Jonathan W. Gray
@elmcitytree.blacksky.app
Professor @CUNY, scholar of Blackness, books & popular culture, leftist & left handed. 🇰🇳 🇺🇸 🇵🇸 🏳️⚧️
Not THAT Jonathan Gray
I maintain the Blackademics feed, the scholarly side of #Blacksky
https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:w4xbfzo7kqfes5zb7
Personal account
Not THAT Jonathan Gray
I maintain the Blackademics feed, the scholarly side of #Blacksky
https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:w4xbfzo7kqfes5zb7
Personal account
Pinned
Updated the Blackademics starter pack again (!) to include Vincent Brown, Imani Perry, the Harare Review of Books and others. Stay tuned for more developments coming soon....
Reposted by Jonathan W. Gray
Great assembling of info and reactions to the strikes in Sokoto state on the @aljazeera.com homepage feed:
www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblo...
www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblo...
LIVE: Nigeria confirms US strikes on ISIL targets in its northwest
Nigeria says US claims that Christians face persecution do not represent a complex security situation.
www.aljazeera.com
December 26, 2025 at 12:02 PM
Great assembling of info and reactions to the strikes in Sokoto state on the @aljazeera.com homepage feed:
www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblo...
www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblo...
Reposted by Jonathan W. Gray
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander: “We have to get better as a group. You don’t lose to a team three times in a row in a short span without them being better than you. We have to get better. Look in the mirror, and that’s everybody from top to bottom, if we want to reach our ultimate goal”
December 25, 2025 at 11:04 PM
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander: “We have to get better as a group. You don’t lose to a team three times in a row in a short span without them being better than you. We have to get better. Look in the mirror, and that’s everybody from top to bottom, if we want to reach our ultimate goal”
Reposted by Jonathan W. Gray
A sop to American evangelicals. www.nytimes.com/2025/12/25/u...
Trump Announces Strike Against ISIS in Nigeria
www.nytimes.com
December 26, 2025 at 1:14 AM
A sop to American evangelicals. www.nytimes.com/2025/12/25/u...
Reposted by Jonathan W. Gray
This is bad. Also, if he worried about Nigerian Christians being persecuted, why is he blocking asylum? Everything he does is bigoted and nonsensical.
Merry Christmas!
The President of Peace just bombed Nigeria.
The President of Peace just bombed Nigeria.
December 26, 2025 at 12:25 AM
This is bad. Also, if he worried about Nigerian Christians being persecuted, why is he blocking asylum? Everything he does is bigoted and nonsensical.
Reposted by Jonathan W. Gray
Also, Happy “Meet me in Temecula” Day to all the real ones that celebrate. 🥹
December 25, 2025 at 5:27 PM
Also, Happy “Meet me in Temecula” Day to all the real ones that celebrate. 🥹
Reposted by Jonathan W. Gray
christmas on bluesky
December 25, 2025 at 1:47 PM
christmas on bluesky
Trump bombed Nigeria!?!? On Christmas?!?!? WTF.
Trump says US hit Islamic State targets in Nigeria
President Trump said "numerous perfect strikes" had hit Islamic State militants in the West African nation of Nigeria.
www.usatoday.com
December 26, 2025 at 12:20 AM
Trump bombed Nigeria!?!? On Christmas?!?!? WTF.
Reposted by Jonathan W. Gray
Trump, after bombing Nigeria on Christmas: “MERRY CHRISTMAS to all, including the dead Terrorists [sic].”
These are the words of an evil man whom Christ does not know.
These are the words of an evil man whom Christ does not know.
December 25, 2025 at 11:53 PM
Trump, after bombing Nigeria on Christmas: “MERRY CHRISTMAS to all, including the dead Terrorists [sic].”
These are the words of an evil man whom Christ does not know.
These are the words of an evil man whom Christ does not know.
Reposted by Jonathan W. Gray
White folks on here…
What are you doing with all the extra time you have now that you don’t have to apologize for being white anymore.
What are you doing with all the extra time you have now that you don’t have to apologize for being white anymore.
December 25, 2025 at 10:51 PM
White folks on here…
What are you doing with all the extra time you have now that you don’t have to apologize for being white anymore.
What are you doing with all the extra time you have now that you don’t have to apologize for being white anymore.
That was Sally Jenkins sticking up for her fellow girl boss Bari Weiss. But I don’t know what editors were thinking letting that characterization slip by.
The @theatlantic.com claims that Canadians will use "treachery" to make America and its media look "silly".
No, we are a democratic people who hate thugs and their pusillanimous enablers.
Deal with it.
No, we are a democratic people who hate thugs and their pusillanimous enablers.
Deal with it.
December 25, 2025 at 9:39 PM
That was Sally Jenkins sticking up for her fellow girl boss Bari Weiss. But I don’t know what editors were thinking letting that characterization slip by.
Reposted by Jonathan W. Gray
It's incredible how much of this stuff is just out in the open, but because Trump said "Russiagate hoax!" 5000 times, the media was brainwashed into treating it like a nothing story instead of one of a ten alarm scandal
Tenet Media founder Lauren Chen, who secretly took money from two people with ties to Russian state media to involve conservative influencers in an unwitting propaganda scheme, is back in the US after being deported to Canada under President Biden. www.motherjones.com/politics/202...
December 25, 2025 at 9:12 PM
It's incredible how much of this stuff is just out in the open, but because Trump said "Russiagate hoax!" 5000 times, the media was brainwashed into treating it like a nothing story instead of one of a ten alarm scandal
Reposted by Jonathan W. Gray
Is it too late to give Sacha Baron Cohen an Oscar for this? Not a damn lie told. 🇺🇸
June 22, 2025 at 7:53 PM
Is it too late to give Sacha Baron Cohen an Oscar for this? Not a damn lie told. 🇺🇸
Brunson needs to stop forcing. Too many no pass possessions down the stretch.
December 25, 2025 at 7:36 PM
Brunson needs to stop forcing. Too many no pass possessions down the stretch.
Reposted by Jonathan W. Gray
Catholics represent fewer than 20% of U.S. adults, however, they make up 61% of the population at risk of deportation. Trump’s immigration crackdown is disproportionately hitting Catholic communities.
chico.newsreview.com/2025/12/24/t...
chico.newsreview.com/2025/12/24/t...
Trump’s War on ICE-Fearing Catholics • Chico News & Review
We are a group of award-winning free alternative weekly newspapers published by Chico Community Publishing, Inc. We publish the Chico News & Review in Chico, California, the Sacramento News & Review…
chico.newsreview.com
December 25, 2025 at 6:32 PM
Catholics represent fewer than 20% of U.S. adults, however, they make up 61% of the population at risk of deportation. Trump’s immigration crackdown is disproportionately hitting Catholic communities.
chico.newsreview.com/2025/12/24/t...
chico.newsreview.com/2025/12/24/t...
Reposted by Jonathan W. Gray
Mele Kalikimaka from the city slicker in Brooklyn. The photo was taken in summer 2025 and is what I imagine Kauai looks like today.
December 25, 2025 at 12:02 PM
Mele Kalikimaka from the city slicker in Brooklyn. The photo was taken in summer 2025 and is what I imagine Kauai looks like today.
Reposted by Jonathan W. Gray
Great 2018 piece from @hofrench.bsky.social on the various rationalizations made regarding the Middle Passage, including the now in fashion claims that the Arab slave trade somehow absolves European nations of any responsibility www.nybooks.com/articles/201...
A History of Denial | Howard W. French
All too many publications about the history of Europe’s relationship with Africa fail to sufficiently convey the damage that was done to the African economy, peoples, and political development by the ...
www.nybooks.com
December 24, 2025 at 4:28 PM
Great 2018 piece from @hofrench.bsky.social on the various rationalizations made regarding the Middle Passage, including the now in fashion claims that the Arab slave trade somehow absolves European nations of any responsibility www.nybooks.com/articles/201...
Yo @olufemiotaiwo.bsky.social if there's a canonical writer who is also perhaps the most famous anarchist in the 🌍, is it fair to describe that writer as utopian given the philosophical underpinnings of anarchism?
Asking for a me!
Asking for a me!
December 24, 2025 at 5:26 PM
Yo @olufemiotaiwo.bsky.social if there's a canonical writer who is also perhaps the most famous anarchist in the 🌍, is it fair to describe that writer as utopian given the philosophical underpinnings of anarchism?
Asking for a me!
Asking for a me!
Reposted by Jonathan W. Gray
White power needs an enemy and will create one no matter the damage that does to democracy or liberalism.
If white power requires fascist control democracy will always be secondary
If white power requires fascist control democracy will always be secondary
I love Moore’s writing but like a lot of White leftists he underestimates the West’s need for scary others. Without Soviets white chauvinists turned first to Muslims & then to immigrants (read: Black people!) & trans folk to demonize. Some of this is a return to old scapegoats.
2/
2/
December 24, 2025 at 3:20 PM
White power needs an enemy and will create one no matter the damage that does to democracy or liberalism.
If white power requires fascist control democracy will always be secondary
If white power requires fascist control democracy will always be secondary
Reposted by Jonathan W. Gray
gonna make a wild guess that jenkins and weiss are friends or associates irl and this is another media club situation
The Bari Weiss hysteria continues. Exactly what in "this piece isn't ready" and "try harder to get comment from the administration" constitutes the death of American journalism? www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2025/1...
What Bari Weiss Got Right
And what she got wrong
www.theatlantic.com
December 24, 2025 at 3:33 PM
gonna make a wild guess that jenkins and weiss are friends or associates irl and this is another media club situation
Alan Moore’s Watchmen (1987) asserts that a powerful common enemy MIGHT trick humanity into uniting. But for the West the USSR was just that. Since its collapse every Western nation has backslid on democracy, immigration & the social safety net.
No USSR also allowed China’s rise.
1/
No USSR also allowed China’s rise.
1/
December 24, 2025 at 2:36 PM
Alan Moore’s Watchmen (1987) asserts that a powerful common enemy MIGHT trick humanity into uniting. But for the West the USSR was just that. Since its collapse every Western nation has backslid on democracy, immigration & the social safety net.
No USSR also allowed China’s rise.
1/
No USSR also allowed China’s rise.
1/
Reposted by Jonathan W. Gray
Super 🧵 Even Marx knew, Russia has never been anything but a genocidal expansionist empire.
1) A weird 2025 phenomenon: people calling themselves “Marxist” repeat Kremlin lines about Ukraine.
But Marx’s own writing on Russia is… the opposite... and I can source all quotes from Marxism. org but links will deboost the thread.
If you feel marxist go do your research :)
But Marx’s own writing on Russia is… the opposite... and I can source all quotes from Marxism. org but links will deboost the thread.
If you feel marxist go do your research :)
December 24, 2025 at 2:14 PM
Super 🧵 Even Marx knew, Russia has never been anything but a genocidal expansionist empire.
Reposted by Jonathan W. Gray
I think a case can be made that 9/11 gut-shot the long 20th century, and it took 15 years or so for the effects of that to fully make themselves known
My beloved AP European History teacher always said that modern centuries only truly "begin" 14 to 18 years after the technical turn of the calendar:
1517 (Luther's Theses)
1618 (Defenestration of Prague)
1714 (Peace of Utrecht)
1815 (Napoleon defeated)
1914 (WWI begins)
and
2016 (Trump wins)
1517 (Luther's Theses)
1618 (Defenestration of Prague)
1714 (Peace of Utrecht)
1815 (Napoleon defeated)
1914 (WWI begins)
and
2016 (Trump wins)
December 24, 2025 at 1:56 PM
I think a case can be made that 9/11 gut-shot the long 20th century, and it took 15 years or so for the effects of that to fully make themselves known
Reposted by Jonathan W. Gray
But again many of them were cool when every Black and Brown person got walked out of the building?
“Dismal,” “confused,” “demoralized,” “super fucked.” That, as one reporter tells Vanity Fair, is the mood inside CBS after editor Bari Weiss pulled a 60 Minutes segment that was critical of the Trump administration.
Bari Weiss’s 60 Minutes Stumble Follows Private Rejection From Megyn Kelly
Before she stoked outrage by spiking a ‘60 Minutes’ segment about a notorious El Salvador prison, Weiss spent weeks lobbying Megyn Kelly to participate in a debate on feminism with ‘Call Her Daddy’ host Alex Cooper, to no avail.
www.vanityfair.com
December 24, 2025 at 1:57 PM
But again many of them were cool when every Black and Brown person got walked out of the building?
Reposted by Jonathan W. Gray
I need prints of all of Adeolu Osibodu's photography.
December 24, 2025 at 1:03 AM
I need prints of all of Adeolu Osibodu's photography.
Kepa did NOT want to take a penalty again! LFC fans remember the last time he took one.
December 23, 2025 at 10:24 PM
Kepa did NOT want to take a penalty again! LFC fans remember the last time he took one.