Krista Benson
@klinb.bsky.social
queer, feminist, abolitionist, anti-racist& -colonization white person. Sometimes reluctant academic. on Ojibwe,Odawa&Potawatomi land. they/them. views mine
https://www.routledge.com/Reproductive-Justice-Adoption-and-Foster-Care/Bakhru-Benson/
https://www.routledge.com/Reproductive-Justice-Adoption-and-Foster-Care/Bakhru-Benson/
Pinned
Krista Benson
@klinb.bsky.social
· May 5
Am I nonbinary? Or maybe I don’t have a gender, but I’m like a trickster fae? Everybody sees something and it’s mostly foreign and ill-fitting and sometimes it’s useful.
Reposted by Krista Benson
Woooooow, this is bad. Be gentle with your libraries, friends. They're going to be struggling with service for a bit.
www.404media.co/libraries-sc...
www.404media.co/libraries-sc...
Libraries Scramble for Books After Giant Distributor Shuts Down
Why it might have been and may continue to be harder to get new releases from your local library.
www.404media.co
October 31, 2025 at 9:56 AM
Woooooow, this is bad. Be gentle with your libraries, friends. They're going to be struggling with service for a bit.
www.404media.co/libraries-sc...
www.404media.co/libraries-sc...
Reposted by Krista Benson
You can, in fact, just do stuff. No permission needed. Have an idea? Execute it.
October 11, 2025 at 9:27 PM
You can, in fact, just do stuff. No permission needed. Have an idea? Execute it.
Reposted by Krista Benson
Sixty years ago, James Baldwin debated the racist William F. Buckley and laid out the reality of our country in clear terms that white Americans only recently discovered to be true.
This week at an event for THE PEOPLE’S PROJECT, a reader asked in a gracious and cheeky way what I would hope white readers in particular would get out of the book. Or more directly, what I would TELL white readers. And this was basically my answer:
African-Americans are experts on America.
African-Americans are experts on America.
America should listen to Black people
October 5, 2025 at 4:09 PM
Sixty years ago, James Baldwin debated the racist William F. Buckley and laid out the reality of our country in clear terms that white Americans only recently discovered to be true.
Reposted by Krista Benson
"They're politicians, what are they supposed to do? Literally fight in the streets?"
Unashamed to say this made me cry.
Unashamed to say this made me cry.
Karina Villa protecting her constituents by literally running ICE off the streets in West Chicago and yelling to residents to stay inside their homes.
September 16, 2025 at 8:11 PM
"They're politicians, what are they supposed to do? Literally fight in the streets?"
Unashamed to say this made me cry.
Unashamed to say this made me cry.
Reposted by Krista Benson
Writing teacher advice for Democratic strategists: Your audience is NEVER everyone, and acting as though it is will lead to generalities that appeal on average but not in specific. You find your audience through specificities. Relying heavily on polls and consultants leads to tepid messaging.
August 30, 2025 at 6:31 PM
Writing teacher advice for Democratic strategists: Your audience is NEVER everyone, and acting as though it is will lead to generalities that appeal on average but not in specific. You find your audience through specificities. Relying heavily on polls and consultants leads to tepid messaging.
Exploring and planning to potentially buy protein with a platonic friends maybe the most freeing thing I’ve ever explored?
August 11, 2025 at 1:34 AM
Exploring and planning to potentially buy protein with a platonic friends maybe the most freeing thing I’ve ever explored?
It’s rude to just post an unauthorized biography in about me like this. And in first person voice!
ME: Ugh. I need to clean up this corner and put way some shit. It will take FOREVER!
*finally puts on big girl panties and does it*
*in 10 minutes*
*finally puts on big girl panties and does it*
*in 10 minutes*
August 10, 2025 at 8:56 PM
It’s rude to just post an unauthorized biography in about me like this. And in first person voice!
Reposted by Krista Benson
Every single story you are hearing from the Everglades Concentration Camp has been and is already taking place in hundreds of prisons and jails in the U.S. That's what PIC abolitionists have been trying to get the public to understand for decades.
July 14, 2025 at 1:54 PM
Every single story you are hearing from the Everglades Concentration Camp has been and is already taking place in hundreds of prisons and jails in the U.S. That's what PIC abolitionists have been trying to get the public to understand for decades.
For the first time in 20+ years, I am single on a major American holiday. And it’s really illuminating to realize that no, I didn’t pretend to think that the Fourth of July was a terrible holiday that I don’t want to celebrate just for the other people I was around. I think this holiday sucks.
July 5, 2025 at 1:35 AM
For the first time in 20+ years, I am single on a major American holiday. And it’s really illuminating to realize that no, I didn’t pretend to think that the Fourth of July was a terrible holiday that I don’t want to celebrate just for the other people I was around. I think this holiday sucks.
NOBODY in my neighborhood seems to be actively celebrating the 4th. Saw some family barbecuing walking my dog, but no patriotic stuff around. Normally, I start hearing fireworks a week before before and after. I’ve heard almost nothing.
Is “who wants to celebrate the US” more widely held opinion?
Is “who wants to celebrate the US” more widely held opinion?
July 4, 2025 at 11:17 PM
NOBODY in my neighborhood seems to be actively celebrating the 4th. Saw some family barbecuing walking my dog, but no patriotic stuff around. Normally, I start hearing fireworks a week before before and after. I’ve heard almost nothing.
Is “who wants to celebrate the US” more widely held opinion?
Is “who wants to celebrate the US” more widely held opinion?
I haven’t been single in this Millenium. This will be interesting.
May 20, 2025 at 10:30 PM
I haven’t been single in this Millenium. This will be interesting.
Reposted by Krista Benson
Guys I can explain why for at least 1750 of those years.
Cardinal Robert Prevost, an American missionary who spent his career ministering in Peru and leads the Vatican’s powerful office of bishops, was elected the first US-born pope in the 2,000-year history of the Catholic Church.
He took the name Leo XIV. trib.al/hGS8mo9
He took the name Leo XIV. trib.al/hGS8mo9
May 8, 2025 at 6:42 PM
Guys I can explain why for at least 1750 of those years.
Reposted by Krista Benson
The other thing that I’ve been saying for years to scientists: all the DEI stuff y’all do? It has roots in Black studies and gender studies. The NSF ADVANCE program that has touched the life of every woman in American science? Gender studies roots. But folks had fuck all to say defending it. 🧪
May 9, 2025 at 12:36 PM
The other thing that I’ve been saying for years to scientists: all the DEI stuff y’all do? It has roots in Black studies and gender studies. The NSF ADVANCE program that has touched the life of every woman in American science? Gender studies roots. But folks had fuck all to say defending it. 🧪
Reposted by Krista Benson
Black studies could have taught you that your silence will not protect you. That’s an Audre Lorde reference.
You want to know how to fight authoritarianism? Black studies literally studies and teaches Black survival under authoritarian conditions. 🧪
You want to know how to fight authoritarianism? Black studies literally studies and teaches Black survival under authoritarian conditions. 🧪
May 9, 2025 at 12:29 PM
Black studies could have taught you that your silence will not protect you. That’s an Audre Lorde reference.
You want to know how to fight authoritarianism? Black studies literally studies and teaches Black survival under authoritarian conditions. 🧪
You want to know how to fight authoritarianism? Black studies literally studies and teaches Black survival under authoritarian conditions. 🧪
Reposted by Krista Benson
And the idea that there is nothing that the majority white scientific community could do to intervene in the rise of white supremacist attacks on Black studies *and* eventually American democracy is a complete evasion of responsibility.
May 9, 2025 at 12:25 PM
And the idea that there is nothing that the majority white scientific community could do to intervene in the rise of white supremacist attacks on Black studies *and* eventually American democracy is a complete evasion of responsibility.
Reposted by Krista Benson
The attitude that scientists took — that they were taken care of so they didn’t need to worry about the conservative attacks on their colleagues and liberal complicity with them — has not worked out well, has it? It’s almost like there’s a whole fucking poem about this, actually
May 9, 2025 at 12:24 PM
The attitude that scientists took — that they were taken care of so they didn’t need to worry about the conservative attacks on their colleagues and liberal complicity with them — has not worked out well, has it? It’s almost like there’s a whole fucking poem about this, actually
Reposted by Krista Benson
Thanks for asking Lynne. A group of us called on scientists & orgs like AAAS, AAS, and APS to start actively defending academic freedom, which could have included educating their constituencies & lawmakers about the risks associated with these attacks. As educators, the least we can do is educate. 🧪
And done what??
May 9, 2025 at 12:22 PM
Thanks for asking Lynne. A group of us called on scientists & orgs like AAAS, AAS, and APS to start actively defending academic freedom, which could have included educating their constituencies & lawmakers about the risks associated with these attacks. As educators, the least we can do is educate. 🧪
Am I nonbinary? Or maybe I don’t have a gender, but I’m like a trickster fae? Everybody sees something and it’s mostly foreign and ill-fitting and sometimes it’s useful.
May 5, 2025 at 3:34 AM
Am I nonbinary? Or maybe I don’t have a gender, but I’m like a trickster fae? Everybody sees something and it’s mostly foreign and ill-fitting and sometimes it’s useful.
Reposted by Krista Benson
You don’t have to love or even like people to work with them effectively. I don’t think there will be one effective strategy of resistance against Trump; I think there will be MANY. An overwhelming rainbow of pushback and outrage.
But again, I ain’t saying nothing. I’m minding my business.
But again, I ain’t saying nothing. I’m minding my business.
April 6, 2025 at 3:16 PM
You don’t have to love or even like people to work with them effectively. I don’t think there will be one effective strategy of resistance against Trump; I think there will be MANY. An overwhelming rainbow of pushback and outrage.
But again, I ain’t saying nothing. I’m minding my business.
But again, I ain’t saying nothing. I’m minding my business.
Reposted by Krista Benson
The thing about ACT UP, as Sarah Schulman notes, is that there wasn’t time for protracted disagreements over strategy; people were dying of AIDS left and right.
SO, if some folks want to do X strategy for a protest but you wanted to do Y, ACT UP’s approach was to say “you do X and I’ll do Y.”
SO, if some folks want to do X strategy for a protest but you wanted to do Y, ACT UP’s approach was to say “you do X and I’ll do Y.”
April 6, 2025 at 3:14 PM
The thing about ACT UP, as Sarah Schulman notes, is that there wasn’t time for protracted disagreements over strategy; people were dying of AIDS left and right.
SO, if some folks want to do X strategy for a protest but you wanted to do Y, ACT UP’s approach was to say “you do X and I’ll do Y.”
SO, if some folks want to do X strategy for a protest but you wanted to do Y, ACT UP’s approach was to say “you do X and I’ll do Y.”
Reposted by Krista Benson
I’m not going to tell people how to feel about protests… at least not today.
Instead, I’ll recommend Sarah Schulman’s book about ACT UP. It’s not just a history of the organization; she also talks strategy in a very practical way, especially regard coalitions.
Instead, I’ll recommend Sarah Schulman’s book about ACT UP. It’s not just a history of the organization; she also talks strategy in a very practical way, especially regard coalitions.
Let the Record Show: A Political History of ACT UP New York, 1987-1993
A Political History of ACT UP New York, 1987-1993
bookshop.org
April 6, 2025 at 3:10 PM
I’m not going to tell people how to feel about protests… at least not today.
Instead, I’ll recommend Sarah Schulman’s book about ACT UP. It’s not just a history of the organization; she also talks strategy in a very practical way, especially regard coalitions.
Instead, I’ll recommend Sarah Schulman’s book about ACT UP. It’s not just a history of the organization; she also talks strategy in a very practical way, especially regard coalitions.