Hakeem Jefferson
banner
hakeemjefferson.bsky.social
Hakeem Jefferson
@hakeemjefferson.bsky.social
Assistant professor of political science. I think about identity, stigma, race, and politics more than any normal person should. Lover of life. Pro-democracy.

People should dance more.

Not Hakeem Jeffries, the Minority Leader.
Extraordinary panel featuring colleagues at Stanford who are experts on Venezuela happening this Wednesday at noon pacific. Zoom open to public. Strongly recommend joining for this, if you can.

cddrl.fsi.stanford.edu/events/venez...

@stanfordcddrl.bsky.social
Venezuela After Maduro: Democracy, Authoritarian Rebalancing, or Chaos
January 7, 12:00 pm PT
cddrl.fsi.stanford.edu
January 5, 2026 at 8:33 PM
Partner & I watched first episode of Heated Rivalry this weekend. Know lots of y’all love it (and yes, it’s steamy), but by the end of episode 1 I’d seen enough. I was rolling my eyes the same way I do after scrolling through Fire Island posts. Being a queer Black man in the Bay Area may explain it.
December 23, 2025 at 3:23 PM
Reposted by Hakeem Jefferson
really cannot be emphasized enough that bari weiss has literally never done journalism. i don’t mean that in the pejorative sense. i mean that in the “has never performed the job she was hired to do” sense
One explanation for Bari killing the story is that she did so as a public act of fealty to the administration. But another is that, as an inexperienced journalist, she doesn’t understand that a refusal to go on the record is a kind of comment in and of itself
December 22, 2025 at 2:19 PM
Reposted by Hakeem Jefferson
bari weiss saw this and decided that she had to hide it from the american public
Guards began beating him. Beat him until he bled. Knocked his face into the wall, broke all his teeth. No access to outdoors, no contact with relatives.

Now describing US knowledge of CECOT's torture practices, followed by footage of Trump praising those practices.
December 22, 2025 at 10:53 PM
Saving this for my lecture on white identity politics in Intro to American Politics. Right next to video of the administration welcoming white South Africans to the U.S. as “asylum seekers” while beating up brown people in the streets.
JD Vance: "In the United States of America you don't have to apologize for being white anymore"
December 22, 2025 at 4:46 PM
Shit wild.

Mitt “Tax the Rich” Romney is on the scene.

www.nytimes.com/2025/12/19/o...
Opinion | Mitt Romney: Tax the Rich, Like Me
www.nytimes.com
December 20, 2025 at 1:14 AM
Black Twitter isn’t dead. It’s just over on Threads.

I mostly lurk, but the material is excellent—lots of it, at least. Some odd stuff, too.

Bluesky is a good community & I’m happy to be here. But sometimes you need a good chuckle & this is not a chuckling app or a v Black-Twitter-vibes app. IMO
December 18, 2025 at 7:14 AM
Eager to check this out!
Forthcoming at @hcr-journal.bsky.social: "A Show for Us: How Racial and Partisan Cues About Television Audiences Affect Exposure Intentions"! More to follow once the final version is published, but just glad this will be out in the world soon! #PolComm #PoliSci #Politics #MediaStudies
December 17, 2025 at 6:33 PM
Reposted by Hakeem Jefferson
Because so many have excused and normalized his behavior, it is worth saying plainly that Donald Trump is a vile human being. When he eventually passes, we should remember him honestly. He will have earned nothing less.
December 15, 2025 at 7:05 PM
My thoughts are with colleagues and friends at Brown, and with their loved ones. Another day, another shooting on a college campus in this country.

This kind of violence is preventable if only our leaders had the courage and moral clarity to act.
December 13, 2025 at 11:34 PM
Dream Jungle is a group exhibition that unsettles colonial modes of capture thru installation, video, literature & archival assemblage. Curated by my love @villarrecords.bsky.social.

Jan 29-May 2, 2026 at SF Arts Commission Gallery. Put it on your calendar.

www.sfartscommission.org/experience-a...
San Francisco Arts Commission
www.sfartscommission.org
December 12, 2025 at 4:22 PM
Reposted by Hakeem Jefferson
👇🏽👇🏽👇🏽
New paper in @ajpseditor.bsky.social. Is descriptive representation good for substantive representation? Why do voters stay loyal to corrupt and poorly governing ethnic parties? I argue that we ought to focus less on patronage and more on dignity concerns. Defiant pride can come at a price. 1/🧵
December 9, 2025 at 3:46 PM
I LOVE this work from @mamalik.bsky.social. It’s been on my identity syllabus for years for a reason. Smart, creative, agenda-setting scholarship. Folks studying identity across disciplines & subfields should read, assign, & cite it!

Congrats, Mashail, on a great placement for the paper! So proud!
New paper in @ajpseditor.bsky.social. Is descriptive representation good for substantive representation? Why do voters stay loyal to corrupt and poorly governing ethnic parties? I argue that we ought to focus less on patronage and more on dignity concerns. Defiant pride can come at a price. 1/🧵
December 9, 2025 at 3:27 PM
Reposted by Hakeem Jefferson
Was lucky enough to be there, too. What an amazing talent for thinking and then putting those thoughts into words he has... And I loved every single reference he made to music, literature and pop culture +
I had the good fortune of being in the room for this conversation between the brilliant Hanif Abdurraqib and my equally brilliant colleague Prof Matthew D. Morrison.

Could not recommend it more highly. Just a stunning conversation. Watch it.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=dp7L...
Hanif Abdurraqib at Stanford | On Art, Survival, and the Heart’s Work
YouTube video by Stanford Arts
www.youtube.com
December 8, 2025 at 10:09 PM
And this was free 😊

Hanif is Stanford’s Denning Visiting Artist this year, and is taking part in a bunch of events that allow him to engage the campus community.

We are very lucky to have him here, and it’s kinda wild how exceptional he is at his craft. Really inspiring stuff.
Anything Hanif offers is worth the price of admission
I had the good fortune of being in the room for this conversation between the brilliant Hanif Abdurraqib and my equally brilliant colleague Prof Matthew D. Morrison.

Could not recommend it more highly. Just a stunning conversation. Watch it.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=dp7L...
December 8, 2025 at 6:35 PM
Reposted by Hakeem Jefferson
I see what I'm watching during lunch
I had the good fortune of being in the room for this conversation between the brilliant Hanif Abdurraqib and my equally brilliant colleague Prof Matthew D. Morrison.

Could not recommend it more highly. Just a stunning conversation. Watch it.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=dp7L...
Hanif Abdurraqib at Stanford | On Art, Survival, and the Heart’s Work
YouTube video by Stanford Arts
www.youtube.com
December 8, 2025 at 5:54 PM
I had the good fortune of being in the room for this conversation between the brilliant Hanif Abdurraqib and my equally brilliant colleague Prof Matthew D. Morrison.

Could not recommend it more highly. Just a stunning conversation. Watch it.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=dp7L...
Hanif Abdurraqib at Stanford | On Art, Survival, and the Heart’s Work
YouTube video by Stanford Arts
www.youtube.com
December 8, 2025 at 5:06 PM
In Donald Trump’s America, you can be a lying, corrupt politician or corporate goon and count on a pardon. But if you’re a hardworking immigrant who’s done nothing wrong, you can expect to be harassed and beaten by masked thugs enforcing this administration’s vile immigration policies. Shameful.
December 3, 2025 at 5:46 PM
Reposted by Hakeem Jefferson
What does it say about this country that that the kind of open, rank bigotry Trump administration officials regularly express towards black immigrants apparently has no social cost because of the number of Americans who quietly agree or don't care.
December 3, 2025 at 11:35 AM
The essay deserves a failing grade. It doesn’t tie to the assigned reading or engage its claims or evidence in any serious or sustained fashion; it just repeats the students’ pre-existing beliefs, and does so poorly. Even personal experience requires showing real engagement & no sign of that here.
OU puts graduate instructor on leave after student claims discrimination on Bible-based essay grade
OU has placed a graduate student instructor on leave after a student publicly contested a grade and filed an illegal discrimination claim after receiving a failing grade on an essay
www.oudaily.com
December 1, 2025 at 8:14 PM
This work has been a long time in the making and I’m excited that we all now have a chance to dig into it.

Congrats to my pal @bhighsmith.bsky.social and the entire research team. This is important work!
🚨We analyzed 138 million geocoded property tax records to quantify how municipal boundaries spatially overlap onto economic segregation in every US metro area—creating disparities in localities’ ability to fund public goods. And we made an interactive map of our results! [1/16]
November 24, 2025 at 4:53 PM
Reposted by Hakeem Jefferson
Exciting new research that demonstrates how localities in the same metropolitan area have wildly varying tax bases—which go on to have a huge impact on the ability to provide services. Rich towns can collect more taxes, give themselves better services, and reinforce inequality.
🚨We analyzed 138 million geocoded property tax records to quantify how municipal boundaries spatially overlap onto economic segregation in every US metro area—creating disparities in localities’ ability to fund public goods. And we made an interactive map of our results! [1/16]
November 24, 2025 at 4:48 PM