Sarah Dempsey
@sarahdempsey.bsky.social
Gardening enthusiast and Associate Prof, critical organizational communication, UNC-Chapel Hill. Discourse, power, work, labor, wages, food politics & community based organizing
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Sarah Dempsey
@sarahdempsey.bsky.social
· Nov 17
One of the all-time UNC greats getting rewards at the Dean Dome. So proud!! 🥰
😍
Reposted by Sarah Dempsey
I really appreciate that @pbsnews.org ended the interview with this graphic.
It captures, in the simplest and starkest terms, the brutal arithmetic driving this country's homelessness catastrophe.
It captures, in the simplest and starkest terms, the brutal arithmetic driving this country's homelessness catastrophe.
November 30, 2025 at 1:33 AM
I really appreciate that @pbsnews.org ended the interview with this graphic.
It captures, in the simplest and starkest terms, the brutal arithmetic driving this country's homelessness catastrophe.
It captures, in the simplest and starkest terms, the brutal arithmetic driving this country's homelessness catastrophe.
Reposted by Sarah Dempsey
As of this morning, Starbucks workers across the country are officially ON STRIKE. And we're prepared for this to become the biggest and longest ULP strike in Starbucks history.
Say #NoContractNoCoffee with us: DON'T BUY STARBUCKS for the duration of our open-ended ULP strike! $SBUX
Say #NoContractNoCoffee with us: DON'T BUY STARBUCKS for the duration of our open-ended ULP strike! $SBUX
November 13, 2025 at 11:33 AM
As of this morning, Starbucks workers across the country are officially ON STRIKE. And we're prepared for this to become the biggest and longest ULP strike in Starbucks history.
Say #NoContractNoCoffee with us: DON'T BUY STARBUCKS for the duration of our open-ended ULP strike! $SBUX
Say #NoContractNoCoffee with us: DON'T BUY STARBUCKS for the duration of our open-ended ULP strike! $SBUX
Reposted by Sarah Dempsey
SNAP benefits are currently being held hostage by the Trump administration and their fate now lies with the Supreme Court.
Beneath the legal arguments are real people who simply need food—a former federal worker, a single mother of 4, a disabled man. I spoke to them. Here are their stories:
Beneath the legal arguments are real people who simply need food—a former federal worker, a single mother of 4, a disabled man. I spoke to them. Here are their stories:
The voices of SNAP
Recipients have become political pawns. They explained, in their own words, what Trump withholding funds has been like.
www.thehandbasket.co
November 8, 2025 at 3:08 PM
SNAP benefits are currently being held hostage by the Trump administration and their fate now lies with the Supreme Court.
Beneath the legal arguments are real people who simply need food—a former federal worker, a single mother of 4, a disabled man. I spoke to them. Here are their stories:
Beneath the legal arguments are real people who simply need food—a former federal worker, a single mother of 4, a disabled man. I spoke to them. Here are their stories:
Reposted by Sarah Dempsey
With millions at risk of losing SNAP in the coming days, a reminder: hunger doesn't happen in isolation. When food assistance disappears, families use rent money to eat. Then come evictions and homelessness.
Housing, food, healthcare—it's all connected. Cut one thread and the whole thing unravels.
Housing, food, healthcare—it's all connected. Cut one thread and the whole thing unravels.
October 24, 2025 at 12:26 PM
With millions at risk of losing SNAP in the coming days, a reminder: hunger doesn't happen in isolation. When food assistance disappears, families use rent money to eat. Then come evictions and homelessness.
Housing, food, healthcare—it's all connected. Cut one thread and the whole thing unravels.
Housing, food, healthcare—it's all connected. Cut one thread and the whole thing unravels.
Reposted by Sarah Dempsey
NC Health News reports: More than 1.4 million NC residents rely on food assistance monthly, state leaders and market advocates warn of rising pressure if federal cuts take hold.
www.wunc.org/term/news/20...
www.wunc.org/term/news/20...
NC farmers, local markets caught in SNAP policy crosshairs
More than 1.4 million NC residents rely on food assistance monthly, state leaders and market advocates warn of rising pressure if federal cuts take hold.
www.wunc.org
October 7, 2025 at 5:22 PM
NC Health News reports: More than 1.4 million NC residents rely on food assistance monthly, state leaders and market advocates warn of rising pressure if federal cuts take hold.
www.wunc.org/term/news/20...
www.wunc.org/term/news/20...
Reposted by Sarah Dempsey
I'm going to restrict myself to one (two part) comment, which is:
1) the entire range runs from execs making 290x what their workers make to execs making 350x what their workers make, and
2) this should frame everything else such execs encourage you to be mad about
1) the entire range runs from execs making 290x what their workers make to execs making 350x what their workers make, and
2) this should frame everything else such execs encourage you to be mad about
C.E.O. pay increased last year, and the disparity with what employees are paid is the highest since companies began reporting this measure.
www.nytimes.com/2025/06/06/b...
www.nytimes.com/2025/06/06/b...
June 15, 2025 at 8:43 PM
I'm going to restrict myself to one (two part) comment, which is:
1) the entire range runs from execs making 290x what their workers make to execs making 350x what their workers make, and
2) this should frame everything else such execs encourage you to be mad about
1) the entire range runs from execs making 290x what their workers make to execs making 350x what their workers make, and
2) this should frame everything else such execs encourage you to be mad about
Bill restricting NC cities and counties from adopting guaranteed income programs advances ncnewsline.com/briefs/bill-...
Bill restricting NC cities and counties from adopting guaranteed income programs advances • NC Newsline
House committee moves bill prohibiting cities and counties from adopting guaranteed income programs unless authorized by law.
ncnewsline.com
April 29, 2025 at 5:36 PM
Bill restricting NC cities and counties from adopting guaranteed income programs advances ncnewsline.com/briefs/bill-...
Reposted by Sarah Dempsey
ELIE MYSTAL: “This is what fascism looks like. I don’t know what y’all expected it to look like… People are being abducted and disappeared from our streets. These people haven’t even been charged in court.” 🇺🇸
April 1, 2025 at 8:01 PM
ELIE MYSTAL: “This is what fascism looks like. I don’t know what y’all expected it to look like… People are being abducted and disappeared from our streets. These people haven’t even been charged in court.” 🇺🇸
Reposted by Sarah Dempsey
“This will go down as one of the darkest days in modern scientific history” 🧪 www.nature.com/articles/d41...
‘One of the darkest days’: NIH purges agency leadership amid mass layoffs
In shock move, four institute directors at the US biomedical agency are removed from their posts.
www.nature.com
April 1, 2025 at 9:31 PM
“This will go down as one of the darkest days in modern scientific history” 🧪 www.nature.com/articles/d41...
Reposted by Sarah Dempsey
It's more "efficient" for billionaires and big corporations to rely on women to be our safety net than to build a real one, instead.
March 20, 2025 at 11:07 PM
It's more "efficient" for billionaires and big corporations to rely on women to be our safety net than to build a real one, instead.
Reposted by Sarah Dempsey
I'm old enough to remember back in the early 2020s when the US federal government provided free breakfast & lunch to children at all public schools for like two whole years, and also expanded the child tax credit causing child poverty across the entire country from sea to shining sea to fall by half
“Childhood hunger in the U.S. is solvable. There is no shortage of food, only of moral courage. But it shouldn’t require much courage to speak up on behalf of kids,” writes @billshore.bsky.social in an op-ed.
Op-ed: Food and Moral Courage Are Needed to End Childhood Hunger
Studies have documented the advantages to kids, schools, and the economy when students receive nutritious school meals.
buff.ly
March 20, 2025 at 11:05 PM
I'm old enough to remember back in the early 2020s when the US federal government provided free breakfast & lunch to children at all public schools for like two whole years, and also expanded the child tax credit causing child poverty across the entire country from sea to shining sea to fall by half
Reposted by Sarah Dempsey
We're excited to see this and many other awesome signs on streets around the country today!
It's not too late to join us! Find your event on apwu.org/day-of-action
It's not too late to join us! Find your event on apwu.org/day-of-action
March 20, 2025 at 3:19 PM
We're excited to see this and many other awesome signs on streets around the country today!
It's not too late to join us! Find your event on apwu.org/day-of-action
It's not too late to join us! Find your event on apwu.org/day-of-action
Reposted by Sarah Dempsey
I spoke with @audiosand.bsky.social for @npr.org All Things Considered about the fact that the "Anti-DEI" movement is an anti-Civil Rights Movement.
www.npr.org/2025/03/17/n...
www.npr.org/2025/03/17/n...
Experts worry that DEIA bans are part of a push to undo the 1964 Civil Rights Act
Civil rights experts worry bans on DEIA in education and government are part of a larger, ongoing push to undo the country's 1964 Civil Rights Act.
www.npr.org
March 18, 2025 at 1:46 PM
I spoke with @audiosand.bsky.social for @npr.org All Things Considered about the fact that the "Anti-DEI" movement is an anti-Civil Rights Movement.
www.npr.org/2025/03/17/n...
www.npr.org/2025/03/17/n...
Reposted by Sarah Dempsey
You know what stories I would like to read and hear about?
People who have been pushed even more to the left/progressive/ Dem socialist side after the last several years-- and after everything happening with the Dem establishment now.
People who have been pushed even more to the left/progressive/ Dem socialist side after the last several years-- and after everything happening with the Dem establishment now.
March 15, 2025 at 2:28 PM
You know what stories I would like to read and hear about?
People who have been pushed even more to the left/progressive/ Dem socialist side after the last several years-- and after everything happening with the Dem establishment now.
People who have been pushed even more to the left/progressive/ Dem socialist side after the last several years-- and after everything happening with the Dem establishment now.
Reposted by Sarah Dempsey
USDA cancels $11 million in federal funding for North Carolina food banks
www.wunc.org/news/2025-03...
www.wunc.org/news/2025-03...
USDA cancels $11 million in federal funding for North Carolina food banks
The USDA has notified the North Carolina Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services that it would terminate the agreement for the Local Food Purchase Assistance Program, which is one of the progr...
www.wunc.org
March 15, 2025 at 2:15 AM
USDA cancels $11 million in federal funding for North Carolina food banks
www.wunc.org/news/2025-03...
www.wunc.org/news/2025-03...
Reposted by Sarah Dempsey
"The fact is, the battle over “DEI” has always been a fight about labor, work, and who has access to the jobs and political institutions that build and protect wealth. If we ever forgot that, we’re learning it again now."
me for @slate.bsky.social
slate.com/news-and-pol...
me for @slate.bsky.social
slate.com/news-and-pol...
Why Corporate DEI Is Such a Perfect Target for Trump
It’s an attack on labor. But he can frame it as something else.
slate.com
March 10, 2025 at 11:34 AM
"The fact is, the battle over “DEI” has always been a fight about labor, work, and who has access to the jobs and political institutions that build and protect wealth. If we ever forgot that, we’re learning it again now."
me for @slate.bsky.social
slate.com/news-and-pol...
me for @slate.bsky.social
slate.com/news-and-pol...
Reposted by Sarah Dempsey
Bloody Sunday was 60 years ago. It’s not ancient history.
March 7, 2025 at 10:21 PM
Bloody Sunday was 60 years ago. It’s not ancient history.
Reposted by Sarah Dempsey
Trump yesterday, repeating something he’s been saying for years (re: tariffs, which he said would make the US “rich’): “it’s going to stop us from being a laughingstock all over the world because we have been taken advantage of like no country has been taken advantage of.” Let’s unpack this a bit./1
February 28, 2025 at 1:16 PM
Trump yesterday, repeating something he’s been saying for years (re: tariffs, which he said would make the US “rich’): “it’s going to stop us from being a laughingstock all over the world because we have been taken advantage of like no country has been taken advantage of.” Let’s unpack this a bit./1
Reposted by Sarah Dempsey
Boycotts work. For my nerds, a cultural studies approach to thinking about points of intervention in the circuit of culture: Contextualizing Boycotts and Buycotts: The Impure Politics of Consumer-Based Advocacy in an Age of Global Ecological Crises doi.org/10.1080/1479...
Contextualizing Boycotts and Buycotts: The Impure Politics of Consumer-Based Advocacy in an Age of Global Ecological Crises
Despite their popularity and significance, there is a paucity of communication scholarship on boycotts and buycotts. This absence may be due to an erroneous assumption that such tactics are merely ...
doi.org
February 28, 2025 at 12:54 PM
Boycotts work. For my nerds, a cultural studies approach to thinking about points of intervention in the circuit of culture: Contextualizing Boycotts and Buycotts: The Impure Politics of Consumer-Based Advocacy in an Age of Global Ecological Crises doi.org/10.1080/1479...
Reposted by Sarah Dempsey
1. OSHA has ordered the digital and physical destruction of 18 publications on workplace safety practices, according to an email obtained by Popular Information.
The email says the publications have been removed from the web and tells staff that physical copies should be "disposed of or recycled"
The email says the publications have been removed from the web and tells staff that physical copies should be "disposed of or recycled"
In botched DEI purge, OSHA trashes workplace safety guidelines
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has ordered the digital and physical destruction of 18 publications on workplace safety practices, according to an internal February 7 email ob...
popular.info
February 17, 2025 at 1:19 PM
1. OSHA has ordered the digital and physical destruction of 18 publications on workplace safety practices, according to an email obtained by Popular Information.
The email says the publications have been removed from the web and tells staff that physical copies should be "disposed of or recycled"
The email says the publications have been removed from the web and tells staff that physical copies should be "disposed of or recycled"
Reposted by Sarah Dempsey
The NAACP is re-mixing 1930s-era "don't buy where you can't work" campaigns to confront the neo-segregationists targeting DEI.
apnews.com/article/blac...
apnews.com/article/blac...
NAACP lists companies that dump DEI in its tactical spending guide for Black Americans
The NAACP wants Black Americans to steer their buying power toward corporations that haven’t pulled back from diversity programs under conservative pressure.
apnews.com
February 16, 2025 at 12:52 PM
The NAACP is re-mixing 1930s-era "don't buy where you can't work" campaigns to confront the neo-segregationists targeting DEI.
apnews.com/article/blac...
apnews.com/article/blac...
Reposted by Sarah Dempsey
@haymarketbooks.org presents an Emergency Town Hall on Presidents Day featuring @naomiaklein.bsky.social @astra.bsky.social @keeanga.bsky.social and @chenjerai.bsky.social. Register at the link below.
The Corporate Coup in Global Context: An Emergency Town Hall
Join Naomi Klein, Chenjerai Kumanyika, Astra Taylor, and Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor for an emergency town hall on the accelerating corporate dominance of our lives and societies.
www.haymarketbooks.org
February 12, 2025 at 3:05 PM
@haymarketbooks.org presents an Emergency Town Hall on Presidents Day featuring @naomiaklein.bsky.social @astra.bsky.social @keeanga.bsky.social and @chenjerai.bsky.social. Register at the link below.
Reposted by Sarah Dempsey
February 8, 2025 at 8:29 PM
Reposted by Sarah Dempsey
Research universities are often the largest employers in their region. They are often the primary health care providers to communities. This funding shift will not only reduce US research leadership, it will put working people out of work and reduce healthcare access.
Excellent 🧵 on this evening's NIH announcement of a dramatic reduction in indirect rates for research institutions, which amounts to a generational restructuring of the US research and development ecosystem. These cuts are effective immediately, not just for new grants but for existing ones.
6. The policy does not just affect funding going forward. All existing NIH grants will have their indirect rates cut to 15% as of today, the date of issuance.
For a large university, this creates a sudden and catastrophic shortfall of hundreds of millions of dollars against already budgeted funds.
For a large university, this creates a sudden and catastrophic shortfall of hundreds of millions of dollars against already budgeted funds.
February 8, 2025 at 1:40 AM
Research universities are often the largest employers in their region. They are often the primary health care providers to communities. This funding shift will not only reduce US research leadership, it will put working people out of work and reduce healthcare access.
Reposted by Sarah Dempsey
Don't just ask how Musk/Trump actions serve their supposed purposes. Ask how they aid the attempt to seize power paulkrugman.substack.com/p/autogolpe
Autogolpe
What’s really happening beneath the Musk/Trump chaos
paulkrugman.substack.com
February 7, 2025 at 11:25 AM
Don't just ask how Musk/Trump actions serve their supposed purposes. Ask how they aid the attempt to seize power paulkrugman.substack.com/p/autogolpe