tamara nopper

I protested that decision in DC and it rained on us.

In her piece about being a Barnard dropout, delivered at Barnard, June Jordan dedicates a paragraph saying nice things about the Sociology classes she took.

That June Jordan became a tenured professor at Berkeley without having a college degree is truly something.

In a description of financial documents included in the June Jordan Papers, it‘s noted that “Jordan saved a staggering number of receipts to substantiate tax-deductions.”

Barbara Smith said the Combahee River Statement’s “anticapitalist perspective provides a level of realism and analytical clarity,” like understanding “‘freedom’ under an economic system whose purpose is to exploit masses of working people in order to create profits for the few doesn’t make sense.”

Agree. And I think it’s related to the preoccupation with hypocrisy and (in)consistency that many non-conservatives tend to emphasize in discourse. That has its uses but can become a perverse preoccupation akin to a form of moralizing and self-congratulations instead of political pressure.

Barbara Smith said, “Expectedly, the right wing is repulsed by identity politics… What is more disturbing is that a lot of people on the left also attack identity politics and are similarly unaware of the source of the term or what anticapitalist Black women actually meant by it.”

A treadwall that kicked my ass.

Today’s gym. A lot of the workout is reaching my limit, trying to get to the floor safely, and having to get back up again and again and again. Prolly got back up about 40 times today. I kinda like it.

Dionne Brand has a poem in which she notes that “neo-fascists are glamour boys in the New York Times, do we realize they are more afraid of communists than fascists, that is not good news for us.”

The issue isn’t identity politics. It’s what you’re using it for.

So who’s gonna critique the Catholic church for practicing identity politics when defending immigrants? Hopefully no one!

In a class where many are aware that deportations are happening, students said, after learning about it, we didn’t know Asian immigrants were getting deported. So much work to do. Onwards.

From this minister's op-ed: "People wanting to experience God are more likely to meet the Divine trying to shut down the Broadview, Illinois, ICE facility than we ever were in church...God does not live in our houses of worship, but...with those who are bearing the brunt of cruelty in this moment."

It’s not just about recognizing class politics, it’s about refashioning class politics to be a critique of capitalism, exploitation, and privatization instead of reactionary, punitive, deficit-minded, equality in suffering bullshit.

A lot of challenges to privilege end up demanding more deprivation, suffering, and punishment for everyone and calling it equality.

Rather than trivializing how much toilet paper Ghislaine Maxwell has access to behind bars, remember that most incarcerated people have little to their name.

Toilet paper isn't a luxury – it's a basic necessity.

I don’t know if we‘ll politically win. I don’t think anybody can say that with certainty. But I think it’s important to try. We deserve better than this.

MAGA’s ongoing war on academic freedom, reflected in headlines from the last 24 hours.

In “A Talk to Teachers,” James Baldwin said, “You must understand that in the attempt to correct so many generations of bad faith and cruelty, when it is operating not only in the classroom but in society, you will meet the most fantastic, the most brutal, and the most determined resistance.”

Neon-clad protesters stage ’80s aerobics demonstration outside Portland ICE facility Dozens gathered outside Portland’s ICE facility Sunday for a high-energy aerobics protest in leotards and striped socks.

Today’s shoutout to the Portland ICE protest:
“Sweating Out the Fascists”
1980’s themed aerobics workout and neon outfits greeted ICE agents.

www.oregonlive.com/portland/202...

And it’s unfortunate because we can easily see this coverage around accommodations for Maxwell curdle into a reactionary push to make prisons even more punitive for everyone.

Tracking how the Trump administration is making the criminal legal system worse A growing lists of the ways the Trump administration is making prisons worse and gutting programs that keep communities safe

High profile black and white cases like Diddy’s and Ghislaine Maxwell’s often serve to distract from the quotidian violence of the system visited upon people who aren’t cartoonishly villainous.

www.prisonpolicy.org/federaltrack...

A lot of people are going to walk away from the Ghislaine Maxwell coverage with the impression that our prison system isn’t punitive enough but I’d say it highlights how most everyone else is treated with *deliberate* cruelty.

I can high knee jump rope! I worked so hard to get here.

Makes me think of Toni Morrison noting, “Even though I had a lot of responsibilities, it’s amazing how much time there is when you’re unhappy.”

The Heritage Foundation, Groypers, and the Narcissism of Small Differences Fuentes is the fly born of Heritage’s maggot.

I wrote about the supposed conservative "civil war" over antisemitism as more of a lovers' spat for @liberalcurrents.

As a New Texas Law Clamps Down on School Libraries, 'Librotraficantes' Fight Back - Reporting Texas Just two months after a new Texas law expanded parents’ power to challenge school library books, authors gathered at the Texas Book Festival’s Banned Book Bash to read from titles that have been banne...

“Teachers and librarians are scared to get fired. So we make sure these books are still accessible. Some of our book smugglers can’t tell you who they are, but they’re out there.” - Tony Diaz, founder of Librotraficantes (Reporting Texas)

@penamerica.bsky.social

Trying to psyche myself up to go to the gym by reminding myself that W.E.B. Du Bois said, “We must rapidly come to the place where the man all brain and no muscle is looked upon as almost as big a fool as the man all muscle and no brain.”

U.S. visas can be denied for obesity, cancer and diabetes, Rubio says The Trump administration has directed visa officers to consider obesity and other chronic health conditions when deciding whether to grant visas to immigrants.

U.S. visas can be denied for obesity, cancer and diabetes, Rubio says.
www.washingtonpost.com/business/202...

Ruth Wilson Gilmore said, "It’s a shame that the concept of the prison-industrial complex has atrophied in the way that it has... the tendency has been to narrow, narrow, narrow, to some notion of, as you said, private prisons and corporate greed."