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Deadric T. Williams @docthoughts.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

I study American racism. This paper makes me a bit uncomfortable. Similar to "race as a bundle of sticks."

Deadric T. Williams @docthoughts.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

I think one of the things that I regret when I'm asked to be on academic panels about racial inequality is that many of the panelists treat race as a given? This approach treats "race" as if it's biologically real. I focus on racialization; not race.

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Deadric T. Williams @docthoughts.bsky.social · 31/08/2026

Conventional racial inequality research never suffered from an excess of nuance; it has suffered from a lack of nuance. Racism scholars can't afford to "fuck nuance." Instead, we need to "give a fuck about nuance." substack.com/@docthoughts...

substack.com

Deadric T. Williams (@docthoughts)

(UN)FUCK(ING) NUANCE: WHY RACIAL STRATIFICATION RESEARCH REQUIRES THEORETICAL PERCISION In 2017, sociologist Kieran Healy published an essay with a provocative title “Fuck Nuance” in the academic jou...

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Deadric T. Williams @docthoughts.bsky.social · 29/08/2026

Men who are racialized as a White who study economics, the economy, political economy, capitalism, social class, poverty, and income is also "me-research." But White supremacy as a system renders this fact invisible.

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Deadric T. Williams @docthoughts.bsky.social · 25/08/2026

Eugenics still have quantitative social science in a chokehold. That's why many research papers still use the phrase: "racial differences. Read my Substack "On Racial inequality." docthoughts.substack.com/p/on-racial-...

docthoughts.substack.com

On Racial Inequality

Categories Versus Processes

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Philip N Cohen @philipncohen.com · 24/08/2026

Demographic facts I expect my #sociology students to know, 2026 edition. Rationale and sources: familyinequality.wordpress.com/2026/08/24/d...

Number
Source
World Population
8.2 billion
1
U.S. Population
343 million
1
Children under 18 as share of pop.
21%
2
Adults 65+ as share of pop.
19%
2
Official unemployment rate (July 2026)
4.1%
3
Unemployment rate range, 1970-2026
3.5% – 15%
3
Labor force participation rate, age 16+ (July 2026)
61%
9
Labor force participation rate range, 1970-2026
60% – 67%
9
Non-Hispanic Whites as share of pop.
56%
2
Blacks as share of pop.
14%
2
Hispanics as share of pop.
21%
2
Asians / Pacific Islanders as share of pop.
7%
2
American Indians as share of pop.
2%
2
Immigrants as share of pop
14%
2
Adults age 25+ with BA or higher
36%
2
Median household income
$81,000
2
Total poverty rate
13%
8
Child poverty rate
13%
8
Poverty rate age 65+
15%
8
Most populous country, India
1.5 billion
5
2nd most populous country, China
1.4 billion
5
3rd most populous country, USA
342 million
5
4th most populous country, Indonesia
286 million
5
5th most populous country, Pakistan
255 million
5
U.S. male life expectancy at birth
77
6
U.S. female life expectancy at birth
81
6
Life expectancy range across countries
55 – 85
7
World total fertility rate
2.2
10
U.S. total fertility rate
1.6
10
Total fertility rate range across countries
0.7 – 6.0
10

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Seth L. Sanders @nabalkattu.bsky.social · 13/08/2026

This "ladders and gulfs" model provides an incredibly incisive and concrete analysis of how US law made race and turned it *into* class and vice-versa, but also made it invisible. It illuminates the economics and legislation of racecraft so clearly!

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Deadric T. Williams @docthoughts.bsky.social · 13/08/2026

1/4 When I posted my Substack yesterday, I realized that "Ladders and Gulfs" are the reasons why many Americans view capitalism as a system but treat racism as an individual-level egregious act.

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Deadric T. Williams @docthoughts.bsky.social · 12/08/2026

My first Substack. I'm still grappling with these ideas. But wanted to share these ideas in progress. docthoughts.substack.com/p/of-ladders...

docthoughts.substack.com

Of Ladders and Gulfs:

The Bifurcated Realities of White and Black Americans

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Deadric T. Williams @docthoughts.bsky.social · 07/08/2026

10 years ago YouGov did a survey and asked Americans "what do you think has a bigger effect on your life in America?" As a scholar of American racism, I know why this varies. But what I want to focus on is the idea of race may be a unique experience for people who are racialized as Black.

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Deadric T. Williams @docthoughts.bsky.social · 22/07/2026

I decided to create a content page via FB. Please follow for content on American racism, the idea of race, and racial inequality. www.facebook.com/profile.php?...

facebook.com

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Deadric T. Williams @docthoughts.bsky.social · 24/05/2026

"Interlocking systems of oppression" and "intersectional identities" are NOT the same thing. The former is rooted in systems that make identities salient while the latter runs the risk of reproducing biological and cultural essentialism.

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Deadric T. Williams @docthoughts.bsky.social · 10/05/2026

1/3 America. The place where many people want "the freedom to exclude" while others want "the freedom to include."

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Deadric T. Williams @docthoughts.bsky.social · 09/05/2026

American racism is so normal that having an accurate understanding of America's racialized history will have you sounding like a conspiracy theorist.

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Deadric T. Williams @docthoughts.bsky.social · 01/05/2026

1/5 I study American racism because there is a desperate need for an epistemological (or knowledge) corrective to the study of racism and race.

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Deadric T. Williams @docthoughts.bsky.social · 27/04/2026

1/2 "Race" is not a predictor or risk factor to hypothesize that an outcome will happen; "race" is the outcome that tells us that something has already happened. Something == racism as a system and racial as processes (e.g., racialization).

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Trevon Logan @trevondlogan.bsky.social · 20/03/2026

The “everything is about profit” take of exploitative capitalist systems is how and why economic historians continue to miss the boat on racial capitalism. It’s simply beyond their profit-maximization framework, but it’s an essential element of historical economic organization and development.

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UM Population Studies Center @um-psc.bsky.social · 19/03/2026

Registration is open for the @umichstonecid.bsky.social April 10 conference on measuring and theorizing structural racism. Check out the schedule & panelists, and register: structural-racism.isr.umich.edu

Stone Center for Inequality Dynamics: Measuring and Theorizing Structural Racism Conference in Ann Arbor, April 10

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Trevon Logan @trevondlogan.bsky.social · 11/11/2025

This Veterans Day I want to acknowledge the Black veterans of WWII who fought fascism and nazism and came home to fight for civil rights and democracy here. New research shows Black veterans were critical in securing the voting rights currently under attack. onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

onlinelibrary.wiley.com

Homefront: Black Servicemembers and Black Voters in the Civil Rights Era

The role of Black World War II veterans in the Civil Rights Movement has been well documented, but the effect of Black military service on Black voting patterns remains unclear. Combining detailed in...

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Deadric T. Williams @docthoughts.bsky.social · 28/10/2025

Given all the talk about SNAP, here's a line graph I made revealing the percentage of households receiving SNAP by race/ethnicity over time. These percentages represent millions of people in each group. Data: USDA.

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Trevon Logan @trevondlogan.bsky.social · 25/10/2025

That “working class” is a transparently race and gender coded term tells you who pundits view as low and middle income workers and what type of work they believe “counts” among this group. Reality: the working class is predominantly White women and racial minorities in the low wage service sector.

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Deadric T. Williams @docthoughts.bsky.social · 20/10/2025

I'm giving a talk at The Institute for Population Research tomorrow at the Ohio State University and @trevondlogan.bsky.social was my 1st meeting today. So happy to finally meet this brotha.

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Deadric T. Williams @docthoughts.bsky.social · 09/07/2025

America is so anti-Black that the idea of enslaved persons being freed sparked an entire Civil War.

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Khoa @khoavuumn.bsky.social · 14/05/2025

Economists looking at an idea from sociology literature that they will be the first to write a paper on.

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Deadric T. Williams @docthoughts.bsky.social · 15/05/2025

The study of racism is the study of how, and in what ways, misinformation becomes normalized.

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Deadric T. Williams @docthoughts.bsky.social · 27/04/2025

STATA users: Help. I have two variables (1) good health and (2) poor health. I want to combine these two variables into one variable: good health ==1 and poor health==2.

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Deadric T. Williams @docthoughts.bsky.social · 28/03/2025

Dissertation title: The intergenerational transfer of antiBlackness in the United States, 1619-2025.

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Deadric T. Williams @docthoughts.bsky.social · 28/03/2025

The socially constructed category "White" is about race too. But remnants of Eugenics still permeate the bowels of the social sciences, which affords you the opportunity to render that fact invisible.

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Deadric T. Williams @docthoughts.bsky.social · 26/03/2025

If you truly understood why racial categories were invented in the first place, then you would realize that a person racialized as White saying "it's not always about race" is indicative of how they experience racism.

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Deadric T. Williams @docthoughts.bsky.social · 26/03/2025

I started to think more sociologically when I started reading outside of sociology. It's ironic; don't you think?!

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Deadric T. Williams @docthoughts.bsky.social · 19/03/2025

It took me a while to realize this but the "Moving to Opportunity" project is rooted in racial essentialism. That's why I have a hard time grappling with those studies.

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Deadric T. Williams @docthoughts.bsky.social · 09/03/2025

If a scholar gives an hour presentation about inequality by focusing on people racialized as Black, then you ask a question about people not racialized as Black, that's a form of antiBlackness.

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Deadric T. Williams @docthoughts.bsky.social · 06/03/2025

I strongly dislike when people are talking about intersectionality and they reduce it to identities. Here's why. youtu.be/uPtz8TiATJY?...

youtu.be

Kimberle Crenshaw Intersectionality NOT identity

YouTube video by Scott Burden

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Deadric T. Williams @docthoughts.bsky.social · 29/01/2025

We need to talk about the intersections of Whiteness and paternalism in academia.

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Deadric T. Williams @docthoughts.bsky.social · 25/01/2025

Jealousy is just confused admiration.

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Deadric T. Williams @docthoughts.bsky.social · 19/01/2025

My research is not about social categories; rather, my work focuses on the processes and mechanisms that make social category salient in the first place. There's a difference.

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Deadric T. Williams @docthoughts.bsky.social · 17/01/2025

Are there "go-to" articles on measuring race, measuring gender, and measuring sexuality?

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Richard M. Carpiano, PhD, MPH @rmcarpiano.medsky.social · 14/01/2025

Great population health postdoc opportunity at the University of Minnesota. 🛟sociology demography 😷policysky polisky health policy PhDsky academicsky 📉

pop.umn.edu

Postdoctoral Training | Minnesota Population Center

Postdoctoral TrainingWe hire both project-based Post Doctoral Associates and program-based Post Doctoral Trainees.

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Deadric T. Williams @docthoughts.bsky.social · 14/01/2025

sometimes you fight for a seat at the table only to realize the food is nasty.

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Deadric T. Williams @docthoughts.bsky.social · 03/01/2025

A few years ago I moved away from saying "White people" or "Black people," etc to saying "people racialized as ..." because race categories are settlers' tools. We cannot adequately address racial inequality by using the very tools settlers created to justify inequality.

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Deadric T. Williams @docthoughts.bsky.social · 03/01/2025

1/3 This year, I'll be writing more about "social sciences, Whiteness, and the assumption of universalism."

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Deadric T. Williams @docthoughts.bsky.social · 30/12/2024

Many scholars were told "race is socially constructed" but never taught why, and for what purpose, race was socially constructed.

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Deadric T. Williams @docthoughts.bsky.social · 24/12/2024

What if I told you that there is no such thing as "neighborhood effects." Instead, there are federal, state, county level "neighborhood disinvestment effects."

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Polity @politybooks.bsky.social · 28/11/2024

“Sims offers a powerful tool for understanding & combating racism … This book is a must read for any person who takes racism & the social construction of race seriously.” Deadric Williams @docthoughts.bsky.social reviews Jenn Sims’s new book in Sociology of Race & Ethnicity tinyurl.com/mryr3bw4

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