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charlesmckinney.bsky.social

@charlesmckinney.bsky.social
301 followers 171 following 92 posts

Father. Husband. Son. Professor of History and Africana Studies, Rhodes College. Think and write about Civil Rights, Black Politics, MLK and the pursuit of Greater Freedom. Semi-retired Saxophone player. Closeted Poet. Never Post-Black.

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Reposted by @charlesmckinney.bsky.social
Tressie McMillan Cottom @tressiemcphd.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
These centers are the guy who thinks hot young women aren’t showing up to the bar he stocked with weird dude things because pink-haired woke commie broads won’t let them.
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charlesmckinney.bsky.social @charlesmckinney.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
Tressie’s commentary is exquisite.
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Tressie McMillan Cottom @tressiemcphd.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
We woke up thinking about the long shadow of all the workers’ wins and even their losses. We made it free to watch the short documentary that dominated my life this year. Happy Labor Day. vimeo.com/1224659811/7...
vimeo.com
Power to the People, Y'all [Happy Labor Day]
Power to the People, Y’all is a character-driven documentary that explores aging, legacy, and resistance through interviews with five founding members of the Winston-Salem Chapter of the Black Panther...
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charlesmckinney.bsky.social @charlesmckinney.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
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charlesmckinney.bsky.social @charlesmckinney.bsky.social · 09/08/2026
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charlesmckinney.bsky.social @charlesmckinney.bsky.social · 08/08/2026
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CKC Pottery 🇺🇸🇺🇦🪲🐞🌱🍁🍄‍🟫🌳 @ckcpottery.bsky.social · 06/06/2026
“a major new study finds that the No. 1 state in terms of its residents’ quality of life is Minnesota. Yes, just-a-bit-boring Minnesota…Calm, pragmatic, not-very-ideological Minnesota…comes from the State of the Nation Project, backed by a bipartisan group of experts…based on 31 measures”1/3
nytimes.com
Opinion | The States Where Life Is Better
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Kent Lind @camasonian.bsky.social · 21/07/2026
Every major institution in American society is experiencing declining public trust. But the problem in higher education is because we don't have enough right-wing grifters like Jordan Peterson or Christopher Rufo running things? Right....
A decline in trust across an array of institutions.
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Mark Anthony Neal (@NewBlackMan on X) @markanthonyneal.bsky.social · 23/07/2026
"Established in 1907, M&F Bank (named Mechanics and Farmers Bank until 2015) is the second-oldest Black-owned bank in the country. It was a fixture of downtown Durham’s Black Wall Street neighborhood in the early 20th century." Read more at: www.heraldsun.com/news/busines...
heraldsun.com
After 119 years, Durham’s Black-owned bank to be sold and renamed in merger
M&F Bank will become part of South Carolina-based Optus Bank in a $105 million deal announced Wednesday.
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Mark Anthony Neal (@NewBlackMan on X) @markanthonyneal.bsky.social · 24/07/2026
Thinking about the Founders of Mechanics and Farmers Bank, Black Durham, and the "Brotherhood" medium.com/p/e5dd14b8f10e
medium.com
The Brotherhood? Duke Basketball and the Legacy of Black Durham by Mark Anthony Neal
Few of Duke University Basketball’s most fervent fans, or haters, I imagine are as knowledgeable of Dr. John Hope Franklin, as they are…
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charlesmckinney.bsky.social @charlesmckinney.bsky.social · 26/07/2026
Can’t wait to read Mark’s ruminations on fatherhood.
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Soraya Nadia McDonald @soraya.press · 08/02/2026
so much of our present misery is just a giant, prolonged backlash to integration
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Tressie McMillan Cottom @tressiemcphd.bsky.social · 26/07/2026
As good as many of you said. I really appreciate the unambiguous point that this primarily a racist moral panic before unpacking the nuanced second-order explanations. dannykatch.substack.com/p/we-used-to...
dannykatch.substack.com
We used to be able to buy things in this country
Locking up toothpaste was a warning sign that our executive class was crazy
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Tressie McMillan Cottom @tressiemcphd.bsky.social · 07/07/2026
Sent these to my therapist at 9 am. I’m totally normal, why do you ask??
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Political Humor @politicalhumor9.bsky.social · 03/05/2026
Epstein is the world's most famous dead pedophile. Trump is the world's most famous living pedophile.
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Eddie S. Glaude @esglaude.bsky.social · 21/04/2026
Powerful piece by @jafarisinclaire.bsky.social on A Native Son. nam12.safelinks.protection.outlook.com?url=https%3A...
nam12.safelinks.protection.outlook.com
When The Lights Go Out in Cuba
The lights have gone out in Havana before.
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Kat Tenbarge @kattenbarge.bsky.social · 09/04/2026
“Why aren’t college students protesting” stories are almost always wrong (they are protesting), omit crucial context (they were brutally punished for protesting before), and somehow suggest that 19 yr olds have more moral responsibility than elected officials three times their age
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charlesmckinney.bsky.social @charlesmckinney.bsky.social · 10/04/2026
Lift a glass.
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jamelle @jamellebouie.net · 17/02/2026
i think jesse jackson was one of the most important american political figures of the post-war era and i think that his 1984 and 1988 campaigns for the democratic nomination still have a great deal to teach about forging a path to a more egalitarian world. RIP.
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charlesmckinney.bsky.social @charlesmckinney.bsky.social · 17/02/2026
Jesse Jackson: the mission is "to feed the hungry; to clothe the naked; to house the homeless; to teach the illiterate; to provide jobs for the jobless; and to choose the human race over the nuclear race.” Clinton: “We deported more people than Trump.”
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charlesmckinney.bsky.social @charlesmckinney.bsky.social · 09/02/2026
Yup.
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Black Star Rising @blackstarrising.com · 14/01/2026
As we honor the life of #ClaudetteColvin may we learn from our mistakes. The movement REFUSED to defend her. Why? Because colorism, classism, elitism, rumors of pregnancy. Colvin was deemed "inappropriate," & many wouldn't defend a Black girl for the same reasons today. RIP #respectability
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Mark Anthony Neal (@NewBlackMan on X) @markanthonyneal.bsky.social · 17/01/2026
The New York Shooting That Defined an Era | Adam Gopnik On a mild December day in 1984, a man named Bernie Goetz shot four Black teen-agers on a subway. The incident galvanized the city. Are we still living in its wake? www.newyorker.com/magazine/202...
newyorker.com
The New York Shooting That Defined an Era
On a mild December day in 1984, a man named Bernie Goetz shot four Black teen-agers on a subway. The incident galvanized the city. Are we still living in its wake?
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Hamilton Nolan @hamiltonnolan.bsky.social · 19/01/2026
Garbage workers have a level of latent labor power that exceeds many professions that get paid a lot more than them. Good piece by Alex Skopic: www.currentaffairs.org/news/all-pow...
currentaffairs.org
All Power to the Garbage Workers!
From New York in 1677 to India in 2025, the people who collect our trash are among the labor movement’s greatest heroes.
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Eddie S. Glaude @esglaude.bsky.social · 19/01/2026
www.anativeson.org/p/weve-got-s...
anativeson.org
“We’ve got some difficult days ahead”
About ten days before he was killed, Dr.
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Clint Smith @clintsmithiii.bsky.social · 19/01/2026
In December, I traveled to Montgomery to visit the Legacy Museum, which traces the story of Black America from slavery to Jim Crow to mass incarceration. I wanted to understand how the museum & its affiliated sites were operating in a moment where so much of the history they present is under attack.
theatlantic.com
The Power of Private Museums
The Equal Justice Initiative’s historical sites in Montgomery, Alabama, show what’s possible when history isn’t subject to federal funding cuts or executive orders.
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Marisa Kabas @marisakabas.bsky.social · 20/01/2026
New — I wrote about ChongLy Scott Thao, the elderly Hmong American wrongly arrested and forced out of his home by ICE in his underwear during the punishing Minnesota winter, what witnesses saw, and DHS's racist claim that he fit the description of another Asian man they were looking for. My story:
thehandbasket.co
Behind the disturbing image of ICE snatching a half-naked, elderly Hmong American from his home
DHS has claimed without evidence that they were looking for someone else when they took ChongLy Scott Thao.
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jamelle @jamellebouie.net · 20/01/2026
this from @juliaazari.bsky.social is great and has me thinking — as circumstances often do these days — about something that has been lost in the age of trump, which is the presidency as steward of the constitution.
goodpoliticsbadpolitics.substack.com
Does the American presidency exist anymore?
Last week Donald Trump flipped off a worker at a Ford plant for yelling “pedophile protector” at him.
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Chanda Prescod-Weinstein 🌌 @chanda.blacksky.app · 19/01/2026
MLK was only 39 when he was killed. Growing up, I thought that was old. But I’m 43 now and I’m stunned by the burden he shouldered at such a young age. I’m also a lot more aware of how hard it is, at any age, to carry the hopes and dreams of an oppressed people on your shoulders, as so many do.
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jamelle @jamellebouie.net · 19/01/2026
i think this MLK day the thing to focus on is the strategic focus and tactical brilliance of the civil rights movement and the way it was laser focused on a set of achievable goals
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Phil Lewis @phillewis.bsky.social · 19/01/2026
Dr. Gladys West, the pioneering mathematician whose work laid the foundation for modern GPS technology, has died. She was 95.
thezebra.org
Dr. Gladys West, Mathematician Whose Work Made GPS Possible, Dies at 95
ALEXANDRIA, VA — Dr. Gladys West, the pioneering mathematician whose work laid the foundation for modern GPS technology, has died. She passed away
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charlesmckinney.bsky.social @charlesmckinney.bsky.social · 20/01/2026
A great thread on King.
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himbobottomus.bsky.social @himbobottomus.bsky.social · 16/01/2026
this is the sickest shit ive ever seen
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Mrs. Detective PikaBOO, Esq. @clapifyoulikeme.favrd.social · 01/01/2026
this is the most incredible interview i’ve ever read. the aei guy tries so hard to get sliwa to trash mamdani and he simply won’t. he also brings up flaco (rip) unprompted. www.wsj.com/opinion/free...
Tunku Varadarajan: Will you ask New Yorkers who voted for you to give Zohran Mamdani a chance?
Curtis Sliwa: Absolutely. He won a majority. He has a mandate. The Masters of the Universe, the billionaires, did everything they could to make sure he wasn't the mayor. It didn't work. He's a great organizer. I'll give you an example: Melinda Katz, the current District Attorney for Queens County, New York. She's the mother of my two youngest sons. She was running for DA in 2019. She had the institutional support. Moderate Jewish mother. Loyal Democrat.
Queens borough president. Perfect résumé. She's running against Tiffany Caban, who wasn't even in elective office at that time. Very radical. You know,
"do away with jails, don't arrest anyone." Tiffany Caban won on election night. But she lost the race on the absentee ballots, but only by about 20 votes. You know who the street organizer was for Tiffany Caban? Zohran Mamdani. So, when they talk about him as a trust fund baby, I say no, no, no, no, no.You don't like it when people call him a "nepo baby."
He's earned his stripes. He had 100,000 volunteers going door-to-door, and I experienced that in some of the neighborhoods where you would never have seen anybody liberal or progressive go. Howard Beach! In conservative Howard Beach, they're going block to block. They were everywhere. 100,000. I call them Zohranistas. This was the secret to his election, not TikTok. It was good, old-fashioned retail politics. Frankly, Cuomo and not Mamdani was the nepo baby in this race. Born on third base. Felt entitled. Knew the political process, but mailed it in.
He didn't have the stomach to actually go out and do retail politics. And shame on him.
Do you think Mamdani will make a better mayor than Andrew Cuomo might have done?How would you describe Mamdani's politics?
He's not a communist. People call him that. That's ridiculous. He is a democratic socialist. David Dinkins [New York mayor from 1990-93] was a democratic socialist. We've had a long history in New York City of socialism.
What's the biggest challenge Mamdani faces as mayor!
I don't think the Zohranistas totally understand the fiscal irresponsibility we just went through with the Adams years and how little money there's left.
There's not enough money to do all the things that Zohran wants to do.A last question. All through our interview you pronounced Mamdani as "Mandami," transposing the "m" and the "n" in his name. Are you aware of the mispronunciation? Many people, Cuomo included, mangle his name.
In the debate, Zohran brought that to my attention, my mispronunciation. I didn't do it on purpose.
There's no disrespect. I have a hard time with it. It took people about 10 years to pronounce my last name correctly: "Sleewah.'" They pronounced it Silva, Saliva, Slywah. In the streets, we would have given Zohran a nickname, like I did for all the Guardian Angels. "Z Man" would have been perfect for him. That would have been his handle.
Mr. Varadarajan, a Journal contributor, is a fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and at NYU Law School's Classical Liberal Institute.
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charlesmckinney.bsky.social @charlesmckinney.bsky.social · 30/12/2025
You: You’re a professor? What do you teach? Me: History. You: I hate history. Me: Well, history probably hates you, too. #PlotTwist
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CCscott @ccscott.bsky.social · 29/12/2025
Sneaky MFers Keep that in mind for mail in ballots Have postmaster stamp it or better yet use ballot drop box 🤔🤔🤔🤔
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alexis simpson is confused by display name changes @amutepiggy.bsky.social · 29/12/2025
damn that baby looks cool as hell
photo of an anti-smoking billboard that shows a painting of a baby smoking a cigarette. text says "You're not the only one smoking. Secondhand smoke contains over 7000 chemicals, including 70 known to cause cancer. Text QUITSMOKING or QUITVAPING to 66819 or call 800-300-8086

KICK/T

Brought to you by Ihya County Tobacco Education Program

California"
There is a green street sign in front of the billboard that says PA HA LANE.
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charlesmckinney.bsky.social @charlesmckinney.bsky.social · 30/12/2025
When there are people in your community living in terror, the question to you is simple: what are you doing to give them aid and comfort?
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charlesmckinney.bsky.social @charlesmckinney.bsky.social · 30/12/2025
Co-sign. This book is devastating and so very powerful. An essential read.
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Chanda Prescod-Weinstein 🌌 @chanda.blacksky.app · 16/12/2025
The idea that enhancing surveillance in academic buildings will protect students from mass shootings is absolutely fucking preposterous. What it will increase is the criminalization of our students. Reject it!!! GUN CONTROL IS THE ANSWER TO GUN VIOLENCE. BEAT THE GUNS INTO PLOWSHARES.
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charlesmckinney.bsky.social @charlesmckinney.bsky.social · 30/12/2025
One more time for the shlubs in the back.
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Hellanal Boner-Farter @weedlordmegadoodoo.bsky.social · 29/12/2025
Every poll: 80% of Americans want gun control, legal weed, medicare for all, AI restrictions, bans on data centers, end corporate welfare, high speed rail, universal education, and massive taxes on billionaires Democrats: "aw, gee whiz, if we ran on that platform we'd only get 80% of the vote"
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charlesmckinney.bsky.social @charlesmckinney.bsky.social · 30/12/2025
National Democrats folding on AI regulation in 5, 4, 3, 2...
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Matt Seybold @mattseybold.bsky.social · 29/12/2025
I wasn’t sure they were going to publish this. So good for them.
chronicle.com
The ‘Crisis of the Humanities’ Is Over. That’s Not a Good Thing.
All of higher ed now suffers the attacks of politics and technology.
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Julie DiCaro @juliedicaro.bsky.social · 29/12/2025
I wrote a bit about the Netflix Seymour Hersh Doc Cover-Up, and how it's a good reminder that legacy media has always been on the side of power.
losingmyperspicacity.beehiiv.com
Losing My Perspicacity, December 29, 2025
A gentle reminder that legacy media has never been on our side
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