Tressie McMillan Cottom
@tressiemcphd.bsky.social
Professor. Sociologist. NYTimes Opinion Columnist. Books: THICK, LowerEd. Forthcoming: 1)Black Mothering & Daughtering and 2)Mama Bears.
Beliefs: C.R.E.A.M. + the internet ruined everything good + bring back shame.
“I’m just here so I don’t get fined.”
Beliefs: C.R.E.A.M. + the internet ruined everything good + bring back shame.
“I’m just here so I don’t get fined.”
Pinned
I woke up a year ago 100% certain that I had to make a documentary about the Winston Salem chapter of the Black Panther Party. So I did.
We aim to release it early next year. This weekend I’m at Blackstar, looking for inspiration. If you’re in town, DM to meetup.
We aim to release it early next year. This weekend I’m at Blackstar, looking for inspiration. If you’re in town, DM to meetup.
Reposted by Tressie McMillan Cottom
I'm also in wait-and-see mode on the effects of caps on grad student loans.
My big questions are:
(1) Can the private market scale up in time?
(2) Do students even want private loans?
(3) Will grad programs change admissions practices?
www.insidehighered.com/news/busines...
My big questions are:
(1) Can the private market scale up in time?
(2) Do students even want private loans?
(3) Will grad programs change admissions practices?
www.insidehighered.com/news/busines...
December 15, 2025 at 10:14 AM
I'm also in wait-and-see mode on the effects of caps on grad student loans.
My big questions are:
(1) Can the private market scale up in time?
(2) Do students even want private loans?
(3) Will grad programs change admissions practices?
www.insidehighered.com/news/busines...
My big questions are:
(1) Can the private market scale up in time?
(2) Do students even want private loans?
(3) Will grad programs change admissions practices?
www.insidehighered.com/news/busines...
I don’t know why but this cracked me up
December 16, 2025 at 12:00 AM
I don’t know why but this cracked me up
Reposted by Tressie McMillan Cottom
The era of the mass market paperback is coming to an end, and that’s not good thing for anyone.
I jotted down some thoughts about the history of the format and why its end isn’t a great sign for the publishing industry: transfer-orbit.ghost.io/mass-market-...
I jotted down some thoughts about the history of the format and why its end isn’t a great sign for the publishing industry: transfer-orbit.ghost.io/mass-market-...
Stories for the masses
The Mass Market paperback format is ending with a whimper
transfer-orbit.ghost.io
December 15, 2025 at 5:23 PM
The era of the mass market paperback is coming to an end, and that’s not good thing for anyone.
I jotted down some thoughts about the history of the format and why its end isn’t a great sign for the publishing industry: transfer-orbit.ghost.io/mass-market-...
I jotted down some thoughts about the history of the format and why its end isn’t a great sign for the publishing industry: transfer-orbit.ghost.io/mass-market-...
Reposted by Tressie McMillan Cottom
Speaking ill of the dead is controversial, particularly when it was a violent death. It’s edgy; it’s sensitive; best avoided in most cases, etc.
Baselessly making another person’s murder *about yourself,* and then approving of it, is a different thing. That is delusional, narcissistic, sociopathic.
Baselessly making another person’s murder *about yourself,* and then approving of it, is a different thing. That is delusional, narcissistic, sociopathic.
December 15, 2025 at 9:51 PM
Speaking ill of the dead is controversial, particularly when it was a violent death. It’s edgy; it’s sensitive; best avoided in most cases, etc.
Baselessly making another person’s murder *about yourself,* and then approving of it, is a different thing. That is delusional, narcissistic, sociopathic.
Baselessly making another person’s murder *about yourself,* and then approving of it, is a different thing. That is delusional, narcissistic, sociopathic.
Reposted by Tressie McMillan Cottom
How Your Private ChatGPT And Gemini Chats Are ‘Sold For Profit’
How Your Private ChatGPT And Gemini Chats Are ‘Sold For Profit’
These Chrome extensions see everything — and take everything. It may already be too late.
www.forbes.com
December 15, 2025 at 7:28 PM
How Your Private ChatGPT And Gemini Chats Are ‘Sold For Profit’
This is too many emotions for Bluesky.
Heh-heh, put down the little people who can't accomplish anything. You suck. Okay.
I'm one of his useless futility-seekers. I write for many reasons, and I never had any illusions as to the scope of my influence.
Text is useless too, I see. Gee, I'm just shocked folks got mad.
I'm one of his useless futility-seekers. I write for many reasons, and I never had any illusions as to the scope of my influence.
Text is useless too, I see. Gee, I'm just shocked folks got mad.
December 15, 2025 at 11:36 PM
This is too many emotions for Bluesky.
I have deep, conflicted feeling about Piggly Wiggly. Above all, it’s a touchstone. Oink oink.
gardenandgun.com/articles/viv...
gardenandgun.com/articles/viv...
Vivian Howard’s Christmas Ode to the Piggly Wiggly
In Eastern North Carolina, a beloved grocery store goes all out
gardenandgun.com
December 15, 2025 at 11:36 PM
I have deep, conflicted feeling about Piggly Wiggly. Above all, it’s a touchstone. Oink oink.
gardenandgun.com/articles/viv...
gardenandgun.com/articles/viv...
Did I buy groceries yesterday? Yes I did.
Am I letting that stop me from going to H&W with my book for a civilized dinner that I don’t have to cook?
Apparently not.
Am I letting that stop me from going to H&W with my book for a civilized dinner that I don’t have to cook?
Apparently not.
December 15, 2025 at 10:33 PM
Did I buy groceries yesterday? Yes I did.
Am I letting that stop me from going to H&W with my book for a civilized dinner that I don’t have to cook?
Apparently not.
Am I letting that stop me from going to H&W with my book for a civilized dinner that I don’t have to cook?
Apparently not.
Everything is so stupid
December 15, 2025 at 10:17 PM
Everything is so stupid
Gonna premiere my documentary at my wedding and that is the biggest flex you will ever see me make.
Thank you.
Thank you.
December 15, 2025 at 9:37 PM
Gonna premiere my documentary at my wedding and that is the biggest flex you will ever see me make.
Thank you.
Thank you.
That’s unfortunate because Jamelle is 100 percent correct.
okay somehow this totally banal observation about the relative scale and influence of social media platforms has made some people extremely mad
i have said this before but if you are actually interested in influencing people beyond a narrow circle of too-online journalists you will be making direct to camera videos on tiktok, instagram and youtube. if you primarily post on text-based social media then you're just dicking around.
December 15, 2025 at 9:33 PM
That’s unfortunate because Jamelle is 100 percent correct.
Pardon my French but %#!? yes.
I would just like to let everyone here know I put kimchi on a hotdog and I’m never going back.
December 15, 2025 at 9:04 PM
Pardon my French but %#!? yes.
Reposted by Tressie McMillan Cottom
I had some serious issues with decisions made while Claudine Gay was president, but I appreciate the very clear example of the normalization of pushing Black women out of their jobs and moving right along
#BREAKING: Harvard President Alan M. Garber ’76 will continue to lead the University beyond June 30, 2027, after Harvard’s governing boards agreed to extend his presidency for an indefinite period.
Hugo C. Chiasson and Elise A. Spenner report.
www.thecrimson.com/article/2025...
Hugo C. Chiasson and Elise A. Spenner report.
www.thecrimson.com/article/2025...
Alan Garber to Remain as Harvard President Indefinitely | News | The Harvard Crimson
Harvard President Alan M. Garber ’76 will continue to lead the University beyond June 30, 2027, after Harvard’s governing boards agreed to extend his presidency for an indefinite period, according to…
www.thecrimson.com
December 15, 2025 at 8:48 PM
I had some serious issues with decisions made while Claudine Gay was president, but I appreciate the very clear example of the normalization of pushing Black women out of their jobs and moving right along
I like how we still think these things are “hidden” instead of “normalized”.
www.cnn.com/2025/12/15/u...?
www.cnn.com/2025/12/15/u...?
Inside the White supremacist compound hiding in plain sight | CNN
Patriot Front, a White supremacist group, has been quietly building a 124-acre compound in the mountains of east Tennessee, where they train members and host fight clubs.
www.cnn.com
December 15, 2025 at 8:40 PM
I like how we still think these things are “hidden” instead of “normalized”.
www.cnn.com/2025/12/15/u...?
www.cnn.com/2025/12/15/u...?
Consistent with my histrionic-personality-disorder-to-MAGA- pipeline theory:
www.washingtonpost.com/style/power/...
www.washingtonpost.com/style/power/...
The MAGA-fication of Nicki Minaj
Once an advocate for LGBTQ people and immigrants, Nicki Minaj now praises an administration cracking down on the same people.
www.washingtonpost.com
December 15, 2025 at 7:03 PM
Consistent with my histrionic-personality-disorder-to-MAGA- pipeline theory:
www.washingtonpost.com/style/power/...
www.washingtonpost.com/style/power/...
I told my partner this morning that I wish I had the time and energy to read around monetary policy and crypto because I have a nascent thought about two economies, racial capitalism, and tech finally unlocking the dream of caste to permanently bifurcate a nation’s power from its lowest castes.
December 15, 2025 at 6:13 PM
I told my partner this morning that I wish I had the time and energy to read around monetary policy and crypto because I have a nascent thought about two economies, racial capitalism, and tech finally unlocking the dream of caste to permanently bifurcate a nation’s power from its lowest castes.
I did this event in Detroit with Jason Reynolds. Had a really good time. That’s always nice. It’s also nice when Orlando is your interlocutor. He gets me to say things like this
December 15, 2025 at 5:59 PM
I did this event in Detroit with Jason Reynolds. Had a really good time. That’s always nice. It’s also nice when Orlando is your interlocutor. He gets me to say things like this
You can choose from several good books on this topic. I’m going to recommend this one by Louis Hyman.
www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/554240...
www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/554240...
December 15, 2025 at 5:38 PM
You can choose from several good books on this topic. I’m going to recommend this one by Louis Hyman.
www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/554240...
www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/554240...
The note I promised @bakerdphd.bsky.social but also to us all, trying to figure out what this regime is after
December 15, 2025 at 5:37 PM
The note I promised @bakerdphd.bsky.social but also to us all, trying to figure out what this regime is after
Activist lawyers could do great work here representing faculty when the inevitable abuses occur.
Because every women's studies course needs to give angry 45-year-old male drunks—who don't go to the school and often aren't in the same state—an opportunity to learn what's on tap and menace the faculty. (h/t @tressiemcphd.bsky.social)
December 15, 2025 at 5:25 PM
Activist lawyers could do great work here representing faculty when the inevitable abuses occur.
I missed all the “your best predictions” requests this year because I’m on leave and truly in the middle of Life(tm) but in brief:
Pay-to-play accreditation for all but the elites with massive endowments and political patronage with Thiel.
Contracts for all faculty.
Pay-to-play accreditation for all but the elites with massive endowments and political patronage with Thiel.
Contracts for all faculty.
December 15, 2025 at 5:24 PM
I missed all the “your best predictions” requests this year because I’m on leave and truly in the middle of Life(tm) but in brief:
Pay-to-play accreditation for all but the elites with massive endowments and political patronage with Thiel.
Contracts for all faculty.
Pay-to-play accreditation for all but the elites with massive endowments and political patronage with Thiel.
Contracts for all faculty.
Yes it is curious. It’s because they lie.
Someone on here mocked me a little when I (gently) explained that edtech’s entire use case in higherEd is to build a higher quality training dataset than the ones AI can scrape from the internet. And to labor bust.
I don’t know how else to say it!
Someone on here mocked me a little when I (gently) explained that edtech’s entire use case in higherEd is to build a higher quality training dataset than the ones AI can scrape from the internet. And to labor bust.
I don’t know how else to say it!
kind of curious about the weird convergence/timing of the right wing witch hunt in academia with the attempt to replace academia with AI slop and how these bogus "transparency" measures facilitate both. how "fortuitous" for someone.
December 15, 2025 at 5:18 PM
Yes it is curious. It’s because they lie.
Someone on here mocked me a little when I (gently) explained that edtech’s entire use case in higherEd is to build a higher quality training dataset than the ones AI can scrape from the internet. And to labor bust.
I don’t know how else to say it!
Someone on here mocked me a little when I (gently) explained that edtech’s entire use case in higherEd is to build a higher quality training dataset than the ones AI can scrape from the internet. And to labor bust.
I don’t know how else to say it!
A little naive perhaps but one of the oddest realizations for me, as a person with a foot in two worlds, was that all the journos want to be humanities professors and all the professors want to be elite journos.
I would also like to sit in a French chateau and avoir des “takes”
I of course agree with these sentiments, but the author (TCW) traffics in bad faith.
He's the originator of the Harper's Letter (!) that tried to silence academics doing just what he says. He has no idea what actually happens in humanities programs, but sits in his french chateau and has takes.
He's the originator of the Harper's Letter (!) that tried to silence academics doing just what he says. He has no idea what actually happens in humanities programs, but sits in his french chateau and has takes.
December 15, 2025 at 5:16 PM
A little naive perhaps but one of the oddest realizations for me, as a person with a foot in two worlds, was that all the journos want to be humanities professors and all the professors want to be elite journos.
December 15, 2025 at 5:14 PM
Reposted by Tressie McMillan Cottom
You're walking home from the gym when you're stopped by FBI officers in an unmarked car. They handcuff you, even though you tell them you're a US citizen.
Then, they scan your face.
23-year-old Jesus Gutiérrez recounts his experience to @revealnews.org and 404 Media:
Then, they scan your face.
23-year-old Jesus Gutiérrez recounts his experience to @revealnews.org and 404 Media:
How a US Citizen Was Scanned With ICE's Facial Recognition Tech
Jesus Gutiérrez told immigration agents he was a U.S. citizen. Only after they scanned his face, did the agents let him go.
www.404media.co
December 15, 2025 at 2:24 PM
You're walking home from the gym when you're stopped by FBI officers in an unmarked car. They handcuff you, even though you tell them you're a US citizen.
Then, they scan your face.
23-year-old Jesus Gutiérrez recounts his experience to @revealnews.org and 404 Media:
Then, they scan your face.
23-year-old Jesus Gutiérrez recounts his experience to @revealnews.org and 404 Media: