Caleb Smith
@smithcal.bsky.social
Historian, Professor, PhD, writing about the neoliberal shift of Black politics in Chicago from 1929 to 1994, race, class, and 20th century U.S. political history. socialist. writer. geek. punk. he\him\his
Alito: "You guys, was Jim Crow honestly that bad? I think it also did some good things too."
Black sharecroppers in West Tennessee in 1959 were evicted by white landowners when they registered to vote, sparking the encampment known as Freedom Village. Decades later, the battle for fair political power and representation continues in the county.
Black Residents in West Tennessee Just Won Fairer Districts. Now Comes SCOTUS.
The Supreme Court may further erode the Voting Rights Act in an upcoming decision. Beyond affecting Congress, that would reverberate across local governments nationwide.
boltsmag.org
November 30, 2025 at 4:41 PM
Alito: "You guys, was Jim Crow honestly that bad? I think it also did some good things too."
Reposted by Caleb Smith
With Black Friday approaching, there will inevitably be well-intentioned talk that these deals are only possible because workers are denied a livable wage.
Don't buy into this. It's not low prices vs. fair pay. It's the demand for ever-higher profits and shareholder returns that forces deprivation.
Don't buy into this. It's not low prices vs. fair pay. It's the demand for ever-higher profits and shareholder returns that forces deprivation.
November 26, 2025 at 12:15 AM
With Black Friday approaching, there will inevitably be well-intentioned talk that these deals are only possible because workers are denied a livable wage.
Don't buy into this. It's not low prices vs. fair pay. It's the demand for ever-higher profits and shareholder returns that forces deprivation.
Don't buy into this. It's not low prices vs. fair pay. It's the demand for ever-higher profits and shareholder returns that forces deprivation.
Reposted by Caleb Smith
True true—all the way down to the menu (note: Yankee ingredients through and through, hence the supremacy of pumpkins over yams). Thank Sarah Josepha Hale for that.
Thanksgiving is not a colonial/Pilgrim holiday. It’s a Civil War holiday. & we think otherwise in part because of the Lost Cause. 🗃️
www.tiktok.com/t/ZP8UrgXv1/
www.tiktok.com/t/ZP8UrgXv1/
Let’s talk the real #history of #Thanksgiving & the #LostCause history of the #CivilWar Follow @karencoxhistorian “Forgotten America” is available on @thegreatcourses plus & @Audible
TikTok video by PhDRachel
www.tiktok.com
November 25, 2025 at 3:47 AM
True true—all the way down to the menu (note: Yankee ingredients through and through, hence the supremacy of pumpkins over yams). Thank Sarah Josepha Hale for that.
Reposted by Caleb Smith
Breaking: Viola Ford Fletcher, the oldest living survivor of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre, has died. She was 111 years old
Viola Ford Fletcher, the oldest living survivor of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre, has died
Viola Ford Fletcher, the oldest living survivor of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre, has died. She was 111 years old.
www.whatimreading.net
November 24, 2025 at 8:45 PM
Breaking: Viola Ford Fletcher, the oldest living survivor of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre, has died. She was 111 years old
Reposted by Caleb Smith
My mom said from Raleigh that people there were squaded up against ICE & ICE is leaving Raleigh & Durham tomorrow. She said there were trainings at churches for ICE watch & all kinds of things. She said "these are our people & ICE is not welcome." Alright mommy!
November 22, 2025 at 8:28 PM
My mom said from Raleigh that people there were squaded up against ICE & ICE is leaving Raleigh & Durham tomorrow. She said there were trainings at churches for ICE watch & all kinds of things. She said "these are our people & ICE is not welcome." Alright mommy!
Reposted by Caleb Smith
Reposted by Caleb Smith
big Chicago news: Cook County prosecutor is making it citywide that the police can file certain felony charges directly, *without review* by a prosecutor:
www.chicagotribune.com/2025/11/21/f...
Bolts reported in March when she created this program in just one (predominantly Black) area of Chicago:
www.chicagotribune.com/2025/11/21/f...
Bolts reported in March when she created this program in just one (predominantly Black) area of Chicago:
New Chicago Prosecutor Empowers Police to File More Charges Without Review - Bolts
In the early evening on Feb. 19, two Chicago police officers arrested a 40-year-old man in the Englewood neighborhood. According to their report, the officers cited an odor of “raw... Read More
boltsmag.org
November 22, 2025 at 12:05 AM
big Chicago news: Cook County prosecutor is making it citywide that the police can file certain felony charges directly, *without review* by a prosecutor:
www.chicagotribune.com/2025/11/21/f...
Bolts reported in March when she created this program in just one (predominantly Black) area of Chicago:
www.chicagotribune.com/2025/11/21/f...
Bolts reported in March when she created this program in just one (predominantly Black) area of Chicago:
Reposted by Caleb Smith
They lied about it. All of it. A thug cop shot an unarmed woman five times without justification, boasted about it to his colleagues, and then this administration tried cover it all up by arresting her and charging her with felonies.
Absolutely incredible; after shooting Marimar Martinez 5 times and arresting her on claims that she rammed them and pulled a gun, prosecutors have now moved to dismiss ALL criminal charges against her and her codefendant.
New: the govt has moved to dismiss its assault case against Marimar Martinez and Anthony Ian Santos Ruiz, two people accused of "box[ing] in" a Border Patrol vehicle in Chicago on Oct. 4.
One agent shot Martinez, with evidence presented to the court that he later bragged about in text messages.
One agent shot Martinez, with evidence presented to the court that he later bragged about in text messages.
November 20, 2025 at 6:24 PM
They lied about it. All of it. A thug cop shot an unarmed woman five times without justification, boasted about it to his colleagues, and then this administration tried cover it all up by arresting her and charging her with felonies.
Reposted by Caleb Smith
NEW: Sean Duffy frequently calls safety his “top priority” as transportation secretary. But I spent months wading through regulatory notices and found something far different: that USDOT has been delaying, weakening and killing dozens of safety rules, many opposed by the transportation industry.🧵
November 20, 2025 at 12:36 PM
NEW: Sean Duffy frequently calls safety his “top priority” as transportation secretary. But I spent months wading through regulatory notices and found something far different: that USDOT has been delaying, weakening and killing dozens of safety rules, many opposed by the transportation industry.🧵
Reposted by Caleb Smith
When Harry Truman’s daughter Bess got a bad review on her singing performance by a newspaper, Truman wrote to the reviewer (on White House stationary) that he wanted to fight the reporter. It was a semi big scandal.
This will surely surprise most Americans today, but historians have recently discovered that before Donald Trump, it was actually incredibly rare for a president to demand the public execution of this political opponents and press critics.
November 20, 2025 at 4:11 PM
When Harry Truman’s daughter Bess got a bad review on her singing performance by a newspaper, Truman wrote to the reviewer (on White House stationary) that he wanted to fight the reporter. It was a semi big scandal.
Reposted by Caleb Smith
I will forever bristle that academia and especially my discipline typically doesn’t pay attention to warnings about this country until a white dude says it. Every time i read “nobody could have anticipated…”I want to burst into flames.
November 19, 2025 at 8:37 PM
I will forever bristle that academia and especially my discipline typically doesn’t pay attention to warnings about this country until a white dude says it. Every time i read “nobody could have anticipated…”I want to burst into flames.
Reposted by Caleb Smith
The Eric Schickler essay in Larry Bartel's symposium on "What Trump Has Taught Us About Political Science" is one of the most insightful pieces I've read in 2025.
US institutions turned out to be weak, and we have to rethink conventional wisdom.
open access: academic.oup.com/psq/advance-...
US institutions turned out to be weak, and we have to rethink conventional wisdom.
open access: academic.oup.com/psq/advance-...
November 19, 2025 at 8:08 PM
The Eric Schickler essay in Larry Bartel's symposium on "What Trump Has Taught Us About Political Science" is one of the most insightful pieces I've read in 2025.
US institutions turned out to be weak, and we have to rethink conventional wisdom.
open access: academic.oup.com/psq/advance-...
US institutions turned out to be weak, and we have to rethink conventional wisdom.
open access: academic.oup.com/psq/advance-...
Reposted by Caleb Smith
Am I a hypocrite for wanting this after giving a hard no to muppet knives out
Okay, I'm making my case for the only Muppet I want to see on Broadway right now...
November 19, 2025 at 1:19 AM
Am I a hypocrite for wanting this after giving a hard no to muppet knives out
Reposted by Caleb Smith
If we acknowledge that Ken Burns has essentially produced a traditional consensus view of the American Revolution with marginalized voices added as window dressing, what would it mean to truly reinterpret this moment for the general public. Is a new consensus view even possible or desirable? 🗃️
November 18, 2025 at 12:19 PM
If we acknowledge that Ken Burns has essentially produced a traditional consensus view of the American Revolution with marginalized voices added as window dressing, what would it mean to truly reinterpret this moment for the general public. Is a new consensus view even possible or desirable? 🗃️
For what it's worth, I wonder if anyone has asked David Hogg what he thinks about the effort to rehabilitate MTG's image. Considering in 2019, she followed him around Capitol Hill calling him a coward and "little Hitler" after surviving the Parkland shooting, it be interesting to hear his take.
November 17, 2025 at 9:49 PM
For what it's worth, I wonder if anyone has asked David Hogg what he thinks about the effort to rehabilitate MTG's image. Considering in 2019, she followed him around Capitol Hill calling him a coward and "little Hitler" after surviving the Parkland shooting, it be interesting to hear his take.
Reposted by Caleb Smith
The pro-Nick Fuentes Administration destroying people and institutions on the basis of “fighting antisemitism” has me losing my damn mind.
The Nazi-sympathizers pretending to be protectors of American Jews has to be one of the most profound mindfucks in an era rife with them.
The Nazi-sympathizers pretending to be protectors of American Jews has to be one of the most profound mindfucks in an era rife with them.
November 17, 2025 at 7:15 PM
The pro-Nick Fuentes Administration destroying people and institutions on the basis of “fighting antisemitism” has me losing my damn mind.
The Nazi-sympathizers pretending to be protectors of American Jews has to be one of the most profound mindfucks in an era rife with them.
The Nazi-sympathizers pretending to be protectors of American Jews has to be one of the most profound mindfucks in an era rife with them.
Reposted by Caleb Smith
There never was any time when it was okay to try and rehab that incredibly odoriferous and unctuous bit of slime otherwise known as Richard Hanania
Apparently, “connecting“ with pedophile defenders is how the Democrats plan to win “young men” in 2028. 🤔
November 17, 2025 at 8:33 PM
There never was any time when it was okay to try and rehab that incredibly odoriferous and unctuous bit of slime otherwise known as Richard Hanania
Reposted by Caleb Smith
The victims' testimony? Hoax. The hundreds and hundreds of references to Trump in the emails? Hoax. The FBI agents who said they had to redact his name in them? Hoax. Trump's creepy birthday poem? Hoax again. All the photos and videos of them yukking it up together? You got it: H-O-A-X.
Trump: "What I just don't want Epstein to do is detract from the great success of the Republican Party ... don't talk about it too much, because honestly I don't want it taking away from us. It's really a Democrat problem. The whole thing is a hoax."
November 17, 2025 at 8:32 PM
The victims' testimony? Hoax. The hundreds and hundreds of references to Trump in the emails? Hoax. The FBI agents who said they had to redact his name in them? Hoax. Trump's creepy birthday poem? Hoax again. All the photos and videos of them yukking it up together? You got it: H-O-A-X.
Reposted by Caleb Smith
Editors have a really hard job, and the good ones can make something unreadable readable, and the great ones can make something unreadable into something good. But they're basically invisible, until someone tries to write without one.
November 17, 2025 at 3:35 PM
Editors have a really hard job, and the good ones can make something unreadable readable, and the great ones can make something unreadable into something good. But they're basically invisible, until someone tries to write without one.
Reposted by Caleb Smith
Summers called this female Chinese economist “peril.”
“Yellow peril” was partially built on the claim that Chinese women were sexually immoral threats.
That logic fueled the Page Act of 1875, which barred Chinese women by presuming they were prostitutes, even before the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act.
“Yellow peril” was partially built on the claim that Chinese women were sexually immoral threats.
That logic fueled the Page Act of 1875, which barred Chinese women by presuming they were prostitutes, even before the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act.
Summers conferred with Epstein frequently about how to extract sexual favors from a Harvard econ grad (AB '04, PhD '09)
The grad is from China
Epstein and Summers referred to her by the codename "Peril"
Racism and sexual exploitation in one efficient package
bit.ly/3LHpin8
The grad is from China
Epstein and Summers referred to her by the codename "Peril"
Racism and sexual exploitation in one efficient package
bit.ly/3LHpin8
As Summers Sought Clandestine Relationship With Woman He Called a Mentee, Epstein Was His ‘Wing Man’ | News | The Harvard Crimson
When former Harvard President Lawrence H. Summers was pursuing a romantic relationship with a woman he described as a mentee, he turned to a longtime associate for guidance: convicted sex offender Jef...
bit.ly
November 17, 2025 at 5:01 AM
Summers called this female Chinese economist “peril.”
“Yellow peril” was partially built on the claim that Chinese women were sexually immoral threats.
That logic fueled the Page Act of 1875, which barred Chinese women by presuming they were prostitutes, even before the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act.
“Yellow peril” was partially built on the claim that Chinese women were sexually immoral threats.
That logic fueled the Page Act of 1875, which barred Chinese women by presuming they were prostitutes, even before the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act.
Reposted by Caleb Smith
The Trump administration took down a congressionally mandated report on missing and murdered Native Americans from the Department of Justice’s website nearly 300 days ago to comply with an executive order against diversity, equity and inclusion.
oklahomawatch.org/2025/11/14/t...
oklahomawatch.org/2025/11/14/t...
Trump Administration Removes Report on Missing and Murdered Native Americans, Calling It DEI Content - Oklahoma Watch
The Trump administration removed a congressionally mandated report on missing and murdered Native Americans from the DOJ website, citing compliance with an executive order against DEI. Senators who ch...
oklahomawatch.org
November 17, 2025 at 9:27 AM
The Trump administration took down a congressionally mandated report on missing and murdered Native Americans from the Department of Justice’s website nearly 300 days ago to comply with an executive order against diversity, equity and inclusion.
oklahomawatch.org/2025/11/14/t...
oklahomawatch.org/2025/11/14/t...
Reposted by Caleb Smith
It's hard to express what it meant to watch Maurice, Natalia, Celeste, and Rhea tell their stories—in their own voices—this morning.
The segment revealed a brutal reality: homelessness at this scale isn't about personal failure. It's the result of policy choices and systems built to exploit people.
The segment revealed a brutal reality: homelessness at this scale isn't about personal failure. It's the result of policy choices and systems built to exploit people.
November 16, 2025 at 5:02 PM
It's hard to express what it meant to watch Maurice, Natalia, Celeste, and Rhea tell their stories—in their own voices—this morning.
The segment revealed a brutal reality: homelessness at this scale isn't about personal failure. It's the result of policy choices and systems built to exploit people.
The segment revealed a brutal reality: homelessness at this scale isn't about personal failure. It's the result of policy choices and systems built to exploit people.
Reposted by Caleb Smith
FWIW, Florida’s new “History of Communism” curriculum is very similar to how the fascist-adjacent right wingers of the 1950s and 60s talked about the place of communism in America. bsky.app/profile/seth...
If the current draft of the Florida State educational standards pertaining to the new History of Communism course are adopted, then students will learn how it's a Commie trick to use the term "McCarthyism" as an insult to impugn the integrity of wholesome anti-communists like today's McCarthyites!
November 15, 2025 at 12:10 AM
FWIW, Florida’s new “History of Communism” curriculum is very similar to how the fascist-adjacent right wingers of the 1950s and 60s talked about the place of communism in America. bsky.app/profile/seth...
Reposted by Caleb Smith
Struck this morning by how the win wasn’t from the UC system itself pushing back—it was its worker power through *unions* and aligned groups like @aaup.org defending UC interests, even though admin itself wasn’t.
There’s some kind of lesson here
There’s some kind of lesson here
One reason why elite schools (Columbia, Brown, Cornell) caving to Trump’s illegal impoundment and extortion is so galling — a betrayal, really — is that they would have won had they fought. By giving up, they guaranteed every other school will have to fight harder.
Judge bars Trump from immediately cutting funding to the University of California | CNN Politics
The Trump administration cannot immediately cut federal funding to the University of California or issue fines against the school system over claims it allows antisemitism or other forms of discrimina...
www.cnn.com
November 15, 2025 at 2:08 PM
Struck this morning by how the win wasn’t from the UC system itself pushing back—it was its worker power through *unions* and aligned groups like @aaup.org defending UC interests, even though admin itself wasn’t.
There’s some kind of lesson here
There’s some kind of lesson here
Reposted by Caleb Smith
📣 New NBER Working Paper out today 📣
"The Consequences of Faculty Sexual Misconduct"
Sarah Cohodes & Katherine Leu
"The Consequences of Faculty Sexual Misconduct"
Sarah Cohodes & Katherine Leu
November 10, 2025 at 1:49 PM
📣 New NBER Working Paper out today 📣
"The Consequences of Faculty Sexual Misconduct"
Sarah Cohodes & Katherine Leu
"The Consequences of Faculty Sexual Misconduct"
Sarah Cohodes & Katherine Leu