Jan 22, 2019 • 11 tweets • 6 min read
1/11
In the debate over what happened between @CovCathColonels students & Native American elder Nathan Phillips, another exchange--with a young man holding up two fingers--has been overlooked. It is more subtle, but may tell us more about our crisis of racial misunderstanding. 2/11
PRELUDE: The day's whole ugly affair begins when five self-styled "Black Hebrew Israelites" begin taunting white kids for wearing MAGA hats. (Go to 1:07:00 in their video) There appears to be no other provocation.
Aug 9, 2018 • 8 tweets • 4 min read
It has taken a VERY long time for @UVA to finally begin seriously reckoning with the grotesque birthmark of slavery that has ALWAYS been obvious but until recently denied or ridiculously obscured.
But it has begun.

(1 in thread)
washingtonpost.com/news/grade-poi… 2/
 But what is most significant about UVA’s confession of its origins in slavery and culpability in its long denial is that it is the quintessential American story.
The moral failures of UVA, where I work, are the same moral failures of thousands of others places and people.