Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Sarah J. Jackson

@sjjphd.bsky.social

87K followers 1.3K following 16K posts

Prof and researcher. Race, media, activism, feminism, tech and politics but not always in that order. Co-Director @miccenter.bsky.social Preorder my latest: https://www.harpercollins.com/products/a-second-sight-sarah-j-jackson Opinions definitely my own

www.harpercollins.com

Posts Media Videos Starter Packs

Pinned

Sarah J. Jackson @sjjphd.bsky.social · Sep 11

I know there is a lot going on but this went online last night and I am very proud it’s real. If you might be excited to find out how at every turn this nation could have prevented our current political moment by listening to Black people you can even preorder it before we get to designing the cover

A Second Sight

Since the nation’s founding, Black Americans have had a unique perspective on the U.S. experience—a “second sight”—that reveals the truth about the nation t...

www.harpercollins.com

18 95 310

Sarah J. Jackson @sjjphd.bsky.social · 10m

Fun that my phone thinks license is spelled liscence, the machines are not smart

2 1 19

Sarah J. Jackson @sjjphd.bsky.social · 11m

Sometimes I think about how I once got pulled over by a cop, with lights and siren, *on my bike*, because I rolled through a stop sign. And yes, he asked for my liscence. I was was riding my bike guys. Anyways.

Mo Ryan @moryan.bsky.social · 51m

Just today, here's a story from the @chicago.suntimes.com -- not only are ICE/feds masking themselves constantly (and some local cops too, I've seen it), now they're driving around without license plates. More "laws for thee, whatever I wanna do for me" in action chicago.suntimes.com/news/2025/10...

Federal immigration officers wear masks, no name tags — now some drive cars without license plates

The Sun-Times has documented four unmarked cars carrying federal officers without required plates, offering another way to shield their identities. Federal officials say they’re meeting regulations.

chicago.suntimes.com

2 4 44

Reposted by Sarah J. Jackson

Drew Harwell @drewharwell.com · 14h

Military families on day 9 of the shutdown lining up at the food bank

410 2.2K 4.3K

Reposted by Sarah J. Jackson

Anjali Dayal @anjalikdayal.bsky.social · 6h

an affirmative case for trans rights as a pillar of good democratic governance

Zohran Kwame Mamdani @zohrankmamdani.bsky.social · 6h

UNTIL IT’S DONE, Ep. 4: Sylvia Rivera

In the 1970s, queer New Yorkers had been pushed to the margins of NYC. Our trans neighbors faced immense cruelty. But in Sylvia Rivera, they found a champion.

As we combat Trump’s politics of darkness, her legacy can light the path forward.

2 70 390

Reposted by Sarah J. Jackson

Comfortably Numb @numb.comfortab.ly · 6h

They're literally installing Racism Dial bsky.app/profile/numb...

Comfortably Numb @numb.comfortab.ly · Jan 15

vox populi

Altman: thanks a lot for these! some common requests:

AGI (a little patience please)
GPT-5
better voice mode
higher rate limits
better GPTs
better reasoning
control over degree of wokeness/behavior
video
personalization
better browsing
'sign in with openai
open source

Quoting:
what would you like openai to build/fix in 2024?

14 190 700

Sarah J. Jackson @sjjphd.bsky.social · 16h

Sure, but George Soros pays his bills. So is he really even a skeleton? Or is he just acting like one???

1 3

Sarah J. Jackson @sjjphd.bsky.social · 16h

I heard they arrested the girlfriend of Mr. Nibbles

Brendel @brendelbored.bsky.social · 19h

I like how the news will be like “while the President claiming Portland was ruled by a giant skeleton named Mr Nibbles is not strictly true, it does speak to the anxiety of many Americans”

5 11 85

Reposted by Sarah J. Jackson

Ed Zitron @edzitron.com · 23h

lying

Financial Times @financialtimes.com · 1d

How OpenAI put itself at the centre of a $1tn network of deals on.ft.com/4q0tjCV

How OpenAI put itself at the centre of a $1tn network of deals

The company behind ChatGPT has signed agreements with many of the largest tech groups, adding to a growing web of financial dependencies across the AI world

on.ft.com

38 240 2K

Reposted by Sarah J. Jackson

Louisa @louisathelast.bsky.social · 1d

So if I take my baby to a No Kings protest does she also get paid, or is it like an adults only deal with Soros

21 15 210

Reposted by Sarah J. Jackson

Po Murray @pomurray.bsky.social · 1d

Breaking News! MIT became the first university to reject the Trump administration’s compact of demands, after its president Sally Kornbluth said the practices of the school already “meet or exceed many standards outlined” by the federal government.
www.bostonglobe.com/2025/10/10/b...

MIT becomes first school to reject proposed ‘compact’ with Trump administration - The Boston Globe

MIT president Sally Kornbluth said the university’s practices already “meet or exceed” the federal government’s list of demands.

www.bostonglobe.com

4 49 220

Reposted by Sarah J. Jackson

Oliver Darcy @oliverdarcy.bsky.social · 1d

News: Bari Weiss just sent a memo to staffers at CBS News asking them to produce a memo explaining "how you spend your working hours—and ideally, what you've made (or are making) that you're most proud of."

One CBS News staffer puts it like this to me: "We just got Elon Musked."

340 2K 8.5K

Reposted by Sarah J. Jackson

Jack Tripper @chadstanton.blacksky.app · 1d

“We should replace Bad Bunny with Lee Greenwood” is an also a perfect summation of the “deal” they’ve offered universities.

49 490 3.3K

Sarah J. Jackson @sjjphd.bsky.social · 1d

Yep, another great example

Reposted by Sarah J. Jackson

Filipe Campante @filipecampante.bsky.social · 1d

It might be hard to convey to people outside economics just how seismic this is. The Trump effect has most certainly arrived to US academia.

Florian Scheuer @florianscheuer.bsky.social · 1d

I am delighted to share that Nobel laureates Esther Duflo and Abhijit Banerjee will join our Department of Economics @econ.uzh.ch at the University of Zurich on July 1, 2026, as Lemann Foundation Professors of Economics.

🧵 1/7

9 130 430

Sarah J. Jackson @sjjphd.bsky.social · 1d

I just want to live in a world where kids learn civics and history in school and words mean things.

20 78 500

Sarah J. Jackson @sjjphd.bsky.social · 1d

🎯

Sarah J. Jackson @sjjphd.bsky.social · 1d

It absolutely feeds the fantastical paranoia of the movement for inverted victimhood and righteousness that is a projection of the many actual secret societies and orgs that white supremacists have joined since reconstruction

1 11

Sarah J. Jackson @sjjphd.bsky.social · 1d

Right. Was everyone looking at each other like, “are you seeing this too?!”

1 1 11

Sarah J. Jackson @sjjphd.bsky.social · 1d

I don’t understand your question? Professor Bray and many scholars are experts in antifascist politics and movements, which have existed across all human history, that’s not the same thing as an organization called “antifa” existing in the way right-wing orgs imagine and insist.

Sarah J. Jackson @sjjphd.bsky.social · 1d

In these contexts words come to mean absolutely nothing, totally devoid of context, besides what authoritarians insist they mean which is an always moving target to correct and that’s well…pretty bad!

2 11 120

Sarah J. Jackson @sjjphd.bsky.social · 1d

As someone who has studied the circulation of terms “subversive” and “communist” in the lead to and through McCarthyism as empty signifiers to justify violent suppression I feel like I’m both amazed and unsurprised how transparently and unsophisticatedly “woke” and “antifa” are now doing the same.

6 81 360

Sarah J. Jackson @sjjphd.bsky.social · 1d

Curious if folks are getting the impression that those around them are unaware antifa is not an org? We know this admin is dead set on pretending it is & many media are uncritically perpetuating that. Feels like we’re watching an elite disinfo campaign move in both a rapid and absurdist fashion.

Karl Bode @karlbode.com · 2d

you'd think a prominent news outlet like the New York Times might mention that "antifa" isn't an actual organization in a long story about antifa, but nope!

and the subhead helps props up a false claim this professor was up to something seedy as something up for debate

NYT headline: "Rutgers Expert on Antifa Tries to Flee to Spain After Death Threats"

subheadline: "Mark Bray was teaching courses on antifascism. Turning Point USA accused him of belonging to antifa, which he denies. His flight to Spain was canceled abruptly on Wednesday night."

27 250 840

Reposted by Sarah J. Jackson

Adam Serwer @adamserwer.bsky.social · 1d

www.wweek.com/culture/2025...

Can you put into words what that purpose is? You and the frog have really become icons of this protest.

There’s been a nice overall whimsy that has shown up. The frog is amazing. We had a bunch of other inflatable people here last night, too. I saw people playing Twister the other day.

What they rely on is fear. So by coming out in an absurdist manner, it speaks to them, to some extent, that we’re actually not that afraid.

It also dismantles their narrative a little bit. When they try to describe this situation as “war-torn,” it becomes much harder to take them seriously when they have to post a video saying [U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security] Kristi Noem is up on the balcony staring over the Antifa Army and it’s, like, eight journalists and five protesters and one of them is in a chicken suit.

96 3.2K 11K

Reposted by Sarah J. Jackson

Wagatwe Wanjuki @wagatwe.com · 1d

but I was told #metoo made men so afraid they wouldn't even talk to women

Don Moynihan @donmoyn.bsky.social · 1d

"30-year-old conservative lawyer and activist who is Trump’s nominee to lead the Office of Special Counsel, which deals with federal employee whistleblower complaints and discrimination" cancelled his colleague's hotel room so she would be forced to stay with him.
www.politico.com/news/2025/10...

In late July, Paul Ingrassia, the White House liaison for the Department of Homeland Security, arrived at a Ritz-Carlton in Orlando with a lower-ranking female colleague and others from their department. When the group reached the front desk, the woman learned she didn’t have a hotel room.

Ingrassia then informed her that she would be staying with him, according to five administration officials familiar with the episode. Eventually the woman discovered that Ingrassia had arranged ahead of time to have her hotel room canceled so she would have to stay with him, three of those officials said.

4 53 320

Reposted by Sarah J. Jackson

Coach Finstock @coachfinstock.bsky.social · 1d

Lmao

Philip Bump @pbump.com · 1d

22 79 820