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Michele L. Simms-Burton, PhD

@professor058.bsky.social
136 followers 19 following 66 posts

Retired university professor of African American Studies and American literature

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Michele L. Simms-Burton, PhD @professor058.bsky.social · 17/06/2025
Yes!
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Sarah Kendzior @sarahkendzior.bsky.social · 16/05/2025
These photos are 20 minutes apart, the first is from THE TORNADO that just hit St Louis!
Tornado Sun
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Sarah Kendzior @sarahkendzior.bsky.social · 16/05/2025
Trump and his cohort embody the “deep state” they claim to fight, and the FBI embodies the corruption they claim to counter. Their decades-long, mutually beneficial relationship has been extremely damaging to the US. The roots of it need to be examined — and pulled out.
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Sarah Kendzior @sarahkendzior.bsky.social · 16/05/2025
From 2020: Comey doesn't want Trump to be investigated because doesn't want his own activity to be investigated. Comey spent his tenure at the FBI protecting a mafia syndicate linked to the Kremlin -- a mafia syndicate two other former FBI heads went on to serve. -- HIDING IN PLAIN SIGHT (2020)
Why thank you -- I do think it was nice of me to provide a large free excerpt of a book you'd normally have to pay for! No I'm not copying it all out manually. If you want to go ahead.Hiding in Plain sight book cover
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Sarah Kendzior @sarahkendzior.bsky.social · 16/05/2025
It's bizarre how pundits and politicians cover Trump's second term with little mention of the first term, even though it's a direct extension. Just as they covered his first term as if it weren't a continuation of a lifetime in organized crime. They treat everything as disparate when it's one story.
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Sarah Kendzior @sarahkendzior.bsky.social · 16/05/2025
It became much easier for them to do this when paywalls were instituted and many outlets and archives were deleted in 2021, soon after Trump left office. This trend has since accelerated and led to the erasure of history and in turn, memory. The deletion of Twitter accounts also contributed to it.
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Him Jones 🇭🇹🇩🇴 @nathanthethird.blacksky.app · 16/05/2025
A must read if you’re interested in learning how we got here
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Sarah Kendzior @sarahkendzior.bsky.social · 20/11/2024
From my book HIDING IN PLAIN SIGHT: "Trump covers up crime with scandal. That is his main propaganda tactic, the one few seem to be able to discern...The crimes are much worse than the scandals, but the media will always take the scandal bait."
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Michele L. Simms-Burton, PhD @professor058.bsky.social · 05/05/2025
Exactly!
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The New Yorker @newyorker.com · 05/05/2025
In February, the journalist Jordan Salama paid for a bed in an overcrowded East Elmhurst apartment shared by 12 migrants, all from Ecuador. What he witnessed was a community “focussed on the day-to-day difficulties of surviving.”
newyorker.com
Twelve Migrants Sharing a Queens Apartment
In New York City, a shadow economy helps new arrivals find a place to sleep. Sometimes it’s just a bed and a curtain.
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Sarah Kendzior @sarahkendzior.bsky.social · 01/05/2025
Hey MONTGOMERY! I'll be at NewSouth Bookstore 5/6 at 5:30 pm to talk about THE LAST AMERICAN ROAD TRIP and more! I'll be taking questions and signing books. See you soon, Alabama! newsouthbookstore.com/event/bestse...
Montgomery AL New South bookstore event 5/6 at 5:30 pm THE LAST AMERICAN ROAD TRIP
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Democracy Now! @democracynow.org · 05/05/2025
"End Times Fascism": Naomi Klein on How Trump, Musk, Far Right "Don't Believe in the Future"
democracynow.org
“End Times Fascism”: Naomi Klein on How Trump, Musk, Far Right “Don’t Believe in the Future”
An alliance between the far right and Silicon Valley oligarchs has given rise to a form of “end times fascism,” says journalist Naomi Klein, who details in a recent essay co-authored with Astra Taylor...
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Sarah Kendzior @sarahkendzior.bsky.social · 05/05/2025
Related: bsky.app/profile/sara...
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Michele L. Simms-Burton, PhD @professor058.bsky.social · 05/05/2025
Yep. I was thinking about Marx and Engels en route to work this morning. I never doubted that they were wrong, but their predictions are ever so salient in this historical moment on the US.
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LyndaGood @lyndagood.bsky.social · 29/03/2025
The sleepy, old guy saw nine straight quarters of record stock gains and job growth.
The smartest
businessman in the world fucked it all up in eight weeks.
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Michele L. Simms-Burton, PhD @professor058.bsky.social · 29/03/2025
I hope DC, specifically Politics and Prose is on your tour.
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Sarah Kendzior @sarahkendzior.bsky.social · 24/03/2025
Updated graphic for the LAST AMERICAN ROAD TRIP Tour. Kenny Mayne is my conversation partner in Seattle! Come join us! Information here: sarahkendzior.substack.com/p/my-book-to... And here: www.sarahkendziorbooks.com
List of tour dates, same info here as in the links in the post
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Dr. Jeffrey Kavanaugh 🇨🇦 @jlkavanaugh.bsky.social · 29/03/2025
Just picked up my pre-ordered copy of @sarahkendzior.bsky.social’s The Last American Road Trip from my fantastic local independent bookstore, @audreysbooksyeg.bsky.social. I’m excited (if a bit apprehensive) to read this.
The Last American Road Trip by Sarah Kendzior
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Tim Pearson @tmpear.bsky.social · 12/03/2025
The clearest eyed, most perceptive chronicler (and predictor) of America's slide into authoritarian dystopia. She's there in flyover country, saw what was hiding in plain sight, and proved that they knew. Now this. Can't wait to pick it up...
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Allenk_81 @allenk81.bsky.social · 12/03/2025
I've been following for just about 10 years. The foresight to our current state has been eerie and incredible. Will be buying!
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The New Yorker @newyorker.com · 12/03/2025
“The idea that ICE can detain people on the basis of its own conclusions or biases, and then decide later how it wants to charge the person, is extremely problematic,” a legal scholar says, about the arrest of the Columbia graduate Mahmoud Khalil.
newyorker.com
Mahmoud Khalil’s Constitutional Rights and the Power of ICE
A legal scholar explains the unusual justification for the Columbia graduate’s arrest, and what it could augur for immigration enforcement in Trump’s second term.
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The New Yorker @newyorker.com · 12/03/2025
When R.F.K., Jr., says that Americans are “the sickest people on earth,” he does not acknowledge that the nations at the top of the health-care rankings all have two things he doesn’t like: universal health care and comprehensive vaccine programs.
newyorker.com
The Dangers of R.F.K., Jr.,’s Measles Response
The H.H.S. Secretary has touted over-the-counter remedies and stressed that the decision to vaccinate is “personal.”
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Michele L. Simms-Burton, PhD @professor058.bsky.social · 10/03/2025
open.substack.com/pub/rashabar...
open.substack.com
Keep Writing, Even If No One's Reading
If words fall on a page, they have meaning
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Jen Rubin @jenrubin.bsky.social · 07/03/2025
excellent piece! oldgoats.substack.com/p/lets-creat...
oldgoats.substack.com
Let’s Create “Town Hall Night in America”
It’s time for Democrats to institutionalize our oldest form of democracy
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Michele L. Simms-Burton, PhD @professor058.bsky.social · 04/03/2025
Ha, except if you close your eyes at the Martin Luther King Jr library in Washington DC, the guard will walk up and tell you there is no sleeping in the library. Snoring is all about the population patronizing the library: some folks can snore others can’t close their eyes. Absurd!
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Marcus Rediker @marcusrediker.bsky.social · 03/03/2025
Goodreads is giving away forty free copies of my forthcoming book *Freedom Ship: The Uncharted History of Escaping Slavery by Sea*, to be published in May by Viking Books (@vikingbooks.bsky.social). More info here: www.goodreads.com/giveaway/sho...
goodreads.com
Book giveaway for Freedom Ship: The Uncharted History of Escaping Slavery by Sea by Marcus Rediker Mar 02-Mar 31, 2025
Enter to win one of 40 free copies available. Giveaway dates from Mar 02-Mar 31, 2025. We're giving away 40 early copies of FREEDOM SHIP, a gripping acco...
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Sarah Kendzior @sarahkendzior.bsky.social · 03/03/2025
From October 2024: "The USA is on a crime spree against foreign civilians and against its own people... It is a controlled demolition led by kleptocrats and billionaires." sarahkendzior.substack.com/p/totem-and-...
sarahkendzior.substack.com
Totem and Taboo
On nostalgia for the future and invaders of the present.
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Sarah Kendzior @sarahkendzior.bsky.social · 03/03/2025
I've got a new book out in April! Enter the giveaway below or preorder a copy here: www.thelastamericanroadtrip.com
thelastamericanroadtrip.com
The Last American Road Trip
The New York Times bestselling author of They Knew, Hiding in Plain Sight, and The View from Flyover Country navigates a changing America as she and her fami...
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The New Yorker @newyorker.com · 03/03/2025
In 1885, in one of the most gruesome episodes of racial terror in U.S. history, a white mob killed at least 28 Chinese residents of Rock Springs, Wyoming, and burned down the town’s Chinese quarter. @michaelluo.bsky.social writes about the little-known atrocity.
newyorker.com
When an American Town Massacred Its Chinese Immigrants
In 1885, white rioters murdered dozens of their Asian neighbors in Rock Springs, Wyoming. A hundred and forty years later, the story of the atrocity is still being unearthed.
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Michele L. Simms-Burton, PhD @professor058.bsky.social · 04/03/2025
Too many federal department and agency heads are instructing federal workers to obey. There are no heroes among senior leadership.
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Haymarket Books @haymarketbooks.org · 28/02/2025
Black Studies and the Fight Against Fascism Join us for a timely conversation with @davarianbaldwin.bsky.social, @jfernandez1202.bsky.social, Sarah Haley, Robin D.G. Kelley, Barbara Ransby, & Robyn Spencer-Antoine Tuesday, March 4 at 6:00 pm ET RSVP to attend: www.tickettailor.com/events/hayma...
Black Studies and the Fight Against Fascism

Davarian Baldwin
Johanna Fernandez
Sarah Haley
Robin D.G. Kelley
Barbara Ransby
Robyn Spencer-Antoine

Tuesday, March 4 at 6:00 pm ET
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The New Yorker @newyorker.com · 01/03/2025
How Henry James can help us make sense of the Gilded Age long gone—and the one now getting stripped of its shine.
newyorker.com
The Gilded Age Never Ended
Plutocrats, anarchists, and what Henry James grasped about the romance of revolution.
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Michele L. Simms-Burton, PhD @professor058.bsky.social · 23/02/2025
Federal employees who are not in a collective bargaining unit need to organize. I’m willing to help organize folks. Hit me up. Our senior leadership will not save or protect us!
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RIDGE @1av8ter.bsky.social · 22/02/2025
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Sarah Kendzior @sarahkendzior.bsky.social · 22/02/2025
"Our boy can become president of the USA and we can engineer it. I will get all of Putin's team to buy in on this." -- email from Felix Sater to Michael Cohen about Donald Trump in 2015 -- HIDING IN PLAIN SIGHT (2020) hidinginplainsightbook.com
Book coverExcerpt
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Morgan Jerkins @mjerkins.bsky.social · 19/02/2025
Today, I found out that the Department of Defense banned the Well-Read Black Girl anthology by Glory Edim. I was one of its contributors. I'm really hurt right now. So if you have it in you, please buy books by Black women from independent bookstores.
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Sarah Kendzior @sarahkendzior.bsky.social · 19/02/2025
We've arrived at the point where most predictions in THEY KNEW have come true and folks can respond to "But no one could have known!" by waving THEY KNEW in their face
The cover of THEY KNEW
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Haymarket Books @haymarketbooks.org · 19/02/2025
In his new book, poet and journalist Mohammed El-Kurd rejects the notion that Palestinians must prove themselves worthy of dignity and freedom.
progressive.org
For Palestinians, the ‘Perfect Victim’ Is an Impossible Standard
In his new book, poet and journalist Mohammed El-Kurd rejects the notion that Palestinians must prove themselves worthy of dignity and freedom.
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Sarah Kendzior @sarahkendzior.bsky.social · 15/02/2025
I'm glad to see my old work resonating a decade later. I have a new book out in April. It's called THE LAST AMERICAN ROAD TRIP. Preorders are important! Bookshop: bookshop.org/p/books/the-... Left Bank (signed): www.left-bank.com/product/sign... Amazon: www.amazon.com/Last-America... Thanks!
bookshop.org
The Last American Road Trip: A Memoir
A Memoir
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Jen Rubin @jenrubin.bsky.social · 15/02/2025
breaking govt, hurting people : www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2025/...
washingtonpost.com
Trump’s federal firings imperil government services from cities to farm towns
The cuts were initially poised to affect nuclear defense programs and impact veterans’ mental health care, workers warned.
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Michele L. Simms-Burton, PhD @professor058.bsky.social · 15/02/2025
Picked up this morning at my local library for $1.00.
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Sarah Kendzior @sarahkendzior.bsky.social · 12/02/2025
I'm reposting this. Now that my predictions have come true, folks may read these articles in a different light. Hopefully a clearer light. To fight the future, you need to grasp the past: sarahkendzior.substack.com/p/ten-articl...
sarahkendzior.substack.com
Ten Articles Explaining the 2024 Election
Some background reading
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The New Yorker @newyorker.com · 12/02/2025
“Palestinians do not need President Trump to talk about Gaza as if it were an empty hotel room that needs redesigning,” Mosab Abu Toha writes. “What we need is for the rest of the world to hear about Gaza’s basic, immediate necessities.”
newyorker.com
Gaza Must Be Rebuilt by Palestinians, for Palestinians
Palestinians returning after the ceasefire confront the destruction of their homes and the horror of President Trump’s proposal to turn Gaza into the “Riviera of the Middle East” by committing ethnic ...
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Haymarket Books @haymarketbooks.org · 13/02/2025
The Black Antifascist Book Bundle
haymarketbooks.org
The Black Antifascist Book Bundle
With the far right on the rise around the world and US conservatives continuing their repressive war on anti-racist teaching, learning, and activism, the links between fascism, white su...
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Haymarket Books @haymarketbooks.org · 11/02/2025
TONIGHT! Perfect Victims Join Mohammed El-Kurd & Robin D.G. Kelley for a virtual conversation to launch Mohammed’s new book Perfect Victims & the Politics of Appeal Streams live at 7:30 pm ET RSVP to attend: www.tickettailor.com/events/hayma...
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Mark Cuban @mcuban.bsky.social · 11/02/2025
Dems should propose a law that immediately requires every fed agency to post on @bsky.app account, every outlay with a detailed description, $, and a link to existing gov sites with in depth details Rather than trying to keep Elon out, pre-empt him so he cant miss characterize spending.
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Mark Cuban @mcuban.bsky.social · 10/02/2025
Is there anyone out there that is mapping any delayed or cancelled federal payments ? Would be really interesting to see which towns and cities are going to be hit
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Michele L. Simms-Burton, PhD @professor058.bsky.social · 11/02/2025
Yep!
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