Dr. William Horne
@wihorne.bsky.social
24K followers 3.7K following 2.2K posts
Writer. Radical. Historian at UMD. PhD in History from GW. In Case of Emergency: https://tinyurl.com/mvmrcuvk. (he/him)
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wihorne.bsky.social
As a scholar of white supremacy & Black liberation movements, it's important to me to recall my own family's history supporting slavery & Jim Crow as I do this work. I wrote this piece a few years ago to help me think through how this past both facilitates & informs my research today.
White Americans Fail to Address Their Family Histories
There is a conversation about race that white families are just not having. This is mine.
activisthistory.com
Reposted by Dr. William Horne
atrupar.com
Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson: "This president is unstable, unhinged, a double-minded individual that quite frankly is a threat to our democracy. It's certainly not the first time that Donald Trump has called for the arresting of a Black man unjustly."
wihorne.bsky.social
It’s a play on the “faithful slave” trope that was crucial to Jim Crow era white supremacist ideology. A famous & much clearer example from the same period here.
The Good Darky - Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org
wihorne.bsky.social
With two white children she had cared for, yes.
Reposted by Dr. William Horne
reasonmatters.bsky.social
Whole thread is well worth reading.
wihorne.bsky.social
We really need to be thinking abt the current regime through the lens of the Second Klan, which helped to nationalize systems of Jim Crow state & vigilante violence & exploitation while creating an explicitly white nationalist immigration system. They even paraded down Pennsylvania Ave.
A 1926 klan parade marching down Pennsylvania Ave. The front of the column holds banners that read Connecticut & Rhode Island. Original available via the Library of Congress. https://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2001706338/
wihorne.bsky.social
It’s really the same set of interests acting against everyone else using contextually specific tactics, but always towards the same end. The enslavers are the Redeemers are the Second Klanners are the Business Plotters are the White Citizens Councilers are the Southern Strategizers etc etc etc.
Reposted by Dr. William Horne
potrzebiesystem.bsky.social
IMHO ya don’t need to go all the way back to 1920s & Second Klan as a lens through which to view/understand Trump 2.0. Not to say that history is not relevant & important. Ofc it is. But ya cld just throw a dart & see on what subsequent decade it lands & from then find useful insight on our present
wihorne.bsky.social
We really need to be thinking abt the current regime through the lens of the Second Klan, which helped to nationalize systems of Jim Crow state & vigilante violence & exploitation while creating an explicitly white nationalist immigration system. They even paraded down Pennsylvania Ave.
A 1926 klan parade marching down Pennsylvania Ave. The front of the column holds banners that read Connecticut & Rhode Island. Original available via the Library of Congress. https://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2001706338/
Reposted by Dr. William Horne
chadstanton.blacksky.app
I’m sure it’s just a coincidence that all these data centers are going into communities that have been historically targeted for exploitation and have the least amount of civic power wielded by the people living there.

wordinblack.com/2025/09/alab...
Why Are Plans for This Alabama Data Center So Hush-Hush?
Officials in Bessemer, Alabama, are mum on Project Marvel, a proposed data center the size of 18 Walmart Supercenters.
wordinblack.com
Reposted by Dr. William Horne
rbreich.bsky.social
When you hear about Big Tech companies lobbying the federal government to stifle AI regulation in the states, this is one reason why.
moreperfectunion.bsky.social
California has now banned algorithmic price fixing.

The state has outlawed the practice of landlords colluding to raise prices using rental software and AI.

This is a huge victory for renters in the biggest state in the country.
wihorne.bsky.social
Yes! In the first parade photo, the CT chapter of the Klan is front & center.
Reposted by Dr. William Horne
geauxgabrielle.bsky.social
I keep hearing about Graham. Saw a video on him today

I do NOT agree that not shaming racists, bigots, & idiots for their ACTUAL HARM towards minorities and their continued willful ignorance is the way

We are not hugging our way out of this and docility from the oppressed leads to MORE oppression
Reposted by Dr. William Horne
wihorne.bsky.social
We really need to be thinking abt the current regime through the lens of the Second Klan, which helped to nationalize systems of Jim Crow state & vigilante violence & exploitation while creating an explicitly white nationalist immigration system. They even paraded down Pennsylvania Ave.
A 1926 klan parade marching down Pennsylvania Ave. The front of the column holds banners that read Connecticut & Rhode Island. Original available via the Library of Congress. https://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2001706338/
wihorne.bsky.social
Absolutely! It’s the least consequential question esp as the remedy in either case is institutional transformation.
wihorne.bsky.social
It’s true that our education system could do a much better job with this material & that we should treat it with much greater funding/care as a society. Still, it’s the institutions that fascist seek to capture & weaponize bc they correctly understand that these produce outcomes.
wihorne.bsky.social
I appreciate that, esp as an educator, but the problem is that these people *know* the history. That’s why they use the same slogans, for ex, even after their origins are pointed out. The problem isn’t individual moral or educational failing—it’s institutional.
wihorne.bsky.social
Absolutely! We don’t come out on the other side of fascist state capture & return to the same old “compromise with the people who view you as illegitimate & hope to eliminate you by hook or by crook” song & dance.
wihorne.bsky.social
The history shapes the vastly insufficient world we inherit, but it should also inform how we *respond* to this world. That’s the point of all this.
wihorne.bsky.social
I keep harping on this point bc either 1) this system has been designed to produce fascist outcomes when the interests of the propertied & powerful are threatened or 2) it has been designed with such incompetence that it has consistently produced those outcomes accidentally.
appiah.bsky.social
Far, far, far too many still operate under the notion that the Second Trump Administration is some sort of profound aberration. That’s far from the case. This thread by @wihorne.bsky.social is vital for us to understand the reality in which we are inhabiting.
wihorne.bsky.social
My thoughts exactly!
wihorne.bsky.social
I keep harping on this point bc either 1) this system has been designed to produce fascist outcomes when the interests of the propertied & powerful are threatened or 2) it has been designed with such incompetence that it has consistently produced those outcomes accidentally.
appiah.bsky.social
Far, far, far too many still operate under the notion that the Second Trump Administration is some sort of profound aberration. That’s far from the case. This thread by @wihorne.bsky.social is vital for us to understand the reality in which we are inhabiting.
Reposted by Dr. William Horne
theultrasecret.bsky.social
The weight of the task ahead — excising the cancer of bigoted, violent nationalism from our culture and politics — might be lifted by thinking of MAGA as an aberration, or a fever that will break. But it only prolongs the life of an ideology that is, and always has been, a dagger to our democracy.
wihorne.bsky.social
We really need to be thinking abt the current regime through the lens of the Second Klan, which helped to nationalize systems of Jim Crow state & vigilante violence & exploitation while creating an explicitly white nationalist immigration system. They even paraded down Pennsylvania Ave.
A 1926 klan parade marching down Pennsylvania Ave. The front of the column holds banners that read Connecticut & Rhode Island. Original available via the Library of Congress. https://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2001706338/
wihorne.bsky.social
I know this can be frustrating to confront, but the thing is that we’re all living it anyway. It’s all around us all the time, so why not confront what it is & has been together—these white nationalist legacies of the US project of “democracy”—& build a genuinely livable alternative.
Reposted by Dr. William Horne
maggiemcneill.bsky.social
Your infrequent reminder that the Second Klan was partially built on the exact same moral panic as MAGA: "sex trafficking". maggiemcneill.com/2012/03/14/c...
wihorne.bsky.social
We aren’t “1 crazy hack” away from functional democracy. Knowing the history makes that point inescapable, but also points towards genuinely democratic & liberatory alternatives to this garbage—infinitely better than the hellscape we now inhabit.
wihorne.bsky.social
This constant reproduction of white nationalist outcomes as a defining feature of US history matters bc it should show us how our inherited systems have failed to meet our collective needs & that we will need to make *dramatic changes* to fix this.
wihorne.bsky.social
I keep harping on this point bc either 1) this system has been designed to produce fascist outcomes when the interests of the propertied & powerful are threatened or 2) it has been designed with such incompetence that it has consistently produced those outcomes accidentally.
appiah.bsky.social
Far, far, far too many still operate under the notion that the Second Trump Administration is some sort of profound aberration. That’s far from the case. This thread by @wihorne.bsky.social is vital for us to understand the reality in which we are inhabiting.
wihorne.bsky.social
We really need to be thinking abt the current regime through the lens of the Second Klan, which helped to nationalize systems of Jim Crow state & vigilante violence & exploitation while creating an explicitly white nationalist immigration system. They even paraded down Pennsylvania Ave.
Reposted by Dr. William Horne
stud01.bsky.social
A must-read, even for French-speaking readers.

Chapter 7, on the link between feminism and the KKK, helps clear up many preconceived notions about the place of women in these supremacist movements and how they also contribute to the upholding of this ideology.
Reposted by Dr. William Horne
cajohnson-craig.bsky.social
the 2nd Klan really is what these folks want -- this is the Klan that marched with their faces shown to the public, who were a fascist organization in all but name
wihorne.bsky.social
We really need to be thinking abt the current regime through the lens of the Second Klan, which helped to nationalize systems of Jim Crow state & vigilante violence & exploitation while creating an explicitly white nationalist immigration system. They even paraded down Pennsylvania Ave.
A 1926 klan parade marching down Pennsylvania Ave. The front of the column holds banners that read Connecticut & Rhode Island. Original available via the Library of Congress. https://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2001706338/