Cory James Young

She’d Never Changed Her Gender Marker. Kansas Invalidated Her License Anyway. — Assigned A trans Kansas resident recently changed her name but not her gender marker on her license, fearing what Kansas may do if she did. The Kansas DMV still flagged her ID.

This story, from @natezuke.bsky.social, is absolutely wild. A trans woman who never changed her gender marker was issued a letter invalidating her license. At the DMV they cut up her license, which had an "M" marker.

www.assignedmedia.org/breaking-new...

How could anyone have predicted that a Secretary of Defense with Crusader tattoos who attends a Christian nationalist church would get us into a religious Holy War? It’s a shocking development.

Today marks the first day of Women's History Month; yesterday was the last day of Black History Month.

Every day is for women's history and Black history and Black women's history.

Because these are not histories that are separate from histories of war and economy.

My local theatre played the 4k restoration last year and it was wonderful.

“Pre-emptive” as in acting before congress can vote on war powers, not “pre-emptive” as in acting before an imminent attack

Every single person who has in any way fomented or run cover for this illegal act of imperialist depravity has the blood of these children on their hands.

These are “low enrollment” majors but the classes are regularly at capacity. They changed the funding structure a few years ago here, switching the allocation from course enrollments to majors then blamed these departments for a structural, top-down change. This is entirely a political choice.

Real Americans Choice Outstanding Academic TitleOn January 6, 2021, white supremacists, Christian nationalists, and other supporters of President Donald Trump stormed the U...

See, too, how these organizations have mustered constitutionalism in support of their violence. This is a deep and structural history.

the "just asking questions" to "legitimate questions about fairness in sports" to "the state doesn't have to consider us as real people" pipeline working exactly as designed.

A neutral observation about becoming a parent is that I now go “shhhh sh sh sh sh” without realizing I’m doing it.

I had hoped my invocation of the "3-3-3 Court" made it clear I was being sardonic, but alas!

Return of the 3-3-3 Court, baby. Perhaps we were wrong to criticize them all along.

the glorious constitutional principle of "the president can't fuck with Supreme Court justices' investment portfolios" stands strong

Yesterday, those who teach Intro to Sociology at Florida colleges (as opposed to universities) received a ready-made curriculum from the state and were ordered to teach it.

Yes, you read that correctly. The *state* is enforcing a curriculum on college profs, complete w/ the following restrictions:

In devastating news, TIL that the typographical symbol ^ is a "caret," from the Latin "there is lacking," and not a "carrot," from the fact that it resembles a tiny carrot.

This reminds me of a bill that the Pennsylvania Legislature debated in 1822 that would have made it illegal for slavers to march people through the state *in chains*—the shackles were the object of concern more than the human trafficking.

If your Marxist critique doesn’t recognize race as a structure of domination, then it’s worth fuck all to me.

For Presidents’ Day, I thought I’d put together a thread of *other* Presidents talking about George Washington and slavery. Away we go! 🧵/1

Looks like this bill won't move forward this year.
www.desmoinesregister.com/story/news/p...

Philly suburbs seek to assist lawsuit over slavery exhibit removal “Our history is imperfect,” said Delco Council Chair Richard Womack, “but it is ours, and the federal government can’t rewrite it or ignore it the moment they find it inconvenient.”

When you've even got Bucks County and Delco joining an amicus brief to oppose your efforts to erase the history of slavery, you know you've fucked up. whyy.org/articles/phi...

Habeas corpus actions are the ancient common law writ used to create a legal action to sue for freedom. They were crucial in the early-nineteenth-century efforts to challenge slavery.
This graph showing “habeas cases” suddenly leaping in 2025 —
is terrifying.

dlas.uncg.edu/petitions/

Struggle is not the goal.

It’s the method.

To get free.

Too many people imagine struggle is the goal, so any acts of worldbuilding that prefigure freedom are dismissed as incidental, as distractions.

FAMU can't use the word Black on anything posted around campus related to Black History Month, to stay in compliance with Florida state laws against DEI. Black students can't use the word Black at their Historically Black College during Black History Month.

Billie Holiday avoids making political statement, sings Strange Fruit instead

UD removes student research on slavery, Newark history amid federal pressure Over the past year, UD has reacted to pressure under a second Trump administration, while tuning a “long-term strategy” on campus inclusion.

Today, in local news (paywalled alas)

Kelly Powers, “UD Removes Student Research on Slavery, Newark History amid Federal Pressure,” The News Journal, February 3, 2026,

www.delawareonline.com/story/news/e...

The article gives an overview of 3 freedom suits that reached the Pennsylvania Supreme Court. An archivist colleague of mine just dug up the appeals papers for Frank's 1824 suit out of Pittsburgh, revealing that it was brought by the boy's stepfather.

The learning continues even after publication!

Paris prosecutors raid X offices as part of an investigation into child porn, deepfakes and more French prosecutors have launched a search at the offices of Elon Musk's social media platform X. This is part of an investigation into alleged offenses, including spreading child pornography and deepfakes.

Paris prosecutors raid the French offices of Elon Musk’s X as part of an investigation into spreading child pornography and deepfakes.

Somehow I waited until now to read Lewis Mumford. [A weird gap in my scholarly training perhaps?] Regardless, looking at the terrifyingly prescient "Authoritarian and Democratic Technics" (1964) for the first time. Its central exhortation matters like never before: "life cannot be delegated"