Nicholas Mitchell
@nicholasemitchell.bsky.social
Aging afropunk, Southerner, Curriculum theorist, Af. Am. Studies, Bigotry researcher, Essayist, Author, contributing writer at MS NOW, Professional Wrestling Enthusiast.
My posts represent my views and not my employer.
Reposts do not = endorsements.
My posts represent my views and not my employer.
Reposts do not = endorsements.
Pinned
On Bigotry
We like to believe that bigotry is a product of ignorance and that if we educate people enough, they will become immune to bigotry. But what if bigotry isn't a…
www.bloomsbury.com
My first book, "On Bigotry: Twenty Lessons on How Bigotry Works and What to Do About It" came out a week ago and is now available in hardcover and e-book edition with an audiobook version coming out in August!
#booksky
www.bloomsbury.com/us/on-bigotr...
#booksky
www.bloomsbury.com/us/on-bigotr...
Something that I think gets lost in how King is remembered is how he was thrust into the Civil Rights Movement right when African-American culture experienced a profound shift political thinking following Brown v. Board and the murder of Emmett Till. He had to figure it out.
i think this MLK day the thing to focus on is the strategic focus and tactical brilliance of the civil rights movement and the way it was laser focused on a set of achievable goals
January 20, 2026 at 4:56 PM
Something that I think gets lost in how King is remembered is how he was thrust into the Civil Rights Movement right when African-American culture experienced a profound shift political thinking following Brown v. Board and the murder of Emmett Till. He had to figure it out.
@jamellebouie.net is pointing out that grace is not a free pass. It requires accountability.
and if hanania genuinely wants grace, rather than mere toleration, then he needs to renounce his white supremacism and belief in the biological inferiority of nonwhites and make amends and restitution for the actual harm he has inflicted on other people through his disgraceful “work”
January 19, 2026 at 2:40 PM
@jamellebouie.net is pointing out that grace is not a free pass. It requires accountability.
This is true of all forms of authoritarianism, including fascism.
They want everyone to be forced to like/respect/fear/love them, not understanding that with affection coercion renders the gesture meaningless, and the fear they seek demands a lack of contempt they ultimately cannot compel
January 16, 2026 at 12:54 PM
This is true of all forms of authoritarianism, including fascism.
The reason there is no mass movement against what's happening is that the liberal (includes self described progressives, leftists, and marginalized communities) coalition in the US imploded in the wake of the 2024 election.
I find it odd how this fact rarely gets brought up.
I find it odd how this fact rarely gets brought up.
January 13, 2026 at 10:14 PM
The reason there is no mass movement against what's happening is that the liberal (includes self described progressives, leftists, and marginalized communities) coalition in the US imploded in the wake of the 2024 election.
I find it odd how this fact rarely gets brought up.
I find it odd how this fact rarely gets brought up.
There is a reason that bigots have gone to great lengths to suppress Black history and thought in the popular culture.
All knowledge is power.
www.ms.now/opinion/msnb...
All knowledge is power.
www.ms.now/opinion/msnb...
Want to learn how to respond to fascism? Study Black history.
It’s perplexing how Americans, when discussing the dangers of fascism, invoke the memory of German Nazis and not American segregationists.
www.ms.now
January 13, 2026 at 10:07 PM
There is a reason that bigots have gone to great lengths to suppress Black history and thought in the popular culture.
All knowledge is power.
www.ms.now/opinion/msnb...
All knowledge is power.
www.ms.now/opinion/msnb...
History tells us that granting anyone with any amount of power anonymity and legal immunity always leads to them abusing people increasingly horrific ways.
This is an iron law of civilization.
This is an iron law of civilization.
January 13, 2026 at 6:20 PM
History tells us that granting anyone with any amount of power anonymity and legal immunity always leads to them abusing people increasingly horrific ways.
This is an iron law of civilization.
This is an iron law of civilization.
Once this @nytimes.com transcript gets the country's attention, the discourse is going to get wild in ways we haven't seen since Baldwin and Buckley were debating in the UK.
January 12, 2026 at 2:39 AM
Once this @nytimes.com transcript gets the country's attention, the discourse is going to get wild in ways we haven't seen since Baldwin and Buckley were debating in the UK.
Never underestimate the sheer brutality that moral panics can unleash on a society because a moral panic will convince people to do horrible things to other people.
January 11, 2026 at 7:36 PM
Never underestimate the sheer brutality that moral panics can unleash on a society because a moral panic will convince people to do horrible things to other people.
My latest essay with @ms.now on the rise of heritage American rhetoric and that it means.
www.ms.now/opinion/heri...
www.ms.now/opinion/heri...
Opinion | The fight between Vivek Ramaswamy and "heritage Americans"
Nicholas Mitchell: Like all forms of bigotry, the "heritage American" idea is an incoherent concept.
www.ms.now
January 4, 2026 at 5:45 PM
My latest essay with @ms.now on the rise of heritage American rhetoric and that it means.
www.ms.now/opinion/heri...
www.ms.now/opinion/heri...
The Democratic primary of 2016 is a sociocultural pivot point for America in the 21st century.
Buckle takes a deep dive into what happened vs how factions tell the story.
"It feels like blackmail and it feels like a shake down" is a spotlight sentence on something folks have ducked for 10 years.
Buckle takes a deep dive into what happened vs how factions tell the story.
"It feels like blackmail and it feels like a shake down" is a spotlight sentence on something folks have ducked for 10 years.
January 1, 2026 at 12:45 AM
The Democratic primary of 2016 is a sociocultural pivot point for America in the 21st century.
Buckle takes a deep dive into what happened vs how factions tell the story.
"It feels like blackmail and it feels like a shake down" is a spotlight sentence on something folks have ducked for 10 years.
Buckle takes a deep dive into what happened vs how factions tell the story.
"It feels like blackmail and it feels like a shake down" is a spotlight sentence on something folks have ducked for 10 years.
End of the year plug- My first book "On Bigotry" was published by Bloomsbury and is available in hardcover, ebook, and audiobook read by me.
I wrote the book for times like these because I believe that you cannot resist what you do not understand.
www.bloomsbury.com/us/on-bigotr...
I wrote the book for times like these because I believe that you cannot resist what you do not understand.
www.bloomsbury.com/us/on-bigotr...
On Bigotry
We like to believe that bigotry is a product of ignorance and that if we educate people enough, they will become immune to bigotry. But what if bigotry isn't a…
www.bloomsbury.com
December 29, 2025 at 5:14 PM
End of the year plug- My first book "On Bigotry" was published by Bloomsbury and is available in hardcover, ebook, and audiobook read by me.
I wrote the book for times like these because I believe that you cannot resist what you do not understand.
www.bloomsbury.com/us/on-bigotr...
I wrote the book for times like these because I believe that you cannot resist what you do not understand.
www.bloomsbury.com/us/on-bigotr...
Something that doesn't get discussed enough is how seeing millions of White folks participate in the George Floyd protests in the summer and autumn of 2020 freaked White supremacists out and animated them.
December 29, 2025 at 4:20 PM
Something that doesn't get discussed enough is how seeing millions of White folks participate in the George Floyd protests in the summer and autumn of 2020 freaked White supremacists out and animated them.
From my book on how bigotry works-
The useful idiot has to believe that they are the exception to the bigotry they are directing at their group and that the bigots won't turn on them once they are no longer useful... aka:
"the face eating leopard won't eat MY face."
The useful idiot has to believe that they are the exception to the bigotry they are directing at their group and that the bigots won't turn on them once they are no longer useful... aka:
"the face eating leopard won't eat MY face."
December 29, 2025 at 2:51 PM
From my book on how bigotry works-
The useful idiot has to believe that they are the exception to the bigotry they are directing at their group and that the bigots won't turn on them once they are no longer useful... aka:
"the face eating leopard won't eat MY face."
The useful idiot has to believe that they are the exception to the bigotry they are directing at their group and that the bigots won't turn on them once they are no longer useful... aka:
"the face eating leopard won't eat MY face."
I always want critical feedback because i want to improve my craft.
I get the impulse to hold back critique inside our community but if you're reviewing, say what you mean. If it didn't work, say it didn't work as long as you've considered carefully enough to also say why or how.
Not advocating for "let's all be jerks to each other" but literary criticism matters.
Not advocating for "let's all be jerks to each other" but literary criticism matters.
December 28, 2025 at 3:48 PM
I always want critical feedback because i want to improve my craft.
It is critical that people hold activist movements accountable for their failures and damage they do to the causes they claim to support for exactly the reasons that they hold politicians accountable.
Bad activism and bad political representation cause harm to the folks they speak for.
Bad activism and bad political representation cause harm to the folks they speak for.
December 28, 2025 at 2:45 PM
It is critical that people hold activist movements accountable for their failures and damage they do to the causes they claim to support for exactly the reasons that they hold politicians accountable.
Bad activism and bad political representation cause harm to the folks they speak for.
Bad activism and bad political representation cause harm to the folks they speak for.
The entire existence of the pop tart bowl, especially the post game celebration, is delightfully unhinged.
December 28, 2025 at 4:47 AM
The entire existence of the pop tart bowl, especially the post game celebration, is delightfully unhinged.
It's interesting how certain public intellectuals post on Blue sky vs what was once Twitter.
December 27, 2025 at 3:26 PM
It's interesting how certain public intellectuals post on Blue sky vs what was once Twitter.
If you think of replacement theory as a political ideology that creates policy, law, and political identity, a lot of what you're seeing and hearing in the discourse becomes intelligible and terrifying.
Bigotry always tells on itself, y'all.
Bigotry always tells on itself, y'all.
December 27, 2025 at 2:25 PM
If you think of replacement theory as a political ideology that creates policy, law, and political identity, a lot of what you're seeing and hearing in the discourse becomes intelligible and terrifying.
Bigotry always tells on itself, y'all.
Bigotry always tells on itself, y'all.
It is telling how some of the loudest voices in the last decade who built their profiles dismissing anti-racism have all displayed a sudden mastery of anti-racist thought once the racism that they claimed was overblown started calling them slurs.
Bigotry is wild. Wrote a book about it this year.
Bigotry is wild. Wrote a book about it this year.
December 27, 2025 at 1:29 PM
It is telling how some of the loudest voices in the last decade who built their profiles dismissing anti-racism have all displayed a sudden mastery of anti-racist thought once the racism that they claimed was overblown started calling them slurs.
Bigotry is wild. Wrote a book about it this year.
Bigotry is wild. Wrote a book about it this year.
Lesson 1 and 2 of my book on how bigotry works are what they are for a reason.
December 24, 2025 at 4:25 AM
Lesson 1 and 2 of my book on how bigotry works are what they are for a reason.
If you ever forget who you are, sooner or later bigots will remind you.
December 21, 2025 at 9:00 PM
If you ever forget who you are, sooner or later bigots will remind you.
This article by @polphilpod.bsky.social really hits on what sits at the center of African American political culture's anger at multiple communities and the left side of the political spectrum as a whole.
those who predicted authoritarianism were both dismissed, & deeply misunderstood, by the media
my latest for @newrepublic.com
newrepublic.com/article/2042...
my latest for @newrepublic.com
newrepublic.com/article/2042...
The Americans Who Saw All This Coming—but Were Ignored and Maligned
Call them the Cassandras: the people—mostly not white and male—who smelled the fascism all over Trump from jump street. Why were they “alarmists,” and how did “anti-alarmism” become cool?
newrepublic.com
December 18, 2025 at 6:50 PM
This article by @polphilpod.bsky.social really hits on what sits at the center of African American political culture's anger at multiple communities and the left side of the political spectrum as a whole.
Dr. Ray gets to the core of what I wrote about in regard to cultural moderation.
www.ms.now/opinion/gavi...
www.ms.now/opinion/gavi...
December 17, 2025 at 3:21 PM
Dr. Ray gets to the core of what I wrote about in regard to cultural moderation.
www.ms.now/opinion/gavi...
www.ms.now/opinion/gavi...
Interesting aside - arguments like the one Jacobin published here is why critical race theory and it's descendants formed.
Folks got tired of the class only folks telling them that bigotry didn't produce material conditions.
Folks got tired of the class only folks telling them that bigotry didn't produce material conditions.
Confusing marginality with insight leaves movements vulnerable to reactionary mimicry.
A renewed engagement with Karl Marx’s structural account of exploitation can give feminism a path out of standpoint theory’s dead end.
A renewed engagement with Karl Marx’s structural account of exploitation can give feminism a path out of standpoint theory’s dead end.
What Incels Learned From Feminism
Confusing marginality with insight leaves movements vulnerable to reactionary mimicry. A renewed engagement with Karl Marx’s structural account of exploitation can give feminism a path out of standpoint theory’s dead end.
jacobin.com
December 16, 2025 at 1:33 PM
Interesting aside - arguments like the one Jacobin published here is why critical race theory and it's descendants formed.
Folks got tired of the class only folks telling them that bigotry didn't produce material conditions.
Folks got tired of the class only folks telling them that bigotry didn't produce material conditions.
The demand that people ignore bigotry in the name of "class solidarity" is an example of bigotry cosplaying as philosophy.
How much antiblackness are we supposed to deal with on a regular basis before nonBlack people will agree that the racism was beyond the pale.
What’s it gonna take. I want facts and figures. How many slurs per day should we have to suffer before it’s ok not to feel sorry for some dumb white broad.
What’s it gonna take. I want facts and figures. How many slurs per day should we have to suffer before it’s ok not to feel sorry for some dumb white broad.
“Those of us on the left should be fighting to improve protections for workers of all races, and thereby for the betterment of people’s material conditions regardless of their views,” Arash Azizi argues:
December 13, 2025 at 2:47 PM
The demand that people ignore bigotry in the name of "class solidarity" is an example of bigotry cosplaying as philosophy.