Gwen

"Is a plantain just a cooking banana or is it a whole different thing than a banana?"

"Uh, yeah, they're a banana, just starchy I think," I stammer.

"See?" The guy yells at the other guy, thumping him in the chest. 3/3

They are getting loud and close so I step onto my porch. One notices me and yells "HEY!" It startles me. 2/3

I live in a "dangerous" neighborhood:

I heard a commotion out front and saw two young men arguing. I recognized both; one walks back and forth in front of my house half a dozen times a day and is usually strapped. I don't know if the other one carries. 🧵1/3

Lessons in Power Even as the rules feel rigged, Morgan Nudelman and her neighbors are determined to hold a big outside developer accountable to local needs.

“The last few months have been a lesson in power: who has it, who is trying to hoard it, and how regular people—teachers like Morgan, her students’ families, the working folks of this town—go about getting it.”

@gwenfulton.bsky.social
workingclassstories.substack.com/p/lessons-in...

I’ve received multiple death threats + doxing (including my home address) directly following harassment from Turning Point USA, Jack Posobiec, Andy NGO, + Fox News which called me an antifa ‘financier.’

I have been forced to move my classes online.

If journalists want to talk, DM me or reply here.

“Someone” cancelled my family’s flight out of the country at the last second.

We got our boarding passes. We checked our bags. Went through security. Then at our gate our reservation ‘disappeared.’

Professor Dwayne Dixon has been reinstated by UNC CH -- turns out it's a BAD IDEA to try to terminate professors based off loose allegations of being "antifa" made by far-right Brietbart/Fox News journalists supported by VDARE and Groypers. Who would have thought?

Lessons in Power Even as the rules feel rigged, Morgan Nudelman and her neighbors are determined to hold a big outside developer accountable to local needs.

How do you hold a millionaire developer accountable to the working class in your town? Morgan, a Colorado teacher, is trying to figure out just that.

Latest on Working Class Storytelling.

Sign the Petition Reinstate Professor Dixon at UNC

Professor Dixon is a friend to many folks across NC and a beloved teacher at Carolina. Yesterday, he was put on leave for being "antifascist." No other allegations or complaints against him. He's now barred from the campus where on Friday he worked.

www.change.org/p/reinstate-...

UNC professor placed on leave following alleged affiliation with 'anti-racist, anti-fascist' organization Dwayne Dixon, a professor of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies, has been placed on administrative leave effective immediately.

We can't let them pick people off. Ain't a soul @uncchapelhill.bsky.social who feels unsafe with this prof there; ain't a student who can't form their own beliefs.
Don't let them label any of us as extremists when we are anti-fascist or anti-racist. www.dailytarheel.com/article/2025...

Jimmy Kimmel and the Power of Public Pressure The comedian has returned to late-night TV. What can the response to his suspension teach us about countering Trump?

“You don’t necessarily need people doing things that are high-risk. You just need large numbers of people doing them,” says Hardy Merriman in an episode of @newyorker.com’s ‘The Political Scene’ discussing strategies of resistance in a backsliding democracy. Tune in now!

A Cozy Gaming Empire The gaming industry is increasingly controlled by corporate profits, but gamers themselves are intentionally creating grassroots, people-focused connections.

Gamers get stereotyped as weird recluses, but what if I told you there is a whole movement of gamers who use their platforms for connection, support, and community building? open.substack.com/pub/workingc...

Thankfully UNCW lifted the lockdown and said it was a false alarm (after two hours of kids hiding!). But that never ever should have happened.

Libs of TikTok and the Cape Fear Proud Boys have spent the entire week trying to get things to pop off at #UNCW. This is where our kids go to learn, to become adults. Adults stoking fire at a campus is not just childish, but cruel. Tonight the kids are sheltering in place. It shouldn't be like this.

Gwen Frisbie-Fulton: I went on a Reconnaissance Mission to Cracker Barrel Cracker Barrel rebranded, and the Internet freaked out. Gwen made it her mission to find out more.

My treatise on how outrage on the internet might not be outrage at all. open.substack.com/pub/beaconme...

Gwen Frisbie-Fulton: I went on a Reconnaissance Mission to Cracker Barrel Cracker Barrel rebranded, and the Internet freaked out. Gwen made it her mission to find out more.

Because I love my craft, I ate two plates of hash browns. For research.

My treatise on how "internet outrage" often just isn't outrage at all.

open.substack.com/pub/beaconme...

When the desert floods: Keeping housing affordable after disaster After a 500 year flood, a community is making sure that damaged houses not just get repaired, but stay locally-owned and affordable.

Organizing to watch: Residents in a small desert city have figured out a way to protect affordable housing after disasters and keep out-of-town investors from swooping in to flip them. open.substack.com/pub/workingc...

Judge Farmer: At this time I do not find the Attorney General had the authority to bring this RICO case

People doing community organizing in some fashion or another: Tell me about a time when things got MESSY! Like the fight got hot and you considered quitting or you got pretty freaked out. When the people in power flexed that power and the road ahead seemed harder than you thought. What you got?

What Do We Say When the Soldiers Come? "There is no honor in this mission," says counter-recruiter Rory Fanning.

For my latest, I talked with counter-recruiter Rory Fanning about how we should communicate with National Guard troops deployed in US cities, and how we might counter ICE's current recruiting blitz.

Stick with the Doers Working folks everywhere are rolling up their sleeves and taking action, not because they are certain about what to do, but they know they can't sit this out.

“The stories I’ve been finding in small, working-class towns across the country are action-oriented. Instead of making requests of those in power, these projects & people are USING power.”

@gwenfulton.bsky.social‬
workingclassstories.substack.com/p/stick-with...

Supporting Moms, No Matter What On TikTok and in person, these Knoxville moms are focused on connection over division

I headed to Knoxville TN to meet the moms behind Tennessee MomTok. I asked them: Is what you are doing political? Their answer surprised me.
open.substack.com/pub/workingc...

Guest Post: Vacuums and Gavels What vacuuming taught me that a gavel never could. Being a janitor has shaped my leadership and ability to be a mayor more than anything else.

I used to think that only rich people, the good ol' boys, could be in government. But now I know that people like Preston cannot only run, but win. Preston is Fletcher NC's first Black mayor and he's a janitor by day. Latest on Working Class Storytelling: open.substack.com/pub/workingc...

Told to Leave, No Place to Go After being evicted from a National Forest, Mandy Hodge is fighting to humanize homelessness as camps everywhere are being upended.

The same week that Mandy Hodge was evicted from a national forest and into town, that town's housing prices hit a record high. When we sweep homeless camps, where are people supposed to go? My latest on Working Class Storytelling:
open.substack.com/pub/workingc...

What the hell do I know about international law, but I'm pretty f-ing sure you can't just blow up boats of civilians in international waters even if they have drugs on board.

A love letter to the working class. Politicians claim you, pundits eat you alive, but do you recognize yourself?

This Labor Day, love and admiration to all workers, from the mines to the carwashes, the kitchen to the classroom.
open.substack.com/pub/workingc...

Kudzu, mountains, sky. North Carolina.

Mucking through local democracy Americans are navigating their hometown governments to bring about local change

“Democracy is messy…It moves fast and requires constant recalibration by all of us—citizens & our elected representatives. From my view, there’s no better place than local government to muck through and figure it out.”

@gwenfulton.bsky.social‬
workingclassstories.substack.com/p/mucking-th...

My kids enthusiastic updates from his college cafeteria feel like a real referendum on my cooking.

To Go Big Is to Keep It Simple Reinventing the Democrats as a working-class party.

“It is unlikely that…the Democratic Party, can now outcompete the GOP in rage, or even should do so, but they can outcompete the GOP if they can show working-class people that they have rational-actor goals in their behalf to pursue.”

@thenation.com
www.thenation.com/article/poli...