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Newly released records detail police response to lawmaker attacks Authorities first identified Vance Boelter as a suspect within three hours of the start of the politically motivated rampage.

Newly released records on the police response to the assassination of Melissa Hortman show officers knew a woman was lying motionless on the top of the stairs inside the Hortman home but waited 30 minutes to physically check on her.

Title page of our paper, “The Politics of Black Classification: Sociopolitical Cues and Racial Perception,” with Lauren Davenport (Stanford) and Hunter Rendleman (UC Berkeley), dated April 14, 2026. Abstract: What makes someone Black in American society today? From Donald Trump questioning Kamala Harris’s racial identity to Joe Biden’s claim that hesitant Black voters “ain’t Black,” American politics frequently brings questions of racial authenticity and belonging to the surface. Yet political science often approaches race as a fixed attribute rather than a social construction. Here, we seek to understand how Americans define blackness in social and political life. Using a conjoint experiment with a racially diverse sample that includes Black, white, and mixed race Black-white respondents, we evaluate how ascribed and acquired traits influence perceptions of blackness. The results show that inherited characteristics—particularly parentage and skin tone, which are the strongest determinants of racial classification—play a central role, while sociopolitical cues such as partisanship, neighborhood context, and spousal race also influence racial classification. Using a continuous measure, we also show that respondents make graded assessments of blackness rather than purely binary classifications, with some individuals perceived as more Black than others. Black respondents are more likely than white respondents to classify a broader set of profiles as Black, consistent with a more inclusive understanding of racial membership, yet they also place greater emphasis on shared political identity. These findings clarify how racial categories are socially constructed and why that construction carries real political and social consequences.

Our paper, “The Politics of Black Classification: Sociopolitical Cues and Racial Perception” (w/ Lauren Davenport & @hrendleman.bsky.social), has been conditionally accepted at Perspectives on Politics!

Sharing abstract below. Long time coming, but we are really proud of this paper.

More soon!

Preserve Student Writing Support at the Center for Writing Help Stop the Elimination of a Vital Resource for Students In an attempt to implement a 25% budget cut, the University of Minnesota’s College of Liberal Arts has directed that the 25-year-old Center f...

I haven't seen anything about this in the news, but it looks like UMN CLA's Center for Writing is seeing dramatic cuts or restructuring, including the student writing support program. There's a petition with what I think are reasonable demands.

-in Bird by Bird, Anne Lamott suggests jotting down whatever you can see through a 1” picture frame. Start with the irrelevant 1”
-line up note/quote sandwiches: the line after, where you interpret, can get you going
-rock out to something ridiculous first
-brain dump a voice note, then edit

Black/Study: The Influence of David Walker’s Appeal (A Workshop with SJP) Join Mariame Kaba, the author of the publication & co-director of SJP , for a discussion about education for liberation.

Then join us on Sunday 4/26 for the release of our new publication "Black Study: The Influence of David Walker's Appeal" at the Free Black Women's Library.

www.eventbrite.com/e/blackstudy...

100%

Under modernism, I mean

this is super pedantic (you’re welcome). But isn’t all lit historical/retrofuturist to the extent that ppl always feel as if their historical moment is full of change? The scale of change differs, but do somatic experiences and/or belief that one’s time period is the frontier of something?

Register for my free virtual Disability Justice 101 session here: ala-events.zoom.us/webinar/regi...

Absolutely my first thought when I saw the blood-red cabbage lead photo

Touched by a Sunday Reading all the hours are happy if you gaze into the ORB

come closer and be touched by sunday reading, free to anyone that gives us their email: www.oaklandreviewofbooks.org/email/fe5d57...

This thread is the absolute raddest

In my head the show sets him up in a palatial estate accurately decorated for another year in the British raj each season.
Curry welcomes contestants while making tasteless jokes about which naval officer nephew commissioned the tea service, the portraits, etc

Coming up Monday!!

One of the Most Dangerous Jobs in America Is About To Get EVEN WORSE YouTube video by More Perfect Union

Public Comment period deadline is April 20th for Maximum Line Speed Rates for Young Chicken and Turkey Establishments Operating Under the New Poultry Inspection System

Speed Rates should NOT be increased!

www.federalregister.gov/documents/20...

youtube.com/shorts/TCIwo...

Sign the Petition Release Yousof Azizi from ICE detention

Yousof Azizi, Iranian researcher, journalist, commentator and PhD candidate at @virginiatech.bsky.social with valid legal status, has been illegally detained by ICE. He was taken from in front of his home, has been denied access to a lawyer, and may be transferred to a detention center in Louisiana:

I was told having kids would make me conservative (and that paying my own taxes would do the same). Instead it's rejuvenated my socialism. I see how kind people are to us every day, and they're a reminder that everyone, even the jerks, was once an innocent kid that deserved a better world.

Motown girl group Martha and the Vandellas not only recorded an anthem for the civil rights era – they fought for fair pay and proudly called themselves divas Classic songs ‘Nowhere to Run’ and ‘Dancing in the Street’ captured the revolutionary spirit of the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s.

Wrote a piece about Martha and the Vandellas, civil rights, and their place in the history of Black women R&B groups. I also created a YouTube playlist (in the comments) with some of their hits

Google Starts Scanning All Your Photos As New Update Goes Live Google wants its AI to see all the photos of "you and your loved ones." Billions of users must now decide.

“Take a moment to think before you dive in. That’s the best advice for Google Photos users, as the company confirms its latest update can scan all your photos to “use actual images of you and your loved ones” in AI image generation.”

www.forbes.com/sites/zakdof...

Worrye not about 'being productive,' for thou art not a product. Thou art a star daunsinge yn a hopeful skye. A signal blinking across centuryes and worldes. Thou art a song performid just once and perfectlye.

Trailer | "The Beat Goes On: The Story of Baltimore Beat" The documentary follows Baltimore Beat Editor-in-Chief Lisa Snowden's career working as a freelance writer for The AFRO, covering the 2015 Uprising for Baltimore City Paper, and co-founding Baltimore…

Watch the trailer for "The Beat Goes On: The Story of Baltimore Beat," and then register to watch the film on Saturday! www.eventbrite.com/e/the-beat-g...
youtu.be/QOvCf5Z5kAc?...

Things down here are, to my knowledge, the most extreme example of higher education censorship currently in force. They’ve banned almost all content on sexual orientation and gender in teaching, and, in a startling low, grad student research. It’s unconscionable, offensive, and wrong.

Under Trump, More Than 1,000 Nonprofits Strip DEI Language From Tax Forms As the Trump administration ordered agencies to eradicate “illegal” diversity, equity and inclusion efforts, we identified more than 1,000 nonprofits that removed such language from the mission statem...

After Trump ordered his regime to root out dei efforts, opening the door to investigations and funding cuts, more than 1,000 charities rewrote their mission statements in forms they filed with the IRS, removing or minimizing language tied to race, inequity and historically disadvantaged communities

So I won an alumni achievement award from UIUC tonight, and I so proud of my fellow alums and ghe current students. In an incredibly fraught time for universities and for the world it was nice to be reminded why we're fighting

I’m offering a lightly used set of regalia in UC Berkeley colors to a junior faculty member, preference for a mom and 1st gen scholar. DM me your details— I’ll ship for free.

Aled Damien Carbonell-Betancourt is the 17th Reported ICE Detention Death of 2026 Aled Damien Carbonell-Betancourt, a 27-year-old man from Cuba, died on April 12, one day after the 16th death of the year. The pace of detention deaths holds at an average of 1 every 6 days.

Aled Damien Carbonell-Betancourt is the 17th Reported ICE Detention Death of 2026

A 27-year-old man from Cuba died on April 12, one day after the 16th death of the year. The pace of detention deaths holds at an average of 1 every 6 days.

austinkocher.substack.com/p/aled-damie...

The House passed our extension of TPS for Haiti with a 224 vote victory of Democrats & Republicans alike.

This has been a long-fought battle to defend our Haitian neighbors & our communities, and we're not letting up.

The Senate must take action without delay.

At the core of the depolarization industrial complex is the concept of coercive harmony, and too many of the people funding it and doing the work can’t see that they’re actually contributing to the erosion of rights and democracy.