Jarvis DeBerry
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jarvisdeberry.bsky.social
Jarvis DeBerry
@jarvisdeberry.bsky.social
4.6K followers 410 following 100 posts
Opinionated journalist. MSNBC.com.
Previously at lailluminator.com; cleveland.com and NOLA.com
Author of "I Feel to Believe: Collected Columns" by UNO Press
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jarvisdeberry.bsky.social
My appreciation to @allyfromnola.bsky.social for chatting with me about mandatory smile policies like the one Target is adopting: www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnb...
Opinion | Forcing its employees to smile won't fix Target's problem
The Minneapolis-based retailer isn’t suffering lower sales because its employees are rude but because it disrespected a significant portion of its customer base.
www.msnbc.com
November 13, 2025 at 3:52 PM
jarvisdeberry.bsky.social
Thanks for the great documentary, @maddow.msnbc.com!
October 17, 2025 at 10:48 PM
jarvisdeberry.bsky.social
Mississippi will always be home. It hurts to see what's happening there.
www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnb...
Opinion | As cities grow safer, gun violence spikes in rural America
The Hospitality State accounts for half of the 10 U.S. counties with the highest gun homicide rates. Nine deaths after homecoming games last week cast new light on the crisis.
www.msnbc.com
October 17, 2025 at 5:24 PM
jarvisdeberry.bsky.social
If you weren't there in '95 when "Brown Sugar" landed like an earth-shattering meteor, it's hard to make you understand D'Angelo's impact. He was old school and innovative, a student of the greats but seemingly fully formed and wise. Listen to this genius.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=h3y2...
www.youtube.com
October 14, 2025 at 4:58 PM
jarvisdeberry.bsky.social
“When Burton was hosting the show, there did not appear to be many people arguing against the idea of introducing children to books by authors of different colors, cultures, ethnicities and experiences.” My column at @msnbc.com www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnb...
Opinion | ‘Reading Rainbow’ returns to a country far more hostile to books — and diversity
"Reading Rainbow" returns after 19 years and, fittingly, lands a day before 2025's "Banned Books Week."
www.msnbc.com
October 4, 2025 at 2:30 PM
Reposted by Jarvis DeBerry
ms.now
OPINION by @jarvisdeberry.bsky.social:

“To reduce government programs, as Trump did, to 'things Democrats like' is to disregard the real needs such programs address.”

READ MORE:
www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnb...
Opinion | Trump doesn't have to fire federal workers in a shutdown. He wants to.
If previous government shutdowns didn’t result in massive layoffs, then there’s no reason this one should.
www.msnbc.com
October 2, 2025 at 5:26 PM
jarvisdeberry.bsky.social
"The Ghetto," esp. the live version. "This is it!"
dradambanks.bsky.social Langston Blues @dradambanks.bsky.social · Oct 1
Hey good sky peoples, so for #DonnyHathaway Day, please quote or reply with a song Donny sang—or wrote or produced—that stands out for you.
October 1, 2025 at 9:52 PM
jarvisdeberry.bsky.social
I wrote this in March when Hegseth announced his obviously racist policy of getting rid of Marines with chronic razor bumps.
www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnb...
Opinion | Donald Trump’s anti-DEI madness erases Black service members, living and dead
When you don’t acknowledge that people are different you get the “interim guidance” announced by the Marines this month that would disproportionately expel Black Marines.
www.msnbc.com
September 30, 2025 at 3:02 PM
jarvisdeberry.bsky.social
"It’s a shame that since Kirk’s death, arguing in bad faith has become characterized as virtuous and edifying. It’s not. And it’s not beneficial to try to rebut people making bad faith arguments." My column at @msnbc.com
www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnb...
Opinion | 'Debate me' bros were rightly rejected at Tennessee State
The best way to respond to bad-faith arguments is to ignore them.
www.msnbc.com
September 28, 2025 at 5:55 PM
jarvisdeberry.bsky.social
Trump saying he hates his opponents belies the faith he claims. But more importantly for the country, it's his acknowledgement that he doesn't think of himself as everybody's president. Read me at @msnbc.com:
www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnb...
Opinion | We could already see Trump's hate for his opponents
Trump’s admission that he hates his opponents calls into question the Christianity he professes but, as importantly, it shows he doesn't believe he’s everybody’s president.
www.msnbc.com
September 23, 2025 at 4:20 PM
jarvisdeberry.bsky.social
Kash Patel not knowing Dylann Roof's name "not only typifies a general incompetence among Trump’s Cabinet, it exemplifies the administration’s disregard for news that doesn’t jibe with the story of America it wants to tell." My column at @msnbc.com
www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnb...
Opinion | The racist church massacre that our FBI director couldn’t bother remembering
FBI Director Kash Patel's testimony Wednesday reflected the Trump administration’s callous disregard for news that doesn’t jibe with the story of America it wants to tell.
www.msnbc.com
September 20, 2025 at 1:49 PM
jarvisdeberry.bsky.social
"Despite professing the same faith, Black and white Protestant Christians in the U.S. often have near opposite worldviews." My column at @MSNBC on the resistance to attempts to venerate Charlie Kirk.
www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnb...
Opinion | Why Christians are fighting over Charlie Kirk
Since the Turning Point USA founder was shot dead Wednesday, Sept. 10, there’s been a segment of Christians categorizing him as a Christian martyr.
www.msnbc.com
September 18, 2025 at 3:57 PM
jarvisdeberry.bsky.social
*Land of the free for us, but not for y’all* is not an argument a white Southern Republican like Mike Johnson should expect Black Democrats farther north to accept.

My column at MSNBC Digital:
www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnb...
Opinion | Mike Johnson tries to sell Americans on the benefits of being occupied
If Speaker Johnson believes Chicagoans should bend the knee to a president promising aggression, then he’s telling us that he doesn’t believe they're fully American.
www.msnbc.com
September 10, 2025 at 5:17 PM
jarvisdeberry.bsky.social
"It’s inconceivable that stories of people aiming to shoot down rescue helicopters, raping babies and slaughtering one another would have been swallowed as often as they were if they weren’t stories of Black people doing such things." Me at @msnbc.com
www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnb...
Opinion | Why so much of what you were told about Katrina was wrong
Hurricane Katrina taught journalists a lesson that is especially handy now: Just because a public official says it doesn’t make it true.
www.msnbc.com
August 29, 2025 at 2:40 PM
jarvisdeberry.bsky.social
My latest column is on USCIS’ intensified focus on the moral character of those applying for citizenship.
August 20, 2025 at 1:48 PM
jarvisdeberry.bsky.social
Conservatives embracing Confederate flags, monuments and names is never about history. It's always about the present.

www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnb...
Opinion | Confederate losers have a friend in Pete Hegseth
Donald Trump and Pete Hegseth are embracing Confederate monuments not because they love history but because they hate progressives.
www.msnbc.com
August 15, 2025 at 4:12 PM
jarvisdeberry.bsky.social
"It’s not true that DEI efforts are backfiring. What’s true is that people who feel threatened by a more diverse, equitable and inclusive society are firing back." -- my column at @msnbc.com
www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnb...
Opinion | DEI isn’t what’s hurting Black people. Racism is.
We should all want discrimination to be less of a problem, but the belief that it is diminishing doesn’t seem rooted in empiricism.
www.msnbc.com
August 2, 2025 at 1:55 PM
jarvisdeberry.bsky.social
Anybody seen the FEMA director?
www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnb...
Opinion | Texas deserves more from FEMA
The acting FEMA director's swaggering bravado might be welcome if he seemed dedicated to carrying out FEMA’s mission. But that doesn't appear to be the reason he was hired.
www.msnbc.com
July 10, 2025 at 3:20 PM
Reposted by Jarvis DeBerry
ms.now
OPINION by @jarvisdeberry.bsky.social:

Jarvis highlights why ICE agents’ masks are especially disturbing.

“The basic principle is that the police are accountable to the public. And that requires, at a minimum, knowing who the police are.”

READ MORE:
www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnb...
Opinion | From decrying ‘jack-booted government thugs’ to defending ICE agents wearing masks
A California bill that restricts local and state law enforcement officials from covering their faces is a necessary, if symbolic, rebuke of the encroaching police state.
www.msnbc.com
June 20, 2025 at 11:53 AM
Reposted by Jarvis DeBerry
jamellebouie.net
W.E.B. Du Bois on Robert E. Lee:

“Either he knew what slavery meant when he helped maim and murder thousands in its defense, or he did not. If he did not he was a fool. If he did, Robert Lee was a traitor and a rebel–not indeed to his country, but to humanity and humanity’s God.”
June 11, 2025 at 12:42 PM
jarvisdeberry.bsky.social
Bill Cassidy put his desire for a third Senate term over his concerns for public health and struck a deal with RFK that was sure to be broken. My column at MSNBC.
www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnb...
Opinion | Bill Cassidy should have known not to trust RFK Jr.
Before coming to the Senate, Dr. Bill Cassidy worked at a hospital for poor and uninsured people and launched a vaccination program for some of Louisiana’s most vulnerable people.
www.msnbc.com
June 11, 2025 at 3:21 PM
Reposted by Jarvis DeBerry
ms.now
OPINION by @jarvisdeberry.bsky.social:

’It seems safe to assume that President Trump’s aim in getting rid of FEMA is not to find a better way to help people who suffer weather-related catastrophes but to find a way to help as little as it can — if at all.’

READ MORE: www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnb...
Opinion | Trump wants FEMA gone. But that could be its own kind of disaster.
It’s likely that Trump, as he so often is, is being guided by grievance.
www.msnbc.com
March 27, 2025 at 11:56 AM
jarvisdeberry.bsky.social
My column: Even people who’ve had bad experiences with FEMA should worry about Trump’s wish to get rid of it.

www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnb...
Opinion | Trump wants FEMA gone. But that could be its own kind of disaster.
It’s likely that Trump, as he so often is, is being guided by grievance.
www.msnbc.com
March 27, 2025 at 11:58 AM
jarvisdeberry.bsky.social
There’s a framework that helps leaders think through policies that might seem fair and neutral but result in some people having disadvantages others don’t. It's called Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, which has been effectively outlawed by Trump’s administration.
www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnb...
Opinion | Donald Trump’s anti-DEI madness erases Black service members, living and dead
When you don’t acknowledge that people are different you get the “interim guidance” announced by the Marines this month that would disproportionately expel Black Marines.
www.msnbc.com
March 24, 2025 at 2:58 PM
jarvisdeberry.bsky.social
Jessie Hoffman has been executed, his attorney says.
jarvisdeberry.bsky.social Jarvis DeBerry @jarvisdeberry.bsky.social · Mar 18
As a reporter who covered his trial, I know every gruesome detail of what Jessie Hoffman did to Molly Elliott. He's as guilty as anybody whose trial I ever covered. And, yet, I stand opposed to Louisiana's plan to suffocate him to death tonight. www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnb...
Opinion | Not even people as guilty as Jessie Hoffman should be executed
A prosecutor told jurors Jessie Hoffman had "ice water in his veins," but what's colder than keeping a man in a cage for almost 30 years and then killing him?
www.msnbc.com
March 19, 2025 at 12:21 AM