Redefining Leadership and Community
This week we are exploring Housing Justice, Political Identity, and the Future of Information Systems.
Building Power Through Unity
In “What’s Happening in Louisville Could Solve a Housing Crisis”, Tressie McMillan Cottom explores the efforts of the Louisville Tenants Union, founded in 2022 by Josh Poe and Jessica Bellamy, to combat the affordable housing crisis in Louisville, Kentucky. The union organizes renters from low-income apartment complexes, rural trailer parks, and gentrifying neighborhoods to challenge corporate landlords, demand fair rent, and advocate for better living conditions. Tressie draws attention to the fault lines present in Louisville that created America’s housing crisis: “gentrification, federal development schemes, and redlining.” This process, of course, was repeated across many cities in the country, Tressie notes saying, "If this country’s affordable housing crisis can be solved here, it could establish a template for helping the nation’s poor and marginalized find stability."
If this country’s affordable housing crisis can be solved here, it could establish a template for helping the nation’s poor and marginalized find stability.
The union faces significant challenges in organizing the South, a region with a history of racist housing policies and divisions across race and class. Poe acknowledges these difficulties, stating, "Poor white people are hard to organize; I think they’re the most psychologically screwed-up people in the history of the world." Despite these obstacles, the union remains committed to its mission, understanding that housing issues cannot be separated from broader social and economic inequalities. Bellamy emphasizes, "We didn’t just lose housing; we lost our community center."
We didn’t just lose housing; we lost our community center.
A side effect, or perhaps another goal of the community building, is “a tonic to the loneliness of everything”:
What I did have was a sit-down soul food lunch with four Louisville Tenants Union elders, two newcomers and three staff members in the final hours of my trip. The food was from Bellamy’s family cafe. The conversation was ribald and vulnerable. It struck me that what the members of the union have found here is a tonic to the loneliness of everything — the pandemic, the hustle economy and political disillusionment. They took turns sharing stories of police brutality, gun violence, depression and illness. For each of the people in that room, housing insecurity had been just one crisis too many. Their stories made me feel helpless. I muttered this to no one in particular.
Bellamy leaned over and said: “No, this is power. This union is an invitation to your power.”
Harris Redefines the Look of Leadership
That’s where gender tripped up Hillary Clinton, the first viable female candidate for president... She couldn’t make the idea of a president look like a woman.
Harris has an even more difficult task: She has to make the presidency look like a Black woman.
It would be easy to assume that means her challenges are a mash-up of Barack Obama’s race problem and Clinton’s gender problem. But that is wrong. Harris has a unique challenge about what her race and gender mean together.
Tressie McMillan Cottom writes about how Harris has the potential to redefine leadership, as there is no precedent for a candidate like her.
Tressie suggests that Harris's identity as a Black woman, particularly in a campaign context, might bypass some of the expectations and criticisms that typically burden female candidates. The campaign could capitalize on Harris’s distinctiveness, presenting her as a strong leader without the usual penalties that female candidates face for being assertive. This approach is evident in her choice of running mate, Tim Walz, who complements rather than challenges her leadership.
Tressie concludes that this approach has already shifted the media narrative and revitalized the Democratic base, positioning Harris as a transformative figure who can redefine what presidential leadership looks like in the modern era.
Tressie McMillan Cottom discusses JD Vance's recent comments, which resurface his 2021 remarks about Kamala Harris and "childless cat ladies" in “How Kamala Harris is Already Changing the Face of Presidential Power”. Vance's rhetoric, which implies that not having children is un-American, “underscores how Trump and Vance have very few pro-family policy proposals for actual babies, as opposed to talking about imagined babies that women should be having.” Tressie highlights how Vance's statements are part of a larger narrative that reduces women's value to their ability to reproduce and positions married mothers as "real" women while marginalizing others
The gag is clear when you consider which issues pronatalists like Vance consider worthy and which he does not. Black women have the highest maternal mortality rates in this country, followed by Native American women. Yet his stated pro-birthing policy policies do not address the high cost of giving birth for minority women.
The "mama bear" archetype in conservative politics, popularized by figures like Sarah Palin, reinforces the idea of women defending traditional family values. However, Harris cannot fit into this mold due to the racialized perceptions of Black and immigrant mothers:
Harris cannot be a mama bear. No one who looks like Harris can be a mama bear. When Black mothers take up arms in defense of their children, they are threats to social order. When Black mothers grieve their children’s deaths in public — like Mike Brown’s mother, like Eric Garner’s mother, like Emmett Till’s mother — they indict the very white violence that the mama bear symbolizes. The power of their grief visibly threatens the power structures of white supremacy.
Rather than falling into this trap, Cottom suggests that Harris's campaign is wisely shifting the focus away from personal motherhood narratives and toward policies that support all mothers, such as childcare, maternity leave, a tax credit for new parents, among others. By resisting the G.O.P.'s bait and emphasizing inclusive, family-friendly policies, Harris aims to redefine the discourse on motherhood and leadership in this election.
Publications and Appearances
In recent weeks, several prominent X accounts advocating for Vice President Kamala Harris have been labeled as spam or restricted, Trisha Thadani writes for The Washington Post. Accounts such as "White Dudes for Harris", "Progressives for Harris", and one official campaign account have faced suspensions and reach limitations, particularly after high-profile events like fundraisers and rally announcements. Additionally, on the day that Biden withdrew from the race, many were unable to follow Harris’ official campaign account @KamalaHQ. This has sparked questions about whether the actions are intentional censorship or a result of staffing issues following Musk’s takeover of the platform. Musk’s open support for Donald Trump has further fueled concerns about the impartiality of the platform during the lead-up to the November 5 election.
Daniel Kreiss spoke with the Washington Post, noting, “We’re talking about four episodes out of a lot of Harris content on X, but without transparency into why enforcement decisions are being made, given the very strong political activism of the owner, people are going to raise questions.”
On August 9th, the UNC Board of Governors elected interim chancellor, Lee Roberts, to be the 13th chancellor of UNC Chapel Hill. Emmy Martin, a senior at the Hussman School of Journalism and Media, writes for the News and Observer, highlighting the trend of universities selecting leaders without traditional academic backgrounds. Lee Roberts and the chancellor of Fayetteville State University Darrell Allison did not have a background in academia before being appointed chancellor of their respective schools.
Tressie McMillan Cottom led research showing that a significant percentage of university presidents now come from non-academic backgrounds at Virginia Commonwealth University in 2018. She explained to Martin that universities are increasingly being run like businesses, making candidates with non-traditional backgrounds more appealing to boards looking to prioritize financial growth:
There’s this belief among university boards that someone who comes through the traditional academic route will be a little too precious about the academic mission of the university and won’t be as interested in or value highly enough what their shifting priorities are — which is to generate grant money, generate profit-making ventures and to increase the financial profile of the university.
In “Healthier information ecosystems: A definition and agenda” — a Francesca Tripodi co-authored paper — the authors propose a framework for creating "healthier information ecosystems" by integrating theories from complex systems, ecological research, and a value-oriented approach. It emphasizes the urgent need for information scientists to actively guide the development of these systems, as they increasingly shape culture and economics. The authors define a healthy information ecosystem as one that is resilient and aligned with core human values, offering a holistic, interdisciplinary approach to addressing issues like misinformation, toxicity, and polarization: “The health of an information ecosystem depends not only on its ability to support the efficient and effective flow of information and its underlying resilience, but also on its alignment with the values and needs of its human participants.” They draw on concepts from systems science and ecology to provide analytical tools for understanding and improving the health of information systems, advocating for research-driven, socio-technical interventions to tackle current challenges.
As Meta shuts down CrowdTangle, the social media analytics tool that has been crucial for researchers and journalists, many in the research community express concern over the diminishing transparency of the platform. While Meta executives claim CrowdTangle was never intended for research, Alice Marwick challenges this narrative.
Reflecting on Meta’s initial support for academics using the tool, Marwick told Engadget, "We were trained on CrowdTangle by people who worked at Facebook... They were very enthusiastic about academics using it."