Betsy Schlabach

Fri-yay Friends. I’m looking forward to a nice quiet weekend.

Normalize laughing derisively in men's faces when they deserve it.

BREAKING: The Department of Education has ended its directive that attempted to restrict diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts in schools nationwide.

This is a victory for academic freedom and education equity.

Employment Positions Available  Acquisitions Editor, History IT & Infrastructure Manager Office Coordinator General Inquiries  If you are seeking

Interested in working in publishing? We have a few open positions right now! Check them out 👇

uncpress.org/employment/

Softball is finally on tv again. Yes!

A librarian stands in front of large screen that displays digitized Black history material while a room full of event attendees look on.

Big news for #DouglassDay! We officially unveiled a stunning new gallery of Black History materials in Newberry Digital Collections at our event! From our stacks to your screen—check out the new gallery today:
📍 publications.newberry.org/gallery/?g=2...

If you build your sporting competition around nations, that’s a political choice. The creation of a nation state is political. The maintenance of a nation state is political. The idea that the Olympics is not political is ridiculous on its face.

Some great St. Louis reporting in dull, gray February.

PUBLICATION DAY! Today my book has officially been re-released by @pennpress.bsky.social. With new preface that examines the 2020 protest that led to the removal of the Rizzo statue, recent Philly politics, and the rise of Trump, I hope you'll check it out and help spread the word! 🗃️

Next time somebody tries to get me to justify the existence of the humanities, I’ll just point out how for the past two Super Bowls we’ve all jumped online and engaged in collective semiotics and hermeneutics of the half-time show as text.

Me holding copy of the book

You’ve seen the halftime show … now read my friend Petra’s new book from @dukepress.bsky.social about how Bad Bunny became the global voice of Puerto Rican resistance! 👏🏽👏🏽

www.dukeupress.edu/p-fkn-r

Spectacular. I need to see that again.

The Man Who Took On The Klan : Throughline In 1871, Ku Klux Klan violence in South Carolina got so bad that the governor sent a telegram to President Ulysses S. Grant warning that he was facing a state of war. Grant sent him Amos Akerman: a fo...

New from the Throughline Podcast🎧 🎙️: The Man Who Took on the Klan
www.npr.org/2026/02/05/n... In 1871, Ku Klux Klan violence in South Carolina got so bad that the governor sent a telegram to President Ulysses S. Grant warning that he was facing a state of war.

You might hear someone you know. 😉

MAGA and its enablers have moved overt anti-Black racism back into the mainstream while civil society has time and again managed only a muted response to egregiously racist attacks. As one side uses abject racism to openly galvanize its supporters, and another shies away from confronting it directly, this dangerous asymmetry is pushing us further into crisis and away from democracy.

On today's AI slop from the president: The world is watching us. Our children are watching us. And anything short of outright condemnation, outrage and reflection on the systemic failures that brought us here—the consistent apologies or obscuring of racism in our national discourse—is unacceptable.

👇🏽

Libraries in Chicago rock.

Ooof.

Want to start #BlackHistoryMonth off on a good note? Come listen to @kcarterjackson.bsky.social + @profblmkelley.bsky.social talk about researching their own family histories.

This is absolutely true. Don’t pile more on us. I don’t care about anything but getting me and my students through this intact. All inane requests can wait.

Congratulations!! Great news!

Never mind the jobs you had, tell me five classes you took in college:

1. History of China
2. Balkan History
3. German
4. Political Philosophy
5. Art History

❤️

I’m so sorry. This is terrible.

I’m so happy to see you on Bluesky!! I hope you’re having a wonderful semester.

Thanks!! I’ll check it out.

Thank you!! This looks great.

Hi #skystorians i’m preparing to teach a lower level undergraduate course on the history of 20th century American consumerism. Please send me your secondary reading recs. Thank you!

Today is publication day! Wow. Thanks to everyone who preordered the book. I really appreciate it. If you have not preordered, then you can go to your local bookstore and pick up a copy.

Please send me a pic if you already have a copy or when you go pick it up! I'd love to see it!

I hope all the AI boosters understand that they’re training their kids that only chumps do things the hard way—by working diligently and going through the discomfort and hassle of learning and acquiring skills.

And also teaching them that a 30% error rate is good enough.

"ICE OUT" on Lake Nokomis in Minneapolis, as seen from my flight leaving MSP airport