Robin L Turner
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Robin L Turner
@robinlturnerphd.blacksky.app
1.4K followers 850 following 480 posts
Mostly a reskeeter. tradition, gender, land tenure, and resource politics in Southern Africa. I block would be followers without profiles.
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Reposted by Robin L Turner
cantb.bsky.social
From Stanford to Gallup, nearly every organization that produces good information about anything of importance is in one way or another beholden to federal contracts. They are also deeply connected to elite political and economic networks thorough interlocking directorates and affiliations.
February 11, 2026 at 9:16 PM
Reposted by Robin L Turner
bakerdphd.bsky.social
Oh good, my existential spiral could use more grist for its mill
cantb.bsky.social Brendan Cantwell @cantb.bsky.social · 17h
From Stanford to Gallup, nearly every organization that produces good information about anything of importance is in one way or another beholden to federal contracts. They are also deeply connected to elite political and economic networks thorough interlocking directorates and affiliations.
February 11, 2026 at 9:19 PM
Reposted by Robin L Turner
markanthonyneal.bsky.social
A White Historian Claimed That Black People ‘Had No History.’ This Trailblazing Scholar Dedicated His Life to Proving Otherwise

Carter G. Woodson, the “father of Black history,” founded the celebration now known as #BlackHistoryMonth in 1926.
www.smithsonianmag.com/smithsonian-...
A White Historian Claimed That Black People 'Had No History.' This Trailblazing Scholar Dedicated His Life to Proving Otherwise
Carter G. Woodson, the "father of Black history," founded the celebration now known as Black History Month in 1926. A prolific writer and activist, he viewed his efforts to educate the public as a "li...
www.smithsonianmag.com
February 11, 2026 at 9:23 PM
Reposted by Robin L Turner
chanda.blacksky.app
this is a level of complicity that had not occurred to me
phillewis.bsky.social Phil Lewis @phillewis.bsky.social · 19h
Gallup will no longer measure presidential approval after 88 years thehill.com/homenews/med...
A photo of gallup
February 11, 2026 at 7:28 PM
Reposted by Robin L Turner
johnedwinmason.bsky.social
It was yesterday, now. But we're still celebrating the woman who owed one of the greatest voices in opera history. 99 and still with us.
February 11, 2026 at 10:14 PM
Reposted by Robin L Turner
markanthonyneal.bsky.social
UNC Administrators Can Now Secretly Record Faculty

The new policy prohibits students from recording class without permission but explicitly allows administrators to surveil professors for any “lawful purpose.
www.insidehighered.com/news/faculty...
UNC Admin Can Now, Officially, Secretly Record Faculty
The new policy prohibits students from recording class without permission but explicitly allows administrators to surveil professors for any “lawful purpose.”
www.insidehighered.com
February 11, 2026 at 10:14 PM
Reposted by Robin L Turner
sgbuggs.bsky.social
that the Black folks telling you to leave AI alone largely don’t have the kinds of platforms that allow everyday people to hear them is a different thing entirely
February 11, 2026 at 10:56 PM
Reposted by Robin L Turner
olufemiotaiwo.bsky.social
DC statehood yesterday
mjsdc.bsky.social Mark Joseph Stern @mjsdc.bsky.social · 16h
Congressional Republicans are going to deprive D.C. of $700 million in revenue and repeal a local program projected to reduce child poverty by 20 percent, solely to spite District residents and make us suffer. They’re also throwing our tax filing into utter chaos. This is a disaster.
February 11, 2026 at 11:16 PM
Reposted by Robin L Turner
nkalamb.bsky.social
"Palestinian witnesses have reported that some prisoners were alive at the time they were taken for organ extraction. In one batch of bodies, the organs removed were those commonly transplanted: heart, liver, lungs... Here, the surgeon acts as—is—a soldier."

I'm honestly speechless.
Examining the bodies returned to their people after the most recent so-called ceasefire, Palestinian doctors noted that, in some bodies “the rib cage and ribs were clipped with a sharp saw—a medical saw, a bone saw—and the sternum, along with the central part of the ribs, [were] lifted to allow for the removal of the heart and lungs without damage to the organ being taken.” Organ procurement, with few exceptions like skin and cornea, requires that the body be either alive—via brain death—or just-dead—via circulatory death. It is plausible that some Palestinian prisoners’ torture led to brain death. It is also possible their torturers felt no need to wait. Palestinian witnesses have reported that some prisoners were alive at the time they were taken for organ extraction. In one batch of bodies, the organs removed were those commonly transplanted: heart, liver, lungs. The transplant surgeon waits for a person to die; the soldier can’t. The settler surgeon wields his mastery over the body to serve the state. Here, the surgeon acts as—is—a soldier.
February 11, 2026 at 5:45 PM
Reposted by Robin L Turner
hystericalblkns.bsky.social
Unbearable.
nkalamb.bsky.social Nathan Kalman-Lamb @nkalamb.bsky.social · 21h
"Palestinian witnesses have reported that some prisoners were alive at the time they were taken for organ extraction. In one batch of bodies, the organs removed were those commonly transplanted: heart, liver, lungs... Here, the surgeon acts as—is—a soldier."

I'm honestly speechless.
Examining the bodies returned to their people after the most recent so-called ceasefire, Palestinian doctors noted that, in some bodies “the rib cage and ribs were clipped with a sharp saw—a medical saw, a bone saw—and the sternum, along with the central part of the ribs, [were] lifted to allow for the removal of the heart and lungs without damage to the organ being taken.” Organ procurement, with few exceptions like skin and cornea, requires that the body be either alive—via brain death—or just-dead—via circulatory death. It is plausible that some Palestinian prisoners’ torture led to brain death. It is also possible their torturers felt no need to wait. Palestinian witnesses have reported that some prisoners were alive at the time they were taken for organ extraction. In one batch of bodies, the organs removed were those commonly transplanted: heart, liver, lungs. The transplant surgeon waits for a person to die; the soldier can’t. The settler surgeon wields his mastery over the body to serve the state. Here, the surgeon acts as—is—a soldier.
February 11, 2026 at 11:23 PM
Reposted by Robin L Turner
fractalecho.bsky.social
Basically there are not objective ways to determine if something is AI, which is why neurodivergent students and students with international English or English as a second language keep getting falsely accused. The suspicion is triggered by an implicit sense of otherness.
February 12, 2026 at 12:24 AM
Reposted by Robin L Turner
joshsternberg.com
OpenAI fired one of its top safety execs, on the grounds of sexual discrimination, after she voiced opposition to the controversial rollout of AI erotica in its ChatGPT product.

OpenAI told her the term was related to her sexual discrimination against a male colleague.

www.wsj.com/tech/ai/open...
Exclusive | OpenAI Executive Who Opposed ‘Adult Mode’ Fired for Sexual Discrimination
Ryan Beiermeister, who served as the vice president leading OpenAI’s product policy team, had raised concerns about the upcoming launch of erotic content.
www.wsj.com
February 11, 2026 at 9:48 PM
Reposted by Robin L Turner
isasaxonists.bsky.social
Day 11: Early Modern Black Voyagers🧶

This colorway is inspired by an anonymous Black nobleman depicted in "Merchant Receiving a Moor in the Harbour," a Dutch painting by Nicolaes Berchem (1620–1683), c. 1650. The term “Moor” in premodern Europe was not a fixed or singular identity: it
#yarnsky
1/6
A skein of hand-dyed yarn held outdoors against a blurred green background. The yarn transitions in a smooth gradient from golden yellow at the top through burnt orange, deep vermillion red, and into dark indigo and violet at the base. Beside it is a cropped detail from a 17th-century Dutch painting showing a richly dressed Black man wearing a golden turban, indigo tunic, and deep red robe, standing in a harbor scene. An angled line of skeins of hand-dyed yarn with flowers scattered over top. The background are several open skeins of the same colorful yarn. The yarn transitions in a smooth gradient from golden yellow at the top through burnt orange, deep vermillion red, and into dark indigo and violet at the base. Beside the line of skeins is a cropped detail from a 17th-century Dutch painting showing a richly dressed Black man wearing a golden turban, indigo tunic, and deep red robe, standing in a harbor scene. 3 angled lines of skeins of hand-dyed yarn with flowers scattered over top. The yarn transitions in a smooth gradient from golden yellow at the top through burnt orange, deep vermillion red, and into dark indigo and violet at the base.
February 12, 2026 at 12:23 AM
Reposted by Robin L Turner
arrianna-planey.bsky.social
A poll tax that disproportionately affects women and/or trans people
19thnews.org 19thnews @19thnews.org · 14h
The House has passed the SAVE America Act, which would implement strict limitations on voter registration and casting a ballot — including new rules that could make it more difficult for married women or LGBTQ+ people to register if they’ve changed their names.
House passes elections overhaul bill that could make it harder for married women to vote
The bill faces an uphill battle in the Senate, where a handful of Republicans have expressed concern about implementing the provisions.
19thnews.org
February 12, 2026 at 12:32 AM
Reposted by Robin L Turner
mguariglia.bsky.social
It's the same reason why Flock started selling to HOAs but always offered local PD's a free platform for requesting their ALPR data---police have deep pockets, they literally do not care of the technology is faulty or doesn't produce safety, and they become your best salespeople.
February 12, 2026 at 12:46 AM
Reposted by Robin L Turner
dell.bsky.social
Ring is first and foremost a scheme to charge Amazon customers to deter crime that costs Amazon (not the customers themselves) billions annually in refunds, returns, double shipping, and customer service overhead.
February 12, 2026 at 12:41 AM
Reposted by Robin L Turner
owasow.bsky.social
The wealthy dominate political donations. My co-authored research found the top 0.1% contribute at rates 10-15x higher than bottom 90%. They’re not just more likely to donate, they give exponentially more per capita. The wealth gradient in politics is real. cup.org/4cfm0Az
Figure 1 from the paper shows the Association between Percentile Wealth Bins (x-Axis) and: (a) Contribution Rate, (b) per Capita Contribution Amount. Figure 1 presents two plots. Panel (a) displays the percentage of donors in each wealth rank that contributed to each of the six campaigns (i.e., Democratic and Republican nominees in 2012, 2016, and 2020).Footnote 17 Panel (b) displays the per capita dollars from each wealth bin, by campaign (including those who donate nothing). As Figure 1 shows, the association between wealth and contributions is approximately exponential. The wealthiest are much more likely to contribute, and the wealth gradient is even steeper in dollars because the top 0.1% contribute very large sums. This is one of the most robust findings in the campaign finance literature, but the figure demonstrates it with considerably more precision. By measuring wealth independently of contribution size, we avoid misattributing smaller contributions to non-wealthy donors and underestimating wealthy dollars. Most relevant to our analysis, Figure 1 compares the wealth gradients for Trump versus other candidates. In 2016, compared to other candidates, Trump’s wealth gradient is far flatter, because Trump elicited far fewer wealthy contributors and per capita dollars. For example, among the top 0.1%, Trump’s donors and per capita dollars represent about one third of Romney’s. While Trump did worse than all other candidates among nearly all wealth groups, that deficit was larger among the wealthy. In short, in 2016, wealthy donations to Trump are low compared to other presidential candidates. In 2020, Trump’s performance among the wealthy improved considerably over 2016 (Figure 1). Consider donation rates (Panel a). Among the wealthiest 0.1%, for example, Trump roughly doubled his rate, though he still significantly lagged Biden and Romney. He did even better in per capita dollars (Panel b) than in rates. Open access link to paper: http://cup.org/4cfm0Az
February 12, 2026 at 4:17 AM
Reposted by Robin L Turner
owasow.bsky.social
“When Citizens United was decided in 2010, billionaires had spent $18 million on the 2000 election, $13M 2004 and $16M in 2008. Then came the deluge. In 2012 it was $231M, and nearly doubled again in next three election cycles —to $682M in 2016, $1.2 billion in 2020 and $2.6 billion in 2024.” Gift:
Opinion | Affordability and the ‘Epstein Class’ Will Define American Politics
www.nytimes.com
February 12, 2026 at 1:57 AM
Reposted by Robin L Turner
shengokai.blacksky.app
"...if you’re not victims when the government which you’ve voted for, when the army in which your younger brothers are serving without hesitation or remorse have undertaken race murder, you are, without a shadow of doubt, executioners."

- Jean-Paul Sartre, Introduction to "Wretched of the Earth"
February 12, 2026 at 3:36 AM
Reposted by Robin L Turner
shengokai.blacksky.app
"Why can't we have a calm discussion about AI?"

Because folks don't actually want to discuss AI, they want blind submission to the ideological structures that motivate the contemporary use cases and deployments of AI. They don't want to hear the concerns except to dismiss them out of hand.
February 12, 2026 at 3:39 AM
alt text in reply below 👇🏽
aisling206.bsky.social Y’allsey @aisling206.bsky.social · 13h
I’m not shocked, but damn. Hurts a little.
February 12, 2026 at 2:00 PM
Reposted by Robin L Turner
jean23bean.bsky.social
this is a great ad.
janetmillsforme.bsky.social Janet Mills @janetmillsforme.bsky.social · 1d
Thirty years of concern. Never enough courage.
February 12, 2026 at 4:26 AM
Reposted by Robin L Turner
shengokai.blacksky.app
When this question is phrased "why are Black people mean to me for asking questions," I respond by explaining that many marginalized communities have developed defensive responses to oppressor adjacent folks, or "guilty until proven innocent," to survive a relentless context of oppressive violence.
February 12, 2026 at 5:18 AM
Reposted by Robin L Turner
shengokai.blacksky.app
First of all, the devil doesn't need advocates. It's the fucking devil. Why would you even HELP the devil?

Second, I'm EXTREMELY suspicious of this framing. Like, literally uttered "what the fuck" as I read it.
banrion6.bsky.social Emily @banrion6.bsky.social · 9h
playing devil's advocate, but the trans community is unique in that just asking questions (i.e being curious) or holding anything less than full support for all demands immediately qualifies you as a transphobe. Some trans demands are ethical issues, they affect other people besides the trans person
February 12, 2026 at 5:18 AM
Reposted by Robin L Turner
dytsras.bsky.social
9. Also you must know, the laws during Jim Crow never explicitly said that Black people couldn't vote.

That was illegal.

What they did was create "race neutral statutes" that *just so happened* to mostly affect Black people
February 12, 2026 at 1:23 AM