Sign in

Sumita Chakraborty

@notsumatra.bsky.social
1.7K followers 464 following 21 posts

www.sumitachakraborty.com • poet, scholar, general doer of things with words, faculty at the University of Virginia • wherever I am, I'm not Sumatra • opinions mine, including that nobody’s free until everybody’s free

PostsRepliesMedia
Reposted by Sumita Chakraborty
Cathy Davidson @cathyndavidson.bsky.social · 23/07/2025
Why isn't this getting maximum attention? MSNBC report that 300,000 Black women have left the workforce in the last three months--targeted by DOGE www.msnbc.com/know-your-va...
msnbc.com
300,000 Black women have left the labor force in 3 months. It’s not a coincidence.
For decades, the public sector has been a lifeline for Black women shut out of economic opportunity. It’s no surprise that Trump's federal downsizing targeted them first, explains gender economist Kat...
02219
Reposted by Sumita Chakraborty
sophia / صوفيا @brownisthecolor.bsky.social · 23/07/2025
Every diaspora Palestinian I know has been living with survivor’s guilt for 655 days. Guilt & shame for every glass of water, every bite of food, every shower, every daily annoyance, every moment of joy, every booboo we can kiss better, every sleep in our own beds. Our people are being slaughtered.
7295112
Reposted by Sumita Chakraborty
Em Gunter 顧安 🍉 @emgunter.bsky.social · 11/07/2025
If my reporting today has been helpful, please consider supporting my work. Venmo: @ emgunter127
my venmo @emgunter127
055
Reposted by Sumita Chakraborty
Axios @axios.com · 13/06/2025
🚨 BREAKING: Trump admin refuses to release Mahmoud Khalil, despite judge's order
axios.com
Trump admin refuses to release Mahmoud Khalil, despite judge's order
The Trump admin argued that the judge's injunction "does not interfere" with authority to detain Khalil on other grounds.
87920516
Reposted by Sumita Chakraborty
Puff the Magic Hater @mskellymhayes.bsky.social · 10/06/2025
Freedom Flotilla Coalition update: "The [Madleen] volunteers are currently being held in a detention facility at Ben Gurion International Airport, where they are expected to face hearings before their deportation to their home countries."
6318119
Reposted by Sumita Chakraborty
Chad Loder @chadloder.dev · 07/06/2025
🚨 Support Los Angeles immigrant communities 🚨 Please consider donating to one or all of the following orgs: Immigrant Defenders Law Center: give.immdef.org/donate LA Jail Support / Bail Fund: account.venmo.com/u/jailsuppor... Unión del Barrio: uniondelbarrio.org/main/support...
040063835
Reposted by Sumita Chakraborty
Alexander Chee @alexanderchee.bsky.social · 28/05/2025
Walid often sends me videos of his daughters. This morning he sent me this video of his daughters with a shell that didn’t kill them. Let’s help them survive another day. chuffed.org/project/1253...
06633
Reposted by Sumita Chakraborty
Fal Rising @falrising.bsky.social · 18/05/2025
Over 100,000 people are marching through The Hague against Israel's war on Gaza. Wearing red clothing and forming a line, they are demanding the government draw a red line in its stance against Israel. It's the largest protest in the Netherlands in 20 years.
131583541
Reposted by Sumita Chakraborty
Luke Moffett @lukemoffett.bsky.social · 02/05/2025
Ship carrying humanitarian aid and activists to Gaza attacked by drones, NGO says, and at risk of sinking after its generator targeted with 30 human rights activists on board www.irishtimes.com/world/europe...
irishtimes.com
Ship carrying humanitarian aid and activists to Gaza attacked by drones, NGO says
Ship issued SOS distress call after being hit 31.5km east of Malta
8356166
Reposted by Sumita Chakraborty
Omar Sakr @omarsakr.bsky.social · 20/04/2025
Easter in the genocide. Again.
Easter in the genocide

Days of betrayal precede us.
Shops have finally closed their doors
Not to the current murderers
In the Holy Land, but to remember 
Ancient acts of atrocity & renewal.
What did you give up this Lent 
In the final days of Ramadan?
Together we watch Palestinians starve
To death as if they might rise again.
Can you imagine the sacrilege 
Of calling any of these days holy?
One of these nights will be full of angels.
One of these nights the night will break 
And heaven will hear us. Perish
The thought. I discard my daily curses.
Nor will I ask for what we don't deserve.
I can see the Night ahead, the tremor 
Of wings. Let them pass unremarked.
This is for you, the unready, unwilling:
When did you tender your resignation
To grace? When did you give it all up 
To after? You could earn a grain or two 
Now if only you worked up a sweat 
To save anyone other than yourself.
112162
Reposted by Sumita Chakraborty
Nathan Kalman-Lamb @nkalamb.bsky.social · 08/04/2025
Georgetown scholar Dr. Khan Suri, who was abducted by ICE, was refused food/water to break Ramadan fast, housed in a room without a bed, and issued *used* underwear. His child cried for days after he was taken and has since stopped speaking. ccrjustice.org/home/press-c...
In just four days, Dr. Khan Suri was transferred among five different ICE facilities across three states, despite the fact that ICE records indicate there were beds in Virginia facilities. Dr. Khan Suri was fasting in religious observance of Ramadan, but multiple ICE facilities refused him food or water to break his fast.

For almost two weeks, he was housed in a room without a bed and with a television blaring 21 hours a day. Dr. Khan Suri was issued used underwear, and a bright red uniform that is usually reserved for detained individuals who have been classified as ‘high security’ based on their criminal history or alleged affiliation with criminal organizations. He is not permitted to work or spend more than two hours per week outside of his dorm.
17153682777
Reposted by Sumita Chakraborty
Nathan Kalman-Lamb @nkalamb.bsky.social · 06/04/2025
“My detention at Guantanamo changed me. The isolation, the deprivation… it broke us down.” A Venezuelan man who entered the US for a CBP One appointment on Jan. 19, 2025—and violated no laws—describes the horrors of Guantanamo detention aka imprisonment. ccrjustice.org/sites/defaul...
311983957
Reposted by Sumita Chakraborty
Joseph Rezek @rezekjoe.bsky.social · 04/04/2025
They did it. They terminated my NEH grant. Their letter went to my junk mail. This is an active grant that would have finished on June 30. “Your grant’s immediate termination is necessary to safeguard the interests of the federal government” They are so afraid of us.
Full text 

April 3, 2025
Dr. Joseph Rezek
Dear NEH Grantee,
This letter provides notice that the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) is terminating your federal grant (Grant Application No. FEL29509824) effective April 3, 2025, in accordance with the termination clause in your Grant Agreement.
Your grant no longer effectuates the agency's needs and priorities and conditions of the Grant
Agreement and is subject to termination due to several reasonable causes, as outlined in 2CFR§200.340.
For instance, NEH has reasonable cause to terminate your grant in light of the fact that the NEH is repurposing its funding allocations in a new direction in furtherance of the President's agenda. The President's February 19, 2025 executive order mandates that the NEH eliminate all non-statutorily required activities and functions. See Commencing the Reduction of the Federal Bureaucracy, E.O. 14217 (Feb. 19, 2025). Your grant's immediate termination is necessary to safeguard the interests of the federal government, including its fiscal priorities. Any objections or appeals to this termination will be managed in strict accordance with the President's Executive Orders, including but not limited to: E.O. 14217 (Feb. 19, 2025), Commencing the Reduction of the Federal Bureaucracy; E.O. 14151 (Jan. 20, 2025), Ending Radical and Wasteful Government DEI Programs and Preferencing; E.O. 14168 (Jan. 20, 2025), Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government; and E.O. 14190 (Jan. 29, 2025), Ending Radical Indoctrination in K-12 Schooling. The termination of your grant represents an urgent priority for the administration, and due to exceptional circumstances, adherence to the traditional notification process is not possible. Therefore, the NEH hereby terminates your grant in its entirety effective April 3, 2025.
27436061132
Reposted by Sumita Chakraborty
404 Media @404media.co · 04/04/2025
Massive, unarchivable datasets of cancer, covid, and Alzheimer's research could be lost forever 🔗 www.404media.co/nih-archives...
404media.co
Massive, Unarchivable Datasets of Cancer, Covid, and Alzheimer's Research Could Be Lost Forever
Days before Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced that 10,000 HHS staffers would lose their jobs, a message appeared on NIH research repository sites saying they were "under review."
18922441
Reposted by Sumita Chakraborty
Genevieve Lakier @genevievelakier.bsky.social · 02/04/2025
AAUP has just published a memo laying out the many legal reasons why universities should not hand over the names & nationalities of their students or faculty, as the Trump admin has asked. Please share freely with your friendly university admin! @aaup.bsky.social www.aaup.org/news/institu...
aaup.org
Institutions Should Not Provide Student and Faculty Info To Enable Deportations
In response to news reports that the Office for Civil Rights in the US Department of Education has requested the names and nationalities of students and faculty who may have been involved in alleged T...
0279184
Reposted by Sumita Chakraborty
Angus Johnston @angus.bsky.social · 02/04/2025
Columbia student: "How are we obstructing if this gate has been closed since the start of the semester?” Columbia admin: “Because if we were to open it, you would be obstructing that entrance."
columbiaspectator.com
Jewish pro-Palestinian protesters chain themselves to gates outside St. Paul’s Chapel and Earl Hall
<i>Updated April 2 at 4:38 p.m.</i>
18023
Reposted by Sumita Chakraborty
Bring Me The News @bringmethenews.bsky.social · 30/03/2025
Crowd gathers downtown to protest detention of U of M student by ICE
bringmethenews.com
Crowd gathers downtown to protest detention of U of M student by ICE
The student was reportedly arrested Thursday at an off-campus residence.
18125
Reposted by Sumita Chakraborty
Michael Yarbrough (he/him) @mwyarbrough.bsky.social · 30/03/2025
This exciting resolution from Rutgers University Senate is exactly the kind of model I think higher ed needs: a mutual defense pact of, in this case, Big 10 schools. They call for member institutions to create a joint defense fund and make resources available to any member institution under attack.
Excerpt from Rutgers University Senate resolution calling for a Mutual Academic Defense Compact. The excerpt reads:

"BE IT RESOLVED THAT, the Rutgers University Senate urges the President of Rutgers University to formally propose and help establish a Mutual Academic Defense Compact (MADC) among all members of the Big Ten Academic Alliance;

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED THAT, under this compact, all participating institutions shall commit meaningful funding to a shared or distributed defense fund. This fund shall be used to provide immediate and strategic support to any member institution under direct political or legal infringement;"
6646981527
Reposted by Sumita Chakraborty
Radley Balko @radleybalko.bsky.social · 30/03/2025
NYU canceled a planned speech by the former president of Doctors Without Borders because she planned to discuss the humanitarian crisis in Gaza and cuts to US AID. This is what actual campus censorship looks like.
ctvnews.ca
‘Climate of fear’: Montreal doctor says NYU cancelled her presentation
A Montreal doctor says her presentation at NYU was abruptly cancelled and believes the university did so out of fear of being pressured by the Donald Trump administration.
22291213900
Reposted by Sumita Chakraborty
Jason Linkins @dceiver.bsky.social · 29/03/2025
another student was disappeared at the University of Minnesota
6320291114
Reposted by Sumita Chakraborty
Prem Thakker ツ @premthakker.bsky.social · 30/03/2025
SCOOP: The Trump admin appears to be going into a visa database to quietly change students' immigration status. It's coming entirely by surprise — setting students up to be detained without warning. It's Mahmoud Khalil & Rumeysa Ozturk — on a wider scale.
zeteo.com
SCOOP: ICE Revoking Students’ Immigration Statuses Without Their or the University’s Knowledge
“Never seen something like this,” say university officials about the secret targeting of Middle Eastern students.
17369684229
Reposted by Sumita Chakraborty
Catherine Rampell @crampell.bsky.social · 27/03/2025
ICE has arrested Iranian national Alireza Doroudi, a doctoral candidate studying mechanical engineering at the University of Alabama. He was arrested at home at 5 a.m. Tuesday. As with some of the others who've been disappeared, unclear why he was detained. www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news...
nbcnews.com
ICE detains University of Alabama doctoral student as government's college crackdown continues
According to ICE records, Iranian national Alireza Doroudi is currently being held in a "detention facility" after he was recently detained.
461824940
Reposted by Sumita Chakraborty
Food Chain Workers Alliance @foodchainworkers.bsky.social · 26/03/2025
“I think pretty much every legislator in Olympia knows him. He’s a serious young man who really wants to fight for justice, and he knows how to express himself and he’s tireless. He is like 24/7 on immigrant rights and farmworker rights.” www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news...
seattletimes.com
ICE arrests WA farmworker activist in Sedro-Woolley
Alfredo "Lelo" Juarez, 25, has organized on behalf of farmworkers' rights in Washington state since he was 14 years old.
8386204
Reposted by Sumita Chakraborty
Nathan Kalman-Lamb @nkalamb.bsky.social · 27/03/2025
ICE has abducted an Iranian mechanical engineering doctoral student at the University of Alabama. thecrimsonwhite.com/120415/news/...
A UA student was reportedly detained by the U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement early Tuesday morning. 

Alireza Doroudi, a doctoral student from Iran studying mechanical engineering, was reportedly arrested by ICE officers at around 5 a.m. at his home on Tuesday. 

According to a message sent in a group chat that included Iranian students Tuesday, Doroudi entered the U.S. on an F-1 student visa issued by the U.S. Embassy in Oman in January 2023, after clearing all immigration checks. The message said Dourodi had his visa revoked six months after his arrival in the U.S.

“After receiving the revocation notice, Alireza immediately contacted ISSS [International Student and Scholar Services] at the University of Alabama,” the message said. “ISSS replied with confidence, stating that his case was not unusual or problematic and that he could remain in the U.S. legally as long as he maintained his student status.”
3721881310
Reposted by Sumita Chakraborty
Jen Bendery @jbendery.bsky.social · 27/03/2025
A Somerville, MA resident sends along this image of all the people who turned out for an emergency rally today for Romeysa Ozturk, the Tufts University PhD international student who was essentially abducted by ICE yesterday. Thousands came "on six hours' notice."
162145554
Reposted by Sumita Chakraborty
Ezra Levin ❌👑 @ezralevin.bsky.social · 27/03/2025
Local Indivisible member was abducted by ICE in Washington. If you're in the state, please elevate this thread to your electeds and ask for their help in getting his release.
5035392050
Reposted by Sumita Chakraborty
Prof. Ghosty Neilsen @joeyneilsen.bsky.social · 26/03/2025
I saw a longer version of this video, and at the end the scene is just an empty street corner. Blood curdling to see a person disappeared like that.
1478
Reposted by Sumita Chakraborty
Matt Novak @paleofuture.bsky.social · 26/03/2025
Video of the international student at Tufts being arrested by "federal authorities" in Massachusetts has been released and it's terrifying. They're not even uniformed officers. Just secret police thugs in hoodies and masks. From WCVB: youtu.be/PuFIs7OkzYY
1130143187422
Reposted by Sumita Chakraborty
Sarah J. Jackson @sjjphd.bsky.social · 22/03/2025
For folks who don’t know, ethnic studies programs like African American/Africana Studies, Asian American Studies, Chicano Studies and the like come directly from civil right era campus activism. Attempts to disempower such programs should be framed as attacks on civil rights same as much else rn.
7582702074
Reposted by Sumita Chakraborty
Jenny Cohn @jennycohn.bsky.social · 22/03/2025
“One young man sobbed when a guard pushed him to the floor. He said, ‘I’m not a gang member. I’m gay. I’m a barber.’ I believed him. *** He “began to whimper,” as his head was roughly shaved, “folding his hands in prayer as his hair fell.” He “asked for his mother & cried as he was slapped again.”
time.com
What the Venezuelans Deported to El Salvador Experienced
Exclusive photos of the arrival of Venezuelan detainees deported from the U.S.
14772375510973
Reposted by Sumita Chakraborty
Kyle Tran Myhre @guante.info · 17/03/2025
update: for people asking how to support: www.gofundme.com/f/support-ma...
056
Reposted by Sumita Chakraborty
Heba Gowayed هبة جويد @hebagowayed.bsky.social · 14/03/2025
They're literally kidnapping dissidents. And these institutions are on about rule of law. It'll be law too when they put us all in camps (you know in addition to all the folks already imprisoned in this nation, immigrant and not).
113335
Reposted by Sumita Chakraborty
Sonja Drimmer @sonjadrimmer.bsky.social · 12/03/2025
I want everyone to how rapidly a euphemistic language of acquiescence has been codified among the administrative class, insulating the perpetrators of this chaos from blame.
5456142
Sumita Chakraborty @notsumatra.bsky.social · 12/03/2025
Thank you to Kaveh Akbar, Weije Wang, & Kevin Lozano for publishing this poem from my B-Sides of the Golden Record ms in @thenation.com * it's in the April print issue and online here www.thenation.com/article/cult...
2215
Reposted by Sumita Chakraborty
Alejandra Caraballo @esqueer.net · 10/03/2025
I need y'all to sit with this headline and understand what is being done to our community. They're trying to criminalize our very existence. This is a campaign of eradication. www.nbcnews.com/nbc-out/rcna...
"A screenshot of an NBC News article headline. The headline reads: 'Texas bill would make identifying as transgender a felony punishable by jail.' Below the headline, a subtext states: 'The bill, while unlikely to pass, highlights the increasing extremism of legislation targeting trans people, especially in Texas, in recent years.' The NBC News logo is visible at the top, along with a navigation bar that includes a 'WATCH' button and a user profile icon."
6672527011067
Reposted by Sumita Chakraborty
tru @thetrudz.photo · 09/03/2025
Toni Morrison:
“No Place for Self-Pity, No Room for Fear: In times of dread, artists must never choose to remain silent.” by Toni Morrison; excerpt reads: 

“Dictators and tyrants routinely begin their reigns and sustain their power with the deliberate and calculated destruction of art: the censorship and book-burning of unpoliced prose, the harassment and detention of painters, journalists, poets, playwrights, novelists, essayists. This is the first step of a despot whose instinctive acts of malevolence are not simply mindless or evil; they are also perceptive. Such despots know very well that their strategy of repression will allow the real tools of oppressive power to flourish. Their plan is simple:

1. Select a useful enemy—an “Other”—to convert rage into conflict, even war.

2. Limit or erase the imagination that art provides, as well as the critical thinking of scholars and journalists.

3. Distract with toys, dreams of loot, and themes of superior religion or defiant national pride that enshrine past hurts and humiliations.”
31085496
Reposted by Sumita Chakraborty
Olga Lautman 🇺🇦 @olgalautman.bsky.social · 07/03/2025
The Trump regime expands its discouraged (BANNED) words across federal agencies. The list is long Gift article www.nytimes.com/interactive/...
2771610820
Reposted by Sumita Chakraborty
Steve Held @peoplesfabric.bsky.social · 09/03/2025
This feels like a major inflection point. If ICE can apparently unlawfully arrest & disappear a permanent resident and it is not immediately met with strong opposition from the public, officials, and courts, there is no going back.
3529101315
Reposted by Sumita Chakraborty
profchander @profchander.bsky.social · 09/03/2025
please support and share
actionnetwork.org
Demand the Immediate Release of Palestinian Student Activist Mahmoud Khalil from DHS detention
On the evening of March 8, 2025, Columbia University student activist Mahmoud Khalil was detained by the Department of Homeland Security. The arrest comes on the heels of the Department of State’s ann...
13020
Reposted by Sumita Chakraborty
NYCLU @nyclu.org · 09/03/2025
The Trump administration’s detention of Mahmoud Khalil — a green card holder studying in this country legally — is targeted, retaliatory, and an extreme attack on his First Amendment rights. apnews.com/article/colu...
apnews.com
ICE arrests Palestinian activist who helped lead Columbia University protests, his lawyer says
A prominent Palestinian activist who helped lead last spring's protests at Columbia University has been arrested by federal immigration agents.
15552248
Reposted by Sumita Chakraborty
Angus Johnston @angus.bsky.social · 09/03/2025
Columbia grad student with a green card and a pregnant US citizen wife, abducted by ICE because of his political organizing, and now his lawyers can't find him. Hey, @schumer.senate.gov. This is your constituent. Bring him back home.
13883123286