Steven Nelson (@snelsonus.bsky.social)
Pritzker understands the assignment. Others need to follow his lead.
Former dean, Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts, National Gallery of Art; UCLA professor emeritus; and left-handed art historian who sees lots of shiny objects.
3,806 followers 654 following 193 posts
view profile on Bluesky Steven Nelson (@snelsonus.bsky.social)
Pritzker understands the assignment. Others need to follow his lead.
Steven Nelson (@snelsonus.bsky.social)
“While tens of thousands of employees have lost their jobs in Mr. Trump’s slash-and-burn approach to shrinking the federal work force, experts say the cuts disproportionately affect Black employees — and Black women in particular.” www.nytimes.com/2025/08/31/u...
Steven Nelson (@snelsonus.bsky.social)
Nailed it.
Steven Nelson (@snelsonus.bsky.social)
The staff at @vanityfair.com fully understands the power of images in the normalization of authoritarianism. They refused to comply. Others should follow suit.
Steven Nelson (@snelsonus.bsky.social) reply parent
I couldn’t agree more. If you want free labor, you can at least ask personally.
Steven Nelson (@snelsonus.bsky.social) reply parent
This sort of thing is increasing in frequency. It’s totally presumptuous, and it doesn’t make one want to serve as a reviewer.
Steven Nelson (@snelsonus.bsky.social)
The American University in Paris seeks to hire an assistant professor of art history. networks.h-net.org/jobs/68994/a...
Steven Nelson (@snelsonus.bsky.social)
@anamariecox.bsky.social’s terrific profile of Graham Platner, who is waging a campaign to unseat Maine senator Susan Collins.
Steven Nelson (@snelsonus.bsky.social)
Know your rights if you’re stopped by the police. www.acludc.org/know-your-ri...
Steven Nelson (@snelsonus.bsky.social) reply parent
I thought of you when I read this self-serving story. Thank you for always speaking out and for your years of political and social justice research.
Steven Nelson (@snelsonus.bsky.social)
I would love to adapt media curricula to #arthistory instruction. theconversation.com/college-stud...
Steven Nelson (@snelsonus.bsky.social) reply parent
This puff piece—and the Vichy Gays it celebrates—made me nauseous. As an antidote, see @advocate.com senior editor John Casey’s op-ed on this group. www.advocate.com/voices/trump...
Steven Nelson (@snelsonus.bsky.social)
An incisive essay on the challenges facing present-day art criticism, including a nice shoutout to @arunadsouza.bsky.social. observer.com/2025/08/arts...
Steven Nelson (@snelsonus.bsky.social)
Amy Sherald on government interference in museums. www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnb...
Kyle Cheney (@kyledcheney.bsky.social) reposted
NEW: Trump is testing the limits of his power once again, seeking to fire a member of the Federal Reserve board. www.politico.com/news/2025/08...
Kashana (@kashana.bsky.social) reposted
There’s a war on black women because we keep trying to do crazy stuff like stay employed.
David Rothkopf (@djrothkopf.bsky.social) reposted
How many people of color and women does Trump have to fire or otherwise target before the racism and systematic discrimination within his administration is condemned by anyone of power in Washington? In either party? He's so despicable. Yet it seems business as usual in the mainstream media.
Dan Froomkin/Press Watch/Heads Up News (@froomkin.bsky.social) reposted
The top story of the moment is the one story that our most influential newsrooms won’t touch: That the United State has become an authoritarian state. presswatchers.org/2025/08/we-h...
Acyn (@acyn.bsky.social) reposted
Pritzker: To the members of the press who are assembled here today and listening across the country, I am asking for your courage to tell it like it is. This is not a time to pretend here that there are two sides to this story.
Steven Nelson (@snelsonus.bsky.social)
This is what great leadership looks like. Many, many others should follow Gregory Washington’s example. www.chronicle.com/article/gmu-...
Steven Nelson (@snelsonus.bsky.social) reply parent
50501: The People’s Movement ❌👑 (@50501movement.bsky.social) reposted
DC is beautiful. #FreeDC
Steven Nelson (@snelsonus.bsky.social)
National Guardsmen running red lights in DC don’t make me feel safer.
Gazetteer SF (@sf.gazetteer.co) reposted
Reporter Eddie Kim went downtown to cover the detainment of an immigrant by ICE this morning. Then he was pepper-sprayed in the face by an ICE agent standing a foot away. Completely unprovoked. See our exclusive story and video from @eddiekimx.bsky.social here: sf.gazetteer.co/i-reported-f...
Steven Nelson (@snelsonus.bsky.social) reply parent
But are you going to participate?
Steven Nelson (@snelsonus.bsky.social) reply parent
Iknowright?!
Clint Smith (@clintsmithiii.bsky.social) reposted
I debated writing this. It can feel tempting, upon encountering yet another instance of this administration’s racism, to let it be. How many ways can you say the same thing over and over again? And yet we have to write it down, if for nothing else, so those who come after us know we were against it.
Steven Nelson (@snelsonus.bsky.social) reply parent
If you worked for the Federal Government you would wait for at least another 2.5 years.
Steven Nelson (@snelsonus.bsky.social)
This is what authoritarianism looks like. Trump Targets LGBTQ+ History, Migrants, and More in Chilling Smithsonian Hit List hyperallergic.com/1036180/trum...
Chad Topaz Queer DEI Race Traitor (@chadtopaz.bsky.social) reposted
I so wish I were rich so that my continued refusals to give Harvard money would actually be a loss. www.thecrimson.com/article/2025...
Guardrails of Democracy (@demguardrails.bsky.social) reposted
Looks like I.C.E. is in D.C. for more than just bringing down crime rates. Does this look like the worst of the worst?
Steven Nelson (@snelsonus.bsky.social) reply parent
Exactly!
Steven Nelson (@snelsonus.bsky.social)
The Getty Foundation doing some good.
Steven Nelson (@snelsonus.bsky.social) reply parent
The sum total of these things and more lead us to the blathering of Jillian Michaels and Trump’s screeds on the exaggeration of slavery’s evil. Such screeds are racist, incendiary, and stunningly unoriginal.
Adam Rothman enjoys a good sandwich (@adamrothman.bsky.social) reposted
No, and I'll tell you why. 1. The campaign for mass deportation is diverting government resources away from actual crime-fighting and disaster management. 2. The autocratic methods and lawless absence of due process in executing mass deportation threatens democracy and endangers us all.
Steven Nelson (@snelsonus.bsky.social) reply parent
Attempts to whitewash the cruelty of slavery predate the Civil War. In 1846, for example, physician Matthew Estes wrote “A Defence of Negro Slavery, as it Exists in the United States,” in which he argued that the institution benefited the health and mind of the enslaved.
Steven Nelson (@snelsonus.bsky.social) reply parent
Alongside of these developments, programs that engage histories of slavery have drawn ire from the public for years. I received complaints in 2024 after Anna Deavere Smith’s second Mellon Lecture at the National Gallery of Art titled, “This Ghost of Slavery: A Solo Reading.” youtu.be/-pXLXAKh_kA?...
Steven Nelson (@snelsonus.bsky.social) reply parent
Following Texas, in 2012, the Tennessee Tea Party demanded that textbooks depict slavery in a more positive light (as if there could ever be one). www.huffpost.com/entry/tea-pa...
Steven Nelson (@snelsonus.bsky.social) reply parent
A 2021 @nytimes.com story on the topic…
Steven Nelson (@snelsonus.bsky.social)
For nearly 15 years officials in Texas have been trying, often successfully, to whitewash histories of slavery and the middle passage through legislation and demands that textbook publishers change their texts on the subjects.
Steven Nelson (@snelsonus.bsky.social) reply parent
The Ramones, Rock ‘N Roll High School
Chanda Prescod-Weinstein 🌌 (@chanda.bsky.social) reposted
Video of Columbia Heights residents driving ICE agents out of their area. source: www.instagram.com/reel/DNjkvLQ...
Dan Freedman (@dfreedm.bsky.social) reposted
Steven Nelson (@snelsonus.bsky.social) reply parent
Happy Birthday!
Mrs. Betty Bowers (@mrsbettybowers.bsky.social) reposted
They told us they were targeting "the worst of the worst," but they are going after delivery drivers and their bikes. This isn't about criminality or immigration; it's about intimidation.
Josh Shepperd (@joshshepperd.bsky.social) reposted
Resonance (UC Press) is looking for humanities research across the following topics: Sound in Political Crisis, Sound and Social Justice, Experiments in Sound, Sound Archives and Preservation, and we're convening a permanent series that'll examine "Film and Cinema Sound" in 2026. Please circulate!
Steven Nelson (@snelsonus.bsky.social)
Posting data and/or memes that purport to be factual without sharing their sources dilutes their (and your) credibility. Worse, posting such things without knowing their sources may contribute to the epidemic of misinformation plaguing social media.
Steven Nelson (@snelsonus.bsky.social) reply parent
I got to use one of Tinguely's Méta-matic drawing machines in Basel in 2000. It was a great experience (two of the drawings hang in my home office).
Steven Nelson (@snelsonus.bsky.social) reply parent
It’s Project Runway Drag Race Season 1.
Peter Baker (@peterbakernyt.bsky.social) reposted
The @washingtonpost tracked where Trump's forces are patrolling in Washington. Spoiler alert: They're not where the crime is.
Steven Nelson (@snelsonus.bsky.social) reply parent
His comment is also a violation of the Hatch Act.
Steven Nelson (@snelsonus.bsky.social) reply parent
That officer clearly violated the Hatch Act with his comment about liberals ruining the country.
Steven Nelson (@snelsonus.bsky.social)
This happened two blocks from our house. Law enforcement is out to carry out fascism in our streets.
Maggie Blackhawk (@maggieblackhawk.bsky.social) reposted
Junior faculty and grad students in political science, history, law, and Native American Studies, come take a class with us at the New York Historical Society (and via Zoom) on Native Peoples, American Colonialism, and the U.S. Constitution. To apply, Institute for Constitutional History: 1/2
Laurence H. Tribe (@tribelaw.bsky.social) reposted
“What Trump and his allies seem to want from our museums is self-glorifying kitsch, the aesthetic lingua franca of all authoritarians.” www.nytimes.com/2025/08/15/o...
Steven Nelson (@snelsonus.bsky.social) reply parent
Ahahaha! I almost miss saying “the 405,” “the 10,” etc.
Steven Nelson (@snelsonus.bsky.social) reply parent
Love you, too!
Adam Schwarz (@adamjschwarz.bsky.social) reposted
“Putin would eat you for lunch.” Today, exactly that happened.
Steven Nelson (@snelsonus.bsky.social) reply parent
Steven Nelson (@snelsonus.bsky.social) reply parent
Steven Nelson (@snelsonus.bsky.social) reply parent
Not if you don’t want to.
Steven Nelson (@snelsonus.bsky.social)
The deep contradictions of Kevin Roberts, who wrote his dissertation on Black enslavement at @utaustin.bsky.social.
Sherrilyn Ifill (@sifill.bsky.social) reposted
This is unconscionable. And illegal.
Steven Nelson (@snelsonus.bsky.social) reply parent
But her cookware.
Maggie Tokuda-Hall (@maggietokudahall.bsky.social) reposted
Gosh what else could these mayors have in common?
Jen Rubin (@jenrubin.bsky.social) reposted
www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/202... fcuk this and throw anyone in dC office who played a part in this out
Simon Fondrie-Teitler (@simon.overgrown.garden) reposted
US Park Police now doing traffic stops in DC, and charged at me with a baton for filming closer than they liked
Steven Nelson (@snelsonus.bsky.social)
Important decision out of Maryland
Sherrilyn Ifill (@sifill.bsky.social) reposted
A piece of history I did not know. www.zinnedproject.org/news/tdih/no...
Jen Bendery (@jbendery.bsky.social) reposted reply parent
Tense scene out here. People booing and shaming unidentified federal law enforcement as they stand in the middle of the street, posted to pull people over for random checks.
Steven Nelson (@snelsonus.bsky.social)
Grateful for @acls1919.bsky.social's advocacy and willingness to speak truth to power.
Steven Nelson (@snelsonus.bsky.social)
The question no one seems to be asking is whether or not the Smithsonian will comply with these outrageous demands. As a public/private agency that’s not part of the Executive Branch, its doesn’t have to. wapo.st/4mIsITW
Steven Nelson (@snelsonus.bsky.social)
What We Make of Trump's Fascist Takeover of D.C. Policing open.substack.com/pub/contrari...
Philip Gourevitch (@pgourevitch.bsky.social) reposted
Grossly irresponsible of the Times to have this ludicrous credulous spin as the top story the morning after a president who rules by fiat proclaims a totally specious emergency to militarize the capital - an editorial insult to our intelligence and our democracy.
Steven Nelson (@snelsonus.bsky.social)
An important response to @jerrysaltz.bsky.social’s deeply troubling Instagram post in defense of the American atomic bombing of Japan in 1945.
Steven Nelson (@snelsonus.bsky.social)
Keep going, UCLA.
Erin Reed (@erininthemorning.com) reposted
1. Unlike other prestigious universities, UCLA appears to be rejecting Trump's demands to throw transgender people under the bus and enact draconian anti-trans policies. The government is holding their funding hostage and threatening them with massive fines. Subscribe to support my journalism.
Alondra Nelson (@alondra.bsky.social) reposted
As I wrote in @thehill.com, federal science funding isn’t just about labs, it’s about livelihoods. Cuts to NIH, NSF & NASA mean lost jobs today, stalled discovery tomorrow, and fewer opportunities for the next generation. When we invest in research, we are investing in workers and communities. ⬇️
Steven Nelson (@snelsonus.bsky.social)
Other than on the 1600 block of Pennsylvania Avenue NW, there is no spike in crime in Washington, DC. Indeed, on Jan. 3, the US Justice Department notes that violent crime in the city is at a 30 year low. Trump’s crackdown is the exercise of authoritarian rule in our nation’s capital.
Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) reposted
New in PN: Crime is down. But Trump's authoritarian power grabs are escalating. "The fact that crime is down conflicts with the ever-present right-wing narrative of a nationwide crime epidemic. So Republicans are resorting to sensationalizing random street fights."
Steven Nelson (@snelsonus.bsky.social) reply parent
Steven Nelson (@snelsonus.bsky.social) reply parent
It’s not media capture, it’s media capitulation.
Steven Nelson (@snelsonus.bsky.social) reply parent
Steven Nelson (@snelsonus.bsky.social) reply parent
Apple, meet orange.
Steven Nelson (@snelsonus.bsky.social)
This.
Diana Butler Bass (@dianabutlerbass.bsky.social) reposted
Guess Jeanine Piro hasn't deleted all the data yet.
jamelle (@jamellebouie.net) reposted
ah yes that den of crime, the national mall
Steven Nelson (@snelsonus.bsky.social)
This is what authoritarianism looks like. www.texastribune.org/2025/08/07/t...
Steven Nelson (@snelsonus.bsky.social)
This is what authoritarianism looks like. share.inquirer.com/K5v2JX
Steven Nelson (@snelsonus.bsky.social)
Judge Colleen McMahon ruled that NEH grants for the Authors Guild can not be reallocated while the case is being tried. #academicfreedom www.acls.org/news/acls-ah...
Steven Nelson (@snelsonus.bsky.social)
Wesleyan University president Michael Roth on the real goals of Trump’s assualt on Harvard and American academia. www.politico.com/news/magazin...
5 Calls (@5calls.org) reposted
🚨🚨 Texas GOP is moving FAST to rig the district maps to retain their power. Redistricting bill HB 4 is now **out of House committee** 🔥📞🔥 TEXAS RESIDENTS --> Head to 5calls.org/state/texas NOW to call your state legislators and demand they OPPOSE this bill and break quorum if they're a Democrat
Anna Kornbluh (@annakornbluh.bsky.social) reposted
say it again: 4 million people work in higher ed, the largest employer in 10 states, second largest employer in 10 more, and in 60 of the 100 biggest cities demolishing higher education is economic sabotage
Sanho Tree (@sanho.bsky.social) reposted
“The Washington Litigation Group, a new boutique non-profit firm, is composed of seasoned attorneys, judges and former govt employees who lost their jobs when Trump took office – with some even emerging from retirement. Its services will be free to those looking to push back on Trump.”
Steven Nelson (@snelsonus.bsky.social)
It was never about saving $$$. www.rawstory.com/doge-2673797...
Steven Nelson (@snelsonus.bsky.social)
This is what authoritarianism looks like. wapo.st/3HhfyxU