Nicholas Mitchell
@nicholasemitchell.bsky.social
Aging afropunk, Southerner, Curriculum theorist, Af. Am. Studies, Bigotry researcher, Essayist, Author, contributing writer at MS NOW, Professional Wrestling Enthusiast.
My posts represent my views and not my employer.
Reposts do not = endorsements.
My posts represent my views and not my employer.
Reposts do not = endorsements.
Pinned
On Bigotry
We like to believe that bigotry is a product of ignorance and that if we educate people enough, they will become immune to bigotry. But what if bigotry isn't a…
www.bloomsbury.com
My first book, "On Bigotry: Twenty Lessons on How Bigotry Works and What to Do About It" came out a week ago and is now available in hardcover and e-book edition with an audiobook version coming out in August!
#booksky
www.bloomsbury.com/us/on-bigotr...
#booksky
www.bloomsbury.com/us/on-bigotr...
The entire existence of the pop tart bowl, especially the post game celebration, is delightfully unhinged.
December 28, 2025 at 4:47 AM
The entire existence of the pop tart bowl, especially the post game celebration, is delightfully unhinged.
It's interesting how certain public intellectuals post on Blue sky vs what was once Twitter.
December 27, 2025 at 3:26 PM
It's interesting how certain public intellectuals post on Blue sky vs what was once Twitter.
If you think of replacement theory as a political ideology that creates policy, law, and political identity, a lot of what you're seeing and hearing in the discourse becomes intelligible and terrifying.
Bigotry always tells on itself, y'all.
Bigotry always tells on itself, y'all.
December 27, 2025 at 2:25 PM
If you think of replacement theory as a political ideology that creates policy, law, and political identity, a lot of what you're seeing and hearing in the discourse becomes intelligible and terrifying.
Bigotry always tells on itself, y'all.
Bigotry always tells on itself, y'all.
It is telling how some of the loudest voices in the last decade who built their profiles dismissing anti-racism have all displayed a sudden mastery of anti-racist thought once the racism that they claimed was overblown started calling them slurs.
Bigotry is wild. Wrote a book about it this year.
Bigotry is wild. Wrote a book about it this year.
December 27, 2025 at 1:29 PM
It is telling how some of the loudest voices in the last decade who built their profiles dismissing anti-racism have all displayed a sudden mastery of anti-racist thought once the racism that they claimed was overblown started calling them slurs.
Bigotry is wild. Wrote a book about it this year.
Bigotry is wild. Wrote a book about it this year.
Lesson 1 and 2 of my book on how bigotry works are what they are for a reason.
December 24, 2025 at 4:25 AM
Lesson 1 and 2 of my book on how bigotry works are what they are for a reason.
If you ever forget who you are, sooner or later bigots will remind you.
December 21, 2025 at 9:00 PM
If you ever forget who you are, sooner or later bigots will remind you.
This article by @polphilpod.bsky.social really hits on what sits at the center of African American political culture's anger at multiple communities and the left side of the political spectrum as a whole.
those who predicted authoritarianism were both dismissed, & deeply misunderstood, by the media
my latest for @newrepublic.com
newrepublic.com/article/2042...
my latest for @newrepublic.com
newrepublic.com/article/2042...
The Americans Who Saw All This Coming—but Were Ignored and Maligned
Call them the Cassandras: the people—mostly not white and male—who smelled the fascism all over Trump from jump street. Why were they “alarmists,” and how did “anti-alarmism” become cool?
newrepublic.com
December 18, 2025 at 6:50 PM
This article by @polphilpod.bsky.social really hits on what sits at the center of African American political culture's anger at multiple communities and the left side of the political spectrum as a whole.
Dr. Ray gets to the core of what I wrote about in regard to cultural moderation.
www.ms.now/opinion/gavi...
www.ms.now/opinion/gavi...
December 17, 2025 at 3:21 PM
Dr. Ray gets to the core of what I wrote about in regard to cultural moderation.
www.ms.now/opinion/gavi...
www.ms.now/opinion/gavi...
Interesting aside - arguments like the one Jacobin published here is why critical race theory and it's descendants formed.
Folks got tired of the class only folks telling them that bigotry didn't produce material conditions.
Folks got tired of the class only folks telling them that bigotry didn't produce material conditions.
Confusing marginality with insight leaves movements vulnerable to reactionary mimicry.
A renewed engagement with Karl Marx’s structural account of exploitation can give feminism a path out of standpoint theory’s dead end.
A renewed engagement with Karl Marx’s structural account of exploitation can give feminism a path out of standpoint theory’s dead end.
What Incels Learned From Feminism
Confusing marginality with insight leaves movements vulnerable to reactionary mimicry. A renewed engagement with Karl Marx’s structural account of exploitation can give feminism a path out of standpoint theory’s dead end.
jacobin.com
December 16, 2025 at 1:33 PM
Interesting aside - arguments like the one Jacobin published here is why critical race theory and it's descendants formed.
Folks got tired of the class only folks telling them that bigotry didn't produce material conditions.
Folks got tired of the class only folks telling them that bigotry didn't produce material conditions.
The demand that people ignore bigotry in the name of "class solidarity" is an example of bigotry cosplaying as philosophy.
How much antiblackness are we supposed to deal with on a regular basis before nonBlack people will agree that the racism was beyond the pale.
What’s it gonna take. I want facts and figures. How many slurs per day should we have to suffer before it’s ok not to feel sorry for some dumb white broad.
What’s it gonna take. I want facts and figures. How many slurs per day should we have to suffer before it’s ok not to feel sorry for some dumb white broad.
“Those of us on the left should be fighting to improve protections for workers of all races, and thereby for the betterment of people’s material conditions regardless of their views,” Arash Azizi argues:
December 13, 2025 at 2:47 PM
The demand that people ignore bigotry in the name of "class solidarity" is an example of bigotry cosplaying as philosophy.
My latest from MS Now.
OPINION by Nicholas Mitchell:
“In recent months, the issue at the center of the cultural moderation debates has been transgender people’s rights.”
READ MORE:
www.ms.now/opinion/gavi...
“In recent months, the issue at the center of the cultural moderation debates has been transgender people’s rights.”
READ MORE:
www.ms.now/opinion/gavi...
Opinion | What Gavin Newsom means by 'culturally normal' Democrats
Nicholas Mitchell: Gavin Newsom just previewed what's sure to be a debate in the 2028 primary
www.ms.now
December 11, 2025 at 8:35 PM
My latest from MS Now.
As a rule, I side eye anyone whose knowledge about #fascism has a lot to say about 1930s Germany and Italy but nothing about Jim Crow America.
December 10, 2025 at 12:59 PM
As a rule, I side eye anyone whose knowledge about #fascism has a lot to say about 1930s Germany and Italy but nothing about Jim Crow America.
Civil rights advocates need to take a hard look at Yick Wo v. Hopkins and that Charles Hamilton Houston jurisprudence.
This makes facially neutral policies--like poll taxes and literacy tests--that we know were adopted for discriminatory purposes legal. Organizations can now simply claim there was no discriminatory intent regardless of outcome. It's unconstrained institutionalized racism.
They're just taking an ax to the Civil Rights Act
December 9, 2025 at 7:40 PM
Civil rights advocates need to take a hard look at Yick Wo v. Hopkins and that Charles Hamilton Houston jurisprudence.
I got to check off a big box on my career wish list.
I did an interview with @npr.org It's been a minute about fascism.
www.npr.org/2025/11/10/n...
I did an interview with @npr.org It's been a minute about fascism.
www.npr.org/2025/11/10/n...
How 'Fascism' became a meme : It's Been a Minute
The word "fascism" is being thrown around a lot right now. Does it capture our current cultural and political moment?Nearly 50% of Americans have associated President Trump with "fascism." Trump himse...
www.npr.org
November 11, 2025 at 5:06 PM
I got to check off a big box on my career wish list.
I did an interview with @npr.org It's been a minute about fascism.
www.npr.org/2025/11/10/n...
I did an interview with @npr.org It's been a minute about fascism.
www.npr.org/2025/11/10/n...
Adding this to my required readings when I cover politics.
My question for Dr. Jefferson: Do you think that Black American culture has a different definition of conservative compared to the canonical one that influences the low correlations?
My question for Dr. Jefferson: Do you think that Black American culture has a different definition of conservative compared to the canonical one that influences the low correlations?
Excellent write-up from my friends at @stanfordcddrl.bsky.social—my second home—on my article in @poqjournal.bsky.social that questions the validity of the canonical liberal–conservative measure for studying Black Americans’ political attitudes and behavior.
cddrl.fsi.stanford.edu/news/black-c...
cddrl.fsi.stanford.edu/news/black-c...
‘Black Conservatism’ and Familiarity with Ideological Concepts
CDDRL Research-in-Brief [4.5-minute read]
cddrl.fsi.stanford.edu
November 9, 2025 at 6:43 PM
Adding this to my required readings when I cover politics.
My question for Dr. Jefferson: Do you think that Black American culture has a different definition of conservative compared to the canonical one that influences the low correlations?
My question for Dr. Jefferson: Do you think that Black American culture has a different definition of conservative compared to the canonical one that influences the low correlations?
Bigotry corrupts everything it touches.
This includes ideologies, political parties, institutions, and communities.
Without exception, every entity that has tried to harness Bigotry for their own ends inevitably get taken over by bigots or implode under the strain of driving them out.
This includes ideologies, political parties, institutions, and communities.
Without exception, every entity that has tried to harness Bigotry for their own ends inevitably get taken over by bigots or implode under the strain of driving them out.
November 4, 2025 at 9:00 PM
Bigotry corrupts everything it touches.
This includes ideologies, political parties, institutions, and communities.
Without exception, every entity that has tried to harness Bigotry for their own ends inevitably get taken over by bigots or implode under the strain of driving them out.
This includes ideologies, political parties, institutions, and communities.
Without exception, every entity that has tried to harness Bigotry for their own ends inevitably get taken over by bigots or implode under the strain of driving them out.
It was inevitable that the left side of the political spectrum fight over "economic populism" vs "identity politics" was going to spill over into the actual political arena and how the political coalition holds or breaks.
In @nytopinion.nytimes.com
“Why do so many people feel the need to work so hard to redeem a man who had a Nazi tattoo?” our columnist Tressie McMillan Cottom writes.
“Why do so many people feel the need to work so hard to redeem a man who had a Nazi tattoo?” our columnist Tressie McMillan Cottom writes.
Opinion | A Nazi Tattoo Exposes Democrats’ Greatest Weakness
Do Democrats know what the working class actually looks like?
nyti.ms
October 30, 2025 at 11:04 PM
It was inevitable that the left side of the political spectrum fight over "economic populism" vs "identity politics" was going to spill over into the actual political arena and how the political coalition holds or breaks.
2 questions for @mattyglesias.bsky.social
Which civil rights are you willing to burn to recruit & keep bigots in the tent?
What happens when the only people left in the tent are bigots after the anti-bigots & the victims of compromises with bigots bail?
www.theargumentmag.com/p/bigots-in-...
Which civil rights are you willing to burn to recruit & keep bigots in the tent?
What happens when the only people left in the tent are bigots after the anti-bigots & the victims of compromises with bigots bail?
www.theargumentmag.com/p/bigots-in-...
Bigots in the tent
What did you think winning meant? vibes? papers? essays? losers.
www.theargumentmag.com
October 24, 2025 at 12:57 PM
2 questions for @mattyglesias.bsky.social
Which civil rights are you willing to burn to recruit & keep bigots in the tent?
What happens when the only people left in the tent are bigots after the anti-bigots & the victims of compromises with bigots bail?
www.theargumentmag.com/p/bigots-in-...
Which civil rights are you willing to burn to recruit & keep bigots in the tent?
What happens when the only people left in the tent are bigots after the anti-bigots & the victims of compromises with bigots bail?
www.theargumentmag.com/p/bigots-in-...
YEP.
An actual hot take: Too many authors are afraid of editors watering down their voice or whatever and not afraid enough of editors letting you put any old slop on the page.
October 9, 2025 at 12:36 AM
YEP.
If we go with the pop cultural definition of working class, which excludes post secondary education credentials, then every single trade school/vote graduate is not working class.
the going definition of "working class" seems to be whether or not one went to college. look I know we're not going to agree on here about what "working-class" is but can we all agree it's not that?
Trump’s 2024 coalition has already fallen apart. Polls show Trump has lost the young, Black, and Latino supporters he attracted in 2024, leaving him with the same old white working-class base.
October 2, 2025 at 7:18 PM
If we go with the pop cultural definition of working class, which excludes post secondary education credentials, then every single trade school/vote graduate is not working class.
Noah is correct here with bigotry.
People are more comfortable labeling bigots are ignorant than immoral because labeling something immoral requires direct opposition which is uncomfortable.
Ignorance simply requires instruction to be fixed.
People are more comfortable labeling bigots are ignorant than immoral because labeling something immoral requires direct opposition which is uncomfortable.
Ignorance simply requires instruction to be fixed.
for various reasons we're more comfortable labeling people as unintelligent than evil, and so we tend to assume the first causes the second but again that's mostly backwards.
October 2, 2025 at 5:35 PM
Noah is correct here with bigotry.
People are more comfortable labeling bigots are ignorant than immoral because labeling something immoral requires direct opposition which is uncomfortable.
Ignorance simply requires instruction to be fixed.
People are more comfortable labeling bigots are ignorant than immoral because labeling something immoral requires direct opposition which is uncomfortable.
Ignorance simply requires instruction to be fixed.
I did my first international public lecture about my book last week!
Special thanks to @bloomsburyacad.bsky.social for making the lecture and the book happen.
If you have an hour, check it out
"Hate is who I am: Bigotry as Identity Politics."
youtu.be/ypUKujG_c1w?...
Special thanks to @bloomsburyacad.bsky.social for making the lecture and the book happen.
If you have an hour, check it out
"Hate is who I am: Bigotry as Identity Politics."
youtu.be/ypUKujG_c1w?...
Bloomsbury Lecture-Nicholas Ensley Mitchell
YouTube video by Bloomsbury Academic
youtu.be
September 29, 2025 at 4:16 PM
I did my first international public lecture about my book last week!
Special thanks to @bloomsburyacad.bsky.social for making the lecture and the book happen.
If you have an hour, check it out
"Hate is who I am: Bigotry as Identity Politics."
youtu.be/ypUKujG_c1w?...
Special thanks to @bloomsburyacad.bsky.social for making the lecture and the book happen.
If you have an hour, check it out
"Hate is who I am: Bigotry as Identity Politics."
youtu.be/ypUKujG_c1w?...
I'm honored to be a part of the Bloomsbury lecture series.
I wrote On Bigotry for times like these and until we confront that bigotry is more than simple ignorance, we will never escape the shadow it casts over everything.
#academicsky
#booksky
#academia
#racism
#bigotry
I wrote On Bigotry for times like these and until we confront that bigotry is more than simple ignorance, we will never escape the shadow it casts over everything.
#academicsky
#booksky
#academia
#racism
#bigotry
Join us on Thursday 25 September for the next Bloomsbury Lecture, as Nicholas Ensley Mitchell explores how bigotry acts as an identity and a form of identity politics.
Sign up here: zoom.us/webinar/regi...
Sign up here: zoom.us/webinar/regi...
September 21, 2025 at 2:51 PM
I'm honored to be a part of the Bloomsbury lecture series.
I wrote On Bigotry for times like these and until we confront that bigotry is more than simple ignorance, we will never escape the shadow it casts over everything.
#academicsky
#booksky
#academia
#racism
#bigotry
I wrote On Bigotry for times like these and until we confront that bigotry is more than simple ignorance, we will never escape the shadow it casts over everything.
#academicsky
#booksky
#academia
#racism
#bigotry
Reposted by Nicholas Mitchell
Join us next Thursday, as Nicholas Ensley Mitchell talks about bigotry: how it works, how it spreads, and what we can do about it.
Register here:
https://bit.ly/42pc6bZ
Register here:
https://bit.ly/42pc6bZ
September 18, 2025 at 10:55 AM
Join us next Thursday, as Nicholas Ensley Mitchell talks about bigotry: how it works, how it spreads, and what we can do about it.
Register here:
https://bit.ly/42pc6bZ
Register here:
https://bit.ly/42pc6bZ
I wrote this book for times like this.
September 16, 2025 at 2:32 AM
I wrote this book for times like this.