ePluribus: America is an on-line contemporary American culture magazine that incorporates the original concept of our nation's motto to provide cultural news coverage of America. Our motto is Humanity Starts With Culture.
According to local news in Minneapolis, the NAACP has filed a federal lawsuit against the City of Minneapolis for allegedly spying on members of the organization’s local chapter for years without legitimate cause. The lawsuit was filed Wednesday morning by the University of Minnesota Law Schools’ Racial Justice Law Clinic (RJLC) on behalf of the NAACP. Civil Rights Advocate and Attorney, Ben Crump stated the development of this lawsuit, “comes one year after the MN Dept. of Human Rights released a report saying Minneapolis police use covert social media to target Black leaders & organizations and to criticize elected officials — all without oversight or public safety purpose.”
In a statement, Cynthia Wilson, president of the Minneapolis NAACP said, “While the Minneapolis Police Department’s surveillance of our membership is not surprising, it is disappointing. We assumed that our work with MPD on public safety and community matters was being done in good faith. Instead, MPD simultaneously tried to bring us harm. To know MPD surveilled our members is deeply unnerving and upsetting. Their actions violated our trust. MPD needs to be held accountable to prevent this from happening to anyone else.”
The lawsuit claims police officers’ surveillance of NAACP members violates the members’ First and 14th Amendment rights and discriminates against them and calls for compensatory relief in an amount to be determined at trial and punitive damages against the entangled officers.
Liliana Zaragoza, associate professor of clinical law and director of the RJLC said, “For years, MPD maintained a policy of singling out the NAACP and its members for online surveillance and harassment because of their race and because of their advocacy on behalf of Black community members. This conduct is not only unconstitutional but also eerily reminiscent of past efforts across the country to surveil Black activists and organizations, from the Black Panthers to Black Lives Matter. Our clients deserve safety, security, and freedom from both police harassment and the fear that they are being watched because of who they are and what they advocate for. The City and officers involved must be held accountable.”
In the late 19th and early 20th centuries when Ida B. Wells lived, she was an anti-lynching crusader who wrote about the terrorism and oppression Black folks lived under in America, a place where racism still functions as a well-oiled machine. Racism is so ingrained in our cultural make-up; even AI systems in search of alien life must undergo DEI training to work against our own inherent prejudices and discrimination practices. If history hasn’t been truthful enough, and the on-going and indiscriminate shooting of Black boys hasn’t been cruel enough, Ralph Yarl’s shooting will take its seat alongside similar racial shooting incidents as a “normal” node in American history. And accordingly, the human rights work Wells took up in her living days, like Harriet Tubman before her, marches on with other freedom fighters.
What is America to a Black boy? Langston Hughes searched for an America that cared for him and his people. He dreamed of a nation truly beholden to the words that captured principles rooted in a new humanity, and that all men are truly created equal. The truth of the matter is that America was never going to be America to him when he so eloquently captured with poetry, a broken heart and a broken promise to a people: “O, let my land be a land where Liberty Is crowned with no false patriotic wreath, but opportunity is real, and life is free, Equality is in the air we breathe. There’s never been equality for me, nor freedom in this homeland of the free.”
And so we must ask America as Hughes did in 1935: Who are you that mumbles in the dark? Tell the world what America is to a Black boy.
In a 1939 song, Billy Holiday sang of lynching’s as strange fruit hanging from Poplar trees. Even so, the beautiful melancholy melody escaping her soul didn’t turn America’s hate for her sun-kissed children, instead anti-lynching laws sat shelved for more generations to bear witness to the callousness being inflicted upon Black souls, symbolically speaking of our worth without words. What is America to a Black boy, indeed.
This question is as old as the slave trade that trafficked millions of Africans to European and Native American shores. From Booker T. Washington, Marcus Garvey to Malcolm X, Black people have consistently sought compromise and solutions to remove barriers that deliberately obstruct their salvation in America. Imagine burning down Black Wall Street, denying Black people an education and basic human rights, all while declaring, E Pluribus Unum.
As we prepare the nations’ soil for future crop to grow, the question before the next harvest must be answered to stop the spread of this strange fruit we call racism. What is America to a Black boy, is the question. James Baldwin found his answer and salvation in Paris back in 1948, but considering the American market in 2023 and navigating our societal changes like the insincerity and hypocrisy of racial justice, one can easily conclude that America to a Black boy is the shooting of Ralph Yarl, a sweet 16 year-old kid stereotyped as a scary Black man.
What is America to a Black boy is answered in accidentally ringing a door bell of the wrong address and getting shot in the head for it. What is America to a Black boy is demonstrated in the nearly 100 years it took for Congress to make lynching a crime by finally passing the Emmett Till Anti-Lynching Act. What is America to a Black boy is witnessed with the assassinations of our Black leaders, holding true to the American promise that sicced J. Edgar Hoover—whose name still adorns the FBI building—on Black people to “Prevent the rise of a messiah” who could unify and electrify the black movement.
What is America to a Black boy is expressed with chokeholds, stop and frisk tactics, a knee to the neck, no-knock warrants, deliberate economic barriers to retard upward movement, health and human services without Black fathers in the home, and blatant inequality in every sector of our American lives and culture. Today, being carefully Black in America requires more than being Woke, The Green Book or even knowing your place in common society; it is also knowing the sting of America’s spiked tongue outside of the home and familiar Black spaces.
We are living in biblical times. But just like Moses led his people to freedom, we too shall find our way to a new Canaan and the promised lands revealed in the dreams and hopes of our ancestors. The racial shooting of Ralph Yarl, a high school honor student and aspiring musician who hopes to attend Princeton, is a stark reminded that America remains the pioneer on the plain where Black people continue to seek a home where true freedom reigns and their children can live in peace.
When state delegates reached The Three-Fifths Compromise in 1787, our subjugation was emblematically absolute, paving the way for reparations for former White slave holders, the formation of the KKK, and the birth of Jim Crow and Slave Codes. Today, Black people continue to live in a quasi freedom loving land that turned its back to their needs, and their children into dangerous stereotypes. The disrespect of African Americans runs so deep; Donald Trump ran on a platform to “Make America Great Again” and won.
The 1963 March on Washington wasn’t about a Black man’s dream. It was about reaching tangible reparations in many forms, including jobs and freedom. The call was also for racial equality and a more just society. Clearly, we still have mountains to climb because the unjustified fear and loathing in an old White man’s heart when a Black boy rang his door bell by mistake, is homegrown American-made racism. And when more than half of the country voted to “Make America Great Again,” refuse to see the wrong in flying Confederate flags and calling for the return of the “good ol’ boy” days, how can this country honestly envision a better future and build out the blue print of a shared humanity.
America to a Black boy is the enduring folklore of a troubled and weary people, one that is constantly being created and recreated to suit new situations. It is the cyclical nature of history and the ugly truth of racism. Despite the many opportunities to loosen the grip on hate and intolerance, racist Americans refuse to budge. Even so, and regardless of any demands or sway of a nation, America can only be America when Black boys are valued, not feared.
Jay Mills is the founder of Ebony Green Society, she is a cannabis content creator, author, performing artist, community organizer and educator. She is the host of Pass The Jay Podcast. Jay is a cannabis industry pioneer. She is the first Black woman to manage a cultivation center on the east coast. She is the founder of The Green Life Learning Center, an international cannabis education company specializing in professional employee training standards for cannabis businesses. After some time in the herbal and holistic wellness industry and working at a DC medical dispensary she decided to focus on expanding her work, by creating opportunities for others and educating the community about the growing cannabis industry and all its uses. A powerful and deeply loved green leaf may just be the path to building generational wealth for Black folks, and Jay Mills wants to show you the way there.
To learn more about Jay Mills, her upcoming events and programs see info below:
Ebony Green | info@onlyebonygreen.com | 202.670.6867 | 712 H St. NE, Suite 1403 Washington, DC 20002 | IG @therealjaymills
Jay Mills answers ePa Live: Question Of The Day
Jay Mills is a cannabis industry pioneer as the first Black woman to manage a cultivation center on the east coast.
Atibon is an award-winning actor and performer who lives in Brooklyn. His body of work includes films like FBI (2018), Fade to Black: The Trigger Effect (2013) Gabriel (2014), and Mountains. His passion for his Haitian culture and heritage led to the creation of Vodounchild and Brooklyn Loves Haiti merchandize you can purchase on Etsy. His new film, Mountain, is about a Haitian demolition worker who is faced with the realities of redevelopment as he is tasked with dismantling his rapidly gentrifying neighborhood.
Atibon Nazaire Answers ePa Live: Question Of The Day
Atibon Nazaire on his career as an actor and his new film, Mountain.
The Africa Wealth Report is the definitive guide to Africa’s wealth and luxury sector, published annually by Henley & Partners — the global leader in residence and citizenship by investment— in partnership with wealth intelligence firm New World Wealth. The report provides a comprehensive review of private wealth in Africa, including high-net-worth-individual, luxury, and wealth management trends, as well as expert insights on investing in Africa, the investment migration sector, and economic mobility on the continent.
Investing in Africa
Africa — despite its many challenges, own goals, misperceptions, and negative international press — is undoubtedly open for business in 2023.
Known as the continent with both the youngest and fastest growing populations means that Africa naturally holds the greatest potential for investment prospects. Additionally, having the dubious honor of also being the poorest continent opens a myriad opportunities in terms of investment growth potential but, most importantly, magnifies the power of impact investing, especially for investors who have this as a focused investment strategy.
When jogging through my neighborhood at sunrise, I often see backyard signs pledging allegiance to a sacred political principle which my neighbors hold dear. The backyard signs communicate what the neighbors want others to think that they care about. However, these signs do little to promote in practice the cause they highlight. The signs are posted because they represent a popular opinion within the community. They would not be posted in a community with a different set of values, to avoid the risk of controversy. Ironically, it is the other community that needs convincing, and where the sign would serve the purpose of engaging in a dialogue to improve the world.
A 2020 Morning Consult poll found that a quarter of adults without children say climate change is part of the reason they didn’t have children. Given the rest of our industrial activities, their choice has little impact on suppressing climate change, akin to the impact of becoming vegan on saving endangered species. But these decisions make people feel and look better within their like-minded communities.
Later in my day, I see many of my colleagues on the academic campus using popular slogans to express their loyalty to trendy principles. The spectacle reminds me of the uniform we used to wear at elementary school to hide our actual socioeconomic backgrounds. This is all good, except that when it comes to the hard work necessary for fulfilling these same principles by actually helping real people, the same colleagues are nowhere to be found.
What is the virtue inherent in `virtue signaling’? Clearly, it is the pleasure of communicating the beauty of ideas that aim to repair a broken world. But without turning them into action, the beautiful ideas resemble an engine that lacks transmission. A car’s transmission is essential for turning the engine’s power into motion on the road. The engine by itself only makes noise.
Why is it then that action is rare? Obviously, because it requires hard work as well as coming up with an effective implementation strategy on how to make a difference.
Over the past decade I had the privilege of serving simultaneously as director of the Institute for Theory and Computation, chair of the Astronomy department and founding director of the Black Hole Initiative at Harvard University. The reason I agreed to serve on all three leadership roles as once, was to improve my environment. They demanded sacrifice of my precious research time. Those who know me would testify that there is nothing more enjoyable for me than being fully immersed in creative scientific work, of which administrative distractions are the foe. But at some phase in my career, I realized that I cannot rely on others to do what needs to be done, and so I welcomed this opportunity to promote excellence and diversity. Most of my leadership efforts were invested in supporting students, postdocs and junior faculty of all backgrounds. The reason was simple: my own upbringing was unprivileged and I knew how difficult it is to make it up the academic ladder. I felt committed to helping fledgling scientists achieve success irrespective of where they started. Helping real people required hard work, unlike `virtue signaling’.
To protect their privacy, I cannot mention the dozens of individuals I was fortunate to help during my leadership roles over the years, but my home office is filled with “Thank-You” notes from all of them. The backyard signs of my neighbors serve a different purpose. These offer a shortcut to feeling better.
Unfortunately, `virtue signaling’ also appears in scientific research because of peer pressure. For example, astrobiologists will lobby for the search of bio-signatures on the surface of Mars, but will shy away from promoting an unapologetic disruptive approach in looking for them. None of the past NASA missions to Mars employed a microscope or added a drop of water in-situ to Martian soil in order to check for any signs of dormant life that might be awaken. The adopted approaches provided a safer path for avoiding controversy, such as the claim by former NASA engineer Gilbert V. Levine who served as the principal investigator Labeled Release experiment on NASA Viking missions to Mars, and explicitly argued in a Scientific American essay in 2019 that he is convinced we already found life on Mars in the 1970s.
Similarly, astrobiologists plan to invest billions of dollars in the search for primitive life in exoplanet atmosphere over the coming decades, but do not allocate even a percent of these funds to the search for intelligent life. To avoid controversy, they regard techno-signatures as risky relative to bio-signatures even though the one biosphere we know, here on Earth, has both.
The pattern repeats farther down. SETI scientists who searched for radio signals unsuccessfully for seven decades mention peripherally the search for technological objects near Earth as an alternative. However, when it comes to analyzing actual data on the anomalous geometry and non-gravitational acceleration of the first reported interstellar object `Oumuamua or the high material strength of the first two interstellar meteors, they join forces with the conservative mainstream of astrobiology and dismiss upfront a possible technological origin without engaging in any further research. The Galileo Project aims to repair this attitude by following the scientific method and seeking new data on anomalous objects near Earth.
In another context, fundamental physics aims to explain reality, yet the mainstream of theoretical physics was engaged for four decades in developing abstract concepts of string theory and the multiverse with no experimental sanity checks. In this community, `virtue signaling’ is to argue that engaging with real experimental data is an option for a physicist, akin to the proposal that the job description of a plumber could include the option of fixing plumbing issues in the Metaverse for the community of subscribers who put Metaverse goggles on their head.
Scientific `virtue signaling’ admits loyalty to the mainstream while whispering — but not pursuing — disruptive innovation, in order to avoid controversy. It offers an easy path of least resistance for scientists to remain popular within the groupthink. It avoids the hard work required to improve on what we know. Herd mentality sometimes masquerades as `open-mindedness’ when it lacks action to change the world.
Artificial intelligence (AI) systems like GPT-4 are trained to imitate humans. As such, they mirror society and are already showing biases and discrimination against various groups of people. By reflecting our image, AI provides a reality check as to the limited effectiveness of `virtue signaling’. Here’s hoping that AI mirrors will bring awareness to the discrepancy between our wishful thinking and the reality surrounding us, so as to trigger action.
The unfortunate nature of `virtue signaling’ is that it does not represent a sincere attempt to repair the world. On occasion, it can lead to the opposite outcome by pushing back against individuals who are actually engaged in an honest effort to promote a change, because they upset the status-quo and create controversy. These individuals are not as popular as `virtue signaling’ advocates. But they carry the actual virtues that others are signaling.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Avi Loeb is the head of the Galileo Project, founding director of Harvard University’s — Black Hole Initiative, director of the Institute for Theory and Computation at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, and the former chair of the astronomy department at Harvard University (2011–2020). He chairs the advisory board for the Breakthrough Starshot project, and is a former member of the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology and a former chair of the Board on Physics and Astronomy of the National Academies. He is the bestselling author of “Extraterrestrial:The First Sign of Intelligent Life Beyond Earth” and a co-author of the textbook “Life in the Cosmos”, both published in 2021. His new book, titled “Interstellar”, is scheduled for publication in August 2023.
Raynard Jackson, a Republican political consultant, lobbyist, and radio host who has served on the presidential campaigns of George H. W. Bush and George W. Bush. Jackson is a native of St. Louis, MO, and is one of the most sought-after conservative speakers in America. He is a frequent public speaker to college students, political & business groups and churches. Jackson has worked on numerous Republican U.S. Senate, gubernatorial, and congressional political campaigns.
He is the president and CEO of Raynard Jackson & Associates, a lobbying firm based in Washington, D.C. He is a staunch supporter of former President Donald J. Trump and has criticized his critics, including liberal political pundits Joy Reid and Don Lemon, claiming they have done more to hurt Black people than Trump.
Raynard joined ePa Live to discuss the ramifications of the indictment of Trump and gave his predictions about the next presidential election.
Raynard answers ePa Live question of the day:
Raynard Jackson on the ramifications of indicting a former sitting U.S. president:
Raynard Jackson on Tennessee’s House of Representatives expelling two Democratic lawmakers for leading gun control demonstrations from the House floor. Republicans accused the three Democratic lawmakers of bringing “disorder and dishonour to the House”:
Raynard Jackson discusses the 2023 Wisconsin Supreme Court election held on Tuesday, April 4, 2023, to elect a justice to the Wisconsin Supreme Court for a ten-year term. Janet Protasiewicz prevailed in the state’s highly consequential contest for the Supreme Court, which will now be likely to reverse the state’s abortion ban and end the use of gerrymandered legislative maps:
The 2024 presidential election is already shaping up to be one of the most heated political races in American history. Raynard Jackson, Republican political consultant, lobbyist, and radio host offers his predictions on ePa Live:
Harvard Professor and leading Astrophysicist, Avi Loeb joined the show from Cambridge, MA. In addition to being a Harvard Professor and Best-Selling Author, Dr. Loeb is leading The Galileo Project: In Search of Technological Interstellar Object, a $2.2 million dollar expedition to retrieve a possible Unidentified Aerial Phenomenon or UAP called Oumuamua that crashed near Papua New Guinea nearly a decade ago. Oumuamua could be a product of extraterrestrial technology. Dr. Loeb also writes about Artificial Intelligence (AI) Systems. His recent piece on Medium dives into future risks of AI and the legal ramifications of its use and place in society.
“Extraterrestrials could be out there and the only way to find out is by searching for their relics through our telescopes, is the approach taken by the Galileo Project.” – Dr. Loeb
Dr. Loeb, is director of the Institute for Theory and Computation at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics.
Dr. Loeb answers the question of the day:
A conversation about the future risks and benefits of AI with Harvard Professor and leading Astrophysicist, Avi Loeb:
We call on all AI labs to immediately pause for at least 6 months the training of AI systems more powerful than GPT-4.
PUBLISHED
March 22, 2023
AI systems with human-competitive intelligence can pose profound risks to society and humanity, as shown by extensive research[1]and acknowledged by top AI labs.[2]As stated in the widely-endorsedAsilomar AI Principles,Advanced AI could represent a profound change in the history of life on Earth, and should be planned for and managed with commensurate care and resources. Unfortunately, this level of planning and management is not happening, even though recent months have seen AI labs locked in an out-of-control race to develop and deploy ever more powerful digital minds that no one – not even their creators – can understand, predict, or reliably control.
Contemporary AI systems are now becoming human-competitive at general tasks,[3]and we must ask ourselves:Shouldwe let machines flood our information channels with propaganda and untruth? Shouldwe automate away all the jobs, including the fulfilling ones?Should we develop nonhuman minds that might eventually outnumber, outsmart, obsolete and replace us?Shouldwe risk loss of control of our civilization? Such decisions must not be delegated to unelected tech leaders. Powerful AI systems should be developed only once we are confident that their effects will be positive and their risks will be manageable.This confidence must be well justified and increase with the magnitude of a system’s potential effects. OpenAI’srecent statement regarding artificial general intelligence, states that“At some point, it may be important to get independent review before starting to train future systems, and for the most advanced efforts to agree to limit the rate of growth of compute used for creating new models.”We agree. That point is now.
Therefore,we call on all AI labs to immediately pause for at least 6 months the training of AI systems more powerful than GPT-4. This pause should be public and verifiable, and include all key actors. If such a pause cannot be enacted quickly, governments should step in and institute a moratorium.
AI labs and independent experts should use this pause to jointly develop and implement a set of shared safety protocols for advanced AI design and development that are rigorously audited and overseen by independent outside experts. These protocols should ensure that systems adhering to them are safe beyond a reasonable doubt.[4]This doesnotmean a pause on AI development in general, merely a stepping back from the dangerous race to ever-larger unpredictable black-box models with emergent capabilities.
AI research and development should be refocused on making today’s powerful, state-of-the-art systems more accurate, safe, interpretable, transparent, robust, aligned, trustworthy, and loyal.
In parallel, AI developers must work with policymakers to dramatically accelerate development of robust AI governance systems. These should at a minimum include: new and capable regulatory authorities dedicated to AI; oversight and tracking of highly capable AI systems and large pools of computational capability; provenance and watermarking systems to help distinguish real from synthetic and to track model leaks; a robust auditing and certification ecosystem; liability for AI-caused harm; robust public funding for technical AI safety research; and well-resourced institutions for coping with the dramatic economic and political disruptions (especially to democracy) that AI will cause.
Humanity can enjoy a flourishing future with AI. Having succeeded in creating powerful AI systems, we can now enjoy an “AI summer” in which we reap the rewards, engineer these systems for the clear benefit of all, and give society a chance to adapt. Society has hit pause on other technologies with potentially catastrophic effects on society.[5] We can do so here. Let’s enjoy a long AI summer, not rush unprepared into a fall.
We have prepared some FAQs in response to questions and discussion in the media and elsewhere. You can find themhere.
📢 Eastern Market turns 150 in November and there’s a year-long celebration underway.
Eastern Market is the oldest continually operating public market in the nation. The celebrations kicked-off with Eastern Market Main Street’s transformation of the North Hall during cherry blossom season. Throughout the year the public will have more opportunities to celebrate the history of the Market, its future, and the role it plays in our community. This weekend is the last weekend for Blossoms at the Market — it’ll be open both Saturday and Sunday. Be sure to check it out. The 150th celebrations have more exciting events and opportunities coming soon.
Black West Point Cadet Brutally Beaten by White Students Days Before Graduation
In the early hours of the morning on April 5, 1880, Cadet Johnson Whittaker, one of the first Black students in the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, was brutally beaten by white cadets while sleeping in his barracks. Three white cadets ambushed Cadet Whittaker, slashed his head and ears, burned his Bible, threatened his life, and then left him in his underwear, tied to the bed and bleeding profusely.
Born enslaved in South Carolina in 1858, Cadet Whittaker received a congressional appointment to the U.S. Military Academy in 1876. For most of his time at West Point, Cadet Whittaker was the only Black cadet at the institution; he endured social exclusion and racial terrorism perpetrated at the hands of white cadets and faculty alike. Twenty-three Black cadets attended West Point between 1870 and 1890, but due to the violent discrimination that they faced, only three graduated. Cadet Whittaker would later testify that he had “read and heard about the treatment that [Black] cadets received there, and expected to be ostracized.”
After Cadet Whittaker reported to West Point administrators that he had been attacked, the institution opened an investigation into him and declined to hold his white attackers accountable. Administrators instead claimed that Cadet Whittaker had staged the attack to get out of his final exams, and in May, a West Point court of inquiry found Cadet Whittaker guilty of that charge. He was forced to take his final exams while incarcerated and withstand court-martial proceedings in New York City where the army prosecutor repeatedly referred to Black people as an “inferior race” known to “feign and sham.”
In January 1881, Brigadier General N.A. Miles affirmed Cadet Whittaker’s conviction and authorized him to be expelled from West Point, dishonorably discharged from the military, and held for continued imprisonment. Cadet Whittaker’s case was ultimately forwarded to President Chester A. Arthur for approval, and, a year later, President Arthur issued an executive order overturning the conviction based on a finding that military prosecutors had relied on improperly admitted evidence. By the time of President Arthur’s intervention, Cadet Whittaker had been incarcerated for nearly two years; even after his conviction was overturned, West Point reinstated Cadet Whittaker’s expulsion, claiming he had failed an exam.
Johnson Whittaker went on to work in several professional fields and raise a family, including several generations of descendants who served in the U.S. military. In 1995, more than 60 years after his death, Mr. Whittaker’s heirs accepted the commission he would have received upon graduating West Point. At the ceremony, President Bill Clinton remarked: “We cannot undo history. But today, finally, we can pay tribute to a great American and we can acknowledge a great injustice.”
To learn more the racial discrimination and violence Black service members and veterans have faced in the U.S. military, explore EJI’s report, Lynching in America: Targeting Black Veterans.
Portrait of Cadet Whittaker at the court-martial proceedings. (Library of Congress)
