Simone Sebastian

Apply for a Knight-Wallace Fellowship The Knight-Wallace Journalism Fellowships will offer an academic year of study, collaborative learning and access to the resources of the University of Michigan for selected journalists to pursue ambi...

Reminder for journos (especially my WaPo friends): The deadline for the Knight-Wallace Fellowship is Feb. 1. If you're uncertain about your next career step, want to develop a topic interest, or are just burnt out, apply! It's been so helpful for me

wallacehouse.umich.edu/knight-walla...

But when we deny others' humanity, we end up sacrificing our own. When our society operates on dehumanization, it ultimately dehumanizes us all. So today I'm wondering: While we can rebuild our institutions, our government, even our Constitution -- what will it take to rebuild our humanity?

They don't see the horror happening in our country because they think it doesn't affect them. They see themselves as above it -- immune to it -- because they're white, they're men, they're "American." They think money or race protects them from the cruelty and consequences.

Ultimately, I suspect they want us to believe these kids aren't human - not in the way you and I are human. And that's what's made the past 10 years particularly terrifying - realizing how many people don't see other humans as human.

Certain people want us to believe these kids are not our kids. That they're different bc their skin is a different shade or bc their parents were born on the other side of an imaginary line. They want us to believe that these kids are different because their relatives are "illegal."

Adults always smile and laugh. So when I see this photo, I see my daughter. I wonder if Liam likes showing off his bunny hat, too. I wonder if he showed the ICE agents who took him away from his parents. I wonder if, behind weapons and masks, those men chuckled at the little ears jumping up and down

ICE detains 5-year-old Minnesota boy; school leader says agents used him as ‘bait’ The Columbia Heights school district says federal agents have detained four children in their district. School officials say agents used 5-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos as “bait” to try and draw family m...

In this photo, 5yo Liam is wearing my daughter's favorite hat. She has it in white. When you squeeze the paws at the end of the strings, the little bunny ears flap up and down. She loves it so much she stops strangers at the store to say "Look what my hat can do!"
www.mprnews.org/story/2026/0...

It’s old-fashioned to defend mainstream journalism these days but some of the most reliable reporting from people actually on the ground will be the AP and Reuters the next 24 hours. Your Substack journalist writing takes will be using frontline reporting from them.

Reginald T. Jackson, A.M.E. Bishop With Political Power, Dies at 71 Influential up and down the Eastern Seaboard, he was part of a long tradition among Black clergy of fighting bias and getting out the vote. “No vote, no clout,” he’d say.

Reginald T. Jackson, a bishop in the African Methodist Episcopal Church, one of the country’s largest majority-Black denominations, and a leading figure at the intersection of religion and Black electoral politics for more than 30 years, has died at 71.

How billionaires took over American politics The current concentration of wealth is unlike anything in history. So is billionaires’ involvement in politics.

In a year of unrelenting, world-changing news, this story is one of the most critical. An overdue must read:

www.washingtonpost.com/politics/int...

These Activists Want to Dismantle Public Schools. Now They Run the Education Department. Under Trump, the Department of Education has been bringing in activists hostile to public schools. It could mean a new era of private and religious schools boosted by tax dollars — and the end of publ...

To understand the Trump administration’s vision for American education, @megomatz.bsky.social and I studied dozens of hours of political appointees’ speeches and podcasts and essays. What emerged is a desire to dismantle the nation’s system of public schools.

A beautiful love letter to independent journalism, and hope.

If you are following the story of The Pentagon's new policy, nicknamed, "you must check with us before you dream of doing any journalism," you may enjoy this update from @status.news

Not justifying. I'm saying erasing/lumping in oppressed Christians (immigrants, Black folks) with their oppressors is an odd choice when "white nationalism" is sitting right there as a perfectly apt term for what's happening on the political right

Dude, I'm not a practicing Christian. You've lost the plot

Ok....no one is forcing you to believe in Christianity. It's absolutely legitimate to believe Christianity is a myth. My only point is that MAGA is far more defined by its white nationalism than by its Christianity

You support discarding churches that provide sanctuary for immigrants facing state violence? You support discarding churches that get old/rural/infirm Black folks to polls despite voter suppression? You support discarding the Christian orgs that help victims of domestic violence, poverty, etc?

I didn't say that, another commenter did.

But I agree with everything else you said. And that's my point -- MAGA wants to own Christianity, but it doesn't. By defining the movement by religion, we're misidentifying its core tenet. It's not religion, it's politics - the politics of white nationalism

Lol, y'all who keep accusing the Black church of being inactive are just revealing that you know nothing about the Black church

My original post is explicit about what I'm suggesting people say

Not forgetting that at all. Christianity has been a tool of oppression. (It has also been a tool to fight oppression.) But as you said, Christianity was a tool; white supremacy, on the other hand, is the driving force. Put the emphasis where it belongs

It has been used to oppress, yes. It's also been used to fight oppression. It fueled the Civil Rights Movement. It was used to combat slavery and lead uprisings of enslaved people. It's been used to provide sanctuary for immigrants. Most immigrants we're deporting today are themselves Christian

Most of the immigrants coming to the US are Christian. Do all the Christians we're deporting without due process own this problem? Are they hateful?

Van Hollen: I will just say that anybody who thinks we're on the way to authoritarianism is wrong. We are there

That message wasn't directed to you

The notion that the Black Chirch is "standing by" is not rooted in present or historical reality. The Black church is arguably the most politically active church in this country

Are you under the impression that the Black church isn't Christianity?

Who is "they"?

Ok. And the same bible that MAGA believes in was used to inspire uprisings of enslaved people and justify their violence against encaptors. It was also used to lead the nonviolent Civil Rights Movement. So what's your point? Frankly, you're proving mine: Christianity can't be lumped into one box

Is this your msg to the Black church? People who have died in their fight to upend white supremacy in this country? Is it your msg to the Presbyterian church, which faced state violence for sheltering immigrants from deportation? If you don't think they've distinguished themselves, that's on you