Jamil Smith
@jamilsmith.bsky.social
Faculty lecturer, @berkeleyjournalism.bsky.social. Columnist, @us.theguardian.com.
Christopher Nolan’s “The Odyssey” isn’t just a homecoming story. It asks what victory does to the victor — and what happens when those who break the rules abroad carry that lesson home. My latest for @us.theguardian.com.
Nolan’s Odyssey shows what happens when a leader’s violations are rewarded | Jamil Smith
The Greeks learn at Troy that breaking the rules works, then carry the lesson home. Nolan’s film shows how an exception becomes a habit of power
theguardian.com
Here is what I can’t get past: if the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission stops collecting employer reports, no future administration can fill in the missing years. They’re just gone. That’s how civil-rights enforcement gets weaker without the law changing. My latest for @us.theguardian.com.
The US agency that fights workplace discrimination just voted to stop measuring it | Jamil Smith
Republicans have moved to dismantle a 60-year-old demographic reporting system. Now the agency wants to choose what it sees
theguardian.com
Democracy asks power to submit to the public’s judgment and accountability. Trump is trying to reverse that relationship: to make the public submit to his. Every loss becomes fraud, every voter who rejects him a suspect, every rule that might restrain him negotiable. I wrote about where it leads.
The Trump family and administration's embrace of the Tate brothers and intervention on their behalf shows that whatever Donald Trump doesn't want us to know about his association with Jeffrey Epstein, the same vicious misogyny persists. The Tates are the new Epstein.
My latest for @us.theguardian.com.
Guardian US@us.theguardian.com · 3w ago"A government that conceals its identity cannot demand perfect recognition from frightened civilians," writes @jamilsmith.bsky.social. "ICE mistook Lorenzo Salgado Araujo for another man. He was expected to identify ICE instantly. Only one side was allowed to make an error."
"A government that conceals its identity cannot demand perfect recognition from frightened civilians," writes @jamilsmith.bsky.social. "ICE mistook Lorenzo Salgado Araujo for another man. He was expected to identify ICE instantly. Only one side was allowed to make an error."
Lorenzo Salgado Araujo is dead. How long will ICE be allowed to hide its face? | Jamil Smith
A government that demands instant obedience while concealing its identity cannot expect trust – or escape responsibility for the consequences
theguardian.com
Calling this Fourth “America’s 250th birthday” indulges a comfortable fiction. Juneteenth is our more honest Independence Day, and the American experiment dates back well before 1776. Yet we’re getting a birthday party when what this nation needs is us focused on repair.
Montgomery Square, the newest @eji.org Legacy Site, memorializes the Montgomery bus boycott and modern Civil Rights Movement. It is also a warning to all of us. I talked with Bryan Stevenson about memory, erasure, and what history demands for @us.theguardian.com.
New monument turns Rosa Parks’s booking number into warning on US erasure
‘We have come too far to turn around now,’ the monument on Alabama’s Montgomery Square reads
theguardian.com
Mississippi’s governor just called Bennie Thompson’s time in Congress a “reign of terror.” Who, precisely, is terrified here? And of what, or whom? My new column for @us.theguardian.com on what the post-Callais redistricting wave is actually building.
The Republican project isn’t to win in November. It’s to make November cease to matter | Jamil Smith
New electoral maps are erasing Black representations. The effort takes its cues from American history
theguardian.com
The Voting Rights Act of 1965 is all but dead. We’re going to need a new one. My latest column for @us.theguardian.com, in which I argue that the next VRA must include a total ban on federal gerrymandering.
The next Voting Rights Act must outlaw gerrymandering | Jamil Smith
The supreme court has gutted one of the strongest federal tools we had against the most effective weapon in US politics
theguardian.com
"The court has essentially ruled that unless a legislator records a confession of their own bigotry, the map is constitutional – making the only person allowed to define a racist act the person committing it," writes @jamilsmith.bsky.social.
The supreme court trusts America not to be racist. I don’t | Jamil Smith
The Callais decision is predicated on the idea that American leaders will act justly on their own. That premise has already been proven hollow
theguardian.com
The Voting Rights Act existed because America could not be trusted. The Supreme Court just told us to trust it anyway. I don’t. I doubt I ever will. My latest for @us.theguardian.com.
The supreme court trusts America not to be racist. I don’t | Jamil Smith
The Callais decision is predicated on the idea that American leaders will act justly on their own. That premise has already been proven hollow
theguardian.com
The political project is to guide millions of Brads to the realization that they fell for a con and to give them hope that better futures are possible and theirs is not a zero sum game against others.
Mr. Dan Zak@mrdanzak.com · 3mo agoBrad voted Trump bc he promised to be “the most pro-farmer president you’ve ever had.” Instead, tariffs cut Brad’s export market; the war surged fertilizer prices by 70%. So Brad arranged his family’s final sale. “Farm is going dry,” said the ad. “Every cow must go.” www.nytimes.com/2026/05/03/u...
"Strongmen do not last forever. They fall when a public stops recognizing them as strong," writes @jamilsmith.bsky.social.
Hungary’s strongman lost. His ideas live on in the White House | Jamil Smith
The United States tolerates Trump’s behavior because of our warped definition of strength
theguardian.com
There is certainly a moral case to be made against Trump's Iran war. Americans don't need one. We have a gas receipt. We're experiencing the war in our wallets. My latest for @us.theguardian.com.
Trump taught us to prioritize our own wallets. Now he’s paying the price | Jamil Smith
The reckless Iran war shows up for most Americans as a number at a gas pump, not as images or moral reckoning
theguardian.com
Protesters in 2020 dumped a Christopher Columbus statue into Baltimore’s Inner Harbor. Trump just installed a replica on the White House grounds. This isn’t about preserving history. It’s about asserting the power to rewrite it. My latest for @us.theguardian.com.
Protesters dumped a Columbus statue in 2020. Trump installed a replica near the White House
The statue isn’t about preserving history – it’s about asserting the power to rewrite it
theguardian.com
Threatening broadcast licenses over war coverage isn’t media oversight. It’s the language of governments that want obedience instead of journalism. What FCC chairman Brendan Carr wrote should alarm anyone who cares about a free press. And “anyone” needs to be all of us.
F.C.C. Chair Threatens to Revoke Broadcasters’ Licenses Over War Coverage
nytimes.com
Six years ago today, police killed Breonna Taylor during a no-knock raid at her home. She wasn’t even the target of the investigation. Now the Trump DOJ is doing away with the rules meant to prevent another tragedy like hers. My latest for @us.theguardian.com.
Six years after Breonna Taylor’s death, America is weakening the rules that could have saved her | Jamil Smith
Following Taylor’s death, the US limited no-knock warrants. But the Trump administration has quietly rescinded those limits
theguardian.com
"What this administration’s quiet reversal tells us is that her death has been processed – grieved, protested, memorialized – and filed away," writes @jamilsmith.bsky.social.
Six years after Breonna Taylor’s death, America is weakening the rules that could have saved her | Jamil Smith
Following Taylor’s death, the US limited no-knock warrants. But the Trump administration has quietly rescinded those limits
theguardian.com
When presidents ask the country to support a war, honesty is not optional. Those disfiguring decisions outlast the headlines. They survive the presidents who made them. What remains are the people left to carry the consequences. My latest for @us.theguardian.com.
In a Trump war, with great power comes no responsibility | Jamil Smith
When presidents ask the country to support a war, honesty is not optional
theguardian.com
Grateful for the chance to join @sykescharlie.bsky.social on "To the Contrary." We discussed tariffs, executive power, and how racism continues to function as a structural vulnerability in American democracy. Watch here, or listen wherever you get your podcasts. youtu.be/9Cx6i8r1ldQ?...
"Trump Uses Racism to Weaken American Democracy"
YouTube video by To the Contrary With Charlie Sykes
youtu.be
I’ve joined @us.theguardian.com as a columnist. I’ll be on my usual beat, covering power, identity, and culture — with an eye on how people advance civil rights outside of electoral politics. I'm looking forward to the work ahead.
The Guardian announces Jamil Smith as new columnist
A renowned commentator and media critic, Smith brings more than 25 years’ experience shaping public discourse on the intersection of politics, culture and identity
theguardian.com
Hatred cannot govern a country effectively. Prior to this morning's arrest of journalists for doing their jobs, I wrote about this government using fear as policy in the Twin Cities, and why racist governance is bad governance. My first column for @us.theguardian.com.
Minneapolis is in a state of chaos. Racist immigration policies are to blame | Jamil Smith
What is happening in Minnesota is proof that racist ideas lead to racist policies – and it produces bad, dangerous governance
theguardian.com
Don’t say this is “un-American.” If journalists are being arrested for doing journalism, then we are not the America we claim to be. That just means we have work to do. I stand with Don Lemon and Georgia Fort and those demanding their immediate release.
Indeed. We and our forebears have been sounding this warning for generations.
Mara Gay@maragay.bsky.social · 7mo agoThis administration is now treating those it perceives as its domestic enemies as America has treated Black people, and tolerated the treatment of Black people. Clarifying.
My final article as @theemancipator.org’s Editor-in-Chief, with contributions from @renee.bsky.social, @victorerikray.bsky.social, and many more who have helped make this magazine what it has been. Please read and share.
The Emancipator@theemancipator.org · last yr.Racism is in everything — politics, the economy, sports, food, entertainment — but are journalists doing a sufficient job of covering it? Editor-in-Chief @jamilsmith.bsky.social spoke with Emancipator contributors about why journalists & media outlets must cover racism more intently & effectively.
Racism is an emergency. Why don’t enough journalists and media outlets treat it as such? For my final article as @theemancipator.org’s Editor-in-chief, I addressed the need for our industry to do better, and quickly. theemancipator.org/2025/06/12/t...
If like any sane, moral person you think this administration's immigration policy is cruel, inhumane, and brutal, there are probably better ways to spend your time than lecturing the people harmed by that policy about patriotism and proper decorum when protesting what's being done to them.
Homan recently said Newsom hasn't done anything yet to warrant arrest and Trump making it clear he wants his political opponents jailed.
Aaron Rupar@atrupar.com · last yr."I would do it if I were Tom. I think it's great" -- Trump endorses the arrest of Gov. Gavin Newsom
