sr_toliver
@srtoliver.bsky.social
Assistant Professor @ University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign | #Literacies, #EduSky, #AcademicSky, #BlackSky |she/her| Award-winning author (😆) | website: www.ReadingBlackFutures.com 💖💚
Reposted by sr_toliver
Do you imagine Black women to be aggressive ... violent... hyper sexual ... untoward... dominate... and domineering
Good only to be broken down and exploited by state resources ... severed to their pieces
and why is that your fantasy?
Good only to be broken down and exploited by state resources ... severed to their pieces
and why is that your fantasy?
January 22, 2026 at 2:56 PM
Do you imagine Black women to be aggressive ... violent... hyper sexual ... untoward... dominate... and domineering
Good only to be broken down and exploited by state resources ... severed to their pieces
and why is that your fantasy?
Good only to be broken down and exploited by state resources ... severed to their pieces
and why is that your fantasy?
Reposted by sr_toliver
A few months ago I was curious to know how much Anna's Archive was charging AI developers for access to their massive library of pirated works for training - so I emailed them saying I was interested in buying access.
Here is their reply.
🧵 1/n
Here is their reply.
🧵 1/n
January 22, 2026 at 10:34 AM
A few months ago I was curious to know how much Anna's Archive was charging AI developers for access to their massive library of pirated works for training - so I emailed them saying I was interested in buying access.
Here is their reply.
🧵 1/n
Here is their reply.
🧵 1/n
Reposted by sr_toliver
Keep saying Nazi Germany because it makes you feel good
This is an American issue and the reasons we don’t fight it are homegrown
This is an American issue and the reasons we don’t fight it are homegrown
January 22, 2026 at 2:14 PM
Keep saying Nazi Germany because it makes you feel good
This is an American issue and the reasons we don’t fight it are homegrown
This is an American issue and the reasons we don’t fight it are homegrown
Reposted by sr_toliver
‘SINNERS’ has broken history as the MOST-NOMINATED FILM OF ALL TIME at the Oscars with 16 nominations
See the full nominees list: bit.ly/OscarNoms26
See the full nominees list: bit.ly/OscarNoms26
January 22, 2026 at 1:53 PM
‘SINNERS’ has broken history as the MOST-NOMINATED FILM OF ALL TIME at the Oscars with 16 nominations
See the full nominees list: bit.ly/OscarNoms26
See the full nominees list: bit.ly/OscarNoms26
Reposted by sr_toliver
Well this is good news to start the day.
‘Sinners’ Scores 16 Nominations And Breaks Oscar Record
'Sinners' has scored 16 Oscar nominations, breaking the all-time record.
deadline.com
January 22, 2026 at 2:24 PM
Well this is good news to start the day.
Reposted by sr_toliver
His name is Liam Ramos, and he is 5. He was abducted from Minneapolis and trafficked to a detention camp in Texas.
This picture making the rounds on reddit, Columbia Heights. I'm not OK.
January 21, 2026 at 11:27 PM
His name is Liam Ramos, and he is 5. He was abducted from Minneapolis and trafficked to a detention camp in Texas.
Reposted by sr_toliver
What can trees teach us about history and legacy?🌳In an exclusive PEOPLE essay, Beronda Montgomery, ASPB Fellow, reflects on how trees bear witness to Black history, memory, and survival. people.com/beronda-mont...
#PlantScience
#PlantScience
Trees Connect Us with Our Ancestors. 'When Trees Testify' Explores the Powerful Link (Exclusive)
"We don’t have to just live with the memories of our ancestors," writes author Beronda L. Montgomery in an exclusive essay for PEOPLE in advance of her new book 'When Trees Testify,' out Jan. 20. "We ...
people.com
January 21, 2026 at 8:07 PM
What can trees teach us about history and legacy?🌳In an exclusive PEOPLE essay, Beronda Montgomery, ASPB Fellow, reflects on how trees bear witness to Black history, memory, and survival. people.com/beronda-mont...
#PlantScience
#PlantScience
Reposted by sr_toliver
Folks who recently navigated the academic #literacies job market, we need your expertise for our upcoming chat! Join us on Tuesday, Jan 27th. Looking forward to learning from @devonhs.bsky.social!
Ready for our next #literacies chat? Please join us in one week for our chat where we consider “Navigating the #literacies Job Market: Sustaining Practices for Academics” hosted by Dr. Hedrick-Shaw (Devon Hedrick-Shaw)!
January 21, 2026 at 7:44 PM
Folks who recently navigated the academic #literacies job market, we need your expertise for our upcoming chat! Join us on Tuesday, Jan 27th. Looking forward to learning from @devonhs.bsky.social!
Reposted by sr_toliver
You cannot overstate how startling it is to see a politician just say the thing with clarity and poise. No fearful hemming. No overwrought qualifying down til it’s meaningless. No lingering sense that there is a loyalty to a donor class or an ideology of stasis that they’d never admit to.
Mamdani: "I am in support of abolishing ICE. What we see is an entity that has no interest in fulfilling its stated reason to exist. We're seeing a government agency that is supposed to be enforcing some kind of immigration law, but instead what it's doing is terrorizing people."
January 20, 2026 at 6:17 PM
You cannot overstate how startling it is to see a politician just say the thing with clarity and poise. No fearful hemming. No overwrought qualifying down til it’s meaningless. No lingering sense that there is a loyalty to a donor class or an ideology of stasis that they’d never admit to.
Reposted by sr_toliver
“Being a student in Minneapolis right now can be really scary, because going to school is something that kids are so lucky to have,” she said. “The fact that our own government is keeping us from the schools that they provide and they want us to be at is scary, and it’s sad and it’s angering.”
May Minnesota's business leaders someday find the courage of our high school journalists:
www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...
www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...
‘My hands were really shaky’: high-school journalist documents ICE raids
Lila Dominguez was working on an article as agents came on to school grounds – their presence has jolted Minneapolis’s young people
www.theguardian.com
January 20, 2026 at 9:13 PM
“Being a student in Minneapolis right now can be really scary, because going to school is something that kids are so lucky to have,” she said. “The fact that our own government is keeping us from the schools that they provide and they want us to be at is scary, and it’s sad and it’s angering.”
Reposted by sr_toliver
That Baker lady is way less optimistic and thinks some real Truth and Reconciliation moves will be necessary
January 20, 2026 at 4:37 PM
That Baker lady is way less optimistic and thinks some real Truth and Reconciliation moves will be necessary
Reposted by sr_toliver
Fairly sure it’s unintentional, but the end date on this mug being sold by the Smithsonian does make it sound a little like they’re saying America dies in 2026…
January 19, 2026 at 9:04 PM
Fairly sure it’s unintentional, but the end date on this mug being sold by the Smithsonian does make it sound a little like they’re saying America dies in 2026…
Reposted by sr_toliver
Reposted by sr_toliver
This is, by itself, enough
“Trump is the first president not to issue an official proclamation recognizing Martin Luther King, Jr. Day since President Reagan made it a holiday.”
January 20, 2026 at 12:10 AM
This is, by itself, enough
Reposted by sr_toliver
Please consider adding alt text to posts with images as folx who rely on screen readers for vision loss deserve equitable access to information, and you can update your settings on BlueSky so that you cannot post images without alt text, so you are prompted to add it if you might otherwise forget! 🙏🏾
January 18, 2026 at 11:19 PM
Please consider adding alt text to posts with images as folx who rely on screen readers for vision loss deserve equitable access to information, and you can update your settings on BlueSky so that you cannot post images without alt text, so you are prompted to add it if you might otherwise forget! 🙏🏾
Reposted by sr_toliver
Many Americans are terrible neighbors to each other, and that is why MN is striking everyone as extraordinary activism... when they are telling us that it is not. They're good neighbors!
It's no wonder that "being a shitty neighbor" is the hallmark of our domestic politics and our foreign policy.
It's no wonder that "being a shitty neighbor" is the hallmark of our domestic politics and our foreign policy.
January 18, 2026 at 6:08 PM
Many Americans are terrible neighbors to each other, and that is why MN is striking everyone as extraordinary activism... when they are telling us that it is not. They're good neighbors!
It's no wonder that "being a shitty neighbor" is the hallmark of our domestic politics and our foreign policy.
It's no wonder that "being a shitty neighbor" is the hallmark of our domestic politics and our foreign policy.
Reposted by sr_toliver
There's a reason why Fred Rogers used the word "neighbor." The older I get, the more powerful I realize "being a good neighbor" is... and I'm not talking about some damn State Farm.
January 18, 2026 at 5:51 PM
There's a reason why Fred Rogers used the word "neighbor." The older I get, the more powerful I realize "being a good neighbor" is... and I'm not talking about some damn State Farm.
Reposted by sr_toliver
A lot of people were extremely angry about the accolades, the best sellers, the awards and especially jobs that went to people who in their view were only meant to be subjects of journalism not its authors. The genesis is closer to 2008 though bsky.app/profile/juda...
There was a similar flowering of Black American public intellectuals culminating in the 2016-2024 period, and I'd argue the anti-Woke backlash was in many ways a reaction to the threat this posed to the outclassed white punditocracy, for whom meritocracy and DEI hire was a way to disqualify them.
Just finished this right after having read @hofrench.bsky.social's Second Emancipation, and it convinced me that the African & African diaspora anti-colonial thinkers of the 1940-1975 period constituted one of the great intellectual movements in the history of humankind.
Second Enlightenment level.
Second Enlightenment level.
January 18, 2026 at 2:48 PM
A lot of people were extremely angry about the accolades, the best sellers, the awards and especially jobs that went to people who in their view were only meant to be subjects of journalism not its authors. The genesis is closer to 2008 though bsky.app/profile/juda...
Reposted by sr_toliver
Being required to present proof of citizenship to someone not required to present proof they're actually law enforcement is one hell of a dichotomy
January 17, 2026 at 1:17 AM
Being required to present proof of citizenship to someone not required to present proof they're actually law enforcement is one hell of a dichotomy
Reposted by sr_toliver
MAINE: ICE is expected to expand its presence in your state. Here’s what to do if you see the regime’s secret police.
January 16, 2026 at 7:39 PM
MAINE: ICE is expected to expand its presence in your state. Here’s what to do if you see the regime’s secret police.
Reposted by sr_toliver
Make America White Again is very clearly the slogan, the movement, and philosophy at work here and the press is still shy about asking about it
“a pair of asylum-seekers from Angola who handed over the keys to their apartment Wednesday and said they planned to head for the Canadian border.”
“a pair of asylum-seekers from Angola who handed over the keys to their apartment Wednesday and said they planned to head for the Canadian border.”
Immigrants prepare for their arrests and leave Lewiston ahead of ICE action
One property manager showed a reporter a form being passed around so undocumented parents could designate temporary guardians for their children in the event of their arrest.
www.bangordailynews.com
January 18, 2026 at 2:32 AM
Make America White Again is very clearly the slogan, the movement, and philosophy at work here and the press is still shy about asking about it
“a pair of asylum-seekers from Angola who handed over the keys to their apartment Wednesday and said they planned to head for the Canadian border.”
“a pair of asylum-seekers from Angola who handed over the keys to their apartment Wednesday and said they planned to head for the Canadian border.”
Reposted by sr_toliver
And if you truly have none, you can be the person you wish your ancestors were
Respectfully, I am going to whisper to some of our white comrades a truth that should be more widely known: You definitely have some ancestors to be proud of, ancestors who refused white supremacy, and poured out their lives in many of these struggles over time.
Time to claim your true history.
Time to claim your true history.
January 17, 2026 at 7:35 PM
And if you truly have none, you can be the person you wish your ancestors were
Reposted by sr_toliver
ICE raids are not the first time this was made explicit. I think people downplay how much Jim Crow was not just about controlling Black people but it was also about controlling white people. If you thought racism was dumb and acted that way you could end up with a bomb in your home
Just keep coming back to the fact that keeping people in a constant state of terror is a form of mass disablement and essential to the eugenic project that is the United States.
January 17, 2026 at 6:08 AM
ICE raids are not the first time this was made explicit. I think people downplay how much Jim Crow was not just about controlling Black people but it was also about controlling white people. If you thought racism was dumb and acted that way you could end up with a bomb in your home
Reposted by sr_toliver
For @msnownews.bsky.social, I wrote an article about how ICE Watch is grounded in sociological theories of violence prevention.
The reality is that most men will only commit public violence in extremely specific scenarios and ICE Watch disrupts the conditions necessary for escalation.
The reality is that most men will only commit public violence in extremely specific scenarios and ICE Watch disrupts the conditions necessary for escalation.
Opinion | I'm a Minneapolis sociologist who studies violence. Here's how ICE observers are helping.
Research into how violence occurs shows that disapproval from the people around you can help reduce it.
www.ms.now
January 16, 2026 at 6:55 PM
For @msnownews.bsky.social, I wrote an article about how ICE Watch is grounded in sociological theories of violence prevention.
The reality is that most men will only commit public violence in extremely specific scenarios and ICE Watch disrupts the conditions necessary for escalation.
The reality is that most men will only commit public violence in extremely specific scenarios and ICE Watch disrupts the conditions necessary for escalation.
Reposted by sr_toliver
Do faculty who taught through occupations in other cities (e.g. Portland, Chicago, LA), or who have developed materials for supporting students through horrors like those happening in MN, have resources to recommend? Assignments, readings, extracurricular plans, &c? Please share if you can!
January 15, 2026 at 7:38 PM
Do faculty who taught through occupations in other cities (e.g. Portland, Chicago, LA), or who have developed materials for supporting students through horrors like those happening in MN, have resources to recommend? Assignments, readings, extracurricular plans, &c? Please share if you can!