Sending love to friends who, like me, are feeling especially close to this tragedy today. There is so much I want to say, but for now, just sending love. Take care of yourselves.
Hakeem Jefferson
@hakeemjefferson.bsky.social
Assistant professor of political science at Stanford. Forthcoming book, Respectability Politics, with University of Chicago Press. Not Hakeem Jeffries, the Minority Leader.
Regarding Mangione: it’s been wild to see some on the left celebrate this brutal, vigilante killing. Healthcare in this country is a disaster, to be sure. But it’s hard not to see pretty white guy privilege in Mangione becoming a folk hero. The mostly uncritical defense of this guy is just weird.
New working paper w/ Hanna Folsz In Jan 2025 Trump issued an executive order targeting corporate DEI programs. Many companies ended DEI fearing financial risk We find that firms that kept DEI performed just as well in financial markets, revenue, etc democracypolicylab.berkeley.edu/wp-content/u...
Update: paper now accepted at JPSP!! Preprint soon. So stoked about this one, especially b/c I often joke that I'm a political scientist who moonlights as a social psychologist. Moonlighting has paid off!
Hakeem Jefferson@hakeemjefferson.bsky.social · 7d agoJust revised & resubmitted our paper on why White Americans avoid info abt race & racism to JPSP. This project w/ Koji Takahashi & Ali Earl began nearly a decade ago in grad school. Some poetry in it being the last research thing I’ll send off before submitting for tenure. Proud of this work!
There are so many incredible Black scholars in academia who have produced theoretically powerful, methodologically rigorous work & yet publications are desperate to give attention to one who has decided to leverage his grievance agenda into a career. Please learn from Black scholars doing the work
Nathan Kalman-Lamb@nkalamb.bsky.social · 2d agoTAH, in an interview with The Chronicle, refers to non-white people being hired in the academy as a form of “barbarism” and suggests they “have no business teaching college students.” Is it possible he encountered unqualified candidates once at Bates? Sure. But this is racist af.
I don’t remember liking this guy this much. He’s really grown.He seems more moderate than my preference but also like he has *actual beliefs* that goes a long way.I don’t personally think need a white man at the head of the ticket (see my previous electability argument) but if you really want one 👀
Hakeem Jefferson@hakeemjefferson.bsky.social · 4d agoOssoff passes my “I can hang out with Black people in church fellowship halls and not feel out of place” test for any candidate hoping to be the Party’s presidential nominee. He’s got the goods. youtu.be/N18Ht1gFIoA?...
Ossoff passes my “I can hang out with Black people in church fellowship halls and not feel out of place” test for any candidate hoping to be the Party’s presidential nominee. He’s got the goods. youtu.be/N18Ht1gFIoA?...
Ossoff: “I challenge anyone to defend this.” | Divine Faith Ministries International | 08.09.2026
YouTube video by Jon Ossoff
youtu.be
Really wild feeling not to be working on a book or a paper or thinking about working on a book or a paper or feeling bad for not working on a deadline every day for the first time in what feels like forever. And of course, no, I’m not caught up. But wow.
Hakeem Jefferson@hakeemjefferson.bsky.social · 7d agoJust revised & resubmitted our paper on why White Americans avoid info abt race & racism to JPSP. This project w/ Koji Takahashi & Ali Earl began nearly a decade ago in grad school. Some poetry in it being the last research thing I’ll send off before submitting for tenure. Proud of this work!
Excited to dig into this book by my very smart and insightful colleague Rose Salseda: Unrest: Art in the Aftermath of the 1992 Los Angeles Riots “The first book to examine the visual art legacy of the 1992 Los Angeles Riots.” Congratulations, Rose! Let’s all go buy a copy!
AWP@awpwriter.org · last wk.Happy pub day to UNREST: ART IN THE AFTERMATH OF THE 1992 LOS ANGELES RIOTS by Rose Salseda! Grab this and more new releases from our AWP Member Bookshelf.
Just revised & resubmitted our paper on why White Americans avoid info abt race & racism to JPSP. This project w/ Koji Takahashi & Ali Earl began nearly a decade ago in grad school. Some poetry in it being the last research thing I’ll send off before submitting for tenure. Proud of this work!
Decades of research in political science have shown that most voters have only a vague idea of what terms like liberal, conservative and progressive mean. Those of us who think about this stuff a lot? We’re the weird ones.
Hakeem Jefferson@hakeemjefferson.bsky.social · last wk.I have little to add to the chat, but I will say this: Those of us who spend a lot of time talking about politics overestimate how much other people care about, or are even familiar with, the labels we use to describe, denigrate, or celebrate candidates. Sometimes we’re high on our own supply.
I have little to add to the chat, but I will say this: Those of us who spend a lot of time talking about politics overestimate how much other people care about, or are even familiar with, the labels we use to describe, denigrate, or celebrate candidates. Sometimes we’re high on our own supply.
I have little to add to the chat, but I will say this: Those of us who spend a lot of time talking about politics overestimate how much other people care about, or are even familiar with, the labels we use to describe, denigrate, or celebrate candidates. Sometimes we’re high on our own supply.
And now I’m on my way back home on the train. Civic duty accomplished by showing up, checking in, and being dismissed a little more than an hour later, before even getting inside a courtroom. No complaints from me!
Hakeem Jefferson@hakeemjefferson.bsky.social · last wk.Early train to jury duty. Unlikely I’ll make a jury, both for scheduling reasons & obvi reasons. A few observations: Fun seeing the cross-section of potential jurors. Like the DMV, we are all inconvenienced. A great equalizer. But hardship exemptions mean juries still underrepresent the poor.
Early train to jury duty. Unlikely I’ll make a jury, both for scheduling reasons & obvi reasons. A few observations: Fun seeing the cross-section of potential jurors. Like the DMV, we are all inconvenienced. A great equalizer. But hardship exemptions mean juries still underrepresent the poor.
Re Nolan Wells: One of the tragedies of race is that this country’s history teaches us to fear the worst when much remains unknown. That’s what reasoning looks like under a longstanding regime of racial violence & w/a keen awareness of the fragility of interracial trust. That is part of the tragedy.
Re Nolan Wells: One of the tragedies of race is that this country’s history teaches us to fear the worst when much remains unknown. That’s what reasoning looks like under a longstanding regime of racial violence & w/a keen awareness of the fragility of interracial trust. That is part of the tragedy.
Could not be more proud to say that Josh Dawsey was my pal and editor during my stint as a columnist for The Daily Gamecock at the University of South Carolina. That he’s become one of the most important journalists holding this president to account surprises none of us who saw his work then.
Despite the whining about “ historical accuracy,” the racist backlash to the casting in Nolan’s Odyssey is about the right wanting to justify racial hierarchy by projecting it into a past where it did not actually exist. www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/0...
Interesting use of my work in a new paper. Authors use well-established finding that ideology is weaker predictor of party id among Black Ams than among White Ams as benchmark for sample quality. Representative samples recover that pattern. Less rep. samples do not. www.nature.com/articles/s41...
The University of Chicago Press held its launch meeting for my book today. Respectability Politics will be out Summer 2027, with a cover featuring original letterpress work by the artist Amos Kennedy, Jr. whose work I greatly admire! So excited to share this book with y’all. I’m really proud of it.
I am a new passionate enjoyer of the sport. I see why the people love it.
He lies. He doesn't follow laws. Or court orders. He violates the Constitution and his oath of office multiple times every day. There is only one response to this in a normal, functioning democracy: bsky.app/profile/mcop...
Hakeem Jefferson@hakeemjefferson.bsky.social · 4w agoThe president is a liar. He lies constantly & without hesitation. His lies about American elections are among his most dangerous b/c they are meant to convince a susceptible public that democratic outcomes cannot be trusted. They are antidemocratic lies in service of holding onto power. He’s a liar!
Perhaps one of the best things these media outfits have done in a while. Do not allow a lying president with the power of his office to demand that you give him a platform to tell his lies.
Republicans Against Trumpism@rpsagainsttrump.bsky.social · 4w agoJUST IN: NBC, ABC and CNN will not air Trump’s primetime address live
The president is a liar. He lies constantly & without hesitation. His lies about American elections are among his most dangerous b/c they are meant to convince a susceptible public that democratic outcomes cannot be trusted. They are antidemocratic lies in service of holding onto power. He’s a liar!
An incredible euphemism here for “the government is doing illegal discrimination”
📢 JOB ANNOUNCEMENT 📢 Our department is hiring an Assistant Professor of Quantitative Political Science. We seek a scholar in AP, CP, PE, or IR who applies frontier methods of statistics and data science to substantive questions in their area of expertise. apply.interfolio.com/189477
Perceived electability—which so often accrues to whiteness and white maleness—is a hell of a drug.
Hakeem Jefferson@hakeemjefferson.bsky.social · 3mo agoAs I’ve said before, Platner is a good example of how perceived electability advantage, often afforded to white men like him, can weaken Democrats’ fidelity to their values and make them more willing to engage in Trump-like excuse making for inexcusable behavior. www.nytimes.com/2026/05/10/o...