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Crystal Fleming クリスタル

@alwaystheself.bsky.social

11K followers 830 following 3.6K posts

Professor of Africana Studies and Sociology at Smith College. Posts represent the views of my cats. One of my books has a 2 second cameo in an Oscar winning film.日本語を勉強します. I’m my ancestors’ wildest dreams and/or worst nightmare. I have a lot of ancestors.

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Crystal Fleming クリスタル @alwaystheself.bsky.social · Aug 5

Still basking in the unexpected summer bliss of discovering fields of sunflowers in the countryside of upstate New York!! 🌻🌻🌻

Selfie of me smiling under a blue sky with hundreds (thousands?) of sunflowers behind me. I've got on a black t-shirt and clear Ray-Bans

Closeup of the sunflowers! They're gorgeous!

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Crystal Fleming クリスタル @alwaystheself.bsky.social · 3h

A highlight of this beautiful fall day was encountering one of my students as I walked across campus and standing with her outside discussing her brilliant analysis of Octavia Butler's writing on the human condition. I do like my job.

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Reposted by Crystal Fleming クリスタル

Clara Jeffery @clarajeffery.bsky.social · 4h

These. Were. Men. In. Their. 30s.

www.motherjones.com/politics/202...

No one in the GOP Hitler chat was a "kid"

We checked. Sorry, JD Vance.

www.motherjones.com

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Jess Calarco @jessicacalarco.com · 1d

They're trying to prevent the student newspaper from printing news, period. Not just a particular story.

"The Media School directed us to print no news in the paper... nothing but information about homecoming — no other news at all, and particularly no traditional front page news coverage."

Jess Calarco @jessicacalarco.com · 1d

Indiana University has fired the staff director of the student newspaper, after disputes in which university leadership tried to pressure him to prevent students from publishing news.

IndyStar 2 . Follow
1h:
"All Media School and IU students, faculty and staff
should be scared by this blatant attack on someone
standing up for what's right," student Editors-ln-Chief
Mia Hilkowitz and Andrew Miller said in a statement.
Read more: bit.ly/43ebKW1
IndyStar.
IDS
The original investigative student
newsroom of Indiana University
Barge suspends Bloomingtonr
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Indiana University fires IDS
adviser amid push to control
student newspaper's content

The director of student media at Indiana University was fired amidst a dispute between university leadership and editors at the Indiana Daily Student over what content gets printed in the student newspaper.

As director of student media, Jim Rodenbush did not directly oversee or have any say over the content published in the IDS, per a charter between the IDS and the university. But he told IndyStar his firing follows a series of meetings with IU Media School leadership in which it grew increasingly apparent they were expecting him to officially prohibit students from publishing news.

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Perry Bacon @perrybaconjr.bsky.social · 2d

This is the owner of Time Magazine. nypost.com/2025/10/11/u...

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Perry Bacon @perrybaconjr.bsky.social · 1d

What can we do about mainstream media moving right? 1. Give up on some outlets (CBS) and embrace others (The Guardian) 2. Get alternative media to cover more hard news 3. Browbeat outlets into using their agenda-setting and framing powers better. newrepublic.com/article/2016...

The Mainstream Media Is Moving Right. Here’s What We Can Do About It.

At The Washington Post, CBS, and maybe CNN, the trend line is terrible. But liberals do have the power to reverse these trends.

newrepublic.com

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Perry Bacon @perrybaconjr.bsky.social · 1d

Mamdani's primary campaign was brilliant and exciting. His general election campaign has been less exciting but equally savvy. He 1. broadened his voting base and 2. courted the Dem establishment without 3. sacrificing any parts of his very-progressive platform.
newrepublic.com/article/2009...

Zohran Mamdani Is Threading One of the Trickiest Needles in Politics

For the general election, Mamdani has managed to expand his base while staying basically true to his primary-season beliefs. There’s a lesson in there for all Democrats.

newrepublic.com

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Radley Balko @radleybalko.bsky.social · 5h

The Supreme Court’s majority right wing indicated in oral arguments that they think racism is over on the same day that the vice president defended the “I love Hitler” guy, and that the NYT reported that the current administration plans to accept only white, English-speaking refugees.

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David Ho @davidho.bsky.social · 16h

“A clarinet player was arrested after playing her instrument to the tune of the ‘Ghostbusters’ theme song outside of a Portland ICE facility…”

Musician playing ‘Ghostbusters’ outside ICE facility is arrested by agents

‘Taking us citizens out of state to detain them without charge is a new action from the Feds and should be opposed,’ her band said

www.independent.co.uk

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AAUP @aaup.org · 6d

Over 100 Brown U students & 20 faculty members gathered outside
the campus today to demand that the university reject Trump’s loyalty oath compact. Professors & students taped their mouths shut to symbolize the compact’s threat to free speech, #academicfreedom & diversity of thought.
#DefendHigherEd

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Bluegal Fran Langum #NoKings @bluegal.bsky.social · 6h

He’s just so good at this

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Matt Novak @paleofuture.bsky.social · 8h

started / going

DHS Says Social Media Will Be Screened for ‘Antisemitism’ as It Purges Pro-Palestine Immigrants
Homeland Secretary Kristi Noem says people shouldn't try to "hide behind the First Amendment."

Border Patrol Posts Instagram Propaganda Video Featuring Antisemitic Slurs
The video was pinned to Border Patrol's Instagram Reels.
By Matt Novak
Updated October 15, 2025

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Dominique Baker @bakerdphd.bsky.social · 8h

Brown is out! They had to do more dancing in their letter because they previously capitulated and needed to reference their previous agreement but, at its core, this reiterates MIT's letter.

The clock is now on for all other institutions.

www.brown.edu/sites/defaul...

www.brown.edu

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mulboyne.bsky.social @mulboyne.bsky.social · 21h

The Asahi has a new simplified Japanese news site, to help language learners, children and the elderly. Around 3 articles a day are written with easy vocabulary and grammar. There are also options to toggle furigana, and spacing between words. yasashii.asahi.com

やさしい朝日新聞

やさしい日本語でニュースを紹介します

yasashii.asahi.com

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Crystal Fleming クリスタル @alwaystheself.bsky.social · 8h

Worth remembering that the Vice President called Trump Hitler and then decided to join his movement.

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Don Moynihan @donmoyn.bsky.social · 9h

Old enough to remember when kids being anti-semitic was the basis for a federal government assault on higher education

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Shannon Vallor @shannonvallor.bsky.social · 13d

Since it resonated with the audience, I’ll recap my main argument against AGI here. ‘General intelligence’ is like phlogiston, or the aether. It’s an outmoded scientific concept that does not refer to anything real. Any explanatory work it did can be done better by a richer scientific frame. 1/3

Shannon Vallor @shannonvallor.bsky.social · 13d

This was a truly heartening day, with deeply thoughtful challenges to the dominant narrative framed around AGI, coming from across disciplines and perspectives. Felt like the tide might finally be turning a bit, at least among the scientific community. Thanks @royalsociety.org!

Anil Seth @anilseth.bsky.social · 14d

1/2 I'm looking forward to taking part in a panel on AGI and the Turing Test, tomorrow afternoon (Thurs 2nd Oct) at the @royalsociety.org, w/ Dame Wendy Hall, Shannon Vallor, William Isaac, & Sir Nigel Shadbolt. royalsociety.org/science-even...

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ae @aelkus.bsky.social · 13h

www.bbc.com/news/article...

"I once met a former bodyguard of one billionaire with his own "bunker", who told me his security team's first priority, if this really did happen, would be to eliminate said boss and get in the bunker themselves. And he didn't seem to be joking."

Tech billionaires seem to be doom prepping. Should we be worried?

The debate is ramping up about what happens if - or when - computer intelligence overtakes humans

www.bbc.com

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Kashana @kashana.blacksky.app · 1d

Why would a billionaire want a functioning paper? Functioning papers cover shit like “did you know this billionaire makes his workers pee into bottles instead of taking a break” and “you pay way more tax than a guy with ten yachts”

karl rove knausgård @uhactually.bsky.social · 2d

Lmao WaPo has fewer than 100K circulation now. It turns out “alienate your liberal subscriber base” is not a good strategy when the Republicans also hate you. www.forbes.com/sites/andyme...

The Washington Post Is Running Out Of Readers Willing To Pay

Once a titan of American journalism, The Washington Post now struggles to reach even 100,000 print subscribers most days.

www.forbes.com

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Phil Lewis @phillewis.bsky.social · 1d

D'Angelo has died after a battle with pancreatic cancer, his former manager says. He was 51

D'Angelo Dead at 51

Grammy-winning R&B soul singer D'Angelo is dead from pancreatic cancer ... TMZ has learned.

www.tmz.com

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jamelle @jamellebouie.net · 1d

we’ll see how his mayoral tenure shakes out but i am convinced that Mamdani has the juice. not just the charisma to win an election but the temperament to govern and the measured pragmatism of someone who genuinely believes what they’re saying and wants to accomplish real things.

Inside the Improbable, Audacious and (So Far) Unstoppable Rise of Zohran Mamdani

www.nytimes.com

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Trevon Logan @trevondlogan.bsky.social · 5d

Black families tend to have strong preferences against nursing homes, usually driven by concerns of inadequate care. Seeing that Black nursing home patients have significantly worse outcomes, and that they are driven by *within-nursing home* differences in care, confirms this suspicion.

NBER @nber.org · 5d

Nursing home value-added for black patients is 30 percent lower than for white patients, with most of the gap reflecting differences within, rather than across, nursing homes, from Liran Einav, Amy Finkelstein, @nealemahoney.bsky.social, and James C. Okun www.nber.org/papers/w34324

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Gil Durán @gilduran.com · 6d

News: I have obtained full transcripts of Peter Thiel's Secret Antichrist Lectures (as have multiple other journalists).

They were supposed to be embargoed until 9 a.m. tomorrow, but Reuters has a story up. (They may have gotten them from a different source)

www.reuters.com/world/us/pet...

www.reuters.com

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Crystal Fleming クリスタル @alwaystheself.bsky.social · 6d

In other news, I had a lot of fun this week having students in my Intro to Black Women's Studies course apply black feminist thought to Taylor Swift's oeuvre, including her new album. They were brilliant! One of the groups called themselves "ASS: The Anti-Swift Society". I do like my job..

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Crystal Fleming クリスタル @alwaystheself.bsky.social · 6d

Next up: taking some aspect of at least one of these courses on the road.. literally. Currently planning a Black-studies focused global field trip along with other study abroad initiatives..

Crystal Fleming クリスタル @alwaystheself.bsky.social · 6d

I've developed three new courses at Smith within the last year which is a personal/professional record.. Black Europe, Black Magic and Black Joy.