iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Dr. Michael Phillips @drmphillipsut.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

On Saturday, Betsy Friauf and I went to see our friend Theo Carracino perform on a bill with Rick Babb and his band at Poor David's Pub in Dallas. Theo is a gifted singer/songwriter. Catch one of Theo's shows if you can

A photo of Theo Carracino playing guitar at Poor David's Pub in Dallas.

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Dr. Michael Phillips @drmphillipsut.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

I’m organizing my papers in preparation for writing a memoir/history of censorship in Texas and I came across this item. Botham Jean was murdered by a Dallas police officer. This item seems particularly poignant given that Botham Jean’s killer Amber Guyger was just given parole.

Program for the September 13, 2018 Botham Jean funeral in Dallas.

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Dr. Michael Phillips @drmphillipsut.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

My conversation with Dr. Rahman Mohammed on his podcast "The Doctor's Couch" about racism, immigration, and the gifts newcomers bring to American culture. youtu.be/eZSqxAb5NTg

youtu.be

Historian Michael Phillips Discusses Racism and Immigration

YouTube video by Michael Phillips

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Dr. Michael Phillips @drmphillipsut.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

I spoke yesterday to Channel 11, the CBS affiliate in Dallas-Fort Worth, about how Islamophobia sparked a recall drive against four members of the McKinney City Council who approved the expansion plans by a mosque in that North Texas city. www.youtube.com/watch?v=XnSa...

youtube.com

Historian Michael Phillips on Islamophobic Recall Election in McKinney, Texas

YouTube video by Dr. Michael Phillips' History Channel

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Dr. Michael Phillips @drmphillipsut.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Betsy Friauf and I took part in a somber remembrance held by the Clergy League for Emergency Action and Response (CLEAR) of the shooting that took place at the ICE headquarters in Dallas, Texas slightly more than a year ago. We also rang a bell and read out the names of all murdered by ICE.

A minister prays at a memorial service at the Dallas ICE headquarters.

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Dr. Michael Phillips @drmphillipsut.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

I just wrote about how "respectable" political hacks in Texas like U.S. Sen. John Cornyn made the ascent of explicit white nationalists like GOP Railroad Commission nominee Bo French possible. drmphillips2001.substack.com/p/texas-sena...

drmphillips2001.substack.com

Texas Senator John Cornyn and “Respectable” Racism

A Departing Political Hack Finds A White Supremacist He Doesn’t Like

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Dr. Michael Phillips @drmphillipsut.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

I am honored to have been named an East Texas Historical Association Fellow. Here I am with Betsy Friauf when we won the ETHA's 2018 C.K. Chamberlain Award for Best Article of the Year in the East Texas Historical Journal.

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Dr. Michael Phillips @drmphillipsut.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

Sunday, I was part of a panel discussion at the Museum of Asian Texans about Dallas City Hall as a place of protest & the I.M. Pei masterpiece's future. From the left are museum co-founder Stephanie Drenka, me, poet TYV Veronica, artist Nishtha Kapuria-Cardozo, and journalist James Russell.

A group shot of the panel at the Museum of Asian Texans.

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Dr. Michael Phillips @drmphillipsut.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

Yesterday, I had a great conversation with Imam Yaseen Shaikh of the Islamic Association of Collin County at Haraz Yemini Coffee in Plano. We talked about our shared concerns about increased religious intolerance across the state and what we can do to counter that.

Me with Imam Yaseen Shaikh at a Plano coffee house.

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Dr. Michael Phillips @drmphillipsut.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

I co-authored a piece with Dr. Rick Halperin of SMU and Hadi Jawad of Human Rights Dallas about how Gov. Abbott shields those engaged in right wing political violence from accountability and how this is sadly not unprecedented for Texas governors. www.dallasobserver.com/opinion/greg...

dallasobserver.com

Greg Abbott keeps rewarding violence. Texas has seen this before

From Rittenhouse to Castro, Abbott’s defenses echo a long, dangerous history of leaders enabling mob violence.

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Dr. Michael Phillips @drmphillipsut.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

Visit the Human Rights Dallas webpage for more detail about this virtual conversation I'll be having a 7 p.m. on Wednesday, September 30 with Dr. Trinidad Gonzales, a scholar of Tejano history. We'll discuss border violence against Mexicans and Mexican Americans over the pst century.

The image is all text with a picture of clippers cutting barbed wire.

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Dr. Michael Phillips @drmphillipsut.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

The experiments in placing the U.S. government and the Texas state government in the hands of the dumbest, most immoral and hateful people seems to not be working out. I think we have enough data now. We should shut down the study and publish the paper.

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Dr. Michael Phillips @drmphillipsut.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

Last Friday, on September 11, a group of about 30 Islamophobes calling themselves the Texas Legionnaires gathered to harass worshippers at the Islamic Association of Collin County just north of Dallas. The Clergy League for Emergency Action and Response organized 70 of us who stood up to bigotry.

A group shot of supporters for Muslim rights at a Dallas mosque.

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Dr. Michael Phillips @drmphillipsut.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

On Thursday, I participated I participated in a "Flock Town Hall" organized by my friend Stephanie Drenka at the Texas Civil Rights Project in Dallas. I emphasized how Flock has intensified racist policing and violates 1st and 4th Amendment rights.

Stephanie Drenka and me at the Four Corners Brewery Company in Dallas for a town hall on the civil liberties dangers posed by Flock.

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Dr. Michael Phillips @drmphillipsut.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

Yesterday, I had a great conversation with Will Evans, the founder of Deep Vellum Books in Dallas. We discussed Russian history & literature, censorship, how odd Dallas is as a city, and why many more books need to be written about it. I gave Will copies of a couple of my books

Me standing next to Will Evans at La Casita in Dallas.

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Dr. Michael Phillips @drmphillipsut.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

I delivered a talk at Community Unitarian Universalist Church of Plano, Texas, about the parallels between the current, off-the wall Islamophobia in the state and the anti-Catholicism of an earlier era. More than 60 people attended and I got a standing ovation.

A photo of me at the pulpit of the Plano Unitarian Church delivering my message about the history of anti-Catholicism and Islamophobia in Texas.

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Dr. Michael Phillips @drmphillipsut.bsky.social · 06/09/2026

Musk makes all kinds of insane claims that are total bullshit. Harris lost because she ran a shitty, Republicans-lite campaign, wouldn’t renounce the Gaza genocide, or acknowledge Americans’ economic pain. If elections are legitimate only when you win you’re as untethered to reality as Trumpers.

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Dr. Michael Phillips @drmphillipsut.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

Here I am with Betsy and my stepdaughter Sarah a couple of years ago around Christmas.

Sarah, Betsy, and me in a selfie from a couple of Christmas seasons ago.

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Dr. Michael Phillips @drmphillipsut.bsky.social · 02/09/2026

I was interviewed by KERA, the Dallas public radio station, about whether George W. Bush still holds a major influence over Texas Republicans. The GOP is holding a fake midterm national convention in Dallas later this month. www.keranews.org/news/2026-09...

keranews.org

As Republicans plan to gather in Bush's backyard, his influence is largely absent from the party

Next week's Republican convention in Dallas takes place in the same city that helped give rise to the Bush political dynasty. But George W. Bush himself — and many policies he pushed 30 years ago — ar...

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Dr. Michael Phillips @drmphillipsut.bsky.social · 02/09/2026

In this op-ed, co-authored by my colleagues at Human Rights Dallas, Hadi Jawad and Dr. Rick Halperin at SMU, I discuss the fate of Dallas City Hall & how its possible destruction would represent an erasure of much of the city's history of protest and dissent. www.dallasobserver.com/opinion/demo...

dallasobserver.com

Demolishing City Hall would continue the city's erasure of its civil rights history

Dallas leaders might destroy a public square where history was made, injustices addressed and the powerful were warned.

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Dr. Michael Phillips @drmphillipsut.bsky.social · 02/09/2026

If I were in the U.S. House, I would introduce a resolution condemning predatory capitalism & place in The Congressional Record the name of every American who died because they were denied life-saving treatments by their insurance company & every worker who died on the job toiling for Amazon.

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Dr. Michael Phillips @drmphillipsut.bsky.social · 01/09/2026

This Sunday, at 10:30 a.m., I will deliver a talk, "Once It Was Catholics, Now It’s Muslims: Religious Freedom and Intolerance in Texas" at the Community Unitarian Universalist Church of Plano. I'll compare religious bigotry in the early 1920s to today's Islamophobic panic.

Photo of me delivering a talk at the Community Unitarian Universalist Church of Plano, Texas.

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Dr. Michael Phillips @drmphillipsut.bsky.social · 31/08/2026

That’s a final straw for me. I’m boycotting @Google and will use @duckduckgo.com from now on. Google can suck up to tyrants on their own. Greedy cowards.

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Dr. Michael Phillips @drmphillipsut.bsky.social · 28/08/2026

A fun donut shop Dominic introduced Betsy Friauf and me to in South Korea when we visited in 2023.

Me standing in front of wall mural with a picture of a scowling baby and the slogan "Donut Worry Be Happy."

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Dr. Michael Phillips @drmphillipsut.bsky.social · 27/08/2026

I always liked this picture of Dominic.

A young Dominic practicing cello at his mom's house.

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Dr. Michael Phillips @drmphillipsut.bsky.social · 24/08/2026

I live in Texas and I'm an atheist. I don't care about his church speak. The Texas GOP is more aligned w/Christian Nationalism than the national party They just forced the placement of the Ten Commandments in classrooms and school curricula is now infused with theology. Worry about them.

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Dr. Michael Phillips @drmphillipsut.bsky.social · 24/08/2026

And, by the way, it’s not that different than the language of the civil rights movement.

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Dr. Michael Phillips @drmphillipsut.bsky.social · 24/08/2026

Yeah, but it’s rhetorically effective here and moves people in this state while advancing your objectives. Texas, for better and much worse, is not like a lot of the country.

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Dr. Michael Phillips @drmphillipsut.bsky.social · 23/08/2026

Nine years ago, I was a guest on the now-defunct Dallas radio station KHVN with the Rev. Michael W. Waters and the Rev. Gerald Britt explain why the city needed to take down its racist Confederate monuments.

Michael Waters, me, and Gerald Britt in a radio studio.

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Dr. Michael Phillips @drmphillipsut.bsky.social · 20/08/2026

This is from my talk August 14 with the young activists who have formed the Dallas Against the Trump Agenda Coalition. Later today, I'm going to be interviewed about the influence of the two Bush presidents on the Texas Republican Party and whether that still holds in the Trump era.

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Dr. Michael Phillips @drmphillipsut.bsky.social · 18/08/2026

If Trump administration plans for a border wall come through, they will not only damage Texas's Big Bend area environmentally, they will desecrate the site of one of the state's most horrifying human rights human rights atrocities: The Porvenir Massacre. www.dallasobserver.com/opinion/trum...

dallasobserver.com

Trump is bulldozing the site of a Texas massacre. It’s time to remember Porvenir

Closer to home, the Texas Rangers continue to take part in the whitewashing and glorification of a violent, racist past

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Dr. Michael Phillips @drmphillipsut.bsky.social · 17/08/2026

On Saturday, Human Rights Dallas sponsored that city's first-ever Human Rights Fair.. One participant was SMU professor & artist Willie Baronet who heads the group "We Are All Homeless." He buys signs from homeless people signs to provide them income. One says, "At least give me the finger."

Dr. Will Baronet and his collection of signs from homeless people.

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Dr. Michael Phillips @drmphillipsut.bsky.social · 17/08/2026

Thanks again for the share. And here's the conclusion to my history of the movement to take down Confederate monuments in Dallas referenced in @americanstudier.bsky.social' s post. drmphillips2001.substack.com/p/what-do-yo...

drmphillips2001.substack.com

"What Do You Think Of Second Amendment Solutions?" Part VI

The Conclusion to a Saga and Its Aftermath

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Dr. Michael Phillips @drmphillipsut.bsky.social · 17/08/2026

On Friday, August 14, I gave a talk at the "Teach-In On The 1984 Republican National Convention Protests" sponsored by the Dallas Coalition Against the Trump Agenda. The group plans demonstrations when the GOP holds a mid-term pseudo-convention in Dallas September 9-10.

Me with a group planning anti-Trump protests in Dallas next month.

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Dr. Michael Phillips @drmphillipsut.bsky.social · 14/08/2026

I share the same exasperation and fear.

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Dr. Michael Phillips @drmphillipsut.bsky.social · 14/08/2026

If you are in Dallas tomorrow night, I will be at this event. I'll be talking broadly about the history of protest in Dallas with a focus on the demonstrators who flocked to Big D for the 1984 Republican Convention.

Image is mostly text with a picture of me and anti-Reagan protestors.

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Dr. Michael Phillips @drmphillipsut.bsky.social · 11/08/2026

I want to invite you to the first Human Rights Fair ever held in Dallas, this Saturday from 11-3 at the downtown Central Library. More information is in the video.

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Dr. Michael Phillips @drmphillipsut.bsky.social · 10/08/2026

Here's the conclusion to my history of the movement to take down Confederate monuments in Dallas and how the campaign altered the lives of some of the participants. This series will become a chapter in my planned memoir/history of censorship in Texas. drmphillips2001.substack.com/p/what-do-yo...

drmphillips2001.substack.com

"What Do You Think Of Second Amendment Solutions?" Part VI

The Conclusion to a Saga and Its Aftermath

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Dr. Michael Phillips @drmphillipsut.bsky.social · 10/08/2026

This Saturday, from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., Human Rights Dallas hosts the city’s first-ever Human Rights Fair at the 6th floor of the J. Erik Jonsson Central Library across from City Hall. Yesterday, we had a meeting planning the event. Below is pictured Hadi Jawad, the co-founder of HRD.

Hadi Jawad speaks about this Saturday's Human Rights Fair at the central library in Downtown Dallas.

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